Study and grind

I got some study material from my coach last night about how to take notes on opponents and looking for certain weaknesses in their play and how best to exploit them. It was nothing too revolutionary but was very interesting and so thought I’d try and build it into my game in tonight’s session. 
I only fired up 2 tables so I could have the time to properly observe my opponents.
Lo and behold, after about an hours play, I used one of these reads on one particular player  and won a big pot. The read was simple – The player played Ax  (ie Ace with any kicker) from any position and played it like the nuts if an Ace came on the board.  Obviously the best way to exploit this is to bet your strong Aces (or better) on every street all the way to showdown without worrying too much about pot control. Well that’s what I did, and he did indeed stack off with his A7o vs my AQo 

Here’s the hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922315
Some more hands from the session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922225
Again, my play here was based on what I had noticed about the table dynamics. UTG was a donk and had just lost a big pot so I was definitely way ahead of his range. Genie had seen this too and obviously had some sort of a hand, but I think I was still ahead of him because, like me, he knew UTG was raising with any two cards.  I had to raise this to prevent anyone else behind me getting priced in so just decided to push preflop as the pot was already pretty big.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922325

This hand just played itself obviously. The only tough decision was how much to make it on the river to get maximum value. I think I missed a bit of value here actually in hindsight. I should have thought about villain’s likely range a bit more first, and then bet about $15. Oh well, nice pot all the same.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922371

Ok this is a small pot and nothing very exciting, but this is probably the hand I’m most pleased about of the session because I am playing the situation and not my cards. This is a play I am trying to introduce to my game. 3-betting light preflop.  Basically, the conditions were perfect for making this play:

-An aggressive villain to my right open raises in late position.
-I have a tightish image at the table.
-I have a hand that flops well if I get called and anyway, I’ll have position on villain on the flop and for the remainder of the hand.

GL at the tables
 

Some news….

First of all, Happy New Year everyone Thought I’d write an update of where I’m at with my poker.

Well I decided to take a break from the game in order to:

1) Completely get over the tilt, and

2) Think about my game and where I want to go

The week’s break has helped me stop tilting about my losses. The tilt has now gone and I accept that bankroll is lower than it was but I am feeling totally zen about it and have got it out of my head to stop chasing losses.

Thinking about my game, I realise in my last few sessions before the break, I was playing a bit scared and also was being too results-oriented (I was constantly checking my balance throughout a session) and subconsciously not raising in certain spots or calling a raise with pocket pairs (even with implied odds) so my roll wouldn’t decrease short-term lol.

I have to stop being results-oriented. Checking my balance during a session was a bad thing to be doing. I have to just play my usual disciplined, patient TAG game, make good decisions, and the results and bankroll will take care of themselves. So for the last week, I have started playing again, and things are going a bit better. I seem to have got my discipline and patience back (which were the keys to my early success IMHO) and my bankroll has AT LAST started going in the right direction again.

BUT I am going to stop posting my bankroll after every session on my blog. (win or lose) I will probably post it up along with my winrate once a week instead.  That way, I get to see my progress and I stay concentrated on the important stuff like did I play each hand correctly or not.

I have also been studying hard at my game recently and been doing lots of reading of poker forums and and I even dug out my copy of The Theory of Poker (the bible IMHO)

Some other news I am very excited about is that I have signed up for some 1 to 1 coaching with a professional player ! I had seen a couple of this guy’s training videos and really liked his analysis of the game and way of explaining things. When I found out he coached, I contacted him and set it up. I should have my first session with him either end of this week or early next week and so I am very excited about that. I’ll keep you posted

Here are a couple of hands from my last session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912628

Previously, I have been playing these kind of spots (unraised multiway pots where I hit the flop OOP) way too passively, electing to check call, instead of betting out. Well I decided to bet out strongly on this flop with top 2. When villain raised all-in, I guess I could have found a fold here, BUT he had just lost a long succession of hands and was tilting in the chat window, PLUS the fact he was a shortstack, I figured I was likely ahead and had to call. Nice to see my hand hold up

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912414

There’s an argument here for raising strongly this hand from the SB to try and take it down preflop. But I had no reads on the limper in position and so decided I’d rather keep the pot small and see a flop for cheap. Again I flop a decent hand OOP and made a stab at the pot on the flop. I was a bit worried when villain just called, and so checked/called for pot control on the turn. Likewise, on the river, I can’t see a weaker hand calling there, and there was a flush possibility too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912618

Very similar to the previous hand. AJo in the blinds in an unraised pot. Previously I would have just meekly called this I think, but am beginning to play these kind of situations a bit more assertively. My plan was to check behind the turn and call any reasonable bet on the river. Was very surprised what he was calling/ betting with here !

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912606

Weird hand here. There was a bit of history between me and villain in previous hands and I had folded to a biggish bet. I had seen him previously call raises from the blinds with weakish hands (KJ etc) and so I was pretty sure he wasn’t very strong here. I think he had something like T9 or maybe even K9 or maybe even a PP like 77 or TT. The river was a perfect card to bluff with and I made sure I immediately bet it. This isn’t something I do often, but here I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912600

When villain reraised my 3-bet here, I knew he had either KK or AA. Since I had AA, it was obv much more likely he had KK. I was about to push all-in but decided against it for the following reason. If I push all-in, villain will know for sure I have AA and, if he’s good, might be able to get away from this because he was pretty deep-stacked, by no means pot committed yet anyway. So I paused for a few seconds and called. When the Queen came on the flop, he pushed pretty much straight away, and based on the action preflop, I couldn’t put him on QQ, so I called. Nice to see my Aces hold up for a big pot. It’s been a while

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1912590

I think this is only the second time in my poker life that I have folded KK preflop. I now feel so dirty. Let me explain. Villain’s stats were totally NIT-TASTIC at 11/2/0.46 over 85 hands. If a player is only raising 2% of his hands, that is basically JJ/QQ/KK/AA 2% is his average from ALL positions. Nits play even nittier in EP and so a player like that limping in UTG +1 and then reraising a strong raise behind him is KK or AA everytime. I can only chop at best, so I just folded this. Thoughts ?

GL at the tables

Bad beats, bad beats :(

Ok, I don’t like hearing people moaning constantly about running bad and getting sucked out on, but I’m getting hit so hard by the cards atm that I feel the need to let off some steam about it.  Check out these hands, they are sick. If these had gone in my favour, I’d be up 3 buy-ins this session. As it stands, I dropped another 2. Add that to the other buyins I dropped this week, and my bankroll has taken another hit.

This game is so brutal, and what is so frustrating is that all the big stacks at all my tables are the total donkey LAGS who play every hand…..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1861627

These 2 villains were total donkeys hence me playing this hand very very aggressively. Pokmartin was running at 49/16/1.68    and SuzyQ40 at 60/20/0.22. So basically in nearly every pot and loved to chase their draws, so I had decided I was going to pot every street, which got me all-in on the turn. She hesitated and then called and of course she hits her flush with 1 card to come FFS

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1861648

This was marginal preflop, but I knew I was getting the implied odds because one of the villains clearly had a monster so if I hit my 2, I knew I was going to get their stacks in the middle and a huge pot. Well I got his stack in the middle all right, but, no of course he hits his 2 outer on the river  ARGGGHHHHHHHHH.  I politely asked him what he thought I had when I raised him on the flop. To which he replied “AK or JJ”   LOL !

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1861677

This is probably the worst one in terms of how badly the villain played the hand. After having limped preflop, calling my raise and then flat-calling my flop bet, I was seriously wondering if I was up against a set. Obviously that worry went away on the turn and was surprised to see villain raise me all-in. LOL at river card and villain hitting his 4 outer …….  What is so bad though is when you look at it from the villain’s point of view.  What does he think he’s beating on the turn with AQ when I bet the size of the pot ?!! Answers on a postcard please….
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1861739

Ok, this next one was close preflop, but I was not going to fold to shorty once I’d raised. I normally just get it all in preflop here, but thought I’d check call villain’s all-in (which I knew he’d be doing on any flop) to try and get maximum value.
Bankroll: $656 ( )

Running a bit better

Well since my last post, my bankroll has actually gone in the right direction for a change.  I have been letting the marginal situations go and been betting my strong hands very aggressively, particularly vs the fish and it seems to be working.
Here a few hands from today’s session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845296

Min-raise and then all-in from quite a tricky player. He wasn’t as strong as he was trying to represent but obviousy I can’t call this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845300

Hmm, a 3-bet behind my UTG raise meant villain had a premium pair. I knew this and called the raise for set value, knowing that if I hit the set, villain is going broke.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845312

AK has been such a nightmare hand for me recently. When I hit, I hardly seem to get paid off, and when I don’t, my c-bets always seem to get raised or called. I feel like my hands are just face up on the table, it’s so frustrating aghhhh! 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845323

Ok, so here Malva2 had to be raising with a wide range of hands from late position and Johnny7Cash was a bit if a calling station, so I didn’t put him on a strong hand, but definitely wanted to charge them both maximum price to see a flop. I must admit, I was a bit worried when Malva2 reraised and Johnny7Cash insta-called, but with their shortstacks and fishiness, I decided I was likely still ahead of their ranges, and called, embracing the variance.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845369

Same table, same villain, a few minutes later, with a similar hand in the blinds. Again, I wanted to charge maximum price to see a flop. The flop was very dry and so was unlikely to hit either of the villains. – I would have felted this if either villain had come back over the top.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1845397

At last, I hit with AK and actually get paid off. Stokbrood25 was a pretty bad player and so I wasn’t too worried about his call on the flop, but t-rask81 flat-calling my raise worried me slightly and I couldn’t decide whether he had hit a set or if he was on a flush draw. I decided to go for pot control on the turn and reevaluate on the river.  I only called Stokbrood25′ ridiculous bet on the river because a raise is only getting called by a better hand there and there was still another villain to act behind me.
Session stats:

Number of hands: 267
Net profit / loss: +$30
Winrate: 22.70 ptBB/100

Bankroll: $775

Update

Well since my last post, I have lost some more money…

I’ve been having a long think about why I am losing and what I can do to do put it right. That got me thinking to what I was doing before when I was winning that I am no longer doing and I think what has gone AWOL from my game recently is patience and discipline.  I had been running good, getting good cards and also playing very well, avoiding marginal spots and getting maximum value from my good hands.

Recently I have been letting a bad beat or cooler early in the session get me down and make me play bad and spew off chips for the rest of the session. I have also been starting to play too fancy for the microlevels, perhaps because I knew I had to adjust my play when eventually moving up to $100 NL.  But I have to keep my current play adapted to my current level.

I recently read some good advice about playing at $50NL or below  – “It is very rare that a villain is making a move when he raises you or donk bets into you on the flop when you were the preflop raiser with AK and you just missed the flop. ” This I think is tue. Recently I have been reraising in these positions only to find the villain turn up with a strange 2 pair combination or middle pair vs my missed AK.  This play is waaay too advanced vs the fish because they aren’t even thinking about what you might have – If they hit any part of that flop, then they are going to showdown with it, even if you try and represent a flush or overpair or whatever, they are just not going to fold it.  So in my last 2 sessions, I have gone back to playing ABC TAG (practically nitty) poker and taking the fish to value town when I hit, knowing I am way ahead of their range. This seems to be paying dividends although it is frustrating having to play like that.

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830432

I just KNEW villain hadn’t hit this flop. I can’t believe he called my raise ….. Aghhhh !

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830443

OMG I played this hand so badly Villain had been raising > 20% of his hands and he knew I was tilting when he reraised me here. Total spew by me

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830452

I told you I was running bad – Set vs set – no way I can get away from that. This hand sums up my last month of play IMO….

It’s not all doom and gloom:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830467

I had been observing PushAnyTwo’s play and I put him on KK’s or Aces when he called Gametime’s raise on the flop. Gametime was a total fish so no way he had QQ, and since I had AA I was pretty sure I was ahead and that PushAnyTwo would feel pot committed and have to call my all-in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830501

It’s always nice flopping quads. I reckoned villain put me on TT+ / AK and so I thought by betting out on the flop he would never put me on JJ and if he had QQ, KK or AA he was going broke.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830526

Once shorty 4-bet me preflop, there was no way I was folding.

Bankroll: $735   ( )

Tilt

Well I’ve had quite a tilty week of poker. It started off again taking some bad beats, getting angry and then donking off a load of chips by playing too fancy for the stakes I’m at. I should know better than to try to bluff calling stations and playing marginal hands out of position.  I went back through my sessions in PT, and about 50% of my money lost was due to me overplaying my hands postflop and playing too many marginal hands out of position and from the SB.

I’m not gonna post the hands because it really isn’t pretty and my bankroll has taken a bit of a hit, but luckily I have got my act together in my last two sessions and I have been playing very zen ABC poker and won a load back. My BR is still below where it should be, but at least I’m playing my “A” game again.

I’m back!

I’m back !

Well I’m back from my business trip in England – In fact since my last post, I’ve been over there twice and just got back from the second trip. I went to Luton Casino and played in the £75 freezeout and it was pretty cool. The casino is pretty nice and the poker room is well kitted out and very well organised – Since it was quite a high buy-in, there were croupiers dealing and they were all very experienced. The casino is pretty popular amongst UK poker players and there were a couple of pros in the tournament that I recognised from TV…. lol

The structure was good. You started with 5000 chips and the blinds started at 25/50, so you basically had 100xBB, and the blinds went up every 30 minutes, so plenty of time to play deepstack poker.

67 people took part, and the top ten got paid. I finished ….. 16th damn.

A couple of hands worth a mention:

- I had KQo UTG – This is a hand I either fold or raise preflop, never limp. I had played very tight up to this point so decided to open raise to 3x BB. A lot of the more observant players at the players (including one pro !) insta-folded, putting me on a monster I think, but I got 2 flat callers, one from mp, the other from my right in the BB. The flop came J93 rainbow or something like that. The BB checked. I paused as if I was really strong and then slowly checked to make it look like I was trapping. It worked and the other opponent checked behind and I got a free card. The turn came a 7 I think, and everyone checked again. A ten came on the river and I hit my nut straight. BB bet 200 and I raised to 600. Other villain folded, and the action came back to the BB who tanked for ages before making a crying call and I took down the pot.

I now had an image as a rock at the table and decided to use that to my advantage.

About 20 minutes later. I got dealt 23s in ep and I just limped in. I got a min-raise from mp and a the same villain on my right called, which gave me an excellent price to call. The flop came a beautiful 334 rainbow and villain to my right bet 1000. I thought about it for ages (lol) before flat calling and the preflop raiser in mp flat called too. The turn came the case 3 to give me quads, and again guy to my right bet out 1000 chips. I flat called again and the preflop raiser raised all-in at which point I was trying hard to keep a straight face The villain to my right called (thank-you God !) and I came back over the top, which would have put guy to my right all-in if he called. He only had a couple of thousand chips behind, and was getting grreat odds to call, but he now realised he was crushed (and decided to fold, lol). The preflop raiser flipped JJ and I flipped my 23s and took down a big pot with my quad 3’s and quite a bit of respect from the table I think

My final hand I was shortstacked and got dealt AJo in mp. There was a raise from ep, and I was hoping he had a small pair for a a coinflip, so I came back over the top all-in. He called and flipped AQo and his hand held up, and I was eliminated in 16th position.

Online poker

Since I’ve been back, I carried on playing at $50NL. In fact I played a lot of hands at a lot of tables and I rapidly earned a load of VPP’s at Pokerstars and made it to Silverstar status which means I am now earning FPP’s 50% quicker and have access to a load of VIP tournaments plus a few other perks. The downside to playing so much was that I wasn’t playing as well and had a bit of a downswing. It started off by me playing fine, but just being on the wrong side of variance (my sets were running into higher sets, my 2 pair was running into straights, and my KK’s were running into Aces. etc) This caused me to tilt a bit and I infact lost about 6 buy-ins at $50NL ($300 – ouch!) Luckily I was disciplined enough not to try and chase these losses, and I have now moved to $25NL while I rebuild my bankroll and also my confidence a bit too.

Things are turning around, and I have won back about 4-buy-ins at $25NL (about $100) and I intend to stay at $25NL until my bankroll gets back over the $1000 mark again (very very soon hopefully !) I am obviously disappointed about having to drop down again to $25NL, but I’ve discussed this with some other online players and it’s very common to have to take several shots at a higher level before moving up permanently, so at least it’s not just me.

There are too many hands to post since last time, so I won’t bother here, but starting from my next post, I’ll be posting hands again (good or bad), which will hopefully force me into thinking more about my game !!

GL at the tables.

Bankroll: $908

Still alive!

I am still alive, in case anyone is wondering… !

I haven’t posted in a while because basically I have been (and still am) on a business trip back in England and so have very little time for poker. I have played a few hands one evening on my laptop, but not very many hands because I don’t have my PT database or HUD installed on this computer and so I can’t really multi-table it. Actually, playing just 1 or 2 tables with no PT stats is quite a good exercise for honing your hand-reading skills as it really forces you to pay attention to what your opponents are doing – I really recommend you trying this every now and again.

Live poker

While I’m here, I’d really like to play a live game somewhere because in France, live games in casinos are still quite high stakes and too expensive and pretty crappy service to boot.

There is £10 freezeout tonight in a local Rileys snooker club. I went down there at lunchtime to check it out but it looks a bit crap. Clearly, they are just offering poker as a sideline to their main business and it shows – They have a load of crappy mobile tables which I think they’re just gonna put in the noisy bar area, right next to all the pool tables and I doubt for a £10 buy-in that it will be a proper croupier, but just self dealt maybe or a barman dealing. Hmm..

My other choice is a £75 ($150) freezeout tournament at Luton Casino.

http://www.gcasino.co.uk/luton/pokerschedule.php 

This is quite expensive I know, but Luton casino is supposed to be excellent for poker, a really classy place and good service and croupiers. It’s not as if I’m going to be doing this every week, and I think that at those stakes, I would be really concentrated! I think this is the one I am going to go for – I’ll call them up later, and get some more info from them.

Bankroll: $1145

Longish session

Just finished a longish session (by my standards) and finished up just over a buy-in. I was 4-tabling tonight to try and get used to it. Meh, it’s not easy and I don’t like not having time to really pay attention to the table dynamics, but I do see the advantage in playing more hands per hour.

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1679017

Yuck ! This is the first time in ages I have stacked off with TPTK. Even with checking behind on the turn for pot control, with 2 villains, the pot was already huge and if I called the flop I had to call the river and then make a crying call to the raise at the end. Ouch

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1679028

Villain had been raising way too much and so I was pretty sure I was ahead of his range. Problem is that he was also a calling station and A8o is still a marginal hand. Oh well, I think as played, I lost the minimum.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1679046

I so should have raised this river for value! Damn!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1679055

AA > QJs. Made a thin value bet on the river, hoping to get called by a pair of Kings or Queens.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1679066

Aces again. No idea what villain had here, but probably a flush draw. Maybe a check call on the river could have induced a bluff and got more value.

Session stats:

Number of hands: 753

Net profit/loss: +$55

Winrate: +7.36 ptBB / 100

Bankroll: $1130

Grinding

Played another short session today.

Here are some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1675137

This was a tricky spot because on the turn, the preflop raiser was still to act behind me, and I was worried he was going to check-raise which is why I only called. If this had been heads up I would have bet out on the flop and certainly raised the turn. Thoughts ?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1675149

I don’t like spots like this, where I flop a potentially strong hand out of position from the blinds. Since my hand was strong, but vulnerable, I wanted to keep the pot small. I always say to myself “don’t go broke in an unraised pot. I think I played the hand ok, but my raise was too weak on the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1675176

When I called villain’s raise on the turn, I realised I wasn’t quite getting the pot odds to draw to my flush, but I thought I was getting the implied odds, with villain being pot committed. In fact I was wrong, villain only had $3.50 left behind which only gave me implied odds of just less than 4-1, which is less than the 4.22-1 needed to make this a +EV call. The result was good, but I made the wrong play.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1675326

This was a tough decision to make. I knew it was a close call/fold decision based on the pot equity and odds being layed. In the heat of the moment, I figured I was getting close to 2-1 to call, which meant I needed at least 33% equity. The way the hand had been played, I figured AK/AQ was a large part of villain’s range. I reckoned if he had AA, he would have just called my reraise. If villain had had a fullstack, I would have folded here.

I have just analyzed this hand in pokerstove, and if I give villain range of JJ+, AKs,AKo, then it is practically a coinflip and I have 47% equity.If I give villain a tighter range of QQ+, AKs,AKo, then I have 40% equity.

So it turns out the call was correct.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1674985

Pretty standard AA > QQ. I was pleased with my bet-sizing on each street here to get all of villain’s stack in the middle.

Session stats:

Number of hands: 177

Net profit/loss: +$68

Winrate: +38.67

Bankroll: $1074