Full Ring at FullTilt on the eve of a full day

Well, I went back to full ring for a change this evening at $.5/$1. Was a little concerned that six max might have affected my full ring play and low-and-behold the session didn't go so well especially to start with (at one point I was down about $25) but thankfully conditions changed during the session and I clawed my way back to within $3 of my starting stack before calling it quits.

Here's my favourite bad beat of the session.

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Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 81558

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is MP1 with Q Q

UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, Hero raises, 1 fold, CO calls, BTN calls, SB calls, BB 3-bets, UTG calls, 1 fold, Hero caps!, CO calls, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls

Flop: (25 SB) 5 T 8 (6 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, CO raises, BTN folds, SB calls, BB 3-bets, UTG folds, Hero caps!, CO calls, SB calls, BB calls

Turn: (20.5 BB) 3 (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, CO calls all in, SB calls, BB calls

River: (23.55 BB) 3 (4 players - 1 is all in)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB folds, BB calls

Final Pot: 25.55 BB

Hero shows Q Q (two pair, Queens and Threes)

CO mucks T 9

BB shows K K (two pair, Kings and Threes)

BB wins 4.85 BB

BB wins 20.2 BB

(Rake: $0.50)

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At some point I should work out how many bets I could have spared myself in that hand but not tonight.

Guelling 6 max at Full Tilt

Woah. Talk about getting put into place! I got eaten alive at the 6max table tonight. Started off okay for the first few hands then I suffered some really horrible draws.

The guy to my left was hyper aggressive . Very few people would lay down to a bluff and it also seemed people were hitting the board a hell of a lot- e.g. two outers and the like. ARGH! What a frustrating session. Just glad I got it back to even before I left although I realise that’s a very bad way to go about the game. Should have set a time limit.

Not sure I’m ready for that type of game yet. Just hope my full-ring game hasn’t been affected like it was last time I ventured into 6max territory.

Silver lining? at least I’ll have earnt a little rakeback!

Moving to WordPress?

Just trying out WordPress. Importing all posts from Blogger into WordPress but can't do it the other way around so have to post to blogger first. Might switch there. Bad timing really given I got my first ever comment today at this site.

for reference:
- WordPress version here http://obadonke.wordpress.com/
- Blogger version here http://obadonke.blogspot.com

Anyhow, let's see. I've no qualms with Blogger so maybe this is just another diversion to avoid playing :P

DeucesCracked

Having been left a little dazed and confused by the initial experience of Stox, I joined up with DeucesCracked.

Oh my! night and day! The videos are available in 3 formats (ipod, mp4 and streamed). The videos are polished and professionally presented.

I went straight to the 6-max limit section and found a beginner video series called The Price is Right by Danzasmack that seems perfectly suited to where I am. The series is even covering the limits I'm playing right now $.5/$1 and $1/$2 (okay, I'm not up to 1/2 yet but I'm working on it).

I really like this site so far. If I have to choose between Stox and DeucesCracked, I'll be choosing DeucesCracked.

What about CardRunners? Well, it does look more polished than its sister site but it's covering limits that are just way beyond me right now. Just not worth the money for me.

What about others? I haven't done a lot of research but some sites (e.g. LeggoPoker) are focused on No Limit Cash and tournaments. I'm still strictly a Limit player right now. DeucesCracked covers everything I need and enough other games when I'm ready to progress.

StoxPoker

Well, I finally bit the bullet and subscribed to a poker training site!

For the record, I subscribed to StoxPoker on Wednesday 25th of March having initially signed up for Truly Free Poker Training earlier that evening. At about $27 a month I figured it was worth a try - especially since I'd had a good session the night before.

I figured I'd use the material to get a better handle on 6-max play to start with then maybe try my hand at no limit too. However, the first few videos I watched by Bryce Paradis surprised me. Not what I was expecting at all. Video quality was a bit poor, they were DRM protected and - this came as a shock - Bryce ended the sessions with less money than he started with!

OK, so the theory is that the instructors show you what will be +EV plays in the long run so the fact that he loses in the training session shouldn't matter but honestly, if I tried to incorporate what he's advising into my current game, I'd just DUMP CHIPS!

My feet were getting cold... I figured I should try a different website for comparison purposes. That'll be the subject of my next post.

[To be fair, I just opened a video by a different author (doughnutz) and the video quality is a lot better]

What happened in March 09?

I've been pretty quiet this month. Work has been stressful and the poker sessions have (perhaps as a result) been pretty hit and miss - more miss than hit to be honest.

Played on Full Tilt, Everest, PokerStars, Hollywood Poker and Devilfish over the period.

Totally lost my mojo for most of the month see-sawing around break-even. Finally felt like I started to get my head right again in the last week or so but haven't had much time to play.

Here's the graph for the month - this time (for a change) from Holdem Manager.


the last two sessions were cases of completely "lucking out" on table selection. I made 40BB/100 over an hour session in both cases, once at $.50/$1 and the other at $.1/$.2. These brought march back into healthy positive territory and mean I'm a little wary of playing any more in case I drop back again :P

Swings n roundabouts

Made back my losses by playing at ipoker where I usually lose and then lost 7.50 on FullTilt where I usually win. Bah!

on the brink

Well, I was awarded the $50 bonus today at Everest, but whilst collecting the final few points, I lost $30, so WOOPY I got $20 for all that hard work!

Here's the graph of the entire challenge run. I averaged 4BB/100 which is probably respectable but some of the hands have been really cruel today. It's real hard to let hands go when you think you're beat because you don't want to be wrong... but each time you stay in the hand beyond the turn, it really eats into your stack.

Oh well. I hope I can pull it round. I'm down $30 so far in March. Being VIP and earning lots of bonus points doesn't make that fact any easier to live with.