Lifestyle change

Right, lately, I've just become a complete slob and it's not cool.. So decided on a bit of a lifestyle change starting from now.

-No more smoking

-No drinking (unless in the company of others)

-Eat food that I have prepared, i.e no packaged sandwiches, dominos, mcds etc. (unless in the company of others or "out" somewhere)

-Get my 5 fruit & veg a day

-Drink more than 3 pints of water a day

-Continue with the jogging

What else?

Double or Nothings suck. Time to try 180mans

Yah, well I got to 200 games on the DoNSnGs. I was doing okay then went on tilt cos I lost like 6 in a row and stupidly played a $50 DoNSnG and lost. LOL

Thing is though, as profitable as those games are... they don't really do much for your poker game... Pretty noobish and I felt like a complete fish playing them.

However, I've recently discovered the joys of 180man SnGs which are FULL of completely ***WOW*** players. You know the kind, where you check raise them all in on the turn with Top2pair AND straight/flush draw and they call you with pocket 2's and hit their one outer 2 on the river that doesnt make your flush.

I'm trying to get better at multitabling MTT's. So I've set myself a challenge of playing 150 of them during November and seeing how well/bad I am doing by then.

150 is NOT a lot to some people, but one of my weakness's is not being able to put enough volume in, so 150 180man SnG's is a LOT for me!

Have withdrawn my money so I had exactly $100 in my stars account.

Starting at the $4.40s and will move up to the $11s if my bankroll gets to $550 as I'm setting a bankroll rule of 2% for this challenge. We'll see how it goes.

If this challenge fails, I'll stick to what I know best and can profit at for a while and that is 9man SnG's LOL. What a fish.

Anyone got any ideas on how to make a poker blog more interesting?

Live Poker Etiquette

So yeah, played the local tourney tonight. Didn't do too well, but I left feeling more *pfffffff* than anything else.

Went like this:
Previous history = The guy had raised in late position a few times on my BB and I had won 2 of the 3 times by re-raising or betting on the flop. I figure this guy is pretty good at poker blah blah.

I got knocked out by: Everyone folds, the guy on button raises to 1800 preflop. SB folds. I look at J 10 sooooooooooted, blinds are 300/600. So I call the extra 1200. Lets see the flop.

(Now before anyone comments on my play, I'm not listening! This post is about his play)

A K x rainbow.

I have an inside straight draw, but that doesnt matter, what matters is he is going to C-bet, and I am gonna shove in the hope he folds.

I check. He C-bets. I shove.

He takes an age to decide what to do. ummmmming n arrrreing. Eventually, like its a 'gamble', he calls. I say "err yeh, Im on a pretty bad draw". He hesitantly flips over pocket aces....

If it was someone who was a decent sportsman and just called instantly, I would have thought "well played, nice hand, you got me". He got me in the spot he wanted according to the previous history, but slow-rolling like that? Makes me think pfffff, thats such a feeble thing to do. Why be a jerk? Are you really that bothered and pissed off that I outplayed you 2 out of 3 times in a little £30 tournament? Wow.

(a Q didnt come on the turn or river unfortunately, if it did, I wouldnt have said anything. If it came up against a non tard, I would have said 'sorry man')

So yeah, what I take from that is: I dont like un-sportsman-like behaviour. Its just ghey.

I named this post Live Poker Etiqutte, not just because of the slowrolling thing, but I have seen this guy play a few times now and I've noticed a lot of annoying things about him. Half the time he has absolutely no idea when it is his turn to act, off in dreamland somewhere thinking about fairies or flowers or something, thats fine, but what annoys me more is:

He is very often commenting on hands in play which he is not a part of. My whole philosophy is, if you aren't in the hand, then shut the fuck up. Don't blurt out to the person next to you "I woulda flopped a flush" cos that takes 2 cards off of the pot odds etc and changes the play, he also says things like "He could quite possibly have a set and I think she is on a draw".

When the hand is over, then yeah, talk to your hearts content about that hand, but till then, STFU.

The lady next to me said to him "why did you take so long to call?" and he didnt say anything, so I said, and made sure everyone could hear "he was slowrolling me".

MOFO. Can only take my chips with pocket aces, see you next week!

Double or Nothings

Decided to try and make some moolah on the DONSNG's on pokerstars. Currently, my SharkScope Double Or Nothing graph looks like this after 130 games:



Not good at all. I must say though, I haven't actually played a DON for about a year because I got pissed off with them. That whole "these are easy but im getting screwed" attitude. Well, after seeing the following DON graph, I am determined to start grinding these out... will be sticking to a 10% rule for these. Not sure if I am gonna play the normal or turbo's. Turbo's might be better, can pump out more volume which will help beat the rake. We shall soon find out ;)



Awesome huh?

Actually can't wait to get home and try these again. I don't think it is a particularly skillful form of poker, but if there is easy money to be had, you should go for it, cos that at the end of the day is the whole point isnt it? Money.

I will post my SharkScope DON Graph when I get to 200 games, if I'm not in profit by then, I will give up :p

Oh shit, man, I thought I was 5th!

Played in the local tournament again sunday night, was a £40 freezeout.

32 players and barely JUST cashed in 6th place. Not proud of limping in to the money, but in all honesty, I couldn't really do anything! When we got to final table, I had plenty of chips, but all of a sudden, the blinds are just insane, by the time I got knocked out, the blinds were at 5000/10,000

Lets do some maths.....

32 players with 7000 starting chips. 32 * 7000 = 224000.

That makes a total of 22.4 BB's in play! That is when there are 7 people left! If the payout structure wasn't so steep, I wouldn't mind. But 1st place for £450 makes me feel like I got shortchanged!

Shouldn't complain though! As you know what? I got so lucky you wouldn't believe it.

7 people left (I thought there was 6 left for some stupid reason).... and they started talking about taking £10 off each of the 5 paying places, to be nice and give 6th £50. So everyone agreed (everyone knew the blinds were getting rediculous).

Guy next to me gets knocked out, so I'm thinking, woop at least £90 now. I get knocked out on next hand (I had 1000 left after posting my for 5000 on my SB, so I call without looking at my cards). The *BIG STACK* with about 6 BB's calls me and ends up rivering quad 5's lol! I looked at my cards and almost made a straight lol.

So yeh, there's me thinking I'm out in 5th, chap comes over to cash me out and write my name on the list thing, so he said "£50 yeh?", n I thought he was joking and just laughed and said "nah man, I'm 5th so I should get £90?". Then he was like 'errrrrrr', so I looked around to count and prove that I was 5th. So counted

1,2,3,4,5 and me = 6.

"Oh shit, man, I thought I was 5th!"

So there's me, thinking "Yeh I will let Mr 6th place have his money back" being all smug n stuff. I didn't realise they were talking about me! LOL really should pay attention to small things like that. If they hadn't have been such lovelies to give me £10 each *before I got knocked out on my loose fifth of SB call*, I woulda had nothing lol.

To be honest though, I think they will have done quite a lot of chopping. So shoulda waited with my 5th of a SB AKA 10th of BB for another orbit to see if a couple of others with less than 1BB stacks get knocked out, or try and get chops. I think I got muddled up on that 5/6/7 people issue because I was concentrating so much on how many times all ins will happen before its my turn!

On another note..... we had a good ol' laugh at these 2 wanabees. It was their first time at the game cos no one knew them, but everyone was talking about how stupid they look as they were wearing sunglasses and it was quite possibily the most rediculous thing I have ever seen. It's like "Do you realise this is a £40 freezeout, not a WSOP $40K tournament?". Neither were that impressive on the actual poker front either which made it even funnier. One of them was on button while I was in BB early on in game. Everyone folded to him, he raised 3xBB. (I wonder if he read that in a book 2 days earlier?). I didn't even look at my cards cos I knew how to win the pot. I called. Flop came blah blah blah, I checked. He bet a so obvious 2 3rds of a pot. So I raised him about 3 X his bet. He insta mucks. What a pleb.

I got moved a couple of orbits later unfortunately as I wanted to take advantage of this guy trying to steal my blinds, didn't mind though, as on my new table. I flopped 2 ace high flushs and 2 nut straights. I was also flopping flush draws all over the place, betting on them and then hitting them on the turn, and if I didnt hit them on turn, people seemed to fold to my bet anyway. One hand I flopped an ace high flush draw, I bet, someone called. Turn is another spade *woooo*. I bet, he raised me all in, I call. He had the king flush. Poker is easy when you get good cards. Then all of a sudden, mr wanabee pro got moved to my next to me on my right. I noticed he had really dirty fingernails which is horrible. I hate dirty fingernails. He was out a few hands later on a bluff. He was in BB, everyone folds to SB who had been playing pretty tight as was getting fairly decent cards. SB raises 3 or 4 X BB, dirty fingernails autoshoved all in (protecting blinds obviously). SB auto calls with pocket 8's. Ol' fingernails has 4 3 suited and doesnt get lucky. FAIL! lol

I could go on forever just how silly these 2 guys were, if they had just come in without sunglasses and without the attitude, they coulda probably done alright as people wouldn't be playing back at them. I know it is good to have people trying to play back at you, like when you have "got lucky" on them a few hands before or something. But you need to know how to play that way skillfully. I don't claim to be an expert in reverse psychology, but I find that if I don't make people think I am a complete pleb with an attitude + sunglasses, they are generally quite nice to me, and they respect/believe my bets/raises quite a lot. LOL

An interesting OESD hand that I played live. I suck at maths!

Went to a tournament at a little local pub, the format was just a small stakes turbo SnG as there were only 9 people with blinds raising every 15 minutes. One hand that played was a weird one, one of those "What the hell am I suppose to do?" kind of hands which I hate.

It goes as follows:

I know it shouldn't change my style of play, but as the buyin was only £5 (I'm use to playing £30+ Live Tournaments), I was up for playing loosey goosey and just seeing what happens. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking with it!

Blinds are 100/200

I am BB, everyone folds to button who limps in, SB calls, I look down at J 9, I Check.

Button had been playing quite a few hands, SB was pretty tight.

Flop = 8 9 10

I have middle pair and an Open Ended Straight Draw (OESD), SB checks.

I checked. There is 500 in the pot. Button minbets 200. SB folds, I call. I am putting button easily on a pair of 10's, not sure of kicker, definetily not an A though, as you just don't limp in late position with A10! I am calling to hit a straight.

Turn = J

This is making me feel like this hand isn't going to end up nice. I have 2 pair now, but the board is giving that open ended straight draw.

I checked. He bets about 300. I end up calling. I am going with my gut instinct, he doesn't have a straight and my 2 pair might just be good now.

River = Q (possibily the worst river card ever)

Q straights the board obviously.

There is about 1500 in the pot. We both have about 3000 in chips.

I checked. He goes all in. Its crunch time for me now, does he have a K? It's possible as he could have K 10. But then again, he could quite easily be making a great steal here. Maybe by going all in, he is making it "look" like a steal, so I believe him and call, for him to show me the K 10? At this moment in time, my mind is 50/50 whether to call or not, I honestly don't know. If I fold, I will be back down to average chips again, if I call (and lose), I will have enough for exactly the SB!

I called, playing the board. He had...... (I may tell you later ;) )

My thoughts: I played the hand like shit. Check calling is never good in these situations and don't know why I played it so passivly. I think I could have won the pot on the turn by check raising all in, Yeh he could have called all in on the OESD obviously, but isn't getting the right odds I think... lets see if I can work this out properly: PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG!

Pot contains 4500. Costs 3000 to potentially win: so 3:2 odds
1 card to come. Four 7s, Four Qs = 8 cards.
52 - 2 - 4 = 46 unseen cards.
(8 / 46) * 100 = 17.39% chance of making his hand.
I am confused now and don't know how to work out if that is good for me.

(Mental note: Automate pot odds/probabilities into your brain!!! Maybe get some lessons on how to work this stuff out quickly. I never was very good at maths!)

I guess its +EV if he calls, whether the pot is split or he wins it (with a Q on river, and K in hand if he does indeed have a K). By not check raising all in on the turn, I put myself in the above awful river situation.

Putting pot odds aside though, if he is calling on the OESD, would the fact that he would make a higher straight by hitting the OESD make him more likely to call? As he wouldnt be splitting the pot if he hits the Q on the river? (That is, assuming he has the K)

I think the moral of this story is to just avoid these sticky situations, I find it very hard to think they can be profitable in the long run. A normal OESD situation is fine and I am confident at playing them, but this OESD situation had SO MANY other things to take into consideration that its just not worth it. Any opinions?

Very sorry if this post doesnt make any sense. I suck at maths!

(By the way, he did have the K lol)

Poker is fun

Was playing a $10 SnG last night and a hand came up. The hand itself is not so interesting, but it was the guys reaction.

Blinds were at 30/60, everyone folds to me in button.

I have Q9 suited. I am going to steal the two tight players blinds. I raise to 180.

SB folds. BB re-raises to 500. I have just over 2K chips, I call. I know it is a bit of a loose call, but I am putting him on AA or KK, if I flop a big hand here, I have no doubt I can get all his chips, also depending on flop texture and what he does on flop will allow me to act accordingly. Hence why it is common knowledge to be in "late position" as much as possible!

Flop comes A X X. Pot = 1030

BB checks.

Alarm bells are ringing. He has KK for sure. Absolutely guaranteed he has KK. If he had AA or even AK, he would be betting that! Well, each to their own, but if I flop a set of Aces, I tend to lead out (most of the time anyway), especially if I had re-raised preflop! But as he checked, that is telling me he is shit scared of that flop (if I am wrong, then great play on his behalf). So I bet 650. he folds, then the conversation went like this...

Donk: "Folding KK because of A-Rag shit player".
Me: "Dont cry".
Donk: "Im not, im just saying you cant win like that"
Me: "Be quiet"

He didnt write anything else after that, and went out in 6th place. He had played 7% of his hands. I should have wrote "You cant win like that", because lets face it, you can't win by playing 7% of hands (unless you double up every single time you play a hand) LOL.

I find it funny how people write stuff like that as though it was a skillful fold. Not really. Folding KK on an Ace board is easy if you are facing preflop/postflop aggression, and you shouldn't batter an eyelid. He played it correctly preflop, but postflop he should have (I would have) bet out with KK. Just put a little tester bet. 350 or so. See what I do. But instead he showed weakness, I won the pot because of it, and then he blames me!

I might sit and rail some of the top online pro's tonight. (Will turn off the observer chat, have you seen those fish writing stuff like "Fold, he has a K" on the nosebleed stakes with players like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen etc? You just feel like writing "Dude, the cards dont matter to these guys! Gus Hansen may indeed put Dwan on a K, but Gus is wondering if there is a chance of taking the pot away from Dwan on the turn or river if flush/trip/straight cards come up!", but then you would end up being another observer fish). Anyway, yeh I might sit and watch some online tournament pro's tonight and play a little game. Basically try and put them on hands, or more importantly, what to do to win the hand. For instance, if I think that raising now would make moorman1 fold, and the guy raises and moorman1 folds, I will be like "woooooooooooooooo" lol. Probably won't happen but we will see.

Poker is fun. And no, I'm not a fan of "Poker is fun". Geeky white boy poker rappers make me want to throw up.