CARDRUNNERS

June was a real rollercoaster of a month for me.  I started off the month running red hot winning 450k in the first two weeks.  I then dropped 600k in 4 days losing at every limit but the largely playing 500/1000 PLO.  I was lucky to finish the month with a 150k heater putting me at even for the month.  I have to admit there was some frustration this month, but anytime you lose 600k in four days and end up on the month I don't think you can complain.

As I said in one of my previous posts things could have gone very differently for me in the 500/1000 game.  I could easily have won 1M-1.5M this month.  Ya it sucks to have a break even month but I wouldn't do anything differently.  It was a risk I was willing to take.  I was even willing to lose about 1M playing 500/1000 but after dropping 600k I had a change of heart.

Learning mixed games as been going pretty well for me.  I think I am at the point where I can start playing the 8-game mix rotation on stars.  I have been working with my 2-7 coach a bit and feel competent in that.  I need to do another session or two with him.  I played about 4k hands of O8 this month mostly at 3/6 and 30/60.  I did very well in that winning at 8.44 bb/100.



Now my winrate is obviously not 8.44 bb/100 and I have been running hot, but its promising that I am on the correct track.  I am learning O8 very differently than I have ever learned other games.  Learning limit holdem and PLO took me a very long time.  I think this was mainly because I learned them from my experiences and through trial and error.  I obviously did some math and some conceptual work but not enough.  I think the 3.7k hands of O8 I have played have been about 100 times more effective than the first limit hands I played because of my not being results oriented and thinking about hands in a larger sense.

One of my largest leaks while playing limit was not defending my big blind enough.  Limit and big bet poker games are very different in this manner because the threat of future bets is much much less in limit games.  Because of this you can defend you blind with 35% equity vs an opponents opening range.  Sometimes even less if your opponent is weak or opening from the small blind where you have position.  Now compare this to a big bet poker game I would generally not defend with less than 50% equity against my opponents range.  As well at this other factors play much bigger rolls like playability.  I would defend my big blind with QJs all day long in NLH and fold A8o, while both of these would be trivially easy defenses in a limit game.

There are often times where you have to fold a hand with an equity edge against someone in a big bet game.  If you had AA72r or KK72r in a PLO game and a good player opens from any position I think you would be very hardpressed to play these hands profitablly from the big blind even if you have a preflop equity advantage.

When I was learning limit I played like a NLH player.  I wouldn't defend my blind to a middle position raise with A8o because I had experiences from NLH that told me this was unprofitable.  I didn't really think about it to much at first because I thought it was a trivial fold.  My poker game in general has grown alot since that time and I did learn PLO more quickly and completely than limit holdem.  Alot of this was due to my struggles at limit holdem.  I think I can now take what I learned from learning the other games and apply it to my mixed games. 

I have some goals for July that I would really like to accomplish:

1) Play 10k hands of limit O8, no higher than 50/100
2) Play 5k hands of Stud or Stud 8
3) Watch of make a video from on of the mixed games everyday.
4) have a winning month at 25/50 PLO

Lets see if I accomplish these goals.

PLO is so sick.  I dropped 70k tonight playing 25/50 on Stars and Fulltilt.  It was one of the most frustrating sessions I have ever had.  I felt like I lost every single allin except occasionally when I coolered my opponents.

I just had a very disturbing realization after looking at my 25/50 PLO stats over the past 5 weeks.  I had been winning alot at 50/100 and 100/200 so I was still winning money.  Also this was spread out over two months so I wasn't sure exactly how much I was down at 25/50 until I looked.



Losing 60 BI in these 25/50 games is definitely an indication that I am not playing well.  My all in equity is at 185k behind equilibrium so I am sure I am running way way below expectation over this time.  I said in my last blog post that I would only play 4 tables from now on.  I am going to be sticking to that.  I also think part of my problem at 25/50 has been due to me playing higher.  I naturally don't play as well at 25/50 as I do when I am really focused at the larger limits..


Here are some hands from today.  They are really brutal.

Allin for the majority of the stack with 65% equity.  I am also a big favorite preflop over his hand.

http://weaktight.com/1244256

Getting it in three way with aces as a favorite.

http://weaktight.com/1244258

Again getting it in three ways with aces and being a favorite.

http://weaktight.com/1244259

70% equity on the turn...

http://weaktight.com/1244260

Poker has really kicked my ass the last five days.  I think I may need to take a break for awhile and review hands.  I also think I may need to focus on some of the 8 game mix which I am learning to keep my head on straight.  PLO is such a brutal game.  The funniest part of it all is I used to have the problem reversed.  I couldn't win at 50/100 and higher for the life of me and would crush 25/50.  So I guess I can't complain to much as I would rather win when playing larger.

My month started off with amazing with me up 450k.  In the past four days I have gone from that peak to being down am 153k on the month. Worst part is I was playing in great games against weak opposition.  Never once did I sit in a game where I didn't feel I had a 6+ bb/100 winrate.  The only possible times where I wouldn't have were in some HU matches but that was a very small amount of hands played compared to my ring game action.

I took a risk and it didn't work out.  I could easily be up 1M+ over the same stretch of time.  If I could do it all over again I would sit in the same games and probably make most of the same decisions (Assuming I didn't know the outcomes).  I am sure I made mistakes in my play over the past few days, but I never tilted and was constantly reviewing my play and always playing with 100% focus. 

two pair no good in a 130k pot.

http://weaktight.com/1242024

Doesn't get much more standard than this.

http://weaktight.com/1242025

I really wish I had won this one.  73% equity on the turn wasn't enough though.  At least I didn't lose it...

http://weaktight.com/1242054

Value betting into a slightly better hand.

http://weaktight.com/1242027

Losing a flip.

http://weaktight.com/1242029

Getting it in with an over pair and a flush draw.

http://weaktight.com/1242033


I really shouldn't be complaining about my losses.  I knew damn well that losing 600k could happen very easily in these games.  I took a calculated risk and it went about as poorly as it could have.

I also totaled up my year and I am up more than I thought.  Right now I am sitting roughly at 1M in winnings for the year.  I will have to double check those numbers when I get home and finalize my live play in Vegas, but I thought I would only be up like 600 or 700k on the year after this 600k loss.  So I really can't complain to much, though I still feel like shit right now.

Last night I had a rough session playing in a short handed live 500/1000 PLO game.  In total I lost 363k.  In terms of BI's this wasn't a big loss for me but losing about 25% of what I was up for the year in one night wasn't too fun.  I thought I played really well and even quit after 10 hours when I felt myself getting tired instead of tilting away the remaining 200k that I have at the bellagio. 

The game was really great, probably one of the best I have played all year, with people who sat after they had been out partying.  Can't really ask for more than playing 500/1000 with drunk people.  I didn't really lose any massive pots just 50k-100k here and there.  

In one hand against a drunk player I opened from the button with AK45ss in a four handed game while there was a straddle so I opened to 6k.  The drunk big blind called and the two other players folded.  The flop was K82r giving me top pair top kicker and a backdoor flush draw.  I bet 10k into a 15k pot.  He check raised me to about 35 or 40k and I called.  Turn was a 2 bringing a flush draw.  He checked I bet like 20k into an 90k pot and he called.  River was a brick he checked and I checked back to get shown A642.  Not a horrible beat or anything, just kinda sucks since I haven't played this large in a few years. 

Its funny how losing 363k bothered me.  I used to not get to bothered about losing but for some reason losing 25% of my profit on the year really got to me. There was a great game supposed to be running tonight but the thought of the possibility of losing 500k or so just sounds so unappealing to me.  My brother is getting married this weekend so I am going to take the weekend off and see how I feel about playing next week when I get back into town.

All that said I really don't regret my decision to play.  I was very focused and played well, and the game was amazing.  Not much else you can do but put yourself in those good situations.

So today I played some 50/100 HU PLO on fulltilt against a very good aggressive player, I won 50k off of him and 40k overal today.  We played for a few hours and I ran very hot.  I think I was out played, but ran well above expectation. 

Flopping top two vs two pair in a RR pot.

http://weaktight.com/1233383

A big suckout by me.

http://weaktight.com/1233384

A great flop for both of us in a four bet pot.

http://weaktight.com/1233385

Sucking out with aces.

http://weaktight.com/1233386

Running into top two pair.

http://weaktight.com/1233388

I arrived in Vegas yesterday and there was some great live action at the Bellagio.  I wend downstairs at about 2AM and started playing 500/500 with a 500 ante 1/2 NLH 1/2 PLO in a very tough shorthanded game.  This game was a must move game for the 300/600 PLO main game which later was bumped up to 500/1000.  I have been very fortunate that most of the action thus far this series has been NLH and PLO.  There has been some limit O8 and triple draw, which are two games I am learning to play now.

The first large pot I played was very standard against a well known player.  I reraised his button open with aces and we got it in on a T97 flop.  He had the nut flush draw and we ran it four times with me winning three of them.

The next large pot I played did not go so well for me.  It was against the same player, who was playing very aggressivly and reraising alot preflop.  In a three handed game I opened to 2k from the button with AT of clubs, the small blind flat called and he reraised to 9k from the big blind.  I called and the small blind folded.  The flop came 259 with one club and he bet 9k or so.  I called and the turn was an ace not bringing any flush draws.  He bet 23k and I called again.  The river was a 6 and he fired his final 52k.  I called and was shown 56o.  Obvously it sucks to be shown that hand, but I like the way I played the hand.  I think the two most marginal decisions are on the flop and river.

My opponent is very good and aggressive so when I flat call a 259r flop he will put me on alot of very marginal hands, like small pairs and ace highs that I did have.  In turn with will cause him to barrel alot of turns causing me to fold my hand.  To balance that though anytime I turn a pair he will continue betting with his entire range.

I don't really see any other play than calling the turn, raising seems horrible to me.  The river I could fold against some people, but this player is good and will value bet thin and I am actually ahead of some of his value bets.  I think he would try to value bet JJ-KK, and any worse ace on the river.  That said there are alot of better hands in his range which he is value betting, but I think him having 56o illistrates how wide his preflop rerasing range is.  

So that had me stuck about 50k or so.  I then went on to win many hands without a showdown, by running some medium sized bluffs and winning pots without a showdown.  I also won a few smaller pots vs aggressive shorter stacks when things like my KKxx held up.  This resulted in me winning 90k on the day in about eight hours of play.  I am off to the gym now and going to head back down tonight for some more action.

This month has been strange in that I am crushing 50/100-300/600 and getting destroyed at 25/50.  I am down 130k at 25/50 this month but up 460k playing 50/100 and higher stakes.  About 100k of that 460k is from live play this month.  This is a real nice change for me because in the past I would get crushed anytime I played larger than 25/50 while doing really well in the 25/50 games.  PLO is such a crazy game with the swings.  I have played 10k hands of 25/50 PLO this month and am down 21 buy ins losing at 21 bb/100 while I am winning at higher stakes I am winning at 75 bb/100 over about 5k hands.  I think this variance is what makes PLO such a great game. 

I think part of the reason my results have been poor at 25/50 is not just because of variance but also because I haven't been as focused as I usually am.  When I have been playing 25/50 I have been playing six tables and whenever I play more than four my results start to hurt.  I think the rest of the month I am going to cutback on the number of tables and really try to focus while playing and make sure I am not emailing or browsing the internet.

Here are some hands from the past few days.

A nice cooler...

http://weaktight.com/1226148

I don't like my line here, and I was lucky to win the hand.

http://weaktight.com/1226151

Getting caught bluffing.  Again pure spew by me.

http://weaktight.com/1226154

Flop is thin.

http://weaktight.com/1226160

Underset.

http://weaktight.com/1226156

This is probably to loose, but hes reraising a massive range in this spot and I am only in trouble vs a pair and larger wrap.  Still though putting in 400BB with this marginal draw isn't great.

http://weaktight.com/1226161

This is just gross.

http://weaktight.com/1226163

Can't ask for more than getting it in preflop with AA vs KK.

http://weaktight.com/1226164

Two spew plays against Niki.

http://weaktight.com/1226166

http://weaktight.com/1226167

Not much to say.

http://weaktight.com/1226168

Learning mix games is coming along well.  I have been focusing on triple draw and limit O8.  I think it will take me about a year to get decent at them, I will focus on the stud games.  I have just been grinding some 2/4-5/10 online when I feel like playing and the PLO games are slow.

This past week I had an amazing time in California visiting some friends.  I head back to Vegas for a week then back to California for my brothers wedding.  I hope the live games start to pick up this week as they have been pretty slow all summer.

Today I put in just under 3k hands of poker and lost 75k.  I started off the day playing some 300/600 with antes and won 20k playing that and some 300/600 HA against luckexpress.

This is the only big pot I lost and the rest of the money I won without a showdown.  I should have bet less on the turn other than that I like my play.

http://weaktight.com/1195423

Then I played some 100/200 on stars, which ran all day as well as 25/50 on stars and fulltilt.  I won about 14k playing 100/200 and got absolutely crushed playing 25/50 for 110k.  I thought I played well, but obviously not without mistakes.  I stayed focused for much of the day but the tables were very aggressive and I didn't keep up my aggression as much as I would have liked.  I plan on reviewing the hands and giving them some thought.

At 25/50 today I played 16 pots equal to or greater than 400BB.  Unfortunately I only won 4 of them and lost 12.  Here they are from largest to smallest.

What can you do...

http://weaktight.com/1195424

I quit after this hand...

http://weaktight.com/1195425

Two pair holds...

http://weaktight.com/1195426

Flipping against top two...

http://weaktight.com/1195427

The first hand I misplayed.  I didn't think very logically at the time and should have called turn and made a decision on the river.  Definitely a mistake on my part.

http://weaktight.com/1195428

I sorted by money won not pot size so this one snuck in.  Not much to say beyond very standard.

http://weaktight.com/1195429

Aces no good again...

http://weaktight.com/1195430

First two pots that I won.

http://weaktight.com/1195432

http://weaktight.com/1195433

Some people you could fold this against.  20 Buck Spin is not one of them and has worse value hands and tons of bluffs in his range...

http://weaktight.com/1195431

Cracking aces twice.

http://weaktight.com/1195434

http://weaktight.com/1195435

Surprisingly I still had 20% equity against middle set and an OSED.  This hand was incredibly annoying.

http://weaktight.com/1195437

Eh, I probably should have folded the turn.  I just hate when I know a play is so exploitable, but against some players you should just fold...

http://weaktight.com/1195440

I am surprised he had 30% equity on the flop.

http://weaktight.com/1195441

I could reraise preflop, but postflop is pretty straightforward.

http://weaktight.com/1195445


Anyways after reviewing everything it doesn't seem as bad as I thought.  I am gonna review some hands tomorrow.

I am on a massive heater, up around 500k in the past 10 days since I dropped that 235k playing live at the end of May and beginning of June.  I am up 290k so far this month winning 70k in live play and 220k online.  I am down in staking as I had a piece of Stinger today when he lost against Gus.  So including that I am up 275k or so this month.

Today was a great day as I played as many hands online today (2080 hands) as I had played all month.  I ran very hot winning 180k running at 60 bb/100.  Most of my wins were at 100/200 on stars where I won about 145k.

Once in awhile I get tricky, but not to often...

http://weaktight.com/1186712

Aces holding up three ways.

http://weaktight.com/1186713

Winning when I had 43% equity.

http://weaktight.com/1186717

I think I should have bet more on the river or 1k more on the turn.

http://weaktight.com/1186718

Winning again with less than 50% equity.

http://weaktight.com/1186719

Here is the largest pot I lost.  I don't like my turn CR, I think I should have bet very small.

http://weaktight.com/1186721

I just finished playing a very aggressive match of 50/100 against a good player.  Here I minimize my losses with a call.

http://weaktight.com/1186726

Here I win a nice pot against top set when I get lucky on the river.

http://weaktight.com/1186729


The live games have been really slow the past few days.  I would really like to get some play in over the next week or two while I am out in vegas but I don't know how much more is going to be running.  Pretty much the only game running at the stakes I want to play is mixed games with stud, stud 8 and 2-7 triple draw, all of which I have zero experience playing. 

Last night things I thought things were really picking up when there was a great 500/500 PLO game at the Bellagio.  Unfortunately it only lasted for a few hours, but I did end up winning 70k.  I played a few pots but the biggest one I played was against two great online players.  Every round most of the table was putting on a 1k strattle so the game was playing closer to 500/500/1k and many players were trying to get the game moved up to that.  It never did make it to that size though. 

As for the hand I opened from middle position to 2k with AA56 suited to the ace in hearts and an aggressive internet player to my left reraised me to about 6k.  The small blind, who also primarily plays online overcalled and I reraised the pot to about 18k or so.  I started the hand with ~100k and my two opponents had about the same, maybe a bit more. 

The flop was T32 with clubs.  I held the ace of clubs (no other clubs though) and with almost 60k in the middle and about 80k in my stack this was a great flop for me.  I made a committing bet and the player behind me went all in.  The player in the small blind folded and we decided to run it four times.  I never care how many times people want to run it and have always let my opponent decide.  My opponent turned over J987 with nine high clubs.  Running the numbers I had 55% equity on the flop vs his hand.  The first time through a club hit, but the boards bricked off the three other times and I won about 65k in that hand.

I won a few other pots and made one big fold that I don't want to write about.  Its a fold that even six months ago I would never had made, but now I think its a fairly standard.  I think it really shows how my game has improved in the past year or so.  I know I would have snap called in the past and I only had to think for 20 seconds before I knew I had an easy fold.

After those games broke I went back to my room and played some 50/100 with a 15 ante PLO.  I ended up winning 10k in the short session before the games broke. 

Here was the biggest pot I played.  I don't like my play at all...

http://weaktight.com/1180367

Luckily I won alot of smaller pots to overcome this ugly hand.



After spending some time here in Vegas at the live cash games I realize its time for me to branch out and learn some new poker games.  I am going to be very serous about learning the games played in the eight game mix on stars.

I am also going to do things very differently than I have in the past.  The simple fact is learning new games doesn't come easy to me and requires alot of work.  When I learned limit holdem I lost alot of money playing bigger than I should have.  I wasn't bad by any means but against the tough line ups in the 300/600 UB games and 150/300 pound crypto games I was a significant underdog.  Looking back I had some big leaks such as not defending my blinds enough and having poor game selection.  Now I have limit down well enough to most likely beat 50/100 and 100/200 games on stars (They may have got significantly harder in the past year since I last played) but it took me a long time and I am by no means a great limit holdem player, but I feel my game is sufficient enough for a mix game rotation.

A similar thing happened to me while learning PLO.  Again I played way to high when I was learning.  I use learning loosely here, because I knew how to play the game and was a pretty good player but I was playing against some of the greatest PLO players and I didn't stand a chance.  It took me dropping down to 25/50 and grinding for countless hours to hone my game to where it is now.  Right now my PLO game is incredibly sharp and I think I am one of the top PLO players.

So I plan on learning from my mistakes and having a separate bank roll for learning the 8 game mix.  I plan on grinding up from 2/4 limit stakes all the way up too the 400/800 limit, and hopefully I will be able to play some of the big mix games by next years WSOP.  This is probably to ambitious of a goal and it will probably take me much longer to accomplish this, particularly because there aren't alot of games to choose from to move up with.

I also plan on getting coaches for every game.  This is something I have never done in the past and have always been self taught, but I realize now that's stupid and a waste of time.  Having a great player coach me will hopefully speed up the learning process.  Right now I have a 2-7 triple draw coach and that's the game I plan on focusing on most initially.  If you are a skilled limit o8, stud, stud 8, or razz player and have any interest in doing some coaching shoot me a PM at twoplustwo to aba20 or send a PM here.