Keeping Warm in Winter

[AAroddersAA]

Going to play some tournaments today and rail the APAT in Manchester. Went back through the hands I have played this week and am happy enough even though I ended up break even. Going to start off today playing a couple of the 180 manners. Pokerstar"s has some strange tournaments, what are these time limited tournaments all about? Anyway will update this post later with how it is going and what other games I am adding if I choose to do so.

*----------------------------

Played the two little MTT"s, didn"t cash in either but played fine.

For some reason decided that I should try a bit of heads up PLO and managed to get rid of two buyin"s at that. Strangely recently I am feeling a lot happier playing tournaments than cash, maybe I will focus on them a bit more this month as I seem to be playing better in them at the moment. Will play a few more later I expect. Will then put together a little schedule for the next week or so.


*----------------------------

Currently playing

2x $4.50 on PS
The Big $5.50 on PS
The £2.20 DS on Sky Poker
The $11 DS on Betfair Poker

Just one of the $4.50"s left, 2 tables left and I have double the average. A final table would be useful. Currently 2/14.

Finished 9th in that one for around $8.80

[AAroddersAA]

Gonna play a couple of Little $4.50"s tonight. Might do a mini bink.

1. $4.50 45/180
2. $4.50 156/180

Went from one of them very early, got dealt KK in EP with the Blinds 10/20 so raise it to 120 getting one caller. The flop comes down 7-8-9. It"s me to act and the board looks poor but I reckon I can over-bet and get called by lot"s worse so I shove it in. I definitely get called by a lot worse here in one of these but he has J-10. GG Me.

2nd one I walked AJ into AK whilst shortstcked - M"eh happens I guess.

[AAroddersAA]

Spent some time going through my hand database tonight from poker tracker. I actually have two one sits on my poker desktop and the other on my laptop but my desktop is the main one. I went back a couple of years to back in the day and found something interesting. My best winning days seems to come at FR tables rather than the six max tables that I now play exclusively.

I also seem to have developed a case of "fancy play syndrome". I get it every now and again where I try to play simple spots too clever. It usually results in a smallish pot being lost but these extra bets I am paying add up. So in my never ending quest (it seems) to regain the form I used to have I am going to give FR another go.

3 Day weekend after tomorrow (yay) so can get some cash hands in and should get to Silverstar as well.

[AAroddersAA]

Love all the new blogs that are popping up on this site. Hopefully they will survive and keep getting updated in the new year as I really do enjoyed this section of the forum. Jack get back to updating your"s the only way I know how your DIY and things are going is by reading Dawn"s blog :-)

Going to try and get this back to how it was at the start of the year from next month and try to post monthly results from NLHE, PLO and tournaments. That was the original intention anyway but this year I gave myself unrealistic targets in terms of volume and suffered for it. I really don"t deserve to be up at poker in 2011. To many sessions online where I have played on for much longer than I should also not enough time spent working on my game, I have tried to just play my way to improving my results assuming I am just "supposed to win". Will see what I do about live poker when APAT's season six is announced, not a huge fan of Aspers in Swansea so not going back to it any time soon. I will be back at some point in 2012 though.

Only played the /25c tables last night and ran bad but still managed to make around $40 ($37.68 to be exact) which was well under expect EV. I am happy with this result and with any luck going back to those types of tables will see me improve my results (I somehow seem to be money up this year online but am down as far as BB/100 goes as I have kept changing the limits I am playing and ran good at the higher limit luckily).

Also got to Silverstar on Stars so can now start working on getting to gold. I did make a few mistakes but know where I went wrong so don"t need to post the hands, but will post one for pure comedy purposes (ftw it"s worth I play that specific hand against that player exactly the same).


PokerStars - $0.25 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: $9.40
BTN: $26.91
SB: $47.75
BB: $45.19
UTG: $41.45
UTG+1: $26.66
Hero (MP): $23.65

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero has

fold, fold, Hero calls $0.25, fold, fold, SB calls $0.15, BB raises to $2.50, Hero calls $2.25, SB calls $2.25

Flop: ($7.50, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($7.50, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $5.00, fold, BB raises to $10.00, Hero raises to $21.15 and is all-in, BB calls $11.15

River: ($49.80, 2 players)

BB shows (Four of a Kind, Queens) (Pre 80%, Flop 100%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows (Flush, Ace High) (Pre 20%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)
BB wins $47.80

Right going to play some cash and will update soon - and everybody start a blog they are my new favourite part of the APAT forum.

[Laxie]

Love all the new blogs that are popping up on this site. Hopefully they will survive and keep getting updated in the new year as I really do enjoyed this section of the forum. Jack get back to updating your"s the only way I know how your DIY and things are going is by reading Dawn"s blog :-)

Why do I get the feeling you say that like it"s a hardship?!  Where"s me whip ffs...

[AAroddersAA]

Love all the new blogs that are popping up on this site. Hopefully they will survive and keep getting updated in the new year as I really do enjoyed this section of the forum. Jack get back to updating your"s the only way I know how your DIY and things are going is by reading Dawn"s blog :-)

Why do I get the feeling you say that like it"s a hardship?!  Where"s me whip ffs...

Not at all as ya know *lol* I learn loads from your diary, who knew ketchup should be kept in the fridge!!!!

Just want to see the blogs on here updated as I find them very interesting.

Gives me something to do whilst clicking fold :-)

[Laxie]

Love all the new blogs that are popping up on this site. Hopefully they will survive and keep getting updated in the new year as I really do enjoyed this section of the forum. Jack get back to updating your"s the only way I know how your DIY and things are going is by reading Dawn"s blog :-)

Why do I get the feeling you say that like it"s a hardship?!  Where"s me whip ffs...

Not at all as ya know *lol* I learn loads from your diary, who knew ketchup should be kept in the fridge!!!!

Just want to see the blogs on here updated as I find them very interesting.

Gives me something to do whilst clicking fold :-)

Good save!    Will bug him to update his blog later today, but right now he"s on the roof with a hoe.  Needs must and all that.

[AAroddersAA]

Did not do so well today. Was down $20 although played lots of hands (around 2000) so have now got 1000 VPP this month which is one third of the way to Goldstar for the month.

Played some hands quite well and made a few mistakes as well. I don"t think you are ever going to play it perfect of course. At the end of one session I did play for about half an hour too long which is pretty poor and probably lost about $10 that I should not have lost. I also lost a stack with the 2nd nut straight when he had the nut straight so not much I can do about that.

OK played enough poker for today so I am now going to go and have a beer and watch El Classico (I have £10 on the draw). Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Todays Loss = $20.34

Bluffs on the river seem to be much harder to get through playing FR than 6-Max.

[TheSnapper]

Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Omg Rudders hats off to you sir, I would quickly lose the will to live playing 2016 hands @ 11 / 8.

as an aside, that is decent volume and would net a decent few quid in rakeback on one of the many ipoker skins offering up to 50%.

[AAroddersAA]

Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Omg Rudders hats off to you sir, I would quickly lose the will to live playing 2016 hands @ 11 / 8.

as an aside, that is decent volume and would net a decent few quid in rakeback on one of the many ipoker skins offering up to 50%.

I over compensated and probably went too tight moving back to FR. I will get somebody to have a look at some time and correct this as it looks too tight to me. It"s probably possible (quite easy) to play these stats and be profitable at $25nl but doubt it is optimal.

Just starting going through the hands now. Will play a shorter session later today and some tournaments tonight.

[AAroddersAA]

Played a session today of only about 500 hands. Not much happened really. I ended up winning $3.93 so basically a break even session. There were pretty much no interesting hands. At one point I was down about $5 at my lowest point and at one point I was up 5 at my highest point. The biggest pot  I won was a $10 pot (a net win of about $6) the biggest pot I lost was also about $10. So in other words nothing to report really. It was all fairly standard stuff.

Session stats below

Hand Played = 503
VP$IP = 13%
PFR = 10%
3-Bet = 4%

Session profit = $3.93

[AAroddersAA]

Only played three tournaments last night drew three blanks but more than happy with how I played.

I was playing the following tournaments:-

1) Bigger $11 on Pokerstars
2) Mini primo on Sky Poker
3) APAT League game

Main hand in the bigger $11 was where I got it allin with KK against QQ and QJ and the case queen hit the river. That would have given me a top 20 stack but the hand played pretty standard.

The Mini Primo was pretty hard to do much in as I was pretty card dead and pretty spot dead as well. I eventually got it in with 10-10 but somebody behind found KK, again pretty standard

I played the APAT league game and was going well, got a bit of luck when I reshoved with KQ and got called by 9"s but I hit. Then I had the chip leader to my right and this was making it quite difficult as he was raising lot"s of hands and playing them hard. Stealing the blinds was pretty hard but I was doing OK and had a top 5 stack when I get 88 in the SB and it folds to me. I raise and he ships on me. I expected this and call, he shows me A-6 and hit"s his ace. I was a big chip leader if I win that hand so happy enough with it.

[AAroddersAA]

OK, just finished today, got some really good volume in and ran well which always helps. Finshed the session about $25 above exepected value. It was a long session today, played about 8 hours with only one break but was playing well and feeling happy. Poker has to be the most annoying game I have ever played, how can I play pretty well and make good plays on days like today and at other times just be so terrible. This weekend though I have played well and I am happy with the result"s.

Today I played 3072 hands winning $143.80. There we one or two hands where I think I could have done better, this one is the prime example:-

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=56061.0

There were some hands I made bad folds on, have a look at these and see if you think they are bad (one is and one is probably OK)

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=56064.0

I am happy that I managed to make almost no really silly calls all the way through and think I ranged my opponents hands well and picked up good value, getting three sreets of value when it is there is an important skill that a lot of players lack (including me sometimes). How would you rate the betting on this hand? Should I make the turn bet a little bigger and allow me to go for more value on the river against his range?

PokerStars - $0.25 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 5 players

CO: $17.95
BTN: $32.69
Hero (SB): $25.64
BB: $25.35
UTG: $28.77

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero has  A:club: K:club:

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $1.00, BB calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.00, 2 players)  T:diamond: K:diamond: 2:spade:
Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.00, 2 players)  4:spade:
Hero bets $2.70, BB calls $2.70

River: ($10.40, 2 players)  4:club:
Hero bets $4.00, BB calls $4.00

Hero shows  A:club: K:club:  (Two Pair, Kings and Fours) (Pre 75%, Flop 86%, Turn 93%)
BB mucks  Q:club: K:spade:  (Two Pair, Kings and Fours) (Pre 25%, Flop 14%, Turn 7%)
Hero wins $17.51


Like I said I am very happy with my performance over the last three days. Excellent disipline for long periods of time which is what I need to be doing. More of the same for the rest of the month will be good and I should hit Goldstar and also get my $50 bonus. If I can then maintain Goldstar next year which is the plan I should get the $50 every month in addition to the Stellar Rewards and freeroll entries. I doubt I will do it every month as I will run bad and need to take breaks sometimes but will try and do it most.

Stats for todays sessions

Hand Played = 3072
VP$IP = 11.85%
PFR = 7.85
3-Bet = 2.88%
Todays Profit = $143.80

I am still playing like a nit but am not convinced that is not right at this level.

Also played a couple of tables with Noble1"s brother today which was fun. We clash quite a few times and I think the result was an honorable draw. Do you cal this river?


PokerStars - $0.25 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 9 players

SB: $28.28
BB: $10.00
UTG: $19.75
UTG+1: $25.60
MP: $32.52
MP+1: $9.75
Hero (LP): $23.81
CO: $17.80
BTN: $26.67

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero has As

fold, fold, MP raises to $0.75, fold, Hero raises to $2.75, fold, fold, fold, fold, MP calls $2.00

Flop: ($5.85, 2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $3.50, MP calls $3.50

Turn: ($12.85, 2 players) Ts
MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($12.85, 2 players)
MP bets $26.27 and is all-in, fold

MP wins $12.23

[AAroddersAA]

OK played a small session this morning as I am working afternoons today. The stats look like this:-

Hands = 680
VP$IP = 10.88%
PFR = 7.35%
3-Bet = 4.45%
Today"s Profit = $9.14

Again I am very happy with how I played the session. Had to make a couple of folds as always but seem to be able to do that fine at the moment and am not spewing off cash when I should not be. I really wish I could maintain this level of play at all times. Since moving from 6-max to FR on 08/12/2011 my stats look like this:-

Hands = 8214
VP$IP = 11.68%
PFR = 7.84%
3-Bet = 3.11%
Profit = $161.67 @ 3.93 BB/100

If I can keep this up is another matter of course.

I currently have 1354 VPP MTD so I am a little bit behind the required run rate to hit Goldstar, hopefully I can pick that up a bit on the weekend, even though I am going to the football on Saturday so that"s most of the day out. Below is a hand from today that I did not play so well :-)

PokerStars Game #72083160861:  Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25 USD) - 2011/12/13 11:07:05 WET [2011/12/13 6:07:05 ET]
Table "Alamak IV" 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: Mistwalker54 ($36.84 in chips)
Seat 3: CB_Sandow ($17.31 in chips)
Seat 4: lukeaces1 ($25 in chips)
Seat 5: Hero ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 6: MOHXFOKELSBB ($26.24 in chips)
Seat 9: gerbard ($10 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind $0.10
MOHXFOKELSBB: posts big blind $0.25
Lagutin1988: sits out
MrSchnuff: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [ ]
gerbard: folds
Mistwalker54: folds
CB_Sandow: folds
lukeaces1: raises $0.75 to $1
Hero: calls $0.90
MOHXFOKELSBB: folds
*** FLOP *** [ Ts ]
Hero: checks
lukeaces1: bets $1.25
Hero: calls $1.25
*** TURN *** [ Ts ] []
Gilya-com joins the table at seat #1
Hero: checks
lukeaces1: checks
*** RIVER *** [ Ts ] []
Hero: bets $2.50
lukeaces1: raises $4.25 to $6.75
Hero: calls $4.25
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lukeaces1: shows [ ] (a straight, Ace to Five)
Hero: mucks hand
lukeaces1 collected $17.35 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $18.25 | Rake $0.90
Board [ Ts ]
Seat 2: Mistwalker54 folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 3: CB_Sandow folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 4: lukeaces1 (button) showed [ ] and won ($17.35) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 5: Hero (small blind) mucked [ ]
Seat 6: MOHXFOKELSBB (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: gerbard folded before Flop (didn"t bet)

Something else I was thinking of is what is the best use for FPP"s? I normally just buy the instant bonuses with them but there seems to be more value in buying tournament tickets. If I am +EV in the tournaments and was going to play them anyway then I will get more out of that. A Big $11 ticket is 700 FPP and a $50 bonus costs 4500 so for the same price you are going to get about $70 of tournament buyin"s seems a no brainer as I do play that tournament Saturday"s when I am not doing anything as well as sometimes on a Sunday.

[Santino67]

Something else I was thinking of is what is the best use for FPP"s? I normally just buy the instant bonuses with them but there seems to be more value in buying tournament tickets. If I am +EV in the tournaments and was going to play them anyway then I will get more out of that. A Big $11 ticket is 700 FPP and a $50 bonus costs 4500 so for the same price you are going to get about $70 of tournament buyin"s seems a no brainer as I do play that tournament Saturday"s when I am not doing anything as well as sometimes on a Sunday.

Pretty annoying hand that Steve, what can you do?  As for the FPP, $11 tickets FTW