bad habits

[OnWisconsin]

so i've been slowly getting myself back into the game after taking some time off, mostly playing the $50 free rolls on UB to help my patience and discipline and what not. so anyway, last night i got fairly deep, was down to about 200 players (started out with close to 5,000), and i had an above average stack.

and just like that, i found myself calling off a large chunk of my stack to a guy who check raised me on the turn. it was such an obvious play but i went in anyway, and while i was replaying the hand later, i realized one of my biggest problems is:

the only thing i hate more than paying off a check raiser is getting bluffed by one. i would say that 75% of the time i get check raised, i know i'm behind in the hand, but i still call more than 50% of the time. something about getting check raised pisses me off.

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

Very common....its y when i walk into the casino every player at the 4/8 tables start moaning and groaning.
I have never made a friend there in the 10 years or so ive been going , and not just because im an asshole and a jerk. There are lots of those there already. They hate me cus i ck raise a lot and they hate people who ck raise..Seriously HATE THEM...

 

[OnWisconsin]

just busted out of a 7k guaranteed.....for the most part i feel like i played (finished 215th out of 601) well, although i am noticing that i tighten up too much after about the 3rd or 4th round. i start paying too much attention to the blinds and my stack, trying to keep myself above the 75x BB threshold. so i need to open it up a little more. in these rebuy tourneys, i usually start off strong -- i have the opposite strategy of those who push all in trying to double up early, knowing they're gonna rebuy if they lose. i never rebuy, and i'm still making it fairly deep thanks to catching a hand against an early all inner or two.

the hand i busted out on: i had K/J suited in the cutoff with about 9k in chips (blinds were 200/400 with a 50 ante)....middle position raised 3x, i limped, and everyone else folded. i caught a king on the flop (no flush or straight draw), he instantly checked, and i checked behind him. the turn was a blank and he bet pot -- i pushed all in and he turned up pocket aces.

gotta loosen up after the early rounds -- i'm missing opportunities to grow my stack before the blinds catch up and by the time the blinds are 100/200 and more, then it's basically a matter of going all in if you want to see a damn flop

 

[OnWisconsin]

back into the cash games, playing .05/.10 and .10/.25 to work on my game before i take the plunge. is it just me, or are these games tougher than they were in the past? seems i am noticing a lot of these guys playing bewteen 4 and 8 tables. i can't do more than 2. being in the middle of a pot and having the screen pop up every other second kills me. i wonder if a lot of people are taking it serious now due to the economy (maybe some unemployed trying to make ends meet), or if the internet age of poker peaked and all the fish have busted out and only quality players are left? or could it be that i'm the sucker at the table?

anyways, i am satisfied with my hand selection in regards to entering a pot, but my post flop play is lacking. i have become too passive. i used to continuation bet 95% of the time -- now i'm only doing it half the time. i'm checking and calling to the river too often. i give up pots too easily to save a buck. in the past week, i have managed no significant wins -- just a few bucks here and there, and i think a large part of the reason is i am not setting myself up to win big pots.....but i am setting myself up to lose them.

i have had three bad losses since i got back into it, and all 3 of those losses came with nothing but top pair, and all 3 times i was check calling it down to the river......i used to have a philosophy not to risk too much after the flop with only one pair and that served me well, but i have gotten away from that and it has cost me.....

i'm off to play some .10/.25......

 

[OnWisconsin]

crazy night last night. ended up sitting down at the .25/.50 table. i am satisfied with my overall play -- i was much more aggressive with position, and over a couple hours i had managed to grind out a modest gain over a couple hours. the biggest hand of the night came when i picked up pocket deuces and flopped a set. l led out, got raised, and just called instead of pushing all in. the board was a bit scary -- one card off both a straight and a flush, and i really wanted to see the board pair on the turn before investing my entire stack. i caught a 4th deuce on the turn and checked it, and my opponent moved all in. unfortunately for him, he had flopped a set of 9s and caught a boat on the turn. one of us was destined to go broke on that hand. having doubled up the buy in (from 50 to 115) i took a break and came back.

on the 2nd or 3rd hand of the next session, i caught pocket 10s and flopped a set. i bet into the pre flop raiser and he pushed -- i called and he showed pocket kings. what a huge night this was shaping up to be -- until a king spiked on the turn. down to my last 15 bucks, i grinded my way back to 28 and flopped the nut straight from the BB. to make a long story short, my opponent was on a flush draw and he caught it on the river and busted me. he had the higher end of a straight flush -- if both my hole cards had been spades we would have hit the bad beat jackpot.....so after about 6 hours of play last night, i ended up about $15 ahead -- so close to being up anywhere from $100 to $150 if that 3rd king hadn't hit, but on the flip side i could have easily finished down $50 if i hadn't caught the 4th deuce when i was up against a set of 9s.

quick question: what is up with these guys who are always buying in for the minimum? i don't know how many times i've seen someone buy into a game for the minimum and lose it 3 or 4 times -- why not just buy in for the full amount? it's hard to play serious poker when you are pretty much gonna be going all in if you wish to play a hand. seems to me these guys would have more luck if they played blackjack instead. all they're doing is trying to get lucky.

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

Most of those guys ive found are playing a zillion tables , just trying to hit the jackpot. Thing is they tell themselves "ill onl;y play AA"...then cus they are so short though they end up blowing it all on 1 hand. I stay away from the ss unless the hand is multiway or ive got a big hand. In which case i try to get them to put in 1/3 of their stack each street so they are all in if the call the flop bet..
Tell you another thing ive found at the smaller limits. People are hardly ever going to bluff with an A on the board. A very good player will but 95% wont. So u raise with an Ax in late position and u bet when the flop comes with an A, if u get called or raised u are probably beat...If there are no draws out there and they just call i know ur beat...I play A/rag a lot more in cash games than MTT's but u have to know when to get away from it...

 

[OnWisconsin]

yeah, was playing the .25 table earlier today and there was this guy who kept buying in for 5 bucks (the minimum).....i didn't mind, because i made 15 bucks off him because he was showing down every hand.....i don't know why people just don't buy in for the full amount if they plan on rebuying 5 or more times.....

i used to be guilty of this myself though when i had a bigger bankroll -- i'd take 200 bucks to the $1000 table and splash around and piss everybody off....

 

[OnWisconsin]

got done with a 1 hour session at the .10/.25 table....dropped 6 bucks.....couldn't catch a hand, and couldn't steal a pot....seems like it's much harder to steal at this limit.....the only significant hand i got was A/J suited in middle position (was down about 10 bucks at this point), i raised, had one caller, flopped a jack, got raised, called, turned a 3rd jack, checked, dude bet out with a pretty decent bet, i shoved, and he folded (kind of pissed me off, it would have only been about 5 more bucks to him). that got me back to even, then i found myself looking down at pocket 5's, pocket deuces, pocket 3's, and deuces again....4 straight hands, and all 4 times the flop came something like Q 10 8.....felt like i was getting bled to death....

i had intended on playing a 3 hour session, but people started disappearing and next thing i knew we were playing 5 handed. i don't like my skill in short handed games -- i have always played 9 handed, and something about playing 5 or 6 handed intimidates me somewhat.....i guess you could say it's out of my comfort zone.....

am going to tackle the .25/.50 game here in about 30 minutes, looking to make it a 2 hour session.....would like to make at least $25, which would leave me with somewhere around a $35 to $40 gain on the day.....

 

[OnWisconsin]

donk city like a motherfucker for me tonight.

within 5 minutes of sitting down, i find myself with pocket jacks in late position. middle position player raised, i called. a king came on the flop. player bet, i raised about 3x to feel him out, he came back over the top, i folded. hadn't been in the game long enough to judge him, but the way he was firing i gave him credit for A/K or a higher pocket pair.

a couple minutes later i get J/3 offsuit in the BB in an unraised pot. flopped a jack, i bet and get called. catch a 3rd jack on the turn. i bet and get called again. river card is a blank. at this point i check, hoping to keep it cheap. he bets 10 bucks (.25/.50), which was roughly the size of the pot. i called and he shows Q/J. so 2 rough beats and i'm down more than half my buy in before i get a chance to get settled in.

motherfucker.

i tell myself that i was at least able to minimize the damage -- couldn't really fault myself on either hand, just bad luck. so a few hands later i pick up Q/9 in the BB in an unraised pot. the flop comes a Q/4/4. i check, which goes against my playing philosophy, but i was gunshy at this point. i mean, being in the BB, what if they don't believe me and i find myself staring at a raise? to make the story short, my opponent caught runner runner to make a straight with his A/J....it was checked to the river, where he bet 3 and i called. had i made a standard sized bet on the flop, i'm pretty sure he would have given it up, but after the 2 earlier hands, i was off my game. telling yourself that you just got unlucky only goes so far when you find yourself shortstacked 5 minutes after you sit down. a few minutes later i would find myself all in with K/10 after the flop and holding top pair. i lost to pocket jacks (fucking jacks). i think it was losing to that straight that put me on tilt. it was the smaller of the 3 losses, but knowing that i would have taken it down on the flop if i hadn't lost my courage to bet set me off.

that was only the beginning. i sat down at another table and started playing recklessly. dropped 20 bucks before standing up. then i got the bright idea i was gonna go to the .50/1.00 and play solid. after all, i have confidence in my game, and feel i can win at any table when i'm on it. however, i was far from being on my game tonight. i donked half my stack early by raising out of position with 6/8 and betting it to the river. lost the rest on some dumb shit.

i think it was mike caro who wrote a pretty good piece about going on tilt and getting to that emotional threshold where you don't feel the pain of losing. i hit that tonight. dropped 200 bucks -- about 4x the amount of my daily loss limit. hit that point where you just say fuck it. assuming that i run good, it'll take me a week to recoup what i lost tonight. i could have been satisfied if i had quit after the first loss -- after all, it happens, i couldn't really fault my play on the 2 hands that started the night. i should have stuck with my game and been content to grind my way back, or quit when i went bust the first time. at worst, i would have dropped 50 bucks and been satisfied tomorrow that i had the discipline to quit.

 

[OnWisconsin]

after sitting out all day, i got into some late night action. sat down at the .25/.50 table, folded some crap, and found pocket jacks in 1st or 2nd position. limped in, guy in a late seat raised about 6x.....i deliberated reraising as i had seen this guy splashing around, but just called, as i don't trust jacks. the flop came J/3/2 rainbow.....a perfect flop.

the first guy leads out with a $9 bet and the initial raiser moves all in -- sweet!!! so i take my time before calling, hoping the other guy will call another 20, but he lays it down. turns out, the initial raiser who's hand i didn't respect preflop was holding pocket aces. i sweat out the turn and river and doubled up. i played to the next blind and left.

10 minutes, $50 gain. i'll take it and go to bed

one thing though: i am concerned about my lack of ability to show a profit when i'm not getting big hands. i am going to try and figure a way to calculate my ROI, subtracting the big wins and bad beats. the ability to grind out a profit when you're getting bad cards is the name of the game. anybody can win when they're flopping sets and quads -- i need to get better at keeping my head above water when i'm looking down at 9 deuce every hand

 

[OnWisconsin]

just got done playing .25/.50 for about 90 minutes, dropped about $1.50. just wasn't catching too many cards, although i was able to steal a few pots. only hand of note was one where i dropped about 9 bucks trying to steal from a guy who had just posted up with his first hand. i let him have it with a river bet after he called my bets on the flop and turn. it was one of those tables where they were calling with any two suited cards from any position and shoving on the flop with top pair, mid range kicker. i bided my time, hoping to catch something, but ran out of patience. hard to make any moves when you're looking at Q/4 and J/5 every hand. anyways, after 2,019 hands, this is what my stats are looking like:

Flops seen: 28%

Win % if seeing the flop: 47%

Showdowns won: 71%

Pre flop: check 5%, raise 10%, call 19%, fold 66% (not sure why my fold doesn't equal 72% unless they don't count the hands i see from the blind)

on the flop: check 30%, raise 6%, bet 29%, fold 25%, call 11%

on the turn: check 38%, raise 2%, bet 26%, call 12%, fold 22%

on the river: check 55%, raise 2%, bet 10%, call 19%, fold 14%


As far as preflop, i am satisfied with the number of hands i'm playing -- 28% is about the range i like. however, i noticed i am winning 71% of the showdowns, yet i am checking the river 55% of the time, so what i make of that is i am not value betting enough at the end. Since i come in (for the most part) with good starting hands, i should be ahead most of the time considering the range of hands my opponents play. looking at the numbers, they are consistent with my showdown stats, as my checking stats go up on the flop, turn and river, while my betting % drops all the way through. another thing that really stands out is that i'm calling Twice as much as i'm Betting on the river even though i have the best hand 70% of the time! that is a somewhat embarassing stat.

over the next 2,000 hands, hopefully i will improve on those numbers.

 

[OnWisconsin]

fuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkk..... i cannot get into a game today, seems every time i sit down, 5 minutes later we're playing shorthanded, so i leave to find a full table, 5 minutes later and we're shorthanded again......(do they really fear me this much?)....now i'm outta smokes and gotta run to the store 5 minutes after getting in (i know i have another pack laying around somewhere but can't find it).

down 12 bucks on the day now, mostly from posting blinds because i keep hopping around to find a full game.....

 

[OnWisconsin]

down 4 bucks on the day, after a roughly 90 minute session....picked up pocket 10s in 2 straight hands at one point, both times flop comes down something like k/j/q.....was down about 20 at one point, couldn't catch a hand or steal a pot, but got back to about even when i flopped top 2 pair on the button and i had a player that wanted to chase a gut shot all the way to the river.....thanks bud, surprised you didn't hit

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

ck this shit out....im still shaking...

tage #1899052546: Holdem No Limit $2 - 2010-02-09 21:17:04 (ET)
Table: GULL AVE (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 5 - ACENUTS ($199 in chips)
Seat 6 - WANT_TO_WIN ($195 in chips)
Seat 7 - ESKOTEIRO ($433.05 in chips)
Seat 8 - KNIGHT_BOAT ($205.05 in chips)
Seat 9 - TUTIFNFRUTTI ($209.30 in chips)
Seat 1 - DELIVERNCHIT ($318.55 in chips)
Seat 2 - JARMOLICZ ($303.90 in chips)
Seat 3 - ALLYNLONG ($267.80 in chips)
Seat 4 - GALAGURU ($211.50 in chips)
WANT_TO_WIN - Posts small blind $1
ESKOTEIRO - Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to ALLYNLONG [Kd Kh]
KNIGHT_BOAT - Raises $7 to $7
TUTIFNFRUTTI - Folds
DELIVERNCHIT - Folds
JARMOLICZ - Folds
ALLYNLONG - Calls $7
GALAGURU - Calls $7
ACENUTS - Folds
WANT_TO_WIN - Folds
ESKOTEIRO - Raises $29 to $31
KNIGHT_BOAT - Folds
ALLYNLONG - Calls $24
GALAGURU - Folds
*** FLOP *** [9c 3d 6h]
ESKOTEIRO - Bets $32
ALLYNLONG - Raises $86.50 to $86.50
ESKOTEIRO - Calls $54.50
*** TURN *** [9c 3d 6h] [7d]
ESKOTEIRO - Checks
ALLYNLONG - All-In $150.30
ESKOTEIRO - Calls $150.30
*** RIVER *** [9c 3d 6h 7d] [10c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ALLYNLONG - Shows [Kd Kh] (One pair, kings)
ESKOTEIRO - Shows [Qh Qs] (One pair, queens)
ALLYNLONG Collects $547.10 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($550.60) | Rake ($3) | Jackpot Rake ($0.50)
Board [9c 3d 6h 7d 10c]
Seat 1: DELIVERNCHIT Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: JARMOLICZ Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: ALLYNLONG won Total ($547.10) All-In HI$547.10) with One pair, kings [Kd Kh - P:Kh,P:Kd,B:10c,B:9c,B:7d]
Seat 4: GALAGURU Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: ACENUTS (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 6: WANT_TO_WIN (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: ESKOTEIRO (big blind) HI:lost with One pair, queens [Qh Qs - P:Qs,P:Qh,B:10c,B:9c,B:7d]
Seat 8: KNIGHT_BOAT Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: TUTIFNFRUTTI Folded on the POCKET CARDS

 

[OnWisconsin]

damn nice!!!!! i thought i was gonna see you take a bad beat there....

looks like you're on a roll

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

If u dont think a lot of people have me on their "fish" list , ck out the waiting list on this table now...lol like 11 players waiting now

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

damn nice!!!!! i thought i was gonna see you take a bad beat there....

looks like you're on a roll

Actually i did too....It holds up so rarely i almost expect to see a set or AA there

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

Do you use Holdem Manager or PT3?

 

[OnWisconsin]

kind of sucks for him, getting queens in the BB.....next to impossible to get away from there....

i picked up A/A in the BB ealier and everybody folded....SB didn't even come in

 

[OnWisconsin]

Do you use Holdem Manager or PT3?

neither, not sure which either of those are....i would like to get signed up for rakeback, but seems like every site i look at requires you sign up to the poker room through them, and i'm already signed up at all the places i'm gonna play