Happy Anniversary!

This blog is one year old today!

It's been a little neglected over the last few months with posts coming few and far between but I'm going to work on improving that. I also haven't been good at updating my blogroll but I'll get that cleaned up over the next day or two. Other bloggers try to list everyone so I only link the blogs I'm currently reading.

When I started the blog I was gung ho and ready to write about every little item involving my poker adventures. The first blog I ever came across was Felicia's. I found her blog through her Yahoo! Group and quickly began adding others to my daily reading. Iggy, Pauly, Chris, Liquid Sword, and Poker Nerd were my firsts. I became inspired to start my own blog not because I wanted to write about my play so much as I wanted in this blogger community. I remember reading one of Felicia's posts about a blogger tournament she set up. I thought this was so cool that a group of people had gotten together to have a private tournament and share their poker thoughts with each other. I wanted to be part of all that so I began this blog. I didn't want to admit my "aw shucks" feeling about the tight blogger community so I never really revealed that before. I always quoted the patent answer about wanting to improve my play. That was certainly part of it, and it has helped my game beyond explanation, but it was only part of the full reason.

I never became the integral part of the community I had hoped to. I'm an introvert at heart and I never felt qualified to comment on others posts so I never garnered much exposure. I hadn't asked Iggy to link me up, but back when only a few of us were starting up new blogs he found my little corner of geekspace and gave me a few lines in an uber-post. I thought this was nice of him and I know every new blogger today hopes to make it into one of his posts. He has helped propel our community into the big time along with other notables such as Hank, and Otis. It's been amazing to see the growth that has occurred over the last year. I remember playing in my first blogger tournament and I think we only had about 30 players. My how things have grown. I've been fortunate to money in one but that was long before the WPBT ever came around or Maudie designed our own chip logo. Of course I will win my entry for the $1500 WSOP through the next blogger tournament and who would have ever thought a setup like that was possible. It's nice to realize that as a collective group we have a voice that can reach deep into the poker world.

I still don't feel as though I've found a set pattern for this blog. Most of the time I'm considered a diarist type blogger but I try to throw in some strategy posts when I feel qualified to do so. When I was recently browsing through the searches that have brought people to my blog, I found that an old post of mine was generating some hits. I remember being very proud of it when I wrote it. Going back and rereading it, it could use some perspective changes but I still think it's an interesting post.


As the year has worn on and my experience increased I found it sometimes tedious to sit down and do a full analysis with write up. I've also found it easier to write when I'm winning and much more difficult when I'm losing. Even with it being more difficult it is certainly therapeutic to write when losing. The contemplation involved in working through the sessions often yield the knowledge and drive necessary to turn things around. Ego also has a lot to do with this. If your writing about how your losing all the time your self confidence takes a big hit. Your ego drives you to improve so that others will read about how good you are, not how bad. I've prided myself on being honest in this regard. I've documented the downswings but probably not with the zeal that I've documented the upswings. I'll try to continue to be honest and if others can learn from my mistakes, it's all that much better.

I'm still in awe of how much growth we've experienced and will continue to experience. I'm sure there is an end in sight, I just don't believe we'll see it for a while yet.

This blog has helped me to have a great year of poker. My hope is that it will continue for years to come. I'm sure we can all prosper through our little community in cyberspace and if any of you think I can help you, please let me know.

Regards,
LifesAGrind

Can You Hear Me Now?

I left off with a post on Sunday resolving to pay attention to my play that night and not chase when I was beat. I didn't get a chance to test that out. When I logged onto Absolute to check the tables out I found that one of their 10,000 Player Point buyin tournaments was getting ready to start. I had points to spare and with a guarantee prize pool of 5K a money finish was well worth my time.

I wanted to concentrate on just the tournament so I didn't play any limit games that night. We had 193 entrants and only the top 18 paid. I finished a respectable 14th making it to the final two tables. The payout was decent and since I didn't have anything to spend my points on, it was like a freeroll from a bankroll perspective. Even though it wasn't a cash buy-in none of the players played it like a freeroll. It was nice to have a tournament that wasn't an all-in fest from the beginning.

On Monday I decided to play at UltimateBet because the tables at Absolute are becoming rock gardens. It's difficult to have a nice win rate when you all shuffle the chips back and forth. With so few players on the site, we are all getting to know each others play and that makes things slow. With my bad run as of late I don't want to spend the -EV trying to loosen things up so it's better to just move on. I still have almost $400 in bonus to clear so I'll have to spend time there eventually. I may take a week or two off and then go back.

Anyway I have bonus to clear at UltimatBet as well so it's all good. I fired up two tables and happened to notice a $5 multi was getting ready to start. One of the nice things about UltimateBet's tourneys is that you can use player points to buy into any of it's cash tournaments. I had the points so I figured what the heck, it'll be like another freeroll. Unlike the Absolute tourney of the previous night this was an "all-in fest". It became obvious early that it wouldn't take much of a hand for these guys to push with. I really felt I could take advantage of the situation and in order to concentrate on the tournament I closed down my cash games with a single BB profit.

My diligence was paying off and by the second break I had firmly planted myself in the top ten in chip stacks. Out of the 620 entrants most were without skill. It was nice to come to the realization of just how much my knowledge of the game has grown. Being able to see the mistakes unfold and knowing who were the weaker players had me at a nice advantage.

With 77 to go I had taken the chip lead. It was short lived since the top few were very close in chips and the blinds had risen to the point where just stealing them and the ante's would net you 10,000 in chips. I stayed in the top ten until we were down to 18. I played a pocket pair of 10's to hard post flop with an overcard showing. I passed off a majority of my chips to someone else and I finally went out in 12th. Again I made it to the final two tables. I really had a guaranteed spot in the final table for this tournament. I was getting tired and things had tightened up so much that time seemed to be moving in reverse. Another one in the cash column though so I won't complain.

Last night I finally made it in earnest to the limit tables. The cards finally made a nice shift as my hands were holding up. I also made a concerted effort not to chase. This resulted in a nice 10BB profit in an hour.

I'll hit it again tonight and see if I can make it two in a row.

As a side note, while I was playing in the tournament I noticed another blogger was playing at the NL tables. I decided to crash her table and sat down. My username at UltimateBet is my real name so she would have had no idea who I was. About the time I was going to say something, she left. I'll have to catch her next time.

Why Oh Why

Since doing, and posting, about my review of first quarter play I haven't had a positive session. A down turn is still occurring and on the first session I quit with a -4BB loss. On the second session I finished down with a -2BB loss. Considering the recent past I wasn't upset about these results at all. I looked at them as break even sessions and I was happy to be showing some progress. Then last night all hell broke lose. I finished down 40BB's playing 447 hands.

Why did this happen?

Let's take a look.

The hand I lost the most money with last night was 99. I saw this hand 3 times and lost 7BB without a single win. On two of these hands I folded when it was obvious I was beat and minimized my loss. On the other hand I dropped 4.5BB. I raised this particular hand under the gun which I'm thinking may have been a mistake, I'm still not sure on this though. The only caller I got was the player to my immediate left and he rated out as a slightly loose neutral player. The flop came down Q 5 3 rainbow. Since I represented big preflop I felt I had to bet out at this or loose control of the hand. He called and another Q hit the turn. I strongly felt that if my opponent had a queen on the flop he would have raised me. This was the read I had so I bet out again. At this point he raised and I called. The river brought a 10 and I check called to see him show pocket 3's for the full house.

My initial read was correct about him not having a Q but I refused to lay down when he represented a strong hand on the turn. I was convinced he didn't have a Q and I didn't consider his hitting trips on the flop. My only thought was that he held an A5 suited and was trying to push me off my hand. Even with my feelings about his holdings, when he bet at the river I should have finally conceded. He can't expect me to fold the Q I was representing, so his proper play would have been to check the river with me. By his final bet he was telling me I was beat, I just wasn't listening.

Next up is KT suited. Out of 4 times I had this I lost 5BB. Again I didn't connect for a win with any of these either. The two hands I took past the flop were both big blind hands. One was checked down past the flop and the other was when I tried to push around a fish. I had a flush draw so I was betting into him and it never materialized. I had to let this go on the river so I don't know what he held.

KQo represented another 5BB. Held this twice and 4BB was invested in one hand. I lost when I flopped top pair with the K and my opponent hit two pair on the river. I called his turn raise and his bet on the river.

I'm seeing a pattern here.

As I continue through the hands they all appear to be valid preflop plays, I just got married to them and couldn't let go to the turn raises. Sadly even if I had folded them I still would have ended up down for the night. Certainly I would have saved myself about 15-20BB.

I'm running cold and getting married to hands on occasion. I'm sure this is the result of some type of tilting on my part so I'll watch out for this tonight. I'm hoping to post a few wins in a row soon because this is getting a little discouraging. My limit play used to support my tournament play. Now it's the other way around. This just doesn't feel normal to me.

Ever Fold AA Preflop?

I actually considered this last night.

Let me set it up for you. I was playing the $12K guarantee at Absolute Poker and we were down to 47 players. Payout started at 45th place so it was crunch time and I had been playing for a little over four hours. The blinds are at 500/1000 with a 75 ante and I sit in the small blind. At this point I'm in no danger of busting out of this tournament. I have 15,831 in chips. This is a little short but their are plenty of players that will be out before I have to even worry about it.

I get dealt the beautiful hand of AA and suddenly my feelings of great joy are replaced by apprehension and self doubt. As the hand gets underway a middle position short stack calls. It folds around until the small blind who raises it up to 3,000. The predicament involves the fact that the small blind is a very tight player. I haven't seen him play anything that wasn't of premium quality. Since this means he's holding big cards, he's also not likely to just let them go. He also has me outchipped by about 8,000 making his call feasible.

I have a tough decision. I know I'm favored preflop against any hand save another AA. If I push all in at this stage I believe that it send the signal, "hey, I don't want any callers." I believe he will call an all-in and my mind drifts to a hand earlier in the tournament. Four players manage to raise each other all-in pre-flop. The hands were QQ, KK, AK, and AA. A king hit the turn and the player raked a monster pot while sucking out on the A's. The voice of Howard Lederer then invades my consciousness and even though I can't remember the exact quote, I recall him saying how he has laid down the rockets when at the bubble to guarantee a money finish.

I'm so close and throwing away four hours of work because I got sucked out on just wasn't appealing. After weighing my options I decided there was just no way I could sacrifice this hand for the purpose of coasting into the money. Since I also thought an all-in was sending the wrong message I went for a reraise to 10,000. This represented 2/3 of my stack and I hoped he would read that as, "I have a big hand, I'm pot committing myself, but by not going all-in I'm inviting you to join me."

I have no idea if that's how he read it but he folded and I increased my chip stack. Wouldn't you know it the very next hand I get dealt AA again but this time I didn't even consider laying it down. I made a large raise and everyone folded preflop including an early position limper. I went on to play pretty well but became severely shortstacked and had to venture and all-in holding Ad7d. The button had AK and called me. I never caught my seven or any diamonds and was out in 14th position. It wasn't the big cash but I managed a little over $30/hour win rate for the tournament, and I'll take that anyday.

If It Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Win Every One Of These

That's the way I've been feeling lately so I took the plunge and finally got around to purchasing the PokerTracker Guide a few days ago. After reading through it I've been inspired to perform a 1st quarter of 2005 evaluation of my play. Now this could be a rather broad topic since I've played Hold'em, Omaha, and Tournaments (both single and multi). Not only have I played different games but different levels so in order to really narrow things down I'm going to take a look at only my limit hold'em play, and only at the 2/4 and 3/6 levels. These are the levels I'm playing right now so they will be the most relevant. The data is somewhat incomplete as well since I also have play at Full Tilt, Bodog, and Golden Palace. Since PokerTracker does not support these sites the hands played there will not be used. I'm also only going to look at the 2005 statistics to date. No past performance stuff to get in the way, only current play. There will not be any bonus money used in the discussions of bankroll either. I actually have never considered bonus money when talking about whether I was winning or losing. Just actual table play results. I also want to preface this whole little analysis thing by telling you that as I do it, I'll write it. I haven't gone through anything yet so we'll be discovering my bad play together as we go on this journey.

Lets start off by auto-rating. For the year to date I have 11,315 hands combined for the two levels that PokerTracker supports. Up until this point I've been using Bison's auto-rate rules that I snagged off of the 2+2 forums. They have shown that for most of 2005 I had been a SL-A, or Slightly Loose Aggressive player. This changed a few weeks ago and I dropped to an SL-P, or a Slightly Loose Passive player. After loading the guides rules, I am shown as a Tight Neutral. If I had run these rate rules a few weeks ago I would have fit into the Good Player (Tight Aggressive Solid) category.

Why the change? As previously reported the months of January and February were particularly brutal for me. I dropped a lot of BB's during that time. As a result of the constant losing I became a bit weaker post flop to try and curb the losing. This resulted in the lowering of my post flop aggression factor to a 1.32. I haven't fallen too far off course and if we make the assumption that according to these rules you want to be rated as a "Good Player" statistically, then I should be a winning player for the year to date.

Unfortunately I am not. Well that's not entirely true. I am an overall winning player in 2005, just not at the levels we are looking at for this analysis. My tourney cashes and no limit play have given me enough to be even more profitable than all of last year combined at the present time. Were not looking at that though so why am I losing. For the year to date I am down $1,032.34 at these two levels. It works out to a -2.04BB/100 loss which is the exact opposite of what it should be. Statistically I should be profitable so lets go searching for some holes.

We'll skip over the individual session review, although I do do this on my own, and go straight to "Finding mistakes in your play". I don't want to give away everything that's in the book so I'm going to cover the points without going into detail about how I retrieved the information.

Trouble Hands
A9o - This is a hand that I used to play from any position. I was way overvaluing it based on the fact that so many players you go up against will play any A. I won with it a few times having the best kicker against these type of players. This led to being lulled into a false sense of security. I have already made adjustments to my game for this hand and now I will fold it just about every time unless I have position against known players. (There will undoubtedly be hands that I became aware of a month ago when I did my own analysis so I'll point out whether or not the hand is new to me. Sadly if it's still showing up even now so you know just how bad I played it previously.)
A6o - This is surprising to me. I fold this hand a huge majority of the time. After checking it out I have seen this hand 113 times. That makes it one of the most seen hands this year. Throw in the blind situations and the few times I've played it from late position and it accounts for the loses. I really don't see where I'm playing this one badly it's just a combination of not hitting when I do, and the frequency with which I see it.
I run into the same thing with A5o and A3o. For some reason these are among my most seen hands. In my style of play if it's folded around to me and I sit in the cutoff or button with an A, i'll go for the blind steal. Since I've seen each of these hands over 100 times that is where the money is going. It's obviously not working often enough to be a profitable play so I'm going to have to be more subjective about this in the future.
A4s - This is the only suited A that shows up. I've seen the hand 35 times and taken it to a flop 33 of those times. I've either had to abandon it on the flop or I'll catch enough of the flush to hang around and end up not hitting it. I'm only profitable with this hand from the small blind and that also happens to be the position that I've rec. It the most in with 8. I've also caught it 6 times in the BB so I feel this is more of an anomaly than a trouble hand.
JTo - Now we look at my biggest losing hand. I've always had trouble letting this hand go preflop. I just see so much potential in it. That potential rarely materializes but when it does its often for a big score. So I keep playing it, waiting for the next big one. Looking at it in more detail I see that other than the blinds I'm only losing with this hand from the later positions. One, Two, and Three off the button. These are also the positions that I've seen the hand the most in. My top four losses were to 3 flushes and a full house. Each of those times I had either the straight, a flush, or two pair. I was second best on each of these hands and one player even caught runner, runner, on me. If I eliminate the cold calling raises in late position with this hand I think I'll be OK judging by the data so far.
KJo - Another hand I've had problems with in the past. The good Dr. Pauly pointed this hand out as one of his trouble hands about a year ago and that's when I first took a look at it. When I made an adjustment to my play for this hand I was again lulled into a false sense of security. I found I could be effective raising from early position with it. It paid off at first and when it no longer did, I didn't change my MO. This hand has had a history of being my worst but I made further adjustments to how I play it recently and now it's only my 3rd biggest loser. I'm no longer playing this hand from early position at all. I've had to cut myself off completely at these positions to keep from getting in trouble with it. The button is actually my worst position this year. I'm holding it for to long postflop but it's hard to let top pair or that straight draw go sometimes.
QJo - Another of the offsuit face cards. With this particular holding It looks like I'm just not hitting with it as often as I should. These cards should be about a marginal winner. I'm just not getting that margin right now. I'm only calling raises from late position with it. I'm going to cut that out and see if I can save myself some BB's.
98s - The numbers put this as a borderline trouble hand. It looks like I'm playing it alright, just not catching when I should be. I don't consider this a trouble hand but since it was borderline for the criteria I'm listing it.

Leak Finding
Looks like I need to quit cold calling with KTo from the button. I thought position was giving me the right to make the call but it looks like when I even make my hand, I'm losing to a bigger hand.
Aside from the above mentioned KJo, and the QJo, it looks like I'm playing ATo to the river too often. I'm chasing that pair of tens to far. I've lost to a bigger pair numerous times. Upon further review I believe I have found the cause. I have a tendency to raise this hand preflop if I'm first in. I'll then lead at it if I hit my 10. Players behind me with bigger pocket pair are content to let me have the lead till the river, where I feel obligated to call that extra bet. I think if I quit raising with this from anywhere but the button it will help eliminate this. These players will likely tip off their holding before I get involved so I'll have more information.

Position Statistics
I was amazed when I looked at this data. Now we are getting some where. I've filtered the data for full tables (I don't play 6 handed tables) and had 10,973 hands left over. The positional plays looks exactly like it should as far a VP$IP goes. On the button I'm at 28.24 and it decreases at every position until I reach 15.3 7th off the button. I am also profitable at every position up to the blinds except for 7th off the button. Here I have a $30 net loss or 0.02BB/hand.
The blinds are where I'm losing my money. Now I need to find out if it's because I'm playing them wrong, or I'm just on a bad run. Using the criteria in the guide my BB loss rate should not exceed 0.20. My loss rate is 0.28. In the small blind my loss rate is 0.21. Neither of these are good. If we look at "Diff w/ the Blind" I'm even losing money from the small blind. It looks like I'm running bad in the small blind. My biggest losers are AKo and 87o. Even when I've caught AA I've only won with it 60% of the time. My overall win % with that hand is 72.5%
In the big blind it looks like A9o is kicking my ass. You'll remember that it was listed as a top trouble hand. Half of my money losses with this hand are in the big blind. It is followed by JTo and KTo. Seems the trouble hands are really trouble in the big blind.

Conclusion
Based on the above data I would say it is a combination of just running bad and sum sub par blind play. I'm relieved and yet disturbed by this finding. I was really hoping to be able to have an "AH HA" moment to instantly turn things around. It looks like I'll be able to concentrate on my blind play and make in roads there, but overall I'm just going to have to ride out the storm. Well at least I'm learning, and after all, what more can you ask for.

Well, maybe a million dollar tournament win, TV time, endorsement deal, fan club .....

PartyPoker Makes Me Weak/Tight

The last week wasn't a stellar week of poker playing on my part. You'd have to be living under a rock to have not heard about the cancellation of the rake back program at PokerNow. I was unfortunately caught up in that and have missed the money. I realize it wasn't PokerNow's fault as Party was cracking down on its skins in anticipation of its IPO. It still sucked though so I haven't played there since.

I had signed up for the rake back program through PSO and they were kind enough to offer everyone that was caught up in the fiasco an opportunity to switch over to a PartyPoker rake back program. The only stipulation was that you couldn't have signed up for Party through PSO in the past. This wasn't a problem for me so I cancelled my Party account and three days later reopened it under a rake back program.

I'm showing an overall profit at Absolute, UltimateBet, and Full Tilt at 3/6. At Party I managed to lose enough that after my 1,050 raked hands to clear the bonus my account only had a $20 profit. I can't seem to find the right tables for my play right now. When I do find a good table I can't get anything going and the river beats were taking their toll on my playing ability. I finished the entire week down 45BB's. I was lucky to clear enough bonus money that my bankroll only suffered a 10BB drop.

As soon as the Party bonus cleared I moved on to Absolute and UltimateBet for last night. It took me a while to overcome my weakitus. Combine this with a 2 orbit tilt session that cost me 40BB and I thought for sure my night was just going to be another red line in PokerTracker.

I wouldn't call it meditation but I did say, "don't chase" several times out loud. This snapped me out of my funk and I fought my way back to only a 4BB loss on the night. I cleared that and about $10 more in bonus money so I did get to increase the bankroll a bit.

I kept wondering what I would have been able to accomplish if only I hadn't tilted for that 10-15 minutes. I had reason to be upset as my trip A's were cracked by a gutshot straight on the river but I've got to exhibit better control.

Part Trois

I should have known better than to mention the word variance in my last post. Right after posting I was visited by 3 down sessions. I have since recovered though and am looking a little better than break even for the week so far.

Your not here to read about that though, you want to hear about my Ameristar Casino adventure. So let’s get started.

I arrived at the casino at 4:30 pm on Tuesday the 15th. My only real live play experience to this point was the CardPlayer Cruise so I was a little nervous when I approached the card room. They run a Tuesday night Limit Tournament and I wanted to get signed up but the guy in line right in front of me got the last seat. The policy on alternates was changed apparently the week before so I couldn’t get on a waiting list. At any rate I purchased my chips and headed to my first casino table.

When I was on the cruise I found the games to be very much like the online games in terms of player types and betting so I was expecting the same. Was I in for a rude awakening. It is possible on PartyPoker to find tables were 6 to 7 players will see a flop every hand but they take some hunting. Here that was the rule and not the exception. I was amazed after the first few hands at how many people will stay till the river hoping to hit something. I was playing my normal online game and that was just not going to cut it here. I’m used to being able to raise not only for value, but also to somewhat thin the herd. Here a raise was an invitation for everyone to join in. I heard from players on numerous occasions, “Now I have the odds to call”. With so many players seeing the flop and sticking around after the flop almost any two cards were good preflop. After the flop they took on the mentality that since they were already in the hand the odds no longer applied. They had invested in the pot and they were seeing it to the end.

This is a great situation if your hands hold up. Mine didn’t. In the first 2 hours of being at the table I saw many flop worthy hands but nothing would materialize. I dropped $89 dollars and decided to check out the restaurants. We did have a mildly amusing player join our table about a ½ hour before I left for dinner. He sat at the table complete with hat and sunglasses and announced on his arrival that he had never played live poker but watched it a lot on TV. Of course no one believed him until he started playing. He saw every hand and when he was in a pot the shades would go on. It would have been a lot funnier if he hadn’t blown his bankroll in that ½ hour.

After enjoying a nice meal in what was a very cool sports bar & grill (complete with touch screen TV’s in the booths) I headed back into battle. I knew I had to change my game up if I was going to survive these tables and I did a fairly decent job of it. I removed most preflop raising from my game. If it wasn’t a big pocket pair or AK it just wasn’t worth the investment. I had to jam the pots postflop if I hit, not preflop. The new table I was seated at had a regular player of retired age. He sat with a chip stack of around $600 in front of him and he kept going on and on about how the cards were hitting him. He was correct and I saw him take down many a pot when I first arrived. I tried to stay out of everyone’s way for a while but with a kill pot (all the games were 3/6 with a kill) I found A6 suited on the button. I had to call the unraised five-way pot and made my set of sixes on the flop. The turn shown my full house and the river brought me my fourth six. Mister $600 called my raises all the way to the end. After the table cheered at my four of a kind Mr. $600 grumbled that I had taken a chunk out of his stack. I replied that I’d be happy when he had to break into his black chips. It was meant in fun but I don’t think he took it that way.

By the time midnight rolled around I had managed to take back my earlier $89 loss and put a $60 profit ontop of it. The table was full of fun people and I got to see one woman make a Queen high straight flush to win the high hand of the day. The table broke up and that’s when I should have gone home. But that would be a boring story so I decided to stay and was moved to another table. The new table had a very different make up of players including three young guns . Young gun one was weak/tight and easy to push off hands, Young gun two actually knew what he was doing and how to beat this game, Young gun three was misplaced aggression. The three knew each other and sat at one end of the table constantly talking about the other players and what they thought they had. It became very annoying, very quickly, especially when the aggressive one actually started hitting his crap hands. To take down quite a few pots. My play became uninspired as the hours began to wear on me. At 4:30 am they finally closed the place and I had to go. I gave back most of my earlier winnings and left with an overall loss of $72.

I paid 1BB an hour for the privilege of playing at the casino. I did get to see a drunk guy get escorted out by security after getting into a confrontation with another player and then the floor man. So at least I got some entertainment for my money.

I left without any real desire to go back since I can make money at home and I don’t have to deal with the personalities or the smoke. The card room was smoke free but all the players would go stand at the entrance and puff away. I of course was seated near the entrance for most of my play so I was able to add a headache to the money loss.

I was lured back on Saturday night as a friend of mine was coming up from Wichita and he wanted to hit the casino. I was originally scheduled to work but things changed and I joined him after my day shift. I only had four hours to play since the wife works on weekend nights and I have to be home with the kids. The place was packed and my 15 minute wait ended as they opened up a new table.

The new table was a smaller one that only sat nine players and the auto shuffler was broken so our hand/hour rate went down quite a bit. I tried to apply what I had learned form my previous outing and managed to leave with a $37 profit. Still down overall for my two visits but I’m confident I could make money in the long run.

My big hand of the night involved another kill pot like the visit before. I was again on the button and called one raise with my KQ of diamonds. The flop came QKQ and although I’ve never used the expression ever in my life I distinctly remember thinking “Oh Snap!” when the flop came up. It almost made me chuckle out loud but I managed to contain myself as two players called my flop raise and one stuck around through the river to pay me off.

The other big hand of the night involved a new casino player who played on the internet and an old lady regular. It was a kill pot and the new kid raised it preflop. I got out of the way but grandma called the additional $6 as she was on the kill button. The flop came down 22Q. They raised each other back and forth. The Turn was another Q. Again some raising back and forth. The river was a blank and it went down with only one bet each. At the conclusion the young guy showed his AA and the grandma showed her 72 offsuit. The table erupted and everyone in the room thought we had hit the bad beat jackpot. Grandma just kept saying “I already had $6 in the pot, I had to call!”

Had to call indeed.

Part Duex

First off I’d like to thank those of you that stopped by and left a comment on the last post. April mentioned my post in her blog and my readership improved by over 100% because of it, so a special thanks to her for sending some people my way.

Now back to poker goodness. I left off with my tournament win and the mention that my bankroll was bolstered enough to head back to the 3/6 tables. In fact, I was bankrolled for 5/10 but I want to get a few months of proven 3/6 under my belt before venturing upward. That and I withdrew some money for a down payment on a car and to hit the casino for some live play.

My online play since the win has been above and beyond what is normal. In the last few weeks my win rate at 3/6 has been 6.35/100. That’s pretty high so I’m expecting variance to move back in at some point. I’ve been spreading my play around between Absolute, Poker Stars, and Full Tilt. I’m clearing bonuses at each place so I’m moving to each site every few days. Unfortunately Full Tilt was very slow on cashouts this week and I didn’t get enough money together to take advantage of Ultimate Bets reload bonus. I started my play there and I’m eager to see what the action is like nowadays. I’ve found that for play during the day and weekends Poker Stars has the better tables. On weeknights I like Absolute unless there aren’t enough players, then I head over to Full Tilt. The bonus is slow to clear at Full Tilt even at 3/6 so I’m not concentrating on that site right now even though I like the interface.

I tried to make the blogger HORSE tourney but my family and I went to Omaha to visit the zoo and I didn’t get back to the hotel in time. I thought the tournament started at 8:30 when it actually started at 8:00. DOH! It was the first blogger tournament I’ve missed since starting this blog almost a year ago. Aside from the Vegas tournament that is. I was rather distraught about missing it and it prompted some concern from my wife about my poker playing. (Will have to save that for another post.)

This past Friday night I did encounter a hiccup at the tables as I couldn’t get anything going and finished my limit play down $69. I was playing at Absolute and I like their tournament structure so I checked out what was coming up. They have a few tournaments each week that you can buy into using your player points and one such event was getting ready to start. I look at these as freerolls since you don’t have to use actual cash and I have so many points with nothing to spend them on. The play that is encountered is not like a typical freeroll where you have all-in fests. The other players usually take these seriously, even though the prize pools are small. For this tournament it was $250.

We had 301 entrants and after 5 hours of play I found myself with my second tournament win in as many weeks. The first place share of the prize was $70 and I had turned my loss into a $6 win by the end of the night. My win rate was abysmal though as I spent about 6.5 hours total at the site to get that $6. It’s better than a kick in the head though and I’ll take it.

With my online play on fire I was able to head to a local casino twice this week. The players at The Ameristar welcomed me with some of the worst play I’ve ever seen. I’ve come to some conclusions about how I’m going to incorporate live play into my rotation and since the “hammer” is so “in” right now, I even have an amazing live play hammer story that the entire table couldn’t believe. (and no, it wasn’t my play) All that and more in the next edition.

My Name In Lights

No grind for me, only sweet profitable goodness. It's been two weeks since I last updated and I've had so much going on poker wise that I really should have been updating every few days. I'll start from the top and work my way down so you can feel all warm and fuzzy about sharing in my poker goodness.

Our little story begins on Saturday the 12th as I ponied up the $33 entry fee along with 239 of my closest friends for the $6,000 guarantee no-limit tournament at Absolute Poker. Tournament play has been difficult lately as I haven't managed a money finish in quite some time. Since reaching a recent breakthrough in limit play I figured I'd try to translate that into the tournament and see what transpired. Resolving to take it easy in the beginning I found a nice run of cards and kept my stack size above average all the way to the bubble.

It is at the bubble that I encountered what would be the most pivotal hand of the tournament. It seemed rather inconsequential at the time but it reaped rewards in so many other ways. At my table we had a rather eclectic group of players and the chip stack sizes varied greatly. Among this group was the lowest chip stack in the tourney. He proceeded to use his maximum time allowed for every hand for about 10 minutes before we reached the bubble. He was pissing me off because although I was in no danger of going out he was robbing me of the opportunity to build my stack up. While others were playing two hands we were playing one. Absolute never kicked in with a hand for hand format so his stall tactics were working for him.

When it happened everyone folded around to me. Looking at the cards I found the hammer staring back at me. Now I'm not one to normally play the often worshipped combination of 7 2 offsuit but I was on the button. The small blind was a medium stack who folded everything and the big blind was mister stall tactic. I was supremely confident that these two would fold so I made the minimum raise and waited. Small blind folded as expected and then the big blind went into his routine. He didn't have enough chips left to even call my raise so I was very surprised when just as his time was expiring he called. The Absolute interface flipped our cards and when his pocket Queens were revealed I figured I had just given him enough ammo to get in the money. The flop came with no help but the turn and river brought the miracle in the form of running two's.

Mister stall tactic went ballistic and berated me for what seemed like about five minutes. Unfortunately he stalled just long enough to make the last money position so not everything was roses in my world. The odd thing about the hand is that the other players, instead of looking at the hammer play as being valid in that position, because it was, they viewed it as me being a loose player who would play anything. I received a lot of play off that. Everyone called when I was in a pot for a while and this allowed me to be in second chip position when we made the final table.

The final table was a thing of beauty. We all jockeyed back and forth for the first 15 minutes or so but I managed to eliminate the first player. Then I eliminated the next, and the next, and the next. I was on a roll and with my chip stack continuing to rise the other players went into hiding whenever I was in a pot. I sent every player at the final table packing and when we were down to three my stack size was so overwhelmingly disproportionate to the other players that they never really had a chance. When heads up my opponent did manage to double up twice before being eliminated but the writing was on the wall well before we got there. The win gave me a much needed boost to the bankroll in the tune of $1980.

This win put to rest any bankroll issues I was having and with my recent success at the limit tables I was now more than ready to go back to the 3/6 waters. A nice side affect of the win was my username being mentioned in the Absolute newsletter. It wasn't quite my name in lights but I can now lay claim to being mentioned in a "publication read by people all over the world" :)

This post looks to be longer than expected so we'll dive into my continued limit play in the next one.

Loosey Goosey

I've been asked to expound on my trouble hands. I will get to that in the next post or so when I can write and have Poker Tracker up at the same time. Since I'm currently at work I want to write about some trouble I ran into last night that I believe needs some blog time.

I reacquainted myself with an old hole in my game last night that may be very easy for others to succumb to. As stated in the past I generally try to find the tables with the highest average pots and join them. This table makeup often times has the loosest players and can in turn lead to some nice profits. Since finding some problems with the way I've been handling my starting cards I've been doing very well at the 1/2 party tables. Using my table selection criteria the tables at this level generally have an overall VP$IP% of around the high twenties to the mid thirties. Since I've moved back up to 2/4 I've found the percentages increasing to the high 30's to the low 40's. The play is much looser and last night I ran into the maniac of maniacs.

This player was seated to my immediate left and to his left was a close cousin of his in the Tasmanian Devil family. The VP$IP% on this table was in the mid 40's. This particular player was an odd sort and his VP$IP% was 95. He never folded a single hand preflop that I could recall. His preflop style of play was if the table limped, he limped, if anyone raised he would re-raise automatically. His cards were of no consequence and he capped it once with 10,3 offsuit. He would also rarely release a hand before the river often calling down with no pair. His caveat was that when he lucked out and caught a hand or actually had a monster on the flop no one would relinquish the pot to him. He was always building pots and it was common to have about every third of fourth pot over 35BB's.

I had the best of this situation since he was on my immediate left. The proper way to play a player who could have anything is to do a lot of folding. Let them have the small pots early because you want the big pots when you know you have the best hand. My downfall came from my realization of his preflop strategy (or lack thereof). Since he was like an automatic reraise button. I was able to isolate him from the rest of the table by using his own play. If I was in a situation where I had good starting cards and it was folded or only one limper had come along when the action got to me, I would raise. Using his auto reraise this would drive everyone else out a majority of the time and leave me heads up. Now all I had to do was worry about being able to beat two random cards. Sometimes his cousin on the left would come along as well and this would just sweeten the deal. Within about 45 minutes I had managed to amass a 45BB profit on the table due to the large pot sizes.

This sounds all wine and roses but the problem in fact didn't come from this table, but my reaction to the table. To further realize the impact the maniac table had on my play we need to switch to the second table I was playing. This table was of the type I have been recently thriving on. The table preflop average was steady at the low thirties. Straight forward play was all that was required to win. My dealings with the maniac was delivering a cause and effect impact to me physically as well as mentally. The large size of the pots and the furious play was giving me an adrenaline boost. This led to quick snap decisions and since I was aware that often times I was against crap cards I was able to loosen up a little myself enjoying my big lead. The lead wasn't on both tables but the reaction to one had caused a change in play on the other. At this other table I quickly took upon myself the moniker of table maniac. It didn't help matters that it was the time when the true maniac decided to start catching big hands. As I saw my chip stack start to dwindle the catchup monster sat perched upon my shoulder egging me on. By the end of the night I had left the maniac table with only a 2BB profit. My true downfall though had been the effect of play on the other table where I left with a 33BB loss.

I've written before about how important discipline is. Others have touched upon this as well but when the action monkey comes for a visit it's very hard to send him packing. He's cute and cuddly at first but when he leaves behind broken items and walls covered in shit you really have to wonder why you keep letting him back in.

Going Through the Motions

It's odd how it happens. You can't pinpoint a defining moment. It may be a culmination of things or it could be as cliche as a light bulb blinking on inside your head. For me it was a combination of both.

My trial by fire began several weeks ago when I documented a massive slide down the food chain in one night. With a sigh of resignation I dropped back to the 1/2 level and began to seek out the best in bonuses. I really felt I didn't belong there. Playing at a level I had beaten soundly in the past wasn't where I deserved to be. To further pummel my already bloodied ego I still couldn't win. Sure I would post a winning session but it was always followed by three or four losing ones. I was spiraling downward and was in danger of not even having a bankroll to support playing at 1/2 anymore.

Why was it happening? I hadn't changed my play, had I? I still had the same starting requirements that I had developed when I came up through the ranks. These weren't exactly by the book starting hands but they had worked for me in the past and damnit, they should be now as well. Was it my post flop play? Naw couldn't be that either. I was being dealt bad beat after bad beat, that had to be it.

We have a new employee at work that joined our regular work home game about two months ago. He had never played before but was eager to learn and after we corrupted him on that first night he had the poker bug in a bad way. He downloaded a version to his phone, a laptop, and watched it on TV at every opportunity. Now two weeks ago we had our last poker night. The new guy showed up and I was impressed by how fast he had progressed. He displayed some selective aggression and was capable of making some advanced plays that I thought were beyond the people I played with. When the night was coming to a close the new guy was up and I was down. I began to see something in him that I didn't have. I had it at one time, but the realization that I no longer possessed it was troubling to me. I'm not sure when it happened but my passion for the game was gone. I played every night and went through the motions but that's what all I was doing. Going through the motions. I desperately wanted to rekindle this missing part of me and I invited him to stay after the night had come to a close for some heads up play. He accepted my invitation and we continued to play for another two hours. Being able to concentrate on the action I began to enjoy myself. With experience on my side I was able to out maneuver him and managed to reclaim some of my earlier losses. My heads up game vastly improved due to this exercise but I was still losing the ring games.

A few days later while perusing the PSO forum I came across a post on the hands that win or lose you the most money. I knew I hadn't checked that data in quite some time so I fired up Poker Tracker and had a look. I was shocked at what I was finding. I keep separate databases for each level I play and wanting to get the most data possible I loaded a combined database for 2004. I lost money on hands that I believed were the staple of my game. My complete disregard for the study techniques and data tracking that had started my poker journey were no longer part of my regimen. This was the 2004 data which I was profitable at. I shuddered to look at the 2005 data since I had been losing all year. I wasn't playing bad starting hands. I just wasn't playing them correctly. Whether it was position, calling raises, or not raising myself, I was playing them all wrong and often to far after the flop. My game had truly disintegrated. In fact it wasn't that good before.

It wasn't the light bulb moment. It was a combination of realization and revitalization. I'm calling it an increase in strength of character. I'm winning again. Comparing my current win rate to the win rate I had in 2004 at the 1/2 level. They are close to identical. The big difference is I'm winning differently than before. I have strung together nine winning sessions as of last night. I've never done that before. In the past I've gone 4 or 5 and then had a loser thrown in. My variance is also down by a large margin.

The one thing about this that is cliche is that you never stop learning. I thought I was on top of my game yet it took a slap in the face from reality to push me to that next level. My hope is that it doesn't take the rest of you this kind of gut check. It really is a miserable experience but I'm a better player for it.

Kansas Qualifier - World Poker Cup

"Hello and welcome everyone to this edition of the World Poker Cup Qualifiers. I'm Jack Hearts and as always I'm joined by professional analyst Chip Rack. Our lady on the floor Stacks O'Plenty will be bringing us player reactions and relaying what it's like to be in the trenches. Chip why don't you bring us up to speed on whats happened so far."

"Thank you Jack. We are witnessing a stunning display of poker today as our tournament format is a heads-up elimination event. With 67 entrants populating the field we began with only six players seeing action on three tables. Once the winners from these matches were determined we began a bracket style event with a field of 64. We are now down to the final two players in this heads up match and it's been pretty intense so far as the chip lead has floated back and forth with no one player being able to mount a distinct advantage."

"That's right Chip, we are in the presence of poker greatness and I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner of todays event go on to represent the USA in the World Poker Cup Tournament. Why don't you let us in on who these final two players are and give us an update as to the chip counts."

"Near as I can tell theres only one Chip and that's me. But seriously we have lifesagrind representing Overland Park, Kansas with a chip count of 72,960 and our chip leader at the moment is siznow who hails from Topeka. Siznow's chip count is 116,160 and we have blinds of 960/1920. Lets go right into a segment on this show we call "Play Along with an Amatuer". This time around were going to only reveal lifesagrind's hole cards and discuss the play as it's happening."

"Lifesagrind is on the button which means during a heads up match he is the small blind and first to act. I see he has pocket 10's and that's a monster heads up."

"That's right Jack. A pair of tens as your down cards can always be powerful but in this situation I wouldn't be surprised to see him try to take away some of the advantage siznow holds. He's reached into his stack and has raised it 5,760 which is a standard 3x the big blind raise. Lifesagrind has been pretty religious about using this raise no matter what he holds during most of the tournament so siznow is likely to call with lesser holdings. Sure enough siznow calls and says "Let's see a flop".

The flop comes Jack Seven Jack with two clubs and this is either going to be very good or very bad for lifesagrind. Siznow checks and lifesagrind wastes no time betting 7,680 into an 11,520 pot. I'm pretty sure lifesagrind does not want a call here and is just trying to end this with a nice profit. Siznow calls though and the dealer flips an A of spades onto the felt. This is a very bad card for the pair of tens especially since siznow was willing to call the large bet on the flop. Sure enough siznow appears to be reaching for some chips. Siznow is counting out a large stack and is pushing 11,520 in. This really is putting pressure on those 10's. I think I would fold up camp and take a loss here but it doesn't look like that's what lifesagrind is going to do."

"I just don't understand this play Chip. Siznow was willing to call a big bet on the flop with the board paired and now with an Ace on the turn the player comes alive with a big bet. Lifesagrind has to think he's beat here yet he's stacking up chips for a re-raise. Either he has a great read on his opponent or he's putting his whole tournament in jeopardy."

"It could also just be a stall tactic and he has no intention of playing this hand any further. Either way we'll get back to the action in a moment. First lets check in with Stacks and see how lifesagrind got this far."

"Thanks guys. Lifesagrind has been a machine throughout this tournament and has wasted little time in mowing down the competition. He was seated at his first table when the field was at 64 players and within 8 hands had eliminated his first opponent. The second match went much the same way as his opponent decided to bluff all in at a flop of J33. Little did he know lifesagrind held A3 and another player was sent to the rails. The next heads up match proved to be the most challenging as shortly after it began lifesagrind disappeared from the table. Upon his return quite some time later he told us that he was having "Technical Difficulties" but I'm not quite sure what that means. He was outchipped at this point by about 3 to 1 but managed to mount an incredible comeback. After almost 40 minutes of play lifesagrind had secured his spot in the round of 8 when his pocket K's held up against chef29's pocket J's.

The next two rounds seemed relatively easy and he managed to build a chip lead early in each match and never gave it up. This brings us to the finals and what has been a long four and a half hours of play. Lifesagrind had to be the favorite going into this final table but the cards always have there say."

"That was the every charming Stacks O'Plenty and Chip, lets see how this plays out."

"Well Jack, lifesagrind had decided to make a stand and has come over the top of siznow making it 23,040 to go. Wow Jack! Siznow wastes no time declaring "All In" and has pushed the remaining chips out onto the table. Since siznow has more chips than lifesagrind this will also put him all in if he decides to call. Lifesagrind has gone deep into the tank now. The clock is about to expire and it looks like... yes... he has decided to cave to the pressure and lay down his hand. The chip count now is horribly skewed as siznow has 154,560 to lifesagrind's 37,440."

"It looks like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar Chip. I don't see how he can come back from such a loss but as they say, All it takes is a chip and a chair."

"The ladies say all it takes is a Chip and a Bed, Jack."

"I'm sure they do Chip, I'm sure they do. Why don't we head back to the table for some more action."

"Were three hands later Jack and lifeagrind has managed to take the last two pots. This has added about 10,000 to his stack but he has a long ways to go. Both players have been dealt their cards and the action is on siznow on the button. He has A9 off suit and calls the big blind. Lifesagrind looks down and see's a beautiful blackjack. With that AJ he has raised it up to 8,640 and he has siznow dominated at this point with a 76% chance to win the pot. Siznow doesn't know what he's stepped into and makes the call.

Oh! A disastrous flop for lifesagrind as it comes 393. This gives siznow a pair and since they both share an A siznow now has an 87% advantage. Lifesagrind takes no time declaring all in and I'm sure siznow will call. Yep, sure enough there both in this and lifesagrind appears devastated now that the hands have been turned over. He's going to need to catch a J to win this. The turn is a Q and lifesagrind is now up and pacing around. The river is a five and that's it! We have a winner! Siznow will represent Kansas in the US qualifiers. Stacks is with lifesagrind down at the table."

"Obviously you didn't see that coming. How do you feel?"

"You're right I didn't see that coming. And I feel like crap. I've worked so hard all day and it ends with a mental mistake as I overplayed those 10's a few hands ago. My hat's off to siznow because I wasn't really able to get a good read on him all match. The other matches throughout the day seemed easy, like I was in the zone, but this one was truly difficult. I might have put to much pressure on myself, I'm just not sure. I just hope siznow had that third Jack earlier, or else I'm going to look like a big idiot when this airs."

"There you go guys, is he a big idiot, we may never know."

Thanks Stacks, that does it for this edition. For Chip Rack and Stacks O'Plenty, I'm Jack Hearts, remember any two cards can win, and those cards might be the ones your holding right now."

Please Sir, May I Have Some More

We've all seen it. Four players see the flop in an unraised pot. The turn appears to help no one but it hasn't helped you either. Everyone checks around again and there you sit in late position. No one seems to want this pot but it's going to cost you a big bet just to win two. Is it worth it? Maybe someone is scared to bet that bottom pair and has you beat. Maybe someone is slowplaying a big pocket pair. Maybe a lot of things.

The orphan pot can be a nice way to win some money, or a sad way to lose some. The pots are so small that you will have to take them down 40% of the time to be profitable. That's a pretty high win percentage but these pots are a unique sort of beast. Win that 40% and you will make your 2BB/100. lose it and you'll slowly bleed your bankroll.

As with most plays the more you know about your opponents the better your odds of success. If it's to early to have a read on the players and your in late position when this situation arises. Take a stab at it. If you get a call be prepared to fold the river and if your raised just let it go. It may have cost you a big bet but you've gained some insight into that particular player.

The only time that it really doesn't make any sense to even try this play is when you have a player who almost infallibly slow plays his big pocket pair. This player usually waits for someone to bet into a pot and then check-raises. Just check it around against this type of player. If he/she still checks the river then you may want to try it. I emphasize may because just about any player with an A will call you in this situation. You should have an A with a big kicker before even considering this play on the river.

All this may seem elementary to you but just think back at all the times you've seen this come up and nobody bets till the river, if they bet it at all. The orphan pot is called that for a reason and often the first player willing to adopt it gets to take it home.

Sending Out An S.O.S.

Sadly, I did not win the trip to the WSOP on Saturday night. If I had I would have updated yesterday with an over abundance of enthusiasm. As it turns out I didn't make it past the first break. Recent tournament history has not been kind to me and I lost holding AK. An early position player raised and when it got to me in middle position I was going to be pot committed if I re-raised. The best thing to do in that situation is to go ahead and push it in if your going to play, so that's what I did.

My read on the player ahead of me was that he was holding a middle pair. We had similar chip stacks but he had me covered with about 200 chips left over. I really didn't believe that he would risk a coin flip this early in the tourney with so much at stake. When I pushed it all into the middle the rest of the field folded. With the decision back on my opponent he went into the tank. Having used up almost all his time before making the call I was shocked to see him flip over pocket 3's.

There is no logic to this move. I figured him for a middle pair but with this holding he had to figure he was dominated. Even if I was pushing with the hammer I'd have an overcard to him. He obviously knew more than me though and I never got the help I needed to double up.

With the tournament behind me I went ahead and made the plunge into Full Tilt Poker. The $600 bonus was to much of a lure and I eagerly took the bait. Having been hooked I realized too late that it was going to take an eon to be reeled in. I have never encountered a bonus that releases so slowly. After six hours of two tabling 1/2 I have only managed to clear about $11 in bonus.

I'm sending out an S.O.S. to anyone who has managed to clear the Full Tilt bonus. Any suggestions on what to play to clear the bonus most efficiently will be greatly appreciated. I know O8 is usually a good game for bonus clearing but the only game I've seen going is .10/.25 pot limit. I played it for a half hour and even though it was a profitable table the pots only averaged about $3. And that folks, isn't enough to help clear the bonus.

I'm going to keep at the Tilt bonus but Absolute is offering a 20% reload until midnight tonight. I'm going to hit that one before going back to Tilt. Absolute bonuses clear slowly as well but not at the excruciating pace I've been enduring the last two nights. I'll get Absolute knocked out over the next week and then with a little bankroll cushion I'll head back.

Here We Go Again

After sulking over my meltdown last week I've begun the arduous task of rebuiling the bankroll. If you read the post detailing the debacle you know I was left debating whether to play 1/2 or 2/4. The master plan I finally decided upon was to begin bonus whoring again and multi-table 1/2 so I could clear the hands quicker.
With Paradise offering the superbowl weekend 20% bonus I was in business. The sportsbook end of Pokerstars was also offering a free $50 to play with so I made bets on New England and Philadelphia so I could have the cash. A free $10 prop bet on the coin toss was also included in the deal. I unfortunately couldn't hit my 50/50 chance. I completely blame the 10 year old who did the toss as he flatly dropped the coin to the ground instead of actually flipping it in the air. They should never give a child that much responsibility.
Switching back to poker I've been a cumulative disaster. I cleared the Paradise bonus with a profit, but it was a smaller profit than the bonus. So in essence that was just a nice way of saying I lost. I started out witha big win, then a modest win, then a big loss followed by another big loss, ending with a modest win. Overall I ended down about $50 in five sessions but with the bonus cleared the bankroll still grew.
I'm going to have to search for where the next worthwhile bonus is at. I'm considering the 100% up to $600 bonus at full tilt if it's still available. I've heard it takes a long time to clear though. $600 is a lot of scratch at this point so that may be worth it.
Over the next few days I'll be playing at Absolute. I've got a $10 bonus that needs to be dusted off there and I've got two tournaments to play in. The Pokersourceonline poker league, USA vs. Canada will be in it's second round on Friday and on Saturday I will be playing for a seat at the WSOP. PokerSourceOnline.com is sponsoring that tournament as well so I encourage everyone to go check them out. They have the best signup deals on the net. If you sign up for one of their promos I'd appreciate you using referral code "lifesagrind". They will be giving away several seats to the WSOP this year.
If you want to stop in and offer some encouragement I play under the name "hotlead" at Absolute. The tourney is on Saturday at 8pm central.

Strategy Shmategy

Today I want to talk about something that's been swirling around the back of my cavernous cranium. (the preceding sentence was written in honor of the big human head who seems to be one of my regular seventeen readers) That is writing about strategy.

The problem with writing a strategy article, at least for me, is that everyone knows when talking poker, it always "depends". I can think of a concept, work it out and then come up with countless scenarios that would rebuff what I was just thinking.

I assigned a database project to one of my employees and she came to me today with plans that went way beyond the scope of the original vision. I threw out some corrections and to help her get back on track I told her "Don't overthink things." She looked at me sideways for a moment and then replied, "Yeah, that's probably what I'm doing."

Well, that's what I do too when it comes to writing. I've tossed countless ideas out because I overanalyzed to the point where the original thought had lost all meaning. No one can account for every eventuality. Trying to do so will only stall you in a quagmire of self doubt and disillusionment.

It's not easy to think of something to write about and when you place undo pressure on yourself it only helps lead to that dreaded blogger burnout. What I have decided to do for myself, and this may help others, is taking my thought process only to the point where I would in a game situation. With the online clock counting you down you can only run through so many probabilities before being folded. If you take this approach to writing about strategy you will avoid the pressure and the pain that comes from firing to many neural pathways.

Tackle a subject, narrow your scope, and go with it. Will you cover everything? No. Should you? Absolutely not. If you do you'll only lose your reader and any hopes of passing on your hard won knowledge. Obviously I haven't written a great tritest on strategy writing but maybe this tip will help those of you that struggle, just like me.

The Question

You hear it every day. Those you like, those you even dislike will throw it out there. They don't want an honest answer and you really don't want to give one. It's innocent and never means anything. But never is not the case this time. This time it means everything. You have to answer it honestly. It is more than just the answer. It is the questions that follow...the questions that must follow if you are ever to make sense of it.

Only two hours have passed. You knew it could happen and you've planned for it. Considered all the possibilities and installed safeguards. Others have planned as well. Hundreds, even thousands have succumed to the pressure but not you. Your infallible. Beyond reproach. When the realization washes over you no explanation is evident. What could have happened? What feasibility was not assessed? You are in control, nothing should have gone wrong. Perhaps nothing is wrong. Yeah, your on course. This ship will be righted and your the one to do it.

"How are you doing?"

There it is, the trigger. The one question that should mean so little, yet carries every implication.

"I'm down."
"You've been down that much before, right?"
"No, not this much."
"You should quit then."
"I'm just going to finish this table."
"OK, I'm going to bed."
"I'll be up in a few minutes."

"Liar! You lying rat bastard!"

That's what she should have said instead of walking up the stairs. Hell, somebody should have said it. You should have even said it to yourself. This wouldn't be the last table. Not even the one after that. It would be a third and several hours before shock would take hold. The realization that the one thing you never really had control of was yourself. The only eventuality you couldn't account for was the human condition. The ability for a human to self delude themselves in such a manner that they are unaware of what is transpiring. They say trauma can cause blackouts and this is one trauma you wish you could forget. But you can't forget. You musn't forget. To forget would be foolish and foolish you are not. You are not a God, you are a mortal and have succumb to mortal weakness.

Numbers don't lie. They aren't bound by emotional attachment and feel no regret. When you thought you were tightening up and only playing when you had the best of it the numbers wouldn't support you. You managed to push the tide back into that vast ocean of loss for a period of time. That was all you needed to conciously believe you were in control. Doing the right things. The reversal of fortune was welcoming you like the warm embrace of a lover. You were in control. When the table turned to a rock garden and they began stoning you from all sides it was just bad luck. When the table was finally shorthanded you were playing scared and the sharks could smell blood. You were folding when you should be pushing, and pushing when you should be folding. But to you they were getting lucky. You have control, and as they say, "control is an illusion".

You had a plan. It was a good plan. After playing for a year and a half you were now in position. It was now time for all those months and hours to pay off. Now that you've left the kiddie pool behind you could start using the money and skill to pay off some of that debt. The plan was to be rid of all revolving debt by the end of the year. That would make you free. Free to enjoy life just that little bit more. That plan was freedom, the plan was the catalyst. You wanted it so bad that defeat was no longer an option. You had finally reached the summit and nothing was pushing you off. Control, yeah it is an illusion. Some call it tilt. I call it stupidity.

It would be nice to say this whole tale was just an exercise in fiction. A little story to entertain the reader. It's not, It's the truth in the guise of a cautionary tale. A tale I lived through just last night. I managed to lose one third of my entire bankroll in five hours. It's left me with some hard decisions. Fortunately my bankroll is completely separate from my living expenses so I'll be able to continue playing but I'm at a crossroads. "The plan" is no longer an option at this point. Play at 3/6 is also no longer viable. In fact my bankroll now falls between the 1/2 and 2/4 levels. The conservative in me says to just drop back down to 1/2 and build back up slowly. The not so conservative says to drop to 2/4 for a few weeks, get the bankroll back up to the 3/6 level and resume the plan. Both are reasonable I'm just not sure which one is correct for me at this point. At any rate I'm taking a few days away from the tables. I'll still play Wednesday in the WPBT but that's just for fun anyway. Shakespeare was right, "To Thine Own Self Be True."

I haven't written about my own play in a while so here it goes. I'd like to first point out that the tag line to the blog has changed. I have removed the word "new" from before the "poker player" because, well, I'm not new anymore. I also removed the word "micro" from describing my limits because I now play 3/6 and can officially declare myself a low limit player.

Upon my return from the trip I continued to multi-table 2/4 and found myself playing on autopilot and getting bored. Boredom brought on loose incorrect play which in turn led to a bleeding bankroll.

Wanting to get back to basics and correct the problem meant for me getting back to one table. 2/4 didn't lend itself to the risk/reward ratio I needed to maintain interest so I made the move to 3/6. The competition here is not all that different but there are a few items that I think you may find useful when moving to this level.

Where 2/4 was full of calling stations meaning you better have the best hand, 3/6 can be full of over betting pots and bluffing. Aggression is the number one issue you will find at this level. The key is that the aggression is often misplaced. I see players all the time laying down what I believe will be the winning hands because another player is willing to raise, or reraise on the turn. With observation it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the players on both ends of this situation. Poker Tracker and Gametime+ can help speed the player evaluation process and it is important to make these distinctions. It may even be in your best interest to push back on the aggressive players when you have nothing more than second pair. This will let them know that you won't be pushed around and that your capable of reading their play. In return this type of player may now lay down to you when you have nothing because he knows you know he probably has nothing. Now that I'm writing this down it seems like a lot of overthinking, but I swear it works.

Table selection has also become more of an issue at this level. I prefer a table with large average pots and thus the high aggression factor I mentioned. It is also possible to find tables full of rocks and these tables will kill my earn rate faster than anything. As a result I find myself table hopping with much more frequency than I had in the past. It would be in the best interest of my growth as a well rounded player to seek these types of tables out once in a while. Perhaps I will in the future. I know that I should just adapt my game to the tendencies of the "Rock". It's just that when it's quick and easy to find a game that already matches my prefered style, I just don't.

Of course why should you even listen to me or consider my advice valid. Yes, I'm a winning player and have been fortunate in that respect, but so what. There are lots of winning players.

Many bloggers write of the poker books they read and which ones are the best. I've read a whole one and half poker books. That's right, a half, I couldn't even finish the second one. I'm not the study a book kinda player. I prefer to observe my opponents and try to get a read on their tendencies. I'd estimate 75% of my poker knowledge comes from table time. The rest is from reading other blogs and reviewing my own play in PokerTracker.

I'd like to say I spend the time to scope things out and do serious research like Poker Chiq does. I've recently been reading her blog since she commented on mine and I'm impressed. But again, that's not me.

I'm also not an entertaining writer, perhaps not even a good one so I'm sure Pauly doesn't read me. :) All that I can hope is to bestow a little knowledge and perhaps a little diversion from the daily grind.

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In the never thought I'd see that department: I found several copies of All In magazine at a local grocery store today. It is the January/February edition. I didn't know that they had made it past the first issue. Just goes to show you that just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger. . . .

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Cruise Report: Day 3 No-Limit Tourney.

Day three was going to prove to be one the most fun filled days of the whole trip. After another battle with a fabric challenged robe and a room service breakfast I headed down to take my seat in the $100 No-Limit tournament. This was the second of three tournaments being played on the ship and all PSO cruise winners were fortunate enough to have PSO pay our entry fees into this event.

I drew table 14 seat 2 and was given my allotment of starting chips as the field of 120 filled in the surrounding tables. The first thing I noticed after being seated was that all the tables were now 9 seated instead of 10. This helped to alleviate some of the crowding problems we had been experiencing but more changes were going to be needed to cure it. After winning two of the first three hands played, uncontested, I knew this was going to be a long drawn out process as no one wanted to get involved early. By the time we had completed our first orbit the tournament director was stopping play on our table and splitting us up. As our table was the closest to the entrance of the room I guess it made sense to split us up but nobody had been busted out and our table was full.

I was moved to a table against one of the walls and found myself seated in position 6 to the immediate left of a WPT winner. I didn't know it at the time, I'm not even sure if the episode had aired yet but I had taped it and watched it when I returned home. She looked unassuming and aside from the large rocks adorning several of her fingers her appearance was that of a quiet unassuming girl. I am of course referring to Isabelle Mercier. One of the dealers asked her if she was still "attached to that casino in Paris" but nobody else seemed to recognize her or throw any special attention her way. She also looked younger in person than on TV but she has an unmistakable taste in clothing and she performed ad nauseum the same chip tricks as she did in the Ladies Night edition of the WPT. I saw her later in the week with who I am assuming was her mother, and she was wearing this hot pink fur coat thing with fuzzy pink boots. She definitely appears to have a wild side that wasn't evident in the room.

Aside from the player in seat 9 everyone had about the same size chip stacks, well everyone but the 8 seat who had lost a big one to 9. After a few orbits and some loud shouting from other tables as players were eliminated on big hands I began to get a read on my table mates. Most came across as Rocks, including Mercier. On an interesting side note the 8 seat was also from Kansas. I never would have thought I would run into somebody from Kansas, much less someone who only lived about 20 minutes away from me. We struck up conversation and along with the lady in between us we were having a good time chatting in between hands.

As time went by it was becoming easy to steal blinds and if I was met with any resistance I knew I was beat. I managed to hold my own and at the first, and I believe only, break I had more than doubled by starting stack and we were down about half the field. There was no record kept of placings so no one ever knew what position they were in or how many players were left. There was also no structure to breaks. They made it clear they didn't want to have any if possible and the 16 min blind increases were moving the tournament along.

I believe about 5 members of the PSO team were still in it including myself. I wasn't the biggest stack left from our group but I wasn't the shortest either so I felt pretty good about my standing at the time. Upon our return to the tables things began to heat up and the short stacks began falling. Isabelle was trying to put some pressure on a few players at this point but she was running into real hands and was eliminated. After we had lost a few more players I was joined by fellow PSO'er David. He was down quite a bit but doing a good job of holding on. I didn't want to be the one to eliminate him but as fate would have it I took out the only PSO'er left besides myself.

I continued on for a little while but in order to tell you about the hand that I was eliminated on, I have to tell you about this hand first. I was not involved in this hand and the 8 seat raised it from early position. It folded around to the 3 seat who reraised. The 8 seat was still occupied by my fellow Kansan and as he was now short stacked so he rereaisd all-in. The 3 seat called and they showed their hands. The 3 seat had A's and the 8 held 8's. Kansas was dominated but an 8 came on the turn and he doubled up. The 3 seat went into tilt mode and made it very evident that he was peeved.

Fast forward two hands and I'm on the button. I'm chatting with Kansas (mistake one) and when the action gets to me I look around the table in front of me. I don't see any cards on the table so I go for the blind steal (mistake two). I normally make a standard 3 BB raise but since I only had about 6 x the BB at this point I went all in knowing the blinds would fold. They did and I looked to the dealer to push my chips towards me. Instead the 3 seat chimes in "You really stepped in it this time." He pushes his chips in and tosses a pair of A's onto the felt. I know this guy was on tilt and I swear his hands had to be concealing his cards when I looked around the table. At any rate I only held a Kh4h and I got no help from the board. I was eliminated when there were 4 tables still in play so I finished somewhere in between 27th and 36th. This was my first "live" tournament and considering these were card players I believe I did very well. It was a stupid mental mistake that ended my run and I know that sometimes it only takes one mistake, in my case I committed two in one hand.

Later in the night I returned to the card room and along with the rest of the PSO crew we managed to get a 4/8 table started by ourselves. This was a good time but I dropped about $27 by the time we broke up. I then moved back to my stomping grounds in the 2/4 arena and began what would be a journey into stupidity.

At around 9 that night we had assembled a cast of characters that was ripe for the shenanigans that would soon ensue. We managed to band together for the rest of the cruise and spent several late nights playing and closing the cardroom at 3am. The table of foolishness consisted of myself, DuggleBogey, Krager, The "Prosecutor" (a prosecutor from San Diego), and Ray (a former NFL Wide Receiver). Others joined us on various nights but we were the core group. It all started innocently enough, we were playing serious poker and Duggle had just taken down a decent pot. The difference this time was that he held the "hammer" and showed it. Now I know the hammer has gotten quite a bit of "face time" in the blogs recently and I was out of the loop when all this was going on. I don't have a comment on it but in this case it served a very good purpose. It broke the ice. A few hands later the board comes 772. We talk about Duggle's 72 and guess what he was holding. That's right, 72 yet again. At this point we all joined in the craziness and nothing and no one got any respect for the rest of the night. We were no longer playing poker, we were playing cards. It was now a social event and I've never had more fun losing $85 in my life. If they hadn't kicked us out I'm sure dawn would have come with us still slinging chips and any 72o that came our way.

Cruise Report: Day 2

Ahhhh, our first full day at sea. With room service due to deliver breakfast at 8 am I arose at 7:50 and donned the one-size-fits-all robe provided by Holland America. Now the term one-size-fits-all should represent just that, but it doesn't. Apparently there is the petite one-size-fits-all and the normal one-size-fits-all. Our cabin steward thought I would look better in the petite version. I can honestly report that this is not the case. I'm a large guy and this thing barely covered the essentials. When room service knocked on the door I had so seek refuge under the covers to spare myself what I'm sure would be embarrassing cooler talk by the ship's crew.

After breakfast and a little lazy time I headed to the cardroom. Today Cardplayer was hosting it's first of three tournaments during the cruise. This event was a $100 limit hold-em tourney and I chose not to participate as I don't care for limit tournaments. This tournament like all those that followed, used every table in the room. As players were eliminated they would open up live games. As luck would have it I arrived at just the right time and was seated after a short wait.

I was destined to enjoy myself on this trip and my fellow players made sure that would happen. Being seated with some of the same players as the night before I began to pick up on their idiosyncrasies and was taking advantage of it. The deck was also doing it's part and my big hand of the afternoon was another full house, K's full just like the night before. This time however I had the lead from the time the cards were dealt and I scooped a nice pot. I finished the afternoon session up $113 and feeling quite pleased with myself.

Ending on a very good note I went in search of my wife. She had found her own oasis of bliss in the form of the spa. A very nice layout with saunas, massages, workout equipment, everything you'd expect from a spa on land. We had also managed to meet a couple just a little younger than ourselves during the boarding process the night before so my wife had someone to hang out with during my hours of absence.

The dinner was again amazing and after countless desserts we retired to the Vermeer Lounge for a Broadway Review performed by the Ryndam Dancers. It wasn't exactly on par with Broadway but you get what you get when your in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Mexico. It was very obvious that the male dancers were much more talented than the women which seemed just a bit odd. All in all though it was enjoyable and afterward I found my sealegs carrying me back to the cardroom.

I managed to be seated with a player who I had sat with every time thus far. He was almost old enough to be my father and he was there with his parents. In fact his mom was seated at our table. This player had a name in common with a very famous TV deputy so I'll refer to him as deputy from here on out. I wanted to call him deputy on the ship but I wasn't sure he'd find it that humorous.

Anyway this guy was a tilt waiting to happen. Many players throughout the week complained about him but I loved playing with this guy. He was predictable and was more than willing to lay down a winner to the proper aggression, especially if he was already on tilt. Another bonus was that he had a bad habit of telling people what he thought you held on occasion. He had paid enough attention to know that I have tight starting requirements but failed to think that I may change those requirements once I knew he had figured this out. This was a habit many players would mistakenly fall into. (you reading this duggle)

Moving on I was able to use that to my advantage and logged another winning session. Midnight was approaching and I had to be in the cardroom by nine for the no-limit tournament in the morning. I was riding a high with 3 winning sessions and I felt like only good things were going to happen in the morning.

More to Come.....

Cruise Report: Day 1

What do jellyfish stings, over-crowded seating, and being silly till 3am get you? One amazingly enjoyable Cardplayer Cruise that's what. This was our first cruise ever and it was one helluva good time. I have decided that I could live as a passenger on a cruise ship for the rest of my life.

It all started innocently enough as we awoke at 4am on Saturday the 4th to go to the airport. Ofcourse we didn't finish packing until 1am so the entire time in the air was spent sleeping. Upon arrival the chilly, meaning colder than it was in Kansas City when we left, San Diego air was quite a surprise. Our cab ride to the pier was a short 10 minutes and after clumsily working our way through the preboarding process we were on board at 11:30am. Since the stateroom, ie. closet doubling as sleeping quarters, wouldn't be ready until 1pm we were left to explore the ship. I wouldn't describe the ship as a floating city as we were on a smaller vessel that only held 1,300 passengers, but it was definitely a floating 5-star hotel. The MS Ryndam had all the bases covered with bars, nightclubs, theater, casino, pools, and more.

After getting settled into the room we left for the introductory cocktail party being hosted by Cardplayer. As previously agreed upon my wife and I wore our PokerSourceOnline.com polo shirts so we could find our group and meet everyone. Cardplayer Cruises provided us with some nice welcome aboard gifts including a t-shirt, a nametag/money holder to wear around your neck, and a small waterproof container to hold items while on shore excursions. Each item was very useful during the trip. The actual Cardplayer Cruise constituent numbered around 400 of the overall 1,300 passengers on board. The PokerSourceOnline group comprised of the company owners Mike and Peter as well as Peter's dad Steve and grandfather Nelson. The "players" were myself, DuggleBogey and his wife, Krager, John, and David along with his girlfriend.

Linda Johnson of CardPlayer and WPT fame gave a brief talk about what to expect on the cruise and informed us that hold 'em and omaha would be spread with limits ranging from 2/4 up to 10/20. We were also told that they would accommodate the players and spread any other games wanted but I found out later on that this was not the case.

The ship left port during the cocktail party and afterwards we headed straight to dinner. Since all members of the poker cruise were given the same dining time we were able to eat dinner every night with the PokerSourceOnline group. This proved to be a most entertaining and fun group of people. I truly hope we can all stay in touch in the future.

I don't remember the specifics of most meals on board but the food was generally very good and I remember eating steak for most of them. It in fact became quite a topic of conversation towards the end of the trip as some people were amazed at just how much steak I could eat in a weeks time.

I had no intention of playing cards on the first night but with the wifes permission I ventured to the card room after taking in a comedy show at the ships Vermeer Lounge. The wait list was surprisingly small but the room was jam packed. The "board" was a dry erase board on an easel located at the entrance to the converted conference room, now poker room. I would have thought the poker room would be part of the ships casino but apparently they don't play poker in ship's casinos. You learn something new every day. The Poker room itself wasn't all that big and I didn't get an accurate count of the tables crammed into the room, but if memory serves it was around 19 with 10 seats each. This led to very crowded conditions. You couldn't move in your seat without hitting the person next to you or behind you. My 10 minute wait for a seat was eased by the buffet style spread of snacks that was laid out whenever the card room was open. We were truly treated very well.

Much to my surprise a majority of the players could be classified in the senior citizen category. Since my bankroll for the cruise was going to limit my play to mostly 2-4 I found myself at tables full of mostly older women during daytime and evening hours. This didn't turn out to be as bad as it may sound since most were very friendly and very weak. My game required no adjustment as the tables played very similar to the Party Poker tables I was used to. This meant several callers preflop and action to the end. Most players paid no attention to your play and those that did were usually vocal which really helped out as the week went on.

After displacing half the players in the room just to get to my seat, I sat down very nervously at my first real live poker table. I didn't want to look like an idiot, I'd save that for later, so I was very quiet and tried to stay below the radar on my first night. I did a lot of folding for most of it and was going to finish down about $20 when I found a pair of K's staring at me. My raise sent no one out and others decided to bump it up. We were capped preflop with 4 players and the flop paired the board with a blank. This brought another flurry of betting and we only lost one player. The turn was much more subdued as it was only one bet each. The river brought me a third K for the full house and after capping the river I found that I had dealt out my first bad beat of the cruise as one player had pocket A's and the other had trips. I folded a few more times and decided to call it a night with a profit of $23.

I know $23 is nothing to get excited over but this was my first time playing live in a poker room environment and I had survived. Not only survived but learned a lot. As my week of playing would go on I'd learn that playing live is actually much easier than playing online. Opponents will give away so much and if you press the right buttons without them knowing it, you can really increase your advantage. You lose these nuances online because there isn't that human connection. I walked away with a much greater appreciation, and yearning, for the live game.

I've scribbled on long enough about day one. Day two to come....

Test
I have loaded Hblogger onto my new toy, the PalmOne Treo 600, so I'm writing this to test the upload process. If all goes well, Part I of the CardPlayer cruise report will show up in the morning.

I know I've been offline for a very long time....Work has been busy since were in the middle of a regime change and any freetime I've had at home has been spent playing instead of writing.

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Vacation Time

I've been a bad little blogger and I haven't updated when I should. I've been getting ready for my Cardplayer Cruise which embarks on Saturday the fourth. It's seven days on high seas and my excitement is getting out of control.

On the actual poker playing front I've finally made the move to 2/4. It isn't playing any differently than 1/2 and I'm able to 3-table it just as I did 1/2. I've come across a program to replace PlayerView. It's called GameTimePlus and it integrates with Poker Tracker and all of it's supported sites to offer stats overlayed to the screen just as PlayerView did. The huge advantage being that GameTimePlus can be used with all sites where PlayerView was only available for Party skins.

I will make sure to take notes on my poker playing times during the cruise. A full trip report will follow upon my return in a little over a week.

Wish me luck.

Oh, I just realized this was post #100. Century milestone reached. More to come