[Closed] Drakhor's Mindless Ramblings (Sometimes About Poker As Well!)

Well actually, SSS 'relies' on the guys who are calling with rubbish. Without them its pretty difficult to make much money with it.

Hi Drakhor!

Please stick 100% to the SSS. As you have already mentioned: People are calling you with rubbish. And you WANT them to do this. If you have aces and play against 72o you will win 88% of the times. Sometimes your opponent wins. But in the long run you will win money from him.

Good luck at the tables!
Puschkin81

Hrmm, maybe the 88% was correct back when the SSS was created, but it's a known fact that Poker has attracted tons of people over the past few years, and it's another known fact that the higher the number of people you face, the more idiots are amongst them as well.

In my experience, that number has shrunk to more like 50%. When you sit at the table for hours, you do get to see some Showdowns after all, so it doesn't just happen to me. To get good quality starting hands is already something that doesn't happen very often on a full table of 10 players. What's the percentage to get a pair of Jacks or higher, or AK or AQ suited in this situation? When I check my stats, I often see that I only get to see the flop once or twice in 50+ hands. And every second time when I had something like QQ in Late Position, raised and re-raised only to be called by the UTG+2 hand until I had to go All-In according to the SSS, you could be sure that he had NOTHING after the flop, and then hits 2 pairs with the Turn and the River because his 8 3 were suited and that's why he even got involved.

I mean, what are they hoping for? Just that, a lucky Runner Runner? The SSS might work against people who KNOW how to play Poker, but it doesn't work against idiots. Every book tells you that you can't bluff Calling Stations. But no bet amount will get them out of the pot either when you're the Short Stack! They don't come to the table with $2, they take their $5 maximum. To call an All-In dollar is an automatic reflex for them, they don't even think. And when they do get lucky once, they'll do it time and time again.

It's really frustrating when you sit there for hours, folding hand after hand after hand as they don't comply with the suggested SSS SHC, watching your stack (and thus your balance) grow smaller and smaller due to the Blinds or a hopeful Call now and then, and then lose all the money you brought to the table in such a situation.

But I guess you heard this all many, many times before (probably as often as the "Were R me 50 Dollas?!?!?!?!?" question :P), and will hear it many, many times more. And yes, if I play the remaining 11 weeks and stick 100% to the SSS to get the required 300 PartyPoints, I might actually break even, I realize that. Still, it's not pretty...

I like the excitement of a tournament, the thrill when you get into the money zone, the adrenaline rush each time you survive another bubble. Ring games are more like grinding a low level mage on a MMORPG with your wooden stick (short stack) and no armor (short stack again :P), unable to cast a Magic Missile as you're always out of Mana (quality starting hands). It's just no fun.

I mean, what are they hoping for? Just that, a lucky Runner Runner? The SSS might work against people who KNOW how to play Poker, but it doesn't work against idiots.

you're so wrong. It's the other way around. It doesn't work if everyone folds on your raises. That way, you don't steal enough blinds to be able to go break even by paying for your own blinds. You want to get called by 83s, otherwise, you don't win as much by sss. If you keep losing, then work on your skills, instead of breaking with a widely accepted strategy. Read books, read articles, and most important, post hands and visit coachings!

I consider myself to be better at tourneys then on cash, but it's very related to eachother too. That's why I started lowest limit on cash, and I will go back to cash once i have a good live bankroll (there is more value in cash live).

I don't want to break your thunder, but, getting itm a few times on freerolls is nice, but it definitely doesn't make you a good tournament player!

In my experience, that number has shrunk to more like 50%.

♦ 72o becomes stronger with the years ♦

But seriously, you just don`t have any experience to rely on, therefore, I suggest you to listen to the others and study the game.

As you said:

Ring games are more like grinding a low level mage on a MMORPG with your wooden stick (short stack) and no armor (short stack again ), unable to cast a Magic Missile as you're always out of Mana (quality starting hands). It's just no fun.

well, now you are hunting the fairy dragon with a dagger) SSS works perfectly, especially on the lower limits. This is proved by the hundrets of players.

your effective stack is very small (only 20bb)

SO...

you only have a little bit of health. You, and your opponent. So this strategy works especially against barbarians, since you only have to hit him with your magic missile a couple of times to kill him, and he isnt able to get close enough to kill you with his sword. ♦:D:D

@Xylere: come on dude, drop that silver avatar thing.

I admit, I don't really have that much experience. After all, I only got "seriously" into poker mid-December last year, so it's barely a month. By now, I might have some 4-5k hands under my belt, which is probably laughable for most of you.

But I DO think I'm a good tournament player! Why? Today, I joined the first $100 Rookie Freeroll with 847 entrants, and finished 45th. I joined the second $100 Rookie Freeroll with 1148 entrants, and again finished as 45th! I could have gotten further in this one, but I got beaten by a 2-outer when a guy with 55 called my All-In with QQ, and hit a lucky 5 in the flop.

I also joined the third one, but didn't do that well as my concentration was already slipping and I made a couple of bad calls, chipping away my early winnings. Then I again got a bit unlucky as I was down to 10x BB on a rather timid table, and went All-In MP with 22, and only got called by the BB (and chip leader on the table) with a rag Ace. The community cards came up with no Ace and no second hole card twin, so it looked like I was winning... but on the river, the board showed 2 pairs, and suddenly the other guy won with "2 pairs, Ace Kicker"... I was out as 258th out of 1006.

So, in 6 tournaments I made $5.10, with an average finish of 31.5th. Yeah, it's only Freerolls, and it's "only" the Rookie Tournaments (5 of those 6), but just because someone made his/her first deposit within the last 30 days doesn't also mean that s/he is also a rookie at poker, right? So I'm really not that bad, am I? ♦ I'd join "real" tournaments with a buy-in and fee, but I don't have the bankroll for that, yet...

And to go back to the RPG comparisons... I never liked being a mage. I was always a fighter in our sessions, and usually a slightly mad Chaotic Neutral one. The Nerds among you will know what that means...

Drakhor, what the people wanted to tell you that statistically,if you ALWAYS get called your monster hands, you are a very big favorite in most of the cases. 72o will be a 88% underdog to QQ no matter what, it statistic we are talking about.And you can trust the players with a lot more hands than you( im not one of them, but some gold members are) that in the long run, some bad beats wont
be significant enough to change the statistical rules.I think actually what hurts you as a SSS player, are the "a hopeful Call now and then" you mentioned.If you are gonna play a strategy, you play it by the rules. And by the way, freerolls are not much of a tournament test, i've managed to win a 500 euro T6 poker freeroll,but still, I'm not that good in Sit and Go's.So you should really try tournaments with entry fee, and , if that doesnt go so well, stick back to SSS or switch to BSS.After all, you can enter freerolls even if you are bankrupt,right?
Good luck on the tables

The "hopeful Calls every now and then" are usually something like a suited Ace, an A9-AT os or high connectors (s and os) in LP or on the Button only, when everybody else before me has folded. So they really don't happen that often.

But my online career suffered a minor setback now due to an offline influence. I managed to slightly dislocate my shoulder again in my sleep.

Don't ask how it happened, I don't know either. I only remember waking up from a dream, and when I wanted to roll over and doze off again, it moved out of the socket a bit, only to pop back in place immediately. Needless to say though that it hurt like hell (anybody who has already experienced this knows the nasty feeling), I was wide awake again and unable to get more sleep.

And playing with a lack of sleep and under constant, albeit minor pain is a 100% guarantee to lose money. I'll be a mess for the next couple of days due to this (it's not the first time it happened, and probably won't be the last time either), so I guess I'll stick to 1-2 Freerolls per day at the most. Maybe this is a good moment to try out a LAG style and see how it works compared to the Ultra-TAG the SSS implies.

Originally posted by Drakhor
But I DO think I'm a good tournament player! Why? Today, I joined the first $100 Rookie Freeroll with 847 entrants, and finished 45th. I joined the second $100 Rookie Freeroll with 1148 entrants, and again finished as 45th! I could have gotten further in this one, but I got beaten by a 2-outer when a guy with 55 called my All-In with QQ, and hit a lucky 5 in the flop.

...

So, in 6 tournaments I made $5.10, with an average finish of 31.5th. Yeah, it's only Freerolls, and it's "only" the Rookie Tournaments (5 of those 6), but just because someone made his/her first deposit within the last 30 days doesn't also mean that s/he is also a rookie at poker, right? So I'm really not that bad, am I? ♦ I'd join "real" tournaments with a buy-in and fee, but I don't have the bankroll for that, yet...

I went 29/2700 on my first omaha 100$ freeroll on full tilt. When I signed up I didn't realize that it was PL omaha (thought it was NL hold'em) so it took me the first 2 rounds to learn(or better said to take a quick look at) the rules and the basic strategy for omaha.

I finished out of the bubble (27 of 2700 get cash I finished 29th) because my QQKT hand hit a KQx hand only to see that the only remaining player in the hand called my allin with the ONLY 2 remaining K in the deck.

Does that make me a good omaha tournament player? ♦ I don't think it does, not even decent, not even better than average.

As far as the rookie freerolls: actually only rookies play them as no serious poker player will play a 100$ 1k player freeroll as it takes you several hours to get a POSSIBLE 10-15$ gain... I don't see the point of playing several hours for 4$ for a good player ♦

Originally posted by Drakhor
The "hopeful Calls every now and then" are usually something like a suited Ace, an A9-AT os or high connectors (s and os) in LP or on the Button only, when everybody else before me has folded. So they really don't happen that often.

bl on the injury. a couple of things to help you out:

a. you don't have the implied odds to call preflop with those hands with a short stack. as long as you continue doing it, you will lose money. and because your winrate with SSS is quite small per 100 hands, this is very very very significant
b. LAG doesn't work against loose/passive, or call station, as you describe your opponents. and by work i mean in the longrun, over a large sample of hands. variance does increase playing looser though and you could find yourself at the high end of it at times, exactly like lotto.
c. i really advise you to learn some statistics, or failing that follow SSS 101%.
d. killa is right about the freerolls.

Ok, the shoulder doesn't hurt anymore (as long as I don't move it that is...), I caught up on sleep (thankfully didn't roll onto my bad shoulder)... but damn you, PartyPoker for luring us with this Pocket Aces promotion! I played some 50 hands on the minimum 0.10/0.25 NL tables but never got the rockets once.

Needless to say that my bankroll took a small hit...

Yes, yes, I've been bad. I'm back on the SSS now 100% (ok, more like 99% :P), and although I lost my stack after flopping an Ace High Straight only to lose to a rubbish Full House on the river , I did manage to make $1.26 a dozen hands later with some VERY aggressive play when I had good cards (not quite compliant with the SSS SHC when I won the bigger pot, but hey, it worked :P). I guess the big stack bully on the table was surprised to see such aggressive play from the shortie (me). ♦

Ok, time for a FTP freeroll.

What a frustrating day...

It all started so good. I went to NL 5 table, and made $4.91 out of my initial 2 dollars when my Pocket Aces beat Pocket Queens. I gather my winnings and leave the table, as I'm supposed to. On to the next one with $2. It takes a while, I lose two rounds of blinds, then I get a SSS SHC-compatible hand, am forced to go All-In, and get busted by a fish.

I rebuy, manage to get up to $2.78 again, and get ready to leave the table, but I want to stay until it's my turn with the BB so that I get some more raked hands. And that's when I get AKos.

I make a standard raise of 3x BB, one guy calls. The flop comes J 7 7 rainbow. He checks, I make a small bet of 8 Cents, he calls. The Turn is a 2. He checks, I make a 12 Cents bet, he calls. The River is a K, giving me a Pair of K's with Ace Kicker. And the guy goes All-In with his 8+ dollars.

wtf?! A quick look at my PT tells me that he's been rather loose, and I've seen him bluff before, so what is this? Just a try to get me out of the hand and make me fold my top pair? The countdown beeps, 5 seconds left... I call.

He shows a 7 6 suited, and wins with a set of 7's.

I've had enough of the cash tables, so I sign up for a Freeroll on FTP. 2700 people in it, and approx. 2500 idiots. I play some great poker, Tight Aggressive Solid, win 83% of my showdowns, but the Blinds grow higher and higher and the Antes slowly kill my stack. I have to make a move.

I get A3s MP on a timid table, but any raise would have been called by some so I just limp in. The Flop comes with Q and 2 of my suit, and another 2. I'm on a draw for a nut flush, but I don't want to risk too many of my not so numerous chips, so I bet 1/4 of the pot. Only one guy calls. The Turn comes with some card I don't remember now, but it didn't look like a threat. I still have nothing, so I just check. So does the other guy. And the River comes with another card of my suit and I cheer! Nut Flush!!!

I ponder how much I could extract from the guy, and bet 1/3 of my stack. The guy re-raises twice that much. Hrmm... fine, let's see if you really got something. I move All-In. The guy calls, and shows Q2os. My Nut Flush beaten by a Full House Deuces over Queens, by some moron who limped with a rubbish hand.

Well, that's poker, right? So I take a small break, then get ready for a Rookie Freeroll on PP. 1147 entrants, and I again play some good poker. 80 hands of some TAG play, and we're down to 155 people (150 get paid). I only have 10x BB left, so I need to double up. That's when I get AQos UTG.

And here's what happened:

Dealt to DrakhorT [ Qc Ah ]
DrakhorT is all-In [9,315]
adriekerste calls [9,315]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 6c, Qh ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ As ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
DrakhorT shows [ Qc, Ah ]two pairs, Aces and Queens.
adriekerste shows [ Ac, 4s ]a full house, Fours full of Aces.
adriekerste wins 20,930 chips from the main pot with a full house, Fours full of Aces.
Player DrakhorT finished in 154.

Busted by a Loose, Passive player who had a VP$IP of 48% and an AF of 0.3. A guy who risked 2/3 of his chips with an Ace 4 offsuit, calling an All-In from a TAG guy.

Why?

Only a complete idiot who knows NOTHING of poker does that! Why can't they have an IQ test to make sure only people with some brains get to play on a site where real money is involved? If I had lost against guys who know what they're doing, it would have been fine. But Bad Beats against a 76s, Q2os and A4os... that's just too much.

I'm so frustrated now, so sick of it all. I know it wasn't my fault, and this isn't a downswing either. It was just bad luck. But damn, to get fisted 3 times in a single day, that hurts...

That hurts even more than a dislocated shoulder...

heh, I can understand your frustration, but you have to learn how to deal with this) otherwise poker will be tough hobby) I play 12-16 tables at time, when I get fisted 3 times per hour, I consider myself very lucky)

Originally posted by Drakhor
What a frustrating day...

It all started so good. I went to NL 5 table, and made $4.91 out of my initial 2 dollars when my Pocket Aces beat Pocket Queens. I gather my winnings and leave the table, as I'm supposed to. On to the next one with $2. It takes a while, I lose two rounds of blinds, then I get a SSS SHC-compatible hand, am forced to go All-In, and get busted by a fish.

I rebuy, manage to get up to $2.78 again, and get ready to leave the table, but I want to stay until it's my turn with the BB so that I get some more raked hands. And that's when I get AKos.

I make a standard raise of 3x BB, one guy calls. The flop comes J 7 7 rainbow. He checks, I make a small bet of 8 Cents, he calls. The Turn is a 2. He checks, I make a 12 Cents bet, he calls. The River is a K, giving me a Pair of K's with Ace Kicker. And the guy goes All-In with his 8+ dollars.

You obviously don't follow the SSS. You sit at NL5 with 2$ buyin when you should be sitting at NL10.

To sum your rant up:
AK got busted by 76 - 62% vs 38%

A3s vs Q2o - 67% vs 33%

and finally:
AQo vs A4o - 69.5% vs 24.5% vs 6% split

Busted by a Loose, Passive player who had a VP$IP of 48% and an AF of 0.3. A guy who risked 2/3 of his chips with an Ace 4 offsuit, calling an All-In from a TAG guy.

Why?

Only a complete idiot who knows NOTHING of poker does that! Why can't they have an IQ test to make sure only people with some brains get to play on a site where real money is involved? If I had lost against guys who know what they're doing, it would have been fine. But Bad Beats against a 76s, Q2os and A4os... that's just too much.

Why? Probably because he was trying to double up and decided to push/call with the first ace he hits...

Now that you see the actuall % you see you weren't fisted that much since you'll loose ~ 3-4 of 10 times the same situation occurs.

Don't play tournaments if you can't handle "bad" beats as they influence much more than at a cash game since one bad beat isn't the end for your bankroll but can well be an end to a XX hour tournament.

i wish more fish played with me. table selection is boring.

Dealt to DrakhorT [ Jc Jd ]
MarkY100589 raises [80]
PsyBoy555 calls [80]
nerutsu calls [80]
Flushy_Fred folds
DrakhorT raises [280]
MarkY100589 folds
PsyBoy555 calls [240]
nerutsu calls [240]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, 2c, 9h ]
DrakhorT bets [1,000]
PsyBoy555 folds
nerutsu calls [1,000]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
DrakhorT is all-In [1,680]
nerutsu is all-In [1,620]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
DrakhorT shows [ Jc, Jd ]two pairs, Jacks and Nines.
nerutsu shows [ 9s, 3s ]a full house, Nines full of Twos.
DrakhorT wins 60 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, Jacks and Nines.
nerutsu wins 6,300 chips from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Twos.

That's it, I'm giving up. I've had enough of poker, at least on PartyPoker. Sorry for the money, PokerStrategy, but I just can't take such stupidity anymore.

He just didn't get it...

I just passed the $250 in two weeks playing the SSS on Mansion. But maybe that is because at Mansion there are less Maniaks

Glazenburg, actually, mansion is full of maniacs) You haven`t posted any hand, so i guess this might be a problem.

Drakhor, i am really sorry to hear this, but you should probably reread your own blog from the very beginning and pay attention to advices you`ve been given. You made it wrong way.