Midlife Crisis? What Midlife Crisis?

jbpatzer · 2010-06-24T10:48:39Z

After reading endless blogs by students and 20-somethings, some of which are very entertaining, I thought it might be nice to write my own, focussing on the what it's like to try to play poker when you have stuff going on in your life that tends to get in the way. Reading blogs by people like TwiceT just makes me feel simultaneously jealous, old and also relieved that I'm not that young any more (this will only make sense to the over 40's). I have a) A wife b) Three kids, ages 3, 8 and 15. Anyone like to guess which one is the most troublesome? c) A full time job d) 44 years of wear and tear, both mental and physical, to cope with. e) An unfortunate tendency to compile lists. About me --------- I'm a maths professor at a British University. I'm not going to say which, as I want to stay anonymous. I'd be horrified if any of my students worked out that this is me. However, it's a very good university, and if you do work out which one it is, you should definitely encourage your teenage children to come here. I specialise in mathematical methods and modelling, mainly continuum mechanics, but I'm trying to learn some game theory in a feeble attempt to improve my poker (more on this later). I used to be a keen and quite good sportsman (cricket and badminton) but dodgy ankles have recently caught up with me, and I'm slowly expanding (think Jabba the Hut!). Poker does not help much in this regard. I've always been interested in games. My grandparents taught me a rummy-like game called Kalooki (just googled this and found there's a web site! Can't believe it!) and we used to play for Licourice Allsorts, so I suppose I have a history of gambling from an early age. Remember, no video games and no internet when I was a kid. I also used to play Bridge (badly) when I was a teenager, mainly because my friend and I could play at the Bridge evening at our local tennis club when we were too young to get into the pub, and get served at the bar (50p a pint!). There was one memorable occasion when we went to the Young Chelsea Bridge Club (so many wanky posh kids there!) to play a duplicate tournament, and my mate wandered off to the bar mid game, and had to be dragged off the fruit machine claiming he was too pissed to carry on. We finished exactly half way and earned Bridge Master Points. Who says it's a game of skill! Anyway, I haven't played Bridge for years, but I've always been a keen chess player and still turn out for my local team (current grade 170 BCF = 2000 ELO for those who know about these things. County standard for those who don't.). Edit: For all you Americans, 'pissed' means drunk. We say 'pissed off' when you say 'pissed'. Me and Poker ------------- I always thought that poker was a game invented in Westerns as an excuse for people to shoot each other, and that it was now mainly played by Texans in silly hats and gangsters. Of course, I was right, but it turned out that normal people can have fun playing it too. I discovered this last August when my brother-in-law showed me that you could play Zynga poker on Facebook. I quickly became hooked, and after about 6 weeks could even reliably remember that a full house beats a flush. I have a shed load of books on chess, so it seemed only natural to get some on poker. Started with the books by Harrington (brilliant!) and Moshman (also brilliant, but what a dreadful writer. His style makes the average scientific paper look like it was written by Nick Hornby.). Then found I could win tons of chips on Zynga using Moshman's SnG tactics. I decided it was time to play for money. I deposited $50 on 888 poker, nearly lost all of it immediately, but fluked my way into 3rd place in a new depositer's freeroll for $50. Managed to build my BR up to $100 playing cash and SnGs, then withdrew my initial $50, and haven't deposited since. This is an essential element, as my wife thought I was going to become addicted to gambling and throw away all our money. I assured her that I am addicted to poker, not gambling. This does however mean that my BR management is very conservative, as I will be in big trouble with her if I ever have to redeposit, and I want to keep my gonads intact for now. Discovered pokerstrategy.com last November, eagerly claimed my $50, and started playing on FT. I've tried lots of different games on there and had some success with super turbos, rush and steps. I also continued playing on 888 and came 2nd for $150 in a $2 MTT. Once my bankroll reached $350, I deposited on Pokerstars and, inspired by chenny's TableNinja video, have been 12 tabling $3.40 SnGs to try to clear my bonus ($110 so far, and as a nice side effect, gold status. I'm going to have a break to read some gold articles and watch some gold videos over the next couple of weeks). After trying lots of different formats, I feel I want to concentrate on SnGs and MTTs...

EmanuelC16

Joined: 02.01.2010

Posts: 12,242

12.07.2011, 00:05 0

Originally posted by conall88

Originally posted by EmanuelC16

Originally posted by conall88
i'm playing 21/17, tightened a little bit after moving up, as I was getting 3bet a boatload...

Meh, just 4bet more!

finding it tough to 4bet guys who are 3betting 11% with my junk. I'l see how the first few thousand hands go before I make any major adjustments to my 4bet range, which is currently JJ+ AKo+ vs 11%ish 3bettors.

this is probs too tight? does 99+,AQs+,AKo sound better, and then what sort of call range do I have for a reshove? fold AQo and call everything else?

edit: nm, going to go for something like: QQ+, AK+, and then junk with non zero equity I wouldn't call with. weighted 65/35 towards value hands I think.

Uhm, they are polarized and bluff range>>>>>value range.. you can 4bet any hand until they adapt, I think... Not super sure.. but deffo don't only 4bet for value...

LE: just saw your edit.. which is fine to start with but then call lighter if they shove too often.. PPs have great equity for bluff shoving if opp doesn't call TT and lower.. just a range like JJ+, AK or AQ+... Good thing this is JBs blog and he can do all the math behind shoving PPs vs a bunch of ranges. :f_biggrin:

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fusionpk

Joined: 21.01.2010

Posts: 1,692

12.07.2011, 00:34 0

guysssssssss dont hijack jbs awesome thread

but also my 2c, there are many ways to play pf, depending on how polarised/depolarised OPs range is, and how they react to 4b's. One thing that wasn't mentioned was 4b'ing hands like 77-99/AJ etc. for value vs spewtards that like to 3b/5b their entire range.

also note that TT+/AQ is only a 5% range, so whats the other 6% of his range? 8-). the best guys to 4b junk against are depolarised guys, esp if they have some portion of bluffs too, against polarised guys u want to be calling more to keep in their probably bluff heavy range.

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chenny8888

Joined: 03.10.2007

Posts: 17,729

12.07.2011, 07:06 0

@what fusionpk said: yep it's weird and makes for tough postflop spots but the reason why 3betting a polarised range in position is so sexy is cause your opponent will typically 4bet or fold

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jbpatzer

Joined: 23.11.2009

Posts: 6,972

12.07.2011, 09:08 0

Bleeeurgh! Too much poker. Post your stuff in my 3bet/4bet/5bet thread and you might even persuade me to do the maths.

I have a copy of Collin Moshman's book on HU, read it once ages ago but didn't much like. Anyone have an opinion on it? I will read the HU stuff in Easy Game again.