Great session

February 10th, 2010

So I had a real good session last night…for once.

I sat down for about 2 hours last night and just crushed it. It was one of those nights where even my marginal hands were holding up. I must have gotten pocket 10’s five or six times, and each time the flops fell, they held as over pairs. How often does that happen? It was nuts.

Also I don’t know what’s going on but I am flopping a lot of sets. I get these little pocket pairs and I am fairly confident now that I will hit the set on the flop. So much so that I don’t raise pre-flop cause I want as many people in as I can get. Those two things stand out in my head for my play lately.

So I sat down and 2-tabled it for two hours. My initial buy-in of $10 turned into like $28.22, and that was only after a tough suck-out on my last hand as I was trying to push the session total over $30. What’s the fuss about thirty bucks you say? Well that puts my little experiment bankroll now over $100 and moving pretty steady.

It also pushed my BB/100 mark to a little over 25. I have managed to maintain pretty good discipline with a SawFlop% of around 33%. That’s a little higher then I would like it to be – but at these limits it’s expected. For me it will be my main focus to tighten those screws as I move up.

I am still going to hold fast onto the fact that I want a $200 bankroll before I move to the $10NLHE tables, so I still have some time to go. I have also yet to take a considerable losing session so I know that will probably pop it’s head up sooner or later.

I am growing a little antsy at these tables as the better I play I do tend to think about “man if this was only 2-4 or even 1-2 this would be that much better.” But I knew I would think that at times, and it actually hasn’t happened that much. It’s all economies of scale and I am not really looking at the money as much as I am looking at it as “points.”

It was to the point last night where I had top set against two to a flush on the board and I go all in to get called by 2 players. When the turn and river come rag – rag I actually raised my hands in the air and pumped my fist. Looking back I am surprised I didn’t do the Tiger Woods fist pump. I was that excited about winning ten bucks. Haha this is free poker. When you look at it like that, it puts a big damper on things, but when you look at it as tripling up your buy-in that puts it in perspective.

I am finding that I am a guy that needs a comfortable bankroll. I like to play aggressive and lean on people. I like to serve out pressure on people and to do that you have to be pretty comfortable with your bankroll. At the $5 NLHE tables, it’s pretty easy to do that cause what do I care about 50 cents. But I know that will change as I move up, so in order to keep that sense of security I need to keep a nice sized secure bankroll.

It’s one thing for me to play tight and aggressive – but once I start to play tight conservative, I am off my game totally and my results usually show it. If I am able to sit at a table and get into my game, I fall into a flow and I usually start to see my buy in multiply.

That is probably my biggest goal when looking towards moving up. Being able to keep this sense of secure aggressive play. It is fun to watch as my personal play style seems to be surfacing from all the hundreds of poker books, magazines, websites and thousands of hands. I have such a melting pot of poker theory in my poker psyche that it’s nice to start to see my own sense form. And basically that’s the purpose of this entire experiment.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in poker strategy | No Comments »

An unremarkable poker session

January 27th, 2010

So tonight I clocked another session of about two hours. I double tabled it again on Pokerstars playing two $5NL tables. Can’t really remember all that much remarkable. No crazy bad beats for or against me. I did not really get any great cards either. I think it was a combination of solid play on my part and soft play on the tables part. I don’t think I even took down a pot that was over $3 or so.

Yet despite that, I managed to grind out a nice win for the bankroll. I walked away from the two tables after just under two hours with a net of +$11. Not too bad doubling up my buy-in in 2 hours.

Not where I want to be – but on the right track. Like I said I don’t even feel like I played great cards. It was just a grind out session taking down pots mostly with aggression. Hey maybe that’s the secret. It definitely could have been more profitable, especially since the two tables were never even full tables. One was usually always like 8-9 players, and the other one was usually 5-6 so I had to loosen up a bit more on that one.

I am starting to feel my game adjusting. Not really “my game”, but I need to adapt my so-called poker game to these tables. It has been a while since I played this low and I needed to tweak my poker game a bit. Hopefully I don’t wreck what it was. But hey that is the goal of this experiment, blow up my old game and rebuild it from scratch.

Not bad to take a $5 initial bankroll and to turn it into 13x’s that in 13 hours of play. That’s basically doubling up the 5$ buy in each hour of play. Especially when you consider I had a couple problems trying to find my stride and adapt my game. Hopefully now it will start to snowball and I can get on a steady roll.

Good luck to you.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in texas hold'em | No Comments »

Good poker day

January 15th, 2010

Yesterday I sat down at four 25NL tables and didn’t do so hot right out of the box.   Caught a couple bad rivers that gave me just enough to pay someone off (don’t you have that?)  And I was quickly down two buy-ins.  Considering that I know I am playing over my head and $50 is about 1/6 of my roll I forced myself to drop down and grind it back.

Normally I hate sessions like this.  I hate when I am quickly down a buy-in or two.  It’s pretty crazy cause I play super tight when I start a session.  I like to pick my spots until I have some sort of image that I can work with.  Also like I mentioned before, I tend to not have any Holdem Manager reads on players when I sit down – so for about the first 50 hands or so I basically just ignore any stats as the sample size is just too low (50 is still too low for some stats but ok for stuff like VPIP and PFR%).

Anyways I started grinding at the $10NL level and after about 2 hours had won back to even.  I decided to call it a day because despite not winning any money – I was able to walk away feeling good about my overall play at the end.

Today I sat at my computer actually planning to play some SNG’s to mix things up a bit.  Sometimes I do this as a sort of “reward” for myself as I enjoy some SNG and Tournament poker even though I feel my style is strongly more suited for cash.  Anyway I logged in and noticed that I am only like 50 FPP’s from my deposit bonus of $50 and I decided to work that off before anything else.

So this time I decided to sit down at only three 25NL tables.  Yes I know really it’s probably dumb – but I am stubborn and realize I can play at the level – and dominate – I just don’t have much room to move when variance throws a brick into my face when I first sit down.  So I decide to only sit down at three tables rather then the normal four to increase my focus and concentration.  I figure I have the $50 deposit as insurance and away I go.

Well let me tell you – I really need to start clocking some hours on the weekends and prime time.  I played for overall about 3.5 hours and initially was probably down a buy-in across the three tables while I was just waiting to catch some hands.  I had a couple hands where I rivered a second pair – only enabling me to then pay off some guy with a set.  This happened twice and I hate when this happens.  It’s an easy fold with one pair – but when I hit my kicker on the river it’s so hard to fold it to some of these passive players.

The first two hours were really odd.  It seemed each hand I got it in good either pre-flop or on the flop – I ended up losing.  So why isn’t this a bloodbath post about how much I hate poker?  Cause when the reverse seemed to happen I sucked out some major river cards to take down some huge pots.  It basically evened out.

I seriously think I am a much better player when I have a larger stack.  Yeah I hear most of you saying “Duh” but I just think it really fits my game.  I am able to apply much more pressure.  And with my real aggressive style – when another player looks over and is trying to think “should I 3 bet him?” he knows that not only am I not afraid to mix it up – I also have the ability to felt them.

I think it just really lends itself to my styles’ image at the table.  Now when I talk about style dont misunderstand.  Generally at these levels image and style mean absolutely zero.  But there is generally one – or maybe two people at a 6max table that will pay attention.  You MUST identify these people and play accordingly.

For about the last 30 minutes of my session, I went on an insane run.  It just seemed like I was getting good starting hands – and even when I didn’t my garbage turned to gold.  I had two sets of quads (didnt get to win much with them though).  I was also able to really assert myself on the table and was really being aggressive pre-flop.  I also had the immense pleaser of tilting a few players with my constant aggression and 3betting.

Isn’t it an awesome feeling when you have raised this guy in the blinds 5 rotations in a row from the button, and when he finally decides to push back and shoves his $30 stack in against your $1 raise you look down at KK or AA.  This happened to me.  They finally got fed up with me and shoved trying to “make a statement” and wouldn’t you know it – I wake up with a monster.  God that’s a great feeling.

Basically I milked this out for a bit – but I knew I was going to get caught at some point so I tightened up a bit and won a few more smallish pots and decided to just call it a day.  It’s a great feeling in my quest to know that I basically just doubled up my bankroll (up $200 in winnings and the $50 from the bonus).  Now my roll stands at $500 and I am able to comfortably and guilt free play $25NL.

I have another $300 on FullTilt but I think with all the deposit headaches going on these days I will just keep it there.  I am nowhere near ready for 50NL right now anyways so I am in no rush to get my bankroll to that level.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in texas hold'em | No Comments »

King of Vegas

January 8th, 2010

So last night I sat down after playing in our weekly home game. I made a pretty bad play at the end, so I could not sleep as my mind was racing analizing what I did wrong and how I should handle it next time. So I decided to watch some TV before going to sleep. I looked on TIVO and I see “KING OF VEGAS” and decide on let me check this out.

This is a gambling series on television, including competition in eight different casino games; four per week, starting with Blackjack and ending a final game of Texas Holdem poker. Among the pros participating in the series, there were three blackjack players, Ken Eniger, “Hollywood Dave” Stann and Joanna Wlodawer. And three famous poker pros, Evelyn Ng, David Williams and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Holy good god is this show awful. Are they seriously trying to merge the WWE and Poker together? The two biggest tools I have ever seen were the Hollywood guy and the Chainsaw guy. Holy christ where they ridiculous. I honestly felt bad for these two as they continually embarrassed themselves time and time again trying to play up for the camera’s. I mean did that guy really get up walk across the blackjack table and do a chainsaw animation towards the other guy when he hit an All-in blackjack?

This was by far the worst Poker/Gambling TV production to date that I have seen. I mean it is far and above a huge chip leader in that category. Do not waste your time on this show. Watch “Poker After Dark” or “High Stakes Poker”, these poker series are great entertainment when you see the pros losing a half million dollars stack on a bad beat. And when Phil Hellmuth loses it, this is so hilarious. Or when Phil Ivey got bluffed.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in poker pros | No Comments »

Improving my poker strategy

January 2nd, 2010

Well I have been swamped with work the last few days, so I haven’t actually logged many good sessions at the tables.  Been doing a half hour here, an hour there.  But nothing really remarkable and nothing really worth writing to you folks about.  I have managed to raise the bankroll up to around 80 bucks so I am still moving forward.

My general strategy at this point is either one of two things.  I either fold right from the start (85% of the time) or I see a cheap flop hoping to see a monster (A-rag suited, low pocket pairs), or I raise it up big time pre-flop and hope I get a fish that doesn’t recognize that I am holding a monster.

With both of the last two situations If I get my hands on a monster I am just mashing the raise button.  Now some people will say that’s pretty dumb cause any decent player will recognize it and fold and you wont maximize your profits.  This would be true, except remember I am playing really low limits at beginners tables right now.  I have found it’s just easier to try to get as much in as quickly as possible and in the long run I will get paid off far more then if I try to make value bets.

Sure sometimes the fish folds and I get pissed that my nut flush didnt pay, but a vast majority of the time, even with 4 to a flush on the board, some guy is calling me down with middle pair.

My only real concern is that this will mess up my game as I move up.  I don’t worry about that too much cause my game is aggressive by nature – and it’s actually much better suited for higher limits, so once I finally climb that ladder I feel confident that I will settle into my natural game.  But for now this excercise is teaching me discipline, and how to adapt to the tables and switch up my game more.  Right now I am absolutely confident that I can outplay anyone after the flop, so I don’t mind seeing the flop with garbage.

I gotta say the Poker Office software is a great tool as well.  It’s just like Poker Tracker but in my opinion much more user friendly.  It really helps me recognize when another wolf sits down at my table of sheep, and I can then play him accordingly.  I usually try to get isolated with him early on and send a message leaning on him with constant pressure.  They tend to usually avoid me from then on.

Another theory I have been thinking about is constantly cashing out.  See at the tables I play right now the max-buy in is 5$.  So when I am sitting there $20+ I feel that sorta gives something away.  The fish will try to avoid me like the plague – but any decent player is gonna see me and see a bloated target where they can double up through me several times.  So I really think having a huge stack hurts my situation in the long run.

So I have been considering whenever I get over $10 I will leave the table and then buy back in for 5$.  This way at least I wont be broadcasting to the table that I have got 4x’s the buy in and I am not a complete idiot.  Haven’t started doing this yet but I will tell ya how it works out if I do.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in poker strategy | No Comments »

How to play against a maniac who pushes all the time

December 29th, 2009

So I sit down again this afternoon for 4 hours.  I am two-tabling at the $5NL tables.  One table I quickly start getting hands and I get my buy-in up to $20.  There is some variance but it’s a good session at that table.  The other table I was having big time trouble.  My initial buy-in was toast after about the first 5 hands after I went all in with top two pairs and ran into a set.  I knew there was a chance of a set – but it’s so hard to read these maniacs.  So I am stuck $5 on that table.  I rebuy and get this buy-in grounded down to about $1 left when I start to pick up some cards.  I get A-K a few times and double myself back up to around $6.

On hands I folded I noticed there was a maniac that was going all in with anything, absolutely anything.  I get my stack up to around $9 and I am feeling real good thinking I made back my lost buy-in and my other table is over 4x’s the buy-in ($22ish).  Then I get in a hand with A-Ko and wouldn’t you know it the maniac 2 seats before me goes all in for $7.  I have watched him for about a half hour now and know he could be on anything.  I wont play scared to lose so I called.  The guy had Kc-7c.  Wouldn’t you know it – hits his 7 on the turn and takes down the pot.  I was pissed.  I know I made the right call there, but it still burned.

We start to chat it up and he actually says nice call (he had been acting like a tard to others prior to this).  So I tell him “I will call that all day long.”  I go super tight not entering any pots unless I will call him cause I know he is gonna push anything I limp in.  Few hands later I have AJs and limp.  He pushes and I go all in for my $2.   He has K-4o but actually hits his King on the flop.  I get a little karmic vengeance and hit my ace on the river.  Now I have 4$ and I know he’s a little pissed.

Again I pick my spots and like 10 hands later I get KK.  Again I only limp UTG hoping he will push.  He actually folds but the BB re-raises like 5x’s the BB, so then I push.  He calls turns over QQ.  I hit a K on the flop and it’s all over.  I am up to around $9 now and still looking for the maniac.  Probably 5 hands later the maniac pushes again.  I look down and have 9-9.  I call knowing I more then likely have at least a horse race.  He turns over J-6o.  Again I hit my card on the flop and he hits his 6, but it’s all over and now I am up to around $17.

I guess the other people at the table didnt like playing with this maniac as he took a few people down and they started to leave.  I lost a decent pot and was down to about 13$ when we found ourselves heads up at the table.  He asks if I want to “wait for new people” – I laugh to myself and think “Is this guy kidding me – this is exactly what I want!”  So we go heads up.

I am trying to set him up purposefully limping into pots that  will fold away at his first aggressive move.  I am just waiting for the cards.  Then he pushes all in from the SB and I look down at pocket 6’s.  Again I like my chances with this guy in a coin flip and I have him covered (he has $9) so I call.  He actually turns over KQh this time and I am nervous.  Even more nervous when 2 hearts hit the board on the flop.  But somehow my pair holds up and I take down the pot.  He just does a “LoL” and leaves the table.

So now I am logging with this account at around $22 (subtract the two buy-ins) for a $12 profit.  Then my initial “good” table cashes out for another $23 (sub one buy-in) for a profit of $18.  So I end this session with a $30 profit.  Not a lot of money – but when you figure the stakes I am playing at thats pretty good.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in poker strategy | 1 Comment »

Carbon Poker session summary

December 13th, 2009

Ok so I sat down today for my first session for 3 hours.  I am swimming around in the Carbon Poker Fish bowl that they call their beginners area.  Being so early on a Sunday there were no full tables so I decided to multi 2 tables.  One was the $5NL and the other was the $10NL game.  I played real tight and just waited for ammo to attack the table.

Of course wouldn’t you know it the cards only come at the $5 table.  Of course, what is new?  I managed to almost triple that buy-in.  At the $10NL table I lost my buy-in when my full house jacks and kings lost to full house kings and jacks.  But that happens so I did not get too pissed about it.

I bought in again and wasn’t really able to do anything with it.  I had AA once but it folded around to me on the BB (hate when that happens).  I also flopped quad 4’s and tried to slow play it and let the flush draw catch up but it never did and I only got like a dollar out of it or so.

All in all I ended the session up about $5

My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to get max value on my hands.  I have figured out what bets need to be made to thin the field out.  But since people can be playing anything – and I mean anything – it’s hard to know what to bet when you have a monster.

I did manage to hit my raked hands target so I should get my license for Holdem Manager, so that should help me keep track of my play much better during this experiment. It is important to use these poker tracking tools, and if you do not, your opponents will use them against you and massacre you.

I plan to sit down and log another session this afternoon hopefully. Let the poker gods be with me.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in texas hold'em | No Comments »

New poker blog

November 12th, 2009

Ace Poker Blog is born today.

This is a blog about the game of poker, especially online poker. This Web based game has changed the way people think about games. Modern technology allows such real time multi-player games to be conducted within online poker rooms that can host thousands of tables at the same time.

As online poker involves real money (we  are not interested in so-called play money poker games involving no money at all), this new online poker industry that has emerged in the past decade has to rely on a robust infrastructure.

The software, servers and IT teams must be able to handle the large simultaneous connections from thousands of poker clients all over the world. This activity is “seasonal”, with burst of bandwidth consumption when a large tournament or a special promotion takes place. The front-end has zero tolerance for failure because for  example if the system were to crash in the middle of the day when numerous games are taking place, it would be a nightmare to calculate the amounts of money due and a catastrophic public relation event.

Similarly the entire infrastructure must be safe from thieves and cheaters.

As online poker players leave part of their bankroll in the hand of the online poker room for total balances in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the largest rooms, their money must be as safe as humanly possible. In addition cheaters must be detected and banned as soon as possible. Attracted by easy gains, all sorts of cheaters are trying to get a share of the poker pie and any reputable poker room must create and  implement a policy to make sure that Internet crooks stay outside their confines.

This is a bit of a boring introduction to online poker and you do not really have to worry about this if you only play at the top established poker rooms. Poker and especially online poker is a great game with strategy and action, combining math and psychology. You, my poker friend, will have a great time with it.

May the God of Luck be with you.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »