Some 6-Max And Fighting My Way Back To Even

As I mentioned yesterday I've decided to play at least 1000 hands of 6-max for c9h13no3's break out of your comfort zone challenge. So last night was my 1st session. I ended up playing 264 hands and winning $25.80 (19.5BB/100) on 4 tables in about 40 minutes. I actually recorded the session and I plan to add commentary and make it available this weekend. My stats over this shortish session were 23/21/4 with 11% 3bet. So still pretty tight but it seemed so loose to me since my usual stats are like 15/12/4. I hit a few big hands and only made one major mistake in my opinion. Here it is:



Calling his river bet here is pretty spewy. I was very surprised to see him play QQ this way. Had he 3bet preflop, we would have flipped for stacks because there is no doubt I would have pushed. Oh well, can't be expected to play them all correctly.

So after that 6-max session, I opened 8 FR NL50 tables and went into extreme freefall. At 300 hands into the session I was down ~$90 but I stuck with it, quit doing everything wrong and managed to turn the session around actually finishing up $6,85 after 553 hand (1.25BB/100). I guess considering the way I started the session I can't really complain about the end result. Here is the worst hand I played (warning this hand should not be viewed by women or children):



What can I say other than dumb. To my opponent in this hand I say you're welcome.

In better news, I did cross the $500 MGR threshold this month which means I'll get an extra $25 from my rakeback site for my monthly Stox Poker membership. I've been doing a ton of studying on there lately and I really think the videos they produce over there will help my bottom line. Maybe there will be a video about not pushing with pocket eights.

What Goes Up....

... must crash back to Earth with a sickening thud! After I posted last night I decided to play a long session to try to earn a bunch of rakeback and maybe get my MGR up to $500 to pay for Stox this month. I ran insane. I finished up $215 over 1000 hands (21.5BB/100) and felt that I played very well throughout the session. I had my month's winnings up over $1000 and I was feeling great. Then today happened. I played 718 hands for a total loss of 186.05 (-26BB/100)!

Yes, some of the losses were standard cooler type hands. Some were suckout losses and some (most) were just bad play. For whatever reason I was back to calling down everything (WTSD over 33%) and I just kept spewing chips all over the place (W$SD under 35%). Here is the worst of it:



When I called the villain's 3bet preflop I said to myself that it was set or fold postflop and then I go a 3 barrel when the board is all unders. Just as I was about to throw the last of my stack away I though to myself that he probably had QQ and that I should just check fold but I didn't. Just couldn't do it. Spewtastic!

So thanks to this post by c9h13no3 on CC, I've decided that for the last couple of days of the month I'm going to try my hand at 6-max (I'm thinking 25NL). We'll see how it goes. I've always heard that 6-max has more horrible stacktastic donks per table than FR so I should fit right in.

Back On Track And Getting Stupid With A Pair Draw

Well I managed to quick;y lose $50 at my buddies live game Friday night. I just never had cards and when I did they were always 2nd best. In the time I was there, about 3 hours, I won only 3 hands and the biggest of those was with 35os in the bb, that flopped trips. Fortunately one of my opponents had decides to limp with AA from EP and he paid me off. Other than that I played rather poorly and was too impatient the whole night.

So when I returned home I managed to get in a session on Full Tilt so I could keep my gold medal dreams alive for the month. I actually managed to win about $58 in 275 hands (21.1BB/100). This was the dumbest play of the session:



The biggest mistake here is of course calling the initial raise from the shorty. We're getting almost no implied odds and we really should just be mucking our hand here.

I also had a winning session this afternoon, finishing up $86 in just over 700 hands (12BB/100). It was a very swingy session which started down $20, then I went up $100, then back to even, and finally working my way back up to where I finished up. The following is what I consider my worst hand of the day:



Our villain here is a very bad 54/22/3 who I thought might fold to my all-in (I figured him for a draw or a weak made hand). I'm not sure why I thought he would fold anything he would bet here and of course just folding and waiting for a better hand to take his stack would have been the better play. Although he did give me action in a later hand (this time he only had TPGK to my set) and I took it all back (with interest) before he left the table.

Running Bad Makes Me Play Even Worse

Well since my last totally up beat post I have yet to book a winning session! All told I am down $125 over 1000 hands (-12.5BB/100). Now some of this loss is certainly due to some variance (twice I've had sets of deuces lose to bigger sets) but a very large part of it has actually been some sick need I've had to make hero calls on the river. Trying to catch your opponent bluffing gets VERY expensive and I'm not sure why but I just can't keep my cursor away from the call button. A particularly bad example:



My God I'm like the biggest calling station on Earth. I have bottom pair on a flop that's all over a button raisers range and end up calling all the way. I beat nothing here but a bluff so I guess I put him on a bluff. Just bad.

I guess some of the cooler type hands had to be expected as I was just running too good for it to last long. Even with this horrible 1000 hands I'm still running at 6.5BB/100 at 50NL, although after paying Stox my BR is just above where it was when I moved up.

Well I'm getting ready to head out to a friends for some cash game poker. He's actually having a tourney tonight that started about 2 hours ago but since I hate his structure I made up an excuse to go late and just play cash with the early losers! Also tomorrow is Mrs. Hillbilly's 15th class reunion so who knows if I'll get a chance to update tomorrow or even play. Maybe I need a day off.

Joining Stox And A Bluff All-In Takes A Big Pot

Ok, so after running hot for the 3rd day straight (up $130 over 465 hands or 28BB/100) I decided to go ahead and join Stoxpoker today. As I mentioned in a previous post my rakeback site, rakebreak.com will cover the monthly fee ($25) for Stox for every month that I have a monthly gross rake of $500 or more. Not sure I'm going to get there this month but since I'm positive I will beginning next month, I went ahead and joined. So the math works like this; I paid $189 to Stox for 6 months. For that fee I pay the sign-up fee ($75)and get 6 months access to all their videos ($150) and 2 books ($30 Theory of Poker and NL Holdem Theory and Practice). I'll get at least $125 back from rakebreak.com, so it seemed like a fair deal. It will only get better each month after 6 when the monthly fee ($25) is an added benefit from rakebreak.com (basically free $$). Hopefully I'll be able to pick up enough advice from Stox to make the time spent watching the videos worthwhile.

So anyway, like I said I ran great once again last night. When I reveiwed my session afterward I really didn't find too many mistakes and certainly no big mistake until I looked at my winners (I normally look at my losing hands first). Then I noticed that my biggest pot of the day was essentially a bluff CRAI on a monotone flop.



Not sure what our villain (43/12/2) was thinking here other than I had a single club and was pushing with a draw. Of course I figured he may be doing the same and that's why I pushed. I was very pleasantly surprised when his cards were turned over. Not sure this play is profitable against most players because I think it generally limits his calling range to hands that have great equity on us.

Good Run Continues And I Miss A River Bet

Good fortune continued to smile down upon me yesterday as I ran at 9.25 BB/100 over 1045 hands for a total profit of $97. Along the way I found my new best friend. My new best friend gave me $125 in just 81 total hands. My new best friend was 93/30/3.5 over that time and WTSD 25% of the time (often with WAY less than top pair). Here is an example (note my new best friend shall remain anonymous for my own benefit):



I know he could have had me beat here but his calling range is literally middle pair and up. Note my stack at the start of this hand. Almost all of it had come from my good buddy. I hope he wasn't just drunk last night.

Now on to my big mistake and in this hand there are actually a couple:



The first mistake in this hand is made by our villain, not 3betting JJ out of position is just not smart. When our villain donks and then calls on a dry flop, I should be worried about an over pair. Then when the Ace hits the turn we get bluffy again and try to represent. After he called my turn bet I actually checked the fold to any bet box (really dumb) thinking there was no way I would call a bet if he decided to throw chips in on the river. I then went on to the next table and didn't even realize I'd made 2nd nuts on the river until I reviewed my session! I really wish I had seen it during the hand so I could have bet the river, not because I think he would have called but because I wouldn't have had to show my cards and give away free info. Live and learn.

Running Hot Makes Me Crazy

Quick update on Saturday night's live session; I killed it. I had cards most of the night. When I didn't have cards, I was aggressive and stole a few pots. I caught cards when I was WAY behind (my QQ > AA AIPF ~$45). All told I ended up over $200 (this is a .25/.50 cash game with 8 players). We ended up breaking up the game at 3AM after playing for 8 hours. It's always fun but when you're running as well as I was, it's amazing. Great time.

So I woke up late on Sunday and took the wife out for a great sushi lunch and then came home for a nap (what a tough life). After my brief rest I decided to jump on Tilt and play a little and again I ran insanely well, ending up $115 over 485 hands (24BB/100). I was running so great that I got stupid, here's proof:



This hand started as a bluff (I raise JTs from UTG almost never) and I got crazy with how far I was willing to take it. Of course I catch 1 of my 3 outs on the river and actually win a just under $70 pot (the replayer incorrectly shows the amounts so you'll just have to trust me). I guess this type of stupidity is a form of tilt (too successful tilt?). I can't even guess to explain my play here. Just one of those I'll push you off this pot spots, I guess. Really just bad play.

First 50NL Sessions And A Really Bad Bet

Well after I posted last night's entry I logged on to Full Tilt and loaded up 8 50NL tables and played 560 hands ending up down $43 (-7.7BB/100). I was a little disappointed in my play (I got crazy bluffy for some reason) but the bottom line wasn't too bad and the level of play was as bad, maybe worse, than 25NL. An example:



So after I woke up this morning I decided I needed to jump back into it and I played pretty well (still a few to many bluffs) and after catching a few cards I ended up winning $92 after 430 hands (21.4BB/100). So this makes my 1st day at 50NL a winner being up $49 at a winrate of 5BB/100. I'll take that. Another "benefit" is the increased rake. I've never seen FTPs add up so fast. It should allow me to qualify for a free Stox membership through rakebreak.com (they pay the monthly $25 fee as long as your MGR is over $500) next month certainly and possibly this month.

Now let's see what stupidity looks like at double the stakes.


I call with decent set mining odds and hit bottom set on a possible straight board, so I bet out and get 1 caller (58/8/1.5). When the 2 hits the board this gives any 3 the straight, yet when our villain checks I inexplicably push all-in. Overbetting the pot and essentially ensuring that I only get calls from the hands I fear most (bigger sets and straights). Just a horrible play on my part and one that I plan to try to avoid from now on. We'll see how that works out.

Tonight I'm playing at a home cash game so no more online till tomorrow.

Soul Read Illiterate

Couple of decent sessions since last post. Up $34 over 900 hands (7.5BB/100) and it really should have been about $40 more. I played well and finished clearing my mid-year bonus, so with just under $1500 in my BR I plan to start playing 50NL immediately after posting this entry! Wish me luck.

Today's example of bad play has me misreading the strength of the villain's hand by about a mile!



I really thought his bet was a missed flush draw and I had NO IDEA how strong he really was. Oh well at least I didn't raise his river bet.

Bottom Two; Rarely Good In A Big Pot

Well, today's 1st session was more of the same for me. Down and no where to go but down. Then a strange thing happened when I played today's 2nd session, I started winning and winning big. I caught cards, I hit sets, I made soul reading calls, I folded in all the right spot, and I managed to hang on to the profits. Total for today is +$72 over 910 hands (15.8BB/100). This erased my loses from yesterday and got me back on track to start 50NL VERY soon (I'll be within $70 once my bonus clears tomorrow). Should be interesting cause then you'll get to see me do stupid things in even bigger pots! Yay!

Anyway this is a hand from session 1 (the loser).



I make my standard opening raise from the SB (I open for 4x from any other position) and get a call from the BB (40/15/7). The flop is good for us giving us a pair and the flush draw. When the turn makes my second pair I think I went a little crazy with the check/raise all-in. It pretty much eliminates most hands we beat and gets called by hands that we fear most. Having the flush draw actually gives us some equity here but when that misses we've lost a 130bb pot.

Just Plain Ugly

So last night didn't go so well. I dropped $65 in 950 hands (-13.8BB/100)! Just gross. I only lost 1 full stack when my AIPF KK ran into TT that flopped a set, but it seemed like I was bleeding chips. Of course I didn't help myself out any when I started pushing weak holdings and bluffing badly. I know I shouldn't do it but I started tilting pretty badly and I did the worst thing possible, I kept playing. Here is an example of just how bad it got:



You think maybe our villain here had seen me show up with nothing before? Calling down with TPNK is usually a reciept for disaster but against me last night it was as good as gold. Man, I haven't played that spewy in a while. Hopefully it will be even longer before I post a hand quite that poorly played again.

Mid Month Update And I Should Have Bet The Turn

One session last night before bed and I ran very good. I finished up $43.50 over 480 hands or 19.75BB/100. My big bets on my big hands were being called with seemingly any two. It was really nice. Even my worst plays weren't very costly and I made relatively few of them. Here is last night's worst:



I check the flop to play it as a wb/wa hand (either he has the A or he doesn't). After he checks behind on the flop I should bet the turn for value but I check again for no real reason. The river of course is a horrible card for us and we're forced to check/call his little bet. No real huge loss here but if I had bet the turn it would have been a small gain.

Updates

1) Play 15,000 hands - Ahead of pace (9,600 thus far)

2) Clear my mid-year $100 bonus - $80 of $100 cleared so far

3) Maintain a 6BB/100 win rate - So far so good (7.96)

4) Grow my BR by $450 - Ahead of pace ($392)

5) Be ready and rolled to play 50NL by the end of July (BR > $1200) - Modified this one to start when I have a BR > $1500. Currently at $1250 with $100 bonus and $110 rakeback to come, so looking good.

6) Make finding hands to post here everyday harder for myself - Mixed. When I'm playing bad it's WAY too easy.

7) Don't make plays that I am embarrassed by - So far so good.

Monthly graph to date with SD and NSD winnings included for Jagsti (click to see full size):

Stacking Preflop With AK

Since my last post I've played 1200 hands over 3 sessions for a net gain of $29 (4.75BB/100). Sessions 1 & 3 were swingy up/down affairs that barely showed $5 profit each. Session 2 was a little more steady and less stressful with $19 profit over 300 hands. The hand I'm going to highlight today is one that I'm not sure is a mistake. It's something I'm generally willing to do against most opponents on most occasions. I, of course, am referring to stacking preflop with AK. Here is the hand:



The table had been fairly loose and the 4bettor is a LAG (36/26/5). I guess with as wide as his range is stacking here is probably pretty standard but I wonder if our push 5bet pushes his calling range to the 2 hands we don't want to see? If we had flatted his preflop raise we're getting the rest in when the King hits the flop.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll give my mid month update and see how I'm fairing meeting this month's goals.

Mini Cash Session, A Live Game, And a CC FR Cash

Only played a brief online session yesterday. I ended up losing about $16 in just over 400 hands (-8BB/100). I didn't play particularly well and was really just trying to rush through a session before I left for my buddies home game. Here is the worst hand of the session in terms of dollars lost and in the way I played it:



I'm not upset with losing this hand, just with the raise and subsequent call on the turn. Our opponent here is a little loose but I have yet to see him push a weaker hand than we have here. Calling his turn bet and then his bet of the river (assuming no club fell) would probably be a much more profitable line. Our equity drops on the turn a ton because we only have 1 card left to see. My entire session basically went from small winner to medium loser based on my play with this hand.

After ending my online cash session, I went to my monthly league game. I went out on the bubble (4th of 13) of tourney #1 and then followed that up with a horrible 1st out performance in tourney #2. I then played a .25/.50 cash game for 4 hours and won my tourney loses back but not much more. All in all a good night out with the boys with no money won or lost.

Earlier today I managed to take 5th ($13.50) in the CC OFC Freeroll. I played really tight and managed to find decent cards when I needed them. I won a few coin flips on my way to the final table and managed to bust one player out when I got there but in the end my 10 10 ran into a set of deuces and I was out. Many thanks to CC and Irexes, who's 3rd in the OFC Challenge ME, made the FR possible. I recorded the final table and plan to add commentary and post it to CC later this week.

A Tale of Two Sessions

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Now flip it. Two sessions since last update. 1st session was -$37 over 466 hands (-16BB/100). Just over 1 hour later I started session number 2. Ended after 560 hands up $126 (45BB/100)! I didn't play any differently in either session (neither was bad) but in the 2nd group I couldn't miss. Sets, flushes, Aces, Kings, Set over Set, you name it I had it. It's very easy to win $$ when the deck is running you over like that.

Honestly I had trouble finding a truly bad play for either of these sessions, but I decided on this one:



I just didn't put him on a King from the way he bet (or rather didn't bet) the hand. I thought that if I didn't bet the river I was losing value but I probably should have just checked behind and showed the hand down. Oh well, I can live with these errors.

Oh and yeah, I did just drop some Dickens puns. Pretty sad huh?

A Good Bad Session Or Was It A Bad Good Session

I'm not sure which is proper so let's just spell it out. I made money. $67 over 922 hands or 14.5BB/100. That's great. I needed a winning session. Now comes the bad news, I was incredibly lucky (as you shall see) that I didn't lose $40. I didn't play particularly well but I experienced the good (for my BR) side of variance.

Probably my worst play of the day:


Villain here is decent 17/14/5 over 100+ hands and the only thing he has here that we beat preflop is AK (1st time I'd seen him 3bet preflop). I KNOW that stacking here is wrong. Thanks to a great catch my stack doubles. Horrible.

Next one's not much better:


I 4bet small preflop (no idea what I was thinking) and then stack holding AA with KKQ on board. The only thing I have going for me here is that this villain (33/14/1.5 WTSD of 32% over 200 hands) is bad enough to stack with AQ. Of course this time I need to hit another 2 outer to win.

So even though I booked a good winning session, my all-in EV over the session was only +$4. In other words I was a lot more lucky than good. What do you think Good Bad or Bad Good?

Ever Downward But I Think We're Slowing

Since my last update I've played 1000 hands and dropped another $22.55 or -4.5BB/100. I haven't won or lost a stack over that period and I haven't done anything to be ashamed of (which is something). I really don't feel like I'm playing bad and believe me I know what that is because I was just recently there. It just seems like when I hit a set no one has anything to call any bet with or when I hold KK and Ace falls with 2 callers and I have to try to get to SD cheaply or fold before I get there. I think I have run bad over the past couple of sessions but if I continue to play solid poker that will turn around.

Let see what was my dumbest play today? Probably this:


I failed to cbet with only 1 over (mistake #1) and then I make a bet that commits me to call the shorties shove on the turn (mistake #2). Oh well.

Glad to see that everyone, so far at least, thinks 30 buy-ins is the right number, now hopefully I can get there someday. Maybe it'll be before I have to drop down to 10NL. :)

Tomorrow is rakeback day! Just over $110 last month including my affiliate bonuses (couple of buddies). If anyone is interested in getting rakeback feel free to contact me here. I'd be more than happy to point you in the right direction. Hell I'll even give you my referral code (see what a nice guy I am)! Seriously though if you're thinking about adding a new site to your mix you need to at least look into getting rakeback. At 25NL it has added ~1BB/100 to my overall winnings (that's not paying the bills but with a small BR it's nothing to sneeze at either).

Giving Back

All good things must come to an end and today was the day my July winning streak ended. Before today, this month I had not booked a losing session but toady I dropped exactly $50, 2 buy-ins, over 972 hands (-10.25BB/100). The worst part is that it didn't needed to be nearly so bad. I started playing badly, getting overly aggressive with not much, trying to buy pots, and generally just spewing chips. I know better. I know that when I see a player pushing too much and getting caught too much and just playing too much, I'll look that player up lighter than I normally would and that's exactly what was happening to me today. I was the spewtard. I was the giving tree. I was giving back.

A word of warning the following replay is not for the squeamish:


and again (only slightly better I guess)


I'm sorry you had to witness that.

When I make these hyper donktastic plays I often want to run away from the table but I seldom do and I'm wondering if I should. Do I start playing different after these plays? Do I play tighter, looser, more aggressive, less aggressive, do I fold to more cbets, float more flops, make better or worse decisions? In other words how do these big mistakes effect the rest of my game and should I flee after I make them? I don't know.

One thing I do know is that I keep chat off so the flight response I get after I do these things is not because anything anyone is saying. I also don't think it's really about losing the $$ (yes that's how we keep score but I'm properly rolled and I can afford to lose it). I honestly think it's more shame than anything. Shame felt for making the -EV play. Shame for disrespecting my opponent and what their bets should have been telling me. I'm embarrassed by these plays and I don't want to be. Specifically I don't want to make mistakes but when I do I want it to be for the right reason. I want to know that if I push 55 it's because I thought it was the best play to make the most $$ long term, not because I was just praying my opponent would fold.

So my new goal is to make fewer plays that I am ashamed of. We'll see how that works out and how it effects my bottom line.

Didn't Mean To Do That

Another 1076 hands for a $44 profit (8.25BB/100) between last night and today. I'm happy to be running so well (almost 13BB/100 so far this month) and clearing my bonus. I've cleared $26 of the $100 total thus far. I'm actually making fewer big mistakes and that is really the goal. Make fewer mistakes than your opponent and you win. Simple as that.

Of course fewer mistakes doesn't mean no mistakes (the unattainable goal imo) so I humbly submit today's example:



This was just a misclick that turned into my biggest winner on the day. I use an AHK script to auto call time and one of the things it does is cause the hand to pop to the front of screen. This time it happened just as I was clicking on another table. Very fortunate result but had the 4 not hit I would have simply folded the turn (I hope!). When you're hot, you're hot.

I would like to point out a GREAT blog post on Fredrik Paulsson's blog. The basic premise is on how far you plan / can / hope / intend / want to take your poker game. The post really deserves to be read and I wish it were posted permanently on CardsChat because it's the type of thing that nobody talks about but everybody should. Do yourself a favor and read it now.

Also as regular reader's know I'm hoping to move up to 50NL at the end of this month and I'd like your opinion on the number of buy-ins you feel comfortable with before you move up. So take a second and vote in the poll please.

A Quick Update And Happy Independence Day

Let's see since I last updated I've played 1000 hands for a total profit of $101 (~20BB/100) and I dropped $70 in a friends tourney last night. I busted out of the tourney one off the bubble with my AKs losing to AJos when I was the 3rd biggest stack of the 6 remaining. A little frustrating but oh well. As for my online heater I've never hit so many sets in my life! I could do no wrong.

I sucked out in creative ways:


I found idiots willing to call down with almost nothing:


And sometimes I caught just the right card on the river:


Toward the end of my run I started getting WAY too overconfident and made a stupid play or two and gave away some profits:




This last one is particularly bad considering the villains stats (16/5/3) and the fact that I'd never seen him 3bet in 200+ hands. JJ probably should have been mucked preflop but God only knows what I was thinking calling his pot-sized flop bet. Well actually I do know. I was thinking I'm sure I'll hit my set on the turn here and double up. No such luck of course.

I'm getting ready to play today's session right now and then I've got to get ready for my big 4th of July shindig tonight. We're having about 20 friends over for too much food and too much alcohol. I'm sure I'll be a wreck tomorrow. :)

Must Have Been A Good Session ...

... because I can't find a single hand to write about today. Seriously I went through every hand of my 558 hand session and the worst thing I did was try to limp from MP with A5os at a loose table and then folded to a raise from the button. I didn't make huge profits ($19 or 6.75BB/100) but I really didn't make any real errors. I only lost 1 stack and that was with AA to a flopped set (standard). I couldn't even find a decent example of missing a value bet.

Something I did notice tonight when taking a peak at my monthly stats after my 1st 1500 hands is that my AF is currently through the roof at 8 with an Afreq of 60%. Not sure if being that aggressive is profitable long-term and I'm not sure why it's up so much other than my desire to bet the river more often when I think I'm ahead to maximize value. My cBet % is also up slightly at 70% which I know is a little too high.

I'll be back at it tonight and hopefully I'll have nothing to write about tomorrow either. :)

July Starts Off As A Winner Despite A Horrible Play

So my 1st cash game hands in 4 days started down but ended up. Total winnings for the session were just under $60 on 533 hands or 22.2 BB/100. Sounds great except it could have been so much better had I not given 2 stacks away at nearly the same time to the exact same opponent (a 50/22/2 who will limp call with nearly anything). Yet as bad as he is, I'm sure he put me on his buddy list!

The first hand was rather standard with me flopping top 2 with AQ while he hit his set of sevens. Against his range stacking there certainly seemed appropriate. But then on another table this hand occurred:



I can't even explain what I was thinking here. Not betting the flop was a mistake. Pushing all-in on the turn was even more costly. So in 2 hands in the span of 1 minute I gave this guy $57. Luckily I was able to turn it around but saving myself even 1/2 of that amount would have made the night that much more profitable.