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.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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
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
Monday, May 31, 2010
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.
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, February 16, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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.
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.
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