Poker Blog – icemonkey9 on PokerStars

What a month. First 22 days were the most trying and difficult of my poker career easily. Then I took a break, played in a live poker room (cleaned up!), and switched to 6max cash game poker. That changed everything.

AUGUST RESULTS:

August 6max Results (final 8 days of the month):

Hands: 3918
Profit: +$240.95
bb/100: 12.3

——————-

Overall August Results:

Hands: 17,254
Profit: +$268.94
bb/100: 3.19

As you can see I made 86% of the month’s profits in the last 23% of the hands played. The 25nl 6max stretch seemed pretty sustainable at or around 8 to 10bb/100 and I’ve been playing in the 12 to 16 neighborhood for most of the time. I’ve also got 26.5 buyins for 50nl … and I still have FPP things to turn in for more tries at the Russian Roulette turbo game to see if I can eek that $21 out, as well as the outstanding $240 deposit bonus which should unlock at the middle or end of September if I keep my hand-rate up.

REVIEW OF AUGUST GOALS

- 10,000 hands played in the month of August.
- RESULT: PASSED. I played 17,000+ hands, a new career high.

- Re-Read “Harrington on Holdem Book 1″ and take notes throughout the book
- RESULT: FAILED. Instead I joined Stoxpoker.com and have been studying there.

- Make 1 “The Ocho ESPN8″ funny poker video
- RESULT: FAILED. Real life work got way too much in the way of that happening.

- Participate regularly in the Hand Analysis for ring game thread on CardsChat.com
- RESULT: PASSED. I read and posted about hands. Heck – I even posted some of my hands … and I found it to be VERY helpful.

- No more than 5-tables during 1 session maximum for the entire month, no exceptions.
- RESULT: FAILED. I actually kept playing 6-tables at fullring. Now that I am at 6max I just play the 4 tables and that keeps me plenty busy.

- Get my interview with Bryce Paradis (StoxPoker instructor) up on Gaming Illustrated, post around for people to watch. Email link to Bryce.
- RESULT: PASSED. I got it up, it led to some great conversations at Stox, and some exciting things in the future. You can watch the interview right here.

FINAL COMMENTS + GRAPH

Well, I can say I hate full ring now soley because I love 6max so much. For a TAG player like me my play is totally rewarded at 6max since I get value for most if not all of my hands, and I put in more hands per hour (and thus bring in more money). I enjoy 6max because it doesn’t feel like a grind, it feels like a party to me, so that’s always good when you enjoy something that you appear to be successful at.

I’ll post my September goals tomorrow and I’ve tried to put more thought into them than I did for August (since I failed a few of them!). I think mainly it’ll focus around two things – getting hands in and studying videos at Stox and HA threads. That’s it really.

Okay, so enjoy the graph. What a way to end the month!!!

First, before I talk about my last 3 cash game sessions I have to say something about the 210 FPP turbos. I’ve been reading the advice that playing in these and finishing in the top 6 out of 20 (and then selling the $11 ticket for cash) is the best form of rakeback. I’m here to say it’s the WORST. The level of play in this turbo is ridiculous and not even poker. Obviously, I’ve done poorly (cashed in 1/5 now) and I’ve always gotten my money in with the best hand … but when you do this and people call you constantly with trash, you realize you’re playing a bad game and essentially resorting to pure gambling. I have to cash in 1 more in order to get any sort of money since the $11 isn’t enough ($22 apparently is enough to get the 98% value). After that I am totally re-evaluating what to do with FPPs.

So, my last three sessions. I said running like a Jamaican because in the 704 hands I made 100% of that money in about a 4 hand span. Just a mad sprint this afternoon as the tables were WILD and crazy. Wild swings. I had KK busted by Qx (again) and I had a flopped set busted by a runner runner straight which didn’t feel great and I felt I needed to bet more on the flop.

Anyways, I am happy I came out on the winning side big time, as the run at 6max continues to be extremely profitable, and through 3,795 hands I’m running at a 12.4bb/100 clip (+$234.85). I also have my 26 buyins for 50nl … but I want to wait until the first of the month, I dunno, maybe I am pussing out or something.

Some hands …

Was QQ No Good Here?

Villain is relatively unknown and at this point only played 3 hands … he played 2 of them very aggressively. Anyways … I just didn’t feel comfortable here and didn’t feel like I could be sure I was really ahead.

AA Cracked by K2 with a huge raise PF. Yikes.

With great fish (78/11/1.4) comes great danger sometimes, ironically enough. Sure they will call down any preflop raise, and usually just fold to any cbet. Then again sometimes they totally draw out on your monsters and there’s nothing you can do.

QQ Wins

Yeah … lucked out on the river … was a 77-23% dog on that one … thank you.

Ladies and Gentleman the RIGHT way to crack AA

Standard and textbook.

Wildman Gets Destroyed

Villain is 100/0/3 over 9 hands (denniz_gr). Trust me this was by no means an insta-call. If he was open ended I do call, but I was really worried about the set. 88 and 66 are reasonable hands for this situation … but I figured as a new player that had been in every hand he probably just had a weaker A … which wasn’t true he had a pair of sixes. Yeow, and thanks for the stack.

Put in 4 more sessions today … pretty boring. Ran very break even … sad to see my 16bb/100 move down to 11.5bb/100 , but I knew 16 obviously was not sustainable. I had some big hands crack, some flops go my way only to see the turn blow me away … regular “crap” stuff that happens, no biggie though. Tomorrow I hope to put in at least 4 sessions which should be really juicy due to the holiday weekend. Wish me good luck and good skill!

Some hands … enjoy …

KK Cracked

Villain here is 57/14/3 … flop is good but the turn’s filling the flush concerned me. Stupid call on the river on my part. No way was I ahead, was I?

Set Cracked On Turn

That little crap raise on the turn scared me … this was one of those situations where I figured I might flat here and draw to one of my 10 outs. Then I figured screw it because of his stack size and shoved because I totally lost my brain completely. Blew it here, really bad play. WTF. I’m disappointed in myself on this one.

Haha, I’ve always wanted to write that as a post since I’ve seen ChuckTs do it once upon a time long ago. I think that line is hilarious. Anyways the 6max switch continues to apparently be the best decision I made since getting married. Here are the sessions and numbers since the last post…

Session 1: +$52.80
Session 2: -$32.05
Session 3: +$23.75
Session 4: +$22.45

Totals:

Game: Pokerstars / 25nl 6max / 4tabling
Hands: 733
Total Duration: 130 minutes
End Result: +$66.95

Since making the move to 6max I am +$176.45 and running at a 16bb/100 … and that number just seems to stick over the course of the last 6 days. I made some great adjustments in my game when I moved to 6max thanks to the Stox videos. Basically I’m giving no action to my opponents and I’ve made big value bets with monsters (that apparently get called at 6max). Its a good formula to lose small pots and win big ones. Occasionally I’ll hit a cooler (Session 2!) but the ability to rebound is easy in this level and game.

I’ve also hit the 25 buyin threshold for 50nl. I think I want to stick it out and get 26 and then maintain a “stay unless I get down to 21″ … that seems nutty but it seems safer to me than the 25 to 20 rule. I’m also close to another 210fpps (I actually have like 2770 right now) and every time I hit 2810 I am going to play in that freeroll for $11 and hopefully I can win one (I am 1/3 so far, man those things are shaky…) and get some extra money for it.

Some highlights …

Flopped a Monster, AND got paid.

There was just no way I was folding JTs to a min raise. I was playing it for drawing value and I flopped it with a chance of a straight flush (nuts) if the 8s fell. I just kept betting and he didn’t let go so I shoved the river and he called.

QQ Holds True

Some history … Winnythepoo here is a 69/50/inf maniac. I opened with AK on the button to $1 in a previous hand and he shoved, I folded, and he showed 44 and started talking smack. Then he just was shoving here and there at really random times but at least once every other hand. He shoves on this shit board so I call without hesitation.

JJ Gets Paid?! Wow!

The villain in this hand is 100/29/inf over 7 hands. I was wary of getting it all in with a potential 3way pot with JJ so I flatted it preflop. All unders … and I am happy to get it in with all unders … and my overs are better than his overs. Bit of a nice heater but surprising that he just stacked with 99 as overs.

I had Redemption Song in my head today for some reason when I was driving around getting some stuff done for work (banking mainly). Seems appropraite that today I title it for my AM post here in my blog. After last night’s bloodbath (and some good debate on the CC forums about the hands) I was able to put together 2 solid sessions.

Game: 25nl 6max , Pokerstars, 4 tables per session
Sessions: 2
Hands: 323
Duration: 64 minutes total
End Result: +$60.75

Good stuff. The running total since I moved to 6max on 8/23/08 …

Hands: 1,468
Profit: +$109.50
bb/100: 14.92

Some hands from the 323 hands …

Jedi hand reading skills at work … aka I learned my lession from last night.

Villains in this hand are 41/6/1 (30 hands) and 67/33/inf (3 hands) … I make a raise (not so big) but it’s flatted (interesting to see that it was the AA dude) and then shoved. Yeah obviously my QQ is no good … I figured SOMEONE had me crushed. Good thing I was right. Just ridiculous at 6max that you see AA vs KK vs QQ. Crazy odds.

AA Holds ... aka my ass saved on the river.

Yeah. Got my assed saved on the river when I made a brutal read. I put him on something like AK or KT or TT but not KQ or QJ or KJ for some reason. Yet again I see a player at this level make a min raise at the flop (or turn) with a monster. Crazy. Anyways I figured even if he had 2 pair I had any A or T to give me the win (6 outs) and potential outs in the board pairing that didn’t give him a boat but gave me a better two pair (3 more outs) for a total of 9 outs. So I stack, and my worst case scenario was true, but I hit one of those outs and won.

Good solid read here, wasn’t buying what he was selling.

This guy called me down to the river. Hard to explain but I figured with this kind of flop he was floating me with some sort of sexy over cards like AQ, AJ, KQ. I put no faith in him having 79. The brick hits on the river and he check-raises all in. How on earth does that make any sense? 88 wouldn’t have done that, no set would have (especially on the turn with the potential flush draw). I just wasn’t buying it, I had to call and I did. I win.

Why You Should Raise PPs in an Unraised Pot Preflop.

Such a gorgeous flop … I was so happy to see it. I had that one sexy over card flop and had middle set. Someone would be stupid out of 3 villains. My bet sizing was a little low on the flop because I was hoping for a raise and to get it in there. At the river I decided not to get cute and considering the 3rd spade hit I am kind of surprised he called this shove.

Well the 6max hot streak ended and I ran right into a brick wall. Just brutal. Some coolers, but I am hoping to get some “yeah you played that right” and “no play it this way” from some people.

QQ Screwed Over? Bad bad turn call.

Villain is a retarded 36/0/1 fish. He flats my cbet and his fold to flop bet ration is 33% so he floats a lot. A bad card comes on theturn. He check-raises all in … and I make a poor call here.

QQ Cooler, right?

Villain is someone who just had a horseshoe up his ass the whole time at the table it seemed. Maybe some superuser pro? We’ll get into that later. His stats? A ridiculous 50/29/6 … bad stack here? Cooler??

KK Screwed … or Outplayed?

Same rat-bastard as the other hand … I get in there and bet it, and on the flop he donk bets me and I raise him (maybe not quite the right amount). He flats that and the absolutely 100% worst card out of the entire deck falls on the turn. Brutal right? The donk bet made me think he was drawing to the flush and the flat threw me off from the flop on my raise. Anyways, just the worst f’ing card to see … I bet it and he min-raise and I make the brutal mistake of calling it (shove or go home really). I was hoping for another club but it doesn’t fall and he stacks. I’m screwed and clearly behind – yes?

JJ Screwed Over eh?

Pretty obvious my JJ was no good right? Good laydown?

Today was a really great poker day. Two 6max sessions totaling a profit of +$39.75 and a huge win over my pal Zachvac from CardsChat in the CC Headsup Championship. The championship bracket can be seen here and as you can see it’s played like the NCAA March Madness Tournament. My match against Zach was VERY exciting and we both hit some coolers but in the end I won it, and I am STOKED

Also I asked Brian (bw07510 from cardschat) about what to do with the FPPs, and he directed me to a post on the 2+2 forums that basically say that if you play the 210fpp sattys for the $11 tournament ticket it’s the better investment in the long run. The options are playing in a higher FPP tournament (5400, 2700, etc) or saving up and using it for a bonus which then you have to unlock. So I decided to take 210 of my 3100 FPPs and put them to good use, and sure enough I finished ITM (in the money) out of 20 (6 get paid). So now I have $11 tournament bucks which I can apparently sell to some agency who will give me 97% of their worth in actual dollars. yay! I figure that every time i get 210 FPPs I’ll give these a crack and when I get $55 i’ll sell them.

The night session was very juicy. Apparently the fish are biting on Tuesday night since I saw a great number of players on the site, much more so than usual at this hour. Good for me since I’m on a heater and playing well … combine those two and you get my ChuckTs-like 26.31bb/100 over the last 3 days.

Night Session Stats
Game: 25nl 6max – Pokerstars – 4 tables
Duration: 46 minutes
Hands: 228
End Result: +$24.40

Taking a look at some hands from my 6max sessions …

5bet at 25nl 6Max?!?!

This dude was making moves at the table usually reserved for 100nl … I should know since I’ve watched a ton of 6max poker at that level … he was 3betting light, making great float plays … and before this hand I considered leaving since he’d probably just run over the table and we’d get in each other’s way. So he 3bets me with JJ and because I know he’s been 3betting light I solid 4bet him. What does he do? F’ing 5bet me. At 25nl, serious folks, a 4bet is 99% AA or KK. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a 5bet yet. So I just let it go … either he has balls of steel or he really does have QQ-AA in which case I am crushed. Still tough to let go.

KK … The River with Taketh and the River will Giveth

The 2 preflop villains are 33/19/1 and 60/20/3 which means they are really unaware of what they are doing. I can’t believe how many people in 6max I see with stats like this … and apparently they are all over the place up to 200nl (according to Zachvac). Anyways, not so excited about that board and let out and see the A. I absolutely put this douchebag on an A but he bets so lightly I figure I can see a cheap showdown at the river so I call. Implied odds – you betcha – and I hit my K and start smacking my lips. He bets $3 again and so if anything I have learned from the videos is to get value on the river … and people just aren’t letting go of paired aces at this 25nl level, so I stack him off, he calls, I win. Yay.

AA Wins AIPF vs Shortstacker

Just had to put this in here … I thought about flatting Morpheus but with the pot so big I figured he might just call a shove here anyways … and if not that’s fine I have enough in the pot to where I am ahead of EV for the hand.

Proud of Myself for this One

health99 is a 43/8/2 fish and the other guy is completely unknown. With the flop I have the nut flush draw and two overs and the shortstacker (as he probably should do) stacks off here. I give myself some time to think about what he would do this with … and I figure it’s pretty wide if he’s a decent enough shortstacker. Any straight draw and I am ahead … any flush draw and he is dead … two overs and I’m a favorite. I just didn’t see me really being in bad shape even if he had a set of 8s or 9s even. I call. I didn’t know what he had until the river but he hit his 7 to take a brief lead and I hit one of my 15 outs on the river.

So I’ve been studying the HELL out of 6max cash game poker theory. Seriously I’ve studied more in the last 4 days than maybe the last 2 months combined. I’ve downloaded about 3 or 4 videos from Cardschat about 6max, made a sweat session with Zachvac with him playing 100nl 6max (4 tables), and watched 4 videos downloaded from Stox.

So far I’m really impressed with the level of teaching from Stoxpoker. If you are a 6max player you are straight up retarded if you don’t join. I am also finding the 6max game to be a lot more action-oriented, more aggressive, and more FUN FUN FUN. Yay for that. Anyways the videos from Leatherass, Stosh, and Ed Miller have been impressive and I am trying to watch one a day during a break in work.

I put in a quick session that went well. With all the study I am really learning things about reading opponents, what to do at these micro-stakes that stays profitable, and little tricks like value-betting on the river. Great stuff.

Game: 25nl 6max, Pokerstars, 4 tables
Duration: 46 minutes
Hands: 220
End Result: +$15.35
bb/100: 14/100

Very nice bb/100 and it looks like I’m finally on a 2-day sustained upswing! yay!!!! I had to play super nitty today for a couple of reasons. First, on one table the table VPIP was 50! I couldn’t believe it and was drooling. Second, I was so card dead, I swear every pot I won was with a hand worse than 2-pair … although I do remember hitting 1 set but didn’t get paid off. No big hands, but nice profits = a great time. Funny thing is that out of all my winning hands for this session, only ONE even went to the river. Crazy.

Know When You Are Beat or Don’t Have Value

Villain here is a maniac at 50/25/4 however it’s only after 25 hands I know this and he was unknown at the time. He calls with position (MAN position is everything in 6max) and I cbet it and he floats. A horrible card for me, and a GREAT card for a floater appears. I check hoping to see some miracle J river for free but it wasn’t going to happen. Rather than get fancy and fight back I just live to fight another day with a better situation for myself.

JJ in Weird Situation

OOP I had to 3bet this and the bet size is okay but looking back I wish it had been for $4.50. TWO callers has me shitting bricks but this is the ridiculous table and these guys have VPIPs of 53 and 42 respectively over 15 hands (small sample). Flop has no broadway cards and I figured if I take a stab here I’ll take it down or just get shoved by a QQ-AA type of hand. I cbet, fold fold. Good enough.

To bring some people up to speed, I’ve decided to give 6max 25nl a run for the end of the month and focus on training in this area. I’ll be on Stox now thanks to their opportunity to cover their site and forums as a story for GamingIllustrated.com … it should make for a good story and publicity for them (open them to a new demographic) and gives us some more premium content for when the full blown poker section of the site is launched next month.

For now I watched ChuckTs’s 100nl 6max session that he recorded for Stosh (super high stakes instructor at Stox) which was VERY insightful into 6max play at that level. It’s an absolute world apart from 25nl in regards to 3betting and 4betting preflop … it’s rare you even see a 3bet at 6max at 25nl … apparently at 100nl 6max if you don’t 3bet you’ll be ridiculed and publically humiliated. Sounds fun!

Anyways, I just put in a mini-session now during my lunch break and had a ball. Up, down, Way Up. Usually I get screwed over by the last hand of the session, but this time I had a gorgeous heater AIPF AA vs KK for the stack win.

Game: 25NL 6max @ PokerStars, 4 tables
Duration: 41 minutes
Hands: 252
End Result: +$52.60

What a great session. It’s great to win. The videos have really helped, I’m thinking more in terms of “what’s the end result here” and “ok with his range what would be his plan of attack” rather than just ABC poker play which is required at 25nl FR. Lets look at some hands … had some good ones and some that I just got away from since i didn’t know what to do.

Standard Setmining Win

The hand here pretty much plays itself. I guess this is more of a brag then

Interesting Combo Draw Hand I Played Meekly

Crazy flop for me. Any 7 or Q gives me the straight, and any spade gives me the flush so I’m looking at 15 outs here. The min raise on a board like this is very very dubious. For some reason the last month people love to min-raise at 25nl with the nuts at the flop or river. It’s weird. I’m happy about it, knowing now I am behind to something like a pocket pair or set. The turn is where I gambled a bit … I am not getting expressed odds to all in the least bit. However, I know I have my opponent on a huge flop hand and if something weird can spike for me on the river, I’ll get paid off. I flat call that turn. The 7 peels off, and assuming she didn’t get lucky with a diamond flush I got her. I decided to check-raise (maybe not great but it worked) and got her to pay me off.

AK No Good? Right? Right.

Villain here is a Tight Slightly-Aggressive type with a line of 18/6/1.3 (folds to flop bet 75%). Basically gets in with good hands, and the aggression factor tells me he’s not playing unless he has it. I double barrel anyways and the turn too (which was dumb, I really should have given up on that T, it could only have helped him and not me). I gave up before it got too expensive.

So easy to go on tilt again. Really easy. Arg. Just put in a 6max session, was going well RIGHT up to literally the last hand of the session and I lost a stack with my set vs his flush. Brutal. Want to watch?

It’s Time to Get F’d! Yay!

History: Fingers is a 87/37/3 maniac lunatic. Raising and reraising with anything and showing down light often. I check raise the flop and he calls and the flush fills … and I proceed to screw myself right down the drain. I did have outs at the turn … any 7 (1), any 4 (2), any 9 (3), or any T (3) for a total of 9 outs. Didn’t hit. So much for a first session positive figure for 25nl 6max. I felt like I was playing SOOOOOOOOOOO good too, making great reads, putting players on ranges and playing against them, 3betting in great spots … and I come away yet again a loser.

What do I do?

Session Stats
4 Tables – 25nl 6max
35 minutes
236 Hands
-$13.65

So today I am down a lovely -$53. Every time I show a gain for the month (had fought up to +80 as of 2 days ago) I take 2 steps back (almost breakeven).

Time to regroup and figure this thing out. I’m punched in the groin but I’m not tilting.