This Is It!

A few of you may have noticed I haven't been on Full Tilt over the last couple of weeks. I've withdrawn my roll from there due to several reasons, mainly game selection ones although there are several others.

I've moved my money onto a new site, which I'm much preferring. More fish/less regulars is a good start, plus the software is quicker so I'm probably getting about 70 hands/hr more 6-tabling than at FTP.

I've been running pretty well on this new site and things have gone well so far, even though I've had some pretty sick coolers/beats.

Anyway, I've made a decision for the future. I'm going to take a 6 month period to devote to poker and see what happens. I've also been offered a huge deal bonus-wise which will see me make between £600-£700 per week in bonuses 6-tabling $1/2 for about 6hrs a day. Obviously this is a great cushion because even if I lose about 6 buyins over a week, I'll still break even. As my roll is about $15k now, I may move up pretty soon as well.

This 6 month period is gonna start on Friday (1st December). I actually haven't played since Sunday - I'm taking a few days off in preparation for Friday so that I can hit the ground running and actually look forward to playing some long sessions. My mate Phill gave me this advice and I think it's pretty good advice, so I've been away playing machines for a couple of days, and amongst other things tomorrow I'm tidying my room :-)

Things I'll miss from playing machines:- Guaranteed Income, Little Variance.

Things I won't miss:- Going home stinking of cigarette smoke, Having green hands which smell of metal at the end of the day, Stuck in traffic all day/Driving, Having to go into shitholes just because they have a good machine, Having to buy a new pair of jeans every month due to excessive coinage in my pockets...

Wish me luck!

Almost In Tears

This is so funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhMcyuYroA

A Couple Of Crazy Hands!

Simply That:-

Probably my greatest hand of all time, even though I lost!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?625797

Why doesn't this ever happen in my favour?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?625798

I'd never usually do this, but I was trying to get in hands against this player (even with only $73 in front) and another player on the table too. The person I stacked was truly, truly terrible. They went from $400, down to $7 and back up again in about 20 minutes.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?625799

Playing Small Pocket Pairs (22-77) in 6 Max Cash Games

I see a lot of people posting on the Cardrunners forums about how to play these hands, which are admittedly difficult to play, especially from early position.

Here's my take on how to play them, I'd be interested in your comments as always. One assumption I'm going to make throughout is you are playing in a $1/$2 cash game, using a standard TAG style, e.g. 20/15 and your image is pretty decent but aggressive.

PREFLOP:

UNOPENED POTS:

When playing small pairs, I believe the correct strategy is to raise an unopened pot, regardless of your position. Yes - that does mean raising 22 UTG - which I always do.

This is for several reasons:-

1 - It builds a pot. It's so much easier to stack someone in a raised pot than in an unraised pot.

For example, you raise to $7 with 55 from UTG. BB calls with KQ - obviously his play is questionable but I'm not going to go into that.

Flop comes 5 8 Q rainbow. BB checks, you bet $11 (about a 70% pot continuation bet), he checkraises to $33. You call, wanting him to lead the turn, which is a 2. He leads for $55 into the $81 pot. What you've done is you've got your opponent to put in almost 1/2 a buyin pretty much drawing dead.

It's highly unlikely that if this was an unraised pot (perfectly possible if you have limped), that the betting would escalate as quickly, and you'd probably be looking at no more than winning an $80 pot by the river, when in a raised pot the pot is $136 when it's your turn on the turn.

2 - You often get to see all 5 cards (especially when you have position).

Imagine the flop was now 4 8 Q rainbow, but the BB calls your c-bet instead of checkraising (again possible). He checks a blank turn (2) to you, and you check behind. River is a 5. He bets, figuring his top pair is good, especially as you have shown weakness on the turn. You raise, and he calls. You've just won the pot by hitting on the river.

If you limp, you'd check/fold the flop whether the pot is limped or someone else raises, and you don't win this fair sized pot. I've lost count of the amount of times I've hit a set on the river and stacked someone in this way.

3 - You can win without hitting. I.e. everyone folds to your raise preflop, or to your c-bet.

4 - It keeps up your aggressive image. This enables you to get paid off with your big hands.

5 - It makes you harder to read. For example, if you limp pp's and raise all other good hands, even the less observant players may notice this after a few sessions playing with you. Obviously then, if you limp or limp/call a raise, and you come out betting, you'd be telegraphing your hand somewhat. This makes it easier for them to fold their strong hands. Even @ $1/$2, I play against the same players on a regular basis - and if I did this, I know it would be picked up on.

If your open-raise was 3-bet, I'd call or fold depending on stack sizes and my opponent's tendencies. Is he is willing to stack off with top pair/top kicker or an overpair? Does he have more than 10x the raise in his stack? Obviously then I'm pretty much always playing for set value only.

That summarises with my strategies for unopened pots.

LIMPED POTS:

I tend to give limpers little respect on a general basis. It's a weak play, which is favoured by weak players.

I'd raise a pocket pair behind 1 limper, that's for sure. Behind 2/3 limpers, I might limp. I might raise too, it depends on the table and my image. I think in that situation, both plays are ok. I'd often also do this with suited connectors/gappers though, so I wouldn't be telegraphing my hand in doing so.

In limped pots when I am in the blinds, I'd complete or check. I'd open-raise from the SB if it was folded to me. I'd raise from the BB if it was folded to the SB who completed.

FACING A RAISE:

These kind of scenarios are the most difficult to face in my opinion. This is where your PokerTracker stats can help...

If a 14/11 player raises from EP, you can be sure his range is pretty small, and his range will almost always mean a strong hand. Here I'd just call the raise (with or without position) and hope to hit my set against his tptk or overpair and stack him.

If a 30/22 raises from cutoff/button and you are in the blinds, I'd almost always 3-bet. This scenario was explained in my article 'The Mathematics Behind 3-betting' which you can read on here too.

However, the same player raised from EP, I'd be more inclined to call.

That pretty much summarises how I'd play pocket pairs preflop.

POSTFLOP:

Postflop, apart from in very extreme circumstances (e.g. 66 on a 345 flop), whether I have raised or not preflop, I'm not putting any more money into the pot apart from a c-bet unless I flop a set. Remember if you call a raise with 77 and the flop is 2 4 5, this hand is not a lock and should not be treated as such. Sure, you may put some money in with this hand, but please do not get stacked with it unless you have a huge read on the guy.

If I raised preflop and flopped a set, I'd make my standard c-bet and see what happens after that. I might call a raise for deception purposes, or I may 3-bet the flop. It depends on the board and the opponent, and what I think they have.

If I called a raise, I may lead out, I may check/raise, I may check/call. It depends again.

And that's about it for playing small pocket pairs. I'd be interested as always in any feedback.

Trying To Fit It All In

I don't think there's enough hours in a day. Really. I've been trying to play machines and poker, and it's tough cos then I don't have time to do anything else. Machines have been/are so good that it's tough to 'fold' them, poker has been pretty variable and I haven't done a lot else. Doing all this leaves little time for anything else, which kinda sucks.

I've been faced with a ton of tough decisions when I have played. I'll either make a good but not great hand and be faced with a lot of action, or hit a big hand and not get paid at all.

Here's some of the hands I've played:

Tough spot v 14/10 multitabling rock. Thing is, does he 3-bet shove a set here? I honestly don't know.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619266

This was v a total maniac bluffer. When I flopped a set I thought gg his stack but I just don't know what to do on the turn. A check gives him the green light to bluff, but the turn also hits a huge part of his range.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619270

Tough cooler for the other guy.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619271

When someone has a betting pattern like this, they are usually very strong. Or have lost their mind. Luckily for me, this time it was the latter. He was a lunatic, obviously.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619275

An emotional rollercoaster of a hand. He was a 70/10 btw. He should have c/r flop allin, then he gets dead money of AK etc...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619280

How not to play top pair, medium kicker

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619285

This guy was an over aggro 21/19 - probably 2+2, I was actually pretty surprised to see him show AA here, as he'd need much less to 3 bet preflop cos he was doing it all the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619286

Not really sure of the best line here...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?619290

I've lost a fair few 1/4-1/3 buyin pots v short stacks which has cost me a fair chunk of money as well, so I haven't done amazingly lately, but I'm feeling a lot more confident again now and feel as if I've improved after putting some work in so hopefully this will pay off for me.

Good luck at the tables everyone, I'm gonna post an article I've written about playing small pocket pairs tomorrow, I was gonna post it tonight but it's very long and I'm really tired. I'll definitely get it on here tomorrow afternoon.

Taking A Back Seat For Some Study

I have barely played in the last week. I've been running pretty bad/average/playing pretty bad/average over the last month or so and have pretty much had a break even and swingy last four weeks. After last saturday's session (-4 buyins) - check out the hands at the end, I decided to devote a lot of time this week to thinking/discussing/reading about the game. I've been reading a lot on 2+2, particularly the strategy articles in the master sticky for SSNL which I'd definitely recommend. It's good advice and although it may take a while to plough through it all, it's pretty worthwhile doing so IMO.

I played yesterday, I dropped $70 over 700 hands but felt I played tons better. I ran KK into AA twice for about a $250 loss (where was the King?!!!) and made a questionable shove with an overpair in a multiway reraised pot where I got stacked. I think generally it was an easy fold but against this villain I was in front at least 25% of the time IMO, although his line generally does scream a set.

I'm gonna be trying to play 6-8 hours a day now and I'm gonna be trying to take more of a long term view of the game. No depression after a bad session, no rationalising the real money involved. All my bankroll (where I'm overrolled easily for $1/$2) is pure profit so why do I take this short term approach? It's wrong and if I'm gonna get somewhere in this game I need to be able to not care if I drop money as long as I play well. I'm gonna keep up the study as well, become active on 2+2 as well as CR and I'm hoping all these things will gradually mould me into a player who can play successfully at mid/high stakes.

Here's the 2 brutal hands from last saturday, as well as another one I couldn't get away from, and yesterday's 2 KK hands and the questionable JJ hand.

This was horrible, and probably was a result of my lack of confidence. I've been told I should have shoved the flop but I was seeing monsters with KT. That's why I checked the turn cos I wanted him to lead river with his straight and get pot committed. Brutal game sometimes.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606488

The next hand was horrid. His play was terrible and he got lucky for a split after I flopped the nuts. Ace on the river and I think I'd have lost it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606487

Hard to get away from this one, even after his overbet. He was a huge fish, too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606490

KK v AA, for half a buyin.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606492

KK v AA, for a full buyin, against a 65/20 who limp reraised me when I had QQ on the last hand. I'm never gonna fold this against him.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606494

JJ very questionable shove. Opponent was 22/14 but was not very good IMO. Completed and called raises with trash particularly suited junk. I felt AT and overs w/FD was in his range but got far too married to my hand and should have folded because his action screams set. I live and learn. Original preflop reraiser was 25/16 I think so his range for reraising an UTG raiser would have been pretty narrow IMO. He almost certainly had AK.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?606497

And that's about it. Good luck at the tables everyone and now I'm gonna be playing a lot more I'll try to update with some hands most days.

Dan.

Flu Sucks

I've been struggling with flu since last Friday. It was terrible over the weekend, I could hardly breathe and had a splitting headache. And I had to play football on Sunday because our other goalkeeper was injured. After that I went home and slept all day.

I'm feeling a bit better now but still very blocked up and not anywhere near 100%.

Obviously I didn't play poker over the weekend but I have a bit this week, and the up and down patch just continues. I think I'm actually +2 buyins all week, and have been fairly swingy as usual. I just can't seem to hit flops, and hardly ever get paid when I do hit.

I know there's plenty of areas where I still need to improve, and I actually re-read all of cts' blog yesterday which has given me some ideas and ways to play certain scenarios. It helped me a lot. Yesterday and today I felt I played much better, but the cards haven't generally been on my side.

Here's some interesting hands from the last couple of days:-

Lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589157

I didn't really understand his turn lead so I just called him down.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589159

The old river bluff.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589160

Sick hand. He was a massive fish, as you can tell.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589162

I think if I bet the turn he'd call anyway. I checked to try to get him to shove. Smart call on the flop by him. Calling 1/5 of a buyin (almost half of his remaining stack) for a non-nut gutshot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589163

Standard race

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589164

This guy obviously liked lighting his money on fire.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589165

Another guy who lost his mind.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589169

My flop play was very unorthodox, but I hadn't been paid with a set for ages so I thought I'd mess about! It worked anyway. Surely he must realise QQ isn't good here...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?589170

On another front, I'm pretty addicted to Football Manager 2007 at the moment as well. It's a pretty awesome game, for those US readers, this game is like the most successful football (soccer) management game since 1993, when they have brought out at least one game per season. I'm doing a challenge at the moment from their forum (http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/521102691/m/3082006462/p/1) where you have to take a brand new conference north or south team to win the Champions League. It's bloody hard and after 2 seasons I'm still stuck in Conference South like most people on the forum. One guy is in the Premier League which is amazing.

I'm going to Tottenham v Club Brugge tonight as well, so I won't be at the tables any more today. Should be able to get a decent session in tomorrow though.

Take it easy everyone.