Poker Blog – icemonkey9 on PokerStars

December 2009 is definitely going to go down as a unique month when everything is said and done and I look back at my last 2 years now playing cash game poker. It’s been filled with emotional lows, frustrating hands and somehow, breakeven results. In terms of “EV” I’m actually running hot. In terms of W$SD (Won Money at Showdown) I’m running incredible cold.

A couple of the major problems I’ve been facing is getting action whenever I have a hand. It’s just been uncanny but I have yet to get AA or KK all in preflop yet all month long (note: 5 walks in the BB with AA). My W$SD number is below 47% and the worst month I ever had it was 51% historically. I feel like I have been playing better and the coaching is getting me in good places in terms of my Poker-IQ. Unfortunately I’ll have a horrible session and get very discouraged and just wonder what to do with myself.

It’s sad to think that just looking at 10k hands played is getting me depressed and frustrated, but it’s been a real tough year that hasn’t even come close to being half of what I had hoped it would be. That is speaking in terms of climbing the cash game ladder, profits or just a general sense of stability and future in the industry as a whole.

I put a question to myself, naturally after my disastrous session this morning – Where will I be in 1 year’s time with poker?

Since I am a betting man I have to say the odds of me sticking with it and playing through and climbing the ladder and showing profits and having poker even be clear and legal a year from now are definitely less than 50-50. Those are a lot of factors at work stated in that guess and some of them are things I have absolutely no control over.

I guess this is the premature “2009 sucked all the way around” in terms of playing poker. Many people have said the emotional lows of the game will never equal out with the emotional highs. I can attest all to well that this is true. There’s a lot of “hey we all run bad / we all face ridiculous downswings / we’re all facing the same legal environment” that I hear when I tell people how I feel about the game and my place in 2009. It’s not to say it’s all been bad luck, my game has regressed in places and I’ve definitely made my share of bonehead mistakes. I’m not standing on some mountain claiming I’m the world’s most shit-lucked player … far from it my friends. But more than anything I wish I could fight through the terror and soul-gashing disappointment of sessions where playing right comes out sooooo wrong.

Well … that’s it for today’s vent. Sorry I have yet to write about the day where I win 7 buy-ins and just crush the world, but that’s never happened to me. I’ll leave you with some hands and my comments after looking at them.

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Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players – View hand 441527
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $33.00
BTN: $205.60
SB: $24.95
Hero (BB): $100.00
UTG: $22.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with J J
2 folds, BTN calls $1, SB calls $0.50, Hero raises to $5, BTN calls $4, 1 fold

Flop: ($11.00) 4 3 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $7, BTN calls $7

Turn: ($25.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $18, BTN calls $18

River: ($61.00) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $35, BTN raises to $166, Hero calls $35 all in

Final Pot: $201.00
BTN shows 5 6 (a straight, Seven high)
Hero mucks J J
BTN wins $198.00

Thoughts: The button is a 21/6 player who looked pretty fishy. I absolutely hate my best sizing on the flop and turn. Should have potted both streets and looked to get it in at the turn. Does this guy ever muck his draw? No. Is he bad enough to where he just flats and doesn’t raise at the turn hoping to hit? Yes. Did I make a severe mistake at the river by both betting and calling his river value raise? OMG yes. This hand was by far the worst one I’ve played all month long.

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Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players – View hand 441529
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $154.60
Hero (BB): $119.20
UTG: $136.05
CO: $100.00
BTN: $106.20

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A A
1 fold, CO raises to $3.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $11, CO calls $7.50

Flop: ($22.50) 6 T 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $14, CO raises to $33, Hero raises to $108.20 all in, CO calls $56 all in

Turn: ($200.50) 9 (2 players – 2 are all in)

River: ($200.50) J (2 players – 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $200.50
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
CO shows T T (three of a kind, Tens)
CO wins $197.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Thoughts: The villain here calls a 3bet in position with TT basically hoping that all unders flop OR he hits a set. He’s getting near perfect odds to simply set-mine hoping that I have AA or KK and would be willing to get it in. He raises Cbets 20% of the time but I didn’t have a stat on him for this situation in 3bet pots. Well, the one time all month I’ve gotten action on Aces, they’re busted.

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Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players – View hand 441534
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $40.50
MP: $154.30
Hero (CO): $118.00
BTN: $100.00
SB: $179.50
BB: $105.95

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A Q
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, Hero raises to $4.50, 3 folds, UTG calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.50) 5 Q K (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($10.50) 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: ($10.50) 3 (2 players)
UTG bets $5, Hero calls $5

Final Pot: $20.50
UTG shows Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Fives)
Hero mucks A Q
UTG wins $19.50
(Rake: $1.00)

Thoughts: Playing bad here saved me money. I have no clue why I didn’t bet the turn. None. The cbet at the flop … well there are a few cases for checking or cbetting against a 35/4 player. Anyways, I think this was kept to a minimum but it’s a good example of the type of hands people show me when we flip the cards for a pot.

Well, I think I’m playing well … at least I am identifying situations a lot better, making better laydowns and betting for value with a much better purpose than before.  There are a lot of fundamentals that I’ve worked on and I’m really not reading into results.  Well, that is until my last two sessions because there were some kinda weird hands that actually had me lol and says “wow really??” … so for some interesting tid-bits:

Hands: 685
Result: -1 buy-in
W$SD%: 35%

I was chatting with CaseAce48 on AIM and explaining that I usually do fantastic against the regs and the fish just always somehow pull “one pip higher” on the hand chart right out of their asses.  I think my sample size here is *clearly* very small but I was curious to see what happend.  Something felt off and I wanted to know why, so I did some digging.  Here are some hands …

• Fish shows AK on a 5JAT2 board … I have AQ
• 4 bet four times in 200 hands from people that never 4bet (different tables)
• TT < JJ as well as TT < QQ in pots where villain flatted behind my raise and check-called to the river when we *both* have overpairs to the board
• AQ < AK vs SSer who goes nuts on the blinds
• AJ < AK on a AT594 board where he check-calls to the river

Strange stuff.  I think the biggest pot I’ve lost in these two sessions was only $60 which might explain why I’m just down the one buy-in, which to be honest, I didn’t even know I was down until I looked.

Anyways … what I was hoping to do is find out what was going on because in the back of my head it felt like “wow gee are my reads off, why am I paying these guys off all of a sudden” but I don’t think the problem is that bad.  Something to think about though when the month is through and I do my end-of-month DB analysis for myself, which is why I am writing about it here.

And now … my favorite hand … not complaining but an eye-roller nonetheless …

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players – View hand 437596
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $100.00
Hero (BB): $123.15
UTG: $101.05
MP: $141.10
CO: $108.15
BTN: $33.70

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with Q Q
UTG calls $1, MP calls $1, 1 fold, BTN calls $1, SB calls $0.50, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, BTN calls $7, 1 fold

Flop: ($19.00) 9 A Q (2 players)
Hero bets $26, BTN calls $25.70 all in

Turn: ($70.40) 7 (2 players – 1 is all in)

River: ($70.40) K (2 players – 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $70.40
Hero shows Q Q (three of a kind, Queens)
BTN shows 3 A (a flush, Ace high)
BTN wins $67.40
(Rake: $3.00)

I ended up playing in a  bunch of tournaments yesterday, which means for me five.  That is seriously a month’s worth of tournament play for me wrapped up into one giant ball of a day.  I don’t even remember all the ones I played in and the only one you are going to care about is the MiniFTOPS Main Event.  I bought in for Full Tilt Points so it was a bit of a freeroll, but as a reader did mention in my previous post some of the buy-in will be deducted from my rakeback.  Just lovely.

I cashed in one of the five tournaments I played in, a “lol” $11 SNG.  That covered the buy-in for that one plus one of the $5 buy-ins I entered.  I know, big spender.  Anyways thoughts of the MiniFTOPS Main Event:

• It was a lot of fun playing in a “main event” tournament and being so deep
• Had a real good run early and was up to 35,000 in chips after the third break
• Went card dead for a while before losing a few pots
• Busted in 2,400ish place out of 15,000
• $0

Anyways, just reinforces the fact that tournaments are just a collosal waste of time for a cash game player.  Did I have fun? Absolutely.  Do I regret buying in? No way.

As a few loyal readers will know I started getting coaching from a friend who is now an instructor at Stox by the name of “Clean” who is really getting me to think properly about poker and 6max play.  I don’t want to harp on the results because that’s not what he has me focusing on – just the fundamentals of solid play and theory.  I definitely feel more focused and feel more confident in what I am trying to accomplish during a given hand during a session.

So, that basically has meant that 100n 6max has gone real well for the most part.  For the results people (typically me haha) I’ve just been killing the regs and running into the fish who have “one pip better” hands at the river.  It would be real frustrating if I let it tilt me but so far I’ve just gone back and analyzed my play and looked for mistakes.

The goal for me as a poker player is to really be comfortable over a good stretch of hands (30-50k) at 100nl and make sure I really know what I’m doing.  At that point I’ll finally take a stab at 200nl games when they are juicy and just focus on playing the same game I’ve been playing and not overcompensate.

In terms of my poker writing things are going really well.  I’m really enjoying the articles I am writing for Poker Table Ratings and for the most part they have been really well received by the site’s fickle crowd.  I have some really great things coming up for Poker Software and Mac Poker which are great sites if you haven’t already bookmarked them.

It’s Christmas on Friday, so for you Christians that practice your belief, have a very Merry Christmas!  My apologies for not wishing those of the Jewish faith a Happy Hanukkah previously, but accept it here.

Take care, and goooooo San Diego SUPER Chargers!!!

Bye Shorty, It’s Not Your Birthday!

If you didn’t catch the news on the TwoPlusTwo forums, the official guy from Full Tilt Poker (FTPDoug) posted today that a major update didn’t get released.  Kinda sucks but we finally know what the major update will have in store for us rounders.  The good news was in this statement:

“To answer the most commonly asked question: we *are* going to raise the minimum buy-in on standard (no icon) tables. That’s not all we’re going to do, but that’s the biggest change. And that’s all I can say about that until the update.”

I couldn’t be happier.  Although the 6max games aren’t as bad off as the Full Ringers have it, this is great news for those of us that like to play regular stack poker.  My main problem with the shorties isn’t that they play push/shove using their mathematical edge (range + FE) at the table, it’s the ratholing.  What that means is that they win a pot (or a stack) and insta-leave and play at another table doing the same exact thing.  It’s absolutely excrutiating and it’s been getting worse and worse at Full Tilt in 2009.  This update will put an end to that, meaning the uber-fish will not be getting pinged off by these guys and good solid “real” poker can be played.  As you can tell, I’m rather excited about the news.

Overclocking My New PC Rig

An online friend of mine, known around forums as “Stu_Ungar” is a bigger computer geek than I am which is really kind of creepy and sad.  Moving on from that fact, he’s been bugging me to try my hand at overclocking my CPU since I have this sexy new motherboard.  I have an Intel Quad Core Q6600 chip, meaning it runs at 2.4GHz.  Well, after some serious issues/headaches/hassle and some help from Stu and the guys at Overclock.net, I actually was able to pull off the overclocking.  Since I have really good air flow, case fans and a solid CPU Heatsink + Fan, I actually pushed my 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz!!  Tremendous results as far as I am concerned and tonight I’ll be putting it through the stress test.  Others have reported results far better than mine but I’m really just not willing to “push it to the max” and am really happy about this whole experiment so far.

Pokering?

Poker is going well, thanks to a recent nice run the last few days that saw my -4 Buyin EV for the month even out almost exactly.  I not only recovered from the worst-day-ever but am in the green for the month.  I hope to keep that up certainly, it would feel great putting in one last super-solid month of poker skill/fundamentally for 2009 and if the results follow, then GREAT.

If you are curious about how to win your share of $600,000 in real money by not paying anything and participating in free poker, read on.  You’ll be reading about how I’m planning to win it all and pay nothing down.

There is a point to the whole post though and that has to do with the MiniFTOPS tournaments running at Full Tilt Poker right now.  See, I’m actually going to have a Sunday afternoon completely free for the first time … well … probably in all of 2009.  The good news for me is that this is the same day that the MiniFTOPS Main Event $50+$5 No Limit Texas Holdem tournament will take place.  It should attract well over 15,000 participants which would eclipse the guaranteed prize pool of $600,000.  I’ve never played in a Sunday major tournament which usually costs $215 to enter.  I don’t fare well in tournaments and don’t play particularly awesome in them either which is a pretty bad combination.

The good news is that thanks to me grinding it out at the tables this month, I’m actually going to buy in completely free.  Yes, you read that right, I’m going to play for my share of $600,000 completely free without having to pay a single nickel.  The catch is that I can buy in to the event for 11,000 Full Tilt Points which I have been saving since the dawn of time apparently.  Now, you can spend these points in the store for things like apparel or electronics.  For example for 10k-12k Full Tilt Points you can buy:

• V-Neck Windshirt
• Velour Bathrobe
• HP Thin USB Powered Speakers
• Wine accessory kit
• Professional Pool Cue
• Doormat
• Garmet Bag
• Checkpoint Friendly Compu-Brief

I have plenty of t-shirts, I can’t imagine myself sporting a velour bathrobe (thank you Zapp Brannigan), I don’t need speakers, I don’t drink wine, I don’t play billiards, I already have a doormat and I got a garmet bag.  The checkpoint friendly brief thing might be handy, one day.  But not today.

So, I’ve deemed it a-okay to spend these points to enter a tournament where I hope to play and run well, but expect to bust out slightly short of the money having wasted hours of poker on nothing.  Such is the poker life, but hey, you never know maybe it’s finally time I made a great run in an online poker tournament after all these years.

By the way, the title might be a tad general but I’m testing something out with the title and tags and content.  I’ll report back my findings to see if Online Free Poker did what I think it was going to do.

I recently spent a day with the guys in La Jolla at their house which was an absolute blast.  On hand were BW, Zach, Derek, FantasticCow, ChiacgoJoey and Dashornman and the energy level went up by about 8 notches once Joey showed up.  That kid has the perpetual energy of a six year old after eating a bag of Halloween candy.  After a spirited ping pong tournament (Icemonkey 3, ChiacgoJoey 0) we headed over to Seau’s Restaurant.

Eating with 6 poker players is always an entertaining activity.  Derek, who is from Milwaukee, had never tried Sushi so Cow ordered him some California Rolls, which are not raw fish but avocado and crab wrapped in rice (good stuff).  He liked the rolls but then I introduced him to Wasabe which is a highly spicy green substance meant to be used in pea-sized portions. Well, it wasn’t too soon that a prop bet came in from Cow for $10 for Derek to eat the whole thing at once.  Derek said $100 and after some negotiating, the bet was settled at $75. All I can say is Derek downed the thing and then looked like he was going to die.  He drank his entire Coke and then pushed me aside to grab my water and drank that and proclaimed that bet to not even be close  to worth the $75 he won.

At the end of the dinner we had a $190 bill and it was time to play everyone’s favorite game show, Credit Card Roulette (CCR).  It came down to me, Joey and Zach.  Everyone was screaming and rooting, and fortunately for me my card was the next one picked.  It was down to Joey (who had just won a $32,000 prop bet) and Zach and gg but thanks for the dinner Zach!

After dinner the plan was to do a “LOCKDOWN!” but after 2 hours of watching beer pong with the guys there really wasn’t much enthusiasm for the whole deal. When I did start playing … well … let’s just say I had my worst day ever.  We’re talking EVER.  It may not be in comparison with some other guys and their worst days, but experiencing this was one of THE most disheartening things I’ve ever felt.  Hands that made this happen include:

• QQ vs KK (against a LAG fish)
• Trip Aces + Nut Flush draw losing to boat
• 2nd nut flush vs nut flush
• Two lost big flips
• KK vs AA (BB vs SB)

The sheer magnitude of what losing 5.5 buyins means to me is definitely stronger than what it does to anyone (well, 99%) of people I know that play poker at these stakes.  I can count with my nutstack how many other people I know that play online poker that also have a Bachelor’s Degree, which allowed them to get a job to make a decent wage to understand how hard you have to work for decent money to come in.  If you’re a 22 year old living with your mom and dad and have graduated high school without holding a career job or college program down, I just can’t imagine in most circumstances the same appreciation of an income for someone that works for a living.  Thus, I really have to not think about the money I play for as money and more as a “computer game score” that doesn’t have the same meaning.

Anyways, a few friends were very kind and I think after sleeping on it I was able to shake it off fine.  The coaching with ChuckTs has been going real well.  The first two sessions, to be completely honest, I wasn’t sure if it was going well or if I really was learning anything.  But then after our third session which was a sweat, things really clicked after watching the session over again (I recorded it with Camtasia).  I really felt myself slow down, pay attention and think about the things ChuckTs has begged me to work on.  I just felt something click and I think that’s a real good thing.  It’ll take a while to actually assess if that happens but there’s no reason not to enjoy a positive feeling (while not allowing to read into it too much).

So that’s about it for now.  I’ll be playing, grinding, studying and watching.  Hope your poker month is going well readers!

If you aren’t familiar with the term “Sister Kisser” then look it up because I don’t have the time to deal with your ignorance.  Sorry for being curt, but that’s the way it is these days.

As part of me wanting to play 6max full time and be awesome at it, I’ve had the help of Stox Poker coach Clean (aka ChuckTs, aka Taylor, aka etc etc).  We did a hand history review of all my hands at 6max where I nitted it up and won really well.  He had advice to open up my game to a more reasonable range, be a lot more positionally aware and go from there.  Unfortunately, it really didn’t go well results wise and I ended up losing 2 buy-ins over the 10k hands.  I’m sure there was a ton of spots where I biffed post-flop play to a great degree.  Looking back though it was kinda crazy how often guys would show up with AA when I had KK or had KK when I had QQ, or hit some sort of miracle gin card at the river and have me pay them off with something like the 2nd nuts.  I’m sure there are lot of holes in there that Clean will find, but after 10k hands I am honestly so sick of 50nl 6max I just never want to see that place again.  I was playing that level (which is a full level where I normally play) because I didn’t want the transition to be so rough as to really discourage me.

I’ll be curious to see what he comes up with and what I do in the meantime while I await his instruction.  For now I’ll be making a visit to the guys in La Jolla this week which I am excited about and I’m hoping that’s a fun experience as it was last time.  The MiniFTOPS is running this week and I promised myself I’d waste my time in some of those tournaments so look for me in Event 1 at the least.

The poker article stuff continues to go well and I’m real happy I’ve been able to get in more business.  There’s a bigger picture for me that I have in mind and I’m working on making that happen.  It’s easy to get real excited but I’m taking deliberate steps and doing my homework before making promises or reaching for the sky.

I haven’t really been following how friends are doing at the online games but from what I know the only one really doing well in December is BW07507.  I promised I wouldn’t discuss his secret to his sick run in December but it’s an interesting theory he has working.

So that wraps up things for now.  I’m hoping things go well and I can play some this week during rare spots of free time and actually enjoy the poker experience as it’s been a while since I’ve had sustained fun over a period playing.

Well, it was inevitable that a return to the tables would mean a return to my usual state of wondering why I bother playing.  I played about 600 hands today and dropped a decent amount of coin unfortunately.  Here’s the lowlights:

Flop a Boat, Lose a Stack!

What more can you really say? I mean, nothing I could do here.

Aces in a 3bet Pot = Garbage

I guess the flop shove was stupid. He’s calling my PF read of AK there or really any Kx hand, or even QQ or JJ thinking my shove might be blind bluff aggression. Didn’t really work out for me did it?

Kings ain’t better with no 6max love

Put in a session at 50nl 6max … that didn’t go well. This guy hits a 2 outer on the river. Hip hip hooray.

I know, I know.  I haven’t blogged in forever, posted any hands or results or blown up about my latest string of misfortune at the virtual tables.  It’s been a long 6 weeks but my schedule is finally freeing up and I’m getting back into the mode of writing, thinking and playing poker.

I have a ton of things to do today but I really wanted to update the blog so I’ll just do a quick bullet point of what’s new.

• Getting coaching from Stox Poker coach “Clean” and as you might remember, he’s an old friend.
• Going to be hanging out with some poker friends in La Jolla next week, so that should be fun. I had a pretty good time last visit.  Expect pictures.
• Picked up another site I’ll be writing for in PokerTableRatings.com … fun site to be writing for and excited I’ve got more work within the industry.
• Actually played poker, playing 50nl 6max and 100nl Full Ring to shake off the rust. I was playing breakeven, right up until I enjoyed a KK<AA AIPF at 100nl. After losing more than 120BB on the hand, the 25/10 donk typed in, “SRY DONK!” and then rat-holed right off the table. Classy!
• I’m really excited for a new podcast I’m doing for PokerSoftware. The first one (if approved, the entire project is a pilot episode at this point) should hit the site next week.  If it doesn’t, you’ll know it sucked and you wouldn’t have wanted to hear it anyways.
• Very happy that the UIGEA has been delayed 6 months, but a little disappointed how Barney Frank’s meeting went on the 3rd.
• Shocked the hotel at The Horseshoe is closing down, but understandable given how few people head to Vegas these days.