Author Topic: If Carlsberg did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one  (Read 225198 times)

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monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #810 on: February 20, 2011, 22:38:34 PM »
In a blatant attempt to ensure I get my annual mention in the APAT advent calender I thought it was time for another change of title. This time next week I"ll probably get bored and change it again. 
  Before I get stuck into the real point of tonight"s post, a few words of explanation. When I started writing this blog, I went for a light-hearted vibe. There are one or two pieces of serious writing hidden away in there somewhere, but over a period of time I became bored of what I was doing and to be perfectly honest, there are other people on this site who do that kind of thing several times better.
 When I recently restarted posting on here, my poker world was a completely different place. I"ve said this before and I"ll say it again, but after several years of (successfully,profitably) messing around with tournaments, I decided that I wanted to take the game a lot more seriously. I was looking to see whether it was possible to turn something I feel I"m pretty good at into a relatively steady flow of money in to one of my bank accounts. Once I"d sussed that messing around with different variants wasn"t doing me any good and I"d experienced a eureka moment when Hold'em manager was demonstrated to me, I decided I"d turn myself into a cash player. January was a painful month, but I wanted to completely rip my game to pieces and start from scratch, so I was expecting a slow start. February has been a completely different beast and at the moment I"m flying. Yes, it may partly be as a result of lots of good cards, but I also know that I"m not getting involved in situations that got me into trouble a few weeks ago.
  So why the concentration on statistics? Well, the reasons are twofold. Firstly, whenever I read of anyone either winning a tournament or a large sum in a cash game, part of me always asks "yeah, that"s all very well, but how much have you lost in chasing that moment of glory? What is your bottom line?". Secondly, its a means of keeping an eye on myself. I will mention my bad days as well as the good days, the losses as well as the triumphs, the errors as well as the genius plays. I feel strongly that if I"m going to post anything at all it has to be warts-and-all, so if sometimes that means this is slightly hard going, that"s too bad, there are plenty of other things to read. With that in mind, if anyone is interested, at the moment I"m only playing 5 cent/10 cent games. Not much to boast about I know, but with me taking a detailed look at my game, I felt I had to start at the bottom and work my way up. I think I"m capable of making money a lot higher that, but rather than just thinking it, I"m going to damn well prove it.    
  So, onto the results for the weekend and everything is smelling of roses

Combined results 19th and 20th March 2011
------------------------------------------

Minutes played - 350
Hands -  984
Profits - 492 x bb
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duke3016

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #811 on: February 21, 2011, 00:13:05 AM »

so if sometimes that means this is slightly hard going, that"s too bad, there are plenty of other things to read. With that in mind, if anyone is interested


I am keep it going

duke3016

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #812 on: February 21, 2011, 00:23:54 AM »
Oh and by the way you really don"t want to see my bottom line  ::) - keep posting

monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #813 on: February 21, 2011, 22:34:43 PM »
Woop Woop! I"ve now managed 10 consecutive seesions in profit.

Today"s results
--------------
Minutes played - 69
Hands - 200
Profit - 135 x bb
Currently tearing the Ipoker anonymous tables a new one

Swinebag

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #814 on: February 21, 2011, 23:28:54 PM »
You are running well here Simon. Anything particular that you are doing that you weren"t doing before (though you have been a winning player for a while)

What stakes are you playing btw
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monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #815 on: February 22, 2011, 15:55:32 PM »

You are running well here Simon. Anything particular that you are doing that you weren"t doing before (though you have been a winning player for a while)

What stakes are you playing btw


Stakes - only 5 cent/10 cent at the moment but not for much longer. I"ve certainly been a winning tournament player for some time and I managed to luckbox my way to a healthy profit playing various cash games last year, but so far this year I"ve not played a single tournament other than 2 freerolls and have not played a single hand of anything other than no limit hold"em. In an effort to keep this brief,I"ll try and condense as much as possible into bullet points:

1) Site selection is crucial. I avoid any sites open to USA players and have a strong preference for being able to move funds freely in and out of my account via a debit card. In January the bulk of my hands were on an IPoker skin, but found the default play I fell into revolved around 3 and 4 betting in button v blind situations and little else. 888 players are the worst anywhere, shoving with any 2 cards on occasion and turning it into a game of bingo rather than poker. I"m currently playing exclusively on Betfair not because of the APAT connection, but predominantly the players seem to have a vague clue about what they are doing and are very weak; a combination which I think is perfect for extracting maximum value. Having 40% rakeback certainly helps as well.
2) I never sit down in a seat with anyone with greater than 1.5 times the max buy-in within 2 seats either side of me (unless I"ve played them before and they are exceptionally weak) and always reposition my avatar so that I"m in the same seat at every table every time I play.
3) Remember that AK is no more than a drawing hand. I"m now more ready to ditch it after the flop and probably play it in a similar way to low 1-gap starting hands, except that I"m more inclined to raise Ak in early position than the lesser hand.
4) I almost always raise into a pot rather than limp. I"ll only ever limp to add a bit of variety to my play after I"ve been at a table for a while.
5) I almost never slow play. My experience is that playing hands fast doesn"t lose too many customers and slow-playing is simply asking for someone to catch up and steal your pot. If I flop an absolute monster I will slow-play, but there are very few situations where I will do this to showdown.
6) I will rarely play any pair below pocket tens unless in the final 3/4 seats before/including the button.
7) If the action folds to me in the small blind I raise with any two cards.
8 ) If the action folds to me on the button, I will raise with most holdings. Most players are smart enough to spot this and will reraise, so with this in mind, under these circumstances I will 4 bet with any 2 cards
9) If faced with a single raiser in front of me, I will either 3 bet or fold regardless of whether I have a hand or am bullying. At this level, if someone raises then 4 bets without going all in they have aces. If they 4 bet all in they occasionally have aces, most frequently have AK but could have almost anything.
10) Using hold"em manager to assess 3 bet frequency is invaluable when deciding who to target with 3 or 4 betting.    
11) Remember that at lowly levels most players will never give up on a good stating hand, so don"t be too proud to ditch your aces if the board looks as though it could have hit a number of possible decent stating hands and they bet beyond the flop.
12) Be lucky
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 17:04:29 PM by monkeyman »
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Swinebag

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #816 on: February 22, 2011, 16:01:54 PM »
top post but I particularly liked this



8 ) If the action folds to me on the button, I will raise with most holdings. Most players are smart enough to spot this and will reraise, so with this in mind, under these circumstances I will 4 bet with any 2 cards





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Des

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #817 on: February 22, 2011, 18:12:25 PM »
Great post, only query I would personally have is with:

7) If the action folds to me in the small blind I raise with any two cards.

When I played a bit, PT highlighted I was leaking a small (excuse the pun) fortune with loose play while in the SB.  Quite probably just me.
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Swinebag

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #818 on: February 22, 2011, 21:22:24 PM »

Great post, only query I would personally have is with:

7) If the action folds to me in the small blind I raise with any two cards.

When I played a bit, PT highlighted I was leaking a small (excuse the pun) fortune with loose play while in the SB.  Quite probably just me.



I think everyone loses in the SB in the long run.

Does making up the blinds count as loose play, because that would be a major leak. I"m pretty sure raising isn"t too bad.

I tend to give a load of walks and will only raise with top 5 hands ;) ;)
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monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #819 on: February 22, 2011, 22:46:18 PM »

Great post, only query I would personally have is with:

7) If the action folds to me in the small blind I raise with any two cards.

When I played a bit, PT highlighted I was leaking a small (excuse the pun) fortune with loose play while in the SB.  Quite probably just me.



Entirely fair comment. The thinking behind this is that playing at a lowly level the players tend to be weak/loose and they don"t often respond unless they"ve got something. As a result, this becomes a play which will never make huge sums but over the long term will produce a positive return. Having said that, I strongly suspect that not too many steps up the ladder when the players are a bit stronger and tend to fight back a bit more, letting the big blind have a walk will become the preferable option.
   So onto tonight"s action and I got away with completely misplaying one hand. I was in late positition with pocket Kings and the player to my right limped. I standard raised and he called. The flop was  td :3h: 7c, opponent checked, I bet three-quarters pot and he called. Turn was  6h, he again checked, I bet three quarters pot and he check/raised. How dare he disrespect my Kings? I called. The river was  qs, he shoved, I called and he revealed pocket threes which of course became trips on the flop. I was furious at not getting away from this one as at this level, players just don"t check/raise without a monster. I really should have folded when I was check/raised. Maybe this is conclusive proof that playing 3 tables whilst chatting to an ex girlfriend on Facebook is not a +EV play.    

Today"s results
--------------

Minutes played - 121
Hands - 366
Profit - 42 x bb
Currently tearing the Ipoker anonymous tables a new one

monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #820 on: February 22, 2011, 22:48:53 PM »


Great post, only query I would personally have is with:

7) If the action folds to me in the small blind I raise with any two cards.

When I played a bit, PT highlighted I was leaking a small (excuse the pun) fortune with loose play while in the SB.  Quite probably just me.



I think everyone loses in the SB in the long run.

Does making up the blinds count as loose play, because that would be a major leak. I"m pretty sure raising isn"t too bad.

I tend to give a load of walks and will only raise with top 5 hands ;) ;)


Only raise with top five hands? When did you loosen-up that much?
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ronaldo07

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #821 on: February 23, 2011, 09:47:55 AM »
Monkeyman I"m currently playing 5/10 cents nl on boss/ft/stars with varying success.

Is the 40% rakeback on betfair available to existing players?

Great posts btw
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monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #822 on: February 23, 2011, 15:56:51 PM »

Monkeyman I"m currently playing 5/10 cents nl on boss/ft/stars with varying success.

Is the 40% rakeback on betfair available to existing players?

Great posts btw

I was given the rakeback when Betfair moved from their independent software to the Ongame network, so I don"t think its freely available at the moment.
   If you"re playing low stakes cash games, it might be worth steering clear of Full Tilt and Pokerstars. They may well be the two best sites, but they also attract the best players and there is a noticeable difference in standard between them and some of the no-american-players sites. Finding the softest games is as important for a cash player as the standard of your own play, so it might be worth having a look at the Ipoker/888/Ongame networks instead.    
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monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #823 on: February 23, 2011, 23:29:51 PM »
It was going to happen eventually, but my sequence of winning sessions is at an end. I started badly by having a set-over-set (my tens versus his aces) confrontation after a few minutes and never really recovered. I"m slightly frustrated as I feel I could have got away from the hand in question preflop. Ho hum, I"m a long way in the black this month and can"t really complain at my Betfair stat of 16 winning sessions out of 19. I will have to think seriously about haing a punt or two at the next buy-in up.
   I won"t be able to play for a few days as I"ve got a gig tomorrow (The Go Team),beer and clubbing friday,then another gig on saturday (Terrorvision).

Today"s results
--------------
Minutes played - 128
Hands -  337
Loss - 175 x bb
Currently tearing the Ipoker anonymous tables a new one

monkeyman

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Re: If heineken did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one
« Reply #824 on: February 27, 2011, 21:19:13 PM »
After a few days of not playing, i returned to a non-event, damp squib of a session, where nothing of interest happened. My profit and loss boiled down to one hand, so without giving my figures for tonight, I thought I"d post the hand in question and invite comment. Ok here goes.................

1) Apart from myself, two other players were involved in the hand in question and I"d not played either of them before  
2) UTG had around a third of the maximum buy-in and the button had me comfortably covered ( I always keep myself topped-up to the max)
3) UTG raised 4 x bb
4) I"m in mid-table with qs qd and reraise to 12.5xbb
5) Button calls
6) UTG shoves
7) I also shove
8 ) Button folds
9) UTG shows  ah kc which is what I thought he had

Would anyone have taken a different line?
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