After spewing both chips and money multitabling the whole Sunday, I decided to go back to my strategy of only playing 1 game at the time. In addition, I also decided to loosen up a bit (and it helps getting cards too, lol). Any comments?
WP, MrSmith! VN with the short stack. The only hands I wonder about are 9, 38 and 39 but I appreciate that this was a turbo. It looked to me like you actually tightened up a bit, rather than loosening up, but perhaps in the past I have only seen you st your loosest lol. As someone who is terrible at multitabling, I wholeheartedly endorse going back to one table, especially if one is running bad. To me, a lot of the fun of poker is concentrating on every hand and then making a play based upon ones observations. That's hard to do when multitabling. And playing 6-max solves some of the "boredom" of playing only one table as you have to play a lot of hands.
Haven't played much myself lately (but decided that it was time to "graduate" to the $13 6-max and am doing okay). Have been reading some though, including a book by Charley Swayne called "Swayne's Advanced Degree in Hold'em". (He works with Negreanu on PokerVT.) A lot of the text deals with limit hold'em so is not so relevant but there are tons of interesting graphs and tables. And something I'd never come across before -- a method for estimating the probability that someone else has been dealt a higher pocker pair than yours. You take the number of pocket pairs that are higher than yours, multiply by the number of opponents still live and divide by 2 to get a percentage. So if you have JJ at 2B you would multiply 3x7 and divide by 2 to arrive at about a 10.5% chance that someone else has QQ, KK or AA. (Swayne attributes this formula to Phil Gordon and calls it the "Gordon Rule".)
Nice post Benko. I like your comments on concentrating on every hand, as this also seems to work for me. I had a bad downswing last week, got in HU with the best hand approx. 99% of the time, and felt I lost 99% of them (of course this is not true when I look at some replays! lol).
HH 9. He had the very hand I put him on, and with my stack and the flop that arrived, I decided a race here was worth risking.
HH 38. With the bigstack in BB (he had played solid so far) I didn't want to risk my stack by going over the top of the utg guy on tilt. It was a tough decision. This is the type of hand that can put me on tilt (seing I could have won the race and had a massive stack).
HH 39. I'm on tilt due to previous hand, hehe.
I manage to cool down after that and also fold a limped QJ in SB. The 89o AI obv. was lucky, but that gets me back into the game.
HH 56. This was quite nice. The guy obv. thought I had an A.
HH 68. I took notes on this hand (he showed it afterwards), it's quite interesting and leads to my actions in HH 75 (which I showed him, hehe!). That gave me tremendous respect from the others for later actions. The decision to AI here was also the fact that my BB + antes almost cost me 20% of my stack and I felt he would fold most hands here since he had played out his luck in HH 68.
HH 81 is a real cooler. You think are about to dominate from here, only to suck out real bad.
I managed to cool down and wait after that. Fortunately the goldstar (the guy I ended HU at FT with) in HH 88 takes care of eliminating the rest of the field for the race with my 2 overcards.
HH 89 is nice. The luckbox who beat me with his J9o folds to my BB.
HH 92 is another real cooler. Polska was a good player, and this is bubble play. Calling an AI with AQs against a good player utg ok? I had him on ATC as he was about to hit BB and get crippeled stackwise.
HH 94 The guy who bluffed and got bluffed by me picks up a pp, tywm.
HH 97. I fold my pp 22 in BB to Polska here, he was a quality player.
Then some aggro FT play (loosening up).
HH 101-103 3 AI's in a row, get called on the last and my pp holds up. Another bully AI (with a hand) in HH 105 gets folds. HH 106 eliminates Polska and I can watch the others have fun in HH 107 with my nice stack.
It's always fun to play well AND be rewarded! You certainly ran into a few coolers there but in the end the poker gods smiled upon you.
HH 9 I hate flopping a medium overpair against a pre-flop raiser! If he's got high cards and missed the flop then of course you want to stay in as he only has six outs twice or 24% equity. On the other hand if he has 99+ it's a clear fold as now you only have two outs twice or 8% equity. 99+ represents 36 hand combinations which is about the same as AK + AQ (32 hand combinations). If his range is wider than that (which it almost certainly is) then the odds shift in your favor of his having high cards. But this early in a tournament, I would probably fold.
HH 38 In early position, I think AJo is a fold (rather than a call or all-in reraise) here due to the risk of exactly what happened in this hand -- a bigger stack waking up with a bigger hand behind. Even though you would have drawn out and won a big pot, you should be happy to have folded pre-flop (either initially or in response to the reraise by KK). It's easier said than done, of course, but the best (only?) way I know of avoiding tilt is to focus on the quality of the decision-making and not the result. If you make a poor call and win a big pot, you should be kicking yourself even as you're saying "YES!"
HH 92 I think calling here with AQs is okay. He happened to have a hand at the very high end of his range with a very low M. What makes the situation more marginal is the two bigger stacks behind but it is a turbo and the blinds are rising.
Nice game MrSmith, You had a serious roller coaster ride in that one!
As usual, I'm pretty much following benko's line here. However, I love your bb shove with 62o on the high blind limper in HH75 - BEAUTIFUL!
Heads up seemed strange for some reason, but I havent had time to look at it too closely. I know you have crap cards early on, but you still seemed a bit passive perhaps considering your chip lead. I'll look more closely if I get a chance.
All is going well with the transition, thanks MrSmith. No time for chess (haven't stumbled upon any players yet), though I did pick up a book about great games of chess in world literature at a thrift shop the other day. Too busy managing my three fantasy football teams which are all 2-1 lol.
WP, MrSmith! VN with the short stack. The only hands I wonder about are 9, 38 and 39 but I appreciate that this was a turbo. It looked to me like you actually tightened up a bit, rather than loosening up, but perhaps in the past I have only seen you st your loosest lol. As someone who is terrible at multitabling, I wholeheartedly endorse going back to one table, especially if one is running bad. To me, a lot of the fun of poker is concentrating on every hand and then making a play based upon ones observations. That's hard to do when multitabling. And playing 6-max solves some of the "boredom" of playing only one table as you have to play a lot of hands.
ReplyDeleteHaven't played much myself lately (but decided that it was time to "graduate" to the $13 6-max and am doing okay). Have been reading some though, including a book by Charley Swayne called "Swayne's Advanced Degree in Hold'em". (He works with Negreanu on PokerVT.) A lot of the text deals with limit hold'em so is not so relevant but there are tons of interesting graphs and tables. And something I'd never come across before -- a method for estimating the probability that someone else has been dealt a higher pocker pair than yours. You take the number of pocket pairs that are higher than yours, multiply by the number of opponents still live and divide by 2 to get a percentage. So if you have JJ at 2B you would multiply 3x7 and divide by 2 to arrive at about a 10.5% chance that someone else has QQ, KK or AA. (Swayne attributes this formula to Phil Gordon and calls it the "Gordon Rule".)
Nice post Benko. I like your comments on concentrating on every hand, as this also seems to work for me. I had a bad downswing last week, got in HU with the best hand approx. 99% of the time, and felt I lost 99% of them (of course this is not true when I look at some replays! lol).
ReplyDeleteHH 9. He had the very hand I put him on, and with my stack and the flop that arrived, I decided a race here was worth risking.
HH 38. With the bigstack in BB (he had played solid so far) I didn't want to risk my stack by going over the top of the utg guy on tilt. It was a tough decision. This is the type of hand that can put me on tilt (seing I could have won the race and had a massive stack).
HH 39. I'm on tilt due to previous hand, hehe.
I manage to cool down after that and also fold a limped QJ in SB. The 89o AI obv. was lucky, but that gets me back into the game.
HH 56. This was quite nice. The guy obv. thought I had an A.
HH 68. I took notes on this hand (he showed it afterwards), it's quite interesting and leads to my actions in HH 75 (which I showed him, hehe!). That gave me tremendous respect from the others for later actions. The decision to AI here was also the fact that my BB + antes almost cost me 20% of my stack and I felt he would fold most hands here since he had played out his luck in HH 68.
HH 81 is a real cooler. You think are about to dominate from here, only to suck out real bad.
I managed to cool down and wait after that. Fortunately the goldstar (the guy I ended HU at FT with) in HH 88 takes care of eliminating the rest of the field for the race with my 2 overcards.
HH 89 is nice. The luckbox who beat me with his J9o folds to my BB.
HH 92 is another real cooler. Polska was a good player, and this is bubble play. Calling an AI with AQs against a good player utg ok? I had him on ATC as he was about to hit BB and get crippeled stackwise.
HH 94 The guy who bluffed and got bluffed by me picks up a pp, tywm.
HH 97. I fold my pp 22 in BB to Polska here, he was a quality player.
Then some aggro FT play (loosening up).
HH 101-103 3 AI's in a row, get called on the last and my pp holds up. Another bully AI (with a hand) in HH 105 gets folds. HH 106 eliminates Polska and I can watch the others have fun in HH 107 with my nice stack.
Very enjoyable.
It's always fun to play well AND be rewarded! You certainly ran into a few coolers there but in the end the poker gods smiled upon you.
ReplyDeleteHH 9 I hate flopping a medium overpair against a pre-flop raiser! If he's got high cards and missed the flop then of course you want to stay in as he only has six outs twice or 24% equity. On the other hand if he has 99+ it's a clear fold as now you only have two outs twice or 8% equity. 99+ represents 36 hand combinations which is about the same as AK + AQ (32 hand combinations). If his range is wider than that (which it almost certainly is) then the odds shift in your favor of his having high cards. But this early in a tournament, I would probably fold.
HH 38 In early position, I think AJo is a fold (rather than a call or all-in reraise) here due to the risk of exactly what happened in this hand -- a bigger stack waking up with a bigger hand behind. Even though you would have drawn out and won a big pot, you should be happy to have folded pre-flop (either initially or in response to the reraise by KK). It's easier said than done, of course, but the best (only?) way I know of avoiding tilt is to focus on the quality of the decision-making and not the result. If you make a poor call and win a big pot, you should be kicking yourself even as you're saying "YES!"
HH 92 I think calling here with AQs is okay. He happened to have a hand at the very high end of his range with a very low M. What makes the situation more marginal is the two bigger stacks behind but it is a turbo and the blinds are rising.
Good points Benko, I always appreciate your quality input. All well over there? Are you finding time for chess as well?
ReplyDeleteNice game MrSmith, You had a serious roller coaster ride in that one!
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I'm pretty much following benko's line here. However, I love your bb shove with 62o on the high blind limper in HH75 - BEAUTIFUL!
Heads up seemed strange for some reason, but I havent had time to look at it too closely. I know you have crap cards early on, but you still seemed a bit passive perhaps considering your chip lead. I'll look more closely if I get a chance.
Roland
All is going well with the transition, thanks MrSmith. No time for chess (haven't stumbled upon any players yet), though I did pick up a book about great games of chess in world literature at a thrift shop the other day. Too busy managing my three fantasy football teams which are all 2-1 lol.
ReplyDelete