It's been a while...

The last post was made the day I left for southeast Asia, and until today I had not played a lick of poker since. Here are today's highlights and lowlights.

1. 2nd hand I played at a cash table I catch JJ. I raise and get two callers. Flop comes JJK. I slow play like crazy and (praise the poker gods) one of the guys catches his nut flush on the river and goes all in. Unfortunately he was very short stacked at this point. Other guy calls, I raise and other guy folds.

3. In a different session a few hours later I catch a full house in the big blind when my 4-7 flops 7-7-10. I bet heavy and get one caller. Turn is a ten and I push heavy and get re-raised. Despite growing dread I call and go all in on the turn. He has a 10.

4. Play in two SNGs, one for $5 and one for $30 (because it was the only one filling up.) I had played three $5 SNGs yesterday and won one, but finished out of the money in the other two.

I placed third in the $5 and first in the $30. Net gain of over $100.

At that point I decided enough was enough. I'll pick it up again tomorrow.

Foxwoods

My friend and I took a trip to Foxwoods today to play in the $100 tournament and test our relative skill. While my results in the tournament and on the tables were not very good, I think I played pretty well.

The first hand I played in the tournament was pocket queens. I raised and was reraised and called it. Flop was all low cards and the raiser bet out heavy again. I folded. He later told me he had pocket aces.

A few hands later I caught pocket aces myself and had two raises in front of me. I raised again to put the stack in front of me all in. He called. After the flop the player to my right went all in and I called, and it had again come up all low cards. They had JJ and 10-10 respectively and my aces held up. From starting with $2000, I now was up to around $3800.

The next time I was in the big blind I caught rockets again. Again I had someone bet heavy in front of me so I raised him all in. He called with KK and cracked my aces on the turn. That knocked me down to about $1500 and began my long, slow descent.

From that point on I didn't get much in the way of premium hands. Those I did get were drawing hands and I only hit two of them. Not enough to make money in a four hour poker session.

What truly sucked is that there were some awful, awful poker players on the cash tables. One guy called a $40 raise with middle pair. As you might guess, he lost. Same guy also twice called someone who had made their straight when he had only a flush draw. He caught the flush both times.

I pushed all in after the flop with two pair and drew one call from someone on a flush draw. He hit it on the river.

I was very patient and did not play many non-premium hands except when I could see one cheap. After the betting was past one or two guys I could usually get in and see a flop.

I always tried to remember what my final hand would have resulted in and rarely if ever would I have won. It was just one of those days.

So while I lost some money, I took some heart in the fact that I believe the games are beatable. My friend Tim won about $185 on his table to prove this point beyond any doubt.

I look forward to heading down again when I get back from Asia.

Gotta know when to walk away....

I played a few SnGs today. One one-table and a two-table. 4th in first, 1st in the second so a net +$25.

I'm meeting some friends for dinner tonight so I decided to sit down at a $0.25/$0.50 NLHE table and play a few hands while I waited.

First hand I get dealt AKo and flop a king. I was in the big blind so I checked to the one other player in the hand. He bet and I called. Same on the turn. On the river I checked to him then raised him. He called with pocket 10s and I took the pot.

Second hand I get 8 8. Flop is 3 3 5. Check to the turn, which is an 8. I bet the pot, my opponent raises and I go all-in. He calls with KK. My boat holds up when a 3 hits the river.

Third hand. 9 9. Win a small pot because at this point no one will play with me. I've more than doubled my money on three hands, from $50 to over $100.

I logged off and went to dinner. When I got back home around 10pm I decided to play two more SNGs (one-table and a three table) and won both of them. So I netted (22+36-11) $47 for those two games.

Well over $100 for about three hours of play. If I can do half of that in Japan I'll just consider it a part-time job.

Up....and then a little down.

Played a few NLHE SnGs today while waiting to start a Pot Limit Omaha tourney with some online friends. Lost the first and won the second and then proceeded to win the PLO tourney as well.

I haven't played much Omaha, but I must say that I will be doing so going forward. It's a lot of fun and I didn't not have a lot of trouble figuring out where I stood in most hands. I might have administered a bad beat or two, and definitely took a few, but all told I made good calls and won from ahead.

There is no where near as much folding in Omaha so there is a lot more action which keeps you more involved in the game.

During the tourney we were talking about doing a HORSE tourney, so I guess I'm going to have to learn Razz as well :)

Lessons learned.

Too bad for me I didn't do a bit more studying about bankroll management. Chalk up an expensive lesson.

In getting up to $450, I played very well and got fairly lucky. A very good combination in poker. However, I think I attributed more of my success to the former and not enough to the latter, so I jumped up and started playing the more expensive SNGs.

Many stupid plays and bad beats later, I'm back down to around $100. The frustration of this losing streak (I've cashed a few times, but not consistently) led me to do a lot of research about the game, SnGs in general and bankroll management. I think I realize some of the mistakes I've made and am going to downsize to the $5 SnGs until I get my confidence back. I also think that the lower level of competition down there (and the willingness of people to chase draws) will make me play a solid, tight-aggressive style and get that style ingrained into my bones.

My basic strategy has been to play tight early and play in position unless I had a top hand. Later in the games I would begin to raise in position. Since I was very often the large stack I'd steal blinds and generally make sure my bankroll grew as the blinds increased.

On the latest downward spiral, it seems like every time I attempt to steal blinds I get reraised. You can only do that so often before you're under 10xBB and are in an all-in-or-fold position. I can play from behind and have had many successes doing so, but it certainly isn't the preferred option.

It also seems like I have had very few playable hands and when I do either I collect very small pots or someone has a better one.

I also feel that I'm going a lot of guesswork on tracking my game and am going to start using some stat-trackers so I really have a good idea as to what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to either address the weaknesses or play away from them.

For anyone who is interested in learning how to play better in SnGs, I'd strongly suggest DavSimon's excellent (and long) breakdown of how to master the Sit N' Go. I'm barely half way through it and it has given me a lot of food for though.

I'll report back in a bit to see if I've actually made any progress ;)

Jeff

I love PokerStars...

After reading through my main blog, the poker posts really seemed to be out of place, so I decided to start this blog to create a separate space to discuss (and complain) about poker.

I've pretty much abandoned Party Poker. It seemed like I was getting an endless string of bad beats there. I probably wasn't, but for my mental health I needed a change.

On the advice of my brothers, I bought in $100 at PokerStars. They said the quality of play tended to be better, so if you know what you're doing (and to some extent I do) you have a better chance of success.

All I can say is that I wish I'd moved earlier. My $100 buy-in now stands at $450 two weeks after buying in.

I've played almost exclusively one-table SNGs and have had a lot of success. I started at the lower level buy-ins and figured I'd move up until I found my happy spot. I'm currently playing $20 games and have won three of the last four I've played (winning $90 per game) and finished second in the other one.

Today I played a $50 game and finished 7th. I don't think I played poorly, I just got unlucky and short stacked and went all in with Qs9S against someone with K-7o. Neither of us improved and I was gone.

I'm hoping that my success here is not an aberration. Only time will tell.

Frustration

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:26 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (2076)
Seat 4: jas01111 (1572)
Seat 5: blue39 (8352)
blue39 posts small blind (200)
jddbb720 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ Th, Ac ]
jas01111 raises (1572) to 1572
jas01111 is all-In.
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 calls (1172)

Note that at this point I’m in and have my opponent dominated. He has Ah 6s

Creating Main Pot with $3344 with jas01111
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 4h, Jh, 7s ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 6h ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: 3344 |
Board: [ 4h Jh 7s 3h 6h ]

jddbb720 balance 504, lost 1572 [ Th Ac ] [ a flush, jack high -- Jh,Th,6h,4h,3h ]
jas01111 balance 3344, bet 1572, collected 3344, net +1772 [ Ah 6s ] [ a flush, ace high with ace kicker -- Ah,Jh,6h,4h,3h ]
blue39 balance 8152, lost 200 (folded)

And then he gets a flush and gets bailed out of a horrible decision.

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:51 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (504)
Seat 4: jas01111 (3344)
Seat 5: blue39 (8152)
jddbb720 posts small blind (200)
jas01111 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ 8s, 8c ]
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 raises (304) to 504
jddbb720 is all-In.
jas01111 calls (104)

Short stacked with a pair of eights, your choice is pretty clear.

Creating Main Pot with $1008 with jddbb720
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ad, 6s, Jh ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Jd ]
jddbb720: how many rivers am I gonna lose
** Summary **
Main Pot: 1008 |
Board: [ Ad 6s Jh Ac Jd ]

jddbb720 balance 0, lost 504 [ 8s 8c ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,8s ]
jas01111 balance 3848, bet 504, collected 1008, net +504 [ Td 9s ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks with ten kicker -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,Td ]
blue39 balance 8152, didn't bet (folded)

Answer to my question above: Not this one, because I lost it when the jack hit on the turn. That counterfeited my pocket eights and my opponent won because he had a 10.

I don’t even know why I fucking bother. It seems like I get far, far more than my share of bad beats.

Oh yeah, and top two spots in this tournament get paid.

A small sample of my standard luck on Party Poker

I could not have asked for a better flop or a stupider all-in to push my money in against. The only thing I had to worry about was a runner straight or flush draw.....

***** Hand History for Game *****
0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Jun 19 23:56:25 EDT 2006
Table Table 97702 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 3: jddbb720 (3689)
Seat 4: DaveinMiami (4414)
Seat 6: jtsaes1 (3897)

Dealt to jddbb720 [ 8d, 8c ]
DaveinMiami1 folds.
jtsaes1 calls (200)
jddbb720 raises (400) to 800
jtsaes1 calls (400)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5s, Td, 8h ]
jtsaes1 bets (3097)
jtsaes1 is all-In.
jddbb720 calls (2889)
jddbb720 is all-In.

At this point this moron is all in with [3d 7d] in the hole. As I said,
he needs a runner flush or straight draw or he's done

** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6d ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 4s ]
Creating Main Pot with $7378 with jddbb720
Creating Side Pot 1 with $208 with jtsaes1
** Summary **
Main Pot: 7378 | Side Pot 1: 208
Board: [ 5s Td 8h 6d 4s ]

jddbb720 balance 0, lost 3689 [ 8d 8c ]
[ three of a kind, eights -- Td,8d,8c,8h,6d ]
DaveinMiami1 balance 4414, didn't bet (folded)
jtsaes1 balance 7586, bet 3897, collected 7586, net +3689 [ 3d 7d ]
[ a straight, four to eight -- 8h,7d,6d,5s,4s ]

His odds of catching the straight were less than 4% and he had maybe the same odds of catching the flush. So 92-93 times out of 100 I win that hand.

And there you have it.

Apparantly I have a new nickname...

on PartyPoker.com. I'm going to change my name to the King of Bad Beats. In addition to TWO people knocking me out of tournaments when they caught runner flushes against my straights, the following sequence just went down.

I just played in two freerolls (so yes, I know I probably deserve this) and this sequence just went down.

I get A-A. Go all in after the player to my right raises about half my chip stack. One other player goes all in and guy to right calls.

Guy to right has K-K. Other guy had Q-6 off suit. He put in all of his chips on Q-6 off suit.

By the river I have a sixes full of aces.....note that Q-6 guy has four of a kind.

My next hand I get K-K. With what little I have left I go all in. Same clown calls me again with J-6 off suit. The flop is 10-J-6.

Even though I had no money on the line I was steaming mad. I think I just need to wait until I have a bankroll and play in higher buy-in tournaments. That eliminates the element of stupidity such as you see above, because people who actually know how to play hold 'em don't go all in with those hands. Ever.

Quick update (May 2006)

I've had a very rough streak of cards lately, and it seems to finally have broken tonight. I played a $6 tournament tonight and am currently in the money for about $20 and counting. I have a decent stack left and have played fairly well, won some big pots and dodged some bullets. I'd like to finally get to the final table in one of these things, maybe it will happen tonight.

The good and bad of No Limit Hold 'Em

I enjoy playing and watching No Limit Texas Hold 'Em (much to my wife's consternation.) I have a weekly game that I play in, and after a recent dry spell I won two out of three games last week and took home about $250 ($20 buy in and there were ten or more players in each game.) It helps when in the course of three hands you get A-A, K-K, J-J.

I also played this Saturday and the results were nothing like I described above. I got very few hands to play and when I did I generally played them horribly. I didn't lose anywhere near what I won on Tuesday, so I'm still playing with house money but it is horribly frustrating to play so inconsistently.

What it does is fuel my desire to learn the game better. I'm extremely competive and enjoy a game that is a combination of luck, skill, and knowledge. I think I'm fairly skilled at reading people, but I need to increase my knowledge of the mathematical basis of the game to bump myself up to the next level.

For the time being, I'm still playing with my winnings from Tuesday and will be this coming Tuesday. Let's hope that I can keep it up.