Update on sngs

I didn't quite hit my 500 SNG in a week goal, but I did play about 300 at the $60 level and 100 at the $38 level. I lost $350 at at the higher stakes and $650 at the lower.

This isn't a huge sample size, but I'm still losing confidence in this plan. Since my SNG rebirth I've played 608 tournaments at the $60 level and won $1,288 which is $2.12 per SNG. If you factor in the $997 I've earned in FPPs and other bonus I'm at almost $4 per. At 75 tournaments a day that's $300 a day or at least $6,000 a month.

That seems fine and it is. But I've having trouble trusting it. If you eliminate my first 100 tournaments (and look at the last 500 I've played) I'm only making 65 cents per. If you look at the last 400 I've played I'm losing 56 cents per.

Was I just running really hot in the beginning and now I'm performing at a level that I can expect long term or was I running a little above expectation at the start and a lot below it since?

I'm not really sure what to do. Should I keep plugging away? Should I drop down to the $24 level and just play an insane number of tournaments? Should I try switching to no limit cash games? Which site should I target? What about playing in person at the Oaks? Maybe I should try SNGs on other sites? Maybe I should just lay on the floor face down because I'm not sure I can handle any more losing? These are the thoughts that are rattling around my head all day every day.

To say it's stressful is a massive understatement. The major disadvantage I have over most of my competition is I'm supporting 3 people in Mexico. I can't just live cheap when things aren't going well. While my wife is doing a great job of supporting me however she can, I still have family obligations that get in the way of working all the time.


The other part of me says "Quit being such a pussy! Get back in there and kick some ass! Play better! Be Smarter! You can do it!"

So that's what I'm going to do. Let me see if I can break off 400 $38 tournaments between now and Saturday night. If I can make $3 per that will be $1,200. In the grand scheme of things that ain't much, but it's a start and right now I need some momentum. Also if I keep that goal in the forefront of my mind it will help me from getting overwhelmed. If I can get all my focus on hitting those targets maybe I can block out the panic that I'm constantly swallowing down and play my best.

play poker online

Online Cash Game

Online Cash Game:
No Limit Texas Hold 'Em
Small Blind $5/ Big Blind $10

You are sitting in middle position with $985 in chips in front of you. Everyone folds over to you, and you look down at Ace-King offsuit. This is the first hand you've entered a pot in this game so far. So you have relatively no read on anyone.
(What do you do? Bet or Call?)

You like what you see, and you raise it a standard 4 times the big blind or $40. Making the pot $55. It folds over to the button who after thinking for a while calls the $40 bet. The pot is now $95.

The flop is dealt. 2 of hearts, 5 of diamonds, 9 of clubs.
(What do you do? Check or Bet?)

The flop is trash and doesn't help your hand, but doesn't neccessarily hurts your hand either. You figure your opponent hasn't hit anything either and you lead out with a pot sized bet of $100. Your opponent again thinks for a while and calls your bet. This scares you that he would call your large bet, and you begin putting him on a pocket pair or a set. The pot is now at $295

The turn is dealt. 10 of spades.
(What do you do? Check or Bet?)

You are scared of his flop call, and the turn doesn't help your hand. You decide to check the board to him. After a little thinking he now makes a half pot bet of $150.
(What do you do? Call, Raise or Fold?)

You figure he has atleast a pair right now, and you figure out your pot odds and the odds of hitting your king or ace on the river. You have 6 outs and 46 cards left in the deck. You have approximately 7.5 to 1 chance of hitting your out on the river. The current pot odds are a little under 3 to 1. You aren't getting the odds to play this hand any further. You decide to fold this hand.

What hand do you think the button had?

poker

UPDATE ON MTTS

the last few weeks have been very tuff making deep runs in mtts but cant win a important key flip late in the mtt example deep in 12k turbo mtt 45 left me with kk utg open raise for 4x get shoved for 20bb from seat nr 6 so obv i cant fold here kk being all in and opponent turns over a2s and flop hit like 34k wooo i hit a set but scary board still draws out there for him and 3 outs for his ace and what else you excpect deep in mtts being a 80/20 that he rivers the straight and im busted gg .

results form one really bad mtt session played during day 32mtts and had only 5 min cashes nothing to write home about i hope my luck changes soon and i win some key situations late in mtts other then that just trying to make the right decisions in every hand and encourage opponents to make bad calls and if they get lucky oh well nothing more i can do about it .

today sunday will be a busy day i will be playng all day hopefully i will have a lucky sunday beacuse the fields are insane sundays at stars

full tilt poker is starting ftops today lets see how that goes

p.s
for all stakers be aware of HIGHOFYOUR$ HE IS A ROLLER DONT STAKE HIM OR DO BUISSNES WITH HIM
see ya at the tables
onasis16

MTT UPDATE

MTTS AT ITS FINEST TODAY I PLAYED ABOUT 10 MTTS COULD ONLY CASH IN 2 OF THEM I NEARLY BUBBLED THE DAILY 30K WHEN MY KK LOST TO 77S ON THE RIVER

I TOOK 156TH IN THE TURBO 12K GTD TOURNAMENT AFTERNOON

AND IN THE 12K GTD 8.80 I CAME IN 25TH AFTER GETTING A BAD BEAT IL POST THE HAND OF BUST
ANYTHING ELSE DURING THE DAY WAS DOING SLOW AND NOT TO MY FAVOR

LETS SEE WHAT THE DAY TOMORROW BRINGS I HOPE A LOT A ACTION


PokerStars Game #38838187616: Tournament #281111013, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIX (625/1250) - 2010/01/27 22:27:48 ET
Table '281111013 75' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: TrashAces (17150 in chips)
Seat 2: RabbitHand (25681 in chips)
Seat 3: onasis16 (6864 in chips)
Seat 4: mechanic4590 (20411 in chips)
Seat 5: B1aZZe420 (5251 in chips)
Seat 6: Horst007 (12280 in chips)
Seat 7: hitmanfred69 (47172 in chips)
Seat 8: mhaltman (31849 in chips)
Seat 9: schnipes (6567 in chips)
TrashAces: posts the ante 150
RabbitHand: posts the ante 150
onasis16: posts the ante 150
mechanic4590: posts the ante 150
B1aZZe420: posts the ante 150
Horst007: posts the ante 150
hitmanfred69: posts the ante 150
mhaltman: posts the ante 150
schnipes: posts the ante 150
hitmanfred69: posts small blind 625
mhaltman: posts big blind 1250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ac Ad]
schnipes: raises 5167 to 6417 and is all-in
TrashAces: folds
RabbitHand: folds
onasis16: raises 297 to 6714 and is all-in
mechanic4590: folds
B1aZZe420: folds
Horst007: folds
hitmanfred69: folds
mhaltman: folds
Uncalled bet (297) returned to onasis16
*** FLOP *** [Js 5h 7d]
*** TURN *** [Js 5h 7d] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Js 5h 7d 7h] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
schnipes: shows [Jc Tc] (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
onasis16: shows [Ac Ad] (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
schnipes is sitting out
onasis16 collected 16059 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 16059 | Rake 0
Board [Js 5h 7d 7h Qd]
Seat 1: TrashAces folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: RabbitHand folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: onasis16 showed [Ac Ad] and won (16059) with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Seat 4: mechanic4590 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: B1aZZe420 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Horst007 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: hitmanfred69 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: mhaltman (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: schnipes showed [Jc Tc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sevens

PokerStars Game #38839991738: Tournament #281111013, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXI (7000/14000) - 2010/01/27 23:30:27 ET
Table '281111013 150' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: LySaechao (309892 in chips)
Seat 2: onasis16 (205496 in chips)
Seat 3: desurpesa (76527 in chips)
Seat 4: bdawkins2036 (147667 in chips)
Seat 5: igetscrewed (129214 in chips)
Seat 6: cowboy1211 (183201 in chips)
Seat 7: Whishper (172496 in chips)
Seat 8: golfnalways (93726 in chips)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 (90980 in chips)
LySaechao: posts the ante 1750
onasis16: posts the ante 1750
desurpesa: posts the ante 1750
bdawkins2036: posts the ante 1750
igetscrewed: posts the ante 1750
cowboy1211: posts the ante 1750
Whishper: posts the ante 1750
golfnalways: posts the ante 1750
PartyPat98: posts the ante 1750
LySaechao: posts small blind 7000
onasis16: posts big blind 14000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ad Ac]
desurpesa: folds
bdawkins2036: folds
igetscrewed: folds
cowboy1211: folds
Whishper: folds
golfnalways: folds
PartyPat98: folds
LySaechao: calls 7000
onasis16: raises 14000 to 28000
LySaechao: calls 14000
*** FLOP *** [Jc 4c 5h]
LySaechao: checks
onasis16: bets 56000
LySaechao: raises 224142 to 280142 and is all-in
onasis16: calls 119746 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (104396) returned to LySaechao
*** TURN *** [Jc 4c 5h] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 4c 5h Jd] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LySaechao: shows [Js 9s] (three of a kind, Jacks)
onasis16: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
LySaechao collected 423242 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 423242 | Rake 0
Board [Jc 4c 5h Jd 8h]
Seat 1: LySaechao (small blind) showed [Js 9s] and won (423242) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: onasis16 (big blind) showed [Ad Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 3: desurpesa folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bdawkins2036 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: igetscrewed folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: cowboy1211 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Whishper folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: golfnalways folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


PokerStars Game #38839897950: Tournament #281111013, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXX (6000/12000) - 2010/01/27 23:27:04 ET
Table '281111013 150' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: LySaechao (352642 in chips)
Seat 2: onasis16 (150640 in chips)
Seat 3: desurpesa (105277 in chips)
Seat 4: bdawkins2036 (107417 in chips)
Seat 6: cowboy1211 (183451 in chips)
Seat 7: 7Ways2Win (55106 in chips)
Seat 8: golfnalways (65476 in chips)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 (120730 in chips)
LySaechao: posts the ante 1500
onasis16: posts the ante 1500
desurpesa: posts the ante 1500
bdawkins2036: posts the ante 1500
cowboy1211: posts the ante 1500
7Ways2Win: posts the ante 1500
golfnalways: posts the ante 1500
PartyPat98: posts the ante 1500
LySaechao: posts small blind 6000
onasis16: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ac 6d]
desurpesa: folds
bdawkins2036: folds
cowboy1211: folds
7Ways2Win: raises 41606 to 53606 and is all-in
golfnalways: folds
PartyPat98: folds
LySaechao: folds
onasis16: calls 41606
*** FLOP *** [2c 2d Ts]
*** TURN *** [2c 2d Ts] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [2c 2d Ts 6h] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [Ac 6d] (two pair, Sixes and Deuces)
7Ways2Win: shows [Qh Ad] (a pair of Deuces)
onasis16 collected 125212 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 125212 | Rake 0
Board [2c 2d Ts 6h 4h]
Seat 1: LySaechao (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: onasis16 (big blind) showed [Ac 6d] and won (125212) with two pair, Sixes and Deuces
Seat 3: desurpesa folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bdawkins2036 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: cowboy1211 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: 7Ways2Win showed [Qh Ad] and lost with a pair of Deuces
Seat 8: golfnalways folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

PokerStars Game #38839694369: Tournament #281111013, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (5000/10000) - 2010/01/27 23:19:49 ET
Table '281111013 150' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: yourmom68 (46605 in chips)
Seat 2: onasis16 (89836 in chips)
Seat 3: desurpesa (101027 in chips)
Seat 4: mrdennis21 (66554 in chips)
Seat 5: dwainel (90437 in chips)
Seat 7: 7Ways2Win (66856 in chips)
Seat 8: golfnalways (98222 in chips)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 (47492 in chips)
yourmom68: posts the ante 1250
onasis16: posts the ante 1250
desurpesa: posts the ante 1250
mrdennis21: posts the ante 1250
dwainel: posts the ante 1250
7Ways2Win: posts the ante 1250
golfnalways: posts the ante 1250
PartyPat98: posts the ante 1250
mrdennis21: posts small blind 5000
dwainel: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [As Jc]
7Ways2Win: folds
golfnalways: folds
PartyPat98 has timed out while being disconnected
PartyPat98: folds
PartyPat98 is sitting out
PartyPat98 is connected
yourmom68: folds
PartyPat98 has returned
onasis16: raises 78586 to 88586 and is all-in
desurpesa: folds
cowboy1211 is connected
mrdennis21: calls 60304 and is all-in
dwainel: folds
Uncalled bet (23282) returned to onasis16
*** FLOP *** [Js 4s 3h]
*** TURN *** [Js 4s 3h] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [Js 4s 3h 8h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mrdennis21: shows [Ad Kh] (a pair of Jacks)
onasis16: shows [As Jc] (three of a kind, Jacks)
onasis16 collected 150608 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 150608 | Rake 0
Board [Js 4s 3h 8h Jd]
Seat 1: yourmom68 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: onasis16 showed [As Jc] and won (150608) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 3: desurpesa (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: mrdennis21 (small blind) showed [Ad Kh] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 5: dwainel (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: 7Ways2Win folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: golfnalways folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: PartyPat98 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

PokerStars Game #38831653062: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD) - 2010/01/27 19:28:53 ET
Table 'Pelagia IV' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: collado3 ($14.55 in chips)
Seat 2: onasis16 ($93.25 in chips)
Seat 3: sapoconcha ($59.55 in chips)
Seat 4: opa piep ($105.20 in chips)
Seat 5: furcy ($45.25 in chips)
Seat 6: aguila.moses ($29.35 in chips)
collado3: posts small blind $0.50
onasis16: posts big blind $1
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Tc 8s 9d Ac Ah]
sapoconcha: folds
opa piep: folds
furcy: calls $1
aguila.moses: folds
collado3: raises $2 to $3
onasis16: calls $2
furcy: folds
collado3: discards 1 card
onasis16: discards 3 cards [Tc 8s 9d]
Dealt to onasis16 [Ac Ah] [4h 5h Ad]
collado3: bets $3
onasis16: raises $7 to $10
collado3: folds
Uncalled bet ($7) returned to onasis16
onasis16 collected $12.40 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $13 | Rake $0.60
Seat 1: collado3 (small blind) folded after the Draw
Seat 2: onasis16 (big blind) collected ($12.40)
Seat 3: sapoconcha folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 4: opa piep folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: furcy folded before the Draw
Seat 6: aguila.moses (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)


PokerStars Game #38833360469: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD) - 2010/01/27 20:11:09 ET
Table 'Pelagia IV' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Cappin'sGirl ($21.30 in chips)
Seat 2: onasis16 ($91.15 in chips)
Seat 3: sapoconcha ($62.70 in chips)
Seat 4: peixebom ($47.15 in chips)
Seat 5: Brutaliteen ($56 in chips)
Seat 6: rdgoins ($40 in chips)
Brutaliteen: posts small blind $0.50
rdgoins: posts big blind $1
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ah Th Qd Jc Ks]
Cappin'sGirl: folds
onasis16: raises $2 to $3
sapoconcha: folds
peixebom: folds
Brutaliteen: folds
rdgoins: calls $2
rdgoins: discards 1 card
onasis16: stands pat on [Ah Th Qd Jc Ks]
rdgoins: checks
onasis16: bets $2
rdgoins: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [Ah Th Qd Jc Ks] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
rdgoins: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10.50 | Rake $0.50
Seat 1: Cappin'sGirl folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 2: onasis16 showed [Ah Th Qd Jc Ks] and won ($10) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 3: sapoconcha folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 4: peixebom (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Brutaliteen (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 6: rdgoins (big blind) mucked [9d 6s 6c Kh 6d]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

I WISH A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL PLAYERS AND MAY THIS YAER BE VERY SUCCESSFULL TO EVERYONE

AS FOR ME THE YEAR 2010 STARTED KINDA SLOW PUTTING SOME DECNT VOLUME ON MTTS BUT ONLY MANAGE TO CASHE THEM NOTHING TO BIG

ON SUNDAY I FINISHED 161ST OUT OF 34000 ENTRANTS IN THE 250K ON STARS WHERE I SHOVED 12BB WITH AK AND GET CALLED BY A7O AND HE SPIKED A 7 ON THE RIVER OH WELL I TRY NEXT WEEK AGAIN

YESTERDAY THE 12K .80 TURBO MTT PLAYED A VERY AGGRESIVE GAME WHCIH HELPED ME TO CHIP UP CONSTANTLY ONLY TO LOSE A 80/20 IN PLACE 206 FOR MY MTT LIFE

FOLLOWING THE 1 US REBUY I LIKE THIS MTT BECAUSE ITS SO FAST AND PACED WITH ACTION THE PLAY IS VERY SOFT THE RESULT WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST ROLLERCOASTER RIDES I HAD WENT FORM BIG STACK TO SHORT STACK A FEW TIMES AT 10K/5K BLINDS I LOSE KK VS AJ AND GOT 19K LEFT IN CHIPS SO I WENT INTO SHOVE MODE EVERY HAND MANAGE TO GET MY STACK TO 600K BACK UP SO FINALLY WE END UP AT FINAL TABLE I HAD ABOUT 7BB IT WAS A HARD FT 7TH PLACE TOOK FOR EVER TO BUST STACKS WHERE ALMOST EVEN 2 BIGSTACKS ME AND ANOTHER PLAYER HOLDING OVER 6 MILLIONS AND 4 MEDIUM STACS LEFT WE PLAYED DOWN TO 3 PEOPLE,

AT THAT LEVEL SOMEBODY ASKED FOR A DEAL LOOKING AT THE SCENARIO IT WAS A GOOD SPOT TO CUT A DEAL NORMALY IL PLAY TO WIN BUT HERE SINCE IT WAS A TURBO AND WE HAD 8MILLION EACH 2 STACKS AND ONE HAD 9.8 MILION SO I OPTED IN FOR A CHOP AND WE CHOPDED IT 3WAY FOR 1390US EACH SO IT WAS A DECENT NIGHT I WILL PSOT A FEW HANDS LATER ON

ALSO I WANT TO INVITE ALL READERS TO HAVE A LOOK AT THIS BLOG HERE http://valbizuresjr.blogspot.com ITS A VERY TALENTED PLAYER WITH A FUNNY TWIST AT HIS POSTS IM SURE YOU GUYS WILL HAVE A BLAST WITH IT

SEE YA AT THE TABLES
ONASIS16

goldstar vip in 4 days

hi guys long time again i havent updated my blog but i was very busy with life
so i decided the last 4 days to get gold star vip at pokerstars with that goal in mind i figured the best way to get those 3000 vpps is cash games so i decided to play five card draw cash games witch i dominate in the long run five card dra has also low variance way lower then nlhe mtts so let the challenge beginn

i hit 4 tables 1-2 at five card draw to warm up the day and i begun good my first session at draw for 4890 hands made me 2 buy ins profit at those levels and about 1000 vpps

second day i opend even more cash tbles to cut down the houers and raise my hourley profit so i was playng 5 to6 tables at all time for most of the day all regulars five card draw grinders where surprised to see me grinding again since i havent done it in a long while and as usual i get the deserved respect form them since i am kown to be a tuf draw player they dont fool around with me the mostly play straight against me the occasioanly bluff but most off the time they are straight forward play vs me with those guys and at thoose levels of play metagame is a big part of the game

here is one example of a hand where metagame is at his finest i am on the button with 3 regular grinders and 2 fish at the table holding AA992 utg raises to 6 us second position regular grinder raises to 18us 4th position calls 18us another regular so here i am thinking the only way i can win this pot is to outhink thoose guys since i have such a good image at the table and get a lot of respect from all regulars i figured the only way to win this pot is to pull a pat hand bluff to represent a bigger hand then the 2 regulars are holding which is minimum trips both of them so i min raise to 36us fish folded the 2 regulars called the min raise so i stand pat with my 2 pair representng a boat,straight,or ,flush and i fire after the draw 48us into them and they couldn call even with aaa or kkk that was the hands they are probaply holding to call such raises pre draw but i took that pot away from them and they both where from kiev most people i hear talking about the kiev draw players

in my opinion they are not anything special to be afraid of i like to play the kiev guys if you kow how to play them its easy money yesterday i busted 2 for there entire buy in so boys and girls stop having kiev fobia they are only 2 or 3 of them who are really good players but also beatable

so back to the challange in day 2 i made another 1200 vpps playng cash games so i get closer to the goal day 3 was a slow day had many bad beats and suckouts lost 100us for the day but i am still up over 3 buy ins at 1-2 so nothing to worry about it jsut variance

today is day 4 and i am missing 340vpps which i plan to start to earn now so i can start focusing again on mtts

mtts i havent played many lately i played 2 mtts 3 days ago the 30k nightly at stars which i finished 16th after kk loses to q2 he flopes 3 queens and the 33us mtt 15k guaranteed there i finished 14th another close finish ok il see if i can put up a few five card draw hands here


PokerStars Game #27500193178: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 1:36:27 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($114.55 in chips)
Seat 2: pajarillogti ($151.15 in chips)
Seat 3: shadow_wins ($205.60 in chips)
Seat 4: ttraiderfan1 ($124.35 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($127.05 in chips)
Seat 6: turnthree ($104.10 in chips)
shadow_wins: posts small blind $1
ttraiderfan1: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Qs 2d 6s Qh Qc]
danadoni: raises $4 to $6
turnthree: calls $6
onasis16: raises $10 to $16
pajarillogti: folds
shadow_wins: calls $15
ttraiderfan1: folds
danadoni: calls $10
turnthree: calls $10
shadow_wins: discards 1 card
danadoni: discards 2 cards
turnthree: discards 1 card
onasis16: discards 2 cards [2d 6s]
Dealt to onasis16 [Qs Qh Qc] [4h Jc]
shadow_wins: checks
danadoni: checks
turnthree: checks
onasis16: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
shadow_wins: shows [3h Th 8d 8c 8h] (three of a kind, Eights)
danadoni: mucks hand
turnthree: mucks hand
onasis16: shows [Qs 4h Jc Qh Qc] (three of a kind, Queens)
onasis16 collected $63 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $66 | Rake $3
Seat 1: onasis16 showed [Qs 4h Jc Qh Qc] and won ($63) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 2: pajarillogti (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 3: shadow_wins (small blind) showed [3h Th 8d 8c 8h] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: ttraiderfan1 (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 5: danadoni mucked [4s 7s Jh 7c 7d]
Seat 6: turnthree mucked [Td Ah Jd 9d Kd]



PokerStars Game #27500529994: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 1:56:21 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($148.60 in chips)
Seat 2: pajarillogti ($129.30 in chips)
Seat 3: shadow_wins ($203.45 in chips)
Seat 4: ttraiderfan1 ($120.60 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($112.80 in chips)
danadoni: posts small blind $1
onasis16: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ac 7h 9d 7d 7c]
pajarillogti: raises $4 to $6
shadow_wins: folds
ttraiderfan1: folds
danadoni: folds
onasis16: raises $6 to $12
pajarillogti: calls $6
onasis16: discards 1 card [Ac]
Dealt to onasis16 [7h 9d 7d 7c] [4c]
pajarillogti: discards 1 card
onasis16: bets $12
pajarillogti: folds
Uncalled bet ($12) returned to onasis16
onasis16 collected $23.75 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $25 | Rake $1.25
Seat 1: onasis16 (big blind) collected ($23.75)
Seat 2: pajarillogti folded after the Draw
Seat 3: shadow_wins folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 4: ttraiderfan1 (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: danadoni (small blind) folded before the Draw



PokerStars Game #27500663850: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:04:29 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($150.35 in chips)
Seat 2: pajarillogti ($122.40 in chips)
Seat 3: lemonaide ($37 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($195.50 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($120.30 in chips)
Seat 6: sweetpe1230 ($62.45 in chips)
sweetpe1230: posts small blind $1
onasis16: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Js 5c 7h Jh Jd]
pajarillogti: calls $2
lemonaide: raises $7 to $9
big-george-5: folds
danadoni: folds
sweetpe1230: folds
onasis16: raises $11 to $20
pajarillogti: folds
lemonaide: folds
Uncalled bet ($11) returned to onasis16
onasis16 collected $21 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $21 | Rake $0
Seat 1: onasis16 (big blind) collected ($21)
Seat 2: pajarillogti folded before the Draw
Seat 3: lemonaide folded before the Draw
Seat 4: big-george-5 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: danadoni (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 6: sweetpe1230 (small blind) folded before the Draw



PokerStars Game #27500984090: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:24:39 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($153.05 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($123 in chips)
Seat 3: lemonaide ($55.90 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($227.20 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($95.20 in chips)
Seat 6: sweetpe1230 ($50.70 in chips)
lemonaide: posts small blind $1
big-george-5: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Jc 7s 4d 6d Jd]
danadoni: folds
sweetpe1230: folds
onasis16: raises $2 to $4
gebbe: calls $4
lemonaide: folds
big-george-5: folds
onasis16: discards 3 cards [7s 4d 6d]
Dealt to onasis16 [Jc Jd] [7c Qh Jh]
gebbe: discards 2 cards
onasis16: bets $6
gebbe: calls $6
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [Jc 7c Qh Jh Jd] (three of a kind, Jacks)
gebbe: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $21.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $23 | Rake $1.10
Seat 1: onasis16 showed [Jc 7c Qh Jh Jd] and won ($21.90) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: gebbe (button) mucked [Ac Kh 3d Ah 8s]
Seat 3: lemonaide (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 4: big-george-5 (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 5: danadoni folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 6: sweetpe1230 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)


PokerStars Game #27501379042: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:51:02 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($154.25 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($88.60 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($225.25 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($118.10 in chips)
big-george-5: posts small blind $1
danadoni: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [5h 3d 7s 5d 3s]
onasis16: raises $4 to $6
gebbe: calls $6
big-george-5: folds
danadoni: folds
onasis16: discards 1 card [7s]
Dealt to onasis16 [5h 3d 5d 3s] [Ac]
gebbe: discards 3 cards
onasis16: bets $6
gebbe: folds
Uncalled bet ($6) returned to onasis16
onasis16 collected $14.25 from pot
onasis16 is sitting out
onasis16 has returned
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $15 | Rake $0.75
Seat 1: onasis16 collected ($14.25)
Seat 2: gebbe (button) folded after the Draw
Seat 4: big-george-5 (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 5: danadoni (big blind) folded before the Draw



PokerStars Game #27501417293: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:53:42 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($163.30 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($86.95 in chips)
Seat 3: boscology ($200 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($224.25 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($110.10 in chips)
gebbe: posts small blind $1
boscology: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Td Qc As Ad 8c]
big-george-5: folds
danadoni: folds
onasis16: raises $4 to $6
gebbe: folds
boscology: calls $4
boscology: discards 3 cards
onasis16: discards 2 cards [Td 8c]
Dealt to onasis16 [Qc As Ad] [2d Ac]
boscology: checks
onasis16: bets $8
boscology: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [2d Qc As Ad Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
boscology: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $27.60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $29 | Rake $1.40
Seat 1: onasis16 (button) showed [2d Qc As Ad Ac] and won ($27.60) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 2: gebbe (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 3: boscology (big blind) mucked [Kd Qd 7c Kh 5h]
Seat 4: big-george-5 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: danadoni folded before the Draw (didn't bet)



PokerStars Game #27501448699: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:55:53 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($174.90 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($81.95 in chips)
Seat 3: boscology ($185 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($219.25 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($121.35 in chips)
onasis16: posts small blind $1
gebbe: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [4s 5s 4d 4h Jh]
boscology: calls $2
big-george-5: folds
danadoni: folds
onasis16: raises $4 to $6
gebbe: folds
depp3456 joins the table at seat #6
boscology: calls $4
onasis16: discards 1 card [Jh]
Dealt to onasis16 [4s 5s 4d 4h] [Ks]
boscology: discards 3 cards
onasis16: bets $8
boscology: raises $8 to $16
onasis16: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
boscology: shows [8d Qc 8c 4c 8h] (three of a kind, Eights)
onasis16: mucks hand
boscology collected $44 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46 | Rake $2
Seat 1: onasis16 (small blind) mucked [4s 5s 4d 4h Ks]
Seat 2: gebbe (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 3: boscology showed [8d Qc 8c 4c 8h] and won ($44) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: big-george-5 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 5: danadoni (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)


PokerStars Game #27501474381: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 2:57:43 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($152.90 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($78.95 in chips)
Seat 3: boscology ($227.80 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($219.25 in chips)
Seat 6: depp3456 ($44.25 in chips)
boscology: posts small blind $1
big-george-5: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [4d 4c 2d Jd 7d]
depp3456: raises $2 to $4
onasis16: calls $4
gebbe: folds
boscology: folds
big-george-5: folds
depp3456: discards 3 cards
onasis16: discards 1 card [4c]
Dealt to onasis16 [4d 2d Jd 7d] [Td]
depp3456: bets $6
onasis16: raises $12 to $18
depp3456: raises $12 to $30
onasis16: raises $12 to $42
depp3456: calls $10.25 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($1.75) returned to onasis16
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [4d Td 2d Jd 7d] (a flush, Jack high)
depp3456: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $89.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $91.50 | Rake $2
Seat 1: onasis16 showed [4d Td 2d Jd 7d] and won ($89.50) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 2: gebbe (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 3: boscology (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 4: big-george-5 (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 6: depp3456 mucked [8h 8s 5c 8d Kd]


PokerStars Game #27501597457: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 3:06:27 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: onasis16 ($207.85 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($77.90 in chips)
Seat 3: boscology ($241.15 in chips)
Seat 4: big-george-5 ($195.25 in chips)
Seat 5: danadoni ($115.35 in chips)
gebbe: posts small blind $1
boscology: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [Ad 8h 8d 2d 8c]
big-george-5: raises $2 to $4
danadoni: folds
onasis16: raises $4 to $8
gebbe: folds
Mr Patan joins the table at seat #6
boscology: folds
big-george-5: calls $4
big-george-5: discards 2 cards
onasis16: discards 1 card [2d]
Dealt to onasis16 [Ad 8h 8d 8c] [8s]
big-george-5: checks
onasis16: bets $10
big-george-5: calls $10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [Ad 8h 8d 8s 8c] (four of a kind, Eights)
big-george-5: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $37.10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $39 | Rake $1.90
Seat 1: onasis16 (button) showed [Ad 8h 8d 8s 8c] and won ($37.10) with four of a kind, Eights
Seat 2: gebbe (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 3: boscology (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 4: big-george-5 mucked [6d Jh Qh 6h 6s]
Seat 5: danadoni folded before the Draw (didn't bet)



PokerStars Game #27502659736: 5 Card Draw Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2009/04/26 4:20:28 ET
Table 'Penelope' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: måka ($130.05 in chips)
Seat 2: gebbe ($89.60 in chips)
Seat 3: SouzBI ($44.50 in chips)
Seat 5: onasis16 ($127.10 in chips)
Seat 6: thatdude413 ($128.50 in chips)
onasis16: posts small blind $1
thatdude413: posts big blind $2
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to onasis16 [7h Td 3s Ts 7d]
måka: folds
gebbe: folds
SouzBI: calls $2
onasis16: raises $6 to $8
thatdude413: calls $6
SouzBI: folds
onasis16: discards 1 card [3s]
Dealt to onasis16 [7h Td Ts 7d] [2h]
thatdude413: discards 3 cards
onasis16: bets $6
thatdude413: calls $6
*** SHOW DOWN ***
onasis16: shows [7h Td 2h Ts 7d] (two pair, Tens and Sevens)
thatdude413: mucks hand
onasis16 collected $28.55 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $30 | Rake $1.45
Seat 1: måka folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 2: gebbe folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 3: SouzBI (button) folded before the Draw
Seat 5: onasis16 (small blind) showed [7h Td 2h Ts 7d] and won ($28.55) with two pair, Tens and Sevens
Seat 6: thatdude413 (big blind) mucked [2s 4s Ah Ad 6s]

heads up poker tips

hi all i know i havnt been updating my blog but i had a lot a things going on moved town now i live in playa de carmen mexico caribbean site of mexico awesome place so from now on i will be more online and playng again here is a article about heads up play enjoy


10 Heads-Up Poker Tips

From Heads-Up-Poker.org
Heads-Up Poker games, where you face just one opponent, are an exiting and demanding variation of the usual ring-game format. This article contains 10 tips that will get you winning at heads-up poker.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #1 – Position

Acting last after the flop is a huge advantage in poker. You get to see your opponent’s action before you make a decision on what to do. This allows you to win more with your good hands and lose the least when you are behind. In heads-up poker you will have position (the small blind / dealer button) half of the time – make sure you use this to your full advantage.


Heads-Up Poker Tip #2 – Aggression

Pre-flop your opponent will not have a strong hand most of the time. Combine this with the fact that unpaired hands will only hit the flop 1/3rd of the time and it is easy to see how aggression will win many pots when playing heads-up. After all, if you do not raise then you have not given your opponent an opportunity to fold!

Heads-Up Poker Tip #3 – Pot Control

Over time everyone gets their fair share of good and bad hands. Winners in poker make sure that they win bigger than average pots and lose smaller than average pots. Decide whether you have a ‘big-pot’ hand during play and plan your bets to win as many of your opponents chips as possible. Conversely manage the pot with a vulnerable hand so as to lose the least if you happen to be behind.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #4 – Reading Your Opponent

Work out as early in the heads-up game as possible what hands your opponent raises, checks and calls your bets with. Is this opponent likely to raise strongly with a flush draw? Will this opponent check a monster hand looking to check-raise or lead straight out? Will this player raise a marginal hand on the river if you have shown weakness, or instead call and see a showdown?

Heads-Up Poker Tip #5 – Adapting To Your Opponent

In order to take advantage of your reads on an opponent you must be ready to adapt your play. If they are too tight then raise more, if they call too often you should reduce your bluffs but raise larger amounts with a solid hand. If your opponent is too loose then you need flat call more often, sometimes re-raising as a semi-bluff when you suspect they missed the flop. What ever type of opponent you face, think through the changes to your play that will take maximum advantage of their style.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #6 – Folding

If you bet a medium strength hand heads-up and your opponent calls then there is a reason for this. It is up to you to work out whether they have a made-hand, a draw or is simply calling with the intention of bluffing later in the hand. If your hand is weak and your opponent continues to show resistance then you must be prepared to fold. Move on to the next hand with a minimal loss of chips rather than trying to force opponents off of hands when you are weak – it will make more in the long run!

Heads-Up Poker Tip #7 – Bluffing

Always look for profitable bluffing opportunities. If the flop comes with 2 suited cards or 3 to a straight then look out for those ‘scare cards’ on the turn. The next suited card could provide an excellent opportunity to steal the pot with a bluff. Remember in a heads-up match your opponent will not have a strong hand too often.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #8 – Vary Your Play

Just as you are trying to work out what your opponent’s bets, checks and calls mean – your opponent is trying the same thing on you. Become difficult to read by varying your play from time to time. This can include how you act with certain hands, your bet sizes or even the time spent making a decision. Varying your play means that your opponent is more likely to misread your hand, leading to greater profits for you.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #9 – Play Within Your Bankroll

Many situations in poker involve taking relatively small edges. A long term winner needs to be able to take every advantage available. Playing outside of your bankroll, at a level you would be uncomfortable losing at can lead you to play hands incorrectly. Make sure you are in the best possible winning position by playing within your bankroll.

Heads-Up Poker Tip #10 – Learn from Mistakes

Once your heads-up game is over you should take some time to analyze the hand-history. Look for what hands you played well and – importantly – hands you could have played better. The time spent here will quickly pay for itself as you improve to win future heads-up poker games.

Attacking and Defending Dead Money in Tournament Poker

Attacking and Defending Dead Money in Tournament Poker


Moreso than any other form of the game, tournament poker is about attacking dead money. This is true first because there is so much of it, with most tournaments employing both antes and blinds to drive action, and also because the blinds and antes are so large relative to the average stack size. As a player’s stack dwindles and the blinds and antes rise, he may find that the money in the pot before cards are dealt represents a substantial portion of his remaining chips. Much of mid- to late-game tournament play revolves around attacking this dead money while simultaneously preventing one’s opponents from doing the same.

Although the term “dead money” is generally used to refer to money that is in the pot without a hand behind it at all (for example, antes or money from a player who has folded), I use it more broadly to refer to any bet or raise that a player makes that he would not make if he knew for certain that he would be called. This includes forced bets such as blinds antes but also bluffs, semi-bluffs, and blind steal attempts.

Most tournament players, even the losing ones, recognize the need to loosen their raising requirements as blinds and antes increase. Of course some are better at this than others, but most are aware of the concept. To varying degrees, most players in larger buy-in online tournaments also defend their blinds with loose calls and aggressive re-raises.

Attacking Dead Money
Fortunately, blinds and antes are only the most obvious instances where players put into the pot more money than their hand is really worth. A tournament player who wants to do better than break-even against the experts at the table must learn to make plays at them. This means recognizing situations where they have put money into the pot that they cannot defend and then attacking that money.

One of the most common examples of such a play is the re-steal. Suppose that you are in the Small Blind (SB), a weak-tight player is in the Big Blind (BB), and a strong tournament player is on the Button. If everyone folds to the strong player, he will likely raise a very wide range of hands hoping to steal the blinds, as the BB may be folding hands as strong as Ace-Ten. You can now re-raise the strong player, since you know that the amount of money he has put into the pot is way out of proportion to the strength of his hand. (More precisely, it is out of proportion to the range of hands he could have in this situation. Of course he may actually have a strong hand, but that is unlikely enough that your re-raise will be profitable.)

With this as a guiding example, it is possible to consider other common situations where good players bet or raise with hands that they would fold if not for the added equity they gain by sometimes winning the pot without a showdown. The continuation bet, where a player raises pre-flop and then bets into one or two callers on a dry flop that is not likely to have helped anyone, is another good example. A raise or check-raise against a continuation bet from a strong, aggressive player will often let you win a sizeable pot uncontested, provided you employ this tactic sparingly.

Similarly, if you raise from late position and a strong player calls out of the blinds, you should factor into your read of the situation the possibility that he expects you to be stealing and may be looking to make a play. If he then leads into you on a flop that you would usually continuation bet, you can consider raising or calling (with the intention to steal the pot on a later street). After all, if he had a hand, wouldn’t he wait to check-raise the continuation bet that he expects you to make?

It’s good to get into the habit of asking, “Does he need a hand to do this?” every time a strong player puts money into the pot. Let’s practice:

With blinds of 100/200 and a 25 ante, a good player open shoves his last 1200 chips into the pot from two seats off the button. Does he need a hand to do this? Not in the least: the pot represents about 40% of his stack, so he could be moving in with any two cards.

Now another good player re-raises to 2400 from the button. Does he need a hand to do this? Not really. He will likely recognize that the all-in player could have any two, so he can reraise to isolate with any hand that has about 40% equity versus a random hand. This includes such monster holdings as Queen-5 and 9-6.

If you are left to act, you could consider moving all-in to trap all that dead money in the pot. If the second player folds, as he’ll have to do quite often, you’ll have the opportunity to race against the all-in player’s random hand getting better than 4:1 on your money (no hand is a 4:1 dog against a random holding). Even if the second player does call, you’ll be getting very good odds and could still be up against something less than a monster, if he concludes that you don’t need a hand to move in on him. So although the action of raise all-in, re-raise, re-re-raise all-in suggests that everyone has a strong hand, this does not have to be the case at all.

Defending Dead Money
In Tournament Poker for Advanced Poker, David Sklansky famously argues that if “you are one of the best players in the tournament… you should avoid close gambles, especially for large portions of your chips.” (20) Perhaps because Sklansky does not go into great detail about what exactly counts as a “close gamble,” this advice has been misconstrued to justify some pretty atrocious folds.

The truth is that getting the best of good tournament players often requires making some big calls. It would be nice to accumulate chips simply by stealing and restealing, without ever having to risk a bad beat or showdown. However, the shallow stacks of most online multi-table tournaments mean that often, when a good, aggressive player makes a play at a pot, he will commit all of his chips. Since raising is not an option, the only way to take advantage of the situation is to make a big call.

For instance, if you raise Ace-9 from a steal position such as the Button and a good player moves all in from the blinds for four or five times the size of your bet, you should seriously consider calling, even if it will cost you most or all of your chips. Similarly, if you raise Ace-Queen and bet a dry flop like 2-2-7 rainbow, you should seriously consider calling a check-raise all in from a good player who called out of the blinds. Against weaker players, you should be more inclined to fold, as it is less likely that they are making a play at you.

The mistake many players make in this situation is evaluating their hands in a vacuum. They do not want to call off all their chips with no pair after the flop or a rag Ace pre-flop, and so they fold what is likely to be the best hand. In a spot where you would bet or raise a very wide range of hands, and your opponent is good enough to recognize this, folding one of the better hands in your range simply because it isn’t as strong of a hand as you’d like to have when calling off the last of your chips is going to be a mistake.

The correct approach is to consider the entire situation. Assign a realistic range of hands to your opponent that allows for the possibility of him making a play at you with a weaker hand than you might expect. Then, estimate your equity against that range of hands. Although it isn’t useful in the heat of the moment, analyzing the situation afterwards using a program like Poker Stove can give you a better feel for what kinds of hands you should be calling in similar spots in the future.

Conclusion
The examples I offer here will be old news to some. What I hope will be useful is the general framework I propose for chip accumulation during tournaments, especially against better players. Unlike in most ring games, which tend to revolve around implied odds, value bets, and complex bluffs set up over multiple streets, recognizing and attacking dead money is a critical element of tournament play. Blind stealing is the most well-known instance of this, but for exactly that reason, it is often not the most effective. More experienced players have learned to defend against this common tactic, and beating them requires learning to spot other situations where the strength of their hand is not likely to be commensurate with the size of the pot they have built.

BUBBLE PLAY

Ten Tips for Improving Your Bubble Play

Why are tournaments so profitable for the knowledgeable player? It’s because you are always getting a giant overlay. In a 180-man Stars tourney, for instance, you are competing against no more than 100 opponents, and quite often less. In other words, there are at most 100 other players trying to win the tournament. The rest are just trying to cash, and might as well be playing a different game altogether. These players are not competing with you for the top prizes.

In the early stages, they are playing to accumulate, just like you are. Their strategy is not intrinsically –EV, though their play may be.

In the money, most of them are happy to be there and will gamble up, and are too short to do anything else anyway. Again, their strategy is not intrinsically –EV here.

On the bubble, however, they are folding much too often and leaving a ton of money on the table. You need to put yourself in a position to scoop up as much of it as possible, as this is far and away the best opportunity you will have to accumulate chips. Here are some tips on how to do that.

1. Raise. Even if you know this already, you probably aren’t doing it enough. Never open limp. Not under the gun, not on the button, not ever. The odds are just too good that you will win it without a showdown. (This point is probably too strongly stated, but you get the idea.)

2. Fold. Just because A9 is ahead of your range when you push over a late position raise doesn’t mean you should call. There are a lot of players on the bubble who know you are stealing but are too afraid to push back, and there are a lot more who think the correct strategy is to wait for big hands and then ‘punish’ your raise. If it starts happening all the time, then you can loosen your calling range (and in fact find yourself in some very +EV spots of a different sort), but the first time someone comes over the top, they’ve probably got a hand. You can steal back the chips you are folding away in a single orbit, whereas one or two thin calls could cripple your stealing ability. There is so much easy money to be had without going to showdown on the bubble that you shouldn’t be eager to get there.

3. Target the Weak. The decision to open raise is determined by three factors, in order of importance: who is in the blind, your position, and your cards. You should start identifying likely play-to-cashers before the bubble even begins, and continue paying attention to who is not defending blinds and who seems to be making big laydowns.

4. Size Up the Competition. The play-to-cashers are not the competition. At this point, they are just giving away free money, and all you have to do is take it. But you still have to play poker with the other play-to-winners, who are also trying to scoop up all that dead money. These players will be a lot more willing to re-steal, steal raise, etc., and you need to adapt accordingly.

5. Look at the Chat Box. The dialogue in the chat box gives you a lot of clues about who is playing to cash and about evolving table dynamics. I’ve seen players say things like “I would have called if it weren’t the bubble”, “I’m folding JJ here”, and “Yes! Yes! Yes!” every time they win a pot. It’s like they want me to run them over.

Players will also comment on how often you’ve been raising, or threaten to call “next time.” Pay attention to these clues, as they can help you to make tough decisions when facing a re-steal.

6. Spread It Around. Most players take it personally when you raise their blinds. If you abuse the same player often enough, he will feel like he has to stand up to you, and you will have baited him into playing correctly. Conversely, many play-to-cashers will recognize that you are stealing but not particularly care as long as they don’t feel singled out. So if you raised weak-tighty #1’s blind the last two orbits, go after the player on his right this time.

7. Protect Your Blinds. If you call or re-raise out of your blind a few times, most aggressive players will back off, as there is usually much easier money to be found. Play-to-cashers will occasionally make weak attempts to steal as well, usually min-raising or open limping from late position. They will often back off of even reasonably strong hands when seemingly pot committed when faced with the prospect of bubbling out.

8. Protect Their Blinds. A good, aggressive bubble player on your right can really cramp your style, as he will always be steal-raising ahead of you. But don’t look at this as a thorn in the side, look at it as an opportunity: he is putting a lot of money into the pot that he can’t defend. His only options are to keep raising and donating to you, or to stop raising and let you get back to picking on the weak players’ blinds; it’s a win-win for you. If the play-to-cashers won’t defend their blinds, you should do it for them.

9. Make the Last Bet. Just because a player decides to see a flop with you does not mean he has a big hand. With so many players stealing, re-stealing, and defending, there are a lot people seeing flops without especially strong hands. More often than not, they are hoping to get a cheap showdown or bully you off of your marginal holding. If you play your draws aggressively, you’ll find that most players are no more willing to go to the felt after the flop than they were before. You just need to structure the betting in such a way that [i]you[/i] are the one pushing all-in, because it is a hell of a lot harder to call a push with a marginal hand than it is to push with a marginal hand.

10. Come Stacked. Although the bubble is a profitable time to push-bot, a 3x big blind raise from the table chipleader has a lot more fold equity than an 8x all-in from a short stack. Ninety percent of the time I choose accumulation over survival, but most tournaments have such juicy bubbles that it can be correct to structure your pre-bubble strategy around getting to the bubble with a stack that will allow you to steal. This may mean taking gambles when you’re short in hopes of doubling up to a healthy stack, or it may mean passing on thin gambles when losing the pot would leave you unable to steal on the bubble.

BLIND STEALING

You know the guy; he reads the first couple of chapters of Supersystem, which he is now using as a coaster, and he has learnt a dozen poker terms watching WPT. He was at my table last night in a Pokerstars 3 table SNG and spent the entire game telling people what they were doing wrong; "you don't call with that," "you don't raise that much," etc. This weinie made it very clear that he was only going to play the premium hands that were on his premium hands list, and he got crippled by J8o, at which point he reminded everyone how wrong the other guy was because he raised before the flop. Mr. Weinie got busted after he announced he had AQ and went all in "because I don't want anyone to suck out on me," at which point I called with probably the first hand I had got all night, pocket queens, and sent him home. I won the SNG btw, go me.

Its took me a long time to learn and many a reread of the gospel according to Harrington, but in a tournament the cards in my hand are several places down the pecking order whenever I make a decision. I used to 'make to money' a lot in tourneys and SNGs by playing solid and waiting for big hands, nowadays I probably make the money less often, but I make a hell of a lot more money because I am now making final tables in the MTTs and taking first place in the big SNGs (I don't play single table SNGs). The reason? Blind stealing. Blind stealing is my number one tournament tool and most of the time, by the hour mark I will either be the chip leader or I will be busted.

I won a stars 5 table SNG a few weeks ago and I swear I must have played more hands than anyone but barely had to show down any of those hands. I simply slowly built a stack in the early stages with premium hands, started blind stealing in the middle stages and by the time the FT was in session I had enough chips to do as I please. For most of the game I was getting things like 79o and K7s, but nobody else knew that. All they had seen was the few times I had made trips or caught a flop with AK, and I made sure they did see that.

Before I present my blind stealing guidelines let me quickly define it. For it to be a blind steal it is a preflop raise which has no intention of being called. Therefore the only starting requirement is that your hand is a poor one. You might want to start only blind stealing with hands that could potentially get you out of jail, like ace junk, king junk or suited cards (ie, something where you could donk out on somebody). The only other real requirement is that you have enough chips left to damage someone else's stack, because if they dwarf you in chips, they might take a risk to bust you out.



Don't steal until they're worth stealing: Blind stealing becomes very profitable in the middle to late stages of a tournament. There is no point taking any risks at all when you only stand to win 30 chips, people are happy to defend their blinds and see a flop. Wait till the blinds are at least 50/100 and are both something you want to win and something they wont want to lose.

Make sure you are the first to act: Don't try and steal if someone has entered the pot behind you, even if they just limped in they have invested in the pot and must have some conviction in their hand.

Only steal in late position. I personally wont blind steal unless I'm at least one place off the button. Anything earlier than that and you will run into a genuine hand.

Bet a random amount: Don't use the slider to dictate the amount you bet because it only selects a standard number of big blinds, type in a random amount. If the blinds are 100, bet 280 instead of 300. If the blinds are 200, bet 475 instead of 600 etc. This serves several purpose. Firstly it gives the impression that you have really thought about your hand carefully, whereas most people would otherwise think 'ok, he bet x 3 the BB'. Secondly, the chips will visually appear larger than it actually is on most poker rooms because they will be stacked in a different way, 475 on Pokerstars appears like more chips than 500 for example, silly I know but it works. Finally if you are planning on stealing a lot, you can in the long run save a few chips here and there by betting just under the standard x3 x4 bets.

Bet an amount that's big, but looks like it wants a call: Don't put 1000 chips into a 50/100 pot. Its not worth the risk because if you get called you almost certainly will lose. Also, people are sometimes more tempted by a potential all in bet than a smaller bet, figuring they could be in a coin flip and you don't want a call with a huge bet. Don't put a minimum raise in because only an idiot would fold (Therefore it might work on Pacific Poker). I suggest betting between 2.5 and 4 times the big blind, that sort of bet looks like it wants action. If they fold, every now and then tell them they made a good laydown, that suggests you had something like bullets.

Showdown your good hands: When you get AK, AQ, 99 etc make sure you raise them the same way. Then if you get a fold show them down. People are much more inclined to player note what they see than what they think you may have had, and player notes can be very misleading.

Don't stop doing it till you get caught out: Be very careful when you get exposed stealing, because people will start taking a stand against you with anything. When people keep calling or reraising you will have to tighten up and wait for a few hands. This will also pay you off when you do get a hand because you are more likely to get action when they think you have 7 high again. If you flop a monster: Push it all the way but if it gets showdown and cracks a big hand, get ready to change gears or pray to get moved to another table.

Realise when someone else is pot committed. Steal off the big stacks, steal off the medium stacks but avoid the short stacks. Pretty soon they are going to move all with a marginal hand anyway, so wait until you either have a hand or try and see a flop against them.

If you get reraised: Put on a little show, pause, type hmmmmm and eventually tell them that you are laying down KQ, you might improve their confidence against you but you will have kept your table image of playing big hands. Call the reraise if the pot odds are worth it, of course.

If you get called: Don't be afraid to make a continuation bet on the flop. You have after all represented a big hand and they only called you, so the chances are you are ahead in their eyes. If they call or reraise you at this point and you still don't have a hand, don't invest a single chip more and admit defeat (But perhaps type some BS about you think your jack kicker is no good help your table image)

Exploit the bubble: When you are a couple of places away from the money mark, if you have a good stack start raising slightly more than you have been doing, people will start throwing away their coinflip hands hoping you will take out some other sucker instead.

After you make the money: Tighten up a bit, people loosen up when they know they have definitely won something

how to bluff a callingstation

How to Bluff a Calling Station

The standard advice for playing against players who call too often is both straight-forward and common-sensical: value bet more hands and do not bluff. This is a solid, profitable strategy, and it is not my intention to turn it on its head. However, I do not believe that you will maximize your profits by adhering to a strict rule of “Never bluff a calling station.” In fact, because loose players are more likely than tighter players to hold weak cards, they can sometimes be bluffed profitably in situations where tighter players could not. All it takes is persistence and good timing.

Are You Getting Outplayed?
Players who call too often are generally considered to be bad players with a losing strategy, and in fact, most of them are. However, particularly when they are in position, their tendency to call pre-flop raises and flop continuation bets with almost anything can actually be quite devastating to a player employing the tight-aggressive (TAG) style of play advocated by most poker strategists. Consider that a standard TAG strategy in no-limit hold ‘em is to enter the pot pre-flop with a raise, bet the flop whether you hit or miss, and then give up on the turn if your opponent has not yet folded and you don’t have a strong hand. This strategy, if employed against a loose player who has position on you, will cost you quite a few pots when you either check and fold the best hand on the turn or allow your opponent to show down a weak but winning hand.

Worse, even a loose player who is accustomed to seeing you give up on the turn may eventually get away when you do have a monster and keep betting. Although the TAG will still probably show a profit in the long run even when out of position against a calling station, he will be leaving a lot of money on the table if he does not adapt to his opponent’s loose play.

Exploiting The Calling Station’s Mistakes
As the name implies, the calling station’s exploitability lies in the fact that he calls too much. In other words, he plays too many weak holdings, consistently putting more money into the pot than his hands are worth. This is bad for two reasons, one more obvious than the other.

The obvious reason is that the calling station will put in too much money from behind. That is, he will call bets when he has the worst hand and improper odds to improve. The equally obvious way to exploit this error is to bet more hands for value, confident in the knowledge that your opponent can and often will call you down with worse.

But the risk of already having the worst hand is not the only reason why calling with a weak holding is expensive. It is sometimes correct to fold a weak hand even if you suspect it may be best simply because you have little hope of improving and cannot stand further action. Against players who will not fold these ‘hopeless’ hands to a single bet when they should, firing a second and sometimes a third barrel is going to be profitable.

Illustration
I’ll give you an example from a recent tournament I played. I had just been seated in a weekly $1000 online no limit hold ‘em tournament and was checking my notes on the other players at my table. Most of them, including the player to my immediate left, were fairly strong, well-known tournament players. The notable exception was the player two seats to my right, on whom I had a note that read, “Ridiculous calling station.”

As it happened, the calling station was given the button for the first hand, which meant that I was in the big blind and the strong player to my left was first to act. With blinds at 10/20, he came in for a pot-sized raise of 70 and got four callers, including the loose player on the button. The action was on me in the big blind with AJ.

Ordinarily, I would fold AJ against a first position raise, even coming from a player such as this one who is well-known to be loose and aggressive. Although my hand was too weak to call, I decided that there was a very wide gap between the hands this player would raise in this spot and the hands with which he would continue against a sizeable re-raise. I further suspected that most of the other players at the table would have re-raised when they had the chance if they had a big pair, so it looked like a good spot for a squeeze play.

The only player who I thought might call me would be the loose player on the button, but with AJ, I didn’t figure to be in bad shape against his calling range, especially with so much dead money in the pot. So I re-raised to 420, and sure enough everyone folded except the button, who called. That is, after all, what calling stations do best.

A call from any other player at this table would have frozen me, and I would not have put another penny into the pot without a very favorable flop. My big re-raise against a first position raiser was representing a premium holding, and even though most of these players were savvy enough to realize there was some chance I was making a squeeze play, they would also recognize that I would have a strong hand often enough that they could not call me profitably without a very strong holding of their own.

But the “ridiculous calling station” was a different story. With so many players in the pot already, his first call could be almost anything. When it came to my re-raise, although he was loose, I didn’t think he was calling with just anything. More likely, he had a ‘pretty’ hand like 88 or AQ that he just couldn’t bring himself to fold despite the strength I was representing.

The flop came out K95, all different suits. No help for my AJ, but a good flop to fire at against a player whom I expected to be relatively weak. Because I knew this player could show up with so many hands that were really too weak for the situation, I expected a flop bet to be profitable. I bet 600, and the stubborn SOB called me again!

The turn brought a Q, giving me a gut shot, which was not very much help. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this guy’s hand was not as strong as it should have been to take this much action. Smart, reasonably tight players are not calling a big reraise pre-flop and a big bet on that flop without a monster holding. But this guy was not a smart, reasonably tight player. I knew, from past experience, that he would give more action than his hands were worth.

Obviously, this does not sound like the ideal player to bluff. But on the other hand, I was now looking at a big pot and an opponent who likely did not have a big hand, and that does sound like the ideal situation to bluff. Calling stations need more convincing than other players to fold, but with enough convincing, they can be bluffed in situations where others cannot. For instance, I would not even think of moving all in on this turn against any other player at the table, because any other player could not have gotten to this point without a hand that would happily call my all in.

But in this situation, I moved all in for my (and my opponent’s) last 2000, and he folded.

Making It Work
I speak in very broad terms here, but as with most things in poker, it really comes down to the player. Different players, all of whom could easily be labeled calling stations, call in different situations for different reasons. Some can be bluffed in one way, some in another, and the most stubborn not at all. But there are a few principles to keep in mind when attempting to bluff a calling station:

1. Maximum pressure is important. It is not a coincidence that my example comes from tournament play. There are a great many players who are much too loose in general but much too tight when it comes to the last of their chips in a poker tournament. These players can be bluffed very profitable provided you are willing to put them to the test for everything they have and provided that ‘everything they have’ is enough that they will feel they still have a shot at winning if they fold. This works particularly well in the early stages of major live tournaments where stacks are deep and players have traveled great distances and paid great sums of money to enter.

2. Don’t bluff a short stack. This is the corollary to rule one; you can’t put maximum pressure on a player with very few chips. Players who get short in tournament play are often ready to double up or go home and are not in the mood to fold anything that could be a winner. Similarly, players who buy in short at cash games do so precisely because they do not want to face the difficult decisions that come with deep stack poker. They don’t have enough chips to make a situation tough, so don’t try putting them to one.

3. Use caution in fixed limit games. You can’t apply maximum pressure when your opponent is getting 6:1 on a call. However, there are comparable situations where a player’s willingness to play weak hands creates situations where he can profitably be bluffed. In Razz, for instance, a player who will call 3rd street with a face card showing or will peel when he bricks on 4th can often be bluffed on later streets simply because it will be very obvious to you that he cannot possibly have a hand stronger than, for instance, K-J-x-x-x. As long as your board looks reasonably strong, this player is asking you to keep firing at him even if you’re actually double paired.

4. It’s okay to get caught. But don’t try it again. Calling stations look for excuses to call. Once they’ve seen you bluff, even if it wasn’t against them, don’t expect them to lay anything down. In their minds, you are a bluffer. Now it really is time to tighten up, value bet more hands, and never bluff.

Profitable Situations

Profitable Situations



How much would you pay for a program that allowed you to see your opponents’ hole cards? Wouldn’t it be even better if you had a program that gave your opponents whatever hole cards you wanted them to have? And if you had such a program, you wouldn’t just give them all garbage so that you could steal their blinds; you would want to give them second best hands and then value bet them to death. In other words, you would want to create situations where your opponents held slightly worse hands than yours, because these are the most profitable situations in poker.

Well here’s the thing: you already have this ability. To some extent, you are in control of the cards that your opponents hold. Whenever an opponent enters the pot, he is doing so with some range of hands that is determined by the action in front of him, his position, his stack size, table conditions, his mood, etc. As the hand progresses, however, you will have the ability to narrow his range depending on the line that you take. Unfortunately, you can’t make him throw away the nuts, and in general it will be hard to get him to pitch any of the hands at the top of his range. This is why you should play your big hands fast most of the time: there is little danger of shaking Villain off of a big but slightly worse hand, which means that you are primed to win a large pot. Conversely, playing a medium strength hand too fast is generally bad because it allows Villain to throw away everything you beat and take your money when he’s got you beat.

Different games have different types of profitable situations, some more obvious than others. In NLHE, there is set over set, set vs. overpair, set vs. top pair, overpair vs. top pair, etc. In Omaha, there is the nuts with redraws vs. the nuts without redraws. In O/8, there is the nut high vs. two opponents going low, the nut low with a flush draw vs. the nut low, etc. In 5 card stud, there is a concealed pair that allows you to beat the open pair your opponent is showing.

The important thing is that a profitable situation is more than having a good hand; it is having a good hand while your opponent has a slightly less good one that he nevertheless has reason to think is best. Ideally, you would want his hand to be exactly one ranking below yours (ie K-high flush when you hold the A-high flush), so that you can apply maximum pressure.

Obviously, there are many other types of profitable situations, such as those where you can bluff Villain off of the best hand a large amount of the time, but right now, I’m concerned only with those where you are trying to get maximum value at showdown.

To cash game regulars, a lot of this may seem obvious, because cash game play is all about creating profitable situations. In tournaments, especially at the lowest buy-ins, you can usually study some starting hand guidelines, memorize a push-bot chart, and get by alright, because a lot of your profit will come from players who fail to adapt to tournament-specific bubble or short-stack situations. But there is a lot more money to be made if you know how to get full value out of your hands and not just how to play an unexploitable short stack game.

Fundamentally, good players make money at poker because they know how to recognize and/or create profitable situations. They win the most from second best hands because they know how to keep those hands in the pot and win bets from them.

Creating profitable situations

Whenever I have a made hand (ie one that could potentially win unimproved at showdown), I consider my opponents’ possible holdings, and then I categorize them into hands I want him to have (because he can/will pay me off), hands I don’t want him to have (hands with a lot of outs that won’t pay me off unless they catch; hands that are already beating me) and hands that don’t matter (those that missed the board completely and are now hopeless; those so good that he will never get away from them, and that I will have to pay off).

The key to making the most of profitable situations is thinking about the hands that are most likely to pay you off and how they will respond to a bet, check, or raise at any given time. In other words, you shouldn’t be betting just because you have a decent hand and there is a flush draw on the board. Your move should have a very deliberate purpose: “I am betting because I expect the following hands to call and the following hands to fold.” Or, “I am checking because if I bet, Villain will fold the following hands that could pay me off later.”

In order to create a profitable situation, you need to take a line that will allow you to win the most from the hands you are beating. If your hand is big enough that it can beat a lot of other hands that Villain may mistakenly think are best (ie I have 77 or AJ on an 7JA flop), you can just bet out. If it’s checked around to you with A5, I recommend checking it through simply because no reasonable opponent is going to make a mistake against you on that board. Checking behind creates a situation where Villain may take a stab with a worse hand, or may be more inclined to check/call middle pair on the next street, as a bet will look more like a steal.

In the first situation, you hand is already disguised, so you can go ahead and play it fast, because Villain is likely to come along with a hand like top pair. In the second, your hand is slightly worse than the one you are representing by betting the flop. It’s not bad enough that you need to bluff, but it is not good enough to bet for value. The only reason to bet (though this is often a sufficient reason) is that the pot is large enough already and/or the board is draw-heavy enough that you want to win it right now, or that you opponent may make the mistake of drawing with bad odds.

There are three key principles at work here:

1. On balance, the more money an opponent puts into the pot, the better his hand is likely to be at that time; however,
2. The larger the pot, the less good an opponent’s hand is likely to be at all future decision points.
3. Betting or raising ranges tend to be wider than calling ranges.

In other words, many players will put 3-4 BB’s in the pot with a wide variety of hands when stacks are deep. Once 12-15 BB’s per player go in pre-flop, many people’s ranges narrow considerably (though it matters how the money goes in). However, once the flop comes out, a player who would check-fold a whiffed AK in a 12 BB pot might semi-bluff all-in at a 40 BB pot. Certainly, he is more likely to semi-bluff push than to call an all in.

Variance and Profitable Situations

Often, you will have a choice about what kind of profitable situation you would like to create. For instance, on the first hand of a NLHE tournament, you are dealt 99 UTG. You could play this fast, hoping to get value from lower pocket pairs or top pair on a rag board or win it with a continuation bet on the flop against overcards. Or, you could limp in, trying to flop a set and win a big pot against two pair or top pair.

In the former case, you’ll win a smaller pot a lot more often, you’ll occasionally win a huge pot when you make a set versus top pair, but you’ll occasionally lose a large pot against a better pair or get bluffed off of the best hand.

When you limp, you let a lot of worse hands outflop you. You might even fold the best hand on the flop to a semi-bluff. When you make your set, it will be harder to win a huge pot, because players are less likely to fall in love with top pair in a limped, multiway pot. However, you rarely lose a big pot, and with more players seeing the flop with you, it is more likely that someone will make something to pay you off.

Raising 99 UTG and limping 99 UTG are both profitable situations, the central difference between them being variance: how often do you want to win/lose the pot and what size pot do you want to play? In my opinion it varies a lot based on the stage of the tournament you are in, but my purpose here isn’t to debate which line to choose. The point is that however you choose to play it, you need to think about what kinds of hands you want your opponent to have and how to win the most when he has them.

I am also suggesting that sometimes it is correct to pass on small edges in order to set a trap and possibly create a profitable (sometimes very profitable) situation down the road. You are undoubtedly giving up some value by limping 9’s UTG, because you are not charging worse hands for the chance to outflop you. However, it is much harder to have a profitable situation after the flop holding 99 out of position in a heads up pot than it is to have one in a multi-way limped pot.

A very similar situation occurs when you limp A5 behind a couple of limpers on your button, and the flop comes A89. If you bet here, the best case scenario is that someone correctly folds their draw and you win a small pot. Someone may “make a mistake” calling a 2/3 pot bet on a draw, except that you are going to have check the turn, giving Villain a free look at the river and turning his call into a good one. A bare 8 or 9 will almost certainly fold, and better Aces will call. Granted, you give up some value by giving someone with middle pair a free chance to catch five outs on the turn, but hopefully this will be compensated for by winning a turn and/or river bet from an unimproved middle pair. If the turn is a scary one like T , then you can get out cheaply, with little harm done. Once again, this line enables you to lower your variance by trading one profitable situation (top pair on a draw-heavy board) for another (a somewhat disguised top pair).

Using Your Reads

Setting up a profitable situation requires estimating an opponent’s range and how he will play various hands within that range. The more you know about an opponent, the more inclined you should be to play pots against him, especially when you are in position. In particular, you should focus on the mistakes different players at your table, especially those to your immediate right and those in the blinds when your are in late position, tend to make. Do they overvalue top pair? Stack off with weak overpairs? Never giver credit when a draw hits? Give up too easily when scare cards hit?

Remember how we agreed that you would pay quite a bit of money for a program that allowed you see your opponent’s hole cards? Well, you should be willing to take some risks anytime you feel you can put Villain on a very narrow range. As long as stacks are deep, make some speculative calls pre-flop with suited connectors, small pairs, etc. You can do the same on the flop with a gut shot, middle pair, etc. if you know that a lot of cards will allow you to take the pot away later or that Villain will pay off big when you hit.

Similarly, if you are confident you are ahead AND you have a very good idea of what Villain has, you should be less inclined to end the hand, even if you are out of position. Building a pot is good when you know about what your opponent has, but fold equity is worth very little.

Reverse Implied Odds

It’s the first hand of a NLHE tournament. You have AA UTG. Villain has 22 on the button. Who’s in a profitable situation? Villain is. You are never going to win a big pot unless you make set over set, but you will lose a big pot virtually every time he makes his set.

This seems obvious, but it’s an important thing to think about when you have a big hand. Just because you have the nuts doesn’t mean you want any and all action. You want to play big pots against second best hands, not against speculative hands that will either lose small pots or win big ones. I see so many players making tiny raises and re-raises with their rockets, seemingly giving little or no thought to what kinds of hands they want in the pot and what kinds they don’t. Conveniently enough, the kinds of hands that will pay you off big on the right flop are also the sort that can take a fair amount of action pre-flop: other big pairs and broadway hands that can make top pair good kicker.

Profitable Strategy

Against decent opposition, you can’t just play medium strength hands slow and big hands fast. This will hurt your ability to make value bets and give up too much in the way of reverse implied odds. As you move up in stakes and face increasingly solid opponents, you need to think about profitable strategy and not just profitable situations. This entails cultivating an image that will enable you to get your big hands paid off and that will make you less predictable, so that calling your UTG raises with 22 will not be such a profitable move for your opponents.

By a strategy, I mean the range of hands that you have in a given situation and your plan for future action. A fairly basic strategy would be raising a wide range from the CO and continuation betting any time you flop big or miss completely but checking behind on especially scary boards or with weak draws.

Naturally you’ll want to adapt your strategy to the opponent you are playing at a given time, because you need a strategy that is a successful counterpoint to the Villain’s counter-strategy. Many players adopt a counter-strategy of calling light against aggressive late position raisers, check-folding when they miss, and check-raising when they hit. Even when they mix in the occasional check-raise semi-bluff, this is not a difficult counter-strategy to circumvent.

Becoming familiar with the types of counter-strategies that players commonly adopt against your strategy will help you make better reads and create more profitable situations.

Conclusion

If had to summarize this novel in one sentence, it would be, “When you have a big hand, think about what could pay you off, why, and how.”

profitable mistakes

Profitable Mistakes

I want to begin this month by looking at a few hypothetical situations:

1. You are holding a pair of 7’s on a 799 flop and get all your money in against a single opponent. The turn is a 5 and the river is an Ace. Your opponent tables A9 and drags the pot, having rivered a higher full house.

2. Same situation, but this time your opponent shows you 99 for the flopped nuts.

3. You hold 4[spade] 3[spade] on a 9[diamond] 6[spade] 5[spade] flop. Your opponent, a smart and talented player, checks and calls a ¾ pot bet. The turn is the J[club], and he checks and calls another ¾ pot bet. The river is an offsuit Q, and he checks and calls one more ¾ pot bet, turning over A[spade] Q[spade].

4. You hold KT against an extremely loose, passive, and all around bad player. He checks and calls substantial bets on a T95 flop and a 4 turn. The river is a Q, but you put in a value bet anyway, only to be called by AT and realize that you were behind all along.

What do these situations have in common? I would argue that they are all well-played hands where you had an unlucky result.

This may be more obviously the case for the early examples than for the latter ones. In fact, the first two situations are so commonly recognized as stemming from bad luck rather than bad play that they have earned themselves their own vocabulary: the “bad beat” and the “cold deck”.

Most players learn early in their careers not to take a bad beat or a cold deck as indicative of bad play. When trying to improve your game, you focus on the factors that you can control, and there just isn’t anything you can do about a lucky river card or running the second nuts into the nuts.

What is harder to see, and what I want to argue in this article, is that the latter two situations are every bit as unlucky as a bad beat or a cold deck. The results of hands (3) and (4) should not be taken to mean that your river bet was a mistake. If anything, these results suggest that you are bluffing and value betting well on the river.

Remember that neither your bluffs nor your value bets need to succeed 100% of the time to be successful. If they do succeed that often, then you are probably not doing either often enough.

Thinking in Terms of Ranges
Functionally, whenever you play a hand of poker, you are playing your cards against the entire range of hands that your opponent could have in a given situation. The fact that he happens to turn over 99 for quads instead of T9 for trips is inconsequential if you’re sure that he would have played both in exactly the same way. It’s just as far beyond your control and your concern as the Ace that flops to put that AK way ahead of your KK after the money went in pre-flop.

This is more true when playing online than when playing live. When sitting across the felt from real, live poker players you still need to use your poker and logic skills to deduce their hand ranges. However, physical and verbal tells will sometimes help you to narrow their range even further and determine whether they are bluffing this time.

For the most part, though, that information isn’t available online, and even live it is rarely as easy to use as some books make it seem. You have to make the best decisions that you can against your opponent’s entire range and let the cards fall where they may.

The really tricky thing about this is that it makes it very difficult to evaluate your own play. In example (3), did your bluff get called because your opponent rivered top pair? Or was he going to call with his AQ unimproved anyway? Would your bluff have succeeded against the smaller pairs that likely made up the bulk of his range?

Similarly, in example (4), you can’t conclude that you made a bad value bet just because you turned out not to have the best hand. That’s as absurd as concluding that you should have folded your full house in example (1) because your opponent was lucky enough to improve on the river.

So if you don’t have the results to orient you, how do you know whether you are bluffing and value betting well on the river? The truth is that you really can’t know for sure, but just as KK will show a profit against AK all in preflop over time, regardless of the results of any particular trial, so too can you look at trends in your results over time. The occasional picked-off bluff or backfiring value bet isn’t a mistake, it’s actually a hint that you’re bluffing and value betting well. By definition, playing for thin value means you aren’t going to beat the top of your opponent’s range.

Bluffing

Assuming your hand has no showdown value, a river bluff for ¾ of the pot needs to fold out a better hand approximately 43% of the time to show a profit. Of course, it’s impossible to know an opponent’s exact calling range or frequency, but theoretically, if you knew that this bluff would succeed 50% of the time and you didn’t make it, then you would be costing yourself money as surely as if you took it out of your pocket and gave it to your opponent in cash.

If your bluffs are rarely or never called, then you are undoubtedly missing profitable opportunities and leaving money on the table. Strange as it may seem, you want a ¾ pot bluff to be called about 1/3 of the time. Since you can’t know your opponent’s exact calling range, this is the closest you can get to confirmation that you are in fact bluffing at a good frequency.

In the example above, your opponent backed into top pair, top kicker- a much stronger holding than you would expect to see given the passive line that he took. From your perspective, it looked like he had a draw, possibly with a weak pair to go with it. And in fact that is what he had. He just had a few outs that you weren’t counting on. You can imagine how many other hands he could have played similarly but folded on this river: 7-5, 7-6, 9-7, 9-8, 7-7, 8-8, A[spade] 7[spade], A[spade] T[spade], and maybe even A[spade] K[spade]. His lucky river catch notwithstanding, you made a profitable bluff and the river Q is functionally a ‘bad beat’ for you even though you were behind the entire time.

Value Betting

Value betting is an even trickier art than bluffing. Discounting some rare but substantially complicating factors such as the risk of a check-raise bluff, a value bet on the river shows a profit if it is called by a worse hand more often than it is called by a better hand.

That doesn’t mean that you should be losing money on 40-45% of your value bets. Often, when you value bet the river, you will have a hand that is way ahead of your opponent’s calling range and will rarely if ever run into a stronger holding. However, your thinnest value bets should run into better hands with approximately this frequency. If you never make a bet like the one in example (4), where you find yourself betting for value into a hand that is just barely stronger than yours, then you are probably missing a lot of value by checking when your opponent would have called with many slightly weaker hands.

I deliberately chose an example where you were in position and your opponent had already checked. When you are out of position, deciding whether to fire a thin value bet is more complicated, since you must consider the expected value of your bet relative to checking and either calling or folding. But especially when in position against a non-tricky opponent, you can and should bet for value with anything that might be called by worse.

Following from that, your opponent should be calling your river bets very often, frequently with a hand that’s better than yours. As frustrating as it can be to see him table a hand that had you beat all along, you need to realize that this is actually a good sign. As long as this one of the better hands in his range, you should be happy to ship him the pot. Just think of all the times that he calls with JT, J9, or 98 as your compensation for occasionally running into AT. You should accept this result with the same equanimity that you accept that miracle Ace on the river.

MY NEW MTT MENTOR IS AWSOME

HI ITS TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE LAST ONE WAS 2WEEKS AGO I KNOW I SAID I WOULD UPDATE MORE OFTEN MT BLOG BUT SINCE I HAVE STARTED WITH MY NEW MENTOR I ALMOST HAVE NO TIME FOR MY BLOG

I HAVE BEEN STUDYING VERY MUCH LATELY TO BRING MY MTT GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL

SO AS I HAVE STATED IN THE LAST POST I AM NOW BEING MENTORED BY A WELL KNOWN ONLINE PRO I AM VERY PROUD AND THANKFULL THAT HE TOOK ME UNDER HIS WING AND I AM WORKING HARD EVERY DAY ON M GAME TO BECOME A ELITE ONLINE MULTI TABLE TOURNAMENT PLAYER JUST LIKE HE IS

ANDREW FERGUSON BETTER KNOWN AS FERGWRX IS MY MENTOR SO FOR ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN ASKING WHO HE IS I DECIDED TO MAKE IT PUBLIC, SO MAYBE SOME OF YOU KNOW HIM AND SOME NOT I KNOW THAT ALL BALLAS OUT THERE KNOW WHO I AM TALKING ABOUT SINCE HE IS VERY WELL KNOWN TO ALL THE SAISON ONLINE PROS, BUT I HAVE TO SAY HE HAS HELPED ME SO MUCH WITH MY GAME SINCE WE STARTED I HAVE CHANGED MY GAME 100%

HE IS A VERY GOOD TEACHER AND EXPLAINS EVERY TOPIC WE GO TROUGH IN A VERY PROFESSIONAL MANNER HE MADE ME SEE THE GAME FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE I AM THANKFULL FOR THAT ,

HE STARTED WITH ME FROM SCRATCH BEACUSE MY SUPER LAG AGGRO DONKEY STYLE DIDN WORK SO GOOD FOR ME SO HE DECIDED TO BUILD FIRST A STRONG BASE BEFORE HE LET ME GO TO HIGHER BUY INNS MTTS AS I WAS USED TOO PLAY ONLY TO REALIZE NOW THAT I WAS DONATING MY MONEY THERE BUT NEXT TIME IL PLAY ONE OF THOOSE I WILL BE PREPARED FOR THE BIG BOYS AND I HOPE THEY STILL HAVE THE OLD NOTES ON ME SO I CAN THROW THEM OF BALANCE WITH MY NEW GAME

SO YOU GUYS KNOW NEXT TIME YOU ARE ONLINE SEARCH FOR FERGWRX AND WATCH HIM PLAY YOU GOING TO ENJOY IT IL PROMISSE

SEE YA AT THE TABLES

TOURNAMENT UPDATE

HI FOLKS HERE COMES THE PROMISED UPDATE NOT SO FREQUENTLY ADS I WISH BUT I HAVE BEEN BUSY PLAYING AND STUDYING SO NOT MUCH TIME TO UPDATE HERE FINALLY I FOUND SOME SPACE

THE LAST FEW WEEKS I PLAYED A LOT OF MTTS WITH MIXED RESULTS I HAVE BEEN STUDYING MORE ABOUT THE MTT GAME

I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO PARTICIPATE IN A GROUP SESSION VIA SKYPE WITH A WELL KNOWN ONLINE PRO WE WHERE 10 PEOPLE HE DID A FREE SESSION FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE HIS PLAYING SKILS AND TEACHING SKILS AND LET ME TELL YOU I WAS VERY IMPRESSED I FELT LIKE I HAVE MISSED A LOT THE LAST FEW YEARS LEARNING THE GAME MAKING A .LONG STORY SHORT THIS ONLINE PRO AGREED TO TEACH ME POKER MTT THE RIGHT WAY SO I AM VERY EXITED I HAVE A MENTOR NOW THIS WILL HELP MY GAME TO TAKE OFF TO THE NEXT LEVEL

SINCE WE STARTED THE COACHING I HAVE A 18.4%IN THE MONEY RATE AND 4% FINAL TABLE RATE HE MADE A VERY STRICT PLAN FOR ME TO TEACH ME SO FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY ANY REBUY TOURNAMENT OR SHORTHANDED MTT OR SHOUTOUT I HAVE TO STICK TO THE SMALL BUY INS NOTHING MORE THEN 17US BUY IN AND AHH YA NO TURBOS MTTS EITHER SO THATS VERY RESTRICTED FOR MY GAME AFTER PLAYING A LOT HIGHER LEVELS BUY INS BUT HE IS A GREAT TEACHER AND I HAVE LEARNED ALREADY A LOT FORM HIM I AM FOLOWING HIS ADVICE VERY STRICTLY I HOPE ICAN MOVE UP SOON IN LEVELS WHEN HE FEELS MY GAME IS READY BELOW I WILL POST A FEW MTT FINISHES FORM THE LAST FEW WEEKS SINCE I STARTED TO BE MENTORED

16.50 360 MAN MTT 32TH AND ONE FINAL TABLE 8TH PLACE AFTER PUSHING ON THE FLOP 21 OUTS AND COULDN HIT IT
2K GTD 18TH PLACE
11 US 180 MAN 2TH PLACE
11US 5K GTD 27TH
8.80 TURBO 6TH PLACE
11US 30K 125TH PLACE
AND A FEW SMALLER CASHES WHICH I DONT REMEMBER ALL SO MY ITM RATEHAS IMPROVED ANDMY GAME ISGETTING BETTER BY DAY I WILL KEEP YOU GUYS INFORMED HERE KEEP CHEKCING BACK IL TRY TO PSOT AN UPDATE AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK FROM NOW ON
SEE YA AT THE TABLES