Holdem Notebook

Reads over Rules

2013-05-25T10:20:00.002-04:00

The learning poker player adapts handy rules of thumb that can keep him out of trouble. One often-used rule for TAGs with weak-tight tendencies is "small hand, small pot".

A few weeks ago, I raised the dreaded pocket jacks and got three-bet from a blind around the table. This was the typical 1-2 table where three-bets were QQ+ and sometimes AK, and not much else. The probable best play is a fold, but the 3bet was a min-3bet, we were deep enough, and I had position, so I saw a flop.

The flop was all low (nine-high) and my opponent checked. This obviously screams ace-king for the most probable hand in his narrow range. But the weak-tight tendencies showed up, and, fearing the checkraise from AA/KK, the "small hand, small pot" rule dutifully reminded me that I really wasn't ready to commit my stack with this hand yet, so I checked behind.

The turn brought another low card, and now the opponent made a healthy, near-pot-sized $45 bet. Of course, my check gave him license to fire with AK or anything else he might be holding. With the pot escalating and doubt creeping into what should be a pretty clear-cut read, I made the fold, first proud of not breaking the "big hand big pot" rule, but later mentally kicked myself for several days for doing so, for not trusting my own handreading skill (which isn't great, but in a 3bet pot in a donk 1-2 game, it's no rocket science).

So now we fast forward to last night, again at the Cleveland Horseshoe, where I no longer have to worry about making a mistake in a big pot, because I've already gotten 150 big blinds whisked away from me with kings preflop, vs. Aces, easy as you please. Facing the preflop shove, the familiar fear crept in (which would have obviously helped me this time), but this time my read was that this player could have queens or even jacks as easily as aces in this particular situation, and a call was mandatory. "Shut the fuck up and take your beat like a man", my brain told me as I announced call, then watched the shiny aces flip over across the table.

A standard, brutal result, but correct play based on my reads. This was actually somewhat comforting - I was playing without fear and rationally trying to put players on ranges and play hands correctly.

I had my stack back up to about $300 with a reload and winning some pots, still down about $150 on the night, when a tight-ish player raised it up from early position. The $1-2 donkey chain of fools started calling, and I got to look at pocket jacks on the button. Probably a no-brainer squeeze, but of course I had already been stacked and stung tonight, and my old friend fear whispered to just call this time, so I did.

We got a flop of . The entire field checks to me.

Weak-tight or not, my jacks are an overpair and 4 people have checked to me. I bet $25 into this $50 pot. Two players called. One was an uber-donk out of the blinds who had like $75 back, and I knew could have any pair or draw here. I wasn't worried about him. The second guy, to my immediate right, was too loose preflop but seemed ok postflop. I put him on some kind of ten (maybe with a weak-ish kicker, as Ace-ten probably leads out on this board), or the spade draw. He has around $400 in his stack.

The turn helps nobody with a . Now the villain leads out for $20. This is a clear, no doubt-about-it blocking bet in my estimation - he's trying to see the river card cheaply. So now I have competing thoughts - the old "small hand, small pot" tells me to call this bet and evaluate the river card, but my read is that this guy is most likely on a spade draw or a weak ten (he can't be on both because of how the suits are arranged), and he will obviously call a raise with the draw, so I bump it up a bit more to $45. The donk in the blinds calls this bet, and then the weak-lead calls also.

The river arrives - it's a , making the final board . There's a 4 card straight for anyone holding a 5, and 89 has been there the whole time. Now my opponent leads out for a healthy $75.

My old friend makes a brief appearance in my head, but this time I shoo him out quickly, eager to try and piece this story together. What does he have? Here's a running synopsis of what I throw together:

Did he have eight-freaking-nine the whole time? Possible, sure, but I rule it out. This player had previously raised up trip kings and said "I had to, with the flush out there". Thanks for the info, buddy. Now I know he doesn't like to lose his made hands to flushes, so 8-9 goes away.

With the same logic, I can rule out flopped sets or two pair hands. Buh-bye.

Can he have a five in his hand? He's not loose enough to have unsuited cards like 56 or 45 in his range, so I focus on looking at suited stuff. My biggest fear is a , along with another spade, that has backed into a straight. I only see four-five, ace-five, and seven-five, all spades, as possibilities. I don't think he's a queen-five/jack-five kind of guy. Then I rule out 45, which hit his straight on the turn, and would have 3bet my $45 turn raise.

Would he make this big bet with a ten? I decide that yes, he might, especially if his kicker is good (ace-ten/king-ten), AND with another super-donk in the hand with us, AND the possibility that he thinks I might be the one on the flush draw. I had ruled out some big-kicker tens earlier, so that's some competing information, but maybe he's got queen-ten or jack-ten type of stuff. Ten-nine and ten-eight (more likely suited), give him pair+gutshot combos. So there's some tens he can have, and these don't all necessarily have to be suited, giving him more available combos.

So I'm left with him value-betting some worse hands, a couple flush/straight combos that backed into a straight, and busted spade draws.

It's a big bet that of course I fear calling. I mentally picture him turning over , and me cursing myself for another month for building a big pot and then paying off a big river bet with one pair. But my final thought is to trust my read and live with the result. My read says I'm ahead often enough to call this bet. I make the call. The other donk folds his whatever.

"Busted spades", he says quietly, flipping over .

Poker down time

2013-05-11T21:27:00.002-04:00

The significance of poker goes up and down in my life - this is one of the down cycles.

I'm pulling the plug on my hosted cash game. Too frustrating trying to get enough players lately, and it will only get worse as summer starts, with golf, softball, etc. I'll look for another Friday game, and simply stay downtown and play in the casino after work if that doesn't work out.

Online poker is out, also. I was on Lock - with all the rumors and talk this past week, I've cashed out. I'm hopeful but not confident that I'll ever see that money (it's not that much money).

But I still love playing. I played at the Shoe yesterday and faced a rough session with several of people sucking out on me - took a one buy-in bite out of me. But I kept my calm and played well throughout.

I also saw the usual truly awful, Level 0 poker - enough to make me realize there will always be a table waiting for me somewhere where I can make a few extra bucks. Yesterday's head-scratcher was a loose, semi-aggressive player raise up to $10 and get one caller - a tight guy who had barely made a peep all night. He had a big stack after winning a 3 way all in with QQ vs. AK and AQ.

The flop came Jack-Jack-Five. The tight guy bet out $15, at which point the loose guy raised to $35. The tight guy thought for a few seconds and then called.

I had the tight guy on Ace-Jack, King-Jack or Five-Five. I wasn't even sure of King-Jack because this guy played so few hands - I wasn't sure if he would call a raise with it. But I left it in because he was perhaps adjusting to the wide-ish range of the other guy. I ruled out any type of shlong-measuring contest with pocket eights or something like that. Tight guy was pretty ABC.

The loose guy was a bit tougher to range at this point - I felt like his range could be "for information", meaning he had a pair and was just trying to figure out how strong the tight guy was. After tight guy made the call, I figured he had all the info he needed.

I don't recall the turn card, but tight guy lead out for $50, and loose guy called pretty quickly. I still had tight guy ahead - either outkicking loose guy with his trip jacks, or already with the full house.

Tight guy took a glance at the river (again, I don't recall the card), looked down at his chips for several seconds, and exclaimed "I'm all in". Loose guy still had over $200 in his stack at this point - this had blown up into a massive pot. Loose guy shook his head a bit, then said "I call", and flipped over.... pocket aces.

How in God's name did he think aces were good on this hand? I have no idea, and will never know. But as long as people think this way at my table, I will find success in poker, even if I play infrequently.

not much to explain...

2013-04-27T07:32:00.002-04:00

This was me last night in a 4 way all in for my tourney life...

Hand 0: 13.052% 10.19% 02.86% 3983166 1119505.50 { Ad2d }
Hand 1: 53.506% 53.42% 00.08% 20886660 32314.50 { QQ }
Hand 2: 16.436% 16.35% 00.08% 6393510 32314.50 { 44 }
Hand 3: 17.006% 14.14% 02.86% 5529312 1119505.50 { Ah7h }

And after the 337 flop...

Board: 3c 3d 7s
Dead:

    equity     win     tie           pots won     pots tied
Hand 0:     03.293%     02.99%     00.30% { Ad2d }
Hand 1:     69.146%     69.15%     00.00% { QQ }
Hand 2:     10.427%     10.43%     00.00% { 44 }
Hand 3:     17.134%     16.83%     00.30% { Ah7h }

2 running diamonds later, a quadruple up for me, and I go on to place second. We all know you have to get lucky to win a tourney, but egads.

Double Luck

2013-03-30T10:25:00.002-04:00

Hitting a strong hand is only half the battle. Your opponent has to have enough hand to pay you off also.

.50/$1 home game last night, I'm hovering a bit above my starting $110. I raise pocket nines from an early position, and three people decide to take a flop with me.

Flop is 9 6 3, all different suits.

.

Ok, I'll take that flop. No flush draws for anybody to chase, but 78 and 45 can come along. Most players can have TT also, and some can have JJ (others would threebet it). I bet $8 into $15 and one player decides to come along. Time for the inner happy dance...

The turn brings a jack, and completes the rainbow - no flush draw possible. I'm going to bomb away now, $22 into a $31 and hope for a call. I get it!

The river brings an ace, which I actually think is a bad card for me. What the hell can this player have besides a busted draw? I suppose Ace-nine or Jack-nine are possible, but 3 nines are accounted for. So what's my play?

I could check to induce a bluff from a busted draw. A good option against some players, but not this opponent. I think with the pot bloated up this big, he'll just check behind and say "I missed". So I'm going to completely rule out trying to get paid by 78 and 45.

I could bet small to get a crying call from his pairs. Probably the correct play.

I think there's a better question available than "what does he have?", and that question is "what could I have?". Look at my line. Raise, bet, bomb, with the jack coming as an overcard, and the river the over-est overcard, the ace. How am I bombing away on every street? If I bomb the river again, what possible hand can I have except for 99, JJ, or AA?

I think when your perceived range is this narrow, a giant, polarizing bet looks very suspicious. It has to look bluffy. I learned that in my Big Pot Fear Training hand two weeks ago. Should I bomb the river and hope he has something that can pick off a bluff? I don't think it's going to work very often, but it doesn't really have to.

I take out a stack of red $5 chips, add a few to the top, and slide it out. I feel the table shift nervously at the big bet. "How much?", he asks. "$65", I say, and unstack/restack it up to count it and make sure. "Well, I have to call, I have top two", I hear after a second. He flips over ace-jack.

I have no flipping idea how he's holding ace-jack by the river. So indescribably lucky for me. Not only lucky enough to flop a set, but lucky enough for someone to decide to float while drawing 100% dead on the flop, and to runner-runner two pair.

Part 2, river call

2013-03-17T21:12:00.001-04:00

I made one interesting call last night in the $1/$2 game.

I raised AdKc to $10 from under the gun and was called in one spot by the mark at the table. I hadn't played with him before but the regulars had advertised that this was the guy in the game worth playing with.

Flop is Ac Tc 5c. Top pair and nut flush draw for me. I like my hand vs. this guy. I lead out for $15, and he raises for $40.

It's a good raise size. I certainly have enough equity to gamble here, shoving all in can never be a huge mistake. But in case he flopped a flush, set, or two pair, I think calling is better and extracting equity if I hit. I feel I will lose less when behind but still be able to win the max when I outdraw him. I make the call.

The turn bricks and I check. He checks behind.

No flush for me on the river. I check and he bets $40.

I work through the hand. Why would a made flush check the turn? Two pair or a set might check, fearing the flush themselves. It's also possible he has the ace with the queen or jack of clubs, which I beat.

It didn't quite add up. I had seen this player fast play 2 pair on a dangerous board before, without much regard to being beating. I didn't think I would always be good, but I did think I was good often enough to make this call. I said "I want to see it" and tossed in the 8 red chips".

"Good call, I have a ten. Ace is good" he said. He didn't show his other card, but said it was a club. Seems like I would have been able to win a bit more with another club.

Big Pot Fear Training

2013-03-17T14:09:00.000-04:00

Fairly tough $1/$2 home game last night - where at least 3 players were equal to or above my skill level.

I was holding my own and up a buy-in when I decided to open a marginal 96 suited from early position. My image was squeaky clean and I took this shot to open up my game. The button defended- one of the very good players who is not afraid to apply pressure.

The board came 456, giving me top pair with nothing to go along with it. I made my standard cbet and got called. His call could be a float with overs a medium pair like 99-TT. I felt like he would raise hands that gave him some kind of backdoor equity like 67 or even 88.

The turn paired the 5. My hand didn't matter much anymore - I was squarely affixed on trying to get him to fold his range. I bet $50, which he called after some thought. I knew it would take a third barrel.

The river was an innocuous looking jack, and I had made my decision already. Perhaps not a great decision to barrel three times into a good hand reader after a weak open, but there was an ulterior motive to my bet - overcoming fear - something I obviously need to work on. There was no real fear here - I had a feel for his range, and I felt like it couldn't take much pressure. I slide $75 out to the middle.

The good hand reader breathed out very fast and said "wow, that feels like a bluff to me". He had me. He worked through the hand out loud, street by street, and came to the correct decision. "I call", he said. "I have a six" I said as I flipped over my hand. "So do I, said he, and turned over king-six suited. "Nicely done", I said, and meant it.

My play lost me a big pot, but also put some of the good players on notice. My range isn't always the top of the hand chart. I also put the thought in my opponent's head that I can three barrel bluff, which should help me in value betting in the future. And look how thinly I could have value bet this hand - pocket sevens through tens all win a big pot, and so does a bluffed jack that spikes his pair on the end. Queens through aces get paid off big, also, not to mention hands that actually flop big.

So a big pot lost now - we'll call it an investment in the future.

Big Bad Wolf? Yah, I know him

2013-03-05T22:21:00.000-05:00

I fired up an online session tonight with the distinct task of working on tackling my fear. Obviously, the poker gods saw this as the absolute perfect opportunity to allow me to drive myself to valuetown.

MP3: $22.62 (113.1 bb)
CO: $22.48 (112.4 bb)
BTN: $18.35 (91.8 bb)
SB: $26.41 (132 bb)
BB: $20 (100 bb)
UTG+1: $8.20 (41 bb)
Hero (UTG+2): $18.85 (94.3 bb)
MP1: $9.70 (48.5 bb)
MP2: $5.19 (26 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with 9 9
UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $0.60, 3 folds, CO calls $0.60, 3 folds

Villain is a 15/11 reg. Flatting my EP open puts his range squarely on pocket pairs 22-TT.

Flop: ($1.50) 5 J J (2 players)
Hero bets $1, CO calls $1

Thinking villain won't be afraid of this flop, and I'm not going to be either. My bet gets value from 66-88, maybe even 22-44, and I'm losing to TT and 55 only. No way he has a jack or QQ-AA in his range. A pure value bet.

Turn: ($3.50) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $2.34, CO calls $2.34

Queen doesn't scare me - same concept applies as the flop. One additional bonus of a queen is that I can use it to get folds from TT, as it's a great double barrel card. If villain knows it's a good double barrel card, then it increases the value of my bet against 22-44 and 66-88 even more.

River: ($8.18) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.55, CO calls $3.55

Ok, I know exactly where I am in this hand. Time to bet the correct amount to get called from all these small pairs. I get a call and I'm pretty sure I'm good, unless he flips over TT.

Results: $15.28 pot ($0.76 rake)
Final Board: 5 J J Q 4
CO showed 5 5 and won $14.52 ($7.03 net)
Hero showed 9 9 and lost (-$7.49 net)

Funny that he never raised his flopped full house. He was playing scared like I usually do! This time, I didn't play scared, and got smoked for it. Couple this hand with going 1 for 2 with pocket kings, and we're back to losing online.

Never perfect

2013-03-02T16:50:00.002-05:00

A 175 big blind profit at the Cleveland Horseshoe, playing $1-$2 last night, most of it coming by flopping a set vs. someone who couldn't fold his overpair.

I'm pleased with my play with the exception of one hand. I called a raise with pocket sevens against a pretty weak player. He was the type to limp in with all sorts of junk, and his raises were all top 5% hands from what I could tell. I figured a raise was pocket tens plus, ace-king, and maybe ace-queen. Everything else would be a limp. One other player called behind me, and we were 3 handed to the flop

I flopped my set with a queen-seven-four board. There were two diamonds. The original raiser lead out. I saw the flush draw but was willing to take a chance on a one street slowplay to see if the third player would come in behind me. He folded, though, so we went heads up to the turn.

An ace came on the turn (no diamond), and my opponent lead out again, for a solid $25. I took a pretty long time to think about this one. What type of hand would my weak opponent be holding now that he's lead out both flop and turn? Tens and Jacks bet the flop, but not necessarily the turn. Kings probably don't like that ace. The only three hands I could put him on decidedly were aces, queens, and ace-queen. I was beating one of these hands and losing to the other two.

I counted combos next. Three unknown aces and three unknown queens make for 9 combos of hands I beat. Those same unknowns make for 6 sets that beat me (three sets of aces and three of queens). I'm ahead of that range. Furthermore, he's going to get all in with all 15 of those hands, so if I just play this hand 100 times, I'll win 60% (9/15) of the time and lose 40%. This is an easy Degree all-in moment, right?

It's even better, though - there's a chance he might even have ace-king. It's a bit more unlikely, because he has to c-bet with nothing into two players, and I wasn't sure this player would do that. But we could maybe account for some fraction of the 12 remaining ace-king combos (let's go with half), and since this is a weak player, he may not fold top pair/top kicker to a raise, either. That makes 15 winning and 6 losing combos of getting all-in. Now we're stacking him 71% of the time, and getting stacked the rest. A no-brainer, no-question, raise and get-it-in moment.

I didn't do it. I called the $25. Poor play. Fear of getting stacked, even after doing the math and knowing the right play. I called turn with the intention of calling the river. The river bricked, and he lead out for a solid $35 bet. I called it again, and I was ahead of ace-king.

I'm sure the decent players at the table wondered why I never raised. I wonder also.

thrilled...

2013-02-12T22:18:00.001-05:00

To keep the loss under two buy-ins tonight. One and a half buy-ins down. Got aggressive with a flush draw but he had a set - not folding - that stacked me. Then a nonbeliever called with pocket nines on a Q82 board and spiked his set on the turn. I had already 3bet him big and bet pot on the flop, with aces. Really unbelievable.

Not reviewing my monthly/yearly numbers anymore, until I post some wins. Too depressing.

Might have to move down in stakes soon, also.

I had one glimmer of luck in the session - I three bet someone with 76 suited and flopped trips sevens. Didn't get the villain's stack, but won a big pot. Maybe the first spiked big hand in the last 3000-4000.

Fer fuck's sake

2013-02-11T21:39:00.002-05:00

Quote in title from the video "How To Play JJ". Worth a watch if you've never seen.

Blind vs. Blind battle. Flop top set and we get all in on the flop(!). He has a flush draw + 1 (worthless) over. I even have one of his flush cards. He hits.

Blind vs. Button battle. This guy steals a ridiculous percentage. I have AA and 3bet him. He folds vs. 3bets a bunch, so I figure that's the end of it. But he 4bets! Ah-ha! My 5% 3bet percentage from the blinds is finally going to pay off. I shove - he calls. Ace-King.

He turns the broadway straight, leaving me drawing dead. Jesus.

I wonder if I have enough hands for someone to go through my database - I've got 20,000 hands at .10/.20 now, and I'm losing at a pretty steady clip (-3.54BB/100). I would like to do some work to figure out if it's mostly variance or if there are significant problems in there. It's hard to imagine I'm playing that badly - my prior 20000 hands at .05/.10 saw me as a 9.6BB/100 winner. Like crushing. I'm sure I was running hot then - my true talent isn't anywhere near 9.5BB/100, but I'm pretty sure it's not -3.54 either.

Looking for spots

2013-02-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

A Mental Health Friday off work brings me to the Cleveland Horseshoe for some afternoon $1/$2 poker.

You must always keep your eyes open for spots to steal a pot. Within my first orbit of the table, 3 players started to rack up to leave for a $2/$5 game. I was one off the button, with folds to me. I had a weak offsuit ace, but the big blind already had his chips in a rack and was ready to go. I raised, then fired flop and turn with ace high. He check-called. We checked river and he showed KQ. Good idea, bad result.

The same orbit, I bluffed into a player who flopped trips. That didn't work so well, either, and I was down $70 in my first 30 minutes at the table.

Soon after, I got into a high-variance megapot. I raised big slick, flopped the broadway straight, and got all in with what I already knew was a decent player. I figured him on a set, but he had Ace-Queen - top pair plus the nut flush draw. I was all-in as a solid 58:42 favorite, but certainly no lock, and a diamond could wipe out my first buy-in early. Fortunately, though, I held up. Too bad we couldn't run the turn and river twice - I feel bad when two good players get into unfoldable giant hands - it's a high variance result with little upside, when there's so much easier money to be made at a $1/$2 table.

Here's another interesting spot - the player to my right made several smallish $7/$8 raises throughout the session, and these were never ever strong hands. Queen-nine, pockets fives, etc. This time, I called his small raise with a suited ace and we went headsup to the flop. Before seeing the cards, he bet $6 in the dark. Now could this ever be a strong hand? The flop came a King-Queen-Rag, no flush draw, and I felt like it was a good time to pretend to have king-queen. I raised his blind bet and sent him scurrying.

It was one of the few solid "poker" moves I had to make all day. A table full of weak-tights and loose-passives made my decisions easy and put me in almost zero tough spots. I received a high compliment late in the session - the player next to me jokingly said "I think you're stealing chips or something: you never play a hand, but your stack just goes up and up".

I thanked him for the compliment. I also noticed I had built up a 135 big blind profit in five hours, felt a bit tired, and heard the weather was getting bad outside. This added up to an obvious cue to exit, which I did.

Top of an 80% range.

2013-02-07T20:03:00.001-05:00

I have AJ against an 80/2: meaning they're playing 80% of every hand dealt to them.

for THIS hand, though, they have AQ, and I lose half a stack.

Bad Spots

2013-02-06T22:49:00.000-05:00

Just a bitch session...

How many bad spots can you get yourself into in one session? KK on an AAQTT board, facing a shove. AK facing an 11% 3better? Get it in, he's got aces. Top set on an all flush board. Yup, flopped flush.

3 buyins smoked.

Early Reads

2013-01-19T14:09:00.000-05:00

Short-ish Cleveland Horseshoe session last night nets me $146 in profit. A solid mental session as well where I played my "A" game despite the inevitable frustrations that the game brings.

One reason to stay focused at all times is to work on figuring out your opponents. As I sat down at the table, One player stuck his last $25 into the pot. He got a call, and then another player with a big stack raised the $25 to $50. The first caller shook his head and smiled, as the raiser smiled back and gave a "what can I do" shoulder shrug. Since someone was all-in, I knew I would get to see a showdown.

When we got to the end of the hand, the preflop all-in got a nice tripleup with a heart flush. The first caller showed a pathetic nine-six offsuit, and the shoulder-shrugging 3better showed the table ace-seven suited.

Yup, I might like this table

The player to my right quickly filled me in. The A7 three-better had built up a giant stack and was now throwing money around like it was his job.

So that hand's over, and I get dealt my first card. The crazy shoulder-shrugger opens under the gun, for $4. Four dollars? He just stuck $50 in the pot with ace-seven, what the hell kind of hand could $4 represent? Is it a big hand or a small one?

I didn't know, but my own cards turned out to be an ace and a jack, so I came into the pot also. My overall table position wasn't great, but I knew after one hand that I was entering a pot with a fishy opponent, and you usually can't wait for the perfect scenario to get his money.

I hit my top pair on the flop, but of course nothing is ever easy - all three cards were spades. Shoulder-shrugger sticks $10 in. I make the call, thinking I haven't played a hand yet and I'm already in a sticky spot. I will probably fold if he bombs the turn.

Turn comes and he checks. I check back. I've got a small hand, and this calls for a small pot.

River comes, no fourth spade. Villain checks again. My hand is certainly good. I bet $15, he sheepishly folds, smiling and saying "welcome to the table".

Sadly, that's the only hand I won off the shoulder-shrugger before his spectacular flameout. But paying attention early, even before I had cards, gave me enough information to play my first hand well, and win it.

New Splitsuit Video- dirt cheap

2013-01-18T14:53:00.002-05:00

My buddy SplitSuit has created a new poker training video called "How To Study and Improve". He's offering it for a paltry $10 right now (!)

Don't forget to type NOTEBOOK as the coupon code and you can get another buck off as well. $9 to learn ways to self-study? That's practically free!

Video can be purchased here.

Sucky session, sucky year so far

2013-01-16T22:52:00.000-05:00

Online poker sucks right now. Tables are nitty reg-fests where we steal each other's blinds and 3bet each other. A fish shows up and gets smoked within a dozen hands - hardly any chance to make money.

I'm down a buy-in on the year, 4300 hands. Tonight was one of those sessions where I just wasn't going to win a pot. Very rarely ever had the best hand at showdown. Pocket tens beaten by ace-jack, at least 3 flopped flush draws that never got there (played them well, stayed aggressive, just ended up with no pair on the river). Barreled the correct turn cards, got called anyway. No way, no how, was I winning a pot.

I posted a hand last week on 2+2 where I had AQ on the button and got 3bet by someone who 3bets wide. Consensus was this was an easy flat to see a flop. Tonight the situation come up again. Hit my ace on the flop and called. Hit my queen on the turn and called. River came, he bet big but I wasn't folding top two with this dynamic. He runner-runnered a backdoor flush, with 6-8 suited. Didn't even see the flush card come once my 2 pair hit. An old weakness of mine re-visited (where I stop thinking about the board once my hand gets pretty big). So much for the 2+2 advice. Played it by the book and got smoked for 50 bigs.

Poker gods told me to close up the session when I got a half stack all in on the turn with two red aces. He had two kings. The turn was a king, and the river, the fourth king, just to drive the point home. Message received.

Bad luck, bad play.

Nice Session

2013-01-09T22:52:00.000-05:00

Played really well tonight - got my 3bet percentage up to 5.5%, reduced my cold calling, AND I played 5 tables at the same time with no ill effects.

Just need AA and KK to hold up, and would have booked a solid win. But the play was really nice.

The single worst poker decision I've ever made.

2013-01-04T21:44:00.000-05:00

If we define tilt as "allowing your emotions to make decisions at the poker table", then tilt comes in many, many forms. I experienced a form of tilt last night that guided me to make the single, most ridiculous poker decision I've ever made at a table. Let this post serve as a memorial, a cautionary tale, and hopefully a lesson for my future self.

My home game mixes in one orbit of Pot Limit Omaha for every 2 orbits of No Limit Holdem. I don't talk much about Omaha on the blog - I'm not particularly good at it, and I personally find that reading about Omaha hand histories can be hard to follow. But I'll make an exception here to fulfill the need of documenting this atrocity.

Someone entered the pot with a raise. I held two pair in my hand, Kings and Nines. One King-Nine was suited (hearts), and the other was not. This hand was worth a call. There was one other caller, in the blinds, and we saw a flop.

Like most Omaha, flops, this one brought good and bad news. Eight Eight Deuce. A king-high flush draw, and 2 overpairs, which would give me the top full house if they hit. The original raiser checked to me. I felt like I could bet this flop and did so. I got one caller.

The turn was an exceptional, sensational Nine, giving me the top full house. A monster. I bet $25 into a $35 pot.

My opponent paused a beat, then said "raise pot". Our resident math-genius immediately announced the bet was $84, and he started cutting out the proper chips.

I've thought about what happened next for many hours now. Bizarre thoughts went through my head, instead of the obvious "RAISE ALL IN, DUMMY". I would characterize the two separate thoughts in this way. The first was the fear of getting stacked. Not because I give a crap about the $100. Not because I would be out of money for the night (I had another buy-in tucked nicely away in wallet). Just because I guess I hate getting stacked. I hate it. A sign of failure and all that. I know this is absolute terrible, destructive thinking in poker, and I have little trouble playing with aggression most of the time when needed, but when the bets get big and the stack gets threatened, my emotions take over in a destructive way. Apparently.

That's the least bizarre of the two thoughts that ran through my mind, though. The second was even more strange. It was something similar to the following:

"Oh my freaking god, does he actually have quad eights?
"I'll bet he has quad eights. That is the sickest thing ever".
"What would be EQUALLY sick, though, would be if I actually folded the top boat to this raise, and showed everyone what a boss I am".
"That is an INSANE idea!". I'm going to fold this boat! Ha Ha! I am THE FREAKING MAN".

And that's exactly what I did. I announced to the table "forget it, you've got quad eights, I fold", and then showed my two nines. The table sat in stunned silence, processing what I just did. My opponent in the hand looked particularly baffled, which is of course the exact moment when the emotion left my head and logic took over again.

"Oh, you didn't have quad eights?", I said.

"Uh, no", he replied. Which told my now-perfectly-sane brain that he had pocket twos, eight-deuce, or nine-deuce, most of which were drawing dead or nearly dead to my monster overfull.

That I just folded.

For no sane, reasonable reason on earth.

Ah, tilt rears its head again. Most people describe tilt as a gradual, building type of rage that occurs over the course of a session, and then causes us to do things outside the realm of proper play. My tilt is a much more insidious - mine occurs mid-hand. The adrenaline of the moment washes over me and causes a poor decision. Like shoving my stack in and blowing someone off two pair, for example. Or flopping the nut flush and getting runner-runner boated. I identified these hands as Monster Tilt at the time 6 months ago, and I guess that name still applies here. After all, I did have a monster. But it was the stack-committing raise from my opponent that really caused the adrenaline rush, and the destructive, outrageous thoughts that lead me to fold. Ever hear of tilt-folding a monster, for ego reasons? Well, now you have.

If you're interested in the thinking a sane, decent poker-playing person could have followed after facing the raise, it would have looked something like this:

"Oh my freaking god, does he actually have quad eights?
"I'll bet he has quad eights. That is the sickest thing ever".
(gathers self). "Well, yes, he could have quad eights. That’s one combo of possible hands."
"Or he could have 9-8. That’s 2 combos."
"Or he could have 2-2. That’s 3 combos."
"Or he could have 8-2. That’s 6 combos.
This player would get all-in with any of these hands. So I’m beating 11 combos and losing to 1.

ALL FUCKING IN

Next up, finding ways to deal with this mid-hand, adrenaline-based tilt. It's crushing my game.

Live reads and bad betsizing

2013-01-01T11:31:00.002-05:00

Cleveland Horseshoe on New Year's eve, 2012. A LAGGY player sitting two spots to my right is making my life difficult right now. His aggressiveness seems to come and go - I've seen him raise up junk like 74o, but also limp A9o.

This time I get a limp from him. My cards reveal 79, both hearts. I've been quiet for some time, so I go for an isolation raise, which happens to work. We go to the flop heads up.

The flop brings 458 with two spades. Not much for me except a gutshot. This gutshot has a bit more value than others, though, because a 6 puts a 4 card straight out there, meaning my opponent would also have a straight with a 7, but I would be holding the nuts. Those situations can be profitable.

My opponent leads into me for $20. These donk bets are almost always weak. A set or 67 would definitely checkraise. Maybe a pair and a gutshot with something like 78 or 56, maybe spades. Anyway, my image is a tight player who has already iso-raised preflop, and I have a bit of backup equity. I raise to $55. My opponent doesn't look comfortable, but he's sticky and makes the call.

Wonder of wonders, I hit my gutshot on the turn - a six of diamonds, which makes two river flush draws possible. My opponent checks.

My choice of bet size is critical here. I wouldn't mind stacks going in, of course, holding the nuts. I have to price out the spade draw (diamonds much less likely), but I also should bet small enough to keep the weak part of his range interested. After all, I have already read him as weak.

That last part eludes my brain in live thinking. I bomb the pot for $95, hoping he's holding a 7. He's not happy about it, but he folds, showing ace-eight. Top pair. A smaller bet might have gotten a call.

I really have to work on value betsizing. You can often just bombs away against fish and have them happily call, but much more thought is required to get value from decent players. I have to understand that a 7 is probably shoveling money into the pot anyway, and I don't have to maximize value against that part of his range. Focus on getting money from all of his holdings, not just the second nuts. This was my worse bet of the session.

I had a second, similar opportunity a bit later in the session, I hit two pair with 78 on a Q78 board. Someone lead out $5 (lol) into a $35 pot, and I raised it up right away. He called and I immediately put him on a club flush draw. The turn filled me up - I wanted to bet but not enough to scare the flush draw away. This time I settled on a much more reasonable $45, but my opponent folded again, telling me he probably had some queen with a crappy kicker that finally got convinced was no good. This was the same poor result, but I was much happier with the sizing.

Keep making good decisions and the results will follow.

Live Poker Results, 2012

2013-01-01T11:09:00.003-05:00

I kept accurate records of all my live poker play in 2012.

The grand total is $2328 won. Not a bad little supplement to the income. I don't keep my poker bankroll separate from my other cash (I'm not a pro), so as long as I have $500 available somewhere for a game, then I'm happy. The rest goes to paying the pizza guy and a $20 for the kids as they head out for a movie.

About half of those winnings came at the Cleveland Horseshoe. I won $1108 total in 97.5 hours, for an $11.36 hour rate at $1/$2. Not terrible, but could be better. I am going to work very hard on adjustments in my live game in 2013.

I'm not a big tourney player. I play in the monthly neighborhood tourney, where I took a second place and a third place finish this year. I also played in a couple of basement tourneys, and cashed in both of those. Total tourney earnings for the year was $65. These are almost all super-fast structures, so any positive earn is a good one. Flip around one race or getting kings cracked and that shifts further over into positive territory.

The rest of the earnings come from cash games, mostly the game I host, along with a few other games I attended throughout the year.

Very pleased that I'm a overall profitable poker player, but I still aim for improvement. My goal is to crush the game.

2012 Review - Online

2012-12-30T20:33:00.003-05:00

I was very pleased with my online results this year, until this past week, when a downswing took a big bite out of my numbers.

4.1bb/100 hands is okay, not great. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, at only 32,000 hands played, this number is so affected by short term variance that it is really no reliable indicator of my skill level at this point. I don't think I'll ever put in enough volume to get rid of that variance monkey.

My chart below show results by stakes. I'm getting smoked since moving up to .10/.20 on Full Tilt before Black Friday, with good results. I'm going to keep hammering at this level until my (meager) online bankroll forces me to move down.

Self-analysis. I'm a decent, not great Holdem Player. I will continue to work on my game and improve. My live results from 2012 will come in a future post. I have one more session coming tomorrow...

my month so far

2012-12-27T14:48:00.001-05:00

99, Standard raise, 3 callers. Check/fold flop.

Next hand, same table, AA. Standard raise. 0 callers.

Edit: Started a new table, got AA while 3 handed. Got stacked by 23o. TWO-THREE OFFSUIT! He played it very well, he made a pot sized semibluff on the turn because 45 was on the board, and I thought he had 2 pair or something. This froze me and I ended up just calling. The ace on the river, giving me trips, doomed me. No way I was folding, and no way I should have folded.

Played break even besides that hand, meaning I lost another buy-in today. Time to call it an official downswing - down 6 buy-ins this week.

Crusher

2012-12-25T23:25:00.000-05:00

Experienced a year-ruining, confidence shaking session tonight. 3.5 buy-ins lost. Not that I feel like I played poorly - just stupid coolers getting aces and kings and sets cracked every time. But when your bb/100 for the year goes down a full point in one session, it might be the most disheartening thing to happen in my poker life.

I thought perhaps I was really playing well this year, but maybe I just haven't had my share of variance yet, and I'm still just another guy when my true skill level is shaken out.

Of course, I don't play enough hands online anymore to ever know anyway. I could be anywhere between God's gift to poker or completely mediocre. There's no way to know. 30,000 hands isn't even enough to do a solid database analysis, and that's all I'm going to play this year.

I would have preferred just continuing to run hot and booking a good year.

Remebering what's important

2012-12-24T23:04:00.001-05:00

Poker gave me a reminder of what's really important in this world, by having me flop 2 sets vs. fish and losing both hands online tonight, within the span of 12 minutes. 2 buy-ins, gone.

So ridiculous. And meaningless. Because I get to shut it off and wake up to celebrate Christmas with my family tomorrow. Which puts a suckout or two in the proper perspective.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Poker Training

2012-12-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

I am a voracious consumer of all forms of poker training. Books, videos, forums, pamphlets - you name it, I'm reading/watching it. I'm always trying to learn.

In my quest to find quality poker training material, I happened upon *Splitsuit*'s videos. Split is a moderator on one of the Two Plus Two forums, and he has been in the poker video business for years. He has also written an excellent book, called "Dynamic Full Ring Poker".

Split has now made most of his training materials available online, as well as some other authors' stuff as well. I am very pleased to direct my (small) army of readers to his site now, and to go spend gobs of money there.

I wouldn't recommend this stuff unless it helped me. An example: for awhile I decided to try and become a 3bet monkey, and of course I did it all wrong and spewed off several buy-ins overplaying hands. The big culprit was Big Slick - I got absolutely crushed using AK as my big semibluffing hand. This is a good idea on the surface, but I was often employing the strategy at all the wrong times, like when my opponent was likely to have a big hand, for example. Fortunately, Split has a video dedicated to playing Ace King. I watched the video a couple times and was soon back on track.

There's a ton of material over there, and much of it is currently on sale. I'm sure you'll find something that can help your game. His store can be found at the link at the bottom of this post.

Make sure you use the special checkout code NOTEBOOK if you decide to purchase - which will give you 10% off your purchase price!

http://www.splitsuit.com/shop