Muppet Call.

DO NOT CALL 220 BIG BLINDS WITH JUST TOP PAIR AGAINST ANYONE, EVEN THE WORST PLAYER YOU KNOW!!!

I want to punch myself in the face. For all the books ive read, for all the strategy posts, for the tens of thousands of hands ive played I still make stupid calls. I am too embarrassed to post the hand history.

I had won 200 bb from him in the previous 30 mins and he was pushing 220 bb either pf or on the river. I was getting frustrated I could not get a hand good enough to call and finally called with AQ on an A4395 board. He turned over A5.

Seeing how often he did this I could have waited for a better spot.

I will be posting graphs/stats for this months play soon. Around 8k hands at the moment and only $100 profit which is mainly from Rakeback.....

Here's a hand to make me feel better. Please please have a Queen. http://weaktight.com/351135
Trappy McTrapson !!

Pocket Pairs vs Overall Profit

$6300 profit from pocket pairs yet my overall profit is $4500 ish...

Anyone else have this ratio ?

Solid Ground

I think Ive turned a corner. My recent downswing has stopped and i am slowly climbing back up. I will post graphs and stats up here soon. I took a step back and looked at my game. I was 4-5 tabling which is usual but it was allowing leaks to come in and I wasnt noticing them.

Things I have changed.

Tighten up a lot more UTG. I was raising most suited connectors and A9+. With a laggy image this would get me in trouble. My early raises would not have a lot of respect so I would be often called. Unless I hit the flop hard this would be difficult to play. Im out of position with a marginal hand and most of the time missed the flop. This would lead to my second problem.

Cbetting out of position on drawy boards. Chasing losses would have me cbetting a lot more. I had a look at some of the boards I was cbetting and they were full of danger for my hand. Now I am only cbetting dry flops, villain dependant and where I can improve my hand. Otherwise, check fold the hand. After tightening up in early position I am finding less of these situations.

Dropping 22-33 completely from early and mid position. I need to look at this one. I dont think I can lay down sets for 100bb at 6max and there were a few times I was caught set over set with these hands. I will take a look back at all my hands from Feb until now and see if these have been profitable for me before my downswing.

Graphs and stats coming soon.

Anyone see the new move used by the Olympic female wrestlers ?? The Power Finger

Where is the bottom ?

Well im still in the midst of the biggest downswing in this poker challenge. Admittedly I am only down 5 buyins at $0.50/$1 and 1.5 buyins at $1/$2 but the fact that majority of this has happened over the past 2,000 out of a total of 8,000 hands has me a little worried.

I stepped back a little from the 4 tabling 22/18 style and fired up 2 tables with the idea of playing a little tighter to regain my composure and to stem the outflow of money. After 400 hands playing 15/12 I was down another 1.5 buyins. I played AA a little slow and was betting half pot all the way and got beat by JJ on the river for a straight. I played it bad and looking back shouldnt have called the river bet for the rest of my chips. Ugh!

Im now playing weak tight. I have moved into fishy territory and the sharks are circling.

I requested a cash out from ipoker and am taking a few days off to collect my thoughts. I can beat this game but I think the psychology of a recent downswing is affecting my play. I need to rebase and start again fresh in my game. I need to shake the weak/tight play and maybe step down to $0.25/$0.50 to get the winning mentality back.

My online bankroll is now around $4700, down -$800 from its high. I am still easily rolled for $0.50/$1 and even $1/$2 but I will just step back a bit for a few days. I have also started wondering whether my move from Australian timezone has made any difference. I play in the evening UK time which means I am facing US daytime players. While in Australia I was playing Oz evening which was US early hours. This i believe put me in front of a lot more tired and/or drunk players than I play against now. Just a thought...

Recommended reading - Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed.

Downswing.........

Just under 7500 hands and im down $561 (-2.97 bb/100)

It would be easy to use the excuse that its a small sample and its just down to variance but to be honest im not sure. I should be winning. I took a very short lasting shot at $1/$2 and dropped $308 in just 51 hands. I retreated pretty quickly back to my comfort zone of $0.50/$1. Taking the $308 out of the $561 = $253 loss, only 2.5 buyins. But the fact that this is over 7.5k hands makes me wonder if I have some serious leaks in my game.

Absolute Poker seemed so much softer. I am tempted to deposit some cash back there and continue the run. There were usually 2-3 players at a table with $vpip 40+, on the iPoker network I struggle to find more than 1. I cant see a lot of profit being made when everyone is playing a 22/16 strategy. Top it off with actually finding an 88/18 fish last night and not being able to beat him has dented my confidence a little. This guy would call my pf raises with any two cards and constantly hit 2 pairs on boards like A26. Me AK, him 2 6. I made $300 from him but paid him $280 for a $20 profit. I should have made more from this guy.

I notice a LOT of shortstackers at iPoker. I need to make sure i am playing optimally against these guys. Shortstacking is a very hard strategy to exploit but I have noticed that there are some bad shortstackers here aswell so there may be room for some profit.

I will take the $0.50/$1 to 10k hands and then review. I am playing a 22/15/3 style and dont see too much wrong. I have made 2 obvious mistakes for 100bb stacks that I hopefully wont make again. I also feel that im playing from the blinds a little too much.
Fold BB to steal 77%
Fold SB to steal 85%
I may look to tighten up there.

My AP stats at this level were
19/13/3.4
Fold BB to steal 87%
Fold SB to steal 89%

Most other stats W$WSF, WTSD, W$SD are mostly the same.

I am quietly confident about my game but it doesnt hurt to keep an eye out for any leaks and tweak your game here and there.


Heres a little overbetting for value hand. Villain was a bad player and he never bluffed but couldn't lay down a hand.
http://weaktight.com/304823

Donkey Stack

I am hereby coining the phrase 'Donkey Stack' If you are not a regular reader and wondering what the hell im talking about then please read previous post

My first example of my donkey stack theory.

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
iPoker
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG		($123.91)
UTG+1		($37.35) <<-- DONKEY STACK
Hero		($135.85)
BTN		($51.85)
SB		($97.50)
BB		($41.70)

Donkey Stack is running 75/37/2 over 40 ish hands. He had started with around $65 and was slowly bleeding it away. Also note there are 2 other donkey stacks on the table.

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is CO

UTG raises to $3.50, UTG+1 calls $3.50, Hero raises to $14, 3 folds, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $10.50

Flop: ($33, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($33, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $9, UTG+1 goes all-in $23.35, Hero calls $14.35


River: ($79.70, 2 players)

Final Pot: $76.70
UTG+1 shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $76.70 ( won +$39.35 )
UTG lost -$3.50
UTG+1 lost -$37.35


Ten Eight Suited, for his stack, on that board.

Add 1 more to my buddy list.

Table Selection - Donkey Stack

Ive been thinking recently about table selection. The fact is you make more money over the long term against players that you have a greater edge over. The bigger the skill difference the more profit can be made.

It makes sense to check your buddy list, hunt out certain fishy players and add yourself to waiting lists in hope to be sitting next to these losing players. This is fine. The problem comes when you are on numurous waiting lists with no tables open to play and no history with other players on other tables.


You can then scan for tables with high $vpip and high avg pot size but this is public data and with a lot of table scanning software out there you will struggle to be first on the list.

Now, heres my new thought. Take a look at stack sizes. Im going to identify 3 classes of players.

1) The Full stack

2) The Shortstack

3) The 'Donkey' stack

It is fact that the good regular players top up their stacks to full as and when they can. If you dont believe you are outclassed at the table then you should be at full or close to it. Full stacks should be seen as good players until proven wrong.

Shortstacks can also be good players. Ive never played a shortstack strategy but there is a strategy that works for a lot of these players. It does spoil the game of poker a bit but if there is profit to be made this way then players will still follow it.

The 'Donkey' stack. These stacks are the middle stacks. The 35-75bb stacks. More often than not these players wont be a good regular or a shortstacker. Usually when a fullstack loses some $ they top up back to the max. When a shortstack doubles up then leave for a new table to buy in short. Medium stacks represent a average players. These may not be huge fish but im betting that they are not decent players.


I tried this last night and I think im on to something. I added 3 or 4 times the number of names to my buddy list and they were all 'Donkey' stacked. Think about it. When have you made a lot of easy cash vs a full stack or a shortstack compared to a 'Donkey' stack ?

Fall in, Climb out..

We had a great game last night. 7 players started a £200 buy in nl game. These were all guys I have played with before so I have an idea how to play against each one.

I documented a few hands that came up through the night. The first after just 5 hands.

Hand1
stack sizes all around £200 (100bb)
dealt to me (67o) on the Button
everyone calls the blind
i call
SB bets 7 total
4 folds
late position and I call
FLOP: 7s Js 7c (pot £29)
sb checks
lp checks
i bet £20 - to protect against flush draw and build a pot.
SB reraises to £60
lp folds
i push
sb calls
sb turns over Ad Jd for 2pair with an Ace.

TURN: Qs
RIVER: Jh (Nice 2 outer)

me -£200

Hand2
stacksize £213
Dealt to me in sb (Kc Kd)
folded to btn who calls
i raise to 7
BB calls
Btn folds
FLOP: Tc 4c 7c
I lead out for £20
BB reraises £60
I push for £213
BB calls and shows (Ac Td) Top pair Top kicker with nut flush draw. (11 outs)
TURN: 7d
RIVER: Ad

That hand wasnt a beat. Im happy with the way it played. But losing this coin flip just a few hands after the bad beat to the same guy was a little bit tough. Luckily I pride myself on being able to control tilt and have the view that this is a long term game.

I hit Quad 7's against a tight player but couldnt extract much value.

I switch seats when i hear there will be a loose player coming in. This puts me 2 spots to his left when he arrives.

Hand3
Another family pot. Everyone but 1 player limps to me on the Btn
Im dealt (78o)
FLOP: 887 rainbow pot £10
UTG bets £9
I call
TURN: 8 pot £28 (Quads again!!)
I lead out £20 hoping for a pocket pair or a 7 in his hand.
He reraises me £75 ithink
I push
He calls and shows (97o) for a Full house.

Total pot around £400

I had AA vs JJ on a KQxxx board which i won quite passively for £100 profit.

Apart from those all other hands were positionally played. I used scare cards to force some folds. I floated and raised some turns and clawed my way back up to just a 50bb loss (£100). My low was down 225bb (£450).

I will be running a live game every Wednesday at this place. £100 buy in £1/£1 blinds and will post any interesting hands here. I will keep my UK live poker balance updated to the upper right of this blog.


Why the hell has Tiffany Michelle signed herself with UB in the face of all this scandal ???


Fridays game link. fantastic contraption. Get read to lose a few hours of your life. Hint - use conveyor belts, see saw and pyramid designs.