Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Below the golden ratio

Last night, like the night before, I played loose. Last night, like the night before, I lost my full starting stack of $40,000 at the first table I joined. Last night, unlike the night before, I didn't recoup any chips at the second table I joined. With those two losing sessions, I again fell below the golden ratio of twice as many winning sessions as losing sessions.

I concede I've been playing too loose, and need to tighten up my game. Here's the hand which really hurt me at the first table:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $41,400

my hole cards: Kc Ah

pre flop betting round:

I was the big blind. There was a raise to $400. I reraised to $600, then called a reraise to $2700 along with one other player.

flop: 6s 4d Kd

flop betting round:

I bet $6,000. The reraiser from the previous round raised to $16,849 to go all in. The other caller from the previous round folded, and I called. Since no more betting was possible, my cards and the reraiser's were turned face up. Wouldn't you know it, the reraiser had pocket rockets :-(

turn: 7c

river: Js

result: my pair of kings lost to a pair of aces.

my chip stack at the end of the hand: $21,851

After that huge hit, I slowly but surely descended to the felt.

delta: $-62,300
balance: $620,512

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Loose vs. tight

I played loose last night, and lost. However, I don't feel too badly about it. I'd feel badly if I'd played tight and lost. My one-and-a-half years plus of poker experience tells me it's much better to play a little too loose than a little too tight. It's nearly impossible not to do one or the other!

That reminds me of a funny story a doctor told me once. As he was stitching me up after a minor procedure, he said that when he was an intern and learning how to do stitches, the supervising doctor was so exacting that he could never bring himself to praise the stitchwork of the interns; in his opinion, the stitches were always either too loose or too tight. That led one wag to suggest to his peers that they should simply ask the doctor how he wanted the stitches -- "Too loose or too tight?"

delta: $-29,367
balance: $682,812

Monday, June 28, 2010

Stubbornness

Last Thursday's session was a winning one for one reason and one reason only -- I was too stubborn to lay down pocket queens. I had no real business staying in the hand, but I stayed in anyway, and won with them. That hand gave me lift; I drifted slowly down from that point on, but called it a night before I came back too far.

Here's how the hand played out:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $38,000

my hole cards: Qh Qd

pre flop betting round:

I raised the big blind of $200 by $200
an opponent reraised me $1300
a third player and I called

flop: Jd 4h 6s

flop betting round:

I checked; the reraiser from the previous betting round bet $1,000. The third player folded, and I called.

turn: 7c

turn betting round:

I checked, and the reraiser from the first betting round bet $5,000. I called.

river: 5s

river betting round:

I bet $10,000, and the reraiser raised me $668 to go all in. I called.

The reraiser showed Tc Ad, for a high card ace. I showed my pair of queens, and won a pot worth $38,936.

my chip stack at the end of the hand: $58,568

I stayed in the hand for two reasons: 1. my queens were overcards to the board 2. the board never paired. My $10,000 bet was basically a semi-bluff. At the time I made it, I wasn't thinking in terms of how many chips the reraiser then had, but probably would have made the same bet in any case.

It makes no sense to me why the reraiser went all in when he did, on an ace high; he must have been on tilt, though I hadn't detected it. Be that as it may, I was happy to take his chips!

delta: $12,468
balance: $712,179

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Housed

On Tuesday night, I played well enough to win -- but didn't. Twice, I had straights rubbed out by full houses. If I'd won those two pots, I would have come out well ahead on the night. Both times, the full houses were made the hard way -- with only one pair showing on the board. To add a little insult to injury, both full houses were also made with pocket pairs. Somehow, those types of full houses seem more stealthy and dastardly to me than full houses made with pocket cards which differ from each other.

You know me well enough to know I'm not discouraged by this in the least.

stats:

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 82 hands and saw flop:
- 16 out of 18 times while in big blind (88%)
- 12 out of 18 times while in small blind (66%)
- 40 out of 46 times in other positions (86%)
- a total of 68 out of 82 (82%)
Pots won at showdown - 11 of 20 (55%)
Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $-17,500
balance: $699,711

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Laydown prowess

In Saturday night's session, I saved myself a ton of chips by laying several hands down at just the right time. That's a skill I've known for some time that I needed to work on. Here's the best laydown of the bunch:

my hole cards: 3c Ah
flop: 9c 2h Ad
turn: 3d
river: 9h

Despite having top two pair, I folded on the river. Two players stayed in the hand; the winner had a full house, aces full of nines, and the loser had three of a kind, nines.

In other news, I saw someone else have some really bad luck. He made a flush with both of his hole cards contributing, but lost to another flush, which again was made with both hole cards contributing. That's happened to me once before, and it really stings.

After quite a long hiatus reading other things, I've picked up A. Alvarez's "The Biggest Game in Town" again; it's very entertaining and I won't have any trouble finishing it this time around.

delta: $27,400
balance: $717,211

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Expecting to win

I expect to win every time I play. I just feel that my card sense is better than that of most of the opponents I've encountered. Brash, bold words, I know. The funny thing is, rather than leading me into trouble, this hubris actually seems to have allowed me to become quite successful. I don't get too down when I lose, and I don't play scared.

I'll admit, I did play scared for roughly 3 months, the period when I chose to play the $5/$10 tables exclusively. I thought then that the best way to get to my goal was a slow and steady progression over the course of years. I'm not exactly sure what made me change my mind; I think I just got fed up with the snail's pace.

Last night I achieved lift fairly early in the session, and mini-porpoised the rest of the way.

delta: $22,550
balance: $689,811

Friday, June 18, 2010

Comfort zone

I've played enough poker now to recognize just how amateur I was when I started. Not that I think I'm a pro now, but I've definitely improved. One indicator is the fact that my panic zone has shrunk, which is another way of saying that my comfort zone has expanded. Not so long ago, I'd get really nervous when my starting stack dwindled to a quarter of its original size. Nowadays, though I'm not ecstatic when that happens, I handle it much better.

I've said it before, but it's such a good metaphor I'll steal from myself (and countless others, no doubt) and say it again. Poker ebbs and flows like the tide. You have to accept that fact. I'll go further -- you should embrace that fact. Realizing this truth deep in your poker bones, at the very core of your poker heart, will sustain you in the deep ebb times.

On Wednesday night, I porpoised trending downward for most of the session. The hardest decision I had to make came on the last hand; one of my opponents was betting really big, but it felt like he was trying to force me off my hand, and couldn't win at showdown. I called him down, and won a pot worth $82,300 with a pair of jacks; my opponent had a pair of fours.

delta: $44,300
balance: $667,261

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Futility

Last Friday's session was another four table affair. As you might have guessed by the title of this post, it was a horror show. I lost 12% of my balance. Before I won my first showdown, I'd already lost two starting stacks worth, or $80K. I hit a new high (low?) water mark for showdown futility. Here are the gory details:

table 1: 0 of 7 showdowns won
table 2: 0 of 3 showdowns won
table 3: 1 of 6 showdowns won

That's 1 of 16 showdowns won at the first three tables. Thank God things finally turned around for me at the last table:

table 4: 5 of 8 showdowns won

The thing is, those kinds of nights will happen, and I'm not actually discouraged. I made some bad decisions, but I also ran into some bad luck. I haven't had a chance to play since Friday, and I'm psyched that I'll be playing right after I finish this post!

delta: $-87,329
balance: $622,961

Friday, June 11, 2010

Fatal distraction

Last night's poker session started late, since I'd watched the riveting (and immensely satisfying, to Celtics fans such as me) conclusion of game 4 of the NBA Finals. Doc Rivers made a great coaching decision in keeping the Celtics bench players in the game for the majority of the fourth quarter. It was a masterful application of the adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"!

I decided to try the experiment I mentioned a couple of posts ago, of covering with a yellow sticky note the area of the screen where PokerStars displays the current size of my chip stack. It certainly felt odd not knowing how many chips I had left in the game. I thought I was playing really cautiously, but by the time I couldn't stand the suspense any more and ripped the sticky off the screen, I was surprised to discover I'd lost over a quarter of my stack. I won't be trying that experiment again any time too soon. The sad part is, I don't have the hand history from the portion of the session with the sticky in place, since I knew that if I saved it, I'd either peek at the text showing my stack size or see it by mistake as I was saving.

The killer hand of the night was when I hit a flush on the turn, but was distracted by a question from my wife just at that critical juncture; on poker autopilot, I bet a meager $200 instead of protecting my flush with a much larger bet. Wouldn't you know, the river supplied the fourth card to a flush, and my flush was beaten by a better one.

I need to upgrade my poker autopilot! :-)

delta: $-37,500
balance: $710,290

Quick hit

On Wednesday night, I had a very short session. I only played five hands, but won two of them. I saw that one of the other players was playing very aggressively, and knew I could take a lot of chips off him with a good hand. I got one; it was a flush which I made on the turn. The pot was worth $70,900; I decided to take the money and run.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 5 hands and saw flop:
- 0 out of 1 times while in big blind (0%)
- 1 out of 1 times while in small blind (100%)
- 2 out of 3 times in other positions (66%)
- a total of 3 out of 5 (60%)
Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $36,150
balance: $747,790

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Mini tilt and stack tilt

I've come to realize there are many ways and degrees of going on tilt. Last night, I succumbed to two of them. First, I went into what I'll call "mini tilt". Mini tilt is when you have the bulk of your good-decision-making machinery in place and operational, but you still find yourself hanging around in bad hands just a little too long. You don't make a major bad decision, but you make a series of small bad decisions, and they add up. Your chip stack suffers over time. Mini tilt doesn't have to be fatal; you can survive it with a good hand thrown your way here and there. However, when you're in mini tilt and get a strong hand which doesn't win, that can be hard to recover from (both psychologically and stack-wise). That happened to me last night. Here's the hand that hurt:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $20,000
my hole cards: 9d As
flop: 7c Kc 2h
turn: Ah
river: Ac
my hand: three of a kind, aces
winning hand: Kd Kh for a full house, kings full of aces
my chip stack at the end of the hand: $12,900

The second kind of tilt I engaged in is what I call "stack tilt". That's when my stack has shrunk to about a quarter of its original size, and I start to become obsessed with how small it is. I stop making good poker decisions, and instead try to bring my stack back up to respectability at any cost. Clearly a very bad strategy! To play well, you really have to play each hand on its own merits, regardless of the size of your stack.

I recently read that poker wunderkind Annette Obrestad played and won an online tournament after she'd put a yellow sticky note on her computer screen, over the place where her hole cards were displayed. She said she only peeked once all tournament; her point was that position is so powerful in poker, sometimes it's irrelevant what your cards actually are! This made me think of another experiment to try -- it would be really interesting to play a variant of poker where you never get to see your stack size. My idea is that this version of poker would pretty much ensure that you'd never fall into stack tilt. I think this variant is also achievable with the simple expedient of a sticky note, but I'm not 100% sure. It's a little embarrassing to admit that I don't know the PokerStars GUI well enough off the top of my head to say with certainty, despite having used it so many hundreds of hours!

As no doubt you've already guessed, indulging in not one but two flavors of tilt caused me to hit the felt at last.

delta: $-40,000
balance: $711,640

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Lift

Last night, on my very first hand, I missed out on quads. I was dealt Th 6d, and the flop came 2h 6c Js, giving me middle pair. Someone bet $1,200 on the flop, and I folded. Wouldn't you know, both the turn and the river were sixes. I would have pulled down a monster pot, since the winner of the pot had a full house of sixes over jacks, and probably would have gone all in. Still, I think I probably made the right play.

Just a couple of hands later, I won a decent size pot with two pair, queens and nines. That pot gave me "lift"; it vaulted my chip stack up to $64,400. When you've achieved lift, you have a ton of options; you can be really choosy about what hands you'll play, or you can be really aggressive, or some combination of both.

As fate would have it, I mini-porpoised for the rest of the session, but at least I didn't come back down. Here are the stats:

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 65 hands and saw flop:
- 17 out of 18 times while in big blind (94%)
- 16 out of 16 times while in small blind (100%)
- 25 out of 31 times in other positions (80%)
- a total of 58 out of 65 (89%)
Pots won at showdown - 9 of 17 (52%)
Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $25,300
balance: $751,640

Monday, June 7, 2010

Failing to take the hint

Sometimes, the poker gods send unequivocal messages that this is just not your night. I received such communications on Friday night, but unfortunately paid them no heed.

message 1: losing with a nut flush

hole cards: 7h Ah
flop: Jc 5h Jh
turn: Kd
river: 6h
winning hand: full house, jacks full of sixes

message 2: everyone leaves your table, forcing you to leave as well

message 3: losing with pocket rockets

delta: -57,500
balance: $726,340

Friday, June 4, 2010

Freerolling

Every so often I realize after losing a big hand that my opponent could have gotten even more chips from me. It's those situations when my opponent was in a freeroll position, but eventually stopped reraising my raises. Though I'm grateful for the pass, I want to make sure I don't make the same mistake when I find myself in a freeroll position.

The last hand of last night's session, I found myself in that position, and kept reraising until my opponent went all in.

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $40,880
my hole cards: 2s 2h
flop: 2d 3s As
turn: 3c
river: 8s
losing hand: 2c Ad for two pair, aces and threes
winning hand: full house, deuces full of threes
my chip stack at the end of the hand: $72,196

As you see, my opponent fell in love with a stealth two pair; I can relate! I would have won with just the set of twos, but the fact that I made a full house on the turn meant that I was in a freeroll position. I was essentially safe to bet my whole stack. Technically, it wasn't an ironclad freeroll since there were a small number of hands which could still beat me. By my count, only 7: a pair of threes (1 possibility), a pair of eights (3 possibilities), or a pair of aces (3 possibilities).

delta: $31,996
balance: $783,840

P.S. In case you were stumped, I came up with the neologism Gibraltar because of the similarity between the shape of my stack size over time in those types of sessions with the shape of the horizon formed by the land masses on each side of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Strait itself.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Gibraltaring

Last night I Gibraltared again. That's my neologism for the pattern of losing my whole starting stack of $40k at one table, and gaining it all back and more at the next table. See if you can figure out the connection; I'll reveal it next post. I hope this word eventually gains traction in poker circles; remember, you heard it here first! :-)

The funny thing about losing $40k -- the more you do it and survive, the less of a big deal it becomes.

I swear it wasn't my fault that I lost my whole starting stack at the first table. Here's my evidence:

table 1 heartbreak hand 1:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $38,600
my hole cards: 5c 3c
flop: 4d 2s 4h
turn: 8d
river: As
my hand: 5 high straight
winning hand: 2d 2c for a full house, deuces full of fours
my chip stack at the end of the hand: $22,600

table 1 heartbreak hand 2:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $6,384
my hole cards: 2s 6d
flop: 6c 5s Ks
turn: 6h
river: Td
my hand: three of a kind, sixes
winning hand: 6s 5h for a full house, sixes full of fives
my chip stack at the end of the hand: $0

I don't get upset about losing hands like this; it's the correct play to bet them big.

delta: $13,000
balance: $751,844

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Withdrawal symptoms

Work has been extra busy for the last several days, so I haven't had time either for poker or for blogging. I've been missing both, to the point of experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms. I'll temporarily appease both cravings tonight.

My last session was on Saturday night. I hit the felt at the first table I joined, then made it all back plus some to spare at the second. I think that may be my most common pattern since switching to playing the high roller tables. Let me delve into the archives to see what went amiss at the first table ...

Ah, yes. How could I forget? Actually, the answer to that is quite simple -- I didn't really want to remember, since I made a really bad call. My losing hand was a two pair, which I went all in on after playing only a couple of hands. Seems to me I remember swearing at some time in the past that you'd never catch me going all in on a lousy two pair. Why did I break my vow? I guess since the top pair was aces, and I'd been dealt them. Still, I have to learn to lay down precisely that type of hand.

Speaking of pocket rockets, I had them not one, not twice, but three times on Saturday night. Guess how many times I won with them? You already know the answer's not three. It would make a great story if I could say they got busted each time, but the truth is I did win with them once.

delta: $13,100
balance: $738,844