Here is an example of playing a hand well and still losing. I played aggressively, but I think I missed a chance to reraise the turn, resulting in a lost opportunity and a small loss by most anyone's standards.
Preflop: I joined this table specifically to play against the big stack. I had been playing aggressively with a lot of preflop raising and some 3-betting in key spots. I had been attacking the big stack specifically to get involved in a big pot. I got my wish, albeit without a huge hand. Any K in the SB against a random hand is likely to be favored, so I pumped it up to 15 cents (pot bet). He is a tighter player and calls. I put him on bigger cards, perhaps a KJ.
Flop: Bingo! This flop hit me and likely did not hit him. What's more, with my aggressive table image, he's not likely to believe that I've hit this hand. I lead out for about half the pot (15 cents) and he flat calls, almost certainly with overs. My read of KJ range is probably intact.
Turn: The 8 isn't likely to have helped him, so I lead out again for 25 cents (40% of the pot). He reraises me to 75 cents, probably thinking I'm on the steal. This is not a bad assumption, given that I'm raising preflop a good bit of the time. The pot is large enough for him to take a stab. I think about reraising again, but I only have a pair of 5's with a good kicker. He could have called with A-8. I play small ball and flat call, thinking there's a good chance I'm still good, but wanting to keep him on the hook for a value bet on the river.
River: A 10 is not really a good card at all here. Many players will call with x-10 because it looks nice, and the 10 connects to a lot of hands, like A-10, K-10 (hand of death), Q-10, J-10, 10-9, 10-8. I decide to block bet my 5's with an 80 center into a pot of $2 or so. I think it's enough to win on its own much of the time, but I also have fold equity. He flat calls, and I know I'm beat. He flips over Q-10 for the win.
Analysis: With the exception of maybe reraising on the turn for information, I think I played the hand pretty well. I was worried about my opponents TAG style, plus I assumed he accumulated a $20+ stack by outplaying people. I thought he was a capable opponent, so I played it a bit less risky. Overall, I think I made the moves necessary to win a nice pot. I just happened to get unlucky on the river. I give my opponent a great deal of credit for the creative turn bet, which allowed him to see a river and get another bet out of me. He probably got max value (unless he called a hypothetical reraise on the turn, which was unlikely).
Showing posts with label Full Tilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Full Tilt. Show all posts
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Breaking the Rules: Playing When Unfocused
I woke up this morning (that's as good as this story gets) with to the best of knowledge was a small creature with a sledgehammer smashing the insides of my head. It was bad enough to call out of the office, since focusing wasn't gonna be my strong suit today and the potential for self inflicted pain at work was high. So I got the bright idea to try a couple of sit & goes, and try to get my mind off of the pain. What followed was the throwing away of the modest profit that I had earned in three sit & goes, culminating in this ridiculously simplistic misplay at the end of the 3rd:It starts out well enough, a standard under the gun raise to 150, and my decision to flat call there was an attempt to not race so early in the tournament. I thought about the raise, but I didn't want to get over involved with pocket Queens when it's very possible that this guy's raising in that position with Ace King and a raise will induce him to shove.
The raise behind me should have set off all kinds of bells and whistles but instead I decide he's just trying to squeeze with his 2nd place stack (a horrible conclusion) and decide to do EXACTLY what I didn't want to do ... get over involved with pocket Queens this early in a tournament when there's so much play left. I guess the good news is that it's only a $5+.50 sit & go, but for this day, I break my rule by playing when I can't stay focused and go out like a Mexican Clydesdale.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Officially Not My Week...
Okay, so in the last week, I have taken the beat described in the last post to get knocked out on the bubble. Here are some other beats I have taken:
I am in the BB with Q-10 and check my option. The flop comes Q-10-2. I check-call a pot-sized bet. The turn is a 7. I bet out and get raised all in. I call. My opponent has 7-2. The river is a 7 for a boat.
I am in the BB with 6-8. I check my option. The flop comes 5-7-9, so I have a made straight. I check, someone bets 3x the size of the pot, so I go all in, hoping for 2 pair. Even better, the player has the A-5 of clubs for 1 pair and a backdoor flush. Runner-runner flush, and I lose my stack.
I raise with 7's and get called by 2 players. The flop comes out 7-5-4 rainbow. Someone bets out. I call, the other player folds. The turn is an A. The player bets out, I go all in, he calls. The guy has K-6 suited for an up and down straight draw and rivers a 3 for a straight.
I am in late position against a new player. I have Q's. The new player raises to $.40. I flat call to see a flop. The flop comes K-10-3, rainbow. The new player just shoves. I think about it, and I decide he's full of it. I call. He has A-Q for an inside draw. He rivers a J for Broadway.
Note: The new player turns out to be a human ATM. For him, any pair on a board warrants an all in. He is also lucky, outcatching JJ with A-5, etc. I have a pretty good read on him.
I pick up 10's in second position. The turbo-donk pushes all in UTG. I call with 10's. The button calls with AK. The turbo donk has Q-9 of diamonds. The flop comes 10-5-2, 2 diamonds. The turn is a blank, and the river is a 3d. Turbo donk takes my stack and doubles through AK. I scream in anger.
Don't know what more I can do. I'm getting my money in really good, and my luck is just terrible right now. I'm trying to stay vigilant and keep playing my game. It's just hard to remain positive and focused when these hits keep coming.
I am in the BB with Q-10 and check my option. The flop comes Q-10-2. I check-call a pot-sized bet. The turn is a 7. I bet out and get raised all in. I call. My opponent has 7-2. The river is a 7 for a boat.
I am in the BB with 6-8. I check my option. The flop comes 5-7-9, so I have a made straight. I check, someone bets 3x the size of the pot, so I go all in, hoping for 2 pair. Even better, the player has the A-5 of clubs for 1 pair and a backdoor flush. Runner-runner flush, and I lose my stack.
I raise with 7's and get called by 2 players. The flop comes out 7-5-4 rainbow. Someone bets out. I call, the other player folds. The turn is an A. The player bets out, I go all in, he calls. The guy has K-6 suited for an up and down straight draw and rivers a 3 for a straight.
I am in late position against a new player. I have Q's. The new player raises to $.40. I flat call to see a flop. The flop comes K-10-3, rainbow. The new player just shoves. I think about it, and I decide he's full of it. I call. He has A-Q for an inside draw. He rivers a J for Broadway.
Note: The new player turns out to be a human ATM. For him, any pair on a board warrants an all in. He is also lucky, outcatching JJ with A-5, etc. I have a pretty good read on him.
I pick up 10's in second position. The turbo-donk pushes all in UTG. I call with 10's. The button calls with AK. The turbo donk has Q-9 of diamonds. The flop comes 10-5-2, 2 diamonds. The turn is a blank, and the river is a 3d. Turbo donk takes my stack and doubles through AK. I scream in anger.
Don't know what more I can do. I'm getting my money in really good, and my luck is just terrible right now. I'm trying to stay vigilant and keep playing my game. It's just hard to remain positive and focused when these hits keep coming.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
No Rakeback = No More Full Tilt?
Being a bit of a novice online player, I'm always looking to learn new things about how to grow my bankroll. I am an avid listener of Mediocre Poker Radio, which plays on 106.7 WJFK on Sunday nights. If you miss the show, you can always catch podcasts on the Mediocre Poker site. The Hulk or myself will discuss the merits of this show another time, but one thing that EB (the co-host) talks about constantly is rakeback. Listening to the most recent podcast, one of the guests tauted the absolute critical need for every grinder out there to have rakeback. Of course, I had always wondered what it was, but I had never looked into this type of service. Here's what I learned:
The problem here is that Full Tilt is notoriously stingy about offering rakeback to existing account holders. Many of the sites I looked into would not submit a request for my account. However, www.raketherake.com was willing to handle this on my behalf, but they did not promise any results. Given that I want to build my bankroll, I have to take advantage of every opportunity, both on the table and off. If FT won't help a brother out, I'll have to take my business elsewhere. I'll keep you all updated about what transpires...
- Rakeback is a refund of the "rake" that you pay to play any cash game or tournament. Depending on the host site and the rakeback site, you can earn anywhere from 25%-35% in refunds if you use any of these providers. The rakeback provider tracks your play at whatever game/stake, then will refund the set % of the raked amount back into your account on a monthly basis.
- Cash players pay more rake than tournament players because pretty much every hand that sees a flop is "raked" a set percentage. As such, cash players are entitled to more rakeback.
- Cash players have an added bonus here because they not only get the refund on pots they play/win, but they also receive the same rate on raked hands that they do not play. Essentially, if you are dealt cards, you are eligible to receive rakeback for that pot.
- According to Guido, who is a very wise man, if you generate a large volume of hands seen and are a break-even player, you can build your bankroll via rakeback alone. (Of course, being a winning player is also helpful).
- For more info, I trust this site.
The problem here is that Full Tilt is notoriously stingy about offering rakeback to existing account holders. Many of the sites I looked into would not submit a request for my account. However, www.raketherake.com was willing to handle this on my behalf, but they did not promise any results. Given that I want to build my bankroll, I have to take advantage of every opportunity, both on the table and off. If FT won't help a brother out, I'll have to take my business elsewhere. I'll keep you all updated about what transpires...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Online Analysis to Date
I have been playing a decent amount of online poker using Full Tilt. My goal is to turn a $100 bankroll investment into $1000 by December. I started off pretty strong, raking in $100 in my first month playing 5/10 cent NLHE 2 and 3 tables at a time. I was playing a more tight-solid game at that point, targeting weak players, keeping pots small, playing pots for value. However, I was having trouble playing against hyper-aggressive players for whatever reason. I would get impatient and would call all-ins with just flush draws or a weak A. It was a dumb strategy, and I started to backslide. Stupidly, instead of just shifting my strategy or table selecting better, I decided to switch and play Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) at the 5/10 cent levels. This was disastrous to my bankroll. I went from a + $80 month my first month to below my initial $100 in bankroll.
Looking back, I was playing pretty much every double-suited hands, big pairs, and suited and connecting hands. While I may have overvalued some of my hands preflop, I was also not accounting for the type of game I would encounter. It is essentially impossible to bluff at this level. Since the variance can be so high, pretty much everyone plays every pot, and you need the stone nuts to even bet. Even when you have the best hand, things swing back and forth. I flopped quads over quads twice and won big pots, only to flop a full house the next pot and lose to quads. At a max $10 buy-in per table, you basically have enough in your stack to play 1 monster pot, so you’re very variance dependent. I like to semibluff my draws (the only way to play PLO), but against 4-5 other players, it is very tough to know where you’re at from street to street.
After getting cracked for pretty much all of my profits that I ground out in Hold Em, I gave up and realized that I really didn’t have the roll right now to play cash the way I want to play. I had been playing some Sit N Go’s (SNG), with pretty solid results (expected profit of $3.50 per 6 max SNG). I decided to rebuild my roll by multitabling $5 6 max SNG’s exclusively. In the past 2 weeks, I’m earning about $2 profit per match. I know that I am significantly better than my competition, so I use that advantage, plus I am being much more aggressive preflop early in tournaments. I set an aggressive image early and tend to get my big hands paid off. For instance, last night I called a raised with 10-7 suited, flopped 2 pair against JJ and doubled up. The very next hand, I picked up QQ and pumped it up again, and got reraised all-in by K-10 (hand of death). I instacalled and busted the guy. All of a sudden, I’m sitting with $5k in chips with 4 players left, and I can afford to sit back and pick spots. In general, I peg the table within the first 7-10 hands, and I pick on the ones who I can pick on, and value bet the heck out of every pot. I also play the short stack well, so even if I have to fold on a scary board, I’m still in every tournament. I’ve gone from 300 chips early to winning the thing by not getting desperate.
At the same time, one big adjustment that I’ve made here (that I almost never do live) is flat calling preflop or checking the BB with AK, particularly if I’ve been playing loose and aggressive. When I hit, I tend to bet out against the aggressor and tend to get met with a reraise, so I get my chips in. Even if the flop is super scary, I just get away from it with a limp. Not overplaying AK has a very high EV for me, particularly with the image that I’ve set.
Overall, I’m back up about $25 over my initial buy ($125 total). It has been a better month with me playing smarter, playing fewer tables, and quitting whenever I feel I’m not playing my best. I’m happy with the result playing the SNG’s, but I want to get my roll up to $200 total, so I can start playing some 5/10 cent NLHE to really build my roll.
Looking back, I was playing pretty much every double-suited hands, big pairs, and suited and connecting hands. While I may have overvalued some of my hands preflop, I was also not accounting for the type of game I would encounter. It is essentially impossible to bluff at this level. Since the variance can be so high, pretty much everyone plays every pot, and you need the stone nuts to even bet. Even when you have the best hand, things swing back and forth. I flopped quads over quads twice and won big pots, only to flop a full house the next pot and lose to quads. At a max $10 buy-in per table, you basically have enough in your stack to play 1 monster pot, so you’re very variance dependent. I like to semibluff my draws (the only way to play PLO), but against 4-5 other players, it is very tough to know where you’re at from street to street.
After getting cracked for pretty much all of my profits that I ground out in Hold Em, I gave up and realized that I really didn’t have the roll right now to play cash the way I want to play. I had been playing some Sit N Go’s (SNG), with pretty solid results (expected profit of $3.50 per 6 max SNG). I decided to rebuild my roll by multitabling $5 6 max SNG’s exclusively. In the past 2 weeks, I’m earning about $2 profit per match. I know that I am significantly better than my competition, so I use that advantage, plus I am being much more aggressive preflop early in tournaments. I set an aggressive image early and tend to get my big hands paid off. For instance, last night I called a raised with 10-7 suited, flopped 2 pair against JJ and doubled up. The very next hand, I picked up QQ and pumped it up again, and got reraised all-in by K-10 (hand of death). I instacalled and busted the guy. All of a sudden, I’m sitting with $5k in chips with 4 players left, and I can afford to sit back and pick spots. In general, I peg the table within the first 7-10 hands, and I pick on the ones who I can pick on, and value bet the heck out of every pot. I also play the short stack well, so even if I have to fold on a scary board, I’m still in every tournament. I’ve gone from 300 chips early to winning the thing by not getting desperate.
At the same time, one big adjustment that I’ve made here (that I almost never do live) is flat calling preflop or checking the BB with AK, particularly if I’ve been playing loose and aggressive. When I hit, I tend to bet out against the aggressor and tend to get met with a reraise, so I get my chips in. Even if the flop is super scary, I just get away from it with a limp. Not overplaying AK has a very high EV for me, particularly with the image that I’ve set.
Overall, I’m back up about $25 over my initial buy ($125 total). It has been a better month with me playing smarter, playing fewer tables, and quitting whenever I feel I’m not playing my best. I’m happy with the result playing the SNG’s, but I want to get my roll up to $200 total, so I can start playing some 5/10 cent NLHE to really build my roll.
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