Ryverrat Poker

Im a lurker on my own blog !

2011-08-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Im still here... With my current job I dont get to play much but man when I do I seem to be hitting the sweet spot. My $100 starting bankroll is now $1270. The graph above shows my cash games year to date. 36,000 hands is not a lot and I wish I could play some more.

Im now mixing things up between 50nl and 100nl only playing 200-300 hands at a time. Even though this is not by choice it does affect my play. Im focused, very focused for the 30-60mins i play. It seems that it doesnt give enough time for the other players to adapt to me joining a table and I can pinpoint the fish (yes still fish at 100nl) very quickly.

Ill crawl back into my box for now.. If anyone wants any help with 10nl-50nl send me a message or pm me on 2p2 forums.

Ryverrat

to you sir, im on a draw !

2011-06-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Villain was a 24/20/4.3 I sometimes 3bet here, mainly against regs but I elected to call and see a flop.

Obviously a great flop, but adding to this is a potential flush draw. I thought in the back of my mind if I get aggro here I likely get paid off from his pocket pairs but I fold out a lot of broadway and suited connector hands. The chance of a flush coming by the river is 2:1 against. so 2 times out of 3 I may be able to get some more cash here with his aggro style. A diamond may slow him down, other higher cards may help him bluff or even hit a pair.
I considered min reraising the turn but I think that looks too strong. I was also happy with my story of a draw and a flush draw is now 4:1 against.

I didnt expect the river shove but I guess thats what you find when aggro monkey is out of position. I expected to see a 2 pair hand atleast.

Im loving being back at 50nl.

Hand converter-Pokerhand.org

$0.25/0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash Games, 6 Players

Hand Converter by the Pokerhand.org community

Board:

BB: $15.00

UTG: $73.64

UTG+1: $15.00

CO: $50.00

Button: $51.50

SB: $60.79

Dealt to: Button

Pre-flop:

(1 folds)
CO raises to $1.50
Button calls $1.50
(2 folds)

Flop:($3,75) (3 Players)

CO bets $2.85
Button calls $2.85

Turn: ($9,45) (3 Players)

CO bets $6.25
Button calls $6.25

River: ($21,95) (3 Players)

CO raises to $39.40
Button calls $39.40

Results:

CO Showed

Button Showed

Button wins $98.75

Time to step up

2011-06-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

10nl

25nl

With my original $100 bankroll I have made some money via tournaments and have beaten 10nl and 25nl enough to now start taking shots at 50nl. Bankroll is now $780.

I havent had many 'interesting' situations at 10nl and 25nl. To win at these levels I have been jumping from table to table seeking out the fish and not butting heads with the regs wherever I can avoid it.

50nl should show a different game if I remember from the last time I climbed this ladder. I can start adding to the blog these situations as I have struggled to find many at the lower levels.

Keep an eye on here. I will be posting a little more regular from now.

Fish Frenzy

2011-04-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ive been quiet as of late.. to be honest poker has taken a back burner as my recently single lifestyle has been a little successful if you get my meaning. Trying to juggle 3 or 4 girls has left my evenings playing poker non existent. For April ive only played 3k hands but OMG they have been good. The recent changes in the online poker world (I really dont need to explain this right ?) have turned the aquarium into a frenzy of terrible players donking off their money. checkout the graph for April...

And my year to date graph

The frenzy will continue for a while. For anyone struggling with 10nl or 25nl and would like to chat leave a message here or send me an email.

With the restrictions at work I don't really have time to write hand analysis posts at present but i'm working on a way around this.

Quick update but thats all your getting at the moment.. its either that or details of my $ex life :) you choose...

Ryverrat

Year to date update.

2011-03-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

I still honestly think ive cracked the micros.. Im sort of reluctant to put too much detail on here at the moment. I think once i move to 50nl I will make a post on exactly how i am doing this. The basics lie in table selection, moving around a lot and not playing big pots vs the regs.

25nl is full of more fish than 10nl. There are so many grinders at 10nl. These grinders are unimaginative and very face up.

I have to travel to Poland this week so I havent had time to review and talk about any hands recently. I will do this soon..

Bad Beat of Life

2011-02-23T12:13:00.000-08:00

Things in life for me are never all good or never all bad. There seems to always be this yin yang situation with me.

I have suffered the worst bad beat of my life so far. My wife woke up a few days after Christmas and decided she had no feelings for me anymore and has asked to seperate. She moved out this week taking my little 2 year old boy with her. I still get to see him but not as much as before and his future is now not so rosey. I'm not going to pour my heart out on a poker blog but there is some relevance.

The rest of my life is on fire. I am winning at poker, both online and live. Nothing large but its consistant. I have turned my $100 into $400 in just under 2 months of 10nl and small amount of 25nl. My job, i love it. My world is great. Yin Yang. Extreme volatility with an underlying flat trend.

Going forward this will mean more poker. Granted I will be out drinking and getting involved in as many women as possible but it also means I will not be doing 'relationship stuff' like watching stupid sitcoms and walking around shopping centres. I will be able to put in more hours at the virtual felt. Yin .... fkin... Yang !

0 to Hero - killing it..

2011-02-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

My second post now enticing the doomswitch by saying that I honestly believe I have cracked 10nl. Check this out..

Almost a 10 buy in run. I feel a lot more sharper after analysing the first 10k hands. I have made a few adjustments and I am even more so moving around tables to find the juiciest fish and not banging heads with the regs.

Next week will see me put a bit more volume in and I will start to analyse a few good hand histories.

small BOOM!!

2011-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

I had a great weekend for poker. I made 5 buyins at $10nl and entered an on demand tourny for $2. Haha big bucks !! well 189 people entered

Good for the bankroll and great for the confidence.

Will still complete the next 10k hands at 10nl but assuming Im beating 10nl I will have the bankroll to take a few shots at 25nl.

Analysis of 10k hands

2011-02-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

Ive run a few questions through HEM in the hope of spotting a few leaks in my game. Here's what I have found...

Firstly the graph.

The overview with positional stats

Overall happy with my positional stats. Im very comfortable with the $vpip difference in my early vs late position. the 17/12 vpip/pfr could maybe be a bit tighter but I dont think that is where I am losing money.

All Pocket Pairs

Seems ok. Not sure how much I should be winning with my overall pp catagory. Maybe a question for 2p2 forums.

Pocket Pairs 22-55

This seems to be a problem. I remember this being a problem when I used to play. I may look to cut them out completely or only multiway in position. The big leak as you can see is the Big Blind. I will analyse those hands and see if there is an obvious leak or just a few unlucky hands.

Suited Connectors

Seems like I am doing ok on playing or rather so NOT playing suited connectors. I try to only play these multiway.

Called Button Raise when I am in Big Blind

Interesting. In my opinion I should only be reraising or folding vs a button steal. I dont want ot be playing out of position and If my hand cannot raise then put it in the bin. I will change this for my next 10k hands and see..

Does anyone have any other questions they analyse their database with ? I would like to hear them.

Pit Stop...

2011-01-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

Been away on the slopes of France, banging myself around on my snowboard. I haven't put much time to playing poker over the past few weeks. Im still on the uptrend and will start to do some good analysis of hands which I will put on here.

In the meantime subscribe yourself to Verneer's $200 - $10,000 post on 2p2. Once he hits this he will be giving it all away to charity.. Top top man

How can anyone lose at 10nl with this type of play !!

Hand converter-Pokerhand.org

Full Tilt Poker, $0.05/0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash Games, 6 Players

Hand Converter by the Pokerhand.org community

Board:

UTG: $15.04

UTG+1: $10

CO: $10.15

Button: $9.57

SB: $15.30

BB: $11.66

Dealt to: BB

Pre-flop:

Button raises to $.30, (1 folds), BB raises to $1.70, Button calls $1.40,

Flop:($3.55) (5 Players)

BB checks, Button bets $.50, BB raises to $2.60, Button raises to $7.87 and is all-in, BB calls $5.27,

Turn: ($19.29) (5 Players)

River: ($19.29) (5 Players)

Results:

Button Showed

BB Showed

BB wins $18.19

Hoping this is a turnaround

2011-01-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

I find it hard to write any decent posts when I cannot beat 10nl. With this in mind I have trawled the web to find something of use to help me in my micro bashing. I came across this post on 2p2 and I think it may be the cure.

The basics
Look for 'fat value'' from the fish
Avoid butting heads with regs
Avoid marginal situations
Be Patient

All this is not anything new and maybe I have said these points somewhere before but looking through a lot of my hands over the past 15k I can see a lot of head butting vs regs and a lot of marginal situations. The money has come from the loose players and been handed to the regs.

Since reading this post, even if only for a couple of thousand hands I have seen results on the positive. I have marked where I read the above post.

Ive reduced the amount of suited connectors, my vpip/pfr are closer and I feel like I am in a LOT less marginable situations. I really hope this is the turnaround I need for this level. It should become clear soon.

Also for anyone with their head in the sand the past week check out Pokerstars new Home Games BETA. A few different thoughts on 2p2 on this but in my case I like it.

The overbet on the river... ?

2011-01-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hand converter-Pokerhand.org

Full Tilt Poker, $0.05/0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash Games, 6 Players

Hand Converter by the Pokerhand.org community

Board:

Hounti (SB): $12.01

vicc73 (BB): $12.39

Mnolith (UTG): $13.16

sohom111 (UTG+1): $7.42

Ryverrat_08 (CO): $10

MuhammadAS (Button): $3.50

Dealt to: Ryverrat_08

Pre-flop:

Ryverrat_08 raises to $.35, (2 folds), vicc73 calls $.25,

Flop:($.75) (4 Players)

vicc73 checks, Ryverrat_08 checks,

Turn: ($.75) (4 Players)

vicc73 checks, Ryverrat_08 checks,

River: ($.75) (4 Players)

vicc73 bets $5.30, Ryverrat_08 ?,

Player was a 52/3/08 over 30 hands.

This is a fold right ??

So... I suck at 10nl

2010-12-24T15:04:00.001-08:00

OMFG!

I have turned into a poker retard ! almost 10k hands 5 buyins down and thats running good, 5 buyins over EV.

I would like to think its variance but I cant. I got beat. Im gonna study where I went wrong. and post a few hands up here.

Ive never been able to beat 10nl. Maybe I should jump straight to 50nl where I was comfortable but I dont like the fact that I can beat the game here...

Anyone else have this problem ?

Target Acquired

2010-12-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Well the BR has moved from $100 to $160 through a few small MTT's and just under 5k hands of 10nl. As I mentioned before I have never been successful at 10nl yet I used to beat 25nl and 50nl fairly easily. I think this time I can beat 10nl.

One of the things I am doing is being very choosy on table selection. I look for tables with 40%+ avg vpip. I open 10 or so tables and whittle them down to 4 tables with the right potential for profit.

Lets state an obvious note here. THERE ARE FISH AT 10NL ! There... not rocket science but how many tables do I see of people sitting amongst 5 other regs and playing auto poker. Im not going make much money from them and they are not going to make much money of each other. Up and leave. Also when you run into a fishy player dont be stubborn to up and leave if they have position on you. ITS HARD TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF POSITION ! Obvious fact no.2 there. But again I see a lot of player battling against aggro fish when they are out of position, not being able to maximise their good hands and being pushed around every hand.

There are a lot of good tables and a lot of good fish. Patience is a skill needed in poker not just at the table but before you even sit down.

Interesting Start

2010-12-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

10nl Monkeys.

2010-12-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

so im gonna hit the 10nl table with x10 buyins and see what happens. I used to be able to beat 25nl, smash 50nl and breakeven ish at 100nl but for the life of me I could never show a profit at 10nl.

I dont know what it was. I always thought the way to win at 10nl was brainless tight aggro poker. 12/11 strategy as it would be full of donks but I came to realise that there are a LOT of regs there amongst the fish all doing the same thing.

10nl stills needs a brain. There is still a rock paper scissors game to play with the various styles. I think the main difference is that you way much more passiveness at these levels. Therefore in my opinion the mistake can be cbetting too much.

Im gonna play a few thousand hands to warm up again.. so far tonight 600 hands and im down 2 buyins.. 10nl still finding my feet.... haha who ever would have thought I would say that.

Ill throw it out there... What is the main skill to beat 10nl ?

Building Blocks

2010-12-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Well....

Hmm..

This is like finding an old box on the attic. As you an see from the dates of the previous posts I have not looked in here for a long long while. This is relative to the fact that I have played hardly any poker this year. Jan-Dec I would guess at 2000 hands.

I had to pull all my cash from my online accounts and even sell my dmn car to buy a big house in the country. This therefore left me with no fun money to play with.

Now im feeling the urge to play again. I miss the buzz and in a sick way miss the bad beats. Ive deposited $100 back on FT to get back in the groove. Not sure if this will be my home but lets see what I can do with this for now.

Most people that read this are probably playing at the levels I used to play and higher but for the players that want to watch my success or failure from the low levels please stick around, comment, chat.. Ill be hanging out here a bit from now on, ill be back to reading and posting on 2p2 and ill be looking to learn how to beat the game again in what I am guessing is a more difficult environment than a year ago.

I will put up a plan of action soon.

Wish me luck!

Ryver

Ryverrat, back in da house.

2010-01-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

Where the hell have i been ?

Without going into a lot of detail I have spent the past four months looking for a job back in the city. I had a few almost jobs falling through at the last min, one of them being back in Sydney, Australia dammit.

Anyway enough already of that personal sh!te lets talk about poker. I've decided to switch my game to PLO (Pot Limit Omaha for the uneducated), and I seriously love it. I play a little bit of nlh but seeing just 2 cards doesnt get my juices going any more. Ive read some good material including Jeff Hwangs book, watched the CardRunners PLO vids and have started my climb through the low level tables.

I will post some graphs etc soon. This is just a quick mail to see who is still here listening.

The Rat is back.

looking for spots of value no.2

2009-06-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

I found this little value spot. I had a relatively tight image but had been stealing a little from the cutoff and button. The big blind was a 24/22 and had a 3bet% of 15%.

I made a standard raise and the button called. The big blind paused. In my mind I thought If I was him I would squeeze here.

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

Stacks:

UTG		($51.50)
UTG+1		($92.52)
Hero (CO)		($114.00)
BTN		($114.00)
SB		($109.00)
BB		($106.00)

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

2 folds, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, 1 fold, BB raises to $14.50, Hero raises to $36, BTN folds, 1 fold

Final Pot: $33
Hero shows:

Hero wins $54.50 ( won +$18.50 )
BB lost -$14.50
BTN lost -$3.50

The fact that I thought that he should squeeze made me repop him. He knows now that any bet from him now commits his stack. I, on the other hand, can still fold to any reraise. Im effectively putting the fear of playing for stacks without actually putting my stack at risk.

Fancy play syndrome ? or smart play?

100nl player only.

2009-06-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well since moving to Wiliam Hill I have been given a beating at 100nl. I am a comfortable winner at 50nl but I am considerably under EV at 100nl.

I have made a decision this morning to stick it out at 100nl and not drop down to 50nl each time to rebuild. I am currently looking to get back into work so have a limited amount if time left playing poker. I have a lump of cash in the bank and am willing to reload if needed.

This will give me a good shot again at 100nl and will hopefully overcome the short term effects of variance.

Another shot, Another sick feeling.

2009-06-12T07:54:00.001-07:00

Anyone that has been following me has seen my recent move to William Hill (ipoker). My move from 100nl, down to 50nl, back to 100nl, down to 50nl and my now try again at 100nl.

Well fuck me. Im once again 5 buyins under ev and am forced to yet again drop down to 50nl in line with my bankroll requirements.

The age old saying.. If only 1 would go my way.

I had this guy on my buddy list and was watching him bluff his way through a lot of pots. I was happy how I played this hand knowing his range included a lot of draws and he had been overbet bluffing other players.

http://weaktight.com/1196004
I was 90% on the flop, 78% on the turn when we got it all in for 411bb pot.

Time to beat up the 50nl players again..

This website sums up how i feel. :)
Fuck my life

Looking for Spots of Value

2009-06-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

Its not just the big hands that require a lot of thought. By applying logical thought on the smaller hands can increase your winrate significantly.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

UTG		($55.20)
UTG+1		($48.50)
CO		($10.00)
Hero (BTN)		($61.77)
SB		($9.75)
BB		($63.35)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $1.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($4.25, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $2.50, Hero raises to $7.50, UTG+1 folds

Final Pot: $9.25
Hero shows:

Hero wins $13.79 ( won +$4.54 )
UTG+1 lost -$4.25

Now where this may look a little straightforward there was a lot of thought that went into this. I would like to explain to those that may not think that deep within basic hands.

Villian is 14/11/5 style. He is a tight aggro player raising from UTG+1. We can assume his range is very tight here. TT-AA, AQs+, AKo with a smaller chance of lower pocket pairs. I call for set value here, hoping the blinds will call too.

This flop is super safe. Villain will lead out with 100% of his range here. I dont see any hand that he doesnt lead here. Now the chances of him having a Ten in his hand is very very low. The chances of me, a caller to a pf raise on the button, having a Ten is way higher. So, how would we play a Ten here. Some would say call here. But I think that would give your range as a T or a flush draw, I think that if I had a Ten here I would raise to protect vs any flush draw that he may have. A raise here doesnt seem bluffy as this would be exactly how I would play a Ten. He is a thinking player and there is hardly any chance he can now just call out of position here. With the fact that I am repping a Ten here and the story is viable that my range includes a Ten then I dont see him rereraising here with overpairs.

Position, raising ranges and calling ranges vs a thinking player. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how you would play in their position.

**Note that if he is a fishy player this play does not work. They will keep raising/pushing with any overpairs**

Just my ramblings.. hope it helps someone.

Ryver

Dealing it Simple for a Poker or Casino Night

2009-06-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

If you are getting into gambling and struggling to learn the intricacies of dealing at games, there is new service that is aimed at making life a little easier at your next gambling session or fun casino hire night. At most gambling parties, friends will typically deal cards but certainly without the flair, skill and style of a professional dealer at a casino. Learning these all important dealing skills can take years of dedication and training.

Many people go to casinos to experience the environment and having a professional deal at a game is a significant part of creating that picture. A dealer who knows his cards well will add a certain dynamic to a game which otherwise would be missing and often leads to players
betting higher, creating a more electrifying game.

One website that is trying to bring this casino night magic a little closer to us, is a site called Dial A Dealer. The website resembles a social network for professional card dealers and casino croupiers. From the site, you can learn about the different card dealers in your area and choose to hire a true professional dealer for your next game.

All of the dealers on Dial A Dealer list their direct contact phone numbers to make it easy to get in touch and get a quote. Currently there is a growing user base of dealers from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand with no shortage of business in their local areas. Some dealers are even prepared to travel great distances to deal at your game.

The site is designed from the ground up to be easy to navigate and adds lots of useful touches like being able to see a list of tournaments that dealer have previously played at and their
specialities or areas of expertise. Most dealers are adept that the standard Black Jack, Poker, and Texas Hold-Em card games and a few are even comfortable with operating a roulette wheel and other typical non-card related games. Since the service attracts a large number of casino professionals, a few of the dealers can even arrange to book local venues or hire equipment for parties or corporate events in addition to private dealing services.

Alongside the dealer directory is a comprehensive article section covering all manner of gambling related stories including tips and trends including tipping etiquette and laying down the all important rules of the game. There is a wealth of information on the site and plenty of useful info for both novices and regular players. To further help visitors keep up to date with news from the gambling industry, there is a regular blog run by the creators of the site to keep visitors informed and the dealer community engaged.

The site’s design is aptly centered around a typical gambling card table you might find in your local casino. The design is quite innovative with careful attention paid to delivering the information contained in the site in the most friendly and approachable way.

You can find out how to book a professional dealer for your next game at www.dialadealer.com.

Live Poker and Alcohol

2009-06-07T02:06:00.000-07:00

I played a live game at Eight Club on Thursday. £100 buy in with the blinds at 1/1. I must say this was by far the hardest cash game I have ever played in. We used to have atleast 2 or 3 big fish in the game but this time the standard was relatively good. This was until the drinking started

CardRunners midstake pro Alexdb was there. (he has a great CR video posted) I drew a seat to his right and luckily not his left. Most others were thinking (ish) players.

I lost a quick buyin on a speculative bluff but was called with a full house. I then managed to tread water for a few hours watching the alcohol start taking effect.

By midnight there had been a few buyins and of the 9 players on the table almost all had atleast 2-3 buyins in front of them. The raises had started standard 4xbb, by midnight this had turned into 10-12xbb. There was even an open 30xbb with AA who got called from the sb who held JT and flopped JJx. Brilliant.

This time of night is where you need to be most disciplined and focused as there is so much value. Ranges are wide enough to drive a bus through and players are more concentrating on barmaids and banter than the game in front of them. In the next 3 hours I managed to win 6 buyins making a total £500 profit. Approx 200 hands makes that a winrate of 250bb/100.

To be honest I do find live poker so tedious. Yes its easier and its fun to be at a table having a mind war with friends but its so damn slow. 20-25 hands an hour ? zzzz..... Yet I still almost always manage to make a better return/winrate vs playing the same time online.

I might spend a day at a poker room like the Empire soon and see how I go. Its not gonig to be as easy as the above but will be an interesting break from the norm.

100nl bad start

2009-06-03T03:01:00.000-07:00

This is definately testing my patience. My first session, the first 150 hands over 3 tables.

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

Stacks:

UTG		($178.00)
UTG+1		($92.29)
Hero (CO)		($99.50)
BTN		($96.00)
SB		($29.20)
BB		($91.45)

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

UTG raises to $3.50, UTG+1 calls $3.50, Hero raises to $13, 3 folds, UTG raises to $30, UTG+1 folds, Hero goes all-in $99.50, UTG calls $69.50

Flop: ($204, 2 players)

Turn: ($204, 2 players)

River: ($204, 2 players)

Final Pot: $204
UTG shows:
Hero shows:

UTG wins $201 ( won +$101.50 )
UTG+1 lost -$3.50
Hero lost -$99.50

And Then

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

Stacks:

Hero (UTG)		($100.00)
UTG+1		($96.00)
CO		($28.70)
BTN		($94.35)
SB		($279.00)
BB		($85.54)

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

Hero raises to $3.50, UTG+1 calls $3.50, 4 folds

Flop: ($8.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $8.50, UTG+1 calls $8.50

Turn: ($25.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $16, UTG+1 calls $16

River: ($57.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $27, UTG+1 goes all-in $68, Hero calls $41

Final Pot: $193.50
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:

UTG+1 wins $190 ( won +$94 )
Hero lost -$96

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

Stacks:

UTG		($106.00)
CO		($107.00)
BTN		($100.00)
SB		($75.70)
Hero (BB)		($102.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is BB

1 fold, CO raises to $3, 2 folds, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $6.50, CO raises to $13, Hero raises to $30, CO goes all-in $104, Hero calls $69.15

Turn: ($204.80, 2 players)

River: ($204.80, 2 players)

Final Pot: $204.80
Hero shows:
CO shows:

CO wins $205.85 ( won +$98.85 )
Hero lost -$102.15

It's a very small sample size and just variance. Its funny though, i've had this a lot of the time where the first shot you take moving up, or moving 'back' up, you always seem to run into bad variance straight away.

This could be the quickest step / step down ever.

Im back to 100nl

2009-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

I spent a week away up in the Lake District and have come back with my head firmly screwed on. The 2 weeks before I went away I felt I had got my game back on track. I have reversed my downswing.

With my tight bankroll managment i had to drop to 50nl after my tumble. After 6 weeks of rebuilding I am now back rolled for 100nl again.

Its taken a while to get my head back in the game, taken a lot of soul searching after my first true downswing. Reading 'the poker mindset' helped me huge. It really brings back the facts that you know about long term poker, variance, tilt and BRM and puts them in a clear view again.

I recommend anyone having troubles with their game or sturggling with bankroll and variance to read that book. Invaluable imo.

The Non Believers

2009-05-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

How many times have you tried to explain +ev and failed?

I tried this with the missus recently. She understand that poker is a skilled game that involves some luck. She even uses the word variance from time to time. What she fails to understand are basic odds. She refuses to put her money in when the chances of losing are high.

I offered this deal. Would she bet £50 with a 1 in 100 chance of winning £1m. She declined because she probably wouldnt win it.

This is an extreme example of course and a little amusing but this also rings true with people that do not understand poker being a long term game. In more realistic terms how about if the prize was £5500. How many times would you take that offer above before you started getting frustrated? Poker players know that they would take that bet as many times as they could as every bet they take they theoretically make money. Bad and non poker players cannot grasp this.

Theres nothing new in the above, I just felt like writing as Ive been a little quiet recently. I feel like the move down to 50nl has helped. I have had the beats, ive run into a ton of bad players and ive also had my fair share of suckouts but overall my bankroll is building again and my game feels like it is back on track.

There are always fish swimming in these waters..

50nl allows you to get away with these sort of plays.
x2 overbet for values against known fish. I wouldnt be doing this against a reg but look out for fishy bites like these ones.

http://weaktight.com/1128970 wtf is that call about. loool

http://weaktight.com/1121093 he calls with a very large range here.

Confused as Hell!

2009-05-11T02:53:00.001-07:00

My game is broken.

That is my promised 10k hands at 50nl. The landslide at the beginning was the follow on from the losses I was suffering at 100nl. My game was tilted, I was over aggressive and ran into a shitload of bad luck.

The bottom of the graph was where I reigned in the aggression. I became a lot more passive which is not really my game. But the results speak for themselves.

I honestly believe that sites play differently. My days at AP were easy. My style of play must have fit in perfectly. I never had a losing week. At William Hill (ipoker) I am struggling bigtime.

I think I may stay at 50nl until im fixed.

Ive got a few interesting hand histories to talk about for the next post. Apologies for neglecitng this blog but I find it hard to write when my game is so fooked.

Positive state of mind does wonders.
Ryverrat

Stepping down to 50nl

2009-04-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

April so far 100nl
16,000 hands -5bb/100 (-$800)

Thats right my game is screwed at the moment. Ive dropped $1500 from my high in the middle of this month. Im not sure what is wrong. I have reviewed hands and not found anything that stands out to how I normally play. I seem to be losing every coinflip and finding myself completed dominated in other hands. QQ vs KK on a low flop etc. AA/KK vs sets against Laggy players. I could post the hands but I dont feel like it woud do any help.

I will be moving down to 50nl for 10k hands. If my game has changed then I need to move to a safer level to fix the problems.

Poker is such an easy game when you are winning but its f*cking tough when you sit on a landslide. This is my first losing month in a very long while.

Step down, regroup and rebuild.

I would like to know if any readers have experienced such downswings and how they fixed it. Anyone ?

shorties!!

2009-04-14T09:18:00.001-07:00

Ipoker is littered with those bugs we know as shorties. These players are a curse to the game of poker. These are the players that sit down with the minimum buy in of 20bb and play fold shove poker. They remove the fun and a lot of the strategy involved and only play 2 streets of poker. Preflop and the Flop.

Now most people complain about shorties but I'm not going to. I have been CRUSHING them recently. I have looked at my numbers from Mar 1st and used the criteria

- pot size less than 50bb and

- allin on the flop or before=true.

I believe this captures all my hands against shorties. Im never calling a shorties bet. I am either raising to get them in or folding.

Killing them. The secret ? Read this post on 2p2....

March

2009-04-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last month was interesting to say the least. I made a profit of $1100 + $500 in rakeback. $1600 and it could have been so much more.

I started off on a great run, with the deck hitting me square in the face. Set after Set, making great calls, picking off bluffs and making great plays agains the regs. Then midway i had the complete opposite. From hero to zero, well not quite. I feel that tilted me a little and I started losing patience and pushing the action too much. Cbetting too much out of position, playing suited connectors too aggressively, calling lighter and refusing to lay down hands in bad spots. Heres my graph.

Ive started to feel a little reluctant to expose my game on my blog. Ive seen this written before on a few a few blogs. If you are playing a lot you feel as though you may be giving a little edge to players that may look you up online. If I post my position stats for example or talk about my 3 bet range an astute player can easily use that against me. Its not as though my identity at the tables is kept a secret, I use the same name (almost) for most sites I have played at. So for now I wont be putting anything up here that I dont feel necessary.

Apologies but if I am to take this seriously then I need to sharpen all edges no matter how small they may seem.

A question.... would you feel better if you lost 10 buyins at the beginng of the month and work back up to even or made 10 buyins and lose them to end even. Same result but i wonder how many of you would feel more pissed you had the money and lost it rather than feeling you dug yourself out of a hole.

School of Aces

2009-03-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

With my recent job loss and past success at poker I have decided, with a partner, to set up a poker school in the city of London. Not just any old poker school, this is pretty damn special.

We will be teaching a 'winning style' based on my style of play and also offer a beginners only course.

We have the massive advantage of being able to use one of the city's exclusive members club, Eight club.The classes will take place at the club, within their plush poker rooms and I have written a full 16 hour course which will take place over 8 weeks.

With our members being UK based I have decided to become an affiliate of William Hill (ipoker). This will allow members of the school to access UK promotions and tournaments etc while also earning us referrals in the meantime.

Im really excited about this project and I have all the time in the world to devote to it. We have branded chips, coursebooks, website and great location.

Check out the website. www.schoolofaces.com (and no thats not me on the front page)

Back on track...

2009-03-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I think the players that stay alive in this game are the ones that can ride out the bad times and not lose control. After an 8 buyin downswing I felt sick. I stepped back and reviewed the key hands. There was definately tilt amongst 2 of my buyin losses, the others I would play the same.

With that in mind and a 24 hour break I stepped down to 50nl tables and regrouped. After a good win rate there for an evening it was back to 100nl tables. less than 1000 hands later I am back to where I started.

Hands played this month 19k with a profit of $1600 + $400 in rakeback. Only a few days left until the end of the month and im hoping to squeeze in a few more buyins.

I did play this one hand which I like.

http://weaktight.com/905949

UTG is a reg and im putting him on a strong hand here. Position is key though and there are a ton of scare cards on the river. My raise on the river is the exact amount i would raise if i had a Ten. He cannot call here without a Ten and chances of that in his hand are very slim.

This only works against a thinking player but just another show of how my game now includes playing back at the regs in certain spots

Oh im moving my bankroll to William Hill (ipoker network) for reasons which I will explain in my next post. big news to come..

Newtons Theory...

2009-03-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

What goes up must come down.

Its March 23rd and ive played 16k hands. The first 8k hands were on fire, the next 8 hands turned me over and shafted me silly.

Profit for the month so far is now $830 + $360 approx of rakeback.
Running at 5bb/100 at 100nl.

This sucks

Playing a lot of hands means you see more of the good times and more of the bad times. There are also times in your game where you got a LOT of compounded bad times at once and it makes you really question your game. Ive been through it before and once the suckouts stop and the bad plays against you stop being paid off then your mind settles again. This is the bad part of poker. This is the part of the game that doesnt stop when you are on the floor bleeding, that kicks you into tilt.

I refuse to tilt.

For the rest of the month I will be at 50nl.

check out some of these bad boys.

http://weaktight.com/919561

http://weaktight.com/919556

http://weaktight.com/919570

http://weaktight.com/919562

http://weaktight.com/919566

http://weaktight.com/919568

all in a very short time....

Sorry for the note form. maybe I have blog tilt.

Damn its hot in here.

2009-03-09T16:51:00.001-07:00

I am still running hotter than the sun at the moment. Im sure its unsustainable but ill be smiling all the way through it. Im beating 100nl for 36bb/100 so far this month over 4000 hands. With a small loss at 200nl im netting a profit of $1200 so far. I am the most comfortable I have ever been at 100nl and I hope this run continues.

Above is this years graph. I noticed 2 key moments which I have noted on the graph. The gradient of the graph since I gave up work and the point where my redline changed.

I am confused as to why my results would be so much better for not working. I can only assume that I am not as sharp after a full days work. Currently I am playing when im very relaxed and alert whereas before I would squeeze in a few hundred hands before I went to bed each night. Damn I dont want to go back to work for a while.

The redline is self explanatory if you read the previous post. CR videos rock. This redline really does make a big difference to your winrate and its all about betting correctly post flop.

As mentioned in previous posts I am in the process of setting up a business which is poker related. This has taken up a lot of my time over the past week and I will spill the beans to all very soon. We may be linked up with William Hill (ipoker) so I am considering moving the bankroll over there. Ill be deciding this over the next few weeks.

Looks like the durrr challenge vs Patrick Antonius has slowed to a halt. Check out the details here.

Feb Recap

2009-03-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed February. Its easy to enjoy the game when you are winning. February has been a month of precision and manipulating bad players.

With precision I mean making more correct decisions on the flop. Reading the board well with opponents ranges and laying down or check folding when necessary. This has made my redline flat to slighty positive. I havent included it in the graph but you will just have to believe me. The redline is the amount of $ you win/lose without seeing the showdown. Zaitsev at Cardrunners did a 2 part series which explains this and how to improve it.

Manipulating bad players has been playing to isolate correctly and setting them up to hang themselves + a load of value betting. This has all added up to a very successful month.

I looked at the rake paid. The rake above of $1500 is incorrect as shown on my rakeback page. The rake is $965 where I have got rakeback of $289. Rakeback is invaluable and anyone that hasnt got it please use my link to the right and sign up asap. Its free money.

Its now March. My plan is to try to play a very formulated month as a 'pro'. Atleast 2 hours per day minimum to start. This will hopefully be a lot more but with a 3 week old baby and starting up a sideline business Im starting off on a low volume number to manage expectations.

2 x 100nl and 1 x 200nl will be my normal play.

Lets see if we can make some decent money.

Squeeze me

2009-02-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

I found an interesting spot a few days ago against a couple of regs.

The Button is playing a 26/21/2 style over 500+ hands. He plays very positional poker and from what ive seen a semi decent reg.

The SB is a tightie 12/10/2 style over 130 hands.

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

Stacks:

UTG		($99.20)
UTG+1		($40.65)
Hero (CO)		($152.18)
BTN		($107.80)
SB		($223.10)
BB		($341.04)

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

2 folds, Hero raises to $3, BTN raises to $9.50, SB calls $9, 1 fold, Hero raises to $34, BTN folds, SB folds

Final Pot: $54

Hero wins $54 ( won +$20 )
BTN lost -$9.50
SB lost -$9.50

Btn's had not been raising me too lightly and i would probably have folded AJ if it wasnt for the SB call. I generally dont want to be playing AJo out of position against a reg.

The SB's call changed the dynamic of this hand in my opinion. SB's range here i put most likely a pocket pair. A 12/10 style doesnt have a big pair here or AK, so should fold to a nice size raise. This also puts the btn in a squeeze position.

I also havent 4 bet this session so I think this is a spot to rep a big hand. The AJ is now irrelevant. I could do this with any two cards that I have raised here. The fact that I am in this position against 2 regs gives me a chance to be squeezy. Lucky for me and this blog it worked.

This month has been a record month as I will post tomorrow and this I feel is due to looking for situations like this. Stepping a little outside the ABC poker looking for opportunities to maximise the winrate.

or maybe ive just been lucky.

Taking shots at 200nl

2009-02-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

Ive beaten 50nl
Ive beaten 100nl
Time to take a few shots at 200nl I think.

What is usually the case when taking shots is that you play a little scared money and end up having a bad beat along the way, knocking you back down to the previous level in style.

Not me.

I managed to luck out and find a great table. I kid you not when i tell you the following stats of the players at my table

running from my left clockwise
46/24/3 over 88 hands
48/11/1 over 27 hands
80/50/1.5 over 60 hands
57/20/5 over 45 hands

I played around 160 hands when this little beauty fell in my lap.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

UTG		($268.78)
CO		($363.30)
BTN		($264.70)
SB		($102.25)
Hero (BB)		($293.15)

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is BB

UTG raises to $6, 1 fold, BTN calls $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $22, UTG folds, BTN calls $16

Flop: ($51, 2 players)
Hero bets $34, BTN calls $34

Turn: ($119, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $237.15, BTN goes all-in $208.70

River: ($564.85, 2 players)

Final Pot: $564.85
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $561.35 ( won +$268.20 )
BTN lost -$264.70
UTG lost -$6

I do find it amazing sometimes that people can play so bad and at a level where the money is significant.

Record month for sure now.

Poker is an easy game...

2009-02-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

... when you play against muppets!

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

Stacks:

UTG		($87.00)
UTG+1		($73.05)
CO		($38.55)
BTN		($77.00)
Hero (SB)		($109.95)
BB		($173.95)

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

UTG raises to $2, UTG+1 calls $2, 2 folds, Hero raises to $11, 1 fold, UTG calls $9, UTG+1 calls $9

Flop: ($34, 3 players)
Hero bets $23, UTG raises to $51.50, UTG+1 folds, Hero goes all-in $98.95, UTG goes all-in $24.50

Turn: ($231.95, 2 players)

River: ($231.95, 2 players)

Final Pot: $231.95
Hero shows:
UTG shows:

Hero wins $205.45 ( won +$72.50 )
UTG lost -$87
UTG+1 lost -$11

seriously!! His play there is wrong on so many counts. I insta added to my buddy list, this player along with a few others I have run into recently. Who says that the fish are drying up. Either that or my angling skills have become godlike.

The strange thing is that I am finding more fish at 100nl than at 50nl. Maybe because there is a higher aggro factor at 100nl which in turn leads to more bluffs. At 50nl players generally have what they are representing so there is no real room to pick off bluffs.

Im also finding that my value bets and my overbets with the nuts are getting called a lot more at 100nl.

14bb/100 this month.

March will probably see me really turn on the volume in relation to time spent playing. Now that I have all the time in the world to play I want to see what I can realistically make.

Switched on my Boom Button

2009-02-18T10:05:00.001-08:00

As my previous post said I have been laid off from my job at a bank and am now at home having fun looking after my newborn son and playing poker in the downtimes that he is asleep.

Take out the pressures (and boredom) of workinga daily job and I've found my concentration when playing poker has been at a high. I used to play in the evening after coming home from work but now i have the choice of playing at any time during the day when I feel up to it.

The results have been great...

I am feeling very happy with my game at the moment. I guess everyone does when they run well. Im not seeing many mistakes and table selection is a big factor at the moment. DONT stay at a table when the fish leave and are replaced with regs. There are so many other profitable tables to go to. Make use of them, move around and pick some good spots.

Feb will be more of the same but i think March i will try and make a proper go of it. Playing pro for a month, putting in a set amount of hours and taking it seriously to find out how much i can realistically pull in a month.

Looking forward to making this month another personal record.

I love this game!

The upside of losing my job

2009-02-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

Wow the highs and lows of life. I have the most amazing day of my life on saturday morning when my little baby boy is born and then Wednesday morning I get a call from my senior manager saying that I have been made redundant.

Well f*ck me.. You get paid off with your Royal Flush and then the next hand lose your stack to a runner runner.

The losing player looks at this situation as doom and gloom, the positive attitude player looks at this as opportunity.

I work in the finance industry, I work in a US Bank, I work as a trader. I am high risk in this business. I cant shy away from that fact so I had prepared myself just incase the bad news should arrive.

The downside, I now have limited money. I have a lump sum (almost a years cash) which will run out. I have a sweet sports car I can sell if needed giving me another 6 months money. I have responsibility to my girlfriend and newborn to provide.

The upside far outweighs the bad. Most importantly I get the opportunity of a lifetime now to spend some time with my growing son in his first year of life. I have enough money to last me a year with an extra 9 hours a day in my own space, not working for anyone. I have great experience and confidence to get a job later down the line and can now look at other interests with maybe a switch to a complete different industry. Banking bored the tits off me anyway.

I am considering trying to pull an income from poker. From Jan '08 to now i put $500 online and have turned into over $10k in approx 100k hands of cash. That was playing in the evenings only. I can now ramp up the hands online and see if I can make that a good number and start cashing out. This could be interesting. A sort of pro poker but not reliant on the money. My tourny game has been strong. Im 97% on official poker rankings on FT (darrenb2) so may look at that as an extra line of income too.

I have a business about to start which is poker related that I am reluctant to talk about but anyone who plays in London will possibly here of this business by the end of the year. This will be profitable for the first year with very few outgoings. A few people who read this will know what I mean, the others will have to wait.

So looking at the above, I am comfortable. I have no debt and nothing large to buy for the baby. Its all been done over the past few months. My goal now is to see how much I can make short term through poker playing without using any off my redundancy money.

I have $6k online for cash games
I have $2.2k online for tournys

Im gonna stick to 100nl for now.

Most of all though I get to see my boy explore this world in his first few months.

I am really happy.

Ryverrat

A Baby Boy!

2009-02-09T07:40:00.000-08:00

My beautiful lady gave birth to the cutest little boy early Saturday morning.

8lb 10oz (3.9kg) i think

will probably be playing a little less poker this month so apologies for lack of updates etc.

Be back soon !

Wednesday Ramblings

2009-02-04T01:42:00.000-08:00

Today my baby is due to be born. The little blighter is showing no sign of entering this world yet much to his mothers discomfort. To be honest I have absolutely no idea how my life will change when he arrives. Im guessing that the volume of poker will drop for a while thats why im cramming in as much as I can at the moment. Im hoping my mindset doesnt change too much that I start to see my winrate as how many new nappies/hour I have just won.

Last night was a fun but frustrating session. I lost 3 coinflips for 1/2 to 3/4 stacks starting the session of to the downside. Understanding variance and sklansky bucks i continue on knowing in will all fall back in line over time. I then met my fish of the day (FotD). Unfortunately calling station, any two card, retarded fish boy was to my left and owned my ass for about an hour.

I lost QQ to T8s (tripped an 8 on the river)
I lost AKs to T5s (turned a flush)
I lost JJ to K6o (flop was KK9 and i didnt believe him)

He stole my money and ran..... but not that far. I had added him to my steadily growing buddy list that only contains superfish and see that he was still logged on. Not only that, his confidence must have been soaring as he was now at the $1/$2 tables. Even though i was nearing my downside stoploss for the night I couldnt pass up such a +ev situation so i added myself to the list. I got the sit opposite him which gave me a little room then 11 hands later i get this.

http://weaktight.com/770799

I still finished the session 1 buy in down but slept well knowing that this move paid off. Im wondering how long this fish will be on this site, I really cant see him lasting too long and I hope to be able to get the fishing rod out again for him sometime soon. J9o hahahahahah.

Heres a few weblinks for your amusement.

F*** my life

Make your own poster

Good luck at the tables.

January Recap

2009-02-02T01:33:00.001-08:00

Well that was January. $754 + about $350 in rakeback + $950 odd in bad beat jackpot. Just over $2k and im not happy.

Im still making mistakes at 100nl. A big difference I have found between 50nl and 100nl is the amount of floating that is done. With players being more positionally aware continuation bets are floated a lot more than lower levels. As always cbets are board texture dependant and villain depedant but I am noticing the difference.

So, how to combat that. I think its key to differentiate between the players you believe are floating and the players that are drawing badly. If tagged as a floater its important to know whether they will call a turn bet. I have a stat on Holdem Manager that shows fold to turn cbet which I feel will become useful at this level.

Im also started to get in the mind of playing someone like me which I have found useful in some spots. What things do I hate ? If I spot a decent player I put some moves on them that I know I hate. 3 betting there cutoff 3xbb raises, floating or reraising very dry boards etc.

Lets see if I can have another good month. I got some intersitng hands to talk about in the next post.

Good Luck for Feb.

Life summarized in 4 bottles.

2009-01-30T03:31:00.000-08:00

Cracking month

2009-01-27T03:12:00.000-08:00

My previous set up was a desktop, 2 screen (17" & 19") monitors. The upside of this set up is the number of tables without any overlap and the ability to have extra things on the screen without any risk of misclicks like IM's, Holdem Manager Pokerstove etc. The downside is that its damn unsociable.

I recently purchased a 19" Compaq laptop for about £350 which has allowed me to play poker and spend the time with the missus. Same thing different location but she feels like im spending time with her. Fair enough. This, in turn, has led me to lay around one and a half the amount of hands than I usually play a month which has also led to my record month in profits.

Its almost month end so I best not speak too soon. I will post the graphs/stats in a few days once I lock the profit in for Jan.

A Silver Lining - I Suppose

2009-01-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

I work for a US investment bank and yesterday saw our stock price plunge over 50%. There are another round of job cuts soon and morale is at an all time low. The economy is f*cked. Not just a little but seriously f*cked. Im surrounded by people who are feeling the pinch. I am now seeing those people that looked quietly confident they could ride this out, starting to crack under the pressure of the barrage of daily news. I still feel we have further to fall. I believe that we are not at the bottom and over the next 3 months earnings season there will be more shock and more suprises from behind the curtains of companies yet to speak. Economically the world is screwed.

With all the bad news surrounding us at the moment I have found one part of this that is a positive to me as a poker player in the UK. The exchange rate to the US$.

Currently, on my trading screen, the spot rate is 1.3803, in July last year we were 2.0

This is great for any winning players. Firstly any $ we have on the US sites have gained 35% value. Secondly any profits we make are also now worth a lot more. We are playing the same level of players but our profits (and losses) are now worth more. This is bad if you are a losing player but great if you are a winning player.

Good winning players should be playing in USD and raking this in while the pound is weak making sure they continue to cash out to take full advantage of this situation.

Jan so far.

2009-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

Im on a rush! Its been a while. Ive made around $1800 this month which includes that $950 bad beat jackpot.

Even though I try my best to shrug off the times when I cannot win an 80/20, lose all my coinflips and run card dead for a couple of thousand hands it still gets you down and makes you question the game and question your play. Then comes a rush and everything is rosy again.

This is a common cycle I feel with the game of poker and I say every single one if us goes through this. Im 'lucky' I guess that I do not have to rely on poker to pay any bills, never needing to withdraw any funds as I have a well paid full time job but for the players that rely on this income the feeling must be amplified on both up and down turns.

When you are on a downturn remember..

-Tighten up
-Drop down to build confidence and to not play scared money
-Reduce number of tables
-Table select well. Move tables if conditions change
-Review your session
-The good cards will come. Natural distribution

Maybe ill write a bigger post soon on controlling the tilt of a downturn.

Monday funny
http://wiifail.com/

bored at work? try and beat my score.

2009-01-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

http://www.blinkyou.com/codes/flash/squares.swf

Bankroll back to $5k

2009-01-16T01:15:00.001-08:00

I hit this target just before I came back to the UK. I then had to remove $3500 for some house renovations and have now built that back up. Graphs and stats to follow this weekend.

Im still reluctant to take any shots at 200nl though. I want to feel 100% comfortable at 100nl but still have a few leaks that I need to work on.

I will review this again at $6k

Here's the discussion from the previous post hand range question.
http://www.raisetheriver.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7102

What is Villains range here.

2009-01-15T01:42:00.001-08:00

An interesting hand came up last night. I was 3 buyins down from a mixture of some bad play, wrong seating and a few villain suckouts. I thought I was not on tilt but looking back at this hand I see that I limped J8 on the button. This should have been a fold or a raise pf imo. Not weak limping with offsuit 2 gappers.

Anyway villain is an 18/14/2.4 reg over 550 hands. I have no other reads and have not played any real big pots with him before.

Note we are 160bb deep.

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

Stacks:

UTG		($232.10)
UTG+1		($256.15)
CO		($41.85)
Hero (BTN)		($161.60)
SB		($105.05)
BB		($238.17)

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

UTG calls $1, 1 fold, CO calls $1, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: ($4.50, 4 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero bets $4, BB folds, UTG raises to $17, CO folds, Hero ?

What range are you putting villain on here ? Whats your next move ?

Any readers are welcome to comment apart from dubs who has talked over this hand in detail with me already.

The Card Virgin

2009-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Where have I been...? Well, Over the past few weeks I have been in the process of setting up a card school at a local club. I dont want to go into too much detail in this post but it's something I have been working on for some time now.

Last night saw me giving my first poker lesson with few friends and a few guys I have not met before. I was taken aback by a few questions I was asked by this one guy. He was a friend of a friend and told me he had no poker experience before.

- What value does a King or an Ace have ?
- How many suits are there in the pack ?
- Its probably good to know how many types of cards in this pack. How many Aces are in this one ?
- Is AQ better than AK ?

Jeez, i wasnt ready for that curveball.

Last night cemented the fact that I cannot assume anything when it comes to teaching poker. This guy had never seen the contents of a full pack of cards and did not know the order ranking of picture cards but I assumed, at the beginning, that everyone in the world would already know this.

Another thing I took from last night was that our poker language is very easy to communicate and understand when you are around other poker players but have you ever tried to describe a hand scenario to a non poker player and found that they stare at you blankly as if you have just spoken to them in Swahili. I have to change my language when teaching and stop assuming the world has poker knowledge.

Tom 'durrrr' Dwan challenge accepted.

2009-01-08T03:47:00.000-08:00

For those who havent seen Tom 'durrrr' Dwan set a challenge.

“I’m making this heads-up challenge to the world. Anyone can accept. Four tables, minimum of $200/$400, and I’ll put up $1.5 million to their $500,000. We play 50,000 hands minimum and if they end up a dollar after rake they keep the side money or whatever. So basically, if you and I played and you won a dollar, you would get my $1.5 million and if I won a dollar I would win your $500,000.So I’m giving a million dollars free if anyone thinks they can do it.”

He then added another rule which ruled out one player, Phil Galfond, who he must have decided he would not be confident in beating.

He's got 3 acceptances for the challenge.

Phil Ivey
David Benyamine
Patrik Antonious

Details are yet to be finalised. This will be very interesting to watch.

2008 A reasonably successful year

2009-01-06T03:06:00.000-08:00

Overall I feel 2008 was a good year for me in all apects of my life. My online poker bankroll grown from 500 to over 6k and live I have made around the same.

I havent played as much as I would have liked, logging 80k hands. I didnt have a 'number of hands' goal but I feel like it should have been around 120k (10k a month)

I didnt manage to play in any large online or live tournaments due to moving back to the UK in the middle of the year then spending a shedload of cash knocking through walls of my house to prepare for the imminent baby.

I am still at 100nl. I wanted to be at 400nl by this time but a withdrawal of most of my online roll resticted any move up to 200nl and squashed any thoughts of 400nl. To be honest though, I dont feel ready for 200nl as of yet. I am 100% confident I can beat 50nl and i want to feel that at 100nl. I am a winning at 100nl but I am still making mistakes, big mistakes and if i do that at any higher level I will be picked apart.

I have learned a lot this year and some concepts have finally clicked into place. I am making less mistakes but still have a long way to go.

So this leads to 2009. What do I want to achieve and what are my plans to get there.

I want to be a winning player at 200nl

I want to log at least 120,000 hands

I want to become better at beating the regulars at my level

I want to make $20k in total

I want a $1000 day

I want to play in atleast 1 $500+buy in tournament

All this is achievable. What I have found in the last year is that you dont just get better by playing. You get better by putting in the effort to find the things that are going wrong. You have to search for those leaks, review hand histories and be open minded when it comes to others opinions about a situation. I have found that having a few people to talk over hand histories, to share your bad beats and your suckouts relly helps your mindset when playing.

I would like to thank Dubspoke for his insight and support. I would like to thank Ray (get yourself a blog) for his help in the first part of the year. I would like to thank the missus who is now seeing the results of all that poker talk. Last of all I would like to thank all the monkeys that played poorly against me and that have a special place in my buddy list. Without you all I would be just another losing poker player trying to figure out what went wrong.

2009 - lets hope the UIGEA gets trashed.

Time to make some real money.

Ryverrat.

Holdem Manager 1 Pokertracker 0

2008-12-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

Ive been a long time fan of pokertracker. I see the software as a big brother, guiding me through the world of online poker, highlighting fish and making my life a lot easier when multitabling.

Then along came Holdem Manager.

I must say I was dubious at first but this lasted all of 10 mins. Once I worked out the differences and adjusted the layout of the HUD I instantly felt way more comfortable than I ever have with PT. Ive imported all my hand histories from PT and am now tweaking all the information I can handle in HEM.

If you havent tried this great piece of software go give the trial version a run.

Sticky situation....

2008-12-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

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

Stacks:

UTG		($43.95)
UTG+1		($33.95)
Hero (CO)		($98.50)
BTN		($109.50)
SB		($44.45)
BB		($217.90)

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

UTG raises to $3.50, UTG+1 calls $3.50, Hero raises to $11, 1 fold, SB calls $10.50, 1 fold, UTG calls $7.50, UTG+1 calls $7.50

Flop: ($45, 4 players)
SB checks, UTG goes all-in $32.95, UTG+1 goes all-in $22.95, $32.95 to Hero ($87.5)?

No reads

There is still a player yet to act with $33.45

Are we beat here or are we getting enough odds to call. We are getting over 3:1 with another potential caller that could make 4:1

Thoughts ?

November Result and Ryverrat the Superuser...

2008-12-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

Had a good November. With Rakeback and bonus I made around $1000 and have comfortably included $100nl in my game.

Bankroll is now $3000 and building nicely back up again. 8695 hands was unfortunately just shy of the 10k I planned. Will try to catch up in December.

I saw the first signs of paranoia on the AP tables last night. I must be a superuser!!!

RLUCACIU wins (75c chips).
RLUCACIU: so did you guys know that ub had employees cheat people
RLUCACIU: out of their money
RYVERRAT: lol
RLUCACIU: they had this software that would show them what other ppl
RLUCACIU: had
RYVERRAT: titanic sunk aswell
RLUCACIU: lol
<<>>
RLUCACIU wins (95c chips).
RLUCACIU: I bet all of you have that software
RYVERRAT: rofl
RLUCACIU: your names sound pretty shady
<<>>
RYVERRAT wins ($1.75 chips).
RLUCACIU: totally like ub employees would name their accounts
<<>>
WESD0G wins ($1.25 chips).
<<>>
WESD0G wins ($1.20 chips).
<<>>
RYVERRAT: superuser !!!
RYVERRAT wins ($39.10) with (Full house, queens full of threes).

He upped and left.

60 Minutes Poker

2008-12-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

For any of those that missed the 60 minutes episode yesterday here is the link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4639069n

To be honest I dont think it was as bad as expected. Don't get me wrong, there was never going to be any upside in a credible news show investigating Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet scandals, but I feel the 15 mins exposure it got was a small kick in the shin rather than the nail in the coffin.

After watching this I am left with these headlines :-

Potripper superuser account and the great work on the online community
Russ Hamilton behind UB scam and still not charged with any misconduct or fraud
That all sites may have cheating software.
Sites will never be safe outside of US jurisdiction
The building where the servers are held look very nondescript.

I dont see that stopping a large percentage of players, current or new, to wager their money online. I think this one will be swept under the carpet and that the newly branded CEREUS merger of UB and AP will make this while thing disappear in the foreseeable future.

Anyone feel any different ?

How to beat 50NL 6Max Part 3

2008-11-28T01:25:00.000-08:00

continues from previous post.

Neutral EV/Marginal Situations

These situations occur when you are making a tough decision that is not clear cut and could go either way. Calling a river bet that would lead to an EV of around zero. The outcome is the same as folding. The difference in your winrate over time will be negligable. By calling these marginal situations will only increase your volatility and maybe change your percieved table image at the time. Dont chase small ev situations at this level, keep the volatility low and get our money in when you are in a clearly +ev situation. Concentrate more on how to extract the most money with your +ev situations not the tough decision hands. My game is about easy decisions.

Avoiding the Regulars for now

Now I am not saying run for the hills if you see a regular player at your table. They are just human and just because they are a reg that doesnt mean they are better than you. The fact is though at 50nl there are so many fish that you dont need to battle it out with a reg for 2bb/100 when you have players that you can extract 10+bb/100. It makes no sens at 50nl to be sitting at a table with 4 regs +1 fish. Unless the fish is deepstacked and to your immediate right, then up and leave. There will be 20+ other tables with which to feed on.

I think the next evolution of poker will be to learn how to play back at the regs. Learning how to add on another 2bb/100 by including the regs that you feed on. But this is not needed at 50nl to make money.

If you are to play against any regs just know they are not calling stations and will let you know when you are beat. Regulars are normally sold multitablers and will not bluff often. Steal from them with half pot bets and fold to any aggro. Pick on the weak, table select well and dont sit and lose value with a table full of regs.

Stealing Blinds

There are a lot of players unaware of the blind steal and also a lot of regulars that will automatically fold to a blind steal. This provides a lot of inocme over the course of thousands of hands. If you are sitting on the button and the blinds are tight players then bet. On the next orbit, if you are folded to, bet again. Keep doing this until they play back at you. Put them off their game and become a thorn in their side. This will make them frustrated and they will start to play pots with you when they are out of position. This also can achieve great pay offs when you hit a large hand on the button.

Even if called a continuation bet (cbet) will normally take the pot down. Just be aware of coordinated boards and players calling range. You can always wait until next orbit if its marginal.

Obviously the worst type of player to steal from is the Loose Aggressive player (LAG). Keep this one low on the steal frequency and maybe move table if LAGs on the left and no LAG's on your right.

Blind stealing is essential for a decent winrate.

Session Review

At the end of each session, spare yourself around 10 mins to go over some highlights of your play. Use PT to find the top 3-5 hands of both wins and losses. Replay them and see if you could have done anything different. Were you ahead when the money went in ? Did you apply the right pressure and could you have found out you were beat earlier in the hand.

The winning hands are just as important here as you may have left money on the table. Ask yourself was the bet sizing correct. Could you have extracted more $?

Give yourself some time to go over these hands and anything you are unsure of ask someone. Use forums like twoplustwo, ask some poker buddies or even send an email to me and Ill give you my opinion. There is no downside to asking someone if you could have played it differently.

As i said earlier, this is pretty much how I have beat 50nl over this year. Its not about playing fancy. Its about playing solid poker and creating situations with easy decisions. 50nl is not aggressive and has a lot of dead money floating around. Play more hands in position, control the bet sizing and stay away from marginal decisions and you should be making some relatively easy money.

Hope that helps someone.

Feel free to donate :)

Ryverrat.

How To Beat 50NL 6Max Part 2

2008-11-27T00:13:00.000-08:00

... Continues from previous post.

Taking Notes

I take a lot of short notes on players. Im not writing full descriptions and I'm not taking down everything I see. I'm keeping it short and sweet.

Im looking for repeating actions in common situations. I am specifically noting the following.

PreFlop
Are they positionally aware?
Tight or Loose utg/utg+1 range?
Do they steal blinds with any two cards?
3bet calling range?
What does their all in pf range include?
Defends blinds with any two cards ?
Do they open limp?

Flop
Do they lead out of position (OOP) with a sets?
Do they lead OOP with flush draws?
Do they overbet/push with flush draws?
Do they fold to bets no matter what size, ie min bet?

Turn
2nd barrell bluffs ?
do they check/raise strong hands after leading flop?

River
Can they bluff missed draws?
what size % bet of pot do they call with medium hands?

Other
Do they use autofold?
Do they Tilt easy?
Timing tells?

There may seem a lot of information here but I will only have 2 or 3 confirmed notes per player. These can be added to the notes field very quickly if using a shorthand. Create the shorthand that you can easily read, there is no set language.

for example
dfnds BB atc
lds flp wth set
clls psb wth f/d on turn
c/r flop wth strng hands
min bet = weak

My number one main goal is to find out how they play their big hands. For me, knowing when they are really strong helps me save a ton of cash when I have a strong hand and can find a fold. I try to find something that has repeated and put a * next to the note to mean I have seen this more than once.

All this is very easy to add to a players notes while playing and very easy to understand when you glance at them.

Position and Starting Hand Selection

At 50nl there is no need to be fancy. When watching CardRunners videos at higher levels the pros are raising hands like KJs UTG and 3betting 88 in mid position. At 50nl a lot of players do not know how to fold and will be calling with a wide range of hands. When you are playing out of position this will get you into some tricky situations on the flop where you have a marginal hand and no idea where you stand.

Most of your profit will come from late position. Basic poker, if you play more hands from late position vs early position you will have the groundings to make a decent winrate. I play reasonably tight UTG. I suggest dropping ALL suited connectors from UTG /UTG +1 and all those marginal hands like KQ, AT etc (more on second best hands later). 50nl is about easy decisions and by controlling the range you play out of position helps you achieve this.

I find raising pocket pairs in any position works. I do sometimes drop 22-44 from my UTG range if at a decent table or if there are a lot of shorties <50bb stacks. As said before, there are a lot of calling stations at 50nl so calling pocket pairs TT and lower for set value in position is preferrable.

Avoiding Second Best Hands

Dangerous hands to me are AQ, AJ, AT, KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT. These hand are the trickiest to play imo. Its easy to lay down T9 on a board of KT4 but no so easy if you hold KQ. These types of hands will see you get a decent amount of your chips in only to find you are dominated by AK. Folding these hands to aggression can save you a lot of money over the long run. Dont go broke with Top pair 2nd kicker and try to use some pot control where possible.

Bet Sizing

I am a firm believer in masking your preflop ranges with the same bet sizing. Its is very readable when a player open limps sometimes and open bets other times. I say never open limp. This keeps your game aggressive and your bet sizing doesn't polarize your hand. With the amount of bad players at 50nl and the lack of 3 betting I always open bet $2 (4 x bb).

When 3betting preflop I usually raise around 3 times the players opening bet. 3 betting gets a lot of respect at this level and normally takes down the pot.

Once you have seen the flop, make a plan in your head what you aim to do. Are you willing to get the money in with this hand? Are you going to fold to any aggression ? Are you wanting to get to showdown cheaply ? This will help in sizing your bet to achieve your plan. If your aim is to get it all in, make sure the amount you bet on the flop and turn leave you with a less than pot sized bet for the river. This is not always possible try to be aware of this and check raise if possible to get the money in.

If you find yourself on the river with a stack larger than the current pot, you think you opponent has a decent hand and you think he will call a pot sized bet, then push all in. I find that players willing to call a psb will also call a lot more than that.

If you believe the player has missed the river then I find 1/3 psb works. I would be wary of betting small with bluffs as calling stations are liable to look you up with bottom or mid pair.

One last point on this subject is giving the opponent incorrect odds and not trying to blow them off the hand. Like if you believe the player is drawing to a flush, bet enough to make them call with incorrect odds, dont overbet to make them fold unless the board is really dangerous and they could have other outs. Poker is about the sum of everyones mistakes. Give them the opportunity to make one but be ready to fold if they hit.

to be continued....

How To Beat 50NL 6Max Part 1

2008-11-25T03:54:00.000-08:00

I promised a while ago to write a post sharing my thoughts on how I have recently beat 50nl. I have played approx 44k hands at this level and have a win rate of 7.5bb/100. Most of this will be basic poker to a lot of readers. This is aimed at the 25nl looking to move up or the losing/breakeven player at 50nl. These are the areas I will cover.

Pokertracker

Bankroll Management

Multitabling

Table Selection

Taking Notes

Position and starting hand selection

Avoiding Second Best Hands

Bet Sizing

Neutral ev/marginal situations

Avoiding the Regs for now

Stealing Blinds

Session Review

PokerTracker and HUD

For those not using Pokertracker I say you are at a fair disadvantage to other players using this tool. This becomes more evident if you play 3 or more tables. I would not be able to comfortably remember who is playing tight aggro, tight passive, loose aggro and loose passive let alone the more interesting numbers that can add to your win rate.

I am still using Pokertracker 2 and use the following information

$VPIP - Voluntarily put money in pot

PFR% - Pre flop raise %

AF - Aggression factor

Cbet% - Continuation bet %

Fold to Cbet%

Reraise Cbet %

Folds SB to steal %

Folds BB to steal %

Aggression on flop, turn and river

PT3 does this in real time. I have both PT2 and PT3 but the site I am playing is not supported by PT3 at present. PT3 also has 3bet% and fold to 3bet% which comes in handy.

Bankroll Management (BRM)

This is where a lot of players fall down. I have yet to go broke with my BRM but you have to be a winning player for this to work. I start with 20 buyins for a level and move up when i have between 20-25 buyins for the next level. If I fall down below 20 buyins for the new level I wont play it.

Example $25nl
Bankroll start $500
Move up to $50nl between $1000 - $1250
Move back to $25nl at $1000

This may seem passive to some but it allows you to really see if you are beating the current level and allows you to ride any variance that you will run into. In the example above you need to make $500 at 25nl. That is 2000 big blinds to make.

Below shows winrate vs hands needed to play.

5bb/100 = 40,000 hands
7.5bb/100 = 26,666 hands
10bb/100 = 20,000 hands

If you are playing on average 3 tables at 7.5bb/100 and putting in around 90 hands per hour per table then that will equal approx 100 hours of play to be able to comfortably move up a level.

You have to be able to put your pride to oneside and step down when necessary. Moving down is part of the game, moving down controls tilt and slows down losses. Managing your bankroll is a fundamental part of climbing the ranks.

I also find that when moving up its easier for me if I dont just dive straight in and fire up 2-4 tables of the new level, but gradually transition through by replacing one of my tables with the new level and replace more as I feel comfortable.

Multitabling

With the idea of playing a semi tight aggressive style, you can comfortably play more than 1 table. The amount of tables you can play will be down to personal preference. I find that I can comfortably play 4 tables and feel in full control, not rushed. I have friends that can only play 1 table and ones that can play 12+. Start with 1 or 2, play until you are comfortable and then add another. Repeat this until you are in your comfort zone.

Multitabling helps with the boredom factor of single tabling. This will keep you playing tight and help steer clear of what I will call boredom hands like KJo, A6o etc.

Table Selection

Hunt down bad players. You should as you are playing, be adding bad players to your friends/buddy list. When you next log in open up this list and add your name to the waiting list of all bad players if they are still at your current level. When a seat appears evaluate the position you have got. Where are the loose players, where are the tight players. You should be looking for optimal seats with the loose bad players to your right and the tightish players to your left. If the seat has villains the wrong sides, up and move. There is always a better seat at these levels and dont by shy to sit out and move. This also means when the fish up and moves and the table dynaics change.

With there are no fish to chase the obvious statistic in the table selection screen in most lobby's is the % of players seeing flops (%psf). The higher the better, dont waste your time with the low %psf tables, you want to be actively hunting the bad players and the tighter bad players dont return the same profit as the loose bad players. The problem here is that every other player sees this information in the lobby so you will see many tables with high %psf with waiting lists.

Another idea I had a while back is spotting fish by donkey stacks. Look for those tables with players sitting with 1/2 stacks, 40-70 big blinds. These could be potential unspotted fish.

I say again, dont be stuck on a table when the fish leave. I see so many players sitting at tables with 3-4 regs where there are so many other fishy tables to play. The main bulk of your money will not come from the regs. Sit out, stand up and fnd another table. This is not bad etiquette, this is bankroll building.

Part 2 soon.....

3043 BigBlinds per 100

2008-11-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

I didnt get many hands in this weekend but the ones I did were quality. I was heading out for dinner Saturday night and was waiting on the missus to finish her getting ready routine. I had about 10 mins to squeeze some hands in. I fired up 5 tables and played a couple of orbits. On 1 table (Jasper, see pokertracker screenshot below) I made 150 big blinds and added a juicy fish to my buddy list. 3043 bb/100 haha.

So the new bankroll now sits at $2,787 giving me a nice $726 profit for Nov so far + rakeback to be added. Not bad for approx 6k hands. I am playing a mix of $100nl and $50nl. As a repeat of the beginning of this year I will keep this level until I either drop to $2000 then $50nl only or increase to $5000 then I can add $200nl.

For anyone interested in matters outside of my bankroll building I will be having a baby, eta end of January. The preperation for his entry into this world has taken up a LOT of my spare time and thus reduced my hands per month. I can easily start rambling how happy, proud, excited etc I am at the thought if becoming a father but this is a poker blog so I will keep it in the background. We have now got most of the preparation done to the house, renovating, decorating and furnishing and this should be finished by the end of this week. Then I can settle back into the seat in front of my screens and cast the fishing rod out into the well stocked poker waters a lot more than I have been able to recently.

Lets see how long this heater lasts....

Giving A Free Card

2008-11-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Hero $47.00

UTG+1 $97.50

CO $93.19

BTN $50.71

SB $68.65

BB $ 22.95

Big Blind was definately the fish at the table. 50/12/1

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $2, 4 folds, BB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.25, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

( I elect to check. My thoughts... This player has leading when he hits. With 2 Hearts on the table I am sure he bets out here with an Ace so I assign small chance of this. There is a small chance of a flush draw here. I have the Ah so making this a little less likely. If I bet here I fold out all the hands that I want to stay and catch up. His call pre flop says a pocket pair or 2 high cards. I check in the hope he can catch up. My plan is if a Heart hits then I expect a bet I will reraise then not put a penny more in the pot if I face a reraise or a call. With around a 1 in 6 chance of a Heart, I check.)

Turn: ($4.25, 2 players)
BB bets $2, Hero raises to $5, BB raises to $10, Hero raises to $34.25, BB goes all-in $10.95

(A possible perfect card. He leads confirming my 2 high card thought. I beat KJ,QJ,JT,J9 and am beat by JJ. I cant see any other hand here that he has. All other hands would prob lead the flop with the type of player he is. The min reraise made me stop and think, if we were deep I may have slowed down for a bit of pot control but he was relatively short so pushed him in.)

River: ($59.45, 2 players)

Final Pot: $59.45
BB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $56.65 ( won +$20.40 )
BB lost -$22.95

This is a new line to me. I never give free cards but I think if the situation was right for this. I am in position against a player that leads with good hands. I am confident he has no Ace and a bet from me will fold him. As long I stick to a plan of folding to aggression from a turned or rivered Heart then letting the fishy player catch up should make a decent profit.

Poker is gambling and roulette is a game of skill

2008-11-20T03:10:00.000-08:00

Yes read the title again. This is the firm belief of a *cough* well educated person on my trading desk. OMFG !

This is derived from the fact that said person won some money in Vegas this year at the roulette tables and who's family member plays poker both online and live. The other fact said was that online poker must be fixed as their family member says every time a 1 outer is needed to lose a pot it comes up 50% of the time. OMFFG! a 2% chance hitting 50% of the time. But he said it so it must be true. But it must be true because this poker player has been to Vegas and won big tournaments. A little delving showed a $2000 win at the Wynn. HUGE !!!!!!!

Jeez, are you for f*cking real. This person is a very important position in our company and should have atleast the basic understanding of GCSE maths ffs. It baffles me how these people get jobs in finance, in trading, in areas that they should have atleast one bit of mathematical knowledge.

Credit crunch my ar$e, i say the turndown in the stockmarket is due to incompetant fools like this.

Rant over.

A steady climb

2008-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

I feel back on track in bulding up this bankroll. Im running just under 13bb/100 at $50nl. I need to get some more hands in this month, target still 10k hands a month. I have to pull my finger out.

I need to hit $2500 before I can comfortably play $100nl again. I am currently at $2340. A few more fish at 50nl and I can climb back up again. I did this earlier in the year and looking forward to getting back up there.

Once im there I can then start on my 'how to beat 50NL' post that i promisd. Still small sample size but if you include the hands from earlier in the year i have around 45k hands at this level so that should mean something.

Will look for some interesting hands for my next post.

Happy Mondays.

UIGEA Finalised

2008-11-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

The UIGEA. For anyone that has had their head in the sand for the past few years this is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed early 2007 and which will finally come into effect on January 19th.

This is being done in the final hour before the signing in of a new government. The midnight rulemaking allows for finalising and implementing regulations which do not take effect for 60 days. Thus finalise it now and it will be in place for the new gov't.

What does this mean to the poker player. The UIGEA states that it will be illegal to make any cash movements in or out of 'unlawful' gambling sites. The 'Act' has been very vague in specifiy what these sites will consist of so we can assume the Fed and the banks will be over cautious and engage in "overblocking". Stopping ALL suspect transactions. This has other implications as you can imagine. This is also a huge burden for the financial system.

I see a few things happening, and these are just my thoughts, right or wrong so dont flame me for thinking out loud.

Firstly, the worry about safe funds will be priority. I see US players cashing out of sites from now and Jan 19th. There could be a huge increase in outflows from the main US sites. To cash out after this will mean risk of losing your cash. The sites cannot wire transfer and any cheque sent could be refused by your bank.

With the money being sucked out of the system there could be less play for a while. Im sure there will be other ways around it using 3rd party offshore payment vehicles eg Neteller but this is still risky and the casual player will not go to such efforts to deposit onto the sites. Bad news for renewable fish levels.

As an upside thought this could create an increase in reload bonuses from the sites. If a site needs to raise cash then offer a regular deposit bounus. I see Absolute Poker offer around 8 reload bonuses a month at the moment. These are reload bonuses not first deposit bonuses.

I think for the first few months there will be a lot of bad players online. The good players would have pulled most of their cash out and the bad players wouldnt have noticed the law had finalised. They will have stuck funds and will donk them off. After a while the good players will have the cash and the fish will not deposit.

This is all bad news for the US player base, the majority of online play. It maybe that the sites will shift their focus to Europe and Asia where there is no legislation stopping us play. We may see more tournaments schedules appearing in the European time zone etc. It may mean that some sites will stop accepting US customers.

The bottom line though this is a big negative impact on the poker landscape. Lets cross our fingers and hope that Mr Obama will come in and as per the Congressional Review Act 1996, reverse these last minute regulations. This is possible as the act states that any act finalised in the previous 60 days are legally considered to have taken place on the 15th day of the next congress.

Anyone have any more thoughts on this ?

[UIGEA] Treasury, Fed Issue Final Rule on Unlawful Internet Gambling (11/12/08)

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Politics United States poker pokerplayersalliance

My biggest hand online.

2008-11-12T06:34:00.001-08:00

First of all I am a full believer in good bankroll management. You WILL go busto if you dont adhere to good rules when it comes to moving up and down.

Now I have an old account which I play now and then on FullTilt. I have no rakeback and only use this for small tournaments which I sometimes run alongside my bankroll building at AP. This is play money to me and has no inclusion in my profit numbers.

I had no access to my pc so I fired Mrs Ryverrat's laptop for a little cash play and being only a 15" screen didnt want to play more than 2 tables. Full Tilt was already installed from years back so I opened up the lobby and thought to myself, if I am only playing 1 table I can concentrate a lot more on reads and specific players tendancies. Lets try higher....

I opened up a $1/$2 table and bought in for 100bb. I noticed a lot of cash on the table and after a few rounds saw that I had joined a $1/$2 (deep) table. The guy to my right was heavy stacked so I upped mine to 200bb just in case.

The very next hand....
http://weaktight.com/510617

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

UTG		($358.55)
UTG+1		($400.00)
CO		($584.50)
BTN		($876.95)
Hero		($390.05)
BB		($225.00)

Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is SB

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $7, 2 folds, Hero raises to $23, 1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $59, Hero calls $36

Flop: ($120, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $55, Hero raises to $110, UTG+1 calls $55

Turn: ($340, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $221.05, UTG+1 calls $221.05

River: ($782.10, 2 players)

Final Pot: $782.10
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:

Hero wins $779.10 ( won +$389.05 )
UTG+1 lost -$390.05

Not knowing the players at this level I want to analyse this a little better. I can be looked at KK vs AA, boring shut up and move on. But we are 200bb deep. I dont normally play deepstack poker.

Preflop UTG+1 bets, I 3 bet, and he 4 bets. Surely AA,KK ? being this deep does anyone do this with AKs or QQ ? If I 5 bet surely I am saying I have AA and there is a chance he will fold here right ? 5 betting = AA 90% of the time against an unknown ? I elected to call.

I think his half pot bet standard here, if I check raise pot size am i screaming QQ, AQ, KQs ? I felt a min raise will look a little fishy here and also set up a nice river bet that not out of proportion to the pot. Was the min raise right?

I was always betting the river here and if he has any Q then so be it as I wouldnt be folding if i let him bet first.

This hand may have been a straightforward play but I am at a higher level than I normally play $50NL or $100nl and im 200bb deep. For anyone that plays these games please comment as I felt a little out of my depth here from what im used to.

Please comment.

funny link of the day

The skydiving mouse
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1058579/

My Whale

2008-11-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

I love my buddy list. If I had the time I would do a comparison of how much money has come just from the list of players on my buddy list. I have 138 players on the list at $50NL and last night I found one of the major ones sitting at one of the tables.

Villain's stats 83/17/11
A quick recap for some new readers this guy plays 83% of his hands, raises 17% pf and has an aggression factor of 11.

I added myself to the waiting list and within 20 seconds a seat appeared but it was to his right. Not ideal but I would try my best from the wrong angle. Acting before a hyper aggro post flop maniac could be painful.

Within 2 orbits I had seen him open push 240bb winning just the blinds. I had bought into the game with 100b so topped it up straight away to 200bb.

3rd Orbit I find this hand...

Im not sure I could get any more cash from him on this hand. I cant raise the flop here after his check as i would have to fold to a push which he is capable. I guess I could have reraised the turn but that may be advertising a flush too much.

http://weaktight.com/499145

I get KK the very next hand. This guy doesnt like to be pushed around and I think hes a little pissed losing the hand before. I also find that bad players HATE minimum reraises. They never fold. This min reraise pre flop sets up stack/bet sizes for the my weak flop bet/call shove perfectly.

http://weaktight.com/499144

So a nice 250bb profit in 2 hands from my large fishy friend. I will release his name/stats for $10 :)

November has started off well

Vote for Poker

2008-11-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

A little late i know but a great post from FOX on pocket fives.

Vote for Poker in 2008

No matter how good the game is, no matter how many fish are at your favorite table, and no matter how close you are to getting a spot on the leader board, on November 4th you need to get up out of that chair for a minute and go vote. Maybe even encourage a few friends to vote. This election will decide the future of online poker and we need to take part in it or we may see our favorite game under attack once again.

For online poker players, this is far and away the most important election of our lifetimes, and if we show up in huge numbers to vote for candidates that will protect our personal freedoms and allow us to play the game we love, we can make a change. Not only can we put in candidates who will be more likely to support our right to play poker, but we can show every politician in America how strongly we feel and how many of us actually vote.

This is our best chance to flex our collective muscles and reap the benefits for years to come. If the politicians know there are millions of us, and our votes are strongly influenced by this issue, they won’t want to take that freedom away for fear that they could be voted out of office the next time around. If we don’t get out and vote in huge numbers, all of our petitions and lobbying will be in vain. If we aren’t an actual threat to their jobs, politicians won’t consider us at all.

I’m not trying to tell anyone how to vote in the presidential election and honestly either candidate will probably be much better for poker players than the current administration. I do think you should vote for the few people on Capitol Hill who have stood up for us, including Barney Frank in Massachusetts, Linda Sanchez in California, Robert Wexler in Florida, John Conyers from Michigan, Shelley Berkley in Nevada, Robert Menendez in New Jersey, Peter King of New York, Melvin Watt of North Carolina, Stephen Cohen in Tennessee, Ron Paul and Pete Sessions in Texas, Robert Scott in Virginia, and Jim McDermott in Washington State, where poker desperately needs help.

The preceding list is not all from one political party or one part of the country. They are just good lawmakers who have listened to the American people, 75% of whom are against a ban of online poker. Politicians who realize that what you do in the privacy of your own home is none of the government’s business and that the majority of Americans want that freedom left alone.
It’s just my opinion, but I think that any politician who can’t follow the people’s will or who wants to prevent me from playing poker in my own home shouldn’t get our vote no matter what else they claim to stand for because they simply can not be trusted.

I urge you all to visit the PPA’s Congressional ratings page and take a look at how your incumbents scored on the PPA’s grading system. If they don’t get a B+ grade or better, take a look at their challenger and consider voting for them instead if they appear to be a candidate who supports personal liberty. And make sure to send that link to some friends and family so they can see how their representatives score on this important issue of personal freedom too.

I’ve already contacted a Congressional member in my district, who represents the party I usually vote for, and told them that they will not be getting my vote this time around because of their record of voting against online poker. I know it’s not the only issue on your mind. We have a war overseas and a terrible economic crisis to deal with. Those things are important issues, but poker, and the freedom to play it, may be more important then you think. Consider the following:

Online poker has been rocked by two recent cheating scandals and there is very little that any regulatory body can do about it. In an unregulated industry, where the companies are not operating as licensed U.S. businesses, they have little reason to treat U.S. players well. Are you really going to go to The Isle of Mann or Costa Rica to file a court case against them? If online poker in the U.S. were legal and properly regulated, the games would be safer and more secure than they can ever be with the situation as it is now.

Prohibition leads to crime. We should have learned that lesson with alcohol 80 years ago, but politicians have short memories. We have no idea where those profits go right now, and in an unregulated environment that money could end up anywhere.

Online poker makes incredible quantities of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in rake that could be generating tax revenue for us is being sent overseas. We are sending a massive business overseas and not allowing American companies to compete for that income at a time when our economy can use all the help it can get. And let’s not forget the players who make money. Playing online poker professionally is a career for many of us (including yours truly) and if online poker is criminalized, those jobs, and all that tax income, will be literally shipped overseas. Can you vote for a politician who wants to ship thousands of high-paying jobs overseas?

Allowing the government to tell us what we can and can not do in our own homes is a slippery slope. What’s next? If you give the government an inch, it may just take a mile as it has often done in the past.

Many of online poker’s opponents say that they are trying to prevent people with gambling problems from playing the games. I feel for those people, but if we want to protect our citizens, let’s protect the minors by regulating the games so that they can’t play. Let’s protect the people who are playing the games anyway by regulating them and keeping them safe. There are carve-outs in the anti-online gambling laws that specifically allow horse racing and lotteries, offering no protection for problem gamblers, and the current laws aren’t preventing the criminals and addicts from playing poker any way.

I’ve seen poker do good things too many times to let it die. I played in a charity tournament myself a few months ago that raised over $70,000 for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and there are charity tournaments every weekend on all the major sites for one charity or another. With legal online poker, these tournaments could draw so many more people and do so much good for the world.

The idea that our government could put us in jail for playing a game would be ridiculous if it weren’t already happening. Shame on Washington State for putting its citizens in jail and claiming that it is trying to protect them from playing online poker. Do you think your citizens are unable to make decisions for themselves? As they clear out their offices for the newly elected officials to move in, they may feel differently about how well the citizens of their State are able to make decisions on their own.

The next Congress will decide the future of online poker, and if you don’t get up from that computer and go vote, you get to play for a few hours on election day, but you might never get to play again soon after.

I spoke recently with John Pappas, the head of our most powerful ally in Washington, the Poker Player’s Alliance. I’ll end this article with a quote from John himself –
“The new Congress and White House will make important decisions about the future of Internet poker. If you care about your freedom to play, then you have to educate yourself and you have to vote on November 4th. We need to make sure that lawmakers don’t continue to take our rights for granted. If a politician is willing to come into your home and take away your right to play poker, they won’t stop there. What right will they take away next? Selecting the right candidate for poker also means selecting a candidate who cares about your personal freedoms.”

I’ll see you at the voting booth,

Chris ‘Fox’ Wallace

Moving down to 50nl only.....

2008-10-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

Against all my will I have had to remove most of my poker bankroll to fund renovations on my house. It was either that or sell the tvr. Ive waited to have that car far too long to just flip it out after 3 months.

I have left enough to work with in my accounts to hopefully rebuild and make the steady climb to the midstakes. This obviously kills my goals for year end.

I am leaving a balance of approx $1500 for poker. This will by solely for $50nl until I reach $2500 then move up to $100nl.

Graphs / Charts and analysis to start again soon. Off to Lake Como in Italy this weekend so no pokering for me.

I will be writing a post soon on the main aspects of beating 50nl.. I have to beat it first again though otherwise you wont believe me..

Ryverrat.

Marginal Situations Tweak

2008-10-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

Another conclusion I have arrived at is that playing marginal ev situations at 50nl and probably 100nl is not worth it. I was looking through my database of winning players at this level and found that hardly any of them are playing marginal situations as regular as me. This situations are rarely profitable at these levels whereas good solid poker wins.

Cutting down on cbets when missed, bluffing less and playing less marginal hands out of position is a good strategy when you are playing with monkeys who cannot lay down an underpair or mid pair hands.

The downside of this is that you will sometimes lose value when pushed off of hands where you were ahead but this is made up for more than enough for when you have a hand and gain their flop bet, turn bet and sometimes river bet / stack. The profit will come from extracting maximum value from strong hands. Occasionally, read dependent it may be ok to make a marginal play but overall I think it is not optimum at the small stakes.

I will start showing numbers and graphs again soon. Im still maintaining my bankroll goal of $10k by the end of the year. Current online roll around $5300

A Devil in the River.

2008-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have been fighting with myself for the past 2 months trying to figure out where the hell my skill at poker has gone. I am not losing, I am not winning. I am breakeven. The only profit I am making is via bonuses and rakeback and this is not right.

From Feb to Jun I was a winning player, I turned $500 into $5000 just playing my game now I just treading water. What is missing ?

Location - My winning run stopped when I moved from Australia back to the UK. Australia evening would be midnight to early hours US time. This is like having position on players on a global poker table. You have to be at an advantage over the long term by playing the witching hour when you are fresh and sober. In the UK I play in the evening against other UK players and midday US players who are generally better players than the evening shift.

Forums - The Internet nazis at my work have cut off access to two plus two forums. I cannot read about poker at work, I cannot comment and strategize about different hand histories and this lets you step out of your 'A' game thinking. I have to fix this one somehow.

I believe these two factors have led me to make just a few mistakes but dramatically affected my win rate. Making big mistakes 1 in a 1000 times sounds too small to make a difference but that it what is happening. It only takes 1 wrong call on the river where the bets are much larger to knock all your profit making from the past 999 hands. I am picking up lots of small pots and losing a big one on a bad river call. I am picking up pennies in front of a steamroller.

That is my conclusion after looking at my main losing hands over the past few months. If I could take away those large river calls where looking back it was very marginal then I would be making a decent return. I have to play my 'A' game every time I sit down. Nothing less.

For anyone else breaking even, take a look at your pokertracker numbers. Take your top few hand losses per 1000 hands and see if they were lost calling large river bets. Is it just me or is this a common leak from most players ?

Inside the mind of a poker maniac

2008-10-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

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

Stacks:

UTG		($38.15)
CO		($41.80)
BTN		($47.30)
SB		($200.55)
Hero		($89.75)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is BB

2 folds, BTN raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($4.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $3, BTN calls $3

Turn: ($10.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($10.50, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $84.75, BTN goes all-in $42.30

Final Pot: $137.55
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $134.05 ( won +$44.30 )
BTN lost -$47.30

Can anyone explain this hand ? Apparantly yes. I showed this hand to a guy at work who has played poker before and listens to me ramble on about my poker wins and losses. I was taking him through each stage of the hand. Villain's flop call was 'obviously 67' he said to my amazement. I was impressed. He seemingly picked the villains cards out of the blue with no history or read. When I showed him the call on the river he smiled and said yeah, thats easy he called because he was bluffing.

OMFG! what?

Another Breakeven month !!

2008-10-01T00:23:00.000-07:00

A quite frustrating month to be honest. I could have played around 15k hands this month but with house renovations, a trip abroad and a passing away in the family I could only manage the above. The fact still remains though that I am break even.. again! I cleared a $150 bonus = about $150 in rakeback so im up for the month but im not happy about it. To be honest I dont think there is much wrong with my game. I have analysed a few areas I need to work on and will strive to do this for October.

The bulk of my hands this month have been at nl($0.50) and I have played a 22/13 style. This could be closer. I feel like a 19/15 style would work so will aim to bring this more into line.

A number I want to look at is Won $ WSF % (Without seeing flop) = 38% Is this anywhere near where it should be. I generally raise 3x BB in early position and 4x BB in later positions. I need to work out if the 4x BB in later positions is building good pots to win or discouraging players to call. Obviously this is table/villain dependant but with a large enough sample size there could be a leak.

My button play is 28/18 which I am happy with and the $128 loss is due to a few large stupid calls I made. Bad play me.

So my call to you readers, can you see any glaring holes in my numbers here. Am I missing something ?

Guest Speakers

2008-09-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

I will not be playing much this week due to other commitments. If anyone wants to use my blogspace to post any interesting articles or thoughts then email me the piece and i'll put them up free of charge.

Here is a few interesting points on the Etiquette of live poker from the guys at PokerListings.

Poker Tournament Etiquette

Poker and poker tournaments has a system of etiquette all its own. It’s been like this for years, although it’s seems to be the latest poker news for some players. Like in other areas, such as politics, some facets of poker etiquette seem like common sense, others may be less obvious. For those foraying into the world of live poker, it helps to know what the standards are. Online poker of course has its own etiquette and morals but that’s another story.

Showing Cards

If a player turns over a winning hand at showdown, he is entitled to see his opponent’s hand. However, if the opponent elects to muck, it is considered good etiquette not to insist to see his hand. An exception would be if the player who mucked first showed his hand to another player at the table. “Show one, show all” is the rule, and if one player has seen someone else’s cards, everyone else is entitled to as well.

Chopping

In some casinos, if everyone has folded to the small blind, it is customary to “chop,” with both players taking back their blinds. This is to avoid a situation where both players are paying a rake to the house without a positive expectation that either one will win the hand. Etiquette does not demand that a player chop. However, if a player does chop in one round, he should always chop, rather than taking a peek to see if he has a huge hand before deciding whether he wants to continue to play.

Foul Language

Unless you are in a tournament, cursing will usually only be met with a warning at the poker table, if that. However, if someone at the table is uncomfortable with abusive language, you should refrain from using it. You should never direct foul language to anyone else at the table, especially the dealer. Cursing at the dealer even in a cash game may result in a sanction from the casino.

Call or Fold ?

2008-09-11T04:55:00.000-07:00

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

Hero		($99.80)
UTG+1		($70.35)
CO		($15.43)
BTN		($103.42)
SB		($104.20)
BB		($15.80)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $1.50, UTG+1 raises to $4.95, CO goes all-in $15.43, 2 folds, BB calls $14.93, Hero calls $13.93, UTG+1 goes all-in $70.35, BB goes all-in $0.37, Hero ?

The pot is 122.21 and its 54.92 for me to call.

Player notes BB and SB both playing 40/30 ish and been spewing chips since I sat down around 4 orbits ago. UTG+1 seems a semi decent player. Has been 3 betting me and I have yet to see any showdowns. playing a 25/21 over 50ish hands.

Easy fold ?

Dos Games > Work productivity

2008-09-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

Remember DOS? For any of you that like me grew up playing games on a C64, ZX81, Amiga, Atari and IBM then this post is for you.

With my boredom at work I once again looked into grabbing a few games to pass the time. This lead me onto installing a DOS Emulator with over 1000 games to choose from, all in a small DOS shell window on my pc.

I have already been playing around with the like of Populous II, Xcom, Laser Squad, The SettlersII and havent even touched the surface.

Its quite amusing how these games still hold well. The graphics, lets be honest, are so bad compared to todays software but the nostalgia and great gameplay make the old games worthy of diving back into.

To do this you need.
Dos Emulator, look for D-Fend Reloaded
for games do a search for Abandonware or start somewhere like here http://games.holyfile.com/ This also has a Dosbox download.

Unzip any game to the D-Fend Reloaded ...../virtual HD/ directory and use the add wizard on the profile menu to search for the *.exe file.

Thats it. It is very straightforward after you have got one right. Hours and hours of play.

If you need any help getting this up and running email me or post a message here and ill be glad to help.

A link sent to me.. Seen this drunk highjumper.... ? hahaha

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/2712415/Drunk-high-jumper-Ivan-Ukhov-stumbles-into-trouble-at-Lausanne---Athletics.html

Tweaks

2008-09-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have bounced off the bottom of my downswing. I lost $800 at ipoker and went back to my old fishpond at Absolute. I continued my downward spiral, tweaked my game, levelled out, tweaked some more, suffered some beats and have now got back on track.

I've made a solid $500 (profit + rakeback) on the 100nl and the 50nl tables after around 2000 hands this month already.

I have made concious tweaks that I think have helped -

Really tightening up my UTG range. This means dropping 22-33 and trouble hands like AQo, KQo, all suited connectors.

Being very conscious of playing certain ranges vs specific stack sizes. High pair hands vs shorties and suited connectors, set mining vs 100bb - deep.

Not being too trigger happy when out of position cbetting. This really was a big leak that had found its way back in. Position, position, position.

More isolating bad players in position. There are so many limpy mclimp tables at AP that a 3bb +1bb per limper usually takes it down or leaves you in a profitable position on the flop to take it down.

Firing 2 barrels when in position where I believe opponents have missed draws. If you are against a bad player you could be extracting value if they call. Player dependant.

Using my buddylist (58) players to hunt down the weaker players and also finding tables with a lot of donkey stacks.

There is nothing new in any of the above tweaks. Its more like taking your car for its service, getting it back to functioning correctly and getting back in the driving seat. This all seems to be working again and I am feeling confident and comfortable again with my game. There is such a fine line for success and failure in this game that a little lapse in concentration can cost you quite quickly.

Never stop looking at your game. There are always ways to improve.

So now my game is back on track I need to get back to achieving some goals. My current online bankroll is $4720. I have taken out the $500 I used to start this so this is profit only now. I have a target by year end of $10k (revised down from $15k) and I aim to play between 7-10k hands a month. I am being cautious and want to play another 10k hands at 100nl before playing 200nl.

Aiming for a bankroll of $5500-$6000 by end of this month.

Almost my biggest online win and Folding Aces Preflop

2008-09-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

Ive been on a nice run the past few days beating both 50nl and 100nl for about 20bb/100 over a smallish sample. I feel like in my head my game is back on track. Ive watched a few CR videos over the weekend and tweaked my game over the past week all showing some good results.

I played a $50 (1rb + 1add) on FT last night. 197 runners. As with any rebuy tourny I bought straight away to make use of any fishy money floating around at the beginning and used to value add on at the break. I played well only flipping once to make the final table.

I get dealt KK utg the gun and get it all in on the flop. Pokerstove shows me an 80/20 favourite here.

Left me short and I bust with a dominated hand a few hands later. 7th place finish.

Im frustrated a little as winning that pot above would have put me in second place. The payouts were...

My biggest online win before I think was $1800 and winning that pot I am confident for finishing in the top 3 here. Oh well, I cant play better than getting it in that far ahead.

Here's a quiz for you. Can anyone work out why I folded AA preflop here ? First hand at the table..

http://weaktight.com/360592

?

August Recap

2008-09-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

A positive outlook but frustrating. That's the sum up of my month of August. I played 10k hands across nl($0.50) and nl($1) and finished -$250 without rakeback/bonus.

Graph and stats

I have been playing a 21/12 ish style which, regardless of the outcome, has been succesful. The bad play was at the beginning. My first 2500 hands were played bad. I was coming off an $800 loss and playing a loose aggro style in the wrong spots. I pulled my game in, tweaked a little and started to see results.

Then, see notes on the graph

1) Losing with a set of Q's

http://weaktight.com/356292

I cant find any way not to go broke here.

2) My bad hand, calling 220 bb with just top pair. Ryverrat is a fish.

too embarrased to post hand history.

3) This was great. My last orbit before I wrap up my month and I get this.

http://weaktight.com/356291

I cant believe what he turned over. He was a relatively decent player. Had not got out of line in the 300 hands on him and was playing a 23/21/2 style. I dont think that he has much fold equity here by pushing to my 4 bet on the flop. I was about 72% to win this hand. He has no overcards and he must be putting me on atleast AJ here. Damn bad play by this donkey. I never speak to my screen but an 'Oh my God!' followed by an 'Oh my f*cking God!' and an 'Are you f*cking kidding me ?' were announced.

Not the best way to end the month but I am positive for next month. With rakeback and reload bonus I am around breakeven for the month. I know I will not be playing like i did or the first 2500 hands and hopefully the variance will fall my way over then next 10k hands.

Muppet Call.

2008-08-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

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

Anyone else have this ratio ?

Solid Ground

2008-08-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2008-08-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

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.........

2008-08-11T01:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-06T03:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

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..

2008-08-01T02:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Not Much To Say

2008-07-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer in not playing big games when you are tired or feeling unwell. When you are not bringing your 'A' game then don't put too much money on the line.

I have my first largish game tonight with the boys i used to play with before I went to Australia. £200 buy in cash game. £1/£2 ($2/$4 for the yanks) NL 7 players.

I am as hungover as hell. Vodka vapour is seeping out of every pore on my body it seems and i feel like I have a second heartbeat in my head.

I have 12 hours to cure myself if I want to win some cash tonight.

I've got a few post ideas lined up and im collecting hand histories for examples. I was going to write up a post showing guidelines on how to play against certain types of players that you will come across but I dont think I could write it any better than the gnome's recent post, so I wont try this time. Take a read of that.

Degenerate Flippers

2008-07-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this post. $100,000 pots 5 players flippin $20,000 at a time in PLO.

dangerlion

OMG!

You sir deserve a place on my blog list.

The Good & The Bad

2008-07-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

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

Stacks:

UTG		($103.90)
UTG+1		($89.00)
CO		($73.10)
BTN		($99.15)
SB		($19.50)
Hero		($103.65)

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

3 folds, BTN calls $1, 1 fold, Hero checks
(Villain's first mistake. Never repeat, Never open limp on the button)

Flop: ($2.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, BTN calls $2
(Bingo Bango. Such a dry flop, I continue with my aggro post flop play and bet out.)

Turn: ($6.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $4, BTN raises to $10, Hero calls $6
(I pull a muscle while i fist pump the air. I make another bet to try and build a pot. If he put me on a Jack then im now behind to any K. his small reraise seems like hes testing the water. Now with 2 flush draws on the table I call. This should send the message to him that ive not made my hand yet and im still chasing.)

River: ($26.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $90.65, BTN goes all-in $86.15
(This is the perfect card for me. It helps no-one. It misses all draws I may have had. I pushed rather quickly trying to act like a missed flush draw. He almost timed out while thinking then called with his paired King.)

Final Pot: $200.30
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $200.30 ( won +$96.65 )
BTN lost -$99.15

This ovebetting for value works when you have repped a flushdraw and missed yet have a higher hand. It also helps when you have players like this numpty who open limp on the button with K9o. If you take anything from my blog please take this. DO NOT OPEN LIMP FROM THE BUTTON EVER. Thanks

The Bad

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

Stacks:

Hero		($97.50)
UTG+1		($108.95)
CO		($19.50)
BTN		($136.90)
SB		($19.50)
BB		($97.54)

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

Hero raises to $4, UTG+1 calls $4, 4 folds
(Villain is playing 11 $vpip 7 pfr over 52 hands. Ive been reasonably active.)

Flop: ($9.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks
(great flop. no flush draw. I go for a check raise without looking at his flop aggression. he checks)

Turn: ($9.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $6, UTG+1 raises to $16, Hero raises to $47, UTG+1 goes all-in $104.95, Hero goes all-in $52.50
(I start to build the pot. yuck!)

River: ($229.95, 2 players)

Final Pot: $204.95
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:

UTG+1 wins $204.95 ( won +$80.00 )
Hero lost -$103.50

Well played villian. My first thought on this was fair enough. big hand vs big hand. Just a cooler. But lets look at the picture here. The first thing is that he is 11/7. He is Tighty McNuts. When i rereraise him and he pushes all in what am i beating. He is saying he has a boat or a Qx.

Hands that fit in that I am losing to are 22, TT, AQ, QT.
Hands that fit in that I am beating are QJ
Hands that split pot KQ

I AM ONLY BEATING QJ

The sizes of the rereraise is not enough to be a bluff.

The call at the end was $52.50 into a $177 pot. just over 3-1. I think I need 5-1 here to call, maybe more with such a tight player.

I consider myself a student at this game still when I cannot lay down this hand. We can all play our good cards but to make real cash at this game I need to be able to lay down BIG hands like this byt hinking what am I beating and taking into account their style and tightness of their game.

Blue Square (iPoker) Software

2008-07-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

This blog is about being honest with myself and last night I played like a fish. I luckily only dropped 2 buyins at $100nl but I did manage to get $10 of bonus cleared. Nice return on my money!

BlueSquares' (iPoker) software gives me the shits. Its average to say the least and I cant get comfortable using it. I think software usability goes a long way with the end user. I say now that I could honestly design a better user interface than a lot of sites out there. Its almost as though the GUI designers have never played online poker themselves.

The time bank at BlueSquare (BS) is quick and the buttons/input boxes fiddly. I have made more misclicks and betting errors in the 1000 hands at BS than I have had in the 33k hands at AP.

The main lobby has lag. the games that say 5/6 players are full when you open them. the $vpip of some 6max games show 5%. The overall feeling is shoddy.

On the flip side. I am very impressed with Pokertracker3. It is bad that they released a product that wasnt completely finished but, from what I see at the sites it works at, I am impressed. The HUD is good and easily configured. The auto hand import is great and the numbers update after every hand is recorded. There is a wealth of information in PT3 and if you are not using it you are at a severe disadvantage to most online cash players. The downside of this though is it again increases the level of skill of the general poker playing public. Before, pt was harder to configure, pahud was tricky to set up and you needed pokergrapher to show your graphs. Now its all in one tidy package and it is very well presented.

Im hoping to get back into the swing of things again soon and start some good sessions online again. I am expecting to see my cashout from AP very soon after finally clearing their security dept.

Until then I leave you with some pictures of my new car to drool over. Have a look at this 400bhp beast. For all the US readers that have never seen one of these it is a UK made TVR Sagaris. Only 152 approx of these ever made before TVR closed their factory.

Stacking AA

2008-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I need to get back to working on my goals. Its been a little hard to concentrate on online poker recently with moving my house half way across the world. As mentioned in my previous post I have requested a cashout from AP. I cant really call it profit yet as I havent received it. As this is my first cash out AP are being over cautious and have asked for verification of address, proof of id and a copy of my bank card. With fraudalant activity in todays banking I can understand a need for increased security but I think AP are doing this to stall things. The reason I say this is that I am requesting my cash back on the same VISA that I deposited with. The money cannot be fraudalant as it is already in the banking system. I faxed details over yesterday but my card came out to dark. Maybe I am being paranoid but can you blame me with AP at the moment ? I guess this was always my risk at playing somewhere like AP.

I have managed to play just over 700 hands at $0.25/$0.50 and $.50/$1 on iPoker for a total profit of around $70. As you can see from the graph below its not been easy going.

It felt like it took me a whlie to get used to the software and players there. The graph shows a downtrend albeit only over a short amount of hands but hopefully this is not going to continue. I dont see the players at this site and level to be any difficult than other sites. Im still seeing the loose tight players, im still seeing the weak limpers and still seeing the outrageous bluffs and the players who dont know how to fold overpairs.

So with that I have a hand for discussion from my small sample.

There are different levels of players in poker.
Level1 - What cards you have
Level2 - What cards you think villain has
Level3 - What cards you think villain thinks you have
Level4 - What cards you think villain thinks you think he has.

Ive yet to reach level 4. Here is a beautiful example of Level3

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

Stacks:

UTG		($98.85)
UTG+1		($158.76)
Hero		($116.70)
BTN		($140.10)
SB		($113.15)
BB		($95.60)

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

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $4, Hero calls $4, 3 folds
(A speculative call. Im looking for straight draws, flush draws or 2 pairs. villain is playing reasonably TAG so his range is quiet small here. I dont want to reraise here as I cannot call a 4bet/shove)

Flop: ($9.50, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $7, Hero calls $7
(Villain bets out. This could have hit a lot of his range. AK, KK, TT, KQs. AA will still be here. All these hands will bet out to protect against a flush draw. I cant see him having a flush draw himself apart from AQs but small part of his range here. Now his bet and my call. What does he put me on here ? He has to put me on a flushdraw here right ? or a very weak straight draw like JQ. Any other hand like a set or AK,KT,KQ wold reraise him here due to the flush draw. Now i know the odds of the next card being a spade are roughly 1 in 5. I take this chance to let him think i am flushing in hope the next card is not a spade and I can extract the most money from him.)

Turn: ($23.50, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $20, Hero raises to $63, UTG+1 raises to $126, Hero goes all-in $42.70
(This card is a perfect card for me. In villains eyes this doesnt improve my hand at all. To him I am chasing a weak straight or a spade f/d. To me it gives me a diamond f/d. His bet shows he likes his hand still as nothing has changed. My reraise to $63 here gives him a call of $43 into a pot of $106.50. His call would mean he would be committed if i bet my last $42.70 so he reraises for the small bit of fold equity if any.)

River: ($255.20, 2 players)

Final Pot: $232.20
UTG+1 shows:
Hero shows:

UTG+1 wins $0.30 ( lost -$136.70 )
Hero wins $231.90 ( won +$115.20 )

The added part to this hand is if the spade did come on the turn then I could have played it like my flush hit and maybe made him lay down his AA.

Anyone disagree with the above hand ?

I have a few others to talk about but ill save those for the next post.

UB Scandal is too much - Im out of AP

2008-07-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

I wrote a post last week about morals in poker. My current issue is whether or not to play on Absolute Poker in the face of the UB scandal. I have been aware of the problems up until the beginning of June and posted before that I wanted to take my cash out from the site. In the month that I had travelling and resetting up home the scandal at UB has got worse.

Thankyou to gnome for the comment in my previous post. He has posted before about the dangers and concerns felt by the poker community regarding the blatant cheating at UB.

I cannot comment with any real depth about the cheating as I havent had time to really study the recent developments. All I can tell you is that its fucked up!

So, with that little nudge I removed all my $ from AP last night. I have 'supposedly' 5 days delay until it hits my account via VISA. fingers crossed this money comes back. I deposited $500 in Feb and requested $5500 cashout.

Here are my final AP Graphs and PT Stats.

Homeless in the poker world i'm searching out a new home. I need somewhere that I can use Pokertracker3 - HUD setup, somewhere with rakeback and where the competition is not too tough i.e. Full Tilt. While Pokertracker3 gets itself aligned with some more sites I am limited. So until then I have signed up with BlueSq, an iPoker skin. This is a UK site with links to the Grosvenor Tour in London and other UK live tournaments. As far as I can see there are no rakeback offers for iPoker skins anymore so I will clear the $500 bonus and reevaluate from there. Rakeback is so important to long term income when playing cash games.

So BlueSq loaded up, I decided to play the $0.25/$0.50 to get used to the software. I set up Pokertracker3 to auto import and adjusted the HUD to show my usual numbers. Played around 150 and run into this beauty. Mr McShove has no reason to feel he is beat here.

Nice Start.

Be Nice to Fish

2008-07-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

I managed to squeeze in a thousand hands this weekend ending up around $400 profit. The bad beat jackpot got hit on a $1/$2 table while I was playing. Take a look at this beauty of a payout.

Yep $200,000 for the loser and $100,000 for the winner. And as expected there was a barrage of beggers knocking on the door in the chat asking for a mere $50. Lowlife scum.

I played one hand which I think worthy of noting. The pot was small but its the chat that registered with me.

Stage #xxxxxxxx: Holdem No Limit $0.50 (ET)
Table: B Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 3 - RYVERRAT ($118.20 in chips)
Seat 4 - I ($21.36 in chips)
Seat 5 - D ($52.35 in chips)
Seat 6 - X ($11.95 in chips)
Seat 1 - P ($105.19 in chips)
Seat 2 - W ($32.32 in chips)
I - Posts small blind $0.25
D- Posts big blind $0.50
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to RYVERRAT [Qd Js]
X - Calls $0.50
P - Folds
W - Calls $0.50
RYVERRAT - Calls $0.50
I - Folds
D - Checks
*** FLOP *** [Jc Jd 10h]
D - Checks
X- Checks
W - Checks
RYVERRAT - Checks
*** TURN *** [Jc Jd 10h] [7c]
D - Bets $1.75
X - Folds
W - Calls $1.75
RYVERRAT - Raises $6 to $6
D - Folds
W - Folds
RYVERRAT - returned ($4.25) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RYVERRAT - Does not show
RYVERRAT Collects $7.15 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($7.50) Rake ($0.35)
Board [Jc Jd 10h 7c]
Seat 1: P Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: W Folded on the TURN
Seat 3: RYVERRAT (dealer) collected Total ($7.15) HI:($7.15) [Does not show]
Seat 4: I (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: D (big blind) Folded on the TURN
Seat 6: X Folded on the TURN

D: 89 is good
RYVERRAT: hey can you see my cards ?
<<>>
X wins ($1.70 chips).
D: calculated guess
D: folded my trips jack
RYVERRAT: vnf
D: ty
RYVERRAT: most players couldnt fold that wp
<<>>
P: wins ($7.15) with (Two Pair, queens and jacks).
D: i know, ty

Player was playing a 16/10 and this highlighted the fact to me that I could push him off hands. He may have been lying about his trip Jacks but his stats reinforced his comments. I then spent the next hour or so pushing him around and making him fold most hands. Information like this is key. We are all playing a game of untruths and guesswork. There is no reason to let your competition know that you can lay down a big hand. Fold the hand and dont say a word.

I could have also berated the guy saying he was weak for folding a Jack. I could have called him all sorts of names for getting my hand wrong but I find its easier to take money off of people when you are nice to them. It keeps the game respectful and they will reload as they are enjoying the game more.

Poker and Morals

2008-07-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

To set the scene a little, I played a £50 buy in game last night. Blinds were £0.25/£0.50 and walked away with £350 profit. 7 buyins in the space of 4 hours. I think that works out to roughly 175bb/hour. It was a very slow game, probably 25 hands per hour so only 100hands played. This equates to 700bb/100. The game was funny with open raises of £10 into a £0.75 pot. Ill have me some of this.

It was a 9 person game with some regular players and one really drunk bad player. Heres my first moral dilemma.

Picture this guy. The dealer tells him its £14 to call. "£14... ?" (stares blankly for a few secs) "So how much is that then?". Another hand sees him calling all in and putting his cards in the middle rather than his chips. He calls all in on a gutshot straight draw and says "£50? Thats like 8 pence to me." This said not in a show off way but a drunk who has no idea of the value of this money to other people. He is showing his cards accidently to the guys sitting near him. He is smashed.

Now this guy is not a friend. He is a colleague of a friend. He is a real nice guy, not an ass. He just loves to gamble it up and play the social game of poker than we love. But he does it with complete disregard for money and without any thought of strategy.

It is so easy to take money from this guy, its like taking candy from a child. He is completely defenceless to any poker player with a little skill. But is it right to continue?

The poker player in me is trying to get a seat to his left, trying to isolate him in pots and wanting him to rebuy. Im wanting to invite him to bigger games and really take advantage of the huge differential in skill. A huge whale waiting to spew his chips.

The other part of me is thinking that this degrades the skill of the game and its as easy as clubbing a baby seal. This doesnt make me feel like a great player. It doesnt use any brain matter. It is just a padding to my bankroll. These people are friends and friends of friends, they are not random guys at a card club or casino. They are all part of a regular game.

He is happy playing.

He can afford to play like this.

But is it morally right to let him ?

On Your Marks, Get Set, ........

2008-07-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

Im finally back online. After almost a month of no online poker playing and a 2 week break I am ready to pick up where I left off and start making some decent money.

I played for about 15 mins last night on AP $0.50/$1 to get my feet wet again and was happy to see that nothing much had changed. Its damn easy to spot a good table right off the bat. Open limpers = profit. Let me say that again. Open limpers = profit. AP was full of them last night in the short time I played. I made a quick $60 and left. I hate leaving money on the table but I am still unpacking boxes from the move.

The f*ckers at the real job have banned access to 2p2. This is a huge dent for me. 2p2 has been a great site for me to browse and comment on. They have left the door open for me at pocketfives so I can atleast keep up a little reading throughout the day.

Playing a live game tonight at a club where I used to run a poker school. I will be organising weekly games down there to start increasing my live roll.

My next post will have some proper poker content back with graphs, analysis and stats. $15k by year end is still my goal for my online roll.

Oh btw, bought a new car. For anyone interested, google TVR Sagaris. Got one in black and it shifts!

Vegas trip. Beaten by the Missus.

2008-07-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

Im now back to my home of England. I have my broadband ordered for next week so will be back on the tables soon.

My 2 week fly drive around California was great. Vegas was obviously the highlight for me. We stayed at the MGM for 3 nights and I think I only managed to play around 7 hours of poker. Vegas with the missus does not equal much table time. Turn back the clocks to last year when I spent almost 2 weeks in Vegas on my own and I played more poker than I slept but when you are with the missus its hard to break away to a table and leave her standing there. Itching to get to the tables I started to show her a few table games with the plan to break away when she was comfortable. Table games are -ev obv but I saw it as an increased rake added to the poker rake that I needed to beat. The poker games are so easy at the MGM this had to be a good move.

Missus +$750 on 3 card poker
Me -$18 on the $2/$5 (7 hours)

Can you believe the above. She ends up hitting a straight flush paying 40-1 on a $10 ante. This and a few other lucky hands puts her to a nice profit and more shoes/handbags purchased. Me, I played twice, buying in for the max $500 and getting it all in ahead at the beginning of both sessions and losing. I then spent the next few hours on both sessions clawing my way back to even. Not the profitable session I was expecting.

The MGM were only running $1/$2 NL and $2/$5 NL so I couldnt get involved in anything higher. I could have headed to another casino but with the missus comfortable and me in a seat I didnt feel like moving. The $2/$5 games were full of regs with not many limped pots. There were a few bad players and I tried mybest to LAG it up. I made one noticable mistake calling a $200 bet into a $900 pot with a made straight on a paired board 3 way. I was up against an obvious full house and an unobvious quad kings.

I did manage to play for an hour at the Mirage. We were there for the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show which was fantastic. I sat at a $2/$5 NL table that was a feeder table for the main $2/$5 table. The table broke pretty quickly and I was left playing Heads Up with a guy wearing a 2p2 shirt. I asked him if he posts there and he told me he owned it. I was sitting next to Mason Malmuth. I had a great conversation with him regarding his views on Absolute & UB scandals and also his views on poker and 2p2 in general. A very interesting chat that I may wrote up in another post soon.

The other highlight to my trip was seeing Jenna Jameson at a UFC fight. Dont pretend you dont know who she is. Ive seen more of her bits than my own missus.

Im heading over to a club where I used to run my poker school this afternoon. This will hopefully be my cash cow for live games. I made a ton of cash there before and hope to do the same in the next 6 months.

8th of July is my return to the online tables. I feel refreshed but out of practice. I think I will start at the lower levels for a few thousand hands to get back into the swing of things.

Until then......

AFK until July

2008-06-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

I am leaving Australia to head back to the shores of the UK. I am doing a little travelling in between (via Vegas) and will be back online in early July.

AP Bankroll $5265

My challenge to turn $500 into $5,000 by June - DONE
My revised challenge - To turn this amount into $15k by Dec 31st

Unfortunately I wont be playing in any WSOP events this year but will sit down at a few of the loose cash games at the MGM and maybe play a $500 buy in tournament somewhere along the trip. I will put the full report up here when I get back.

Good Luck all

Full Respect for WGCRider

2008-06-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

For those that have been in a hole and have not heard WGCRider quit his challenge.

He took on a mammoth task of making $10k in 1 month at the 25nl tables. He gave it a great shot but unfortunately it took its toll on him.

wp Doug.

http://dougkpolk.blogspot.com/