Monday, June 30, 2008

Weekend... Nothing Too Exciting and Pot Limit Holdem

Not too busy of a weekend which is a nice change a pace. I took my daughter to WALL*E on Saturday. I will go on record saying that I like the movie. It was a little strange as there was no dialog for about 30 minutes; but it was still good. It didn't really hold the attention of my 4 year old during the whole time so it may be catered for older kids (and adults).

I played in a small home game this weekend and lost both games that I played; but the more exciting part was that I got a Royal Flush and I even got it on the turn which is even better; but the bad news is that I didn't get paid off as I went all in on the turn. I was OOP and didn't want to lose any potential value by just calling and then checking the river. There was an Ace on board and I was up against a good player. I had also shown some bluffs albeit not all in bluffs. He said he layed down a big Ace which I am not sure that I believe. Does anybody just call and take your chances on the river and hopes he catches up even more?

I didn't play a lot of poker. It looks like I got in almost 2,400 hands and made about 3 1/2 buyins at 50NL which equates to 14.82 bb/100. One of the days while I was loading my 6 tables, I was accidentally loading some Pot Limit tables. Wow, what a difference. While selecting the tables, I was thinking that the VPIP % and average pot numbers were high; but just thought it was a good day to be playing. It turns out that Pot Limit play (at least on that day) is much crazier? Here's an example:

--------------------
POT LIMIT HAND
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 PL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker - http://www.stoxpoker.com/

CO: $164.50 (329 bb)
Hero (BTN): $62.50 (125 bb)
SB: $149.20 (298.4 bb)
BB: $50 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is BTN with J:club: J:heart:
CO raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $6, SB raises to $10.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $4.25

Flop: ($22.75) 8:spade: 7:diamond: J:diamond: (2 players)
SB bets $22.75, Hero raises to $52.25 and is all-in, SB calls $29.50

Turn: ($127.25) 2:heart: (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: ($127.25) 2:club: (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $127.25 pot ($2 rake)
Hero showed J:club: J:heart: (a full house, Jacks full of Twos) and won $125.25 ($62.75 net)
SB showed Q:club: 7:heart: (two pairs, Sevens and Twos) and lost (-$62.50 net)


You gotta love it. By the way, this was NOT an isolated incident.


Anyway, here is a look at the graph:





One more day left in the month. I'll try to put a month end post tonight.
Have a good day!!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

All good things must come to an end.

After tying a person record for 13 straight up sessions (about 18 buyins) , the fit hit the shan On Wed.

First the Mook, by the subject title you can probably guess that I didn't last very long. Here is the hand that did and should have been a clue to my night.

Full Tilt Poker The Mookie No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30/t60 Blinds - 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: t5320
BTN: t2755
SB: t1525
BB: t6785
UTG: t5505
Hero (UTG+1): t1775
MP1: t2085
MP2: t3950

Pre Flop: Hero is UTG+1 with Qc Ah
1 fold, Hero raises to t180, 5 folds, BB raises to t780, Hero raises to t1775 all in, BB calls t995

Flop: (t3580) 7h Kh Th

Turn: (t3580) 7d

River: (t3580) 4d

Final Pot: t3580
BB shows 5h 4h (a flush, King high)
Hero shows Qc Ah (a pair of Sevens)
BB wins t3580

Not a bad flop for Mr iam23skidoo. I had some outs; but didn't hit. I'm not sure where he finished; but he had some chips. OK, now I do.... 15th... Dang... I also root for the guy that takes my chips and that he puts them to good use to get some cash.
As for Cash. A simple chart will do that trick.




I could tell you some sob stories; but it just wouldn't really mean anything. In fact, if I were to show what my night would have been with my All In EV, I really should have lost more.

Fast forward to tonight. While I was playing on Full Tilt getting my needed points, it continued to struggle; but finally got it back to above zero. I then took a break and came back a little in the evening. This time around, I played at Absolute Poker. To say these games are soft would be the understatement of the century. I do have to admit that I got extremely lucky on this hand:


Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $121.12
BTN: $45.25
SB: $100.25
BB: $92.25
UTG: $68.32
MP: $50.60

Pre Flop: Hero is CO with Ah Ad
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, 2 folds, BB calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.75) 9s 3h Ts (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2.50, BB raises to $11.25, Hero raises to $32.50, BB raises to $90.50 all in, Hero calls $58

Turn: ($184.75) As (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($184.75) 5s (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $184.75
Hero shows Ah Ad (Three of a kind, aces)
BB shows 9c 9h (Three of a kind, nines)
Hero wins $181.25
(Rake: $3.50)

It's better to be lucky than good. I ended up over 3 buyins so you gotta love it. Even with their past problems, I do plan on putting some more time in over there after I make my Iron Man points on FTP.


Here is a look at tonight's chart:


So I didn't quite make up for last nights loss; but came with $10 of it so alls good then ends good so I now have one winning night in a row.
Incidentally, on AP, they are almost all Bad Beat Jackpots tables; which I'm not a big fan of; but it does bring in the bad players. 3 of the 4 tables had table VPIP rates close to 40% in a 6max game. They also just paid a record 992K Bad Bead Jackpot in which somebody got nearly 400K. Yikes!!!! With that kind of overlay, it may be worth it. Currently the BBJ is hovering around 400K.
Have a nice Day!!!!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

What a difference a day makes

Boy, what a difference a day can make in the way the cards turn in your favor and not in your favor. It's something that we all experience and have to get used to; but yikes... coulda woulda shoulda.

Also, thanks for the comments on the new layout of the blog. I will certainly take all the comments into consideration as I continue to change things around. Please fill free to continue to comment on how things look.

But before I start about my last two days of poker, I wanted to link to a post from Poker Funds Investments where he talks about what the potential problems with low limit monkeys like myself and the uber successful pros. I won't steal any thunder in this blog; but I think it is worth the time to check out. Check it out here. Anyway, I really enjoyed it and it really hit home with me and I hope to take to heart in the upcoming months.

Sunday.... It was just one of those days where the cards were on my side. Even KK was on my side as I won some huge pots there.

In the interest of time, I will just put a graph and the rest will be pretty self explanatory..






So in about 50 minutes I made almost 5 buyins. Call it a hit and run. Call it getting my Iron Man points and quitting. Call it whatever you want, but I did quit. I did play almost 500 hands so that ain't just hit and running; but playing 6 tables now really helps in playing better poker.

During this 500 hands, I flopped a set exactly 0%. That's not to say that I didn't get lucky because I did get really lucky on one hand; but it was spurred on by terrible play by the villain. Check it out:

--------------------
HAND #1
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker - http://www.stoxpoker.com/

Hero (CO): $50.50 (101 bb)
BTN: $58.85 (117.7 bb)
SB: $50.25 (100.5 bb)
BB: $52.25 (104.5 bb)
UTG: $84.10 (168.2 bb)
MP: $60.90 (121.8 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is CO with T:heart: J:heart:
UTG raises to $1.50, MP folds, Hero calls $1.50, 3 folds

Flop: ($3.75) T:diamond: J:spade: 9:club: (2 players)
UTG bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.75) 7:diamond: (2 players)
UTG bets $2, Hero raises to $8, UTG raises to $14, Hero calls $6

River: ($36.75) T:spade: (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $32.50 and is all-in, UTG calls $32.50

Results: $101.75 pot ($3 rake)
Hero showed T:heart: J:heart: (a full house, Tens full of Jacks) and won $98.75 ($48.25 net)
UTG mucked and lost (-$50.50 net)

Yep, the weak min raise gave me odds to call and hit my full house.

So, I will take those days when I can get them.

----------------------

So I went into tonight hoping that I could continue the momentum; but unfortunately, I got stuck a little under 2 buyins early. One thing crazy on the night was that I flopped a set 33% of the time tonight which is just incredible. I was due to hit those can of numbers just from a law of averages thing. Unfortunately, one time I hit a set, I lost to a turned flush and I still paid it off. I almost folded; but again that hero call thing got in the way. So, I didn't really get paid off on those sets; but what can you do. I'll take the sets any day.

I got all in 6 times tonight and here was my All In EV Equity as supplied from Holdem Manager

#1 12.7% - Oops... AJ vs AK on Ace High board against Short stack.
#2 53.7% - JJ vs AJ who was on a flush draw
#3 74.8% - AJ vs K4 on JQT board
#4 55.8% - 98s ... more on this one later
#5 72.6% - TT vs QJs on 7T5 board and he was on flush draw
#6 80.8% - KK vs 99 preflop

I only won 1/2 of them; but that is besides the point. The point is that I'm getting my money in with the best of it and that can never be a bad thing.

#4 was an interesting hand. Give me your thoughts on how I played it.

--------------------
HAND #2
--------------------

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker - http://www.stoxpoker.com/

BTN: $72.30 (144.6 bb)
Hero (SB): $73.10 (146.2 bb)
BB: $103.45 (206.9 bb)
UTG: $11.25 (22.5 bb)
MP: $16.65 (33.3 bb)
CO: $45.35 (90.7 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is SB with 8:spade: 9:spade:
UTG calls $0.50, MP raises to $2.25, CO calls $2.25, BTN folds, Hero calls $2, BB folds, UTG calls $1.75

I obviously love playing suited connectors in multi way hands; but really should I have been calling here? First, I am OOP and I am really not getting implied odds against these short stacks.
Flop: ($9.50) 8:club: 9:diamond: 5:heart: (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $9 and is all-in, MP raises to $14.40 and is all-in, CO folds, Hero calls $14.40

Easy call of course as I was up against QQ and T8. I was a 56% favorite. I actually thought I was a little bigger favorite when I saw the cards turned over.

Turn: ($47.30) 9:club: (3 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($47.30) 2:heart: (3 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $47.30 pot ($2.35 rake)
MP showed Q:heart: Q:diamond: (two pairs, Queens and Nines) and lost (-$16.65 net)
Hero showed 8:spade: 9:spade: (a full house, Nines full of Eights) and won $44.95 ($28.30 net)
UTG showed T:diamond: 8:diamond: (two pairs, Nines and Eights) and lost (-$11.25 net)

Luckily, my hand held up; but should I have been involved in the first place and if I was, should I have squeezing instead of calling with my suited connectors from the SB?

So how did the night end up, was I able to get back my buyins? Let's take a look.


Wahoo!! I made it back despite losing with KK... AGAIN!!!! But at the end of the day, that is what I am working for and really focusing on. I'll take the up days. Again, I only played 400 hands before I quit as I wanted to go to bed early tonight (more about this a little later) as soon as I got my Iron Man points. Or should I say my Gold Man points.
----------------
So I called it a day because tomorrow is my annual marathon golf day. Me and my brother always take off a day around June 21st (longest day of year) to play all day golf. There is a pretty nice course a little bit from my house that charges $29 for all day which now also includes lunch. Now that we are getting older, we don't play as much as we used to; but we plan on playing at least 2 rounds of golf.
One year on a near perfect day we played 76 holes of golf. We started at 6AM and playing to a little after 8PM. Let me tell you, that is a day of golf. Surprisingly, my best round came on the 4th round. Now, it isn't really feasible to do that anymore with kids and wives and stuff; but still 2 rounds of golf will beat working any day.
Have a nice day!!!

New Template

Hey All,



Not much today. I've done some changed my template around to a 3 column template. Let me know your thoughts?

I've also added a couple of things.

I've added a blog list that will be my top blogs that I am reading at the moment. This will most change constantly.

I've added a Stoxpoker section to the bottom. We'll see how that works.

I hope to add a banner at the top in the upcoming weeks.

I'll talk more about this and my day later.

Again, let me know what you think? Better, worse, Don't care?

Monday, June 23, 2008

Fan Favorite and a Positive Weekend

I didn't get a chance to play much this weekend. I logged in almost 1500 hands for a win rate of 17.83 bb/100 so that part was good. I am now regularly playing 6 tables now as opposed to 4 which I think is going to be a good thing. I am curious to see how my stats will change, if at all, after a get 20K hands in at 6 tabling.

At least for this weekend, there was some and good and bad. The good obviously that I finished out on top; even with a 49.1% Win $ at Showdown rating which of course needs to be over 50%. One thing I still need to work on and this is beginning to sound like a broken record is hero calls. At my levels (50NL), there really isn't no reason to do be doing it even if the guy plays 75% of his hands. There will be many more and better chances to get your chips in the middle.

I did have a hand this weekend where I had aces and it was a 3 way all in. I had Aces, villain #1 had Aces and villain #2 hand Kings. I'm sure you are expecting me to say that the guy with Kings hit his 2 outer and you would be...... Wrong... So myself and villain #1 split villain #2's buyin.

So back to this weekend, my stats looked like this:

19.0 VPIP - I kind of expected this to be a little tighter playing more tables that I was used to. I expect this number to go up just a little bit as I get more comfortable with 6 tables.

13.2 PFR - This, of course, is too little. I guess the rule of thumb is to be about 5 pts less that your VPIP. This might also be a product of playing more tables that I am accustomed to playing so again, I expect this to start getting closere to the VPIP number of the upcoming days/weeks.

3.13 Aggression Factor - Hmm.. this is actually better. I have been concentrating a bit on this so hopefully I can keep this up.

Here is a chart of the weekend.








-------





When the St Louis Rams drafter Steven Jackson, I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, I knew this guy was a stud and could definitely help the Rams. On the other hand, I was sure about his health and the ability to stay away from injuries. It turns out the both notions were correct; but there was something that I didn't know about that pretty much takes the cake. The guy is a total moron. He is so full of himself which of course is not rare for NFL players or any pro athletes for that matter; but he is pretty bad. It all started early on when he was bad mouthing Marshall Faulk which is something that you just don't do to a future Hall of Famer. You sit back and learn from the guy. You don't say stuff like his time is over and it is my time and I don't need to learn from him, etc.. etc...





This weekend, he had another classic interview. Here is a snippet of the interview that I took from the St Louis Newspaper:





"Rams running back Steven Jackson popped off in an interview with Mike Silver on Yahoo.com. Here's Jackson on Rams fans: "You've got to love those Rams fans who showed their loyalty by selling their tickets to Packers and Steelers fans, so half the people in the stadium were rooting against us. It was like playing road games. We ran out of the tunnel and got booed. It was ridiculous. I was livid."





And when asked why he fell short of his 2007 goals, Jackson said: "Two things killed me: My offensive line was just decimated, and our receivers didn't block. You look at Adrian Peterson, LaDainian Tomlinson or anyone who has a ton of yards, and those guys on the perimeter block."





(Just wondering: When's the last time Jackson was reliable in picking up blitzes and blocking for his quarterback?) "





What a total and complete Moron. Fan favorite??? I think not!!!

Have a nice day!!!!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

No Love in Mook and when is a $20 profit good and KK

Bowed out in 34th in the Mook Wednesday night when my Aces were no match for Fritzle's 76s from the BB. He hit trips on the turn and I donkishly kept betting. I even had a near double up early; but all for not. I have finally updated the mookie stats and sent them Mook's way and I'm sure that he will get them posted up some time this week or weekend.

Things started great tonight as I was up over 2 buyins way early; but as the session went on, I saw that profit disappear very quickly.

I hit 2 pair a couple times in tough spots and lost a couple of really big hands. I made a straight and lost to a rivered boat. Lost a big pot with a big pair, AK < J8, etc... So I find myself down over 3 buyins so what do you do? Quit? Nope, I play on and I even added a couple of tables. Of course, I did ask myself 3 questions first when I come across situations like this:

1) Are you tired or tilting?
2) Are the games still good?
3) Am I playing badly?

The answers to those questions were such that I should keep playing so I did and played 6 tables. The end result could be terrible or could be good. Here is what happened.





So, it stinks to ruin a good start; but it also feels good to make back most of what you lost.

--------------------

I had some fun hands with KK tonight and this one is for Jamyhawk to show him how to fold KK
and of course one where maybe I should have. By the way, head over to his blog to read about a series of tournies that he is playing to hopefully go to next years WSOP Main Event.

KK Hand #1


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $121.20
MP: $55.50
CO: $68.55
BTN: $20.00
SB: $94.95
Hero (BB): $162.75

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with K K

2 folds, CO raises to $1.75, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.25


I had been pretty active on this table (started with $50) so I decided to change things up a bit and just call.


Flop: ($3.75) J A 2 (2 players)

Hero checks, CO bets $3, Hero folds

Final Pot: $3.75
CO wins $3.60
(Rake: $0.15)

Ace on the flop and I check / fold... No harm no foul and that is how you fold KK.


KK Hand #2


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $143.55
Hero (BTN): $50.00
SB: $42.00
BB: $49.35
UTG: $66.70
MP: $68.20

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with K K
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.00) 6 T A (2 players)
SB bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($14.00) 6 (2 players)
SB bets $14, Hero folds

Final Pot: $14.00
SB wins $13.30
(Rake: $0.70)

This time I did raise it up; but again an Ace comes on flop and super lose guy (58 VPIP) leads into me, I'm ok with calling one bet to see if I hit a K or if he slows down. I don't and he doesn't and I fold. Did he have an Ace? Who knows? Something I really hate is paying off LAGs so a fairly minimal loss.


KK hand #3


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $73.20
Hero (CO): $51.55
BTN: $97.30
SB: $61.45
BB: $50.00
UTG: $60.35

Pre Flop: Hero is CO with K K

2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, 2 folds

Same table against the Same LAG


Flop: ($4.25) 3 J 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.05, BTN calls $3.05

Turn: ($10.35) 7 (2 players)

Hero bets $8, BTN raises to $16, Hero raises to $46.75 all in, BTN calls $30.75

Really, the only thing that I am afraid of here is 65 and I just couldn't put him on that hand.

River: ($103.85) 5



Final Pot: $103.85

Hero shows Ks Kc (a pair of Kings)
BTN shows 5s 6s (a straight, Seven high)
BTN wins $100.85
(Rake: $3.00)

Whoops.. He had 65... but it was soooooooooooooooted.

Too bad you don't get mulligans in poker.


I did have KK one other time; but I raised and took it down with a flop C-bet.

So there you have it, some fun with KK.

-------------

No poker for me tomorrow as I am heading to Fairmont Park to watch a little horse racing. I haven't been in a few years; but I used to love to go to the horse races. I don't bet alot (I usually bring $20-$40 with me to bet); but I do love to watch them run. I did play a few hands after midnight eastern to get 1.5 points to make sure that I play everyday for the everyday freeroll.

Have a nice day!!!!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

So Tiger is Human and Internet connections

Have you ever sat at a table and somebody is just constantly having Internet connection delays and it is slowing up the play. Man, I can't stand it. Typically, unless the table is really good, I will just leave the table. Well, last night, that guy was me. I don't know what the problem was; but probably 6 times of the 1 1/2 hours I played, my Internet connection went out on me. Sometimes 20 seconds, sometimes 2 minutes and always or should I say almost always at the most inopportune times. Once when I hit a set of 3s with an Ace on board and somebody led into me. Once with pocket Queens so maybe that was a good thing because who wins with Queens these days.

Unlike most days, I started off really well and was up almost 2 buyins; but things didn't last and I only ended up a little under 1 buyin and then I just quit once I reached my 100 pts on Full tilt. I can't make Iron Man anymore nor was that a goal. It just doesn't seem too long ago where it would take me about 30 to 40 minutes to reach the needed 200 pts to make Iron Man when I was playing at the higher limit levels. Oh well, such is life and I am playing with the cards that re dealt to me; albeit at the micro stakes for now.

-------------

So I just heard that Tiger is done for the year with a torn ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture of his left tibia. All of that and he still won the US Open in what was one of the most memorable finishes in quite a while. Well, at least for people like me that have short memories.

So the question that begs to be asked is... Was it worth it to play against Doctor's Orders? To me, this is a very simple answer.

YES!!!

It is the US Open or national championship. It is a Major. Etc, etc..

OK, he is now out for the year. Who is to say that this still wouldn't of happened even if he didn't play this weekend. Of course, he is going to miss 2 majors this year now plus the Ryder Cup. That is if you believe that he will. Anybody else thinking that he will have the surgery and rehab the knee and still try to play one of the big golf tournaments. The British is out of the question. That is less than a month a way; but the PGA or Ryder Cup... hmmmm.. Nah, no way; but he is Tiger Freaking Woods.

Again, I'm not the biggest Tiger Woods fan; but I can certainly appreciate him playing in this tournament knowing that he was hurt. A tournament, by the way, that he still won.

I wish him a well and speedy recovery because weekends like last weekend (and Monday) is what sports fans like myself live for.

Have a nice day!!!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Not a Tiger Fan and Better to be Lucky

Let me say that I have never been a Tiger Woods Fan. Maybe it just the rooting for the underdog thing. Whatever it is, yesterday was truly the first day that I was rooting for him from start to finish. It felt kind of weird. I thought it was over after his 2nd shot on 18; but some people just never learn. This is Tiger Freaking Woods. Even when he knocked his third shot within 20 feet from the hole, I was not sold that he would make the putt. You know, it just wasn't his day; but again, this is Tiger Freaking Woods. Words just can't describe how good this guy is.

Obviously, he should take care of business against Rocco; but crazier things have happened. One thing is for sure, I do NOT think that Mediate will be threatened or afraid of playing with Tiger.

-----

I did not play a whole of lot of poker over the weekend. I played almost 1300 hands; but at least it was a good weekend for a change. Here is the graph from the weekend.









I did have one really nice hand that goes into the It is better to be lucky than good category. Not that it was a suckout because it wasn't as I got my money in as a 100% favorite.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $50.00
BB: $72.00
UTG: $51.50
CO: $92.10
BTN: $75.65

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with T 7

3 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) 8 9 K (2 players)
Hero bets $1.85, BB raises to $4, Hero raises to $15, BB calls $11

Turn: ($33.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $55.50 all in, Hero calls $33.50 all in

River: ($100.00) 6

Final Pot: $100.00

Hero shows Th 7h (a straight flush, Ten high)
BB shows 8c 8s (a full house, Eights full of Sixes)
Hero wins $97.00
(Rake: $3.00)


Straight Flushes are Gold!!!

Have a Nice Day!!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

What was I thinking, you can't beat Presto and All-in EV Graph

I Woke up early this morning or should I say early for me as I needed to some work before people got on the system. So i got up around 5:00 and did my work. 5:30 rolls around and I am not tired so what do I do? Of course, head to the tables. Big Mistake...

2nd hand... JJ... I raise and get 3 bet and call. I check/call a board of 664 and fold to a large turn bet when Ace comes.

12th hand... I don't know what I was thinking... I thought I could beat Presto. Now had I known, it was Presto, it might have changed things... Here is the hand.


Villain in this hand ends up being a 29/18 guy; but at the time he was a 40/20 guy who was raising a bunch preflop and post flop. I obviously thought I would make him fold.


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $139.30
BTN: $113.95
SB: $36.20
BB: $63.70
UTG: $50.00
Hero (MP): $50.00

Pre Flop: Hero is MP with 4 4

1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, 3 folds

Flop: ($4.25) 3 8 5 (2 players)

Hero bets $3, CO calls $3

Turn: ($10.25) 2 (2 players)

Hero checks, CO bets $6.25, Hero raises to $45.25 all in, CO calls $39

River: ($100.75) 5

Final Pot: $100.75

CO shows 5c 5s (four of a kind, Fives)
Hero shows 4h 4c (two pair, Fives and Fours)
CO wins $97.75
(Rake: $3.00)


That last 5 was just uncalled for.


Hand 17


I get KK and still don't know how to fold them.. I open raise, get 3 bet and this time, no slow play for me... 4 bet... get one fold but the other guy goes all in. Does he have aces? Nope... 76s


So again.. Open raise by me from cutoff... SB 3 bets... BB calls.. I 4 bet... SB folds... BB goes all in for a few extra dollars... with 76s.


Anyway, everybody knows how this one ends... 6AJ 7 3.. His 2 pair are good.


From there, pretty much break even. I played a little under an hour and lost over 2 buyins. Dang!!!


Evening Session..


Starts with JJ allin in Preflop with AQ (shorty).. FLop is 568.. Turn A River Q.. Again, Q was overkill


AA goes down to AT on river Flush (all in on Turn)


Flop sets and lose... ladidada...


Luckily, I ended up the evening session a little bit up even after the brutal beats early on.. and late .. Take a look at this graph. The dark green line shows actual results. The light green line shows what you All in EV was based on odds of winning once everybody is All in. As you can see, I was a little unlucky (as usual).





Oh well, what can you do... Ended up night about 2 buyins down; but as you can see from chart I was 5 buyins down at one point so I guess I can't be too unhappy.

----------------
Holdem Manager released it's first article on Plugging Leaks using HEM and it was pretty good. At first glance, I seem to be OK, my postflop aggression is where I need work. I will look a little more into detail on this; but some really good stuff from these guys.
Have a nice day!!!!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Setless and the MOOk

Short post as I am tired.

I final tabled the Mook but went out in 9th where 7 paid. I was really up and down. I got really lucky and really unlucky. I was even last place for a while. Mook had a real good shot to win his own tournament but lost when his 77 was no good against 66. Dang!!!!

Yesterday, I mentioned how over 43 times that had pocket pairs, I only flopped a set once and that was quad aces in which I did not get much action. The law of averages would say that tonight, things would be better and I might flop a few more sets than the average 12%. Let's take a look..

OK... 54 Pocket Pairs tonight (not counting tournies). Flopped Sets? ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, the BIG GOOSE EGG, NONE, ZIP. I think you get the idea. So over the past 2 days, I am flopping sets at an amazing 1.02%. Come on now, show me some love.

I also had Aces cracked twice tonight and of course pocket kings were bested again tonight so this made for a very bumpy night ended up a little ahead.

Here is what the stats looked like:


19.7/14.2/1.79 for 10.60 bb/100

I made a crazy bluff on a guy that squeezes over 25% of the time; but things didn't work out and I threw away $25 on that one so as it was I was up about 1 buyin over 916 hands. Much like the tournament, it was a roller coaster the whole way. Take a look:




Have a nice Day!!!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Online Poker is Rigged and it only takes One hand

Due to family responsibilities.. wait.. not really responsibilities. Let's start over.

Due to the BoDonkey being on Tuesday and with an early start time, it has always been hard for me to make the tourney because this is prime time for spending time with Mrs Wonka and the 2 baby/toddler Wonkas. What made this night any different?

As usual, I received an email requesting that I play in the tournament; but this time there was a kicker and here it is:

The BIGGEST bounty ever in the history of blogger tournaments is on the head of $mokkee, the Bodog blogger tournament host, adding an extra T$270 in value to Tuesday's June 3rd poker blogger tournament! The lucky poker blogger to eliminate $mokkee will be rewarded with a seat in Bodog's WSOP Semifinal 5 Seat Guaranteed Tournament scheduled for June 8 at 3:15 pm ET. Details at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com/.

Giving that incentive, I sat down and started to play. I started off OK, but then made a resteal with 6 high off of somebody's button steal. That didn't work out and I had to fold. It really was a roller coaster ride from there; but to make a long and boring tournament summary story short, I ended up at the final table. Good News, the bounty on $smokkee was still alive.

$mokee then went on to suck at 223,323, times and it got down to 3 people and yours truly was lucky enough to be there with $mokkee and Miami Don. MD got a what I believe to be a huge bad beat to bring me a $mokkee heads up. I wasn't really paying attention at the time as I must have been in a hand in my cash games; but I thought Don had something like K9 and I thought I saw 2 Kings on the board so I don' t know what happened.

Heads up didn't last too long; but yes, $mokee with his Q5 hit a Q on the river to beat my KJ that had hit a Jack or something like that. Either way, he was the big winner and the indisputable fact that has now been proven.... ONLINE POKER IS RIGGED.

If you ask me, I should get the added bonus; but I guess $mokkee will get it himself. Congrats!!

--------------

So as usual, I had 3 tables plus the tournament going. Things were actually go pretty well as I was up nearly 2 buyins after 550 hands; but as the saying goes, it only takes one hand to change the course of the evening. It was actually 2 hands; but there was one really big one that should never have been a big one... especially after hearing the preachings of brother Jamyhawk. I mean really, who makes these calls. I have to know that I'm beat. I remember thinking that I had to call due to odds. Let's take a look and see if I was right.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $50.30
MP: $49.25
CO: $54.05
BTN: $11.85
Hero (SB): $83.40
BB: $89.10


Pre Flop: Hero is SB with K K


UTG raises to $1.75, 3 folds, Hero raises to $5.75, BB calls $5.25, UTG calls $4



All standard... both of these players are good players..



BB is 25/18/1.9 over 259 hands

UTG is 29/19/3.8 over 152 hands

Flop: ($17.25) 2 9 6 (3 players)

Hero bets $12, BB calls $12, UTG raises to $44.55 all in, Hero calls $32.55, BB raises to $83.35 all in, Hero calls $33.10 all in

Wow... what was I thinking...



First call, I am getting over 2 1/2 to 1 to call; but wait.. still on more to act and now I know that I am toast; but really, is there any way that I can fold to last bet...

Turn: ($217.10) Q


River: ($217.10) 5


Turns out the best hand won; but it took runner, runner spades for it to happen. As One guy had pocket Aces and hit his flush and the other guy had pocket sixes.



I then lost a big pot when a bad player did the overbet for value thing when he hit his OESD on the river and I paid him off with my flopped trips. By the way, I had 43 pocket pairs tonight's and I did NOT hit a single set. As a matter of disclosure, I did flop quad aces once; but that was it, 1 for 43 (2.33%). Again, ONLINE POKER IS RIGGED!!!



Somehow, I was able to make it back to about break even for the night...







So the stats ended up being 18.1/12.7/1.56 for 5.22bb/100 over 855 hands.

Truthfully, towards the end when I was at the final table, I played way more passive that I normally do which accounts for the low PFR and low Aggression factor. Anyway, I will always take a positive night.

Thought for the night is just to keep consistent and don't blow the sessions on a few bad hands. This is definitely a leak that I need to work on.

Have a nice day!!!
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