Back from the dead

Took a little hiatus from poker. Both online and live. I don’t know why but I suspect it’s because I’m a little burned out. Trying to build BR to the point where I’m playing $50 NL comfortably is a long struggle. I’m in it for the long haul and I’m inching my way up. Slowly but surely I’m making headway.

There’s a saying that I think about in order to keep on track. Ounces makes pounds.

In poker, quarters make dollars and dollars make a gigantic bankroll. It just takes time.

So after 3 weeks of laying low, I’m back in the thick of things and hoping that ounces makes pounds.

Getting Whamboozeled

The horrid run continues. I just can’t seem to catch a break. I’ve been catching sets only to have donkeys call me down and catch their flush. Then when I have TP with a flush draw of course the other guy has a set and I miss. To top it off, I finally get AA. I limp and get a raiser. Of course I raise and he pushes with JJ. Sweet he’s got two outs. Fuck, he’s got two outs and hits it on the flop. All day it’s been like that. I catch sets and they get counterfieted. I catch KK or AA and they get brutalized by somebody hitting their gutIshots. It’s almost cruel enough to make a man cry. What really makes me steamed is when a donkey apologizes for the suck out. They don’t mean it. They’re just justifying their bad play. What’s worse is that once the suck out on me, they proceed to donk off MY money to other players.

Poker is brutal and sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.

How do you keep the donkeys at bay? I guess there’s nothing I can do except keep getting my money in good and hope for the best.

Lately, I’m just praying my hands hold up against the relentless army of donkeys strolling the poker sites.

Facing Quads Twice….

I experienced something interesting. I got beat by quads twice in the span of about 50 hands.

I don’t know the odds of that happening but to get beat by quads twice in a span of about 50 hands has to be something huge.

I was playing a tournament in my league. I have JJ and my opponent has 55. I raise PF and the villain just flat calls. The flop comes out J, 5, 8. Sweet. I bet out and the villian raises. Sweet. I’m hoping he has a set or TPTK so I can stack him. The flop is a blank and I bet out again. I’ve been known to fire bullets on every street, I’ve also been known to bet hard when I have a good drawing hand. I just hope this guy buys what I’m selling. He shoves and I flat call. I see he has a set of 5s. Awesome, he’s down to one out. But that’s all you need truth be told. Wouldn’t you know it a 5 hits the river and he has quads. That’s a 1 outer folks. 1 card in the deck that hurts me and it shows up on the river. Think about it 1 measly cards kills me and it hits. I curse the poker gods.

I’m crippled and I’m out soon after. That sucked. Oh well, that’s poker. I got my money in good and that’s all that matters.

I’m stuck at the loser’s lounge where a cash game is going on. I manage to win $7 before the next tournament starts.

This time I’m the BB with 2/5. Two limpers come in and the SB completes. I check. Let’s see a flop. The flop is great for me.
A 3 4 rainbow. Sweet I flop a straight. Things couldn’t be better so I thought. Two limpers check and the SB bets out. I raise. he pushes all in. We both show. He has a set of 3s. Great where have I seen this before? Oh yeah the last tournament when my set of Jacks gets crushed by quads.

This time the villain has a little more outs than 1. I’m good on the turn as it’s a blank. Then the miracle 3 hits the board and I’m out again when my straight loses to quad 3s. That is sick. The thing that I’m pissed about is that I was catching cards and I was playing well. It all started downhill when a guy with AK raises PF. I’m on the button with QQ and I re-raise him. He shoves and I call. I hit a set on the flop but the villain has a gut shot straight draw. He also has a backdoor flush draw. Two more hearts on the board gives him the flush. That sucked.

I’m completely baffled at how people play AK. It’s a great hand but some people play them like they’re invincible. I’d take a pair over AK to be honest. I’m amazed at how people play AK super aggressively but at the same time play QQ or JJ much more conservatively. I don’t know about you guys but I’d much rather go to battle with QQ or JJ than AK. They shove or call a shove with AK but limp or fold with QQ or JJ. Weird stuff.

I decide to forgo the cash game afterwards as clearly I’m cursed so I decide not to play on anymore.

What the heck?

Horrifying is what I’d call it. I was running so good for a while also too. Whoever first said “all good things must come to an end” wasn’t lying.

I played pretty solid for most of the session staying out of trouble and making some decent laydowns then the poker gods decide to punish me for no reason at all. So all those chickens I’ve sacrficed obviously didn’t do me any good. Maybe I should create a shrine to pray to before me sessions but I have a sneaky feeling that’s not going to help either.

Lately, when I’ve been playing cash I play 3 tables at a time. The twist is that I’ve included a $50 NL table to that mix. So I’m playing two $25 NL tables and one $50 NL table. I’m doing this because I’m slowly transitioning to $50 NL. I’m not sure if this is a good strategy so I’ll leave it up to my readers to give me feedback on this.

Onward to poker.

The truth is that I kind of expected it to happen. I mean I was running so good and I got lucky so many times that the worm was going to turn sooner or later. For example I’m all in pf with KK of course the villain has AA. That’s ok, I’m still up after that hand. I play on. The next cooler was when I had QQ vs JJ, again we’re all in pf. I hit a set but the board has 4 clubs, guess what suit I didn’t have. Oh well, that’s ok also because the villain with JJ was short stacked (under $10).

Now I’m a bit steamed. It’s not like I’m playing poorly and spewing money away. It’s also not the same as missing the board with spec hands and getting frustrated. My big hands were getting crushed plain and simple and there’s nothing I can do about. Well there’s one thing I can do, play on. I’m not that concerned either because although I was stratching and clawing a little bit of profit at the $25 NL table, I was dong very well at the $50 NL table.

At the $50 NL short game I’m playing is juicy and I’m doing very well early on. I run my stack to $112 dollars. I should’ve just quit right then and there and taken my profits but I didn’t. Then the poker gods starts shitting on me over and over and over again. I get 45 diamonds on the button. What the heck I raise to steal blinds. The BB calls. I flop a straight with a straight flush draw. Damn, the poker gods love me. Think again. The BB is kind of loose and aggressive. I’ve seen him/her play very aggressive especially when it comes to draws, the villain is also a calling station I know I can get this guy to chase if I put in some good value bets. He bets out $3 and I raise to $12, he flat calls. The turn is a blank. He bets out $10 this is where I’m thinking I need to put a big value bet here and get him calling if he’s fishing. There’s about $35 in the pot. So I bet $25. He flat calls. The river is another diamond. Not the card I wanted to see. He shoves the rest. He has about $20 left so I feel like I’m pot comitted at this point but I get the sneaky feeling he’s hit his draw. I call and he shows 10/7 diamonds. Damn it. That pot would’ve put me close to $200 but instead I’m down to $32.

I take a short break to gather my wits. I’m down about $50+ at this point. I tell myself that I should’ve left when I was up big but it’s poker and I’m addicted. Besides I was winning and the games were good. At least until the last 50 hands or so.

I wind up getting felted at my two $25 NL tables when I miss my draws. This I can blame myself at this point, I was a little tilted and I probably shoved out of frustration. I left the $50 NL table with $22 because I finally convince myself that this just isn’t going to be your day. I’m stuck $78 and I’m not too happy about it. I mean how am I going to move up if I keep taking hits like this. Too bad also because this month was shaping up to be a good one.

I played about 400 hands total. The first 350 were superb. I was running hot and I was playing well. The last 50 hands weren’t and all I can say is what the heck just happened?

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

I love cash games at my league poker games. But wait, there’s the good and the bad. The bad is that if I’m in the loser’s lounge playing cash that means I’ve been knocked out. The good is that I can win more money playing the side games than in tournaments. Of course I could dig myself into a deeper hole by playing cash but it worked out pretty good this day.

We play mostly hold em and Omaha hi and hi/low. I prefer the Omaha games, because that’s where I feel that I have an edge. It’s not that I’m the best player (far from it) out there in Omaha but I think I’m better than most of the players in my poker league. I’ve logged thousands of hands in Omaha online (although they’re only micro stakes), which is probably more than any other player in our poker league. I manage to scoop a few decent pots in Omaha hi/low and that gave me some momentum.

In terms of hold em, it seems that most of the league players are tournament specialists. They play hold em tournaments (SNGs etc.) mostly and have little or no experience playing cash games. The differences in the two games are slight but it does take different skill sets. I take down a $70 pot when I boat up on the river vs. a made flush. I had 77, the villain had AQ diamonds in position. He had only about $30 bucks left and I hit my set on the flop. The problem is that there’s two diamonds out there. I bet about 3/4 of the pot (we play with .25-.50 blinds) on the flop and he shoves. I snap call. He hits his flush and I draw out on the river. Nice, it’s about time I put a beat on a guy who loves to play his draws aggressively.

Soon it’s time to start the second tournament. Sweet I cash out about $70 bucks ahead.

I get knocked out 6th in the second tournament when my AK suited gets cracked by A/10. I’m a little disappointed about this because I had a decent chip stack and I could’ve cruised my way into the money if I played a little conservatively but I play to win and I went down in flames.

Oh well, there’s always the loser’s lounge and the action packed side game.

I buy-in for $50. Pretty standard for a .25/.50 cash game.

I run that up to over $200. I win a key pot with 2 pair vs. top top kicker. When will these guys ever learn? I probably wouldn’t call a PF raise with 56 suited in a tournament but in a cash game as long as it’s reasonable to play these spec hands then I’m going to do it. I’m in the cutoff and there’s a standard 3x raise from MP who’s pretty tight. There’s already two callers plus the BB. So I gamble. The flop is sweet for me. I nab two pair and there’s a Q out there. The original bettor had AQ and I don’t quite stack him but I did get about $30 from him in this hand.

I’m cruising still hovering around the +$200 mark when I hit a snag. My QQ gets cracked by AK on the river. Oh well I’m still up so I shrug it off. I lose another hand when I get out flushed. Now I’m back down to about $100. Hey at least I’m still positive.

The rest of the night is a wash. I win a few pots, I lose a few more. I get lucky by splitting a pot when the villain’s two pair gets counterfieted on the river. I had AJ spades while the villain has me dominated with AQ. He had about $25 on him and we’re all in on the flop. The river gives the board two pair and we chop the pot. After that hand, I kind of turned it down a little because towards the end of the night, the pots get ridiculous because the players who are down are desperately trying to win some of their losses back. I pick my spots to put in my money and wind up plus $128.

So the final tally was -$70 in tournaments and about plus $200 (give or take) in the two cash games for a net of $130. Pretty sweet especially since I got knocked out of the two tourneys I played in.

King Sized Problem

So, I’m playing hold em online. Trying to break a semi losing streak. I steal some pots, get lucky a few times and get unlucky a few times also. That’s poker. But then again sometimes it’s not the cards you play but the way you play your cards.

That brings us to the topic of this post. How to play Kings. I’ve read a lot of posts and I’ve asked a lot of people and you know what….everybody’s got an opinion.

Some say always push and if you come up against AA so be it. So what happens? I push with KK and the other guy has AA. Oh well. Maybe that pre-flop 5 bet should’ve given me the hint. Oh well lesson learned.

Other times, people say, try and trap with them and if an Ace hits the board then fold. Doesn’t sound reasonable to me but I’m willing to try anything once. I limp in with KK in EP, hoping for a re-raise but it never comes. Now I get 4 players in a pot with KK in EP against 4 other players and I’m first to act. What to do? I raise and I get three callers. I eventually fold on the river, when I get the feeling that I’m beat. The winner nabs two pair with j10 suited. Oh well, not doing that again.

So limping in with KK in EP doesn’t seem like a good play, maybe I’ll just flat a raise PF with KK in late position. Maybe that will do the trick. Guess again. I get KK against a semi-loose/aggressive player who loves suited connectors, I know if I raise he’s liable to call with Ax suited etc. An Ace hits the board and he bets out. Could be a standard c-bet, or is it? I re-raise him to test him but he re-raises back. Now I’m convinced he has an Ace. Fold. Next hand please.

The point of this post is how do you play Kings? Everytime I see KK, I drool. Hey it’s the second best hand PF in Texas Holdem.

So I decided that limping is never a good option with KK. I tried it and I’m just not comfortable with it. For more passive or conservative players, I guess it’s a good play but not for me. Limping in with KK in late position, well that’s something I could do once in a blue moon but again not the best move.

I guess in the end, you live and die with KK if you shove and the villain has AA, then so be it. Chalk it up to bad luck and move on.

Position in Poker

I’ve been trying to play solid poker in terms of position lately and I’ve come to conclusion that position is everything in poker. It’s allowed me to be more creative actually. I can play spec hands in position and see flops for cheap. In my league, there’s a lot of limping. Limping leads to stealing in position. I can stick in raises with spec hands in position and get paid off. Doesn’t happen all that often but once in awhile you hit the flop nice and it’s stacking time.

One hand that comes to mind is one that I played on Saturday. It’s a league tournament and I’m at a weak-tight table. Lots of limping and chasing. That type of game. So I decide that I have to tighten up and play position stronthgly. The tourney goes smoothly, I chip up when my QQ holds on against AK preflop early in the tournament. The villain raised PF and I flat called. It was early in the tournament and I had position so I decided to call. No Ace or King on the flop means business is open. He bets and I flat call again. Some may say this is a bad play, flat calling PF and on the flop with QQ but my feeling was not to get involved in such a large pot so early in the tournament. By playing position I was able to control the pot and more importantly act last. The turn was another blank and this time he checks. I bet out about 3/4 of the pot. He flat calls. Ok, he’s probably on JJ or maybe even QQ. The turn is an Ace. He checks again. Now I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have AK or AA. Or does he? He’s played it slow and allowing me to bet out. That was a scare card so I check behind him. He had JJ. Some might think that I played it weakly but hey I’m not a pro so I stand by my play. I just thought that since I had position on this hand, I might as well check behind him and showdown. My thinking was that I’m only going to get called by a better hand or even check raised by a better hand. It’s still early and there’s enough in the pot where I’d be satisfied this early in the game so I thought the check was the best play.

Other times I was able to limp in with strong speculative hands like suited connecters in position and was able to grab a few pots strategically with bluffs in position. All in all, I think that playing position is more important than getting good cards because since most of the flops don’t connect anyway you might as well be the last to act, which means more bluffing opportunities.

100th Blog Entry…well actually 101st but who’s counting…

I just noticed that my last post was my 100th blog entry. Wow. That’s like spiking a runner runner straight to bet a set. I didn’t think I’d ever get there but somehow I did and that’s the fun thing about poker and this blog.

When I first started out I was skeptical, but somehow I’ve seemed to really enjoy writing about my ups and downs in poker (and have there been a lot of those).

This blog has shown me something about myself. That I can be honest with myself as this is a running tab on my poker life so far. Honestly, if I can’t be honest with the total strangers reading this blog, then how can I be honest with myself? All in all, I really enjoy writing this blog and reading other blogs of people (who I now consider my virtual friends) who constantly struggle to be on the right side of the coin flip in a key spot. I consider all that read this blog to be my brothers and sisters in this struggle to outflop the donkeys and outplay the solid players.

So to celebrate my 100th post, I say thanks to all those who have supported me and helped me through the rough stretches, I wouldn’t have made it there without you guys.

Been a long time

Well things are still going well here in Brooklyn.

I made my quarterly freeroll in my poker league. That’s the 3rd straight quarter I’ve made the finals..but I haven’t cashed in one yet.

I was 8th in my league. Which means I was the last person to qualify. The other 2 spots will have a “play-in” tournament for the other ranked players.

The prize pool is just over $800 so it’ll be a good pay day if I can take it down. The game is scheduled for the 25th so I have some time to get the cold deck out of the way.

As for my online play the last two months. It’s been pretty steady. My 3 tabling has been going very well. I’ve played more hands the first 1/3 of this year than last 6 months of last year alone. It’s still mostly 25NL. I cashed out for $400 last month because there were a lot of birthday presents to buy….lol. it’s weird b/c everytime I hit $500, I feel the need to cash out.

Seriously, I don’t know why I don’t move up already to $50NL. I think that from now on I won’t take out money until I hit $1k. Right now I’m back to $100 in PS and starting my bankroll building once again.

My SNG experiment went extremely well. I played 50 $3.40 SNGs and cashed in 26 of them. Out of the 26, 10 were wins, 11 2nd place finishes and 5 third place finishes. My ROI was a crispy 47.8%. These are realy easy. Just play tight and start stealing when the blinds hit 50-100 and shove when you have good hands. You’ll be surprised how many times you get called down.

I played 13 $5.50 SNGs. My ROI wasn’t as high but I still did pretty good (30.8%).

I think my SNG experiment is over. They take a lot of time to play and even though it’s good practice for me in my league games, playing them exclusively can get boring. Then again winning money is never boring…lol.

As hot as I was running online, my live game wasn’t as sharp. I just couldn’t get anything going this quarter in my league, although I cashed twice last weekend so I think I’m back to running good again.

I’ve been really concentrating on my value betting lately and I think that has proved profitable. I’ve been getting paid off by villains with top pair and weak kicker, hands like that.

I really believe that a good value bet is almost like a good bluff and that has the villain paying me off. They think I’m bluffing when I really have a decent. Not the nuts but a really good hand. The key is reading your opponent and sometimes I’m right on.

For example, I was playing a cash game and I held QJ. I raise to $3 (blinds are .50-1.00) on the button. A EP limper calls.

The flop is JJ5. Rainbow. He bets $4 and I flat call. The turn is a 8. This time he bets out $7. I re-pop him $20. The board doesn’t scare me as there are no draws really and I’m only afraid of a handful of hands (KJ, AJ, 55 and 88 at this point) but still the villain is a type of player who only plays good hands for the most part. He flat calls.

Now I’m thinking he has to have somthing decent. 1010, or 99 maybe but more likely QJ or J10. Therefore KJ was the only hand I was really afraid of.

The river is a Ace. A good card for me. It’s good b/c he might put me on AK or AQ (as I might pull a move on the flop and turn with AK and he knows this). Then again he might have AJ, at which point I was beat anyway but I don’t think has that as he would’ve raised preflop with that holding.

So that leaves me with KJ, QJ or J10. He checks the river. Now I know he doesn’t have AJ or KJ, if he had any of those I’m pretty sure he’d bet out on the river again. So the only logical holding is J10, in which case I have him beat…big time.

How much should I bet? I want to maximize my bet so he’ll call but I don’t want to bet enough so he’ll fold. Normally against a weaker player I might push but the villain isn’t spewy enough for that. He won’t stick it in if he thinks he’s behind. So the bet has to be big enough where he might think I’m bluffing but where I also could be value betting nicely also. The pot is about $60 at this point. So I settle for $50. He thinks for a bit and calls. He tells me that it’s a really good bet. He goes into the tank for a bit more and he finally calls. He shows J10. I was right on the money and I got paid off. Previously, I might have made a $20 bet and get the easy call but I’ve realized that I’m throwing money away because if the villain has a real good hand but one that I have beat, I should maximize my profits as much as I can.

A debate about my bet then materialized, some of the guys said that it was too much and most of the time I wouldn’t get called, while others thought I was definitely bluffing, but the key is that I put my villain on the exact hand he had and I got paid off. That’s the key and one skill that I’m working on very hard.

What Sits Around Goes Around

I’m still fixated on my SnG marathon. I’ve adjusted nicely since my first 10 games. I’m still playing the $3.40’s but they seem easy to beat so I’m staying at these for the time being until I amass $110 at which point I’ll start playing the $5.50’s.

I haven’t played any ring games but that’s ok as long as I’m cashing consistently in the SnGs I’ll continue to play a lot of SnGs, besides I can always go back when I get bored of the SnGs.

The next 19 SnGs I managed to cash 11 times for a profit of $50.20. That’s a 77% return. Not bad. Not sustainable either.

The reason why the ROI is so high is that most of the cashes were either 1st or 2nd place (4 – 1st places, 5 – 2nd place finishes and 2 – 3rd place finishes). I don’t think that I can continue getting that high of a return as the sample size is still too small. Then again, if I’m playing optimally, I think I can sustain a 30% return though if I keep playing my A game.

Part of it is that I’ve scoured many poker sites to read up on SnG strategy. I also read a book on SnGs by Colin Moshman (which is a good read) and that seemed to help a lot. They all advocate high blind stealing (when the field is 5 players or even 6 players depending on stack sizes) and playing aggressively to build a stack that can withstand some suckouts by the short stacks. The most important thing I picked up is that I shouldn’t allow myself to get blinded out. So I start shoving when my stack hits just about 6x the blinds. At this point I’m pushing any decent Ace (A8-AQ, PPs, and two face cards (KQ, KJ or QJ suited). By this time the blinds should be high enough that stealing blinds should keep me in the game until I can figure out a way to close out the SnG. This is the basic strategy that I go into every SnG and I’ll adapt my strategy depending on the situation or the players that are left. This seems to be working at least for now.

I will start to move up when I hit $110 in profits (enough for 20 buy-ins at $5.50 SNG). I’ve played plenty of $5.50’s before but I’ve never officially kept track of my ROI.

I’m still going to play the ring games, but I think the majority of online poker play will lean mostly towards SnGs for the time being (since I’m running great). Also it’s a welcome break from the cash games that I’ve been playing so often.

Will I become a SnG specialist? I don’t know about that but for now my goal for the rest of this month is to play about 30 more SnGs (if I can find the time).

Below is my SharkScope Graph. Not pretty at first but I’ve turned it around a little. At least I’m on the positive side of things now. My last 50 SnGs or so I’ve been doing very well, so hopefully that will continue.

SharkScope