The Poker Chronicles

Back from the dead

2009-10-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-12-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

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.

How do you beat an aggro donk coming after you

2007-10-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today some super 70/16 donk came after me pretty good. It was frustrating. Calling with 70% of his hands. So obviously I don't respect him much. I pick up KJ and raise, he flats, flop is like 2 5 J. So I bet out, he insta min raises. Suffice it to say, I went into check call mode. But the board ended up with 4 clubs and he goes allin on the river and I have to fold. I went into check call mode b/c even though he is a donk, I want to let me bluff his money off to me. Sometimes it doesn't workout though when the board gets awful.

Anyway alot of people wonder how do you beat donks coming after you? It's right quite simple. Patience, patience, and more patience. You just wait for hands and bet, and let them "try to outplay you." Set traps. Check the nuts on the river if they have been betting the whole way and bust them. Don't let their table talk get to you. When you have a fish like that don't salivate too much and get impatient. Tighten up a bit and wait them out. When you get your two pair+ and they have just a small piece you will win a huge pot off them.

The thing you CANNOT DO is go on tilt. Then you're falling into their trap.

LOL Donkaments

2007-10-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Usual BS. Two critical hands in the tourney:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1639077

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1639084

The irony is those are basically the two best hands I got over about 90 hands. Royal suckout on the first and lost as a 30% dog in the second. Of course the BB had to have KK when I picked up AJ. But hey I wasn't totally dominated. 30% isn't terrible.

Anyway that's usually how it goes for me in these things. You get short b/c you are card dead and you gotta push and just hope your hands hold up.

I was watching some very successful MTT players and I am just amazed how sick good these guys run. One guy who's just running like god, mjorgenson13, was getting TPTK and sets and of course getting paid off. I just can't believe how good these guys can run over the course of a short while. I'm sure they run bad sometimes but they run alot better than the vast majority of us. And don't think these guys make extraordinary laydowns either. They push big hands and draws regardless of their opponents actions. I think in tournaments you have to do that to build chips.

Anyway I'm glad I didn't get all the way down to the bubble and bust out, although I was hoping to sit at Chris Ferguson's table.

Playing in 750K Full Tilt Tomorrow

2007-10-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here's my sit and go graph. The vast majority of these games are $20+$2. The sample size is still somewhat small but at these stakes a good player I think should have at least a 15% ROI.

Anyway I won a $26 satellite today into the $200 sunday Full Tilt Tourney. I do pretty well in those satellites. Just play tight, don't bluff much, and wait for some hands which many players will gladly double you up with. Anyway the last big tourney I played was on UB and I got 25th outta 850+ field. Cashed for $1300 but sadly that was nothing compared to $45K for first. I ran pretty well obviously to get that far, but my last hand was a real cooler when I picked up JJ against an aggressive player who had QQ.

Anyway tomorrow's tourney will be much tougher as I believe the field is gonna be over 3000. But hey it's fun to take a shot.

I finally figured out what was wrong with my computer. I had a bad memory stick. I don't know if one of the previous motherboards fried it or what, but it's really been a nightmare building a new system. These things are really complicated these days, mainly due to the issues with overheating. You have to make sure everything stays cool as these new systems run fast and hot. Hopefully I am done screwing with this and it works from here on out.

Computer problems, Absolute poker scandal, etc

2007-10-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

No post for a while as my I have had some major computer problems. The motherboard I ordered, well the first was DOA and the replacement died after about 10 days. I'm using my laptop to play right now but it doesn't have all the cool software my desktop has nor is it very fast. My third motherboard is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Anyway I played drunk a week or so and lost around a $1K. The irony is I was sucked out horribly. My biggest problem when I play inebriated is money management. Anyway no more drunk poker after that episode. So now I'm having to rebuild my roll at garbage .25/.50NL. And this is mostly to teach myself a lesson never to repeat that again. Low limit poker is a joke but even beating it at 10BB/100 it takes a long time to build a roll.

If yall haven't heard about Absolute Poker (which consequently is where i play mostly), they had a huge cheating scandal and are in the process of figuring out who was cheated and by how much. You can thank our brilliant law makers for driving the online poker world into private and the underground with their absolutely retarded law (UIGEA) passed by some religious right retards who have no clue how the world works. All they did was cause regulated and publicly traded companies like PartyPoker to leave the US while leaving private less audited companies to fill the gap. Thanks a lot religious right morons.

Anyway I like absolute poker b/c the players are the worst on the net and their deposit bonus is amazing. I'm not concerned about getting cheated since I don't play super high stakes which is what apparently was targeted.

I do plan on playing one $26 satellite every week on Full Tilt Poker into their $750K Guaranteed weekly tourney. Hey maybe I can win the lottery like a few others have :)

No more sports betting this season

2007-10-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

Took my shot and missed. OU won by 7 instead of 11+. Oh well. Probably a good thing. Poker is clearly more profitable. Actually it **IS** profitable. Sports betting is just a waste of time really... at least it is for me.

Anyway I won a $50 sit and go on FTP friday nite which is funny b/c I usually play $20. I won a few buyins at $.50/$1 also so it was a good nighte. For some reason I run pretty good late at night after some drinking. Maybe it's b/c my opponents are more drunk. I don't know. Probably just some luck.

Much better day

2007-10-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Decided to try my luck again at $20 SitnGoes. Started out slow and finally got some cashes. Won a 9 man for $90, got two 3rds in 18 man for $72 each and a 6th in a 45 man. The 6th really annoyed me as I had TT in the BB against a button steal 10BB deep. The guy has QQ. Total cooler and indicative of how I have been running. Most of the money in a 45 man is in the top 3 so I really came up short. I suppose it could have been worse, I could have finished 7th for $0.

I was up around 6 buyins or so today ($20). Still down though from my beginning but it's good to turn things around a bit. At one point I was on a 0-10 streak for cashes. Not good.

Oh I did have the biggest suckout of my life today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1552829

But just notice what a friggen cooler this was. There are 9 guys left and I have 10BB and pick up AKs and the Big Blind wakes up with AA. That is just sick in itself. BTW after this major suckout I lost with KK vs QJo allin preflop. Then of course I pick up TT and lose to QQ who raised on the button. So my luck QUICKLY evened out and then some.

0-9

2007-10-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

Wow. Really rough start. Played 9 $20 SnG's today on Full Tilt Poker ranging from 9 man to 45 man. It was brutal. I got trapped a few times but mostly coolers and card dead.

Still alot of awful players but if you don't catch some hands you aren't gonna cash in these things.

Anyway I'll play some more tomorrow and see what happens, can't run this bad again hopefully.

New computer up and running

2007-10-02T22:12:00.001-07:00

Well I finally upgraded my computer. I upgraded to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, clocked around 2.7Ghz. All I can say is wow. I can now run my pokeracehud on multiple tables with absolutely ZERO lag. Sweet. I bought the motherboard, chip, memory, and a new 750GB Sata HD and installed it all myself. I've always been the type to build computers since computers you buy from big manufacturers like dell are generally crap. However one nice thing about those computers is they WORK. I had to RMA my first motherboard and that was a real pain in the ass. 2 week turnaround. I ended up having to put my old motherboard back in. BTW I do not enjoy installing components into a case, but it is rewarding when you get it all to work right.

Played only 43 hands today. Nothing really interesting other than to say that around midnight CST, it is super loose on absolute poker. You need hands to win so don't try bluffing.

Also I am getting a bit burned out on grinding cash poker tables. I admit it's the purest form of poker but it can get tiresome. Therefore I'm gonna start playing in some sit and goes and MTTs. Maybe play some satellites to some big buyin MTTs on fulltilt or something. I need to mix it up. I try playing some PLO but that game still mystifies me. I mean it's hard to get used to folding bottom set ON THE FLOP.

I made a HUGE sports bet on OU -11 over Texas today. Basically went allin. I HATE doing that because it is just horrible bankroll management but I feel so damn good about that bet that I think it's worth the shot. Even if I win though, I will be elated but still mad at my obvious bad play with my bankroll. I don't plan on doing it again the rest of the season that's for sure. I know these two teams very well, I've seen Texas live twice and watched all the meaningful away games on TV. OU laid an egg against Colorado last Saturday, but lets face it, if the guy doesn't muff a punt at the end of the game OU wins and the spread opens around 20.

Crazy Friday/Saturday

2007-09-30T16:39:00.001-07:00

Well it really begins Friday night with some partying. A friend from dallas came into town and we rousted some bars. So we come back to my place and the porkers who live in my complex who are always loitering, smoking, and being obnoxious are out there. One porker says I don't know her name. Why would I need to? Anyway my friend who is trashed just hangs out with them and I think smokes most of their cigarettes. I proceed to go inside and play some poker drunk. And here is why you don't play poker drunk.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1537339

I literally though tI flopped a straight. At the same time realize just how incredibly PROFITABLE it is to play at these hours. I have both of these donkeys CRUSHED preflop and they are felting anypair on a scary board. So anyway I get it all back and then some at $1/$2:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1537348

Got cagey with AA and the donk felts pocket Q's even with an ace on board.

Anyway as you can see I laid an egg with my college football picks this week. 0-4. I made some of it up today in the NFL. I just took Phil -2.5 at NYG. If I win that I will be close to even on the week. I had Buffalo ML, Altanta ML, and Chi -2.5. Won the first 2 and lost the Chi bet. Chicago is bad and Cedric Benson is a bust. They royally screwed up making that guy their feature back.

BTW the Texas/OU line opened up OU -10. I really think that's a gift. OU will beat the crap out of that Texas team.

Won a coin flip

2007-09-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

Made a 1BB call in the big blind with a K4s. Flopped the nut flush draw with paired King. Gonna go with this hand everytime. The worst I am is a coinflip and that's exactly what this was. Alot of the time I could have my opponent crushed if he has a lower flush draw.

Anyway interesting hand as he hit the stone cold nuts on the turn and I rivered the stone cold nuts. Always fun when I win these.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1528140

Looks like Ark St is trying to make a comeback after being down 31-6. Still I need them to cover 5.5 so this is still a long shot.

NCAAF Bets this week 5

2007-09-27T14:36:00.001-07:00

Maryland at Rutgers	Point Spread	Rutgers -16.5	-104	26.00
Memphis at Arkansas State	Point Spread	Arkansas State -5.5	+100	25.00
Ohio State at Minnesota U	Point Spread	Ohio State -23.5	-106	26.50
UAB at Tulsa	Point Spread	Tulsa -20.5	-107	26.00

Cure for tilt

2007-09-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

I was down 2 buyins in like 90 hands today. One the guy playing virtually every hand flopped a straight with 84 when I had 87 on a board of 567. I had TP open ended. I didn’t get there to split. I rebuy. Then like only a few hands later I flop a set and the villain gets it all in on the flop with a flush draw and hits on river. Bust again. I was 3 to 1 to win that. Anyway I get up pissed off and quit. Major tilt. Bang on some shit. It wasn’t cool. Rarely do I lose two buyins so fast. After analyzing my play I really can’t get upset too much. I mean you get your money in 3 to 1 what more can you do? Anyway I quit for a while, eat some food, watch the Tech/OSU game replay. Tech has a horrific defense.

Anyway time to start back up now that it’s around 11:30pm when the fish are in full force. 2 hands into the session this happens. Instatilt cure I tell ya. Never a better feeling except having the guy crack your aces. The guys comment was “bad timing”. I was very thankful this donk tried to “make a move” lol.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1525608