I dont know whats going on but with that last hand I posted yesterday and the hand I just had which was almost as many BBs in one pot Im 1/3rd of the way to the next level on pokerstars.. I realize this is going to take some time and half of me is expecting to hit a downswing at some point where I have to drop down a level but so far so good.
I keep getting discouraging feedback from people on 2+2 about how 2/4 is unbeatable at Foxwoods with the rake and all and Im just not finding it to be the case. Sure youre losing one BB for every pot you hit but Im still averaging 3.5 BBs over 32 hours and its just making me think this is variance and Im going to hit a wall soon. I dont like thinking this way about it thought.
I just started the work week with a labor intensive 10.5 hour day.. I actually enjoyed it having not had to do anything in 5 days from the Thanksgiving Weekend into the rainday yesterday but Im already planning on working Saturday which is so far my favorite time to play.
Alright I think Im going to do some reading.. 10 pages from the section on betting for a free card and Ive been looking forward to actually knowing what this means and when to use it instead of nodding and smiling when it comes up.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Giant hand
Just wanted to save this hand.. Would have been a $150 hand at Foxwoods.. also probably would never have happened.
PokerStars 0.10/0.20 Hold'em (9 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 8s, 8h.
2 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, Hero checks.
Flop: (5 SB) Tc, Qd, 8c (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls, CO calls.
Turn: (12.50 BB) 6h (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, MP1 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls.
River: (25.50 BB) 5d (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets, CO folds, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls.
Final Pot: 37.50 BB
Results in white below:
SB has Qc Jh (one pair, queens).
Hero has 8s 8h (three of a kind, eights).
Button has Qh Th (two pair, queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero wins 37.50 BB.
PokerStars 0.10/0.20 Hold'em (9 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 8s, 8h.
2 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, Hero checks.
Flop: (5 SB) Tc, Qd, 8c (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls, CO calls.
Turn: (12.50 BB) 6h (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, MP1 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls.
River: (25.50 BB) 5d (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets, CO folds, Button raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls.
Final Pot: 37.50 BB
Results in white below:
SB has Qc Jh (one pair, queens).
Hero has 8s 8h (three of a kind, eights).
Button has Qh Th (two pair, queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero wins 37.50 BB.
Quicker trip to the woods
I went back to Foxwoods today. A friend from work wanted to go just to hang around the casino and I picked her up.. I told her Id be playing around 5 hours and she was cool with it.. brought some blackjack money and some books. I should have known better. She was completely fine but an hour and a half in I asked her what she was up to in a text and she said she spent her limited blackjack money and was reading and she was cool. I offered to leave and she said whatever I wanted to do and we left. This is a problem I have even with my poker playing friends. We cant take the same car in case one of us busts.. psychologically I cant keep playing when I know someone is waiting for me. Kind of a waste of gas but F it. Sorry for using hard letters.
I need to read more.. I need to finish SSHE and start rereading/applying its concepts. Today it was brought to my attention on the 2+2 forum that I dont know what a free card bet is. I mean I get the jist of it but im not 100% on when to use it. I figure I have about 50 more hours left at 2/4 live before I am willing to give 4/8 a shot. Id prefer 1600 but Id give it a shot around 1400 or so. I wouldnt want to drop below a grand after I get it.
Work should be ending soon.. hopefully a month or so.. After xmas I should be able to start spending about 3 days a week seriously grinding it out. Treat it like a job and hopefully build the bankroll up to where it needs to be.
On a personal note my girlfriend will be having surgery on her ass again (a sinus near her tailbone) and she will need me around for about a week straight. So lets lay out some goals.
To Do by January 15th
1 Build a Bankroll of $1200 .. easily obtainable
2 Finish Reading SSHE
3 Move up to 1/2 online with $400 roll
Current status
1 $466 Bankroll
2 1/3 through
3 playing .10/.20 with $50
I need to read more.. I need to finish SSHE and start rereading/applying its concepts. Today it was brought to my attention on the 2+2 forum that I dont know what a free card bet is. I mean I get the jist of it but im not 100% on when to use it. I figure I have about 50 more hours left at 2/4 live before I am willing to give 4/8 a shot. Id prefer 1600 but Id give it a shot around 1400 or so. I wouldnt want to drop below a grand after I get it.
Work should be ending soon.. hopefully a month or so.. After xmas I should be able to start spending about 3 days a week seriously grinding it out. Treat it like a job and hopefully build the bankroll up to where it needs to be.
On a personal note my girlfriend will be having surgery on her ass again (a sinus near her tailbone) and she will need me around for about a week straight. So lets lay out some goals.
To Do by January 15th
1 Build a Bankroll of $1200 .. easily obtainable
2 Finish Reading SSHE
3 Move up to 1/2 online with $400 roll
Current status
1 $466 Bankroll
2 1/3 through
3 playing .10/.20 with $50
Friday, November 23, 2007
Quick trip to the Woods
Well I got up early today and went down to Foxwoods. Im glad I got in there by 830 because by 10 the place was completely packed. I was able to open a table and I did pretty well. My biggest mistake was calling a raise and reraise with trips. The board had flush and straight draws and I just fell in love with my aces.. lesson learned I hope. My read on the table was great and I knew who would pay me off and who wouldnt. I left after only 3 hours with 21 BBs in my pocket. I could have hung around but its a long weekend and I did what I wanted to do there.
My biggest problem there has been that I DO NOT count the pot! I feel like I dont even need to with the horrible players Im encountering and I know I should be using that time to get better at counting it for when I move up and start playing against actually good players.
I think the best thing to do would be write up some quick reference charts on index cards and get used to using them when I play online and the repetition will put those odds into my head enough so that when I do need to start counting the pot Ill already know what kind of odds I need to make calls. Im going to see if I can find some cards around the house and get on that seeing as how I am constantly thinking about doing it when working but never actually do it when home.
Oh and I rivered a wheel flush today to crack some kings.. he was even holding Kh for the second nut flush. It was pretty cool to get that live.
My biggest problem there has been that I DO NOT count the pot! I feel like I dont even need to with the horrible players Im encountering and I know I should be using that time to get better at counting it for when I move up and start playing against actually good players.
I think the best thing to do would be write up some quick reference charts on index cards and get used to using them when I play online and the repetition will put those odds into my head enough so that when I do need to start counting the pot Ill already know what kind of odds I need to make calls. Im going to see if I can find some cards around the house and get on that seeing as how I am constantly thinking about doing it when working but never actually do it when home.
Oh and I rivered a wheel flush today to crack some kings.. he was even holding Kh for the second nut flush. It was pretty cool to get that live.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
A 10 diamonds
I posted a hand history on 2+2 yesterday and got some great feedback. I flopped the nut flush draw and a straight draw and I wanted better players then me to criticize my play for better or worse. I really did learn and hear stuff Ive never even thought about before. Admittedly I still haven't worked my way through "Postflop Play" in SSHE so it didnt really occur to me that betting out UTG with draws would get less money in the pot. It was definately a NL way of playing the hand.
The link to that thread is here .. I hope it stays in their database without changing the URL
Also Id like to say my .10/.20 play is going pretty well.. I believe Im up $7 (more importantly 35 BB) in a very short amount of time. I was playing with a lot of fisherman but I'll take what I can get.
Starting the 4 day weekend for thanksgiving tonight.. Ive definately got Foxwoods in mind for friday or saturday and Id like to spend some time studying and giving my back some time to straighten out.
The link to that thread is here .. I hope it stays in their database without changing the URL
Also Id like to say my .10/.20 play is going pretty well.. I believe Im up $7 (more importantly 35 BB) in a very short amount of time. I was playing with a lot of fisherman but I'll take what I can get.
Starting the 4 day weekend for thanksgiving tonight.. Ive definately got Foxwoods in mind for friday or saturday and Id like to spend some time studying and giving my back some time to straighten out.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Goals
So that last post I wrote up a few days ago and posted on pokerblog.com.. apparently I misunderstood the point of that site and it spent two or three days waiting in the queue or some shit so I opened this account and cut and paste that entry here..
So while Im waiting for a table on pokerstars I would like to lay out my objectives.
Im currently working on two seperate but completely related goals right now in limit hold'em. The first is live play. I took $100 of my own money and hit the 2/4 tables at Foxwoods. My first session yielded $85 after tipping the dealer. After that session I took the $100 and put it back in my bank account and have only played with won money since then. I decided to take advantage of the poker analyst on cardplayer.com as was recommended in an article I read in the same publication. I had already started logging my live sessions in a notebook I use to write down important things I read or pick up about poker so it was easy to transfer them. Currently I have 27.5 hours logged of live play over 5 sessions. Ive built the bankroll up to $371 averaging $13.49 an hour or 3.37 BB an hour. I plan at playing at 2/4 until i get around $1500 to move up to 4/8 live.. I may try it at $1200 which is technically a little early for bankroll requirements (based on a 200xBB roll) but I may give it a whirl early
The second project Im putting together is online. I started with $10 on pokerstars just for limit poker (I have a few hundred on bodog but I spread that between sit and goes and tournaments but I wanted one account for just limit cash games.) I decided to see if I could build a bankroll playing by strict requirements .. moving up with I get 200 BB for the next level and dropping back down when i have 200 BB for the lower level. I decided to skip the .02/.04 level and go right into .05/.10. I spent about a month at that level building up to $40.. unfortunately I never kept track of how many hours I was playing and what my results were and I will admit to playing some of these games drunk and blowing a buy in here or there and other times playing like a jackass and hitting my longshot draws and doubling up. A few days ago I just cleared the $40 and I moved up to .10/.20. Each level I find completely different play. I have to stick this one out til I get up to $100 so I think it may be a while. So far so good though.
So thats what Im currently working on and I intend to keep progress posted on both the bankrolls how I feel about how I played and possibly some hand histories. This is mostly for my own benefit and hopefully the end result will be a full documented history of my climb up the ladder literally from nothing.
Oh, something I intended on writing about is that although I am pretty comfortable financially at this point in my life I was raised very very poor. As a result I never asked for anything and never was comfortable spending money. This has been one of the bigger obstacles Ive had to overcome which is probably why Im sticking to strict bankroll requirements for moving up and down and why I dont play with my own money. I honestly don't understand the people who use their own money through the learning curve.. I cant see spending $2k and jumping right into the $5/$10 game and being someones fish.
So while Im waiting for a table on pokerstars I would like to lay out my objectives.
Im currently working on two seperate but completely related goals right now in limit hold'em. The first is live play. I took $100 of my own money and hit the 2/4 tables at Foxwoods. My first session yielded $85 after tipping the dealer. After that session I took the $100 and put it back in my bank account and have only played with won money since then. I decided to take advantage of the poker analyst on cardplayer.com as was recommended in an article I read in the same publication. I had already started logging my live sessions in a notebook I use to write down important things I read or pick up about poker so it was easy to transfer them. Currently I have 27.5 hours logged of live play over 5 sessions. Ive built the bankroll up to $371 averaging $13.49 an hour or 3.37 BB an hour. I plan at playing at 2/4 until i get around $1500 to move up to 4/8 live.. I may try it at $1200 which is technically a little early for bankroll requirements (based on a 200xBB roll) but I may give it a whirl early
The second project Im putting together is online. I started with $10 on pokerstars just for limit poker (I have a few hundred on bodog but I spread that between sit and goes and tournaments but I wanted one account for just limit cash games.) I decided to see if I could build a bankroll playing by strict requirements .. moving up with I get 200 BB for the next level and dropping back down when i have 200 BB for the lower level. I decided to skip the .02/.04 level and go right into .05/.10. I spent about a month at that level building up to $40.. unfortunately I never kept track of how many hours I was playing and what my results were and I will admit to playing some of these games drunk and blowing a buy in here or there and other times playing like a jackass and hitting my longshot draws and doubling up. A few days ago I just cleared the $40 and I moved up to .10/.20. Each level I find completely different play. I have to stick this one out til I get up to $100 so I think it may be a while. So far so good though.
So thats what Im currently working on and I intend to keep progress posted on both the bankrolls how I feel about how I played and possibly some hand histories. This is mostly for my own benefit and hopefully the end result will be a full documented history of my climb up the ladder literally from nothing.
Oh, something I intended on writing about is that although I am pretty comfortable financially at this point in my life I was raised very very poor. As a result I never asked for anything and never was comfortable spending money. This has been one of the bigger obstacles Ive had to overcome which is probably why Im sticking to strict bankroll requirements for moving up and down and why I dont play with my own money. I honestly don't understand the people who use their own money through the learning curve.. I cant see spending $2k and jumping right into the $5/$10 game and being someones fish.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Introduction..
Im not sure why this occurred to me but I realized I was narrating my goals and progress in poker in my head constantly and at some point it clicked with me that no one was listening. I remembered reading in Cardplayer that some players have a blog and so I took a quick look into it and here I am.
Here are the quick details of me and my poker background.
Im a 26 year old male who lives with his girlfriend and two friends from high school in Warwick, RI. January 1st she and I will be moving out to an apartment in Federal Hill in Providence, RI.
Ive been playing poker for 2 years. I first got interested while watching celebrity poker on bravo while laid off from work one winter. I soon started playing for free on partypoker. A little while in I found out that all of my close friends watched and played poker on one level or another and I had no idea. I started playing locally at the Eastern Poker Tour and a few bars around town. Over the last two years I can honestly say my game has entirely changed.. I see newer people play a certain way and completely see my self 3 months.. 6 months.. a year ago and know how to exploit it.. and the fact that I can see that constantly makes me want to get better and better because I know there are tables full of people who see how Im playing and know how to get my chips from me.
Moving on..
I live in Rhode Island so the closest casino to me is Foxwoods. I remember my first time playing at the 1/2 NL table with $100 from my tax return. (I should say here and now that although I consider myself pretty successful at life in that middle class sort of way, I grew up very poor and once things got better I never figured out how to ask for things or spend money on myself or risk money oddly enough. As Ill be talking about later I even dont gamble with "my" money) I lost all that after about an hour on some silly hand or another. I remember not caring and thinking "ok.. this was a lesson and I need to remember it". The actual hand and how it is played is completely out of my immediate memory but I know whatever transpired is lodged in some file of what to look out for as all poker players develop.
My main games for the bulk of my playing time were tournaments.. Ive played a lot of SnGs online.. hosted some $10 tournaments at my house and played at nightly tournaments at bars. I picked up a book early on that gave me a foundation for starting hands and that served me well for a good while.
A few times I would go to Foxwoods and not have the $100 to potentially loose at 1/2 so i would sit with $40 at 2/4 limit on the advice of my friend Mike. After several loosing sessions and then the stereotypical loss of AA versus 72 suited I realized I do not understand this game..
A major step in my poker playing occurred in August of 2007 when my girlfriend and I took a vacation to Vegas. It was my first time there and I had enough money budgeted to blow while there that I was able to sit at many tables and not feel nervous that I had x amount of dollars on the line. I did well at some games.. I took one huge bad beat for my tournament life at the Mirage $60 tournament (I check raised the entire way from the flop to the river with a BB special full house only for the other guy to catch a jack on the river and get a bigger boat) and I just straight out blew $250 at NL 1/3 (weird limit) with AQ (lost to AK) and another hand that escapes me now.. But what clicked with me was that I got comfortable with chips coming and chips going.. money won and lost. I didnt get sweats tossing $20 in the pot with top pair and kicker even though someone MIGHT have 2 pair.
I came back from vegas with a fresh outlook and a good attitude toward my game which was quickly squashed in a week or two while i lost half my bankroll on bodog on some NL games and the only thing that was keeping it afloat was my SnG results... after that I decided to take some time off until I cooled out and didnt feel bad about what I lost and read up. It was at that time I joined the 2+2 forums and bought a book on Limit. I had been reading online and in cardplayer that limit was the most profitable game and although i didnt understand it.. I wanted to be a consistently successful poker player.
And that ladies and gentlemen.. Is the purpose of this blog. To chronicle my poker progress with specific attention to limit hold 'em. Im going to post this and start a new post that is more specific to those goals.
Here are the quick details of me and my poker background.
Im a 26 year old male who lives with his girlfriend and two friends from high school in Warwick, RI. January 1st she and I will be moving out to an apartment in Federal Hill in Providence, RI.
Ive been playing poker for 2 years. I first got interested while watching celebrity poker on bravo while laid off from work one winter. I soon started playing for free on partypoker. A little while in I found out that all of my close friends watched and played poker on one level or another and I had no idea. I started playing locally at the Eastern Poker Tour and a few bars around town. Over the last two years I can honestly say my game has entirely changed.. I see newer people play a certain way and completely see my self 3 months.. 6 months.. a year ago and know how to exploit it.. and the fact that I can see that constantly makes me want to get better and better because I know there are tables full of people who see how Im playing and know how to get my chips from me.
Moving on..
I live in Rhode Island so the closest casino to me is Foxwoods. I remember my first time playing at the 1/2 NL table with $100 from my tax return. (I should say here and now that although I consider myself pretty successful at life in that middle class sort of way, I grew up very poor and once things got better I never figured out how to ask for things or spend money on myself or risk money oddly enough. As Ill be talking about later I even dont gamble with "my" money) I lost all that after about an hour on some silly hand or another. I remember not caring and thinking "ok.. this was a lesson and I need to remember it". The actual hand and how it is played is completely out of my immediate memory but I know whatever transpired is lodged in some file of what to look out for as all poker players develop.
My main games for the bulk of my playing time were tournaments.. Ive played a lot of SnGs online.. hosted some $10 tournaments at my house and played at nightly tournaments at bars. I picked up a book early on that gave me a foundation for starting hands and that served me well for a good while.
A few times I would go to Foxwoods and not have the $100 to potentially loose at 1/2 so i would sit with $40 at 2/4 limit on the advice of my friend Mike. After several loosing sessions and then the stereotypical loss of AA versus 72 suited I realized I do not understand this game..
A major step in my poker playing occurred in August of 2007 when my girlfriend and I took a vacation to Vegas. It was my first time there and I had enough money budgeted to blow while there that I was able to sit at many tables and not feel nervous that I had x amount of dollars on the line. I did well at some games.. I took one huge bad beat for my tournament life at the Mirage $60 tournament (I check raised the entire way from the flop to the river with a BB special full house only for the other guy to catch a jack on the river and get a bigger boat) and I just straight out blew $250 at NL 1/3 (weird limit) with AQ (lost to AK) and another hand that escapes me now.. But what clicked with me was that I got comfortable with chips coming and chips going.. money won and lost. I didnt get sweats tossing $20 in the pot with top pair and kicker even though someone MIGHT have 2 pair.
I came back from vegas with a fresh outlook and a good attitude toward my game which was quickly squashed in a week or two while i lost half my bankroll on bodog on some NL games and the only thing that was keeping it afloat was my SnG results... after that I decided to take some time off until I cooled out and didnt feel bad about what I lost and read up. It was at that time I joined the 2+2 forums and bought a book on Limit. I had been reading online and in cardplayer that limit was the most profitable game and although i didnt understand it.. I wanted to be a consistently successful poker player.
And that ladies and gentlemen.. Is the purpose of this blog. To chronicle my poker progress with specific attention to limit hold 'em. Im going to post this and start a new post that is more specific to those goals.
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