Amusement Park

Yesterday started off pretty good...we got 3 free tickets to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom thanks to the kids' school, plus I played some live poker Friday, did well, and so had plenty of cash for my ticket and whatever we wanted to do at the park.  The one ride my son really wanted to do was a roller coaster called Kong, and he evidently is exactly 52 inches tall...dead even with the ruler.  So, we were all thrilled he could go (whole family likes roller coasters, but none more than my son, and obviously this was the first time he could ride this one).

From there, the day got worse.  As we were walking to the next coaster, Jennifer stopped in her tracks and said, "Crap! I don't have my phone!"  Up until 2 weeks ago, for the past 4 years or so, she'd used the same crappy free flip phone, and never had any issues.  But she finally caved in to iPhone envy after watching me use mine all the time, so I bought her one. 

Somewhere on one of the loops or corkscrews of Kong, I guess her new phone slipped out of her pocket and launched itself into the air.  To make a long story short, we stuck around for 90 minutes after the park closed until they brought the phone back to us at the front gate.  It looked unscathed, but the display shattered inside.  So much for a cheapish day at the park; best we can tell, to fix it via Apple will be at least $250.

Speaking of expensive days at the park, Jennifer and I were marveling at how many people who just looked like money might be tight for them (obviously, knowing nothing about them, just the way things looked) spent a crapload of cash at the park.  I mean, even when times are tough, you need to have some fun once in a while, but it seems to me that an amusement park can be one of the most expensive ways to have a fun day with the family.

Falling behind again

Several months ago, a bunch of stuff required my attention at the same time, both in and out of work.  I finally broke down and started using a to-do list again, and even started listening to the Getting Things Done audiobook (finishing it is still on my to-do list, lol).  One of the premises behind organizing your tasks effectively, beyond completing them in the best order for you, is that you can actually stop thinking about them.  I was a bit skeptical, but I did notice that I didn't dwell on them as much when I finally got them into an organized system that I was checking daily.  And I did get myself into better shape in terms of things looming over me.

I would say I'm still in great shape for a bunch of stuff, but on the poker front, I really have gotten lazy about using my time effectively.  I'm not sure how related it is, but I'm also not thinking about the game very well at the moment.  Away from the tables, I'm spending too much time refreshing the software forum in 2p2 to see what's up with developments dealing with the new FT client.  And, I'm over-tweaking all the graphics stuff myself.  It's bad for a couple main reasons:

1. I'm doing a crap job focusing on strategy.  I have not completed watching a video this month.  I have not read any strategy posts or made any progress in Small Stakes NLHE in the entire month.  Hell, I recorded my last lesson, which was on 7/10, and it took me over a week to get it converted so I could re-watch it, and I'm still not done with it.  (Brian, I still intend to review your latest video and see if I agree with the comments being posted, but I must get through my own recording first!)
   
2. I'm playing sessions without being as mentally prepared as I'd like.  When I'm spending my time in good poker discussions or doing quality poker learning away from the table, I feel like I come to the table with a lot more focus.  That's missing.  At least, it seems to me that I'm playing like an absolute douche.  On said lesson, in the first 40 minutes, I asked some questions and took a line that I'd be embarrassed to have a newb hear/see.  In fact, I had to stop the video just now, which is why I'm writing this.  A couple times in recent sessions, I've found myself taking actions without knowing why, and not in spots where it should happen.

The FT Update Blues

I have been completely non-productive as far as poker is concerned, for a week or so.  When Full Tilt pushed out their update, I found out just how dependent on 3rd party programs I am :P.  While it didn't take all that long to find an acceptable table mod, it did take me a bit to figure out how to apply it.  And I was playing with a pretty crappy deck for a bit, when I was playing.  By now, I actually think I have a better looking setup than before (I'll try to remember to screen shot it).

But for several days, I was back to only using the tools that the poker client provides in order to play, and I sucked at that!  I thought it would be inconvenient to play without my AHK scripts, but it was more than that.  Even playing 3-4 tables, I was timing out all over the place for a bit.  When I stopped timing out, I was still paying so much attention to the time bank that I missed some pretty big details about the hands, and also kind of went on auto-pilot.  I had a lesson with Jared last Friday that was pretty laughable in terms of what I was missing.

Add to that, I had not been able to pull myself away from some of the trainwreck threads in the Zoo, plus refreshing every 30 minutes in the software forum to read about the latest updates.  So, I didn't play at all until yesterday, and even that was just on 2 tables of 50NL to test out the first betas of Poker Shortcuts and SpadeEye-post update.  Poker Shortcuts worked some, but it was doing all kinds of crazy stuff with calculating bets and what-not.   The good news is that I made over 2 BI in like 150 hands :).  Way to run hot when playing lower.

Tonight, I will disable some of the functions in Poker Shortcuts, but it still has the ability to click on the time bank and let me fold with the keyboard, both of which will put me back in my comfort zone.  Seat selection may be a bit of a different story.  SpadeEye went a lot slower.  It also reported finding a lot less players than I'm used to.  Finally, table scoring doesn't work yet.  I'd devised a pretty intricate table scoring system that I think worked better than just looking at average VPIP or # of buddies, or whatever.  Still, it's better than what I had right after the update, and I'm looking forward to getting back into playing.

I think I'll also re-watch my last lesson and Josh's reviews before playing a ton more.  Hopefully between finding some sort of software equilibrium and doing some more in-depth thinking, I'll quickly get back to where I was mentally just before the update.

Week off when I didn't want it

Thanks to a family vacation (which was a lot of fun), I took a week off from poker, for the most part -- see exceptions below.  Things had been going pretty well pokerwise before the break, so it wasn't the right time for one, but what can you do?

Played a short session after a week, and definitely noticed the break, just in terms of anticipating what players would do, and how quickly I was making decisions.  I definitely didn't feel sharp.  I'll have to review the session later, but I think I ended up playing OK with a couple notable exceptions that were pretty spewy, although only one bad hand for a decent sized pot.  I think the big hand I played the worst on, I got lucky to be AI with the nut flush draw against a guy who had a flush draw with a gutter to a straight flush, but he ended up hitting his gutter.  He had 8 outs against me on the flop when all the money went in (well, not quite, because I had some re-draws, I guess), so it's not like a horrible beat or anything.  There were some other hands where I just ran bad, plus didn't get value from good hands, so all in all a bitch-slap of a welcome back.

The only pokering on vacation was at Harvey's in Lake Tahoe, and as usual, live poker results in some pretty LOL plays.  I was completely card-dead, so those plays didn't involve me...I'm just saying.  I think that I VPIP'ed maybe 6 hands in 2 hours, it was seriously pathetic (and boring) how cold I was.  The table was actually filled with supposed regulars -- everyone but myself and two other guys (the second guy took the first guy's seat) knew the floor and dealer, and were chatting with each other. 

I stayed at the table because they didn't seem that good, it was the only 3/5 table -- the others were 2/2/3, and the other non-regular besides me played every hand, usually as the preflop raiser.  He was pretty funny.  Young guy who I probably caught a contact high from, 3 seats away.  Came in on his skateboard, lost 2 of his BI (not sure how much) pretty quick, then just pulverized the table, especially the guy just to his right.  For several hands in a row, he agonized every time the guy on his right bet, then ended up either raising or calling, no matter what kind of piece he had of the board, and won every hand.

I won exactly 3 hands, 2 on the flop, 1 on the turn, but actually profited in the 2-hour session, thanks to a ton of preflop callers on 2 of those hands.  At least one of the cocktail waitresses was pretty good looking.

Not much going on

Usually when I'm not blogging much, one of two things is going on:  I'm not playing and am busy with other stuff, or things are going well poker-wise.  Lately, both have been true, I guess, but mostly busy.  June will end up a low-volume month, as I'm busy with a lot of family stuff.

On the poker side, I'm reasonably happy with how things are going.  I still see spots where I'm making mistakes, and there is plenty of work to do.  But a few of the things I've been focusing on improving have improved.  Mostly, getting back to focusing on opponents' ranges, especially when betting.  The second thing is making sure to make bigger value bets, especially against looser opponents.

One thing I have been blowing chunks on is detailed session reviews, calling out trouble hands for Jared.  I've played very few hands, but it's also been a while since I shipped him any hands.  We do have a lesson coming up, and I may take some of that lesson time to let him pick through PT and see what he sees.  After today, I should be able to get back to getting through my hands/sessions.

Inconsistent betting patterns

Although I haven't been finding a ton of time for poker, I've been pretty diligent reviewing the sessions that I so play.  I've noticed that I still have a tendency to under-size my bets, especially on the later streets.  Betting too little can be just as bad as calling too loosely; either way, your bottom line suffers.  The insidious part about betting too little is that it's a little more hidden.  Your stats don't get affected enough to notice, so you really have to dig through hands to figure out that you bet too little, or have someone review you.

The strange thing is that as I'm reviewing sessions, most of the time, my bet sizes seem pretty good, but then for no apparent reason, I'll have some small bets scattered in the session.  I'm trying to figure out what makes me inconsistent, as well as what just makes me bet small in the first place. 

My gut reaction is that I'm playing with a little too much fear.  I'm rolled well and table select well enough to feel like I have an edge when I sit, so it's not those things that would be scaring me.  It might be that I'm afraid to make a big mistake.  Not that I like it, but I don't really mind terribly getting stacked when it's a clear cooler or beat, but I hate the thought that I could be making a big mistake.  I want to be good enough to not make big mistakes. 

For instance, I played a hand recently where I ended up stacking off KK.  I raised UTG and TAG calls in SB.  Flop was Q22dd that he c/c.  Turn was an offsuit 9 that he c/r.  He shoved river which was an offsuit 4. 

Of course he could have a boat, but if he's at  all capable of overplaying AQ or bluffing JdTd, then it's going to be close one way or the other.  The feeling I had when he showed QQ was quite disproportionate to the mistake I made.

Hopefully, writing about it will reinforce my focus on making more confident bets and realizing more value.

Stars not aligned

I was probably too tired to play last night, but I went ahead and did it because I just have not been able to get the hands in.  For me, it's one of the perils of being a very part-time player:  when the opportunity presents itself to play, I'm probably going to play, even if I know it will be hard to play an A game.  Kind of like when it's raining out and I go play golf anyway, or skiing in a blizzard, I guess.  I just don't have enough time where taking a pass is better than playing under sub-optimal conditions.  I know from a strictly monetary standpoint, I'd be better off to play way lower, or instead of playing to watch a video or analyze a regular, or something.  But since I still actually enjoy playing, I get in the game when my edge, if it's there at all, is small.  I don't make that choice all the time, but at least now when I do, it's with awareness.

As my VPIP and PFR have climbed from the 19/16 to the 25/21 range, I notice that I'm getting more action, although I'm not sure how well I'm reacting to it.  A TAG 3-bet my CO open from the SB with K5s, which I definitely wouldn't put in a TAG's range..but if he sees I'm stealing very wide, I suppose it's reasonable.  I also got a lot of action from another TAG-bordering-on-nit who had 99 on a K85 flop in a raised pot who obviously didn't give me credit for having a king.

Unfortunately, neither of those went my way, although I made the 2nd hand significantly worse than it should have been on the river when he spiked and led.  I also lost 4 AIPF flips, but those hands kind of play themselves, I just got unlucky with them.  It wasn't enough to stem the tide, but on the one big pot I won, I did have another TAG willing to get AIPF with me for 160bb when he had AK (my AA held).

The only other big hand that I lost and felt really bad about was when a TAG who had position on me but had not really tangled with me yet 3-bet my HJ open from CO.  He only had a 5% 3-bet over a large sample, but from a stats and winrate view was very solid.  I just called the 3-bet with JJ, looking for a non A/K flop, which I got, something like 964 two-tone.  The thing is that unless shown otherwise, I should not think he is going to play for stacks with a worse hand than mine, but instead I way-overplayed my hand checkraising him AI on a blank turn.  There's no way he calls with a worse hand.

The big problem for me being tired is that the flips, coolers, and beats I had taken earlier in the session get to me way more than usual.  If I'm not tired, those things don't bug me nearly as much as they used to.  And I'm sure that I was steaming nice and hot before and during that hand.  But that hand also kind of bitch-slapped me back to the moment, and I bore down, dropped a table, and played OK from then on out, for the most part, even when again some bad luck came my way.  After I convinced myself that I'd kind of righted my emotional ship, I shut it down, and watched an episode of 24 before calling it a night.  But that allowed me to take a couple silver linings from an otherwise brutal session:

• I was able to control myself eventually, even under what were for me challenging conditions.  I think that's an important life-skill, not just limited to poker.  The goal is to not even have the one big slip-up, but like I said, I was looking for silver linings ;).
• Results-wise, after throwing out the flips and beats, I did quite well, which is nice to see as I would like to be able to continue applying increased aggression.  I have a long way to go there, but I don't want to over-adjust myself into spewville, a place I've certainly visited enough already.

Slow going

Life-wise things are going great.  Poker, it's been going fine, except I'm just getting in so few hands.  In the last few weeks, in addition to work and little league which have been busy, I've had:  wife's birthday, son's birthday, niece's birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day, school fundraiser (helping and attending), which have been great, but also have pretty much consumed nights and weekends.

In the few hands I have played, I've really been focusing on turn aggression, to the point that I'm maybe overdoing it (Turn AF is 4.50 in my last few thousand hands, which is significantly higher than it had been).  I'm not too worried about it because it's short term, and in reviewing hands, I'm not really spewing.  The mistakes I'm making, when I'm making them, are betting with the likely best hand but when I should probably be checking for pot control and extraction, and also making some overly tight folds.  Neither of those are good, but they won't get me in a ton of trouble.  And over that stretch, I'm getting to showdown 26% of the time, so it's not like I'm going overboard blowing people off hands or folding myself.

I did finally have a chance to play a decent session yesterday, about 850 hands, and I could tell that I was a bit rusty for sessions of any length, as my focus was not too good.  Had really good seats on a few tables or I probably would/should have quit, but instead, I just sort of backed down from confrontations with TAGs after a couple poor plays (where I slipped back into some passive play) and focused on the weaker players.  I had to really bear down to concentrate the last 30 minutes of the session, but I feel I did a decent job.  I'm going to take a detailed look later to confirm that, though.

Bizarro

Poker is really strange for me in that sometimes I do exactly the opposite I should do, but in both directions.  Like sometimes on the turn with a made hand, I'll make a totally weak/tight fold, yet other times with a made hand I'll make a totally spewy call or raise all in.  I'm picking the turn specifically because I'm trying to do a lot of thinking about my turn play.  Most of the hands I "get wrong" when I send them to Jared are mostly misplayed on the turn.  In a recent video swap with Josh, he also found some instances of pretty poor turn play.  Not saying I have the other streets down, but I do think that the turn is where I make my biggest mistakes.  But the whole idea of making opposite mistakes in both directions applies throughout my poker game.

For me, that makes it significantly harder to attack my own leaks.  Dunno if that's the case for everyone.  So what I do is keep iterating on a number of different things, continue probably making the same sorts of mistakes but to lesser and lesser degrees, until eventually I come out of a bad habit, at least for a while.  I keep thinking/hoping there's a more efficient way to improve -- especially with limited time and energy to dedicate to my game -- but I've yet to find it.  The good news is that I think I do continue to improve, and I continue to turn a profit.  I know that it's actually a good thing that poker is, if not hard, at least not simple.  But I keep thinking I'm just missing a magic bullet or two that would accelerate improvement.

A couple related things I really suck at relative to you guys:  player-specific adjustments, and bet/raise interpretation.  Unless I'm really focused, and it's not even so good then, I tend to play against everyone as if I'm playing against a TAG, or more accurately against myself.  I see what they do, and I think what it would mean if I did it, and go from there.  I know that's wrong, believe me, but even being aware of it, I find myself struggling to put villains' actions in the context of the player type they are, and to exploit specific weaknesses beyond the simplest ones (like isolating the loose passives, c-betting as a bluff against the guys who fold to c-bet a lot, etc.).  And even against TAGs, I totally mis-interpret their bets and raises sometimes.  I guess that's why I find myself making bizarro decisions sometimes, actually.

In case this post comes off as being too whiny, I will say that I believe there are a lot more things going right with my game than are going wrong with it.  Just that there are always weak points no matter how good you are, and that's what I'm thinking about in terms of the weak points in my game.

Oh (and this is whiny :P ), I continue to run like shit in lessons!  I dropped over a BI in not that many hands, and that was even with winning a few medium pots.  But lost a BI on a flip, and even more frustrating was a fairly big fish who kept redistributing my money...he called any piece down against everyone, but against my good second and top pair hands, he had just a barely better hand like four times.  So, he would get my money, then call down ace high and bottom pairs to the rest of the table.  Grrr.  That said, I picked a couple things up from the lesson that were new and should help, plus reinforced some of the good things I'm doing.

Back, almost ready for some action

Vacation was great, took Mark's advice and pretty much disconnected (truth be told, it was due a lot to not having ready internet access :) ).  Pretty much only looked through blog posts from my phone, and did a little bit of cleanup from raw notes I've taken.  Only bad part is that I got seriously sick for a couple days.  Somehow, I stay in pretty good health for someone who gets too little sleep, too much food, and has a couple kids in the petri dishes otherwise known as elementary school.  It's been a few years since I had anything stronger than a mild fever, cold, or sore throat.  But something sure knocked me out last week for a couple days -- I'll spare you the details, suffice to say they are not pretty.  No fever and pretty much ate the same stuff as everyone else at the in-laws' house.  Best guess everyone had is that I got very dehydrated.  Anyway, it's over and done with, and I feel fine now.

I did play a short session on the weekend when we got back.  I was worried about not being sharp after a week with no play and little/no study, but it went well.  I played OK and ran well, and only played 2-4 tables at a time.  I also started reviewing a review of my play from before I left, which I'll finish up in the next day or two, then hopefully be back in full swing.  I do have to get unburied at work, plus it's my son's birthday this week, which we have some stuff lined up for.  So, in reality, it may be next week before I hit the ground running for real.

I see that while I was gone, the latest What Would Joe Tall Do video came up, and Jared was the guest coach.  I don't know exactly what my score was, but I know I missed some, based on the answer key Joe posted.  That's kind of discouraging...I've been taking lessons with Jared long enough that I should have aced his episode :(.

Little bit of a lull

Not too much time for poker this last week or next week.  I'm on vacation next week which means I had a shitload of stuff to wrap up at work this week, plus my wife's birthday was yesterday, so we went out last night (and are going out tonight). 

I did force myself to play one session this week long enough to get some hands in for a video review, and the timing was horrible...answering homework questions, phone calls, played tired, etc.  I knew going into the session it was not ideal, and that actually helped me play a little better (more focused than I would have been).  I've actually been pretty disciplined about not doing that, but really wanted to get a video recorded, given it was then or wait at least a week and a half.  I probably made more mistakes than normal, but nothing horrible (I don't think...we'll see what the video review uncovers :P).  And I ran goot, so results were good.

Other than that, it's been 30 minutes here, 40 minutes there for the whole month so far, and not even many of those.  I've got a whopping 2,000 hands in for the month...less than some of you guys do in a day.  I will probably be able to play when we get back tonight, because it takes me all of 10 minutes to pack for vacation, but Jennifer takes a couple hours,  plus she has some other stuff she has to get done before we leave tomorrow AM.  So, it will just be a matter of what state I'm in when we get home.

We're going to my in-laws in Palm Desert (basically Palm Springs).  They have a condo there, where they spend the winter.  Kids are out of school next week, so we're heading down to spend Easter with them, plus I think two of my nieces.  I'm lucky that I like my in-laws, so a visit with them is pretty easy.  Plus, I'm going to play at least 3 rounds of golf on some great courses, for a bonus. 

The beat is that they have a dial-up ISP, and the computer is located in their bedroom anyway, so the only way for me to get online is to hope that one of their neighbors has an open WiFi connection.  Anyway, I won't have that much time unless everyone goes to sleep early.  Got a few vids loaded up on my iPhone, so I'll have something to review in any event, and can at least get emails and what-not.

Buh-bye, March, don't let the door hit you on the way out

Started off continuing a hot streak where I felt I was playing well, running well, and really enjoying poker.  But most of the month was a train wreck, results-wise.  My play has been so-so.  For the most part not atrocious, but certainly not inspired.  I guess my B or B- game.  Until today, I actually hadn't played much because too many other things were going on, and I was really tired.  From that perspective, my discipline was really good.

The layoff didn't do me any good today, though, as I punted another 2+ BI, to cap off the month.  Overall, it was a negative 9 BI month, but the downswing I'm on is more like 17 BI (can't see the exact #s right now).  A lot of beats and coolers in big pots, some repeated mistakes in medium pots.  Mostly getting too passive (or maybe fancy).  So, I get one less street of value with winners and pay off one extra street with losers a lot of the time.

Still fairly well rolled for 200NL if I decide to stay, although I do need to pull out of the slump soon or I'll be tempting BR fate.  But as usual for me, my confidence at the tables is a bit shot, even if upon review that's not warranted.  I guess as long as I can find decent seats, my attitude going in to the session is good, I avoid any overt tilt at the tables, and my post-session reviews don't reveal anything hideous, I'll keep plugging away at 200NL.

Josh was talking about some video swaps.  I'd also mentioned it to Brian, but never took action.  I'd like to start some video sweats with the Ninjas (and ex-Ninja) periodically.  Video sweats work better for me than live sweats because I have more time to do them.  I think they work well in small groups, too, because you can pause the action to delve into a point, in a way that you cannot do in a live session. 

I'll be out of town/away from the computer for the week after Easter (visiting the in-laws in Palm Springs, playing some golf on great courses, and more fun).  But other than that, I should have some time during the day, as we just hit a huge project milestone at work, and things should be pretty quiet for 3-4 weeks until we ramp up again.  Not that it will translate into more poker, thanks to little league season!  Anyway, let me know if you're interested in some video sweats.

OK, bring on April!

New PLO Book

I received an early draft of an upcoming PLO e-book written by Tri "Slow Habit" Nguyen.  He's already written an e-book on NLHE with cts which I heard great things about, but which is currently out of my price range.  So, even though I've never played PLO or even watched a video on it, I was pretty interested in reading through the book.

It struck me as I was reading it that I used to read an awful lot of poker books. I've got books that I've read scattered throughout the house and garage, and stopped counting my old poker books at 19, but there were probably a few more.  And actually, just about all of them were pretty good (never bought a poker book before discovering 2+2, so between their decent quality and book forum, I was able to do decent research before buying).  I've got several on theory/math, a bunch on limit hold'em, a few on NL, and a few on other games, but none on PLO.  I know there are some PLO books out there, but not many, and since using Cardrunners and other video sites, I stopped reading as much anyway.

So, I don't know how to compare this one to other PLO material, but I can pretty well compare it to other poker literature in general, IMO.  The most immediate thing is that there is very little preamble, which is great.  I don't need another book to review pot odds and other basic ideas.  That means that this is not a book someone who saw a few episodes of High Stakes Poker and wants to get a poker book should get.  But that's fine, since I doubt that's Tri's target audience anyway.

Anyway, he jumps right into preflop play.  Although there are some hand charts, he actually spends most of the preflop section talking about a couple things that are way more important than what hands to play:  why you should play (and avoid) certain types of hands; and how equity analysis in PLO works (somewhat differently than NL).  Although the preflop section deals with some postflop content, obviously the meat of the book comes after preflop.  Like any other game with decent stack sizes, postflop is where the money is made and lost in PLO.

I like the way Tri organized the postflop section.  He didn't just go from preflop to flop to turn to river in the book.  The postflop section actually starts out talking about some general concepts and common mistakes, that to me at least, framed the postflop street by street content.  One of the things that would have helped me personally going through it the first time is more of using both the similarities and contrasts to NL in order to explain PLO concepts.  However, upon reflection, I think that may be because I have a decent amount of NLHE experience and zero PLO experience.  After getting some PLO under my belt and coming back to the book, perhaps I won't really care about the contrasts.

That aside, what struck me about the postflop play is that there was a good balance between the theory/reasoning and the practical application of that theory with both practical lines and actual hands.  I think for me why I emphasized books less as I got into video training and coaching is that the latter was able to provide a lot more case studies, and I had already built some sort of theory foundation.  With PLO, although I've got some general poker foundation and a good amount of hold'em foundation specifically, I needed the foundation as well as the case studies.  So, the balance in the e-book was great.

Here's where my thoughts on the book will be least satisfying to anyone reading this:  I have no way to verify right now that this is a correct approach to PLO.  For that, we would have to trust Tri :).  In all the other books I've read, I either knew enough to work out what made sense and what did not in the books, or there was already enough positive opinion about the books that I took it on faith that the authors were correct (for instance, my first two books where "Small Stakes Hold'em" by Ed Miller and "Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky).

Assuming that Tri knows his stuff in PLO -- and I would think he does (and it wouldn't take long for PLO experts to contradict him if he's wrong) -- his e-book seems like it will give a nice blueprint to the game, at least for a while.  The timing for me reading the book is pretty good.  I've been thinking about giving PLO a try, Hold'em Manager has a public beta of an Omaha tracker coming out soon, and it seems like there is a fantastic PLO series combined between Deuces Cracked and Blue Fire Poker out as well.  The only thing that makes me nervous is that I hate running bad at NL, and it seems that with PLO, you're more subject to variance.  One of the ways that I keep myself level-headed while running bad at NL is being able to know pretty much when it was played well and unlucky, and I won't have that luxury in PLO.  However, with Tri's book, I'll at least have a concise reference guide to measure my play against, and that will help a ton.

OK, I'd intended to keep this post shorter, so I'll stop now.  By the way, Tri's site, where you can see a full table of contents and an excerpt, is http://www.dailyvariance.com/

This douchetard fails at life (no poker)

Disclaimer:  this is a post pretty much for pure venting.  It's not poker related, but if you're not interested in a rant, stop now, catch you next time :).

Every once in a while you come across something that strikes you as so over-the-top obnoxious that you wonder if you're actually being leveled.  My wife is president of our school's parent faculty club (PFC, another name for a PTA).  She received a note yesterday in the PFC suggestion box. 

If you have kids in school or good friends with kids in school, you might know how hard some parent volunteers work for the benefit of all the kids, not just their own.  I would say Jennifer puts in about 20 hours per week volunteering for our kids' school, between all the stuff the PFC does, plus all the volunteer work she does directly in the classrooms.  The PFC organizes two fundraisers:  a Fall carnival for kids and the families, and a Spring dinner/dance for parents.  The note below was written on a dinner/dance announcement:

==============
PFC:
Let me see if I understand this correctly...you want me to give PFC more money?  Let's see...the last time I wrote a check to PFC was for a sweatshirt that someone dropped off at my son's kindergarten class and expected a 5 year old to carry it through EDCC and home.  As you already are aware from emails to/from my wife, it never arrived (surprise, surprise!).  Now, you want me to write another check?  You **must** be kidding.  Let me see if I can make this very clear to you -- **NO**.  Please take us off of your solicitation list.  If you would like to discuss this in detail, please phone me at the number listed.  If not, *do not* send any more requests home with my child.  **No exceptions!**
===============

Little background:  immediately after being contacted by this guy's wife (the emails he was talking about), the lady who coordinated ordering and distributing the sweatshirts wrote back and said that she dropped off the sweatshirt with the kid's teacher who said she would put it in the kid's backpack to take home.  Then she followed up twice in the next 3 days to confirm that the parents talked to the teacher and got their precious sweatshirt.  The parents never responded back.

I'm sure that I'm biased because I have a firsthand look at how much a relatively few number of parents do for all the kids at the school, both volunteering and donating money.  And it's my wife that the guy is addressing his note to.  And now she has to deal with both this asshole and the school principal to straighten everything out. 

Obviously, this guy has not done shit for the school.  And that's fine, I guess.  It is a public school, and I know that not everyone is in a position to give money and don't care to give time.  But in California, our school systems are woefully underfunded (we now rank dead last in education spending, and are headed for even more school budget cuts next year), so if everyone took this guy's attitude, the schools would be a whole lot worse.  It takes a crap-ton of extra support from the parent community for our kids' schools to be better.  So for him to fire off a nice note like that to the very people who benefit his kid basically out of the goodness of their hearts obviously touches a nerve.

If you've made it to the end, thanks for bearing with my venting!

Back to normal

Actually, not sure what is normal for me lately, but after a couple days rest, I did playa  quick session that was nicely uneventful and I could book a win.  Consciously tried to not push hard on any hand, folded a little more than I normally would overall, was extra careful to pitch OOP hands, let guys have small and medium pots if it was at all close.  Basically, sacrificed some small, high-variance edges.  And it went according to plan.  Only hand close to 100bb was this one:

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $241.65
BB: $274.15
UTG: $175.25
MP: $34.70
Hero (CO): $200.00
BTN: $200.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with Js Jh
2 folds, Hero raises to $7, BTN raises to $20, 2 folds, Hero calls $13

Flop: ($43.00) Ks Kc 5c (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $26, Hero calls $26

Turn: ($95.00) Jc (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $48, Hero calls $48

River: ($191.00) 8c (2 players)
Hero bets $106 all in, BTN calls $106 all in

Final Pot: $403.00
Hero shows Js Jh (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
BTN mucks Ac 3c
Hero wins $400.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I'm not sure of the best line to get all the money in on the turn.  It looked to me like he was maybe giving himself room to fold, so I didn't want to checkraise him, but calling seems kind of strong, too, and any hand I'd be counting on him to bet the river, he'd call my raise.  I'd decided to lead any river, and just hope that it would help him somehow, in case he was on the fence about calling off.

Outside of poker, I finally started this season of 24...I've got a lot queued on the DVR...all episodes this season for 24, Lost, and Battlestar Gallactica.  The wife won't watch any of those shows, can't watch them when the kids are around, and when I've got some time to myself, I'd rather play poker :P.  Good thing I set up an external terrabyte of storage for my DirecTV receiver.

Haven't played golf in a while, but did make it to the driving range.  Might play Friday morning before going into work, but if not, it will be the first month in which I've recorded no rounds in I don't know how long :(.  Hopefully, I'll make up for it in April.  Besides any weekend play I'll get in, the family is going to Palm Springs for the kids' week off school after Easter.  I should get in 2-3 rounds there.  Got a range finder for the iPhone that looks pretty cool, which will be nice for the unfamiliar courses, especially the ones in the desert where a lot of times you really need to hit all your shots to a good yardage, instead of just bombs away.

Puking in my mouth

Lost 5.5 BI in 916 hands, continuing to run like death.  Not that my play was stellar.  I haven't reviewed the whole session, but I lost 5 stacks in 4 hands.  2 of them were when I turned a set 3-way and made a really poor payoff when a backdoor flush got there and a TAG checkraised me...I knew I was in trouble, but made a terrible, undisciplined frustration call.  I thought villain was good, but he played the flop and turn pretty bad -- unless he was counting on me to pay off big on the river, which I did, so who knows, maybe he played it pretty well.  2 of the other stacks were trying to push people off hands, which I've been trying to do too much.  I'm glad I'm working some of that into my game, but it should be rare and opportunistic, rather than forcing it, which I think I'm doing.

Lost one more stack set over set where the guy made an awful call on the flop with 66 on a J54 board.  But I had him read for calling anything, so I shouldn't be surprised...I raised his c-bet big on a J54 flop and he called with 66.  Oh well.  Next biggest pot was 60bb lost when my trips lost to a straight.  I won 3 pots more than 100bb, so I had a decent amount of big pots go my way.

Kids' sports and other family activities will probably keep me away from the tables for a few days, unless I really try to squeeze in a session, which I won't do, in all likelihood.  I walked away from this session disappointed, but not feeling totally tilted.  However, it was the 4th loser in a row, and if my personal history is any guide, I could use a cooling off period.

In better news, my son's baseball team, which I coach, had opening day today, and the kids looked pretty good.  We definitely need to work on some stuff, but we've already come a long way since we started practicing a month ago.

Volatile

For about 3 weeks, I was running really well for the most part (couple blips here and there), and playing pretty well, although a little robotic.  Then as good as things were, they turned that bad for the last week or so.  One of malfaire's recent posts talked about not ascribing too much to your clearly unsustainable results, and continuing to work hard on your game even when winning.  He's right about how important that is, and I'm happy to say that I didn't change my routine much when running well, although that's not saying a lot for me...I probably spend too little time seriously studying/thinking.  I'm really good with session reviews and picking out hands for Jared to review, but pretty bad with videos, sweats, forums, etc.  Realistically, though, between job and family, I already have so little time to play, it is what it is.  But I digress.

One of the difficult things about running super hot and super cold is that it's tougher than usual to attribute your results to your play, at least it is for me.  One of the reasons the games can stay good is that bad play gets rewarded a decent amount of the time.  Conversely, you can play pretty well and still lose, right?  The effects are worse for me (as they are for you, most likely) when losing, because at some level, your confidence is undermined.  In both hot and cold you lose some objectivity, but at least when you're winning, you tend to play more relaxed and confidently.  Now, I'm not shaken over a poor week -- and for me that's only a few thousand hands at most -- but I did a sweat with Jared for my lesson last night, losing 2.5 BI in 350 hands...and that was after starting the lesson with a preflop all-in flip that went my way (JJ > AKs, I think). 

So, the loss was really more extreme than that.  We had several big coolers, and I don't think any horrendous beats or anything.  Not that you ever want to have sessions like these, but you do, and sometimes they happen for an extended time.  If you are going to have them, it can be nice to have a coach or other good player/trusted advisor watching.  I didn't think I did anything wrong, but it was reassuring to have Jared agree. 

The only thing I didn't do well is table select -- a couple tables were total shit, but it was a conscious decision to play against tougher regs with Jared sweating me.  The funny thing is that an 85/10 guy completely owned me, and I lost a few pots to a couple other lesser fish.  My results would have been a lot better -- maybe all the way up to break even -- if I would have just stuck to playing against the solid TAG regs :P.

Friday nights are weird

I think I probably trade more stacks on Friday night than all other nights put together. 

Tonight I think I was checkraised more than the rest of the hands this month put together.  Sick thing was I only played about 450 hands. 

On one table, the guy on my left was like 40/2 over a few thousand hands and had not 3-bet a single time.  He 3-bet me once from MP when I opened UTG, and once on the button when I opened CO.

After the first 100 hands or so, nothing seemed to be going right for me...I mean I think I played OK (though probably not great), but mainly only got action on the hands I didn't want it.  It's still early for me...I might venture back onto the tables later.  But for now, I think I'm going to make a little dent in the shows sitting on my DVR :).  Have a good weekend.

WWJTD

There's a series in progress at Deuces Cracked called What Would Joe Tall Do.  Joe takes some NL hands he's played, supplies some reads, then creates a running quiz using surveys, asking what the correct action is at various points in the hands.  After the survey closes down, Joe records a hand replayer video with another NL coach/video producer.  In the video, they reveal the the best option and talk about why that option is indeed the best one.

There are a number of cool aspects to this series.  To start with, you can obviously just watch the video without having taken the accompanying quiz.  There are other hand replayer videos discussing interesting hands, which are quite effective.  If you don't have the interest in going through the quizzes, you can still benefit from watching the videos.

But there are extra rewards for going through the quizzes.  First, the top performing DC members get rewarded for that performance.  Having missed one quiz and tanked another (relatively speaking), I doubt that I'll be able to make enough of a comeback for the cool prizes :P. 

However, the real value for going through the quizzes is that it engages you deeper in the learning process.  How many times have you watched videos somewhat passively?  I mean, you can still pick up stuff from them, but a lot slips by because you think you know it, or maybe it makes sense to you when you're watching the video, but really you have not internalized.  If you take the quiz ahead of time, though, you will find out what you know and what you don't know.  You can confirm what's right, and can really focus in on what's wrong. 

What I personally do (although it makes taking the quiz kind of a pain in the ass), is to keep a spreadsheet with the questions, my answers, and the reasons I picked those answers.  I leave columns for the coach's answers and their explanations.  I then follow along with that spreadsheet as the answers are being revealed in the video, along with the explanations, entering the coach's ideas.  For a follow-up, I highlight the ones I missed (whether I missed the answer altogether, or I had the right answer but for the wrong reason).  Later, I intend to hide my answer and the coach's answer for the ones I missed, and see if I've learned anything in the time since I initially took the quiz.  Kind of like self-coaching.

A couple more cool things.  First, although Joe is a fantastic limit player (all sorts of games), he relatively inexperienced at NL.  By that, I mean, he makes some of the same mistakes I do.  So, he gets himself into trouble spots on the turn and river by mistakes he makes on the earlier streets...in some cases, the same sorts of spots I find myself on occasion.  Watching a more traditional video where the producer is a lot better than I am, you never get to see how to limit the damage you cause yourself earlier in the hand.

Finally, the DC executive producers also take the quizzes and publish their results.  While none of them tank, they're not all at the top, either.  I think what that shows is that there are a number of different ways to reasonably play a hand...depending on your general style and your interpretation of villain reads.  That underscores the importance of having the correct rationale for your plays, rather than just having a bag of tricks.

Back to the grind

Dropped Dad off at the airport last night and back to work today.  He moved to the East Coast when he retired, so we don't get to see much of each other any more, which sucks.  We went on our yearly ski trip.  It was raining the first day, except at the very top of mountain, but it turned into snow, and kept going for the next 36 hours or so...more than 80 inches total for the storm.  The first day, the powder was about thigh-deep, and the second day was waist-deep and more, basically bottomless.  The snow in the Sierras is pretty heavy, at least compared to places like Colorado and Utah, but it was still very nice!  Also, props to my dad, who is now old enough to ski for free at Squaw Valley, but still going down the black diamonds.

Almost no internet access last week, thanks to the storm (knocked out the WiFi, evidently) and no cell coverage in Truckee, at least where we were staying (the front desk said only Verizon gets coverage there).  So, I am hopelessly behind everyone's blogs, played hardly any hands, and of course have a mountain of stuff to catch up at work.  But, I don't think it will happen today...it's my daughter's birthday, so I'm going to cut out early and go out to a birthday dinner.

I did play a couple short sessions that were totally opposite.  In one I played bad and ran worse.  In the other, I played well and ran better.  Next week, my wife is going on a trip of her own -- with her sister, meeting her folks in Palm Springs -- so I should have some time to get in some hands, then.  I think that the bad session was more due to being stupid about forcing a session in because I haven't played much...I was exhausted and in a distracting environment.  I made a couple plays where I really knew better.

Looking forward to our next review session, too...the first one was great.  Hope to get caught up with everyone's blogs tonight and tomorrow...see you guys.