Help Me. Bad Night! [263 Hands / -$43.85]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 28, 2008 in General | 0 comments

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?

Rollin’ On the River [228 Hands / +$24.40]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 27, 2008 in General | 1 comment

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.

Studying Pays Off [220 Hands / +$15.35]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 26, 2008 in General | 0 comments

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.

Gorgeous 6max Sesssion [252 Hands / +$52.60]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 25, 2008 in General | 0 comments

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.

Truly Being Tested Again

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 22, 2008 in General | 1 comment

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.