I've gone busto on NoIQ... AGAIN!
A combination of river suckouts, staying too long at bad tables and *tilt*
Grrrr. I'm going to need a humungous hit in the races to compensate for this rubbish.
I've dropped $300 in three days, which hurts quite a lot.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
And when all else fails.. run good!
I was pottering along playing two table of 20EUR NL, doing ok - up 1/2 a BI on each table when these hands happened:
On the second table, my hand conversion failed. I held TT, raised UTG and called a three bet and shortstack shove (slightly over the three bet). Four players saw a flop of 377. Another short stack bets all-in, and I minraise enough to put the last guy in - he calls.
First shorty show KK, second shorty shows 88, and the bigger stack shows A7! Not so goood for our hero. Turn comes 3, and the river a miraculous T to take down a nearly 40EUR pot.
On the second table, my hand conversion failed. I held TT, raised UTG and called a three bet and shortstack shove (slightly over the three bet). Four players saw a flop of 377. Another short stack bets all-in, and I minraise enough to put the last guy in - he calls.
First shorty show KK, second shorty shows 88, and the bigger stack shows A7! Not so goood for our hero. Turn comes 3, and the river a miraculous T to take down a nearly 40EUR pot.
Hilarious hand
I three bet my pocket eights, hoping to get heads up. When the big blind capped and we went into the flop four ways I wasn't too confident, especially when the flop is ace high.
WTF? I guess everybody had pairs, but three players *all* folding to a single bet in an 8BB pot after a checked flop? Wow.
WTF? I guess everybody had pairs, but three players *all* folding to a single bet in an 8BB pot after a checked flop? Wow.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Launching into NL
I often catch public transport to work, which takes up to 45 minutes each way. I have read a lot of poker books on this commute, but reading on bouncy buses and crowded trains can be very difficult (not to mention nausea inducing). So the other day I loaded some Stoxpoker videos on my portable Asus Eee netbook and watched/listened to those instead. It turns out to be a really good way to absorb knowledge. You don't even need to see the screen for the "classroom" style videos, since everything is described in the voiceover. So I just clutch my little laptop with my headphones plugged in.
Anyway, so I've spent the last few days of commutes listening to Ed Miller's "Poker Made Simple" series. I found them to be perfectly pitched for someone like me who knows poker pretty well but is not well versed in the finer points of 6max no limit cash. I have to say I had no idea about the importance of position until I saw these videos - yes, I knew that you play tight UTG and loose on the button. But Miller basically advocates an ultra tight style in almost all positions, and then going to town on the button. He covers a lot of good material on how to leverage position by bluffing and value betting strongly.
After about three or four hours of Ed's material, I felt like a pro already and took a shot at no limit tonight with three tables of 20EUR tables on NoIQ. Very micro stuff at this stage. I played about 30-40 minutes and was amazed at how weak the tables were, not in terms of preflop stats exactly but just the way everybody folded to aggression (and showed little aggression themselves). About a million hands went limp, limp, raise (me on the button), fold, fold, call, flop nothing and then fold to my Cbet. Or I 3 bet preflop and took it down post.
I lost one big pot with TPTK (AK) versus a KQ which hit a big draw on the flop and made a straight on the river. I lost a couple more pots (too big probably) with middle pairs (88 and 99) that didn't connect and lost to bigger pairs. I won a humungous pot (50EUR) with a flopped top set jacks turned boat vs trips and a missed TT, and a few others with normal stuff like two pair and TPTK. Profit after 240 hands was only 20EUR or so, so basically down to that one big hand, But I felt like I had a really good handle on the right way to play 6max NL for the first time. I felt like I was really running the tables from the button and cutoff. I could really easily laydown hands when played back at postflop since it happened so rarely that I was very confident of where I sat. Obviously higher stakes are going to be tougher, but I am comfortable enough to give it a shot. I'll do a few more sessions at .10/0.20 and then take a look at 0.25/0.50.
After that, I opened a single table of 1/2 limit and promptly won 35BB in about 60 hands with a huge heater. I was running so hot my stats were something like 67/52 PF, and AF of 7 post (70% aggression), making me look like a complete maniac. In fact, I was just playing my normal 32/23 style and hitting heaps of good cards and following up with heaps of good flops (sets, flushes, straights, two pair, you name it). Oddly my WTSD was only 30%, probably because I was taking out a lot of pots without showdowns.
Anyway, so I've spent the last few days of commutes listening to Ed Miller's "Poker Made Simple" series. I found them to be perfectly pitched for someone like me who knows poker pretty well but is not well versed in the finer points of 6max no limit cash. I have to say I had no idea about the importance of position until I saw these videos - yes, I knew that you play tight UTG and loose on the button. But Miller basically advocates an ultra tight style in almost all positions, and then going to town on the button. He covers a lot of good material on how to leverage position by bluffing and value betting strongly.
After about three or four hours of Ed's material, I felt like a pro already and took a shot at no limit tonight with three tables of 20EUR tables on NoIQ. Very micro stuff at this stage. I played about 30-40 minutes and was amazed at how weak the tables were, not in terms of preflop stats exactly but just the way everybody folded to aggression (and showed little aggression themselves). About a million hands went limp, limp, raise (me on the button), fold, fold, call, flop nothing and then fold to my Cbet. Or I 3 bet preflop and took it down post.
I lost one big pot with TPTK (AK) versus a KQ which hit a big draw on the flop and made a straight on the river. I lost a couple more pots (too big probably) with middle pairs (88 and 99) that didn't connect and lost to bigger pairs. I won a humungous pot (50EUR) with a flopped top set jacks turned boat vs trips and a missed TT, and a few others with normal stuff like two pair and TPTK. Profit after 240 hands was only 20EUR or so, so basically down to that one big hand, But I felt like I had a really good handle on the right way to play 6max NL for the first time. I felt like I was really running the tables from the button and cutoff. I could really easily laydown hands when played back at postflop since it happened so rarely that I was very confident of where I sat. Obviously higher stakes are going to be tougher, but I am comfortable enough to give it a shot. I'll do a few more sessions at .10/0.20 and then take a look at 0.25/0.50.
After that, I opened a single table of 1/2 limit and promptly won 35BB in about 60 hands with a huge heater. I was running so hot my stats were something like 67/52 PF, and AF of 7 post (70% aggression), making me look like a complete maniac. In fact, I was just playing my normal 32/23 style and hitting heaps of good cards and following up with heaps of good flops (sets, flushes, straights, two pair, you name it). Oddly my WTSD was only 30%, probably because I was taking out a lot of pots without showdowns.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Test your poker IQ
http://www.donkeytest.com/
I managed a fairly respectable 117. Not too bad, considering I don't actually play no-limit and have never properly studied it.
It is quite a good quiz, with lots of tough situations to consider. It is also quite long (52 questions). Let's have your scores!
As an aside, NoIQ is looking to be quite lucrative this month in the Rake Race stakes. I found that not only am I in $400 position in the RTR affilliate race, but I'm also sitting in a $300 position in the main NoIQ race. I suppose the $150 I donked off playing PLO on tilt the other night helped out there :-P
I managed a fairly respectable 117. Not too bad, considering I don't actually play no-limit and have never properly studied it.
It is quite a good quiz, with lots of tough situations to consider. It is also quite long (52 questions). Let's have your scores!
As an aside, NoIQ is looking to be quite lucrative this month in the Rake Race stakes. I found that not only am I in $400 position in the RTR affilliate race, but I'm also sitting in a $300 position in the main NoIQ race. I suppose the $150 I donked off playing PLO on tilt the other night helped out there :-P
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Mornings still suck..
So I was going to post about how I've actually run pretty well the last couple of days and recovered a fair bit of bankroll.
Then I logged in for a quick half an hour of 1/2EUR and ran like a dog turd on valium. I don't think I won a single pot, and I somehow managed to dump 25BB in the space of about 40 hands. Every time I had a raising hand I was three bet and flopped the anti-nuts. Friggin marvellous.
On the upside, I ran pretty good for the previous couple of days. I have been playing mainly on Eurolinx where I cashed a $100 rake race prize and managed to double it pretty quickly, and on NoIQ which has just moved from iPoker to Entraction (where I am back to even par after starting with a good run). Both of these sites are running good rake races via RakeTheRake at the moment (see sidebar link). Eurolinx has a $10k race from 12th to 31st Jan, paying 40 places. From prior experience it should be very easy to pick up $100 in this race, and possibly up to $250 if I manage to get a bit of volume in. NoIQ has a massive $70,000 race running from 5th Jan to 28th Feb, paying a huge 120 places (minimum $200 prize). I have only played a couple of days on NoIQ and yet I am already sitting in a $400 position in the race. When added to 30% rakeback and a decent signup bonus, this looks potentially very very lucractive.
The one problem with NoIQ at the moment is that it isn't supported by Holdem Manager. It is supposed to be supported by PokerOffice, but I haven't had any luck with it so far. It is supported by PT2 but not by PT3.
Then I logged in for a quick half an hour of 1/2EUR and ran like a dog turd on valium. I don't think I won a single pot, and I somehow managed to dump 25BB in the space of about 40 hands. Every time I had a raising hand I was three bet and flopped the anti-nuts. Friggin marvellous.
On the upside, I ran pretty good for the previous couple of days. I have been playing mainly on Eurolinx where I cashed a $100 rake race prize and managed to double it pretty quickly, and on NoIQ which has just moved from iPoker to Entraction (where I am back to even par after starting with a good run). Both of these sites are running good rake races via RakeTheRake at the moment (see sidebar link). Eurolinx has a $10k race from 12th to 31st Jan, paying 40 places. From prior experience it should be very easy to pick up $100 in this race, and possibly up to $250 if I manage to get a bit of volume in. NoIQ has a massive $70,000 race running from 5th Jan to 28th Feb, paying a huge 120 places (minimum $200 prize). I have only played a couple of days on NoIQ and yet I am already sitting in a $400 position in the race. When added to 30% rakeback and a decent signup bonus, this looks potentially very very lucractive.
The one problem with NoIQ at the moment is that it isn't supported by Holdem Manager. It is supposed to be supported by PokerOffice, but I haven't had any luck with it so far. It is supported by PT2 but not by PT3.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Goals for 2009
My objective when I began this experiment a year ago was to build a bankroll big enough to play some serious poker at serious stakes. I have partly achieved that already, by satelliting into some serious ($1k buyin) tournaments.
I really enjoy playing tournaments, especially live ones. So my principal aim this year is to build a big enough bankroll to be able to liberally play tournaments of up to about $250 buyin. That includes nearly all of the local Casino events (except for the big finals which I would aim to satellite into again), and also online tournaments such as the PokerStars Sunday Million. To achieve this, a bankroll of around $10k would be the target for the end of the year. BCG has shown that this is entirely realistic even playing pretty low stakes and chasing bonuses.
In order to facilitate the above, I will also be aiming to do more study of no-limit and tournament play, principally via the Harrington books and sites like Stox Poker.
My stretch goal over the next few years is to satellite into a really major live tournament such as the Aussie Millions or WSOP. I came close a couple of times this year, so I hope with a larger bankroll I will get many more chances to do so.
In terms of online play, I will continue playing shorthanded limit and try to get back up to the 3/6 to 5/10 level. I will also try to make a transition to playing more no-limit cash, perhaps up to the 1/2 level. I will also aim to play more sit n gos, where the potential ROI is much higher than for SH limit, and the variance probably lower too.
I really enjoy playing tournaments, especially live ones. So my principal aim this year is to build a big enough bankroll to be able to liberally play tournaments of up to about $250 buyin. That includes nearly all of the local Casino events (except for the big finals which I would aim to satellite into again), and also online tournaments such as the PokerStars Sunday Million. To achieve this, a bankroll of around $10k would be the target for the end of the year. BCG has shown that this is entirely realistic even playing pretty low stakes and chasing bonuses.
In order to facilitate the above, I will also be aiming to do more study of no-limit and tournament play, principally via the Harrington books and sites like Stox Poker.
My stretch goal over the next few years is to satellite into a really major live tournament such as the Aussie Millions or WSOP. I came close a couple of times this year, so I hope with a larger bankroll I will get many more chances to do so.
In terms of online play, I will continue playing shorthanded limit and try to get back up to the 3/6 to 5/10 level. I will also try to make a transition to playing more no-limit cash, perhaps up to the 1/2 level. I will also aim to play more sit n gos, where the potential ROI is much higher than for SH limit, and the variance probably lower too.
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