Do Blizzcon 2008 cards not grant you immediate access to SC2?
I found this message on an ebay auction:
"AT THIS POINT,THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL GET IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO STARCRAFT 2BETA. INVITATIONS ARE SENT OUT IN WAVES NOW THAT THE BETA HAS STARTED."
So I got home to my parents last Friday and when my father came in through the door he said; "You've lost weight!", which is true as I'm about 6kg lighter then last I saw him, and I told him that; "well, yes I have!" feeling happy with myself. "You look skinny", he replied and started to tell me to eat more.
Time to hit the gym I guess. Probably just as well, this damn diet has left me without much energy anyway.
Yeah baby, I am going insane, but I did it , and I exceeded my target of 4,000 hands!
Well, to be honest I was also 6 tabling and also 7 tabling stacked tables for an hour while watching a movie
(Incidentally, thats where I tilted off more stacks than during the whole month combined lol).
Still, 5K hands Fri-Sunday is just huge!
Now only 3267 hands remaining until I finish my 30k hands challenge!
Tbh I want it to be over. I am trying so hard to get there and prove that I can be a steady winning player at NL50 over a decent sample that I don't play like I usually do.
Since I started, I was playing my A game like 75% of the time, which is a lot more than my usuall 10-20%.
I am tired? Boom, I quit.
A reg to my left is just too aggro and the table is -ev because of him? Boom, I leave the table, my ego bruised.
No Fish? Boom, I leave. I feel like a circus clown juggling tables all over the place.
Just came from work? Hungry? Too full? Sleepy? Boom. I don't play. (Well, most of the time, the 25% is still there, but only like 5% overall was my true C game :o))
All this just to prove to myself that when shit hits the fan, I can always go to NL50 and make money if I want to.
I will hopefully Finish by COB Friday and post graphs/progress/conclusion etc. - some 650 hands per day will be more than usual, but its doable.
The Grand
This must be the shittiest movie ever made, but I LOVE IT!
AJ really does look like a creepy old man on HSP and here he plays the part :D
I played on my friend's computer without a HUD last night...I liked it actually.
So Im thinking about playing without the HUD a couple of times a week to develop hand reading and increase my concentration at the table. I'd still be importing my hands for review, and put log at least 50% hours with a hud so I could 4-table and gtfo of micros already.
Have any of you tried this routine in the past? If so, how were the results?
Edit : Kinda odd to put in this particular blog post. But if anyone knows how to write stats on HEM and wouldnt mind helping out with a stat I want to experiment with send me a PM
I will be offering heads up coaching (yes, finally!) from next Sunday. Aimed at people wanting to start playing heads up or who are already playing heads up 0.25/0.50 to 2/4 and want to improve etc.
If you are seriously interested, please private message me your email address and I will send you a document of the details.
Anyone who has contacted me before about coaching, well now is your chance.
sc2 beta key for sale, just to rebuild my bankrollby kyd, March 14
hey, ive been there for some time, took a long break from poker due to some life crisis Ive had, now im rebuilding both in life and in poker.
i was lucky to get sc2 beta key, but i really hate the game, loved starcraft so much, but sc2 beta sucks balls in my opinion.
if you think otherwise, and 'd love to get betakey on eu realm, just post here or in PM, im happy to sell it for $$$ on stars/ftp/whatever so i can rebuild
this key is registered to my battlenet account, on which i have diablo2 and starcraft anthology, but i will give you full acces to this account to the time beta expires. i wont be playing any of these games too.
This is my April Metagame column I wrote for Baller Magazine (www.ballermagazine.com). If you want to read my other articles you can check out my previous blog entries. I originally wanted to name this POWER RANGERS but there might be copyright problems with that so in the actual magazine they're renaming it "Balancing Act" which isn't nearly as good. Since I don't have to fear anything on this blog I am gonna keep it as power rangers :D Remember to keep in mind that my target audience includes beginners, so this may not be entirely relevant to a lot of you. Cliff notes: I talk about why overbalancing is bad, then I talk a little about range protection.
====================
“Balance” is a word thrown around the poker community, often without much thought. On the surface, balance is as easy as making sure that whenever you raise a flop continuation bet, for example, you have a range with which you do it for value and a range with which you do it as a bluff. If you never raise as a bluff in this spot, and therefore your entire raising range is comprised of value hands (for instance, sets and two-pairs on an A 7 3 rainbow flop), you are considered unbalanced in this spot. Players like to think that optimal play and balance go hand in hand.
In an ideal world, this would be true, but often isn’t the case in practice. A great online high-stakes player once told me, “Think all you want about your line. Just remember that, in the end, you’re playing against a human being.” Your ranges might be unbalanced in a certain situation, but that doesn’t mean your opponent is cognizant of that fact; most players just aren’t as observant as you’d think. When it comes to balance, overcompensating can lead to suboptimal play.
To put this into a concrete example, consider this scenario: You’ve been playing for an hour now and have noticed a strange tendency that the player in Seat 3 has. Every time he calls a pre-flop raise out of position and then leads the flop, he has a hand that is at the very least two pair in absolute hand strength. He never considers folding after leading.
In the next hand, you raise pre-flop. Seat 3 calls out of position, and the flop is T 9 5 rainbow. Seat 3 leads. What is your range of hands with which you raise here?
Correct play dictates that the worst hand you raise here should be roughly 5-5—perhaps even T-9, but that may be dominated by sets. Balance would dictate that, if your value raising range in this spot is top two pair and better, you must also raise with air or draw-type hands. This would usually be true—if your opponent actually knew that your range was that strong. In this situation, however, raising a holding worse than T-9 would be a disaster for your stack. If you raise QJ (a very powerful draw on this board against most holdings), you risk putting yourself to an expensive decision if Seat 3 decides to re-raise. You have no hope of bluffing any two pair or better hand on this flop, so raising air in order to bluff would be a disaster as well. Even with pocket Aces, you’re never ahead of Seat 3’s range according to your read, so you should either fold or call, depending if you have sufficient pot odds and implied odds to “chase” with your aces.
There are other circumstances in which you can disregard balance. If you’re playing online and know your opponent is playing over 12-24 tables at a time, he probably isn’t paying attention and making intricate notes of your ranges in various spots. Likely, he’s just playing the strength of his hand and not bluffing very often. Thinking “this bluff should work because I can have a set here, too” is chip suicide if your opponent has no intention of folding. Counter his tight strategy by bluffing in spots where his range is weakest, e.g. when he raises pre-flop and checks a 9 8 7 two-tone flop to you. Stack him in spots where his range is strongest, e.g. when you make sets against his top pairs and overpairs.
How you balance depends on how your opponents perceive you. You do not need to balance against those who do not pay attention or care about critical hand reading. If you find yourself playing a high stakes game against some really tough regulars, your emphasis on balance should increase. Beyond how your table perceives you, consider the metagame, how every other player at your stakes or venue perceives each other to be playing.
I can’t speak for live casino games because the play styles vary tremendously and my expertise is in online cash games, so bear with me if you don’t play online. Mid-stakes online cash games are some of the most aggressive games in the world. Most regulars are rather competent, and most make enough to support a very comfortable living. Due to that, they know certain tricks, or common lines to take that are generally ways to make money in small pots through sheer aggression. A common line might be:
Aggressive regular (AR) opens from the button like he always does. Weak player (WP) calls from the big blind with a wide range of hands. The flop is 7 5 3. WP checks, AR bets, and WP calls. The turn is an overcard—let’s say an Ace. WP checks, AR bets, and WP immediately folds.
Being a competent player, AR knows that this is a spot where he’ll pick up the pot a very high percentage of the time. What’s WP’s range? It’s likely made up of mid pair type hands like 7-6, 6-5, 4-3, 22, 44, 66, 88, etc. He knows that the bulk of the made hands that can comfortably call the flop cannot stand additional heat on the turn ace as the strength of those mid pair hands dramatically decrease. Note that AR doesn’t even need to have a made hand at this point to take down the pot. He could just as easily have Q-2 for absolute junk. However, it’s the perception of the weak player (“He might have Ace-King! He’ll definitely bet again on the river, so I should fold my 88 now”) along with the perception of the aggressive player (“That card has got to make his entire range uncomfortable. I’ll bet again and take it down.”) that allows this to be such a profitable spot for AR.
You can use these perceptions to your benefit by protecting your range. How can WP protect his weak range here? Instead of check/raising his strong hands like two pairs and sets or straights on this flop, he can choose to check/call them. There are multiple benefits to this slowplay, but the one we’re most concerned with when talking about ranges is that WP now doesn’t have to fear a bad board run off like 7 5 3 A K, which would otherwise make a hand like 76 feel very uncomfortable on the river facing many bets. Slowplaying a big hand like a set allows you to put in a check/raise on later streets when your opponent thinks your range is weak overall. If you end up showing your hand down one way or another, it prevents an observant opponent from barreling you in the future, as he knows he may be barreling into a monster.
Protecting your range is actually a byproduct of balance. Although it’s not what people immediately recognize as balancing, I consider it to be more important because it’s your weak made hand range that tends to be the hardest to play. For those that weren’t happy with my examples, use your own experience to realize what common perceptions your opponents may have. Optimal poker isn’t necessarily balancing your ranges for balance’s sake, but rather knowing when you should and shouldn’t based on your opponent’s perceptions—or lack thereof. Remember that, in the end, you’re playing against a human being.
Running really good! I haven't been winning like this since I first took shots at NL50 a long time ago. I feel that I've improved a lot as a poker player in the last month, and I've been using HEM again to patch up some leaks.
I've noticed I've been drastically underestimating my fold equity in some spots as well as giving too much credit to certain regulars. The spots that are difficult for me to really improve on are when regs rep an extremely polarized range, so in the event you run into the nuts, you don't really know if a certain call was good or not. But lately I've been keeping notes on the frequencies on how often they do it, so I've definitely made a big jump there.
PokerStars Game #41123097826: Holdem No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/03/13 19:50:41 ET
Table Otto Struve 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: JohnnySquids ($74.85 in chips)
Seat 2: Set Daddy ($165 in chips)
Set Daddy: posts small blind $0.25
JohnnySquids: posts big blind $0.50
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to JohnnySquids
Set Daddy: raises $1 to $1.50
JohnnySquids: raises $3.50 to $5
Set Daddy: calls $3.50
JohnnySquids: bets $16.45
Set Daddy: raises $16.45 to $32.90
JohnnySquids: calls $16.45
Showdown Set Daddy: shows (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
JohnnySquids: mucks hand
Set Daddy collected $89.30 from pot
Summary Total pot $89.80 | Rake $0.50
Board
Seat 1: JohnnySquids (big blind) mucked
Seat 2: Set Daddy (button) (small blind) showed and won ($89.30) with two pair, Jacks and Nines
this was such a fuckin ugly riv spot...i have to call this down correct?
___________________________________________________________________
PokerStars Game #41123445095: Holdem No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/03/13 20:00:38 ET
Table Otto Struve 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: JohnnySquids ($81.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Set Daddy ($195.45 in chips)
Set Daddy: posts small blind $0.25
JohnnySquids: posts big blind $0.50
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to JohnnySquids
Set Daddy: raises $1 to $1.50
JohnnySquids: calls $1
JohnnySquids: checks
Set Daddy: bets $7
JohnnySquids: calls $7
River (Pot : $21.00)
JohnnySquids: checks
Set Daddy: bets $18.50
JohnnySquids: calls $18.50
Showdown Set Daddy: shows (three of a kind, Sevens)
JohnnySquids: mucks hand
Set Daddy collected $57.50 from pot
Summary Total pot $58 | Rake $0.50
Board
Seat 1: JohnnySquids (big blind) mucked
Seat 2: Set Daddy (button) (small blind) showed and won ($57.50) with three of a kind, Sevens
can i find a fold on the riv??
___________________________________________________________________
PokerStars Game #41122640845: Holdem No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/03/13 19:39:30 ET
Table Otto Struve 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: JohnnySquids ($84.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Set Daddy ($112.40 in chips)
Set Daddy: posts small blind $0.25
JohnnySquids: posts big blind $0.50
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to JohnnySquids
Set Daddy: raises $1 to $1.50
JohnnySquids: raises $4 to $5.50
Set Daddy: calls $4
JohnnySquids: bets $52.65 and is all-in
Set Daddy: calls $52.65
Showdown JohnnySquids: shows (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Set Daddy: shows (three of a kind, Tens)
Set Daddy collected $167.80 from pot
Summary Total pot $168.30 | Rake $0.50
Board
Seat 1: JohnnySquids (big blind) showed and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 2: Set Daddy (button) (small blind) showed and won ($167.80) with three of a kind, Tens
do i get called by anything other than a 10 here???
___________________________________________________________________
PokerStars Game #41122434338: Holdem No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/03/13 19:34:31 ET
Table Otto Struve 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: JohnnySquids ($55.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Set Daddy ($93.95 in chips)
Set Daddy: posts small blind $0.25
JohnnySquids: posts big blind $0.50
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to JohnnySquids
Set Daddy: raises $1 to $1.50
JohnnySquids: raises $4 to $5.50
Set Daddy: calls $4
JohnnySquids: bets $18
Set Daddy: raises $51 to $69
JohnnySquids: calls $24 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($27) returned to Set Daddy
River (Pot : $111.00)
Showdown JohnnySquids: shows (three of a kind, Sevens)
Set Daddy: shows (a straight, Six to Ten)
Set Daddy collected $110.50 from pot
Summary Total pot $111 | Rake $0.50
Board
Seat 1: JohnnySquids (big blind) showed and lost with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 2: Set Daddy (button) (small blind) showed and won ($110.50) with a straight, Six to Ten
this is obv play for stacks...99% sure
___________________________________________________________________
PokerStars Game #41124974839: Holdem No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/03/13 20:40:11 ET
Table Otto Struve 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: JohnnySquids ($102.45 in chips)
Seat 2: Set Daddy ($173 in chips)
Set Daddy: posts small blind $0.25
JohnnySquids: posts big blind $0.50
Holecards Dealt to JohnnySquids
Set Daddy: raises $1 to $1.50
JohnnySquids: calls $1
Flop (Pot : $3.00)
JohnnySquids: checks
Set Daddy: bets $2
JohnnySquids: raises $4.50 to $6.50
Set Daddy: calls $4.50
Turn (Pot : $16.00)
JohnnySquids: checks
Set Daddy: bets $12.50
JohnnySquids: calls $12.50
River (Pot : $41.00)
JohnnySquids: checks
Set Daddy: bets $33
JohnnySquids: folds
Uncalled bet ($33) returned to Set Daddy
Set Daddy collected $40.50 from pot
Set Daddy: doesnt show hand
Summary Total pot $41 | Rake $0.50
Board
Seat 1: JohnnySquids (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: Set Daddy (button) (small blind) collected ($40.50)
i hate myself for not betting this turn...b/f is way better than c/c ???
i could be behind here or does anythone else think he can be drawing
need moar ftp money = my dirty stars fpp cashby whamm!, March 13
exalted, u still need more stars?
fuck im moving almost everything away from pcboi, the guy obviously sux lol
sending first to cool midstakes lper regs haha
def wont send first to non gosu lpers, so scammers dont bother ok?
Okay, so yeah. I've been pretty unsuccessful in trying to sell these, so this will be my last attempt. I've got 1.2million, trying to get 6.50$ for them. Send me a PM or something if you'd like to complete the trade, and for your viewing enjoyment some more pictures of various sexy girls below http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9708/001porncarlibankssheert.jpg
Almost 15k hands
Unecessary dip cuz im a retard
plan to pick up the pace finish month with 40k hand minimum.
Rakeback+Stellar for the month = +100$
I would love the results to be around 900$ profit for the month but ya you know...http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/b7cd3.March Half way.jpg
I am very happy with volume, I haven't played 2K hands per day since my 30k hands 4tabling challenge begun on February 5th.
Only some 6k hands to go now!
After that I will re-evaluate if I should move up or not, and I will either move up to NL100 or 6-9 table at NL50 to keep my SN.
Contact Users: 629 Active, 1 Logged in - Time: 21:52
(two pair, Jacks and Nines)
(three of a kind, Sevens)
,
,
,
,