Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A bit of variance

One thing about learning this 3 betting light... it can be painful when you run into big hands. So lost about 4 buyins last night with some super aggro play and not hitting a single draw. Gnome also linked up an article on being super aggro with 4 bet bluffs which I tried once and lost a buyin.

I will say that I got a ton of action but only from shortstacks that ran into my big hands. I did also tilt off half of a buyin but then realized the error of my ways and went to bed.

Back to the CR style until I dominate for a few more weeks and I will for sure take another run at building this into my game.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

High VPIP

The Superstar Poker Gnome (nice 10k winning day) asked me how I could possibly get my vpip over 30% and I said I would show one of the ways I was doing it.... raising from EP with hands that hit gold or are easy folds. I do cbet often but usually with position or when against weak/tight players that are likely to fold unless I am beat. Against tricky players I cbet less but just often enough that they play back at me when I have a big hand later on. Think of it as a way to induce bluffs later on in the session... lose a few small pots but stack them later on.

The Gnome just wrote a masterpiece on 3 betting that everyone should read and it will be a focus for me over the next week. To do this I will probably pull the vpip back to the mid 20% range so I appear to be a little less of a LAG type player.

Beware the Penguins! Gotta love the moves the team made at the trade deadline.

Getting money out of poker sites or neteller

Umm all those folks with money stuck in FT or PS (not sure about ability to send cash to someone else in neteller) I think I can help you out. For a small fee (still haven't looked through the financial costs yet) I can get you to fire me the cash on the site and I can put it in my bank account and mail you a cheque.

Not sure if anyone reads this or has an interest in getting cash out of poker sites but this probably works for a few of you who are currently stuck.

Monday, February 26, 2007

More Realistic Results

Managed to focus on getting in lots of hands this weekend... that meant less sleep so tomorrow night I might not play much. My problem hands right now are TPTK and overpairs vs. shortstacks with sets. I really don't see how you can get away from paying them off but then outplaying them when they have a larger stack. The ones I hate the most are the little hit and run experts!

More realistic
The second leg down was from losing two big hands one of which pissed me off. I was running my now usual 34/23/3+ style and of course people play back at that after a while. I noticed that when I raised from MP and one person called he would use a squeeze play from the button. So a couple orbits later with KK in MP I do the same raise and get the same caller. He insta reraises again and I fire another reraise at him so he knows I am not folding to his push. He pushes with AKs and I have him dominated. We were both large stacks at the time so losing $80 at a NL50 table to a rivered flush was a bit annoying. The other was an overpair of 9's where I correct read that the guy was pushing the flop with a flush draw. He hits it and another large stack gone.

Oh well at least I was getting paid off when I flop trips because I bet almost every hand. The tough part is to not keep firing when they have a hand. Glad I pushed the number of hands I could get into a weekend just to see what it must be like to do this for a living... only fun when you want to play.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Sleep = good results

I came home last night and crashed at 9 pm! My body wasn't up for a couple hours of poker before my head hit that pillow so I played a few hands this morning and early afternoon.

Take a look at the graph:


Starting to get the CR style
Now most of the upswing is at the NL25 level. When I might have to get up for baby Guin I didn't want to play my regular stakes. Good to see that I was crushing the game today at 52 ptbb/100. Watching Cocktail (horrible Tom Cruise flick - I do like Elizabeth Shue though) and made $100 so the wife and me were happy!

Thanks Riverrun for seeing the same situation happening... sometimes with poker you think you are just running hot and it isn't due to you playing well. This is until others are going through the same transformation... the 2nd Sbrugby video told me that I wasn't aggressive enough! So a bit more folding on the flop and a few more cbets did increase the win rate. Gotta love it when the recipe works so well because it makes you look fearless.

So tonight back to the NL50 tables and hopefully I can continue to run at this torrid pace for a while longer.... I do need $240 to extend my cardrunners member for another year at the 20/mth price point.

Also for those talking about how it is a small sample size remember that 5k hands is about 2 months of playing for me. I am trying to pick that up but hard with my limited time in front of the computer.

Friday, February 23, 2007

CR style working

Got in a few hands after donking out of the blogger events last night. Managed to win back my buyins and another $100 to finish the night on a happy note. Played a bit on the PS2 and relaxed before going to bed for only 5 hours sleep... that is about 2-3 more than I got in either of the prior two nights.

So for next week the goal is to get some sleep and watch a few more CR videos and continue to dominate the NL50 games on FT. I did donate $40 to the PPA so that I can get that $100 bonus on FT which will get me to focus on playing enough hands to earn that bonus on top of my rakeback.

I also want to earn enough FT points to earn a Garmin GPS thing for the car. I get lost all the time and my wife luckily is not employed in map reading. So that is 69m points and currently I am only at 7.4m. Long way to go but at least it is another goal for the year.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Even More Rigged Live Poker

The Leafs put in a horrific effort last night which I watched from the bar at Hy's while putting down a nice New York steak and a good bottle of Malbec.

After that I was feeling like a little poker and headed over to the club for some live play. First hand get dealt 66 in the CO. EP raises to $12, one caller, Hero calls, BB calls. Flop is 9c8x6c so I have to think I am ahead here so when the EP bets $25 and one caller so I reraise all in for $146 to price out any draws of which there are many.

Now this is what I don't understand... if you have only a straight draw with no chance to backdoor a good flush then you are insane to chase in this situation.


Board: 9c 8d 6c
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 26.869% 25.76% 01.11% 255 11.00 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 73.131% 72.02% 01.11% 713 11.00 { 6d6s }

Of course the chase is on and the 5d falls on the turn and no pair on river so good bye $200 with a flopped set (first one of the night).

Managed to get back most of my loss and watched that donk lose all of his chips. Got home way too late and feeling tired today and the wife isn't happy that I didn't go right home... she has a point as this stuff should be reserved for weekends.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Solid Night

Rikidee (watch out as he is buying gay video games which are no longer cool according to some sports figures!) made a whole post out of a couple sentences from a CR video on overbetting that I missed when I watched it the first time. I heard something about it but certainly didn't take as much notice of it as he did.... so I watched it again and it looks like an interesting idea when you find a calling station. When watching these guys play 10/20 NL I am amazed at some of the crazy ass calls you see so it is a good tool to use on a rare occasion.

The one point that was nailed home for me was that for the majority of our time at the tables we should be playing ABC poker. I think for some reason that we often try to outplay everyone on each hand and that isn't the goal. In the end we want more cash than we started with and if we are patient and aggressive our opponents will give us their cash.

So last night refocused on playing solid poker I attacked a couple NL100 tables. Then I run into a guy who overbet every hand he was in and he did it twice against me. First hand I am dealt QQ in the BB. Villian raises to $3 and I reraise him to $12. Flop is K24r and I lead out for $20 and he insta reraises it to $65. I let it go.... but I like my bet with that type of flop because the texture was good and I think that I take that down way more often than I am reraised. It is a hand that I will post this evening on CR to see if I played it in a manner that is optimal vs. other ways to play it to take the hand down. A few hands later against the same Villian I call his raise with 22 and flop is Q high. He bets 1/2 pot and I reraise it and he insta pushes. Again I liked how I used position to take an aggressive stance on the hand when I thought he could be cbetting with Ax. About an orbit later after winning a couple small hands against him when I cbet he left the table.

What I like best about the CR style is that you piss off everyone at the table with the constant pressure. There is no way to play a LAG style when not playing your A game without bleeding chips everywhere. People by the end of the night were letting me walk because to complete from the SB meant you would probably face a raise. If you raised with trash could it stand up to a very possible reraise?!! Limping from EP's wasn't possible without facing a 5x bb raise. Now I wasn't just raising with junk but was using position to my advantage to take down lots of small pots and when someone fought back I usually had a hand.

Overall I only ended up about a buyin but the feeling of running over a table and getting guys to do what I wanted was a welcome change. The few suckouts by a shortstack who was playing 90/8 over 100 hands hurt a bit since he lost it all to another solid player at the table. But those are the types of players that I want at my table anytime.

I did donk out of the Hoy last night but I was trying to read what Hoy and Iak had when I called them. They of course were pushing with the goods again and my hands were dominated both times. The good part of the evening was coming back from 250 chips to 1200 before donating to Iak. Get em next week.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Playing like crap

I was playing like crap last night because I couldn't get motivated to play my A game at NL25 6 max. The hardest part of going back down a few levels to work on the game is that the results aren't worth anything to the bankroll.

So after donking away a couple buyins I decided to go up to NL100 and play a better game. At the lower limits you really just nut peddle and steal small pots to earn cash... sort of boring. At NL100 6 max I managed to come away up almost a buyin so overall I was flat on the night. Also got myself another token so hopefully that can be turned into something that builds the bankroll.

Starting to get used to the CR method of playing but I think I am still a bit too tight at a 6 max game. Playing a 29%/22% and my AF is running in the 3 range. I think I can open it up a bit more which can find me getting played back at when I have big hands. Play on site does seem to have improved with only one or two really bad donks per table instead of one or two good players.

Also it is time for me to get to bed before 11 pm at least twice a week. That alone should get me into the right frame of mind. Hard to think straight when you have two-three glasses of wine with dinner and the wife wants to buy a new house....

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Can't play the FTOP #9

Hopefully I can find a blogger who likes to play some pot limit Omaha and HE to play the event for me.

First person who can guarantee me that they can play it will get a shot at a nice event. I only want 10% of what you win...

Friday, February 16, 2007

So Far Behind....

Been a while since my last post partially because I am still recovering from the Eh-Vegas crowd... two nights in a row of live poker till 5 am and getting up the next day to spend time with the family will do that to you.

Kat did a fantastic job of making it a great event that should only grow over time. Overall I think I was down about 500 over the weekend but it was well worth it. Our wine tasting on Friday was fun with Jules giving me some info on wine... hopefully she will send me a few rec's that our LCBO actually stocks.

Iak thanks again for the drive to Oakville as that was a good chance to chat and get to meet you. Now I have to focus a bit more on my game and try to bring the A game to the blogger events. Always interesting to hear people tell you to your face that they think you play like a donkey! Respect that he said it using $5 words that it took me a few days to truly understand the level of donkishness that he considers my current game to be in.

Cash games have been going well for me and I have also had some recent success in the token events. Used 1 to attempt a tier II but was crap in that so I sign up for a FTOP event 9 sat. Looked like a pot limit holdem event but was I ever surprised after 10 mins when the level went up and we switched to Omaha Hi. Ack! I suck at Omaha only having played it in blogger events and just for fun. Well I managed to play super tight and very aggro but an early suckout had me crippled down to 350 chips. Built the stack back up and got to the final table in 8th place. Finally another hour later I managed to win it so this Saturday lets hope my pot limit run continues.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Vegas-Eh Style!

Well the event that hopefully will grow over the years starts tonight with dinner and a few drinks. I am sure to spend a bit of cash to make sure that the out of towners enjoy themselves. It is cold out in Toronto these days and the nights get really cold... so not sure how many of the bloggers will want some live action post drinks this evening. I know I always enjoy donking away a few chips!

Tomorrow I will have to miss the tournament associated with the event because of the 'Guins coming to town to play the Leafs. But after the game I will be so pumped to come out and play some live pokah against those cash game players that stick around. Never been to the club on a weekend to interested to see if the quality of players is better or worse than the mid week crowd.

Kat has done a great job getting people to show up in our town during the coldest time of the year. Just to offset my excitement I went and renewed my passport, drivers license, and health card.

Now to go to Atlantic City for HighonPoker's gathering in a month I will need that passport to show up. The increase in the rules to cross the border into the US is a bit of a pain but the hard work for me is now done for another five years.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Reviewme - Cardroom Supply - Poker Tables

This is a sponsored post.

Cardroom Supply has a great assortment of poker tables available for purchase. Many of us would love to setup the ultimate poker room for our home games and here is a great place to get your main piece of equipment. If you want a games room they also have tables that are available that can be converted to poker tables. It is also possible to purchase a table and chair sets which I haven't seen anywhere else. Now if many of you guys are like me you are looking for good folding tables so lucky for me they have an assortment of tables than I can put away easily.

Now I did notice that the site has a good promotion where any purchase over $100 results in free shipping. The ability to use the 1-800 number for ordering will be good for those with some further questions about the products.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the site for lots of other items to give you the Ultimate Home Poker room.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Cab Fare

Went to the Raptors game last night and took the 5th row seats instead of the courtsides. That way some young guy got a chance to sit in the nice seats.... not that my seats were bad at all. Easy Raptors win and then off to Ki for some post game drinks. Now after a couple beers I didn't want to take a train home so I decided to go to the cash game for some cab money!

One hour later I am walking out with an extra $150 in my pocket... amazing how easy it is to win with an ABC style of poker... so $65 for the cab home and then gave the wife $100 to go spend on anything she wants. That way she doesn't give me as much grief when I stay out late (gotta do something to keep the heat down!)

Today got a good bonus so I will be happy for another year. This is the year that I really have to push my portfolio to new levels. I might have just found a new potential 10 bagger that I will have to buy in my PA in a large way.

That being said I will go and buy a good bottle of wine for my dinner tonight... gotta celebrate.