Brief Update

10NL has been pretty break-even overall. I had a big initial upswing, where I got up to around $280ish, then dropped a whole bunch of it getting waaaay too loose for the limit. I'm sitting on around $167 right now. I'm closing in on enough FPPs for the $50 bonus from the VIP store, and I'm about halfway to the next VIP stellar reward. I think I'm going to extend the amount of my roll I'm going to save up until I move up to the next limit, as I can see myself spewing off a lot in terrible spots and blowing my whole roll at 25NL (which I've done before). I feel like I'm playing a much better game, although I'm definitely waaay too stationy as well.

I've played some hands on the deepstack tables, and it's a fucking goldmine. Everyone is extremely weak-tight, and if you're a decent handreader, it's really not difficult to pick a few good spots to bluff, and at the deepstack tables, people will fold TP/MP to 3 barrels. Just gotta pick your spots well.

Going to do some work, as well as some review. I'm going to go through some hands from the tourny I shipped and talk about them a bit. So there's something to look forward to :).

Boo-yah

PokerStars Tournament #284580135, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
368 players
Total Prize Pool: $736.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/06/23 20:15:00 ET


Dear NimhOfJoy,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 117.76 award has been credited to your Real Money account.



Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

Woot! Moving up to 10NL now. I have $180. Enough 5NL, now I'm getting somewhere!

Back Down to $70

I played a bunch of tournaments last night and bricked 'em all, so that cost me like $25 (I need to stick to the cheaper ones until I get to a point where that's not such a huge portion of my bankroll; I play the $8.80 6-max @ 9:40, as well as a few MTT SnGs). I then played cash and was playing break-evenish until I made a few spazzy bluffs and immediately shut it down. That's what I get for playing tired. Bad news bears.

I did play a little this morning, and won back a buy in+, so I know for certain I'm getting the hang of playing down here; I just need to not play tired (obviously) and stick to the limits of my roll for tournaments. Unfortunately, Stars doesn't have a lot in the way of 6-max tournaments, so I try and play in as many of those as possible, and some of them are really beyond my roll right now.

It's too bad this blog doesn't have more strategy; it's just that there's not a lot of strategy to be discussed down here. Bet you decent made hands until they give you a reason not to; I semi-bluff a bit, but mostly just stick to value spots. Players call 3 streets with middle pair, so just bet bet shove, and make manies :).

Back Over $100!

Yup, title says it all. I tightened up my game, bumped up the number of tables, and I climbed over the hump. I'm back over $100 and feeling really good about myself. I just gotta stop getting mad that players don't fold TPTK and start exploiting them for it:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($6.94)
SB ($7.13)
BB ($5.96)
UTG ($9.11)
MP ($0.43)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8♠, 8♥
UTG bets $0.10, MP calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($0.42) 9♥, A♦, 8♦ (4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $0.15, MP calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.55, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.40, MP calls $0.18 (All-In)

Turn: ($1.85) 7♠ (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG bets $0.20, Hero raises to $1.35, UTG calls $1.15

River: ($4.55) 5♥ (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG checks, Hero bets $4.94 (All-In), UTG calls $4.94

Total pot: $14.43 | Rake: $0.71

Results:
Hero had 8♠, 8♥ (three of a kind, eights).
UTG had A♣, K♣ (one pair, Aces).
MP had Q♦, 9♣ (one pair, nines).
Outcome: Hero won $13.72

(Yes, I mis-sized my turn raise, I thought it was big enough at the time to get to the river with a pot-sized bet left, but I did the math wrong :(... still, it worked out for me.)

Breakever Over 8 SnGs

Yup. Broke even. I definitely feel I am much better at cash games than SnGs. I just think I need to learn SnGs, as the home game I'm playing at might be switching to that format. Maybe I'll play SnGs more, get some experience before this weekend.

New Layout

I hope you like the new layout. I'm playing 8 tables of $3.40 SnGs. After I'm done with that, I'm out to run some errands. Wish me luck!

Short, Nice Session

Made like $18 today, which is nice. Puts me just around $80. I'm taking a break today, as I have some work to do. Will be doing some session review throughout the day (to take a break from the work). I've posted some hands @ 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-ato-flops-trips-value-line-809116/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-qq-good-fold-vs-unknown-808364/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-set-vs-river-overshove-806795/

Another Few Short Sessions - Still Breaking Even

Title says it all. I was playing a short session this morning, I was up a little bit towards the end of the session, and just as I was wrapping up, this hand happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($12.48)
Button ($7.02)
Hero (SB) ($5.76)
BB ($1.88)
UTG ($10.28)
Villain (MP) ($5.15)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q♣, Q♦
UTG bets $0.20, Villain calls $0.20, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.85, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.65, Villain calls $0.65

Flop: ($2.60) 7♠, 2♠, J♥ (3 players)
Hero bets $1.75, 1 fold, Villain raises to $4.30 (All-In), Hero calls $2.55

Turn: ($11.20) A♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($11.20) 10♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $11.20 | Rake: $0.55

Results:
Hero had Q♣, Q♦ (one pair, Queens).
Villain had J♦, A♣ (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Outcome: Villain won $10.65

I know I shouldn't be using this blog as a place for me to complain. I just don't know how to get past 5NL with this shit happening. It's making it very difficult for me to keep a level head when suckouts of this nature are constant. The amount of times I've had something like this happen (i.e. recent hand where I had AA, villain l/c w T5o, calls 2 streets on TJxx rainbow, and rivers his 5) makes it difficult for me to feel comfortable going to value bets in spots where I probably should be. It's hard for me to say "I'm ahead of his range here" because their range is FUCKING ANYTHING.

Like this shove. Higher levels, villain is flatting flop, shipping turn when he improves (or folding turn if he doesn't). If the villain is shipping this spot at 25NL, it's more likely he's got a set and I should probably fold. Down here, though, TPTK is the nuts, nobody folds 2nd pair to 2 bets, it's crazy. And if that's the case, I don't know if I should value bet rivers sometimes w TPTK or TP2K, because people will hit all sorts of stuff. It's crazy, and I'm finding it difficult to adjust.

I've also been looking at my EV graph, and I'm running like $500 below EV over the past 3 months. Granted, it's at various limits (and I know A LOT of that was the short stint I did at FTP; god, the downswing I had when I moved over there was RIDICULOUS - never going back), but still, knowing that you're getting it in ahead a lot and getting screwed is both comforting and frustrating at the same time. Just have to remember that if you keep playing well, you'll get there.

In more positive news, I played a live game and walked off with all the chips yesterday. Made $79. At least I know my live game is improving tremendously. The guy who hosts the game suggested switching it to a SnG tourny structure instead, so that other people have a chance to make money, as I've won all the money 2 out of the 3 times we've played. I'm not as much of a SnG specialist, but if it keeps the game running, I'm down.

I've got commitments for today, but if I get a chance, I'm going to do some review.

To update, I am at $63ish right now. I've been swinging up and down between $60 and $80. If this upswing in the live game continues, I'm going to take some of that money and put it online. I want to play 10NL. (Really, I want to go back to 25NL, but I want to work my way up there on my own.)

That's all for now. I feel I'm remaining generally calmish, but I shut down the game after the above suckout, because it totally ruined my session. Oh well, what can you do? Just gotta stay positive.

Epic Breakeven Stretch

Between the last few sessions I've played I'm up like $2 over some like 3k-4k hands. I've bumped up the number of tables and tightened up significantly. I probably need to fold more, to be honest. That is my biggest problem in general. Too much bluffing, not enough folding.

I have tightened up preflop, though. No more opening weak aces on the button, no more opening suited connectors UTG. No more 3betting T7s to balance my range. Just pure value hands. I also need to start folding 1 pair hands to aggression at this level. People don't bet that much without 2pr+. So yeah, I'm getting there. Just gotta stop getting frustrated.

Wow... just... wow

I'm down $40ish since I last posted, putting me around $64. I played two sessions that both went badly. One down around $25, one down $15ish. I'm starting to do some review of some of my hands, but I need to do a solid review of everything before I get back into it.

I know I keep saying that, and I'm so far behind the number of sessions I need to review to get caught it. It's just that it takes so long to review everything, that I'd spend more time reviewing than I would playing if I got caught up on everything.

For starters, I need to tighten up my game. I play waaaay to loose, and since no one folds at this level, I'm a) bluffing too much and failing or b) getting sucked out on a lot by people who can't fold second pair or BDFDs. There have been a few coolers as well (running my FD into NFDs, set over set, set running into made/drawing-to-made flushes, etc.). So yeah, I'm going to bump back up to 8 tables and go back to what I was doing @ 2NL, which was waiting for decent hands and betting them when they hit. I really have not being just playing solid poker properly and I've been losing as a result.

I know I'm below my 5NL threshold, but I can't go back to 2NL. I just can't. If I drop below like $40 (which I REALLY hope doesn't happen), then I'm dropping down. But right now, I'm going to tough it out. I'm going to tighten up significantly, doing some reviewing, and see where we go from there.

So I Lied...

I played a short session today. It went much better. I made $15ish, which puts me around $102ish.

I've started reviewing some more hands. The CardRunners HH replayer is working a bit better; I don't if it's because of my email or what happened. I did find that if I made some random edit, undid the edit, saved the file, and THEN uploaded the hand history, it worked. I have no idea why or what the deal is with hand histories and replayers, but it's a fine enough workaround, so I'm not really going to worry about.

I have soooo many sessions to review. I'm going to start going through them a little more today. Ultimately, I don't really feel it's necessary to review everything as I'm going; it's just important to be constantly reviewing your play. I'm working my way through all the HHs I have so far, taking notes about my play, adding notes into Stars on my opponents (to me, that's the most important part; when you're playing 6-8 tables, you don't have time to watch every hand and take notes on your opponents play in hands you're not in), and generally, trying to improve myself as I move forward.

It's too bad I had such a bad day yesterday, but poker is like that. You take 2 steps forward, one step back, downswings and breakeven stretches are the norm, and sometimes you tilt and undo a lot of good play. Ultimately, if you go into every session in the best possible mindset and a clear head, the cards will do what they do.

Oh My FUCKING God - I hate 5NL

This type of shit is constant, and I can't take it anymore:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

SB ($2.58)
BB ($0.50)
UTG ($2.01)
Hero (MP) ($9.94)
Button ($4.32)

Preflop: Hero is MP with J, 10
1 fold, Hero bets $0.15, Button raises to $0.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.57) 7, 2, J (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $0.35, Hero calls $0.35

Turn: ($1.27) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $0.45, Hero raises to $1.45, Button calls $1

River: ($4.17) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.30, Button calls $2.27 (All-In)

Total pot: $8.71 | Rake: $0.42

Results:
Button had 9, 9 (three of a kind, nines).
Hero had J, 10 (two pair, Jacks and tens).
Outcome: Button won $8.29

I need to stop, and do some handhistory reviewing before I continue playing. I have to know how much of this downswing was bad play, and how much of it was from this kind of bullshit. I WANT TO PLAY 10NL SO BAD!!! AAAARGH!!!!

I'm taking tomorrow off, and I'm limiting my play Monday to just a few tournies. I ended up down $47 today, which completely undid my great day the other day, and leaves me around $89.

Now, I know some of that was bad play, I know at least $15 of it is suckouts (I have the EV graph to prove it), there were a few coolers (one was a boat over boat, there were a few set of set situations as well). I need to find a hand history replayer that works tomorrow and review all this, because this is really starting to piss me off. I'm sure this hot weather isn't helping either.

God dammit.

Big Ups, Big Downs

Bleh, today I lost $23ish. Definitely lost a bunch at the beginning of the session on suckouts. I don't think I tilted too much, honestly, but I definitely played a REALLY long session, and played a good portion of it without enough focus on what was going on. I needed more coffee and maybe more sleep in general. Can't be doing that, definitely -EV. However, given my mental state and the suckouts, I definitely think it could have been a lot worse, which is pretty good. I kept my cool well enough to play OK poker, not A-game, but definitely at least B-game.

Yeah, definitely need more coffee. My head is starting to hurt :(.

I haven't received a response to my email to CardRunners about their replayer, except to say that its been forwarded on to their tech department. I'm going to play around with it again tonight, but we'll see what I'm going to do about that.

ARRRRRGH!!

So now the CardRunners HH replayer is giving me trouble. WTF?! How hard could it be to make a working HH replayer?! I sent them an email, we'll see if I get a response and how long it takes them to fix it. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow, or it doesn't get fixed soon, I'm moving on to try the Universal Replayer. I'll let you know how that goes.

It's too bad; if the CR HH Replayer just parsed the HH file properly, it would be a really nice program. But alas! Not all is well.

Beginning Some Review

For starters, I'm using the CardRunners HandHistory replayer. I was having some trouble with it initially, but I found if I put two line breaks at the top of the hand history file, it will parse the first hand correctly. I know Bluff.com was having some trouble with that as well. I guess it detects the HH as starting at the top of the two lines, rather than extending two lines, or something. I don't know; I figured out how to make it work though, and that's all that matters :).

So I started off reviewing some of my HHs. This was the first big one, in the first HU SnG I played. 4th hand, nothing special has happened so far, and I get overshoved into on the river after rivering my straight on a paired board. Do you call this?

Poker Stars, $2 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details


Hero: 1,600 (80 bb)
regfish: 1,400 (70 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7 6
Hero raises to 60, regfish calls 40

Flop: (120) K 8 8 (2 players)
regfish checks, Hero bets 80, regfish calls 80

Turn: (280) 5 (2 players)
regfish checks, Hero bets 180, regfish calls 180

River: (640) 4 (2 players)
regfish bets 1,080 and is all-in, Hero ???

Posted @ 2+2 here:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/58/heads-up-nl/2-hu-sng-get-overshoved-into-w-str8-paired-board-799900

Honestly, how often does villain c/c, c/c, shove a naked 8 here vs. a boat or some other pair? His line looks like he wanted to get max value and was afraid of me checking behind. So he either his a set or K8. In retrospect, I think 8x without a boat has to raise somewhere earlier. It's only with hand like a boat where he doesn't really have to worry about me improving that he can just c/c, c/c like that. It's tough to fold a straight HU, though. How often is villain just spazzing here? At this level, probably very little.

Is this result-oriented thinking? Because he obviously showed up with the boat...heh.

(Edit: I got an interesting response on the forum that I hadn't considered:

"ez call every time. fish do this with missed draws even an 8 here enough times. ya sure small % of the time they have the boat and get to the river w/o building a pot and go "oh, fk" and just over jam to get stacks in."

Maybe I am being results oriented. I think it's just that I ran into this situation in another SnG that's changing my thinking.)

After reviewing a few SnGs, I realize I am pretty bad at HU SnGs. Need to be a bit more active, stop limping my button so much, stab at a few more pots, and not call off all my chips w A4o (yes, that's how one of them ended; after a long, protracted battle, we got down to 50/100 about even with 1500ish each, I raise, villain shoves, and I call...wtf was I thinking?)

The review is certainly helpful, though, as I played the few HU sessions I reviewed pretty passively/stationy, and not well as all. With HU SnGs, it's usually waaaay too aggressive, or waaay too passive. Still trying to find that medium.

Off to bed! More review in the morning.

Great Day for ME!!

Played a couple sessions today. Made $40! Up to $136ish. Been playing much better recently. Bluffing at better times, making thinner value bets. I did have one big hand that I still don't understand the villains thought process:

CO limps, I raise to .2 w AA on the BTN, SB calls, CO min3bets to .35, and I 4b to .9. In retrospect this was definitely too small. SB + CO call.

Flop comes down T75cc, he c/c the turn. Q hits, I ship, villain turns over Q8cc, rivers another Q.

Maybe because I 4b too small, it allowed him to call that 4b, and after that, the hand played itself. I still can't believe he did that w Q8s though. Oh well. I played pretty well the rest of the day.

I noticed I got kind of angry/tilty after that hand, but I found myself regaining my composure a lot quicker than I used to, and I was able to recover that session in the black by keeping my head in the game and just playing good poker.

I also played a Step 1 SnG and shipped that for a Step 2 ticket. I'm not aiming to play the WSOP or anything, but I know the steps program is a pretty good deal. So occasionally I'm going to try and play some step 1s, try to amass some tickets, and see if I can work my way up to have a few step 6 tickets. I'll see if I can satellite into the next big tourney series or something.

Bluff.com hasn't been working so well for me. Having some uploading problems again there, so I'm looking for something more reliable that I can use to upload my sessions and watch them. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a ton of sessions that need to be reviewed, and I need a better solution. Thoughts?