Congrats on 2010!

Congratulations to all those players who had great years winning money at poker. I read your blogs and posts with sincere happiness for you and wish that I could win a lot too.

Unfortunately, I lack something (many things) that will allow me to win a lot. Although I played a lot of hours, I did only play 7-8 months of the year. Hopefully I can have a great year like all of you in 2011.

It never fails.

I said a while back I am not posting bad beat hand histories until the end of the year, so I just am going to describe how to play at the online poker sites.

Call a big 3-bet or 4-bet with a stupid hand.
Make sure to have 120-200BB effective.
Flop a bad draw and then CR or 3-bet overshove allin.
Automatic suckout and profit.

I am going to start playing like this, let's see if I can recapture some 5k of EV.

How not to play poker!

I decided to play a lot today because it was triple points. It turns out that it means hardly anything. So I earned enough for 2 additional $26 tokens, which after rakeback hit of $58*.27, so it is like $36 value for playing all day. I got another $36 from the regular point earning, ~$180 in rakeback, and the super pleasure of losing $1300.

Christmas sucks!

I was on a pretty good winning streak at the lower limits (17 days), but then I tried some at NL($2)(6-max) again and got decimated. -$1700 is about 8 winning days all in 1 hour.

Here are the biggest losers.

QQv44 - 3-bet pot.

ATsvQQ - this was stupid of me, forgot how the action went.

QTvK9 - 2 pair vs flush draw.

KKv96 - overpair vs flush draw.

KKvAKs - AIPF.

55vAK - AIPF.

Every allin I would lose, another $1000 of EV. I really shouldn't play 6-max anymore, I just can't win allins. I am pretty furious right now.

Nice day.

I had my first over $1k winning day in quite a while today. I did pretty bad at my MTTs and broke even in the SNGs, but was able to win $1400 in the ring games. Getting sick of the MTTs and only have 9 tickets left. I started playing 6-max again, because I am trying to get enough points to get the free $100 from the store (stupid reason). Here is how I won the most of it, basically in 2 hands to people who totally spazz out. The first is some nit-regular(on tilt?) and the second is some fish who gets allin in a 2BB pot for 250BB as a 1000-1 underdog.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.comBB ($268)UTG ($207)MP ($330.70)CO ($213.05)Hero (Button) ($237)SB ($450.95)
Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A
1 fold, MP bets $7, 1 fold, Hero raises to $22, 2 folds, MP raises to $330.70 (All-In), Hero calls $215 (All-In)
Flop: ($477) 6, Q, 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)
Turn: ($477) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($477) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: $477 Rake: $3
Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP had 5, 6 (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $474

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.comCO ($155.90)Button ($174.70)SB ($220.50)Hero (BB) ($458)UTG ($560.75)MP ($55)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
UTG calls $2, 4 folds, Hero checks
Flop: ($5) 2, 6, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, UTG raises to $11, Hero raises to $31, UTG raises to $558.75 (All-In), Hero calls $425 (All-In)
Turn: ($917) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($917) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: $917 Rake: $3
Results:
Hero had 9, 9 (three of a kind, nines).
UTG had 6, 9 (two pair, nines and sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $914

2011 - FTP not PS.

It looks like I will be having the majority and possibly all of my play in 2011 at FTP not PS. First some background. In 2005/2006 the majority of my play was spread to many sites (20?) to capture tons of bonuses, but I would say the majority was at UB and OnGame since they had the most bonuses. Then the UIGEA came, my Neteller money was frozen, and most sites closed to US players. In 2007 my play was primarily at FTP and 2008/2009 primarily at PS. In 2010 was split about even between PS and FTP, with the first 4 months of the year at PS, then basically a 4 month break and the last 4 months at FTP.

Why is my play going to be primarily at FTP?

1) The rakeback system is better for me. FTP gets you 27% rakeback, about 2-3% extra rakeback from the points, and then there are affiliate dependent rake races that can add possibly a lot more each month. First, the system at PS is not very good unless you already start out as Supernova (which I lost my status this year, I earned 70k VPP in the first 4 months and then quit) because the rakeback percentage is extremely low at statuses below Supernova. At PS it is a complicated system where you get FPPs and then have save up a lot to get a bonus or concierge service, but usually what happens is that you have to waste time playing satellites to convert your FPPs to T$, and then play even more SNGs to turn those T$ into cash.

2) The game quality is better for me. PS allows 24 tables and FTP only allows 16, so there are more multi-tabling regs. Also, I believe the stratification of 20-50BB and 35-100BB breakdown of the games further ruined the game quality, with most of the fish going to the short stack tables. FTP also has RUSH poker, so instead of massively multi-tabling 24 tables on PS like I used to, I can just play 4 tables of RUSH and get ~1000h/hr which is close to the ~1400h/hr that I got playing 6x as many tables.

3) The software is better for me. I like it more and it goes faster.

4) FTP has more bonuses. Free money is good.

There are of course drawbacks where PS is better, but you can't have the best of both worlds.
(1) PS is better at cashouts.
(2) FTP has annoying deductions. For example, every time I cashout costs me about $80 - $40 fee and an additional $40 rakeback hit, I don't really understand it. Also, you get ripped off on your MGR hits when you buy from the store. As mentioned I bought 75, $26 tournament tickets for 5600 pts. each, yet they deducted my MGR for $28 (5600/250) for each ticket) which is an annoying additional 150 MGR I lost.
(3) PS customer support is in general faster and more competent. FTP is improving vastly in this area though.

The sites are about even in their miscellaneous promotions throughout the year. The rake levels are basically even between the sites as well (PS used to be a leader in this, but decided to increase the rake for all the micro levels below NL25).

So where are you playing in 2011?

Taking it easy.

I haven't been playing much this month. Just the occassional tourneys with my tickets I ordered (32 left), and then enough ring to earn 250 FTP per day to keep my ironman. Still running below EV almost every day, but I am playing low volume and lower limits so it is not bothering me much.

Today I watched Team America: World Police (I have watched ~2500 movies now) which was not that great of a movie, but there was one pretty good quote, that is applicable in poker and also in life:

Guy in Bar: See, there's three kinds of people: dicks, pussies, and assholes. Pussies think everyone can get along, and dicks just want to fuck all the time without thinking it through. But then you got your assholes, Chuck. And all the assholes want us to shit all over everything! So, pussies may get mad at dicks once in a while, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes, Chuck. And if they didn't fuck the assholes, you know what you'd get? You'd get your dick and your pussy all covered in shit!

The next level.

In the old days, good players would raise in late position to steal the blinds and that was an innovation for good play.

Recently, good players would 3-bet late position raises from the BTN, SB, and BB and that was an innovation for good play.

I don't know if someone wrote a book or published a video, but the new innovation seems to be small 4-betting with ATo (and other garbage that can't call a 5-bet) out of position. I have yet to adjust to this innovation since I didn't read the book or see the video, so I either have to adjust my game or start shoving light. Theoretically in a 100BB game light 4-betting should not work, but I played about 500 hands of 6-max today and got 4-bet about 5 times, by players whose stats indicated it was a light 4-bet. I actually wasted $35 on a bad river call just to see that I got 4-bet light preflop. Anyhow, I will take the game to the next level.

I played 3 tourneys today. HORSE - beat, beat, beat, could not win a showdown. PLO8 - holy cow some beats and bad river calls when I did not think they could draw out on me both ways with their 2 or 3 outer. Then in the 6-max KO NLHE, I got down to 140 players out of 800 when 100 made the money and I had a double size chip stack when I blunder cashing or going deep with a stupid hand. I don't want to post the hand history because it is so ugly, but I open 75o in early position get called by A8o, flop is A85 and I cont' bet, he flats, turn is 7, I check and then call his overshove and stack off when my 4 outer doesn't hit.

The day was saved when I went on a 600 hand heater winning 5 buyins at NL100, so total for the day was up $300.

Day 4 - Doughnut.

Day 4 of tourneys was a big doughnut. The first 3 days I made at least a final table each day. I only played 4 tourneys today and they were all NLHE and mostly fairly large fields. I did get $4 from a knockout whoopee. Here is a hand from the super-stack tourney that made me mad. I did not really play that well or run that well either.

Full Tilt - 40/80 NL - Holdem - 9 players Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: http://www.pokertracker.com UTG: 4,082.00 UTG+1: 5,278.00 MP: 5,423.00 MP+1: 2,351.00 LP: 12,580.00 CO: 4,821.00 Hero (BTN): 6,761.00 SB: 5,103.00 BB: 5,004.00

UTG posts ante 10.00, UTG+1 posts ante 10.00, MP posts ante 10.00, MP+1 posts ante 10.00, LP posts ante 10.00, CO posts ante 10.00, Hero posts ante 10.00, SB posts ante 10.00, BB posts ante 10.00, SB posts SB 40.00, BB posts BB 80.00
Pre Flop: (210.00) Hero has 8c 6c
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 160.00, Hero raises to 422.00, fold, fold, CO raises to 1,120.00, Hero calls 698.00
Flop: (2450.00, 2 players) 3c 3d 5c
CO bets 3,691.00 and is all-in, Hero calls 3,691.00
Turn: (9832.00, 2 players) 7h
River: (9832.00, 2 players) Ks
CO shows 8s 7c (Two Pair, Sevens and Threes) (PreFlop 60%, Flop 41%, Turn 68%)
Hero shows 8c 6c (One Pair, Threes) (PreFlop 40%, Flop 59%, Turn 32%)
CO wins 9,832.00

I probably would have final tabled the 90 man knockout if AQ could hit vs 33 AIPF, but what are these jokers calling allin shoves with 33 for in the first place. I have 50 tournament tickets left.

PLO ho ho ho 8.

Today I played 7 tourneys. I had very disappointing bustouts in the first 5 with both bad beats and bad play. I did manage to lift my curse with cashes both in the PLO and the PLO8 today. The PLO was a mincash for $30.10, and the PLO8 was a 3-way deal for $1114.52. I had a big chip lead and the chip-chop would have been quite a bit more the that ICM chop, but at worst I made a $218 mistake by dealing. I had T386k and the others had T148k and T100k. Both of the opponents were winning tourney players and seemed decent, although probably not as good as me in overall poker skill, but possibly better at PLO8. I was super lucky at the final table, so maybe it was dumb to deal, but I like to make 3-way deals as this is my third one this week.

HORSEing around.

I played 5 tournaments on my second day of tournaments and busted very quickly in the first three. Once again I played like a total moron in the PLO tourney. I did manage to get very deep in the two HORSE tourneys, 27/2861 in the $22 mini-FTOPS for $337.50, and 6/192 in the nightly $26 - $4k guarantee for $170.50. I exited both tourneys on bad beats, but I had to put a few beats on people to even get there, so that is a tourney.
I made a few mistakes as well. I was chip leader in each tourney at one point or another, but could never take overwhelming control of the table. Also at one point in the second tourney when we were down to two tables, I think I won only 1/35 hands which is quite crippling, making it very difficult to win it.

Tourneys Day 1: Success!

I played my first nine tournaments today. Cashed 3/3 in the fixed limit events (Limit HE, HORSE, Stud H/L) and went 0/6 in the NL and PL events (got $16 in knockout bounties, bleh). I think I might have made a couple stupid plays in the PLO and PLO8 tournies. It does get confusing when you are playing 4 different game types at once.

In limit Holdem we did a roughly even 3-way chop ($615.79). In HORSE I lost a 70/30 in the Stud round allin on 5th street with KKxyz vs TTabc and went out 9th ($66.92) just before the final table. In the Stud H/L we did a 3-way chop as well ($618.19). It was a great success, although I sat here roughly 8 hours straight again reminding me of the perils of MTTs.

In the Stud H/L I was owning the final two tables and had half the chips when we were 4-handed, but then went completely card dead.

Tourney Time.

Going to try something new.

Wishing myself the best of luck!

3 months of Full Tilt Poker.

It has been a hard 3 months of poker. Full Tilt has a Black Card program. I never got my card in the mail and don't really understand the program but that's nice.

I played about 600 hours total of poker in these 3 months, and a total of about 500k hands between RUSH, ring and tourney. That is more than a regular job. My net results over 3 months are about:

RUSH: 13k

rakeback: 9k

rake races/bonuses: 3k

ring/nonholdem: 1k

tourney/SNG: 1k

full tilt points: 1k

to staker: -3k

TOTAL: ~25k in 3 months

When I look at it like this it makes me fairly happy as it has been quite painful the last 8 weeks since I have been on a major downswing (-6k) over the last 200k hands. I also had a swing down of 5k of EV, which is a lot at basically the micro limits. I also feel like I am not playing as well as I used to (not trusting my reads, chasing bad draws, and making bad river calls). Playing when I am tired has hurt me quite a bit as well. Oh well here is my RUSH grid which at least makes me feel a little better.

Will take a day or two off for refection about the next chapter, and also possibly spend my 400k full tilt points on tournament tickets or something.

Getting Berserko.

Blew another $700 at PLO8($4) - CAP tables of $160.
Basically lost 4 or 5 "flips".

I have to be careful here not to bust my account.

I am done with Omaha and Omaha-8.
Way too much variance for me.

Got Smashed.

Apparently if you buyin for 40BB you automatically lose any allin preflops. I thought December was going better, but got smashed today. One day left of RUSH week, then I am probably just going to stop grinding and play the occasional MTT. This has become a waste of time (ie. the money I make does not justify the amount of hours I spend).

DEC 1. +515 (30 above EV)
DEC 2. +405 (150 below EV)
DEC 3. +100 (60 below EV)
DEC 4. -815 (430 below EV)

Today was especially painful as I lost 8 straight flips allin preflop (one was on the flop) for my stack.

Short Stack Song.