I am working on a new poker website coming in late March.
It will be a wordpress ran blog, and it looks real good.
Basically it will be broken down into several sections, and subsections.
I am going to be adding in more and more content, and eventually will be recruiting/accepting several poker playing writers that are experts in their respective area to contribute.
There will be a "railbird" section for anyone and everyone that wants to join.
I think the best way to describe it is a "poker community blog network".
Basically a blog where people regularly contribute through comments, and new blog posts.
It will have all sorts of excellent stuff.
Lately I've learned a little bit about game theory. I've determined the best time of day for playing poker. But I really feel like my game has recently just taken off like crazy. I never really spent much time thinking about cash games the way I've thought about tournaments, but lately that's changed quite a bit. I've since applied justa little bit of preflop game theory with solid play to my game and it's made a HUGE difference. I don't have much stats to go off of, so this data is probably skewed, but without ever playing more than 4 tables, and usually just playing 2 or 3,
I've logged 4.1 hours and made 175 big blinds, over 40 per hour, and over 10 per table. We'll see if this can be maintained for a long period of time.
Because I've been plenty busy with the website, work, investing, fun, family, friends, reading books, reading content, writing content, etc, I'm not going to be able to log in many hours.
However, I have determined now that I will do my best to log in an hour or two a night.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Update
Sorry guys, I'm working on something huge...
Rather then keep you updated with all of the changes, I'm moving them to a new website.
A new website that will be a poker community where people can come and express there views about poker.
The website will run as a multiblog network.
It will contain information on
Tournament, Strategy, Cash Game, Bankroll, Poker News, and much more.
The top qualified bloggers, will have their own tab, and be allowed to post whenever they like, and that way you will have access to the top information.
I will be actively seeking out very good, very qualified players, hopefully a few pros to help develop content for different sections of the blog.
In addition, I will be providing you all with the ability to comment on any post. Also, there will be a section called "Railbirds" that is open for anyone and everyone to sign up and share information on poker, and everything related.
Every month there will be a new "King Of the Railbirds" that will get his/her own featured tab for a month.
I'd love to give you more information, but I'm busy, I've got things to do...
Anyways, the site will be ready in Spring of 2009.
Stay Tuned!
Rather then keep you updated with all of the changes, I'm moving them to a new website.
A new website that will be a poker community where people can come and express there views about poker.
The website will run as a multiblog network.
It will contain information on
Tournament, Strategy, Cash Game, Bankroll, Poker News, and much more.
The top qualified bloggers, will have their own tab, and be allowed to post whenever they like, and that way you will have access to the top information.
I will be actively seeking out very good, very qualified players, hopefully a few pros to help develop content for different sections of the blog.
In addition, I will be providing you all with the ability to comment on any post. Also, there will be a section called "Railbirds" that is open for anyone and everyone to sign up and share information on poker, and everything related.
Every month there will be a new "King Of the Railbirds" that will get his/her own featured tab for a month.
I'd love to give you more information, but I'm busy, I've got things to do...
Anyways, the site will be ready in Spring of 2009.
Stay Tuned!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Big Moves Are Fun
The lower your ability to pick up chips in small pots, and the faster a tournament structure is, the more neccesary a big move or two is. Also, there are periods in the tournement when small ball isn't going to be an option, and when you'll be forced to make a move anyways. Knowing this, you should make it BEFORE everyone expects it, so you can let the other people make the moves, and the counter move calling off weaker than usual.
There are many many moves. Personally I like to take a stand. I love it when someone loves to bluff all the way down, but is tight enough to fold. I know that he'll hit a pair or better with 2 unpaired cards over 50% of the time. However, so will I, and he can't just call with a pair. So I let him bluff himself down until the river. I will check raise him all in if I can get away with it on the river, otherwize I'll be the first one in and I'll move in, or I'll move in over the top if I'm in position. It should never be for more than double the pot,. I will most definately do this same sequence with a hand, and will rarely make this move. It's especially useful against a blind stealer.
There's tons of big moves, but I love making moves from the big or small blind against an aggressive opponent.
Of course there's still the standard moves that are not big which you want to do first. Before deciding to do the big moves, make sure you can't accompluish the following first:
:
Blind steal - After it folds to you in late position, you bet with the intention of stealing the blinds. Typically you want to only have to risk 3 times the big blind, to win the pot, but you sometimes need to do more like 4 for it to work. This works best when the antes are involved, as you only need to win close to 1/2 regardless of what happens after the flop for it to be a good bet. Even if it doesn't work, if your opponents just call, you will have position after the flop.
"limp steal"- When the blind steal doesn't work because players in late position limp in hoping to see a flop, you can make a larger raise. Standard amount
"small ball"- This requires more skill. I'm sure there's other words for this, but basically instead of trying to steal with a 3 times raise, you are enticing your opponent to call with a 2.5 times the big blind, or even 2 times. On the button you may even limp in. You do this because you will get your opponent in unconfortable situations where he doesn't know what to do. If your opponent has any 2 cards in the big blind, he technically should call with any 2 to a raise as small as a minimum bet. But if he has 48 and he hits an 8 on a KJ8 board and all you have is 45 of hearts, is he going to bet? is he going to call? If he check calls and you pick up a flush draw on the turn, you simply give up and check, and if you hit maybe an 8 of hearts on the river and your opponent pays you off. Ideally you want to intice them to call, and simply make a half pot sized bet on the flop and take it down more often than not.
Position play -One of the good things about the blind steal or limp steal or the "small ball" is that if it doesn't work, you have position on your opponents and can win more after the flop. So if you hit your hand, and they hit there hand, they will give off the information, and you can lose less. If they hit and you miss, you can fold without risking a bet to see where you're at. If you hit and they miss, you can either check or bet small to keep them in, or just be content with taking the pot down so they don't draw out. If you both miss, they will often check and you can still take it down. Not all players play like this, but you can note the ones that don't and outplay them after the flop.
"continuation bet" - If you make a bet with a hand like AK, or maybe even a pair of 8s or higher and you miss the flop, you should occasionally bet anyways, since it's likely your opponent also missed the flop. You should not always do this, or your opponents can start check raising you, or reraising you but do it every now and then. You have taken control of the betting before the flop, so act as if you have aces, or as if the flop hit and improved your hand. Now you might get your opponent to fold a pair of 99s when you have 88 or AK on a QT2 flop. You also will be more likely to get action later on a flop where you do hit your ace or king when your opponent maybe has jacks.
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Here are some Bigger moves:
"resteal" - when the table is full of raises, and steals, and you don't have the opportunty to steal, you need to identify the loose players that are raising a lot and taking down the small pots and using the strategies above. Now is where you multiply there raise by about 3, and try to take it down before the flop. The thing about the resteal is you can let someone do all the stealing for you, and meanwhile develop a tight image, and then simply collect on one steal. This can be done from the big blind, the small blind, the button, or sometimes on the cutoff.
"squeeze play" - So you can't even resteal because there are people calling the raiser? GO for the squeeze play. If it goes raise call, or raise call call, you make a large reraise and take down a big pot. The reason it's effective is beause the original raiser probably isn't that strong since he's raising with a lot of hands, and the people calling probably aren't either because they know he's raising a lot. But even better, if the raiser or first caller does have a fairly strong hand, he still has to be worried about the other caller behind him.
"reresteal" this play is pretty rediculous, If you ever saw the TV final table with Scott Fischman and David "devilfish" Ulliot you saw Scott Fischman raise from under the gun, and Devilfish reraised him with 95 offsuit. It got back around to Scott Fischman, and he says "all in" with his 95 offsuit. Devilfish folds and shows, and Fischman shows his hand. A rediculous play, that is actually profitable with just about any two if your opponents will fold to the all in half the time, and the chips are right, but the risk is too great to make unless it's late in the tournament and you're gunning for the win, or you have a very good physical read on your opponents, and the chips are just right. If you think your opponents are "restealing" very often, and will fold when you move in, you can go for the "reresteal". This move should be very very rare, and usually done with a hand that you think might be the best hand, even if you're called. at 30 times the big blind, you make it 3 times the big blind, your opponent makes it 9, and you move all in.
Defending the blinds: Many moves are available from the blinds that aren't available elsewhere, the reason is after the flop you get to act first which allows check raises, and opportunities to be the first to bluff. Several moves are available here and will take advantage of someone that's always trying to pick on your big blind. this will give you more respect and allow you to see more cheap flops by checking, and occasionally people will all fold when it's in your big blind, because they're afraid to mess. All of these moves should be made with big hands, mediocre hands, and if you really need to small hands. The resteal we already covered above.
Stop and go all in. I do this with my monster hands as people expect everyone to be weak when they stop and go it seems. When I have a big hand, I will do it by calling anywhere from 1/4th to 1/5th or even 1/6th or 1/7th my stack. If I have AK, it has to be about 1/4th of my stack or less a little more still works if I can get value out of my ace or king when I hit, and a little more if I think my opponents are capable of folding maybe mid pair top kicker. When I don't have a hand, I have to believe that I will probably have 2 overcards and drawing live, and then I can do it between 1/3rd to 1/4th of my stack. Generally T9, JT or QJ and maybe 98 are decent hands to try this with as I am less likely to be dominated, but still fairly likely that I'll have overcards to the board, and overcards to small pairs, so if I get called I'm still in good shape. An interesting situation is when an opponent minraises my stack as I have the odds to call, but I think my opponents just doing it because I'm shorter stacked. I will often call the bet and if I hit just about any peice of the flop, or as much as a gutshot, I'm shipping it all in. I will generally still want to commit about 1/5th of my chips here to make this move, if I have slightly more chips, I have to hit 2 overcards, or a gutshot with an overcard, and believe this is the best chance to win chips.
Raise and go. This one I much prefer. You either minraise an opponent to appear very strong, and then you shove in on the flop like you got aces and were just trying to get a little more out of it. It especially works in a situation like the one above where your opponent is minraising you but a standard all in regardless of the flop won't work. By reminraising and then shoving, you represent a lot more strength and put the odds in the favor to make the move, so you get enough chips out of it when you win for it to work. You can also do this while making a standard raise as well, and it basically depends on your chips. It's dangerous as your opponent can move in and you usally have very good pot odds. The player must be right. The chips must also be right. I prefer it to be a standard 3 times raise, that my opponent can fold to preflop. The move on the flop will be such that it's similar to the stop and go and my move in is for about whatever the pot size is. I'm most likely to be carrying AK, AQ, or AA, but I might make this against an aggressive opponent if I feel like taking a stand.
"Uppercut" aka The stop and check raise. - I didn't know what else to call this, but this move reminds me of a boxer who lets the punches come to him, and then he dodges and then BAM one uppercut and the tides have turned.
This is for an opponent who will always bet. You have to determine how much he is going to bet in order to decide if you can pull this one off. He should be an opponent who checks a good hand bets a bad hand. It can also be made with the intention of only doing it if your opponent throws out a certain size bet, and he makes predictable betting patterns. This way, if he makes the weak bet, you can raise him, if he makes the bet that he makes when he's strong, you can fold.
Stop, check, turn, and go - If your opponent makes a minbet from late position and you think he's weak, you can call, and check the flop and determine based on what he does if you want to push the turn. Against another opponent who will try to buy the pot preflop but will usually only bet when he has it, afterwards, you can check the flop and shove in on the turn if you have just barely too many chips for stop and go, but too good of pot odds not to call preflop, and your opponent is bet for value check to preserve stack. Where as the stop and call and go is the opposite as they are the bet to bluff check for value type of player. So you call the blind attack, with the intent of checking for information on the flop, and then moving in on the turn. especially usefull if it's maybe not quite right for a stop and go, but oipponent makes minraise, and you don't want to raise and go because he'll probably push with any two, and you don't want to check raise and go, or because your opponent only bets when he has it.
Reraise to the checkraise. -Stop and check raise only with more chips. You make sure to represent strength then they think, maybe you were on the resteal (and maybe you were) so they fire a bet. Now you move all in over the top. This you need to have too many chips for the stop and check raise and go. Maybe blinds are 150/300 and you have 11000. Now they bet 900, you make it 2700 and they call. There's maybe 5500 in the pot. They bet a weak 2000 bet which you think they will make. Now you move in for the 8300 you have in front of you. If your opponents bet the pot weak, then you need more like 13500 to really make your opponent fold some good hands. However, the advantage of this move is, if you have more like 8000, your opponent will still have to consider, that if he folds, and he goes down to 3300 in chips, he still will have plenty of play left. Now A great situation for this is when your opponents are the type to slowplay a good hand by checking, and bet when they're on a bluff or think you are weak. ESPECIALLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT THERE BETS MEAN, AND CAN PUT THEM ON A SMALL RANGE OF HANDS. If you want to do this to get a read, you can essentailly do it when you have a lot of chips and no cards, or not as many chips and good cards, but perhaps second best cards, like AQ, or AK on a flop that missed. This is a move that is great if you want to raelly go for the win later on in a tournament, or put yourself in a position to coast to the final table.
reraise check call and go - This is similar to the one above, except that you instead just call because again, the player might have an ego, and you also give him the chance to think you hit on the turn. Often you migth make this
Reraise check and go - This again is when the opponent is the opposite of the two above. Where you would want to check raise an opponent who bets weak and checks strong, you would want to fold to a bet against an opponent who bets strong checks weak. However, if he checks the flop, you can push the turn, as if you wanted to check raise the flop because you had a real hand, and as if you're afraid your opponent will draw out.
Call down to the river and then push - This play works best in a physical live game where you can spot a players tells. Mike Matusow has used this move before. He sees an opponent put his chips in a certain way, and knows that the player is weak, on the turn, the player continues and makes the same weak play. On the river he does as well, and now Mike rakes in a much larger pot. Moves like this allow Mike to be very patient and really wait for the opportunity to do very well in monstrous fields without having to have all his chips on the line called all in. Online, you would have to really have a player who is predictable who makes predictable betting patterns. Perhaps he bets real small when he's not sure if his hand is good and/or he's on a draw and wants to prevent you from raising. Even then I think you don't want to just call all the way, because the bets aren't large enough. If the player only bets the pot when he's weak it would make more sense.
So if you have 50,000 and your opponent raises 900 and you call in position now he raises 2000, then 6000 then 18000. Now you move in for 33,100, which still is not a lot considering the size of the pot.
Obviously, you need a huge stack. Online tournaments aren't usually deep enough stacked for this, except maybe early against a player who you've played against a lot before. Of course this move can be wehere you shove in on the turn, or out of position on the river, so the pot is less. If you were in the big blind, you call all the bets and move in on the river, you can then have maybe 35000 or so. At the 150/300 level, this just won't really happen often Now if opponent bets 900, then 1000, then 2000 then 4000, and bets half of the pot down, you are not going to need as many chips for these moves. If he bets 1/3rd the pot it'll be 900 then 650, then 1100, then 1800, and you can have much fewer chips, but you'll still need about 11,000 to 12,000 in chips.
minraise your opponent down with the intention of moving in- This can be done all the way down o the river, but usually only will be done on one street like you'll call the flop, minraise the turn move in on the river, or minraise the flop move in on the turn. Sometimes the minraise can gain information. If your opponent checks to you after you minraise, he probably wont call and probably is surrendering. However if he bets again, and it isn't a block bet that's small and trying to prevent you from raising, then you probably can give it up, unles it's an opponent who tends to bet a lot and you have a read on his betting pattern. If someone always minbets a draw down, or makes a 4th the pot sized bet, you can minraise him down to get more out of it when he misses, especially if you are on the same draw, but perhaps a lower flush draw, like you have 45 of hears and you know he probably has a higher draw. You want to charge him for the draw, since he will miss more often than not, but you want to build the pot up, so you can win if his flush doesn't come. Also if the flush does come and you've been doing this, he might check to you on the river, or lead out with another really small bet, and you can call if you think he might act that way with a marginal hand as well.and know he is less likely to hit.
As you get deeper stacked you can do even more advanced plays where you call, check call, check raise the turn, or check call and move on the river, or where you move on a check raise on the river. Then there's the same moves with a preflop raise if you are deeper stacked.
These are all very big moves, that require the opponent, the situation, and the chips to be right. However, pulling off one of these can often put you in excellent position that will allow you to accumulate chips.
You need to create a pot significant to your stack, and your opponents stack, and the move can't be too big of push, but it has to be large enough to matter to your opponents. When players make plays at you, they fully understand they might get played back at, but usually they expect the other person to have a hand. You're not going to wait that long. The best situation is when someone is preventing you from dominating and chopping up the table. Although you could wat and let him do most of the work for you, depending on structure and how many chips this player has, you might not be able to wait that long. Flat calling him down and moving in on the river, flat calling him to bluff turn, minraising him to move on turn, and various moves like that can all work. Always be trying to guess your opponents likelihood to call with a pair, and how often he'll hit a pair, and how big the pot is. If you know your opponent and the odds, there are situations where it's OBVIOUSLY profitable, even if it seems crazy, based on your opponent and the chips. Other situations, you can do the math and find it's actually profitable, when you didn't think it would be. However, you are looking for an obvious edge, just in case your opponent won't fold as often as you think, or has a stronger hand range than you think. Otherwize you can wait until later.
Small blind moves - You can move in with any 2 from the small blind if you or your opponent has an M of 10 or less, provided your opponents calling range is any pair, any broadway, and ace, or tighter..
With 2.5-4.5 big blinds, your best move at the small blind when folded to is to complete the limp and shove the flop regardless. against an aggressive opponent when the shorter stack between the two of you has 22 times the big blind when antes are in, you can raise 2-2.5 times the big blind, get reraised to 7.5, and move all in on the reresteal. with an 30 times the big blind, you can raise to 3, get reraised to 9 and move all in on the reresteal. Your opponent should fold a third of the time or more, and you should be 35% to win or more for it to work. If you have nearly 40 times the big blind raise to 4 times get reraised to 12, and move in.
You can do min raise and go with 10 times big blind or so, but if you're reraised all in, you can maybe dump it and wait until later and move all in.
You can limp then call a raise and do a stop and go, or you can raise and stop and go to a reraise if you are in early position. You can also limpraise and go all in if your'e just called, or limp raise all in.
Also, you can move in from the button with any hand with an M of 5 (or both opponents having M of 5) or less if your opponents calling range is the same (any pair, any broadway, any ace) (ignording siotuations when they both call). You can also reresteal from the button, middle, or early position, or even the small blind.
If you bet 1/5th your stack, or your opponents (whoevers' short, and your opponent checks, you can make a judgement call, but usually you can move all in here. Your opponent checking top pair isn't likely, especially if the flop comes 9 high. And calling an overbet isn't likely either. This move is exploitable, but should be profitable. And if they try to exploit it, you simply check behind get a freecard, hit, and they trap themselves. I like to shove all in big, and then show it, and I find it makes my small bets more effective, and my checking to induce a bluff more profitable as well.
Even though I give situations where YOU have a certain amount of big blinds, and assume that your opponents have the same or more, it also works if your opponents have that many times the big blind, and you have a lot more. I hardly ever like to have less chips if I'm making a move, and you probably shouldn't either... although sometimes I may occasionally have to. It's simple reasoning really. Even if I'm expected to gain more chips on one given move, it's not a cashgame where I can rebuy. If I consistantly go up against bigger stacks making these moves I'm going to win a lot, and then get caught once and all the chip accumulation will mean nothing. Which is why I love to let people bluff me if I have a lot more chips. I often tell them I folded a better hand than I did, to encourage them to do it again. They'll probably pull it off vs someone else too. Now I just catch them once, and it's all over and I get all my chips back that they bluffed me out of, and THEN some. Why does it matter if I fold to an all in if I was a 75% favorite, if I get my money in later, and get more out of it the next time, and this time I'm a 92% favorite?
But if I have more chips, I pull off one move, and they aren't going to have the chips to do much, and I'll be able to attack them from then on. Even if they win, again, I can pick up a hand, they can think I'm bluffing again, and I get all of my chips back and then some... I consider it like a loan where I get all of my chips back, plus interest, directly or indirectly. I'll make loose calls, raises and moves from the big blind when I don't have the pot odds, but when I have a lot of chip leverage, simply because I don't want people messing with my big blind, or coming over the top of me on a bluff. If they think I'm a gambler, they'll be afraid of me. And plus, if I keep a bad player in the game for longer, and he manages to get more chips, odds are he won't survive multiple all ins against me, and odds are, I'll be a big favorite the next time..
Usually when I make a move, I like to have enough chips where I still have the chips where I'd be able to make that move again, should the move fail. Should I get called and my opponent wins, I should still have enough chips to do that move without risking my entire stack. I should still ahve enough chips to have the flexibility to play big pot, small pot, medium pot poker, and to make al the moves I need to.
Every single move, you can potentially make blind if you know what your opponent will call with, what his range of hands is, and about how much he'll bet, and you know that it's profitable. And if the move is extremely profitable, you do not have to be very accurate in your estimations, and there is a lot more room for error. Of course, if you're using your chipstack to make players have a decision for all of there chips, with nothing they're going to give you walks in the big blind more, they're going to give you action when you have big hands more, and they're also going to give you free flops and cheap flops as they'll be less likely to want to raise you for fear you might put them in a difficult decision. Then you get a player who has jacks just call, especially if you've been playing tight with the occasional move, and then a king comes on the flop and he's scared. Meanwhile, you are on a draw and you manage to hit because your opponent is waiting to check-raise you.
Use big moves to your advantage, especially when you have a commanding chip lead in the middle stages, or you want to acquire the chip lead in the later stages to go for the win and you have most of your table outchipped. Also, when you are incapable of winning small pots, and the blinds are too big and structure too fast to catch a hand and get paid off with a monster hand, by making a big move when the timing is right, you will find you have a much greater possibility of having enough chips to be around long enough to catch a monster hand.
There are many many moves. Personally I like to take a stand. I love it when someone loves to bluff all the way down, but is tight enough to fold. I know that he'll hit a pair or better with 2 unpaired cards over 50% of the time. However, so will I, and he can't just call with a pair. So I let him bluff himself down until the river. I will check raise him all in if I can get away with it on the river, otherwize I'll be the first one in and I'll move in, or I'll move in over the top if I'm in position. It should never be for more than double the pot,. I will most definately do this same sequence with a hand, and will rarely make this move. It's especially useful against a blind stealer.
There's tons of big moves, but I love making moves from the big or small blind against an aggressive opponent.
Of course there's still the standard moves that are not big which you want to do first. Before deciding to do the big moves, make sure you can't accompluish the following first:
:
Blind steal - After it folds to you in late position, you bet with the intention of stealing the blinds. Typically you want to only have to risk 3 times the big blind, to win the pot, but you sometimes need to do more like 4 for it to work. This works best when the antes are involved, as you only need to win close to 1/2 regardless of what happens after the flop for it to be a good bet. Even if it doesn't work, if your opponents just call, you will have position after the flop.
"limp steal"- When the blind steal doesn't work because players in late position limp in hoping to see a flop, you can make a larger raise. Standard amount
"small ball"- This requires more skill. I'm sure there's other words for this, but basically instead of trying to steal with a 3 times raise, you are enticing your opponent to call with a 2.5 times the big blind, or even 2 times. On the button you may even limp in. You do this because you will get your opponent in unconfortable situations where he doesn't know what to do. If your opponent has any 2 cards in the big blind, he technically should call with any 2 to a raise as small as a minimum bet. But if he has 48 and he hits an 8 on a KJ8 board and all you have is 45 of hearts, is he going to bet? is he going to call? If he check calls and you pick up a flush draw on the turn, you simply give up and check, and if you hit maybe an 8 of hearts on the river and your opponent pays you off. Ideally you want to intice them to call, and simply make a half pot sized bet on the flop and take it down more often than not.
Position play -One of the good things about the blind steal or limp steal or the "small ball" is that if it doesn't work, you have position on your opponents and can win more after the flop. So if you hit your hand, and they hit there hand, they will give off the information, and you can lose less. If they hit and you miss, you can fold without risking a bet to see where you're at. If you hit and they miss, you can either check or bet small to keep them in, or just be content with taking the pot down so they don't draw out. If you both miss, they will often check and you can still take it down. Not all players play like this, but you can note the ones that don't and outplay them after the flop.
"continuation bet" - If you make a bet with a hand like AK, or maybe even a pair of 8s or higher and you miss the flop, you should occasionally bet anyways, since it's likely your opponent also missed the flop. You should not always do this, or your opponents can start check raising you, or reraising you but do it every now and then. You have taken control of the betting before the flop, so act as if you have aces, or as if the flop hit and improved your hand. Now you might get your opponent to fold a pair of 99s when you have 88 or AK on a QT2 flop. You also will be more likely to get action later on a flop where you do hit your ace or king when your opponent maybe has jacks.
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Here are some Bigger moves:
"resteal" - when the table is full of raises, and steals, and you don't have the opportunty to steal, you need to identify the loose players that are raising a lot and taking down the small pots and using the strategies above. Now is where you multiply there raise by about 3, and try to take it down before the flop. The thing about the resteal is you can let someone do all the stealing for you, and meanwhile develop a tight image, and then simply collect on one steal. This can be done from the big blind, the small blind, the button, or sometimes on the cutoff.
"squeeze play" - So you can't even resteal because there are people calling the raiser? GO for the squeeze play. If it goes raise call, or raise call call, you make a large reraise and take down a big pot. The reason it's effective is beause the original raiser probably isn't that strong since he's raising with a lot of hands, and the people calling probably aren't either because they know he's raising a lot. But even better, if the raiser or first caller does have a fairly strong hand, he still has to be worried about the other caller behind him.
"reresteal" this play is pretty rediculous, If you ever saw the TV final table with Scott Fischman and David "devilfish" Ulliot you saw Scott Fischman raise from under the gun, and Devilfish reraised him with 95 offsuit. It got back around to Scott Fischman, and he says "all in" with his 95 offsuit. Devilfish folds and shows, and Fischman shows his hand. A rediculous play, that is actually profitable with just about any two if your opponents will fold to the all in half the time, and the chips are right, but the risk is too great to make unless it's late in the tournament and you're gunning for the win, or you have a very good physical read on your opponents, and the chips are just right. If you think your opponents are "restealing" very often, and will fold when you move in, you can go for the "reresteal". This move should be very very rare, and usually done with a hand that you think might be the best hand, even if you're called. at 30 times the big blind, you make it 3 times the big blind, your opponent makes it 9, and you move all in.
Defending the blinds: Many moves are available from the blinds that aren't available elsewhere, the reason is after the flop you get to act first which allows check raises, and opportunities to be the first to bluff. Several moves are available here and will take advantage of someone that's always trying to pick on your big blind. this will give you more respect and allow you to see more cheap flops by checking, and occasionally people will all fold when it's in your big blind, because they're afraid to mess. All of these moves should be made with big hands, mediocre hands, and if you really need to small hands. The resteal we already covered above.
Stop and go all in. I do this with my monster hands as people expect everyone to be weak when they stop and go it seems. When I have a big hand, I will do it by calling anywhere from 1/4th to 1/5th or even 1/6th or 1/7th my stack. If I have AK, it has to be about 1/4th of my stack or less a little more still works if I can get value out of my ace or king when I hit, and a little more if I think my opponents are capable of folding maybe mid pair top kicker. When I don't have a hand, I have to believe that I will probably have 2 overcards and drawing live, and then I can do it between 1/3rd to 1/4th of my stack. Generally T9, JT or QJ and maybe 98 are decent hands to try this with as I am less likely to be dominated, but still fairly likely that I'll have overcards to the board, and overcards to small pairs, so if I get called I'm still in good shape. An interesting situation is when an opponent minraises my stack as I have the odds to call, but I think my opponents just doing it because I'm shorter stacked. I will often call the bet and if I hit just about any peice of the flop, or as much as a gutshot, I'm shipping it all in. I will generally still want to commit about 1/5th of my chips here to make this move, if I have slightly more chips, I have to hit 2 overcards, or a gutshot with an overcard, and believe this is the best chance to win chips.
Raise and go. This one I much prefer. You either minraise an opponent to appear very strong, and then you shove in on the flop like you got aces and were just trying to get a little more out of it. It especially works in a situation like the one above where your opponent is minraising you but a standard all in regardless of the flop won't work. By reminraising and then shoving, you represent a lot more strength and put the odds in the favor to make the move, so you get enough chips out of it when you win for it to work. You can also do this while making a standard raise as well, and it basically depends on your chips. It's dangerous as your opponent can move in and you usally have very good pot odds. The player must be right. The chips must also be right. I prefer it to be a standard 3 times raise, that my opponent can fold to preflop. The move on the flop will be such that it's similar to the stop and go and my move in is for about whatever the pot size is. I'm most likely to be carrying AK, AQ, or AA, but I might make this against an aggressive opponent if I feel like taking a stand.
"Uppercut" aka The stop and check raise. - I didn't know what else to call this, but this move reminds me of a boxer who lets the punches come to him, and then he dodges and then BAM one uppercut and the tides have turned.
This is for an opponent who will always bet. You have to determine how much he is going to bet in order to decide if you can pull this one off. He should be an opponent who checks a good hand bets a bad hand. It can also be made with the intention of only doing it if your opponent throws out a certain size bet, and he makes predictable betting patterns. This way, if he makes the weak bet, you can raise him, if he makes the bet that he makes when he's strong, you can fold.
This move is where you call the raise like your opponent has you on the ropes, you check and leave open what he thinks is a free shot, then he takes it, and you block his punch and you reraise and hit him with the metaphorical uppercut, and he's out of there. Like the stop and go, this has an all in version, but would be more likely to happen when you're in the situation with maybe blinds 150/300, and you have maybe 4500 in chips, and your opponent makes the standard 3 times big blind for 900 assuming you expect him to bet maybe 2/3rds or the full pot a large percentage of the time. If you expect him to bet half the pot or one third, you don't have to have as much, and can have more like 3500 or so in the above situation. Now AQ is still an excellent example of a hand you don' want to reraise with here, because if your opponent has AK, you will be pot committed if he goes over the top, and if you use the "uppercut" you have a chance to bluff him off if you both miss, and he won't have the odds to call with 2, and potentially only 1 overcard, and potentially those outs may not be live. If your opponent has a small pair high cards will scare him, especially when you check raise, and you certainly don't want to have to move in and race for all your chips by reraising. But most importantly, if he has a hand like A7, you don't want to reraise him because he'll probably fold, and you can get a lot more out of it. By just calling, you can make him think you're weak and induce him to bluff on the flop, then turn it around on him, and he says "whoa, I guess he's not weak.
The stop, and stop, and go (also called the stop checkcall and go, or stop and wait and go). - I need a nickname for this one as well, I guess for now I'll call it the "delayed uppercut" to keep with the same reference. This move is for when you have too many chips for the stop and go, but maybe enough for the "uppercut", and you expect your aopponent to continue, when he's weak, however, he's loose enough to defensively call you with a pair of 2's or AK or AQ or AJ, and maybe you have AT. You also expect him to call a check raise, but if the turn card comes you expect him to fold. This actually happens in a lot of cases. The reason is, because people automatically call a checkraise, because they don't want to admit they're wrong, and sometimes they think you're making a move. In their mind they say "he's got nothing, so they bet, and because they already took that position, they don't stop to think what the bet represents, and they instacall soo they can whine about how unlucky they are, or so they can say what a great play they made if they win the hand. But if another card peels off, the player then has to think about it, and it isn't a defensive call to protect theirego any more. This move also works if you plan the stop and go check raise, but your opponent ends up betting more than you anticipate, or if you don't have quite enough chips for the "uppercut" but a raise and go will put you in a coinflip at best. So if you have 15X the big blind preflop, you might be able to pull this move off. Call preflop, call on the flop, and push all in on the turn. Then show the bluff and say "dont mess with my big blind" in order to gain respect, and get action when you do have a hand and make this same move. Then if you hit a big hand on your big blind, you can type in "don't mess with my big blind" AGAIN and move in.
Stop, check, turn, and go - If your opponent makes a minbet from late position and you think he's weak, you can call, and check the flop and determine based on what he does if you want to push the turn. Against another opponent who will try to buy the pot preflop but will usually only bet when he has it, afterwards, you can check the flop and shove in on the turn if you have just barely too many chips for stop and go, but too good of pot odds not to call preflop, and your opponent is bet for value check to preserve stack. Where as the stop and call and go is the opposite as they are the bet to bluff check for value type of player. So you call the blind attack, with the intent of checking for information on the flop, and then moving in on the turn. especially usefull if it's maybe not quite right for a stop and go, but oipponent makes minraise, and you don't want to raise and go because he'll probably push with any two, and you don't want to check raise and go, or because your opponent only bets when he has it.
Reraise to the checkraise. -Stop and check raise only with more chips. You make sure to represent strength then they think, maybe you were on the resteal (and maybe you were) so they fire a bet. Now you move all in over the top. This you need to have too many chips for the stop and check raise and go. Maybe blinds are 150/300 and you have 11000. Now they bet 900, you make it 2700 and they call. There's maybe 5500 in the pot. They bet a weak 2000 bet which you think they will make. Now you move in for the 8300 you have in front of you. If your opponents bet the pot weak, then you need more like 13500 to really make your opponent fold some good hands. However, the advantage of this move is, if you have more like 8000, your opponent will still have to consider, that if he folds, and he goes down to 3300 in chips, he still will have plenty of play left. Now A great situation for this is when your opponents are the type to slowplay a good hand by checking, and bet when they're on a bluff or think you are weak. ESPECIALLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT THERE BETS MEAN, AND CAN PUT THEM ON A SMALL RANGE OF HANDS. If you want to do this to get a read, you can essentailly do it when you have a lot of chips and no cards, or not as many chips and good cards, but perhaps second best cards, like AQ, or AK on a flop that missed. This is a move that is great if you want to raelly go for the win later on in a tournament, or put yourself in a position to coast to the final table.
reraise check call and go - This is similar to the one above, except that you instead just call because again, the player might have an ego, and you also give him the chance to think you hit on the turn. Often you migth make this
Reraise check and go - This again is when the opponent is the opposite of the two above. Where you would want to check raise an opponent who bets weak and checks strong, you would want to fold to a bet against an opponent who bets strong checks weak. However, if he checks the flop, you can push the turn, as if you wanted to check raise the flop because you had a real hand, and as if you're afraid your opponent will draw out.
Call down to the river and then push - This play works best in a physical live game where you can spot a players tells. Mike Matusow has used this move before. He sees an opponent put his chips in a certain way, and knows that the player is weak, on the turn, the player continues and makes the same weak play. On the river he does as well, and now Mike rakes in a much larger pot. Moves like this allow Mike to be very patient and really wait for the opportunity to do very well in monstrous fields without having to have all his chips on the line called all in. Online, you would have to really have a player who is predictable who makes predictable betting patterns. Perhaps he bets real small when he's not sure if his hand is good and/or he's on a draw and wants to prevent you from raising. Even then I think you don't want to just call all the way, because the bets aren't large enough. If the player only bets the pot when he's weak it would make more sense.
So if you have 50,000 and your opponent raises 900 and you call in position now he raises 2000, then 6000 then 18000. Now you move in for 33,100, which still is not a lot considering the size of the pot.
Obviously, you need a huge stack. Online tournaments aren't usually deep enough stacked for this, except maybe early against a player who you've played against a lot before. Of course this move can be wehere you shove in on the turn, or out of position on the river, so the pot is less. If you were in the big blind, you call all the bets and move in on the river, you can then have maybe 35000 or so. At the 150/300 level, this just won't really happen often Now if opponent bets 900, then 1000, then 2000 then 4000, and bets half of the pot down, you are not going to need as many chips for these moves. If he bets 1/3rd the pot it'll be 900 then 650, then 1100, then 1800, and you can have much fewer chips, but you'll still need about 11,000 to 12,000 in chips.
minraise your opponent down with the intention of moving in- This can be done all the way down o the river, but usually only will be done on one street like you'll call the flop, minraise the turn move in on the river, or minraise the flop move in on the turn. Sometimes the minraise can gain information. If your opponent checks to you after you minraise, he probably wont call and probably is surrendering. However if he bets again, and it isn't a block bet that's small and trying to prevent you from raising, then you probably can give it up, unles it's an opponent who tends to bet a lot and you have a read on his betting pattern. If someone always minbets a draw down, or makes a 4th the pot sized bet, you can minraise him down to get more out of it when he misses, especially if you are on the same draw, but perhaps a lower flush draw, like you have 45 of hears and you know he probably has a higher draw. You want to charge him for the draw, since he will miss more often than not, but you want to build the pot up, so you can win if his flush doesn't come. Also if the flush does come and you've been doing this, he might check to you on the river, or lead out with another really small bet, and you can call if you think he might act that way with a marginal hand as well.and know he is less likely to hit.
As you get deeper stacked you can do even more advanced plays where you call, check call, check raise the turn, or check call and move on the river, or where you move on a check raise on the river. Then there's the same moves with a preflop raise if you are deeper stacked.
These are all very big moves, that require the opponent, the situation, and the chips to be right. However, pulling off one of these can often put you in excellent position that will allow you to accumulate chips.
You need to create a pot significant to your stack, and your opponents stack, and the move can't be too big of push, but it has to be large enough to matter to your opponents. When players make plays at you, they fully understand they might get played back at, but usually they expect the other person to have a hand. You're not going to wait that long. The best situation is when someone is preventing you from dominating and chopping up the table. Although you could wat and let him do most of the work for you, depending on structure and how many chips this player has, you might not be able to wait that long. Flat calling him down and moving in on the river, flat calling him to bluff turn, minraising him to move on turn, and various moves like that can all work. Always be trying to guess your opponents likelihood to call with a pair, and how often he'll hit a pair, and how big the pot is. If you know your opponent and the odds, there are situations where it's OBVIOUSLY profitable, even if it seems crazy, based on your opponent and the chips. Other situations, you can do the math and find it's actually profitable, when you didn't think it would be. However, you are looking for an obvious edge, just in case your opponent won't fold as often as you think, or has a stronger hand range than you think. Otherwize you can wait until later.
Small blind moves - You can move in with any 2 from the small blind if you or your opponent has an M of 10 or less, provided your opponents calling range is any pair, any broadway, and ace, or tighter..
With 2.5-4.5 big blinds, your best move at the small blind when folded to is to complete the limp and shove the flop regardless. against an aggressive opponent when the shorter stack between the two of you has 22 times the big blind when antes are in, you can raise 2-2.5 times the big blind, get reraised to 7.5, and move all in on the reresteal. with an 30 times the big blind, you can raise to 3, get reraised to 9 and move all in on the reresteal. Your opponent should fold a third of the time or more, and you should be 35% to win or more for it to work. If you have nearly 40 times the big blind raise to 4 times get reraised to 12, and move in.
You can do min raise and go with 10 times big blind or so, but if you're reraised all in, you can maybe dump it and wait until later and move all in.
You can limp then call a raise and do a stop and go, or you can raise and stop and go to a reraise if you are in early position. You can also limpraise and go all in if your'e just called, or limp raise all in.
Also, you can move in from the button with any hand with an M of 5 (or both opponents having M of 5) or less if your opponents calling range is the same (any pair, any broadway, any ace) (ignording siotuations when they both call). You can also reresteal from the button, middle, or early position, or even the small blind.
If you bet 1/5th your stack, or your opponents (whoevers' short, and your opponent checks, you can make a judgement call, but usually you can move all in here. Your opponent checking top pair isn't likely, especially if the flop comes 9 high. And calling an overbet isn't likely either. This move is exploitable, but should be profitable. And if they try to exploit it, you simply check behind get a freecard, hit, and they trap themselves. I like to shove all in big, and then show it, and I find it makes my small bets more effective, and my checking to induce a bluff more profitable as well.
Even though I give situations where YOU have a certain amount of big blinds, and assume that your opponents have the same or more, it also works if your opponents have that many times the big blind, and you have a lot more. I hardly ever like to have less chips if I'm making a move, and you probably shouldn't either... although sometimes I may occasionally have to. It's simple reasoning really. Even if I'm expected to gain more chips on one given move, it's not a cashgame where I can rebuy. If I consistantly go up against bigger stacks making these moves I'm going to win a lot, and then get caught once and all the chip accumulation will mean nothing. Which is why I love to let people bluff me if I have a lot more chips. I often tell them I folded a better hand than I did, to encourage them to do it again. They'll probably pull it off vs someone else too. Now I just catch them once, and it's all over and I get all my chips back that they bluffed me out of, and THEN some. Why does it matter if I fold to an all in if I was a 75% favorite, if I get my money in later, and get more out of it the next time, and this time I'm a 92% favorite?
But if I have more chips, I pull off one move, and they aren't going to have the chips to do much, and I'll be able to attack them from then on. Even if they win, again, I can pick up a hand, they can think I'm bluffing again, and I get all of my chips back and then some... I consider it like a loan where I get all of my chips back, plus interest, directly or indirectly. I'll make loose calls, raises and moves from the big blind when I don't have the pot odds, but when I have a lot of chip leverage, simply because I don't want people messing with my big blind, or coming over the top of me on a bluff. If they think I'm a gambler, they'll be afraid of me. And plus, if I keep a bad player in the game for longer, and he manages to get more chips, odds are he won't survive multiple all ins against me, and odds are, I'll be a big favorite the next time..
Usually when I make a move, I like to have enough chips where I still have the chips where I'd be able to make that move again, should the move fail. Should I get called and my opponent wins, I should still have enough chips to do that move without risking my entire stack. I should still ahve enough chips to have the flexibility to play big pot, small pot, medium pot poker, and to make al the moves I need to.
Every single move, you can potentially make blind if you know what your opponent will call with, what his range of hands is, and about how much he'll bet, and you know that it's profitable. And if the move is extremely profitable, you do not have to be very accurate in your estimations, and there is a lot more room for error. Of course, if you're using your chipstack to make players have a decision for all of there chips, with nothing they're going to give you walks in the big blind more, they're going to give you action when you have big hands more, and they're also going to give you free flops and cheap flops as they'll be less likely to want to raise you for fear you might put them in a difficult decision. Then you get a player who has jacks just call, especially if you've been playing tight with the occasional move, and then a king comes on the flop and he's scared. Meanwhile, you are on a draw and you manage to hit because your opponent is waiting to check-raise you.
Use big moves to your advantage, especially when you have a commanding chip lead in the middle stages, or you want to acquire the chip lead in the later stages to go for the win and you have most of your table outchipped. Also, when you are incapable of winning small pots, and the blinds are too big and structure too fast to catch a hand and get paid off with a monster hand, by making a big move when the timing is right, you will find you have a much greater possibility of having enough chips to be around long enough to catch a monster hand.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Under Betting the pot
In the last post, I gave some arguments for overbetting the pot. I have recently developed the idea that in a lot of situations making a big overbet will give you the information to preserve your stack, and is occasionally neccesary.
Similarly, here are some reasons for betting less than the pot:
1) I can preserve my stack in tournaments, allowing me the flexibility to take on bad beats, and still survive.
2) I can often gain more information with probe bets to find out if my opponent is likely to raise me.
3), I can give my opponent more room to make huge mistakes against me later on if they overbet the hand
4) I can keep my opponents in on hands to either bluff them out later, or to pay me off when I have a big hand
5)I can deceive my opponents into thinking I want action. If the flop is K38 all different suits the board looks pretty "dry", if I make a small bet, after my opponent decidedd to check, I can often make a timid player that has a hand like QQ or JJ fold, simply because a bet doesn't really make sense there unless I have a king, a set, or aces
6)I can annoy opponents and put them on tilt.
7) By Betting more often, I can make people think I'm more of a maniac than I really am.
8)I can put my opponents in situations where they don't know what to do, and as a result they're likely to make huge mistakes. - By making a small bet preflop followed up by a small bet on the flop, often times I can get opponents, who normally cfold, feel compelled to call with poor cards, because of the small bet. As a result, I can also get them calling on the flop, and when they hit there hand they won't know whether or not it's good. Often times, this can turn a tight aggressive opponent into a loose calling station. Lets say I have KQ and make a minraise preflop. My opponent feels like he has to call with K8s. The flop comes 723 and my opponents has the odds to call thinking he has 2 overcards. The king comes on the turn, and my opponent is used to being aggressive and playing big pots, so at this opint he assumes his king is good. He checkraises me and I call to induce another bet. He leads out again on the river, and I hit a queen, so I reraise him and he calls. I rake in a huge pot, simply because my opponent isn't accustomed to playing small pots.
9)I can make more bluffs, more often, and still be just as effective. - By betting half the pot, I only need to win 1/3 to be profitable regardless of my chances of actually winning the hand. That means a half sized pot bet on the flop and turn risks the same amount as a potsized bet on the flop, but sometimes two bets are more effective
10)Sometimes smaller bets give off more information. - I give my opponent the chance to go over the top and reraise where he might have just called. By doig so, I can let him win a few times, and then when I have a hand, lead out small again and get paid off. If he thinks my small bet is weak, I can just call and lead out small again, and continue this until the river, where I will decide if I want to move all of my chips in or not.
Making small bets, as well as bet bets is a part of the game. If you can implement the strategy of switching between small pots and big pots at the right periods of time, you can really confuse your opponents, and put them in a difficult situations. You can set up good players that look for tendancies to exploit, and you can end up taking all of their chips.
You can get opponents to call all their chips drawing dead by playing small pots and being patient and chopping away with small bets against opponents who can't fold top pair.
You can force opponents to take a stand and force them to commit a lot of chips and until then take lots of pots. By acting "out of character" you can convince the bolder players that you're bluffing so they go over the top, you can get the conservative players to think you have a hand and convince them that you
Similarly, here are some reasons for betting less than the pot:
1) I can preserve my stack in tournaments, allowing me the flexibility to take on bad beats, and still survive.
2) I can often gain more information with probe bets to find out if my opponent is likely to raise me.
3), I can give my opponent more room to make huge mistakes against me later on if they overbet the hand
4) I can keep my opponents in on hands to either bluff them out later, or to pay me off when I have a big hand
5)I can deceive my opponents into thinking I want action. If the flop is K38 all different suits the board looks pretty "dry", if I make a small bet, after my opponent decidedd to check, I can often make a timid player that has a hand like QQ or JJ fold, simply because a bet doesn't really make sense there unless I have a king, a set, or aces
6)I can annoy opponents and put them on tilt.
7) By Betting more often, I can make people think I'm more of a maniac than I really am.
8)I can put my opponents in situations where they don't know what to do, and as a result they're likely to make huge mistakes. - By making a small bet preflop followed up by a small bet on the flop, often times I can get opponents, who normally cfold, feel compelled to call with poor cards, because of the small bet. As a result, I can also get them calling on the flop, and when they hit there hand they won't know whether or not it's good. Often times, this can turn a tight aggressive opponent into a loose calling station. Lets say I have KQ and make a minraise preflop. My opponent feels like he has to call with K8s. The flop comes 723 and my opponents has the odds to call thinking he has 2 overcards. The king comes on the turn, and my opponent is used to being aggressive and playing big pots, so at this opint he assumes his king is good. He checkraises me and I call to induce another bet. He leads out again on the river, and I hit a queen, so I reraise him and he calls. I rake in a huge pot, simply because my opponent isn't accustomed to playing small pots.
9)I can make more bluffs, more often, and still be just as effective. - By betting half the pot, I only need to win 1/3 to be profitable regardless of my chances of actually winning the hand. That means a half sized pot bet on the flop and turn risks the same amount as a potsized bet on the flop, but sometimes two bets are more effective
10)Sometimes smaller bets give off more information. - I give my opponent the chance to go over the top and reraise where he might have just called. By doig so, I can let him win a few times, and then when I have a hand, lead out small again and get paid off. If he thinks my small bet is weak, I can just call and lead out small again, and continue this until the river, where I will decide if I want to move all of my chips in or not.
Making small bets, as well as bet bets is a part of the game. If you can implement the strategy of switching between small pots and big pots at the right periods of time, you can really confuse your opponents, and put them in a difficult situations. You can set up good players that look for tendancies to exploit, and you can end up taking all of their chips.
You can get opponents to call all their chips drawing dead by playing small pots and being patient and chopping away with small bets against opponents who can't fold top pair.
You can force opponents to take a stand and force them to commit a lot of chips and until then take lots of pots. By acting "out of character" you can convince the bolder players that you're bluffing so they go over the top, you can get the conservative players to think you have a hand and convince them that you
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Overbetting the pot
Occasionally I like to overbet the pot. Usually I only will do about 20% larger than the potsize, another way to say it is a 6/5ths pot bet. There are many reasons for doing this.
1) If my opponents are uncertain if there hand is good, when they have the best hand they'll fold. By overbetting the pot, I can get them to fold. If out of 100 times, I can get my opponents to fold 60 out of 100 or more, I'm making more than I'm losing with this strategy, even if I have a 0% chance of winning if I'm called or raised and have to fold.
2)Throwing in a large bet as opposed to always betting small, makes opponents second guess bets. When opopnents try to guess what bets mean, when tehy don't necesarily mean anything, you generally will have an advantage in the long run.
3) I can se opponents up - If I do a large bet and I win a pot or two, and do it again and they go over the top, then I can fold and show that the bet is weak. The next time I have a big hand, I will bet big, and they'll go over the top, and my opponents are trapped.
4) I can make my opponents pot committed easier. In the last example, my opponent saw my hand as weakness, and decided to go over the top. Going over the top of a large bet, requires more chips. In doing so, I can move in over the top, and make my opponent feel pot committed, and I can double up, when my opponent doesn't have a chance at winning the hand.
5) I can get a read on my opponent - By making an overbet, I can often rule out hands that I normally wouldn't be able to rule out.
6)I can make a more accurate decision on the turn - After my opponent ccalls an overbet, From then on, I can determine how much to bet in the future, based on the strength of my hand in comparrison to the strength of what I think my opponents holding.
7)I can set myself up for bluffs with very small bets and make my opponents think they are strong, when they are weak- When my opponents are likely to think my large bets represent weakness, they will assume that my small bets represent strength. Therefore, I can make smaller bets without much of a hand, and can win pots with small bluffs, and improve the risk/reward overall, even if I had to give up an edge when making the large bets to do so.
8) I can set my opponents up to think that my small bets are weak when they are strong - I can't accomplish both 7 and 8 at once, unless refering to 2 different players, and I know how they reactt, however if I am called down and forced to turn over a monster hand, or If I continue with my aggression and I believe my opponents think my large bets represent strength, when I do hit a big hand again, this time, I can lead out with small bets against an active note taker who looks at betting patterns and goes after weakness. Then I can let him go over the top of me, and call, and lead out on the turn, and call his raise, and either lead out small again, or check the river, and then raise him all in on the river.
9) Against novices, I can set them up for an even larger overbet when I hit a monster - Say I overbet the pot and half to fold, which I'm okay with doing as long as I take down about 60% of the pots with this bet, or more, especially if I can use the overbet to set myself up for later. Now you can type in something like "oops" and fold. The next time you're in a pot against an amature and you just flopped a set, you can often times bet 5 times the pot, or just move all in, and get action. Your opponent will likely take the bet to mean you're on tilt, and/or you/ve realized your bluffs didn't work, so you decided to bet a lot more. Pros might even think you're an amature who uses this reasoning. Now they call or move in on you, and you win a MONSTER pot.
I can get him to lay down the better hand, I can fold a stronger hand on the turn or river that normally I would feel might be good, but because I overbet, I got more information, and was able to sacve more money overall. I can also save money when my opponents suckout on me. If I have aces against a tight player, I might make it 5/4ths or 6/5ths of the pot on a K76 flop. If my opponent calls, and he isn't a tricky player other than the fact he might just call down the best hand rather than raise, I can probably put him on AK here. If I bet less, like half the pot and he calls, he could have A7 or 89. The other hands he might have if I make a small bet include QQ JJ TT 99 and 8, especially if he thinks I am going to continue to keep the pot small like I usually do. Regardless of the betsize, he could also have a set of 6s, a set of 7s, a set of kings, or potentially even 67 if he has position on me, or if he likes to see a cheap flop and I didn't make it too expensive preflop. If the turn comes a king,, if I had bet small, I would take this as evidence that he's less likely to have a king, because he just called a small bet, and didn't raise, and there's one less king in the deck that he could have. However, I would have to be very concerned. If I overbet the pot, The only hand I now have beat is 67. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who underbet the pot and bet half the pot. Do you put in more chips to make sure tyou charge 89 out of the hand? Do you check it down in case he has a king? you are most likely going to be making a mistake if you make the small bet in this situation. However, a large bet, a call against this player will mean one thing. I'm strong here. Now if the king comes on the turn and your opponent checks, you can make a decision to make a small bet on the turn and fold to a raise, and if you get the chance check behind on the river, but if your opponent bets fold. Or you can check the turn and call the river or check if you get the chance. Or you can make the play to check the turn, and fold the river. In any case, you are probably going to save more money this way, than if you had bet half the pot on the flop. Also, if a king doesn't come on the turn, you are able to bet more, or check and wait to bet on the river and/or induce a bluff. By checking the turn, you only give your opponent a chance at a 5 outer if he has just a pair of kings with a queen kicker or lower, and a 2 outer if he has AK, But if he fires out on the river, you can make a decision, and if you think there's a good chance you're beat you can just call. By checking the turn, you could likely induce your opponent to bluff, and you could also keep the pot reasonably small if your opponent happens to have a set. If your opponent checks the river, it is very unlikely that he has a big hand, unles he has a good reason to believe you will bet the river, which is unlikely, so at that point, you can assume he's worried about you having him beat, and/or is trying to induce you to bluff. Now you can fire out as big of a bet that you think he'll call, and he'l be forced to pay you off with a king. If you get dealt a bad beat on the turn or river, and are unable to recognize it, then it's fine, because if your opponent is playing poorly, and if he doesn't ahve one of the hands mentioned before, then he will lose a lot more money to you, provided when he hits he doesn't bet insanely large, and you call with a worse hand. If he overbets the pot and it is out of character for him to bluff or volentarily put a chip in the pot without a big hand, you can probably assume he has a set, and actually get away from thehand. Of course, this is a luxery that you can not say the same thing about a loose unpredictable player.
If you want to dominate tournaments, you need to occasionally overbet the pot so you have unpredictability to you. It will be effective in different situations where a small bet would not, and in the future, it will increase the effectiveness of small ball, as people aren't able to know where they're at, especially when they're out of position.
Learn to add in the occasional overbet, and use it when you can do it without risking a significant amount of your total stack, and without jepodizing a your tournament life, and you will find yourself dominating more tournaments.
1) If my opponents are uncertain if there hand is good, when they have the best hand they'll fold. By overbetting the pot, I can get them to fold. If out of 100 times, I can get my opponents to fold 60 out of 100 or more, I'm making more than I'm losing with this strategy, even if I have a 0% chance of winning if I'm called or raised and have to fold.
2)Throwing in a large bet as opposed to always betting small, makes opponents second guess bets. When opopnents try to guess what bets mean, when tehy don't necesarily mean anything, you generally will have an advantage in the long run.
3) I can se opponents up - If I do a large bet and I win a pot or two, and do it again and they go over the top, then I can fold and show that the bet is weak. The next time I have a big hand, I will bet big, and they'll go over the top, and my opponents are trapped.
4) I can make my opponents pot committed easier. In the last example, my opponent saw my hand as weakness, and decided to go over the top. Going over the top of a large bet, requires more chips. In doing so, I can move in over the top, and make my opponent feel pot committed, and I can double up, when my opponent doesn't have a chance at winning the hand.
5) I can get a read on my opponent - By making an overbet, I can often rule out hands that I normally wouldn't be able to rule out.
6)I can make a more accurate decision on the turn - After my opponent ccalls an overbet, From then on, I can determine how much to bet in the future, based on the strength of my hand in comparrison to the strength of what I think my opponents holding.
7)I can set myself up for bluffs with very small bets and make my opponents think they are strong, when they are weak- When my opponents are likely to think my large bets represent weakness, they will assume that my small bets represent strength. Therefore, I can make smaller bets without much of a hand, and can win pots with small bluffs, and improve the risk/reward overall, even if I had to give up an edge when making the large bets to do so.
8) I can set my opponents up to think that my small bets are weak when they are strong - I can't accomplish both 7 and 8 at once, unless refering to 2 different players, and I know how they reactt, however if I am called down and forced to turn over a monster hand, or If I continue with my aggression and I believe my opponents think my large bets represent strength, when I do hit a big hand again, this time, I can lead out with small bets against an active note taker who looks at betting patterns and goes after weakness. Then I can let him go over the top of me, and call, and lead out on the turn, and call his raise, and either lead out small again, or check the river, and then raise him all in on the river.
9) Against novices, I can set them up for an even larger overbet when I hit a monster - Say I overbet the pot and half to fold, which I'm okay with doing as long as I take down about 60% of the pots with this bet, or more, especially if I can use the overbet to set myself up for later. Now you can type in something like "oops" and fold. The next time you're in a pot against an amature and you just flopped a set, you can often times bet 5 times the pot, or just move all in, and get action. Your opponent will likely take the bet to mean you're on tilt, and/or you/ve realized your bluffs didn't work, so you decided to bet a lot more. Pros might even think you're an amature who uses this reasoning. Now they call or move in on you, and you win a MONSTER pot.
I can get him to lay down the better hand, I can fold a stronger hand on the turn or river that normally I would feel might be good, but because I overbet, I got more information, and was able to sacve more money overall. I can also save money when my opponents suckout on me. If I have aces against a tight player, I might make it 5/4ths or 6/5ths of the pot on a K76 flop. If my opponent calls, and he isn't a tricky player other than the fact he might just call down the best hand rather than raise, I can probably put him on AK here. If I bet less, like half the pot and he calls, he could have A7 or 89. The other hands he might have if I make a small bet include QQ JJ TT 99 and 8, especially if he thinks I am going to continue to keep the pot small like I usually do. Regardless of the betsize, he could also have a set of 6s, a set of 7s, a set of kings, or potentially even 67 if he has position on me, or if he likes to see a cheap flop and I didn't make it too expensive preflop. If the turn comes a king,, if I had bet small, I would take this as evidence that he's less likely to have a king, because he just called a small bet, and didn't raise, and there's one less king in the deck that he could have. However, I would have to be very concerned. If I overbet the pot, The only hand I now have beat is 67. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who underbet the pot and bet half the pot. Do you put in more chips to make sure tyou charge 89 out of the hand? Do you check it down in case he has a king? you are most likely going to be making a mistake if you make the small bet in this situation. However, a large bet, a call against this player will mean one thing. I'm strong here. Now if the king comes on the turn and your opponent checks, you can make a decision to make a small bet on the turn and fold to a raise, and if you get the chance check behind on the river, but if your opponent bets fold. Or you can check the turn and call the river or check if you get the chance. Or you can make the play to check the turn, and fold the river. In any case, you are probably going to save more money this way, than if you had bet half the pot on the flop. Also, if a king doesn't come on the turn, you are able to bet more, or check and wait to bet on the river and/or induce a bluff. By checking the turn, you only give your opponent a chance at a 5 outer if he has just a pair of kings with a queen kicker or lower, and a 2 outer if he has AK, But if he fires out on the river, you can make a decision, and if you think there's a good chance you're beat you can just call. By checking the turn, you could likely induce your opponent to bluff, and you could also keep the pot reasonably small if your opponent happens to have a set. If your opponent checks the river, it is very unlikely that he has a big hand, unles he has a good reason to believe you will bet the river, which is unlikely, so at that point, you can assume he's worried about you having him beat, and/or is trying to induce you to bluff. Now you can fire out as big of a bet that you think he'll call, and he'l be forced to pay you off with a king. If you get dealt a bad beat on the turn or river, and are unable to recognize it, then it's fine, because if your opponent is playing poorly, and if he doesn't ahve one of the hands mentioned before, then he will lose a lot more money to you, provided when he hits he doesn't bet insanely large, and you call with a worse hand. If he overbets the pot and it is out of character for him to bluff or volentarily put a chip in the pot without a big hand, you can probably assume he has a set, and actually get away from thehand. Of course, this is a luxery that you can not say the same thing about a loose unpredictable player.
If you want to dominate tournaments, you need to occasionally overbet the pot so you have unpredictability to you. It will be effective in different situations where a small bet would not, and in the future, it will increase the effectiveness of small ball, as people aren't able to know where they're at, especially when they're out of position.
Learn to add in the occasional overbet, and use it when you can do it without risking a significant amount of your total stack, and without jepodizing a your tournament life, and you will find yourself dominating more tournaments.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Video Course Coming!
Yes, a big development for 0 to 1000 is in production.
I am going to come up with a video course on how to play poker tournaments. I have to tell you, the more I went through all of the things that are important, the more I personally learned. The project is by no means done, and will probably take awhile longer, but I want to let you know that it is under way. I certainly think that it will help a lot of people that are maybe just one tiny thing away from dominating the tournaments. I also think it will help newbies instantly become winning players.
It's a sad fact that over 90% of all players think they are better than 90% of all players. And maybe you were a month ago, but even as new money comes in, the field is constantly learning and growing. But in poker tournaments, there's various stages and times you really need to adapt. Sure, you can get your money in and try to win a coinflip, you can be tight aggressive, all of that works fine... However, surviving multiple all ins is NOT the way to give you the best chance.
One of the problems that great players face is knowing when a hand is good enough to call an all in. The perfect player who knows exactly what his opponents have and what they'll do every hand, in a slow structure need not ever call an all in, because he can win so many chips by just stealing pots where his opponents aren't strong enough to fold, and getting his money in with the best possible hand, or getting paid off big on the river when there's no cards for his opponents to hit to draw out on him. On the other hand, a player who is perfect, but in a structure where the blinds go up every hand, isn't going to have the opportunity to win chips without risking a significant portion of his stack, unless his opponents are really coorperative.
Now no one is really perfect, but perhaps a very good player in a fast structure can still fairly effortlessly successfully steal the blinds twice per rotation. Now this player is paying for the blinds, winning it back, and then winning one more steal every rotation. It's enough to gain chips, however eventually you will become short stacked in a fairly medium-fast structure. Is there a way to gauge how good on average you can expect to get your money all in before you become dangerously short stacked where you can't successfully accumulate chips? Actually yes! I have figured out how, and a fairly complex spreadsheet does all the work for you, you just have to know about how many steals per rotation you can make.
I have actually just recently developed a method that I haven't even gotten to record yet because it's so new! But it's a way to know exactly how to adapt based on your skill, and determine what the optimal point of the tournament, that you should be all in, and how big of a favorite on average you should expect to be. Blinds go up really fast online. Stealing the blinds simply isn't enough as later on in the tournament the blinds will go up fast, and soon everyone will be short stacked in comparrison to the blinds and antes. You WILL have to be all in in a tournament with a big field, even if it's very rarely, and even if it is much later in the tournament when you have much more chips. And if the structure is fast, you will have less hands to be able to wait and catch a big hand. So if someone moves all in on you, how big of a favorite do you have to be? I have developed a spreadsheet that will INSTANTLY show you how to figure out exactly when to call, and when the edge is not big enough.
Just ONE of the many video courses will show you where to get the spreadsheet for free, and what to do with it, and how to use it in combination with poker stove to know exactly what kind of edge is big enough.
Most people have no idea what it takes for players like Phil Helmuth, and Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu to finish deep consistantly. Phil Helmuth was all in like 3 times the entire main event. And earlier on when he was all in, the guy maybe had a 4 outer with one card to come. That takes an unbelievable ability to win a lot of small pots, avoid confrontation and accumulate chips, and avoid risks.
I'm not saying I can play at that level, or that I can teach you how to play exactly like them.
However, I can tell you some of the strategies, and techniques that they use, and explain why it's successful, and teach you how to develop a similar style, that looks at the big picture of tournaments, and explain how many top pros think about the game.
Based on the way they think and play, I have developed a blueprint. It isn't going to be something that anyone can do without some practice and natural ability, but it is going to considerably shorten the length of time it takes for you to become a great poker player, and it certainly should make players better.
At the very least I will give you some unique and different ways to start thinking about the game, and if nothing else, it will at least give you a new perspective and reinforce some of the ideas you have learned or heard about.
In my opinion, and just about any pros opinion, you should never stop learning about the game, and there's always more to learn.
Over the last couple years, I have developed a lot of styles, ideas, and concepts. To be honest, I probably have spent almost as much time learning about the game and trying new things, and going back and testing the math of certain plays and testing the methods then actually playing. I have tested method in loose aggressive freerolls, loose passive freerolls, low stakes tight play, low stakes passive, low stakes tight aggressive, and then middle stakes. I also have used poker software and video games that simulate various styles of play, including the advanced play of Daniel Negreanu's Stacked. I'm amazed at how much just thinking about the game, or picking up one tiny thing can spark my imagination and have me think of all sorts of new ideas. I hope my videos will revolutionize the way you think about the game, and spark your imagination as well.
Stay Tuned!
I am going to come up with a video course on how to play poker tournaments. I have to tell you, the more I went through all of the things that are important, the more I personally learned. The project is by no means done, and will probably take awhile longer, but I want to let you know that it is under way. I certainly think that it will help a lot of people that are maybe just one tiny thing away from dominating the tournaments. I also think it will help newbies instantly become winning players.
It's a sad fact that over 90% of all players think they are better than 90% of all players. And maybe you were a month ago, but even as new money comes in, the field is constantly learning and growing. But in poker tournaments, there's various stages and times you really need to adapt. Sure, you can get your money in and try to win a coinflip, you can be tight aggressive, all of that works fine... However, surviving multiple all ins is NOT the way to give you the best chance.
One of the problems that great players face is knowing when a hand is good enough to call an all in. The perfect player who knows exactly what his opponents have and what they'll do every hand, in a slow structure need not ever call an all in, because he can win so many chips by just stealing pots where his opponents aren't strong enough to fold, and getting his money in with the best possible hand, or getting paid off big on the river when there's no cards for his opponents to hit to draw out on him. On the other hand, a player who is perfect, but in a structure where the blinds go up every hand, isn't going to have the opportunity to win chips without risking a significant portion of his stack, unless his opponents are really coorperative.
Now no one is really perfect, but perhaps a very good player in a fast structure can still fairly effortlessly successfully steal the blinds twice per rotation. Now this player is paying for the blinds, winning it back, and then winning one more steal every rotation. It's enough to gain chips, however eventually you will become short stacked in a fairly medium-fast structure. Is there a way to gauge how good on average you can expect to get your money all in before you become dangerously short stacked where you can't successfully accumulate chips? Actually yes! I have figured out how, and a fairly complex spreadsheet does all the work for you, you just have to know about how many steals per rotation you can make.
I have actually just recently developed a method that I haven't even gotten to record yet because it's so new! But it's a way to know exactly how to adapt based on your skill, and determine what the optimal point of the tournament, that you should be all in, and how big of a favorite on average you should expect to be. Blinds go up really fast online. Stealing the blinds simply isn't enough as later on in the tournament the blinds will go up fast, and soon everyone will be short stacked in comparrison to the blinds and antes. You WILL have to be all in in a tournament with a big field, even if it's very rarely, and even if it is much later in the tournament when you have much more chips. And if the structure is fast, you will have less hands to be able to wait and catch a big hand. So if someone moves all in on you, how big of a favorite do you have to be? I have developed a spreadsheet that will INSTANTLY show you how to figure out exactly when to call, and when the edge is not big enough.
Just ONE of the many video courses will show you where to get the spreadsheet for free, and what to do with it, and how to use it in combination with poker stove to know exactly what kind of edge is big enough.
Most people have no idea what it takes for players like Phil Helmuth, and Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu to finish deep consistantly. Phil Helmuth was all in like 3 times the entire main event. And earlier on when he was all in, the guy maybe had a 4 outer with one card to come. That takes an unbelievable ability to win a lot of small pots, avoid confrontation and accumulate chips, and avoid risks.
I'm not saying I can play at that level, or that I can teach you how to play exactly like them.
However, I can tell you some of the strategies, and techniques that they use, and explain why it's successful, and teach you how to develop a similar style, that looks at the big picture of tournaments, and explain how many top pros think about the game.
Based on the way they think and play, I have developed a blueprint. It isn't going to be something that anyone can do without some practice and natural ability, but it is going to considerably shorten the length of time it takes for you to become a great poker player, and it certainly should make players better.
If you want to know how to determine how much to bet, how to figure out exactly when pushing all in is profitable, when to flat call to trap opponents, how to play aggressive opponents, maniacs, tight players, loose players, passive players, sharks, how to represent the flop, represent draws, when to make information bets, when to make ontinuation bets, how often to raise, and what hands to play and how to apply it to any situation, all sorts of advanced small pot poker plays such as using "phantom outs" to make your opponent think you hit a draw, and disguise your real draw and get paid off when you hit. Why position is power, and when you can play "any two", flat calling raises in position, implied odds, , when to check to induce a bluff, when and how much to value bet, and how to chop away at small pots in order to accumulate a large stack
Once you have a large stack, I'll teach you different ways to play it, including all sorts of "big pot poker moves" to pick up massive amounts of chips when you are big stacked and/or want to make a move to go for the win. Also, when to shut down and make the monster folds. What hands you should always fold in certain situations, and all sorts of bluffing techniques designed to allow you to pickup some chips. I also plan on making a spreadsheet that will tell you all the moves that are available based on how many big blinds you have.
At the very least I will give you some unique and different ways to start thinking about the game, and if nothing else, it will at least give you a new perspective and reinforce some of the ideas you have learned or heard about.
In my opinion, and just about any pros opinion, you should never stop learning about the game, and there's always more to learn.
Over the last couple years, I have developed a lot of styles, ideas, and concepts. To be honest, I probably have spent almost as much time learning about the game and trying new things, and going back and testing the math of certain plays and testing the methods then actually playing. I have tested method in loose aggressive freerolls, loose passive freerolls, low stakes tight play, low stakes passive, low stakes tight aggressive, and then middle stakes. I also have used poker software and video games that simulate various styles of play, including the advanced play of Daniel Negreanu's Stacked. I'm amazed at how much just thinking about the game, or picking up one tiny thing can spark my imagination and have me think of all sorts of new ideas. I hope my videos will revolutionize the way you think about the game, and spark your imagination as well.
Stay Tuned!
Razz
I decided to try out the game of razz. I enjoyed playing HORSE tournament and I seemed to do pretty well in it, but I really wanted to try out a razz cashgame. Well I did, and it turns out it's not very hard to win. Just be observant and patient, and start with 3 low cards, unless your opponents are all showing higher cards and you're showing the lowest and have 2 lower cards in the hole, and you should be fine. In fact, you currently have the best hand in that situation. Also, you can go for an ante steal when the high card brings it in, and you have 1 low card showing and at least one other low card in the hole, and it folds around to you with no one but you left to act, or maybe a player or two that are also showing high cards left to act.
I think I probably could use a little work after the first 3 cards, but for the most part, it's pretty straight forward. Perhaps it is harder in the higher limits, since I was just learning the game I decided to try the lowest limits I could, and I will continue to do so until I continue to show winnings. I'm also patient in waiting for situation where the average pot size is large, so I would like to first successfully play when the potsize is smaller on average.
But this game certainly seems like it could be a great game to fall back on when the varience of no limit holdem tournaments and cash games is a little rough.
Learning mixed games can be a nice change of pace, and if you learn all the mixed games, you could end up doing very well in HORSE tournaments, where themore skillful players usually come out ahead, and there's a little less luck involved.
Give it a shot, who knows... you may find a new game that you love as much as holdem
I think I probably could use a little work after the first 3 cards, but for the most part, it's pretty straight forward. Perhaps it is harder in the higher limits, since I was just learning the game I decided to try the lowest limits I could, and I will continue to do so until I continue to show winnings. I'm also patient in waiting for situation where the average pot size is large, so I would like to first successfully play when the potsize is smaller on average.
But this game certainly seems like it could be a great game to fall back on when the varience of no limit holdem tournaments and cash games is a little rough.
Learning mixed games can be a nice change of pace, and if you learn all the mixed games, you could end up doing very well in HORSE tournaments, where themore skillful players usually come out ahead, and there's a little less luck involved.
Give it a shot, who knows... you may find a new game that you love as much as holdem
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Challenge
This post is always on top
(Challenge started on 8/31/07)
Recently Chris "Jesus" Ferguson had a freeroll Challenge...
The Goal?
To Turn $0 into $10,000. This is something he had accomplished before, only I believe he started with nickle and dime limits or something and he had a limited bankroll. So How did he do it? He played freerolls, Once he won the freeroll he made sure to manage his money extremely well.
Here's the guidelines he used.
-Never buy into a cashgame or sitngo with more than 5% of your bankroll at stake
-Never buy into a multitable tournament with more than 2% of bankroll... However due to it being tough to play games when you only have a small amount, you are allowed to play $1 multitable tournaments.
-If at anytime in a cashgame you lose enough money so that you have more than 5% of your bankroll at risk... LEAVE IMMEDIATELY, and play lower stakes.
To view the rest of this post click here
(Challenge started on 8/31/07)
Recently Chris "Jesus" Ferguson had a freeroll Challenge...
The Goal?
To Turn $0 into $10,000. This is something he had accomplished before, only I believe he started with nickle and dime limits or something and he had a limited bankroll. So How did he do it? He played freerolls, Once he won the freeroll he made sure to manage his money extremely well.
Here's the guidelines he used.
-Never buy into a cashgame or sitngo with more than 5% of your bankroll at stake
-Never buy into a multitable tournament with more than 2% of bankroll... However due to it being tough to play games when you only have a small amount, you are allowed to play $1 multitable tournaments.
-If at anytime in a cashgame you lose enough money so that you have more than 5% of your bankroll at risk... LEAVE IMMEDIATELY, and play lower stakes.
To view the rest of this post click here
Saturday, August 16, 2008
no!
Got dealt the cooler and lost $20 with KK vs AA
Then this morning I just got my money in on a cashgame with a pair and a gutshot draw with a flushdraw on the flop. Turns out I was up against a set and I couldn't hit any of my outs. I normally play it more passively and try to hit and then get my money in. But I've been trying to satellite my way into the fulltilt Main event, and my AK got cracked vs AJ twice, and then AK vs QJ. Was just hoping to catch a break, but instead it broke my bankroll down quite a bit. Still hovering above $500.
Everytime I play cashgames I seem to lose pretty big to either bad beats, or just big pots like KK vs AA and straightflushdraw vs set.
Blah, it happens. Chris Ferguson said it isn't as uncommon as most people think for KK to get cracked 15 times in a row. I think I've had them cracked about 5 times in a row, I'm hoping I don't get to 15. But that's why you must manage your bankroll. I still feel you must take some shots at the higher stakes to stay sane. If you fail it's back down to grinding it out.
really, what I should be doing is sticking with the $3.3 KO tournaments and MTTs those are definately my best game. There's going to be a lot of varience there, but I feel I have the ability to final table fairly consistantly.
Find your game and stick with it. You can learn other games by studying and doing the research in the meantime, and try out some other games at the lower stakes. But if your game is MTT, it makes no sense to take shots at the higher cashgames. Not sure what I was thinking...
Lesson learned.
Then this morning I just got my money in on a cashgame with a pair and a gutshot draw with a flushdraw on the flop. Turns out I was up against a set and I couldn't hit any of my outs. I normally play it more passively and try to hit and then get my money in. But I've been trying to satellite my way into the fulltilt Main event, and my AK got cracked vs AJ twice, and then AK vs QJ. Was just hoping to catch a break, but instead it broke my bankroll down quite a bit. Still hovering above $500.
Everytime I play cashgames I seem to lose pretty big to either bad beats, or just big pots like KK vs AA and straightflushdraw vs set.
Blah, it happens. Chris Ferguson said it isn't as uncommon as most people think for KK to get cracked 15 times in a row. I think I've had them cracked about 5 times in a row, I'm hoping I don't get to 15. But that's why you must manage your bankroll. I still feel you must take some shots at the higher stakes to stay sane. If you fail it's back down to grinding it out.
really, what I should be doing is sticking with the $3.3 KO tournaments and MTTs those are definately my best game. There's going to be a lot of varience there, but I feel I have the ability to final table fairly consistantly.
Find your game and stick with it. You can learn other games by studying and doing the research in the meantime, and try out some other games at the lower stakes. But if your game is MTT, it makes no sense to take shots at the higher cashgames. Not sure what I was thinking...
Lesson learned.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
According to some I'm now a "losing player" on FT
Trying the superturbo SNGs lost me a lot of money, I'm not going back to those things. I took my chance trying them out for 15 games or so, did not do well cashed a couple didn't win. But I'm still up on FT alone 250 from the $50 I started with(affiliate cash). Yet I'm playing in a daily double and from the small blind I shove in on a short stack for the third time in a row after it folds to me. He starts talking trash about my tournament record and my game. I didn't say a word to him it wasn't worth it. Ended up getting my kings busted much later in the tourney near the bubble, but it was interesting to realize that the 90 person SNGs on fulltilt for whatever reason doesn't register on the poker DB. Got some more final tables, I have several on my computer but I don't know which ones I've uploaded and which ones I haven't, I'll get around to updating them all eventually
speaking of which, I'm at a $3.3 SNG final table
One of these days I'm going to take a few shots at the $10, so we'll see if I can get on a run.
I have recently found that minraising at low Ms with high antes but relatively low blinds still works, especially as you near the bubble. I saw a player switch gears into aggressive but he would stay away from reraises. I've emulated his gear switch period only with smaller raises. It's been successful as of it's first test run. I've experimented with limping with big pairs, it allowed me to get away from an A high flop, and it allowed me to get money in with QQ vs JJ, but I probably could have accomplished that anyways. I limped and got a lot of money in the pot with AAas I was raised from the big blind, and I just called as I knew the other person in the pot would have to either push fold with his stack. He pushed, and it was a big triple up.
I do feel that limping strong has it's place, but not very much at passive tables, and only if the blind structure is deep, (and you can fold aces), or short (and you need to try to get as many chips as possible to have the leverage you need to make steals and have a chance at the thing. You have to really figure out your table if you're going to limp, and most of the time if you raise, you're going to get more money in the pot anyways. What you're looking for is wreckless play after the flop. Sure you're giving people the odds to hit with anyhand if you don't put 10% of your stack in preflop and play it right after the flop or 20% in preflop and play it how you want afterwards. However, because there's so many bad players that will go broke with JT on a jack high flop, there's more equity in trying to get players in that can hit top pair and maybe get some extra people calling. You're also looking for lots of preflop raises after limpers, or really small pot and passive play, particularly loose passive play so you can do all the betting.
I would say, don't attempt this move very often at all, even if conditions are right. It is only when you feel you NEED to make a move. Limping with aces, is about the same risk factor as a raise and go with AK, and playing aces aggressively is probably worth more anyways. However, I do feel that it is okay to raise 1/4th of your chips on a steal attempt, and if reraised, fold even though you have pot odds. The reason is, because if you do that, you can still attempt a move all in next hand, and poentially still steal the blinds, or get in a profitable situation with the blinds and antes. And if that doesn't work, you can look for a raise and a big isolation reraise move on your big blind so you have dead money in the pot and you can triple up. Or else you can try a move in, or perhaps a limp and go from the small blind. If you pull off one of these moves, you can again attempt the minraise, and repeat if you're raised. You will buy yourself a lot more hands, and give yourself a lot more potential to come away with a steal. If you get away with it, now you can look to attempt it again next rotation.
I still like shoving all in on the blinds
Update: went out in 3rd place after losing multiple all ins as a 35% dog in each. Blinds and antes put the pot at 20k and even the big stack was never really more than 100k. Guy called from BB with KQ the first time against like 85o. The 2nd time he had AK and I had T4off. Although it seems like I'm going to get knocked out the majority of the time, I had him covered the first time, and stole my way back to about even with him. Given that I lose 65% of the time, I still need to lose another 65% of the time. So out of 100, I'm going to lose the 1st hand 65 times, and of those 65 hands, lose 65%. The chance that I lose both is actually 42.25% Also, if they don't pick up a hand, which is very likely considering it's 3 handed, or if I pick up a better hand, They're going to blind to death. I made the decision to try to keep the 3rd place guy in the game by not calling when I had over 3 to 1 and J2. I did this because first of all, I'm not a crushing favorite, and losing that hand would have put me in jepordy of getting stolen from a couple times and then I would be playing for 2nd, and secondly, letting that player stay alive, would allow me to continue to steal BOTH of their blinds, every hand, until they're down to nothing, as they both battle for 2nd. That would only take about 4 steals against the 2nd place player, if he didn't move in and pick up the blinds. Even if he calls with any pair, any broadway, and any ace which would be pretty loose, even against me, because he can fold to 2nd. Winning a hand certainly doesn't guarantee him anything, however losing gaurentees that he gets nothing.
So I move in, and move in and I've got about 120k. I move in again, and from the SB I move in and I'm called with KQs. My opponent then goes up to 110k and me down to 100k. Then Mr short stack moves all in and is called and wins. Then I pick up a steal, now I've got 110k and my opponent has 100k. but then he moves in picks up the blinds. Then I'm in the small blind, and I move in, and my opponent gets AK and he again calls. I lose, and I'm out.
Now one question that is good to know is, if I had folded, and let the chipleader take control, and manage my way to 2nd, do I still have a good sht at winning? I think my best shot at winning was moving in every hand. The blinds were just rediculously high, and they were getting higher. I didn't pick up a hand, but I did move in and pick up a lot of chips, lose a big hand, then pick up a lot of chips, and then I lost the big hand again. I say I win either of those (58% of the time I will), and I win the tournament. What's better 100% of 2nd $43, or 58% of 72 and 42% of 31?)
58 times you win 71
42 times you win 31
total 5420/100=$54.2 expected
Now of the 100% of the time that I make sure I get 2nd (which is no guarentee) whatre my chances of winning? I'd say I would have to win as an underdog twice or more. We'll say 40% and 40% which is 16% overall
so
84% you win 43
16 you win 72
4764/100=47.64
so still we can see that it's better to go for the win.
speaking of which, I'm at a $3.3 SNG final table
One of these days I'm going to take a few shots at the $10, so we'll see if I can get on a run.
I have recently found that minraising at low Ms with high antes but relatively low blinds still works, especially as you near the bubble. I saw a player switch gears into aggressive but he would stay away from reraises. I've emulated his gear switch period only with smaller raises. It's been successful as of it's first test run. I've experimented with limping with big pairs, it allowed me to get away from an A high flop, and it allowed me to get money in with QQ vs JJ, but I probably could have accomplished that anyways. I limped and got a lot of money in the pot with AAas I was raised from the big blind, and I just called as I knew the other person in the pot would have to either push fold with his stack. He pushed, and it was a big triple up.
I do feel that limping strong has it's place, but not very much at passive tables, and only if the blind structure is deep, (and you can fold aces), or short (and you need to try to get as many chips as possible to have the leverage you need to make steals and have a chance at the thing. You have to really figure out your table if you're going to limp, and most of the time if you raise, you're going to get more money in the pot anyways. What you're looking for is wreckless play after the flop. Sure you're giving people the odds to hit with anyhand if you don't put 10% of your stack in preflop and play it right after the flop or 20% in preflop and play it how you want afterwards. However, because there's so many bad players that will go broke with JT on a jack high flop, there's more equity in trying to get players in that can hit top pair and maybe get some extra people calling. You're also looking for lots of preflop raises after limpers, or really small pot and passive play, particularly loose passive play so you can do all the betting.
I would say, don't attempt this move very often at all, even if conditions are right. It is only when you feel you NEED to make a move. Limping with aces, is about the same risk factor as a raise and go with AK, and playing aces aggressively is probably worth more anyways. However, I do feel that it is okay to raise 1/4th of your chips on a steal attempt, and if reraised, fold even though you have pot odds. The reason is, because if you do that, you can still attempt a move all in next hand, and poentially still steal the blinds, or get in a profitable situation with the blinds and antes. And if that doesn't work, you can look for a raise and a big isolation reraise move on your big blind so you have dead money in the pot and you can triple up. Or else you can try a move in, or perhaps a limp and go from the small blind. If you pull off one of these moves, you can again attempt the minraise, and repeat if you're raised. You will buy yourself a lot more hands, and give yourself a lot more potential to come away with a steal. If you get away with it, now you can look to attempt it again next rotation.
I still like shoving all in on the blinds
Update: went out in 3rd place after losing multiple all ins as a 35% dog in each. Blinds and antes put the pot at 20k and even the big stack was never really more than 100k. Guy called from BB with KQ the first time against like 85o. The 2nd time he had AK and I had T4off. Although it seems like I'm going to get knocked out the majority of the time, I had him covered the first time, and stole my way back to about even with him. Given that I lose 65% of the time, I still need to lose another 65% of the time. So out of 100, I'm going to lose the 1st hand 65 times, and of those 65 hands, lose 65%. The chance that I lose both is actually 42.25% Also, if they don't pick up a hand, which is very likely considering it's 3 handed, or if I pick up a better hand, They're going to blind to death. I made the decision to try to keep the 3rd place guy in the game by not calling when I had over 3 to 1 and J2. I did this because first of all, I'm not a crushing favorite, and losing that hand would have put me in jepordy of getting stolen from a couple times and then I would be playing for 2nd, and secondly, letting that player stay alive, would allow me to continue to steal BOTH of their blinds, every hand, until they're down to nothing, as they both battle for 2nd. That would only take about 4 steals against the 2nd place player, if he didn't move in and pick up the blinds. Even if he calls with any pair, any broadway, and any ace which would be pretty loose, even against me, because he can fold to 2nd. Winning a hand certainly doesn't guarantee him anything, however losing gaurentees that he gets nothing.
So I move in, and move in and I've got about 120k. I move in again, and from the SB I move in and I'm called with KQs. My opponent then goes up to 110k and me down to 100k. Then Mr short stack moves all in and is called and wins. Then I pick up a steal, now I've got 110k and my opponent has 100k. but then he moves in picks up the blinds. Then I'm in the small blind, and I move in, and my opponent gets AK and he again calls. I lose, and I'm out.
Now one question that is good to know is, if I had folded, and let the chipleader take control, and manage my way to 2nd, do I still have a good sht at winning? I think my best shot at winning was moving in every hand. The blinds were just rediculously high, and they were getting higher. I didn't pick up a hand, but I did move in and pick up a lot of chips, lose a big hand, then pick up a lot of chips, and then I lost the big hand again. I say I win either of those (58% of the time I will), and I win the tournament. What's better 100% of 2nd $43, or 58% of 72 and 42% of 31?)
58 times you win 71
42 times you win 31
total 5420/100=$54.2 expected
Now of the 100% of the time that I make sure I get 2nd (which is no guarentee) whatre my chances of winning? I'd say I would have to win as an underdog twice or more. We'll say 40% and 40% which is 16% overall
so
84% you win 43
16 you win 72
4764/100=47.64
so still we can see that it's better to go for the win.
Playing your A game
There's plenty of winning players, who play until they are off their a game, and they become losing players. (mysellf included sometimes). They may make enough when they are on their game to make up for the times they are off, but if they overstay their welcome, and play too long, they will likely become losing players and lose everything they won and then some.
It can be frustrating. The main concept to avoid this, is to learn how long your game generally is "on" before it starts to slide. It should be at A game early, then it will slide to B, then it crashes and you go tilt mode. Then you might recover breifly and start winning, but then like someone who's nodding off to sleep and jolting his head awake real quickly before falling back asleep, your game will likely fall as well.
It doesn't matter what you do, but to avoid this, you must stop playing. go read a poker book, or go to a local card room, or go play live somewhere, or better yet, do something to completely take your mind off poker. Sure, this might be 20 minutes away from your playing time, but it will provide an hour of very solid playing time that is much more profitable...
Not only will you manage your bankroll better this way, but you will generally earn a lot more as well.
If possible, take a week vacation from poker every month or two.
In the long run, some might say, it's better that you deal with playing while not on your A game, and it's better to just switch down in limits. You will elarn to understand when your game is off, and you can just tighten up. By playing through your subpar game, you will learn to be a good player, even when you can't focus. This will allow you to develop a mental edge to the game.
While this may be true, there is no evidence to support it, and it is not worth the potential costs based on some theory. If you do want to improve your mental edge, simply gradually expand your time. So maybe you play an hour optimally. Go an hour and 10 minutes to really stretch yourself As you start to get comfortable go for an hour and 20 minutes, and then 125.
When sitting in front of a computer screen, it's hard not to get kind of zoned out, and to start playing mechancical, and exploitable, meanwhile being unaware of how long you've been playing or what time it is. So to avoid this, set a timer to make sure you do not overplay.
I have noticed I tend to do pretty well in cashgames, but an hour into it, I am pretty much done for, and I donk off a lot of cash to the point where I'm probably not even a profitable cash game player. With multitable tournaments I can last more like 2 hours, and my game doesn't usually get too rough, becausee I error on the side of loose aggression, which sometimes can be a good thing, but if I'm playing in the same tournament for 2 hours straight, my natural tendency is to not want to get knocked out, so in some sense, more loose aggression and making big moves can be good. It can also knock me out, but it will put me in position to make a big move a lot of times, which will result in a big cash. And even when making moves, it's not like cash games where I don't stop to think that my opponent showed a lot of strength, I just see 99 and a lot in the potand I decide to move in preflop.
In tournaments, I still know to make the moves that are profitable,l but have huge risks to them. A resteal all in, or a stop and go, or even a raise and go... I'm going to have to make a move at some point, so it usually won't hurt to make it a little bit earlier, against an opponent who isn't quite perfect for it as much. Plus with tournaments, you're going to see a lot of varience, and losing your buy in trying to make a move to get in the top money is never really a bad thing.
However, there is sometimes a big lost edge when I have a lot in chips and I continue to be aggressive late in a tournament when I already have tons of chips and there's mayb 2 tables left and I get involved in a big hand that I should just fold. Or at the final table, I'm 2nd in chips and I make a bad call when I could fold my way to 2nd, and instead I'm fighting for 8th.
So if possible, take a nap get sleep, get something to eat, go out, and make sure when you come back, you're on your A-game.
Always schedule breaks. Little things like these will allow you to save money when other players would lose it, and allow you to come back and make money when others would keep playing through their poor mental state, and continue to lose it.
It can be frustrating. The main concept to avoid this, is to learn how long your game generally is "on" before it starts to slide. It should be at A game early, then it will slide to B, then it crashes and you go tilt mode. Then you might recover breifly and start winning, but then like someone who's nodding off to sleep and jolting his head awake real quickly before falling back asleep, your game will likely fall as well.
It doesn't matter what you do, but to avoid this, you must stop playing. go read a poker book, or go to a local card room, or go play live somewhere, or better yet, do something to completely take your mind off poker. Sure, this might be 20 minutes away from your playing time, but it will provide an hour of very solid playing time that is much more profitable...
Not only will you manage your bankroll better this way, but you will generally earn a lot more as well.
If possible, take a week vacation from poker every month or two.
In the long run, some might say, it's better that you deal with playing while not on your A game, and it's better to just switch down in limits. You will elarn to understand when your game is off, and you can just tighten up. By playing through your subpar game, you will learn to be a good player, even when you can't focus. This will allow you to develop a mental edge to the game.
While this may be true, there is no evidence to support it, and it is not worth the potential costs based on some theory. If you do want to improve your mental edge, simply gradually expand your time. So maybe you play an hour optimally. Go an hour and 10 minutes to really stretch yourself As you start to get comfortable go for an hour and 20 minutes, and then 125.
When sitting in front of a computer screen, it's hard not to get kind of zoned out, and to start playing mechancical, and exploitable, meanwhile being unaware of how long you've been playing or what time it is. So to avoid this, set a timer to make sure you do not overplay.
I have noticed I tend to do pretty well in cashgames, but an hour into it, I am pretty much done for, and I donk off a lot of cash to the point where I'm probably not even a profitable cash game player. With multitable tournaments I can last more like 2 hours, and my game doesn't usually get too rough, becausee I error on the side of loose aggression, which sometimes can be a good thing, but if I'm playing in the same tournament for 2 hours straight, my natural tendency is to not want to get knocked out, so in some sense, more loose aggression and making big moves can be good. It can also knock me out, but it will put me in position to make a big move a lot of times, which will result in a big cash. And even when making moves, it's not like cash games where I don't stop to think that my opponent showed a lot of strength, I just see 99 and a lot in the potand I decide to move in preflop.
In tournaments, I still know to make the moves that are profitable,l but have huge risks to them. A resteal all in, or a stop and go, or even a raise and go... I'm going to have to make a move at some point, so it usually won't hurt to make it a little bit earlier, against an opponent who isn't quite perfect for it as much. Plus with tournaments, you're going to see a lot of varience, and losing your buy in trying to make a move to get in the top money is never really a bad thing.
However, there is sometimes a big lost edge when I have a lot in chips and I continue to be aggressive late in a tournament when I already have tons of chips and there's mayb 2 tables left and I get involved in a big hand that I should just fold. Or at the final table, I'm 2nd in chips and I make a bad call when I could fold my way to 2nd, and instead I'm fighting for 8th.
So if possible, take a nap get sleep, get something to eat, go out, and make sure when you come back, you're on your A-game.
Always schedule breaks. Little things like these will allow you to save money when other players would lose it, and allow you to come back and make money when others would keep playing through their poor mental state, and continue to lose it.
Donking down on SNGs
So I tried to run through some full tilt super turbo sit n gos. I figured I would do pretty well and I knew when to move in. But I couldn't win a race, and couldn't manage to win these thing. I played several, and ended up knocking down my bankroll considerably. I think I'm going to play regular turbos at the $2 level for awhile until I start to show results, before I move up.
Better yet, maybe I'll just stay away from the one table SNGs, and stick to 90 person SitNGos and multitable tournements.
Better yet, maybe I'll just stay away from the one table SNGs, and stick to 90 person SitNGos and multitable tournements.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Daniel Negreanu small ball pt 1
The video obviously is scripted, but great for someone who's new to smallball
Monday, August 11, 2008
The ReREsteal, a rediculous play for donkeys or a legitimate play?
Scott Fischman at some final table raised from early position with 95 offsuit. Then "Devilfish" went for the resteal by reraising him. Fischman then decided to move all in. Devil Fish folded and showed 95offsuit, Scott Fischman flip over his 59 offsuit... they both had the same hand!
An amazing play!
Or did he just get lucky?
Is this move a legitimate move to make online?
Lets say you have a suited connector If you're wrong, you have to consider that maybe you're probably 35% to win on average, even though you could be 40% to win if you're against AK.
So if you start with 280,000 with blinds 5000/10000 pot with 1000 antes 10 handed, there's already 25000 in the pot. So you raise 3X the big blind to 30000, your opponent reraises to maybe 90000.
At this point there's 145000 in the pot. So now Maybe you move all in for 250,000. You're opponent has to call 241000 to win 395000. If he thinks he's 38.5% to win he should call. But will he consider those odds, or just the fact that he doesn't want to risk a significant portion of his stack when he might be able to go on and win anyways? Lets say you know your opponent well enough that you know he'll call 50% of the time. From your perspective, you win
145000 50 times out of 100
the other 50 times that you're called, you add 145,000 in the pot plus 241,000 that your opponent calls about 33% of the time so you win 386000 16.5 times
the times you're called and lose, you lose 250,000. You lose 67% or 33.5 out of 50
out of 100 times, you win 50*145000=7250000 total when they fold
16.5$386000=6369000 total when they call and you win
and you lose 33.5*250000=8375000 total when they call and they win.
7250000+639000=13619000-8375000=5244000
524400/100
=52,440 expected value per hand or 5 big blinds per hand!
A very profitable move if your opponent is going to fold half the time
lets say your opponent calls 66% of the time,
33*145000=4785000
22*386000=8492000
45*250000=11250000
wow 13277000-1125000=2,027,000
/100
=20270
2BB
amazingly if you get called 66% of the time, and you're a 33% dog, you still make a good move.
The ReResteal is now in!
Qualifications
You should have a Tight image, or at least appear to be the type of player that isn't going to put all their money in on a bluff.
You should have about 30 times the big blind with antes in if you plan to make a standard raise, and get reraised the standard amount.
You should have a hand that is going to win an average of about 35% or more
You should have an opponent who likes to reraise to pressure their opponents with a wider range of hands, but doesn't like to get all their money in preflop and is capable of folding.
Be in a stage in the tournement where you either don't feel your chances are very good, or in a field where it's winner take all, or a tournement that pays out very very top heavy, or if you just need to make a move because you have to go do something for an hour and need to have chips when you come back.
Now consider...
It's one of the riskiest plays you can make, since you're not only making a raise, you're coming over the top of a reraise, and moving all in, and you're risking a move at 30 times the big blind, where you easily have plenty of play left. Antes must be relatively high, your opponent must be a fairly aggressive restealer. You must have a tight image, you should come from under the gun with a raise with a suited connector to perform it.
Your opponent should be good enough to fold. Look at the situation. Your opponent might have TT, but if you move in on him, he could easily be up against AA KK QQ JJ AK because you represented a lot of strength. If that's the hand range, and he's good enough to consider it, he cannot call. But if he does, you are probably in trouble. If your opponent moves with AJ he could probably fold. AQ he's got to be very concerned that he's dominated and at worst he might think you have JJ or TT./
You certainly could try to call in that situation for the stop and go, but you might have too many chips for the stop and go, and if your opponent would fold TT there, he would certainly be willing to call an all in if you just called and it came low cards. If your opponent is loose after the flop, the stop and go isn't as effective.
If you had less than 280,000 remaining (28 times the big blind), your opponent would have pretty good odds to call on a move all in, so a fold or a stop and go would be the only play after a failed blind steal attempt if you had less. With maybe 200k, you would call for 60k more and the pot would then be 205k and you would have 140k to push. I would reccomend a fold at this point rather than a stop and go. If you have 220k(22X BB) remaining, the stop and go might work there as you would have 160k remaining to push. Or if a few players were gone and it was shorter handed, it might work.
So with maybe 26-32 times the big blind against the right opponent in the right situation the reresteal is worth trying out.
25-28 a preflop raise to the stop and go could work, but you could also consider making a smaller preflop raise.
You could raise 2.5 times the big blind, get raised to 7.5 times the big bllind, and move in for remaining 18x so starting with 20.5 or so you could still pull the move off. Such a move, might be a little better in terms of risk, and since once you go below 20 you can't do much seeing of flops it's a good time to make the move. If part 1 happens successfully (everyone folding), you win a blind and a half, plus any antes. If you're reraised, and you pull off the part 2 of the move, (your opponent folding to the reresteal), you will win the blinds and antes, plus the 7.5 times raise and you'll have about 30 times the big blind. If part 2 fails and you get called, but get lucky and part 3 you win the hand, you get 20.5 from your opponent plus the blinds, plus antes. So you'll end up with about 43x. Regardless, if you show your hand after the rerresteal, no one will want to go over the top of you unless they have a hand they can call an all in with, which will make it easier to steal pots, and easier to predict your opponents. And if you need to make a big move so you can play small pot poker, you might want to consider doing so. If you folded to the reraise, the only move remaining to really get you back would be a resteal or stop and go, but a rotation or two later after a successful move, and you'd be in the same spot anyways.
I have experimented with moving in on a reresteal, and resteals to see what I get called with. In many cases, I actually would still have the best hand, and my opponent would call anyways. I have done the raise and go with K9suited and someone called with K8 offsuit after missing the flop. It's crazy what can hapen, as you isolate yourself with very loose very bad players, that feel "pot committed" even though they aren't.
With the resteal, it is another big move, that you'll see some of the same crazy stuff if you do it against the right opponents.
As with any move, be sure you're doing this with strength as well. If you reresteal, the next time, raise, and then move all in when you have AA. You also want it to be much more likely that you have a dominant hand than nothing.
After getting away with the raise and go, I repeated the raise and go with AK, and they folded again... I then got aces, and I did it again, and it worked as I got caalled. It's funny when people know about certain moves or think you play a certain way, they're willing to call you with complete garbage.
The best part about showing a reresteal, is what can happen afterwards. People won't dare try to come over the top of you without a hand, unless they're crazier than everyone thinks you are after that play. And the next time you raise and they reraise, you can move in, and you are much more likely to get action when you have aces.
You have all these moves in your arsenal, and you might use 2 or 3 of them one time each in a game with nothing, but pulling a move like that off, might be exactly what you need to allow you to get that big win, when everyone else is trying to make the money.
The reresteal is not a play for the faint of heart. It is not a play that will be a low risk way to accumulate chips. It is a "do or die" method required for winner take all style tournements or situations when you need to go big or go home. If you really want to get into a position where you can win, and you like to live on the edge, the resteal can be a profitable move.
It also works if YOU are the chipleader, and other people think you are bullying the table, and you think someone is trying to take a stand against you, and THEY started the hand with 20-30 times the big blind, depending on how much you raised and how much they raised. It is much more favorable then, as it does not risk illimination. This move requires you to have a lot of confidence in your ability to determine how frequently someone will fold in this spot to an all in.
If you do not wish to be called a "donkey", or do not wish to look foolish, don't even think about this move.
Try to pull it off if you feeel you are constantly finding it difficult late in a tournement, and people are constantly bullying you the deeper it gets.
I was playing in a tournement, and after raising a lot, some guy waited until the blinds went up, didn't make a move, and then BAM he reraises me and takes down a huge pot and let me do all the work stealing for him. But then a few hands later, I raised with 44 and he reraised again. I wasn't going to let him do that so I moved in and BAM, I took back his resteal on me, and all the blinds I stole back, and THEN some. Then he reraised me again, this time I had AQ. I should have stop and goed but I decided to moving again, and this time he called with a low pocket pair, like 66 or something. It was pretty crazy play as we went after each other again and again and adapted and readapted to each others play. in the end, it came down to a coinflip, and I lost. After being short stacked, I was forced to wait for a hand, and I ran AK in QQ and lost that one too. Perhaps I got too greedy as I had plenty of chips, but then again, if that player was gone the whole table was mine to minraise and small ball to peices. On the other hand, had I folded or pulled off a successful stop and go instead, I still could have let him find a different way to get chips, and fold to a resteal attempt or two by him, and then waited for a hand, and got all the chips he got from me back eventually anyways. But as a table bully, there are going to be people who come back and hit you straight in the nose, like people are "told" to do when facing a bully. Sometimes, you have to respect the fact that they might have been waiting for the right opportunity, but if you know the player enough, and you let him take a few shots at you until you figure him out, you need to take charge again and go all out like a maniac if you want the ability to continue to bully the table. It might just take one move with nothing, and then you can switch your game back to tight, wait for a hand, and then hit him back for the KO punch once you have your rockets on your side and can go in for the kill.
Perhaps it's an incredibly bold play, but sometimes it can be the play that's going to make you the most money in the long run, provided the situation is right, the opponent is right, the chips is right, and the cards are right. The learned ability is knowing how to figure out what you need in order for that move to be profitable. The natural ability is figuring out if the opportunity meets the qualification, and if that move is your best chance at finishing in the big money.
An amazing play!
Or did he just get lucky?
Is this move a legitimate move to make online?
Lets say you have a suited connector If you're wrong, you have to consider that maybe you're probably 35% to win on average, even though you could be 40% to win if you're against AK.
So if you start with 280,000 with blinds 5000/10000 pot with 1000 antes 10 handed, there's already 25000 in the pot. So you raise 3X the big blind to 30000, your opponent reraises to maybe 90000.
At this point there's 145000 in the pot. So now Maybe you move all in for 250,000. You're opponent has to call 241000 to win 395000. If he thinks he's 38.5% to win he should call. But will he consider those odds, or just the fact that he doesn't want to risk a significant portion of his stack when he might be able to go on and win anyways? Lets say you know your opponent well enough that you know he'll call 50% of the time. From your perspective, you win
145000 50 times out of 100
the other 50 times that you're called, you add 145,000 in the pot plus 241,000 that your opponent calls about 33% of the time so you win 386000 16.5 times
the times you're called and lose, you lose 250,000. You lose 67% or 33.5 out of 50
out of 100 times, you win 50*145000=7250000 total when they fold
16.5$386000=6369000 total when they call and you win
and you lose 33.5*250000=8375000 total when they call and they win.
7250000+639000=13619000-8375000=5244000
524400/100
=52,440 expected value per hand or 5 big blinds per hand!
A very profitable move if your opponent is going to fold half the time
lets say your opponent calls 66% of the time,
33*145000=4785000
22*386000=8492000
45*250000=11250000
wow 13277000-1125000=2,027,000
/100
=20270
2BB
amazingly if you get called 66% of the time, and you're a 33% dog, you still make a good move.
The ReResteal is now in!
Qualifications
You should have a Tight image, or at least appear to be the type of player that isn't going to put all their money in on a bluff.
You should have about 30 times the big blind with antes in if you plan to make a standard raise, and get reraised the standard amount.
You should have a hand that is going to win an average of about 35% or more
You should have an opponent who likes to reraise to pressure their opponents with a wider range of hands, but doesn't like to get all their money in preflop and is capable of folding.
Be in a stage in the tournement where you either don't feel your chances are very good, or in a field where it's winner take all, or a tournement that pays out very very top heavy, or if you just need to make a move because you have to go do something for an hour and need to have chips when you come back.
Now consider...
It's one of the riskiest plays you can make, since you're not only making a raise, you're coming over the top of a reraise, and moving all in, and you're risking a move at 30 times the big blind, where you easily have plenty of play left. Antes must be relatively high, your opponent must be a fairly aggressive restealer. You must have a tight image, you should come from under the gun with a raise with a suited connector to perform it.
Your opponent should be good enough to fold. Look at the situation. Your opponent might have TT, but if you move in on him, he could easily be up against AA KK QQ JJ AK because you represented a lot of strength. If that's the hand range, and he's good enough to consider it, he cannot call. But if he does, you are probably in trouble. If your opponent moves with AJ he could probably fold. AQ he's got to be very concerned that he's dominated and at worst he might think you have JJ or TT./
You certainly could try to call in that situation for the stop and go, but you might have too many chips for the stop and go, and if your opponent would fold TT there, he would certainly be willing to call an all in if you just called and it came low cards. If your opponent is loose after the flop, the stop and go isn't as effective.
If you had less than 280,000 remaining (28 times the big blind), your opponent would have pretty good odds to call on a move all in, so a fold or a stop and go would be the only play after a failed blind steal attempt if you had less. With maybe 200k, you would call for 60k more and the pot would then be 205k and you would have 140k to push. I would reccomend a fold at this point rather than a stop and go. If you have 220k(22X BB) remaining, the stop and go might work there as you would have 160k remaining to push. Or if a few players were gone and it was shorter handed, it might work.
So with maybe 26-32 times the big blind against the right opponent in the right situation the reresteal is worth trying out.
25-28 a preflop raise to the stop and go could work, but you could also consider making a smaller preflop raise.
You could raise 2.5 times the big blind, get raised to 7.5 times the big bllind, and move in for remaining 18x so starting with 20.5 or so you could still pull the move off. Such a move, might be a little better in terms of risk, and since once you go below 20 you can't do much seeing of flops it's a good time to make the move. If part 1 happens successfully (everyone folding), you win a blind and a half, plus any antes. If you're reraised, and you pull off the part 2 of the move, (your opponent folding to the reresteal), you will win the blinds and antes, plus the 7.5 times raise and you'll have about 30 times the big blind. If part 2 fails and you get called, but get lucky and part 3 you win the hand, you get 20.5 from your opponent plus the blinds, plus antes. So you'll end up with about 43x. Regardless, if you show your hand after the rerresteal, no one will want to go over the top of you unless they have a hand they can call an all in with, which will make it easier to steal pots, and easier to predict your opponents. And if you need to make a big move so you can play small pot poker, you might want to consider doing so. If you folded to the reraise, the only move remaining to really get you back would be a resteal or stop and go, but a rotation or two later after a successful move, and you'd be in the same spot anyways.
I have experimented with moving in on a reresteal, and resteals to see what I get called with. In many cases, I actually would still have the best hand, and my opponent would call anyways. I have done the raise and go with K9suited and someone called with K8 offsuit after missing the flop. It's crazy what can hapen, as you isolate yourself with very loose very bad players, that feel "pot committed" even though they aren't.
With the resteal, it is another big move, that you'll see some of the same crazy stuff if you do it against the right opponents.
As with any move, be sure you're doing this with strength as well. If you reresteal, the next time, raise, and then move all in when you have AA. You also want it to be much more likely that you have a dominant hand than nothing.
After getting away with the raise and go, I repeated the raise and go with AK, and they folded again... I then got aces, and I did it again, and it worked as I got caalled. It's funny when people know about certain moves or think you play a certain way, they're willing to call you with complete garbage.
The best part about showing a reresteal, is what can happen afterwards. People won't dare try to come over the top of you without a hand, unless they're crazier than everyone thinks you are after that play. And the next time you raise and they reraise, you can move in, and you are much more likely to get action when you have aces.
You have all these moves in your arsenal, and you might use 2 or 3 of them one time each in a game with nothing, but pulling a move like that off, might be exactly what you need to allow you to get that big win, when everyone else is trying to make the money.
The reresteal is not a play for the faint of heart. It is not a play that will be a low risk way to accumulate chips. It is a "do or die" method required for winner take all style tournements or situations when you need to go big or go home. If you really want to get into a position where you can win, and you like to live on the edge, the resteal can be a profitable move.
It also works if YOU are the chipleader, and other people think you are bullying the table, and you think someone is trying to take a stand against you, and THEY started the hand with 20-30 times the big blind, depending on how much you raised and how much they raised. It is much more favorable then, as it does not risk illimination. This move requires you to have a lot of confidence in your ability to determine how frequently someone will fold in this spot to an all in.
If you do not wish to be called a "donkey", or do not wish to look foolish, don't even think about this move.
Try to pull it off if you feeel you are constantly finding it difficult late in a tournement, and people are constantly bullying you the deeper it gets.
I was playing in a tournement, and after raising a lot, some guy waited until the blinds went up, didn't make a move, and then BAM he reraises me and takes down a huge pot and let me do all the work stealing for him. But then a few hands later, I raised with 44 and he reraised again. I wasn't going to let him do that so I moved in and BAM, I took back his resteal on me, and all the blinds I stole back, and THEN some. Then he reraised me again, this time I had AQ. I should have stop and goed but I decided to moving again, and this time he called with a low pocket pair, like 66 or something. It was pretty crazy play as we went after each other again and again and adapted and readapted to each others play. in the end, it came down to a coinflip, and I lost. After being short stacked, I was forced to wait for a hand, and I ran AK in QQ and lost that one too. Perhaps I got too greedy as I had plenty of chips, but then again, if that player was gone the whole table was mine to minraise and small ball to peices. On the other hand, had I folded or pulled off a successful stop and go instead, I still could have let him find a different way to get chips, and fold to a resteal attempt or two by him, and then waited for a hand, and got all the chips he got from me back eventually anyways. But as a table bully, there are going to be people who come back and hit you straight in the nose, like people are "told" to do when facing a bully. Sometimes, you have to respect the fact that they might have been waiting for the right opportunity, but if you know the player enough, and you let him take a few shots at you until you figure him out, you need to take charge again and go all out like a maniac if you want the ability to continue to bully the table. It might just take one move with nothing, and then you can switch your game back to tight, wait for a hand, and then hit him back for the KO punch once you have your rockets on your side and can go in for the kill.
Perhaps it's an incredibly bold play, but sometimes it can be the play that's going to make you the most money in the long run, provided the situation is right, the opponent is right, the chips is right, and the cards are right. The learned ability is knowing how to figure out what you need in order for that move to be profitable. The natural ability is figuring out if the opportunity meets the qualification, and if that move is your best chance at finishing in the big money.
Classify your players
It's important to develop a classification system for your players. Some people use animals, others use symbols, others use words. I think it's important to use a system that works for you, however, if you can associate a person with a word and a color and a shape, or an animal, you're probably going to remember easier. All you have to do when you look at someone's avatar, or face, or screenname, or whatever you have to look at, is visuallize that animal or symbol. Once you are comfortable with a classification system, it will be much easier to know how they play.
I like to use colors and shapes. The colors, will classify preflop play, and the shapes will classify post flop play. And if my opponents are barely fitting that classification, I'm using "dark color, or "light"l color, or big shape, or small shape. if they're somewhere between, you can have redish blue, or a square like circle.
Here are the colors and shapes I use
Green - tight passive
blue-loose passive
red- tight aggressive
yellow- loose aggressive
In general for tournament play I want to avoid the yellow and red players. Yellow to me means caution and red means stop.
for postflop play here are the shapes
circle-tight passive
square- loose passive
octogon(like a stopsign)- loose aggressive
triangle-(think caution sign)-tight aggressive
-
The loose aggressive before the flop is usually less dangerous. You can certainly call a raise with a loose aggressive preflop player if you can outplay him after the flop as long as you use caution and aren't going to make a significant risk without understanding it. if you're facing a raise from a tight aggressive player, it's pretty likely that he's going to be difficult to play as he'll have a strong hand. He might give it up, and be passive after the flop, but he's a lot more likely to have something after the flop. When you're looking at the styles after the flop, you're going to want to avoid bluffing a loose aggressive player. You can call them down with a big hand, but you cannot make a move without a hand if they are loose aggressive post flop.
However, if they are tight aggressive, you can attempt to raise them, or call to represent a flush draw, and bluff if a scare card hits, as long as you are cautious and willing to get out if you're wrong, and as long as you consider their preflop tendancies. Someone who is loose preflop and tight post flop is perfect to try to bet the flop to steal.
The more you are comfortable with this type of classification, the easier your decisions will be. Soon you'll say, there's a lot of green players at the table, I need to go red to pick apart their blinds. Or "players are acting blue, I should try to see a lot of flops, so I can bet and get paid off by the squares, or let an octogon do the betting for me when I hit."
TYour mind qwill be able to think in very simplistic terms that will allow it to be very logical, and you can spend your time worrying about the blind structure, the tournement payout, and what type of moves you can make now, and willneed to make later.
By using a system for player classification, you will noticebly improve your game, as long as you don't get too carried away with your bluffs and continue to play any 2 just because they're a green circle. They may be sophisticated enough green circles to realize that you adapt to players styles, and they might change their game based on their perception of you. Also, just because you CAN make a move, doesn't mean you should all the time. You also ideally want to see some verification that the players continue to play the same way, and that they're not players who mix things up. Sometimes players will be green circles without much of a hand, but when they have a hand they'll be red octogons.
But if you gradually add a classification system without changing the way you play too dramatically, until you become comortable with all ocf this, you should find yourself winning a lot more, or at least accumulating chips more, and getting your money in better.
I like to use colors and shapes. The colors, will classify preflop play, and the shapes will classify post flop play. And if my opponents are barely fitting that classification, I'm using "dark color, or "light"l color, or big shape, or small shape. if they're somewhere between, you can have redish blue, or a square like circle.
Here are the colors and shapes I use
Green - tight passive
blue-loose passive
red- tight aggressive
yellow- loose aggressive
In general for tournament play I want to avoid the yellow and red players. Yellow to me means caution and red means stop.
for postflop play here are the shapes
circle-tight passive
square- loose passive
octogon(like a stopsign)- loose aggressive
triangle-(think caution sign)-tight aggressive
-
The loose aggressive before the flop is usually less dangerous. You can certainly call a raise with a loose aggressive preflop player if you can outplay him after the flop as long as you use caution and aren't going to make a significant risk without understanding it. if you're facing a raise from a tight aggressive player, it's pretty likely that he's going to be difficult to play as he'll have a strong hand. He might give it up, and be passive after the flop, but he's a lot more likely to have something after the flop. When you're looking at the styles after the flop, you're going to want to avoid bluffing a loose aggressive player. You can call them down with a big hand, but you cannot make a move without a hand if they are loose aggressive post flop.
However, if they are tight aggressive, you can attempt to raise them, or call to represent a flush draw, and bluff if a scare card hits, as long as you are cautious and willing to get out if you're wrong, and as long as you consider their preflop tendancies. Someone who is loose preflop and tight post flop is perfect to try to bet the flop to steal.
The more you are comfortable with this type of classification, the easier your decisions will be. Soon you'll say, there's a lot of green players at the table, I need to go red to pick apart their blinds. Or "players are acting blue, I should try to see a lot of flops, so I can bet and get paid off by the squares, or let an octogon do the betting for me when I hit."
TYour mind qwill be able to think in very simplistic terms that will allow it to be very logical, and you can spend your time worrying about the blind structure, the tournement payout, and what type of moves you can make now, and willneed to make later.
By using a system for player classification, you will noticebly improve your game, as long as you don't get too carried away with your bluffs and continue to play any 2 just because they're a green circle. They may be sophisticated enough green circles to realize that you adapt to players styles, and they might change their game based on their perception of you. Also, just because you CAN make a move, doesn't mean you should all the time. You also ideally want to see some verification that the players continue to play the same way, and that they're not players who mix things up. Sometimes players will be green circles without much of a hand, but when they have a hand they'll be red octogons.
But if you gradually add a classification system without changing the way you play too dramatically, until you become comortable with all ocf this, you should find yourself winning a lot more, or at least accumulating chips more, and getting your money in better.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Funny Story, And Big Omaha H/L win!
So I'm playing in an Omaha H/L game and I'm real deep into it. But I have a preseason football game to go to, and I had planned on leaving at a certain time, and can't just ditch out. So I get to the final table, I think maybe I'll put it on autofold, since I'm already gaurenteed $30. But I think no, I'd rather take a few shots and play aggressively. So it's about 10 minutes after I planned on leaving, and I pick up AA23 unsuited and double up to $120k, which is about 4 big blinds away from the chip leader. Then I say, whatever, I'll just play fairly reckless, so I do, and I manage to get lucky and take down the chip leader and go to 330k. I steal a few pots and then get busted and someone doubles up. The table goes to break. At this point I decide, I need to go now. So I tell my mom to play for me. Now other than the last couple hands, I had been playing extremely tight, and with the blinds this high, and about to go higher, I only need one steal and it pretty much is correct to push every hand. She's never played before, so I just show her how to bet the pot. I tell her to just bet the pot every single time with every single hand. At this point it's down to 3 players so I get $180 even if she goes out. If she gets 2nd I get $240, and if she gets first I get $380. I could have just autofolded to 2nd, but I have 250k, the 2nd place has 90k in chips and 3rd has about 20k and the blinds are 5k/10k, so moving in every hand is a much better option. I'm thinking she probably goes out 2nd, Maybe 3 minutes after I leave she calls me. I think, oh no, she must have busted out early, but she tells me she didn't know what hand she had, or what she was doing, but she won!
Sweet!
A big win for 0to1k. Not only did I dominate the tournement, but when I had them all crippled, I let my mom finish them off!
Once it gets short handed and the blinds get so high, it's pretty much a crapshoot. The advantage is on the player that presses forward and forces people to fold.
I had the final table set to record, and I tried to tell my mom on the phone to stop the recording but I think she must have just closed it and exited it instead... Unfortunately no video. If you want some good final table action for PL Omaha H/L register for free at propokerschool.com and watch Brett Gank Jungblutt and his brother Bo, as they play a very good Omaha game. Brett has a bracelet for winning an Omaha tournament.
So now I'm about $200 away from my goal of going from 0 to 1k. Hopefully I can win another tournament or 90 person SNG or 2 and have it done by this weekend, if not by tonight!
Sweet!
A big win for 0to1k. Not only did I dominate the tournement, but when I had them all crippled, I let my mom finish them off!
Once it gets short handed and the blinds get so high, it's pretty much a crapshoot. The advantage is on the player that presses forward and forces people to fold.
I had the final table set to record, and I tried to tell my mom on the phone to stop the recording but I think she must have just closed it and exited it instead... Unfortunately no video. If you want some good final table action for PL Omaha H/L register for free at propokerschool.com and watch Brett Gank Jungblutt and his brother Bo, as they play a very good Omaha game. Brett has a bracelet for winning an Omaha tournament.
So now I'm about $200 away from my goal of going from 0 to 1k. Hopefully I can win another tournament or 90 person SNG or 2 and have it done by this weekend, if not by tonight!
Poker Pros
Poker Pro Styles - Learn how some of the pros play. We will talk about top pros strategies, and why they're effective.
Mike Matusow
Doyle Brunson
Phil Helmuth
Daniel Negreanu
Phil Gordon
Gavin Smith
Hoyt Corkins
Amir Vaheti
Podcasts - Click here to listen to various podcasts that talk about how to survive the massive freeroll fields that will allow you to build your bankroll.
Mike Matusow
Doyle Brunson
Phil Helmuth
Daniel Negreanu
Phil Gordon
Gavin Smith
Hoyt Corkins
Amir Vaheti
Podcasts - Click here to listen to various podcasts that talk about how to survive the massive freeroll fields that will allow you to build your bankroll.
Podcasts
List of all the zerotoathousand podcasts, and other reccomended poker podcasts will go here
Strategy
Strategy - section will go here
Tournament stages
Early
Middle
Middle Late
Bubble
Late
Final 3
Final 2
Final Table
Short stack moves
Medium Stack MOves
Big Stack Moves
Concepts
Concepts - General poker concepts will go here
Small pot poker
pot odds
implied odds
shove odds (preflop)
shove odds (On flop)
Shove odds (river)
phantom outs
representing the flop
representing a draw
adapting to the table
and more!
Small pot poker
pot odds
implied odds
shove odds (preflop)
shove odds (On flop)
Shove odds (river)
phantom outs
representing the flop
representing a draw
adapting to the table
and more!
Book Reviews and Strategy
So here we will talk about useful books, and devise a strategy based on what we learn.
Harrington on Holdem Vol 1
HoH 2
HOH 3
Poker Tournament Formula - Learn what Snyder points out as flaws in Harrington's "M", and why fast tournaments should be played much faster and why your aggression must kick in early in order to have enough chips to allow you to continue to accumulate chips.
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book - Learn about how much to bet, how often to bet, how often to limp in, raise, etc on any situation. Learn when to slowplay and how much to bet.
Supersystem 2-Excellent strategy for the stages of a tournament, and then for hyperaggressive cashgame style, and excellent to learn different games.
Power Holdem - This is a must have if you want to advance your game, and give yourself a chance to move through fields of badplay, as well as allow your skill to play an important role, and minimize your luck. Minnimize risk, maximize reward. Negreanu creates a similar format to supersytem where you can learn about other games as well.
If you're looking for book reviews and website reviews and just general posts, you may wish to consider article submits, or perhaps you may wish to submit your own articles and post your own book review.
Harrington on Holdem Vol 1
HoH 2
HOH 3
Poker Tournament Formula - Learn what Snyder points out as flaws in Harrington's "M", and why fast tournaments should be played much faster and why your aggression must kick in early in order to have enough chips to allow you to continue to accumulate chips.
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book - Learn about how much to bet, how often to bet, how often to limp in, raise, etc on any situation. Learn when to slowplay and how much to bet.
Supersystem 2-Excellent strategy for the stages of a tournament, and then for hyperaggressive cashgame style, and excellent to learn different games.
Power Holdem - This is a must have if you want to advance your game, and give yourself a chance to move through fields of badplay, as well as allow your skill to play an important role, and minimize your luck. Minnimize risk, maximize reward. Negreanu creates a similar format to supersytem where you can learn about other games as well.
If you're looking for book reviews and website reviews and just general posts, you may wish to consider article submits, or perhaps you may wish to submit your own articles and post your own book review.
Bankroll Management
Here's information on how to properly manage your bankroll, so you can assure consistant profits, and you can take shots at the right time, while minimizing your chance of going broke.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Update: $$$$
My internet hasn't been working very well lately so I haven't been able to update. Played in a $3 KO turbo, (not the sitNgo) with about 400 entrants. Made the final table and got 4th. Only had 1 KO the entire tournement I think. I placed 2nd in a supersatellite to an FTOPS satellite event, which was fairly disapointing. It got headsup and the opponent limped and I had AKs and I raised. We had tons of chips in front of us, and the guy says "lets just get this over with, ok?" and shoves in. Now if I had A rag or KQ even, it would be an instant muck. I guy just doesn't all of a sudden out of nowhere say he wants to go and then shove in unless he's got a big hand. But AQ or AJ is really strong headsup, and any pair would be good enough really. So I felt I had to call. However, in hindsight, I think I probably had a better chance of just chopping the guy away and outplaying him, and keeping the pots small and waiting until he makes a mistake on the flop turn and river. But I make the call and he has KK. I still have a 35% chance to win, so it's really not that bad. But I lose. I thought it was a winner take all, but somehow I still got a dollar out of it, which is kind of funny because the buy in was $3.
I also made the money in a $2 180 person buy in but lost JJ vs KK in a hand I actually could have folded because I had plenty of chips and there was a mid position raise and a reraise, I was about 5th in chips with 14 players left or so.
I also made money in the $3 KO SNG placing 6th.
Oh yeah, and I got a bankroll at Absolute poker now too.
More updates later
I also made the money in a $2 180 person buy in but lost JJ vs KK in a hand I actually could have folded because I had plenty of chips and there was a mid position raise and a reraise, I was about 5th in chips with 14 players left or so.
I also made money in the $3 KO SNG placing 6th.
Oh yeah, and I got a bankroll at Absolute poker now too.
More updates later
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Why you always must hang in there
So I took a few shots, apparently I play too loose and recklessly for the .5/1 and $1/$2 stakes
I chose to use a software called poker crusher, which is a game selection tool.
Although it picks the really soft tables, that doesn't mean you can change your play. I felt like with a really loose table that with an EP raise I could call with 99 and then there was 3 callers behind me. Button raises pretty big about 60% of my stack. Rather than sit in with the minimum like I had been doing I decided to sit in with twice the minimum. But After it folds to me I decide to move in, but I'm up against AA. If my opponent had put me all in I was still getting 1.5 to 1 on my money so I needed to be 40% to win, it was questionable but I think my opponent would move in with a strong ace at a loose table like this. My opponent with aces made sure to torture me, and say "AA" and then delay and delay and delay and then finally call. Then he berated me, saying "lol like 99 is always good"
I even thought there was a slight chance he would move in with AJ A pair 88 or higher perhaps. It was at a very crazy game, but I've looked at some potential range of hands, and I seem to be between 39% and 42% to win against various hand ranges.
I noticed myself angrier than usual. Before that I decided to take a shot in a $24 MTT and I just bubbled out. After that, it seemed like everything was either getting cracked, or KK and QQ running into AA, KK getting cracked by AA and even my AA got beat by ATs. In the tables where I took shots, I lost big to bad beats and bad luck (KK vs AA). I tried to play in $3 buy ins and I continued to bubble out, Never all in until the bubble, usually on a coinflip. Very frustrating.
Anyways, long story short I ended up donking all the way to $6 at one point. I decided to take $2 in the low stakes cashgame and just be pacient and I flopped top two from the big blind and doubled up and then the next hand I got QQ and I won a big pot and got my money in on the turn and doubled then left. Then I played in a $3+.3 and won like 1 or 2 bounties, but lost. I decided to do some more work and figure out if I was moving in too much or too little. I got Harrington on Holdem's endgame. And read a lot of it. I think that definately helped me change the way I think about the game. I think when the antes got involved, I played too tight. I think I played a little too loose in what Dan calls the "yellow" zone. So I went back to pokerstove, and calculated a lot of different situations where I'm in the small blind and it's folded to me, when shoving all in is profitable, and when to fold. And then I repeated the work from the button. I still think that just because it's profitable, doesn't mean that there isn't some "opportunity costs" by risking illimination, because there are several sitautions where you could shove all in and have positive EV, and more and more situations as you get shorter stacked... However, if you get too short stacked, you lose your fold equity, and your power to do anything else.
I made just a few minor adjustments. I played in a $3+.3 KO 90 person tournement with only about $8 in my account. And I wasn't picking up ANY hands, and my tables were loose so it never folded to me. I literally never played in a hand other than my big blind until the blinds were 100/200 and I had about 2500 in chips. I picked up AA and 3 people limped I made it 999 and was going to move in regardless of the flop. I think that with a bet of 999 some people might call and then another might move in and I can create a more profitable situation with even more dead money in the pot. It folded around and the last limper before me called. I then moved in on the J high flop and was called by AK since the pot was so big my opponent almost had to call.
less then a rotation later, I got AA again after a few limpers. I bet about 1200 and got called. The pot was 2800 and the flop was Q72. I bet 700 trying to get my opponent to check raise me. He folded. I think a check may have been better here since it's a flop where only AQ or 77 is going to call, and if I check I would induce a bluff and in that sized pot the bluff would probably be all in.
I changed tables after paying the small blind and got moved right on the big blind. And then the next rotation I payed the big blind and then got moved to UTG. It was very frustrating to have to give up so many blinds simply because of a bad table change. I moved in with 97s from SB, and KJ from the button against 2 opponents I had covered both times. Then I moved in with AK and got called by AK and split the pot. Was carefully watching my M and my opponents M and the average stacks "M". Didn't make too many moves on the bubble where I probably could have, although I certainly made a few. Then I made the final table.
It was really interesting final table, because half of the table thought i was pretty reckless since I made quite a few moves leading up to the bubble, and the other half saw me fold every single hand but 2 and both of them I showed aces. Unfortunately they were spread apart and the person It was really interesting 2 people who thought I was pretty reckless sat to my left.
My goal at the final table was to try to fold my way up some spots. I wanted my opponents to do all the work for me, and earn me some money. So I folded KJ in Midddle-late position. But I picked up AT and after a loose player who liked to limp a lot limped UTG+1 and I had AT and the pot was 13500 my instinct took over and 7 players remain. I couldn't help but move in for 28,369, and I took down the pot. Next hand 99 and I moved all in and took down the pot. I pretty much folded down to 4 players and picked up 99 in the SB and a player UTG moved all in for 26580 into a 12000 pot. I had about twice the chips he had, so I moved in over the top and he had J8 but he managed to hit a KJQ flop and no ten or nine to save me. So I was down to 21k and I moved in the next hand and got called by SB. I had AQ, my opponent had 55 2 hands later on my BB an opponent moved in on my BB for 39000. I had 45000. In my hand I had A7s. It was a fairly difficult decision because if I was wrong and lost, I would only have 10k. But if I folded, that opponent would now have ME covered, and I might not be able to fold into a better spot later. I felt like I was a favorite against my opponents calling range, but I certainly could be dominated. I made a call and my opponent turned over 36. I certainly didn't think I'd be that much of a favorite but I won the hand. Next hand my opponent in the big blind had an M of about 4, but it was 3 handed. I was the SB. I only had 24s, but from the work I did early I was pretty certain this was a correct push, although it was very scary to make.
My opponent made the call with A9 and although it looks bad I was actually about 39% to win, and most of the time my opponent won't have a hand that he can call with. but I did run into a hand, however, I managed to get lucky and win.
Heads up I got pretty lucky too, I raised with K2 from the button I got reraised, but the reraise was about 1/5th of my stack. I felt if I hit, I could build a big pot, but I felt that my opponent would check fold if he missed. So I made a loose call. The flop came KJ9 and my opponent lead out. I moved in and he called with AJ and I won and from there my opponent didn't have enough chips to do anything but continue to go all in and hope to get lucky multiple times.
Had I not moved down in stakes and grinded away, I never would have handled the bad runs, periods of mediocre play, and varience of bubbling.
That's why you always must hang in there and manage your bankroll properly
New Final Table Video of $3+.3 coming soon
I chose to use a software called poker crusher, which is a game selection tool.
Although it picks the really soft tables, that doesn't mean you can change your play. I felt like with a really loose table that with an EP raise I could call with 99 and then there was 3 callers behind me. Button raises pretty big about 60% of my stack. Rather than sit in with the minimum like I had been doing I decided to sit in with twice the minimum. But After it folds to me I decide to move in, but I'm up against AA. If my opponent had put me all in I was still getting 1.5 to 1 on my money so I needed to be 40% to win, it was questionable but I think my opponent would move in with a strong ace at a loose table like this. My opponent with aces made sure to torture me, and say "AA" and then delay and delay and delay and then finally call. Then he berated me, saying "lol like 99 is always good"
I even thought there was a slight chance he would move in with AJ A pair 88 or higher perhaps. It was at a very crazy game, but I've looked at some potential range of hands, and I seem to be between 39% and 42% to win against various hand ranges.
I noticed myself angrier than usual. Before that I decided to take a shot in a $24 MTT and I just bubbled out. After that, it seemed like everything was either getting cracked, or KK and QQ running into AA, KK getting cracked by AA and even my AA got beat by ATs. In the tables where I took shots, I lost big to bad beats and bad luck (KK vs AA). I tried to play in $3 buy ins and I continued to bubble out, Never all in until the bubble, usually on a coinflip. Very frustrating.
Anyways, long story short I ended up donking all the way to $6 at one point. I decided to take $2 in the low stakes cashgame and just be pacient and I flopped top two from the big blind and doubled up and then the next hand I got QQ and I won a big pot and got my money in on the turn and doubled then left. Then I played in a $3+.3 and won like 1 or 2 bounties, but lost. I decided to do some more work and figure out if I was moving in too much or too little. I got Harrington on Holdem's endgame. And read a lot of it. I think that definately helped me change the way I think about the game. I think when the antes got involved, I played too tight. I think I played a little too loose in what Dan calls the "yellow" zone. So I went back to pokerstove, and calculated a lot of different situations where I'm in the small blind and it's folded to me, when shoving all in is profitable, and when to fold. And then I repeated the work from the button. I still think that just because it's profitable, doesn't mean that there isn't some "opportunity costs" by risking illimination, because there are several sitautions where you could shove all in and have positive EV, and more and more situations as you get shorter stacked... However, if you get too short stacked, you lose your fold equity, and your power to do anything else.
I made just a few minor adjustments. I played in a $3+.3 KO 90 person tournement with only about $8 in my account. And I wasn't picking up ANY hands, and my tables were loose so it never folded to me. I literally never played in a hand other than my big blind until the blinds were 100/200 and I had about 2500 in chips. I picked up AA and 3 people limped I made it 999 and was going to move in regardless of the flop. I think that with a bet of 999 some people might call and then another might move in and I can create a more profitable situation with even more dead money in the pot. It folded around and the last limper before me called. I then moved in on the J high flop and was called by AK since the pot was so big my opponent almost had to call.
less then a rotation later, I got AA again after a few limpers. I bet about 1200 and got called. The pot was 2800 and the flop was Q72. I bet 700 trying to get my opponent to check raise me. He folded. I think a check may have been better here since it's a flop where only AQ or 77 is going to call, and if I check I would induce a bluff and in that sized pot the bluff would probably be all in.
I changed tables after paying the small blind and got moved right on the big blind. And then the next rotation I payed the big blind and then got moved to UTG. It was very frustrating to have to give up so many blinds simply because of a bad table change. I moved in with 97s from SB, and KJ from the button against 2 opponents I had covered both times. Then I moved in with AK and got called by AK and split the pot. Was carefully watching my M and my opponents M and the average stacks "M". Didn't make too many moves on the bubble where I probably could have, although I certainly made a few. Then I made the final table.
It was really interesting final table, because half of the table thought i was pretty reckless since I made quite a few moves leading up to the bubble, and the other half saw me fold every single hand but 2 and both of them I showed aces. Unfortunately they were spread apart and the person It was really interesting 2 people who thought I was pretty reckless sat to my left.
My goal at the final table was to try to fold my way up some spots. I wanted my opponents to do all the work for me, and earn me some money. So I folded KJ in Midddle-late position. But I picked up AT and after a loose player who liked to limp a lot limped UTG+1 and I had AT and the pot was 13500 my instinct took over and 7 players remain. I couldn't help but move in for 28,369, and I took down the pot. Next hand 99 and I moved all in and took down the pot. I pretty much folded down to 4 players and picked up 99 in the SB and a player UTG moved all in for 26580 into a 12000 pot. I had about twice the chips he had, so I moved in over the top and he had J8 but he managed to hit a KJQ flop and no ten or nine to save me. So I was down to 21k and I moved in the next hand and got called by SB. I had AQ, my opponent had 55 2 hands later on my BB an opponent moved in on my BB for 39000. I had 45000. In my hand I had A7s. It was a fairly difficult decision because if I was wrong and lost, I would only have 10k. But if I folded, that opponent would now have ME covered, and I might not be able to fold into a better spot later. I felt like I was a favorite against my opponents calling range, but I certainly could be dominated. I made a call and my opponent turned over 36. I certainly didn't think I'd be that much of a favorite but I won the hand. Next hand my opponent in the big blind had an M of about 4, but it was 3 handed. I was the SB. I only had 24s, but from the work I did early I was pretty certain this was a correct push, although it was very scary to make.
My opponent made the call with A9 and although it looks bad I was actually about 39% to win, and most of the time my opponent won't have a hand that he can call with. but I did run into a hand, however, I managed to get lucky and win.
Heads up I got pretty lucky too, I raised with K2 from the button I got reraised, but the reraise was about 1/5th of my stack. I felt if I hit, I could build a big pot, but I felt that my opponent would check fold if he missed. So I made a loose call. The flop came KJ9 and my opponent lead out. I moved in and he called with AJ and I won and from there my opponent didn't have enough chips to do anything but continue to go all in and hope to get lucky multiple times.
Had I not moved down in stakes and grinded away, I never would have handled the bad runs, periods of mediocre play, and varience of bubbling.
That's why you always must hang in there and manage your bankroll properly
New Final Table Video of $3+.3 coming soon
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