short update

poker had been going good, then i lost about 10% of the roll in 24 hours in various sngs and mtts. cashed out $250 to buy an xbox leaving myself with about $230. Had an absolutely atrocious night at the sngs today but found myself running deep in a 3 dollar ko which started with 1100 ppl, sound familiar? Anyways, i finished 9th for 45 bucks. So dissapointing. Doesnt even pay for tonights losses across the board. First place was 640. I lost on a standard hand:

I am 8th in chips w/ 11bbs. Cutoff who has 25bbs open minraises and i jam over the top with AJo. He tanks and eventually flips AQo which holds.

An epic seven hands

As Im sure you all know, the more you play the more variance catches up with you and the more bizarre and crazy things you see. Sometimes, that variance is phenomenally helpful. This sng started innocently enough. I got to the final 3 in good chip position. I had ~5k vs ~5k vs ~3k. Heads up this hand occured:

Now, this hand deserves some explanation. First the line we took.

Preflop: Villain minraises, I call

Flop: I check villain bets 2.4k into 3.2k I jam for about 3k more villain tanks and eventually calls

Heads up i had been abusing this guy. Some hands ago I limp 3bet him from the button and scared the shit out of him. Ever since then he was respecting my limps and folding to minbets on the flop. Basically he was giving me a ton of respect. I decide to come along here thinking i can take this pot away easily on the flop. When the flop falls i actually make the decision to c/r this guy. He had been playing so scared I thought i could definitely rep the ace, and if he does call the jam i have a gutter and potentially one overcard, unless of course he has an ace....but i dont really think thats the case. Well...he ends up tanking forever and i think im going to take it down but then he makes a great call and im left with one small blind....

The next six hands shown were the next six hands dealt.

All in blind:

All in blind (for me) again:

All in pre (essentially blind):

He folds:

All in and he folds:

He limp/calls my jam pre and i fade 1.2million outs:

I folded once, then he folded then this (All in pre):

Talk about snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Rebound

As Ive mentioned I have been playing a decent amount of sngs recently. Last night was no exception. One thing that I kind of like about the sngs, at least whats been happening recently, is that I will get sucked out on in one but then I might actually suck out on someone in another! ITs crazy to actually get a back and forth kind of variance. I think one reason for this is the fact that by playing sngs, especially turbos, im forced to play a much higher variance strategy because Im often faced with a very small M. Small m's cause me to get it in light which can actually put me in a position to suck out on someone which would be more rare in a cash.

Anyways last night I was playing some sngs to some success, i think i finished up about 15$ from them. The real story of the night, however, was a 3 dollar stud tournament I ran in the background. Ive always liked playing the non-holdem games, i enjoy them and would like to get better at them. I like firing a tourny like stud in the background because it, especially at low limits, is a very low maintenance and straightforward for the first hour or so: basically you just need to play tight, get value from big hands which is easy, and play lots of explorative hands like 1097sss to try to get a huge hand. Then as the tourny progresses they become very fun as you can open up your game, start bluffing, and getting a ton of chips from simply valuebetting your made hands.

Well long story short, last nights adventure turned out good:

As I mentioned the beginning of these tournies are all about getting value out of your made hands:

This hand is kind of a cooler but it was basically me just going bet bet bet on every street getting value from a bad starting hand who eventually became a good draw.

Heres another cooler, but its the same idea. Milk your good hands for all theyre worth:

Its obviously really important to be on the right side of a hand like this but, its kind of tough for villain to just call me down on every street. His hand is relatively face up as a pair of kings while mine is very disguised but obviously strong.

I started rolled up on this hand:

Here is a classic example of what ive been saying all along. I have the nuts on 4rd street. Just bet bet bet bet bet. I am honestly not sure what the other players were doing in this pot but it exemplifies why this tourny is so soft. This hand really seperated me from the pack, put me at like 3/40 or something and gave me enough breathing room to cruise to the late stages.

Heres the situation at the start of the final table which I managed to cruise into thanks to my healthy chipstack and constant awareness of not gifting away chips

After some back and forth, losing some chips and then chipping up this hand occurred to give me a nice stack:

I obviously got pretty lucky on this hand but most of the money, all the big bets, got in after I have the best hand and hes facing what appears to be 2pair at least. I had started the hand firing so Im repping either a 7 or a hand like TT7 which has him beat at this point.

Some missed bluffs and getting bet out of speculative hands brought me down to a meager chipstack but then this hand kept me in the race:

I started with 4T5 and it actually limped around all the way until the three of spades which gae me a flush draw and open ended straight draw which filled on 6th and I started extracting value.

I didnt play a huge roll in the elimination of players until I managed to KO the guy in 4th:

You can see the guy to my left has a commanding chiplead....this hand was crucial to keep it close:

This was the first hand of heads up, i had a lot of ground to make up:

Now, i am by no means a master at heads up stud...Ive very rarely, if ever played it. Be that as it may I was not worried about this joker. Throughout the final table he had proved to be a lucksack and a very bad stud player. I turned up the aggression and tried to take down as many uncontested pots as i could. I dont have a pic for it but at the final table i had started bluffing pretty often. The best spot to bluff is when the bring in is to your left and you hold a Ace King or Queen to their right. If it folds around to you, which is not rare with high blinds a completion representing a pair will easily win the pot and some valuable chips.

This hand was the first real dent i had made in his stack, until this point i had just been trying to win as many 5k-10k pots as possible, just snag the antes and a completion:

This hand is the start of me getting momentum...This hand was also another example of villain checking the best hand until 5th street when I peel a straight and then start the betting and raising action and crush him.

On this hand I started with 345 so while it might seem like a sick cooler going into 7th street i had 8 clubs to win and going into 7th i had 7 clubs and 2 3s and 24s for the win.

After this hand I worked him to about 150k to 50k. Then i disconnected and he stole a lot of blinds. It is very easy to steal bring ins and antes in a heads up stud match. The values are quite high and you pay alot every hand. Plus you can work extremely fast. He managed to get the stacks all the way up to about 120k (me)to 80k by the time i got back. This pissed me off but i managed to stay on track and not tilt myself.

This is the perfect example of how much of a donk this guy is. On 6th street here he is boardlocked. The only way he wins is if he catches a queen or jack. I had both of them so that is extremely unlikely. I thought i had him beat the whole way because I didnt put him on a queen, cuz i had one, and for the same reason a jack is so unlikely. Nevertheless he managed to get 2 big bets in there drawing to 2 outs and i take the big pot.

This hand was a a dagger, not really sure what hes doing going crazy with 99 there:

And a nail in the coffin:

and finally:

VICTORY.

Now did I get lucky in a number of spots, yes. I did. Did I cooler people in crucial moments? Yea, i did that too. These are things that happen in big tournaments. I also played very good stud, imo and managed to get much of my money in good. It was a very fun tournament and im really glad to book a big win that almost erases my prop bet disaster. Im sorry that this post was a. so long and b. not much strategy....but I dont really want to delve too deep into stud strategy/im not really sure about it beyond like basic ideas. Perhaps I can voice my opinions in a future post.

Finally, I just want to say thank you very much for the rail OES, and to tootsy, thanks for the love and keep up the killing of cap!

be back in MA in 5 days, hope everyones doing well!

Poker/Life Update

So I finally gave up the propbet. I simply couldnt take the losing any more. I played some sngs the other day and theyve actually been going really well. In my first 7 I cashed 4 for a 30 dollar profit and then lst night I played some more and made bak about 30 bucks i had given away in mtts.

In other news I will be flying back to the states in 6 days. I cannot believe that I have been here for 3.5months already. Its crazy. I kind of have mixed feelings about this too. As much as I want to go home, which is quite a lot, Im going to miss it here. Its been a fun semester. I mean, if nothing else this is definitely the last time Im going to get to travel at a clip like this. In 3.5 months I saw:

Wales

Amsterdam

Scotland

Morocco

all of which were amazing trips. Living in the center of Europe has been nuts. Except for the whole exchange rate part...hehe.

Thats all for now. Im just gonna take this last week to write one more paper, relax, catch up on british things i want to do, and enjoy getting legally trashed for the last time in about 5 months.

Cheers!

10 Minutes

I had 10 minutes to spare today.

Can I catch a break?

no.

Howbout now?

still no.

The worst part is i knew he had aces. I was saying he had aces. then i convinced myself maybe he was repping the flush or some shit i dont know. I debated between getting it in on the flop and decided to just wait til the turn and get it in. So i couldnt fold.

I wont even be embarrassed if i dont finish this anymore. I would like to have some kind of bankroll to try to build up back at school. Im so done with this shit. I just want to have some money to get high and play mtts with. Or at least grind back up at school. Maybe just try to grind some mtts or sngs or something....i dont even know,

If it wasnt for this prop bet...

Id be done with poker for a long time.

I decided to 4 table the deep ante tables today. I wanted to try and put a dent in my losses from this prop bet. The poker gods did not agree.

In 800 hands i lost 60 bucks.

I am now stuck 150 since the start of this bet. My roll is at 310. The lowest its been in a while. I havent booked a win in at least 4 sessions. At least I finally won a 150bb hand.

The night started off reasonably well. I was running very well and flopped a couple of straights. Unfortunately i didnt get paid on any of them. After a while I called a raise in position with 75cc and flopped trips on a 559 rainbow board. I flatted the flop and turn setting up for a nice river jam given the stacks. After the flop i put him on a overpair. Only problem is the turn and river were both spades. I blockerbet/bluffed the river and he woke up with jack of spades.

A Little after that this hand occurs:

After this hand im starting to laugh. This is how its been for the last 2k hands at this point. They call with no pair no draw. Whatever.

Finally i get some luck to bring me back to even on the session:

(Yes, its very lucky to hold a hand when I get the money in good. I cant win pots bigger than 150bbs remember?)

There are countless hands that i could put up here but I dont want to waste the space. I will however bore you with three that just exemplify not only tonight but my past few weeks.

First the cooler:

Part 2:

This is the worst and its happened 3 or 4 times recently....River the "ideal" card:

To be honest this is a bad example becuase i misplayed the hand. I thought the guy was strong on the flop...maybe overpair maybe top pair but i called anyways. On the river I thought for sure I was good. Problem was I didnt realize that I dont even beat aces. And QQ probly isnt calling me, so i think i should have just flatted. Still wicked gross though.

And finally, the ridiculous. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camals back:

Overall tonight I got aces 4 times. I stole the blinds each time. KK happened once and I won 1 dollar. QQ appeared 4 times losing me 7 dollars. I got AK 8 times, 4 times I stole the blinds, and ended up losing about 8 bucks. AQ was a winner for me. Brutal fucking night.

Overall I have just under 3k hands to win 160 dollars. Is this doable? Sure. If it wasnt for a time commitment I can guarantee I would not be playing though. I usually take a lot of time when im in slumps and try to wait them out. Unfortunately I have 3 weeks to play these last 3k hands.

Ugh. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

In other news Morocco was amazing. Monkeys, goats, and snakes oh my! It deserves a full blog post but im not going to try and do it now.

Go to Amsterdam for Rd 2 on Thursday. Try to play some cards when I get back. Maybe my luck will change.

When it rains it pours.

I went to see Shawshank Redemption the play tonight with some buddies and it was pretty cool.

I got home and didnt really want to go to sleep. I wanted something to distract me. Some rough shits been going on on the homefront right now. If you know me personally....think this summer part 2. Anyways, might not have been the best idea, but i dont think i made too many errors.

Nevertheless, despite how well i play i cannot seem to beat 10nl. Played about 350 hands tonight and lost a solid 100bb/100. Started off fine, then i got it all in for 120bbs each in 2 situations with sets vs draws which got there. Fought back a little more, lose big on a 25JA9 board. I had AQ and cbet the flop, hit my "miracle" on the turn and bet. Got raised on the river and made a crying call to see AJ. Luckily I walked away with some of my stack. As I was wrapping up I get dealt QQ. Get a good chunk of it in pre and checkraise the rest on a 10 high board. Run into aces for the millionth time.

In my 350 hands i did not win a single pot bigger than 140bbs. If we both put in 70bbs i lost. every time.

I am stuck over 90 dollars in this propbet with about three and a half thousand hands to go.

My roll is annoyingly low at about 350.

I am starting to feel the pressure of a deadline. I still have a final/essay/2 trips to go on.

Whenever i skid like this, which is too often to count, i generally like to give up poker for a while. stick my head under a rock. or at least try something else like SnGs or MTTs. Thats obviously not an option here. Im going to need to go on a sick tear but its looking more and more likely that not only will I lose this propbet but it will bankrupt me.

I dont want to get into too much detail about that other thing but suffice it to say, if everyone could just knock on wood for me id be very appreciative.

Going to Morocco for the weekend tomorrow night so Ill see eeryone later. Might squeeze in a session in the afternoon if i feel up to it. Goddamn do i need to book a win.

Whats colder than cold?

Ok.

To be honest, when toots finished his half of this little propbet we have going i thought i had it in the bag. I just needed to maintain a profit and I would win. Its safe to say that maintaining a profit is harder than it appears.

Just finished this afternoon session and got coolered approximately 1.35million times. Over 2700 hands I am now stuck 65 dollars. At the beginning of this bet i climbed out of a 75 dollar hole so its not impossible. I can come back from this. I have over 2 thousand hands to make this back. If i can keep it together and grind then i can defiantly still win this bet. Its going to be harder than i thought though.

Heres some of the coolers/me sucking for posterity.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, t0.10 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t11.63)
SB (t20.09)
Hero (BB) (t21.33)
UTG (t21.19)
MP (t44.58)
CO (t19.59)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
2 folds, CO bets t0.30, 1 fold, SB calls t0.25, Hero calls t0.20

Flop: (t1.02) K, 9, 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (t1.02) 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t0.60, CO calls t0.60, 1 fold

River: (t2.22) J (2 players)
Hero bets t1.80, CO raises to t3.60, Hero raises to t8, CO raises to t18.67 (All-In), Hero calls t10.67

Total pot: t39.56 | Rake: t2

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, t0.10 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t16.17)
MP (t11.02)
CO (t22.20)
Button (t17.80)
Hero (SB) (t23.95)
BB (t24.38)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
1 fold, MP bets t0.40, CO calls t0.40, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1.50, 1 fold, MP calls t1.10, CO raises to t4.25, Hero raises to t10, 1 fold, CO raises to t22.18 (All-In), Hero calls t12.18

Flop: (t46.08) 8, 8, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t46.08) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t46.08) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t46.08 | Rake: t2

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($6.58)
BB ($21.21)
UTG ($9.05)
Hero (MP) ($10)
Button ($12.52)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, Q
1 fold, Hero bets $0.30, 2 folds, BB raises to $1.10, Hero raises to $3.50, BB raises to $5.90, Hero raises to $10 (All-In), BB calls $4.10

Flop: ($20.05) 7, A, 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($20.05) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.05) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $20.05 | Rake: $1.33

This plus the usual assortment of suckouts and other beats really makes for a fun night. :(

Overdue

I promised a nice blog post and its finally here. Sorry for the delay.

First of all, London's been super busy. I went to Les Miserables with my roommate the other day. We showed up an hour before show time and got student discount seats for like 25 bucks. We sat dead center of the theatre 8 rows back: the best seats ive ever had for anything. The show was absolutely phenomenal on top of that. A brilliant production with some great music in an intimate setting. The big songs, I dreamed a dream, do you hear the people sing, etc were flat out unbelievable. The whole cast coming out through smoke onto the front of the stage.....wow.

Now that im done with 2/3 of my classes I basically work 3 or 4 full days a week. Work is really picking up speed and im doing some cool long term projects as well as basic constituent stuff. Right now, im researching the growth and density of Tesco, a UK supermarket chain that actually controls 35% of the marketshare. Basically they are going into small towns all over the UK and underselling and eliminating corner stores and family run shops. Obviously, this is bad, and so right now im trying to do some research and eventually draft some laws to get it to stop.

As far as traveling goes, I just got back from Scotland a couple nights ago. We spent 3 days in Edinburgh and a day in the Highlands. It was a really fun trip. We spent a lot of time at Edinburgh Castle, bought a bottle of Scotch, and even climbed a mountain! Ill put some pics online one of these days....Im even more behind on uploading pictures than I am on blogging lol.

Tomorrow, Im cooking part of a potluck Thanksgiving Dinner for a lot of my flatmates. Unfortunately, turkeys are not very popular out here. The supermarkets start to sell birds next week, for thanksgiving for the Americans and for Christmas for everyone else. I, however, am going to be in Morocco over the actual Thanksgiving so we're going to celebrate tomorrow. Im going to roast some chickens for my share.

I havent really been playing too much poker recently. I havent played live in quite a while but I did have a pretty big online session the other day and I think i might have another this afternoon. The last one didnt go to well. All in all im stuck about 20 bucks....2 buy ins after just over 2100 hands. Toots finished his 7k hand commitment and ended up with a buck fifty in profit. Im pretty confident I can catch him in the next 5k hands. I know i can and should be a winner at this stake. Its just tough and the bet definitely a sure thing.

one last thing, thanks to BWOP for the add to her blogroll!

Have a happy thanksgiving everyone!

Super busy

Sorry i havent posted in forever....

Cant stay long now, need to go to sleep but hopefully a big post tomorrow.

Cliff:

Last poker sesh = ~700 hands and ~+5buy ins for a profit of 5 bucks overall. Need to stay above a profit of $1.48 to beat the tootsy.

London is super busy

Les Mis is amazing

Just got back from Scotland tonight

Phil ivey :( Cada :)

in shock

When is the best time to run possibly the worst you have ever run?

If you answered the first session of your first prop bet you win a cookie.

This bet just got a little harder to win. I managed to lose 750bbs (75 dollars) in a mere 350 hands.

In my first 150 hands i dropped 50 bucks.

Welcome back to online poker. I am in utter disbelief right now.

The first 150 hands i played shit was not going well. Standard run bad scenario, big pairs not getting paid, turning straights and losing to rivered gutshots, losing the random ass 3 and 4 outers etc. I take a break and catch my breath. I sit back down when this happens:

then this happens:

I was 6 tabling. All of these hands happened within seconds of each other.

So brutal.

I have a nice big hole to dig myself out of now.

Propbet

First of all i want to mention that i went back to the cash tables last night and got coolered out of a stack. bye bye 2/3 of my profit from Saturday. I dont want to dwell on that though.

I havent really been playing a terribly amount of online poker recently and when i have been playing i have not been seeing very good results. Overall it is safe to say that my confidence in my game is not very high at the moment. Due to this i decided to try a little experiment today. I dropped back down to 10nl and tried to focus on a couple things.

1. I want to work on multitabling. I ran 6 tables today for 700 hands. I want to get extremely comfortable running 6 tables, which is the max on my laptop screen and eventually work that up to 8 perhaps.

2. I want to open up my game and play more aggressive. 3bet more, open more pots, generally play a more fast paced and pressure packed gamelan

3. I want to work on quickly analyzing my opponents lines and also working to make my lines as effective as possible. I think that working on my game from the ground up will yield very goof results in a number of areas.

After playing for about an hour I was up a solid 2 buy ins and called it a night. I made a couple glaring errors which i need to make sure wont happen again and of course some coolers and suckouts happened on both sides of the felt.

This little session gave me the idea for an interesting little propbet that i am about to undertake with my friend tootsy. This dude just experienced an unreal downswing + tiltness and is back to basically square one. He needs to grind a roll back up to where it was a couple weeks ago (50nl-100nl) from the start (10nl). Unfortunately the immediate downturn has left him with no motivation to play for stacks worth 10bbs at his old stakes. This propbet aims to give him motivation to grind and build his role while helping me put hours in to focus and get better and crush 10nl.

The bet is simply this:

We each have until Dec 19 to play 7k hands of 10nl. Whoever wins the most money at the end of the hands gets a free dinner.

Frankly, i think toots has an edge in this bet. I have never crushed a game like he has. I dont want to count myself out though. I think i have a shot, Its definitely going to be a fun bet to partake in. If nothing else itl give me an excuse to post more.

Oh wow, an actual post.

I havent done a ful fledge poker recap in a long while so here goes:

I get to the casino at about 9:00 and theres like 5 people sitting down at the cash table. I recognize most of them. One dude who is the best player at the table, probably the best player who goes to this casino, just because he knows how to 3bet, squeeze, apply pressure, and buy in for the full 500 (250bbs) is sitting down with about a 400 pound stack. Theres one other big stack on the other side of the table and everyone else is cliche old people with something like a 100 pound stack or so. Unfortunately i have to sit to the right of the good player, but we know each other and im not going to fuck with him. Plus, he knows that im tight as a rock so hes not really gonna mess with me.

Now, the problem with me going to a place like this and sitting down with a 200 pound stack is that i really cant afford to lose it. My "bankroll" is the money im using to live off and travel with and i cant really take a 300 dollar hit. Fortunately, if i simply nutpeddle, see cheap flops, and get value out of my hands i can crush this game. But, if i allowed myself to play a higher variance strategy i could crush it so much more.

Anyways, the first hand i sit down im i post in between the button and small blind. A number of new players had just sat down so including the blinds 7 people were in the pot. The rest of the table limped along and i looked down at AK. I raise it up to 17 and three people tag along. The flop is 8c4d6c and I check fold to this aggro guys bet of like 30. Kind of annoying to toss away 20 bills on the first hand but im not really sure how differently i could have played that.

My second hand is in the hijack, the button passed me and the dude to my left, and i look down at AA. A couple people limp along and I raise to 12 seeing 1 caller, the aggro dude. we get a flop of Ad7d4s. The aggro guy checks and i make a cbet of 30 pounds into like a 38ish pot. He thinks and raises me to 70 total. I think about this and im pretty sure he has a good hand. Imnot quite sure if he has like a set or maybe 74 or good diamonds but im pretty sure i can get him to commit his stack here so i jam for another 100 on top. He calls and doesnt flip his hand. The turn river are J J and I take the pot. He never showed his hand but im pretty sure he had something like 77 and thought i was on diamonds. IDK.

A few hands later i look down at JJ. A guy to my right with a medium, bad asian player, makes it 7 bucks and I think about popping him to like 25. problem is the really good player is behind me and I dont want to get pushed out of this pot now that I have a big stack, if he jams im probly folding. So I call and good player calls and then this short stack shoves for 25 pounds. bad asian player calls with like 30 behind and its on me. Im pretty confident that good player wouldnt play a big hand this way, hed have 3bet the original raise so i toss in my stack and he folds as expected. Bad player calls. The board runs out AAT76 and bad asian player tables QJ for the raise/call/call all in. shorty mucks and i scoop the pot.

There were like 2 hands that happened a sporadically that kind of sucked. heres one example. I raise with 99. Good player calls, shorty jams for 40, bad asian calls and I tank. I would love to call this except i dont know what good player is going to do. I end up folding, not wanting to play a huge pot with 99 and good player sure enough jams and ends up cracking AA with 66.

The next hand of note is a hand that I basically butchered. I have a 450ish stack and look down at AQhh in the sb. I call a raise and we see a 5 handed flop of Q24hh. I basically flop the nuts. I decide to check because im pretty sure someone's going to bet and I really dont want to get raised if i bet out. The original raiser fires out 20 bills into the 40ish dollar pot and bad asian player calls and i think. I could raise here but this dude has me covered. If he manages to have KK or AA or 22 or 44 I really dont want to lose a 450 pound stack. that would be brutal. I decide to flat and reevaluate later. If the flush comes ill be happy to raise. I call and one other guy does as well. The turn is an offsiit 6 and again it checks to original raiser who bets out 30. The same thoughts go through my head as bad asian call and i call. The river is another blank and we check original raiser who fires 40. bad asian folds and Im still not going to raise so i call. He tables KQss. Turns out, i might have gotten a nice pot if i had raised the flop or turn but also, he might have given up and stopped firing. Im not sure.

Nevertheless after this hand i was up to a solid 600 pound stack. I proceed to raise a bunch of limpers to 15 w/ AK and cbet 30 on a rag flop and fold to aggro dudes raise. Then i saw a pot w/ 64 and flopped an oesd, called one bet and had to fold the turn. All in all i left the table w/ about 525. After some roullette and blackjack i walked away with a solid 500 pounds in my pocket. Ill take that any day of the week. Im definately going to go back soon and see if i cant capitalize again and im also going to try my luck at a weekly 75 pound freezeout over at the empire.

poker

all my friends were out traveling tonight so i was alone with one of my roomates.

we decided to go play some poker at the casino, 1/2 cash.

I sat down with 200 grinded up to 600 including some reiculously conservative (bad tight/passive) play and then lost a straddle+ raise+cbet w/ ak and a called bet to fall to 525. Some blackjack and roullette later and i walk away with a cool 300 pound profit. Enough to buy in to another session on profit alone and play a 75 pound tourny at the empire.

Possibly a recap tomorrow + amsterdam highlights and london adventures.

Dont get your hopes up though...i seem to suck at updating this thing.

Sorry

I havent updated recently, its been rediculously crazy.
I promise ill post a big update in a day or two

Poker in London

Since ive been here ive played a small spattering of online poker. Just played 2 tournaments today-2 suckouts. Meh. I dont really care. Last week one of my roomates and I went down to a small casino located down the street. This place has 2 roulette wheels, a couple blackjack tables and a bunch of video poker machines. After 40min of blackjack, about a shoe and a half Ethan ended up 50pounds and I won myself a nice 20pounds. We both ran like death during the first shoe, Ethan was down to his last 10 pounds, but then managed to turn it around and go on a tear. While we were there we learned that this casino has 2 tables of cash game poker. Its a 1/2 game w/ a 50min and 500max. Due to the fact that this casino is basically a whole in the wall I expect the cash game to be a bunch of regulars and not too much fish. Nevertheless we learned that their busy night is Sunday so i think that Ethan and I will give it a shot tomorrow night.

As some of you may know the WSOPE is happening right now in London. Apparently the Empire Casino which hosts it is actually very close to my flat. Its located in Leicster Square, a 15min walk away where I have been clubbing a couple times. One of my classmates actually sattelited into the first 1k event through a 50r and played with Antonio Esfandiari and got to see pros like Ivey and Negreanu. The Empire seems to be a legit casino which would spread a much wider variety of games. I Definitely want to head down there and see if their games are more fish infested, or maybe even just catch a glimpse of the main event.

Happy New Year

Sorry its been so long since the last update but things here have been super busy. Monday thru Friday I need to leave my flat by no later than 8:30 to get to class or work and will not get home until either 5 or 6 depending on if i had work or class second. Despite the hecticness this past week has been a ton of fun. Ive made some new friends and really enjoy spending time with them.

Unfortunately, I got sick yessterday and it was not pretty. As some of my friends know when I get sick i get really sick. It was only a cold/sore throat deal but it sucked and prevented me from going out. Hopefully it gets better so i can taste dinner tonight. Heres to drinking lots of tea and soup all day. Speaking about dinner, im very excited that Dane, my flatmate and Aly, who lives uptairs are going to cook Rosh Hashana Dinner for us all! Its going to be great.

It would be a very big shame to spend all this time in europe and not go anywhere outside of london. Thankfully my friends are planning a trip to Wales for October, and Im trying to get an Amsterdam excursion together for November. Id really like to see Portugal or some other country too but idk if its going to happen. Id also really like to see a rugby or soccer game. Hopefuly ill be able to.

Thas enough for now, Im going to go blow my nose til its raw.

Hope everones having a good semester

Quick Update

I have an interview at Parliament tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

London Day 1

I wanted to write a post today but I am absolutely exhausted. Today i arrived in London via Eurostar and wandered around the city with my parents. Tomorrow I have LIP Orientation and begin my 15 week program. Its going to be very exciting and im kinda nervous but right now, more than anything im exhausted so im going to go to sleep.

Peace

update

Ok,

For the last couple weeks life has kinda sucked. My mom got really sick as a few of my readers know and taking care of her pretty much dominated my life. Stupidly, i decided to play poker while caring for her because there were times where i would get bored and have few other options. Obviously playing under those conditions was stupid and each time i would quickly lose money and get pissed off. I am not one to believe that feeling bad and having negative vibes will make you a magnet for bad luck but sometimes its hard to argue with that feeling.

I played a couple times after my mom recovered and still just didnt see positive results. Obviously downswings are natural and somewhat common, they just tend to hit me pretty hard. The worst part is, id love to grind through a downswing and try to just put in a ton of volume to wait out the variance and earn sick rakeback but it becomes a pain to play when im downswinging so i put in less volume. I have no earge to play when every time i log on i lose money.

How bad was this downswing? I went from a high of 640 to a low of 500. Luckily some friends owe me some money online which should total 100 bucks so most of my losses are negated.

On to this coming semester:

As of now I am in Paris France. Im chillen here with my parents until saturday when I will travel to London and begin my semester abroad from Clark. I will be taking three classes at FIE and interning at Parliament under Jenny Willott. I honestly have no idea how much of a role poker will play in my life this semester. I am happy about the timing of my downswing if nothing else. I have no urge to play full tilt right now. I am not craving the action. this is good because with a intense work/school schedule I am unsure how much time i will be able to devote to poker. Ill find out the answer to this in a couple weeks im sure.

Ive noticed that a large number of people in my program have started blogs to document their travels. I think i may just use this blog to talk about my goings on. If you dont mind reading about my european adventures, then this is still the place for you. If you only want to read about me failing at poker then...sorry :(

Good luck and Bon voyage!

dddddownswing

roll is at 507.

Cant cash anything, cant make money at cash. Nothing is working. Playing fine, i think. Getting coolered/sucked out on like its my job. Of course. way to lose 120 in a matter of like 3 days. go me.

Bad first session

Havent played in a while due to family issues and not having my head in the game. Decided to fire up some tables today and started off quite well, up like 15 bucks before the wheels fell off. I lost one hand, AK< AQ on a Q high spade spade spade flop when i had the ace of spades. It was 3bt preflop. THen i lost a stack getting Kings aip vs Aces. THen i managed to lose two more big pots where i made big bluffs on the river and got called down by 2nd pair or worse both times. All of the hands involved were 3bet or more pre and none of them fared well. I ended with one of my biggest losses in one session, roll is all the way down to 560. Kind of sucks. Did get my poker juices flowing again and im sure ill be back at the tables tonight to try and grind back what i lost.

There is a god

His name is psutennis11.

Congrats for shipping the 2.5k 2day FTOPS Jake. This comes one week after nearly shipping the Sunday warmup and 100r. Very very impressive. Wish i coulda been there to see you win it/victory bong rips but ill live. Hope the heater continues

Got it

As usual i havent played any poker this weekend. I actually went to vermont to celebrate festivus with my family and friends and it was unreal. I dont really want to get into it right now but lets just say a keg of Sam Adams Summer Ale was consumed and much merriment was had.

In other news a 16 dollar rakeback transfer shot my roll all the way to $601. I am very very happy to look down and see that milestone reached basically a week from when i hit $500. Its kind of unfortunate that i wasnt able to cross this milestone myself and had to do it through rakeback but i am very happy nonetheless. Lets just hope I never have to pursue this benchmark again.

I also want to give a shoutout right now to my buddy Jake who has already came in 4th in the Stars $109r today for something like 10k and is now chipleader with 8 left in the warm up. Good luck Jake and lets take some celebratory bingers when you get back!

I can fucking smell it

For the past 2 days my hud hasnt been working and i have felt like im playing naked. Kind of sucks. meh. Anyways, I get to work today and start to grind. I play a session and end at 560(after second bonus installment) I won back about half of last nights grossness.

I take a break, grab some lunch, and decide to play another session. i fire up some tables, grind away, win a nice 200bb+ bvb pot. Sb raises to 3bb i pop it to 9bb w/ AK in the bb and he jams 24 more dollars in. I sigh and man up and call and managed to dodge his 3 outs. he had AQ. That hand and another couple pots puts me at over 590 and i can taste 600. i want to hit this benchmark. Then Disaster strikes.

Maybe i can get away by the river....idk. This hand puts me at under 565. A suckout or 2 later im at under 555. Ugh. I think about quitting and decide to just get up, walk around and take a deep breath. I sit back down and keep going. Eventually by the end of the sesh i had my roll up to 585. A solid 25 bucks from when i started the afternoon sesh and under 1 buy in away from 600. There werent too many interesting hands from this seshion, really it was just cbets, getting value from JJ+/AK, and getting sucked out on.

There is one hand i would like to mention, unfortunately its a hand that i misplayed really poorly and cost myself probably about $7:

I really like how i played this hand up to the river. As soon as i hit check on the river i cursed myself. I think that by check calling the whole way i did a somewhat decent job of representing a flush draw. Especially to a lesser player, check call check call probably means FD. Given that i have a flush draw, there is absolutely ZERO reason that villain will fire the river. But, assuming he is competant he should be able to sniff out a bluff from a missed draw w/ a marginal hand, like 88 for example. The main benefit for playing the hand the way i did was to be able to get a large but very well disguised value bet in on the river and i missed that opportunity. If i dont plan on vbetting the river than i need to be betting the whole way. Otherwise i think check calling loses alot of its appeal. Obviously, i check the flop hoping he will cbet and as it turns out his hand probably couldnt have withstood 2 bets but im pretty sure i need to fire that river.

Thats what 5 tabling and kinda annoyed will do to ya. live and learn. hopefully i cross the 6hundo benchmark tonight at some point. Good luck everyone.

A brutal couple seconds

I wanted this post to be a brag that i crossed the 600 dollar mark on full tilt. Lets just say thats not the case. Im going to give a brief run-through of my latest session.

I start with 550 and decide to play 2 tournies for like 13 bucks total. 4 suckouts later im out of both and decide to play some cash to win that back. Within 15 minutes im up to 575. A solid buyin plus from when i started. I keep climbing and see myself at 592. I know i shouldnt be looking where i am but forgive me. I decide i really want to play until i hit 600. I want that goddamn milestone.

I grind and grind and flop the nuts on a 4c6c8d flop. We get half the stacks in and the rest of them on the 10d turn. he has 79. Ok, back to 575. lets fight. Grind to 585 when i get AQ on two tables . Table one i get it all in on an A35 flop vs 33. Woops. Table 2 i get it all in on a A84hhh flop i have qh. He has A8. woops. Instantly lose 2 stacks and the roll plummets to 529 and i instantly log out.

This is my first losing session in a while. It feels bad. :( Its good to know though, that im 50 dollars ahead of where i was when i went to sleep last night. Im basically where i was early this morning before my afternoon sesh. Unfortunately the afternoon sesh and promising evening one are for naught. Its no big deal though. Ill get it back tomorrow.

good luck all

Pimp Morning

Last night before i went to bed i played two sngs and lost them both to see my roll fall to 475. Visions of a losing tear which seem to always follow my winning streaks darted through my head. Fortunately it was nothing to worry about. In an 86 hand session this morning i brought it all the way back to $525 (including the first installment of my $100 bonus). In this session i got AA three times, won a stack once, won a giant pot once, and got it all in on a KT6ccc flop vs TT once in a 3bet pot.

About halfway through the morning right after i lost the AA hand i was at about 500 and wanted to go to the bathroom. I played another 5min and then clicked my dont auto post blind button. This was the last hand of my session:

Ill take it. And ill definitely appreciate avoiding the river for once. I think im going to fire up an mtt or two. Definitely play some more cash later on today. Hope everyone has a good monday

milestone

I really dont play much poker over the weekend. Its kind of backwards but i play a bunch during work and on the weekends i usually just hang out and smoke a buncha weed. This weekend was no exception. It was filled with adventures and excitement but no virtual cards.

I got back into worcester this afternoon and won about a buy in in 20 or 30 min playing 25nl. I took a nap, went out and came back and just finished another short session up 35 bucks before i got a little frisky and lost a hand where i had a sper draw but none the less i finished up another buy in or $50 for the day. This puts my roll at a very pretty 502. last time my roll breached the $500 barrier it came crashing down to around 420 the very next day. Hopefully i will manage to avoid that fate this time around.

Time to go back to the grind of work, hopefully ill be able to log some nice hours this week.

Improvement

This is going to be a short post because im wicked tired. First off id like to say that i love love love love love the new full tilt update and also love the bonus. very very well done full tilt. The filters are better than pokerstars.

Now to the juicy part. I got home from an open mic party a lil while ago and decided to play some cards which may or may not have been a good idea as i was pretty tired and have to get up early. 4 tabling 25nl i was holding about even and then got stuck like 12 dollars. I didnt want to quit down money so i continued to grind and eventually worked it up to a 4 dollar profit on the session! This brings the roll to a whopping 456 which is higher than it was this time last week. (Last friday after rakeback it was 440 and then i lost 40 in a day)

Yadda yadda yadda there is one hand i would like to talk about.

Note my line on this hand. Ignore the smalllllll utg raise pre, that was basically a misclick. I bet for value on the flop and turn, basically assuming villain has a draw and then check behind on the river. Now, i know that i probably could jhave bet more on the flop/turn and would have had the same result but thats not what im trying to get at. This hand made me really proud because of my action on the river. I think its pretty obvious by the river that villain either has some missed draw or some sick monster looking to check raise. Sometimes he will have a hand looking to check/call w/ showdown value but i dont see very many of these hands that i beat. AJ A9 are possibilities, but these are both hands that i chop with.

The point im trying to get at is that i think a month or two ago if i played this hand i would fire the river. There is no reason to fire the river. If i bet and he raises im in a really gross spot. He is either pulling a bluff or has me killed. If i bet and run into AJ or some shit i cost myself a bet. And really, on this river i chop w/ any ace and scoop to certain hands. I see very little value in betting. but never the less i think a couple months ago i would have bet and i would have either made a crying call or folded and lost the bet. Here, i check realizing that my hand has showdown value, and eliminating the ability for villain to bluff raise me and push me off a hand.

Sorry if this was incoherrent or rambling, again im mad tired and didnt really edit this.

Getting it In

This is an exercise that i have given some thought and wanted to explore for quite some time. I started thinking about it when i played 10nl deep predominately. Im not really sure where im going with this and it might be somewhat train of thought but lets see.

The point of this experiment is to find out how simple, or difficult it is to get a full stack in vs another full stack in a cash game at the standard (100bb) and deep (200bb) levels. First lets assume the bare bones method. I will explore whether a line of bet/bet/bet will be able to get a stack in the middle. For simplicity sake i will assume a blind vs blind hand with a preflop raise to 4bb. This is what i often raise to at 25nl oop.

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 8bb

Call 8bb

Turn (24bb)

Bet 24bb

Call 24bb

River (72bb)

Bet 64bb (all in at standard level)

Call 64bb

Showdown (200bb)

So in this hypothetical pot where we bet pot on every street it is very easy to get 100bbs in the middle by the end of the hand. However, I generally only bet out between 2/3pot-pot when cbetting and betting on various streets. This betting line looks like this:

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 6bb

Call 6bb

Turn (20bb)

Bet16bb

Call 16bb

River (52bb)

Bet 48bb

Call 48bb

Showdown (148bb or 74bb each)

It is impossible to get 100bb all in by the river on a bet/bet/bet line when betting less than pot on every street. The exponential increase of the pot based on chips put into it on early streets is too great. This is why cbets on the flop are often too small. If in the previous example, lets assume i bet 6bb into 8bb on the flop and then proceed to bet pot on every street:

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 6bb

Call 6bb

Turn (20bb)

Bet 20bb

Call 20bb

River (60bb)

Bet 60bb

Call 60bb

Showdown (180bb or 90bb each)

Not betting that 50 cents on the flop prevents me from getting a whopping 20bbs, 5 bucks into the center by the river. Granted this is only 10bb a player, but the point remains. A half pot bet will on the flop will slaughter any hope of getting 100bbs on the river.

So now i have proved, as we all basically knew: it is very difficult to get a standard stack into the middle of a heads up pot and downright impossible for a deepstack.

Assuming we are playing the epitome of a passive player, one who will never raise, we have two options to attempt a stacking. Our first path is to play a 3bet pot. The larger the pot preflop the easier it is to get a stack in postflop. Therefore an important thing to keep in mind when playing with passive fish who will call down 3 streets with weak holdings is to 3bet often. If there is a limper or blind who is itching to call me down on 3 streets with an unimproved middle pair i want to get that pot as big as possible to accumulate max value out of top pair.

Our Second and somewhat scarier option is to play a multiway pot. A second villain calling preflop and on the flop should bloat the pot enough for us to get our stack in. This is obviously a dangerous situation due to having to fade to villains.

The third option is to devise a line which includes a checkraise. Unfortunately this plan has two potential flaws. Firstly, a weak passive villain may find a checkraise very scary and get out of the way costing us value and also, this villain may not want to bet himself. The checkraise plan obviously fails if the villain doesnt bet and we end up costing ourselves not only one street of missed value but the size of the pot remains the same, instead of nearly trippling, so our turn or river bet will be much smaller.

Thats all for now. I know this might be kind of basic or obvious but i like getting it on paper so to speak. Next time i bring this up i will try to talk about some lines and such. Id like to become comfortable with basic lines to take when betting. Please comment with any thoughts.

Ridiculously Disappointing Morning

I played 5 mtts this morning.

3 dollar super satt to 55 dollar satt

-standard

3 dollar turbo 6max.

Meh, i didnt really care about these tables. At the time i was chipleader in both a 5 dollar 45 man that had 20 ppl left. I had 10k and 2nd place had 6k. And i was chipleader with 70 left in a 5 dollar ko that started with 270ppl. In both games i had been playing great and catching good cards which allowed me to amass a great stack. I had also doubled up in a giant 900 person 3 dollar ko doublestack.

I even got a spot of luck. I cant find the HH and i dont really want to put in the effort to search but i got aip w/ AA vs TT, he turned the ten and i rivered an ace to get my 15k stack in the $5 ko.

Well, right when everything is going great and i have huge stacks the shit hits the fan.

This first hand was my fault. I played awfully. The villain was a poor player and i should have waited to get my money in. Sucks to let a whole tourny of good play and solid poker go to waste on one hand

That hand crippled me in the $5 ko and forced me from 1st of 60 to like 30/60. It was kind of surreal to lose a 20k chip pot, 11 of my 15k and still be in fighting shape. I ended up mincashing for less than the buy in.

This hand came from the 45 man when i was chipleader with 11 to go. If i win this hand im in great shape for the Final Table.

I ended up recovering and finishing 3rd when i jammed 610 into a5 from the sb w/ under 8 bbs.

Also, the first tourny i played was a 10 dollar 45 man. I started off playing pretty tight to protect my early stack. This hand is questionable but i didnt want to be racing this early.

Turns out that villain is a complete maniac running at 60/20 and a number of hands later i find myself with a 3k stack and again with AQ. If i win here im in 2nd of 30.

All in all i made 12 dollars which is disgusting considering how fucking well i ha myself set up. I could have won the KO if im not a donk with TPTK. I probably win the 45 man if i dont get sucked out on with Kings.

Meh. At least i didnt lose.

cash is scary

I log into tilt today and am pleased to find my biggest rakeback bonus ever!

yay

Then i jump on a cash table and make a great river shove

I had his range at like A5-AK And unless he had exactly A5 i didnt think he could call the river. And if he did donk call with A6,7,8,9 i valuetown him.

I then play this hand where i shoved in my stack drawing dead on the turn. He played a draw very trickily on the flop, i thought he was protecting a pair or something. I was wrong.

All in All i ended up getting stacked twice for -40 on the day. Bye bye rakeback and money i won yesterday :(

tokens, cash, and betting

Monday night i used one of my $26 tokens that i won on Sunday. I decided to play a satt to a $216 ftops event that was paying 5 of 22 when i entered which included 2 seats, an 80 dollar prize, and a 50 dollar prize. After reg was done it ended up paying out 3 sets and 22 dollars to 4th. Unfortunately I came in 6th.

I managed to double up early on by sneakily checking top 2 pair on the flop and getting someone to commit with AT on a AK3 board. When i got down to the final table i lost 2k of my 4.5k stack jamming 77 into KK in a bvb battle. A little later i jammed A7o over a limp w/ like 7bbs and ran into 99 who limped utg. Nothing i could really do but it was kinda annoying to come so close.

This morning at work i fired up some deuces cracked vids and was watching hand histories from 25nl. I got the itch and decided to open up a table. Listening to the vids's suggestion, i opened up a fresh table and waited for fish to join. They did, buying in for 40bb stacks of 10 bucks and a couple interesting hands came up which id like to share.

Im very happy with how i played this hand. Cbetting on a board this wet is dangerous but i really want to bloat the pot should one of my draws come. Him raising me on the flop could mean a hand like QT AQ, a better draw like KJ or clubs. Its pretty open. I cold call because half the deck hits me in the face.

I turn the effective nuts, unless he was raising AJ on the flop and consider raising the turn. His bet puts the pot at 16 bucks with 12 behind. I think that he will jam the river with all hands that would call my jam on the turn, plus he might bluff with a busted club draw. I think that calling here lets me play the river close to perfectly. If i was out of position i might jam the turn but in position i think calling is much better, it obviously worked out well in the end.

This second hand comes from the beginning of a table being created. The villain here turned out to be a fish who ran real well. he would also overbet/get it in on the turn whenever he had a strong hand.

TBH I was really confused during this hand. I liked my cbet, and knowing what i know now about this villain i would not have bet the turn. He loves c/ring turn bets w/ a made hand. I definitely managed to put myself in a really gross spot with this hand and paid the price on the river. Please comment on where exactly i fucked up on this hand.

All in all in my first cash excursion since my 100dollar loss today started off great as i built up a solid 60 dollar stack for +$35. i then donked off $10 to a shortstacker, and this pot and one more to end the session at +$7 respectable.

Now, i would like to talk about raising in microstakes cash and id love to hear some views in the comments.

I have always been under the impression since i learned poker that you should always raise the same amount, 3bb 3.5bb or whatever to prevent people from being able to gain info off your betsizing. Then i learned that raising pot (3.5bb) was generally the best option and if someone limped and i wanted to raise i should bet 4.5bbs. Well, since ive been watching deuces cracked vids ive been hearing a different story.

First, they say that when betting, cbetting etc i should be betting less with worse hands and more w/ strong hands . For instance: betting 1.5 vs 2 in a 2.25 pot. this is because players at these stakes will not realize the difference. Thats not really what i want to talk about right here though, i want to touch on opening. DC coaches have been stressing that i should open to more im in early position or the hijack and less if im on the button.

Their idea is that if im on the button i should raise to $.75(at 25nl) and if im in the hijack (UTG+1) i should raise to $1. The reasoning is that i want to buy position with my raises. If i raise early i need to fold out the cutoff and button so i should raise more. However, if im on the button i already have position locked up so i can bet less and just outplay people postflop.

This seems sort of counterintuitive to me. I feel like if im on the button i should be raising larger and trying to bloat the pot since i will win the pot on the flop so often. Im not really sure which is the best option. The DC reasoning does make sense too, but idk where i stand right now. Please comment with opinions.