Looking in the mirror...

Do you know who you are? When you look at yourself in the mirror, who do you see? When you think about who you are, what is your impression of yourself?

I think self reflection is very important. It is important in all aspects of life but since this is mainly a poker blog, that's what I'm gonna tie it into.

Fuel had a very good post that also had a link to a very interesting article. That made me think about my game even more. Is that even possible? I mean every waking moment when I'm not caught up in work or something, I am thinking poker. I am either thinking back to a hand that I played/misplayed, a bet that I made or didn't make, etc etc. My mind is always on poker, always trying to analyze, always trying to get better.

I read a lot of blogs and not just the ones that are on bloglines. The funny thing is, so many players are so confident. I mean, if you read a poker player's blog or a post in a forum like 2+2 or Pocket5s, you would think that everyone is a winning player. Some are just luckier than others. Because the way people talk, it's almost always money going in in a +EV situation but bad beat this, suck out that, set up hand, etc etc. And I thought to myself, do they really believe that they are that good? Do they not see the inherent flaws in some of their plays or the thought processes? If you think this is talking about you in particular, I can tell you that I am and I am not. You are not alone. Actually, I think you are the majority.

Funny thing is, I am a winning player. I've made a good chunk of money and last year, I probably made more than some people do in their real jobs. And yet, when I look at myself in the mirror, I am disgusted with the poker player I see. Now, please note, this is NOT a "I need a pick me up so everyone please comment on how great you think I am" post. Not at all. But in all honesty, I am not kidding when I say that I look at myself and I think I'm a fuckin donkey. A weak tight, passive, one dimensional, totally transparent, predictable donkey. A little harsh? Maybe. But I know what cards I'm playing and I know how I'm betting them, so I am my harshest critic. I mean sometimes, I make certain bets or folds and I think to myself, what the fuck am I doing!? Why am I laying this down? Everything in my body says "Shove! He has nothing. Neither do you but this is a perfect bluff opportunity!" And I see myself folding to the opponents bet... So weak.

I'll never forget this. A month or two ago, there was the blogger's big cash game that Gnome set up. $1600 buy in, 4-8NL deep stack cash game. The usual suspects were there including guys like Fuel, Gnome, Cmitch, Weak, Bonedaddy, Waffles, and a few other bloggers I can't recall off the top of my head. Then there were some nonbloggers that sat... then left... another one... sits down, gets up. Fuel makes a comment. "They're afraid to sit next to me. Or Gnome. Or Cmitch." Believe me, I GOT the message. I didn't say anything but I'm fairly certain that Fuel knew that I got the message. And I did. This was over a month or two ago but that will never leave my head. No, not in a make me tilt to play overly aggressive or spewy. It's just another reminder of me being aware of how I play and how my style lacks the ability to put fear in an opponent. Sure, I get paid off on my big hands. Sure, once in a while I can make moves on certain players. But my game still doesn't have that "x" factor that some players have that literally instills fear in an opponent to play a pot against you. In the past, online, I've seen players like EricBeren and JDJos at the table and I would do what I can to find another table. I hated playing pots against those guys and they probably knew because they would be in almost every pot against me, in or out of position. Fuel's statement and the fact that he intentionally left me off would not go unnoticed... nor forgotten.

Now almost equally amazing is I actually see even worse plays from other players which used to baffle me a lot... these days, I don't even question it. There's something funny in the water they drink and I just let it go. And yet if these were bloggers and you go read their blogs, it's almost like they did everything right and the opponent did everything wrong but got lucky. Doesn't anyone ever question themselves anymore? Because I know I do... almost all the time. Did I get the most out of this pot? Why did I lose this pot? Was it a right fold? If I got sucked out on, did I give this opponent an opportunity to suck out on me? Despite the suckout, was it a good move on my part? When I won a big pot, is it because of the betting/deception or was it just a setup hand for the opponent? These are questions that are constantly on my mind.

The point is, are you a harsh critic of yourself? I mean really. Are you really, honestly, evaluating yourself as a poker player? Because if so, you should see your flaws more clearly than anyone else can. Because you know those two cards that you hold that no one else sees. You know the betting pattern of yourself when you have a hand and when you don't have a hand. You know how uncomfortable you feel when you are bluffing and you have to decide what to do on the turn and the river. You know all these things. It's a matter of putting them into perspective and truly analyzing yourself. If your opponent did the same thing you did, would you call it a great play or would you denounce them as a donkey making stupid move that's surely -EV in the long run?

I think it's important to take a long, hard look at yourself. At that point, you need to determine how you view yourself as a poker player. How you would view yourself if you were playing against you. Do you see a shark? Or do you see a donkey?

Again, please don't bother leaving comments like "dude, you're a great player" or stuff along those lines. I would welcome any thoughts on this post or my weakness/donkishness but this is NOT a "I need some positive comments so please help me" post so I really don't want any morale booster type comments because they will make this post look like a self pity party which is truly not that. I just know that of all the critics out there, I am my harshest critic. I always have been and I'm fairly certain I will always be. That fuels my desire to get better. One day, I will strike fear in my opponents. One day.

Plugging Leaks

Being busy at work sucks. Having to clear a huge bonus in one of the busiest months of the year (for work) sucks. Having a prop bet against this luckbox who actually gets to play at work (oh yeah, only during lunch break and after hours or something) sucks too. And yet I somehow managed to convince myself that it would be a good idea to join my friends for happy hour yesterday. It was. By the third or the fourth tall glass, I pretty much decided that there will be no poker played. That also means I'm basically gonna turn into a hermit this weekend so that I can put in ridiculous hours to make up for my lack of playing last night. Which is fine... It's been done before.

I've had this post brewing for a little while and I just haven't had a chance to finalize it... but I also noticed it's already mid January so if I don't post now, there's a good chance I won't post anything the rest of the month... Anyways, so as I continue to play more at 6 max tables, I started noticing some of my significant leaks. I think part of it has to do with me adjusting my strategy a little too drastically from full ring to 6 max. I mean an adjustment is required but I think I was going a little overboard on my adjustments. I was a little too aggressive and probably a little too retarded. I don't have any specific HHs on this one but hopefully I'll come up with a few examples in the upcoming posts.

1. Hero overcalls

This happened especially once I start accumulating chips. Overbet for value is starting to become an increasingly popular tool... at least that's what it seems at 2-4NL 6 max tables because I've fallen victim to it numerous times. I don't have the HH to illustrate but one donkey move I made was call a $200 bet on the river into a $150 pot with top pair (I don't even know if I had top kicker or k kicker)... he shows 33 for quads (he flopped it - I caught my Q on turn). When I was calling, I had a bad feeling about the call. I need to listen to my instincts. As much as 6 max sometimes becomes a game of chicken (whoever flinches first loses), not everyone is betting with air. If you think through the hand sequence, there are lots of tells on when they might have something and when they don't. If my gut says I'm losing, I need to learn to fold. And if in fact you just got bluffed, that's ok too. When you have the goods, the guy might still bet hard into you remembering that you folded to his bet last time. Not winning a pot is better than losing a big pot. Which leads to...

2. Fighting for pots I have no business being in

I noticed that with my "adjustment" to 6 max, I'm starting to play a lot more hands. That's probably normal but the part where I failed to adjust is to take into account the other players and the way they play. Even at a 6 max table, there are players who are tighter and there are others who are a lot looser. Reraising in position against a player with a very wide range of opening hands is ok. Reraising in position with marginal hands against a tight player who put in an open raise from early position is just a bad play. And yet I would sometimes notice playing for a good sized pot and I have like 8 high... with no draws and probably no outs. That's just retarded. I don't have to win every pot and I have to remember that. Sometimes, you can check with the intent of folding to any bet if you completely missed. Or take one stab and be done instead of firing out three bullets with nothing. I mean that could help establish a maniacal image but that's an expensive way to establish that image...

3. Overdefending my blinds

Similar to the concept above but not every button raise is with garbage hands. If you notice that for 3 orbits, you got a walk when you were in the big blind and then all of a sudden in the 4th orbit a button raises you, most likely, he's got a hand. There's no reason to pop him back at that point unless he gives you any reason to (based on your observation of the player).

4. Overstealing the blinds

Another one is be careful of the button raises. Because it's 6 max, people already give you less credit for a hand no matter where you raise from. That also means that your button raise is hardly ever respected. Which is great when you have a hand but when you have marginal hands like K-10 or something and then someone reraises you, what do you do? This again is situational but if the player hasn't played back at you in your previous button raises and then he does that all of a sudden, you have to give him credit for a hand. Playing big pots with marginal hands is a recipe for disaster. Also, unless you're raising from the button to maintain an aggressive image, stealing the blinds in a cash game is really not that important. I mean there's not as much value in stealing the blinds in cash game as there is in a tournament because the blinds never increase. Rather, you want to play your big hands aggressively and you just want to put yourself in a situation where you can hit it big and make a lot of money.

5. Position is everything

In a 6 max table, there are one or two guys at the table that you just don't want to have on your left. I think you will know fairly quickly who those players are. It's those guys that seem to reraise you every time you raise, who seems to be in the hand every time when he's got position on you and seems to be making great bets at great times where you just can't call. Well, then just leave the table. There are plenty of other tables available. It's not about egos and it's not about playing better competition to get better. Sure, that aspect is there but isn't it better to play against better competition but also have position on them? I'm not gonna preach table selection cuz I honestly don't do any of that. But, whenever I see an open seat, I open the table just to see where that open seat is. If it's to the right of an aggro player, I just wait for another open table. I think there are more "moves" and bluffs made at a 6 max table. In that case, I always want to have position on better players. Being involved in a big pot with a marginal hand against a good player and being out of position is a recipe for disaster. Scratch that. It IS disaster.

This is my long way of saying that I've actually tightened up my game a little more and so far, the adjustment has been a profitable one for me. Of course, I don't just stay tight either because then your raises get too much respect and once again you only end up with blinds. Situational analysis is even more key in a 6 max game and I trust that my reads would get better over time as I gain more experience at these 6 max table.

Oh, and I have to make this public service announcement. Coming up next is the Heads Up Challenge 6. Fuel has been bugging me for a while about me starting this up and somehow, as a second place finisher in HUC5, I was given the responsibility of starting up HUC6. (I think he doesn't realize that some of us have jobs) Anyways, more details to follow in the next post but in addition to all the new games that you all are trying to learn via the "Skills" series and such, don't forget to brush up on your heads-up skills as well.

What I learned in Vegas...

Ok, finally back to some more poker related stuff. I was in Vegas for a week and before I went there, I had visions. I had visions of raking in some serious cash, pwning all the tourists and Eurodonks and relieving them of their cash. I mean why not? I do fairly well online and my past several trips to Vegas have always been profitable. I'm clearly better than I was before so if I can make money before, I can surely make a lot more money now, right? Well, how wrong I was. I shoulda known that karma was going against me on this trip when the very first hand that I got dealt was AA which got cracked by a flopped set of 5's. By the turn, my whole stack went in since I figured I had 11 outs (9 to the nut flush and 2 aces to give me a higher set) and missed.

I'm not going to go through bad beat stories because that's not my thing. But one thing that was consistent throughout this trip was that whenever I played for a big pot, I missed my draws or my hands didn't hold up. It's variance and it happens. I got aces dealt three times and I had to suck out to win one. I lost the other two. The suckout? 9 high flop, ten on the turn which is when all the money goes in. The guy has pocket tens... but I river an ace.

Really, this isn't a complaint or anything. It was just how the week was going to go. Another hand that illustrates the big pots not going my way was when Fuel and I played at a 1-2NL table and we got all our money in on a 6-9-10 flop with two spades. I had the set of sixes. Turn is a 7, river is a spade. Fuel shows Ts7s and his flush is good. Again, on the flop, I wasn't a significant favorite or anything so this is certainly not a gripe. Just a good illustration of when all the money went in, it seemed like the cards just didn't fall my way. I keep telling myself it's variance.

But, like any diligent poker player, I don't like to attribute my losses to bad luck. Surely, some of it had to do with my poor play. So, I went back and thought through my hands. At least the big pots that I lost. And there were a few adjustments that I failed to make. And in a little bit, I'll go into why in the past, I made money and not this time.

Over the course of the year, I've become a very aggressive player. I don't like to give up on pots and sometimes, I'm caught bluffing on every street and lose a big pot in a hand I had no business being in. Fine. That's a leak and I am trying to plug that but I also get paid on my big hands. Well, online, at least on Fulltilt, raises are generally respected. Typically, you see a flop heads up. Maybe three players if there was a raise. So, of course, that's the mentality I have. I quickly realized that live play is totally different. Let's say I'm on the button with a legit raising hand... for argument's sake, we'll say AK. You see 5 limpers before you and so you bump it up (at a 2-5NL table even though it's the same for 1-2NL) to like $45, 9xBB. What happens? Call, call, call, call, call. Limp call a raise was totally normal. So unless you bump it up to some ridiculous amount where you are almost committing a fifth or more of your stack preflop on one hand, you can't get rid of anyone.

Lesson #2 that I learned. It doesn't matter what you represent because most of them are such donkeys that they don't pay attention to what you do or your betting patterns. They don't care that you raised preflop. They don't care that you are betting big on every street. If they hit a piece of the flop, they're not going anywhere. I think I lost half my stack just to find that out. The live calling stations put online calling stations to shame. You can represent aces all you want. If you don't have it, you're not getting them off their hand... even if it's like top pair, no kicker.

Lesson #3 is something that I knew and yet I failed to adjust. Online, you can multitable. Dealers don't have to shuffle, players only have like 15 seconds to think about their hands, they aren't distracted by waitresses to try to order drinks, etc. In other words, you see a lot more hands online. A lot more hands. In live play, you probably see maybe 20-30 hands per hour... that's my guess. Live players, correct me if I'm wrong. Online, you probably see close to 60 hands per hour. At one table. So, if you are 4 tabling like I do, you see 240 hands per hour. That's an equivalent of 8 hrs in live play. What does that mean? Well, you are bound to see more playable hands online in a shorter amount of time than you do live. Also, even if you are on the bad side of variance, you are bound to get through it quicker.

What do all those lessons mean? Well, I failed to adjust and that was my biggest mistake. When I had a big hand, I didn't raise enough to get rid of most of the players. If you see a 5 way flop, your TPTK is probably no good. Even if it were good on the flop, by the river, it's very vulnerable. Betting big to represent big pairs will go unnoticed. Many a times, I had to muck my hand on the river to a guy who flips over middle pocket pair with two higher cards on the board because he called every bullet I fired. And yet, I didn't adjust quick enough to play patient and wait for good cards. I got involved in way too many pots with marginal holdings.

In the past, the reason why I always came back from Vegas with more money was because I played abc poker. Play tight but aggressive. Wait for big hands, good cards and bet when you have it, fold when you don't. Don't play marginal hands and if you do, don't try to represent something you don't have. Just limp in cheap and hope to hit the flop hard. If you do, you will get paid. In other words, I needed to go back to the basics and yet I failed to do so. When I think of it that way, I can attribute most of my losses to my poor play. Luck is only one part of poker. I gotta control everything else.

This must be variance...

Nothing like following up the worst performance of the year with the best performance of the year.



July and August have been two months where I actually played less in terms of hours and number of hands. I took a few shots at higher levels and didn't do so well which brought my July profit to only $400+.

If I just look at the 2-4NL games that I most frequently play, my PT BB/100 was 5.57 in July and a very sizable 16.98 in August. I've read before that anywhere above 5 BB/100 is good so at least my performance is decent as is consistent (in terms of being at or above 5).

I don't know how much poker I'll play this weekend since I also have two fantasy football drafts this weekend.

So happy labor day weekend to all and have a safe and fun weekend. That's always +EV!

Revisiting the 28k hand

First of all, thank you for the well wishes. I am doing much better today. I'm hoping that by the end of the week, since I'll be home all day, I can pull a Jordan or LJ and score a nice tournament win... aaaah, one can dream.

Alright, well, this post also was supposed to come sooner but what with the "intestinal tilt" that I was on (coined by Pushmonkey, good one!), it took me a few days to get to it. Well, if you hadn't read it, it was about my hand deep in the 28k with about 21 players remaining. Click here for the original post. And tons of great comments came out of that and also made me see where I am still a tournament donk. Now, I don't mean that in a "it's so obvious" type of way even though for some, it may have been.

But Mike_Maloney put it best.

"Late in a tournament, with the blinds as high as they are, you generally have to be very suspect of people who raise instead of pushing when their M is only around 5."

That's a very good point. And in reviewing the hand, I totally agree. And here are my excuses for not seeing that. It was late in the tournament and I think my focus wasn't quite where it was. I was also getting excited with the prospect of final tabling this thing. And admittedly, after going a few orbits with absolute crap and getting shoved on any steal or resteal attempts, I was getting fairly impatient. When I saw JJ there, they looked golden. In other words, I was no longer at the top of my game. And in a NL tournament, one mistake could cost you. Just like it did me.

Another key thing is what LJ mentioned in her blog here. "sometimes you just have to lay down what might be the best hand." That's also an interesting mindset in that in the situation I was in, even if I had the best hand, it is almost for sure that the two others have overcards and unless they have the exact same hand, basically, they have 9 outs 5 times (any A, K, or Q). That's not a good situation for me and being that I had a decent stack, it's just another reason why I shoulda folded.

In reviewing everyone's comments, I can now honestly tell that that wasn't as tough a situation as I thought it was and for that, I thank everyone for making me see that. I will work on my tournament game in the next few days in between my naps that I'll be taking plenty of.

Half year review

As we enter the second half of the year, I figured this would be a good time to do a quick review of how I've done in the 1st half of 2007. Based on PT, my cash game stats look as follows. For some reason, I couldn't just filter it to be for 2007 so it includes all of 2006 and it's on all sites and not just FullTilt.



Not bad huh? Well, in order to give you the full picture, I would have to post my embarassing tournament results as well. And this is what that looks like.



Pretty ugly, if you ask me. The BBT, as fun as it was, is clearly -EV for me even though I ended up in 6th place on the leaderboard. Goes to show the points aren't indicative of how good a tournament player you are. This isn't meant to be a knock on the point structure. But it is clear that it masks the importance of the late to end game strategies which I know is clearly my weakest area.

In looking at the above two graphs, one might wonder why I still play tourneys. And quite frankly, I really don't. I tend to play in some of the bigger ones once in a while but since I know that it's -EV for me, I generally stick to cash games where I am clearly turning a profit. But then again, once in a while, I think to myself that it would be cool to have a nice score in a tournament so I take a shot... and generally, I fail.

Well, as I move into the second half of the year, I want to continue to let my bankroll grow by playing the cash games but I also would like to see an improvement on my tournament results. In both instances, there are major holes in my games that need to be addressed.

My goals for the cash games would be to move up to higher levels and see if I can compete and how I do there. I dabbled in some 5/10NL and I was actually surprised with the level of competition... or the lack there of. I was expecting a totally different ball game and yet... some tables played like 1-2NL. Also, I was worried that having a big amount of money on the line would affect my play because I might be nervous about my bankroll... instead, I noticed that I almost didn't care about the money... because it felt more like a tournament with a $1,000 starting stack rather than $1,000 of my own money. I sometimes hestitate to call a $22 raise preflop on a 2-4NL table and yet, a $35 raise on the 5-10NL felt like nothing. Very strange... Well, in case you are wondering how I did, I didn't do so well. I was profitable, don't get me wrong. But I only made approximately $200 over the course of 200 hands (approx 3 hours) and the win was mainly because I doubled up almost my entire buy in when I had AA and the other guy who had me covered had KK. (It was the biggest pot ever but I didn't post because I felt lame). But, one thing I know is that I think I can play at that level. I just need to build my bankroll a bit more.

Well, as I reviewed my hand histories, I noticed that the biggest leak in my game is that I am overly active in pots at times. For example, I would start tight, loosen up in right situations, and build up a stack. So, if we're playing 2-4NL, I'd start with $400 and get up to $600. But then I loosen up even more. Even more to the point where it becomes detrimental. Another hour or so later, I might leave the table down some or maybe not up as much as I should have been.

One thing I do is that I take stabs at pots when I have no business making them. I was reading the FullTilt Poker Guide this weekend at the beach and I read something that was very interesting. I don't have the book on me right now so I am going by memory but it was something along the lines of betting at a pot when it's likely that no hand better than yours will fold. Here's an example (again from my head, I think the book gave a similar but slightly better one): You hold 99 and it's folded to you on the cutoff where you raise. BB is the only one who calls. Flop comes A-K-T. He checks. This is a perfect example of a situation where the book advises you not to bet. Why? Because the only hands that would fold are probably hands that are worse than yours. What do I do? I bet. I get checkraised. I fold. Awful, awful poker. The book takes this a step further and advocates that with 99, you want to check but betting is more acceptable if you had a hand like 7-8, even with that board. Why? Because now, your bet can make a hand that is better than yours fold. So in other words, if you had 99, the only "better hand" that might fold to your bet is a hand like 9-10. Maaaaaybe, J-10 but it's quite possible that they will call the flop to see another card. But if you had a hand like 7-8 and you bet, any pair below 10's would have to fold, thus making them fold a better hand than yours. When I read that, I thought it was very interesting. I've heard of something like that before (or read it somewhere) but reading it again in the book just kinda brought that back.

And quite frankly, I think that's my biggest leak. I'm not saying that's my only leak. But in many instances, I could defend most of the other "bad moves" I make and since I don't always do it, it's just part of the variation of my play. But, firing out aggressively into a dangerous board is not the smartest thing to do unless you have a good read on your opponent and you know exactly what you are doing.

Another one that I'm starting to notice is the timing of controlling the pot size vs protecting my hand against draws. In other words, you don't want to build the pot too much in marginal situations where you're not exactly sure where you stand. However, you don't want to not protect your hand either in case you are ahead and your opponent is drawing. Having a better read on the opponent is key in these instances and I notice that if I have more than 2 tables up and running, I miss these intricacies. It doesn't kill my roll since I can make a fairly tough laydown but still, I'm missing out on potential profits here as well.

One more thing to keep in mind is to have a plan. Unlike a tournament where most of the hands seem to end preflop or on the flop, in a cash game, it's fairly common that you see the turn and the river. So, when the flop comes, before I act, I need to have a plan. If I decide to bet, do I want my opponent to call? What if he raises? If he calls, what do I do on the turn? What if it completes a flush draw? What if it's a blank? What if it pairs the board? Or, if you have position, and your opponent bets at you, what's your move? Do you call? Do you raise or fold? If you decide to float, what do you do on the turn if he fires another bullet? Is he the type of opponent that will fire two bullets with air? These are all questions that I have to ask myself. All too often, I notice myself making a play at a pot or attempting to make a play without thinking a step ahead. For example, I float my opponent's flop bet with two overcards. Turn is another blank. Another bet is fired. I fold. That's just a bad play. Did I think about what my plan was? Did I hope that by me calling, he'll slow down? He might but again, it's one thing to do it with a plan and another to do it without thinking about it. Poker is all about telling a story. Each street brings a new chapter and so you have to make sure that the story you are putting together is consistent on all streets.

On the tournament side, I think my plan is fairly simple. I mean how can it be complicated considering I can't even win? I need to hit the books and really understand the concepts of the mid to end game strategies. Early on, when the blinds are small compared to the starting stacks, I do well and I find myself generally above the average stack. However, as the tourney progresses, I tend to panic and overplay hands I shouldn't. So, here's a quick and dirty list of what I want to do on the tourney side:

1. Remember that small pairs are garbage late in the game. BEST CASE SCENARIO (when all in preflop) is that you're in a race. So with pairs 88 and below, be very cautious on how to play them.

2. Learn to resteal. I read about restealing all the time. Now I just need to do it.

3. Learn to steal but don't overdo it. And don't just steal from the button or the cutoff. I think this is important. Even though there are more people to act, early position raise also indicates a stronger hand so I need to incorporate that into my play.

4. Pot odds isn't necessarily king in a tournament. I think sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. When you know you are beat, even if you are getting decent odds, it might not be worth callin based on your stack size and your situation of the tournament. Protecting chips is just as important as accumulating them.

I'll soon go back into posting more hand histories and situational analysis but I wanted to make sure that I at least summarized where I am at this point so I can revisit this later and see how I've improved as a player.

These should be obvious folds...

I honestly don't know what happened. Well... actually, I think I kinda do know what happened. I think I was on a slight tilt... not the anger tilt but one of those "it's in the back of your head and so you're tilting but you're not quite aware of your tilt until you take a step back and look at it" type of tilt. Ever had those? Well, here's me, being a super donkalicious idiot...

Full Tilt Poker Game #2677625819: Table Spruce Fern - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:42:00 ET - 2007/06/15
Seat 1: RecessRampage ($409.80)
Seat 2: LTFisher ($70)
Seat 3: Tilty_Poo ($363)
Seat 4: SDRI MAFIA ($342.50)
Seat 5: RedBird101 ($129.85)
Seat 6: vavavavoom ($154.10)
Seat 7: rjdee17 ($263.30)
Seat 8: TwistedDonkey ($400)
Seat 9: coldsmoke1 ($233.40)
TwistedDonkey posts the small blind of $2
coldsmoke1 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qd Qc]
RecessRampage raises to $14
LTFisher calls $14
Tilty_Poo folds
SDRI MAFIA folds
RedBird101 folds
vavavavoom calls $14
rjdee17 folds
TwistedDonkey folds
coldsmoke1 folds

*** FLOP *** [Th 7s 9d]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $32
LTFisher raises to $56, and is all in
vavavavoom has 15 seconds left to act
vavavavoom raises to $140.10, and is all in

Well, I was going to call first all in but when the guy comes over the top for another all in, based on what's on the board, I can't beat much. So, here's me doing the sensible thing.

RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act <--- still hurts
RecessRampage folds
vavavavoom shows [Tc Ts]
LTFisher shows [Ad Td]
Uncalled bet of $84.10 returned to vavavavoom
*** TURN *** [Th 7s 9d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Th 7s 9d 3s] [4d]
vavavavoom shows three of a kind, Tens
LTFisher shows a pair of Tens
vavavavoom wins the pot ($189) with three of a kind, Tens

Obviously a good fold by me but this is actually a normal fold in my opinion. But, it still sucks when I have to fold an overpair like that... However, my mentality should be that I'm glad I saved money, not it sucks to lay down an overpair... because otherwise, you can make a tilt-induced play, say like 15 minutes later...

15 minutes later...

Full Tilt Poker Game #2677773573: Table Spruce Fern - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:57:30 ET - 2007/06/15
Seat 1: RecessRampage ($309.45)
Seat 2: 7SaVa2 ($300)
Seat 3: PoorNapoleon ($407.50)
Seat 4: SDRI MAFIA ($391.80)
Seat 5: CHRIS8364 ($402.80)
Seat 6: agore111 ($463.20)
Seat 7: newera13 ($396)
Seat 8: TwistedDonkey ($408)
Seat 9: coldsmoke1 ($294.20)
PoorNapoleon posts the small blind of $2
SDRI MAFIA posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Kh Kc] <--- finally... it's been a slow night for me so I need to make something happen here!!
CHRIS8364 calls $4
agore111 folds
newera13 folds
TwistedDonkey folds
coldsmoke1 calls $4
RecessRampage raises to $22 <--- stupid limpers...
PoorNapoleon folds
SDRI MAFIA calls $18
CHRIS8364 has 15 seconds left to act
CHRIS8364 raises to $402.80, and is all in
coldsmoke1 folds
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act

Ok, let's think about this for a second. This guy just limped UTG, had another limper, then a raise, then a BB calling that raise... so, clearly some of us have something here... nonetheless, he pulls the classic "wait let me think about it, ok I'm all in" move... the classic "let me advertise that I'm a little unsure about this decision so HOPEFULLY I'm right" move... yes, simply put, weak is strong... we all know this. I believe this is poker 101. He clearly has AA.

RecessRampage has requested TIME <--- what... what am I doing? Dude, why are you thinking??? He's got aces! HE'S GOT ACES!!!!!! Your kings are no good!!!!

RecessRampage calls $287.45, and is all in <--- HEE HAW
SDRI MAFIA folds
CHRIS8364 shows [Ac As] <--- of course
RecessRampage shows [Kh Kc] <--- all the donkeys in the world are embarrassed with this call
Uncalled bet of $93.35 returned to CHRIS8364
*** FLOP *** [2d Ad 9s]
*** TURN *** [2d Ad 9s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [2d Ad 9s 3c] [Ks]
RecessRampage: I can't believe I called
CHRIS8364 shows three of a kind, Aces
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Kings
CHRIS8364 wins the pot ($643.90) with three of a kind, Aces

I think this was one of the worst calls I made in a while. Personally, I'm ok with making calls based on my reads, even if my reads are incorrect. At least I trusted my reads and I went with it. What I hate is when I go against my reads. I've played long enough, I've studied the game enough, and I've developed my read good enough... so if I can't trust my reads, what the hell am I doing at the poker tables??? And this type of play really pisses me off and like I said, once I think about it the next morning and think about what I was thinking last night, it was clearly tilt induced. The only positive of this hand was actually the fact that it slapped me out of my tilt and I played solid the rest of the night. I, unfortunately wasn't able to get anything going, but at least I snapped out of it...

Analyzing my leaks, crazy hand, and some nonpoker stuff

Ok, let me start with this warning... This post is going to be all over the place. So, just to quickly break it down, these are the things that you will see in this post: Mookie, my cash game leaks based on PT, crazy crazy hand I witnessed, and some nonpoker stuff, mainly sports related. I am probably better off breaking this up into multiple posts but you know what, I'm in the mood to ramble on so that's what's gonna happen. Since this is a poker blog, I'll put the nonpoker stuff at the very end.

Chapter 1: Mookie ad

So, first thing's first. Come out tonight for the Mookie! Hopefully, I'll do better than my most recent performance in MATH and our home game dubbed PAPT.



Ok, now that I've done my part for advertising the blogger tourney (which given the traffic I get, really almost unnecessary probably but still wouldn't hurt... I know some of you nonbloggers play so if you want to join in on the tournament, you know you're always welcome).

Chapter 2: Analyzing my leaks and using PT

Ok, now on to the main topic. I've always been a big advocate of analyzing my play, looking back at hand histories, and using Pokertracker for that purpose. However, recently, Hoy has been posting some solid commentary based on what he's seen on his PT stats so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. But just to show that this isn't something that I totally ripped off from Hoy, here are few of the links to my older (it's obv not that old since I did start this blog only 5 months ago) posts to show that I have been advocating this... so if you care to see those or just to rehash your memory, click here or here.

I think in one of my posts, I talked about how I love points. Actually, I probably mentioned that in quite a few of my posts. Keeping score, having points, etc is always something I like... and I'm a sucker for. Reward points on credit cards? Great, sign me up! Wait, better rewards on this card? I'm there. (I'm actually not as bad as I make it sound but I'm pretty bad). Which is why I am personally a big fan of the whole points thing on BBT. Again, I don't think having the most points on BBT will mean you're the best tournament player but that argument to me is pretty worthless. And that's for a different post (yes, even I have limits). Anyways, so points is a big deal. What does that mean? That means that those stupid iron man challenge thing that full tilt does? Yeah, I'm totally a sucker for it. I swear... those stupid FTP points and the iron man is probably the biggest -EV thing for me. For example... there are nights I'm not in the mood to play poker. Rare, but it's there. But I fire up my laptop, open up a few tables and start grinding... why? Because I need to get my damn 200pts each day (or 25 days out of the month) to qualify for the Iron Man freeroll (which btw, is the best deal tournament... I mean what other tournament do you know that you can freeroll into and 1 out of 3 entrants get paid a minimum of $80 all the way up to $5,000???). They now started this thing where depending on the the number of consecutive months you maintain your level, you earn different sets of points as well where you can use those points to purchase bonuses, tournament tokens, etc... aaaaaah, more points. Ok, so what does all this rambling mean? Well, I got my 25 days of 200+ points so I don't have to play for the rest of this month unless I want to. Thus, last night, instead of playing, I decided to fire up PT and take a look at which hands I was losing the most money out of... and this is what I got... which took me by surprise:




These are filtered to only show the hands I played in 2007 just because I've had PT since last year and I wanted more recent information. I then sorted by the "net amount" and the clear net gainers were AA, KK, QQ, AK, etc... pretty predictable. There were couple of surprising ones amongst the top 10 money makers such as KJ and KQ which I tend to fold in EP... actually, I'm shocked that KJ was in top ten since I almost always fold that garbage...

Well, even more shocking for me was what you just saw above. The losses and where they are coming from. And being how consistent the losers are, my biggest leak is apparently the most obvious one also. I mean think about it. 67s, 68s, JTo, 78o, 89s, 89o, J9o, 64o, 9-10o, 78s, 65s... oh, and pocket nines. See a familiar trend? Aside from J9o which is pretty garbage but for some reason my favorite hand (yes, yes... please, spare me the "dangerous to have a favorite hand" speech, I've heard it a million times before), the suited and unsuited connectors and one gappers are my biggest leaks. CONSISTENTLY. This was actually shocking to me. I mean, most of us who take poker seriously tend to love these suited connectors right? You can get paid off very nicely when you hit it big, right? They are generally well concealed, right? I mean who doesn't like 89 sooooooooted, right???

So, after seeing this shocking revelation, I decided to do a little more research. I started looking at the hand history to see what was causing these to be my biggest leaks... And there was one consistent theme which is probably obvious just by looking at the stats. I'm not getting paid off when I actually hit it big. In other words, I lose a small pot when I don't hit. But I win a small pot when I hit it big... what does that mean? Well, more often than not, I'm not gonna hit it hard and since the idea behind these connectors and one gappers is to get paid off nicely when they do hit, I'm basically going one step forward and taking two steps back. When looking at how I play them, I don't hate my play preflop. So it's not like I'm playing them out of position or limping with them every time. I mix it up nicely but again, it's the post flop play that I'm crippling myself with with these hands. I need to go back and further analyze where I'm betting too soon (without giving someone a chance to catch a piece... ie, why bet if I have 89 and the flop comes 5-6-7 and it's checked to me?). I thought I was a decent cash gamer, only based on the money I was making but these stats really opened my eyes and I'm really shocked at what I found. This is definitely an area I'm gonna study up on and have to improve for my long term success in the cash games, esp if I want to move up levels.

Chapter 3: CRAZY HAND

Well, I always joked that I'd love to be in a situation where we're all deep and all the money is in the middle when I have AA and the two other guys who are all in both have KK... essentially eliminating any chances of them winning (yes, I understand a possible 4 flush but again... let's be real... you'd sell everything you own and put it on the line in this situation). Well, I was observing this low stakes NL table cuz my friend JT was playing in it and I was just chatting it up (and actually was surprised to see some of the play at this level was probably better than 1-2NL... SOME). Well, I couldn't get screen shots as this developed but it was a crazy hand. So instead of posting the hand history, I'll lay it out for you:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2541570786: Table Tyndall - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:07:05 ET - 2007/05/30

This was 7 handed: UTG min raises to $1 and MP reraises to $3. CO calls the $3, both blinds fold, and UTG then reraises to $7. Watching this, I immediately thought, alright UTG clearly has aces but it's so obvious he might get stacked here if the other two knew what they were doing. Well, the MP reraiser calls and so does the CO. At this point, I figured all three of them had pocket pairs. But I did not know the extent of what I was about to witness... NO, they didn't all have aces! FTP is not THAT rigged. :)

Flop comes 10-6-6. Innocent looking flop, I figured the aces (ie UTG) should take it down... UTG bets $8 into a $22 pot (obv trying to string people along on this safe looking board), the MP reraiser goes all in for $22 (your kings are f*cked dude), and here was the shocker... CO cold calls! UTG pushes his stack all in which was $26 and naturally, the CO calls the extra $4... and this is what they flip up:



Turn and the river obv didn't matter since the two pocket aces had no outs. Now that's a good way to rake in a $100 pot...

Chapter 4: Nonpoker content

Phew... I have to admit, I'm losing steam. When I first started this post, I was pretty fired up but now I feel like I typed as much as I can... but I wanted to throw a few things out there. First off, any of you Hokies reading this, how proud are you of the Vick family... wow, what a quick fall from stardom to... well, dumb-dumb? I mean there's the little brother Vick with his dirty leg stomping, bird flipping, gun waving under golden arches antics... and everyone thinking, wow, how far could the apple fall from the tree??? Well, apparently, the tree wasn't where we thought it was huh? It wasn't that Marcus was a bad apple that rolled off the hill far far away from the tree... it appears the tree itself is f*cked up. I mean even the superstar older brother has some serious issues... I still remember his miraculous comeback scramble against WVU down the sidelines which surely just the thought of it sends shivers to most Hokie fans but I also vividly remember seeing him flick his fans off in his own stadium, caught (and in his defense, later dropped, I believe) in an allegation that he had marijuana in his water bottle, and now, he's a big player in the illegal (read: felony) dog fight ring. I mean really? I know this isn't breaking news or anything but I just thought it was interesting. Roger Goodell (NFL commish) has been making some serious statements by dropping very severe penalties on players who are constantly surrounding themselves with bad publicity (Adam "Frogger" Jones... errrr "Pacman" Jones out for 16 games - that's a Vick from noCal reference... yeah, his no show during Smack Off sucked but I'm still on his bandwagon) and Chris Henry (stupid Bungles... suspend all of them) for 8 games... I don't know what Goodell is going to do with Vick but I can't imagine him not doing anything.

And how p*ssed off is Kobe Bryant? Boy, he sounds like a guy who's been holding it in for so long and now he can't take it... he's unleashing his fury on his media tour by ripping the lakers front office. And not that I care much for Kobe but I hear what he's saying and I agree. Kobe, whether you like it or not, is one of the best players out there, playing in his prime, and Jerry Buss needs to stop playing poker and put his money towards reloading that team with talent that could do some damage. I mean come on...

Now as a token Japanese, I feel that I need to throw this out there. Hey, any Sox fans out there? How do you like Dice-K?? Kind of a weird thing, it seems to me. And personally, I'm a big big fan of Daisuke. I didn't get to see him in high school but when I went back to Japan, during my brief stay, I caught some of the games he pitched in his rookie year and I remembered thinking this kid was nasty. I thought when Boston ended up with him that he would be a tremendous asset... maybe not like a Curt Schilling or a Randy Johnson in their prime but definitely a solid solid #2... And he's putting up results. 7 wins through today ain't bad. Hell, that's actually pretty good... the only question is his relatively high ERA. I'm surprised that he's actually getting hit quite a bit.

Ok, I'm clearly starting to flame out, so I'm out.