Good Night at the Tables

I made back 10 buy ins last night and that puts me at even from this horrible week of cards.  I need to post my graph so you can see the greatest comeback of all time. ;)  $194.00 for those that are counting.  I have two leaks that I seem to have never noticed before, but poker tracker has brought it to light very well for me.  AK, I am playing this hand way wrong or I am playing it right, but it never becomes equitable.  I will raise hard against players with high VP, to get the extra money in the pot, I will three bet the hand almost everytime, especially against people who PRF 7% or less.  This leaves me still with the 1 in 5 of hitting the damn flop.  I show major aggression preflop and follow it up like I have a monster post-flop, depending on players, position of course, and I am losing money here..

Now, people think a call is good with AK in position, playing is passively, if you hit bet it, if you don't dump it.  The three bet is there to narrow the field down, because at this level it is what you have to do to get the players out of the hand, especially the set miners.  Now, when the flop comes (passive play) and your A or K hits with a 5 or 3 on the board with 3-4 people in the pot, wtf do you do now? You bet, you get reraised you fold, (unless there VP is high and they are a fish), but you have to fold to any competent player here, but if they just call you with no draw out there, firing the second bullet at this level pot commits you and you are most likely up against a slow played set or KQ, so you fire again. Here is when the slow play will reraise and you can still find a fold, but another call means KQ.    This can all be avoided if you  push the tight set miners out preflop.  I also like to use the fold to three bet stats, because these nits you can rob all night so make sure the three bet is equitable.  I think I am playing the hand correctly, but I am just losing big pots because I can not find the fold option and I am not seeing the straights.  (I have lost top two AK, to two straights last couple of nights, one was QJ, the other was AQ and it always happens when you raise UTG with AK and get the limpers behind you. I fucking hate AK utg at 9-man cash)

Thats it, I had a good night, made two bad plays, but I love the HUD and it has made me more money that I normally would.  I love the fact that I can call people all in preflop with middle pairs now. 

In a 20k hand Downswing

Well, I am down to $178 dollars over this past weekend.  For those counting that is 11 buy ins.  Missing flops, losing flips, and getting sucked out on.  I finally got so sick and tired of it that I went and started the 60 day trial for the PokerTracker 3 HUD.  I made .40 with it and this is definitely going to take some getting use to.  I made some calls that I normally would not make, two to be exact and was wrong once and right the other.  Ran JJ into AA, to a guy who PFR 50%, and he happened to wake up to AA on the button.  Ran KK into AA and 88 set in the same hand. LOL.  Also, called a huge raise with another 40% PFR, AK 88 push, he caught though.


Anyway, I hope the HUD gives me another tool to make better decisions.

The Night of .60 Cents

Played about 2000 hands last night and was down almost 5 buy ins at one point, but I brought it back to even plus another .60.  However, when I was playing last night and noticed that I was seeing 20% of the flops. I am not sure when I began playing a LAG style, but I have a feeling that I need to stop.  I need to get back down to the 15% range where I like to be.  I have really been losing some key hands though, which may be influencing me to change styles.  I have a KK hand where the flop was K 10 10 and I trapped, but 4th and 5th brought A A thus making me lose, along with my sets getting flushed away.  I realized last night that I am not pushing people off their draws hard enough and I am in dire need of doing so.  The problem is when there is in fact a flush draw out there at this level people tend to just push and pray, which in turn makes me have to call.  Overtime this is a profitable play, but I feel like I like to see all the cards when people are drawing the flushes so I can get away from the hand and save money.  At the micro levels I feel this is essential, not at the upper levels however.  If the flush card doesn't hit on 4th though, I need to push, and push it hard.  I want people to chase that 17% there. 

***HAND***

I was dealt 99 last night, UTG, so I made a normal size raise.  Hands fold around to the Big Blind, whom was a somewhat short stacker, and generally a bit tight.  (nitty titty)  He reraises me to around .32.  Which is a monster three bet.  I think to myself he wouldn't have played AA or KK that way, and there are two hands at this point that are in his range, which are QQ and AK.  I decide to reraise the pot to .64 and he immediately calls.

The Flop goes Q junk junk and he pushes.  If he had QQ he would check the nuts to me most likely and since I reraised him preflop and he just called AK is the only hand he could possibly have here.  I call and sure enough he turns over AK and I scoop in the winner, but before calling him I made sure to tell him what his hand was so I could steal some pots from him later ;) 

Was a very fun hand and this is something I never would have been able to do last year.  It is a good feeling knowing that your game has grown somewhat and you are able to make good sound decisions at the tables.

Treading Water

I have been up and down, hovering around $200 for about a week.  Flips going the opposite way, JJ loses to KQ, 10 10 loses to AQ, Set over Set, ran a flush into a higher flush twice, and everyone seemed to be hitting the damn draws.  I usually do not like to sniff out bluffs at the lower levels, but I generally had a feeling that I was being bluffed a ton last night, but alas, I had no way of calling.  Flushes were completing, one card straights were shown, I just could not catch a break and was down almost 5 buy ins for the night.  On the bright side of things, I know I was playing decent poker and that is all the counts. I am down around two buy ins for the week, but hopefully I can get a case of the run good tonight and make it back, but I gotta feelin its a gonna be a break even week. 

Side note:

Temper issues at the table.  I need to get this under control because I have been berating players a ton lately, when I get them to do exactly what I want them to do and they catch.  I need to just turn chat off. 

Online Poker Regulation

Well, I guess I am going to need to be emptying my online account of its funds soon because I foresee needing to change sites when this is all said and done.  18 months is way to long for no poker and this blackout period scares the crap out of me.  It will be nice however when this is all legalized and I get money out without going through the hoops.  I won 8 buyins last night in 600 hands, sometimes you just get payed off every single time. LOL.  I really need to figure out how the hell I am going to get my money off of the account, I am still pretty unclear on how that process works because I have never needed to take money out due to not needing it. 

Oh well, I guess time will tell!

Case of the run good...

Been rocking the tables as of late and have switched to a bit of a Tag/Lag combo is there is such a thing.  Pretty much just showing bad cards early and losing small pots and getting paid on the big hands from the set up.  I have just completed Rush week for the extra ten dollars along with the $25 I won from participating in the rush week.  My bankroll is now at an all time high of $180 dollars.  I never could of imagined how passive people are in rush poker.   I may play that from time to time or at least when I get the bankroll to above $200.  The only real reason that I have not fully taken onto the Rush poker is simply I do not have the software for it and I am in dire need of it for Rush.

Anyway, see you at the tables!

The Ships a floating again!!!!

I never really thought that there was such a system to this game until I started to take it somewhat seriously.  I have been a card player my entire life, losing my Christmas money back to my Grandparents from as early as seven.  Christmas and the Holidays usually end in a massive card game between the family and money is thrown around all over the place. 

Anyway, I have moved the bankroll up to $151 again from last nights session and I played a single table of .2 .5 just to mess around a bit and lost with KK to AA, which caused me to promptly leave.  I have plugged the leaks and have really worked in the three bet to a point where I feel like I have great control over the outcome of the pots.  I have even been three betting with position with some terrible hands as of late and really starting to get a feel for the way the game is meant to be played in this day of age. 

Leaks that I found and fixed

1.)  Betting draws and betting them hard. 
2.)  Playing Position
3.)  Paying attention to the board more strictly when deciding to C-bet or not. 


When you are Multi Tabling these items can tend to be over looked in the insanity that ensues with 10-24 tables. Pay attention to these three things and it will save you money in the long run.

Hmmmm

There is a leak.  There is a big leak.  Scenario, guy limps from the highjack, button raises 3 times from button, I hold AQ in the small blind.  I repop, naturally, to 4 times the raise.  Limp instantly pushes.  What the hell is going on.....  I think to myself, that the best he can have is a middle pair, so I call.  He has aces....  Bad read, did not know anything about the guy to be honest and it was around the 5th hand at the table.  I think that I have officially over done the 3bet and need to curve it down a tad bit, or make it so that I atleast have position when I do it. 

I am getting really good at guessing the range, when I take my time and do it, but lately I catch myself just going through the motions and my game has suffered entirely.  I have went from $155 to $138 in my last three sessions which is going to take a lot of work to recover. 

Anyway, see you at the tables and hopefully you don't suck out on me ;)

Running a bit bad.

I had a 8 buyin downswing last night.  Two of which were my fault completely and tilting the money away like a monkey.  Lost with KK to JJ, AA to QQ, AK to 33, K on flop, AK to AQ,  Top pair flush Draw, A 5 suited, to A 4, whom back doored the straight on me.  AA lost to QQ and A10 with a back door straight for the A10, Just sucks because over all now I am down 15 dollars over the last two days and these are the times where I let this effect my game somewhat because I tend to suffer from MUTB syndrome from time to time. 

The Swings and Cbet at the Micro Level

Always remember that this is a game of long term.  I was 6 buyins down for the week and last night I made that all back plus 2 buyins.  Things will never make sense, but if you stay consistent in your play and are a winner 60% of the time you are going to make money in poker.  My bankroll is getting healthier and I am happy with the progress that I have been able to complete.  Once the bankroll hits $500 it will be time to move up to .02 .05 starting at around 6-8 tables.  I have actually had quite good success at this level, but there are times when you are going to hit a $40-$50 dollar slide in a matter of an hour and you need to really be prepared for that moving up. I can not wait to make that move.  Before I make that move though I am in dire need of purchasing a HUD because I am leaking money in the c-bet area. 

50% is entirely to low and it needs to be at around 70%, but it really is hard to do when you have no information on the tons of people you are facing  by multi-tabling.  Playing a TAG style it is essential to follow up all raises pre-flop with a post flop c-bet, but again I find myself struggling to pull that trigger most of the time because of all the set miners and the general way the game has changed. What I mean here is that everyone cbets now and cbetting on a none scary board oop generally will get a call.  The new cbet is 4th street, bringing a larger pot and a larger cbet to the table and at that point you are most likely getting to half your stack and nearly pot committed, but if you check on 4th oop you just lost the pot and this happening time and time again costs you a ton of money over the long run.  This is why I am currently entirely to low on the cbet, but can decide if I am right or wrong. 

Cheaters

Well, I received around 20 bucks the other day from full tilt because apparently I have been playing against some bots.  Pho69, Bengalknights, are two that I know for sure that were skimming for rakeback.  I have to tell you though, I actually struggled against these bots somewhat, especially pho69. The main reason I would have to say though would be getting that huge pocket pair when they would be set mining and hitting really seemed to be my downfall, but because of these bots I have learned to sniff out sets a ton more from the hands that I have played against them. 

Anyway, I am going to be putting in a huge session tonight, hopefully I will see you at the tables.