Took a Small Break

I took a little break, although it wasn't on purpose. I didn't play a hand of online poker for 4 days straight. I played live a bunch of times in that span and was just not feeling like playing online when I got home.

However, I put in a nice little 1.5hr session today for a small profit.

I think we are nearing the stage in the challenge where it starts to get difficult to stay motivated. A lot of us are on some type of slump or downswing and after putting in over a month's effort, we are noticing that this isn't as easy as we thought it might be.

Hang in there gentleman, once we get up to the next stakes you can actually start putting in some nice wins that feel a little more significant than the ones we get now.

I am planning on putting in some hands this weekend, I hope to have a follow up post on those sessions after.

Grind on the Mind

After slipping greatly for a big session, I hopped back on the horse to grind back up.

The above graph was the next session after my last downswing. "Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years" indeed. I had a fairly typical beginning to the session. Went down then up a bit, nothing major. Then I started taking some beats/coolers. Pretty standard stuff, but after the session before, I was feeling some urgency to bounce back.

Adam was sweating me and he saw some of the uglier hands. I could feel myself getting more frustrated but I didn't want to stop playing yet. I knew if I kept taking beats like that I would have to just wrap up the session, but I wasn't quite ready to yet.

I decided to notch back my preflop hands by about one level. I just tightened up a bit and tried to level out.

Over the next 1200 hands or so things leveled out a lot. I didn't take any unusual beats/coolers, but I wasn't really putting my money all in all that often. When I did, my hands were best and held up. Nice.

I really felt in the zone at this point. Not in the zone in the sense that I had all my tables figured out and was just soul-reading everyone. But just in the grind zone, where I had a good mental state, was playing at or near A-game, and wasn't bored.

I had a nice little run at the end of the session and actually pulled a profit out of it. I was super happy with this as having run fairly bad in the mid part of the session, I wasn't counting on cashing-out winner. I've stopped looking at my running total while playing also. I find it fairly distracting to be checking your total too often, so I just leave it aside now if I can.

Jumped back in for 2 sessions yesterday, ran slightly above EV, and crushed it for a nice $16.00 session. Put in another session after that, this one was about half the size hands wise, but I cashed +$15.00 on that one. There was lots of action and people were just shoving into my big hands.

I am hoping for a little while longer of no run-bad so I can get up to $200.00 and finally out of this level (even if it is temporary).

Rakeback coming shortly as well, and I have been really trying to put in more hands as I think I can grind more than I have been, so it should be good as well. Ended at $142.00 I think, pre-rakeback.

Down Again

I have more to write probably but wanted to get something up. Last nights session was now my 3rd brutal downswing. It was similar to my last, where my overall level of play was lacking and where coolers/beats made things that much worse.

I had one guy at a table who was really trying hard to give away his stack, but I kept failing at taking it. He played strangely, lasted for about 2 hours, so he wasn't just literally shoving ATC pre or anything. But he would make... questionable plays.

Examples?

SURE:

So we had dueled a bit already. I had KTo and flopped a K vs. him early. He snap called all in on the flop with Qd7d for a FD which he hit. A bit later I ended up all in with him when I had AX and he had AJ on an A high flop. The money had been flowing. After a long while, I had relegated myself to waiting on a good hand vs. this guy. I picked up AK in MP, raised it up, he pot-raised me back, I shipped pre. He tank-folded.

The very next hand was very similar, but he found a premium hand to call with. Well sorta anyway. Bleh

I hung in there for a long time, but wasn't the one who eventually got his money a while later. Ya free money would have been good, oh wellz.

So lets look at some suckouts/coolers why don't we? These are all pretty standard.

It wasn't all bad, but taking those hits repeatedly sure takes it toll on the roll.

I hit on the river here. Seasky is a pretty bad player a he makes a fairly absurd move here. He tries as hard as he can to make me fold my hand even though he has the nuts, but I just am too stubborn. He had made some really stupid overbets like this throughout the session and I was inclined to call him regardless. Thank goodness for getting there, as against his particular hand, my hand pretty much sucks.

This is a pretty standard line for a beginning player who is drawing and has missed. I pick up on this fact and hero call the bet for a reasonable pot. I think it's probably overall advisable to just avoid these spots, but when you know you are right, go with it.

Sometimes being the one pushing the action at your table is good. By the time he had called my preflop 4-bet, we had $6.44 in the middle, and it felt like any KK, QQ, JJ or TT type hand would just go with it on that flop, so I shoved. Turns out he had even worse.

So ya, good times. I know that at some point I got tilted because I fell into the mentality that everything was going to go wrong. I got it in with AK vs QQ, and just felt like I was going to lose no matter what (I flopped a K on an all spade board, and Villain hit a spade on the turn fwiw). This is a pretty inappropriate view to have while actually playing. I did stop once I became aware of my mental state, but a careful review of the session will review mistakes that I normally wouldn't make I am pretty sure.

Back on the horse..

Cliff Jumping Bungee Jumping

Sometimes your graph falls off a cliff. Then rebounds back to the sky.

The immediate session after that disaster session I posted looked like this:







I sat down to 9-table and just take a solid grind approach to things. You will almost never get a big downswing back right away, and pushing so that you do usually comprises good play. So I just said, well, it's gonna take some sessions to get back but if I just grind away all will work out.

Not this time. I ran really well and felt like I played well also, and got it all back in one (rather short actually) session.

I didn't track many hands for the session. Here is one:

How would you play this? Villain was fairly active non-nit, but was also not a maniac.

I am back up to ~120.00 now, but really looking for a nice upswing to get me out of the basement.

Cliff Jumping

Sigh. For the 2nd time this challenge, the soul crushing downswing has reared it's ugly head.

Last night I hopped on to run a few tables after the football poker day at Adam's. I felt sorta tired so I didn't want to put up too many tables, I limited it to 3 or 4. I ran really good at one table for a minute, busted 2 guys, and the table broke. This was a nice start to the night.

I went on a couple of other tables, and things went awry quickly. Typical of downswings for me, I took a series of bad beats, followed shortly by mixing in bad play with the bad beats. This is bad.

These days I tend to avoid FBMT, but I can still slip firmly into C game play and just stay too long playing like that. If I run well, I dig myself out as at least I am giving myself a shot. But if I don't, it just makes the situation that much worse.

I ran -19.00 on the EV graph on HEM, but punted off 3-4 buy-ins myself with no excuse. If I had played really well but just had a sick downswing, I would be ok with that. This isn't what happened here however.

Here are some hands:

On this first one, it's limped to me on the BB, and I raise it up with ATo. This is close, but for me it's good enough to raise as these players limp/fold constantly and it's easy money. Also, AT is fine vs. most limper's ranges. I get a good flop, and not fooling around, lead out for full pot. I think I can get called by any flush draw and all aces call me as well (most of which are behind me). The turn is fairly benign. I decide to just shove here because I need to get the money in now vs. a flush draw (he won't pay any more on the river if he misses) and I figure that any Ace will call as well. Again, I don't have him on a stronger Ace as I figure he would be raising AJ+ from the button. False.

Nextly, we have this little gem. I am really not sure about this at all. I guess I can try to control the pot on the river, but I didn't really think it was warranted against this player as he was calling me fairly light anyway (my image was... suspect at the time shall we say). So I raise KJo up after someone has posted their blinds. I get one caller, and bet the flop when I hit top pair. I bet big, full pot, and he calls. Turn pairs the 2nd pair, and to me, this is a likely holding for him. I check, and he checks behind. I hit a J on the river, although it's not meaningful. I bet out, figuring I have the best hand after my opponent checked back the turn. He shoves, and I am committed. I am not sure I need to make this pot this big, but I don't think it's terrible either.

I found this next hand quite puzzling. Just nothing really made sense about it. I called a raise out of the SB with QJo. Not great. Completely whiff the flop, it checks around. Turn is a blank, I check, villain bets the patented $.04, get's one fold, but I am not folding for that. I pair the river. My hand feels pretty darn strong here. I bet out for value and get shoved on. WTH does this guy have? A ten is a distinct possibility, but there is really no hand except maybe flopped quads that tells any kind of story here. I decide to go with it...

I decide to shove the turn here as I am thinking that quite a few draws are in this guys range and I don't want him to wiggle free if he misses. Apparently bottom pair no kicker was also in his range. I am ok with my play, but these are the type of hands that can add up pretty fast when you are on a downswing.

I certainly wasn't short on action for the night, at least I had that going for me. Again though, these are the types of hands that can add up and be really annoying. Interestingly, villain is 36% on the flop here, so he is far from drawing dead.

Sigh. I guess it's just a product of how I play that these downswings will happen. I'm not really worried about it, it's just lame to look at the graph and see a couple weeks worth of efforts erased.

Maintenance

My talented and charming girlfriend got me a new monitor some time back, a 24 incher. This means that I can now fit 9 tables fairly comfortably on the one screen, more if I want to spread them out onto my other monitor. Before I used to 8-table at the maximum, and that would take the better part of my mental capacity.

But I realized something after getting this monitor. On my old one, at 8 tables, they would overlap, so the table would pop to the front when the action came to you. This meant that if you were dealt 7 2-off in the CO, you couldn't just click the "fold to any" button ahead of time, because you probably couldn't see that table until the action was actually on you.

24 inches of Apple glory changed all that(the cut off picture is clickable):



Being able to see all the tables at once makes it more manageable. Now I won't lie, playing 9 tables still takes the better part of my attention, but I can actually IM with Chuck or check an email with no issues.

Here are some hands I saved out:

Tricky Value Line

On this one I am not 100% sure that I took the best line here, but I think I like it. Villain was not nitty, gave some action and I figured might try to take me off my hand on the turn. Also, I thought that checking here might get a river call out of a bad diamond since my line looks very much like I have given up on the turn, but changed my mind on the river after he checked back the turn. Being ROTTY, it worked fine. What hands do you put villain on and what can call the turn? Can I get all in if I hammer this turn very often? Highlight below to see villains hand:

Q9 with no diamonds (!)

Eye Arr In

This is a place where I played the hand differently than I normally would, but with a good result. I was fairly new to this table, and was playing on lots of tables at this time. I raised all in from the BB vs. a player that was raising basically all of his buttons since I sat down. I had also seen him show down a weak starting hand, and he seemed like a station. I didn't envision him folding too many "good" starting hands, most of which my hand plays well against. Also, the table limped, he raised full pot, and I viewed it as a very possible steal attempt. I don't mind picking up that pot preflop with no resistance, and if I don't I am likely in a good spot. So I ship. The button folds however, which wasn't a big surprise, but the CO calls, which was. Oops. This is usually AA-JJ in my experience, where the player got tricky pre and now just snaps me off.. OR, this guy picked up QJo and was like EYE ARR IN. It might have been that too ;) DNR baby.

Hangin' Tough

This is a hand that looks silly on paper but in actuality is probably pretty correct. I will keep this one simple, people just never play an overpair hand like this. I am value betting the flop and turn here which is pretty obvious. But when he jams the river, it is hard to figure out a situation where he does this and where we are beaten. If I have literally no read on this guy, then I would expand this to include a random bottom pair call on the flop and turn. But this guy had been playing fairly straight up. I expected to see more of a missed clubs type hand here, but this works too. The key here, is that this guy virtually never shows up with AT, KT or QT here. So much for keeping it short.

I am still finding my rhythm at these stakes. My VPIP etc. stats have been changing quite a bit since the beginning of the challenge. I will get it figured out properly, but frankly I don't have it all sorted quite yet.

Things I am however happy about are that I have taken some pretty harsh downswings but recovered just fine. I have been able to put in a fair amount of hands, trying to max out on rakeback to get me to the next level that much faster. I am really just trying to brute force my way out of the bottom tier, as I think the money really gets better about 2 levels up. I have to get to $200.00 before I can go up, and even then, I might have to drop back down in between.

Grind on the mind as they say...

Up and Down, All Around

Ah yes the Cake Challenge. What a gnarled beast it is. I have built my swing tolerance back up pretty quickly, but that is largely because I have been swinging like an 8-year old on the first day of Summer vacation since this began. Adjusting to these downswings (and upswings) is a big part of success for this type of thing, but it ain't easy..

Let's look at some hands from my last session.

I think while we try to break down hands and put ourselves in other players seats, we often fall into the trap of expecting that player to act similarly to how we would. This is not always the case. I take a value line here because I don't think this guy has anything at all. I min-raise the turn to try to induce a call or bluff, and get the call. He checks the not too terrible river, but calls my value shove. You have to factor in the Random Donk Factor (TM) at these stakes still it would seem :)

Continuing along that theme, we have this little piece of work. Royal and I decided that given this guys stack size, he was just playing ATC and running really hot(?) Maybe he thought he had some soul read on me or something, not sure. The minbet->call on the river is classic.

I wanted to show this example as a great spot where overbetting the turn makes a lot of sense. This guy flats in the SB with AQo. (Again with the nitty behavior from the players at this level). He flops top pair, and does the most popular move at these stakes currently: the $.04 minbet lead-out. I raise him up and of course he just passively calls. The turn brings a 2nd club to go with the 2 spades on the flop. Now he weak-leads again, this time for $.16. This is a spot where on a different board I might just go for a value type raise. I don't want him folding here. But of note is that this is *not* a way ahead/way behind situation. He could have a whole lot of hands that have a reasonable amount of equity but that we are beating. Some examples: Any of the 2 flush draws, any Q, sometimes a J, KT, and 9T. All of the previous hands with the exception of a Q, would likely fold the river unimproved. That means that we will do well to put as much pressure on him as possible to give him the worst odds and get as much money as we can get in right now. Being a passive donk he is likely to just not pay attention to the amount and just do the old "i haz draw, i arr in" play. Anyway, great spot for a shove imo, keep your eye out for these.

This next hand is more for entertainment purposes, but it is sorta interesting too. We have 77. Imagine at home the sheer range of joy to distress one might feel here lol.

I hope that we all understand how important it is to play in position by now. This hand is a great example of one of the overlooked reasons why not to play OOP. I call a raise from the BB with AJo. I flop top pair with a ~good kicker, but I have no clue where Villain is at. I do the standard check to the pf raiser. He cbets $.20. I don't really feel great about raising here, as AK, AQ, AA, KK, 99 are all part of his range, even if his range is wider than this. The turn brings another scare card on two fronts. The flush comes in and its a big broadway filling type card (but also improves us to a gutshot..) I check-call again, but I am not in love with this spot. River is another Q, and I check. I still don't have a great idea where this guy is at, and find myself somewhat relieved when he checks behind. The point of this whole thing is that it's very difficult to extract value from OOP. I had a relatively strong starting hand and had a decent flop for it, but had to let this guy decide how much money I won this pot.

I wanted to post a small hand like this just to show where I pick up probably the majority of what I win at these levels. It does not show what I had here but I am not going to post it either. I had air, so put any two cards in your hand and see if you just would have folded that flop or not. Once this guy gave up, I stabbed and took down a reasonably sized pot. This is your reward for knowing that the flop is dry enough that it missed this guy the majority of the time. And after he checks the turn, it's just a white flag to run him over. Don't pass up opportunities like this.

Along the lines of the RDF (TM) hand above, this hand shows that you don't always know where you are at. I raise with TT from the cutoff, and get 2 callers. On a very dry flop, both check and I bet half pot. I would probably bet this amount with an Ace as well. TheCouch100 calls and other guy folds. I hit a great card for me on the turn, giving me a boat. Now I am hoping that he has an Ace and that he is willing to go to the mat with it. He checks, and I bet $1.12, not holding back now as this has become a question of "do you have an ace or not?". He calls. I found this strange at the time because I expected a check-raise from an Ace. I thought he might have a small Ace and be playing it weakly. The river is a K, and he checks again. Well I have signifinantly less than a pot bet behind, so I just shove in there. I am still hoping he is just playing an Ace passively. I was wrong.

This one again shows that RDF(TM) strikes often and it strikes hard. Don't be a victim. (Took a relatively sick beat here, but the Sklansky bucks are piling up) Same dude as the previous hand too fwiw.



Those are all the hands that I wanted to share. I hit my first heater of the Challenge last night and had a decent upswing. Being down though overall to start the session meant that it didn't exactly propel me to the stars, but it was nice nonetheless.

And the grind continues..

Adjustments

For last night's session I was determined to adjust my strategy based on the new information I garnered from my previous sessions. I felt like I had a newfound outlook on the way the players at these stakes are playing and that I would be able to adjust accordingly.

First order of business was to tighten up a bit. While running over the table was a good thing, it also meant that I wasn't getting the implied odds that I thought I was getting preflop on every hand. My normal take on it was that these guys were ready to stack off with most hands, I would just have to do the betting for them. This isn't the case however as these guys want to just sit back and wait for the nuts apparently. This means that I need to just show them better hands more often but keep the stabbing up when I do enter a pot.

Secondly, I need to value bet. I am still borderline offended that I have to play anything resembling actual poker here, but whatever I will oblige. I figured that I could circumvent value betting by just hammering and letting these stations call off, but since they are folding, I have to try to extract value. This is fine, as they are horrible at doing it themselves and I have a big edge here I think.

So after making these adjustments I had a better session. I ran pretty poorly again (below EV again) but still pulled a reasonable profit out of the session and felt quite a bit better about my play. I felt like I was just slamming into a brick wall. Now I am crushing it.

Also, getting a bunch of hands in where I don't really go up or down is not the worst scenario as rakeback will turn break even sessions into +EV sessions.

The Long Bumpy Road Begins

Well that wasn't exactly how I envisioned it.

At my first check-in here, I am sitting somewhere around $80.00 in my account. I have a few excuses reasons which I will go over here.

1. The game has changed.

Hey look at that, turns out poker *is* an ever-evolving, changing beast that must be adjusted to after all. Truthfully, I knew this going in. I have been concentrating on my live game for the most part for the last however long, so getting back on the micros for this challenge was going to be an adjustment regardless.

I basically jumped in and started doing a similar style to the last time I was at these stakes. I tend to raise a bunch, and be one of the few people at the table 3-betting. After a while, the inner calling-station will arise in these bottom level players, and they will start calling me down with any top pair, sometimes worse. For some reason though, over the course of the whole weekend, everyone just folded everything the whole time.

Somewhere along the way, the micros on Cake have become massively nitty. I just kept running the table over again and again. I would lose the occasional big pot when they would hit a real hand against my real hand, but overall I was just steamrolling. But one thing was missing: I wasn't winning the big pots from some guy just getting sick of me betting, hitting his top pair 3rd kicker and calling me down for stacks. Inexplicably, they would put in 2/3rds of their stack, then fold anyway.

Fucking nits.

2. I ran significantly below EV.

In other words, I just got unlucky a lot. I looked at my graph which has this option of showing you how much you would have made had you ran at exactly neutral EV and compare that to what you did make. If your actual number is above the EV one, then you are running good. If it's below, it's the opposite.

Mine was WAY the opposite.

This graph however isn't statistically perfect, and is only a guide as to how you are running. Doesn't really mean that much at the end of the day.

What does mean something is that A) I avoided tilt for the most part and B) I would have just been slightly above break even had I ran EV neutral.

Combined with rakeback, I would be up a bit for the session, but not where I want to be.

3. I didn't play my A game.

Before, I could get away with so much that I hardly even tried to play my A-game. It isn't about A-game at these levels necessarily. You don't make reads like you do at higher levels. You pick up a good hand and you jam in your money and get paid by a worse hand. Rinse and repeat until you are ready to move up.

Well since it seems like that isn't going to fly on this go-around, I will have to actually (gasp) try to play well. Fine.

This means value betting, but staying aggressive (since they are folding FAR too often). Basically I am going to keep hammering away, but when I really want to get paid off, I will revert to actual poker and bet amounts that are likely to get paid off by my opponents range.

God, I didn't want to have to do this, but Cake, you made me do it. Full on Marsh assault is active.

Don't say I didn't warn you..


(the graph at the top is still the old one at the time of this writing, still figuring out how to show my damn new graph up there..)

Back to the Grind..

So I have the first few sessions under my belt. Things are ok I guess, just the normal ups and downs of grinding.

I have a few highlight hands to share, but I am still working on the graph you see above. As of writing this is was still my old graph, but I am working out a way to export the numbers from HEM to a simpler online spreadsheet that will just measure and provide a constant graph of my bankroll vs. hands.

This is a slightly different line than I would normally take with AA here (which is what I had), but I think it's correct here. I really think that this guy will stack off with almost his entire range here. I think he stacks off with any overpair, either of the two flush draws, any 6, and most 8's. Normally I wouldn't be shoving here (I would be trying to max value) but there were so many draws that I think he stacks off with *on the turn* but folds to any action on the river if he misses, I felt like shoving was better. I did have the As, which makes it slightly worse to shove here as I am hoping he has a nut spade draw as a part of his call-off range, but that's pretty marginal I think. Thoughts?

One thing about the style I play at the micros is I tend to get lots and lots of action. It's also why I like to push hard on hands like the one above. After raising a ton and 3betting way more than anyone else at the table, I tend to not get a lot of credit when the chips go in. Here is a fine example. I had a good feeling that this guy was about to crack, and sure enough on this one he did. I led for 1/2 pot on the flop, looking for value here with a favorable flop. He min-raises, lol. This is probably the worst line he could take, as he limits his fold equity to the minimum and he simultaneously opens the door for me to 3bet. I oblige the invitation and re-raise full pot. Not to be deterred, he ships all-in having little fold equity. In a normal situation his all-in bet would have fold equity, but after I lead out > re-raise for full pot I am basically never folding a made hand here. I snap call and we get it all in. Go sklasnsky bucks!

Next hand is in regards to hero-calling the guys at these bottom stakes. The players who are thinking at all will often take a line on a hand like this one. This is a classic spot where the villain is putting in a min-bet on the flop just to see if it works. I tend to treat min-bets like that in a raised pot as if it were a check, except I get the option of raising if I wish. The turn would be a good card for a lot of hands this guy could have, but he checks it. River changes nothing and he bets 1/2 pot on river as a stab. It isn't much of a stretch to put yourself in his seat and take a similar line with air. I was also considering that I had under-repped my hand a bit, as I was generally raising/3-betting with AJ at that table, but didn't this time.

This is a funny phenomenon you see at the micros as well: The chronic minbetter. They will bet the literal minimum on the flop and the turn, then either check or bet pot on the river depending. I think this develops because there are players that don't know how to handle it, and get into a station-mode after calling minbets on the flop and turn. It also acts as blockers to people willing to just call with good hands when minbet. Against competent players though, I think it just works against them, as it opens the door to get bet off of whatever hand they do have, and good players just ignore the minbet and take their odds if drawing/wanting cheap turns and rivers. This guy was a little different, he made it a double-min on the turn. Only reason I posted this hand is just to show that these guys will often do this with complete air, and a raise or bet out at any point will take it down. This is more important in non-limped pots, cause guys will do this even on raised pots.

Here is a hand I really butchered. I felt like I played a little erratic this session, but this is the only hand which I really didn't like. I flop an open ender here after being the aggressor preflop from the cutoff with 7c6c. I lead out for pot, he minraises me. I decide to just 3bet this guy as these minraises are often weak. He calls. Again I reference the type of action I tend to garner. I hit the best possible card for me on the turn, but decide to check, hoping that he would just shove to my weakness after he flatted my 3bet on the flop. Right after I checked though, I realized that he could have a flush draw pretty easily here, and might just take his free card. He does check back. BAH! Now the river is a diamond, and I don't really think I can give much more action here. I check and he checks back garbage. Not sure if he would have called a shove on the turn. My guess is not, but he called a hell of a lot on the flop with it.. Anyway, obviously just shove the turn Marsh.

This is a simple and standard hand, and it might seem like a bad-beat post, it's far from it though. I just think that hands like this sometimes don't get posted because they aren't particularly interesting, but they are often the staple of how you win at these micro stakes. If you look at the villains action it's interesting. UTG raises pot, he calls with Ah7h from the SB. Sure. BB (me) 3bets for full pot. When people 3bet out of the BB when they could have just called an UTG raiser and had fine odds, they usually like their hand quite a bit. UTG calls, and now villain *overcalls*. This is pretty suicidal. He is OOP to both of us and facing an aggressive 3bettor post flop with a hand that he rarely can just go with. Now if I gave him enough credit to fold a flopped Ace postflop, *and* we were about 4 times deeper, I wouldn't mind. But he is already short stacked and I know he is stacking off on any Ace high flop. Even with the flop he did get, he is losing the hand 20% of the time. You can see how badly this works out for this guy usually.

Overall it feels fine to be back to grinding. It's mildly stressful, but having HEM to look at stats and hands after is fantastic. It just makes it easier to get at the type of data I was seeking out in the first Challenge. I think I will be trying to 6-table consistently, but right now I am doing the normal 4. I will do another session tonight probably as well..

Let's Go Again!

Cake Challenge II is on! This time we are starting with $100.00. Let the grind begin!

I have to figure out how to show my graph up there as accurate now, but I think I can just export from HEM and put it on that site I used before.

I will get these pesky details figured out and off to the races we will go..

Still hovering at around 1600..

I am kinda stuck at around 1600, but that's just fine with me. After all, with the rakeback we get at Cake, staying even (especially in a bigger game like I am buying in for) means making money. I am trying to play less overall poker but make more money doing it. This has been somewhat successful, but the swings and big buy ins make it hard for me to play very much. I have been playing mostly 1-2 PLO8 or NLO8, and if the pot sizes and donks are just right, I will spring for the 2-4 tables, hopefully NL, as there is TONS of action. I buy in for the minimum at both almost every time, (120.00 at the 1-2). This is above my 5%, but not by a ridiculous amount. It is enough that I have to nut peddle for the most part though, which sucks, because I am making sub-optimal plays sometimes in order to protect my stack. I am however willing to gamble with the true donks at the upper levels, and the variance that goes along with that can be kinda sick. I am hoping not to run into some super sick downswing though during this stretch. It is entirely possible, even though I have tuned my game to take on less risk at the expense of less reward (long term).

If I did have a brutal downswing, I would simply have to pack it up at the bigger limits and hit up the lower levels again. The old grind. One thing that is pretty annoying in that the bigger the limits on O8 on cake, the crazier the players. You just rarely see the type of crazy action you see at the big tables down at the .25-.50 tables.

Anyhow, I soldier on, hoping to break hard into the bigger numbers, but wary that it can all go awry in one crap session.. Wish me luck.

O8 madness and other stuff

Over the past couple of weeks I have had some interesting stuff happen. I still haven't quite been playing as much as I would like to, but I still feel like I have been making good progress. One thing that I haven't been making good progress on is my spreadsheet. I basically fell off the wagon last month sometime as far as keeping up on it went. I kept on keeping records for awhile, but even that got spotty. I had been staying in relatively the same place monetarily, going between $800-$1200 or so. Every time I worked my way back into the lower 1k range, I would go on a terrible run and get back down to $800-900.

So then last week sometime I decided to try to take a shot. I have been an advocate of it throughout the challenge and have done it on occasion, although not as often as I had originally planned. Which brings us to last week. I had about an hour to kill and logged onto cake to play some 08. I was browsing the tables looking at my normal limits of .25-.50 or the occasional .50-1. Then I noticed a table at 1-2 that had an average pot size of $168.00. This is a pretty absurd number as the max buy in at this level is 200.00. Now this number can be inflated when there have been a few all ins in the last short period of time, but this is still pretty obscene. So I brought up the table, and right when I did, a seat opened up. I watched for a few hands as two big stacks hammered flops and turns for full pots with less than the nuts. The poker player in me is strong, and I couldn't resist taking a shot at this crazy table. I decided to just play one table, full buy in, and try to really nut peddle. This was a 6 handed table, but I figured if I could just hit some good flops, I would have no problem getting paid off. In the first few orbits, I flopped a couple of low sets on some threatening boards and dumped them to pot bets. My goal was to only play nut or 2nd nut lows, and 5 card high hands or at least a solid combo of both if I had a two way hand.

My first big confrontation went like this. I was on the BB and it was minraised ahead of me, I called and completed the action. I didn't have much of hand at all... until the flop. I flopped a wheel with a 3rd nut flush draw. Not bad lol. So maniac #1 leads for the pot. I am next and decide to just call, really hoping to re raise anyone that raised behind. Also, there aren't too many scary cards for me on the turn, and I am pretty comfortable. To my surprise, it gets called around. The turn is harmless and I am ready to get it in. The aggressor jams the pot again for 80.00 and I raise him, two folds behind and we get it in. He has a set and is drawing dead for the low, and bricks the river. I scoop and take down a big pot. Alright, mission accomplished. I am pretty pumped, and after posting my SB I uncheck the autoblinds to get my ass outta there.

This was the next hand. I limp with AJJ4 and end up calling another minraise. Flop gives me top set (current nuts) and 2nd nut low draw. Original raiser bets 8.00, and the maniac I had just been in the pot with calls. Now I raise to 30.00, and get one call from said maniac. The turn is an 7, making my 2nd nut low, but putting the possibility for one straight out there, 45. I feel good about my hand still overall, and after the check ahead of me, I bet pot again. To be honest, I didn't want to get involved in any more big hands, but the poker player in me just took over and made me bet. I was hoping he would fold, and I could just take down a nice pot on my way out. He didn't. River comes an offsuit Q and again I feel like my hand is best. He checks, and even though I have every reason to just check behind and get out, I pot bet again. I just can't check if I really think my hand is best, even if it is above my bankroll. He lets the timer go down before calling me, and my eyes get huge as both halves of the pot are moved in my direction. Unfortunately we weren't quite all in so I don't get to see what he had. So this puts my bankroll right back up to it's high point. I will also say that it speaks volumes about taking shots. I don't advocate taking one just for the sake of it, but when the right table at the right time comes along, go for it.

I have been playing 08 for the most part this last week, trying to concentrate on improving as much as possible at it. Also I haven't 8 tabled in a while, but will probably get into that swing again soon. Also, I tried to update my spreadsheet as well as I could, but I have a lot of missing entries so I had to adjust it to make it currently correct. Now my graph looks like a mess, but at least the total is current. I shall now attempt to keep it up again. I will also note that I think I am sort of out growing the bankroll challenge aspect of this whole thing, as this is now my entire online bankroll. I have learned a lot and will continue down the path that I have started, but now this is more about my online "career" than just the bankroll challenge.

Had a good session last night.

After a good time on Royal's on Sunday, and me running pretty well too, I played a weekend session. I was in Bellevue for all of last week for a work function, and couldn't play a single hand of poker for the whole time. It was brutal. Then on the first part of the weekend I was too busy/tired to get online and play...which brings us to Sunday night.

I decided to play a little PLO8 just one table to knock some rust off, and I was watching a movie at the same time. It was a productive session, but unfortunately was cut off short when I made a nasty error and also got ~cold decked. The error: I had the nut low but NO high to speak of, and I was in position on an equal stack. He checked the river to me and for some reason I bet the pot of 34.00 into him. I was of course hoping he would fold and I was freeroll-bluffing, but instead he called, and I got quartered because he had one pair of 6's for the high and A2 as well for the nut low. The ~cold deck: I had A22x and pot bet the KK2 flop. Got a caller, and we got it in on the turn when the 5 peeled off giving his K5 a better boat. I don't regret it or anything, but that is a crappy spot to be in I will say. You just have no clue when they boat up or don't. I need to try to avoid these situations.

Now to my later session, all NLHE. I decided on 4 tabling as I needed to get warmed up, and also because I didn't want to have to pay such close attention as "Under Seige" was on TV. Truly horrific movie, but you can't NOT watch it when its on the tube.

I had a really solid session where I ran and played well, and made a tidy profit to show for it. I jammed in preflop with QQ on some shitty LAG player who had AK, and I actually held up. I had a few other unremarkable hands but generally ran well and finished strong.

I have been contemplating whether or not to keep running 8 tables or sticking to 4 for a while longer. I am comfortable at 8 tables now, but its getting to be a bit much with record keeping details and a total lack of hand histories and details. Also it does take all of my attention and that can be annoying if I get hungry or if something awesome comes on TV.

Also I am trying to figure out a better way to keep records. I am already like 1 month behind and I just don't see myself going through all of those pages of papers any time soon... Even though I might, I need to get a better system if I am going to be 8 tabling still. I also would like to post a little more often on this blog and playing 8 tables makes that hard too. Any thoughts on this?

Hangingk Aroundt

So after my hellish night of beats, I decided to take a short break from the Challenge. I already knew I would be on mega tilt even the next day, and decided to try some SNG's to limit my exposure. I got 2nd on the 2nd one I played, then lost like 5 in a row. No cashes. Hence the break.

I did however get my poker fix by playing in a series of nightly tournaments put on by a poker website I am a member of called The +1. These were really fun, and we played a whole slew of games. They also served a good purpose by letting me play some poker just for fun, and not really worrying about spreadsheets or anything like that. I played those for the whole week then got back on the horse on the weekend. My initial session was more of the same nonsense from before, but then things evened out and I made progress getting back up to just over $1000.00. I have since gone down from that total a bit, but am basically just hovering around that level.

I started trying to shift about half of my focus over to Omaha Hi/Lo, as I think most players are at a similar level to when Party Poker was still going for Hold'em. Lots of horrific play, and horrific players. I may take some shit for saying it, but I think the .25-.50 at Cake is pretty damn tough. Players are generally nitty and rarely make huge mistakes. You have to value bet all the way down with your good hands or they will just fold. At different times on different sites, I have been able to just jam on people and they would call down really light; no longer. I know I can be profitable at these levels and the levels above, but how profitable? If my edge is relatively slim, I would like to try to branch out and go where the dead money is. I think that the dead money is in Omaha right now. I also think that once the poker public gets bored of Texas Hold Them, that they will naturally merge over to Omaha. It is a flop game very similar to Hold'em, unlike 7 Card Stud, which is drastically different if all you have ever played is Hold'em. (Ante's? Bring in's? wtf?) I want to be there waiting for them when they migrate over.

I have also started to try out 8-tabling. I did 4-tabling for almost the whole duration of this Challenge, but I feel like I am starting to have the capacity for more. I am very comfortable at 4 tables at this point. I talked to a few of the guys from +1 and they recommended jumping up to 8 tables from 4, then adding 2 tables at a time after that until you hit your limit. Apparently you will just know when its your limit. I have had mixed results 8-tabling. I basically have just been hovering, and I know part of it is because my play has suffered a bit during the transition. I also had a rash of bad beats in monster pots, (including 4 under-boats in one session), but did well enough to stay even due to other pots won. One thing that I have noted about 8-tabling is that it's extremely difficult to keep detailed records. I can barely get my buy-ins and re-buys on paper, let alone details on hands etc. On one hand I am fine with this, but on the other I don't want to stunt my poker learning because of it. I think I am going to view the 8-tabling thing as a trial. I will let myself adjust and if I can make a smooth adjustment, I will stick with it. But if I can't, I think I will probably save the 8-table sessions for weekends or times when I have lots of time to give it proper attention. Otherwise I will try to stick to 4 or 6 tables.

So now we are up to date, if only I could summon the will to dig through all of my records and update my spreadsheet...

Decisions Not Results I Guess?

Ok wtf. Last night was sick. Just a sick, brutal run of cards, luck, and bad/tilty play. I am fucking pissed off still from it. Unreal night at the tables. Here are some highlights:

Let's just start here. I have a donk ready to go to my left, omgapair. His name is apt, as he has shown that he will go bust with very weak holdings. Only he hasn't. So I try to trap him a bit by not 4-betting, and hoping he gets top pair or at least a pair on the flop. Not the best flop for AA, but good enough to go to the mat with, which was my intent from the beginning unless the board got REALLY nasty. Outflopped. Bummer, but it happens.

On this hand, I raise preflop with QQ, big stack makes it 10 straight, I know he likes his hand now. I decide to 4 bet to 3x his bet, and we get it in pre. Jack on the flop and that's all she wrote. Sigh.

I am mid-stacked on this one, sitting at 31.00. I pick up KK, raise preflop, get re-raised, etc. until we are all in. Q on the flop, and again, that's all she wrote. Fuck. Again? Really?

I have built my stack up a bit on this one, sitting at 71.00. I pick up KJ in the SB and call the min-raise to see the flop. I flop a gutshot, and am done with the hand unless it's really cheap. A min bet counts as really cheap. I peel my gutter to the nuts, and we get it all in on the turn. I thought I was up against another KJ the way he played it. So to the river we go, and boom, boat. WTF. I know that this isn't like an amazingly terrible beat, the guy had outs but c'mon,(I was 77% to win) AGAIN? And in one night?!

Here I am sitting at a half stack, and I flop the nuts. I made a semi loose call of a standard pre-flop raise from a decent but not good player. There were two other callers ahead of me and I closed out the action. I thought if I hit on him he was likely to go broke with a second best hand, especially since I don't have a full stack. Well I try to get the stabber to come along for one more stab on the turn, but he just minbets, and I am not waiting around anymore, so I jam. I get instacalled by 2 pair and he boats the river. This is getting to be phenomenally horrific.

This was a disaster. Willbilly was a fucking retard. Complete uber donk just ready to give it away. He raises pre, and a mid shorty goes all in for 16.00. Now it's on me, and I flat call. Wildbilly was a station, but I don't think he's going all in pre-flop with that hand. The flop is not pretty but could be worse. I bet half of his stack on the flop, and we get the rest in on the turn when the board pairs. I don't have him on a Jack, I think he would have just shipped the flop had he had one, so it's a really good card for me, protecting me from lower 2 pairs. He has an open ender and a pair, and trips up on the river. I was still a big favorite against both players though, I was surprised a bit at how big. Another huge pot goes the wrong direction tonight. I think my ears have turned red at this point and I have punched the couch pillow 14 times or so.

This one is nothing monumental, it's me versus a short stack, and I have QQ vs his AK. Just to make sure that I know I am not winning any hands on this night, the poker gods send a clear message by not just pairing him up, but making it a boat.

This all happened on one night, and of course at the higher level. I haven't updated my spreadsheet yet.. I am not looking forward to it. I had scrapped my roll up to $1,200, but now it has to be below $1,000.00 again. I am not sure how bad it is, I just slammed my laptop and played halo with Jeh and Fred. Rough estimate would be $900-1000 range. I might drop back down to .10-.20 to reset and get back up to where I want to be.

Humbling night in any case.. (btw I sucked ass at Halo last night too)(and I had to stay late at work and missed a +1 tournament I had pre-registered for)(and I called the Apple store to make sure they had an adapter I want, drove down there from Everett, and they didn't have it). But overall, life is good, and I know I will battle back from this debacle. I am just bummed to see such a chunk of my roll gone to beats in one horrible session I guess..

Just maintaining at .25-.50, and some hands.

I am basically just treading water at $.25-.50... Although I have been having some pretty big swings along the way. I have been adjusting and tweaking my game a bit since coming to the new level here, but I think I will need to adjust even further to be successful.

Here are some hands:

This is one of the most ridiculous hands ever. A medium stack raises in MP and I re-pop hard with AA. He calls. The flop is dreamy for me, I have the nut flush draw, a gutshot, AND friggin AA for an over pair. There are like a small handful of hands I am even behind here, and even then, I am drawing strong. This retard has one such hand, and I cant find a diamond for the win or a 3 for the chop. I was shocked when I saw his hand.

This guy is a bit of a loose cannon, and I played my flopped trips with much aggression against him. I just went pedal to the medal the whole way and he payed me off with 10 10.

This dude was on mega tilt (as you can see by the chat box). I flop top pair and bet hard at the flop. He calls, but I have no clue where he is at. The turn comes, and instead of betting pot again, I decide to just ship it on him, because I know he's angry, and it will look like a "fuck you" bet. He calls off, then leaves the table, then types every terrible word ever recorded in the chatbox as an observer. lol.

This one hurt. I limped on the button with 4h5h, and flopped an open ender and a flush draw. The turn brought my straight. There was a pot bet and a call in front of me, so I decided to raise it up hard. I got one all in out of it and was happy to call. I was a little afraid of the 89 though, but instead the guy had the EXACT same situation as me. Crappy luck on the river..

Dano1 was on a sick tear before I got there. And he was a big time aggro player. I checked my option, and flopped a flush draw. He hammered the pot, and I called hoping to peel a club and take advantage of his hyper aggressive betting. The turn came, and gave me a gutshot, but he hammered again. This was tough, pretty marginal spot for me, but based on what I had seen, h would do this type of thing with all types of hands. I called, but was really hoping for a flush. I hit my gutter, but instead of betting out, I let him fire one last shell, and then I was going to check-raise him. He fired the biggest shell possible and I wasn't going to fold. He had bot-bot.

I was happy to flip with this maniac. He was playing pretty crazy. I was actually really surprised he had such a big hand. The flop sucked ass, but the river didn't.

Two short stacks going at it.. I min raise the flop trying to commit him (and me) I do and he shows down... K9?? He had absolutely nothing on the flop or turn.. weird.

I get the same short stack in a real pickle here, but he wiggles free.. At least it was small pot.

First session at .25-.50

Making the transition to the next level up is a bitch. You are happy to finally be there, but not comfortable enough with the stakes to play on autopilot. Also, if you happen to drop a few buy ins in your first session or two, back down you go to the previous level to rebuild. Additionally, I am trying to be very aware of the table, the players, and the play in general, as it tends to change substantially from level to level. All of this adds up to some stress and excitement. I had some of both on my first real foray into .25-.50 on Cake.

On my first confrontation this happened. Lame. I am always happy to call short stacks with AK preflop. Turn gave me a ray of hope, but it wasn't to be.

On my first major confrontation, I did this. This was sort of retarded of me to do, as I had no real reason to even be in the pot in the first place. First off, sandercott was pretty tight and seemed solid enough. I was folding hands way better than this to him during the session. I SUCK was horrible, he bluffed his stack twice and showed on super scary boards, then bluffed off his stack and reloaded. Total fish idiot. Anyway I take a flop and of course flop my flush draw. Amazingly, sandercott WAY underbets the flop with his set, and after I flat call, I SUCK just calls too. Dreamy. The turn is pretty harmless, but now sandercott fires 6.00 into the pot. I decide to make a stand and raise it to 30.00 straight. I figure unless sandercott has a hand, he can't call. Of course I SUCK check raises all in with his 2nd pair and flush draw. Sandercott puts the rest in with his set, and I am going along for the ride, just praying for a heart. No such luck, and I have officially biffed off my first full buy in at the next level! :/

I was at 2x .25-.50 tables and 2x .10-.20 tables when I started out the session. (I ended at 3x .50 and 1x .20). This was my biggest hand from the smaller stakes. Of course I catch my miracle one outer against a short stack at the lower level... Oh well, good story for the grandchildren ahah.

I had my biggest hand to date here. I raise preflop to the standard size, get one caller behind me and then a minraise from the table donk. I am not going to try to get too pushy with AQo preflop as he will pay off for sure if I hit so I just call as does the other guy. I flop top pair 2nd kicker and the 2nd nut flush draw. I lead hard into the pot, and get a flat call from the guy behind me. Turn is a brick, and I apply maximum pressure on the guy by shipping. He insta-calls with top 2 pair, and I get one of my 12 outs.

So after all, I made around 10 bucks on the session. The connection was ass, so I decided to call it good there. Sat with Ryan for a short session at .05-.10, and also played some more PLO8, but this time tried the 10-handed tables instead of the 6. So far I am preferring the 10.

More on Wednesday I am sure.

Cracked 4 digits

Well I made it to $1,000.oo on the Cake Challenge. I posted on That's Not Poker, but I figure I had better have a post here as a milestone. It feels good but I am now entering the next level for online poker, and I have a lot to learn before I feel like my game is really well rounded and solid. In this upcoming year I hope to move up more levels, and read more online about hands and play. I also want to get in the regular habit of going over a whole session, but with someone else there too for advice. I am thinking this will be a really good learning tool and help me clean up my game a lot. I also want to read more poker books. Not only do I learn from them, it also keeps my game fresh and keeps me feeling like I am moving forward.

I am looking forward to see how far this will take me. Hell, I might tilt it all off tomorrow for all I know.. :)

Mixing it up, and some hand review.

Played some more PLO8 and took a few mini shots at the next level up over the last few days..

The play at the .25-.50 tables I have been at (2 total) as been pretty consistent with the play at .10-.20. One exception is the the players seem a little more aggressive, they bet more. They also seem to be a bit more "refined", where they will bet 3/4 pot instead of just hitting the pot button etc. I did feel comfortable though, even given the stakes in relation to my roll.

PLO8 has been quite an adventure. I am playing the 6 handed tables, but I think I am going to switch to full ring. In 6 handed NLHE, I know what hand strengths are what, and how to adjust pretty well. But in PLO8 I am essentially nut peddling when I have to be pushing smaller edges; something I am not good at yet. So I think I will switch over to full ring next time and continue my learning process. I will say its really nice to get in more hands when you are learning though.

Speaking of hands:

In this PLO8 hand I flop the straight flush wheel. This is cool.

This hand happened during one of my "shots" at .25-.50. Villain had the Ac8c and hit the nut flush on the river. I am glad I played this as aggressively as I did, because I don't think he had me on a set based on my action. I check raised the flop on him, and then led for ~80% of the pot on the turn. I think he though I had a big Q or something.. Anyway, being aggressive made sure I doubled up when the gin card hit, and I also charged him quite a bit to see the river in case it didn't.

I decided to get cute on this pretty harmless flop. I thought the J was a great card for me, but it wasn't and I paid off the short stack as quick as I could.

This sorta sucked against a short stack. I guess I am glad it wasn't a bigger stack..

This dude played his KK very strangely. But what about how I played my hand? Did I need to fire the second shell? And if I did, did it need to be so big? I thought at the time that I had 2 live overs probably and of course the nut flush draw. Thoughts on this one would be appreciated.

I had KQ on this one. At the time it felt like a bigger laydown than it looks here..

This one just sort of developed. I was calling ballinn's bet no matter what. He was tilting really hard and just spewing chips. Then a half stack behind just calls. Hmmm. This makes my decision that much harder, as he has to have a hand he likes quite a bit in order to call. But here is the catch, yes, I did bring it in for a normal raise, but that doesn't mean I am calling 7.00. Volare knows this, and he also knows that ballinn is spewing. I think he just figured that he was good against ballin, and that I would go away. When I shoved, he only had ~3.00 more to call off, but he probably wasn't happy about it. It's not often that two opponents essentially have only 5 outs against you preflop.

On this hand I sorta chickened out on the river, and just checked. Villain had KQ0. :/

I finesse the living shit out of this guy. (did that sound gay?) I bring it in for a pot raise preflop. He minraises me. Even though it gives up a lot about the strength of my hand, I 4 bet. I keep it pretty small though, I am not trying to scare him out of the pot, I am just trying to commit him. I feel pretty comfortable on the flop, and frankly, I am not folding in any case. He checks to me, and I figure I had better let him hang himself, as he can't really call anything if he has whiffed the flop. He checks again on the turn, and I am not waiting any longer. I jam the flop and he puts in the last of it.

I think I should have value bet the river here, even though I forget what he had. I think I was going to just check-call.

This fucking hand sucks. And it's what I am talking about when I bitch about bad timing for my beats. I maintain that I take a very normal amount of beats(which of course feels like WAY too many), but they have been happening at terrible times. Like this one. I RR preflop with my AQ. I get flat called and flop a Q. I lead hard at the flop, and I really felt he was just trying to take the pot away as I had seem him make these big moves at pots earlier at the session. I make the call but he hits his gutshot, bummer.