Seven Winning Days In A Row!

Nothing too exciting of note happening in my little poker world the last couple days. I've recorded small profits the last three days, so that is 7 days in a row now of positive results. I am finally into the black for the month of July.

My results for the last two days would be $200 better if it wasn't for two hands. They were both shorthanded, and I just ended up against a monster when I also had a really good hand.

The first one was at Paradise. Nothing too exciting happening at this 5 max $100 table. I hadn't gotten too many good hands, so I was playing pretty tight. I found AKo and raised it up and got two callers. Flop was K,Q, x. I bet out, got raised, and I re-raised all-in. Other player had KQ. Yay me. I could have easily gotten away from that one.

The next one was one of the first hands from this morning. I joined up a $100 6 max table at Victor Chandler. When I sat, there were 5 of us, but two other sat out, so there was only 3 people playing. I found J7 and decided to raise and steal some blinds. The Big Blind only called and we saw a flop of J75. Wow, top two! Awesome. We got it all in and of course he had pocket 5's. I'm not sure I can get away from top two pair at 3 handed table.

Not the greatest way to start off the morning, but I shook off the tilt and stacked a dude a little later at a $200 table with AK vs JJ.

If you've been living under a rock, the World Series of Poker Main Event starts today. Man, wouldn't that be great to be out there for that? Maybe next year.

Cheers!

Almost Unstuck

I am almost out of the red for the month of July. I've had some pretty good sessions last night and this morning. I won another $100 last night in a short session, and am up another $200 from this morning. I'm now only down $50 for the month. Yahoo!! I played again at one $200 NL table, and made a few bucks, so I think my confidence is coming back.

Here are a few interesting hands from this morning.

I get pocket Queens in Early position. I raise it to $4, my standard raise amount at $100. Only the BB calls. I'm glad he calls, because I just had added him to my buddy list. A few hands earlier he pushed all-in for $75 pre-flop against the guy to his right who had just bet. Other guy made an easy call with his aces. What did muppet push Pre-flop? AJ offsuit.

So he rebought, and won another hand and is up to $130. I just barely have him covered.

So the pot is sitting at $8.50 and we see a flop of [Ah], [Th], [Ad]. Yuck. Not a flop I want to see with pocket Queens. He definitely could be holding Ace-rag. He checks and I throw out a feeler bet of $5. He calls. Turn is the [8s]. Again he checks, and I decide to check behind. The river is the [Qd]. I have a full house, but it is not the nuts. AA, AQ, AT, and A8 all beat me. Pot is at $18.50 and he leads out for $15. I'm thinking that more than likely he has Ace-something where that something isn't a Q, T, or 8 . I'm pretty sure I am ahead here so I raise to $50. He pushes the rest of his stack in and I call.

What does he have? AT you say for the flopped full house? Got lucky with A8 you say? Nope. None of the above. He had KJo and hit his inside straight draw on the river, which happened to give me a full house. So that means he called on the flop chasing an inside straight draw on a paired board. That Queen on the river was the perfect card for me.

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A little while later at the same table, this one happens.

Villain has gotten pretty lucky and has a double stack (about $190). I have him covered and I am sitting directly to his left (I have position on him).

UTG limps in, Villain raises it to $9! I just call with Pocket Jacks. Blinds and UTG fold.

Pot is at $19. Flop is [2h] [2c] [Ad]. He checks. I decide to bet here, representing an Ace to see what he does, so I bet $14. He takes a little while and calls.

Pot is now at $47. Turn is the [7h]. He checks again. His flat call confuses me, so I check, planning on trying to get to a cheap showdown.

Pot still at $47. River is the [Js]

He checks again. I have the 3rd nuts. Do I check behind? His flat call on the flop has bells ringing off in my head. But then I think about his big raise PF. No one bets $9 PF with Aces.

Or do I bet? How much? I decide to bet $30. He takes a little while and raises a little over minimum to $70. It's $40 for me to call into a pot that has $147 so it is an easy call. Sure he could have Aces or pocket ducks, but he also could easily have Queens or Kings and think that I am trying to steal it.

I call and he flips over his pocket ducks for the flopped quads. My god! Can you play quads any worse? If he would have bet on that river, it is very likely he could have gotten my whole stack. I can't believe he would check to me on the river, especially after I checked behind on the turn. If I would have checked behind on the river, that would mean he would have NEVER raised with flopped quads!! He got lucky on the flop, and then got even more lucky when I bet on the river.

Lots of things can be learned from a hand like this. For one, when someone bets big pre-flop, and then that person checks after the flop (especially if that person is aggressive), warning bells should start go off in your head, especially on a paired board. Second, when that pre-flop raiser flat calls a bet on the flop, those bells should be getting louder and louder. And third, for pete's sake, if you flop a monster, you want to build a pot! You need to bet or raise to do that!! Especially if you are out of position.

I think I made a few mistakes on that hand, but he obviously played it much worse. I probably should have re-raised pre-flop to see where I was at. If I would have tripled his bet, it is very unlikely that he would have called that with pocket ducks. Flat calling with Kings or Aces might have been ok, but with Jacks, I should have raised Pre-flop. Other than that, I think I played it ok. My bet on the river was fine, because I have the 3rd nuts. And it wasn't that much more to call his almost min-raise. If he would have pushed all-in, I would have probably folded it.

Argg, if it wasn't for that hand, which happened right before I was going to end my session, I would have won $300 this morning and been in the black for July. Oh well, I'll be unstuck soon I think :)

Cheers!

Aces Are Good

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I just haven't played that much. And the poker play during the week last week just hasn't been that exciting. I had a pretty crappy showing on Wednesday morning when I got stacked by the same guy within about 20 hands. The first one he rivered his inside st draw. The 2nd one, I had pocket kings in late position and made a huge 10x BB raise pre-flop to get rid of the 5 or so limpers that had already limped in. He was the only caller. With 97o. The flop was 577. 577 is a good flop for kings. Or so I thought. Good play sir, good play.

This weekend was much better though. I am actually starting to feel a little bit better about my poker play. I've had three winning days in a row. It's been a while since that has happened. This morning, pocket aces were treating me well. I got them twice and won nice pots both times.

The first time, I get AA in Early position. UTG, who had half a stack ($50) open bet to $3. I raised to $9. It folded to him and he pushed. I called and he showed pocket Jacks. I ended up getting another ace on the flop and the river was the last ace for quads.

The 2nd time, I get aces in the Big Blind. Its folded to the CO who bets 4x BB. The button calls and I raise to $15. They both call. Flop was Q8x with two spades. I lead out and bet almost pot. Original raiser folds, but the button (who had me covered) pushes all-in. Its not that much more for me to call, so I do. He shows 97 of spades. He has 11 outs twice (flush draw plus inside st draw. I have the As). The turn and river are bricks, so I scoop a nice pot.

Considering the month I am having, it is amazing that I am only down about $350 for the month (which includes a pathetic $250 for bonus). And that is even with back to back negative 350+ days two weeks ago. So I guess I can be happy about that.

Cheers!

Table Selection

AUS-Package replied to my previous post asking about table selection. I've mentioned in a couple of posts that table selection is important, especially as you move up in limits. So I thought I would share with you some of the things I look for in a table before I sit down.

The first thing I check for is to see if any of my "buddies" are online and playing. These are people that are known maniacs/chip spewers that I can take advantage of. I need to do a better job of adding people to my buddy list when I see some truly horrible play. Calling stations, people who bluff too much, people who play way too many hands are all the type of players you want at your table.

unfortunately, I usually don't find them (probably because they lost all their money already), so I try and find tables with high VP$IP. I like it when a lot of people see the flop. When I raise with good hands, I want people to call me. For 6 max, it's really nice to find a table with a VP$IP of over 50%. For full ring, anything over 30% is ideal. Don't even think about joining a table with anything less than 20%.

The next thing to look for is a high average pot. That will tell me that there are some gamboolers there. If you hit a set at a table that has a really high average pot, you'll more than likely get paid off.

And the last thing I look for is the amount of short stacks at the table. I like to play at a table where as many people as possible have right around the max buy-in. That means there is a lot of money on the table. If there are more than 3 short stacks (with less than 30% max buy-in), I usually pass on the table. I don't really like playing against short stacks because I have no fold equity against them and no implied odds for draws, etc... I would think one of my strengths is my post-flop play. But when you play against short stacks, they really only have two moves after the flop. Push or fold. I hate playing push or fold poker.

Once you find that ideal table, always try and have position on people that have a lot of chips. The natural flow of money around the table is from right to left, so you want the money from the big stacks sitting to your right coming into your stack. Try not to sit in a spot where you have the big stack to your left. They are always going to have position on you, and that is a big disadvantage to have. Remember, Big stacks to your right, little stacks to your left.

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I'm glad that AUS-Package asked the question about table selection, because I've been having a hard time thinking of things to write about. My bad run is still going on. It's hard to believe how card dead I am. I finished up the PartyPoker bonus this morning. In the 1000 raked hands (which was probably about 1500 total hands), I flopped one set. I wish I was making this up, but it's the truth. I should look back on poker tracker, but I for the past month+ of the downswing I am having, I am probably only getting about 25%-33% the amount of sets I should statistically expect. That's variance for ya, and I've been on the shit side of it for a long time now.

I was able to play in a few MTTs last night, so that was a little fun. I played in the Monday's at the Hoy, but went out in like 34th place out of 38. I lost most of my chips to Iggy when I tried to bluff with the hammer. I raised PF with the hammer, and only Iggy called. Flop was Q93 rainbow or something like that. I bet, he raised, I re-raised, and he pushed. Hmmm, I guess my hammer is no good.

I played in the crazy $10 rebuy at Stars next. I didn't double up at all in the rebuy period. I took the add-on and then doubled up shortly after with Kings vs Jacks, so that gave me a stack of just above average. I didn't get involved in too many more hands for the next two levels, but stole blinds whenever I could. I lost a decent portion of my stack in a battle of the blinds. I didn't have too good of a hand, but raised it anyways from the SB. The BB called, and I hot top pair, crap kicker. I bet, he called. Turn was another low card. I bet, he called. River was another low card. I bet about half pot again, and he raised about 3.5x my bet. I folded and he showed his wonderful play of catching his inside straight draw on the river. Nice play sir, nice play. I went out shortly after with a short stack when I didn't really care anymore.

I also played the Paradise $10 crazy rebuy at 10 PM CST. I was the chip leader for a while in the beginning. I rebought right away, and tripled up shortly after when I pushed with pocket Tens. 3 people called, AK, A6s, and 88. A ten on the flop gave me a winning hand. And then about 15 minutes later I won another huge pot with the nut flush against 2 other people (one of whom had the 2nd nut flush). Then, right before the end of the rebuy period, I called a raise from a short stack with 77 as did one other person ( I should have re-raised to isolate). Flop was 993, and I called the shorties push ( it was only about 1/4 pot bet to call) as did other dude. The turn was a beautiful 7, and me and the other dude got it all-in. He had 96 for trips. The river was another 3, and he rivered the nice big pot. After the add-on, I was just above average. Then I went to card dead city and ended up pushing with an M of only 6 with A7s. I got called by AT (The dude only had me barely covered) and I go home now. Good job man on calling away almost your whole stack with AT.

I also played in two $20 180 person SNGs. I made it far in one of them, but went out just before the money. The only thing I remember about one was that I lost a coinflip with 88 vs KQ when a Queen fell on the river. Yay RiverStars.

I made back all of my MTT buy-ins plus about $30 from my cash game play as the night wore on. Then this morning I had about 40 hands to go to finish up the bonus and tried to quickly play those. I lost a whole stack from a mega-donk who called all of my PF, flop, and turn raises with 64s who hit runner-runner flush to beat my straight. There goes my bonus. I then found two other maniacs, but couldn't get a hand to save my life.

Ah well, at least I have three more people to add to my buddy list.

Back In Action

Sorry for the whinny post a couple days ago. And thank to everyone who replied. I also copied my last post over at bet-the-pot.com in their bankroll management forum and got some good advice there too.

Here is something from that thread and I had to share it here, because he is totally correct

"If you enjoy playing, then play what you enjoy. It's a hard way to make an easy living. If it's not your living, then why make it hard?

Enjoy the profits of your hard work.

Play where you enjoy it.

Rinse and repeat."

That's good advice. Why make it hard? Play where you enjoy it.

My plan is to take a good portion of my bankroll out, but to still have enough to comfortably play 100NL with some 200NL in there. I am thinking that a 5k bankroll is enough to enjoy those stakes and not be worried about going busto. I think the key is good game selection, especially at 200NL. I'm not going to grind away at some rockfest site for a measly $100 bonus. I'm confident that I will be back up to this 10k mark again soon, and by then I will hopefully be a better player and move up in limits as I see fit.

Another poster in the bet-the-pot thread said to maybe take 30% of my monthly profit out of the bankroll as a reward. That way I can enjoy some of this hard work, but also continue to build the bankroll.

So after taking a two day break from the poker, I fired up PartyPoker, desposited some more money (they have another bonus going on!), and sat down at one 100NL table. A few hands in, my wife came over and said that she wanted to finish reading an article online, so I let her sit down and finish that up. But I left the 100NL table open and told to fold any non-pair/AK hand and then sit out once the blinds hit. After she was done reading, she said that she wanted to take over at the table for me. I said sure, go ahead, and she sat in and posted the blind in the CO. I said, "This is your first ever online poker hand. You are going to be dealt pocket Kings". And sure enough, she got pocket Kings! I can see into the future! So I tell to raise it up, and the blinds and limpers folded. Oh well, not bad for her first hand. Then a few hands later, she was dealt QT of clubs in middle position. I told her to limp on in, and there were a total of 5 people to see the flop. The flop came a wonderful 9JK rainbow. She flopped the nuts! I had her bet about 3/4 pot and there was one caller. The turn was a blank and told her to bet 1/2 pot. The other dude min-raises, and I told her to slide this here slider bar all the way over to the right and go all-in. Dude called with K9 for two pair and the river wasn't another K or 9, so we won a nice $120 pot. Of course after this was done, she wanted to quit and take the profit and run, so we called it a night.

This morning I did pretty well over at Paradise and made about $150. Most of it was from two hands. The first one I had aces and won against someone with Kings. The second I won with pocket Queens when someone tried to bluff on the river with 67s.

So things are starting off well after my short break.

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Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the worst bad beat from this weekend. I was out of beer, so I went to the liquor store on Saturday. I picked up my new favorite beer, Schell's Zommerfest. I also noticed that they were having a special on Grain Belt Premium. So I got a twelve pack of each of them. I should also note, that both of these awesome beers are brewed right here in Minnesota.

So I get home, and have one 12 pack in each hand. I bought a twelve pack of bottles, and they come in these cardboard type boxes with holes cut out on the side to carry them. Well, as I was carrying them over to my fridge in the garage, the cardboard ripped on the handle to the Grain Belt Premium and the box fell to the ground. Thankfully I was standing over a rug, so as it was falling. I was thinking, "Ah shit, hopefully that rug is enough of a cushion!" It landed and sure enough, I heard the sound of glass cracking. I grimaced and opened up the box, and it was half full of beer and had started to leak out the bottom. I quickly carried it over into the grass, but I left a nice long trail of spilled beer in the garage. Three of the twelve bottle shattered inside. What the heck? Can't we make beer boxes out of something other than flimsy weak cardboard?

Is that a bad beat or what!!??!!?!?

PokerStars Doom Switch (And Bankroll Thoughts)

I had a pretty rough weekend on the tables and I am really starting to re-think my bankroll strategy.

I added a picture of a graph of my bankroll to my last post. Here it is again


I broke the 10k mark back in the beginning of June. I lost, then won a little and almost got to 11k. But now it is a month later, I am still sitting at that point. The last month of playing poker has been kind of frustrating. This weekend was what pushed me over the edge I think. I lost about $700 this weekend. I know that it is only really 3.5 buy-ins at 200NL, but it's still $700 bucks! Most of that was over at PokerStars (Some of it over at Tribeca) on both 100NL and 200NL tables. I finally did clear the PokerStars bonus, but I just got crushed in the ring games clearing it. It took me 1900 hands over two weeks time to clear those 720 FPPs, and in those 1900 hands, I lost a total of $650. Thankfully I cashed in that $20 180 person MTT for just over $600 a couple weeks back, so I actually came out a little ahead factoring in the bonus money. But jeez. -$650 to clear 720 FPPs. That's terrible.

I really think PokerStars had the Doom switch turned on for me. I've never seen so much bad luck. In those 1900 hands, I flopped only 5 sets. Five. FIVE!!! I only got slightly paid off on one of those. I got set over setted on two of them. I got Pocket Aces three times. Kings twice. In 1900 hands! And when I would get a decent hand, I was always up against a monster.

I know you all hate bad beats, but here are a few from this weekend (some are from Tribeca):

- AKs in BB. 5 limpers to me and I make it $9. 4 call. Flop K, J, 2 all clubs. I have no clubs. Checked around. Donk goes all in for 2.5 x pot. He likes to push all-in to steal. I call figuring there is no way he has a made flush. And he flips over A3 with the 3 of clubs. Of course, there is a club on the river.

- 6 max. AK with King on flop. Villain has AA

- 99 UTG. I limp call a regular size raise. Flop set on a Q98 flop, which is my first set at PokerStars in over 800 hands. Villain has QQ for set over set.

- 6 max I have J7s on the button and it is folded to me and I raise hoping to steal. Flop comes jack high. I bet 3/4 pot. He calls. Turn a blank. I bet 3/4 pot again. River 7 giving me two pair. But it gave villain a straight. Chase donkey, chase.

- Full ring folded to me on button and I raise with A7. SB calls. Flop is AAJ. Bet call, blah blah blah. Villain has AJ.

- 6 max, I get QQ, my first high pocket pair at Stars in 3 days. Up against AA with all unders on the board.

- Full ring and call a PF raise with QQ along with a couple other people. Flop is K62. PF raiser bets small so I re-raise. Another dude calls behind me and PF raiser min-raises. Uh oh, I'm out of there. PF raiser has KK, other guy has 66.

- TT on the button and I bet. Flop is all unders with 2 clubs. I bet half pot and villain calls. Blank on turn and I bet 3/4 pot. Villain calls. River is a club. Check check. Villain has KT of clubs. Chase again

- 6 max all-in PF with AA. Villain has KK. King on flop.

- Get KK and get rivered by another flush after dude called my flop and turn bets with 97s.

So here is the situation. My bankroll is at $10,000. From what I have read, that is actually a bankroll where I should for sure be playing full time at 200NL. And even playing 400NL (25 buy-ins) some (I'm not good enough to play 400NL yet, so I wouldn't do that). But one of my poker goals way back was to use poker profit to buy a nice HD television. Well, the basement is finished, and now it's time to cash out some profit. I was thinking of withdrawing $2500-$3000 for a really nice one.

But then this weekend happened, and I thought maybe I should do this: Withdraw everything but $3000. That will give me enough to buy whatever TV I want, an entertainment center, and some furniture off of poker profits (We were going to get that other stuff anyway with regular job money).

Then I would take that $3000 and only play at 100NL. And at the end of each month, withdraw whatever is above $3000 and use that for fun money (Trips, stuff for wife, etc...). Repeat every month.

That means no moving up to 400NL and beyond. Just playing 100NL, which is a level that I think I can really beat. Assuming I play 10000 hands a month, and can play at 5PTBB/100, that would be $1000 in poker profit, plus whatever I get from bonuses. That's still not to shabby.

What do you think? Am I being an idiot? Am I just experiencing variance (Ya, probably). Should I just withdraw $2500 like my original plan and still try and move up in limits? Am I really just a shitty player who was on a really good heater in April-May? Take the profit and run? Avoid playing ring games at PokerStars like the plague?

June Results

Here are my June 2006 results. They weren't as good as my previous two months, but I still made over $1,000, so I gotta be happy about that. Again, I mainly played NL cash games, with a few MTT thrown in there highlighted by my big $600 cash in a $20 180 Person MTT. I only played one regular SNG in June, which was a $50 over at Party Poker.

Even though the numbers say I played pretty well, I was still a little disappointed with my June play. I had two huge days where I made over $600. And that is not even including the day I made my MTT score (because I busted out of 66poker that same day). So those two days pretty much was my profit for the whole month. I had SIX days where I lost over $180, with the biggest one being -$307! That's not good. I had nine days where my profit was greater than $100. And seven where I lost more than $100.

June was also my worst bonus month in a long time. I have to go back to November to see a month where I did worse than June in terms of bonus money. I blame that on busting out of 66poker and quitting on Hollywood. I have a couple bonuses already in July that I am working on, so hopefully July will be a big bonus month. There is the Stars one I am working on, the Victor Chandler $500 bonus. Plus I deposited for a bonus at Paradise and I just got an e-mail for another Party Poker Bonus.

Another reason June wasn't as big as the other previous months was that I just didn't play as much. In May, I played about 10,000 hands, with about 130 table hours. In June, I only played 6400 hands, with about 95 table hours. That's a pretty big difference.

Total Profit: $1,335.90

Total Bonuses Received: $309.56

• BoDog: $50.00
• PartyPoker: $10.00
• FullTilt: $15.00 (rakeback)
  
• WillHill: $44.56
• Pacific: $100.00

Total Poker Profit: $1,026.34

• PokerStars: $323.60
  
• PartyPoker: $1,210.68
• 66poker(B2B): -$767.80
  
• BoDog: $742.59
• WillHill: -$57.97
  
• Hollywood: -$460.10
• Doyles's Room: -$219.73
  
• Victor Chandler: $24.71
• Pacific Poker: $230.36

No Limit Ring Profit: $804.24

• $50NL: -$10.75
  
• $100NL: $267.42
• $200NL: $547.57
  

Sit-N-Go Profit: -$55.00

• $50+5 SNGs: -$55.00 (Total Played: 1)
  

Total SNG Return On Investment (ROI): -100%

Multi Table Tournaments: $277.10 (Big $600+ cash in a $20 180 person SNG)


Breaking down my NL cash games, I played about 3500 hands at 100NL for a 3.82 PTBB/100. And at 200NL I played about 3000 hands for a 4.56 PTBB/100. That's pretty respectable I think. Not as good as May, but May was probably unsustainable :)

My goals for July? I didn't play too many hands at 6 max (probably only 1000) in June. So I am going to try and play more 6 max this month. My total profit goal for July will be $2,000. If I finish up the Victor Chandler bonus this month, that is definitely doable I think

(edited to add this bankroll picture)



Cheers!

I Love Long Weekends

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I like when holiday's land in the middle of the week. That means I'm guaranteed a long weekend.

I did pretty good on the poker tables over the holiday weekend (more specifically yesterday and this morning). My bankroll hasn't really moved much in the last 3 weeks, so I decided to play a little more at the 100NL level and more 6 max. The results have been good so far. Though, I started to finally get some cards and hit a few sets, so maybe the winnings from the last two days are from that instead of me moving down in limits. I don't know what it is, but I have always crushed the 100NL 6 max games.

My favorite hand from this morning was where I limped in with 76 of spades. About 5 people saw a flop of Jh, 4s, 5s. So I have an open ended straight flush draw. I lead out 3/4 pot and get called by 3 people! The turn is the 2d. I check this time, as does everyone else. The river is the 3h, so I have the nuts. I bet about half pot and some dude raises all-in. I obviously called and he showed 68 for a smaller straight.

I got to play a few MTTs on Sunday night. The first one I played in was the Paradise $10 rebuy. I didn't have to rebuy and tripled up with a wheel (Ace to 5 straight) with A2. No other double ups for me, and i was sitting just below average after the add-on. About a half an hour in, I got knocked out by the table big stack when he rivered me. A whole lot of people saw a flop of K, 3, 6 rainbow. I bet with KQ, the big stack raises, and I re-raise all-in. He calls and shows KJ. The river was a Jack to send me packing.

I also played in a Party $30 MTT. I got knocked out in that one with me holding AK and villain holding KJ. Jack on the flop sends me home.

And then the worst one was pretty deep in a Stars $20 180 person SNG. It was down to the final 3 tables, and I was sitting pretty in 7th place. I get pocket Kings. UTG bets 3x BB. I raise with my Kings to triple his bet (which was just over a third of my stack). The button, who has me covered flat calls! Warning bells should have been going off in my head when he did that. Original bettor folds, and the flop is all low cards. I bet and of course big stack re-raises me all-in. There was already so many chips in the middle, I felt that I had to call. I should have known he had aces. The flat call PF should have told me to not put in another dime in the pot.

This one really pissed me off, because I was poised to make a final table run in one of these again. At least I got a little redemption about 10 minutes later when I stacked a guy on a 200NL table with Aces when he had Kings for a nice $400 pot.

I'm going to post my June results in the next couple days. Unfortunately, June wasn't as good as April and May. But I still made money, so I can't really complain about that.

Cheers!