CardRunners
What's Your Edge
Brian Townsend : Poker Blog
Although I haven't been playing much the past few weeks I have been running read hot. I am at about +12bb/100 over my last 5k hands or so and over 60k. Unfortunately I haven't been playing to many hours and had a bad start to the month so I am still sitting at 450,000 online. Not bad for a few months from the 100k I had, but still not where I want to be. Its unfortunate that no 100/200 games are running as I would love to get some action there. 50/100 runs sparsely but the only consistent action is at 25/50.
Here are some hands from the past week or so...
Here bottom set holds against a player I had never played against...
http://weaktight.com/661027
Aces don't hold...
http://weaktight.com/661079
A monster pot at 25/50 where I get it in as a small favorite.
http://weaktight.com/661013
Another large pot against Ram where I turn the nuts.
http://weaktight.com/661015
Jan 5, 09 15:04:09
is your assistant writing your blog now? the writing style has changed and there are many more errors in spelling and grammar.
 |
Subscribe to this feed |  |
Add to Favorites | |
 |
Send to Friend |
The past two days there has been some really good 25/50 and 50/100 action on FTP. I played 1.5k hands and ended up winning 20k. Not to bad which gave me a reasonable winrate of 8 bb/100. I played quite a few interesting hands throughout the two days.
Here I play a large pot against Joker-JSB. I think the river is fine against him as there are actually very few fullhouses in his range. I think hes betting the turn with a set and on the river the only boat I am really worried about is A2, 23xx, 27xx, or A2xx. So I don't mind making the river call.
http://weaktight.com/608949
In this hand I could have played it quite a few diferent ways. Joker wasn't c-betting that much so I could have flatted and got it in on a good turn. I think shoving is fine against someone agro preflop who continuation bets any ace high flop, but against this opponent when he full pots the flop he has a stronger range. Overall I think I like a flop flat in this spot.
http://weaktight.com/608950
A great flop for me...
http://weaktight.com/608951
Here I make a nice call on the river. I think I played this hand really well against this opponent. Preflop is tough, but I hate just folding in spots like these.
http://weaktight.com/608953
I think I could have found a better line than this one. Its a tough spot. I run into a huge hand. Games easy when you flop the nut straight with a flush and fullhouse redraw. He had 75% equity against me, but I can't get away from my hand at any point. I just dislike my line.
http://weaktight.com/608954
Anyways I think I played great poker the past few days. I haven't got to many hands in as I have been really busy with things. I doubt I will play much in the next few weeks as Christmas and New Years are coming up.
CR had a big team builder in Florida and I spend some time in Florida. It was see all the CR guys again and also nice to meet the stoxpoker ones. I had only met Nick before, he coached me in limit holdem about two years ago, but no one else. I would really recomend anyone looking for limit caoching to contact Nick. It was great getting to know the rest of the guys as well. I was suprised how much I liked them. They were all really stand up guys.
I made quite a few videos in the time I was in Florida. I got seven videos done in total. This is great as I was only there for a few days. Four of the videos were HU videos with the Bryce and myself. He sweated me while we reviewed a limit session I played and I did the same for his NLH session. He has a great way of looking at poker. He is very calculated and just discussing concepts I feel has really helped my game even though we are experts at very diferent games.
I also did videos with Issac Baran and Dave Benefield. I think both of those turned out well. WIth Issac we reviewed a 10/20 NLH session that he played which had a ton of action. Issac had a very aggressive player on his left which made for a great video. Its tough dealing with an aggressive player who is habitually three betting you.
Here are some pictures from the house in Florida.
Dec 9, 08 18:41:08
First off Im sorry for posting this hear but I want to make sure I can find some help. Had poblems posting else where. So here it is...
This is my 1st post ever so I hope its seen . Now that Ive decided to focus on multi tabling small stakes cash games instead of tournies I decided to look into rake back and was surpised I cant have it because I dont have an affiliate.. Does anyone else have this same problem must be 1000s of us. What am I missing? I cut and paste my two different email responses from full tilt and rakerebate below. The 1st being from Full tilt.
Is this fair to the poker players? Like I said what am I missing ?? Any responses from any of you I would appreciate.
Mike or Rookie
Hello Michael,
Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker.
Full Tilt does not pay players rakeback directly. There are a number of rakeback affiliates who offer players up to 27% rakeback if they sign up to Full Tilt Poker through their site.
Please note that this is not an issue which can be solved by opening another account with Full Tilt Poker, it is against our site policy to open more than one account. Though you could cease using your account, we do not remove it from our system, nor do we freeze accounts in order for players to create new ones.
However, we do value your continued support of Full Tilt Poker, and we are currently looking into organizing something that will help players who are not already attached to an affiliate. We have added your username to our files for further consideration. Please be patient.
If there's anything else we can help you with, please don't hesitate to ask.
Best of luck on the tables!
Kind Regards,
Francis
Full Tilt Poker Support
Hi Mike,
Apologies for a late reply.
Unfortunately the rakeback program is only open to new players of Full Tilt.
Full Tilt will not switch existing players to rakeback, nor let them create
a new account to get it.
We are very sorry for this inconvenience, but Full Tilt is very hard with
enforcing these rules. Feel free to browse our other great offers to see if
you can find an equally good, or better alternative.
Best Regards,
Andreas
www.rakerebate.net
my email is mteets04@yahoo.com if anyone can help me .thanks
Dec 9, 08 21:14:53
FWIW im pretty sure you can email them and ask to get rakeback. it wont happen overnight but theyll put you on a list, ive heard that people wait for weeks or months sometime but you might as well put your name on the list sooner then later.
Dec 10, 08 00:09:52
y don't u just open a new account in your mom or dads name or a friends dum dum
Dec 10, 08 00:20:52
Yeah you can get rakeback at a later date according to that second e-mail as long as you don't have an affiliate that would give you rakeback through them. This e-mail can take quite a while though, took me like 2 months to get mine. Sucks in the meantime.
Dec 10, 08 19:43:46
Btown, it's Baron not Baran =d
Man the interior of that house looks so dark... all black kitchen, whoa.
Dec 10, 08 19:51:00
Agree with the above - I moaned at FTP for not letting me have rakeback, got the same email then about a couple of weeks later was "specially invited" to join rakeback pros.
PS: Brian - it's also Isaac not Issac, that guy must get pissed you spell his name soooooo badly!!! Engineering majors can't spell for shit - lol
|
Subscribe to this feed | |
Add to Favorites | |
|
Send to Friend |
Sorry I haven't written much in the past two weeks I have been traveling all over the place. In the past two or three months I have been in eight countries. November was an okay month for me poker wise. I didn't get many hands in because of a ton of travel and spending time with family and friends. In total I won about 60k mostly in PLO. I had some big losses in 50/100 and 100/200 NLH games making my NLH results pretty poor this month. I have build up my online roll to 440k now. I am happy with this result as it’s been a bit less than 3 months.
It’s great to beable to play 100/200 as it gives me alot more options on games. I am proud that I kept to my requirements and didn't just run up the stakes. I hope in December I can play a bunch of hands and build up to about 600k so I can hit the 800k mark and beable 200/400 by February or March. That may not be too realistic as I am traveling even more in December than I did in November. I may be in as many as five countries in the next month. I am looking at cutting some of that back as I don't want to be traveling so much.
Tonight I watched the CBS 60 minutes piece on online poker and the UB/AP scandal with my parents. My parents know very little about online poker and poker in general. We watched the 20 minute piece and they were shocked. They knew I recieved 120k back from UB but that was the extent of there knowledge on the subject. They asked my some questions and my general feel was 60 minutes never lied, but they didn't tell the entire story. This is understandable form a business perspective when you are trying to report on a huge scandal in 20 minutes and you are trying to get as many viewers as possible who are drawn to more sensational stories.
Dec 2, 08 00:41:56
how about the fact that they said "poker is illegal in the usa" that isnt the truth.....
Dec 3, 08 19:53:13
whats the entire story....and enjoy europe
while you can
|
Subscribe to this feed | |
Add to Favorites | |
|
Send to Friend |
Sorry I haven't written much in the past two weeks I have been traveling all over the place. In the past two or three months I have been in eight countries. November was an okay month for me poker wise. I didn't get many hands in because of a ton of travel and spending time with family and friends. In total I won about 60k mostly in PLO. I had some big losses in 50/100 and 100/200 NLH games making my NLH results pretty poor this month. I have build up my online roll to 440k now. I am happy with this result as it’s been a bit less than 3 months.
It’s great to beable to play 100/200 as it gives me alot more options on games. I am proud that I kept to my requirements and didn't just run up the stakes. I hope in December I can play a bunch of hands and build up to about 600k so I can hit the 800k mark and beable 200/400 by February or March. That may not be too realistic as I am traveling even more in December than I did in November. I may be in as many as five countries in the next month. I am looking at cutting some of that back as I don't want to be traveling so much.
Things have been going well for me. I finally broke the 400k mark in my challenge growing my 100k up to 425k. I am pretty happy with this result as it’s only been 2.5 months since my challenge started. I played quite a few hands in September, but this month has really slowed down for me. I have been travelling alot and been very busy with other things. Overall during this time I would rate my play the past 2.5 months to be about a B-. I have played very poorly at times partially at PLO. I have finally been having some good results are 50/100 PLO. Good for me is not a huge loser though so it’s all relative. This month I am up about 10k at 50/100 PLO which is the first time all year I have not been stuck 50k in a thousand hands when I play it. So I am happy with those results.
I think the time I have spent on my PLO game has paid off. I am being to see some major leaks in my game. Spots where I really overvalue hands and things. I would say my poor results this year have been primarily due to my weak PLO game. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster, but it’s starting to come together.
Okay that was the good, and then yesterday I had a really nasty session on UB where I dropped 80k putting me down to 340k online. Not to fun but I think I played well. Also I managed to just walk from the table when the game got tough and I probably was being to not play well. Usually when stuck I play and play and play. This time I went for a run when the table was 5 handed with me, Ozzy87, Taylor, Prahlad, and SamH. Being stuck 8BI I wasn't going to have any great comeback against that lineup. I think with players that tough whomever is playing their best at the time will have the edge in the game. If I had stayed I probably wouldn't have been played well and could have really chunked off some money.
Here are some hands from that session. I had some really difficult decisions throughout the session. In this first hand I am against Samh. I hadn't played much with him and never any NLH so I didn't have a great read on his game. Taylor gave me a quick two second rundown of his game, but I think after dicussing his game with other players I like a river or turn fold. That said the river is such a good card for me to call on as 44/99 are so unlikely and the only other nines in his range are 89 and 9T suited. That said I don't feel like he bluffs here often. I guess I don't mind how I palyed it with the information I had at the time.
http://weaktight.com/521151
Not much to say here, pretty standard I think....
http://weaktight.com/521988
I think I over thought this one. I had floated Taylor earlier in the session with ace high so I thought he would be more likely to fire three barrels in this spot. Taylor is definitely capable of making moves here but I don't know if he is often enough.
http://weaktight.com/521989
I don't think there is any other way to play this...
http://weaktight.com/521990
I then lost a ton of other 10k pots which got me stuck big. I think I made a few marginal calls, but I was in some really tough spots. Some days of poker are like that. All you can do is learn and make better decisions in the future.
Nov 18, 08 02:16:55
glad to see your doing better brian, and im glad to see your playing holdem again. When are you gonna take a shot at railhaven?
Nov 18, 08 02:18:17
Congrats Brian, seems like you've been working super hard at your game! You'll be back at the top soon... Although this probs super sucks, this will help your game a lot (but you already knew that). GL
Nov 19, 08 00:01:27
good to see youre doing better, but your blog is starting to get insanely boring, show some pics of your new house in Monaco or something.
Nov 20, 08 16:52:36
mh,isnt the AA-hand not like the KK-Hand from the Move It series were you sweated a guy saying he should min 4bet the flop?or is that one too dry for that?
|
Subscribe to this feed | |
Add to Favorites | |
|
Send to Friend |
I have still been spending alot of time analyzing my PLO game trying to determine where my leaks are. I think I have made some big strides this month and hopefully I can keep this momentum and have a nice 2nd half in PLO.
Last night I played some 50/100 NLH at UB. The game was really good as there was a guy who is just "an average 25/50 player, whos breakeven at best". He used to be good but since online poker is so much tougher now he sucks. I really doubt this player has money to play 50/100. I think hes just taking a shot as I "don't see him playing poker anymore." He also ruined online poker and is the reason why I have had a breakeven year of poker. It has nothing to do with my own play and the fact that I have primarily played PLO a game which I am not very good at. Basically the dudes a donk and I owned him.
Some donks just don't fold.
http://weaktight.com/513623
I don't know what this donk is doing here. He has Ace high!!!!
http://weaktight.com/513626/>
Nov 13, 08 08:18:59
hahah, weird plays by taylor.
I really hope that you will get your PLO game going and get back to the big games..
Brian, for the next mondays HU video, could you ask the opponent before you play with him that is he willing to play with you whole that video so you could get better read of him.. Last video it was little frustrating when the right side guy left after 35mins and you had to start a game with a new guy.
Thanks.
Nov 13, 08 11:21:14
hmm, but u werent being 100% ironical when u wrote it though did u
Nov 13, 08 20:57:10
i didnt even read the hands, but im glad youre back to calling ppl what you actually think.
Nov 14, 08 12:39:42
Hey Brian,
I hope that your house is okay with the fire right now in Santa Barbara. I live here and it got pretty intense down in the mission canyon area. Not sure if you are out there or maybe Hope Ranch area.
Thanks for all the great videos and blogs.
Gary