tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18661859916848661072024-02-07T22:11:15.109+10:00crazy eightsDr Zen's journey from knownothing fish to...Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-88994457376223092482010-11-13T11:51:00.000+10:002010-11-13T11:51:25.105+10:00Not bots<a href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/pokerstars-bot-free-908786/">This</a> is interesting. Some guy thinks he's found bots on Stars.<br /><br />But there's a more interesting story here, I think. Check out the analysis pages of some of the players involved: <br />http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/manyee/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em<br />http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/tanny100/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em<br />http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/wen_jun589/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em<br /><br />They are all megatight, all off the scale for passivity, and all take everything they play to showdown. These are not bots. They are Chinamen in a sweatroom with a list of hands. When they get one of the hands on their list, they call and then check/call them down. They don't need to know any poker. They just need to click buttons really really fast. They could play in shifts and their playing pattern wouldn't change. They'd certainly look like bots and they couldn't chat, because they likely don't speak a word of English.<br /><br />They get paid buttons and the guy who's running the shop gets all the rakeback. They could conceivably be a group of friends, but the funding they'd need is beyond most Chinese.<br /><br />Also, they're going to have to be banking on making Supernova and playing higher, because it's easy to see that they're losing money.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-49060762741524918492010-11-10T14:11:00.000+10:002010-11-10T14:11:19.492+10:00You suckLivestrong44 [observer]: you suck<br />
FR Vessant: yes<br />
FR Vessant: I'm just a fish<br />
Dealer: FR Vessant, it's your turn. You have 14 seconds to act<br />
Livestrong44 [observer]: obviously<br />
Dealer: Game #52457667285: FR Vessant wins pot (500)<br />
FR Vessant: just mashing buttons more or less at random<br />
<br />
http://www.holdemmanager.net<br />
NL Holdem $200(BB) Poker Stars Game#52457647051<br />
<br />
w00d45 ($3,850)<br />
elvis41863 ($2,005)<br />
el_anuncio ($1,681)<br />
Il_Nistra ($2,624)<br />
FR Vessant ($2,385)<br />
Livestrong44 ($955)<br />
<br />
w00d45 posts (SB) $100<br />
elvis41863 posts (BB) $200<br />
<br />
Dealt to FR Vessant 7d Qh <br />
fold, fold,<br />
FR Vessant raises to $450<br />
Livestrong44 raises to $955 (AI)<br />
fold, fold,<br />
FR Vessant calls $505<br />
FLOP ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h <br />
TURN ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h Qd <br />
RIVER ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h Qd Kh <br />
FR Vessant shows 7d Qh <br />
(Pre 31%, Flop 75.8%, Turn 90.9%)<br />
<br />
Livestrong44 shows Ah Kd <br />
(Pre 69%, Flop 24.2%, Turn 9.1%)<br />
<br />
FR Vessant wins $2,210Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-64795114665174821082010-11-03T16:14:00.000+10:002010-11-03T16:14:01.749+10:00Can't win them allHere's my day in a nutshell. Fish is raising pretty much everything.<br />
<br />
PokerStars Game #52092913379: Tournament #327617603, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2010/11/03 15:02:14 AEST [2010/11/03 0:02:14 ET]<br />
Table '327617603 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button<br />
Seat 2: PokeHer2308 (2204 in chips) <br />
Seat 3: ligertrainer (5135 in chips) <br />
Seat 6: TigerInn89 (3360 in chips) <br />
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1983 in chips) <br />
Seat 9: Handler666 (818 in chips) <br />
FR Vessant: posts small blind 75<br />
Handler666: posts big blind 150<br />
*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ks Qd]<br />
PokeHer2308: raises 150 to 300<br />
ligertrainer: folds <br />
TigerInn89: folds <br />
FR Vessant: raises 1683 to 1983 and is all-in<br />
Handler666: folds <br />
PokeHer2308: calls 1683<br />
*** FLOP *** [Qs Kc 9s]<br />
*** TURN *** [Qs Kc 9s] [9h]<br />
*** RIVER *** [Qs Kc 9s 9h] [Th]<br />
*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />
FR Vessant: shows [Ks Qd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)<br />
PokeHer2308: shows [Qc 9c] (a full house, Nines full of Queens)<br />
PokeHer2308 collected 4116 from pot<br />
FR Vessant finished the tournament in 5th place<br />
*** SUMMARY ***<br />
Total pot 4116 | Rake 0 <br />
Board [Qs Kc 9s 9h Th]<br />
Seat 2: PokeHer2308 showed [Qc 9c] and won (4116) with a full house, Nines full of Queens<br />
Seat 3: ligertrainer folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />
Seat 6: TigerInn89 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />
Seat 7: FR Vessant (small blind) showed [Ks Qd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens<br />
Seat 9: Handler666 (big blind) folded before FlopDr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-12759425886928549792010-11-02T08:37:00.001+10:002010-11-02T09:07:47.318+10:00Calling a threebetSo yesterday, I raise A7s from the button and the big blind shoves a decent stack. I snapcalled and beat his QJ. He berated me for some time afterwards, to my great amusement. Surely he was right though? Raisecalling A7s must be bad, right?<br />
<br />
The thing is, a lot of regs think that they can get a wide raiser to fold most of their range by shoving over and they do it extremely wide themselves. I've seen all sorts: some do it with any two. So I had noted that this guy was a nit, and he had done the same move twice before. After the first time, I'm already thinking about calling the next.<br />
<br />
These guys play fairly predictably. If they had a big hand, they'd threebet to something at least callable, so you shouldn't be crushed. They may have something like AT/A9s and that's bad for my hand, but very often I'm going to be facing something I'm ahead of. The added benefit is that I will play this guy a lot and stealing his blinds will be a lot easier. Disciplining regs into playing straightforwardly is particularly important in regular speeds, where there is a lot of blindstealing at middle blinds.<br />
<br />
It's a different matter if he's in the small blind. That tends to make restealers more honest.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-6669479942397325222010-10-13T22:50:00.000+10:002010-10-13T22:50:05.810+10:00BvB spotSo in STTF, someone asks about a spot at t100. We are in the SB with 98s and stacks are quite deep. I think it's five- or sixhanded. Should we raise or limp and then stab? Villain is playing 29/20 and has folded his BB 80%.<br />
<br />
In my view, this is a snapraise. Although fold to BB is an unreliable stat (players fold their BB to raises from earlier positions much more willingly than to SB raises -- you could use fold to SB steal but it takes a long time to converge and we play nitty enough not to have given him many opportunities), if it's high, or the player seems tight or skilled enough, we can make a judgement about a player's willingness to fold.<br />
<br />
If we raise to 250, we are risking 200 to win 350. If villain folds 57% of the time, we make an instant profit, and can simply checkfold the flop and make chips. You'd want some overlay for ICM tax and some allowance for simply being wrong, so I tend to think if villain calls or raises tighter than 30%, I'll raise ATC in this spot. 30% is 55+,A2s+,K5s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,98s,A7o+,A5o,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o, and this guy is not going to call that. You'd need to put in more pairs and aces, and lose a lot of the other shit. I think 22+,A2s+,K9s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,98s,A2o+,K9o+,QTo+,JTo is as wide as he will go (that's exactly 30% as it happens). So yeah, there's not too much margin for error. Make him as nitty as I am, say, and you have an easy raise with ATC. I certainly don't call many raises at t100 with JTo or K9o even if I think villain is wide. And he has no reason to think we're wide. We won't have played many hands at all by this stage.<br />
<br />
One guy wanted to fold in this spot. That's horribly nitty and I certainly wouldn't. Okay, you might have your doubts about 93s, but 98s is a decent semibluffing hand.<br />
<br />
If you limp and then stab for another 100 chips, you are putting in 150 to win 350, so you're laying a slightly more favourable bet. But you do have to let him have a shot at the flop first and he may well raise you off your limp with hands he would not have reraised a raise or even called one with. A 29/20 guy is likely to read a limp from a nit as a weak hand and pop you up with his KT/Q9s type hands.<br />
<br />
Should you cbet when you miss? Say the flop is K73r. Well, I certainly bet that but you can check and fold and no real harm is done. If villain has called with 30% though, he doesn't have a great deal he can continue with. He is reraising a lot of the hands that have a piece preflop, and most of his range has missed that flop.<br />
<br />
In this hand, we were considering what to do against a guy playing 29/20, where we might feel raising is risky. So yeah, maybe you want to make sure your hand has something so that you can make value on some flops when you are called. Against a looser guy, limpstabbing might be better. Against a tighter one, your cards don't matter so much and 98s even has the advantage over stronger hands that it is not dominated by much of his calling range, where, for example, QT can be. <br />
<br />
Games are tighter now and players don't obligingly fold everything short of AA when we get to push/fold, particularly regs, who overgeneralise the need to call looser BvB and now will call much too wide when you're less than 10BB (not that those same regs have realised they also have to push a bit tighter). So we need to find good spots to pick up chips before push/fold and not to waste opportunities because we want to "preserve chips". You have to <i>at least </i>limp/stab in this spot.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-70343850010619017332010-10-06T11:40:00.001+10:002010-10-06T11:41:49.361+10:00On the redlineMost serious STT players obsess over their redline. This is a measure of how "lucky" they've been with allins. If you win an allin, you gain over your expectation; if you lose it, you lose what you expected. In case that's not clear, imagine you shove 63, and are called by KT. You now expect to win 33% of the time. If you do win, you won 66% more of the pot than you expected, and when you lose, you lose 33% more than you expected. The gap between what you expected and what you got is important to STT players, because they can tell themselves they were unlucky if expectation is a lot higher than results.<br />
<br />
I will note straight away that for most typical nitty 2p2 types, particularly those who do not shove enough, expectation will very much be higher than results. That's partly because you so often get it in with the best hand, and obviously, when you lose in that case, what you lose is further below expectation than winning would be above. It's also, as I discuss below, perversely because you tend to do the opposite later in the game and get it in worse when the equity involved is higher.<br />
<br />
But there are other components to luck. I was thinking about this the other day. I lost 9ish buyins and I had about the unluckiest day I could remember. But when I checked my expected results, I should have lost even more! I had actually run good in allin EV. How was that even possible?<br />
<br />
Well, here are a few things that most players don't even think about.<br />
<br />
Take that 63 hand. If you make KT fold, and you often do, you gain his equity in the hand for free. You don't consider yourself lucky, but think. If I had KK, shoved and he showed AA, I'm not going to be unlucky when he wins (he's a 4/1 favourite), but I sure am unlucky that he had the only hand ahead of me preflop! I don't have the maths to hand how often I can expect that, but it's not often. If it happens to more than a time or two in a set, you are running bad. But your allin EV doesn't consider that. The same goes for the times you threebet the LAGtard who is raising half his hands and this time he has a monster. He may have raised 20 times in a tournament, and the one time you went for it, he had you beat. He may well have not had a better hand every other time.<br />
<br />
But I am focusing on how lucky you are to get away with shoves. HEM will credit you with a gain because you took the blinds and your equity increased, but it doesn't credit you for folding out better. But villain will often make a Sklansky mistake (should have called if he could see what you had). <br />
<br />
We all know it's unlucky to shove AA, get called by JJ and then watch in horror when a J flops, or to get it in on the flop and watch JJ turn his miracle card. But when you raise AA, flop rags, get it in and are shown a set, you are not considered unlucky by HEM. Your expectation then is very low and you usually get nothing. But he flopped a set! 7/8 times that won't happen but this time it did. Effectively you were as unlucky as with the JJ hand where you got it in pre. But if he flops it for a raise, you weren't very unlucky at all according to your redline.<br />
<br />
The same obviously goes for the times you raise AK, get called by A8, flop comes A83r and you get stacked. Again, you are not accounted unlucky preflop where you would be if you shoved.<br />
<br />
Nor does it account for longer-term patterns that we would also consider "lucky". You're supposed to flop a set one in eight times, roughly. But you can call 20 raises with small pairs and hit nothing. Or you can hit your set and no one else has a piece, so you have had your "luck" in hitting, but you gain nothing from it. Of course, you can also hit and then get sucked out on. This should all even out in the long run, but the long run is not a day, a week or even a month. If I have a day where I play a hundred games and hit 30 sets in the early levels, getting paid off with every one, do I think I'm lucky? Well, it doesn't show in my redline, does it? (I don't know how often I get dealt pairs or hit flops, but that strikes me as hella lucky!)<br />
<br />
Also, your redline is skewed by high-equity spots. If I shove the first hand of an 11 with JJ, and get called by AK and lose, I lose 5ish bucks; but if I shove that 63 on the bubble with 4K chips and get called by KT and lose, I lose more dollars (I'm not sure how many, but say I have $23 equity, I would lose 33% of that, which is about 7.50 or so). I am "unluckier" to get caught when shoving with a worse hand than I was to get caught with the better hand. Sure, I gain a ton when I win, but losing is worse than winning (you lose more equity when you lose than you win when you win because of the structure of STTs: note that I'm not saying that you lose more when you lose with 63 than you win! I am saying that the downside when you shove is always bigger than the upside unless you're heads up, so that proportionately winning twice when a 66% favourite does not make up for losing once). So we tend to lose out both ways! We get it in better when equity is low, and if we run bad, our losses take many similar spots to recoup; and we tend to have the worst hand at high equity, so we lose more in dollars even if we run as expected.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-37434785894487046322010-07-13T19:19:00.000+10:002010-07-13T19:19:06.025+10:00A concept in two partsHere's a fairly typical hand in an 11/27 that illustrates a couple of concepts that you grasp with experience (or one concept with two parts, I guess).<br />
<br />
http://www.holdemmanager.net<br />
NL Holdem $30(BB) Poker Stars Game#46704987178<br />
<br />
nETP_XPYMOB ($1,420)<br />
Shpuon ($1,460)<br />
glavgrin ($1,460)<br />
wheel_me62 ($2,440)<br />
ae0066 ($1,200)<br />
FR Vessant ($1,610)<br />
ZJ=myhomeboy ($1,460)<br />
JKoenig99 ($1,025)<br />
rickdahick ($1,425)<br />
<br />
nETP_XPYMOB posts (SB) $15<br />
Shpuon posts (BB) $30<br />
<br />
Dealt to FR Vessant As Ks <br />
<br />
I have AKs. A strong but not made hand.<br />
<br />
fold, <br />
wheel_me62 calls $30<br />
ae0066 calls $30<br />
<br />
Two fishes have limped and many players are tempted just to limp behind. The fish don't fold they say. Then you miss the flop and you've wasted your raise.<br />
<br />
FR Vessant raises to $150<br />
fold, <br />
JKoenig99 calls $150<br />
fold, fold, fold, <br />
wheel_me62 calls $120<br />
ae0066 calls $120<br />
<br />
And yes, not only do the limpers call, but another fish does too.<br />
<br />
<br />
FLOP ($645) 5d 7c 3c <br />
<br />
And I whiff the flop and will check/fold.<br />
<br />
wheel_me62 checks<br />
ae0066 checks<br />
FR Vessant checks<br />
JKoenig99 bets $330<br />
<br />
This bet will very likely take it down. It doesn't really matter what bettor has although he can actually have a pretty wide range.<br />
<br />
wheel_me62 folds<br />
ae0066 folds<br />
FR Vessant folds<br />
JKoenig99 wins $645<br />
<br />
So that sucked, right?<br />
<br />
Well, here's the thing. Look at the pot size on the flop. It's pretty decent and that means that the times I hit, I'm going to find it very easy to get it in. Had I limped, the pot would have been much smaller and I'd possibly need all three streets, giving villain three opportunities to decide his shitty hand was not worth pursuing. Now I can commit villains on the flop and get them in on the turn, and often all the money will just go in on the flop.<br />
<br />
And here's the second concept. Often the money will go in whether I hit or not. The other guys will now often be inclined to stack off, where if it had been a limped pot, they could keep it smaller. This is probably more of a benefit in 9mans but it's still useful.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-27125420723152026352010-03-03T14:06:00.003+10:002010-03-03T14:15:31.304+10:00Tilting againLuck takes many forms in poker. A lot of people focus on allin EV and think they are unlucky if they run behind par in that, and they are somewhat, but you can be unlucky in lots of other ways. Here's a hand where I got my money in really bad, but I can count myself very very unlucky imo.<br /><br />I hadn't been at this particular table long, maybe 20 hands.<br /><br />http://www.holdemmanager.net<br />NL Holdem $1,000(BB) Full Tilt Game#18921016590<br /><br />Tally Hooo ($55,426)<br />Albert Chuns ($63,214)<br />Dingle Tard ($43,760)<br />JMAVIS25 ($28,606)<br />mdfgreat1 ($10,027)<br />capro22 ($48,277)<br />basatagirl ($46,448)<br />pouppyshark ($36,077)<br /><br />Tally Hooo posts (SB) $500<br />Albert Chuns posts (BB) $1,000<br />basatagirl antes $125<br />pouppyshark antes $125<br />Tally Hooo antes $125<br />Albert Chuns antes $125<br />Dingle Tard antes $125<br />JMAVIS25 antes $125<br />mdfgreat1 antes $125<br />capro22 antes $125<br /><br />Dealt to basatagirl Qc Qs <br />fold, <br />JMAVIS25 calls $1,000<br />fold, <br />capro22 calls $1,000<br />basatagirl raises to $6,500<br /><br />So I raise two limpers pot. I'm happy to play a big pot with this hand, obv.<br /><br />pouppyshark calls $6,500<br /><br />He's newly come to the table, so I haven't seen a single hand from him, but obv. I'm not happy to be called by a player with position.<br /><br />Tally Hooo raises to $55,301 (AI)<br /><br />This guy has 3bet on two of the four opportunities he has had, has raised several times and in chat, half the table is calling him a donkey. So I figure he is very often going for the squeeze here and it's impossible for me to lay down queens.<br /><br />Except that they are queens, so obviously I am not going to win the hand. I don't know why I don't just fold them preflop. I've lost seven of the past 10 times when I've got them all in preflop, 13 of the past 20.<br /><br />Still, this guy is a LAG, so he'll have all sorts in his range. This time, surely, we've run into JJ and we make it huge, right?<br /><br />fold, fold, fold, <br />basatagirl calls $39,823 (AI)<br /><br />Tally Hooo shows Ac As <br /><br />Wrong.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-25868242639988593082010-03-02T11:25:00.003+10:002010-03-02T11:30:51.344+10:00Sighing all the way to the riverThis is why I gave up playing on Tilt. I mean, wtf. The hand before, I raised QQ pot and flopped an A. Obviously villain's play is awful but as usual, he hits his hand. This happens to me routinely on Tilt. It really doesn't matter what cards I have or what cards they have. When the money goes in, I lose, simple as that.<br /><br />I don't believe in doomswitches, and when you play low volume, losses feel a lot worse than if you play a lot, but I run so much worse on Tilt than I ever have on Stars. I'm at least 30BI below EV. And yes, I know I wasn't miles ahead on the flop. It's just the overall sickness. This is a deep tourney, 5K stacks, 12-minute blinds. You should play it fairly conservatively because you get plenty of spots to win chips. I have only 4K, so the implied odds aren't there for A9s -- if they ever are! I clearly have a very strong hand, so he has to get lucky. I know, you want the fish to call your raises when you're strong. I do. But I don't want the cunts to beat me every fucking time.<br /><br />http://www.holdemmanager.net<br />NL Holdem $100(BB) Full Tilt Game#18888465027<br /><br />LON64 ($8,861)<br />lurker31 ($6,110)<br />grumbles323 ($3,657)<br />1980pablo ($10,335)<br />alex0985 ($11,192)<br />Thunderstruck_5 ($19,490)<br />marrora ($13,195)<br />xander77 ($8,125)<br />basatagirl ($3,915)<br /><br />LON64 posts (SB) $50<br />lurker31 posts (BB) $100<br /><br />Dealt to basatagirl Kd Kh <br />grumbles323 calls $100<br />1980pablo calls $100<br />fold, <br />Thunderstruck_5 calls $100<br />fold, fold, <br />basatagirl raises to $650<br />fold, fold, fold, fold, <br />Thunderstruck_5 calls $550<br />FLOP ($1,650) Ts Tc 7s <br />Thunderstruck_5 checks<br />basatagirl bets $1,000<br />Thunderstruck_5 raises to $4,650<br />basatagirl calls $2,265 (AI)<br />TURN ($8,180) Ts Tc 7s Js <br />RIVER ($8,180) Ts Tc 7s Js Ad <br />Thunderstruck_5 shows As 9s <br />(Pre 33%, Flop 41.7%, Turn 90.9%)<br /><br />basatagirl shows Kd Kh <br />(Pre 67%, Flop 58.3%, Turn 9.1%)<br /><br />Thunderstruck_5 wins $8,180Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-57292892348291976382010-02-28T21:56:00.002+10:002010-02-28T22:06:11.190+10:00Fuck TiltNo really. Fuck Full Tilt. I quit playing there because I ran 40BI below EV in about 200 tourneys and it was getting ridiculous. I'd shove AA, get called by 54s and routinely they'd flop the straight. <br /><br />So tonight I put some money on Tilt and nine times got 10BB+ in. Six times I was ahead, three behind. Of the six, three 70/30s and three 60/40s, of the three behind, two 60/40s and a coinflip I had the worst of. I didn't win a single one.<br /><br />Now I know you can lose nine allins straight. And I'm not at all superstitious. But wtf. It's 3/10,000 that I should have that run. I doubled twice in ordinary play, so I did get in more than 10BB and win, but we're talking just preflop shoves.<br /><br />I don't play high stakes, so this is only like 130 bucks or whatever. But it does feel like I just can't win on Tilt. The play is lol bad, so it's not that I'm not good enough. I mean, if people limpcall with QJ for their 10BB stack, you're not out of your depth. But if they hit the J vs your AQ every time, it doesn't really matter how good you are. SNGs are all about push/fold, and so ultimately are MTTs. You run super card dead for 30-40 hands, then shove when you get something decent, and if you never win one, you go busto.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-26221892332938292262010-02-15T11:35:00.002+10:002010-02-15T11:38:56.053+10:00You called with what?This pretty much says it all. This is a 40-man $11 game.<br /><br />http://www.holdemmanager.net<br />NL Holdem $300(BB) Poker Stars Game#39767157607<br /><br />Funkytus ($6,178)<br />FR Vessant ($2,555)<br />RoLLeR7788 ($3,287)<br />dhdn1980 ($5,665)<br />neil_rick ($8,525)<br />llenti13 ($10,270)<br />WM80 ($9,043)<br />canaans ($4,040)<br />Anarchy-X ($10,437)<br /><br />neil_rick antes $25<br />llenti13 antes $25<br />WM80 antes $25<br />canaans antes $25<br />Anarchy-X antes $25<br />Funkytus antes $25<br />FR Vessant antes $25<br />RoLLeR7788 antes $25<br />dhdn1980 antes $25<br />Funkytus posts (SB) $150<br />FR Vessant posts (BB) $300<br /><br />Dealt to FR Vessant 5s 6h <br />fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, <br />fold, fold, <br />Funkytus raises to $600<br /><br />Has openraised every time the opportunity has presented. He clearly doesn't have a good hand because his raise sizes have mostly matched his hand strength. I can't shove though because I saw him call off 5K of a 7K stack with J9o when someone openshoved at t200.<br /><br />FR Vessant calls $300<br />FLOP ($1,425) 3c Td Tc <br />Funkytus bets $300<br /><br />Has nothing, obv.<br /><br />FR Vessant raises to $1,930 (AI)<br /><br />Good spot for it.<br /><br />Funkytus calls $1,630<br /><br />Check his hand.<br /><br />TURN ($5,285) 3c Td Tc 5c <br />RIVER ($5,285) 3c Td Tc 5c 9d <br />Funkytus shows Qh 5h <br /><br />What. The. Fuck. Not only does this complete fucking clown call off the rest of my stack with Q5s, no pair, no draw, he has me fucking dominated. I was running well earlier this month, but the last week has been a bloodbath for my bankroll. Sigh.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-35746655325836091352010-01-13T18:55:00.003+10:002010-01-13T19:03:56.276+10:00FishfoodThis was a bit frustrating. <br /><br /><br />PokerStars Game #38087149596: Tournament #262010133, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2010/01/13 3:51:26 ET<br />Table '262010133 10' 9-max Seat #6 is the button<br />Seat 1: 555DAN (6135 in chips) <br />Seat 2: FR Vessant (3485 in chips) <br />Seat 3: unclepaullly (4922 in chips) <br />Seat 4: cobratatus4 (4195 in chips) <br />Seat 5: NjLiOnS (17988 in chips) <br />Seat 6: pAtcAsh83 (2890 in chips) <br />Seat 7: rsend73 (6475 in chips) <br />Seat 8: 23121969 (9005 in chips) <br />Seat 9: kouvidg (7302 in chips) <br />rsend73: posts small blind 50<br />23121969: posts big blind 100<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [8d 8c]<br />kouvidg: calls 100<br />555DAN: folds <br />FR Vessant: calls 100<br /><br />This is a loose limp, but the table has been very passive and I figure often to see a flop for free. I consider raising the limper to try to get heads up, but I'm liable to get called in more than one spot.<br /><br />unclepaullly: folds <br />cobratatus4: raises 350 to 450<br /><br />That's annoying.<br /><br />NjLiOnS: folds <br />pAtcAsh83: folds <br />rsend73: folds <br />23121969: calls 350<br /><br />This guy's a terrible fish. He is playing 69/8 and I've seen him call a raise with K5s. I played one hand against him. I had AK and raised his limp. He called. The flop was 987r, he checked, i checked behind. Turn was a K, I bet and he called. River a T, he bet and I paid off the gutshot that he had hit. My call is a bit marginal because he probably does have at least two pair too often, but whatever.<br /><br />kouvidg: calls 350<br />FR Vessant: calls 350<br /><br />I call with the two fish in because if I flop the set I should have a decent chance to make some chips.<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [4h Ts Ks]<br /><br />That's a terrible flop obviously.<br /><br />23121969: checks <br />kouvidg: checks <br />FR Vessant: checks <br />cobratatus4: checks <br /><br />So raiser most likely has AQ, possibly a middle pair. The other two can have wide ranges, but you'd expect them to donk Kx.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [4h Ts Ks] [Kd]<br />23121969: checks <br />kouvidg: bets 300<br /><br />This is a very weak bet for a king and the board has enough draws that he is probably just taking a cheap shot.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 2735 to 3035 and is all-in<br /><br />So I shove what I expect to be best hand often, with plenty of fold equity if villain happens to have Tx.<br /><br />cobratatus4: folds <br />23121969: calls 3035<br /><br />Unfuckingbelievably, this guy actually had a K. You wouldn't credit it. This is a guy who has bet everything he's hit hard and got paid. This one time he decides to slowplay. Of course it's contrary. This is an awful board to slowplay on, so ofc the fish chooses to do it.<br /><br />kouvidg: folds <br />*** RIVER *** [4h Ts Ks Kd] [Td]<br />FR Vessant said, "ugh"<br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />23121969: shows [Kh Qs] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)<br />FR Vessant: shows [8d 8c] (two pair, Kings and Tens)<br /><br />Oh well. No regrets. My MTT record is very poor, but I do think I play okay. Usually, the fish has 77 in this spot and rivers another 7. It makes a pleasant change actually to be behind! Pity I didn't bink the 8 to punish him.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-72812930262638567672010-01-10T19:51:00.002+10:002010-01-10T19:52:34.214+10:00LOL donkaments<div style="height:180px;width:100%;"><a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/"><img src="http://www.pokerstars.com/images/wbcoop/180x150.gif" alt="Online Poker" align="left" style="margin-right:10px;" border="0"></a><p>I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/">Play Poker Online</a> at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/">WBCOOP</a> to play.</p><p>Registration code: 673766 </p></div>Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-40379063536735052382010-01-09T11:36:00.003+10:002010-01-09T12:26:14.586+10:00AKs on a wettish boardHere's my bustout hand from the 33 deepstack I played the other night. I played pretty well in this tourney, and notably only had one bit of luck (got it in with AA vs a set of jacks and rivered another ace!).<br /><br />Villain in this hand had been at my table earlier, and was playing a sort of semitag game. He seemed to have a clue.<br /><br />So that I can discuss his play as well as mine, I'll tell you straight up that he has 65s.<br /><br />Poker Stars $30+$3 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t500/t1000 Blinds + t100 - 7 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/464293<br />The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter<br /><br />Hero (UTG+1): t30171 M = 13.71<br />MP: t8713 M = 3.96<br />CO: t108150 M = 49.16<br />BTN: t105323 M = 47.87<br />SB: t159768 M = 72.62<br />BB: t115550 M = 52.52<br />UTG: t127325 M = 57.88<br /><br />Pre Flop: (t2200) Hero is UTG+1 with As Ks<br />1 fold, Hero raises to t3000, 3 folds, SB calls t2500, 1 fold<br /><br /><br />Not sure why I raised 3x because 2.5x is standard, but it could just have been laziness/tiredness.<br /><br />When he calls, what do I think he has? I guess I'm putting him on broadways and pairs. I didn't know he was bad enough to call with SCs.<br /><br />Why is that bad imo? I only have 27BB behind, so the implied odds aren't there. If you do flop a huge hand and stack me, you are only getting 12/1, and you won't do that very often. Playing draws OOP is difficult. We're a bit deep to CR allin, so if he hits a decent draw, he's going to often be flatting the flop and then hoping I have missed so he gets odds to draw. When I haven't missed or I barrel, he's usually taking two bad bets to try to hit it.<br /><br />I suppose that if he hits a pair he can checkcall and then if I check my whiffed hands behind on the turn, he can hope for a cheap showdown. But if a high card comes on the river, at least on dry boards he's going to be unsure if I bet whether he is just valuetowning himself if he calls. <br /><br />Say you have an 863r flop, he checks, you bet, he calls. His hand is pretty face up. He has to have a pair, probably lower than 88. The turn is, say, a J or a 2, he checks I check behind. Now the river is a Q. He checks again. If I bet here, can he call with his pair of 6s? I mean, people do, but you have to put your opponent on AK/AT/A9/KT if you do. Do I bluff with them more often than I actually have AQ/KQ, a cute QJ/JT/Q9s? Most people do not, in my experience, bluff here, so no, I think you have to fold your 65s.<br /><br />Also, on flops that really aren't good for me, I can check behind and see a free turn. So he also doesn't necessarily get value for his pair on a lot of flops.<br /><br />Flop: (t7700) Kd Tc 6d (2 players)<br /><br />So I hit the flop. This is a terrible flop for handreading, but obv. a good one for a shorty who wants to make value from his AKs.<br /><br />SB checks, Hero bets t4000, SB calls t4000<br /><br />I bet fairly small in the hope of inducing action from Kx and to keep the draws in so I can bet again on the turn. I actually bet far too small and should have made it more like 6000 so that I'm not overbetting the turn so much.<br /><br />On safe turns, I am always going to be shoving. His range for calling the flop is imo weak Kx/Tx/maybe 6x/flush draws/any broadways. He's not going to fold AQ/AJ/QJ for instance. Probably won't fold Q9/J9 even. And he may well call with any pairs that he had preflop.<br /><br />So basically he is going to be calling with pretty much his entire preflop range. I didn't expect hands as weak as 65s to be in there, so I wouldn't expect to see 87s either. 98s is barely possible, T9s obviously is Tx and will mostly call.<br /><br />So my bet is a mistake. Given that he's not folding anything, I should bet more! I want to get value from my hand. Yes, I can already be beat some of the time. If he has 66/TT/KT or the unlikely KK, I'm fucked. But he has a vast range of hands I crush. This guy was fairly aggro so I was sort of hoping that he might give more action with KQ/KJ and even other broadway draws. QJ has 14 outs against AT/99 for instance, and he can have combo draws that I'm ahead of but not a ton, so he might raise that and only really be badly behind the top of my range. Still, betting so small was a mistake.<br /><br />Not because I would have folded out 6x. If he's calling 4K with it, he'll call 6K with it. He has to think I whiffed the flop or not be thinking at all. I think his call is bad because this is as bad a flop to hit a pair on as you could wish for. On many turns, I am likely to shove AQ/AJ/QJs when checked to. I have a lot of outs against Tx and worse and can hope to fold out a lot of hands that beat me, including 65s! If I check behind on the turn, you still face a lot of bad cards on the river and cannot really call another bet.<br /><br />Turn: (t15700) 6h (2 players)<br />SB checks, Hero bets t23071 all in, SB calls t23071<br /><br />Why shove the turn? Didn't I just say that I would shove AQ? Well, on many turns I probably would, but not so much on this one. The paired board just makes it more likely for Tx/99-88 to call. <br /><br />The reason I shove is pretty simple. Say he has QJo. If I bet 9K here and he calls, the pot is 33K and I have 14K behind. The river comes Ac. He puts me in. Can I fold? Getting better than 3/1 with 14BB I don't think so. Make it a 9 and it's even harder. Can I fold when a diamond comes? Very tough because it's such an obvious card to bluff on. I'm not likely to have a diamond draw after all. So I think I get stacked when his draws come in. <br /><br />Whenever you are guaranteed to get stacked on the downside, you might as well ensure you get doubled on the upside. So I shove to force draws to double me when they miss. If they fold, I'm cool with that. I take down a nice pot and on that board, tbh, there aren't a ton of hands you're getting three streets with with TPTK.<br /><br />The thing is, he had a superwide range on the flop and the 6 doesn't change much for most of it. He has a big stack and here I'm overbetting the pot, which doesn't look like it wants a call. He's not ever folding a K. Now, he probably doesn't have KQ/KJ but he can have K9, maybe a suited K8. He may call with some Tx. If they're not calling here, it's hard to imagine they will give me value on most rivers. But the key for me is to make draws pay me when they miss. I surrender the value from hands that might call a bet here but won't call a shove, but in this spot, I am more concerned about getting fully compensated for the times I'm stacked than I am about making a bit of value. I'm short and I won't be any closer to winning for being 9K better off the times he misses.<br /><br />I don't know that I'm necessarily right but that's how I felt about it. If I was a little bit deeper, I think I would have simply checked the turn behind and called bets in a smaller pot on most rivers. I don't like doing that because this is a super bad board to give a free card on but it does prevent me getting stacked against 6x, which would be more of a concern if I was deeper. If I was deeper still, I'd be making a bet to give draws bad odds because I can then get away from checkshoves. When shorter, I can't, because most $33 villains with KQ/KJ and even JJ are dumb enough to think oooh, I has two pair, shove it over, not realising that I am just never calling with anything they actually beat, and I will have to call off my stack to punish them.<br /><br />I'm not sure my analysis was all that good, but that's how I'm thinking about it. I was tired and stoned when I played the hand, but I felt like I was playing well. The flop bet is definitely too small, and my thinking was the wrong way round there, but I like the turn shove. I'd have liked it a lot more if he'd had K9!Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-64327924728311283662009-09-25T12:38:00.001+10:002009-09-25T12:38:25.126+10:00How is poker going?<br /><br />About like this:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #33250242541: Tournament #198265724, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/09/24 22:34:48 ET<br />Table '198265724 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button<br />Seat 1: arstug (1480 in chips) <br />Seat 2: VoxTurtle (1510 in chips) <br />Seat 3: FR Vessant (1410 in chips) <br />Seat 4: bouchaco (1670 in chips) <br />Seat 5: badboyjayuk (1580 in chips) <br />Seat 6: rawdog7575 (1410 in chips) <br />Seat 7: WiredSet (1520 in chips) <br />Seat 8: KrazyCraig84 (1480 in chips) <br />Seat 9: MAGNUM8454 (1440 in chips) <br />KrazyCraig84: posts small blind 10<br />MAGNUM8454: posts big blind 20<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Kc Kd]<br />arstug: folds <br />VoxTurtle: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 60 to 80<br />bouchaco: folds <br />badboyjayuk: calls 80<br />rawdog7575: folds <br />WiredSet: calls 80<br />KrazyCraig84: folds <br />MAGNUM8454: folds <br />*** FLOP *** [8c 7c 6d]<br />FR Vessant: bets 200<br />badboyjayuk: calls 200<br />WiredSet: calls 200<br />*** TURN *** [8c 7c 6d] [7s]<br />FR Vessant: bets 1130 and is all-in<br />badboyjayuk: folds <br />WiredSet: calls 1130<br />*** RIVER *** [8c 7c 6d 7s] [9c]<br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />FR Vessant: shows [Kc Kd] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)<br />WiredSet: shows [7h 2h] (three of a kind, Sevens)<br />WiredSet collected 3130 from pot<br />*** SUMMARY ***<br />Total pot 3130 | Rake 0 <br />Board [8c 7c 6d 7s 9c]<br />Seat 1: arstug folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 2: VoxTurtle folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 3: FR Vessant showed [Kc Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Sevens<br />Seat 4: bouchaco folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 5: badboyjayuk folded on the Turn<br />Seat 6: rawdog7575 folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 7: WiredSet (button) showed [7h 2h] and won (3130) with three of a kind, Sevens<br />Seat 8: KrazyCraig84 (small blind) folded before Flop<br />Seat 9: MAGNUM8454 (big blind) folded before FlopDr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-27161976583436581562009-08-04T13:03:00.000+10:002009-08-04T13:04:10.136+10:00My email to Pokerstars support, subject "Doomswitch"Hi<br /><br />Could you turn it off now? I appreciate your sense of humour but this is just sick:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #31222081385: Tournament #183600842, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2009/08/03 23:00:31 ET<br />Table '183600842 34' 9-max Seat #8 is the button<br />Seat 2: FR Vessant (6290 in chips)<br />Seat 3: RVRchsngDONK (21317 in chips)<br />Seat 4: gallory8 (7260 in chips)<br />Seat 5: Perrin57 (16222 in chips)<br />Seat 6: Chuckzeduck (9645 in chips)<br />Seat 7: Rick007 (6825 in chips)<br />Seat 8: stormswa (8665 in chips)<br />Seat 9: yurntrbl (1950 in chips)<br />FR Vessant: posts the ante 25<br />RVRchsngDONK: posts the ante 25<br />gallory8: posts the ante 25<br />Perrin57: posts the ante 25<br />Chuckzeduck: posts the ante 25<br />Rick007: posts the ante 25<br />stormswa: posts the ante 25<br />yurntrbl: posts the ante 25<br />yurntrbl: posts small blind 150<br />FR Vessant: posts big blind 300<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [4h 4c]<br />RVRchsngDONK: folds<br />gallory8: folds<br />Perrin57: folds<br />Chuckzeduck: folds<br />Rick007: folds<br />stormswa: folds<br />yurntrbl: raises 1625 to 1925 and is all-in<br />FR Vessant: calls 1625<br />*** FLOP *** [Tc Td Ts]<br />*** TURN *** [Tc Td Ts] [Th]<br />*** RIVER *** [Tc Td Ts Th] [2h]<br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />yurntrbl: shows [3s As] (four of a kind, Tens)<br />FR Vessant: shows [4h 4c] (four of a kind, Tens - lower kicker)<br />yurntrbl collected 4050 from pot<br />*** SUMMARY ***<br />Total pot 4050 | Rake 0<br />Board [Tc Td Ts Th 2h]<br />Seat 2: FR Vessant (big blind) showed [4h 4c] and lost with four of a kind, Tens<br />Seat 3: RVRchsngDONK folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 4: gallory8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 5: Perrin57 folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 6: Chuckzeduck folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 7: Rick007 folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 8: stormswa (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)<br />Seat 9: yurntrbl (small blind) showed [3s As] and won (4050) with four of a kind, Tens<br /><br /><br />ThanksDr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-7827207514359823432009-08-03T10:44:00.003+10:002009-08-03T10:54:43.788+10:00Doomed to stay at the 11sWhy do I always run so badly when I move up? I just don't understand it. I fired up a 22 this morning. Just one, because I'm working. Mostly I folded, then I picked up TT at t50, raised to 3x and got two callers. The flop was 442, so I led out. One of the fishes raised and because I was committed, I got it in. He has JJ. Next up, I have 88. There's a limper, a shortstacked fish raises and I call. I didn't notice the fish was short, or I would have likely shoved over. The flop comes 9xx, the limper checks, and the fish bets out small. I know he has nothing and shove over. The other fish snapcalls with A9. How come they always have it? Every fucking time! The guy limps A9 from early position, calls a raise and flops top fucking pair. So I have a few chips left and get up to 400. I pick up KK in the small blind. Sadly they all fold to me, and I raise but the fishy big blind decides this is the one time he will not defend his blind. FML.<br /><br />This pretty much sums it up though. Here's my bustout hand:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #31179674313: Tournament #184216436, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2009/08/02 20:50:43 ET<br />Table '184216436 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button<br />Seat 1: FR Vessant (415 in chips) <br />Seat 2: decorounder (2210 in chips) <br />Seat 3: meeks16 (3415 in chips) <br />Seat 4: geomed (2060 in chips) <br />Seat 5: O'Brien_6 (3380 in chips) <br />Seat 6: zapedy (1340 in chips) <br />Seat 9: jeffery b3 (680 in chips) <br />jeffery b3: posts small blind 25<br />FR Vessant: posts big blind 50<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [8c 5d]<br />decorounder: folds <br />meeks16: folds <br />geomed: folds <br />O'Brien_6: folds <br />zapedy: folds <br />jeffery b3: calls 25<br /><br />He's very short obv. so I doubt I have much fold equity.<br /><br />FR Vessant: checks <br />*** FLOP *** [5c 6c 3h]<br /><br />That should be an okay flop.<br /><br />jeffery b3: bets 200<br /><br />I expected him to bet his whole range here, so I am not folding. I probably have the best hand.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 165 to 365 and is all-in<br />jeffery b3: calls 165<br /><br />And I do. He has 32. I mean, fucksake, how can I not beat these clowns? If you want to play that shit, shove it man.<br /><br />But yeah, you probably spotted that he has a draw to the straight, so that's fucking it for me.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [5c 6c 3h] [6s]<br />*** RIVER *** [5c 6c 3h 6s] [2s]<br /><br />And there it is. Like clockwork.<br /><br />I mean, no fucking kidding, I am doomed never to move up past the 11s. I simply cannot win at a higher level. I can't get to the long run, and I suspect that even if I did, they'd still be hitting every single draw, every single flop, everything against me.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-39814053638940330882009-08-01T21:13:00.003+10:002009-08-01T21:24:34.247+10:00Fuck fucking pokerSTTs suck. Early in this one, I had QQ cracked by a guy who shoved when I 3bet a UTG raiser. He had AKs and probably should have folded. So I had basically no chips and clawed my way back. I got to the bubble with 2Kish chips, and lost some when I raised with JJ and a huge fish called and openshoved an A high flop. He probably didn't even have the ace, but you can't risk it. Then I got blinded down a bit, so a few hands later.<br /><br />PokerStars Game #31116131795: Tournament #183786853, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2009/08/01 7:11:44 ET<br />Table '183786853 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button<br />Seat 1: kinkykay-de (3881 in chips) <br />Seat 2: FR Vessant (1225 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Bluesmansav (6548 in chips) <br />Seat 5: SezzGecko (1846 in chips) <br />kinkykay-de: posts the ante 25<br />FR Vessant: posts the ante 25<br />Bluesmansav: posts the ante 25<br />SezzGecko: posts the ante 25<br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 100<br />Bluesmansav: posts big blind 200<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Kh 9s]<br />SezzGecko: folds <br />kinkykay-de: calls 200<br /><br />This is our fish, who loves to limp, to call raises, and to make dim stabby bluffs at the flop.<br />FR Vessant: raises 1000 to 1200 and is all-in<br /><br />I have been playing tight, so I figure I have a ton of FE.<br /><br />Bluesmansav: folds <br />kinkykay-de: calls 1000<br /><br />Wrong.<br /><br />The fish has called me with K7s. I mean, wtf. You can't think you're ahead with that. I think the one thing I never get over in STTs, even though I am pretty cool with the truth that it's all about luck now, is these tards who just gamble. Yeah, I know it's all gambling, but intentionally putting your money in behind is awful.<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [8c 6s 9h]<br /><br />When I saw the flop, I knew I would be busted. Yes, I have top pair. But what does that matter? He has a draw and it's going to come in.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [8c 6s 9h] [Jh]<br />*** RIVER *** [8c 6s 9h Jh] [5d]<br /><br />See? If I played 200 games a day, I'd be over it, because I'd see it all the time. So yeah, maybe play more than 50 this month, Zenners?Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-68359111162851390572009-08-01T19:07:00.002+10:002009-08-01T19:10:13.165+10:00blehHow am I ever going to move up in stakes if I run so badly?<br /><br /><br />PokerStars Game #31114065461: Tournament #181767859, $30+$3 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/08/01 5:05:49 ET<br />Table '181767859 35' 9-max Seat #3 is the button<br />Seat 1: LatzFatz (2980 in chips) <br />Seat 2: mandymoo77 (2990 in chips) <br />Seat 3: BIGTONE53 (6140 in chips) <br />Seat 4: FR Vessant (2960 in chips) <br />Seat 5: arameer (2860 in chips) <br />Seat 6: Munstah (1640 in chips) <br />Seat 7: I_win_Hands (3000 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Daf12 (3000 in chips) is sitting out<br />Seat 9: aannaa1 (2980 in chips) <br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 10<br />arameer: posts big blind 20<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [7c 8c]<br />Munstah: folds <br />I_win_Hands: folds <br />Daf12: folds <br />aannaa1: folds <br />LatzFatz: folds <br />mandymoo77: calls 20<br />BIGTONE53: folds <br />FR Vessant: calls 10<br /><br />Easy complete.<br /><br />arameer: raises 80 to 100<br /><br /><br />Seems bad so I'm going to call and hope to outflop him.<br /><br />mandymoo77: folds <br />FR Vessant: calls 80<br />*** FLOP *** [Jc Tc 5h]<br /><br />Should be a good flop for my hand.<br /><br />FR Vessant: checks <br />arameer: bets 220<br />FR Vessant: raises 400 to 620<br /><br />I hope to fold him out here.<br /><br />arameer: raises 400 to 1020<br />FR Vessant: raises 1840 to 2860 and is all-in<br /><br />With 13 outs against top pair, I am going to gamble here.<br /><br />arameer: calls 1740 and is all-in<br /><br />He has Ac9c. Fuck my luck.<br /><br />Get this though:<br /><br />Uncalled bet (100) returned to FR Vessant<br />*** TURN *** [Jc Tc 5h] [4c]<br /><br />It's enough to make you cry.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-16030593840796695122009-07-20T10:02:00.003+10:002009-07-20T10:05:50.071+10:00On coachingSome guy on 2p2 asked me for coaching. He was angling for free help by buttering me up, but I don't have time, so I said I'd do it for money (not much money -- 30/hr if you want to learn how to crush) and he asked what would be the best way to gain from coaching and how you should do it. So I said this:<br /><br /><br />There are three indispensable skills if you want to win using a 2p2-type strategy: 1/ Hand selection 2/ Not ****ing up postflop and 3/ most importantly, late game.<br /><br />In 1, you have to know which hands to play in which spots, which hands you'll threebet, which hands you'll shove over limpers, which hands you'll resteal with against which players. Some of this you can figure out for yourself, some you can be taught, some you just get a feel for as you play.<br /><br />In 2, there are different approaches, but the most important thing is not to make the bigger mistakes your opponents make: not to stack off light with top pair, not to go broke in unraised pots with hands that are easily beaten, not to chase draws; and more positively, to bet strong hands hard, to apply aggression correctly and to understand bet sizing and have some idea of what your opponents are trying to do. An appreciation of range-based thinking and play is essential, because this is the foundation of good poker.<br /><br />In 3, you need to know when to push and when to fold. This involves understanding ICM above all, and working through spots in a program like SNG Wizard, which is an essential purchase for anyone who wants to improve at STTs. I don't have a lot of time to study ICM, which is one reason I don't play turbos too much (regular speeds are more forgiving of patchy late-game knowledge), but there are good and bad ways to use it imo.<br /><br />If you get anyone to help you with your game, you need them first of all to understand what you know. To do that, they need either to sweat you or to go through a HH in a replayer. They can do this without your presence, but tbh talking to a player about why they played their hands a particular way lets you know whether they get it or not. You know what I mean? Someone might do something differently from the way I would, and I'll ask them why. If you understand the game, your answer will make sense to me, if you don't, the flaw in your understanding becomes apparent. Most people have glaring leaks because they just dont' understand areas of the game, or spots that they are in. This is true of everyone bar the very best: I'm a moderate player and I definitely don't know it all.<br /><br />I'll be honest with you. Coaching has a value in STTs, but it's limited, because a lot of the knowledge you need is gained through experience and work that you have to do for yourself. So it's valuable to have someone talk through some games with you, and explain broadly where you're going wrong/what you're doing right, but they can't teach you push/fold -- you have to study that for yourself. Having said that, if you are very much a learner, either being sweated or going through a HH in a replayer will work -- using Skype and Teamviewer or similar. I think the second is best because there's no time pressure and you can explain your thought process.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-63989214310982216252009-07-18T18:03:00.005+10:002009-07-18T18:45:27.029+10:00OmahahahahhahahahdfhdhfdhfhdhdhfhdhshshshhsI thought this was quite interesting. I am playing a $2 PL Omaha 8 tourney (I know, shoot me) because I'm an addict but can't concentrate enough to play anything worthwhile, when this hand came up.<br /><br />Full Tilt Poker Game #13462676090: $2 + 0.25 Tournament (99453018), Table 10 - 30/60 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 3:54:16 ET - 2009/07/18<br />Seat 1: superiorbath (5,325)<br />Seat 2: Darkdeck (1,316)<br />Seat 3: SexulHrsmntPnda (4,494)<br />Seat 4: SusieOh (938)<br />Seat 5: ASD-OCD (4,811)<br />Seat 6: basatagirl (4,863)<br />Seat 7: KYKenny (1,339)<br />Seat 8: RAGS2RICHESXXX (1,587)<br />Seat 9: daveteezeeme (2,068)<br />superiorbath posts the small blind of 30<br />Darkdeck posts the big blind of 60<br />The button is in seat #9<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to basatagirl [3c 4d Ks Ac]<br />SexulHrsmntPnda folds<br />SusieOh folds<br />ASD-OCD calls 60<br />basatagirl calls 60<br /><br />It's reasonable to limp this in this game, where there is very little aggression.<br /><br />KYKenny calls 60<br />RAGS2RICHESXXX folds<br />daveteezeeme calls 60<br />superiorbath calls 30<br />Darkdeck checks<br />*** FLOP *** [8c 8d 2c]<br />superiorbath checks<br />Darkdeck bets 120<br /><br />Doesn't have to have much for that.<br /><br />ASD-OCD calls 120<br /><br />This is terrible with his actual hand.<br /><br />basatagirl calls 120<br /><br />I call with nut low draw and nut flush draw. If no one has or hits a boat, I could scoop.<br /><br /><br />KYKenny folds<br />daveteezeeme calls 120<br />superiorbath folds<br />*** TURN *** [8c 8d 2c] [6c]<br /><br />So I have my flush and the nut low. There aren't too many hands I'm going to hate being against here.<br /><br />Darkdeck checks<br />ASD-OCD bets 420<br />basatagirl raises to 2,100<br /><br />Pot raise. I don't mind if he comes with me now.<br /><br />daveteezeeme folds<br />Darkdeck folds<br />ASD-OCD raises to 4,631, and is all in<br />basatagirl calls 2,531<br /><br />Easy call. He can have me beat for high, but can only chop low, and it has to be unlikely he has it.<br /><br />ASD-OCD shows [3s 8s Jd 2h]<br /><br />Fucking awful. He should never limp this pre. It's a dog. 32xx is a trouble hand in OH and he has nothing else going on really.<br /><br />On the flop, he has high sewn up obviously, but slowplaying it is horrible. Why let<br />me hit my low for free? I am supposing he thinks he will get more from a flush if it hits, but there's a decent wedge in the pot, and if someone hits a low, he gives up half of what's already there. He has nothing to lose by pumping the pot.<br />*** RIVER *** [8c 8d 2c 6c] [2d]<br />ASD-OCD shows a full house, Eights full of Twos, for high<br />basatagirl shows a flush, Ace high, for high and 8,6,3,2,A, for low<br />ASD-OCD wins the high pot (5,051) with a full house, Eights full of Twos<br />basatagirl wins the low pot (5,051) with 8,6,3,2,A<br /><br />So that sucks a bit, not least that he hit a full with such a bad hand. This sucks more:<br /><br />Full Tilt Poker Game #13462754587: $2 + 0.25 Tournament (99453018), Table 10 - 40/80 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 4:03:54 ET - 2009/07/18<br />Seat 1: superiorbath (4,905)<br />Seat 2: Darkdeck (1,916)<br />Seat 4: SusieOh (658)<br />Seat 5: ASD-OCD (4,911)<br />Seat 6: basatagirl (5,103)<br />Seat 7: KYKenny (1,279)<br />Seat 8: RAGS2RICHESXXX (1,587)<br />Seat 9: daveteezeeme (1,888)<br />ASD-OCD posts the small blind of 40<br />basatagirl posts the big blind of 80<br />The button is in seat #4<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to basatagirl [Tc Ah Ks 2s]<br />KYKenny folds<br />RAGS2RICHESXXX folds<br />daveteezeeme folds<br />superiorbath folds<br />Darkdeck calls 80<br /><br />He should try to steal with the hand he has if he's going to play it, but I wouldn't play it.<br /><br />SusieOh folds<br />ASD-OCD has been disconnected<br />ASD-OCD folds<br />ASD-OCD has reconnected<br />basatagirl checks<br /><br />I have no fold equity for a raise, even though my hand is okay. I prefer not to bloat the pot without any hope of just TingID.<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [3h As 7c]<br /><br />Not the best flop because there's a low out there and the ace is really bad for me.<br /><br />basatagirl checks<br />Darkdeck bets 200<br />basatagirl calls 200<br /><br />I call because I have TPTK on an unconnected board, and he doesn't have to have a low<br />because these boys will often play high-only hands. I should probably fold, but I hate to give up too easily against these really bad players.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [3h As 7c] [Kh]<br /><br />That's a great turn for me, because I now have the best high.<br /><br />basatagirl checks<br />Darkdeck bets 400<br />basatagirl raises to 1,800<br /><br />I am hoping to make him fold hands that have bad lows and no highs and draws to beat me, like 64xx maybe.<br />Darkdeck calls 1,236, and is all in<br />basatagirl shows [Tc Ah Ks 2s]<br />Darkdeck shows [2c 4s 2h 5c]<br /><br />Obviously he is not folding a nut low. I am in good shape for high though because he'd need a 4 or a 2 to beat me, and obv. he has one of the 4s and only one 2 is still in the deck.<br /><br />Uncalled bet of 164 returned to basatagirl<br />*** RIVER *** [3h As 7c Kh] [4c]<br /><br />Oh shit.<br /><br />****<br /><br />My bustout hand was quite disappointing.<br /><br /><br />Full Tilt Poker Game #13463062792: $2 + 0.25 Tournament (99453018), Table 10 - 80/160 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 4:36:27 ET - 2009/07/18<br />Seat 1: superiorbath (7,032)<br />Seat 2: Darkdeck (3,397)<br />Seat 3: pokerbill72 (24,917)<br />Seat 4: back2therail (4,035)<br />Seat 5: ASD-OCD (7,154)<br />Seat 6: basatagirl (4,165)<br />Seat 7: KYKenny (1,139), is sitting out<br />Seat 8: Boxcar85 (2,783)<br />ASD-OCD posts the small blind of 80<br />basatagirl posts the big blind of 160<br />The button is in seat #4<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to basatagirl [Ad 3s Qh Qd]<br />KYKenny folds<br />Boxcar85 folds<br />superiorbath folds<br />Darkdeck folds<br />pokerbill72 folds<br />back2therail has 15 seconds left to act<br />back2therail raises to 320<br /><br />I hate minraises in Omaha. You don't have much, if any, steal equity, so all you're doing is bloat the pot.<br /><br />ASD-OCD calls 240<br /><br />Will call with nearly anything, he's that bad.<br /><br />basatagirl calls 160<br />*** FLOP *** [Jc 6d 2c]<br />ASD-OCD has 15 seconds left to act<br />ASD-OCD bets 960<br /><br />That's a big bet, so he probably has something. However, I'd think he's more likely to have something like 54xx or Acxcxx than a set of jacks, so I'm probably ahead for high and have hopes for low. Folding here would be far too weak in my view, and given the amount I have to call, I should play for stacks.<br /><br />basatagirl raises to 3,840<br /><br />So I do.<br /><br />back2therail folds<br />ASD-OCD calls 2,880<br /><br />I would have rather kept the pot smaller with his hand, and looked to make money when I actually had a hand, but I'm not him.<br /><br />I now very much don't want to see a club on the turn, particularly not a high one.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [Jc 6d 2c] [Qc]<br /><br />FUCK. I mean, on the one hand I have a set, but on the other, the flush made, and he's likely to have it.<br /><br />KYKenny has been disconnected<br />ASD-OCD bets 160<br /><br />Yeah, cunt, you should have done that on the flop, given that I only had 5 left behind.<br /><br />basatagirl calls 5, and is all in<br />ASD-OCD shows [2h 3d Ac 7c]<br /><br />He has the worst possible hand for me. He should have 3bet preflop imo, because it's always better to take it down preflop than to try to let me have a shot at outflopping him on a high-only board getting 5/1.<br /><br />Sadly, he not only has the flush, but he halves my low too, so I badly need the board to pair.<br /><br />basatagirl shows [Ad 3s Qh Qd]<br />Uncalled bet of 155 returned to ASD-OCD<br />*** RIVER *** [Jc 6d 2c Qc] [9c]<br /><br />Which of course it doesn't.<br /><br />Oh well. Just because this fish played nearly every fucking hand and hit perfect against me are not reasons to cry. But his being Australian is. All -- and I mean all -- Australian players are entirely retarded, and should never win a cent at poker imo.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-75182175473267702122009-07-08T16:19:00.003+10:002009-07-08T16:55:38.617+10:00WTF hand of the week so farIt's not the decision to limp that boggles the mind and not the decision to call a raise after that. It's how this guy has the ability to find the on button on his computer:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30220353332: Tournament #177710269, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2009/07/08 2:18:18 ET<br />Table '177710269 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button<br />Seat 1: FR Vessant (1560 in chips) <br />Seat 2: stunt chick (1725 in chips) <br />Seat 3: LindaLouStar (980 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Spay Nuter (1390 in chips) <br />Seat 5: rockxxx (1580 in chips) <br />Seat 6: barrazor (2120 in chips) <br />Seat 7: bonez_311 (1785 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Ultima24 (1080 in chips) <br />Seat 9: jtran86 (1280 in chips) <br />LindaLouStar: posts small blind 15<br />Spay Nuter: posts big blind 30<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Qc Ac]<br />rockxxx: folds <br />barrazor: folds <br />bonez_311: folds <br />Ultima24: calls 30<br />jtran86: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 90 to 120<br /><br />I make a fairly standard raise. I never like picking up AK/AQ, suited or otherwise, in the first couple of levels and I don't much like raising limpers because they never fold unless you hit.<br /><br />stunt chick: folds <br />LindaLouStar: folds <br />Spay Nuter: calls 90<br />Ultima24: calls 90<br />*** FLOP *** [Jd 8h 9d]<br />Spay Nuter: checks <br />Ultima24: checks <br />FR Vessant: checks<br /><br />Not betting that flop because there's just so much for a fish to like there.<br /> <br />*** TURN *** [Jd 8h 9d] [Ks]<br />Spay Nuter: checks <br />Ultima24: checks <br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />Could bet there, but then I'm just hating so many rivers.<br /><br />*** RIVER *** [Jd 8h 9d Ks] [Kd]<br />Spay Nuter: checks <br />Ultima24: checks <br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />I guess I'll just show my hand down and hope they have...<br /><br />well, I dunno. there's pretty much nothing I can be beating except crappy aces. So I have to check.<br /><br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />Spay Nuter: shows [3c Ad] (a pair of Kings)<br /><br />Crappy ace, sure enough. Why do these clowns call with them? I am quite likely to have a bigger ace and if I don't, and an ace comes, you're unlikely to get paid. So you can only win a small pot or lose a big one.<br /><br />Ultima24: shows [6h 9s] (two pair, Kings and Nines)<br /><br />What. The. Fuck. I can't even imagine a rationale for playing that. Maybe he folded the previous hand and was bored. Maybe he feels it will be disguised if he hits. Erm, yes.<br /><br /><br />Anyway, this is more usual. I suppose the fish was unlucky that he couldn't make any money when he got lucky, but I think against those parts of my range that he could make money from, his line sucks some.<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30220404105: Tournament #177708932, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2009/07/08 2:21:47 ET<br />Table '177708932 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button<br />Seat 1: over-vert (1200 in chips) <br />Seat 3: titralac (4715 in chips) <br />Seat 4: the bl12ade (1230 in chips) <br />Seat 5: huggyville (1020 in chips) <br />Seat 6: pc318318 (1310 in chips) <br />Seat 8: rafmd (2460 in chips) <br />Seat 9: FR Vessant (1565 in chips) <br />huggyville: posts small blind 15<br />pc318318: posts big blind 30<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Kd Ah]<br />rafmd: calls 30<br /><br />I'll tell you now, he has 22. So that's reasonable to limp. You might consider it more prudent to fold because you're likely to be raised and that will make it expensive, but actually this table is quite passive in the few hands we've played, so it's not such a bad gamble.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 90 to 120<br />over-vert: folds <br />titralac: folds <br />the bl12ade: folds <br />huggyville: folds <br />pc318318: folds <br />rafmd: calls 90<br /><br />But now he should fold. It's too much money to call to try to hit a set and my range is not narrow enough to guarantee stacking me unless you get the right flop.<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [2d 3s 5s]<br /><br />Which this one isn't.<br /><br />rafmd: checks <br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />I check behind obv. because even though it's unlikely he hit the flop, he's unlikely to fold to a cbet here. He can convince himself to continue with overcards and obv. folding a pair would be out of the question for him.<br /><br />In his shoes, I'd probably bet. If I have an overpair, I'm going to raise, and he can then often get it in. If I don't, I'm not all that likely to cbet this flop and you are hoping that I hit something that I like on the next two streets.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [2d 3s 5s] [Tc]<br />rafmd: checks <br /><br />The fish's urge to trap overcomes any idea of actually making value with his monster. I suppose once I checked the flop back, it's okay not to force the action, because my most likely hand is AK/AQ and I'm not calling a bet with that.<br /><br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />*** RIVER *** [2d 3s 5s Tc] [Qd]<br />rafmd: bets 150<br /><br />Finally, he takes a stab. It's safe, of course. I'm pretty unlikely to have a pair of Qs and AQ is strongly in my range.<br /><br />FR Vessant said, "sigh"<br />FR Vessant said, "I have a bad feeling you actually have a Q"<br /><br />LOL. I was kind of tempted to call because my hand is often good but meh.<br /><br />FR Vessant: folds <br />Uncalled bet (150) returned to rafmd<br />rafmd collected 285 from pot<br />rafmd: shows [2s 2h] (three of a kind, Deuces)<br /><br />How we laughed.<br /><br />Later, I gave him a lesson in why limpcalling is bad:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30220786852: Tournament #177708932, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/07/08 2:49:13 ET<br />Table '177708932 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button<br />Seat 3: titralac (3837 in chips) <br />Seat 5: huggyville (3495 in chips) <br />Seat 8: rafmd (4493 in chips) <br />Seat 9: FR Vessant (1675 in chips) <br />titralac: posts small blind 75<br />huggyville: posts big blind 150<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [As Ah]<br />rafmd: calls 150<br />rafmd said, "ty"<br />FR Vessant: raises 300 to 450<br /><br />I know, it's ridicutarded, but it sucks a ton if you push and he folds, which he just might have.<br /><br />titralac: folds <br />huggyville: folds <br />rafmd: calls 300<br />*** FLOP *** [5d Td 7s]<br />rafmd: bets 600<br /><br />Well, let's hope he doesn't have 77 or some retarded shit like 75s.<br /><br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 625 to 1225 and is all-in<br /><br />Drop the boom.<br /><br />rafmd: calls 625<br /><br />He has KdTh.<br /><br />*** TURN *** [5d Td 7s] [2d]<br /><br />So that turn is a bit stressful.<br /><br />*** RIVER *** [5d Td 7s 2d] [3c]<br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />rafmd: shows [Kd Th] (a pair of Tens)<br />FR Vessant: shows [As Ah] (a pair of Aces)<br />FR Vessant collected 3575 from pot<br /><br />I know, how come I'm losing money in this company. Beats me too.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-85143280505141013112009-07-08T14:38:00.002+10:002009-07-08T16:05:49.072+10:00Bet or check?I have no one to talk poker with so I'm stuck with posting hands here. Maybe someone will happen along and comment.<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30218574186: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2009/07/08 0:35:44 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button<br />Seat 2: jivehoney2 (875 in chips) <br />Seat 3: catsonny (1630 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Gugrand (1835 in chips) <br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (1660 in chips) <br />Seat 6: svargas (1120 in chips) <br />Seat 7: luckyluke711 (1465 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (2400 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Rollar (2515 in chips) <br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 15<br />svargas: posts big blind 30<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Kh Ad]<br />luckyluke711: folds <br />Kevgj454: folds <br />Rollar: folds <br />jivehoney2: folds <br />catsonny: folds <br />Gugrand: raises 60 to 90<br /><br />This guy has been pretty tight, but he has the button, so I'm not necessarily putting him on a really tight range.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 120 to 210<br /><br />So I threebet. I actually don't normally threebet out of position. I'd typically flatcall. However, it seems to me that I can define my hand pretty well here by threebetting. If he's very strong, he is likely to shove over, and if he isn't, he will likely fold, and I won't have to play postflop guessing games with it. <br /><br />svargas: calls 180<br /><br />So that's not goodThis guy has been semiloose, but not extremely so. I'm not sure what range to put him on because these guys so often surprise you. I guess he can have a lot of pairs and some broadways in his range.<br /><br />I mean, I've threebet so he shouldn't be superwide.<br /><br />Gugrand: folds <br />*** FLOP *** [7h 8d 3s]<br /><br />Here's the difficult thing. This flop sucks for me. It's not all that likely to have hit him but he may have begun with a better hand.<br /><br />I can bet, and if he calls or raises, I think I'm done with it. It's a fairly dry flop, so I can't imagine he's trying to push me off a hand if he shoves. I think he should fold overcards, but I can't be sure. They don't often bluffraise, but you have to give him a small chance of it.<br /><br />If he has a pair, he's never folding on this flop.<br /><br />I can check, but I think that turns my hand face up and I have to fold when he bets. It won't even be "if". They never check behind. I mean, checking with AA would make sense because these clowns put you on AK every time and try to push you off it.<br /><br />So is betting profitable?<br /><br />FR Vessant: bets 270<br /><br />Well, I try it.<br /><br />svargas: raises 640 to 910 and is all-in<br /><br />But I dunno. I think I should have checkfolded. Now I'm stuck in a shitty position and I hate that I bet.<br /><br />0000<br /><br />This is why my month is shitty though:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30218901413: Tournament #177697279, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/07/08 0:52:18 ET<br />Table '177697279 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button<br />Seat 2: marsmac (2218 in chips) <br />Seat 3: Backwoodsman (1735 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Mixien (1622 in chips) <br />Seat 5: JZarse (1455 in chips) <br />Seat 6: FatStack911 (4175 in chips) <br />Seat 7: JC Cub (1020 in chips) <br />Seat 8: FR Vessant (1275 in chips) <br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 50<br />marsmac: posts big blind 100<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [9c Ah]<br />Backwoodsman: folds <br />Mixien has timed out<br />Mixien: folds <br />Mixien is sitting out<br />JZarse: folds <br />Mixien has returned<br />FatStack911: calls 100<br /><br />Playing 37/11.<br /><br />JC Cub: calls 100<br /><br />Playing something like 40/10.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 1175 to 1275 and is all-in<br /><br />So I should have tons of fold equity here. And even if one calls, I should be ahead, because he ought to be raising better aces and most pairs.<br /><br />marsmac: folds <br />FatStack911: raises 2900 to 4175 and is all-in<br /><br />OMG.<br /><br />JC Cub: folds <br />Uncalled bet (2900) returned to FatStack911<br /><br />He has AQs. If you want to know how you can even conceivably lose money to these droolers, this is how. Who traps with AQs for fuck's sake? It would actually make less money in the long run than taking the blinds.<br /><br />Again, these fish think that this sort of thing is super clever when they catch you with A9. They consider it a huge injustice when you have 53 in the BB and catch two pair or you suck out and hit your 9. But what they don't realise is that an aggressive player like me makes this shove all the time, and I profit from it. I factor in the dumb traps when I consider doing it.<br /><br />Not that their traps always work:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30219060445: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/07/08 1:00:41 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button<br />Seat 3: catsonny (1580 in chips) <br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (3785 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (4865 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Rollar (3270 in chips) <br />Kevgj454: posts small blind 75<br />Rollar: posts big blind 150<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Ah Qh]<br />catsonny: raises 150 to 300<br /><br />Why minraise in his spot? I guess he could have something but I'm not folding my hand in this spot. The problem is that these guys also steal with minraises and like to minraise small pairs. This guy has minraised more than once, although I haven't seen him do it utg.<br /><br />I think my hand is too strong to fold against a shorty even if I am suspicious, so I don't fold.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 600 to 900<br /><br />I raise to discourage the others from entering the pot.<br /><br />Kevgj454: folds <br />Rollar: folds <br />catsonny: raises 600 to 1500<br /><br />He actually leaves himself with 80 behind, which is cute. I'm not folding obviously.<br />FR Vessant: calls 600<br />*** FLOP *** [9s Qc 3d]<br /><br />Well, if he has AA, this is going to hurt.<br /><br />catsonny: bets 80 and is all-in<br />FR Vessant: calls 80<br /><br />He has JJ.<br /><br />Couple hands later, just to show that I am not married to AQ or anything:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30219076960: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/07/08 1:01:34 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button<br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (5440 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (5015 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Rollar (3045 in chips) <br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 75<br />Kevgj454: posts big blind 150<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Qs Ah]<br />Rollar: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 300 to 450<br /><br />Standard raise.<br /><br />Kevgj454: raises 4565 to 5015 and is all-in<br /><br />Thing is, this guy has been loose but not particularly aggressive. I think he has to have a strong hand, given my read so<br /><br />FR Vessant: folds <br /><br />Uncalled bet (4565) returned to Kevgj454<br />Kevgj454 collected 900 from pot<br />Kevgj454: shows [Jc Js] (a pair of Jacks)<br /><br />Well, I suppose I had some overlay but I'm pretty content to have folded there.<br /><br />However later on:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30219183005: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/07/08 1:07:32 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button<br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (5665 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (5690 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Rollar (2145 in chips) <br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 75<br />Kevgj454: posts big blind 150<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [9h 9c]<br />Rollar: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 300 to 450<br />Kevgj454: calls 300<br /><br />Can have a very wide range.<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [6c 2h Js]<br />FR Vessant: bets 600<br /><br />I am obviously going to cbet even with the overcard.<br /><br />Kevgj454: raises 4640 to 5240 and is all-in<br /><br />But now I have to fold.<br /><br />Having folded earlier, is he encouraged and is now bluffing? I dunno. I do think I can have the best hand but on a flop this dry, it's hard to put him on the bluff because he'd have to have absolutely nothing. So<br /><br />FR Vessant: folds <br /><br />0000<br /><br />Not that it did me too much harm:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30219235910: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/07/08 1:10:33 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button<br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (3790 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (8315 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Rollar (1395 in chips) <br />Rollar: posts small blind 100<br />FR Vessant: posts big blind 200<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Kh Ad]<br />Kevgj454: raises 400 to 600<br />Rollar: raises 795 to 1395 and is all-in<br /><br />Woah! Hold on!<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 2395 to 3790 and is all-in<br /><br />I'm getting it in because even though Rollar probably has a strong range, I'm going to have to be beaten by both to come third even if Kevgj454 calls (because I outchip Rollar). I'd obviously have a really nice stack if either I win outright or I beat just Kev.<br /><br />Kevgj454: calls 3190<br /><br />He has KK. The other guy has a pair of 6s.<br /><br />Yuk. Still, at least I'm a big favourite to come second. And there's always spiking the ace, right?<br /><br />*** FLOP *** [5c 9d Qc]<br />*** TURN *** [5c 9d Qc] [Jh]<br /><br />Hold on! Now I have a ten or an ace to win. Come on!<br /><br />*** RIVER *** [5c 9d Qc Jh] [Th]<br /> <br />woot.<br /><br />Kev decided to do more trapping later, and really, this is why you don't do this sort of thing:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30219251392: Tournament #177697288, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/07/08 1:11:22 ET<br />Table '177697288 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button<br />Seat 5: FR Vessant (9575 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Kevgj454 (3925 in chips) <br />Kevgj454: posts small blind 100<br />FR Vessant: posts big blind 200<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [4d 2d]<br />Kevgj454: calls 100<br />FR Vessant: checks <br />*** FLOP *** [4s 3s 7h]<br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />I don't bet, even with the flush draw there, because a/ I'm never putting a HU opponent on an FD, and b/ he can and will call with a 5, 6 or overcards.<br /><br />Kevgj454: checks <br />*** TURN *** [4s 3s 7h] [4h]<br /><br />Nice. I'm pretty sure I have the best hand now.<br /><br />FR Vessant: bets 400<br />Kevgj454: raises 800 to 1200<br /><br />Not too scared by that. If he has a better 4 or the flopped straight, that's poker. More likely he thinks I'm bluffing and he can rebluff me.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 8175 to 9375 and is all-in<br /><br />So let's get it on, bro.<br /><br />Kevgj454: calls 2525 and is all-in<br /><br />He has JJ, which he played about as badly as is possible. The idea of poker, put simply, is to make bets when you're a favourite at the odds, and pass them when you're not. Doing it the other way round is not going to make you money. But from time to time, it just might make me some.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-65658693733608611422009-07-08T12:15:00.003+10:002009-07-08T12:34:26.765+10:00Zero againAs always, when I move up, I run terribly. This is doubly painful because first you start thinking that you simply weren't as good as you thought you were, and second you lose twice as much money. Once you start to run bad, you start to play bad too.<br /><br />In the first of today's 22s, I panicked on a bad bubble and made a big -EV call:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30214005607: Tournament #177652941, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2009/07/07 21:32:03 ET<br />Table '177652941 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button<br />Seat 5: bryan lieb (1778 in chips) <br /><br />This idiot has basically funnelled tons of chips to jonny2jabs, who is a good player, shoving every SB and button, so I lose 600 chips an orbit, but is folding his BB to shoves from tallyyayo, so I am in a terrible position stackwise.<br /><br />Seat 6: jonny2jabs (7037 in chips) <br />Seat 7: FR Vessant (2444 in chips) <br />Seat 8: tallyyayo (2241 in chips) <br />bryan lieb: posts the ante 25<br />jonny2jabs: posts the ante 25<br />FR Vessant: posts the ante 25<br />tallyyayo: posts the ante 25<br />FR Vessant: posts small blind 200<br />tallyyayo: posts big blind 400<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [6d 6h]<br />bryan lieb: folds <br />jonny2jabs: raises 6612 to 7012 and is all-in<br /><br />I should fold, of course, but I figure to be in a very weak position, trying to fold into third, if I do, and a decent one, able to play a bigger stack and a good shot at second at least, if I don't.<br /><br /><br />FR Vessant: calls 2219 and is all-in<br /><br />So I don't, and this time the ATC shover has 77. GG me.<br /><br />So the villain in this hand has been erratic and bad:<br /><br /><br />PokerStars Game #30212844089: Tournament #177653493, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/07/07 20:51:41 ET<br />Table '177653493 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button<br />Seat 1: jonny2jabs (980 in chips) <br />Seat 2: dumbmum (2840 in chips) <br />Seat 3: TJ PackMan (733 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Ducky G 6000 (1835 in chips) <br />Seat 5: TomC69 (3075 in chips) <br />Seat 6: pieroni85 (1375 in chips) <br />Seat 8: FR Vessant (1697 in chips) <br />Seat 9: orbitahole (965 in chips) <br />TJ PackMan: posts small blind 50<br />Ducky G 6000: posts big blind 100<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Ac Jh]<br />TomC69: folds <br />pieroni85: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 150 to 250<br />orbitahole: calls 250<br /><br />It's really hard to put him on the hand he has, because this call is soooo bad.<br /><br />jonny2jabs: folds <br />dumbmum: folds <br />TJ PackMan: folds <br />Ducky G 6000: folds <br />*** FLOP *** [3s Th 4c]<br />FR Vessant: checks <br /><br />That's a decent flop but I don't think I can make him fold.<br /><br />orbitahole: checks <br />*** TURN *** [3s Th 4c] [2h]<br />FR Vessant: checks <br />orbitahole: bets 300<br /><br />I'm sure he's just taking a stab. Maybe he has a flush draw. In any case, I don't think I can fold here. Effectively, it's the same as getting it in pre, which I would have done.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 1147 to 1447 and is all-in<br />orbitahole: calls 415 and is all-in<br /><br />He has TT.<br /><br />So a few hands later, I shove 92 on the button, expecting a lot of fold equity, and the same fish snapcalls with KQ.<br /><br /><br />Next up, I lose yet another big pot with QQ:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30214906375: Tournament #177669905, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2009/07/07 22:04:10 ET<br />Table '177669905 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button<br />Seat 2: tonyandgolf (3970 in chips) <br />Seat 3: smallbass79 (1458 in chips) <br />Seat 4: Uncut Haus (1095 in chips) <br />Seat 6: Hymie_Weiss (1664 in chips) <br />Seat 7: FR Vessant (1625 in chips) <br />Seat 8: evilgenius76 (2580 in chips) <br />Seat 9: pokherfinger (1108 in chips) <br />tonyandgolf: posts small blind 25<br />smallbass79: posts big blind 50<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Qd Qh]<br />Uncut Haus: folds <br />Hymie_Weiss: folds <br />FR Vessant: raises 100 to 150<br />evilgenius76: folds <br />pokherfinger: folds <br />tonyandgolf: calls 125<br /><br />Has been fairly tight but doesn't look good.<br /><br />smallbass79: folds <br />*** FLOP *** [5c 7s Th]<br />tonyandgolf: checks <br />FR Vessant: bets 200<br /><br />Nice flop for my hand so obv. I bet.<br /><br />tonyandgolf: raises 500 to 700<br /><br />Well, he might have a set, but you don't make money by folding overpairs against fish.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 775 to 1475 and is all-in<br />tonyandgolf: calls 775<br /><br />You also don't make it by running QQ into AA. GG me.<br /><br />I defy anyone to fold this one:<br /><br />PokerStars Game #30215110571: Tournament #177670505, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/07/07 22:11:31 ET<br />Table '177670505 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button<br />Seat 1: FR Vessant (2868 in chips) <br />Seat 2: AKATheShark (2475 in chips) <br />Seat 5: DaPorKer42 (3205 in chips) <br />Seat 6: Dr. Baker75 (1979 in chips) <br />Seat 8: Uncut Haus (898 in chips) <br />Seat 9: Jacxxs (2075 in chips) <br />DaPorKer42: posts small blind 50<br />Dr. Baker75: posts big blind 100<br />*** HOLE CARDS ***<br />Dealt to FR Vessant [Qc Ad]<br />Uncut Haus: folds <br />Jacxxs: calls 100<br /><br />Pretty bad to limp here. He's played sort of semiloose, so I definitely figure to be ahead.<br /><br />FR Vessant: raises 300 to 400<br />AKATheShark: folds <br />DaPorKer42: calls 350<br /><br />Has played 16/3 or something like that. His call is beyond bad with the hand he actually had. Weirdly, if he'd played it anything like properly, I would have been able to fold pre and get away from it.<br /><br />Dr. Baker75: folds <br />Jacxxs: calls 300<br />*** FLOP *** [8h 6c Ah]<br />DaPorKer42: bets 2805 and is all-in<br /><br />WTF.<br /><br />I know when you see his hand you think I should fold. Isn't it obvious he has me beat? Well no, it's not. It's really hard to see how any hand that beats me plays like this.<br /><br />I just happened to have the only hand he beat that would call. That's how it is for me at the moment. I'm losing a ton of money to players who are so bad they don't know that their bets are super bad.<br /><br />Jacxxs: folds <br />FR Vessant: calls 2468 and is all-in<br />Uncalled bet (337) returned to DaPorKer42<br />*** TURN *** [8h 6c Ah] [9h]<br />*** RIVER *** [8h 6c Ah 9h] [9s]<br />*** SHOW DOWN ***<br />DaPorKer42: shows [Kc As] (two pair, Aces and Nines)<br /><br />Just fucking awful. He should have AJ or a flush draw, maybe with a 6. When you're running good, that's all they have (although note that the flush draw got there anyway).<br /><br />It doesn't do my fragile confidence any good. This happens literally <span style="font-style:italic;">every </span>time I move up. I know that running bad is part of poker, but when it happens coincidentally with moving up, you start to fear that you cannot win at a higher level than the goddamn 11s. I had been getting excited about my prospects. Now they are at zero again.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1866185991684866107.post-404858651581899532009-07-07T21:58:00.002+10:002009-07-07T22:22:45.077+10:00blwhahI'm hating poker lately. I had an up and down month last month, but I didn't play much, so meh. I am playing really well, as well as I ever have, but I'm running like shit. Sometimes I play a $2 satty for my MTT fix and when I win the ticket, I play whatever 11 is available. So I played a 27-man and won that. With the 100 bucks I played a 33 and the Nightly 70K. In both I took fierce beats from guys who limpcalled with suited cards preflop. So that was that. Never mind, only risked 2 bucks.<br /><br />So I moved up to the 22s and that worked well. Or not, as you can imagine. Whenever I move up a level I immediately run like shit, just so that my head gets fucked with. I'm 100% certain I'm playing well, but running bad makes you question that so much. When a tight player completed at t150, should I really have shoved 13BB or whatever with T6? Well, I'm pretty sure I should, because how can I possibly know that a player who is winning more than a buck a game is bad enough to snapcall with KJ? And obviously I can't help all my big pairs getting cracked. I'm not talking just about shoving QQ on a K7x flop and the loose big blind having K7; I mean having AA, getting it in with JT on a AJ8 flop and the turn, river are 9,7. I am not fucking kidding, although I wish I was.<br /><br />So tonight I said fuck it, because my laptop is broken and I wanted to stay upstairs, and played some bullshit games on FTP. I can proudly report that my record in 3.80 superturbos is now 1/0/0/1 and only a bad beat prevented me from cashing in both. However, I remain cursed in the 6.5/90s, where I have never cashed and probably never will. I shove 55 with a decent stack and a fish calls off 10BB with A3s, which is terrible.<br /><br />Why is that terrible? He has an ace, right? Well, I am shoving more than 10BB effective, so my range is going to be fairly tight, and I haven't shown much sign of insanity yet, so you can definitely figure that you aren't beating much. Maybe KQs if you think I'm superfrisky, but you're not much ahead of that. My range otherwise is pairs, which nearly all crush you, and big aces, which also crush you. So you are hoping it's a pair and that you can suck out. Which the fish did. So I'm left shoving 9BB with KJs and the SB, who has, I dunno, 20BB, snaps with A6. This is also terrible. In case you truly suck at poker, let me tell you two facts: one, raggy aces are shit hands and two, raggy aces play much worse than you think against any sane shoving range. I just have so much Ax in my range and most of it smashes you. The pairs crush you mostly and even hands like the one I had fare okay (in theory) against your dogshit. But hey, you cover me, right, so gambooooooool? Well no. Your chips are worth much more to me than mine are to you. You just do not win poker tourneys by making loose calls, even if you think you miiiiiiiight sometimes be ahead.<br /><br />This is one of the problems of tourneys. We don't mind too much the guys who limpcall with suited cards and eventually flush on us. They are chasing such longshots that we gain much more than we lose. But the guy who calls with A6 can hurt us much more. Not only does he rob us of some of the value of shoving weaker hands, but even if we have a stronger hand, he still sucks out much more often than he does when he calls pre with a suited hand. The guy who calls off his stack with A3s is an equity burner -- but although you got your money in good, he is burning your equity too by calling. The A6 guy, well, bleh. If there was any justice, I would have binked a J and lol'd him to oblivion. But there is no justice in poker.Dr Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447633362204112316noreply@blogger.com0