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.

Seabrook Success and Long day

A bunch of us went to seabrook on Saturday and played a 100 dollar tournament. In short, we chopped 6 handed and I took home 500. There were 52 runners.

Then on sunday, Jeff and I went to Jakes house to play some online cards. I had a pretty up and down day which included 6 instances of my over-pairs not holding against under-pairs all in pre.

After a couple hours i was stuck 50 bucks, then i came in 2nd in a 45 man tournament to erase my losses. The rest of the day consisted of losing losing and coming in 13th in a 3 dollar turbo tournament. I ended up down 50 dollars, but i had won two 26 dollar tokens. So, i guess i broke about even.

it has happened

Phil Ivey is part of the November 9. He is short but it doesnt matter. Heres to the greatest poker player of my generation if not all time running good one more time and takeing down the main fucking event.

Its gonna be a fun tourny to watch on espn

unbelievable morning

i get to work today and watch a couple deuces cracked videos and im feeling great. lets go ahead and grind back what i gave back last night. Right off the bat i get KQ and 3bet squeeze from the SB. MP and the Button call and im not liking where i am. My opinion changes however as the flop comes KQ4 two diamonds. I bet 7 into 9, MP folds and Button flats. The turn is an off suit 5 and i Jam my last 15 dollars into the 23 dollar pot to get a call from the button with J10o. He cold called a raise and then my 3bet, called a large flop bet basically committing himself that layed just over 2 to 1 and then got it in on the turn getting like 2.5 to 1 with a bare oesd.

So almost immediately i am down a stack but i shrug it off. Ive been working really hard to remain tiltfree at the table and i think i have been able to control myself. For the next 30 or so minutes i grinded and was playing quite well. I was playing extremely aggressive and 3betting quite often to punish 25/20s who were opening too wide.

My constant aggression even opened up a golden opportunity to 4bet bluff out of the small blind with 66 and get a fold from the button. I had been picking on him ruthlessly and he had just started 3betting my opens.

Anyways i had about $40 on one table, $3o on two more, and about $19 on my last table when this hand came up.

With that my stop loss was activated. Roll is at 416. It is sickening to know that everything i won yesterday is gone. Since dinnertime yesterday it has shrunk 20%.

I had a post planned for this morning in which i was going to talk about separating myself from my roll, trying to distance myself from the money with which i play. Luckily for me, i do not count on this money to live. I have a job which funds my hobbies, weed, and bank account (london savings). I have not had to redeposit in quite some time which is fortunate. What I am trying to say is that i need to refrain from freaking out about losing 20-30 dollars of full tilt money. First of all, its not even that much money and not that big of a deal. Second of all, and this is the big one, I need to separate poker money from real tangible money. I do not expect to cash out of full tilt anytime soon, so while i obviously hope to not go busto, money i have online is not money that i use to live. Losing it is not the end of the world. It just means i have to find another hobby to devote 10 hours a day to.

Well, thats what i was going to write. Thats what i think. Thats what i know i should think. But its hard. Its so goddamn sickening that every time i start running well, playing well, feeling well it all comes crashing down. And in the course of what, one day?

I am in a terrible mood right now and why? Becuase i lost 100 dollars on poker. Who the fuck cares. What happens to me in poker shouldnt CANT affect how i live my life, how my day goes, how i interact with my friends. There needs to be some sort of separation.

Easier said than done. Right now i feel like shit. I wish i felt like a degenerate but i dont. I got unlucky in two spots and lost a bunch of money. I was playing the best poker ive played in a while today imo and what do i have to show for it. Thats why i feel like a loser. Every time i try to take a step foward full tilt pushes me three steps back.

Im really tempted to withdraw my roll. It would single-handedly fund a turningstone trip or buy a heady ounce. The only thing holding me back is that i have oh so much downtime this summer. And, i love poker. I dont love it right now but i will love it again. \

OK, so my stoploss for the day has been activated. That means that im not going to open another 25nl table until no earlier than 2pm assuming i really really want to play. Its gross that this happened because this way. Id so much rather be prevented from playing 25nl due to a skill disadvantage that i could make up with practice and studying as oppose to my atrocious luck.

Im not even sure if i feel like cash any more. Its such a grind. At $400 i am officially still rolled for $10 sngs and 5$ mtts. Maybe ill go back to grinding my $12 turbos or lowstakes mtts for a while. I dont know. Maybe ill drop down to 10nl. I guess i could take another shot at 25nl when i feel up to it. I just dont want to lose my whole roll to suckouts.

I mentioned yesterday that the main benefit of taking a shot at 25nl was the speed with which my roll would grow if it went well. That was definitely true, as it shot up 100 dollars in a day. If i try again im sure that is easily re-attainable. I dont know.

At least im not busto.

Gogo Phil Ivey day 8

Roller Coaster of an Evening

I sat down to grind a little more and watch the all star game and it did not go to plan.

I immediately found myself in a 30 dollar hole. It was brutal. One of those times where everytime i raise a premium hand it folds, every time i open light i get 3bet. If i cbet light he jams and if i cbet strong he folds. It was ugly. I couldnt get anything going and was begining to get frustrated.

I took a minute to take a deep breath and realize that as long as i keep my head up i can fight through this. I started to as i flopped a set and got it in vs a bare OESD and held. This hand left me stuck only 15 or so dollars, not even a buy in. Then the floodgates opened. I proceeded to lose or chop 4 brutal pots in a row against medium stacks (40-60bbs).

First I got AA vs AQdd all in on the turn on a 2342 rainbow board. We chopped the 65bb pot on a 5 river. Seconds later I managed to get 55 all in vs QJ on a T346 turn. he called off his stack with no pair no draw and managed to river the 6 outer. Just as this hand ended i got QQ on a different table and managed to get my stack in vs AJ on a T64 flop. Again no pair no draw gets there on the turn. That was a 25 dollar pot, about 5o bbs each. The final bad beat was a relatively standard one as i got KK all in preflop vs the mighty AQ.

All of a sudden i found myself again down to about 460 and begining to steam. i controlled myself and continued playing. This hand came up to give me some hope:

unfortunately it wouldnt be enough as i continued to just get hammered and keep missing flops. One hand that out is a 3bet i made with KK. I 3bet quite large and ended up seeing a heads up flop in which sticks an ace flops. Out of position, i cbet and promptly got shoved on and felt that i had to fold. This kind of situation happened constantly tonight. Unfortunately playing this hand out, 3betting, cbetting, folding, costs about 6-8 dollars which represents a good chunk of my stack.

When the dust settled i was left with a meager 463.

Is this the amount that i had when i last blogged? yes

Is this the amount that i had when i started this session? no

I had a sick after work session putting me to above 5o0 for the first time that didnt include a tourny score. All those after work profits are gonzo.

Will i be able to get these bills back tomorrow? hell yes

Tomorrow im working a 13.5 hour day. I plan on watching a deuces cracked video or two to refresh and get my head on straight and then hopefully grind all day.

As disappointing as it is to not have 500 in my roll right now i must realize a couple things. I still have 55 dollars more than when i woke up this morning. I could have lost a ton more but i was able to control my tilt and still grind. I will win this money back

Now, if at any point tomorrow my roll hits 413 i will stop playing 25nl for the rest of the day and reevaluate after a number of hours of reflection. (unless i play tournies or whatever, stop loss = 2 buy ins)

I am confident that a good night sleep will help me be refreshed and hungry to play poker tomorrow.

recap

I had a big post written but it got deleted so heres a watered down version:

Today I played 1,125 hands of 25nl achieving a winrate of 16bb/100. This rate would have been much higher had i stopped about 150 hands prior to where i did stop. My second session of the day started off extremely well as i cruised to a bankroll of 480. I eventually decided that i did not want to stop until i crossed the 500 dollar milestone in my roll. This proved detrimental and although i was able to get as high as 493 i eventually fell all the way to 464. it is important to note that this is still ~30 dollars (more than a buy in) more than i had at the beginning of the session.

Over 1,125 hands i played 16/11/2.6 (vpip/pfr/3bet). As i get more comfortable with this limit and i get some more hands under my belt i anticipate my pfr and vpip both getting closer together and rising close to 18-20. I also expect that my 3bet will rise to about 3.5-4.5. the reason for my high vpip is not limping, it is because i have been flatting pocket-pairs, which is probably a mistake 100bbs deep, and flatting hands like AK vs opponents who i perceive have a hand like A3-AT and will fold to a 3bet but put a large amount of their stack in should an ace flop.

The reason i was able to obtain such a high winrate today was due to how well i was running. i was not sucking out on people, i never sucked out once our cards were flipped up, but more importantly i was avoiding coolers and i was not getting sucked out on myself. Had i not played the final 150 or so hands of my session my rate would have actually been much higher. That portion of the day is when my coolers started to happen. I did a good job of losing the minimum or close too it in most cases and refraining from tilting. For example:

Anyways, As i keep playing hands i get more and more comfortable with this limit. I feel like i can play 25nl profitably and will probably stay here for the time being. (New Steaks!) At 450+ in my roll i still only have 18buy ins which is pretty under rolled but as long as i am able to keep up what i did today i should be ok. I am going to continue to not play recklessly and try to focus on my tables and become a better player and as long as i keep running well i should be ok.

At 25nl my roll will grow much faster than it ever could at 10nl and hopefully it will be properly rolled soon enough. if i do infact hit a rough patch and run bad or play poorly i will still drop back down to 10nl and grind it back up.

Thats all i really remember from what i wanted to say. I am going to go relax, but i might be back on later to play and blog more.

Gogo phil Ivey in main event!

25nl Take Two

This has the potential to be an apically long post. Sorry :(

Before i get started id just like to mention that Phil Ivey is 3rd in chips of 64 heading into Day 7 of the Main event with twice the avj stack. Antonio Esfandiari is also in the top 10. Safe to say that I cannot wait to watch the coverage of this tournament and am excited to see Ivey take this sucker down.

Now, to other news. I got to work super early today and watched a couple Deuces Cracked videos. Obviously that gave me the itch to play some cards and so I opened up full tilt to see a nice 407 dollars in my roll. Ive been feeling pretty good about my play recently and really like the way ive been thinking about the game. i decided to take another shot at 25nl.

I have 20 buy ins for 25nl. That means that the risk of busto is pretty high. I think i am able to counter this by keeping a couple concepts in mind. First, a stop loss measure. If i lose 50 dollars, 2 buy ins, I will stop playing 25nl for the given session. I will drop back down to 10nl deep or sngs. Secondly, I will approach the game playing a somewhat more TAG style than the looser style i use in 10nl until i become comfortable with both the table and stake. This is not to say that I will stop bluffing/floating/calling light necessarily but i will tighten up especially when jumping onto a table. Finally i will put more effort into table selecting, a skill that i am very poor at. I would like to learn how to table select better and then implement it in the future.

The other issue about 25nl is that i am sitting with 100bbs instead of the 200 which i have been sitting with at 10nl. This makes getting it all in easier but conversely makes it harder to get away from marginal hands an easier to get stacked. I think that tightening up a little will help me avoid gross spots where i make a crying call and get stacked in a spot where i could have gotten away 200bbs deep.

The session started off pretty slow, i was playing 2 25nl tables, a 10nl table and a 3 dollar KO. I had a quick boost and got my 10nl table up to 350bbs where it stayed for the rest of the sesh and eventually lost the KO which became a third 25nl table. At 25nl i started pretty slow, hovering at about 80/90bbs until this hand happened:

I could have easily gotten stacks in with a turn bet but didnt want to be drawing thin vs a made flush. I decided to fire a blocker bet on the river, I figured if he has a low flush he might just call and i can save myself some money becuase i really wanted to see a showdown. I didnt think he was raising my river bet with anything less than a A or K flush or a boat.

Here i flat vs a player who had 4bet me before with a hand that i wouldnt mind playing a multiway pot with assuming a couple hearts flop. On the flop i think villains range is pretty wide, missed overs and hands like K10 Q10 J10. I had seen him open these hands before. I was confused by his turn check raise but it ultimately is what made me call the river bet. I read it as a protective bet or a bluff. I should have picked up that it was a good semibluff. Villain picks up the flush on the river and i should really fold this river, if not the turn. I think i played this hand pretty poorly.

This hand is standard. I just want to point out a situation where Full Tilt tries to 2 out me, fails, and then miraculously doesnt 1 out me for the new biggest pot of my life! I can run good sometimes.

I think that this hand was also pretty standard. During the hand I was quite scared of a river checkraise repping a hand like K10 and am not sure what i would have done should he have jammed. I think this hand pretty much played itself though.

This final hand was against a maniac who hated folding and had a 67% showdown percentage. I call in position with the intention of winning a nice size pot post flop should i hit well. Now, on the flop im not sure if he misclicked or what happened but im not sure if im ever beat here. However, I dont really want to continue against AK AQ AJ KQ etc so i jam to end the hand right here and pick up a nice pot.

All in all it was a pretty rollercoaster day as i was down as low as 370 after the A10hh debacle but ended the day all the way above 430. I very nice second effort if i do say so myself, finishing up a buy in, and im excited to give it another shot in the future.

If you readers have any comments about any of the hands i played please please post them in the comments section. I would love to hear any thoughts/criticism/praise!

HR Derby Live Blog

12:05 stupid red team. Im gonna go to bed, i have to be up at 6 for work. ttyl ppl.

11:27 Celebrity Softball is the shit! Nely is an absolute BEAST and unfortunately a Backstreet Boy is a redsox fan. Joe and I have 5 bucks on the game. He has Red and i have Blue

11:02 Fielder Wins! I win $15 and 2 bowlpacks. I offered Joe double or nothing on celeb softball. We will have to look at teams before we decide. For now, its time for more sour.

10:35 Fielder Swings and Misses! Hehehe. But he hits enough to KO Howard including a 503 foot JACK! That eliminates the competition between my friends and I. I won the most HR in First Round, Longest HR, Most combined HR by team, and Winner of Derby. I lost the least HR in First Round bet. Its good for a cool $15 and 2 bowlpacks. Lets take a break smoke up and wait for celebrity softball!

10:29 Cruz hits 5 HRs and guarantees himself a spot in the finals. If Fielder can come through and advance than its over.

10:19 Howard manages 8 Hr for 15 total. Fielder and Cruz need to get 4 to force a Bat Off and 5 to advance. 3 of Howards HRs came on the charity ball. its gonna be interesting now.

10:10 Howard hits one after 2 misses. he needs to nail 4 + whatever Fielder/Cruz hit.

10:07 Pujols puts up a respectable 6 but it probably wont be enough to advance.

10:00 Not only does Pujols have to hit first after just hitting which will probably lower his second round score due to fatigue but the two top scorers have to wait upwards of 2 hours too hit for the second time which will lower their totals due to stiffness/long wait. Why are we hitting based on HR totals and not Rd 1 order? I get that Fielder/Cruz deserve to see how many they need to hit, thats their advantage for winning RD 1 but i think everyone involved would rather just hit in the same order and everyones scores would rise.

9:55 Round 1 Summary

Cruz 11

Fielder 11

Howard 7

Pujols 5 (2)

Pena 5 (1)

Mauer 5 (0)

Gonzalez 2

Inge 0

The two hitters after round 2 with the highest COMBINED HR total will advance to the RD 3 slugfest. Hopefully Howard wont be able to overcome his 4 HR deficit and i will be freerolling the Final Round.

9:51 Theyre predicting another Bat off! IDK, i think Pujols is gonna be able to get 2 outa here. His first round was just a warm up job. Misses on a liner to the outfield. 4 swings left. GET OUT! Boom! Pujols jacked one with 3 swings left. And theres another one. He nails 2 and the bat offs over! Pujols adances to round 2 and i have drafted 3 of final 4.

9:50 WTF Bat off = 5 swings, not 5 outs! Even Fooled the announcers. I cant say i hate that rule. Will definitely make the bat off be short and sweet to save time for commercials. Mauer's up now and needs to hit 1 HR to possibly advance. Hes o/3 with 2 more chances. He misses a reallllly close one and now doesnt have the chance to get hot and take the lead with only one swing left. He doesnt push it out and eliminates himself with 0 HRs.

9:46 Pena Bat off time. hes taking a ton of pitches while McNulty fails at pitching as much as he fails at planting evidence and creating crimes that dont exist. He might get frustrated and just hit one into the ground here. Muscles out a close one. He ends with only that one HR and the announcers mention that he might have been frustrated and just trying to swing the bat. Hehe, I called that one :)

9:42 Pujols hits 2 in the 10th out to force a 3 way tie for 4th place. We will have a batoff with only one of the competitiors on my team. This is big. If pujols can take it here and movee on I will have 3 of the final 4. If Pena or Mauer can get hot i will have only 2 of the 4 and be missing my #1 pick

9:39 Pujols is having a real slow rd 1 with only 3 HRs, one of which needed some help from the fans. Lets see some charity magic!

9:28 Mauer hits 5 HRs and likely will not advance to the next round. here comes Pujols and hopefully will hit 6 or more HRs. In other news congrats to Dr. Pauly who came in 13th in a Dream Team poker tourny while his team nabbed first prize for a sweet 33k. Gogo having a life while covering the WSOP! Furthermore, gogo Phil Ivey who afaik is stillll in the Main Event!

9:19 Howard has a really big second half and knocks out 7 to eke out pena. Im looking pretty good in my bets. Sorry im posting less and less. Just wanna sit back and wath. so stoned.

9:07 Pena hits 5 and im officially high.

8:58 Pena is up and the announcers are actually commenting. "His stance is up in the box, a conventional approach" Thank you all for doing your jobs and sorry i spazzed at Joe Buck. Im sorry.

8:50 GTFO Joe Buck. No one likes you. Go fuck yourself. See? You come on the HR Derby and talk to the announcers and what do we talk about? Your dad. Cuz we hate you. Plz leave. And Gonzalez pushes one over on his 7th swing. Gonzalez sits down with 2. He doesnt even get a mention from the announcers as he finishes his turn becuase theyre too distracketed with Joe Buck. Thanks for doing your job and talk about the people hitting instead of Joe, im a POS, Buck. Thought i had a chance to push the least bet.

In other news, sour diesel is a wonderful thing.

8:48 Inge cant manage to muscle one out of the park. Woulda been nice to see him at least get a jack or two out of the charity-ball but it veers foul. :( Looks like joe has got the "least HRs" category locked up and i can only hope for a chop. I guess id rather root to get a ton of HRs to freeroll the team combined category and try to get more hitters into rd 2 and 3.

8:36 Fielder starts off great w/ 4 jacks before his second out and then slows down for a lil. He asks his pitcher to throw it lower and promptly crushes the ball hitting it 497ft to right center. Hits his first gold ball and....a second....and cant get a third to end at 11. the black guy picked prince to win it! Hes the guy who i was absolutely hoping to fall to 4th in both of my drafts. Howard is the obvious second pick and i was just hoping to get fielder to fall. Lets hope he can keep it up in later rounds. As we go to commercial, would you readers rather have Pujols/x or Fielder/Howard on you team? x = Pena/Gonzalez.

8:26pm Cruz smashes 11 including one at 475 feet. He hit one into the upper upper deck and at least one into the upper deck. Decent start. IDK, but i would assume that the distance meter measures how far a HR travels til it stops in the stands. I know that with the upper deck shots these balls would def continue flying if there were no seats there. I guess this is a mutual disadvantage.

8:19pm Nelson Cruz is my boy! idk if i want him to hit a bunch of HRs or try to lock up the lowest number in rd 1 category....Scratch that, he just hit 3. this could get interesting. His longest to date is 449 feet. That wont stand.

8:16pm Albert takes about 5 pitches and hits a popup. Takes another 5 pitches and hits another popup. ugh. This could be a long night for my #1 pick. Hope hes just getting warmed up.

Ozzie smith throws out the "first pitch" at the HR derby....wtf? A. It wasnt the first pitch, Albert just saw about 12. B. WTF. that does not seem like a very good honor to me. Give him the first pitch at the all star game imo.

8:10pm Im sitting here with a crackpipe in one hand (no bong ftl) and a buffalo chicken pizza on a table. Rushed home from pizza but it wont even start til 8:15. Whatever. Well i decided that i might give liveblogging a try and hey, we'll see how it goes. If i get bored then this will end but it might be fun. We shall see! Heres to some fun cheers!

First we got some call your shots goin on, see if albert cant hit some directed HRs.

Prop Bettage

Tonight is the Home Run Derby

What better way to watch grown men hitting balls really far than getting high and betting on it?

I have two series of bets going for tonight's derby and drafted a team of sluggers for each one.

My friend David and I are betting on 2 categories:

Winner of Derby

Most HRs hit in one round by one player

If we draft the player who wins a category we get smoked out by the loser. One bowl/category.

My team for both bets:

Albert Pujols

Prince Fielder

Adrian Gonzalez

Nelson Cruz

David/Joe's Team:

Ryan Howard

Carlos Pena

Joe Maur

Brandon Inge

My roommate Joe and I are doing the same thing but for 5 categories @ 5 bucks a pop.

The categories are:

Winner of Derby

Most HRs hit in one round by one player

Longest HR

Least HR hit in first round by one player

Most combined HR by all players on team in all rounds

I have the same team in both bets which i like, I get to pull for the same ppl but the drafting process went somewhat differently. In both drafts i led with Pujols and got Fielder 4th overall. David and Joe led with howard/Pena and then differned on their 3rd pick (5th overall). David opted with Maur while Joe took Inge to try and lock up the least HR in first round category. I took Gonzalez and was left with Cruz for my last pick.

I have no idea what kind of shape im in for these bets but it should make the derby a lil more interesting

My luck follows me

Today i walked into my kitchen and my roomate was cooking some dinner. he was multitasking with a full tilt tourny and was obviously not giving full attention to either task. He asked me if i wanted to play the tourny and if i won anything hed give me 3/4. I said sure and took the computer to see that we were about 140/160 platers in a 6max 5 dollar rebuy tournament that payed the top 102. Joe mentioned that he had not re-bought or added on all toruny and was in for only 5 bucks.

After 2 blind steals, a timely squeeze play, and a double up with AJ I had a 30k stack good for 70/140ish. I managed to continue building my stack as we approached the bubble. I wasnt able to get too out of line however. becuase the palyer to my right was an extremely aggressive villain who actually went from 60k to 180k in about 25min. This villain contained me to a slightly below average stack through a barrage of 3bets and cbets.

HE

I persevered and won a key 3bet pot preflop and another quick doubleup to be like 40/80 when it happened. I had a shortstack covered when he 3bet me all in with A6ss. I had AKo. he rivered the 3 outer. If i win that pot im top 15-20. But alas my inability to win clutch hands as a 94%+ favorite follows me across full tilt accounts. I ended up grinding my 10bb stack until i limped the BB (only sb completed) with T3 flopped top pair on a T85 flop and shoved over the sbs cbet who unfortunately had 85. All in All i busted in 60th for a solid 32 bucks of which i recieved 24. Put me back above 400!

I hate to complain

...but im in the red again

Roller Coaster

See that?

Thats what 4tabling 10nl deep looks like. Know what else? Thats what erasing a 20bb/200bb suckout looks like and then some.

I cant believe this. Its not even like i ran great. I sucked out zero times as far as i could tell. Just solid hands and winning pots without showdowns and picking up good hands at good times, which i guess is the key to poker and part of the luck aspect as well. There were a couple really nice spots. I got one guy to put in 70bbs with AcKd on a 753 ccc flop. I had top set and it held.

Another hand was me putting in 2 streets of strong betting with AJ no clubs on a x8JAx board where turn river completed the flush draw. Villain had been calling me down with q8 no clubs.

I was reading an old trip report by Foucalt, from the WSOP main event....and he talks about how if one card falls differntly, He doesnt win a particular race, then he doesnt win 190k. He ended up busting ot in ~40th on day 6. he mentions how eerie it feels to know that one card could change your fortunes.

Well, Foucalt was talking about life changing money, he was playing for 9million and im really only talking about cheeseburgers but still its kind of creepy just how swingy poker can be. if that 9 doesnt fall in 25nl i could be on my way to an epic day. If one of my hands at 10nl goes the other way im still stuck. Im starting to ramble but i hope you understand what im saying.

Back to poker:

Why did i leave 10nl? Damn. If i can win close to 370bbs in 200 hands 4tabling, then this is clearly a pretty profitable game to play. I was expecting to have to grind for a while to make up this mornings disaster and i really only had to play for less than an hour to get to where i was last night.

On to the Full Tilt Software update.

The pros:

I like the new look of the cards when your tables are small (4tabling or more). they look like the card mods i used to use, sort of. I might switch back to my mods but i def like this look better than the old full tilt look.

The idk:

Im not sure if the software is any more reliable or faster but they say it is so i guess ill take their word for it. One thing that i really hope doesnt happen is bugs tho. People were saying that we should play Full Tilt Beta a week ago and now this si a brand new system, i guess. All i know is that when i used to play MTG online and a new system would come out it would be buggy for a while until they caught all of them. Also the Beta was designed as a bug catcher, people would play and report bugs before the general release. That was all well and good for a game where no money was on the line but in poker...I really dont want some glitch in the system to cause me to lose a bunch of money.

The Bad:

The new hand replayer looks pretty cool. Def reminds me of Stars. Problem is it doesnt work. I couldnt get a single replay out of it and had to go digging around in my hand history text files which sucks while 4tabling. I also had a hand that went checkcheck on the river (i was in position) and i showed AJ and he mucked. I just realizd that that might be becuase i acted first on the turn (not sure if that actually happened tho) and i couldnt see his cards.

Also, in the past it was real easy to just click on a table, enter a bet amount and hit enter. That was the quickest way to bet, for me at least. Clicking on the table would highlight the bet amount, entering ".35" would take 3 keystokes and then enter is a 4th and were done. now, the bet amounts seem to be always highlighted and clicking on a table does not necessarily select its bet meter.

BEWARE cbet

I have twice now misclicked where i meant to table 4 and ended up opening table 3 to 2 bucks. Not fun. make sure you actually bet on the correct table I also had close calls in 2 cases where i realized what happened and was able to fix it.

Back to grinding, perhaps, idk getting back to even feels so great right now i might just take a break

Good luck all

fuck me

this story always starts the same. Im feeling pretty good about my game so lets try to take a shot. Lets fire up a 25nl table. Ill balance it out with a couple 25nl cap tables. This isnt really that much of a step up beaus at 10nl deep i sit with 20bucks on the table and here its only 25. Hell, a 7.5 dollar capped pot at 25cap is less than the standard stacking at 10nl.

Im playing allright hovering when this hand happens. This was actually the first hand that i played at the uncapped table. And to make matters worse, i thought my bet slider was selected on this table when i cbet the 5 bucks but apparently i randomly opened to 5 bucks on a differnet table with J2. Obv a misclick and obv it happens when i lose the biggest cash pot of my life simultaneously. But nevermind heres the hand:

Im kind of in shock right now which is lame. I know that 25 bills isnt that much money. But goddamn, this was my biggest online lost pot to date. fucking, Would have sent my roll back over the 400marker but nope, back down to 350. Id really like to be able to play 25nl...theres a lot of money to be won there. But for now i guess im going to wait for this to wear off and go back down to 10nl deep. God. bad bankroll decisions are always so magnified when you run bad. If i run good there, go on a heater and win some big pots....my roll fucking skyrockets and this is a completely differnet post.

close

ended up finishing a dissapointing 32nd in EDA for 25 bucks

Swings suck

Clearly the superturbo was a bad idea. but it was fun. Its hard to not get supersticious when immediately following that i had Aces get cracked twice, and kings cracked twice. Kind of brutal. This hand sums it up even thought its for a pretty small pot.

So.....I started the day at 395 had it up to 403 but now im at 375. Not too terrible. Just kind of dissapointing given the nice start. i think im still going to play the double in 10 min. I really want to run deep in it.

Updates later.

Up and Down

Played a sng, mtt, and some cash today. The cash managed to pay for the rest of the day with these 2 hands that happened back to back.

I had 50 dollars, good for 500 big blinds on the table. I meant to take a screenshot but as i was writing this i flopped top boat with 88 vs 33 on a 833 board. We get it in on the turn 8339 he has k9. River is 9. Well, there goes the profit.

I think i might play the early double in a hour or so. We will see.

EDIT: Im bad at bankroll management. Just decided that a 15 dollar superturbo would be a good idea. Too bad i didnt win a 60/60. Now to grind back up to 400.

Hope everyone had a good 4th

Little Heater

Not to be results oriented but rolls at 360.

:)

(after shipping 31 to some friends)

Started off with some more cash. Abused this one villain who i have some history with. Made some potentially spewy/awful plays but he showed a propensity for floating and folding later streets and 3/4betting real light (4 bet qj otb) So idk. They worked out this time. I was gonna go over the hands but im out of time right now. Maybe i will next time i get a chance.

Oh, also came in 2nd in a superturbo. Forgot what it felt like to win 1/2 of my races and 2/3 of my 60/40s. Feels mad good. Made a really bad call hu i had 9k and q9ss he jammed 3k in and i thought he was pretty wide so i called, he had qj. next hand he jams in 6k and i call with k3. He had just jammed qj and i really thought he was jamming wide. he woke up with k7.

I thin the second hand is very defensible but the first one.....i had a 3 to 1 lead. I think i could have let it go and waited for a better spot.

Nevertheless im out

Good luck/happy 4th

Cash can still be juicy

So im kinda of pissed at mtts right now. Decided to mess around with LHE yesterday, didnt really work out so i went back to a game i had been playing a little while back, 10nl deep.

Mind you, im at work and my boss just came down and interrupted my seshion so i had to quit after 30 hands but ill be back on and off today. Theres just one hand i want to share. I spose it looks like a standard cooler but to me, any sign of money entering my account instead of leaving it right now is beautiful.

One other thing....At eff stacks of 170bbs i really dont know how standard this hand actually is. Im thinking i might have played it kinda poorly by jamming the turn. The only history i had w/ villain is that he pot bet flop adn turn w/ top pair and was pretty passive w/o a good hand. Now, KK obv is better than top pair here but he was playing so aggressive i def thought he could have had a set. On second thought, although he could have a set due to the cold call preflop i doubt a set would want to c/r->lead when im clearly showing interest. That seems like a line designed to get me to fold.

Now, i dont know if im ever getting away from kings here, i might just be over analyzing this hand but...170bbs deep its scary to play one pair for stacks. Especially when villain is showing so much agression. If anyone has any thoughts about this hand please share them in the comments. Id really appreciate it.

30 hands at 585 bb/100. Hehe, ridiculously inflated but ill take it!