Wednesday 17 December 2008

Penance Paid

Ground back up past the $400 mark yesterday and feel I have paid my penance for my tiltage last week! I Will move back up to the $10's but might wait till after chrimbo as I'm very much concentrating on writing at the moment as I have made a commitment to help BurnleyMik over at the RaisetheRiver site to help out with a bit of content for the site.

My first article can be found here;

http://raisetheriver.com/poker-content/blog/2008/12/15/smart-goals/

Wednesday 10 December 2008

TILT!





God thought I was learning to get over this, then a few bad beats and I tilt of $70 in about 15 minutes including playing a £20 dollar game breaking the rules. During this time I manage to get it all in with air on at least 3 occasions.

I hate myself when I do this. Going back to the $5's till I rebuild past the $400 mark as a punishment, Im so angry with myself at the moment.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Pretty pictures


Some graph's, Squirmy's doing well from a horrible satrting point on star's, I run super shite on there.


Monday 1 December 2008

Taylor Caby HUP Video

Probable old news to most, good to see that CardRunner pro's don't just post there winning sessions.

http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/26898

Sunday 30 November 2008

Moving on up.......quick stay though

Reached the first milestone to move up stakes, then went on a turgid run. It started when I had an opponent down to 300 chips and he proceded to get all the money in the middle seven times for the match with by far the worst of it, three times totally dominated. Next ten dollar game follows the same pattern, down to 500 chips my opponent puts three nastys on me, AK v's A3 a personal favourite.

Then my last game at this level before I have to move back down see's JJ get turned over on a 10 high flop with all the money in the middle, opponent hitting a King on the turn for two pair. Fucking gald I won't be playing for a week as im away with work as experience when the bad beat fairy comes to visit it can be a bastard to get her to leave.

Friday 28 November 2008

TardyPoker.Com













Now we all love bad players don’t we, we never berate there bad play (eye’s roll) instead we cuddle them and nurture them, we try to encourage them to keep playing, In fact we just wish we could take them home with us and protect them from the other sharks out there, so we can eat them ourselves.

There are players out ion the interweb that I just wish I could clone and then create my own poker room with hundred’s of versions of them. I’d call it TardyPoker and wouldn’t let any of you play because I’m a selfish, greedy bastard. The thing is though many of us forget that bad players require us to make big adjustments to our own game and this is something we have to take full responsibility for.

If your opponent isn’t folding when he hits any part of the flop you will have to control pots from the flop onward much better with hands that we might play faster against a better opponent. For example it might be reasonable to commit all your chips with top pair against a flush draw whilst playing a decent opponent, we are after all a 60-40 favourite in most cases and this might well be the best opportunity we get.

But why play the hand to get all the chips in on the flop against a weak player who will give you a number of better spots to win the match? It doesn’t make any sense, now I’m not opposed to calling a shove in this spot, I believe in HUP to abide to the rule of volume and if we are in this spot all day long we are going to make money. I just mean that we should control the size of the pot better to the turn then commit our opponent on turn or river if we like that card.

The thing to remember is that bad players are bad players; they make mistakes that ensure we maintain equity in matches when we shouldn’t have. They miss tons of value bets and they pay too much too often. I played a hand last night where I flopped top pair and let him bet me to the river, on the river he makes second pair and on a non threatening board bets 200 into a 800 chip pot after making bottom two, was awful play and left me get away so cheaply. Within 5 hands I had turned the deficit and won not long after, I could have jammed the flop with top pair top kicker, he would probable have called with second pair and I would have lost.

I knew he sucked hairy nuts so did not want to give him a chance to get lucky, I felt I would win at a canter if we just played through a lot of streets. So few players are used to getting past a flop as most tournaments they play online are 1500 three bets and your in tournament so this is an edge HUP players develop quickly with not that much practise.

PS

I’m having some problems with closing out opponents and seem to be getting ranges wrong when I have my opponent on the ropes, any advice would be greatfully accepted.



Profit Progress Post 1

Account 1:

Total $220

Starting balance $0

Profit $340

Account 2:

Total $130

Starting balance $120

Profit $10

Overall Profit

$350

First Impression’s Part One “Viewing the opposition”

First Impression’s Part One “Viewing the opposition”

Two common expressions jump to mind that emphasis the importance of first impressions, 1.) You never get a second chance to make a first impression 2.) First impressions last. I thought it might be useful to evaluate how we form our impression of an opponent and how they form opinions of us in the first 10 or 20 hands as these are likely to be the cornerstone for decision making for the remainder of the match.

How am I interpreting the information?

When playing full ring you will be involved in roughly 30% of hands, and most hands will be 2 or 3 handed so it’s going to take on average a good few orbits for you to be involved with someone in twenty or so hands, whilst in a heads up match your going to get a lot more information on your opponent a lot quicker but most of its going to be skewed and understanding this can help your HUP game.

Full ring most good players won’t be waiting to get involved in a hand with an opponent to start evaluating there play, they will be watching them in hands with other players and this will give them a good feel for how and what they play, this is a luxury you won’t have playing heads-up. There are notable differences between evaluating other’s play through observation of a hand and the impression left by actually playing a hand with them, how often have you seen someone oblivious to what was obvious to you, so often I’ve thought to myself “How can you not see he was on the flush draw!” but yet I get caught out myself.

I think the reason it’s easier to put people on hand you observing as opposed to participating in is three fold, 1.) You have double the information as an observer, because you have two players actions and patterns to watch. 2.) The quality of information received as a neutral observer is actually much better because you have no emotional involvement in the hand. 3.) You are not strategically involved in the hand so there are no influences to dilute you’re read of opponents actions. These misrepresentations are true in all forms of poker but are particularly magnified early in a heads up match as the information comes in thick and fast.

There are things we can do to improve the quality of information we receive,

1.) Try harder to view our own actions as a neutral and as an opponent might view them, when bluffing what hand can I credibly represent and do my actions fit? When value betting what can my opponent put me on that he can beat? Can he put me on a bluff? Where there draws that missed? How much can I make him call with a credible hand, this hand is a really obvious bluff because which hand could they confidently continue to bet when two successive over cards fall following a wet flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3368787

2.) Try hard to remove emotion from our decision making process, try not to put someone on a hand because that’s what we want them to have rather than the evidence of the pattern of there bets. Respect the bets until our opponent gives us reason not to then evaluate the pattern and use to our advantage.

3.) Try not to overvalue misrepresentation of my hand and our own ability to deceive, most players are aware that you might be trapping so although the third bet might be devalued by flat calling with a strong starting hand its still needs to be given some credence and not totally dismissed and believe me the fourth bet is so very often trouble.
How do they start?

This is incredibly important because it very much represents the view they want you to have of them as a player, what do I mean by this? Well think about it, if I came out raising the first five hands I want you to be intimidated, I want to take the lead and be the dominant more aggressive player and most importantly I don’t care that you know about it. It’s quite arrogant isn’t it? Maybe, or possibly there just steaming, no real way of telling but the best technique for handling either type of player is probable going to be the same, counter punch.

Now by counter punch I don’t just mean wait for big hands, counter punching can mean waiting for them to run out of steam as well, picking your spots to bluff very carefully and take them all the way for value, when they realise what you are doing take the lead more and become much more aggressive.

Slow and steady players who raise little and often, will be trying to play position and small ball poker because they obviously think they can play post flop better than you and if this proves to be the case then take them out of there comfort zone by pumping up pots in position and playing commit poker pre-flop when you have a strong hand. If they just think there good post flop and aren’t then just play them at there own game. A good player will be very hard to tell his trying to play position, a bad player quite obvious. Raising every time you’re on the button is prescribed by a lot of players but is also quite an exploitable stratagem, just increase your re- raise range and you make small ball impossible.

Just calls a lot in position, be careful because this is often misinterpreted and confused as weak play but is often far from the case, the play is similar to slow and steady. This type of player is often very capable and tricky to play. They will be trying to play position a lot and attacking patterns they recognise but it takes a while longer to realise they are playing position because they vary there game well and you won’t know if they are rushing or pushing. I’ll cover this style more in part two but handling involves showing them patterns early and then reversing them latter to exploit them.

Call’s a lot of raise’s out of position, usually just shocking. Don’t gamble with them and keep pots small. Be mind full of flop call’s on one high card boards followed by check all in re-raises on the turn as this is crappy two pair territory. As I said don’t gamble with them, control pots and take them to the river for value, if you find the pot getting out of control then excuse yourself, this is not about gambling. Be careful though, just calling out of position can be the best line for strong players to use with middling strength hands so be wary.

Maniac shove monsters, don’t give a flying what you think about them. Pretty straight forward just sit and wait for a half decent hand and then take your chances, you can’t play poker with someone who won’t let you.

Hand Selection

Evaluating our opponent from the hands they play again is difficult in HUP play because it’s not that wrong to call with any two cards in position, you tend to want to look for either one massive clue or lots of little hints. By this I mean if you put in a standard raise in position and your opponent calls out of positions with 7-2 off and checks down to the river then your probable up against loose passive but of course something this obvious is rare. More reliable are a number of little clues, if you start to notice your opponent calling a number of out of position bets and then check/calling to the river with lots of bad-ish hands like suited picture cards you have a reasonable picture of the hands they play and off course suited boards should put you on high alert and making top pair can be worth three streets of value.

Be mind full of how they play certain hands, how do they play them in position? How do they play them out of position? How do they play them to a raise? I mentally group them like this and am careful to make notes on how they play each group so I can narrow there range on the flop,
1) Small Pairs 2-6
2) Medium pairs 7-10.
3) Big pairs.
4) Big aces.
5) Middling and Weak aces.
6) Big Kings
7) Two broadways.
8 ) Suited/Connecting cards.
9) Crap Pictures (K2)
10) Suited crap
11) Crap

This help’s me form a correct strategy to maximize my holdings when ahead and minimise when behind. My plan is quite simple, get as much information about my opponent whilst giving out as little. Then keeping all pot’s under control until I want them to go bananas. I also have predefined strategy to call all-ins early in a game, the idea being that if I call enough shoves with a higher range than my opponents are likely to shove with then I will make money in the long run with little effort (doesn’t mean they won’t have aces though!).

I used to think I had heads-up cracked, I had great results in the $55 on full tilt and thought I was a master. The more I concentrate the more I see how bad I am and how much I can improve on. This and part two are just some early thoughts as I proceed with my goal to become a great heads-up player. I’m sure one day I will look back and laugh at these ideas!

Some Heads Up Stats

Just somes stats I want to keep around,

There are a total of 1326 starting hands in Texas Holdem poker, this is calculated by taking 1 of the original 52 card deck and then one of the remaining 51 cards:
(1/52)*(1/51) = 1326 combinations.

If we leave aside the different combinations of suits then these can be reduced to 169 distinct starting hands. 13 of these are pairs, 78 are suited unpaired cards and the remaining 78 are unsuited unpaired cards.

The cards that you are dealt affect the probability of your opponent having the same holding. For example if you are dealt an Ace before the flop there are only 3 remaining aces in the deck – the chances of an opponent holding an ace has been reduced by 25%.

The table below shows the odds of being dealt specific strength holdings before the flop.

A-A (220/1 or 0.45%)
A-K (81.9/1 or 1.1%)
A-A, K-K, Q-Q or 10-10 (54.3/1 or 1.8%)
Any Pocket Pair (16:1 or 6.25%)
Any 2 Cards Jack or Higher (10.1/1 or 9.05%)

The relative strength of pre-flop hands in heads-up poker can be calculated by assuming that your opponent has a random holding. That is to say that the chances your hand will win a showdown if all the chips went in to the middle immediately can be ranked in terms of your holding compared to the whole range of your opponent’s possible cards.

The table below gives the pre-flop odds of selected head-up poker hands
A-A, wins 84.93% of the time.
K-K, wins 82.12% of the time
Q-Q, wins 79.63% of the time.
J-J, wins, 77.15% of the time
A-K (suited), wins 64.47% of the time
K-Q (not suited), wins 60.43% of the time.
J-10 (suited) wins 56.15% of the time
K-4 (not suited) wins 50.23% of the time
Hands below K-4 off suit are not favorite before the flop… the very worst hand 2-3 (not suited) wins only 29.24% of the time.

Thursday 27 November 2008

All about me me me

Hopefully, this post should alert you to the fact that there are two of us blogging. KVNSTV and me, Squirmy. I'll start with a little introduction about myself to put you in the picture. Personally, I think this sort of shit is boring but tbh, I wouldn't read my blog as you'll probably come to realise that I'm a bit of a tit.

I too am one of pokers bottom feeders, although like Kev, I couldn't even claim to be a hugely winning player. I don't withdraw regularly but I don't deposit either and I've had the odd decent cashout from a few MTT wins and cashes. I do have better self awareness than most poker players at my level though and to this end I've stopped blaming luck for my lack of progress and started blaming myself. I'd read poker books for fun but then could never be bothered to discuss a villains 3 bet range and 4 bet shove fold equity on 2+2 zzzzzzzzzzz. That's it with me you see. Poker is a hobby, I like it, I like the challenge and I love playing live but I'm too much of an arse to really make the effort to make something of myself. 

The first thing that started me off with poker was the UKPI/UKPP/UKPL forum, this was the starting point for me, introducing me to a group of poker friends that remain with me today. I had a great time spamming the forum with nonsense about theoretical biscuit debate, making immature penis jokes and pretending to be a homosexual German, but although my poker enthusiasm went through the roof, for which i'll be eternally grateful, my poker ability pretty much stayed at it's ameoba type level.

A while back I took some massive steps to improve my game with the good help of my online chums Balloo and inavacuum. These two people have given me the foundation of a game that stands me in good stead for a while to come and could get me to being a mid stakes grinder given plenty of effort on my part but as I've got a busy work life, a young family and a mild alcohol problem, once I realised that I couldn't just cruise to playing 3/6 six max within a month and that I'd either have to wait to fund a decent bankroll myself, and spent a huge amount of time both playing and learning then I realised that's something for the future. I want to get back to playing poker for fun, not just making sure I play x thousand hands per month at a 5+PTBB/100 win rate for a massive profit of $100. So now i think I'll move back to the odd satellite for a big score, the od $5 donkament on a Friday night with a crate of Becks and a bottle of Red :-).

So then Kev comes up with the idea of the HUP challenge. Now I'm not a person to turn down free money and I know a bullshitter when i see one, so I know that this is just easy money for me as come what may, good old Kev will bail me out of the shit, and will also go a long way to making me a better player. I've always been shite at HUP and half my problem with poker is that I get bored of a lack of action to the point where I'm playing 6 * 6 max tables when I'm only really good enough to play three. So from my POV I get to freeroll playing HUP poker with a good mate, and will probably end up with a bankroll to let me get back to moving up a couple of levels at cash poker. Perfect.

So that's the boring shit out of the way. Next update:- I fucking hate HUP and I've got a gerbil stuck in my arse. (Sorry but Eastenders taught me that I need to leave you wanting to read more)

Peace out homies.

HeadsupMofo! Kvnstv and Squirmys Excellent HUP Adventure

Early this year (2008) I found myself (KVNSTV) in a bit of a poker rut, I had a history as a successful online tournament player making a solid 2-4 thousand each year playing the $5 games. I was a bottom feeder who gloried in a lovely ROI at the lowest limits but refused to challenge himself by moving up.

I decided to take some shot’s, I made a few quid and cashed out then did it again. I then bust which is inevitable if you disregard bank roll management. So chatting with my friend Squirmy on the UKPL forum we came up with this plan for me to try to master one form of poker and push myself up the ladder. He deposited $120 in an account and I would play the $5 head-sup sit and go’s never risking more than 5% of this bankroll and moving up to the next level every time I had 20 buy-ins.

After about 4-5 weeks I reached $360 and suggested that we split the money up, he takes his original deposit back. We transfer $120 to one account and he would play that and I would continue to play on another account. The idea being that this was now a joint bankroll and challenge to both become the best heads-up players we could by sweating each other and sharing ideas.

So that’s where we are at.