A Worthy Gambit

So today I had a slightly winning day I think but very frustrating overall. I think I had the most tilting hour ever. 

In this magic hour, I lost heads up in a $88 on iPoker where I had a 10:1 chip lead. Lost about 4 flips headsup. Also finished 6th in a $75 turbo with QK<Q6s where I turned the straight and lost to a flush . 

I had 50+ bb in the 20c, Sunday Million, and 33R and didn't cash any of them. Lost with an OESD to a weak top pair in the 20c about 8 players off the money. Lost TT<K9 where some drooler decided to limp/shove like 30bb blind vs blind. Then shoved the button with 89s and lost to AJ. In the 33R, lost JJ<AK in a huge pot then A9<AK bvb to bubble.

Then I bubbled yet another $530 satellite to a 3k APPT Seoul package. I've stone bubbled 3 of them, including losing heads up in a winner take all one. Poker sometimes sucks.

I'm just gathering these together though because it's kind of funny how it all happened in an hour. I don't really mind so much and it doesn't really bother me. I'm just trying to play my best poker (I'm still making very frequent deep runs) and the rest will pan out.

I am killing SNG's in preparation for a possible SNE push. But I just love tournaments too much to give them up!

Within striking range of my goals. My P5 ranking is like 350ish and my Pokerstars ranking is 200. The Stars yearly TLB will normalize though; I think most of the list atm is dominated by people who have been winning 180's but not sure.

I want to post two thoughts about fish that should really help your game.

1. Fish really, really love suited cards. Basically anytime the flush comes in, the majority of their range is going to be a flush because they like to see the flop and call any flop bet with any combination of two suited (which is pretty much infinite). So you can just safely check/fold everytime a flush comes vs a fish and not lose much.

Which makes my triple barrel here really bad (we were near the money and the runout was really good for it).

Ongame Network GSOP Event 9 $400,000 Hold’em Deepstack No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds + t40 - 10 players - View hand 1667304
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: t7561 M = 7.56
SB: t13711 M = 13.71
BB: t9078 M = 9.08
UTG: t7722 M = 7.72
UTG+1: t20731 M = 20.73
UTG+2: t7059 M = 7.06
MP1: t15400 M = 15.40
MP2: t7468 M = 7.47
Hero (MP3): t13202 M = 13.20
CO: t6735 M = 6.74

Pre Flop: (t1000) Hero is MP3 with T  Q 
5 folds, Hero raises to t800, 2 folds, SB calls t600, 1 fold

Flop: (t2400) J  7  4  (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t1175, SB calls t1175

Turn: (t4750) A  (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t2575, SB calls t2575

River: (t9900) 4  (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t5575, SB calls t5575

Final Pot: t21050
SB shows 9  K  (FLUSH ACE)
Hero shows T  Q  (PAIR FOUR)
SB wins t21050

2. It's just way better to take flops versus fish where the top of their range they are repping is the stone nuts. I was 3-tabling at this time so I made a huge mental lapse really deep in the 11R. I know a lot of people will just think it's a cooler but I don't want to be yet another mediocre midstakes reg. My edge should come from being like Phil Helmuth and recognizing these spots and passing on them.

This fish snap 3b's me to the minimum. At this point I should always flat with position because the top of the range he is repping (retarded fish always do this with AA) kills AK. But I decide to 4b/c because that's what I always do in high stakes tournaments vs good players. Well this isn't a good player and he clearly has the nuts. He near min 5b's and I should just fold. But I'm tired after playing 12 straight hours and 3-tabling so I punt 50bb in the softest tournament of the day.

It's funny how these drooling idiots keep min 3-betting the same range and I keep giving them chips. These days I flat my entire range except KK but this time I got caught slipping. It won't happen again.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t6000/t12000 Blinds + t2000 - 8 players - View hand 1667305
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: t141953 M = 4.18
BTN: t86593 M = 2.55
SB: t254702 M = 7.49
BB: t507227 M = 14.92
UTG: t713864 M = 21.00
UTG+1: t299372 M = 8.81
MP1: t181916 M = 5.35
Hero (MP2): t606577 M = 17.84

Pre Flop: (t34000) Hero is MP2 with K  A 
3 folds, Hero raises to t24000, 3 folds, BB raises to t48000, Hero raises to t119999, BB raises to t228000, Hero raises to t604577 all in, BB calls t277227 all in 

**********************************************************************************

350+ TLB Scores: 9/100

8/2823 $16.50 Turbo for 410.13
1/500 $8 Turbo for 428.53
2/269 $109 Turbo for 348.05
1/385 $16.50 8-max for 428.39
1/5794 $2.70 Turbo for 1095.60
1/631 $44 Turbo for 654.31
1/1636 $8C for 775.16
3/1520 $5 Hyper for 387.20
3/1310 $33 for 518.39 

Had a pretty good week! Got my first 4-figure TLB score by winning a $2.70 turbo with 5794 entrants. Also chopped a 109 turbo (but got 2nd ) for about 350 TLB or something and won a $16.50 8-max. Got a 2nd place in a Ongame 55 Turbo and I've been going deep in a lot of stuff (21 in to the big 5.50, 36th in the big 55, and more!)

I've been winning a lot of 180's and hoping to turn that graph positive as well. I've been absolutely killing the 45's and currently have a Gold Star that I hope to maintain. Life is pretty good right now, not much to complain about.

350+ TLB Scores: 5/100

8/2823 $16.50 Turbo for 410.13
1/500 $8 Turbo for 428.53
2/269 $109 Turbo for 348.05
1/385 $16.50 8-max for 428.39
1/5794 $2.70 Turbo for 1095.60 

I'm still mixing 18's, 45's, and 180's. I've calculated all of my $/game and have also started adding in $15/45 man's as well. My 45 man stats are a very sustainable:

UsernameGames PlayedAv. ProfitAv. StakeAv. ROITotal ProfitFormAbility /100NetworkFilter

106$16  $24  67%$1,668  

N/APokerStars1/1/2012 1/22/2012 E45-45

So between High Stakes MTT's and High Stakes SNG's and law school tuition, I think there's actually a chance I can bust my entire bankroll with a prolonged period of run bad. This post made me realize one too many -1 or 2k days (along with the standard -2k Sundays) could lead to bustoville for me. Going busto sucks.

I think SNG's should be played to reduce MTT variance, not increase it. I'm not really a fan of 2-3k swings playing high buy-ins so I'm going to add another goal. I've always wanted a Sharkscope star so another goal for me is to top the $16-35 leaderboard any stake and possibly place on the 45 $30 leaderboard as well (I'm guessing the 18m sickos will be too hard to overtake here).

I'm going to play 6-180's of $30-35 ABI and mix them in with my session. I'll still play $60-100's when I'm playing a full SNG set but from now on most of the games I play during my MTT session will be $30 45's, $35 180's, and $30 18's.

I'll need about 40k TLB to place in the top 100 and be safe so I'm going to list every 350+ point score here as I get them.

I think if I keep grinding these fields all year at this pace I'll have a legit shot at the top 3. Don't think the sickos at the top are grinding $2 turbos like I am :P. There are 365 days in a year and I need 100 of these scores so pace should be one every 3-4 days.


TLB Scores: 2/100

8/2883 in 16.50 turbo for 410.13 points
1/500 in 8 6m turbo for 428.53 points 

2012 will be my first year as a full time Poker professional. I finished law school this past May and have nothing on my plate for the coming year.

I want to shoot for the top 100 in both the PocketFives rankings and the Pokerstars Yearly TLB. I'm currently 450th or so in the P5 rankings and am 611th in the Stars rankings as of now.

I didn't play enough in 2011. I got a late start from February, dealt with Black Friday, then spent most of the summer grinding the WSOP before finally relocating in July and getting back into the groove. Results should come in 2012 if I stick to my goals and keep improving.

I will keep this thread updated with interesting hands and tournament finishes along with random musings. I will probably post new results each time I get more than 400 TLB points in a tournament or a major score on a non-Pokerstars site. I'll be playing on PartyPoker, Ongame, and iPoker along with Stars.

Haven't updated this thread in a while but going to post some August results. Pretty ugly month, might have cleared about $1600 when including rakeback. Started up $5k in MTT's and just swung it all down by bricking every $100+ tournament. Feeling good about the game though and definitely looking to blog more as time permits.

August MTTS:

August SNGS:

It's funny how emo/melodramatic I was about that last post. Since then, I've won about $6000 in 2-3 weeks which is a huge boost for my foreign bankroll (I started with $7900 due to difficulties in moving money to Korea).

I have a goals thread in 2+2 where I want "2011: 100 Final Tables. 25 4-Figure Cashes. 5 5-Figure Cashes. 5,000 SNG's." The thread link: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/poker-goals-challenges/2011-100-final-tables-25-4-figure-cashes-5-5-figure-cashes-5-000-sngs-1001227/

2+2 seems to have more traffic but I definitely love the DC community so I will probably crosspost big updates in that thread here. So far here are how my targets have broken down:

I want to work on a novel . The first bit of advice I hear from everyone is to just write a lot. I don't have any other space to put this and I hate blogspot so I think I'll just blog here. I'm going to force myself to write something every day to hone my craft. Today I'm going to write about tilt.

I have some horrible issues with tilt. Binking the Warmup erased a lot of it but the tilt does come back a bit here and there. I've probably punted about 6 bankrolls in my poker career. My favored method of choice is to martingale HU cash games or high stakes HU SNG's "just to get even." I am decent at poker but no match for HU specialists, of course. 

Today I started playing a few games on Pokerstars for the first time in a long time. My computer currently sucks (I can only six table) and the setup leaves much to be desired. I'm not sure if I'm just a weak-minded pansy or it's just part of the human code. But when the chips are down, I tend to tilt more often. I had to take a lot of my poker bankroll out to pay for law school loans and some family issues. My poker bankroll was cut in half and I only have about 15% of it on Pokerstars at the moment. It was hard getting it transferred to Korea. A large chunk of my roll is frozen on Full Tilt as well. 

The problem with having only x amount online is it feels like it's your entire bankroll. It also sucks when you had 6 figures+ online even a few short months ago. The combination of these factors, in my foolish head, leads to dirty scumbag tilt. A cleaning lady was taking care of my apartment so I forced myself to play even though I wasn't really feeling it. My SNG session was pretty ugly and I was quickly down about $300. At the tail end of the session, I won a few of the SNGs and was playing 1/2 6-max to wrap it up. I won a full stack and another and suddenly I was in the black. Up a fair bit, time to call it a day and party for the night, right? Right???

Unfortunately the cleaning lady said she had an hour left. I fired some more SNGs up and went back to the cash tables. I bricked every SNG but one (only lost $60 though). Even worse, I lost $500 in 250 hands playing 1/2 and losing pretty much every pot. Suddenly I was in the hole about $700 and not happy with my performance (cue GSP link).

Out of nowhere I received a juicy bonus. The figures didn't add up so I looked over my HEM and noticed 200 Euro hadn't converted back from the original buy-in. Instead of 7200, I actually had close to $7497. Only down about $400 on the day, it would have been rational to just stop. Unfortunately, I am rather OCD and needed to get to $7500 before I quit. Fired up two 200 NL heads-up tables (my main game is MTT's followed by SNG's).

Suddenly I was up, then down, then up again. I lost two stacks at 200 HU (kicker issues) and decided to sit at 2/4 heads up as well, three-tabling. Unfortunately, this player was a sick pro (I didn't know it at the time). I picked up a stack on a nice river overshove with 2nd pair. Should have quit there since I had reached my $7500 target. I started crushing all tables and was up to about $7700 after winning two stacks at 2/4 and 1/2. 

However, I was realizing the HU pro was running me over. I thought I made some good adjustments but I didn't. I have no clue why I didn't quit when my stack was at $650 (2/4 50bb cap). Eventually I ended up getting owned on a triple barrel bluff and then flipping for $700 with ATo vs 66. I lost the flip and decided to end my session at $7000. 

So today, I lost 2% of my entire gambling bankroll on a horrible series of decisions. I could have pulled out any time. I'm very glad I was able to stop at this point, however. My old self would have sat down at 5/10 or 10/20 and probably punted the entire bankroll. To be honest, I'm still tilted. No amount of talk to make the situation better makes me feel good about today.

The moral of this story is to play the games you're proficient at. My problem in life is I like variety. I like to play MTTs, SNGs, and cash. Unfortunately, this leads me to getting reamed by superior cash players who play their chosen game for a living. My goal now is to only focus on the games that I'm actually good at and keep watching DC videos to improve. Still tilted.

I felt I played a really good tournament but it just did not work out. Like with all of my prior sub $2500 WSOP experience, the first table was a dream. Literally the first hand I saw was a young player flat a 3b OOP with 46s and flop a flush. He check/called the flop and check/shoved the turn and the other player payed him off with KK, no heart, on a T954 mono heart board. Was quite preposterous!

I chipped up repeatedly just playing pots in position. I ended up making many good plays over the course of the tournament that worked out. In one, I opened 89dd against an older player and we saw a Qxx flop. I had no backdoor draws and no hope. I c-bet about 1/2 pot and he called. Turn was a blank and we both checked. River was an A and he led weak. I thought the A killed his whole flop peeling range so I raised 3x his bet, leaving him with only a few big blinds if he called. He folded and I felt good.

Later I played a series of pots where I may have lost some value, both against the same player. I had no real reads on the player but he seemed splashy and somewhat competent. I opened JJ at 50/100 to pot and he defended from the BB. I checked back a T96hh board with the Jh. The turn was the 5s. I bet about 425 into 750 and he almost immediately check-raised, as if it was his plan to check-raise even before I bet. I decided to fold. Not sure what to think about that spot.

Later he made his first limp, still at 50/100, with about 4500 chips. I iso'ed to 375 with KK and we saw a Q 2 4 flop heads up. He donked about 400 into 950 and I made it 1175. He called and we saw a turn blank. I bet 1575 instead of shoving, leaving him about 1400 for the river, thinking he would be pot stuck to call getting over 5:1. He checked the river dark and disgustedly folded KQ when the A hit the river and I shoved for thin value. I got kind of unlucky the A came, since I was stacking him on all other rivers. I could have raised flop bigger and potted turn if I had known he was donking TPGK.

Right before break, the same player shoved 1700 at 75/150 from the CO. The button player flatted with about a 5800 stack. I thought he would rarely be flatting light so I reshoved AA. Button folded and I felt I missed some value if I had known live players would actually flat 1/3rd of their stack and fold : /. It's pretty much always mandatory to slowplay AA preflop against live players since they make such horrendous folds (that are right). He claimed he folded AJ.

I had about 12k at 100/200 with antes, primed to make a big run. I got moved tables and there was another solid tournament player (an East Coast grinder) who was running the table with me. We got into a wild pot where I opened AK from MP to 475, a 3 bettor (who was probably light) made it 1125, and he cold 4b to 3325 or so. I shoved about 12k in and he tanked for a few minutes before folding. That pot pot me to 16k.

Unfortunately I lost almost every pot I played after that hand. I opened KK UTG and saw a terrible player flat in MP1 with a sub-20 BB stack. The good pro flatted as well and we saw a flop 4-way. It was AAJ and all four players checked. I led the 8h turn small, like 800 into 2100. The turn put a flush and straight draw up. The horrible player flatted and the pro flatted. We checked to the pro and he bet about 2900 into the blank river. I thought he could have enough flush/straight draws so I called but in retrospect it was a horrible call. While the fish was weak, it would be pretty thin to value bet a J so I had to give the pro credit for the A. He showed A4s.

I lost every pot in the next few levels and had about 12k at 200/400. I was moved tables again. I 4b shoved TT over an aggressive 3-bettor from the previous table. I then got into an ugly pot with two old players where I opened KJs UTG. I bet the Jxx flop and got one caller. I checked a blank, he bet, I called. I checked the river, he bet pretty big, and I folded. I was 99% sure he had a set and wouldn't value bet thinly with QJ or a hand of that sort versus an UTG raiser. I thought even the turn call was thin but he could have had QJ, TT type hands he was "protecting."

With about 10k, I shoved over an UTG open and flat with TT. The older opener snapped me off with AQ and he lost the race. I later found out it was Celine Dion's husband! That pot put me at about 19k and back in business. Unfortunately, I lost every pot and got moved tables again. I had about 15.5k at the new table and saw AQo from the hijack versus an UTG unknown opener and big stack flat in MP. I squeezed it in with 25bb and lost to AK. That was that.

I was really stunned at the disparity in skill between my $1500 tables and my $2500 tables. My first table was absolutely stacked with regulars. The entire table was young and solid. After a level, Phil Laak ended up sitting two seats to my right. Didn't get a chance to really watch him play but I chipped up decently without showdown and had about 8800 chips early (with 7500 starting).

When our table broke, I was very thankful. I was moved to another table stacked with regulars, all young. Three were FTOPS Winners talking about their wins, including TeamWispy (who seemed like a cool player). 

I ended up losing most of my stack in a pretty ugly spot. I had a pretty active image from raise/folding a bunch at 75/150 in my first orbit. I opened QTs and was 3b shoved on by TeamWispy and had to fold. The very next hand, while UTG, I opened AA to 375 with about 8000 chips. A young player flatted and we saw the flop heads up.

Flop: 8d 8h 4d  (900)-         With my early image this flop was a wet dream for me. I bet 525 and he called rather quickly. I planned for three streets.

Turn: Th  (2050)-   This turn was a bit concerning. I put a lot of his flop peeling range at 99+ so it would give him a boat. I bet 1525 which was a bit too big. I did it because I only had 500 and 1000 chips but I should have probably made it smaller. He called after some thought.

River: Js  (5100)-  I bet 2775 with about 3000-3500 behind and he shoved. I postured but I knew I was bet/folding the river. I posted this hand and many people thought I should pot control a street, probably the river. I think the T/J runout are pretty ugly and wouldn't be surprised if he two outted me on turn or river since he's probably 3b'ing KK pre and not jamming QQ for value on river.

I had about 3k after that. Later, at 100/200, I had AJs on the button. MP opened to 450, HJ flatted, and CO (who said he won an FTOPs and seemed good) squeezed to 1275. I thought this was a great spot to get 2200 chips in with AJs and that much dead money, considering I could be ahead of CO's 3b squeeze range. MP isolated me with KK and that was that. Would do again.

Oh mystery player, if you find this blog, do please tell me what you had!

This one will be quite short. Spoiler: I busted in the first two levels.

We started at 25/25 with 3000 chips (I thought we had 4500). Was wondering why the whole table was short! Had an interesting spot with the 2nd nuts to start. 

25/25 with 3000 starting. Old man limps MP, SB checks, I check with J9s.
Flop (75): Kh Qh Td
Check, I lead 50 (old men are passive), old man makes it 150. I don't like flatting such a small raise OOP on such a wet board so I make it 525 and he flats. I lead turn for 650 and he folds what he claims was two pair. Really gross spot if he 4b's flop.

I pick up a few more pots with value hands in position. Later, the same old player limps. I make it t100 on the button with KQss. Weak-tight lady to my left flats and we see a four-way flop. It's Td 6s 5s. Old man donk leads 300 into 400 with 2500 and I deliberate a bit before calling (calling is best). Lady calls.

Turn (1300): 2s

Lady snap donks twice the pot into both of us. I have the 2nd nuts and obviously call. She has ATss for the nuts. WTF? One of the most baffling live hands I've seen but what can you really say? I have 1250 after shipping her most of my stack.

A few orbits later, I have JJ with 1250 at 25/50 in the BB. I 3b the CO's open and we get it in. JJ<KK and I'm out.

Bonus Live Hand:

Since this one was short, here's a good one. Middle-aged man 3x's MP over a limper. Next player flats. Asian player in the CO makes it 375. Everyone folds. Middle-aged man calls and they see a flop heads up. It's Tc T 3 rainbow. Middle-aged man check-calls a 1/2ish bet. Then he donk shoves over pot on an Ac and the asian player snaps it off with AA for the full house. Middle-aged player rolls over K7cc. I nearly spat out my water when I saw that one.