Week 38
And once again the pendulum swings to the other side. If I want to
continue to do this for a living I guess I better get used to the fact
that there will be up times and down times, but I’ve been remarkably
fortunate in that I went 6 months without a losing week. So now after
losing 3 weeks out of 4 I started this week very apprehensive. The major
comment I got on last weeks play was that I was playing too passively, and
I took that to heart. I decided not to limp first in with anything, and I
was pretty good about it. I did find myself limping with suited broadway
cards and suited aces a little bit. Post flop I raised much more often on
the flop. And for the first time in weeks I got good cards.
I started off the week with my best Sunday ever, winning $951. I got AA 12
times and they held up 11 times. I even had them in back to back hands
right after I had commented on how often I was seeing them. It was the
perfect antidote to my flagging confidence. On Monday I had solid sessions
in the afternoon and in the evening winning another $617. The week was off
to a great start. Tuesday afternoon was a break even session and after a
late curling game I played 3 more hours and managed to win $371 more. I’ve
never had a week without a losing day since switching to the shorthanded
games, and I started thinking maybe this would be the week. Oops.
Wednesday afternoon was a disaster. I dropped $660 in 2 hours. It was last
week all over again, but I still had the evening to pull it out. Wrong. I
lost another $600 by 1:00 AM and suddenly my amazing comeback week had
become an average week with me up only $700. I had played on 12 different
tables in the 2 sessions and had rebought 11 times.
Then the most amazing thing happened. I went on a rush like I’ve never had
before. Between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM I won back everything I had lost that
day finishing up $14 for the day. Over $1,200 in 3 hours. And it didn’t
end there. Thursday saw me win another $1,616 and Friday another $1,502.
From 1:00 AM Thursday morning until 4:00 AM Saturday morning that’s $4,400
in 19 hours of play. Over $200 / hr. Just an incredible feeling. Flopped
quads on one hand (666 on board) and got all kinds of action from 2 pocket
pairs. In a 4 way pot the final board was 5 6 7 8 9, I had the button with
JT and the UTG guy bet into me, everyone called hoping for a chop and I
got a raise in which they all called. If I was ahead on the flop I stayed
ahead, and if I was behind I hit the river. I made so many sets on the
river after being raised on the turn it was crazy. I also called down some
outrageous bluffs.
Saturday night my wife and I went out to and saw ‘Along came Polly’, the
new Ben Stiller Movie. My wife loves Ben Stiller. It was very funny and a
nice break. Got home late and played for 2 ½ hours and won another $269
giving me the perfect week. For the week that’s $5,340 smashing my
previous record.
So now life is great again. The bankroll is healthy and I’m looking
forward to playing. I picked the right time to increase my aggressiveness.
It’s always good to raise just before you make a big hand. Interesting to
note that last week when I ran so poorly I had around 35 hand histories
saved to review. This week I have about 8. I guess it’s human nature to
want to share the misery, and show every bad beat, but when we win we just
accept that it’s expected and there is nothing unusual about that.
It is still freezing here and we had all kinds of snow this week. In
keeping with the crazy life I’m leading now I booked my summer cottage for
next August in Maine. You have until the end of December to reserve the
cottage you had the preceding year, but we didn’t like last years so
starting in January there is a list of vacancies. We missed out on the one
I really wanted by hours while my sister in law decided whether they were
going to come with us or not. It seems crazy that we need to book in
January for August, but that’s the way it goes. I need to send a deposit
in $US so this big week came at the perfect time.
At least during the losing streak the affiliate money keeps coming in. I
just had another guy sign up and now have 10 players playing on my
tracker. It’s nice to get paid even when you’re losing.
I’ve made a number of adjustments to my game since switching to
shorthanded. All the heads up situations that you see only rarely in full
table games require a different kind of play. You win a lot of pots with
an unimproved A. I think it’s an area where you can really take advantage
of poor players. I really like having at least 1 other good player in my
games shorthanded for some stability, but I don’t like it when he’s on my
left because now the blind play becomes much more difficult. I’m still
raising some marginal hands first in from the button like K8 or Q9 or A3,
but I’m much less likely to keep pushing them post flop. I think this has
saved me some money. Another change has been my flop play heads up. Lets
say I raise AKo and get called by the BB. The flop comes out T72 and I get
bet into. I won’t call here. Some players I will fold to here, but usually
I will raise. That is something I never did in full table games. I would
raise if I hit the flop and call if I missed. The raise serves 2 purposes.
Sometimes the guy folds. I’ve made the pot bigger if I do hit, and given
myself a chance to get to a showdown for ½ a bet cheaper by checking the
river if I want, or to take the free card on the turn and see the turn and
river ½ a bet cheaper than if I just called. Of course some guys 3 bet the
flop which I have to watch for.
There were over 30,000 people playing every night this week again, the
increase over the holidays seems to have continued, and the games are
good. There are a lot of good players in these games though, and it sure
helps to know who they are.
My monitor died again just before Christmas and I bought a 19” monitor
while it was off being repaired. I thought I would be able to increase the
resolution beyond the 1024 X 1280 I used on my 17” monitor, but I
discovered that is the max for most monitors. It did make everything
bigger and easier to read, but it was also bulkier, taking up more space
on the desk, and pretty ugly (that was my wife’s comment anyway). So when
my original monitor was returned fixed, again, I had to make a decision. I
have 2 computers, the fairly new one I use, and an old P1 133 running
WIN95. I was thinking of keeping the 19” monitor on my computer and
putting the repaired one on the old machine, but the monitors appearance
wise belong to the computers they are attached to. And I decided I didn’t
like the new one enough so I returned it and got my $400 back. Today I
went out and looked for monitors that will give me a resolution greater
than 1024 X 1280 and discovered they are not easy to find. Right now I can
get 4 tables on my screen with only a little overlap, but I need to find
seats on the 4 compass points of the table to make sure I can see my cards
at all times on all tables. Some nights this can be a problem, when every
open seat seams to be #1 for example. With a slightly higher resolution I
believe I could set them up with no overlap at all, then my seat wouldn’t
matter. I found a place that sold a name brand 19” with a max resolution
of 1200 X 1600 for only $300 and I’m considering that now.
Most of this weeks hands involve me winning monsters.
In this one, what more can you ask for. I have AA in the cutoff, and UTG
limps. I raise and everyone else folds. He 3 bets. I know him pretty well
and I doubt he does this with QQ, so it’s KK or AA. Odds are pretty good
it’s KK. Flop is A K 6. this is pretty good for me. He bets and I just
call. I think if I raise here, I will get only one raise in on the
expensive streets. Turn is a Q. He checks, I bet and he raises. I 3 bet
and he caps. River is a 7. He bets, I raise, and he just calls. He did
have KK.
I have Ah Th on the button. It is folded to the cutoff who is a poster and
he checks. I raise, the SB, BB and poster all call. Flop is As Ts 2s.
Checked to me and I bet. SB raises, BB calls and I 3 bet. Both blinds
call. Turn is 2h. Checked to me, I bet and they both call. Hmm. I have to
believe a flush would raise here, I think I’m still good. River is the Ad.
SB checks, but now the BB bets out. Well only 22 beats me and I raise. SB
calls and BB raises again. I still don’t believe he plays 22 like this so
I cap it. They both call. SB had flopped a flush, but only 9 high, and BB
had AK. Another monster suckout and pot for me.
I have 9d 8d UTG and I limp. Only the blinds play. Flop is Jd Th 5c. BB
bets, and I just call. SB calls too. Turn is the Td, giving me a huge
draw. They both check to me and I bet. They both call. River is the lovely
Qd. Again checked to me and I bet. SB raises. BB folds and I 3 bet. SB
caps it and I call. He has JT for a turned full house. Yet another monster
pot.
Finally one that didn’t work out. I open raise with 88 UTG. I get cold
called and then 3 bet by the button. BB calls 2 cold and I call as does
the MP player. Flop is Q 7 2, and the BB bets out. The button will raise
almost anything here and I fold. MP calls and the button only calls. Turn
was a 5 and river a 4, and the BB wins with 97 for a pair of 7’s. Button
had 66. My eights were good.
This coming week will make 9 months of playing full time. The first 3
months I won $13,950, the 2nd 3 I won $17,932 and so far for the last 3
I’m up $19,287. I hope that means my game continues to improve. Those
numbers are for playing only and don’t include any affiliate money.
Have a good week.
Week 39
On the heels of last weeks all time high week (for me anyway) where I won
for 7 straight days, I wasn’t surprised that I started this week with a
loss. I dropped $541 on Sunday night in another frustrating session. It
got even worse on Monday though where I lost big in the afternoon followed
by an even worse evening session to leave me down $1,623 for the day, and
over 2K for the week already. It was the second worse day I’ve ever had
and by far the worst start to a week I’ve ever had. It also marked the 3rd
200 BB down turn I’ve had already in 2004, 3 weeks into the year. If it
weren’t for the great week last week I’d be desperate by now. On Tuesday I
had a decent afternoon, followed by a break even evening to post my first
win of the week, a modest $278. Wednesday and Thursday were carbon copy
days, with brilliant afternoon sessions followed by evening losses,
leaving me with wins of $409, and $446. On both days though I was up as
much as $700 in the afternoon and thinking I was on the verge of a huge
day that would salvage the week. Friday again saw me with a nice
afternoon, but this time the evening wasn’t bad, it was horrible. Another
one of those $700 in an hour losses that have become so regular lately.
Again I don’t think I’m playing badly, although the frustration surely
caused me to pay off a few hands on the river although it seemed obvious I
had been rivered again. I ended the day down $290, and still down over
$1300 for the week. So on Saturday I was looking for a huge day to salvage
the week and I didn’t get it. Instead I had another awful day, losing $900
more for my worst week ever, down over $2,200.
My wife has expressed some concern about my stress levels during these
last few weeks. She has taken to sitting with me after the cursing starts
for a while. I appreciate her concern but to be honest I think it’s better
that I yell a few obscenities at the computer (Another reason to play when
the kids aren’t here) rather than keep it bottled up inside me. There is
no doubt that I’m frustrated, and not just a little concerned. However,
it’s easy to handle anything when you’re winning. I would think the
measure of your competence as a professional is how you handle the bad
times, so I’m determined to muddle through it. I finally broke down and
purchased Poker Tracker, hopefully it won’t take long to compile a
database that will help me in those heads up situations with regular
opponents and also look for trouble hands I might be playing. I’ve also
started posting more questions in the shorthanded section after
experiencing problems.
To be perfectly honest, although I still think I’m playing better cards on
average than most opponents, I am struggling against some hyper-aggressive
opponents. The kind that raise every time I limp, and 3 bet every time I
raise. These guys never used to bother me at full table games because we
rarely ended up heads up, and the presence of a third player usually makes
it much easier to read hands. Now I find myself heads up a lot, and the
other guy is driving the car. After I get raised with a good but not great
hand heads up I tend to think “well, that’s got my extra bet in if I’m
good” and let it go at that. But in hindsight I can see that by not 3
betting my good hands, I’m allowing him to get in the extra bet when he
wants, and although I’m making a little more on my winning hands, I’m
losing much more on my losing hands. I’m getting outplayed by these guys.
Of course when your not hitting any flops, it’s hard to outplay anyone.
I’m hoping the poker tracker database will help me identify the kinds of
hands I’m getting 3-bet with. I need to punish the 3-bet with anything
from the blinds guys I keep running into.
4 times this week I capped the river and lost. That’s really unusual for
me. In all 4 cases I put the guy on the wrong hand and got blind to the
possibility of something else being out there. One of them was
understandable, I flopped a wheel with 54 on an A23 flop with two hearts.
The flop got capped and I put him on 2 pair or a flush draw. The turn was
a J, and again he raised me, and I 3 bet. The river was a T, no flush
possible and he bet into me. I raised again, he 3 bet and I capped. He had
KQ hearts and beat me with a higher straight. I never saw it coming.
The big news here this week was my wife writing her Provincial Nursing
exam. Pending the results she is now licensed to practice as an RN. We’re
all very proud of her.
I was called again this week by the freelance reporter who wants to
interview me for a magazine article on online gaming he’s writing. He’s
going to drive up here on Wednesday to interview me and watch me play for
a few hours. Should be interesting.
When I was playing full table games I remember describing my play as like
a big play football offence. I would grind along losing small pots and
waiting for the monster pots with flopped sets and straights and flushes.
It wasn’t unusual for me to play 6 or 7 hours of break even or losing
poker, but make enough in the other hour to make my day. Now I think I’ve
turned around completely. I feel like I grind it out making good decisions
for hour on end to make my 1 BB per table per hour, only to have one hour
where I drop $500 or more.
Clearly in games where only 2 or 3 people see the flop, the implied odds
aren’t there to chase sets and flushes with baby pairs and small suited
connectors, so I’ve had to change my play with these hands, but I’m still
not clear if my recent performances are a result of a) bad luck, b) bad
play on my part, or c) a general toughening up of the games.
I tend to disregard (c), if only because the increase in players makes it
very unlikely that all the new players are good. I’m still seeing some
terrible play at the tables, I’m just not getting the cards at the right
time to take advantage of it. SO my guess is that it’s a combination of
(a) and (b). This week and during the losing streak my big pairs just
didn’t hold up. I lost with KK 4 times in 45 minutes earlier this week.
Twice when a K flopped, whereas during my 5K week, I had Aces hold up 11
times out of 12 in one night. But I don’t believe in too much chance, and
in the last 6 weeks I’ve had 4 losing weeks, after not having any in the
previous 24 weeks. I will continue to look for weaknesses in my game. A
good indication of how bad I ran on Saturday though, since I have only
1day of results in Poker Tracker so far is that I’m losing money with AA,
KK, QQ and AK. That’s pretty bad.
Twice this week I had the honor of playing with a true maniac. It’s been a
long time since I had the pleasure, and in both cases I didn’t make a cent
off him. The best case was one I shared with 2+2’er James282. James was in
seat 1 and I was in seat 6 (we sandwiched the dealer). The maniac was in
seat 2. For 2 hours he saw every river (that’s right, not just flops but
rivers). Most of the time he raised every time it came to him. When this
started he had around $400 in front of him. I’ll be honest, I don’t know
if he just arrived and started playing like this, or he went on tilt and
started, I really hadn’t noticed his play until it began. James was
baiting him a little, but he never typed in a comment during the entire 2
hours. No one left the table until he went broke, which he eventually did,
then we broke within 5 minutes. The miracle is that he lasted as long as
he did. He made hand after hand, and ran his bankroll up to over $700 at
one point. He won with 54 3 times making full houses. James was his victim
more often than anyone else, and actually I was up considerably, winning
$100 plus pots twice with only Ace high as he just kept betting hands like
8 high. But eventually he got me too making huge hands against my simply
good hands and I was down around $150 until one of the last hands he
played. I had T9 and the flop came down TT9. There was no need to slowplay
with him, he will push anything, and in this case he was cold-decked,
holding 99. We capped every street. I don’t think I’ve ever done that
before. After that hand he was left with around $30 and went bust shortly
afterwards.
One pretty reliable read is when someone calls two cold with a pair on the
board, they have trips. IN this hand I had 88 on the button and limped
behind 2 others. The SB raised, and 4 of us called the raise. Flop is Jc
Jd 2c. It gets checked around to me and I bet. SB calls, BB folds and UTG
raises. LP folds and now it’s on me. The UTG guy loves to bluff, so I
don’t necessarily believe him. I decide to raise here as the last money
I’ll put in unless I improve. The SB calls two more cold, Ding!! There’s
the trips. UTG folds. Turn is an 8. Yowee! SB checks, I bet and he just
calls. Hmm. River is another 8. Now the SB bets into me. How nice is it to
be bet into with quads. I raise, and he raises me back. I’ve never lost
with quads under quads so I raise again and he calls. He has QJ and I win
a beauty.
I’m not going to post any more bad beats this wweek, suffice to say there
were a lot of them. Hope you all have a good week.
Week 40
Well, with the volatilility of the last several weeks this week was
surprising in just how unspectacular it was. Continued frustration to be
sure, but at least I’m moving in the right direction. Started Sunday night
with a decent win of $244. Then Monday another couple of unspectacular
sessions netted me another $233. Both days were 6 to 8 hours of break even
poker with a small rush just before quitting time. Much better than last
weeks losing, but a mental drain to keep playing hour after hour and
getting seemingly nowhere. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in the hole,
but again had a rush at the end of the night to get just above break even
and post a $27 win. Wednesday I had two solid sessions and managed to win
another $350. It has now been 13 days though since I had a win bigger than
$500. The games have been unusual this week. There have been numerous
hands where I raise and get 4 callers. Although this is great when you
make a monster, having 4 people chase you in a big pot usually means top
pair doesn’t win. You get a sinking feeling when you raise with JJ, get 4
callers, then see a flop of T 9 2 and have everyone call again. Except for
a J or maybe another 2, there aren’t many cards you want to see come off
the deck now. Inevitably the overcard seems to river and now you’re out of
position and completely unsure of where you are. Finally on Thursday, I
had a bigger day. My 5th straight winning day where I won $400 in the
afternoon and almost $400 more at night for a $791 win. The average week
had now turned into a good week. Friday turned that around though. A
frustrating loss of $150 in the afternoon, then an evening where I lost
$200 almost right away, then bounced back and forth for most of the night
before a real bad run at quitting time pushed me down to a $643 loss for
the day. Suddenly I was back in the position of a sub-par week. Then
Saturday was another about face and after 4 days of no variance poker, I
had my 3rd straight wild day and life had returned to normal. I won $1,386
in less than 5 hours of play to give me a very respectable $2,388 week.
It’s been a weird week. The first half there were no big runs either up or
down, but I was still losing almost every big pot I participate in.
Disregarding Saturday, most of the time I was ahead until the river, which
usually means you’ll win more than your fair share, but it just didn’t
happen this week. It is a test of your patience to keep winning small pots
and building your stack, then seeing it all go away to a rivered flush, or
2 pair, or trips. And although averaging $200 a day will give me a nice
week, when you get to Friday and haven’t had a losing day yet, you know it
might still be a struggle. Then you have a day like Saturday where
everything goes right and you wonder why you were so frustrated just 24
hours earlier. I’m a pretty patient person, and I find myself getting
frustrated during the bad runs, I can’t imagine how someone who is short
on patience could manage the swings.
I’ve got a week of Pokertracker data now which is around 17,000 hands. I
think I’ll wait one more week, then I’m going to post all my questions. I
need to combine my 2 usernames so I can see all my hands in one place.
Then I need to figure out how to use it while I’m playing. Any wizards
with the software that could help me out would be greatly appreciated.
I’m thinking about taking some lessons. I don’t know if any of you out
there have done this before, but I know my game could use some work. Even
just to have an expert confirm that some of my play is solid would be
welcome. No to choose someone will be the next step. David, Mason or Bob
Ciaffone are the big names that come to my mind. Any suggestions?
I had two interesting work related calls this week that might lead to
another contract. After the last few weeks of poor poker results I’m much
more receptive to potential employment than I was before. The first call
was from the company that I worked for last January through April. They
ended the contract when a full time person became available after a layoff
at their head office. He didn’t work out and now they need help again. The
catch is that they want to dole it out on a project by project basis. They
will call me for instance with 3 programs they want written and ask me to
bid on the work. Then payment will only be made upon completion and sign
off. In some ways this would be perfect for me. 2 or 3 days work every
couple of weeks would be a nice guaranteed income to go with the poker
earnings, but I’m skeptical about the feasibility of such a set up. First
of all, I’ve worked with these people before, and getting them to give me
detailed enough specifications to bid properly will be difficult. And even
worse getting them to test and sign off could be very difficult, meaning I
might wait forever to get paid. Plus it would put me in the position of
telling people who stop by my desk to ask for help, that I can’t help them
because I’m not getting paid for it. I would really hate that. The second
call came in on Friday. There is a company changing their software from
JDE to SAP, and all their staff is now working on the SAP side. They need
someone to keep JDE running until the conversion is complete. They have
tried two intermediate people who didn’t work out so now they are willing
to pay a senior person just to get the job done. In all honesty, it sounds
perfect for me. But…… it’s in Scarborough which is on the other side of
Toronto from me. I think its around 80 km from me (50 miles for you Yanks)
which would take me nearly and hour with no traffic. For those of you not
familiar with Toronto, that means at 3:00 AM I could make it in 50
minutes, but any time between sun up and sun down it’ll be 90 minutes. Put
a little snow on the ground and we’re talking 2 to 3 hours. That means 3
hours minimum a day commuting in the car. Yuck. I’m not sure I’m ready for
that. I guess I’ll see if they actually make an offer.
Empire has launched a VIP program where you earn points for playing. Some
of the announced rewards are a year end tournament with a Porsche as the
first prize, and entry into satellites for the $25,000 entry WPT
tournament. They also say you can redeem the points for cash, which would
be like a rake rebate program I guess. I have to believe that with my
volume of play I will be in their top 100 which seems to be the number for
some of these rewards. Could be an opportunity to either make a little
more money or take a chance at a big prize.
I posted this hand in the shorthanded section earlier this week but
thought I’d post it here too. This was the biggest 5/10 pot I’ve ever been
a part of.
Regular line up. EP limp and I'm on the button with 9s 9h. I raise and the
SB 3 bets and the BB caps it. EP calls 3 cold, and I call 2 cold. 4 to the
flop.
Flop Td 9h 8s.
BB bets and EP calls. I raise. SB 3 bets, BB calls, EP calls and I cap it.
At this point SB is the only one I consider I could be behind.
Turn (Td 9h 8s) Th
SB bets out. I'm not ready to consider quads yet so I think I'm looking
real good. BB calls, EP folds and I raise. Moment of truth now. SB 3 bets.
Hmm. Still could be a T or a straight. EP calls again. I don't know what
he has but it looks like an overpair. I cap it and they both call.
River (Td 9h 8s Th) Kc
SB checks and now BB comes to life and bets. Oh No!!. I just call. Now the
idiot in the SB raises and BB 3 bets. There is $338 in the pot right now
and it's 2 bets to me. Is there a 1 in 17 or 18 chance I'm good here?
I called and so did SB. SB had the horribly overplayed AT, and BB had KK
of course.
In contrast this hand is from Saturday when everything I touched turned to
gold.
I have Js Ts in the cutoff. UTG raises and UTG + 1 cold calls. I call too
and now the button 3 bets. The button and I have hooked up twice in the
blinds lately with me winning both times when he horribly overplayed his
hands. One time he played 99 like AA on a board with a couple of overcards,
when I had TT, and the other when he had A7 and I had AK when an A
flopped. So I wasn’t necessarily convinced his 3 bet meant a big pair. Of
course with his recent history nothing short of showing them down was
going to convince me. Anyway, the blinds folded and 4 of us saw the flop.
Flop Th 7d 6s. Checked to me and I bet, pretty sure the raise was coming,
and hoping to get heads up. Sure enough he raised, but the two others
called 2 cold and I just called.
Turn (Th 7d 6s) 4s. Again checked to me, and I decided to bet it again.
Sometimes when I pick up a draw I like to check here, but I still thought
I might be best. Again he raised me, and this time, the other 2 guys
folded. Despite his history I’m now wondering if I’m behind. The big
unknown in online poker is emotion. How pissed was this guy that he had
lost 2 big pots to me in the last few hands? Was he tilting? I called.
River (Th 7d 6s 4s) 3s. Of course. When you’re running well you know it’s
coming. I briefly thought about trying for the check raise, but there is a
1 card straight, and a flush on board, plus someone who has bet into him
twice and I really wanted one more bet so I didn’t mess around, I bet into
him hoping he might raise me again. He just called. Then he left the
table.
Have a good week everyone.
Week 41
This week was a return to the big swings I’ve come to expect from the
shorthanded games. There were over 35,000 players at Party/Empire every
night this week. These games continue to draw new players. I’m not sure if
all the sites are experiencing the same thing, but of course there are
certainly some bad players included in the new players. I saw some of the
worst poker I’ve ever seen this week, and plenty of people willing to tell
them how bad they were. I still can’t believe how many people are willing
to insult and bad mouth the truly horrible players. I can’t help but
wonder how many of them never come back after being verbally abused by the
self proclaimed experts.
After my big night to finish last week, I continued to run well this week
with nice wins on Sunday and Monday, $509 and $657. Monday hasn’t been so
terrible for me since Christmas, although I did have a huge Monday loss
two weeks ago. Tuesday was a bad day for me this week, with a small
afternoon loss followed by a real bad evening leaving me down $752. Two
more good days on Wednesday and Thursday with wins of $611 and $599 put me
back on track for another good week. Then came Friday. Friday has become
my new, least favorite day. There is no explicable reason for tough
Fridays, all the maniacs seem to come out on Friday, and as near as I can
tell they’ve been drinking. Some truly horrible poker getting lucky, as
well as a heavy dose of cold deckitis saw me drop $1,144. For the last 3
Fridays, all losses I’m down over $2K. Doubly frustrating because of all
the loose players present on Friday nights. But if Friday has become my
least favorite day, Saturday must be my new favorite. For the 2nd week in
a row I pulled out a big win on Saturday, up $1,187, to finish the week up
$1,667.
The Saturday games and the Friday night games seem to belong in a class by
themselves. They resemble the 3/6 games much more than a normal weeknight,
and certainly very different from the weekday games. People cold calling
raises with J9o or Q5s. 3 betting legitimate raises with A5o. I guess this
is the main explanation for the big swings I have in these games. It just
seems so odd to me that playing 4 tables, I either win on all of them or
lose on all of them. On Friday I didn’t have a single win on any of 7
different tables, rebuying 5 or 6 times, and on Saturday I won on every
table, never rebuying at all. I don’t see many of the regulars in these
weekend games either, I guess there are just so many games running that
there is less chance of playing at the same time with them.
My Pokertracker database is now over 30,000 hands. I’m winning at a rate
of just over 1 BB per 100 hands. Since these last 3 weeks have been fairly
typical I think that is probably an accurate win rate for me. Translate
that to a live game where you see 33 hands an hour, and I’m winning at an
unspectacular 1/3 BB per hour. Thank god for volume. I have already made
some adjustments to my game based on the data. My biggest losers dollar
wise are A8o and under, hands I played in LP and the blinds if there is no
raise. I have pretty much dropped them except when I’m first in. And
although every pocket pair has shown a profit, even 22, 77 and 88 were
losing money first in (3 off the button shorthanded) and 2 off the button.
For now I’ll play them like 66 and under, limping from the cut off or
later if there is a limper already in, or open raise with them first in. I
intend to make a post specifically for Pokertracker in the next couple of
days. I have a ton of questions.
We now enter the worst time of the year for me as a sportsfan. Now that
football is over, there are no meaningful hockey or basketball games for a
couple of months. Fortunately for us Canadians, curling will be on TV
every night for the next couple of months. As far the Superbowl, all I can
say is Wow. What a way to finish the best playoff season I can ever
remember, with probably the best Superbowl ever. Although I had no real
favorite team, I got real caught up in the game. I missed the whole
halftime fiasco because I was putting my daughter to bed, I only read
about it the next morning. I can’t help getting on my soapbox for a minute
here though in the aftermath of all the criticism of the show. First of
all, I think it was totally inappropriate for that performance to be part
of the halftime show. But I’m appalled that the media seems so fixated on
the exposure of a breast. As a father of 4 children, I couldn’t care less
if the show included topless showgirls, seeing a few nipples isn’t going
to scar my children or offend me in any way. But to show a supposed role
model (Timberlake) violently ripping open the top of a female companion
sickens me. How many other young men are going to think that’s pretty cool
and emulate that. I’m even more disgusted that all the major complaints
don’t seem to be talking about that at all, they just want to protect us
from seeing a breast. Maybe this can be the sidetrack topic of the week.
I got interviewed this week. Randy Burgess, who has a new book out called
‘Stepping Up’, geared towards recreational and new Poker players, had
contacted me a while ago about coming to visit me. He is hoping to write a
magazine piece about the phenomena of Internet poker and had been directed
to me by a friend who had read the posts. He lives in Woodstock New York,
about 6 hours away and he drove up on Wednesday morning. He set up 2 tape
recorders and watched me play for about 90 minutes. We talked while I
played, then sat with my wife for another hour afterwards. It was an
interesting and totally painless process. At least until I read the
article. He had been here for all of 30 seconds when my dog threw up on
his shoes, so I hope he doesn’t hold that against me. I’m the first person
he interviewed so I don’t expect it will be anytime soon that I see it in
print. He did leave me a copy of his book that I’ve started reading. Seems
like solid advice for players new to the casino/internet scene.
I limp first in with Aces and Kings almost all the time. Most of the time
you get a chance to 3-bet pre-flop, and if not you have a well disguised
hand post-flop. Some times it backfires and you put in a number of bets
and get beat by someone who would have folded to a pre-flop raise. I can
accept that. And nothing makes someone happier than cracking slowplayed
Aces. So it is with great glee that I present the following hand to you in
what might be the worst timed slowplay ever.
I’m in the BB with 42 offsuit. Folded all the way around to the SB who
limps, giving me the free play. Flop is J 6 3 rainbow. SB checks and I
check too. To be honest I just wanted to fold and get back to my other
tables, but he wouldn’t bet. Now the turn brings a 5. DING!! And now the
SB bets out. I raise and he 3 bets. I cap it. River is another 5. He bets
again. Now I’m worried that he flopped a set and I just call. He turns
over AA, and I’m good. I know just how he feels.
Finally we have a Canadian Network pick up the World Poker tour, so here
in Toronto we are getting the WPT every Sunday at 4:00 PM. In addition to
that one of our National Sports Networks is now running the Showdown at
the Sands so I’m getting poker on TV all over the place. This can’t help
but help keep the internet games good. And hopefully they will all keep
pushing 97 like they saw Daniel Negreanu do on tv.
I got a package in the mail this week that had a Partypoker.com golf shirt
in it. My wife is horrified, she’s afraid I might wear it in public, so
I’ll hold that over her head for a while. It seems like a nice gesture,
then I realized that shirt cost me about $30,000 in rake, and maybe it’s
not as generous as it seems.
Hope you all have a good week.
Week 42
It was an eventful week in the davidross household, poker and otherwise.
I’m not even sure where to start this week. Between my wife’s graduation
ceremony and semi-formal dinner/dance, my renewed commitment to improving
my game, and a loss-free week of poker that included some days off, and
some tournament play.
I had a great week at the tables. Interesting that it would happen just
when I’ve stated my goal to play more aggressively, and I have been
receiving some very valuable feedback from some fellow posters in the
shorthanded section. I can’t help but wonder if some of the good results
are an example of better play, but clearly most of it was due to
incredible cards. Just as an example, a week ago I had a win rate of 1.01
bb’s per 100 hands, and today that win rate is now 1.66, with only around
9,000 extra hands. I started the week winning $591 on Sunday night. I had
an up and down day on Monday, but managed to finish ahead $284, and then
had a huge day on Tuesday, winning $1,271, most of it in the evening.
Wednesday I finally hit a bad run and lost $650 in just 2 hours of play in
the afternoon, but made it all back in the first 90 minutes of my evening
session, and then managed to win $168 for the day. On Thursday I had
another real good day, winning $905. My mother in law arrived on Friday
morning for my wife’s graduation. She doesn’t know that I’m playing poker
for a living right now, and for some reasons I’d rather not go into, but
rest assured they are very valid reasons, we don’t want her to know. SO I
only played fro an hour on Friday, and managed to win another $236. And
that was it for my ring game play this week. So I end the week up $3,455,
and with 7 consecutive winning days. I facetiously told someone that after
a bad January I decided to have a good February, and it seems to be
happening.
I played a few tournaments this week. I’m harboring (My American spell
checker makes me spell it this way, I apologize to my Canadian and British
friends for selling out) Moneymaker dreams, so I’ve entered 2 Empire
satellites to try and qualify for the WSOP semi-final. In addition, I had
qualified for Party’s $30,000 freeroll so I entered that too on Friday
night. I’m going to try as many satellites as I can without upsetting my
normal playing schedule. Empire runs 2 multi-table satellites daily for
$9, and for every 24 players one spot in the semi-final is awarded. They
also have single table tourneys running all the time, but the tables don’t
fill up very fast. I did play one no-limit single table early in the week,
but lost pretty early on two hands where I got run down. The first hand
happened when I had more than average chips, around 1200, flopped a set
and had a player from the blinds go all in for around 600. I called and
his top pair turned into a runner runner straight to beat me. Just a few
hands later I made a raise with QQ, and got called by A4. On a flop of J94
I went all in and he called me. River brought his A and I was gone. ON
Friday night after my wife’s convocation I entered the Party Freeroll and
decided to enter the Empire multi table at the same time. The Empire
tourney was limit, and the Party tourney was no-limit. I went 45 hands in
the Empire tourney without winning a pot. That stretch included a flopped
set (lost to a bigger set) and a flopped straight (lost to another set
that filled on the river). I then won 1 small pot before going out without
winning another hand. The Party tournament went pretty well for me. There
were 1700 entrants and a first prize of $6,000. I went from 1500 at the
start to around 2500 at the first break without making any risky moves.
Then the system froze. We waited for around another 90 minutes, playing 1
more hand and numerous false starts. Finally we got a message saying
everyone left in the tourney was guaranteed $50.
Empire/Party have had a lot of technical problems lately. It’s been pretty
frustrating. I’ve quit early several times lately out of frustration. I
sure hope they get this worked out soon.
I would sure love to get lucky in one of these satellites and win a trip
to the WSOP. What a great way that would be to wrap up a year of posts.
I’d certainly have enough material for a book then.
Now on to my quest for self improvement. When I first started playing I
worked very hard to improve my game. I read books, discovered this
website, and played a lot. And it worked. I got better fairly quickly. And
after running badly for a while I made a renewed dedication to improvement
about a year later, and that was when I truly became a winning player. But
since starting to play full time, I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t
focused on improving my game. I do believe the sheer volume of hands I
have played has helped me improve from the experience alone, but I haven’t
really worked on my game. Getting the stats from pokertracker really drove
home the fact that there is plenty of room for improvement. ZeeJustin made
me an offer last weekend that was simply fantastic. He asked me to play 2
tables for 100 hands at the same time and send him the hand histories. He
has reviewed them and extracted hands where there could be some debate on
the play of the hands, and he posted them in the shorthanded section. We
have been reviewing them all week. The results have been eye-opening for
me. There is clearly a general consensus that is different from the way I
played most of them. Almost all of the time I have limped when most would
have raised, or checked post flop when they would have bet. I need to find
a way to make this an automatic part of my routine.
I have played many fewer hours this week for several reasons. My mother in
law’s visit being the primary one, and Conan O’Brien’s Canadian themed
shows this week, had me taking a 1 hour break each night to watch as well
(they were hilarious, and a big event here in Toronto). But in addition, I
found it much more mentally draining playing outside of my normal comfort
zone, and needed to take more breaks. It’s obvious to me know that I had
gotten into a set routine that was easy to play, but far from optimal. My
task now is to improve my game to where these plays become as automatic as
my old routine, so that I can play that style as comfortably as I played
my old way. Again it was very fortunate that I ran so well this week. The
reduced hours didn’t hurt me in the pocketbook. I really feel like I made
some progress this week and I thank everyone who has helped pick apart my
game.
I have been overwhelmed by the responses I have received since starting
these posts. I get the nicest PM’s every week, ranging from poker advice,
to tournament invitations, to people sending me links to topics I’ve
discussed here, like gifted children. There are truly some very fine
people using this web site.
I had a great weekend watching my wife receive her diploma. She has set a
wonderful example for her children and I’m so proud of her. Then we went
to a nice dinner/dance last night where I was the designated driver for a
group of new nurses. They let their hair down a bit after 3 years of study
and we all had a good time. Quite a mixture of graduates, from the young
20 year olds, to the surprising number of 40 somethings who are returning
to the work force.
Now it’s back to the grind. I hope to get a full complement of hours in
this week, but still try and qualify for next weekends WSOP semi-final.
Have a good week everyone.
Week 43
I was really hoping to say I had
qualified for the WSOP in this update, but alas, the servers have crashed
again at Party/Empire and I sit here writing my update instead of
finishing the tournament and wondering how they are going to sort this one
out afterwards.
I have had another good week at the tables. My new improved playing style
has survived a second week where I spent a lot of hours playing qualifying
tournaments instead of earning money. According to poker Tracker I am now
winning 1.71 BB’s per 100 hands, nicely up from the 1 I was at 2 weeks
ago. I am voluntarily putting money in the pot around 23% of the time, and
raising pre-flop 11%. That means half the time I play I am raising
pre-flop. Based on numbers others have given me I am still very low in
that department. I’ve seen some people with stats like 29% putting $ in
pre-flop and 27% raising. That to me indicates that they are raising or
folding pre-flop almost 100% of the time. I still can’t believe that’s an
optimal strategy there are some hands that deserve a limp.
The adjustments I have made are to never limp first in, and to never be
the first to cold call. I was always willing to limp first in with suited
connectors from QJ down to 76, and with suited Aces under AT, and with
medium and small pocket pairs. And I would cold call with pairs T and
under, and with suited broadway cards. So now I raise or fold. I will
still make a second cold call with some of those hands, and limp behind
other limpers as well. It’s the limping behind that I’m sure is
predominately the difference in my raising stats and most of the more
aggressive players. I intend to research that in the short handed section
this week.
I have caught the tournament bug again. I always enjoyed playing
tournaments, but have hardly played any at all since I began playing full
time. I have had good success with single table sit n go’s, but have never
done well in a multi-table tourney. I readily admit that I have no
expertise as to the peculiarities of tournament play. My strategy in
single table tourneys is to play extremely tight for 3 rounds, where we
are usually down to 5 players or less, then get extremely aggressive when
everyone else is tightening up to make the final 3. Once you’re in the
money it’s a crapshoot and I don’t mind being the aggressor at all.
However in multi tables, my strategy seems to break down. I rarely
accumulate chips early, since I’m playing tight, and then I seem to lack
the patience required in the middle rounds. I haven’t ever made the final
table of one of those so I don’t know how I’ll do there.
Empire’s WSOP promotion involves single table qualifiers ($25 + 2) running
continuously and multi table ($9 + 1) at 2:30 PM EST and 11:00 PM EST
every day. The single table’s send one qualifier, and the multi’s send 1
for every 24 entries to a semi final every other Saturday. The unfortunate
single tables hardly ever seem to run. Every time I check it seems both
the Limit and No Limit are waiting for10 players to start. I managed to
play 2 no-limit single tables early in the week, but went out 7th or worse
in both, both times getting it all-in as a favorite, but losing. I also
managed to play 4 multi-table qualifiers during the week, 2 in the
afternoon and 2 in the evening, but again my best finish was 20th. That
20th place finish was a good example of my impatience. After surviving
past the first break without moving very far from the 1000 chips we start
with, I hit two big hands in a row. I had AK on the button and raised 3
limpers. A K high flop came and I got 3 callers, 2 more on the turn and
river and my top pair was good. The next time my blinds came around it was
folded to me in the SB and I had 55. I raised and the BB called. The flop
came out 985, and I bet and got called all the way down to the river.
Suddenly I had over 7,000 chips and I was in 4th place out of the
remaining 25. There were 2 seats up for grabs. I then lost 2 big pots. AQ
with a Q high flop lost on the river to a flush, and my AK with an A on
the flop lost to A2 when the deuce rivered. Suddenly I was back down to
around 2300. The blinds were 150/300 so I had a couple of orbits before
panicking, but I got it in my head that I needed chips. When it was folded
around to me 2 off the button and I had Ts9s it seemed like a good time to
make a play. I raised, and got cold called on the button. Both blinds
folded. Already I don’t like it. I promised myself that unless I hit the
flop hard I was done. Flop came out 955, but no spades. Hmm.. I bet and
the button raised. I have seen very little bluffing in these tournaments.
I should have known I was beat. SO what did I do? I 3 bet him. He called.
Turn was a Q. I bet he raised again, and I called. River was a T, giving
me 2 pair. I checked, he bet and my last 300 went in. He had AA and I was
out. What a stupid way to lose.
The silver lining in my failed attempts to qualify, is that I am incapable
of playing only 1 table now. I seem to have completely destroyed my
ability to concentrate on 1 table. So I decided to play $30 sit n go’s
while I was in the multi table tourneys. In 8 of them (all no-limit) I
have won 4, finished 3rd twice (and also had a 4th), to put up over $500
in profit.
I promised myself I would only play in the Saturday semi-finals if I
qualified, but I think if it gets down to the last one I put up the $200
and just enter. I was sorely tempted to just enter Saturday afternoon, but
decided to sit at another single table qualifier with 2 others. 45 minutes
later we were up to 5 people, and finally 90 minutes after I took my seat
we had 10 players in a limit format. Now I was in trouble because my
daughter needed a ride to the school, and my wife had dinner ready, and
here I was in the early stages of a tournament. My wife is a good sport on
weeks where I’m winning so she is putting up with me lately. I played my
usual ultra tight style and was the low stack when we got down to 5
players with around 650 chips. I may have only played 2 or 3 hands at this
point, but now I came to life. I picked up some blinds and then found
rockets on my 3rd straight pre-flop raise and got called down. Suddenly we
were down to 4 players and I had the chip lead. This is why I stay out of
the fray for 3 rounds. You can win 7 pots in a row in the 1st round, and
find yourself behind the guy who wins his first pot in round 4. Again I
found everyone to be very cautious. My stack kept increasing as blinds
kept folding. The 2 small stacks went at each other and we were down to 3
players. I went on a card rush and took out the 3rd place finisher leaving
me with around 5500 to the other guys 2500. An interesting first hand
happened. I raised with A6o and he 3 bet me. He had shown no aggression
thus far in the tournament. I just called. Flop was KQx and he bet. I
folded. This kept me in the chip lead. Maybe I should have called with my
A, but I had a strong feeling he was good. I won 2 sets of blinds to give
me back a 5000/3000 edge, and the most amazing finished it. He limped from
the button and I had Tc7c. I checked. Flop was Jc 8c 8s. I bet my flush
draw and gutshot straight flush, and he raised me. Turn was the Tc giving
me a lock. I bet, he raised and I raised him all in. River was Ad and he
showed A8 for a losing full house. He must have felt like he was kicked in
the balls. So I qualified for the semi final.
I played my usual conservative style in the early rounds. I noted the
carefree any 2 suited’s who always seem to hit a bunch of hands early. I
won a small pot with TT because with 2 overcards on the flop I didn’t bet
the turn or river. Then I went on a run where I got AK 6 times and won
them all. 2 of them I won just the blinds, but the other 4 all made hands,
including a full house, a straight and 2 pair. I lost a couple of pots I
stayed in 2 long, but found myself with 2700 in chips when we were down to
86 players, clearly in the top field. Then the server crashed.
As for the rest of my week, I had my first loss in 8 days last Sunday, but
it was only a $114 loss. I had a great day on Monday, winning $837.
Tuesday was another loss, this time for $426, but another good day on
Wednesday was a win for $793. This was the first evening I played a
qualifier because I had a good win in the books already. Thursday was my
best day of the week, winning $1,053 including 2 tournament wins, and
Friday I had 2 kids home vomiting, which limited the time I had to play.
In restricted play I won another $207. That left me up $2350 for the week,
and since I couldn’t play Saturday that’s where my week ended. I
anticipate a refund from Empire for around $375 but as of 9:00 AM Sunday
morning there is no word yet on what will happen.
I had some remarkable hands this week including my 4th Royal flush. I also
flopped quad Aces holding AJ on an AAA The other guy had QQ and I was paid
off handsomely. Another beauty, I have 88 in the BB. UTG limps, CO raises,
SB calls and I call. Flop is Jc 8c 6c. I bet, UTG raises and CO 3 bets. SB
folds, I cap and both call. Turn is Ks. I bet, UTG raises, CO calls, and I
just call, muttering “pair the board, pair the board. River is my case 8.
I check. UTG bets and now the CO comes to life raising. I 3 bet and UTG,
bless his soul, caps it. UTG had the flopped flush, and CO had AA.
This one’s from the “try and put him on a hand” file, or the ”OMFG” file.
I raise UTG with AhJs, and get cold called on my left. CO 3 bets. CO has
been 3 betting me like crazy, but I haven’t caught him at anything yet. I
simply haven’t had anything I could take to a showdown, and now I know he
thinks he can push me around. 3 of us see the flop of A95, two diamonds. I
check, intending to check-raise, but the guy on my left bets, and the co
raises. I just call. Turn is the 4s. We check to the cut off who bets, and
we both call. River is an offsuit Q. We check, he bets and we both call.
The cold caller also had AJ, and the button?...........he had 32o. He 3
bet it pre-flop then raised the flop on his gut shot. Of course he made it
and I blessed his soul too. My wife has given me a stress ball to squeeze
in these situations.
Have a good week everyone.
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