Chad's Blog

Hey everyone,

It's been a little over two months since my last blog post. I've pretty much spent that time (poker-wise) either grinding NL to have a roll big enough to play PLO or just playing PLO. Since I joined PokerStars about a week after Black Friday I've been a little careless BRM-wise, so I plan on being more cautious especially because PLO has higher variance and higher rake (paying 17.5bb/100 at 50PLO) at lower stakes so I will have to grind the smaller stakes a few times as possible before moving up.

I am feeling alot more confident about my game since my last blog post as well. I've been running extremely well but I am also improving a ton. My last 3 sessions have been pretty crazy, the first I played around 5k hands in total and was down 40bi (ran pretty bad and made a few bad plays/reads, etc) at one point and ended up down only 8 bi. The next session I quickly got up around 30bi and ended up 15bi and my last session I won around 25bi. So it's been pretty high variance but going well overall, I'm almost rolled for 100PLO.

My game has been very strong in all aspects: mental (not too hard when running this good), game selection, knowing when to quit - I'm trying to take a bit of an Ivey approach: playing when I'm crushing and quitting early when I'm losing, as well as just trying to bring my A game everytime I sit down to play. I've been getting very lucky in my last few sessions but I'm focusing on not letting it get it my head, always trying to imrpove and make good decisions. I find PLO alot more fun than NL and it's lead me to be very motivated to learn/play like I was for NL around a year ago.

I also played the SCOOP HUNL tournaments (L+M) - I slept in too late for the PLO ones this morning - which I cashed in both and beat BFP coach Dr. Giggy in the first round of the mid-level one (not bragging, just saying :P)

I guess I'll end it off this blog off with my lifetime PLO graph (on this computer I maybe have around 25k other hands scattered between my laptop and other computer where I'm ~breakeven) and a few of the more interesting hands from last session. Evenville here we come!

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Omaha Hi $0.10 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1759949
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $61.81
BTN: $313.17
SB: $123.05
Hero (BB): $700.62
UTG: $138.83
MP: $263.22

Pre Flop: ($1.35) Hero is BB with 8 9 7 T
UTG calls $0.50, MP raises to $2.85, 1 fold, BTN calls $2.85, 1 fold, Hero raises to $12.75, 1 fold, MP calls $9.90, BTN calls $9.90

Flop: ($39.60) 7 6 Q(3 players)
Hero bets $27.77, MP calls $27.77, BTN folds

Turn: ($95.14) 3(2 players)
Hero bets $92.64, MP calls $92.64

River: ($280.42) A(2 players)
Hero bets $277.92, MP calls $129.96 all in

Final Pot: $540.34
Hero shows 8 9 7 T (a pair of Sevens)
MP shows Q 2 A 8 (two pair, Aces and Queens)
MP wins $537.84
(Rake: $2.50)

So both the intial opener and the caller are pretty passive players (the opener is slightly more aggro) but I 3 bet since my hand is going to flop good pretty often and I can rep boards I miss and I will probably have better implied odds with my hand if I 3 bet rather than flat call. Flop is obviously really good for me as I have a pair + wrap and it's rainbow, so I cbet with the intention of either calling of shoving depending on sizing. I'm actually not a fan of my turn betsize, I think at the time I didn't realize how much he had left but I think I should have bet smaller since it looks stronger (maybe potting looks like a draw in his eyes also and that's why he called? Probably doesn't matter a ton since he's pretty bad/fishy). Once he flat calls turn, river is a must shove since he is going to fold very often. I think his turn call is probably pretty bad against my range but there's no way he can fold that river for the price he is getting.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Omaha Hi $0.10 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1759953
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $149.80
BB: $274.59
UTG: $160.21
MP: $205.03
CO: $124.44
Hero (BTN): $214.00

Pre Flop: ($1.35) Hero is BTN with 9 A T Q
UTG raises to $2, MP calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, SB calls $1.75, BB raises to $12, UTG calls $10, MP calls $10, Hero calls $10, SB calls $10

Flop: ($60.60) 5 9 Q(5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets $58.10, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds, MP calls $58.10

Turn: ($176.80) 9(2 players)
MP bets $134.83 all in, Hero calls $134.83

River: ($446.46) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $446.46
MP shows 7 8 2 5 (a straight, Five to Nine)
Hero shows 9 A T Q (a full house, Nines full of Queens)
Hero wins $443.96
(Rake: $2.50)

The only really interesting thing about this hand is preflop. I would normally 3 bet here but UTG was super nitty (something like 18/13) so I'm probably getting 4 bet a little too much to make 3 betting better. I potted the flop for balance reasons since I think it's suicial to have a pure bluffing range here (as well the board is pretty coordinated so don't want to let people realize their equity). As you can see MP is a crazy mofo.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Omaha Hi $0.10 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1759954
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $291.94
BB: $125.00
UTG: $132.31
Hero (MP): $199.88
CO: $47.94
BTN: $345.09

Pre Flop: ($1.35) Hero is MP with T 8 Q 9
1 fold, Hero raises to $2, 2 folds, SB raises to $7.10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $22.40, SB raises to $68.30, Hero calls $45.90

Flop: ($137.70) T Q 2(2 players)
SB bets $135.20, Hero calls $131.48 all in

Turn: ($400.66) K(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($400.66) A(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $400.66
SB shows J A 6 K (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Hero shows T 8 Q 9 (a flush, Ace high)
Hero wins $398.16
(Rake: $2.50)

Villain in this hand is really aggressive running something like 32/25 with 15% 3 bet, I think 4 betting is probably slightly better than calling for a few reasons: it hand plays better with smaller SPRs given it's non-nuttiness (low suit and the gap being at the top), it dominates some of his worse rundowns, adds some deception (I think this is very important against an aggressive opponent), I think his 3 betting range is also a too wide and contains too weak of hands that don't flop well enough and he'll have to c/f so 4 betting capitalizes some dead money and it flops smooth enough that we can profitably call a 5 bet (and we're still deep enough that there is an SPR of 1 on the flop). Obviously on the best flops for my hand.

Please leave some comments (about the hands or just in general) below.

Chad

 Skip to 1:05 for the second one to get the jist of it.

Hello blog readers,

Poker has been going generally poorly lately, for a few reasons: I have been running absurdly bad in PLO, this is bound to happen since it is an incredibly high variance game, but it has also lead me to making alot of bad decisions in and out of game. I'm getting myself into a lot of marginal spots (mainly by playing too loose pre), I've been a little "trigger happy" to to stick in my 250bb starting stack and I've probably been playing too many tables. I've also been not paying complete attention while playing: chatting on skype, listening to music, browsing forums/internet, etc. These all hurt my game a ton because effort I'm putting into these things could obviously be put into poker. I can chat on skype, listen to music, browse the internet anytime, when I'm playing poker, I should be focusing on making the best decision. I've also fallen into the trap of constantly checking to see if I'm up/down, above/below EV. The only thing that really matters is that I'm playing well, if I am, the results will come with it.


I'm mostly just posting this as a reminder to myself (seems easier to try and not do these things if I have written them down). So starting tomorrow, I'm going to make some changes:

1. Have a set session start/finish time. I plan on waking up at 8 AM and playing until 12 PM. This way I have the rest of the afternoon to spend time doing other things.

2. No looking at my graph/results during the session.

3. Take a 15 minute break every hour. This should help keep me fresh and prevent autopiloting.

4. No browsing the internet, skype or music while playing.

5. No PLO for a week.


So basically, I'm going to stick to this plan for the remainder of the week and see how it goes.



Best of luck, and leave comments/suggestions below.

Chad


I decided to include this song because it is amazingly good and at this stage in my poker "career" I've lost sight of whats important, metaphorically "Lost in the World."

If you guys are wondering what the origin of the title is, I'm taking that one to the grave.

So I've been playing a ton of poker over the past week or so. I've finally had some success as a result of playing/running a lot better than when I started this blog. I also had a pretty big score (on Saturday I think?) where I swapped 10% with a friend/DC member in the Supernova Quarterly $1m freeroll and he ended up getting 4th for 66k. So I once again have the bankroll for midstakes, but I plan on being somewhat more conservative brm-wise because in December and January I lost 80%+ of it. :/

On to some hands.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em $0.20 Ante - 2 players - View hand 1642040
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $270.80
Hero (BB): $250.00

Pre Flop: ($1.90) Hero is BB with 4 4
BTN/SB raises to $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6.40) 8 2 4(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $5, Hero raises to $16, BTN/SB calls $11

Turn: ($38.40) Q(2 players)
Hero bets $31, BTN/SB calls $31

River: ($100.40) 8(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $72, Hero raises to $199.80 all in, BTN/SB calls $127.80

Final Pot: $500.00
BTN/SB shows 8 K (three of a kind, Eights)
Hero shows 4 4 (a full house, Fours full of Eights)
Hero wins $499.50
(Rake: $0.50)

So this one is pretty standard up until the river. I think checkraising here is way better than betting but I think alot of people bet. Basically, I'm only losing value against a few random hero calls with 4x, 2x, 77, 66, 55, 33 and JJ-99. I think he'll bet KK+ (to get value from some random Qx I might have) and he does get here with a decent amount of bluffs, namely 65 and 53. I also get max value against all the hands he bet/calls but only would call if I bet (mostly 8x).

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em $0.40 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1642042
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $580.24
MP: $643.55
Hero (CO): $500.00
BTN: $503.31
SB: $485.80
BB: $944.58

Pre Flop: ($5.40) Hero is CO with 3 3
UTG raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero calls $6, 3 folds

Flop: ($17.40) 6 3 K(2 players)
UTG bets $12, Hero raises to $37, UTG calls $25

Turn: ($91.40) 7(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $62, UTG calls $62

River: ($215.40) 6(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $394.60 all in, UTG calls $394.60

Final Pot: $1004.60
UTG shows K J (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
Hero shows 3 3 (a full house, Threes full of Sixes)
Hero wins $1001.80
(Rake: $2.80)

Ok, so villain in this hand generally doesn't believe me (I have a pretty crazy image at 1/2 deep on Stars as well). I decided to overbet river here because there aren't that many value hands I can show up with (I rep a narrow value range in other words), basically 54s, 66 and 33. A straight may also not overbet the river. There are also a ton of busted FDs (the ones of the flop + turn), or hands like 98 or even air villain can put me on here. I decided to overbet because I think in his eyes I probably rep more bluffs that way (since his range is almost entirely bluffcatchers) and even draw missed so he is likely to bluffcatch, therefore if I want to bluff, I have to give him a bad price.

Here is my graph from a few days ago where I had two 4 tabling deep HU sessions vs 2 different regs at 50NL and 100NL. I pretty much have to post this for balance reasons because I think almost every graph I've posted on here has been a losing one.

It's still pretty, but in a different way. It;s mostly 200nl deep and some 100nl/400nl deep also.

Oh! Also, I'm having my first coaching session with KasinoKrime tomorrow at 1:00 (early day for me, lol) to begin learning PLO. I'm really looking forward to it as I have so much to learn.

GL,

Chad

Title says it all.

Fucking bumhunters won't give me any action.

asfsfkbjklfcldkgh

Hello everyone,

The title of this post is a lines from "What Would I Want? Sky" by Animal Collective, which is at the bottom of the page. Many of the lyrics from the song have been in my head lately. You might want to skip to roughly the 3 minute mark, as the intro is fairly extensive.

The last two days have gone relatively good poker wise. The "cloud" over my head, preventing me from playing my A-game, has moved on. Everyone who has reached a rough downswing will understand what I mean. At times, we can't understand how we ever won at this game or how we ever will again. Every downswing I've ever been on has always seemed like a massive hurdle in my progress in poker. The money has always played less of a role in my frustration of downswings (This is likely stemmed from the fact that I live with my parents and have next to no expenses) than simply not winning in a game I love to play. During downswings, I try to focus on two things when I am starting to believe I no longer have what it takes to beat poker. The first is that I've overcome every downswing I've ever been on. The second is something JungleMan once wrote in his blog:

At some moments I even thought winning was hopeless... But from what I read in poker literature, all my current loses meant nothing in the grand scheme of things (realistic positive). And I was not interested in short term success--I truly believed that I could win (positive thought) if I applied logic and work (realistic thought) eventually my efforts would be availed.

During some analysis of my game using PT3, I think I've uncovered one of my biggest leaks: playing too loose from the blinds. Especially at 250bb play, it is probably cutting my winrate down a decent amount. It basically comes down to the fact that I hate folding pretty hands. With 100bb, you can just 3 bet a lot from the blinds and not get yourself in too much trouble because of the shallow stack-to-pot ratio. But with deep stacks, you pretty much are just setting yourself up to get owned 3 betting light often OOP. So I've drastically tightened up my play from the blinds and feel like I'm beginning to reach an even higher understanding of deep stacked NL Hold'em play.

Here's a graph from the last two days 12-15 tabling 25NL and 50NL 250bb/ante tables.

I'm planning on starting to read a book on writing tonight (which is pretty ironic given in my final year of high school, I failed English the first semester and barely got by with a 50% when I retook it again). But I love reading (even though I don't do it enough) and writing, so now is as good a time as any to try and improve in the latter. Feel free to leave comments/questions/recommendations for anything below. Surprisingly, there haven't been too many interesting hands in the last few days and I don't see much of a point to posting hands for the sake of posting them. Maybe I'll look around and try to find some crazy ones for next time.

Best of luck,

Chad

Hello blog readers,

There are a few things I want to talk about today.

Firstly, I went to see Man on a Ledge yesterday. It was good but I don't understand where they came up with that title.

Second, I just had to post this, as it is the greatest screen name of all time. This guy is from Russia.

I decided I'm going to limit my sessions to 1.5 hours in order to not play fatigued. I ended up playing 3 sessions today, the first 2 I broke even and the last I ended up losing around 8 BI. Poker has been extremely frustrating over the last 2 months, where I've been on my biggest downswing ever. I've been consistently losing almost everyday at stakes I had previously beaten consistently for months. Oh well. I'm going to try not to use the blog as a means of complaining about running bad and try to keep it somewhat ... I dunno, interesting.

Here are some hands from today. Both are equally funny but the second one was what lead me to calling it a day.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em $0.20 Ante - 5 players - View hand 1614590
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $630.50
CO: $237.80
Hero (BTN): $250.00
SB: $167.55
BB: $250.00

Pre Flop: ($2.50) Hero is BTN with A K
1 fold, CO raises to $3, Hero raises to $10, 2 folds, CO raises to $30, Hero calls $20

Flop: ($62.50) 6 6 5(2 players)
CO bets $40, Hero raises to $80, CO raises to $120, Hero raises to $219.80 all in, CO calls $87.60 all in

Turn: ($477.70) 2(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($477.70) 7(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $477.70
CO shows Q A (a pair of Sixes)
Hero shows A K (a pair of Sixes - Ace+King kicker)
Hero wins $475.70
(Rake: $2.00)

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em $0.20 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1614593
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $269.05
UTG: $75.25
MP: $400.40
CO: $245.15
BTN: $270.75
SB: $751.00

Pre Flop: ($2.70) Hero is BB with 2 A
3 folds, BTN raises to $3, 1 fold, Hero raises to $12, BTN calls $9

Flop: ($25.70) 8 4 5(2 players)
Hero bets $15, BTN calls $15

Turn: ($55.70) 3(2 players)
Hero bets $34, BTN raises to $92, Hero calls $58

River: ($239.70) 9(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $151.55 all in, Hero calls $149.85 all in

Final Pot: $539.40
Hero shows 2 A (a straight flush, Ace to Five)
BTN shows 7 6 (a straight flush, Three to Seven)
BTN wins $536.40
(Rake: $3.00)

Anyway, I guess I'll wrap it up since I don't feel like I have anything particularly interesting to say at the moment. I probably will after winning sessions, so tune in next year!

I'll probably end up taking a few days off to clear my head, etc and hopefully play/run better when I come back.

Finally and most importantly, I had a dream a few nights ago I was Darth Vader in the video below.

Chad

Hello whoever decides to read this.

I decided to create a blog to discuss my thoughts on interesting hands, poker and life in general, in short, to blog.

I guess I'll start off with a short intro. My name is Chad, I'm an 18 year old from Winnipeg, Canada. I've been playing poker for close to 2 years now. I started out with a $5 bankroll, playing $1 sit-n-gos on FTP, eventually grinded up somewhat and moved to 10NL Fush FR. At first, I'd lose pretty badly at first mostly due to my LAG style (and I had no clue what I was doing) and then I watched some DC videos, nitted it up and eventually made my way to 100NL FR. Around that time, I decided to transition to 6 max and HU, because those were the main games that ran and I felt my aggression and hand reading could give me a bigger edge. It was somewhere around this time that I discovered deep stacked poker.  The reason I like playing deep is there is basically more room for creativity on every street and you can easily force players out of their comfort zones, allowing bigger mistakes than 100bb games.

Lately, I've also been trying to make the transition to PLO, I think the reason I love it so much is because there is an extreme emphasis on playing in position (especially with deep stacks).

I ended up listening to Biggie Smalls while playing 100NL most of the day today and got crushed. (see below) I'm now convinced Biggie is rigged.

 I'll try to find some interesting hands to post in my next blog, none come to from mind today.

Chad