Its been awhile

Freedom! My life for the last few months has been crazy. Not just poker, everything. Between delivering pizza's, playing golf, seeing friends, finishing classes, and spending time with my friends, I haven't had much time to put into this blog. By the end of the summer I hope to be a better poker player as I continue to develop my skills.

I'm back to SNG's again (If you haven't noticed I switch between cash and SNG's faster than Tiger Wood's switches mistresses). I just wanted to give an update on how I've done so far in SNG's in my poker career.

I've never been a degenerate. I'm a bankroll nit. When people whine about having to play the 3$ sng's I just laugh. I've played over 2,000 games at the 1$/45s on stars (thats a beat, not a brag). I've played as high as the 6/45s with breakeven results. But most importantly, I'm a consistent winner. This is where we find our confidence when we play.

Confidence is one of the most important things a poker player must have (besides the obvious self control to prevent tilting, and a bladder that works 55 minutes past the hour, every hour). Confidence not only makes us play our A game more often, but also helps keep our minds clear when making decisions. This is crucial if we are trying to maximize our hourly profit. Our decisions are a reflection of how we are feeling at the time we make the decision. If we are upset because we just lost a flip, or some monkey cracked our aces on the bubble, then we are more likely to spew in a spot where if we were thinking correctly we know the right place is fold.

You can't play profitable poker passively (say that 3 times fast). It is impossible to play poker if we are afraid to lose money. We should never play if we can't afford to lose. Things like this will impede our judgement and we will let our emotions control our play. For example, if we are deep in the Sunday Million and we know that shoving any two cards in the small blind is the right play, but if we get knocked out we only will make 10,000$ instead of the 21,000$ that the next place gets. We'll begin to ask ourselves if our play is worth 11,000$ and, most likely, we'll decide to not shove.

Moral of the story: We must always be confident in our decisions.

/rant

Here are my sng results on stars for the last year and also my results on fulltilt beginning just a week ago. I have found a very profitable game, and have been running relatively well, but I think I can continue to profit at close to the same winrate that I have thus far.

SNG Lifetime on stars

Fulltilt graph of this week

Good luck at the tables.

March Goal - $1,000

OMG its LUCKBOX

(taken from my previous blog)

Originally posted 3/25/10

This month I started playing the 6.50/45's more regularly and I hope to continue as the month goes on. Once I got over how much I was buying in with (after I loaded all of my tables for the session, usually 20-30 and realizing I was down $150-$200's in buy-ins) I realized the only thing different between the 3's and the 6's are the amount of regs (and first place is a cool $84).

I think the biggest difference besides the regs, is the amount of fold equity you have. If you are playing the 3's and you are shipping atc in the the sb into the bb, you get called by so many weird hands, which causes you to risk most, if not all, of your chips. In the $6.50's, you actually have fold equity. I think its just a psychological thing. Fish in the 3's just see their chips as a 3$ buy in, if they make the final table they will probably win 10-20$. In the 6.50's, fish see that first, second, and third pay $84, $60, $42 respectively. This is enough to keep them from getting pissed and calling your 3rd bvb shove w/ some weird J8 hand and winning the race(normally).

The only other thing you should be doing, is taking very good notes vs the regs. I know that may be hard if you are playing 16+ tables, but when you make the final tables, try to focus on what hands they are doing what with. Just this information alone will tell you how aggressive they are, and that usually will give you a good idea on how they are playing earlier in the tournament from t150(blinds are 75/150) and t400. If you take good notes, one day down the road you will make that K high call bvb, or you will re-steal over their btn minraises.

Anyways, here is the graph for the first week of March. I'm really going to try to hit the 1k mark this month, hopefully I can get in 1,200-1,500 games.

Also, I'd like to play live at least 5-10 times this month. Spring break is this week and I'm sure I can make it down there a few times.

Good luck at the tables

March Update

March 25th:

Last night I decided I wanted to make Supernova this year. 100,000 fpps on stars - not an easy task. I have 3,000 and 9 months to makes 97,000. So in the next six days, I need to make 1,180 more vpps to make Goldstar. I think if I make Gold this month, next month I will be playing 25 and 50nl, and depending on how many vpp's I get, I will decide if Supernova is attainable.

Here is an update of march so far. My goal is to make $1,000 live and $1,000 online. I cleared my live goal in my first five sessions ($1,040 profit) at Hollywood, with one or two more sessions to go this month:

Online I stopped playing SNGs and starting playing cash with my small roll. My sng and cash results are posted below:

6.50/45's are hard.

Cash has been a little nicer. But unless I run hotter than the sun for the next 6 days, 2k is probably unattainable. But I AM going to make Goldstar and a strat post at the end of this month.

Hugh Hefner and The Doomswitch

I started playing sng's this month for the first time in about a year, and had pretty decent results at the 3/45's. After the first 200 games I was definitely hoping to hit 1k this month. But after I asked Team Pokerstars Pro, Lee Nelson, if he was Hugh Hefner's twin when he was moved to my table during the stars 1/4 million, Stars turned on my doomswitch.

(an honest question imo)
<-Nelson / Hefner ->

After an almost break even 400 games to finish the month, and receiving silverstar for the first time ever on stars, I was ready to start playing cash again. I started playing the 6/45's last night and from what I noticed, the games are noticeably tighter than the 3/45's. I think people lategame are definitely pushing lighter (definitely noticeable by the reggish players) but they aren't calling as light as they do in the 3's. The games are definitely beatable (maybe for other players, but not while stars has their doomswitch on for me).

I only got to play live a handful of times this month but I had winning sessions all 4 of those times. Not huge nights, but I'm playing noticeably better poker.

This month I'm shooting to profit $1000 on stars this month and hopefully do the same playing more live. I have spring break in a week so I plan to put in good volume, both live and online.

Good luck at the tables this month.

Bankroll Management & Basic SNG Strategy (Feb 23, 2010)

This last week has been brutal. After moving up to the 3$ 45mans, I ran well. Very well. Try a 60% ROI over ~200 games. In the first few weeks of February I increased my bankroll about 250%. I knew it was too good to be true, after every session I kept looking at my OPR (www.officialpokerrankings.com) knowing that my 81% ROI was unsustainable. Then It happened In just over 100 games I lost ~70 bi's. I couldn't win anything, it felt like I was losing every flip.

Now you may look at that graph and say, oh he just lost 200$ or about 70 Buy in's, no big deal, etc... I'm not sure how new you are to poker, but 70 BI's is a lot. For cash games people advise you need 20-30 buy in's and while some people, high stakes player Dusty Schmidt aka "Leatherass" who is one of the top online players of all time advises you have at least 100 BI's for cash games.

Crash course:

A buy in means just what it sounds like. It is the amount you buy in for and that is typically 100 big blinds for cash games. So if the limits are .10/.20 cents, the buy in amount for that table is 20$'s, that is the maximum you can buy into that game for. So to be properly rolled for 20 NL you would need at least 400$.

Sit n go's are a completely different game than cash. There is so much more variance involved, especially the bigger sng's you play. The Single Table Tournaments (STT's) have less variance than the 45/90/180 man sng's. What this means is if you play STT's, and you double up once, you will have twice as many chips to play with as the other 7 or 8 people at your table, making it relatively easy for you to just push people around and slide into the money. If you are playing a 45 man tournament (this is what I play), only the top 7 get paid. You have to beat 38 other people to make the money. In doing this, you have to get your money in a lot more than you would in a nine person sng - leading to higher variance.

With all this in mind, I would advise you keep at least a 100 BI rule if you are going to play the sng's. Personally, I feel much more comfortable with 200 BI's and I have a great backer who is very understanding so this works well for us.

If you are just starting out playing sng's I suggest you read as much as you can before you start playing. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/23/mtt-strategy/anthology-2-2-wisdom-mtts-48/ I suggest reading all of those links on that page before you start. It has everything you could want to know about how to play sng's profitably. There are many different ways to approach sng's, so not every strat talked about there is good for everyone. Some people say to be agressive early, and tighten up later and coast into the money. Others advise to play like a complete nit early and loosen up around t100(this is how I play). This is probably the most useful guide on that list. It tells you how to play the 180mans with a description of how you should be playing each level: http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=9209807&page=0

Although I don't advise playing the 180mans as you are trying to learn sng's because the variance is sick. It is very easy to play 100's of games without cashing, then win the next 2 for a 100% ROI. If you are just starting out, I suggest playing the 1$ 45mans.

If you need it make a chart of the types of hands you should be playing at each level. Here is what I suggest.

Level 1 10/20 blinds - Level 3 25/50 blinds.
I generally only open JJ+ AK and KQs. I limp most pp's and fold them to raises. I fold all other hands. You are basically looking to setmine with the pp's and if you flop an OP w/ JJ+ or AK, getting it in is completely standard.

Level 4 50/100 - Level 5 75/150
By now we normally have about 9-13 bb's and we start opening our push/folding range. FIRST RULE OF SNG's: If you have less than 10 bb's, you should be either shoving, or folding. Don't get fancy and limp aa trying to trap. Sure you are losing value w/ aa when you shove it for 13 bb's. So obviously you can raise to 2.5 or 3x and pretty much get it in on any flop.

I'm still playing very tight UTG - MP+1. Only shoving 88+ w/ 10bb's or less (sometimes wider when you are down to 5bb). I'm shoving A10s+, AJo+, KQs and 88+.

If it folds to me in the CO and I've got a decent stack relative to the players behind me I'm pretty much shoving AXs, A8o+, K8s+, k10o, 22+, suited connectors, like 89s, 78s. We are trying to steal as much as possible.

Don't be afraid to bust here. Sure sometimes the BB will wake up with ak or jj and we will be dominated. But this is only about 10% of his range, so if we do this 10 times, and he folds 9 of them, we are making profitable decisions. Remember this.

Levels 6 and on.
Now we are normally close to the final two tables and we either have a huge chipstack, and we should be shoving pretty much any two cards (atc) on the button if it folds to us and we have shorter stacks behind us. Obviously we want to be stealing as much as possible, and we know they are only calling us with a very small % of their hands (aka range). And even if we do get called, we are normally not less than a 30% favorite so we have plenty of cards to help us suck out.

I pretty much have the same ranges as the previous levels, but I do open up earlier, shoving all pp's utg w/ 7-11 bb's etc.

Also as the deepstack, we want to put pressure on the other players, especially the shorter stacks. If we are on the button for example, and the CO limps in and the blinds are 800/1600, and we have ajs, obviously we are shoving. When the CO limps he rarely has AQ+ or JJ+, everything else we are flipping with at the worst. All of his ax hands we have dominated, not to mention his kj, k10, k9, qj, q10, q9 etc... So we know shoving is the right play. But what if we have 77 and he limps? I would shove 100% of the time. Even if we have k10, or any of the hands I just listed. The odds of him limp/calling a hand that DOMINATES us are so slim, shoving is the best play. If he calls we are normally no less than a 40% favorite, and we have something going for us that he doesn't have - fold equity.

Fold equity means the equity our percieved hand has vs his perceived range against us. That makes no sense. Basically what is happening is, he see's his hand, and thinks to himself. "Oh I like it, lets see a flop." He isn't thinking about how bad limping for 1/6 of his stack is. He just wants to see a flop. 90% of players are like this - they are awful. So he limps and the next player folds, it gets to us, and we have him covered. We go all in and it folds around back to him. He right then has to make a decision for all of his chips, is his hand better than what we are representing? Probably not. He decides that his q9o isn't good and he mucks and we pick up 3 or so bb's and move on to the next hand. What we created by shoving was fold equity. His hand might have been better than our 78s, but when we shove, we are representing a bigger hand than what he is holding, so he decides to fold.

Remember: Don't worry about busting. Our goal is to steal, steal, steal. Every now and then we will get aa and double up and it will be smooth sailing the rest of the way.

I will post a final table strat next week, but with this post and the few links I posted, I'm sure that you will be crushing sng's in no time.

Luckbox

Moved to donkaments

-OMG its LUCKBOX

(taken from my old blog)

Long story short, I ran very bad playing cash games on Fulltilt for an extended period of time. Probably because I stopped spending time investing in my game (watching videos, reviewing HH's) and sticking with a style that I know knew was profitable. The hard thing about poker is you can play exactly right, and lose money. Poker isn't fair. So even when we are making the right plays and we are just getting unlucky, getting coolered, losing flips etc the first tendency is to change up our style and second guess ourselves.

This is wrong.

What we should be focusing on is sticking to our game plan that we know works. Take Tiger Woods for example, when he was younger and on tour, he was killing it. He went through a tough streak where he had trouble putting things together and scoring well. Even through these times he wasn't playing bad golf. He just couldn't get anything going. Did he completely change his swing or his mentality towards the game? I don't think so. Sure he tweaked it a little with tips from his amazing coach, but he didn't start swinging left handed. He spent a good majority of his time PRACTICING, not PLAYING. Needless to say he started scoring better eventually and after his long 'downswing' he was better than ever imo.

I think what we can learn from this is if you start running bad (it will happen to you I promise), we should be putting in more time practicing (reviewing hands, posting hands, watching vids, just opening random tables and trying to read hands/pick up on mistakes, ect). I personally thought that the best thing to do when you were running bad was to just grind through it. Now I don't think its horrible but we should still be aware that we have probably developed a leak or two.

So after running bad, I decided to start playing sng's again. I had success with them in the past and I was getting burned out of playing cash games. I found an amazing backer who wanted to move me up the 45man levels. We agreed to start at the 1$ 45mans for a few hundred games, then assuming I'd profit, move me to the 3's and eventually to the 6's. I played awful the first 100 or so games, not remember what to do in certain situations. After the first sweat session we did my graph took a positive turn. I quickly moved up to the 3's and ran very well for about 250 games. With almost a 60% ROI (I knew was impossible to maintain - but it was nice picking up 130 buy in's that week). Yesterday I played ~60 sng's and cashed in 3 of them. It felt like I was losing every flip, I was getting coolered like crazy in the sb, nothing was going my way. I guess after 7 straight winning sessions it was going to happen eventually. After a rough night last night, I'm refreshed and ready to play some more with a better mindset. I'm going to play how I know what I'm doing, with confidence, picking good spots, etc.

Here's my sng graph on stars, I will be sure to post more sometime later this week.

Bankroll 8/21/09: 1.5 grand

I want to start updating this weekly - but everytime I finish a session I have to get ready for work so I'm not able to post many hands/strats. I just wanted to give a bankroll update and I'll try to add some hands later tonight or sometime this weekend.

I've played less than 10k hands at 50nl and I'm running at 3.91BB/100 so far and can hopefully keep motivated to keep playing. I've been having trouble getting motivated to play this month as I've been reminded by my cousin/new roommate daily that I've been making hundreds - he wonders why I don't want to play... (more on that later)

Also I just ordered my first purchase with poker winnings. I got a new snowboard for this season and I'm totally pumped about riding it.

So I suppose this post is just a brag.

Keep up the grind.

See you at the tables...

-Luckbox