Overbetting the river

This was the final hand of a $13 6-max. The heads up portion lasted 69 hands. Sometimes the poker gods do smile on you!

Thoughts on Stop & Go? + bet sizes for punishing an UTG HBL/minraiser?

This is a 6/45 where I posted 3 hands from different stages + the last 5 at FT.



HH1 is a stop & go that worked (although he called). Asarpoj had minraised from button 3 orbits in a row to my BB. I was really getting annoyed as I knew he was stealing, but my hands had been the worst ever. The 4th orbit I decided to use the stop & go with ATC. Anyway, he used the timebutton all the way (interesting to observe what this move does to another player vs. how quick they sometimes call an AI).

HH2 is punishing the HBL Aaron. Any thoughts on this hand? There is a tight platinum star (mjh) still left to act + saitek who is a multitabler with nice stats.

HH3 is the famous suited gapper. I was so shortstacked and desperate + my TAG image got the folds.

HH4-8 I chickened out and decided to creep ITM, lol.

Step 4 Alternatives

As you know Step 4 tickets can be used to buy into any $200 +15 buyin touney. There are several options here. The first that comes to mind is the sexy Sunday Million. All the big boys are there, the potential payout is ridiculous, but the game starts at 10:30 PM. There is also the Sunday Warm-Up. It starts at 7 PM, has less players than the Million, but also less prize money. Finally there are several other smaller MTTs. I'm going to shy these because I expect the number of pros will far out way the number of donks. With the big Sunday tourneys, I can hopefully have enough weak players early on to play comfortably. I have no idea when I will play, but I get a freeroll ticket to another huge prize money tourney from Pokerstars if I get 300 fpps in December. The 75 from playing my step 4 would put me over that...

Any thoughts?

PS: I also have over 3000 FPPs now. I'm pretty sure they will be invested in a Million Dollar Turbo Takedown one of these months :)

Step 3...

Well I decided today was the day to use my ticket. I regged for the normal speed with 10 minute blinds, not turbo. I OPRed the guys at my table. One was a 99.8% OPR genius for the last 3 years with 150K profit for 2009. One other was profitable, all the others were horrible. I never got a playable hand all game and found myself very short stacked on the bubble. I was on the verge of being blinded out when a middle stack shoved with JJ. The bb woke up with QQ and won the hand letting me crawl into 5th for a new Step 3 ticket. I finally got a hand AKs, got two callers and lost to QJ.

At the same time I was also playing in the Daily 30K. Within the first 5 minutes I called a minraise holding J9s and flopped two pair. We ended up all in with him chasing a flush. I doubled. Two hands later I get AKs on the button. I called an utg minraise again and flopped AJ10. I check raised and got called. The next card was low and I moved all in. He called with KK. Yes, he caught his 1 outer on the river to reduce me to 1500 chips. I then proceeded to fold for an hour.

Finally, with an M of 6 and a Q of about 0.3 I made a 3x raise from early position. Another shorty who had me covered moved all in and one of the chip leaders with 30K stack called. I knew I was in trouble, but decided to call. Shorty had AQs and chipleader had QQ. I flopped a J for a set and was looking good. The turn was a 10 and, no surprize, the river was a K giving the AQ shorty a straight...

Anyway, I regged for the next Step 3 normal speed. Things went better this time... The guy to my right at the start also played in the first step3. I'll post my thoughts on the game tomorrow, but let me just say that having a smart aggressive chip leader to my left made play late in the game difficult.

Here is the game

Step 3 $75 +7 buyin

Roland's comments on the game

I obviously played this rather cautiously. I was forced to become even more passive due to my position. I was squeezed between two dagerous players. Dei overnuts to my right was in the previous Step3 game. He is very aggressive often raising oop pf, raising on the flop or turn and surprizingly often firing a second barrel on one of the final streets. Worse, the only times he had to show his cards he had a solid hand. I wanted to avoid confronting him. The later stage chip leader was to my left.

H31 utg min-raise with QQ. That was asking for trouble. Nice flop for me though :) Once I doubled I was playing to conserve chips.

H52 Happy to see Dei overnuts go.

H53 First sign of life from rjgrolsch. Keep an eye on him from now on. Bubble play starts.

H76 Any thoughts on this one?

H107 Bubble finally bursts, but I’m got one of the smallest stacks. rjgrolsch with a hammer lock on the table starts getting aggressive.

H115 Glad the limpers let me see the flop for free.

H129 Any thoughts? I didn’t want to play post flop with this hand and chose to play it safe (weak).

H138 Oh yeah, this nice flop helped secure my Step 4 ticket.

H140 Any thoughts? Normally this is an easy call (or all in to isolate the shorty). Playing the hand greatly increases the chance of knocking out the shorty. However, if he wins the hand I’m suddenly in bad shape.

All in all a pretty boring 140 hands to watch, but I am thrilled with the outcome!

AA busted!

3rd time today, time for a small break, lol................

My daughter plays a 3/45 turbo..............

18 left in the tourney and I had to step away.



We discussed the hands afterwards, and she told me helself which hands she should have played differently. Not too bad for a 10 year old!

$13 6-max (playing against a minraiser to your left)

This was a long one. The 3-handed bubble phase lasts from hands 77-123. The most interesting part is the first eight hands though. The player immediately to my left kept minraising me both pre-flop and post-flop. Very irritating. In keeping with the recent thread on minraising, any thoughts on alternate lines I could have taken or general strategies for dealing with minraisers immediately to your left would be most welcome.

Steps

Hi Guys

I won a ticket to the pokerlistings December tourney which ran yesterday. I finished 138th out of about 1400 players winning a step 2 ticket which I used late last night. I haven't played too many steps but got decent cards in this one. The guy to my right is a supernova and the agro guy to my left is a gold star. Now I have a Step 3 ticket burning a hole in my pocket. I would really like to turn this into a Step 4 since they can be used as a buyin for the Sunday Million...

Any advice on Step 3 tourneys would be welcome.

Here is the replay of my Step 2. Notice my post flop minraise ( half pot though) in hand 44 on the scary flop sb vs bb :) More importantly, notice what happens to the short stacked utg preflop min-raiser in hand 50! Great flop, but any other bet and I'm folding that trash...

Roland

Minraising Links

A couple of links to a video by Mike Leah and a short article by Negreanu about minraising. I think Klokkhammer must be Mike Leah in disguise! As Roland will probably recall, I went through a "small ball" phase when I was open raising to 2.5x the BB. I don't remember why I dropped it, maybe I'll give it a go at the 6-max tables.

Thoughts on MinRaising

We don’t talk about it too often, but one must always ask the question ”What am I trying to achieve by playing this hand?” If you are first to act, then the answer is typically one of the following:

• A. Gain equity with a strong hand
• B. See a flop cheaply with a potential hand
• C. Steal the blinds

Gaining equity with a strong hand

Let’s say you have AA. You will gladly get all your chips in the middle with this hand, but you don’t want to scare away all the action. AA vs 1 player with a random hand is 85% favorite. However, vs 2 players you drop to a 70% favorite and vs 3 other players you are down to close to 60%. In other words, you decrease your equity with each extra player. Limiting the number of players is an important way of ensuring that your premium hands hold up.

See a flop cheaply with a potential hand

Let’s say you have Axs, medium sc or a small pocket pair. In these situations you want as many players as possible seeing the flop. This pads the pot. More importantly, when you flop a monster, the extra players increase the likelyhood that someone will pay you off.

With premium hands you are ahead preflop but usually end up with top pair, top kicker. With potential hands, you are behind preflop or at least vulnerable, but are hoping to flop a set, straight or flush. These monster hands hold up better than TPTK in multiway pots.

Furthermore, you want a minimum investment since you are only flopping a set 1 in 8 hands. A small investment makes it easy to fold the hand the 7 times that you brick the flop. Small investment is also why these are profitable early in the game, but less so as the blinds increase.

If someone reraises preflop, you have an easy fold.

Stealing the Blinds

Now you have a decent hand in late position and an unopened pot. The blinds have become worth stealing. Min-raising makes calling with ATC mathmatically correct for the bb. A larger bet increases the likelyhood that they fold and makes it incorrect for the bb to call with a less than average hand. Remember, you are trying to steal, your cards only matter if have to play post flop.

It might seem like min-raising saves you chips if the bb reraises and you have to fold. However, agressive players will view your min-raise a sign of weakness and thus be more likely to reraise you then if you had made a lagrer bet in the first place. (I do this all the time.)

Min-raising from the btn or sb with a monster may often be smart if you expect the bb to reraise you.

Post Flop Play

Since you raised so little preflop in all the situations above, putting the other players on a range of hands is difficult. The may have small pocket pairs, suited connectors, Ax, or pretty much atc.

Reading the texture of the flop in a multiway hand is difficult. Most of the time you miss the flop. Someone might already have a set and someone else will often have a strong straight or flush draw. It is worth noting that these are the hands that would often be folded to a larger raise preflop.

Against one player, few flops will concern you with AA. However, with any other hand it becomes difficult to know where you stand. Is your AKs good vs 269 rainbow flop, or did the bb just flop bottom pair? This in turn makes Cbetting more difficult. A larger raise preflop would have helped you put the player on a range of hands, thus allowing you to better read the flop. Be agressive with the best hand preflop and make them pay to draw out on you.

This is obviously my opinion as a TAG player. Min-raising probably has its place, but be sure you know why you are doing it. Furthermore, why don’t one of you min-raisers keep track of all your min-raises to see if you are profitable over 100 min-raises for example. Even better, group them into the categories above and post your results. Convince me that min-raising is better than the fundamental principle of aggression :)

Roland

How to get to FT without a real hand!

This was a rollercoaster. I didn't have any hand until HH 36(1) where I decide to move with KQs with approx. 20+ players left. Next hand is HH 45(2), then HH 52(3), the guy in SB misclicked he told me. Finally HH 59-end(4-17) for my bubbleboy finish. A chicken fold with Arag in midpos that I didn't dare to play because of my new LAG image, hehe. I could probably have folded to 6th or 7th, but who cares when it was fun!

Good Read Gone Awry

I played the Daily 30K last night. Things started well. I was getting cards and connecting with the flops. Furthermore, I was at the same table the whole game which allowed for me to get some solid reads on the other players.

Hellmuth210 to my right was LAG. He often raised oop and he loved to raise and reraise post flop often scaring opponents into folding. I was purposefully trying to create situations where I played him heads up in hopes that I could double up through him. This strategy resulted in two very critical hands for me. Neither went as expected...

Roland's Daily 30K

Hand 122

Here the big stack limps utg and Hellmuth raises 3x. I know he is making this type of raise with a very wide range. I feel pretty confident that I'm ahead. Therefore, I move all in hoping to isolate him. I made the mistake of not considering the few players left to act, but I sure liked the flop! I would play this hand the same way if I had to do it again.

Final hand

1010 is the lower end of pocket pairs that I'll raise up utg. In this situation however, I had a solid stack and was hoping to isolate Hellmuth in the bb rather than getting a string of callers. Preflop action went as planned only the lag bb calling. I bet into the lag with top pair on a partially connected board. He made a solid reraise which set off a few warning bells in my head. However, I was playing to get a big stack that would offer me the chance of getting deep AND my general read on him indicated that my hand was probabaly good. As a result, I ignored what his reraise was telling me and moved all in.

Reads are important, but you have to look at the particulars of the hand too!

One of these days I'm going to ft a Daily 30K...

PS: I also lost a few 3/45s with my classic AK hand getting called by AQ and spiking the Q.

Roland

Playing medium connectors on the button

This was the second hand from a $13 6-max last night. Limping behind with medium connectors and one-gappers, suited or unsuited, on the button at Levels 1 and 2 has worked out pretty well for me lately. (I went on to donk off a bunch of chips and finished second.)

Small Pairs Late in the Game

MrSmith commented that I folded sveral small pocket pairs in the Game 1 win posted a few days ago. Here is a recap of my reasoning.

Situation: On the bubble with 8 players remaining in a 3/45. The blinds are 400/800 with 50 ante putting 1600 in the pot. I get four playable hands in a row, but fold them all.

Hand 67

CO: Roland GTX (11111 in chips) M6.9

BTN: sergeant999 (5054 in chips) M3.1

SB: nano88 (4440 in chips) M2.8

BB: zendude (19499 in chips) M12.2

The hand folds to me holding 44. What should I do? People call light in these turbos. The btn and sb are very short stacked. They might try to fold itm, but they might gamble too. Any hand that calls me will be at least two overcards making it a 52/48 cointoss. Normally, I will gladly take this cEV+ situation especially since I have the btn and sb sufficiently covered. The problem is the bb chipleader who has twice my stack. Any limp or standard raise I make, he can respond with an all in shove with atc assuming (correctly) that I won’t risk my nice stack on the bubble. On the other hand, my stack is a bit too big for me to make an all in steal attempt. The risk is not worth the gain, espcially on the bubble. if my stack were shorter I would have shoved, but in this situation playing it safe seemed ok with such a marginal hand as 44.

Hand 68
MP2 Roland GTX (11061 in chips) M 6.9
CO: sergeant999 (5004 in chips) M3.1
BTN: nano88 (3990 in chips) M2.5
SB: zendude (20249 in chips) M12.7
BB: cjs_one1 (8256 in chips) M5.2

It folds to me again, but this time Im holding 33. The situation is identical to the hand above with a few exeptions. My hand is slightly weaker and my position is slightly worse. More importantly, three players left to act are short stacked and need to make a move. Plus, the sb is still chipleader and can afford to gamble. Once again folding seemed safest even though it is a slightly cEV+ situation.

Hand 69
This time I pick up QJo. This hand looks nice, but it isn’t. Playing hands like this out of position is a sure way to spew chips. Anyone calling is going to be ahead of you holding Ax, Kx or a pair. I’m shoving if short stacked in this situation, but not with a healthy stack. Fold every time regardless of the bubble.

hand 70

Finally I get delt 55, one of my favorite hands. Once again Im way out of position and get an UTG all in in my face. A clear fold once again.

In other situations you see me shoving Q9o utg – LOL! One move seems crazy and the other seems tight passive. Relative stack sizes and position and the action preceeding me allow me to set a playable hand range. In other words, early in the game and out of postion A9o is garbage getting folded 100% of the time (if Im playing...). Whereas with an M of 3 I’m shoving A9o utg and thrilled to have picked up such a strong hand. Finally, heads up A9o is so strong that I might even consider slowplaying it against an agressive player. We can’t blindly look at our cards but have to consider the whole situation.

I hope this made some sense MrSmith

Roland

Reply to Bet Size Question

OK MrSmith here is my take :)

Short answer: A10s in this situation is a fist pumping insta-shove and hope your hand holds. You don’t even mind getting a caller. My standard line in this situation with an M of 3.75. I’m shoving a very wide range from the button. I’m shoving any two better than average cards. Above average being any two cards 8 or higher, any Ax, and any pocket pair. (Check the pushbot chart...)

Long answer: I did the math, but it isn’t too interesting. There are several other factors that are more important. Here is my way of looking at the situation.

1. You have 4320 chips with an M of 3.75. In other words you are short stacked and on the verge of being blinded out. You need to make a move before the blinds hit you again. you can’t reasonably expect a better hand and situation than this one.

Side note: I have noticed that Moshman’s level for blinding out is much lower than what you see in the 3/45 turbos. I have adjusted my minimum M to 3. Anything under that is getting called pretty much every time.

2. The action is folded to you AND you are on the button. The only one’s remaining are the blinds. If I’m facing the blinds, then I always proceed assuming they have a random hand.

3. You picked up A10s! This is a top 10% hand. I can’t think of any tournament situation in which you could fold A10s from the btn on an unopened pot. You MUST play this hand, folding is clearly not an option. So, now we know that we have to play this hand. What is the best line, limping, making a standard raise, or moving all in?

Bet Size
Both blinds, the only players remaining to act, are even shorter stacked than you are. The small blind has 3674 chips remaining with an M of 3.2. The big blind has 2885 remaining with an M of 2.5. In these situations, even if you were chip leader, you need to play as if you had a stack equal to the sb. However, in this case you actually do.

Limping
If you limp and get shoved on what are you planning on doing? If you intend on calling, then making a raise yourself is much better since it gives you the chance that they fold. If you manage to limp and miss the flop what do you do? Are you going to call a raise or fold? This becomes very difficult. You are so short stacked that I feel limping is just spewing chips and moving you even closer to being blinded out.

Raise
Just like above, what do you do if you make a small raise? Any raise will be pot committing the blinds if they decide to play. However, a non all in does give them the chance to run a stop and go on you. Furthermore, with your low M you cannot fold once you are in the hand. If you do you will be blinded out.

Shove
With an M of 5 or less, (or 10 bb or less in Moshman terms) the only raise is an all in raise. What happens if you shove?
1. You gain maximum fold equity
2. You remain the aggressor avoiding any reraise possibilities
3. You get your chips in the middle with a solid hand
4. The blinds are so short that you are miles ahead of their calling range

What happens when we shove?
I estimate the following:
both blinds fold 50%
If they both fold, great you pick up the much needed 1150 in the pot.

1 caller 30%
If you get 1 caller you are a 65% favorite vs a random hand, 48% vs a lower pair, about 30% vs 1010 – KK,AJ, AQ and AK. The only hand you are really afraid of is being a 13% dog vs AA.

2 callers 20%

If you get 2 callers you are 47% vs two random hands.

All in all, this is a clear cut cEV+ situation. You want to shove this 100% of the time in this situation. The trick is not to get hung up in the results of the particular hand. Over time cEV+ actions do win money. Unfortunately, you were unlucky vs a miracle flush.

GG MrSmith :)

Bet sizes?

This is a classic 50/50 hand in a turbo 3/45. Blinds are 300/600. 11 players left. My stack is just below medium among the last players. Any suggestions on correct bet sizes/fold equity, etc. Benko/Roland; you are the number guys! Several times I have gotten in trouble by "overbetting" in position (4x, 5x BB), thus forcing me into calling AI's at this stage. My read on the SB tells me he will fold unless he has a hand (My motivation for the 4x bet is that I'm looking for a HU vs the BB). If I 2,5x bet, is it realistic that I can get away from the hand if the SB calls/re-raises? Then again, what will the BB do who already has a lot of chips in, my notes tell me he is very tight.

Note; I hit the T in the flop, which enables me to C-bet if he only calls (but that is not realistic given my bet size). Does a 2,5x bet of approx 1500 give me any possibilty to fold? Many questions.........



I hate poker, lol! My typical hand just before FT or early FT is 44, 33 eiher in cutoff or cutoff+1. I noticed in Rolands 2x 3/45 wins that he folded 2 small pp's in decent position, where I usually would overbet.

Simultaneous 3/45 wins

Here are my last two games. Now we can see how many questionable plays I made. The games were played simultaneously on my laptop late at night with Discovery Channel going in the background LOL!

Game 1


Game 2


After reviewing both games, I have to admit that Im pretty nitty early on and pretty much push/fold once the blinds get up there. This is my standard game for the 45 man turbos, but I play rather differently in larger mtts like the Daily 30k. You have to be able to play post flop in those since stacks are so deep.

Feel free to be brutal :)

Roland

Lots of comments

Hi guys

I posted a bunch of long winded comments on all your games. Sorry for the lack of detail in yours MrSmith, but I havent seen too many from benko and klokkhammer and wanted to give them a better looking over.

I hope to post dates for the next Pstars tourney and the next home game tomorrow.

Ive been a bit busy :)

Roland

6,50/45 turbo

Klokkhammer Victory

The replay of Klokkhammer's victory is now posted in his original post.

Roland

$13 6-max

Interesting only because it's probably the loosest $13 6-max table I've ever played at. Should've bet the river on Hand 80 but fortunately all's well that ends well.... Still want to see Klokkhammer's replay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Due to work, I'll be away from the blog and the tables the next two days, but want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. I always think about friends and family on this holiday, especially those that I don't often see. So, Seabreeze, Klokkhammer, Benko and MrSmith I wish you and your families a great holiday!

We will be celebrating with turkey on Friday, but no football on TV here.

Roland

My biggest payout (so far)!

Thanks to the swineflu, I have been able to play 4 tournaments the last two evenings. First day I played an 180 and 45 tournament. Busting out in the middle of the 45 (where I had a good position), but managed to recover well in the 180. Ended 7th with a 12 USD payout. I have to admit that I played to get itm to avoid the "tilt" description on sharkscope (Sharkscope have blocked most of the personal info by the way).

Yesterday I followed up with two 3 dollar tourney's. One 45 and one 90 turbo. Again I started well in the 45, but lost focus playing two games and was thrown out in the middle game against a river that ended in two pairs vs my highest pair. In the 90 i struggled, but managed to recover (play better when I focus on one game only) - my multi-table capacity is far below yours Roland - lol.

However, this time it ended well. I had less than average stack all the way, but played with one goal to sneak itm. With a triple all-inn 77, 1010 vs my QQ I suddenly were healthy enough to be itm-group with 30 players left. Then again I was below average until we were itm. Just struggling to survive I realised that I would manage to be 5-6th and secure a decent payout in my perspective, so I loosened up and started to steal blinds more aggresively. Tried to call or raise some pots pre-flop, but that was a waste of chips. So, it was either all-in or nothing. Luckily I managed to be in the best position pre-flop in all the all-in's and even win them - does not happen often!

So, being heads-up and turning the situation from 50k vs 70k, to 100k vs 20k by betting on every high card, I tried an all in with 10-6 vs Q-J. I felt I had to use my free chance on almost any range of cards as soon as he invited to go all-in, and it worked. The only hand I was behind during the game came to my rescue. Voila - I had won my first major tourney! Suddenly my statistics are pretty again.

I wished to let you see the game yourself, and not settle with this self-promoting version, but I did not get the hand-replayer to function. It only seems to work with a few hands. Does somebody have the recipe? You all seem to manage.

PS! I have started to call with more of my pairs, in order to try to get sets on the flop (after being the donk in the two last home games due to benkogambit doing this to me). Yesterday my 44 ended being a very strong hand with 443 on the flop. A poor russian player actually had 33 and thought he had me. I felt just as sorry for him, as you did with me in the last games benko...

Hands 1 to 100

Hands 101 to 150

Hands 151 to 175


Hands 176 to 190


Final hands


PS: There was a problem with hand 193 which was causing the problems with the replayer. I had to break the hand history into smaller groups just to pinpoint the problem. However, I still don't know what was wrong with that hand. I rewrote it manually just to get it up:)

GG

Home Game

Obviously I didn't do so well last night or I would have posted earlier, lol! Typical loose, passive game good for value betting but unfortunately I never had much value to bet either pre-or post-flop. That's poker sometimes! Finished fourth out of six. The chips and cards got rave reviews though. (I asked two of our guests who stayed behind which cards they liked best -- one chose the Modianos, the other the KEMs. COPAGs must be some sort of Scandinavian thing!)

A couple of staged photos per MrSmith's request....

Challenge Results: 100 games

I played the 32 remaining games last night. 100 games in two days - LOL! Things went better than the first day but I didn't manage to recover my losses completely.

Challenge Results

Games Played: 100 18 man $1,75 Turbo

ITM: 30% (30/100)

ROI: -6 % (-$10,30)

Finish

1st 4

2nd 6

3rd 7

4th 13

5th 12

6th-9th 27

10th-16th 31

17th-18th 0

Low Orbit Leader Board

Points: 289

Current rank: 1026th

High Orbit Leader Board

Points: 938

Current rank: 126th (not a typo)

FPPs: 125 (which I intend on converting to a Sunday 1/4 ticket worth $11 bucks. Thus putting me 70 cents up for the challenge LOL)

I lost this challenge but I did learn a few things. Firstly, notice that the rake is 17% rather than the normal 10 %. I paid an extra 10 cents per game, or $10 total because of this. I ended my 100 games being down $10.30. In other words, the higher rake accounts for a 6% swing in my ROI. I was aware of this before I started this challenge, but it is a good example of something to keep an eye on.

Secondly, variance was as brutal as ever here. However, noticeably fewer confrontations are necessary to get itm, and Ms are still decent late in the game. So, it is much less of a shove fest at the 18 mans than the 45 mans.

Thirdly, play was less donk than expected. There were a surprizing number of multitablers that were quite solid as well as some silver and gold VIPs. Play was passive which allowed for a lot of stealing pre and post flop.

Running 9 games tiled on my stationary PC was comfortable. I doubt I would multitable so many at a higher buy in level though.

I'll most likely play another 100 of these in an attempt to get my ROI on the plus side and win the challenge. I seem pretty easy to beat. Any takers this time around...?

Roland

Update: Day 1

I was home with a sick kid yesterday. We aren't sure if it is a cold or swine flu, but things seem fine. Being home allowed me to get in a few sets at least. Up to now I have played 68 games. All have been 18 man $1.50 buy in + .25 fee.

Playing 10 - 15 tables is surprizingly easy, but it doesn't allow for much if any player reads until the bubble. These tourneys fill up in about 15 seconds and I start all the games at the same time. This way the blinds are pretty much the same on all tables allowing me to more easily keep track of Ms. I've played ABC poker. When a table pops up, I first look at my position which sets my possible hand range. Then I look at the action before me this adjusts the range one way or the other. Then I look at the stack sizes, especially my own thus further adjusting my range. And finally I look at how my cards stack up to my range. This usually only takes a second and you are on to the next table.

There is a lot of passive play. So I always raise my premium starting hands to get value. More importantly, there is a lot of passive post flop play. If the flop gets checked a small bet on the turn will often win the hand and firing a second barrel small bet works too. I always assume that limpers have weak hands. I also assume that mini raises on the flop followed by a check on the turn are also failed weak steals. In other words passive play is typically a sign of weakness and can be abused.

The only problem I have had is getting the board to cooperate. My desperation shoves short stacked on the bubble have rarely caught a card and my premium hand shoves have rarely held up as you can see from my previous post.

Right now my results are dismal due to way to many 4th and 5th place finishes. Let's hope the remaining games go better. Here are my results thus far:

ITM 29%

ROI -18%

finishes

1st 2

2nd 3

3rd 4

4th 11

5th 10

6th-9th 19

10th-16th 19

Here was one interesting end game. The replay starts at hand 68 at the final table. Notice my stack size after the first hand:

Chip and a Chair

Update: Final hand Medoly

I've combined the final hands from my last 20 games today into one replay. Nearly all these hands are at the final table. So if there are four or less then I'm itm. I hope you enjoy this more than I did...

I still have plenty of games to go. Hopefully I'll be able to turn things around. I'm having fun at least.

Challenge Update: Test Run

Just to test the waters, I multitabled 10 games last night on my tiny laptop. I cascaded the tables and it was easy to manage. I can tile 9 tables comfortably on my stationary, but 15 starts getting too small. I can't read the stack sizes quickly enough. So, it looks like cascading is the way I'll go.

I did 20 games within about two hours. The play was easy, but the cards didn't fall my way. I was ITM 25% with 1 1st, 1 2nd, 2 3rd and 1 4th. I also had 3 bubble boys where I lost two with AKs to Ax hands and one with KK again. I aslo busted early in a few games: a three way ai with AA in one, as well as QQ, JJ and two other AK. My good hands didn't hold up, but I did win one with A10 when I got all in vs AK - LOL!

All in all after these 20 games my ROI is -12% and I'm down a whopping $ 4,35. Not much of a start. Let's hope the next set goes better...

Roland

Challenge: One hundred - One dollar sngs - One week

I want to try something a bit different at Pokerstars. I need to take a break from the 3/45 turbos, and I was inspired after reading about Boku87 (thanks MrSmith).

Boku87 was a SuperNova Elite and has done two personal challenges. In the first, he turned $100 into $10 000 in under two weeks. Now, he is trying to turn $5 into $100 000 in 12 months. He seems to be an ABC-poker type of player, but he also manages to play 500 sngs daily! Check out his blog, the Pokerstars blog, or YouTube if you want more details on what it means to multitable 50 games an hour all day long...

So, who wants to attempt a 500 game day with me? LOL, now that would be something! Seriously though, I’ve been looking at the Battle of the Planets leader board, my bankroll and the available sngs at Pokerstars and suggest the following challenge.

Challenge: One hundred - One dollar sngs - One week

Here are the details and rules

Time frame: complete 100 games within a 1 week period. The leader board runs from Sunday to Sunday each week. I might start tonight, or I might wait until Sunday.

Buyin: Only $1 buyins are allowed. This corresponds to the lowest division Mercury with its $1-$2.99 buyin

Size: Only tourneys with 6 players to 27 players give points

Your best block of 20 games counts toward the low orbit leader board. There is a 5 block maximum. Plus, your 100 games will also count as one block in high orbit leader board. Therefore, 100 games in the challenge.

Results from each day will be posted.

Can I complete 100 games in a week? Can I manage a positive ROI? Can I make the leader board?

I think this will be a fun challenge and a nice diversion from the 45s. I plan on playing a mix of 9 man $1.10 sngs and 18 man $1.75 turbo sngs. To reach 100 games, I plan on multitabling around 15 games per session. So, with one crazy hour of play each day, I’ll be on track for reaching my mark.

My goal is obviously to be profitable. Moreover, I want to see how my hand range and line holds up under the stress of so many tables. Being forced to run on autopilot for a hundred games should give me an indication.

If anyone else dare join the challenge then we can run prop bets and see who is best!

Any takers?

Roland

Christmas in November

The chips arrived today, four days after I ordered them. Can't beat that! Thanks for the help sorting out the numbers, Roland. Too bad you guys can't just jump on a plane for the inaugural game!

Close but no Cigar: again and again and again...

Since I didn't manage to get a live game going over the weekend, I focused my attention on MTTs at Pstars. I crawled itm in the Daily 30 K on Friday for a min-cash.

I also won a Sunday Million hyper-turbo fpp satelite. These are essentially Steps tourneys based on FPPs with 5 levels. There is one slight difference though. The blinds increase every 3 minutes, antes from first round and you only start with 300 chips! Crazy shove fest all the way requiring huge amounts of luck, but a lot of fun! I made it to level 3 before losing.

Yesterday, I also played a 300 man 100 FPP Sunday Million tourney. The winner of the touney wins a $215 ticket to the Sunday Million. Second place gets nothing. MrSmith and I were playing the same type of touney at the same time. Things became quite hectic as we were playing the final tables next to eachother and making outrageous moves in an attempt to win! Asking eachother for adice and fist pumping everytime we stacked someone. But, how do you put someone on a hand range in a tourney like this LOL! MrSmith busted out nr 3 of 300 (so damn close!). I got heads up in mine with a nice chiplead vs a passive weak player and was eyeing my 215 cash. The blinds were insane and this guy kept folding his sb! I got all in against him 3 times, each with the better hand and managed suckout river losses on all of them. The final hand we were all in preflop. I had pocket 10s vs his 98o. He picked up an 8 on the flop and another 8 on the river for trips and the win! MrSmith can attest that I wasn't too happy about that, as you can imagine...

MrSmith and Klokkhammer also caught some of the action in the Sunday 250K. There were 32 thousand players yesterday. Standard TAG game all the way for me from start to finish. I had a very nice chiplead early, but lost half my stack in an all in sb vs bb confrontation in which my AKs bricked. . After that I was short stacked for the next three hours. I caught some hands and some luck, and managed to double up near the bubble with 3500 players remaining. I kept my stack alive with an M of 5 for several hours. My all in raises won the blinds but my good hands never got called allowing me to double up and get back in the game. With only 900 players remaining (1:30 in the morning) I was blinding out and forced to shove utg without even looking at my cards. No love for me on that hand, and I was sent to the rail with a $70 buck cash. Once again I was almost deep...

The golden ring is quite elusive!

Roland

U like?

Playing Card Reviews

Well, Roland, since you asked (sort of!), herewith some, i.e., a great many images of my newly acquired decks of playing cards: KEM Arrow (black/gold) (US), COPAG 1546 (black/gold) (Brazil) and Modiano Black Jack (green/brown) (Italy). Together with some highly subjective comments. All are poker size (2 1/2" x 3 1/2", although the KEMs are actually a tad longer than the others) with jumbo index. Comparably priced at two decks for $18.50 for the KEMs and $15.00 for the COPAGs and Modianos. In all of the scans, the KEMs are on the left, COPAGs in the middle and Modianos on the right.

Packaging

All the decks come in plastic two-deck boxes with a divider down the middle but the Modiano box has no lid and the lid on the COPAGs fits too tightly so score one for the KEMs.

Backs

All the decks have a white border around the edge of the backs. I like the COPAG design best followed by the Modiano but all are acceptable. Among individual decks, I would probably rate the COPAG gold first followed by the Modiano green. The Modiano brown is an orangy brown.

Corners

The Modianos have the most rounded corners; the KEMs, the sharpest corners.

Facecards

The KEMs seem to me to be the most traditional and most attractive.

Whiteness

The white portions of the Modianos are the brightest. The KEMs have a slightly greyish tint and the COPAGs a slightly cream-colored tint.

Color

The Modianos have the deepest red, almost a maroon, and the COPAGs the lightest red. In general, the color on the COPAGs seems very washed out and unappealing compared to the other two.

Interior Background

I was a bit disappointed to discover that only the Modianos have the yellow background on the non-facecards, which I like quite a bit. (The photos online had led me to believe that the COPAGs also had this feature but apparently not.) In addition, the line comprising the interior border on the COPAGs is blue rather than black or red, which I think was a poor design choice.

Pips

The numbers and letters on the Modianos are the most rounded, the ones on the KEMs the most elongated and the ones on the COPAGs the most blocky. The heart and spade symbols are the most rounded on the Modianos. I personally prefer the Modianos in this respect.

Feel

All the cards are plastic but the COPAGs have the most papery look and feel and the KEMs the most plasticky. Both I and my 13-year-old independent consultant picked out the Modianos as having the nicest feel. The COPAG deck is noticeably thinner than the other two. The KEMs are less slippery. All three shuffle nicely with the main difference being that the KEMs offer a bit more resistance when marrying the two halves of the deck together.

Smell

Right out of the box, the KEMs have the most chemical scent, the Modianos the most neutral, but I imagine this will fade over time.

Taste

The KEMs have a pleasant crunchy texture but also leave a bit of a chemical aftertaste. The Modianos go down well with a nice dry red. The COPAGs were chewiest.

Jokers

The Modianos win hands down, the other jokers are terrible. What were they thinking?

Conclusion

Hard to tell how the cards will wear but you can probably guess that based on first impressions, the Modianos are far and away my favorites with the KEMs a distant second. Another triumph for Italian design! Will have to try to get my hands on some Dal Negros next....

QQ in the 3+R/180 turbo

Played my A-game, no re-buys, 1 double-up with a premium hand + the add-on for a total of $6,30 and 5,5K chips at the break. No rush when it restarted (you can always pick off a couple of jerks after the break as they are still in "re-buy" mode). Anyway, 11K chips and just been reseated to a new table with approx. 90 players left.



I'm sure I lost since it was a new table and I had no notes/reads on the other players. Anyway, sometimes I really hate QQ, lol.

QQ in Daily 30 K

Before you look at the replay, think about how you would have played this one.

Early in daily 30K. Blinds are 25/50. I have 3800 chips and playing my standard TAG game. The big blind is an agro LAG maniac. He has limped about 50% of the hands, often calls large bets preflop, on the flop and on the turn. And several times has followed up by shoving on the river. The few times he has been called he has shown down air, middle pair, small pocket pairs and KK. His stack has bounced around from 900 chips to 10K! He is definately superagro, but he seems pretty good at reading people post flop.

I Picked up QQ and made a solid preflop bet expecting him to flat call from the bb as he usually does. He cooperates and calls as well as the utg limper. The flop is 1088. The hand checks to me and I assume I'm good. I make a pot sized raise hoping to isolate the lag bb. The bb flats again and the utg folds - perfect! The turn is a blank and the bb checks to me. I'm feeling pretty good about my hand now, but don't want him to suck out an A or what ever on the river. I make a 75% pot bet and he flat calls again...hmm. I expected him to fold.

The river is a K and he checks again... hmm where was the expected shove? What should I do now? AK would be consistant with his line of play. A10 also seems possible or pocket pairs lower than mine. He seemed to shove when he had a weak hand knowing he would lose a showdown. Since he checked the river I had to rethink what his check -calling could mean. He might be slowplaying (hyperagro style) with pocket 10s, 89s or A8. I decided to play it safe and simply check the river.

My gut feeling was correct. I avoided busting out early, but never managed to get back in the game. Bad luck or did I miss something here?

Roland

Paulson Chips (continued)

Roland, quick question for whenever you have time.... How many chips did you order for your custom set and what breakdown between denominations did you decide on?

Since the acrylic chip carrier will hold 600 chips, I figured I might as well go ahead and order 600 chips (instead of 550). For a 600 chip, four denomination set, I've seen several different recommendations on ChipTalk and elsewhere including:

200/200/100/100
200/200/120/80
240/180/120/60
240/240/60/60
160/300/80/60

A few people have commented that the second lowest denomination chip is the most useful, which sounds plausible, so I'm currently leaning towards a 160/240/120/80 split. With 8 players, I could still run a T5000 tourney with starting stacks of 20x25, 15x100, 4x500 and 1x1000 as you suggested or, with 10 players, 16x25, 16x100, 4x500 and 1x1000. Or even run a deep stack T10000 tourney with few enough players.

BTW, I will probably use the following blind structure which smooths out some of the percentage increases in the blinds from one level to the next:

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
color up
200/400
300/600
400/800
600/1200
800/1600
color up
1000/2000
1500/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000

Roland's Room Replay, November 8, 2009

More on Benko's Setup

Hey Benko

Once again Im making a new post to accomodate all the hyperlinks :)

Here is a chiptalk table topper. You can find other versions at the online poker shops as well.

I've been looking for the perfect card setup for a long time. I like the backside design on some, especially the black and gold KEM cards. But I don't care for the faces of the KEMs. On the other hand I love the faces that have yellow, especially Fornier. And, I like the COPAG number design and colors on the faces. They seem easiest to read. But, I still haven't found one set that uses all the elements I like. The closest I have come are the Copag Summer Edition that I'm currently using.

All the plastic cards are good and last for a long time, but they all have there own feel too. Choosing a deck is like choosing a chipset - lots of choices! KEM are considered the industry standard in the US at least, but COPAG is gaining fast.

Check out HPT and CaraGails as pick something you like. Pretty soon you will be like me and have a dozen different decks, 4 chipsets and a whole bunch of stuff taking up space and never getting used... LOL

See you tomorrow.

Roland

Comment on Benko's chipset

Playing HU with 1 demon sounds good benko, but it isn't always practical. Unless you intend on jumping to a new blinds level when the game gets down to two players, you won't necessarily be at a blinds level that allows for $1000 chips. I set up a blinds schedule based on what you posted (see first pic). Furthermore, I compared your blinds to mine in terms of M and the starting stack. Check out the blinds section over at HPT if you want more info on the subject (see links section of blog).

You could go from your 1000/2000 level directly to 2000/4000. However,assume you have 6 players and two rebuys. Thus, 8 buyins making 40K chips. If you color up at 1000/2000 there will be 40 chips in play divided between the two remaining players. If they are evenly split each player will have an M of 20K / 3K = 6.6 M which allows for some play, but clearly nearing the end of the game. If you then jump to 2K /4K then the Ms become critical and the HU will turn into a shove fest. By going to 1500 /3000 (keeping the $500s in play) you allow more time for strategic HU play.

Both ways work. It is just a matter of what you as tourney director and your players prefer. Obviously the shorter the game, the more luck becomes a factor. The longer the game, the more skill becomes a factor.

Roland

Private game on Sunday

Our next private game is now available from the tournament lobby at Pokerstars. Check out the left hand corner of the blogg for the password.

Roland

Thoughts on HU anyone?

Another 1st in the 3/45, "kicker" had an ultrabig stack before final table (approx 23K, while I had approx 8K as nr. 2 or 3). Anyway, we finally get heads-up and he seemed very tight (I did my usual AI with Arag, etc., but he didn't bite). Still, he managed some nice steals and I wasn't sure about his style (no notes prior to FT as he was at other tables all along).

Le Paulson Noir Chips

As I think I mentioned a few months ago, I'm considering buying some Le Paulson Noir chips for use in a home game (maximum ten players, either one or no rebuy). My current plan is to go with four denominations ($25/$100/$500/$1000) split 200/200/60/40 for a set of 500 chips total. Blind schedule of 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, etc. and five thousand chips to start (16 $25, 16 $100, 4 $500, and 1 $1000). Does that sound about right to you, Roland (or others)? Thanks!

EDIT: Here is a link to the post with Benko's pictures of the Le Paulson Noir chips. There are also several other posts looking at chips needed, etc. If you don't find what you need feel free to post a question. - Roland GTX

Ending a 21 game losing streak!

Not quite sure what I have done wrong lately, maybe variance - but I also suspect I have been too tight at mid-levels + a bit donkish late. Anyways, this one worked out fine.



Anyways guys! Very quiet here last 2 weeks, did u quit playing?

NL Omaha HI/LO 18 man

My favourite game aside NL Hold-em is NL Omaha HI/LO. The best 2 cards from your dealt hand (4 cards) are to be used together with 3 common cards. They don't need to be the same 2 towards high and low. Obviously a dream flop is A23s, when u hold 45 same suit on your hand. Straight flush for high and A-5 for low (flush/straight don't count when low). Max low card is 8 for a hand to count. Betting is essential here, and many tend to risk a lot when they have A2 on hand, as they dream for a low flop. However, you might get stuck with A-high if the board mostly runs high cards. There were a couple of donks in this one early, and I held QQ in 1 hand, had a nice stack and could call 2 AI's. Take a look, and let me know what u think of Omaha HI/LO gentlemen!

Sundays game (11/10-09)

Picked up some nice hands which helps. A couple of variations with limps as I felt that could confuse a bit.

Dont u just love it!

I had previous notes on this guy and he lived up to his name (took 2 pots chasing flushes), but this was a bit irritating nonetheless.

Sunday's Private Game

Thanks to you all for such a great game yesterday! We had our biggest turnout ever and once again Roland took down 1st place.

Confused, thinking WTF... don't be. I'm simply daydreaming. There was no private game yesterday because I forgot that it was the first Sunday of the month - SORRY! This is obviously not the best start at having regular games.

How does next Sunday at 9 pm (Oslo time) work for everyone? I've already set up the tourney.

The password is: QJsucks

I would also like to mention that we have received our first comment from an outsider! SEEMAS commented on the August post "hand replayer problems: UPDATE" You might want to check out myhands.com to see how the replayer handles whole tourney histories now. Furthermore, be sure to check out SEEMAS's poker site. I think he gets a bit more traffic than we do LOL!

Roland

3/45 turbo 30 September

I think I had control all the way on this, even a good fold at FT. Anyway, the platinum star I ended HU with was very tight, I folded to his BB several times, finally put him on tight-passive and shuved a Krag from SB. He woke up with 77 and almost knocked me out with 4 left in the tourny. I changed my style somewhat, but probably gave him too much respect. Any hands at FT you would have done differently?

Roland 6/45 Sept 29

I haven't completely given up the 6/45s either. Here is my game from last night. Once again, I seem to be losing when I get all in with the best hand preflop and winning when I get all in with the worst. I'm not complaining about this one though :)

Loosening up the game 6/45 turbo 27/9

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?