[Closed] Salami's Blog - ...

This limit, .5/1-SH not been kind to me at iPoker, Stars, and FT. It's ridiculous to see the difference between .25/.50 and .5/1.

I didn't switch to .5/1 and stay there either; I played a bit on .25/.50 then a bit on .5/1, switched sites, blah blah blah, cashed out... back to .25/.50 then up to .5/1... so my game didn't suddenly change or anything at a specific moment that I know of that can account for the difference. So, now what do I do? Stick it out on .5/1 or move half my roll to another site and play .25/.50? Hmmmm, I just don't know at the moment. Until I decide, I'm taking a break for a few days and maybe play a few sng's or NL10-SH in the meantime.

Alright, bankroll update.

Bankroll: $583.90CDN, $474.98 USD at the current ex. rate.
Mansion Bonus: $130 of $200 released. Still plenty of time to clear it.

I also played some SH FL 0,50/1 and its not been good to me either.. after starting on 0,25/0,50 with shorthanded where I felt the games to be "easy" I ran into sick variance, swings and downs at 0,50/1. Its probably partly due to some bad play .. but also just generally evilness of the beats and setups.

So ya going to move down to practice my SH on 0,25/0,50 before giving it another go

Good luck with whatever you choose

The exact same is happening to me atm.

Get big enough BR for 0.5/1 and stay there for awhile. Don't go up and down between limits too often. Then you will really not know if you can beat it.
474USD isn't enough for 0.5/1 in my opinion. I would get like 600$, so I would still have enough money, even if I'd lose like 100BB.

Hey Salami did you deposit for the $200 bonus or you are one of the LUCKY GUYS...

I'm one of the lucky guys if you mean Mansion giving me a random $200 bonus. ♦

Well, I played a session at .5/1 today and it went well. I just stuck to two tables so I can watch some of the other players and have more time to think. I think I'll try to stick it out at .5/1 SH and just try to learn how to beat it. It doesn't seem like I would be learning anything from .25/.50 at the moment. Here's the graph from the last session.

The last part of the graph was pretty bad because I spent waaaaaaay too long at a goofy table trying to figure out the best way to play those types of players. I figured out a solution: Just leave the fuckin' table already!!! But no, I had to stay - I was mesmerized by the whole thing. ♦ When I get to reviewing the session, I'll post one or two of the strangest hands I encountered today on the tour.

Bankroll Update: 594.29, 488 BB's for .5/1-SH.
Bonus: $130 of $200 released.

Well, long story short, I'm still getting completely fucked over at .5/1. The .25/.50 tables have been fine though. This isn't just happening at Mansion (iPoker) either, it's been happening at Stars, too. I make good folds that are confirmed when I see the showdown cards and I get beat consistently when I do get to showdown. It's just bizarre. Anyways, graphs.

Not much of a sample size but basically the funk at .5/1 continues. The .5/1 SH tables play like they're rigged for me. Ahhh well. I'm sticking to .25/.50 for a while. I'm off iPoker for a while. Maybe I'll update this blog in a week or so, but for now I'm just going to take a break from it just try to have fun raping .25/.50 SH. ♦

I still have about $452 USD so that's alright.

As you can see, I edited the last post 5 times. Once to edit my bankroll, which fell $17 usd from playing 3 hands of .5/1 - I lost 2 hands, one with KK to a set and trip ace's to a rivered low card straight in a blind battle. It's been truly sick lately.

Anyways, the plan now is to move my bankroll (I just withdrew from Mansion) and start somewhere else. I have around 905 BB's for .25/.50 SH or FR, I might give FR a try, and I might as well leave the bankroll alone for now and not cashout anything from it - I'll only cashout from it as a final resort before running up a credit card or something like that.

I still run good at .25/.50 SH and unless some sick, sick variance hits my .25/.50 game, I won't quit poker just yet. I really felt like it a few times the last couple days though - like I mentioned earlier, .5/1 plays like it's rigged for me.

Alright, time to grind it up at .25/.50 SH. I'll give it a few days before I update again.

I've also tried to beat 0.5/1 Sh two times this month, same story don't know what's happened, when moved down to 0.25/0.50 SH but there i felt like old fisherman. Same fishes, but maybe aggresion level keeps us folding best hands or what ... no matter what we'll beat its just matter of volume :)))

As a very wise French FL SH player once said to me, FL SH is extremely variance heavy.

Try as best you can to remove the emotion from your decisions and results and just keep bashing away at playing your best and improving every day.

I've gotten spanked twice at $1/$2 SH - the first time after initially adding ~250BB to my BR. I know though that I will be a better player at my next attempt so hopefully variance won't be exaggerated as badly by my play.

Keep at it!!

Yeah, you guys are right. There's three things I have to work on next time I move up:

1) Handle the variance when the stakes increase.
2) Deal with higher aggression.
3) Fold when I really am beat.

If I can skip .5/1 all together that would be great. ♦

Ahhh yes. I can safely say that I am on track again with my winrate and psychology. I'm back above that magic number of $500 USD with $509 USD. ♦ I was going through some crazy variance that left me up $1.37 since Feb. 1, not including bonuses. On top of that, I went back to .5/1 a couple times when I shouldn't have, bringing the total downswing to a whopping 267 BB's at FL .5/1 SH - the biggest one I've experienced.

I've been playing a lot of .25/50 FL-SH lately and collecting a bonus, so the roll has been growing the last week or so. ♦ My new site is UB. I know it's not a popular choice and PokerStrategy does not endorse it so neither will I - but if I have problems there I will mention that for sure! The reason for my choice is that during that last downswing I was tempted to play roulette at the side casino at Mansion. Luckily I broke even - but I also had to make that 2nd spin after I lost the first one. I lost a couple hundred doing that before in my pre-blog days and I do not want to start that again. I made a few big cashouts during that time so I wouldn't have so much of the bankroll easily exposed to craziness, plus I paid off the full amount of my school books so that part turned out alright I guess - only thing is it left me without enough for $1/2 SH. So, one of the primary requirements I have is to not play at a site with a casino attached to it. Later on, I will consider BWin but for now I'm going to limit my choices to Stars, Full Tilt, and UB. UB is the only one that has a first deposit bonus that I have not yet tapped into so I figured it is worth a try. My account at Tilt does not have rakeback. If it did I probably would be there right now. ♦

The games at the new site are a bit tighter than any of the sites I've played before, so I have had to change my game plan up a bit to adjust to the new table conditions - and so far so good. I'm a bit tighter and not chasing the more marginal draws - I have always liked to defend my equity to the max but now I'm willing to fold a bit more often. I've tossed out a few of the weak ace plays in the SB and in late position with a few limpers as well. I'm also enjoying some fold equity so I'm loosening up a bit preflop just a touch to get more action with the monster hands. Here's my recent .25/.50 FL-SH graph.

As you can see, there were 1.5k hands or so in there where I couldn't win a damn showdown. I almost ditched the site, but instead I was able to correct the mistakes I was making in my new poker environment.

I can start .5/1 SH again with 509 BB's but I think I'll wait a bit. Maybe make the move around 600, 750, not sure right now. The jackpot tables start at .5/1 and they are very loose by the looks of it. I'm not sure if I get rb from the jackpot contribution - I'll have to look into that right away. Anyone here ever win from a bad beat jackpot? I've haven't heard any stories on this site so far.

Cheers,

Salami

Hey Salami.. yeah, OlivierLu won a BBJ on Party Poker about a month or so ago for approx (I think) $28k...

Have a look at his blog for info.

I'm not sure that paying the extra rake is always worth it though so I would work through the numbers (unless someone else can provide some input here?).

When BBJ is at +350k$, it's +EV to play at jackpot tables...

Took a beating at the tables today then this happens:

http://salamiandcheese.mybrute.com/fight/116640038

For some reason I can't get my W$SD above 51% at the new site. Right now it's around 49%. Everything else looks good except for that. The won $ non-sd line is at a nice -3.5BB/100, this is half of what it was before this site, -7BB/100. At least I'm getting a bonus so I'm about break even for the last couple of weeks. Ok, graphs and stats:

New Site (UB)

VP$IP: 22.8
PFR: 17.39
3BETPF: 8.7
W$WSF: 40.9
WTSD: 33.8
W$SD: 49.1
AF: 2.60

It's crazy how many draws hit against me, but then again opponents are folding more often before showdown. The only thing that I can think of is to make fewer call downs when it looks like I'm beat - but if I do this then my WTSD will be even lower, which doesn't seem right. If UB doesn't smarten up and give me my regular 54-57% W$SD soon I'm leavin!

You say making fewer calldowns. But WTSD 33.8 is already low for 6max. Personally I think you have to make more calldowns. You are probably bluffed of the best hand a lot.

If I play HU with someone with 34 or 35 WTSD at my limit (also 0.5/1.0) then I'm going to raise the turn a lot to exploit him. He just folds too easily.

Your W$SD is indeed extremely low. I almost can't believe it can be that low with WTSD 33.8 and 11200 hands samplesize. But I don't know what can be the cause...

If I have some showdown value or draw I don't fold to a turn or river raise.

F to Turn Raise: 26%
F to River Raise: 20%

The avg. WTSD for the players I have 300 hands+ for (excluding myself from the PT3 report) is 33.9% at UB (15 players) and 39.4% (40 players) at the other sites I've played at. My fold to turn or river raise is about avg in both cases.

I still think robots are following me around, bastards.

I played around with PT3 a little bit and my fold to turn raise pct% doesn't look off from the way I have always played. I'll have to muck around a bit more and see if there is a better way of playing some of these hands. But for now, I'm back at the Mansion playing $.5/1 and it's been going ok. ♠_cool:

I wasn't sure if I should go back to the Mansion after leaving because of my very short (2 spins ) roulette episode so I just cashed in some of my points for a couple tourney tokens. I still don't have enough points for even the $100 cash bonus so I figured what the heck. I came in 2nd in a $50 sng for a nice $150 USD payout! So I'm back there for a while and the roulette thing is not on my mind at all which is good. I quit that for 2 1/2 months and spent 1 and a 1/2 months at Mansion since that time without any troubles, so I know I'm capable of staying away from that. For now I'm just planning on staying there until I complete the $30 left of my $200 bonus. After that, I'm not too sure. I might stick around there for a bit but my preference is still a site without a casino.

At UB, the $.5/1 and $1/2 tables there's only one non-jackpot table going and even that is not always the case, and I really don't want to pay what works out to be double rake hoping to win the fuckin' lottery, so I'll have to find another place to play as soon as I make it to $750-800 USD. Maybe I'll talk to support at FTP and see if they will finally grant me a rackback account. Another option is maybe BWin, but at night here in Canada there are not enough FL-SH tables going by the looks of it. I may be moving my physical location at anytime so starting another bonus probably isn't the best idea at the moment. So, as always, I'm screwed! ♠_evil:

Alright, my bankroll now is currently $858.78 CDN, $725 USD. Bonus whoring IS fun!!! ♠_biggrin: And the $150 USD from the tourney token was a big help.

I played five $5 limit hu-sng's today. I won one of them, the first one! For the 2nd and third, I tried out a different strategy, the "mixed" strategy. Basically, you do not cbet all the time, you cbet 2/3 of your made hands and check 1/3 of them and cbet 1/3 of the times you do not have a hand and just check it 2/3 of the time. My first try at this was just horrible - I had to adjust to my own damn strategy! The 2nd time I did this I was actually doing well and the opponent was making some bad mistakes but in the end as the blinds moved up I just didn't get the cards.

The 4th and 5th were played against the same opponent and I was back to playing the usual strategy, but a bit balanced without really trying to much at it. This player played very fast, almost like they were checkboxing. I kept things slow but balancing the timing on my side but I was just outclassed and I didn't seem to get much help from the cards and ended up just losing. Also, I didn't really catch on to this opponents strategy until 3/4 through the sng, the first 1/2 - which wasn't long - I was slowly getting a lead. The player was not bluffing and seemed to have a knack at not being caught in the little traps, i.e. call flop raise turn, semi-bluffing draws, etc. There were plenty of spots where I stole with nothing, like I said this player didn't bluff much, I didn't see it anyways. So, in the 2nd, I did my best to adjust but alas, I amassed a collection of costly beats with some good hands and the opponent was able to avoid these much better than I. I have never run into a player who actually played so well and their moves actually made sense in these limit hu-sng's. Two loses but I learned a bit and it's nice to lose from just better play from the opponent... unless it's a bot, then I'm pissed! ♠_p: