A Blog to Somewhere: March Results

When: Tonight 8:00PM GMT

Where: PokerStrategy Limit Short Handed Coaching Direct Link

TerrorBlade, PokerStrat Coach and Black Member has kindly given me another chance to get some coaching in a public setting. TerrorBlade is an extremely experienced player who's recently started an interesting blog with an emphasis on self improvement. His specialty is Limit Holdem, but he has decided to learn PLO. Its always invaluable to learn from someone who's been through tough runs and I can't wait to take part and learn something new.

So, if you want some privileged access into the mind of a Limit Holdem player, I hope you'll visit the coaching between 8:00 and 9:30 GMT.

Originally posted by datsmahname
When: Tonight 8:00PM GMT

Where: PokerStrategy Limit Short Handed Coaching Direct Link

TerrorBlade, PokerStrat Coach and Black Member has kindly given me another chance to get some coaching in a public setting. TerrorBlade is an extremely experienced player who's recently started an interesting blog with an emphasis on self improvement. His specialty is Limit Holdem, but he has decided to learn PLO. Its always invaluable to learn from someone who's been through tough runs and I can't wait to take part and learn something new.

So, if you want some privileged access into the mind of a Limit Holdem player, I hope you'll visit the coaching between 8:00 and 9:30 GMT.

The link should be live in just a few minutes.

Thanks!!! To everyone who came out. We had some interesting technical problems that will certainly make that coaching memorable. Its always fun for me to chat about poker, and its surprisingly tough to play, explain my thoughts, and field questions. If I forgot about anything I'm extremely sorry! On the whole I really enjoyed the coaching session.

Thanks for having me

I'm extremely happy with my work this month. I completed all of my goals and was fortunate to book some very decent results, basically the same as last month. I also found it very motivating to have small little rewards to work for. They aren't so valuable on their own, but learning to increase my productivity is an extremely profitable skill.

AdamantHQ helped me during a few coaching sessions. Taavi & I met up twice or 3 times to review tough spots, TerrorBlade had me on for another entertaining Public Private Coaching. I completed my monthly session review for 2+2 and also type spewed weekly at Cornholio and Byron's Gold FL Coaching sessions. The articles I read were Tendler's Inchworm Chapter and Advanced Odds & Outs (again).

Moving Up Again? My risk of ruin for moving up to 2/4 currently rests at <5% which means my BR is robust enough to justify taking shots at 2/4 even assuming a conservative winrate. I moved some funds around to purchase a database of 2/4 hands, and I should be able to do that in the next few days. I'm about 80% certain that I'll be playing 2/4 the majority of the time by mid next month. I only recently moved to 1/2 and so I've gotten a little better at developing reads on a new playerpool. I suspect in some ways this next transition will be even smother, but even if its difficult I'll just keep working on my game. It'll be a good challenge.

Originally posted by datsmahname
October Goals
[x] Play 13k hands
[x] 10k hands at 1/2 (20K/50k for 2011 Milestone)
[x] Calculate the risk of ruin for moving up to 2/4, Evaluate options.
[x] 2+ Gold Articles
[x] 4+ Session Reviews
[x] 2+ Coaching Sessions
[x] 9+ HU SNGs (play 3 per HU session)
[x] 500+ PokerStrategy Points, Gold Status
[x] Find suitable Rewards for completing these tasks.

I opted against the digital camcorder. I had sorta hoped to have a little getaway, but that fell through. Buying a new camcorder with basically nothing to record was depressing so I got a bunch of other stuff instead.

Oh yes, Its the new Nike Pack you've all seen in the VIP Store.
I'd been looking for a new one, and this looks just right.

The Razer Deathadder: 3500dpi sensor!!! whatever that means
Sick mouse with great reviews that will serve as a good replacement for my factory default lugger.

Logitech G35: 7.1 Surround sound, Excellent microphone, top notch comfort.
My crappy half broken and temperamental headset has seen its final days.

Stars: 95% 1/2 +$890ish -$35 HU SNGs +310 Bonus
Solid rungood at my usual stakes & games. I have to keep working hard though, because I know I've been lucky in plenty of spots.

WH/PokerStrategy Points: .1/.2 - .5/1 -$110ish
WH has been good to me over the last few months, but lazy grinding reduces my winning chances. No doubt, a tough run explains some of this result but I'm conscious of the fact that grinding StrategyPoints during off hours when I'm much less alert and attentive is sub-Optimal. Unfortunately, my usual site is not being recorded.

I spend roughly 20 hours at micros to grind 500 points... and while the content I get is worth a portion of my rake, the overall investment is significantly more when I'm not playing on my usual site. This is something I need to think about solving because I suspect it costs me more than I realize.

November Goals
[ ]18K Hands (~40% more than last month)
[ ]15K at 1/2 or Higher (35K/50k for 2011 Milestone)
[ ] 2+ Gold Articles
[ ] 4+ Session Reviews
[ ] Work on HU theory (Read an article, examine ranges)
[ ] 9 HU SNGs
[ ] Get Hands for 2/4.
[ ] Find Suitable Rewards for Completing my tasks.
[ ] 5+ preflop equity training sessions.

I'm increasing my hand volume by nearly 50% this month. I'll have to find rewards early (they helped get my ass in gear this month). I could set my goals nice and high, buy myself a PS3, new TV, and the new Assassins Creed: Revelations game... Probably cost me about 500 bucks?? maybe less.... Hmmmm Its tempting because I'm really looking forward to this game coming out. I've played the others on PC, but my PC is a bit to weak for the high end graphics.

No, nevermind that. I'd rather reward myself with something a LITTLE more practical... Winter is coming.... I have all my gear there though. My desk is in decent shape, but I don't really like it... then again I can't justify replacing it.

Hmmmmmm

My package shipped yesterday, and they sent all the tracking info...

Well now I'm glued to the screen watching it bounce from place to place. I just can't stop watching... Its like Christmas eve, but Santa is 4 real! Right now its in transit, roughly an hour from my current location. Holy bat cheese! I'm excited

The strange thing is that its arriving as fast as priority shipping. Would they have refunded me if I payed extra for that service? I'm sort of thinking there's no shot.

Gotta love BBC documentaries.

Nice threadsavers. Really interesting. I'm gonna subscribe if you post more in the future.

Also you have a good way of motivating yourself to play more with some rewards. I guess I need to start doing that too. Btw, why PS3 and not say Xbox or smth? I also plan this to be my reward for November, just have no clue how they differ.

thanks dydukas,

Xbox and PS3 are both good consoles, but I'd have to research a little more to decide either way.

I'll make some research too and by the end of the month we can compare our "research results". ♠_biggrin:

In the blackness I could hear my classmates whispering, moving cautiously. I was blindfolded - we all were.

It was a game. The gymnasium lights shut off and windows blacked out, our only objective was to declare ourselves "seeker" and echo this word until we found the hosts who refused to reply in kind. The Gym door snapped open briefly and a burst of light slid into the room. I didn't know why.

After class the halls were filled with chatter, much more than usual. I still didn't know what, but something had happened. This is where I was the morning of September 11th, 2001. Blindfolded in the dark, seeking the people with no answer.

Originally posted by dydukas
I'll make some research too and by the end of the month we can compare our "research results". ♠_biggrin:

Looks like someone's done the work. Youtube ftw.

I wonder if it's still the same situation in 2011, those video are kinda old. Anyway, I guess I will be going for XBOX.

I went the XBox route when designing the room I play poker in etc.

I think it was mainly due to some of the XBLA stuff and the fact that I preferred it to the PSN (chalk up another to random intuition)

Guitar Hero III through a projector...never was anything so shamelessly pathetic and stupidly fun at the same time.

Did manage to pick up a PS3 and a Wii from my work colleagues though on the cheap so got to compare them and have to say....I have a LOT more Xbox games than PS3 games, and the Wii is for random family trolling and causing of injuries.

Good luck with your 2/4 shots, reading your blog, hand histories and responses to my vids you'll be more than capable of holding your own there.

Hey Boomer, thanks for the props!

2/4 seems inevitable, but I'm going with conservative BRM. Another good month and I'll be all set.

November is off to a trendy start. Lots of new toys might give me the motivation to play loads of poker, but I have plenty of distractions as well. I'm optimistic and expect to log approx 22k hands this month.

New Poker Stuff:
[x] HM2 Pro
[x] 1M hands at 2/4 from PTR
[x] Mental Game of Poker, by Jared Tendler

Currently on track for 18k hands.

• Roughly 3.5K hands played
• 2.5K at 1/2

Potential Distractions:

• Getting Holdem Manager 2 to work properly (tbd)
• UFC 138, UFC on Fox, UFC 139
• Main Event final table (Nov 6-8)
• Assassins Creed: Revelations (Nov 15th release date)

Re-posting from the Hand Strat forum.

Originally posted by datsmahname
SB is a competent 2/4 and 3/6 reg, likely playing below his usual stakes to try and hit the 70B milestone hand.
He's a 28/22 11% 3-bet. Very balanced solid opponent.

MP3 is a TAG/nit... very tight 24/18, 12% 3-bet. 60% agg postflop on all streets.

$1/$2 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K:d, K:c.
Hero raises, MP3 3-Bets, 2 folds, SB caps, BB folds, Hero calls, MP3 calls.

Flop: (13 SB) 3:s, 8:h, 4:s (3 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, MP3 3-Bets, SB caps, Hero calls, MP3 calls.

Turn: (12.5 BB) A:d (3 players)
SB bets, Hero ????

Spoiler

Hero raises, MP3 folds, SB calls.

River: (16.5 BB) 5:c (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Originally posted by Boomer2k10
Very interesting spot

The Ace changes thigns a little as now the odds of you being up against AA are cut in half so your KK begins to look more like the nuts.

That said this is offset somewhat by nut flush draws, which would pump the flop almost no doubt due to what they would consider an equity overlay.

Folding is totally out of the question of course so the question comes between raising and calling

Personally I think I prefer going for overcalls here.

If we raise we're going to fold out pretty much any hand worse than ours that's not a FD and there aren't too many of them compared to overpair/set/Ax combos which isn't what we want since they're drawing almost dead so any moeny they put in is a huge bonus and we could also isolate ourselves vs a hand we're drawing dead vs which means we either take a super-expensive route to showdown or we fold to further action potentially negating the change of a showdown.

The other thing I would add here is that how much of your range here would be bluffs? If you add more and more weaker value hands into your range then your opponent could potentially bet fold a great deal of the hands you are looking to get value from on the turn.

*looks at spoiler*

I can see why you raised as mentioned we actually feel like we have the nuts here but there are probably enough combos of Ax suited to be a little worried vs the removal of 3 combos of AA.

Overall though I can't really fault the line as in the SB won't fold a pp > 88 before the river it makes perfect sense.

Originally posted by datsmahname
The action in this hand is interesting because my decision tree represents the weakest AND widest range of all 3 players involved.

open raise, call - raise flop and call again.

I could have hands as weak as pocket 5s or as strong as top set.

The other players have much more narrow ranges with A-high FDs and overpairs/top set.

If i just call the turn I'm holding the very top of my turn calling range and I'll allow MP3 to continue with his PPs and draws. Raising gets him to fold perhaps 12-15% average equity and call with 20-30% equity (aside form when he has AsXs).

in a 13.5 BB pot that 12-15% equity is worth more than the cost to raise, so while he would continue with few outs much of the time when he calls, getting him to fold by raising remains a very good option.

When MP3 does fold I'll tend to isolate myself against ~88+, AJs+ but against that range only 9 combos beat me while 24 combos of 99-QQ are trailing.

I suspect that MP3 has A9 :spade:+ and so thats only 4 combos of A-high FDs, and 6 combos of sets. pretty narrow range thats beatting me.

edit after second read: I would have some bluffs in this spot, but they usually have a lot of equity and so my perspective is that I don't actually have to add a lot of thin value hands to balance my range. That said, if they'll put me on lots of semi-bluffs its going to be in my interest to go for thin value regardless.

Originally posted by Boomer2k10
Can't really argue too much with your logic overall

The only thing that might get me a tad worried is that the guy behind us will really only fold hands which have about 5% equity but either way betting him to fold in such a massive pot is definitely worth a little extra risk.

So I'll ask the following just to close the hand out:

1) What are you doing if the SB comes back over the top and 3-bets, or MP3 3-bets and SB either calls or folds? (Think it's pretty safe to say if this comes back to us capped we're stone cold dead)

2) You are correct that you don't have to have many bluffs here at all becasue of the size of the pot mainly, it' under 10% of the time for sure. But now, what would you do in SB's position with exactly 99 or TT here?

Originally posted by datsmahname
1) vs a 3-bet we/re getting 18:1 on average if its HU after a 3-bet... against these guys I can fold. Its discusting on the face of it, but my K♠ out is rly dirty, and this is the bottom of my turn raising range. I have 34K hands on SB and 3k on MP3. I'd been playing like a lagtard/maniac with like >60% VPIP so they won't expect me to fold. I could be worried about them going for thin value but instead they'll hope to call down and induce bluffs with a wide range.

2) with 99/TT I check and call 1 bet on the turn as SB. The ace totally destroys his equity. He only needs to worry about giving a freecard to our suited broadway range, but against 2 opponents the odds that we both have medium/highcard draws is just crazy low. He would beat 8X hands in my range (logical) and broadway flush draws in MP3s range, plus, if he has the 9/T then he's getting reasonable odds to continue with a couple clean outs and a hand thats occasionally ahead.

This is a good question though since I included 99/TT in his range. This guy might barrel 99/TT so we cant rule it out. I'd say taking 9s out of his range might be a good idea. Still, good equity against his range.

I'm kind of ok with getting a little spewy in huge pots, partly because they can make large mistakes by calling or folding incorrectly but especially since guys will miss thin value 3-bets and we won't need a whole lot more than 50% equity to justify raise/barreling.

Nice hand, keep owning, move up. Isn't buying the hand histories "illegal" in Stars?

Originally posted by taavi1337
Nice hand, keep owning, move up. Isn't buying the hand histories "illegal" in Stars?

i thought it wasn't... I might be wrong about that. Better find out.

edit: i thought you just weren't allowed to look up opponents during play. I've actually contacted support in the past to find out what your allowed to do but even then I've never been to clear on whats what.

Last time Daniel Negreanu was on the 2+2 podcast (or maybe the time before) he talked about looking up opponents and buying hand histories, SOOO maybe we can guess he'd be the first to know.

To answer your question yes it is

http://www.pokerstars.co.uk/poker/software/prohibited/

Q: In general, what kinds of tools and services are prohibited?
A: The following types of tools and services are prohibited:

Any program that shares hole card data with other players or programs is colluding, and is prohibited.
Any program that works off of a central database of player profiles or hands played is prohibited.
Any program that plays without human intervention (a 'bot') or reduces the requirement of a human playing. For instance, an 'auto-folder' is prohibited.
The practice of datamining (observing games without playing in order to build up a database of hand histories for future reference) is prohibited.
Any software that offers direct game play advice on the appropriate action to take.

Whether they can see/stop it is another matter as according to the FAQ they do not scan your computer's files but according to their FAQ it is not permitted to datamine

Also PTR is on their "ALWAYS" prohibited list, used to be on the "only while Stars is open" list, but how they are planning to enforce that I have no idea, I think they are more likely to go after the PTR site themselves rather than anyone using it.

I certainly wouldn't want to break rules & risk losing my account. Being able to play at stars is worth more to me than the BR I have there, granted I wouldn't want to lose either one.