Monday 25 January 2010

WBCOOP event #1. Live updates.

With two hours to go, the countdown has begun. Watch this space for live updates. All time stamps will be local (GMT) rather than the pokerstars clock.

00:03 And i'm bust. Shove CO with 14BBs with KT. BB calls with AT and holds. GG.

23:55 3.8k. Break time. Bad timing, I just want to double or bust.

23:51 4.3k blinds 125/250. Not enough to open raise, but i'm too impatient to wait for spots to reship.

23:50 4750, 99 beats KQ all in pre. Time to yo-yo

23:48 2k. KT loses against KQ on TxxK board. Sigh

23:47 Down to 20BBs. Gonna play aggro to get a stack back

23:45 Down to 5k. Made an aggro 3-bet with KJ against a medium stack and had to call their shove. They had aces obv.

23:41 9.2k again, A7 busts KT :)

23:40 7.3k. 3 limpers, I raise to like 1.3k in BB with 88. First limper min reraises "£^%^&^$. I call and miss my set on a bad looking KQx flop.

23:35 Back up to 9.5k. Probably playing too many hands. Oh well.

23:31 Down to 9k. Paid off a straight when I had top pair when the flush draw missed.

23:30 T3 fish just busted. :(

23:27 3 bet button with AQ. Back up to 12.3k.

23:25 Played a hand bad. 11.6k

23:20 12.8k. Think I cost myself some chips

23:14 12k. Played a couple of insignificant pots. Gonna see if watching How I Met Your Mother alleviates my boredom.

23:10 Up to 12.5k. Sucked out pretty good on the fish on my direct right, but that should serve as punishment to him for playing 85s OOP in a 3-bet pot.

23:07 Flopped a set. 6.5k.

23:05 Break is over and i'm still bored. Sigh.

22:58 Just looked at EPT Deauville results. Elky got deep in a tournament and didn't close? Madness. Bored of this break now.

22:55 5.5k at break. Raised 88 and checked down on scary board. "fish" found a call preflop with T3 suited. Thanks for the chips.

22:52 5k. Made a flush in limped pot. Limper paid me off with AK, no pair no hand. Good limp with AK. Same guy who min 3 bet my UTG raise. Now labelled as a "fish".

22:51 4 people sitting out on my table now. And by the looks of things it's going to be a while until those dead stacks get blinded out. Glad shaniac is one of them

22:50 5 mins without playing a hand. Getting bored again now.

22:45 Wow, that was a weird hand. Raised AK utg, button min 3 bet, I call. Flop 732 again, check check. Turn 7, check check. River 8. He doesn't have a pair, so i make a 1/7th pot v-bet/block bet, and he folds. Maybe a misclick pre? 4.5k

22:42 Up to 4k. Made another floaty bluff. Raised a limper with K9. Flop 732, they donked I called. Turn J, they bet the same amount, I call. River Ace, they bet the same amount, which is like 1/7th pot or something, I raise and they fold. Easy.

22:41 Up to 3k. Took a bite out of the fish on my right with AK.

22:38 It's the sort of bluff I try in small stakes tournaments and get snapped by Q2 or something and feel really stupid.

22:36 2140, risked all my chips on a bluff. Raised HJ with A8o, BB called. Flop Qxx, BB donks, I float. Turn K, BB checks, I bet BB calls. River a T, BB bets 1/10th pot, I shove, BB folds. Easy.

22:33 Nearly got to play a hand there. Nearly. Damn poker is boring.

22:31 Guy on my right is pretty bad and is getting a lot of chips. Hopefully i'll be able to feed on that stack.

22:28 Getting grumpy now. Maybe i'll just go to bed. Need to wake up early tomorrow anyway. These thoughts are not conducive to tournament success.

22:25 Bored of single tabling now.

22:22 Back up to 1.8k in the WBCOOP. 89 beat A6 :)

22:21 Out of the $8.80. Damn my luck. TPTK against set.

22:20 Blog playing up. watch this space

22:13 down to 1345, 88 no good vs A3 on K32. Sigh

22:11 Brilliant, 1700 entrants works out at ~$3 equity each. Good chance I won't bother with any of the other WBCOOP prelims at this rate. Sorry Pokerstars

22:10 Up to 4.2k in the $8.80. Made a thin river value bet with A8 on AxxKQddd and got paid. Always nice.

22:08 Down to 2125. Had KQ and whiffed.

22:07 Up to 2225. Flopped top pair, but board ran out bad so couldn't get value.

22:05 Other open shover just got knocked out. No easy chips for me :(

22:04 Shaniac just got moved to my table, but he's sitting out. Hopefully Mr Schleger will stay that way.

22:02 And he's out, but someone else has started shoving. Hopefully i'll win those chips.

22:01 Guy at my table just open shoved. that's a good sign.

21:59 Seating is done. Don't recognise anyone at my table, and only 3 sitting out.

21:50 Ok, let's try again with this $8.80. 10 minutes until WBCOOP starts. 1700 entrants? How can there be that many active poker bloggers? And who reads all these blogs?

21:44 And lost a flip and i'm busto. sigh

21:43 Played bad, down to 4.5k in the $11. sigh

21:26 Maybe tonight I will run good, just doubled up in the $11, TT>AQ. Nice to win a flip!

21:20 Loaded up an $11 tournament while I play WBCOOP #1, because i am a notoriously bad single tabler. Probably be busto before WBCOOP even starts though, cos i run bad in MTTs atm.

bwfwb g

Just finished playing poker for first time in a week. Had my graduation last wednesday, and returned from up north with a cold that has ko'd me for a week. Pretty much better now, but still have a stonking headache. Ended up over $700 last week, which wasn't bad as i only played monday and tuesday, but doesn't do much to help my bankroll growth. Up $200 today, but essentially even after paying for a trip to Prague. Misplayed a couple of hands, and got myself into a couple of dumb spots, but i knew i wouldn't be playing at my best until I can fully shake this cold.

Looking forward to going back to Prague with Warwick poker soc, last years trip was legitimately legendary. Hopefully get to play some poker too. I run bad in Europe so i'm going to aim to win at least the cost of the trip back while there. :)

First event of WBCOOP tonight. I expect a lot of people will be sitting out and it'll be quite soft, because it works out at less than $5 equity per person at the moment, and I assume most people with poker blogs are at least competent and thus not that bothered about $5. Be nice if I can run good in WBCOOP and use that to bankroll my SCOOP series.

Can't wait for SCOOP schedule to be announced. Assuming a similar line up to last years, I expect to at least play every low buy in (except for the $270ish HU), and will play a bunch of the mediums in the range of $100-$200. Don't really have the bankroll for $215s, but hopefully there'll be a couple worth a serious punt. Maybe i'll feel more adventurous by the time it rolls round and i've managed to get some serious grinding under my belt.

As regards grinding, in order to have a 6-figure year, I reckon I should be aiming for 2.5k hands a day, even without improvement/moving up. So once I get into the swing of 3k+ hand days, i'm hoping my 6-figure aim is no problem.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Week 2

Slow week, got myself into a nice $700 hole after Tuesday. Played some heads up and tilted and couldn't quit. Shame, I thought my mental game had come on leaps and bounds. Got back to grinding $100nl FR on stars and am now up $230 for the week. Pretty measly. Also, didn't play great or run good today. Managed to stack off with AK in a 4 bet pot on the flop with no pair, in a spot where villain always has an overpair, so that sucked.

Pretty annoying to only have a $230 week, when I know i cost myself a bunch of money.

Planning on a big week next week though, lol.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Damn tournaments

Geez, tournaments are so tilting. Played about $80 of small stakes big field tournaments and whiffed them all. Never once even came close to cashing. Didn't play great, but early on in these tournaments, when we have less than 30 BBs, i'm not looking to make any big folds. But this time they all had hands that beat me. Oh well, back to the grind tomorrow.

End of week 1

Just finished a session playing $100nl 6-max on party. This is unusual because nearly all my play recently has been full ring. Made $200 in 600 hands, but was pretty unhappy with my play. Missed a lot of value and stacked off way too easy in a couple of spots. Still gave me confidence, because those 6-max games seem a lot softer than I remember. Maybe i've gotten better, or maybe it's just cos it's sunday.

Still, +$1.5k for the week is nothing to be sneezed at (what does that saying even mean?), and I'm calling it a week now until tonight, when i'll play some massive field small stakes tournaments on pokerstars.

Plan for next week is to aim for $2k profit, clear my current bonus on party poker, and get 15k FPPs on stars so I can get myself my new computer :)

A quick hand from the session I played that I think I played quite well:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5066659

I considered pot controlling on the flop, but decided there was too much value in a bet. And if i get raised, my hand isn't so good that I hate life and can happily fold.

I get one caller, the button. Now, he would definitely reraise AK preflop, and raise any set on the flop (especially 4-way), so I think he has a weaker king, a weak draw or a second pair hand. The 9 on the turn isn't the best card, but a bet gets value from all his draws and weaker kings. When he raises, I know that he knows that the 9 is a good card for him to try to represent. And the only 9s he can realistically have are 98s, T9s, that sort of thing. So i felt it was more likely he was turning a draw/float into a bluff. I considered jamming to protect my hand, but that felt a bit dumb to be bet/shoving KQ. So i call and check to him on a delightful river card to let him continue his bluffs. He shoves, I hope he doesn't show me 9x and call. Ship.

Against villains like this, I certainly need more concentration that most villains at $100nl FR, because in FR they don't bother trying to represent anything, or read your hand. If i'm raised on this turn on stars at FR, it's a snap muck.

Saturday 9 January 2010

more grinding

+$350 today. Played about 2k hands. Up $1.3k for the week now, with one day left. Although I hope to average $2k a week this year, I hope to move up in stakes fairly soon, increasing my earn rate. Furthermore, I've hardly broken my back this week putting in the hands. At a guess i've probably only put in about 20 hours. Can't wait for the weather to improve.

Friday 8 January 2010

WBCOOP

Online Poker

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 615903

b/e

Played a lot yesterday and broke even. Didn't feel like playing today, so been reading/studying instead. Weather is beyond awful here atm. Cant even leave the house barely. Getting cabin fever, and really need a workout. A year or so ago, i never thought i'd be hankering to get outside and to the gym, so I guess that's progress.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Meh

Played ok today, which was disappointing. Ran into a couple of sets and lost too much, and managed to get AK all in pre against KK when I should've found a fold. Played an $11 tournament alongside cash games to break things up a bit and came 18th out of 500 in that. That was frustrating, i've been bricking tournaments for a while and it would've been nice to have a final table. Still, +$300 on the day, and you won't here me complaining if i "only" make $300 a day this year.

This means that it is wednesday, and I am up $1k on the week. Hopefully i'll be able to show some consistency making at least $1k every week, because this is the minimum I want to make in order to continue playing poker for some time. Ideally, i feel i need to be making $100k+ a year, and I will think very carefully at the end about the feasibility of continuing if I do not manage to make this goal.

But, +$1k in 3 days is pretty good.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Not bad, not bad

So, my attempt to hit the ground running failed. I came down with a nasty virus which basically kicked my ass all sunday. Couldn't eat for about 40 hours, and didn't play any poker. Luckily, this probably helped a lot in my weightloss aim.

Felt better last couple of days and played a lot of poker. Made $400 yesterday and $250 today. Nothing ground breaking, but i'm pleased. At the moment, I am withdrawing $400 from my bankroll each week as my "salary", so it's always huge to make $400 on the Monday and have the rest of the week as pure bankroll-growth grinding.

Anyway, some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5048173

This is a pretty sigh hand. Villain is one of the few players at $100nl FR on stars who can 4-bet here wider than {AA,KK}, so I feel I have to flat such a small 4-bet. On the flop, I don't feel I can check/call, because there's a lot of turn cards that really suck. I feel he is a player who will c-bet AK most of the time here, which probably makes my check/shove fine.

Bit deeper analysis:

Assume his bet/call value range is {TT+,AsKs}, then JJ is 32% to win on the flop. I'm risking $77 to win a $200 pot (assuming I'm called everytime), so I need to win 38.5% to break even. This means that everytime I'm called, I lose $13.

There is $69 in the pot, so I can figure out what % of the time he needs to be folding for a shove to be good. Let x be the % he folds. Then I need (x * $69) + (1 - x) *-$13 > 0.

Turns out I will profit from a check/shove here if x > 16%.

This means that out of the 15 combinations of AK he is folding on the flop, he needs to be c-betting 4 of them. And generally people c-bet too much, so this seems like a good assumption.

This makes check/shoving appear completely fine, even if i'm only facing a value 4-bet range preflop. And if you add in a few goofy hands or tilt calls with missed AK, that just makes it more profitable.

Of course, if you eliminate TT from his value range, then our equity when we get all in on the flop plummets, and we lose $32 when we're called. Meaning, we require villain to fold on the flop >31.7%. So to profit we now need him to be c-betting missed AK 9/15 times. Or 60%. I feel comfortable that villain probably would c-bet missed AK 60% of the time, meaning that even if we assign him a range preflop of {JJ+,AK}, as long as he is a fairly aggressive c-better, check/shoving the flop here will show a profit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5048283

I don't see how I can do anything but bet flop and bet turn, but I might post this in a forum to get opinions. It sucks to get raised on the turn, but there seems to be too much value in checking.

A villain aggressive enough to raise on this board is likely to raise a set on the flop, so I thought the best that villain could have on the turn was two pair/combo draw. A straight didn't seem very likely, as J8 only has a gutshot. 86 is plausible. Anyway, I don't see villain raise/folding the turn here ever, and i'm being offered 2-1 on my big draw, so I call.

Even without any money going in on the river, I have 13 clean outs to flush/straights which will certainly be best, and 2 board pairing flush cards, so I'm between 28% and 32.5% to hit, depending on how often my board pairing cards are good. And with the pot odds, I only need 28% to call.

The Jc on the river completes a LOT of the big combo draws I could have. Clubs got there, and 89 got there, and after my turn play my hand looks a lot like a draw, so I shove. This should be a really tough spot with the hand villain ended up having, but he snapped me off anyway. I believe he should be folding two pair hands, but then two pair is pretty much the same as a set. Given the speed of his call, I don't think my shove can be any good, but I like it in theory against a thinking opponent.

Saturday 2 January 2010

A new decade.

So, it's a brand new year. And this year I am determined to win at life/poker/everything.

My resolutions for poker are:

make $100k total.
average $0.15 a hand.
become a solid winner at $400nl+/$400plo
become a solid winner in mixed games up to $5/$10.
play 5 major live tournaments (with buy ins £500+), 3 of which overseas, one of which being WSOP.
study/write lots of strategy articles, and hopefully get a couple published.

Life goals include:
Losing 3 stone,
Expanding my social circle and rekindling old friendships
Meet love of my life
Learn foreign language
Move home to my own place.
become confident/comfortable/successful when in social situations.

That's enough for now, will definitely blog more this year than last year, as I think it'll be a useful tool to make myself more disciplined and more self-critical.

Starting monday.