CARDRUNNERS

So a quick update, coaching has been going well, and I am now looking for a group who is interested in video review sessions.  We will be taking turns recording a video and having the entire group going over the video. 

A poker update, I am out of my downswing and lately have been playing a bunch of HU.  Today I played a player on 3 tables, and ran extremely bad.  I think I ended up down like 6 buyins in all in equity, that is a ton for HU.

Here is one hand towards the end, it is pretty standard, but this was happening to me the whole time:

www.pokerhand.org/

This is an interesting hand, I thought that he wouldn't raise the turn with an ace since he is folding out a ton of stuff that he beats, and I didn't think he was doing this for value with a Q.  I also thought that my line looked pretty strong so he should fold here alot.  I think my play is fine since he is not raising the turn all that often with an ace.
www.pokerhand.org/

Me running good, obv standard
www.pokerhand.org/

Alot of the hands were similar, or he would thinly value bet TP when I had tons of equity and obv bricked off.

Here is a fun hand vs the same opponent, He was messing with my cbets alot, so I did eventually begin 3betting just for value and then getting owned when he sucked out on the river like what he did above, but this was pretty early in the match.  I think his play is ok, he does have a ton of equity against hands with 1 pair less than a Ten.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3442766


I think he played this pretty weird, I began min raising pre since he was calling and 3betting me a ton.  The way the match was playing, I think 4betting and calling were the best options.  He played it pretty bad and I think he should get it in on the flop or just fold.
www.pokerhand.org/

I have also been doing well in steps.  I won a step 6 ticket today, and will probably play that this weekend, and I also have a step 4 ticket.  I usually buy in at step 3 or 4, depending on what is running.  I ran well, but feel like I played extremely well and sucked out once for a small pot blind vs blind.  I had an extremely tough table with Jorj95, blanonegro, stevie444 and ch0ppy all to my immediate left.  Hopefully I can win this seat.  I have been trying to win into some live events, but before the WSOP, the only pokerstars events i can play are the PCA and the LAPT event in march.  Unfortunately all of the EPT events are during the week and I can't miss that many of my classes.

Good luck at the tables,
Steve

I am looking to stake some players at NL50 6max and possibly NL100.  There will be some coaching, I'm not sure if I am allowed to do this due to CR coaching terms and conditions, so there will be minimal coaching, but we can go over some specific hands and what not.  PM me if you are interested with some references, graphs, etc.  Stake will be 50/50 on FT, splitting rakeback, and 55/45 on stars where you get to keep the fpps.

Quick update-I got payed today for coaching and what not so I decided to play some HU on FT.  I Think that NL100 is either incredibly fishy, or FT is that much easier than stars, but here are a few hands.  I obv crushed it and double my BR.

Sweet cooler: I like the overbet shove since I don't think it is all that likely I really have a 5, and there are tons of hands that are still in my range.  www.pokerhand.org/

The power of 3betting light.  I was 3betting over 30% of hands, and he wasn't adjusting and I was able to take down tons of pots by just cbetting.  I was also up 2 buyins off this guy and he was probably tilting a bit.  Turn is standard, but I don't like his flop float all that much.  www.pokerhand.org/

Obv I bink off the turn, but I felt his hand is really face up at this point.  I think anything that fills up on the river raises the turn, so I really thought I could get tons of value out of Ax hands and Jx hands.  I Think his call is real bad, but I stacked him the previous hand.  I really don't think he ever beats anything but air here.  www.pokerhand.org/

Random 2/4 hand vs a fish: He was real bad, built up from liek 150 by sucking out and then playing like a complete maniac.  I think he won AJ vs my AK then after I grinded him down he doubled again when i had the nut flush draw on the flop and he had TP.  I'm not sure if I missed value on the river, but on the turn I put him pretty squarely on a Big A type hand.  I don't think he shows up with better here too much, so I guess I should have tried to eitehr value bet or at least bet so he can't see my hand.  I think Preflop was standard seeing as I felt like I had a huge edge postflop and he mini3bet me.www.pokerhand.org/

So far, the month kinda sucks for poker.  I am running about 10 buyins under ev, and most of it is HU which is really sick, but hopefully I can use that luck to run good in the PCA or put up a huge month in December.

I think thats it, I think for random goals I'm gonna add qualifying for the PCA, EPT-France, and maybe the LAPT in march.  Those are the ones that I can fit into my schedule the best so we'll see how that goes.  I still have a step 6 ticket, so hopefully that goes well.

Anyway, Gl at the tables, and PM me if you are interested in coaching or staking.

So when I was working at my internship this summer, I had alot of downtime and thought alot about poker.  One thing I did was make a few goals for myself.  At that point my goals were something like

150k hands (starting in July (yea I know I don't put in much volume, but 40 hours of work a week then school makes this difficult)
$20,000 in profits
PCA
Supernova status.

As of now, I have put in just over 148k hands a cleared the $20k mark.  I also have qualified for the PCA and I am 900 VPPs away from getting supernova.  So my goals are pretty complete as of now, but I guess I should set some for December and next year (if poker is still around).  December is gonna be a rough month, but I hope to play some more 2/4 and maybe some 3/6.  I think I should be able to play close to 30k hands since I am playing more HU, but im not positive since I am playing less tables now.  I also would like to qualify for either EPT-Deauville or one of the LAPT events which I can attend without missing to many of my classes.  I would also like to have a $10k month in just cash, which I haven't done since August. 

I have been doing pretty well, and my FT roll is 10x what it was since I started which is pretty fun.  I have also been doing pretty good playing HU, here is a hand from today that was kinda fun.
www.pokerhand.org/
My turn bet was purely for value and I was actually trying to get a hand liek AT to shove on me, when he did shove, I snapped called.  I was pretty certain that he would fire the turn with most overpairs and wouldn't c/r hands like 99/TT here.  Also, worst case scenario I would have outs to a gutter and sometimes my set, but I really didn't see him having better here.  He was also slightly on tilt since 2 hands earlier I had stacked him with KT vs K2 when I c/r flop and he shoved over my turn bet on KQ68ss.

I also sucked out pretty bad on another table with KQs vs KK, but I feel thats karma since I have been runnign so bad lately.  I also played a maniac on stars today who was just raising to liek 50bb or shoving over a min bet in limped pots.  He doubled early off me on this hand:www.pokerhand.org/, but i was pretty patient and he shoved into my JJ and QQ and I held.

Anyway, I still may be looking to stake people, but my last 2 people I tried to stake have backed out and I don't know if i wanna stake for cash anymore, mayb I'll just try to buy pieces of people playing in the million or w/e.  I feel like I should try to stake/buy pieces so I can make some money without actually doing anything, but who knows.

I am also still coaching, so If you want a 6max or HU coach check out my profile atwww.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthreads.php.  I think people should check it out because I am one of the few 5ptbb+ winners at NL100 and NL200, and I have alot to offer.

Anyway, Good luck

-Stephen "Llama88" Reiser

So hopefully my random 2/4 downswing is over, I've been doing ok at HU but get owned at 6max for whatever reason.  I decided to start massing some 1/2 to get some confidence back and I think I have been doing pretty well over the past few days, maybe up liek $1500 in the past 2-3 days(decent considering I've had ton's of final projects that were due this week). There were a few interesting hands that I'll put up later if i get aroudn to it.

ALso, the LAPT event in January in 18+ as well as the EPT event in france, but they are both at the same time so hopefully i can qualify for one, but I would deffinately prefer to to get into the france event. 

Finally, coaching has been going pretty well, I have 5 students now and I have had to raise my prices a bit since I do not have the time to take on 10 students.  However I am still offering the same prices to my current students.  Anyway, I have also made a video and submitted it to cardrunners and hopefully they like it and will decide to put me on as an instructor.  That would be really good for everyone since I believe I have alot to offer to any micro and small stakes players who are planning on moving up past NL200.  Also, I am still looking for students who want to take part in my group lessons, I believe that this is a very cheap and beneficial program for potential students.

Finally, I have booked all my stuff and will be playing in the PCA, I decided to start on Day 2 since it will give me some time to get settled in.  Hopefully i run good one time and can make a run in the tournament.

Anyway, Good Luck, I'll try to put up some hands later tonight/this weekend,

-Llama88

I am not quite sure how this year ended for me, obviously there are 4 days left, tomorrow I am gonna play all the sunday Majors on FT and PS and the turbo takedown and the guiness thing if I am able to register.  Hopefully these tourneys will help me prepare for the PCA a bit, and I will try to watch some MTT vids, so if anyone has a few recommendations that would be great.

Here are my results since June or so, I started off mainly at NL100 and have moved onto NL400, Its not alot of volume, but I have about a 5ptbb winrate over this sample which is pretty solid.  I ran terrible at NL400 HU and 6max and am down about 6k in equity at inthose games so had I run at expectation my winrate would be much higher.  I think I am going to try to attempt to play a ton of HU next year.  Over about 30k hands this year I have over an 11ptbb/100 winrate, its a small sample but I think I play very well HU and it is more exciting than 6max.

This year was pretty swingy.  In January-March, I had about 10k in winnings from NL200 FR cash, but I lost about 5k of that back before I fully transitioned to 6max.  I think I won about 30k this year over about 200k hands, not including rakeback of anykind which probably puts me up over 35k.  I have only been seriously playing cash since this summer, and I am very pleased with my progress.  In MTTs and SNGs I expect to be close to breakeven/slighly up/slightly down.

One funny thing I was looking at regarding my graphs was my all in equity.  On my laptop I am down about 6-7k in all en equity and on this computer I am down some where around 5k which is absurd.  This is a 300k sample where my total winnings are around 40-45k and I am down like 12k in all in equity.  Hopefully things will turn around for me in 2009!!

Here are a few hands that I played, I will start off with the biggest that I won and lost.  Here is my biggest loss, it was the beginning of my downswing towards the end, I think it is a fold for sure since he was likely to go into check call mode with 1 pair hands, so my hand is essentially a bluff catcher.  During the match I was really tired at this point and should have quit and talked myself into thinking he could be doing this with any sort of Ax hand as well as some bluffs.  www.pokerhand.org/

This is my second largest hand I lost, I could have tried to get it in preflop, but he wasn't 3betting and 4betting frequently so I thought my hand had some more postflop value (it was suited!!)  In retrospect I think since I was oop getting it in pre would be the best, but I think this was one of my first shots at 2/4 and might have been alittle tentative putting 220bb in preflop www.pokerhand.org/

Most of my other big losses were random coolers like set over set or what not and random bluffs/big draws i missed.  Now on to the big hands I played, this was the biggest pot I played this year, and it happened today.  The rvier call is somewhat debatable I think, but i went with my read and basically snap called.  I understand that the only hands he may be value-raising that I beat here are 9T and TJ, but the only hand I feel like I lose to is 89.  I think that I get raised a ton before the river given the dynamic with most hands that beat me such as KT/AT and 77  I really put him on a hand like 88-JJ and was trying to get value, and the only hand he is repping on the river is 89 which probably raises the flop given the dynamic.  His line really doesn't make sense from anything other than like 10-7.  If he had a more balanced range on the river, I still think its a call since I know he defends really really light.  He could show up with hands liek 10-5 as well as AT here, but he can also be value shoving hands liek QQ sometimes I think if he is really good, but I don't think his range is balanced at all here and leans towards 89 and bluffs/hands he turns into bluffswww.pokerhand.org/

This was also one of my bigger hands that wasn't real standard.  He was a huge fish and started up like 3 buyins off me which was quite annoying.  I played until like 5 in the morning vs him and he insta quit after this hand.  He was a huge station and I am still not sure if I could/should have shoved the river.  I have odds to draw given I know I am getting paid when I hit and I have direct pot odds to draw as well since he bet so small on every street.www.pokerhand.org/  Fortunately I binked the river and he donates a PSB, He never beats anything on the river, and it was nice to finally hit a hand.  I had missed every draw and he would call me down with bottom pair over and over which was how he built up his stack.

Thats about it for my bigger hands, all from NL400 HU since there are alot more deeper situations HU I think (also I was probably sitting at the deep tables)  One last hand from NL200, I think shoving the turn is best since I get called wider I think since he has alot of 2pair hands here that the river may bring scare cards that I might get outdrawn/lose action on.  Luckily the river is the best card in the deck for my hand.  This was the biggest hand of NL200 I played www.pokerhand.org/ 

Here is a final NL200 hand that I thought was really fun, I'm not sure of his thinking, but I think once I raise the flop I need to get it in.  Even against the top of his range, I am doing pretty well and have 45% equity against AJ/over pairs.www.pokerhand.org/

I had made a goals update blog about a month ago which was at about the 150k hand mark on this graph, I soon went on a downswing of running terrible at NL400, but I finally climbed out of it.  This was a smallish downswing but it was crushing my confidence.  It was about 15-20 buyins of NL200 and NL400, but it made me begin to think I couldn't beat NL400.  I have not fully jumped into the game yet, but I am going to start off my doing some game selecting.  I do not feel uncomfortable playing, and I have played NL400 on the deep tables which is a largish game for me considering my bread and butter is NL200, but I feel very comfortable at NL400 so hopefully I can run well and continue to move up.

A few goals for next year are:becoming a NL1000 regular, win over $100k and play more than 300k hands.  One other goal is to qualify for the WSOP, but I don't know if I would play since I would have the option of getting cash or the seat, and 10k would be nice.  I really want to go out to LV and play some smaller events like a $1k or $2500 or something, but I am not sure I will be 21 by then, I know I will be 21 for the ME but dunno about the prelims.  The hands might be difficult if I decide to play alot of 6max since I usually only play 4-6 tables.  Next fall is my toughest semester at college, but hopefully I can do well in the first half of the year so I will have an easier time reaching my goals.


Best of Luck in 2009,

Stephen "Llama88" Reiser

Here are some of my sisters pictures.  A lil bit of a repeat but oh well.




Girls at the entrance



The entrance walkway.  This is like a mural of people coming out of the wall.




Girls Poppin bottles


A View of our table from the bar area.




Girls working the pole.



Rikd, Evan, and Corwin



Me, Sean, and Nick




Some Pics of the Party Crack a lackin'

Getting ready for the toast.

Raging



Cheers!



The Countdown