CARDRUNNERS

My last post was about taking money offline for the purpose of disciplining myself to only play 100nl. I feel as though my game got weaker at 200nl because i was playing kinda scared and they were aggro games. People on ub are just ridiculous. Everyone loves to 3-bet or 4 bet and dont care if someone stays in the hand. This definitely goes against my style. Stars has been pretty good to me. I'm up about 11 buyins over the past week playing sporadically. The other day i won about 7 buyins but lost some money to some donkaments. I also lost a few buyins playing stupid/making crying calls in the past couple days. Today i made about 4 buyins. All in all im up about $1100 on stars since I put some more money on there a couple weeks ago to properly roll myself for 100nl. I'm looking to win about 20 more buyins and then will move up to 1/2.

The players on stars are definitely horribly. I'm sorry if i insult any cr members but it's really unbelievable. My edge is huge in these games. People are making the most unbelievably awful plays and paying me off. They also catch a lot (as you'll see), but it's rare I get stacked. I only got stacked twice I think in the past week. I've lost some sizeable pots, but it takes a lot for me to lose.

No rakeback sucks, but the amount I was losing on ub is no comparison to what I'm sure I can make up for with the bad players at stars. I was making a few hundred or a thousand a month with rakeback which is nice, but i was also breaking even or barely winning at ub the last 3 months. It's just sick. So I think it's best for me to move to stars for now. I'll still play on ub I'm sure, but it's really getting ridiculous there.

IMO, it'd be so easy to bring all the online players to your site. Give people nice tourney structures, offer rakeback, have a good points/rewards program and you're set. I believe if stars fixed some tourneys and offered rakeback they could increase their player base by a significant amount. But what do I know, right? heh.

Anyway, on to the hands today. I want to post these interesting hands with some insight as to things I've been thinking about when playing. I'm really thinking through hands more than I was before and maximizing value. Before I played too straightforward and always raised huge with big hands because I was scared of getting drawn out on. That's obviously a bad play. So I think about how I can stack someone in a certain hand or think what they could possibly have.

Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137078

These were the types of hands happening to me over the last couple days. Something I can't fold. I know I'm beat, but I have to call based on their donk factor and my hand strength. I was mad at myself.

Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137082

This hand had me really confused. I was scared of KQ on the turn. But again, it's stars and I have to remember they'll go with a lot worse hands than mine at this point. I thought a long time on the river. Just a sick hand in general. What is he calling on the flop with? this pissed me off pretty good. but whatever, i get the donks in the end.

Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137089

He had exactly what I thought he did. K3 soooooooooted weeeeeeeee. I do win with AA sometimes.

Hand 4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137094

This is what I was talking about with thinking through hands. He can easily have overs. I call him down. His river bet is kinda ridiculous. Any hand he has me beat with at that point he's betting with on the turn...if that makes sense. Again, just horrible players on Stars.

Hand 5: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137103

Good defend on his part? He calls with a crap hand and doesn't maximize value. They just milk all day. It's so funny how many times they milk when they could be winning a bigger pot from me.

Hand 6: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137112

This is a type of hand taylor talked about in one video. He's saying how with a medium strength hand, one way to maximize value is to bet sort of weakly on the river to induce a bluff. But you have to follow through with the call. If I check, he may check or bet small. If I bet big he probably folds. So I go with this play. I got him to do what I wanted and freaked when he raised, but then remembered what taylor said. In GP we trust.

Hand 7: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137116

This guy is really awful. He calls down with any kind of hand. I put in a nice value raise on the river. This is something new I've been working on. This pot felt good. Here's another hand from that same player to show what I'm talking about with value betting him (I check raised him on the river multiple times this session and he still paid me off): http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137120. I laughed after this hand, what is he beating? I asked him that and he said a set. I said a set is a full house on that board. He said no, a set of 10s. I said that's called trips, there's a difference. He says, i quote "the fck there is." I let him keep playing his game.

Last Hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1137126

This hand was really really strange. The preflop betting is crazy. I have to think someone has AA right? well, it's stars and I was taking the chance they were donking around, which they were. I think a check call a shove on this flop is better. I thought one had QQ and wouldn't be able fold. I didn't want to let AK get a free look either. Guesses as to what they had? One told me.


Well that's it for now. I leave for vegas saturday and am looking to just party it up with my buddies. I'll probably meet some CR'ers out there. Looking forward to it.

Oh and I'm trying to understand quickbooks, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I have almost 19k FPPs. I now know the difference between those and VPPs. I may save up to 170k and go with the 50incher tv. We'll see. That'd be so balla though.

so last night was a very interesting night for me.

im not really gonna post names on here because i dont want to ruffle feathers, but it should be pretty obvious to anyone who knows anything what i'm talking about.

i went out to dinner with a couple of poker players friends last night in NYC. we had an awesome dinner telling funny stories, eating good italian food at antica venezia, and just hanging out. there was talk at dinner of one the guys going to play a big headsup match in new york city. because i knew the person he was playing against and was basically the liason confirming they were both legit, i helped set it up. after dinner the guys wanted to go out to the bar, but the kid who was playing the big match didn't want to go to trump towers alone because he was kinda skeeved at walking into some random dudes apartment. i could certainly understand this sentiment so i went with him and took another one of my friends with us. on the way, i asked if i could buy 5% of the action bc i thought my friend was +ev and he obliged. it was kinda exciting to have a piece of a match like this.

the match was held at the apartment of ilya who is a very good live pro here in new york city. he was also on gsn's high stakes poker and i thought played pretty well. the apartment at trump towers was beautiful and had one of the cutest little teacup terriers i've ever seen. <3.

anyway...on to the match. ilya dealt and the match lasted a bit over an hour with my horse losing. i thought he played really well and I saw him make a couple of great value bets. the final hand was pretty much a setup hand, nearly impossible to fold, and he still almost got away. i think that final pot was something along the lines of 155k.

the entire time i played chinese poker on the side of the table with my friend chris. obv i ended up losing $10. no, not $10k. $10. just another drop in the bucket

anyways, sorry to make this post so lacking in details, but i just don't know who's comfortable with what being said publically (though it will prob all come out anyway). from what i understand, these same two guys are going to play 4 more matches today for the same stakes (though that arrangement may change).

overall though, it was a bit of surreal night. two guys in a nyc apartment playing for an amount of money that would boggle the mind of an average person. if you put a reporter in the room and told them what was going on, no one would believe they were playing for real money. but it was real money. and lots of it. it's kind of amazing that poker is played at these stakes in private apartments and the rest of the world just has no clue. it was an amazing experience, and one that i doubt i will be privvy to many more times in my life.

if i get permission, ill post more details including individual hands, but as of now, im gonna play it safe.

peace,
ezra

edit: ps - i just saw my blog referenced on 2p2. the only reason i even posted about who lost was because it was already outed on 2p2 in the main thread. this isnt supposed to be a mega gossip post...just about how surreal my night was. take it for what it's worth...

This past week has been pretty crazy. Between work and personal stuff, I haven't had a lot of free time, btu I've really enjoyed myself overall.

Last monday was my girlfriend's birthday. After a fun day of hanging out, I went home to do some Cardrunners work for a while. At about 6pm, I went to this lounge called Union Bar (which is actually the place we first met) for happy hour with her, her mother, good friend Danielle, and good friend Taryn. We got some drinks there, and then headed out to dinner at this little Italian restaurant I really like. After dinner, we headed back out to this Irish pub called Mcsorley's where a lot of her friends were waiting to hang out. Mcsorley's is the oldest pub in New York City and is really authentic...they only have 2 kinds of beer: light and dark, and it's just a total blast to sit around all night at these wooden tables and get hammered.

Here's a group shot from her birthday. My gf is the girl in the middle and I'm in the aqua hoodie on the left. The far left is actually my good friend Emil (Whitelime) who came out to get his drink on with us:


Here's another cute shot of us


Then on Sunday night, Shira's mom got us tickets to the final game of the Mets/Yankees series at Shea stadium. I went to just about every single Mets playoff game last year, and this was my first game since then so I was pretty excited...ultimately the Mets got crushed, but we had fun with amazing seats like 10 rows directly behind home play. For whatever reason, my girlfriend is silly and happens to be a Yankees fan, but whatever. The girl on the right is our friend Danielle who randomly went to high school with me and also happens to be dating Shira's brother.


Poker has been going very well lately, and I'm winning a lot. When I flop 2 pair, someone has an overpair. When the flush gets there vs my set, it also pairs the board and I stack some n00b. I also think that my reads have my strong and overwhelmingly dead on. I've made a couple of misreads lately, but I'm trusting my instincts very solidly and it's paying some solid dividends.

Here are two hands I posted on 2+2 for input. I didn't post the results in either hand, but everyone on 2+2 said I sucked and didn't know what I was doing. My feeling is that I gave each of these hands a lot of thought and was paying attention to the opponent. I think that maybe the reason everyone is just breaking even in the Full Tilt games is that they're all playing 8 tables at a time, playing every hand ABC, and doing nothing interested. If people know you play the same everytime, you're never gonna be considered tricky or creative.

Hand 1:

I honestly have no clue why I limped behind dead money here. It was either a mistake, or my lunch conversation with several of my friends about how they limp SCs and small PPs behind a field of limpers had gotten to me.

Villain's stats are 32/19 over 60 hands or so. We have no history and I rarely get out of line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1121685

Here I call the flop which seems standard to me. With no paint cards, it's definitely concievable that he has missed overs like AK-AJ, KQ and is just c-betting. With a scary board like that, there's no way any normal TAG is ever firing again on the turn.

But when the ultimate scare card hits the turn which pairs both top pair and brings the flush, I'm confused as to why he's leading hard here again. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided that he had a really big pair QQ-AA and was still betting to protect his hand. Because he bet so large, >80%, I figured that he was also trying to figure out if he was beat and would fold to a shove. He would have to call $250 more to win $550, so he's getting just over 2:1 which is not good enough to call on a flush draw. Plus, it's concievable I'm nutted and he basically has to fold if he doesn't have a diamond. He thought for a while and mucked. It's a high variance play, but my read was strong and I went with it.

Hand 2:

Villain in this hand is 38/15 of 85 hands. He seems a bit fishy, but I don't really know for sure. I've seen him throw his stack in the middle before, but it's yet to go to showdown, so anything is possible.

He hesitated for a split second longer than is typical before check/calling my flop bet. I could feel some weird thought process in his mind so I felt like he was planning to c/r the turn allin.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1121701

Everyone on 2+2 said I should instamuck this turn, but I really think that's poor thinking. It's people that instamuck here that allow c/ring the turn with Asx to be such a profitable play. That said, I also had the timing tell that he was planning to check raise the turn allin, and he did it instantly. I felt that if he was nutted, he would pretend to think a while. Because he did it so quickly, I thought that he had a pair + fd making me a 2:1 fav, or even overs with a flush draw (same %s). As it turned out, he did have a pair with a flush draw, but bc it was a lower pocket pair, I was > 90% to win the hand.

It's gonna be a great week here for Cardrunners...we're announcing a huge new promotion to bring one lucky member out to Vegas to party with us, so stay turned. If you've been dreaming of making it out to the WSOP this summer and meeting the guys like sbrugby, Green Plastic, Muddywater, and Stinger, this is the opporutnity for you. It's no obligation, and will be open to all Cardrunners members....stay tuned

Ezra

Well, i've definitely seen some results from retuning my play. I'm playing a hell of a lot better and finished up 3.5 buyins overall today at 100nl on pstars. It would have been more by far if not for some coolers. Had one set over set and 2 pair beaten by another 2 pair (which I totally couldn't have seen coming). But I'm reading hands really well there (but those players are so bad that it's pretty damn easy). Seriously, their hands are so transparent it's a shame to ever lose at that site. Hopefully I can get a good roll going to move up to 1/2.

I'm up to 9k points and gold star status now. I'm saving up for the flat screen lcd tv for 110k points. I'm hoping to get it by the end of summer. The points are coming in so fast and I still don't know the difference between FPPs and VPPs. I made about 8k in FPPs and only 5.5k in VPPs. Can someone tell me how it's calculated?

Anyway, here are some hands from today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120055

I played this hand pretty weakly, but this player will overplay hands by far and I was waiting to bust him/her. I should have definitely reraised preflop or on the flop, but with his hand, I think i played it right. I gave 10x a high percentage of his range and didn't want to scare him off.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120058

Can't really say I misplayed this. I mean, what's he gonna call me with on the flop? A flush draw. He did have that but I made him pay to make his hand. Unfortunately I had to pay him off.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120065

The great thing about hands like this is you can play it fast. If he has an underpair, he's folding no matter what. If he has any part of this flop he'll call or raise, which he did here. I reraise and win a nice pot. I like the lucky you comment, i was never behind.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120070

I reeeeeeeeeally hate minraisers. Any chance I get away from this? Probably not.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120076

Although I do like messing with the minraisers. Hands like this make the game fun. It was a cooler, but fun nonetheless.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120109
I don't think there's anyway I'm thinking I'm behind here. He took a long time on the turn. I put him on AQ/AJ. I don't think he would take a long time when I'm obviously committed to a shove. Turns out he was multi-tabling and didn't notice. Timing tell gone wrong. Just a cooler.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120081

I really liked how I played this hand. On the turn when he keeps betting I know he has either an overpair or a 7. He has neither, but I know he has a monster. We may have gotten it all in either way, but my c/r all in on the river was a great play I thought. he wasn't happy.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120085

I actually was worried he had a set of Ks. It wasn't a huge pot and I'm not folding, but it was kinda obvious. He raises small pre, then checks the flop (alarm 1). then he bets small on the turn, i raise small and he minraises (alarms 2 and 3). Then I'm just messin with him after that. This is the 2nd set over set i've had on stars so far. I can't remember having one on ub in months.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120096

And finally, I read some guy's soul. Something wasn't right. I didn't think he'd check a big hand on the flop. Then when the 2nd Q comes he bets big. I'm pretty sure he's bluffing, which he is. This guy was playing aggro and I won some nice pots off him before he left $200 poorer from that table.


Well, that's it for now. I'll be playing more this week sporadically. I'm almost fully recovered from surgery too, which is nice. Vegas in about 11 days, hellz yes.

So apparently I'm doing such a good job running marketing for CR that the servers are overloading, no one can access any videos, and everyone's grouchy! Keep it up guys! There's no better way to prove to my bosses that I'm good at my job than by making Cardrunners inaccessible to every individual, member or otherwise. Consider: If you're a CR member, and it's like May 30, and sbrugby releases a new video and you're like "SAWEEEET, VIDEO TIME" and then it won't stream, you're like "hmm....GUESS I GOTTA PAY FOR JUNE TO WATCH DAT VIDEOOO!!" Likewise, if you're a non-member and you visit Cardrunners to see what it's all about, and everywhere on the mainpage you see things like "Cardrunners will be down from 3am to 6am because YOU GUYS LOVE THE SITE TOO MUCH AND ARE CRASHING THE SERVERS FROM ALL YOUR AFFECTION" or "Cardrunners will be migrating all 337 videos to a server BECAUSE THEY ARE SO DAMN GOOD THAT PEOPLE DOWNLOAD THEM 5X/DAY AND CRASH OUR SERVER" you would totally think to yourself that this must be the most amazing site in the world if's so popular that it doesn't work. It's like the old Yogi Berra saying about the busiest restaurant in town: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

But in all seriousness, thanks for the support and thanks for making CR so big that we have to move to a bigger home. You guys are some of the kindest and caring poker players in the world and help to make our forums and website awesome.

In other news, I'v been running good at life. I've won 5 out of my last 6 sessions at poker which is simply remarkable for me. I can't remember the last time I could say that. Yesterday, I dropped 3 buyins in like my first 100 hands and managed to end the day +$3. I know you're like snaaaaaaaaaap, a large fry at mc d's. And i'm like, yea, holla. Also, I ran the best I've ever run in the elevator game a couple days ago. The elevator game goes like this: I live on the 23rd floor of a 40 story apartment building in NYC. Floor 1 is the lobby so I'm basically the midpoint in button pressing for floors. Thus, if 2 people come into my elevator, ideally 1 should press a floor less than 23, and 1 a floor higher than 23. When I'm running bad, I will run far below expectation and like 75% of the people will have pressed numbers <23. But a couple days ago, I had my best elevator game ever...I was the first one in the elevator, but before the doors closed, we were 9 passengers in all. But the lights up like this: 23, 24,25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 38. It was the most amazing feeling I can remember having and that's when I knew I'm done running bad and finally gonna run good.

Sooooooooo....if you're reading my blog for some sneak peaks at what's coming on CR, I guess I'll try not to dissapoint.

How's about....A NEW SERVER?? jkjk. Okay, how about a huge WSOP party July 5th with tons of celebs in Vegas? Make your plans now. It will be huge. How about....a CR Fantasy Camp where we'll fly one lucky member out to Vegas for a couple of days to recieve private and in person lessons with every single CR pro. We'll also throw you some cash to let you take those lessons to the felt. Oh, and did I mention that part of the "fantasy" is coming to our huge WSOP blowout party? Yea, we promise to get you in. Let's see what else...did I mention...A NEW SERVER? Fuck, yea I did...Oh, how about that the winner of the CR League gets a couple of hours of free lessons from our pros, but also a new special prize?? So special that I can't say it yet, but trust me that it's cool. So get your ass over to the CR League, Wednesday nights on Poker Stars.

Till next time,
Ezra

I was really looking forward to these past 2 days and recover from my downswing. Unfortunately it wasn't done ruining my life yet. But I've really tried to get out of it and after watching the last fruitypro video, I think I've found a few leaks I've been having lately.

First of all, I'm playing too many hands, especially out of position. This is obviously really bad and against the core lessons here at CR. I keep calling hoping to flop big with 56ss or Q10 or something dumb, and most of the time I flop nothing or a small piece and can't continue. So I spew.

Next, I tilt. I'm not making a ton of hands lately, but I have to keep at controlling tilt. I've done better than the past so that's a good thing.

I can't be scared. This is due to running poorly and thinking someone always has better than me or will draw out. I totally misplayed KK today when I could've gotten a guy's stack who had JJ. I thought he had AA. Mind games. Granted he 3 bet preflop. Just uncomfortable spot.

I found out I'm playing too many hands from the blinds and also playing too many big pots...especially ones without the goods.

I also think people are always bluffing. They are bluffing a lot, but I have to give people credit sometimes. And I have to stop bluffing. I get in bad situations without a hand.

Lastly, I have to remember I'm playing poker to make money, not for ego purposes. I have no desire to be the best or to break the regulars. My goal is to make money and by letting my ego get in the way, I create an obstacle to my main goal.


Anyway, all day today I got frustrated and kept bleeding money. It was sick. I didn't end too bad on the day, but when you keep losing a buyin here or there, it adds up and affects you mentally. Thankfully right now I won about $200 playing 100nl on stars for 45 min. Remember when i said the games are soft there:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1100140


He said he did it cuz it's fun. LOL. I was about 90% sure I had the best hand here. This is a spot where they have AJ, A10 etc. often and overvalue their hands. People on stars are ridiculous. They love to bluff too. If I can keep it solid my next few sessions I'll be alright.

I also snagged about 3500 VPPs today which is sick. I'm almost at GoldStar status. I have 5500 VPPs total. Something's not making sense. I only needed 4k. I only had 1k before these last few days. Hmm. maybe i forgot how much i needed. anyway, i need 400 more. I'll give it a good run when I have time to earn as many points as i can. My goal is to get a nice tv with the points at the end of summer. that'd be baller.

I'm in a frustrating downswing right now and am struggling to decide what to do about it. I've ran pretty horribly lately which really sucks. Last thursday I lost 3 buyins in an hour, the next day i lost 2 more, the next i lost a little, today im down almost a buyin. Today doesn't really bother me much. I'm still gonna play later, but if things don't turn around soon, I'm going to be making a big decision. I've been toying with the idea of taking 1/2 or more of my bankroll offline. I don't feel safe with it being on there and running poorly has just made things worse for me.

I think im gonna try playing more 100nl tables and limit myself to 4 at a time to concentrate. I played on stars today too. If I didn't lose a big pot with AA to K5c then it would've been a nice positive win for the day there. Then I played on UB and started off awesome for once, then ran bad. Grrr.


I may play some donkaments too. I miss them and maybe it'll help me get through this downswing.

Thursday night a bunch of my friends came over to celebrate my gf and her bff's bdays in the city. i'm lazy at typing that out. it was an awesome time and no fiascos ensued. so all in all a great night. the next day was erica's actual bday so we did some shopping during the day then went downtown for dinner and to the hancock signature room on the 96th floor. I've never been there before and it was alright. The drinks were good, it was a fun time. Saturday we went to her sister's college for her graduation and proceeded to get stupid drunk by night's end. Her sister was puking the next morning thanks to all the shots i bought at the bar. and then she had to graduate. not to mention us sitting there while hungover. but whatever, everything turned out fine.

in 2 days im having a minor surgery and wont be playing much poker. so i want to get in a lot today and hopefully make some sort of money, lol. oh well, there's always rakeback.


EDIT: I forgot how soft stars' games can be. That with the combination of the double FPPs going on now will mean i'll be playing there a lot this month. I wanna save up the FPPs eventually to get a nice tv. that'll be awhile. but anyway, i finished up about 3 buyins at 100nl tonight, lost in a few donkaments, but i got frustrated. i won a nice preflop all in pot worth 300 bbs with AA vs. KK vs. AK. im still surprised it held.