2900 hands - tonight sucked

Ninja.

Tonight is off to a terrible start. I am so frustrated when it goes like this. I am fine with the concept of suckouts- I really am. But I’ve NEVER had something the OPPOSITE of this… and for this to be okay or normal or not fucking horrible- it needs a counterpoint.

My first hand was something of an omen. QQ in the BB- walk. First hand. Okay, free small blind- but it sucks to have opportunities taken away. Same table- 20 hands or so later I get stacked. QQ vs. AA post flop. Ooops- shit happens. Then I get stacked when a guy raises from mid and I reraise with AK. He calls. Flop gives me TPTK. He bets, I reraise, he shoves all in. The board was something like A74. So unless he raised big and called with 77, 44, or a really shitty ace- I am only scared of AA. So, one hand makes “sense” and is scary. An unlikely hand given that the other two aces are accounted for. I call- he turns over TT. The turn is a king… the river a ten. Bang- second stacking. I chopped FIVE massive pots. One we made 12 cents- the rest were break even or loses- I think they increase the rake for chopped pots.

Anyway, the only time I got my money in bad was the AA vs. QQ- everything else was me getting fucked on the river. Oh yeah, the other one was the guy who shoved into my top two pair with an open ender and hit.

Anyway, I am bummed about it all. I just did a quick look and this was pretty much my worst sitting yet- my net loss was 3 buyins. I left one table at almost 2 buyins and another at +25%. Goddamn it.

On tilt and taking a break.

Watched some Poker After Dark: The Cash Game. I am still tilty, but I don’t think its “play wrong make bad choices tilty” just “irritated with the world tilty”. Here is an interesting stat for you… I’ve had quads THREE TIMES in 2700 hands- and I am down a big blind with it.

And my second round ends almost as bad as the first in terms of tangible results and far worse emotionally.

I flopped FOUR straights- three times the turn card paired one of my straight cards. Twice that made it so that the other player hit their straight- once I paid them off for a lot- once for a little. The other time I had to fold. The time I got paid I got next to nothing. I flopped two pair twice- both times the turn put a straight or flush on the board. I paid off pocket aces AGAIN. I had aces twice and kings once and queens once or twice- I made money on one set of the aces- but I only made about 40bb because the guy was short stacked.

I had stopped writing for a while. Things were getting really bad for me emotionally and I was simultaneously getting wrecked at the tables- shit tons of suckouts. Everything I wrote was rage and frustration. I’ve been easing back in- but as you can see its going poorly. I had made a CONSCIOUS CHOICE that I would write less of that stuff- but it was probably 99% wishful thinking that I just wouldn’t feel that way. I am going to try to wrap this up without saying anything horrible… But the way I feel right now is pretty bad. Like, as bad as it gets bad. I am waffling back and forth from- nevermind. It doesn’t matter.

I when your big hands get counterfitted and sucked out on as often as mine do- and you hit them as seldom as I do I just don’t know how it can be profitable in the long term. Like, the easy example people talk about is set mining. You hit it one in ten, you make ten times your bet/call and you are good. Except- sometimes you go down set over set or to a flush or straight… Those loses are fucking huge. So how much do you really need to make on average to justify your bet/call AND compensate for the hands where you get crushed???

Anyway, I am completely fucking demoralized right now. Nothing worked tonight. My good hands got fucking bitched, my draws were shit, I ran into fucking everything… and the worst part was I started playing poorly because of it. My first session had one, maybe two hands where I did the wrong thing- and those were late after I was tilted. My second session- I don’t even fucking know. I am a big fan of keeping my decisions simple and there was no fucking possible way to keep them simple. You get into a pot cheap with 57s and flop the 468 straight- fucking radical. You bet, you get called, the turn is a fucking 7. Shit, I better shut this down- you bet again- you get called. River is a ten. Now what the fuck do you do? I will tell you- you fold when the asshole goes all in.

How often should you chop a pot? I figure I chopped 10 pots tonight. That seems like a huge number.

I am going to go read and pretend I don’t exist. Tonight I lose.

2500 hands

Ninja.

Well, I am a quarter of the way through my experiment and am… losing. Uh, if the horrible display my first 1000 hands made of themselves is truly anomalous I might pull this out yet, but this evening wasn’t encouraging. Well, I should cut myself some slack. I called an all-in preflop for a whole stack and caught Q9off with my pocket aces- and lost. Then, my last hand of the night I flopped top two pair on a flush draw board with several players in the pot. First guy makes a weak raise, I raise over him to make it a pot size call, guy behind me goes all in, big stack shoves over him all in, first guy folds. I figure one guy for top pair and the other for the flush draw. I was half right. I was up against a flush draw and bottom set. Bottom set won. This pretty much washed my other winnings for the evening.

That said, I still feel okay about how things are going. 10k hands comes a LOT faster multi tabling cash games than single tabling tournaments. Not just the 4x either- no breaks- play is faster- no waiting for the tables to start… It’s just fast.

Also of note- I am up in every .02/.05 session. Not enough of them for that to be statistically meaningful, but I’ve yet to see anything too lame on those tables. So, that is encouraging.

Am starting to have a lot of data on some players too and this is interesting. If the sharks truly do see out fish- am I being stalked? Or am I just on ripe tables? Or are they just playing so many that of course we overlap? Other than the stacking with top two pair vs. bottom set I didn’t give any large amount of money to any of them. One other medium pot- but that was all.

Anyway, bed now I guess. I plan on working tomorrow.

1k hands in

Ninja.

Tonight is one of the two poker nights so I want to talk about the cash game experiment before the live play overshadows my thoughts.

I am almost 1000 hands in- not quite- and still a loser. My loses are about 50/50 split between “omg are you kidding me” suckouts and “believing” Tracker. How is it that the guy who has played 40% of of 35 hands with a 100%aggression rating always has a hand when I play back with a moderate pair?

Harrington makes it sound like the only way to make money is by having monster hands. So you need to play for flushes and straights and mine sets. He says that you won’t get paid on your royal so you want to look for hands like 97s because nobody sees that coming. Well, at almost 1k hands in I don’t see ANY truth in this. Every monster situation I’ve had has lost. Straight to a bigger straight, straight to a flush, flush to a full house, top set to a runner runner backdoor flush, over pair to rivered set after he called every street… Its ridiculous.

I feel completely ill at ease and confused about how to play. I feel marginally better when I play for straight value- but even then the loses have been pretty strategic in their confidence undermining. My top set top kicker to the runner runner flush to the pocket aces guy really hurt- and then the next day pocket aces against middle pair T kicker where he calls a preflop raise and a raise every street to hit trips on the river… I just feel like, why bother? Meanwhile I’ve managed to be all in preflop against small stacks with pocket aces FOUR FUCKING TIMES. Hey! As I wrote this I got the guy with middle set all in against my sneaky 68 straight… and he rivered a full house. Honest to fucking goodness.

I am fairly “not pissed” at the moment- playing at the small stakes helps… But it seriously feels like I am being cheated.

The Tuesday night home game this week was my favorite (non winning) night ever. I don’t know why, but the tenor of the game was just really nice. Truth is out of town so The Cute Helpful One came to deal. We had five players- nobody was out by the end of round 3 so there was no dead stack purchase.

I took a nice lead early with a run of decent cards. Although, its one of those funny things- I didn’t have to show any of those cards so I could have held anything… Paint anyone?

I get in a big hand with top pair vs. Hollywood where he limped UTG with A3 and flopped the wheel. He, no pun intended, hollywooded like a motherfucker and got me to pay him off. Then, he took another big hand from me when he flopped the nut flush. I was glad I booked those wins early as this only put me down to about 65% of starting stack.

Then, Hollywood imploded. He doubled Sheriff up on a total bluff. He shoved all in- after Sheriff was pretty pot committed- with Q high and no meaningful draw. Then, a couple hands later, same sort of thing- but this time he CALLS all-in with A high. He left upset.

From there on out though it was just a super pleasant night… Lots of laughing and good spirits… So, with Hollywood dumping all his chips to Sheriff we had stacks something like 6k, 5k, 30k, and 5k. Table was the first person to shift into short stack aggression gear and he took about half my stack by shoving against small raises or called pots. I probably could have gone to the mat in a couple of these situations with decent odds, but I folded them. Suddenly I was ultra short stacked and Sheriff made a 4x raise that looked weak for some reason. I shoved over him hoping he would fold.

There were two problems here. First, I “misread” my stack and my reraise was utterly meaningless. He had odds to call me with 72off. Second, he had KK. So, I was next out.

Table went hyper aggressive and took small pot after small pot from Sheriff while Giggles drank beer and folded his way to the rail. No amount of aggression in heads up was going to save Table from Sheriff’s 10x+ chip lead.

Everyone went home. I was happy.

Then I decided to rock some more of my 2max cash. I am really not feeling in the zone here so I decided I would play one table ultra tight and see how that worked. I folded TPTK to a massive checkraise after the flop. I lost half my stack when I ran my straight into a bigger straight. I lost the other half when I ran my overpair into a bigger overpair.

And then I went to bed upset and demoralized.

It looks like my sleeping issues are back. For the first time in a long time I am up and puttering at 4:30 in the morning. This is unlikely to be good.

Anyway, first table, I took a big hit- don’t even remember with what… bought another 80 cents. Then got stacked. Bought back in. Then I got a nice double-up plus which helped. I decided to leave the table after I made it through my UTG hand. I had QQ. Raised, called, soft board, bet, called, turn puts a 4 straight on the board, we check, river completes the straight on the board, I check, he bets, I fold. At best we chop, at worst he has a jack and I pay him off. I still left with an extra stack but after the felting and the 80 cent add on I was still down slightly.

Certainly the suckouts and counterfeits have hurt me, but at this point I think I need to say that I’ve lost most of my money by just making shitty calls. I don’t know how to get into a headspace where I can give credit to the villain for having “that one wonky hand that crushes me”… I hope to find it though- right now I just feel stupid all the time.

So, some depressing stats…

1,006 hands
-36/100 bb

I really think it would be best if I completed my 10k at this level, but I am really tempted to move to .02/.05. A) I’ve been told again and again that it is easier to beat because there is something more like sense behind player decisions (my SNG experience reflects this) and B) and this is the big one, the values are so low at 2max that its just way to easy to make “fuck you calls”. I don’t feel like my roll is in danger so I play horrible.

You know what? I just convinced myself. I am unclicking auto-post and moving up a bracket. It puts me from “totally fine” re: bankroll management to “edgy”, but I think its right- I just don’t respect the denominations here.

Okay, maybe fuck that? Every 5max table is full with a waiting list. That, CAN’T be good. Okay, not fully true- the 9seats are all full and queued up. The 6seats had a few spots. Not sure what I think of this, but will do a buyin and see.

Okay, did a session at 5max and came out up 10/100bb which was nice… not sure how I feel about it. It did feel like a healthier game.

A Journey of 10k Hands

Ninja.

Last night was the 5k added qualifier only at Garden City. To qualify you had to place third or better during the season. I had hit a third one of the night’s Truth took me, so I was in. I prepared all weekend. I played almost exclusively 45seat SNGs because they are about the right size. I wanted my head in the right meta-game space. I crushed all weekend. I felt very good about my game going into the Garden.

All day Sunday I repeated a mantra to myself about how I’ve never caught anyone trying to bluff me. A day later I realize this isn’t really true. I’ve caught a few guys. Anyway, I was determined to just give credit to moves- play tight and aggressive- and win. I was seated to the left of a guy I’ve played with before… and caught bluffing. Then he immediately started playing every pot. He is the limp into every pot and raise like it hit guy. He scooped the first pot. Second hand I’ve got AJoff and there are a parade of limpers. I throw out a big raise- a massive overraise actually since I wasn’t used to the chip denominations and panic’d a bit. He reraises me… and goes on to almost felt me with pocket aces. Next pot limps the same way and I shove the last of my chips with AT. And he calls (after limping again) with AQ. Done. Third hand.

I had to fight down The Urge for a good hour after. It was really bad because not only is the world out to get me by giving loose weak donkey AA… But I am also A COMPLETE FUCKING IDIOT. At that point I really don’t see any imaginable excuse to carry on. I managed to rationalize WHY I was an idiot enough to make it through the night.

So here I am the next day. Bright new start and all that… I’ve got a little money in my bankroll and I am not in “prep for the big tourney” mode. I’ve been thinking a lot about moving to cash. I think now is the time. I am going to do 10k hands at .01/.02 and see how it feels. I plan on working this afternoon starting at 2:30 and I made this decision at 1:20. I decided I would single table for an hour just to see. Very managed- fun to look at the results.

I am 52 minutes in and it has gone well so far. But, I’ve had a couple really good hands too… We will see how it all goes.

10K HANDS HERE I COME!!!!

437 hand update

I am losing! But not by a huge amount and, as much as you can say this, its okay… I am 5 sessions in. Two sessions of two tables for an hour and a half or so and one session of one table. Two up sessions, three down sessions.

I am playing .01/.02 with a max buyin of 2 dollars. I am doing full buyins even though I am really a believer in being a “short stacker”. I’ve always liked the idea and they were certainly the guys who took the most chips from me last night- but I will stay with full buyins for now. Two of my losing sessions were big losing sessions. One I was felted twice- the other once… I am not going to beat myself up over these too much.

My first sessions I played one table for one hour exactly. It was a solid winning session for about a buck sixty. Note: They measure your winningness at cash games in “big blinds per 100 hands- written bb/100. So, first session was 54.51/100. Totally awesome and unsustainable, but a fun start.

My second and third session happened at the same time and were really bad. I took a nice lead early then got distracted by some nonsense with Truth. He joined a freeroll then was out of the room on a call. I autofolded 2 pair while handling his game and went on a bit of tilt. Also, I chased a few draws and missed ALL of them. And I had a horrible runner runner four flush suck-out to bust my top set vs. overpair. I also made a few bad calls with short stackers in the name of “seeing how things work in cash games. Add all those mistakes up- minus 3 buyins.

My fourth and fifth were profitable together but not enough to compensate for the huge 3 buyin whiff earlier. I booked another one fiftyish win and a fifty cent loss. So, after 6 .4 hours of play, five sessions, and 432 hands I am at -19.74/100. I think I can almost invert this number.

Oh! A quick story about rake…

I learned a “cool trick” in tournament play that doesn’t work often but is “zero risk”. If the board completes a broadway straight and has no flush or pair- or is four to broadway and you have the missing card but KNOW your opponent does too… Shove all in. I’ve had this startle/scare the other person into folding several times. Once I was in a three way pot when the board completed broadway and I shoved and they both folded.

So I am in a three way hand and have 10 cents in the pot. The river completes broadway on the board. I shove for about 2 bucks- they both think then call. After the rake I lost 12 cents. I lost 2 more cents than if I had simply lost the original pot.

Onward!

And the madness continues.

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds - 9 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/416902
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: t2170 M = 14.47
UTG+2: t5020 M = 33.47
Hero (MP1): t4875 M = 32.50
MP2: t4740 M = 31.60
CO: t4340 M = 28.93
BTN: t3980 M = 26.53
SB: t3260 M = 21.73
BB: t3875 M = 25.83
UTG: t11175 M = 74.50

Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is MP1 with Ad Ah
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t200, UTG+2 calls t200, Hero raises to t400, 2 folds, BTN calls t400, 2 folds, UTG+1 raises to t2170 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t1770, BTN calls t1770

Flop: (t6860) 8s Td Qd (3 players - 1 is all in)
Hero bets t1300, BTN raises to t1810 all in, Hero calls t510

Turn: (t10480) Qs (3 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t10480) Jh (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t10480
UTG+1 shows Qh Ac (three of a kind, Queens)
Hero shows Ad Ah (two pair, Aces and Queens)
BTN shows As Ks (a straight, Ace high)
BTN wins t3620
BTN wins t6860

Then so much for my comeback.

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t45 Blinds + t25 - 9 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/416916
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP2: t18365 M = 47.09
CO: t10855 M = 27.83
Hero (BTN): t2890 M = 7.41
SB: t5125 M = 13.14
BB: t70 M = 0.18
UTG: t9435 M = 24.19
UTG+1: t31070 M = 79.67
UTG+2: t6165 M = 15.81
MP1: t9134 M = 23.42

Pre Flop: (t390) Hero is BTN with Kd Ks
5 folds, CO calls t45, Hero raises to t720, SB calls t600, CO calls t675

Flop: (t2430) Jc 9h 8c (4 players)
SB checks, CO bets t1200, Hero raises to t2145 all in, SB folds, CO calls t945

Turn: (t6720) 7d (3 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t6720) 5h (3 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t6720
CO shows Jd 8h
Hero shows Kd Ks
BB shows Kh 9c
CO wins t6315
CO wins t405

No kidding, alt-format

Full Tilt Poker $10 + $1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 8 players - View hand 415790

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG+1: t2590 M = 57.56

MP1: t4690 M = 104.22

MP2: t4195 M = 93.22

CO: t3815 M = 84.78

BTN: t2850 M = 63.33

SB: t2295 M = 51

Hero (BB): t3000 M = 66.67

UTG: t6165 M = 137



Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with 4 4

2 folds, MP1 raises to t120, 3 folds, SB calls t105, Hero calls t90



Flop: (t360) K 2 4 (3 players)

SB bets t90, Hero calls t90, MP1 raises to t540, SB folds, Hero raises to t2070, MP1 raises to t3600, Hero calls t810 all in



Turn: (t6210) K (2 players - 1 is all in)



River: (t6210) J (2 players - 1 is all in)



Final Pot: t6210

MP1 shows K J (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)

Hero shows 4 4 (a full house, Fours full of Kings)

MP1 wins t6210

No kidding...

Full Tilt Poker $10 + $1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 8 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/415790
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: t2590 M = 57.56
MP1: t4690 M = 104.22
MP2: t4195 M = 93.22
CO: t3815 M = 84.78
BTN: t2850 M = 63.33
SB: t2295 M = 51
Hero (BB): t3000 M = 66.67
UTG: t6165 M = 137

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with 4d 4c
2 folds, MP1 raises to t120, 3 folds, SB calls t105, Hero calls t90

Flop: (t360) Kc 2h 4s (3 players)
SB bets t90, Hero calls t90, MP1 raises to t540, SB folds, Hero raises to t2070, MP1 raises to t3600, Hero calls t810 all in

Turn: (t6210) Kd (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t6210) Jh (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t6210
MP1 shows Ks Jd (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
Hero shows 4d 4c (a full house, Fours full of Kings)
MP1 wins t6210