KeepYourChips Blog Entries

Punishement !

Squishee — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:30:16 +0000

Easy Game : Had to find something to help me avoiding spew. Im doing ok this month but.. cmon Im pretty much sure I already burned 10 buy in so far..

Payback time !

STFU

Running above all-in EV

Morto — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:09:06 +0000

Surprise, I’m not busted even though haven’t posted for a while! In fact, I’ve been running very well. May a little too well.

I’m up about 20 buy-ins already this month in just about 7000 hands. I feel that I’ve won almost all coinflips or close, and my good hands have almost always come out on the top after river. I don’t feel that I’ve played badly, or sucked out huge, I’ve just been on the good side of the coin. This makes me feel a little uneasy. My all-in ev adjusted graph for this month looks like this:

What makes me feel uneasy, is that I’m almost waiting for my luck to turn, and start diving. I feel that I haven’t earnt my money, even though I haven’t really done that much wrong. All this run-good just makes me feel somehow weird.

I don’t really have any big point here on this, this just mixes my feelings. Anyone else feeling the same when running above EV?

Back to the drawing board...

RIGGED! — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:16:04 +0000

OK, let’s talk about how GOOD the day started lol. I woke up this morning planning on being productive as I said in my blog yesterday. I started cleaning my kitchen, when I found one of Courtney’s work checks. It was buried in a pile of papers and it was three months old. It was 278 bucks. I was very excited lol. Couldn’t need it more at this time.

I finished cleaning the kitchen and did the dishes (which took me about a half hour). Went to the gym. Worked out fairly hard. Came home and noticed that my raspberry bush and strawberries have started to grow. Yeah we’ve had some warm weather for like the last two months. In the fall, I had ground up the leaves in my yard and used them as mulch for my garden. I needed to rake most of them off so my plants could start growing. So I did that and bought soil and stuff. So that’s what I did until about 3pm. I decided to do that instead of poker because today the weather was pretty decent and I didn’t want to put it off and it be crappy outside for the next month. Plus it made me happy.

Then I took Courtney to work and came home and started playing poker. Here’s how it went…

Another awful night at the tables has convinced me that I need to do some serious work on my game. Again. It happens like this continuously. It’s a circle that I have been on ever since I started playing poker. Horrible downswing, study, grind a small profit for a while, then another horrible downswing. Rinse and repeat for the rest of my life…

Today was a probably 25% bad play and 75% horrible luck. Of course when I loaded up my tables, 3 other regs decided to load right on top of me. What a freakin joke. I run so well against them too. Here are some examples.

Hand 1: This happens probably 90% of the pots I am in with him. This is just one example. This guy has an ungodly win rate against me. It has become the norm, so nothing surprises me any more. I knew exactly how this was going to end.

Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t150/t300 Blinds – 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: t2300 M = 5.11
BTN: t6825 M = 15.17
SB: t2330 M = 5.18
Hero (BB): t2045 M = 4.54

Pre Flop: (t450) Hero is BB with J K
2 folds, SB raises to t2330 all in, Hero calls t1745 all in

Flop: (t4090) 9 9 7

Turn: (t4090) 5

River: (t4090) 8

Final Pot: t4090
SB shows K 7 (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
Hero shows J K (a pair of Nines)
SB wins t4090

Hand 2: This has been how I’ve been running the last three days. Through out this whole hand I knew the queen was gunna hit. I DO NOT win verses these guys. Doesn’t matter if I have the best of it. It’s not that they are out playing me.

Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t200/t400 Blinds – 7 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): t1360 M = 2.27
BB: t1915 M = 3.19
UTG: t1470 M = 2.45
UTG+1: t3150 M = 5.25
MP: t1565 M = 2.61
CO: t2230 M = 3.72
BTN: t1810 M = 3.02

Pre Flop: (t600) Hero is SB with K A
3 folds, CO raises to t2230 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t1160 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t3120) 5 J J

Turn: (t3120) 6

River: (t3120) Q

Final Pot: t3120
Hero shows K A (a pair of Jacks)
CO shows Q A (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
CO wins t3120

Hand 3: This one was a gem. Perfectly normal.

Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t150/t300 Blinds – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: t1550 M = 3.44
SB: t3370 M = 7.49
Hero (BB): t2710 M = 6.02
UTG: t2440 M = 5.42
CO: t3430 M = 7.62

Pre Flop: (t450) Hero is BB with K K
UTG raises to t2440 all in, 1 fold, BTN calls t1550 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t2140

Flop: (t6580) 9 5 6

Turn: (t6580) Q

River: (t6580) 8

Final Pot: t6580
BTN shows 9 Q (two pair, Queens and Nines)
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
UTG shows A K (Ace King high)
Hero wins t1780
BTN wins t4800

The night was going shitty and I was so sick of losing. Not confident in my play AT ALL. It was going to be a disaster if I didn’t stop for the night. I decided that it was the end when I made the worst call I’ve made in probably two months.

Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t200/t400 Blinds – 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: t4800 M = 8
BTN: t3220 M = 5.37
Hero (SB): t2050 M = 3.42
BB: t3430 M = 5.72

Pre Flop: (t600) Hero is SB with T K
1 fold, BTN raises to t3220 all in, Hero calls t1850 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t4500) K K 5

Turn: (t4500) K

River: (t4500) Q

Final Pot: t4500
BTN shows A 2 (three of a kind, Kings)
Hero shows T K (four of a kind, Kings)
Hero wins t4500

Nevermind the outcome, this hand made me sick to my stomach. I actually forgot that I even won thsi hand. I knew it was a terrible call and confirmed it with Wiz later. This is not like me. Someone else made this call. Someone that I haven’t seen for awhile. This can’t happen again so I’m going to study study study. Maybe play less tables. Might make a video. We’ll see.

Addicted to EASHL

bosoxx34 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:53:16 +0000

Been playing a ton of EASHL lately. It’s the online league associated with NHL 2010. I’ve joined a team from 2+2 and after being awful the first few nights we’re now around .500. It’s been fun to see the progress.

Unfortunately this has cut into my grinding time. I’ve been playing well lately and decided to take a 5 BI shot at 200 but lost 3 quick BIs and spewed my last one way so I cut it short. Back to 100.

Practice has started and my arm is already sore from throwing BP, hopefully advil can get me through another season.

Tobias has passed Gob as my favorite character in Arrested Development. Him being an analrapist just put it over the top. I’m on the last episodes of Season 3 right now and need a new TV to show to watch.

I’ve started coaching again, I’ve E-mailed the first few people on my wait list tonight. If you’d like to jump on, go ahead and E-mail coaching@deucescracked.com.

If you have some free time, one of my former students is an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin. His first conference tourney game is tomorrow and you can follow along here Here if you’re bored and looking for a team to root for.

Tobias Fünke: Dont leave your uncle teabag hanging.
George Michael Bluth: Dont call it that.

New card protector! Hopefully taking a shot at 200NL soon.

goodoldbm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:08:48 +0000

So I just got a new card protector off ebay. Its a panda eating bamboo. I am quite fond of pandas. I have a panda hat, panda avatar, and a panda debit card. I used to have a big ass glass fish as a card protector, and it shattered on the floor when I was in Vegas, which sucked because I had had it since I was a little kid. Hadn’t gotten a new one since, b/c I’ve been looking for the right one, and haven’t played any live poker in a long time. But I finally found the perfect card protector and I’m pretty stoked for it to get here. I’ll be that crazy panda kid who plays a lot of poker. But who doesn’t love pandas. They are the coolest looking bear there is. They’re hilarious. And those eyes are just grrreat. and they’re the only bear I would want to hang out with, besides the fact it might try to eat me or something. but a panda cub i’d hang out with all day.

The WSOP circuit is coming to St. Louis, so I’ll probably hit up the cash games that run on the side during it. I kind of miss live poker, and the social aspect. Having a dealer, people to talk to and laugh with, and chips to play with cannot be replaced by online poker. Also, theres nothing better than amassing a massive stack of chips, and feeling unstoppable. My record at Lumiere was amassing a 2500 dollar stack from 300 dollars. It was pretty. A 500 dollar chip, a fat stack of 100 dollar chips, some greens, then a pyramid of reds. I played for 14 hours straight, and it felt amazing to have such a big stack at a 1/3 game. That being said, I almost definately make more money online, but I can still make a pretty decent profit at live. I think I could really dominate the game now. 1/3 in St. Louis is a joke. Equivalent of .05/.10 online. Suuuuch an easy game. I killed it the week I turned 21 for like 4 grand. Thus began my poker journey, and its been going strong since. Hopefully there will be some juicy 2/5 games going during the WSOP circuit. I might play in a few events too, but I suck at MTTs. So we’ll see how I’m feelin.

I’m thinking about trying out 200NL rush a few times a week, slowly easing into it, during peak player times like Friday and Saturday night. My bankroll is ginormous, though I’m constantly withdrawing. I’ve withdrawn 10,500 in the past few weeks and it still is at 21,500. 20,000+ is the only time I feel comfortable playing 1/2, yes I’m that big of a bankroll nit. Being insanely overrolled makes me not care when I lose multiple buyins. And makes me play much, much better. I was planning on withdrawing the entire thing for various reasons that I won’t go into here, its kind of a mess, before I move to Cali. Then reloading it. But I might actually hold off to moving to Cali for a while, because I feel like I’d have to take off too much of my bankroll for the move. I want to feel very, very comfortable with my finances before I move. I’m pretty comfortable right now – I have a ton of money saved up. But, moving money around is gonna be a hassle. Money is basically the only source of stress in my life right now. If I continue to beat the game and make 5000-10,000 a month, then money will cause me very little stress. Good news is I’ve made 4000 dollars in the first 9 days of March. I crushed again today, and the poker gods have been treating me well. I’m running great, and its times like these where poker is truly a gift. No matter how big a downswing I run into, I know that an equally large upswing is due to happen sometime in the future if i keep playing. Variance has a way of evening out over 100s of thousands of hands. Right now I’m running great, and quite happy with the success I’ve had this month.

Making a bunch of money has made me a money nit. I don’t really spend any more than I used to-unless its on poker related expenses, such as a new computer which I am buying fairly soon, or a big tv to play on which I am also buying pretty soon. The money I make is only put towards building a bigger bankroll so that I can feel more comfortable playing higher stakes. And will now be used to allow me to live in an amazing city – San Diego. I eat out more than I used to – pad thai with tofu is my favorite. Bangkok gardens in Columbia FTW. I love Thai food. And I eat a ridiculous amount of Chipotle – a great vegetarian and vegan friendly fast food place found all over the country.

The best thing about having a big bankroll is that I’m not losing money that I need to survive. I have already made more than enough money to live on. And I live fairly cheaply – I don’t spend much money at all besides on food and rent and insurance and taxes. So when I make mistakes, lose some buyins, its not the end of the world. Just a small scratch in an otherwise ginormous bankroll. I’m not gonna lie, January really sucked. I had never had a losing month until January. I only lost 2 grand, but that also means I didn’t win any money, and it felt bad. But I’ve probably had 7 months where I booked solid wins, and 1 month where I lost. So thats a pretty good track record eh. If I ever get to the point where I’m crushing midstakes or highstakes games, I plan on donating quite a bit of money to charity. Even crushing low stakes I can make a substantial amount of money. The best thing about this is I get to deduct this money from the ridiculous taxes I have to pay on my winnings. And this way I’m not just playing a game for a living – I’m also helping others at the same time. Which is a life goal of mine, and why I’m going to grad school to get a pHD in psychology in a few years, to hopefully further the psychology field in some small way. But in the meantime – I want to beat the game of poker!

I’ve been thinking a lot about bankrolls and whatnot the past few days, as I have several friends who tend to deviate from solid bankroll management. I have come up with a way to think about a bankroll through talking with them and just really thinking about why I am such a bankroll nit. First and foremost – a bankroll is your lifeline as a professional poker player. Without it, you are unable to grind, and therefore unable to provide yourself with money to pay your bills. A bankroll can be instantly destroyed via moving up to stakes you are not rolled for, but thats about it. I have witnessed the destruction of poker players due to lack of bankroll management, and it is not pretty. But it is for this reason I am such a bankroll nit. I used to be a huge phish back in highschool, would play pit games, blow money in poker, and had no concept of bankroll management. I know the old me is still somewhere inside, and I am scared as hell to let him out. Even 1 year ago I didn’t really have solid BR management. have 20+ grand, I only played 2/4 a handful of times. I never played above 2/4, except for live cash games, but live cash games are completely different than online. I realize I am scared, scared of letting an irresponsible self out, scared of losing more money than I feel comfortable losing, and letting this affect my game. I have read stories of countless poker players spiraling out of control. No one ever plans to spiral out of control and blow their bankroll – but it happens. I realize I could take 5 buyin shots at 1/2, and once I lose 5 buyins just grind out 100NL again until I want to take another shot. This should only positevely affect me, and if I start off from the get go winning, I would have a much, much higher hourly. But I am still scared. And hope to overcome this fear fairly soon. I think I can beat 200NL, and I think I’m going to take a shot this week. Going in with the spirit that I won’t care if I lose 1000 dollars. That I will be able to make that back in 20-30 hours playing 100NL. We’ll see how it goes.

Well I’m off to bed, wakin up early tomorrow for a long day of grinding. I have a few new plans for tomorrow. A) I’m going to min raise every button. I think this will be a profitable strategy for many reasons, but mainly b/c ppls 3bets won’t be as effective, and ppl will most likely call too much OOP. And I think people at 100NL will react poorly to this. B) I’m going to stop 4bet bluffing a ton IP, because I am losing less since I’m minraising when people 3bet, and I feel my 4bet bluffs are not profitable against a bunch of the rush poker monkeys. They may be slightly +EV against some. Or slightly -EV against others who 5bet shove light. But either way, they increase variance a great deal, and it tilted me today when I got 5 bet shoved on multiple times in a row. I can outplay people postflop, and 4bet bluffing seems to cause me to tilt when it doesn’t work out for some reason. It may be nitty to stop altogether, which is why I am combining it with min raising buttons, and I will still 4bet bluff against specific opponents who 3bet way too much out of the blinds. C) I’m not going to 5bet shove AQ, so I’m going to flat with it a lot more than 3 betting it so I don’t get stuck with someone 4 betting me, unless some guy is a huge monkey. But I have gotten myself in some shitty situations by 5 bet shipping too light in rush poker. I think this will have more of a positive affect than a negative effect. So yup, those are my plans for tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes!

Day of Days

Gauss — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:46:08 +0000

Day of Run Good

Today was fng biblical dudes. I mean frogs and locusts epicness. Over the course of four hours of play I was dealt AA at least ten times. I was dealt KK at least five times. These hands I won small pots with.

Then I made sets when dealt pocket pairs, I would estimate, about 40% of the time. It was truly amazing how well I hit hands today. The sets I did get paid with as three times, three, I had set over set. Today had to be by far the best results I have ever had in terms of bbs per hour. I also turned the nut straight with tens. I just could not lose a hand today, it was incredible. On top of that the little things went well also, like I would river top pair in a small pot continually. If I can get pokertracker to do what I ask of it for once I will add the stat.

I know I have run poorly sometimes, but today was a bit of redemption, and I wanted to set it down in the blog so I dont always have that excuse for losing. I hope those of you who have never had a day like today do soon, its just really encouraging to know that, while you will have days that will make you want to rip your eyes out, you will also have days like I had today. We are not talking big dollars here since I am still at 25nl, but still, alot of fun.

I dont take anything from it, as I know today was just the pleasant side of variance, but maybe the smart thing to do is to let it seep into my confidence, as if I played real well. Its important for me to know I can be lucky. Btw I am also on the verge of cashng this $3 rebuy on stars, Im short but just got table changed to the button from mp: more good luck. A little tourney rungoot would be icing on this cake yo, call me greedy…. moar rungoot!

(ha, run good at pokertracker also; 21.16 bbs/100 over 746 hands, sick.)

May tommorow and the rest of March 2010 be half as good please. Keep your cheeks tight people, peace.

Wife Variance - Life Tilt

HotDiggy1121 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:56:22 +0000

Quick post:

So yeah, I’ve been studying/playing hold em for almost a year now. It’s starting to cause issues for my wife. It really isn’t poker so much as it’s she’s generally unhappy because the way her career is/isn’t going. We had an issue similar to this last October so I spent November/December focusing on cash games (which I basically sux at.) My bankroll got so low, I started playing SNGs again to grind it back up. Cash games are just so much more flexible for the schedule – better for the relationship. Anyway, I received a pretty big bonus at work and was able to make a deposit. I need to be focusing on cash games again – it just feels so good to win again :). I’m taking a couple of days off from work this week. The plan is to play some tourneys those days and start to focus on cash games again this weekend. Plan – execute – got it :) – HD

Fist a little about myself

Paw_Kit Aces — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:44:18 +0000

I first began playing poker seriously in 2007 by playing a few local NL tournaments and in 2008 I began playing on-line at PokerStars. At first I stuck to a “tight is right” policy which I guess is an OK strategy for the absolute beginner, after all it keeps you out of trouble most of the time, but I quickly found that tight is right is also another name for predictable and exploitable. I’ve read several book on Poker including small stakes hold‘em and Collin Moshman’s Sit’n’Go strategy and many others. I mention these two, because I feel they are the best book I’ve read so far, After reading these books I’ve found my understanding of the game has become much deeper, but I still find that I am still an over all looser. I finally discovered DeucesCracked a few months ago and have taken my game to the next level thanks to guys like Entity, Deathdonky, and Pygmy hero, but I am still not there yet (I have a tendency to spew in attempt to maintain an aggressive game). The purpose of this blog is to improve my game and hopefully meet guys/gals that love poker as much as I do. Also I am in the Navy will soon be retiring to civilian life after 20 something years and frankly the thought of landing and holding down another full time job makes me queasy, so I definitely want to improve my game to winning status so that I can supplement my pension with poker money and hopefully have enough left over to buy my way in to a few big tournaments a year. In my real life I don’t know anybody other then my father who appreciates poker the way I do. My favorite games are limit hold’em and single table SNGs. I eventually want to transition to NL cash and other forms such as Omaha and Horse events. Well in a nut shell that is pretty much me. I look forward to interacting with everybody in the forums.

hu/stt/mtt video list.

kadazuro — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:59:11 +0000

here is the list with the videos of the mtt/sng section.
last updated march 9th2010

STT

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Two
Bones returns for this episode where he talks with DC member panchostern about moving up to $16 SNGs, then they review bones’ live play.
watch video

Push: Bones (#8) – Transition from Small to Midstakes
Bones plays midstakes full ring and 6 max sngs and discusses adjustments as you move up in stakes.
watch video

Push: AMT (#7) – 4-Tabling Review
AMT does a member review of “BWMASJR” 4 tabling 6.50 turbo STT’s on PokerStars.
watch video

Push: Vandweller (#1) – FTP Super Turbos
In this video, Vandweller puts his post-hack rakeback payment on the line and plays some $15 Super Turbo SNGs. He discusses the merits of megatabling these SNGs, debunks some misconceptions about their variance, and discusses important adjustments one must make compared to regular SNGs.
watch video

Push: AMT (#6) – Turbo SNG with AKAPeanutButter
AMT sits down with DC member AKAPeanutButter and they talk about his play at $6.50 turbo SNG 4-tabling on Full Tilt.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Eight
In the series finale, vandweller gives veloblank some parting theoretical food for thought, including: how hand values are skewed by the SNG pay structure, the primacy of risk/reward over hand ranges, the importance of the ‘equity ceiling’, and why not to worry about ‘close’ decisions.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Seven
Vandweller brings new meaning to the phrase “sweat session” working from his tiny office in Texas. He and Veloblank work on some of the $6.50 turbo tournaments on Poker Stars.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Six
Has Veloblank reverted to his old ways? In this episode, the V-team takes a look at some of veloblank’s short-handed, medium and high-blind hands. vandweller also explains how NOT using ICM tools to review one’s games can help one find leaks. He reveals his humble origins as a vandweller, and Velo wonders if DC coaches ever leave their homes.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Five
Vandweller continues his tutelage of veloblank. This week they actually run a sweat session as Veloblank plays 4 tables of SNGs.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Four
In this fourth installment of RLMSG, veloblank is having trouble wrapping his head around medium-stacked headsup play, and he and vandweller take a look at some relevant hands.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Three
In this episode, vandweller checks in on veloblank and gets some pretty crappy news. He offers velo some advice on how to use Hold’em Manager to monitor his game, and shows him that he needs to be making late-game, high-blind shoves far more aggressively.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode Two
In Episode Two, vandweller looks at veloblank’s pre-coaching hand histories, diagnoses some of his more egregious errors, and offers some simple fixes. Discussed are pre-flop hand selection, when and how to play speculative hands, bet sizing, and the value of simplifying one’s decision-making.
watch video

Real Life: Micro SNG Grinder: Episode One
Vandweller debuts his new series, Real Life Micro SNG Grinder, with our latest grinder veloblank. This episode breaks down the series, the tools every SNG grinder should have, and some of the aspects outside of play to note.
watch video

Push: Bones (#1) – SNG HH Review
Bones releases his first solo venture in this push episode. He reviews some submitted hand histories from astralcreep. Bones’ focuses on sticky situations with stack sizes and bet sizes.
watch video

Push: AMT (#2)
In his long-awaited second installment of Push, AMT 2-tables one PokerStars and one Full Tilt tournament, demonstrating the differences in styles between the two sites.
watch video_

Push: AMT (#1) – $38 Turbo STT
In Alex’s premiere video, he plays a 38 dollar turbo single table tournament on PokerStars and outlines basic strategy, along with the changing conditions of the rising blinds and resulting short stacks of Turbo STT play
watch video

Bones (#1) – SNG HH Review by bones
Bones releases his first solo venture in this push episode. He reviews some submitted hand histories from astralcreep. Bones’ focuses on sticky situations with stack sizes and bet sizes.
watch video

HU

Two Men Enter: Episode Two by bones
Bones continues his HUSNG series by talking about player types, board textures, and note taking.
watch video

Two Men Enter: Episode One by bones
Bones kicks off his new series with a powerpoint breakdown of what the series will include, how to table select, and basic strategies to get you started.
watch video

STT 6-max

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Four
Bones returns for another installment of guiding you through SNGs. This episode pertains to mid-stakes tournaments as he plays the $39 buy-in 6max on four tables.
watch video

Push: Bones (#5) – 6max SNGs
Bones plays some 6max SNGs to better analyze the push/fold decisions that come up.
watch video

Push: AMT and Bones (#1) – STT Shorthanded
Finally, shorthanded donkaments! AMT introduces Deucescracked’s newest tournament coach Bones, as together they explore, analyze and break down a replay of AMT playing a $236, 6 max STT on Full Tilt Poker. They discuss some general aspects to shorthanded SNG play including picking up the aggression, player observation, game flow, note taking, and much more!
watch video

18man

Mentor: Bones and AMT (#1) – DC Member Review, $11
Bones and AMT review some 18 man sng hands from DC member “midnitetoker”.
watch video

Push: Bones (#9) – Dual Session Review
Bones and wixman review each other play as they each play 2 different tables of 18 man $6.50s.
watch video

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Six
Bones invites in his former student Paul to discuss 18-man small stake buy in tournaments.
watch video

Push: vandweller (#3) – 18-man SNGs
In this video, vandweller explains how to decipher the payout structure of 18-man SNGs and how to adjust one’s 9-man strategy to an 18-man context. He then goes on to analyze both his and his opponents’ hands from a recent game on PokerStars.
watch video

45man

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Three
This week AMT welcomes you to another installment of SNG pleasure. His focus this week is on the PokerStars 45 player structures and the strategy to crush them.
watch video

Push: AMT (#5) – Review of a 45 man SNG Video
AMT continues with another video in the push series. This episode has him reviewing the play of another at a 45 man SNG.
watch video

Push: AMT (#3) – MTT SnG
AMT plays some small field MTT Sit n Gos on PokerStars. He talks of bridging the gap between some small SnG concepts and bigger multi-table tournaments.
watch video

180man

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Five
AMT takes the reigns again in the SNG series. This week he is playing 4 tournaments, all are 180 man turbo SNGs, and discusses his play throughout the tournaments.
watch video

Push: AMT (#4) – 180 man turbo SNG
Sit and Go’ers beware: DC’s tournament specialists walk you through everything about STTs. Watch and learn how to destroy sit and go tournaments: when to bluff, when to fold, and of course, when to push.
watch video

Various Structures

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Seven, $6.5-STT, $16-18man, $27-45man, $12-180man
In this episode AMT discusses the nature and various aspects of mixing different SNG structures simultaneously, and some live play comparisons between some of the more common structures.
watch video

MTT

Tournament Trials: Episode Seven by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
IWEARGOGGLES grinds and DJ Sensei and Vanessa review. He’s deep in the tournaments now but can DJ and Vanessa help his game to the final round? Find out.
watch video

Tournament Trials: Episode Six by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
The Sunday tournament grind continues. This week IWEARGOGGLES flies solo during the live play and then DJ Sensei and Vanessa analyze specific hands afterwards.
watch video

Tournament Trials: Episode Five by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
The tournament crew is back and reviewing play at the middle stages of some Sunday tournaments. Vanessa and IWEARGOGGLES are both playing this week and as always there is a hand history review at the end.
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Tournament Trials: Episode Four by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
IWEARGOGGLES and his railbirds (Vanessa Selbst and DJ Sensei) continue their review of IWEARGOGGLES’ play at his Sunday tournament line up.
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Tournament Trials: Episode Three by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
IWEARGOGGLES, Vanessa, and DJ Sensei crash the party in this episode. Still following the SUnday play of IWEARGOGGLES, Vanessa and DJ pick his brain on his strategies.
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Tournament Trials: Episode Two by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
IWEARGOGGLES continues with the live recording and Vanessa “fslexcduck” give commentary. Then they highlight specific hands with the help of DJ Sensei.
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Tournament Trials: Episode One by DJ Sensei, fslexcduck, IWEARGOGGLES
IWEARGOGGLES begins with Sunday number 1 and DJ Sensei and Vanessa review his play afterwards.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#9) – Mid-Stakes HH Review
IWEARGOGGLES reviews the play of his student through a MTT via the hand replayer.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#8) – Late Night Live Play
IWEARGOGGLES hears the members and takes your suggestions to heart playing 4-tables of regular nightly tournaments and discuss his play throughout.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#7) – 1K MTT
IWEARGOGGLES reviews hands from the 1K Monday MTT where he runs into interesting spots and decisions while trying to win a high stakes tournament.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#6) – FTOPS Video Review Part 2
IWEARGOGGLES continues his review of his play at the FTOPS tournament. This video is a continuation of the previous Push video and covers the later stages of the tournament.
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Push: Bones (#7) – 28K MTT Review
Bones reviews a friend’s play at 28K guaranteed MTT on Full Tilt. He focuses on the major hands within the tournament.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#4) – Sunday $500K HH Review
IWEARGOGGLES does a hand history review from the Sunday 500. He talks through some bigger hands and the theory behind icm on the bubble and at the final table.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#3) – HH Review Min Raising
IWEARGOGGLES reviews a video by his student wherein the student plays the $100+rebuy and min-raises every pot preflop. See how players react and how good or bad a strategy this can be for you.
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Push: Bones (#4) – HH Review Micro MTT
Bones reviews his friend’s play at a $3 rebuy tournament. He focuses mainly on hands after the rebuy period but touches on strategies to have before the period ends also.
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Push: Gman (#1) – HU SCOOP
Gman plays the Poker Stars Heads Up SCOOP tournament. This is midway through the structure and he reviews his match in the round of 16.
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Road Through the WSOP: IWEARGOGGLES (#1) – Bones HH Review
The tables turn this week as IWEARGOGGLES reviews bones’ play. Focus is on blind play getting to the river and deep tournament play.
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Push: Bones (#3) – WCOOP Review
Bones goes through individual hands found on his way throughout the WCOOP main event last fall. He analyzes hands and how to make future reads based on stats and previous hands shown.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#2) – $100 rebuy tournament
IWEARGOGGLES is back with a new Push video. This video highlights late game dynamics in a $100 rebuy tournament. Goggles discusses hand dynamics based on the certain situation he is in and how it affects his play.
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Push: IWEARGOGGLES (#1) – WSOP
IWEARGOGGLES gets you ready for the Brick and Mortar world of tournament play and playing in the WSOP. He compares and contrasts online tournament style versus live tournament play.
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Ghost: IWEARGOGGLES (#2) – 4-tabling Sunday MTTs
IWEARGOGGLES returns with his second ghost video for DeucesCracked. He 4-tables some of the Sunday Tournaments as he discusses player tendancies, strategies, and how to evolve as the tournament progresses.
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Ghost: IWEARGOGGLES (#1)
IWEARGOGGLES brings his debut video to DeucesCracked. This multi-table tournament video is a walk down a typical Sunday in his life. He reviews his own play after the fact and discusses his strategies as tournaments progress.
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MTT-Satellite

Road Through the WSOP: Bones (#1) – Review of IWEARGOGGLES play at WSOP Satellite
Bones reviews IWEARGOGGLES hands in a WSOP satellite tournament.
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Shootout

Road Through the WSOP: AMT (#1) – NL Shootout
In this episode of Road through the WSOP AMT talks about play in the shootout primers and the basic strategies to help you run deep.
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Steps

Push: Bones (#2) – 4-tabling Step 1 Tournaments
Bones discusses the differences between steps and regular sngs and the adjustments needed to succeed.
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QA

Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode Eight
AMT and Bones wrap up their series by answering email and forum questions from you, the DC members.
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Mentor: Vanessa Selbst (#1) – MTT Hand Review
Vanessa Selbst does some review of MTT hands submitted by DC members.
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Hey Van: Episode Two
In this installment of HEY VAN!, vandweller tackles how ICM applies to pot-limit Omaha SNGs, the nature of spite calls, how to factor the bounty in one’s decision-making in Knockout MTTs, and whether he really does live in a van.
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Hey Van: Episode One
In this video, vandweller fields viewer questions on: taking -EV gambles to build a stack, clarifying his 18-man SNG advice, and the differences and similarities between three popular plays.
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Classroom/Lecture/Post-game Analysis

Push: Vandweller (#5) – January HH Review Part 2 by vandweller
Continue looking over vandweller’s shoulder as he picks apart his $20-$50 STT hands played in January ‘10. Topics include: all-in calls, using PokerStove to solve SNG problems, punishing risk aversion, the stop-n-go, maximizing post-flop value, and evaluating opponents’ ranges.
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Push: Vandweller (#4) – January HH Review Part 1 by vandweller
Vandweller reviews STT hands from the month of January at the $20 through $50 buyins. Topics include: punishing risk aversion, making preflop all-in calls, playing against regulars, maximizing postflop value for strong hands, and properly adjusting opponents ranges in SNG Wizard
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Hitchhiker’s Guide to SNGs: Episode One
Bones and AMT debut their new video series and talk about how to study videos, forums, sngwiz, and study groups. Other topics include bankroll management, game selection, game type and, number of tables.
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Push: Vandweller (#2) – Super Turbo Review
In this video, vandweller takes a look at some botched hands from his previous superturbo video, and discusses the importance of taking small edges, being willing to take negative edges, and being careful to not miss profitable opportunities that look like routine folds.
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Push: Bones (#6) – Post Game Analysis
Sit and Go’ers beware: DC’s tournament specialists walk you through everything about STTs. Watch and learn how to destroy sit and go tournaments: when to bluff, when to fold, and of course, when to push.
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INSOMNIA training video festival runner up #1
This is the first of 2 runner up’s from the INSOMNIA festival where we challenged you viewers to design your own series in only 24 hours. This one is by Sohoskiracer and is titled: The Art of Adjustaments.
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Blackboard: Vandweller (#2) – ICM from Scratch
Many SNG players claim to “understand” ICM, but, as vandweller explains, it is one thing to know how to approximate the moves that ICM demands of us and quite another to really understand how the different mathematical factors relate to each other to generate the specific numbers that actually underlie our push/fold/call decisions. In this video, vandweller starts with a blank spreadsheet page and, right before your eyes, generates a working (though ugly) ICM calculator. This is the math that is fundamental to all SNG theory and every serious SNG student owes it to himself to see it worked out at least once.
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Blackboard: vandweller (#1) – Flying Blinds
In this episode, vandweller suggests that many players are mis-using ICM tools such as SNG Wizard. Rejecting the time-wasting “passive” method of learning, he breaks down the push-fold decision into its component factors. He offers an active, rational way to evaluate these factors in real-time and introduces an original small-blind bubble shove chart.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Eight
AMT wraps up his series on SnG’s and MTT’s with this final episode covering variance, downswings, and tilt management.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Seven
AMT is back with some handy tools to help us become the “last man standing”. Session includes hand posts, hand replays, and various tools for making perfect decisions.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Six
AMT picks up where he left off last week with a continuation of the topic: callings pushes in the middle and late portions of the tournaments.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Five
AMT has talked about when to and not to shove, now he teaches us about the flip side of the equation, defending against the shove.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Four
AMT returns to talk about pushing in SNG’s. He also introduces SNGWIZ and SNGPT.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Three
AMT walks through when to shove and when not to shove in SNG. Topics include pushing in early and late position early on, and what happens as blinds increase and you need to shove.
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Last Man Standing: Episode Two
AMT walks through the basic parts of the middle game of SNG play. Considerations of adjustment, stack size implications, what to do when there are no “absolutes”, when to start thinking about shoving, and more about middle game insights.
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Last Man Standing: Season Premiere
AMT starts off with the basics in his first DeucesCracked series, walking you through an introduction to SNG/STT play, finishing up with a bit of discussion on early stage play.
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Thanks For The Music Tommy

Boomer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:42:35 +0000

As part of my March Goals I’ve been re-listening to Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment and to be honest something I figured out is that very little makes me more content than listening to well played music, especailly classical music (Rock gets a Pass here as it’s pretty much the only from of modern music that can be adapted to be played with a full orchestra such as This Example )

Probably why I like Guitar Hero too

But anyway classical music is something I like relaxing too as, fate would have it, I do have a piano background. I got so far on natural talent and then sadly with my time massively limited I had to make a choice between all the sport I was playing (I was literally playing 7 days a week, be it Football, Rugby, Winter Cricket Nets etc) and continuing on the piano, which I would have had to sink more time into, and I made my choice and to be honest, I don’t regret the choice, I only regret the consequences. I still played occasional simple songs like Christmas Carols but never got to being able to play things like the Fur Elise.

So listening to Episode 4 of EPTPE I was listening to the reciprocalized (is that a word???) versions of certain classics enjoying what Tommy was coming up with and then the episode concluded with an amazing rendition of Heart and Soul. If you haven’t heard it go to Tommy’s site and download it because, for me, it’s so uplifting to listen to and just instantly makes me feel better. Anyone who has a gift for playing an instrument/singing or something simlar truly does have a wonderful gift in my eyes. Thanks Tommy.

As for a poker update I’m just working away at 2/4 at the moment while engaging in 3 hour chats about a single situation…ethorn I’m gonna KILL you for bringing that hand up :) Ooops guess EPTPE hasn’t quite worked yet…MORE LISTENING :)

Why I'm happy about bad plays sometimes

erby — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:03 +0000

I probably made one of the worst poker plays yesterday when I called off an all-in 3-bet on the river with the high straight on a paired board. So why am I so happy about it? Because after the hand was over I knew it was bad. I was able to look over the hand and come up with a much better line. I posted it on the DC forums here:

Link to botched hand-

I feel like I’m playing with much more awareness than I used to. I need to work on taking my time at the tables. I snapped called this, but in the future will work towards taking my time on big decisions. I know now that I can definitely raise/fold certain rivers and feel pretty comfortable about doing so.

Despite that hand and getting all in KK vs. 77 on a 762s board for 100BBs, I still managed to end the 905 hand session up (+61.22, 13.53BB/100). Was fortunate to get cards against some really big fish, so that helped!

As mentioned, Karen and I went climbing on Sunday and it went really well. The new shoes worked out great and the harnesses were much more comfortable than the rentals. We were able to climb 2 5.8s together and I was able to get a third 5.8, although I took so long that the gym closed before Karen had enough time to tackle it thoroughly. I think she’ll get it next time.

Algebra exam was okay. There was actually a very tricky T/F section at the beginning. The proofs were a piece of cake. On one question where we had to prove that Z[\sqrt{3}i] was not a Unique Factorization Domain, I used the fact that 4 could be factored into irreducible elements (2)(2) and (1-\sqrt{-3})(1+\sqrt{-3}). To show irreducibility I used that the norm of a complex number is 1 if and only if the number is 1,-1,i,-i, and that 1,-1 are the only elements that are in the domain under consideration. Since N(a)=4 (where a is a factor of 4), if a factors in Z[\sqrt{-3}] it would have 2 factors of norm 2 (not possible) or a factor of norm 4 and 1, hence one factor would be a unit. This is a fairly standard proof I think, but I neglected to mention that N(b)=1 implies b is a unit by property of the norm function over the complex numbers. The ambiguity could lead the grader to thinking that i was using N as a euclidean norm, which was not my intent. We’ll just see how he grades it.

Anyway, that’s it for now! RUN GOOD PLS!!!
Erby

March
12,645 hands
$317.57 profit
5.02BB/100

The monthly post

Greco — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:29:22 +0000

Well, I haven’t posted in a while. Sorry.

Been very busy with work as I’m finishing up on Friday, really can’t wait to get out of here and start playing full time.

Results have been good the lsat month or so and am going in to next week very positive about my game. I am looking forward to playing 3k hands a day. Think I am going to play 3 2 hour sessions and take decent breaks in between. That should be less intensive and would easlily allow me to play 15k a week and 60k a month.

Still playing 100nl now but mix in the £ and euro tables so the winrates is quite high and think I can put in some decent months and get up to 200nl very soon. By May for sure.

I’ll keep this updated now on a more regular basis and will post graphs and maybe hands. I’ll try and keep it brief and interesting.

As yet I’m aware that it is far from those two things at the moment…

Late Feb Roundup + March P.O.A + Beer

jubinator — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:26:24 +0000

Didn’tfeel the urge to blog last week.

The second half of Feb didn’t end up overly well. Graph below (99% 100nl), was still a decent profit for the month.

I played a few hands (>100) of 200nl in Feb, and begun the first couple days of March by playing one or two tables of 200nl with the regular 100nl tables. However I have since come up with a plan of attack for the rest of March.

Stakes: All 200nl 6max.
No. of tables max at all times: 4
Minimum hours of poker each week: 15
Max hours of poker each week: 20
Number of videos I will watch each week (and taking of notes of them): 5

It is time to step up my game, I hope this will allow me to play my A- and better most of the time.

Life: University has started again, 3 of my courses aren’t exciting, 1 is going to be awesome (MGMT317: Change & Innovation), it is practical and the lecturer doesn’t let us take notes and he doesn’t give them to us.

Beer Feast was on Saturday, was the beginning of a looooong day. Try roughly 12 new beers throughout the day, I am a beer drinker, but anyone who says all beers taste the same needs to attend a beer feast. I am a lager man, but tried a few draughts and ciders.

Favourite beer I had: http://www.kirin.com/beers.htm

I will drink this beer again, goes down well, minimal hops however hangs around does the senses well.

Worst beer I had: http://www.bennettsbeer.co.nz/the-brews.php#4-Seasons

Was too much going on, didn’t have the quench of a beer, and I had to force it down some what.

Still the No.1 rank in my book: Kalik, just another reason to goto the Bahamas for the PCA. They do no export the beer at all. However, it is UNBELIEVEABLE.

Every Sunday, I am going to enjoy a Sunday 6 pack, it will be a new beer I have not seen before. And I will give a beer report of each one that evening.

Until next time, good luck.

Jub

Bring Back Pluto

liquid_quik — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:47:51 +0000

What it do DC?

Things are going pretty well in my life these days.

I’ve been getting some work, and that’s been so so (as work goes). The nice part is that I get to start to catch up on all the podcasts that I get behind on so quickly.

I got a beta of Starcraft 2. I’m pretty excited about it, but I wonder how long I’ll play it for, as I’m known to play a game for a few days and beat the single player and then leave it alone. There is no single player on this, only Battle.net.
I’ve only played a couple hours and only as a Terran. It’s pretty fun though. I’ll keep you up to date if anything awesome happens.

I have been getting some hands in at poker. 2kish so far this month, which isnt a lot, but i didnt play for a couple days over the weekend due to work and my fiancee/sisters birthday celebrations.

Poker is going reasonably well so far. I’m not playing PLO right now. Noone really jumped on the bandwagon of learning HUPLO yet, so I havent looked into it much further.

I’m hoping to be playing 10/20 again with regularity in the near future. If all goes well and i dont hit a downswing of any magnitude i might start sitting again in the next week or two. we’ll see.

thats all to report.

Currently Listening: Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
Currently Reading: same as before. god i just want this book to end. its so bad.

Where poker is friendly - Lucky Buck

bellatrix — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:47:30 +0000

I was in the Bay Area this weekend. For those who don’t know, I used to live in the area, while in grad school. It’s been 2 years since I moved down to SoCal. The trip was nice and short, mainly to visit old friends and attend a social event on Saturday. Aw, I miss old friends.

But I also went to play cards on Saturday night, after everybody retired to the couch around 10. It’s been about 6 long months since I’ve played live poker. My husband took my bankroll one afternoon and spent it on a car (with my permission, of course). But you can always come up with some 500$ from somewhere to play a night of 4/8, can’t you? :)

Ah, the local cardroom. The place where I learned to play. Really, no kidding. Yes, I had read Lee Jones’ “Winning Low Limit Hold’em”, but boy oh boy, was I a fish. I never talked to people about hands, I never went over my sessions. I just watched what other players were doing and mostly had fun. This small little place was the start of my poker, ha ha.

I’m talking about the Lucky Buck in Livermore (see pic on top from Poker Wikia ). You have probably never heard of it. It is tucked away next to a bowling alley, somewhere on the backside of downtown. When I first wandered in there, they had 4 tables and a teeny brush on the side. Normally only 2 tables where going. If the action was hot, it might go up to 3 at night. Only on Saturday nights might all 4 tables be going. But by 2005-6, the poker boom hit Livermore too and it started expanding until it reached 10 tables on the top of the boom at around 2007. Since Livermore had a 20$ betting limit (upped in 2008 to 100$), 10/20 was the biggest game in town, but boy was it fun!

If you grew your poker career playing online or on one of those huuuge places like Commerce or Foxwoods, I guess you’ll never really know friendly poker. The kind where you sit down and people ask you about your life, your dog, etc. at the table. Where only the new players ever berate the rest. Yes, everybody was grumpy and I had my love / hate relationship with most of the players, but a nice courteous tone behind everything goes a long way. Once, when one of the older players that played there every day (retiree that didn’t have anything better to do) ended up in the hospital, everybody pitched in and sent a huge flower basket and some even went up to visit him. Yes he was a grumpy asshole, but he was our asshole, goddamnit! I know I’m exaggerating, but that place holds a dear memory in my poker career.

Well, I was back after 2 years. The last 3 years, I have become accustomed to playing mostly online. Poker is a grind, no a fun, anecdote filled evening anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the analytical side of online and of course the comforts it gives you. But it sure felt fuzzy warm when I stepped in the cardroom and people started smiling and waving at me. I had to chuckle under my breath; my god, 2 years gone and I still recognize half the faces, ah we’re all degens in the end. The guy at the cage immediately put me down for games, though he had to apologize for forgetting my name.

I sat down at a 4/8 Hold’em game with a half kill. Suddenly the comfortness came in again: the Karaoke blasting from the bar next door (best Karaoke in town), the tiny bad beat Jackpot hovering around 3900$, the announcements of a satellite to a super satellite to send someone from the Lucky Buck to the WSOP Main Event.

The game went well, I got insanely lucky in some hands, but I won’t bore you with details. Left 160$ up, having tipped the dealer 3$ on like 3 hands (huge pots), drinking a red bull and having a pack of smokes. So if I had been there seriously I guess I would’ve been up more like 185$ or so. Who cares! Playing breakeven fun poker is what I was here for.

Before getting a seat I talked to Kenny at the cage and eventually even the owner Dale joined us. They had a really tough time during 2008 and beginning of 2009. The economic slump hit them very hard, plus poker wasn’t booming anymore. So late last year they installed banked games: blackjack, 3card poker and pai gow (you can’t have house games in cardrooms in California). That brought back some business. Funnily a guy waving a “poker” sign in front of the street, like the ones you see at Tax Centers or Housing Auctions helped enormously, too. Well, Dale finally had enough money to buy up a bigger place, much closer to the freeway. Hear the scoop here first folks, Casino 580, bigger and better should open in the Summer. Maybe one day, it’ll be all this famous place and I’ll be the one to say: “Oh yeah, I played there way back in the day, when it was called the Lucky Buck! And I won my first poker pot ever there hitting a set of 9s in the SB! Ah yes, good times!”

Haven’t played much online poker last week, runhot continues, though. Up about 60BB in 600 hands. Should grind some this week finally and work off some of those bonuses!

March week 1

bananaconda — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:06:15 +0000

Was a fun week.. playing almost exclusively rush. It’s fun and easy, but I don’t feel like my skills are improving at all. Oh well, going to keep it up until I clear the rush bonus and then back to regular games for me.

I’m rolled for 10nl now (Well almost, I’ll give it a shot with 19 BI), hopefully it won’t be too much harder than 5 :)

Can't wait till I stop running bad...

RIGGED! — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:40:10 +0000

Tonight sucked.

I haven’t even looked at my cashier because I know I probably lost about 20 buy-ins. It makes me so depressed when I look at my cashier after a losing session. So I just look at it in the morning when I’m not still tilting aver all the terrible bad beats.

I very very rarely look at my ROI because it is usually such a downer that it tilts me right into a downswing. Exactly what is happening to me right now. I thought I could be a man and look at my ROI last night. I filtered it for the last month of $12 STTs. It was like 1.9%. I thought I was playing so well. I’ve said that I thought I have been playing the best I ever have in my life. Wow, my best gets me not even a 2% roi. I will admit, I have been running very very awful lately and I still blame it on that. After tonight, I don’t know if I can.

First off, I gotta look how I did tonight. Brb. Ok, not as bad as I thought. Only lost about 10 buy-ins. I’ve had swings like this before. I can bounce back from that. Hopefully I can or I will be writing another blog like this.

This afternoon my fiance, her name is Courtney, and I went to see Alice in Wonderland. We both loved it. We’re both huge Disney junkies and we usually enjoy everything Disney. We really like the first Alice In Wonderland so we have been waiting for this to come out for years. This one was just about everything that we had hoped for.

I only played 48 games tonight. It took me till about 5:30 to start playing poker. It was pathetic. I couldn’t get away from dinking around online.

There were so many regs out tonight. I could not load a set of tables with out at least one reg loading right on top of me. Usually I don’t worry about it but since I’ve been worrying about my roi more than I should lately, it was bothering me. What added to my frustration was that probably the best player at the $12s was sucking out on me time after time again. I was schooling him too. Was a downer to my ego.

There are so many hands that I just got totally screwed over on tonight. It really sucked. Although at times like these a couple months ago I would be a lot more upset than I am now. I’m gunna try and to be a tad optimistic and believe that I can get out of this slump soon. I have to be or I will stress myself to death literally.

Tomorrow is going to be a very productive day. It’s going to be nothing but poker. Maybe I’ll try and clean the house a little in the morning and go work out, but that’s it.

I’m going to leave it at that. I have a couple of other things I wanta talk about, but I think I’ll leave those to another blog.

-RIGGED!

Introduction

icechip — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:49:05 +0000

Welcome to my Blog my name is ice chip and like it says in the description I have recently reunited with this bitch poker lol……….seriously I really do love her when she treats me right. I actually started playing about 5 yrs ago loading my first dollars into 50NL full ring at party poker ………lol anyone remember those days……I was so nervous but hit a hot streak of hands and built up a significant bank roll playing TAG style poker. Significant for a college student i should say…… The games were extremely soft back then. >>>>>>>>>>>Well to say the least all that starts well doesnt always end well. I made the decision to switch to 6 max at poker stars after the ban. i changed to LAG style that was advocated in some forum without knowing how to really play that style. I wasn’t bank rolled for the limits I was playing and after a string of TILT SESSIONS I pretty much lost all of my money and half mind from SUckouts and the tilt after shock………………BUT now I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I know my story has probably been the story of many of u out there. Since my break up with poker about 3yrs ago I have learned alot and have adapted a LAG style play that is the way that """"I""""""" like to play. I have only been a member of deuces cracked for a little while now but I have watched alot of the videos and found them insightful. With that said. My goal is to play good poker ( mainly) and move up the stakes and this is my dedication to all that have walked in my shoes.

Targets For The Week of Monday March 08, 2010

diab0lic — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:39:58 +0000

I have decided to change the name from Goals to Targets as per Tommy Angelo’s The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment which I started listening to today. I’m convinced its bad luck for me though, as I’ve been immediately put to the test with a massive string of bad beats, I won’t be listening to it and playing on the same day anymore if this keeps up! hahaha.

I’m going to try something very different this week for targets, instead of quantifying anything I am going to write down something vague and then assess how I feel about the numbers on Sunday.

Targets

Play a larger than average volume at my A game. Any hands not played at the A game don’t count.
Casual reading this week will be Colin Moshman’s Sit n Go Strategy
At the end of the week, on sunday I need to review my hand history

A Game

I definitely need to define my A game if I want to be able to determine if I have been playing according to it, so here goes. Here is what I do when I am playing my A game.

Taking notes
Focused attention on ONE table (I’m not ready to start multi tabling)
Sticking to a tight preflop strategy, with position in mind
Practicing good table selection (High Player / flop + Known Fish)
Leave if I am tilting, NO TILT! :D
Value, don’t bluff, cbet less (I play 2nl)

If anyone can think of anything I should add to my A Game Checklist please feel free to comment and let me know, I’d like to take everything possible into consideration to make sure i’m in the best form I can be before sitting down.

Code Article In The Works…

To stay true to the name of this blog I have finally began working on a coding article that relates (somewhat) to poker, I’ll be solving a puzzle programmatically. Its for a homework assignment but it definitely applies to the topics I’d like to be writing about here.

Vegas Baybeeee

KritiKal — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:07:12 +0000

Basically forced by an offer from Bellagio for a free room, $200 in freeplay, and $150 Food and Beverage credit I booked a Vegas trip with a friend for Fri and Sat. Highlights were:

First night we land hit CVS for liquor, check in, and it’s off to the nightly $150 tournament at Caesar’s. We arrive at around 5 pm, tourney is at 7 pm, we attempt to get into a cash game and get a player’s card while the guy at the front desk is scrambling to help everyone. They can’t figure out tables, wait lists, find who has to get us player’s cards, etc. Later on I see a sign about “best poker room in vegas award”, ehhhh not so much.

Apparently his weekend they are holding the NBC heads up championship, good timing as there are new matches going off at 7 p.m. While waiting, Chris Moneymaker walks right by me, I bump my friend and tell him it’s Moneymaker. He comments on how he seems much shorter in person. We are trying to sort out a list I’m on both 1-3 and 2-5, my boy is on the 1-3 list. Casino guy asks Chris what he wants to play, he responds with “10-20, 5-10, 2-5 whatever….” While waiting they open up the 2-5 game, I see Moneymaker sitting there alone and the dealer just sit down. The poker room is almost empty so I tell my friend, “eff it, when will you ever have a chance to sit with Moneymaker, let’s grab those seats!” I sit 2 to Chris’s left as I don’t think I want him on my right :) I was proved correct shortly there after.

I buy in for $500, most other players have around that, Chris has around 1.5k Apparently this is $300 min, no max. First hand I’m dealt 2 black tens UTG and open for $20, it folds to Chris in the big blind and he calls. Flop is 764 with two hearts, he checks, I c-bet for around $25 and he raises to $60. I’m thinking “fuck, already he’s gonna try to blow me off, it looks like I miss this flop a lot with my UTG raising range, etc., etc.” I call thinking that he might give up on Turn if he’s got air plus there are a lot of draws on the board so I could very well be ahead. Turn is a black 4, so we have 7644 with 2 hearts and around $160 in the pot. Money comes out on the turn for around $105 I believe. I reluctantly call, more on that later. As the dealer is burning Moneymaker yells “no heart dealer!” and the river is an offsuit 3. He doesn’t think long and goes all in. I tank for a second as I’m trying to figure out what “no heart dealer!” means. I come to the conclusion that he already has a made hand and knows I don’t have a flush draw. By making me think, he thinks I’m drawing he can shove his made hand for value on the river and hope to get looked up lighter. After I tank a little and call on the turn I’m fairly certain my hand is face up as an overpair that he can beat. I fold as I probably would have anyway despite the comment and he whispers under his breath to the guy next to him that he had a full house. At the time I believe it.

Moving on and Moneymaker is literally in 100% of hands and extremely laggy. Winning some, losing some, nothing much to note, typical loose aggressive play. Then I’m dealt QJs in diamonds in MP, I think it was the hijack if I remember correctly. Money opens for around $20, I flat with around $3xx something in my stack as I haven’t re-loaded yet. Flop is 3-4 way and we see Kd 6h 5d on the flop. It checks around to Moneymaker, he bets somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 and I just call with my flush draw. My plan if I made it was basically to flat both the turn and the river to keep his range as wide as possible. Also, there were a few players behind so I don’t think I need to shove here. I fully expected him to barrel me all three especially given how I played the first hand. Turn is a black jack and Moneymaker bets $125, I think there is a pretty damn good chance I have the best hand but I don’t want to shove and blow him off his bluffs or weaker made hands so I call. River is blank, I think it was the deuce of clubs, he shoves and I snap call. He sighs and says “King is good…” I quickly turn over the jack and he acts surprised and says something like “that’s a good flush draw to have I guess.” My friend busted him a few hands later with a terrible donk bluff on the flop and he was out of there fairly quickly.

We finally get in the tournament, the entire time I see all the pros walk in for the NBC heads up tournament. Greenstein, Brunson, Dwan (NVG GF pics are true, very hot in person imo), Negreanu, Ivey, all get mobbed by the fans for pictures, autographs, etc. I’d kill for a flick with Ivey so when he busts I get up from my seat and give it a shot but he sneaks out the side door and all I can grab is shaky 20 sec. video of him walking. I bust the tourney in like 27 out of 57th with KK vs. AA for a majority of my chips, standard tourney stuff.

Later on, we bar and casino hop, end up at the absolutely deserted Aria/city center area. Polish off too much Maker’s Mark and my friend wanders off somewhere. I can’t find him, give up and drunkenly make my way to some sort of tram that goes to the Bellagio. I find my way into a 2-5 game safely in my hotel and I still think I’m +EV in this state. All the online play makes my auto pilot/missing details game still pretty solid. I back my way into a straight and bust someone in like a 19 way pot. I think I’m up for the day even with the -EV casino hopping, not really sure, don’t care and pass out at 5 a.m.

Wake up at 10 a.m. and it’s Dune Buggy time, pickup is scheduled for 11 a.m. to Sun Buggy Rentals. My friend can’t find cell phone/debit card/$600, I reiterate he’s a train wreck and we eventually hit the desert. They basically take you out to a park area that is just dunes and hills. There is a loose course set-up and you follow a guide through it, 15,000 acres of open area. I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire time. Cost was expensive at around $300 for 90 minutes but it’s definitely worth it. I’m not much of a ATV/motorcycle/car person so maybe it would be less fun if you are used to that stuff. I caught some ridiculous air off a few jumps.

After that it was hotel, shower and gun store time. I’ve shot a basic rifle but I’m not much of gun person. Purchased the Coalition package which is, M249 SAW w/40 Rds, M16 Rifle w/25 Rds, and the M9 Pistol w/ 20 Rds. The M16 kept jamming which was annoying and plus I’m an idiot as far as holding the gun. After I got comfortable it was fine and the last target I didn’t completely embarrass myself.

Attempted to go to ghost bar after that, waited in line, train wreck friend started playing with the rope and got us kicked out by funny shoes manager. Bar and casino hop, end up at that small barish/clubish spot outside Imperial Palace. Which isn’t bad because the music is not terrible. I’d rather listen to Ice Cream Paint Job blended with You’re a Jerk or whatever that song is called then Lady Gaga typish stuff. This was a decent mix of that. Also a bottle and booth is only like $200. I get as close to hooking up as I can without physically leaving the club. No one to blame but myself, whatever, review “hand histories” and move on. Make a mental note to try a real Vegas club as least once, head back to the B and play some drunk 2-5 and trip was a wrap.

Oh, almost forgot, to totally destroy that $150 Food and Beverage credit we hit the Prime Steakhouse on Saturday. No reservations but they have an open patio seat. Which was almost an upgrade. Table right by the water, sick view of the strip and the fountain show for entertainment. Service was unbelievable, I don’t go to many restaurants where they have a team of people waiting on you. I was all set for a reasonable $50 filet and she casually mentions the $190 kobe beef that is off the menu. I’m already in Vegas so I say flame on to the credit card and order that along with the butter nut squash soup, side of mushrooms, and whatever red wine my friend orders. Easily the most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten. Soup was literally the greatest I’ve ever had. The kobe beef absolutely melted in my mouth, don’t know if it was definetely legit kobe beef, don’t care, it was great.

Now back to reality, I really grinded quite a bit and focused on my game after the Vegas trip last year. Hopefully I can treat this like a reset button and do the same. Put in some work now and slack off some in the Summer if I feel like it. Peace for now blog.