Not Much Poker

Not much poker this weekend, was hanging out with my family, which was great.

I did play some Sunday night, and I took the time to record some videos of my play, but each video had a problem. The first one didn’t record the audio due to a configuration issue, and the second one stopped dead when I ran out of drive space, and was corrupted, so I don’t have anything to post – I had to delete them. I’ll try again soon. It’s too bad, because it was fun to do.

Also, it appears to affect my game. I think I can only play 1 table at a time if I’m talking.

I’m mad about one hand. I limped with KK going for the reraise, a couple callers. Flop comes 3 diamonds, I have the K of diamonds. I still bet it out, 2 callers. I figure one guy has to have the Ad. Turn comes a blank, I bet, guy calls. He has to have Ad. River comes a diamond, I make the blocking bet, get raised, and I should have folded, but I called, and sure enough, Ad6x. I blew about 4 bucks on that hand, and could have saved 2 but I wanted to see his Ad. Dumb. I wish I had the audio for that, because I called his hand immediately.

UB – $163.58
PS – $130.18

PS – Happy Birthday to me, it’s Monday, and I’m a year older.

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Screen Recording Software

I think I may have found some free screen recording software to create embedded Flash videos. I’m going to check it out this weekend.

SourceForge.net: CamStudio – Desktop Screen Recorder

Podcasts

I was looking for a site with a collection of podcasts related to poker that I could listen to while at work. Some of the work I do is mundane and repetitive, so I’m usually listening to something. We have internet filtering software,so we can’t go to poker sites (like Pocketfives), so I can’t go and directly listen. So, while searching, I came across Podcast.net

They have a nice collection of some older podcasts to listen to. However, the ports required to listen via their website are blocked via the firewall at work, but at it’s something to listen to at home while working from home when it’s late and I’m on call. I may try to download them from home and make .mp3s from them for work.

I don’t think I could listen to it and play poker, though. I wouldn’t be able to pay attention. When I’m playing poker, I have the headphones on, and I’m usually listening to something aggressive to get me in a combative mood. I’m not paying close attention to the music, but I like to get fired up.

Ok, One More

This is how I don’t play:

Sick. You can see the multi-level thinking at play. It’s rare.

This Is a Test

I wanted to try to post an embedded video in my blog. This is a Cardrunners video from YouTube. It will give you some insight into the thinking of a top notch online player.

I’ve been thinking about making a couple of these myself just to show my mom how she should be playing and what should be going through her head while she’s playing.

By the way, when I’m talking about my mom, I’m talking about my real mom. She plays online on PokerStars at the microstakes.

Solid and a Milestone

Four tables at $10 tonight for an hour. A decent night. Mostly because I doubled up on my first hand with QQ vs. KJs for $10. I had a bunch of hard decisions tonight, but I think I did pretty well – I really trusted my reads tonight – I laid down KK on the turn when an A flopped and I think a guy had AK. I also made a strong all-in push against a heavy better on a possibly scary board –

Hand #44593xxx at UB (No Limit Hold’em)
Started at 19/Jul/07 23:31:23

rock is at seat 0 with $15.55.
new is at seat 1 with $5.
aggro (35/15/5) is at seat 2 with $19.15.
TAG is at seat 3 with $12.77.
another rock is at seat 4 with $9.44.
15/2 ROCK is at seat 5 with $16.64.
me is at seat 6 with $17.44.
not sure is at seat 7 with $13.09.
not sure is at seat 8 with $10.35.
decent TAG is at seat 9 with $10.34.
The button is at seat 8.

decent TAGposts the small blind of $.05.
rock posts the big blind of $.10.

rock: — –
aggro: — –
TAG: — –
another rock: — –
15/2 Rock: — –
me: Qd Qc
not sure: — –
not sure: — –
Eldon: — –

Pre-flop:

aggro calls. TAG folds. another rock folds.
15/2 ROCKraises to $.45. me calls.
not sure folds. not sure folds. decent TAGfolds.
rock folds. aggro calls.

Preflop I figure the ROCK has AA, KK or JJ, or AK. He never raises. I don’t think he has QQ, because that’s what I have.

Flop (board: Jh 5d Js): (good flop for me, but aggro could have AJ, KJ, QJ, JJ, or JT.

aggro bets $1.50. 15/2 ROCKfolds. I think Aggro guy slowplays a big hand. Why push anyone out. When Rock folds, I know I should be good to go.
me calls.

Turn (board: Jh 5d Js 2c):

aggro bets $4.50. me goes all-in for $4.50 is a ‘let’s take this thing down now’ bet. He’s got a PF rating of 5.00. He doesn’t have the hand.
$15.49. aggro folds. me is returned
$10.99 (uncalled).

I won’t make that play against many people, but I had a tight image, he’s a bluffer, I think it’s a pretty easy shove. If I’m called, I’m probably still ahead, but I expect a fold with a hand like AT or 99 or something.

Hand #44593825-620 Summary:

$.67 is raked from a pot of $13.50.
me wins $12.83.
—————————————————————-

UB – $170.97
PS – $130.46

(My BR turns $300 tonight! Yay!)

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Not Bad

More swings, but ended up a bit for the night. I lost with some good hands, but had some nice suckouts with good but not best hands. I’ll take it. Approaching $300 total BR.

For the record, my UB PTBB/100 is a paltry 4.10 at .05/.10. I need to take a look at my game. I’m less than impressed with this – I think I should be in the 8-10 PTBB/100 range. I think maybe I’ve taken the implied odds thing a little too far, although it could be due to my shortsack strategy of buying in for $5. Safe and slow I guess. I know I’ve also been running well with starting hands, but running into a lot of and draws. However, I know I have room to improve.

UB – $160.31
PS – $130.46 (same)

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Open Letter To My Mom

Mom,

This letter is in regards to your tournament play.

Stop playing anything but AA-JJ and AK under the gun. You’re going to get pushed out of the pot by someone calling you with position that knows that you can’t bet the flop unless you hit it.

Stop open limping. Stop doing it under the gun, out of position, wherever. There is no need to open limp in a tournament, especially when you are short stacked. Raise at least 3x when you have an M above 8.

Don’t pot commit yourself without being the boss. Don’t finally decide to raise 2x when you have an M of 5. Someone with a big stack is going to raise you all in. In effect, all you did was guarantee you were getting all in with one caller (you), eliminating your fold equity, or making sure you’re going to be outplayed on the flop, committing a large percentage of your stack to a hand where the only way you can win is if you hit the flop. When your M is below 5, and really, probably below 7 in these fast tournaments, you should be shoving when it’s folded to you, regardless of your hand. You need to get some respect and some fold equity to survive.

People are stealing your blinds when they open raise you from late position when they shove. You should be doing it to. People know you are timid and your blinds are free because they never see you raise. Once in a while they have a real hand, but if you never give yourself an opportunity to win chips, all you’re doing is ensuring you will always be the shortstack in every confrontation you have.

PS – shoving means going all in with your entire stack.

Stop saying ‘I’ll try’ or ‘I’m learning’. You’re not doing either, because you’re still not listening to my advice.

I love you.

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Dimes

Decided to change my picture from a penny to a dime since I’ve been playing .05/.10 pretty much exclusively for the last few weeks. I guess I’ll change it as I move up and down in stakes as my ‘indicator’. Silly, I know, but it gives me something to look forward to.

As I was saying, major swings the past few days…