Had a reasonable night last night, more educational than profitable as I ended up a very small winner. I started off at HU SNG, finished at HU cash. It's certainly a different world at cash, and I think I like it. The biggest problem with SNG's is the lack of poker involved. Poker is when two players (or more) have to tussle it out and make decision right up to someone calling on the river, or even the turn. But poker is really about making big laydowns/calls/bets/raises on later streets. You are using your skills to determine what he has, what he thinks you have, and how he will react based on that to betting/checking/raising etc. It's an infinitely hard skill to get this right a lot of the time, but it's fun trying. Beating a guy down in a SNG, and then having a shove war isn't poker, it's just who will win the flip (even AJ vs AQ is a flip, because he could have had AT or AQ or 55 when you called with AJ).
So I got in a tough HU match after making some money from a couple of softer spots in the HU cash games I played. I must say I was owning a soul in one match, then he quit, and I got owned myself. If it was all about money I would have quit pretty early, but decided I would try to work this guy out, and see if I could pick up "tips" or even see if I could exploit anything. Unfortunatley this guy seemed pretty solid, and I'm not really sure how much I picked up. I am going to do some investigating and come back on some of the things this guy was doing that made my life difficult. Hopefully I can learn a lot from these early experiences.
2 more nights and I'm bronze in the Iron Man... woohoo. In all honesty it is a good thing to make it this month, as the program gets more valuable as you keep it ticking along, and it's also an achievement of sorts. If I could round off the month with 2 wins (famous last words), I'd also be very happy with my first month of HU play, but we'll see how we go. Next month will start off slow due to a small trip this weekend, but I'll be planning a lot of HU poker at Full Tilt for August, actually that's pretty much my entire August goal so I saved a post :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Building a bankroll
Another profitable day, with mediocre success in HU SNG's and some cash HU success. The cash HU was the most entertaining, with a short stacker 3 betting every hand, and stacking off the 3 times I 4 bet. Hands included A7o, J3s, 42o, and he finally left, so the easiest money I've come across in quite a while. The 2nd player was better, but still overly aggro, so it's was the easiest play to make $30 off him, 3 betting AQo PF, cbetting but checking the turn on a Qxx board (AKA my blog yesterday about showing weakness to aggro players), then shoving over his pot sized bet on the turn. He continued to show aggression, but it was safe to fold a lot, knowing his bet sizing (always full pot) meant that any time you made a hand you could easily make back your losses from any folding you did. So a nice short sweetener to the evening.
I guess it's been maybe 4 weeks of playing HU all up, and I can say I'm now starting to get into a groove. I love what it's done for my poker game, I really feel like I can get a lot more out of post flop situations now, and it really teaches you to pay close attention to how players play. For example, seeing a guy check the flop, then bet the turn, then bet big on the river, can mean different things depending on the player. Sometimes it's huge strength, trying to get value, other times it's a bluffer trying to get a pot without having a hand. I think back to lots of different 6 max situations where I was lost, where I really think I would crush now given the information I've gained the last few weeks.
But for now I'll continue to play HU, and probably mostly SNG's, although I'm tempted to move to cash at some point. My FTP points are going well, I just have to play the last 3 days of the month to qualify for bronze, which isn't too bad since I only deposited mid July. Given a full month I should easily get to silver, probably gold, and with a disciplined mindset could reach iron man if I wanted to, but it doesn't seem that important to push things too hard.
I guess it's been maybe 4 weeks of playing HU all up, and I can say I'm now starting to get into a groove. I love what it's done for my poker game, I really feel like I can get a lot more out of post flop situations now, and it really teaches you to pay close attention to how players play. For example, seeing a guy check the flop, then bet the turn, then bet big on the river, can mean different things depending on the player. Sometimes it's huge strength, trying to get value, other times it's a bluffer trying to get a pot without having a hand. I think back to lots of different 6 max situations where I was lost, where I really think I would crush now given the information I've gained the last few weeks.
But for now I'll continue to play HU, and probably mostly SNG's, although I'm tempted to move to cash at some point. My FTP points are going well, I just have to play the last 3 days of the month to qualify for bronze, which isn't too bad since I only deposited mid July. Given a full month I should easily get to silver, probably gold, and with a disciplined mindset could reach iron man if I wanted to, but it doesn't seem that important to push things too hard.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Faking weakness against aggro players
Played just a little over the weekend. I managed to get in a few games on Friday to tick over the Iron Man thing after some party organising. Was up, then even, had a bit of rotten luck there to be even, but was a bit tilted so probably quit at a good time. Saturday is usually non poker night, but the Mrs fell asleep after a huge day, so I played a $10 MTT. I played a very loose style, and never really got the luck to capitilise on the style (AK beaten AIPF by AQ and QQ hitting a set and getting no action for the first time) and bubbled the money. I then played hyper horrible cash games a bit drunk. Only NL10 and NL25 PLO, came out a few dollars down but had fun tilting some kids.
Last night I finally got something going in HU SNG's. Had a decent run and ended up over $300. When you are running well, people shove turn scare cards, and that's your card :) I rarely sucked out, more that I got action on my big hands. Running well comes in many different flavours I guess. I had one SNG where I got sucked out on 3 times, so I said to myself, that's all the bad luck for the session, and it was true. I have a lot of sessions that start off similar to this and then I hit some bad luck or some good players, but this time I quit while ahead and hit some NL10 tables again. Playing hyper horrible again finished up $48 on one NL10 table, and busted the other after being $21 at one point :)
A little strategy time. First of all, it's always important to know who you are playing. Some people hit any pair and can't fold. You value bet these guys for 3 streets always, never try anything different. Others re-raise bluff at odd times. Just wait for a hand against these guys, as they'll commit themselves with a weak draw or 2nd pair and have to call your shove with top pair. The trickiest I've found so far are the guys who take it away from you after sensing weakness. You cbet when you hit top pair they fold, you cbet again and get re-raised, so now you are a bit afraid to cbet with air. So when you don't cbet the 3rd flop, they bet half pot, or pot on any turn card, and you have to fold with air. This will keep going, and you feel like he sees your hole cards, as he's almost always putting pressure on your pre flop raise hands, and you are reduced to only raising quality hands, and basically you get run over.
So it came to my attention, that these guys love looking for weakness, and in HU you are almost always reasonably weak. But so is he remember. But eventually you will have a hand, and don't want him just folding to it. So two simple ways to show weakness. You hold AJ and the flop comes down J64r. You cbet, he calls. Now two things. It's very unlikely he hit this flop, and he's probably calling because he thinks it's unlikely you hit. Being OOP though, it's going to be hard for him to properly find out, so he'll almost always check the turn again and let you make your move. If you bet, you are saying you hit, and it's up to him whether he believes you or not. If you check behind on the turn, this is his signal that you didn't hit. He can bet a wide range (including a lot of pure bluffs) on the river, because so far you've cbet a dry board, and checked the turn, you must be weak. He fires a river bet, it's up to you whether to call or shove. The positive here, is you cbet a lot, so you hand strength is fairly well hidden, but the downside is he may like bluffing smaller pots, rather than tangling up with cbets, so you will fold him out quite a lot here.
So the 2nd method is far more sinister. These guys love weakness, we know that, so give it to them on a plate. Check behind on the flop. This is like putting a sign over the pot saying "free money" to aggressive players. Think about it, if they realise they won't hit a flop very often, they are burning money by calling too much pre flop. So they plan to take as many pots as you'll allow, and bet when they think you are weak and can't call. They will crucify you if you don't cbet when you don't have a hand, so use that against them and don't cbet here. They bet pot on the turn, call it. Again, you might start seeing scare cards etc, but if those scare cards hit him, then a raise won't do any good and folding would be wrong given your plans for the hand. The special aggro players will bet the river again, and again it's an easy call usually. I mean if 4 clubs are now out there, and you don't have one, it's probably time to let go, but otherwise if you have your player type down his range will include a lot of bluffs and 2nd pairs etc, so it's an easy call really.
A couple of disclaimers. Don't overdo any one action, keep villain wondering about what you have. Maybe as a simple rule to begin with, check the flop with top pair good kicker, bet the flop with top pair weak kicker. Don't use this against the wrong villains. Solid players will take a stab occasionally, but may shut down if they think you are making a move, and calling stations will call 3 streets, so just keep betting. Also unfortunately, you will get sucked out on sometimes. It's unavoidable in this play, you didn't cbet a flush board, he bets turn, you call, then the river brings the flush and he has the flush. You might have gotten him off it on the turn quite often, if you'd cbet and bet turn, but remember that these plays are +ev in the long run, which is why we do them, in the short term, shit happens. And as a great player said about playing this "smallball" style, is you don't have to pay him off when he hits. Maybe sometimes folding the river is a good idea even though we way underplayed our hand, although I'd be calling a lot of rivers.
Finally, got my rakeback, and cleared quite a few points recently. So I'm going close to clearning another CR membership by the end of the month, and will end up getting Bronze status unless I don't play at all one night. I'll hang onto my FTP points until later next month, and see if they don't offer a 6 month membership at some point in the FTP store, and probably save up my points if they do. I'm obviously fairly happy right now to be playing HU SNG's, so I'll keep it going for another week or two at least, and at this point plan to play HU SNG's all next month.
Last night I finally got something going in HU SNG's. Had a decent run and ended up over $300. When you are running well, people shove turn scare cards, and that's your card :) I rarely sucked out, more that I got action on my big hands. Running well comes in many different flavours I guess. I had one SNG where I got sucked out on 3 times, so I said to myself, that's all the bad luck for the session, and it was true. I have a lot of sessions that start off similar to this and then I hit some bad luck or some good players, but this time I quit while ahead and hit some NL10 tables again. Playing hyper horrible again finished up $48 on one NL10 table, and busted the other after being $21 at one point :)
A little strategy time. First of all, it's always important to know who you are playing. Some people hit any pair and can't fold. You value bet these guys for 3 streets always, never try anything different. Others re-raise bluff at odd times. Just wait for a hand against these guys, as they'll commit themselves with a weak draw or 2nd pair and have to call your shove with top pair. The trickiest I've found so far are the guys who take it away from you after sensing weakness. You cbet when you hit top pair they fold, you cbet again and get re-raised, so now you are a bit afraid to cbet with air. So when you don't cbet the 3rd flop, they bet half pot, or pot on any turn card, and you have to fold with air. This will keep going, and you feel like he sees your hole cards, as he's almost always putting pressure on your pre flop raise hands, and you are reduced to only raising quality hands, and basically you get run over.
So it came to my attention, that these guys love looking for weakness, and in HU you are almost always reasonably weak. But so is he remember. But eventually you will have a hand, and don't want him just folding to it. So two simple ways to show weakness. You hold AJ and the flop comes down J64r. You cbet, he calls. Now two things. It's very unlikely he hit this flop, and he's probably calling because he thinks it's unlikely you hit. Being OOP though, it's going to be hard for him to properly find out, so he'll almost always check the turn again and let you make your move. If you bet, you are saying you hit, and it's up to him whether he believes you or not. If you check behind on the turn, this is his signal that you didn't hit. He can bet a wide range (including a lot of pure bluffs) on the river, because so far you've cbet a dry board, and checked the turn, you must be weak. He fires a river bet, it's up to you whether to call or shove. The positive here, is you cbet a lot, so you hand strength is fairly well hidden, but the downside is he may like bluffing smaller pots, rather than tangling up with cbets, so you will fold him out quite a lot here.
So the 2nd method is far more sinister. These guys love weakness, we know that, so give it to them on a plate. Check behind on the flop. This is like putting a sign over the pot saying "free money" to aggressive players. Think about it, if they realise they won't hit a flop very often, they are burning money by calling too much pre flop. So they plan to take as many pots as you'll allow, and bet when they think you are weak and can't call. They will crucify you if you don't cbet when you don't have a hand, so use that against them and don't cbet here. They bet pot on the turn, call it. Again, you might start seeing scare cards etc, but if those scare cards hit him, then a raise won't do any good and folding would be wrong given your plans for the hand. The special aggro players will bet the river again, and again it's an easy call usually. I mean if 4 clubs are now out there, and you don't have one, it's probably time to let go, but otherwise if you have your player type down his range will include a lot of bluffs and 2nd pairs etc, so it's an easy call really.
A couple of disclaimers. Don't overdo any one action, keep villain wondering about what you have. Maybe as a simple rule to begin with, check the flop with top pair good kicker, bet the flop with top pair weak kicker. Don't use this against the wrong villains. Solid players will take a stab occasionally, but may shut down if they think you are making a move, and calling stations will call 3 streets, so just keep betting. Also unfortunately, you will get sucked out on sometimes. It's unavoidable in this play, you didn't cbet a flush board, he bets turn, you call, then the river brings the flush and he has the flush. You might have gotten him off it on the turn quite often, if you'd cbet and bet turn, but remember that these plays are +ev in the long run, which is why we do them, in the short term, shit happens. And as a great player said about playing this "smallball" style, is you don't have to pay him off when he hits. Maybe sometimes folding the river is a good idea even though we way underplayed our hand, although I'd be calling a lot of rivers.
Finally, got my rakeback, and cleared quite a few points recently. So I'm going close to clearning another CR membership by the end of the month, and will end up getting Bronze status unless I don't play at all one night. I'll hang onto my FTP points until later next month, and see if they don't offer a 6 month membership at some point in the FTP store, and probably save up my points if they do. I'm obviously fairly happy right now to be playing HU SNG's, so I'll keep it going for another week or two at least, and at this point plan to play HU SNG's all next month.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Free CardRunners month
I had a pretty clean run at it last night. No internet problems, only one horrible bad beat, and quite a few games I felt pretty solid in. It surprises me how often a new player sits at these things. I mean I'm on there almost every night around the same time, and I keep playing new player after new player. I guess that's the beauty of such a deep network of players like FTP or PS. I managed a small profit, which came about from -$50 in HU cash and +$100 in SNG's. The HU cash was disappointing, I'd played very solid only to put in a huge bluff with ace high thinking there was nothing he could easily call with. He'd been raising my cbets quite frequently, so I looked him up on a K55 board and 3 bet shoved him. He went into his think tank for ages, and made the call with KQo. Not sure if he was slowrolling or he thought I had a 5, but he was a good folder, so I wouldn't be surprised if he thought he might be beat and was thinking whether he could fold. Anyway that cost $50, but I'm happy with the play, as he'd have folded almost any other hand, I'm sure of it. I guess that's why I hate cash games at the moment, as it's a real grind against some players, and you are making tiny amounts of money over quite a few hands rather than knowing it will all be over within a few minutes one way or the other. It's really quite a rush knowing you could be $50 richer in less than 5 minutes, which I think is partially the reason a lot of unknowns find their way here, rather than it being full of regs.
Cardrunners sent me an email to say I'm now paid up for next month, sweet. It worked like this. I bought the 1 month membership booster, got a confirmation email from FTP, then got an email from cardrunners (TrevRob, keep up the good work) saying it's done. What's missing here? I didn't tell FTP my CardRunners member name. They obviously work it out through your email address, but it's a nice touch to have to not do anything after buying the item in the FTP store. Nice.
I also watched 2 MasterLJ videos on CardRunners yesterday, the guy has some good info, well worth a watch. And I'm definitely going to go through some of Brian and Taylors HU videos now to really get some solid background information in my head. I've realised I have tonnes of HU info to be gained. I especially need to learn good places to fold, as I all too often find myself calling river bets where I only beat a bluff, or calling flops or turns OOP where I have no intention of trying to steal the pot and no equity in the pot. My bluffing skills are OK, but probalby pretty see through to a decent player.
Cardrunners sent me an email to say I'm now paid up for next month, sweet. It worked like this. I bought the 1 month membership booster, got a confirmation email from FTP, then got an email from cardrunners (TrevRob, keep up the good work) saying it's done. What's missing here? I didn't tell FTP my CardRunners member name. They obviously work it out through your email address, but it's a nice touch to have to not do anything after buying the item in the FTP store. Nice.
I also watched 2 MasterLJ videos on CardRunners yesterday, the guy has some good info, well worth a watch. And I'm definitely going to go through some of Brian and Taylors HU videos now to really get some solid background information in my head. I've realised I have tonnes of HU info to be gained. I especially need to learn good places to fold, as I all too often find myself calling river bets where I only beat a bluff, or calling flops or turns OOP where I have no intention of trying to steal the pot and no equity in the pot. My bluffing skills are OK, but probalby pretty see through to a decent player.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sickly, and pokerstars reload bonus
Well I tilted at SNG's the other day. I was home sick, and spent the first few hours in bad shape, but after a while got the energy and desire up for some poker. I'd run shocking the last couple of days, so was determined to run good, and got my account up again after the last couple of days disappointments. I certainly ran much better, losing allins about the expected rate, like winning half the coin flips, winning more than half when I'm well ahead. I then had a mixture of bad internet and running bad. 3 times I lost an internet connection, costing me 3 * $57.5, basically ruining my day, and tilting me bad. Twice I regained connection within a minute and both times my opponent had forced my stack down to next to nothing, fuckers!!! I felt sick again anyway, so tried to rest some, but it didn't work too well, as the sickness made it difficult to just relax. I basically spent the afternoon out of it, and slept about 14 hours last night.
On the good side of things, I cleared my full tilt points needed for a CR free month, even though I haven't received my confirmation email yet, and am running on par for just scraping in for Bronze membership of the Iron Man for this month (assuming I get to play enough days). Given a full month I think I'll easily make Gold, if not Iron Man. Pokerstars is also offering a reload bonus, but it's a very low clearance rate. At 20 points per dollar, it's basically 25% rakeback for HU SNG's, which isn't itself terrible, but I'd think the FT 27% + free CR membership and other reload bonuses from Iron Man gives more back for me grinding a month of these SNG's in August (which is about how long it would take to clear the $240). I might put a very small bonus on there and use it for giving me something to clear for muck around times, but to be honest, $240 would be difficult for me to clear without spending quite a bit of time playing that site.
On the good side of things, I cleared my full tilt points needed for a CR free month, even though I haven't received my confirmation email yet, and am running on par for just scraping in for Bronze membership of the Iron Man for this month (assuming I get to play enough days). Given a full month I think I'll easily make Gold, if not Iron Man. Pokerstars is also offering a reload bonus, but it's a very low clearance rate. At 20 points per dollar, it's basically 25% rakeback for HU SNG's, which isn't itself terrible, but I'd think the FT 27% + free CR membership and other reload bonuses from Iron Man gives more back for me grinding a month of these SNG's in August (which is about how long it would take to clear the $240). I might put a very small bonus on there and use it for giving me something to clear for muck around times, but to be honest, $240 would be difficult for me to clear without spending quite a bit of time playing that site.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Played well, results stink
I honestly felt like I played very strong, but got massacred by luck. All in's were shocking but even worse were value bets. Like 3 betting AJs, value betting a A73r board, getting called, then having only a 2/3rd pot size bet to get him all in, and he hits a king on the turn, to make it K3 two pair. He called a 3 bet with K3, then called a cbet for almost 1/2 his chips with bottom pair? And people hit their draws all day long too.
So enough whinging. I felt like I learned a bit last night. I watched part 2 of Jackals SNG HU tourney video at CR. Very solid, it's amazing how tight weak he is. But definitely has different gears and gets more aggressive as it's needed. I'm aiming at playing like this, because the tight weak approach will beat a fair percentage of players out there, and once you identify the player you are playing needs a different style, change it up. In fact playing my usual aggro style is bad play against some passive players, so I need to be able to play a few different styles and mix it up according to who I'm playing.
I want to know how to play a decent limper. Most limpers have no idea what they are doing, but I was playing one that seemed to know exactly when I was making moves and when I had a hand against him last night. It was probably one of two opponents I felt outclassed against last night, as he had an answer for everything I tried.
So enough whinging. I felt like I learned a bit last night. I watched part 2 of Jackals SNG HU tourney video at CR. Very solid, it's amazing how tight weak he is. But definitely has different gears and gets more aggressive as it's needed. I'm aiming at playing like this, because the tight weak approach will beat a fair percentage of players out there, and once you identify the player you are playing needs a different style, change it up. In fact playing my usual aggro style is bad play against some passive players, so I need to be able to play a few different styles and mix it up according to who I'm playing.
I want to know how to play a decent limper. Most limpers have no idea what they are doing, but I was playing one that seemed to know exactly when I was making moves and when I had a hand against him last night. It was probably one of two opponents I felt outclassed against last night, as he had an answer for everything I tried.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Rebound session
So not really shaken at all, and looking forward to some good poker, I grinded out some (a little drunk again) HU SNG's. Got off to a good start, and all but quit, but felt I was playing my best HU poker, so kept going. What followed was astonishing, but couldn't get money in better, and couldn't win one. The average game went like this. We trade some chips while I'm working out his style. I pick a few spots to get some free cash off him, and take a decent lead. Then when I feel like I have a good enough spot, I get it in against him as 2:1 chip lead or better or worse than that. Hands are turned over to show I have 60-80% equity, he hits whatever he needs and takes a decent chip lead. I get it in good again and lose again. Looking over my all ins, I got it in good all but once, and that was 99 vs TT.
Snuck in some drunken 6 max again, and again for a big loss. Only big complaint was JJ spiking a Jack on the flop against a re-raise PF, on a QJx board. He check called (even though he led PF), which was weird, but put AK into my head, and of course a T on the turn fucked my life. I couldn't let go (drunk) even though I was certain he had that, and I had only 10 outs to improve, which I didn't. Fuck 6 max 60/35 style (yes I upped my VPIP by 20 last night), it's hard work.
I can't complain too much, as this run still only brings my FTP account back to about even, and I feel like I'm playing these HU SNG's very well. I think the way I'm playing, I'd probably be better suited to cash HU though, as I'm good at taking small pots and gettting reads, whereas most SNG's are left to some all in luck at some point.
I have just about enough points to buy CR membership for next month, and will most likely get Iron man bronze this month if I keep playing the rest of the month. I'm making enough points to easily get Iron Man status next month too, which could be worth reaching for.
Snuck in some drunken 6 max again, and again for a big loss. Only big complaint was JJ spiking a Jack on the flop against a re-raise PF, on a QJx board. He check called (even though he led PF), which was weird, but put AK into my head, and of course a T on the turn fucked my life. I couldn't let go (drunk) even though I was certain he had that, and I had only 10 outs to improve, which I didn't. Fuck 6 max 60/35 style (yes I upped my VPIP by 20 last night), it's hard work.
I can't complain too much, as this run still only brings my FTP account back to about even, and I feel like I'm playing these HU SNG's very well. I think the way I'm playing, I'd probably be better suited to cash HU though, as I'm good at taking small pots and gettting reads, whereas most SNG's are left to some all in luck at some point.
I have just about enough points to buy CR membership for next month, and will most likely get Iron man bronze this month if I keep playing the rest of the month. I'm making enough points to easily get Iron Man status next month too, which could be worth reaching for.
Playing Drunk
I had a moment of clear stupidity. I played drunk and lost around $800 on Friday night. It all started off innocently enough having a couple of drinks with dinner, and playing a couple of SNG's. Up in fact. Then I decided to play some NL50 HU, lost a bit of it back, then decided while still in profit to go to my other site and have some fun playing 30/25 style on 6 max. Only I ended up playing 40/35!!! Still I ended up tilting half the table, and came out a small winner with some big pots. So I moved up to NL100. This is where it got ugly. I was pushing around perfectly, then started getting struck hard by big hands turning into losers. I was probably being a little too liberal with my definition of a strong hand, but had JJ less than QQ, AQ less than AK twice on an ace high board, and had a set go down to a rivered straight, plus a couple of other pots where I was bluffing people off pots and got shoved on (that happens while playing 40/35 I noticed). I wasn't actually that upset with how I played, just my game selection and inability to quit. I then went back to FTP to try to get some back on SNG's and got that account down a bit, and came back to OnGame to donk off another 120 to HU cash. Poor, poor form.
I woke up a little liberated though. I thought I'd be over everything, but I was happy and had a really good (poker free) Saturday. I'm glad dusting off this much money doesn't necessarily hurt me mentally as much as it used to.
I woke up a little liberated though. I thought I'd be over everything, but I was happy and had a really good (poker free) Saturday. I'm glad dusting off this much money doesn't necessarily hurt me mentally as much as it used to.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Too many grinders in HU
I kind of sucked at poker last night. I've come to the realisation 2 tabling HU while first learning probably isn't smart, so I'm bringing my expectation right down and playing 1 $55 turbo table at a time. It started off fairly smoothly, getting about 4 wins in a row, but soon fell apart and saw me a little above break even. I quit while ahead and had a couple of drinks :)
After feeling a little less sober I jumped onto OnGame to play some softer NL50 HU, but it was full of grinders. I felt like I ran terrible, getting a set and overpair cracked in not too many hands, but I still managed a profit somehow. I guess it was the deliberate short stacker who lost two stacks to me, and the flopped trips against a grinder that saved me.
Not to be out done or out sobered, I went back to Full Tilt to try out their NL50 HU tables for the first time. Grinder, grinder, grinder, grinder, fuck it!!! Just one fish would be nice. I didn't win nor lose, and jumped back to the $50 SNG's. I must say it is so much fishier at the HU SNG's, it's almost like printing money for good players. Still my less than sober state only managed to find two huge suckout situations (easier to get sucked out on after drinking???), and I brought my account back to barely above even so far.
Another 290 FTP points, so I'm cruising for a free CR month, and hopefully can log some decent profit numbers between now and the end of the month to go along with it.
After feeling a little less sober I jumped onto OnGame to play some softer NL50 HU, but it was full of grinders. I felt like I ran terrible, getting a set and overpair cracked in not too many hands, but I still managed a profit somehow. I guess it was the deliberate short stacker who lost two stacks to me, and the flopped trips against a grinder that saved me.
Not to be out done or out sobered, I went back to Full Tilt to try out their NL50 HU tables for the first time. Grinder, grinder, grinder, grinder, fuck it!!! Just one fish would be nice. I didn't win nor lose, and jumped back to the $50 SNG's. I must say it is so much fishier at the HU SNG's, it's almost like printing money for good players. Still my less than sober state only managed to find two huge suckout situations (easier to get sucked out on after drinking???), and I brought my account back to barely above even so far.
Another 290 FTP points, so I'm cruising for a free CR month, and hopefully can log some decent profit numbers between now and the end of the month to go along with it.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Day 2 of FTP HU SNG's
I had a more sobering night last night. I dropped my aggression a bit, probably too much, as everyone else was playing fairly tight weak. But this doesn't mean I should be, that's the time to strike. Still, I feel like I need to be careful not to just blow off chips too often due to bluffs, so I have to find a balance, which of course involves a lot of hand reading. For a couple of them I did find a pretty decent balance.
Overall, I'm still feeling pretty good about things. I played 18 $50-$55 SNG's, and won a little. I've noticed most of the players are still pretty weak, but some are definitely worth avoiding. It's not been too hard firing up 2 SNG's at once, as long as not both of them are against aggro players, who are generally harder to handle.
Also got over 300 FTP points yesterday, so should be easily enough to get gold or even iron man status if I stick to it next month, plus should be aiming at getting enough FTP points together for a free CR month soon, which is very nice. I'll set a tentative goal of getting 6 months free CR membership from my FTP points by the end of this venture, which would need a mix of iron man medals and FTP points, so I figure I'll need to play at least 2-3 months to achieve that.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
HU at Full Tilt
I did deposit on Full Tilt last night, and play some $30-$50 HU SNG's. I didn't play a huge amount, but was 2 tabling for a small part of it without too much effort. I take pride in the fact very few people accepted a rematch, and I offerred on all but one. That was the indication to me that I had the edge, because I didn't feel unhappy playing anyone again, they mostly seemed to be +ev for me, whether I won or not. It's not like everyone had monster problems pre flop or whatever, it's more like they'd just eventually do something really stupid which didn't make sense, and made calling with 2nd pair or top pair really easy. The biggest leak most weak players have is to play back at you in big pots. I guess I'm generally getting a big pot going with a big hand regardless of how aggro I may seem, so to take me on in those pots with air (which they often had) is indeed dangerous. Nothing funnier than seeing someone reraise 700 chips to be down to their last 350 and fold to a shove. But I'm definitely picking up plenty of chips pushing people around, so as long as I play sensibly in big pots, I should have a big ROI at the levels I'm playing.
I have feelings about FTP being a bit rigged, so my first HU was no doubt funny. I worked hard to accumulate a big lead, and had him down to 2200 to 800 before he had a brain fade and 3 bet shoved with Q2 vs my AQ, which was the easiest call ever, even though he hadn't done that before. He hit a 2 and took the lead. I then got in a couple of spots, and was down to something like 1700 to 1300 when I managed to get him litterally donating a victory to me when I flopped a straight with 56 on a 789 board, he held 75 for bottom pair. Of course a 6 comes on the river for a push. I then get caught up in a pre flop war and lose AJ to AQ. The odds of me losing the SNG would have been like 20 to 1 when we got the money in AQ vs Q2, but I did lose.
Fortunately things smoothed out from there, and I found myself winning 8 of the last 12 for a small profit. My last one was a 4 man, so I won the first against the most passive player, which took forever, then got crushed on the final table in a matter of moments when an aggro player showed up with the goods each time I looked him up. He was the best player of the night by far, as aggression was his name, although I did feel a little unlucky running AQ into AK for the final hand, which would have easily thrown me into the lead had I won that pot.
Anyway, up a few dollars, 190 FTP points, which is a little short of points needed for potential iron man status, but I probably won't reach for that this month anyway, considering I'm starting half way through the month. I'm looking to pay for next months CR membership in FTP points though, so at this rate need to play close to 9 nights to clear enough points by the end of the month. I'll probably give that a shot, and then finish off my OnGame deposit bonuses. I'm also not completely convinced I shouldn't be playing pokerstars where there are more games running, but I did find enough players to keep a fairly steady flow at the $30 to $50 level.
I have feelings about FTP being a bit rigged, so my first HU was no doubt funny. I worked hard to accumulate a big lead, and had him down to 2200 to 800 before he had a brain fade and 3 bet shoved with Q2 vs my AQ, which was the easiest call ever, even though he hadn't done that before. He hit a 2 and took the lead. I then got in a couple of spots, and was down to something like 1700 to 1300 when I managed to get him litterally donating a victory to me when I flopped a straight with 56 on a 789 board, he held 75 for bottom pair. Of course a 6 comes on the river for a push. I then get caught up in a pre flop war and lose AJ to AQ. The odds of me losing the SNG would have been like 20 to 1 when we got the money in AQ vs Q2, but I did lose.
Fortunately things smoothed out from there, and I found myself winning 8 of the last 12 for a small profit. My last one was a 4 man, so I won the first against the most passive player, which took forever, then got crushed on the final table in a matter of moments when an aggro player showed up with the goods each time I looked him up. He was the best player of the night by far, as aggression was his name, although I did feel a little unlucky running AQ into AK for the final hand, which would have easily thrown me into the lead had I won that pot.
Anyway, up a few dollars, 190 FTP points, which is a little short of points needed for potential iron man status, but I probably won't reach for that this month anyway, considering I'm starting half way through the month. I'm looking to pay for next months CR membership in FTP points though, so at this rate need to play close to 9 nights to clear enough points by the end of the month. I'll probably give that a shot, and then finish off my OnGame deposit bonuses. I'm also not completely convinced I shouldn't be playing pokerstars where there are more games running, but I did find enough players to keep a fairly steady flow at the $30 to $50 level.
Monday, July 14, 2008
HU ROI against different players
I know I just posted about HU SNG's, but I just wanted to add something else. I realise my run was pretty good the last couple of days, but I'm not being results oriented when I talk up HU SNG's. I'm also not thinking I've just woken up the worlds best HU SNG player, or that I can easily sustain a big winrate. What I'm more excited about with HU SNG's, is I think it's pretty obvious to spot a good player. I can lose to a bad player, but I know I have a +ve ROI against them, no matter how small my own bad play makes that. A good player has a +ve ROI on me, and I know I'll run into a lot of these players. I just haven't seen many yet. I also think Full Tilt will be littered with these guys, so that's why I want to try it out there, just to see how well I do against solid HU SNG players, at a decent level. If it's far too difficult, I'll get a feel for that pretty quickly I think. Then I can always drop back to OnGame, assess whether it's still the case there, and work out what I want to do from that. If Full Tilt is actually quite soft I'll probably stay there for a bit and climb up their Iron Man promotion and get some free Cardrunners months etc.
I'd expect Full Tilt to be pretty tight, and for there to still be a very large learning curve for me between where I am now, and where I'd need to be to be a HU SNG shark at say $100-$200 levels.
More HU SNG's
I have so many things on my mind to do with HU. Firstly, I've started the HU SNG's. I was mucking about on pokerstars and ran up my micro account, which was $3 after cashing out my account the other day, to $96 with HU SNG's. I have very little HU experience, but the money seemed easy, and I even played a $30 HU SNG, which seemed quite easy to win. So I went back to my regular OnGame site to try to grind the $20+ HU SNG's with similar success. I ended up playing a mix of $20/$30/$50, and only once thought someone was playing well PF (which didn't last long, as he tilted off his stack), and in the $50 games I played someone 4 times who was playing fairly solid post flop, with exception of a few glitches, before going crazy (tilt) in the last one. Overall, I ended up a solid $200+ there too, which including the PS fun meant around a $260 profit without thinking about bonuses coming from OnGame for that.
First and foremost, the reason I have very quickly fallen for this game is that opponents are playing a lot of hands with you, so you pick up on their habits very quickly, as opposed to grinding 6 max for a night and still not knowing too much about 2 of the tighter opponents play. Secondly, their habits are crap. Calling a lot OOP and limping a lot IP is so easy to play against. I get small pots OOP, big pots IP, or the occasional big pot OOP when I have an excellent starting hand. Easy money. Third, tilt. They get it, I haven't been...yet. I can lose a big pot as favourite, and still win the SNG, whereas a lot of people lose one big pot and just give up, shipping it with 42o the next hand. And compared with HU cash games, there is an end point pretty quickly, so you are never grinding it out for too long, or donating stack after stack to a better player. So you grind out what edges you have, then you are done with it, next game, rather than 2 hours against one good player just to be down rake, or up half a buyin at the end.
So I've done some ROI calculations, and it's pretty attractive proposition to grind these out for a bit. I'll probably play some on Full Tilt, just to see how good those games are, and if things go well there, I may stay for a bit. What's attractive about these games is you can be grinding out your 10% ROI on the $50 level with as little as $1.5K bankroll. That's around $30 per hour single tabling, maybe $45 two tabling, with a pretty small bankroll requirement. I'll grind out the $20-$30 games for a bit on Full Tilt and see if they are as soft as OnGame in general, and then maybe in the next week or two assess how well it's gone overall, before decided what to do.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Some HU Play
Last couple of nights I've ventured into the dark world of heads up play. I've been mostly worried about playing before, because the logical starting point is NL50 HU (or SNG's), and my bankroll hasn't been able to stand the swings I might see, especially when learning.
So I started at the SNG's. These weren't too bad, but it was certainly interesting the difference hand to hand. One hand you have the nut straight and lose a pot, the next you have King high and win the hand. It makes you trully appreciate hand reading and recognizing common lines. It also makes you appreciate the power of betting, as passive players call almost every cbet, but calling one or two more bets scares a lot of players. It's certainly a very obvious first leak to look for.
I probably evened out, but was hooked, so started up on the cash the next night after some earlier 6 max success. I had some early success, but then a more solid player took me to value town with a big hand, and we finally stacked off my AQ vs his AK... dominated.
The next night I played some more SNG's, and ran horrible. I actually dominated more than a few, but lost big pots at crucial points, and was left coin flipping, which seemed to be a one sided coin last night. I lost about $70 worth of SNG's, before going over to cash again. I basically ran pretty well at NL30 cash, playing two short stack donks and one reasonable, but overly aggressive player. I found myself 3 betting half his raises, because he raised every hand, but didn't have much answer to my 3 bets, either folding weaker hands, or folding the flop/turn to pressure. I did a little better than even there, and ended up enough money to have a crack at NL50 HU. It's not like I'm not bankrolled for NL50, it's just I feel I need confidence to play HU that high.
Well, I ran good there. First big pot was all in PF AJs vs QQ, and I hit. He insta reloads, and we start to play. He again is very aggro, but I run over him, either bluffing in perfect spots (variance) or having the goods when he didn't. I took 3 stacks off him before he quit. Another donk then donated a SS, before another aggro player donated two stacks. I was up to about $250 on this table, when the first guy came back. He won a couple of pots, including a AJ vs QQ again, but then got slaughtered. Mainly the same, me bluffing him at perfect times, him getting it in with worse hands. I think the last one was AA vs A7s for a full BI. By the time he left again, I was up to $400. I then got another donk to donate two short stacks, but he stuck around and hit numerous times against me, over a couple of hourse, to bring me down to $290.
I felt like I played pretty well considering how little practice I have. I was able to conceal my hand strength pretty well, and mostly knew their strength fairly well too. I will write another blog about some of the things I picked up on in my first night.
So I started at the SNG's. These weren't too bad, but it was certainly interesting the difference hand to hand. One hand you have the nut straight and lose a pot, the next you have King high and win the hand. It makes you trully appreciate hand reading and recognizing common lines. It also makes you appreciate the power of betting, as passive players call almost every cbet, but calling one or two more bets scares a lot of players. It's certainly a very obvious first leak to look for.
I probably evened out, but was hooked, so started up on the cash the next night after some earlier 6 max success. I had some early success, but then a more solid player took me to value town with a big hand, and we finally stacked off my AQ vs his AK... dominated.
The next night I played some more SNG's, and ran horrible. I actually dominated more than a few, but lost big pots at crucial points, and was left coin flipping, which seemed to be a one sided coin last night. I lost about $70 worth of SNG's, before going over to cash again. I basically ran pretty well at NL30 cash, playing two short stack donks and one reasonable, but overly aggressive player. I found myself 3 betting half his raises, because he raised every hand, but didn't have much answer to my 3 bets, either folding weaker hands, or folding the flop/turn to pressure. I did a little better than even there, and ended up enough money to have a crack at NL50 HU. It's not like I'm not bankrolled for NL50, it's just I feel I need confidence to play HU that high.
Well, I ran good there. First big pot was all in PF AJs vs QQ, and I hit. He insta reloads, and we start to play. He again is very aggro, but I run over him, either bluffing in perfect spots (variance) or having the goods when he didn't. I took 3 stacks off him before he quit. Another donk then donated a SS, before another aggro player donated two stacks. I was up to about $250 on this table, when the first guy came back. He won a couple of pots, including a AJ vs QQ again, but then got slaughtered. Mainly the same, me bluffing him at perfect times, him getting it in with worse hands. I think the last one was AA vs A7s for a full BI. By the time he left again, I was up to $400. I then got another donk to donate two short stacks, but he stuck around and hit numerous times against me, over a couple of hourse, to bring me down to $290.
I felt like I played pretty well considering how little practice I have. I was able to conceal my hand strength pretty well, and mostly knew their strength fairly well too. I will write another blog about some of the things I picked up on in my first night.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Repping a hand
I've heard the more thinking type players mentioning spots where they think betting is over-repping their hand, so I gave the idea a bit of thought. Basically, no matter what type of player we are, or how unlikely our opponents are to understand, our actions on a certain board rep a hand. You bet a AKT board, you are repping something like AA/KK/TT/AK/QJ. Now because of table image, opponents, action so far etc, we may have this, we may not. But overall, we are trying to confuse our opponents more often than not, so we under-rep or over-rep quite a bit.
The over-rep is the most common play in poker, more commonly known as the bluff or sometimes semi-bluff. Since we rarely flop a monster hand, you have people betting an AKT board with 66 because they think they'll get folds from a lot of hands. We have a horrible hand on that board, but if a bet will win the pot a lot, go for it. So generally, an over-rep is to fold other hands. Under-repping is more likely when we have AA there or QJ. Why bet a guy with A5 off that board, when we might get two streets off him later? When under-repping, we are mainly trying to not lose our opponents so we can make more money on them later.
The difficulty comes when your hand can't easily be represented. You have QQ on a board of K94r. Now it still looks pretty good, but it's really 2rd pair. So you are first to act after the flop, and bet. If he calls or raises, he is repping a much stronger hand than you hold, so you have gotten yourself into trouble. You have over-repped your hand, and are certainly getting folds now by weaker hands only, and very few calls by anything you beat. If you check, you have slightly under-repped your hand, and if he bets, you don't know whether he's doing it with top pair or better, or as a pure bluff with 76s. In position, it especially becomes better play to under-rep a hand, because we can extract more value easily, and still get an idea if he is very strong by the river, like if we check behind on that flop and he bets 2 streets strong.
The main idea behind thinking about representation, is to look at the game from another view, and think about what everyone is repping when they bet, check or fold and then think about whether you believe them or not based on history, your image, etc.
The over-rep is the most common play in poker, more commonly known as the bluff or sometimes semi-bluff. Since we rarely flop a monster hand, you have people betting an AKT board with 66 because they think they'll get folds from a lot of hands. We have a horrible hand on that board, but if a bet will win the pot a lot, go for it. So generally, an over-rep is to fold other hands. Under-repping is more likely when we have AA there or QJ. Why bet a guy with A5 off that board, when we might get two streets off him later? When under-repping, we are mainly trying to not lose our opponents so we can make more money on them later.
The difficulty comes when your hand can't easily be represented. You have QQ on a board of K94r. Now it still looks pretty good, but it's really 2rd pair. So you are first to act after the flop, and bet. If he calls or raises, he is repping a much stronger hand than you hold, so you have gotten yourself into trouble. You have over-repped your hand, and are certainly getting folds now by weaker hands only, and very few calls by anything you beat. If you check, you have slightly under-repped your hand, and if he bets, you don't know whether he's doing it with top pair or better, or as a pure bluff with 76s. In position, it especially becomes better play to under-rep a hand, because we can extract more value easily, and still get an idea if he is very strong by the river, like if we check behind on that flop and he bets 2 streets strong.
The main idea behind thinking about representation, is to look at the game from another view, and think about what everyone is repping when they bet, check or fold and then think about whether you believe them or not based on history, your image, etc.
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