July Goals

I'm ready and rejuvenated to get back into the swing of things at the poker table in July. June saw me have my Best Month Ever™ due to the Blogger Tournament of Champions win. I think it will be a long time until I break that record. Unless I get another big tournament score, or move up to 1000NL (lol).

As far as everything else, it was probably a break even month. I didn't play many cash game NL Hold 'em hands at all. Maybe 3000 hands. I put in a decent amount of Omaha hands towards the end of the month, and did pretty good winning a few hundred bucks.

But now that we are in July, I decided to hit those 6 max tables in full force. I'm taking a page out of EurekaKid's blog and writing down my July Goals. I doubt I'll hit them, but it is worth a shot:

- Install, purchase, and set-up Hold 'em Manager (almost complete. This will be done today)
- Play 15,000 hands
- Make $2,500 for the month (4.2 ptbb/100 at 200NL)
- Watch 10 CardRunner videos
- Three blog posts per week
- Make two videos of my play and post them on Internet for people to watch and critique my play
- Get two coaching sessions in with Twelver
- If I have the time, make sure each of my sessions are at least an hour long (Meaning: No logging off after 15 minutes and one bad beat. I need to work on Tilt Control)
- Don't berate the donks (I've grown a habit of typing in "lol" after I lose to a bad beat. I have to stop doing that cause it can put me on tilt)
- If games aren't good at Full Tilt, play 100NL over at PokerStars
- Get down to Iowa and play in some live NL at least once.

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I forgot to blog about my trip to Treasure Island last weekend. The wife and I stayed the night and met some friends, so I was able to get in a good 5 hours of live poker. Unfortunately, Minnesota does not allow NL to be played, so I had to play either limit or spread limit. I ended up playing 2-10 spread most of the night and ended up about $30 or so. I think I played pretty good. I probably lost some value on a few hands, but the boards were pretty scary, so I played them a little passively.

My biggest pot was with KK in one of the blinds. There was a raise to I think $6 and a couple callers. I bumped it up to $16 (max) and got 4 callers!! Then the flop came 976 with two spades. Yuck. I led out $10 and got called by all of them but one. Turn was an offsuit 4. So far so good. I bet out again and all three of them called. Yikes, how many of them are on flush draws? The river brought the Q of spades putting three spades out there. Great. Flush draw just hit. I checked, intending just to check/call to whomever hit their draw. But it checked around and my Kings were good. One of the guys showed 88 for the OESD. But I have no idea what the other two people had. Did they each have an 8 too? Maybe someone had a pair of 9's? Anyways, I was really surprised my KK was good there, and I dragged the $160 pot.

Towards the end of the night, I moved over to the 2-60 spread game. This game is the closest thing to NL that we have in Minnesota. But the game had died down and there were only 5 or 6 people playing by the time I got moved there (Apparently there were two groups of drunk buddies that left about the same time). I didn't play here long as 3 of the 4 other players there were pretty good. One bad old player busted 15 minutes after I got there, and then another young bad player sat down, but busted 15 minutes after that. I ended up losing about $50.

So all-in-all, I lost about $20 or so for the trip. It was fun though. During the previous times I've played live, I would get bored after a couple hours. Probably due to the slowness of the game. But I didn't get bored at all that night. That's a good sign. Maybe I'm getting better at live play.

Cheers!

Lots-O-Poker

Lots of poker this weekend. Played in a home game, got in 2400 hands on the cash tables, and played in tournaments on Sunday night.

The weekend started off with a home game over at OhCaptain's house on Friday night. He had a whopping 26 people throwing in $10 each all cramming in his basement. One exciting thing about this home game, was that my wife played, which was her first ever poker tournament. I was a little worried that she wouldn't have fun, but I actually think she enjoyed herself. It was nice that I was seated at her starting table, along with another person we both know. She even limp/re-raised all-in with pocket Aces! And got called! And flopped a set! Nice hand! But in the end, she busted out around 23rd place or so. her next poker lesson will be that it is ok to raise post flop too.

I didn't fair much better, going out in 21st place or so. No exciting hands for me to report. I got AK once and pushed when I only had 5 BBs. I lost most of my chips pushing with Q9s with 7 BBs and getting called by KQ.

Go on over to OhCaptain's blog for a bigger recap. Good times!

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Cash games were down, then up for the weekend. Saturday was terrible, but I made most of it back on Sunday. Here is the graph.

Saturday saw two more of my sets go down in flames. i went back and looked at my February database, and from Feb 1st until Saturday, I flopped a total of 52 sets. 11 of those went down in flames. Can you believe that? Flopping sets is where you make the most of your money, and over 20% of mine went down in flames. I'd guess that the average is only 5%. ridiculous.

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I played in a few tournaments on Sunday night, including the Blogger Big game. I built up my stack by hitting some monster hands. I flopped a set of Kings and doubled up against some unknown crappy player. Won another nice pot with pocket aces and another flopped set versus lucko in a 3-bet pot (He didn't continue after the flop though). I got it all in against Jordan with my KK vs his AA and I flopped another set. I was in the top 10 for a while. Then I got moved to the super donkey agro table. I started at this table with about 19,000 in chips at the 200/400/50 level. Went complete card dead for about 4 orbits, but kept my stack when it was folded to my BB a few times. I was still in the top 10 I think. Then within 12 hands I was out.

- Blinds 300/600/75: I have 17k and raise K9o to 1800. Bone_Daddy pushes for 9.5K and I fold. I almost called because it smelled like a resteal. I would have been right cause he had 98o.
- 2 hands later I have 15k and raise 44 from LP. garthmeister pushed from the SB for 8.5k total. I fold.
- 3 hands later I have 13k and raise TT from EP. garthmeister again pushed from LP for 11k total. I folded (Mistake?)
- 5 hands later with blinds at 400/800/100, and I have 9k. Folds to me in the CO and I raise with K9o. chitwood on the button pushes ( I barely have him covered). I fold. I probably had odds to call this one. meh.
- Next hand I am down to 6k, which is good for an M of 3. I push from MP with T9o. Shabazz Jenkins (who has 8k in his stack), who've I've never heard of before, calls with.......... the powerful 33, and I can't win the coinflip.

That's right folks. I got knocked out of the big game because someone called an all-in with pocket 3's. That's a winning play right there folks!!! <---- sarcasm)

I palyed few more tournaments, including the 50/50's at Full Tilt and Stars. I couldn't get anything going in the full tilt one and lost to a rivered Ace high flush (him holding AKo) to my turned King high flush ( I had KQs). Then the stars one, I limp-reraised all-in from UTG (which is usually a strong play) with TT. I got called by A9o and obviously lost.

I barely cashed for $10 profit in the $24 26k guaranteed. I had about an average stack and 16 total BBs left in my stack. Some idot raise from MP and I push for 16 BBs with AQ. He calls with 88. Flop has two Queens, but he 4-flushes me by the river. Yipee!

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Here is Today's Sweet Hand of the Day.

Here is a nice min-raise bluff by me against a LAG. I had a note on this guy that he has been caught floating before. So I represented that I had AA and min-4-bet the turn. Pretty nice, huh? I was proud of this one.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

SB: $197
BB: $260.80
Hero (UTG): $203
CO: $183.70
BTN: $250.60

Pre-Flop: 3h 3c dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $7, 2 folds, SB calls $6, BB folds

Flop: ($16) 9c 6d As (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11, SB calls $11

Turn: ($38) 7s (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $21, SB raises to $45, Hero raises to $69, SB folds

Results: $128 Pot ($3 Rake) Hero mucked 3h 3c and WON $125 (+$62 NET)



And Today's Sour Hand of the Day.

This table was crazy with three mega donks. Two of the agro kind, and one calling station kind. At least 4 people saw every flop, so I decide to limp with my suited connector. I flop a pair plus a gutshot plus a flush draw. The donkey pushes and I call and miss my 17 outs twice. I'm 60/40 there versus an overpair, and he probably does this with any two cards the way he had been playing. I probably could of folded since I didn’t have anything invested in the pot. But I like monster draws.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

BB: $170.05
Hero (UTG): $234.75
MP: $123.65
CO: $35.80
BTN: $197
SB: $208

Pre-Flop: 8d 9d dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero calls $2, MP raises to $4, 3 folds, BB calls $2, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($13) Td 9c 6d (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $119.65 and is All-In, BB folds, Hero calls $119.65

Turn: ($252.30) 3c (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($252.30) 5s (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $252.30 Pot ($3 Rake) Hero showed 8d 9d (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-$123.65 NET)
MP showed Ac Ah (a pair of Aces) and WON $249.30 (+$125.65 NET)

Have a good week! Cheers!

PAHud

I've read a few posts the last couple weeks talking about PokerTracker and PAHud, so I wanted to show my set up and explain it to those interested.

Here is my current set-up for the 6 max tables at Full Tilt.

Link to a bigger version of this pic (Not sure why you cant click on it and see bigger version)

I based a lot this off of FruityPro's setup from CardRunners (sadly, it seems he doesn't play much poker any more these days). As you can see, I have a lot of information out there. One thing that I really like, and that I think is really important, is to color code the numbers. PAHud gives you the option to assign a color to ranges in each stats. For example, anyone who has a VP$IP less than 15% gets purple. Red is between 15% and 22%, Orange between 22% and 30%, Yellow between 30% and 40%, and Green above 40%.

The first row are the two most important, VP$IP (Voluntarily put Money in Pot) and PFR% (Pre-Flop Raise Percentage) I classify a NIT as being 16/13 and lower. A Standard good LAG at the stakes I play is 27/23 - 24/21. These are typically the players I like to stay away from. There are hardly any good LAGs at 100NL, and a few at 200NL. You will find some some so-called "LAGs" even looser than that, but I think once you start getting above 27/23, you turn into a LAGtard. I seek out the players that have VP$IP of greater than 40%. A table with at least two people with VP$IP above 40 is an awesome table.

Second row is Total Aggression Factor and Total Hands. A Total Aggression of less than 1.0 is a calling station. Greater than 4.0, and they are super aggressive. As far as total hands, I think once you have more than 1000 hands on someone, you can feel comfortable that the stats you are seeing are accurate.

Third row is Attempt to Steal Blinds and Fold BB to Steal. Someone who steals greater than 40%, I am going to 3-bet light from the Blinds. People with a number greater than 90% for the Fold BB to Steal are people I am stealing blinds from any time it is folded to me in the CO or button.

Fourth Row is Fold to Continuation Bet, and Fold to Flop Bet. These are pretty much the same thing, and the numbers are usually similar. I don't use these too much (instead, I look at the 6th row numbers in regards to the flop). Obviously, you don't want to be betting the flop with air when someone has one of these numbers less than about 30%

Fifth Row is Continuation Bet % and Bet River Percentage. I don't rely on these stats too much. If someone continuation bets greater than 85% of the time, I may be more apt to check-raise them. If a TAG has this stats at below 50%, you can be pretty certain that they have something when they continuation bet. And if someone has a high Bet river percentage (like above 40%), then I may call down (Or raise) lighter on the river, or go for a check-raise if I am out of position.

Sixth Row is Call Continuation Bet and Raise Continuation Bet. These two stats are pretty important, and I am always looking at these. Since I play a TAG game at 6 max, I am usually the Pre-flop raiser if I am involved in the pot. So it is really important to see what players are more than likely to call and/or raise my continuation bets. If either of these numbers are above 20%, I proceed with caution. If someone has a really high Call C-bet %, I like to look at the "Fold to Turn Bet" stat in the pop up window when hovering over their name. This can tell me how often they call a c-bet, and then fold to a 2nd barrel. I run into a lot of players like this. I guess you can call this "floating". I'm not a big fan of floating, but one way of combating constant floaters is to stay aggressive on the turn.

One other hint I have learned about these numbers, is that every once in a while, I will see a player who sixth row stats are zero, or very close to zero. What I have found, is that a lot of these players are the ones that will lead into you (or donk bet as some call it) quite a bit. If someone has a zero for these stats, but a pretty high aggression factor and they call your Pre-Flop Bet from the blinds, get ready to see a lead out donk bet. If they don't lead out, C-bet 100% of the time, and you will take it down.

Seventh Row is Won When Saw Flop Percentage, and BB/100. A good TAG/LAG regular will have this stat around 40%. If you see someone with above 50%, they are super duper aggressive. Almost maniacal. And with BB/100, it is always nice to see who the winners and losers are.

In the bottom left corner there are two numbers which you see (15.8 and 15.8 respectively). Those are my VP$IP and PFR% numbers at that particular table. I think it is really important to know what your stats are on that table to get a feel for what the other players may think about you. If you have only played one hand in the 20 hands you've been at the table, everyone there is going to think you are a NIT. When you are playing multiple tables, you may not realize how tight or loose you are playing at one table, so having this out there is important.

Upper left is the table stats. Average VP$IP, Average PFR%, and Average Pot. When searching for a table, I very rarely sit at a table with less than 30% for VP$IP. If I'm playing during slow times, I'll play at tables as low as 27%. But once that average gets down to 24 %, I'm leaving.

There you have it. If anyone would like a copy of my set-up file and import into their PAHud, just let me know. I'm really interested to hear what other people think about this set-up. Feel free to link me up so that I can get tons of feedback on this, since something like this can really improve everyones (and my) poker game.

I need to do some more research on Hold 'em Manager and the new Poker Tracker 3. One stat that I think is really relevant in these games is 3-bet percentage. Right now, I can't see that stat. But I know in Hold 'em Manager you can. I may give it a try once all the bugs are ironed out.

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So last night, I sat down to play a little bit. I wasn't quite in the mood to play, but I wanted to get a nice picture of my set-up with me sitting at the table and some of my stats in the lower left hand corner. I played about 150 hands and lost three frickin buy-ins at 200NL. Awesome. I lost a huge pot where I had a huge draw and a lot of fold equity. He had the one and only hand (bottom set) that he can call with. And then I miss my draw. Then I lost AA vs AQ all-in on a KQx flop. Then lost QQ vs AA all-in PF against an agro LAG. Why do these LAGs always have a hand when I get one too and play back at them? I didn't play any more that night, even when I had a free hour. M-E-G-A T-I-L-T.

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I'm heading over to OhCaptain's house tonight for some home game fun. I haven't met OhCaptain yet, and it turns out he lives just a mile away. So that's pretty cool that another poker blogger lives so close to me. It will be fun to see the look on his face when the 7' 1", 320 lb PokerFool shows up at his door. I take up two spots at a poker table, just to let you know :)

Cheers!