Biggest Poker Game Hole

Current Roll: $9192

Want to know the biggest change I made, going from an ok player to a strong, consistantly profitable player? I've had more than one person emailing me asking me for advice, and this is the best advice I can give for those that understand the fundamentals of poker and want to make money. It was, by far, the hardest thing for me to do. Don't play when you can't play your best game. That's it, it's that simple. Don't play when you're tired, stressed, emotional, or unfocused. Don't play desperate poker; play poker confident in the knowledge that money's going to flow from them to you. I play completely confident that I will make money playing this way, and I do.

I see it almost every night, people that should be playing decent poker are literally giving their money away. The Cards Speak had an excellent post on this subject, far better than I could write. He suggests 35BB as a stop loss limit - I'd suggest even smaller. Although, if you can get to the point where actual results don't matter - only the quality of your play matters - then you can ignore everything I wrote. This is much easier if you have an obscenely large bankroll - I'd barely notice 35BBin my roll.

I'm at this point, or think I am. Yesterday I dropped 30BB in my first 20 minutes of play, I was getting crushed. Getting huge hands that woudn't hold. But I kept playing my game and finished up a respectable and healthy 9BB / 100. I can't always ignore results though, someimes it angers me; but I'm getting far better at recognizing these times and walking away. Walking away down is one of the hardest things to do, as I'm sure many of you know. But I promise you this - it will improve your bottom line. It took me a long time and a lot of money to learn this the hard way, hopefully my advice will help someone. If not, you're always welcome at my table :)

A Month

Current Roll: $8422

Hand of the Day: This is something that it is difficult to do, getting good reads on players while playing 4 tables. I usually can only get good reads on those that play too many hands, because I am often contesting pots with them. It's tough to put this hand in context, but I've been railing this guy by making correct reads to really maximize every bet against him. I've been checkraising him on the river with hands marginally better (a better kicker for example). He's been so frustrated he had been taken to calling my river raises with as little as A high.

I'm Holding QTo in the cuttoff. This ridiculously terrible player is in the BB, he will bet almost anytime it is checked to him. I raise first in and it's heads up. Flop of 655, he bets and I raise. Turn is an A and he bets again. I'm positive this didn't help him, so I raise again. Turn is the flush card, this guy could literally have any two cards, and he bets again. I have Q high so there's no way in hell I could call, so I raise him. He thinks forever, and calls with Jack high! I'm laughing so hard right now, and just waiting for the money to flow from him to me. Sure enough, a few hands later he calls me down with Q high against my pocket tens. I had him playing so terribly against me it's very unfortunate that I had to leave.

It's been a month and $4K since I started this blog. About a month and a half since I had a poker epiphany, going from a slightly profitable player to a very profitible player.

Some say a way to a fulfilling career is to find a hobby you love, become good at it and make a career out of it. If this is ever the truth, online poker is the exception. Online poker is fun and profitable, but it is NOT fulfulling. There's nothing fulfilling about sitting along in front of a computer screen, clicking graphical buttons all the while taking suckers' money. It's fun and can be a huge rush, but at the end it often leaves me empty. The anti-social nature of online poker often leaves me yearning for social contact.

Online poker players are a leeches on society, almost as bad as corporations (or governments) that profit from other forms of gambling. Some pros justify this - they claim we're giving entertainment. Bullshit. Mabye in live play, if you're an entertaining, funny, likeable person this could be a justification. Otherwise, in online play, any recreational, poker playing fish could be just as entertaining, if not more so (I personally find poor play far more entertaining than solid play).

I don't plan on becoming a fulltime, online poker pro. If I were ever to become a true professional online poker player, I would only like to do so part time. And I would make sure to spend my other professional time contributing and participating in society, and having a social life.

There's a young adult's book by Minnesota auther Pete Hautman, Stone Cold. It's a quick, good read about a teenager that has a good life and then becomes a professional poker player. I certainly could empathise with the charecter, and it helped me examine priorities and the pros and cons of professional poker.

I've been very busy lately, and I haven't been playing as much as before. I have a lot of posts half written that I would like to finish, a bunch of hands to analyze, aggressive play to discuss. So stay tuned. In the meantime, I'm going to plug a new blog, pokerhack. This is run by a fellow 2/4 player who lives near me in the NC Triangle area.

PokerTracker

Current Roll: $7976

I finally bought poker tracker. I imported all my hands since Sep 30th, over 7K of them. First things first, 7K hands is clearly not the long run, but interesting nonetheless.

Monetary Results -

• Won over $2K in 7300 hands.
  
• 7.42 BB / 100 hands. This seems reasonable, but I think I can improve this.
• 4.81 BB / table hour, true win rate of 18.14 BB / hour or $72 an hour. Not bad, certainly enough to live on.
• Rake - $821! Over a third of my winnings. Wow.
  

Preflop Results -

• Voluntarily put money in the pot 25%. Seems about right.
• Voluntarily put money in from sb: 43% Seems a bit loose.

Aggression - I'm an aggressive player and think I should be more aggressive.

• Flop aggression factor - 3.88!
• Turn - 2.9
• River - 1.66
  
• Overall aggression including PF - 1.77. Definitely aggressive
• I don't know how I feel about my river aggression, I seem a bit overly cautious.
  

Time of Day - There are differences. I'm not too surprised, but this is not the long run so who knows.

• I have winning session totals from 10am - 10pm.
  
• My only losing session totals are 10 - midnight and 2am-4am. I'm not surprised as I'm usually tired and unfocused at these times.

Position - I clearly don't take this much into account preflop, all my non-blind $Vol numbers are 21-23%. But I do seem to do a bit better monetarily in later position, so mabye I should make some adjustments. I may be too loose in the BB as I have huge losses there. I should look into this more.

I will def. play around with this some more, but this is interesting inital thoughts. Insights, anyone? Comparisons with your 2/4 results? Let me know.

Slowplaying in Low Limits: A Big Mistake?

Current Roll: $7746

Hand of the day: I have a tough time making accurate reads when people make plays that I would never consider (mabye this is my problem...I should be considering some even more aggressive plays?). I'm an aggressive player, so when someone plays a hand far more aggressively that I would I have trouble comprehending his play. I'm in MP, I make a loose raise first in with QJs. Short stack rerraises $.50 more all in, next player completes the full raise. I call for the one more bet. Flop of JT8, gives me top pair and a straight draw and a bdoor flush. Heads up not including the all in player. I bet and he raises. Turn 9, I checkraise him and he 3 bets. I bet and call his raise on the river and he turns over KQo. I had trouble making this read, considering his previous action, especially with an all in player.

Second hand of the day: I was surprised at this hand. I'm holding 5's (no diamond) in the BB. Everyone folds to the cutoff who opens. I reraise and the flop comes 962 two diamonds. I bet, he calls. Turn is the A of diamonds. I bet he calls. River is a 3 of diamonds. I check, and fold when he bets - and he turns over the QJ of hearts! What the hell?! Clearly he's trying to advertise or make me emotional, but I feel I played that hand well, and I'd play it the same way next time since very few people will play the hand as he did.

Of those that clearly have an idea of what they are doing, slowplaying is often one of their biggest losses of BBs. To see why, I think it's important to understand exactly where profit comes from in low limits.

Profit comes when players invest money in the pot not justified by their returns. That's it, and it's completely general and includes pot odds, effective odds, (reverse) implied odds, etc. You need to give them every opportunity to invest money when you are a favorite, especially on the flop where most low-limit players will be the loosest. Also, showing too much strength on the flop can be interpreted as a sign of bullying or weakness! (I make this interpretation frequently, sometimes correctly and sometimes not)

I could list hand after hand of people that missed out on bets from me because they waited until the board became scary to show me strength - they're slowplaying against a player they should know to be aggressive!. I lost count of how many times people have caught runner runners because they were given a free card on the flop (mabye they still would have caught and you would have lost more - but the long run you'd be making a killing!) I've lost count of how many people will cap the flop with me, while they are holding nothing, and then come out betting the turn, and I love this multihanded. I'm still surprised how many people will put in 4 bets on the flop and then fold for 1 turn bet (does anyone know what they could possibly have?!), all those bets are often missed due to slowplaying!

The more people that are in, the less likely you should be to slowplay since it's far more likely you will get raised and these raises called by more people. The less people are in, the more aggressive people are in general so you should be punishing that overaggessiveness when you hold an edge. Don't slowplay!

People in low limits will chase with the longest odds against them, often drawing nearly dead. I've seen people chase (and hit) backdoor flushes on a capped flop. You want this! And I've seen far, far worse chases, including 1000-1 chases in a capped flop (i.e. guy had A3o, opponents had AQs and 33 flop came 3xx, got the two running aces for the only possible win). Don't give them a cheap shot at outdrawing you, and if they're drawing dead force them to pay for that too.

If you're slowplaying suited flops, connected flops, flops with an ace, or any hand with aggressive players - you're almost surely missing bets, and I see it happen all the time.

Anyways, I don't slowplay anymore. I can't remember the last hand I slowplayed. I used to go for checkraises, but now I'd rather bet and be raised so I can reraise. I garnish my aggressive image and want people to always be guessing (if they're even paying attention). Now if I'm checkraising I'm far more likely to be weak than strong, but I'll leave my theory of checkraising to another day :)

Is it ever more profitable to slowplay than not? - yes of course! But it's very tough to tell when it will be more profitable to slowplay so you should error on the non-slowplaying side. Because more often than not, I think you are missing out on bets. There are many other advantages to playing a flop fast and hard, such as information and control of the hand, but I'll leave those to another day.

Building a Roll

Current Roll: $7283

It was my buddy's birthday last night and I got so drunk I passed out on my living room floor, 5 feet from the bathroom where I kept trying to throw up. Ahh the life of a grad student. Alcohol here in NC is relatively cheap, but I still worked up a tab of $70 not including the tip, so I hope my winning streak continues.

Hand of the day: I had kings in late position, and someone in early position had raised with one cold caller. I reraise, the EP caps and the MP calls. 3 handed flop of A83. Not my flop, but the EP and MP check. Had the EP bet and the MP called, I would have a difficult time overcalling here, but checked to me I have to find out where I am so I bet and they both call. Turn is a 4 and it's checked to me. I'm scared of an ace or worse, including the possibility of being check-raised so I check behind. Anways, the river is a blank, the EP thinks for a bit and bets with the MP calling. Now I think I have the EP beat, and I'm not sure about the MP so I just call; I'm not happy with this but the pot size and their actions justify a call. They have QQ and JJ.

The EP made the biggest mistake in this hand - when there are 4 or less people in a flop, always bet the flop if you put in the last raise preflop (unless of course you have a good read). I don't care what you have or what the flop looks like, there are too many people too often willing to fold for one bet on the flop, even in $2/4. The pot is about 7 BB and for one small one he has a good enough chance (give our hands) to pick this one up on the flop. I probably would not have called on this flop, assuming one of the two had an ace; and the reverse implied odds of calling down means I could be paying 2.5bb to see his hand, whereas I could call on the river because the reverse implied odds are now 0. Had I folded to this hypothetical flop bet, I would have been wrong, but in the long run I think it's more profitable to worry about an ace. Of course this may be a weak/tight hole in my game.

One of my readers asked my opinion on building a bankroll. Specifically among tournies/cash, online/live games. I recently read a relevant post about this on internetpokerpro. (this is the blog I modeled mine after) The post is here. I think tournies are a terrible way to build a bankroll; there's more of a luck factor and very low payoff for all but the top places. That being said, I think tournies are a good way to build up a lot of hands of experience for cheap. I rarely play tournies anymore - I like the flexibility of jumping in and out of cash games when I please.

I also think that - purely for building a bankroll - online games are far better. You're going to get to the long run faster since you play more hands per hour. The rake is lower. There are less distractions, and it is often more comfortable in your own home. I think it's still a toss up whether the players are better online or in live games, but either way there are plenty of fish.

Anyways, I'm working on a post on slowplaying, which is one of the biggest mistakes I see among these lower limit players who percieve their actions as skillful.

Suited Connectors

Current Roll: $7058

I must have had aces and kings 7 times within 40 hands, and they held every time. Incredible. No huge pots though, just a bunch of small ones. But, I'll take a small pot over losing a big one any day.

I have a thing for suited connectors, 67 - TJ 0 gaps and I also like the 97s - J9s one gaps. On good, loose tables I tend to call out of position or I will cold call raises. Mathematically, the long run EV of doing this is certainly positive under the right conditions, but it's hard to judge implied odds, etc. My anecdotal experience says that I win huge pots with these things under the right conditions, and these are often easy to let go when the flop doesn't hit me hard.

Unsuited, I normally fold these without thinking, but being suited is a strong advantage. Not only do you have the extra chance of winning, but you have more reasons to play aggressively.

The best conditions are when you have a bunch of players that overplay their hands, take flops with any ace, any suited, any connector, any pair, can't read a board, chase with any draw whatsoever including small pairs, etc. I will take flops with more speculative hands under these conditions because I will be paid off.

Anyways, today I hit two notable, big pots playing suited connectors. First hand, I have 97 diamonds in early position. UTG raises, UTG+1 calls and so do I, the button reraises and UTG caps. Granted, my original call was very loose, looser than I usually play, but it was a really good table. My current pot odds forced the second call. The flop of JTT (two diamonds) is 6 handed. Checked to me, I bet my straight flush draw and get check raised by the big blind, now a 3 way pot. Turn is the flush Q, checked to me and I bet the turn and river. BB shows J9o and I rake in a huge pot.

The other hand I have 78s on the button, one raise to me. I call, the BB 3 bets and the OB caps. Another 6 handed, capped pot. The flop is 975 one of my suit. BB bets out, a few callers, LP raises and I 3 bet it. My reasoning is that I'm certainly a favorite against overcards, so I want to make them pay or get out even if I'm slightly behind. This pot is huge and I want to win it anyway I can. If the turn is unfavorable, mabye I can take a free card. And I want to know where I stand relative the others. When the LP caps it, I'm thinking that I could be very far behind, probably a set. Anyways, the turn is a wonderful 6 and I rake in another huge pot when the river is a Q.

The guy said it was 'the ultimate suckout' on his pkt 5's (my poker calculator gave me 20% odds heads up, and my EV climbs with more people in, depending on their holding). There was plenty in the pot to call here, and if you're going to call, why not raise :) Anyways, he could have been raising lite and it was worth the extra money to find out, drive out overcards (giving me a better chance to win this huge pot), and possibly getting a free card on the turn.

Also, I'm not as sure about taking a flop with pkt 5's in this spot. I'd rather have 87s here than 5's anyday. I've called two bets and folded for two more with smaller pairs like 5's; with essentilly two outs they're just too speculative and it's easy to lose even if you hit. Though in this case there were so many people in I could agree with his decision to try to hit a flop, but I wouldn't be happy about it.

Anyways, this is how I like to play suited connectors. I believe it's +EV when done correctly under the right conditions. And it's a lot more fun to play some more speculative hands now and then :) And don't forget the tilt factor; when someone hits a huge hand and gets sucked out! And the fish factor, when someone sees you win with speculative hands, they may think you could play any two.

Online chat

Current Roll: $6730

When holding the nuts on the river - may you always be check-reraised multihanded. I had an incredible two days, made about $1200 in about 9 hours of play (including a $100 rebuy bonus).

Online chat - My buddy suggests turning off chat. His reasoning is that no good can come of it, and other players could use it to put you on tilt. He has a point, but I respectfully disagree. Occasionally, in chat, people will tell you what your table image is, and give you clues on how to beat them.

At this table today, I was playing some strong draws aggressively and hitting. When I beat my immediate left out of a second large pot, he typed in chat 'I can never beat you'. I responded that I was just lucky, but I was thinking that he would try to outplay me. A few hands later I have 88 in MP, I raise and he cold calls. The pot is heads up for a flop of K33 rainbow. I bet he calls. The turn is an offsuit 4, I bet and he raises. Normally I lean towards folding in this spot, absent other information. But because I was expecting him to outplay me, I called his bluff (he had Q4s!). Also, it was a poor play of his to make a river bet (I probably won't fold a winner nor call with a loser), but I'll leave terrible river bets for a later day.

This is a recent example, but certianly not the only time that I've used chat to my advantage. I would suggest never NEVER type anything in chat that could give someone else an advantage. This especially includes any chat that conveys anger or the possiblity that you are on tilt or upset about being outdrawn. Others will pick up on this and target you; I personally love targetting players on tilt, they are the biggest payoffs.

I will also echo the suggestion that it is not cool to berate the fish for doing dumb things and getting lucky. They might learn better. I personally have been guilty of of berating poor players, but only when the terrible players start trash talking; I then feel compelled to put them in their place. I have personal issues with terrible players trash talking. Mabye I shouldn't, does anyone have opinions on this?

Outs that aren't-I have to remind myself that I don't always have as many outs as it sometimes seems. I had the 67s, and the flop came 58K with me having an open ended straight flush draw. I figure I have 15 outs which is > 50% to hit by the river. But wait - my two oppenents have K5s and two higher clubs, leaving me significatly less outs! So when I capped the flop, I was slightly -EV instead of the +EV that I expected. According to my poker calculator, I'll win 29% of the time, which is less than the 1/3 that I would need to be +EV (I'm even worse off if the rake is included). Even though I hit the straight and won the hand, I made a mistake by reraising the flop. I just thought of this now, it may have been worth it if I had been able to take a free card on the turn; though I'm not sure if I would have taken it or not.

Update

Current Roll: $6070

If anyone wants to contact me, my email is propokergrad@gmail.com

Sorry it's been so long for me to update my blog. I've barely had time to get drunk, much less play and blog on poker. It seems my rut has run it's course. My last few days were some of my best, and my roll also beneffited from a reload bonus.

I Had a proverbial ATM sitting at my table today. He would repeatedly reraise preflop with any connectors, and would not fold no matter what. Needless to say I started capping it with him with any two cards worth raising, and he paid me off in spades. One hand he called me down with ten high, a few hands later he called me down with 3rd pair, which he had rivered.

When I started this blog, I had the lofty goal of earning $1K a week at poker. It is clear that this goal was too high; time constraints and a terrible week have prevented me from continuing to achieve this goal. That being said, I'm reasonably happy with my progress. Mabye I haven't hit the long run yet, but I think I've shown the possibility of earning a fairly comfortable living playing low stakes part time poker online.