Monday, May 25, 2009

quickie

okay i might sneak in a little more poker leading up to the wedding ..... :)


A quick half hour this morning on Cake netted about 20BBs at $3/6 and another 30BBs at $1/2.


With tomorrow's rakeback credit i'm probably now back to square for the month. Hopefully my mini recovery continues in the next few sessions.


Current bankroll: $17,300
May time played: 18h
May profit/(loss): ($100)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Unusual weekend - where did the fish go?

I played an hour and a half total over the weekend, although I had the opportunity to put in a bit more time than that. Problem was I just couldn't find enough tables that I deemed profitable enough to be worthwhile.

At one stage I had three running, which quickly dropped back to two, and then a single table before I could even find another worth playing on.

In the end I had to look a bit broader than where i'd normally play. And as luck would have it I spotted one of my known huge fish on a $5/10 table with an empty seat on his left. He runs at around 80/3 .. so is incredibly loose and passive preflop. Basically if he raises first in I let everything go except premium pairs. Funnily enough he then turns super aggro post flop, often raising or checkraising the turn with as little as 3rd pair, or even air. He still manages to go to showdown 50% of the time though - and is somehow managing to be a winning player over 300 hands. He generally donates to me though.

Half an hour later, and i'm up about 35BBs ... so all is not lost for the month.

Still .. it was somewhat disturbing to not be able to find enough tables to play on. Very unusual for a weekend. Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Edit: Almost forgot - i'm off for a couple weeks, so probably not much poker, and no updates. Be back in June. Good luck all

Current bankroll: $17,100
May time played: 17h30m
May profit/(loss): ($300)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Freefalling

Thanks for the goodwishes from my last post guys.

I will actually be taking a break shortly .. but that's cause i'm getting married and will be off on the honeymoon. So when the posts disappear for a week or two, you'll know what i'm up to ...

As for playing other games, i'd have to research how they should be played first, so that will take some time. I might even read the harrington on cash games for NL. Will see. I suspect i'll just stick to fixed limit, and just play through the variance. I've dropped over 300BBs before so I know I can recover it easily enough.

As for last night, I played another half an hour with 3 pretty nice $3/6 tables running with a fairly friendly 70/3 player to my right on one table and a couple 60/20s on the others.

My stats ended up as:

VPIP 28.6%
PFR 20.4%
WTSD 13%
W$SD 0% (yes I didn't accidently leave off the first digit .. zero percent)

Needless to say .. there went another 40BBs in 100 hands in about half an hour. I had a few nice draws including an oesfd which obviously kept missing.

The bankroll freefall continues. Keep the faith I say.

Current bankroll: $16,750
May time played: 16h
May profit/(loss): ($650)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Found some fish ...

Played for about an hour and a half last night, on a couple brilliant tables - one had the 3 players to my right with VPIPs over 60%, another had an aggro dude who was raising any two preflop and on the flop. And again I managed to drop another 40BBs in pretty quick time.

During the session I ran:
  • an A high flush into a 2 hole card straight flush
  • a fullhouse into a bigger fullhouse
  • AA into JJ .. turned J
  • QQ into 47s capped preflop, flop 68Tr, rivered 9 (47s seems to be my opponent bogey hand)
  • AK into T5o (raised preflop) on a flop of 886
  • AT into 46o (raised preflop) on a flop of 57T
  • KK into TT
  • KJ into T7o on a KJx flop
  • and probably several more ....

Overall, just under 30% W$SD. Hopefully my cooler will finish soon .....

Current bankroll: $17,000
May time played: 15h30m
May profit/(loss): ($400)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

And another 30BBs ..

.. down in 30 minutes.

Managed to run into 3 flushes in my short session, as well as a few nasty river As when villain had A high prior to that. I have to say I was sure I was on the right table though. One opponent thought it was a good plan to open limp 74s utg. When the flush hits on the river, apparently it is.

I actually won 2 hands this time in the 40 minutes which is an improvement on the previous session. One was actually a pretty big pot where I had called with K9o in the BB and flopped Kd9d3s. Another 9 on the turn filled me up and I was happy to cap both the flop and river against what turned out to be A9o. If not for that hand the session would have been even worse.

AJ is a bit of a bogey hand for me at the moment too, and i've lost with it the last 5 times i've played it with each time either scoring an A high flop (versus trips) or a J high flop (versus a bigger pair).

Thankfully I did receive a bit of a rakeback credit, so not a huge hit to the bankroll.

I'm sure i'm due for a heater soon ......

Current bankroll: $17,150
May time played: 14h
May profit/(loss): ($250)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Brief but still stinky

Played for just over half an hour last night, and managed to still stink it up on the tables.

I had two quite good $3/6 tables running on William Hill where I basically broke even for the session, thanks to a couple nasty little beats early on where my AT < A4 thanks to a flopped A and rivered 4, and then on the second table about 2 hands later my AK < A9. Evened that out though when my hands decided to hold up later on in the session.

I also found a nice little Cake $3/6 table where I had position on a very loose passive fish, and two to his right was an aggro muppet, who thought hands like 92s were were open raising from MP, and then capping to a 3 bet from my AA. Runner runner spades and that was not a great start. Add in my QQ running into AA, and then my KK not being good enough to beat JJ, and a few hands later my 66 on a paired board losing to 44 when another 4 rivered and it was not looking good. In the end I won a total of one single hand out of the 46 I played. Luckily for me it was a massive pot and I only ended up about 15BBs down after winning a solitary hand for the entire session.

So the current downswing is now somewhere around 130BBs from my peak balance. Yuck. I'll keep seeking out the fish and hopefully it will turn around in the very near future!

Current bankroll: $17,200
May time played: 13h30m
May profit/(loss): ($200)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Back to ice cold

Had a horrible weekend on the poker tables, where it seemed every fish was able to suck out on me the majority of the time.

In fact looking at my stats, I was going to showdown only 30% of the time as opposed to high 30s which means basically i'm missing quite a few flops. Of those showdowns I actually only won 30% of them - which is so far short of the usual 50% that it puts me down about 15BB/100. Muptiply that by about 800 hands and its not pretty at all.

Most of it was at $2/4 where I dropped virtually 100BBs (although at worst it was down to 120BBs), Maybe 20 BBs at $3/6, and a small gain on the relatively few hands that I played at $1/2.

Basically, if there was any card in the deck that could help my opponent, it was guaranteed to hit on the river.

So now i'm playing catch up again for this month. Great. Oh well. Back to the grind and i'll get it back up there. I should also receive a half decent rakeback credit on Tuesday which might make the bankroll look marginally healthier.

Current bankroll: $17,300
May time played: 13h
May profit/(loss): ($100)

Comment response

Thought i'd make a post for comment responses so its easier to find later. I know in the past i've had trouble finding responses.

BurnleyMik said...
Hey fella,


what sort of VP$IP, PFR and AF do you run at in the 6-max games and what is the standard for full ring???
I know you are an experienced LHE player and just wondered if you knew.

CheersBM

Short answer is I aim for 30/20/2 .... but am more like 28/20/2 at 6max in reality.

Not sure what the standard is for full ring, but at a guess it would be significantly tighter based on the kind of starting hand chart i'd use in full ring versus 6max.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Finally some fish jump into the boat

Another short session last night with two great tables, and a constant fight to keep two other tables running where I just couldn't find any that were fishy enough to keep playing at.

The two that I settled down on had a couple massive fish to my right. One passive pre and post flop, and the other unpredictable post flop, where he'd put in mulitple bets on each street, in some cases with air, and others with the near nuts. It made for an interesting session with a few big hands going each way.

However, in the end, it felt like the fish were just jumping out of the water and trying to hand their cash over to me. On a brief run at a $1/2 table I made about 25BBs in the space of 10 minutes. Where I was mainly playing at $3/6 I had a couple fish consistently calling down with 2nd pair or worse or with dominated Aces. Happy days, and i'm up by nearly 20BBs there as well.

A couple hands of mild interest:

Hand 1:

$1/$2 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
Hero (UTG) 126.75
UTG+1 90.50
CO 18.27 (aggro muppet running 85/55 over 30 hands)
BTN 46.75
SB 127.75
BB 88.75 (huge fish at 72/7)
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 6 players) Hero is UTG with KsKc (sweet)

Hero raises, 1 fold, CO 3-bets, 2 folds, BB calls, Hero 4-bets, CO calls, BB calls (love getting it capped 3 ways pre. No ace on the flop please)
Flop (12.5 SB, 3 players)

Kh9c5h (bonus ... heart draw is all i'm really vulnerable to)

BB bets, Hero raises, CO calls, BB 3-bets, Hero 4-bets, CO calls, BB calls (not sure how I get to cap this flop. Maybe i'm up against a flush draw? 99?)
Turn (12.2 BB, 3 players)

Qc (flush has missed. surely i'm not up against JT?)

BB bets, Hero raises, CO folds, BB calls (my hand is too strong not to raise here. If 3 bet i'll call down)
River (16.2 BB, 2 players)

3c (heart flush draw missed. there's no way i'm up against a club draw surely)

BB checks, Hero bets, BB calls (nope, no flush)
Final Pot: 18 BB
Hero shows
BB shows QsTh (Didn't really expect to see this. Its nice when guys will cap flop and bet river with a gutshot only)
Hero wins 17.5 BB ( won +10.5 BB )
CO lost -4.0 BB
BB lost -7.0 BB

Hand 2:

$3/$6 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
UTG 10
UTG+1 215.23 (55/20)
CO 676.14
BTN 236.07 (68/11)
SB 243 (70/3)
Hero (BB) 168.35
Pre-Flop (1.3 SB, 6 players) Hero is BB with As5s (not a bad hand for the BB)

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 1 fold, BTN calls, SB calls, Hero checks (and I get to limp in for free)
Flop (4.0 SB, 4 players)

4d8hAc (hmmm I could be dominated here)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls, BTN calls, SB calls (bet out anyways to get rid of a couple players. disappointed when all call)
Turn (4.0 BB, 4 players)

5d (nice - gives me two pair. two diamonds now on the board to watch for)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls, BTN raises, SB calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls (wasn't expecting the button raise here. Flush draw? 67s? 44? 88? maybe a big ace which i'm now ahead of)
River (12.0 BB, 4 players)

5c (well that's filled me up so i'm literally only behind 88. cant give credit for that)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls, BTN raises, SB folds, Hero 3-bets, UTG+1 folds, BTN 4-bets, Hero calls (i'm capping this river every time with basically the 2nd nuts - discounting AA obviously)
Final Pot: 21.0 BB
BTN shows 2d3d (heh, he had turned the straight with the flush draw. didn't put him on 23 though .... I was drawing very thin there)
Hero wins 20.5 BB ( won +13.5 BB )
UTG+1 lost -4.0 BB
BTN lost -7.0 BB
SB lost -3.0 BB

Anyways, a good session all up - hopefully I can string a few more together. This weekend I have a freeroll to play on Cake which normally has a decent prize pool. Haven't cashed there for a while so I must be due ...

Current bankroll: $17,750
May time played: 9h
May profit/(loss): $350

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Patience

Bankroll progress is still going somewhat slowly, however, at least in the right direction after about an hour and a half last night.

Again I managed to find myself up against some massive fish 70+/5ish although one was extremely aggressive post flop. Problem was he actually had a hand in a number of showdowns against me, and then pissed his cash up against the wall against others with total air on boards showing AKQ .... irritating.

Thought i'd post a couple hands of interest, one of which being the difference between winning and breaking even for the night - however, now i've found my converter is broken for one of the hands.

Hand 1: (excuse the lack of conversion. dunno why its not working)

Texas Hold'em Limit $3.00/$6.00
Seat 1: Hypah ($179.05 in chips) DEALER (new to table - seemed overaggro and very loose pre)
Seat 3: JOESY36 ($121.80 in chips) (FISH)
Seat 5: Hero ($139.35 in chips)
Seat 6: Bernaow4i ($225.40 in chips)
Seat 8: lillpaula ($110.50 in chips)
Seat 10: RACEDRIVER1 ($106.95 in chips)

JOESY36: Post SB $1.50
Hero: Post BB $3.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [DA DQ] (Nice)
Bernaow4i: Fold
lillpaula: Fold
RACEDRIVER1: Raise (NF) $6.00 (hopefully this is a steal raise)
Hypah: Call $6.00 (nice cold call)
JOESY36: Call $4.50 (and another cold call)
Hero: Raise (NF) $9.00 (hate my position here, but I surely have equity)
RACEDRIVER1: Call $3.00
Hypah: Call $3.00
JOESY36: Call $3.00
*** FLOP *** [DK D9 S3] (nice .. nut flush draw)
JOESY36: Check
Hero: Bet $3.00 (betting out here with my draw - lets try to lose any small pockets)
RACEDRIVER1: Call $3.00
Hypah: Fold
JOESY36: Call $3.00
*** TURN *** [C8] (Blah missed)
JOESY36: Check
Hero: Bet $6.00 (lets see if i can drop out at least Joesy)
RACEDRIVER1: Call $6.00
JOESY36: Call $6.00 (oh oh .. I better hit)
*** RIVER *** [H2] (ack ... missed again. so i'm A high, three ways)
JOESY36: Check
Hero: Check (hmm maybe i can see the showdown for free. don't like my chances)
RACEDRIVER1: Check (awesome)
*** SUMMARY ***
Dealt to Hero [DA DQ]
Dealt to JOESY36 [D5 D6] (great to see this)
Dealt to RACEDRIVER1 [S10 SJ] (even better to see this! he was actually drawing fairly thin)
Total pot $60.00 Rake $3.00
Hero: wins $60.00 (a nice pot with A high)

Hand 2:

$2/$4 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
UTG 204.7
UTG+1 78.2
CO 142.98
BTN 59.01 (huge fish)
SB 34.1 (tag had just replaced my fish and I hadn't clicked off auto post blinds yet. irritating)
Hero 96.9 in the big blind with Kd9h
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 6 players)
3 folds, BTN calls, SB calls, BB checks (didn't think I had equity to raise pre)
Flop (3.0 SB, 3 players)

6h8h4h (2 overs and a heart draw .. although only 9 high. decision time)

SB checks, BB checks, BTN bets, SB folds, BB calls (i'm checking here first up as my hand is pretty weak. I'm not that happy with the button bet, but he had actually bluffed air a few times on coordinated flops earlier. I decided to peel. In hindsight this probably should have been a fold. Pot is tiny)
Turn (2.5 BB, 2 players)

Th (okay so that's my flush hit although i'm behind to AKQJh)

BB checks, BTN bets, BB calls (not that happy with his bet here. He's probably got a bigger flush - but since he was FOS before i'm going to showdown)
River (4.5 BB, 2 players)

7h (hehe .. that's now my first straight flush for quite a while. Now i'm hoping he actually has a hand ... the Ah would be great)

BB checks, BTN bets, BB raises, BTN calls (I thought about betting out, but decided since he was fairly bluff happy I should be able to get in a c/r here. Worked a treat. I guess I didn't really deserve that hand as I played it poorly but it makes up for a few of those nasty suckouts inflicted on me. I decided to quit then because of that poor decision and the TAG who had sat down on my right).
Final Pot: 8.1 BB
BTN shows Qh6d
Hero wins 8.1 BB ( won +4.1 BB )
BTN lost -4.0 BB
SB lost -0.5 BB

Overall I only ended up making a few BBs but most of my play was on the $3/6 tables so I should also have a fairly nice little rakeback credit coming soon.

Current bankroll: $17,600
May time played: 8h30m
May profit/(loss): $200

Monday, May 11, 2009

Fishing failure

Played another brief session last night - probably less than half an hour, but found some fantastic fish to play against.

On one table, I had a guy who was literally calling every singe hand preflop, and then he's get quite aggressive if he got at least bottom pair. He raised about 5% of preflop hands so you could tell fairly easily when he had a potential monster.

Unfortunately for me, he seemed to keep hitting his weird gutshots, two pairs and trips, so I was left with a smallish loss on the table. Couple that with me missing a couple of my big draws, and it gets a little frustrating.

On another table, I was playing one guy who I swear did not have the ability to actually read what his cards were, or what was on the board. Somehow he managed to be a winner as well. Here's a small example, although in this one at least he had a gutshot ...

$2/$4 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
UTG 221.65 (complete muppet who couldn't read the board)
UTG+1 162.6
CO 90.7
BTN 109.59
SB 28.3
Hero 105.25
Hero is in the BB with 8d8s
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 6 players)
UTG calls, 2 folds, BTN raises, 1 fold, Hero calls, UTG calls (figured i'd just call here given a raise wasn't going to isolate).
Flop (6.5 SB, 3 players)

6h3c4c

BB checks, UTG checks, BTN bets, BB raises, UTG calls, BTN calls (fair chance I have the best hand here so i'm check/raising. hopefully UTG folds for 2 .. but he didnt)
Turn (6.2 BB, 3 players)

3d

BB bets, UTG calls, BTN calls (I still probably have the best hand, hopefully I get overs to fold here)
River (9.2 BB, 3 players)

Ts (club draw has missed)

BB checks, UTG checks, BTN checks (I think I should have bet here with the flush draw missing. I didnt' really like that i'd gotten 2 callers on the turn though)
Final Pot: 8.8 BB
BTN shows As6s
UTG shows Td2c (ummm)
UTG wins 8.8 BB ( won +5.8 BB )
BTN lost -3.0 BB
BB lost -3.0 BB

Anyways, it ended up being a losing session, but a nice rakeback credit from the weekend has kept my bankroll in tact. It would be nice to stack some of these super fishy players sooner or later rather than donate to them who then promptly lose it to someone else.

Current bankroll: $17,550
May time played: 7h
May profit/(loss): $150

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Inevitable

You know that irony is going to catch up with you whenever you post on your blog about anything.

Now it was only a few days ago that I mentioned about a loss feeling like a win when you start off badly down and end up only a little down, or conversely feeling like a loser when you get off to a great start and end up only winning a small amount.

I played almost 2 hours over the weekend, and managed to get myself up all of about $150 at one stage. It was a decent grind with a lot of fish chasing as the tables seemed to be tighter than most weekends. Anyways, in the last half hour I managed to drop $100 of that. Not through any bad plays or too many nasty suckouts. Just a few hands where I had say trips, and got riverd by a flopped flush draws. It happens reasonably often, but a few of them in a row turns a potentially fantastic session into a mediocre one.

Should have accrued some decent rakeback though since i'm on the William Hill double rakeback deal this month, so its not all bad either.

Every weekend coming up to the wedding is looking pretty busy as well now, so I think May might end up pretty light on for hours played. Although with a few days off before the wedding maybe i'll get in a mammoth session or two?? Might be wishful thinking.

Current bankroll: $17,550
May time played: 6h30m
May profit/(loss): $150

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Limit poker's biggest sin

Played another shortish session as I had to quit as my concentration level wasn't quite there.

I realised this when I semi misclicked (I knew what I was clicking, but the instant I clicked it I realised I didn't mean to do it). I was lucky it was only on a $1/2 table and I may not have had the best hand, but most likely I did.

Anyways, this was one of the biggest sins you can commit in limit poker - folding the river in a decent pot for only one bet. What was worse, was I had actually rivered my gutshot for the nut straight (albeit the board was paired on the flop). I'm not sure what I was thinking to be honest - I don't think I realised until I actually clicked the fold button, that I actually had a straight. I still may have been behind, but for one bet to actually see it (and more likely I would have raised), this was a blatantly stupid fold.

At least it wasn't a huge pot, but 7BBs is a good 3-4 hours of normal play.

Anyways, since i'm missing stuff like that I figured it was time to quit whilst still up a few BBs.

Probably not too much poker this weekend, and I also have to fix up my injury riddled AFL DT team.

Current bankroll: $17,500
May time played: 4h30m
May profit/(loss): $100

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Just long enough to catch the fish

Sat down last night hoping to play for about an hour, but ended up running short by 30 minutes. It was a bit of a struggle in the midweek at off peak hours to find fishy tables, but I did get on a half decent $3/6 and $2/4 table, as well as a bunch of very fishy $1/2 tables.

On the $3/6 and $2/4 tables there was only one reasonably big fish, and on each he was sitting directly on my right, which was perfect. I stayed at those tables until both fish ran out of cash and ended up making a solid 10BBs on each. Unfortunately when they left, they were replaced by TAGs so I had to leave as well.

Bodog was much fishier, with one table having 4 players with VPIPs of over 70. They then proceeded to suck out on me quite nicely and I probably dropped 20BBs all up. Frustrating.

Overall though, not a bad session, and at least still going in the right direction. I received an email from Everest offering a $300 bonus for 3,000 Everest points. I believe that to be a pretty decent equivalent rakeback rate, so might consider doing it this month. Although 3,000 is probably raking about $500 at 6max versus raking $300 at fullring. Not sure yet.

Current bankroll: $17,500
May time played: 4h
May profit/(loss): $100

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Table and seat selection

I've decided to keep on going with my table and seat selection nittiness.

In the last couple days i've only managed to play for all of 10 minutes, and in that time i'd have opened and closed at least 15 tables. If the seat i'm allocated doesn't have a fairly loose player on my right i'm more or less getting up straight away.

As luck would have it, it seems every time I sit down there's a 30/20 tag on my right ... or at least not someone loose enough that I want sitting there.

I've decided to make a few small exceptions though -
  • I'll play with a tag on my right if there is a very loose and showdown bound fish on his right. I should still be playing enough hands against the fish with a large enough expectation for it to be worthwhile.
  • If the majority of the table is fishy and the player to my right is tight but passive.

Otherwise, i'm pretty much just getting up and waiting for a better spot. It does also mean that when a fish busts out on my right and is replaced by a TAG, i'm getting up at the next BB.

In terms of play i've made a few BBs (mainly through one 80/5 guy who then had an AF of 3, so calling him down with medium hands in a couple spots was profitable) in my limited time at the tables, and got credited a nice chunk of rakeback, so my bankroll is finally back to an all time high. I should be able to get in an hour or more tonight though so at least i'll be putting in a bit more volume than the last couple days.

Current bankroll: $17,450
May time played: 3h30m
May profit/(loss): $50

Sunday, May 3, 2009

When a loss feels like a win

Once again managed to have a horror start to the month.

Within the first hour on Saturday i'd dropped 50BBs on the $3/6 tables even though they were super fishy. Played another hour though and recoved about half of it when the fish finally began to pay me back but unfortunately for me they were then replace by TAGs.

William Hill (ipoker) can be a bit like that. There are quite a few fish floating around in the pool, but also a fair few sharks just waiting to spot a big fish and eventually they all jump in to feed on the same fish. I guess its where table and seat selection discipline really has to come into play, as your once fishy tables can rapidly change into rock gardens where if you are chasing losses, you're just not going to be successful.

Sunday I managed to claw back most of the rest of my earlier loss, mainly playing between the $2/4 and $3/6 tables on William Hill again. Although I was still a few BBs down, it actually felt like a good win, as i'd started so poorly on Saturday.

It would be interesting to compare with say a session where you start out with several big wins but end at only a couple BBs up. Those sessions I tend to end up being a bit disappointed - even though i've actually come out on top, whereas in this last session I'm probably even more confident in winning than before.

Also with the RakeTheRake bonus rakeback at William Hill this month, I suspect i've almost accrued as much rakeback in 3 hours as I did in the previous month on that site. It does accrue quite quickly at the $3/6 level.

Current bankroll: $17,400
May time played: 3h
May profit/(loss): $0