Chemical Imbalance

So past few days I barely got to play because of my birthday, the Stars update on Sep 2nd that screwed up hands history files and made it so that PT did not work, and other things that I had to take care of in "real life." This means that in order to reach 65k FPPs before the WCOOP NLHE $1050 event, I need to play quite a bit more in the days that remain.

I also ran pretty crappy, making just over a buyin in 4,000 hands at 6-max and about 1/2 buyin in some random HU session I played when I could not use PT. Obviously, it's better than being down, but I have taken a bunch of fairly gay beats that brought my winrate way down. I am almost a buyin down with AA over the 4k hands I played.

Hands like these make the difference between 8BB/100 and 1.5BB/100 win rates:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=519023

http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=519025

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Comments (1)

Met my goal of 1300 base FPPs, having played exactly 2,600 hands. That's 5 hours 6-tabling NL200 6-max. The session didn't go that great. I played well, but kept getting bad beat and coolered and ended up down about 0.75 buyins, which is basically break even, but considering I should have been up around $500, it kinda sucks. Both AA and AK were losing hands this session.

Here are some notable hands:

Newness:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=516553

AA vs maniac - I'VE GOT YOU NOW!!!
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=516556

Step 1: call to keep fish in the pot
Step 2: watch it watch you get roxed
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=516558

EV? Where we're going, we don't need EV!
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=516560

At least the session started out well:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=516564

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Comments (0)

So I decided instead of spending money to satellite into the $1050 WCOOP NLHE event, I will just buy a ticket using FPPs. It costs 65,000 FPPs. Currently I have 808. As Supernova, I will need to get 18,571 base FPPs to earn that, which is about 1300 FPPs per day for 14 days. This should keep me motivated to put in the needed poker time. Here we go!

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Comments (4)

So I finally found out where all my EV goes from pots like the two below:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=515952

http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=515953

This Saturday, while I was busy losing hands like the two above at my ring games and running pairs into overpairs, something else was going down. At my $55 daily 80k table I won QQ vs JJ, QQ vs AK, then AK vs QQ, then 33 vs KQ vs AT, then A4 vs KJ... I knew something was up right after QQ vs JJ: I never win those. 7 hours later only 3 of us remained at the final table with roughly same chip stacks. We chopped, and Stars shipped me 11.7k.

I don't really play too many tourneys, but the ones I do play have generally been good to me. After 58 instances of this particular tournament played over the course of the past year, this is my 2nd FT in it. The previous time I ended up finishing 5th for 3.2k (it was still daily 50k rather than 80, so the tourney tended to be smaller).

Combined with my pathetic running in cash games, August rounded off to about 15k, which makes for a nice present for my September 3rd birthday.

Next month I am looking forward to the big WCOOP events. Will definitely play the $530 NLHE and will put some effort into satelliting into the $1050 NLHE event, hopefully using FPPs. I will also throw down $100-$200 on a bunch of main event Step 1s. I tend to do better in MTT format satellites, but I want to see how a decent sample of steps goes. At $7.50 a pop, I'll probably play 25 or so of them to see if I like that format.

More importantly, I need to get over my bad streak in cash games. I thank everyone that has offered advice of winning flips and ritual sacrifice. Apparently, it worked. Now I just need to refine my technique as to make it apply to ring games as well.

Cheers all.

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Comments (1)

Over the past 3 days I have lost 9 out of 10 flips, all of them with PP vs overcards.

My KK, QQ, and JJ hands are all losers over these days. Outside of my inability to win flips, I also seems unable to win period:

I can read your soul after 100 hands:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=513730

Where does all that EV go?:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=513732

Maybe I should have found a fold in there somewhere, but wtf???:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=513733

Domination and what came of it:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=513734

So if anyone knows of a book or something that teaches flippin' skillz, let me know. Good how-to guides on ritual sacrifice are also greatly appreciated. 6k hands and down about 1.5 buyins really sucks.

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Comments (9)

Was gona play for 20 minutes before going off to swim. Apparently 88% to win is not high enough to ensure a winning session. The end.

Submitted by : phexac

PokerStars Game #18888091016: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/07/17 - 13:40:10 (ET)
Table 'Roehla II' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ($119.95 in chips)
Seat 2: spoofkdr ($83.20 in chips)
Hero : posts small blind $0.50
spoofkdr: posts big blind $1

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Hero
Hero : raises $2 to $3
spoofkdr: raises $7 to $10
Hero : raises $14 to $24
spoofkdr: calls $14

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $48.00)

   
spoofkdr: checks
Hero : bets $30
spoofkdr: raises $29.20 to $59.20 and is all-in
Hero : calls $29.20

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $166.40)

   

River (Pot : $166.40)

   

Showdown
spoofkdr: shows (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
Hero : mucks hand
spoofkdr collected $165.90 from pot

Summary
Total pot $166.40 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Hero (button) (small blind) mucked
Seat 2: spoofkdr (big blind) showed and won ($165.90) with two pair, Queens and Sevens

0 votes

I am still not running too well in tourneys. Played both Sunday Warmup and Sunday Mil (2.8 mil prize pool - jeez!) but busted out with about 2/3 of the way down since nothing was really going my way. Also busted out of the $109 tourney around 300th of 1400. 50k treated me a bit better. About 3,200 people started this Sunday, making it the biggest daily 50k I have ever seen. I managed to get down to about 50 people before busting out with 88 vs AQ. Pretty decent finish, but 50k payout don't really become significant until the final table, so I netted myself about $250. All right, but nothing to write home about.

I have bitched a lot about running bad in tourneys in my past few blog posts, but that was mostly because I had busted out with pretty silly beats, including a 2-outer with one card to come. Overall, my tourney results are pretty decent. Looking at my recent database, I have about 30 daily 50k tourneys, out of which I have a bunch of ITM finishes, 4 finishes where I had a realistic shot at the FT (usually finishing between 20th and 60th place) and one 5th finish, which netter me about 3.5k. Definitely not a bad sample.

Then I have some Sunday tourneys. The million tourneys have been treating me like shit, so the furthest I have gotten in those was 1st or 2nd payout level, which nets 1.5-2.5 buyins back. Sunday Warmup, on the other hand, has been a lot better. Within 8 of them played, I had 1 finish around 100th and one 45th, where I busted with TT vs A8 (asdf!!, right?). So, despite some frustrating beats I took, the overall tourney results have not been bad, and I definitely feel that I have the skill to do well in these large tournaments. So just need to play some more of them. The fact that almost all my tourney entries come from 5,400 FPP Sunday million satellites makes my ROI that much higher, which is something that definitely helps the bottom line.

All in all, the situation is quite a bit better than my recent posts have made it seem, but I am as prone to bitching about my beats as the next guy. So just going to keep playing. Tourneys make a really nice supplement to ring games.

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Comments (0)

So this time I actually made it into the money (yay!) and was doing just fine, then this happens:

Submitted by : phexac

PokerStars Game #18702820080: Tournament #94741695, $50+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2008/07/09 - 18:10:10 (ET)
Table '94741695 159' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Silverman22 (42616 in chips)
Seat 2: FU_15 (30798 in chips)
Seat 3: $wanswan (27755 in chips)
Seat 4: Dinopower (18665 in chips)
Seat 5: Wolfiz1 (8578 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero (19467 in chips)
Seat 7: aim1961 (5199 in chips)
Seat 8: imTITSMAGEE (19475 in chips)
Seat 9: Lothiniel (8538 in chips)
Silverman22: posts the ante 100
FU_15: posts the ante 100
$wanswan: posts the ante 100
Dinopower: posts the ante 100
Wolfiz1: posts the ante 100
Hero : posts the ante 100
aim1961: posts the ante 100
imTITSMAGEE: posts the ante 100
Lothiniel: posts the ante 100
aim1961: posts small blind 500
imTITSMAGEE: posts big blind 1000

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Hero
Lothiniel: folds
Silverman22: calls 1000
FU_15: folds
$wanswan: folds
Dinopower: folds
Wolfiz1: folds
Hero : calls 1000
aim1961: folds
imTITSMAGEE: checks

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $4,400.00)

   
imTITSMAGEE: checks
Silverman22: bets 2000
Hero : calls 2000
imTITSMAGEE: folds

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $8,400.00)

   
Silverman22: bets 5000
Hero : raises 11367 to 16367 and is all-in
Silverman22: calls 11367

River (Pot : $41,134.00)

   

Showdown
Silverman22: shows (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
Hero : shows (two pair, Aces and Kings)
Silverman22 collected 41134 from pot

Summary
Total pot 41134 | Rake 0
Board  
Seat 1: Silverman22 showed and won (41134) with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
Seat 2: FU_15 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: $wanswan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Dinopower folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Wolfiz1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Hero (button) showed and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 7: aim1961 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: imTITSMAGEE (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Lothiniel folded before Flop (didn't bet)

0 votes

8th daily 50k in a row I busted out with pair vs hand with 1 overcard all-in PF about 100 outside the money. Today it was my JJ vs Q4. And every time it's a pot where if I win I get propelled to top 40-30 stacks. Where the hell does all that EV go??

At least HU people insist on donating money...

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Comments (3)

So like 4th month in a row every time a new months starts, I hit a huge downswing with most retarded shit happening all the time takes me down 15-20 buyins that I then have to spend time winning back before getting into the green by the end of the month.

So why should February be any different right? Down 3k in the first 5 days. Here are some hands from today:

Ah if only I got the actual EV from pots like these, I'd be retired by now:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=377899

Or these, I am not picky:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=377904

No wonder some people like 3betting OOP with junk:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=377903

This is why trapping does not work:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=377909


There are quite a few other hands, but these I remembered in particular because of the time it took to set them up.

Then there is an interesting fact that of the 6 tournaments I played this month, in all 6 I busted out going all-in PF with AA or KK.

If the whole thing about the EV is true there should be a crazy upswing somewhere in my future. Keeping my fingers crossed :O

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Comments (3)