Mind Games

I've begun playing on PKR
I've just been dabbling so far, trying to get used to the software.

It is strange how poker rooms develop a personality.
iPoker is nit city. I can steal there all day long. Well, no, that isn't true. You can't PLAY on iPoker all day long because in my evenings there isn't enough traffic to play at all. This is sad. For all its warts, I rather like iPoker.

PKR on the other hand is bizarro heaven. I sat at a table for a while where everyone had less than $1.50 in there stack, and limped every hand. If the BB minraised they all called. So I "nitted it up" and just played hands that could flop well multiway, because in that environment top pair is never holding.[1]

For the most part, I stayed out of trouble, but dug a bit of a hole when I 3Bet shoved AQ over top of a 60/10 limper whose T9o won the day on a TT767 board.

That door swings both ways, though.
Today's bacon saver:

I almost NEVER check sets on the flop, but I was sure someone would have an A that could pay me off. UTG had 13¢ behind, but I had my eye on CO, and I snagged 'em both.

So I'll play here until I have to make a decision whether to deposit or not.
Central to that decision is the question: Can I withdraw the fund to Canada?

Cheers,
VS

[1] I lied again -- I had top pair in an unraised pot that won at showdown:

So I'll play here until I have to make a decision whether to deposit or not.
Central to that decision is the question: Can I withdraw the fund to Canada?

I don't see why not. When the time comes, request the cash out and they will ask for all the pertinent information required to do so. When I was off in 2011 or 2012 for one of my 3 leg operations I played there almost exclusively in order to get the $350 deposit bonus in the 6 weeks I was off. I made the bonus and cashed out before I went back to work, so the long winded answer to your question is YES

Terrific!
That's good to know.
I didn't see Instadebit or Entropay on their list, which are the two easiest I know of from here.

I had to leave Poker770 because they had no method other than wire transfer -- and that is pretty pricey.

Have a good week,
VS

Terrific!
That's good to know.
I didn't see Instadebit or Entropay on their list, which are the two easiest I know of from here.

I had to leave Poker770 because they had no method other than wire transfer -- and that is pretty pricey.

Have a good week,

I left poker770 quite a while ago as I couldn't find a way to get my money sent to Canada. Also if I remember correctly Canada is now one o the countries they no longer have a licence for. I could also be wrong. OLD AGE MEMORY FADing

Netbet customer support told me a while back that they can do wire transfers. I don't recall the fee, but it seems to me that it would take a withdrawal of several hundred dollars to bring the fee down to a sensible percentage.

NLHE
I've been breaking in a new poker room, as I mentioned.
This hand is from the department of "Aces through the back door"
I have only 70 hands on villain, but he is playing 41/3, never 3Bets and likes to limp/call

OTF I re-raised, as I've seen a *lot* of players here raise with top and even second pair with no kicker at all. When he 4Bet and left $0.44 behind I was more than a bit confused. Wassup wi' dat?

I was a bit concerned he might have two pair or a set. He may even have had a flush draw.
I forged ahead though, since I had the BD nut flush draw, but in reality I was counting on him just having crap.

Sometimes my suckout shoes are handy footwear...
VS

41/3, never 3bets, likes to limp/call. Loose.

Is it fun there yet? Initially I didn't like it, but it got fun after a while settling in. It must be even funner after all the changes!

Originally posted by gadget51
Is it fun there yet? Initially I didn't like it, but it got fun after a while settling in. It must be even funner after all the changes!

So far, so good.
It can be a terrible place to be card-dead.

I played 200 hands last night and saw my RFI on the BTN was 66%.
WTF? I was playing like 16/12 -- 66% not possible!
So I checked the pop-up -- Raised First In on the BTN twice out of the only 3 times it was folded to me on the BTN.
Yup - 66% alright.

Overall I'm up 2.2 BI over just over 2K hands .

Blind defense is an issue -- I'm currently in vulture mode -- lurk in a tall tree and swoop down occasionally and eat dead money.
Next stage is eagle mode: lurk in a tall tree by a river and feed off spawning fish -- most of which are dead or mostly dead.
The pinnacle is osprey mode: soar through the sky feeding off live fish.

Best of luck to all...
VS

NLHE
Today, direct from the department of outs, comes today's hand:

Nothing special really, OTF I had so many outs I had to take my shoes off to count 'em.
We both hit our straights OTT, but the river made my flush.

The bright spot in an otherwise losing session.

I caught myself becoming passive, and corrected, but too little too late and down 1.5 BI
I keep getting into the trap of thinking that I need to have made hands to play -- it isn't true -- all you need is more equity than the other guy.
If you're passive, you bloody well better have the cards, hit the draws and so on.
If you're aggressive, you have another way to win. You can make villain *think* you have the cards, hit the draws and so on.

Best of luck,
VS

Your new picture is disturbing.

It's my Cletus the slack-jawed yokel persona.

I almost never wear baseball caps (for obvious reasons), but since PokerStrategy.com was so kind as to send me one, I felt it was only right to wear it.

When I get into full job-search mode I'll change it to my serial-killer look.

VS

Originally posted by jbpatzer
Your new picture is disturbing.

OK, how's this?
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Originally posted by jbpatzer
Your new picture is disturbing.

OK, how's this?
VS

Now that's more like it!

Quote: 'Nothing special really, OTF I had so many outs I had to take my shoes off to count 'em.'
There were probably two, probably.

That's a nice pic by the way.

I didn't want to mention the Santa thing!

That is brilliant

Originally posted by zachrina
I didn't want to mention the Santa thing!

That is brilliant

I have a lot of fun with the Santa thing.

We just returned from a week in Creston visiting friends.
We stayed with Lois -- grandmother to Grace, her Santa-sceptic granddaughter.
Lois said to Grace, "You didn't know Grandma was friends with Santa, did you?"
"Where's his suit?" Grace replied.
I said, "It's in the car, do you want me to get it?"
She nodded, but you could tell there was more than a tinge of doubt.
When I showed up a few minutes later all decked out, her eyes went large as saucers.

She then drew a picture of me, "For when you come to our house".
I leaned over and whispered, "Remember -- I like raisin-oatmeal cookies"

Merry Christmas,
VS

Over in https://www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=330017&goto=firstnew some members were mentioning that they've noticed an increase in coolers lately.

This hand began innocently enough, but quickly slid into the Pit of Despair.

I started of with double gutshot OTF.
OTT I pick up a flush draw, so "Any 4, any 8, any Diamond", and I called the x/r
Well, almost any diamond. ♠_cry:

At one point I had taken my free $10 to $17.00
Several similar hands have brought my holdings on that site to a single BI.

I get daily emails urging me to deposit. I can get a whopping great 1st Deposit Bonus.
I can haz tournament tickets.
I get perks galore.

But do I want to add yet another poker room to a list of places I no longer play?
Do I really want to play on a site where almost every pot is 3-way or more?
Where you "iso raise" and nobody folds?
Where you hit top pair on an A♦:2♣:7♠: and have to worry about people holding 7♦:2♥:?
Where 33/6 is a nit?

But then again, maybe I *do* want to play there...

The problem is that I did not play any of the hands particularly bad, or particularly well.
It is nice to be confident that the opponents are clueless, but even clueless players get decent hands now and again.

So deposit, or not -- inquiring minds want to know...
VS

I'm dragging my arse back out of the hole at PKR.
Slowly but surely[1] it is coming back.

I played some 5-Card Draw today. The usual FL $0.10/$0.20 and FL $0.25/$0.50, but I decided to stretch a bit and played some FL $0.50/$1.

I've said in the past that I don't feel comfortable playing the higher limits. I can do it, but I don't feel comfortable.
I think I know why.

I keep thinking that I'm being bluffed off of hands.
When that happens, I would call, only to find I wasn't being bluffed.

So today I kept my finger off the mouse button, and folded most of 'em.
I took two chances: -- In one case I re-raised post-draw with pretty much air and got a fold, in the other I called a "bluff" and lost.

Since the topic of this blog is Mind Games, I'll need to explore this tendency toward suspicion.

I finished my FL $0.50/$1 session with a decent winrate, so that was encouraging...

Later,
VS

[1]

If anything like me, the suspicion is just fear of being bullied/bluffed off the hand. I could get quite paranoid thinking they could see my cards sometimes, especially if it happened a few times in a short timespan. I don't have that now but I remember it clearly, it took a long time to get rid of it.

On a going day I would have folded the 97 - on a bad day I would shove the turn!
Play loose pre by all means on PKR, it's a great site, but be a nit post. The hard part for me is getting to grips with the fact that raising preflop as a steal then folding flops - lots and lots of flops - is making me money; but I do love taking a pot with 24 soooted, it's just fun! Of course you need nits who can fold, good luck with that one on PKR...

Notes! I need more notes!

I can't remember the hand exactly, and I can't be bothered looking it up now, but I hit a 9-high straight where I held T-7.
TJ would have killed me, but I villain min-bet the river and I shoved. He called with Q8 for a pair of 8s.

This is PKR in a nutshell -- and so far as I can tell it belongs there.

Other times they min-bet the river with the nuts.

So I think I can expect wide swings, so I'm going to use 40 BI BRM, but I think I will deposit in the New Year, and play there all my NLHE until I'm broke or cleared my FDB then decide.

Got all your shopping done?
VS