So I am getting closer to cashing in the big weekly tournaments at Pokerstars. This week I entered a $5 rebuy satellite where the top 39 places won an entry into the $530 Sunday million tournament. After paying another $5 to add-on I won one of the places.
Then I entered the Sunday $100k tournament for $11. This has 20,000 players with the top 3000 getting paid. I have entered it about 3 times and made the money once. Today I continued my "bubble" streak and finished 3148.
The Sunday million is where the big money is at and with just over 3100 entries and the top 486 places being paid I eventually finished in 882nd place. I like to watch a few different players in this tournament after I have been knocked out who seem to do consistently well. Players like 'westmenlAA' an 'The__D__RY' and 'apestyles'. They always seems to go deep in these tournaments and I am trying to learn how they do it.
It seems I still have lots to learn about this game and am thinking of signing up for one of the poker training sites to see what it can teach me. Also I am starting to re-read my poker books, particularly Harrington and Sklansky. I seem to have got to a stopping point in my progress where I can win some SnGs and smaller tournaments but cannot get deep in the bigger tournaments.
Just so you know it was no walk in the park I also tried several times to satellite into the Full Tilt $750k tournament with no success at all. I decided this was just not meant to be this week and I will try again next week.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
More bubble stories
Here are some more bubble beats:
1 - Small stack goes all-in and I raise all-in with A-J suited. Everyone folds to the button who also goes all-in and just about has me covered. The small stack has K-Js and the bubble has A-7o. No cards come until the river which is the 7 and I go out one away from the money.
2 - I raise all-in when on button with A-K. The big blind calls me and also goes all-in with K-Q. Nothing comes until the river which is a Q.
This week out of 12 tournaments I have gone out on the bubble 7 times. Possibly the worst was the Tuesday night tournament hosted by Tony Holden on Pokerstars where out of 500+ players with the top 54 getting paid I went out in 59th with QQ v 99 and a 9 popping up on the river.
Although the experts suggest you should not try to sneak into the money and should get more aggressive near the bubble if you want to win tournaments (and reap the rewards of 1st place finishes compared to the measly payout for 10th place and below) it sure does not feel that way this week.
In almost all cases I could have waited until getting in the money before getting aggressive. Some of the best young internet players have suggested this is the strategy they follow. Sklansky also suggests it might be a better strategy to follow. But far and away the most common "expert" advice is to get aggressive to try to steal the blinds of all the players who have tightened up. When this works you can really get the opportunity to win the tournament. When it does not work..... well - it just sucks!!
1 - Small stack goes all-in and I raise all-in with A-J suited. Everyone folds to the button who also goes all-in and just about has me covered. The small stack has K-Js and the bubble has A-7o. No cards come until the river which is the 7 and I go out one away from the money.
2 - I raise all-in when on button with A-K. The big blind calls me and also goes all-in with K-Q. Nothing comes until the river which is a Q.
This week out of 12 tournaments I have gone out on the bubble 7 times. Possibly the worst was the Tuesday night tournament hosted by Tony Holden on Pokerstars where out of 500+ players with the top 54 getting paid I went out in 59th with QQ v 99 and a 9 popping up on the river.
Although the experts suggest you should not try to sneak into the money and should get more aggressive near the bubble if you want to win tournaments (and reap the rewards of 1st place finishes compared to the measly payout for 10th place and below) it sure does not feel that way this week.
In almost all cases I could have waited until getting in the money before getting aggressive. Some of the best young internet players have suggested this is the strategy they follow. Sklansky also suggests it might be a better strategy to follow. But far and away the most common "expert" advice is to get aggressive to try to steal the blinds of all the players who have tightened up. When this works you can really get the opportunity to win the tournament. When it does not work..... well - it just sucks!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
How to play when on the money bubble?
I just got back from my weekly Weds tournament at Oceans 11 where I finished 12th out of 101 players. The top 10 got paid.
When I went out I had 6 blinds left in my chip stack and was the BB. A player in mid-position raised all-in (he had about 20 blinds) and it folded round to me. There were large antes. I had A-J suited and had a decision to make. Do I let this guy attack my blinds and let it go because we are so close to the money or should I play back at him because I have a good hand and the possibility to double up on chips where I could maybe make a higher money position on the final table. I suspected he had a pair and I was behind. Applying the gap concept (from Sklansky) I knew I normally needed a bigger hand to call than he had to raise. After thinking through my options I called all-in.
Who knows if this was the right decision. He turned over 8-8 and my A-J suited did not improve so my tournament ended. Some guys on my table told me I did the right thing. Part of me feels I did the right thing. Reading Sklanskys "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" suggest that maybe I should have waited. There were a few players with tiny chip stacks who may have been anted out before I would have been and I could have come home with some money (which surely is better than no money!).
I can never decide if its better to get in the money or not. Last month in Australia I finished 33rd in event #1 where the top 50 get paid. The difference in payout for 33rd spot to 10th spot makes me wonder if I did the right thing then also. Maybe I should have waited and anted round to make a bit more money. Most of the books I read say I am doing the right thing - its better to try to make the big money and fail than to limp into the smaller money.
But today I would have liked some of the smaller money....any money would be nice. When I look back on my tournaments should I be happy to have made 8 cashes out of 20 tournaments or 1 big cash out of 20 tournaments. I guess until I make that one big cash I will never know!!
When I went out I had 6 blinds left in my chip stack and was the BB. A player in mid-position raised all-in (he had about 20 blinds) and it folded round to me. There were large antes. I had A-J suited and had a decision to make. Do I let this guy attack my blinds and let it go because we are so close to the money or should I play back at him because I have a good hand and the possibility to double up on chips where I could maybe make a higher money position on the final table. I suspected he had a pair and I was behind. Applying the gap concept (from Sklansky) I knew I normally needed a bigger hand to call than he had to raise. After thinking through my options I called all-in.
Who knows if this was the right decision. He turned over 8-8 and my A-J suited did not improve so my tournament ended. Some guys on my table told me I did the right thing. Part of me feels I did the right thing. Reading Sklanskys "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" suggest that maybe I should have waited. There were a few players with tiny chip stacks who may have been anted out before I would have been and I could have come home with some money (which surely is better than no money!).
I can never decide if its better to get in the money or not. Last month in Australia I finished 33rd in event #1 where the top 50 get paid. The difference in payout for 33rd spot to 10th spot makes me wonder if I did the right thing then also. Maybe I should have waited and anted round to make a bit more money. Most of the books I read say I am doing the right thing - its better to try to make the big money and fail than to limp into the smaller money.
But today I would have liked some of the smaller money....any money would be nice. When I look back on my tournaments should I be happy to have made 8 cashes out of 20 tournaments or 1 big cash out of 20 tournaments. I guess until I make that one big cash I will never know!!
Erick Lindgren book - Making the final table
I went to the library and spent the whole afternoon there reading this fascinating book by Erick Lindgren. I could not wait to come back and put his ideas into practice in some small online tournaments.
Unlike many books which suggest you start playing tournaments very tight, then gradually loosen up as the blinds and antes increase before going for it as you near the money, this book suggests you focus on chip accumulation from the very start of the tournament. He also suggests you enter marginal hands even when you know you are behind because when they do payoff it can seriously increase your chip stack.
Needless to say I really enjoyed the book but when I put his ideas into practice I lost, lost and lost again. By trying to accumulate chips by raising with marginal hands either in late position or UTG I just kept getting called and the flop never hit. If I fired another bullet I typically got called or raised and when I tried the third bullet I typically lost a load of my chips. When I entered a hand the underdog (maybe a small pair or a flush/straight draw) I kept losing my chips. It may be because I was entering a bunch of low-stakes tournaments to try his ideas that the other players would call no matter what and are not the same as serious players playing in the WPT or WSOP events. It may be I just had a run of bad luck or implemented his strategy incorrectly. The only thing I know for sure is I lost about 12 small tournaments in a row and only changed this when I went back to my old strategy.
I think the idea of a lot of these books is to be able to pull bits of valuable information that you can add to your own game instead of implementing their whole strategy. I guess if Erick told us all EXACTLY how to do it he would not have much play left in him!!
If you want to buy or read this book click on the following link:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=31192083&listingid=15047985&dcaid=17902
Unlike many books which suggest you start playing tournaments very tight, then gradually loosen up as the blinds and antes increase before going for it as you near the money, this book suggests you focus on chip accumulation from the very start of the tournament. He also suggests you enter marginal hands even when you know you are behind because when they do payoff it can seriously increase your chip stack.
Needless to say I really enjoyed the book but when I put his ideas into practice I lost, lost and lost again. By trying to accumulate chips by raising with marginal hands either in late position or UTG I just kept getting called and the flop never hit. If I fired another bullet I typically got called or raised and when I tried the third bullet I typically lost a load of my chips. When I entered a hand the underdog (maybe a small pair or a flush/straight draw) I kept losing my chips. It may be because I was entering a bunch of low-stakes tournaments to try his ideas that the other players would call no matter what and are not the same as serious players playing in the WPT or WSOP events. It may be I just had a run of bad luck or implemented his strategy incorrectly. The only thing I know for sure is I lost about 12 small tournaments in a row and only changed this when I went back to my old strategy.
I think the idea of a lot of these books is to be able to pull bits of valuable information that you can add to your own game instead of implementing their whole strategy. I guess if Erick told us all EXACTLY how to do it he would not have much play left in him!!
If you want to buy or read this book click on the following link:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=31192083&listingid=15047985&dcaid=17902
Monday, February 11, 2008
FTOPS #9 - how I lost my chips
I finally won a satellite into FTOPS #9 and thought I would play according to my pre-game plan. Be nice and tight early on, only play premium hands. Wait for the blinds to increase and make a few steals. Then look for big pots to get involved in to really get above average and try to stay there. Once I had the chips protect them and do not let them leak away. Get into the money and then get super-aggressive to try to make it to the top spots.
It was a good plan. A great plan. I think I am like many poker players who understand the fundamentals and have a great game plan. I just do not follow it. I consistently make mistakes that I know are bad plays but I still do them. Even when they are completely opposite to the game plan my brain goes blank and I throw my chips away.
So here was my execution of my plan:
1. I get KQd in the BB. It checks round and I check (keeping the pot small because I don't really even want to play this hand - its not in my "premium" starting hand list for this early stage of the tournament). The flop is 4d, 6d, 4c. I check and then call a small bet - I figure I have 2 overcards and the flush draw. I have options to raise and try to steal the pot here but I still think I dont really want to make a big pot at this stage or give my chips away so I keep it calm. The turn is blank (check check) and the river is the Qc - now I have top 2 pair and no bets. FUCK the plan - go for it - I put in a raise. He calls and shows the trip 4s to take a chunk of my chips.
2. Wait a bunch of hands playing super tight and then I get 3-3 in late position. No bets so I raise from 30 to 120 to try to take the pot there. A couple of callers and the flop is A-K-7 so I put in a two third pot continuation bet to try to steal the pot - if they do not have an ace or king maybe they will fold now. Unfortunately they both call so I check-fold on 4th street losing another chunk of chips.
3. Wait a bunch more hands and I get 4-4 in the SB and call the BB. I miss the flop so I fold the cards and lose a few more chips.
4. My stack is down from 3000 starting stack for just over 2000 so I wait a bunch more hands and get A-Jc in late position. There is a small raise in front of me (2xb) so I re-raise and get a caller. The flop is 6d 2c 8c so I bet the pot and he re-raises to put me all in if I call. I have a flush draw and 2 overcards and am thinking its 2.2-1 for me to get one of my cards, I only have 1700 chips left and am way below average and this is my opportunity to get back in the game. So I call, miss the flop and he turns over K-K and my tournament is over. I am iin 5137th place out of 5637 people - what a loser!!
This last play is so dumb I feel I could shoot myself. I was thinking all the wrong things. I should have thought that my tournament life is on the line and I do not need to risk it right now - its way too early. I should have thought what range of hands he could have based on his betting patterns but I didn't even think about him. I should have thought how A-J suited is NOT even on my starting hand range this early in the tournament so why am I playing it. I could have looked at the pot-odds and realised I was getting about 2-1 on the money I was betting but I was 2.2-1 to get a card so it was a bad idea to call. I did not think any of this. If I knew he had kings and my jack was not an over card my odds were even less with only 12 outs - way too few to call.
Of course if I had hit the flush I would have thought I was great but in truth I would have been lucky when making a bad play.
In fact every one of my 4 hands above were short of my starting range and completely outside of my game plan I had setup. I should have folded all 4 hands. But I had a brain freeze and this is the part of my game I need to work on. Its one thing to not know the fundamentals but a lot of losing tournament players know them and just do not follow them at a critical moment. This is the difference between a good player who wins tournaments and the rest of us - the good players do not make stupid mistakes.
I'm off to do some meditation before someone hands me a gun. So stupid - I gotta learn from these mistakes - gotta gotta gotta learn!!
It was a good plan. A great plan. I think I am like many poker players who understand the fundamentals and have a great game plan. I just do not follow it. I consistently make mistakes that I know are bad plays but I still do them. Even when they are completely opposite to the game plan my brain goes blank and I throw my chips away.
So here was my execution of my plan:
1. I get KQd in the BB. It checks round and I check (keeping the pot small because I don't really even want to play this hand - its not in my "premium" starting hand list for this early stage of the tournament). The flop is 4d, 6d, 4c. I check and then call a small bet - I figure I have 2 overcards and the flush draw. I have options to raise and try to steal the pot here but I still think I dont really want to make a big pot at this stage or give my chips away so I keep it calm. The turn is blank (check check) and the river is the Qc - now I have top 2 pair and no bets. FUCK the plan - go for it - I put in a raise. He calls and shows the trip 4s to take a chunk of my chips.
2. Wait a bunch of hands playing super tight and then I get 3-3 in late position. No bets so I raise from 30 to 120 to try to take the pot there. A couple of callers and the flop is A-K-7 so I put in a two third pot continuation bet to try to steal the pot - if they do not have an ace or king maybe they will fold now. Unfortunately they both call so I check-fold on 4th street losing another chunk of chips.
3. Wait a bunch more hands and I get 4-4 in the SB and call the BB. I miss the flop so I fold the cards and lose a few more chips.
4. My stack is down from 3000 starting stack for just over 2000 so I wait a bunch more hands and get A-Jc in late position. There is a small raise in front of me (2xb) so I re-raise and get a caller. The flop is 6d 2c 8c so I bet the pot and he re-raises to put me all in if I call. I have a flush draw and 2 overcards and am thinking its 2.2-1 for me to get one of my cards, I only have 1700 chips left and am way below average and this is my opportunity to get back in the game. So I call, miss the flop and he turns over K-K and my tournament is over. I am iin 5137th place out of 5637 people - what a loser!!
This last play is so dumb I feel I could shoot myself. I was thinking all the wrong things. I should have thought that my tournament life is on the line and I do not need to risk it right now - its way too early. I should have thought what range of hands he could have based on his betting patterns but I didn't even think about him. I should have thought how A-J suited is NOT even on my starting hand range this early in the tournament so why am I playing it. I could have looked at the pot-odds and realised I was getting about 2-1 on the money I was betting but I was 2.2-1 to get a card so it was a bad idea to call. I did not think any of this. If I knew he had kings and my jack was not an over card my odds were even less with only 12 outs - way too few to call.
Of course if I had hit the flush I would have thought I was great but in truth I would have been lucky when making a bad play.
In fact every one of my 4 hands above were short of my starting range and completely outside of my game plan I had setup. I should have folded all 4 hands. But I had a brain freeze and this is the part of my game I need to work on. Its one thing to not know the fundamentals but a lot of losing tournament players know them and just do not follow them at a critical moment. This is the difference between a good player who wins tournaments and the rest of us - the good players do not make stupid mistakes.
I'm off to do some meditation before someone hands me a gun. So stupid - I gotta learn from these mistakes - gotta gotta gotta learn!!
How to make money playing poker
I have to read up and work on bankroll management. I have thought a lot about how to make money playing poker especially since I have been used to making 200k plus per year in a job.
The small SnGs take time and you only make a small profit. The large SnGs have better players so you win a lower % of the time and they take longer to complete so you struggle to grind out a living there. If you mutli-table SnGs you could probably grind out a living but not a very wealthy one.
The tournaments cost anywhere from $1 to $100,000 and have massive prizes. The bigger the entry fee the bigger the reward. When you look online at statistical sites and ranked players it appears the highest earners are those who regularly enter big tournaments and win big prizes. The risk/reward factor seems to be in the big tournaments BUT if you are not good enough you will burn through your bankroll really quickly. The big tournaments have certainly been the biggest cost to me over the last few months. I cash in a bunch of SnGs and smaller tournaments and think "lets go big and win big" and then I blow a fortune because I am just not good enough yet.
Maybe the cash/ring games are where the real money is. You can grind away earning $1-2k a week playing the cash games in Las Vegas and can probably do the same online. If you enter bigger stakes games you could lose a fortune in one hit - it seems many a professional poker player has done this many times.
So how to consistently make money - this is what I need to research and find out. How are other players doing it. Does "bankroll management" really mean "making money" or is it more about "being scared to lose your money". As I find out some of these answers I will share them here.
The small SnGs take time and you only make a small profit. The large SnGs have better players so you win a lower % of the time and they take longer to complete so you struggle to grind out a living there. If you mutli-table SnGs you could probably grind out a living but not a very wealthy one.
The tournaments cost anywhere from $1 to $100,000 and have massive prizes. The bigger the entry fee the bigger the reward. When you look online at statistical sites and ranked players it appears the highest earners are those who regularly enter big tournaments and win big prizes. The risk/reward factor seems to be in the big tournaments BUT if you are not good enough you will burn through your bankroll really quickly. The big tournaments have certainly been the biggest cost to me over the last few months. I cash in a bunch of SnGs and smaller tournaments and think "lets go big and win big" and then I blow a fortune because I am just not good enough yet.
Maybe the cash/ring games are where the real money is. You can grind away earning $1-2k a week playing the cash games in Las Vegas and can probably do the same online. If you enter bigger stakes games you could lose a fortune in one hit - it seems many a professional poker player has done this many times.
So how to consistently make money - this is what I need to research and find out. How are other players doing it. Does "bankroll management" really mean "making money" or is it more about "being scared to lose your money". As I find out some of these answers I will share them here.
What a winning day feels like
Here was my great comeback day from flu. Note I am all over the place when it comes to choosing what tournaments to play in. Sometimes I enter $1 tournaments (especially when on a losing streak) and sometimes I go big and enter $109 and $215 tournaments. I am still consistently losing money although much less than last year when I started training - I think this is a good sign suggesting that if I keep practicing and improving I might start making money soon.
So to my good day:
1. Full Tilt 180 player Sng - entry fee $2.25 - I came 18th and won $3.60
2. Full Tilt Early A tourney - entry fee $6 - I cam 60th from 1203 players and won $14.44
3. Full Tilt Early B tourney - cost $6 - win $0
4. Full tilt super-satellite to FTOPS #9 - 2.25 entry (10.25 after rebuys and addon) - I came joint 1st winning a $55 entry into a satellite.
5. Pokerstarts $11 rebuy - cost $31 with rebuys/addon and I came 84th out of 1877 winning $129
My total costs were $85.50 and I won $147 and an entry into FTOPS #9 satellite worth $55.
So to my good day:
1. Full Tilt 180 player Sng - entry fee $2.25 - I came 18th and won $3.60
2. Full Tilt Early A tourney - entry fee $6 - I cam 60th from 1203 players and won $14.44
3. Full Tilt Early B tourney - cost $6 - win $0
4. Full tilt super-satellite to FTOPS #9 - 2.25 entry (10.25 after rebuys and addon) - I came joint 1st winning a $55 entry into a satellite.
5. Pokerstarts $11 rebuy - cost $31 with rebuys/addon and I came 84th out of 1877 winning $129
My total costs were $85.50 and I won $147 and an entry into FTOPS #9 satellite worth $55.
Never play when sick
I left Las Vegas and drove home to California. The lack of sleep and jet-lag then caught up with me and I was sick with flu for almost 2 weeks.
The great thing about online poker is you can play from home even when you are sick. In my case this just made me sick at poker. I played about 20 small tournaments and a few big tournaments while having the flu and was just terrible.
To be fair I was also reading Sklanskys "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" and trying some of the techniques suggested in the book. Arguably this is similar to when you start taking golf lessons and change your swing. Your game eventually should get better but initially you play terrible as you adjust.
I also read a book by Anthony Holden called "Bigger Deal". This is the story of his year chasing poker tournaments around the world ending with the WSOP in Las Vegas. He goes through many of the same emotions as I have gone through so it was quite therapeutic to know I am not the only one. These emotions range from "I am crap", "Why do I bother", "Why is everyone else so much better than me", "Maybe I am just not good enough to play this game", "Will I even get better" to elation when winning a smaller tournament or parting a lessor player with a chunk of his money.
I played 5 online tournaments the day after finishing the "Bigger Deal" book and after feeling 80% recovered from the flu and cashed in 4 of them. This lifted my spirits immensely after the terrible run I had been on. Maybe I should just never play when I am sick. I had also had my best nights sleep in 2 weeks so maybe I played better because I was well rested. This is my new motto - "Don't play poker when you are tired and never play when sick".
The great thing about online poker is you can play from home even when you are sick. In my case this just made me sick at poker. I played about 20 small tournaments and a few big tournaments while having the flu and was just terrible.
To be fair I was also reading Sklanskys "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" and trying some of the techniques suggested in the book. Arguably this is similar to when you start taking golf lessons and change your swing. Your game eventually should get better but initially you play terrible as you adjust.
I also read a book by Anthony Holden called "Bigger Deal". This is the story of his year chasing poker tournaments around the world ending with the WSOP in Las Vegas. He goes through many of the same emotions as I have gone through so it was quite therapeutic to know I am not the only one. These emotions range from "I am crap", "Why do I bother", "Why is everyone else so much better than me", "Maybe I am just not good enough to play this game", "Will I even get better" to elation when winning a smaller tournament or parting a lessor player with a chunk of his money.
I played 5 online tournaments the day after finishing the "Bigger Deal" book and after feeling 80% recovered from the flu and cashed in 4 of them. This lifted my spirits immensely after the terrible run I had been on. Maybe I should just never play when I am sick. I had also had my best nights sleep in 2 weeks so maybe I played better because I was well rested. This is my new motto - "Don't play poker when you are tired and never play when sick".
Las Vegas
After returning from Australia I had to go to Las Vegas for a soccer tournament. There was no time to recover from jetlag and these weekends tend to involve a lot of drinking and not much sleep. This means my decision to stay an extra day or two to play some poker was probably not the smartest but I wanted to experience the Las Vegas card rooms.
I played in the Tropicana, the MGM, the Bellagio and the Mirage. On my last visit to Las Vegas I had played in the Luxor and the Venetian so I figured I was getting a good rounded experience. The Bellagio is like the gold standard for poker rooms according to all the reviews I read and I enjoyed playing there. I did not win any tournaments and the furthest I got was 2 players outside the bubble at the Mirage. I also played some 4-8 limit games at Bellagio where I held my own for an hour or so before eventually losing about $60.
I love going to Vegas but I have what professional poker players call a leak. I like to play CRAPS and I almost always lose money on the CRAPS table. Its something I'm going to have to think about as I continue my poker journey. If I am serious about poker I will be visiting many casinos and cannot afford to throw away my limited bankroll playing other games.
I played in the Tropicana, the MGM, the Bellagio and the Mirage. On my last visit to Las Vegas I had played in the Luxor and the Venetian so I figured I was getting a good rounded experience. The Bellagio is like the gold standard for poker rooms according to all the reviews I read and I enjoyed playing there. I did not win any tournaments and the furthest I got was 2 players outside the bubble at the Mirage. I also played some 4-8 limit games at Bellagio where I held my own for an hour or so before eventually losing about $60.
I love going to Vegas but I have what professional poker players call a leak. I like to play CRAPS and I almost always lose money on the CRAPS table. Its something I'm going to have to think about as I continue my poker journey. If I am serious about poker I will be visiting many casinos and cannot afford to throw away my limited bankroll playing other games.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Aussie Millions update
Result: 33rd
So to the good news - I came 33rd in event 1 and made the money. I won $2165 which was a nice little profit on my $1100 entry.
And the not so good news - my daft schedule meant I was up at 4am on Jan 5th to get to Adelaide airport for the 6am flight to Melbourne. I played poker from 12.30pm to 1.30am almost non-stop. I was soooo tired at the end of the day. Note to msyself - next time I must fly in the night before or earlier.
I played for about 6 hours against a good young player called Yevgeniy Timochenko and took a lot of his chips. After the money bubble came and went he got extremely aggressive in his play raising all-in almost every hand. I waited until I had some cards and tried to trap him - unfortunately my A-10s did not match up to his K-K and I lost the race and went bust. Just my luck to take him on when he had a hand but to be fair to me I was on the button, he was small blind, there were no other betters and I only had 20k of chips left and the big blind was about to go up to 4k so I thought it was a good time to make my move.
So I went out and have thought about how I played the hand for ages. Our table was aggressive and any small raise was immediately met with an all-in by one of the players. Plus Yev had pocket kings so even if I had small-raised him he probably would have gone over the top. I would be all-in no matter what unless I folded the hand but that would not make sense as I had position and reasonably good cards and he had a history of large all-in raises with a wide range of average starting hands.
I found out after the event that Yev is quite a successful online player called JovialGent (on pokerstars) and known to the online community as Atimos. Some sites say he is ranked 9th best poker player in the world!
So I will not beat myself up. I did OK in the Aussie Millions and am encouraged to enter some more large tournaments this year. Hopefully I can win some of them!!
So to the good news - I came 33rd in event 1 and made the money. I won $2165 which was a nice little profit on my $1100 entry.
And the not so good news - my daft schedule meant I was up at 4am on Jan 5th to get to Adelaide airport for the 6am flight to Melbourne. I played poker from 12.30pm to 1.30am almost non-stop. I was soooo tired at the end of the day. Note to msyself - next time I must fly in the night before or earlier.
I played for about 6 hours against a good young player called Yevgeniy Timochenko and took a lot of his chips. After the money bubble came and went he got extremely aggressive in his play raising all-in almost every hand. I waited until I had some cards and tried to trap him - unfortunately my A-10s did not match up to his K-K and I lost the race and went bust. Just my luck to take him on when he had a hand but to be fair to me I was on the button, he was small blind, there were no other betters and I only had 20k of chips left and the big blind was about to go up to 4k so I thought it was a good time to make my move.
So I went out and have thought about how I played the hand for ages. Our table was aggressive and any small raise was immediately met with an all-in by one of the players. Plus Yev had pocket kings so even if I had small-raised him he probably would have gone over the top. I would be all-in no matter what unless I folded the hand but that would not make sense as I had position and reasonably good cards and he had a history of large all-in raises with a wide range of average starting hands.
I found out after the event that Yev is quite a successful online player called JovialGent (on pokerstars) and known to the online community as Atimos. Some sites say he is ranked 9th best poker player in the world!
So I will not beat myself up. I did OK in the Aussie Millions and am encouraged to enter some more large tournaments this year. Hopefully I can win some of them!!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Poker training phase 1 completed
I set myself a goal for the remainder of 2007 to learn how to become a decent poker player. This would allow me to enter some tournaments in 2008 and maybe win some money.
In October I played extensively on Full Tilt and lost a whack of money. In November I played extensively on Pokerstars and also lost a whack of money but eventually started to win occasional tournaments and small SnGs. In December I read a number of books and played a lot of cash games. My real-life tournament positions in San Diego improved to 20th, 13th and then 7th in consecutive weeks (the final position being in the money). I went on vacation to Australia and played in a small real-person tournament in Adelaide where I came 3rd (in the money).
Over the last 3 months I have spent a fair amount of time watching successful poker players playing online and also watched NBCs "Poker after dark" program. In December my online performance has improved to the extent where I expect to be in the money for 2 out of every 3 small tournaments.
So now we are in January 2008 and it is time to play on a bigger scale to see how I compare to the real "Professional Poker Players". This will involve entering some bigger online and real tournaments.
To start the year off, I am going to Melbourne to play in the first event of the Aussie Millions!! Wish me luck!
In October I played extensively on Full Tilt and lost a whack of money. In November I played extensively on Pokerstars and also lost a whack of money but eventually started to win occasional tournaments and small SnGs. In December I read a number of books and played a lot of cash games. My real-life tournament positions in San Diego improved to 20th, 13th and then 7th in consecutive weeks (the final position being in the money). I went on vacation to Australia and played in a small real-person tournament in Adelaide where I came 3rd (in the money).
Over the last 3 months I have spent a fair amount of time watching successful poker players playing online and also watched NBCs "Poker after dark" program. In December my online performance has improved to the extent where I expect to be in the money for 2 out of every 3 small tournaments.
So now we are in January 2008 and it is time to play on a bigger scale to see how I compare to the real "Professional Poker Players". This will involve entering some bigger online and real tournaments.
To start the year off, I am going to Melbourne to play in the first event of the Aussie Millions!! Wish me luck!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Online poker - I need more practice
The poker scene in southern California is good and you can play 1 or 2 tournaments every day. For example I can drive to Hollywood Park for the 11am tournament on Monday, then to Hawaiian gardens for the 1pm tournament or Crystal Casino for the 2pm tournament. I can get to Pechanga for the 6pm tournament and the next day go to Oceans 11 for the 10am tournament. These tournaments are not too expensive ($20-$50) but the commuting is a killer and the gas prices can double your expense. If you are somewhat successful in the tournaments you might play one tournament for 6 hours before getting knocked out or winning it. And I was getting knocked out normally in the last 3 or 4 tables. Eventually this gets to you - you drive in crappy traffic, pay your entry fee, grind through the various levels and just miss the money. Then you drive somewhere else and do it again. Then the next day you do it again.
This was not my idea of happy unemployment. Even though I am training to become a poker player I do not feel I am learning much by playing all these tournaments and consistently not getting any better. I needed more practice, less driving and a new approach. Enter online poker.
I signed on to Full Tilt poker and Pokerstars and wow - what a great way to play poker. I practiced by playing 5 tournaments in a Day without even leaving my house. Suddenly I am back to working from home. Life is fantastic again. I am so happy!
I decided I still needed to go to a real tournament at least once per week to determine if I am improving or not. But basically the online poker has given me the ability to practice different approaches to tournaments with minimal expense. I know from working with computers knowledge is only great if it is combined with experience and the online poker will give me that experience.
One of my worries is the legality of online poker. I did some research and as far as I can tell there are thousands of online poker players in America. It looks like the Federal government is worried about sites that may enable money laundering but are not out to prosecute individual players and have no laws to do so. It looks like they defer to the state. In California it appears to be a grey area as far as I can tell. I cannot find any articles stating it is illegal in California and cannot find any evidence of a player being prosecuted for playing. Based on my research I am going to assume it is legal but this is just my opinion - do not base your defence on my opinion because it might be wrong.
Another worry is the tax consequences of winning a huge prize. I smile as I write this because its a problem I am happy to cross when it happens. Seriously I am and have always been very honest and straightforward with the taxman and will continue to be. If I win money I will declare it and pay taxes on it. I will discuss with my accountant how this works and if I should declare myself as a "professional poker player". I suspect this will be next years problem as this year I do not think I will make any money from poker. If anything I hope to learn enough to break even.
So I will write some articles on my online poker experiences including another massive step in my learning process courtesy of an online professional at Full Tilt poker (not that he knows it).
This was not my idea of happy unemployment. Even though I am training to become a poker player I do not feel I am learning much by playing all these tournaments and consistently not getting any better. I needed more practice, less driving and a new approach. Enter online poker.
I signed on to Full Tilt poker and Pokerstars and wow - what a great way to play poker. I practiced by playing 5 tournaments in a Day without even leaving my house. Suddenly I am back to working from home. Life is fantastic again. I am so happy!
I decided I still needed to go to a real tournament at least once per week to determine if I am improving or not. But basically the online poker has given me the ability to practice different approaches to tournaments with minimal expense. I know from working with computers knowledge is only great if it is combined with experience and the online poker will give me that experience.
One of my worries is the legality of online poker. I did some research and as far as I can tell there are thousands of online poker players in America. It looks like the Federal government is worried about sites that may enable money laundering but are not out to prosecute individual players and have no laws to do so. It looks like they defer to the state. In California it appears to be a grey area as far as I can tell. I cannot find any articles stating it is illegal in California and cannot find any evidence of a player being prosecuted for playing. Based on my research I am going to assume it is legal but this is just my opinion - do not base your defence on my opinion because it might be wrong.
Another worry is the tax consequences of winning a huge prize. I smile as I write this because its a problem I am happy to cross when it happens. Seriously I am and have always been very honest and straightforward with the taxman and will continue to be. If I win money I will declare it and pay taxes on it. I will discuss with my accountant how this works and if I should declare myself as a "professional poker player". I suspect this will be next years problem as this year I do not think I will make any money from poker. If anything I hope to learn enough to break even.
So I will write some articles on my online poker experiences including another massive step in my learning process courtesy of an online professional at Full Tilt poker (not that he knows it).
Lesson - tournament play
With a basic understanding of starting hands and positional play I now started researching tournament play. This is how I approached tournaments and how I applied my new knowledge to tournament play.
Step 1 - Initial strategy - I played my starting hands and positional play knowledge in tournaments in Southern California and had varying results. Sometimes I would progress through several tables towards the final table and sometimes I would go out within a few minutes of the tournament start. Then I read an article which made complete sense. Tournaments are full of fish and beginner players who can knock you out by playing any 2 cards and getting lucky. Of course, prior to learning about starting hands and positional play I was probably one of those fish. The best way to avoid the fish is to not play any hands for the first hour or so of the tournament (obviously the time depends on how many players enter the tournament). I read more on this and it seems to be a common approach to only play AA or KK and sometimes AK in the early part of the tournament. The idea is to let the fish play each other and knock each other out, then when you start playing your game there are less fish left in the tournament likely to knock you out. Also the fish remaining might have a lot of chips and it should be easy to take those chips away from them. This strategy had a massive impact on my game and I went from being knocked out of tournaments early to making the last third of players on a consistent basis.
Step 2 - Too tight - I was consistently being knocked out of tournaments in the last third. If there were 120 players I might finish 35th. I was running low on chips waiting for my Great hands (as listed in my starting hands article) to be dealt to me. Eventually I would be forced all-in because my stack was so small I had no choice and often I would lose. In a best case scenario I would win one or two all-in situations but would soon be back to the short-stack and would eventually lose. This happened time and time again and often I would lose to what I thought were lucky players. For example I might have 10-10 and the lucky player 7-6 and he would hit a straight or a set of 7s at the showdown. It took me a while to figure out why a "good" poker player like me kept getting these "bad beats". Then one day a kind older man who I had seen make the final table a few times explained to me that I was "too tight" or "not aggressive enough" and I would never win any tournaments playing like I was until I learnt to become aggressive. This sent me on a new phase of research - what is an aggressive player.
Step 3 - Too aggressive - if you read the books and Internet articles you soon learn that "every good tournament poker player" is very aggressive in their play. They fire bets off on 7-6 off suit, pairs of 3s, A-4 off suit etc. If you watch the World Series of Poker final tables on television you see bets going in with Q-4, any Ace, even 10-2 off suit. What is going on - my starting hand strategy appears to be completely wrong. I entered a few tournaments playing my tournament strategy with an aggressive stance. I would play for an hour or so really tight just playing aces and kings and then change to aggressive and play a whole range of hands with big bets. I continued to lose but this time I went out of the tournament even earlier. I would fire a bet with 10-9 suited and not hit my hand so another players pair would knock me out. Or I would go all-in with 8-8 and watch someones A-J become a big pair. My aggressive play was wrong but all the books told me this was what I had to do to win tournaments.
Step 4 - the pros view - I did some research on top pros about aggressive play and they seemed to be a little more selective saying words of wisdom such as 'Only play good starting hands or hands with potential but when you decide to play a hand play it aggressively". Some pros emphasized position over starting hands - one article claimed that a player actually won a tournament without looking at their cards at all. They fired off bets based on their position and the betting patterns of the other players in the tournament. This almost suggests the position is MORE important than the cards - something I understand but struggle to utilize effectively.
Step 5 - my own style - I tried to apply as much of the different wisdom as I could to my game. I still slow played in the first third of the tournaments, then as my chip stack started getting low in relation to to the increasing blind amounts I started to play a little more aggressivey. I still believe in my starting hands but played more positional plays especially with OK hands. I played more small pairs cautiously trying to hit a set after the flop. I played A-x and K-x flush possibilities cautiously hoping to get 4 cards to a flush after the flop. These are a new category of hand which I will call "Growing hands" - they have the potential to grow after the flop into Great hands. I also started playing more suited connectors (10-9, 9-8, 8-7) in late position trying to hit a straight. This style started to pay dividends and I started to get into the last 3 or 4 tables of tournaments. I figured it was just a matter of time......
I will update the tournament strategy in a later article because it took a fair bit of effort from going to Step 5 to a consistent tournament winner.
Step 1 - Initial strategy - I played my starting hands and positional play knowledge in tournaments in Southern California and had varying results. Sometimes I would progress through several tables towards the final table and sometimes I would go out within a few minutes of the tournament start. Then I read an article which made complete sense. Tournaments are full of fish and beginner players who can knock you out by playing any 2 cards and getting lucky. Of course, prior to learning about starting hands and positional play I was probably one of those fish. The best way to avoid the fish is to not play any hands for the first hour or so of the tournament (obviously the time depends on how many players enter the tournament). I read more on this and it seems to be a common approach to only play AA or KK and sometimes AK in the early part of the tournament. The idea is to let the fish play each other and knock each other out, then when you start playing your game there are less fish left in the tournament likely to knock you out. Also the fish remaining might have a lot of chips and it should be easy to take those chips away from them. This strategy had a massive impact on my game and I went from being knocked out of tournaments early to making the last third of players on a consistent basis.
Step 2 - Too tight - I was consistently being knocked out of tournaments in the last third. If there were 120 players I might finish 35th. I was running low on chips waiting for my Great hands (as listed in my starting hands article) to be dealt to me. Eventually I would be forced all-in because my stack was so small I had no choice and often I would lose. In a best case scenario I would win one or two all-in situations but would soon be back to the short-stack and would eventually lose. This happened time and time again and often I would lose to what I thought were lucky players. For example I might have 10-10 and the lucky player 7-6 and he would hit a straight or a set of 7s at the showdown. It took me a while to figure out why a "good" poker player like me kept getting these "bad beats". Then one day a kind older man who I had seen make the final table a few times explained to me that I was "too tight" or "not aggressive enough" and I would never win any tournaments playing like I was until I learnt to become aggressive. This sent me on a new phase of research - what is an aggressive player.
Step 3 - Too aggressive - if you read the books and Internet articles you soon learn that "every good tournament poker player" is very aggressive in their play. They fire bets off on 7-6 off suit, pairs of 3s, A-4 off suit etc. If you watch the World Series of Poker final tables on television you see bets going in with Q-4, any Ace, even 10-2 off suit. What is going on - my starting hand strategy appears to be completely wrong. I entered a few tournaments playing my tournament strategy with an aggressive stance. I would play for an hour or so really tight just playing aces and kings and then change to aggressive and play a whole range of hands with big bets. I continued to lose but this time I went out of the tournament even earlier. I would fire a bet with 10-9 suited and not hit my hand so another players pair would knock me out. Or I would go all-in with 8-8 and watch someones A-J become a big pair. My aggressive play was wrong but all the books told me this was what I had to do to win tournaments.
Step 4 - the pros view - I did some research on top pros about aggressive play and they seemed to be a little more selective saying words of wisdom such as 'Only play good starting hands or hands with potential but when you decide to play a hand play it aggressively". Some pros emphasized position over starting hands - one article claimed that a player actually won a tournament without looking at their cards at all. They fired off bets based on their position and the betting patterns of the other players in the tournament. This almost suggests the position is MORE important than the cards - something I understand but struggle to utilize effectively.
Step 5 - my own style - I tried to apply as much of the different wisdom as I could to my game. I still slow played in the first third of the tournaments, then as my chip stack started getting low in relation to to the increasing blind amounts I started to play a little more aggressivey. I still believe in my starting hands but played more positional plays especially with OK hands. I played more small pairs cautiously trying to hit a set after the flop. I played A-x and K-x flush possibilities cautiously hoping to get 4 cards to a flush after the flop. These are a new category of hand which I will call "Growing hands" - they have the potential to grow after the flop into Great hands. I also started playing more suited connectors (10-9, 9-8, 8-7) in late position trying to hit a straight. This style started to pay dividends and I started to get into the last 3 or 4 tables of tournaments. I figured it was just a matter of time......
I will update the tournament strategy in a later article because it took a fair bit of effort from going to Step 5 to a consistent tournament winner.
Lesson - positional play
While researching starting hands on the internet and in magazines I become aware of positional play. Some top players stated that position was even more important than the cards you hold. This seems to be a huge part of the strategy of good poker. My understanding of position is very basic but quite effective. Here is my beginners guide for a 9 person table:
Early position - this is the small blind, big blind and one seat to the left of the big blind (seats 1, 2 and 3). In this position I only play 'Great hands' (as listed in my starting hands article) and I play them strong with a 5x big blind raise or all-in depending on my chip stack and (when I am in the blinds) how my opponents have bet in the first round. I do not get sucked in with other hands that will cost me a lot of chips.
Middle position - this is seats 4,5 and 6. In this position I will play 'Great hands' and 'Good hands' strongly but rarely go all-in. I will sometimes limp in with OK hands but only if my chip stack is large. The nice thing about the OK hands is they can turn into 'Great hands' after the flop if I can get to see it cheap. Often though a late position raise will force me to abandon the OK hands before I even get to see the flop. With good hands I want to call a late position raise unless it costs me half my stack or more and then I might fold. I always call with 'Great hands' but will often re-raise all-in.
Late position - this is the last 3 seats (seats 7,8 and 9). The button (seat 9) is the ultimate late position and the best seat on a poker table. Except for the first round of betting the late position player is one of the last to bet and can get a feel for how all the other players view their hands. For example if I am in late position and a few players before me just CALL the big blind they are probably not that strong. If one player before me had raised 3-5x the big blind he probably has a Good or Great hand depending on HIS position. With a few callers before me and the blinds to bet after me in the first round of betting I can often steal the pot just by putting in a 3x big blind bet regardless of the cards I hold. However I like to have at least an OK hand before I try to steal the pot UNLESS I have a large chip stack and can afford the blinds calling me and getting lucky. Often even with useless cards I can limp in with a call when in late position just because it is a powerful place to play the game after the flop. For example if the flop is A-x-x where x is any card and no-one bets much before the action comes to me I can fire a half-pot or pot-sized bet and often win the pot right there even if my cards are rubbish. This is because everyone else at the table will assume I have the Ace and will fold. This is true for any flop that shows a high card, a potential straight or a potential flush combination. Other weak players are always scared I have made the hand and will fold. I am always careful of a call or especially a re-raise from an early or middle position player who might have slow-played their monster hand. Sometimes I try to steal the pot from late position after I see the flop and get called by one of the earlier players. It is interesting how most players seem play the 4th and 5th cards. If I bet big on the flop it is often true that the calling player will then check on the 4th card and allow me a free bet. Or the calling player might make a very small bet allowing me a cheap call. Often they are very worried about the strength of my hand because of my bet on the flop. In this situation, I can take another stab at stealing the pot here by firing off a strong bet OR I can check it down and wait until 5th street until I fire my strong bet. If the 4th street and 5th street cards LOOK like they might have made me a stronger hand I can often make a strong bet on 5th street and avoid the showdown, especially if my opponents check to me at this point. This is the great advantage of late position - I always get to see what the other players do before I do anything. The only thing I think about before I make my move is 'be careful - is the other player trying to trap me'.
One final word on blinds - many players in seats 1 and 2 like to protect their small and big blind. It is ok to try this once in a while but for the most part I just give it up if I have bad cards. When I am a small or big blind I know it is a terrible position to play from post flop because I am the first to act and everyone can make a play on me. The only really effective bet from this position is the massive raise but I often get caught out when I do this unless my cards are one of the 'Great hands'. So I tend to fold a lot of my blinds. The only time when blinds are really important are in the later stages of a tournament where they are very large in relation to your chip stack - at that point I try to protect them but in normal play I just give them up.
Early position - this is the small blind, big blind and one seat to the left of the big blind (seats 1, 2 and 3). In this position I only play 'Great hands' (as listed in my starting hands article) and I play them strong with a 5x big blind raise or all-in depending on my chip stack and (when I am in the blinds) how my opponents have bet in the first round. I do not get sucked in with other hands that will cost me a lot of chips.
Middle position - this is seats 4,5 and 6. In this position I will play 'Great hands' and 'Good hands' strongly but rarely go all-in. I will sometimes limp in with OK hands but only if my chip stack is large. The nice thing about the OK hands is they can turn into 'Great hands' after the flop if I can get to see it cheap. Often though a late position raise will force me to abandon the OK hands before I even get to see the flop. With good hands I want to call a late position raise unless it costs me half my stack or more and then I might fold. I always call with 'Great hands' but will often re-raise all-in.
Late position - this is the last 3 seats (seats 7,8 and 9). The button (seat 9) is the ultimate late position and the best seat on a poker table. Except for the first round of betting the late position player is one of the last to bet and can get a feel for how all the other players view their hands. For example if I am in late position and a few players before me just CALL the big blind they are probably not that strong. If one player before me had raised 3-5x the big blind he probably has a Good or Great hand depending on HIS position. With a few callers before me and the blinds to bet after me in the first round of betting I can often steal the pot just by putting in a 3x big blind bet regardless of the cards I hold. However I like to have at least an OK hand before I try to steal the pot UNLESS I have a large chip stack and can afford the blinds calling me and getting lucky. Often even with useless cards I can limp in with a call when in late position just because it is a powerful place to play the game after the flop. For example if the flop is A-x-x where x is any card and no-one bets much before the action comes to me I can fire a half-pot or pot-sized bet and often win the pot right there even if my cards are rubbish. This is because everyone else at the table will assume I have the Ace and will fold. This is true for any flop that shows a high card, a potential straight or a potential flush combination. Other weak players are always scared I have made the hand and will fold. I am always careful of a call or especially a re-raise from an early or middle position player who might have slow-played their monster hand. Sometimes I try to steal the pot from late position after I see the flop and get called by one of the earlier players. It is interesting how most players seem play the 4th and 5th cards. If I bet big on the flop it is often true that the calling player will then check on the 4th card and allow me a free bet. Or the calling player might make a very small bet allowing me a cheap call. Often they are very worried about the strength of my hand because of my bet on the flop. In this situation, I can take another stab at stealing the pot here by firing off a strong bet OR I can check it down and wait until 5th street until I fire my strong bet. If the 4th street and 5th street cards LOOK like they might have made me a stronger hand I can often make a strong bet on 5th street and avoid the showdown, especially if my opponents check to me at this point. This is the great advantage of late position - I always get to see what the other players do before I do anything. The only thing I think about before I make my move is 'be careful - is the other player trying to trap me'.
One final word on blinds - many players in seats 1 and 2 like to protect their small and big blind. It is ok to try this once in a while but for the most part I just give it up if I have bad cards. When I am a small or big blind I know it is a terrible position to play from post flop because I am the first to act and everyone can make a play on me. The only really effective bet from this position is the massive raise but I often get caught out when I do this unless my cards are one of the 'Great hands'. So I tend to fold a lot of my blinds. The only time when blinds are really important are in the later stages of a tournament where they are very large in relation to your chip stack - at that point I try to protect them but in normal play I just give them up.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Lesson - starting hands
Even basic poker players soon learn that some hands are better than others. My friends 10 year old son knows pocket aces are brilliant and also gets the concept that some combinations of 2 cards are awful. There is a large range of hands in the middle though that would confuse him - is K-6 better than J-9 or is Q-10 unsuited better than 6-5 suited.
I did not start taking much notice of this until I started playing tournaments. I would win a few hands but would sometimes get criticized for being lucky or being a fish. The "experts" playing these tournaments range from young to old, fat to thin, men and women and they all seemed to be in on a secret agreement as to what hands should be played and what should not. And if you played the hands that you should not and you got lucky and won, you were due an insult and some name calling.
To learn this secret I looked on the internet and read some of the poker magazines. Arguably the most useful article for me was in Bluff magazine where they printed out a simple chart of good starting hands. From my research I began to understand that there is a lot of opinions of how good each starting hand is and when you should play it. I used the Bluff chart to help me in my tournament play and it paid huge dividends. Here's how I categorized hands at the very start of my training - note I have made several adjustments since but this was my starting point:
Great hands
AA, KK, A-Ks * note the little s means suited - anything without a little s means unsuited
Good hands
A-K, A-Qs, A-Js, K-Qs, K-Js, QQ, Q-Js, JJ
OK hands
A-10s, A-Q,A-J,K-Q,K-J,Q-J,J-10s,10-10
NoGood hands
all other pairs, all other combinations
Note as I progress through the training. I will explain more about the NoGood hands and why some of them might be good in certain circumstances but this list was my starting point. By only playing these starting hands and betting hard on the Great hands I got much better at tournaments. When I only played these hands in cash games I would often win the pots. The disadvantage of these hands is they do not come up very often which means you have to be very patient in your play.
I did not start taking much notice of this until I started playing tournaments. I would win a few hands but would sometimes get criticized for being lucky or being a fish. The "experts" playing these tournaments range from young to old, fat to thin, men and women and they all seemed to be in on a secret agreement as to what hands should be played and what should not. And if you played the hands that you should not and you got lucky and won, you were due an insult and some name calling.
To learn this secret I looked on the internet and read some of the poker magazines. Arguably the most useful article for me was in Bluff magazine where they printed out a simple chart of good starting hands. From my research I began to understand that there is a lot of opinions of how good each starting hand is and when you should play it. I used the Bluff chart to help me in my tournament play and it paid huge dividends. Here's how I categorized hands at the very start of my training - note I have made several adjustments since but this was my starting point:
Great hands
AA, KK, A-Ks * note the little s means suited - anything without a little s means unsuited
Good hands
A-K, A-Qs, A-Js, K-Qs, K-Js, QQ, Q-Js, JJ
OK hands
A-10s, A-Q,A-J,K-Q,K-J,Q-J,J-10s,10-10
NoGood hands
all other pairs, all other combinations
Note as I progress through the training. I will explain more about the NoGood hands and why some of them might be good in certain circumstances but this list was my starting point. By only playing these starting hands and betting hard on the Great hands I got much better at tournaments. When I only played these hands in cash games I would often win the pots. The disadvantage of these hands is they do not come up very often which means you have to be very patient in your play.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Commuting to poker rooms in California
Its killing me. For years in my computer job I worked towards avoiding the California traffic. I got to the point where I worked 90% from home with very occasional office or client visits. Since my decision in mid-September to become unemployed for a few months and work as a poker player in training my closest friends have laughed at my driving battles getting to and from the card rooms and casinos. I have put more miles on my car in the last 6 weeks than I had in the 6 months prior!!
Oceans 11 have got it right. The tournaments start at 10am in Oceanside which is a 40min drive for me outside of the rush-hour. Of course, that's still 40 minutes more than I used to drive and is each-way. Driving to Inglewood to Hollywood Park casino kills me at any time of day. It is a one hour drive for me in non-rush hour and way longer in rush-hour. Pechanga and Morongo are 1.5 to 2.5 hours drive. Hawaiian Gardens is about 40 minutes drive as is Commerce casino. Basically I have to drive a LOT to train in my new career. And in southern California where we have roads like parking lots it is NOT fun. I love visiting the casinos and card rooms and playing the tables - I just hate getting there and getting home again.
One solution to this is online poker.
Oceans 11 have got it right. The tournaments start at 10am in Oceanside which is a 40min drive for me outside of the rush-hour. Of course, that's still 40 minutes more than I used to drive and is each-way. Driving to Inglewood to Hollywood Park casino kills me at any time of day. It is a one hour drive for me in non-rush hour and way longer in rush-hour. Pechanga and Morongo are 1.5 to 2.5 hours drive. Hawaiian Gardens is about 40 minutes drive as is Commerce casino. Basically I have to drive a LOT to train in my new career. And in southern California where we have roads like parking lots it is NOT fun. I love visiting the casinos and card rooms and playing the tables - I just hate getting there and getting home again.
One solution to this is online poker.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Where to find tournaments in southern California
My new fun hobby is to enter poker tournaments and train myself to become good in poker. To do this I need to find and enter tournaments. Here are the resources I used:
- Oceans 11 in Oceanside - this was the first casino I played a tournament in so I have to mention it. They have flyer's showing the daily tournaments they host (mostly at 10am). They are located really close to the freeway in an ok area (fyi - a lot of casinos seem to be in really dodgy areas).
- Poker player magazine - I picked this up at Oceans 11 and it told me the time and location for a load of tournaments in Southern California and also what type they are - this is an invaluable source of info.
- Cardplayer magazine - monthly magazine with adverts for tournaments and also lists similar to poker player magazine showing where and when tournaments are playing and the buy-in etc. Between this magazine and poker-player you have a pretty good list of tourneys to enter.
I like to enter the Weds tournament at Oceans 11 for $60 and have done since mid-September when I started playing more regularly. The Tues and Thurs tourneys at Oceans 11 are cheaper. There is a nice $20 re-buy tournament at Hawaiian Gardens on Mondays at 1pm. Hollywood Park is a nice casino close to LAX airport and they also do a $20 re-buy Monday thru Friday at 11am.
To anyone like me who is still in training I recommend keeping your entry costs down and entering the cheaper/smaller tournaments before throwing your money away in the big ones.
- Oceans 11 in Oceanside - this was the first casino I played a tournament in so I have to mention it. They have flyer's showing the daily tournaments they host (mostly at 10am). They are located really close to the freeway in an ok area (fyi - a lot of casinos seem to be in really dodgy areas).
- Poker player magazine - I picked this up at Oceans 11 and it told me the time and location for a load of tournaments in Southern California and also what type they are - this is an invaluable source of info.
- Cardplayer magazine - monthly magazine with adverts for tournaments and also lists similar to poker player magazine showing where and when tournaments are playing and the buy-in etc. Between this magazine and poker-player you have a pretty good list of tourneys to enter.
I like to enter the Weds tournament at Oceans 11 for $60 and have done since mid-September when I started playing more regularly. The Tues and Thurs tourneys at Oceans 11 are cheaper. There is a nice $20 re-buy tournament at Hawaiian Gardens on Mondays at 1pm. Hollywood Park is a nice casino close to LAX airport and they also do a $20 re-buy Monday thru Friday at 11am.
To anyone like me who is still in training I recommend keeping your entry costs down and entering the cheaper/smaller tournaments before throwing your money away in the big ones.
Work - it gets in the way
I've always worked hard. Never been unemployed. I started as a trainee and worked my way up to a highly paid consultant. Then I started my own business and won some contracts. Its been very very busy. My personal life started to suffer because I was working too hard. Something changed in late 2006 and I starting scaling back a bit. Then in 2007 it got really busy again. Even though I mostly worked from home I was getting burnt out. Eventually in August 2007 I decided I needed a break. From the years of success I had saved a bit of money. It was time to be "unemployed".....at least for a little while. so as of mid September I stopped working.
Of course poker was part of the reason for this. I had decided that I needed to master the game and work was getting in the way. I needed to enter more tournaments to get some practice. I needed to read some books. I wanted to understand why 50-100 players were so damn good. And I am an entrepreuner - the good players are all releasing books and stuff and making loads of money. Poker is on a huge surge of popularity which is leading to bigger and bigger tournaments. I want to see if I can be a part of it but my work in getting in the way.
So how long to be unemployed for? I figured I needed 3-4 months to train and see if I could become good at poker. Remember my definition - good == positive cashflow. If I fail I will go back to work and have no regrets. But I hope to succeed. And I can measure my success by how far I get in the tournaments I enter.
So it feels good to be unemployed. Nobody is paging me. I have no responsibilities to anyone else (Except my wife). I have a massage a couple of times a week and have booked in some travel. All my friends think I am crazy.....but are also maybe a little interested. Being a trainee professional poker player is definately more of an ice breaker than working with [boring] computers.
Now I can concentrate on learning poker and practicing in tournaments.
Of course poker was part of the reason for this. I had decided that I needed to master the game and work was getting in the way. I needed to enter more tournaments to get some practice. I needed to read some books. I wanted to understand why 50-100 players were so damn good. And I am an entrepreuner - the good players are all releasing books and stuff and making loads of money. Poker is on a huge surge of popularity which is leading to bigger and bigger tournaments. I want to see if I can be a part of it but my work in getting in the way.
So how long to be unemployed for? I figured I needed 3-4 months to train and see if I could become good at poker. Remember my definition - good == positive cashflow. If I fail I will go back to work and have no regrets. But I hope to succeed. And I can measure my success by how far I get in the tournaments I enter.
So it feels good to be unemployed. Nobody is paging me. I have no responsibilities to anyone else (Except my wife). I have a massage a couple of times a week and have booked in some travel. All my friends think I am crazy.....but are also maybe a little interested. Being a trainee professional poker player is definately more of an ice breaker than working with [boring] computers.
Now I can concentrate on learning poker and practicing in tournaments.
Casinos and Card Rooms
I love casinos. I like to gamble - something I have done since being a little kid. Fortunately I have always had a good enough income that I can afford to continue my enjoyment. As a kid in England I played slot machines at fairgrounds and carnivals. When I got older I played slot machines in snooker clubs and pubs that had bigger jackpots. Then in my twenties I would go to small English casinos and play blackjack and roulette. I bought books on these games and educated myself on strategies but always knew the casino had the edge and you would probably lose all your money.
I came to the USA in 1994 and in 1996 lived close enough to the casinos in Atlantic City to visit there occasionally. The books suggested CRAPS had the best odds for the player so I watched that game for a while and figured out how to play it. For me this is the most fun you can have in a casino - throwing dice on a CRAPS table. I also visited Foxwoods casino several times and played the slot machines there. Eventually I took a trip to Las Vegas and loved it. When I moved to California I started making trips to Las Vegas 2 or 3 times a year and always had a great time. But the drive was a slog - surely there was something closer to home.
In 2005, I drove past the Commerce casino on the 5 freeway with its bright lights and glamorous exterior. I had finally found a local casino and decided to visit. When I went in the room was huge and full of poker tables. There were loads of Asian players with huge stacks of chips on the tables. I only had $500 and everyone else in the casino seemed to have thousands of dollars worth of chips. I was intimidated beyond belief. I understood that not all casinos would have slots, roulette and craps but a casino with ONLY poker tables - how pointless was that! Everyone was so much richer than me I was obviously out of my league. So I left. I was disappointed and had left without gambling a penny.
I started hosting a small home poker game for my friends in 2006 and enjoyed it immensely. I thought I was ok at poker and when my brother came to visit we suggested trying to play in a game at a casino. I was convinced it was too rich for us (remembering my Commerce experience where everyone playing seemed to be rich beyond belief) but I still wanted to try it. After researching on the internet we decided to go to Oceans 11 in Oceanside. This is much smaller than Commerce and less intense. We watched players for a while and then found courage to join a game. We played the lowest limit possible and had a fantastic time. Of course we lost all our money! A few months later I visited Oceans again with some out of town friends and played on the same tables. Again I had a good time. This led to us all entering a tournament where for $50 I played for 2 or 3 hours, ate some really good subsidized food and generally had a great time. I was hooked - poker tournaments were to become my new fun hobby.
My younger brother came to visit me early in 2007 and we decided to play some poker in a bunch of other casinos and card-rooms in California. So we entered tournaments in Oceans 11, Hawaiian Gardens, Pechanga, Commerce and other local California casinos. We had a great time but never won anything. Also we met some arrogant players who repeatedly criticized our play and told us how crap we were at poker. I started to pick up on a whole new language of poker terms without knowing what they meant. I decided to do some research on the internet to understand what these other players were talking about. Also in the card rooms there were poker magazines available for free to read. So I read some of these articles trying to learn the lingo. I also started to watch the poker on television - again mainly to understand the terms players were using. However I learnt something else as well.
I concluded from the magazines I read and the television I watched it appears there is a small set of 50-100 players who dominate this game and win massive amounts of prize money. It appears this is a game of skill that can be mastered. The prizes in tournaments seem so huge when compared to the entry fees. What is special about this small group of people? And how do I join their club.....
I came to the USA in 1994 and in 1996 lived close enough to the casinos in Atlantic City to visit there occasionally. The books suggested CRAPS had the best odds for the player so I watched that game for a while and figured out how to play it. For me this is the most fun you can have in a casino - throwing dice on a CRAPS table. I also visited Foxwoods casino several times and played the slot machines there. Eventually I took a trip to Las Vegas and loved it. When I moved to California I started making trips to Las Vegas 2 or 3 times a year and always had a great time. But the drive was a slog - surely there was something closer to home.
In 2005, I drove past the Commerce casino on the 5 freeway with its bright lights and glamorous exterior. I had finally found a local casino and decided to visit. When I went in the room was huge and full of poker tables. There were loads of Asian players with huge stacks of chips on the tables. I only had $500 and everyone else in the casino seemed to have thousands of dollars worth of chips. I was intimidated beyond belief. I understood that not all casinos would have slots, roulette and craps but a casino with ONLY poker tables - how pointless was that! Everyone was so much richer than me I was obviously out of my league. So I left. I was disappointed and had left without gambling a penny.
I started hosting a small home poker game for my friends in 2006 and enjoyed it immensely. I thought I was ok at poker and when my brother came to visit we suggested trying to play in a game at a casino. I was convinced it was too rich for us (remembering my Commerce experience where everyone playing seemed to be rich beyond belief) but I still wanted to try it. After researching on the internet we decided to go to Oceans 11 in Oceanside. This is much smaller than Commerce and less intense. We watched players for a while and then found courage to join a game. We played the lowest limit possible and had a fantastic time. Of course we lost all our money! A few months later I visited Oceans again with some out of town friends and played on the same tables. Again I had a good time. This led to us all entering a tournament where for $50 I played for 2 or 3 hours, ate some really good subsidized food and generally had a great time. I was hooked - poker tournaments were to become my new fun hobby.
My younger brother came to visit me early in 2007 and we decided to play some poker in a bunch of other casinos and card-rooms in California. So we entered tournaments in Oceans 11, Hawaiian Gardens, Pechanga, Commerce and other local California casinos. We had a great time but never won anything. Also we met some arrogant players who repeatedly criticized our play and told us how crap we were at poker. I started to pick up on a whole new language of poker terms without knowing what they meant. I decided to do some research on the internet to understand what these other players were talking about. Also in the card rooms there were poker magazines available for free to read. So I read some of these articles trying to learn the lingo. I also started to watch the poker on television - again mainly to understand the terms players were using. However I learnt something else as well.
I concluded from the magazines I read and the television I watched it appears there is a small set of 50-100 players who dominate this game and win massive amounts of prize money. It appears this is a game of skill that can be mastered. The prizes in tournaments seem so huge when compared to the entry fees. What is special about this small group of people? And how do I join their club.....
Friday, November 30, 2007
Am I a "good" poker player?
I played poker with my brothers and friends as a kid - initially 5 card draw and eventually 7 card stud. When I got older I played occassionally with friends and eventually started playing in a monthly poker game where I was introduced to "dealers choice". In this game I started to understand the different versions of poker including hold'em, guts, no peeky, follow the lady and a bunch of others. Some ex-marines played in this game and they always seemed to have new variations of games they had played in the forces. Every month I would learn new games and often I would come out a winner. So yes, I am and always have been a good poker player.
Prior to 2007 I knew very little about position, pot odds, implied odds, semi-bluff, stealing or re-stealing and certainly would not have applied any of thise terms to poker. I would not have thought maths was a huge part of poker. The "skill" involved would be knowing to play high cards and getting lucky on the flop or going all-in with whatever and hoping the other player fold. This "skill" was moderately successful but obviously in the poker world I would be caleld a "fish" and easy takings for someone who has played for a while. So no, at least up until this year I was not a good poker player.
What makes you good at poker anyhow? I play occassionally with friends who have kids that re very lucky and often win the money in our little poker games. Does that mean they are good? Are they good by intent or just willing to gamble and get lucky. I figure the only way to know if I have become a good poker player is to play it for a living and see if I can make some money. A positive cashflow will indicate I have become good at the game. Anything else means I am still training to become a good poker player
Of course I might be training for a very long time!!
Prior to 2007 I knew very little about position, pot odds, implied odds, semi-bluff, stealing or re-stealing and certainly would not have applied any of thise terms to poker. I would not have thought maths was a huge part of poker. The "skill" involved would be knowing to play high cards and getting lucky on the flop or going all-in with whatever and hoping the other player fold. This "skill" was moderately successful but obviously in the poker world I would be caleld a "fish" and easy takings for someone who has played for a while. So no, at least up until this year I was not a good poker player.
What makes you good at poker anyhow? I play occassionally with friends who have kids that re very lucky and often win the money in our little poker games. Does that mean they are good? Are they good by intent or just willing to gamble and get lucky. I figure the only way to know if I have become a good poker player is to play it for a living and see if I can make some money. A positive cashflow will indicate I have become good at the game. Anything else means I am still training to become a good poker player
Of course I might be training for a very long time!!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Poker Riches
Wow, poker has got popular. Not the everyday 'have a game of poker with your friends' version, but the cut-throat gambling version where for a small entry fee you can earn a huge prize.
But how easy it is to become a successful poker player. Can a person of average intelligence crack the game and make a living. Is it really a game of skill or a game of luck?
I'm going to find out. And I am going to document my progress as I go along. And my observations. Maybe at the end I will be addicted to gambling and have lost all my money...(I hope not).... or maybe I will be one of those lucky people you see on television raking in all the money at a big tournament.
The special skills I bring to the game are as follows:
- as a kid I was good at math and mental arithmetic - quickly calculating numbers in my head and I am still reasonably capable of doing this.
- as a teen I was a reasonably good chess player - a regional champion but certainly not county or national level. I've probably played 5 games in the last 10 years but still think I must be pretty smart to have been pretty good at chess.
- as an adult I have made a good living programming computers and databases. This suggests I am pretty with it when it comes to logical puzzles and if/then/else branches.
I like to learn new things and hold on to information pretty well. With computers I had a passion and read many many books just to get an idea how to do things. I copied ideas and modified algorithyms to make slightly different programs suited to what I was trying to achieve. And I was extremely focussed - all problems are solvable if you put in the hours and each failure just makes the eventual success taste sweeter. I could work for 36 hours straight nailing a computer program but I always cracked it eventually.
So can I apply the same passion and energy to poker and be successful? I have 3-4 months to try to get from the starting point to the pinaccle (whatever that turns out to be). Lets start the journey.
Ace (my new nickname)
But how easy it is to become a successful poker player. Can a person of average intelligence crack the game and make a living. Is it really a game of skill or a game of luck?
I'm going to find out. And I am going to document my progress as I go along. And my observations. Maybe at the end I will be addicted to gambling and have lost all my money...(I hope not).... or maybe I will be one of those lucky people you see on television raking in all the money at a big tournament.
The special skills I bring to the game are as follows:
- as a kid I was good at math and mental arithmetic - quickly calculating numbers in my head and I am still reasonably capable of doing this.
- as a teen I was a reasonably good chess player - a regional champion but certainly not county or national level. I've probably played 5 games in the last 10 years but still think I must be pretty smart to have been pretty good at chess.
- as an adult I have made a good living programming computers and databases. This suggests I am pretty with it when it comes to logical puzzles and if/then/else branches.
I like to learn new things and hold on to information pretty well. With computers I had a passion and read many many books just to get an idea how to do things. I copied ideas and modified algorithyms to make slightly different programs suited to what I was trying to achieve. And I was extremely focussed - all problems are solvable if you put in the hours and each failure just makes the eventual success taste sweeter. I could work for 36 hours straight nailing a computer program but I always cracked it eventually.
So can I apply the same passion and energy to poker and be successful? I have 3-4 months to try to get from the starting point to the pinaccle (whatever that turns out to be). Lets start the journey.
Ace (my new nickname)
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