Comment response

"Yorkshire Pud said...
Can I ask why you seem to play $3/$6 when you are
rolled for $20/$40

Is it you don't feel ready to play even say $10/$20,
I'm just interested that's all "

There's a few reasons why i'm not playing higher but probably mainly because of the psychological effect of having even a minor downswing at those stakes.

If I were to lose say 100BBs at $10/20 then that's $2,000. If I could see it as just chips, that wouldn't be a problem, but at the moment, $2k is $2k to me. Let alone what would happen if I went on a 300BB downswing which I have done a few times at $1/2 on hugely fishy tables.

So say if I drop 300BBs at $20/$40, that's $12k or over half my roll. I suspect that would be crippling psychologically. And it is not really an 'if' but more a 'when'. Sure I could easily win 300BBs before that happens, but i'm absolutely certain that the 'high' that i'd get from winning that much would be nowhere near how far negative the 'low' would be if I lost that.

That being said, I was checking out a $8/16 table the other day, but it just wasn't quite fishy enough for my liking. If i'd jumped on then, that would be the largest stakes i've ever played.

I'm probably playing more $4/8 that I have been in the past now, but also probably more $1/2, mainly as i'm playing a lot on Bodog at the moment where there are never many tables running and their 6max tables are limited to $1/2 then $4/8 then $8/16.

I suspect i'll start playing more $5/10 in the near future though, and play a bit more on the larger networks which have more table availability to actually increase the chances of finding more fish.

I'm still not concerned with how quickly I rise through the stakes - I play for the fun of the competition as much as anything so as long as i'm enjoying the stakes i'm playing, i'm happy. (and winning doesn't hurt either ....)

A swingy weekend

Well, I finally put in more than an hour or so on the weekend, and probably played a solid 5 hours all up.

I started with a super heater - up a good 30BBs on a single $4/8 table and something similar on a $3/6 table on Cake. At the same time I was down about 20BBs on a $1/2 table but that was somewhat irrelevant at the time.

Next session, I started off dropping 30BBs on a $4/8 table against some huge fish. At one stage i'd played 50 hands and only gone to showdown 4 times, winning none of them. All up i'd only won 3 hands without a showdown. However, my fishy friends then paid me off consistently until I ended up around 10BBs.

My last session started again horribly, down 35BBs, however this time I couldn't recover completely and finished around 25BBs down.

Overall, a fairly decent weekend.

Current bankroll: $21,150
November time played: 9h30m
November profit / (loss): $400

Hit n run

Only a brief session last night - tables just didn't keep running so I ended up playing only one or two orbits each before leaving as it seemed every time I sat down the fish got up. I pretty quickly just spat the dummy and quit searching for new tables.

Made a few BBs though as I won a few hands right off the bat, and with a small rakeback credit i'm almost back to square for the month.

Hoping to get in a decent session of play this weekend and with any lucky i'll be in the black again soon. I have accrued enough rakeback that I probably am now, but won't count it in the bankroll until I actually receive it.

Current bankroll: $20,700
November time played: 4h30m
November profit / (loss): ($50)

Cake crashes

A more than irritating problem with Cake Poker for me at the moment is that when I close a table there's a fair chance the whole application will crash. This usually isn't a big problem as I don't often have too many Cake tables running at the same time.

However, last night I had three running and closed one whilst I was halfway through a hand holding KK. It was a $2/4 table and i'd had three callers preflop and another two on the flop before cake crashed. I tried to get back in but only made it just in time to see the river betting, with one guy winning a $40 pot with a pair of 6s. ARGH.

I played a bit on a Bodog $4/8 table where I had found one muppet running at 70/60. I quickly found myself 15BBs down when his 84o crushed my JJ and then his 42s flopped 35Kr rivering a 6 versus my AK. He'd raised both those hands preflop and i'd 3 bet them. Annoying. Given he was so aggro both pre and post flop though I figured i'd eventually be able to get my money back, and kept 3 betting preflop and by waiting for the turn to check/raise on several occasions he did pay me off and I ended up making a few BBs. He actually got up and moved from my right to my left, so I figured that was time to leave.

The $1/2 tables were another story where I was playing on a couple tables where every flop had a good 4 callers - even to my utg raises. Unfortunately for me, with my big hands I whiffed most flops and had very few limping hands to call for multiway goodness. Ended up dropping 25BBs there.

Current bankroll: $20,600
November time played: 4h
November profit / (loss): ($150)

Slowly catchin back up

Only a brief session last night, but another small win booked which is helping to recover from a fairly terrible start to the month. It should have been even better but my fishy mate hit a runner runner in a $80 pot on one hand and the very next hand rivered a gutshot for a $60 pot.

He then donated quite a lot to the rest of the table, but I couldn't seem to win a hand off him. An overaggro tag did hand me some fairly decent pots though when his whiffed AK was not up to my flopped top pair, and later he bluffed into my nut flush.

At one stage I found myself on a 3 handed table and had clicked auto post blind before i'd realised a couple guys were sitting out. First hand both opponents limped into my Q3o and the flop was KQ3r. One guy bet into me, but then folded to my turn bet. I was tempted to stay after seeing the limping but I still don't have a lot of faith in my super short game so figured i'm better off just unchecking autopost and leaving. Stole the big blind on my second hand and then folded my button before quitting for the day.

Current bankroll: $20,600
November time played: 3h
November profit / (loss): ($150)

Finding leaks

I really need to head on back to 2p2 to have a look at how hands should be played. I'm sure I made a mistake last night. I'll have to grab the hand history, but I played way too passively.

I had a flush draw on the turn on a AA6 board where my opponent had tried to steal my blind. I elected to just call his bet instead of following through with a check/raise which basically cost me the hand. Annoying. (obviously I missed the river).

I'll have to post a few stats from PT3 as well. After a quick look at some of my key statistics, I think i'm playing reasonably, although folding my BB a little too often. Haven't gone through all my stats in too much detail, but i'm sure it will highlight a few leaks. I'm sure my game has changed over time, so i'll probably also need to narrow the timeframe that the stats are displayed for.

Played about half an hour of poker last night, and couldn't find many active tables - although the couple I found were full of somewhat aggressive fish. Started poorly with KK < 99 followed by JJ < AQs on a T72r flop versus the same opponent, but the session quickly evened up when I 3bet a button steal raise with QJo and flopped J92r. Opponent raised my flop bet, but then just called me down after I hit my Q as well on the turn. He showed A9o and complained about the 3bet. His PFR was about 25% so I figured his range was pretty wide there and QJ was fairly likely to be in front.

Current bankroll: $20,550
November time played: 2h30m
November profit / (loss): ($200)

Horror Halloween weekend

What a cracking start for November. My first session was a little over an hour for:

$1/2 = -78bb
$2/4 = -15bb
$3/6 = -23bb
$4/8 = -7bb

This was all on some fairly fishy tables too. At least the main disaster was at the $1/2 tables where I did not win a single showdown in 160 hands. I didn't win too many without a showdown either - every cbet seemed to get called. Every river catch for my opponents seemed to hit. Ugly. Just ugly.

My second session then started in the exact same fashion - down another 25BBs in no time. This one did recover however, and after having been down over $500 for the weekend at one stage, I made a small recovery to end down about $300 all up. Bodog is just not my friend at all. I seem to be playing against the fish, but my win rate is horrendous - much worse than any other site. I'll stick it out though ... surely it will turn around .... surely.

One other thing I noticed over the weekend was that the fish were back on Cake. And they were back in force and playing at all levels of stakes. I even had one guy with K8 on a 679 flop say afterwards he thought he had a straight when the turn and river were A and Q which went nicely with my A9.

Anyways, time to suck it up and work the rest of it back again. I should get in a few hours later this week.

Current bankroll: $20,450
November time played: 2h
November profit / (loss): ($300)