[Closed] fryandspicy's blog of love

Poker Content
Onto my first piece of actual poker content! This week i watched the third part of the crushing NL50 series by Hasenbraten, and it inspired me so much i decided to make a post on one of the more interesting aspects of it - the so-called 'Way Ahead Way Behind' principle.

The concept is simple and many people with good logic would probably arrive to the correct line just by puzzling it out, but i didn't and maybe some of you guys wouldn't so i thought i'd post it here to reinforce the idea for all of us

The concept: If you have a hand that completely destroys about half of villains range, but is completely destroyed by the other half, it's best to play the hand passively.

Reasoning: You no longer have to protect your hand, because your opponents worse hands will rarely catch up. By betting here you are often folding out the hands that you beat and getting called (or raised) only by the hands that have you crushed. Checking can induce bluffs or weak value bets from the hands you beat and (if you're really lucky) may slow down an opponent who has the nuts but doesn't want to chase you away.

Cons: By playing this line you are letting a thinking opponent know what hand you have, because you won't play many other hands in this manner.

Example: Middle pair on a rainbow flop (T :spade:T in K :spade:3 :diamond:2 :club:) if we raise pre and an unknown smooth calls. He could have pocket pairs or broadways. Maybe about half the time he hits his king or trips, the other half the time he misses. There are lots of other examples, probably some that are alot better - maybe someone could post one?!

Current Bankroll
$48 - i went on life tilt the other day (not even over all that much. Pretty bad day and lack of sleep = calling all ins with T2o.) But i only lost a couple of buy ins because i decided to quit pretty quickly after aforementioned hand.

It's been pretty hard to get any time in on poker because of crazy working hours (i work from 4.30 am to 9.30 am which pretty much wipes me out for much of the day and means i'm asleep during peak poker times. 5 days a week.)

Random Link/Quote/Anecdote
Sun Storm Transmission

Apology For Rambling
sozza.

KK HU on an Axx board is the classic example I think. By checking you might make an opponent bet a hand like QQ, JJ or a pure bluff and can call with KK, if the bet isn't unusual. In this situation you go for passive play to induce bluffs and keep the pot small. Of course, it works best when IP.

Current Bankroll
$33

BUT i'm actually pretty pleased with this because it was on $25 a few days ago when i decided to tilt away a couple of buy ins for basically no reason.

BUT i've actually had no tricky spots at all in the last few days so i dont' know if i've plugged my major leak (the classic overplaying of TPTK OOP) or whether i can withstand a few bad beats without spazzing out yet.

On the advice of much wiser and greater poker players i've aquired the poker mindset and am reading through it. Some stuff about letting go of your ego seems to be helping to stem my hero calling i think. The beauty of the book is that it makes you feel really ashamed of how childishly you play poker.

Random Link/Quote/Anecdote
In real life terms poker has taken a back seat for a week or so. I haven't downloaded msn still (sorry Wriggers), have barely got any volume in, and have been falling behind with hand evaluations. But in my excuse i've been nearly dead with man-flu since i got back from this wedding.

Other real life news:
- Had a job interview at Boots (a health and beauty shops for all of you ignorant foreigners) and smashed it, but then had to reveal that i'm going back to London in two months.
- Cash game on Thursday with some TAP friends of mine, but i have literally no money so i'll have to get staked
- Sweat session with Emanuel on Friday (i hope we didn't arrange it to be on thursday anyway) which i'm looking forward to but also dreading slightly. Need to remind myself what software to download etc.
- Watched my first coaching session today, the basic BSS one, which was thoroughly entertaining. I love how Hasenbraten says value. And it's very motivating for some reason just to hear a great poker player's thoughts and feelings on the game. Although he said he's quite stressed at the moment so i felt quite bad for him
- Went out last night and ended up literally demanding that some poor girl i was sharing a taxi home with have sex with me at her parents' house. Standard.
- Love this song and would appreciate it if someone can tell me title and artist:

Apology For Rambling
Apologies for rambling.

Nice to see you're doing better. Looking forward for Friday.

By the way, is this what you are looking for sir?

Current Bankroll
£27.50 - Just lost two buy ins. Top pair vs flopped set (which i overplayed, because of the classic mistake of underestimating opponents) and straight vs rivered full house (which i again overplayed because of underestimating opponents). I say underestimating, but both times opponents limped UTG with 22 and let me see the flop for free from the blinds. Pretty frustrating five minutes.

I need to read more poker mindset before going back to the tables. Cannot wait until i can use a HUD. Cannot wait until i get half decent at poker. Grr.

Random Link/Quote/Anecdote

Apology For Rambling
GTFO

About the mindset thing: Byron Jacobs said something really interesting in his interview, quoting some chess player. He said it's not enough to be a good player, you have to play well. So although you might know all the theoretical stuff if you fail to put it in practice with patience and discipline all that knowledge doesn't give you much of an edge.

And that song is addicting! Do you know any more bands with that style of music?

Poker Content
Over the next two weeks my life will be relatively undisturbed, so I am planning on getting in some serious poker learning which will come at the expense of much personal enjoyment.

Each day will go like this:

• Get up at 10:30am
• Until 11:30am, read poker mindset (or other if finished)
• 11:30 - 12:30, play poker. Two tabling, thinking in ranges, with a HUD
• 12:30 - 1:30, have lunch and reply to the first five unanswered hand histories in the micro stakes forum
• 1:30 - 2:30, play poker, two tabling and thinking in ranges and so on.
• 2:30 - 3:30, reply to ten more hand histories, update blog, post question hands, watch an instructional poker video (crushing NL50, most probably)
• 3:30 - 4:30, play poker, four tabling but still thinking in ranges and so on
• 4:30 - 9:30, get ready for work, go to work, come home from work
• 9:30 - 10:30, eat dinner and slob out in front of TV.

For this to be accomplished, I will have to give up much lazing about. No more watching a bunch of youtube videos, no more watching TV (except at the end of the day), no more listening to music (except when at work), no more computer in bed, no more browsing the useless but entertaining threads on pokerstrategy or twoplustwo. However, I think i can make it as long as i hold on to the fact that it's only two weeks long. And hopefully it will represent something of a great leap forward in my poker knowledge. After the two weeks, i'll be moving to London for uni and it turns out i'll probably be in something of a party house, so i'll have to think of new and ingenious ways not to be sucked into that kind of fun.

Current Bankroll
Uh, i actually have no idea, because i haven't logged onto my poker account for two weeks due to computer malfunctioning (read exploding). Probably whatever it was last time i updated.

Random Link/Quote/Anecdote
This section will have to be abandoned over the next two weeks, firstly because i'll be updating daily and won't be able to keep up such high quality material, but also because the whole blog and my entire mindset, will become somewhat more business like. For the next two weeks, that is. I won't be updating my bankroll either, because it's not important. What's important is that i play well. That might go forever.

Apology For Rambling
This section will go too, for the next to weeks, because I intend to ramble much less. Sorry!

That looks like a pretty hard schedule to keep, really... I think you'd be better off playing 2 tables for a few days and then just play 4 tables every session for the remaining of the 2 weeks if you are comfortable.

i'll have to think of new and ingenious ways not to be sucked into that kind of fun.

Uhm, how about winning some money in poker? Isn't that a lot of fun? You can still leave yourself some free time for partying but for now at least your focus should be poker (if you plan on taking it seriously, if not ofc you can just play in your spare time).