Conservatism

Wee, I'm finally back to playing poker. Just off a session from 4-5 freezouts and about half a dozen SNGs. I'm going to try and play and final table some micro tourneys for now, seeing as my BR is so low and freezeouts are so easy to money in.

I'm going to be working on my play. I'm reading Harrington on Hold'em, and man, I'm beginning to realize more and more how bad I suck postflop. Maybe it's not that I suck - I usually know the right move. I am just hyper-aggressive like you wouldn't believe. It's like: "What? You're gonna fucking call my contbet when I have complete air? What? Fuck you, allin on turn." I bet I win half my pots postflop with the worst holding. It's really bad the way it's going though. I read a guy prefectly for jacks and was hoping I could get him to lay it down, but no such luck. So right now, I'm trying to go into Action Dan Mode. I won't contbet in SNGs with 2+ opponents OOP with nothing. I'll still have to go in with TPTK and lose to sets and twopair and things like that, because the people at 6.50s are total donks, and my BR is still at like 200, but I'll try to be a lot more conservative postflop and allow myself to check/fold when contbetting would mean putting myself allin.

That's another thing I have to stop doing. Contbetting then folding when I've put in 3/4 of my stack. I used to do that before I took a break. I'd be being the maniac at the table, then I'd lose three quarters of my stack (after being the bigstack), then I'd win three allins with runner runner trips or straights or flushes to come back and win the tourney. Man, I thought I was the shit.

One last thing I have to mention about my hyper-aggressivism. I need to stop bluffing allin when I miss my draws. I check/call my flush draw with 8-1 pot odds on the flop, then check/call again on turn with the same odds. Then, if I miss my flush: all-in. Can I play any dumber?

Where were you this time last year?

So i was going through the random junk i keep on my computer, and stumbled across this image.



When i first started to play tournaments, i would screenshot any final table results. Im fairly sure at the time i was really happy with this result, how the times have changed....

SNG = Printing money

Ok, so now you've read my first update, and are possibly wondering how sngs are so profitable. Obviously there is more money in cashgames, but who cares. Cashgames require you to actually play poker, and be semi good - anyone can play sngs! The whole point of sngs are they not just mini tournaments, but they play totally different. In a tournament, payouts are so top heavy that its good to gamble early to win chips, as the aim isn't to fold into the first payout structure but to final table and hopefully come top 2 (where all the money is). However, sngs have a much flater payout structure, so in some sense you no longer are playing for first, but playing to come in the top 3, THEN playing for first.

Ok firstly stats. If i use this blog to keep track of my stats, then its possible i will update it more. Over the last few days i have played 110 $60 turbos (i play in sets of 10). My ROI (return on investment) is 23% and ITM 45%. I'm pretty sure 20% is about the best you can hope for longterm in these, personally my goal is 15% roi. This works out at about +$1500 so far

So rather than just posting how much i rule (or suck when downswing hits) at these, i guess i could be nice and post some useful hands. Because these are turbos, for the beginning i play really tight. Raising AJ from MP might seem a good idea, but with blinds 10-20 your usually either going to win the blinds, a small pot, or lose a big pot. There really is no reason to get involved too heavily early on without a big hand. This being said, once you get down to the bubble you can play much more hands, but instead of standard raising its often best to push/fold till the sng ends.

So for me, it goes TIGHT->fairly tight ->pushbot maniac as the blinds increase, and more people get knocked out. For anyone playing sngs, the main software that you really should own is called sng powertools. This lets you plugin the stacks of all the players along with the blinds, and lets you see what hand you should push in different situations.

One final note, Heads up at the end of sngs is often played wrong by most people. By the time you get HU in a turbo, the blinds will often be pretty big, and one of you will have about 10bb stacks. If either of you or your opponent has 10bb, then you should be pushing or folding preflop - not raising 3bb or anything. This is an easy way to play HU, and profitable too.

With 10bb the hands you should push are 54s, 65s, 75s+, 86s+, 96s+, T7s+, T9, J7s+, J9+, Q3s+, Q8+, K2+, A2+, 22+. (This assumes a calling range of 22+, A2+, K2+, Q7+, J8+, T9s for the villian). Onbviously peoples calling range is different, but as a standard this one isn't bad (but possibly a touch too loose).

If you were to play against a mirror image of yourself, you should be calling with JTs, Q9s+, QT+, K5s+, K8o+, A2+, 22+.

If you use ICM, you can plug in ranges for opponents, and work out what range you should be pushing in such a situation. Heads up isn't hard, its about what range will he call, and then you have a defined set of hands which are profitable to push. There is no grey areas, if the calling range is correct, then so is the pushing range.

Hopefully thats helpful, its a few thoughts kinda thrown together. Over my next few posts i will show some HH where i play the bubble (correctly or incorrectly), i'll show some pushes and the sngPT stats that accompany the push, and show some 3 handed/HU play

F Cashgames (and F 82o)

Ok, so no update for a while means not many final tables... haha. I made the final table of the 3r since my last post, but the HH was so boring i wasn't in the mood to write a report for it. Alongide mtts i have been playing cashgames.... well F CASHGAMES. I have no idea why, but i just bleed money in these. Almost all my 200bb pots i have lost with a 60/40 edge getting allin, but they keep sucking out. Ok variance sucks and im running bad etc etc, but i can't be bothered with this.

This is one thing i don't get, why kids keep struggling along with cashgames and breaking even for long periods of time, when there is other ways to make money. So having decided cashgames are from the devil, i have moved back to my roots and started up sngs again.

For those of you unsure about sngs, they are like printing money. I used to play on partypoker with rakeback, but recently partypoker has changed its structure and i personally dislike the new format. So back to stars for me for pretty much everything, except the occasional limit play on party.

So now i am 10 tabling the $60 turbo sngs on stars, and aim to play about 50 a day along with the 55k rebuy tournament. This seems like a decent daily pattern, and im not yet bored of sngs. I will attempt to update this blog much more often (im sure ive said this before....) but not having to wait for final tables means i should have much more content to post.

Oh, and as a final touch, F 82o. This hand was from the stars 55k last night, 46 people left.

Dealt to TwistedEcho [8s Ad]
KDCho: folds
The Subhuman: folds
Steke: folds
falkeye: folds
cosmoba: folds
dyspnea4you: raises 60000 to 72000
crackem: folds
TwistedEcho: raises 34172 to 106172 and is all-in
dyspnea4you: calls 34172
*** FLOP *** [4d 5h Kc]
*** TURN *** [4d 5h Kc] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [4d 5h Kc 2h] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TwistedEcho: shows [8s Ad] (high card Ace)
dyspnea4you: shows [2s 8h] (a pair of Deuces)
dyspnea4you collected 223144 from pot

That would have put me at ave stack with 46 left. I run good in this tournament for sure....