CARDRUNNERS

Remember when my blog was good? You probably don't. I'm talking way back to August 2006. The glory days when the site with the easiest games still existed. I'm talking about a place where the beer flowed like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flocked like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Party Poker. Anyway, in August 2006, I embarked on a great challenge. My goal was to make 85k in 31 days playing 10/20NLHE on Party Poker. In the end, I came up a bit short, but it was a fun challenge and I always had something to post about. Today, I'm going to start a new challenge. This challenge doesn't have a monetary goal. It's simply a challenge to put in a lot of hands. I believe that if I put in the hands and the hard work, success will follow.

I feel like my PLO game is close to being good. I have good instincts and a pretty good understanding of the game. I have leaks though. In fact, I have some pretty big leaks. I plan on fixing those leauges and moving up the ranks in the correct manner. I will talk about my bankroll, my swings, what leaks I'm working on pluggins, etc. I think it should be an interesting excercise for me to go through and an interesting one for you to read.

What's the goal? I'm going to play 50k hands in the next 60 days. That's a lot of hands for me. I'm going to spend more time thinking/studying the game. I really want to move up the ranks in PLO.

Wish me luck.

Hands: 0

Profit: 0

Days remaining: 60

I played a little 200/400 last night. My head was much more clear this time, and I thought the game was good so I played for an hour or so. I made 11k on the session but overall didn't run so hot. Here are the notable hands:

I don't really know who John Hennigan is or if this is the real guy, but he plays pretty crazy. I have him at about 60/43 over a very small sample (100ish hands). I figured he could have just about anything and at the turn I figured he was drawing dead so I gave him a chance to fire. It was fortunate for me that he hit "gin" on the turn.

Hand 1

This guy is a short stacker who plays 23/19. He is capable of having a ton of hands here and with David cold calling (and more than likely folding) he has a lot of value in shoving. I figured i'd see a lot of small pairs and worse here and some AJ's to make up for the times I would see AK. Bad result, though.

hand 2

I'm trying to vary my play when I flop big hands. I don't want people thinking a check means they can just take the pot. Obviously, he had a very strong hand too, but I think i get a lot of random straight draws or one pair hands to make shoves here. I lost the flip, oh well.

hand 3

Those were the three significant pots that went to showdown. I basically just picked up some blinds here and there the rest of the way.

tc

Christmas was a fun time as usual.  I got a chance to hang out with my family in Wisconsin.  My Aunt and Uncle just bought a beautiful new house, it's seriously awesome.  They have like 10 acres of land too so we went outside on their ATV with sleds attached to it.  My cousin made a track and we just whipped around really fast.  It was awesome, it was sort of like tubing on the lake/ocean, except for on the snow.  Someone was taking some pictures of that so hopefully I can get some of Melissa and I on the sled.

It's always nice to get away and just hang out with my family.  We talked a little bit about poker and stuff, but really not that much besides the standard "how's stuff?" questions.  One of the things I really like about my family is just being "one of the guys."  Sometimes in poker situations, or outside my closest friends and family, some people seem to either want something out of me or to treat me differently because I've had financial success at a young age.  I love just being part of the group and my family doesn't really associate me with poker or money, just as the kid they've always known.

For Christmas I got a cool pair of nike id sneakers, clothes, books, and my mom made a shadow box of poker chips I have collected from various tournaments/cash games I've played in.  It's really cool to see chips back from Aruba 2004, the borgata, the bellagio, WSOP tourneys, the bahamas, etc, all displayed.  It makes me feel proud to have achieved what I have, even though I make a converted effort not to let poker control my life.

So I've been playing a lot of hands (for me).  In the last 3.5 days, I've put in 3100 hands on FTP and a little on UB.  90% of my hands have been at 25/50nl, but I've played a little 50/100 and 10/25nl.  I'm doing quite well, up 52k in this time.  It always takes me a little time to get back into the flow of things, but I really think I am playing great right now. 

I got lucky once making a move on cts, which in retrospect was a mistake, but there was a lot of thought into it.  I've been studying some of his game and I'm trying to incorporate some things that he does into my game.  The first thing I've done is try to be a little bit more unpredictable.  I've started smooth calling preflop with a little bit wider range, some big hands (KK-AA), some medicore hands (suited connector/1 gappers), and some medium strength hands (mid pairs).  I think it is making me a lot harder to play against, and it opens up my bluffing range postflop.  I'll make a long post about some of the good hands I have been playing, but for now I just want to talk a little bit about my progress.

The same thing is happening that always seems to happen when I start to hit the tables hard.  There are a new crop of players that figure I am weak because I don't play as much anymore, and that the games have changed since the times that I really put in tons of hands.  Well, there's nothing I like better than a challenge, so I enjoy trying to outsmart some of the newcomers.  It should be noted that some of these players are quite good, although I think they underestimate me and their opponents in general.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: saintmirror ($5,249) -
Seat 3: BigGuyLegend ($1,659) -
Seat 5: tay ($5,503.50) -


PRE-FLOP:

saintmirror posts small blind $25
BigGuyLegend posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: tay


RAISE tay ($175)
RAISE saintmirror ($675)
FOLD BigGuyLegend
CALL tay ($500)


FLOP:

Pot: $1400
   

BET saintmirror ($1050)
RAISE tay ($2100)
RAISE saintmirror ($4574)
CALL tay ($2474)


TURN:

Pot: $10548
     



RIVER:

Pot: $10548
      



SHOWDOWN:
saintmirror:

tay:


tay collected $10547 from main pot with two pair, Sevens and Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $10 Rake: $1

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: saintmirror small blind showed [8d 7d] and lost with a pair of Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5249)
  
Seat 3: BigGuyLegend big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 5: tay button showed [7s 7c] and won 10,547 with two pair, Sevens and Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($5298)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

I lied about not talking about any hands.  I'll post one here.  One thing that people forget about playing poker is that after all of the fundamentals, the math, etc., it sometimes comes down to "does he have it?"  Now, it's never this simple, it's more about "how does my hand perform against his range of possible holdings," but the best players are better at more accurately gauging the other player's ranges, particularly in the changing psychological environment of heads up and shorthanded play.  You can look at the following hand and say "wtf," that makes no sense.  But based on the flow of the match, the fact that I was pretty much having my way at the tables (we were playing a couple of tables), and what i perceived about my opponent, timing of the hand, I just really knew that I was going with this hand after his flop bet.  This is something that is very hard to teach, and there a handful of players i know that make plays like this routinely... guys like durrr, cts, and genius28 come to mind.  So anyway, I raised to induce a shove on this flop, he timed it down to 2 seconds on his time bank and shoved, and I snap called.  Interesting hand.

Stats since the 23rd, yay.  By the way, someone teach me how to cut off this excess stuff under the pt screen shot.  Thanks.

tc

I'm on a bad run in poker. My goal for the month, besides finishing up school and making sure I pass everything, is to get unstuck online from the 200/400 backing debacle. I was well on my way then I had an absolutely BRUTAL 20 minute stretch. Everything I did went wrong. Not to mention I lost two big hands last night in the live game and went from being up 20 to down 9. I really need to concentrate and lay hands down in big pots when people raise the river. They simply have the nuts every single time.

Here are the online gems:

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?989997 (qq v. ak). I'm wondering if it's better to just call here and get it in on a blank flop?

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?990003 (how do u play the turn?) This was a tough hand, I knew the J was a dirty card, because so many two pair hands got there. I wasn't sure if I should shove, bet/call shove, or cr shove. I don't think I can check fold this hand. I should have CR'd the flop.

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?990006 (wasn't sure what to do here, I probably should have just called the 4 bet pre, then folded when he went all in on the flop).

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?990015 (This one was tilt. I was hoping he would fold high cards, AJ+, and then I would gamble it up against an overpair. Him having spades really crushed me).



Sigh. Time to do some homework,
David