the next poker superstar

new post! new blog!

2011-02-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hello world! I've started a new blog here:

(tada!)

http://headsupblog.com

yes, I will keep on posting, but not here. go to my brand new blog! see you there

april results

2010-04-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

donkaments:

+$2167. almost exclusively $50husngs. wasnt getting much action so.. [ ] sample size. also could have done much better - the amount of money i lost to fishbowls is ridiculous.

cash:

-$82

almost all hands are 50NLHE (crushed everyone) and 2 consecutive sessions of 50PLO (guess where..), all headsup

bottom line: +$2085

i'm only satisfied with my nlhe cash games this month, i could have done much better in other games.

but i shouldnt complain i guess -that's my biggest month so far

finally owned someone's soul

2010-04-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

lately i'm not getting much action in husngs so i play more and more cash. today luckily i played for 3hrs at 3 tables with some reg..

apparently in the end he said that i "hit n run"..

march results

2010-04-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

ok here are my graphs for March. my internet connection at home has been screwed since last week so i haven't really played last week and couldn't post my results earlier.

anyway,

husngs $20-$30:

+$1551

some nice profit here ($41.1/hr). "but how much did you lose?", ok $50 husngs:

-$446

no money hu, everyone's solid? not really. there are 2 big downswings, vs 2 different (bad, overall losing according to sharkscope) players. stories were similar: i sat down and waited for an opponet for ~40 minutes, lost my match, clicked rematch b/c i didn't want to wait that long again, but then lost again. they were bad, i knew it. i never quit when a bad player agrees to play again, sometimes they suck out and i go on tilt and may spew a few buy-ins but this tactic has made me much more money in the long run. they were standard lagtards, the opponents i like the least since i play very loose myself so this type of opponents contribute most variance to my overall results. i definetly didn't play my A-game and lost more than i should have, but then i tightened up and it was pretty much one-way. in both cases they lost 2 husngs in a row and run away. meh.

note to self: never quit fish unless I'm playing poorly. stop loss? nope, still think that's a bad idea.

the problem is sometimes it's hard to tell if i'm making dumb plays during the game..

the good thing is that i beat all "leaderboard" regs who played with me at this level :D that's variance i guess...oh and there's still alot of fish at this level (though it's "highstakes" according to ftp lobby) - ont guy nicely shipped me 5BI(almost $250!) in about half an hour..sick life :)

finaly, cash games:

+$156

every month i play 10nl 6max and run baaaad. i should stop doinh it probably, but still i have to work on my ring games as well. last month i discovered superfun game - hu plo, that made me some $$, but rake was terrible. some guy sat down to play with me at a deepstack table. he had ~62$ but won a couple of BIs in the very beginning. he was terrible so i kept playing with him and eventually got his entire stack. i was sitting on a huge pile of cash(~$270) so swings were also huge, but then i realised i won only ~$29 off him. that was $33 of rake over 220 hands.

bottom line: +$1261

i dont want to set any goals yet b/c i 'm still not confident with my internet connection (as a failed to achieve my 2nd, "volume" goal).

p.s. tiny micro brag: while my cable connection was down, i played some 1cent-2cents plo mastering a special move that i like to call "ace on the river". it proved to be very effective against the infamous luckbox :D

fulltilt support is the best

2010-03-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

today I was playing $50 husng, I was leading, got disconnected, when i finaly logged back in i had 140chips (blinds: 25/50). needless to say i lost this one. i emailed fulltilt ("omg wtf rigged!!" etc) and got their response within 20 minutes:

We've reviewed tournament ######### and found you experienced Internet connection issues while playing. As a courtesy, we've credited your account with the buy-in for this tournament in Tournament Dollars (T$), 52.50T$.

half month update

2010-03-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

1st half of the month has passed and i've met half of my monthly goals (i.e. 1 goal): make $1k (brag, kinda). mostly 30$, some 20s and one 55$ hu miniftops event (epic fail vs superfish, game #133 followed by lifetilt till game #139). i'm not even close to 250 games (1/2 of 500games, goal#2) and i don't think i'll have that much time this month to achieve it. so maybe i'll change my plan. after all i've made 1k, time to press F2("save game"). i should probably stick to 30s..or move upto 50s..or try cash and spew it all :)

btw, i applied for the mount robusto project and got an email few days ago from my "sergeant". we're a group of 10, looks like most of us play 50nl to 100nk cash and we're having some sort of assignments soon. i still don't know what it all means and i can't even watch the mount robusto video update..but we'll see

february

2010-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

donkaments +$713:

cash -$259:

bottom line: +$454 (sigh!)

cash: continuation of 50nl shot-taking from last month..didn't end well. i didn't play badly though, mostly coolers. i suspect i might have been owned near the end (red line drops). the rest is 10nl and some 25nl when i was bored with husngs.

donkaments: unfortunately my graph doesn't look like a boner, like last month. after about 100 games i've printed enough $$s to take another shot at 50nlhu, this did not end well, probably i was tilted and i def didn't play my a-game. also, i started 2-tabling husng so it might as well be learning curve. i was struggling with 2 tables in the beginning for sure! then i was running bad. oh and i didn't play much last week (too tilted/tired after the olympic games - can't believe one night i slept less than 2 hrs to see that misery), so i may say i had a break from poker and now i'm ready to conquer new heights.

goals for the march:

-play at least 500 husngs

-make at least $1000 (10%roi@20s)

(?)try more 30s and maybe 50s

(?)work on 6max/hu cash

i may be overrolled for 100nl soon so playing 20s will be huge -EV for my bankroll. i have to move up somewhere ldo..maybe hu cash+coah, i don't know yet. there were 2 propbets on BBV: 15k/month@100nl and 30k/month@200plo. both guys achieved their goals. i wanna move uuupppp toooo...

jan updates

2010-02-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

i haven't been posting here for quite some time because i haven't had any profound thoughts (i posted my quick tiltnotes on twitter though..mostly for fun and further review by myself) and of course i didn't feel like writing (read: i was lazy)

ok here are my results. it's been a solid month (notice: brag!), i played mostly HUSNGs: $10s and then $20s:

yesterday i took a shot@50nl and it wasn't all that good:

pretty disgusting. biggest pots were all preflop all-ins. lost with QQ vs KK(100bbs deep), QQvs AA(~200bbs deep), won KK vs QQ (100bbs deep) and lost KK vs AA(~200bbs deep). ok, probably i play premium pocketpairs like a noob but i don't know if i'll ever fold KK on a dry 7-high flop 200bbs deep in 4/5bet pot..

last ~$20 i won off CR headsup instructor "markuis"(brag!).. i wish i could have played longer but my connection was shitty last night and i was disconnected 3 times during that 60-hand session.

also, maybe it's good that i donated ~$100 to some fish from Tajikistan (internet?! poker?! does not compute)

ok so now i don't what shall i do:

1)keep grinding husngs.

but sometimes i have to wait quite some time to play $20s and there are MUCH fewer $50s (they're full of regs also so i doubt i'll sustain my 25+% roi). but i really enjoy low variance and high $/hr (~$39@$20 level, [ ]sustainable, lol sample size, etc)

2)work on my HU cash game.variance is much higher but my biggest winning day was at 50nl HU (~$280) as opposed to husngs ($167). alot more games, way to move up in stakes

3) ???

for now i'll stick to husngs, then maybe get a coach(to make sure i'm not spewing much) and take another shot at cash games.. i don't know

handhistories

2009-12-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of buzz recently about handhistories (isildur,BT,BH etc) so I've decided I should try something similar. after all it sounds like a good business plan:

1. collect handhistories

2. ?

3. profit

after browsing the web for some time I found an archive of 5million hands played on ipoker@50nl 6max this autumn (sept-oct '2009 probably). I dont play on ipoker and I know nothing about players there but I assume there's no much difference between ipoker and FT or PS (and also I comply with their TOS..). I've created a separate database and now I'm importing these hands. It seems that it may take forever - it's been exporting for almost 24hrs so far yet it's imported about 2.7 mil hands. import speed dropped down dramaticaly from 70-80hands/s in the beginning to 33hands/now so I may stop import some time tomorrow.

there's an interesting too that comes with holdem manager which is called 'holdem vision'. basicaly it profiles players at given limit(lag, tag, nits etc) and shows how different stats(VPIP, PFR, AF etc) correlate with their winrates. It also shows ranges in different flop and preflop spots, depending on actions(limpers/raiser/facing 3bet etc), board textures and number of players. I may play with this database on weekends and may write some sort of report here so if anyone has any specific questions post them in comments.

what's the use? well, for example there's an interesting post on 2p2 (link) on facong flop raise. cliffnotes from article that goes with holdem manager:

Post Summary

take notes: Always important, but top pair would be easy to get away from if villain only min-raises with sets and you have no other draws. (Now I just got to find the time to enter all this data into my player notes).
Not best hand: It's probably safe to say that when min-raised, your top pair hand is behind 75% of the time, or will be by the river without any draws. Maybe a little less than that for your overpair.
No Fold Equity: 99% of the time the min-raiser will go on to see a showdown, so don't try to bluff him/her out unless you have a good read/notes.
Great Implied Odds: This does give you GREAT implied odds if you have a good draw.

Now this sounds extremely important as I probably lose alot of money in situations like this. I'd also like to check balugawhale's "theorem" (fold when someone raises your turn bet) and examine winning players' tendencies.

ok, so for now some diagrams (based on 2.67mil hands and filtered only players that have min 1000 hands tracked)

breakeven range is +/- 5 bb/100

VPIP

15-20% vpip - 25% of players are winners

20-25% vpip - 33% of players are winners

25-30% vpip - 31% of players are winners

30-35% vpip - 31% of players are winners

35-40% vpip - 27% of players are winners

PFR

10-15% pfr - 25% of players are winners

15-20% pfr - 31% of players are winners

20-25% pfr - 36% of players are winners

25-30% pfr - 32% of players are winners

Post Flop Aggression

AF :: % of winners

1 :: 22

2 :: 27

3 :: 30

4 :: 31

5 :: 24

>15 :: 27

3-bet

2-4% 3bet - 21% of players are winners

4-6% 3bet - 27% of players are winners

6-8% 3bet - 34% of players are winners

8-10% 3bet - 37% of players are winners

10-12% 3bet - 21% of players are winners

12-14% 3bet - 32% of players are winners

WTSD%

15-20% wtsd - 29% of players are winners

20-25% wtsd - 31% of players are winners

25-30% wtsd - 26% of players are winners

30-35% wtsd - 29% of players are winners

35-40% wtsd - 16% of players are winners

40-45% wtsd - 24% of players are winners

so stats for most winning players:

vpip - 20-25%

pfr - 15-20%

af - 2

3bet - 4-6%

wtsd - 25-30%

and now for something completely different..

2009-12-20T05:10:00.000-08:00

I was reading some articles about poker bots the other day and it made me want to play some limit hold'em (as it's the easiest form of poker for botting). my first book on poker that I read was on limit poker and the first poker game I played was limit poker (well actually it was 5 card draw poker but I was like 7yrs old so probably it doesn't count)..but I haven't played it since then, so I started playing the lowest limit possible. anyway, here's the graph of me 14-tabling on pokerstars:

[x] 31bb/100

makes me wanna learn limit hold'em...

poker economy

2009-12-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

i think this picture needs more love:

ship it!!

2009-11-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

while i was surfing and banging hot chics on Bali, my friend(i wrote about him a couple of times here) won a ticket to European Masters of Poker in Slovenia in a freeroll and took it down for 58190 euro: http://www.pokerrf.ru/texts/2009/11/29/183146.htm

sick life!

he still owes me $5 that he lost to me in our last home game...hehe..

it's cyberpoker! now on twitter

2009-09-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

i've just set up my 1st twitter account: http://twitter.com/its_cyberpoker
i don't know what is it or how to use it, apparently it doesn't work with russian cell phones but since it's a cool thing to have, now i have one

windows 7

2009-08-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

yesterday i installed windows 7 so i'm not using XP any more(and i hate vista). all software works fine, fulltilt crashed once though but i can't say it never happened before. i don't have my PT old database, i have hand histories though..maybe i'll export them some time. i guess it'll take forever :)
i won a couple buy-ins at 25nl moved to 50nl HU, lost 5bi there(which included few sick soulreads and running ~2.5 bis below EV)..but i don't have that nasty graph :) instead i have sweet little saturday boomswitch. i think i should slowly grind 25nl to build big enough rolls that can handle HU swings.
also i played 2 sats to minifrops event #1. the first one was for 500ftps. after villain cracked my queens with AQ i had about 1 small blind left but eventually i made final table with 3rd stack!..only to finish 7th(5 prizes). should have shipped it..that'd be epic! :) the next one was $6 sat... to $22 event..yes, i'm a nit! got my ticket..but then i realized it starts on Thu at 5am Moscow time..hm?
*update*
sunday graph:

weekend update

2009-08-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

I took shot at 50nl HU again(as I'm still underrolled)..it didn't work very well but then i recovered some of my losses and moved back to 25nl. 6max is definetly easier than 9max. not sure if i can mass-table 6max, maybe i'll try later. volume still sucks, need to play more hands.

also, cleared super-bonus and got rakeback for 2 weeks(due to delays on fulltilt). ship it!

lol bloggaments

2009-08-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Blogger home game: $5.5 tournament on stars. probably on wednesday. everyone's invited.

link

$5->bank wire->ATM->titties

ship ship

midweek update

2009-08-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

quick update: i'm running good, playing not-so-good but at least green line is going into the right direction. mostly 6max 25nl and some 50nl heads-up. i'm still underrolled for 50nl but i'm taking stabs at fish occasionaly.
i've found one tendency...thats why i'm writing this post basicaly. many players limp from the SB, almost always call a raise, call almost all cbets and then do something ridiculous like minbet-minbet-huge overbet. or lead flops with minbets. here's a good example:

at first i've decided to double-barrel him as his flop calling range is full of crap. not a good idea. however it must depend on bet sizing..then i've decided to tighten up and became a total nit and folded almost all of SBs and played only limped pots without position. he started to fold to my c-bets on A- or K-high boards so i added a fair amount of bluffs for balancing(don't bluff calling stations etc) because i always failed to build a big pot with strong hands. it was very boring and i little annoying. his style was very exploitable but i couldn't exploit it well...but still he was losing money. then he found his "raise" button and became kinda spewy. interestingly, when he was betting big it was almost always bluff, so i've just waited for good hands and stacked him.

his "style" (i do think he has some method to his madness) is not uncommon so i have to figure out how to beat it effectively. must be easy money..

lazy week

2009-08-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

so i played less hands this week than i used to play in a day but thats because i've had a b-day(i've got 2 almost identical poker chip sets - someone heard i play poker..and a backgammon set - nice level for those who gave me poker sets) and haven't played drunk, and i think it's very important :)

i've had my very first sweat session with Meteoric. hope it'll take my game to the next level :)

some funny hands:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Stacks:

UTG	Hero	($48.41)
UTG+1	djabbel	($25.10)
CO	CLX088	($26.35)
BTN	TENOFSPADES5	($29.27)
SB	AMP87	($46.74)
BB	mazerpelt	($63.59)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 6 players) Hero is UTG

Hero folds, 2 folds, TENOFSPADES5 raises to $0.75, AMP87 raises to $2.50, mazerpelt calls $2.25, TENOFSPADES5 calls $1.75

Flop: ($7.50, 3 players)
AMP87 bets $3.75, mazerpelt raises to $13.75, TENOFSPADES5 goes all-in $26.77, AMP87 goes all-in $44.24, mazerpelt calls $30.49

Turn: ($122.75, 3 players)

River: ($122.75, 3 players)

Final Pot: $122.75
TENOFSPADES5 shows:
AMP87 shows:
mazerpelt shows:

TENOFSPADES5 wins $84.81 ( won +$55.54 )
AMP87 wins $34.94 ( lost -$11.80 )
mazerpelt lost -$46.74

shortly after this all-in fest i got aces:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem

5 players
Stacks:

UTG	TENOFSPADES5	($85.37)
CO	AMP87	($34.94)
BTN	Hero	($63.48)
SB	djabbel	($25.00)
BB	CLX088	($26.35)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 5 players) Hero is BTN

TENOFSPADES5 calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.10, 2 folds, TENOFSPADES5 raises to $4, Hero raises to $12.35, TENOFSPADES5 calls $8.35

Flop: ($25.05, 2 players)
TENOFSPADES5 checks, Hero bets $25.05, TENOFSPADES5 raises to $50.10, Hero goes all-in $51.13, TENOFSPADES5 calls $1.03

Turn: ($127.31, 2 players)

River: ($127.31, 2 players)

Final Pot: $127.31
TENOFSPADES5 shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $124.31 ( won +$60.83 )
TENOFSPADES5 lost -$63.48

thats how one hand changes everything :)

playerhaters, beware..i'm back

2009-08-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for quite some time but now holidays are over and I'm back. I withdrew money from my accounts in the end of June, just before the trip but Meteoric sent me back the money I gave him before+some interest (100% roi, which is very generous :) ) so i played a few sngs. fortunately i run like god and more than quadrupled that sum. i played mostly 45-man and 90-man 1$ sngs, shipped few of them(when i was ITM it was almost always a first place..have I mentioned I run like god?). my sharkscope graph is way off(even compared to my opr stats) so no graphs here..is there anything similar in PT/HEM? I played 1 $5 MTT, made a deep run, played few HU sngs and in the end decided to play $5 32-man HU sng. at first I wanted to play the "winner-takes-it-all" but I'm such a pussy so I played the normal one with 8 places paid. needless to say I shipped that one too! for only $56...fml

anyway, fastforward..on my way back from the airport I somehow left my wallet in the taxi(well I thought someone stole it). it was the first time in my life when I left my wallet. I had quite some cash in it: ~400 euro(got my apartment deposit back on the very last day)+some roubles worth another ~100 euro..and 4 credit cards! the very next day taxi driver(totaly random guy) called me(I had my business card with my number in the wallet) and said he found my wallet in his car. he gave it back to me with all the money(~500 euro) and credit cards! I totaly didn't expect it. Russian taxi drivers are the best :) but I have already locked my creditcards and had to re-issue them so I was able to start grinding only this week. sooo....
I started with 50nl:

had a very tilting session with some stupid shortstacker: he had $20, his line was "minbet-minbet-shove" but after 10-15mins he had $220! I slapped my self, calmed down and won almost all of it back but then suddenly "he had to go". here's his graph:

sure he had some luck but I wasn't playing my A-game. after that guy I had few badbeats in the following session and decided to try 6-max (25nl, 4 tables):

didn't play as much as I used to play and I think I'll stick to 4 tables of 25nl 6max for a while so I think it'd be better to post weekly(not daily graphs)..and I don't think I'll be able to play much next week as I have a birthday(woo-hoo). but I already have grind on the mind :)

btw rake is the killer at 25nl: from what I've experienced it's 16bb/100 hands(or 8ptbb/100) which is gross...at 50nl hu it's almost one buy-in per 1000 hands which is also bad but not as bad as 25nl..

summer break+software issues

2009-06-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

ok I haven't been posting for a few days. I was out of town and was quie busy but I did play some poker. one bad session (almost $300 down) and one "ok" session (about $70 up). but no graphs... after watching some HU vids and reading forums I realised that HEM is so much better than PT (few important HUD stats+lots of useful filters) so I bought the licence - $45 is less than a BI so I hope it'd be +EV in the long run. I tried to convert my db manualy and I guess I screwed it :) I had my hh archived somewhere and tried to import it but it didn't run quite as I expected. I'll try to fix that..or start from the scratch. I don't need 2nl stats anymore(I hope!)+it may improve performance. also it looks like I may need a separate hard drive for the DB but oh well...
my summer break starts next week(sun-beach-sport/sex-drugs-rocknroll) and I'll be back in the end of July so no poker/blogging for about a month :)
not sure if I play much this week - I have to meet alot of friends(drunk poker is a no-no...well at least at 50nl) but again...we'll see :)

*edit* just played for a few minutes after writing this post and won almost $60-something. time to go to bed before variance hit me :)

I was owned :)

2009-06-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've had a badbeat in the beginning, but since I've been running good it's ok :) then kinda grinded it up, thanks to local fish. then, when the next villain busted out, a reg sit at my table. he was 2 tabling already. I was close to zero and was pretty confident so I wanted to see what will happen.
owange (villain's)graph:

maybe I played like pussy in the beginnig(red line) but he was outplaying me on every street. and he was such a nit. very tight and very agressive. after almost $200 I started to realize I need to adjust better. thanks to bill chen and "mathematics of poker" . I need to reread a few paragraphs for sure. villain def. was a thinking player and he was capable of big laydowns unlike usual fish. all-in is such an equalizer. the momentum has changed and at some point we were 300bbs deep(I even had him covered) so he simply left the table. maybe for good - it was gettin scarier. definetly the toughest HU match I've had so far.

then I found some fish and took my money back and even ended the day in green(+rakeback). unfortunately mr. fish busted out too quickly.
I hope my skill has improved today :)

HU duel

2009-06-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

I sat down to play with some fishy villain who was also from Russia. he had some luck in the beginning but he played awfuly. after about 100 hands he went on monkey tilt and started yelling at me, giving me names, whining how online poker is rigged etc. I was kinda fed up but he was a fish so I invited him to the 2nd table. I've lost some pots and he went nuts. i should have reported his abusive behavior but I wanted my money back and I was quite confident I could've outplayed him. some crazy 4-bets and werewolf moves(flips in he middle), I beat him with a couple of "gus hansen hands" tilting him even more:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN		($209.20)
Hero (BB)		($80.45)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BB

BTN raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, BTN calls $2

Turn: ($7, 2 players)
Hero bets $6, BTN calls $6

River: ($19, 2 players)
Hero bets $15, BTN raises to $55, Hero goes all-in $70.95, BTN calls $15.95

Final Pot: $160.90
Hero shows:
BTN shows:

Hero wins $160.40 ( won +$79.95 )
BTN lost -$80.45

the next hand almost killed him(althoug the pot was small, note stack sizes!)

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

Hero (BTN)		($216.75)	<- !!!
BB		($80.40)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($3, 2 players)
BB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

River: ($8, 2 players)
BB bets $7, Hero calls $7

Final Pot: $22
BB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $21.50 ( won +$10.50 )
BB lost -$11

at some point I was sitting with ~$250 on each table..a couple more hours and that'd be "hu4rollz" :) I could have won much more from him I believe but probably I was also tilted(no wonder). that was a good exercise for tilt control :)

in the end he turned into a passive fish(flips didn't work well for him) and just left both tables.

one night in bangkok makes a hard man humble....

2 tables

2009-06-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

I tried playing 2 tables. nothing good, nothing bad but in the end I sticked to 1 table. I was playing with a huge fish, 2 times we were allin 100+ bbs deep, he had some crap and I had goods but he hit 2 pairs. it kinda tilted me because I've been playing with him for quite some time and still couldn't take his money. in fact lost $100+ to him but not because he's a better player, ldo. then I sat down with a good player (cardrunners member) - I think I was still tilted as I should have insta-quit there's alot of fish. lost some $$ to him but he said "I wanna play fish. you can find better games too". words of wisdom! :) I did find some fish and recovered most of my losses. when will I learn my lessons?

further heads-up adventures

2009-06-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

link to BBV

played with 3 guys, all 3 left after i stacked them. won probably the biggest pot today:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN		($120.65)
Hero (BB)		($105.05)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BB

BTN raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
Hero bets $3, BTN raises to $12, Hero raises to $30.50, BTN raises to $49, Hero goes all-in $103.55, BTN calls $54.55

Turn: ($210.10, 2 players)

River: ($210.10, 2 players)

Final Pot: $210.10
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $209.60 ( won +$104.55 )
BTN lost -$105.05

I was 99% sure he had AQ or KQ and not a set :)

last one was easy-peasy:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

Hero (BTN)		($65.50)
BB		($110.55)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB raises to $4, Hero calls $2

Turn: ($11, 2 players)
BB bets $9, Hero calls $9

River: ($29, 2 players)
BB goes all-in $96.05, Hero goes all-in $51

Final Pot: $131
BB shows:
Hero shows:

BB wins $45.05 ( lost -$65.50 )
Hero wins $130.50 ( won +$65 )

he still owes me $4 though..he didn't have chances anyway, i'll add him to my "fishlist"

just an update of morning graph. found some fish with $20-30 stacks. easy game.

i found full-stacked fish, but he was a little bit stubborn and didn't want to give me his stack(swings in the end). but eventually..$50->bank wire->ATM->titties
best cash day ever :) enough for sunday million...maybe I should ship it some time

beware of regs

2009-06-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

maybe it's weekends but fulltilt was infested with regs today. here's how to spot a reg: they sit at more than 2 tables, their stack are much bigger than $50, they auto top-up if their stack drops below $50.
the first one was Russian so we've had a quick chat after the session was over. he pointed out some of my leaks..but next time i'd tather get a coaching session for the same amount of money :)
then i made some effort to find fish. i found an uber-nit :)

i was minraising every button and he was folding almost always. in the end i guess he kind of "got it" and i was bored already so i left him.

i was only $30 below for the day when i started playing with reg#2. he instantly offered me to play him at 2 tables(bad sign! i was soo naive lol), ofcourse i didn't but i still played with him. he was playing like durrrr: choose a hand to play, raise preflo, bet flop and turn and shove river.i guess i was tilted so i lost quite alot.
3rd reg was kinda tough, he was check-raising and reraising me all the time but he was playing almost face-up so i adjusted properly, got my $50 back, stacked him for extra $50 and then even got few bucks more..actually almost another buy-in..well, maybe he wasn't that tough? :)
it was a shitty day. maybe i should move back to stars: there's much more fish

my morning fish

2009-06-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

I like fish..it is niiiice! too bad he busted too early..I'd have played with him much longer..maybe it's not nice but then again, he used his money as a weapon to take away my money..oh and poker is a sport :)
it's a holiday here but it's hotter than hell so I'm too lazy to do anything..maybe I'll watch more HU videos and maybe I'll play some more at night..

*edit* finaly updated my PT..it took forever! evening session

somehow switched to "gambling mode" probably was fed up with "nits". luckily that guy didn't quit and I took my money back+made some profit. day nicely saved.. lesson learned: don't be stupid

[x] grind on the mind

2009-06-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

again, maniac in the beginning. actually I played with him before - he's some crazy Russian from Moscow :) 1st hand: allin AK(me) vs AQ. he was 3-betting every hand and i moved in with JJ, he had AA. i floped J, but the river was A obv. $200 pot. next "flip" was about trickier:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN		($254.95)
Hero (BB)		($70.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BB

BTN raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, BTN raises to $7, Hero raises to $25, BTN goes all-in $253.45, Hero goes all-in $44.25

Turn: ($325.70, 2 players)

River: ($325.70, 2 players)

Final Pot: $141.50
Hero shows:
BTN shows:

BTN wins $325.20 ( won +$70.25 )
Hero lost -$70.75

he was 2-to-3 dog when I shoved and I was ahead of his range.
don't know what happened between hands 100 and 240 - I didn't play poorly but somehow I spewed almost $100. I need to review this part again..
so far so good: I'm $311 up since I've started playing 50nl HU(a couple of days ago!), I'm perfectly rolled for these games and I have huge edge over some opponents (but ofcourse there are guys that own me - I shall just avoid them for now). I think I should just stick to HU

maniacs

2009-06-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

my very first opponent was some insane maniac."ok," - I thought, - "I should just wait for the nuts and get his whole stack"(he was sitting on $300+). after the 2nd badbeat I realized it's not such a great idea and I left the table. crazy gamblers. few good tables, but on one of them villain went on monkey tilt when i finaly stacked him after owning him hard. he started shoving almost every hand saying something like "tulululu" and "lalalala" in chat window. "I should just wait for the nuts and get his whole stack"..no wait! after winning a flip i left him, played with few other opponents and finaly found mr fish who was a super-nit and got remaining $150 from him.

table selection ftw!!

oops

2009-06-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

this session was kinda nasty. i was involved in too many big pots and i lost all of them. the first one in the very beginning was a cooler, the 2nd one was $100+ misclick(lol) and a few more when i was too excited to get my money in(usually i'd just fold). regardless, i was confident i'd get my money back. the heater in the middle was actually sponsored by 3 different fish who probably were on monkey tilt. they were spewing money
maybe for now i should stop hunting deep stacks: i get their money little by little but when i'm over 200bbs deep($100+) i'm too excited to double up(they're fish, i've been taking their money easily..right?) and do something stupid.
btw, amount won: -$60, rake paid: $62, thats over 1bi/1000hands..but still less than 25nl cash

*edit* just found another pokertracker bug: green line ends at ~-$110..hm?

2009-06-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

some more HU madness. i got coolered twice in the beginning: when i shoved over villain's c-bet in 3-bet pot with a top pair and after series of 3-bets and 4-bets (i should have left at this point to find passive opponent because he was 3-betting and 4-betting alot) i shoved AQ preflop, he had kings. then the momentum changed and i got one of my stacks back and he run away as i was probably running him over.
i found out that some guys 3-bet/raise my c-bet, show total air and insta-sitout or switch tables. thats really annoying but i doubt it's profitable. i have to keep that in mind: not to plau big pots in the very beginning because they may hit and run. eventually i found some fish but he went busto pretty quickly. after ~127th hand i sat down with a reg probably..so i was happy to get my money back from him and a little over..
the only bad thing is i can't multi-table HU. i probably can't even plat 2 tables.
i found some awesome smallstakes HU videos by 'cpar1' ('HighDefinition' on fulltilt) on cardrunners. i'm very impressed. his graph is a straight line and his BB/100 is sick:

he knows his stuff but unfortunately he often says something like "on this board it's pretty standard" or "this opponent never has x in his range so i do y" without further explanation. i gotta watch all of his videos anyway

poker after dark

2009-06-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

just a quick update. i found a guy sitting on a big pile of $s so i joined his table. i easily doubled up - he was such a calling station. but then crazy things started to happen. we both were deep so he called my raised/3bets and c-bets almost always and then did something fancy like huge overbet or huge river bet that made no sense but whenever i called he did have something :) at some point i lost almost $100 to him while he was playing awfuly. i'm glad i didn't quit and didn't go on tilt because with his style it was statisticaly impossible for him to keep winningn money. eventually i won almost all of his money(he had ~$20 left and i was sitting wit almost $200). fish can be tough!
p.s. i love my red line but they don't respect my bluffs so i should bluff less

hu is very opponent-dependent

2009-06-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

i guess someone was owning me. i'll add that person to my black list and will only play with fish. i may need to learn how to beat tough regs but i'd much rather learn how to spot fish. btw, HU is more intense..my head is about to explode. woof...lol swongaments

omg omg omg

2009-06-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

some more HU madness. got coolered twice, then shipped 2 $6.4 4-man HU sngs, lost 2 $2.2 8-man sngs then found my new best friend:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN		($48.30)
Hero (BB)		($50.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BB

BTN raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, BTN raises to $14, Hero goes all-in $50, BTN goes all-in $34.30

Flop: ($98.30, 2 players)

Turn: ($98.30, 2 players)

River: ($98.30, 2 players)

Final Pot: $96.60
BTN shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $97.80 ( won +$47.80 )
BTN lost -$48.30

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

Hero (BTN)		($70.30)
BB		($92.90)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

Turn: ($7, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB calls $6

River: ($19, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero thinks he'll never fold his kind and hopes villain doesn't have FH so he goes all-in $60.80, BB calls $60.80

Final Pot: $140.60
BB shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $140.10 ( won +$69.80 )
BB lost -$70.30

one hand that kinda sucked:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

Hero (BTN)		($97.05)
BB		($50.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $3, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($6, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5, BB calls $5

Turn: ($16, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $10, BB calls $10

River: ($36, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero goes all-in $79.05, BB folds <- OMGRIGGEDPHILHELLMUTH. impossible. how could he fold? :) Final Pot: $36

Hero wins $114.55 ( won +$17.50 )
BB lost -$18

have to study HU, game selection..and also have to spot fish quickly

*edit* i hate when people run away or sit-out after losing a few hands:
me: hey
me: come back
hobiejuan1: go 3 bet someone else
hobiejuan1: u 3 bet every hand

wtf?!

50nl heads-up

2009-06-06T04:17:00.000-07:00

just a quick updated. took a shot at 50nl hu(i'm a little underrolled for 50nl after running bad/playing bad recently..countdown to busto?ldo). hu has many advantages over FR and 6max(rake being one of them) but probably i still suck at hu so i have to proceed cautiously.
here are 2 hands that made me think:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	tukas	($54.75)
BB	Hero	($50.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BB

tukas raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3, 2 players)
Hero checks, tukas bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($8, 2 players)
Hero checks, tukas bets $5.50, Hero calls $5.50

River: ($19, 2 players)
Hero checks, tukas checks

Final Pot: $19
tukas shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $18.50 ( won +$9 )
tukas lost -$9.50

fold on turn? check river? if he bets river shall i call?

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	Hero	($59.75)
BB	tukas	($45.25)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $1.50, tukas raises to $4.50, Hero raises to $12, tukas calls $7.50

Flop: ($24, 2 players)
tukas checks, Hero bets $15, tukas folds

Final Pot: $24

Hero wins $38.50 ( won +$11.50 )
tukas lost -$12

4-bet size? should i have checked the flop to induce a bluff?
hm..

today's graph

2009-06-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

the session went pretty except the rollercoaster in the end. result: i'm ~40$below EV. d'oh, again. but looking from another perspective it might be good: i'm learning the lesson that i can run 10-15 BIs below EV cheaply. also, i'm running bad now so when i move up to where they respect my EV i'll be running hot and make alot of money..amirite? :)
my vpip/pfr/3bet/AF=25/23.5/9/3.2 which is pretty standard for me. my WTSD is a bit low(28%), while W$SD is ok(kind of) ~55%. still red line above zero, blue line - below(slightly) which means i'm losing big pots and winning small. still have to call river bets less and bet more turns.

also i've seen verneer's multi-table video on cardrunners. he attaches that windows control panel(or how is it called? the one with the "start" button) to the left side of the screen(instead of the bottom) so each table has its own separate label instead of one "full tilt poker (16)". thats genius :) it really made game easier :) he also shared his AHK script which i may try later when i'm not that lazy.

deep stacks

2009-06-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

today i've decided to play deep tables. since it requires more skill and it's a new game for me i only did 2 tables. in fact i forgot to buy in full at one of the table in the beginning. i raise/shoved on Q-high board with AQ in 3-bet pot and lost to straight draw+flush draw(i was 45-to-55 dog..ldo). but then i've had my 1st 5-bet bluff:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:

UTG	VoRPaX64ru	($26.73)
UTG+1	esuhyungsup	($24.41)
MP1	blackman1983	($25.05)
MP2	Machocabrio	($25.70)
CO	gkiller2009	($38.11)
BTN	streetballer84	($34.39)
SB	UrbanDK	($50.10)
BB	Hero	($61.80)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is BB

5 folds, streetballer84 raises to $0.75, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.50, streetballer84 raises to $7, Hero raises to $17, streetballer84 folds

Final Pot: $14.10

Hero wins $24.10 ( won +$7.10 )
streetballer84 lost -$7

still not sure if it was a good bet size it's a little less than a pot. hm?

then i've decided to check my ownage skills and played 4-man husngs to recover losses. lost 1st one, but shipped the 2nd. i guess i'm too lazy to play poker in the summer so i may not post/play poker for a couple of days. they released some cool vids on pokervt..and i got my free cardrunners membership so i gotta study a bit

wsop bracelet goes to Russia

2009-06-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

vitaly lunkin has just won 40k nlhe event #2. epic HU match: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updates.asp?rr=1&grid=607&tid=7227
nh, etc. i played with him in double deuce on FTP, he busted out and i made $60-$90(dont remember exactly)..hm..

soon, my preciousss, soon...

last day of spring

2009-05-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

the longest session this week. at some point i thought i forgot how to play poker. it turned out i was running below EV..but it's not uncommon to me recently. here's the hand that saved my karma:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	tompan26	($7.46)
UTG+1	HarryCds	($6.78)
MP1	ZRFC2010	($12.18)
MP2	Hero	($27.56)
MP3	AgedinOak	($24.64)
CO	rootAV	($35.25)
BTN	h-hell-o	($9.90)
SB	PSigrok	($5.00)
BB	edem11	($5.53)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is MP2

3 folds, Hero raises to $1, AgedinOak calls $1, 4 folds

Flop: ($2.35, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, AgedinOak raises to $4, Hero goes all-in $26.56, AgedinOak goes all-in $19.64

Turn: ($52.55, 2 players)

River: ($52.55, 2 players)

Final Pot: $49.63
Hero shows:
AgedinOak shows:

Hero wins $50.07 ( won +$22.51 ) <- fu rake
AgedinOak lost -$24.64

if you run below EV you should go all-in with worse hands and occasionaly you'll win. if you go all-in only with the best hands, badbeats will screw your "all-in EV" line :) rigged obv
in the end i've had some fishy tables but probably i was too tired as i had absolutely no thoughts in my head so I've decided to call it a day.

amount won: $31.61
rake paid: $72.77
pffft...

back on track

2009-05-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

not a long session at all and i didnt play yesterday. i haven't played much this week and when i was playing i was losing..hm? i'll fix that later. nothing really interesting but at some point i found my favourite fulltilt pro - jim mcmanus playing 25nl. i was on the waitlist but he left soon. he's moving down("i play low while i'm writing") - countdown to busto? :)

i'm a rakeback pro

2009-05-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

only played like 20 mins yesterday(football anynone?) - $2 4-man hu sngs(for fun). lost 2 and shipped the 3rd for a total profit of like $1 lol. played today - another bad session, -$80 ($60 below EV). graph looks sick - run good,then run bad and so on. but i'm still winning due to enormously high rake(hence, rakeback+bonuses). i've just realised rake at 25nl is ~6ptbb/100. i was crushing 2nl at 10-14ptbb/100 with virtualy no rake and lots of fish but 25nl is much tougher and 6ptbb/100 rake is the bitch. i have to reduce variance of my strategy to reduce rake handicap..hm?

worst day ever?

2009-05-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

i didn't play yesterday so i've decided to play today more.uhhh..thats the ugliest graph ever. looks like i've lost every single big pot. also, almost $80 below EV. nothing special - i've had worse downswings. i was like "wtf?" and switched back to HU sngs. played 7 2-man $5.25 and $2.2 sngs, won 6, lost 1(rigged obv) and then shipped 4-man shootout for another $20. get this, cyberpoker :)

heads-up

2009-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

last night i spent few hours watching $25k heads-up championship on fulltilt. many fulltilt pros including phil ivey, andy bloch, john juanda and other pros, including durrrr, ziigmund, larsluzak, fullslush1, aejones and many others. many interesting spots: phil ivey busted out on 5th hand, losing to IvanLendL, the last table in round 2 was an epic battle between aejones and IvanLendL(who won again). i learned that HU can be fun. never really played hu, just watched a couple of highstakes HU videos by "internet pokers" on cardrunners.

today i tried some $2 and $5 hu sngs on titan(i have some "free manies" there) and pokerstars, won all of them(5 to be exact). all were pretty quick(less than 10 mins) except the the one where i moved in on flop with 2 pairs vs 2overcards with gutshot straight. i had only a little over 500 chips left but my opponent was so exploitble that it was only a matter of time(21mins to be exact).
hu is much simpler from theoretical perspective than fullring so i definetly shall play more hu when i move up to 50nl. opponents must be tougher though..micro husng really look like printing money. here's how i won 1 in only 4 hands:

hand #1
No Limit Holdem Tournament
$2.00+$0.20
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	deb g lpn	(1500)
BB	Hero	(1500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB

deb g lpn calls 10, Hero raises to 60, <- i always rise the 1st han, i'm that weird
deb g lpn calls 40

Flop: (120, 2 players)
Hero checks, deb g lpn bets 20, Hero calls 20

Turn: (160, 2 players)
Hero bets 100, deb g lpn calls 100

River: (360, 2 players)
Hero bets 360, deb g lpn calls 360

Final Pot: 1,080
deb g lpn shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins 1,080 ( won +540 )
deb g lpn lost -540

hand #2
No Limit Holdem Tournament
$2.00+$0.20
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	Hero	(2040)
BB	deb g lpn	(960)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to 60, deb g lpn calls 40

Flop: (120, 2 players)
deb g lpn checks, Hero checks

Turn: (120, 2 players)
deb g lpn checks, Hero checks

River: (120, 2 players)
deb g lpn checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: 120
deb g lpn shows:
Hero shows:

deb g lpn wins 120 ( won +60 )
Hero lost -60

hand #3
No Limit Holdem Tournament
$2.00+$0.20
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	deb g lpn	(1020)
BB	Hero	(1980)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB

deb g lpn raises to 40, Hero folds

Final Pot: 40

deb g lpn wins 60 ( won +20 )

hand #4
No Limit Holdem Tournament
$2.00+$0.20
2 players

Stacks:

BTN	Hero	(1960)
BB	deb g lpn	(1040)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to 60, deb g lpn calls 40

Flop: (120, 2 players)
deb g lpn checks, Hero bets 40, <- wanted to see his reaction to a goofy bet
deb g lpn calls 40

Turn: (200, 2 players)
deb g lpn checks, Hero checks

River: (200, 2 players)
deb g lpn bets 120, <- omg omg ace on the river
Hero goes all-in 1,860, deb g lpn goes all-in 820

Final Pot: 2,080
deb g lpn shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins 3,000 ( won +1,040 )
deb g lpn lost -1,040

also had a short 25nl session, won a few $$s, nothing interesting

*edit*
i've just noticed there are 2nl cash hu tables on titan, so i sat down to play for a few minutes and stacked some guy for $5(lol) and he was really terrible. something tells me when i move up to 50nl hu variance may bitch-slap me :)

back to all-time high

2009-05-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

short session, recovered my recent losses(or half of losses, if you substract bonuses). run good, bluffed more rivers, killed a maniac:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players
Stacks:

UTG	Ravanialli	($25.00)
UTG+1	TennisPro7	($26.75)
MP1	Juice-It	($9.25)
MP2	n0testin	($8.08)
MP3	Foolius	($22.99)
CO	JKeToH4uk	($5.00)
BTN	Genghis Bong	($17.93)
SB	Hero	($50.38)
BB	Airborne1988	($5.32)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is SB

4 folds, Foolius raises to $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Foolius raises to $2.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($5.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, Foolius bets $5.25, Hero raises to $21, Foolius goes all-in $15.24

Turn: ($46.74, 2 players)

River: ($46.74, 2 players)

Final Pot: $46.23
Hero shows:
Foolius shows:

Hero wins $44.43 ( won +$20.93 )
Foolius lost -$22.99

[x] 3rd pair is the nuts

back to poker math&hh review..

yesterday's session

2009-05-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

didn't post it yesterday because i finished quite and i had alot of thoughts. actually i played 2 sessions(looking at the graph it's not hard to tell when the 1st one ended lol).
my 1st thought was to play carefuly in the beginning($130+ downswings are not uncommon, see my older graphs). i then realised some players are taking advantage of me by double-barreling every pot.

hand #1

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	Misa99	($31.34)
UTG+1	Zyeru	($13.04)
MP1	DME27	($23.90)
MP2	OnkelHolly52	($4.65)
MP3	viejoari1967	($10.08)
CO	MrMarginCall	($5.00)
BTN	Double Dynamite	($26.60)
SB	Hero	($32.78)
BB	Teki1986	($28.04)

[MrMarginCall posted $0.25]
Pre-flop: ($0.60, 9 players) Hero is SB

1 fold, Zyeru raises to $0.50, 5 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Zyeru calls $1

Flop: ($3.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, Zyeru calls $2

Turn: ($7.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, Zyeru goes all-in $9.54, Hero calls $9.54

River: ($26.58, 2 players)

Final Pot: $26.58
Hero shows:
Zyeru shows:

Hero wins $25.26 ( won +$12.22 )
Zyeru lost -$13.04

while it was a good spot for the 2nd barrel, this player was a maniac so i called. if i folded, i'd lost ~$3 but when i called i won ~$12 which is 1:4. sometimes i jam(but not yesterday since i was in "careful" mode) when a maniac c-bets turn and it doesn't make sense(unlike in hand#1 actualy) and i'm afraid i greatly underestimate EV of this line.
looks like my turn raise is close to optimal though:

(over last 18.5k hands)

speaking about maniacs..

hand #2
$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	EKtothe4	($19.43)
UTG+1	SieTlaS	($29.65)
MP1	alekas	($5.36)
MP2	PRISONBUILDER	($22.30)
MP3	shmanki	($37.17)
CO	FreeCrazyMan	($17.73)
BTN	Hero	($55.64)
SB	Su dolor	($5.00)
BB	the bears on	($8.40)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is BTN

4 folds, shmanki raises to $0.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.50, 1 fold, the bears on calls $0.25

Flop: ($1.60, 3 players)
the bears on checks, shmanki bets $1.75, Hero calls $1.75, <- agressive call vs a maniac(probably not good anyway)
the bears on folds

Turn: ($5.10, 2 players)
shmanki goes all-in $34.92, <- WTF?!
Hero folds

Final Pot: $5.10

shmanki wins $39.77 ( won +$2.60 )
Hero lost -$2.25
the bears on lost -$0.50

and the very next hand:

hand #3
$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	SieTlaS	($29.65)
UTG+1	alekas	($5.36)
MP1	PRISONBUILDER	($22.30)
MP2	shmanki	($39.77)
MP3	FreeCrazyMan	($17.73)
CO	Hero	($53.39)
BTN	Su dolor	($5.00)
SB	the bears on	($7.90)
BB	EKtothe4	($19.43)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is CO

2 folds, PRISONBUILDER calls $0.25, shmanki raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, the bears on calls $0.90, 1 fold, PRISONBUILDER folds

Flop: ($3.50, 3 players)
the bears on checks, shmanki bets $1, Hero calls $1, the bears on folds

Turn: ($5.50, 2 players)
shmanki bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

River: ($10.50, 2 players)
shmanki bets $7, Hero calls $7

Final Pot: $24.50
Hero shows:
shmanki shows:

Hero wins $23.28 ( won +$11.78 )
the bears on lost -$1
PRISONBUILDER lost -$0.25
shmanki lost -$11.50

without hand #2 and stats on that player i'd not call. in fact i never call bets on every street with a 2nd(and then 3rd pair) nor do i think it may be profitable..but i think i definetly should bluff more rivers. 2-barreling and then check-folding the river is very -EV

speaking about river bluffs...

hand #4
$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players
Stacks:

UTG	Tibus69	($3.88)
UTG+1	daniboy88	($25.70)
MP1	JUMAESDO	($43.11)
MP2	str8to8	($17.11)
CO	102536	($4.30)
BTN	plutonium239x	($23.09)
SB	Hero	($25.00)
BB	hh_1981	($5.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is SB

1 fold, daniboy88 calls $0.25, 4 folds, Hero raises to $1, 1 fold, daniboy88 calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, daniboy88 checks

Turn: ($2.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, daniboy88 calls $1.25

River: ($4.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, daniboy88 bets $3, Hero calls $3

Final Pot: $10.75
Hero shows:
daniboy88 shows:

Hero wins $10.22 ( won +$4.97 )
daniboy88 lost -$5.25

that was a terrible bluff by villain. with river bluffs i have to take down the pot about 40% of the time to break even so i have to revise my river play too.

over last 18.5k hands:

"any river raise"

need to raise more...

"river call"

looks like i have a leak here. def need to call less

but how much did you lose?
i haven't slowplayed any hand for ages. thats how i did it yesterday:

hand #5
$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	thepokerbrain	($19.80)
UTG+1	JUMAESDO	($34.62)
MP1	str8to8	($16.99)
MP2	Torsja	($24.25)
MP3	plutonium239x	($28.61)
CO	Hero	($25.00)
BTN	siemasiema	($18.09)
SB	evenn	($5.00)
BB	SieTlaS	($28.01)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is CO

5 folds, Hero raises to $1, siemasiema calls $1, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.35, 2 players)
Hero checks, siemasiema checks

Turn: ($2.35, 2 players)
Hero checks, siemasiema checks

River: ($2.35, 2 players)
Hero bets $1, siemasiema raises to $5, Hero raises to $15, siemasiema calls $10

Final Pot: $32.35
Hero shows:
siemasiema shows:

siemasiema wins $30.74 ( won +$14.74 )
Hero lost -$16

i still think raising the turn was better than flat calling as i was getting value from many worse hands(Ax, Jx, JT, any lower set) so i definetly should add slowplaying to my arsenal.
today/tomorrow i'm going to revise my strategy because i see many spots where i lose value or don't extract enough value..i finaly received my "mathematics of poker" by bill chen from pokerstas (ordered it in may, parcel was sent from UK in the end of apr - thats not quick at all!) and i hope it will give me new insights.

and ofcourse it's not enough to be a good player - you must also play well :)

my bankroll is only $54 below all-time high(which was 2 days ago). i love fridays - it's the day when i recieve rakeback :)

played poorly

2009-05-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

i played too passively in the beginning. now i see why is agression good. i didn't play much this week so i had to grind more(for cardrunners + iron man promo + cash bonus). i also played some PLO on stars (1-2cents) and won almost 5$. i may buy omaha manager and start playing PLO more..and then hopefuly omaha/8.
my deposit bonus expires on 16th of June so i must have grind on the mind

lol@live pros (moved up to where they respect my raises)

2009-05-19T12:02:00.001-07:00

when i logged in i noticed some pro was playing at 50nl table. it was jim mcmanus (5th@2000 WSOP ME, card player&new york times poker columnist, author of "positively 5th street", etc..). i've seen him a couple of times before. that was kind of strange..really, why would a pro play 50nl?(later he said he "plays low" while writing a book) so i checked his graph and it appeared he's a big donor: since last Dec he's running at -4BB/100. tracking sites suck at low limit, they display BS but still..anyway i joined the waiting list (i was 13th) but eventualy i sat down on his left.
he was typical fish: 26/15/7 vpip/pfr/3bet, 100%flop cbet and 100% fold to turn/river bets.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:

UTG	easymuc	($50.80)
UTG+1	Jim McManus	($146.25)
MP1	Fartovyi	($57.40)
MP2	DmmSMC	($53.80)
CO	Hero	($54.05)
BTN	20Aggie08	($24.30)
SB	Darth Mex	($34.40)
BB	elkiddo	($41.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 8 players) Hero is CO

1 fold, Jim McManus calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2, 3 folds, Jim McManus goes all-in $146.25, Hero folds

Final Pot: $4.75

Jim McManus wins $149 ( won +$2.75 )
Hero lost -$2

limp-shove UTG duh...omg he pwned me lol. aces obv.
i won $5.25 from him and lost $4 so...me>fulltilt pro

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
8 players
Stacks:

UTG	Hero	($52.05)
UTG+1	20Aggie08	($24.30)
MP1	der_igel	($19.50)
MP2	Darth Mex	($44.30)
CO	elkiddo	($42.25)
BTN	easymuc	($48.50)
SB	Jim McManus	($148.50)
BB	Fartovyi	($57.40)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 8 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $2, 5 folds, Jim McManus calls $1.75, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.50, 2 players)
Jim McManus bets $2.50, Hero raises to $7, Jim McManus folds

Final Pot: $9.50

Hero wins $13.55 ( won +$4.55 )
Jim McManus lost -$4.50

donkbet OOP from someone who always cbets and always folds to turn/river bets..hm..

[x] over 1$/hand

running good

2009-05-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

thanks to Meteoric and his virgins (I always thought they're fairytale creatures) I'm running good again. I particularly liked how I outplayed (I'm a good player obv) one player on the river:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players
Stacks:

UTG	Sabaneev	($5.00)
UTG+1	nordlicht66	($48.22)
MP1	ObiTwice_OSP	($12.50)
MP2	bowser_84	($26.64)
MP3	Kenchik	($5.00)
CO	hwarangdo	($28.12)
BTN	Hero	($25.00)
SB	TheMar	($27.37)
BB	Haukka18	($27.64)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is BTN

5 folds, hwarangdo raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25, 2 folds, hwarangdo raises to $7, Hero goes all-in $25, hwarangdo calls $18

Flop: ($50.35, 2 players)

Turn: ($50.35, 2 players)

River: ($50.35, 2 players)

Final Pot: $50.35
hwarangdo shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $47.84 ( won +$22.84 )
hwarangdo lost -$25

played over an hour but only 400 hands - waiting lists are too long today. I'd better stop for today(or else I may tilt) and watch some poker videos..havent watched them for a while

weekend graphs

2009-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

saturday:

sunday:

lots of things happened so i didn't have time to post session results - had to leave home quickly yesterday and came back today at night so todays's session is much shorter. maybe it's good because today's players were much tougher. yesterday's graph looks ugly because of bad luck($70 below EV) and a couple of big mistakes. if you remove a couple of big downswings it'll be even upward sloping. thats how few mistakes can ruin a session. i still don't think i played poorly, but at some point i was down by $190(ouch!)
after the weekend i'm like $10 down but actually i've recieved $60 and i'll recieve huge rakeback next friday so when i look at my balance it's growing much faster than my actual winnings (or um..losses like this week) so maybe it subtly affects my motivation: my bankroll is still growing so why shall i try harder? hm...

just looked at my graph since i announced my "$500 challenge"(last week):

1)omg i didn't know i had $410 downswing(thanks to bonuses+rakeback)
2)my blue line looks not-so-bad though i have to stop tilting(better luck might help..wink at poker gods)
3)i need to get coached by Meteoric on how to run hot :)

+EV..finaly

2009-05-14T13:26:00.001-07:00

didn't have much time so i've decided to play like 30mins to see if i can make a solid start without unnecessary hero calls or crazy bluffs. i'm satisfied with my winnings especially after last 2 days. not sure if i'll be playing tomorrow(but i'll still recieve about $65 rakeback which is...nice) - my friend came to Moscow from Lithuania...not for eurovision, really :) i still have many $$s to clear so i'll be grinding alot this weekend

poker gods hate me?

2009-05-13T15:55:00.001-07:00

um...wat? i know it's not the best day but the blue line is above zero..slightly :) good thing is that i didn't go on monkey tilt after a few badbeats in a row.
i expect that my expected profit will grow

holidays are over

2009-05-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

perfect start, really played my A-game, started to lose focus, took a few badbeats and tilted(i realise now looking at the graph). dont quit while you're winning right? i should have taken a break though as i couldn't focus on the game. oh well thats only 4BIs-rakeback-bonuses. im still up $40 since i started my "$500 challenge" :) and i'm glad i didn't move to 50nl yet as i probably need to learn how to focus while multitabling again after a month of 4-tabling/donkaments.

ohnoz

2009-05-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

standard "oh no it's been only 15 minutes and i already lost over $100, I gotta switch back to robusto mode" *click*
i'll play more tonight..

*update*

still good ptbb/100 and overall it's def better than yesterday

long(the longest?) session

2009-05-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

started badly, then some "omg online poker is rigged", then got tired probably since blue line is declining, but earnings were still growing. at least i survived few big badbeats in the middle(at some point I was over $70 below EV). i hope my poker endurance increased. graph shows "loss" of $34 but I earned $40 bonus and rakeback still to come..so it's not that bad.

victory day

2009-05-09T04:10:00.001-07:00

3 days of holidays and I'm staying in Moscow which means alot of poker..hopefuly not drunk poker. this session went really well..much better than I felt. I've lost alot of coinflips, bottom set vs top set,etc but I was really surprised when I saw the graph. happy holidays! :)

*update* becaise it's victory day I made it my best cash(in terms of $$) session :)

grinding

2009-05-07T13:16:00.001-07:00

ok time to move up to where they respect my raises even more - i'm rolled for 50nl but again(like with lower limits) due to recent swings I'll play some more in my comfort zone and build bigger roll for future swings. $500 more and I'll move up (20BIs@25nl, 10BI or "swingy" session@50nl)..$500 without bonuses/rakeback,ofc.
I'll play much more on holidays(sat-mon)..if I stay in Moscow.

busy days

2009-05-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

i've been busy with work recently - coming back home at about midnight. didn't play yesterday, tried to play a bit today.
first it was limit omaha hi-lo, 2-4cents (almost playmoney - it's limit). lost like 40 cents - yes I suck at this game. hand:
$0.01/$0.02 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
6 players
Stacks:

UTG	55th and 3rd	($1.11)
UTG+1	bleu.sky.y	($1.31)
CO	rehof71	($3.53)
BTN	Hero	($199.68)
SB	JEDZILLA99	($0.33)
BB	soma76	($0.70)

Pre-flop: ($0.03, 6 players) Hero is BTN

2 folds, rehof71 calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, JEDZILLA99 calls $0.01, soma76 checks

Flop: ($0.08, 4 players)
JEDZILLA99 checks, soma76 checks, rehof71 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.08, 4 players)
JEDZILLA99 bets $0.04, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, JEDZILLA99 raises to $0.12, Hero raises to $0.16, JEDZILLA99 calls $0.04

River: ($0.40, 2 players)
JEDZILLA99 bets $0.04, Hero raises to $0.08, JEDZILLA99 raises to $0.12, Hero raises to $0.16, JEDZILLA99 goes all-in $0.03

Final Pot: $0.70
JEDZILLA99 shows:
Hero shows:

JEDZILLA99 wins $0.50 ( won +$0.17 )
Hero wins $0.18 ( lost -$0.16 )
soma76 lost -$0.02
rehof71 lost -$0.02

i've gone crazy valuebetting high nuts without any low - probably a terrible mistake. that's how you win a pot with nuts actually losing money. odd game

it was swingy, but in a good way. should have played more but too tired(taking pause after swings)..don't stop when you're winning, right? gotta work on that..I guess I should have played some mtt - something slow and relaxing.
miniftops event#1 starts at 5am, so I'm gonna sell the ticket, event#2 starts at 10pm I think so I may play it..if I get home that early - this week may be very busy....yawn

but then 3 days of holidays again!

yet another marginal session

2009-05-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

definetly not the best session. I made at least 2 stupid mistakes that cost me full stack..it's the last day of holidays so what could I expect? anyway, here's the hand that made my day:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players
Stacks:

UTG	xpifpifx	($4.75)
UTG+1	Mr Sacolas	($4.65)
MP1	Ksaver	($6.10)
MP2	matterhorn1	($24.65)
CO	woodzzy73	($17.11)
BTN	Scapalusa	($5.00)
SB	Hero	($25.00)
BB	ElSiciliano13	($7.72)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is SB

1 fold, Mr Sacolas raises to $0.50, 2 folds, woodzzy73 raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.40, <-bad call OOP btw. since they were loose maniacs I should have raised..or folded 1 fold, Mr Sacolas goes all-in $4.65, woodzzy73 calls $3.15, Hero calls $3.15

Flop: ($14.20, 3 players)
Hero checks, woodzzy73 checks

Turn: ($14.20, 3 players)
Hero bets $10, woodzzy73 folds

River: ($24.20, 2 players)

Final Pot: $14.20
Hero shows:
Mr Sacolas shows:

Hero wins $23.49 ( won +$8.84 )
Mr Sacolas lost -$4.65
woodzzy73 lost -$4.65

stupid shortstacker thought he's a good player because he had sevens full of aces, but I'm a better player so I had jacks full of sevens :) I said "lol" and then he exploded. he even used translation program to tell me something about my mother in Russian. too bad I couldn't understand "computer Russian" but it was pretty entertaining. omg, Einstein moved in preflop with A7 and lost! oh and he lost his chat privileges:)

swingy session

2009-05-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

looks like after big winnings I had hard time adjusting to tought opponents. 400 hands of losses but then I started playing ok again (except statisticaly insignificant cooler - nut straigt vs runner runner flush). this downswing is due to red non-showdown winnings(losses?). standard situation: loose fish (54/5 or something stupid) opens-raises, everyone folds, I call from the button with TJ. flop comes T 7 2 rainbow, he checks, I raise, he min-checkraises, I call. turn - some blank card(like 4) and he makes pot-sized bet, I don't want to play big pot with a very marginal hand (that can only beat a bluff) so I fold, even though I have position. the problem is I can't put 54/5 villain on any range, like he could have easily had T4 and I don't want to "level myself". probably I should re-raise their check-raises but this tactic significantly increases variance. traders always try to increase variance because big risk=big reward but I think poker is different and I'd much rather take money from passive opponents

random thoughts

2009-05-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

it's Mayday which means streets are full of communists with soviet flags and...I got cardrunners membership. their forum looks awesome I gotta troll for a while. back to mass-tabling(12-14 tables). why do I always spew money in the beginning? some coolers, some heaters - nothing extraordinary, but I definetly spew money in the beginning - make stupid hero calls, crazy bluffs, etc. if only I could stay fix it somehow - it costs me hundreds of dollars I guess :) I'll try to play much tighter in the beginning. fortunately I have alot of $$s to clear from "first deposit bonus"(+$20 this session) and rakeback.
ok, holidays...

[x] grind on the mind

*update*

unlucky day

2009-04-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

didn't play yesterday but tomorrow is Mayday so probably I'll play alot. from now i'm going to multitable again. this session didn't start very well - lost whole stack due to bad beat (2 pairs vs overpair and villain hit backdor flush), then made some mistakes/hero calls and tightened my game - it went pretty well after that. i was pretty unlucky also but with bonuses and rakeback it's about zero. i gotta start future sessions much tighter. oh and i should move up to where they respect my raises even more(50nl) very soon..
good news: i'll get 400fpps on stars for filling the surbey on 5th of May - enough for the next turbo takedown sats
bad news: from May i have to earn 1k ftps more to get cardrunners membership

hehe..

2009-04-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

things just didn't go right in the beginning(i thought i've fixed that before)..then i've decided to play tighter and added more tables...bingo! :) $150 from turbo takedown isn't that much. +over $5 in rakeback+deposit bonus...so even swingy breakeven sessions bring some profit. fulltilr>pokerstars

monday monday

2009-04-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

gotta turn back to cash-game mode as i've played too many tournaments recently. i've started really well even stacked a guy a set but then made some stupid mistakes..like not paying attention to stack sizes:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players
Stacks:

UTG	Liweikai	($6.81)
UTG+1	l1ttledb	($29.77)
MP1	azabnmp	($25.50)
MP2	Scapalusa	($5.00)
CO	Hero	($30.47)
BTN	Spartankick	($5.00)
SB	kuli2001	($45.41)
BB	darkness2006	($10.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is CO

Liweikai raises to $1, 3 folds, Hero calls $1, 3 folds

Flop: ($2.35, 2 players)
Liweikai bets $2, Hero raises to $4.50, <- cheap gutshot bluff. if he had deeper stack i should have raised more, but with his actual stack size i should have folded, so it's bad in many ways
Liweikai goes all-in $5.81, Hero calls $1.31 <- was forced to call due to pot odds.. :(
Turn: ($13.97, 2 players)

River: ($13.97, 2 players)

Final Pot: $13.97
Hero shows:
Liweikai shows:

Liweikai wins $13.28 ( won +$6.47 )
Hero lost -$6.81

downswing in the middle is when others started taking advantage of my loose style so i simply changed tables. I can clearly see a pattern: they call all bets with air and jam on the river with air. i suspect i've folded too many hands.
$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
7 players
Stacks:

UTG	ghostyx89	($50.11)
UTG+1	ShingoKatayama1	($15.15)
MP	Alf080	($52.01)
CO	Pants N At	($26.25)
BTN	Ajatolah	($24.76)
SB	Hero	($27.48)
BB	Jolly2702	($25.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 7 players) Hero is SB

5 folds, Hero raises to $0.65, Jolly2702 calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.30, 2 players)
Hero bets $1, Jolly2702 calls $1

Turn: ($3.30, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, Jolly2702 raises to $5.50, Hero calls $3.50

River: ($14.30, 2 players)
Hero checks, Jolly2702 bets $6, Hero calls $6

Final Pot: $26.30
Hero shows:
Jolly2702 shows:

Hero wins $24.99 ( won +$11.84 )
Jolly2702 lost -$13.15

Loose fish tried to protect his BB. he tried to represent..actually i have no clue. his play just didn't make any sense. that's how you level yourself :)

turbo takedown

2009-04-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

ok here's the hand that Meteoric didn't like:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
7 players
Stacks:

UTG	pesheraj	(2955)
UTG+1	AdLaing22	(3275)
MP	123kuba	(5800)
CO	RANDOMLIGHT	(3415)
BTN	Hero	(2700)
SB	Zenkei2007	(3580)
BB	Loan$hark	(2275)

Blinds: 15/30

Pre-flop: (45, 7 players) Hero is BTN

2 folds, 123kuba calls 30, RANDOMLIGHT calls 30, Hero raises to 60, 1 fold, Loan$hark raises to 210, 123kuba folds, RANDOMLIGHT folds, Hero calls 150

Flop: (495, 2 players)
Loan$hark bets 360, Hero calls 360

Turn: (1,215, 2 players)
Loan$hark bets 690, Hero calls 690

River: (2,595, 2 players)
Loan$hark checks, Hero bets 300, Loan$hark calls 300, Loan$hark says "bs"

Final Pot: 3,195
Hero shows:
Loan$hark shows:

Hero wins 3,195 ( won +1,635 )
123kuba lost -30
RANDOMLIGHT lost -30
Loan$hark lost -1,560

i liked how i played this hand for many reasons actualy, but some people like Meteoric and Loan$hark didn't like it. it even put him on monkey tilt so he open-shoved 62s and lost which was kinda funny :)

anyway, at some point i was 24th with almost 3.5 avg stack but last 15 mins before the break i played at the 3-handed table with a shortstacker and a guy on my left who didn't mind gambling. that was retarded - instead of taking advantage of my stack size i actually lost some chips. unfortunately later I switched to chip-spewing mode and tried to steal blinds twice with very marginal hands. some shortstacker shoved and i was forced to call. actually 2nd call was bad..then i lost 2 flips and I was left with 5bbs. I realised there are only 200 people left till next payout level so I started requesting time on every hand before folding. this retarded tactic made me extra $60. oh and i lost with AQs so it wasn't that bad. finished ~1900/9000 ($150). better than last month.

oh and I lost 2 sats on fulltilt this morning(maybe $12-$15 in total). not that I had good chances but I have to admit I played terribly

efficient coinflipping

2009-04-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

it's 3am and i've just got a ticket to turbo takedown..woo-hoo! i think i played like 4-5 satellites but i didn't waste much time - in the first 2 i didn't last more than 15 minutes though i made probably top 1/3..that was quick! 1000 starting chip, blinds raise every 5 minutes so it was brutal. in the beginning i played very tight(after only 5mins your M is well below 10!) but then i realised i can't win more flips than anyone else so i've decided to play exploitatevly since other people made strange moves: open-raised with half of their stacks and then folded on flops or called raises and folded to flop minraises etc. my idea was to make my stack slightly greater than the average to steal some blinds and then play conservatively again when others start shoving like crazy. i think i made top 200 twice(maybe once actually) and eventually made top 100. nh!
but still this structure is brutal! here's a quote from Benjamin Graham's "Intelligent Investor":

Let’s assume we get 225 million Americans up tomorrow morning and we ask them all to wager a dollar. They go out in the morning at sunrise, and they all call the flip of a coin. If they call correctly, they win a dollar from those who called wrong. Each day the losers drop out, and on the subsequent day the stakes build as all previous winnings are put on the line. After ten flips on ten mornings, there will be approximately 220,000 people in the United States who have correctly called ten flips in a row. They each will have won a little over $1,000.

Now this group will probably start getting a little puffed up about this, human nature being what it is. They may try to be modest, but at cocktail parties they will occasionally admit to attractive members of the opposite sex what their technique is, and what marvelous insights they bring to the field of flipping.

Assuming that the winners are getting the appropriate rewards from the losers, in another ten days we will have 215 people who have successfully called their coin flips 20 times in a row and who, by this exercise, each have turned one dollar into a little over $1 million. $225 million would have been lost, $225 million would have been won.
By then, this group will really lose their heads. They will probably write books on “How I Turned a Dollar into a Million in Twenty Days Working Thirty Seconds a Morning.” Worse yet,they’ll probably start jetting around the country attending seminars on efficient coin-flipping and tackling skeptical professors with, “If it can’t be done, why are there 215 of us?”

But then some business school professor will probably be rude enough to bring up the fact that if 225 million orangutans had engaged in a similar exercise, the results would be much the same—215 egotistical orangutans with 20 straight winning flips.

it's very true and noone has an edge in coinflipping..so i have some thoughts on playing in close to the "move-in" stages that i want to test. thats why small ball is great for deep stack tournaments - you don't have to risk all your chips to grow your stack above the average(so it'll be safer in the "move in" stage)..but unfortunately online mtts aren'y deepstacked

2009-04-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

played a short cash session which was quite successful. i noticed strange tendency - players call all raises and the just shove or make big overbet on the river..

$0.1/$0.25 Deep No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	stiLObpc	($20.21)
UTG+1	Hosimp	($22.23)
MP1	samumatete	($61.87)
MP2	Hero	($30.16)
MP3	heirou3pp	($15.95)
CO	CloningAA	($35.35)
BTN	san85	($25.66)
SB	theadora	($25.00)
BB	BiggerBetterUSA	($24.90)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is MP2

samumatete says "phew", stiLObpc calls $0.25, Hosimp calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.65, 5 folds, stiLObpc calls $0.40, Hosimp calls $0.40

Flop: ($2.30, 3 players)
stiLObpc checks, Hosimp checks, Hero bets $1.50, stiLObpc calls $1.50, Hosimp folds

Turn: ($5.30, 2 players)
stiLObpc checks, Hero bets $2, stiLObpc calls $2

River: ($9.30, 2 players)
stiLObpc bets $9.30, Hero calls $9.30 <- "hero call"

Final Pot: $27.90
stiLObpc shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $26.51 ( won +$13.06 )
stiLObpc lost -$13.45
Hosimp lost -$0.65

then i noticed pokerstars finaly announced 20fpp sats to million turbo takedown - 100 seats guarantee, an opportunity i can not miss :) looks like i'm having a sleepless nights again...

[ ] poker luck

2009-04-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

played 2 sats and no cash today. 1st one was $1.2+ rebuys 6max MTT - was chip leader all the way but then when blinds were high lost 2 coinflips and finished 3rd from the tickets. 6max turbo MTTs are much more stupid than 9max turbo MTTs anyway..

then I played sat to turbo takedown on stars..don't have many FPPs as i don't play on stars now so chances are i'm not gonna qualify. lost big pot, made an epic comeback, then badbeat and another epic comeback and a chip leader again..then push-fold stage started. my jacks lost to AT (flop is ATx obv) and then i shoved QT from the SB when everyone folded to me and my M was ~2.5...BB(chip leader) called with J4 and won. mentalist..standard :) 6th out of 24, 1 ticket and 1 4000FPPs prize. too bad my "ownage skills" didn't help me

at least i only lost $3.6 today :) "opportunity cost" of not playing cash was much greater i guess

hi Erick Lindgren

2009-04-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

thats 10-tabling 25nl. gotta play longer..nothing special. i also played 2 WSOP supersattelites(both were the cheapest lol) - was busted in both, even though i made final table and had 3rd stack..and 1 FTOPS satellite which I won. it'll be hosted by Erick Lindgren..so here I come!

wsop, here i come...kind of

2009-04-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

i played 2 satellites to wsop events..just for fun. 1st one was MTT with rebuys (for the main event sat), i made final table but didn't get the ticket - only cash. 2nd one was true "lol donkament". i lost half of my stack in the 1st hand but then made an epic comeback at the final table.
anyway, there were 7 players left, 6 tickets and one cash prize. i got AK and shoved..bad shove, since i should have folded everything including AA. but it didn't matter because some mentalist was sitting on my left. he requested time (probably he was cleaning his crystal ball) and called:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$200K Stimulus Satellite
Stacks:

UTG	bird42042	(3210)
UTG+1	Hero	(2405)
MP	Ironman5001	(16440)
CO	hghlndr6	(4390)
BTN	AFarewell2Kings	(2915)
SB	DimanLTD	(1715)
BB	shadylady13	(7925)

Blinds: 200/400 Ante 50

Pre-flop: (950, 7 players) Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero goes all-in 2,355, Ironman5001 calls 2,355, 4 folds

Flop: (6,010, 2 players)

Turn: (6,010, 2 players)

River: (6,010, 2 players)

Final Pot: 5,660
Hero shows:
Ironman5001 shows:

Ironman5001 wins 5,660 ( won +3,305 )
Hero lost -2,355

but still looks like i'm good at donkaments:

pokertracker bug

2009-04-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

didn't plan to play much as i'm still sleepy after the last night, but i won enough to quit quickly. the last hand is massive -EV according to PT which is not true.

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
Stacks:

UTG	Sigorloy	($5.00)
UTG+1	renethehunter	($25.00)
MP1	nurisha	($5.86)
MP2	smokestacks71	($14.95)
MP3	goozebuster	($37.25)
CO	brester20	($4.70)
BTN	Hero	($30.92)
SB	tzachzzz	($5.60)
BB	IloledHard	($25.85)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, renethehunter raises to $1, 4 folds, Hero calls $1, tzachzzz calls $0.90, 1 fold

Flop: ($3.25, 3 players)
tzachzzz checks, renethehunter bets $3.25, Hero calls $3.25, tzachzzz goes all-in $4.60, renethehunter calls $1.35, Hero calls $1.35

Turn: ($17.05, 3 players)
renethehunter bets $3.50, Hero calls $3.50

River: ($24.05, 3 players)
renethehunter bets $4.25, Hero goes all-in $21.82, renethehunter goes all-in $11.65

Final Pot: $55.85
Hero shows:
tzachzzz shows:
renethehunter shows:

Hero wins $42.78 ( won +$11.86 )
tzachzzz wins $16.20 ( won +$10.60 )
renethehunter lost -$25

it shows that my EV is something like -$25 as I only had 2nd best hand when I shoved but the guy with the nuts was only $5.6 deep so there's no way I was expected to lose that much. in fact there were 2 pots: the one that I lost to the shortstacker and the one that I won, so the total EV is +$11.86.

pokertracker is rigged obv

it's been a hard day's night

2009-04-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

lost a big pot and then this hand happened:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
Stacks:

UTG	fishmester80	($5.54)
UTG+1	GastonMartelli	($5.00)
MP1	ihavetjqka918	($7.33)
MP2	DavidWhiteRose	($15.78)
MP3	ddviper	($11.20)
CO	SIRCONANS	($25.60)
BTN	mbburch	($12.00)
SB	Hero	($33.40)
BB	Strangeguy	($7.40)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is SB

3 folds, DavidWhiteRose calls $0.25, ddviper calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, Strangeguy calls $0.50, DavidWhiteRose calls $0.50, ddviper calls $0.50

Flop: ($3, 4 players)
Hero checks, Strangeguy checks, DavidWhiteRose bets $1.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.25, Strangeguy raises to $3.25, DavidWhiteRose folds, Hero raises to $5.25, Strangeguy goes all-in $6.65, Hero folds

Final Pot: $14.75

Strangeguy wins $15.42 ( won +$8.02 )
Hero lost -$6
DavidWhiteRose lost -$2
ddviper lost -$0.75

don't know what happened - it just auto-folded the nuts. guess i had tilt issues (see graph), took a break and won everything back.

then at night(0.22 am) i played double deuce MTT. everything went pretty well then i lost a flip and had pretty short stack on the bubble. everyone folded and the button open-raised 3x, i was on the small blind with jacks and insta-folded. bad bad fold but i just wanted to get into the money :) then i doubled up, killed a shortstacker...and lost to aces..twice! finished in 500s(out of 9543, lasting longer than any pro including wsop winner :) ) at 4.40am with nice $60. the tournament finished at about 10:30am so i greatly underestimated its duration!

at about 3am i noticed my friend was online playing at goplay. he was taking a shot at €5/10 because "some fish was playing". that "fish" was sitting with over €5000, then he left and joined another table with €1000, my friend followed him and list time i checked that fish had almost €3k. my friend also made a couple of thousands euro that night - good reason to stay awake at 4am. and i only won $60...fml. strange things happen at nights :)

wsop anyone?

2009-04-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

i played 2 donkaments this evening: $11 MTT ($25k prize pook), finished ~630/2500. it was turbo so i had to act quickly...but i just couldn't get a decent card after an early double-up. when my M was about 3 and i was on the button, i shoved 56s (equilibrium solution suggests 45s+) and BB called with A8o. variance...

then I played $6 9-man satellite to $200k double deuce on FTP and won it. it looks pretty sexy: 3220 starting chips, levels are 10min long and 1080 paid places (bases on 1957 players), last place is $44, 1st is almost $32k...so I'll be able to shortstack Ivey Thunderdome :) hope I didn't waste all my luck on that $0.1 donkament lol
too bad it starts at 0.22am and i have to go to work on monday :(

WSOP satellites start next week on stars..let us gogogo? i have to think about that too..

morning session

2009-04-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

short morning session on stars. good thing is that i don't have to wait to joing tables so it was really quick. I also played badugi for play money...lost like 2k lol. this game must be easy at least mathematicaly but i won only 1 hand..i totaly suck :)

running hot

2009-04-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

last hand was a cooler. true story:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:

UTG	schuchi	($4.90)
UTG+1	Hero	($33.53)
MP1	Snqtch	($6.77)
MP2	DocPhlegmo	($24.30)
CO	aepfelma	($4.65)
BTN	Frankenfisch	($26.20)
SB	Linda Thoren	($25.02)
BB	OnTiltPl	($5.51)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero raises to $0.65, Snqtch calls $0.65, 5 folds

Flop: ($1.65, 2 players)
Hero bets $0.75, Snqtch raises to $2.50, Hero calls $1.75

Turn: ($6.65, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $30.38, Snqtch goes all-in $3.62

River: ($40.65, 2 players)

Final Pot: $13.89
Hero shows:
Snqtch shows:

Hero wins $26.76 ( lost -$6.77 )
Snqtch wins $13.20 ( won +$6.43 )

ok ok played it badly..should have shoved the flop

also lost $2 in limit omaha 8 heads-up and $2.25 in limit omaha 8 sng...gotta learn this game...grrr!

wat

2009-04-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

$0.01/$0.02 No Limit Holdem
8 players
Stacks:

UTG	tomgus456	($5.00)
UTG+1	jw1700	($5.00)
MP1	prhln	($1.99)
MP2	gurtkurt	($168.09)
CO	heltok	($409.18)
BTN	eyedol82	($5.00)
SB	Cazeusp	($5.33)
BB	LirarDanne	($317.18)

Pre-flop: ($0.03, 8 players)
tomgus456 goes all-in $5, jw1700 goes all-in $5, 2 folds, heltok raises to $9.98, LirarDanne says "48o", eyedol82 goes all-in $5, 1 fold, LirarDanne raises to $14.96, heltok raises to $19.94, LirarDanne raises to $24.92, heltok raises to $29.90, LirarDanne raises to $34.88, heltok raises to $39.86, LirarDanne raises to $44.84, heltok raises to $49.82, LirarDanne raises to $54.80, heltok raises to $59.78, LirarDanne raises to $64.76, heltok raises to $69.74, LirarDanne raises to $74.72, heltok raises to $79.70, LirarDanne raises to $84.68, heltok raises to $89.66, LirarDanne raises to $94.64, heltok raises to $99.62, LirarDanne raises to $104.60, heltok raises to $109.58, LirarDanne raises to $114.56, heltok raises to $119.54, LirarDanne raises to $124.52, heltok raises to $129.50, LirarDanne raises to $134.48, heltok raises to $139.46, LirarDanne raises to $144.44, heltok raises to $149.42, LirarDanne raises to $154.40, heltok raises to $159.38, LirarDanne raises to $164.36, heltok raises to $169.34, LirarDanne raises to $174.32, heltok raises to $179.30, LirarDanne raises to $184.28, heltok raises to $189.26, LirarDanne raises to $194.24, heltok raises to $199.22, LirarDanne raises to $204.20, heltok raises to $209.18, LirarDanne raises to $214.16, heltok raises to $219.14, LirarDanne raises to $224.12, heltok raises to $229.10, LirarDanne raises to $234.08, heltok raises to $239.06, LirarDanne raises to $244.04, heltok raises to $249.02, LirarDanne raises to $254, heltok raises to $258.98, LirarDanne raises to $263.96, heltok raises to $268.94, LirarDanne raises to $273.92, heltok raises to $278.90, LirarDanne raises to $283.88, heltok raises to $288.86, LirarDanne raises to $293.84, heltok raises to $298.82, LirarDanne raises to $303.80, heltok raises to $308.78, LirarDanne raises to $313.76, heltok says "KTo", heltok says "time to fold", heltok raises to $318.74, LirarDanne goes all-in $3.42, LirarDanne says "56bet?"

Flop: ($650.93, 5 players)
tomgus456 says "Favorithanden!"

Turn: ($650.93, 5 players)
LirarDanne says "naaaaaaaaaaaaaaj"

River: ($650.93, 5 players)
heltok says "lol", heltok says "sÃ¥Ã¥Ã¥Ã¥ja"

Final Pot: $649.37
heltok shows:
LirarDanne shows:

heltok wins $647.93 ( won +$329.19 )
jw1700 lost -$5
eyedol82 lost -$5
LirarDanne lost -$317.18
tomgus456 lost -$5

outplayed preflop. i'm 31st on the waitlist.. ldo

ship it

2009-04-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

nice short session. simple agression is very effective when i have enough stats in my HUD. I'm still trying to play hyper LAG (37/32 today) and probably my maniacal image helps me

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:

UTG	GeertInkMan	($21.32)
UTG+1	vargragg	($40.83)
MP1	Mesembria	($42.46)
MP2	Stone00799	($9.84)
CO	Hero	($25.00)
BTN	MoMoney2222	($29.52)
SB	irnman76	($26.84)
BB	STWRRR	($31.42)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is CO

4 folds, Hero raises to $0.65, 1 fold, irnman76 calls $0.55, STWRRR calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.95, 3 players)
irnman76 checks, STWRRR checks, Hero bets $0.75, irnman76 folds, STWRRR raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $3.50, STWRRR calls $2

Turn: ($8.95, 2 players)
STWRRR checks, Hero bets $5, STWRRR folds

Final Pot: $8.95

Hero wins $13.51 ( won +$4.36 )
irnman76 lost -$0.65
STWRRR lost -$4.15

probably I have to 3-bet flops more:

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	niunianzhyun	($38.13)
UTG+1	RoyalTomek	($9.86)
MP1	h2o69x	($25.00)
MP2	NBLACKMORE	($5.25)
MP3	Flopik	($5.00)
CO	explevi	($44.28)
BTN	giimoney	($13.90)
SB	Mrfrigoo	($23.32)
BB	Hero	($26.35)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is BB

6 folds, giimoney raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.10, 2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, giimoney raises to $3.75, Hero raises to $7, giimoney folds

Final Pot: $9.60

Hero wins $12.37 ( won +$4.37 )
giimoney lost -$4.75

there's Moscow student championship at my university this week - not sure if I can play since I'm not a student any more but if I have time I'll watch my friends playing there. maybe I won't play much "cyber" poker this week

maniacs

2009-04-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at some maniacal tables in the beginnig. I was outside my comfort zone so I made a couple costly mistakes. Then I kind-of tuned and won some money back. then switched to "fishy tables" but they were too boring. Also +$10 bonus and some rakeback(i hope). I should select tables carefuly tomorow.

maniacal hand but i think i played it well:

$0.1/$0.25 Deep No Limit Holdem
7 players

Stacks:

UTG	tictacbubi	($48.74)
UTG+1	Hero	($37.38)
MP	enbbasa	($18.45)
CO	sriver7682	($25.00)
BTN	zurita10	($25.00)
SB	aadelgado	($66.11)
BB	chips4fools	($31.44)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 7 players) Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero raises to $0.60, 4 folds, chips4fools calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.30, 2 players)
chips4fools checks, Hero bets $1.20, chips4fools raises to $4.90, Hero calls $3.70

Turn: ($11.10, 2 players)
chips4fools bets $5.25, Hero raises to $15, chips4fools folds

Final Pot: $21.60

Hero wins $30.27 ( won +$9.77 )
chips4fools lost -$10.75

talking about crazy hands, my friend tried to convince me he played this one well:
$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 players

Stacks:

UTG	pauli1	($565.70)
CO	KESUERTE	($916.16)
BTN	Hero	($2037.14)
SB	LapeSnape	($400.00)
BB	Kerstin_1	($231.70)

Pre-flop: ($6, 5 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, KESUERTE raises to $14, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, KESUERTE calls $34

Flop: ($102, 2 players)
KESUERTE checks, Hero bets $70, KESUERTE raises to $180, Hero calls $110

Turn: ($462, 2 players)
KESUERTE bets $231, Hero calls $231

River: ($924, 2 players)
KESUERTE bets $304, Hero calls $304

Final Pot: $1,532
KESUERTE shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $1,529 ( won +$766 )
KESUERTE lost -$763

definetly should move up to where they respect your raises :)

table selection

2009-04-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

i've decided to try table tracker and played a short session at "fishy tables". it went pretty well - i made $15 i paid for subscription. but then i found another software - spade eye, which does the same and it's free(maybe i'm running a demo?). it's much slower but more flexible. it also has built-in datamining feature that opens 18 tables to track stats. it also has some "smart" features such as "change tables every x minutes" or "close tables when nu of players drops below y" etc. i may play with it later but both programs are pretty handy cause fulltilt lobby is terrible: no filters, tables move up and down all the way.

also i have some ideas on how to improve my postflop game. have to do some analysis and maybe i'll play again tonight

*update*

sick ptbb/100..tabletracker might be a good thing but sample size is small. also, bonuses, rakeback(or no? so far i only got rakeback once) etc.

i have to practice some more, maybe a week or two and start mass-tabling again..mass small ball pwnage ftw :)

breakeven day

2009-04-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

well not really a breakeven since I got $10 bonus, ~$5 rakeback..bonuses on stars suck :) btw, there are daily $500 and $1k freerolls on stars that i may play(i'm a goldstar after all) but still they're a waste of time compared to fulltilt bonuses. oh and looks like i'm getting stoxpoker membership (that i don't actually need) for free...trulyfree :)

I was only 4-tabling - still trying to adopt new style(today my VPIP was ~32%). it seems to be a good options since everyone just folds preflop. i could have done much better - made a "hero call"(hand ~185) and near the end probably got tired and felt like "gambling" with shortstackers

2009-04-09T13:36:00.001-07:00

there was something wrong with my computer/ISP/Fulltilt - connection was so laggy i couldn't play. and it's pretty annoying there are no free tables on fulltilt and i have to join waitlist first. i haven't played much this week so i have to play alot tomorrow/on weekends..i hope. nice $9, lol@sample size. i miss my 2-3k hands/day..

thread to follow(for future reference): http://www.bluefirepoker.com/thread.aspx?thrid=1765 must be awesome.

looks like it's pretty easy to get cardrunners/stoxpoker membership via trulyfreepokertraining.com - i must think about it.

smallballin'

2009-04-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

these days i'm spending much more time watching videos than actually playing poker. playing many small pots might be really optimal for these limits as many opponents make big mistakes postflop and I can make mistakes postflop at small price.

but i also have to figure out SSS as i want to clear all the bonuses. oh well

small ball

2009-04-05T15:08:00.001-07:00

huge downswing was when some random guy raised everyone preflop and shoved on the flop 4 times in a row, then i got 99 and 3-bet him preflop, he obviously shoved and i called. he had TT. just little piece of gambling :)

tried some "small ball". vpip/pfr=43.3/33.3 but only 2 tables (can't mass-table "small ball").

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem

Stacks:

UTG	Irishwraith	($30.89)
UTG+1	ShoeKnee	($9.63)
MP1	vectorspace	($43.28)
MP2	anorela	($4.46)
MP3	Stoked	($28.16)
CO	intermeya	($10.00)
BTN	LastSkull	($9.65)
SB	Hero	($24.50)
BB	DimaBluf	($4.53)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is SB

2 folds, 2 folds, Stoked calls $0.25, 1 fold, LastSkull calls $0.25, Hero calls $0.15, DimaBluf checks

Flop: ($1, 4 players)
Hero bets $0.75, 2 folds, LastSkull raises to $1.50, Hero calls $0.75

Turn: ($4, 2 players)
Hero checks, LastSkull bets $1.50, Hero raises to $4, LastSkull calls $2.50

River: ($12, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $18.75, LastSkull goes all-in $3.90

Final Pot: $19.80
LastSkull shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $33.66 ( won +$9.16 )
Stoked lost -$0.25
LastSkull lost -$9.65
DimaBluf lost -$0.25

poker gods hate me

2009-04-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

it's like the worst day ever. i know, EV is still below zero but it's mostly due to poor play in the beginning(standard). i was shortstacking 25nl in the beginning and theres less room for good play obviously. most of the time it's a coinflip situation, so i've decided to "move down where they respect my skill" (notice how "EV" line changed). but it didn't help much.

$0.1/$0.25 No Limit Holdem

Stacks:

UTG	iHavik	($4.50)
UTG+1	Harry4000	($26.05)
MP1	enright3060	($14.10)
MP2	BulleTrain01	($19.65)
CO	Fat Tomy	($26.60)
BTN	Hero	($5.00)
SB	PkrDealer86	($27.55)
BB	vallepusa	($12.50)

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is BTN

iHavik calls $0.25, 4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 2 folds, iHavik calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.35, 2 players)
iHavik bets $0.75, Hero goes all-in $3.50, iHavik goes all-in $2.25

Turn: ($9.85, 2 players)

River: ($9.85, 2 players)

Final Pot: $9.35
Hero shows:
iHavik shows:

Hero wins $0.50 ( lost -$4.50 )
iHavik wins $8.90 ( won +$4.40 )

what a mentalist! limp under the gun with 7To? sure! call raise to 6bb? ofcourse! move in with a middle pair on the flop? oh well. phil hellmuth would've killed that mentalist :)

i can do mentalist laydowns too:

$0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem

Stacks:

UTG	petr84	($4.17)
UTG+1	Tao77185	($8.80)
MP	FamousHenrik	($2.00)
CO	ChipBatya	($13.24)
BTN	kladik	($2.86)
SB	Hero	($13.64)
BB	Mayka19	($8.63)

[FamousHenrik posted $0.05]
Pre-flop: ($0.12, 7 players) Hero is SB

1 fold, Tao77185 calls $0.05, FamousHenrik raises to $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, Mayka19 calls $0.25, Tao77185 calls $0.25, FamousHenrik calls $0.20

Flop: ($1.20, 4 players)
Hero bets $1.10, 1 fold, Tao77185 calls $1.10, FamousHenrik calls $1.10

Turn: ($4.50, 3 players)
Hero checks, Tao77185 goes all-in $7.40, FamousHenrik goes all-in $0.60, Hero folds

River: ($12.50, 2 players)

Final Pot: $5.70
Tao77185 shows:
FamousHenrik shows:

Tao77185 wins $12.25 ( won +$3.45 )
FamousHenrik lost -$2
Hero lost -$1.40
Mayka19 lost -$0.30

lost some sklansky bucks in the last hand but saved some real bucks :)

casual saturday

2009-04-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

i finaly installed new beta of PT3 but i need to update/clusterize/"housekeep" my database so i wont post graphs. i also made a deposit on fulltilt to clear the bonuses and played a while there but then "happy hour" ended. i made ~$20 on stars and lost ~$10 on fulltilt(but that was a really brief session)

also played that $3.3+R satellite to sunday warm-up. it was more of a gamble today: 144 entrants, everyone shoved liberaly. took a badbeat, was sitting on a very very short stack(still bigger than 2 rebuys so i didn't waste money), 2 guys limped in, i shoved KJs and won 5-way pot with a set of kings :) after the break(no more rebuys allowed) people were still eager to gamble so i lost a few stupid pots and ended ~60th. duh

i've found videos of Daniel's deep run in sunday million (every hand revealed!). it's pretty interesting, he was using his "small ball" approach and he took it to the extreme, minraising and limping in the whole way..he also played "suited connectors" lik 47s("well they are still connected in some way" lol) i can learn a ton definetly.

i'll spend more time learning and less time playing as this shortstacking madness isn't going anywhere. i still have to do it to clear bonuses and earn some money. but clearly from this strategy poker sites are earning much more than i do

run out of luck

2009-04-03T15:01:00.000-07:00

I played $3.3+R sattelite to sunday warm-up again, started pretty well but then lost 2 allins, had ubershort stack, got pocket tens, shoved and aces called. rigged obv :) finished 50-something out of 120-something

tried some cash, same story:

I'm still well above $200 in profit this week but..this is not how variance works :)

oh, I tried $1 DoN and won it! woo-hoo!

i ALMOST did it again

2009-04-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to play much today so I played only 1 $3.33+R sattelite to sunday warm-up, like yesterday. everything was the same as yesterday: 4th after the break with 42k chips (there were fewer players - only 99 so there were 5 tickets). I think I played well but finished 14th :(

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$3.03+$0.30
7 players

Stacks:

UTG	aleks5	(42660)
UTG+1	Pinkman33	(86936)
MP	strike69119	(165032)
CO	Hero	(29695)
BTN	FISHYFINGER	(72012)
SB	crevaai	(115875)
BB	LadyPauly	(44480)

Blinds: 2500/5000 Ante 500

Pre-flop: (11,000, 7 players) Hero is CO

1 fold, Pinkman33 raises to 30,000, strike69119 calls 30,000, Hero goes all-in 29,195, 3 folds

Flop: (100,195, 3 players)
Pinkman33 checks, strike69119 bets 5,000, Pinkman33 goes all-in 56,436, strike69119 calls 51,436

Turn: (213,067, 3 players)

River: (213,067, 3 players)

Final Pot: 213,067
Pinkman33 shows:
strike69119 shows:
Hero shows:

strike69119 wins 213,067 ( won +126,631 )
Pinkman33 lost -86,436
Hero lost -29,195

probably I should have shoved more. I've learned equilibrium play, time to start exploiting my opponents. I've seen so many ugly plays. for example, 1 guy limped in, got raised, called the raise, min-raises flop and the preflop raiser with 3k behind folds when the pot is ~18k

unfortunately I can't win every single tournament :) like someone said at WSOP, I almost had a set.

also I tried my 1st heads-up SNG. I only played HU in tourneys, never as a cash game or sng with even stacks. easy $2 :) this idiot was calling any raise preflop even when he was shortstacked

fool's day

2009-04-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

just read on 2p2: there is a special section in the pokerstars VIP store called "April 1st special". I've bought genetically modified fish for 1000FPPs (almost all I got) and I'm $16 richer now :)

hope it's not a joke

Thank you for your order from our VIP Store. This confirms that you have ordered the following:

1,000 FPPs
April 1st $16 Cash Credit

Your VIP Reward Bonus has been credited to your account.

If you have any questions please email us at Support@PokerStars.com

Best Regards,

The PokerStars Cashier

You can find additional information at our FAQ webpage http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/faq/

oops I did it again

2009-04-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

today I watched alot of DNs videos. his handreading skills are truely awesome and he teaches well. I hope I can pick that up :)

later that evening I played $2 mtt and was eliminated in the very beginning trying to accumulate chips. here's the hand that almost ruined me:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$2.00+$0.20
6 players

Stacks:

UTG	Zienni	(4490)
UTG+1	Hero	(2605)
CO	Seba83	(5610)
BTN	fit finly	(2045)
SB	jaxjohn	(3440)
BB	Die Krupps	(2810)

Blinds: 15/30

Pre-flop: (45, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1

Zienni raises to 150, Hero raises to 450, 1 fold, fit finly calls 450, 2 folds, Zienni folds

Flop: (1,095, 2 players)
Hero checks, fit finly checks

Turn: (1,095, 2 players)
Hero checks, fit finly bets 600, Hero goes all-in 2,155, fit finly goes all-in 995

River: (4,845, 2 players)

Final Pot: 4,285
fit finly shows:
Hero shows:

fit finly wins 4,285 ( won +2,240 )
Hero wins 560 ( lost -2,045 )
Zienni lost -150

probably bad play on my side but..I still think he made a terrible call.

anyway, the fun part:
after that MTT i played $3.3+ satellite to sunday warmup($215 buy-in, $750k guaranteed). obviously i made a "rebuy" in the beginning to play with double stack and made an add-on during the break. there were totaly 108 entrants and 7 prize places. right before the break I was 3rd with~40k chips, then some people made add-ons and i became 6th. so I made another add-on(2bis+1addon=$10) and I'm 3rd again. I made final table, I was 6th or 7h but all stacks except 1st two and last two were within +/- 1BB range. one guy was eliminated pretty quickly and I was probably 6th with M between 4 and 5. 9 people left, prizes are 7 tickets and $161 for the last place.

one guy had merely 4BBs so mathematicaly noone should call any shove made by others and everyone should fold even pocket aces unless this guy shoves. But I saw all sorts of weird play with limping, minraising, calling flop minraise and folding to turn bet (with M=4!), so I was kinda nervous when I got AQo on the button and everyone folded to me. I shoved and blinds folded. phew! I'm the 3rd now and one guy has 1BB+1SB+2antes (he was UTG when I shoved). someone raised from and he folded from the BB. what an idiot :) he folded on the SB and now he has 2 antes. he folded on the button and the next hand put him allin. few people limped. 4-handed action on flop! someone raised, the other one shoved, 1 folded and 1 called (1 allin). weird play. 2 people were eliminated and I got my ticket :)
interestingly, shortstacker finished 9th and the other dude was 8th though they we eliminated in the same hand only 1 got paid.

I guess now I can cancel the registration and earn cool $215 which I think would be a wise decision in terms of bankroll management..but I'll think about it.

king of nano-mtts

2009-03-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

ok I got my goldstar but def. forgot how to shortstack. I also joined Daniel Negreanu's site (pokervt.com) - it's quite interesting. they have video lections, comments from live play and videos like all other sites but also "ask pros" forum and weekly tournaments with pros, so it's possible to play with DN and get his feedback. after watching a couple of videos i've decided to field-test his small ball approach at the..10 cent MTT. I don't remember why such a retarded idea came to my mind, but nevertheless I've won it:

sick brag, IMO (10 cents well spent). WSOP, here I come :)

*edit* every hand revealed:

chasing the goldstar

2009-03-30T22:11:00.001-07:00

**** the variance. thats why SSS sucks :) 240VPPs left so I'll do it in a couple of hours, unless they reset the counter too early. I hope they use eastern time

um..

2009-03-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

I finished near the money and I could easily get into the money folding every hand but unfortunately I made a couple mistakes. Also, players were much tougher than in any other tournament I've played before. they knew how to shove/steal/resteal etc. there were no crazy alliners in the beginning.

here are some questionable hands. I need to make more detailed analysis later.

hand #1

Stacks:

UTG	Snomankw	(5620)
UTG+1	ANNALEX	(15470)
MP1	PUDGE111	(6377)
MP2	Hero	(9620)
MP3	Salsicha	(75)
CO	ENRIQUEL	(15675)
BTN	farmerDE	(1150)
SB	profontaine	(7485)
BB	Mongy	(3665)

Blinds: 200/400 Ante 25

Pre-flop: (825, 9 players) Hero is MP2

3 folds, Hero raises to 1,200, 1 fold, ENRIQUEL calls 1,200, 3 folds

Flop: (3,225, 2 players)
Hero checks, ENRIQUEL bets 1,200, Hero folds

Final Pot: 3,225

ENRIQUEL wins 4,425 ( won +2,025 )
Hero lost -1,200

as a preflop raiser i should have raised any flop 100% of the time with any cards but this flop connects with a huge portion of his calling range so he'd reraised me with any hands, given that Ax is only 1/3 of my range so I'd have folded 2/3 of the times to his reraise.

hand #2

Stacks:

UTG	jens2904	(13374)
UTG+1	ENRIQUEL	(15575)
MP1	farmerDE	(7950)
MP2	CARushFan	(3005)
MP3	Mongy	(2940)
CO	Snomankw	(4070)
BTN	ANNALEX	(13928)
SB	PUDGE111	(18250)
BB	Hero	(8295)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 50

Pre-flop: (1,350, 9 players) Hero is BB

4 folds, Mongy goes all-in 2,890, 3 folds, Hero calls 2,290

Flop: (6,530, 2 players)

Turn: (6,530, 2 players)

River: (6,530, 2 players)

Final Pot: 6,530
Hero shows:
Mongy shows:

Mongy wins 6,530 ( won +3,640 )
Hero lost -2,890

his M was ~2, my equity against random hand was 42%, pot odds were about 2-to-1. uh I guess I forgot to divide pot odds by bubble factor, so probably it'd not be +EV.

hand #3

Stacks:

UTG	farmerDE	(7850)
UTG+1	CARushFan	(2905)
MP1	Mongy	(6480)
MP2	Snomankw	(3970)
MP3	ANNALEX	(13828)
CO	PUDGE111	(17850)
BTN	Hero	(6355)
SB	jens2904	(12674)
BB	ENRIQUEL	(15475)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 50

Pre-flop: (1,350, 9 players) Hero is BTN

4 folds, ANNALEX raises to 1,800, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in 6,305, 2 folds, ANNALEX calls 4,505

Flop: (13,960, 2 players)

Turn: (13,960, 2 players)

River: (13,960, 2 players)

Final Pot: 13,960
Hero shows:
ANNALEX shows:

ANNALEX wins 13,960 ( won +7,655 )
Hero lost -6,305

equilibrium calling range was 12%: 44+, ATo, A8s+, KQo,KJs. but he didn't shove so I hoped to steal his chips...terrible shove, I know..

i'm the s***!

2009-03-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

so i played 20fpp MTT turbo satellite and 150fpp sng satellite while playing 20fpp. lost the sng - no biggie since i pwned the MTT

highlights:

after hitting such a monster(1st time since on stars!) I knew I was going to make it. at some point I realised I've "killed everyone" and started folding:

when there were only 20 people left everyone started "thinking" before folding for as long as possible. only 5 people left, bb=10k, ante=1.6k and one dude at my table had ~8600 chips..and he made it! it was super-long , blinds were increasing every 5 mins and 1 round was taking almost 10 minutes.

anyway,

after such great luck I'll fail miserably at the main event...no, let us gogogo!! my bankroll needs extra $100'000.

btw, my friend won $2.2 superturbo satellite to sundat millions so he's playing 2 million dollar MTTs tomorrow. it's gonna be a big day