Update

Its been a while since I last posted and even though I have no followers I should have kept this up as it could've helped me save some vital monies.

As I said in the last post, I was grinding mainly $2 6 max sngs. I've become proficient enough at them to multitable 2-3 at a time however I do notice a dip in cash rate. I make the money about 70% of the time if I play a single table at a time. However to put out a huge volumn single tabling would be too difficult.

I managed to multitable up to 4 at one stage but I have no doubt that my ROI did drop a little. I managed to grind the bankroll all the way up to $380 dollars at one stage by including a few $5 and $10 games. I played 273 $2 games and made $180 profit from that. I cashed in 7 out of 9 of my $10 games and i'm down 2-3 buy ins at $5 level.

This was all well and good until I watched the pr1nnyraiding series by Krantz from deuces cracked. I decided to give heads up nl cash a try and I wasn't playing too badly but with only 7 buy ins in what is possibly the highest variation game I ended up losing 2 buy ins to one guy after I lost AQs to 55. I had whittled down his stack to $17 then he re-raised me and i shoved with that. It was a race but heads up a pair is always ahead initially but in this case not a huge amount. After that I lost top pair to his pocket queens and that was that.

I tried to rebuild my bankroll faster but that just ended up in more tears as I went all the way down to 180. I really should have stuck with grinding but it gets incredibly repetitive after a while and games take on average 40 minutes. After a few hours you could be up by about $10 if you did well and that just wasn't enough for me. I managed to play HU cash again at 50nl level with 180 and worked it up to 290. Then another bad session saw another 2 buy in downswing. This is horrible bankroll management I know but with the time I have left to play before I may have to stop I decided I might as well try higher limits.

After that I started grinding 10NL and I've been doing pretty well at that. I've built my bankroll back to $245 at this stage. My biggest leak has been cash games. particularly HU. I've lost $500 in cash games but I'm still positive due to my sng play and also now starting to get the hang of cash games. You don't realise how big a difference the game types are until you change. I am tempted to grind again at 6 max and work on multitabling but for the moment I have a huge amount of assignments due. Thats all for now.

$2 6 max sit n gos

So recently I've taken quite a liking to $2 6-max sit and gos. The reason being is that you can never lose more than your buyin and $2 dollars from what is now $260 won't do much damage. I used to love sit n gos but the problem was my internet connection, sometimes it would just go and I would be blinded out and lose my entire buy in. That's why I played cash games for so long.

Recently though, my broadband has been quite reliable and I've had much more free time to play. There are so many reasons why I chose this format, firstly players at this level play too loose or too tight, they're generally weak players or bluff too much. They make all the mistakes so you don't have to do much but play solid game. I chose 6-max because many beginning players don't realise that the less players you have, the stronger your hands become. Some players play so tight you'd think they were playing full ring!

6 max suits my play alot more as I like to play position, steal blinds and assume a loose aggressive image regardless of whether I am playing that way or not. Players are even weaker heads up, Its here that I really have my advantage. Not all players in sngs understand or even know of the ICM(Independant Chip Model) concept.

I have been tracking my games online and I make the money at least 50% of the time and many times even more. However this is only out of 50-60 sngs. I will put more games in when I have the time. I'm keeping a journal of sessions just to see how much I am really making from these games. I'll have an excel sheet up by the end of the week.

I'm hoping to get to the level where I can multitable 4 of these games successfully, at the moment I can play 2 games at a time.

Good run with good play

Hey guys, as you all know i'm participating in the take 2 promotion on fulltilt. So I have to play at least 2 tables at a time and earn one fulltilt point in the process. I have chosen to stick with 5c/10c 9-handed cash games as I find them to be more suitable for my bankroll and I am much more familiar with the lines that people take.

Today I was fortunate to actually get some premium hands such as JJ, KK, AKs and AA at some stage during play.

On one particular table I was lucky enough to be sitting beside a girl who used pre-actions. I would raise from the button and I guess she knew people made raises with all sorts of hands in position. What she didn't know was how to fight back, so she would call and then click check/fold if she didn't hit the flop. Sometimes she would call two bets and fold on the river. I extracted at least 2 dollars off her.

As everyone saw me raise in position, sometimes with decent hands and others with rags. I have a very loose image. People thought I was a loose maniac. I constantly raised in position, bullied the girl out of pots on dry flops, raised up to 4 blinds when there were limpers and no one showed much strength.

I was lucky to beat AK with my AKs. I know how rare this is but it has to happen at some stage. I also raised to 50c in early position with JJ, I got a single caller from late position. I hit a J on the flop for a set and I decide that I would underbet, I bet out only 40c into about $1.20 pot. The guy decides to re-raise me and makes it $1.50 to play. I pushed the rest of my stack in and he turned over QQ! Luck was on my side and I finished with quads against his pair.

So today I made $10 in less than half an hour. Good times. I've been buying in minimum purely because I'm just trying to get points. Also I get more action on these tables. When the average pot is about $2, it is a lot easier getting people to call your all in bets. Also by playing min, I create a totally different set of rules. Everyone has me covered, meaning there is always the possibility of doubling up. They don't have the correct odds to play connectors or other speculative hands against me. This way I can ignore possible straight draws more and refine my reads based on the strenght of their betting. I often raise 3-5 big blinds depending on how many players in the pot and my position on the table. As I only have about 9 big blinds, people know that if they want to play me, it'll most likely end up be playing for over 10 BB each time.

I'm Back

Ok so last time I decided to give poker a break and I did. I didn't evaluate my hand histories but what I did do is return to basics. I began playing a lot more solidly. I've played a good few times since then and I've decided to give poker another chance.

The bankroll is not where it used to be. Going on tilt and playing games at higher stakes will do that. Another mistake I made was not sticking to the same games. I moved up to 10c/25c too soon. With my current bankroll at about $145 I can only really play 5/10c cash games. I've decided to concentrate on cashgames rather than play tournaments or sitngos. Constantly switching games affects my reads and knowledge of betting patterns at specific limits.

I also didn't want to stay on the computer for extended periods of time. With sitngos and tourneys you can't just leave. With the crappy internet that I have, cash games are my safest bet. Also the value of my chips never change, they are always the same. I don't have to take increasing blinds into account.

I have also made it a personal mission to earn enough fulltilt points to get something worthwhile from the fulltilt store. I've decided to enter satellites for 20 and 50 full tilt points where the winner gets 3500FTP and 2500 FTP respectively. I entered one of each today and unfortunately in got knocked out of the 50ftp one in 12th place of 54. The 20ftp satellites was worth more because it was out of 180 players. The winner got 3500points while 2nd 3rd and 4th got less than 50points. It was a long shot but I figured with 2600 points in my account already, I would have more than enough entries to be about to win it at least once.

As luck and skill would have it, I did. I managed to win the damn thing and get 3500Ftp. I now have 6000Ftp and could spend it on a teeshirt and card protector but I'm saving up for something big. I'll keep playing these satellites. I learnt alot about final table play, even if it was only for points.

Fulltilt poker are doing a take 2 promotion again. I will be using this promo to build up my bankroll. The deal is if i play 2 cash game tables at a time and earn 1 ftp for 25days of this month, i'll get $50 for free. I'm playing patiently and reading quite well so far. I'm up $15 from playing and I have to earn for just 17 more days. I actually have 2 accounts on the offer so I will be getting $100 bonus when the time comes. :)

A short break

Hey guys, after that day of bad luck and mostly poor play, I had decided to review hand histories and I will post my biggest mistakes up here when I have finished. I am also taking a short break from poker as I will be undergoing end of year exams in college this month and the results will determine whether or not I get my placement next year. I'm sure that I don't have many readers as this blog has really only just started so it will not affect many of you.

When I return in early June. I will continue with the bankroll project. I realise that many readers will not take advice from a player who can't control his own play but they can certainly learn from his mistakes. As such I will not be posting much theory or strategy until I have built up the bankroll to a significant amount.

2nd May-Mistakes are made

Ok, so this is a blog about my progression in the field of poker and honesty is an incredibly important factor. There is no point in telling you how much I made and then not tell you about the losses before it. Today was not my day but I didn't call it a day. I had a few bad swings and lost $20 on a few hands. This was fine, it is expected that I will not have winning sessions everytime I sit at a table. The problem was, I took a break and decided to play at a slightly higher stake, and not only play at a higher stake, I decided to try multitable 4 tables at a time at 10/25c NL holdem. This was not good at all, I ended up losing about 60 after being outplayed and playing poorly. It was too difficult to manage these tables, I decided to play tight and play position. However, I never hit my hands and since this was 9 handed, you can't really bluff but I did and what a mistake that was. I was bluffing dry boards with no any draws and the one high card but there was always someone with that card or a medium pocket pair.

I also lost Aces to Q10 after I raised big preflop. The flop was 10 6 Q, and I raised and he min raised me. I decided to shove all in, thinking he had Queens and he kills me with two pair. Overall I am down about $90 today. A really bad result. I will be spending the next few days reading over my hand histories and seeing what I did wrong etc. I guess I'm set back quite a bit and will move down limits somewhat. I found it difficult to leave tables and played too quickly. I can play two tables at the same time normally so I will stick with that till I rebuild my bankroll.

30th May

I've been playing a few games with little variance today. However, one particular hand disturbed me a little. I was playing 6 handed no limit 10/25c. I got dealt pocket kings in small blind. UTG limps in. The button raises to $1.25. I re-raise to 3.75 to isolate and build the pot. UTG calls and the button decides to shove. Unless one of them has Aces, I have the best hand preflop. This picture should explain to you what happened. To my utmost sorrow, he had aces. I was expecting a high pocket pair like QQ or something like AKs. This one move cost me my entire stack at the table. The 77 only had a few dollars behind him.

The question is, was this a bad call given the amount of action at the table? Were my kings strong enough for an all in against the buttons range in a 6 handed cash game? I have to say I suspected aces when he pushed all in but I guessed that it would be improbable.

Picking tables and when to leave them

When playing poker online, there are some questions and guidelines you must respectively ask and follow. How long do I stay at a table? When do I leave a game?


Picking a table

• Your choice of table should depend on your own playing style. Do you prefer 6 handed or full ring games?
• I generally pick a table in which most players have the max buy in, this means that when I do make a big hand, I can have a bigger earning potential. Though some people like to pick tables with players buying in minimum purely because they suspect the players are weak. Figure out which is more profitable for you.
• Select tables at the right limits. This depend on your bankroll. Please read post on bankroll management.
• If you play tight you might want to pick a table which is more loose with big pots. If you play loose, you might consider attacking tables that are particularly tight. How do you tell which tables are which?

Tight Aggressive table: These tables generally have big average pots with few players seeing the flop(roughly 20-30%). A loose aggressive player may do well here. He can steal blinds and fold to strong resistence. You will often be able to bluff more dry boards, boards with scare cards, draws etc. However, one draw back is that you may not get action when you hit monster hands.

Loose Aggressive table: These tables have large average pot sizes and more players seeing the flop(roughly45%+). Tight aggressive players can do well here, often getting loose players to hang themselves. These tables are possibly my favourite as I am almost always gauranteed action when I hit my hands.

Tight passive table: These tables have small average pots and few players see the flop.(roughly 20-30%) These players have a very tight selection of hands, it is tough to read how strong their hands are as they rarely raise and just call. You can steal blinds but beware when you are being called down.

Loose passive table: These tables have small average pots but more players see the flop(roughly 45%+). These players rarely raise, they're calling stations, your ability to bluff is dimished significantly. However, you can get players calling you with middle pair or bottom pair, when you have a stronger hand.

When to leave

• Stay at a table as long as you think that it will be profitable, eg. you have the right table image, there are weak players at the table, players are playing too loose or too tight.
• If you have trouble mixing up your game, then staying at a table for long periods of time may give your opponents an easy read on your playing style and betting patterns. If you feel you can hop into a table for 10 mins make a small profit and repeat this over and over, then you can stick to that system only if you feel you can't win as much if you were playing a longer session. Basically do whatever is best for your hourly rate.
• If you feel that once you stay at a table long enough, you can develop a good read on players, then sitting at a table for longer sessions would be more profitable for you provided that you can adjust your play accordingly.
• If you are used to playing full ring games and players start dropping out and you end up playing 6-handed, you may want to sit out and wait for more players to arrive or find another table. That is assuming you are more profitable at a full ring game.
• If you feel that the table is too tough, that your opponents are more skilled than you, you should leave or stay to develop your game. The difference in staying and leaving is that you'll learn how to deal with these players as you play them but you'll lose more in the short term. However by staying and playing with them, you develop a stronger game and profit more in the long run. The only way to improve your game is by playing people better than you. This decision should be based on your bankroll. Can you afford to lose some money to these players?
• If you're feeling sick, sleepy or tired, you shouldn't be playing at all. Poker is a long run endeavour, you can always play later.
• If you just took a bad beat and can't seperate your emotions from your play then you should leave the table. However if you get a bad beat and others suspect you of being on tilt, you can exploit their assumption by playing tight aggressive, overbetting pots when you are ahead etc.
• Generally if I double or triple my buy in, I will leave the table to secure a profit, however, if the game is particularly good and players are extremely weak, I will stay on as long as I feel it is still profitable.
• If I lose half my buy in, I'll either reload or leave. This depends on my table image. If I just lost it on a bluff then I'll leave, because I generally play 6 handed games, bluffing is an important part of my game, so without that edge, I can't play as profitable. However, If my loss was due to a bad beat, I can exploit my bad beat image by reloading and playing more aggressively.
• If you are running bad, and just aren't feeling it, don't force yourself to continue. Never try chase money back, you make more marginal calls and plays which are not +EV.

Bankroll Management

There are many factors to take into account when discussing bankroll management. Bankroll management for a professional, a student and someone who just wants a bit of fun is entirely different. A professional who relies on poker as their main source of income will want to protect their bankroll much more than someone who is playing for fun. Other things you might want to take into account is how much you can afford to lose, your playing style, your skill level, the type of game that you play.

So rough guidelines here are as follows: Assuming you always buy in max.(max buyin being 100BB)

NL Holdem Cash Games
Stakes ----Professional(45buyins) ---Standard(20buyins)
1/2c -----------$ 90 ----------------------$ 40
2/4c -----------$ 180 ---------------------$ 80
5/10c ----------$ 450 --------------------- $ 200
10/25c ---------$ 1125 --------------------$ 500
25/50c ---------$ 2250--------------------$ 1000
50c/$1 ---------$ 4500--------------------$ 2000
$1/$2 -----------$ 9000 -------------------$ 4000
$2/$4 -----------$ 18000------------------$ 8000
$5/$10 ----------$ 45000 -----------------$ 20000

For sitngos you want to follow more or less the same structure. With 45 buy ins if you play professionally and 20 buyins as standard. Anything less than 20 buy ins is unprotected and subject to high variance.

As for Multitable tournaments, You don't want to enter for more than 2% of your bankroll. As tournaments can have high variance, you might not place in a lot of tournaments but win one ocassionally etc.

Your Style of Play

This is an important factor you must consider when you want to manage your bankroll, do you play tight or loose, passive or aggressive? People who play tight aggressive will have less variance than those who play loose aggressive. This is because they have a tighter selection of hands that they play in various positions. Whereas, loose aggressive players may play hands that have negative EV but because of their reading skills, they can make it profitable. Loose aggressive players are subject to much more variance and their bankroll may fluctuate sporadically. If you are a loose player you may want to have more buyins than if you were a tight player.

Your Skill Level

How good are you at reading your opponents? Do you play hit or fold poker? Do you have the ability to play well post-flop? How many games have you played and at what levels? The more skilled the player, the less variance he will experience. He will also be able to make negative EV hands profitable. He will know when to bluff a dry board, wet board. He will know how to maximise his earnings when he hits a set or has a big hand. He can outplay his opponents in marginal situations. He is aware of his table image, the players around him and complex strategies. He can adjust his play according to the table and exploit players weaker than him. A lot of beginners will bust themselves, not because of poor bankroll management, but purely because they lack the skill to play poker. The more you educate yourself, the less variance you will experience.

Do you play heads up, 6 handed or 9 handed games?

A player who plays 6 handed games is subject to more variance purely because, the games are more aggressive and the blinds come around much quicker. Thus forcing you to play more hands and make more decisions, post flop. For a beginner, 6 handed games can be quite difficult as you never know if you're ahead or not. However, for the skilled or experienced player, they will be able to detect certain lines and betting patterns which can help their post flop decisions. Very often in 6 handed games, players will be 3 betting preflop. This means that in most hands, there will be very little limping which makes it even more pricey when compared to full ring games. Players who play full ring games, have the luxury of picking their hands and limping in more.
The greatest variance would be heads up play, this would really require alot of skill in reading and assessing your opponents.

When do you Move up?

Basically when you're bankroll allows you to. However you may just consider crushing the level you're at for a while to compensate for the loss in ROI( return on investment) when you move up. As you move up, you go into somewhat unknown territory, players will be more skilled at this level than the last and there will be different lines that you won't know about until you play over 20k hands. The other players may be more skilled than you too. You might want to consider having more buy ins to compensate for this temporary set back.

Can you afford to lose?

This is a very simple question, can you afford to lose your bankroll? Are you playing with scared money? If you are, I'd rather you didn't play at all. If you are playing with scared money, you're less likely to make bold moves and play bigger pots. If you don't like playing bigger pots, move down. If you can afford to lose and your goal is just to double up, then maybe bankroll management isn't for you. But for the serious player who wishes to make a living out of poker, Bankroll management is key to not going bust.

High Limit Games

When playing $5/$10 upwards, I would advise that you have at least 45 buy ins. The skill level differs so much, table to table and the variance is much greater as players are more knowledgeable and less readable.

29th April

so I decided that I was playing well enough to play a little bit outside of my bankroll range. I'll make a post about bankroll management soon. Theres a difference between a professionals bankroll and someone just hoping to make it big. Professionals have to rely on poker as their main source of income so they will have the strictest bankroll management scheme where they hedge themselves from bad runs and variance. However, for someone who doesn't mind going bust, you can play a little bit more outside the bankroll limits. I'll explain later. It seems ridiculous I know.

So anyway, I decided to play a 9 handed 10/25c ring game and ended up being overly aggressive and playing too loose. This was a mistake because I was so used to playing 6 handed games where aggression and position matter more than the cards themselves. However when you play 9-handed, you really have to pick your hands better. Depending on how deep stacked you are, suited connectors, pocket pairs will have great implied odds 9 handed, if you can get in cheaply. I lost 7 dollars at the table on my first hand by trying to bluff a dry board heads up. It turns out he did have the high card that was on it. I reloaded and waited for hands. I soon got bored playing so tight and decided to bring the same amount of money to a 6handed game.

I began turning up the aggression, standard 3 betting and Continuation betting patterns. But I was very aware of my table image. I seemed to be someone who would raise with any two. I was soon forced to show a bluff because I couldn't take the guy off his top pair. Then because of This I decided to tighten up a little. I sometimes raise on the button with any two hoping to steal the blinds and aggravate opponents. i rarely call a raise out of position unless I have an incredible hand, in which case I would re-raise. So I was dealt pocket 8's in the small blind, the aggressive button raised to 35c as usual, I decided to re-raise to 1.20 either to take the pot now or continuation bet the flop, my 8's are better than his range I feel. Its also a tester bet, to see if he has anything. If he re-raises, I might be in trouble, but he smooth calls. I figure he wants to float me. The flop comes 4h 3d 8d. I've hit a set and theres a possible flush draw out. I decide no to play this flop too strong because I don't think he hit, but I also want to build the pot. I bet 1.75 into a $6 pot. This underbet should be setting alarms for him, I;ve either hit something huge or I'm just trying to make a weak bluff at it. He decides that his hand is better, he presses the time button, and then bets $9 dollars back at me. This is great, our image as maniac is paying off. I take a while to think or at least pretend to and re-raise him the same. I know hese obviously hit something because he took time, and re-raised huge. Overbetting the pot can be a great indicator that the guy just hit top pair and wants to protect his hand. My re-raise seems like an aggressive play and because he saw my bluff against him earlier, he decided top pair was good enough. He simply calls, but he probably knows hese behind. The flop is a Qc, I decide to just push my remaining $6 into the pot, hese priced in already because he called my re-raise. The river is a blank. We showdown, I have a set of 8's and he has a pair of 8's with ace kicker. We double up to $50.

Small Ball Strategy by Daniel Negreanu

27th April

Again I've been playing super turbo sitngos to try and build up my bankroll. I also decided to play some 6 handed ring games, I absolutely destroyed one against players in 5/10c when they had $10 and I had $5. The reason why I bought in with $5 was because I didn't want to give the other players the implied odds of playing suited connectors against me. Also I figured I would get much more action and get paid off more when I made a hand. I was 3-betting preflop in position with almost any card. The power of position in 6 handed games is vital. Most of the time, no one will connect on the flop and you can take it away from them by betting half to three quarters pot. Because I was so aggressive people started loosening up their range and calling my hands with marginal hands. They figured there was no chance that I would have a hand that often and when I had a monster, I generally got paid off. So I left the session with $15. I decided to leave because I didn't want to risk all of it on top pair etc. Playing deepstack limits what you can do with top pair.

I have started recording my games and hopefully when I get used to the software, I'll put some videos up on youtube.

25th April

So I've been playing super turbo sitngos again. Surprisingly I racked up 200 fulltiltpoints on thursday, that might have been the day i lost $30. But it also tells me that I can go for the ironman challenge this summer. I won't have that much time next month due to exams etc. I continued to grind through these super turbos for the last two days. I played in two which were out of 45 people, I came 2nd in the first one and 10th in the other. The 2nd place earned me $40. I played in another 20 9-people super turbos and overall I'm up. The bankroll stands at $352. $10 of this was due to the fact I unlocked a bonus.

23rd April

So the last few days I've had a few bad runs. My bankroll was down to $270 from $315. I played a number of super turbos, lost alot of 60/40s and even 80/20s. Oh well, this is poker, it happens. What we want to do is make sure that the decisions we make are the right ones, put our money in when we're ahead so that in the long run, we will be profitable. I have also started reading a few other books. Skimming a few chapters here and there. I'll eventually decide which one I'd like to read more thoroughly.

In the pain of the bankroll downfall, I decided to try my hand at cash games again, I made a mistake on a certain hand, when i pushed all in with bottom pair against a guy who i believed to be on tilt, as he lost $25 already. I figured he would call me with high card out of frustration. Seeing as it was a 6 handed table and everyone else folded I thought I probably had the best hand at the time. Silly move, I loosened up too much. So the next few hands came along and I wasn't getting anything playable especially against someone who would probably call with any two. He raised to a dollar every hand, so eventually I got Ace Queen and in 6 handed play this is undoubtedly a great starting hand. He routinely raise to one dollar and I re-raised all in to $10 as I figured I was ahead. He took a little time to think and I knew I was ahead, he called with 8 10 off suit and sadly for me, he hit his 10 on the turn. In retrospect, I could have played it much better, by seeing the flop and hoping to hit something and have him bluff at it before shoving all in.

I then took a nice break from poker for a while to regroup as I was clearly not playing at my optimal level. I played a few more super turbo sit n gos and climbed back up to $295. I did lose a few in a row though, but when I did get into the money, I usually placed 1st or 2nd.

20th April

I didn't get to play as much as I wanted today but I played a good few super turbo sit n gos and the bankroll is now up from $288 to $315. I believe that the strategy and intuition I have developed by playing many many of these games has helped me increase my ROI. I have thought of graphing my results on excel or other software but at these stakes is it really necessary? It is good to know where you are most profitable and seek to make your earnings there but I am playing to improve, this means that I will eventually have to play out of my comfort zone and play games that I am weak at. Of course I will have to take my bankroll into account and very often I am overly cautious when I decide to switch game types etc. This also doesn't mean that I won't play to win money, of course I will and as I get better at these games, I will continue to make a certain amount of profit before progressing to different gametypes or higher limits. I do not want to make the mistake of moving up too soon.

Eventually I will start graphing my results but that will most likely be at the higher stakes or at least when I play a much greater volumn. When I was playing the absolutely lowest stakes like 1/2c cash games, the rake was just too detrimental to earnings. Playing 1-3 dollar sit-n-gos took too long ranging from 40mins -80 mins. I would not be able to get a good hourly rate from them. This is why I particularly like the super turbo sit-n-gos. I have been searching other blogs to see what the general feeling for these are, most believed that they can be profitable and some saw too much luck involved. So far for me, I have found these games pretty profitable. I believe that they can easily be beaten. The players at 3.50+30c are incredibly weak most of the time and don't make the calls. Often I even find that some players play way too tight and others way too loose. This means that players will call you with hands that you beat 60/40 most of the time, ocassionally 80/20 if you have a higher pocket pair to them. The other end of it means that players will fold hands that are ahead of you sometimes. Also with added experience, knowing how to play stack sizes, position, only add to your edge.

After playing these super turbo sit n gos I now play the bubble much better, picking my spots and being incredibly aggressive. I recently at a house game and I came back from being 1/4 of average stack to chip leader purely by picking my spots and pushing all in with relatively decent hands, and even with some rags when I knew the other player couldn't risk his such a high percentage of his stack.

19th April

I've been playing the $3.50+30c super turbo sitngos on fulltilt poker almost exclusively for a while now. The variance is quite big, I can see swings of 10-20 dollars, my bankroll has fluctuated from $270 to $260 and now its at $288. There are also a number of times in which I have experienced rough Aces vs Kings preflop, or Aces vs Kings vs AK, or AK, AK vs AA. It is rather ridiculous. I find that if i stick to the strategy I set out and ocassionally steal with playable hands in position against players who I have significant fold equity I tend to do quite well. There is a certain amount of patience to these games, and you really have to learn how comfortable you are playing marginal hands or what the absolute latest you can wait to shove is.

It depends alot on the table that you're on. If its a tight tables, stealing with decent hands is pretty profitable when you have few to act behind you and they have a stack which you can affect in a huge way. I would rarely take on shorter stacks because they know that eventually they will have to shove, and you'll have to showdown. So its better to play relevatively good hands against them.

Super Turbo Sitngo Strategy

I recently stumbled upon the super turbo sit n go on Fulltilt poker. Buy ins start at $3.5+30c and go as high as $160+9. What stakes you play at will depend very much on your bankroll and how much your bankroll allows. So for my bankroll project, I could only play the $3.50+30c games.

So what is the difference between a regular sitngo, a turbo sitngo and a super turbo sitngo?

In terms of structure a regular one is where blinds increase every 6mins and everyone starts off deepstacked, a turbo sitngo is similar to a regular only blinds increase every 3 mins and super turbo sitngo is where you start off with 10 big blinds and blinds increase every 3 minutes.

How does the playing style differ?

Well normally in a regular sitngo, playing really tight is standard play initially, however you can limp in with speculative hands like gap connectors, suited connectors or low pocket pairs in the hope of hitting nuts assuming you have implied and pot odds. In turbo, you can still play in a similar way until the blinds get bigger and are worth trying to steal or play looser. In super turbo sit and go's your options are a little more limited. Initially you start with only 10 big blinds which means that if you raise 3big blinds with a mediocre hand you are more or less committed as blinds increase quick and you're playing with incredibly shallow stacks.

So what is the best strategy to apply?

Push all in with 1010+, AK, AQ nearly 99% of the time. You want to double up early because when you do, you'll often be in great shape to make the money. In regular sitngo strategy we don't aim to double up early because the risk isn't worth the little extra equity we get because we'd still have to play loads of other opponents. However in superturbo, stacks are so low that a double up will put you in an incredibly position to bully the smaller stacks with all ins.

The key thing to remember is that it is much easier to raise all in than to call an all in. Most people know this and you'll do well to exploit this. Position, structure and stack size will play a huge part in your game. We are playing the situations more than the cards. Most of the hands you go all in with will be 60/40 hands. You'll either be slightly ahead or behind.

Almost NEVER lay down a hand preflop if you are getting the right odds, even if you know the other player has AA. you don't have the luxury of making that amazing fold. Say you have only 5 big blinds left and the blinds are coming up to you. You really have to shove in before the blinds get to you because you will still have significant fold equity. This means that players will be more likely to fold to 5 big blinds rather than to 3 which is probably what you will have left when blinds raise and come to you. Then even if you do double up, you'll be in the same situation again. Just hope to suck out if anything, You won't be too much of an underdog most of the time.

Play aggressive in the bubble. Depending on your stack, if you're chip leader with 900 chips and the nearest to you is 600. You can apply pressure on the other short stacks as they'll be playing with more marginal hands, most of the time they'll fold and if you win you'll be in great shape, If you lose, you'll still be chip leader. If theres 4 left and you're chip leader by a substantial amount, you can start bullying everyone, even the guy with 600chips, he won't want to lost out on the money to a 60/40 flip. This is especially true if there is a micro stack at the table, one that only has about 1-2 big blinds.

If you're short stacked, you'll want to shove to steal blinds when you have few to act after you. You'll want to evaluate whether you can make a significant dent in the big stack to take him on. You want to put pressure on players who will be left in a bad position if they lose the hand. Say you have 200 chips the big stack has 900. You don't want to take him on because even if he calls you and loses hese still favourite to make the money and even win it. You want to target players with 300-450 chips. The reason for this is that, they will have to call you with a smaller range of hands(top 10-20%). Then also when you win, you'll increase your chances of making the money significantly more than if you won against a big stack. This is because when you double up, the other player is now in a dangerous position with rising blinds and the shortest stack, he'll be eliminated quite soon unless he doubles up.

If you're short stacked and you shove against another short stack, you'll want to shove with a decent hand because the other short stack is likely to shove with marginal hands in hopes of doubling up.

When playing heads up, be prepared to shove all in on a wide range of hands. You will want to fold rags. Any Ace is very strong heads up, any pair is even stronger. Don't slow play hands, by raising a little. Its all in or fold in most cases. You won't have the choice of playing small ball unless you both have 10 big blinds, then a raise of 3 big blinds might be ok to steal the pot. However you leave yourself open to a re-raise all in. The built in trap of All in or fold, is that when you do have a monster hand and raise all in. The other player may think its a play to steal blinds. Say theres only 20 big blinds on the table and your opponent has 15, you want to shove either this hand or the next. He will be afraid to double you up in this spot as you would be even. He can only call with about top 25-20% of hands. You'll still have some fold equity and might even just take the blinds then and there. If he does call, you'll not be far behind unless he has an overpair or has you dominated. It would be helpful if you studied your hand vs hand odds. I use pokerstove when I'm not sure. You can get it here http://www.pokerstove.com/

The only way to make money playing these is by playing a lot of them. The variance is pretty big, often you might get a bad beat and exit then and there. You might even lose in the first hand when you have the other player dominated. Its the nature of the game. If you apply sound strategy in the long run you should be in profit.

Why play super turbo?

If you are short on time and don't want to play cash games, super turbo can finish in as short as 10 minutes. The short time to finish a superturbo can make it much easier to make a high hourly rate. You can easily multitable as strategy is more or less standardized. Playing at the lower limits, players don't have the same strategy, which gives you an edge over them. It also improves your play nearing the bubble in tournaments, It lets you know when you can get away with a steal.

16th April

Today was a day of bad beats. I was doing pretty well playing 2 tables of 10/25c cash games. I profiled all the players according to the amoung of tables they played. The more tables they play, the less they will bluff, the less they will steal blinds with rags, the less they play those awkward gap connectors. People who play only a few tables will be playing with a much wider range of hands, they'll obviously have the premium hands, and connectors. The main difference is that they play almost any ace, and they aim to bluff people out of pots more, they will get tricky with you. I generally pick tables with the majority of players being players who play more than 6 tables. The reason for this is that It will be easy to tell when these players have a hand because they have such a small range. I can bluff them out of hands because they won't have time to read me. I can also bet low flops because I'll know most of the time they'll be holding high cards or pocket pairs. If they re-raise, I'll know i'm beat.

So basically the start of this session, I won $10. I was on $21 on one table and decided to leave when the blinds came to me. Unfortunately I got AKs the last hand before I had to pay a blind. I raised to 75c, standard raise. Everyone folds but the small blind decides to call. The flop comes down Ac Kc 8s. This is the best flop for me really. If he paired up, I most like have him dominated. Seeing as how I was in position, I decided to play it weak and call his 25c bet into 1.75 pot. He simply calls. Next card is a 2s and now i have a nut flush draw too. I'm in terrific shape. He checks to me. He bet $1 and he calls. The river is 3c which makes a flush draw possible for him. He pushes all in and at this point I seriously doubted he had the flush, I figured he had two pair with Aces and 2s or something. I call and he flips over 22. He hit trips on the river. This was a $40 pot.

I ran the odds on pokerstove, After the flop I had 92% equity. He had 8%. When he hit his set, I had only 30% equity and he had 70% roughly. I'm questioning whether the slow play was a good idea. As most of the time I would have him beat, but would he call my bet if he didn't hit a monster hand? I've decided not to play these hands weak anymore and its better to take a pot down when you can, unless you have the absolute nuts. I thought I effectively had the nuts with top two on that board. When people bet min, they are either trying to buy a cheap draw and curb your own bet, steal the pot or they have a monster hand. I wanted him to make two pair but i really should have bet big on the flop to take it down in case he had the flush draw. I feel it was a bad beat to be honest, but maybe it wasn't. Oh well.

I took a short break cos I was obviously upset about that beat. When I decided to play again, I got AA and raised to 75c preflop. I had one caller on the button. The flop is QQ9. I doubt he has it, I decide to check to him, to induce a bluff, and he bets. I figure my aces are in pretty good shape. Best he has is probably one of the 9s. He decides to re-raise my re-raise and goes all in. Seeing as he was only playing a few tables I put him on a bluff. Turns out he had 99. I had him dominated preflop but sadly when they make full house on the flop, you have only 2 outs. 2 outs which the previous guy had made. Poker can be such a bitch sometimes. I lost $35 dollars overall today. Bankroll sits at $250.

15th April

I've been experimenting with 10/25c cash games and low limit sitngos. Fortunately I have been lucky when needed and made a few draws when I have been behind. I will take luck over skill any day. The deviations are much wider in higher limits and I see my bankroll fluactuating $10 each way. As I said before, I got lucky when behind and made a bit of money. The bankroll is now up to $280.

I have just finished reading Phil Shaw's Secrets of SitnGos. It was one of the more technical books I've read and the ideas are rather complex and will take a while to absorb. It was highly educational and I've learnt much more about sitngos by reading alone than I have playing them. I will post a review and short notes on this blog. I will only outline general theories and leave the specifics for the book itself. I might look into playing sitngos for a while to build up the bankroll.

14th April

After playing another session of 5/10c, I was down $10. I was playing pretty tight but people out drew me on the flop, turn and river. Oh well it happens, I decide to play a 5.50 sit n go. I was chip leader for a good bit then after shoving all in against small blind with A5 I became rather short stacked. It was an idiotic move and I really shouldn't have done it but seeing as I haven't played sit n goes in so long I was quite out of touch. Later I tried to play in some satellites but didn't have the patience and some of them couldn't even fill up.

I took a little break to watch some TV and relax. I then decided that my bankroll was big enough that I could try playing 10/25c NL cash games. I decide to buy in for 10 dollars which is usually my buy in for 5/10c games and I play 4 of them so I felt that if I played one game of 10/25c with only $10 I could get a feel of how tight or loose players were at this limit. I'm sure it depends on the table but the table I was at was quite tight except for the few who stirred things up every so often. Less players play multitables on these limits and you really have to figure out when players are bluffing or not. In 5/10c games I could read players quite easily. I figure this is because I've played them for so long. Starting to read 10/25c players could become quite profitable. I'm going to try and play 10/25c games from now on with $10 buy in and only play one at a time. Average pot sizes are pretty big and you get much more action when it seems like you're shortstacked. I was playing for a while and eventually I got pocket kings in the big blind. Action folded to the button and he limped in. The small blind raised to $1.20 and I re-raised to $3, trying to clear the field. The button calls the $3 and the small blind re-raises all in of about $20, I call and the button follows. I was bricking it at this stage. The small blind had JJ. The button had Q10h. One of my kings were hearts but I was still nervous. Thankfully it held up. And I got up to $25.

Next decent hand was A6h in middle position. I decide to limp in and action folds to the button who raises to $1. Everyone folds to me. The button has about $25, roughly the same as me so implied odds are there if I hit the nut flush and he catches something or is holding a pocket pair. The flop is 554. Only one of those is a heart. I decide not to raise for the steal because he might re-raise me or just fold. He checks too. The next card is a 2h. I now have a possible flush draw. He decides to bet 75c here. I call and the pot is roughly at $3. The river turns a 3d and I miss my flush but I have a straight with 6 high. I actually got nervous and thought i only had ace to 5. I raised 3/4 pot size to get him to try get him to call and also make it seem like a bluff. He decides to re-raise my bet to $10. Now I'm fearing that he might have a 6 which makes me completely idiotic because obviously I have it and I even thought about folding but thankfully I quick called. If I didn't have 25 on the table I would have re-raised but because i didn't want to lose too much. If I realised that I had the 6 I definately would have re-raised all in. Silly me, but I turned $10 to $37 in half an hour which is a personal best.

12th April

Last nite as I came home after a poor game at a friends house and decided to make my money back online. I decided to play in cash games because I didn't want to endure hours of play in the dollar only to make a few more. For the first hour, I lost about 10$ playing 4 tables, The guy bluffed me off of top pair when there was a straight and flush draw on the board, I raised quickly but he floated me to the river where he re-raised me $5. I figured I was beat and folded the best hand when he showed me his bluff. This sent me on a minor tilt and I tried to bluff the next hand and lost another $3. I refocused and played for another 2 hours. In this two hours, I unlocked a $10 bonus which recooped my loses and then I won another $20 in that session. I know making money from bonuses doesn't say much about my skill but in micro stakes poker, bonuses are an important part to curb your loses and enhance your earnings.


Overall: Played 4 tables at 5/10c, buying in max of $10 per table. Total buy in: $40
Total profit: $20

Micro stakes poker

As a firm believer of correct bankroll management, micro stakes poker is an important part of building your bankroll and preventing yourself from going bust. The only thing I add is that the players you encounter in micro stakes poker are incredibly poor and should not be compared to players in higher stakes. There are of course some sharks who dominate the micro stakes. It is incredibly important for beginners and even regular micro stakes players to back up their earnings with bonuses, freerolls, and other promotions. Recently I made 50$ partaking in the take 2 promo offered by Fulltilt poker. The promotion involved playing two tables simultaneously and earning one fulltilt point a day from this for 10 days.

The key to micro stakes poker for me is using the find a player function. Whenever I am at a table, I'll find everyplayer on it with the find a player function to see how many tables they are playing at a time. I then use the notes on players function to mark these players. For players who play 8-16 tables at a time, I generally mark them as red notes. These players will be involved in too many tables to get a proper read on you and you can steal their blinds and bluff them out of hands. You will also get a read on the possible range of hands that they play, I assume for players who play 16 tables, they limp in on low pocket pairs, raise with high pocket pairs, AK, AQ etc. For players playing fewer tables I generally don't mark them as anything, because I feel that later on if I play them a month later, they might improve and start playing more tables but if I had notes on him I might forget to check. Also I will know what sort of range they will be playing with, players playing 2 or less tables will have a much wider range than players playing 16 tables. They will also bluff more, check raise more and float more.

The reason we bet 3x big blind preflop is to test for strength and clear out the field. We don't want players limping in with 23 and hitting two pair or trips. There is a lot of patience involved in playing online, and the variance in micro stakes poker are so extreme that you really should quit when you feel like you are on tilt or can't play at your best. There is a tendency for micro players to call with losing hands just to see what the other player has. There is a reason for this but over time you need to trust your instincts and cut your losses short and maximise earnings by encouraging this behaviour from your opponents. The reason why players beginning poker call with losing hands just to see if you were bluffing is to get a read on general online play. I am guilty of this myself but I think that it is necessary to make these mistakes to refine your read on players in general and also exploit the patterns later.

I will be keeping a list of promotions and bonus codes on the side bar for your choosing to help start you off your bankroll building project.

11th April

I decided to play the Daily Dollar tournament tonight again as I haven't played all that much earlier today. There were roughly 6000 entrants yet again. Unfortunately I got short stacked earlier for some aggressive play, I was trying out a few different ideas but I also wasn't getting the cards. I almost wrote myself off when I had 1.7k when average was about 4.5k. Fortunately I made some pretty nice pushes in position, stole some blinds and made one bluff on a low board heads up and took the pot. I got back to about 4k and action folded around to me with 1010 in small blind, I push the Bigblind all in with 1k more. He shows Q6d and unfortunately he hits runner runner for a flush. I'm back down to 2.8k with the average at around 9.6k now.

I decided I needed to make a move at some stage and found myself shoving with 97h with 3 limpers and a raiser in front of me. So I decided to go all in to eliminate competition and have my hand go heads up. As it seemed, action folded to the raise who then made the call with only 66. This was now a coin flip, I flopped a possible straight with 10 J Q. Turn came 10, I was sweating at this stage, but with any 9,8,K,7 helping me I was happy to see the river hit a 9. I'm now up to 5.3k with average stack at 10.5k and we were down to the last 1600. This might seem quite sudden but really this was after about 2 and half hours play.

As the blinds started to increase and devalue my chip count, I found myself sitting on 4k with QQ, i decided to shove in middle position. No one called and I picked up the blinds which I was more than happy to. I'm back to about 5k with 1243 players left. I get moved to another table and I am in terrible position with the player on my left having me covered 6 times over. I decided at this stage that I would just weasle into the money folding most hands. I folded AQ in early position and when it came to last hand before the money, I had to fold AK, I didn't want to risk it having about 4-5 more people to act after me and facing a raise in front.

As soon as I made the money, the only thing I thought of was going more aggressive hoping to double up as soon as possible. I was in early-middle position on a tight table so I decided to shove all in with A10o. I got called by the BigBlind who turned over 89c. Neither of us hit anything til the river when an Ace came up. I doubled up to 7.5k.

Since the table was tight, I decided the remainder of my hands would be limping in. I had some playable hand though by no means premium but decided to limp in under the gun. action folded around to the blinds and the small blind folded. The board came 599, the big blind checks and I bet small, it seems he already hit the check/fold button so I easily take the pot. I'm up to 9k with average at around 16k.

My new objective is to make top 135 as the payout is worth a considerable amount more than 136-900. I decided to start mixing it up and widening my range because if I played tight I would really just make the next few levels, but if I got more aggressive I could build my stack faster and have a better chance at making top 135. I simply limped in with KJo under the gun and again everyone folds and the big blind calls. He was about the same size stack as me so I knew how he would play after the flop. He was going to shove with any two cards. The flop comes 6 J Q and surely enough the guy shoves all in. I expected this but the Q unnerves me. I figure I have him read and call, he turns over his semi bluff of 10 9o. At this point I knew I was ahead but with 2 more cards to come and him having an open ended straight draw I was probably about 2:1 favourite at best. My cards hold up and I build my stack up to 14k. The average stack is now at 22k.

A short while passes and I am dealt pocket Kings in late position. I would normally play this with a raise and fold if an Ace or dangerous flop came and I was facing strong betting or re-raising. However, with 5 callers, I decided to shove hoping none of the players were limping in with AA. The all in was a clearing bet so I could get rid of players playing connectors or low pocket pairs. I figured I would probably be facing some variations on AK, AQ etc. To my delight, I got called by 99 and I doubled up to 30k. At this point I am actually ahead of average stack which is pretty good seeing as the average chip count is skewed upward by some monsterous chip leaders of about 150k. Average chip stacks are normally the upper 2nd or 3rd of players when it comes down to last thousand or so players.

Sadly this is where my weakness lies, I think I play much better with short stack than deepstack. There is less chance of someone calling an all in by me, I have more to lose, I want to keep my position of being in top 30% of players. It also means that I'll have to hit some cards to call people all in when I have them covered. They have nothing to lose making the bluff either because they have such a small stack. I normally switch to small ball poker but I got transfered to an aggressive table where people had a very wide range of hands and contested blinds quite heavily. As we near the last 500 players, play gets a little trickier as luck becomes less of a factor in pots and skill comes into play. People play position more, they play stack sizes more, they float more, check raise occasionally and bluff an awful lot more. There is rarely a showdown and when there is, it is usually an all in. So eventually I'm sitting on about 25k and I have A10 on the button. Everyone folds and the player to my right does a routine raise of 2.5 times the big blind, I figure this is to steal the blinds and antes with a hand like K9o or even A7o. I decided to just call and not raise as the blinds have still yet to act. The small blind folds and the Big Blind calls. The flop comes down two low cards and an Ace with no real possible flush draw. The big blind checks, the initial raiser bets and I figure he would make the continuation bet whether he hit the flop or not seeing as the Bigblind showed weakness. I decided that he either has an ace with low kicker or hese just c-betting with king high. I push all in and he takes a while to think, pressing time, I figured he had a pocket pair then. He calls and shows AJ. The board was 62A62. I was hoping for a chop. I depart in 399th.

Overall: buy in $1. Return $3.50. Profit $2.50.

10th April

I played in a $2.25 double stack tournament on Fulltilt. Double stack means you start with 3000 chips instead of the regular 1500. There was about 470 entrants. Top prize would've been about $220. I ended up coming 32nd. I was playing quite passively whilst chatting with friends on msn. When we got close to the bubble, I decided to play tight because I was preoccupied with chat. A few badly played hands and I found myself on the chopping board. Fortunately I made a good hand when I needed to and stole blinds when in position with a decent playable hand. I made the bubble and realised that if i wanted to get to the final table, I'd have to shove and hope for the best. I decided to shove on 2 live cards, 7 10 suited and unfortunately I lost to kq. Oh well. At least I made the money.

I decided to play in the $1 daily dollar tournament tonight. There were 6000 entrants. Initially I got some good hands and got a small early lead. But as blinds started to increase and as players were getting knocked out so quickly, my small lead became incredibly negligable. I was playing pretty tight and failed to get playable hands in a 9 handed game where people generally wanted to see a flop regardless of price. I feel that in those situations you really just have to be patient, see more flops, hit something and then bet hard. At one stage I was down to 2000 chips with the average at about 7-8k. Fortunately I got moved to another table and was in late position with KK. I had a raise and a call in front of me and decided to push all in. I had one caller and I was very happy to see that he had AK. I ended up taking that pot and got my chips to about 3700. Then several hands later, I got AJh in the Big Blind. Again I was about half the average or even less than half the average stack. For some bizarre reason, either due to my connection or odd coincidence, it seemed like everyone hit the autofold button all the way up to the button. The button decided to make a routine raise of twice the big blind which was at 200. I decided he was obviously making a move seeing that I was shortstacked. I decided this was optimal time to re-raise all in. I would be happy if he called or folded, knowing that if he did call I would very much likely have him beat. He took a long time to think and I already knew his hand wasn't all that strong. He called with A3d. Without any disappointment I took down that pot and doubled my chips. Sitting on about 8000chips, I seemed to be in pretty good shape to at least make the cash. We were down to about the last 1800 players. After about an hour of small pots and myself not getting a decent or playable hand, we get to last 1300players and I am sitting on about 5700 chips. Which is not great compared to the average stack of about 12k. I get dealt pocket Aces in the Big Blind which blinds being 250/500. What I didn't really like about this was that there was one caller one raise and a caller of that raise. I decided there was only one way to play this and decided to shove all my chips into the middle so I could narrow the field. I get two callers and eliminate one of the limpers. One of the callers was clearly on tilt so I put him on a range of hands. The other pushed himself all in to try scare him off the pot but he couldn't. We all showed our cards and I have to say, I was clear favourite. I had AA, tilt boy had A2o, and the other guy had 99. If it were heads up, I would have A2 dominated so bad, and I'd be 4:1 favourite over 99. But unfortunately As this was 3 handed, anything could've happened. The flop came down 10 5 4. No one had a flush possibility so I was quite happy. It did leave A2 with 4 outs, which were the 3's left in the deck. The turn was 7. Which helped nobody but me. Sadly the river was not as accomodating and showed the dreaded 3. In retrospect, Shoving with Aces when there is so much action is probably not the best play but I definately stand by it when you are short stacked in a tournament and need the double up. Especially when you have great pot odds. I ended up finishing 1200, about 120 places short of the money. So basically if I stuck it out for another half an hour or even shorter, I might have made the payzone. I felt like I could do with a big win rather than just edge into the money this time. I believe I made the right play, trying to cash in on a player on tilt and someone who I thought I had dominated and turns out I did.

I just ran the odds on pokerstove and the findings are as follows. I had 73% equity,I would win 72.4% of the time, the other .6% is for a tie. A2 had 6% equity, and finally 99 had 20%equity. But that is poker, you will get a bad beat sometimes. If I had to play the same situation again, I would probably play it in the same way. If I just called then It would've been a 4way pot which would have even greater variance and with my short stack I wouldn't be able to lay it down and leave myself with less than 4-5 big blinds.

Overall: Buy ins $3.25. Return $3.40. Profit of $0.15. This is so incredibly negligable lol. I figure the more cash ins I make, the better I will fine tune my strategies and playing styles. When I become confident enough that I can place no matter how many players, then I will play for much bigger buy ins.

8th April

I played a 90 player sit n go. It lasted around 3-4 hours. I ended up coming 10th.The buy in was $1.25. It was double stack which I liked. I thought that If i could do well here, I'll be able to get deeper into tournaments.

When we got to ten players, it became 5 handed with two tables. I was in small blind with qj. Normally I wouldn't play this hand as it could easily be dominated. With the first two players to act folding, I decided my hand was probably on of the strongest. The largest stack who was on the button, raised the hand previous, and again raised this hand. I figured that he was purely pot bullying us, using position and his 80k stack size. The rest of us were on about 20k. I was aiming to come first and if I could double up here, I could be in pretty good shape once we got 9 handed. He raised to 6k, I decided to move all in so he couldn't outplay me on the flop and abuse his position. I also gave him the choice to fold but as soon as he called, he turned over aq. Exactly what I was afraid of. I figured he would raise with anything so it might as well have been a random hand. The only other hands I would've hated to see more than aq would've been, QQ,KK, or AA. Being dominated I was about 2.5:1 underdog. With JJ I would have only been 2:1 underdog. I was hoping for a coin flip really.
I would've been happy enough to see anything else, even AK.

I played pretty well through out the tournament. Picking my spots, bluffing on dry boards. Floating some players. Creating the illusion of trapping them. Folding when I know I'm beat. I only started stealing blinds when they got to several hundred. One hand which I'm very happy about playing was, having pocket jacks on the button and just limping in. It became 3 handed as the small blind folded and big blind checked with one other caller. my dream flop came up and it was Jc Jh 10d. The two other players check to me. I decide to bet minimum after about 2 seconds. It looks like a steal. The big blind folds. The other player quick calls. Next card to come up is a 7c. He quickly checks to me. I decide to pause for a little while and raise minimum again making it seem like i'm trying for another steal. The river comes an Ace of clubs. He decides to bet out here, about 1.5 pot size. He obviously hit something strong and I decide to shove my stack all in which is roughly twice his bet. I end up doubling up as he turns over KQo.After that, reaching the money was easy. I didn't really pot bully with my stack because I was constantly getting rags. When I did hit my hands hard, I got more or less as much as I could get.

My error was playing the qj without having a proper read on the Chip leader. Maybe I was tired, but putting all my chips in on a coin flip when I was totally covered was not exactly the best move to make seeing as how my blind was only 1k. the pot was about 10k before I decided to push the 19k into it. I could have picked a better spot. Knowing my weakness in playing shorthanded games, I probably could have waited for someone else to make a stand and then play my strong 9 handed game with position on the big stack. Especially with all the other players with similar stacks, It was quite possible. The difference in pay between 7-10 was not noticeable enough for me to hold out. However, I really should have waited for a pocket pair or better position and play against one of the other medium stacks. These are lessons I will take with me for the next game.

Overall: Little change in money, Buy in $1.25. Return was $1.98.

Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu is personally one of my favourite players. He plays aggressive poker and reads tremendously. Here is just a nice video I found on youtube.

7th April

I played in the daily dollar tournament on Fulltilt last nite, because I reside in Ireland, that meant it was 1 in the morning for me. Being nocturnal, I played well into the early hours. The tournament had roughly 7000 players, each buying in for a single dollar. The prize pool was $7k roughly. Making the final table would mean that you make at least 100, first place being about $1800. I played pretty tight, reading the players well, not calling huge raises or risking high portions of my stack. I got an early double up on a high pocket pair so that helped. I will outline and refine my tournament strategies in the coming days. I began to pot bully players out of marginal hands, folding to strong resistence or huge re-raises. I won a few good pots within a short space of time and decided I had a good table image. I was aggressive and took down most of the pots I was in. When being the big stack, I decided to small ball and change my image. More on this later posts. Long story short, I played aggressively when I hit my cards, stole blinds in position etc.

I ended up finishing 88th of 7000 which I was quite happy about. The hand I went out on was like this. I was on about 180k which was 50k above average stack. I held Ace 9 of clubs. I decided to limp in under the gun. I was first to act so I didn't want to raise much to face a re-raise. When playing suited aces, i'm hoping to hit a flush draw. What ended up happening was that everyone else folded to the blinds who also limped in. The pot is now at about 20k. The flop comes down, 2 of clubs, 7 of clubs and Ace of hearts. The small blind decides to check and the Big Blind decides to bet the pot. i figure the best he has is a pair and I wanted to build the pot so I re-raised min. The pot is now about 80k and I have about 40k more than him. I have him covered. He goes all in after i re-raised, at this point I put him on two pair or trips, I figure with the pot so big and my drawing possibilities, I am in pretty good shape. I call and he turns over 27, which is actually pretty good for me. Any club would've made my nut flush, any ace or 9 would've hand him beat. I ran the stats on pokerstove and I was actually slight favourite. Being a coinflip, my odds were roughly 1:1, pot odds however were much better, nearing 2:1. Unfortunately I don't hit my flush. I'm left with only about 40k with average stack being 140k. I decide to move all in with Ace5suited and unfortunately I got beat by Q7. Oh well.

Tonight I played at a friends house and out of about 12 players, I was fortunate enough to win it. 5 euro buy in and I took back 45 euro. I don't count these in my bankroll. The bankroll project is for online play only. The game tonight was poorly structured, one table being 5 handed and the other being 7 handed. I was also stuck at the 5 handed table. One absolute maniac was raising ridiculous amounts with nothing and ended up short stacking me to half my stack. I made a note of not getting involved with him and started attacking the others whenever he wasn't in the pot. eventually when we got down to 8 players with merged tables with one guy having about 7 times average stack. This was where I felt more comfortable, playing 8 handed is much easier, especially when you have aggressive 6 handed players. I probed a few of them about how they play and figured out a few tells on players. They were incredibly easy to read. People give away so much in what they say, one guy said "do i have to play this hand when he was in small blind" then he decided to limp in and I quickly raised him and he instantly folded. Most of the players played their hands and not the situation. This let me capitalise on the times when they didn't catch their cards.

Overall:
88th of 7000, made 11$
1st of 12, made 45euro

About

This blog is dedicated to exploring the world of poker, specificly that of no limit holdem. As a student I have an incredible amount of freetime, and recently I average at about 2-3hours of play online everyday. I have been playing no limit holdem for 3 years and it is only this year that I have made the extra effort to get better. I read copious amounts of poker books, play consistently online and rarely turn down a live game. However, being a student my funds are low and my bankroll is limited because of this. This is gambling, don't gamble with what you can't afford. My bankroll is roughly $200, because of this I can't play the higher stake games and so I play micro. It has come to my attention that the rake in micro stakes poker is tremendously detrimental to your earnings. I hope to one day break free from the treacherous micro stakes and play poker professionally.

I will be covering basic strategies for beginners such as starting hands, bet sizes, pot odds,etc. After a sound foundation has been set, I'll expand the range of hands that you can play in or out of position. I'll also cover more advanced techniques such as stacking someone, slow playing, protecting your hand, table image, floating, check-raising, metagame and exploiting timing tells. I will outline the profiling of players, online tells that I've noticed and bankroll management.

As I have already announced, I read an awful lot of poker books, I will write reviews , summaries and lessons that I have learnt. I have a bankroll project in which I aim to reach $10k. A time limit has yet to be set.

Anything you find in this blog is purely my opinion and should be treated as such. If you disagree with my ideas, that is absolutely fine. I am simply expressing my opinions on the subject and feel free to oppose me.