I didn’t get in any poker this weekend due to having a million other things to do. I was able to fit in a session today, but I wasn’t really playing too well so I cut it short. For the entire month I’ve been playing pretty much nothing but 2/4 and my results have been solid, running at about 15bb/100 over my last 20k. I’m going to force myself to get in another 10k before the month ends.
This weekend:
I love this saying, it makes me giggle and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Heres an example:
$2/$4 No Limit Hold’em - 4 players
Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.comBTN: $697.00
Hero (SB): $589.80
BB: $564.20
CO: $566.40Pre Flop: Hero is SB with 2
2
CO calls $4, BTN raises to $20, Hero calls $18, 1 fold, CO calls $16Flop: ($64.00) 8
2
J
(3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets $45, Hero calls $45, CO foldsTurn: ($154.00) 9
Hero bets $84, BTN calls $84River: ($322.00) 2
Hero checks, BTN bets $175, Hero raises to $440.80 all in …..
BTN in this hand is a little nitty. I just call the flop for a number of reasons, the most important being that the CO in this hand is a mega fish. If he calls this flop he is NEVER folding his hand. So doing anything that could potentially push him out of this pot is nothing less than retarded.
The turn lead is pretty standard for me. I don’t want this guy to take a free card with a draw he may have just picked up or try to control the pot with an overpair. Now, the really odd thing about this hand is my turn bet size. I thought about betting closer to 100% of the pot, but that puts us in an odd river spot if he calls. I would basically have to bet 100% of the pot again on the river, close to 100bb, and he will probably fold an overpair here taking that amount of heat from me. The goal here is to win his stack, so I figured betting around half the pot was correct. Heres why:
I can then check the river:
a) He will have a large enough stack for him to bet/bluff with his busted draw.
b) It will really confuse him and he will want to value bet his overpair, since now my line looks really strange. This is the primary goal of this hand, and since an overpair makes a huge part of his range now its also the most likely to happen. It is also going to confuse him even more when he gets check raised on the river. He will have no idea what to do, and ultimately since he is getting such a good price he will make a crying/wtf call. Yahtzee!
Both options A and B cover his entire hand range once he calls my turn bet. The river card changes nothing, it does not improve my hand one bit and the BTN should know that it also does not improve his hand, since I never have J9/89 in this spot.
In retrospect I absolutely should have bet a bit more on the turn, $100, just in case a river check raise fails. Also, I would only make this play against a player who I know is going to try to squeeze value out of his overpairs when I check this river. 90% of the people monkeys I play with would snap check this river and then be so happy/thankful they just won a pot if their hand holds up.
I just got done reading a great post over on 2+2. The thread is about what things make up a good poker player. One of the respected no limit players, limon, posted this:
the key to being a long time winning pro is making poker less than 1/5 of your income over a 10 yr. period from the time you start.
Post by limon, link
When asked to explain this he went into further detail.
in my experience most wanna be pros start out thinking their gonna love playing poker forever and so they never prepare for that day when it all comes crashing down. so when they make their first 50k playing 5-10nl or whatever they just move up to the next highest limit that they can barely afford. so even though they are moving up limits their lifestyle isnt changing and they still have all thier eggs in one basket. this is bad for financial and psychological reasons.
inevitably they go on a massive losing streak and because they were always playing right on the edge of what they could afford it buries them. now they have to work their way out of this hole and it becomes a horrible grind, many go on life tilt at this point. fully coming to the realization of how many hours theyre gonna have to put in ,they borrow money (from people like me) to make a quick hit and then really get stuck.
a smarter plan would be to move up slower and invest on the way so you never have to do any one thing to survive. sooooo, instead of jumping straight from 5-10 to 10-20 buy a little triplex. instead of jumping straight from 10-20 to 25-50 buy a laundromat or a parking lot. instead of buying into 20 events at the wsop parter w/ someone in a business venture that you find interesting.
instead of playing 70 hours a week play 40 and get a part time job you really enjoy (i still do golf club repair to this day). keep your ears open at the casino for opportunites, (one of my biggest f-ups was not partnering w/ co owner of an l.a. casino who was starting an offshore sportsbook a decade ago), pretty soon you realize that you never have to play poker again…then your poker game becomes unbeatable and you see the grinders in a totally different way.
i guarantee you 10 years from now the “winners” who post on 2+2 will NOT be the guys playing 6 screens 80 hours a week at higher and higher stakes. it will be the guys who are writing books or software or starting “poker schools” and it wont be because they made a fortune doing any of these things it will be because they diversified early and stepped out of the boom/bust cycle.
Post by limon, link
I think this post is awesome. Too many poker players move up when their bankroll allows it, which is fine, even correct, but they do not diversify their bankroll at all. Sure, a bankroll may allow someone to play at certain stakes, but thats it, it only allows them to play poker. When we all first started playing poker we all knew of some bankroll requirements, thats why we are all still playing today. None of us would ever dream of buying into a game with our full bankroll… Well, a few years later that same concept should apply. Since this time we are dealing with so much more money, why would we ever want that all in poker. Lets diversify that money!
I’ll make some more posts on this subject later, specifically what to actually invest in so that your money can be diversified.
I just played about 1,700 hands and really spewed. I made an awful river raise, got 3bet, and misclick called. My hand had showdown value, but certainly not vs a bet/3bet. And to be honest my hand would have never been good vs a bet/call. It’s the worst feeling ever when that happens. Good bye one buyin!
At other times I would try to semi bluff raise huge calling stations or just make some really bad bluffs. I started the session off immediately losing about 2.5 buyins and then grinding it out and won 2 buyins total. The games were great, but I forced myself to quit because I was playing so poorly.
Today
This month
I will probably take the rest of the week off from poker because I have a ton of work to do. Will be a nice break since I did play a lot last week.
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