Tough

Got out of the gate in a rough way. Bluffed off 3/4 of my stack against a guy I know is aggressive who was pushing into me, he had A8 for top pair, I had middle pair. Dumb.

A few hands later I ran KJ with top pair into AA (familiar?). It was a nice raggedy board. I saved a bet on the end when I figured it out (he made it easy when he kept asking if I had a set). I’d never played against this guy so I didn’t know his style, but his numbers showed he was a TAG – I gave him more money than I should have – he raised preflop, bet the flop, I raised to see if he was cbetting, he called. He checks, I bet the turn, he called. Check-check river – 5 bucks gone. I then made a loose call against a shortstacked all in with middle pair getting about 2-1 – He had top pair. Just made some really bad calls. Had a couple of sets, but didn’t get much out of them – one was a split pot when I had 77, flopped 986, hit the 5 on the turn, then the 7 on the river.

AK with top pair and a gutshot vs. a set of TTT – 5 more bucks.

I have trip aces with a J kicker? Guy rivers a runner-runners a gutshot straight. – 5 bucks.

All in KK vs. A8 preflop, guy hits his A – that’s 3 bucks.

Trip 4s? Guy turns a boat of 2’s full of 4’s – that’s 5 bucks. He was bad enough to not stack me though with his sneaky 2’s. Lucky me.

Down probably about 15 after clawing my way back at one table where I had some luck with a set of JJJ, a flopped boat with AQs, and a top pair AK when I hit my A against a superaggro dude.

3 tables where my VPIP was under 20, one it was at 26, where I had lots of pocket pairs. Still had to fold some after being reraised when the guys involved had small stacks and I was clearly beaten.

I’ve been trying to incorporate a little more aggressiveness into my game, but it’s not really helping. The pots are just swelling, and I’m getting sucked out or I have 2nd best hand the whole time. I think I need to slow down.

UB – $173.15
PS – Same

About The Videos

A) Needs to be in a format other than .swf (my first problem)
B) Needs to be under 100MB, and realistically, under 10 minutes

So, I need to do some movie editing to chop my movies into 10 minute chunks. I have the software to do it, but it will take me some time.

Don’t Feel Good About It

Took 34th in a10000 man freeroll (yes, I play them occasionally, just for practice). 7 away from the money. I got short stacked on a pivotal hand where I flopped bottom straight in the SB with 78 and flop came 9TJ – 5 others in the pot. I was shortstacked with about an M of 10. I bet all 3 streets, but the gigantic stack called the flop and the turn, then bet raised me all in on the river when a Q came. He claimed he had 2 pair, but I think had a pair and a hit the straight on the river – I don’t think he would raise on the end with 2 pair when I was pot committed. I still folded. I was out the next orbit. Had to get to 27, so I missed by 7.

I also cashed in the .50 8pm tourney, but on the bottom rung of payouts. I couldn’t really get anything going. I got caught stealing several times, didn’t matter how tight I played. When I was caught, it was by questionable hands like A6o, K9o, without good odds. Oh well. At least when I got it all in with my short stack, I was ahead – AQ vs J9, but he was the big stack, and felt like he had to call.

Played well at .05/10 for the most part, picking up 3.5 stacks at a couple different tables. I was over $200 on UB for a while. Got up, rebought, then in my last orbit of the night, got stacked at 2 different tables, so for the night I was up just slightly. Stacked by a very aggressive guy when I had ATs, flopped flush draw with 2 overs. Add a gutshot on the turn, guy pushed all in, I called. He had called preflop with JJ. At another table, I ran my KQ with a flopped K into AA that was slowplayed, 3rd time in the past 2 days.

I’m running into slowplayed AA way too much. I guess I’m pressing my top pair hands too much.

UB – 187.42
PS – 130.52

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Another Video Test

I created a new YouTube account just for this. At this point, their site says the video is ‘processing’, so we’ll see if it eventually works.

Another Book

I had a small giftcard for a book shop, I bought “Killer Poker Online 2″ by John Vorhaus. I’ve skimmed some of his other books, and thought I might like this one. I’m trying to make it a point not to read any more Sklansky for a while – I want to get some other people’s opinions and maybe focus more on playing the players and not just focusing on implied odds and the EV of a semibluff with 14 outs.

I still think Sklansky and Miller’s “No Limit Holdem: Theory and Practice” is the best poker book I’ve read for NLHE, but at this point, I don’t even know if I care whether or not I agree with the authors of the books I read, I’m just looking for different opinions to broaden my horizons and review my approach to the game.

My approach lately has been very weak-tight. Most of it is just due to the fact that microstakes players can’t fold. An all-in semi-bluff at a cash game with 14 outs on the flop is a +EV move with fold equity. However, you have no fold equity with most of these players, so really, it’s just barely +EV, no different than pushing 66 vs. AK preflop, so you can make the move, but there’s no real value in it – you’re just looking to get lucky on coinflips. With my smaller bankroll, I’m not really looking to play coinflips all night.

Most of the books advocate moves like this, but they just don’t seem to work for me at these stakes. I’m sticking to this wacky weak-tight longball style of pot-sized value bets with very good hands and folding most of my other hands when I get played back at, and bluffing or semi-bluffing very infrequently. My earn rate isn’t what I’d like it to be, but I’m failing to see a lot of benefit from book recommended moves like using position to take hands away. You just get called on the river when you make that potsized bet when you missed your draw and the guy turns over bottom pair.

I can’t say it makes me happy about my winrate though, I’m around 4 PTBB/100 at .05/.10, which is awful. I would think I’d be able to make about 10 PTBB/100, but I think I’m letting people take too many pots away. At the same time, I’m not getting respect for any big bets. The only nice thing about it is that I’m getting paid off for set mining, although they don’t come around enough.

I think I do a decent job of reading my opponents, especially with the HUD up. The problem is that I lean toward believing they can’t let a hand go, which is true, so when I miss with my preflop raises of AK, AQ and small pairs, I end up having to give up on the hand. Doesn’t do much for the winrate waiting to hit your hands.

I guess I’m trying to decide whether to tighten up even more (to around 15% of hands played) and pressing more, or loosening up more, and trying to play back at the LAGtards. Every time I try to loosen up in position, I just give away more money, so I don’t think it’s the right approach. I do feel like I have to play about 20% of hands in order to get called on my big hands, but that contradicts everything I’ve just said about not having fold equity and no one folding.

Maybe these players are better than I give them credit for, and they’re just doing a better job of hand reading than I am, but I don’t think so.

Sorry for blabbering.

Shhhhhh

I still haven’t figured out how to post my videos without making them completely public on YouTube, which I don’t really want to do. More on that another time.

The ’shhhhhhhhhhh’ is because, once again, couldn’t find a table at .05/.10 on UB. So, silly me, I played a table of.10/.25 until some .05/.10 opened up. I bought in for $10, and waited around for something good to happen. I started out by raising with QQ UTG, got 4 callers, and an A flopped. With 4 callers, I wasn’t making a continuation bet, and sure enough 2 guys had 2 pair. Fortunately, I didn’t lose too much. A bit later, I doubled up when I had 88 with a couple callers, flopped top set, and got someone betting into me. I check raised the turn, and he called. We got it all on in on the river, and the guy had 86, pot committed himself by the turn and called the river when he got his 2nd pair. Yay!

Same guy rebought, and doubled me up again. And again. LOL. I left the table with just under $50. I did get some .05/.10 in, and got stacked once by a guy calling down with bottom pair, and he caught his 2nd pair on the river against my overpair of TT, but overall, a nice night to make up for the little downturn I was having.

I also went out and bought myself a present – “The Professor, The Banker, And The Suicide King”. So far, it’s a cool book.

UB – $177.63
PS – $130.18 (same)
(back over $300 for my full BR).

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Down

Couldn’t find any open tables at .05/.10, so I played for $10 at .10/.25. Stacked on a dumb had with top pair smaller kicker. I should have folded, but I didn’t think the guy had top pair. Totally played it wrong – thought he was pushing his position – couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t raise with a bigger ace than mine on the button.

UB – 148.15
PS – same

Still can’t get that video to work, I”ll have to try tomorrow.

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OK, Here We Go

Sorry, something happened with my new YouTube account, it didn’t work. Try back later.

Figuring Out How to Post My Video

I think I’m going to have to upload it to www.youtube.com and link to it. Not really how I wanted to do it, but I’m not sure about my other options. Check back later to see how I did it.

LOL, I just realized it’s 1:15 hours long… Now I’m really not sure how I’m going to do it…

Recorded Another Video

I’m waiting for it to compress and sync, but I think I’ve got a working one, although the volume on my voice may be too low. I won’t give you any details on hands, but 95% of it was ABC. I had a couple of decisions that you may or may not find interesting.

Down a couple for the night, you’ll see why when I post the video, which will probably be tomorrow before work.

UB – 161.98
PS – Same

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