A day of really strong decision making. I've made some critical adjustments to my pre-flop play and trying to avoid high variance coin flips for stacks. I know that I'm giving up some equity by folding when an over card king or ace comes out but I'm OK with that for now until I get more mileage under this system. Basically I will see flops with QQ and lower or AK and try to get all in pre with KK and AA.
"Just" 3627 hands today with a tasty $12.83 of sugar. Got all in 34 times during that span. Was all in pre-flop 13 times and never got it in bad. Weakest hand was 55 against a short stack that I put on AK and was getting proper equity. Otherwise I had either the heavy side of a coin flip against a short stack or crushing equity against under pairs or a single over. I was lucky to avoid running KK into AA which would be just about the only way I can get it in really bad with the new system. Got the remainder of the stack in on the flop 13 more times and here is where I had the biggest losses as I a) find that I am indeed against an overpair to my overpair to the board b) against a set or c) lose to a draw/superdraw. Had and underset once and TPTK on an A rag rag flop, both of which I'm fine with stacking off to since the set miner had terrible odds to try to hit. Got it in on the turn 8 times and here is where I have a hammerlock on hands when I had villain drawing dead three times and < 15% three more times.
Only had one really poor play where I tried to push JJ through with a Q out and AQ just not going away. But apart from that one single play I was totally satisfied with my other big hands. I know I could be more profitable with more steals and cbets but there is a tradeoff. Sticking to the algorithm has a high theoretical yield to time ratio and simple rules which allow for high throughput while actually playing poker slows down the hands/hour and involves more brain work though it would mean a higher $/100 hand rate.
I'll stick with the current ruleset for now and reassess next week after 10K-20K more hands.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
What a day
Played some Rush last night and had some free time today so I played some more. Pretty much held steady with a little bit of slippage. Then for some reason I decided to "open up my game" with terrible results. Before too long I was $20 deep so then I decided to play my way out of it and in doing so I set a new high water mark for hands in a day while recouping some of my losses. Thanks to the innovation that is Rush poker I got in 10,205 hands today averaging over 1000 hands/hour in the process. That was good for 434 Iron Man point which is well above the 50 per day I was eeking out last month and the 100 per day I've been targeting this month. Add 171 bonus points for playing during happy hour periods thorughout the day and I netted over 600 points which is over 0.22% of the MacBook I'm saving up points for.
I don't mind being EV neutral against Rush because it allows me to partake in my wheelhouse which is bonuses and promotions. The problem is that once I slip down it makes it hard to make up the difference when the best you can do is tread water. So in order to try to remedy the situation I added in the cbet to my arsenal with good results. Cbets were not enough to fully make up for the divot I left after my bad run in the middle of the day though. Plus I had some run bad. Take KK for example. I managed to get all in pre-flop with them 11 times and lost money over that run. Ran them into AA three times, outflopped by AK and AJ, and got it in versus JJ and TT in a massive pot that went to the big stack who overcalled with TT and spiked a set. I won the rest but still ended down two buy ins just from KK all in pre.
Once I got out of my funk I did manage to play pretty solid. I need to figure out what else I need to do to be more EV+ at the game. After rakeback I'm only down about eight bucks, which is more manageable than when I was down over $20 including rakeback.
Tomorrow will be another day and I don't plan on coming anywhere near 10K hands.
I don't mind being EV neutral against Rush because it allows me to partake in my wheelhouse which is bonuses and promotions. The problem is that once I slip down it makes it hard to make up the difference when the best you can do is tread water. So in order to try to remedy the situation I added in the cbet to my arsenal with good results. Cbets were not enough to fully make up for the divot I left after my bad run in the middle of the day though. Plus I had some run bad. Take KK for example. I managed to get all in pre-flop with them 11 times and lost money over that run. Ran them into AA three times, outflopped by AK and AJ, and got it in versus JJ and TT in a massive pot that went to the big stack who overcalled with TT and spiked a set. I won the rest but still ended down two buy ins just from KK all in pre.
Once I got out of my funk I did manage to play pretty solid. I need to figure out what else I need to do to be more EV+ at the game. After rakeback I'm only down about eight bucks, which is more manageable than when I was down over $20 including rakeback.
Tomorrow will be another day and I don't plan on coming anywhere near 10K hands.
Monday, May 17, 2010
MMM: How's it going?
Dear Sushi Cowboy,
I have enjoyed reading your blog but have noticed that there haven't been many posts lately. I was wondering how the grind has been? Any news?
Shannon E.
Los Angeles
Hello Shannon,
I've been playing every day. That will assure that I will qualify for the One a Day freeroll and I'm well on my way to making Iron Man gold status for this month. Playing nickel Rush has made it really easy to grind out points. I've dipped down in that game but lately I've nitted up and have been essentially EV neutral against the rake so I'm netting out about three bucks a day in rakeback. But I should be getting about twice that when the Iron Man semi-annual bonus is announced as it is expected to be.
There's really not a lot to report playing Rush. I'm folding pretty much everything under the sun (seriously, my VPIP is < 10 playing nine handed tables) and playing all of my premium hands very fast. I've even become less enchanted by AK and pairs QQ and lower. I still play them of course but much more carefully. Generally speaking I won't go to the mat pre-flop with AK anymore unless I'm getting a decent price. The sessions end up all looking very similar, a blur of hole cards getting pitched, raising big hands for value, and stealing blinds every so often. I run KK into AA here and there, get sucked out on horribly from time to time, but mostly just post blinds and wait to stack someone.
So sorry that there isn't much content for you to read. When I have something interesting or pass a big milestone then I'll post but until there news my blog is going to be pretty quiet. Thanks for your interest. Call me.
Sushi Cowboy
I have enjoyed reading your blog but have noticed that there haven't been many posts lately. I was wondering how the grind has been? Any news?
Shannon E.
Los Angeles
Hello Shannon,
I've been playing every day. That will assure that I will qualify for the One a Day freeroll and I'm well on my way to making Iron Man gold status for this month. Playing nickel Rush has made it really easy to grind out points. I've dipped down in that game but lately I've nitted up and have been essentially EV neutral against the rake so I'm netting out about three bucks a day in rakeback. But I should be getting about twice that when the Iron Man semi-annual bonus is announced as it is expected to be.
There's really not a lot to report playing Rush. I'm folding pretty much everything under the sun (seriously, my VPIP is < 10 playing nine handed tables) and playing all of my premium hands very fast. I've even become less enchanted by AK and pairs QQ and lower. I still play them of course but much more carefully. Generally speaking I won't go to the mat pre-flop with AK anymore unless I'm getting a decent price. The sessions end up all looking very similar, a blur of hole cards getting pitched, raising big hands for value, and stealing blinds every so often. I run KK into AA here and there, get sucked out on horribly from time to time, but mostly just post blinds and wait to stack someone.
So sorry that there isn't much content for you to read. When I have something interesting or pass a big milestone then I'll post but until there news my blog is going to be pretty quiet. Thanks for your interest. Call me.
Sushi Cowboy
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
EV+...actual V, not so much
Just one of those days where a lot of things didn't go like the odds say they are supposed to. Net result is that I'm down about nine bucks for the day instead of being profitable as shown in the chart.
How bad was I running? All of the hands below were for stacks.
KK vs AK all in pre loses to A on the flop
58 (BB) vs A8 on A58 flop
AA vs TT all in on the flop of undercards turns a T
KK vs AQ vs JJ all in pre loses to flopped J then comes in third thanks to turned A
JJ flops top set then loses to bare nut flush draw
99 vs A7 all in pre loses on KKQ 7 7 board
AK vs AT all in pre loses to flopped T
KK vs 77 all in pre loses to flopped set
And my favorite, KK vs AQos catches running cards to make a wheel straight flush
Ahhh...variance.
How bad was I running? All of the hands below were for stacks.
KK vs AK all in pre loses to A on the flop
58 (BB) vs A8 on A58 flop
AA vs TT all in on the flop of undercards turns a T
KK vs AQ vs JJ all in pre loses to flopped J then comes in third thanks to turned A
JJ flops top set then loses to bare nut flush draw
99 vs A7 all in pre loses on KKQ 7 7 board
AK vs AT all in pre loses to flopped T
KK vs 77 all in pre loses to flopped set
And my favorite, KK vs AQos catches running cards to make a wheel straight flush
Ahhh...variance.
Monday, May 10, 2010
MMM: Negative rakeback?
Yo Sushi,
I was checking my rakeback account and noticed that I had negative rakeback for one of the days. I'm no accountant and maybe there's a good explanation but that seems pretty screwy to me. How does that happen?
Rakebackless,
Seattle WA
Dear Rakebackless in Seattle,
Negative rakeback can seem surprising the first time you see it but there is a very simple explanation. You can end up with negative rakeback because of deductions taken by your poker room. A couple reasons for this are freerolls and bonuses. In the case of a freeroll the overlay provided by the poker room is evenly divided among all participants. For example, I played in a freeroll yesterday which had a $5000 prize pool and 2173 players. Since no money was contributed by any of the players the entire $5000 was overlay. Five grand divided by 2173 players is $2.30 per player which counts against your rakeback. If you earned less than $2.30 in rakeback for that day then you would register negative rakeback for that day. There is indeed no such thing as a free freeroll...at least not with rakeback. I assume that players without rakeback accounts actually do get a true freeroll. Similarly, if you are playing through a bonus amount then that is deducted from rakeback as well. You still end up ahead because of your bonus, just not as far ahead as you would if you got the bonus and the rakeback but the poker room is not going to want to let you double dip like that and since they are setting up the bonus rules they can call the shots.
I hope that explains it for you,
Sushi Cowboy
I was checking my rakeback account and noticed that I had negative rakeback for one of the days. I'm no accountant and maybe there's a good explanation but that seems pretty screwy to me. How does that happen?
Rakebackless,
Seattle WA
Dear Rakebackless in Seattle,
Negative rakeback can seem surprising the first time you see it but there is a very simple explanation. You can end up with negative rakeback because of deductions taken by your poker room. A couple reasons for this are freerolls and bonuses. In the case of a freeroll the overlay provided by the poker room is evenly divided among all participants. For example, I played in a freeroll yesterday which had a $5000 prize pool and 2173 players. Since no money was contributed by any of the players the entire $5000 was overlay. Five grand divided by 2173 players is $2.30 per player which counts against your rakeback. If you earned less than $2.30 in rakeback for that day then you would register negative rakeback for that day. There is indeed no such thing as a free freeroll...at least not with rakeback. I assume that players without rakeback accounts actually do get a true freeroll. Similarly, if you are playing through a bonus amount then that is deducted from rakeback as well. You still end up ahead because of your bonus, just not as far ahead as you would if you got the bonus and the rakeback but the poker room is not going to want to let you double dip like that and since they are setting up the bonus rules they can call the shots.
I hope that explains it for you,
Sushi Cowboy
Sunday, May 9, 2010
FTPA freeroll
Today's freeroll is what I get for acing the Sit and Learn test from the Full Tilt Poker Academy. This one is a $5K event with 2173 runners and the top 540 cashing. The upside is that a flat payout schedule makes it easier to cash but the amount is pretty small (as in a $5 min cash) and stays small throughout the long tail. Undaunted, I jumped in to see what damage I could do.
Got a great kickstart when I rasied to 3xBB, or T90, in the first blind level with KdQd. Flop is 9d3d7d and I stack 4d8d.
Pot it with AA, get one caller. Flop is 955, I lead for pot he shoves and I call, he has TT.
Raise with JJ, get shoved on by a short stack. I call, he shows 88 and I eliminate him.
Not sure if I was getting too cocky or not but I take on a re-raise from the short stack with TT and pay off QQ.
So I'm cruising along and find the field thinning while sitting on a pretty healthy stack. As long as I don't do anything stupid I will have absolutely no problem coasting into the money. I then start wondering how deep I want to try to go. The bubble bursts at the top 540 for $5. The next stop is at 360 for $6.25 so I'd have to slog through way more players just to get another $1.25. I consider just sitting out and getting blinded off but as we pass through the money bubble the eliminations happen at a furious rate as everyone who was nursing a short stack now is just shoving with ATC.
Before I know it we're closing in fast on 360 and I can see by the player list that there are a considerable amount of players who have only a few blinds of chips left. So I decide to go for it. I just stick to my style and pass through the next tier. About now I'm wondering if it is feasible to make some real money. I'm above the average chip stack and I have just as much reason to make it to the final table as the next guy. I'm pretty conservative but I realize that I need to make some moves if I want to grow my stack to stay competitive. So I shove with any premium hand, JJ+, AK, and AQ depending on circumstances. The blinds are getting up there and steals are not trivial amounts. I have a spotless record but I get a bad feeling about shoving with AJ against a guy I have covered. He calls and shows AA which cuts my stack down quite a bit. But I pick up some legit hands and shove about 4 out of 6 hands in a row and build it back to respectable in quick order. I manage to wait for good hands and get paid for them with one bad suckout along the way my QJ vs KK which ran out ATx x K to win in ugly fashion. I sail past the 180 mark, the 90 mark and crack the 45 player mark which is worth $12.50. If I can get to two tables the payout is $17.50 and final table payouts range from $25 to $400. My stack is strong and I'm bringing my A game after a slight lapse in concentration. I pick up KK, shove, get called by a short stack holding 22 and genius big stack overcalls with 44 which sets up on the flop and sends me home with $12.50 in my pocket.
Not a bad weekend for freerolls. My cashier balance has hit a new all time high of $290.26 thanks to three cashes. Though I shouldn't expect the same performance each month I see no reason why I can't at least qualify for the same three freerolls each month so I'll at least give myself the chance to roll up more cashes 12 times a year.
Got a great kickstart when I rasied to 3xBB, or T90, in the first blind level with KdQd. Flop is 9d3d7d and I stack 4d8d.
Pot it with AA, get one caller. Flop is 955, I lead for pot he shoves and I call, he has TT.
Raise with JJ, get shoved on by a short stack. I call, he shows 88 and I eliminate him.
Not sure if I was getting too cocky or not but I take on a re-raise from the short stack with TT and pay off QQ.
So I'm cruising along and find the field thinning while sitting on a pretty healthy stack. As long as I don't do anything stupid I will have absolutely no problem coasting into the money. I then start wondering how deep I want to try to go. The bubble bursts at the top 540 for $5. The next stop is at 360 for $6.25 so I'd have to slog through way more players just to get another $1.25. I consider just sitting out and getting blinded off but as we pass through the money bubble the eliminations happen at a furious rate as everyone who was nursing a short stack now is just shoving with ATC.
Before I know it we're closing in fast on 360 and I can see by the player list that there are a considerable amount of players who have only a few blinds of chips left. So I decide to go for it. I just stick to my style and pass through the next tier. About now I'm wondering if it is feasible to make some real money. I'm above the average chip stack and I have just as much reason to make it to the final table as the next guy. I'm pretty conservative but I realize that I need to make some moves if I want to grow my stack to stay competitive. So I shove with any premium hand, JJ+, AK, and AQ depending on circumstances. The blinds are getting up there and steals are not trivial amounts. I have a spotless record but I get a bad feeling about shoving with AJ against a guy I have covered. He calls and shows AA which cuts my stack down quite a bit. But I pick up some legit hands and shove about 4 out of 6 hands in a row and build it back to respectable in quick order. I manage to wait for good hands and get paid for them with one bad suckout along the way my QJ vs KK which ran out ATx x K to win in ugly fashion. I sail past the 180 mark, the 90 mark and crack the 45 player mark which is worth $12.50. If I can get to two tables the payout is $17.50 and final table payouts range from $25 to $400. My stack is strong and I'm bringing my A game after a slight lapse in concentration. I pick up KK, shove, get called by a short stack holding 22 and genius big stack overcalls with 44 which sets up on the flop and sends me home with $12.50 in my pocket.
Not a bad weekend for freerolls. My cashier balance has hit a new all time high of $290.26 thanks to three cashes. Though I shouldn't expect the same performance each month I see no reason why I can't at least qualify for the same three freerolls each month so I'll at least give myself the chance to roll up more cashes 12 times a year.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
'cuz I'm freeeee...freeroooooollllling
In what is sure to become a regular fixture to my online poker schedule, the second weekend of the month is time to freeroll time for me. Saturday is the Iron Man freeroll and the One a Day freeroll. Sunday is the Full Tilt Poker Academy freeroll. These are my opportunities to pad the bankroll after jumping through the hoops that FTP puts in front of me.
One a Day freeroll - For earning at least one FT Point on each day of a calendar month, I qualify to either receive 15 bonus medals which can be spent in the Iron Man store or I can join in on the One a Day freeroll. Last month I took the bonus medals but since I would just end up spending the medals on tourney entries as the best way to monetize my Iron Man achievements, I decided to just go ahead and do the freeroll instead. It is a $2000 freeroll with a fairly flat payout structure. 1409 entered and with the top 360 paying. First place paid $232.50 and 91-180 paid out $3.
I spent a long time just folding. Blinds started at 15/30 and for the majority of the first four blind levels I took down a few blinds when raising pre with strong starting hands. It wasn't until late in the fourth level that I got involved in a hand. With two limpers ahead of me I completed the SB with 3s5s and saw a flop four ways. It came down 5c4s2s for top pair and and OESFD, not bad. I bet pot figuring I would just take this thing down but was surprised/elated/horrified to get two callers. Turn was 8c and I shoved the remaining 810 into a 960 pot which was enough to shake off the other players. That got me to 1770. The next hand I picked up KQos on the button and took down a three way limped pot when I hit top pair. Those were the main hands that got me healthy. I had a couple other skirmishes and some blind steals but that was enough to get me past the bubble to my massive $3 payday. Since the next payout was 90 players out it was time to just jam and I got it in with 99 versus KQ and lost the flip. For a tourney with such a small min-cash I think I'm going to play more aggressively next time and look to either bust out early or position myself to make a deep run.
Iron Man Silver freeroll - Participants in the Iron Man promotion have the option of taking bonus medals or playing in the freeroll. I decided to do the freeroll this month for the same reasons as above. Since I'm at the silver level of Iron Man my freeroll is good for a $15,000 prize pool with the top top 180 places of an 837 person field. First place gets $2250 and a mini-cash is a reasonable $37.50.
The best part about these Iron Man freerolls is that people get entered into it by default since you need to opt out to get the medals. As such there are a lot of stacks on auto-pilot. When I started it became clear immediately that only three of the 8 seated were actually there so it was time to feast on the blinds of the the players who probably don't even know they are enrolled in the tourney. One player ended up being an idiot and was looking to mix it up with other players at the table instead of just cooperating and robbing the absent players which would have been far more profitable. I was fortunate to have had position on the other two and could min-raise and take down blinds for half the hands if they folded to me. Eventually the idiot started raising more than his fair share and I protested by taking the maximum time allowable including my time bank to let him know that I'm still at the table and if he's going to steal from me then I'm going to make it less profitable by slowing him down. I catch one set early and extracted some chips from another live player but for the first half of the tourney most of my profit came just from stealing blinds of absent players. However, those players eventually got blinded off and it was time to actually play some poker. Since the min-cash was actually a reasonable payout I sized up my stack and kept an eye on the lobby so I could estimate if I had enough chips to coast across the finish line. There was an absolutely irritating player on my immediate right who would literally take the maximum amount of time every single hand before folding. He had to have been there too or else he would be auto-folded after timing out the first time. Though he was a pain in the butt his actions actually benefitted my by slowing down my blind off time since we were getting in fewer hands per blind level. Eventually I got to the point of no return where I had zero fold equity and had to try to fold my way to the money which I was eventually able to do thanks to some microstacks who got squashed before I did. After I cashed I got it in twice with ace high. Won the first thanks to a fold but lost the second to QT who caught a T.
$40.50 of infinite ROI sugar in the bank which brings my cashier total to $277.57 which is the highest it's ever been. Quite pleased with how my first freerolls went and am looking forward to pulling down some bigger cashes in the future.
One a Day freeroll - For earning at least one FT Point on each day of a calendar month, I qualify to either receive 15 bonus medals which can be spent in the Iron Man store or I can join in on the One a Day freeroll. Last month I took the bonus medals but since I would just end up spending the medals on tourney entries as the best way to monetize my Iron Man achievements, I decided to just go ahead and do the freeroll instead. It is a $2000 freeroll with a fairly flat payout structure. 1409 entered and with the top 360 paying. First place paid $232.50 and 91-180 paid out $3.
I spent a long time just folding. Blinds started at 15/30 and for the majority of the first four blind levels I took down a few blinds when raising pre with strong starting hands. It wasn't until late in the fourth level that I got involved in a hand. With two limpers ahead of me I completed the SB with 3s5s and saw a flop four ways. It came down 5c4s2s for top pair and and OESFD, not bad. I bet pot figuring I would just take this thing down but was surprised/elated/horrified to get two callers. Turn was 8c and I shoved the remaining 810 into a 960 pot which was enough to shake off the other players. That got me to 1770. The next hand I picked up KQos on the button and took down a three way limped pot when I hit top pair. Those were the main hands that got me healthy. I had a couple other skirmishes and some blind steals but that was enough to get me past the bubble to my massive $3 payday. Since the next payout was 90 players out it was time to just jam and I got it in with 99 versus KQ and lost the flip. For a tourney with such a small min-cash I think I'm going to play more aggressively next time and look to either bust out early or position myself to make a deep run.
Iron Man Silver freeroll - Participants in the Iron Man promotion have the option of taking bonus medals or playing in the freeroll. I decided to do the freeroll this month for the same reasons as above. Since I'm at the silver level of Iron Man my freeroll is good for a $15,000 prize pool with the top top 180 places of an 837 person field. First place gets $2250 and a mini-cash is a reasonable $37.50.
The best part about these Iron Man freerolls is that people get entered into it by default since you need to opt out to get the medals. As such there are a lot of stacks on auto-pilot. When I started it became clear immediately that only three of the 8 seated were actually there so it was time to feast on the blinds of the the players who probably don't even know they are enrolled in the tourney. One player ended up being an idiot and was looking to mix it up with other players at the table instead of just cooperating and robbing the absent players which would have been far more profitable. I was fortunate to have had position on the other two and could min-raise and take down blinds for half the hands if they folded to me. Eventually the idiot started raising more than his fair share and I protested by taking the maximum time allowable including my time bank to let him know that I'm still at the table and if he's going to steal from me then I'm going to make it less profitable by slowing him down. I catch one set early and extracted some chips from another live player but for the first half of the tourney most of my profit came just from stealing blinds of absent players. However, those players eventually got blinded off and it was time to actually play some poker. Since the min-cash was actually a reasonable payout I sized up my stack and kept an eye on the lobby so I could estimate if I had enough chips to coast across the finish line. There was an absolutely irritating player on my immediate right who would literally take the maximum amount of time every single hand before folding. He had to have been there too or else he would be auto-folded after timing out the first time. Though he was a pain in the butt his actions actually benefitted my by slowing down my blind off time since we were getting in fewer hands per blind level. Eventually I got to the point of no return where I had zero fold equity and had to try to fold my way to the money which I was eventually able to do thanks to some microstacks who got squashed before I did. After I cashed I got it in twice with ace high. Won the first thanks to a fold but lost the second to QT who caught a T.
$40.50 of infinite ROI sugar in the bank which brings my cashier total to $277.57 which is the highest it's ever been. Quite pleased with how my first freerolls went and am looking forward to pulling down some bigger cashes in the future.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Bad stretch
In the past 24 hours I've been on a perma cooler.
* QQ loses to AJ
* TT notched by JJ
* KK out flopped by QQ
* 99 finds KK
* TT finds JJ
* 99 has 22 hit a set
* AK hits top/top and loses to AA
* QQ vs AA
* JJ vs KK
* JJ vs AA
* 22 vs AQ flip gets counterfeited by double paired board
* QQ vs KK
You get the idea. I can't recall a streak where I ran into so many big pairs. I'm pretty sure that this is just the dark side of variance because I'm doing EV+ moves but just getting coolered by better hands. That run took me down to -$38 against the rake and not even being profitable with rakeback. I'm going to do some data mining to double check my numbers to see what's what in the Rush world.
* QQ loses to AJ
* TT notched by JJ
* KK out flopped by QQ
* 99 finds KK
* TT finds JJ
* 99 has 22 hit a set
* AK hits top/top and loses to AA
* QQ vs AA
* JJ vs KK
* JJ vs AA
* 22 vs AQ flip gets counterfeited by double paired board
* QQ vs KK
You get the idea. I can't recall a streak where I ran into so many big pairs. I'm pretty sure that this is just the dark side of variance because I'm doing EV+ moves but just getting coolered by better hands. That run took me down to -$38 against the rake and not even being profitable with rakeback. I'm going to do some data mining to double check my numbers to see what's what in the Rush world.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
HOTD: Double shot
Nickel NLHE Rush and I'm in the SB when I pick up bullets with a fresh stack minus a BB and a SB. MP raises it to 4xBB, I repot to .65, shove, call. He shows AK and after I get past a broadway/paint-ish board I double up.
Normally I click the "sit out" button when I'm in the middle of a big hand so that I can take my profits off the table but I missed the boat this time and I'm dealt into the next hand receiving AQos in the BB. I'm heads up against an MP limper and am forced to see an AdTs7s flop. Not a bad hand/flop to get for "free" so I pot it and figure that will be that. Instead the limper, who has me covered, shoves. Yuck. Three things were going through my mind - first, don't go broke in a limped pot; second, this guy is on a draw and the right thing to do for this hand is to call; third, the fact that I'm double stacked is making me lean away from calling here. In the end I go with what I feel the numbers are telling me is the right move and call. Villain shows down KJos with a dead backdoor flush draw since I have his suit covered and a gutter with a tooth missing since I have a Q. Board double blanks and I scoop a record $7.40 pot.
PS - I had the sit out next hand button during the second hand so I can put the sugar in the jar.
Normally I click the "sit out" button when I'm in the middle of a big hand so that I can take my profits off the table but I missed the boat this time and I'm dealt into the next hand receiving AQos in the BB. I'm heads up against an MP limper and am forced to see an AdTs7s flop. Not a bad hand/flop to get for "free" so I pot it and figure that will be that. Instead the limper, who has me covered, shoves. Yuck. Three things were going through my mind - first, don't go broke in a limped pot; second, this guy is on a draw and the right thing to do for this hand is to call; third, the fact that I'm double stacked is making me lean away from calling here. In the end I go with what I feel the numbers are telling me is the right move and call. Villain shows down KJos with a dead backdoor flush draw since I have his suit covered and a gutter with a tooth missing since I have a Q. Board double blanks and I scoop a record $7.40 pot.
PS - I had the sit out next hand button during the second hand so I can put the sugar in the jar.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Halfway back
After bottoming out at -$19.56 in .02/.05 NLHE Rush yesterday, I've battled back to recapture half of the deficit and now stand at -$9.78 or about 5 buying to the good in the past day. No real stupendous hands, just getting my money in good and getting paid.
I did suck out a J when I got it in JJ vs QQ but that makes up for the time when TT stacked off to my shove with KK and caught a T.
Flopped a set of eights and boated on the turn then allowed Q high to throw me his chips.
I tried to steal with A/rag and got called to see a AK8 flop. Check check. Second K on the turn and I check call since I don't buy what he's selling. Third K on the river, I check then call his shove with QQ and double through him.
I tried to steal with 8c9c then hit top two. Potted the flop and got called. Villain turns a pair then stacks off with KJ.
Got coolered when I saw a flop with TT on a J88 flop, checks thorugh. T on the turn which gave me second best boat to flopped jacks full.
In general there aren't a lot of hands to dissect in Rush. All I'm doing is folding crap, stealing when I can, playing premium hands really fast, and playing my tighter pre-flop stack off range against villain's looser pre-flop stack off range. Not really rocket science and makes for boring hand histories.
I did suck out a J when I got it in JJ vs QQ but that makes up for the time when TT stacked off to my shove with KK and caught a T.
Flopped a set of eights and boated on the turn then allowed Q high to throw me his chips.
I tried to steal with A/rag and got called to see a AK8 flop. Check check. Second K on the turn and I check call since I don't buy what he's selling. Third K on the river, I check then call his shove with QQ and double through him.
I tried to steal with 8c9c then hit top two. Potted the flop and got called. Villain turns a pair then stacks off with KJ.
Got coolered when I saw a flop with TT on a J88 flop, checks thorugh. T on the turn which gave me second best boat to flopped jacks full.
In general there aren't a lot of hands to dissect in Rush. All I'm doing is folding crap, stealing when I can, playing premium hands really fast, and playing my tighter pre-flop stack off range against villain's looser pre-flop stack off range. Not really rocket science and makes for boring hand histories.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
HOTD: Is the Seven-Deuce game on?
Nickel Rush Hold'em and I'm attempting a long range steal since the tables are so tight. I'm basically potting every hand where I am first to the pot. I pick up 72os three off the button and I make no exception to my hand requirements for stealing. SB and BB defend. Flop is A2Q two clubs. It checks to me and I figure I might as well rep the ace so I throw out a pot sized bet of .51, SB folds, BB calls. Well I'm done with this hand now. This is why I have dumped so many chips today. If the steal doesn't work I need to just bail on the hand. Turn is another deuce. BB checks to me again and I shove the rest of my stack in. BB calls with A4os. River is a seven to boat me up. Yeah, I'm THAT guy.
Did I say break even on Rush?
Well that was a short stay above water. Since break even I've dropped about $20 or 10 buy ins. Not sure how much of this I want to blame on myself but here are the biggest hands I lost in that stretch.
* Ax9h on a four hearted board. Lose to Qh. This was a steal attempt that I ended up following up on. Plus I had exceeded my $2 limit and should have cashed out before this hand. Terrible decision making on my part.
* Aces cracked by K6. Pre-flop, he potted and I repotted to put 1/3 of my stack in. He flopped two pair and that was that.
* AQ vs AA on A67 flop. I potted pre and he flat called behind. I briefly considered that I was up against AK but figured AK would re-raise...and I was right. He didn't have AK.
* 99 vs JJ with both being overpairs to the board.
* 88 vs KT flip. Pre-flop, there's a pot sized bet and KT flats. I repot, everyone in between folds, then KT shoves. I cannot give him credit for 99 or better so I get it all in. T on the flop.
* AK vs 55. A33 flop and I decide to slow play it. 5 on turn and I stack off.
* JJ vs QQ with both being overpairs to the board.
* 99 vs Ah6h. I flop second set and he can't let go of his heart draw which comes on the river after the money went in.
* AcKc vs TT flip and I miss.
* AsKs vs 77 flip and I miss that one too.
* TJos on T6Q 9 board. I get it in on the turn with a pair and open ender and lose to KJ who was already there. Also a blind steal attempt that I should have just dumped after the steal failed.
* J6 vs A4 on 46A J ... board. Yet one more steal attempt that I followed through with. Free card to let me make my two pair then I got it in.
All of those hands cost me 2/3 of a buy in or more. Got my money in terribly a few times and got unlucky on others. Biggest lesson learned: after a steal attempt fails let it go. Blinds were up for the asking today and I was indeed feasting on them a great deal. I probably would have been up for the day if I did nothing but steal blinds when I was first to the pot but instead I decided to flush those chips down the toilet. Also need to be better aware of more skillful players during the day who will flat with large pairs. That's a big hole I dug for myself and it will take some doing to fill it up again. Though I hate to use rakeback as a crutch I am at least still EV+ including RB but I am really targeting being EV+ against the rake as my benchmark. Yeesh, what a day.
* Ax9h on a four hearted board. Lose to Qh. This was a steal attempt that I ended up following up on. Plus I had exceeded my $2 limit and should have cashed out before this hand. Terrible decision making on my part.
* Aces cracked by K6. Pre-flop, he potted and I repotted to put 1/3 of my stack in. He flopped two pair and that was that.
* AQ vs AA on A67 flop. I potted pre and he flat called behind. I briefly considered that I was up against AK but figured AK would re-raise...and I was right. He didn't have AK.
* 99 vs JJ with both being overpairs to the board.
* 88 vs KT flip. Pre-flop, there's a pot sized bet and KT flats. I repot, everyone in between folds, then KT shoves. I cannot give him credit for 99 or better so I get it all in. T on the flop.
* AK vs 55. A33 flop and I decide to slow play it. 5 on turn and I stack off.
* JJ vs QQ with both being overpairs to the board.
* 99 vs Ah6h. I flop second set and he can't let go of his heart draw which comes on the river after the money went in.
* AcKc vs TT flip and I miss.
* AsKs vs 77 flip and I miss that one too.
* TJos on T6Q 9 board. I get it in on the turn with a pair and open ender and lose to KJ who was already there. Also a blind steal attempt that I should have just dumped after the steal failed.
* J6 vs A4 on 46A J ... board. Yet one more steal attempt that I followed through with. Free card to let me make my two pair then I got it in.
All of those hands cost me 2/3 of a buy in or more. Got my money in terribly a few times and got unlucky on others. Biggest lesson learned: after a steal attempt fails let it go. Blinds were up for the asking today and I was indeed feasting on them a great deal. I probably would have been up for the day if I did nothing but steal blinds when I was first to the pot but instead I decided to flush those chips down the toilet. Also need to be better aware of more skillful players during the day who will flat with large pairs. That's a big hole I dug for myself and it will take some doing to fill it up again. Though I hate to use rakeback as a crutch I am at least still EV+ including RB but I am really targeting being EV+ against the rake as my benchmark. Yeesh, what a day.
Monday, May 3, 2010
$26 coin flip
In order to try to monetize my Iron Man medals I used 140 of them and bought a $26 tournament ticket which is good for any $24+2 or $25+1 tourneys. The one I chose was a Step 3 single table tourney which paid out five of the nine spots. 1st and 2nd got a Step 4 ticket worth $75. 3rd and 4th got a replacement Step 3 ticket. Fifth place got a Step 2 ticket. Table is playing pretty tight. I raise one hand with AQ and get folds. Then I pick up QQ in the 3rd blind level, 25/50 with T1500 starting chips. I pot it to 200, get raised by the SB. Yuck. If I'm beat I'm beat but I'm not folding queens in this structure so I shove and get called by AKos. King on the flop but adjoining jack gives me running straight possibilities. Turn is a brick and the river taunts me with another king. That coin flip would have put me in the chip lead and I likely could have coasted into getting a 3rd or 4th place finish to get a Step 3 ticket which I could have converted at the cashier window to get $24.70 in cash after they take the 5% transaction fee. Darn. Oh well, I will be earning many more medals in the future and will get plenty of chances to convert them into cash. Just didn't work out this time.
Breaking even on Rush
Just finished a strong session at Nickel Rush NLHE. 539 hands in 28 minutes to the tune of $9.74. No real magic going on as the hand histories show. All of my big win hands are a who's who of category 1 hands including my two favorites, AA and KK. They say how important table selection is and while Rush doesn't strictly have tables they do have player pools and it looks like the morning crowd might be the people I want to harvest chips from more in the future. Plenty of action and players stacking off light. In fact I just turned off steal mode completely after some initial playback and went purely with my ABC rush formula. OK, actually it is more like AB as in either fold or shove.
17,688 hands overall with $1.90 of profit against the rake which translates to over $21 including rakeback. Still early though.
17,688 hands overall with $1.90 of profit against the rake which translates to over $21 including rakeback. Still early though.
MMM: Full Tilt Academy
Sushi Cowboy,
Since you have shown previous interest in other Full Tilt Poker promotions I think you would be interested in the Full Tilt Poker Academy where you can take tests and complete achievements to earn credit toward store items and freerolls similar to the Iron Man program. There are instructional videos and follow up quizzes which can qualify you for monthly freerolls depending on how well you do. You can also accept challenges where you need to accomplish specific tasks which show your understanding of the concepts taught at the Academy. You can find more information on the Full Tilt Poker Academy website. I hope to see you enrolled soon.
Thanks for being a freak and a very weird dude valued player on Full Tilt Poker.
Howard "The Professor" L.
Dear Professor,
I'm one step ahead of you. I actually have already enrolled in the FTPA and have started in on the challenges. I'll be participating in this month's freeroll having aced Phil Gordon's Sit and Learn on 5 common Hold'em leaks. It's an interesting program and you guys are really living up to the "Learn" part of your Learn, Chat and Play with the Pros.
Sushi Cowboy
Since you have shown previous interest in other Full Tilt Poker promotions I think you would be interested in the Full Tilt Poker Academy where you can take tests and complete achievements to earn credit toward store items and freerolls similar to the Iron Man program. There are instructional videos and follow up quizzes which can qualify you for monthly freerolls depending on how well you do. You can also accept challenges where you need to accomplish specific tasks which show your understanding of the concepts taught at the Academy. You can find more information on the Full Tilt Poker Academy website. I hope to see you enrolled soon.
Thanks for being a freak and a very weird dude valued player on Full Tilt Poker.
Howard "The Professor" L.
Dear Professor,
I'm one step ahead of you. I actually have already enrolled in the FTPA and have started in on the challenges. I'll be participating in this month's freeroll having aced Phil Gordon's Sit and Learn on 5 common Hold'em leaks. It's an interesting program and you guys are really living up to the "Learn" part of your Learn, Chat and Play with the Pros.
Sushi Cowboy
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Road to the WSOP Main Event
FTP has a new series of tournaments called "Steps to the Main Event" which allow you to pick which step you want to come in on in order to get to the main event. Instead of referring to a tourney as a satellite, super-satellite, super-super-satellite, uber-satellite, or whatever, they have different steps (1, 2, 3, etc.) at set buy in levels so you can come in on the level that you want.
I traded in 20 of my accumulated Iron Man medals for a Step 1 ticket which is equivalent to a $3 + .30 buy in. It was an 18 player sit and go. Top four players get a Step 2 ticket, good enough for a an $8 + .70 tourney, while 5th through 10th places get a replacement Step 1 ticket so they can get back in line and ride again. With more than half the field cashing I figured this would be a good way to take a (long) shot at getting to the WSOP.
Third hand overall is the first I played. 44 in the SB. MP raises to 105 (out of 1500) and he has already shown to be aggressive. Maybe he had it, maybe he didn't. Don't know since there was no showdown but raising twice this early I figure he wants to either jump out to a lead early or go home. One caller ahead of me so I call with just the BB behind me who I assume will come along too based on pot odds. He does and I'm already getting more than 3:1 plus big implieds if I hit. Swing and miss though I get a free card on the flop which misses also. Oh well.
Next hand, same guy min-raises. I have KT suited on the button and decide to see a flop since I've got to be good against his range if I hit. Flop come out and the good news is that I hit top two pair, the bad news is that they are all diamonds. Checks around to me and I fire a pot sized bet which is all I'm going to put out there. Either I take it down or I'm done with the hand unless I boat up. Two folds and the original raiser flats. Turn is an offsuit trey, check, check. River pairs the turn card. He checks to me and I check back. He shows Ad3d for the flopped nut flush plus a side order of trip threes. Nice hand/board. That puts me at about 2/3 starting stack. Still room to maneuver but I'm not liking my position. Fold for a couple orbits and end up with J7 in the BB. Flop is A67 rainbow, checks around. Turn is a J for two pair and I pot it after it checks to me but get one caller. River is an A. Ick. Worst card ever but I'm in too deep so I shove and get called by A6 which was ahead the whole way.
Dead end on that road but that will not be the last shot I take at the getting to the WSOP.
I traded in 20 of my accumulated Iron Man medals for a Step 1 ticket which is equivalent to a $3 + .30 buy in. It was an 18 player sit and go. Top four players get a Step 2 ticket, good enough for a an $8 + .70 tourney, while 5th through 10th places get a replacement Step 1 ticket so they can get back in line and ride again. With more than half the field cashing I figured this would be a good way to take a (long) shot at getting to the WSOP.
Third hand overall is the first I played. 44 in the SB. MP raises to 105 (out of 1500) and he has already shown to be aggressive. Maybe he had it, maybe he didn't. Don't know since there was no showdown but raising twice this early I figure he wants to either jump out to a lead early or go home. One caller ahead of me so I call with just the BB behind me who I assume will come along too based on pot odds. He does and I'm already getting more than 3:1 plus big implieds if I hit. Swing and miss though I get a free card on the flop which misses also. Oh well.
Next hand, same guy min-raises. I have KT suited on the button and decide to see a flop since I've got to be good against his range if I hit. Flop come out and the good news is that I hit top two pair, the bad news is that they are all diamonds. Checks around to me and I fire a pot sized bet which is all I'm going to put out there. Either I take it down or I'm done with the hand unless I boat up. Two folds and the original raiser flats. Turn is an offsuit trey, check, check. River pairs the turn card. He checks to me and I check back. He shows Ad3d for the flopped nut flush plus a side order of trip threes. Nice hand/board. That puts me at about 2/3 starting stack. Still room to maneuver but I'm not liking my position. Fold for a couple orbits and end up with J7 in the BB. Flop is A67 rainbow, checks around. Turn is a J for two pair and I pot it after it checks to me but get one caller. River is an A. Ick. Worst card ever but I'm in too deep so I shove and get called by A6 which was ahead the whole way.
Dead end on that road but that will not be the last shot I take at the getting to the WSOP.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Tinkering with the formula
I'm finally starting to use Hold'em Manager for things other than making pretty graphs. I've been running analyses on my Rush Poker hands looking for ways to squeeze more EV out of the hands that I'm playing and the first thing that has become clear is that blind stealing is a way of life in Rush. It is very rare to get a walk in the BB mostly because you will almost always get someone betting from the cutoff, button, or SB in an attempt to steal blinds since it is so easy for Rush players to auto-fold and move on to the next hand, a condition that does not exist in the same way at standard tables. So after a few sessions of mixing that into my game I ran a filter on my Rush play and it indeed is definitely profitable to steal blinds. Of course you get played back at by people who know you are stealing and by people with real hands but that doesn't diminish the fact that you're better off doing it than not doing it. At first made pot sized bets then I got a little greedy and tried doing min-bets to save money when I got raised but then I got played back at more often or had to see flops then fold so I'm back to making pot sized bets to steal. If you're going to steal you have to make it believable. Even though it's obvious that you're just trying to steal people still have to have a reasonable hand to call with. Long live the gap concept. One thing I like about blind stealing is that it is super-low variance since a pot sized can only cost me .17 maximum and taking down the blinds pre-flop is rake free which makes blind stealing sugar just that much sweeter. The real beauty of stealing in Rush is that you get new opponents every hand so it is very difficult for people to pick up on the fact that you are stealing at every opportunity. I also started raising with my second tier pairs from EP/MP after running my JJ or QQ into AA/KK too often but that resulted in folds so I figured, hey, if this works for good pairs then I can do it with ATC so I started steal attempts whenever I was first to the pot. I mean, who would figure that I'm going to try to steal blinds from UTG+1? I must have a real hand, right? Well, yes and no. It does work to steal but there is just too much territory to get through since anyone in between can wake up with cards and HEM bears that out. It is not EV+ enough to try omni-stealing so I'm throttling back to just LP steals.
Now I treat Rush as though I'm in the late stages of a tournament, I want to steal blinds often enough to not get "blinded out" so I pick my spots a little more carefully and just try to maintain my starting stack until I get a premium pair to go to war with. If all goes well I can just tread water with blind steals until I can get involved in hands with huge equity. So that is the strategy for now. I'm about 16,300 hands into NLHE Rush with only part of that incorporating the latest formula so the jury is still out but I feel that it is definitely rooted in a solid foundation. We'll know more after I grind through more hands.
Now I treat Rush as though I'm in the late stages of a tournament, I want to steal blinds often enough to not get "blinded out" so I pick my spots a little more carefully and just try to maintain my starting stack until I get a premium pair to go to war with. If all goes well I can just tread water with blind steals until I can get involved in hands with huge equity. So that is the strategy for now. I'm about 16,300 hands into NLHE Rush with only part of that incorporating the latest formula so the jury is still out but I feel that it is definitely rooted in a solid foundation. We'll know more after I grind through more hands.
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