From a comment on my last post: "You mention very often table selection. Might it be possible for you to write an article one day about the way you choose tables, e.g. how long do you observe before sitting down... do you fixate yourself on a specific seat and wait till it's free? Are you using buddy lists?"
Why table select?
To put it as simply as possible, if you are the worst player on the table, you will lose (in the long term). Poker is a game of relativity - you could be a crap player, but if you're playing against worse players you could still be a long term winner. Conversely, you could be the 2nd best poker player in the world, but if you play against the best player, you will lose.
Conversely, if you are best player on the table, does that mean you will win? Well, actually no. Since rake (the house cut) is taken out of every hand, not only do you have to be better than enough players at the table, but better by a margin that also covers the rake. So for an extreme example, if i'm the best player in the world, and am playing against the second best, there's still a fair chance i'd lose in the long term, just because of the rake.
Therefore you need to carefully select tables that have enough players that are worse than you, by a large enough margin to at least cover the rake.
How to table select?
The answer is .... it depends.
Generally I would start by looking in the lobby at tables with the highest number of players per flop. I'm really looking for the loosest opponents, who are most likely to be quite fishy and willing to donate a lot of cash to the other players. (might talk about that a bit more in future posts as some people look for tighter tables, which, in my opinion, is crazy).
On a site like Fulltilt, where you can use pokertracker and a HUD, I also colour code my opponents. For Fulltilt, these colours show up in the lobby view, so you don't even need to open the table to see if there are fish on it. For me, I code the very loose fish a bright green, and preferably if there's two or more on the table, i'll open it up and jump on or add myself to the waiting list.
On Cake poker, where you can't use poker tracker, I make manual notes against each player. These notes do not appear in the lobby view, so I have to open individual tables and then click on each player to check their stats,or view their colour code, generally starting with the player to the right of an open seat. If there are plenty of fish on the table and it is full i'd then just add myself to the wait list.
If the table is full of unknown opponents, then I am a little more reliant on the lobby players per flop figure. If it is very high there's a reasonable chance i'll sit down straight away at an empty seat, and then watch the table fairly closely both before I play a hand and for the first couple orbits. If there are a couple seats free or it's at the top end of my preferred stakes, its more likely that i'll just watch the action for an orbit or two to try to spot a loose passive to sit next to. If the table appears to be super aggro, i'll probably just give it a miss if the opponents are unknown.
Generally what i'm looking for, is a table which has a seat with two loose passive fish to the right, which i'll talk about a little more in seat selection (maybe my next post). If I can find a table with even more loose passives i'd jump at the chance, and instantly add myself to the wait list. Even one huge fish on my right would be acceptable if I know they regularly donate 10+BB/100.
I'm not really using buddy lists, as only certain sites seem to support it. Playing fixed limit 6 max, there's often not that many tables running, so I don't need to go looking for certain opponents, but rather accept any table that looks adequately fishy.
After selecting your table, though, you also need to keep monitoring it, just in case it tightens up as the fish leave, or better players join. I'm always prepared to leave a table if this happens, irrespective of how i'm running.
Current bankroll: $25,250
April time played: 8.3h
April hands played: 1,576
April profit / (loss): $550
Showing posts with label table selection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label table selection. Show all posts
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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 -
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
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Lobby table selection
Often it seems pretty obvious on which tables to select when you're in the lobby of a poker room - just pick the one's with the highest percentage of players seeing the flop and jump into the table or add yourself to the wait list.
There can be a few problems with this though - if a huge fish has just left the table, then the players seeing the flop percentage may now be significantly lower (particularly in 6max). Even worse if you're on the waiting list and one or two of the fish have just busted out, and then you take your seat to replace them often you'll find yourself sitting next to good players and potentially on a table full of TAGs.
Furthermore the accuracy of the players per flop figure may also be questionable, as it depends on how many hands it is calculated over. If its calculated over a lot of hands, then the actual players on the table may be vastly different from the average calculated due to player turnover.
Natural variance may also impact the figures displayed if a number of players have been dealt decent limping hands several times in the last couple orbits.
So, how do you work around this? Well I rely on my own player notes and HUD to actually check the individual players on the table I sit down at. Normally I don't bother to check them before sitting down unless there are two vacant seats to sit down at. However, once i've sat down, priority number one is to check that the player to my right is a loose fish. I will occasionally accept a tight, but very passive player on my right, if the player to his right is a complete loose passive fish.
Where I don't have a HUD I still rely on my own player notes, but I also go back to the Lobby every so often to check that the table hasn't tightened up too much overall.
For example, I put in a 45 minute session last night between Cake and Bodog. The only decent table on Cake was a $3/6 table showing a very nice looking 60% players seeing the flop. I added myself to the waiting list. About 30 seconds later I was sat down when a seat became vacant. To my left was a player that my notes said "Huge fish. Nrly 100% vpip. Will SD ANY pr on dang brd m/way". To my right my notes said "Tag? OR first in. T8s or co. Vbet top pair". Given that, I stood up straight away, waited for the seat to fill and added myself back onto the wait list.
After about only another two minutes I was seated again, on the left of the fish. Happy days. Even happier when first hand in Tag raises, fish calls, and I have 44 in the BB and flop 864r. So about 10BBs up after one hand. Next hand KK, and I end up heads up with the fish, who actually has JJ on a T high flop with two hearts. Third heart on the river gave me some concern but he just checks, so in two hands i'm up 15BBs, and have great position on a big fish.
Next 30 hands I get nothing though, except probably a decent chunk of rakeback with the fish playing every hand and another fish also playing most hands with the other three on the table being quite aggressive three betting preflop and the flop, leaving me to simply fold. Eventually I did score a couple more decent hands that the fish called down with me in position, and left the table 20BBs up.
On Bodog I added myself to the wait list of the two $1/2 tables that were running. Eventually I was seated, but had a tag to my right, so again stood up without playing a hand and added myself back onto the waiting list. A couple minutes later I was on both tables with good position over a couple passive fish. They promptly sucked out on me a couple times, and I was quickly 15BBs down. Ack. However, by the end of the session, they'd given me back all my losses, and donated me another 20BBs before one of the fish left and was replaced by a TAG so I closed the table.
Add on a bit of rakeback, and the day's progress was actually very good.
Also got an email from Sun saying that on top of the 30% cashback, they are doing a deposit bonus that will match the cashback, which is not deducted from MGR, so effectively 60% cashback. I sent a query email on how long till it expires and am waiting on a response, but i'll probably take up the offer.
Current bankroll: $16,150
There can be a few problems with this though - if a huge fish has just left the table, then the players seeing the flop percentage may now be significantly lower (particularly in 6max). Even worse if you're on the waiting list and one or two of the fish have just busted out, and then you take your seat to replace them often you'll find yourself sitting next to good players and potentially on a table full of TAGs.
Furthermore the accuracy of the players per flop figure may also be questionable, as it depends on how many hands it is calculated over. If its calculated over a lot of hands, then the actual players on the table may be vastly different from the average calculated due to player turnover.
Natural variance may also impact the figures displayed if a number of players have been dealt decent limping hands several times in the last couple orbits.
So, how do you work around this? Well I rely on my own player notes and HUD to actually check the individual players on the table I sit down at. Normally I don't bother to check them before sitting down unless there are two vacant seats to sit down at. However, once i've sat down, priority number one is to check that the player to my right is a loose fish. I will occasionally accept a tight, but very passive player on my right, if the player to his right is a complete loose passive fish.
Where I don't have a HUD I still rely on my own player notes, but I also go back to the Lobby every so often to check that the table hasn't tightened up too much overall.
For example, I put in a 45 minute session last night between Cake and Bodog. The only decent table on Cake was a $3/6 table showing a very nice looking 60% players seeing the flop. I added myself to the waiting list. About 30 seconds later I was sat down when a seat became vacant. To my left was a player that my notes said "Huge fish. Nrly 100% vpip. Will SD ANY pr on dang brd m/way". To my right my notes said "Tag? OR first in. T8s or co. Vbet top pair". Given that, I stood up straight away, waited for the seat to fill and added myself back onto the wait list.
After about only another two minutes I was seated again, on the left of the fish. Happy days. Even happier when first hand in Tag raises, fish calls, and I have 44 in the BB and flop 864r. So about 10BBs up after one hand. Next hand KK, and I end up heads up with the fish, who actually has JJ on a T high flop with two hearts. Third heart on the river gave me some concern but he just checks, so in two hands i'm up 15BBs, and have great position on a big fish.
Next 30 hands I get nothing though, except probably a decent chunk of rakeback with the fish playing every hand and another fish also playing most hands with the other three on the table being quite aggressive three betting preflop and the flop, leaving me to simply fold. Eventually I did score a couple more decent hands that the fish called down with me in position, and left the table 20BBs up.
On Bodog I added myself to the wait list of the two $1/2 tables that were running. Eventually I was seated, but had a tag to my right, so again stood up without playing a hand and added myself back onto the waiting list. A couple minutes later I was on both tables with good position over a couple passive fish. They promptly sucked out on me a couple times, and I was quickly 15BBs down. Ack. However, by the end of the session, they'd given me back all my losses, and donated me another 20BBs before one of the fish left and was replaced by a TAG so I closed the table.
Add on a bit of rakeback, and the day's progress was actually very good.
Also got an email from Sun saying that on top of the 30% cashback, they are doing a deposit bonus that will match the cashback, which is not deducted from MGR, so effectively 60% cashback. I sent a query email on how long till it expires and am waiting on a response, but i'll probably take up the offer.
Current bankroll: $16,150
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Finding the fish - Wednesday's suck
Played about an hour and a half last night, and is was a huge battle to find some fish to play against.
Not only were there relatively few tables running across Ladbrokes, Bodog, Interpoker and Cake, but those that were tended to be fairly tight, or the vacant positions were to the right of the fish.
I ended up playing mostly $3/6 and a handful of $2/4 tables but rarely got up to having 4 tables open at the same time. I probably should have opened fulltilt as well, like I usually do if I can't find enough fish, but it just didn't occur to me last night. I did play a couple sitngos instead though, but busted out of both of them to the usual 3 outer when my big pocket pair got cracked all in preflop versus a muppet.
On the cash tables, I actually ran pretty well, even though I had to keep closing a table here and there when a fish left, and then had to patiently wait for another fishy table to appear. Several times I found myself down to a single table. I guess midweek is a bad time to be playing online poker - there's a severe lack of fish.
I probably should also sign up to another deal or two to give me some additional flexibility in site choice.
Anyways in total I made about 10BBs on each of the $3/6 and $2/4 tables, although it could easily have been a lot more in a couple big pots, where either I missed a big draw - once had the nut flush draw/oesd draw v two other opponents drawing to the same flush - that would have been a big payout. And a couple other pots where i'd flopped trips and some numpty had drawn to their gutshot on the river after huge action on the flop and turn. A decent turn around though compared to recent efforts. I figure i'm due for a good positive run now though so keep it coming.
Current bankroll: $16,000
Not only were there relatively few tables running across Ladbrokes, Bodog, Interpoker and Cake, but those that were tended to be fairly tight, or the vacant positions were to the right of the fish.
I ended up playing mostly $3/6 and a handful of $2/4 tables but rarely got up to having 4 tables open at the same time. I probably should have opened fulltilt as well, like I usually do if I can't find enough fish, but it just didn't occur to me last night. I did play a couple sitngos instead though, but busted out of both of them to the usual 3 outer when my big pocket pair got cracked all in preflop versus a muppet.
On the cash tables, I actually ran pretty well, even though I had to keep closing a table here and there when a fish left, and then had to patiently wait for another fishy table to appear. Several times I found myself down to a single table. I guess midweek is a bad time to be playing online poker - there's a severe lack of fish.
I probably should also sign up to another deal or two to give me some additional flexibility in site choice.
Anyways in total I made about 10BBs on each of the $3/6 and $2/4 tables, although it could easily have been a lot more in a couple big pots, where either I missed a big draw - once had the nut flush draw/oesd draw v two other opponents drawing to the same flush - that would have been a big payout. And a couple other pots where i'd flopped trips and some numpty had drawn to their gutshot on the river after huge action on the flop and turn. A decent turn around though compared to recent efforts. I figure i'm due for a good positive run now though so keep it coming.
Current bankroll: $16,000
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Great table, relatively poor position
Found a fanstastic, although high variance table last night with the average VPIP up around the 60% mark. It looked something like:
maniac 70/45/4/36
superfish 95/3/.3/40
maniac 65/55/5/45
Lag/Tag 25/18/2/35
Me
tp 16/2/2/25
Obviously my seat was not ideal being to the right of the tag, however, since the table was so juicy, I just couldn't give it up. The tight passive on my left was kinda handy though, as he was folding almost every hand.
Each hand preflop would go Maniac 1 raises, Superfish calls, Maniac 2 generally raises, Lag/Tag either 3 bets or caps or folds, I either 3 bet or cap or fold, and tight passive folds.
Ended up being a pretty high variance session although I made about 20BBs mainly through playing premium hands that hit the flop hard. Lost a couple big pots such as when Maniac 1 opened and I 3 bet with AKo. Flop of AK5r, turn 3, river 8 and he flips over 42o .... go figure. Had a similar hand occur later as well, but may have been on another table.
The other benefit of that table would have been that every hand would have been raked significantly, so I will be getting a decent chunk of rakeback.
Funnily enough in the second half of my session I found another table with possibly the maniac of all maniacs. He was often 5 or 6 betting with 3rd pair, and I pulled in another 20BBs there in very quick time, basically calling down with any pair and even raising multiple times with only top pair. I will have to dig out some of the hands to post, as they were ridiculous. I've never seen anyone put in so many bets with such poor hands before.
Current bankroll: $13,750
maniac 70/45/4/36
superfish 95/3/.3/40
maniac 65/55/5/45
Lag/Tag 25/18/2/35
Me
tp 16/2/2/25
Obviously my seat was not ideal being to the right of the tag, however, since the table was so juicy, I just couldn't give it up. The tight passive on my left was kinda handy though, as he was folding almost every hand.
Each hand preflop would go Maniac 1 raises, Superfish calls, Maniac 2 generally raises, Lag/Tag either 3 bets or caps or folds, I either 3 bet or cap or fold, and tight passive folds.
Ended up being a pretty high variance session although I made about 20BBs mainly through playing premium hands that hit the flop hard. Lost a couple big pots such as when Maniac 1 opened and I 3 bet with AKo. Flop of AK5r, turn 3, river 8 and he flips over 42o .... go figure. Had a similar hand occur later as well, but may have been on another table.
The other benefit of that table would have been that every hand would have been raked significantly, so I will be getting a decent chunk of rakeback.
Funnily enough in the second half of my session I found another table with possibly the maniac of all maniacs. He was often 5 or 6 betting with 3rd pair, and I pulled in another 20BBs there in very quick time, basically calling down with any pair and even raising multiple times with only top pair. I will have to dig out some of the hands to post, as they were ridiculous. I've never seen anyone put in so many bets with such poor hands before.
Current bankroll: $13,750
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Waiting ...
Found a superb $4/8 table on Bodog in my one hour session. Unfortunately the table was full, so I added myself to the waiting list, thinking a spot would open up pretty soon as there were three huge fish on the table, and surely one would go broke soon, or with any luck one of the better players would just leave.
Half an hour later, I'm still at #1 on the waiting list. No one had left. Irritating given I don't have that much time to play. Of course in the mean time i'm playing some fishy tables on GNUF to clear my final $50 sign up bonus there. A few minutes later and one of the fish on Bodog busted out so I got my chance. Didnt have ideal position being on the left of one of the tighter players but the table still looked pretty good to me.
I do use the wait lists all the time to make sure I get onto the fishiest (most profitable) tables , but it is unusual to wait for that long when you're the first in the list.
A few hands after sitting down, the second fish left. Now i'm not all that happy. Played a couple orbits and was quickly down 10BBs when none of my hands hit a flop. Then the third fish left the table, so there was no point staying, so I also quit it after about a total of 15 hands.
Gnuf treated me a little better, however, and I found one juicy $3/6 table which I knew would rack up my last few points for my bonus in no time. Unfortunately again, the fish left after about 15 hands, however I was up by 10BBs in that time. Also made a little on the $1/2 and $2/4 tables there even with some very nasty suck outs going against me as a couple fish almost played any two cards.
All in all pretty much even from play, but gained $50 from clearing the bonus. Would have also made a few $ in rakeback, so not a total waste of time.
Also made my first withdrawal from William Hill of around $700. Not too bad considering my initial deposit there was $200 a few months ago, and i've still left myself enough to play on there to get their monthly $50 bonus.
Current Bankroll: $10,750 (+360 Aug)
Half an hour later, I'm still at #1 on the waiting list. No one had left. Irritating given I don't have that much time to play. Of course in the mean time i'm playing some fishy tables on GNUF to clear my final $50 sign up bonus there. A few minutes later and one of the fish on Bodog busted out so I got my chance. Didnt have ideal position being on the left of one of the tighter players but the table still looked pretty good to me.
I do use the wait lists all the time to make sure I get onto the fishiest (most profitable) tables , but it is unusual to wait for that long when you're the first in the list.
A few hands after sitting down, the second fish left. Now i'm not all that happy. Played a couple orbits and was quickly down 10BBs when none of my hands hit a flop. Then the third fish left the table, so there was no point staying, so I also quit it after about a total of 15 hands.
Gnuf treated me a little better, however, and I found one juicy $3/6 table which I knew would rack up my last few points for my bonus in no time. Unfortunately again, the fish left after about 15 hands, however I was up by 10BBs in that time. Also made a little on the $1/2 and $2/4 tables there even with some very nasty suck outs going against me as a couple fish almost played any two cards.
All in all pretty much even from play, but gained $50 from clearing the bonus. Would have also made a few $ in rakeback, so not a total waste of time.
Also made my first withdrawal from William Hill of around $700. Not too bad considering my initial deposit there was $200 a few months ago, and i've still left myself enough to play on there to get their monthly $50 bonus.
Current Bankroll: $10,750 (+360 Aug)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Fantastic table that paid off
Didn't actually get too much time to play on the weekend, although did manage to get in almost 2 hours on Saturday. Turned out to be a pretty good couple hours though, as I managed to find two very fish tables.
Firstly on Cake I got on a table which had 4 players that i'd flagged as being reasonably fishy and one unknown. One player turned out to be a bit of a maniac, however, he had a style that i'd never seen before. He would limp into almost every pot, and then raise and sometimes reraise every flop, most turns and the occasional river as well no matter what 2 cards he actually held. It quickly became obvious to try to isolate him and then call down with any reasonable holding such as middle pair, and value bet constantly with any medium/strongish holding, such as top pair or better. He sucked out on a few guys early, and at the $3/6 level that gave him about a $200 stack.
I figured with his style it was only a matter of time before he went broke, so I may as well take as much as possible. Since he only limped preflop, I was getting to see heaps of flops cheaply, so every time one hit, I was able to win a decent amount, and every time I missed, he would win a smallish pot. I didn't have ideal position on the maniac, but since he didn't knock me out of hands preflop with raises it didn't matter as much as it normally would.
On one hand that he 3 bet the turn, raised the river and called my reraise he showed down 63o with no pair and no draw versus my set of jacks. This guy was almost like going to the ATM. By the time he quit and the table broke up I was up around 40BBs.
I also managed to find a nice fishy table on Bodog where there were 4 to 5 players to every flop. Although there was the odd suck out when I was betting strongly, a heap of my hands held up, including AA with 4 players still in the pot and calling my raises on the river. The other guys in the hand showed down bottom pair, or air going for backdoor draws. Made about 25BBs there in pretty quick time, and also made plenty of notes on players that I'd love to play against in future.
Sorry I dont have any hand histories from either cake or bodog, as I cant easily get them into pokertracker the only time I have hands is if i copy and paste them there and then from the active hand history. Generally I played my normal LAG/TAG style, although bluffed less and value bet some more marginal hands due to the calling station nature of my opponents and the specific maniac on Cake.
Current Bankroll: $10,550 (+360 Aug)
Firstly on Cake I got on a table which had 4 players that i'd flagged as being reasonably fishy and one unknown. One player turned out to be a bit of a maniac, however, he had a style that i'd never seen before. He would limp into almost every pot, and then raise and sometimes reraise every flop, most turns and the occasional river as well no matter what 2 cards he actually held. It quickly became obvious to try to isolate him and then call down with any reasonable holding such as middle pair, and value bet constantly with any medium/strongish holding, such as top pair or better. He sucked out on a few guys early, and at the $3/6 level that gave him about a $200 stack.
I figured with his style it was only a matter of time before he went broke, so I may as well take as much as possible. Since he only limped preflop, I was getting to see heaps of flops cheaply, so every time one hit, I was able to win a decent amount, and every time I missed, he would win a smallish pot. I didn't have ideal position on the maniac, but since he didn't knock me out of hands preflop with raises it didn't matter as much as it normally would.
On one hand that he 3 bet the turn, raised the river and called my reraise he showed down 63o with no pair and no draw versus my set of jacks. This guy was almost like going to the ATM. By the time he quit and the table broke up I was up around 40BBs.
I also managed to find a nice fishy table on Bodog where there were 4 to 5 players to every flop. Although there was the odd suck out when I was betting strongly, a heap of my hands held up, including AA with 4 players still in the pot and calling my raises on the river. The other guys in the hand showed down bottom pair, or air going for backdoor draws. Made about 25BBs there in pretty quick time, and also made plenty of notes on players that I'd love to play against in future.
Sorry I dont have any hand histories from either cake or bodog, as I cant easily get them into pokertracker the only time I have hands is if i copy and paste them there and then from the active hand history. Generally I played my normal LAG/TAG style, although bluffed less and value bet some more marginal hands due to the calling station nature of my opponents and the specific maniac on Cake.
Current Bankroll: $10,550 (+360 Aug)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The importance of taking notes
I have occasionally taken notes on tables where poker tracker works, but really haven’t made anywhere near enough so I am probably missing some player weaknesses that I should be exploiting. My main experience in note taking is on cake poker, where pokertracker is not really supported, so I need to rely on my own reads of my opponents rather than the automated heads up display. Interestingly enough, I probably have my highest win rate on Cake, so I guess taking notes really is worthwhile.
Now that I’m also playing on Bodog, where I don’t have the software to import statistics into pokertracker, I’m finding that it is extremely useful to take notes on my opponents. Problem is though, since I’m not used to it, I can only really have one table open to concentrate on the game and take notes as well. I figure over time I should be able to increase my table numbers, but for now I’m just getting used to the note taking side, and watching and remembering all plays by my opponents.
At the moment a players note might read something like:
ol utg 73s, ol button
callr 64o BB
cb F, no cb T
cd 3rd pair F
which would translate to:
open limped under the gun with 73s. open limped on the button
Called raise with 64o in the BB
Continuation bet the flop, but gave up on the turn.
Called to river with 3rd pair on flop
So this would be a reasonably loose and passive opponent (possibly a calling station), that I would love to have position on. I’d be interested to know if anyone out there has some other shorthand they use for note taking, or if there is any kind of standard out there for representing the various plays.
How did the weekend’s play go? Well I managed to get in a little under 2 hours of play in total. Played on a super loose and maniacal $3/6 table on Cake and had a terrible, terrible run of cards.
My VPIP was 8% over about 90 hands. I just received nothing at all preflop, and the few times I did get something, I won about 50% of the time. All in all dropped about 20BBs in about half an hour. I even had one guy three betting me with 64o and bluffing to the river v my AA flopping a set, but since I was rarely playing a hand, the blinds were gradually eating me alive.
Bodog however turned it around after a very slow start where the $1/2 fish took me for 25BBs when I could not hit a flop. I then found some players on the $4/8 table that I had some good notes on, and took some more notes. There were at least 3 fish on the table, and it was just a case of value betting my made hands, and folding when I missed. My opponents were calling me down constantly with dominated hands, or hands where I had flopped the nuts or near to it. I did suck out a couple, however, they were hands like where I had QQ preflop, but villain had 44. Flop came JT4 all clubs which matched my Qc. The flop was bet into me which I raised. Turn was a blank which got bet into me and I raised again, but got reraised. Made a crying call and a club hit on the river. His set of 4s was no good and I took down a big pot.
Another hand of note when I had QQ again, I was up against 2 runners who called my preflop bet. Flop was T98r so I’ve obviously bet out and got called again by both. Turn was a J. I bet out and get called. River an A so again I bet out hoping not to see KQ. My opponents showed 77 for the bottom end of the straight and AJo for top pair, giving me another nice pot.
Of course there were a few suckouts along the way, but I took down over 50BBs all up for the sessions.
Current Bankroll: $9,900 (+360 Aug)
Now that I’m also playing on Bodog, where I don’t have the software to import statistics into pokertracker, I’m finding that it is extremely useful to take notes on my opponents. Problem is though, since I’m not used to it, I can only really have one table open to concentrate on the game and take notes as well. I figure over time I should be able to increase my table numbers, but for now I’m just getting used to the note taking side, and watching and remembering all plays by my opponents.
At the moment a players note might read something like:
ol utg 73s, ol button
callr 64o BB
cb F, no cb T
cd 3rd pair F
which would translate to:
open limped under the gun with 73s. open limped on the button
Called raise with 64o in the BB
Continuation bet the flop, but gave up on the turn.
Called to river with 3rd pair on flop
So this would be a reasonably loose and passive opponent (possibly a calling station), that I would love to have position on. I’d be interested to know if anyone out there has some other shorthand they use for note taking, or if there is any kind of standard out there for representing the various plays.
How did the weekend’s play go? Well I managed to get in a little under 2 hours of play in total. Played on a super loose and maniacal $3/6 table on Cake and had a terrible, terrible run of cards.
My VPIP was 8% over about 90 hands. I just received nothing at all preflop, and the few times I did get something, I won about 50% of the time. All in all dropped about 20BBs in about half an hour. I even had one guy three betting me with 64o and bluffing to the river v my AA flopping a set, but since I was rarely playing a hand, the blinds were gradually eating me alive.
Bodog however turned it around after a very slow start where the $1/2 fish took me for 25BBs when I could not hit a flop. I then found some players on the $4/8 table that I had some good notes on, and took some more notes. There were at least 3 fish on the table, and it was just a case of value betting my made hands, and folding when I missed. My opponents were calling me down constantly with dominated hands, or hands where I had flopped the nuts or near to it. I did suck out a couple, however, they were hands like where I had QQ preflop, but villain had 44. Flop came JT4 all clubs which matched my Qc. The flop was bet into me which I raised. Turn was a blank which got bet into me and I raised again, but got reraised. Made a crying call and a club hit on the river. His set of 4s was no good and I took down a big pot.
Another hand of note when I had QQ again, I was up against 2 runners who called my preflop bet. Flop was T98r so I’ve obviously bet out and got called again by both. Turn was a J. I bet out and get called. River an A so again I bet out hoping not to see KQ. My opponents showed 77 for the bottom end of the straight and AJo for top pair, giving me another nice pot.
Of course there were a few suckouts along the way, but I took down over 50BBs all up for the sessions.
Current Bankroll: $9,900 (+360 Aug)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The fish do the hunting
Found some fantastic $4/8 tables in a half hour session yesterday. Unfortunately it resulted in me quickly dropping 40BBs before recovering 15BBs by sessions end.
The tables were great, with 3-5 players seeing most flops, and often just limping in. Plus I had perfect position on one of them sitting on the left of a massive fish. That being said I managed to get caned by:
The tables were great, with 3-5 players seeing most flops, and often just limping in. Plus I had perfect position on one of them sitting on the left of a massive fish. That being said I managed to get caned by:
- having 5 flush draws on the flop and missing all but one, where the one was a rare hand with only 2 runners and the 2nd runner folded on the turn
- opponents hitting flush draws v my 2 pair having cold called raises with 92s and 85s
- my 2 pair hitting on the turn which hit someone's gutshot with 56o
- my AK raised preflop and flopping a K not holding up against the call from the big blind holding 62o
- Running KK into AA from a limping fish
The few hands I seemed to win were when I had someone dominated and flopped top pair. AJ held up against J7o and KQ held up against K8o. At the same time my JT managed to lose to T9 on a flop of T98 when the turn produced another 9, and my AK also lost to AT when the flop was AT3r.
I know these tables should be very profitable, so I will continue to seek them out.
Overall a supremely disappointing session though, apart from recovering a bit towards the end. Surely the card will run better next time. I know I played well and didnt tilt at all so I am still confident of tearing them apart next time.
Current Bankroll: $9,650 (+360 Aug)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Taking on the maniac
A short half hour but annoying session nonetheless. Although in the end I came out basically even.
Had 4 tables running - 2 @ $1/2 and 1 @ $2/4 at 24 and 1 at $1/2 on bodog. The 2 $4/8 tables that were running at the time on bodog didn't look fishy enough so I passed on them. All the tables I was on again had at least 2 fish and no TAGs with optimum statistics, so I was pretty happy with my table selection.
Anyways, on 3 of the tables I was running reasonably well, up probably 4 or 5 BBs, but on the 4th against a maniac, I managed to end up down 15BBs.
I guess I need to understand that variance will be high against maniacs, and I appeared to be on the bad side of variance in this session. He was capping the betting preflop with hands like 86s, and when up against my JJ he would of course hit his trips on the river to sink me, or in another hand when I had 2 pair on the flop with AT, he managed to hit his gutshot straight with his 98 turning a 6 and rivering a 7, with me obviously betting the whole way. He also bet, raised and reraised his nut flush draw and managed to hit it on the river when I held the top pair and one of the flush cards.
Of course with him playing all this crap I was always happy to cap the betting with hands as weak as AJ or KQ preflop. Unfortunately the suck outs came a little too often for my liking.
Overall ended fairly even, and am probably quite close to clearing another $50 on 24, so I can't really complain. Just a bit annoying that the maniac guy ended up with stats looking like 75 (vpip)/40 (pfr) / AF 5 / wtsd 50 / W$SD 65 .... which is a lot hotter than i've managed to run for a while.
Current Bankroll: $9,750 (+360 Aug)
Had 4 tables running - 2 @ $1/2 and 1 @ $2/4 at 24 and 1 at $1/2 on bodog. The 2 $4/8 tables that were running at the time on bodog didn't look fishy enough so I passed on them. All the tables I was on again had at least 2 fish and no TAGs with optimum statistics, so I was pretty happy with my table selection.
Anyways, on 3 of the tables I was running reasonably well, up probably 4 or 5 BBs, but on the 4th against a maniac, I managed to end up down 15BBs.
I guess I need to understand that variance will be high against maniacs, and I appeared to be on the bad side of variance in this session. He was capping the betting preflop with hands like 86s, and when up against my JJ he would of course hit his trips on the river to sink me, or in another hand when I had 2 pair on the flop with AT, he managed to hit his gutshot straight with his 98 turning a 6 and rivering a 7, with me obviously betting the whole way. He also bet, raised and reraised his nut flush draw and managed to hit it on the river when I held the top pair and one of the flush cards.
Of course with him playing all this crap I was always happy to cap the betting with hands as weak as AJ or KQ preflop. Unfortunately the suck outs came a little too often for my liking.
Overall ended fairly even, and am probably quite close to clearing another $50 on 24, so I can't really complain. Just a bit annoying that the maniac guy ended up with stats looking like 75 (vpip)/40 (pfr) / AF 5 / wtsd 50 / W$SD 65 .... which is a lot hotter than i've managed to run for a while.
Current Bankroll: $9,750 (+360 Aug)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The bodog fish pay off this time
Had another of my huge 20 minute sessions, but found some more fishy (ie brilliant) tables on Bodog ranging in stakes from $1/2 to $4/8. $4/8 is the largest stakes i've played more than 5 hands on so far.
My notes on one table read for every player except one "open limp utg" followed normally by an example of what they open limped with, which was usually some very loose / dominated hand. Sweet. There was only one LAG on the table, who was often fairly aggressive post flop, but would often fold to any resistance.
I dont think I ever got actually raised off my BB which is a refreshing change, although I was of course playing my usual LAG/TAG style and stealing blinds and reraising with all my good hands. I only got sucked out on a couple times early, and after that my hands were holding up quite well ... some players seemed to think K5o was a good hand and were betting into me when i'm holding AK/KQ on a K high board. Nice. Only really made 20BBs but that's pretty decent for such a short session I think.
One hand is shown below..
And a big FU to my ability to convert hands using bodog .. it just aint goin to copy and paste well into blogger .... so apologies if it looks a bit messy
Limit $4/8
Ante/Small blind $ 2.00 benandgerry
Big blind/Bring in $ 4.00 tibbado
Dealt to Hero Ks 10s
nocards819 Fold $ 0.00
dmsy800 Raise $ 8.00 (the one aggro player on the table, had been raising reasonably light)
tibbado Fold$ 0.00
Hero Raise $ 10.00 (i reraise probably a little light, but I would like to play this hand heads up by getting the big blind to fold)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (call is disappointing ... but a 3 bet would have been worse. this guy has been a pretty big fish)
dmsy800 Call $ 4.00 (good his hand isnt big enough to 3 bet .. although now i'm out of position against 2 opponents. i'm going to need to hit the flop hard.)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $34.50
Card dealt to table 3s 2s 5s (bingo)
Hero Bet $ 4.00 (have to bet out here, as it could easily get checked through. Even if i'd missed i'd probably bet here hoping to steal the pot since i was the preflop raiser. You can probably guess I very very rarely slow play.)
benandgerry Call $ 4.00 (good)
dmsy800 Call $ 4.00 (even better! although I dont really want another spade as someone could be drawing to the As)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $46.00
Card dealt to table Ad (pretty good card for me, as it gives someone with a 4 a straight .. also pairs a big ace which is also a bonus)
Hero Bet $ 8.00 (obviously bet out hoping to get called by anyone who has just hit a decent piece of the board)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (bingo)
dmsy800 Call $ 8.00 (awesome!)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $70.00
Card dealt to table 3h (that is NOT a good card for me .. pairing the board is almost the only way I can lose this pot. However, I am still thinking anyone who had trips before might have put in a raise on the flop or turn to charge anyone on the flush draw ... although the fish probably doesnt play with that much thought, the LAG would)
Hero Bet $ 8.00 (i'm still betting for value from either a big ace or that missed flush draw .. will be a little sick if i get reraised)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (only a call .. nice)
dmsy800 Fold $ 0.00 (guess he was chasing the flush)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $86.00
Hero wins Show card: FlushKs 10s 5s 3s 2s
benandgerry Muck card Ah 2h (hmm he was probably in a tough spot there ... gutshot to the straight, although he would have lost to any spade. He was probably hoping I had a big Ace, particularly when he's hit 2 pair on the turn. Still .. he called a reraise from the BB with a relatively weak holding so was asking for trouble)
Although that hand is really not all that representative (and is my second flopped flush this week!!) because I won a lot of pots with a smaller hands. However, its always nice to flop the 2nd nuts into two opponents!
Current bankroll: $9,450 (+360 Aug)
My notes on one table read for every player except one "open limp utg" followed normally by an example of what they open limped with, which was usually some very loose / dominated hand. Sweet. There was only one LAG on the table, who was often fairly aggressive post flop, but would often fold to any resistance.
I dont think I ever got actually raised off my BB which is a refreshing change, although I was of course playing my usual LAG/TAG style and stealing blinds and reraising with all my good hands. I only got sucked out on a couple times early, and after that my hands were holding up quite well ... some players seemed to think K5o was a good hand and were betting into me when i'm holding AK/KQ on a K high board. Nice. Only really made 20BBs but that's pretty decent for such a short session I think.
One hand is shown below..
And a big FU to my ability to convert hands using bodog .. it just aint goin to copy and paste well into blogger .... so apologies if it looks a bit messy
Limit $4/8
Ante/Small blind $ 2.00 benandgerry
Big blind/Bring in $ 4.00 tibbado
Dealt to Hero Ks 10s
nocards819 Fold $ 0.00
dmsy800 Raise $ 8.00 (the one aggro player on the table, had been raising reasonably light)
tibbado Fold$ 0.00
Hero Raise $ 10.00 (i reraise probably a little light, but I would like to play this hand heads up by getting the big blind to fold)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (call is disappointing ... but a 3 bet would have been worse. this guy has been a pretty big fish)
dmsy800 Call $ 4.00 (good his hand isnt big enough to 3 bet .. although now i'm out of position against 2 opponents. i'm going to need to hit the flop hard.)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $34.50
Card dealt to table 3s 2s 5s (bingo)
Hero Bet $ 4.00 (have to bet out here, as it could easily get checked through. Even if i'd missed i'd probably bet here hoping to steal the pot since i was the preflop raiser. You can probably guess I very very rarely slow play.)
benandgerry Call $ 4.00 (good)
dmsy800 Call $ 4.00 (even better! although I dont really want another spade as someone could be drawing to the As)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $46.00
Card dealt to table Ad (pretty good card for me, as it gives someone with a 4 a straight .. also pairs a big ace which is also a bonus)
Hero Bet $ 8.00 (obviously bet out hoping to get called by anyone who has just hit a decent piece of the board)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (bingo)
dmsy800 Call $ 8.00 (awesome!)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $70.00
Card dealt to table 3h (that is NOT a good card for me .. pairing the board is almost the only way I can lose this pot. However, I am still thinking anyone who had trips before might have put in a raise on the flop or turn to charge anyone on the flush draw ... although the fish probably doesnt play with that much thought, the LAG would)
Hero Bet $ 8.00 (i'm still betting for value from either a big ace or that missed flush draw .. will be a little sick if i get reraised)
benandgerry Call $ 8.00 (only a call .. nice)
dmsy800 Fold $ 0.00 (guess he was chasing the flush)
Betting round completed Last active pot = $86.00
Hero wins Show card: FlushKs 10s 5s 3s 2s
benandgerry Muck card Ah 2h (hmm he was probably in a tough spot there ... gutshot to the straight, although he would have lost to any spade. He was probably hoping I had a big Ace, particularly when he's hit 2 pair on the turn. Still .. he called a reraise from the BB with a relatively weak holding so was asking for trouble)
Although that hand is really not all that representative (and is my second flopped flush this week!!) because I won a lot of pots with a smaller hands. However, its always nice to flop the 2nd nuts into two opponents!
Current bankroll: $9,450 (+360 Aug)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Great Table + Great Position = Big Downswing???
I'm not sure how the math in my title works .. but it really was getting annoying.
I managed to drop 100BBs in 3 hours on the $3/6 tables, where it appeared every time I had a made hand I'd get rivered, and every flush draw seemed to miss.
The main table that I was on was great ... I was sitting to the left of a guy running at 85/30/1.2/45 so he was playing almost every hand. The remainder of the table had a couple tags, one of which showed down way too much and a couple other fish.
Problem for me was that every time I had fishy dominated .. say AK v A8 .. of course the A would flop and the 8 would then hit on the turn or river. I had QQ and JJ a few times, and got rivered by an A and a K 6/8 times, when the chasers had at best their 3 outs. Add on the times when I have KK v fishy with 85, and his 8 flops and 5 rivers and all up you get a pretty frustrating session.
I actually did have a lot of playable starting hands, although I missed 6 flush draws in a row, and then hit two, only to be beaten by a larger flush both times. One of my draws also had an OESD to the nut straight, which also missed in a 30BB pot which was won by a single pair!! That pot alone would have made a big improvement to my final figures. There were 2 other 25BB pots that I also lost when my made hand (trips) got rivered by the flush draw hitting. I guess the story of my day came down to flopping the nut straight versus my opponent with an overpair, and him being in very bad shape, turning still the nut straight, which gave my opponent trips, and finally the river pairing the board giving him a full house for another 25BB pot ... ARGH.
The only positive for the session was that I didnt tilt too much .. although said a few choice words in the chat box .. i really gotta stop doing that. Also the fact that I cleared some more MPPs helped, so i'm now only around 180 MPPs short of clearing the next $200 bonus cash, and should receive another $40 in rakeback with any luck.
Oh and it appears i'm also in the money in the rake race so could make an extra $150 to $250 in bonus cash by the end of the month.
I keep thinking i'm having a horrible month on the poker tables, which I guess technically is true, however, I am actually still up $250 in cash at the moment plus the extra $360 i've earned in bonus cash to be paid in August. So in the bigger picture i'm still up over $600 for the month so I really can't complain at all. (and hopefully will be even more when i clear these last couple bonuses).
Current bankroll: $8,750 (plus $360 in Aug)
I managed to drop 100BBs in 3 hours on the $3/6 tables, where it appeared every time I had a made hand I'd get rivered, and every flush draw seemed to miss.
The main table that I was on was great ... I was sitting to the left of a guy running at 85/30/1.2/45 so he was playing almost every hand. The remainder of the table had a couple tags, one of which showed down way too much and a couple other fish.
Problem for me was that every time I had fishy dominated .. say AK v A8 .. of course the A would flop and the 8 would then hit on the turn or river. I had QQ and JJ a few times, and got rivered by an A and a K 6/8 times, when the chasers had at best their 3 outs. Add on the times when I have KK v fishy with 85, and his 8 flops and 5 rivers and all up you get a pretty frustrating session.
I actually did have a lot of playable starting hands, although I missed 6 flush draws in a row, and then hit two, only to be beaten by a larger flush both times. One of my draws also had an OESD to the nut straight, which also missed in a 30BB pot which was won by a single pair!! That pot alone would have made a big improvement to my final figures. There were 2 other 25BB pots that I also lost when my made hand (trips) got rivered by the flush draw hitting. I guess the story of my day came down to flopping the nut straight versus my opponent with an overpair, and him being in very bad shape, turning still the nut straight, which gave my opponent trips, and finally the river pairing the board giving him a full house for another 25BB pot ... ARGH.
The only positive for the session was that I didnt tilt too much .. although said a few choice words in the chat box .. i really gotta stop doing that. Also the fact that I cleared some more MPPs helped, so i'm now only around 180 MPPs short of clearing the next $200 bonus cash, and should receive another $40 in rakeback with any luck.
Oh and it appears i'm also in the money in the rake race so could make an extra $150 to $250 in bonus cash by the end of the month.
I keep thinking i'm having a horrible month on the poker tables, which I guess technically is true, however, I am actually still up $250 in cash at the moment plus the extra $360 i've earned in bonus cash to be paid in August. So in the bigger picture i'm still up over $600 for the month so I really can't complain at all. (and hopefully will be even more when i clear these last couple bonuses).
Current bankroll: $8,750 (plus $360 in Aug)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Maniac hands me the cash!
Finally had a great session on Littlewoods. Found an awesome table with 3 fish to my right, and the biggest maniac i've ever seen on my left.
My mate the maniac gave me a huge stack of BBs on the 3/6 table .. probably 50 all by himself. He would reraise preflop with stuff like 23o and then bet and raise on all streets. He even 6 bet me on the turn once when he had his 23o and I had top two pair. He also 6 bet the river a couple times when I had the absolute nuts ... he folded to my 7 bet though :( ... i was hoping to take his whole stack in one hit.
Funny thing is, for the first hour, this guy was actually winning and had built up his stack from about $150 to $300 ... before it all went pear shaped for him and he gave almost all of it to me.
Oh yeah .. forgot to say I have the day off work so I put in about 4 hours on the tables this morning so it was a pretty decent session.
I earned a heap of MPPs as well so i'm looking forward to seeing how much rakeback i've also taken in during the session. I earned enough MPPs to hit the next goal to earn another $80 from Littlewoods as well!
Current bankroll: $9,300 (+360 in Aug)
My mate the maniac gave me a huge stack of BBs on the 3/6 table .. probably 50 all by himself. He would reraise preflop with stuff like 23o and then bet and raise on all streets. He even 6 bet me on the turn once when he had his 23o and I had top two pair. He also 6 bet the river a couple times when I had the absolute nuts ... he folded to my 7 bet though :( ... i was hoping to take his whole stack in one hit.
Funny thing is, for the first hour, this guy was actually winning and had built up his stack from about $150 to $300 ... before it all went pear shaped for him and he gave almost all of it to me.
Oh yeah .. forgot to say I have the day off work so I put in about 4 hours on the tables this morning so it was a pretty decent session.
I earned a heap of MPPs as well so i'm looking forward to seeing how much rakeback i've also taken in during the session. I earned enough MPPs to hit the next goal to earn another $80 from Littlewoods as well!
Current bankroll: $9,300 (+360 in Aug)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
A great table ...
.... but card dead. ack
Found almost the perfect table (but not quite the best seat) in a very short session (maybe 20 mins). Two huge fish, one 85/0/.2/19 and the other 76/0/.4/60, one aggro fish 60/30/3/20 and a couple other tight passives. I played around 50 hands, and I think I only entered the pot voluntarily 4 times outside of the big blind. I did see 72o quite a few times, which was extremely frustrating, and the one time I start with AQ, one of the fish calls me down and hits his second pair on the river and shows 87s. My only other decent starting hands were 88, which was dog meat on the flop of AKQ, and then I hit 55 on a flop of K87. I would probably have played the 55 hand except it got raised and was 3 handed post flop. Bit disappointing to see a 5 hit on the river, but one guy showed down AA and the other K4o so it was a good fold.
Dropped about 4BBs there before I had to quit .. i really wanted to stay playing on such a fantastic table, but had to go. I did make up for that small loss on another table though, but that table only had one real fish, and a few TAGs so I had to quit that when the fish sat out.
On the cash out front I successfully transferred some cash to the prepaid card, and cashed out $1k the other day, so its nice to know I can actually get my money out from the online world!
Current bankroll: $8,900 (+$280 pending in Aug)
Found almost the perfect table (but not quite the best seat) in a very short session (maybe 20 mins). Two huge fish, one 85/0/.2/19 and the other 76/0/.4/60, one aggro fish 60/30/3/20 and a couple other tight passives. I played around 50 hands, and I think I only entered the pot voluntarily 4 times outside of the big blind. I did see 72o quite a few times, which was extremely frustrating, and the one time I start with AQ, one of the fish calls me down and hits his second pair on the river and shows 87s. My only other decent starting hands were 88, which was dog meat on the flop of AKQ, and then I hit 55 on a flop of K87. I would probably have played the 55 hand except it got raised and was 3 handed post flop. Bit disappointing to see a 5 hit on the river, but one guy showed down AA and the other K4o so it was a good fold.
Dropped about 4BBs there before I had to quit .. i really wanted to stay playing on such a fantastic table, but had to go. I did make up for that small loss on another table though, but that table only had one real fish, and a few TAGs so I had to quit that when the fish sat out.
On the cash out front I successfully transferred some cash to the prepaid card, and cashed out $1k the other day, so its nice to know I can actually get my money out from the online world!
Current bankroll: $8,900 (+$280 pending in Aug)
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Card dead ... thank god for bonuses!
Well, I continue to get slaughtered on Littlewoods. Got in a good 5 hours on the weekend, but only 2 of them in peak time. The other 3 hours I was lucky to find a single table running between Littlewoods, 24poker and cake.
Overall on Littlewoods from actual play I dropped probably a little under 100BBs ($450). Over half of that was in my last session of a little under an hour, and probably 2 key pots contributed to that, where in both I had the nut straight, only for the river to pair the board to give my opponent a full house in one hand, and then in the second the turn and river brought a runner runner flush. Each of those pots was around $100 or 25BBs each!!
A quick check of my pokertracker stats showed actually how cold I ran on the weekend. I had a VPIP of around 20% instead of my normal 28-30% which shows how few starting hands I was receiving. My WTSD% was about 26% which is hugely lower than my usual 38%, which means that even though I wasn't seeing many flops with the low VPIP, I was still not flopping to my hand often enough to get to showdown. (And from memory I missed almost every flush draw so that low number does make sense to me too). My W$SD was even sicker, at around 30% instead of up around 50%. So even when I did get to the showdown, I was getting slaughtered. Even with decent hands a lot of the time.
Over those 1,200 hands over the weekend, i've not actually received AA, KK, or JJ. ARGH. AKs and AQ are also big losers, as well as QQ.
Part of it was my own fault though, as I wasn't picky enough on table selection, and played on a table that was a bit tighter than usual, with only one really fishy player. It seemed however, that everyone was able to outdraw me, including the fish!
Interestingly enough though, when I played on William Hill to clear my $50 for 5 hours bonus, I was playing against the same players as those on Littlewoods, but on the $1/2 tables. There I managed to actually win 100BBs in no time. Pity the stakes were smaller though!!
In the end I did manage to clear $200 in bonus from Littlewoods, as well as $50 from William Hill, so I actually ended up square for the weekend's effort. Thank god for that, as it wasn't looking pretty otherwise! Come to think of it, my rakeback for the weekends play hasn't been credited yet either, so I am probably still actually in front by about $60. Could easily have been much much better though.
Anyways, the next goal is to get another 500 MPPs on Littlewoods for another $80 in bonus, and around $50 more in rakeback, followed by another 1,000 MPPs for another $200 bonus plus around $100 in rakeback by the end of the month. I'm also well over halfway to clearing another $50 on 24poker too, so that should boost the bankroll slightly as well.
Current Bankroll: $8,750 (plus $280 to come from Littlewoods in Aug)
Overall on Littlewoods from actual play I dropped probably a little under 100BBs ($450). Over half of that was in my last session of a little under an hour, and probably 2 key pots contributed to that, where in both I had the nut straight, only for the river to pair the board to give my opponent a full house in one hand, and then in the second the turn and river brought a runner runner flush. Each of those pots was around $100 or 25BBs each!!
A quick check of my pokertracker stats showed actually how cold I ran on the weekend. I had a VPIP of around 20% instead of my normal 28-30% which shows how few starting hands I was receiving. My WTSD% was about 26% which is hugely lower than my usual 38%, which means that even though I wasn't seeing many flops with the low VPIP, I was still not flopping to my hand often enough to get to showdown. (And from memory I missed almost every flush draw so that low number does make sense to me too). My W$SD was even sicker, at around 30% instead of up around 50%. So even when I did get to the showdown, I was getting slaughtered. Even with decent hands a lot of the time.
Over those 1,200 hands over the weekend, i've not actually received AA, KK, or JJ. ARGH. AKs and AQ are also big losers, as well as QQ.
Part of it was my own fault though, as I wasn't picky enough on table selection, and played on a table that was a bit tighter than usual, with only one really fishy player. It seemed however, that everyone was able to outdraw me, including the fish!
Interestingly enough though, when I played on William Hill to clear my $50 for 5 hours bonus, I was playing against the same players as those on Littlewoods, but on the $1/2 tables. There I managed to actually win 100BBs in no time. Pity the stakes were smaller though!!
In the end I did manage to clear $200 in bonus from Littlewoods, as well as $50 from William Hill, so I actually ended up square for the weekend's effort. Thank god for that, as it wasn't looking pretty otherwise! Come to think of it, my rakeback for the weekends play hasn't been credited yet either, so I am probably still actually in front by about $60. Could easily have been much much better though.
Anyways, the next goal is to get another 500 MPPs on Littlewoods for another $80 in bonus, and around $50 more in rakeback, followed by another 1,000 MPPs for another $200 bonus plus around $100 in rakeback by the end of the month. I'm also well over halfway to clearing another $50 on 24poker too, so that should boost the bankroll slightly as well.
Current Bankroll: $8,750 (plus $280 to come from Littlewoods in Aug)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Bonus getting even better!
Another quick session last night, firstly on Party to ensure I don't lose my bonus ranking there. Turned out to be a stupid decision, as I managed to lose a quick $50 to earn about $0.50 in bonus cash. (Won't play party again until I have a good reload or free cash!!). Didnt actually play badly, but suffered a few pretty nasty beats.
Littlewoods has given me a bit of a turn around story. For some reason my premium hands are still not holding up all that often, although they are improving, but my other more speculative hands continue to do well. In my database, AQs has now hit 3 times and is a decent winner. KQs has also gone from a loser to a winner. AA continues to bite me, when it came up against 97o..... dont ask. AK has made a slight recovery winning once and losing once since last time, but the win was significantly bigger than the loss. From having 2 wins from 15 sessions, I now have 9 wins from 22, which is 7 wins in a row - maybe i'm not a complete loser!!
Had one small highlight, where a a very aggro muppet had lost a couple hands to me where I let him do the betting into my top pair and he showed down bottom pair once, and J high the other time. (No idea why he called that one, as I was value betting the river each time). He then 3bet me from the BB to my button raise when I had AJ and hit the A on the flop. Of course he bet every street to hit his runner runner straight holding 67o. Very next hand I have J9s in the CO and raise pre again, and again he reraises. Hit my 9 on a T high flop, so I bet and he raises. Time for call down mode, until I hit another 9 on the river, so I raise his river bet. He calls and shows KK ... oops ... but I figure I was owed that one! He might actually not be a complete muppet as he then left the table rather than tilting off his whole buy in.
Ended up making a good 30BBs all up, and cleared some more points to get credited with $100 in bonus cash. Was happy with my table selection discipline too, and was quick to shut down any tables when the fish left.
On to bonuses - Littlewoods has increased their bonus for June as a 'summer promotion'. Effectively now my 1,000mpps will earn me $200 in bonus cash, $280 in lieu of the ipod, and approx $100 in rakeback - an extra $100 over my initial estimate which i thought was a great deal in the first place. Actually also if I do another 500mpps on top of that, I will gain another $200 in bonus (and probably around $50 in rakeback). So I might consider doing that as well now that I think about it.
Current Bankroll: $8,350
Littlewoods has given me a bit of a turn around story. For some reason my premium hands are still not holding up all that often, although they are improving, but my other more speculative hands continue to do well. In my database, AQs has now hit 3 times and is a decent winner. KQs has also gone from a loser to a winner. AA continues to bite me, when it came up against 97o..... dont ask. AK has made a slight recovery winning once and losing once since last time, but the win was significantly bigger than the loss. From having 2 wins from 15 sessions, I now have 9 wins from 22, which is 7 wins in a row - maybe i'm not a complete loser!!
Had one small highlight, where a a very aggro muppet had lost a couple hands to me where I let him do the betting into my top pair and he showed down bottom pair once, and J high the other time. (No idea why he called that one, as I was value betting the river each time). He then 3bet me from the BB to my button raise when I had AJ and hit the A on the flop. Of course he bet every street to hit his runner runner straight holding 67o. Very next hand I have J9s in the CO and raise pre again, and again he reraises. Hit my 9 on a T high flop, so I bet and he raises. Time for call down mode, until I hit another 9 on the river, so I raise his river bet. He calls and shows KK ... oops ... but I figure I was owed that one! He might actually not be a complete muppet as he then left the table rather than tilting off his whole buy in.
Ended up making a good 30BBs all up, and cleared some more points to get credited with $100 in bonus cash. Was happy with my table selection discipline too, and was quick to shut down any tables when the fish left.
On to bonuses - Littlewoods has increased their bonus for June as a 'summer promotion'. Effectively now my 1,000mpps will earn me $200 in bonus cash, $280 in lieu of the ipod, and approx $100 in rakeback - an extra $100 over my initial estimate which i thought was a great deal in the first place. Actually also if I do another 500mpps on top of that, I will gain another $200 in bonus (and probably around $50 in rakeback). So I might consider doing that as well now that I think about it.
Current Bankroll: $8,350
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday night table selection sux
As expected, available tables on a Monday evening Aussie time really sucked.
For 24poker, there was only one limit table running between the $1/2 level and $3/6. It seemed juicy enough, with about 65% of players seeing the pot, so I added myself to the waiting list as it was currently empty. An hour later when I had finished my session, I was still sitting at #1 on the wait list. ARGH
In the mean time, however, I had fired up Cake, as at least there's normally one table there I can join as well between $2/4 and $3/6. Well, no, not this time. There were no $2/4 tables running and one $3/6 table which had 4 players sitting down and 19% of players seeing the pot. Dont see how that table could be profitable so I gave it a miss for a start. There was one juicy $1/2 table going so I jumped on that for want of a better offer. I had notes on a couple of the players and had them marked as easy money (green). I found myself sitting on the left of a massive fish, so had the opportunity to take a few notes -
For 24poker, there was only one limit table running between the $1/2 level and $3/6. It seemed juicy enough, with about 65% of players seeing the pot, so I added myself to the waiting list as it was currently empty. An hour later when I had finished my session, I was still sitting at #1 on the wait list. ARGH
In the mean time, however, I had fired up Cake, as at least there's normally one table there I can join as well between $2/4 and $3/6. Well, no, not this time. There were no $2/4 tables running and one $3/6 table which had 4 players sitting down and 19% of players seeing the pot. Dont see how that table could be profitable so I gave it a miss for a start. There was one juicy $1/2 table going so I jumped on that for want of a better offer. I had notes on a couple of the players and had them marked as easy money (green). I found myself sitting on the left of a massive fish, so had the opportunity to take a few notes -
- HUGE FISH, called raise 43o in the CO. Limps almost every pot. Will always see a turn, but folds to a turn bet if unimproved. Will bet only if has a hand. Will actually raise preflop with TT+ but nothing else. Chases all gutshots.
Unfortunately for me, his 43o hit a straight when an A hit on the river to pair my AQ preflop. He also managed to hit a flush draw and a few two outers. He quit the table when i was down by 25BBs!!!!! I had to rebuy in, as the table was still fishy even without him.
I then decided to check back in at the lobby, and noticed he had moved to the $3/6 table and had $120 sitting in front of him. Here's my chance to make some cash back!! So I jumped on there for the next 40 minutes. There was another big fish playing on the same table as well, who I had some notes on.
- Limp PF any pos with weak A or any 2 suited. Folds flop to raise. Calls raise with weak A. Will shut down to aggression even if he has near nuts or nuts!! Chases gutshots every time.
Unfortunately though, my seat position wasn't good as I was sitting to the right of the two big fish. I figured however, that since they were so bad, and the two to my right were not raising or 3 betting much forcing me to fold, I'd still make a decent profit.
First few hands on the $3/6 table, I saw my original fish hit a runner runner flush, and a gutshot straight holding 84o. Luckily for me, I wasn't involved in those pots, however, his stack was now over $200.
From then on, he didnt manage to suck out on many hands, and I relentlessly value bet with any reasonably strong holding, and continually bet the turn, no matter what card had hit. One hand I think I had 96s, missed the flop, bet, he called, turn was another blank, I bet hoping for a fold, but he called. River was another blank, so I checked and he checked behind, and I won the hand with 9 high. Its beyond me why he was calling down with 7 high and no draw.
Anyways, each pot wasn't too big because of the serious lack of aggression, however, I made about a 15BB profit on the table, before his $200 stack ran out. So I took nearly half of it, which I can't complain about. At the same time i'd won back my 25BBs on the $1/2 table, and had made another 5BBs on top of that mainly due to that table staying very fishy, and a number of my big hands holding up.
On bonuses, I think Cake must be looking at my account every time they want to announce a reload bonus. Every time my remaining bonus to clear is down to $10, they release a new bonus. This time 25% up to $100. So I made my $400 deposit to maximise the potential bonus. The session tonight cleared my final $10 of the previous bonus, so it looks like i'll continue to play Cake when there aren't enough free tables on 24poker.
What I also like about Cake is that their rake structure is actually quite good for low fixed limit poker, roughly comparable to fulltilt or stars, and a LOT better than ipoker or microgaming. Oh and the rakeback is 33% which is not too bad either.
I still have another $500 to clear in bonuses off 24 as well. Should take another 6 weeks or so at the rate i'm going.
Current bankroll: $8,300
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Super session followed by frustration
Played a good 3 hours on the weekend - I know - a bit unusual, but I had some free time.
Started off with getting a normal amount of starting hands, however, every single one seemed to hold up. Draws were hitting, my big cards were pairing, made a couple straights and got called down by the fish regularly.
For the first hour and a half I think my BB/100 was around 45 ... huge for limit poker, and over 4 tables.
Then .. back to reality. One of my key fish who had been giving me money time and time again managed to hit a 2,3 or 4 outer six times in a row!! ARGH.
I could see myself getting more and more annoyed, but was still playing well. In the end the fish left the table, so I ended up quitting as well when there were no longer enough juicy opponents. I cleared about $100 in bonus, and still managed to end up a couple hundred, which is quite good - although it could easily have been $400. Won't complain though - still a decent return for the time invested.
Current bankroll: $8,200
Started off with getting a normal amount of starting hands, however, every single one seemed to hold up. Draws were hitting, my big cards were pairing, made a couple straights and got called down by the fish regularly.
For the first hour and a half I think my BB/100 was around 45 ... huge for limit poker, and over 4 tables.
Then .. back to reality. One of my key fish who had been giving me money time and time again managed to hit a 2,3 or 4 outer six times in a row!! ARGH.
I could see myself getting more and more annoyed, but was still playing well. In the end the fish left the table, so I ended up quitting as well when there were no longer enough juicy opponents. I cleared about $100 in bonus, and still managed to end up a couple hundred, which is quite good - although it could easily have been $400. Won't complain though - still a decent return for the time invested.
Current bankroll: $8,200
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A loose table on microgaming?
Finally found a loose table on microgaming, with three players with a VPIP greater than 60. Usually I end up playing on fairly tight tables on microgaming, and just hope to break even whilst clearing the bonus for pure profit. Unfortunately, even though they were super loose, they were killing me early, showing down some bizarre two pair hands (like TT22) and a few unlikely straights (hole cards like 95o, 45o etc and rivering the gutshot).
I kept at it for about an hour though, and got most of it back on that table, as well as making a small profit on another couple tables. I have to check tonight as to whether i've release another one lot of $50 or two of my bonus money there. I'm hoping two, but I cant remember if I already claimed the first lot.
I also had a massive run of premium starting hands on a 4 handed table, which I couldnt leave straight away as there were two super tight players to my left who were basically handing me their blinds every time, and one fish directly on my right, who was also donating. They eventually started playing back at me, but on this table I won a good 20BBs in a pretty short amount of time. I generally try to avoid 4 handed tables, as the rake becomes a killer as soon as you get too far below 6 players, but in this case I figured it was worth hanging around. I quit as soon as it became 3 handed. It was only a $1/2 game though, so not a huge amount of money involved, but did clear a bunch of raked hands towards my bonus.
Current bankroll: $7,700
I kept at it for about an hour though, and got most of it back on that table, as well as making a small profit on another couple tables. I have to check tonight as to whether i've release another one lot of $50 or two of my bonus money there. I'm hoping two, but I cant remember if I already claimed the first lot.
I also had a massive run of premium starting hands on a 4 handed table, which I couldnt leave straight away as there were two super tight players to my left who were basically handing me their blinds every time, and one fish directly on my right, who was also donating. They eventually started playing back at me, but on this table I won a good 20BBs in a pretty short amount of time. I generally try to avoid 4 handed tables, as the rake becomes a killer as soon as you get too far below 6 players, but in this case I figured it was worth hanging around. I quit as soon as it became 3 handed. It was only a $1/2 game though, so not a huge amount of money involved, but did clear a bunch of raked hands towards my bonus.
Current bankroll: $7,700
Monday, May 19, 2008
Discipline
Played a fairly short session, which was fairly up and down. As per usual a few nasty suckouts. I don't think I actually played any hands incorrectly. Lost a 3 way pot with KK v AA, and another when my AK hit the K on the flop, however my opponent's 88 hit another 8 on the turn.
What I really noticed about the session was my level of discipline around table selection. Played very briefly on Cake when I went onto a table with 4 players, and managed to get the seat to the left of the biggest fish. About 20 hands later when I was up about 10BBs, the fish quit, and I then automatically quit at the next blind without even thinking about it. I was actually quite pleased with this, given I know that many people would just keep on playing when they are up. But since the table was no longer good enough for me to have a significant edge i'm happy that I simply quit it almost on autopilot. I must have done it enough times for it to be ingrained on my psyche.
Overall the session was okay and made about $50. Could easily have been more but I was a little unlucky with a relatively low VPIP, low WTSD and slighly below avg W$SD for the session. The pots I did win though, were obviously a little above average.
4 tabling 24 poker for 20 mins also would have racked up a few more hands, so my next $50 bonus release must be very close.
Current Bankroll: $7,650
What I really noticed about the session was my level of discipline around table selection. Played very briefly on Cake when I went onto a table with 4 players, and managed to get the seat to the left of the biggest fish. About 20 hands later when I was up about 10BBs, the fish quit, and I then automatically quit at the next blind without even thinking about it. I was actually quite pleased with this, given I know that many people would just keep on playing when they are up. But since the table was no longer good enough for me to have a significant edge i'm happy that I simply quit it almost on autopilot. I must have done it enough times for it to be ingrained on my psyche.
Overall the session was okay and made about $50. Could easily have been more but I was a little unlucky with a relatively low VPIP, low WTSD and slighly below avg W$SD for the session. The pots I did win though, were obviously a little above average.
4 tabling 24 poker for 20 mins also would have racked up a few more hands, so my next $50 bonus release must be very close.
Current Bankroll: $7,650
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