#6

Well, in 1 month and 8 days I had 3 Royal Flushes...hitting my 6th last night at Kevin's house. We were playing some live holdem/omaha for practice and I was playing 8 tables online as well. I hit a diamond royal with just the jack as one of my hole cards. Flop came with A/K/Q and I told Kev I had the draw. He looked and went back to dealing. I rivered the 10 and said "Yep...there it is." By the way...I was finally back up yesterday as well (for the first time in almost a month). Yay fun!

And another one....

This makes 5:

PokerStars Game #21262771780: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/10/17 6:38:22 ET
Table 'Lesya IV' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: icroid ($26.90 in chips)
Seat 2: ItsHolliday ($47 in chips)
Seat 3: Krazy222 ($5.40 in chips)
Seat 4: iD,Squall ($26.80 in chips)
Seat 5: maui_dd ($20.80 in chips)
Seat 6: FFMikel ($6.45 in chips)
Seat 7: Zar1971 ($24.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Pillemann23 ($6.75 in chips)
FFMikel: posts small blind $0.10
Zar1971: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ItsHolliday [Jc Kc]
Pillemann23: folds
icroid: folds
ItsHolliday: raises $0.25 to $0.50
Krazy222: folds
iD,Squall: folds
maui_dd: calls $0.50
FFMikel: calls $0.40
Zar1971: calls $0.25
*** FLOP *** [Tc Qc 7d]
FFMikel: checks
Zar1971: checks
ItsHolliday: bets $0.75
maui_dd: calls $0.75
FFMikel: folds
Zar1971: calls $0.75
*** TURN *** [Tc Qc 7d] [Qd]
Zar1971: checks
ItsHolliday: checks
maui_dd: checks
*** RIVER *** [Tc Qc 7d Qd] [Ac]
Zar1971: bets $1
ItsHolliday: raises $1 to $2
maui_dd: folds
Zar1971: calls $1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ItsHolliday: shows [Jc Kc] (a Royal Flush)
Zar1971: mucks hand
ItsHolliday collected $7.85 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8.25 | Rake $0.40
Board [Tc Qc 7d Qd Ac]
Seat 1: icroid folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: ItsHolliday showed [Jc Kc] and won ($7.85) with a Royal Flush
Seat 3: Krazy222 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: iD,Squall folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: maui_dd (button) folded on the River
Seat 6: FFMikel (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Zar1971 (big blind) mucked [Ks Jd]
Seat 9: Pillemann23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Odds...anyone? This was insane!

Not that anyone cares (as it seems I'm talking to myself)....

I was just playing in a 45 person sit n go tourney. First hand, had pocket kings and ended up doubling right off the bat. Two hands later I got dealt pocket Queens, raise, get called. Flop comes 5/6/7 and I bet, get re-raised, I push and the guy calls with pocket 6's and hits the fourth 6 on the turn...quad 6's. As if to rub it in another Queen hit on the river but it clearly didn't matter. OK...nice hand and I'm back to my original $1500 in starting chips.

Later on in the tourney, I'm about 12xBB at this point and get dealt pocket Queens. The shortstack in front of me goes all in for about $1500 and I re-raise to isolate and it ends up just me and the initial raiser. He turns over pocket 6's....flop hits 9/6/9....turn hits the other 6...un-f'ing-believable.

What are the odds my pocket Queens get beat by quad 6's twice in the same tourney? A short one at that too (turbos). My last $1000 I was left with went all in against a min raise. I had A/9 suited and the min-raiser had pocket 8's. I hit my 9 on the flop...but, oh yeah, he hit another 8 as well....

Check this runner runner...

PokerStars Game #20794215376: Tournament #111145828, $3.00+$0.25 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/09/29 15:53:10 ET
Table '111145828 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: Dwight Box (4720 in chips)
Seat 4: donhamel (2185 in chips)
Seat 5: LUPILEON (1730 in chips)
Seat 6: CrusaderP19 (6300 in chips)
Seat 7: ItsHolliday (770 in chips)
Seat 8: beliall666 (2415 in chips)
Seat 9: Riddick2000 (2945 in chips)
CrusaderP19: posts small blind 100
ItsHolliday: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ItsHolliday [3h Qs]
beliall666: folds
Riddick2000: folds
Dwight Box: folds
donhamel: folds
LUPILEON: calls 200
CrusaderP19: calls 100
ItsHolliday: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jh Ts As]
CrusaderP19: bets 200
ItsHolliday: raises 370 to 570 and is all-in
LUPILEON: calls 570
CrusaderP19: folds
ItsHolliday said, "K"
*** TURN *** [Jh Ts As] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Ts As Js] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ItsHolliday: shows [3h Qs] (a Royal Flush)
LUPILEON: shows [Ad Tc] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
ItsHolliday said, "LOL"
ItsHolliday collected 1940 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1940 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Ts As Js Ks]
Seat 3: Dwight Box folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: donhamel folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: LUPILEON (button) showed [Ad Tc] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 6: CrusaderP19 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: ItsHolliday (big blind) showed [3h Qs] and won (1940) with a Royal Flush
Seat 8: beliall666 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Riddick2000 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Where the hell is everyone?

Poker....ever heard of it? It's this neat little game with cards and chips and stuff. Anyway, I was just checking in since everyone disappeared so I'm not even sure if anyone will even read this. How's everyone doing? Winning? Losing? Playing the hottest new online multiplayer geekfest?

Anyway, I've gone back to my old ways for a bit (playing 8-12 tables of full ring). I've been winning so I'm happy about that. I think I need to grind myself out of the lower limits so I can go back to 6-handed.

Tournaments are going OK. I played in the WCOOP Appreciation Freeroll (anyone who played in the WCOOP got a ticket) yesterday. Took 251st out of 10,180 so that wasn't too bad...only won $31.50 but it was nice to go pretty deep. I'm playing in the $1 Million Turbo Takedown today so we'll see how that goes as well.

Hope all is well. Latez...

Meet Nick S.

So yesterday at the a tourney I met someone named Nick S. his last name was some long name I can't remember. Anyway, he has been serious about Hold'em for 5 years now, even got a degree in pysch. He moved out to vegas with 3k and started gambling. Thinks were going ok, he was running late to a tourney and missed it so he found that it was only $333 for a satalite for the WSOP. He gave it a shot and won, then he sold the seat for $10,200. He played it again (34 people) and won again, so he sold that seat as well. He decide he would play more and if he wins again he would go and play the 2008 WSOP. So third satalite he just missed it and didn't win, was very close. So he played a fourth, then a fifth, and finally winning his 3rd time on the sixth.

He went back and slept for 3 hours and came back to play in WSOP, he played very tight on day 1, day 2 he sat with a maniac and watched this guy just run over people by playing reckless, so day 3 he decided to do the same thing, then day 4 he continued playing that way, finally day 5 he started tighting back up. Well he did very well and ended up in 13th place they started out with around 6.5k people. He took in $436k. Pretty crazy meeing someone like that at a free tourney...he even told Holliday in the middle of the hand...man you gonna play your kings that way? He had a pocket pair of Kings..lol.

Also in the tourney grats to Holliday for 5th place, Nick placed 3rd. I went all in with AKo vs Ad Qd Flop hit rainbow A 10 J dealer says you sure you don't want a Q I said ok I'll take a Q, so next card, BAM Q I hit my straight. Dealer said now you don't want a Queen do you, well BAM Q again, Villian hits a full boat..tough way to go out. Final Hero: AK, Villian: AQ, Board A 10 J Q Q. Rachel went out on Ac7c and board was 2 clubs, went all in and missed the flush against 2 pair.

On Fire

So I feel like I'm really getting 10 NL down. This weekend it is amazing how many fish there are who go all in with nothing. I did catch some cards so it wasn't all skill but I feel I did pretty well. If I kept this rate up I would be at $25 in no time, but I'm not in a hurry yet. I do feel like I get burnt out much quicker because of how much I am concentrating on the game. Well here is my overall progress thus far.

Why you need at least 20 buy-ins for any particular level you play.

I saw your post about losing to quads Kev and thought you might get a kick out of this.

POKERSTARS GAME #20064805583: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($3/$6) - 2008/09/01 - 12:00:29 (ET)
Table 'Peitho II' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: TTURQUOISE ($1604.50 in chips)
Seat 2: bingotnght ($573 in chips)
Seat 3: Jschlach ($629.30 in chips)
Seat 4: k345 ($802.45 in chips)
Seat 5: Hyi_Vam ($120 in chips)
Seat 6: Luciferian ($123.80 in chips)
k345: posts small blind $3
Hyi_Vam: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bingotnght [As Ad]
Luciferian: folds
TTURQUOISE: calls $6
bingotnght: raises $24 to $30
Jschlach: folds
k345: raises $66 to $96
Hyi_Vam: folds
TTURQUOISE: folds
bingotnght: raises $477 to $573 and is all-in
k345: calls $477
*** FLOP *** [Ah Ts 2c]
*** TURN *** [Ah Ts 2c] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [Ah Ts 2c Ks] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
k345: shows [Kc Kh] (four of a kind, Kings)
bingotnght: mucks hand
k345 collected $1155 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1158 | Rake $3
Board [Ah Ts 2c Ks Kd]
Seat 1: TTURQUOISE folded before Flop
Seat 2: bingotnght mucked [As Ad]
Seat 3: Jschlach (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: k345 (small blind) showed [Kc Kh] and won ($1155) with four of a kind, Kings
Seat 5: Hyi_Vam (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Luciferian folded before Flop (didn't bet)

This was such a small raise out of SB for this particular player, I expected him to be very strong so decided to push and make it look like AK. Everything worked out except for the results, lol.

Here's another one from the same table 20 minutes later.

POKERSTARS GAME #20065406396: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($3/$6) - 2008/09/01 - 12:27:11 (ET)
Table 'Peitho II' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: TTURQUOISE ($1312.95 in chips)
Seat 2: bingotnght ($591 in chips)
Seat 3: Jschlach ($2184.90 in chips)
Seat 4: no_dow_for_u ($591 in chips)
Seat 5: Hyi_Vam ($600 in chips)
Seat 6: LittleZen ($244 in chips)
TTURQUOISE: posts small blind $3
bingotnght: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bingotnght [7h 7c]
Jschlach: raises $15 to $21
no_dow_for_u: folds
Hyi_Vam: folds
LittleZen: folds
TTURQUOISE: folds
bingotnght: calls $15
*** FLOP *** [9h 7d Kd]
bingotnght: checks
Jschlach: bets $30
bingotnght: raises $30 to $60
Jschlach: raises $120 to $180
bingotnght: raises $300 to $480
Jschlach: raises $300 to $780
bingotnght: calls $90 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($210) returned to Jschlach
*** TURN *** [9h 7d Kd] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [9h 7d Kd Ks] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bingotnght: shows [7h 7c] (a full house, Sevens full of Kings)
Jschlach: shows [9d 9s] (a full house, Nines full of Kings)
Jschlach collected $1182 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1185 | Rake $3
Board [9h 7d Kd Ks 6s]
Seat 1: TTURQUOISE (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: bingotnght (big blind) showed [7h 7c] and lost with a full house, Sevens full of Kings
Seat 3: Jschlach showed [9d 9s] and won ($1182) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
Seat 4: no_dow_for_u folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Hyi_Vam folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: LittleZen (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Set over set your getting stacked every time, unless you hit quads of course.
Btw, I was playing 6 tables at the time and almost timed out so hit the raise button real quick and I think default is a min-raise. Usually make it $84 or $96 in that spot.

Video

Hey everyone! Been busy, but cool to see everyone still at it.
I made a 6max $.25/.50 NL video.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VECC6F3V

PokerStars: Missing HUD Display?

Make sure to update the PokerTracker after updating PokerStars to 3.17 this fixes it.

http://www.pokertracker.com/products/PT3/download.php

Played on Full Tilt while they got this fix up and running, up $13 tonight not bad.

Holes in my game

I'm writing this out for maybe some advice, possibly you suffer from these issues as well, also so I can identify what I need to improve on. I really want to get even more serious since I have noticed I really do enjoy playing online as well. Without playing this weekend I went crazy..so anyway, here is what I have noticed.

I raise to much out of the blinds. Anytime I get a hand I would open in CO I raise it up and I notice I loose most of my money out of the blinds as do most. I feel I need to call from these spots and if I hit an over card be weary about the kicker. I feel all my other spots I play very well pre-flop.

I need to be careful with tilting, after awhile I randomly start "chasing" pots thinking oh they don't have it, I'm better then this player..etc. I maybe better then that player but everyone is going to hit cards. I need to stay tight and not loosen up. If I would do this I can see myself increasing my bankroll very quickly as well.

I don't quit when I know I should. I say hey these are free hands I already paid for, why don't I wait to see if I get good cards, I then get decent cards and end up loosing money on them. I need to just close the table and not worry about that whole ten cents I spent on blinds. I doubled up yesterday and didn't close the table then lost everything the very next hand. I need to restart my internal clock by closing the table so I can tighten up more. If I have $10 on $10NL I play very well, once it gets up I loosen up.

Board hits a flush/straight, when this happens I think they don't have any piece of it, and I think we will chop, I'm not sure if this is the correct move because so far I have been paying off the other person, comments on this?Pot odds are something I am aware of but I don't follow them like I should. I'm not calculating my outs enough and I'm taking chances if I feel the player will pay me off. Even though this is one of my biggest weaknesses I don't feel it is effecting my game as much as it should be at this point since I do get lucky sometimes. This is something I need to practice and the online action is to fast for me to start out, I may just start with some change and a deck of cards, any other ideas how to increase this?

I feel my betting habits are very good, Some situations I need to be betting less, mainly against a good player that knows I'm trying to get him off a hand if I'm not positive I have it, they expect a blocker/value bet and I put to much on but over all my betting habbits are very good.

Any info on this stuff I would appreciate.

Poker Tracker Beta 16 - TRIAL EXTENSION

If the PT software hasn't prompted you yet, go download the new beta 16 version and you'll get an extension back to 60 day trial (unless of course you registered to the full version).

Glad they were small stack

I thought I had this hand won for sure... this person was a poor player..

Hand #20072367099 begins at 2008/09/01
Dealing down cardsDealt to kevinsmak [Kd Ks]
marcd6969 posts the small blind of $0.05
kevinsmak posts the big blind of $0.10
UCSB_Georgi folds.
xxvexinxx raises to $0.40.
gatomalo17 raises to $0.80.
blade1905 folds.marcd6969 folds.
kevinsmak raises to $2.40.
xxvexinxx folds.gatomalo17 raises to $3.45, and is all-in.kevinsmak calls $1.05.
Dealing Flop [3c Kh 7h]Dealing Turn [7c]Dealing River [8d]
kevinsmak shows [Kd Ks]kevinsmak has Full House, Kings full of Sevens
gatomalo17 shows [7d 7s]gatomalo17 has Four of a Kind, Sevensgatomalo17 wins $7

Got a buck or two back before he left the table at least. I did have some luck...
Hand #20072949527 begins at 2008/09/01
Dealing down cardsDealt to kevinsmak [Js Jh]
ScUmMyBuBbLe posts the small blind of $0.05
zito43 posts the big blind of $0.10
Macho_Corde folds.xxvexinxx folds.
MetzgerSau raises to $0.40.
kevinsmak raises to $1.20.
ScUmMyBuBbLe raises to $3.90, and is all-in.zito43 folds.
MetzgerSau folds.
kevinsmak calls $2.70.
Dealing Flop [3h 9c Tc]Dealing Turn [8c]Dealing River [Qs]
ScUmMyBuBbLe shows [Ac As]ScUmMyBuBbLe has One Pair, Aces
kevinsmak shows [Js Jh]kevinsmak has Straight, Queen High
kevinsmak wins $7.90

Tournament

Quick announcement. I played in the $80k guaranteed tournament last night and finished in the money. Finished 190 out of 2500 people who entered. Not bad. I won an entry by playing a satellite using my VIP points. I won $90, which puts me back on track. I definitely recommend playing the tournaments using your VIP points. Might as well unless you are trying to buy merchandise. I will say that these tournaments are wild, loose, aggressive games. I routinely witnessed people pushing their whole stack to win relatively small blinds, and then multiple people calling them. It's crazy because everytime someone shoved pre-flop, with no raises in front of them, they usually had a small pocket pair or big cards. I'm trying to understand why they make this play. One dude towards the end of the tournament would risk his whole stack each time it was his turn if nobody raised before him. His name was Maniac something. Fitting. I waited for premium hands before making any plays. It seemed to work for me.

Why I play...

For nights like tonight where I can do no wrong. For everyone that feels like they are getting a dry run of cards, I stress that it's only temporary. In a 90 minute session I show-downed, 4 of kind, a full boat, and a set. Doesn't sound like a big deal but I got paid off on all three! Almost back to back to back. It felt real good. Up $37 for the session.

Lots of donks at the tables tonight. I had another situation where the guy had the nut straight and did not make a value bet on the river after the turn was checked. Why? I wouldn't have called in this situation, but I would like to thank you, Mr. Donk, for being so passive.

I've learned to be very patient and not force hands against these types of players. Wait for good hands and let them pay you off.

"Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." Sun Tzu - Art of War

Stupid People

So yeah, funny hand. This was a point I made the other day about weak players not making value bets, even when they have the nuts. I have 88 in the hole. UTG guy limps. Naturally I raise pre-flop from MP. I get 2 calls, one from BB and one from the limper. Ok fine. The flop hits 9JQ. This is the rare occasion that I don't make a continuation bet on the flop. That board fits far too many hands so I don't think I will get any value from my c-bet. So I check. The 2 players check behind. Long story short, the hand gets checked down to the end. Would you believe the UTG had the nut straight on the flop? He did not try to extract any money from me or the other player. A 10 hits the river so they only way he could be beat was by an AK making the nuts at the river. Why does this person play at all? What hand is he hoping to hit?

So the lesson as I mentioned the other day is, bad players sometimes don't even play their hands for value when they hit. Don't bet your weak hands because a bad opponent might just call you with the nuts. Leaving you scratching your head. Be thankful they help you save money I suppose.

Pot Odds Chart

http://www.pokersherlock.com/potoddschart.pdf

Decent printable pot odd chart.

Tilt after 1 1/2 - 2 hours

I have noticed when I play I do very well my first hour and a half, usually going up big or small, but up none the less going up. I continue to play to think that I can keep increasing my funds and I start to make small mistakes because I become "greedy". Then I start going back down slowly, and it speeds up from there if I keep going. I would like to be able to play 6 hours straight at some point but I keep trying to do long sessions and it's not working. I know some people listen to music when they play but I'm told not to since I'm still learning I shouldn't have distractions. I am around 12k hands or so and I'm up about $2 all together, twice this weekend I went up $50 in the first hour and a half, then kept playing and lost it all again. I want to play long so I can get more practice and get better but it looks like at this point I'm going to set my phone for 1 hour 30 minutes, and when the alarm hits I'm done for that session then will take a hour break. Has anyone experienced this when they started out? I really want to get better but I guess breaking up the sessions with hour break between may help... What do you guys think about listening to music when you play? Should I wait another 10k hands.... Any other advice?

Playing A/K?

OK. So I've had mixed feelings on how, and when, I should be playing A/K aggresively pre-flop and post-flop. I think one situation is leading to another and I'm making mistakes based on previous hands. I find myself drifting back to my old style of playing which is simply grinding it out until I have hands...or I think I have them. This seems to be happening quite often not only with A/K but with other hands as well but A/K had a bunch of different situations today and once again i'm continuing my downward slope. I also seem to be losing a lot more with A/K o/s than A/K suited. Here are some examples of the hands I lost today with A/K all being played @ $0.25/0.50 short-handed:

Example 1. I'm in CO with A/K o/s with no action to me and I raise 3xBB to $1.50. the SB calls and everyone else is out. Flop comes 6/7/9 with 2 clubs. Check to me and I c-bet $2.50 into $3.50 pot (maybe a $0.50 too small). SB calls, turn comes 9, we both check. River hits an A and SB bet's $3 into $8.50 pot so I have to call and she flips 8/9 o/s winning with trip 9's. Maybe I should've raised more preflop?

Example 2. I'm in BB with A/K o/s with no action to Button (solid player but can also make moves) who raises 4xBB to $2. I decided to re-raise to $7.50 being out of position to take the pot right there and he re-raises to $22.50 and I decided to fold. Maybe I should've just called to see the flop?

Example 3. I'm on the button with A/K o/s and UTG (aggresive player) raises 4xBB to $2. Everyone folds to me and I re-raise to $6. Action back to UTG and he re-raises to $16.50 and I elect to just call. Flop comes down 9/7/J with two spades and UTG bets $26 into $33.75 pot and I fold. Again, maybe I should've just called PF to see the flop?

Example 4. I'm in the CO with A/K suited and since all these hands happened today I'm getting a little nervous about playing A/K. UTG (aggresive player) Raises 4xBB to $2 and I decide to just call. Everyone folds, the flop comes Q/Q/4, UTG checks to me and I also check. The turn comes a 10 and check, check. The river comes a 9 and check, check and UTG turns over A/10. Clearly at this point I'm just playing way to tight because of the way the other hands had played out. Maybe I should've re-raised PF to take it down there or at least after the flop?

I had some other hands that I misplayed with A/K in the last day but those are my main examples. Any help would be appreciated as I'm getting slightly frustrated and would like to start winning again. Overall, I've won 75% and $95 with A/K suited and won 64% with A/K o/s but lost $111. Maybe I should make a decision that I should re-raise PF everytime with A/K suited and just call with A/K regardless of previous hands? Or, only re-raise with both hands if I'm in position to see a flop? If I re-raise and get re-raised should I fold or push depending on position and player strength (if known)?

Thanks Guys.

10,000 Hands - Holliday

Hey Guys,

As of yesterday I hit my first 10K hands since starting to use Poker Tracker and playing short-handed tables tight aggressive just over a week ago. I was pretty happy with my results up until yesterday when I got slaughtered. I was on track to hit $1000 with $0.25/0.50 which would've been about $450 profit for the week but the poker gods had other plans and now I'm only up about $200. Here's the link to my graphed results: http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp8/itsholliday/10KHandsGraph.jpg

Aside of the plethera of other information Poker Tracker keeps dibs on, I was wondering if my chart is telling any stories. The large dip in the beginning was when I tried playing $1/2 because I didn't want to deal with a bunch of bad players at lower limits and lost about $60. Then I decided to play $0.25/0.50 because even the bad players get beat by better players/cards more often than not. Plus my bankroll clearly didn't justify it yet. After that, I had a pretty good run in the direction we should all be going. After the peak just over $300 I think I got a little too aggresive/confident and made a couple bad errors in judgment followed by a couple bad beats. I redeemed myself slightly after posting "Kicked by a Donkey" and then it's been rocky ever since.

I think what happened was a series of bad beats was followed with some cautious play and now I'm not as aggresive as I first was when I had a good balance of aggression and knowing when I was beat. Has anyone else experienced this and if so what tips do you have to help get back on track? Could it be some players have caught onto my plays? I find more people calling my c-bets which almost forces me to check the turn unless I have the goods on the flop or the turn helped (this doesn't happen much). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

QQ and JJ Preflop

What is the correct way to play hands like QQ and JJ preflop. I have been losing most of my big hands with these two hands. My idea is I need to get them all in before the flop hits, as the odds will decrease as the hand progresses. I am being crushed by AK even though I believe with QQ the odds are 57% in my favor it doesn't seem that way. What's your idea on QQ and JJ? I usually 3 bet it before the flop off a raise to try and take it down there, should I just be calling?

Kicked by a Donkey

What's up guys?

Well, it's been over 2000 hands in the last 2 days so I was bound to run into some donkwork. However, I'm not here to complain about how a bad player got lucky with a poor hand but rather to share my unfortunate experience and discuss options on how to minimize any future losses. In fact, since I lost the maximum on the hand then it doesn't matter how bad the other player was...there's always a way I could've made my play better. I had a few bad beats in the last couple days (and thousands playing the last couple years) but this one in particular urked me. I'll play the hand out first and then evaulate.

I'm playing $0.25/0.50 short-handed NLHE and all the stacks are within $10 (up or down) of the $50 max buy-in. The entire table, with the exception of myself, has started to play pretty loose the last 10-20 minutes and making bad plays to catch cards. I'm in the SB with 10h/10c. Everyone folds to the cut-off who calls the BB and the button folds to me. The BB was playing extremely loose (around VP50) and the CO was around VP35. I raise 4xBB to $2, the BB calls $1.50 and the CO calls $1.50. Flop comes down 2d/9h/9s. The pot is now $6. I'm first to act betting $3.50 with the BB calling and the CO folding. The pot is now $13 and the turn comes 2s. I bet $6.50 and the BB goes all in $30.90 making the pot $50.40. It costs me another $24.40 and I make the call. The turn comes 8d and he shows down 8h/2c...his boat beats my 2 pair.

Thinking about the hand afterwards I was able to pick out what mistakes I made throughout the hand but it becomes even more clear when I review the playback and actually write it down (everyone should be using the playback feature frequently...it's extremely helpful). Here's my analysis:

1. I'm playing $0.25/0.50...a breeding ground for donkeys. Kevin made mention in the 2nd Vid post that he can't imagine playing with that much money as Jerrick was. I've played up to $5/$10 back in Feb. when I was kicking some ass and my bankroll was up a few thousand and it's definitely a different game. With this style of play I think it's even easier to play higher limits. Being able to balance this style with how people play in lower limits is difficult but will hopefully make us better in the long run. I should've kept this in mind in addition to the cards in my hand and on the board.

2. I'm in the SB with loose players and will be first to act. I probably should've raised more preflop...maybe to $3 in hopes to get the rif raf out or take the pot down right there.

3. I should've bet more on the flop. I think $5 would've been a better bet than the $3.50. The $3.50 might have indicated to the other players that I've only got high cards or might be worried about the two 9's in the board. A $5 bet may have eliminated those thoughts and won the pot.

4. I should've checked the turn knowing anyone holding a 9 or 2 has me beat. Loose players will call with any two cards in hopes to get lucky. Since I ended up betting instead and the BB went all in, I concluded he didn't have a 9. Otherwise, he most likely would've just called to extract as much as possible from me until the river. At the same time, he's concluded I don't have a 9 because of my $6.50 bet and figures his 2's full are good...so he pushes.

5. I call the all in raise. With all the other factors up until this point I should've laid my hand down for a couple reasons. First, I was only getting 2-1 on my money. It was costing me $24.40 to win $50.40. Maybe if it was 4-1 or higher odds the call would've been justified but 2-1 is way too low. Second, it's a cash game and I can wait to make my play with better hands or more certainty. Knowing when to lay a hand down is equally as important as knowing when to play a hand. I should've cut my losses and moved on to the next hand.

6. I went on tilt and made a dumb play the next hand. I should've just sat out to review the hand or left alltogether and reviewed it later when I was a little more clear-headed. Instead, I pushed my remaining $12 after an early position raise with K/T and lost to A/Q. Needless to say I was finished for the evening.

When I go back and think about it, this was a great lesson to learn; you can only control what moves you make to hopefully reduce the stupid plays someone else makes. People are still going to make stupid plays (or what you think was a stupid play) no matter what you do...at which point you can only minimize your losses.

By the way, some heated discussion followed the hand between myself and the BB. He said the reason he called my PF raise and flop bet was because the last time he folded a deuce he would've hit 3 of a kind deuces on the river and won a big hand. Pretty poor reasoning to play a hand in any half decent poker player's book. Still, I'm not sure that even if I had made the proper play up until the point of him hitting his boat would I have been able to win the hand. My pocket tens could've been dead from the start given his reasoning. Obviously, I wasn't folding them. But, instead of playing to win I should've been playing to lose as little as possible.

Thoughts?

Video

So I created a video of .01/.02 5NL to see if maybe Jerrick or Chris could do voice over on it and let me know what I'm doing right or wrong. The video is under 40 minutes, did get into some situations I was not sure on so I think this will be perfect to help me. I'm going to reply to this thread with the video once it's done rendering, takes forever..hehe. I would really appreciate the help, probably be up by tomorrow morning.

2nd vid

Hey guys check it out. Audio is much better!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HSWVFZ93

10,000 Hands

So I finally made it to my first landmark of 10,000 hands. So now is a good time to review my good plays, bad plays, and hand selection choices I've made over the past 3 weeks. After some in-depth review, I definitely found some holes in my game. I also confirmed statistically, that certain things I do do in fact work.

1st hole - Playing marginal-hands out of position, hitting the flop, and then bleeding money.
2nd hole - Calling all-ins with big draws when pot-odds are incorrect.
3rd hole - Betting the river when the board is dangerous and I don't hold the nuts.

In I could have saved about $50 from the hands I made these mistakes on. Doesn't sound like a lot but when putting things in perspective, that is about 15% the size of my current bankroll. Definitely significant.

Things I'm doing correctly:

1. Pocket Pairs - Very profitable in any position on the table. I'll almost call any reasonable raise pre-flop if the player's stack is large enough.
2. Continuation Bets - Profitable. I win 79% of the hands I c-bet on the flop without going to showdown, very impressive. C-betting is also very profitable.

I also added some more gadgets to the blog. Not sure if I like them or not.

Value bet vs Min bet

I can never tell if someone is trying to value bet me, thinking he has me crushed or someone is betting into me softly. Can someone help me understand how to tell the difference?

Cards Running Dry?

Yeah so another session went by with no wins posted. Only lost a few bucks over 2 hours. I guess that's still not bad. I was playing the $25NL game today to see what I got. I will say this, some players even if they are loose seem a bit more aggressive. There are still so many fish. One guy I caught was bluffing 72s on a board he completely missed. I noticed he kept making huge raises on the flop almost every hand so I figured he was most likely making a stone cold bluff. I had top pair so I called his all-in and doubled up. One guy played his trip 8s very soft and didn't make me pay him off. One leak in my game is definitely doing the betting for people that wouldn't normally make me pay them off. I have to learn to check in more spots.

2008 WSOP tonight

Reminder, 2008 World Series is on tonight.
ESPN 8PM. (They show plenty of repeats if you miss it)

Video!

Here's my first video ever. I recorded it like at 3am this morning and didn't realize I was kind of whispering, guess felt weird talking to myself...lol. Turn the volume up because as long as you can hear me I think there's some good info. Give me some feedback, please. Enjoy!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RFARHXCB

Blah...

The weekend started off real good. I made my $50 deposit bonus and broke the $300 bankroll mark. Not bad for starting with only $50 a couple of weeks ago. The last 3 or 4 sessions I wasn't able to put much together. I just broke even. Blah. Anyway, it's part of the game and eventually I will be on the upside of things again. Better than losing I guess. Time to go blow some stuff up on Battlefield Bad Company to make me feel better.

First Post

I'm starting this blog to document my poker sessions to share with friends. We can use this blog to exchange stories and ideas as well as provide support for one another. I hope this will keep us motivated to improve our game.
So here goes.....

Won $23 in an hour session tonight. I had the best scenario, My AA vs. KK pre-flop. I raise, dude re-raises, I re-raise, he pushes in. Beautiful. First time after 7000 hands where I had that happen. If I was in his shoes with KK I would have done the same thing. The odds are when you have KK that someone will have AA on a 6 man table is about 44 to 1. Extremely rare. The lesson is that you should always go all-in if pushed pre-flop with your KK because you will be in the lead almost all of the time.

Latest stats after 5277 hands at $10NL. My bankroll is almost at $300. When I hit $400 I’ll start on the $25 NL game.

VP$IP 18.4
PFR 14.69

$7.13 an hour. Hourly has been fluctuating less now that I have more hands on the books. Definitely after 10,000 hands it will be more steady and shouldn’t move up or down more than a few cents after a session.

Chris