Big Cards = Woeful Results

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 22, 2008 in General | 0 comments

After today's AA drubbing again I got curious to see how AA has fared for me this month. It occured to me that I might actually (after 12k hands) be losing with AA.

After I did the math ...
# of times with AA = 53 times (0.4%)
Result = +$49.95

# of times with KK = 53 times (0.4%)
Result = +$86.55

So I'm not a loser this month with these hands ... but with these preflop monsters I'm also not getting value either. Big part of this month's problem ... getting beat with these preflop hands.

More "Variance" For Me To Enjoy. 25nl FR / 151 Hands / -$40.45

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 22, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Well I nearly dropped two buyins just now. Variance? You tell me (hint: YES).

AA is worthless apparently in online play

With his final shove at the flop I was 99.9% convinced he had the set. He could have had JJ, QQ, or KK so I had some chance of winning the hand. Could this have really happened AGAIN to me? Yes.

Without A Doubt the Most Brutal of all Beats

I have an 83-17% advantage here in this hand and this dickwad f'ing stacks with A7 on a 945 board. I have overs so I get in there and he hits runner runner for the straight. Un-f**king-real.

AA loser again ... another good fold? Who cares.

Villain is LAG but has a solid aggression factor. The flop is ugly but not horrible as I'm one away from the ace high flush. The turn card was just about the worse card I could hope for as his likely Kx hand is better than my aces. I think my aces getting cracked before this put me on tilt and induced me to not use my betpot button and so I led out for a horrible turn bet. He raises, and I flat it hoping to get a diamond or ace on the river, its a blank, and he bets huge trying to induce me to stack and I don't bite. AA cracked again? Most likely. Brutal.

Double Session [25nl FR + 10nl 6max = +$11.80]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 22, 2008 in General | 0 comments

I played in my hockey game at 11:15pm ... and of course it went into over time - we won 4-3 fortunately so the effort wasn't wasted. I had a few shots on goal but their goalie is the best in our division and very tough to get past. I did have about 5 golden opportunity passes to my linemates who either whiffed, missed, fell down, or shot it over the damn glass. Frustrating.

I get home and take a shower and I am WAY too pumped to go to sleep so I fire up Stars for a session. I've been debating FR vs 6max ... with FR I can play 6 tables easily and with 6max I can play 4. It looks like they equal about the same number of hands per hour. However, the games at the 6max level (however hard to compare 10nl vs 25nl) seem MUCH juicer, a lot more action, and big payoffs for hands. Since I am all about action and getting paid for my hands, rather than the usual shit-grind at FR during late night, I am all but decided to make the move to 25nl starting next week.

Tonight's Session:

25nl / 6 tables / 43 Minutes / 219 Hands / +$8.05

10nl 6max / 4 tables / 40 Minutes / 181 Hands / +$3.75

Fun stuff, I definitely had a lot more fun at the 10nl 6max tables. It was FUN to see VPIPs over 40 at every table ... the FR games I played in averaged approximately 17 (not good!). I'm tired of the shortstackers and late night TAG grinders. Just no money in them ever unless you hit a set vs their big pair and that's a real statistical rarety. Floating plays against those TAGs seem to work well most of the time, but outside of that you're not going to make a lot of money against them. The Fri-Sun crowd at FR is plenty juicy and it's easy to isolate the 70/7/1 fish and take their money by getting them in expensively preflop and betting the shit out of them post flop.

Set is a Winner

Fun fun stuff. I can't 3bet the flop because I'm trying to get both these bastards in. I already figure one of these guys is going to commit themselves and I want to make sure it's the deeper stack. Plus I really don't want to scream "yo yo I got the set!" ya know? The raise on the turn completes the plan.

AA Holds Up - Too Big on the Turn?

I stacked him off at the turn and I guess it was just too much on such a coordinated board. I didn't want any flush/straight draws getting that pot without earning it, so it was a two-reasoned bet, first I wanted to price out draws, second I wanted him to commit to the pot with something like KQ. Didn't work.

A Win in the HU Bracket!

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 22, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Today was the start of the Cardschat.com Heads Up Tournament - with a field of an effective 64 and format similar to what you would see during March Madness. As someone who got a middle seed, my first round opponent was a good one - Sindri_93, who has often left comments here at this blog and whom I have chatted with many times. He's a good player, has more experience than me playing HU SNGs (since I have about 9 lifetime plays), and is also a generally all around good guy.

The match was intense and set some sort of duration record - 48 minutes! In the end the blinds got so high it was more about a push'n'pray ... and for most of the time I trailed too. I took a quick big lead and Sindri was just so good grinding me down to take a BIG BIG lead on me ... finally with the blinds high I started pushing with any broadway card and came up on the good side of a few flips. Finally in the end, with a good lead on Sindri, I shoved A7s vs AQo and came out a miracle winner.

I don't think this proved I "outplayed" Sindri at all, and after the match commented that if we played best of three I could easily see him winning both remaining matches. It was a really fun experience, and I was able to use my hand reading skills (and extremely cold cards) to avoid his monsters which he continually seemed to expose, AA KK QQ AK many many times over.

After that I decided to play a quick session of 25nl ... but after a bit realized that my eyes were so tired I really couldn't concentrate, so I shut it down.

Hands: 134
Time: 33 minutes
Result: +$3.35

I was at some juicy tables too, it sucked to leave but I had too - I had put in too much time at the HU match anyways and had to get back to RL stuff. Here's a fun hand I had to laydown and made a spot-on read.

I Can't Remember the Last Time AA Held Up Online!

Napolixx is a 81/5/2 fish, and Dallasmiked is a 56/11/1 fish. Gross stats over ~40ish hands and definitely happy to get my money in with those guys. Flop is just a sick disaster. Two callers at the flop and I know I'm tacos. Fortunately got a check through to the river but it was yet another NASTY card and I see an open shove, an obvious nut-peddler, so I lay my AA down.

Stranger Than Fiction [8 Sessions / 1969 Hands / -$6.45]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 21, 2008 in General | 1 comment

Since my last post I have been playing but haven't really put in any posts because I was honestly tired of updating more than once a day ... I mean, for the dozens that read this regularly that's great but to be honest I have better things to be doing with my time! Anyways, I'll definitely be updating every other day (assuming that I play), so that is where it will stand from now on.

Here's the session breakdown:
8/19 25nl FR 222 Hands -$14.65
8/19 25nl FR 252 Hands +$9.65
8/19 25nl FR 219 Hands +$22.15
8/19 25nl FR 333 Hands -$14.80
8/20 10nl 6max 165 Hands +$4.55
8/20 10nl 6max 79 Hands +$0.55
8/20 10nl 6max 249 Hands +$5.00
8/21 25nl FR 450 Hands -$18.90

The good news is that I am back to feeling very comfortable playing and that I am using some new skills in selection situations (floating). You can't be fancy playing 25nl or 10nl 6max, the players just call you down too much to really go out and perform 2nd and 3rd level poker thinking.

Last night I played a ton of hands (80 minutes, 6 tables) but as usual the late night crowd is the core TAGs and nits and there really isn't any money to be made. During that ~ -$19 session the biggest pot I lost was only $4.50 ... and the biggest pot I won was $4. Since the tables were SO tight I upped my stealing % to more than double (~50%!!) than what it normally is and had success keeping ahead of blind steals and such. But if you don't get action for your hands, you're at the wrong tables, and that's what was happening last night. Really speaks for table selection and usually I leave if I am at a table with a VPIP of 20% or less. Last night I only had 1 table above 20% after constantly jumping around.

Yesterday you'll notice I dabled in 10nl 6max with a fair amount of success. I was able to 4 table this really well, it wasn't easy, but I handled it. The action is quick, the game is a LOT more fun to play, and games are a lot looser. I always imagined making my way to 100nl FR first, then moving to 50nl 6max and getting Stox coaching then. I think I will stick out 25nl FR for the rest of this month with occasional 10nl 6max sessions and then decide at the end of the month what to do next. I posted on Cardschat.com a poll asking people what they think I should do. The results so far (26 votes):

7 Votes: Move to 50nl full ring and keep grinding!
9 Votes: Switch to 25nl 6max and join Stox now and learn/play.
8 Votes: Who the hell is icemonkey9?
2 Votes: It doesn't matter.

What that said here are some of the more interesting hands of the last 2 days ...

QQ Overpair = Crapola

Bit of a cooler here which really accouted for why I had that -$14 session to start off the post. The min-raise with that kind of pot really spells disaster. I think in a later hand someone did the same thing to me when I held aces, but he had check-raised at the turn (which is like basically saying "I HAVE A SET!!!! WOO HOO!!" to me).

Set Pays Off

Usually (well over the last week) I've been raising all pocket pairs when it's folded around to me no matter what. The idea is that even if I hit a set I need to make sure there's enough in the pot to make the flop/turn/river more interesting and juicy. However, I don't make this play with small pocket pairs in EP at 25nl (at 50nl and beyond I will mix up the play between limp and raising) and this time it worked to perfection. My set versus his overs.

AA Flop Laydown ... Good Play?

First - not thrilled with the two callers, you want to be HU with AA to a flop. Second - not happy about the donk bet and I improperly raise it (should have been to $5ish right?) and then I get not only called but raised. The board is so coordinated here it's sick - 789 so anyone that has 78,79,89,77,88,99,6T,TJ has me beat. I really put Pappyro on a set here. Good fold? I don't have stats on either guy unfortunately.