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