[Closed] A little Starcraft player's journey into Poker - funnyclock's blog

Ahh.... days pass and I'm still grinding myself in Rush Week. I know I should be studying more than 50% of my time devoted to Poker but at the same time I would've liked to have the $50 from Rush Week to pay off for my HEM micro version

Anyway MSS according to the basic charts isn't working at all for me in Rush Poker, and after I realized this (and suffering a lot of losses) I added statistics play into my game and things got better, though still at a net loss so far. I'll go back to slowly playing normal ring games after this week.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.02/$0.05 No-Limit Hold'em (9 handed)

Known players:
[tg]SB$5.91:///////;BB$2.01:///////;UTG1$4.26:///////;UTG2$0.82:///////;MP1$2.90:///////;MP2$2.80:///////;MP3$6.17:///////;CO$2.63:///////;BU (Hero)$2.21:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BU with Q:d, Q:h.
UTG1 calls $0.05, 5 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, 2 folds, UTG1 calls $0.15.

Flop: ($0.47) A:d, J:c, A:h (2 players)
UTG1 checks, Hero bets $0.30, UTG1 calls $0.30.

Turn: ($1.07) Q:c (2 players)
UTG1 checks, Hero bets $0.80, UTG1 raises to $1.60, Hero raises to $1.71, UTG1 calls $0.11.

River: ($4.49) 8:h (2 players)

Final Pot: $4.49.
Results follow:

UTG1 shows a full-house, aces full of jacks(J:d A:c).
Hero shows a full-house, queens full of aces(Q:d Q:h).

UTG1 wins with a full-house, aces full of jacks(J:d A:c).

I think I just got slowplayed.... lol.

Also, since I plan to switch to the Big Stack Strategy soon, I think I might as well make the switch when I have the required bankroll and read through all the articles. Maybe when my bankroll reaches around $150 I can make the switch and continue on NL5.

Rush week is over and I'm relieved to be able to play normal ring games again. 6-tabling NL5 FR games feel much more relaxed compared to 3-tabling Rush. And my win rate is looking better too.

An absurd hand:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.05(BB) Replayer
SB ($0.74)
Hero ($1.85)
UTG ($1.07)
UTG+1 ($3.24)
UTG+2 ($1.86)
MP1 ($1.15)
CO ($1)
BTN ($1)

Dealt to Hero K♠ K♣ , fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $0.60, SB raises to $0.74 (AI), Hero calls $0.14

FLOP ($1.48) 2♦ 3♣ 4♠

TURN ($1.48) 2♦ 3♣ 4♠ 5♣

RIVER ($1.48) 2♦ 3♣ 4♠ 5♣ 6♦

SB shows A♠ Q♣
(Pre 28%, Flop 27.3%, Turn 92.0%)

Hero shows K♠ K♣
(Pre 72%, Flop 72.7%, Turn 8.0%)

SB wins $0.70
Hero wins $0.69

As the streets uncovered each card I was like lol... this can't be happening. What a way to lose KK to AQ.

wow... the FTP incident was such a surprise to me. As a newcomer I only vaguely heard about Black Friday and I guess this is the first time I've experienced a breakdown in the Poker business.

My ~$120 BR in FTP is nothing compared to the thousands that people lost there (I think we can safely assume that the money is lost), but it' still a BR that's lost that I grind cent by cent. Oh well I guess I could start from $50 again and plug more leaks >.<

Just deposited $50 on Party and to be honest, the software isn't nearly as good as FTP. Couldn't really play at Pokerstars since I cannot be tracked there anymore

Good luck to all the people who still have any amount of BR in FTP.

It's been a while since my last update. Since FTP was closed down I've started to study and understand BSS, and proceeded to switch to playing BSS according to the charts on NL2. I noticed that the postflop game is very dynamic compared to MSS and leads to more interesting thought process, opponent reading, etc. Gonna try to spend time on studying hand evaluations and articles daily, and hopefully I get the time to throw in a video to watch. Also to attend the coaching sessions!

Another stupid hand to share:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.02(BB) Replayer
Hero ($3.82)
BB ($1.26)
UTG ($0.87)
UTG+1 ($1.87)
UTG+2 ($3.09)
CO ($2)
BTN ($2.11)

Dealt to Hero Q♥ J♥ , fold, fold, UTG+2 calls $0.02, CO calls $0.02, fold, Hero calls $0.01, BB checks

FLOP ($0.08) T♥ 9♣ 5♥

Hero bets $0.08, BB calls $0.08, UTG+2 calls $0.08, CO folds

TURN ($0.32) T♥ 9♣ 5♥ K♣

Hero checks, BB bets $0.15, UTG+2 folds, Hero calls $0.15

RIVER ($0.62) T♥ 9♣ 5♥ K♣ 5♦

Hero checks, BB bets $1.01 (AI), Hero calls $1.01

Hero shows Q♥ J♥
(Pre 51%, Flop 40.3%, Turn 77.3%)

BB shows 5♣ 5♠
(Pre 49%, Flop 59.7%, Turn 22.7%)

BB wins $2.51

This is what you get when playing drowsily/at the brink of sleeping, not noticing that I hit the straight on the turn and checked into him. lol

Learnt a lot of things this week from coachings, Silver articles and videos, and now that i'm slowly fixing my big leaks and learning to analyze my opponent's hand, I've been seeing a steady climb in my game for the past few days.

Just when I thought I "got the hang of it", a streak of super bad beats hit me today and all the climb that I've experienced in the past few days hit ground zero.

Hands like these:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.02(BB) Replayer
Hero ($2.54)
BB ($2.46)
UTG ($1.34)
UTG+1 ($1.57)
UTG+2 ($0.75)
MP1 ($0.97)
CO ($3.72)
BTN ($1.52)

Dealt to Hero A♠ A♣ , fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.08, BB raises to $0.22, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.66, BB raises to $2.46 (AI), Hero calls $1.80

FLOP ($4.96) 2♠ K♣ 6♠

TURN ($4.96) 2♠ K♣ 6♠ K♥

RIVER ($4.96) 2♠ K♣ 6♠ K♥ 8♥

Hero shows A♠ A♣
(Pre 82%, Flop 12.2%, Turn 0.0%)

BB shows K♦ K♠
(Pre 18%, Flop 87.8%, Turn 100.0%)

BB wins $4.72

Or this (played in a freeroll tournament):

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $200(BB) Replayer
Hero ($4,950)
BB ($4,970)
UTG ($2,700)
UTG+1 ($1,280)
UTG+2 ($2,250)
MP1 ($5,140)
MP2 ($14,750)
CO ($2,460)
BTN ($5,810)

Dealt to Hero A♠ Q♠ , fold, fold, fold, fold, MP2 calls $200, fold, fold, Hero raises to $1,000, BB calls $800, fold

FLOP ($2,200) T♣ 9♣ 8♣

Hero bets $1,650, BB calls $1,650

TURN ($5,500) T♣ 9♣ 8♣ J♦

Hero bets $2,300 (AI), BB calls $2,300

RIVER ($10,100) T♣ 9♣ 8♣ J♦ J♣

Hero shows A♠ Q♠
(Pre 53%, Flop 31.9%, Turn 39.8%)

BB shows A♥ Q♣
(Pre 47%, Flop 68.1%, Turn 60.2%)

BB wins $10,100

Bad beats are brutal. I hope I can still take these beats as calmly as I do now when I get to the higher limits (assuming I can move on).