Maybe they should revive those Budweiser commercials where everyone is talking to each other on the phone saying 'wasssup', 'wwwwaaaaassup' only for the WSOP. 'wssoop', 'wwwwwssssop'
Ok it was funnier before I actually wrote it. Now suffer.
Remember last time when I was beating the rake by .1 big bets for the month. Well I decided to do something about that and promptly lost about 50 big bets in two sessions on UltimateBet by skillfully combining a run of bad cards with astoundingly bad play! Then while still on tilt I took $100 over to PokerRoom where they "meeted me and beated me"... I thought about it and laughed so hard the gun fell out of my hand so I'll have to shoot myself another day.
Still there's a point here and that is I don't plan to go back to the tables thinking of myself as 50 big bets behind. That's suicide and a recipe to lose 50 more. Start every session as if you were even whether you are ahead or behind. Your goal is simply to make good decisions. If someone gets lucky on the last card and wins that can really hurt your stack, but you should note it (in writing, on paper) as a win. If you make a dumb mistake note THAT also and don't make it the next time. Poker's a game of eternal improvement.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Tilty McFish
Ok I'm not going to write about Tilty McFish, but I saw this player the other day online at UltimateBet and it made me laugh. It's the kind of name I'd make--for example in the mmorpg "City of Heroes" I have a character which is spines/regeneration called Spiny McRegen. Tilty McFish... Very funny whoever you are.
I've been playing a fair amount online this month in limits from $2-$4 up to $15-$30. So far the average is very static and near zero this month. I'm beating the rake overall by about 0.1 big bets an hour which isn't part of a great month of poker by any stretch. Of course I am making mistakes and I'm working on them. The biggest leak in my game is still loose card tilt (where my standards edge slightly down each bad beat I take) and over advertising. As they say a little advertising goes a long way, and if your online table is turning over half its players every 15 minutes it's probably not worth advertising at all.
If you've happened upon www.lowlimitholdem.com through a text advertisment this month --welcome! You might have been surprised that a bunch of popups and popunders didn't appear when you came here... This June we're advertising a little and further beefing up the content to make this a place you can come back to again and again. Hope you agree and even if you don't send us some feedback to kmslogic -at- lowlimitholdem.com and let us know what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong--feel free to be brutally honest but also constructive (ideal message: X isn't right, I'd suggest doing Y instead). Of course messages that say X is great are welcome too :)
The discussion forum is still hopping and we're getting some great hand posts and analysis by some of our users. Go to the discussion forum here and check it out (http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/poker_redirect.php?target=LowLimitForum)
Freeroll 4 -- We're working on bringing some more of our famous Low Limit Holdem Strategy and Tactics freerolls to you in the month of August (have to give you some warning, don't we). Ideally we'll have one that's open to everyone who opened their UltimateBet account through LLHSAT even if you've never deposited there and one which will be an invitational so I can let some of our bigger contributors battle it out for a better chance at a good prize.
More later...
I've been playing a fair amount online this month in limits from $2-$4 up to $15-$30. So far the average is very static and near zero this month. I'm beating the rake overall by about 0.1 big bets an hour which isn't part of a great month of poker by any stretch. Of course I am making mistakes and I'm working on them. The biggest leak in my game is still loose card tilt (where my standards edge slightly down each bad beat I take) and over advertising. As they say a little advertising goes a long way, and if your online table is turning over half its players every 15 minutes it's probably not worth advertising at all.
If you've happened upon www.lowlimitholdem.com through a text advertisment this month --welcome! You might have been surprised that a bunch of popups and popunders didn't appear when you came here... This June we're advertising a little and further beefing up the content to make this a place you can come back to again and again. Hope you agree and even if you don't send us some feedback to kmslogic -at- lowlimitholdem.com and let us know what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong--feel free to be brutally honest but also constructive (ideal message: X isn't right, I'd suggest doing Y instead). Of course messages that say X is great are welcome too :)
The discussion forum is still hopping and we're getting some great hand posts and analysis by some of our users. Go to the discussion forum here and check it out (http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/poker_redirect.php?target=LowLimitForum)
Freeroll 4 -- We're working on bringing some more of our famous Low Limit Holdem Strategy and Tactics freerolls to you in the month of August (have to give you some warning, don't we). Ideally we'll have one that's open to everyone who opened their UltimateBet account through LLHSAT even if you've never deposited there and one which will be an invitational so I can let some of our bigger contributors battle it out for a better chance at a good prize.
More later...
Saturday, June 04, 2005
The problem with Steps and more...
When last we spoke... Oh yes, step tournaments at Party Poker. Well it is an intriguing idea, but there is a flaw and the flaw is this. The last couple levels (especially the step higher) tournament are very hard to fill and so you find yourself sitting and waiting... I'm not talk about waiting for the water to boil waiting, I'm talking about waiting for your kids to complete college waiting. And it's also not waiting that you can do away from your computer because when you're starting a $3,000 buy in SnG you don't want to be out watering the lawn.
I believe for this structure to work the last two steps should be scheduled single table tournaments (where you can chose a date and time for a list of options). Since I know the Party Poker folks read this blog maybe they'll do something about that.
Along those lines of pickiness, in a NL tournament before it is your turn to act there is a checkbox where you can select "bet pot", however when it's actually your turn to act there's no such option... Hello? McFly?!
Having said all that the mini-step versions don't have the same issue, and you can buy into the lowest level of those for $5+$1 so it's an inexpensive way to spend a couple of hours.
On the website (http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/) we've moved things around a little putting the discussion forum and of course this blog closer to the top on our left hand navigation pane, and also clearing out some of the older "what's hot" items (they were more leukwarm at this point). Definitely visit and say hello on the discussion forum--there's a few crazy people posting up a storm right now and I think they want company.
In low limit holdem I've been playing a lot at the live cardrooms lately at the $3-$6 and $6-$12 limits. The live game is changing a bit perhaps as a result of all the TV poker and, if not tightening up at least including more tight players. Some people even fold before the flop now! Don't worry--not a lot of them and the games are still great. The larger rooms are now all using electronic shuffling machines to keep the games going pretty quickly. If you haven't visited your live cardroom lately you might want to take a look--they are booming too.
A live hand After you've been playing for a while there are certain sequences of events that happen on the poker table that you grow to almost subconsciously expect. Case in point a hand I was involved in yesterday...
I'm in late position with AhAc and the UTG player raises the pot preflop and gets two callers before me. I 3 bet (which the big blind calls!) and he caps the pot (everyone invested calls). I'm thinking KK. The flop is Td 3h Ts and UTG bets, gets a caller before me, I call and the BB calls. The turn is the 8h and UTG bets again.
At this point the subconscious expectation is that one of the other two players who called the flop bet is going to raise (holding a T)... After all, what are they calling the flop with? I call the bet and the the BB just calls again. That's four players in on both the flop and turn.
The river is the Js and the UTG once again bets and gets the same caller before me. I call again and the BB finally folds. I win the hand with aces and tens. UTG had exactly KK and the middle player at QJ offsuit.
Now this was an especially passive hand because of the way I played it, so it's one I'm thinking about. Definitely that "waiting for the hammer to fall" aspect played into my play, and yet how did it affect the final outcome? Had I raised on the flop it would have been heads up between myself and KK, none of the other players had a threatening draw (perhaps the BB caught a 3 on the flop, but didn't have enough to call on a fairly large pot at the end) so raising definitely would have cost money with the players having the cards they did. What if someone did have a T? With two players having overpairs (which was definitely a strong possibility based on the preflop action) they may very well call hoping to get in the middle of a raising war between myself and the KK that we each only have two outs to win. The only question to me is the river play--should I have raised on the river? I knew KK would call a raise on the river and there was a chance the other caller would call with a hand like Jx that hit on the river (like this case!). In retrospect if I'm losing to someone slow playing a ten or better I'll lose one or two bets by raising on the river (depending on if they reraise). If I'm winning I will be paid off one or two bets.
I think based on the action that not raising on the end was a mistake, but not a giant mistake and it was based on that subconscious expectation of someone slowplaying trips.
I believe for this structure to work the last two steps should be scheduled single table tournaments (where you can chose a date and time for a list of options). Since I know the Party Poker folks read this blog maybe they'll do something about that.
Along those lines of pickiness, in a NL tournament before it is your turn to act there is a checkbox where you can select "bet pot", however when it's actually your turn to act there's no such option... Hello? McFly?!
Having said all that the mini-step versions don't have the same issue, and you can buy into the lowest level of those for $5+$1 so it's an inexpensive way to spend a couple of hours.
On the website (http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/) we've moved things around a little putting the discussion forum and of course this blog closer to the top on our left hand navigation pane, and also clearing out some of the older "what's hot" items (they were more leukwarm at this point). Definitely visit and say hello on the discussion forum--there's a few crazy people posting up a storm right now and I think they want company.
In low limit holdem I've been playing a lot at the live cardrooms lately at the $3-$6 and $6-$12 limits. The live game is changing a bit perhaps as a result of all the TV poker and, if not tightening up at least including more tight players. Some people even fold before the flop now! Don't worry--not a lot of them and the games are still great. The larger rooms are now all using electronic shuffling machines to keep the games going pretty quickly. If you haven't visited your live cardroom lately you might want to take a look--they are booming too.
A live hand After you've been playing for a while there are certain sequences of events that happen on the poker table that you grow to almost subconsciously expect. Case in point a hand I was involved in yesterday...
I'm in late position with AhAc and the UTG player raises the pot preflop and gets two callers before me. I 3 bet (which the big blind calls!) and he caps the pot (everyone invested calls). I'm thinking KK. The flop is Td 3h Ts and UTG bets, gets a caller before me, I call and the BB calls. The turn is the 8h and UTG bets again.
At this point the subconscious expectation is that one of the other two players who called the flop bet is going to raise (holding a T)... After all, what are they calling the flop with? I call the bet and the the BB just calls again. That's four players in on both the flop and turn.
The river is the Js and the UTG once again bets and gets the same caller before me. I call again and the BB finally folds. I win the hand with aces and tens. UTG had exactly KK and the middle player at QJ offsuit.
Now this was an especially passive hand because of the way I played it, so it's one I'm thinking about. Definitely that "waiting for the hammer to fall" aspect played into my play, and yet how did it affect the final outcome? Had I raised on the flop it would have been heads up between myself and KK, none of the other players had a threatening draw (perhaps the BB caught a 3 on the flop, but didn't have enough to call on a fairly large pot at the end) so raising definitely would have cost money with the players having the cards they did. What if someone did have a T? With two players having overpairs (which was definitely a strong possibility based on the preflop action) they may very well call hoping to get in the middle of a raising war between myself and the KK that we each only have two outs to win. The only question to me is the river play--should I have raised on the river? I knew KK would call a raise on the river and there was a chance the other caller would call with a hand like Jx that hit on the river (like this case!). In retrospect if I'm losing to someone slow playing a ten or better I'll lose one or two bets by raising on the river (depending on if they reraise). If I'm winning I will be paid off one or two bets.
I think based on the action that not raising on the end was a mistake, but not a giant mistake and it was based on that subconscious expectation of someone slowplaying trips.
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