Yohans whinery

Interesting concept for a blog. Welcome to our blogging section!

I can see the appeal in having somewhere to vent occasionally, will be adding this one to favourites for sure after that first go at it.

13/487, that pretty dreadful, but crazy jealous of the mindset to just power through there!

love it. will follow your whining for sure ♦

$10/$20 i think i would cack myself

DrDunne and fruktpuff, welcome to my whinery!

Fruktpuff, your name sounds pretty funny in swedish if one accidentally rearranges the letters a bit. I guess you knew that ♦

I haven't blogged in a while. This is not because I've been lucky and won. This is because I haven't played much and have thus lost very little.

/*/

Here we go:
I was so card dead that it became silly. It didn't matter that I had one of the worst players of all that play regularly directly to my right. I knew his tactics too, so I could read him to the extent possible with such a player.

For a start, he calls 70% preflop. If he is out of position, he donks on the flop about half of the time he missess it completely and 100% of the times he hits it. The rest of the times he checks and folds. If has ace high he counts it as having hit the flop. It doesn't matter if the A actually is a community card. He has A high period, and therefore a hand worth donking on flop turn and river.

/*/

After having been completely crushed by the above mentioned player after a couple of hours, I decided to multitable (>2) today.

Here is an account of a what happened:

...
... whine whine whine
...
... blah blah blah ...
...
... yada yada yada ...
...
... and then finally the last hand. Hand number ninehundred-something today. I decided that it's cheaper to play this hand only, and then leave. Sure, I had just blinded, and could potentially hang around until it's time to pay the big blind. Most player expect, on average, to have a positive outcome on average in the non blind positions. I don't.

Thus, AK in the cutoff. The button called my raise the same way he calls any raise. That is, he pressed the call button. I din't acually see him doing that, but presumably that is what happened.

The flop came xyz, where both x and y were pretty small cards. They didn't really connect and seemed to be of mixed suits. I should be ahead here, and I bet. The button called the bet. Again he did it the usual way. The turn card, v, was a small card, like x and y. Same sequence: I bet. Button calls.

Now I used my skills. I think that I was ahead on turn, and the river card , a four, coudln't possibly make up a straight together with v, x, and y. Not even together with the buttons holecards.

The coaches at PokerStrategy would have been proud. I value bet AK on the river versus a calling station on a board even he could have missed!

There is no way my opponent is going to bet his A here. But, he would call with it. He might bluff, but him checking behind with a showdownable hand is much more likely.

He called. That four on the river had finally paired the kicker to his T. He took down the pot. This one too.

/*/

That was the end of my experiment playing more than two tables. There is nothing to be learned really. As expected, we get dealt bad cards nearly all of the hands on each table. Our opponents get good cards - at least better than us when all cards are out. It doesn't matter if this happens on two tables or at five, in sequence or in parallell.

Science prevails, thank goodness!

This reminds me of a poster I had on the wall when I was a teenager. A funny looking cartoon with 12 arms said "If I had more hands I would drink more beer." He held a pint of lager in each of his hands. If I play more hands I get more bad cards. I'd rather drink more beer.

I was lured into this by some know-it-all saying something about "reducing variance by playing more tables". Bull! I don't have no variance. I have permanence!

/*/

My current bonus has timed out (at William Hill). Not that it really matter exacly what the rake is. The rake is effective the pots I have won only. These are easily couted.

Is Ladbrokes a nice place to be at?

/****/

No, I'm not complaining. For example, the dude in that last hand is supposed to at least pair up more than half of the time he goes to the river. He wasn't particularly lucky this session. The last I saw, he was acually a little bit in the hole. Well, not like me of course. But I think that he played the hand badly, and I think I played it well.

Note to myself: Yes you are complainging. Shut up, shuffle and deal!

/Johan =

Here is a hand that fits this thread well.

It was 7-card Stud at Full Tilt many years ago. I don't remember the details exactly, but it was a huge multiway pot, about as huge as they can get in limit play. I made four of a kind, aces, early on, and my board (and play) should have seemed extremely scary to my opponents that hand.

The ting is that I didn't lose 4 bets on seventh street. I lost 2 or 3 bets, can't remember which. I was raised by a board showing at least 3 middle connected diamonds. (That I remember.) I figured that my opponent simply couldn't be raising a flush there since I obviously had at least aces full. A full house or even four of a kind shouldn't raise. At any rate, four of a kind didn't seem to fit my opponents play on the earlier streets. Well, at least I figured so at that time, i.e. I was more than likely up against a straight flush.

What an idiot I'd felt like if I had won that hand. I would have been an idiot with chips instead of a genious without chips.

I didn't see that particular opponent for a while. Then in a Sit&Go that name and avatar shows up again. Naturally, she (think it was a she) and I end up in HU in the end. She was shortstacked, and I flopped the nut flush with a straight flush redraw, just in case. She bet all in. The turn and river turned her bottom pair to the inevitable full house. I realized that I was doomed and proceeded to lose the match.

I never got to ask her if she remembered that straight flush hand. She should have.

Did you ever lose with AAAA to a straight fllush? If so, did you refrain from putting in that last piece of action? Of course, most people would (at that time) have won a consolation prize in the form of a huge bad beat jackpot. Fortutatly, that wasn't even an option at Full Tilt. Then I would have tilted, because I wouln't play at such a table.

/Johan =

Well, screw it!

Holding is 99. Preflop is capped. Flop is J9J. Opponent bets, I raise, he calls. Turn is 6. Opponent bets, I raise - he calls. The river is a J. Opponent bets. I call. I lose.

Next hand: Dealt 99 and 3-bet. We are three to see a 3Q9 flop. The flop is capped three ways. The turn is a Q. I just call on turn. I don't know why. I got confused, propably getting a bit clairvoyant about what was going to happen. (Third guy is all in.). River is a Q. Guess what? I lose.

These two hands may be the very last hands I ever played. I did play one more, didn't have time to press the "sit out button". It doesn't really count.

I have lost 350+ BB today playing a single table. I have been itching to whine in my whinery, but managed to calm myself down. "Cool down dude, you are just having a bit of a downswing". "You surely have an edge. These guys are playing (VPIP=80, PFR=5)" and (VPIP=50,PFR=50,3-bet100,cap=100, AF=100), i.e. they are Calling Stations and Maniacs and Whatever.

So, I return to the tables. I realize that my opponents aren't all that bright while waiting for the blinds to come to me. The above hands are hand #4 and #5. (The first hands I lose in a less blatant fashion.) It was probably best to keep this last horrible session as short as possible.

This is written by a player that is totally on tilt. Granted. But, what I am about to say is true nonetheless.

If you are a young aspiring poker professinal, and if you really really have the goods, then you would be an idiot to go for it.

If you are good enough to live off of poker, making decent money, then I'll bet that you have enough brains to make a hell of a lot more money in other areas of life.

Luck exists, if only in the rear view mirror. It doesn't matter at the end of the day wether you played better than god himself. It doesn't matter very much how well you manage that bankroll of yours. You may get unlucky i key spots anyway.

So, let's say (hypothetically) that I (or somebody) actually do have an edge of, say 2BB/100 hands. That's not chicken shit. To repair a 350 BB loss, well, then just play a few thousand hands and you'll be even. (Unless you are unlucky of course.)

You may correctly figure out that I haven't exacly lost $35 000 today. I have lost more like what I would say is a fistfull of dollars. It would buy me a decent luch, but no more.

You may also have figured out that I am not one of the best players in the world. This is true, but if I sit down at a small stakes table where people play, well, extremely badly, then I expect to be a little bit better than them at least.

The thing is that I used to take pleasure in playing, and trying to play well. I don't care about the money, but since the money (more correctly BB's) is the yardstick (the only yardstick) by which we actually measure how well somebody plays, then it's extremely disheartening to lose day by day, week by week, month by month.

Is poker a game of luck or is it a game of skill?

This used to be a question of some importance in Sweden. According to a Supreme Courts decision, tournaments are a game of skill. Cash games aren't. (Yes, lol).

One thing is perfectly clear. Luck is a huge factor. Too huge a factor to ever discount.

Of course, the knowing-it-all will say that I have to play hundreds of thousands of hands to even out the effect of luck. Thats just the point. If you happen to be good and talanted at tennis, and practice hard, you don't have to play (and lose) 50 000 matches before you finally win. In poker such a thing is to be expected.

If only they had played well ...

Or is it that I happen to play in a way (unknown to science) that is actually worse than, say limping 100% UTG, always call until the river, never raise before the river, always bet when checked to, never raise AA/KK first in, always 3- or 4-bet preflop if our limp is raised, systematically serial donk raised pots, always check-raise when an A appears on turn, floating hands that have absolutely minimum equity, bluff with A high on the river, checkraise small pockets on the river, draw at 3-outers for 3 bets, ...?

These people beat me. Not today, not last week, but every day, always. They even beat me fair and square sometimes. None of the two donks misplayed their full houses versus my flopped monsters in the hands accounted for at the top of the post.

/Johan =

Today I did something out of character. I began ranting in the chat, complaining about my donking opponents stratgegy.

Bad!

He drew out a couple of times and I had a losing session. So what? Harassing a player for making a questionable move or two is completely unnecessary. Who doesn't make a questionable move? It should be punished by the poker gods. Playing tired is an explanation, but not an excuse. I wasn't even losing allover. My apologies to whoever it was.

/Johan =

I don't mind using the chat to tilt someone, if you know they'll be tilting from the odd strategic chat about their lineage..

But ranting at a poor donk whose only purpose in life is to donate money to you because he gets lucky? I thought that's why we built you a winery? ♦

Feel better getting it out here?

Yes, this is a much better place to whine.

Suppose I do go to the chat after losing to a donker. I'll be in a discussion I'll never be able to win because he has the chips to prove that I am wrong. Or so he believes. Well, perhaps thats a good thing too. What the donker doesn't realize is that he would have won a larger pot without the donking.

But, even if we keep him donking for a while, he will gain a psychological edge over me, and he'll become extremely tricky against me.

It's a lot better to make a comment when we win a hand. When it comes to donkers, the optimal situation is where we get to raise all streets postflop with a TPTK or better kind of hand. But even here in this situation, our opponent will be wary the next couple of hands.

I probably lack hustler mentality. I just played a HU SitnGo. That dude was ranting, oh yes, he called me a lot of things, some of which I didn't understand because parts were in german. He lost connection for 15 minutes, and I let him keep his chips.

He said "thank you" to my surprise. Actually, what he said was "Thank you - Asshole ♦".

/Johan =

I am getting ready to whine.

This is because I am installing software. The last few times I've done that have been very painful. Holdem Manager owes me for 40 hours worth of torture.

PT3 is running on my machine since a couple of months. So I thought I'll test the new PT4 Beta. The installation is running now, and the thing haven't f-d up yet. It's converting the PT3 database and the HM2 database.

Ok, here is one thing to whine about: Why not give an estimate of required time for conversion based on number of hands to convert? Besides, It's too slow. They probably take the inserts one by one and issue an SQL COMMIT statement forcing PostGreSQL to save to disk after every operation. Unnecessary. Well, at least smoke doesn't come out of the computer. It did with HM2.

Few things to whine about when it comes to poker. At least, I don't lose. I played a couple of heads up sessions. The opponent was one of the so called "regulars" (to the extent you can call them regulars really at my low stakes).

I thought I played ok. I ran in to the expected streak of bad cards, but you see, heads up limit Hol'em is a very very special game. it's the only game where you can be dealt, say, T6s, in the BB and sort of automatically think that you have a great hand.

After dropping 25 BB at a steady rate, I managed to figure this guy out. He gave up on the flop if at all. He bluffed way too much on the turn. The counterweapon was to check behind a little bit more than normal on the turn.

Half of the hands imported now. I have spewed quite a lot about HM2 in various threads. In all fairness, I will be harsh on PT4 as well. But at least it hasn't f-ed up my computer yet. That was somethng HM2 did within minutes. I will keep you updated.

Update: Well PT 4 didn't crash, but it hung doing whatever. Thus I had to kill it. I used the only murder weapon available in Windows: The Taskmanager. Result? The TaskManager chaged its own title bar to "Not Responding". Ctrl + Alt + Del -> Second instance of Taskmanager to kill the first. It was a pleasure to send that error report to Microsoft. B t w. PT 4 went out of it's whatever it was doing. The Taskmanager died trying to kill the thing.

It appears to be working as it should, except for mushy performance and apparant "hanging". Still to much of a Beta to be a release version imo. I think I will stick to PT 3 for now.

/Johan =

I have just had a 98 BB upswing. Yes, an FL session (one table) lasting an hour and a half or so.

I am still not happy!

I think it should have been 105-106 BB beacuse I made a couple of mistakes. Besides, the fish sucked out a couple more times than statistically expected.

If this is not whining, then there is no such thing as whining. You have to give me that.

/Johan =

That's actually pretty good whining!

I approve!

Tomorrow I am silver.

But in my soul I'm still very very dark. Almost black! ♦

/Johan =

So, I'll get my $35 back From Full Tilt?

I'd rather have the real Full Tilt back. Not happy.

/Johan =

I haven't played for a long while. This should make for a fresh start

Or so I thought After 800 hands I am down 40BB/100. That's many BB. I am rusty, so I make like a 1BB mistake every 20 hands or so. Thats plenty too. The rest of the 40BB per 100 hands (which is 35BB/100) comes from people doing me over completely.

How they play?

Well, most of them play like exactly I played for a while as an experiment. I recorded the stuff in this thread: I Fish

It's noteworthy that my experiment had me financially much better off than trying to play well. I actually won playing (80,2,1.0,57) or something similar for well over 1000 hands.

I'll not ever be able to beat my opponents becaue they, in addition to being limpers, calling stations, perma-donkers and unbelievably lucky, they are russian:

Note the player names.... ♦ This video is a great cure for tilt. I am leaving the computer with a smile. Poorer than ever before, but happy.

/Johan =

I have played plenty of hands today. I usually play at a site where FL holde'm sadly isn't widespread. (That is Ladbrokes.) Today I played where my dollars aren't widespread, i.e. Stars. I think I played like 1200 hands, and was up 200 BB. That's plenty good (in terms of BB, not $). Naturally, the last session ended in 75 BB minus.

I didn't win a single pot (for at least 80 hands). The last 50 of those, I probably played HORRIBLY.

I have always played those small (buyin-wise) tourneys at Stars. But it is completely impossible for me to win a penny there.

Deposit, deposit, deposit, deposit, deposit...

I am tired of that!

At every other site I've played, I've always been able to recover something from the wreckage. Full Tilt, Party (especially Party), ..., but not Stars. Never ever been close to the real money in tourneys there. Not in FL holde'm either.

Now, see here, this is driving me nuts. Sure, I make mistakes at the table, but at Stars FL tables, there are ALWAYS two real morons at the table. With some table selection there, it should be EASY to make 12-15 BB/100 in profit. But I have to be happy not to get completely fleeced. No more small silly deposits to that place. No more cheap tourneys there.

Why the hell am I blaming Stars? If I was surfing fewer poker forums while playing, AND avoiding those silly $4 buy-in events, I'd surely be making those 12-15BB/100 hands at the micro stakes. I I wasn't so fucking EASY TO PUT ON TILT. That awful last session there was a greek player that used his timebank to THE MAXIMUM, every hand. Every decision - and I let that go to my head. I spent more time ranting in the chat than observing what was happening.

i don't even care about the money, it is about PLAYING WELL. I'm up 125-150 BB today, but I still hate myself for playing so badly some hands.

/Johan =

I spewed a little yesterday about the phenomenon of affiliation i poker. From another perspective, I shouldn't have done that.

For one thing, I certainly don't want PS to disappear. For another thing, I have had luck money-wise over the years with these kind of deals. I tend to play much more carefully (better) with money that aren't from my own pocket. At Party, Carbon, and Terminal Poker they considered me a bad deal - only expenses. The $50 from PS to WillHill went well - I beat the shit out of their multi-million hand robots - Beninnio, Alavala, etc ..., (until I added a few hundred of my own dough and played HU drunk X().

Now I simply have to play a little NL at Ladbrokes - own dough, but affiliated to PS. (Sadly no FL there.)

/Johan =

Still can't bring myself to play NL at Ladbrokes to collect points & bonus. After this little mishap:

...

PokerStars - $0.10/$0.20 (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: $9.34
UTG: $9.17
MP: $4.60
CO: $3.81
Hero (BTN): $3.30
SB: $2.85

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has K♦ K♣

UTG raises to $0.20, MP raises to $0.30, CO calls $0.30, Hero raises to $0.40, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.20, MP calls $0.10, CO calls $0.10

Flop: ($1.75, 4 players) T♥ 9♥ 8♦
UTG bets $0.10, MP calls $0.10, CO raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $0.30, UTG raises to $0.40, fold, CO calls $0.20, Hero calls $0.10

Turn: ($3.05, 3 players) 9♣
UTG bets $0.20, CO raises to $0.40, Hero calls $0.40, UTG calls $0.20

River: ($4.25, 3 players) J♥
UTG checks, CO bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20, UTG calls $0.20

... I decided to slowplay AA for the first time in my life vs a guy whose specialty was slowplaying. This dude bet on flop and turn if and only if he held air only...

PokerStars - $0.10/$0.20 (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $2.43
Hero (BB): $3.85
UTG: $5.51
CO: $3.91
BTN: $1.91

SB posts SB $0.05, Hero posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has A♥ A♠

fold, CO calls $0.10, fold, fold, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.25, 2 players) Q♣ Q♠ 7♣
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($0.25, 2 players) 7♦
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($0.25, 2 players) 4♥
Hero bets $0.20, CO calls $0.20

..., and since he held the nuts on the flop and turn, he didn't bet. Unlucky me!

At least I got myself a good laugh ♦

/Johan =

The Full Tilt RNG is back

In these "Deal me in" freerolls, I've been lucky and unlucky. Not complaining seriously, just whining a bit. The fun thing is that I win the all in's if and only if I get it in as a huge dog. Like yesterday. I was basically out, was dealt QQ, encountered AA, flop Axx. Guess who won that one. So, I made it my tactics.

I specialize in suckouts!

Just move in if I thought I have the worst of it. It worked marvelously - until today when it might be worth the effort going deep into the tourneys.

Close!

Ah, well, there are still four more to go.

How the hell could I make the decision of playing most of these? I mean, I enjoy it, because I enjoy playing. It's +EV too by definition. But think about it, 15 000 going for $10 000. The net hourly expectation would be something like 30c/(hour*tourney). This is, as a matter of fact where I am financially with these freerolls. Say that 45 tablehours have been invested. Then calculate. (Nope, it's a tad better. Just checked the cashier.)

One thing is for sure. I'll never go for these "DEPOSIT $20, rake $900, get a FREE ticket to our EXCLUSIVE $5 000 freeroll" deals. REMEMBER to DEPOSIT before noon TOMORROW.

The FT freeroll, at least, were just that that the name suggests, i.e. free.

/Johan =

Damned!

I played a little tournament over at Full Tilt tonight. Having suffered at Stars, when it comes to silly cheap tournaments, it's great to be at a place where I have been lucky as opposed to unlucky when it comes to tournaments.

I had $37 in my account, and a $300 bonus to gobble up (starting at latest December 2). I prepared by loading Neteller with fresh not yet lost money. I also had a handful of tournament dollars.

The good news is that I certainly don't need to deposit anymore.

I still feel sick. I had my bit of luck, to be sure. At the FT (how wonderful to see that shining blue creation again) however I was clearly the strongest or second strongest player. I was chip leader for a long time (2 tables and shorter).

First the luck part. Six player left, I get AK and make a fairly large raise, large enough to show the big blind that we are playing stacks if he calls (unlikely). The big blind calls, much to my surprise. There was effectively one pot sized bet left. The flop comes T8x, he checks and I put him all in. He goes into the tank...., and uses all of it and folds. Says he folded JJ in the chat. Now, we shouldn't believe such stories, but chances are that he was telling the truth, based on our history. At one spot he refrained to raise my small thin value on the river with strong trips. He just called, and I said like, "Hey, where is my pot? I was expecting to win against any hand calling.

A little later (then 5-handed) I goofed up. I was in the small blind with a million in chips. The blinds where 10000/20000. The HJ raised to 80 000, as he did 45%+. I put him all in holding A9s. It turned out that he had a real hand, JJ. What a blooper. I miscalculated the blinds by a factor of 3. I'd never shove 50 BB deep there, so so stupid.

Well, plenty of $, plenty of frustration. I'm only happy when I win.

On the positive side of affairs. Now I feel that I have a solid reliable edge over the average Joe in (middle micro stakes) NL cash game, FL cash game, FL HU Sit&Go (especially that) and NL tournaments.

By "reliable" I mean that I expect to win whenever I concentrate at these stakes. This doesn't necessarily mean that I actually concentrate.

I am not happy.

Good whining?

/Johan =