One more win

I placed first in today's tourney. One thing I've noticed recently is that since I introduced raising into my game (thanks to a little help from Harrington) I'm more comfortable playing with selective aggression.

I tried to vary my play but pretty sure I've got a few tells regarding length of time I take to make certain decisions. Fast play seems to be taken as strength. Taking too long can sometimes be seen as slow play. Taking some time (but not the full amount) to think seems to portray weakness.

It's interesting that on the $0.10 tables, people sometimes spot your tight play and fold to a pre-flop raise but they quickly go back to looking you up if you raise a few hands in quick succession.

dont slack!

today I played three tourneys. the first two I just didn't buckle down 'cos I'd had a long day. the third I focused a bit more and - with a bit of help from the cards - came third.

So, I'm down on the day and have found a major leak in my game - not taking it seriously!

Oh, and I've got 203 hands registered in Tournament Indicator now. Only another 700 to go.

Lets say a tourney a day

Decided this weekend that I need to up my practice and perhaps playing a tourney a day is the way to go. If I play when I get home from work, the poker sites are pretty busy. I could get in one SitNGo or 30-45 minutes of cash game play and have plenty of time left for outstanding work or relaxation.

Tonight was the first opportunity I've had this week - having entertained guests Monday and Tuesday. Had a reasonable game. Not much table chat. Came third. I played very badly from 3-handed onwards and lost too much on rag hands.

I was lucky to get paid off a few times - got the right odds to call in a couple of spots and made my flush draw.

Back on the wagon

Played another tourney tonight at CD Poker and came second. Had a little crib sheet of Harrington's strategy in front of me, courtesy of someone at work. It helped to tighten my range a little - I just stuck to hands on the sheet (leaving over 25% of possible hands to choose from) and considered raising when I had position rather than playing quite so randomly.

Also, I've stopped relying on Tournament Indicator now as I realise it can't factor in dominated outs when determining the win odds vs pot odds so making judgements purely on the odds it shows is dangerous in most cases.

Anyway, the game itself was very enjoyable. Some of the other players seemed okay people and the chat comments were a nice extra dimension.

I was maybe a 4:1 underdog going into heads up and started off well but the blinds were high and it only took one bad play to leave me blinded into an all in situation with poor cards. Probably should have seen that coming.

Limit cash games - why bother with tourneys?

PokerStars gave me $5.00 on the condition I play a real money game by tomorrow. I just found out about this offer tonight - having not checked my poker e-mail all week - so I quickly logged in and played 15 minutes on the micro limit cash tables. I ended the session up $0.43 which effectively means I got a 50% return for laying $0.80 at the table. Does that sound right?

The graph from PokerTracker for this session is a stark contrast to my tournament results.


Okay, so it's only 15 minutes and 20 hands. Not enough to draw any conclusions. What's more, it's the first time I've left the table ahead of my start position. Usually I play until I'm back to even just to ease my conscience.

I wasn't keen to walk away when I was ahead but i wasn't the first to leave the table. You know, the first table I tried, as soon as I sat down everyone else left. So I shouldn't feel bad.

Anyway, even if over time I find I can make money at $0.02/$0.04, I doubt you can live on the proceeds. From what I've read, higher stakes gets a lot harder.

It still makes playing tourney's seem like a waste of time. I don't know if I'll ever get back to zero playing tournament poker let alone make $0.40!

Xbox Holdem

Haven't played online this week. Dusted off the xbox 360 and played the Texas Hold'em game on it. After a while I realised there's not much point trying to understand how your computer opponents play because they act fairly randomly once they're in a hand. I think maybe starting ranges are predetermined.

I was thinking of just playing through the single person scenarios where you have to come first to win them but the game play is *really* slow which is totally unnecessary in my opinion. No option to speed it up either - the only option is to turn off animations and that makes hardly any difference to the speed of each hand.


Anyway, I'm knackered. Ciao for now.

Eee-oooorrrrr

Bad night tonight. played 5 tournaments. Came second in one and lost horribly in the others (8th place in most cases).

Just couldn't get a read on the other players at all. I was definitely one of the bigger fish at all the tables I tried. tables varied from super tight to tight aggressive.

I tried to play loose and it just didn't work - I'd get called and then miss the flop or raised out of the hand. I'll have to go back to playing tight. I've opened up my range far too much for my donkish level. Just look at this chart from HoldemManager for the hands where I've put money in the pot at CD Poker:


I've definitely got over my victory a few days ago. Feet are now so grounded I'm up to my knees in dirt.

Play money victory

I went to Pacific to blow some cash I'd left on the site and ended up opting for a play money sitngo tournament.

would you believe it, I won!

The play was really strange even by my standards e.g. people putting lots in the pot only to fold on the river to a small raise.. four way all ins with marginal hands. The shenanigans certainly narrowed the field quite a bit so I didn't complain.

I was middle stack when it got down to three players. The short stack then let himself be blinded right down to his last $10. He tripled up from that point to $30 (luck) but soon went out after that.

In heads up the chip leader had me covered 2-1 but he'd already firmly established himself as a really loose aggressive (and lucky) player with some obvious tells so I won some pretty big pots with a pair or two pair by putting him on rubbish (e.g. high card).

So what did I think of the experience? Well, even though it's a sample size of 1, I will be avoiding the play money tables because:

• I don't think they will help me improve my game as much as real money tables.
• I can't go back and review my hands later
• It's more satisfying to win real money than the play variety.