I've been playing poker seriously for about a month. I used to play a bit on and off and had the advantage of some free knowledge from Myth when he was still a NL100/200 player. Beyond that I also had/have the advantages of some good starcraft friends on this site who play poker. I don't ask for a lot of advice these days because I've been able to improve my understanding and my play quite a bit by just examining my thought processes and my previous hands.
I've been playing NL25 and put in a good number of hands - maybe 100k between some sessions 4 tabling and others mass multitabling. My first week was unsuccessful - I hit a heater when I started, and then expected it to continue so I tilted away the winnings. I hovered around my initial $400 deposit for the 2nd week as I was on a bit of a bad run and still had quite a few leaks. On my third week I'd rid myself of many tiltish tendencies and ran fairly well on the final Sunday, bringing my BR up to $1k. I was rolled for NL50, but decided not to move up.
My computer was having some trouble with FTP so I decided to wait until I built a new computer to move up to NL50. I didn't like the idea of autochecking/mucking NL50 hands on account of my software freezing. So while I was waiting for new parts, I continued to play NL25, feeling that I had a significant edge. My plan was to continue to build a roll so that when I finished building a new computer, I could start NL50 with a healthy buffer in case I couldn't beat the game or ran badly.
I've done just the opposite. Over a fairly health sample, about 25k hands, I've lost ~14 BI from my peak winnings and I'm quite shaken that I've consistently lost over such a large sample. I'm not entirely confident in my play yet and I do alternate between a nitter style and a looser style, depending on my number of tables and level of concentration, but I'm not sure that alternating pf preferences is any explanation for this depressing last week and a half.
In any case, a lot of players say (and I agree) that you can beat NL25 playing as nittily as 12/10 or more loosely such as 25/20. When I examine my game, I feel like I've adapted to the full tilt NL25 game from my original practice at the stars NL25 game and that I'm better than I was when I started. When I reflect on my own ideas of my abilities and comments by Myth, Baal and others in edge vs expectation arguments I am really concerned that my losses over these last 25k hands mean that I am totally missing something
Ugh, I feel like I should be capable of posting a moderate, consistent winrate such as 2-3PTBB/100 at NL25 because I don't tend to tilt too often and as far as I can tell my abc poker is acceptable... But with my recent results totally contradicting my confidence I'm quite confused.
Anyway I'm determined to improve my poker game and thanks to my efforts on FTP, I'm able to purchase the cardrunners subscription, so hopefully this will help me improve. Speaking of which, I have no idea how I'll receive the subscription from FTP since their email confirmation suggested I'd receive a package by mail, but that would a really awkward way to ship an onilne subscription, and it would take forever.
Prob gonna get back to playing a bit more today. I've taken a couple day break, logging less than a thousand hands yesterday and none the two days before. Both yesterday and today I've managed to lose a little more than a BI and log off. Here's hoping tonight will go a bit better.
PokerStars Game #20632480410: Tournament #109900844, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2008/09/23 12:47:18 ET
Table '109900844 20' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 4: PurpleCobra (15785 in chips)
Seat 6: lt1988 (65852 in chips)
Seat 7: ARNET75 (6777 in chips)
Seat 8: totti123 (158587 in chips)
Seat 9: Cicalex (22999 in chips)
PurpleCobra: posts the ante 100
lt1988: posts the ante 100
ARNET75 : posts the ante 100
totti123: posts the ante 100
Cicalex: posts the ante 100
ARNET75 : posts small blind 500
totti123: posts big blind 1000
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to ARNET75
Cicalex: folds
PurpleCobra: folds
lt1988: folds
ARNET75 : raises 5677 to 6677 and is all-in
totti123: calls 5677
Showdown ARNET75 : shows (a pair of Fives)
totti123: shows (a pair of Sevens)
lt1988 said, "gg"
totti123 collected 13854 from pot
Summary Total pot 13854 | Rake 0
Board
Seat 4: PurpleCobra folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: lt1988 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ARNET75 (small blind) showed and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 8: totti123 (big blind) showed and won (13854) with a pair of Sevens
Seat 9: Cicalex folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Note to self: Play exclusively with retards onlyby whamm!, September 23
I've done some reflection over the past two weeks with how my poker habits in general; hands I play, # of tables I manage, sessions times and frequency, tilt management and just simple pf and postflop tendencies I have. I have come to the conclusion that the biggest mistake I have compared to all the bad habits I still possess, is I just have a very quiet, but massive poker ego. I table select of course, but I am not so thorough as to admit that some, or most of the tables I play, comprise of a lot of similarly-skilled or better players than I am, I keep telling myself to "deal" with the regs and just try to outplay them, shit on them sometimes, but over the course of time, I feel that it has hurt my winrate a ton. Right now, I will make a promise, that from this day forward, I will always look to play with the dumbest, most degenerate gamblers I can find on each table I try to join. I simply will not play if there are like 4 to 5 regs on a 9max table, no matter how action packed that table may appear to be. I just won't play if that is the only option available to me and just look for the juiciest tables pokerstars has to offer. If there are a manageable amount of regs I will still deal with them accordingly, but I will just table select like a motherfucker from now on - even if I have to cut down on tables. gg thx
I am down 1,6K this month ... -1,2K on Nl100 HU -600 on NL200HU + 200 on NL50 6max
So this leaves me in a very shitty situation.
basically 1 1/2 month ago i was sitting on a 5K online roll
right now my casher shows 147$ .....
I had 2 major cash outs ( 2,8K in total)
reasons for the cashout were being afraid of german online law and not wanting to have a big online roll in case poker gets totally banned in germany on January 2009
+ I bought some things from the money
spend like 300$ on partying
300$ on watch
1K on a 10day holiday trip to dublin ( which will happen next week)
200$ in MMA gear
which leads to a total of 1,8K spent this month.
So this + Poker i spend a whooping 3,400 $ this month so far >_<
I have 2 options now .
1.) cash in like 1K back into poker account and play Nl50 6max with 21,5 buy ins.
2.) get a 1K stake from somebody and play NL506max with 21,5 buy ins.
i probably will take option nr.1
I simply dont like the idea of playing with someones else money too much.
looking back at what happend this month the situation is really sad !
And i am 100% responsible for the misery
My main fault all this time and ever since i have been playing poker is the inability to move down when not having proper BR for a limit ....
just as an example ...
After the Cashouts i had ~ 2,1 K monez left.
I played Nl100 HU with 21Buy ins which is not good itself but maybe okay when u move down as soon as u only have 18buy ins left.
I hit a really freaking bad run and got down to just 1,3K $ -> i played NL506max and got it back up to 1,7K .... then moved up to Nl100HU again.
My thought at this time was , that i lost like 90% of the money due to bad luck and therefore i can take shots with 17 buy ins.
1st mistake ! not moving down enough early !
2nd mistake moving up again too early
Then i run good and played good and made it to 2,3K $ ( now my Ego was like : Hell yeha i crush it when i run normal)
Soon after that a downswing came and i just was totally unable to move down untill i was left with 1,1K $ .....
then i played NL506max with 21 buyins.
Hit a really bad run and was left with 650$ .... after that bad run ended and i build roll up to 1100$ again at Nl506max
And now the insanity starts ....
I switch to Nl100 Hu again with just 11 buy ins !!!!! ( wtf where i thinking )
At first i made it to 1,4K and then lost like almost all but 330$ at Nl100 HU ...
switched back to NL50 6max with a 330$ roll today and then the following happend .
well and after just 280 hands
i was down to 147$ and quit the session.
I kinda feel like being Schniblor or Ashman103 right now when they busted their first Million ^^
I know i am better than most NL100 players , i know i play good most of the time , i know i have very decent poker skills ( from the pure card game aspect) for a low stakes player.
But i simply massivly lack discipline a good amount.
There always must happen some serious shit before i realize what i do is totally wrong
Okay now the shit has happend !
And i will get more serious finally
So so so so so so
Whos staying up to watch it.
So exciting, so exciting. + Show Spoiler +
Nakahara vs Sik Yoon
Oh man the japanese and the brazilians. Never a boring fight.
Like, for example Rich Franklin is surely a great fighter who probably would destroy both of them, but comeon, jab it and play safe UFC style gets a bit boring doesnt it. Manhoef vs Mousasi
Dissapoiting tbh. Manhoef is such a stud, i was hoping so bad he would Quinton Jacksoned Mousasi in that triangle;(. Also on a related note Manhoef vs Anderson would be such a sick sick match if it went on the feet. If there is a MW who can outstrike Anderson its Manhoef Jacare vs Galesic
I think i just came. Back to the point of Anderson, how can he claim he proved everything he had to prove until he faces Jacare. I hope the retirement talk is just to hustle UFC. Nakamura vs Martins
Another quality brazilian fighter, big suprise Has a long way to go ofc but for international debut its really nice. Move the fucking head thoPP And yeah this kinda mutes the point i made about andrews vs sik yoon fight) I did enjoy Nakamura when he found his pocket, just was fun to watch. Maybe im just racist tho! Kharitonov vs Ambriz
Anyone expected anything else? Gay rope groping tho. And too bad that Mo couldnt come. Now that would be an awesome fight.
After the fight Kharitonov said that he couldnt fight sooner cos he had a shoulder injury but now its all healed, and he will continue to fight and hopefully win for the fans. Yamamoto vs Tokoro
Well, not much to say here, quality fight no doubt.
Kid's bro? Surely got his antics^^ Funaki vs Minowa
No comment really Sakurai vs Hironaka
There is just this quality in Sakurai that just makes him so enjoyable to watch, hes such a dope guy Akiyama vs Noob
Im gonna be bawlin as always during Akiyama entrace
Akiyama just seems so unmotivated to fight those nonames they throw at him. Stop the hatin, find hima real opponent plz. Akiyama vs Jacare after GP for the title plx^^
If that Hidehiko Yoshida he wants thatd be a sick judo fight, sick sick sick Crocop vs Overeem
Whats with Crocop? He used to be the most feared striker on the planet and now hes so sloppy. That is really sad.
Hate Overeem. Such a cunt, really, always dived when in trouble, got no heart and kicks people in the balls? Ruined such an awesome match up. Fuck Overeem. Mousasi vs Jacare
Wow unexpected. Sick takedowns by Jacare for sure that face-flat ankle pick funny stuff. Anyway Jacare got caught! Hell be back!
so i went on supermegatilt after getting 10th in the 100$ turbo AQ vs KJ on a Q55 board and got 2 outed, woulda been chipleader and won 4k, instead i was down 200 for the session
i blew up inside after all the bad beats, panicked and did what i vowed i wouldn't do again, play hu underolled.
was so pissed and felt like i deserved the money
so..
it went down like this -
i join 6 hu tables, sitting out on 2 and keeping 4 running and alternating the two i was sitting out on.
my laptop keyboard was irritating me as well, and forced me to miss a couple big hands, after that fulltilt set in.
i went from being up 2 bi to down 7 bi in 5 minutes. then i lost another 4 bi
now i have less than 100$
i dont ever wanna fucking play micro or lowstakes poker again in my life
im going to make a deposit on my birthday to play midstakes tournaments and go from there
if i lose it, im sure u guys wont see me on LP ANYMORE.
im so tired of grinding for fucking coons ages to win penniesand get sickly bad beat out of all my money whenever i take a shot to win something real.
PokerStars Game #20625769641: Tournament #109499486, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXII (1500/3000) - 2008/09/23 4:33:30 ET
Table '109499486 13' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: jeff710 (53820 in chips)
Seat 4: NeillyAA (36799 in chips)
Seat 5: zé iran (41855 in chips)
Seat 6: balltrader5 (16576 in chips)
Seat 7: FulTymAmatur (5585 in chips)
Seat 8: Batecht (10001 in chips)
jeff710: posts the ante 375
NeillyAA: posts the ante 375
zé iran: posts the ante 375
balltrader5: posts the ante 375
FulTymAmatur: posts the ante 375
Batecht: posts the ante 375
jeff710: posts small blind 1500
NeillyAA: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NeillyAA [Ah Qc]
zé iran: folds
balltrader5: folds
FulTymAmatur: folds
Batecht: folds
jeff710: raises 50445 to 53445 and is all-in
NeillyAA: calls 33424 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (17021) returned to jeff710
*** FLOP *** [5h Qs 5c]
*** TURN *** [5h Qs 5c] Kd
*** RIVER *** [5h Qs 5c Kd] 7c
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jeff710: shows [Jc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
NeillyAA: shows [Ah Qc] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
jeff710 collected 75098 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 75098 | Rake 0
Board [5h Qs 5c Kd 7c]
Seat 3: jeff710 (small blind) showed [Jc Ks] and won (75098) with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 4: NeillyAA (big blind) showed [Ah Qc] and lost with two pair, Queens and Fives
Seat 5: zé iran folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: balltrader5 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: FulTymAmatur folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Batecht (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
First of all, thanks everybody for the great response. Many very good players have been telling me im way undercharging but meh, I will keep the rate of 150$/h for now.
Secondly, alot of people have been asking me about long term coaching deals. For now, I have one long term deal set up with k2o4 and to ensure he will get the best experience out of it I have decided to keep it that way. Im still doing coaching per hour but I only want one long time student at the time so I will be able to devote enough time to him to make it worth the wile.
I will update the blog again once I have time for another long term student but I already have another player at the top of that waiting list.
Lost all I've ever made on iPokerby Oddeye, September 22
Oh well it happened, I lost it all. Spew FTW! I tried to work really hard and play focused then quit, but then the bad beat came, then tilt and spew. I don't know what I'm gonna do next, I haven't had a smile on my face for weeks. I'm pretty pissed at everyone for little to no reason and all I can think about now is doing drugs or gambling the rest of my roll (which I'm not gonna do, but the thought is here).
1.) i have still problems dealing with TAG nits in HU
They play like 32/25/6
so most of the time they fold preflop and i win 1$
or whenever it comes to post flop action -> most of the time i am crushed in a big Pot.
basically i dont know what to do to play vs them profitable >_<
It seems like i can only win vs that style with massive amount of luck ;(
They fold every hand oop preflop and fold everything on flop except for when they really have a hand.
So most of the time it goes like the following
I win like 7$ in 100hands from them ...T_T and then it comes to a big pot where either me or villian has a setup
nutz vs second nutz ...
2.) I run so bad its ridiculous
and then it comes to a big pot where either me or villian has a setup
nutz vs second nutz ...
unfortunately in this situation i tend to always lose
FH < FH
2 pair < vs riverd board 2pair of overcards
flush < flush
set < streight
straight < straight ...
-> i am down 11 buy ins over the last 3K heads up hands.
i fail to see a way to destroy those players.
If anyone knows a way to win big vs them i d appreciate it.
currently i think those players wont win much longterm ... but its also clsoe to impossible that they get crushed
Hey guys.. thought about updating this, haven't done since the end August... well lets gogogo!
In this blog, just going to update you with how things are going for me in poker and how real life events effect your own poker mindset.
I have the worst month in terms of real life that you could imagine... Going through a extremely rough patch with my girlfriend at the start of the month which dragged out until last tuesday where we then spilt up. Everyday inbetween I felt horrible and it effected my poker mindset. Like many have said, run bad in reallife, run bad on the tables. ToTMidian stayed at my place again at the start of the month and we both played lots of poker during the day and went out drinking/socializing during the evening! A good week in that aspect as he is a good friend.
We watched many CR/othersite videos, both high/low stakes for both our benefits. He talked me through his own mind set when playing and what he saw of my playing. Even he could see I was just simply running horribly bad, losing some sick winning %+ hands... Nothing I could do.. went on a crazy, downswing, highest peak was $410 down to around $95 playing 10nl and dropped into 5nl.
After dropping down to $95, I rebuilt again, up to around $375... but having no job/income I had to withdraw $300 to pay for my new football boots and my football expensives for this season... I was forced to withdraw which REALLY sucked.. but thats my fault for not doing something about money before hand. I recently applied for part time bar work to support me while I build my bankroll/consider what I am going to do with my life...
Having been AGAIN dropped down into <$100 on my bankroll, around $75. I rebuilt again from 5nl and I am currently sitting on $205 on my roll. 5nl was destroyed fairly easily and then I went back into 10nl. Here is my graph/stats since I started rebuilding from $75 as my new roll.
I think my gaming is now completly out the window.... which is a shock for me as I thought I would be playing games for quite some time, but the lack of income and value in playing games that aren't SC/WC3 sucks, and even then you need to be playing at the top level at those to make decent money. Having won worldcybergames and samsung european championship for cnc3 I went into playing starcraft hoping I could take my skills into that game and possibly look at a professional path for sc2... I brought starcraft and went from 0games to iccup C- in about 4-5weeks which was quite decent, took me forever to get my first win though, think I went like 0-80 before I even won ONE game vs complete noobs from there things got better
I then realized that there isn't any value in learning a new game because it takes so long to get THE BEST at it... so I stopped playing starcraft and thats how I got into poker again...
Found it quite tough getting over my girlfriend, we were together for around 4months. Luckily I started to realize that there ARE more and better girls out there, went to house party last night and met this really amazing girl and thinks started to brighten up again...
To conclude this blog entry, real life is tough... gotta keep ya head up otherwise you lose important things and start to sprial out of control. I almost completey lost a lot more this month than just my girlfriend!!! Including my bankroll if I wasn't careful. Things are back on the up and I hope some people can relate to this blog.
went to winstar world casino last night/yesterday morning, played for 8 fucking hours...jesus christ. there was a point where for 2 hours i didn't win a hand... and i could only play one.
i also figured it out...200nl at a casino is 2nl online...fish fish fish fish drunk fish EVERYWHERE. terrrrrrible play. I had AT on the button 6 handed and this dude called me w/ 53o, hit his 5. Same guy also shoved w/ 64o against AK and hit a 6 on the river...people shoving w/ mid pair low kicker like Q 6 on a AKQ83 board and getting called by people with like Q2...
absolutely amazing. But when you run bad like me thats not good. I played 3 hands in the first 4 hours, and they were 3 hands in a row, about 15 hands after i sat down i got AQs which i won a nice $160 on 2 pair, then next hand i got was AKo which i split, then after that hand i got AJs(which i decided was +EV b/c of all the fish) and i folded on the K 4 6 flop.
Betting is absolutely atrocious there. It's usually a standard $15-$30 raise from UTG
Then after that, you'll have atleast 4 people in the pot and a $30 bet can take it sometimes if no one hit anything.
After 6 hours of dry cards, my table finally got broken up and i got moved to another table w/ my manager (the guy who everyone told me to play hu and rape b/c he plays on fulltilt while at work and then bitches at me for blogging on lp...so revenge was very nice)..anyway my table had my manager (also the luckiest fucking person i've ever met) and 3 1000nl regs that didn't have enough people to play a table. Along with that was a drunk mexican who was the loosest guy i've ever seen, and a guy from panama. I show up w/ about $130, and i am super super super short stacked. theres like 4 people w/ about $700 (my manager, the luckiest man in the world) and the 3 1kNL regs), and everyone else had me covered. My manager bought in for 200, went busto. Then he bought in for 100, went busto. Then he went to the ATM machine, tried 3 cards, and couldn't get any money b/c he was maxed out. Then he goes to the bathroom, finds a $100 bill in a cup in a stall, and goes back and plays some more. He ends up having a $700 stack...looses some hands, and is down to about 400, when this hand happens....
* DONK ALERT *
Not sure about preflop betting, but i know there was some, obv.
Theres four people in the hand, and the flop is T J Q...My manager has K9 and bets out about 1/2 pot size. Everyone folds except for the panamanian who has TJ. He calls. Turn is like a 4 or something pointless. Manager bets out 40, panama makes it 120, boss makes it 250, panama calls. River is a K. Manager yells "FUCCCCCCCCK!" Random dude says "watch your language that K didn't do anything to you" manager says "That king did everything to me. Check" Panama makes a vital vital vital mistake... He bets 100 into a pot atleast 450. Manager says "i am soooo pot committed, i have to see it." so he calls. 9-K straight wins on the T J Q 4 K board...Unbelievable... and all my manager said was "great hand, you played that well, you did great, nice hand nice hand. Man you had a nice hand, great hand" I was embarassed. I can't believe my manager big league'd that dude like that... it was unbelievable.
Anyway, here's my 200nl real life graph from Winstar Tracker 3... that i made in paint.
So my manager lost 200, lost 100, found 100 in the bathroom, bought in, got up to ~700, lost some and ended finishing +$147. If i had PT3 running on him he would be about... 90/40/10 (not making this up, those are serious estimates) through about 600 hands.
I am pretty sure I didn't cash in a single event. I bought in direct to the main event so the wcoop probably cost me like 15k, but luckily i made about 20k before i started playing WCOOP events which pretty much gives me a break even month at +5k. still a week left and I look forward to donating that last 5k of profit to turn this into a completely break even month, my first since May.
RIVER (pot: $8.50)
Hero : bets $6
PootDogg03: raises $14.50 to $20.50
Hero : raises $26.50 to $47 and is all-in
PootDogg03: calls $26.50
SHOW DOWN
Hero : shows (a straight flush, Six to Ten)
PootDogg03: shows (a full house, Eights full of Sixes)
Hero collected $99.50 from pot
SUMMARY
Total pot $102.50 | Rake $3
Board
Seat 1: Enforcer299 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: crzyjethro (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Hero (small blind) showed and won ($99.50) with a straight flush, Six to Ten
Seat 4: mint-meister (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: PootDogg03 showed and lost with a full house, Eights full of Sixes
Seat 6: LinusK folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Things in my life have made a turn for the better. For the past 4 weeks I have been working in a factory for $9 an hour. I had no choice in the matter its the best I could do etc. I really haven't suffered as much as i thought I would and working for $9 an hour when you have nothing isn't that terribly bad. I had money to make ALL of my payments and take out a different girl every friday and saturday night and have probably the most fun ive had in a long time over the past 4 weeks. Tomorrow, however, I have an interview that im a shoe-in for doing much more sophisticated work. I'm gonna be setting up networks and stuff for random businesses making at least 1k a week up to 5k+ a week just depending on what it is im doing. Needless to say this is a pretty sick opportunity for a 19 year old with no college degrees or anything like that. The downside is that im a rural farm boy (well not really but i live in a farm community) and im moving to the capital of the world new york city. Pretty big change! I lived and worked in downtown Milwaukee for 3-4 months though so its not like i have no idea what im getting myself into.
I guess all of those years of being a computer nerd are gonna pay off because I'm potentially going to be balling way too hard and might actually have to save some money (whoa?) I've never done that before. I dunno where this job will lead me but it pretty much opens the doors to whatever I will want to do for the rest of my life and my opportunities are endless so I love my situation right now.
On to things you guys love to hear me write about, my degen poker career.
I OFFICIALLY started my journey from $0 to 100k yesterday. I sat down with 1k playchips, played for about an hour and had 18k playchips when i was finished. I played for about 2 hours today and i now have 200k playchips.
I'm not totally sure @ what point i will sell my playchips but probably when i start to become overrolled for the biggest playchip sng games so probably around 4-5 mil which will put me comfortably at $40-50 which is massively sufficient to start playing nl2.
Playing poker when its not about the money is so much easier its ridiculous, lets hope i can stay away from my bad habits which unfortunately are my downfall to not only poker but life. Stay out of the games I can't afford that's all i gotta do and this quest to 100k will be a ridiculously easy task.
gl all, and for the fucking love of god I hate my image on this site, I'm half way tempted to make a new username when I get to new york and you guys will never see me again. Quit fucking berating me and calling me a thief and other shit I never try to do anything but help people and get massively negative comments about everything I do and its insanely annoying.
So I've Been Playing Live or, Too Long, Don't Readby collegesucks, September 21
This month, instead of playing online poker lately i've been driving about an hour or so down to New Orleans to play at the incredibly soft 1/2 tables there during the weekends.
net: +$2700 or 108 buyins at 25NL ^__^
i really like the game structure at Harrah's New Orleans. 1/2 blinds, and buyins are $60 min and $200 or 1/2 chipleader's stack max, and a $6 time-rake every dealer change, at 30 min intervals. so overall, the structure is pretty solid, imo.
now the juicy part is that most of the players who play there are incredibly bad. ok, you might see someone sitting there with a huge 500bb stack and i usually give them some credit, but if i see someone with just < 100bbs, i can confidently assume that the player is absolutely clueless fish playing 40/7 or something.
the more or less standard preflop raise around here is at least 5bb and up to 15bb if there are a ton of limpers. i think about 90% of the players here play an extremely limpy, loose-passive style cuz they just love to limp a ton with a bunch of suited or connected shit and low pairs while raising just pocket pairs and AJ+ maybe KQ+. and they have no clue how to make use of position.
preflop
i used to isolate over a couple or more limpers a bunch when i first started playing, but it didn't work out too well as too many people behind me would call the pfr and then the limpers would also come along for the ride quoting "pot odds" like it's the motherfucking mantra of preflop poker, and all too often i'm holding something speculative like QTs looking at a 5-way flop that misses me the majority of the time. so, adjusting to that i'd limp in position with a lot of the hands i would be raising preflop like QTs or suited connectors, weak pairs, completing the sb or btn with Axs or Kxs. in position and folded to me though, or with 1 limper or something, i'd raise a decent amount of times with a pretty wide range which is pretty standard. playing in that style though, required a lot more patience than i thought. since it was of critical importance that i show down pretty strong hands for image's sake, i thought i should begin with strong hands to begin with. with an image like that, i confidently made some tricky plays preflop where i'd squeeze from the sb over a straddle and several limpers with 57s, etc. 3bet pots were extremely rare at these tables because if someone usually raises only like 6% of their hands, the range of hands that go to preflop are obviously a lot tighter than that. so i refrained from 3betting and squeezing preflop raise + calls as much as possible... i mean of course unless the situation was just like, lol duh obviously squeeze because the guy is raising a third of his hands on the button and the small blind is very loose in raised pots but tighter in 3bet pots.
postflop
when cbetting, i looked for flops like 992 or K72, where it was extremely likely that the villain missed the flop, and if he calls, i can just give up subsequently without a read (or maybe if i knew that villain would always raise a top pair on the flop but he elects to just call, i'd fire a second barrel a lot of the times when the turn bricks). whenever the board was extremely ugly, though, like 897hh and i'm holding AKo, i'd check/muck without a second thought. i used to cbet hands that marginally held some equity vs. villain's calling range, like AQo on a KJ7 flop, but i decided that the best way to play at these tables was to just check it behind in position and hope for the best.
when i hit, it's fistpump valuetown because action is always good when there's a draw on the board. and it's the easiest thing to do because people NEVER raise unless they have a hand that squashes mine. these 35/6's NEVER raise as a bluff at the right moments. but they will call down with the shittiest draws imaginable. once i made solid valuebets against the most obvious chaser ever on the flop and turn with JJ on an AQ4ss board and won vs K3ss (i run good!). and it's SO funny how i can expect a TON of free cards and cheap showdowns because these people will NEVER bet as much as they will call. I've seen some ridiculous hands where the nut flush checked behind the river playing against some random idiot station because the board was paired. my friend was playing against this fat guy who i thought was pretty good, until the hand where the board came down to like A24, goes check-check, turn 8, he checks, my friend bets, guy calls, river comes the last A and the guy checks. my friend makes a horrible horrible bluff for like 1/3 pot and the guy insta CALLS and turns over A2... @_@
fun hands from last week:
huge bluff 300bb deep - maniac-ish UTG raises to 10, UTG+2 deepstack calls, folds to CO who calls, and i'm sitting on the SB with AKo and most of the times i'd just call here, but it felt like one of those rare spots to squeeze so i 3bet to 40 and they all folded except the UTG+2.
Flop comes QQ9 and the pot is ~$100. i insta think to myself 3 barrel AI because i'm already planning to bluff out mid-pairs to JJ, planning to fold to a raise at any point. so i start off with a donkish 1/2 pot cbet which he calls pretty quickly.
turn comes an 8 and im like uhh.. he prob doesn't have 88 then (lol) and i timebank a little before making a 1/2 pot double barrel again, $110 into ~$200. he thinks a long time, and then asks me how much i have. i'm like "lol wtf fuck my life" but i coolly told him that i had like 300 left, after which he just elected to call.
river comes a 7 and i naturally decide that it's a brick card since 77 would have folded the flop or the turn. after timebanking for about 2-3 mins i figured i would have been raised earlier by any hand that wouldn't fold to a shove here so i shipped in 150bbs as planned and the guy swore out loud as he insta folded AK face up. apparently the dude was going to try and ship it in if i check to him on the river and he didn't have the balls to bluffshove the turn for 200bbs anyways.
i still don't know for sure if it was a mistake or not to show my hand, but in the moment i just insta happily flipped over my AK when the dealer mucked villains AK while making the biggest, happiest grin on my face, a la JonnyCosMo.
one more:
I have AJo in lp and raise to 14 over a couple of limpers. BTN calls and limper in MP calls. Flop comes K5T and I cbet ~$30. BTN calls and limper folds. Turn card is a 4, but i strongly felt that this guy would likely flat in position with any K, so i checked, hoping for a free river. But he chose to bet out 50 and i was almost certain he held a K, and possibly a strong kicker too since most players i've seen, who are incredibly passive, checked behind weak kings and draws here. i probably would have folded but i thought i'd put my image to use and attempt a check-raise here, something i'd never pull on-line playing as robotically as i do there, but 1-tabling live is just a whole new game. long story short, i tanked for like 3 mins and proceeded to check-raise to 150 and the guy asked how much i had, thought for some more, and then folded KQ face up and said i had two pair. later on, the guy left for a smoke and i cashed out 1.2k (sick 600bb stack). on my way out, i told the fat guy that i bluffed out with AK that i had AJo in this hand, but when I met the other guy smoking in the lobby, i told him "good fold, i had KK." and he slaps me on my shoulder as he says, "I KNEW IT! Man you think wayy too long with your nuts-type hands. if you work on that, then i think you'll be a pretty good player. Nice playing with you dawg!" LOL
ehhh one last hand
i shipped in 22 with a 40bb stack and tripled up against two players when the flop came something like 38557 lol. from there i built up to that 600bb stack. damn i run so good live.
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(a pair of Sevens)
Has a long way to go ofc but for international debut its really nice. Move the fucking head tho
) I did enjoy Nakamura when he found his pocket, just was fun to watch. Maybe im just racist tho!
(a full house, Eights full of Sixes)
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