I wrote a blog entry last week addressing weekend warrior poker guy. This week I’m taking aim at Holiday Weekend poker guy. Weekend warrior poker guy specializes in knowing how to NOT win. Holiday weekend poker guy specializes in making sure I don’t win. They just do things that are so puzzling and there are so many of them to be accounted for….let me explain.
Not to sound Helmuthian but Its just impossible for me to beat a table full of Donkeys on a regular basis. I guess I’m just not good enough. 3 or 4 crappy players are fine by me but trying to navigate a minefield of 8 brain deads is just suicide. This Memorial Day I found myself on 1 such table. I don’t want to go on a rant about how bad I ran, (which was pretty awful) or how they call any size bet preflop with any hand, or how they chase with bad odds constantly and don’t know how to get paid off when the hit, and…well the list goes on and on and on and on. What I do want to talk about is their flawed mentality…and how ridiculous the things they actually think are.
I enter a happy go lucky limpfest around 10AM. No regs. Everyones seeing flops, playing crappy and loving life. Fine by me. After about an hour of me adhering to the status quo yet playing sneakily tight I raise a limped pot to $15 out of the blinds and get 2 callers. One was an older guy who limp called UTG with a stack of about $150. At this point I assume his limp call of $15 is tight especially since he must put me on a big hand. Right? He must put me on something good…right…am I crazy by thinking this?
Any way I bet $35 into a Qjx flop and he called and the other donkey folded. The turn was a brick and due to many factors I decided to just check the turn as did he. The river was another brick and I decided to make a value bet of $45. He folded and loudly announced “nice move” to which I quietly shrugged off. Then he and his neighbors continued to overevalute the hand won by the “young whippersnapper” who suddenly decided it was time to build a pot preflop so he could run a bluff on an old man. The guy claimed he flopped an open ender. So at best he had King high but is accusing me of making a move. Even if I had Ace high I had the best hand. Either way I’m now public enemy number 1 as far as the other side of the table is concerned.
By playing tight ABC poker I’ve once again earned the title of table maniac. All eyes on me for the 2nd weekend in a row. It just completely blows my mind that people think this way. I love it when people get mad that you raise it to so much preflop but they’ll call every time anyways. They don’t realize that if they just stopped calling so much with crap hands my preflop opens would be considerably less. Sometimes it seems like they don’t realize that if they fold the dealer will just deal us another hand 10 seconds later. Anyway…this brings me to dunce-o number 2.
This guy is playing alongside wifey. The 2 biggest calling stations in the game. She’s losing…totally incapable of folding top pair to even the most dangerous of boards…and hes luck boxing his way to about a $600 stack full of reds. I open to $13 from mid with AQ and get a caller and him from the SB. He called $13 with 2 random suited cards cuz that’s what HE does. And of course he flops a flush draw and of course I flop an Ace. I bet…other guy folds…and this guy call. Turn is a brick. I bet about 60% pot…he calls. River completes the flush and he fires out over $150 to which I insta fold. The second I fold he looks at me and says “pocket queens???”. I just love the fact he puts me on 1 exact hand and then bets an absurd amount that I would NEVER call that bet with the hand he put me on. Then when someone suggested to him that I had an ace he was in absolute awe that I would possibly fold an ace in that spot. He congratulated me for 5 minutes saying sick fold. And he was being genuinely honest.
The 3rd offender is the holiday guy I detest the most. Holiday guy who THINKS you’re a mainac so he opens up his preflop calling range to any 2 cards against you. NO…THIS REALLY HAPPENS. A good player might tighten up against a LAG especially out of position while this guys appear to do the complete opposite. Let me explain…
After a grueling 8 hours of playing tight as a rock at this table I attempt 1 river bluff when my open ender and flush draw miss in the river. Standard play in relation to the pot size & my table image IMO. Everybody should still be aware that Im playing like a rock. 5 hands later I get KK utg+1 and raise $15 after 1 limper. I get a call and the limper calls. Flop is Q98. I bet $35 and only UTG calls. Turn is a J and UTG checks in a very suspicious way to me so I check behind. River is an 8 and its checked to me again as UTG turns to me and is staring me in the face hardcore. I take a minute and decide its just not worth it to bet and he shows T4 offsuit for a made straight. Wow. I don’t say 1 thing and he goes into explaining mode. “Well I thought you were making a move preflop…the way you played the hand before made me call” and “I had 2 gutshots before and didn’t hit em”. Awesome mentality. You think a guy is making moves on the table so you decide to fight back out of position with T4 offsuit. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
I don’t know which Holiday guy I enjoy more. The one that chases and overbets his hand or the one that chases and expects me to bet it for him. Either way their bad choices after their hands hit saved me probably over $100. It is kinda depressing though when you find yourself at the softest table you’ve played in weeks and you’re the big loser.
BONUS SIDENOTE: Heres a stupid hand I wasn’t involved in between 3 players who had been at the table for over an hour and should be aware of the flow of the game and what not. I remind you…we were at a very loose passive table with not a lot of preflop raising going down. Standard open was no more than $12 if that. UTG player opens for $15.…UTG +1 passive guy from before whose playing with wifey pops it to $55 ($500ish behind)...NEVER DOES THIS WITH QQ…Its 100% KK or AA no questions asked and this should be blatantly obvious. Button player insta ships for $140ish. Back to utg who has a $400ish stack and stares at his cards for 50 seconds just saying soooo sick over and over. He clearly doesn’t have aces from the way hes acting. Hes not a good player so you could tell his worriment was genuine. He’s definitely not hollywooding with Aces. I put him on QQ/KK at the time. After a minute of fretting he shoves his whole stack in to which the guy who popped it to $55 folds KK face up! Now the guy who shipped $140 shows JJ and the other bonehead shows AK. JJ ends up winning and then the general consensus after the hand was that the guy with JJ had to shove his stack there…It was the only move….and everyone agreed. I actually told the guy next to me that I think JJ is a fold there and he looked at me as if I had 17 heads. And then proceeded to crack my Kings with T4 off. Classic Holiday Weekend Guy.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Week goals
Last week brought a mixed bag of results for me at the 1/2 level. I ended the week in damage control mode and made the best out of a poor situation. I never got to my 35 hours but I did play 31 and put in a lot of time away from the felt. My last 2 sessions brought me back from the dead In which I turned a week in which I was stuck $621 into being down a reasonable $351. Thurdsay I tightened up considerably. I actually widened my opening range in position but I stopped limping with crappy hands. Friday I fell down $140 early. I knew how important it was for me to not have a big loss going into the weekend. For both mental reasons and obvious financial reasons. I dug really deep and played my A Game until I got up and finally left +$190. I actually got AA all in preflop vs. JJ late in my session for over $80 and lost so it could’ve been a bigger day than it actually was.
I think my number 1 strength as a poker player is that losing makes me better. When you only have a bankroll in the $4k range you cant really afford a prolonged downswing. Plus Im so anxious to get up to 2/5 that I cant lose any big chunks of change right now. Nothing gets me more focused on improving my game than a few losing sessions do. This weeks losing sessions got me to subscribe to stack em coaching, something I would of otherwise never considered.
Stackem coaching is a poker training website with subscription based audio coaching material. A lot of their instruction is geared towards live play at the lower stakes which to my knowledge you can’t find anywhere else. Plus some podcasts are basically recorded sessions between a student and an instructor. I find listening to anything poker related on the way to a session extremely motivating. Im in the car for an hour…mise well fill my brain with poker stuff. Its quality stuff too. I love Bart Hansons podcast but a lot of what he talks about doesn’t apply to the 1/2 level. So far what I’ve heard from stack em is right up my alley. I highly recommend you check em out.
On a goals standpoint, I feel poised for a winning week. That’s all I care about right now. Im erasing the slate on last week and starting fresh. I’ve been goin bad on Saturdays so I took the weekend off so I can build off my back to back winning sessions when I return on Monday. Im gonna aim once again for about 35 hrs…but this weeks all about winning, whether I play 20 hours or 90. Lets go.
I think my number 1 strength as a poker player is that losing makes me better. When you only have a bankroll in the $4k range you cant really afford a prolonged downswing. Plus Im so anxious to get up to 2/5 that I cant lose any big chunks of change right now. Nothing gets me more focused on improving my game than a few losing sessions do. This weeks losing sessions got me to subscribe to stack em coaching, something I would of otherwise never considered.
Stackem coaching is a poker training website with subscription based audio coaching material. A lot of their instruction is geared towards live play at the lower stakes which to my knowledge you can’t find anywhere else. Plus some podcasts are basically recorded sessions between a student and an instructor. I find listening to anything poker related on the way to a session extremely motivating. Im in the car for an hour…mise well fill my brain with poker stuff. Its quality stuff too. I love Bart Hansons podcast but a lot of what he talks about doesn’t apply to the 1/2 level. So far what I’ve heard from stack em is right up my alley. I highly recommend you check em out.
On a goals standpoint, I feel poised for a winning week. That’s all I care about right now. Im erasing the slate on last week and starting fresh. I’ve been goin bad on Saturdays so I took the weekend off so I can build off my back to back winning sessions when I return on Monday. Im gonna aim once again for about 35 hrs…but this weeks all about winning, whether I play 20 hours or 90. Lets go.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Awful day
Looking over my stats from the last year I would’ve thought I lost over $450 in a session more often. But no, today was only the 4th time since Thanksgiving that I’ve spilled over a buy in and a half at the 1/2 tables. Usually I go home from my big losses kicking myself. Wondering why I chose that 1 time out of a hundred to limp aces. Or why I didn’t switch tables after having a losing image in a tough game for quite some time. But today I had no regrets. I didn’t play TOO bad. I wasn’t OVERLY card dead. I didn’t try to pull off an ill timed bluff, And I never ran into any coolers. How the hell did I lose so much freaking money(-$453 to be exact).
Lets flashback to Monday which was supposed to be my rebound session after Saturdays debacle. Monday was a day in which I was TRULY card dead. 7 hours of nothing to the point I became unfocused and passive to a fault. A key hand came hours into my session in which my passiveness led me to limp UTG with AK. Everyone limped to the button who pops it to a measly $7. Blinds call and I miss an opportunity to re-pop it to try to take down all the preflop money and maybe get heads up. Instead I just call inviting the string of callers along for the ride in the bloated pot. Flop is K44 (2 hearts). SB donks for like $30 and I have to raise for value and to protect my hand against the flushes. Also someone having a 4 is slightly unlikely but if he repops me I’m folding. So of course I get another caller whos a short stack and the sb folds KQ. Of course with the pot size and the turn being a total brick I have to get it in for his last about $45 or so and lose to his 47 offsuit. That session ended with me down near -$250 with plans of an early Tuesday session to make it up the next day.
I woke up Tuesday hoping to just get a winning session in for 2nd half of my overnight trip. I knew not to chase my $250 from the day before. I had to treat this as its own session and hopefully come out ahead. One thing I told myself was that I was going to be more assertive. If I was going to go down today I was going to go down with a fight….be aggressive and force the action at times. Quickly my strategy paid off and I was up to the tune of +$225 about 2 hrs into my session…but then the card deadness hit again. I ended up right where I was the day before folding hand after hand and slowly bleeding money to missed draws and missed flops. I finally got outta there up $83 when I realized nothing was going my way for the better part of 4 hrs. Probably a wise choice.
Which brings us to Wednesday.
We opened up a new table at about 10:30AM and like the day before I decided I was going to be aggressive. Especially in position opening a lot of pots. It worked out for me early when I opened 85s on the button and got a street of value out of flopping middle pair to pick up a small pot. That was the highlight of my day.
The cards just wouldn’t cooperate with what I wanted to do. I was stuck getting hands like Q2 offsuit all day in position and getting my borderline playable hands like SC’s and Aj off UTG or in the blinds. I called a few preflop raises with the KJ suiteds of the world and small pocket pairs and whiffed miserably every time. Actually called a $12 open which had 3 callers on the button with 98s…which got min raised by old man nit in the blinds and called all around…so now I have to waste $24 on a stupid hand when I know the flop is going to be T52 rainbow. Could old man nit ever ask for a more perfect flop after making such a dangerous move. And of course he takes down the big pot on the flop unscathed.
There were really no terrible players at my table. Nobody to really target. After a few hours stuck for about $200 I realized It was time for a table change…but I had taken the bus to the casino and It was picking up In 2 hrs. 2 hrs just isn’t enough time for me to go to a new table set up an image and get reads on the other players. It would’ve just been 2 hrs of me ferociously trying to get back even. That’s why I hate taking the bus (or 1 or 788 reasons why). I decided to stick it out.
As I said, I had a few playable hands and didn’t really run into coolers. Heres 3 spots where I could’ve easily played more tight and not lose as much but It really could’ve gone either way.
Early in the session I flop am open ended straight draw and call a $6 bet by a seemingly under average player. Then I pick up a flush draw on the turn and the clown bets just $6 again after I check. There are actually 2 flush draws on the board now. I could easily just call but I decide I have TONS of fold equity vs. this weak bet with 2 flushes and straight draws on board so I pop it to $30. Now he shoves and I have to call $60 into a pot of about $85. I call…he flopped a set…I brick.
Same player an hour layer. He limps EP…I have QQ on the button and raise $16 with a few other limps out there. He’s my only caller and the flop is Kxx all clubs. I have the Q of clubs. He donks $20 into me. I hate my options at this point. If I don’t have the club it’s a fold or raise but with the flush draw I decide to just call. Now the turns a red rag and he bets like $30. At this point I call. Rivers a brick and he bets $20 into the $135ish pot. With him having only about a hundred behind I cant really make a river shove here to knock him off his weak king. Hes never playing JJ this way so I know Im beat…but I throw in the $20 anyways just to see how big the King was he called a $16 bet with preflop. It was Kjs.
My other losing hand came in the Hi-Jack with AK in which I opened for $13 and got called by both the blinds. Flop is QJ6 2 diamonds. Both check to me. This is a good flop to check behind because it hit’s a lot of their calling range and I also have outs to a good made hand and 3 outs to the nuts. However I decide a big enough C-bets will knock them off a lot of hands with equity like lower PP’s, Aj and some straight draws. So I pop it to $30. Get 2 calls. Turns a black 6. Checks to BB who goes $40...I begrudgingly call which is probably a mistake and the small blind shoves $200 thus ending the hand and showing pocket jacks.
These seem like average hands from a mediocre session. But when you go 5hrs without winning so much as a $30 pot thes hands are magnified. And thats exactly what happened. On my last hand I raised $12 in MP with ATs and ran into QQ. Suprisingly enough the flop wasnt AQT and I got away only losing $12. Pretty much the norm for the day.
Lets flashback to Monday which was supposed to be my rebound session after Saturdays debacle. Monday was a day in which I was TRULY card dead. 7 hours of nothing to the point I became unfocused and passive to a fault. A key hand came hours into my session in which my passiveness led me to limp UTG with AK. Everyone limped to the button who pops it to a measly $7. Blinds call and I miss an opportunity to re-pop it to try to take down all the preflop money and maybe get heads up. Instead I just call inviting the string of callers along for the ride in the bloated pot. Flop is K44 (2 hearts). SB donks for like $30 and I have to raise for value and to protect my hand against the flushes. Also someone having a 4 is slightly unlikely but if he repops me I’m folding. So of course I get another caller whos a short stack and the sb folds KQ. Of course with the pot size and the turn being a total brick I have to get it in for his last about $45 or so and lose to his 47 offsuit. That session ended with me down near -$250 with plans of an early Tuesday session to make it up the next day.
I woke up Tuesday hoping to just get a winning session in for 2nd half of my overnight trip. I knew not to chase my $250 from the day before. I had to treat this as its own session and hopefully come out ahead. One thing I told myself was that I was going to be more assertive. If I was going to go down today I was going to go down with a fight….be aggressive and force the action at times. Quickly my strategy paid off and I was up to the tune of +$225 about 2 hrs into my session…but then the card deadness hit again. I ended up right where I was the day before folding hand after hand and slowly bleeding money to missed draws and missed flops. I finally got outta there up $83 when I realized nothing was going my way for the better part of 4 hrs. Probably a wise choice.
Which brings us to Wednesday.
We opened up a new table at about 10:30AM and like the day before I decided I was going to be aggressive. Especially in position opening a lot of pots. It worked out for me early when I opened 85s on the button and got a street of value out of flopping middle pair to pick up a small pot. That was the highlight of my day.
The cards just wouldn’t cooperate with what I wanted to do. I was stuck getting hands like Q2 offsuit all day in position and getting my borderline playable hands like SC’s and Aj off UTG or in the blinds. I called a few preflop raises with the KJ suiteds of the world and small pocket pairs and whiffed miserably every time. Actually called a $12 open which had 3 callers on the button with 98s…which got min raised by old man nit in the blinds and called all around…so now I have to waste $24 on a stupid hand when I know the flop is going to be T52 rainbow. Could old man nit ever ask for a more perfect flop after making such a dangerous move. And of course he takes down the big pot on the flop unscathed.
There were really no terrible players at my table. Nobody to really target. After a few hours stuck for about $200 I realized It was time for a table change…but I had taken the bus to the casino and It was picking up In 2 hrs. 2 hrs just isn’t enough time for me to go to a new table set up an image and get reads on the other players. It would’ve just been 2 hrs of me ferociously trying to get back even. That’s why I hate taking the bus (or 1 or 788 reasons why). I decided to stick it out.
As I said, I had a few playable hands and didn’t really run into coolers. Heres 3 spots where I could’ve easily played more tight and not lose as much but It really could’ve gone either way.
Early in the session I flop am open ended straight draw and call a $6 bet by a seemingly under average player. Then I pick up a flush draw on the turn and the clown bets just $6 again after I check. There are actually 2 flush draws on the board now. I could easily just call but I decide I have TONS of fold equity vs. this weak bet with 2 flushes and straight draws on board so I pop it to $30. Now he shoves and I have to call $60 into a pot of about $85. I call…he flopped a set…I brick.
Same player an hour layer. He limps EP…I have QQ on the button and raise $16 with a few other limps out there. He’s my only caller and the flop is Kxx all clubs. I have the Q of clubs. He donks $20 into me. I hate my options at this point. If I don’t have the club it’s a fold or raise but with the flush draw I decide to just call. Now the turns a red rag and he bets like $30. At this point I call. Rivers a brick and he bets $20 into the $135ish pot. With him having only about a hundred behind I cant really make a river shove here to knock him off his weak king. Hes never playing JJ this way so I know Im beat…but I throw in the $20 anyways just to see how big the King was he called a $16 bet with preflop. It was Kjs.
My other losing hand came in the Hi-Jack with AK in which I opened for $13 and got called by both the blinds. Flop is QJ6 2 diamonds. Both check to me. This is a good flop to check behind because it hit’s a lot of their calling range and I also have outs to a good made hand and 3 outs to the nuts. However I decide a big enough C-bets will knock them off a lot of hands with equity like lower PP’s, Aj and some straight draws. So I pop it to $30. Get 2 calls. Turns a black 6. Checks to BB who goes $40...I begrudgingly call which is probably a mistake and the small blind shoves $200 thus ending the hand and showing pocket jacks.
These seem like average hands from a mediocre session. But when you go 5hrs without winning so much as a $30 pot thes hands are magnified. And thats exactly what happened. On my last hand I raised $12 in MP with ATs and ran into QQ. Suprisingly enough the flop wasnt AQT and I got away only losing $12. Pretty much the norm for the day.
Monday, May 21, 2012
5/21 Bankroll and goals
I wasn’t able to hit my quota for hours played last week but I did work considerably on my game away from the tables. That counts for something and I realize that It might not be super necessary to play 40hrs a week if that’s gonna take away from study time. I feel 35 hrs or so on the felt is more realistic for me and I aim to hit it this week. I’ll start with my Monday/Tuesday overnight stay and try to bang out 20hrs off the bat. After that, 3 days of 5hr sessions will be good enough and anything else is just gravy.
Tomorrow I’m ordering Ed Millers E-book from notedpokerauthority.com. I’m a junkie for anything Miller writes. I plan to do a review on it once I read it, but I’m a slow reader so don’t hold your breath. I'm sure it will be great.
After Saturdays loss I ended up just under +$500 for the week. Adding 30% to my bankroll now has me up to $4,879. I needed a little pocket money so I decided to square up my cash after 1 week instead of 2 this time. Headed to the casino now. Hopefully I’ll bounce back from Saturdays loss.
Tomorrow I’m ordering Ed Millers E-book from notedpokerauthority.com. I’m a junkie for anything Miller writes. I plan to do a review on it once I read it, but I’m a slow reader so don’t hold your breath. I'm sure it will be great.
After Saturdays loss I ended up just under +$500 for the week. Adding 30% to my bankroll now has me up to $4,879. I needed a little pocket money so I decided to square up my cash after 1 week instead of 2 this time. Headed to the casino now. Hopefully I’ll bounce back from Saturdays loss.
Whippersnapper
Same thing that makes you laugh will make you cry. That’s Saturday morning poker to me. I used to enjoy getting up early and playing the daytime Saturday games at Casinos. Saturdays are when Casinos are filled with the old man weekend warrior poker players. The ones who are there to limp every hand, play their 1 buyin, chat it up with their doppelgangers, and “play the right way”. None of em win any money. They think they play good until their stack dwindles a bit and they find themselves in a spot where they have to commit with top pair and get felted. They go home convincing themselves they made all the right moves and just ran into bad luck. Whenever they fold top pair they have to announce it after the hands over. After every pot they have to explain exactly what they were thinking in that hand to each other. They never bluff and their preflop open range is something like JJ+,AK. Their main concern is basically to let the other players at the table know that they are a good player. Even though games are tight, I used to look at Saturdays as a safe way to make about a hundred bucks. Saturday I was in one such game.
Everything was chill for about the first 45 minutes. Everyone got to see their flops for $2 and nobody was making money except for the house and the dealers. A grand ol time was being had by all and I’m not one to wanna ruin everyones fun. But I am here to make money. One of the most standard and obvious ways to make money in these games is raising big for value preflop. Its tough creating big pots post flop in the limped pots unless it’s a cooler or a made hand vs. flush draw situation. So of course I’m going to take advantage of spots and raise as much as I can preflop with my good hands for value. I have no problem open raising for $15+ in a 1/2 game with even the bottom of my range if I think im going to get called by worse. Which is exactly what I started doing. I eventually had to raise my button preflop with AQ and came out double barreling a scary board in which I kinda missed. Took down the pot. Then one hand later I flopped 2 pair in a limped pot and bet heavy all 3 streets and won without a showdown. All of a sudden I heard someone at the other end of the table whisper “I’d LOVE to see what he had”. It was top 2 on a dry flop for the record if that’s so freaking unbelievable. 2 small hands and all of a sudden I’m striking fear into these old guys hearts. Anyone with a brain would see I was playing standard ABC poker. But at a table where the avg age of my opponent was about 60, at age 31 I had quickly become the young “whippersnapper” of the table.
Less than and orbit later I get AK (with the king of diamonds) in the small blind. After a few limpers I decide to pop it to $20. $20 seems like much but I think I can probably get 1 caller and If not Im content taking down the blinds. Of course limping and just seeing a flop is an option but I feel it’s a time where aggression with my big hands will add to my image and really get under these guys skin. Especially if we don’t get to showdown. To my slight surprise I get 2 INSTA callers. Flop is something like 754 of diamonds. In a $60 pot I decide to bet $45. I figure if I make my hand look enough like a big overpair they’re going to fold most of their hands. Hands like 88-TT fold here most of the time by these particular villains. Plus $45 is a lot for these guys to chase a draw. They’re mostly looking for any reason to fold post flop. So I get 1 caller. Turn is something like 2 of clubs so I check and villain checks behind. At this point I feel confident villain doesn’t have a monster. Im kinda puttin him on a small made hand with a diamond. Maybe like pocket 8’s with the straight flush draw. MAYBE AK with the Ace of diamonds. So the river is another insignificant black card. I can check and he’ll for sure check behind and If I bet I will only be called by better obviously, but I decide to bet small. Im not willing to bet big on a bluff and heres why. By bluffing Im trying to get him to fold the hands I previously put him on. Small pairs with combo draws that ended up missing, and AK with the A diamonds. Which I guarantee he woulda folded for about $50. No need to put more in. My bluff only needs to work about 26% of the time to be profitable. So I bet $50 and he calls with QQ (Q of diamonds). He had pretty much what I put him on but slightly better. Its tough to put him on QQ since he limped in sheer terror of building a big pot with QQ or having to fold it preflop. To me or you I played the hand in a pretty standard fashion…but you should’ve seen the reaction I got when I happily tabled AK to show the bluff.
Everybody on the other end of the table was awestruck that somebody would try to bluff in a game of poker. The lunacy! Who does this guy think he is! You cant just come into a poker game, raise preflop with premium hands, and then make stabs at pots that people don’t want. Whippersnapper. Suddenly all the rocks had turn into an angry mob trying to regain control of their precious little Saturday game of poker. There was a clear buzz at the table if not a downright outrage. Still missing the fact that I’ve played nothing but premium hands the whole time. Not more than 1 hand later I find myself on the button with AK AGAIN!
So now after the barrade of limps I decide a $15 raise is sufficient. This will thin the field and get me heads up or vs. 2 with position. I get only one caller (a guy with about $55 behind) and a flop of Q J x. Check to me….I check behind. Turn is another J….check to me….I make a $15 stab…villain insta shoves all in and it’s a clear fold. Before I fold I ask if he’ll show and he agrees. Of course he does because he wants everyone else at the table to see what he has so they know hes a “good player”. I show him my AK and he shows me 99. Pretty bold move for this guy with 99. Everyones now congratulating him for his AMAZING hand won. Chalk up a win for the good guys. Maybe this whippersnapper will think twice before raising his button with premium hands and then playing standard ABC poker post flop. What have I created!
Theres still a buzz at the table when I get QQ (with the Q of diamonds) the immediate hand after in the cutoff. After the limps I decide to play off my image and pop it to an absurd $25 in which the shortstack to my left shoves for $29 and 1 limper calls for $29. Flop is A65 of diamonds. Villain checks…I check. Turn is the 9 of diamonds. Check to me and I make the standard value bet with my monster hand of about $60. Now the villain is clearly counting his chips out and eyeing my stack trying to decide whether to raise or just call. He clearly has no fear of my hand and I have the feeling I’m up against the K of diamonds. After a few seconds he just calls. Now the river is a brick and I decide that villain is giving off enough tells about the strength of his hand that I think I’m beat…but I have enough showdown value to call a bet so I grab my whole stack as if im ready to ship it in. This of course fools the villain into checking the nuts to me…ya I said it…THE NUTS. Of course I check behind losing the absoulute minimum to this clown who was playing 87 of diamonds. I did nothing wrong in this hand and lost the minimum. This fool did everything wrong in this pot and reeps the rewards. Or at least he thinks he played it well. He really cost himself $100 by playing so passively. I don’t have a HUGE problem calling 87s preflop if you’re a savvy player whose capable of playing tricky, bluffling, and getting max value out of your made hands. But In this guys case he was just a horrid player who got lucky once and will lose a lot of money playing 87s in his poker lifetime. Especially if he’s not going to maximise his value when he hits. When asked by another player why he didn’t bet the nuts he said “cuz he’s a maniac I figured he’d bet”. See how being dealt premium hands can change the perception of how your playing. It’s not like I didn’t show my hand every time but all these guys saw was that I was raising big preflop. So instead of just not calling which would’ve forced me to raise smaller amounts, they decide that they are going to call with bad hands and play horribly post flop. Great strategy.
All in all my bad run of good cards turned into a day in which I soon became card dead. At this point I was down $200 which later became over $300. I was able to bring myself up to a respectable loss of only $220 after 7 hrs in which I felt I was losing focus and playing my B game. Leaving the table stuck a respectable amount is something I’ve been working on. Like I said in one of my last posts I can count on one hand the amount of times I was stuck over a hundred dollars after 5 hours and came back to profit over $100. Sometimes we have to understand it’s just not our day.
Everything was chill for about the first 45 minutes. Everyone got to see their flops for $2 and nobody was making money except for the house and the dealers. A grand ol time was being had by all and I’m not one to wanna ruin everyones fun. But I am here to make money. One of the most standard and obvious ways to make money in these games is raising big for value preflop. Its tough creating big pots post flop in the limped pots unless it’s a cooler or a made hand vs. flush draw situation. So of course I’m going to take advantage of spots and raise as much as I can preflop with my good hands for value. I have no problem open raising for $15+ in a 1/2 game with even the bottom of my range if I think im going to get called by worse. Which is exactly what I started doing. I eventually had to raise my button preflop with AQ and came out double barreling a scary board in which I kinda missed. Took down the pot. Then one hand later I flopped 2 pair in a limped pot and bet heavy all 3 streets and won without a showdown. All of a sudden I heard someone at the other end of the table whisper “I’d LOVE to see what he had”. It was top 2 on a dry flop for the record if that’s so freaking unbelievable. 2 small hands and all of a sudden I’m striking fear into these old guys hearts. Anyone with a brain would see I was playing standard ABC poker. But at a table where the avg age of my opponent was about 60, at age 31 I had quickly become the young “whippersnapper” of the table.
Less than and orbit later I get AK (with the king of diamonds) in the small blind. After a few limpers I decide to pop it to $20. $20 seems like much but I think I can probably get 1 caller and If not Im content taking down the blinds. Of course limping and just seeing a flop is an option but I feel it’s a time where aggression with my big hands will add to my image and really get under these guys skin. Especially if we don’t get to showdown. To my slight surprise I get 2 INSTA callers. Flop is something like 754 of diamonds. In a $60 pot I decide to bet $45. I figure if I make my hand look enough like a big overpair they’re going to fold most of their hands. Hands like 88-TT fold here most of the time by these particular villains. Plus $45 is a lot for these guys to chase a draw. They’re mostly looking for any reason to fold post flop. So I get 1 caller. Turn is something like 2 of clubs so I check and villain checks behind. At this point I feel confident villain doesn’t have a monster. Im kinda puttin him on a small made hand with a diamond. Maybe like pocket 8’s with the straight flush draw. MAYBE AK with the Ace of diamonds. So the river is another insignificant black card. I can check and he’ll for sure check behind and If I bet I will only be called by better obviously, but I decide to bet small. Im not willing to bet big on a bluff and heres why. By bluffing Im trying to get him to fold the hands I previously put him on. Small pairs with combo draws that ended up missing, and AK with the A diamonds. Which I guarantee he woulda folded for about $50. No need to put more in. My bluff only needs to work about 26% of the time to be profitable. So I bet $50 and he calls with QQ (Q of diamonds). He had pretty much what I put him on but slightly better. Its tough to put him on QQ since he limped in sheer terror of building a big pot with QQ or having to fold it preflop. To me or you I played the hand in a pretty standard fashion…but you should’ve seen the reaction I got when I happily tabled AK to show the bluff.
Everybody on the other end of the table was awestruck that somebody would try to bluff in a game of poker. The lunacy! Who does this guy think he is! You cant just come into a poker game, raise preflop with premium hands, and then make stabs at pots that people don’t want. Whippersnapper. Suddenly all the rocks had turn into an angry mob trying to regain control of their precious little Saturday game of poker. There was a clear buzz at the table if not a downright outrage. Still missing the fact that I’ve played nothing but premium hands the whole time. Not more than 1 hand later I find myself on the button with AK AGAIN!
So now after the barrade of limps I decide a $15 raise is sufficient. This will thin the field and get me heads up or vs. 2 with position. I get only one caller (a guy with about $55 behind) and a flop of Q J x. Check to me….I check behind. Turn is another J….check to me….I make a $15 stab…villain insta shoves all in and it’s a clear fold. Before I fold I ask if he’ll show and he agrees. Of course he does because he wants everyone else at the table to see what he has so they know hes a “good player”. I show him my AK and he shows me 99. Pretty bold move for this guy with 99. Everyones now congratulating him for his AMAZING hand won. Chalk up a win for the good guys. Maybe this whippersnapper will think twice before raising his button with premium hands and then playing standard ABC poker post flop. What have I created!
Theres still a buzz at the table when I get QQ (with the Q of diamonds) the immediate hand after in the cutoff. After the limps I decide to play off my image and pop it to an absurd $25 in which the shortstack to my left shoves for $29 and 1 limper calls for $29. Flop is A65 of diamonds. Villain checks…I check. Turn is the 9 of diamonds. Check to me and I make the standard value bet with my monster hand of about $60. Now the villain is clearly counting his chips out and eyeing my stack trying to decide whether to raise or just call. He clearly has no fear of my hand and I have the feeling I’m up against the K of diamonds. After a few seconds he just calls. Now the river is a brick and I decide that villain is giving off enough tells about the strength of his hand that I think I’m beat…but I have enough showdown value to call a bet so I grab my whole stack as if im ready to ship it in. This of course fools the villain into checking the nuts to me…ya I said it…THE NUTS. Of course I check behind losing the absoulute minimum to this clown who was playing 87 of diamonds. I did nothing wrong in this hand and lost the minimum. This fool did everything wrong in this pot and reeps the rewards. Or at least he thinks he played it well. He really cost himself $100 by playing so passively. I don’t have a HUGE problem calling 87s preflop if you’re a savvy player whose capable of playing tricky, bluffling, and getting max value out of your made hands. But In this guys case he was just a horrid player who got lucky once and will lose a lot of money playing 87s in his poker lifetime. Especially if he’s not going to maximise his value when he hits. When asked by another player why he didn’t bet the nuts he said “cuz he’s a maniac I figured he’d bet”. See how being dealt premium hands can change the perception of how your playing. It’s not like I didn’t show my hand every time but all these guys saw was that I was raising big preflop. So instead of just not calling which would’ve forced me to raise smaller amounts, they decide that they are going to call with bad hands and play horribly post flop. Great strategy.
All in all my bad run of good cards turned into a day in which I soon became card dead. At this point I was down $200 which later became over $300. I was able to bring myself up to a respectable loss of only $220 after 7 hrs in which I felt I was losing focus and playing my B game. Leaving the table stuck a respectable amount is something I’ve been working on. Like I said in one of my last posts I can count on one hand the amount of times I was stuck over a hundred dollars after 5 hours and came back to profit over $100. Sometimes we have to understand it’s just not our day.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Insane Man
Found a new podcast today called PokerNews. Only listened to one episode but it was really good with a lotta cash game strategy stuff. Looking forward to hearing some more.
Pretty good day on the felt results-wise after my 2 days off. Won close to a buy in in just over a 5hr session at a table with a very peculiar player…
After about an hour into my session “Insane Man” sat down at my table 3 seats to my right. It was already a table full of pretty novice players but this guy took the cake. He was well into his 70’s and clearly didn’t have much of a clue how to play poker at all. This was evident before he even played one hand by the fact that he tried to buy into a 1/2 game with $900.
He hadn’t even played an orbit yet before he was opening preflop for $50 with KQ and betting $50 into $10 pots on the flop with Ace high. It wasn’t so much that he was aggressive as it was he really didn’t know any better. However, NOBODY else at the table knew how to adjust to him. I of course tightened up and was finally able to get some reads on his betting patterns which helped me en route to my winning session, but everyone else was dumbstruck.
After a few orbits something was BLATANTLY clear to me. This guy NEVER folds post flop once he has money in the pot. He called a $40 preflop raise with AJ and then a $150 shove on a Q52 flop. He called with bottom pair over and over and over again all the way down to the river on the scariest of boards. He called down to the river with Ace high at least 5 times. Yet of course he was ALWAYS up. Somehow. Someway. When this hand happened…..
Insane man raises preflop which means he has an Ace in his hand. It also means all of $500 worth of chips are up for grabs cuz like I said HE WONT FOLD. In this particular hand he has AQ. The guy to his right, who has him covered, calls him with KT and OF COURSE the flop is…….you guessed it AQJ. So guy checks and ‘insane guy’ overbets the pot which means he hit, to anyone paying attention.
So whadda yo do if you’re the guy with broadway?
Insane man bet about $40 into a $30 pot and you guys are about $450 behind. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you to raise big for value and to protect your hand, but you can throw the protect your hand part out the window. DUDE WILL NEVER FOLD!!! With that being said tho, he will never fold on ANY STREET no matter what scare cards come out. So I think the move is to just call. This way you can tread safely and build the pot on the turn & shove the river if you still have the nuts and get paid off 99.9% of the time (I can't allow myself to assume 100%). If the board pairs you might be in deep trouble. Im not saying I’d fold to a paired board but at least you can get off a little cheaper than getting all of your money in the pot now with everything to lose.
So whadda you think happened? Of course guy with broadway over ships the flop and insane guy insta calls and hits an ace on the river. I just feel there was no upside at all to shipping this flop. You rarely see situations this extreme at the poker table but its good to think them out and be prepared for them if they arise. Also its good to study your opponents and know their tendencies even if they are insane. Im sure the guy with broadway wasn’t thinking as deeply about the hand as I was, and probably hadn’t deciphered the old guys playing style quite as well as I had. You should've seen his face when that Ace hit the river. Its like he didn’t even imagine that was a possibility. Oh well. While everyone else at the table was reeling, I was staying out the way, paying close attention and scooped a few pots on my way to a solid $292 win. Hopefully that guys there again tomorrow.
Pretty good day on the felt results-wise after my 2 days off. Won close to a buy in in just over a 5hr session at a table with a very peculiar player…
After about an hour into my session “Insane Man” sat down at my table 3 seats to my right. It was already a table full of pretty novice players but this guy took the cake. He was well into his 70’s and clearly didn’t have much of a clue how to play poker at all. This was evident before he even played one hand by the fact that he tried to buy into a 1/2 game with $900.
He hadn’t even played an orbit yet before he was opening preflop for $50 with KQ and betting $50 into $10 pots on the flop with Ace high. It wasn’t so much that he was aggressive as it was he really didn’t know any better. However, NOBODY else at the table knew how to adjust to him. I of course tightened up and was finally able to get some reads on his betting patterns which helped me en route to my winning session, but everyone else was dumbstruck.
After a few orbits something was BLATANTLY clear to me. This guy NEVER folds post flop once he has money in the pot. He called a $40 preflop raise with AJ and then a $150 shove on a Q52 flop. He called with bottom pair over and over and over again all the way down to the river on the scariest of boards. He called down to the river with Ace high at least 5 times. Yet of course he was ALWAYS up. Somehow. Someway. When this hand happened…..
Insane man raises preflop which means he has an Ace in his hand. It also means all of $500 worth of chips are up for grabs cuz like I said HE WONT FOLD. In this particular hand he has AQ. The guy to his right, who has him covered, calls him with KT and OF COURSE the flop is…….you guessed it AQJ. So guy checks and ‘insane guy’ overbets the pot which means he hit, to anyone paying attention.
So whadda yo do if you’re the guy with broadway?
Insane man bet about $40 into a $30 pot and you guys are about $450 behind. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you to raise big for value and to protect your hand, but you can throw the protect your hand part out the window. DUDE WILL NEVER FOLD!!! With that being said tho, he will never fold on ANY STREET no matter what scare cards come out. So I think the move is to just call. This way you can tread safely and build the pot on the turn & shove the river if you still have the nuts and get paid off 99.9% of the time (I can't allow myself to assume 100%). If the board pairs you might be in deep trouble. Im not saying I’d fold to a paired board but at least you can get off a little cheaper than getting all of your money in the pot now with everything to lose.
So whadda you think happened? Of course guy with broadway over ships the flop and insane guy insta calls and hits an ace on the river. I just feel there was no upside at all to shipping this flop. You rarely see situations this extreme at the poker table but its good to think them out and be prepared for them if they arise. Also its good to study your opponents and know their tendencies even if they are insane. Im sure the guy with broadway wasn’t thinking as deeply about the hand as I was, and probably hadn’t deciphered the old guys playing style quite as well as I had. You should've seen his face when that Ace hit the river. Its like he didn’t even imagine that was a possibility. Oh well. While everyone else at the table was reeling, I was staying out the way, paying close attention and scooped a few pots on my way to a solid $292 win. Hopefully that guys there again tomorrow.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
My Bankroll
Bankroll management is vital to be a successful professional poker player. There are countless resources online explaining proper bankroll management. Heres my view.
When making the leap to play for a living you should have a cushion outside of your poker bankroll to set aside for bills. Your not going to win enough to pay your bills all the time especially at first so its vital to have a cushion to take the pressure off you in your rookie year. Most people suggest 6 months of expenses saved up. That’s a good start if not more.
Then its good to pinpoint a bankroll size you feel comfortable playing with for a period of time at 1/2. At first I thought $5 or $6 thousand would be about right. My first goal was to turn $1K into $4k which would be my working bankroll I would extract money from until I got up to $6k. After quickly getting to $4k (which I was extremely lucky to do by running hot in my 2nd month playing) I decided I was VERY comfortable playing with a bankroll of $4K. I was playing a very tight style in seemingly lower variance weekday games for the most part. Even with buying in for the maximum $300 every session I would rarely see days in which I would lose 2 buy ins.
If you arent able to start off with your desired bankroll and have to ‘grind it up’ like I did, you need to play EXTRA tight. I had actually gotten my bankroll up to $1500 in my 1st month playing and lost over $700 in one day. I had to commit my whole stack of about $400 in a hand in which I flopped an open ended royal flush/king high straight flush draw and there was multiple hands all in ahead of me for a monstrous pot. I also would’ve secured this rooms high hand jackpot if I had hit the royal for about $1500. With the odds as well as implied jackpot odds I was getting plus the strength of my hand it was a NO BRAINER plus EV play to call. However what I learned afterwards is that if you end up going busto it doesn’t matter if you made the right moves or not. The point of your bankroll is to not go busto and if your bankroll is too small you should not be taking chances for a huge percentage of your roll. Losing that much almost took me out of the game and just a few days later I was down to my last $200 buy in. Luckily for me I made it, but it was a mistake I wouldn't make again.
Once your roll is up to where it needs to be I suggest getting comfortable with buying in for the max. When your first grinding its OK to buy in for less to reduce risk of getting wiped out but once your where you need to be, buy in for the max. If your not comfortable buying in for the max than your bankroll should be bigger.
When choosing what your desired bankroll needs to be, you should determine your style of play and the style of play in the games you choose to play in are. If your super tight and are playing in passive weekday morning games your BR doesn’t need to be massive. However if you’re a loose aggressive player who plays mainly late night and on the weekends you might want to up you bankroll requirements by a couple thousand.
OK, so my bankroll ‘comfort zone’ as I call it is $4k. As I said I play tight in mostly passive games. I still have outside savings money to draw from if I need it and my bankroll dips below $4K. Anything above $4K im able to spend as needed.
During my first 9 months playing I was in a world of limbo just spending my profits on bills and anything else not so necessary. If I was well above $4K I would spend freely and if I dipped below I would tighten back up. The highest my BR ever got at one point was around $5,500. I was happy playing 1/2 for the foreseeable future and had no real plan to move up to 2/5 anytime soon. I just assumed that one day I would suddenly have a 2/5 bankroll of what in my mind would be $10K and then I would play 2/5. Up to about I week ago I still had no plan.
Now with this blog comes a new plan and a new system of money management that I will share with my readers. My current bankroll not including profits earned so far this week stands at $4,731. After every 2 weeks of playing I will separate all of my profits (hopefully) and add 30% to my bankroll. The rest of my money goes to my bills and pocket money and savings. This way I have a structured plan in place while also adding to my bankroll. When my roll reaches $6K the option of taking shots at 2/5 will be open to me. $10K would be my desired BR size to play 2/5 regularly. However I would like to take a shot here and there to accelerate the process and gain some 2/5 experience and I feel at $6K id have a comfortable enough bankroll that I could risk losing a $600 buy in at 2/5 and not get tilted. I will take my 2/5 shots only if the game looks soft and will play a tight BR building style.
When making the leap to play for a living you should have a cushion outside of your poker bankroll to set aside for bills. Your not going to win enough to pay your bills all the time especially at first so its vital to have a cushion to take the pressure off you in your rookie year. Most people suggest 6 months of expenses saved up. That’s a good start if not more.
Then its good to pinpoint a bankroll size you feel comfortable playing with for a period of time at 1/2. At first I thought $5 or $6 thousand would be about right. My first goal was to turn $1K into $4k which would be my working bankroll I would extract money from until I got up to $6k. After quickly getting to $4k (which I was extremely lucky to do by running hot in my 2nd month playing) I decided I was VERY comfortable playing with a bankroll of $4K. I was playing a very tight style in seemingly lower variance weekday games for the most part. Even with buying in for the maximum $300 every session I would rarely see days in which I would lose 2 buy ins.
If you arent able to start off with your desired bankroll and have to ‘grind it up’ like I did, you need to play EXTRA tight. I had actually gotten my bankroll up to $1500 in my 1st month playing and lost over $700 in one day. I had to commit my whole stack of about $400 in a hand in which I flopped an open ended royal flush/king high straight flush draw and there was multiple hands all in ahead of me for a monstrous pot. I also would’ve secured this rooms high hand jackpot if I had hit the royal for about $1500. With the odds as well as implied jackpot odds I was getting plus the strength of my hand it was a NO BRAINER plus EV play to call. However what I learned afterwards is that if you end up going busto it doesn’t matter if you made the right moves or not. The point of your bankroll is to not go busto and if your bankroll is too small you should not be taking chances for a huge percentage of your roll. Losing that much almost took me out of the game and just a few days later I was down to my last $200 buy in. Luckily for me I made it, but it was a mistake I wouldn't make again.
Once your roll is up to where it needs to be I suggest getting comfortable with buying in for the max. When your first grinding its OK to buy in for less to reduce risk of getting wiped out but once your where you need to be, buy in for the max. If your not comfortable buying in for the max than your bankroll should be bigger.
When choosing what your desired bankroll needs to be, you should determine your style of play and the style of play in the games you choose to play in are. If your super tight and are playing in passive weekday morning games your BR doesn’t need to be massive. However if you’re a loose aggressive player who plays mainly late night and on the weekends you might want to up you bankroll requirements by a couple thousand.
OK, so my bankroll ‘comfort zone’ as I call it is $4k. As I said I play tight in mostly passive games. I still have outside savings money to draw from if I need it and my bankroll dips below $4K. Anything above $4K im able to spend as needed.
During my first 9 months playing I was in a world of limbo just spending my profits on bills and anything else not so necessary. If I was well above $4K I would spend freely and if I dipped below I would tighten back up. The highest my BR ever got at one point was around $5,500. I was happy playing 1/2 for the foreseeable future and had no real plan to move up to 2/5 anytime soon. I just assumed that one day I would suddenly have a 2/5 bankroll of what in my mind would be $10K and then I would play 2/5. Up to about I week ago I still had no plan.
Now with this blog comes a new plan and a new system of money management that I will share with my readers. My current bankroll not including profits earned so far this week stands at $4,731. After every 2 weeks of playing I will separate all of my profits (hopefully) and add 30% to my bankroll. The rest of my money goes to my bills and pocket money and savings. This way I have a structured plan in place while also adding to my bankroll. When my roll reaches $6K the option of taking shots at 2/5 will be open to me. $10K would be my desired BR size to play 2/5 regularly. However I would like to take a shot here and there to accelerate the process and gain some 2/5 experience and I feel at $6K id have a comfortable enough bankroll that I could risk losing a $600 buy in at 2/5 and not get tilted. I will take my 2/5 shots only if the game looks soft and will play a tight BR building style.
What you should read
When I went from an online tournament and SNG player to a live cash player I decided I needed a crash course in cash game play. My cash game history had previously consisted of $20 buy in home games and 1 or 2 losing sessions on Bodog before I took up tournaments exclusively.
Of course David Sklanskys ‘Theory Of Poker’ is a must read for any aspiring pro. I had actually already read it since its relevant to tourneys aswell. If your totally new to poker I suggest reading it once and hoping to learn a thing or 2, then pick it up again 6 months later when you have a better understanding of the game. It’s a definite tough read for a novice. ‘Professional Poker’ by Mark Blade, and ‘Poker Winners are Different’ by Alan Shoonmaker are also good books that I had previously read.
When It came to learning cash games the first book I purchased was the lesser known ‘No Limits’ by Chris “Fox” Wallace & Adam Stemple. I knew about the book because “Fox” was an instructor of a live weekly online poker seminar I used to frequent at pokerxfactor.com. I really trusted Fox because I knew his backstory as a cabdriver who worked tirelessly to become a pro poker player thru studying and felt I was following a similar path. He’s a great instructor who is super easy to understand. He actually has a 4 or 5 part series of articles on pocketfives.com called poker college that are really helpful for anyone starting off.
As a book ‘No Limits’ will set the basic groundwork for your game. It doesn’t suggest many fancy plays or hero calls but what it does it teach you how to play basic ABC poker…and that’s all you should really need to do when first starting off at live 1/2 . After reading this book I went from feeling lost at 1/2 to understanding things 10x better and having TONS of confidence that I was going to become a winning player.
The 2nd book I read was ‘Professional No-Limit’ Hold Em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta & Ed Miller (more on Miller later). This book was written more for online games and I did not find it to be quite as useful as ‘No Limits’ but its still very good. The most important concept found in this book which is not found in any others is the section on SPR’s (Stack to Pot Ratios). Just knowing this concept alone eliminates several difficult poker decisions on a daily basis. I suggest ponying up $30 for this book, it will pay for itself many times over.
The next book I read was ‘Decide To Play Great Poker’ by Annie Duke & John Voorhaus. I did NOT really have high hopes for this book going in but I was really proven wrong. A lot of what is written here cant be applied TOTALLY to 1/2, however it gives a great understanding of WHY we do the things we do. The main thing that really accelerated my game early on was Annies take on fast playing when you flop a monster hand to get max value. That’s a concept that was lost to me coming over from being a tournament player. However the mathematical theorys that she explains about preflop raising sizes should NOT be applied to your standard 1/2 game IMO. Believe me I tried. All in all I would recommend this book.
The next book I read was ‘Read Em and Reap’ by ex FBI agent Joe Navarro. Navarro is a body language expert and applies all his knowledge to actions at the poker table. If you want to skip buying this book you can actually read most of his articles at bluff.com. I found this book to be quite useful at first. It teaches you tricks to hide your own tells. One of the most accurate tells learned from this book is definitely the player leaning forward when he has a strong hand tell. It almost always holds up.
After a small downswing in October I was sick of playing my typical ABC game all the time and sought some ‘out of the box’ reading material. I stumbled upon a thread in twoplustwo discussing Angel Largay’s lesser known book called ‘No Limit Texas Hold-Em’. A lot of people were complaing about Angels advise and were bashing this book but it had just enough positive reviews for me to give it a shot. The book is freaking awesome! The book is geared towards crushing live short stack games (even a little shorter than I typically play) but it still hit’s the mark incredibly. I found a ton of useful info including setting up table images and why calling is never the best option. I couldn’t reccomend this book more.
After my first 6 months of playing live I got ‘Elements Of Poker’ by Tommy Angelo for Christmas. This book is absolutely invaluable. Once you’re a winning player this book will take you above and beyond what you were making before. The book doesn’t teach you how to plays hands but focuses on all the tiny intracasies of what you should be doing at the poker table to separate yourself from the other regulars who aren’t capitalizing on this information. Things like table changing, lopping off your C-game, and reciprocality are some of the main ideas to be taken away from this book. This book is HANDS DOWN a MUST HAVE for anyone serious about making a living at this.
Apart from reading books I have scoured the internet for poker advice and articles to elevate my game. Of course you should be on twoplustwo.com on a regular basis. Even if you aren’t contributing to discussions it’s a great place to find out what works and what doesn’t for other people. The Poker Theory forum and the Live Low Stakes NL forum are where you should spend most of your time. When I first started out I found a tip that if you went to the Low Stakes forum and just gave your advice on 5 hands daily that it would elevate your game significantly. That’s exactly what I did and it worked. Its basically an exercise in getting you to think deeply about hands and poker situations while your away from the table. This exercise helped my game very much. Just look at somebodys question and make sure you don’t look at anyone elses responses before you post your opinion…that way you wont be influenced. Then afterwards you can see if people are agreeing with you or if your thinking is off. Its an excellent way to get better.
The final most important piece of reading material I have immersed myself in over the last 10 months is ANYTHING written by Ed Miller. If you read all of Ed’s works and understand him you should have no problem crushing low stakes games. You can find Ed’s work on his website Pokerauthority.com. I haven’t subscribed to his site but he has plenty of valuable freebies up there to learn from. He also has a column in Card Player magazine that is just amazing. I seriously advise going back and looking for all of his articles and make sure you pick up every issue of card player. He wrote a few Ebooks which are good and actually has a new one coming out next week on expanding your game past ABC poker. His Small Stakes E-Book is geared towards online 6Max play so that wouldn’t be the 1st book I’d read but his Hand Reading book is pretty awesome. All in all its just a smart idea to get familiar with his works.
‘The Mathematics of Poker’, ‘Caro’s Book of Poker Tells’, and Matt Lessingers ‘Book of Bluffs’ are 3 other books I have read in the last year. None of which I would HIGHLY recommend to beat low stakes but are still good to have in your poker library. Math of Poker just gives me a head ache and the other 2 books focus on games other than No Limit a little too much to highly recommend. Navarros book is more modern and relevant than Caros’ IMO.
I'm not saying you have to read every single thing here overnight but if you take the initiative to start reading all the quality literature on poker you are doing something that most of your opponents aren't. That alone should provide you with a significant enough edge over you opponents at the low stakes to make reasonable money.
Of course David Sklanskys ‘Theory Of Poker’ is a must read for any aspiring pro. I had actually already read it since its relevant to tourneys aswell. If your totally new to poker I suggest reading it once and hoping to learn a thing or 2, then pick it up again 6 months later when you have a better understanding of the game. It’s a definite tough read for a novice. ‘Professional Poker’ by Mark Blade, and ‘Poker Winners are Different’ by Alan Shoonmaker are also good books that I had previously read.
When It came to learning cash games the first book I purchased was the lesser known ‘No Limits’ by Chris “Fox” Wallace & Adam Stemple. I knew about the book because “Fox” was an instructor of a live weekly online poker seminar I used to frequent at pokerxfactor.com. I really trusted Fox because I knew his backstory as a cabdriver who worked tirelessly to become a pro poker player thru studying and felt I was following a similar path. He’s a great instructor who is super easy to understand. He actually has a 4 or 5 part series of articles on pocketfives.com called poker college that are really helpful for anyone starting off.
As a book ‘No Limits’ will set the basic groundwork for your game. It doesn’t suggest many fancy plays or hero calls but what it does it teach you how to play basic ABC poker…and that’s all you should really need to do when first starting off at live 1/2 . After reading this book I went from feeling lost at 1/2 to understanding things 10x better and having TONS of confidence that I was going to become a winning player.
The 2nd book I read was ‘Professional No-Limit’ Hold Em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta & Ed Miller (more on Miller later). This book was written more for online games and I did not find it to be quite as useful as ‘No Limits’ but its still very good. The most important concept found in this book which is not found in any others is the section on SPR’s (Stack to Pot Ratios). Just knowing this concept alone eliminates several difficult poker decisions on a daily basis. I suggest ponying up $30 for this book, it will pay for itself many times over.
The next book I read was ‘Decide To Play Great Poker’ by Annie Duke & John Voorhaus. I did NOT really have high hopes for this book going in but I was really proven wrong. A lot of what is written here cant be applied TOTALLY to 1/2, however it gives a great understanding of WHY we do the things we do. The main thing that really accelerated my game early on was Annies take on fast playing when you flop a monster hand to get max value. That’s a concept that was lost to me coming over from being a tournament player. However the mathematical theorys that she explains about preflop raising sizes should NOT be applied to your standard 1/2 game IMO. Believe me I tried. All in all I would recommend this book.
The next book I read was ‘Read Em and Reap’ by ex FBI agent Joe Navarro. Navarro is a body language expert and applies all his knowledge to actions at the poker table. If you want to skip buying this book you can actually read most of his articles at bluff.com. I found this book to be quite useful at first. It teaches you tricks to hide your own tells. One of the most accurate tells learned from this book is definitely the player leaning forward when he has a strong hand tell. It almost always holds up.
After a small downswing in October I was sick of playing my typical ABC game all the time and sought some ‘out of the box’ reading material. I stumbled upon a thread in twoplustwo discussing Angel Largay’s lesser known book called ‘No Limit Texas Hold-Em’. A lot of people were complaing about Angels advise and were bashing this book but it had just enough positive reviews for me to give it a shot. The book is freaking awesome! The book is geared towards crushing live short stack games (even a little shorter than I typically play) but it still hit’s the mark incredibly. I found a ton of useful info including setting up table images and why calling is never the best option. I couldn’t reccomend this book more.
After my first 6 months of playing live I got ‘Elements Of Poker’ by Tommy Angelo for Christmas. This book is absolutely invaluable. Once you’re a winning player this book will take you above and beyond what you were making before. The book doesn’t teach you how to plays hands but focuses on all the tiny intracasies of what you should be doing at the poker table to separate yourself from the other regulars who aren’t capitalizing on this information. Things like table changing, lopping off your C-game, and reciprocality are some of the main ideas to be taken away from this book. This book is HANDS DOWN a MUST HAVE for anyone serious about making a living at this.
Apart from reading books I have scoured the internet for poker advice and articles to elevate my game. Of course you should be on twoplustwo.com on a regular basis. Even if you aren’t contributing to discussions it’s a great place to find out what works and what doesn’t for other people. The Poker Theory forum and the Live Low Stakes NL forum are where you should spend most of your time. When I first started out I found a tip that if you went to the Low Stakes forum and just gave your advice on 5 hands daily that it would elevate your game significantly. That’s exactly what I did and it worked. Its basically an exercise in getting you to think deeply about hands and poker situations while your away from the table. This exercise helped my game very much. Just look at somebodys question and make sure you don’t look at anyone elses responses before you post your opinion…that way you wont be influenced. Then afterwards you can see if people are agreeing with you or if your thinking is off. Its an excellent way to get better.
The final most important piece of reading material I have immersed myself in over the last 10 months is ANYTHING written by Ed Miller. If you read all of Ed’s works and understand him you should have no problem crushing low stakes games. You can find Ed’s work on his website Pokerauthority.com. I haven’t subscribed to his site but he has plenty of valuable freebies up there to learn from. He also has a column in Card Player magazine that is just amazing. I seriously advise going back and looking for all of his articles and make sure you pick up every issue of card player. He wrote a few Ebooks which are good and actually has a new one coming out next week on expanding your game past ABC poker. His Small Stakes E-Book is geared towards online 6Max play so that wouldn’t be the 1st book I’d read but his Hand Reading book is pretty awesome. All in all its just a smart idea to get familiar with his works.
‘The Mathematics of Poker’, ‘Caro’s Book of Poker Tells’, and Matt Lessingers ‘Book of Bluffs’ are 3 other books I have read in the last year. None of which I would HIGHLY recommend to beat low stakes but are still good to have in your poker library. Math of Poker just gives me a head ache and the other 2 books focus on games other than No Limit a little too much to highly recommend. Navarros book is more modern and relevant than Caros’ IMO.
I'm not saying you have to read every single thing here overnight but if you take the initiative to start reading all the quality literature on poker you are doing something that most of your opponents aren't. That alone should provide you with a significant enough edge over you opponents at the low stakes to make reasonable money.
New Plan
My main goal this week is to set a precedent for working at least a 40hr week. Over the past few months I’ve been making enough to get by on about 25-35 hrs per week but if im ever going to start moving up in stakes and saving money on the side I need to make more. One of the reasons I play so little is I feel that I play my “A” game for about 5-6 hours per session. I understand that its typical for players to put in monster sessions time wise to maximize earnings. I see players put in 24 hr sessions all the time but the question is where would that get me? The number one skill a poker player must have is to know his own strengths and weaknesses. I can count the amount of times on one hand that I have been stuck over $100 after six hours of a session and come back to make over $100 profit. On the contrary when I’m up big after about 6 hours I’m known to tighten up and “sit on my stack” to book the nice win. So in order to play more hours during the week and to do it profitably I’m going to have to either learn to play my “A” game for longer periods of time, or somehow put in more sessions. I went with the latter this week. I decided that if I get up extra early on Mondays and also book a room at the casino (for free) I could put in a 5-6 hour sesh in the morning take the afternoon off, then do it again in the evening followed by an early Tuesday session of 6-8 hrs. This way Im home by 6pm Tuesday night with 18-20 hours under my belt. It worked out well in its first trial. My first Monday session was slow (+$29) and my 2nd one was slower (-$58) but I feel I played well both times. Then early Tuesday I hit the table early and hard for $440. So I’m up $411 after 17.5 hours to begin the week. That’s $23.50 an hr not including comp points. Now the plan is to put in the normal 5-6 hr avg sessions for the rest of the week and take Sunday off. Rinse. Repeat.
Intro
I’ve been making a living playing low stakes poker for almost a year now. Namely Live ½ No Limit Hold-em at local casinos. Now that I have had a large period of success and a strong understanding for the game I feel I can give back to others and strengthen my own game by publishing my thoughts online. Im not going to give you my whole backstory yet, but I will tell you I’m 31 yrs old and quit a pretty good job with good benefits and security to do this for a living. Making a living off poker is not for everyone, but don’t let ANYBODY tell you that you can’t do it or your too old just because your not a 21yr old internet phenom. With enough hunger and enough preparation and study time you can reach your goals at this game. Like anything else in life you get out of poker what you put into poker.
If your where I was a year or two ago you can get a sense of what it takes to make it thru the low stakes by following me. My goals are of course to move up in limits but at the same time be able to pay my bills and provide for my family, and be the best player I can be.
If your where I was a year or two ago you can get a sense of what it takes to make it thru the low stakes by following me. My goals are of course to move up in limits but at the same time be able to pay my bills and provide for my family, and be the best player I can be.
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