SneakrFreakr's poker blog

So yesterday I've read an article on table selection. Even though I knew most of these things before, I would usually be to lazy to focus on it. But this article convinced me to pay more attention to this aspect of the game. So I opened the best 16 6max nl100 tables on ftp (highest % of people seeing flop, 70bb+ stacks etc) and left them on with PT and PAHUD for 20 mins or so untill I got statistics for most players. Than chose 8 or 10 of these tables, cancalled my table reservations a few times to get better position on weak players and finally got 8 good tables filled with donks with about 40/10 stats and big stacks to my right. I wasn't sure if I should play that many tables but I had no problems except for the fact that for like 20 minutes my broadband was very slow and I had to close 4 tables.

The session started pretty well and after 20 minutes I was up about 2 buyins. Later on I started running pretty bad. I was getting good cards, hitting flops pretty good as well but I lost a few major pots end I ended the session being up about $200. Here are the stats from this session:



I was playing very tight but this is because of 8 tables and I’m still not used to it. The other things it that this was enough to make people pay me off where they shouldn’t.
Now I need to get my party rakeback set up and I’ll be playing a mix of FTP and Party. I might give some other networks a go as well, just to clear some bonuses, get some rakeback etc. and maybe I’ll find a gold mine.

Here are some interesting hands from today:

1. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141453
That was a tough one. I’m not gonna post the results now cause first I’d like to hear some comments. Villains’ stats: ianleeds - 19.3/5.3 / AdmiralTwill - 18/10. No other reads. What do you guys think about it?

2. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141457
Thanks a lot.

3. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141730
I think folding is the right play in this spot. Any opinions?

4. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141731
Should’ve raised on flop probably. Villain’s stats – 22/20 I was actually close to fold on turn when he bet big. Luckily I was right this time.

5. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141734
Ship it.

6. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141735
Probably should’ve bet on flop but I try to mix betting and checking on AAx flops with both Ax and others hands to confuse my opponents. He either sensed my weakness or had a really good hand.

7. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141737
I had a big problem when deciding what to do in this spot. There’s a preflop raise, shortstack’s allin for 16bb and I ‘ve got KK. I figured that calling wasn’t a good idea as it might’ve given the other villain too good pot odds. Raising like $40 would look pretty strong so I figured that I’d push to make it look as if I wanted to stay in the pot only with the shortstack with a decent but not a top notch hand. Bastard folded anyway.

8. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141739
Well, happens.

9. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141740
I really like the way I played it hand and after his call on the flop I planned to make it look like I’ve been 3-barreling or sth. Pot-sized bet on the river and he calls with top pair, no kicker. He was playing very loose (47/20), splashing around and trying to stack me.

10. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141743
I think this was an easy (and correct) fold. What hands can I beat that he’s pushing here?

11. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141745
Pot odds.

12. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141746
Turn gave me a nut FD so I fired a second barrel. He checkraised me and my odds weren’t good enough if I was hoping for a flush only. But since he was a very loose and aggressive player I was pretty sure that my overcards are good as well. Made a call with proper odds and the turn helped me to win.

13. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141747
Managed to induce a river bluff by checking – just as I planned it.

14. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141748
Standard?

15. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141751
That was a tough one. Villain wasn’t raising often so I gave him credit. It might’ve been a mistake but he haven’t even made a 3-bet before). What do you guys think?

16. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/141754
Villain was pretty tight, with stats about 17/10. I saw him 3-betting a few times though. I also had a good image and I think he respects my game. The flop wasn’t ideal for me but I decided to raise his pot sized flop bet. If he had TT-QQ he’d probably fold thinking that I might have KK or AA. If he had one of the top two pairs, he could also fold thinking that I’ve hit a set. And there’s always a possibility that he was bluffing.


I’m a bit tired since I slept only 3 hrs yesterday but I’m gonna play a 2-3hr session now anyway. If I feel that I’m not playing well, then I’ll finish my session. And from now on I’ll be posting only the really most interesting hand histories as it takes too much time to post 10+ hands a day.

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So on Thursday I decided to play some live poker. Unfortunetaly the lowest stakes are £2/£2 so I'm underbankrolled for this game but it's soooo juicy that it would be stupid not to take advantage of it. I wanted to take £400 for two full buyins and if I lost them, I'd call it a day. But my damn credit card has a £200 daily withdrawal limit so I had only £200 with me. I decided to just buyin for £100. I don't like playing without the maximum buyin but I thought it was much safer.

So I got there about 11pm and I've been told that cash games would start about midnight (when one table from the rebuy tournament breaks - I don't like tournaments and the structure in these ones is crappy so I don't play them). I went to the bar, had a drink, read some Bluff Europe magazine and got back to the cardroom. Finally the game started and I was seated at my table. I recognized 2-3 players from the tournament when I finished 3rd but I didn't know anything about the others. Only 1 or two guys bought in for a full buyin so my £100 wasn't that bad. What's very strange about cash games in this casino is that the blinds are posted by a button and the person that should be a small blind. Has anyone heard about it before?

Anyway I was pretty much card dead for the first 3 hours. I won only one pot (with a c-bet on flop) and I haven't hit a single pair on the flop, not even a damn draw. It have never happened to me before. 62o, 93s, J4o all the time. Actually I got AK 4 times but haven't hit anything at all and c-betting more than 1 opponent in this game is pretty much throwing money away. After some time I finally started getting some hands. AQ, I raise pot (it was a pot limit game), 1 caller. Flop is Q high we both check. Turn is a blank I bet he folds. Few hands later my biggest pot this day took place.

I got KK in the middle position and two guys limped before me so I raised the pot (£12). Got 3 callers (SB + two limpers). Flop comes TJT. I'm a bit worried that one of them is actually holding a T but I decided to fire anyway. Pot was about £50 and I bet £35. SB calls and a blank comes on turn. Villain pushes for remaining £15 and I have to call. J comes on the river and I know that I'm in trouble. He shows Jx (can't remember his second hand). The other thing is that the guy that was sittin next to me said that he folded 4th jack preflop. I was down to £30-£40 and I continued playing. I though about rebuyin but I decided to try get back to £100+ with my shortstack. I managed to double up with QQ against the guy that rivered me before with a J. Won and lost a few small/medium pots and finished the session being up about £25. Not that bad if we consider how terribly I've been running this day. The opponents were terrible. Well except for one guy who was quite decent. He asked where am I from and after I said that I'm from Poland, he was saying "fuckin Lech Walesa" (former Polish president) all the time. I think there wasn't a single pot that was raised preflop and uncalled by anyone. At least 3-4 limpers per pot (plus SB and BB), terrible post flop play etc etc. I just can't wait for the Tuesday (cash games are only on Tuesdays and Thursday). This time I'll take a full buyin for sure. I also need to get a bigger roll so that I could feel there more comfortably (20buyins should be enough). Next Friday I'll try out a new casino that is supposed to have some lower stakes.

Yesterday I was too tired to post anything. I finished work at 4pm. Got home, ate a kebab (lamb > chicken and shish), went to bet about 5:30pm and woke up at 6:30am today. 13hrs of sleep and I was still soooo tired.

Now I'm gonna play online for about 3-4hrs and watch some tv later.

2 votes

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Well so it's 6am here and I've just got home after cash game session in casino. Ran like shit but ended up in the green anyway. I'll post the details later because now I gotta get ready for work cause I start at 7am. 2-3 cans of redbull and I should be allright. At least for the first couple of hours.

1 votes

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I don't know what's going on with my broadband but it really blows. I can't even play properly. I get disconnected every 2 mins and because of this I lost so many $ that I don't even want to think about it. I was getting bad cards as well, a few set-ups (top set vs flopped str8 against 70bb stack etc.) and luckily I ended up only 1 buyin down. I'm not tilting but I'm too pissed off because of this shitty broadband to post any hands. I'll just put my stats from today as usually and that's it for today. Tommorow I'm gonna call those bastards from Orange. My broadband was supposed to be 8mb but I can't even browse the websites now comfortably. I can't play until this gets fixed because I don't feel like flopping a fuckin set in a 3-way reraised pot and getting disconnected again. Ughhhhhhhh. Now I'm going to cook sth nice to relax cause I'm soooo pissed off at those bastards from Orange (it's not my computer's fold - I tried even my friends' laptops and it's the same).

1 votes

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This is my poker setup.



15.4" laptop extended with a 17" lcd. Sometimes I play just on my laptop. I wanted to buy a PC and a 20" lcd but in May I'm planning to travel a bit across the Europe and then go back to Poland for summer (before I come back to the uni in September) so I'd have a huge problem what to do with hardware. Maybe I'll change my mind later but at the moment it's enough for me and I can easily play 6 tables with my setup (party and ps - no overlap, ftp - small overlap).

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So I tried to play a long session but because of my shitty broadband I was getting disconnected all the time, most often in the middle of big pots, when I've been holding good cards. So I got a bit pissed off and made a few stupid plays. If not for them, I'd be up about $100-$150. Instead I ended up being down $30 (only $30 but still down). And the worst part is that before starting this session I read an article on Double Barelling and how you should avoid using it to often. Yeah I know I'm retarted.



Here are a few hands from this session:

1. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139511
Couldn't hit a single flop for like 30 mins and I got to excited about a J high flush draw. Shouldn't have happened.

2. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139514
Since he had a medium stack I was probably not going to fold anyway in this spot so I figured that overbetting and putting him allin might make him think that I'm bluffing or pushing a flush draw. So he did and called with just 68. Ship it

3. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139515
This hand got me a bit confused because of his strange line. What do you think about my turn play? Should I bet in the first place? What is my line when he miniraises? River looks like a good fold. I think the only hands he could hold were KK, AA, flush or a crazy bluff. Comments appreciated.

4. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139519
His calling range on flop is pretty wide (I was playing pretty loose, lots of 3betting etc.). Turn was definitely a scare card unless he had 99, KK or AA. I decided to fire a 2nd barrel and I won the pot.

5. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139522
One of the worst hands I've ever played. No comments.

6. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139523
Pretty nice call. I had a really bad image so I didn't c-bet this flop. Instead I wanted to induce a turn bluff on him. He checked so I bet to protect my hand (I was pretty sure I'm the best). I was quite confused when I saw that he raised me. I knew that he wouldn't do it with a good hand so I called. River was a good card for me. He fired again for more than 2/3 of the pot but he bet very quickly. I was thinking for a few seconds and because of his turn check-raise I was pretty sure that he's bluffing. I was lucky that the board double paired though.


Now I'm going to analyze some more of my hands and browse some forums unless my flatmate stops downloading her porn or whatever makes our broadband work like shit.

0 votes

Comments (3)

1. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139424
I'm not sure if I should make this kind of plays on this level (nl100) but I felt that against this opponent I can do so. I was playing pretty loose at this table, raising and re-raising preflop a lot. I felt that he could've 3-bet me with any 2 cards since I was on the button. I decided to call and se what flop and turn brings and I was ready to take down this pot if he showed any weakness. Plus effective stacks were about 130bb so I had some implied odds as well. I missed the flop but knew that he would bet any flop and his hand didn't matter here at all. There was also a good chance that he had QQ, JJ, TT so I was pretty sure that he would slow down on turn with these hands. The only hands I had to be worried about were KK, AA and maybe AK (well 99 is also possible). I decided to call and see what a turn brings. Queen of diamonds came on turn and it wasn't the best card I could get. He checked. Now I wasn't sure whether I should bet or not but I figured that most probably he wouldn't check a set in this case and he was very likely to fold AK and AA in this spot (unless he had A of diamonds). His range at this point was pretty wide and I figured that taking a shot at this pot would be +ev. I bet 50 into a $75 pot and he almost ran out of time before folding. Now when I'm thinking about this hand more deeply I think that it probably was a bad idea to pull out such a play without a better knowledge of my opponent (especially at this level). But luckily my judgment was right this time. I would love to hear any comments on this hand so feel free to post your thoughts.

2. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139431
Fancy play syndrome? Probably. But he was playing pretty wild and I figured that he could bet this way with any 2 cards. I checked the flop since there was no point in betting, as I would get called only by weaker hands. It took me a lot of time to make a decision here and I decided to call (well I actually raised him $8 more) and it turned out to be a bad move.

3. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139432
This is an interesting hand. I got Q3s on the BB and with 2 limpers I checked behind. Flop was great for me - OESD + FD. I raised the initial bettor and he minireraised me. I thought about repopping him but since there was another caller I thought that I might be facing a higher flush draw. I decided to just call and turn was a good card for me. I'm not sure how would I play if another club came on turn (or river). From now on, I was betting 4th and 5th street for value and he called me pretty lightly (probably thanks to my image. I think he must have put me on a missed FD.

4. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139435
Villain made a pretty good call. He was a pretty wild player and I thought that there's a pretty good chance that my hand was good on flop and turn (probably should've raised flop then). On the river a good bluff card came and I raised him. He called me instantly. Probably shouldn't have made this play especially since I had a bad image and he was tilting a bit. Won't happen again (at least let's hope so).

5. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139439
Pre-flop and flop is standard. I think turn as well. The only options are pushing and check/folding. But since I had a pretty agressive (and maybe a little bad as well) image I figured that he might've called flop with hands like 99, TT, JJ, AQ and that there was a good chance that he would fold them if I bet on turn again. I still had a nut flush draw and two over cards so I think I made a good play. If I had a better image I think he might've even folded KK in this spot since he seemed to be a solid player.

6. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139445
How could he just call the river? Anyway I just called his flop raise with and intention to check-raise on turn. Luckily for me he checked behind (but I still think my play would be correct in the long term). I fired on the river for 3/4 of the pot and he just called. Thanks for saving me $50 mate.

7. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139448
Some tilt? Maybe. But this guy was betting/calling/raising everytime I missed or when I was bluffing and folding everytime I had a hand (and he was sooo bad). I figured that a check/call is better in this spot as he will probably bet any hand in this case. On turn I bet out but he miniraised me so I had to fold. Any thoughts?

8. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139452
Standard? Or maybe I should just put him allin on turn without check-raising? He only had a 50bb stack at the beginning of the hand.

9. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139453
Took me some time to make a decision but the board was pretty draw he would bet theavy and I knew that these donks don't bet out and even 3-bet allin with flopped trips/sets so his most likely holding was a SD or FD. The only hands I was worried about were overpairs (small and medium stacks love to just call with them without reraising preflop). I wasn't happy to see a third spade come on the river but he showed KT. Ship it.

10. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139454
Probably another stupid play by me (and I got lucky this time). The two of us were playing pretty wild against each other. I knew that he would bet the flop with any two if I check so with my two overcards I decided to call and bet almost any turn (yeah, fancy play syndrome). It was a good card - 3rd diamond so I bet out hoping he would fold thinking that I might be holding a flush. He called and a 4th diamond came on the river. I knew that there's a very small chance that he would call me if I bet so I checked, trying to induce a bluff from him. Fortunetaly he almost insta-bet 2/3 of the pot and folded to my push.

11. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/139456
Well this is a pretty standard spot but I seem to have a lot of problems while dealing with similar situations. Any comments appreciated, especially regarding my turn play (bet? if yes then how much? just check behind like I did for pot control?) and what's my line on the river most of the times (what bets should I call? when should I fold? etc.).


I think I've never posted that many hands, with such lengthy comments but I decided that if I want to become really good at poker, then I need to start spending more time on studying the game, analyzing hands, strategies etc. Ok let's finally play some poker now.

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After 7 days of working I finally had a day off yesterday so I ended up sleeping till 3pm. Took a shower, had a late breakfast and played a bit. I was getting terrible cards but I finished only $70 down. My stats were very tight. Just take a look:



I was planning on playing another session yesterday but my friend suggested going out. So we wanted to go to Tiger Tiger but after spending like 30 minutes in a queue we've been told that the tickets had been sold out And it wasn't even 9pm. So we ended up going to the Loaf club with these 2 Polish girls and I spent like 20 minutes trying to buy the drinks (yeah the second time we just got 2 drinks each in advance). At least we bought the tickets in advance - otherwise we'd have to spent like an hour in a queue that was outside of the club. Speaking of the club it was quite ok but definitely too crowded. And I don't know why but like 2/3 of people in the club were Asian - haven't seen it before in Manchester, except for the end of Ramadan day (oh and don't think I'm a racist or anything like that). The worst part of going out in the UK is that most of the clubs are closing so early. 2am? Ridiculous. Later on me and my mate ended up in this kebab place that I visit about 2-3 times a week. Well £2.5 for a tasty and huge donner kebab is a good price. When I got home I knew that there's sth important I need to do before I go to bet. Yup. I had to start downloading new episode of Prison Break and Heroes that have just been released online.

So I woke up about 11:30am and watched both episodes (why do I have to wait another week for the next episodes?), talked to some people and watched a CR video. Now it's 4pm and it's time to get out of bed. I'll take a shower, eat sth and play some poker. Tommorow I'm working from 7am and I've got no idea how am I going to get up at 5:30am. Fortunetaly I've got only 10 days left.

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1. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/138682
Feels nice to hit a 2-outer on turn

2. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/138686
Pretty standard. After he just called on the flop I was pretty sure that he's got either KK with Ks or QQ with Qs, as he would've raise with an ace.

3. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/138690
Villain seemed to be decent and agressive so a squeeze play was quite likely here but still I gave up pretty easily. What do you think about this hand?

4. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/138692
Standard? Well I thinks so, especially since I was getting reraised small quite a few times. What do you think?

5. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/138693
Villain was reraising pretty lightly, making squeeze plays quite frequently and I picked up on it and followed my read. And I was right.

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Comments (2)

So.. I have no idea what to start with. Haven't been posting for a while (forgot password to my previous blog so now I'll be posting here). A while? Well maybe a little longer. Ok - more than 3 months. Fair enough.

For those who don't know me I'm a 19 year old guy from Poland who moved to the UK (Manchester) in October last year. From September 2007 I'm going to study business and management. I finished high school in Poland in May last year and I decided to go on a gap year and save some money before uni time. I've been playing poker for a little more than 1 year (but loads of lengthy breaks) and that's why I'm still grinding NL100 and taking shots at NL200. I think that's all you need to know if you haven't been reading my previous blog.

Right, so let's see what I've been doing for the last few months. Well I was supposed to have my broadband set up and ready like a week after arriving in Manchester but.. I got it in the end of December (fuck BT). Typical. So for 3 months I've been working as a waiter etc. During this time I played barely no poker. I only went to circus casino in manchester and apparently finished 3rd in £20 rebuy and ended up winning £1000 (about $2000). For the first half of January I was busy with my university applications so I started playing again just a few days ago. I was planning to quit my job and just play poker in the end of february/beginning of may but yesterday I had a bad day at work and was really fed up with everything so I decided to quit. And so I did. The worst part is that I'll have to work for about 10 more days because of the 2-weeks notice. But I can handle it. I can't wait to start a new life style. Well don't think that I'm nuts or sth and how could I've decided to play fulltime nl100. I've got some savings etc. and money for a few months of living plus my bankroll so I don't have to worry about anything. I just want to try sth new. I'll see how the things will be going till september but I'm going to the uni fo shizzle.

I'm not sure what's my bankroll because it's divided between few rooms and neteller. Ok let's count it. So now it's about 5,6k so I think I'll continue playing nl100 till I get to 7-8k and then I'll give nl200 another shot (3rd I think). Right now I'm playing on Stars cause I need to get my party rakeback set up again and I don't like FTP lately. Oh of course I play only 6max tables (I hate fullrings, well except for live games). For the last few days I've played a bit and I must say that I've been running pretty bad but still made a good profit and maintained a solid winrate. Here are my stats so far:



Considering the number of suckouts I had in 200bb+ pots, this results are simply awesome. I feel I've been playing pretty well but I also made some stupid bluffs against wrong/unknown opponents and it should've never happened. I thing I haven't made any bad calls in large pots and I've made a few big laydowns (I'm pretty sure I was right in most cases though). I'm trying to work on my post flop play and agression and I'm really happy to see that my "Won $ WSF %" went up by about 8-10%. Now I'm just going to continue grinding low limits online and untill I finish working at my restaurant I won't be able to play that much but later my goal is about at least 2k hands daily (let's make it 50k a month) while 4 tabling. But in 2 weeks I think I'll start 6 and 8 tabling again so the numbers will go up.

Apart from playing online I'm also going to play some live cash games. Last week I went to play a bit live but the lowest stakes were $2/$2 pot limit so its about $4/$4 so I can't play these games comfortably yet. But I can't wait to get a proper bankroll for them (let's say 20-25 buyins will be enough for live games, what do you think about it?) cause they're ridiculously soft. I think nl25 online is even tougher nowadays. Last time I would end up winning about £600 (=$1200) but I was running terribly (i.e. I've got 77, flop 7TA, turn T, river K, and this wanker showed me his KT) and overal I was down about £100. But I've also found 2 other casinos with texas holdem in Manchester and tommorow I'll probably try out one of them. I hope they'll have some nl£100 or even nl£50 games running.

I probably forgot about some important stuff but if you want to know anything just post a comment.

Oh and one more thing. New episode of Prison Break airs tommorow! Seriously the best tv show ever.

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