holiday

i've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks hence no posts for a month. took me a while to get back into it.

in the picture above is my new set up for ulimate bet complete with stats. it's a decent site i think and i like the software a lot. it's smooth, easy on the eye and really fast. the one thing i really hate is that they mostly have jackpot tables and this really eats away at your winrate, especially at the lower levels. i'd much rather play on tables without jackpots and pocket the extra $0.50 every time...

some good hands

check raising river with the nuts
shoving the turn for value with top 2

17k hands check

this is my graph for my last 17k hands. (if you click on it it should come up bigger) i run at 3.84ptbb/100, decent but not brilliant. which i guess it's not bad - considering i ran like dirt for a large part of it and at times felt like throwing my laptop against the wall. as you can see i start off on a total heater and then take a massive downswing at about 7k to 9k. there were days i just couldnt win no matter how i played. i do feel like i have got over it now, i had a lovely session today where i played well i think and won 4 buy ins.

i guess i am happy enough to be winning over that many hands. there were a few tilt sessions in there as well where i lost 3 or 4 buy ins in one session. there is a really obvious one at 16k when i just tilt of $150 in 5 minutes. it's always easy to regret that afterwards and think, 'well, if i hadnt done that then my win rate would be so much higher...' but they all count. tilt is less of a problem than it used to be for me but it still raises its ugly head every now and again.

gettin it in with AK preflop

this is an interesting hand - the preflop action here is the key: i cannot just flat call amseul's call of the smallish 4 bet here - it is very unlikely he is slowplaying AA or KK here given that we are so deep. therefore it is better to get the money in while we have an edge - and hopefully lots of fold equity. at no point was i particularly worried about KWLOMPARAS. he was a spewy donk.
massive 5 bet with AK preflop
maybe this wasnt the right move all the time but at the time it felt like the right play. of course, if he pushes i have to fold. he later claimed he folded QQ and said he had to put me on KK or AA.

feel free to leave comments on this one. i'm interested to hear what other people think and how they would play it.

from 1 table to 6

when i first started playing no limit online, 1 table was all i could manage. then i started playing 2. 2 was a bit of a struggle at times, especially when i was playing a hand at both tables. anyway, i started adding another, then another, but i could never really play more than 4 for a long time.

this week i have been playing 20nl and playing 6 tables. it was tough at first but i think i have the hang of it now. i think you definately lose an edge doing this - there is no doubt you miss stuff at the tables but the upside is hopefully the varience is less and more tables mean a greater hourly rate. also, if i happen to lose my stack on one table it bothers me less and so tilt becomes less likely. Anyhow, I'm gonna stick at 20nl for a while longer while 6 tabling - i think you need to be totally used to it before moving up..

anyhow i run at 15ptbb/100 over 2.2k hands so its pretty good so far :-) and i even ran bad...

KK vs AA

havent really been too excited about poker this week, hence the lack of entries on the blog. just one of those weeks where you win a bit, lose a bit, win a bit, lose a bit, then get a bit tilty and lose a bit more.

went to the fortune rooms last night and played the friday night tourney. got KK early on and ran into a guy playing about 60% of his hands with AA so after a raise and reraise i reraised all in and that was me pretty much bust. 2 weeks in a row now i have seen a cold deck. kind of sucks because you cant really do much about it.

one tournament. two hands.

hardly played any poker over the weekend. ran bad towards the end of last week and was really busy so the break was good.

entered a tourney at the fortune rooms on friday night. after about 5 minutes got dealt pocket kings and pushed on a low flop and got called by a set. 5 minutes after that got dealt pocket queens and pushed on a low flop again and got called by a flush draw. i've come to realise though that tourneys are not about surviving - they're about winning, and if you can build a big stack at the beginning then you have a massive advantage in the later stages.

anyhow, that was the end of my night - apart from a couple of fun sitngos a few of us played afterwards. no luck there either!

on the plus side i heard of a wee private 6 max tourney that a guy is organising in the university area of belfast on monday nights. seemed like a good lad. might check that out tonight.

if i ever meet sklansky i am going to ask him for a cheque

this is my poker ev graph for my last 2,200 hands. I am actually down 4 buy-ins but i run bad to the tune of 7 buy-ins. that means i get my money in good over those hands to the value of 7 buy ins and i get sucked out on. that is some serious bad beats. these things happen in poker though i guess - just have to keep playing well and hopefull the luck will change.

longish session - decent day

won over a buy-in tonight and played over 600 hands. was a bit disappointed not to win more but it was still 12ptbb/100 so happy enough i guess.

will try to post some hands later

running bad - down 3 buy-ins today

it happens to everyone sometimes - you just cant seem to win a hand, someone always seems to have the nuts and you pay him off, or you get your money in good and get out drawn or sucked out on. that's why 1) it's important to analyse your sessions using poker tracker and 2) play within your bankroll.

here's some hands from today:

coolers:
QQ vs. KK on low flop
trip jacks with ten kicker in min raised pot
i raise with 74s and hit trips, and a donk calls with A4

i get money in good:
i'm 84% to win when money goes in
i'm 80% to win when money goes in

Even if 2 of these hands go the other way, i am in the green rather than the red for the day. It's a cruel games sometimes.

4 betting a squeeze pre flop

a squeeze play is where someone open raises, usually in late position, gets one caller, and someone else comes over the top with a big reraise. the squeezer is relying on you being weak, as he thinks you would open raise with many hands in later positions, and so can pull this move with almost any two cards. he is putting pressure on the initial raiser to fold. he doesnt expect the other caller to call his reraise as if the caller had a good hand he would probably have reraised himself. of course the squeezer isnt always doing this with a weak holding. but it is a good move to pick up a lot of dead money.

as a defence against squeeze plays repoping with a strong hand (when you are the initial raiser) can often take down a nice pot without even seeing a flop. here are two examples:

i get squeezed with AK on button and repop

i get squeezed with AJh on button and repop

spotting a bluff

another thing i've been trying to do lately is spot bluffs

here are a couple

obvious attempt to steal the pot: calling down a pot size bet on the river with ace high after no action on flop or turn

this is a tougher one but i think there is no way he plays a big hand like this and i have lots invested already: my ace high flush draw turns from a semi bluff on flop and turn into a bluff catcher on the river

good day and a not so good day

yesterday (sunday) i won 4 buy-ins and today i lost 4/5 of one. not really worried about today as i think i played good poker but was just sucked out on. i'll post some hands shortly.

i've played 4.1k hands in the last 8 days and won 15ptbb/100, which im very happy with.

it had to happen

i played a session today, maybe 800 hands, and lost 5 buy-ins. as soon as i started i didnt feel like i was playing my a game, but i kept going anyway. pretty dumb.

anyway i feel better now and im playing again so hopefully i will play better. will update this later..

edit: got 2 buy-ins back so did ok. happy enough with 3 down after the first session. i guess the lesson from this is if you dont feel like you are playing well then dont play.

i run good but run into a tough spot

another good day yesterday at 50nl. i am up over 13 buy-ins in 4 days. i run good but also have been playing well. i've been managing to get lots of value from my big hands - which occassionaly means i get stacked myself - and i've been getting paid off. after running bad for over a month, i am enjoying my poker. i guess i have tightened up a bit too - which is not a bad idea when you are running bad and one which i have heard green plastic suggest. (there's a good interview with green plastic at liquidpoker)

i'll look up some hands from yesterday's online session and post them later.

i went to the fortune rooms in bangor last night. they do a tourney's most nights of the week but i only really go on a friday night. there is usually a field of 60 or so. here was the toughest hand i had to play last night:
final table, 9 left. I have 66k, blinds are 3/6 (prob about 5th in chips)
i am in BB with J3h, everyone folds to sb who limps. (sb has me covered but doesnt seem very good) i think about raising then decide to see a flop. flop comes down Ah Qh Jc
sb checks and i bet 6k
sb check raises me to 18k
if i call i have 42k behind. we are virtually on the bubble.
i think this is a particularly tough spot. what range of hands do you put him on and what is your move and why? (also posted this here on 2+2)

thursday

another short session on thursday. 287 hands @ 14ptbb/100. three days in a row in the green so i'm happy about that. i havent been playing in the evenings so i havent been playing as many hands but it's definately increased the win rate and i feel much fresher and less tired playing. if i ever do play in the evening then its a $5 sitngo just for fun.

lots of interesting spots today. feel free to comment on any of these hands...

i dont put him on a heart here so i figure get in in for value: pushing the river with top 2 in rr pot
i have tangled with this villan before (see 89 hand yesterday): three bet preflop out of position with AQs
i decide to get it in with tptk oop: check raise flop with ak against a bet and a caller on a draw heavy board
tptk get raised on turn on drawy board: A9 on board of 9827
tptk goes for full value: AQ on QJJ flop
two hands involving the same villan: first i c/r river with monster; then i bet out with another

thoughts, suggestions, criticisms?

yesterday

played a short session yesterday (127 hands). again i ran good. one thing i'm trying to learn to do at the moment, from my good friend fold equity, is to get good value out of my big hands. getting the whole stack in if possible when you have a monster is very important. see my previous post with 44 where i flopped a house for a good example of this.

a few interesting hands from yesterday:

this hand is interesting only because of the villan's complete incompetence on almost every street: how not to play ak on the button when you have trip aces
i turn a gutshot and flush draw: bullying a short stack
how to stack two fish: get it in hard and fast
i cbet on flop, rep ak on turn and have to call river because of pot odds: played this pretty bad

playing for stacks

today was one of those days everything just went right. i played 756 hands and won at 35ptbb/100 hands. which is just ridiculously good. unsustainably good. but you enjoy it while it lasts.

here are a few of the most interesting spots:

villan here is good and plays much higher than these stakes: calling with suited connector in position against big stack
here i suck out a little - but there is a big chance he misses this flop and give up on the turn: calling with suited connector in position and floating flop
slowplaying a monster: trying to extract stacks with AAA
here i limp with 44 because there is a lot of 3 betting going on: getting the money in stackadonk style

tricky spots from monday

i've hid the results of these hands but you can look them up when you're done. Feel free to comment/critique how I played them

disko pushes in 3 way pot with open ender and pair
JJ overpair in 3 bet pot
getting it in with QQ preflop against 2 opponents

running bad

i might not play much today. i ran bad yesterday so not too worried just pissed off with poker. i ran poker ev on my pokertracker and it seems sklansky owes me $60. So if all things were fair - i'd have crushed the games yesterday. he never seems to pay you it back though. here are another couple of hands

i'm a big favourite here: trip queens with top kicker
and here i am 95% on the turn: this is why i hate poker sometimes

two hands that tilt me like crazy

two hands that drove me nuts today. the first one i think i have to push the turn, i think i am ahead often enough here to make it profitable. the second one is just stupid play by villan getting rewarded by the poker gods.

JJ < 67

KK < 99

after a good day yesterday I lose today....no one wins everyday, right?

the magic of 74

74 is my favourite hand. Handle it with care but it's a lethal weapon in the right hands. when i get enough points on full tilt i am definately ordering one of those basketball shirts with 74 on it :-)

the magic of 74

short session this morning: 150 hands 15/10/1.5 36ptbb/100 :-)

stars 25nl

i put a session in tonight on stars 0.1/0.25. I played 483 hands and ran at 16/11/2.5, which is a bit tighter than i normally play but had a win rate of 17ptbb/100 hands which was great. A couple of interesting hands came up. I'll post them without results and you can leave your comments below if you're interested. What do you do and why?
Hand 1
POKERSTARS GAME #12726229741: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/10/19
Seat 3: babar1 ($16.75 in chips)
Seat 4: reto27 ($25.15 in chips)
Seat 5: disko77 ($19.40 in chips)
Seat 6: poker_soldat ($8.40 in chips)
babar1: posts small blind $0.10
reto27: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to disko77 [Qd Qs]
disko77: raises $0.75 to $1
poker_soldat: folds
babar1: folds
reto27: calls $0.75
*** FLOP *** [2d 5s 7h]
reto27: checks
disko77: bets $1.75
reto27: calls $1.75
*** TURN *** [2d 5s 7h] [8c]
reto27: checks
disko77: bets $4
reto27: raises $6 to $10
disko77?????????

Hand 2
POKERSTARS GAME #12724805914: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/10/19
Seat 1: janus4k ($24.25 in chips)
Seat 2: BLI_all_ND ($11.25 in chips)
Seat 3: cardsnake100 ($23.95 in chips)
Seat 4: Lem101 ($7.90 in chips)
Seat 5: mahoney01 ($39.65 in chips)
Seat 6: disko77 ($23.35 in chips)
mahoney01: posts small blind $0.10
disko77: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to disko77 [Ah 7h]
janus4k: calls $0.25
BLI_all_ND: folds
cardsnake100: raises $0.25 to $0.50
Lem101: calls $0.50
mahoney01: folds
disko77: calls $0.25
janus4k: calls $0.25
*** FLOP *** [6c 9h 6h]
disko77: bets $1.75
janus4k: folds
cardsnake100: folds
Lem101: raises $1.75 to $3.50
disko77: raises $8.25 to $11.75
Lem101: calls $3.90 and is all-in

live poker

the 20k challenge

not long ago a friend of mine challenged me to do 20,000 hands at 20nl. i have never really played much 20nl before so it's a bit of a challenge. i'm 3/4 tabling 6max on the ipoker network. i will post some interesting hands on here on the next couple of days.

welcome to disko poker

this is the first post on disko poker - i thought i'd post a link to one of my favourite poker videos. this comes with a warning - dont try this at home!

click here for phil owning mike with 72