The evening started off so well. Ran good, got it in good, got up a quick $150. Lost a race before the session was done but still finished up $100, a nice two buyin uptick and some hope that I’m starting to get out of this slump.

After some food and some planning for a trip to Atlanta that I’m taking on Sunday, I sit down for another go at it. The runbad comes back in full effect. 6 times in 90 minutes I end up all in somewhere between 42/58 and 60/40. I lose 5 of them. A couple of those were against shorter stacks, it ended up being a $140 loss in the end. I’m ahead slightly on the day thanks to rakeback.

My current downswing now sits at $710, and my all in EV would put me at only -200 down, so I’m running a full 10 buyins below equity during this stretch now. AHhhhhhhhhhhh!

I hate bad beat and whining posts, but in the past I’ve just stopped posting(or worse completely said f-it and stopped playing altogether) during these stretches. I am determined to slog through this one though. So instead of just disappearing for awhile I whine!

Well, after seemingly being unable to lose for all of July and the first part of August, I’ve hit a legitimate rough patch that I need to work my way through.

I didn’t include the EV line, but its interesting that when I was up $1000 over a stretch in July I was running a solid $600 over EV in all in situations. Now that I’m in a nearly $700 downswing, I’m running nearly $400 under EV in all in situations. It seems like its never one or the other… up a little but should be down, down but should be up, etc… instead its getting crushed and having everyone else run like god just makes it worse, or vice versa. I guess that isn’t a huge surprise, success breeds success, etc.

Anyway, despite the runbad making it worse, I’m really unhappy with my play. Tonight was a 4 buyin night(down $200) and there was no runbad in there, it was all from playbad. Or at least, from having nothing at all work. The naked ace bluff into the guy willing to call 3 streets with the jack high flush(4th nuts, all low spades on the flop), the pot control check on the flop with the underfull allowing my opponent to hit a 2 outer, and then paying off the giant river raise when I knew I was beat. I needed to get my head on right or quit when that happened really, but i didn’t do either. Getting frustrated at seeing better hands all the time can lead me to make calls that I know are terrible. Call it the Negreanu syndrome from HSP… the guy raises big on the river after check/calling all the way, a bluff doesn’t make sense enough of the time to call, either he’s hit the obvious draw that just came in or is slowplaying a true monster. But I can’t fold my middle set, or my bottom straight… hands that I just know aren’t good. So I say to myself, “He’s got the nut straight here, but I can’t fold” … so I stick a lot of money in, and hey, look, he’s got the nut straight. Why didn’t I fold?

Anyway, at this point we have more than just a small downswing, there is a little frustration and tilty play creeping in, also there is a bit of fear after being beaten down repeatedly that is preventing me from making some plays at pots when the time *is* right. Hopefully, recognizing this and calling myself out on it here will allow me to focus and begin to right the ship the next time I play.

Simms spent some time last week working on the site and has made some nice improvements. Perhaps I’m just getting old, but the whole 800×600 thing with the font size that we were using seemed a bit small to me, so the size of the page in general, and the font size, have been increased, the style is still the same, but I am liking this a lot better!

Comments have been turned back on as well I believe. Those were turned off awhile ago due to spam getting totally out of control. We’ll see how things go this time around.

I was hoping to make a big post when my bankroll hit $2500, but it looks like that’s going to have to wait. I hit $2430 early in the week, but despite clearing the rest of my full tilt bonus, and getting a $50 rakeback payment yesterday, I’m stuck at $2090 right now, mired in a 9-10 buyin downswing, my first slowdown since I moved up to the $50 tables.

Things are still great obviously, on July 3rd I had $70 in my full tilt account and, without depositing anything, I now have $2090. That’s pretty freaking spectacular. But I’m a bit worried about my play. I’m running way over expectation(ie getting lucky a lot in all in pots), and losing money at a shocking rate in non-showdown pots this month. As I’ve gotten a better understanding of equities on various flops, I’ve been willing to gamble more, but after sessions where I just run great and win tons, I seem to back off the aggression and just try to show down too much. I’m working harder now on picking spots to pick up pots to reverse that cycle and get things moving in the right direction again.

2500 will be here soon enough! I am experimenting off and on with 2-tabling as well, but the extra table seems to tilt me easier and make me frustrated much easier(suckouts on two tables in close succession and I pretty much just insta-close FTP). So back to 1 table to get me out of this downswing, but I do want to reap the rewards of extra rakeback and extra profit if I can 2-table successfully.

Thanks again to Simms for the site enhancements!

Yeah that ended a little while ago. I’m up 12 buyins in my last 3 evenings of play, and after my first ~10,000 hands of PLO am a winning player, up almost 10 buyins total. That’s kinda amazing to me given how much I lost experimenting and learning and giving away stacks early on. Looking through my last 1000 hands or so, there really isn’t a whole lot that I find interesting. I’m playing straightforward, table selecting, and getting paid off when I make hands. I’m playing around a lot in small pots, and if I end up heads up am willing to barrel away but the vast majority of my upswing has simply been making the best hand and getting paid. The fact that I’m playing over 40% of my hands hopefully helps with that. But really, if I table select and find good tables(not hard at this level), then I’m letting the other guy barrel away more often than I’m doing it myself because I’m looking for other players much crazier than me and am trying to play as many pots as I can against them.

Obligatory Graph:

I’ll try to find some river bluffs or more interesting hands and mark them as I’m playing the next time I post. For now, here’s the biggest pot I won. Its boring though, flop top set, play it aggressively, the other guy’s draw missed. He was a 30/70 dog on the turn, and since he had less than a full pot sized bet left, once he turned his gutshot he was actually correct in calling off his stack getting 2.5:1 on his money. I don’t like his flop play. If I’m in his shoes on the flop facing a pot sized bet and a raise I’m folding, especially without the nut flush draw. But if I’m going to play, its time to play for stacks on the flop, I want the other guy making the decision for all the money, not me.

Also, new converter. I like this one better I think.

$0.1/$0.25 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 5 players) Hero is CO

UTG raises to $0.85, Hero calls $0.85, BTN calls $0.85, 1 fold, BB calls $0.60

Flop: ($3.50, 4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $3, Hero raises to $10, BTN calls $10, BB folds, UTG calls $7

Turn: ($33.50, 3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $31.62, BTN calls $22.02, UTG folds

River: ($87.14, 2 players)

Final Pot: $87.14
Hero shows:
BTN shows:

Hero wins $84.14 ( won +$41.67 )
UTG lost -$10.85
BTN lost -$32.87
BB lost -$0.85

1K hands isn’t long at all in poker really, but I’m one tabling, so yeah.

I’ve played 1000 hands since that last graph where I had gotten up to being breakeven at PLO.

After having swings of 10 buyins and sometimes more over any 1k period, I’ve finally had one where I ended up right where I started. Some stacks were traded, I played in 4 pots that were $85 or more, won two, lost two, but while my last graph showed me still slightly down, I’m now slightly up in my PLO career, so that’s something! Also, hooray for rakeback, which for this level is about $17/1000 hands, at least for me so far. One of the (intended) side effects of a LAGgy style of play is to generate bigger pots at the table overall, so I’m probably getting a bit more back this way than if I was playing tighter.

My FTP bankroll is currently $775, so I have a ways to go for $50 PL. My plan is to take some shots at $50 PL when I hit $1250, with a 5-BI stop loss(so go try out $50 PL, if I get back down to $1000, drop back down). 25 buyins for a level is a little low(probably a lot low, I should really shoot for 50 or more I think, at least as I get higher up), but I think its fine for taking a shot and giving myself a chance to get on a heater and make it stick. Still a ways to go to get there, but my confidence is quite high at the moment, it’s gonna happen soon enough.

I mentioned in my last post that I wasn’t posting a graph of all my play until I got back to even. I was about $200 down still at that time, and played another 400-500 hands lingering right around there(swinging a bit, got up as high as -$170 and down as low as -$260 in that stretch). Tonight I won a buyin at one table, then I noticed there was a $25 PL table going on Full tilt with an average pot size of $24.50. Tables with pot sizes over over $10 at this level are huge action tables to be sought out. I caught it at just the right time. It wasn’t full, no list, and I hopped on it immediately, hoping that I wasn’t taking the seat of the action player that generated this goodness.

To put it mildly… I was not taking the seat of the action player. Or should I say action players, plural. I played 85 hands at this table. Across the table from me(directly across in a 6 handed game, that is), Maniac A played 98% of his hands, raised 90% of them, and had a 3-bet percentage of 75%. All his 3-bets were for 75 cents save one where he potted it up big time. I would raise to 85 cents, he would 3-bet to 1.55, the entire table would call. This was the guy driving the action. Maniac B was directly to his left, but tame by comparison. He played only 90% of his hands, and only raised 25% of them preflop.

Of course, PLO is a post flop game, so without major issues postflop we’re just gambling. Luckily, there were major issues. K-high flush draw on a paired board is good for a stack, overpairs bluffing the pot on the river, every time, without fail. Sure, if I sense weakness I’ll risk my stack on a river pot sized bluff, but I have to be repping a legit hand, and have to have at least some reason to think my opponent may fold. This was just random pot sized river bets.

Biggest Hand of the Big session(how good am I running? Flop the nuts, maniac is willing to call the pot sized raise w/ a gutter and backdoor flush draw. He hits, but bets less than half pot, super easy call, and pays off the river when I hit right back):

Party Poker $25.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players – View hand 179912
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $57.45
Hero (UTG): $121.07
CO: $21.73
BTN: $26.71
SB: $162.62

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG with A A 4 T
Hero raises to $0.85, CO calls $0.85, 1 fold, SB raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.15, CO calls $1.15

Flop: ($6.25) A K 6 (3 players)
SB bets $3.25, Hero raises to $16, CO folds, SB calls $12.75

Turn: ($38.25) J (2 players)
SB bets $15.75, Hero calls $15.75

River: ($69.75) J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $37.25, SB calls $37.25

Final Pot: $144.25
Hero wins $141.25
(Rake: $3.00)

And since I can’t get this damn coverter to show showdown hands:

Hero shows [Ac, Ad 4h Ts ] (full house, Aces Full of Jacks)
SB doesn’t show [Ah, Qs Tc Qc ] (Straight, Ace High)

The only interesting thing here IMO is the river bet. A little while previously I had made the nuts on the river, bet about 2/3 pot, he pot raised me, and folded when I pushed all in. I wanted to make a similar bet to see if he’d do it again. So for once I actually don’t feel like a pussy for not potting the river, I actually have a reasonable meta-game reason for doing so.

And lastly:

During the major downswing that led to the “busto til rakeback day” part I was playing what has to be called a Hyper-Aggressive style. Winning tons of non-showdown pots, but if I got to showdown I was beat most of the time, just firing at everything. It puts a TON of pressure on people but a) I’m not good enough to pull it off consistently, and b) its totally unnecessary and perhaps impossible to pull off at $25 buyin levels. There are a LOT of pots to pick up, and a lot of pressure to put on people at this level, but one simply has to win at showdown to be a $25 PL winner IMO.

We’ve still only got an 8k sample, and I’m running good right now to be sure. But this is a MAJOR evolution for me as a poker player, I’ve never been able to grasp a solid LAG style of play ever in my poker career, I’ve tried, I’ve envied solid LAGs, but never come close to emulating them. Time will tell if this is a blip back up entirely due to running good, or if I’m going to skyrocket, or something in between, but I’ve never been happier about my play in my 7 years of playing.

I’m not posting a full graph until I’m ahead dammit. But the recovery and road to success is hopefully an inevitability. I felt good about my play and my prospects in the midst of 10+ buyin downswings, and it appears I’ve been rewarded with my first solid 10+ buyin upswing. I’m not playing a hyper-aggro style as much as I was at first, but I’ve settled in to what I feel is a very manageable LAG style of play. I’m recognizing places where I can pick up pots. firing two and *occasionally* 3 pot sized barrels based on a read to force a fold when I feel my opponent is weak is coming perfectly natural now, and is a big departure from my old weak-tight ways in big bet poker games.

Anyway, for now this is just a little brag post while I’m on a heater. In my last post I mentioned that I dropped down $350 almost immediately trying to figure out this new style(at $25 PL), and followed that up with a ridiculously bad stretch which led me to get down as far as $710 at my low point. Currently I’ve recovered a huge amount of that and am only at -$260 now. I’m running good now, where I was running bad before, but giant swings are a part of PLO, so that’s something I’ll have to get used to as well.

The following are of my last ~2k hands, since July 3rd when my first big heater began:

And to give some insight into how I’m trying to play:

Super tight early, opening up big time when I know I’m going to have position. These are loose/bad $25 buyin games, so there are tons of opportunities to limp into 4 way pots in the SB or call raises with hands that can flop big in 4 way pots.

I might incorporate more 3-betting later/at higher stakes when it becomes more common in general. However, the theory right now is that I don’t want to build big pots by 3-betting out of the blinds, forcing me to play in a bloated pot OOP. In position I rarely isolate or simply 3-bet strong double suited aces or rundowns, but most of the time again I prefer to keep the pot smaller, giving me more room to maneuver with the power of position post flop.

I’ve played about 8k hands so far, single tabling still. I intend to single table for quite some time. Maybe there’s a point down the road where it’ll be second nature enough that I’ll feel confident adding more tables, but I really feel like I can find good spots and make good plays/decisions much much more frequently when I’m focused on one table and all of the game flow and dynamics that are going on at that one table. As soon as I get up to breakeven I will share the full graph.

So after coming down off the 4/8 8-game high I played a little 2/4 8-game with mixed results, killing limit games and getting run over in big bet games. I also checked out a Triple Draw tracker that’s in beta that revealed that I was getting my ass handed to me at TD. But none of that is really relevant, I’m just wishy washy as all hell.

Watching two poker buddies online, one of them was coaching the other in a 6-max PLO session, playing a hyper-LAG style and getting a decent look at how reads and decisions were being made. I’ve always been a TAG player, bordering on weak tight, hell, crossing over into that vein often enough. Any attempts to widen my view on how to play has resulted in crash and burn, but I have always truly envied the smart, successful LAG.

So after watching these guys and figuring that this isn’t just a one night thing, I decide that I want to get in on the action and see if I can learn something myself. I watch these two guys play another session, ask some questions, and off I go. I give away stack after stack, trying to win every pot I play, bluffing like crazy, rarely slowing down. I lose in 14 of my first 16 sessions and am down an awesome $350 at .10/.25 PLO.

I describe a few hands along the way, and get a coaching session of my own. I realize that I was haphazardly trying to win every hand, trying to represent the nuts every pot I played and was just getting very out of sync. After that coaching session I run good, get it in mostly good, generally pick up pots at the right times and run over my tables with impunity. I won in 8 of my next 10 sessions. I’ve run bad but played well the last couple days, winning sklansky bucks all over, down $100 but up $150 in all in EV, etc.

I’m still down given that horrible -$350 start, but am recovering and playing really well most of the time I think. According to HEM right now, I’m down $175, but adjust for all-in EV I should actually be up $5. So with a little rungood hopefully I’ll be ok.

And I’m getting rakeback again. Is there a chance I’ll be back playing 8-game again tomorrow? sure, there’s always a chance. But I’m loving this so far, even down a couple hundos.

A Hand (though not one necessarily indictive of any sort of super-LAG play):

Party Poker $25.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $8.00
BTN: $30.09
SB: $114.73
Hero (BB): $55.56

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with 6 7 5 7
1 fold, BTN raises to $0.85, SB raises to $2.80, Hero calls $2.55, BTN calls $1.95

Over 200 BB Deep, SB hasn’t 3-bet often at all, I can’t put him in just AAxx but I think its by *far* his most likely holding, and I like these middling cards to try to flop a disguised hand to pick off aces with huge implied odds.

Flop: ($8.40) 3 A 4 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5.00, BTN folds, SB raises to $10, Hero calls $5

WTF? He flops what I would assume is top set on a rainbow board and checks. Maybe he has KKxx or a rundown that whiffed totally, so sure I’ll try to pick up the pot. With the min-raise I’ve got him back on AA again, he doesn’t want me to fold, or maybe he’s afraid of 25? Whatever, I have a very solid drawing hand, I’m certainly calling $5 (any 2, 5, 6, or 7 gives me the nuts). I’m a 60/40 dog against a set though so 200+ BB deep I don’t want to dance for all the money yet.

Turn: ($28.40) T (2 players)
SB bets $8.00, Hero calls $8

Total Blank. If he pots it I have to fold. I’m a 30/70 dog against AA. But he bets $8 into a $28 pot. I’m getting 4.5:1 to call, with a lot of money behind. It only helps that all of my outs are nut outs, so I’ve got a super easy river decision.

River: ($44.40) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $21.50, SB calls $21.50

Final Pot: $87.40
Hero wins $85.40
(Rake: $2.00)

Turns out I screwed up the “super easy river decision.”

Note to self: BET THE FULL POT DUMBASS. Seriously, I’m afraid he folds for full pot but maybe calls less. But I’ve got him squarely on aces, he’s seen me bluff rivers and get called before, this is the whole point of this style I’m playing (I’m 50/30 VP$P/PFR at this table btw), maximize your winnings please!

And this converter still struggles with PLO hands at showdown it seems:

Hero shows [6d, 7c 5c 7h ]
Hero wins $85.40 USD from main pot
Villain doesn’t show [Ah, 4s As 9h ]

PLO is fun!

For now, my time at 4/8 8-game is over. But that’s not a bad thing. I had some hope that I could run my roll up to $3k or more and actually play that game consistently, but that’s a lot to ask.

I got my Stars roll up to $2000, barely,and very briefly. I hit $2006, commented to my buddy Dave “ABOVE $2k!!!! Not for long i’m sure just barley above it but new milestone!”

I then went 2 hours without winning a hand. I lost 2 buyins in a slow drain, nothing interesting to report, just a steady, obnoxious $300 downswing. I recovered a bit, with a nice $200 session, getting back up to $1900, but that was the last 4/8 winning session I had. Over my next 4 sessions I lost $500. I stopped winning every 50/50 or better flip in PLO, losing a 55/45 all in. Flush draws started coming in when I had a set, and of course, I continue to suck like you wouldn’t believe in NLHE.

I bottomed out at $1400, but remember that’s still a profit of $900, not bad for playing on a whim after weeks of not opening up a poker site for more than 20 minutes.

I had loaned some money to a buddy that got returned on FTP, so some of that $1400 was in the ether and/or on FTP. I took a couple days off to hammer out the rest of my college hoops 2k8 season on the XBOX that I had been neglecting, and to re-adjust to the idea that I’m not logging on to play 4-8 anymore, did a FTP for Stars money swap w/ a friend, and am now actively playing 2/4 8-game as the game I intend to stick with for the time being, and intend to build up with.

After the loans/money swaps settled, I now have $1750 on Pokerstars. I have $650 on Full Tilt as well, but since its not fun moving money I tend to treat them as two separate bankrolls, just out of convienance.

And bankroll management in 8-game is a little interesting. $1750 is about 440 BB for the limit games, a solid amount, maybe even enough to shot-take higher up. But I buyin for $75, so I’ve got about 23 buyins as far as NL/PL goes. that’s closer to the minimum I’d want to stick it out at a level. In THEORY I try to stay snug in NL/PL so the limit requirements mean a lot more to me. In practice I cannot resist raising that suited connector and getting my ass in trouble in NLHE regularly.

So anyway, that’s where things are now. Running $500 up to $2000 in a week and a half playing over my roll was a hell of a lot of fun, and there’s a lot in this 8-game rotation to take advantage of, hopefully this is one of those “re-energizing” moments that gets me playing online more often and more consistently, and writing more. As soon as I post this I’m firing up a 2/4 game to play for awhile.

If you were once a regular reader here and are starting to read again, yell at me on FOBL/FOFC if you don’t see a post in a week, I really want to keep this going and build up some steam!

I’d mentioned that over the weekend I had gotten my stars roll up over $1900 multiple times but every day dropped back down a good bit.

TUESDAY

I don’t have the hand history handy, but the biggiest pot I was involved in was an O8 pot with KJJT in a raised pot. Someone early raised, 3 callers, and I call w/ KJJT in the big blind, which I assume is ok w/ a high only hand for one bet.

FLOP QJx, middle set and OESD. I forget the action, whether I c/r or led out but the flop went for 3 bets heads up with me and one other opponent.

TURN ace, putting a heart draw out there and giving me the nut straight to go with my set of jacks. The turn is cappped.

RIVER: low heart. I bet and crying call when i’m raised.

My opponent had QQxx with two hearts, so he had the nuts on the flop,I had the nuts on the turn, and he had the best hand on the river, not the nut flush but I had no hearts so yeah.

Anyway, that was the most memorable hand of the day for me. I never gotup more than $100 or down more than $100.

Tuesday Final Tally: $1610, down $25 on the day

WEDNESDAY

We start out in Bad Beat City, a 3 outer in a $100 O8 pot where I’ve got a set of aces and the nut flush draw and my opponent hits a gutshot on the river sets the tone. I decide that if i hit $1400 that I’ll take a break and drop back to 2/4, as that would represent a $500 downswing at a game I’m still not rolled for. I get down to $1440, I’ve got $40 on the table just trying to get it in good, and I manage to flop the nuts with JT 3 way in limit holdem. I end up tripling up to $120 and am back in business. I build up to $1680 and take a break, actually up on the day after almost “busting” down to a low point.

In a late night session I run good. I’m winning in every game, can’t seem to miss.

Poker Stars $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $89.25
UTG: $169.50
MP: $121.90
Hero (CO): $281.75
BTN: $185.20
SB: $315.50

Pre Flop: ($4.00) Hero is CO with K A 8 A
1 fold, MP raises to $6, Hero raises to $20, 3 folds, MP calls $14

Flop: ($43.00) 4 9 4 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $41.80, MP calls $41.80

Turn: ($126.60) J (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $124.60, MP calls $59.10 all in

River: ($244.80) 4 (2 players – 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $244.80
MP shows 7 8 5 2 (three of a kind, Fours)
Hero shows K A 8 A (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
Hero wins $242.80
(Rake: $2.00)

Not a lot to say here. It seems obvious I’ve got AA. Its a pretty good flop for my hand in a 3-bet pot, and my opponent had been playing… erratically, to put it mildly, before this. In this hand I just hope he didn’t hurt himself in his rush to shove all his chips over my way, WOW. Tilt beneficiary I suppose.

WEDNESDAY FINAL TALLY: In about 90 minutes in a late session I clear $280 , and quit for the day with $1960, my new high!

I’m still not rolled for 4/8, but it seems a little less impossible that I could actually get there. Stay tuned, etc!