Cloudcappin'

I’ve been watching some heads-up videos on here for a few days now and have begun trying my hand at it, at low-stakes and mainly “for fun” using an account I rarely play on any more. Anyway, it’s gone quite well so far and has been a lot of fun.

My buddy came by today and I gave him some starting hand recommendations for heads-up play and he absolutely killed the games he played. Of course, he was playing fish at each table, but he has been going through a long bad patch at the six-max tables and I think he’s hooked. At least for now or until some bad beats or a downswing comes.

Anyway, it’s fun to try something new once in a while. At one time I played nothing but full ring limit, then moved to FR no-limit and then to six-max. Maybe at some point I’ll play a lot of heads-up stuff. Who knows?

I made a big mistake today which basically cost me my stack.

I’m hoping that by chronicling my errors “on paper”, as it were, I will learn some lessons. Anyway, I’ve watched some videos lately where the stealer was calling the blinds’ three bets quite lightly compared to my usual standards. I’m nitty by nature (damn, that woulda’ been a good user name) so I have often folded to this aggression.

Anyway, I sat down at a table today and the guy two seats to my left had raised 3 times within the first orbit and a half. I picked up QTs on the button and raised (first in) and was 3-bet by the big blind. To many of you, this may seem like a clear call with position, but I’ve often folded hands like these. Of course, the flop came ten high and I played it too aggressively and I got stacked by his QQ as neither of my outs came in.

Unfortunately, I later determined that this guy was an extremely passive player despite early appearances to the contrary. As I thought about it later, a better player would have realized this already. A few hands earlier I had called his raise and c-bet from the BB with pocket fives on a raggy flop. He checked the turn and didn’t bet the river despite the Queen scare card with his AJs.

I think in the future I’m gonna’ “play it safe” early on in a session if I have no stats on somebody. Live and Learn.

I think it might be fun for me to write about my poker adventures, even if nobody else reads ’em.

I spent a few years playing poker the LAST time I got laid off, making basically enough to support myself. In hindsight it was a bit of a mistake for me to rely on poker for so long as I was much less marketable when I wanted to get back into the work force. Anyway, I got laid off again (programmer job) and have been playing poker for some money. I don’t really play enough tables or high enough stakes to make much money, but I am bringing in some income.

After joining this site a few days ago I realize just how bad of a poker player I really am. My win rate is decent, but I play a maximum of two tables at a time and used to be a pretty good table selector. Full Tilt’s decision to disallow “data mining” has really hurt me.

Anyway, so far September has not been very kind to me. I’m ahead, but not by much. Today was a winning day that FELT like a loser. This lucky hand which I probably played poorly (the squeezer was 3-betting at a 13 pct. rate) sent me to the plus side, but not by much.

Full Tilt Poker $100.00 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $110.85
BTN: $100.00
SB: $19.30
BB: $218.80
Hero (UTG): $102.85
MP: $18.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with 6 6
Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, CO calls $3, BTN raises to $13.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $10.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($31.50) 9 3 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($31.50) K (2 players)
Hero bets $20.00, BTN calls $20

River: ($71.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $69.35, BTN calls $66.50 all in

Final Pot: $204.50
BTN mucks A K
Hero shows 6 6
Hero wins $201.50
(Rake: $3.00)

When he didn’t bet the flop AK seemed extremely likely. I bet into him on the turn because I thought it would look less strong than a check-raise, though I don’t think it would have mattered.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to incorporate a few things I’ve learned here, with varied success. I’m excited about improving, however.