The Card Virgin

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.

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

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

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....

$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...

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

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

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

... 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....