2009 poker goals

So 2008 is coming to an end. This is a good time to think about my present and future in poker.

I've come to somewhat grudgingly realize something. Since it hasn't happened yet, I'm unlikely to "make it" in poker and be a real big winner. When I started out in real money nearly three years ago I had this dream that someday I could make like an extra $300-$400 a month playing online poker.

Alas it hasn't happened. I've never won enough to be able to make a withdrawal. Still I'm not too upset about it. This past year I set a new high in bankroll. Although the year ended on a downswing I hope to win it back and set a new high water mark in bankroll in 2009. I'm still playing on my original deposit on PokerStars.

So that's a good accomplishment. I get to play a game I enjoy for free. If that's as good as it gets then that's really not that bad.

So, goals for 2009. These were my 2008 goals. I don't have many goals for this year really. This time next year there's a good chance I'll still be doing what I'm doing now. $0.25/$0.50 limit. $10 NL. $2 MTT. $5.50 2 table sng.

I would like to reach the next level in one or more of the games I play now, to reach $0.50/$1 LHE, $25 NL, $4.40 or $5 MTT or $11 sng. But if I don't then well I don't I guess. As long as I don't go backwards or bust then I'll be happy.

One thing I'd like to do is to work off the UltimateBet bonus. So far I have $90 to go after clearing only $10 so far. I find I enjoy UB at times, and the games are better [unfortunately not the software] since the merger with the AP player base on the Cereus network.

Also I'd like to take a shot at live poker. There's a casino in town and they have $1/$2 NL last time I checked a couple of months ago. I've got one more credit card to pay off, and when I'm credit card free I'd like to save up and take a shot at live NL. Maybe by then they will start to spread a small LHE game again $5/$10 or lower.

Spending some PokerStars FPPs

There was an article on 2+2 a little while ago discussing "rakeback" at PokerStars. Of course Stars has no rakeback (which is probably a good thing, notice the other hugely successful site PartyPoker doesn't have it either).

The 2+2 article went on about the Stars FPP program as an alternative to rakeback which also rewards the biggest players who generate the most rake (i.e. revenue for Stars) at the site. They mentioned about the freeroll FPP tournaments that can be used to convert your playing points into cash.

I'm a small time player and I only have around 1,400 FPP points. Still I looked to see if there were any tournaments I could use to convert my FPPs into bankroll. Historically there's been a 10 FPP tournament but that was a joke because you had to sit there for hours to make a tiny amount of money, not a very efficient use of playing time.

There is a tournament available to bronze star though (I think every real money player is bronze star) that looks interesting. For 70 FPP you can win a shot at the $80K, $11 rebuy tournament. There's a seat for every 700 FPP in play. So 1/10th of the entrants will win a seat.

The seat is worth $11, and with one seat per 10 players the EV of each player is about $1.10. Since it costs 70 FPP for an EV of $1.10 that makes a payout of around 1.6 cents per FPP. That's better than nothing I suppose and I haven't done anything to date with the FPP I've accumulated.

I played in one of these satellites tonight and I can say that the EV should be more than $1.10 for any kind of a sensible player. The standard of play was pretty bad (as you would expect for a tournament with an effective buy in of $1.10), so a basic style will be profitable long term. Lots of vpip 40+, vpip 80, donators there.

Unfortunately tonight I got knocked out around the halfway point. I shoved $1300 from the BB with AQ at the $50/$100 level over about 5 limpers. Middle position fish who limped with K3s calls after a pause for half his stack. A King on the turn and I'm out. No worries, play like that is what makes this tournament worth more than $1.10. I want him to call with K3s even though I'll lose some of the time.

With a little over 1400 FPP I have enough for about 20 shots at this satellite tournament. I hope I can cash at least twice for a value of $22 (T$ after I unregister from the $11R tournament). Plus it's a little change in pace. After running well and hitting a new high in bankroll I've been misfiring in both LHE and SnG so I could use a break from a downswing.

here's $5, player

Some good things happening over at UltimateBet lately. First, I just received my first bonus payment after reaching 100 player points. $5 added to my account. That was nice. I could get used to that. For some reason there something very satisfying about getting the free $5.

$95 to go on the 200% initial sign on bonus. At $0.25/$0.50 LHE it seems to clear at an OK rate. So if I can just play break even at the tables I can make profit from the bonus. I'm around break even so far, and the $0.25/$0.50 LHE seems a pretty beatable game. There seem to be enough bad players there that it should be possible to play break even at least - hopefully.

Also UB told me I've been increased to "Player" status. Which is kind of funny because I don't play a lot of hands and because of bankroll only single table UB. So it's not too hard to become a Player on UB. Now Player does have a nice benefit. As a Player or better, you can use your playing points at a penny each to enter tournaments. Right now with a little over 100 points I could cash them out to enter a $1 tournament. That's a pretty good way to cash out your points for something really useful. I'm going to hang onto mine and plan to use them for a $5.50 tournament when I get to that level. It's nice I get to double use my points both for clearing bonus, then to use them again as cash equivalent tournament entry fees.

Bought hold'em manager

I've bought hold'em manager. I was using PokerTracker3 trial. I found with PT3 it was dragging down my system performance. I upgraded my RAM from 750 Mb to 1.5 Gb but it didn't seem to help a whole lot.

So I tried the HEM 15 day trial. It seems to work better on my PC. Also it has the HUD for UltimateBet working today. PT3 just promises it for some unspecified future date [they've already slipped the original target UB date]. Plus as a micro stakes player I can get a low stakes version of HEM for $55. That's a bit cheaper than PT3.

The HUD seems fine on HEM. It does what I want. The post game analysis is a bit better and more polished on PT3, so I hope HEM can catch up. A small change that would be an immediate benefit would be to show the current active filter name in HEM, I wish they had that.

So another small investment in my poker hobby I guess. I find I enjoy having a HUD and it does seem to help a bit with multi tabling. Maybe I could use some help. I've been getting knocked backward at $0.25/$0.50 LHE on both Stars and UB. Still I'm feeling upbeat. I may not be playing especially well. I could beat it in the past so I hope to be running better soon. On UB my bankroll for $0.25/$0.50 LHE is down to around 70BB so I hope to get moving upward before I go bust there.

Playing some limit

I've been playing some limit hold'em again recently.

First an update on $10 NL cash. It's actually going fairly well so far. On PokerStars I'm up around 2 buyins after around a small 1000 hands sample for a win rate of around 11BB/100. On UltimateBet I'm down around 1 buyin after about 2000 hands for a win rate of around -2.8 BB/100.

There are good $10 NL games on UB, I just may not be running well or playing as well as I need to. The $10 NL games seem slightly better on Stars [I stacked a guy AA over KK all in preflop for 85 bb] and I also seem to be running well so far there. Sample sizes are small so it's hard to read much into the results.

Anyway about limit. The thing about UltimateBet was that it seems pretty much impossible to clear the bonus at $10 NL. The "points" you need to accumulate to unlock the bonus accumulate very slowly at $10 NL. So I thought of trying limit to see if that would generate points faster.

I've always enjoyed limit, and had some success at Stars playing full ring up to $0.25/$0.50. So I tried limit on UB. First I accidentally got into a $0.50/$1.00 game that was full of bad players. I won a $13 hand with AA holding up to the river but that was the only pot I won in 50 hands. I ended up down around $2, not too bad.

I meant to be playing $0.25/$0.50 on UB. Right now I have around a 90 BB bankroll at that level on UB. So there's a non zero chance I could go bust on UB if I hit a downswing. If it happens so be it. The worst downswing I've seen in LHE single tabling full ring has been around 50BB so hopefully I won't bust and I can clear this bonus.

At $0.25/$0.50 the full ring action is nearly dead and it's all 6max. That's a very challenging experience. It's an aggressive game and I'm trying to learn it as I go. I have seen some bad players so hopefully I can do a good job of table selection to find profitable situations.

While playing at UB, I've also returned to my historic favorite game, $0.25/$0.50 LHE on Stars. The Stars game seems as good as I remember it. I hope to grind up some BB and get comfortable again and start mixing in some shots at $0.50/$1.00. If I can get comfortable at 6max on UB then I might try $0.50/$1.00 6max on Stars. I haven't had much success historically at $0.50/$1.00 FR on Stars.

And the UB bonus does clear at this level. Every orbit I see points accumulating and points are worth around 10 cents each if I understand how they work. So this is good, I may be able to clear this bonus in some finite time.

Facing a short stack shove in NL cash

This seems to come up a fair bit in the NL cash game, at least at $10 NL where I play. You open raise. Then a short stack with somewhere between 15-40 BB shoves over your raise. What do you do?

Some would say to call unless you are stealing with trash. They might say 30bb stack = fish stacking off so call. Or something like "AK vs a half stack = call". But lets look at it. After all without a read you typically wouldn't call a 100bb preflop shove with JJ. So is it correct to call say a 25bb shove?

In my experience and observation though although bad short players will stack off postflop fairly light [making set mining very profitable], they will only raise, or shove preflop with a strong range.

The tricky part is estimating that range. I would suggest that for a player buying in short then that range is JJ-AA, AKs, AK. I see them shoving those hands often and seldom TT or less, AQ or less.

Now with a range I can use PokerStove to calculate my equity against that range. Although you may be an underdog against the range, because the villian is short and the dead money in the pot it can be correct to call the all in depending on your pot odds.

First the pod odds against various shove sizes. In this example Hero has a 100 bb stack and opens for 4bb in early position, indicating strength. A short stack in middle position shoves on the preflop raise. Everyone else folds including the blinds. So when the action comes back to Hero there is 1.5bb from the blinds and Hero's 4 bb in the pot plus the short stack shove.

I've included a raked pot odds column to show the effect of an assumed 5% rake.

shove size (bb)  pot odds     raked pot odds
15               0.349206349  0.367585631
18               0.373333333  0.392982456
20               0.385542169  0.405833862
25               0.40776699   0.429228411
30               0.422764228  0.445014976
35               0.433566434  0.45638572
40               0.441717791  0.464966096
50               0.45320197   0.477054706

So as the shove size increases Hero is putting in more to call. So your hand needs more equity against his range for the call to be correct.

Now we calculate Hero's equity with some strong hands against the estimated range of JJ+, AKs, AK.

And with that the break even point can be determined. The break even point is when your hand equity is more than the percentage you have to put into the pot to call the all in. I used the raked pot odds to determine how much Hero must contribute to call the all in.

I'm using 15 as the minimum shove size to consider folding against. Below that villain is more likely to be really bad and just donking off the last of his stack and I don't think it would be bad to call with your entire preflop raising range.

hand  equity vs range  break even point
TT    33.7             none
JJ    36.6             15
QQ    47.4             35
KK    62.6             all
AK    39.8             18
AKs   42.8             25

So TT should fold to a 15 bb shove.
JJ can call a 15bb shove but no higher.
QQ can call up to a 35bb shove.
KK of course can call any shove against this range.

The suitedness of AKs helps a bit. AKs can call up to a 25bb shove but AK is only profitable up to an 18 bb shove.

Moving up to $10 NL cash

I'm moving up from $5 NL to $10 NL. I've reached my goal of winning 4 buyins ($20) at $5 NL so I'm going to move up to $10 NL. I definitely have plenty of bankroll for it so it's a good time for a move.

It took a while to get here. It took around 5500 hands with a win rate of 3.7 BB/100. In calendar time it took over 16 months. During that time I had to stop playing poker for a while. I also gave up on $5 NL for a while. It was a LOT longer than I thought it would take.

It was pretty swingy. I started out running well. I was up 3 buyins pretty quickly and looking forward to moving up again. Then a horrendous downswing hit. 8 buyin downswing bringing me to 5 buyins down. That was tough. But variance can also be positive and after bottoming out and playing break even for a while I went on a tremendous heater, +9 buyins. According to PokerTracker3 I've been running at 21.6 BB/100 over the 2200 hands since I started using PT. Within that I've been at 27 BB/100 over the last 1800 hands. So a nice upswing.

At $10 NL I'll try to ease into it. I think I'll try playing around 65-75 BB stack single tabling for around 200 hands to start out. That's just a tick more than the $6 I bought in with at $5 NL. After that I'll try around 200 hands buying in full at 100 BB, $10 single tabling. After that if things are going well I'll try 2 tables and see how that goes. It went pretty well on PokerStars $5 NL. I think I need a bigger monitor for more than 2 tables.

I'm going to play starting out at ultimatebet. Some of the $10 NL tables I've seen at UB look pretty good. Plus I have a 200% initial deposit bonus there which is nice and 30% rakeback. I wish PokerTracker 3 had ultimatebet support. They say they are working on it so I hope to see it real soon. I'll miss the HUD which I really liked at PokerStars. I'll probably play tournaments mostly on Stars.

I've joined ultimatebet

I joined ultimatebet in the last week. I wanted play in a WWE freeroll. I'm a wrestling fan and my kids are too.

I was thinking of just joining they pla money site. But then I decided to join the real money site. I got set up with 30% rakeback from this is the nuts. No special reason for choosing TITN. I just clicked to the rakeback section on 2+2. Their ad came up first so I just clicked through. The rakeback was set up successfully so that's OK. I made the minimum initial deposit of $50 using my Visa credit card. I wasn't sure if it would go through but it did no problems. Yay Canada.

I was thinking of starting up at a new site anyway so this is as good as any. I can only hope they've cleared up the issues and can be trusted now. If I don't like it I can cash out or there's an exchange on 2+2 where I can exchange my UB bankroll for the same amount in PokerStars. I had always thought I'd join Bodog but I'll see what happens with UB.

It was a bit of a challenge getting into the WWE freeroll. Fist it didn't show up in the lobby. I e-mailed UB support and they got back to me a short time later and said I needed to go through the play money .net site. So I downloaded that and when I started it I found the tournament but I got a weird error message about the tournament not being for my card room. I e-mailed support again and they got back to me again and said the tournament was meant for just the play money people. I had told them in my earlier e-mail I only joined UB to play in the tournament.

They resolved it by changing the tournament so I could play. I don't know if they opened it up for all of the .com players in Canada or just my own username. But support was pretty good, no complaints. It seems weird though having a freeroll tournament for play money only. I don't think PokerStars would ever exclude their real money players from playing in any freeroll if they want to. No matter though. The tournament is three stage. I got through stage 1 pretty easily. Stage 2 is tomorrow night at 9 PM my time. I hope I can reach the final.

After the freeroll, I'm thinking about how to work UB into my play. They have some tournaments that look interesting. Also their micro stakes NL hold'em scene looks OK. I'll probably try out some NL cash and see how that works out with the rakeback and the 200% bonus which is nice.

Back in black at $5 NL

I've been on a crazy heater lately at $5 NL. In the last short while I've gained about 7 buyins. With this upswing I'm now up nearly 2 buyins for a win rate of around 2 BB/100. It has taken me around 5000 hands to get to this point.

I've been running very well. Mostly due to flopping sets and then having them hold up for huge pots. The set mine is good. The play is pretty bad at this level so I'm trying to be patient and wait for good hands. I've been trying out multitabling and that may have helped a bit as it makes it easier to just fold marginal hands and pay attention to the other table.

I got the trial Poker Tracker 3 and that is really good. The summaries are an eye opener, especially how unconverged everything is. It just shows what type of sample you need to get a clearer view of how you are doing. When the trial runs out I'm surely going to purchase it for it is a great utility. I wish I had had it from the start. I love data and I didn't realize what I'd been missing all this time.

Under PT I have my last 1600 hands. It says I've been running at 22 BB/100 during that time. That shows how well I've been running. My stats are 10/5/3 during that time so I feel I've done OK at playing tight and I have dropped some hands preflop that I used to play.

WSOP main event

Unfortunately I didn't get through round 1 of the PokerStars WSOP freeroll, so I didn't get to the round 2 seats tournament and my long shot at the main event. I came close a couple of times, finishing in the top 100 twice (the top 50 made it to the round 2 tournament).

So I'll be watching it from afar as usual. I get the updates on Google news every day and I'm following it with interest. This is the only tournament I follow. I don't watch poker on tv either.

The main event just fascinates me. There's such an attraction to it, the spectacle, for whatever reason. I realized this year that I really want to go to Las Vegas and be there in person. To at least be around and soak it in; if not actually play. Of course with a real life commitments and budget and such that will have to just be a crazy dream for the foreseeable future. But it is something to look forward to and dream about and to come up with some kind of a plan to make it happen. Going to Vegas during the main event. I like the sound of that.


Although I've been playing around break even for what seems a while, I've beem feeling positive about poker lately. I've been feeling like making some "investments" in stuff like a better monitor, poker tracker, a book or two, topping up my bankroll, or buying in at a new site. Plus I should really go down to my local casino and try out the cash games or tournaments there. Even if I lose, just go down, play well, and have fun.

Continuation bet always?

The other day I played some limit hold'em. But I found I didn't enjoy it very much for some reason. Time for a change I thought.

So probably against my better judgment I returned to $5 NL, where I'd gotten kicked around before, where I vowed I wouldn't play again. But that was four months ago.

Not a lot to say for far about it. I mined a couple of sets and I'm actually up 1 buyin since my brief return. Nothing special but it beats being down yet another buyin.

One thing that I'm thinking about is continuation betting the flop heads up. I feel that I'm sometimes just throwing money away continuation betting on flops I miss if the other player, no matter how bad, has probably caught some piece of the flop, or knows that I probably missed.

So I've decided to mix things up a bit and randomize my continuation betting. This is just for heads up flops. In a 3 or more way flop it is much simpler and I would generally only cbet with a strong made hand.

For heads up I'm trying the following guideline for continuation betting the flop.

1. continuation bet with a hand 75% of the time. check 25% of the time
2. continuation bet without a hand 50% of the time. check 50% of the time

I need to define with a hand. I have a hand if I flop an overpair or top pair. Also a pocket pair with just 1 overcard on the board, or flopping middle pair [like AQ on a KQ3 flop].

Otherwise I don't have a hand. That would be Ax hands that missed the flop or hands like 99-TT with two or more overcards on the flop.

Harrrington said to use your watch to randomize your play, but online I took the opportunity to play with Python and wrote a small program to do it.

import random
import sys

print "Press enter for a number. Press 'x' or 'q' to quit."

while True:
 instr = sys.stdin.readline()
 firstchar = instr[0]
 if firstchar == 'x' or firstchar == 'q':
     break;

 randnum = random.random()
 print "The next number is ", randnum

I think that randomizing the flop continuation bet has some benefits. If you cbet 100% of the time then this is the case.

1. I cbet with a hand.
2. I cbet without a hand.

Since most flops miss most players cbetting 100% of the time can be exploitable both by skilled observant players who can read preflop ranges against the texture of the flop. As well bad players will call with weak made hands that outflopped you and you are just paying them off.

By randomizing the flop cbet you present your opponents a more difficult proposition.

1. I cbet with a hand.
2. I check with a hand.
3. I cbet without a hand.
4. I check without a hand.

With extra deception you are harder to read and exploit.

There are some consequences of course. For example by giving a free card on the flop you could lose on the turn. That's true but even if someone has as many as 15 outs then you are still good on the turn around 70% of the time.

If opponent has 2-6 outs then sometimes you'll lose to the free card when you could have won on the flop, but around 90% of the time you'll still be ahead on the turn, now with only 1 card to come.

Also with this approach it would be possible to preflop raise with AQ-AK, then just check fold the flop if you miss. These are tradeoffs you have to make.

I know this is $5 NL so many might think randomizing is silly. Perhaps it is, but at some point you have to start to think about it so this would be as good a place to start as any.

One thing I like about it is that it should create more involved postflop play. Hands may not be as well defined and there should be more turn and river play. That at least can make for more interesting and challenging situations. That would make it more enjoyable to play and I am just a recreational player.

Advanced players seem to feel that most profit and loss in poker occurs postflop so creating more postflop situations should be good for my game.

Tournament win $5.50 2 table sng

I took down a $5.50 2 table sng for the first time. I've been feeling pretty good about this tournament since I returned to it. Today I had some luck and some reads and picked up my first win. I haven't won an sng in a while and I must say this is a good feeling.

I'm not going to post the entire hand history because nobody wants to read all that. I will post the more interesting and important hands along the way.


Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: 2,045
MP1: 1,355
Hero (MP2): 1,520
CO: 1,470
BTN: 750
SB: 2,685
BB: 2,115
UTG: 1,560

Pre-Flop: (75) Th Td dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, Hero raises to 150, 2 folds, SB calls 125, BB calls 100

Flop: (450) Ac 4d Ad (3 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 300, 2 folds

Results: 450 Pot
Hero mucked Th Td and WON 450 (+300 NET)

In this hand both SB and BB were loose players. I cbet the flop since 3 way I could represent an Ace defending against the flush draw. With 2 Aces on board it was less likely they had an Ace. Plus if I had the best hand I could chase them away since I don't want to see a J-K on the turn.

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

CO: 1,820
BTN: 1,280
Hero (SB): 1,770
BB: 1,995
UTG: 2,285
UTG+1: 2,865
MP: 1,485

Pre-Flop: (75) 4s Ks dealt to Hero (SB)
5 folds, Hero raises to 150, BB calls 100

Flop: (300) 9s 3s 7c (2 Players)
Hero checks, BB bets 150, Hero raises to 400, BB folds

Results: 600 Pot
Hero mucked 4s Ks and WON 600 (+300 NET)

In this hand I made a bit of postflop play which I don't do a lot. I tend to play ABC poker which works well against this competition and I'm not very good postflop.

BB is loose and bad. I had a read that he will bet at the flop pretty much 100% of the time when checked to. I could have cbet the flop but if he had raised or floated me then I would have had a hard time staying in the hand. When he took a stab at the flop I check raised as a semi bluff. If he had nothing and was taking a stab then he might fold. If he called I had the disguised flush draw. As it happens he probably had nothing and he folded.

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: 1,720
BB: 1,080
Hero (UTG): 2,070
UTG+1: 1,395
MP: 2,985
CO: 2,715
BTN: 1,535

Pre-Flop: (150) Qs As dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 300, 4 folds, SB calls 250, BB folds

Flop: (700) 8d Qd 3d (2 Players)
SB bets 300, Hero raises to 1,770 and is All-In, SB calls 1,120 and is All-In

Turn: (3,540) Ad (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (3,540) Jh (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 3,540 Pot
SB showed 2h 2s (a pair of Deuces) and LOST (-1,720 NET)
Hero showed Qs As (two pair, Aces and Queens) and WON 3,540 (+1,820 NET)

This was the first really big hand I won. These can be difficult spots. Here I flop top pair heads up on a monotone flop. His bet was weak and looked like a semi bluff on a flush draw. I decided to move in to try to defend. A flush draw was more likely than a flopped flush. If he flopped a set then he's getting paid off. I thought it was a bad call by him to play for stacks hoping I had AK or AJ and a flush draw. He should have folded to the flop raise. I guess that's why this level can be profitable, people making bad plays and losing their stack.

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG: 630
Hero (MP): 4,190
CO: 1,345
BTN: 1,585
SB: 4,065
BB: 1,685

Pre-Flop: (150) Qs Ks dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG calls 100, Hero raises to 400, 2 folds, SB calls 350, 2 folds

Flop: (1,000) Qd 7d 9c (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 600, SB raises to 3,665 and is All-In, Hero calls 3,065

Turn: (8,330) Kh (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (8,330) 3c (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 8,330 Pot
Hero showed Qs Ks (two pair, Kings and Queens) and WON 8,330 (+4,265 NET)
SB showed 4h 4d (a pair of Fours) and LOST (-4,065 NET)

This hand was a bit tricky for me. The limper was bad, weak tight. I hoped to take it preflop or get the limper all in preflop as KQs likes to see all 5 cards. Instead the limper folded and sb called.

On the flop I generally don't like playing for stacks with just top pair. But I had a read on SB that he was a donk who could make plays without a real hand. On the 3rd hand of the tournament he had shoved Q9s in middle position over a huge donk preflop raise and he beat AT on the river.

On the flop my bet was a bit weak which might have shown weakness and encouraged him to make a move. I felt against this opponent top pair was good enough to get it in on the flop. It turned out well for me he was drawing very slim.

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG: 3,405
Hero (CO): 7,955
BTN: 10,915
SB: 1,640
BB: 3,085

Pre-Flop: (300) Kd Td dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 600, 2 folds, BB calls 400

Flop: (1,300) 6c Ks 8c (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 700, BB calls 700

Turn: (2,700) Ts (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 2,000, BB calls 1,785 and is All-In

River: (6,270) 5s (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 6,270 Pot
Hero showed Kd Td (two pair, Kings and Tens) and WON 6,270 (+3,185 NET)
BB showed Tc As (a pair of Tens) and LOST (-3,085 NET)

This was another big hand that the opponent misplayed. Preflop I have KTs in the CO and raises had taken down a number of pots preflop.

I don't know what he was doing preflop, it seems marginal. If he had shoved preflop I would have had to fold.

On the flop he missed and his best move was to just fold. For some unknown reason he calls.

On the turn he improves but not by much. I suppose he should call because so much of his stack is in and he did improve. But he was drawing slim and got stacked. Again bad play by opponents is profitable for me.

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: 2,805
Hero (BB): 10,540
UTG: 10,315
BTN: 3,340

Pre-Flop: (300) Jd 2h dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN calls 200, SB folds, Hero checks

Flop: (500) Jh 2s 7c (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 400, Hero raises to 1,200, BTN raises to 3,140 and is All-In, Hero calls 1,940

Turn: (6,780) 4s (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (6,780) Ad (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 6,780 Pot
Hero showed Jd 2h (two pair, Jacks and Deuces) and WON 6,780 (+3,440 NET)
BTN showed 6d 6s (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-3,340 NET)

I don't know what villain was doing on the flop. It was drawless so I couldn't be semi bluffing. I either had to be way ahead of him or on a bluff. Maybe the checkraise was unexpected and caused him to lose his cool and tilt for a moment. In any case it was a bad hand for him to go bust on.

--

It was a strangely fast moving tournament for a $5.50 2 table and we were in the money before the break. No painful and protracted bubble for once. So stacks were a playable at heads up, which is a bit unusual. I noticed the opponent would open fold his small blind so I suspected he was a bit weak. I'm not a strong heads up player myself so any edge I could find I would hope to use. These are some of the more interesting heads up hands. I'm not sure if I played them very well or not.

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BB: 13,220
Hero (SB): 13,780

Pre-Flop: (350) 6s Ts dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero calls 100, BB raises to 400, Hero calls 200

Flop: (850) 6d Qc Ks (2 Players)
BB bets 200, Hero calls 200

Turn: (1,250) 5d (2 Players)
BB bets 400, Hero raises to 1,000, BB folds

Results: 2,050 Pot
Hero mucked 6s Ts and WON 2,050 (+1,025 NET)

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: 14,395
Hero (BB): 12,605

Pre-Flop: (350) 5s 6d dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to 600, Hero calls 400

Flop: (1,250) 4h 5h 8c (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 600, Hero raises to 11,980 and is All-In, SB folds

Results: 2,450 Pot
Hero mucked 5s 6d and WON 2,450 (+1,225 NET)

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: 12,070
Hero (BB): 14,930

Pre-Flop: (350) 6c 4h dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to 600, Hero calls 400

Flop: (1,250) 6h 3s Kd (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 400, Hero raises to 1,200, SB calls 800

Turn: (3,650) 8d (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB checks

River: (3,650) 8h (2 Players)
Hero bets 2,000, SB folds

Results: 3,650 Pot
Hero mucked 6c 4h and WON 3,650 (+1,825 NET)

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BB: 9,495
Hero (SB): 17,505

Pre-Flop: (350) As Jh dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to 550, BB calls 350

Flop: (1,150) 6d 9h 4d (2 Players)
BB bets 400, Hero calls 400

Turn: (1,950) 5s (2 Players)
BB bets 400, Hero calls 400

River: (2,750) 3s (2 Players)
BB bets 1,000, Hero folds

Results: 2,750 Pot
BB mucked and WON 2,750 (+1,375 NET)

--

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BB: 10,745
Hero (SB): 16,255

Pre-Flop: (350) 7h 8h dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to 500, BB raises to 1,000, Hero calls 500

Flop: (2,050) Qd 6s 9s (2 Players)
BB bets 1,000, Hero raises to 15,230 and is All-In, BB calls 8,720 and is All-In

Turn: (21,490) 4c (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (21,490) Th (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 21,490 Pot
BB showed Tc Td (three of a kind, Tens) and LOST (-10,745 NET)
Hero showed 7h 8h (a straight, Six to Ten) and WON 21,490 (+10,745 NET)


The last hand I think was pretty bad by me. Preflop raises were not taking down pots so I should have just limped. After the 3bet I knew he was strong. On the flop he is likely to have connected with his 3bet range so I may not have had enough fold equity for the move I made, especially since I had used this move earlier on the flop and he had folded. On the river I hit my 6 outer and that's that I guess. I think that was the only really big hand I played where my money went in as an underdog. So that's not too bad I guess.


So that's that. I haven't won tournament in a while. I'd been in kind of a blah stretch. Hopefully this will help me to break out and I can get my bankroll out of neutral and increasing again.

PokerStars $2.20/180 tournament

I was looking for a low buyin MTT to play on PokerStars a couple of weeks ago. I was a bit surprised to see some new 20 table/ 180 player tournaments have been added.

There's now a turbo $2.20 180 man tournament. That looks promising with the $2.20 4 table sats to the Sunday Hundred apparently now gone. The buyin is right for my bankroll so I've tried out playing in some of them.

The standard of play is pretty bad. Opponents will stack off light both preflop and postflop. Of course when people call all in so often there will be more crazy beats and variance. KQ is the nuts in this tournament when it comes to calling an all in preflop. I can't believe how often I've seen people call all in with good stacks with KQ. The turbo format increases the randomness. Variance is great when you're stacking off bad players but bad when it knocks you out. From what I've seen this should be a profitable game to be in.

Although it seems it should be profitable, I haven't had much success yet. In 15 attempts I have just one cash, a 12th place. My ROI is -87%. The sample size is small but it may be a combination of running bad and not playing well. I may need to make some adjustments for push/fold mode with M in the range of 3-8. With the 10 and 15 minute levels I was used to there was more time when short stacked to wait for a pretty good hand to move all in with. I may need to open shove with a bit wider range and be more willing to gamble to keep my stack healthy even though I know opponents will call very light.

Stars WSOP freeroll

This year PokerStars is giving away 80 seats in a WSOP Main Event freeroll. I've been taking my weekly shot at this. I enjoy playing in freerolls. There's something relaxing about them.

This is the first year I've noticed PokerStars has given away WSOP seats without having to spend any money. In previous years you at least had to spend $3 in a preliminary rebuy satellite qualifier, followed by a $33 satellite, followed by a $650 satellite for the seats.

This year the barriers to winning a seat are much lower. You only have to beat out other freerollers to win a seat. From playing in them, these play like your basic, well, freeroll. Bad clueless players, play money players, people being silly and playing like donkeys. While average and good players are free to participate in this event, the fields are dominated by really bad players. Which means that bad players are going to win seats; and a bad player can win a seat by only having to face other bad players along the way. That wasn't the case last year. While the $3 event may have been a donkament, the $33 and $650 levels were tough and very tough competition.

I usually play in the Friday 11 PM EST event. The field is around 2500 people. Since 50 people advance to the next round you need to finish in the top 2% to qualify for the next round. That's actually not that daunting as I've been able to finish in and near the top 2% in a number of big MTTs. So it is certainly doable; especially since the level of competition in this freeroll is lower than that even in a $1 MTT.

So I was hoping I could at least get through a round 1 event and win an entry into the weekly final tournament where the seats are awarded. Of course the weekly final would be a very long shot but I really just wanted to be in a tournament with the big prizes to be won.

I came pretty close last Friday. But I feel I messed up and may have blown my best chance of getting through a round 1 event.

I was having a nice run. My good hands were holding up, and I managed to stack a number of bad players. There were 117 left of around 2500 entrants. I had 45,000 chips. The average stack was around 30,000. I was around 25th in the leaderboard. Not quite enough chips to fold into a seat but getting closer. The top 50 finishers advance to the round 2 final tournament. Then this hand happened.


Poker Stars, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,500/3,000 Blinds ante 300, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: 88,775
BB: 35,656
Hero (UTG): 44,990
UTG+1: 46,493
MP: 3,132
MP: 50,809
CO: 14,668
BTN: 3,738 (sitting out)

Pre-Flop: (6,900)
Dealt to Hero (UTG) [Ac Kc]

Hero raises to 7,500, UTG+1 calls 7,500, MP calls 2,832 and is All-In, 5 folds

--> In a turbo with an effective M less than 6 the best move was to shove. I'd just moved to this table and had a lapse in thinking and made a standard raise.

Flop: (24,732) 7h 4h 7d (3 Players - 1 All-In)
Hero bets 37,190 and is All-In, UTG+1 calls 37,190

--> On the flop we both have around a PSB left. Most flops miss most players so I tried to take it with a go and go. Unfortunately he had hit his miracle flop and I was knocked out.

Turn: (99,112) Ks (3 Players - 3 are All-In)

River: (99,112) 3h (3 Players - 3 are All-In)

Results: 99,112 Pot
Hero showed Ac Kc (two pair, Kings and Sevens) and LOST (-44,990 NET)
UTG+1 showed 6s 7s (three of a kind, Sevens) and WON 99,112 (+54,122 NET)
MP showed Jc Qc (a pair of Sevens) and LOST (-3,132 NET)


I wish I had shoved preflop. Then UTG+1 would have folded and I would have chipped up by another 10K and would have been very close to being able to qualify with a top 50 finish. I wonder if this will prove to have been my best chance of reaching the weekly final.

back to the sit 'n go future

I’ve started playing a new sit ‘n go game. I’ve been playing the two table $5.50 sng on PokerStars.

I had kind of forgotten about sng for a while. I’ve been playing mostly limit hold’em cash game, sub $5 MTTs and some $4.40 180 player tournaments. I hit a downswing in the LHE so I was looking for a change of pace that doesn’t take as long as a big multi table tournament.

I played the $6.50 turbo 2 table sng with some success. Although I was profitable playing them I realized I wasn’t really enjoying them. The turbo format is a blessing and a curse. It can be tough when you’re constantly in push/fold preflop and the blinds going up so fast. Any small run of bad cards can threaten wipe you out very quickly.

So I’m trying out some $5.50. I used to play them around two years ago when I first switched to real money from play money. I didn't really have any clue about how to play and wasn't properly bankrolled for that level. I didn't experience much success and wisely gave up after a short attempt.

I read HOH I and II and went on two plus two and moved down to the $1.75 2 table turbos. I had some success there and moved up to the $6.50 2 table turbos. I was profitable at the $6.50 level as well so this is basically the same level. The quality of play is about the same and there are a good number of fish so it should be profitable.

The $5.50 has a slightly different structure. The levels are 10 minutes instead of the 5 minute levels in the turbos. They take around 1 1/2 hours to complete. The 10 minute levels [regular MTT levels are 15 minutes] is about right as there is more opportunity to play and outplay people. Still it finishes in a reasonable amount of time. The play around the bubble is pretty poor as some players become very weak tight attempting to just scrape into the money. That is a good opportunity to chip up and build a nice stack. Fourth is a false prize. I think you need to be gunning to finish in the top 2 where the payout is thick.

I've found the $5.50 2 table sng enjoyable so far. They are a nice change of pace from the cash game. I'm around break even over a small sample size. I hope I can run well and they'll be a source of bankroll profit.

Raised on the turn and river in limit hold'em

Getting raised in limit hold'em on the turn or river when you have top pair or an overpair is a tricky spot. At low stakes against generally loose passive players it's usually correct to fold. However a tricky player can exploit someone who is capable of bet/fold so at times it is good to call down. In a raised pot postflop the pot odds will be tempting to call down since you only have to be good a fraction of the time for the calldown to be profitable.

Here's a sequence of a couple of hands at a table I was playing recently. This was the first hand shortly after I sat at the table.


PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (8 handed)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Qd, Qs.
2 folds, Hero raises, 4 folds, BB calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) Js, 4h, 7s (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB calls.

Turn: (3.25 BB) 9d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls.

River: (7.25 BB) Ac (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: 7.25 BB

Results below:
BB has 8d Jd (one pair, jacks).
Hero has Qd Qs (one pair, queens).
Outcome: Hero wins 7.25 BB.


I considered folding the turn to the checkraise. I had a read from watching earlier hands that BB was a bit tricky. It wasn't a bad play by BB on the turn, he had the gutshot plus 8x plus Jx as outs and some fold equity. Plus he might have the best hand on the turn if I'm double barreling AQ-AK. I'm glad I won the hand but I think it may have been a marginal calldown.


Shortly after that this hand happened.


PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (8 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Kc, Ad.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, 4 folds, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) 6d, Kd, 7s (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG+1 folds, MP1 raises, Hero 3-bets, MP1 calls.

Turn: (6.25 BB) 4s (2 players)
Hero bets, MP1 calls.

River: (8.25 BB) Qs (2 players)
Hero bets, MP1 raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 12.25 BB

Results below:
Hero has Kc Ad (one pair, kings).
MP1 has 7c 7h (three of a kind, sevens).
Outcome: MP1 wins 12.25 BB.

This I think I probably should have folded on the river, despite the pot odds. The board is three flush, he raised the flop and then raised the river. This is not a bluff. Villain knows from a few hands earlier that I will call down a raise with an overpair so he's not raising me with less than a one pair hand because he's seen me call down with one pair. The board plus all the postflop action indicates top pair is no good on the river and the best play is to fold.

A hard earned dollar

I've reached something of a milestone in $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em. Eleven months and over 1300 hands in and I've now made slightly over $1 of profit.

It's been a journey. I ran really well in the micro stakes levels, including $0.25/$0.50 which I beat for 7 BB/100. I started out pretty well at $0.50/$1.00, winning 17 BB in the first 50 hands. Then last spring/summer a downswing hit. It was a 50 BB downswing over around 1000 hands and 4 months. The downswing was caused by the usual combination of card dead, bad beats, and some bad play on my part.

Discouraged and not properly bankrolled to continue, I was glad to give up on $0.50/$1.00. I hardly played any poker at all, just freeroll and $1 or lower MTTs for over 2 months. When I returned to playing regularly I focused more on 2 table turbo sit 'n go where I ran well. I also played sub $5 MTTs around break even with a few small cashes. I played $2 NL successfully and made an unsuccessful attempt at $5 NL which I gave up on.

After quitting $5 NL and reading Theory of Poker I felt enthusiastic about playing limit hold'em again. I restarted at my favorite level $0.25/$0.50 and it was as good as ever. I ran well against poor opponents and chipped up nicely. Thanks to sng profits my bankroll was good to play $0.50/$1.00 again.

I've been feeling good since my return to $0.50/$1.00. More relaxed, not pressing as much, folding more. I'm not worried about the stakes, the opponents, or how well I ran at lower levels.

I've been more diligent about table selection, waiting for good tables with position on bad opponents. Since Stars regularly has well over 100,000 people playing at the same time now I've found the $0.50/$1.00 game better than I remember it last summer. It seems easier now to find $0.50/$1.00 tables that play like $0.25/$0.50. Now if I don't see a $0.50/$1.00 game I like I just play $0.25/$0.50 where the games are always good instead.

Of course there's nothing like running well to restore confidence. Since my return to $0.50/$1.00 I've managed to take down my first $20 and $25 LHE pots. I've won over 30 BB in around 350 hands, obviously running very hot.

So I'm not discouraged by 1300 hands of break even over 11 months. The sample size is not very large. Many multi tablers play well over 1300 hands in a single session. Downswings happen. I had a 50 BB downswing back at $0.02/$0.04, but I knew I could beat that level at the time. I just had to work through it and I did. Hopefully the break even period is just something that I had to get out of the way before I could start winning.

Recent events have been very encouraging. I feel now like I belong here and I can be a winner. There are fish around and beatable tables.

First ever straight flush

I've been playing Texas hold'em online for around 3 years now. I recently made a straight flush for the first time. I've had quads many times over the years and this is my first straight flush.

PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kh, Jh.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 3 folds, MP3 calls, Hero calls, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

-> I like to limp in late position with suited high cards in multiway pots. With 2 limpers and the button playing tight I limp in.


Flop: (5 SB) Qs, Qh, Th (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 folds, MP3 folds.

-> On the flop I have good equity with a couple of draws. Although the board is paired I bet to get some money in.


Turn: (4 BB) 9h (3 players)
SB bets, BB calls, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls.

-> The turn is the magical 9h giving me the straight flush.


River: (10 BB) Ac (3 players)
SB bets, BB calls, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls.

-> I was hoping someone would hit a full house or the Ace high flush. Still lots of bets go in on the turn and river and I win a nice $16 pot for my really big hand.


Final Pot: 16 BB

Results:
SB mucked [Qd 5d] (three of a kind, queens)
BB mucked [Js 8h] (straight, eight to queen)
Hero shows Kh Jh (straight flush, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 16 BB.

Gambling and poker talk

I was watching the TV news with my parents and a piece about this lucky young lotto 6/49 winner came on. He scored $4.5 million off a $2 ticket.

I got talking to my dad about what we each would do if we won a large amount. We agreed that it was smart to just set the money aside and live comfortably off the income stream by investing the money conservatively and never have to work again.

He asked if I play lottery and I confirmed that I don't. He plays a few dollars each week. Of course I don't play lottery because it has a negative expectation.

He asked if I gamble at all. I was a bit hesitant to answer. I gamble when I feel I have an edge like in some online poker games. I don't like talking about poker to people who don't play for real money. It's too much of a disconnect, and the stakes I play are too low to really consider meaningful real money. Basically I don't have anyone to talk about poker with in person but that's OK.

My dad warned me against playing poker for real money. Too late there, I'm not quitting. His reservations about it were that you could go broke playing and you can't get ahead. It's kind of funny because he's against gambling at poker but he plays lotto tickets and slots at the local casino.

His concerns about poker are worthy of addressing.

You can go broke playing

This isn't really true. With modern table stakes poker is a limited liability investment. Your potential loss when you sit down at a game is capped by the amount you choose to put in play. You cannot lose more than that and you cannot be forced to pay more than you initially put in to stay in a hand.

Internet poker is the same, you cannot be in debt online. The only money you can put into play online is funds which you have put into your bankroll. The sites don't have any uncontrolled access to your outside funds.

So with proper bankroll management and observing the Kelly criterion you won't lose your house playing. Of course an individual can choose put money in play that he can't afford to lose. But that's a flaw in personal discipline and bankroll management, not in poker itself.


In a raked game everyone goes broke eventually

My dad described a scenario where players of equal ability play in a raked cash game. He was correct that given enough time the rake would slow leak enough money out of the game that eventually all of the players would end up busted to the rake.

The poker my dad played was against his buddies in an occasional home game in the 1960s and 70s. These were casual players and the only time they played for real money was on their poker night against each other. There was a cap, around $100 I think, on how much any one player could lose on one night.

The poker and beer night game my dad played against his buddies was indeed an EV zero game. Nobody had a meaningful edge on anyone else. This was before the local casino was built and before Internet poker so basically it was the only game they could play. In a raked EV 0 game everyone eventually busts to the rake unless they deposit new money to keep the game going.

The difference today is that with the Internet modern poker players have the ability to seek out EV positive games. We can go from site to site, game to game including hold'em, stud, draw, horse, razz, Omaha, etc. There are cash games, sng, and mtt. We can play fixed limit, pot limit or no limit. Real money stakes range from pennies up to thousands of dollars.

The modern poker tiger has an incredibly large jungle of territory he can freely roam to find games that are beatable above the rake. So the 'EV zero' dilemma is a non issue because an Internet player can just get up and leave an unprofitable game and find a game with enough positive EV to beat the rake.

Giving up on $5 NL

My attempt at the no limit hold'em cash game has come to an unsuccessful end for now. I am unable to beat $5 NL. At this point over 3300 hands in I'm down over 5 buyins for a rate of -7.8 BB/100.

I'm kind of at a loss to explain it. There are certainly many bad players and it seems beatable but I can't beat it. It's probably a combination of running bad and playing bad. Whatever it is, I'm cutting my losses and quitting it.

I think I need a Harrington intervention for my NL cash game. When I started out in real money tournaments I didn't really have a clue and I was unsuccessful. After reading the Harrington tournament books I started winning at tournaments. Harrington has a cash game series of books coming out this year so I probably should read them carefully before returning to NL cash.

So that leaves me playing the 2 table $6.50 turbo sit n' go, where I've been running well. Also I've been playing sub $5 MTTs at around break even with some cashes. I did seem to get better tournament results while I was playing NL cash. So maybe it did help a bit there.

Sometimes a cash game is good for when I don't feel like playing in a tournament or for short sessions where there isn't quite enough time for a tourney. Plus a good cash game can be profitable and that's always good.

I just finished reading Theory of Poker and for some reason that makes me want to go back to limit hold'em. So I'm looking forward to returning to limit. Although I'm bankrolled for $0.50/$1 LHE, I'll start out at $0.25/$0.50 on my return after finishing ToP. I lost playing $0.50/$1 after running well at $0.25/$0.50 full ring so I'll start out at a level I've been successful at in the past. The tables still look pretty good there and if I can run a fraction as well as I did there in the past it will be good.

I may return to NL cash at some point in the future. It won't be $5 NL though. I'm bankrolled to play higher so if I return it will be $10 NL or higher.

The Theory of Poker

I just finished reading The Theory of Poker. It was a good book. I recommend it. Sklansky warns in the forward it is not an easy read, and it wasn't. It was a challenge getting through it but worthwhile. I feel I should read it again but that will have to wait. I need to read something lighter and non poker first for a little break.

Some of the stuff in there was difficult to grasp like raising with the second best hand. Also the heads up on the river chapter was challenging to wade through. The stuff on game theory and bluffing was very interesting and well presented. He also has an interesting concept of semi bluffing where it isn't always just a draw to semi bluff with.

The book discusses lots of forms of poker, not just hold'em. That was valuable because you learn the underlying concepts that also apply to hold'em. Thinking about bluffing in draw or stud makes you understand about bluffing itself more so than how to play a specific hold'em situation and that is valuable.

I've now read three poker books. I've read Harrington on Hold'em I and II in addition to Theory of Poker. There are some more poker books I'd like to read. I should try to read Psychology of Poker next some time this year. At some point in the future if I can move up to higher stakes I'd like to read Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players and Tournament Poker for Advanced Players.

After reading The Theory of Poker now I feel like going and playing limit.

Big stack

I had a good run in a $1 tournament and reached something of a milestone.



I had a stack over $100,000 for the first time. It was a big tournament, over 3000 people. I eventually finished 29th. On the last hand I flopped 2 pair and got all in against top pair + oesd. Unfortunately he hit his straight on the turn and I was knocked out.

I was glad to finish in the top 1% though. I don't think I'll play many more $1 MTTs. The payout was kind of disappointing for the amount of time and finishing so high. I'll be playing "higher" buyin tournaments going forward.

My next goal will be to have a million chip stack. I'll post it when I get there for the first time.