In a RUSH to make money

Long time no blog.Since our friend black Friday, I've moved to Stars to try and build a roll playing tournies. The key word being 'trying'. I can't get anything going really. I am pretty sure I've got a good edge at small and midstakes tournies and have good results and roi at FThttp://www.officialpokerrankings.com/fulltiltpoker/the_sphinx1/poker/results/13DC7BCD9B76418EBC390DEAE74895D7.html?t=2 .

 Obviously tournies are mad variance but I have a -30roi at Stars in my first 300 tournies. This is no biggie but I could do with turning this around soon as I have a decent whack stuck on FT and I don't want to redeposit on stars again. I have had a number of deepish runs but am just running awful at the key times. Standard stuff obv.

My latest disappointment was in the Sunday Million.I freerolled it on a satelitte (FPPS) and played very solid to get into the money. This was especially true as I had a very tough starting table. Once I made the money I took a slightly speculative gamble on this hand below. Not sure what tournament regs make of this? I figured that at this stage I had to try and get something going. I had been very card dead and thought I had some fold equity but in hindsight this isn't really true.The opener had been v active and the caller was quite weak passive. Let me know what you think. Retrospectively, this was a bit of a gamble, where I have a hand that plays well multiway and I hope to run good. It can get very difficult around the 10-20bb range when you're just not picking up any hands, you want to balance making something happen with not spewing off.

Poker Stars $200+$15 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1500/t3000 Blinds + t300 - 9 players - View hand 1425218
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t146368 M = 20.33
BB: t77617 M = 10.78
UTG: t84417 M = 11.72
UTG+1: t252105 M = 35.01
UTG+2: t114313 M = 15.88
MP1: t131719 M = 18.29
Hero (MP2): t57702 M = 8.01
CO: t29761 M = 4.13
BTN: t60040 M = 8.34

Pre Flop: (t7200) Hero is MP2 with J T
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t7150, UTG+2 calls t7150, 1 fold, Hero raises to t57402 all in, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t50252, 1 fold

Flop: (t129154) 2 8 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t129154) 9(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t129154) J(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t129154
UTG+1 shows A Q (a pair of Deuces)
Hero shows J T (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
Hero wins t129154

I had a pretty soft table at this point and had around 30 plus bb at this point with about 500 to go. Then I was near busted on this hand where I am still just so pissed off. This is an epitome of the bullshit that I have had on Stars thus far. The sick thing is this complete tool ended up coming 5th for 55k. Unreal. I had also seen him showing such skills as limping utg with 99 with 10bb and doing the same with QJS and this guy wins 55k. Ridiculous. Talk about catching lightning in a jar.

Poker Stars $200+$15 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2500/t5000 Blinds + t500 - 9 players - View hand 1425224

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+1: t182768 M = 15.23
UTG+2: t55518 M = 4.63
MP1: t106834 M = 8.90
MP2: t166703 M = 13.89
CO: t177764 M = 14.81
BTN: t40802 M = 3.40
Hero (SB): t138953 M = 11.58
BB: t192856 M = 16.07
UTG: t138156 M = 11.51

Pre Flop: (t12000) Hero is SB with A A
3 folds, MP1 raises to t10000, 3 folds, Hero raises to t25999, 1 fold, MP1 calls t15999

Flop: (t61498) J Q K(2 players)
Hero bets t35999, MP1 raises to t80335 all in, Hero calls t44336

Turn: (t222168) 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t222168) 4(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t222168
MP1 shows Q K (two pair, Kings and Queens)
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
MP1 wins t222168

Lovely stuff. 

I have been trying to study some and have watched the Daaaaaang16/iSport series MTT Practices which I thought was very good and I learnt a lot from it. I feel like my fundamentals are a lot more solid now and I think that soon,  I bloody well hope soon, that I will start to crush. I have read the Rizen/Apestyles/Pearljammer books and got something out of them. Although I thought that Pearljammmer's analysis and general game was the strongest by far. Some of the stuff Rizen was advocating and his justifications seemed off to me. But, hey what the fuck do I know?

I was doing very well in cash games and was beating 200nl RUSH at a decent clip for 350k hands.I am still not totally sure what direction to go in with the cash or tournies debate.

I'm going to make an effort to start blogging more regularly and looking over some hands. GLGLGL.

I haven't posted this week because I have been determined not to post a whine fuelled bitch fest of a blog. I have been on a nasty downswing. It sucked. I seem to be dragging myself out of it and hope to finish the second half of the month strongly.

So how do you deal with a dose of the ol' run bad? I'm not expert, but here is what works for me.

1) Move down early enough. Don't wait until you are down to your 40 buyins at the level you play at. I was nearly at 400NL, but after dropping somewhere around 15 buyins at 200NL (but in reality it was a lot worse than this EV wise), I moved down to half 100NL and half 200NL. I had plenty to play 200NL, but I know that I was struggling to keep my head on straight.

2) Don't be tempted to completely overhaul your game. Focus on what you were doing that worked and stick with it.

3) That being said, do go over your HEM and check for common issues. I was definitely starting to lose confidence with my squeezing rage for instance and was calling people down too lightly.

4) Make good quits. Recognise when you aren't just running bad, but are also playing bad.

5) Don't write whine filled blogs. Seriously, no one gives a shit.

Here's a couple of fun hands from today:

1st a good one

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1227780
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $205.00
MP: $364.85
Hero (CO): $395.70
BTN: $593.55
SB: $847.15
BB: $205.40

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with A 3
2 folds, Hero raises to $6, BTN calls $6, 2 folds

Flop: ($15.00) K 4 5(2 players)
Hero bets $10, BTN calls $10

Turn: ($35.00) Q(2 players)
Hero bets $24, BTN calls $24

River: ($83.00) 2(2 players)
Hero bets $64, BTN raises to $180, Hero requests TIME, Hero raises to $355.70 all in, BTN calls $175.70

Final Pot: $794.40
Hero shows A 3 (a straight flush, Five high)
BTN mucks J 9
Hero wins $791.40
(Rake: $3.00)

He really butchered this his flush. I mean, he has to raise it for value, but when I rejam what the hell does he think I would do that with that he can beat? I think popping it up to $125 and folding to a ship (if I was him sounds about right)

Then some of that nasty shit: Not much I could do here. Ice cold.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1227781
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $124.05
UTG: $215.85
MP: $504.45
CO: $300.30
Hero (BTN): $930.25
SB: $249.90

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with 8 8
UTG raises to $6, MP calls $6, 1 fold, Hero calls $6, SB requests TIME, SB calls $5, 1 fold

Flop: ($26.00) 4 4 8(4 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $16, MP requests TIME, MP calls $16, Hero calls $16, SB calls $16

Turn: ($90.00) 9(4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets $55, SB calls $55, UTG folds, MP folds

River: ($200.00) 3(2 players)
SB requests TIME, SB bets $172.90 all in, Hero calls $172.90

Final Pot: $545.80
Hero mucks 8 8
SB shows 4 4 (four of a kind, Fours)
SB wins $542.80
(Rake: $3.00)

Lastly, I have started to 6 table RUSH, 4 tabling 200NL and 2 tabling 100NL. Seems to be going well, but I'll have to see how it goes. I also treated myself to a $2000 black card bonus and I am working that off already grinded $350 bucks off it in 3 days of playing. Pretty sweet.

Anyways, those guys who asked me to do a video review, post the link in the members area and I'll happily give it a shot.

GL all the_sphinx1

The answer: When your mental state is balanced whether you win or lose is a key indicator of a winning player. I remember that for my first few years that I played poker that the highs and lows were so much more pronounced than they are now. This seems kind of ridiculous seeing as I was playing $4.40 sngs and donking around in 50nl. I would get so excited when I won, I think the 180 man sngs paid 240 bucks and I would be a ball of fury when I went on a downswing. I was alwyas berating people in the chatbox. I got my chat banned in 2009 and never asked for it to be reinstated; that is very plus ev. I can remember when I first had a go at 100NL (properly rolled) in the Winter of maybe 2008. In retrospect, I had gone on a massive heater and hardly knew what I was doing. I went on a humungous downswing (even in retrospect). I remember feeling helpless as my money I'd been boasting about evaporated before my eyes. If I didn't end up in tears, punched my bed in a rage, I was damn close. Last week, I had a day where I lost $1400, followed by a day where I won $1800. My girlfriend didn't even know, not because I was being secretive, but because I didn't let it affect me either way. It happens and I've learnt to deal with it. Is it kind of disgusting to lose that much money playing a card game? Maybe. Do I want to be in a position to lose 10x that much in a day at some point? Yes. This may sound stupid, but I know that if I am capable of losing that much then I must have got up to 20/10 or so (properly rolled). Which means I've been crushing. As for now, I'm getting close to taking my first shots at 400nl, hopefully I should be able to by the end of the month, which  would be amazing. Winning and losing 2k in a day will be standard. My mum would flip if she knew! Not for stacks but mentally.

I am not saying that I am now a tiltless buddist. I still curse and get frustrating at times but I really seldom let it impact upon my game. I sit out until I am back in the right space mentally. If I can't get my mind straight, I'll quit for the day. Sounds so simple, but it took a lot of losing to get to this point. I also think tilt often comes from frustration at not being able to beat the game. You want to rationalise the fact you're getting crushed by complaining about EV, coolers, suckouts etc. Quit whinning and buckle down and work. They even themselves out. Once you get to the point of being a good winning player, you really can take most runs, except maybe the most monstrous downswings in your stride. Why? You know you can win it back, without having to rely on luck. It may take a while, but you know it is coming back.

I'm not saying I'll never feel the rage again or berate someone's play to my poor brother, but I am confident that I won't let it impact upon my play.

So, what inspired this pious post? A super fun hand where I lost $682 of EV in one hand and I barely flinched. I sat out. Giggled. Started to grind and pulled out a hard fought +$300 session. 

Here is the fun hand in question: Villain is 3 betting 11% (15% from blinds) I ginned it on the flop. I smirked on the turn. I did a double take on the river. I insta sat out.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1218288
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $200.00
MP: $210.65
CO: $165.70
Hero (BTN): $361.15
SB: $318.85
BB: $797.05

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with K 8
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold, BB raises to $20, Hero raises to $44, BB calls $24

Flop: ($89.00) 8 K 5(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $55, BB calls $55

Turn: ($199.00) 8(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $100, BB raises to $698.05 all in, Hero calls $162.15 all in

River: ($723.30) A(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $723.30
Hero shows K 8 (a full house, Eights full of Kings)
BB shows A A (a full house, Aces full of Eights)
BB wins $720.30
(Rake: $3.00)

GL all the_sphinx1

Firstly, thanks for all the pms I've received. I've had 5 or 6 enquiries for some free RUSH coaching and have a couple of sessions scheduled. Good to talk to Acombfosho on skype today, looking forward to hopefully helping you guys crush. 

As we move up stakes, just being able to value bet properly, make good folds and hand read a bit is not enough to have you smash it. Exploiting regs becomes really important. This hand could be maybe slightly spewy on the surface, but I had good reason for doing this. I have about 1600 hands on this reg. The reasons I made this move are as follows: His fold to 3 bet is 27% so he is calling super wide. More significantly, he raises the flop 22% of the time in a regular raised flop and 43% of the time in a 3bet pot. So his full of shit range is broad. When he raises on such a wet board, he probably is raising draws, pairs with any pair on the board and ace highs. He probably flats sets here to get more out of me on the turn and pairs like TT,JJ or QQ. There is $160 in the pot, he has $200 behind. I think he has a lot of air in his raising range so I have more than enough fold equity to make this a plus ev play. Even if he has some TT/ JJ/QQ, he is going to pretty much shit the bed when I reship. He snap folded, so I guess my read was solid. I think he is very rarely rasing for value and far more frequently as a bluff to levy fold equity and pick up the dead money.

Hopefully, this gives people a good idea of a solid hand reading thought process. It is worth saying that this guy is not a total spazz fish. I knew he would fold everything but sets and huge draws (fdraw with a straight draw or pair) Don't do this to the aggro fish who can't fold one pair and blame me!

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1212705
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $90.55
Hero (SB): $381.05
BB: $201.00
UTG: $202.35
MP: $294.10
CO: $728.65

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with K A
UTG raises to $6, MP calls $6, 2 folds, Hero raises to $26, 2 folds, MP calls $20

Flop: ($60.00) 7 8 5(2 players)
Hero bets $29, MP raises to $70, Hero raises to $355.05 all in, MP folds

Final Pot: $200.00
Hero shows K A (Ace King high)
Hero wins $197.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Anyways, hope you guys are enjoying the blog. Write a comment on my blog or PM if you're interested in adding me on skype, getting some coaching. Comments on what people think of the blog thus far would be great to see if anyone is finding this useful/interesting. GL all, the_sphinx1

Obviously there are some different ways of crushing RUSH but here's what's worked for me. Many of these are things that work well in 'normal games'

1) Tight is right: I'm playing like 16/14 6% 3bet

2) Don't waste your time getting into levelling wars with regs

3) Work on playing well deep. Most players, including regs, are horrible deep. You get deep a lot playing RUSH sometimes up to 500bb each-so work out a solid strategy

4) Play hands with initiative. Flatting in position with suited connectors, KQss, AJ etc is a big leak - 3bet that shit.

5) Most fish are very fit and fold on the flop, so 3bet them to death and cbet decent looking flops.

6) Use HEM to analyse regs and plan/adapt accordingly. There are a few regs who are very aggressive thieves and who just bet,bet,bet at 200NL. Work out how to exploit this. I just flat hands like AJ/KQ etc in the SB/BB to BTN steals and just check raise a ton of flops when I whiff and check call when I hit. 3 betting these hands where you have a ton of equity versus their range is very profitable. If you 3 bet, you just fold out hands you crush. People say you can't adjust in RUSH. Nonsense. Exploit your regs.

7) Play short sharp sessions. I try to play one hour when 4 tabling, then take a break.

8) Don't c-bet for the sake of it. Check those turn and river fold to cbet percentages and  act accordingly. Look at it from the other way round and analyse people's cbetting % to see who is full of shit. Only 33% of the time are people hitting the flop. Look at these stats and see how honest players are being. If people are cbetting 60% of turns - raise them and once them convulse and shrink like when you put salt on a slug as a kid and knew it was wrong.

9) Value bet the hell out of fish. Exploit regs who just get by on value betting: call along with strong hands and raise hands where you miss but have equity on the flop or turn. It melts their minds.

10) Never get high on you own supply.

Seeing as RUSH is like crack, here's a shout to B.I.G

Mental game is what a lot of people really struggle with. It's an easy game when we're flopping sets all over the shop and value betting donks to death who gleefully call three streets with tp no kicker. But when things are going wrong, constantly bricking draws with monster flops, having a fish hit make some random two pair on the river it can seriously screw your game up. You start missing value bets, taking conservative lines and slowly bleeding away stacks. When things aren't going your way it's very enticing to start chasing silly draws, flopping miracle hands and making soul reading calls. Stop it. Solid poker=money. Variance comes and goes. If you make good decisions you get paid. Simple.

Today, I made a  shitty 200 dollars with rakeback. A pretty crappy 30 bucks an hour. Now, I'm not crying, but today was a grind. Standard stuff ran bad, had coolers etc. I didn't bitch, whine and start making ridiculous moves. I took breaks when I felt my rage rising, took it a hand at a time. On a day like today, with the wind at my back, I'd have made a gigawat ($1000). This is where I have made a lot of progress, maintaining a good level when things aren't going my way.  Winning $200 feels really good because it was such a grind.

Plus I have man flu, which is driving me insane.

Fun hand of the day-Lesson #1 in RUSH: People play so badly deep. Today's aggro spaz to name and shame is a FTOPS Gold Jersey who splashes around in RUSH1/2 he really isn't too good IMO. Dude is 33/29 19.3% 3 bet. This style is what I would consider pretty much the antithesis of opitmal in RUSH. So I know he has a ton of junk in his calling range when I 4 bet him. Most people call v wide pre deep in position, but he would call virtually his entire 3 bet range. Consequently,  I would be calling the river wide. I think his line is littered with mistakes, but his river bet is awful.  Not really sure what he thinks my range is for bet, check, check? Surely AK,AJ,QQ,KK,JJAQ and A10 only. I ain't folding many of them.

Full Tilt Poker $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1208985
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $452.70
BTN: $132.35
SB: $200.00
BB: $200.00
Hero (UTG): $421.60
MP: $177.95

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with K A
Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, CO raises to $22, 3 folds, Hero raises to $46, CO calls $24

Flop: ($95.00) 3 K J(2 players)
Hero bets $55.00, CO calls $55

Turn: ($205.00) 5(2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($205.00) A(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $140.00, Hero calls $140

Final Pot: $485.00
CO shows 9 T
Hero shows K A
Hero wins $482.00
(Rake: $3.00)

GL all, the_sphinx1

So, I thought I'd finally take the plunge and start a poker blog. I'm a 29 year old guy who has dabbled in a most forms of NL poker. I had quite a good amount of success in tournaments last year: http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/fulltiltpoker/the_sphinx1/poker/results/13DC7BCD9B76418EBC390DEAE74895D7.html?t=2

However, I have always preferred cash games but had really struggled, not as badly as my PTR suggests, but I was roughly break even/small profit. Prior to Christmas, I started grinding Rush at 50/100NL and was doing ok. I resolved to watch a ton of videos and really study my HEM database and try to start  beating up cash games at a good clip. I watched a minimum of 1 video per day during my long Christmas break and played a lot of hands (over 100,000) in two weeks. My family hated me, but I started to piece things together.

Since the new year, I have been crushing RUSH and at the end of February I moved up to 200NL RUSH and have continued to do very well: http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z359/chrismbarker/

Away from poker, I am getting married in the summer which is crazy but obviously exciting. For work, I am a Head of English in a high school in London, England. I am very competitive and run a lot, 10ks are what I'm all about. The dream is to quit and play poker full time.

Goals for the blog:

Post monthly results.

Post tricky hands.

Meet some cool DCers

Have somewhere to vent (but not write bitching run-bad blogs)

Do some free coaching for other RUSH players 50NL and under

Name and shame useless RUSH grinders like FTP red pro Sasha Biorac

Anyways, hopefully I can post consistently and get a decent following.

GL the_sphinx1