Worst. Month. Ever.

5,657 hands of limit hold’em in the ring games for a total return of 0.38 big blinds per 100 hands.

To be honest I shouldn’t be too disappointed, a positive return is a lot better than the negative return I’d been expecting to report on a week or so ago. Still, I can’t help being disappointed with my declining results the past couple of months.

Don’t get me wrong, I know due to variance there will be good and bad months but the thing is this reduction in profit also coincides with my stating to play at more 6-Max tables. Does this mean that I’m a poor 6-Max player? I don’t think so, 2,500 of the hands I played last month were on the Poker Stars 6-Max tables where I turned a respectable profit of nearly 3 BB/100 hand.

So why the reduction in overall profits? I have a few theories:

• Too small a sample size, I really need to play more hands to get a true indication of how I’m running at 6-Max (but it can’t hurt to analyse as I go).
• The fact that I’ve been seeking out the most maniacal players at these tables (the ones that play 80%+ of hands, raise 60%+ of the time and rarely fold), while this should be highly profitable in the long term in the short term it can work against you.
• Tilt. When those players just keep catching cards it can really mess with you. I can’t tell you how many times I’d see maniacs repeatedly calling down raises and even re-raises with no pair only to flop the nuts when I decide get involved in a hand with them.

So with that said, here’s my plan for the coming month:

• Play more 6-Max hands, perhaps exclusively unless there are some juicy full ring tables.
• Continue to seek out the maniacs, but only sit down at their table when I have position on them and when there is only one at the table. Better to sit down at a table full of passive players than one with 2 or 3 lunatics, sure the pots will be smaller but there’s less chance of going insane. Too often I’ve folded the best hand after getting sandwiched between two maniacs raising and re-raising with middle pair or a gutshot straight draw or some such.
• Don’t tilt. Generally I’ve been good at controlling myself, I usually take beats very well it’s just this month that’s been the exception to the rule (probably because of my poor overall results).
• Don’t force things to happen. I’ve always said (and I’m not alone) that poker is a game of patience, this doesn’t change at the 6-Max table even though you can see more flops.

One other thing got in the way of my poker playing this month - real life! Annoying as it meant I didn’t really get a good run at most of my poker goals for August, so they carry forward to September:

1. Read Harrington volume 2, re-read volume 1.
2. Return a positive figure in NL hold’em tournaments (actually made some headway here in August but nothing to get too excited about).
3. Play at least 500 hands in a game other than hold’em, I’m thinking maybe some Omaha 8 or better.and now…
4. Improve my return at the 6-Max tables.

Wish me luck for September… here’s hoping for some better results!

Last night I played in one of Poker Stars $4+$0.40 180 player NL hold’em tournaments. I’ve written before about how I’m trying to get as much tournament experience as possible for as cheap as possible and this tournament seems a good candidate. $1500 in starting chips, 15 minute blind levels and from what I could tell a reasonable standard of play once the riff raff has been dealt with (unlike the ultra low stakes SNG’s I’m getting killed in over at Absolute ;) - it’s a good thing I’m good at handling bad beats, but that’s another topic).

I won’t go into too much detail but I will say that I was feeling good throughout, applying what I’ve been reading from Harrington where I felt it was appropriate and playing well enough to make it through the first two breaks and into the money (top 18 places pay) with a chip stack slightly above average.

Unfortunately though by the time the bubble burst the blinds and antes were large even for the bigger stacks and for a while play turned into a bit of an all-in fest. I lost a couple of races, most notable being my 77 in the SB vs the BB’s A5o where I was a 70/30 favourite against a player who I’d slowly been getting the better of all tournament only to lose half my stack when an ace came on the flop.

Into the final 15 or so players I was severely short stacked which gave me a chance to put into practice Harrington’s strategy about playing in the “Red Zone” (where your stack is less than 5 times the size of the pot) which worked great until my KTs ran into QQ and didn’t improve, double up there though and I would have been a contender for the final table.

So, in the end I was out in 13th place after 2.5 hours of play. Not a bad result, except for the fact that the prizes are very top heavy in this tournament and there’s no significant money until the final three. I’m almost embarrassed to say but for all my work I took a measly $8.64 for 13th, that’s a huge net profit of $4.24 :D.

Hardly a way to get rich, but if you want to get cheap multi-table tournament experience at any time of the day against a wide variety of opponents then it’s pretty hard to go past.

I was reluctant to share this hand because firstly it looks like I’m playing like a lunatic and second I have no way of being 100% sure I was “cheated”. Use your own judgement.

On the button at a 6-Max $0.50/$1.00 table I’m dealt:

:Ad::4h:

This is a hand I would usually muck, but the action had been folded to me and to my left the SB was quite passive and the BB aggressive on the flop with any hand but passive on the turn where he often folded to anyone who’d shown aggression to his usual bet’s and raises on the flop. My plan was to cap the betting (if required) on pretty much any flop in an attempt to take it away from him on the turn. So, with an ace in my hand and only the blind to play I raised. Debatable limit play for sure, but bear in mind this is a unique situation and totally a “feel” thing. The flop comes:

:Ts::6d::Ks:

My opponent, as expected bets, I raise and he calls. Then:

“xxx has timed out while being disconnected”
“xxx is being treated as all-in”

So, we see the turn and river:

:Jc::8s:

And he turns over:

:Qc::9s:

Giving him a straight, that he made on the turn. Not a huge pot and yes I almost definitely saved a big bet or two since my original read was correct but he hit his straight on the turn and wouldn’t have given his hand up as planned. My question is though, did he “disconnect” to deliberately see two free cards?

Maybe it’s a coincidence but it sure looked that way to me! Of course (and this is just to make 100% sure nobody else mentions it ;)), I probably just should have just mucked to begin with and avoided the entire hand but that’s not the point. Was I cheated?

Talk about your roller coaster ride, this past weekend of poker has been one of the strangest I’ve played in a long time.

I don’t know if maybe there’s been a sudden influx of new fishy players that heard the news of James Gold winning $12 Million at the World Series of Poker or what, but something sure was different about these tables.

Between Friday night and Sunday night I played a little over 1000 hands of $0.50/$1.00 6-Max limit hold’em and managed to earn a nice little rate of 5.56 BB/100.

By itself this statistic is not really very interesting, 1000 hands is a small sample and I could just have easily made -5.56 BB/100 over this period. What makes it interesting is the type of players I was up against, I admit I always look for a loose/fishy kind of table, but these were ridiculous. I was repeatedly sitting down at tables where 3-4 players would cap the betting preflop with any imaginable cards, raising and re-raising when they were drawing dead and generally just playing crazy.

These types of players mean big money but also big variance, even with my high win rate for the weekend I was felted more times this than I have been my entire on-line poker career.

So how does one adjust to these kinds of players? Here’s my tips:

1. Pay attention, if you usually play at multiple tables think about dropping one or two to allow you to really concentrate on these players. I found by playing only one good table I was able to make some plays that I never would have had I been multi-tabling and not paying proper attention to the players.
2. Loosen the hands that you will call a raise with pre-flop, these players are raising with anything and everything better to try and outplay them after the flop.
3. Draw more, you’ll often have the implied odds you need to see another card.
4. In a similar vein, don’t be afraid to re-raise with your strong draws. In many cases this is correct limit hold’em play anyhow, against these players it’s even more correct as more often than not they’ll be paying you off big when you hit.
5. Don’t bluff. Ever*.
6. Don’t go too crazy, you still need to play premium hands. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming too loose or drawing to likely loosing hands.
7. Don’t tilt. You’re going to get bad beats at these tables, it comes with the territory.
8. Pick your players. You’re still going to get the odd Tight/Aggressive player joining you, just stay out of their way whenever you can.

* “Ever” might be a bit strong, bit bluffing is generally -EV at these tables. Make sure you have a really good reason when you do it.

Truthfully, most reasonably solid players should have no trouble beating the kinds of players I’m talking about in this post by just playing their natural game. Theoretically you can just sit back, fold, wait for good cards and get paid off but in my opinion there’s so much extra money to be made at these tables by getting a little creative and jumping in and playing. Sure it can be damn frustrating when you get drawn out on again and again and again but as long as you’re able to see past the bad beats you’ll be nicely rewarded.

Wow that month went quick and I barely updated the blog at all… sorry about that. Time is just flying!

Results wise July started well, was good in the middle but a big (50+ BB) downswing in the last two days brought what should have been close to 3BB/100 hands profit down to around 1.5BB/100.

The annoying thing was this downswing came entirely at a single site, Absolute Poker, where I had just signed up so I could play in their cheap SNG tournaments (I’m trying to get as much tournament practice as possible, as cheaply as possible). I had planned to play tournaments exclusively there but as I’d got a little bit of a deposit bonus I decided to at least try and clear it, going to have to work hard to make a profit out of that one!

So, let see how did with my three goals from last month:

1. Keep the solid cash game going at my new limit.
2. Keep playing the low-level NL hold’em tournaments, aim for a positive return for the month.
3. Read “Harrington on Hold’em” volumes 1 and 2 (on order from Amazon, due to arrive middle of the month - darn international shipping).

Well, I’m going to say that I achieved number 1 even if my BB/100 is well down from where it should be. Since I only played 6000 hands in July and these are (for all practical purposes) my first 6000 at this level (also 3000 of these were 6Max tables - it’s my first time in these waters and I’m still adjusting) I’m not too worried about the drop in BB/100. For some reason I can’t quite put my finger on this has happened every time I’ve moved up a level and seems to return to normal after about 10000 hands or so.

Number 2? well, umm… the less said about number 2 the better. I played in 25 tournaments (range of styles/buy-ins) in July and produced a ROI of -58%. Not good. There is still work to be done here, I’ll post about that later.

That leaves number 3, my books have arrived and I’ve read volume 1. These books will warrant some reading and re-reading, but I can already notice an improvement in my game just by applying some of the thinking that Harrington teaches. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into volume 2.

So, my goals for August:

1. Break out of my downswing (early signs are looking promising, but I won’t speak too soon) and clear the bonus at Absolute Poker. Improve my BB/100 for $0.50/$1.00.
2. Study the 6Max game.
3. Read Harrington volume 2, re-read volume 1.
4. Return a positive figure in NL hold’em tournaments.
5. Play at least 500 hands in a game other than hold’em, I’m thinking maybe some Omaha 8 or better.

Stay tuned.

P.S. No graph this month, having trouble finding some graphing software that wants to work with my new Postgre Poker Tracker database. I need to get in touch with the Poker Grapher or Poker Patterns authors and see if I’m doing something wrong. Has anyone reading successfully graphed a Postgre PT database? Let me know.

Last night myself and a few mates got together to play a few hands, down a few beers (or bourbouns, or vodkas - we’ve never been too fussy when it comes to alcohol ;)) and generally just have a bit of fun.

In my opinion a low stakes home game is some of the most entertaining poker you can play. I think I’ve said this before but when I play against strangers it’s all about taking their money, when I play with friends it’s about having fun. That’s not to say the poker isn’t played to a reasonable standard, our group of players have been playing against each other on a semi-regular basis for I’d estimate over a year now and it’s starting to lead to some interesting play.

Anyhow, last night there were four of us playing SNG style no-limit hold’em “tournaments”, over about a 6 hour period we managed to finish four of these. Congrats go to Vaughano who, through a combination of good play, good cards and a bit of good luck managed to take the first place in three of the four and was not beaten heads-up all night.

How did I do? Well, poker wise it’s a night to forget really. I did manage second place in two out of the four but card wise I was pretty unlucky. I won’t complain too much but I couldn’t win a race all night, whether a coin flip, way ahead or way behind nothing went right (Did you know I was nearly a 90% favourite to win that all-in with the queens???? OK, OK - I’ll drop it :D). It wasn’t only bad luck though, I did play a few hands quite badly. I’ll blame the beer!

Good times, if you don’t play in any home games I recommend getting one organised - remember the aim is fun, leave your serious game at the casino or on-line and you’ll have a great time. Guaranteed. Certainly the most entertainment I’ve had while losing at poker!

Thanks for the game guys, I’ll catch you at the next one.

I just witnessed what has to be one of the craziest hands of limit hold’em I’ve seen. I wasn’t involved but I had to share it with you as it sure gave me a laugh.

I’m sat at a $0.50/$1 10 handed limit hold’em table, it’s loose with something like 50% of the player’s seeing a flop but generally passive and pre-flop raises are rare. I’m not getting anything playable which is annoying me because the two players directly to my right are seeing 50% and 75% of the flops respectively and calling down with almost anything, there’s money to be made here but I’m not getting the cards to do it. Although I’m multi-tabling at the time (and therefore not giving the table the attention is probably deserves), my interest is suddenly sparked when I see the betting capped four ways pre-flop!

One pre-flop raise was rare, but to see four players capping? I was intrigued. So the flop comes:

:5s::9h::2c:

Or what is better known in the business as “rubbish”. That doesn’t stop these maniacs with all four of them betting and raising to have it capped again for the turn. At this point I’m thinking surely we must have AA vs AA vs KK vs QQ or something wonderfully rare like that, these guys will surprise you though and they all see a turn:

So off they go again, betting, raising and capping. All four of them. At the river there is $32 in the pot, 32 BB! If you’re a no-limit player don’t be fooled - this is a huge pot for a limit hold’em game. They all see the river:

Surpsingly, this actually slows them down. The UTG player bets, second to act just calls this time, third position raises and fourth folds! UTG re-raises, second player folds and of course it’s capped. I’m a little disappointed because I only get to see half the players cards.

UTG shows:

:Kc::Ks:

Giving him a set of kings, but the third to act player turns over:

:8d::7c:

Giving him a straight. A straight he made on the turn! This guy had raised/called capped both pre and post flop before he made this straight. He simply does not fold. This time he got lucky, and took down a pot worth $40 - that’s 40 big bets at a limit table. With 67o. When you’re lucky, you’re lucky!

Am I the only one who wonders what the other two players might have had?

The frustrating thing is, I’m still at this table and he’s still sitting there two seats to my right. His stack is shrinking but it’s not heading my way, I’m card dead. Come on poker gods, give me a break ;)

EDIT: Just caught a club flush against him (and four others) - they all happily called me down to the river. What did he have? 83o for a pair of threes - the three came on the river. Patience is a virtue in this game, wait long enough and order will be restored on even the craziest of tables.

Well June ‘06 was a mixed month for me. On one hand in the cash games it’s been my best month so far up over 280 big blinds over around 5800 hands:

But tournaments both large and small were a different story with an ROI of -46% (this is on-line only so doesn’t include my first place at the monthly home game, which would improve this number a bit).

So then, my goals for July:

1. Keep the solid cash game going at my new limit.
2. Keep playing the low-level NL hold’em tournaments, aim for a positive return for the month.
3. Read “Harrington on Hold’em” volumes 1 and 2 (on order from Amazon, due to arrive middle of the month - darn international shipping).

It’s time for me to move up the limits! Don’t get too excited though, I won’t be playing high stakes poker just yet. I will, however, be moving up from my current $0.25/$0.50 limit to a whopping $0.50/$1.00. Look out!

Now you could argue that $0.50/$1.00 is nothing to get too excited over and I’d tend to agree with you except for one thing, I’ve worked my way up to this level from a lowly $30 deposit over at Poker Champs nearly a year ago where I played $0.02/$0.04 no-limit.

Thing is it’s never really been about the money, true I’d love to make some decent cash playing this game one day but unlike some I have never had illusions that I could just deposit a few hundred on-line and start turning a profit in the middle/high stakes games. Much better in my opinion to start low and work up, sure I’m probably not facing the best opponents in the world but I am still constantly learning I have no doubt that the 60,000 hands of hold’em I have played at these micro-limits have had nothing but a positive impact on my overall game.

So if it’s not about the money (yet) why am I moving up? Well, I’ve thought about this and here are my reasons:

1. Even though I’m not withdrawing any cash from the game I am building up a bankroll and I’m now bankrolled sufficiently to play the higher limit.
2. I feel like I’m getting a little complacent at the $0.25/$0.50 limit, almost like I’m in a rut. At a higher level (even low stakes) I immediately notice that I’m more attentive. It’s nice to mix things up.
3. Even if it’s just a little bit, moving up is a sign my game is getting better. Improving my game is my current aim.
4. I want to move from the “Micro” to the “Low” tab over at Poker Stars ;)

So here I go then, up the ladder. Wish me luck!

Played in three Sit and Go’s over at Party Poker tonight, after going out in fourth in the first one (losing most of my chips after I folded to a bluff made by the big stack at the table, still kicking myself about that one) I wasn’t in the best of moods.

Then to make matters worse, in the third hand of my next tournament I’m dealt:

:Ac::As:

I raise 3 X BB and get one caller, the flop is:

:6c::Qs::8d:

I bet the pot and get re-raised all-in. I call and he shows:

:8s::8h:

For set of 8’s. I don’t improve and am out… 10th place. Question is should I really fold aces here? I’m playing in low level Party Poker SNG’s, opponents would (and do) make this same move with AQ, KQ … heck half the time their hand wouldn’t even need to be that good! Maybe I’m just making excuses but I think that calling this bet in these games will win more often than it loses.

Ok, so that was fine… I mean, not great but it happens right? Ok, so back on the horse I up the stakes from a $5+$1 to a $10+$1 game.

Things didn’t start so good, I lost a big pot when my AK missed the flop and my continuation bet was raised. So, I tighten up a bit and eventually I’m dealt:

:As::Ah:

*gulp*

I raise it up 3 X BB again and again I get one caller, the flop is:

:Tc::Ts::5h:

My opponent checks to me, I bet the pot and he calls. The turn is a king and he checks again, I go all-in (for my last few remaining chips) and he instantly calls showing:

:Ks::Th:

For a full house, I’m out in 9th. Sure, I fell for a trap here but am I really going to check the flop heads up just because it’s paired? Perhaps I should have analysed his call on the flop a little further, but honestly I don’t see myself getting away from this one. If I check the turn and he goes all-in on the river what then? I have to think if I second guess myself too often I’ll lose more times than I win.

So, something for me to analyse in a couple of days time once the adrenalin dies down. The question is, was I just unlucky a couple of times in a row or should I have laid these hands down? In hindsight obviously I should have played them differently, but to actually do that in the heat of battle… well I’ve still got a bit to learn before that happens.

EDIT: At the end of the day I went out of these tournaments with nothing more than a pair. Sure, it’s a nice pair but just a pair nonetheless. Heads up a pair of aces is going to win most of the time, but you’ve got to ask yourself in these kinds of situations is this move worth my tournament if I don’t have the best hand? Honestly, if I asked myself that and I wasn’t already tilting a little bit from the previous beats I probably would have been able to answer “no” and fold (in the first case) or slow down (in the second). This was just a case of two good hands at the wrong time, luckily it’s not going to happen too often and hopefully the next time it does I’ll be in the right frame of mind to make the correct play.