August -- Ouch

Well, August is in the books for me, and it was pretty frigging ugly. I played so-so, certainly room for improvement there, and ran absolutely terrible. I played significantly better than a lot of my competition, but wtf, I better be able to do that at this level. I got a lot of money in this month as a considerable favorite, but my opponents got there way more than their share.

At one point, I wrote about being frustrated because we keep score using money, and I have been languishing at the lowest stakes for a long time (41k hands of breakeven poker @ 25NL), but being happy about how I was playing and improving. Well, I still think that I'm improving, but taking a hard look at myself after participating in CR low limit and other blogs and forums, I realize that I've got a long way to go still in my development. I work hard at the non-play part of my development -- given my work and family schedule, it's hard for me to get the table hours in, but I can and do find time for reading, writing, and thinking about the game. Translating that study and knowledge into action at the tables is pretty questionable, contributing to another chunk of loss. From that standpoint, there is a silver lining: I'm getting my poker table education pretty cheaply.

The next thing I'd like to do, but it will be difficult for me, is to take this crew concept another step farther than just blogs. I've got some ideas here, and perhaps I'll post them separately. My issue is time: job, kids' sports and school activities, tennis one night a week, golf (at least) once a week, and a wife who for some reason actually wants to spend more time with me all make it hard to be available for group activities on a predictable basis. I'm also toying with the idea of hiring a coach, if I can find one for a reasonable amount.

OK, enough thoughts, here are the pictures.

I tried to tighten up my game some (I usually run a tad higher VPIP, but not much). It looks like I'm pretty nitty getting to showdown, but even so, I'm not even winning 50% of those times. Since I'm fairly aggressive, it doesn't look like I'm calling down too much, but I may be transparent, so that my opponents are only sticking around when they've beat me...I'll need to look at that some.


Sample size is a bit small, but it looks like I'm too loose in the first couple spots, especially UTG. I also am showing down higher percentage from UTG and MP, so maybe I'm falling in love with good looking starting hands. But I'm usually going to be OOP, and therefore less inclined to show down. Another thing to look out for.


Perhaps further evidence of being weak-tight, as I'm losing money when not showing down. For those who don't know this program (and you should check it out, it's called PokerEV, and there's a big thread about it on the 2p2 software forum), the red and blue lines represent showdown hands. The red line represents what you should have won according to equity when the money went in. The blue line represents the money you actually won. The green line is your total winning (or losing, for me). So, the gap between blue and green is how I'm doing when not showing down a hand, and I'm folding more often than not. This may actually be OK at micro stakes, as I'm not as likely to bluff or get bluffed, but it may indicate I'm playing scared as well.


This is the luck graph from PokerEV, and it's pretty self explanatory. This is a really nice little tool in a downswing to prevent a total lack of confidence.


Well, at least I had a couple dozen hands in the green :).

Here's looking to September. Oh, and if anyone from Full Tilt happens to be reading this....please turn off the doom switch on my account!

Catching up on some hands

I've been playing a little bit, mostly working and finishing Professional No Limit Hold'em. I'd recommend the book, but it was not mind-blowing. The authors have talked about this being a foundation for the 2nd, and possibly more, volumes. I could see that, and I am looking forward to whenever the next books come out. It would actually be pretty interesting to see one of the CR pros play according to some of the book's recommendations, or to have one of the authors do a guest video. Anyway, here are some hands.

Hand 1: Only a few hands on villain.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($15.80)
BB ($14.65)
Hero ($25)
MP ($25.80)
CO ($54.30)
Button ($26.75)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Kh, Ah.
Hero raises to $0.95, 2 folds, Button raises to $3.95, 2 folds, Hero raises to $13.15, Button calls $8.25.

I alternate here between calling and raising, but out of position, I'm more likely to raise.

Flop: ($25.70) Qd, Th, 6s (2 players)
Hero bets $12.8 (All-In), Button calls $12.80.

I'm probably not folding out much that beats me, but I'm pretty committed with overs and the gutshot, not to mention the back door flush. Perhaps I fold out another AK. OK?

Turn: ($51.30) 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)
.

River: ($51.30) 6c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $51.30

Results below:
Hero has Kh Ah (one pair, sixes).
Button has Qh Qc (full house, queens full of sixes).
Outcome: Button wins $51.30.

Hand 2: Villain is LAG preflop, but settles down to kind of middle of the road postflop.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

Hero (SB): $25.10
BB: $26.05
UTG: $9.75
MP: $33.35
CO: $48.10
BTN: $25.25

Preflop: Hero is dealt Ad Kc (6 Players)
2 folds, CO raises to $0.85, BTN folds, Hero raises to $2.80, BB folds, CO calls $1.95

Flop: ($5.85) 5s Ah Ts (2 Players)
Hero bets $5.85, CO calls $5.85

Turn: ($17.55) 5s Ah Ts 3c (2 Players)
Hero bets $7.40, CO calls $7.40

River: ($32.35) 5s Ah Ts 3c Qc (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO checks

I think everything up to the river is pretty standard. On the river is check/call the best line here? If I bet, I think most of the time I get called, it's with a better hand, and while I'm probably in trouble calling, there is a chance that he bluffs or at least bets a hand he thinks may be good since I checked. I normally don't like check/calling on the river after having the lead in the hand, but that may be a holdover from my LHE days, as for some reason, I see more plausible opportunities to do so.

Pot Size: $32.35 ($1.60 Rake)

Results:
CO had Ac Jd (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-$16.05)
Hero had Ad Kc (a pair of Aces) and WON (+$14.70)

Hand 3: This one is bad. It's a good example of how marginal/poor play early in the hand can screw you over. This is how I tilt...I talk myself into things that when I'm playing well I merely consider and then discard. I end up being too aggressive at first and then calling down when shown resistance. No balance.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 5 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $31.30
BB: $25.00
Hero (UTG): $40.15
CO: $20.00
BTN: $34.20

CO posts $0.25
Preflop: Hero is dealt Td Kh (5 Players)
Hero raises to $1.25, CO folds, BTN calls $1.25, SB calls $1.15, BB calls $1.00

I would not normally make this play, but there was some table context. I had been raising a fair amount, with decent cards, and for the most part people were folding (LOL at this hand, though). The button is very tight preflop, and the BB is also pretty tight, so all in all, not a terrible stealing situation, but definitely marginal at these limits.

Flop: ($5.25) 2d Qh Ah (4 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $3.60, 2 folds, BB calls $3.60

I was most worried about SB. Button likely has a pair or he would reraise, and BB could have a lot since pot odds were really good. Really, though, this is a good spot to not c-bet and just hope to spike my gutshot. Also, this bet is going to either commit me to the pot, or if I end up folding, it will have cost a lot. This is one of the commitment concepts from PNL. It would have been OK to put a bet in here with the intent of stealing, but with such a large field, I'm not stealing anything.

Turn: ($12.45) 2d Qh Ah 7h (2 Players)
BB bets $6.25, Hero calls $6.25

The turn donk threw me a bit, as I would have expected a flush to c/r me, so I thought that this more of a feeler bet. I almost pushed, and perhaps that would have been better as I have the NFD and still the gutshot in case he's not already flushed, and it would fold a lot of non-flush hands, and *possibly* (although doubtfully) a low flush. But I turn passive and call, which is likely the worst option of all, as I'm not getting odds if behind.

River: ($24.95) 2d Qh Ah 7h Jc (2 Players)
BB bets all-in for $13.90, Hero calls $13.90

I'm not at all sure about the river call, but getting 3:1 with the nuts if he doesn't have a flush, I think that it's OK. Villain has been pretty aggro postflop.

Pot Size: $52.75 ($2.60 Rake)

Results:
BB had 6h 4h (a flush, Ace high) and WON (+$25.15)
Hero had Td Kh (a straight, Ace high) and LOST (-$25.00)

Professional No Limit

@pkr_brat: I tried to get to your blog through your profile, but I got a message that said profile unavailable. Leave me a link to your blog in a comment, and I'll join in the discussion there.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Real life has once again intruded. I've been playing very little, and what playing I've done has not had such great results. I am not playing my A game, but not horrible, either. The cards just won't get there for me, or more accurately they get there too often for my opponents. I've been glancing at PokerEV (great sanity-keeping utility, although I'm not using its more powerful analysis capabilities), and I'm up to an 8-buyin gap between Sklansky bucks and actual winnings on my all-ins. That's over only 7,000 hands, so not good. What is good is that I'm feeling more and more confident in my player reads, and my decisions are better and better, which is especially good in the face of a rotten run of cards.

I've been reading Professional No Limit Hold'em for the past week or so. I'm almost done. It's well written (easy to read), but I'm struggling to apply (or how hard to apply) the biggest concept in the book -- SPR. If you haven't read the book, SPR stands for Stack to Pot Ratio, specifically taken at the beginning of the flop. Interestingly, if you play full stacks (100 BB), make a 4BB raise, and are called in one place, you have close to the worst SPR for a top pair type of hand. You don't get to an ideal SPR heads up with 100 BB stacks until you make about a 10x raise.

As more discussion evolves around this concept, it will be interesting to see what sort of impact the book has on the online game and how important SPR will be to the 6-max games specifically. A lot of SPR seems to apply more easily to lower live games for a couple reasons. For one, buy-ins are capped below 100BB, at least in the games around here. With smaller effective stacks, SPR goes up for the same preflop raise. More importantly, though, is that even with a largish raise, there are a lot of multiway pots, so the P in SPR goes up.

But online, even at the micro stakes, when someone puts in a pot-sized raise (much less a 4x raise), the pot will be HU. So, will we see a bunch of SPR-inspired short stackers? I think the benefits of playing a full stack still outweigh the SPR benefits, assuming we are on average more competent than our opponents. The goal behind SPR is to maximize your expectation in large pots, which is also one of the reasons to buy in full. There are several threads on 2+2 where the authors participate, and they are running a study session as well, so I'm sure this will be fleshed out more.

I'll try to get some hands posted soon, and make the way around the blogs to comment on others.

Joining the crowd...

I've noticed that at least a couple other bloggers have begun to post their big hands. I originally thought that's what I would do here, but instead I looked for interesting hands, and didn't even post as much as I wanted. Well if it's good enough for DODGYKEN and others, it's good enough for me, so am going to do at least a few posts of big hands, whether lost or won. For me, a big hand will be defined as 50 BB. My default will be to not post results.

I've regularly reviewed my biggest hands, and for the most part think I know whether I played them OK or poorly (and I do play far too many poorly). So, I haven't posted before. But actually, I think posting my crap hands -- even where I know what I did wrong -- will be somewhat like a penance for them. Also, there may be hands that I think I played well that you all may find problems, and if we've got blind spots in our big hands, that's deadly.

So, here goes with the first few. If you're curious about results, I'll be happy to post them later, just let me know.

Hand 1: Villain is 77/4 preflop :).

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 5 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $22.60
BB: $14.20
UTG: $12.65
Hero (CO): $25.00
BTN: $14.60

Preflop: Hero is dealt Kc Kh (5 Players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.95, BTN calls $0.95, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.25) 4c 6c Jd (2 Players)
Hero bets $2.25, BTN raises all-in to $13.65, Hero calls $11.40

Start with an easy one?

Hand 2: Villain is loose passive over not that many hands.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 4 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

Hero (SB): $34.80
BB: $10.00
UTG: $17.10
BTN: $31.15

Preflop: Hero is dealt Jc Ac (4 Players)
UTG raises to $0.50, BTN folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BB folds, UTG calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.75) 9c 6h 5c (2 Players)
Hero bets $3.00, UTG calls $3.00

Turn: ($9.75) 9h (2 Players)
Hero bets $7.30, UTG calls $7.30

I assume it's OK to fire a second barrel here. Not sure how much fold equity I've got (probably not a lot), but I have a fair amount of pot equity, and I'm out of position. In position, I would usually check behind, given the opportunity.

River: ($24.35) Jd (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets all-in for $5.05, Hero calls $5.05

When he didn't raise the turn, I thought it was most likely he was on a draw, so I thought my best chance to win when I paired on the river was to have him try to bluff.

Hand 3: Less than 20 hands with villain, nothing to report for reads.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 5 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $7.20
Hero (BB): $24.65
UTG: $15.50
CO: $22.00
BTN: $14.30

CO posts $0.25
Preflop: Hero is dealt Jd Ah (5 Players)
UTG folds, CO checks, BTN raises to $1.10, SB folds, Hero raises to $3.65, CO folds, BTN calls $2.55

I've been experimenting with more 3 bets out of the blinds versus button raises, and I think that this is at the low end of a legitimate 3-bet (and I've yet to begin fooling around with 3-betting junk).

Flop: ($7.65) Qd 9h Kd (2 Players)
Hero bets $6.10, BTN raises all-in to $10.65, Hero calls $4.55

I assume HU you're c-betting most everything you 3-bet, but maybe not on a board this likely to hit villain, who will not be able to get bluffed out of a pot if he hit it? My thinking is to fold out the pocket pairs that did not hit, as even if he's pretty committed, that is a hard flop to call with an underpair. But if that's the case, shouldn't I just be pushing?

Thanks for the ideas/encouragement

Thanks for the good ideas in response to my last post. I've not done any actual pokering, and hardly any study/reading/review, so I feel a bit refreshed. It helps that I've been prepping for and participating in a customer meeting the last few days ;).

Over the next couple days, I'm going to catch up on my PT reviews, try to catch up on some blogs, and maybe watch a video or two. But I probably won't have much time to play. I actually feel OK from a confidence standpoint, I'm just frustrated by the results. So, I don't think I'll drop a level or anything to regain confidence. I may drop a table (or two), but I sometimes do that regardless of how I'm running, just because it's a little changeup, and I can really focus on all the hands I'm not involved with, trying to put everyone on hands, etc. I actually probably don't do that as much as I should, from a learning standpoint.

All the ideas mentioned were good ones, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond to a semi-whine post. Hopefully, I won't be making many more of those ;).

Screw you, Full Tilt

August has started off with a bang. I'm down 7 buy-ins in a whopping 1500 hands. PokerEV says my Sklansky bucks are positive over that time (for those of you who don't know about this tool, it -- among other things -- will analyze your showdown hands and compare what you should have won to what you did win). There's an 8 buy-in difference between my Sklansky bucks and my showdown winnings! In 1500 frigging hands!

So, the good news is that I'm getting my money in well, at least in the hands that go to showdown, but the short term results have been absolutely brutal. This actually goes back to about the middle of last month, so it's been a few weeks, and I guess I don't have the mental toughness to just shrug it off...it's bothering me when I play.

I don't know how much my play actually changes in downswings because I remind myself not to let it affect me, and I have not done anything obviously stupid. My VPIP, preflop raise, and aggression numbers over the last few weeks are about the same as normal, so the losses are not putting me on insane monkey tilt. That said, I'm sure there are some at least subtle forms of tilt that come into play, because I'm not 100% focused on the game (thinking about results and bad luck, and steaming a bit in hands). When you're not 100% focused, you're not playing your best, so like I said, I'm sure it affects me somehow, just not sure how it manifests.

More than anything, it affects my enjoyment of the game, though, and that's where I wish I could just not pay attention to the bad luck. I'm fortunate in the sense that I don't rely on poker for the bills, but I'm also competitive, and have been languishing at 25 NL for far too long -- 27k hands, and I'd like to level up at some point ;).

So, what do you all do to pull yourself out of a mental funk?

Devil of a hand

This ended up being a bit longer than I thought.

I'm trying to catch back up and look over some hands from July at the same time. I've been looking at how I play pair hands, as I feel like although I win with them overall, a lot of times, I win too little or lose too much with them. I don't know of an easy way to get to them in Poker Tracker (the closest is filtering for pocked pairs), but I was trying to evaluate hands I set-mined and then hit the set. A lot of people -- me included sometimes -- justify pre-flop calls with medium and low pairs because of the stacking potential. I assert that we don't stack our opponents (deep stacked, anyway) that often when we hit, as they have to have a hand worth stacking off.

For the hands I hit my sets when calling preflop (as opposed to being the aggressor preflop), in fact, I did not stack anyone with more than half a stack. Now, I'll caveat this by saying that this is only over 11k hands or so, meaning that this is not a large sample size by any means. And it's certainly possible that either I'm playing these poorly or am too easy to read, so I don't get full value when I hit.

In July, the two biggest pots I played after hitting a set when calling pre-flop were when I was up against flush draws. The money went all in on the flop in both hands, and the flush got there both times. That's poker, but because the pots you lose with sets are likely to be big ones, you need to account for them when evaluating your implied odds.

I think that while you're a little worse than 7:1 against hitting your flush, you should really be looking at about 10:1 implied odds when set mining. I'm sure someone has written about this somewhere, but I'm just kind of thinking out loud here. Anyway, after backing out the two big cooler hands I mentioned above, I still only won about 4 times my set mining investment, far short of where I need to be.

So, on to the hands. I looked at a couple 66 hands where I set mined and hit (finally the post title reference ;) ). These were dug out of Poker Tracker, and I didn't think much of them at the time, so I don't have specific opponent notes, and in fact don't have that many hands on the villains.

Hand 1:

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 5 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $14.70
Hero (BB): $33.65
UTG: $7.60
CO: $33.75
BTN: $11.55

Preflop: Hero is dealt 6c 6s (5 Players)
UTG folds, CO raises to $0.85, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.60

Flop: ($1.80) 6h Qc 3d (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1.80, Hero raises to $4.00, CO folds

Here, maybe I should not checkraise the flop, since it is pretty dry. No turn cards really scare me, so I could wait, and then try it then. As an aside, I don't float all that much, and hands like this are probably good opportunities to do so, or to take the same line if the 6 were instead a 5.

Hand 2:

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $15.80
BB: $50.65
UTG: $27.95
MP: $54.70
CO: $9.15
Hero (BTN): $26.80

Preflop: Hero is dealt 6h 6d (6 Players)
UTG raises to $0.85, MP calls $0.85, CO folds, Hero calls $0.85, SB calls $0.75, BB folds

Flop: ($3.65) 6c Kc 4s (4 Players)
SB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets $3.00, 3 folds

I think my line is OK here, as I would like to protect against a flush draw, and I could hope that he's slowplaying AK, or even AA. Since he had a big stack, I would like to try and start building it on the flop.

I've been slacking!

Sorry I haven't been posting at all, it's been more than a week since my last post. For the month, though, I think I did a decent job commenting on other blogs, even when I didn't update mine. I should be able to dedicate some time this week, but I've thought that before. In lieu of specific hands, here are some general thoughts.

If anyone would be up for some semi-regular sweat sessions on either FT or Stars, leave a comment or send me a PM on Cardrunners. Michaeyk and I are trying to set up a weekly time, but he's out of commission for a bit. It might also be cool to have a group sweat. I'm only really able to participate after 8:00 Pacific, unfortunately. I should be good entertainment, as I'm trying to open my game up a little, and I feel a bit foolish in some of the hands.

I've got 10k hands in July, and it won't go much higher. It was a swingy month, and if it ends today, I will have eked out a 2 PTBB/100 month.

I had one streak of a few hundred hands where every big all in went the opposite way it should, which was unfortunate since I got my money in good in most of them, although my KK sucked out on AA once. The most annoying was when my BB special (Q3 on a Q33 flop) lost to AJ -- who bet/called the flop!! -- when turn and river were running jacks. He actually pushed the turn. LOL, I guess the games will always be good as long as that happens.

Most of my losses were poor play on my part, though, as I try to make some game changes. I'm recognizing my bad plays quickly, though, and still winning in spite of making some game changes, so that feels good. Kind of like in golf where you're making a swing change and it's uncomfortable at first, but you're still able to hold your own on the course.

It will be interesting to see how/if this blog experiment changes in August. I've enjoyed it so far, although I spend even less time on the forums than I normally do, and I need to correct that.

Some hands for Noel

Haven't been playing much unfortunately, but here are a few hands where I am pushing back more than usual. I play low, and try to play ABC most of the time -- not sure how well I succeed there -- but am also trying to pick some new spots to show aggression early. My stats should indicate to anyone looking that I'm somewhere between solid and nitty, IMO.

Hand 1: Villain is 16/12, and aggressive postflop. He's been pushing some folks around (but not me -- the 2 people between us had just left).

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 4 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $25.00
BB: $11.70
UTG: $25.00
Hero (BTN): $33.55

Preflop: Hero is dealt Th Jh (4 Players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.95, SB raises to $3.25, BB folds, Hero raises to $10.00

Hand 2: Villain is 27/21/2.8, and has floated me 3 or 4 times straight when he's had position, and he'd taken pots from me when I missed and didn't second barrel. He'd also squeezed a couple times.

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $38.60
BB: $16.75
UTG: $30.30
MP: $23.15
CO: $8.40
Hero (BTN): $24.90

Preflop: Hero is dealt 6s 8s (6 Players)
UTG folds, MP calls $0.25, CO folds, Hero calls $0.25, SB raises to $1.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.00

Flop: ($3) 5c Td 4h (2 Players)
SB bets $2.50, Hero raises to $10.50

Hand 3: Villain is 35/0/2.5 over 80 hands, but I don't think I had a ton of hands on him when this went down.

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 4 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $15.45
BB: $11.25
Hero (UTG): $31.65
BTN: $35.15

Preflop: Hero is dealt Jh Qh (4 Players)
BB calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.15, BTN calls $1.15, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.80) 6s 6d Kh (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.25, Hero raises to $5.00

Some Overpair Hands

I'm back from wedding fun and cleared off some important to-do items at work. Haven't played that much, but here are some overpair hands that happened somewhat recently. I really feel like I overplay overpairs, although in looking back through my biggest losers, I actually got money in good (either pushing or betting/raising), only to get coolered. Here are 3 hands where I'm either not sure or pretty much hate my play (you tell me which :) ).

Hand 1: Not many hands on villain....less than 40, but he was 38/20 over them.

$0.25/$0.50 Blinds - 5 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $50.95
Hero (BB): $56.45
UTG: $37.15
CO: $22.25
BTN: $32.90

Preflop: Hero is dealt Kc Kh (5 Players)
UTG raises to $1.00, CO calls $1.00, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5.00, UTG calls $4.00, CO folds

Flop: ($11.25) 6h 7d Qh (2 Players)
Hero bets $10.50, UTG calls $10.50

Turn: ($32.25) 3s (2 Players)
Hero bets $22.00, UTG calls all-in for $21.65
Uncalled bet of $0.35 returned to Hero

Note he didn't start with a full stack here, so I figured he'd call for 2/3 pot on the turn with any queen, and perhaps the NFD as well as possibly (but unlikely) JJ and TT. OK? Spew?

Hand 2: BTN is super LP preflop, although he's a little more aggro postflop (80/1/1.1 over 150 hands), and shows down a lot. He's run well, which might account for more aggression postflop than you'd expect for someone that LP preflop, and also why he shows down a lot. Of course sample size isn't that big either.

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $34.35
Hero (BB): $25.85
UTG: $24.65
MP: $21.75
CO: $9.55
BTN: $35.50

Preflop: Hero is dealt Qc Qh (6 Players)
UTG folds, MP calls $0.25, CO calls $0.25, BTN calls $0.25, SB folds, Hero raises to $1.50, MP calls $1.25, CO folds, BTN calls $1.25

Flop: ($4.85) 7c 6d 6c (3 Players)
Hero bets $4.85, MP folds, BTN....

What I want here is a plan depending on BTN's action. What is the plan if BTN calls and the turn blanks? What if BTN raises my c-bet? Finally, what if he just shoves?

Hand 3: SB is 20/8/2.5 over ~80 hands. I have a note on him that he got it in with TP in a marginal situation. Over ~60 hands, UTG is 74/14/2.2!

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $33.70
BB: $24.80
UTG: $21.15
MP: $46.25
Hero (CO): $37.80
BTN: $25.00

Preflop: Hero is dealt Ad As (6 Players)
UTG calls $0.25, MP calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.50, BTN folds, SB calls $1.40, BB folds, UTG calls $1.25, MP calls $1.25

Flop: ($6.25) 5s Jd 5c (4 Players)
SB checks, UTG bets $2.00, MP folds, Hero calls $2.00, SB calls $2.00

Turn: ($12.25) Qs (3 Players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $9.20, SB raises to $24.00, UTG folds, Hero raises all-in to $34.30, SB calls all-in for $6.20

I would normally raise the flop, but I wasn't too worried about SB getting ahead of me...I figured he would fold, and I was looking for a way to get more out of UTG. My plan was to raise his expected turn bet. I'm OK with betting the turn when it was checked to me, but I really don't like my push looking back on it, and I think I should get away from the hand. SB overcalled after a donk and the original raiser (me called), so he had to have a piece, and now SB takes a really strong line. Had SB and UTG been reversed, I would have liked my line OK. All that said, I was surprised at what SB had, but of course it doesn't change how good my decision is.

2 hands: Set and TP

Wow, I have been slammed. I played poker mostly vicariously this week, watching michaeyk tear it up in a sweat session. For myself, I've only played a couple hundred hands this week, and if I don't play tonight, that's probably it....leaving town tomorrow for a wedding....fun stuff, but no poker. OK, with that sob story out of the way, here are today's hands:

Hand 1: Villain is 35/25/3.5 over about 100 hands; I don't recall any other reads on him.

No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 4 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $24.75
BB: $14.85
UTG: $35.70
Hero (BTN): $25.00

Preflop: Hero is dealt 9c 9s (4 Players)
UTG raises to $0.85, Hero calls $0.85, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.05) 9d Jh 3c (2 Players)
UTG bets $1.75, Hero calls $1.75

Turn: ($5.55) 4c (2 Players)
UTG bets $4.25, Hero calls $4.25

River: ($14.05) Ts (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets all-in for $18.15, UTG folds
Uncalled bet of $18.15 returned to Hero

Pot Size: $14.05 ($0.70 Rake)

I've got several questions here....first against a guy this LAG, do you isolate preflop, or is it OK to just cold call and play for your set? I feel pretty good about the cold-call, just checking.

Second, my plan is to use his aggression to build the pot. I would have raised the flop or turn if there were an ace or king maybe, figuring he wouldn't let go with TP, but I usually wait for the river if the board isn't too threatening. Should I normally be raising an earlier street?

Third, if that's my plan, should I still be overbetting the pot on the river when he checks, or go for more of a value bet size?

Hand 2: Villain is semi-loose, and is also on another one of my tables, although I don't have a lot of hands on him. I think he was like 33/6/3 over 50-ish hands when this hand happened.

No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $19.40
BB: $34.25
UTG: $28.30
Hero (MP): $25.00
CO: $16.85
BTN: $37.45

Preflop: Hero is dealt Ks Jc (6 Players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.95, 3 folds, BB calls $0.70

Flop: ($2) 3h Kd 8s (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.60, BB calls $1.60

Turn: ($5.20) 9d (2 Players)
BB bets $3.00, Hero calls $3.00

River: ($11.20) 3d (2 Players)
BB bets $8.00, Hero folds
Uncalled bet of $8.00 returned to BB

Pot Size: $11.20 ($0.55 Rake)

On the turn, I was planning to check behind and call a bet on the river, but his donk bet on the turn spooked me. The flop was dry and the turn didn't bring any obvious help. I have a feeling calling is the worst option, but to me a fold felt too weak to just that bet, and a raise doesn't net me anything if I'm ahead, and obviously costs me if I'm behind. So, I called, hoping that he would let the river check through. With that in mind, it kind of makes sense to be calling the river, since I'm under-representing my hand and he's aggressive postflop, but his bet seemed like he wasn't looking for a fold.

So, what do you think, did I get pushed off the best hand? Should I have pitched it on the turn?

Quick Non-Post

I am slammed, both at work and with family stuff (nothing new), so not much play or time to post. I'll try to get a couple more hands up, and I'll make the rounds through the other blogs to comment on, as I can....comments first new content post second...hopefully by tomorrow.

I do have one sweat session set up for tomorrow night with Michaeyk, and really trying to get a second one with Liquigas, where my availability has been the issue, not his. I'm really looking forward to that, and seeing how it goes. Is there a sweating FAQ anywhere (not just software, but how far can you take the sweat session in terms of advice while in the hand, and the like)?

For instance, I could see where in the sweat session, you would say, "I'm thinking about raising, what do you think?" It would definitely violate the one player to a hand rule. I guess the player could talk/type their thoughts as they act, but then the non-player(s) would have to wait until the hand was over to comment?

Good enough implied odds to call down?

Villain here was on 2 of my tables, 3-betting (not me) a few times on the other one, and I think that he might be a 2+2'er, if not also a CR member. He was a bad guy to have position on me, and I was going to leave, except he beat me to it, but not before this happened.

I hadn't seen him show down anything, and he was 19/15/4.5 over 97 hands. So, here's my problem....I know he's 3-betting pretty liberally, and I have a hand w/good implied odds and position, but am not sure how to parlay that against a solid aggressive player. I guess it's a good thing I don't have to worry about it that often, but here I'm pretty sure I did the wrong thing getting involved, since I didn't have a confident plan, and I let him pretty much control the hand.

Let's say that you decide you are going to get involved....what do you guys do and why?

$0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

SB: $46.50
BB: $9.60
UTG: $7.15
MP: $8.55
CO: $25.60
Hero (BTN): $46.50

Preflop: Hero is dealt 9s 8s (6 Players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.95, SB raises to $3.00, BB folds, Hero calls $2.05

Flop: ($6.25) Ks 2s Tc (2 Players)
SB bets $4.00, Hero calls $4.00

Turn: ($14.25) Qh (2 Players)
SB bets $8.00, Hero calls $8.00

River: ($30.25) Ad (2 Players)
SB bets all-in for $31.50, Hero folds

Slumping -- but this is (hopefully) not a whine post

Well, July hasn't started any better than June finished :(. I think I'm now at 11 sessions in a row in the red. I'm pretty sure my biggest problem is not folding marginal hands. I don't so much call them down as I spew a 2nd (or even 3rd) barrel before admitting I'm beat. Well that, and my good hands are not holding up.

My confidence is actually still pretty high, even as my frustration grows, but maybe it shouldn't be. Below is a semi-recent snapshot of 25 and 50 NL. That's a brutal downswing (IMO) and a fairly long breakeven stretch. I don't spew *that* much, and I'm hesitant to just explain the rest of it as variance.



I don't play that much to begin with compared to the rest of the of the guys on the forums -- this is actually over a couple months and change -- but I may drop my play volume down even more and start combing through my hands, watching vids, and posting to your blogs and on the forums. My primary goal is to get better at the game, and perhaps that will be better than trying to play through the slump.

If anyone would like to sweat me on a table or two, that would be cool, but my availability is pretty sporadic -- my wife believes poker should be a much lower priority for me than it is, and we have a lot of family stuff geared up for the summer. If anyone would like to get together for a group sweat, whether it be me or someone else, I'd also like that.

Alternatively or in addition to sweating, if anyone would be up to swap a session or two for offline review, I've found that to be a great learning tool -- for both the person reviewing as well as the person getting reviewed. It's pretty easy to do, but can take quite a bit if you are giving and digesting decent commentary.

I hope this post didn't come off too whiny, as other than the competitive frustration of wanting to win, my mindset is pretty decent. I think I've got a handle on the biggest change to make, and even on the coolers, I'm happy to see that I'm playing well enough to get the chips in ahead, even if I don't stay there.

2 routine hands?

I don't think the following hands are particularly exciting, but they are interesting to me. I think I need to get a little passive sometimes to actually extract the most, but I still tend to pull the bet/raise trigger when playing. So, can you make a case to take a more passive line?

Also, I note that the tendency is for folks to format their hands using pokerhand rather than an inline converter. What do you guys think is easier for reviewing a fair number of posts....pokerhand or a nice inline converter? I'll try pokerhand this time around.

Hand 1
I think that you could make a case for not c-betting here. If ahead, I'm not too worried about many turn cards...even if he hits his flush on the turn, I've got a redraw. Also, he may take a stab on the turn when behind, and I'll be able to play a small pot in position with this hand. On the other hand, if I'm behind, I may have a hard time catching up. I think I'm OK with the fold. I'm really more interested to see if anyone routinely checks this flop behind.

Hand 2
Gotta love the BB specials :). My question is on the river whether here would be a good time to think about checking, either to induce a bluff or a mistaken value bet from a villain holding TP.

June Recap

Before the poker content....June was a good month for golf....index dropped under 6 for the first time in a while, thanks to a good round yesterday. It actually could have been a great round, but I had 2 bad breaks on 17. I was 2 over coming into that hole, and blocked my drive out to the right. I only missed the fairway by about 10 yards, but unfortunately the landing zone is the narrowest distance between fairway and out of bounds, with a cart path splitting the difference. My ball hit the cart path :(. We didn't think it was out, but we never could find it, so I had to take the penalty.

On my provisional, I hit the edge of the greenside bunker. It could have just as easily stayed out as gone in, but the ball didn't bounce the right way. I hit a terrible shot from there, and when all was said and done, ended up with an 8 on the par 4. The 18th is the hardest hole on this course. I played it OK, but still ended up with a bogey. So, 5 over on the last 2 holes after a really solid round up until then :(.

Poker wasn't so kind. I may write some more on that later, but the bottom line is that although I know I've still got some learning to do, there were a lot of hands I reviewed that I had my money in good, actually moreso than some stretches where I ran well but didn't play as well. I don't play the volume of hands that a lot of guys do -- June was just under 15k, so a few misplaced coolers and poor play really makes a difference. And I'm also starting to approach the comfort level in NL that I had in LHE, in fact, I would probably feel a bit lost in a moderately tough LHE game now.

For the month, I was:
VPIP = 21
PFR = 15
Aggression = 4.43
WtSD = 21
Won at SD = 48

I think what I need to focus on is to perhaps tone down my aggression a bit. It looks like I'm overprotecting my hands plus getting into some fit-or-fold situations because I'm really not getting to showdown that often, so you'd expect when I do get there, I'd be winning a lot more showdowns. I need to watch that, and perhaps ease up on the gas a bit postflop. A few hands to come in a bit.

A couple early hands

OK, so not technically July 1, but I'm not sure I'll be around anyway this weekend, so here are some hands:

Hand 1:
I don't have a big sample (75 hands), but villain was 31/3/1 over that time. Not sure how many hands I had on him at this hand's time. He only went to showdown 11%, and I don't have any notes.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $24.95
BB: $25.00
UTG: $19.15
MP: $56.55
CO: $30.40
Hero (BTN): $24.25

Preflop: Hero is dealt 5 5 (6 Players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.95, SB calls $0.85, BB folds

Flop: ($2.15) 6 A 8 (2 Players)
SB bets $2.15, Hero raises to $6.70, SB calls $4.55
Uncalled bet of $0.00 returned to Hero

Turn: ($15.55) 8 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5.50, SB raises to $11.00, Hero folds
Uncalled bet of $5.50 returned to SB

Pot Size: $26.55 ($1.30 Rake)

Given his cool call preflop, I didn't figure him for a big ace so I raised trying to push him off a bigger PP than mine. When he just called the raise, I planned to double barrel, although I didn't like the middle flop card pairing at all. So, on the flop, what do you think? I will fold a good degree to donk bets on the flop if I miss completely, but sometimes I think that people will donk as a bluff when the ace hits, and I raise with air (like this) sometimes, and usually with a big ace as well (although sometimes in position, I wait for the turn as well). Is the second barrel pure spew? I assume the fold is clear, but the pot odds are OK, and villain cannot extract much more if I call.

Hands 2 & 3

I tangle with the same villain in these hands. I'm including hand #2 mainly as context for hand 3, although it's entirely possible I should not be getting it all in on hand 2. Villain later turned out to be more LAG than maniac, so perhaps he was just running hot, but at the time he was 40/25/3.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 3 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $40.00
Hero (BB): $30.30
BTN: $36.85

Preflop: Hero is dealt A K (3 Players)
BTN folds, SB raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25, SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) 6 A J (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, SB calls $3.50

Turn: ($11.50) A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $8.65, SB raises all-in to $34.25, Hero calls all-in for $15.90
Uncalled bet of $9.70 returned to SB

River: ($60.60) T (2 Players - 2 All-In)

Pot Size: $60.60 ($1 Rake)

I thought he could be doing this with a weaker ace or possibly a heart draw, so I called. I'm not sure I should be playing such a huge pot with TPTK, but he was pretty wild. If you want to give any thoughts, do so before I tell you the results (which will have a bearing on the next hand)
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So, he had Ad Td, getting there on the river. Good news is I got my money in way ahead, bad news is that he got there. That's poker, right? Anyway, like I said, this hand is only interesting as context for the next hand, which happened not too much later.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $30.80
BB: $74.65
Hero (UTG): $28.95
MP: $30.10
CO: $24.65
BTN: $13.00

Preflop: Hero is dealt Q Q (6 Players)
Hero raises to $0.95, 4 folds, BB raises to $2.95, Hero calls $2.00

Flop: ($6) 6 5 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $5.25, Hero raises to $21.75, BB raises to $38.25, Hero calls all-in for $4.25
Uncalled bet of $12.25 returned to BB

Turn: ($58) 3 (2 Players - 1 All-In)

River: ($58) 4 (2 Players - 1 All-In)

Pot Size: $58.00 ($2.90 Rake)

Normally, I would just call in position on the flop and re-evaluate the turn, but he was wild, and I was playing for the chance that he had big overcards or a lower PP (even though he 3-bet), and that he thought I was FOS/tilting. FWIW, I use a hot key to raise, and I should have just pushed the flop rather than the actual raise I made, but the question is really whether this is even any good.

OK, lemme have it :).

Cardrunners LL Community

I tried to link all the North America LL grinders who posted their blog entries, as well as cross-post anyone who added me. I'm looking forward to the July experiment! I agree with some other comments that I saw, that we should not post tons of hands.

I personally am thinking about only posting the 2 or 3 biggest pot hands, excluding preflop all-ins -- whether I won or lost, whether or not I think I played them well. It's always interesting when you think you played a hand well, and someone else sees a problem with it.

Let me know if you're not on my blog list and would like to be, I easily could have missed someone, trying to multitask here. I'm a 6-max online player, but do play live once in a while, so will hopefully be able to comment on some full ring hands as well.

Playing again after a break

I've been an avid hobby player for 2+ years, LHE until this year. I played and ran good (although definitely could have been better), but LHE stopped being fun for me, so I donked around with O8 and NLHE. Decided to stick with NLHE, although really took an extended break of sorts until the last couple months.

Had about a grand on Stars and a couple hundred on FT, and decided to build both by 2-tabling 50NL on Stars and 4-tabling 10 NL on FT. Ran ridiculously well at both, but didn't have the confidence in my game as I did with LHE, and in fact still think I play like a limi-donk.

Sometimes poker sucks, but you have to take it in stride

Last night, I had the most miserable live session of poker that I can remember. Looking back on it today, I'm disappointed, but actually feel OK about it, since I think I didn't cost myself extra by bad play. Bad cards were unfortunate, but I know it's going to happen. I will say that I was pretty discouraged and made a few comments at the table. I wish that I had the attitude and demeanor then as I do now. But, I am learning. A while ago, I would have gone on tilt and done some stupid plays, making a bad situation worse. At least I had the presence of mind this time to not let my emotions affect my play (much, anyway), even if I didn't act well.

The problem is that even though my play was OK, I still detracted from my table image. I think that made people totally unafraid to push me around, which had I been in more marginal situations would have made it tougher on me. For the most part, my hands were pretty hopeless, not really marginal at all.

Playing 6/12 at an absolutely killer table -- people playing tons of hands, calling down if they have less than 2 pair (except for the guy who raised everytime, except when he had a good hand), yada yada yada. One guy who raised and capped preflop with pocket fives check/called down the preflop 3-bettor with 3 broadway cards on the flop, and a fourth one on the river! And me? I played for a touch over 5 hours on that table and I won exactly 4 hands, and one of those was on a stone bluff from the big blind.

I didn't win my first hand for an hour and a half, the fourth dealer I saw. The only good thing is that for the most part I was getting such bad cards, it only cost me the blinds or I could get out on the flop pretty easily. I couldn't usually take much advantage of a tight image because there was really not much bluffing going on -- just about every hand was shown down, a lot of times by 3 or 4 people. I only had 2 pots where I lost a lot, and only one of those was more than I should have. That one I flopped the top end of an open ended straight draw on a rainbow board, but was caught between a guy with top pair, and another guy with two overcards who wanted to make sure he got all in (he thought it was lucky to be all in -- LOL). It probably should have been clear to me on the flop that I was going to be squeezed, and the short stack was able to get the turn to a 3-bet before he was all in. Of course, the straight draw didn't come in.

The other big hand was when I had pocked kings which I got to 3 bet preflop, and had a few people go to the flop. It was a low flop, probably something like 973, 2 spades. The preflop raiser bet into me, I raised, everyone folds except a lady in the big blind, who cold calls (she also cold called the preflop 3 bet). The turn was inconsequential. It was checked to me, I bet, the lady called, and the other guy folded. The river was another 7 to pair the board, and the lady checkraised me. It may have been the first time she'd raised (and this was a few hours in), and was definitely the first time she checkraised, although she then did it to someone else just a little bit later. I figured she had just hit trips, but I couldn't find a fold. She had K7 :(. That knocked me down to a little over two racks in the hole, and I played a few more orbits and took off.

The last several times I've been out to the cardrooms or online, it's kind of gone like that. Maybe not so brutal, but certainly a lot of bad players making their bad plays, and getting there. I'm able to see all the stuff they're doing wrong, and I feel like I'm getting my money in with the best of it, and getting away with the worst of it (early), and generally playing pretty solid. But the chips aren't sliding my way. So, definitely not as fun at the table as being on a heater when I didn't really know so well what I was doing. But away from the table, I actually feel pretty good, even though I'm losing. I've still got enough that I don't have to drop a level, and I'm clearly seeing what my opponents are doing wrong, and my mistakes are not as costly as they have been in the past. I just need to get that attitude ingrained while the game is going on, instead of the next day thinking it over or writing a blog entry!

OK, off to a kid's soccer game -- second one today :). Here's hoping to better luck at the tables and getting some of the big mo back in the game!