Session 6

by PokerAnon ~ July 9th, 2011

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.

Session 4

by PokerAnon ~ July 7th, 2011

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.

Starting again

by PokerAnon ~ July 6th, 2011

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.

Mass tabling hand review

by PokerAnon ~ May 19th, 2011

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.

Session 6 & 7

by PokerAnon ~ May 15th, 2011

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.

Session 5

by PokerAnon ~ May 13th, 2011

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.

Session 4

by PokerAnon ~ May 11th, 2011

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.

Day 2

by PokerAnon ~ May 10th, 2011

(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.

Back in the saddle again

by PokerAnon ~ May 7th, 2011

I convinced myself to make the redeposit on Stars. I can’t resist the 50% bonus and I think that I can play enough, even on the reduced player base and bad time zone, to make it worthwhile to grind $25nl.

So I deposted $200 of the money that I cashed out of Tilt and started up five tables of $25nl FR. The fifth table I keep off to the side on the other screen and it’s kind of a backup in case one of the other four are bad or die off. In this case the fifth one is the one that died off.

But one of the things that I want to do is to review my hands. For the past month I’ve been playing ultramicro stakes and tiny buyin Rush tournaments and not bothering. I started to feel as if I’m glossing over too many bad plays on my part because of the stakes so I made a video of $25nl FR Rush the other night and picked up a couple spew hands on top of being sucked out on (KK vrs QQ all in on a low flop, Q river, flopped trips multiway on a Q high flop, Q turn and all in against QK, K river out boating my boat).

But it’s easier when you run good. 200 hands only, but bb/100 of 84.34, plus $42.17, playing 18.6/11.6 with a 3 bet of 5.9.  Flopped sets twice, turned a set after a checked flop once and KK held up over JJ once. Lost 8 bbs when I chose to flat AKs from the SB because I had already 3bet from the SB once before at this table, called a QQ2 flop and folded to the turn bet.

Also had a misplay not seeing UTG openlimp so I only raised 3x with 76o on the button and had the BB and UTG call. I’ve been fooling around with undersized iso-raises at the 0.01/0.02 stakes and $10 Rush games that I’ve been playing during the last month. These seem practical when I don’t expect the limper to fold but I can still have a good chance of at least getting the blinds to fold and getting the limper to be aware that I’m claiming to have a hand. Still, I like to do this with broadways or medium pairs and not 76o. It was supposed to be a steal attempt but I missed the UTG limper. Anyway, A73 flop, made a 45% pot sized bet and was CR by the BB, who has an aggression % of 50 after 21 hands. This is an awkward spot. I have a hand with some showdown value, but I could already be way behind or, especially with two callers, easily outdrawn. I think the worst play is the undersized c-bet, then next worst the missed limper/undersized raise, and the fold and decision to c-bet in the first place both kind of close.

~ ~ ~

Took a break, came back and played three tables while watching an episode of Criminal Minds. Another 200 hands, 16.8/14.1, plus another $35.57. Started off good with AJ raising a 88/38 limper and his friend. Limper just stacked off his 36 bbs from the BB calling an EP raise with T2o and then EP either slowrolled his KK or was actually afraid of a flopped straight. Turn gave another T and T2 stacked off and rebought for 65 bbs. Against my iso-raise he 4 bets my raise and I shove, holding over his K9s.

Then another funny one with a bad play by me. EP I raise 99, get three callers, flop is K55 2 tone, 30 bb stack bets 3 bbs into 13 and I CR. He calls, turn is a Q and I put him all in. Bad play; by far his most likly holding is some kind of K. He tanks and calls, his JT with a FD and now combo but he misses. Awful turn play, but he was short.

Then there’s another funny one where I Call a EP raise from a LAG, button calls as does a blind. Flop is T8x and gets two checks so I bet, getting called behind. Turn is a 7 so I think I have two pair with my 87, but it turns out that I had 75s! so I check turn. River is another 7 so I bet, getting called by AJ? I mean, my hand was a fluke, but why call both the flop and the river with Ace high?

I get two streets of value from a LAG with KJ who donk/calls both my flop and turn raises on a QT6 2 tone, 4 board. We check a Q river and my KK is good.

Tough situation, I complete from SB when there are two limpers and the flop comes A55. I bet two streets and the BB calls, then bets the river when I check and of course he as a 5. 3bet AT against a player who now has only a 20% steal; I think it was higher earlier. JJ3 2tone flop, he raises my bet but he’s short so I just give up. I raise KJs and a 16/14 who hasn’t 3bet in 50 hands 3 bets from the blind. Low flop goes ch/ch, he bets an Ace turn and I fold. He had 60 bbs so I didn’t see much point in doing too much.

~ ~ ~

So so far I’m running awfully good. Even EV is plus $53 and I’m above that. But because it’s only $25nl I’m not covering much of the ground for the bonus.

 

Time to grind up a roll again?

by PokerAnon ~ April 22nd, 2011

Today being a holiday I thought I’d finally give the ring games a go since I can play earlier and there might be more action with European players on. So I start up Stars, find that there are a few high VPIP $50 tables and I try to get on four. And then I’m caught by surprise as Stars tells me that I don’t have sufficent funds to buy in for my default full amount on the fourth table.

That’s when I remember that I’d cashed out almost my full acount balance so I only had $170 or something left. 🙂 Ooops. So I sat at just three for a while, losing $20 to a short stack that called my QQ with 97 and flopped trip 9s, and then losing a full stack to a LAG with my AK and he had AA. Then I had 0.01 in not on the tables and couldn’t rebuy.

So I got off the two remaing tables, and now I guess I take my remaining $93 and stick with $25 tables. It’ll be a loooong grind if I want to get some bankroll to play $50 again.

Black Friday aftermath

by PokerAnon ~ April 19th, 2011

I don’t know where I’m going from here. In reality I’m not affected to a great degree. I’m not in the US so I can still play on both Stars and Tilt. I’ve even requested a cashout of most of my Stars account, via mail rather than courier because I’m never home to receive a couriered item. This meant that my cashout had to be less than $1,000 which means that I’m leaving more in my account than I wanted. Atm I have close to $200 still there and likely have some coming back at some point from a pooled staking arrangement. I’ll have to wait for it to arrive, but I have previous positive experience to base some hope on.

Tilt is more of an issue. Atm Tilt displays a withdrawal screen but none of the options work for me. My roll there is not very big but I’d still like to get most of it out. Just have to sit and wait, but still it’s a much better situation than my US friends.

So in theory all that needs change is that I play against a smaller player pool. But that’s not the way I’m reacting. By pulling out a large portion of my bankrolls I’m restricting my playing. Obviously with $200 I can’t play $100 tables anymore. I don’t know if I can even play more than 4 tables of $25nl anymore. Bankroll management shifts to gambling; the money that I have online I don’t want to lose, but at the same time it’s so small that the 20-1 or 30-1 rules don’t apply.

On demand-Muti-entry-Rush-Turbo tournaments

by PokerAnon ~ April 14th, 2011

Last night I discovered the “On Demand” Rush Multi-Entry tournaments on Full Tilt. On Demand meaning, I guess, the same as a Sit and Go; there’s as many as seem to be wanted. When I found them I looked at the $1.10 tournaments and there were always 3 in the process of registering/seating. Mulit-Entry being Tilt’s thing allowing you to register up to four times in the same tournament, and Rush meaning, well, Rush Poker. And it’s a Turbo.

Months ago I’d been dicking around playing the Big-Little Tournament freerolls which were Rush tournaments. When you fold the first hand there is a delay before you get a new table, I guess because so many people are slow folding their first hand, or maybe the software waits until all players have made the choice whether or not the play the first hand? Anyway, after that there aren’t too many delays, and the same thing happens here. As always in a Rush tournament you constantly try to fold crap as fast as you can so that you can get as many good hands as possible. Fold the marginal stealing hands from late position because if some idiot in mid position can’t decide you probably miss two more potential hands while waiting to steal with you K5s from the button, and especially if you’re going to fold that hand if that slowpoke decides to raise. If you wait at a normal Rush table all you cost yourself is some time or a couple hands = maybe a few bbs. If you wait in a Rush tournament those few bbs may be important later on when you double up and then double up again. At a Rush cash table it’s only going to matter if you double up against someone who is deep.

But wow these $1.10 ones play bad. Almost mid-tourney, not even early anymore, and I’ve been chipped down. I see an open limp from early, another player calls. I shove my 4bb AJ , there’s a late position call, one of the blinds shoves 20 bbs, first limper calls off his 15 bbs, limper just ahead of me folds but late position calls. Four of us are all-in preflop. I don’t remember what anyone else had, but the first limper with 15bbs had 84s. You open limp 84s from early position and then call off your stack to see a four way flop? Yuck. That’s just ugly. Fortunately an 8 came on the flop and the rest of us missed so that player will continue to think that his play was good.

In my second entry same tourney I had AA and 30 bbs on the button. I raise to 3x called by SB who has 40 bbs. Flop is 9 high, pot is 7 bbs and he pots it, I shove my 25 or so bbs over top and he calls, his J9?

These are truly almost as badly played as the Big-Little Rush freerolls that I played. I guess that’s the thing; I shouldn’t really expect any tournament with a buyin less than $5 on any site to play even decently. I assume that’s the reason that my ROI in the $2-180s on PokerStars is so high when I don’t pay attention until I get close to 10 bbs. Unfortunately it looks is if I may have found something new on Full Tilt to get addicted to.

I really wish Stars would be as innovative in their game development as Full Tilt because I really prefer to play on Stars. Are you listening, PokerStars?

Almost breakeven session

by PokerAnon ~ April 13th, 2011

First part of Take 2 completed, $5 earned. It’s hard to tell whether I’m playing well or not though.I’m jumping between $10nl FR and $25nl FR, plus it requires very few hands per day so I’m not getting much volume in.

But I managed to get a solid hour in of 5 tables of $50nl FR on Stars for the first time in almost two weeks. The fifth table was an add-on in case one of the other table seemed bad or broke up but neither happened so I just stayed on 5 instead of 4 as I had intended. Somewhere around 300 hands total.

Lost one stack with AKs from the hijack, flatted from the button and squeezed by a blind. We got in preflop and he had JJ and picked up a set against my two pair. Later my JJ in the small blind cost me another stack against the big blind’s KK.

Later raised AA from UTG and felt that I had to cbet when I flopped a set and the other cards were 87 and the flop was two tone but the player folded. Flatted a minraise from the SB with 97 in the BB and flopped a straight. Called the flop and should have raised the Ace turn that he bet. If he has an Ace he’ll put more money in, but when I just call the turn as well he’s probably done on any river. In other words, if he has an Ace then I should start building the pot on the turn. If he doesn’t have an Ace I’m not increasing his betting/calling range by waiting for the river.

Ran into a 3 bet from the blinds monkey. Over 100 hands at the start, steal percentage of 100%, 3 bet from the blinds of over 30% but otherwise TAG stats. First time I folded, second time I flatted 97s and folded the turn after he bet the second street and there were overcards, third time I 4bet A6o and he folded. Made a couple of other decent 3 bets with hands with blockers as well as a couple QQ  hands that took pots down preflop.

Finally I get KK in the CO. 60bb button min-3bets, BB 4bet-squeezes. I don’t want to lose the LAGish 60bb so I opt to just flat. 60bb co-operates by shoving, and the BB oddly flats so I shove and he calls. My KK against the 60bb’s TT against the BB’s JJ and the flop comes KQQ. Yay; I manage to crawl back to -0.47 overall for the session.

Take 2, again

by PokerAnon ~ April 11th, 2011

So much for my project of getting hands at $50nl FR.

After running badly at the start I shifted to Rush Poker to try to re-establish some discipline. I’ve even gone to using the program Always on Top to cover my stack size to get me to focus on just playing well. I used the program with the instructional video that I did for my beginners poker book and it helps because after playing for a while I start to get anxious to get my stack size increasing. Since I auto-rebuy to the max I know that I’m always at least full and the only time that I need to know my stack size is if I’m against someone who is deep and I need to know how deep I am to check the implied odds, either if I’m calling a raise and my range needs to widen if we’re deep, or if I’m called, or if I have the option to flat or 3 bet with a big hand. If we’re both deep I need to be aware of the implied odds that I might be giving off as well as the odds that I’m being offered.

Anyway, I’m still at Rush because I’m not happy with my ability to maintain discipline in my play. Too much ego still in play causing me to want to call when I don’t like the play of my opponent or to try to make plays against opponents who don’t show the stats to indicate that they can think.

Now Tilt has started another small stakes Take 2 program so I might as well stick there to finish off the promo and collect the $25 which will take until the end of this week.

If I don’t get back on Stars and grinding again I’ll lose Silverstar status again, not that I ever make much of it when I do have it. But right now I’ve got attitude issues which have me watching a lot of movies, avoiding people, being bored, playing a cheap tournament or one table of Rush while watching a movie and not doing much else. I’m in a doldrum in real life, and my poker playing reflects it.

Session Two: 408

by PokerAnon ~ April 1st, 2011

This one took almost twice as long, since I was watching a video I only played two tables.

This is what happens when you run bad.

That’s it for big hands, all losses. Sucked out on, then sucked out on again, then set mined and I tried to bet for thin value on the river and couldn’t fold to the minraise.

Again my EV is negative, but not as low as my losses. Total loses of $100.05 over those 400 hands. On top of which I was 3 bet three times by players who hadn’t shown any aggression, leading me to be pretty sure that I was behind, leading me to believe that I was really running badly.

Session One: 204

by PokerAnon ~ March 31st, 2011

First session.

I’ve seen this guy at $100nl back when I was taking a one buyin shot. Back then I was only playing one table at a time and watching and checking each player pretty carefully. He’s showing as 36/16/20 over just a few hands.

I take a risk, hoping to keep the fish in the hand, but it’s a risk. When another player comes along, I’m in trouble ’cause the pot is big and I have only an overpair. Post flop the problem is that I know that he could easily be overvaluing KQ/QJ, even AQ here so I call.


 

He promptly leaves.

But I run into him again at another table after he’s rebought half stacked again.

In this situation, against a better player I might only go for two streets of value. But I know better aganst him.


 
And he leaves again.

Next hand this player has looked bad/laggy, running 29/29 over just 20 hands or so. I don’t really think his small preflop limp/raise means AA/KK.


 
The replayer is doing something strange here. I don’t think Player 1 bet $3 before me and then folded, so I don’t know where that comes from, meaning the pot size is being calculated wrong too. And I don’t remember the 3 bet going to $6; it might have been a $3 raise from my $2 to $5.

Apparently I missed some value on the river against his actual hand. I didn’t entirely write off AA/KK/QQ or AQ/KQ from his range though, though the 1/4 pot bet on the turn is an indicator of him giving up.

There are two betting tells to note here; one is the micro stakes tendency of bad players to min-raise medim pairs or suited Aces (or in this case, to 3-bet small, though with his stack size his raise is reasonable but at the same time doesn’t make sense since a player like this, meaning playing short and overly aggressive, likely shoves AA/KK/AK/QQ over my raise when he only starts the hand with 60 bbs. I expect medium pairs and suited Aces with limp/raises as here as well as when I see min-3bets in position or from the blinds), and the other is the turn bet sizing which indicates losing enthusiasm for their hand.

Last interesting hand. Table is breaking up, new players are coming on but they are sitting out yet so we’re playing short. Villian is somewhat aggressive, 21/14 with a 38% postflop aggression percentage. I suspect that his flop checkraise doesn’t mean anything. I have the option of 3-betting him now, or waiting to see what happens on the turn. When he checks the turn most of the time he’s giving up so I “bet for value”, making it easy for him to give up on his “badly timed check-raise bluff”.
 

It was difficult to make 200 hands. The tables kept breaking up and a lot of them were pretty nitty. Ran 13.6/10.6 so I was running pretty nitty myself. Down some $16 or so net so I guess I broke even after starting off by losing $40 and only getting $25 back from him on the other table.



New project?

by PokerAnon ~ March 30th, 2011

Projects work well for me. That’s something that I’ve known for a long time.

The most recent one was to collect a $25 redeposit bonus on Stars. Before that the project was to earn enough FTP points for one week of CardRunners. Both were targets that I might be able achieve in two weeks of regular playing but had the flexibility to spread out and take up to a month if need be. Both had fixed numerical goals to measure and track myself. Both had carrots dangled in front of me by outside sources.

Other successful projects in the past include the completion of my first deposit bonus and a couple of sit and go projects, first practicing raise/fold/no call at play money tables and then looking for an ROI at the $2 SnGs. The two longest projects that I can recall are the original deposit bonus and then the grind of trying to add more tables to my game where I started back at $10nl trying to add more and more tables and eventually moving up as far as $50nl over a period of a few months. Some other short ones came from other deposit bonuses or a couple Full Tilt Take Two promotions.

Some failed projects include the 6 x 6 on 4 rampage and some single buyin shots at higher stakes. Those ones failed in the sense that they never generated a lot of enthusiasm or playing time. My single buyin shot at $100nl FR for example never got beyond a couple thousand hands and I did not manage to 1) lose $100 or 2) get comfortable and stick with $100nl. I did get comfortable enough that I will pull up $100nl FR tables once in a while so it wasn’t a waste of time but I’ve still never moved beyond a few dollars negative (and still at almost a full buyin positive EV!) at that level. And I know that there are a number of other projects that don’t come to mind atm.

So here’s the start of another project. The goal of this one: to play 2,500 hands of $50nl FR during the next 30 days. I came up with that number by assuming 50 hands/hour x 4 tables and 3-1 hour sessions per week as reasonable and then rounded the month to 30 days and the hands to 2,500. No monetary goals, no FPP goals, only a total number of hands target in a reasonable amount of time. Back in the days of the first deposit bonus I played a one hour session virtually every day. Now I’m only expecting 3 sessions per week because the newness of the poker game has long worn off plus I work later which has a large affect on my ability to clear time to play in the evenings.

The objective? Besides getting me to play more often and to focus at one level for a while I want to start accumulating enough hands to evaluate my game at levels other than just $25nl. My $50nl bb/100 in something ridiculous right now but that’s over a few thousand hands played over a wide period of time in varying circumstances (mixed $50 and $25 tables, mixed $50 and $100 tables, mixed with tournaments on the side). Even 2,500 is not much, but it’d be a start. That’s assuming that the project even gets off the ground, as some have died in infancy.

Update

by PokerAnon ~ March 29th, 2011

Just wanted to muck around last night. Found one $50nl table that looked promising but I trapped myself first hand not raising AT after the button limped and the SB completed. Flop came Ace high and I check/called, turn is a 5 and check/called, river is a brick and I check/called, losing to his 55 that turned a set. Someday I need to look at my 3 bet/raise options and see the ones that I called and compare the winnings to the losings. I feel like I trap myself too often. I think I’m better in the situations where I raised preflop but give up the initiative to the other player postflop, either because 1) he raises or 2) because I’m trying to induce bets/later calls or 3) I’m trying to keep the pot small (raise QQ from the SB, limper calls, I check/snap-call an Ace high flop, turn/river go check/check and limper had A5s which actually hit two pair on the river and he still didn’t bet again).

Also had two players on two different tables 3 betting me a lot. On the $50 table I never got a situation that I was comfortable with either flatting or 4 betting. On the $25 table I opted to 4 bet the 80 bb stack and he flats in position. I bet $7 into a $12 pot making the pot $19 but he only has $14 left in his stack. Pretty absurd situation, regardless of the pocket cards or the flop. It turned out that he had AQo, the flop was Q76 or something like that, and I had 97s or something like that for middle pair and some backdoor draws. I ended up hitting a second pair which annoyed him, but why he’s flatting AQo to a 4 bet I dunno either.

~

But the previous session completed my small redeposit bonus for $25 that had been limited by my limit on the Echeck first transaction. So I got that bonus while making $138 or something ridiculous like that at the cash tables. I’m running good, but at the same time it’s just the way things are; I make money playing poker. I just can’t always get myself to do so. And then the session last night finished SilverStar for me for the first time this year.

Sometimes, it’s a struggle

by PokerAnon ~ March 28th, 2011

Sometimes, it’s a struggle.

Early Sunday evening, I decided that I want to play some poker. I sign up for a $2.20 180 turbo that are very easy to play; normally I don’t pay any attention until the blinds get to 50/100 or so. Then I realize that I have just over 210 FPPs so I can play my fav satellite to the 1/4 Million so I register for that. But at this time of day they fill slowly so I go look for some cash tables.

I find one pretty good looking $50nl table with some loose half stack players. I sit, and then also open a couple looser $25nl tables. Then things get a liitle complicated. I guess playing one $2.20 180 turbo, one 20 player satty MTT plus mixed cash games is a little complicated, or at least a little more challenging for my brain to keep track of all these.

I caught a few situations on the $25nl tables and was after a couple of fish on the $50nl table. I wasn’t the only one hunting though. I had position on both fish which was great, but one kept managing to run in God mode on me. Second hand below the table is changing over some players and it’s short so I open suited connectors. Flop bet is probably bad, but I had it in my head that he has to be able to fold to flop bets sometimes. Not good thinking on my part. On the river I’m thinking that the only way of winning is to bet, but again I’m against a fish and not a reasonable player so I shouldn’t be betting, and it takes me until he shoves to realize it.

 

Note the quality hands he’s playing, as a part of his 65% VPIP.

Then I get Kings and the fish above plus the other fish both in the same hand.

He was pretty ticked at being counterfeited. But fortunately he rebought since I had only managed to recover about what I’d lost to him earlier. So when he limps again a few hands later, I raise. He decides to re-raise, so I just shove.

Then he decided to leave the table, so I did too.

I did a poor job of adjusting to him post-flop. One of his advantages is that because he plays so many hands postflop he has lots of experience playing postflop. He was pretty good at disguising his hands with a wide range of bet sizes, though because I had five other tables going I didn’t see all of the action. And tighter players, and especially ones paying attention, start salivating at the chance to get a hand against players like this and can overplay marginal hands like top pair or overpairs (though, in my defense the board was pretty dry in the KK hand other than a flush draw, meaning if he’s a good player he has me beat except with a flush draw, but a bad player could have a wide range of one pair combinations and smaller percentage of sets/draws). In other words we can get impatient to get in against him but he can be more patient because he plays so many hands. He did give some indication of being able to evaluate his own hand strength postflop and to play on my and other player’s aggression to his min-bets or checks.

I only got to 20th in the 180, but I did manage to survive the 210 FPP to the 6 player bubble and to earn another $11 in T$. I don’t normally accumulate to over $20 T$ ’cause I use them as fast or faster than I earn them.

Running badly, then down $ 0.03

by PokerAnon ~ March 26th, 2011

PokerStars was running a special for their umpteeth billion hand, so instead of playing $50 or $100nl I opted to take a run at playing 10 tables of $25nl FR so that I’m on more tables at the same time. I still needed to finish my redeposit bonus as well so I though that this would help accomplish both.

KK wasn’t working for me though. In both situations I’m fairly certain that I’m up against AA, but I rarely fold KK preflop unless I’m really convinced. In these cases I didn’t have enough hands to have a good read so I couldn’t be sure enough to fold.

And one with AK against a less-than full stack.

I should check, but I think 75% of the time I re-raise with AK. Sometimes I’ll just flat with it though, normally when I’m not sure about my opponent’s range, or when I think I’m well ahead of my opponent’s range and I might chase out too many hands that I beat, or when there’s a chance that I’ll keep a fish in the pot. Sometimes it doesn’t work out though.

So a session down just over 2 buyins; $53.78 over 688 hands, though my EV was only minus $30.75. But, it’s offset by the next session of 10 tabling, up $53.75 so only down $ 0.03. And EV of $ 53.75.

The problem with this next hand from the next session is that this guy just sat in. His first hand, no stats or reads, and he didn’t buy in full but 3 bets my raise from early position. KQs is dangerous because it’s dominated by AK/AQ/KK, but because I’ll have position and for all I know he may be a 3betting monkey I decide to flat.

Here is one of those really limpy tables that happen when I allow myself to sit at at Pot Limit table and so I call behind because I don’t expect to be raised off my limp. I could have bet the river bigger but he obliges me by check-raising. On the slim chance that he’s limped AK or K9 I just call.

Next was an early hand, but this player has been one of those players that limp every hand and then bet/bet/bet postflop. On the river I don’t want him to just check behind so I bet out small and like the other guy he obliges by raising. I’ve got a crappy flush so I don’t put him in.

And one against a similar player. This guy is 60/35, and still has a 38% postflop bet frequency! If you don’t know, a LAG that plays a lot of hands should have a relatively lower postflop bet frequency because he often has crap, whereas a nit should have a high postflop bet frequecy because he always has a hand postflop.

Raising pre has merit but another passive player (20/3) has already indicated that he wants to play and I’m not sure where I stand against him. On the flop I’m happy when he folds to the bad player’s bet and I’m happy to call down.

This one I was rather proud of my opponent for some reason. I have over 300 hands on him and have him as a decent TAG.

If he bets the river big I probably fold as I probably try to raise a 9 somewhere along the way and I think that he knows it. But for some weird reason I was proud that he was capable of firing two barrels. Go figure.

I still have a few more VPPs to go to clear the last of the redeposit bonus though but because it’s so small I’ve still got almost two weeks to finish.

Update

by PokerAnon ~ March 17th, 2011

Update, to update.

I wanted to make a $200 redeposit on Stars to make a $50 bonus (1,000 VPPs in 30 days) available. But once again I couldn’t get a credit card to work so I tried Echecks. It worked, but I could only deposit $100 with my first use of Echecks so I end up with only a $25 bonus requiring 500 VPPs in 30 days. Extra Bonus: no charge from the bank for the transfer, so it’s cheaper than credit card anyway because credit cards charge cash advance fees.

The bonus is a good motivator. I really wish Stars would have these redeposit bonuses much more often, even if we only get 30 days to clear.  I need a reason to play, and a small target like VPPs is good.

Five, maybe six sessions in ten days or so and I’m 2/3 done already. Last five sessions I’ve been playing $100 and $50 tables, looking for loose tables with unusual stack sizes as indicators of non-regs. Sometimes games at these stakes are sooo nitty, like no FR tables with VPIP over 30. I don’t see much EV for me to sit down at a table with all potential regs and a table VPIP of 25%. So far four up sessions and one down. The biggest part of the down session was raising AK from the cutoff, called by loose player on the button but also an unknown in the blinds, flop is Axx two tone and I have the Ace of the suit, I bet just under pot, called then CR by the blind. I call and the button folds. He makes a 1/2 pot turn bet when the flush fills, I don’t know what to do so I call, and then he makes a pot sized shove on a non-flush river, and I fold, keeping my last $50. I still don’t know whether I think he had a set, two pair, flush, or worse Ace, or air. Set/flush seems most likely, and if I didn’t hold the Ace of the flush it would have been an easier fold earlier. It’s yucky to get into this big of a pot when I don’t have reads on the player yet. I think he only played the rest of the orbit and then left the table, which makes his possible hand range more polarized; more toward sets and also more toward air.

So that puts me down at $100 and up at $50 so far, playing four or five tables of the loosest I can find. But the two key things to note for myself: the small VPP target is getting me to play, and, I’m comfy with both $100 and $50 atm. Plus I don’t normally play two different levels at the same time, but since they’re both “new” to me I don’t feel that it’s bothering me.

Back to the rings

by PokerAnon ~ March 7th, 2011

After a few sessions at $25nl Rush I’m now trying to keep myself away. There was a freeroll that I decided that I wanted to make myself eligible for so I needed 200 FTPs which only required a few sessions to cover and now I’m trying to wean myself again. I did manage to finally break the $500 mark in my Tilt bankroll, which has always been an issue but managed to bring it just under again, down to $470 before I stopped.

So I switched back to 6 tabling $25nl at Stars. At one point I had considered just going straight to $50 or $100 instead of trying to work my way back into a comfort zone again but after a month of Rush I decided that there was too much re-adjusting that I needed to do so I went back to 6 tables of FR, while watching videos on my second monitor.

Even so, 6 tables seems slower than one instance of Rush. I didn’t think that I was getting a lot of hands to play so I tried to be patient. Second session I started to notice that I was getting 3 bet a lot, from players who didn’t seem all that aggressive (except one where I had the button and he was in the SB so I 4 bet AJo thinking that I’m safe against his 3betting range because he had a high steal percentage, and I’d have position. I’d rather take it down pre or define his range better by 4 betting plus show a willingness to 4 bet rather than flat and play position in this situation).

Then I looked at my stats. I was running 23.5/17.1, with a 3 bet of 7.1%. Apparently I found the breaking point where players at this level think that I’m playing too aggressively and start to decide to play back. 🙂 And this in spite of feeling that I wasn’t playing many hands.

Fourth session I wanted to imortalize this player.

Opponent in this hand I’d noted on another table. Somehow he shows up on a different one of my tables; I wasn’t paying enough attention to see what happened but I recognised him by his stats; 78/4. My first notes come from this hand against him. On the turn a 7 is certainly in his donk/calling range but at the same time so are a lot of other hands that I beat so I’m going for three small streets of value. After the hand I make note of what he had.

 

And this later hand, same opponent. When the short stack raises from UTG 3 betting is an option, but I want to keep the bad player behind me in the hand so with AK I just call, assuming that the bad player will come along.

Instead he min-raises. He raises almost nothing so it’s possible that he’s trying to get value with AA/KK, but I’ve got one of each. Min-three bets preflop, in my experience at these kinds of levels, often mean Ax suited or middle pairs more than anything else. If it’s an unknown short stacker it’s more likely that this is AA trying to sweeten the pot.

So I think I really confuse him by back-raising. The short stack almost doesn’t matter at this point and I’m actually happy to take this down preflop with the dead money. But I don’t think that either of them understand what a backraise represents so they both call. With a favorable flop I just go for his stack and he co-operates.

Rungood

by PokerAnon ~ March 1st, 2011

This is what happens when you run good.

$25nl FR, Rush Poker. One of the first hands, opponent is 16/3, 5.0/36% aggression over 36 hands. His range as a loose passive in the blind is probably wide and he has some postflop aggression.

My plan is two streets of value with an overpair since he’s not fishy-loose. But I don’t want to give him freedom if he’s donking with a flush draw. On the turn some hands like 76, 77, or 64 pick up equity and the unlikely hand of 34 makes a straight, but those are a tiny portion of his range. I decide to keep the pot small by checking the turn, especially since I raised the flop, but that also means that I will have to call any river bet unless it’s a flush card, and even then I might call.

That probably worked out as good as it could.

Next hand worked out pretty well too. I’m still open raising all pocket pairs. Opponent is a 26/8, with 11.0/45% aggression over 37 hands.

His check/raise mostly means an Ace, though sometimes it’ll mean he’s bluffing an Ace. If he’s bluffing he’ll fold to a reraise, if he has a weak Ace he may not go far. If I just call his raise I could have KK/QQ/JJ that doesn’t want to fold yet, and the board is totally dry.

On the turn a draw comes, but when he doesn’t bet I want to keep getting money in. He co-operates by raising. As it turns out, the turn was the perfect card for me.

And finally this hand. I have no idea what this 800 bb stack is calling with.

Flop is drawy and multiway. OR is OOP and has checked so I can’t wait around to see if anyone else will take a stab. When only the huge stack calls I bet bigger, because he’s interested and because we’re deep. I probably didn’t bet as big as I could as I had a lingering fear of the monster; 46.

The only thing that I can figure is that he had the flush draw or maybe a combo, or 44/66/88/99 or even JJ/KK and either is fishy, or knows the implied odds of playing this deep. The problem for me was that I didn’t know which is the case in this situation.

So after getting up some 240 bbs after just 60 hands in 16 minutes I decide to sit out. The episode of Criminal Minds I had started up before I opened Tilt was almost over and I was going to have to leave the house soon anyway. $225 per hour winning rate playing just one instance of Rush. I’ll take it.

Rush poker statistics analysis

by PokerAnon ~ February 28th, 2011

In the past couple of weeks I’ve been playing $25nl FR Rush poker casually. By casually I mean only one or two instances while at the same time watching videos or working on a Lexulous game. During this period I’ve logged only 1,750 hands but I was curious to see how the $25nl players actually played. I should run the same analysis against the $10nl players, but I’m lazy and don’t have that data here.

From HEM I went to the xxx,xxx Players tab (where all players in my database are listed), selected the filters (in this case all 0.10/0.25 Rush after the beginning of February) and exported to CSV, generating a file that defaults to being called PlayerGrid.csv. That lists all 2,868 of my opponents plus myself giving total hands, bb/100, VPIP, PFR and other common stats.

Then I take myself out of the data and multiply each statistic against the total number of hands for that opponent. I do this multiplication to weight the “grinders” against the “casual” players because I’m going to see the “grinders” more often at my tables so I want to adjust for how often I’m going to see certain types of players. Before the weighting adjustment the VPIP/PFR averages are 21.3/8.9, after weighting 16.6/8.8; the “grinder”-nits shift the VPIP down without decreasing the PFR.

Comparing the first two columns you can see how the”grinder” nit/TAGs affect the averages. VPIP decreases, PFR stays constant. Any postflop stats become irrelevant after weighting because I don’t know how many times any player saw the flop, turn or river, so I can’t be multiplying by the number of hands any more. And the un-weighted values are still questionable because it goes by individual player rather than by a proper cumulative total, meaning that the results are skewed toward the casual and slower players who I see less often.

One player with 92 hands of history is 8.7/5.4 but never CBet, never won at showdown? Another with 59 hands is 6.8/6.8, but also never CBet and never went to showdown? In fact, from the players with the most history, the top 82 players, all with 25 or more hands, 32 players never went to showdown? If I look at the top ones in particular, these are nits with stats like 6/6 or 8/8 so I’m assuming that they are open shoving the few hands that they play and everyone is folding. I’ll have to go back and look at some of them and see what kind of stack sizes they are playing with. I think that the minimum is 40 big blinds or $10 so that’s a pretty risky strategy.

Postflop I’m still CBetting almost 90% of the time but slowing down on the turn/river when called. The reason for that is evident in the low Fold/Turn/River CBet percentage of the other players. They’ll fold somewhere around half the time on the flop but if they call the flop, 70% of the time they’re calling the turn CBet until they miss their draw on the river. I don’t play nearly as fit-or-fold on the flop but it’s always a judgment call, and I should look at my profitability when calling CBets. And I don’t think that I CBet nearly as often playing $25/$50/$100 FR cash tables because the flop texture means more there. Here I bet dry flops because they’re dry, drawy flops because the calling ranges are often any Ace or two big cards rather than good calling cards, and scary flops because those are the only ones that most players at this level recognize and can be afraid of. The only times that I don’t CBet is when it’s mulitway and I’m OOP, or I’m trying to get my opponent to bet.

The average number of hands is 4.9 and the median is 3, so there are a lot of 1 and 2 hand opponents. That’s to be expected given the random seating of Rush poker and the small sample size. The top quartile takes me to player number 107 with 21 hands of history. If I narrow down to just those players the VPIP drops to 12.5, PFR to 8.0, and 3Bet up to 2.9. The grinder stats.

Of course I affect the actions of other players. If I’m open raising wide including from early position, then there will be more folds than at the average $25nl Rush poker table. My stats are almost identical with the stats from the previous 14,000 hands at $10nl so apparently I haven’t found any reason to adjust. My bb/100 is 70% higher now but that’s likely just variance, unless the style that I used at $10nl actually works better at $25nl for some reason. The style stats haven’t changed. In the 107 there are about ten with really loose-passive stats and maybe 15 with LAGgy stats similar to mine, and the rest are TAGs or nits.

At the top of the postflop aggression list are some nits as well as few LAGs with stats like 19/15 with Agg/Agg% of 8/80, 19/19/8/67, 21/15/2.5/56.

I’m ignoring profitability at this point ’cause I don’t have enough hands, but overall it’s pretty much what I expected. The surprise that I’m going to have to do some more research in my database on is players who aren’t getting to showdown. The looser ones (VPIP over 12) include some winners, but of the tightest 20 of the top 107 (VPIP under 8.3) are all losers except for one. There’s likely some variance there as the tight ones might not be getting hands to play and I can certainly be down and playing tight over any randomly chosen or 30 hands in a row, but 20 out of 107 times?

Rush to CR

by PokerAnon ~ February 25th, 2011

A couple more thoughts.

My graph shows a pretty big up, then down, then upswing. The down is slightly more gradual than both of the ups. I was aware that I wasn’t running great during that time, but I think before I got very far into the downswing I also became aware of some tilt, or at least being off my best $10 Rush poker game.

For me to play $10nl Rush I really need to sit back. My two earlier pieces of advice to myself; bet for value, take more time with big hands, are important, but I need to sit back and let the game come to me. Stay patient, don’t increase the variance by backing opponents into corners with their underpairs against my overcards/draws/position, don’t try to pick off every single bluff because otherwise I pick off too many non-bluffs, don’t start making plays against players who don’t understand.

I’m playing a little $25, mostly as a test of my control. I suspect that the biggest difference between $10 and $25 should be the control plus I’ll get a few more opportunities to make plays. I’m still watching videos while playing so it’s usually only two instances, sometimes down to just one instance which theoretically should allow me to maintain more patience. I can’t see myself playing six+ tables at Stars while watching videos so Rush is still mostly what I’m playing.

Anyway, next week I should get my week at CardRunners. Maybe some new poker videos to watch will inspire me.