In the latter half or so of February I managed to put in just under 20,000 hands at a total of around ~2.25 ptBB/100, despite running bad overall (though the last few days definitely improved things). My Sklansky buck winrate has me at around 5.5 ptBB/100. Off the top of my head, I think I picked up around 2,400 VPP (and ~3.2k FPP), leaving me ~1600 short of Gold Star on the month. My bankroll increased $225 to $725.
In March, I'd like to accomplish the following:
(1) Play 35,000+ hands.
(2) Have a 3 ptBB/100 actual winrate or higher (this will somewhat be determined by variance).
(3) Earn over 4,000 FPPs and become a Gold Star.
(4) Increase the bankroll to $1000 so I can move up to $50 NL.
I'll report back on my progress at the end of March.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Double Barreling, and Bluffing in General
One aspect of my game I don't feel like I have improved upon much playing 10 tables of $25NL is bluffing in non-standard spots. Obviously I cbet most of the time (~90% when heads up, probably 40-60% when in a 3-way pot) as is appropriate for my TAG style. I will also steal pots with weak holdings or complete air when opponents act weak. Last night I made a bluff I'm particularly proud of (as I rarely make big bluffs at pots), where I shoved my stack on the river (which was roughly pot size), after an opponent called my C-bet and then bet weak on the turn. I had complete air at the time, but the weak turn bet coupled with a reasonably scary river was enough to convince to me that the villian would fold >50% of the time, as he did.
However, what I commonly have problems with is when a fairly standard TAG floats my flop cbet on a low flop which I missed. Normally I give up and they steal the pot on the turn, unless I catch a card of course. That said, there's got to be some spots where I can take the pot down, because they simply will have to fold their mid sized pocket pair again a strong turn bet/raise. I know the common advice on 2+2 and other forums is not to two barrel at the stakes I'm playing, but I would definitely like to work on picking appropriate spots, as it is a tactic I know I'll need to use more often as I move up the limits.
Writing this out just brought on another realization: because very few people fire two barrels at uNL stakes, I should start floating the TAG regs more often (but not the nits) with midsize PPs on low flops! I very likely do not do this enough, and doing it moreso will simply require paying closer attention to opponent stats.
So to sum up...
(1) I need to find good places to fire two barrels as a learning exercise, even though it may not be necessary at the stakes I currently play.
(2) I need to float low flops with PPs when playing heads up with TAGs in order to steal pots on the turn, because most of them will not fire multiple barrels.
However, what I commonly have problems with is when a fairly standard TAG floats my flop cbet on a low flop which I missed. Normally I give up and they steal the pot on the turn, unless I catch a card of course. That said, there's got to be some spots where I can take the pot down, because they simply will have to fold their mid sized pocket pair again a strong turn bet/raise. I know the common advice on 2+2 and other forums is not to two barrel at the stakes I'm playing, but I would definitely like to work on picking appropriate spots, as it is a tactic I know I'll need to use more often as I move up the limits.
Writing this out just brought on another realization: because very few people fire two barrels at uNL stakes, I should start floating the TAG regs more often (but not the nits) with midsize PPs on low flops! I very likely do not do this enough, and doing it moreso will simply require paying closer attention to opponent stats.
So to sum up...
(1) I need to find good places to fire two barrels as a learning exercise, even though it may not be necessary at the stakes I currently play.
(2) I need to float low flops with PPs when playing heads up with TAGs in order to steal pots on the turn, because most of them will not fire multiple barrels.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
More online action (still running good!)
I played another short session of 10 tabling $25 NL on PokerStars this evening, around an hour and a half total. I think there were more donks per table then I've ever seen. One particular hand I remember had myself with KK preflop, I open raised to $1. It was then raised to $4 by someone in middle position, and he got two more callers behind (hah!) - obviously I then repopped it to $20, and prayed my initial 3-better did not have aces. He did not and folded. So did the first caller of the $4-bet. The second caller however shoved for a couple dollars more with Q9o. My hand held up, thank God!
Anyway, later on in the session I was up around $75, and I hit bottom set on a low, rainbow, extremely safe board. At this point in my session (it's around hand 600 for reference in the graph below) my actual winnings were very nearly dead even with my Sklansky bucks. This hand was supposed to be a cooler hand for me - set over set. I was going to lose my stack to a cold deck, as my set of deuces would be no good against the middle set that had also been hit on the flop (8s). Except I spiked the quads on the river. That's right, I hit a one-outer, for what is probably the first time ever! You'll notice the huge drop in Sklansky bucks (red) and the huge gain in my actual winnings (green) on the graph below just before hand 600. It's good to suck out for a change!
Anyway, later on in the session I was up around $75, and I hit bottom set on a low, rainbow, extremely safe board. At this point in my session (it's around hand 600 for reference in the graph below) my actual winnings were very nearly dead even with my Sklansky bucks. This hand was supposed to be a cooler hand for me - set over set. I was going to lose my stack to a cold deck, as my set of deuces would be no good against the middle set that had also been hit on the flop (8s). Except I spiked the quads on the river. That's right, I hit a one-outer, for what is probably the first time ever! You'll notice the huge drop in Sklansky bucks (red) and the huge gain in my actual winnings (green) on the graph below just before hand 600. It's good to suck out for a change!
45 minutes of running hot...
So, after showing how I had been running terribly (but still making money due to the super soft games) earlier today, I played a quick 45 minute session tonight and ran hot for a change! I added another ~2.5 buyins to the bankroll in a very short period of time, and had the following EV graph (Sklansky bucks = red, actual winnings = green, showdown winnings = blue. Click to enlarge!):
Perhaps the most encouraging part (aside from the fact that I can indeed have good luck occasionally) is that even had I been running average, I would have posted a monstrous win rate of 15 ptBB/100 (I was at an actual winrate of 31 ptBB/100 over the 45 mins). The donkeys were really out in force tonight, and it showed.
Perhaps the most encouraging part (aside from the fact that I can indeed have good luck occasionally) is that even had I been running average, I would have posted a monstrous win rate of 15 ptBB/100 (I was at an actual winrate of 31 ptBB/100 over the 45 mins). The donkeys were really out in force tonight, and it showed.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
My first 17,000 hands as a grinder!
So, as most of you know I cashed out my bankroll from Partypoker and moved it over to Stars. I also picked up a gorgeous new 22" widescreen monitor, which in conjunction with my old 19" setup has me able to play 10+ tables with ease.
I decided to start with a $500 roll and see how I would do moving from 6 max to full ring, playing 10+ tables at $25 NL. Unfortunately, I hit a very, very ugly downswing for around ~8000 of my ~17,000 total hands so far. That said, the game is so soft my bankroll is up 5 buyins, and my Sklansky buck calculation has me beating the $25 NL at a very solid 4.25 ptBB/100, which I'm very pleased with. Had I been sucked out an average amount of times, according to the EV calculation, I should be up an additional $150 at the moment. Once I grind it up to $1000 I'll be moving up to $50 NL, and I sure hope there fish count doesn't drop drastically. Below is my winnings (including showdown winnings in blue and Sklansky bucks in red) graph:
I decided to start with a $500 roll and see how I would do moving from 6 max to full ring, playing 10+ tables at $25 NL. Unfortunately, I hit a very, very ugly downswing for around ~8000 of my ~17,000 total hands so far. That said, the game is so soft my bankroll is up 5 buyins, and my Sklansky buck calculation has me beating the $25 NL at a very solid 4.25 ptBB/100, which I'm very pleased with. Had I been sucked out an average amount of times, according to the EV calculation, I should be up an additional $150 at the moment. Once I grind it up to $1000 I'll be moving up to $50 NL, and I sure hope there fish count doesn't drop drastically. Below is my winnings (including showdown winnings in blue and Sklansky bucks in red) graph:
Monday, February 4, 2008
Live Session at the Grey Eagle ($1/$2 NL)
Friday night Will and I played a solid session at the brand new Grey Eagle Casino. The room was most definitely very soft, and we both saw a substantial increase to our bankrolls (+$340, personally). Of interest is that the maximum buyin for $1-2 NL there is $300, rather than the traditional $200. We spent the bulk of our time at a table that for the most part was very loose-passive preflop, but had people making very questionable bets/calls postflop.
Here is one hand in particular I'd like to discuss. UTG+1 seemed to be pretty standard tight-passive, hadn't gotten out of line and was able to fold. BB was on the loose-aggressive side, and somewhat tricky.
Hand 1 (full ring, 10 handed)
UTG+1 (~$200)
Jason (BU) (~$600)
Will (SB) (~$500)
BB (~$300)
Preflop: Jason is BU with
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, 3 folds, MP2 calls $2, 2 folds, Jason calls $2, Will calls $2, BB checks
Flop ($10):
Will checks, BB bets $5, UTG+1 calls, MP2 folds, Jason calls $5, Will folds
Turn ($25):
BB checks, UTG+1 bets $15, Jason calls $15, BB folds
River ($55):
UTG+1 bets $50, Jason calls $50
UTG+1 shows
Result: Jason wins $155
Despite taking this hand down, I don't like how I played it because I really didn't know where I was at on the river. Some would suggest raising preflop, but with multiple limpers out in front I don't like that play. Had I raised the flop (in hindsight what I would probably do in a similar spot in the future), I likely would have picked up the pot at that point, and my hand had enough equity to do so. When I was debating the call on the turn, I thought I had 14 outs (9 hearts, 3 sevens, 2 sixes) which turned out to be the case, and making it a slight +EV play, ignoring implied odds.
However, after the strong river bet, I started second guessing if two pair was indeed the best hand. Because I had commited to the seven being an out on the turn I called the river, but I did not feel confident I was ahead. Raising the flop would have allowed me to find out exactly where I was, while still having outs against a strong hand calling (AJ, for instance). Perhaps the real problem with the hand is that because UTG+1 was so passive he did not raise AK preflop making his hand range very wide, and his flop call didn't make much sense at all. Thoughts?
Here is one hand in particular I'd like to discuss. UTG+1 seemed to be pretty standard tight-passive, hadn't gotten out of line and was able to fold. BB was on the loose-aggressive side, and somewhat tricky.
Hand 1 (full ring, 10 handed)
UTG+1 (~$200)
Jason (BU) (~$600)
Will (SB) (~$500)
BB (~$300)
Preflop: Jason is BU with
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, 3 folds, MP2 calls $2, 2 folds, Jason calls $2, Will calls $2, BB checks
Flop ($10):
Will checks, BB bets $5, UTG+1 calls, MP2 folds, Jason calls $5, Will folds
Turn ($25):
BB checks, UTG+1 bets $15, Jason calls $15, BB folds
River ($55):
UTG+1 bets $50, Jason calls $50
UTG+1 shows
Result: Jason wins $155
Despite taking this hand down, I don't like how I played it because I really didn't know where I was at on the river. Some would suggest raising preflop, but with multiple limpers out in front I don't like that play. Had I raised the flop (in hindsight what I would probably do in a similar spot in the future), I likely would have picked up the pot at that point, and my hand had enough equity to do so. When I was debating the call on the turn, I thought I had 14 outs (9 hearts, 3 sevens, 2 sixes) which turned out to be the case, and making it a slight +EV play, ignoring implied odds.
However, after the strong river bet, I started second guessing if two pair was indeed the best hand. Because I had commited to the seven being an out on the turn I called the river, but I did not feel confident I was ahead. Raising the flop would have allowed me to find out exactly where I was, while still having outs against a strong hand calling (AJ, for instance). Perhaps the real problem with the hand is that because UTG+1 was so passive he did not raise AK preflop making his hand range very wide, and his flop call didn't make much sense at all. Thoughts?
It Begins...
It occurred to me today that I have a lot of poker discussions with my friends, and even recently co-workers, but do not have a venue to share hand history, or simply express my thoughts in writing on some aspect of poker. Thus, I've decided to start a blog where I will post any particularily interesting hand histories I would like feedback on, or that I believe are enlightening in some fashion. Friends will hopefully get added as co-authors so they can start discussions of their own.
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