Training Video's

Joined Smartpokervideos the other day. I thought it was time to see how others were playing. The advertised a bunch of coachs and content and I happened to be there so I dropped a couple bucks to get credits. You use the credits to buy the video's that you want to see. Its a good idea as anyone (assuming you win I guess) can record the video, narrate. post and sell them.

My enthusiasm soon died however when I discovered that there were only a handful of coaches and the site owner had posted virtually all the content. He seems a decent guy, He gave me 25 extra credits and also gave me the option of my $ back if I wanted. I chose to try it out. In hind sight is was a bad decision. I have only seen 3 video's and it is decent stuff however there is only so much you can learn from one guy. I was looking for some variety.

Again, good concept, decent guy, decent player, decent site, I just think he needs variety. If any of you ballers want to make some money and think you can talk your way through a game, look him up.

Again, I have only seen 3 video's so far but there is already a theme that bugs me a bit. In the video's I have seen so far they run like god. I have had weeks where I didn't catch cards like these guys. LMAO. I'm pretty sure I would do the same thing too. Why post a losing vid, lol.

There is just no making me happy :(

If there is one tip or move that I have maybe picked up from what I have seen so far is the basic "represent a monster" move. Both of the "Coaches" I have seen 3 and 4 bet more than perhaps I would consider. After the flop anyway. I have heard that is Joe Hashem's thing too. he always seems to have a big hand .....

My cash game results have been turning around. I spent a lot of time dissecting my Pokertracker and found a few hands and a few positions I haven't been playing well. I'd like to say I found a big hole but the truth is I know most of them, I just can't fix em. One hole is passing up position too much. Even in Rush Poker I have been stealing blinds like an animal and it is really helping the bottom line. I have also been trying to not lose that big hand that kills a session. I have to learn to look for better spots.

A normal cash session for me is only 500-1000 hands 1 or 2 tabling. Since I bought PT I have put in just over 10k hands. It may be more as I'm not 100% sure all my limits are being picked up. I noticed last night I left out micro stacks. I don't drop there often but when I do it is normally profitable so I'd like to get it included. So at 10,300 I think it was I went back into the profitable zone. Feels good to be up. Even if only for a few $. Adding rackback and cleared bonus's I have a decent cash game ROI. Now if only I could figure out how to get that data into my chart.

I'd love for someone to look at my stats and to read my soul for me. Any offers?

Tonight I have a chance to play a live MTT for the first time since May. Still unsure if I'll go.

Anywho....later skaters...

Buried a Turkey on the weekend !

A "pit creature" was buried, cooked and eaten...it was awesome. Fed about 10 hungry guys Saturday night. It was my first try but I have see it done before. I'll explain more another time...

We also played poker Friday and Saturday nights. It was a lot of fun. I won a few lost a few.

Its been a while ...

But there there really hasn't been much to write about that would be unique.

I'm playing a normal amount online with normal results. Little up, little down.....I just seem to be treading water all the time. No one wants to heard bad beat stories and they seem to be the best ones.

I came close to taking down one of the $10mtt 9pm doubledoubles on FT last weekend. I finished 11th out of 1100ish. My bust out hand was for 480k and 3rd in chips at that point. The hand was interesting and went something like this.

We are 2 tables, 5 on one and 6 on mine, everyone is pretty aggro trying to chip up for the final table. Average stack is about 300k and I have 250k which is still 25BB's. The leader only had 650k so everyone is pretty close. I'm dealt JJ, second to act and I raise to 27k (5000/10000 blinds plus ante). Everyone folds to the BB who calls. Flop comes 2 10 6 with 2 diamonds. BB checks to me and after a short deliberation I Cbet to 47k, about 2/3 of the pot. I'm more than happy to take this down now and expected to given the rag flop. My opponent goes into the tank and check raises me allin. To be more specific he over bet himself allin for emphasis he has me covered.

The first half of the time he is thinking I'm quite happy as I take this as being weak and the fold is coming. The second half of the time I'm concerned as it seems he may be trying to look weak with a monster. Then BAM comes the Allin. I didn't want to see that.

So what are the hands that I put him on and what do I do? I really took my time trying to figure this one out.

22,66,1010 are hands that he would call a PFR with. I might even expect a PFRR with the 1010.

QQ,KK,AA would be nasty and my JJ's are crushed but I'm certain that he would RRPF or even jam me allin PF with those hands.

In hindsight I spent way to much time considering these hands before I thought about what he would have done PF with those holdings. The 22,66 became my biggest concern.

A flush draw, with or without a pair was not a concern, I'll take those odds at this point in the game.

A10, K10, Q10 where certainly in his range PF, especially give the discount of being in the BB.

AK,AQ,AJ,Ax, or any other decent 2 cards which missed the flop are also possible.

Sooooooo.......my determination was that he had a piece of the flop but nothing more. He could beat a draw and that was it. My J's were good. Specifically I put him on TPTK (A10) as his best hand.

I have to admit it took me far to long to figure this out but considering the situation I'm glad I did. Everything seems easy after the fact and you have had time to think and discuss. When a final table seat is on the line it is a bit harder.

Okay.....so I call......I'm Allin......approx 480k pot and a jump from 11th to 3rd with 11 left is on the line. I can't wait to see what he has..........drum roll please....

77....he check raised me allin with 77.... Nothing wrong with that play and I was very very pleased with my read.

But then as I watched his 2 outer hit the river (another 7) my smile is quickly erased and any consolation that could be had from the good read is wiped away in a heartbeat.

I was so close to a FT and a decent payday it was sick.

Last week I also made decent runs in the 5050 and the 35k guar only to meet my fate unjustly. AA specifically is killing me. I'm either walking into them or I'm getting snapped off.
How about AA on a AQ2 flop losing to KJo. How does anyone even put themselves in position to be 4 bet 75%AI PF and then AI on this flop with KJo ? I don't get it at all. No respect around here.

Oh well. Eventually the big score will come my way.

There won't be much playing for a while as I'm doing the cottage thing on the weekend and I 'll have company for a couple weeks after that. I'm going to try to bury my first pit creature on Saturday. A nice big turkey !!! if it turns out I'll try to post a couple pictures.

In other news my under 13 boys soccer team has made it to the semifinals this year. Its the first time one of the kids teams I have coached has had this good of a decent season.

Summer hockey season is wrapping up. We finished 7th of 8 teams. About normal.

later skaters...

Qualified for PartyPoker online regional

I'm still not showing up as being preregistered but I'm sure it will eventually. As the actual game isn't until Oct 23/10 there is a lot of time to figure it out. Finished 2nd out of 75 I think. I had my shot to win but his kicker hit runner runner straight. It happens. GG.

Anyone have an opinion on someone calling the clock on you when he isn't in the hand. This a live tourny. I know a couple guys who run the clock on purpose but this wasn't like that. It was a tough decision, blinds where still low. Just wondering.

My first Live Royal flush !

I was only holding the Js when the flop dropped AK10s. The Qs on the turn. I think it was the turn. I checked the flop and turn then picked up a small value bet on the river. The 4 flush killed my action.

I have had 2 or 3 RF's online, 2 for sure, the number of hands....hmmmm

7 years x avg 340 days/yr x 500hands/day = 1.2million ballpark.

Live hands....maybe 5,000....

My playing partners gave me serious ups for my demeanor while holding the RF. They are convinced now that if I ever get excited I'm bluffing...lol.

Still only finished 3rd in a Sat that paid out 2 places..........blah.

My bad beat of the day...........

5 handed, 1500/3k blinds.
I raise 9000 from 2nd position putting the BB AI with JJ.
SB calls with J10 unsuited.
Flop comes A,10,rag
I C bet to see where I am in the hand. An A RR's me 100% of the time. She calls.
Turn brings the 2 outer......another 10....say no more. Unreal.

History repeats itself

I need a checklist of things to remember while playing poker. Seriously, every few weeks I'll make a mistake and kick myself in the ass right away.

One of the biggest adjustments I had to make when I started playing in live tournaments was dealing with the different personalities, styles and skill levels. Online you don't have to deal with as many odd situations and in particular the field is relatively skilled and predictable. Live is a different beast all together. There always seems to be a couple of regulars around who really don't understand the game very well. They are nice enough people and on occasion their style is quite effective. Without knowing it they play a very effective and unpredictable LAG style. Okay ... they are calling stations....as raising really isn't in their repertoire. They will not throw a hand away.

So a lesson I was reminded of last night is simply that some players can not be bluffed! The set up could be perfect, the right sized bet, no pot odds, everything....then BINK......"I call". WTF?
It seems that this "style" of player is not picking up any information at all from the game being played and in their mind the worst possible thing they can do is to give up on a hand.

The second I did it I thought back to the first couple weeks I played live. I was crippled a couple times by the same situation. Then it took about 20 tournaments for me to forget again.

My final push last night was with 3c4c, not a great hand, I wouldn't even call it a semi bluff. I was called by the BB who tabled 74, I can't remember if they were suited or not. But seriously, half your stack with 74? Even if I'm bluffing what can you beat? Besides me, lol.

I'll certainly keep an eye out for these situations......but I will forget again.

I have a ton of "reminders" I think I'll make a list .....

C

It has been a while......

As I mentioned in my last post I was sure that getting and using Software/HUD would help my game so I bought Pokertracker. I only wish I had the time to figure it all out. Other than going through some reports and trying the HUD I wouldn't say it has helped me a lot. I find the whole thing to be sooo time consuming and difficult. I'm using too many different computers and the program seems to have a few glitches. I need a tutorial or something to help me set up my HUD and how to interpret what I am seeing. I haven't been able to get all my stored hand histories into PT yet so what I have collected to date isn't the greatest sample size.

Maybe it is helping, I'm not sure but my results have been good the last few months. The last couple weeks in particular.

Since this was intended to be a blog to inspire me and to track my progress on the way to steady profitability I better get back on track....

As a brief recap, I have been playing poker almost every day for about 6 years and I think my game is pretty sound. I have had some good results but overall I'm at best a break-even player. Considering the brutal rake and the odd moment when I donk off a months worth of progress in one hour I don't feel to bad about the B/E thing.

So my plan is to figure out what I can do to get over the hump. I have far to much time invested in this hobby to not make money at it or to quit.

During 2010 I have made these changes;

I started playing Live more. I joined the ONPTL and I have played about 25 live tournaments. I have been doing well (http://www.onptl.com) although now that summer is here I can't play as much and I have fallen out of the top spot at my venue. This has helped my game a bit. Certainly at live events and in live cash games. I'm not nearly as nervous as I used to be. Having tested and proven myself against good players live has certainly not hurt my confidence.

I have been playing live $1/2 when I travel. I have played in Halifax, Vancouver and Calgary in 2010 and have held my own. Again I think this has to help me grow overall as a player. As I also play at LacLeamy in Hull I think I have had a good taste of the skill levels in each region.

As I mentioned I bought PT but I am just at the edge of using it effectively. I have also poked around on Holdem Manager. I know these products will help my game. I'm a bit concerned about wasting too much time setting up PT right now until I get to see more about HM. I certainly have become more aware of my VPIP/PR/Aggre as compared to others I am playing with. Keeping in mind my sample sizes are not great.

I have been playing about 500 hands a day of .25/.50 Rush Poker on Fulltilt.

I have been playing .25/.50 on Partypoker. A site I rejoined purely because of the ONPTL.

I have cut my time on Pokerstars by about 80%. I love the game selection there but I'm doing pretty good on the other two sites right now and to be honest Pokerstars is a pretty tough site to make money on.

I'm obviously playing fewer MTT's and more cash now.

One of my biggest leaks was to join an MTT but not actually be able to finish it. Playing more cash games is saving me a lot of buy ins as I quit when I want now.

I have stopped jumping around within different cash game buy ins. Depending on my mood I would play anything from $.01/.02 to $2/4. I seem to have found my comfort level at .25/.50. I can make decent $ at it and I'm not freaked out by the buyin. So one of my new initiatives is going to be to continue playing at this level for awhile. I have started compiling notes and should soon have good information on the majority of my opponents.

I'm also hooked up through MystPoker and Jackseven to get some rackback from Fulltilt. I have only had 2 small deposits so far but $ is $ and every bit counts.

Finally I have a couple bonus's I'm working on clearing. I'm at 90% cleared for $50 now on one. Again, every penny counts.

I hope to be back soon with some stats, self analysis, leaks, and progress to date.

If anyone has some good info on HUD setup's etc, please drop me a note.

Tuesday Ramblings

When I started this blog I was feeling good about some progress I had made. I was sure that the lessons learned over the years, the books I read, the pure volume of games I had played would give me the edge I needed to continue to be profitable. I've studied so many hands and put so much time into the game it had to payoff. At the time I had been basically a break even player who had about 6 months of just over the line profit. I'm referring to weekly profit too, not just a big cash.

Then progress stopped and actually regressed. I stopped writing because I was only recapping the games I had played the night before and more and more it just became bad beat central and who wants to read that dribble. Let alone write it. For a while I was using the exercise to recap and think about my game but then that started to get boring as the topics became repetitive.

The game of online poker has really evolved and it has become very very difficult to beat.When I started 7 years ago at least half of the field where beginners. It was enough then just to be able to count outs and to know your percentages. I still use the 4-2 rule all the time. Now everyone who plays is a pro, semi pro or a sick smart college kid who plays and studies the game 60-80 hours a week.

These guys not only work hard on their game, they use all the tools and they have a plan for long term profitability. That plan may or may not include real poker but may actually just be a series of complex formulae and actions which over time will show a profit. Have you ever noticed the guy who registers for 10 super hyper turbo sat's at a time? I assure you he believes he has figured out something and what he is playing is not poker.Its calculated gambling. I find it hard to play that way as I have to be interested in what I'm doing to do it. I already spend most of my time in an office. I'm no spending my evenings.

I digress....

So, I've been getting to the point where I no longer believe I can beat the game. The beats I have been taking in critical spots has been crushing. AAQQQ on the turn last night and I shipped it to QQQQ7. Seriously, I raise 8BBPF with AA in the $10r and get called by Q7o. He flopped 2 more Q's and when I filled the FH he got the rest of my 25BB stack.

Again I digress....

So I decided that one glaring hole in my game is that I'm not effectively using software to study and improve my game. Additionally I have not been using HUD. So I dropped $90US and bought PT3. I have to say I'm very disappointed so far. Things have changed a lot since the last time I used it. I know it has its own learning curve but.........I'm having trouble importing stats from PS MTTS, there seems to be a cap on how many hands I can mine, My HUD seems to open randomly and only on one table, when I change tables it doesn't always open up, I don't seem to be getting live updates as the hands go. I just realized everyone is stuck on (1) hand ??? etc etc. Don't even get me started on MTT summaries.

I'm sure for the experienced users I sound like a noobfool (yes, one word, lol) but damn this shit is complicated and time consuming. I can see how it can be a huge advantage when it is loaded and working though. I'd love to see PF raise % witha decent sample size.

So this may be my last kick at the cat. I'm giving myself until the end of this Spring to see if I can find a profitable game/niche with or without PT3 or whatever else I need. If no I think I'll go back to trading stocks. It seems easier and the rewards are good. Taxes suck though.

Bubble Boy again

No big news....I the first eliminated from the live MTT last night. 3 coolers in the first 5 hands will do that. I had 2pair 2 times and pocket K's the 3rd. Ran into 2 flushes and a Fullhouse. GG me.

Later played the $10RB on PS and bubbled it. Well approx 320ish with 300 getting paid. About 2,000 runners. Painfull way to kill 3 hours.

Its only impatience when it doesn't work

After going back through my stats for the last 500Mtt's I've played on PS I have realized that my experiment to ITM less but go deaper when I do has not been a great success. My ITM is down but so is my ROI. I have been B/E to small profit for a very long time and now if you consider my rebuys (best guess) I'm now a light looser. WTF? Faaack !

I have yet to check FullTilt but I'm sure I'll find the same with the exception of one deep finish that will make all my numbers look better. A 4th in the $70k. But then that was the point. Thank god for sites like FullContact where my good stats will be frozen in time forever.

So one of the games I have shown a steady profit in is the Poker Stars $3Rebuy. The other 2 being the $10 rebuy and surprisingly the Sunday Million. On Monday I played a huge field of almost 5,000. Insane for a rebuy. Basic TAG type game until I get to 300 (720 Bubble) left. I'm looking real good with about 20 BB's when I made a raydiculous decision to Jam PF with a pair of deuces. I hate 2's. Heavy limping, big blinds and a PF overbet by a very clever agrro player to my left cried steal to me. I figured in a very rapid manner that I was a 55% favorite against 75% of his range and only a 20% dog to the rest. I was getting $120k back on $45k in the pot. So in they went. Everyone else had folded.

I'm not trying to justify it at all, it was stupid, I was obviously brain dead at the time. These games are lonnnnnng. I really should have waited for better opportunities. But then if it worked...........

.75*.55*110k + .25*.20*110k = 50.5k (very rough) for $5.5k EV against my tourny life is not a good decision.

Tonight I think I'll try my second shot at a live MTT. 37 players last week. I expect an even smaller game tonight.

More Rush, being impatient and Zackjack

Very little felt related action last night.

I played a $22 super duper mega donk turbo sat to the $70k guar on PS. I had a bout 15 minutes to wait until the game started and figured I'd take a shot at a cheapo entry. Saving a whole $33 bucks. Its 6 handed, 2 win a seat, 3rd gets $22 back. I lasted 2 hands pushing my 500 chips in with 1010. Seemed like a good idea at the time but the was not good.

This seemed to set the tone for my night as I now felt unlucky and skipped the $70k Guar which I was stoked to play. Instead I donked my way through a $8.80 MTT and an $11MTT. It was dreadful, I may as well have tossed my money at the cat. Why did I bother. Everything was wrong. I let that small coinflip of a satelite put me on tilt and the I didn't play the game I wanted and finally the stakes were to to low to keep me interested. FK!

I switched to FT and more rush poker. Back to my prefered cash game of PLO. I again bought in light for $40 at the .25/.50 game. I know its better to come in full but I just seem to be having better results being hyper aggressive with a small stack than playing with the full buyin. This is very very new for me. I would always be teh first to chastise a shortie. When I get a hand I want the most amount of $ possible on the table. In fact if I'm ever at a live game/casino I'd be to embarrassed to buy light. Anyway, it all went pretty uneventful although I was getting more than my share of premium hands. I was chipping up steady when finally I hit a hand at the same time as an opponent. We 4 or 5 bet it all in PF with AAxx(nut spade draw) vs AAxx(club draw) and my spades got there for a real nice pot. I pretty much went on cruise control and signed out up $100. Saved my day. +/- $80-100 seems to be my routine on Rush poker, nothing more or less so far.

Here is a link to an Ottawa player why does a nice job of writing about a Live MTT he played at Turningstone. Read and enjoy.

http://zachjackdad.blogspot.com/

Local Live Poker

I was invited to play some live poker last night. Its a bar/beer league thing that has been going on for a few years now in Quebec and a few small spots here in Ontario. I signed up online a few weeks ago. One of my co-workers has been playing in the Quebec version for a long time and likes it.

I had fun and it was very well organized. Congratulations to everyone for a very successful first night. Other than the charming Robin (I think that was her name) I regret not knowing the TD or organizers names yet. All in due time. Irregardless, thanks everyone for hosting a great game.

The location is at a bar/rest called The Mixx on 10th Line in Orleans close to my house which has just been reopened. I have never hung out at this bar as it is kinda tucked away at the end of a strip mall out of sight and it is on the opposite end of the suburb for me. They intend on playing every Wed night, which might be (is) a problem for me. Anytime I can get out of the house on a Wed night, which is most weeks, I meet friends at another pub (Gracie's on Ogilvie). Last night I did both but running pub to pub on a Wed night isn't something I should be doing on a weekly basis. We will see.

Other than a one time small league fee and a very nominal cost of $2 per game there is no cost to play. I think you can even skip the league fee if you just want to play for fun and not keep points.

Last night being the first night I believe we had 4 or 5 tables of 8 to start the game, so about 40 runners. I'm not sure. I wasn't really stoked about this, I didn't read anything in advance. I had no idea about starting stacks, blinds, the point system, anything. I just showed up. Funny thing is the league seems to have cannibalized itself a bit because my coworker who sent me the link and who also plays on Wed night said that only 12 showed up to his game last might. They all went to the new location.

A couple quick notes about the game and the play.

With the exception of one beginner who was also an organizer the play was really quite good. I was impressed. Perhaps a little to much limping PF and a few to many check/checks on the flop/turn but otherwise it was all good. After about the 5th or 6th level the limping and checking came to a halt. Once we got to 20 or so the game became appropriately aggressive. Not a lot of free cards.

I made it to the final table and finished 7th. Not a terrible result. I'd say I played fairly tight with selective aggression if you will. With 7 players left I found myself first to act with 42k, 5000/2500 blinds and a pair of 8's. I guess I could have passed and waited to jam on the blinds but I pushed. 8 BB's, first to act with a decent pair equals go time for me. Especially as I was only aware of one prize, which was for the winner. GG me as I walked into a pair of JJ's and didn't suck out.

I still feel stupid about a brief misunderstanding I had with a couple players and one of the organizers early in the game. I normally just keep quiet and let other people sort things out unless I'm directly effected. But no I had to get my 2 cents worth in. A new player joined the table and moved into the dealer position. Some said deal him in some said no. I naturally said no as well. During the discussion the button and the blinds moved and everything was okay. But I kept arguing that he shouldn't get a hand ....until I snapped out of it and realized what was going on, lol.

No online poker last night. I was tempted at about 11:30 to fire up a few hands but thankfully I just had a snack and went to bed. I played hockey at 7:30am this morning and needed all the juice I could get together.

The Mixx was fun but if I'm a regular...we will see. Playing for $ at home or going to Gracies vs playing for fun at a pub........


If your in the Ottawa area and you like the idea of playing live, cheaply, in a progressive league situation I highly recommend you check out the site and go.

Rush Poker and the PokerStars $10rebuy

How many times do I have to be on the edge of a breakthrough before I finally get a break? Seriously,I'm constantly trying to find leaks in my game and I keep coming back to the same one. I'm not a very lucky guy in key situations. In fact I don't need luck, I just need to not get unlucky once in a while. Well okay, that and I seem to be too willing to get it all in as a favorite. On occasion perhaps I should be trying to manage the pot size better. Why be greedy right? There has to be value in staying alive....

I have to wonder, perhaps even without admitting it, how often a pro might throw a good PF hand away just because its not the best time to mix it up.

2 weeks ago I'm playing in the Sunday million, I won one of the $11 double shootouts for a seat. I have crazy success playing in sat's, perhaps that should just be my thing. Soooo, I managed to wiggle my way through an obscene amount of players to get to within about 50 places from the money with about 30k in chips. I'm thinking blinds were 500/1000 at the time, so I have 30BB's. At this point I'm playing pretty TAG and I'm dealt AA. I'm ecstatic to get it all in for a 60k (60BB) pot AA/JJ. Give me (or any other donk I guess)60BB on the bubble and I'm pretty sure there will be some significant coin coming why way. Then...........bink......J.....and I'm out. But seriously how do you play this differently ?

Sure, even a cash here is good money to me but I refuse to play to min cash. I did that for years. I loved to play the game and my primary interest was to keep my head above water so I could afford to play again the next day. My ITM was as high as 23%. Even now I think after 2-3000MTTS I'm > 20% ITM. My ROI naturally isn't great. I'll have to go look to see what my numbers are like now. Last year I started reading up a bit WRT the more profitable players and they all seem to be in the 14% ROI range. Naturally it seemed that I need to crank up my aggression and be content to cash less but with better results when do. That has come with limited results. More on that later....

Last night in the $10RB it was basically the same thing, 329 left, pays 324, blinds at 1000/2000 plus an ante. I have just under 30k. I'm healthy but not a stack to do damage with. I get QQ in the hijack. The BB has me covered and I fully expect, this close to the bubble he is going to put me all in with any two decent cards. Now there may have been a time where I would raise PF here and fold to the AI RR, min cash and take my chances to get lucky later once in the money. All I'm thinking now is GRAVY>>.

I'm only worried about AA,KK, and to a degree AK. I lead out for 5,500 and as expected he puts me all in, despite having 15BB. This represents about a 1/3 of his stack so I get no read as to his strength from that. Everything is going as planned and I instacall. He tables AKo, could have been worse, but I did not expect a coin flip here. I expected to either be dominating him or for him to fold. GG me 5 minutes from the $.

This has to be the worst feeling, to play so long, do so well, and FAIL right at the edge of opportunity. Oh well, onward we go.

I continued my voyage into Rush Poker again last night. Tried the .5/1 NLH this time. This isn't my normal game. I like NLH MTTs/STT's, etc but rarely cash games. Actually NL cash is pretty much the only thing I don't play. I prefer PLO cash.

So I buy in short (42.50) as my BR hasn't had a decent donation in a while. Why 42.50 you say? Well the normal BI is $100, the option is set at $80, but the min I believe is $40. I chose an odd number so the table doesn't see me coming in short. They only see a guy who is down 1/2 a BI and who is likely on tilt, feeling unlucky or otherwise not playing well. As its rush, that works for all of one hand, lol.

So I double up in the first 5 hands AA/JJ AIPF. Then I overpay 2-1 to draw to my OESD and I hit on the turn. In 15 minutes I'm up to $160. I strongly consider ratholing here to get $100 off the table. Both so I can bump my BR but also so I can ramp up the aggression factor. I can't believe these things come into my head. I know better but when you start to get short and your confidence is a bit down that is how you think. Needless to say I didn't. Common sense reminds me "hey your catching cards and playing well, you want as much money as possible on the table".

After about 300 hands of back and forth a new player joins the table and is to my immediate left. How do I know he just joined (or re bought). $100 even on the table, lol ! see above.Then this hand comes alone.

I get KK, hijack again, villain is on the Button. MP player raises to $3.50, I call, villain calls. Flop brings two spades. Check, I raise 2/3 pot. Call, fold. Hmmmmm. Turn brings the K of Spades !!!! Yeah, you can see this one coming huh. I thought I bet enough to get a guy off a flush draw,,,,guess not. I try check raising the turn as now a J fills a straight and the flush is there. So why not try representing. Didn't work....now I'm down to 9 outs to fill my FH. Whifffff. Down to $40 again, lol.

I played a total of 500 hands, was nicely up 450 of them and ended up losing two min BI's.

I think overall with Rush Poker, I've played 1500 PLO hands and 500 NL hands and I'm down about $50. The most I've been up is about $100. Psychologically Rush is tough. If you think regular variance is hard, wait until you try this. I'm finding I get impatient at about 500 hands, maybe 90 minutes. I have also started to try slowing down while in a hand. You get so used to the speed you start to think that you have to rush during a hand too.

I understand that my writing isn't great at the moment, there is far to much whining, I'm not using proper hand history info or stats. I hope that will come. So far this is more of a diary and a way for me to rethink my results and objectives. I'm going to ramble for a while to get used to doing this and hopefully I'll continue and improve.

Tonight I'm going to go check out a new live poker league close to my house....see how that goes. I'm not a big fan of live poker to be honest but my results have been sick.

Later Skaters...

Its been a while...........

I was locked out of my blog for a very long time and now I'm back.

A lot has happened since my last post. I'm hoping to be able to catchup with news and to post some new material. As most other bloggers have mentioned I'm going to try not to discuss bad beats that often but invariably it is bound to happen. After all it seems our bust out hands are always the most interesting and worthy of discussion. I bring up these situations not to whine about the beat but normally because I just can't for the life of me figure out what happened or more likely what was my opponent thinking when he made that move. An Example.

Last Sat night I had AA's cracked to eliminate me from two MTT's on Full Tilt, within a 5 minute span. One elimination was a clear AA/JJ bad beat, nuff said, it happens. Unfortunately this one was for a monster stack 2 levels into the money. The other was a situation where a good and unconventional plan worked but the result fell short.

In no time I'll try to summarize the last year as a weak attempt to keep the theme of this blog. Basically my road to improvement. Which to a certain degree I managed. If winning more equals improvement. I make a couple of disastrous out of my bankroll plays that nullified the year.....but that happens I guess.

In a nutshell, I managed to place 4th in the FT 50/50 last fall for about $4k, boosting my FT bankroll to about $5k. At the time I had also built up my PS account to maybe $1,500. Pretty good I think for a low stakes grinder. Unfortunately I just could not wait to turn my new nest egg into big bucks by taking shots in bigger games which did not work out at all. More on that another time.

Cheers for now from the nations capital where it is currently -18c.



I'm in a $24MTT and doing okay with the blinds at 40/80 when I see a bizzare hand unfold in front of me. A gent 2 seats to my right opens PF for $2500 and gets reraised to $4k, the raiser is AI. The original raiser started with about $8k. The caller was AI with AK and hit, beating the mad raiser who tabled 77. I can't understand this play at all. Risking 30BB's PF.......with 77 in Early Position.

Anyway, the very next hand I get AA. Soooo I'm thinking how can I get max value heads up PF. I decide that the villain who just lost $4k may be on tilt and I might get him to donk off his chips if I play it cute and mock his PF raise by doing the same (He is in the BB now). I have just under 50 BB's for I think t3600. To make a short story shorter I bet $2k into the little $120 pot and it checks around to villain who INSTACALLS. I almost shit myself at this bonanza. The flop brings rags and 2 diamonds. I have 1600 left and villain has maybe $3-4k. He leads out about 600 and I jam, he calls. What does he have........K7d......yep called 25BB's PF OOP with K7d. I can't complain, its exactly what I wanted. He didn't even need the river to send me home.

Now here is the thing, It didn't matter how this hand played out because I would never give him credit for a HU flush and he was going to keep betting until I was AI. But seriously, did I play this right by pushing his tilt button? Was it anything but tilt? What does he put me on here to call with a second nut flush draw. 77?