I truly did not want to write this blog at all. It seems every time I have some success and I make a blog, I drop a good number of BI's. Well I'm not running the greatest atm anyways, so FU poker gods.
I am growing to truly love a LAG style of poker. While run bad can definitely affect me, I feel that a more LAG style of play is much more consistent and less affected by variance than the more TAG style I used to play. I definitely don't feel I am playing a true LAG style, as I still have a pretty narrow hand range early position, but my aggression tendencies are definitely increasing. Feels good to show results when I try so hard at something
In other news, for those of you that enjoy watching starcraft and are not watching the GSL, start. I know there are a ton of SC1 purists that feel SC2 is not going to come close to how good SC1 was, but you have to get off your high horse and come aboard the SC2 ship. The community has grown to heights SC1 could have only dreamed of, and the tournaments SC2 is hosting already is astounding when you think of what is coming in the future. Meta game is developing at an alarming rate, and the game has become very competitive, with top players actually having to CHOOSE which tournaments to compete in because there time is so spread thin already with practicing, media events, and other tournaments. I feel big things coming in the future, and am excited about it.
Good luck to everyone! Lets wipe that last month from existence, with all the run bad and all everyone was having as far as poker goes, and focus on the new year
Man it can be frustrating putting so much time into learning about the game and not showing any good results. Especially when I am struggling to beat a stake that a monkey with a helmet and a diaper could beat if you gave him a month to learn.
Hello LP! As an avid SC2 fan/poker player, I want to create a SC2 invitational tournament. I am an extremely organized/driven person, so I feel I will be able to handle the responsibilities that comes with organizing such a tournament. However, I feel the responsibilities may be a little too much for me solely to handle, so I do have potential help lined up if I find it necessary.
For those of you that are avid SC1 players but have not yet gotten into SC2, I urge you to do so. The game has progressed so far in the short amount of time since tournaments first started, and there is a true meta game that is looking to be very balanced and skill based in almost all aspects of the game. There are still the common cheeses we remember from the old SC1, but there are so many styles that have emerged so far that I find truly astonishing, as this took a far greater amount of time to develop in SC1.
This is still the planning phase, and nothing has been set in motion yet. As I know many LP readers are SC players, I am looking to you guys for help. I will list off a few questions:
1. I was planning on making this an invitational, if I am able to receive the appropriate prize pool to attract the better players. However, how do you guys feel about an open tournament with a certain ladder ranking required to sign up? Perhaps add that well known players will be excluded from this application/qualification process?
2. Would LP be interested in sponsoring such a tournament? I understand that LP is fairly small, and could use more traffic indeed, but in what ways would the site be willing to help?
3. How many players should the tournament be made up of? I find this part will have to do with whether this becomes an invitational/open tournament, but requests are always appreciated. I personally feel if it is any bigger than 32 or 64, interest will plummet as I am certain player quality will greatly diminish
Now for the part I truly hate. I am going to need donations (bleh I feel so dirty asking) to get this tournament running. I am going to be donating some of my own money, but I will not be able to fund this tournament enough to make it recognizable to good players, as there is already a decent number of tournaments per week that are running off of small prize pools.
I understand, especially with how most people have been running this month, that people may not have the money to do so, but I feel it is worth a shot as I feel this can be a really fun tournament and get some decent exposure for LP. I feel I have garnished a decent reputation on this site, but if you don't trust me, that is totally okay as well. Perhaps someone with a little larger bankroll than myself that is trustworthy would be willing to accept donations as well to ease peoples concerns than sending it to me.
If this tournament does not come to fruition, I PROMISE you, every donation made will be returned 100% in the amount that was received. I am not looking to take any cut from this at all; I am simply looking to organize a tournament that will help the SC2/LP community grow.
Any support would be helpful. Feel free to PM me about this, and I hope this project can get off the ground. Happy upcoming new year to everyone, and good luck with trying to stay near your EV line
-Carthac
Donations can be made to:
ImGoodz on FTP
ThatsTheTnyG on Stars
20k hand sample, trying a more LAGgy style, and just not understanding why I am not progressing. Is the sample too small? Could this possibly be variance over 20k hands? I am just flabbergasted at my game right now.
I literally spend all my time studying poker. I listen to podcasts, read tons of poker books, I have a coach, I am constantly monitoring my moods while I play to control tilt, and yet I can't seem to be above breakeven, let alone at the moment I am a loser. It seems I can't have a day where I profit/lose less then 3BI. I take some bad beats, especially lately, but there still appears to be a huge hole in my game somewhere and I have literally no clue where it could be. Really starting to discourage me as I am putting so much effort into getting better at this game, yet I don't see the results I am expecting for my time invested.
Looking through PTR, is this normal?
AA - win% 91.67%, amount won -8.80,
KK - win% 76.92%, amount won -33.01
IDK, this is probly just standard, and I am just complaining as usual, but it is really beginning to fuck with my confidence. I generally sit down at these stakes and always feel I am the best player at the table, yet my results clearly speak the opposite.
Ending the bitch/whine/rant now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far
The Big Game started up again last week, and it has been fairly entertaining so far. I have really become a fan of the show, even though when I first started, I could not stand even the sight of it, as all I could associate the show with was that gay fuck blogger Jason Calanackis, or w/e the fuck his name is.
Anyways, there was a hand this week with Daniel Negreanu that I found particularly special. Daniel has been known to make some really awful plays, but I personally feel this may have been one of the worst for him in a while. I threw in a little of my own analysis, and you can take that as it is.
BTW, I tried to submit this to the hands section, and I couldn't get it to show the board cards properly, so ima just copy paste it here. Anyways, here we go
Oh, and heres a link BTW if you would rather watch the hand
PokerStars Big Game: Hold'em No Limit ($200/400, 100 ante USD) - 2010/12/09
Table Strobe Fuck Light 6-max
Seat 2: Doyle Brunson
Seat 3: Scott Seiver
Seat 4: Joe Hachem
Seat 5: Daniel Negreanu (roughly 250k)
Seat 6: Phil Galfond (roughly 470k)
Doyle Brunson: posts small blind $200
Scott Seiver: posts big blind $400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Joe Hachem: folds
Dealt to Daniel Negreanu: [As 2c]
Daniel Negreanu: raises $1200 to $2400
Phil Galfond: [Ks 8d]
Phil Galfond: calls $1200
Doyle Brunson: folds
Scott Seiver: [Jd Tc]
Scott Seiver: calls $1200
Typical garbage raise from the cutoff for Negreanu as he feels that he can play anything from the cutoff and button because he saw an online winner do it once. Galfond makes a very loose call, but with the implied odds to get paid off since Negreanu is a mega station and for how deep the two are, I do not blame him at all. Seiver calls for the same reasons basically
*** FLOP *** [8s Kd Ac]
Scott Seiver: checks
Daniel Negreanu: bets $3000
Phil Galfond: calls $3000
Scott Seiver: folds
Seems pretty standard so far. Negreanu getting value from possible 2nd pair type hands Galfond might have. Not really any draws you can flat with profitably here, so it is expected that Negreanu will slow down and play his hand as a bluff catcher
*** TURN *** [8s Kd Ac]
Daniel Negreanu: checks
Phil Galfond: bets $7000
Daniel Negreanu: calls $7000
Weird spot for Negreanu, as Galfond should be checking behind with K's, any weird 3rd pair type hand, etc. When Galfond bets, I see him as polarizing his range to either an ace+ or complete air. However, air makes no sense as Galfond would typically not 100% air float with Seiver in the hand to act behind him. Seeing as this board has only gutshots to draw to, I feel Negreanu can at most call one more bet, and even that is pushing it a little.
*** RIVER *** [8s Kd Ac Th]
Daniel Negreanu: checks
Phil Galfond: bets $15,500
Daniel Negreanu: Time bank is enabled....
Daniel Negreanu: calls $15,500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Phil Galfond: shows [Kd 8s] (Two pair, Kings and Eights}
Daniel Negreanu: mucks
You know Negreanu is known for some really bad calls, but this one is just outstandingly horrific. After Galfond bets, he puts him on either QJ or air. Out of all the common two pair possibilities, better ace hands, sets, etc. Negreanu puts him SOLELY on QJ, or A 100% COMPLETE AIR FLOAT THAT DECIDED TO DOUBLE BARREL A STATION THAT LED INTO 2 OTHER PEOPLE. WHAT IN THE FUCK IS GOING THROUGH THIS MANS HEAD?!
He looks at his hand, knows he beats NOTHING BUT A COMPLETE 100% BLUFF THAT RANDOMLY DECIDED TO FLOAT/FIRE 2 BARRELs, and decides 'I think I am good here a high enough % of the time to make this call.'
Idk, maybe I am off on all of this, but when I watched it, my jaw almost hit the floor. Maybe I am wrong? Feel free to comment on anything
Last blog post was about a situation with my situation of trying to teach my father how to play poker, in mostly a casino FR setting as he is technologically behind and has trouble using computers. I myself play 6-max online, so I am not quite accustomed to the differences in full-ring play.
Received some good feedback, but one e-mail in particular was from a guy named Tri. Tri Nguyen, as some of you may not know, was the co-author, along with Cole South, of "Let There Be Range," a fantastic e-book that has become one of the top poker reads for current day online play. Tri e-mailed me after reading my blog and asked if I would read and review his new e-book that is coming out, "Dynamic Full Ring Poker- Beyond the Basics." I responded that I would be honored to do so.
I am going to read and review the book, and do my best to get my father to read it as well. From quickly looking through the table of contents, the book reviews full-ring pre-flop hand selection, isolating certain opponents, various player types, 3-betting, squeezing, check raising, etc. etc. It appears any question you may have about more advanced strategies in poker, this book covers it.
I expect to learn quite a bit, and maybe my father will read it as well. I'm not quite sure yet, as he reads a lot but has never read an e-book. If he doesn't, maybe I will have to break out the white board to explain the concepts to him Now my next problem is trying to find time to read this monster 353 page e-book while still playing poker and studying for finals...Oh yeah gotta find time to sleep too :/
Quite the reasonable price too, and it is currently on sale for $97. Compared to other e-books on poker that I have seen go for close to 1k, this is a steal.
I will write up another blog post when I am finished to review the book and give my thoughts, feelings, etc. on everything it covers.
Happy holidays everyone, and remember to take some time off poker and spend it with your family
So my father, for his birthday, decided that he would like to get better at poker. I was kind of hesitant at first, as he possesses some of the WORST possible habits as far as general poker goes. He loves to chase draws, he tilts very easily and wears his emotions on his sleeve. When he tilts, he plays way too many hands, and loves to make blatant bluff raises with absolute air. On top of this, he does not stop at 1 buy-in. He is willing to put down 2-3 BI to attempt to chase his previous losses. His mindset, as the best I can explain it, is one that if he started with 200 and made it to 400, but then left with 300, he views it as walking away down 100 dollars.
Even though I knew all of this, he still expressed to me that he really wanted to get better at the game he has played (horribly) for so long. I am a micros grinder, and have a poker coach myself. I know basic stuff, but do not have the deepest well of knowledge yet in the game. My strategy was to make him a huge nit for the time being, then graduate on when he understood more and if he really wanted to stick with it.
I begun teaching him, even bought him Skylansky's book, and tried to talk through hands with him. It seemed like he was listening, but nothing was really sinking in. I let him play a few nl10 FR games on my acc on stars to become more accustomed, and he could not even control himself there as I would catch him playing random garbage from terrible positions. When I asked him about it, I felt like a school teacher disciplining a child about not doing their homework, which I was not comfortable with. His response was "I got bored." I explained to him why he shouldn't do that, why it is bad, etc. etc. But once again, it seemed to go in one ear, and out the other.
For his 50th birthday, my mother decided she would do something special and invite our family and friends to go to the casino, so he could play poker, we could all eat together, and just have a good time. My mother and father are not poor by any means, but are still on a tight budget. My father went to the casino, and I tried to get him to play a limit game, but he opted to try and play NL200. Once the cards did not come fast enough for him, I believe he fell back into his old habits. Ends up he loses 500 dollars, as I guess he snuck to the ATM at some time, and is the only one that does not have a good time at his birthday. Add this to the dinner bill they insisted to pay, as my mother had budgeted money for this, and I believe they are down about 650 tonight. I was told later on that my mother and father were fighting on the way out.
So my question to you all, after tonight, should I try to continue to teach him if he asks, or should I simply cut it off and hope he stops playing, as he typically becomes very frustrated about poker and stops playing for a long time after he loses. His lack of self control and emotional stability seems to be a complete mismatch for a game like poker, and I do not want him to continue losing money when my parents are already on a fairly tight budget.
