[Closed] Push or Fold.... er; I dunno?

Good morning all and how are we on this fine and pleasant Saturday?

So this morning my better half went off to work and after doing my household chores (what can I say I've turned into the perfect house husband since been made redundant) I settled down for a game of poker; expecting to have a good few hours of play.....

Anyhoo as you may be able to guess that didn't work out; but I digress.

Got seated at a $0.05/$0.10 cash game and waited patiently for the BB to come around and the result was I folded my first few hands.

Sat in the cut off point and my pockets consisted of AK os and 1 raise in front of me so I did the only decent thing and raised 3X; all folded.

A few more hands and then AK s fell into my lap whilst UTG; yep I raised and all folded (phew)

Anyhoo laid down around 5 more hands and then, on the button, stole the blinds with QQ.

So as you can probably imagine I was nicely settled in and ready to play when the phone rang. Bugg@r it was my nephew wondering where I was as we had agreed to hit the gym! What's a guy to do; left the table and went for a workout......

So yesterday's lesson was... Don't drink and play

Today's lesson.....

Make sure you calendar is free and that you have plenty of time to play before sitting down!

Anyhoo up $0.90 (going to live the high life from now on! LOL!) and as I only have about an hour or so before our lass gets back I'm going to be reading up on some of the strategy articles.

So until later folks; 'nuff said!

Nice to see you blogging. If I were you I'd decide which game you want to try to improve at (e.g. SnG, cash, FR, SH?) and stick with it for a while. And watch out for lots of people posting pompous lectures about the importance of BRM! ♦

Originally posted by jbpatzer
Nice to see you blogging. If I were you I'd decide which game you want to try to improve at (e.g. SnG, cash, FR, SH?) and stick with it for a while. And watch out for lots of people posting pompous lectures about the importance of BRM! ♦

Thanks for the visit. I've decided to go with cash games and I've spent a time trying to determine which strategy to use SSS or BSS......

Well after using the SSS for a while I can definitely say that this style of play isn't for me! Whilst the SSS strategy looks great on paper it doesn't take into consideration a players mentality.

To cut a long story short I found that it plays too few hands and I get bored resulting in multi-browser surfing, donk moves and general frustration!

So now I'm concentrating on BSS and reading up on that.

So anyhoo continuing with my lessons learnt thus far; here are two new life lessons......

1: Play the strategy style that suits your mentality
2: Use the four colour card option.... (can be expensive when you don't realise there's a flush on the board!)

As you may be able to tell I'm now down on the free $50 by $8 (hurt to admit that; but it could always be worse!) and so now begins the long grind back......

So went to deposit some cash on FTP, might as well take advantage of the bonuses, and.........

Bugg@r! My account has been locked until I send in proof age/residence etc!

That won't be happening until tomorrow! And why is it I never get asked my age in bars??

Okay so to say this is a poker blog there aint much poker playing going on!

This morning I got a confirmation email from FTP security confirming that they have received my proof of ID etc and now my account has been unblocked.

However, and there's always an however, I won't be playing any games until Monday. Reason for this is that we have friends coming round for the weekend and as I am now the house husband (gotta love equality!) I've been given the task of getting the house nice and clean! Also it would be darn rude to spend the weekend playing on-line whilst we are meant to be entertaining!

Anyhoo on another note; I do have an interview next Thursday so fingers crossed I will shortly be back in the land of the gainfully employed!

The weekend was pretty good... The booze was flowing, the company was great, the food was fantastic and we gave the neighbours hell by belting out tunes on the old PS3 Sing Star! A good time was had by all!!

Anyhoo back to the poker waffle!

So I deposited $20, binging my BR up to $60, and this afternoon I hit the tables. Playing on the $0.02/$0.05 tables using the BSS. End result was that after an hour or so my BR is now at $65.33; so I must be doing something right!

I would say that I played around 8 hands, not counting blinds, I lost 1 or 2 but I ducked out on the turn before any serious damage was done. To be honest I would say that the wins were down to the table image that the BSS gave me. For example the last hand I played I was UTG1 with crappy low off suit gapped connectors and I raised 4XBB; end result folds all-round! :o)

Now before I hit the tables again I intend to reread the BSS strategy as well as watching some strategy videos aimed at improving the micro stakes game.

BR Start: $65.33

Played: NL $0.02/$0.05

Strategy: BSS

Playing Time: Around 2 hours

BR Finish: $69.00

Must admit that I had a few bad breaks and probably overplayed 2 - 3 hands but all in all I think my play was pretty solid.

A couple of the problems that I am facing, and I suppose this is from been used to playing in card rooms, is the user interface on FTP. Still I'm not looking at making this a source of income, just for fun, and I suppose I'll eventually get used to it.

The other problem is my attention span! After a while, if I'm not involved in the action, I find myself surfing the web! Something you would never do in a card room! LOL! Possibly I need to increase my BR and get involved in higher stakes; not sure?

Either way it's food for thought and if anybody has also suffered from attention span deficit whilst playing on-line poker I'd appreciate any feedback on how you conquered it!

Quick update......

Had an hour to kill before I start cooking dinner so decided to hit the tables again..... Kind of addictive or what?? LOL!

BR Start: $69.00

Played: NL $0.01/$0.02 (pressed the wrong stakes button; thought I was playing the $0.02/$0.05 tables but hey ho!)

Strategy: BSS

Playing Time: 45 minutes

BR Finish: $69.47

Okaydokey so at these stakes it's going to be a long grind until I get my BR up to $100 (fingers crossed) but suppose that's the way one should manage the old BR!

Anyhoo my nephew plays on pkr.com and he sent me an invite, after his referral bonus, so I've just deposited $50 on there..... Let's see how that goes. Must admit I have been playing the free rolls on there and I do like the user interface; just have to disable the sound!

Good morning peeps!

Well the better half went off to work a couple of hours ago and I thought I'd give pkr.com a whirl; might as well as make use of the $50 I deposited!!

Anyhoo this been the morning after the night before, yep slightly hung over, I didn't want to risk too much of bank roll so I took advantage of the 'Beginners' S&G at $0.10 buy in. Okay so I'm not exactly last of the big spenders but hey ho!

To cut a long story short I played 2 S&G and placed 2nd & 3rd respectively. My BR for pkr.com now stands at (are you ready for this?) $50.24! Yeah I made $0.24!!! Now I only need to decide whether I want a red or yellow Ferrari! LOL!

After two games I decided to stop playing 'coz, in all honesty, I am feeling pretty rough and having to think was hurting my head! Maybe hair of the dog is in order??

I know I mentioned this in an earlier post but I really do like the 3D graphics on pkr.com and, unless I am very much mistaken, there does seem to be a lot of players (especially at the micro stakes) that don't really apply any strategy to their game (rubs hands in anticipation)!!!

Soooooo since depositing on pkr.com I am 2 for 2 with regards to payouts on the S&Gs; only another few thousand hands to go before I can start getting decent info from my graphs!

Well folks that's it for now so till later.... 'Nuff said! :o)

Just done an hour of playing on FTP and I would say a combination of luck and judgement increased my BR this morning. Still you need a bit of luck now and again!

BR Start: $69.47

Played: NL $0.01/$0.02

Strategy: BSS

Playing Time: around an hour

BR Finish: $70.02

I was feeling a bit tired and they old grey matter wasn't performing as it should. Bought in for $2 and after a few rounds and some silly calls I was down to below $1.50.

So there I am in the CO when dealt KQs (diamonds) and everyone before me folded.

Went to steal the blinds and raised the usual 4BB; button calls (well that didn't go as planned) and the blinds fold.

Flop saw 3 clubs and 10/Jack of diamonds. Raised 2/3rds of the pot and the button went all in....... Oh dear!

I thought the button could be holding the Ace rag of diamonds or 10/Jack and an Ace; however I didn't put them on two pairs and based on their previous play I didn't suspect a set (although you can never be 100% sure).

I thought to myself 'I have quite a few outs here' crossed my fingers and called after all He Who Dares......

Button was holding Jack of spades and an Ace of hearts. Bugg@r!

The turn brought a King of spades (woohoo); the river a 7 of something!

RESULT! My $2 buy in was now at $2.55! Oh joy is me!

Anyhoo with my head still feeling fuzzy I thought 'discretion is the better part of valour and (as one shepherd said to the other) it's time to get the flock out of here!'.....

Played the free hands until I was due to the play the BB and then discreetly left the table. Yep he who fights and runs away.. blah blah blah!

Well folks time for me to get busy so until later... 'Nuff said!

Maniacs and Sit Outs.... I suppose it takes all sorts on the low stakes!

Anyhoo I got my chores done, had a telephone interview (got invited to a face to face interview) and decided to play a S&G on pkr.com.

BR Start: $50.24

Played: S&G NL $0.10 - $0.02 rake

Strategy: S&G

Playing Time: just over an hour (and boy was it hard work!)

Final Position: 1st

BR Finish: $50.52

A player from Portugal was playing like a maniac, all in practically every hand, but thankfully he was to my right. Anyhoo this chap was the chip leader most of the game but by playing to the S&G strategy I was in the final 3. The other chap, from Spain had been playing a pretty TAG game and he was second big stack with yours truly as the small stack.

El Spaniard replied to one of the all ins and bust out the maniac. However instead of playing a decent heads up game he too then began playing the maniac!

Down to just over 1000 chips I wasn't going to go out playing to his rules so I continued to play a TAG strategy. He took me down to around 600 chips however a bit of good fortune saw me getting some decent pockets and I got my stack to over 4000 chips!

What did the tw@t do when he realised I wasn't going down without a fight? He sat out! Grrrrrrr!

Well I am a Yorkshire man with Scottish heritage (yep I can be tight) and I'd rather have 1st place no matter how I get it! So the next 20 minutes or so was me calling and him folding. To be honest I was expecting him to go all in at any minute! Anyhoo we arrived at the stage where he went all in automatically. It took three attempts but eventually he was busted!

What can I say; I've never understood why people will pay to play a game and then sit out? But a win is a win and my BR is now a little bit better off than when I started out.

And now it's time to make dinner; so.... 'Nuff said!

Had three hours to kill so logged onto the old FTP and decided to play NL $0.02/$0.05 anyoo after an hour I just wasn't feeling it and my stack had slowly dwindled to $1.50; decided to move on.

You know what it's like you're not necessarily playing a bad game it's just the cards aren't falling your way to even give you a sniff on the flop, people are playing out of position, calling all raises and you see more made hands on the river than you've ever seen! Anyhoo I ended up playing super tight and could feel myself getting frustrated.

Decided to change it up a bit and gave the NL $1 S&G a bash.

Played two games. One game I finished 4th (close but no cigar) and the next game I placed 2nd to the big stack.

BR Start: $70.02

Played: NL $0.01/$0.02 and 2 X NL $1.00 S&G

Strategy: BSS / S&G

Playing Time: approx three hours

BR Finish: $69.93

After three hours of play my BR is down $0.09; I can live with that as there's always another session to play.

Got back about an hour ago and I had some time to kill before 'she who must be obeyed' returns from work so decided to try my hand on pkr.com.

BR Start: $50.52

Played: S&G NL $0.10 - $0.02 rake

Strategy: S&G

Playing Time: just over an hour

Final Position: 3rd

BR Finish: $50.60

PKR Ranking: 3465 - up 128

All in all I'm now $0.01 down on my overall BR from when I started this morning.

Must admit I've been analysing my play and I've noticed in that in the S&Gs I tend to play very tight in the early stages and don' take advantage of speculative hands when the blinds are low. The end result is that I can end up playing for my life and relying on either the bigger stacks to bust out or I hit monsters and double up. I need to work on my spec hand play and post flop strategies.

Back to reading the articles! 'Nuff said!

This morning I decided to have a change of pace and played a free-roll on pkr.com.

BR Start: $50.60

Played: Free-roll

Starting players: 551

Final Position: 25

Winnings: $0.32

BR Finish: $50.92

At the moment I'm playing a free-roll on FTP and I've also registered for the following on pkr.com:

NL Hold-em Tourni: $1.00/$0.20 using a free ticket
NL Hold-em $1000 Premium Free-roll: using a free ticket

Fingers crossed I may be able to boost the old BR for free! :o)

[Edit] So I busted out of the FTP free-roll 424 from a field of over 7000[/Edit]

Yesterday I played the additional 2 free-rolls on pkr.com that I mentioned; with mixed results.

NL Hold-em Tourni: $1.00/$0.20 using a free ticket

There was only 45 runners and the pot paid out from 8th position. Anyhoo my better half came home for a quick visit in between her appointments. She hates me playing poker when she's about so I ended up throwing the game and busting out 18th. On the upside it wasn't going all that great for me!

NL Hold-em $1000 Premium Free-roll: using a free ticket

The buy in, I think, is normally 500 pkr points.

The better half went back to work before this kicked off and there I'm sat; 2000 chips and 8 minute blinds. In the early stage I played more speculative hands, when I had position, and earned a few small pots but no monsters. Anyhoo I was sat with a few hundred chips extra when sat in the CO I'm dealt AKs. Woohoo!!!

So the hand goes something like this.....

UTGs 1 - 3 fold
MP1 fold
MP2 min raises
MP3 fold
CU (moi) raises X 3
BU fold
Blinds fold
MP2 calls

Flop: 7 Ace King (off suit)

MP2 - checks

Moi - raises 2/3rds of the pot

MP2 - calls (oh the tension!)

Turn: 2 (board is now a full rainbow)

MP2 - checks

Moi - I raise half the pot

MP2 - calls

River: 7

So the board is sat at 7 - A - K - 2 - 7

MP2 - raises 3 blinds

Moi - well I've got to call

Showdown.............

The tw@t was holding 7 - 2 pockets!

Took me down to below 1000 chips and this was early on in the game. Anyhoo I did feel a little better when the villain was busted out a few hands later when he went all in on board holding a flush. He had 8 5 suited and his opponent was A Q suited!

Tightened up my play and eventually I finished 101 out a field of 1689; payouts started at 250.

BR Start: $50.92

Played: Free-roll

Starting players: 1689

Final Position: 101

Winnings: $1.50

BR Finish: $52.42

As I have quite a few pkr.com tourni tickets that expire today I'm going to be playing more free games and see if I can build up my BR a bit more with no danger to myself.

Fingers crossed; eh chaps!

Just finished playing my first free tourni of the day and well to be honest it didn't go as planned. It was a NL $1.00/$0.20 buy in (thank f@k it was a freebie) as I'm still undecided as to whether or not I played my last hand correctly I'm still second guessing myself!

The last hand went something like this.......

All hands folded to my position:

CU (Moi) - around 2500 in chips dealt QQ raised 4BB - put my stack to just over half
BU: folds
SB: short stack and calls all in
BB: around 3000 in chips and calls

Flop: J - 7 - 3 (off suit)

BB: checks

CU: a half pot bet was more than half my stack and the blinds were getting pretty high so I thought 'in it to win it' and went all in. My main driving thought was that the BB had been playing a very loose game.....

BB: Calls

Cards showing.....

SB: 66
BB: AQos Looks like your man was praying for a Hail Mary!
CU: QQ

Turn: 7 - we now have a rainbow board

River: ACE And his prayers were answered!! Boohoo!

Bugg@r! Now I'm busted out, finished 21/52, and wondering.... 'Damn! Should I have gone all in pre-flop?'

Ah well..... Onward and upwards! My next freebie starts in just over an hour and that's a $3.00/$0.45 buy in; 5000 in chips and 5 minute blinds.....

Gotta use them thar tickets up peeps!

One of the hurdles I'm having problems dealing with is the speed of the blind raises. As an ex-live player I'm used to blind levels been a hell of a lot longer apart and therefore the play is a lot slower. Ah well that's just another challenge to overcome and practice combined with studying will make perfect; or so they say!

Anyhoo I've now got enough time for some food and get my mindset right before it is 'once more into the breach, dear friends, once more!'

So yesterday was a bit of a disaster on many levels......

The free tournis I entered; well I didn't place in the money once. At least thy were free tickets! But to make matters worse when I went to use my last free ticket I learnt another valuable life lesson!

Lets recap on what I've learnt thus far........

1: Poker + beer = vanishing stack!
2: Make sure you calendar is free and that you have plenty of time to play before sitting down!
3: Play the strategy style that suits your mentality
4: Use the four colour card option.... (can be expensive when you don't realise there's a flush on the board!)

And now I have a rule #5........

5: When playing a game using a free ticket ensure that you select the 'Free Ticket' option and NOT the cash option to play!

Yep this d!ckhead spent his hard earned pennies by mistake! That slip of the mouse cost me $3.00 + $0.45 taking me below my initial deposit and to cap it all..... I didn't finish in the cash!

Hey ho.... Lesson learnt! The perils of been a recreational poker player! (Hey that would have been a great name for my blog!)

So this morning I've been playing ring games and I'm back up to $49.69, on the NL $0.02/$0.04 tables. in my pkr.com account. I would have continued playing but I needed something to eat! Ah well back to the grind in a bit; but first......

Here's a question that's been bugging me (rant alert!).....

Why is it, and I only seem to come across this on pkr.com, when someone raises pre-flop with say AA, KK, A rag or whatever, and they get called, they don't catch the flop and so do a raise that gives good pot odds to anyone on the make, and they get called again. They don't hit on the turn so they check or min raise; player behind them also checks/calls.

They don't hit on the river and do either a min or scare bet only to be called/re-raised; so they call.......

And the other player has either a back door straight, flush or pulled trips or even two pair, a pair of kings that beats their AQ/AJ etc and takes the pot......

Here's the question (at last I hear you cry!)......

Why do they scream about poker sites been rigged in favour of this that and the other type of hand/player/county etc instead of evaluating their own play?

And yet when it happens in reverse they are the greatest poker tacticians alive?? ♠_biggrin:

Anyhoo rant over...... Now for some food!

Okaydokey artichokeys a quick recap......

When I last left you on this roller coaster ride my pkr.com BR was at $49.69 and that was after having to grind my way back up after been a bit of a d!ck yesterday (read the post above if your really that interested!).... After a quite a while playing on the $0.02/$0.04 tables I decided to break for lunch. Gotta answer those hunger pangs my dear peeps!

So first session after lunch I gotta admit on the $0.02/$0.04 tables I got seriously donked and burnt on the river quite a few times and it pretty soon turned to frustration! Uh ho! Instead of walking away; well do I need to go on? Needless to say my BR was suddenly just above $41.... Anyhoo I decided to walk away and recoup my senses!

Did a bit of house cleaning, you may laugh but it can be quite therapeutic, followed by coffee and some choccie digestive biscuits (next week I need to start getting to the gym again).

Anyhoo I was now feeling a bit more Zen and ready kick it for the second session of the afternoon....

Okay all you guys out there that scream about BR management, I can be one of them also, but I decided to take a risk.....

I opened up 2 tables, yep I said TWO, my first foray into the world of multi-tabling, and played on the NL $0.05/$0.10 with $10 buy ins.

Mind set right....
Tables fully loaded.......
Strategy BSS........
A full cup of coffee....
Biccies to hand......
It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses..... HIT IT!

Oops I went all Blues Brothers on ya there!

To cut, what could potentially be, a long story short after an hour or so of play, on the up side, my BR now stands at $51.66; that's $1.66 above my starting $50.

The down side is that I'm $0.76 down on the top amount. Ah well Rome wasn't built in a day!

This Saturday I may play a game or two on pkr.com but methinks that I'm going to go back to FTP for a week or so and see if I cannot build that BR up a bit. Sunday will definitely be a day of R and R!

And remember folks... Everybody needs somebody

Ah well till later...

Toodles!