Poker Blog – icemonkey9 on PokerStars

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 the full ring grind wasn’t going so well, meaning that I wasn’t winning my normal 5BB/100 and was playing below EV … so a friend of mine is singing the praises of 100nl 6max and how it’s just uber-fishy and like printing money.  I say ya what the heck time I played 6max anyways.  I sit down for 30 minutes, go completely card dead and walk away +$61.  That felt good!

So tonight the wife goes to bed early and I am up thanks to a huge sized iced White Chocolate coffee freeze thing I had at the mall.  I decided ya it’s time to play more 6max so I fire up four tables. Early on I am against a 57/43/inf fish with a 36% 3bet figure over a very small amount of hands.

$0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players -

Hero (BB): $142.00

UTG: $95.95

CO: $100.00

BTN: $103.50

SB: $156.55

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with Q Q

UTG raises to $3.50, 3 folds, Hero raises to $13, UTG raises to $95.95 all in, Hero calls $82.95

Flop: ($192.40) A 4 4

Turn: ($192.40) 2

River: ($192.40) 5

Final Pot: $192.40

Hero shows Q Q (two pair, Queens and Fours)

UTG shows J A (two pair, Aces and Fours)

UTG wins $189.40

——————————-

So I lose as the 72-28% favorite and that stung. Of course, as is the usual, he left the table after winning the hand.

So times goes on and I make a raise with AK and the guy in the big blind is a 29/27/inf with a 20% 3bet figure when facing a raise from the CO or BTN.

$0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players -

MP: $133.40

Hero (CO): $125.25

BTN: $176.55

SB: $100.00

BB: $110.10

UTG: $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with K A

2 folds, Hero raises to $3.50, 2 folds, BB raises to $11, Hero raises to $26, BB requests TIME, BB raises to $110.10 all in, Hero calls $84.10

Flop: ($220.70) 3 3 T

Turn: ($220.70) 5

River: ($220.70) T

Final Pot: $220.70

Hero shows K A (two pair, Tens and Threes)

BB shows A A (two pair, Aces and Tens)

BB wins $217.70

——————————-

Not sure if this hand was a fold here but I’d seen him be pretty agro in the big blind. In retrospect this might have been a fold. I’m posting this very close to when I played it so hindsight is always 20/20.

Ah well … there are others to share but what’s the point. Fortunately I am still up this month but *barely* and all my losses are at 6max, where I am now several buy-ins below EV.

If i play more 6max maybe I’ll finally re-establish some of my coaching sessions with Taylor, who is now a Stox coach.  That’s probably the smart move.

Random Thoughts

• I’m tired and am ready to go to bed.
• I have a lot to do in terms of writing tomorrow.
• Not sure if I will continue any more 6max ever again but I really enjoy the game more than FR but the results speak for themselves historically.
• Really looking forward to PT3 for the Mac.  Couple that with BlazingStars (AHK type of program) and you have something to be excited about.
• Had a great interview about HUDs with DiscoBisco from 2p2 and it’s going to make a great article for micro-stakes players to read.
• Started watching the reloaded new version of Battlestar Galatica on DVD.  Many people recommended it to me but I just never caught it while it was on TV.  Boy did I miss the boat, this show is pretty amazing.  My wife and I finished the first season and I decided to just buy the whole series on BluRay.  I *never* buy movies or TV shows so that should speak volumes about what I think of the value of this show.
• Good poker blogs are dead.  Seriously.  I used to enjoy reading these two years ago but these days it’s really hard to find any worth reading that add any entertainment value or education to the content.
• Anyone else excited about “Flash Forward” on ABC?  Looks cool.
• Fringe is a very underrated show and is a nice refresh of the X-Files concept.
• I am so beyond sick of the music in my digital library.  It seems like when I run bad, music gets shittier.
• NHL 10 comes out next week and I’m picking it up for PS3.  I didn’t buy last year’s edition because it didn’t seem to be anything different than 08.
• I am happy that the NFL season is finally underway, and the 13-10 snoozer with the Steelers and Titans was a boring way to kick off the season.  Ya ya, I am sure all the Pittsburgh fans are stoked about the clutch and exciting OT win … the rest of us kept waiting for touchdowns all game long thank you.
• Did I mention I was really tired?

Unfortunately this is another sucky post in terms of “how I am doing at the NLHE tables” for recent play. The results at the tables have been horrendous and I think I’m more upset about realizing how tightly wound up I am and how tilted I am playing at the NLHE tables these days. Hit a string of coolers + cold cards = weak passive play tilt-a-thon. I’m spewing now, so I know it’s time to quit playing Hold’em for a while. The thought of looking at HEM right now makes me sick. The good news is that before things got really ugly, I got myself away and did a nice good honest reflection of how things were going. These periods of tilt/bad-play come up for all players and the best possible way to approach it is to calm down, assess what’s going on and then take appropriate patient action.

I wish I could say it’s a string of horrible beats but the last few days has been plainly bad play. A good friend and math genius, C9, was really cool enough to do a video, where the tough love came out and really exposed my “confidence-tilt” for what it is right now. I’m doing just the most random stuff like turn and river betting ridiculously small, and slow playing marginal hands at the flop. It’s like I decided to abandon the game I was playing last month and play terrible poker this month.

So, I’m down, it sucks more because it’s not bad beats but bad play this time – it just hurts so much more when you lose because you’re BAD at poker lol. Doesn’t feel good to admit it either. In the meantime I’m finishing up an investigation into a story to see if some of the major poker rooms have actually lost their means to have funds available for players. I’m actually pretty concerned about two sites in particular but I don’t want to post anything because nothing is concrete. However the fact that none of the major rooms will go on record or make any announcements is *very* troubling in my mind. Can’t reveal too much but the truth is coming…

On Sunday morning my wife and I set sail on the beautiful Fun Cruise Ship “Elation” on Carnival Cruises out of San Diego. The cruise was 4 nights and was absolutely awesome. We got a helluva deal because we got a “crappy” room that didn’t have a window, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the room was conveniently located in the middle of the ship, and totally dark when the lights were out. Because of this dark environment, I never slept better! I also didn’t get a claustrophobic feeling because the room was treated with a “fake window” so you still got the sense it wasn’t like being stuck in a box.

I know, I know – get to the poker content already! Well, on this cruise ship they have a PokerPro Texas Hold’em poker table which I wrote about originally when we took this same cruise (different destination) in September. Overall it beat not having any poker table, but the poker being played was nothing short of horrible. This time around, I actually ran into people who had played poker before and they got their own side game going in the library using the casino chips and we played a 1-1 blind NL game with no rake. It was a friendly game and a lot of fun and I came away +$20 so that was cool.

The next day I ended up being super bored since my wife was layout out in the sun, so I sat down at the PokerPro table and waited about … 45 minutes to see my first hand over Jx+. I realized that every time I sat at this table I was quiet, patient and extremely bored. In the typical homegame I’m usually the guy that’s the “party animal” who talks a lot which actually gets me “friendly action” consistently when I have a big hand. So I decided to change my approach, to start kidding around and having fun, and man that certainly paid off. First, I started having fun. Then, when I did have a hand, the table felt like puddy in grasp. I played for about 1.5 hours and left up about +$100. Not bad considering the $7/hand rape (I mean RAKE). My favorite hand was the time (I had folded preflop) when there was $115 in the pot, someone when in for their last $20, and the villain with $6 behind folds “because it was just too much” at which point I practically shit myself at hearing such “sound poker” theory.

The next night my wife decided that a great way to wrap up our trip was to play poker together (after some serious partying at the jazz lounge’s funk-soul live band concert). So of course, we sit down with 4 of the drunkest bastards I’ve ever played poker with and all were either in the military or were in active service. This means they were either bragging, fighting or drinking unfortunately. I had a bad feeling but my wife wanted to play (this is a VERY rare thing!) so we played.

For both my wife and I we folded a lot because we both noticed nobody folded ever. We’re talking $25 preflop open raises at the $1-$2 table being called by at least 2 people. Craziness right? So I get dealt AQo and make a raise on the button and get two callers, pot is $20. Check-check to me, and I bet $15 and it’s called by the small blind on a A-T-5 rainbow flop. Turn is a 9 of hearts for two-toned board and it’s checked and I bet $30 and he flats. The river is a Q of hearts and the small blind open shoves for his remaining $40. WTF, seriously. Sickest card right? I hit top two pair at the river, but did this drunk idiot really catch runner-runner flush? He’s shown down with mid pair. I have to call. I call. He shows 85 of hearts. Unreal.

I promptly steam. My eyes burn. I imagine him spontaneously combusting into flame. I do my best to sound probing and not pissy in asking him “I bet $15 on that flop and you called with bottom pair, how come?” and he says “Oh not sure, I’m kinda drunk. I guess that was stupid looking at it now.” I nod, smile, and remember what Annie Duke said about playing with someone like this – just make them feel happy and comfortable in the game. Eventually, you’ll get their money.

Fortunately I stuck around and promptly both my wife and I went on sick runs against our opponents. Long story short she shortstacked into the game for $50 and left with $145 and I not only won my stack back but left with about $40 more. All in all poker profited our little duo around $240 on the trip and ended up paying for all our excursion trips, tips, fees, shopping, drinks and more and we even had a little cash leftover.

Man I love poker

After doing a lot of calculations in the last post and then dipping my toe in the waters of another poker room, i’ve all but decided to move away from PokerStars.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best poker room out there in a general sense.  It’s just for my amount of play and at my level, it doesn’t make any sense to play against decent regulars while earning 12% rakeback return when I could be playing against below average regulars while earning ~40% rakeback return (MGR rakeback + bonuses).

Of course, moving to the new site was fun, I won a bit so as an underrolled person I decided to step up to 50nl and promptly got my tail whipped by a slew of sick beats including a couple of AIPFs with QQ and running into AA both times.

That led me to look at QQ this month because it had seemed that I had been running into KK or AA a *ridiculous* amount of times with that hand.

The math shows that I’ve had QQ an appropriate 0.55% of the time, and when I have QQ I have run into AA or KK a whopping 18% of the time.  At 6max, that’s just more than triple what it should be, but my math is real sketchy so I might look into it.  However, I’m probably better off ignoring that for good mental health.

So, I’m going to quit playing at the new site until I transfer more money over there to be at least remotely appropraitely rolled for the levels I will play at.  In the meantime I will stick it out at Stars and play there. I don’t know if I’ll even make GoldStar this month, that’s how little I’ve been playing.  June promises to be a much more normalized month so we’ll see how that goes.  Of course, I have to leave you with one of my shitty hands from my new site

I have a prop bet going with Tygran over at Cardschat that either he or me will hit platinum. The idea was to motivate us to put in the hands to achieve this VIP level. Unfortunately for both of us, poker took a very nasty turn. At one point I was down about -$650 for the month, then things went well and I was +$300 for the month … then this weekend happened. Saturday went poor, got coolered a bit and didn’t get good action. Sunday went okay, broke even in 2k hands despite hitting, get this, one set all day.

Then the bottom fell out today and I hit the rare 5 buy-in stop loss. That’s right, -$500. For some of you, that’s a drop in the bucket. Yay for you lol … but for me it’s a stop loss and with the swinginess of 6max that’s the breaks. The good news is that I don’t think my game is horrible, I think there were some spots where I got my money in good and just came out horrible, From today:

• QJ with two pair loses at the river to straight.
• AJ for top pair in 3bet pot when villain had better (made what I think was a good fold, ChuckTs seems to agree from the HA thread.
• AT in bad cbet spot in 3bet pot, made the cbet and gave up when villain stacked.
• 33 for a flopped set to a flush on monotone board. Villain was a 40/5/2 type, I had outs to the boat and didn’t hit.
• QJ for top pair + flush draw to TPTK (AQ) with no draw as we both got it in at the flop.
• KK deep all in preflop vs AK and vs 47s and the AK hit 4 to a flush.

Anyways, I think it was WV that asked me why I am learning 6max at 100nl, but I feel with the 25k hands at 25nl, and I think 15-20k of hands at 50nl 6max I have adequate knowledge. I’ll leave it to the coach once we get started but even with all this bullcrap I still have 50 buy-ins in the bankroll. If the coach says I’m in over my head, I can live with that.

So the platinum run might end at 6,424 VPPs, almost 1k VPPs short of the goal. So close, yet so far. Obviously when I have such a disastrous weekend I have to examine my mental state and my game to see if anything has sprung loose. I feel terrible asking help from friends since I just asked for help recently, kind of like that miserable friend you have who is constantly down on his luck. It’s a very isolating feeling.

Anyways, wish I posted more when things are going well lol … but part of this blog’s purpose is to “get out the emotion via written word” and the good news is that I’m not ready to kill people left and right tilt-wise and recovered well after pretty much being at that point earlier in the day with the KK hand.

So if you’ve made it this far, thanks a ton for reading, I know these posts aren’t a lot of fun. Hopefully as I learn and discuss strategy I can post my thoughts and situations, which should be helpful and constructive for all!

This weekend really represents the first time I’ve ever played 100nl 6max on both Saturday and Sunday for 4+ hours each day.  I got in a good amount of hands today, and the good positive news in all this is that I’m not discouraged or tilted.  I did make one tough call at the river that was in retrospect a bad call, but other than that it was just “one of those days” where the villain shot ahead at the river constantly.  This hand was the “worst beat of the day” which is just ugly:

Just gross, but I got my money in good.  Normally I would have just raised again preflop but against the squeezer I’m trying to get action and a raise here totally announces I have KK or AA in this spot against these players.  What I hoped for was someone with a lesser hand like TPTK while I had overpairs would stack (which happened) and take it down … but I lose the 88-22% situation which will happen.

The rest of the day saw some bad river situations where villains hit their gin card, or more tragically, I’d hit a big river only to find out I was way behind.

• I rivered a straight … whoops he flopped and slow played a boat.
• AK suited gets it in as nut flush draw + overs, hits A on river, he had flopped a set.
• AK hits TPTK on river (all rag board) he hit set on turn (which he flatted).
• AA < KT , kinda gross.
• AK loses coinflip AIPF vs QQ (fair enough).
• AKs < AJo AIPF vs loose mid-stacked fish.
• K3 in steal spot on BTN hits 2 pair, villain calls to river with top pair, river pairs board, his two pair wins.

So, those were situations where things just didn’t go my way, and most of the time I got out of the situation losing a $35-$50 pot which is better than losing $100 pots I suppose.  Looking back at the hands, AA just got no action today (nothing new there) except for the one bad beat, and I hit sets at 7% which usually doesn’t help (although they haven’t held all month!).

Anyways, probably calling it a day and hope to come back tomorrow ready to rock n roll at the tables and “get in on that Sunday juice” as someone put it.  Like I mentioned before, I feel fine, where before if I looked at the results say at the beginning of the month I’d be bitching/tilting/quitting big time.  I just had an unfortunate day, it’ll happen, and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.  See you then.

I’m not sure what the hell European Spa Music exactly is, but I sure know I really like it.  I mentioned in the last entry that I was listening to this tranquil music and I really like how it calms my mood and allows me to focus on the flowing nature of playing through a session without getting swept away in the rollercoaster of emotion that each hand has the potential to bring.  I’ve listened to my wife’s European Spa Music CD about 7 times and finally decided to look into some more, and found some songs for $0.99 on Amazon (each song is like 20 minutes) that weren’t “up to par” with the original CD but decent in its own right.  Anyways, I am highly recommending to you tilters out there (that means everyone) to look into meditation type music during your gameplay and try it out. I love it.

I have been enjoying my approach and had a very insightful discussion about some serious poker theory with ChuckTs.  To be frank, I’ve never really had such an in-depth poker discussion before and realize I have to exert more mental fortitude to take my game to the level I want it to be.  Fortunately, I am pretty sure I have the capacity, and am  trying to soak in a lot of great knowledge.  I am finding that turn/river value plays are really a big part of what I need improving on and a few adjustments in the last few days has meant some better played hands.

I really don’t want to get attached too much to goals, since my only goal is to play each hand to the best of my ability, but I am finding myself very compelled to reach Platinum Star.  I’ve wanted to hit it for 4 months but fortunately didn’t force the goal on myself during my bad stretch.  It looks like it’ll be close, but given the free time coming up this weekend it just might happen.

I hadn’t realized that the blog had gone so many days without being updated.  I’m a blog freak obviously and update my blog more than any other poker-player blog that I know of.  I think I enjoy expressing myself via the written word and like to look back at my feelings throughout the month so it’s both therapudic and construtive most of the time.

As the title implies, I’ve moved back (again) to 6max ring game poker.  For those of you that don’t remember I tore up 25nl 6max for a good 25k hands, and then barely was profitable at 50nl 6max and then when I moved to 100nl decided to just stick with Full Ring to get used to the level of money moving around the table.  I’ve watched some good Stox Poker videos and decided to get some formal coaching from ChuckTs.  If you didn’t know BW07507 has been a bit of a mentor for me playing 100nl full ring, but I didn’t want to take any more of his time without compensation especially in light of the fact that he’s trying to graduate college in the next few months and has so much on his plate.  As it is, ChuckTs is a 6max warrior and someone that I respect and trust and I’m looking forward to our sessions.  I think he’ll find there’s plenty of things to work on with my game, but that I might just be further along than he thinks.

I’ve done a lot of zoning-out tilt wise and really just try to keep a total mental level state where if I win a big hand I don’t get excited and at the same time if I lose a big hand, I don’t get upset.  In an ideal world you can shake off the negative and celebrate the big hands, but I’m not at that point and am progressing well with the whole balance thing.  It’s going to sound a little cheesy but instead of listening to my regular Beatles / Classical Music thing I listened to this “Spa Soothing Sounds” CD while playing which is basically soft tones and running water.  Outside of having to piss a lot more during the day, it actually has a fantastic calmning effect and allows me to constantly remind myself not to get too high or too low.

Here are some “zen” type of things I’ve tried to instill into my mental routine:

• There is no running good or running bad.  There is just running.  Everything breaks down to a perception of a subjective time frame.  Look at the big picture and focus on the immediate present.
• If you do not allow yourself to ride the emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows that hands will bring, staying at an even mental state will become easier as time moves forward.

Alright well that won’t be a published work anytime soon but it’s 2 solid things that have really grown on me.

In other news, I’ve started a prop bet with CardsChat acquaintence Tygran to see which one of us will actually hit platinum.  I have a huge uphill battle to climb in the last week of this month in order to hit the goal but if I do I’ll be able to reach this milestone for the first time as well as buy the $650 Platinum bonus (50k FPPs) instead of two of the $285 for GoldStars.  Plus I get an extra multiplier for May, and I’m hoping PokerStars runs another “Double VPP” week like it did in May of 2008.  Hopefully I can put in the necessary volume profitably and succeed in the prop bet.

Thanks for reading as usual, I’ll be posting again soon.

I think it was about six weeks ago I took a shot at 100nl and had break-even results but felt overwhelmed and bored with the full ring game. I had such a great time at 25nl 6max that I felt a return to the game would improve my post flop play, and ideally, improve my winrate. I spent quite a bit of time and hands at 50nl 6max and approached almost the volume I had when playing fullring. I’m going to post my winrates … somewhat sensitive data but I think for this purpose it’s fine.

As you can tell at 50nl I am more than doubly successful at full ring than I am at 6max. Maybe I’m a bad 6max player, or perhaps I went through a tough 30k hand stretch … both are conceivable. I didn’t see myself moving to 100nl as a 6max player and thought that it might be prudent to do what I did before – move from 25nl 6max to 50nl fullring – but in this case move to 100nl full ring.

The results for 100nl above are a total between my “original breakeven shot” at the level and the 3500 hands I have played this month which have been very profitable so far. I feel comfortable at the tables and I am adjusting back to dealing with super-uber-nits and those darn shortstackers that always have the nuts. But overall the play at the level is pretty predictable, and I’m hoping to do some research to find out who the handful of awesome regs are so I can just avoid them at this point.

So the numbers don’t lie … I win more and apparently play better at fullring. The sample sizes of 30k hands are basically what I consider to be the starting point of where you can start making some decisions. Although many would consider 100k to be the actual mark … however being rolled properly for 100nl and my current poker state definitely point to me playing at 100nl Fullring, and like I said earlier the short-term end results are good, but MOST importantly I feel like I can handle the regs and exploit the fish profitably.