Time to get Down and Dirty

So the job could be ending sooner then later, Still in the mix for the house, and will probably still get it. But without a job I will have to get some crappy 9-5 job, or finally make the jump to playing full time. Thinking about playing online during the day, 50max nl full ring with a slew of mtt's until 9pm, then go to the poker rooms all around las vegas and do what i can till early in the morning. THe funny thing living on the west coast is that the online games get good around noon. Must be the europeans or someone that i missed before as I would only start playing around 4pm central time.

There are leaks in my game that usually get squashed when my back is to the wall, as it is now. I have no idea what my future at my current job is as things are getting rougher everyday. My poker playing has been great or junk, little tilting esp when playing some 1/2 with a friend against super donks and not laying down nut straight to a river pair.

I believe that if i buckled down, stopped gambling, get my reads together, and put all the math together I should be able to beat the 1/3,2/5 games at will. There are good games here, I just need to luck out and get to one or two once a week. I've been at one table that was good so far, a 1/3 500max nlhe game at the palms on a saturday afternoon. One guy with 1.4k was drunk and splashing and I had no balls to take it away from him with tptk and a good kicker with a 100 raise in a 60 pot. Another guy played all the way down to the river with any two and i only got 100 off of him. The rest I've had to earn, play pp's and slow play big pairs vs aggros. But a lot of the time there are goign to be decent players at the table and for me to beat the rake and make a living i really need my ducks in a row. I know a lot of people are going to say that 2/5 players are pretty bad, but I have been surprised by some good calls, good laydowns, and even a slow roll here or there by what seemed like ur average player. The games must be good here, I just need to be able to minimize my losses during bad cards and bad tables, and maximize any edge when things are good.

Money is tight, after a dollar bad beat of 500 bucks for a week rental being under the age of 25(two more weekss). Things are extremely tight. Still need most of my things back from chicago and a car here, but I will buckle down and start getting my head right and beating up on some tables, playing good tag opening and check raising weakness as much as I can. Need to figure out the best way to approach these games, some times they call for splashing around seeing flops with donks, other times it's just waiting for a big hand and having someone overvalue there overpair or tptk.

Things will hopefully be coming together soon. I finished read em and reap by joe navarro and phil hollywood helmuth, pretty good but it needs a couple more reads to take verything from it. ALogn with that i'm going to finish hoc1 and hopefully that will get my mind back to where i was studying everyday and playing everyday and in a good state of always learning and playing my best.

It's somethign I know I can do, I just need to break down and get my ass into gear. Needing about 2k a month for basic expenses needs for me to play some grade A poker all the time, and a bankroll to cover some crazy varience. I don't have much now, but i'm ready for the challenge and Do this for a living. Any advice would be fantastic.

Thanks,

Kameran

The pool is boiling, so I jumped in: Kmon IN Vegas

So I made the jump, the pool is warm, or more like boiling. It's 113 degrees as it usually is. I'm at work reading up on my nvg, blackjack, and email. Thought i should let everyone know what is the word with your man Kam. The donktastic check raising nit that always has a line and can rarely walks it.

So I moved to Las Vegas just about a month ago, got a job and had to start somewhat immediately. Haven't had a chance back to get most of my things. But so far in the poker world things are pretty good. Ran pretty bad when i got here and stuck about 2k, Recently have been playing pretty solid and hitting some decent pocket pairs that have been holding up against mid pp's of short stacks. Some 2/5, 1/3, and a 5/10 in there that was very interesting.

Getting a house out here in 2 weeks that will be my first home that i will buy so I'm excited. The games are pretty good if you are patient and wait for some fish to swing by. Played in some rough games, soft games, crazy games, and a lot of rock/nit games.

Started also playing a lot of blackjack, counting with progressive betting an a couple other things has shown a decent profit.

SO i'm here now, things are looking good and i'm excited to get everything rolling.

Let me know if you want me to discuss some of my blackjack play and studies or anything about vegas. I'm learning the ways of sin city slowly as i work 6 days a week and still in transition stage.

Thanks and talk to you guys soon.

Back to the Grind?

Few things going on with me. Looking into movie to las Vegas and getting a job in the automotive or the culinary industry. I have a couple interviews lined up for going out there hopefully this week. As my background is in automotive with about 7 years of experience along with a 4 year degree in it. My rent is pretty nuts here, and I am looking to get a fresh start and play some low stakes poker. The games in vegas would usually be good, even though there is some drying up. But with the wsop start showing on espn soon and the main event might bring in some fresh fish i think it's a good spot to go for it.

My game is pretty solid, lose the min a most of the maximize when I have the goods. Still have a lot lto learn and a bunch of books to learn.

Since i went on a bad run of losing $130 in 2 sessions I stopped rounding to make rent and bills. I realized that my br couldn't support many bad beats and then i wouldn't even been close to paying the bills. So i stopped and been playing online dumping 25 bucks in there a month, make arun in a tourney to double my buy in and get no where to cover the rest of the tournies.

So i'm in a tight place, I have someone subleasing my place to give me the last months rent that I put up so I can get a flight and hotel in vegas to interview for a couple of positions.

Think i'm going to read tonight and start really myself to learn everything I can away from the table.

Finding the games where I'm a favorite Pt 2, deep in the 10$ 10min levels

So besides playing in the cash games, i think i'm going to grind my way up with these 3.40 sngs 18-45 players. Playing 4 of these at a time tonight should be a good way to build up a roll to around 100 so I could start playing the 6.50's where i'm going to be in the top 2 players of each sng or top 3 and with that br I should be able to handle a good amount of variance.

I also played in the $10 10 minute level mtt on stars with about 850 runners. Started off pretty hot, doubled up in the first level with trip 3's that I slow played that had two pair on the board and I think my villain thought we would chop with my river push.

Then I got into a big pot with two similar stacks, I had 910 with a 10 of clubs. the clubs out there three of them to be exact on the flop, I had two pair with a flush draw on the turn I push pretty sure i'm ahead 3 handed. I get two callers for a big 5k pot with 1500 behind, i'm up against aa with a club, and 89 for a lower two pair. River is the awesome ace and he takes it down and i'm back to my original buy in when i had a chance to sit on a top 10 chip stack for the tourney. Grind my way back up with some nice river bluffs with some scare cards, some tricky check raises and some abc poker vs a few donkeys.

Make it to the money where the top 81 get paid out of 850 field. I'm pretty short stacked after the bubble break, get jj -2 of with 5k and 500/1k blinds 100 ante or so. mp raises to 3200 and i push. He has aqo and were off to the races. flop comes a q, I get a straight draw on the turn and no dice. Back to the sng's as I made 7 dollars of my newly grown br in this mtt where i did alright.

Ran bad as I jumped into the 6.50's for a few of them, I won a 9 man and lost the 45 man on the bubble of 7.

Also wanted to stretch the noodle a little bit played in some .1/.2 limit 5card draw, .5/.1 horse limit, $25 max plo 6max with a 15 buy in, and a 45 man 3.40 sng.

Played pretty well in the draw game, had a nut flush once for a nice 3$ pot, after that ran alright my two pair never got there as they weren't that strong and left that game $1 up or so. In the horse game I folded a couple good hands thinking we were still in razz, lol. Got up to 25 in the plo game playing very tight and bluffing a scare card river with k high for a $14 pot after missing my multiple draws.

Finished the day overall plus $41 after my 25 buy in. I feel really good about playin in these 3.40 sng's. My plan is to build up to about 100 or 150 and then move up to the 6.50's. Stay away from the other cash games and maybe try out the plo hi/low sng's. Not my strongest game but the players have to be pretty weak.

Play in a couple mtt's if my br is healthy and make some runs.

Just going to play within my br for once and see what happens, i will keep u updated.

Opening up to new Games, and playing where i'm a favorite

Yesterday after work I was thinking about my busto online bankroll. Why can't I win, I ask myself. Is it my short bankroll that just can't cover varience. Am i playing against better players in the cash games that I play? Are the mtt's i'm playing in just to swingy or to expensive for my bankroll. Is playing omaha killing any chance I have to make it playing online poker?

All these questions had various answers. My bankroll is something that I cannot really control besides playing at a stakes and grinding it out to build it up. With my job I just realized I loved it, I don't work all day, right now i'm blogging and talking about my various poker playing while watching the final table of the Limit HOldem event where Kid Poka takes it down. Drinking my free starbucks coffee and eating my free strawberry nutragrain bar. The boss is gone today, so i will be watching all the events on espn 360 today while waiting to go home and play in a slew of 3.40 sng's as i did yesterday. I should have a pick of 8 tables of these sng's.

So when it came up what can i do to build up and win some money and build a br I thought of some games where I knew I was a favorite and I could Isolate the Donks. Thought about all the different games I've played over the years and with my starting 25 br. micro stake cash games, i lose about 80% of my skills with this game and should rather play roulette or bingo to make money there. What about micro plo, there's good money there but you probably need a decent bankroll to do well in that because 5 buyins can happen instantly in plo vs people worse then me. So what is there? mtt;s? To swingy can't do that. I'm a favorite in these low buy in up to $20 bucks or so mtt's but playing in a couple isn't going to get me far 4/5 times. So where do the donks line up to give me there money? the 3.40 turbo sng's, 9,18,45 player sng's is the place where I new i would be the best player and with my very small br I could run somewhat bad but cover varience for the most part. I would open up 4 tables, 2 18 player and 2 45 player turbos. Each time I would bust out getting my money in ahead.

Figuring out how to maximize my roi

My game has come a long way over the last few years. I believe that the time I have spent at the tables and doing my due diligence studying has increased my understanding of the game. But I want to break it down for a couple of reasons. One so you guys know exactly where I am when I play so u can stack me, also I want to find out where my strengths are and what areas that I can improve on. Playing a lot of different games, and soon enough learning the rest of the horse spread, at least getting better at plo hi/lo, stud, razz, draw, and limit he.

A quick summary of my game for the 10th time. Played pretty consistently with my degen high school friends for about 3 years and about 20 hours a week playing a variety of games that helped me understand the swings along with learning to read people and what play would maximize my returns(probably at this point it was something that was helping my decisions but not something I really focused on).

I started playing online, doing fairly well with a free $10 I got on prima and built that up to around a grand and then read a limit book and lost it back. In the grand skeem of things I am a losing player online, with a few decent tourney scores 200 here 600 there, only to put it back into tourneys and not finishing enough to cover the rest that I enter and blow up in early. It's funny when it comes to tourneys for me, I will go very deep if I can get passed the first 20minutes. In the beginning I flip a lot and go for shots to build a stack to push for later in the tourney. But it doesn't make that much of a difference doubling up in the beginning as that stack will be nothing to call home about when we lose half the field in an hour or so. So the risks i'm taking along with the fact that the people around me are usually pretty bad sounds like -ev.

If I just sat out the first 3 levels or so I think it would help me out, as I would be getting stats on them and understand there vpip, pfr, and there overall aggression. I think i'm going to go a little more conservative when playing in the earlier stages of the tourney's i play in. I would be able to get to the money more often, but i would be losing a little equity by not having a larger stack coming close to the bubble, but i would be able to outplay them and get my money in ahead and overall I think I would do better cashing. But one other theory of play is to have a larger stack and take some risks early on so that you can still take some bad beats and be able to have a decent stack if you are aggressive and are ok with flipping early on.

Something needs to change, as my play is good especially for the buy in amount and the level of competition that i am up against. I just need to stay in the mix of things and give myself a chance to make a run later, instead of trying to get a lot of it done early on. If I make the money twice as much with a smaller stack I think in the long term it would put me in position to do better as when blinds get pretty big compared to stack size I will be able to make better decisions.

When playing in cash games there are some things that I have recently learned that have opened up a few new cans of worms. Playing mostly $25 and 50$ 6max nlhe and plo I have gotten to the point where 3 betting is coming into play with weak holdings as I have a read on the other player trying to steal the pot from my continuation bet. When it comes to plo, i just can't get paid off and don't think i have the br to play this game properly. I have lost a decent amount getting it all in with the nuts with no redraw and losing about half the time to the redraw. I still don't understand hand values and value betting in plo to play the game to be a winner. I'm going to take some time off from plo cash, still play some of the tourney's as the mistakes that are made by the opponents are so big in these games that my lack of knowledge in the game is made up for picking my spots and utilizing the tools i have learned from nlhe.

It's hard for me to watch the paint dry and play full ring, but I imagine that the game there would be good as long as I played enough tables. Need to concentrate on playing premium hands and maybe do some set mining and try to get pot odds/implied odds to draw to big hands. It's going to take some time on my side to play in the full ring efficiently again compared to the run and gun style of 6max.

I started reading hoc 1 again and i'm looking forward to learning a lot more from it as I gained a good understanding of the mistake game that was recapped from theory and nltap.

More to come soon.

Weekend on the intranet: 11rebuy, 5rebuy, and a few sng's

Friday night I ended up going out to the club with some of our lady friends and one of my roommates, had a good time and met some interesting people.

Saturday was a day of rest besides the test of my skills and patience with some online play.

I recently went busto online which isn't much as I play a lot of mtt's and cash fairly often but rarely making enough to really have a br that can sustain a win. I understand that my br management is a little "shaky" at best. With an average br online of around 100, i'm playing in a lot of $3-15rebuys. I mostly play rebuys because of the prize pools and the inflated first place. Along with the bad players and the chance to maximize against them. But also I should look at the other side of that sword. I'm playing a lot of bad players in a large and slow blind field. This in turn is going to increase my level of variance. Playing players that don't know what there doing is plus ev+ but being in a lot of situations where bad players will make big calls with gutshots or a 25% river flush will backfire more then it should. I've been a firm believer that in a rebuy tourney you don't need to rebuy or even add-on a lot of times if you can play a good game.

So let's talk about some of the tournies I played in. After making a run with my last 1.50 in some plo I busted out when I didn't have the redraw. God I need to learn in plo that the nuts withe no flush draw is the worst. Few times I have dodge or been hit by the no draw with the atm nuts. It's hard to figure out what to do when your playing micro stake plo and there is a possiblity for an idiot end straight. But for how often I play plo, I'm losing a lot of it because of the times I do hit I can't bet them out or am just to stubborn to let go khigh flush in 6max, along with holding on to top set and getting my money in vs multiple draws. I think I need to get some studies in along with a bigger br if I want to play and be able to be +ev in this game. When it comes to plo and nlomaha in tourney's I play incredibly well, steal when I have to and maximize value other times. I need to figure out where I'm lacking that makes my plo game so bad when coming to cash games.


Back to the nlhe tourney's. Jumped into a lot of cheap 4.40 and 6.50 sng's ranging for 9-45 players. I won the 6.50 45 player tourney for a cool 85 bucks. It was some pretty good tag play on my side along with getting my chips in with the right percentages. Hit the final table with 7 players getting paid. 9 left and i have about 2.5 bb's. I get two people in front of me push. As I usually like making the money, the momentum of tripling up and making it in the final three outway the shit money I would make if I came in 7th. So with these two guys that I didn't think were too nitty or played anything out of the ordinary I called on the button with 910h and believed my hand was good. We went to the flop vs k4, and a pair of 66's. I couldn't really ask for much more. I hit a pair of tens that held up and I was in the mix with a little above average stack. From there I tightened up and had a bunch of hands that were 1010vs 99 and qq vs jj and some good timing and trapping and with a little stealing.

Busted out a few more players and got to heads up. nobody at this table seemed to outplay me or outhink me, so I had a nice chip lead going into 5 players left and did everything right for the most part. Stole with junk, got value from good hands. And took it down.

Few other ones I ran pretty bad, some ok play as I was a little tipsy and didn't have much patience as I pushed with coin flips and lost most of them at the time early in these sngs.

Ok time to the 10+1 rebuy 45k guarantee and the 5+.50 rebuy, and also the 5+.50 nlo with 25 add-on.

Both the 10 and the 5 dollar tourney I doubled up fairly quickly taking the best of it preflop with aq and ak vs the shorter aj and aq. AFter that doubled up 3x times in both and sat on a pretty monster stack. Maximizing strong draw hands postflop that were hitting pretty good. I had a great play where I was sandwhich with aces and there was a short stack with about 6k just under average and the other bigger stack of 17k as I had 25k. I have been playing a lot of hands, stealing and showing down monsters. A lot of 2nd barrels on 4th street with pretty non connecting-smooth(no textured?) boards. Took a few of those mid size pots down with aggression and preflop show of strength. Anyways as table captain people were ready to start fighting back. So the blinds are 400/800, button who is pretty laggy opens for 2400. Knowing that the big blind is going to resteal a lot of the time i smooth called with my rox. As the plan came together the bb short stack pushed his remaing 7k and then the maniac pushes with his 17k and I snap call, faster then the action came to me. I was up against ak from the shorty, and a10offsuit vs the larger lag stack. I hold up and sit pretty just above 45k. I'm third in chips.

I splash around a little, stealing to much as there is a lot of pushing as the break is coming upon us. About 4 hands in a round after the break I get a nice rush of cards, nice pp's like qq, jj. kq, and so forth against short stacks. In both tables as this happend simultaniously I get it all in against these short stacks with about 90% favorite only to be rivered by a weak two pair or a runner runner straight. Snap calling with tpgk vs bluffs and and everything in between. People at the table were saying, "wow this guy is unlucky". With both of them I got pretty short right before the money went for a blind steal and was dominated both times and that was that.

I'm happy with my play, and think I might take a day and play all sng's. As the cash games have been cruel for the most part, having my kk run into aa and so forth. The mtt's are also a little rough. but i think the low buy in sng's with enough volume could help me get back on track. Nice tag play and a few reads makes these games very beatable with a large enough br and patience.

More soon, i still need to finish gus's book and move on the the next. My level of thinking needs to continue and have a few more steps to take before I can be a favorite with the size of my br in the low $50 max games.

Thanks,

Kameran

3 cashes in a row in the $3 rebuy and still not happy

I don't know if it's any type of accomplishment to cash in a 2500 player online tourney three days in a row with a #3 buyin and a 35k gaurantee. The three times I have cashed have been 18th, 150 and last night it was 120. payouts of 100, 50, 30 for a total cost of $25 and 15 hours of play. It was a little sick getting called with K high with a gutshot draw vs my gutshot 7 high with a vpip of 13 and pfr of 5%. I had 60k in chips vs average was 40, not many hands, the guy was short stacked and I played it pretty poorly with 97 in the bb. It was crazy going from playing 60% of hands and raising at least once an orbit to letting blinds go and stealing bliinds every 2 orbits or so. I was a little card dead but was in a good position where I risked way to much to make 1/2 my stack.

The play is so bad in this and for a 5k first place it is worth it to play imop. Lot's of limping few reraises that aren't all in. Crazy all in calls with a3o is just one example of the poor play.

Besides that, played in the 11rebuy didn't get to far, as my online br has been sitting around 50 for the last couple of days. Haven't been playing to much, cash games have been a little evil giving under kickers there 2nd pair on the turn and river and me knowing I was ahead on the flop and not letting it go on the turn or river has hurt me.

My play has been getting really strong overall, very good decisions, mostly well timed aggression and good trapping. I'm happy with my recent progression in play overall. Starting to think on multiple levels has really helped me increase my level of play.

What else is new, looking into moving to Vegas and working at a Automotive Performance shop that seems like a great match. This would be a great situation to work on my game and work a job that i'm very good at along with the enjoyment.

So i'm on day three in gus's book and there's 12 players left, really interesting read and looking forward to reading it again soon. After this i'm going to finish the two hoc's i have waiting and then im' ready for killer mathematics and should be on my way to playing some great poker with numbers to back my reads.

Sorry for no post yesterday, but soon enough I will have some more to write about once i figure out this new adventure I hopefully will be taking and there will be many blog posts in the works as I go work my way up the stakes in vegas.

Cheers :)

Aggressive style 6max blueprint: Gus Hansen Inspired

Reading the reviews of Every Hand Revealed there was one review that talked about taking the aggressive style and wide range of opening hands that Gus implements in the aussie millions. And it talked about the trouble a newer player ran into with this style. I don't know if it was my short bankroll that I have been building up or the earthly influence but I have been adapting this style into my own game recently. There are many issues that come along with playing this style. Giving action to take action, constant pressure on your opponents and changing gears are all things that need to be well conceived for you to make this a +ev style. I’m going to talk about some things in detail that are part of this style of loose aggressive.

Being down to $3.25 after my $100 score in the $3rebuy mtt and playing in a variety of $11r mtt's and not getting far and being near online busto I was ready to get back to the cash games. I have gone through many games throughout my online career, I started on prima poker years ago with there free $10 signup bonus playing mostly 50max cash games before the bubble popped, then went to 8 tables of 50max for a while and was a break even player covering any loses and making a little extra from rakeback. Then I went to 4x tables of $6.50 and $12 SNG’s all on ftp and Recently 90% of my play has been in mtt's, cashing fairly often when I get pass the first break, I play pretty aggressive and take a lot of coin flips to build a stack and get a shot to cash in the beginning to have a roll. I rather go home early then get blinded out in the 2nd break. This is my background in poker for the most part and a lot of the concepts I will talk about take key issues or lessons from the variety of types of games I am playing in and apply them to this lag style of play.

Back to the task at hand, in the cash games I had to start off in the super micros of 1cent 2 cent. Got that up to $10 and moved over to 2cent 5cent or 5cent 10 cent game. Play is horrible there again, big call downs with 2nd pair and ace high. Players represent there hands pretty straight forward, made hand’s bet small, bad hand check or pot size raise for a lot of the players. Many times c-bets and reraises were not challenged at all and would take down a lot of pots with a smell of weakness. Playing throughout the different levels in the micro and to the low stakes level allows you to understand what level of thinking and play you are at. When you play these lower levels you gain an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as you can practice different ideas and try to push some of your strengths while investing a smaller amount. Comfort level in all of these levels allows you to know what games you should be playing in and what type of style of play they usually are at.

Built up to $32 there and moved over to the .10/.25 6max tables. All of these are six max as I can't really handle one table of full ring, if I wanted to go fishing I would have to pull out the pole and nobody wants that. Full ring is so slow and it's usually 1vs1 and not very interesting, 6max there is a dance, your hand ranges open and there is much more check raising and overall action that is thin. Six max is a great way to isolate a bad player comparatively to a full ring game. In a full ring game you might get 2 hands with the donkey of the table unless he's playing a ton of hands and then still you might get 5 hands with him in an hour if he's lasts that long. With 6max you will get a chance to play with this bad player 20 times an hour if not more. Always being with 2 seats of the donkey is a great added value along with getting a little more action with them as the hand values go way up compared to full ring. The other side to 6max is that your weaknesses will be exploited and come to the for front, small problems with hand values, or slow playing or betting patterns come out in full force and will be maximized against. Yes you will get more hands in and get more chances to play against the mistakes of others, but the same happens to you as if there is a weakness in your game, others will take advantage of that and it will come up more often then in full ring. One more plus is that if you play with rakeback, 6max is a must, no question that you will get 2x or more rakeback playing 6max with a lot more hands per hour.

Back on Course Magellan:

So the play here at 25max on stars was pretty straightforward, a few re raises of my continuation bets that I would repop and take down many times when someone tried to play table captain and take the feather out of my cap. It was a crazy feeling making a lot of re raises knowing I was good against these guys defensive response to taking the pot. There are a couple things that I had to do to adopt this type of play. As it does take a good amount of concentration, hands played, and overall following of table dynamics and understanding table image to play this style proficiently along with many other things I would like to go over.

Some bullets that I wanted to go over and this might be an easy way to digest all of these ideas.

3 betting- Many times I was in a position where my hand was weak maybe only ace high or a mid to low pair on a fairly non-threatening board- such as 10,j,4 rainbow and I would have to make a decision on the strength of my hand, but mostly the strength of the out of position reraisers hand and what hand he puts me on. Opening a lot of hands will open you up to many checkraises from the caller preflop. Being able to follow up with another bet will take it down a surprisingly fair amount of the time. Out of maybe the 12 3 bets I took down probably 10 right there and the rest were callers and I would fire another on the turn and take it down. Did get reraised all in and had to let it go, but that's expected for the way I was bytch slapping the table.

C-betting- pretty std, I probably do it 70% of the time, many times I will check a monster made hand or a very weak hand hoping to hit on the turn or go for a bet or reraise on the turn to take it down. Surprisingly for all of your c-bets against weak players you will do very well, as they will not have the hand or the read to put u to the test with a reraise, you know if a specific tight player makes a move you can let go of the hand fairly easy or call and let one peel off and see what he does on the next hand and hopefully get some more info.

Reads- having pokertracker/pokerace running and start to get stats on the players around you is something like a nice 100 Christmas bonus in the world of one tabling. You will have some stats that go along with your reads, but in no way is the end all or to be completely dismissed. I used to rely very heavily on the info gathered with this program- the amount of players to see the hand preflop out of the blinds (vpip), how often do they raise preflop (pfr), overall aggression ratio (agr) takes c-bets check raises and just overall betting styles and designates them a number between 0-20, anything over 3 I think is good to have, and anyone over 7 can be exploited pretty good by slow play or check raising as long as he is willing to come after you with tptk. And also the amount of hands that you have for your sample size, I used to have the problem of taking 20 hands and thinking that this was enough to go on and figure out this player’s style. Now a day anything under 40 or so and I dismiss or take into small consideration as you consider what can happen for 25 hands for you, you could be on a little run, card dead, or just a little tilty. It would be hard to have a good understanding of a players style with a small sample size because of the variance in the cards, I think after 100 hands you should have a pretty good idea of there style, but still you will be surprised by a big reraise bluff or a smooth call with a very bad hand just to keep you honest. This is where table image and the flow of the game come into hand.

Check raising- this is something that can be used out of position very efficiently, something you can do to a weak c-bet. It's something that you have to experience against that player to see what type of play will follow. I rarely check-raise without two strong live cards and or a nice draw. Sometimes I will do it if I smell blood in the water as many players will do a c-bet most of the time if they hit or miss and will let go mid pairs to a reraise and the knowledge of me leading out on the turn a fair amount of time and them having to commit a fair amount or all of there chips with a 2nd best hand that might or might not have me beat.

2 and 3 barrels- It's amazing how many times your going to be betting out a strong draw on the flow with 8 high, shoot again on the turn and there's nothing again, and on the river you give up and he checks behind or in front and only to see that he had a k high draw or an underpair and take it down. But it's also easy to remember many times 3 betting and getting called by an overpair or 2nd pair who just doesn't believe your story or doesn’t have any idea that you were acting very strong. This is a rough thing to understand, and by no means do I claim to be an expert. I don't know how many times where I completely missed and put him on a medium strength hand an have taken down a pretty big pot with air. There are a lot of players and this is the main part of this, that will chase or call down with bottom pair or a flush draw and instantly fold to any 1/4 pot bet or more. Others will call you down only to check raise you on the river and get you to lay down your better bottom pair or ace high knowing that you’re going to 3 barrel. This is what comes down to in poker, not the cards but know the man. Something I have been taking very to heart in my online game and it has been influencing my live game pretty well too.

If you can remember a great play you made or a great value reraise or some quirky bluff that you got away with what was the reason. The reason was that you were inside your opponents head. You owned them to some extent, they might have been thinking and using only there cards to judge there decisions, they might think what your thinking about. But every time you were a step ahead of them and by there actions had a good understanding of there range and what they were capable of doing with the information you had at hand. I think anyone can be good at cards with just playing the players, having enough smarts and experience behind them to put the story together of what they are trying to say and what they really have and are trying to hide.

Table reads-as I just went though table reads are something that make or break most players, yeah there are some that can set mine or have blind aggression and do alright. But to be a consistent winner you need to be able to have a wide variety of skill sets and gears that you can utilize depending on who your playing with , how there playing, and how they are playing against each other. Also taking into account what players do after certain events, some players will over bet there hands after getting ran out from slow playing a big hand, others will tilt hardcore after not getting paid off with the nuts. So many things that can happen at the poker table, and once you have seen it before and are able to adapt and position yourself to profit you are way ahead of the game.

Example: Recently the table captain who has been pushing people around the last hour or two in a loose 2/5 game in Vegas. Taking down my hands then his hands warrant and nobody has really stood up to him. I look down at pocket 6's in mp and have the captain behind me. I call hoping to get in for cheap. He raises his std to 20 bucks and he gets' two customers. Flop is 8 2 q rainbow, I check and the el captain throws out 50 in the middle a nice 3/4 size pot bet. The player behind him mucks pretty quickly and it's back to me. So far I know this guy has been out of line and he's going to be raising 80% if not more of the time. I still think I’m good here and he might be on a gut shot to some extent but this board isn't something I see him hitting more the 80%. I don't know if I want to go for a reraise, because I’m not ready to commit with 3rd pair and he has enough confidence going where he could push light and think I would get out of his way. So I smooth call. Turn is another 2. I take a little time and check almost certain there will be another bullet towards the pot that he believes is his. He does and throws out a 100 in there, I tank thinking in any sense does this help him, what is he trying to tell me and what does he think I have. The two doesn't help him, a 2 isn't going to be in his range maybe a2s but that's about it. kq is there but for the most part pretty strong hand for him raising as often as he does, but still something to consider, and also he might have slowed down a little bit with that hoping I would take a shot at him. Again I believe he is on air and smooth call him. Putting in a lot of money into a pot like this with 3rd pair isn't something you would do 1/4 times, but it is something to consider when playing someone with this style and momentum. On the river comes another queen, making it very unlikely in my mind that he has a q in his hand. At the moment I have about $300 left in my stack and he has about $600. I check fairly sure I'm ahead here. Not sure if he's going to fire one more or if he's going to check down. Well he comes out for $150 making the pot $520 and with me only 150 left if I call. From the line we put him on it's very possible he's on an ace medium kicker where he thinks he can get away from it. I think about the hands he could be on, and the two that really come up is a9,a10, maybe ak. Or even a smaller pair then my own. I feel that he has no part of the board and is looking to chop the pot with qq22 and his ace kicker. I push another 150 in and he automatically wines. He pushes in the 150 more and I show my weak two pair and take down the pot vs. his AK. Not something that I would normally do or a line I would take, but because of what happened at the table for the last hour and the stack that he has built up and hasn't really been pushed back, he dug himself in a hole and could only bet to dig himself out. Many times this is going to be a bad spot vs. your average player. But in the right time place and player you’re going to be in a position to take that pot with a fairly weak hand.

Understanding Table image- Thinking about the actions that you have taken since you have sat at the table, how much did you buy in, what were some of the initial hands that you played. How did you play that hand, raising a lot and taking down a pot from aggression, showing down a strong hand and not getting appropriate value for your hand, check folding? There are a lot of things that will be digested from the other players if they are paying a decent amount of attention. One thing that players do is make judgments on players pretty quickly. I myself have been caught down the line seeing an aggressive player show down and lose a big bluff one previous hand only to stack me doing the same thing with a set vs. my weak two pair. Things of these sorts have to be confirmed, see what they do a couple times and go from there. Is there betting patterns, is there a large range of hands based on playing 70% of the hands after 60 hands. Thinking about the people around you and how they interact is something that takes a lot of time at the tables. Many times you’re going to see two aggressive players butting heads, raising light and reraising to steal. And you need to know how to place these guys into a situation where you can get sandwiched with a great hand and what style your going to play up to that situation where u can maximize. Understanding your at a tight game is something to be aware of. When you see a decent 8big blind pot get checked around 3 handed to the river and an ace high or pair of 3's take it down, get ready to start taking out bullets to take down these unloved pots. Taking chip stacks, recent hands, and showdowns and making a little conclusion on who's around you, what are they going to do, and what you can do to maximize your good hands, and minimize your risk in mediocre/bad hands.

Who is going to get in your way- This is something that you’re going to have to splash around or see if anyone else is getting in the mix and put to the test. Most of the time there is going to be a player or two that's going to give you a run. Knowing who these guys are and playing against or not against them depending on your hand range and the position you are in relation should influence your thoughts of raising or calling preflop. Getting put to the test can have to results, you can be paying attention to the betting sizes, betting frequency, how long does the actions take, and chip stacks and have enough information as to what the next step is, fold, call, reraise. Or you could be playing sloppy watching TV while eating dinner and fall in a trap as "I have tptk" this guy is making a play at me. And calling the reraise on the flop only to be put all in on the turn and being dead to a small set. Find out who is going to try to put you in your place, stand up to the table captain, and you need to be ready to fight to keep them in check, or you can lose your strangle hold on the table and lose a decent pot.

Position- Simple: HAVE IT, out of position is only for super drawing hands vs. tight players who will let it go, or against an aggressive player who you can resteal from or maximize a big hand. Mediocre hands do very poorly in early position. 2nd pair might be good but it's going to cost you more then the hand is worth if it is good and you very well could be behind. The information that comes along with Position is insanely important, the hand ranges your going to put most players on is so much more specific compared to being out of position and calling.

Reraising- DO it. A lot of c-bets will let it go with a check raise or a reraise from position. Reraising is a sign of pretty good strength, and you will be able to pick up a decent amount of pots with this move. Again this move comes down to putting your opponent on a specific hand range based on the vpip and preflop raises along with betting patterns and how they play in multiway or hu pots. Putting these pieces together based on previous showdowns when the pot was raised will give you a good idea on his range and where you stand in the value of your hand, but mostly it let's you know what value he puts on his hand and if he's the type to c-bet most of his preflop raises. Even calling a raise on the flop and reraising if a draw completes or a good scare card hits on the turn can be a good play.

So here are a bunch of the different concepts that I have been working on, and as they are all a work in progress as they must be as this is a game you must continually learn and improve at.

Sunday Live Cash game, and A little online lovin

Went to the local game a little 1/2 game that's a lot of fun. Great hosts along with nice players and lot's of action.

Little card dead, one thing I was going to concentrate on was slowing down with very strong hands, sets, straights flushes. I can allow a few cards to come and ruin my action or get me outdrawn for the implied odds of making so much more on the turn and the river letting them catch up or showing weakness.

Didn't get to many hands like that, had qq vs ak preflop all in for 40 bucks or something. Besides that had pocket kings to lose to three aces.

Pulled off a couple of bluffs missing on the river, got some good value with aces in plo.

Overall i didn't get a great run of cards or make any amazing moves. I did make a pretty sweet callin a big pot with bottom two, but overall things were ok.

I think i'm playing to straight forward, i do limp with big hands, check raise on occasion, and bluff a fair amount of the time, but in the grand scem of things

Saturday Night PokerStars Fever

With a recent cash for another $100 my bankroll is hanging around. I buy into a couple of 11 mtt turbos, $16, 60 man sng, a 22rebuy, and 11 wsop me sat, and a few cash games along with my loved 3rebuy 35k guarantee.

Cash games hurt me good, as i'm playing $50max plo. I've started to get away from online plo games as I have been running bad, and playing poorly for the most part. My small sample size early on showed a great strength for plo, now i'm just another donkey, live i'm not bad, just because most are really bad.

Anyways, after a fun Friday night it was time to get to work, Do fairly well after i re bought into the wsop main event straight satellite. Blinds started to get nuts as it's a 2x turbo. with 177 people in there, and a plethora of rebuys the prize pool was up to 8k after the break and the add-ons. were down to 50 people, and I don't remember exactly what I went out with, but i'm pretty sure my pp lost on a coin flip.

Started getting pretty deep in the 3rebuy with first place getting paid 5k. Early on I got rivered for an all in so I re bought. Ran well sitting on a 2x average stack for most of the run, stealing a lot after reading Every Hand Revealed by gus hansen. Overall played well. Get down to 18 players took a hit to my stack once or twice, right before then with 3 tables I go for a blind steal from the button with ajs, the bb was a little crazy making steals with a3 and having it catch. So when i raised 2.5bb and he comes over the top for another 10x bb I think for a minute and think about how i have been a robber the last couple of orbits and building up pretty good from it.

I call him thinking that he would easily re raise with most aces and any pp, so I think i'm doing good here. He shows a3 and my aj looks good to have a nice 1/3 added to my stack. Blah Blah Blah I don't lose but get counterfeited. I think it is just as my pocket 5's took out aces when I turned the 5 and had a big double up against a small re raise and a guy that was disconnecting every 5 seconds. I don't know if that's bad ediquete, but i always insta raise any time a player is disco and sitting out and try to steal whatever I can.

Back down to 18th place, pay is 100 for 18-16, 175, 15-14 and then it gets better, with top 3 getting 5k 3.5k and 2k. I'm a short stack after running into a set with an overpair, 400k in chips with average probably around 700k. A guy from the last table is on my right, pretty tight abc guy. Well after playing for 6 hours time for the play of a lifetime.... I think about his hand range and prey he has 1010 or lower, he's not stealing with anything but premium and hasn't all day. but he is in cutoff so i repop him with ajo, he thinks a minute and then calls with ak, I'm dead and that's the tourney. a measly 100 bucks when if i played right couldve been 5k, i defiantly was pretty good favorite if i made the final table with any stack. Would have been a great boost to my br. But every time I make it really deep it brings the light at the end of the tunnel a little closer even though it feels like it's miles away.

Friday Night and the Chip Reese Connection

So I was planning on going to Four winds again on friday night, got dressed up and was going to leave the 6 beautiful women at my place to go to the club with my two buddies. Well the field trip to the casino was pushed back so I roll to the club with these nice little honey bunny's. Get there free bottle service along with 12 cute girls surrounding us. It's awesome being in promotions, or just being roommates with the guys with the promotion company. Dancing between three hot chicks and drinking like a champ on the houses dime is sweet, it's a nice change of pace from sitting and grinding away at the tables.

I almost forgot about the most exciting part of the night, besides every girl in the bar thinking i'm somebody important, drinking goose for free, and dancing with a Latino and two black cuties that's rhythm was contagious there was even a better kicker. Go outside with 3 of my ladies looking for a smoke, I approach the first two girls I see, pretty cute to say the least. Buy a smoke for two bucks, but then work my magic and get two for 2 bucks. We talk a little bit and me and this one girl start clicking pretty good. We start talking about things we do, I think I bring up poker, she asks if I know who chip reese is and i respond with


"the Micheal Jordan of Poker" The one guy known for playing his a-game all of the time, and even lending 10's of thousands of dollars to people knowing he would never get it back." Funny enough she is his niece, so I got a picture with her and her number and were going to get married. Well haven't planned to much of the turn and river, first we should have coffee but I feel like I have outs.

Go back home with some of our friends from the club and call it a night.

Back to the Jungle with ChicagoJason

So i left my notebook at work, which en tales me needing to go out and play to make that rent. I was really excited to go online and play some mtt's yesterday but that didn't happen as I was so ex tactic to leave work I left my life line(computer) at work.

So to the game, grabbed the bus to the train station, brought my new copy of gus Hansen every hand revealed. Really great read so far, him explaining every decision is a really awesome sneak peek into a great poker mind. The way his aggression is calibrated along with his table reads and his understanding of the math is inspiring. Got on the brown line up to Kimball and met some buddies from work on the train that were pretty well off buzzed to say the least. Talked a little while about poker and whatnot. Got off the train 30 minutes later and hit the felt.

Sit down it's 7 handed, I buy in for the max of 300. A couple people I recognize from the tournament I played in a month back that was a $60 30 man tourney that I won. I recognize a few of the players also that were in the cash game after the tourney. Action was hot and heavy, players raising and re raising preflop, what turned out to be pretty light. This is a game where you can make some money with good and great hands along with a well timed bluff.

I play pretty tight for the first couple of orbits, no chances to really limp in and make much of a splash that would scare anyone out of the pool. I had a couple of the crazies on my right which was a nice change of pace, even though there both pretty solid players, or at least one is and the other seems to have good reads and good timing with raises and bluffs. To my left is a shorter stack not much of a read, probably your std tag, then there's a chick in the 9 seat, we've played before but I don't have much a read on her, even though I did bluff her and get her to fold the better hand a couple times with a nice 3rd bullet. And then there's the dealer who is one of the co-hosts of the game, A regular 2/5,5/10 player and sometimes 10/25 game nlhe and plo.

Action back and forth the lag next to me ChicagoJason is opening every 1/3 pots that come around. Continuation bets most of the time and usually in position. I respect his game for the most part, even though we all make mistakes and i'll let him tell the story in his own blog - http://chicagopokerclub.blogspot.com/ . Let me just say I was the only person to pick up on this little thing that we call oops. It wasn't a pricey mistake but funny and then horribly understood after the fact.

Ok my first big hand, probably mid 2nd orbit, I have ummmm. I know it was bad and I paired the two on the river...... Let's go with 102, I raised on the button to $7, std opening size for this 1/2, even though 10 or 12 wouldve done the same most of the time. She calls and were hu. Flop is 984 she checks I bet 15, she calls. Turn is a J, she checks I bet 25 she calls. River is a 2 she checks I bet 35 and she tanks for a minute and she folded. Funny little prequel to this hand, we were talking about poking smot and what it does to you while you play. Some guys say they turn into a nit scared of everything, I on the other hand talk about how i turn into an action junky and miss and keep firing 3 bullets. There like we need to get you poking, I said i was already there. So to bluff her out with 2nd pair or so after that story it made me think of what it did to her mindset on the hand, was i trying to pull something is what she probably thought to herself. I told her I was nerves and that I was going to bluff like that and super happy she folded. Funny enough she puts all in for the last 62 in the next hand.

Play a little small ball, lose a 50 or so in a stud game with 2 pair vs 1 card flush. I hit rox vs the big time / big man I raise to 7, he repops all in I snap call.

Holds up vs ak. Then I have qq vs big time big man raise preflop to 15, he calls and it's hu. Flop is 984, he bets 35 I put 100 in all day to put him in. He calls, a jack comes and a k on the turn, possible straight and over pair. He mucks.

The only hand that I don't want to talk about but will, I've had this recent problem being short rolled or pretty much short on rent any making enough to pay rent and other things. So I play a little conservatively when I hit big hands. I can see two times where I missed out on a total of 700 bucks in equity with showing to much aggression before the river. Both were the nuts at the time but could easily be destroyed with a paired board. As they were the nut flush and nut straight. First time in four winds I check called the flop for 50 with the nuts, turn is a blank i check raise all in and let the guy keep 250 behind, which i'm pretty sure was going to go in on 80% of hands with a bluff or any pair or two or set. I shouldve slowed my roll and let him dig deeper.

Again it happend last night. Raise on the button for a steal with qj, get 1 caller who has given the table a hard time a lot of the night. pretty nitty and can bluff or checkraise with the nuts at any time. I lead out with 10 on the flop, size of the pot, he makes it 25. Flop is ak10 rainbow. I reraise to 50 and he lays it down with what i think now is a weak ace or a weak q with a good kicker. Again here I couldve given him some rope but forced the action and displayed how strong my hand was in neon lights. Live and learn.

Later we get a live one to the table, we had some history with a $450 pot in plo after the tourney where my aa52 no suit, vs his kk82 1 suit held up.

Splash around with him, get him to pay me off one ok straight, pay him off on one ok straight, and then we get to a nice size hand.

horrible hand I have but the q723s and it's 5 to call a 30 pot or so. I call. Nothing on the flop and it's checked around put 10 in there. 3 caller's were at 60.
Turn my old buddy checks, chicagojason checks, and I check behind. Nothing complete's besides my two pair, flush on the board. Buddy bets 15 into a 60 pot making it 75, so i'm getting 5-1 on my bottom two pair. I think and put him on a q with no 2nd pair. I call. And i was right and the pot is mine.

Finished the night up 165, not bad for the $50 loss on tuesday when my set of aces got cracked by a straight draw, and a $20 loss playing hu plo, and nlhe .25/.5 and some hu tournies.

So we'll see what comes in my future this weekend. I have a $90 bankroll on stars, and i'm $265 short on the rent check i just sent in. I need to play smart and tight and make some decent cashes to transfer the money in, in time to clear that check.

Livin in the EDGE!!!!!

Tuesday/Wensday Live games 6handed and hu

Tuesday played in a regular game that is pretty tough overall. Two to three pros usually in this game. Lot's of gamble and cock swinging contests between the online player and the host online/live pro low stakes.

I'm sitting with a couple players, two or so that are pretty bad, maybe even 4, so overall I'm in a good spot. Lot's of re raising and calling with plo .5/1.

Big hand early in the night: I have aa35 no suit, I repot it and we get three handed to the flop i'm in position. a57 two diamonds on the flop, sb bets out 40, bb raises 100, i push in my remaining 165. I really wish I had redraws there, naked top set is room for trouble. Well anyways he calls (online pro, pretty damn smart, gives me good info on the lines he takes and my lines and we talk about hands after the fact.) He has an open ended straight draw and two pair. Overall i'm ahead but not much more of a favorite then, he has about 10 out's on the flop, but anything he pairs on the board for a full house i beat, so he only has the open ender draw, which is 6 outs. So i'm a big favorite here. But that doesn't matter a river 6 comes down and that's that.

Buy in for another 200. get rox in a 7 raised pot in nlhe, i repop to 14, get the short 60$ stack to push and i snap call. I take it down.

Day 3: end of the marathon

Wake up get to the table around 11am. Get to the table, there's a couple older gentlemen around me and there's a couple that are drinking, I busted the one chick out on friday and she was pretty nice. There's a big stack next to me that was playing pretty tight.

2nd hand of the day. I have ajs in the bb, button raises to 15 and i call, he was in position.

Flop is all spades and i have the nuts. I check call 50, turn check raise all in after he raised 100. He thought about it for a while and let it go. I shouldve slow played it. He had 250 behind that i couldve gotten probably if i checkd the river, just didn't want to give him a chance to hit an house, I was thinking he had two aces, I blocked 1 of them, giving him 1 out, to bad.

Played a while longer, donked that money i won back chasing some monster nut draws that didn't get there. Left 50bucks up for the session and drove home.

All in all it was a great journey, made some friends, made a few bucks..... Drank and ate well, and learned some things about myself in the live setting in a casino.

Comapred to playing in a lot of home games were the games are fun and light hearted unless the pot goes over 65 or so. Players are pretty std in these home games where people don't get out of line to often then there normal styles. So playing with an entire group of new people, stacks vary from 100-1000 a lot of times, and in a new environment is interesting and fun.

Next time i'm going to get a little hotel room down the road, and drink and smoke less. Play a little more dice, and no bj, i might try to talk to some ladies that' the only i'll be trying to get from that sort.

Cheers:

Oh and this week I will be playing tonight in a live game, tomorrow i'm having a game at my place, and thursday will be playing, and friday saturday I'm not sure but might go to the casino. Need to get back into the swing, and this will be one hell of a ride.

Monday + Online Poker Tourneys = :(ash 49 vs ak

Work was rough as usual, got some reading in, caught up on all of Kid Poker's Vlog on rawvegas.com along with Dave Williams from Bodog.

Started some just right timing laundry, made some swordfish with white wine and sesame seeds along with some Sesame noodles, Couse Couse, and some green beens with onions, beer and soy sauce.

Alright after that and a few beers we hit the online super world of donkeystars. Couple tournies going on, the nl omaha $5 rebuy +25 add-on 150 players, jumped in the $10 10 minute blinds 1200 player game. And then I played a 6max 3.25 turbo sng to make enough to buy into the 11 rebuy with 1600 players.

Went really deep in the No limit omaha game, off the bat there were two all ins after I raised, I knew they were going to be pretty light and I had a pair of fives with double suit. Runner runner flush and i'm up to 3k in chips a little over average as rebuys were nuts. Played tight aggressive, made a couple blind steals and check raise all ins with nothing but did well and played well. Lost a nasty hand and was short on chips with 20 to go to the money. had 4k in chips blinds were 300/600 with a nice ante i believe, raised from mid position all in with aa33 double suit. Got called with a 5567 and he hit the straight on the turn and that was it. Good showing, took a little time to adjust to nl omahadizzle. Good game, bad players and the $25 add-on helped the prize pool pretty good. Still not super confident with my plo or omaha in general play as i donked off 100 online playing 50 and 100$ max 6max.

Then to the $10 10 minute level. Card dead, hit kk raised got 2 callers and got both of them all in with top and 2nd pair with a kickers. nice little triple up there. Went pretty far at the bubble made some moves and had to gamble with 88 vs k10 and lost that battle.

Now to the 11R mtt, these are always my favorite, i heart any rebuy for the most part. Bad players, big prize pools, and lot's of rebuys. It was a pretty big field of 1600 players so I knew I was in for a nice ride, it was a non-turbo so that gave me room to play tight and not gamble till the blinds went up. This tourney was at the end of the night so things are a little hazy along with the 3 beers and the funny tasting cigar and the clear cigarette. Did pretty well, some decent pocket pairs let me triple up, kk treated me well last night compared to over the weekend. Stayed around and made the break with 1200 players left and 1000 add=ons. Prize pool was just over 60k with 251 places paid in the 55k guarntee. People started dropping like flies after the break. Blinds were higher and people were moving there newly 4000 chips that were added to there stack around the table.

Got in the money with good tight play and a couple of blind steals. Knocked a couple people out in the bb from the sb with an a or a k with crap kicker that held up to there mid connectors. Big hand once we get a little deeper around 230 players, along with 1st getting 10k. There was a all in for 6k utg with blinds 600/1200 ante 125 i'm guessing. I had ak I repushed to isolate, he had a10 and i was ahead all the way ................... Until the river, spike the 3 outer and there was a contefiet board so what are you going to do. I say nb" trying to do nh. Player goes"that was sick" i agreed". Sitting on 38k in chips i get kk on the button, i raise 4x bb, mid stack in bb pushed with k8, I hold up and sit on 60k in chips about 10k above average .

Here is where things go bad, i'm in mp with a10 suited, somethign I could easily lay down, there's no limping, just as i pushed utg with ak because a raise would commit me and if i'm up against aa or kk i'm dead either way so it's a weird spot. Anyways, the guy behind me a little tight pushes for another 20k and i'm a little under 2-1 on my money but i call praying for an under pair and a race or a resteal with a weak ace. Well that wasn't right and he had ak that held up. Down to 25k in chips bottom of the totem pole with place. I'm on the bb, the button raises just enough to put me all in. I put him on a steal 70% of the time, didn't think he had a pp so I looked at my 49, and thought about some of the odds of going deeper, I thought that the money was right as i had to live cards, i would have 20k remaining with the small blind coming up being 2500 and a 250 ante or so. if I hit my 60/40 I would be up to 60k in chips again. I made my read and called. He had ak and things looked good so far. Flop came 9 high and i was ready to start a nice little comeback. Turn is a magical k and that was it for me.

I was barrated for my call with 49 by the raiser. I tried to explain myself but then gave up as he didnt' understand pot commitment and live cards. I'f i'm a donk for that move let me know, i would do it again with the read i had on the guy and for what stack i would be sitting on. with an m of 3 i think i was getting priced in to have decent stack with 3-1 odds along with being a 40% favorite.

That was it, watched a little tv and passed out and thought about the $15 I started the day with and now the 95 I had in the account (did do a 25 chip add to my account to do the add-on of 4k when my stack was 8k and everyone was going to do it.

Day 2, Sleeping in the sun

Woke up sweating and the sun in my face in the passenger seat of my god friends mom buick suv in the parking lot outside of the very nice 4 Winds. Windows are cracked and my partner in crime is passed out with a nice opera snore with nice flute work.

Brush off and go in for the game again, 5 tables are going, two games of 1/2.

Actually i'm going to take a break of putting all this together, but nothing happend I think during this time, maybe won a 100 or lost throughtout 8 hours. Made a friends with two local guys around an hour away. Fun drinking game, but i'm not in the mood atm.

Feel free to ask me any questions, and i know some pot sizes and bet sizes are off withing 25% varience. lol

Part 2: Sick of 12 page fr's

So we ended at me sucking out with rox with a backdoor suit. I was getting 4-1 on the call and easily could setup, We'll i'm done talking about that except for one thing. Bad beats are a big part o this game, it can break great men. The few monsters of the game are pretty untouchable to the runner runner, berry greinstein and chip reese. two of the top 5 of all time players play every had 100% even after losing 1/2 in a loose game of plo which probably happens bi-weekly. After giving out so thin bad beats, I myself do nothing but say "good hand" maybe a nice catch if it was super ill. Few times that night, pretty much those two (aa vs donkey,aa52 vs Paul)were the times I got a little yelling to. Both had short buy ins, and said i was a retarded donkey. I smile and wave are you going to buy back min again, or soemthing a little less rough then that.

Enjoying bad beats really makes you feel untouchable. Knowing that one time out of 5 that you will be getting out a sick river out to scoop, and take it all in. I might throw a little back at him, mostly acting coy and talk about how i thought my runner runner was a good out. So there's my bbstory.

Later that first night on friday tables started to break around 1am or so. Got down to 2 tables, .5/1 $100 max, and the 1/2 game i have been in. Little while later I get the game to go to omaha pot limit 1/2. Pretty fun game, we got donkey and a couple other decent players with a bad player or two. Crazy guy from my home town Big Mike came in not knowing how to play omaha, thinking again i could have stacked him, two big hands aa,kk1010 twice against him that i let go to a flop bet where he was a big down, but i only had overpair both times.

Money moved around as it does, good friend i made there was a cool cat who frequents a lot of the low mid stakes game 1/2-5/10. Solid lag, splashes around but has great aggression and table reads. he was sitting at 600, to 800 sat around 900 for 5 hours in the morning during our now saturday game. Game breaks at 10am, nothing crazy after noob pawned me both times with weak holdings. End of Day one :)

Four Winds: Electronic Tables + 30 hour = Good Times

Driving up to Four Winds Casino at 8pm after taking a shower and changing into cool threads. Get there an hour later and hit Wendy's and then the e-tables there. Buy in for a cool $500 at the 1/2 $500 max 100 min table. Bunch of older gentleman there and I decided during the drive out there that I was going to raise my first 5 hands to build a image that I'm a loose aggressive kid. Took those down with no problems, a couple times I had to do a continuation bet to take it down on the flop. So I got what I wanted and made 20bucks in the works, so far so good. Then I tightened up a little bit got some good aq,aj,kq,kj opened and never connected. Had to let my hand go. I built up a reputation that I could easily exploit if I had ran into some hands, but with my current run of sub-par hands I put myself in a tough spot.

Players were going to call me a little lighter, and maybe even take a couple of shots at bluffing me with missed draws or nothing trying to put me in my place. I wasn't really ready to play this style without having a run of cards. I did make a preflop raise with aks utg, got the guy who i stole from twice off the bat and who was coming after me recently. Flop kq8, I check he bets 25 in a 24 pot, check turn which is q i check he bets 25 i call. River is a 3 blank no flush. i check he bets out 75, I tank for a minute, think about his line and think my tptk is good call it down and he has aj and i get a nice pot.

After that i coast a little more, limp a lot and call with implied odds with suited connectors and one off connectors. suited connectors were at a premium along with pp's. I might of had 15 pp's the entire weekend, and i had a set twice out of them.
Little later i'm still a little up, kk, raise 5.5x bb (std at the table) 4 callers ace and flush draw on the board. check/fold. Got Rockets alittle while before them before the table std was higher, i raised to six utg, no action. SWEET aces one time wins. Played KK later in the day another 50 pot 4 players, another ace flops and i let go.

Big hand against a regular "donkey with the Nutz" he won a bb jacket or won the hand for 25k. SOlid lag overall, i respected his game for the most part. Had aa in bb, he was sb. Raise to 7x, I call along with 3 others. Flop is k79, I raise to 20 he bumps it 40 more, i think and know i'm up against proably tptk or weak two pair. Turn is an ace, he pushed and i snap call. he yells at me for a while and I scoop the pot as he has no outs. Little later playing some 1/2 plo 6 handed I have AcAh5h2D, long story short, guy had a 100 behind 70 by the flop I call and hit runner runner flush vs his two pair.

Friday happy Friday

So things are good, took er ez yesterday, got a lot of reading done in Professional Nlhe Volume 1. Started figuring out the Spr strategy in the book.

Not sure if I have gotten it down yet, but for the most part it bases most of your play on commitment threshold, and building pots to push all in. making many pushing and calling all in's a lot simpler and straight forward. Basing your preflop bets to create a postflop pot that has a certain level of spr stack to pot ratio that will maximize the value that the hand will have within a few different situations on the flop.

Aka having a spr of 4 makes getting all in with tptk pretty straightforward. Not a hundred percent sure i have it right yet. Haven't used it in the field yet so I will let you know how my limited understanding goes at the tables.

Enjoy your weekends, oh yeah going to Four winds tonight and playing some 1/2 $500 max in New buffalo. It's all electronic which is supposed to make the game go a lot faster along with no tips and players might be looser on there draws because there's no real money in front of them.

We shall see, rent needs to be paid along with student loans, credit cards and need to fill up my drug and hooker fund.