Back from the dead

Well it's been a long time General.. looking good Dutch.

Haven't been playing a whole lot of poker but I'm starting to get the poker bug back. My biggest issue is tilt and dissociating myself from the value of money and instead focusing on if my play is correct or not. I made a short 20+ minute video 2 tabling $50NL on pokerstars. Nothing terribly exciting, feel free to comment.

I kind of like to record myself from time to time and then go back and analyze the play. I made a few weak-tight folds out of the blinds, simply b/c I wanted to avoid playing pots out of position. I also didn't table select at all since it's a low limit game.. as usual there were some regulars and a few donks.

The video can be downloaded in Full 1600xwhatever format (large screen) You might need to right click on it and do a "save as".

Here's the video for the web:

Running good

So this is the last 45 days. Yeah I haven't been playing as much. In fact, almost every one of these sessions is a little on the drunk side. Why am I winning? The sample size is small and I'm likely against players even more drunk than me. It's hard for me to play really late in the morning on the weekends otherwise. B/c if I haven't gone out, I'd be in bed like a normal person.

Basically I ran really well at a 1/2NL session that I shouldn't have even been playing in given my BR size on stars. I'll consider myself lucky and not play at those limits again until I'm sufficiently rolled.

On another note, I was reading a post of 2p2 about data mining and that it should be banned. I am in full agreement. It's a big advantage for people who datamine observed tables all day at certain limits and then just play accordingly based on the opponents stats. It's something that is not possible in live poker. On a practical note, I don't know if it's possible for sites to prevent datamining.. but it would sure be nice.

Hard to beat low stakes and the rake

So as you can see, the rake is really hard to overcome. I paid more in rake than my profit. I've been playing at pokerstars and unless you play a certain number of hands a month, you get no rakeback. I played close to 3000 hands at .25/.50 and earned about 750 VPP points, which is half of what I need to get a rakeback on stars. So I will have to play 6000 hands a month to get approximately 8% rakeback. Of course if you play more hands then you can get a higher status and get more rakeback.

6000 hands in a month is nothing to scoff at. It's alot of poker.

Been a while

I haven't posted in a while gentlemen. Been working alot and haven't been playing as much poker. Anyway I came home sorta drunk last nite from the bars after the usual no luck. What can I say my game needs refining :) Anyway here's a hand I played where I had some success. I was actually legitimately worried the raiser has a flopped flush. It would have been a total cooler. Well of course the river card kills all my action I got a good sized bet in on the turn.

Absolute Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



CO: $246.50

Hero (BTN): $163.15

SB: $31.90

BB: $315.45

UTG: $102.55

MP: $200.00



Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with 8 9

UTG raises to $3.50, MP calls $3.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $3.50, SB calls $3, BB calls $2.50



Flop: ($17.50) 7 T J (5 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $12, MP raises to $40, Hero calls $40, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds



Turn: ($109.50) 3 (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets $65, MP calls $65



River: ($239.50) 4 (2 players)

MP checks, Hero checks



Final Pot: $239.50

Hero shows 8h 9s (Flush, jack high)

MP shows Td Tc (Three of a kind, tens)

Hero wins $236.00

(Rake: $3.50)

Video 5

Well after running about as bad as possible lately, I posted another 50NL video. I made it late at nite after a few beers but it turned out pretty good.

Enjoy

Video 5

Video 4 - $.25/.50 NL

I made a new video today for the first time in a while. I finally got my memory replaced so I decided to make a video on the new desktop. A few interesting spots. You will want to download the video (not view it in the streamer) if you want to be able to see everything clearly. Feel free to comment on the video here. Otherwise enjoy!

Video 4

Coolers and dodging bullets

I had about one of the worst cooler sessions of my life today. Over the course of 200 hands, I had two full houses vs quads, and flopped trips up against trips with a better kicker. It was really sick stuff but I managed to lose the absolute minimum in each case.

Here i flop the boat and the guy slow plays his trips. Of course when the 9 comes my hand is basically worthless. But the cooler is I stack that guy for sure if the 9 doesn't hit. Now I suppose he could have hit his 10 and in that case he stacks me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707535

Here I flop trips with the worst kicker but I'm in a can't raise situation. What calls me here that i beat? It was an unraised pot. Noone is gonna have a big overpair. I'm only called by a better trips.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707538

Finally I have a top pair in an unraised pot. Nothing special, sort of a probe/value bet. Well I improve to a full house on the turn but with 2 cold callers behind i am really thinking one has quads. Of course the donkey to my left felts with his full house to the quads. It was so obvious the guy had quads with his smooth calls:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707549


Anyway that's how you win at this game. Lose the least possible when you run into a deep freeze.