I’ve Quit for a While Now

I’ve said this before but I’ve quit online poker for a while now. Here are the reasons:

1. Tilt

Despite studying the subject, I just couldn’t stop tilting. The latest was I deposited $150 on Cake and ran it up to $1500 in 3 days playing mostly heads up. I can sit here and tell you I played well but the truth is I ran hotter then the sun and most of the players were absolutely horrible. Despite this success, I ended up losing everything a couple days later playing 2/4 and 3/6.  Variance caught up with me and I took some bad beats. I also was owned by a strong reg. Tilt caused me to chase my losses and play limits beyond my roll. Unfortunately, I can’t get over this problem.

2. I’m not good enough

Through videos and books, I learned enough to beat the fish and the regulars when I ran well. However, at the same time that I was getting better, so were many other players. I never got good enough to really beat this game. I still have too many leaks.

3. Boredom

When I turned $5 to $3000 on UB I was really grinding it out. Most of this was made at .10/.25 8 tabling! The thought of doing that again is depressing. Now that I have a new job making good money, it just seems pointless to grind like this. So I started playing mostly PLO and heads up. Nothing wrong with that but I think I was just trying to shove my chips in the middle for the adrenaline rush and not really focusing on getting better. Obviously, you can’t win playing this way.

I don’t have much desire to play anymore but I am enjoying reading about the game on twoplustwo. The more I read, the more I realize that 1) I don’t want to play 2) I’m not very good.

Good luck and run well in life.

norollctrl aka vanallin

Back to 40 buyins . . .

Okay, I’m going back to the only rule that worked for me . . . 40 buyins. I must have 40 buyins at whatever game I play unless I run up a stack. That’s it pure and simple. No more tilting as of today!

Very Strict Rules Necessary

After playing a $220 Heads Up SNG (winning) I realized very strict rules are now in order. I haven’t been playing heads up cash but I have been chasing losses. So now I will state specifically what I can and cannot play in my rules. I am reseting the tiltometer. Today 8-22-08 will be the last time I break the rules.

FTP Bankroll: $760.08

11 buyins at one table

11 buy-ins at heads up table

I haven’t started following my new rules yet but now I am! I am done with heads up for now!! The swings are just so sick. In a couple of hours I’ll bring my account down to near zero and then to a new high. It’s crazy. So back to the plan (see previous post).

I had to include the above pick. I was totally dominating at this table. Funny, but I was just about even for the session and my entire bankroll was at this table! I’m lucky that I have rakeback because they just sent me around $80 for one week of heads up play! I didn’t even play every day. The rake just kills you at this level.

FTP Bankroll: $620.27

Back on FTP

Well that break didn’t last long. After close to busting out my UB account (see previous post) I had raketherake move my rakeback (about 250) into my FTP account. I then proceeded to lose that relatively quickly playing heads up .25/.50. I also did the same on UB and Stars (I had about $50 left on each site) and bustoed each of those accounts. Then I deposited $50 and and then $500 on FTP and began 2-tabling heads up .25/.50. After 7000 hands I am down $265.15 in pokertracker but I somehow have $469.31. I think I didn’t have poker tracker running during some big hands I won. Here is what I have learned:

• I really enjoy heads up poker. To me, this is the purest form of poker and is all about reading your opponent.
• I am not good enough to consistently beat heads up yet. Although 7000 hands is a small sample size, I generally felt I was only beating the bad players in heads up unless I ran hot. When I ran bad I had very bad tilt issues. I would have 100 hand sessions with players where I felt like I could never hit top pair and they would fold preflop every time I had big pairs. Then I would pick up A9 with a flop of 789 and get it all in against the stone cold nuts lol. If I was up I would never do something like that. Some players definitely owned me. A lot of the players had little iron men icons next to their names (read they play a ton) and played very aggressive like me. These games turned out to be a variance war for me and not very profitable.

The rake is also huge at this level. However, I do think heads up could be very profitable but I am done until I reach $4000 (if that ever happens).

So what now? I had a nice discussion with my friend xchamp who played professionally for close to a year and I decided that I am going to go back to microstakes. However, I’m not going to grind out 8 tables. I’m going to play 6 tables (3 PLO, 3 NL) and just play my best and have fun. I’m going to play NL$25. Although this feels low to me, $25 is still a respectable amount of money so I think it will  be fun if I just concentrate on playing my best.

I’ve added a rule that says I have to watch 1/2 hour cardrunners video before my session. This will prevent me from playing when I can’t concentrate and focus on just getting better and having a good session.

In general, I’m just going to focus on relaxing and having fun. Oh, and NO TILTING!!

FTP Bankroll: $469.31

I quit . . . for now

I started playing on Friday sometime in the early evening. I was playing 3 games of PLO and 3 games of NLHE and everything was going fine. I was playing .25/.50. At some point something clicked. I think it was a particular bad beat but I took so many that I can’t even remember. The next thing I know I was playing someone heads up at NL600 at like 4 in the morning! I think I played for about 12 hours straight . . .literally. My bankroll was going up and down like a yo-yo. At one point I was down to around $500 and played some fish heads up at NL600 (yes there are fish at this level surprisingly) and got it back. As you can see from the pictures above (click to enlarge) I played a variety of levels and was doing quite well. I actually went to bed with my account up (around $1600ish). Then the madness began again in the morning. I decided to play 6max PLO400 and NLHE 100 and 200. I actually was doing quite well at NLHE. I couldn’t believe how bad some of the players were at this level. I worked the two NL100 tables up to around 200 and then took two horrible bad beats losing most of my stack with J9 suited when I hit the flush on the turn (lost to a higher flush) and lost to a higher full house at the NL200 table. I probably should have gotten away from that one. I had 77 on a QQ10 board and the turn came a 7 and the river a K. There’s obviously not much I beat on that board so gg me. One thing I found interesting was my style of play worked better at Nl100 then NL50. People seemed to respect a 3-bet a lot more at this level.

At some point I again sat at the NL600 table with the remainder of my roll (about 400) against a very good very aggressive player. I would post the hand history but I deleted all my software (more on that later). He was raising on the button almost every hand. He raised to 18 and I re-popped it to 54 with 67suited. We were each 3-betting each other liberally so I like this play just fine. He calls. The flop comes something like 10-7-5. I fire about 80 into the 108 pot (which I would have done on ANY flop) and he tanks for a while and shoves. I actually was pretty happy with this flop and insta-called doubting he would do this with an over pair or 10. The turn comes a J and the river an A (which I’m I obviously worried about). He shows 98 and takes the pot. I’m not surprised that he made this play since he was raising my flop bets liberally and couldn’t have had a hand every time. When he calls my 3-bet preflop and hits an open-ender I guess he has to get the money in. I mean, what kind of flop are you hoping for if you call a 3-bet with 98? Putting this hand into an odds calculator, it’s basically a coin flip. I guess my call was questionable but it was a 3-bet pot and I felt that I was committed when I hit middle pair on that board.

So, that’s it. I am basically busto. I do have around $150 in rakeback but I think I will see if I can have that deposited into my fulltilt account since game selection on UB isn’t that great. For now, I need to take a break from this. There’s just no point in playing when I can’t obey any of my own rules. It’s inevitable that you will go busto when you play with such a high percentage of your roll at the table.

I’ve uninstalled all the poker software from my computer and I’m going to make a sincere effort to stop and find another hobby lol. I’m thinking Tennis? Oh, and I should probably write my dissertation.

Signing out for now,

norollctrl aka van_all_in

Royal Flush

I had to post this one:

Hand #55254605-5715 at Hudson (Pot Limit Omaha)
Started at 20/Jul/08 09:46:52

J Deckard is at seat 0 with $27.
dbdb2 is at seat 2 with $10.45.
SidMynrd is at seat 3 with $74.40.
van_all_in is at seat 4 with $103.95.
Mathir is at seat 5 with $40.90.
The button is at seat 5.

J Deckard posts the small blind of $.25.
dbdb2 posts the big blind of $.50.

J Deckard:  — – — –
dbdb2:  — – — –
SidMynrd:  — – — –
van_all_in:  Qc Qh Tc 8s
Mathir:  — – — –

Pre-flop:

SidMynrd folds.   van_all_in raises to $1.75.   Mathir
calls.   J Deckard folds.   dbdb2 calls.

Flop (board: Ts Kc Th):

dbdb2 checks.   van_all_in bets $5.50.   Mathir calls.
dbdb2 folds.

Turn (board: Ts Kc Th Ac):

van_all_in checks.   Mathir bets $.50.   van_all_in
calls.

River (board: Ts Kc Th Ac Jc):

van_all_in bets $17.50.   Mathir calls.

Showdown:

van_all_in shows Qc Qh Tc 8s.
van_all_in has Qc Tc Kc Ac Jc: royal flush.
Mathir mucks cards.
(Mathir has 4s 7s Jh Td.)
Hand #55254605-5715 Summary:

$2 is raked from a pot of $52.50.
van_all_in wins $50.50 with royal flush.
—————————————————————-

I love how this guy bets .50 on the turn. Lol. I see this all the time. I see people min betting into 3 or 4 people!?! I really don’t understand this play.

I’ve started a new job and haven’t played much at all. I mostly have just played heads-up. I’m updating my rules to allow myself to do this. I just enjoy it to much. It’s so much more interesting then 6-max. Maybe it’s because I’m playing so low (.10/.25), but NLHE is really boring for me. At my stakes, you can have a decent session and win like $10. Woopie-dee-doo. This is why I like heads-up and Omaha. Lots of action!! I’m going to update my rules though so I can only play heads up .25/.50. Sometimes I play .50/1 which is too high for me.

UB Bankroll: $1318.64

J2 offsuit is the nuts . . .

Yesterday, I had a horrible session 3 tabling PLO and 3 tabling NLHE. I dropped 4-buy-ins in 1383 hands at NLHE 25 and 8 buy-ins at PLO 25. In PLO, I was down over 6 buy-ins at one table! I kept flopping these monster wraps and draws but couldn’t hit a thing or my opponent river full-housed me. Obviously, I also suck lol. I’m reading a great book on PLO so hopefully I’ll get better.

So after, this terrible session I–of course–moved up stakes to chase my losses. I played heads-up .25/.50 and .50/1 and won everything back and then some. I ran super hot. It also helps when this happens:

Hand #54937514-7960 at Putnam (No Limit Hold’em)
Started at 12/Jul/08 18:01:17

van_all_in is at seat 0 with $103.90.
specialguy is at seat 1 with $140.30.
The button is at seat 0.

van_all_in posts the small blind of $.50.
specialguy posts the big blind of $1.

van_all_in:  As Ad
specialguy:  — –

Pre-flop:

van_all_in raises to $3.   specialguy re-raises to $11.
van_all_in re-raises to $25.   specialguy goes all-in
for $140.30.   van_all_in goes all-in for $103.90.
specialguy is returned $36.40 (uncalled).

Flop (board: 2d Qh 9h):

(no action in this round)
Turn (board: 2d Qh 9h 3d):

(no action in this round)
River (board: 2d Qh 9h 3d Qd):

(no action in this round)

 
Showdown:

specialguy shows Jc 2h.
specialguy has Jc 2h 2d Qh Qd: two pair, queens and deuces.
van_all_in shows As Ad.
van_all_in has As Ad Qh 9h Qd: two pair, aces and queens.
Hand #54937514-7960 Summary:

$.50 is raked from a pot of $207.80.
van_all_in wins $207.30 with two pair, aces and queens.
—————————————————————-

Are you kidding me? This guy was 3-betting me preflop constantly so when I saw AA I was thinking “PLEASE 3-BET!” He obliged but then I wondered how to proceed. I decided a smallish 4-bet would look bluffy. I honestly can’t believe he shoved with this hand. I have never seen anyone do that. He could have at least done it with a hand that could flop something reasonable.

I actually had a to sit out a few hands after because the guy was playing so aggressive. It would have been +EV to continue but I could have dropped a few buy-ins in the process pre-flop shoving with hands like 99, AQ, etc., which beat his 3-bet range but are high variance if called.

Unfortunately, I have to reset my tiltometer which was at 19 days.  I am committing myself to go 1 month without having a repeat performance.

UB Bankroll: $671.40

Trip Report and Short Stack Strategy

My girlfriend told me that I was too negative in this blog so I’m going to try and be more positive. Today I have a couple of things to talk about. First, I have a trip report. While visiting a friend in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I played in a charity poker room at Bel-Mark Lanes (a bowling alley). I don’t get an opportunity to play live poker very often so this was a real treat. Although I dropped a buy-n ($100), I had a good time. I thought I played okay but I got pretty frustrated because I could not win a pot after the flop. Usually I complain that I’m card dead when playing live. Everyone usually complains about this but it’s usually not true. When you are only seeing 25 hands per hour, you are not going to get that many good hands. Since I usually play 600+ hands an hour online, it’s always quite an adjustment playing live. The weird thing was, this time I was getting hands but no one would call me preflop. Or, I would have too many callers, miss the flop, and couldn’t really rationalize firing a continuation bet.

My worst move was reraising a small bet big when I hit the nut straight but a flush draw completed. The villian moved all-in and I was pretty pot committed. I probably should have just called his small bet on the turn. I would have lost the pot but it probably would have been small.

I finally started winning hands right when my friend wanted to leave. That’s always the way. I went on a really hot streak and won about 4 nice pots in 10 minutes. My favorite was reraising with 58 suited on the button and I make two pair on the flop. I checked to the initial raiser who shoved and I (of course) called. The problem was he was short stacked so I didn’t win that much. This was my chief complaint about Poker Palace. You could only buy in for $100 and the blinds were 1/2. I would have much rather played NL200 or played with .50/1 blinds (although, I realize that would have been difficult for the poker room). I’m not trying to say I’m a good poker player, but I do know that with 50BB stacks or less (many players did not buy-in full or did not reload until they were busto) any skill edge a player has drops considerably. This is why good online playes always complain about short stackers. It makes sense if you break it down. For example, If a player has AA and I have 44 and the flop comes K42 I am probably going to stack him. But, if he has 50BB or less I’m not getting paid off very much and he’s not making much of a mistake. In fact, I’m making a mistake to call his preflop raise unless it’s pretty small. I had to fold small and mid pocket pairs repeatedly to large preflop raises every time and that really sucked. However, I think I would play there again. I thought the people were pretty nice and it seemed pretty well run. It was also nice not having the house take $5 from my stack every half hour like they do at Foxwoods. Since the rake was taken from the pots (10% up to $7) it really paid to wait for a good hand.

Speaking of short stacking, my friend and I were trying to help his wife play a short stack. We were discussing the optimal strategy and I said I would do some research for him. I found a pretty good article here. I like the article because it’s short. I once read a much longer article on this strategy (I forget the web site) which was much better but I think this article is good enough. Here is the problem. THIS STRATEGY IS SO BORING! I tried this once and could barely do it multitabling online. I don’t know how anyone could do this live. It would be excruciatingly boring. However, I think it would be profitable. Even if people figure out exactly what you are doing they will still call you. I’ve seen it many times.

As for online poker, I just had a great session. I’m 4-tabling because I just have my laptop. This is really allowing me to concentrate and play solid LAG poker. I was particularly happy with my PLO play. I played 118 hands and won $11.72 which was 19.86BB/100. Obviously, the money is small but I was playing PLO25 so this is respectable. My preflop play is getting much better. For the session, my VPIP/PFR was 47/23 which is much better then the 70/5 I used to play when I started. I was really trying to work on my aggression and it paid off. It’s funny because all the other players just limp call unless they have aces. This is what I used to do and it’s soooo -EV. Of course, I still have a lot to learn about PLO and that’s what makes it fun.

UB Bankroll: $534.88

Why you need Rakeback

So this is my rakeback stats according to raketherake.com for the month of June. This is the most I have ever received in rakeback for one month. This just shows you the significance of rakeback. If the “hands” stat is correct, this means that I was making over 3BB/100 hands in rakeback? That doesn’t seem right. It also means that UB is raking an average of 11 cents for each hand I played That does sound reasonble. Obviously, these data show that it’s very important that a player receive rakeback. I highly recommend raketherake since I have found them to be very professional.

Room	%	Account	Rake	Rakeback	Hands	Update
UltimateBet	30	van_all_in	$1,176.90	$353.07	11153	27-Jun-2008
TOTALS			$1,176.90	$353.07

UB Bankroll: $376.22