Monday, August 31, 2009

Maybe Back At It Again

3rd place in Pokersluts Stud Hi last night puts me at the top of the standings. I actually have a roll right not to play some other stuff. I think I am going to stay away from the NL games. I just don't have the heart or skill set any more to play it online. I am going to stick to limit games.

Tomorrow I am going to sign-up for either Deuces Cracked or Leggo Poker and watch all of the limit videos I can over the free trial week. Maybe I can stick with something for a change. Maybe.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

PokerSlut Tour XV Stud



So, you think you're a stud do ya?  Do ya?
Here's your chance to prove it.


Monday, August 24, 2009

About That Fuck Poker Post

I wrote it after I played AIPS and AA lost to Q7 because top pair 7 kicker just has to be good when I overshove the turn for 1.5x the pot. His excuse was that I was a good player and I was capable of bluffing in that spot. Whatever helps you sleep buddy. Enough about that shit.

Since I am relegated to playing just Sunday nights now I don't get much of a chance to win anything. This makes chopping the Pokersluts Razz that much sweeter. I finally have a healthy roll on Full Tilt now and will be moving some of it over to Poker Stars.

The Razz event went smooth almost from the get go. Aside from bricking off 5th 6th and 7th on the first hand I played to drop me to 1200 I played pretty good. By the first break I had it over 2k and didn't look back from there. With around 12 people left or so I never fell below 2nd in chips. I had around a 3x chip lead going to the final table and was able to maintain it and ended up chopping for around a $24 profit.

I started another blog for my non-poker stuff, including my travels for work and the subsequent casinoish shenanigans. It is located at http://scottc25.blogspot.com.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

PokerSlut Tour XV Razz



It's time for you to razzle dazzle us with your skillz. 


Monday, August 17, 2009

One more hand....

Kicked me in the jimmies yesterday.

Was playing a decent amount of 25PLO 6 max over the weekend. Usually the live ones come out on the weekends and I was trying to clear some of my free money bonus from FTP. The bonus whoring was really the side note, I was mostly just trying to grind. I found I can do 3 tables OK. Probably not optimal, but I really need to watch my distractions when I am doing it. Satruday went decent, ground out a small profit and cleared a little bit of the bonus.

Sunday I was having a bleh session. Just not much going on any table. Lost a coupla big hands with AAxx single and double suited. One where I guy limped, the SB potted (like he did every time when it was limped to him, in or our of position), I re potted from UTG and this guy cold called 7 dollars preflop after limping. Of course he hit trips on the river. So that's about the way the session was going, but still managed to only be down about 5 bucks or so. I closed my 2 other tables and was waiting for the BB to get to me on the 3rd, we were only 4 handed and I get AAQ8 single suited in spades. I pot, the BB repots, and I repot again hoping to end this. He calls 7 bucks or whatever it is now. The flop was Q94 rainbow, with a back door spade draw and he checks to me. At this point, I really had him on a KKxx hand, I thought QQxx was possibly but not very likely. So the pot is 15, I have 16 left and I really think there is only one move, so I pot, he tanks, then puts me all in, I call. He had KQJ10 rainbow. Of course he gets there with a King on the turn.

I'm not sure I can do much differently in this hand. I only have 17 behind when the flop comes out. I can't bet 1/2 and then try and get away when he repots. If I'm deeper, maybe. I'm curious if anyone else has thoughts on this hand. His cold call preflop and his check on the flop really made me think he had a KKxx hand, I've seen that line way too many times in these games. Is there anyway to not go broke here?

Sunday, August 16, 2009

PokerSlut Tour XV PLO8 DS


Wow, another DS event.  Yes, more chips for you to donk it up with.  So get registered already!


Thursday, August 13, 2009

!Q%$*(_^!@#$*(

Fuck Poker

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Rabbit Hunting

I have never been a fan of rabbit hunting. 

That said, I am guilty of asking for it during live games.  I know I shouldn't but sometimes I just want to know.  I think this is related to playing online - especially at Full Tilt where the board cards are not fixed with the shuffle but instead the deck is constantly shuffled.

It took me a long time to reconcile myself to this constantly shuffling deck.  I really struggled from time to time with the randomness/riggedness of Full Tilt based on the constantly shuffled deck.  It can be comforting when playing at PokerStars to know that the deck was fixed and the board would not have changed based on any action on my part.

It is very common at the cash game I play to rabbit hunt.  And, yes, I am guilty of asking for it as well.  I have complained to Fike, the host, that I can't out luck him and other players in this game.  I have repeatedly put chips in good only to loose in the end.

We were playing 5 handed when I pick up QQ in the BB.  UTG raises, Fike calls, fold, fold, and I make a pot sized re-raise.  Fike calls and we see a flop: AT3.  I lead out for about 1/2 pot.  Fike min-raises. 

At this point I tank.  I'm trying to figure out what hand he would call my re-raise, could he really have an ace here, is he making a move?  Mostly Fike just lives to outplay me so there's always that consideration.

One thing that weighed heavily in my mind was Fike's tendency to start wildly gambling it up as it gets closer to quitting time if he's behind for the night.  +1 for a call.

Fike knows I play tighter than most of the other players and that I can and will lay down a hand if pressured.  +1 for a call.

After some consideration I finally said, "I'm all in."  Fike squirmed.  I knew this was a good sign.  He looked me in the eye and said you don't have an ace, I know you don't.  I fold."

I rarely show uncalled hands.  Almost never.  I don't know what possessed me to do it but I showed my QQ.  He showed his 77.  At this point the dealer decided to run the rest of the board.  The turn was a 7. 

Had he called, I would have probably lost it when that 7 hit.  I so wish I'd never seen that card.  I know I made the right move and got the result I wanted - I won the hand - but knowing that had he called he would have won just irks the shit out of me. 

A few months back I had QQ in the BB that I re-raised and Fike called with 22.  He spiked a 2 on the flop and I doubled him up.  Had it happened again after all the other bad beats I've taken in this game I think I would have done a major flip out and gone postal on his ass. 

It wasn't long before Fike was indeed gambling it up trying to break even for the night.  In one hand I  hit top pair/K kicker.  I bet out and was called in 3 places including Fike.  The turn pair the T on the flop: QTxT.  It was checked around.  The river was a 9.  It was checked to Fike who shipped it.  I showed my Q and folded - out of turn.  D'oh.  My bad.  The guy before me also showed a Q and folded.  Fike scolded me saying, "He would have called if you hadn't shown your Q damnit!" 

The other player said he wasn't calling because his kicker was a duece.  Then the discussion started about whether or not I should have called him since I had a K kicker.  I flat out told Fike that I wasn't going to double his butt up at this late stage.  Even if my Q was good on a QTxT9 board there was no way I was going to risk 100BB when I had less than 5 BB invested in the hand.  The regular player to my right nodded his head in agreement with me when I said I wasn't going to double Fike up.  He's played enough to know what Fike gets like when he's trying to get back to even.

A few hands later Fike admitted he had made a straight on the river.  I was happy with my fold without that information but it was nice to have the confirmation.  Isn't that what we're looking for when we rabbit hunt?  Confirmation that we made the right decision?  Why isn't it enough to trust ourselves and our instincts?

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Sunday, August 2, 2009

PokerSlut Tour NLHE Rebuy!

Rebuy!  Rebuy like you mean it!  Don't be a pussy!


Rumor has it that we will be interviewing the Poker Grump again tonight on Poker Soup.  I love it when he's on the show!  So tune in to find out if we have a good show or another dumpster fire that will never see the light of day!






Saturday, August 1, 2009

Cash Games - PLHE

I've taken to playing PLHE instead of NLHE because it seems to attract weaker players than NLHE does.  You get the people that like to see a lot of hands because they aren't risking their entire stack in any given hand.  Theoretically, at least.  It's shockingly easy to get your entire stack in rather quickly if you are determined to do so.

Just before dinner last night I got the urge and fired up a few tables of $50PLHE.  It wasn't long before this hand came up:

(click through for flash player)


Well, wow, did I get lucky there.  I was tempted to close up show and call it a day because I was sure my luck had just been all used up on that one hand.  I ended up taking a break for dinner and then got back to the tables.

It wasn't too long before this hand came up:


Yep, FTP got me back in spades for my little KK>AA suckout.  I was so sure I was ahead of this doofus.  Sigh.  Nothing like knowing he was 938074012938461085:1 to go runner runner quads on me. 

Let's just try to grind back to even and call it a night shall we?  I made headway in the grind, eking out a small profit.  Predator showed up to regale me with his stories so I kept on playing when I picked up KK, yet again. 


I love it when a draw doesn't hit.  Well, when I'm not the one drawing that is.  I hit a little streak of hands just then: hit a set of 2s and picked up QQ for a small pot.  I had pressed my luck enough for one night.  Time to close up shop.



I loaded up that session into my Hold'em Manager and did a review this morning.  At the time I recall thinking to myself that I was getting a lot of AA and KK hands.  I'm always curious about whether or not I ran good/bad/average during a session as far as starting hands go.  HEM gives you a way to check on that.



As far as I can tell that is running well, I think I should have been more like 1.8% for those particular hands. 

Based on 931 hands, I should have been deal Aces 931/221 or 4.2 times when I was actually dealt Aces 8 times during that session:



Kings were not quite as ubiquitous but still ahead of expectation with 6 occurrences:



Something has to give somewhere if you believe all that statistical mumbo jumbo.  Queens is where I finally show less than expected occurrences with only 3 - only slightly below expectation:



For the AK hands I should average 8.3 for AKo and 2.8 for AKs and I experienced 8 and 4 respectively.





I definitely ran ahead of expectation on premium hands.  You'll notice, however, that I didn't really capitalize on it.  I lost 14.5bb with my AA - thanks to that lovely AA<A2 soooooooted hand.  KK was veddy veddy goooot to me netting me 202.1bb.  QQ scooped 32.1bb while the AK hands punished me with -47.8bb (mostly because of bad play on my part).

Nothing like running good to make for a good session but you can still lose big pots with big hands or stupid play.  I just need to get the stupid play under control.