So I went on a really short Vegas trip this weekend for a friends wedding but managed 2 short sessions of poker at The Orleans poker room, mainly because this is the hotel where we stayed.
I like the Orleans poker room. It is big and on Saturday had plenty of tables running although they only have a few games - $2/4 limit, $4/8 limit, $1/2 NL and $4/8 Omaha 8. They run tournaments with a good turnout twice per day but my schedule did not let me play them.
On Saturday I played $4/8 limit for about 3 hours. I bought in with $100 and worked it up to about $260 and then down to about $40 and then back up to $170. I had to stop playing at 5pm because the wedding was at 6.30pm but that was a shame because later that night the Bad Beat jackpot of $77,000 was won and everyone in the room gets a share!! Anyhow I banked my $70 profit.
On Sunday they only had a seat open at $2/4 limit and had a lot less tables running. There was one table of Omaha8, one table of $1/2 NL, one table of $2/4 limit and about two tables of $4/8 limit. So I played the $2/4 buying in for $40 and cashing out for $150 about 50 minutes later when a $4/8 seat became available. Unfortunately in the $4/8 I rarely got ahead and ended up a couple of hours later giving it all back for a $40 loss. The last $60 was pretty much a gift as the wife put me under some time pressure to leave so I tried to force some action - not a very good thing to do in this game. I got all my money in with 5-3 suited on a board containing 2 3's only to lose to a guy with A-3 suited. Serves me right for playing that junk in the first place!!!
Overall I played about 6 hours and turned a $30 profit. Not great but better than a loss.
I find limit a strange game. I seem to chip up early almost every session and end up giving some back. I am going to really focus on why this happens - I must have a big leak. You would think it is obvious I play much looser after winning a stack but I consciously try not to do this. Maybe I tighten up too much. Or maybe the other players just get a read on me and I don't mix it up enough.
This was still an enjoyable trip, albeit far too short in duration.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Maybe its bad luck, but....
So heres a typical beat for me right now:
Another day, another tournament.....
Another day, another tournament.....
Weekly updates
So last week (up to Friday) I played live poker 3 times (twice at Hawaiian Gardens and once at Oceans 11) and had 2 cashes. Unfortunately they were mini-cashes which meant it was a losing week as I spent $290 on tournament entries and only won $200. Add to that a poor week in cash games albeit somewhat unlucky I lost another $100 there, and finally due to entering some bigger tournaments online and more cash losses I lost another $100 there, so all in all I lost about $290.
That sucks!!
This week I entered the Oceans 11 tournament on Weds and did not cash. I then proceeded to lose $120 on the cash tables after being up close to $400 at one point. I played again on Weds and did the same thing - turning an $80 profit into a $60 loss. Its fair to say poker is an emotional game and I also was having no luck online basically losing about 10 small mtts in a row (no cashes) and losing in the cash games often with good hands that just did not hold up. I was pretty depressed on Thursday wondering if the downswing would ever end. I went to Hawaiian Gardens Thursday night and played really badly in the tournament losing a buyin and a re-entrant fee. More on the tournament below. I moved to the cash tables and over a few hours managed to win $200 - a good time to quit especially after the losses over the last 14 days.
So now its Friday and I'm thinking about how I played. Was I playing bad or just running very unlucky.
For example, in the tournament I only played 5 hands - I lost with AK and JJ for the first buyin, and AK, AQ and 99 for the second buyin. I was very patient but could not hit anything and was facing aggressive opponents who showed a better hand than me every time. The starting stack is only 5000 chips which means you have to play fast and get lucky early on to double up, otherwise lose one pot and you are short stack very quickly. I raised AK and missed, then had to fold my cbet to an all in behind me. With JJ I raised big trying to take it down preflop and cbet when there was one overcard. This committed me to the pot and when he raised allin I had to call. In hindsight maybe I could have called preflop and folded on the flop if I did not make a set - JJ is always a tough hand to play especially in a shallow stack tournament.
I am hoping the next week goes better - I need a few profitable sessions just to cheer me up.
That sucks!!
This week I entered the Oceans 11 tournament on Weds and did not cash. I then proceeded to lose $120 on the cash tables after being up close to $400 at one point. I played again on Weds and did the same thing - turning an $80 profit into a $60 loss. Its fair to say poker is an emotional game and I also was having no luck online basically losing about 10 small mtts in a row (no cashes) and losing in the cash games often with good hands that just did not hold up. I was pretty depressed on Thursday wondering if the downswing would ever end. I went to Hawaiian Gardens Thursday night and played really badly in the tournament losing a buyin and a re-entrant fee. More on the tournament below. I moved to the cash tables and over a few hours managed to win $200 - a good time to quit especially after the losses over the last 14 days.
So now its Friday and I'm thinking about how I played. Was I playing bad or just running very unlucky.
For example, in the tournament I only played 5 hands - I lost with AK and JJ for the first buyin, and AK, AQ and 99 for the second buyin. I was very patient but could not hit anything and was facing aggressive opponents who showed a better hand than me every time. The starting stack is only 5000 chips which means you have to play fast and get lucky early on to double up, otherwise lose one pot and you are short stack very quickly. I raised AK and missed, then had to fold my cbet to an all in behind me. With JJ I raised big trying to take it down preflop and cbet when there was one overcard. This committed me to the pot and when he raised allin I had to call. In hindsight maybe I could have called preflop and folded on the flop if I did not make a set - JJ is always a tough hand to play especially in a shallow stack tournament.
I am hoping the next week goes better - I need a few profitable sessions just to cheer me up.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Ongoing training and reading.
Training - I have been listening to podcasts from PokerRoad.com and trying to study my hand histories. Im also still trying to recruit some poker buddies who are as interested in beating this game as I am. Im still a member of pokerxfactor but not using it so much so may try some different training sites to get some different opinions.
Reading - "Secrets of short-handed no-limit holdem em" by Danny Ashman.
Reading - Fooled by randomness. This book was recommended by SNGNick in an interview called "Fooled by Randomness" which is not really about poker so much as our mental ability to understand and process random results or events. Its a tough read but is interesting and certainly applies to poker players. One really interesting point is how the book explains the difference between the probability of an event happening and expected value. it might be 90% likely but the expected value is negative, or it may it 1% likely but the expected value is huge.
Reading - "Secrets of short-handed no-limit holdem em" by Danny Ashman.
Reading - Fooled by randomness. This book was recommended by SNGNick in an interview called "Fooled by Randomness" which is not really about poker so much as our mental ability to understand and process random results or events. Its a tough read but is interesting and certainly applies to poker players. One really interesting point is how the book explains the difference between the probability of an event happening and expected value. it might be 90% likely but the expected value is negative, or it may it 1% likely but the expected value is huge.
Table Ninja and AHK scripts
Ive never really used Table Ninja or AHK scripts but I can only play 4 or 6 tables comfortably on my 24" monitor if I tile the tables and want to play more.
Why - because I understand the secret to making poker online is probably based on the volume of games you play. The best players (or highest earners) like MI_TURTLE, KENNL, SHARK365 etc all multi-table at least 10 tables at the same time.
So I downloaded table ninja and tried it. I also downloaded some AHK scripts and tried using them. I tried using table ninja and the AHK scripts at the same time - this seems to work ok. I practiced initially using $1 Sngs and stacking 10-12 tables then slowly moving up in stakes. I liked the AHK scripts that allowed me to move tables out the stack if there was interesting action but leave them in the stack when I folded.
Next I tried a few days of multi-tabling a large number of 90 man SnGs on Full Tilt just to see how much profit I could turn. Based on a really small sample I found this would be profitable for me but not by much. I need to do this with bigger stakes.
So I changed strategy and played a few days of multi-tabling large low-cost MTTs using the tools. I did have a few deep finishes, including a couple of final tables.
The net result - these tools are useful. I struggled with Table Ninja auto-bet sizes because they were hard to figure out. Other than that I liked the easy one key folds, calls etc and ability to move the tables around.
I think I will continue to use these tools when I want to grind a lot of tournaments.
Why - because I understand the secret to making poker online is probably based on the volume of games you play. The best players (or highest earners) like MI_TURTLE, KENNL, SHARK365 etc all multi-table at least 10 tables at the same time.
So I downloaded table ninja and tried it. I also downloaded some AHK scripts and tried using them. I tried using table ninja and the AHK scripts at the same time - this seems to work ok. I practiced initially using $1 Sngs and stacking 10-12 tables then slowly moving up in stakes. I liked the AHK scripts that allowed me to move tables out the stack if there was interesting action but leave them in the stack when I folded.
Next I tried a few days of multi-tabling a large number of 90 man SnGs on Full Tilt just to see how much profit I could turn. Based on a really small sample I found this would be profitable for me but not by much. I need to do this with bigger stakes.
So I changed strategy and played a few days of multi-tabling large low-cost MTTs using the tools. I did have a few deep finishes, including a couple of final tables.
The net result - these tools are useful. I struggled with Table Ninja auto-bet sizes because they were hard to figure out. Other than that I liked the easy one key folds, calls etc and ability to move the tables around.
I think I will continue to use these tools when I want to grind a lot of tournaments.
Recent poker games at Hawaiian Gardens
So I had only played at Hawaiian Gardens once last year in a rebuy tournament - it was ok but I did not like the commute. Last week I decided to give it another go, as follows:
1. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Thurs evening Bounty tournament - paid $75 for 5000 chips and win $10 bounty back for everyone you knock out plus prize pool for last 18 players. I ended up 12th with 5 bounties. There were about 85 players with 125 total entries (players were allowed to re-enter during the first 3 levels of the tournament).
2. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Tues evening tournament - $75 for 5000 chips but no bounty. This only had about 65 entries and once again I finished 12th, just sneaking into the money. Of course this is not quite as bad as it looks - while we had 12 left (2 tables of 6) I was an average stack and moved all in with K-10 in the cutoff and was called by a short stack with AJ on the button - he won. Then 2 hands later I pushed my now short-stack with K-10 suited and lost again. The problem was the blinds were going up to 4000 and my stack was only 24k, so I wanted to steal a couple of blinds on the final table bubble. But it backfired....
3. I played Hawaiin Gardens cash tables - I played NL20 to fill in a little time just for fun and found the tables incredibly soft. In no time at all I changed my $20 into $100. The players seemed much worse in this card-room than Oceans 11.
I actually enjoyed playing all the above. And the commute is only 45 mins from home and if I avoid rush hour the traffic is not so bad. So..... I will be back for more for sure.
1. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Thurs evening Bounty tournament - paid $75 for 5000 chips and win $10 bounty back for everyone you knock out plus prize pool for last 18 players. I ended up 12th with 5 bounties. There were about 85 players with 125 total entries (players were allowed to re-enter during the first 3 levels of the tournament).
2. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Tues evening tournament - $75 for 5000 chips but no bounty. This only had about 65 entries and once again I finished 12th, just sneaking into the money. Of course this is not quite as bad as it looks - while we had 12 left (2 tables of 6) I was an average stack and moved all in with K-10 in the cutoff and was called by a short stack with AJ on the button - he won. Then 2 hands later I pushed my now short-stack with K-10 suited and lost again. The problem was the blinds were going up to 4000 and my stack was only 24k, so I wanted to steal a couple of blinds on the final table bubble. But it backfired....
3. I played Hawaiin Gardens cash tables - I played NL20 to fill in a little time just for fun and found the tables incredibly soft. In no time at all I changed my $20 into $100. The players seemed much worse in this card-room than Oceans 11.
I actually enjoyed playing all the above. And the commute is only 45 mins from home and if I avoid rush hour the traffic is not so bad. So..... I will be back for more for sure.
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