Mind Games

Pat vs Pat at the bottom
Even when opponent checked, I could not bet because I had the second-worst possible pat hand.

Feral Cow Poker
PokerStars No Limit 5 Card Draw $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

Button: $29.55 (Hero)
SB: $9.36
BB: $10.61
UTG: $34.26
UTG+1: $57.70
CO: $22.14

Dealing Hands: ($0.35) 4♠:6♣:5♥:3♣:2♠: (6 players)
UTG raises to $0.75, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.83, SB folds, UTG calls $1.08

First Draw: ($4.01) (3 players)
UTG stands, Hero stands,
4♠:6♣:5♥:3♣:2♠:
UTG checks, Hero checks

Hero showed 4♠:6♣:5♥:3♣:2♠:, a straight, Deuce to Six <<the 2nd worst pat hand
UTG showed 3♥:4♦:2♣:A♥:5♣:, a straight, Ace to Five <<the very worst pat hand
Hero won $3.83
(Rake: $0.18)

I've been playing NL100 5-Card Draw for the past few days, and was feeling quite comfortable[1] , so I decided to try some NL 100 Hold'em more to see how it felt than anything. I thought I had played a few hands of this in the past, but just for a taste now and again.
If so, they're not in my database.

The story so far (includes 1001 hands of NL 25)...

[1] Not exactly winning, but not losing a ton either

Hmm, I dont get it, either the graph is wrong or your description. You are mentioning that: The story so far (includes 1500 hands of NL 25)...
But there are only 1127 hands in the graph.

Maybe I got it wrong...
Anyway good luck at the tables!

Originally posted by Pokrovec
Hmm, I dont get it, either the graph is wrong or your description. You are mentioning that: The story so far (includes 1500 hands of NL 25)...
But there are only 1127 hands in the graph.

Maybe I got it wrong...
Anyway good luck at the tables!

Thanks (fixed)

Without a doubt, mental game is hardest to learn and at the same time the most important skill in poker. If you think math is hard or ranges, just try to play poker for 1 year as your only job and income.

Originally posted by verdant
Without a doubt, mental game is hardest to learn and at the same time the most important skill in poker. If you think math is hard or ranges, just try to play poker for 1 year as your only job and income.

I don't think I could verdant, and my hat goes off to anyone that can do that.

For 40 years I had to work a job -- often several jobs -- to put food on the table, pay the rent and clothe the kids.

Money was precious -- even more so that I had to work to get it.

It was only once I have a very good income that I was able to comfortably put $ at risk just for the fun of it.

Speaking of math, https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3220216#post3220216 of drawing two cards and getting a pair to go along with my trip Aces?
Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars No Limit 5 Card Draw $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $19.84
UTG+1: $44.90
CO: $7.43
Button: $10.10
SB: $24.75 (Hero)
BB: $8.31

Dealing Hands: ($0.35) A♣:A♦:A♠:2♣:J♠: (6 players)
UTG raises to $0.75, UTG+1 folds, CO calls $0.75, Button folds, Hero raises to $2, BB folds, UTG raises to $8.25, CO folds, Hero calls $6.25

First Draw: ($17.50) (2 players)
Hero discards 2, UTG stands, <<Since I'm likely up against a pat hand, I draw 2 to increase my chances of getting quads
A♣:A♦:A♠: || 5♠:5♣:
Hero bets $16.50 and is all-in, UTG calls $11.59 and is all-in <<option is to check/raise, but we run the risk of having him check behind.

UTG showed J♣:K♣:8♣:9♣:Q♣:, a flush, King high
Hero showed A♣:A♦:A♠:5♠:5♣:, a full house, Aces full of Fives
Hero won $38.85
(Rake: $1.83)

What! Vorpal Playing Hold'em?
What is this world coming to!?

I've played two 100-hand sessions of NL 100
I'm playing what I thought was excessively tight, and slightly more aggressive than normal.
However after selecting 6 hands for review from my last session[1] it seems I over played almost all of 'em

Initial Impression
 Players seem willing to 3Bet much more often pre-flop than I have ever encountered, yet seem to give up post-flop fairly readily.
 There is much less calling pre-flop. 3Bets seem the normal procedure. Folding seems the normal response.
 Players I've encountered so far are playing 25-27 VPIP with PFR only slightly lower. Over the 200 hands I've been about 18/16
 Post-flop aggression also seems high -- AF 3+ Afreq 45+ Mine is about that.

I'm going to play some more of this, but I'll take a few days and study some.
I also won a month's worth of a PLO course that I had better get into before it expires.

The NL 100 giraffe:

[1] Posted Hands:

Ooo, very nice sir!
I hope you will continue with that exploration of NL100 and keep us informed about your observations! it's really interesting to see what kind of action can we expect from a stake like that.
i wish you all the best, but most importantly have fun

I decided to stream today using the FullTilt PokerStars skin

In 2010 I made my first forum post here -- I had just signed up, and since I already had a PokerStars account, I joined FullTilt
I did well through NL2 to NL10 -- got thrashed playing Rush

Today just for LuLz I decided to play on FullTilt one last time -- Live and on stream.
It is really just a PokerStars skin now, but it still looks (almost) the same as it did pre Black Friday

Here's my last FullTilt Tournament hand -- Thanks Harrier88!
https://clips.twitch.tv/DelightfulMagnificentTigerSwiftRage-05qDgPaPu6UrtG-9

Sad that it wasn't a win, but nice that it was a cash.

In a moment, I'll update my profile picture to my FullTilt Avatar, and leave it like that for a week or two.
I always liked that one -- it is part of the reason I chose my FullTilt screen name (Meroveus) and my current alternate name -- Maugris -- which is my twitch name as well but with a 1 to replace the i because the name was taken -- or so they said.

So Farewell FullTilt you can now join a host of fallen poker rooms.

One of my least favourite experiences

At one point the dentist had to leave for a minute while the assistant took an x-ray to see how they were doing.
It felt like I had some piece of metal in my mouth, but it was hard to tell since my face was frozen.

So, being a geek, I took a selfie

Warning: You may find this a bit gross

Whooaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Vorpal! Alien-tooth!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Whooaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Vorpal! Alien-tooth!
Well the experience was not exactly "out of this world"

PokerStars, $2.94 + $0.36 - Omaha H/L Limit (H.O.R.S.E.) - 300/600 - 6 players

UTG: 26,030 (43 bb)
MP: 17,630 (29 bb)
CO: 49,380 (82 bb)
BU (Hero): 28,080 (47 bb)
SB: 27,660 (46 bb)
BB: 29,900 (50 bb)

Pre-Flop: (900) Hero is BTN with 5♦:2♦:3♠:A♣:
3 players fold, Hero raises to 1,200, 1 fold, BB calls 600

Flop: (2,700) 7♥:9♦:9♥: (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 600, BB calls 600

Turn: (3,900) 4♦: (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,200, BB calls 1,200

River: (6,300) 7♣: (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,200, BB folds

Total pot: 6,300
BU (Hero) wins 6,300

Other than a couple of hands, what a terrible session!
Twice in an hour the same play hit a 100:1 draw in NL 5-Card Draw

Brutal

No joy in any tournaments either

Good to see you got a stake higher and a very solid analysis in a short period of time. With these observations and some more study you can easily beat NL100. That's what I think of coarse. Looking forward too see your progression! GG on the tables

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Whooaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Vorpal! Alien-tooth!
Well the experience was not exactly "out of this world"

With enough anesthetic and tranquilizers I´m sure it would have been!

No tranquillizers -- I had some Tylenol 3 for the pain, but didn't really need anything after the second day.
Still not totally comfortable, but no painkillers necessary atm

Now if only there was something I could take to cure my card-death!

Well, no, I don't have an egg, but...

If you follow my stream you'll know that every spring we observe an eagle nest southwest of where I live.
On Saturday, Ma eagle laid her first egg of the season.

For more information on the eagles, and the cameras see https://hancockwildlife.org/delta-2-cams/

We also have our own camera set up to monitor a pair of bird feeders on our back deck.
You can see some videos of that feeder on my youtube channel

Please let me know if that channel link works (or doesn't )

Enjoy

Hard to believe that we're only a month away from the 10th anniversary of "Black Friday"

When poker was made illegal in the US, poker sites were required to pay out their US players.
Full Tilt however had a major problem: The players' bankrolls were not in a segregated account, but combined with their operating capital.

There's a long article about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg

Full Tilt is only one of several rooms that violated players' trust in the past, and for that it should be more like "good riddance" rather than "farewell".
It also wrecked the careers of some players who where closely associated with Full Tilt -- Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer among them.

I thought that I would post my avatar from there so it was preserved for ̶p̶o̶s̶t̶e̶r̶i̶o̶r̶ posterity before I change my profile picture.

We'll use Truckle for a bit...

Out of how many tries, I finally moved on in a Flip & Go

Every other day, GGPoker gives 5 free 5-cent tickets to a "Flip & Go"
You're dealt 3 cards -- you get to discard 1.
It is an 8-way forced all-in.
So today I had 743 rainbow.
I kept the 3 and the 4
By the river I had trip 4s, but there were two other players (you can start with up to 8 stacks and I had 5 because of my 5 tickets.

Next hand is JJ, and both other players had cards less than 7.

At that point you move on to a normal tournament play with 59 players (I think that this number varies)
It seems like just a gamble -- you may as well play blackjack, or flip coins in the early phase.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, there going to be cute baby eagles!

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Well Finally!

Out of how many tries, I finally moved on in a Flip & Go

And the Results are in:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, there going to be cute baby eagles!
Only one egg so far...

They take about a month to hatch.