Welcome

Hello all, welcome to my online poker blog.

I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.

I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).

Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.

I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.





Thursday 16 September 2010

Tough Start

20K hands, about 4 buy-ins down. This has been absorbed by the fast $50 bonus that I earned very quickly but still I'm not happy with things. I've been looking at my game and I'm not doing much differently to before so I'll continue to play and re-evaluate after 50k hands or so. It could just be a downswing but it feels like there is a lot more aggression than I found previously, even players just turning weak pairs into bluffs. There seems to be pretty liberal floating going on too; I know my strategy is deliberately very one barrel heavy so I'll need to defend against floats on boards where it looks like villain is FOS. The best way is probably to check raise bluff now and then. For example this hand:

In a game that is so nitty, win rates are likely to be very small. Hopefully this is just a downswing and Ill return to winning ways before the end of the month. GL

3 comments:

  1. Brave play, but I liked it :-D

    The flop bet was small considering it was three way, or was that intentional?

    The turn card seems a bit low to try that c-r since I'd put him on a PP, and if it was an overpair (even 99's) he could get very sticky about it - what made you choose this spot for the c-r bluff?

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  2. Well my hand seemed a bit too weak to check call but it has some equity so it felt like I could profitably check raise bluff at the time. In truth, I'm not sure that its a good play but Ill try and explain my thinking. The bet size of 0.75 into 1.15 is pretty standard for me, especially multi-way; it just gives me a better price on my bluffs. When player 6 floats I think he could have pocket pairs (22-JJ) but also plenty of random cards intending to bluff if I check the turn. Either way the turn 6 isn't helping either range but I was convinced that hed be unlikely to continue with most of his range once I c/r. I definitely thought hed fold more than half the time, which were the odds I was giving myself. If he shoves a weak pair hes just bluffing since hell never be called by worse and if he calls then hell likely face a river all-in which is an option Id imagine that looks pretty bad to him as well. The move felt right at the time and Ive got equity even if he calls with my six outs. I chose this player too since hes shown some competency and would likely not want to stack off with 99-JJ given that I look so strong. But then Im representing such a small range I can see a lot of tough players just shoving there. In retrospect Im not sure. But I suck, so meh. :) How would you have played it?

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  3. Normally on a 3way I'd bet quite close to pot since smaller bets will often give good calling odds to the third to act if the 2nd person calls, and with fish flocking this is just too likely. However that really only applies to draws and this flop is really dry, so maybe it's not applicable here.

    I think it was the right play given his small bet on the turn - it looks a lot like a crappy PP or A8. I doubt I would have had the nerve to pull the trigger if he had bet larger...

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