CoolDuck

[CoolDuck]

So my downswing moderated, but I've only been making about $10 to $15 bucks a day.  Which doesn't help much when I lost about $300.  I'm still not running well, and everyone's hitting.  Blahhhhhhhh..........

[Tony]

Sorry to hear you're luck hasn't turned yet, but at least you're on an even keel at the moment.  Are you finding the 2/4 games tougher than 1/2 at all?  Or are they similar?

[CoolDuck]

Sorry to hear you're luck hasn't turned yet, but at least you're on an even keel at the moment.  Are you finding the 2/4 games tougher than 1/2 at all?  Or are they similar?

I don't know honestly, I actually think a lot of the 2/4 games are worse!  Tons of open limping, calling.  But when you're running poorly and facing tough spots out of position, they make it difficult.  I'm sure it'll get easier as I adjust to the players.

[Tony]

I know what you mean.  I was just telling Adam that I dropped 90 big bets yesterday over 3 sessions.  A few big coolers, a few 2/3 outers on the river all big pots, and a few insane fish getting lucky, and bye bye $500.  Oh well, today is another day

[CoolDuck]

I know what you mean.  I was just telling Adam that I dropped 90 big bets yesterday over 3 sessions.  A few big coolers, a few 2/3 outers on the river all big pots, and a few insane fish getting lucky, and bye bye $500.  Oh well, today is another day

What I'm putting together so far, the tables are incredibly loose, so don't do a Phil Helmuth (play tighter and wait for hands at 6 max )

Play less hands.  I'm isolating a bit less, dropping the marginal hands.  I'm trying to make less moves.  Some of the TAGs make ridicolous....  ridicolous ace high call downs.

[Tony]

Play less hands.  I'm isolating a bit less, dropping the marginal hands.  I'm trying to make less moves.  Some of the TAGs make ridicolous....  ridicolous ace high call downs.

It's funny you mention this, I was talking about this to Adam this morning. There are a number of players I've noticed who used to be winning players who have started 8+ tabling 3/6 for the FPPs presumably and now lose at a shocking rate.  It seems they just use a strategy whereby they call down with any pair and any ace in HU pots, pretty much regardless of the board or action.

I'm also amazed by the number of TAGs who bet the river with showdown hands when they're clearly not getting called by worse.  Betting A-small unimproved on the river seems to be automatic for a lot of these guys, I just don't get it.

[CoolDuck]

September:  Up $475 over 7,800 hands, for about 1.5 BB/100.  Not counting rakeback and Take 2.

1.)  So hand goals I wasn't even close.  2 reasons, GMAT and playing 2 tables at $2/$4.  Which is a good excuse.  GMAT has to come first anyway, poker 2nd.

2.) Pwned the Take 2 bonus no problem, did make bronze iron man or whatever the hell. 

3.)  Pokerstars, barely scraped by with silver star. 

Overall $2/$4 is not going awesome.  I've been running poorly, and some of these players are extremely aggressive.  Which makes it difficult.  My swings the last 3 days are insane. After my first 20-30 minutes, I was down...

Day 1: $125
Day 2: $175!
Day 3: $150

While mixing in some $1/$2 and running a bit better, I was able to make a profit on day 1, .50 cent loss day 2, and $79 loss on day 3 (today).  My won at showdown % just blows, today it's like 30%.  I checked each day after I was down significantly, and it was pretty funny.  Day 1 was like 25%, Day 2 was 0!.....  I mean really 0!.....  I was thinking hmmm.... well that explains it. 

But I guess that comes with moving up in limit.  Hopefully I'll have more time to work on my game. 

[Tony]

Hi CD,

Sorry I haven't been around this week, I've had a crazy week.  Children were ill with colds, loads of stuff to do around the house, gardening stuff to do before the weather breaks, etc., etc.  It's typical, I post half a dozen hand histories then bugger off for four days, oh well...

Are you practicing table selection at 2/4?  It's sometimes tricky because there often aren't that many tables running, but are you conciously trying to sit to the left of bad players and avoid lagtags on your left?  I find that my life is generally much easier when I do this, although I must admit I don't always take the time.

I've recently been playing a lot of heads up, and suprisingly the rake doesn't appear to be as bad as I thought.  I think it's around 2.9 big bets per 100 at 3/6, and half of this at 5/10.  I think this compares pretty well with the rake at six max, it's certainly nowhere near as bad as I'd always thought.  The nice thing about playing heads up is that table selection is trivial.  You just sit at an empty table and refuse to play anybody who's any good!

[CoolDuck]

Nah that's cool.  I've been working 12 days in a row for year-end accounting close, so I've barely had time to check the forum or play poker.

I do practice table selection.  In fact I think a lot of the tables are a gold mine.  Obviously avoiding TAG fests is a priority.

That's interesting about the HU rake, I've never really played HU, but it sounds like fun + profitable. 

[Tony]

It's definitely a lot of fun, since you're playing 80% of your hands or thereabouts.  It's also a great way of grinding out FPPs if you've a bonus to clear.  The downside is that the swings can seem brutal because everything happens so quickly, although win-rates are higher which should moderate the swings somewhat.  Avoiding tilt is also super important.

I think table selection and being able to quit a good player even if he's taken some of your money is key when playing heads up.  It's really hard to quit when you're stuck but continuing to play even a half decent player is just -EV when the rake is so high.  You're really playing against the rake at 3/6 and below, it's a lot better at 5/10 or higher.

Another consideration is that some of the smaller sites are always looking for prop players and offer 75%-80% rakeback, and most of this involves starting off tables.

[CoolDuck]

So poker's pretty blah this month.  $1/$2 is fine when I do play, but $2/$4 has been break-even this month.  Lots of tough beats.  Some of the aggression is annoying/just bad.  Still trying adjust.

The leading/donking has been driving me crazy this month!  I don't know what it is, but so many of the really loose players are doing it now.  This has been at both limits.

Also more people are floating light at $2/$4.  Very annoying when I'm not hitting.  Puts me in a lot of tough spots with no showdown value, but knowing I'm going to get raised fairly often in spots.  Something I need to work on.

Not much to do but keep playing and analyzing my play.  I'm working on improving on poker decisions and trying to get a more clear range analysis during the hand.  Sometimes I feel my thinking is kind of muddy/oversimplified, even with 2 tables.  Though I think my poker decisions are okay in general, I"m just running bad. 

[CoolDuck]

I'm getting stomped right now.  That massive downswing is all Full Tilt.  The "blip" going up?  That would be pokerstars. 

It's funny, if you look at my day's stats there not bad.  WTSD high 30's, won high 40s to low 50's.  But if you look per table (great feature of HEM, not sure if tracker has it), my $90 drop table was a sicky 14% won money at showdown. 

Things not going my way in $2/$4 this month!  Hopefully it will turn around.  Another $400 and I'll force myself to drop back to $1/$2.  I also decided if I'm going to play, it might as well ALL be at $2/$4 for now.  I think mixing in $1/$2 is a mistake.  Maybe that would be a good topic to discuss?  If playing your old limit while your moving up is bad for your game or not. 

[CoolDuck]

Unfortunately, I've ran so poorly the last few days I'm now forced to drop back to 1/2.  To be fair, I'll take some of the credit for that.  There have been spots where I've been tilty. 

I don't want to sit around and piss and moan how I'm running bad, because everyone runs bad. 
It seems like the tables I have some moderate gains at, like 7-10 BB I'm running okay.  But the problem is that
at one table I'll sit down and drop 25BB very quickly.  Last night I played 200 hands at a table, 23% won money at showdown, and basically lost my entire stack (50BB), while I'm sitting there in a almost surreal spot losing with all my good hands.   

I know I recently tried to kick everyone in the but and post more about poker, but I think I'm going to decrease my poker playing significantly so I can concentrate on the GMAT.  A massive downswing while I'm studying is not good for my mental state.  I'll still check in and still post on the forum though. 

[CoolDuck]

Thought I'd make a quick post.  My holiday traveling is done.  My mom got married in PA on New Year's day, so that was interesting.  Ready for the holidays to wind down though.  Still studying and looking for a job back in the Midwest.  Hope everyone on the forum has a good one, looks like Dave had fun in Vegas, sounds like Tony got bad beated must of the holiday.... 

Poker's been pretty poor lately.  I lost 75BB in October, ran +150BB in Nov, Dec was -35BB.  The last month and a half has been very break even.  I haven't been playing a ton, but the game hasn't been that fun.  I feel like I'm just not getting paid off, plays aren't working.  I'm trying to play very exploitively against the Full Tilt TAGs and loose passives.  Which means C/Fing more in some spots.  Honestly I think some of these guys have no bluffs in their ranges.  Does not make for terribly interesting poker, but I'm sure it will be good for my win rate.  I'm sure if I was around 15 to 20K a month I'd be playing better or I wouldnt notice this break even boring stretch.

I remember Verst had made the comment about why I would give up Stars when I had a good win rate.  I'm thinking Full Tilt has more TAGs than stars, and the average fish is better than stars.  What does everyone else think about Stars vs Tilt?  Does rakebake compensate for the better player you face on average?  I'm starting to think that it doesn't, but I might just be thinking that because I've been running pretty blah lately.  Over 4 months at stars I was 100 to 125+ BB every month, and that was only about 3K hands each month.  Not a big sample size, but those games are super soft.  I'm thinking about switching to Stars for a bit.