Swing-iest Day Ever (Biggest Pot Won!) [1,043 Hands / +$0.70]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 19, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Yes, what a sick day it was. I won the biggest pot I have ever won in 9 months of playing 25nl (roughly 50k hands) for a whopping $68 (+$42) ... and despite that I broke today even. I had an KK vs AA cooler, and then twice had the 2nd nuts at the flop only to have the same bastard call down and draw out the absolute nuts on the river (and min raised me, which I called).

All in all, I guess I should be happy that today I broke even. My first session was straight up retarded and I made some bad bad moves trying to implement some of the new thinking and more aggressive stealing mechanics that are taught in Ed Miller's videos. Practice makes perfect I suppose!

Anyways I got a ton of FPPs today, and well on my way now to retaining Silverstar status. I also cashed ITM in another 210fpp when my AK first hand tripled up and I folded all the way to the money. Tomorrow I have a couple of exciting things planned poker wise ... I have a sweat session with Zach, and my HU matchup with Canesin. Hopefully I can shake this cold I have tonight and feel a lot better tomorrow so I am in prime physical and mental shape.

And with that, I leave you with the biggest pot I've ever won playing online poker ...

6 tabling 6 max! [1,277 Hands / +$37.85]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 17, 2008 in General | 1 comment

So work didn't go as planned and I ended up having 3 spare hours today. Basically I played before work, during lunch, and just now since I had nothing to do ... I am trying to be conscious of not letting poker interfere with work time.

I tried out adding 1 more table and didn't notice anything so I added 1 more to play 6 tables of 6max and actually really enjoyed it. This was helping me get in more hands, win more, and also get in more FPPs and VPPs since I am behind in retaining my SilverStar status.

Today's stats ...

Hands: 1,277
Money Won: $37.85
bb/100: 5.93

Not bad ... especially considering I felt like I was getting cold cards today and hit a couple of coolers. I finally felt "back in the groove" and was making good 3bet spots and making great float plays against some TAGs. I also watched the first in a series by Ed Miller on "Simple Aggression" which had some good points about stealing from the BTN and CO, in addition on when to double and triple barrel (sadly I didn't put the triple barrel correctly into practice today). To solidify my claim of cold cards, I only saw AA 0.23% of the time (should be double that) and I did not see AKs at all! It also seemed like a good chuck of the time I hit a set (actually this happened 3 out of 10 times) the board was totally monotone (3 to a suit).

Anyways, look at the hands, I looked good and felt good. Let's take a look at a few hands ...

Worst Hand Played of the Day

Ok the villain here is a 60/3/3 fish. We're talking this dude is just in the game here solely because he hit a few lucky rivers. I saw him stack off with mid pair ... and win when he hit trips. So I give him ZERO credit basically for any hand. That pride totally worked against me, but his J9o call OOP was ridiculous but consistant with his style of play. My 3x bet actually was on purpose, I have adjusted that "steal on the btn" play to a slightly smaller bet based on Ed Miller's video. Anyways he flats and I hit TPTK. He donks into me (troubling sign) and I raise him (not enough ... mistake!). He min-raises me and I just flat because at this point I am really clueless. He then bets a weird 45%ish bet on the brick turn ... so I decide to get it in now ... and find out he flopped the nuts.

KK Hand Loses Itself

Here's a hand I think that plays itself. Kudos to the villain here for playing his hand correctly.

AQ Wins ... Apparently Picked off a Bluff

Absolutely the second after I hit the "call" button here I admonished myself for not raising at this spot for a squeeze play. It was a good place to do it, but I flat it and have a ton of outs at the flop with 2 overs and a nut flush draw. I flat the flop bet ... not sure if raising was right there but obviously it's not time to give up. I hit the flush (not the nut flush) and decide to let this fish (84/3/3) to hang himself since raising here accomplishes nothing. At the river I shove, an obvious move, and he lets it go ... maybe think he had something like KJ here and knew he was beat to save his last $6.

Did I say cooler? Whoops, I meant HEATER.

OKAY okay ... I lucked out here. Gross board ... but who gives it up eh? No way I put him on the damn flopped straight. He's a 55/0/.6 after only 11 hands, so no real history. I lucked out ... only had like 10 outs there.

Unsuccessful Return to Poker [363 Hands / -$58.60]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 16, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Well I made some +EV plays and came out on the wrong end a couple of times. There were one or two tough hands (at least in my mind) that also came out with really bad results. That added up to me having to cut my session short due to exceeding my stop-gap negative session limit of -$60. Also I may not get another session in today due to family and work ... so I'll have to stew on this for a while. I'm not really upset ... just disappointed and taking it in stride. Looking back at the hands it looks like I got a bit spewy with my steals and then had a couple of hands that I just made the right play but lost (first two posted).

Lets have a closer look ...

AA Cracked by 2 Outer on River

No other way to play this hand from my perspective. I was a 95-5 favorite when I got all the money in and he hit is two outer.

Great Read = Really Bad Result

Villain here had just take a couple of bad beats and was looking like he was steaming. I really know I am ahead of his range here given the circumstance and his line of 32/23/1. I get my money in as a 60-40 favorite. Not a huge "bad beat" but I felt I made the right play here given his stack size and history.

JJ in a tough hand for me ... played incorrectly?

I 3bet the JJ from the BB and he flats me. One over so I make the cbet, and he does this weird barely min-raise. I think my mistake there was flatting it (shove time? maybe not ...). The A on the turn scares the hell out of me and I shut down and I think he picked up on that. The more I look at the hand and the villain stats of 36/18/1 the more I think he had something like AQs or even KK or AA and had me beat.

Fish eats the Shark?

The villain here is 82/0/.7 over only 11 hands, so no real reads but we know this is the beginning of a real fish line here. I undersized the flop bet ... which I am shaking my head about right now. He calls. He min-raises my turn bet ... I mean really? I was thinking he had something stupid like 43s or A3s or even a set of 6s at this point. I figured maybe floating here could result in something good (stupid). I gave up and on the river he shoves ... I fold ... and he said in the chat box he had A3 of hearts.

Continuing the Good Run [338 Hands / +$43.85] + Mid Month Review

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 11, 2008 in General | 0 comments

The run of playing well continues to pay dividends. I am not allowing stupid hands like my AA cracked by JTo get to me tilting and I focus on just trying to play each hand and each session as best as possible. In these two sessions that encompass the 338 hands for this post, I was down a bit (~$10) at one point on both but played solid and went after the fish at the table with great results. 6max is just so juicy for getting paid off for hands ... so much more than fullring. It's too bad a great player and a good guy like WVHillBilly had such pitiful results, I am sure when he is able to come back to this game he'll dominate it much more so than I am doing.

In terms of overall bankroll, if you add my $33 I have for rakeback that I haven't sold yet, I have 29 buyins for $50nl now. I think what I want to do is go on the cruise, have fun, get back and get cracking on my work projects, and then take some time to get back in the groove of 25nl. So that means I'm not going to 50nl. In fact when I do I won't post about going to 50nl pre-move because that's been the kiss of death so screw that. Also lets not forget that $240 deposit bonus I am finally creeping towards unlocking.

Let's look at some hands ...

AA ... and let me explain the flop ...

OK the villain (43/3/1 total fish) min-raises me here which universally means at this level the idiot hit top pair (which I am happy for). BW07507 suggested something called "mega-clicking" or something to that effect where you just insta-min-raise your idiot opponent who goes into Galaga-mode against you and just keeps clicking the bet/raise button. So I tried it here and he actually insta-flatted me. So I just kept betting figuring him for KQo. QT? I said out loud "wow really?!" when he showed.

92. Wow. Unreal. Hilarious Villain.

I just kept betting people. On the river, the 4 comes which isn't a great card but if he was playing something like 67 or JT then I was safe. I thought he might have something like A8. Anyways I'm ahead of whatever the flying F this guy might be holding at the river (yes you can guess his line .... come on guess it ... yup - 75/2/1 over 50 hands) so I just throw $8 out there. Dude calls. I love it.

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MID MONTH REVIEW

I posted my mid-month review at CardsChat. Please go to the site and read it there by CLICKING HERE.

Gotta Love 6max [533 Hands / -$4.50]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 10, 2008 in General | 1 comment

First I want to comment on something that Zach posted for yesterday's blog ... absolutely I am just going to have fun with poker on the cruise. If I'm playing with drunken flush-miners (yes, they exist) then I'm either going to have a very fun profitable time, or get bounced in disgusting fashion. Since I am more than used to this type of live setting, there's no way I'd let it interfere with my wonderful vacation! So, poker will just be part of the entertainment onboard the ship - but I am looking forward to it quite a bit!

So ... 6max. I love it a lot more than full ring that's for certain. But I am learning to roll with the punches. Today had 2 really bad ugly stack losses from two sessions today ...

44 Hits Set ... runs into bigger flopped set.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play? Just ugly. Had to get my money in here on the flop ... just one of those things. It happens, and of course you've seen me hit trips to take a stack away from AK countless times, so this is bound to happen.

Slowrolling SOB shows the nuts over my flopped middle set

This SOB ... I wish I could set his face on fire with a blowtorch. It's funny because there was a thread on slowrolling on CC and I thought that it must rarely happen. Sure enough on the flop this guy took forever on the flop to call and was giving some speach about "hmm you got a set" and "should I call" then at the end said "I got the nuts sucker!" or something to that effect and showed me his "well played" 57s. It's the kind of crap you can get away with on the internet but will get you stabbed in a parking lot at a live casino. Also on this hand you might wonder with my flopped set why such a weak raise on the flop. The villains in this hand had AF over 15 each and had seen them stack off against light raises on the flop and turn so I was actually trying to induce an all in from one of them.

So after my flopped middle sets equal two stacks gone I fought my way back. After that last hand I almost shut it down to prevent tilting ... but then I saw the other two tables I was at and couldn't believe the goldmine I had stumbled upon ... three fat stack fish at two of the other 3 tables left open. So I stayed, I won, and damn near found myself even.

So the lesson learned here is that by controlling my emotions I put myself in a great place to play solid poker and just make the right plays. Since I was at table with terrible players, I won, and as it turned out (didn't know until the end of the session) ended up down only a little bit.

So, glad I am keeping a fantastic poker attitude and it's helping me win (or not lose). I want to put in two more sessions today and then it's vacation time until the 16th and I will not be online playing since the cruise ship charges a whopping $0.75 per MINUTE to access the internet if you have your own laptop. I'm hoping I can find some hack or something hehehe ... who knows. Anyways, probably one last entry tonight, so I'll see you then.