Bow to Your Sensei!

Another Volume prop bet!

DJ Sensei — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:09:53 +0000

If you recall, a few months back I made a bet with Vincent (soepgroente) that we'd each play 40k hands in a month. The end results were mixed, in that I lost a bit of money over the 40k hands but finally made Supernova on stars and cleared some nice bonuses. I did learn something useful from the bet though, and that is that I may be utterly incapable of putting in any sort of volume at the tables without additional incentives. So, in order to get back on track, I've booked another volume bet, this time with Jordan (2fouroffsuit).
It is a similar sort of wager, except with a lower hand goal for me since I don't want to have to play 9+ tables and I have at least 7 days of ultimate and business travel that I won't be able to grind during. So I need to reach 25k hands and he needs to play 45k. To make up the difference in volume, I'm wagering $4500 against his $2500. Of course, the most likely outcome is that we both reach our goals and no money changes hands, but if either of us fails to reach his goal he owes the other that amount. The bet begins today, and runs until March 14th. He shouldn't have any trouble with it, as he just went pro (woo!) but perhaps I can figure out his distraction weaknesses and/or send some secret distraction agents. Suggestions and/or applications for distraction agent positions are welcome!

A Strategic Dominion Match Review

DJ Sensei — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:37:34 +0000

First of all, if you don't have any idea what Dominion is (but you enjoy board/card games), stop reading this and go watch our recent video introducing the game.

Now, those of you who are still reading are probably interested in some more advanced strategy, so I'll serve some up for you. I played a match recently that I found to be full of particularly interesting strategic plays, so I'll break it down for you here. First, open up the game history (preferably in another window so it is easier to follow along).

First things first: the supply piles, sorted by cost:
3 - Smugglers: Less useful in a game with powerfully escalating decks, because after the middlegame we'll rarely be buying things that cost 6 or less. Still, has potential to pick up some easy Nobles or Golds. Also, weaker without villages because its a terminal action.
3 - Watchtower: The defensive aspect is useless in this set with no curse-attacks, so it's only useful for drawing to 6 or putting a bought card back on your deck. Probably not worth the purchase
3 - Wishing Well: A weak $3 card that is only useful if our deck is quite homogeneous.
4 - Moneylender: An excellent early-game card, useful for clearing out our coppers and getting to golds+ faster. Especially nice in this set since we can salvage it after our coppers are gone.
4 - Salvager: This card will prove quite valuable, allowing us to convert our estates into more powerful cards and also make some strategic mid and late-game plays. Also provides a +buy, which is huge when your deck is capable of monster turns.
4 - Thief: Most useful if our opponent has a neatly-trimmed deck full of big money. Like Smugglers, it is made weaker by the lack of villages (though the King's Court - Thief play can be a great way to really shut down our opponent's buying power).
4 - Spy: Not a bad card to have, but not particularly powerful either. Doesn't combine particularly well with any of our other actions (except perhaps Thief). We could get ourself a few +actions by playing it on a KC, but ideally we'll have a better action for the KC.
5 - Vault: An underrated card. Able to increase buying power from the middlegame onwards, it can sometimes net us much more than +$2 when we either draw big money or can chain it with some Nobles. Also, when Salvagers are in play and we have $5 to spend, I might rather buy a Vault than a slightly more useful $4 card since its worth more to us when salvaged later.
6 - Nobles: An extremely powerful card, and one of the Dominion cards that can create an effective combo chain with multiple copies of itself. The most strategically interesting part about this card is that it costs the same as Gold, so we'll often have to make the decision on which is more important to our deck at the time.
7 - King's Court: Not much to say about this utter beast. If KCs are in the supply, we will almost certainly need them to win the game.
9 - Platinum: These too are often essential to win in a Colony game.
11 - Colony: The goal of the game. First one to get 4 of these usually will take it down.

The match:

Turns 1-2: I pick up a 3-4 split, and I think its a pretty easy silver-moneylender play. With big powerful expensive cards, we want to clean up our deck and get big $ as fast as we can. Our opponent unsurprisingly makes the same choice. The other reasonable option would be salvager-silver, or maybe even salvager-wishingwell, but it makes sense to choose moneylender first because our copper density is higher than our estate density and we won't need +buys anytime soon.

Turns 3-4: I pick up the vault when I have $5 to spend, it should be useful until I dispense with my estates and it will provide more consistent buying power (Fun fact: anytime there is a vault in your hand to begin a turn, you can buy a gold or nobles!). The next turn I pick up my Salvager straight up, so my trashing engine now has all its initial components. Our opponent buys a Spy, which I think is a poor choice over Salvager here. Perhaps he simply didn't want to have 2 terminal actions in his deck this early?

Turns 5-8: Pretty straightforward play here. We are fortunate to put together $7 so soon and pick up an early KC. Some folks might choose a Gold or Nobles here instead because they don't have too many powerful actions to combine with the KC, but that would be a mistake. Even the moneylender can be great with it, as we see in turn 8. We face the choice in turn 8 between KC-Moneylender or KC-Vault. If we choose the Moneylender we'll trash 2 coppers and pick up a Gold or Nobles, if we choose the Vault we can pick up another KC at least by vaulting our ML and the 4 drawn cards. I go with the ML here, since I replaced 2 coppers with a Gold I made my deck much more streamlined, and I'll have plenty of chances to pick up more KCs soon enough. Our opponent Spies us in his turn 5 and forces us to discard a copper; I think this is almost always a mistake. Copper is weaker than my average card, so he should let me keep it. He also spends $5 on a silver, declining to purchase a Salvager or Vault. A crucial error, imo.

Turn 9: An interesting decision on my part with 2 KCs, a Salvager, and 2 coppers. One play would be to KC-KC-Salvager and trash my coppers, but I wouldn't be able to buy anything and that would squander 2 coppers away from my MLs. So, I take a more interesting route and salvage one of my KC's to buy a Platinum. Again, there are plenty of KCs left and getting a Platinum in effect in a streamlined deck is very strong.

Turn 11: Here I end up spending $12 on another Platinum instead of a Colony. Nobody has breached the big VP cards by this point, and I consider my deck to be stronger than my opponents, so I decided that increasing my deck's power even more was better than starting the VP race now. My opponent has been stocking up on KCs and Nobles instead of big money. His deck should have strong cycling power, but it doesn't yet have quite the buying power he'll need to buy Colonies on most turns.

Turn 13: Here we see the power of a KC-Nobles chain in our opponent's turn. He even manages to triple-Moneylender, but without any +buys he's left spending $15 on a single Platinum.

Turn 14: I open up the Colony race with a KC-Vault.

Turn 15: Here the benefits of the +buy become apparent: Because I'm already a Colony ahead and have several Platinums, I can spend my $12 on 2 Nobles and strengthen up my cycling power. In my opponent's turn, he sets up a nice chain and picks up his first Colony. The race is afoot!

Turn 16: Nobles-Vault is a strong play because the extra +action allows us a chance to see 2 more cards that might be extra useful (for instance, a KC!). If we don't pick up another strong action card on the first pull, we can just play another vault for +$2. We both pick up another Colony on this turn, unsurprisingly.

Turn 17: At this point, our Moneylender is mostly useless, we have a few superfluous Vaults, and the VP race is hot and heavy, so I go ahead and KC-Salvage the rest of my hand into a Colony. The other option would be to KC-Vault, but that may or may not get us to $11 (and we'll only have one buy if we lucksack >$11). Our opponent makes what I think are a few poor choices here too. He should lead with the Spy to give himself a shot at a KC-KC, which is obviously more powerful than two independent KCs. Also, for the same reason, I'd probably Nobles-Nobles before using the KC since he's guaranteed to be able to at least KC his 3rd Nobles. If he picks up another KC in that stretch he can KC-KC-Nobles and run through his entire deck. He ends up doing so anyhow, but it wasn't a sure thing.

Turn 18: The critical turn. We each have 3 Colonies, and he has more Nobles than I do (The fact that Nobles also are worth 2VP in addition to their other powers makes them even stronger). If I just buy a single Colony here, chances are he'll take the last one next turn and win the game (as we see, he actually had a fairly weak hand, but he certainly could have gotten there with a KC-KC-Spy assuming he picked up a Nobles in his 3 +card's). Clearly, I lead with the Nobles +2 actions, giving me a chance to make something happen with the Vaults. In my first draw I pick up another Nobles, so I opt to continue the cycle and Nobles-Vault again. This leaves me with a Salvager, 2 Platinums, a Gold, and a Colony. One option for a big VP play would be to salvage a platinum and buy 2 Provinces, thus preventing him from winning on his next turn. However, we have a play that locks up a win right now, and of course we should always take it. We salvage our Colony for +$11 and buy the last 2 Colonies, ending the game before he has another shot to pick up VPs.

As you can see, it was a narrow victory (44-41), but many Dominion games are won by a small margin. It is important to maintain awareness of the VP count and also to keep your mind open to creative plays, for they will often lead to a satisfying victory.

New coaching rate!

DJ Sensei — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:26:05 +0000

Hey yall, I've decided to take a hint from some market forces (in this case, low demand) and lower my coaching rate a bit. I miss coaching as much as I used to, so hopefully I'll get some new regular students as a result. The rate is back down to $300/hr, with a $1200 for 5 hours package that I think is a great deal for an aspiring PLO player. I'm no longer coaching NLHE; I haven't played it in so long that there are certainly better coaches out there at all levels. I will also coach for mixed/draw games if someone is trying to get into those, but PLO is my strongest game right now. The people I think will get the most out of my coaching are those playing 1/2 - 5/10, but a .50/1 player with deep bankroll could certainly benefit from some sessions, as could a MSNL player looking to learn the game or a high stakes player who wants to brush up on some theory.

I'm also working on a more substantial interdisciplinary group project that I plan to unveil soon, but I haven't worked out all the details yet. Stay tuned!

Feel the Rushhhh

DJ Sensei — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:49:47 +0000

I might as well spill the beans here, because I think I'd like to get some more feedback before I get to work: I'm working on a Rush PLO series for the upcoming season. As such, I've been grinding a ton of .50/1 rush PLO and trying to crack the code. Its going fairly well, although the variance is silly huge (standard deviation so far = 145.5 bb/100!). Today I had a particularly good session:

A side benefit of all this rush grinding is that I'm actually maintaining (barely) my Black Card status. Today was the second-to-last day in my 50 day grace period to get back over 500, and I had to put in a ton of hands over the last few days, but I managed to get it back to the safe zone. I feel like a huge sucker for actually worrying about black card when I don't even have rakeback on FTP (I know, I know, I've asked them for it several times), but what can you do?

Anyhow, all of yall who have put in some volume playing rush PLO, I'd like to hear from you! Tell me what you think about it, tendencies you've recognized, and strategies you've found effective. For the sake of not clogging up my blog comments section too much, feel free to post in this thread instead. (But if you want to give me an E-highfive, blog comments are the spot!)

Live Poker in Florida: a trip report!

DJ Sensei — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:58:06 +0000

As is customary upon my return to Florida, me and dad took a little trip down to the poker room, which as of last year finally has real no limit games for actual money. Hooray for progress! And more importantly, hooray for fish. As usual, the highest game going was 5/10 with a $1k cap. Not super high stakes, but certainly high enough to be worth the trip. So I got on the list for that and the 2/5, hoping to get into the action as soon as possible. The first seat was at a 2/5 table, but I don't recall anything interesting happening aside from losing a flip with JJ against a shortstack's AK, and I was called up to the "big game" soon enough.

Now, there were actually two tables of 5/10 going, which was a good sign that the games were alive and well. Unfortunately my table broke up somewhat quickly after the fish won big pots and left. The only mildly interesting hand at that table was against the self-proclaimed mayor of Bayard, FL. As best I can tell, Bayard encompasses a single intersection on the country highway that leads to the poker room (which was formerly a dog racing track, but they don't actually have races there anymore). Anyhow, the mayor limps in, I raise with KQ, and there are two calls. The flop was AQ5, mayor checks, I bet, and they both fold. As he folds, the mayor shows an ace. I am not accustomed to that kind of respect, but I do enjoy it! Anyhow, our table breaks and we draw for the open seat at the other table. I draw poorly, so I head back to 2/5 to wait for a seat to open up.

My first hand of note at the 2/5 table was exactly the kind of hand I want to have in a good live session: An asian guy raised over limpers to $30 and I called on the button with 86hh. The SB squeezed his stack of about $200 into the middle (d'oh!) and the BB followed right after by shipping his $400 stack over the top. The original raiser didn't take much time to reraise again, covering us all. At this point there was already a mild commotion brewing around the table, as is customary in such live games. Now, perhaps I was just in a gambling mood, and perhaps I had been playing too much PLO lately and overestimated my equity multiway, but I saw fit to go ahead and call off my $500 stack with 8 high. The SB flipped his pocket tens, the BB his pocket queens, and of course the asian had the 'pocket rockets'. Only one dead heart, so I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I kept my hand covered, naturally. The flop came AT7. We have a gutshot! The rest of the table was going on about how sick it was that two of them flopped sets, because it somehow mattered in an AIPF pot. All I was thinking was "9". The turn was nothing less than that beautiful 9, so I offered a modest "bink" to the table and flipped my hand. In retrospect, I should have kept it down until after the river, both for maximum awesomeness and so in case they boated up I could muck it quietly without revealing my ludicrous preflop call. Fortunately, the river was a blank and I dragged the massive pile of red chips (side note: I hate red chips. But I can't complain about stacking up a huge pile of them.). The asian guy was understandably steamed, the rest of the fish at the table were confused and amazed, and the one guy who acted like he knew what he was doing just confirmed that I had made the proper call given the price. Actually, I looked it up on my phone and discovered that I only had about 17% equity, so it was a -EV play. Hopefully the enjoyment yall take from reading it was worth the gamble!

Now, I need to preface the next section of this report with the fact that this particular poker room sometimes runs an hourly "high hand jackpot". I think the prize is $100 and it goes to the player who showed down the highest hand during that hour (and used both of his holecards). Both the "showdown" part and the "both holecards" will come into play. In the first hand, I raised JTcc over a limper, and he was the only caller. The flop came down AhQc8c, and he check-called. The turn was the 9c, naturally, and when he checked I eyed his stack of around $400 and bet again, looking to take it all. Unfortunately, he folded, and when I showed my straight flush the rest of the table berated me for not checking down to guarantee myself the "jackpot". If only he had fewer monies behind I might have done so, but the pro in me simply won't let me in good conscience check down a straight flush.

Soon after, I checked my option with J2o in the straddle. The flop came out JJ9; I led out and got one caller. The turn quadded me up, so I checked and called. The river was an irrelevant 2, I checked again, and he bet perhaps a third of his remaining stack (it wasn't big). I then asked the dealer to confirm that I needed to use both holecards to contend for the jackpot, which he did. So then I placed a stack of big chips out to put the dude all-in, and of course he called. But again I failed to earn the $100 jackpot :(.

Soon after that I was called back up to 5/10, so I racked up my mountains of red and headed over. The game was excellent, featuring a number of atrocious players with healthy stacks. One of the first hands I witnessed went down roughly as follows: straddle to $20, a handful of limpers, button raises to $200. Everyone calls, whether they have a deep stack or not. 5 or 6 ways to the flop, which is 876r. BB ships $850 (with A5o), UTG+1 calls allin for a few hundred (with 52s), MP tanks forever before actually folding, later claiming something like 97, CO calls AI for a few hundred (with 75s), and the button who covers them all makes a crying call with KK. The board runs out 68 and his kings hold up. He lets everyone know how great he is, and how much he deserved to win. They all rebuy and bemoan their bad luck.

The first sizeable hand I got involved with, I completed my BB with 96s in a straddled pot 7-ways. Flop came out T96 with a flush draw, I bet $75 and got several calls. The turn somehow bricked an offsuit 5, I bet $225, and got two more calls. Incredibly, the river was an offsuit 2, I checked to let them bluff, they declined, and I dragged a nice pot.

I misplayed the following hand, at least on the river: I raised AK over limpers, they obviously called. Flop K73 all hearts and only one check-called $125. The turn bricked and he c/c $275, leaving about $720 behind. The river also bricked, and when he checked a third time I tried to squeeze some thin value by representing a barreled NFD bluff. Unfortunately, he checkraised me for less than the minimum, and I reluctantly called getting a great price. He was Asian, after all, and he was the one who got it in with 52s in the stupid multiway hand earlier, so I think he's got some ridiculous bluffs in his range. This time, it was the nuts.

I got it back and then some in the next big hand: In a pot restraddled to $50 (or perhaps it was just a blind raise) by an awesomely bad gambler guy, I picked up AA in the big blind after a call, so I boosted it to $200. Both the restraddler and the "limper" called. The flop came out an unsatisfying JJ6cc, so I checked to the straddler who bet $250. The limper called, and I overcalled. The turn was an offsuit 8, I checked again, and he unsurprisingly shipped. The limper called off a few hundred more without much thought, and I called off the rest of my stack as well. The limper flipped pocket tens, and the straddler revealed his T9cc and muttered that he couldn't possibly miss. He didn't, but he hit the wrong out, the lovely ace of clubs. My boat dragged the nice pot, and left me comfortably ahead on the trip.

Thats about it, poker-wise. I think I pocketed about $1400 or so, so that was nice. One funny thing did happen at the table though, there was a young dude across the table from me in sunglasses for a while who eventually asked if I was from around here (I was) and did I play baseball (I did!). I told him where I played, which rang the bell he was looking for, and it became apparent that we had played together on the same little league team over a decade ago. We caught up a bit, and before leaving I tossed him a business card. At that point he connected Dan the little league teammate with DJ Sensei the guy whose PLO videos he watched on DeucesCracked. Funny how these things work out.

Dad's home game

DJ Sensei — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:13:06 +0000

I'm back home in Jacksonville for christmas, and went with my dad to his weekly home game tonight. I was the only guy there under the age of 60. They play dealer's choice and we didn't play a single poker game that you could find online (at least not in the by-the-book structure). They have some weird betting structures too; checking is rarely allowed, so you have to either bet or fold, and the first person to act rotates each street. Rarely would anyone raise, though the times they did raise it wouldn't necessarily correlate with having the nuts both ways.

There was one game they played that I think might actually be interesting to play with real poker players, "Pair/NoPair": Each player antes and is dealt 5 cards. Action proceeds to the left of the dealer, and players may either check or open the betting. If nobody chooses to open, everyone antes again and hands are re-dealt. Assuming someone opens, the other players may either call, fold, or raise. Then there is a drawing round, and another betting round begins with the person who opened pre-draw. Once betting completes, everyone shows down, and the pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand (which must be unpaired, hence the name of the game). Obviously, straights and flushes are super strong since they can play both ways, but its hard to make them in a single-draw game. Against the loose-passive old guys, it was fairly simple to evaluate my hand strength and make betting decisions knowing I wouldn't be exploited, but I'm curious how the game would play against solid aggressive opponents. Also, the structure they used was 2-5-5, but I think 2-5-10 would be better. Feel free to try it out at your own homegame and report the results!

Most of the other games involved double boards, wild cards, and/or split pots, so I don't remember much about any specific hand, but I wound up ahead a few bets at the end of the night. I'm not sure who else won anything, since it seemed like they were all grouching about losing. Tomorrow, I'm headed with dad to the dog track for some real live Florida poker, and hopefully I'll return with some real live USD's and a hilarious trip report for the kids at home.

Happy Holidays!

"Writers Block"

DJ Sensei — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:37:56 +0000

I can tell I've gone too long without posting when my dad emails me wondering why. So, here's a quick update on the assorted goings-on of yours truly:

I finished up the 40k hands challenge, but the last 13k hands were a pretty nasty downswing and I finished it down $, so I wasn't in much of a mood to write about it. There were basically two weeks where I couldn't win anything (not even board games with friends or ultimate frisbee games!). Since basically my entire life revolves around playing games and trying to win, consistently failing to do so is a pretty tough thing to endure. So, I took some time off from playing and just relaxed, and since then I've gotten back into the grind somewhat and basically haven't had a losing day in a good while. I just hope I can keep up motivation to put in long sessions. Anyone want to make a volume prop for January, or even several months to start the year?

My episode of the Blueprint is coming out this Saturday. (Spoiler!) I haven't finished up recording on it yet, but I feel a larger-than-normal amount of pressure to really do it well. The other episodes so far have really been awesome, and I've never made a video like it before (though I'm sure I've said everything that it'll contain many times before on various videos and forum posts) so I feel like this is kind of a big deal. So thats something for yall to look forward to. I also have a special video that Vincent and I recorded earlier this week that I think will be quite exciting, check it out on Sunday!

Other life elements:
Duke Basketball is crushing to the specifications I desire. I'm really pleased with the way Kyrie Irving has been playing, especially in the big games, and tonight, the first game he was out due to an injured toe, Andre Dawkins steps in and drains 8 3balls in his first career start. Baller. Unfortunately I don't expect to face much resistance in ACC play after New Years, but we definitely are going to contend for another championship in March and I can't wait.
I'm still out of shape, but am at least playing one ultimate game a week. Lately our team keeps getting into epic battles and winning in what effectively is "overtime", so we're definitely getting our money's worth. The next actual tournament I'll play is Lei-Out (a beach tournament in Santa Monica) in January. Should be a blast.
My fantasy football teams have been playing like garbage lately. In my Duke friends league I've plummeted from 9-0 to 9-4 and dropped out of first place, but at least my playoff spot is secure. In the DC league I'm out of contention, dropping to 6-7 and now playing for draft picks.
The Jaguars are actually playing well and are leading the division thanks to the Colts finally failing. I hope we can finish strong and make it into the playoffs so I can use my One Time on them going to the super bowl. (Obv if they make it there I'll go watch, even if its in Texas)
Winter sucks, as it always has, and now I'm stuck in a late sleep schedule because I can't get to bed early and I can't get out of bed early either. Our cats have developed a deadly attack involving curling up close on both sides of me or between my legs, and its impossible to get out of a warm bed with such cuddling going on, so I haven't seen a whole lot of sunlight lately. So it goes.
I'm addicted to Call of Duty: Black Ops. If you play on xbox360, you should holler at me so at least I'm not playing alone. Gamertag = Salmon Slinger.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and may all your outs be live!

Volume Prop: Week 3.3 update

DJ Sensei — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:20:01 +0000

Blech. I didn't play at all over the last weekend, so I had to put in some longer sessions this week to get back on track. I'd rather not have to put in an epic last-minute session to get there, and I'd rather not have to figure out how to count up my triple draw hands since I don't have software to track them, so I hope to just finish off the 40k hands just from PLO this week. So the last few days I've put in long sessions and gotten totally crushed. I suppose it is the nature of PLO to have these runs now and again, but I really don't enjoy them. It only adds up to a 12 buyin downswing when measured in bb, but unfortunately the heaviest hits have been at the higher stakes. Â I've reviewed the hands from the biggest drop that occurred tonight, and I can spot a few hands that I could have played Â better, but really the majority of it just seems to be coolers and setups, with a few bad beats thrown in.

Well, I guess I shouldn't whine too much. Nobody wants to hear that. I'm currently at 33,889 hands with 6 days left to go so I shouldn't have any trouble getting there. My current winnings are slight enough to be considered breakeven (thank goodness for the supernova bonuses). I just hope I can focus on playing great poker and win some money in my next few sessions.

A few items unrelated to the prop, but of sufficient noteworthiness:Â
1) FTP has finally opened up draw games. Hooray! I've played a fair bit of tripledraw lately on both sites as there has been good action, but I think I've been running bad at that too. Oh well, keep on truckin.
2) My ultimate winter league just started, so I no longer am completely a couch potato. My team is pretty stacked with talent (we have players from the national championship teams from 3 different divisions) so I think we've got a good shot to win it all. Now if only I could get back in shape and contribute something to the team.
3) I'm currently at 120k VPPs for the year, so my goal of 200k is within reach. I can only hope to have enough motivation to keep putting in hours once the prop is over. Plus I have to work around the holidays, so my available playing time will be more limited. I guess another challenge is a good thing! Â Â

Volume Prop: Week 1.7 update

DJ Sensei — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 06:30:09 +0000

After last week's mediocre results, I realized that playing 12+ tables, while great for getting tons of hands in, is not so great for playing well and winning money. The games aren't exactly 2005 PartyPoker quality; I need to actually be on my A game to be winning at a decent clip. So, I decided to cut down on tables, playing between 6 and 9, and aim for quality over quantity. The stakes of the bet aren't actually that high, so I should be focusing on winning money rather than getting to 40k as fast as possible.Â Â

As expected, my results immediately improved once I dropped a few tables. I began to take down many more uncontested pots, made thinner bluffs and valuebets, and was better able to identify whales* and adjust to capitalize on their strategic deficiencies. My winrate rapidly improved accordingly. In fact, I haven't had a losing day this week.Â

Also of note this week: I finally surpassed 100k VPPs on Stars to finally become a Supernova. I never gave much consideration to the VIP program at Stars, because I wasn't ever so much of a grinder that I could take full advantage of it. However, as my volume has increased, I've started paying more attention and doing some research. FPP Pro has been a nice resource for determining equivalent rakeback % and such things, as well as finding out the optimal exchange rate for FPPs (Its the 250,000fpp $4000 bonus, fyi). Immediately after reaching Supernova I cashed in a few bonuses for an extra $5k in straight cash. Given the milestone bonus system, I decided that Â I'm going to shoot for 100k more VPPs this year so I can cash another $7400+ in bonuses.

So, the current progress update:
21355 hands in 32.77 hours
$4810.35 in winningsÂ
6 straight flushes, 9 quads (made), 4 quads (dealt), 200 dealt trips with a winrate of 37.19 bb/100 :)

I don't expect to get too more hands in this weekend, what with the halloween and football and such, but since I'm ahead of schedule I could certainly just take a few days off. GL to you all, and everyone who distracts Vincent in the next few weeks gets an e-highfive!Â

* - The more PLO I play, the more I am convinced that your winrate almost entirely depends on crushing whales when you get the chance. Most players these days, even the weaker ones, aren't so bad that you'll be able to consistently destroy them. When you get a whale at the table, though, it is often a mad race to be the one who gets all his gold. Thus, it is crucial to open up and play as many pots with him as you can, isolating as necessary.Â

Volume Prop: Week 1 update

DJ Sensei — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:10:35 +0000

I got off to a quick start this week, knowing that this challenge would be a lot more manageable and enjoyable if I got ahead of schedule early. I've been playing mostly 2/4-5/10 PLO on Stars, 9-12 tabling. This is more tables than I'm accustomed to, but I feel pretty capable with TableNinja on my side. I put in long sessions Monday through Thursday, and while there was some sense of accomplishment for actually grinding so many hands, I ran pretty bad and was losing for much of the time. I also became re-acquainted with the disconcerting malaise that follows a long, exhausting session of breakeven or losing poker. However, PLO is a high-variance game, so I wasn't too dismayed by some poor results. I'll only get better as I put in more volume (and thus have more hands to analyze in my database!), and I'm playing well below my bankroll, so thats not really a concern. Also, I'll be hitting 100k VPPs this coming week, qualifying me for supernova for the first time ever. Apparently the equivalent "rakeback" isn't half bad for supernova people, so I'll be able to cash in some nice bonuses too. I've even entertained fleeting thoughts of trying to go big next year and try for SNE, but I doubt I'll follow through on that. A million VPPs is just too many (though I could shoot for a few hundred K and still make some nice loot in bonuses). Â Â

From a life standpoint, the pursuit of this prop has nudged me into a slightly more regular schedule, which is a good thing. I've been getting up well before noon (!), taking care of business and lunch by 1PM, and then grinding until 5 or 6. Â Four days a week of this and I'll reach the 40k goal easily, but I might even try and shoot past that while I'm motivated to play. Or perhaps I'll just get to 40k and then spend the rest of the month trying to distract Vincent so he doesn't get there!

Anyhow, here's some hard data:Â
17.85 hours, 12197 hands, total net -$72.40.Â

Â
The 2/4 cap session was actually super frustrating. I just loaded up one table to check on some HUD tweaks I had made, and got super coolered over and over again for like 20 minutes. The 10/20, on the other hand, was obviously awesome. The game was good and I managed to obtain the Jesus seat on a super fish who donated prettyÂ much all of it to me. So that got me unstuck for the prop and left me more optimistic heading into week 2!

Silly notes:Â
Dealt quads 4 times: 8s, 9s, Qs, and Ks. I didn't play any of them, but I'm still holding out for TTTT!
5 straight flushes, including one royal flush and two steel wheels. Interestingly enough, I was the PFR and got it in on the flop in each of these hands, and I was a 70%+ favorite each time.
7 quads.

Tune in next week, when the expected report is massive profits and closing in on 25k hands!Â

A Volume prop bet with Vincent

DJ Sensei — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 02:57:27 +0000

As frequent readers of my blog already know, I am pathologically bad at putting in volume at the tables. In an attempt to overcome this (and hopefully make some good money while I'm at it), I decided to give myself some extra motivation. Vincent (soepgroente) and I have booked a gentleman's wager to each play 40k hands in a month (Oct 18-Nov 17). The stakes are not particularly high, but hopefully enough to motivate us and spur on some friendly competition: for each 10k hand milestone that we fail to reach, we owe the other a $500 freeroll in the next big tournament played. There is no difference between 30,000 hands and 39,999 hands, so reaching the milestones is a big deal. Both cash games and tournaments count, and there is a 1.5x multiplier for mixed game hands (since you simply can't play as many tables of those).Â

I'll update the ol' blog with my progress, at least each time I reach a milestone. With any luck, I'll win lots of gold as well as achieving the goal. Come mid-November I'll be trying my best to distract Vincent because I'll already be done and he'll have a ways to go!

Also, if anyone has interest in joining in, I'm open to taking more action. You'd need to be a slacker like myself for me to consider it, obviously. None of you supernova elite types!

Epic Fantasy Football comeback

DJ Sensei — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:34:08 +0000

I'm in two leagues this year; one with college friends (I'm currently leading the league with an unblemished 4-0 record!) and one with poker players, mostly DC folk. I've been doing decently well in the poker league, despite not putting up huge numbers. Going into this week I was 2-1. However, both Miles Austin and Thomas Jones were on a bye week, so a significant chunk of my expected points were out. I once again elected to start Eli Manning over Kyle Orton, which of course was a huge mistake. Neither Mike Sims-Walker nor Pierre Thomas scored a single point for me, and so after Sunday night things looked bleak. I had earned a mere 34 points in a league where the average score was probably over 100. My leading individual scorer was Jacksonville tight end Marcedes Lewis with 9 (side note: he's an excellent pick at TE. Nobody knows about him, but he puts up solid numbers and is often targeted around the end zone because he is huge.). However, there was a glimmer of hope; my opponent had only put up 55 points thus far, and we both had a few players remaining in the Monday night matchup. I had just picked up Miami's Davone Bess the week before, and I also had New England's kicker Gostkowski. My opponent was left with New England's tight end and Miami's defense.

Bess got off to a hot start, scoring Miami's first touchdown, and Gostkowski put in two field goals in the first half. However, I still needed New England to score more points to bring down Miami's defense score. In the second half, that's exactly what happened. They wound up scoring several touchdowns on special teams (each of which was capped off by another Gostkowski extra point!) and as a result, Miami had to open up their passing game to play catchup (more receptions and yards for Bess!). By the fourth quarter, I was right in contention! When NE scored another touchdown to go up 33-14, they opted to go for a two-point conversion. This was not good for me, as I was down by less than a point; a point that would easily be gained with an extra point kick. However, fortune smiled upon me: NE was penalized with a false start and chose to just kick the extra point, which put me into the lead. The rest of the game I was simply sweating to hold on, and fortunately my opponent's players never managed to achieve much of anything. Bess finished with 20 points and change, Gostkowski put up 11, the NE tight end only managed 5, and Miami's pitiful defense got 2 measly points. I prevailed in the end with a final score of 65.71 to 62.95, and my record increased to 3-1. A hilarious side note about the score is that our two scores were the lowest scores overall in the league thus far. Against any other team in any other week, I would have been handed a crushing defeat. But it still counts as a W!

Now, if I could just start putting up some grownup numbers in the weeks to come, I might have a chance to actually finish in the money in this league.Â

DC Shorts!

DJ Sensei — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:52:55 +0000

I'm excited to finally unveil the latest concoction from DC Labs! DC Shorts are designed to pack a nice little chunk of content into a smaller package. Whether you have a short attention span, prefer to watch videos in shorter bursts, or simply want to get motivated with a short video before you start your grind, shorts should be right up your alley. Additionally, they offer us the freedom to cover all sorts of material that might not be substantial enough to fill a full-length video, and to experiment with different formats.

I hope you all enjoy the shorts, and please let us know what you think! My first effort (a PLO short) will be released tomorrow along with a few others of different games.Â

See all DC ShortsÂ HERE! Â

Return of the Unicorn!

DJ Sensei — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:55:17 +0000

And of course, it never fails to stack fools.Â

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 915562
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $624.00
Hero (CO): $796.00
BTN: $1112.20
SB: $405.00
BB: $417.00
UTG: $782.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is CO with A K K A
UTG raises to $22.50, MP calls $22.50, Hero raises to $105, 3 folds, UTG calls $82.50, MP calls $82.50

Flop: ($330.00) 7 6 A(3 players)
UTG checks, MP bets $222, Hero raises to $691 all in, UTG folds, MP calls $297 all in

Turn: ($1368.00) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($1368.00) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $1368.00
MP shows A 7 2 J (a full house, Jacks full of Aces)
Hero shows A K K A (a full house, Aces full of Jacks)
Hero wins $1365.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Note how happy the turtle is!

A nice little start to the month!

DJ Sensei — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:04:34 +0000

Â I obviously ran hot the first half of the session, winning all of the coinflips and some not-quite-coinflips :p. However, I continued stacking fools the second half of the session with actual equity edges! Here are a few of the bigger wins:

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 902709
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $1769.00
CO: $2411.50
BTN: $340.00
SB: $2794.85
BB: $417.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is UTG with Q 8 K J
Hero raises to $30, CO calls $30, BTN calls $30, SB calls $25, BB calls $20

Flop: ($150.00) Q 2 Q(5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($150.00) 8(5 players)
SB bets $150, BB folds, Hero raises to $495, CO folds, BTN folds, SB raises to $1635, Hero raises to $1739 all in, SB calls $104

River: ($3628.00) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($3628.00) 4(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $3628.00
Hero shows Q 8 K J (a full house, Queens full of Eights)
SB shows 3 4 A Q (a full house, Queens full of Fours)
Hero wins $1812.00
Hero wins $1812.00
(Rake: $4.00)

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 902710
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $928.50
CO: $290.00
BTN: $2401.25
SB: $260.00
BB: $3779.35

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is UTG with Q T 8 J
Hero raises to $30, CO calls $30, 2 folds, BB raises to $125, Hero calls $95, 1 fold

Flop: ($285.00) A 7 Q(2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($285.00) K(2 players)
BB bets $285, Hero raises to $803.50 all in, BB requests TIME, BB calls $518.50

River: ($1892.00) 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($1892.00) 5(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $1892.00
Hero shows Q T 8 J (a straight, Ace high)
BB shows K Q K 6 (three of a kind, Kings)
Hero wins $944.00
Hero wins $944.00
(Rake: $4.00)

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 902713
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $400.00
SB: $390.00
BB: $1857.00
UTG: $866.00
MP: $3881.60
CO: $681.50

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BTN with 4 5 7 A
2 folds, CO raises to $22.50, Hero calls $22.50, SB calls $17.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($77.50) 3 5 Q(3 players)
SB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $40, SB calls $40, CO raises to $130, Hero calls $90, SB calls $90

Turn: ($467.50) T(3 players)
SB checks, CO bets $467.50, Hero calls $247.50 all in, SB calls $237.50 all in

River: ($1200.00) 7(3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $1200.00
Hero shows 4 5 7 A (a flush, Ace high)
SB shows 7 Q 9 Q (three of a kind, Queens)
CO shows 8 T 6 6 (a flush, Queen high)
Hero wins $20.00
Hero wins $1177.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Clearly sustainable! Hooray September!

2010 Fantasy Football Team

DJ Sensei — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:06:14 +0000

QB - Matt Schaub (Hou), Matt Ryan (Atl)
RB - Michael Turner (Atl), Â Jonathan Stewart (Car), Arian Foster (Hou), Steve Slaton (Hou)
WR - Larry Fitzgerald (Arz), Michael Crabtree (SF), Hakeem Nicks (NYG), Laurent Robinson (StL), Troy Williamson (Jax)
TE - Antonio Gates (SD)
D/ST - Cowboys, Bengals
K - Stephen Gostkowski (NE), Mason Crosby (GB)

I got stuck with the 8th draft pick of 10, so I wasn't able to get any super RB stars, but I expect full domination regardless! That being said, I will probably wind up around 7th place like usual. Good thing the only stakes are pride (and 6-packs)!

SF Giants + DCers trip report!

DJ Sensei — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:55:50 +0000

We met at the Willie Mays statue starting at 6:45. Giancarlo was the first to show, followed by Michael (thisfool) and Bryce (nixonthegrouch) + his ladyfriend. Michael and Giancarlo got hepped up on a free Monster Java energy drink while I willcall'd some extra tickets for my friend Peter. We made our way into the stadium just about the time of the first pitch, and by the time we made our final approach towards our bleacher seats, some jerk on the Diamondbacks jacked a 3-run homer into the cold waters of the bay. So far, off to a bad start.Â

Now, for some reason they were checking tickets for people entering the bleachers section. I guess they wanted to prevent anyone who paid more money for a decent seat from sneaking into the cheap seats. This caused a bottleneck, but we made it through and found our seats. Well, more or less. As it turns out, nobody in the bleachers actually sits in their assigned seat, so we just sat in a chunk of open seats near where our tickets pointed us. We settled in for the remainder of the first inning before heading to the concessions for beers and cheesesteaks.Â

Apparently there is a ballpark rule that on Fridays you can only purchase one beer per person per visit. This rule is in place to prevent anyone from having fun. We managed to bypass this rule somewhat by placing our first beers upon a table with friendly supervision before visiting a second vendor to purchase some additional cold ones. For reference, decent draft beers were $9.75 (not $10!) and cheap beers were $8. I'm not sure if this is a standard pricing scheme these days, but COME ON!

The middle of the game passed without much fanfare. The Giants failed to achieve in any reasonable manner, and the Diamondbacks sat on their 4 run lead for most of the game. In fact, the highlight of the game was probably when Lincecum made a successful sacrifice bunt, advancing runners to second and third while taking the first out of the inning himself. Obviously, the next batter popped out to third and the one after him grounded out to first, so no the achievement was wasted. We managed to consume some beers and share some laughs, and spent as much time observing our surroundings as the game itself. The bleachers are a unique subset of baseball fans: in this case, the majority were high schoolers. Or at least we thought they were high schoolers; we learned later that it was college night, and that we were very old because we couldn't tell the difference. Most of the kids were pretty hepped up, but probably more from energy drinks than from booze (kids these days!). Those who were hitting the sauce were frequently escorted out by an usher who had a knack for sensing underage drinking. In one instance he took a bottle of Fiji water away from a kid, sniffed the contents (presumably vodka), and gave him the boot. When I was a kid, such inquisition was unthinkable. That was the point of using a water bottle! Of course, I never personally smuggled booze into a ballgame (I think thats actually true, I'm not just covering for my younger self.). In any case, these kids spent more time cavorting amongst each other than paying attention to the game, but I can't blame them given the outcome on the field.Â

As the seventh inning stretch grew near, we finished our beers and sought out refills. We also made our first trip to the bathroom, and found that the line for the mens room was exceedingly long (longer than that of the ladies room!). However, there was a sign advertising an "express bathroom" under the bleachers. We were already line-committed, but the concept of an express bathroom was new and different. Michael was outwitted by the garlic fries and chicken tenders combo, and ended up spending several dollars more than expected, even though he had been trapped by a similar "bargain" before! Fool him twice, shame on him. However, they were delicious, so please keep on fooling him as long as I am around to share.Â

In the top of the 9th, the Giants executed some ill-advised intentional walks, and wound up giving away a few more runs. The stage was set for a 6+ run rally in the bottom of the 9th, and in fact an impressive majority of the remaining fans in our section had equipped their rally caps, but it was to no avail. Los Gigantes finished the game the way they played the rest of it: failingly. We exited the park, stopping by the express bathrooms for a pit stop and stopping by the stadium shop so that I could pick up a panda hat for my absent lady. We bid adieu to Bryce and Giancarlo, and then rather than battle the crowds around the stadium, we made our way up towards market street until we found a suitable tavern for some post-game drank.Â

While the home team utterly failed to achieve, it remained an enjoyable evening for our heroes. Until the next meetup game, when we will probably enjoy a perfect game on the mound and 20 runs from the offense, we shall simply consider ourselves to be running way under expectation!

First shot at 100/200 8game, meh results

DJ Sensei — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:25:29 +0000

The lineup looked good last night and I am maximally confident in my mixed game skills right now, so in I went! Sadly, I did not run well. Here are some of the big or interesting hands I played:

I was a little confused by his 4th street check. Perhaps I should be folding at some point, but I can't pick a street where that seems like the right play. Maybe 5th street, on account of my reverse implied odds? Turns out he was setting a tarp!

Â Poker Stars $100/$200 Limit Stud $25 Ante - 6 players - View hand 842335
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
3rd Street: (1.5 SB)
Hero: T 4 T___Hero calls

Seat 2: xx xx 5____Seat 2 folds
Seat 3: xx xx 5____Seat 3 folds
Seat 4: xx xx 2____Seat 4 brings in for $25____Seat 4 folds
Seat 5: xx xx K____Seat 5 completes
Seat 6: xx xx 7____Seat 6 folds

4th Street: (3.75 SB) (2 players)
Hero: T 4 T Q___Hero checks
Seat 5: xx xx K A____Seat 5 checks

5th Street: (1.875 BB) (2 players)
Hero: T 4 T Q 4___Hero calls
Seat 5: xx xx K A A____Seat 5 bets

6th Street: (3.875 BB) (2 players)
Hero: T 4 T Q 4 T___Hero calls
Seat 5: xx xx K A A A____Seat 5 bets

7th Street: (5.875 BB) (2 players)
Hero: T 4 T Q 4 T 9___Hero calls
Seat 5: xx xx K A A A xx____Seat 5 bets

Final Pot: 7.875 BB
Hero mucks T 4 T Q 4 T 9
Seat 5 shows K 8 K A A A 4 (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
Seat 5 wins 7.86 BB
(Rake: $3.00)

Here, our primary mark displays some excellent NLHE skills. Just wow.

Poker Stars $25/$50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 842339
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $1875.00
BTN: $1422.00
SB: $4840.00
BB: $7508.50
UTG: $10902.50

Hero posts a big blind ($50)

Pre Flop: ($125.00) Hero is CO with K 9
1 fold, Hero raises to $150, BTN calls $150, 2 folds

Flop: ($375.00) 4 7 5(2 players)
Hero bets $225, BTN calls $225

Turn: ($825.00) Q(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($825.00) Q(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: $825.00
Hero shows K 9 (a pair of Queens)
BTN mucks 9 T
Hero wins $823.00
(Rake: $2.00)

This was just a super frustrating TDL hand. I wish I could play these guys in a straight TDL lineup, they wouldn't stand a chance!

Dealt to DJ Sensei [3c Jh 7s 9d 2d]

ChadBrownPRO: foldsÂ

rur11: foldsÂ

jmonnett: raises $100 to $200

Tinkywinky: raises $100 to $300

MrSmokey1: foldsÂ

DJ Sensei: calls $200

jmonnett: raises $100 to $400

Betting is capped

Tinkywinky: calls $100

DJ Sensei: calls $100

*** FIRST DRAW ***

DJ Sensei: discards 2 cards [Jh 9d]

Dealt to DJ Sensei [3c 7s 2d] [Ks 9c]

jmonnett: discards 1 card

Tinkywinky: discards 2 cards

DJ Sensei: checksÂ

jmonnett: bets $100

Tinkywinky: calls $100

DJ Sensei: calls $100

*** SECOND DRAW ***

DJ Sensei: discards 2 cards [Ks 9c]

Dealt to DJ Sensei [3c 7s 2d] [3d 5d]

jmonnett: discards 1 card

Tinkywinky: discards 2 cards

DJ Sensei: checksÂ

jmonnett: bets $200

Tinkywinky: raises $200 to $400

DJ Sensei: calls $400

jmonnett: calls $200

*** THIRD DRAW ***

DJ Sensei: discards 1 card [3d]

Dealt to DJ Sensei [3c 7s 2d 5d] [Ts]

jmonnett: discards 1 card

Tinkywinky: discards 1 card

DJ Sensei: checksÂ

jmonnett: checksÂ

Tinkywinky: bets $200

DJ Sensei: calls $200

jmonnett: foldsÂ

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Tinkywinky: shows [4s 5c 7h 6d 2c] (Lo: 7,6,5,4,2)

DJ Sensei: mucks handÂ

Tinkywinky collected $3147 from pot

Perhaps I should raise the river here for some thin value, but I think calling is probably better since neither of my hands is the nuts.Â

Poker Stars $100/$200 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - 6 players - View hand 842345
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is BTN with 2 4 7 A
2 folds, CO raises, Hero calls, 2 folds

Flop: (5.5 SB) J 8 5(2 players)
CO bets, Hero calls

Turn: (3.75 BB) A(2 players)
CO bets, Hero calls

River: (5.75 BB) 7(2 players)
CO bets, Hero calls

Final Pot: 7.75 BB
Hero shows 2 4 7 A (HI: two pair, Aces and Sevens; LO: 7,5,4,2,A)
CO shows 7 3 5 A (HI: two pair, Aces and Sevens; LO: 8,7,5,3,A)
CO wins 1.934 BB
Hero wins 1.934 BB
Hero wins 3.868 BB
(Rake: $3.00)

Scoooooooop!

Poker Stars $100/$200 Limit Stud Hi/Lo $25 Ante - 6 players - View hand 842346
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

3rd Street: (1.5 SB)
Hero: 4 5 3___Hero brings in for $25___Hero raises
Seat 2: xx xx Q____Seat 2 folds
Seat 3: xx xx J____Seat 3 folds
Seat 4: xx xx J____Seat 4 folds
Seat 5: xx xx K____Seat 5 completes____Seat 5 calls
Seat 6: xx xx T____Seat 6 folds

4th Street: (5.5 SB) (2 players)
Hero: 4 5 3 2___Hero bets
Seat 5: xx xx K 8____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls

5th Street: (3.75 BB) (2 players)
Hero: 4 5 3 2 8___Hero bets
Seat 5: xx xx K 8 3____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls

6th Street: (5.75 BB) (2 players)
Hero: 4 5 3 2 8 9___Hero bets
Seat 5: xx xx K 8 3 5____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls

7th Street: (7.75 BB) (2 players)
Hero: 4 5 3 2 8 9 A___Hero bets
Seat 5: xx xx K 8 3 5 xx____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls

Final Pot: 9.75 BB
Hero shows 4 5 3 2 8 9 A (HI: a flush, Ace high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A)
Seat 5 mucks K Q K 8 3 5 4
Hero wins 4.867 BB
Hero wins 4.867 BB
(Rake: $3.00)

Hey, remember that time I blogged a lot?

DJ Sensei — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:59:48 +0000

Yea, that was a while ago. It turns out it is difficult for me to grind out blog posts on a regular basis, unless there are particularly interesting or notable things happening Â and i'm in a blogging mood (see: my last post when I saw a ridiculous blunder on ESPN's WSOP broadcast). But I'll see if I can't try and up the output a little bit, because I know you kids like to read it!

Anyhow, a little life update: The world series was hit-or-miss for me, but I came out ahead overall so I suppose I can't complain. Once again I failed to cash any events, thus extending my streak to 17 consecutive non-cashes. But at least I didn't have too many deep runs that ended in fail. Just the 5k PLO event, in which I finished 75th or something like that and maybe 36 people got paid. I suppose making day 2 of the main event counts too, but I never really had much of a stack in either event, so busting out wasn't horribly disappointing (just regular disappointing). However, I did win a decent bit of scrill in cash games on my first trip. I think I finally found the optimal adjustments for a deep live PLO game, and took the 5/10/25 game for maybe 13k or so over 3-4 sessions. Also, I had 10% of a friend who made a few final tables and thus scored me a 200% series ROI. I sadly wasn't in town to sweat either of them, but they were still exciting to follow online.Â

The lowlight of my series was probably when I got iced by Chuck and OTR at a pub after I busted the 5k PLO. It wasn't an ordinary icing, either, it was a 24oz one, and it was hot because they had left it in the sun all day, and it was the regular kind and not any of the flavored ones, so it was basically the worst icing of all time (at least from my perspective). I even got berated for not chugging it all at once. Sigh.

The Â highlight was probably my first experience playing with Phil Hellmuth (during day 2 of the 5k PLO). I hoped that I would get a chance to put a bad beat on him, and I gave it my best effort, but he just ended up folding the best hand so I couldn't do it Â :(. The hand played out as follows:Â

Blinds were 400/800 and I had about 20k in chips. Phil openlimped from early position, and after another few limpers I potted to 5k from the SB with KQJTds. Phil was the only caller (I think) and the flop came out AK3 with a club draw (I had no clubs). I bet 10k, and at the same time Mike Matusow started talking to Phil from the next table over. Phil became upset at this because he was in a hand, and then mucked AJT3 face up. I showed him the ten of diamonds and happily collected the pot.

Unfortunately that was the only interesting hand I played against him, and I busted out later in the day with nothing to show for my efforts. Well, nothing except a "nobody cares what you mucked" card protector that Matusow gave everyone at our table for some reason.Â

Fortunately, I am no longer in Vegas, because I hate that horrid death-hole. Back home, ultimate season is in full swing and I've been playing a good amount of poker (everything from the standard tripledraw and PLO to some 30/60 stud8 and razz). I'm pretty pleased with my video output lately, both Bustacap and Solid State PLO are going to turn out quite nicely. Also, I apologize for the sporadic release of Bustacap, it was tough to coordinate my schedule with Ceegee since he was so busy crushing tournaments. So yea, things are nice. Now, if I could just find a way to post more in this here blog....Â Â Â Â

Clearly ESPN doesn't have a DC membership

DJ Sensei — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:47:24 +0000

Seen on ESPN during the first 2010 WSOP episode (probably the single most popular series of poker media in the world):

WSOP! Trip 1, day 2

DJ Sensei — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:08:21 +0000

Tuesday was the day of my first tournament, the 2500PLO. Having won about that much playing cash games the day before, I was effectively freerolling, which is an excellent way to play tournaments with sizeable buyins. My starting table was full of unknowns, though most were younger and American, so perhaps it wasn't the best draw. I went ahead and cashed in my rebuy chips immediately, since the players on my right had done so, and I hoped to build a big stack ASAP if possible.

I won a few small pots in the first level, but didn't get involved in anything big. The first big pot came in level 2, with blinds of 25/50. I overlimped KQQ9cc UTG+1, and called a raise to 200. The flop was AJTr, and I checkraised the preflop raiser and one caller to 1800. Both of them called. The turn was 7:diamond:, putting a backdoor flush draw up, but otherwise a safe card, so I shipped my remaining 6200. Both called, and I was up against KQxx with diamonds and ATT2 with diamonds. Not in great shape, but the river bricked off and I won half of the large main pot and a good sidepot.

Next, I opened T986ds UTG, got 3bet small, and called. The flop was Q9x and checked through. On the 7 turn I check-called 600. The Q river completed a flush and I donked out 1200 as a bluff. He raised and I folded without enough ammo to 3bet bluff or a good representation of a boat.

I opened AQ42ds, got squeezed by the button, and actually just folded because I didn't really like my floppability out of position. It turned out to be a fortunate decision, as I would have flopped NFD+pair+gutter and lost to a turned boat. At the first break I had t10675.

During level 3 (50/75) I opened AKT8dd and called a 3bet. On the Q97r flop I donked out 1200 and folded to a raise. I kinda like my donkbet though, I think it gets him to expose his range, sometimes winning me the pot outright and sometimes getting me a turn card with initiative.

The next big pot I played, I repotted AKKJ against an aggressive shorter stack. He called and we got the rest in on an 852r flop, and his 5432 held up for the double.

Going into level 4 (50/100) I had t5650. Phil Galfond had moved to our table, which wasn't a welcome sight, but at least he was on my direct right. I limped AdQQTd UTG, and after a few more limpers Phil raised from the BB to 400. I called along with one other player. The flop came out AT3r and I called a bet of 650 from Phil. The turn was a Q, quite an interesting card, and we both checked. I don't think theres really much of a reason for me to bet there in what is probably the closest you can come to a WA/WB situation in PLO. The river bricked off, and he bet 1600. I thought about it a bit before calling, figuring that he can have AQ there as often as AA, and he'd probably bet turn with KJ most of the time. This time he had AA, so I was down to t2500 or so.

The next hand, I squeezed KK72cc from the blinds and got one call. The flop was AQ4ccc, giving me the nuts, and I stuck the rest in. Perhaps checking is better, but I don't imagine he will spew too much either way. Anyhow, he called quickly and rolled TT7x with ten high clubs. I was in good shape (>97% to win) but he binked a T on the turn and paired the 4 on the river, and I was out. Sigh.

I didn't feel too bad about it though, in a way getting a sick beat like that was less tilting than busting to a stupid coinflip or something. And at least it was a fairly early bustout, so I got to head to the cash games for a while afterwards. I did well again, winning 5k or so, and any discontent I had about busting a tournament was quickly washed away by cash profits.

On a semi-recommendation from someone, Vincent and I went to the Rio's Italian restaurant for a late dinner. Now, its well-known that the Rio is an awful place to try and find decent food, so I was hopeful that there might actually be a decent restaurant hiding in there somewhere. Sadly, it was disappointing, and the ongoing search for decent food at the Rio continues.

WSOP! Trip 1, Day 1

DJ Sensei — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:46:20 +0000

I arrived in Vegas around noon, semi-planning to play the 2500 6MNL event today, but decided I'd be better off just relaxing, playing some cash games, and preparing to crush the 2500 PLO event tomorrow. So, I did just that. After a large lunch with Tom (tecmo) and his special lady at the Rio's world buffet, I headed to the Rio's poker room to play some cash games. My first 4 hands were at a shorthanded 5-5-20 PLO game (weird!) but I took a seat at the more conventional 5-10-25 PLO game when it opened up. The game wasn't great, but I grinded out a win by playing solid and running decently well. The only really big pots I remember were: My 6642ds against A753ds on a Q53ssx flop (I was actually in fairly bad shape, since my opponent had my 6 high FD crushed with her 7 high FD and she had 2 blockers to my wrap). Fortunately for me, we chopped that one when we ran it twice. After that, we got it in again, my ATT2 to her QQ52 on a T43 twotone flop. She had FD to go with her OESD+overpair, but I managed to bink a 4 on the turn both runs and scoop a ~$4500 pot. I don't really remember too many other hands all that well, aside from one time I flatted AAxx and flopped AQQ in a 4-way pot, but only got one c/c from the preflop raiser. It was a shame nobody had AQ, I probably would have won a monster pot. Anyhow, I booked a win of about $2500 on the session, which conveniently pays for my entry to tomorrow's donkament. Hopefully I manage to run good and get a fat stack, PLO tournaments are much more fun that way!

After the session, we had dinner reservations at CUT, a steakhouse that I hadn't eaten at before but which was quite favorably reviewed by everyone I asked. The opportunity to have a nice dinner was another reason that I chose to skip the tournament today, and I think it was a good one. Joining me for dinner were Chris (DeathDonkey), Jonas (RBK), Vincent (soepgroente), Emil (whitelime), and Ariel (FWF). Tom and his lady stopped by again, but they didn't stay for the full meal. The food was excellent as expected, but I didn't feel very well throughout most of it. I think it was just my body getting used to the horrible vegas atmosphere again. Hopefully its nothing worse than that, I hate being sick in Vegas. I also had to deal with a sweat in creditcard roulette, since my card was one of the last two heads-up for the $1200 bill, but fortunately I picked my own card to be safe and Jonas got stuck with it. It would have been super lame to be feeling bad during the meal and then get owned with the bill, too.

So tomorrow I take on my first tournament of this series, the 2500 PLO. I think I'm due to break my non-cash streak (currently 11 or 12 WSOP tourneys, I think? More if you include the other live tourneys I've played. Certainly within range of normal variance, but blech.) If I busto, theres a slight chance I'll play the 1500NL on Wednesday but probably not. I've got better ways to spend my day than that. Thursday I'll play either the 5000 6MNL or the 2500 PLH/PLO, and then I'll be heading back home on either Friday or Saturday. I can only take so much Vegas before I go crazy, so I'm planning to make a few shorter trips to try and keep that from being a problem.

A brief lesson in PLO outs

DJ Sensei — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:41:44 +0000

A: 1 out is enough outs.

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 $400 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 4 players - View hand 720875
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $568.00
BTN: $1284.50
Hero (SB): $1039.00
BB: $902.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is SB with 8 9 7 9
1 fold, BTN raises to $20, Hero calls $15, BB calls $10

Flop: ($60.00) 6 9 J (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($60.00) 6 (3 players)
Hero bets $45, BB raises to $195, BTN folds, Hero raises to $380, BB calls $185

River: ($820.00) 6 (2 players)

Final Pot: $820.00
Hero shows 8 9 7 9 (a full house, Nines full of Sixes)
BB shows A T 6 K (four of a kind, Sixes)
BB wins $818.00
(Rake: $2.00)

B: 0 outs is not enough outs.

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 $400 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 4 players - View hand 720876
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $568.00
CO: $1264.50
Hero (BTN): $639.00
SB: $1320.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BTN with 9 8 T J
CO raises to $20, Hero raises to $75, SB calls $70, 1 fold, CO calls $55

Flop: ($235.00) 8 6 7 (3 players)
SB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $120, SB calls $120, CO folds

Turn: ($475.00) 3 (2 players)
SB bets $205, Hero calls $205

River: ($885.00) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: $885.00
Hero shows 9 8 T J (a straight, Ten high)
SB shows 7 Q K K (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins $883.00
(Rake: $2.00)

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 720877
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $3806.00
BTN: $822.00
SB: $654.75
Hero (BB): $1007.00
UTG: $1069.75
MP: $1017.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BB with J T 7 7
4 folds, SB calls $5, Hero raises to $30, SB calls $20

Flop: ($60.00) 5 5 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $50, SB calls $50

Turn: ($160.00) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $140, SB raises to $360, Hero raises to $927 all in, SB calls $214.75 all in

River: ($1309.50) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $1309.50
SB shows 4 K 3 Q (a flush, King high)
Hero shows J T 7 7 (a full house, Sevens full of Fives)
Hero wins $1306.50
(Rake: $3.00)

note: Same villain in all hands. Hand #2 was the hand immediately after hand #1, and #3 was on another table shortly thereafter. I like this guy!

Dumbest thing I've done in a while

DJ Sensei — Tue, 11 May 2010 06:30:47 +0000

This evening I was browsing around the stars lobby and discovered that tomorrow there are some tripledraw tournaments (SCOOP #24). Intrigued, I also discovered that there were hyperturbo SNG satellites to the biggest one. So, I registered for one in case it got off the ground. Then I got distracted and wandered off, naturally forgetting to unregister because I hardly ever play SNGs, especially those that require waiting around to start.

A few hours later I return to the computer and think â€œoh shitâ€! And yes, of course the tourney happened without me. I unsurprisingly finished 4th of 6 and effectively punted a few hundo. Sigh.

Hopefully Iâ€™ll crush the tournaments tomorrow and make it worth my trouble, but for now I am on lifetilt!

April report

DJ Sensei — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:33:13 +0000

My apologies for not posting anything in April, but I can explain! I spent the better part of the month moving into a new apartment. My special lady finally moved to San Francisco, and we got an awesome two-bedroom place overlooking the park. Weâ€™re using the second bedroom as an office (my first office ever!). The apartment is huge for its type and overall is just a pretty fantastic place. Also, she brought her cat Zeus so now Jenny has a playmate. Two cats are way more fun than just one! The domesticated life is a little weird, but Iâ€™m slowly getting used to it. I think once weâ€™re finally all-the-way unpacked and settled in itâ€™ll be quite nice.

With all of that, I didnâ€™t have much time for playing cards. In very limited action (maybe a thousand hands of PLO/tripledraw and 2k hands of .5/1 rush PLO) I won about $3k. I canâ€™t complain. I plan to get back to serious grinding in May though, and will probably set a few monthly goals soon.