[Zoom Poker is the next big thing on PokerStars. After some fooling around I'm starting at $10nl full ring, where I left off on Rush Poker, to get a feel for the game again.]

So it’s here, Zoom Poker, the godsend for cash game players who have families, jobs, and other things that make it difficult to multitable online cash games just because it’s so hard to set aside one or more hours to select tables, get on the tables, get reads on players.

I’ve donked around the lowest levels on various computers, mostly without statistical software, just to get the chance to play. Now I’ve settled in to grind $10nl to get a feel how to play again. Plus, since Black Friday (almost a year now!) I’ve kept my online bankrolls small so as to avoid putting too much money at risk, so I only keep a few hundred dollars at Stars anymore.

But now I’m really accumulating VPPs. The hands come so fast that the VPPs just roll in, even at 10nl. Even though Zoom only started half way through March I may actually make silverstar for only the second or third time in five years of playing there.

Here’s my fav hand so far. I’ve had more than a three buy in stack at Zoom before, but that was accumulated over time. This is the first time so far that I’ve tripled up a 100 bb stack in one hand.

On the flop I have to be ready to stack off; I’ve hit the flush but unfortunately it’s only a medium flush. I’m afraid of someone holding just the Ace or King of hearts but I’m afraid to build the pot so early so I just call the OR bet in hopes of thinning the field a bit and avoiding another heart. But there is one heart that I really like and it comes on the turn. When the OR stops betting I bet small now hoping that one of them does have a big heart card.

When the board pairs the OR jams, betting pot. I’m happy to call. The last player, at a better level, should fold his hand, but at 10nl I think he probably has to call too.

All that being said, I am winning at 25bbs/100 hands over a very small sample, but my play is inconsistent, as is my connection (I keep losing connection) and I should actually be doing better. I’ll post more about what I think one should be doing as I go along.

[Current project: 6 max cash. Most of my cash game play has been full ring. To work on my 6 max game I have started at $10 tables]

Actually played my 3rd session in 3 days. Too many short stackers. Was up slightly, until this hand.

Player to my right I just made a note that I can float his 3 bets from the blinds, because his 3 bet stealers is 40% and I had recently done so. He’s not a bad player, and so I really knew that I should fold this hand when he flats my raise on the flop ….

[Current project: 6 max cash. Most of my cash game play has been full ring. To work on my 6 max game I have started at $10 tables]

So maybe I’m picking up some momentum; I actually played two sessions within two days! Some 400 hands the first day and 500+ on six tables the next day.

I’ve had computer issues of varying sorts since late August of last year and I finally broke down and bought a new computer. I’m not totally settled in with it yet, but it is nice to have the laptop plus the 23″ monitor available again. The most recent problem was that the old laptop screen died and I could only use the external monitor, plus I wasn’t able to control the display settings properly so it’s a relief to have things back to “normal”. Now if the internet would only settle down and give me a consistent connections to Stars.

Eventually yesterday I was able to load up six tables on the external monitor and have the lobby on the laptop, which was nice. I’ve never played six tables of 6 max before that I can recall. I did get up to sixteen, or maybe even twenty of tables of full ring at one time but maybe six of 6 max is equal to nine of full ring? Anyway, it took a while to settle there. Rather than start four and add I opted to get on 7-8 waiting lists and jumped right into six. Not the recommended way to increase your tables, but I’ve been there before, plus the waiting lists seem slower than pre-Black Friday so I was impatient.

Again, these hands are sorted by size of final pot. All these are from the last session only.

First hand, against a 78/58 with 8/27% aggression maniac, and a 28/20 2.1/45%. After the hand someone else at the table asked what was going on, and I said ‘don’t ask me’. I flop the nut flush against two players who seem intent on outplaying each other.

(Note: The replayer would only show two players. I had to remove an equals sign from one of the players names “=” which the replayer site could not understand, to get the hand to show properly.)

Next, a 93/80, 4.3/50%. This session I came up with a new color code label; red for maniacs. This session there were at least three players that I tagged as such, and this is the first time in some 6,000 hands that I’ve really seen any, and three show up. Last hand had one, and this hand is against another. I really didn’t pay attention to this hand; a symptom of not being fully under control with six tables, but then, ?

Next hand is a misread of my opponent. He’s 28/21, 2/31% at the end, though I saw him as much laggier than this.

Here’s one of the last hands, one that got my session to positive just before quitting. This is a passive 33/0 fish who, in his first hand at the table cold called a 3 bet from a $2 short stack with T9o, which I immediately made note of. Some two orbits later we get this hand, and then he leaves.

Next is a 52/5. Note the awful 3 bet preflop, which obviously I can’t fold to, and then it’s a matter of what to make of his turn bet.

Another hand against the 28/21. I have to admit to not paying full attention again during the hand because I don’t remember whether he bet all three streets or not. Again, either he’s at the top of the range that I put him on for 3 betting, or I misread his stats/indicators, or I’m doing some sort of overreacting to 3 bets from other players, or, he just had a lot of good hands against me. He kept sitting out for some reason, so I’m pretty sure I only ended up with less than 50 hands total on him.

Next is a 53/21 fish. The flop is awful, but the fish will call with a huge range so I think I have to bet the flop and turn to get value from his 65/55/66/A7/K9 ect hands that he will call down with. On the river I don’t see hands other than a straight, which I think he raises at some point, that will call anything that goes over half a pot so I bet small. But, as it turns out, I think I’m wrong. With his specific hand he would have called a bigger bet.

26/24 5.5/26, whom I’ve noted before as betting a wet flop multiway with overcards, meaning he doesn’t really think. In this case, he’s been chipped down, and then doubled up his $1.60 stack against me earlier when he shoved Ax over my 66. Now I get a chance to get my money back, especially given his post flop aggression.

(Oop, lost the replay. It was my K4 that flopped two pair after he openlimped KJ from UTG. I check raised, he shoved and I collected my money back.)

Finally, a hand that surprised me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. This is a 15/3, but who 3 bets from the blinds 40% of the time. It’s possible that either he actually had a hand, or, that he simply can’t believe it when someone 4 bets him. Either way, I don’t have anything to go with.

Time to get around to reviewing some hand histories.

I’ve grabbed hands since the last time I reviewed by editing HoldemManager’s filter and then clicking on bbs three times, which sorts the hands by the absolute value of big blinds either lost or won in the hand. In English, these are the biggest winning and losing hands from that period of time.

This misses the interesting hands where I folded preflop or on the flop or all my oppenents did so as well, but it’s a quick and dirty way of grabbing something to review.

First hand, I’m a 71-29 fav on the flop.

Next hand is against a 53/19, but there’s not a lot either of us can do. I flat the 3bet preflop 1) to keep the small blind in, and 2) because the big blind is fairly aggressive and I’ll have position I want to keep any random squeezing hands that he might have from folding.

I should look at his 3bet stats, but I don’t have HoldemManager on this computer. He may also have had high 3bet stats which makes his range wider as well, otherwise I’m not sure flatting preflop is the best choice here given that an Ace or King might flop and then I might have to call flop/fold turn, but 3 way in a 3 bet pot I don’t know if I have room to fold the turn.

Short stack that shoves is 69/46 over 14 hands. I don’t know if UTG limper knows this. If he does, then well played by him.

This next one frustrated the heck out of me at the time. Player 3 is a 51/0 with 1.4/34% aggression. In the blind with 66 with two limpy calling stations I don’t see value in raising preflop because most flops I’ll be OOP against two players who won’t fold. Flop is drawy but I don’t know how much I can bet. Turn adds another draw but gives me a boat so I don’t have to worry about flush draws. River fills a straight and when the calling station raises I expect a straight or J9 or something so I shove, losing to a bigger boat that outdrew me.

It’s frustrating when you have a bad player just where you want them, only to have them outdraw you on the river.

Last hand I had 66 in the blinds against two players who don’t fold. This one I have 55 but not in the blinds, and I open raise all pocket pairs and flop nicely, though I’m losing to 66 or 78 I’m not folding and I want to get the money in now in case he has 67/57 or two pair.

He wants to play some kind of min-raising game on the flop so I co-operate. My likely hand, if I like it on the flop, is an overpair; 99/TT or bigger, so his desire to get it in on the flop with a vulnerable two pair is reasonable.

Next hand is very situation dependent. Opponent is 27/11 with a 5.3/50% aggression, but I think the preflop stats were higher when this hand took place and he had high 3bet stats. I flat with a hand that I’m not going to get married to with only an Ace or a Ten. I’m looking for two pair or something with a flush draw or combo, or, a chance to outplay him with position if he has AK/AQ or something and no big cards come.

I flop what I consider to be a bluff-catcher that’s not vulnerable to an Ace coming later so that changes my plans slightly. He bets small so I call. The turn is a brick for his likely holding and only slightly more likely useful for me. Again, he’s aggressive and I have a bluff catcher so I call.

By the river I’m pretty sure that I’m beat, but I want to see what he has.

Next hand is against a 25/21/2.8/44%. Flop is dry, on the turn I pick up a bluff catcher and am still ahead of AJ/AT or other Ax that a 25/21 might raise. He probably doesn’t bet most Ax on the river, but he’s agressive and this is only 10nl so I call.

There is the option to 3bet AQ on the button preflop, but in position I usually prefer to just play my position. I might end up losing the same if he calls the 3bet, I bet the flop, check turn, call his river bet, and if he 4 bets I can fold preflop.

Next hand, against a 42/19/2.2/58%. I like raising suited middle connectors or one gappers, just like small or medium pocket pairs. They play much differently than pair though, often giving bluff catcher hands with middle pair or draws rather than monsters. Player 1 weirdly shoves the turn, I guess he’s thinking he’s got all kinds of draws, but he’s going to fold out everything except strong made hands like two pair,sets, or better.

Next hand is strange. UTG is a weak player. The one I’d like to get in a pot with the the weak big stack who is unfortunately to my left so I just call 88 behind the UTG limp.

The toughest part of post flop situations like this is trying to figure out how to get maxiumum value from the types of players that you’re up against. On the turn I dearly hope one of them has a King but for some reason both lf them call. On the river the big stack folds (what the heck did he call two streets with? A straight draw? An 8 or 7?) but the UTG limper calls, with QQ? This is a strange post-flop series that I see once in a while at this level, where a player has a big pair but doesn’t raise, and then calls down when there is one or two bigger cards on the table. Calling down is better if I raised and he called preflop because 1) there are fewer players meaning less chance of a King and 2) because I raised preflop then I could be betting AQ/AJ/JJ/TT on the flop, especially if I’m OOP (IP it’s WA/WB), I guess. But in a limped pot against a non-spazzy opponent and you hold QQ you have to give up and just agree that you screwed up preflop by not raising.

Against these players the flop raise and the turn bet should have both been a little bigger. And on the river, if I assume one of them has a weak King, the bet should have been closer to pot sized. Instead, I think because they both just called the flop and turn I somehow became afraid that neither had a King and just some kind of 7.

Last hand. Player 2 is looking like a nitty-tag; 14/14/1/50% over 22 hands. It’s a little awkward; too many short stacks at the table. JJ is too strong and too vulnerable to flat behind a short stack so I should be 3 betting to $1.20-1.40, or 3-3.5X because I have position but to also leave him room to shove Ax.

The turn raise is on the small side but it’s designed to keep flush/straight draws and overpairs smaller than mine in the hand.

My graph since the beginning of the year, all cash games, all trying to relearn $10nl 6 max.

Typical variance. Because I’m only playing 2 – 4 tables at a time and because I’m just not into really grinding I’m not getting much volume; only 4,600 hands in almost two months. But look at the movement. Down 4 buyins, then up by 2, then down by 2.5, then up one, then down 3 before last session took me positive again.

Last Friday night I played in the annual company poker tournament fund raiser. $20 buy in and rebuys for another $20, with half the money going to the prize pool and the other half going to Big Brothers.

As is normal I didn’t fare particularly well, slow rolling trip jacks against a min-raiser but folding on the river when a second Ace gave me a boat but also gave any Ace a bigger boat, rebuying after shoving 88 in the big blind and being called by two limpers, one of whom had QQ, and losing at the final table with a short stack when I shoved 88 in the blind again against two limpers, one with 23o and the other with K4s and the flop came with a King to finish my evening. I don’t expect to do well in general against players at these tournaments but it’s a company function and a fundraiser so that’s fine.

What was interesting though was the residue frustration that this left me with. The next day I tried to play a little online but had no patience. The Sunday afterward I had registered for a private freeroll and tried a couple $2.20-180s on Stars as well but again had no patience.

I thought that patience was a normal part of my game, almost second nature or at least third nature and that something had to set me off before I would lose it. But on the other hand I recall telling myself that I played those private freerolls best when I didn’t pay attention and just had my laptop nearby while I vacuumed or cleaned. The $2.20-180s need to be played almost the same.

This comes on the heels of some down sessions of $10nl 6max, where I got boat-over-boated on the river against a megafish after flopping a set and he flopped middle pair, and where I got limp/shoved on by KK over my QQ by a 30/4 who promptly leaves the table and so forth, so it’s building frustrations on top of losing sessions.

Still working on $10 6max, but very little. Three weeks into the year and I only have five sessions, 1,200 hands because I’m mostly playing only two tables to give myself time to check my thinking as I go. Finally got back to positive with the session before last after dropping a couple buyins in the first session.

Against a 53/16 over 45 hands, cbet 100%, 3bet 15% but I recall thinking it was higher at the time of the hand. Because I read him as prone to 3betting I choose to flat QT suited, a hand that can play well in position.

The worst part of this hand is the river. As soon as the J gets there I decide to flat, being now afraid he’s holding AK, which is pretty unlikely at this point in the hand, as is anything with a 9 or a set of tens or Queens since I hold one of each. Missed value on the river.

47/4 over 78 hands, fcb of 62%, aggression of 1.1/28%. I bet the flop small because it’s a bet/fold and check/fold the turn. Except I catch a bluff catcher. I don’t expect him to be bluffing here, but on the other hand I don’t see what he’s representing, other than an Ace or two pair, and if he had those why would he bet the river?

Here’s a problem. UTG is a Lagfish, 50/39 over 18, undersized raiser is a nit; 13/10 over 40. I’m afraid to 3 bet JJ against this raise, and I get caught because of it.

On the flop I check-raise to try to get rid of the nit and iso against the bad player, but after he call/shoves I’m pretty sure I’m dominated.

I don’t know what people flat 3 bets with, but here’s a 29/27 over 49 with a steal of 40%. I 3 bet AJo rather than flat because it’s ahead of his range but not significantly ahead. I c-bet and check/fold the turn, in spite of his 5.5 and 42% post flop aggression.

Yesterday I was watching NFL and decided to play some poker. For a change of pace I decided to try some 6 max.

Post-Black Friday I cashed my Stars account down to $200. For the rest of 2011 I didn’t play much and the bankroll was somewhere just over $400, mostly due to some donking around on some $2.50 180-seat turbo tourneys. I just never felt much in the way of inspiration.

But maybe I’ve found some. The $10nl 6 max was weird. I felt like a fish out of water. First off, I haven’t played much 6 max at all, and the range has been $10nl to $50nl but very few hands in total. Still, my full ring game is really based on a 6 max starting hand selection with added tightness in the earliest 3 positions for full ring.

But I found the $10n 6 max to be unreadable to me. Maybe it’s just time away from poker in general but the betting and chasing didn’t make much sense. I tried to adjust but it was like trying to get your sea legs.

And I couldn’t remember how to play against players who can’t read board textures. And how to play players that call down with any pair on the flop or call preflop raises with any two suited cards. Or have no idea about pot control and assume that it means no hand. I’m just way out of practice.

So maybe I’ve found a new project. $10n 6 max, few tables, until I feel like I’ve figured out these players again.

Today I won more than I lost. Yesterday my confusion was over losing hands. Here’s a winning hand. I don’t understand what he’s doing. He’s repping a very narrow range with AK or sets, but I called down to see for sure.

And here’s one where I lost, but I had a bluff catcher and I wanted to see what he had. On one hand I don’t understand his betting given the board texture, but on the other hand maybe at this level one should be betting even given the board texture because people (other than me who’s partly doing this out of curiosity) will call down with worse.

I call this flop because I’m planning to try to take it away on the turn. I guess I could have raised the turn to try to take it away, but when I picked up the bluff catcher I chickened out. But, I’m really not sure that he folds even if I do raise the turn, simply because they don’t read board textures or won’t fold overpairs. I didn’t yesterday with KK on a Q high board, but then it was to a raise on a dry turn, and his AQ rivered a third Q after we were all in.

I forgot the tournament hands, but I don’t play a lot. Mostly what I’ve played are the 180 seat turbo sit and goes that used to be $2.20 and are now $2.50 on PokerStars, plus some sit and goes and some Rush tournaments on other sites.

The 180 seat turbos are what I use my T$ for or, sometimes I’ll also play them while I’m watching a movie or football games. Over two years I’ve  played 141 of these with an ROI of just over 100%. For 141 I’ve paid $325.80 to play and my net, after buyin costs, is plus $377.09. Or $662.89 before deducting the entry fee. This means that for every  $1.00 that I pay to enter I get $2.02 back. Easy bits of small winnings.

I requested the last two years of my PokerStars hand histories. Often if I change computers I ignore hand histories older than a year since I don’t expect to run into the same players again so I don’t often have this much history.

This probably amounts to about half the hands that I played during that period of time, with the bulk of the rest being at Full Tilt and some at Party and Entraction.

So not a lot of hands in total. Only for brief periods of times have I ever spent time grinding. I never did lose that $100 one buyin shot at $100nl before giving up and lost a couple big hands where I was ahead, therefore the big +EV compared with the winnings at that level. It’s interesting that my EV is half my winnings at my main level of $25nl.

If I graph just those hands from $25nl I can see that I’ve run above EV almost from the start and stayed at twice EV. And my non-showdown winnings are a huge negative, meaning that the showdown winnings of the blue are way positive in order for the net to be positive.

Recently I’ve run across BlackRain a couple of times. He’s a microstakes grinder and coach who plays predominantly at $10nl FR and I’ve felt somewhat inspired by him to do some $10nl.

My bankroll at Stars is still under $400 due to some variance and very little playing so it’s a little comforting to sit down at $10nl tables where I’m rolled and where the play is not much of a challenge. I don’t even play more than four tables at a time, but then I’m usually doing something else while I play. The real poker grind mindset is just not with me any more.

But here’s an awful hand. Limped pot, I’m in the big blind. On the turn with a three flush on the board an aggressive player in position makes a min bet stab at the pot. I call and a 37/0 calls. I river the straight flush and hope that someone had the Ace of clubs or at least the King.

So he stacks off with an eight high flush or eight high straight? Either he thinks a straight beats a flush or he just doesn’t see the four flush sitting there.

I actually made Gold star this month on PokerStars.

Not much of an accomplishment because this is the month that Stars dropped it’s VPP requirements. I think you can currently get Platinum for the VPP points that used to be required for Silver star. I’m not sure why they’re doing this. Maybe they’re planning to insert new levels in between Platinum and the SuperNova levels.

My volume is way down, due to a number of things: 1) I was running bad playing 4x$25nl, 2) went away for a few days, plus 3) my hard drive on my 10 month old laptop died. And I mean really died. I swapped it with another computer and the other computer’s drive booted in my computer and my drive didn’t even register as being inserted in either computer. I got a warranty replacement sent and it arrived in three days, but then had to spend the next few days installing Windows, drivers, and software.

With the dead hard drive I lost the last ten months worth of hand histories, which is not too awful as I restarted my hand history database after Black Friday anyway since the player pool changed dramatically. But I do need to remember to back up my HEM HUD configuration; that’s a really pain to re-build. After the run-bad, the hard drive crash, and the vacation, I started donking around at $3.50 sit and goes and $10 cash tables, all while surfing the ‘net. In other words, typical fish/casual player approach to the game. Bankroll somehow hit $400 again and I was getting close to Gold star, but it takes forever playing $10 tables so at the end I went to $50 tables. It didn’t take long to finish and I gained a few dollars when I flopped trip 8s from the SB on a T8x board, check-raised the two tone flop, turned quads and bet under half pot on the turn and river trying to rep JT or something and assuming that since he called the flop he had an overpair. It turned out to be a 97 OESD which apparently wasn’t worried about me having TT/T8 on the flop that turned a boat, and where he called my river bet because he paired the 7 on the river. I also tracked a bad player who was overbetting the pot on the first table that I was on. He left after raising me on a low flop after I iso-raised and c-bet with AK on a missed flop. I found him at another table and opened 99. Flop is 442 and he overbet-donked so I raised, he folded and went to another table. I found him again at a $200 table with only one player and where he buys in for $80. I saw him call a raise, then raise the flop on a 633 board and shove the turn with K2s and the other player had 66. Then I didn’t see him again.

There are bad players at every level. But the higher the level you play, the fewer there are.

I want to track a series of events.

1. While grinding Rush poker I open up my stealing range and frequency. Many other players are doing so as well and so I also start to open up my 4betting range against players who 3 bet from the blinds often.
2. Black Friday, April 15, 2011, happens. I cash both my PokerStars and Full Tilt accounts down to ~ $200. Full Tilt goes into stasis. American players are removed from Stars which changes the play. I start to try to regrind my $200 account at $25nl FR tables.
3. I bring with me my preflop aggression from Rush Poker to the cash tables at PokerStars. At first I run into a number of players who steal often and then don’t seem to know what to do when I 3bet so they call, and then I’m not sure what hand range they have because it’s probably wider than it should be.
4. I start to become hesitant after being stuck in a few bloated pots with these players. I feel a little out of my comfort zone because the player base has changed after Black Friday and I’m wondering whether I need to adjust.
5. I start to pull back on my preflop aggression; slightly less stealing and less 3 betting from the blinds. This leads to calling more often preflop and not having the initiative postflop. This puts me in the situation of having to play medium strength hands passively which sometimes allows my opponent to draw out on me. It also puts me in difficult situations with these marginal hands and with draws.
6. Postflop I become passive with draws. I also get stuck in WA/WB or SA/WB situations and get outdrawn.

I’ve never been overly comfortable playing passively out of position. I know that against a player with a wide raising range I should 3 bet marginal hands and sometimes value hands but just call with hands that dominate his range (AQ/AJ/KQ) because I don’t want to chase away hands that I dominate, but I find it difficult to play AQs OOP even against a player who is opening 33%.

In position it’s a different matter as I can be happy calling a continuation bet and then seeing what happens on the turn, or raising or betting the flop since most of the time if called that will be followed by a check on the turn and I can manage the pot size more easily.

But I’ve become so hesitant to 3 bet preflop or to semibluff with a raise postflop (another loss of initiative result combined with fear of bloated pots and fear of players that don’t know how to fold) that today I almost flatted AJo from the button behind an average player raise, a loose player call, and another average player call.

End of a $2.28 + 22 180 man turbo on PokerStars. These are the ones that I use most of my T$ on.

These are the last 5 hands of the tournament.

1. My KQ gets a walk.
2. The big stack raises from the small blind. He’s been aggressive, as he should be, but I get a hand, and have him dominated. He flops an OESD, but I hold.
3. I’m the dominating stack and willing to get in with a stack 1/3 my size with an average hand, but I’m dominating again.
4. Next hand my KQ is dominating his QJ and I hold.
5. Next hand, last one, heads up, QT is fine to get in against the short stack. Not dominating this time, but I hit.

It’s nice to win one of these again. That makes three firsts and two seconds, mostly played with T$. I wish I could easily get HEM to isolate those tournaments. OPR says I’ve played 67 tournaments this year and 46 last year, cashing $613. The buyin has changed slightly from 2.20 to 2.50 but I’m still up some $330 or so, and even at that most of the $250 or so in buyin costs were T$.

Collection of my biggest losing hands recently. No stats.

1. He may know that I’m squeezing, so my range may be ahead of what he thinks I have, but low flop so I commit with QQ. I’m not a big fan of his flop shove. Unless he’s intentionally trying to represent a panic shove with AK I realized at the time that it’s only around pot sized but there’s two more streets yet and the flop doesn’t really hit a squeezing hand range, more of a calling in position type of hand range. Would I shut down to a Ten or 7, or would those help me, or would I shut down to an Ace or King turn? Probably not if he made it a 1/3 pot flop bet and then we’re stack committed. On the other hand the whole reason for my flat of his small 4 bet is to consider folding to an A or K flop and committing to anything else.
2. Min-raise and call of my 3bet. And then an annoying min-raise of my c-bet. I have overs and he’s shortish and not good ….
3. Another half stack
4. Almost a min-3 bet at a short table (it was still filling up at this point so few hands). Basically he gets lucky with his flop shove. All sorts of options this hand; I could have shoved pre, I could have flatted rather than raise the flop.
5. AK vrs a 40 bb shove, probably okay.
6. An undersized 3 bet, but boy he didn’t get much value for his hand. He gets lucky because I hit the set on the river.
7. Another AK vrs a 40 bb stack.
8. And KK vrs a 40bb stack who sucks out with AQ.
9. And KK vrs T9 who was prepared to go with this top pair and catches a second pair on the river
10. QQ with an OESD vrs a very tight full stack. He’s repping at least two pair/set but I have a hard time folding
11. Early at this table so I just check AT. I check-raise the flop and decide to call down, losing to an open limped pair of tens.
12. Accidental min-3-bet; I didn’t see the early position raise and just clicked the “raise” button twice. Then I’m in trouble with only top pair/non-top kicker.
13. Rare flop raise with a draw at this level, so I didn’t expect a draw.

I’m down over this time frame, though I don’t know how much? I figure there’s no point checking unless I think that I’m either close to bursting the bankroll or getting close to the $500 that I’m targeting for playing $50nl, and I don’t think I’m too close to either one atm.

Not awful play by me but I am aware that 1) I’m not running good, and 2) I’m not feeling confident in my game. If I had 2) then 1) wouldn’t be as much a problem, as well as vice versa. Run-good is random but it would make sense that it would take a few thousand hands to resolidify my confidence after not really grinding for some months.
 

A 60/20 over just a few hands. I expect him to call my raise of his min-raise with a huge range, so raising bigger would have been a good idea. When he check/raises a dry flop I think I’m ahead 97% of the time against this type of player with 3% or less of the time he’s flopped a set. Probably 30% of the time he has a pocket pair and hopes that I’ve missed, 50% he’s got one pair and the rest he’s missed altogether but can’t fold. In other words, I’ve run across a lot of players like this.

Next hand is my fifth hand at this table so no reads.

His donk bet is an awkward size as usually the donks will be one or two bbs, but I’ve got an over and a gut shot so I raise, intending to fold to a reraise. The option would be to flat, keeping the pot smaller, and evaluate the turn but I was hoping to get the third player out and I do think that some of the time I have fold equity all around. This time I pair the turn and he commits his stack by donking again. I’m getting 3.3-1 pot odds but he’s only got 1/4 pot left if I flat so calling is pointless.

I suck out. His play is not awful but I probably check/raise or at least donk/raise and try to get it in on the flop. As played I did pick up enough perceived equity on the turn whereas I fold to a flop check/raise, but meh.

Here I’m against a 57/0 over 7 hands. Standard raise flop, c-bet on the smallish size because of his stack size and I missed the flop. I suspect that he decided to bluff having the king.

A 10/7 over 30 hands and I decide that I don’t want to play JJ OOP so I 3 bet. On the flop I’m WA/WB but OOP so I c-bet. If he calls I’m done. If he had AQ/TT then good for him.

Last one. Opponent is 15/4 over 171, 26% agg freq, 1.5 agg factor. The flop has some draws but a Q or set could be raising me for protection. I call since I do have a hand but when he bets the turn and it’s a card that fits his range better than mine (though not necessarily his flop raise range) I decide it’s getting too pricey to keep calling.

—–

I wanted to add some observations for post-Black Friday at 25nl FR on PokerStars.

Volume of players seems down slightly but the mix is different. The players seem afraid of playing short tables. I see some forty tables running, maybe five or six with VPIP above 30%, and waiting lists for pretty much every table, even down to ones with VPIP of 6%!

I’ve taken to starting tables myself, or joining ones where a single player does not have $25 or $10, and playing loose passive for a few hands. This generates a high VPIP and the table fills up within minutes.

Problems with this include regs who then proceed to sit to my left to make things difficult.

On the other hand the open table also attracts fish, but sometimes they have to be caught quickly. The saying “wait for a better opportunity or situation” doesn’t apply here because often these fish will lose their stack in one or two orbits and then be gone. That means extrapolating information from stack sizes, small sample size stats, and from general observation and guessing what kind of fish they are and getting chips quickly from them, before they disappear or someone else takes their chips.

Still keeping it up

This is against a 70/33 who stacked up a few hands earlier against the player in between us.

Turn is a bad card but I think sometimes he (or his fellow players like him) check/raise the turn with A7/K7/99/TT or 78 type of hands as well. On the other hand there are a lot of hands in his range that also just made two pair.

Here he is again later. An example of how bad he is. An undersized isoraise from me; the play that I’ve been using against players who don’t fold pre and don’t fold easily post flop either where I’m trying to iso without making the pot too big preflop.

He left the table after losing his stack to the player in between us who was the other one who he chipped up on on an early hand.

Here I’ve got QQ against a 14/6 over 193 hands, 3bet from the blinds of 8%, postflop frequency of 32% and cbet of 67%. I opt to flat. When we get to the river I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t have an Ace and I hope to get a call from JJ/TT or something like that. If I’m him I bet the river for the same reason that I bet when he didn’t.

So QQ was not good to me this session. But still, with help from $25 from a couple cashes using T$ the bankroll is up to $350. I’m targeting $500 before I start to take shots at $50nl again, unlike the first session after I cashed out and tried to four table $50nl and ran out of bankroll.

A short session 5 in between.

Here a 60/40 isoraises a 60/5. Both their ranges are huge, so I 3 bet and raise the flop donk bet. It turns out that he had previously donk bet his only other opportunity as well.

This one was a little scary; the guy who 3 bets is a 9/8 with a 3 bet % of 3 over 80 hands or so. Why would someone like that 3 bet an early position raise?

On the other hand, it’s possible that even though he’s a nit he doesn’t consider position; his early position PFR is 10% so he’s opening the same range of hands from all positions. Or, it could be a designed test, a 3bet/fold to 4 bet. Or maybe he’s just been reading about squeezing.

Next one same guy, different table. I’m a bit trapped here.

Since Black Friday the tables seem to be full of nits generating huge wait lists, so I’ve been jumping on short tables or starting up tables myself. Here the table is just getting filled.

Similarly here, the table is filling and this guy buys in out of position. He only lasted one more hand after this.

This was nasty; I distinctly remember the guy had 5 hands and was 20/20, so no reads at all. I could/maybe should fold river, but I was curious as much as anything. Sometimes from an unknown it will turn out that this is TT or something. But of course over more hands this guy later turns out to be a standard TAG rather than a maniac.

The danger of his play is that he sets himself up to be stacked by two pair/set against unknowns like me. In other words I’d be looking for hands to call him with if he’s going to be for that much value. I’ll do this against players that I have indications that they’re bad, but not against someone that is a reg.

Finally, everyone needs hands like this now and then.

OR is slightly LAGgy, the guy in between us is a 50/8 fish who I don’t know how he managed to hang on to his chips for 49 hands.

Holdem Manager allows me to select all the biggest hands in three different ways; either the biggest wins, the biggest losses, or the biggest absolute value.  I only discovered this last one, so that seems the simplest way to review hand histories. Then I can delete the boring ones and post the others here.

Here I’m allowing a 26/19 with Cbet of 80 and aggression frequency of 47% to bet into me. The flop is not drawy, and if doesn’t keep betting I will bet. The turn and river make it more possible that he has me beat so I just keep calling.

An 87/12 who has stacked up by limp/check shoving top two pair and then limp/shoving AA. He folds 70% to cbets. He hasn’t show a tendency to bluff-shove. At the time I couldn’t remember if I bet the turn because I had another hand going on.

Not sure what to do with AJs with a tight short stack. The board gets worse and worse, but more in favor of my range since he’s tight and I called his raise. But if he has overcards I don’t think he’s folding either and I have a bluff catcher if he had AK/AQ.

Same loose player from earlier, but this is an earlier hand. Full sized preflop raise and larger than normal flop bet because I expect to be called and I want to get value. But loose players are much more likely to hold suited cards and chase flushes/straights. I could have bet the river for value as he’s checked the 3 flush and a 9 is only a small part of his possible holdings, plus he hasn’t shown the inclination to check-raise as a bluff yet.

Not much to say on this one, I think.

I’ve done little 3betting or 4 betting in this session or in the earlier ones. Here blind 3bets 9% over steal attempts, 8% in general, and steals himself 37%. And he’s close to full stacked. I think these are indications that I can fold a large part of his 3 betting range in this situation.

And a successful float of a relative unknown; 0/0 over 6 hands at this point, but full stacked.

Now, I will do the same thing in his situation. I c-bet almost every flop unless there is more than one opponent, fire bigger when I have a hand than when I don’t, but shut down after firing one barrel unless I have reads that make it worth firing a second barrel. This is very exploitable, but due to Black Friday and my lack of playing, most players have very few stats on me. Firing only one bullet is my default action after raising preflop and missing the flop/turn but unless I see hyper-aggro stats or very clear TAG stats indicating a thinking player I think this is fine against 90% of the players that I see.

For the last 3 days I’ve got myself to play 200 hands a session at $25nl. So far 649 hands, 3 sessions, 18.2/13.6, 3B 1.1, W$SD 47.1, Steal 41.9

My early PFR is a surprising 13.6, while the button PFR 55.2, in keeping with the steal percentage. I’m marginally winning at all positions with a flop c-bet 86.4, turn C-Bet 83.3.

This hand I didn’t even realize until now that this was opened from early position. I though I was flatting a LAGgy player in mid position and a short stack with a call from the blinds. Generally this should be a 3 bet preflop.

Here I should donk the flop, but I think because I donk so rarely I talked myself out of it.

Poor call from the blinds with a less than full stack of a 3 bet, and not a particularly good call of the turn bet with a 3 looking for a four flush. Probably should have been a shove by me preflop but this is full ring. The 3 bettor has 3 bet once before out of 10 opportunities so maybe his range is wide.

Next hand I’m getting three streets of value from a likely weak player. Only 4 hands of history but I’m basing this read on his stack size and his passive calling. I almost didn’t bet the river and I think that stems from playing better players. It’s a little thin value, but not that much.

This guy has 3 bet me twice already, and 15% on 26 opportunties to 3 bet. I’m finding a few 3 betting maniacs from otherwise TAG stat players. I thought this was just in Rush Poker, but this is at Stars so it must be a general trend.

I’m not sure what the best way to get value here is. He’s a 17/5 over 126 hands; what’s he calling with?

So if I can keep myself getting 200 hands in per day I’ll try to keep this up for a while. I really do feel out of shape; I haven’t played much ring in a couple of months and I can feel the out-of-synchness.

Review of the biggest losing hands in my mass multi tabling venture. Some 4 or 5K hands at this point.

First one is gross. I’ve been playing with undersizing my raises of limpers at $10 and $25 thinking that I can at least get the blinds and other players not to be in the pot, and save money when the limper(s) call and I miss the flop since these players also tend not to be able to fold postflop.

First gross spot is when I get 3 bet tiny and a blind and the limper call. Now I can’t fold. Then the four way flop comes Ace high. Ugh. Then the limper shoves his small stack. Ugh. So I raise, being willing to take on a shortstack who open limps/calls preflop on this flop, but the blind check-raises. Ugh.

This one preflop I should isoraise the player who bought in early, but again it’s a recent fear of 1) playing out of position and 2) iso-raising then c-betting against players who don’t fold enough postflop so I play passively. Post flop I don’t have to stack off but its a matter of determining whether this is a player who can’t give up postflop or whether he actually has something. In other words I mostly have a bluff-catcher, but is he bluffing? Since PokerStars left the US market I’ve played more Euros and it is harder to make this determination because the Euro player pool seems to have a higher percentage of players who are more aggressive pre and post flop.

This one I think is fine. The only other option is to check/shove the flop in order to get the money in while I’m ahead. On the turn and river there’s too many lower straights, straight and flush draws and pairs with draws that are in his range to give up.

Next is just a sigh. This is the kind of crap that players limp/call/chase with. I raise the flop donk because half the time this is just a test, and when the 3 flush fills I have the King of the suit so I’ve probably still got equity, though probably no fold equity.

This one I’m not sure. 3bettor I remember as being close to nit stats but the 4 bettor being loose. Obviously the raise is fine, but is there too much indication that I’m not up against AK/JJ? Probably. Neither player is laggy or a total idiot.

Preflop could be a 3 bet or a flat, especially depending on the player’s stats, which I don’t remember. Flop bet is okay, check/calling small bets after the Ace comes is okay too, I think.

At $10 you see a lot more idiots who open limp AA from early. On the other hand you also see a lot of idiots who open limp AT or K9s from early, and then try to represent limped AA. Reads are important and I don’t remember this guy’s stats at all so that’s no help in reviewing.

Another sigh. The river shove is either a flush or a bluff; “he can’t call this if he doesn’t have a flush” thinking. Again the hand quality is brilliant.

Here we get the slowplayed version of the open limp with AA …

And outdrawn on the river after being ahead and betting all the way.

I think the thinking on this hand stems from apparent random raises that I seem to get both preflop and on flops. I don’t quite understand the check/raise with a low top pair but maybe it folds unpaired overcards.

Not much to say here, though I guess I could check the river. A busted draw isn’t calling but I was putting him on any random Ace as much as anything else.

Shortstack nit; if he has AK in his range this is fine.

~

If I just look at the losing hands there’s too many hero calls when I’m behind. That’s combined with too many bad chases/calls by my opponents that eventually get there which put me into some of those situations.

There’s a general belief that at these levels you can fold to aggression because they will have it when they bet or raise. Maybe I’ve been playing too much Rush Poker, or maybe I’m overreacting to the switch in player base to Euros which has populated the player pool with a higher percentage of maniac/LAGs, or maybe it’s just frustration setting in. Or maybe I don’t remember how to play $10nl FR.

I’m giving mass-tabling $10nl a go, just for fun. First session I spent a lot of time trying different layouts and table sizes. The smallest size is just too small to see easily and if I use something slightly larger then I have to go to some form of overlap.

Right now I’m opting for a forced cascade; since my default monitor is the laptop rather than the 23″ the default cascade doesn’t work. I’ve now got it set for two streams of cascades with eight tables per stream, so sixteen tables in all. I can still pull out one or two at a time if I have a hand that I want to watch, and having the corners of each table still visible allows me to find each one if I want to view the last hand on that table or to make sure that I haven’t timed out.

I’m not playing great; first session with only 12 tables I was up a bit, but the second with 16 I was down enough to more than offset it. I’m definitely going to lose some bb/100 because I don’t see any action so I have to play ABC poker with the help of HUD stats, but at least it’s interesting, which is more important than anything else these days poker-wise.

It had to happen sometime. Session 5, negative $1.87 for the session. That’s nice in that it breaks the streak of up sessions ’cause that always puts pressure on me. EV plus still at $14.27.  19.7/15.9 over 394 hands playing 3-5 tables.

Lost 44 bbs early raising a 40 bb stack who open limped from early and calls when I raise to 5 bbs from the small blind. I bet a T92 2 tone flop, he raised, I minraised because he’s bad and almost in anyway, he shoved, his JT, but he rivers a J to beat my AA. That’s a large part of my being under EV for the session.

Lost 20 bbs raising KJ from HJ, called by a 44/7 in the big blind. Cbet a Q high flop and he min-raises. I hate min-raises from bad players. I say this over an over again because a decent player does this for a calculated reason, bad players do it because that’s what they always do when they bluff, or only when they have a strong hand, or only when they have a draw. It’s just a very polarizing action by bad players, and you have to figure out which version of bad player you’re up against; the one that does this to bluff, the one that does this to get value, or the one that does this to semibluff. Anyway, at this point I don’t have postflop history so I call. 3 turn goes check/check, Q river he checks so I bet 60% pot and he calls, with AA. With two pair on the board I should have just checked as any Ace will call looking for a chop, but because of his mincheckraise on the flop and then no action after that I took a shot thinking he might fold after I called flop if he’s the “minraise bluffer” type. Turns out he’s the “minraise for value” type.

Lost 12 bbs completing Q8s after a middle limper, then betting the 844 2 tone flop, turn and check/calling a small river bet when the big blind had 46.

Lost 12bbs calling 99 in the blinds after a raise and a call. Flop is 625 2 tone, OR checks, caller bets 2 bbs so I raise not wanting to give the flush draw too good of odds. OR folds, other player calls and we check down a 7 giving a 3 flush, and a 3 river. I lose to his JJ. I could have been check/raising a set on the flop so I can see why he doesn’t bet later streets, but why the 2 bb bet on the flop into a 10 bb pot?

Made 45 bbs with AQ on a J95, T, K board betting all three streets and beating AJ. I don’t normally bet the turn at these stakes without a decent hand but because I picked up the OESD on the turn I kept betting.

Made 17 bbs raising AA and getting three callers. Small blind bets out 8 bbs into a 12 bb pot on a 823 2 tone flop into three, I raise, and everyone folds. I have no idea what this guy holds that causes him to donk into three others on this flop; a flush draw should check/raise or check/call depending on his read on the opponents. Maybe 99/TT seeing where he’s at?
One successful float; 3c7dJc flop 23/20 villain c-bets 60% pot and again on a 4s turn, I raise and he folds. I don’t do enough of this yet at these stakes. Not the best board but I was doing this more guessing at villain’s style.

I don’t know if I’m ever going to increase the number of tables much. At the time of day that I can play there aren’t a lot of tables over 30% VPIP unless they’re short. If I get on a short table and we get active, the table fills up pretty quick with regs, or reg-wannabes who buy in full.

One thing that I may try is to mass-table $10nl just for fun. Start with 12 and see if I can take it up to 18 or 20. With the $200 redeposit, $73 left from my original bankroll plus winnings to date of over $100 the bankroll is up to $400 so it’s enough to mass table $10nl.

240 hands or so (I’m still on one with the only remaining fish). 20.2/15.5, 48.50 bb/100, plus $35.14 which is pretty much my EV for the session as well.

Lost 18 bbs raising 78s c-betting a 655. 8 on the turn and I check/called. I probably should have check/raised. I was afraid to just bet out, being afraid that hands like 99/TT/JJ might raise. I turned out that the guy, who had standard stats, was attempting a float with KJo (not a hand I like to call with) and then gets lucky on the river when a J comes and we check it down. Against a better player I’m betting or check/raising, but it depends how often this player is betting as a bluff and how often he’ll pay me off if I fill the straight. Because I picked up showdown value I just opted to call the turn bet.

Also lost 17.8 bbs calling down a JJ2 two tone, 8, 6. He bet three streets and I’m still not sure whether three streets means an overpair or trying to fold a flush draw with nothing, or an under pair like TT/99.  Also lost a few bbs bet/folding, on a AQ3 two tone and later on a K96 mono board, both three way and in position.

Made a huge suckout raising QTo from late. The problem was that the opponent was really bad and so I didn’t give his check/raise flop or small turn bet much value, and, my hand kept improving when it went K67, J, A. He bet out on the river, I shoved and he called, with AK. I would have given his flop check/raise respect if he wasn’t so bad, and my hand kept improving….

Made a few bbs with QQ on a drawy board against a fish who called with a gutshot, bet his gutshot with 4 card flush draw and then bet small again when he rivered a J, and again with JJ when I bet my OESD on the flop and he chased his gutshot again and bluffed the river small. I didn’t get full value from his lack of playing ability but both hands were vulnerable because of the board and I wasn’t overly confident in the stats.

So, after depositing $200 to chase maybe $50 of bonus I haven’t played enough to earn any. Only 1,031 hands but I’m already up like $124 from playing.

(Thought that I posted this three days ago when it was current. Guess not.)

378 hands, 14.9/12.0,+$11.36 but +EV$23.66, bb/100 of 11.96 so down quite a bit from the ridiculous heights of the first day. Still, up almost $90 in three sessions of $25nl.

Biggest loss, shoving AK over a 40bb SS who 3 bet me the first time he was in the blinds. He had JJ and I missed, but I only saw him a total of 6 hands (left the table immediately after doubling  up against me). And the other, shoving over a minraise from a bad player who just lost a big hand and min raised. KQ is good, but it’s better to have an Ace or a pair. Both his A8o and my KQ missed and he doubled his 28 bbs.

Then I called two streets w/55 on a KJx board against what looked to be a very LAGgy player. He had AJ, but I saw him later on other tables and his stats were way down, 14/14 now over 114 hands, so those early stats were really deceiving.

Also gave up 12 bbs raising an EP limp and c-betting a Q42 flop and he won with Q8s, and 10 bbs with TT on a 9J5,7,5 board where he calls from the BB with A5s, calls the flop with bottom pair, and bets small on the river with trips. The 7 on the turn gave a 3 flush and me a 4 flush draw.

Stacked a 60 bb SB when he called with A9 and slowplayed top/bottom pair to the river, except I had top two pair all the way, and got a donkey LAG to give me his remaining 53 bbs with his AT against my KK. And took a 40 bb stack when he check/called his JJ on a JTx, didn’t bet after I checked the turn, and shoved over my bet on a K river, when I had the straight with AQ.