A little luck never hurts

The almighty JackAce. Limp/called min-raise from LP. UTG bet pot on the flop, I re-potted it; LP writes "set?" and then mucks. I type "just raise so I can muck," the guy shoves, and I call:

Turns out my shove was a great idea: the LP raiser (who typed "set?) claimed he had AJ as well. My shove avoided a split pot.


Next one is self-explanatory - kind of. A number of limpers preflop, and SB pops it to $0.50. I min-raise to $0.90. He pot-raises; I pot raise (kind of felt like Euro-Rounders, but it worked), he finally shoves, and (of course), I call:

I'm not sure if I continue to raise pre if I'm him: at some point with QQ I think I'd just call and see a flop.


Last one was a bit of a gambool: I raised pre from the CO with 6d7d, button reraises, I smooth call. The flop gives me a flush draw, and unless he has an overpair I'm in good shape. He raises my flop bet, I shove, he INSTAcalls:


Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for the flush, but OMG runner-runner straight frackin' flush!!

Yea, I know, shoving with a 7-high flush draw may not be +EV. Like I mentioned yesterday most all of my mistakes of late have been from being too aggressive. I think this is the first time in a long, long time where my game is at a turning point. I was a smart player, then I became a decent player, and I'm at the point where I'm moving away from "decent" and towards "good." I'd be surprised if I didn't screw up some during this time.

Most every transition is uncomfortable, and I'm sure to stumble some more while I grow. But it'll be worth it in the end.

sink or swim

Sure, it's a short down swing. It just sucks. I lost a couple buy-ins at $10NL last night. Again, I don't feel like I'm playing poorly, I just...well... I'm bleeding money. I think perhaps I tightened up too much: at $10NL I had good success when I was seeing 35% of the flops; I tightened up a bit at $25NL and see 25-30%, and thought if I carried that trend at the lower level that my win rate would go up.

Two things I both love and hate at $10NL: 1. If someone holds 63o on a 3KQJ9r board, there's a good chance they won't be able to fold (how do you call half-pot and 3/4 pot bets with a 3 on that board?!); AND2. Shoving $6 (read: 60 bb's) or more preflop 10 times in a row.

The first one is usually +EV, as when you have A10 or J10 or such you get paid off. I make plays for pots on occasion too, and boards like that are often perfect for it. The times you bluff at it with say 67s and get called by the monsterous 63o is laughably annoying.

The second one is, for me, just a little annoying and an exercise in patience. When I'm not getting a good price I typically won't call here without KK or AA. Last night a shove-monkey took a bad beat and shoved 13 hands in a row. He's in MP, I'm immediately to his left with QQ. After 13 shoves I figured there's a good chance QQ is good here. Well, he tables KK, and flops a K to boot.

Awesome.

I know one thing I should have done, but did not: shortly after this beat, I noticed my emotions were on a roller coaster. At that point, I should have shut down FTP and watched one of the Lost Season 3 DVD special features (when my emotions are riled it affects my play - yes, even at $10NL). Instead, I tried to play through, and tightened up too much I think. While some people spew when they tilt, I clamp down. Both are -EV.

To end the night, I decided to really torture myself and played some RAZZ. I actually made up some of my losses (which is why I was down only 2, and not 3, buy ins). So tonight if I play I'll either be at Razz or possibly even the teeny SNG's - it's been months since I was in one of those.

Though if I stick to my best game (NLHE) I've got a better chance to curtail the downswing. Yea, I'm down over $120 since Friday. Now I see why playing $25NL too light is dangerous; though an even worse decision was to wait too long to move down.

Movin' on down...

After horrendous results this weekend (horrendous as in being down $100), I have to step back down to $0.05/$0.10. The vast majority of my losses were a result of too much aggression (which, for me, is a good thing (in a way) as I had become a little too passive at .05/.10).

The biggest one I remember is raising my opponent all-in on a KQx flop when I held pocket tens. He led out OOP with a larger than pot-size bet; I raised to put him all-in. I've seen so many over-raises with draws from so many players that I was convinced he had J10. Turned out he had AA, but he took quite a while to call -- afterwards he said he thought maybe I had KQ. I know this was a dangerous raise; I also don't know whether I would have made the same raise if our stacks were deeper. As it stood I only lost ~$12 on that hand.

I also suffered a bunch of out-draws, especially yesterday. A while back I had sworn off playing on Sundays as I felt like I got outdrawn an unfair amount; however logically I can't believe this would be the case so I've plowed through it... I may heed that thought again, as even if it's untrue I think I'm more prone to tilt on Sundays due to this nagging thought in the back of my brain.

I again lost in a set-over-set deal, this time with 77 on an A-7-10 flop. The 3-way pot got all in on this flop, where my set of 7's was up against a set of ten's and AK. Set over set statistically happens ~2/100 times; I can recall, in the past 60 or so days, losing at least 5 set-over-set's, and winning 1. I have played well over 1,000 hands in that time, though (don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but it's multiple thousands), so while it seems unlikely, statistically it's right in line. Totally sucks when it happens.

Down 4 buy ins over 2 days play... if my roll had been healthier to start I'd be able to stay up there; as it stands I started playing $0.10/$0.25 on the lighter side anyway, so the most prudent move is to head back down.

I played down there last night, and while the play at .10/.25 is far from brilliant, the play at .05/.10 is amazingly horrible. Best example (and unfortunately I couldn't be a part) is when UTG shoves all-in for ~$5 (mind you, there is fifteen cents in the pot prior to this!!!). What two hands call him? 9-10 soooted, and KQo!!! And the best part: guess what UTG was holding? 8-6o!!!

Gotta love shoving a half-a-buy-in to try to collect fifteen cents in blinds! Key to these tables is to not get too fancy too often, and for me - play over 2-3 tables and wait for mostly premiums and position plays.

Back to the basics...

Micro-limit bankroll building

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't build a bankroll playing the $10 tables; I've been doing it. My goal was to get my roll from approx $150 up to $300, at which point I'd move to $0.10/$0.25, or $25, tables.

I knew that $150 was lighter than I'd have liked to start with; in reality my starting roll was $170, but still - 17 buy-ins isn't a lot of wiggle room. In a sense my roll was bigger, as could always dip into my "live game roll," but I was determined to not do any more deposits on fulltilt.

I haven't been on some sick, insane, luckbox run - I have played well, and most nights showed at least a small profit. Once my roll got up to around $220, I began adding a table. When I got up to $250, I tried adding a third. When I got up to $280, I added a fourth. That went horribly, so I went back to three. And then I just found I played more comfortably on 2.

Plan was at $300 to move up to $25 tables, but when I hit $300 I didn't feel that it was quite enough. So I decided I'd stick to the small tables until I got to $325, then take one shot at the next step. That didn't go so well, so back down to the small tables, and kept at it.

Pretty soon, I get up to $340 and try again. And this time I almost double through. And so I try again, and do OK. Adding a smattering of $10 tables, and a few $25, my roll is now over $400.

That's approx a $240 profit in a month and a half. And while that's not a helluva lot of money, if you look at the stakes I played in that's between ten and twenty buy ins.

Yes, the play here is atrocious. Yes, your flopped set will sometimes get runnered by A8o. But as long as you don't fall into the same trap as these clowns, just because "It's not that much money," then you have a chance of being a winner here.

Back in the spring I was playing these tables, and was taking a beating; I was overplaying hands BIG time, and too often tried to force people off hands. Now, though, I play more carefully (it doesn't take long to identify the players who will call you down holding 44 on a suited 10-K-7-5 board) - and more tricky. Yes, I play monster hands, but I also play the 64s, the occasional 710, etc... unpredictable.

In the last couple months I've played consistently, and consistently well. I've become a better player, and a more patient player. I've learned to fold AK preflop; I've learned if someone open raises all-in for $5 (50x's bb), that I don't call unless I have AA (it's not that I'm always behind here, it's just that it's too big of a risk with too little information - there will be more profitable scenarios to get involved in). I've learned to fold top pair. I've learned to call with middle pair in the right spots -- all the basic stuff that thousands of hands will give you practice with.

Funny thing now is that if I stick with the $25 tables, my roll is sort of back to where it was: I have 17 buy-ins. Again, I know this is light, but I can be effective here. And if I drop below $350, I move back down.

One and done

Perhaps I'm being silly about it, but I'm taking my HUGE step moving from nickels and dimes to dimes and quarters seriously. I started at .05/.10 with the specific goal of building a roll to comfortably move to .10/.25 and then keep building on that. I don't want to dump any more money into my account, I want to do it the old fashioned way.

So after 3 weeks, and due to the horrid play at .05/.10 and an insanely sick run this evening while 3-tabling, I won more than what I set for myself to take a shot at .10/.25.

I just got done taking that shot. Here's the highlight (yes, singular):


*** HOLE CARDS ***
gsw61515 calls $0.25 with [2h 2d] <--- time for some set-mining
MP1 calls $0.25
Cutoff folds
button folds
SB calls $0.15
BB checks

*** FLOP *** [4h 7s 2c] <--- MONEY!!!
SB checks
Villain bets $1
gsw61515 calls $1
MP1 folds
SB folds

*** TURN *** [4h 7s 2c] [4d] <--- BOAT!!!
Villain bets $1.50
gsw61515 calls $1.50 <-- no raise; he's doing my betting thankyouverymuch

*** RIVER *** [4h 7s 2c 4d] [8d]
Villain bets $3
gsw61515 raises to $8 <--- value-raise
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain raises to $47.10, and is all in <--- sweeeeeeeeeet!!!
gsw61515 calls $14, and is all in

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain shows [7c 7h] a full house, Sevens full of Fours <--- NOOOO!!!!!
gsw61515 shows [2h 2d], twos full of fours
Villain wins the pot ($47.50) with a full house, Sevens full of Fours
gsw61515 is sitting out, and is steaming

I think FTP hates me.

I did what I said I'd do: build up a couple more .05/.10 buy-ins and take a stab at .10/.25. And yes, I saw some HORRENDOUS play - incredibly bad. I want to play there again, looked juicy. I don't think there's any way to not go broke on my hand, except to not play deuces; I'd do it again in a heartbeat, though - no one is going to expect a set of deuces.

But since I busted on that one, I'm going to head back down to .05/.10, and when I'm back up another $25 I'll try again.

Oh, and yes - that was the one and only hand I played.

The benefits of tilting opponents

Just a few hands ago, Victim called an all-in when he hit top pair / 8-kicker on a Q97 board. Opponent had KK, and this really irked Victim. The player with KK was quite tricky, min-raising UTG, and smooth calling a pot-size flop bet by victim, and shoving the turn. Here is some chatter from Victim after that hand:

Victim: wtf are you talking about my call was good i justdidnt have the right cards
Victim: i had no way to know you had KK dumbass
Victim: because you just call preflop and call the flop
Victim: learn how to bet proper
Victim: and maybe people will take your cards seriously


Clearly, this guy is not quite as good as he imagines.

While the other players at the table were egging him on, I was consoling him a bit, telling him it was a tough beat and he couldn't have played it any differently. I like to make friends with the fish; makes them think I'm on their side and gives them further justification for their bad play (which hopefully will continue in future hands against me).

He's destined to tilt off some money, so if someone can get lucky and pick up a monster, he's probably getting felted. Thankfully, I got to be that someone:


*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gsw61515 [Kh Ks]
Victim raises to $0.30 from UTG
gsw61515 raises to $1.05 from UTG+1 <-- no need to slow play from EP: he won't respect the raise anyway


Victim: im sick of this table anyway
Victim: im all in
Victim: when its my turn
gsw61515: I call <-- only reason I said this was b/c the only 2 ppl who hadn't folded yet only had like $1.

Victim raises to $5.65, and is all in
gsw61515 calls $4.60

Victim shows [Jc Ac]
gsw61515 shows [Kh Ks]

*** FLOP *** [3s Qh Qs]
*** TURN *** [3s Qh Qs] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [3s Qh Qs 7s] [3h]

Victim shows two pair, Queens and Threes
gsw61515 shows two pair, Kings and Queens
gsw61515 wins the pot ($10.35) with two pair, Kings and Queens
Victim is sitting out

The only unfortunate thing was this guy left the table. I really wish he'd reloaded, but I'll be looking for him...

A while ago I said something about moving up a level after my roll got to a certain spot. Well, I hit that spot, but what I want to do is log another couple buy-ins at this level, and use that for one shot at the next level, and see how the play is there. If it's as horrid as at the lowest of the low, then I'll probably stay there.

I have no need to move quickly, I'm in no rush - so I want to ensure my comfort before moving up one.

high risk / big $$ vs low risk / steady $$

Just the other day I decided to play some (*gasp*) limit at Tilt. I played the lowest limit (.25 / .50), and expected to see the loose type play I'm used to at $3/$6 at the local casinos, where ATC seems to be the mantra. Well, how wrong I was! 90% of the players were weak-tight, or loose maniacs playing every hand trying to muscle out the opponents with nothing. It almost seemed like these players didn't really even understand the game much!

My first experience was Sunday night - I played for about 20 minutes before going to bed, and doubled my $8 buy in. I had insomnia, so from about 3:30am - 4:30 am I sat at a full speed table, and pushed my $10 buy in to $35; total profit: $33.

Last night, I experimented with two tables, for about 1.5 hours. Table one: From $10 to $21; table two: from $10 to $19; total profit: $20

Tonight, I just got done with an approximately 60 minute session, where I had 3 tables for 50 minutes, 2 tables for 5, and just 1 for about 5. Table one: from $8 to $21. Table 2: from $8 to $13. Table 3: from $8 to $19; total profit: $29.

SO: approx 3.5-4 hours, profit: $82 (approx. $20/hr)

This showed me a few things:
1. The players at these limits SUCK
2. I'm actually a good limit player (and yes, there is more to limit than just catching cards!)
3. Watching what the players would be raising / betting with on the flop made me realize that the players at the NL tables are betting / raising with similar stuff (often weaker holdings than I fear they have)
4. I enjoy limit
5. I am quite comfortable playing limit

Yes, you can make a much bigger profit playing $1/$2 NL than $4 / $8 limit; and I'm FAR from turning my back on NL, but playing limit can bring a steady profit, with less risk (and, thus, smaller reward). While I'm SO looking forward to NL in Vegas, I will most likely be hitting a limit table here and there for some lower-stress fun.

Couple things I need to take from my limit play to the NL table: being comfortable to raise with more marginal hands (like my new favorite category of hands, the suited-gapper), especially in position. I am comfortable playing more aggressively at limit than I am at NL. NL I'd categorize my cash-game as moderately-weak tight (and my tourny play just a little bit less weak); limit I'd categorize it as semi-tight-aggressive. I need to bring that same categorization over to the NL side.

Tomorrow, I move up to $0.50 / $1 and see how the competition is; if it's anywhere near as poor as the low limit, I'll be STOKED!