Pocket 9's

Live Cash Game Success at Ho Chunk

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 21:40:00 +0000

So last night I had the opportunity to go to Ho Chunk casino with my big brother Pete, and boy did we have fun! We got there at about 830 local time, and were prepared to win some cash. Right away we made sure to get a membership card, thanks to the good advice of our friend and mentor Bruce. He was telling us the good slots to search for, where the poker room was, etc. Right away I checked out the poker room, quite mall, about 12 tables, roughly equivalent to the size of the casino in Michigan that we normally go to, maybe a bit bigger. I signed up for a 1-2 NL table, and was ready to play! Unfortunately two people were in front of me, so I would have to take some time until I got called. We followed Bruce's advice, which netted us our first big win of the night when Pete won $125 at one of Bruce's lucky machines! We played the seed down to 500 credits, which was $125, making him +$105.

When Pete was cashing his ticket I got called to the poker room, I couldn't believe I was moments away from playing some live poker! I decided in order to remember the session better I would try to document every hand I played the entire night. I didn't bother filling out hands I was folding, because for the most part they were rags. Now I'll try deciphering my notes to tell you how the night went.

The first hand I played I feel like I played safe, and may have lost the minimum. We are dealt K5os in the small blind, about 3 players limp and we complete out of the SB, BB checks and we see a flop of K34 with two clubs. I like my hand but I'm not in love with it since we have 3 limpers in the hand. I check and it gets checked around to the button who bets out 10. I call since we have a decent hand, and we are heads up. The turn brings a 7, so now I have a gutshot to go with my top pair. I check once more and the player bets out 20. I call again and the river is the Qc. Pretty bad card here, and I am hoping this guy is scared of the clubs. He isn't and goes all in for 35. I have to muck and lose the first hand I played.

The next hand we play is J9c. I don't have all the information but I'm pretty sure I limp in. We flop a flush draw and check it. Turn is an ace and I bet 10, get a fold. I think I bet the flop too but my note says I only bet 10 on the turn, so if I did bet flop it was for 5 or so.

This next hand represents how I played the entire night. We are dealt K2s on the button, marginal hand but we have position so we raise it to $8 after a couple limpers, they both call and we see a flop of 247. I bet $15 and get on call. I don't love my hand but I feel if I barrel I can represent a strong hand. The turn is a 6 and the player checks to us again, we fire $25 and thankfully get a fold.

The next hand we play begins with a player raising it to $10 preflop. I watch and see 4 other players call with the guy and I look down at QQ. Tough spot, the table had been veerrry tight so far, so normally when people came in for raises they had a little something something. I decided to play a little small ball and only call. The flop came out K J 4 and I don't like my hand at all. The original raiser bets out $20, but with so much money out in the pot I decide to peel once to try and hit a queen. Not getting the right odds but the implied odds were through the roof for this table, meaning if I hit my hand I am likely to make a lot of money! One more guy calls and we see the turn bring an Ace. Now I really hate my hand, but to my surprise the original raiser checks. I have no problem checking behind and neither does the last player in the hand. We see a Jack hit on the river and now no one wants to bet, we get 3 more checks and see the hands. The original raiser has AK! WOW! If this is the way he is going to play AK I am going to make a lot of money at this table! He missed tons of value, especially since the player behind me had KQ!

The next hand I get dealt K5h and I immediately think of my buddy moose who loves K5! I say why not and limp in. Unfortunately the player to my immediate left had different plans, and raised it to 8. I call since two others decided to join the party, and we see a flop of Ah 4c Th. I love my hand but decide to again play it safe and check to the original raiser. He checks and we see a Qd hit the turn. I decide I have to bet my huge draw here and bet $15. Everyone folds and I win a nice pot.

One of the biggest losses of the day came with us holding T5h in the SB. I limp in and see a flop of AAT with one heart. We check around and a guy bets out 10. I think the guy may be going for a steal/we may have similar hands so I decide to call. The turn brings me a flush draw with the 4h. This is a card that keeps me in since it isn't an overcard, and it gives me additional outs to hitting a flush. I check and our villain bets out $15 and we call once more. The river is a T. Well almost impossible to leave the hand now, I check call once more for $20 and he shows me his A4 to take the pot. I show the table my barf hand just for shits and giggles saying "of course I have to pick up the flush draw on the turn". Which is bad luck, since if it doesn't come I can easily justify folding on the turn. Overall major barf hand.

The next hand I play is another small ball type play, the player to our immediate right from the first hand raises it to 7, and we look down at KK. I decide to just smooth call, and so do two others. The flop comes out 2c3s4c and I decide I need to take this pot down. Original raiser checks and I bet $15, everyone folds and we win another nice pot.

This next hand was really a make or break point in the session. I get dealt K5s(ty mooose) and of course have to limp in. So do 3 others and we see a flop of Js Ts 2d. I try taking it down with a bet of $10 and get one call. The turn brings a 5c and I bet out $25, the same player calls once more. The river bricks for us completely and is something random like a 6h. I take a big breath and fire one more barrel, $40. The player thought for a bit and mucked his hand. I wanted to desperately show my hand, but my image was soo solid I couldn't risk it.

A new player comes to the table and sits to my immediate left. He seems like a recreational player and seems verrry bad. I get dealt 23d on the button and decide to try to steal since it was folded to me. I raise to 10 and the small blind calls, bb folds. The flop comes out A Q 4 and the player checks. I have to bet here to represent the ace and do with a bet of 10. The player hoos and hummms for a bit and finally calls. He showed a TON of weakness before he called, so I had to take time to interpret what it meant. If this player was an experienced player he could be doing it as a reverse tell. Thankfully I had read him as being genuinely confused on what to do. The turn came a 5 and I knew I had to bet once more, especially since we picked up a straight draw. I wanted the player out so I bet a solid amount of $20. He cuts out the call right away, shakes his head and mucks his hand. He tells me he folded a queen, and I 100% believe him. I tell him good lay down, I had AK. I even shook my head when he folded, pretending like I wanted a call. I did little things like that the whole time to set up these players to make them think I had it every time.

Our next hand is T7s in middle position, I'm feeling the MOJO at this point and opt for a raise in middle position, I make it $8 to go and get 3 callers. The flop is JQ6 with one spade, I continuation bet for the millionth time, and get 3 folds.

HAND OF THE SESSION!

This hand is a great one, I definitely won't forget it anytime soon! WE get dealt KQ in late position and raise it up to 8. A tight player calls and we see a flop of Ac Tc 9s. Player checks and I continuation bet to $15. The player acts pretty quickly and makes it $30 to go. Now had this raise been anything but a min raise, I may have folded. But once again the implied odds are through the roof since I feel like this player has a hand here almost 100% of the time. If I manage to hit my hand I will get paid, at least that is the plan. The turn comes out and I nearly jizz my pants when I see it, the Jh!! Wow, heart is definitely pumping crazy fast, and no me way too loud! I don't think the player was paying attention since he quickly bet out $35. I look and think about it before taking a stack of chips ($50) and tower it onto another stack($50) and push it into the middle. I raise this mofo $65 and he clearly hates his life. He is shaking his head, really confused and asks me "Will you show?". Now I have a lot of options of how to respond. If I say yes he will have an easier time folding because he KNOWS I will show him. I decide right away this is NOT the way to respond to this particular player. He was a level 1 thinker, so I go straight to the jugular "Gotta pay to see" but I say it somewhat coyly. He asks "What did you say" and I try to respond again, just a little bit louder "pay to see". He does not like this response once bit, and clearly wants to know if I have it or not. He thinks for a little longer before deciding to go all in. I am ecstatic, I very clearly have the best hand, and quickly announce call. I flip my hand up quickly and show the nuts. He looks disappointed and shows me AsTc. I saw two black cards and quickly wanted to barf, but after closer inspection I saw I wasn't having to fade as many outs as I had thought. The river blanked out with a 4 and I raked the huuuuge pot ~$470. I tip the dealer $10 and am loving life. The rest of the night pales in comparison to this gigantic hand, so I'll end the story here. In the end I walked away up $210, once again having a winning live session in a casino!

Marginal Spots in Tournaments

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Have you ever had a tough decision with what do do when you get dealt a hand like KJ, KQ, 55, 66, etc. under the gun? I've had this problem early in my career, and it's been a learning experience ever since. First and foremost my advice will depend on a couple of things. The first will be your chip stack. Let's take time to break down how to look at how your chips look in relation to the blinds.

One of the simplest measure of your chip stack is to see how many big blinds you have. Take your stack and divide the total amount by the size of the big blind. Usually a healthy stack is around 30 BB's, it allows you to raise plenty of hands, and still have enough chips to get away if you face some heat. M-zone has become my preferred way of looking at your chip stack, since it takes in account the size of the antes. To calculate your chip stack based on M, take your total amount, and divide this number by the size of the blinds and antes that are in the pot preflop. If you are playing online this is usually very easy to do, since you can see the size of the pot at all times. Your M number should be lower than your BB number, so here a healthy stack would be anything 20+. Medium stacks are about 10-20, and anything below that you are getting short stacked.

This picture should give you a good idea of what I'm talking about.

An M of 0-5 should alert you to start shoving all in preflop. At this point you just need to get chips, so any decent hand you have you should look to put it all in. An M of 5-10 is another problem stack. At that point I would not raise or call with any marginal hand in early position. I would look to open up in late position when most of the table has already folded. Lastly an M of 10-20 will depend on how the rest of your table is playing.

So we have our chip stack out of the way, but one other major factor to examine is how many players are at your table. Typical tournaments will be 9 handed, but there are many 6 handed format tournaments online. My advice will look at 9-handed tournaments since this is what you will probably be playing if you play live as well. Now a closer look at our table. It is your job to pay attention to your table and observe your opponents tendencies. By noticing what your opponents are doing you can more easily adapt to a more optimal strategy. My best advice is to consider what your opponents see you as. Did you make a bunch of raises that you folded to a reraise to? Have you been playing really tight and folding most of your hands? If you don't take a moment to look at your own play, you will be unaware what changes your opponents are making to combat your strategy. It is true that not all opponents will change their play, but knowing who is will be a great benefit to you.

Let's look at an example. You have an M of 15 and your table is playing particularly tight, also under the gun raises have been getting a lot of respect, then you should lean towards raising with your hands like KJ, KQ, A9s, or any pocket pair above 4's. My cutoff is 4's because when you have 4's you are very likely to see an over card on the flop, making your decisions not as clear cut. If however, you have been raising relentlessly and your table is tight, but you notice there are two very good players in late position, then I would lean towards folding your mediocre hands under the gun. It is pretty easy to work out the strategy for every situation, so I won't waste your time explaining what to do.

Hopefully this will help you out when you are unsure what to do when you get one of those hands. If you find that you are still confused, then my best advice is to continue to study your opponents play. Take notes if someone is doing something crazy, and again think about your image to the rest of the table.

Taking Down $2568.33 in the Midnight Madness!

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:37:00 +0000

Just took down my biggest score to date, for over $2500! I'm ecstatic with my performance, early in the tournament I made one of the biggest HERO calls of my life. The call defined my tournament, it gave me all the confidence I needed, and it provided me with a nice stack to stay in the tournament! These two hands happened back to back, which helped out A LOT! So glad I played in this tournament tonight, it was spur of the moment, I even told my friend moose that I was going to win it. Well I came close but decided to take the sure thing and do a deal. I'm sure my friend would have done the same thing if he was in my position.
Hand #1

Full Tilt Poker Midnight Madness! No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 9 players - View hand 869536

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP2: t5010 M = 8.56

CO: t5921 M = 10.12

BTN: t3825 M = 6.54

SB: t7965 M = 13.62

BB: t6864 M = 11.73

Hero (UTG): t11385 M = 19.46

UTG+1: t2530 M = 4.32

UTG+2: t4155 M = 7.10

MP1: t4309 M = 7.37

Pre Flop: (t585) Hero is UTG with A A

Hero raises to t720, 7 folds, BB calls t480

Flop: (t1785) Q 3 T (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t1200, BB raises to t6119 all in, Hero calls t4919

Turn: (t14023) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t14023) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t14023

BB shows Q K (a pair of Queens)

Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)

Hero wins t14023

Hand #2

Full Tilt Poker Midnight Madness! No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 8 players - View hand 869537

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP1: t4985 M = 8.90

MP2: t5896 M = 10.53

CO: t3800 M = 6.79

BTN: t7820 M = 13.96

Hero (SB): t18544 M = 33.11

BB: t2505 M = 4.47

UTG: t4130 M = 7.38

UTG+1: t4284 M = 7.65

Pre Flop: (t440) Hero is SB with A 6

4 folds, MP2 raises to t480, CO calls t480, 1 fold, Hero calls t240

Flop: (t1640) 5 5 3 (3 players)

Hero checks, MP2 checks, CO checks

Turn: (t1640) 6 (3 players)

Hero checks, MP2 bets t1200, CO folds, Hero calls t1200

River: (t4040) 9 (2 players)

Hero checks, MP2 bets t4191 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls t4191

Final Pot: t12422

MP2 shows K Q (a pair of Fives)

Hero shows A 6 (two pair, Sixes and Fives)

Hero wins t12422

View all 2 hands]>

Maybe not the sickest hero call, but it was definitely hard to do at the time!

Thinking Ahead In Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:55:00 +0000

I'd like to go through a recent had I played which I feel was as close to perfect as you can get. The reason the hand was played so well is that I put my opponent on a particular hand, and got maximum value from it. This hand took place in a Rush .50 1 table, where I had built up a decent stack.

Full Tilt Poker $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 861542

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $62.90

UTG+1: $125.80

UTG+2: $104.10

MP1: $26.30

MP2: $268.20

CO: $66.30

BTN: $99.00

Hero (SB): $129.50

BB: $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with Q Q

2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $3.50, 4 folds, Hero ?. Before I reveal what I did let's look at our options, we can make a reraise out of the small blind, but doing so will make us commit more chips preflop while out of position. My general strategy in Rush tables is to avoid big three bet pots, since we won't have a solid read on our opponents raising tendencies. For example if this particular player is just looking to raise AA and fold everything else, our reraise preflop is going to lead us to face a likely 4bet and have us scratching our head with QQ in the SB. With all of this information I decided to just make a call. 1 fold

Flop: ($8.00) 4 2 Q (2 players)

Hero ?? wow, we flop the nuts, a great feeling to have for sure. What do we do when we have such a strong hand? Well we could take a different line and lead out to induce our original raiser to commit more chips to play. This could be good, but I don't want our opponent to release his hand prematurely. I would much rather check to the raiser, and let him commit some money to the pot. So I decide to check.
, UTG+2 bets $5.00, Hero ? Now we are faced with a pretty decently sized bet. Initially I felt that this player had a pretty strong hand to be committing $5 into a pot of $8. I decided my best line here was to check raise and get more money in the pot while my opponent is behind. If there was any sort of improvement I could have made in the hand, it is probably in the sizing of my re-raise. I decided to make it $14, $9 dollars to the raiser. I didn't want to do a minimum raise because that can often be seen as extreme strength. I wanted to make a raise that looked weakish. So by making it $14 I am raising a bit more than the minimum, but still make it look like I can fold the hand., UTG+2 calls $9 At this point in the hand I am starting to put him on a range of hands. My initial thoughts were that he was drawing, but likely to a really strong hand. I felt that I needed to avoid a heart in order to stay ahead, since if he had hit a set of 2's or 4's he would likely re-raise. If he had a strong hand like AQ or KQ he could just call, but most players at this stake will go for one more raise on the flop.

Turn: ($36.00) 2 (2 players)

Boom, we hit the card that probably locked up this hand for us. The 2 completes our full huse, and at this point I see no point in betting, if our opponent has a flush draw we want him to hit it and have us get paid off. At this point in the hand I am already formulating a plan for what to do when a heart comes off on the river. I decide it's best to check here, and pray for a heart on the river. Hero checks, UTG+2 checks

River: ($36.00) T (2 players)

Well we got what we were praying for, a heart came out on the river. I decided that since our opponent checked back the turn he was definitely on a draw. This means that our opponent likely loves his hand, and therefore we need to look to get maximum value. Well I figured I could mask my hand, while still getting maximum value by just shoving all in here. Our opponent can justify calling because it looks like we are spazzing out on a crazy bluff. If he has any kind of flush he is likely to call, but if he has the nut flush, he is definitely going to call. In reality I had already thought about doing this on the turn, which allowed me to quickly make my move, making it more likely that I am bluffing. Hero bets $112.00, UTG+2 calls $86.60 all in

Final Pot: $209.20

UTG+2 mucks A 9

Hero shows Q Q

Hero wins $180.80

(Rake: $3.00)

So that's the hand, once again I feel like the reason I did so well is that I formulated a plan ahead of time, deciding what I would do if certain cards came out. If you start formulating plans while you are playing you will definitely see an improvement to your game, as you won't be flustered and will make the best play more often.

HR 2267 Hearing and what it means to you as a poker player

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:08:00 +0000

Well it certainly has been a long time since I have posted on my blog, I come back to share some news in regard to Online Poker. Currently there is a bill, crafted by House Financial Committee chairman Barney Frank called HR 2267 that is in the works to legalize and regulate online poker.

This bill is one that has been in the works for awhile now, ever since the UIGEA was signed into law. Recently on June 1st 2010 the UIGEA went into full enforcement. The effect on the poker sites and primarily US poker players has been little to none. This could change in coming months and years, which is why bill HR 2267 is so important.

Today on capital hill inside the House Financial Services Committee they held a hearing to discuss the bill being crafted. This hearing is primarily for opponents to voice their reasons for disapproval, allow proponents to voice why they thing the bill is good, and also allow people on the edge voice their opinion on how to make the bill better. During the hearing, which was aired live on www.theppa.org , the bill was put under the microscope. The opponents voiced their opinions on why they thought online poker should be illegal. Their choice of words was key, they used phrasing like "gambling is bad for our kids" and included every chance they could to say "gambling" when in fact online poker has been mandated as a game of skill. The opponents of the bill were skeptical that it would prevent problem gamblers and children off of the internet.

Back to the good news. Annie Duke led off the witness portion of the hearing representing the Poker Players Alliance with a strong argument on why Online Poker should be legalized. She stayed strong on the fact that it is a personal freedom that Americans should be able to gamble and play online poker inside their own house. She also brushed away the problem with addictive gambling by saying how only 1% of the gambling population is subject to pathological gambling. She explained that we shouldn't disregard the rest of the population that wants to play poker just for the minority of problem gamblers. She also did a very good job of explaining why the UIGEA is bad, primarily that it does nothing to protect consumers from getting cheated, it only goes after the payment processors. Going after the middle man in this giant process is not the way to go, and instead we should look at regulating and taxing the poker industry to make things more legitimate and fair.

The people on the fence of this bill included Indian tribes who wanted to put in a clause to allow them to also take part in the online poker industry. A rather strange case was also made by the Vice Chairman and Director of Strategic Planning at the Commerce Casino Mr. Tom Malkasian. He simply wanted to make sure that the people in violation of the law currently could not be in the industry when the US regulates online gambling. I think this was strategically done to make sure that they(brick and mortar casinos) could have a larger portion of the market when legalization happens. Both witnesses who were on the fence said that if some of their suggestions were put in place they would be in favor of this bill.

It will still be a tough vote to win, the last time a bill went to vote on this issue it stayed in committee due to a tie. Hopefully the committee can pass this bill and have a victory for poker, after that it will go to the house for further debate and voting. Just be sure to check back here for all your information on HR 2267

What would you do?

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:49:00 +0000

I had just started playing heads up when I got into an interesting spot. The guy three bet me on the 3rd hand, so I had a decision to make with my As 5c. I could fold my marginal hand and get on to the next one. My reason for not doing this was because my hand happened to contain an ace. I felt folding an ace here is marginal since I probably have the only ace in the hand, and therefore have the lead if he doesn't have a pair. I could also 4 bet him and see if his 3bet range is wide. Reasons for doing this is to show him I won't be pushed around, and that I am an aggressive maniac, which could be useful later in the match. The reason for not doing this is we are pretty much forced to call his 5 bet since we have a lot invested. My last option was to call. I had many reasons for calling preflop,
1. I gain information on his 3bet range if we get to a showdown.
2. I get to see how likely he is to continuation bet in a 3 bet pot.
3. I show him that I will not be pushed around.
4. etc..

So I call the raise and we see the flop of 5s 4h 10c. I feel like this is a pretty good flop for me. His three bet range is pretty wide, but I feel like if he is doing it with a hands like AJ AQ AK KQ KJ QJ plus all pairs, we are fairing well. So he bets out $5 and I decide to make the call. His bet of 5 seemed weak to me, but it was only the 3rd hand so I didn't make much of it. The turn was the 2s. I was a bit surprised when he bet out $16.5 into the pot of $19. To me it didn't seem like a value bet, and had me feeling like he just wanted me out of the hand. I could have read this wrong, but that was my gut feeling. The river was the 6c, and he led out all in for $23.25. This is where you the reader come in. What do you think I should do in this spot? This exercise is both for you and for me. What do you put our villain on? Should I have folded preflop? Raise the flop? Fold flop, turn, or river? Here's what happened up until my decision

Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 721432

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

HEYLETSPARTY (BB): $49.25

Hero (BTN/SB): $50.75

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with 5 A

Hero raises to $1.50, HEYLETSPARTY raises to $4.50, Hero calls $3

Flop: ($9.00) 5 4 T (2 players)

HEYLETSPARTY bets $5.00, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($19.00) 2 (2 players)

HEYLETSPARTY bets $16.50, Hero calls $16.50

River: ($52.00) 6 (2 players)

HEYLETSPARTY bets $23.25, Hero?

Evaluating Your Play Will Improve Your Game, Period.

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:47:00 +0000

I just got done watching a series where a Deuces Cracked instructor took a relative n00b at small stakes cash games online(.25-.50) and made her into a winning player. The method of teaching was very effective, basically the instructor would ask the player why they do certain things, when the player couldn't explain why the instructor went through the reasoning behind why we don't do certain things and do others. My best example is betting. When you bet ask yourself, am I doing this for value or as a bluff? If you answer bluff more often than value then I would start re-evaluating your strategy at small stakes online games.

Basically it gave me the reason why I am continuation betting on certain boards after I raise preflop. If I have equity in the hand(IE if I still feel I can catch cards to make the winning hand) then I will continuation bet. But let's say I have a hand like QJs and the board comes out 7 2 4 rainbow. I am probably not going to make a continuation bet against a good player since he knows that board is unlikely to hit my preflop raising range. Against players who are fit or fold it may be different. The key is knowing what you are trying to accomplish with each bet, by thinking things through you are unlikely to make huge mistakes, and therefore play better winning poker.

Anyways I can show you a hand that I played recently and describe the thought process I was going through on each street.

The history is this player played a bit straightforward in 3bet pots postflop. He would bet $7 on the flop and $14 on the turn. One time when I had a big draw I called his flop bet, and raised his turn bet to $37 when I picked up a flush draw. He folded and we moved on...
Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 678045

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

YOUREAWESOME (BTN/SB): $92.00

Hero (BB): $136.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 2 Q

YOUREAWESOME raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $5, YOUREAWESOME calls $3.50

When He calls here I am pretty sure I don't have the best hand
Flop: ($10.00) 7 K Q (2 players)

Hero checks, YOUREAWESOME bets $7.00, Hero calls $7

My reason for check/calling is that I can control the size of the pot, and since I know he likes to take control in these three bet pots when checked to, I allow him to bet with pretty much 100% of his range.
Turn: ($24.00) Q (2 players)

Hero checks, YOUREAWESOME bets $14.00, Hero raises to $28, YOUREAWESOME raises to $80, Hero calls $52

Well I really liked my play here, although you can't tell in the hand history, I timed down a bit before min raising, almost saying to him "I don't think you have it so I'm going to raise you". The minraise makes it look like I really don't have much, since last time I raised the turn it was a significant raise. His response was "Oh yea, I DO have a hand" Easy call, and no sweat seeing that he is drawing dead when the money goes in :)
River: ($184.00) 9 (2 players)

Final Pot: $184.00

YOUREAWESOME shows 9 6

Hero shows 2 Q

Hero wins $183.50

(Rake: $0.50)

Biggest Online Cash of My Career

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:35:00 +0000

The title says it all, I broke through last night and got a pretty big score by my standards when I took second in a $50+5 tournament, good for $1674! I was super stoked with the finish, first would have been nice, but going into heads up I was down 5-1 in chips. Heads up only lasted 5 or so hands, so nothing much I could have done.

As far as the tournament went I will admit I did get VERY lucky to make it as far as I did. I was winning pots that weren't even coinflips, which is awesome. I joined the tournament late and really just played tight aggressive the whole tournament.
Things weren't all easy, I had this tough hand right away...

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 8 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	GIOVANNI64	1,375
UTG+1	SOCIALFIRE	3,150
MP1	FRENCHFRY47	3,522
MP2	BEATBEAR6	2,680
CO	IDELIVRCHAOS	1,990
BTN	IWHITEY	1,830
SB	Hero	1,820
BB	UPAYFORMYNUGS	1,695

Blinds 15/30

Pre-Flop (45, 8 players)Hero is SB

2 folds, FRENCHFRY47 calls 30, 2 folds, IWHITEY calls 30, Hero calls 15, UPAYFORMYNUGS checks

Flop (120, 4 players)

Hero checks, UPAYFORMYNUGS checks, FRENCHFRY47 bets 60, IWHITEY calls 60, Hero calls 60, UPAYFORMYNUGS folds

Turn (300, 3 players)

Hero checks, FRENCHFRY47 bets 150, IWHITEY calls 150, Hero calls 150

River (750, 3 players)

Hero checks, FRENCHFRY47 bets 375, IWHITEY folds, Hero calls 375

Final Pot: 1,500

Hero shows

FRENCHFRY47 shows

FRENCHFRY47 wins 1,500 (net +885)
IWHITEY lost 240
Hero lost 615
UPAYFORMYNUGS lost 30

I almost raised the turn, but since I didn't I felt I had to call his river bet, no sense in raising since I am only getting called by hands that beat me. Anyways this next hand is kind of interesting, I wasn't sure what this guy was doing, but I was glad I got to check down the turn and river...

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 8 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	ALWAYSDABEST	1,590
UTG+1	FRENCHFRY47	4,612
MP1	BEATBEAR6	7,795
MP2	IDELIVRCHAOS	1,430
CO	IWHITEY	52
BTN	Hero	1,455
SB	UPAYFORMYNUGS	1,450
BB	JAWARD79	2,576

Blinds 20/40

Pre-Flop (60, 8 players)Hero is BTN

5 folds, Hero raises to 140, 1 fold, JAWARD79 calls 100

Flop (300, 2 players)

JAWARD79 bets 300, Hero calls 300

Turn (900, 2 players)

JAWARD79 checks, Hero checks

River (900, 2 players)

JAWARD79 checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: 900

Hero shows

JAWARD79 shows

Hero wins 900 (net +460)
JAWARD79 lost 440

This is the first hand where I really had a decision to make. I decided to put my tournament life at risk. I felt that if the guy had a hand like a flush draw I wanted to race for the pot, didn't want to just call and allow him to catch his flush for free. Also I decided that since he showed an ability to bluff at pots like this with the hand before that he was likely doing this again, but I wanted the money in this pot right away.

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 8 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	IDELIVRCHAOS	1,610
UTG+1	SKIMOS	3,275
MP1	Hero	1,827
MP2	UPAYFORMYNUGS	995
CO	JAWARD79	1,826
BTN	ALWAYSDABEST	520
SB	FRENCHFRY47	6,247
BB	BEATBEAR6	9,175

Blinds 50/100

Pre-Flop (150, 8 players)Hero is MP1

2 folds, Hero raises to 250, 1 fold, JAWARD79 calls 250, 3 folds

Flop (650, 2 players)

Hero bets 350, JAWARD79 raises to 700, Hero goes all-in 1,577, JAWARD79 folds

Final Pot: 2,927

Hero wins 2,927 (net +1,100)
JAWARD79 lost 950

He folded and showed K 10 offsuit. IMO I think he way overplayed his hand, but I'll take a pot without a showdown any day! The very next hand I got this beauty, AK, and I got paid!

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 8 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	SKIMOS	3,275
UTG+1	Hero	2,927
MP1	UPAYFORMYNUGS	995
MP2	JAWARD79	876
CO	ALWAYSDABEST	520
BTN	FRENCHFRY47	6,197
SB	BEATBEAR6	9,075
BB	IDELIVRCHAOS	1,610

Blinds 50/100

Pre-Flop (150, 8 players)Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero raises to 250, 3 folds, FRENCHFRY47 calls 250, 1 fold, IDELIVRCHAOS goes all-in 1,610, Hero goes all-in 2,927, FRENCHFRY47 folds

Flop (4,837, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn (4,837, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River (4,837, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 4,837

IDELIVRCHAOS shows

Hero shows

Hero wins 4,837 (net +1,910)
IDELIVRCHAOS lost 1,610

FRENCHFRY47 lost 250

Two hands later...

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 8 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	UPAYFORMYNUGS	995
UTG+1	JAWARD79	876
MP1	ALWAYSDABEST	520
MP2	FRENCHFRY47	5,947
CO	JEFFBEESDAT	1,515
BTN	BEATBEAR6	9,025
SB	SKIMOS	3,275
BB	Hero	4,837

Blinds 50/100

Pre-Flop (150, 8 players)Hero is BB

4 folds, JEFFBEESDAT raises to 250, 2 folds, Hero calls 150

Flop (550, 2 players)

Hero checks, JEFFBEESDAT bets 500, Hero raises to 2,050, JEFFBEESDAT calls 765

Turn (3,865, 2 players)

River (3,865, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3,865

Hero shows

JEFFBEESDAT shows

Hero wins 3,865 (net +1,565)
JEFFBEESDAT lost 1,515

I was loving it at this point, but hold on, three hands later this happens!

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 7 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	FRENCHFRY47	5,947
UTG+1	DIRTPOOOR	1,265
MP	BEATBEAR6	9,025
CO	SKIMOS	4,420
BTN	Hero	6,302
SB	JAWARD79	776
BB	ALWAYSDABEST	520

Blinds 50/100

Pre-Flop (150, 7 players)Hero is BTN

4 folds, Hero raises to 300, 1 fold, ALWAYSDABEST goes all-in 520, Hero calls 220

Flop (1,090, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn (1,090, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River (1,090, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 1,090

Hero shows

ALWAYSDABEST shows

Hero wins 1,090 (net +570)
ALWAYSDABEST lost 520

Collected another bounty and I was on a hot streak. I was ready to take a seat, but I got this hand, my hand of the tournament!

No Limit Holdem Tournament • 7 Players • AbsolutePoker

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	BEATBEAR6	9,025
UTG+1	BUBBLEBOYCP	4,950
MP1	SKIMOS	4,420
MP2	Hero	6,872
CO	MAGIC KINGDOM	3,560
BTN	JAWARD79	726
SB	FRENCHFRY47	5,947

Blinds 0/100

Pre-Flop (100, 7 players)Hero is MP2

1 fold, BEATBEAR6 raises to 300, 2 folds, Hero calls 300, MAGIC KINGDOM raises to 700, JAWARD79 goes all-in 726, 1 fold, BEATBEAR6 calls 426, Hero goes all-in 6,872, MAGIC KINGDOM calls 2,860, BEATBEAR6 folds

Flop (11,984, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn (11,984, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River (11,984, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 11,984

Hero shows

MAGIC KINGDOM shows

JAWARD79 shows

Hero wins 11,984 (net +5,112)
BEATBEAR6 lost 726

MAGIC KINGDOM lost 3,560

JAWARD79 lost 726

Well this win basically assured me that I would make it into the money. I'll post more hands later if you want to see some of the hands I played to get me to the final table!

Balls of steel?

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:08:00 +0000

I tried out a good spot to three barrel bluff, I have at times been unwilling to fire that third barrel, but in this case I felt it necessary to keep my image at the table, as well as win the pot. I was really nervous when I fired that third barrel, and was thankful we weren't playing this pot face to face.
Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 620075

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $82.83

BB: $50.00

UTG: $82.62

MP: $49.35

CO: $61.99

BTN: $55.52

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with K Q

UTG raises to $1.75, 3 folds, Hero raises to $5.75, 1 fold, UTG calls $4

Flop: ($12.00) 7 8 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $7, UTG calls $7

Turn: ($26.00) 2 (2 players)

Hero bets $15, UTG calls $15

River: ($56.00) J (2 players)

Hero bets $55.08 all in, UTG folds

Final Pot: $56.00

Hero wins $52.70

(Rake: $3.30)

Major Barf for $215 seat

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:56:00 +0000

I was fortunate to get down to heads up in a satellite to UB's 200k Guarantee tournament($215 value) well first hand of heads up and this barf hand happens :(
Absolute Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t250/t500 Blinds + t50 - 2 players - View hand 612062

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): t6650 M = 7.82

BB: t6850 M = 8.06

Pre Flop: (t850) Hero is BTN/SB with 9 9

BB calls t0

Flop: (t850) 8 6 8 (2 players)

Turn: (t850) T (2 players)

River: (t850) 3 (2 players)

Final Pot: t850

Hero shows 9 9 (Two Pair, nines and eights)

BB shows 3 3 (Full house, threes full of eights)

BB wins t13300

(Rake: t-12450)

Agh it's so brutal because I even had hearts covered, it was a 2 outer for all the marbles. Oh well guess it wasn't to be...

I've been pretty streaky in my play recently, I either make a lot of money vs a couple donks, or spew money off to decent players. I have the chance to make an additional $75 in rakeback if I have a good pull for generated rake. I have the chance to do this easily now that I am off school at the end of the month. I could even make a big push and make another $100 if I am lucky. Right now I've made over $200 in rake back which has turned my stale play into a profitable venture.

My Rounders Moment...

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:51:00 +0000

I don't have time for a complete update on my progress, but I thought I'd share a moment I just had recently while playing at the tables. I had been playing a guy heads up for awhile, I was down about 33 due to a semi cooler hand, when this hand came up. There is nothing to learn from this hand, just know it's nice to run good.

Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 603815

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $157.60

Hero (BTN/SB): $99.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with A A

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) A 5 5 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $2.00, BB raises to $5.50, Hero calls $3.50

Turn: ($14.00) 4 (2 players)

BB bets $10.00, Hero calls $10

River: ($34.00) 2 (2 players)

BB bets $32.50, Hero raises to $82.50, BB calls $50

Final Pot: $199.00

BB shows A 5

Hero shows A A

(Rake: $0.50)

Hitting the plateau

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:14:00 +0000

Well I have been at the point where I've been plateauing in my efforts to grow my bankroll. I would say I had some streaky sessions that showed that I am not nearly as ready as I thought I would be to rise to the occasion and make some serious cash. Now that I have "plateaued" for a bit, I am still making money from rake back, but I just need to find ways to stay consistent in playing my A game.

To be honest, about three or four days ago my bankroll was spiraling down, I had lost $400 and was not feeling confident at all. I had just gotten into a zone of doing the same thing time after time, that I think my game got predictable, which allowed people to outplay me. I think I was spending way to much time playing, while not concerning myself with what I was doing, I was pretty much "mindlessly" playing. When you get to this point you really need to take a break and re-evaluate what you are doing. I didn't take a big break per se, but I did spend some time actually thinking about what I was doing at the table before/while I was playing, which helped me get back on the winning ways.

Now that I think about it, my live game may have gotten just as stale as my online game. The one exception to that is when I play in Michigan, because the stakes were much higher, and my focus was 100% on making money. The difference in playing with my friends is that I really started to get bored with what I was doing, which made me think about other things while I played. My thoughts would be on the conversations at the table, instead of making the most profitable play in the game. While what I was doing at the live games may have been unprofitable, I don't think it was the wrong thing to do at all. Having a fun home game where everyone is enjoying themselves is both healthy and fun, so no major fix needs to be made in that regard.

I think the one way I did/do to try to fix getting "bored" with what I am doing is to move up in stakes. This is NOT the way to solve your problems, because although you will definitely be thinking about how to make the right play (mostly because a large portion of your bankroll is at the table) you won't be ready for a bad beat, and will likely tilt off your entire bankroll. I have experienced this far too many times, I am just glad that I can finally identify why it has happened over and over. Hopefully writing this down will help me focus on paying attention at the table, make me come up with a strategy to counter the opposing player's strategy, and not take giant shots at games my bankroll can't handle.

Now that I have said all of this, I will show an example of how I put this overall mindset to use. I had just started to play a guy heads up, he seemed very aggressive from the get go, three betting my first open(which happened after I folded my button twice). One of the first times he called my open this happened:
Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 593429

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $49.81

Hero (BTN/SB): $46.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with 6 A

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) 6 Q A (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB raises to $7.50, Hero raises to $25.50, BB folds

Final Pot: $18.00

Hero wins $17.50

(Rake: $0.50)

A very interesting note to make was that he was willing to bluff check raise and really seemed very aggressive. I used this to my advantage in the first hand that I decided to three bet:
Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 593431

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $40.81

Hero (BB): $54.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with K Q

BTN/SB raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $5, BTN/SB calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.00) A Q 4 (2 players)

Hero bets $7, BTN/SB raises to $34, Hero raises to $49.50 all in, BTN/SB calls $1.81 all in

Turn: ($81.62) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($81.62) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $81.62

BTN/SB shows K T (ace high)

Hero shows K Q (One pair, queens)

Hero wins $81.12

(Rake: $0.50)

Not only did I think he would not raise almost all of his chips with an ace, but I felt like he had absolutely nothing at all, and wanted to get me to fold. If he had an ace he more than likely would not have raised as much as he did, or he would have 4 bet me preflop. I felt that since his range of hands here was so much air, that I had to call and hope to hold up. Well I did and got a quick $48.

Bad Players Find Ways To Give You Their Chips Part 2, well almost...

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:41:00 +0000

This first hand is another clear example of bad players giving you their chips, well both are examples, with different results:
Hand 1
Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 583215

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $25.95

Hero (BTN/SB): $40.75

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with T A

Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) A 2 Q (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB raises to $4, Hero calls $2

Turn: ($11.00) K (2 players)

BB bets $6.50, Hero calls $6.50

River: ($24.00) 5 (2 players)

BB bets $13.95 all in, Hero calls $13.95

Final Pot: $51.90

BB shows 3 J (ace high)

Hero shows T A (One pair, aces)

Hero wins $51.40

(Rake: $0.50)

I love how he had J3 and continued to bluff, music to my ears...
This hand I managed to get another guy to hand me his chips, while I was a 80% favorite when the money went in
Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 583217

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $48.88

SB: $44.50

BB: $95.80

UTG: $48.65

CO: $84.82

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with A A

UTG raises to $1.50, CO calls $1.50, Hero raises to $6.75, 3 folds, CO calls $5.25

Flop: ($15.75) T 7 3 (2 players)

CO checks, Hero bets $8.87, CO calls $8.87

Turn: ($33.49) 9 (2 players)

CO checks, Hero bets $33.26 all in, CO calls $33.26

River: ($100.01) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $100.01

Hero shows A A (One pair, aces)

CO shows A K (Flush, ace high)

CO wins $96.51

(Rake: $3.50)

Obviously not a good result, but I will take that call all day.

Anyways haven't been running the best the past couple days, lost 2 BI, but still have a good roll to keep me in the game.

Bad Players Find Ways To Give You Their Chips

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:34:00 +0000

I have really been running good over the past couple of days, I will admit that, but really it comes down to the bad players handing me money. Take this hand for example:
Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 579652

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $90.70

Hero (BB): $57.55

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with Q K

BTN/SB raises to $2, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.00) 6 4 Q (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $3.00, Hero raises to $9, BTN/SB raises to $23.50, Hero raises to $55.55, BTN/SB calls $32.05

Turn: ($115.10) 3 (2 players)

River: ($115.10) J (2 players)

Final Pot: $115.10

BTN/SB shows 8 8

Hero shows Q K

Hero wins $114.60

(Rake: $0.50)

His raise makes a little sense, maybe to get me to fold a bluff, but does he really think he is good when I shove over the 3rd raise? There is absolutely no way he is ahead when he calls, which shows how easy it is to make money off bad players.

In other news the Bay 101 is going on right now, you can watch live stream of a featured table at www.bay101live.com I was watching yesterday as Daniel Negreanu was on the feature table, pretty interesting to see what goes on during the beginning/middle of the tournament. Anyways that's all for now, I'll likely have another update later in the week!

Interesting spot with Top Set

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Hey just thought I'd share a very interesting hand that just went down in a game I was playing, let me know what you would have done...
Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 575755

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (MP): $91.35

CO: $147.37

BTN: $45.80

SB: $137.08

BB: $99.25

UTG: $67.70

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP with K K

1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, 2 folds, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.00) T K 5 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $3.00, SB raises to $9.50, Hero calls $6.50

Turn: ($23.00) 3 (2 players)

SB bets $18.00, Hero raises to $53

I feel like this guy was on a flush draw, which is why I played it slow on the flop, due to us being so deep. I thought the turn was the time I had to get the money in, that way if a scare card comes on the riv (any diamond) I am not going to be able to be able to get max value from a set of 10's or 5's. I really wasn't unsure on how much to raise on the turn though, I figured I wanted to get diamonds out of the hand, but keep in a good pair or two pair. Whatever the guy folded and I won a nice pot.

LAPC Results, EPT Berlin Robbed, and much more!

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:35:00 +0000

Well I thought I would update you on the LAPC if you haven't seen so already, here are the final results:
1 Andras Koroknai $1,788,040
2 Raymond Dolan $1,002,710
3 Tri Huynh $665,140

Andra Koroknai is a player from Hungary who had a crazy following of Hungarian poker players at the final table. The Heads up match lasted just 1 hand, as Andra Koroknai had a 12-1 chip advantage over Raymond Dolan.

In other news, it appears the EPT Berlin poker tournament was robbed in the midst of play by 6 armed men. Footage of the debacle can be found here. The robbers were able to get away with around $300,000. Scary stuff, let's hope this isn't a start of a trend...

Something I would like to start to trend is my recent success at Ultimate Bet. I decided to try a different site after FT seemed to be giving me my regular roller coaster ride while playing. Well I took a shot, with a $50 deposit I have managed to run this up to $600 so far on Ultimate Bet. You can track my success on pokertableratings.com search for WiscBadger44. I think poker table ratings is good, but it has missed a lot of hands played, and isn't accurate for how much I have won. Anyways I guess I should talk about how I managed to turn $50 into $600. Well I took a shot with 1 buy in and played heads up and managed to win $150 right away off this noob. Now I would normally not suggest doing what I did there, but I guess my mindset was that I was willing to drop $300 to get a bankroll going, I just decided to only put $50 on to see if I can do it from there. One thing I am doing to prevent going broke is what is called game selecting. I am only choosing to play certain games when they are good, if someone sits down with me at a heads up table I immediately go to pokertableratings.com to see if they are a winning player or not. This is very valuable because people can comment on the player you are looking up, so if the person is notorious for hit and running, then you can either choose to try to hit n run them back or just not play them. The former is always fun to do, I had a great time hit n running a goofball and typing in the chat "karma is a b!itch" :). I will post 1 or two key hands that I've played in the past couple days to show you how nice it is to play against donks.

Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 575041

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CRAIGDGOOSE (BB): $80.57

Hero (BTN/SB): $101.83

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with Q 8

Hero raises to $1.50, CRAIGDGOOSE calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) 3 6 4 (2 players)

CRAIGDGOOSE bets $3.00, Hero calls $3

Turn: ($9.00) 8 (2 players)

CRAIGDGOOSE bets $9.00, Hero raises to $36, CRAIGDGOOSE calls $27

River: ($81.00) Q (2 players)

CRAIGDGOOSE bets $40.07, Hero calls $40.07

Final Pot: $161.14

CRAIGDGOOSE shows J T

Hero shows Q 8

Hero wins $160.64

(Rake: $0.50)

I love how this guy thought he was good with Q6 here... :)
Absolute Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players - View hand 575044

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BACKDOOR3BET (BB): $157.61

Hero (CO): $83.00

MSLIZARD (BTN): $52.25

PUTU54 (SB): $46.20

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with K Q

Hero raises to $2, MSLIZARD calls $2, PUTU54 calls $1.75, BACKDOOR3BET calls $1.50

Flop: ($8.00) 9 2 Q (4 players)

PUTU54 checks, BACKDOOR3BET checks, Hero bets $6.00, MSLIZARD raises to $26.40, PUTU54 calls $26.40, BACKDOOR3BET folds, Hero raises to $80.90, MSLIZARD folds, PUTU54 calls $17.80 all in

Turn: ($122.80) K (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($122.80) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $122.80

Hero shows K Q

PUTU54 shows 6 Q

Hero wins $120.50

(Rake: $2.20)

LAPC Down to 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:15:00 +0000

The LAPC has finally come down to the final six players, unfortunately for the mainstream audience they missed out on some well known pros at the tv bubble. Pro Carlos Mortenson came into the final table as a short stack and could not get anything going, leaving 9th.

As of this post there are three left for the title of LAPC Main Event Champion:
Seat 3. Tri Huynh - 3,880,000
Seat 4. Raymond Dolan - 6,275,000
Seat 6. Andras Koroknai - 4,745,000
If you don't recognize these names it's alright, many of the well known pros were eliminated right before the TV bubble, so we have some unknowns left in the field. As for predictions, three handed it really is anyone's game, stay tuned later this week for results on what happened!

Improvements to the Blog, outlook on future...

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Well I have little to say about my progress as far as poker since I haven't had much success lately and I really haven't had much time to play. Therefore, in the interests of this blog I will switch over to talking about what is happening in the world of poker as well as the status of this blog.

Right now we are in the midst of the LA Poker Classic, current updates from the World Poker Tour Official Website is:
L.A. Poker Classic

Players Left: 22 of 745
Prize Pool: $7,152,000
Buy-In: $9,700 + $300
Blinds: 6,000-12,000
Ante: 2,000
Leading the pack is Carlos Mortenson with 1.669 Million in chips. Carlos Mortenson is a very successful live pro, that has beaten the best time after time. He has the distinction of knocking out Daniel Negreanu in this tournament, a feat that is not often easy to do. Mortenson is the early favorite to take this tournament down with 22 left, but there is a lot of time between now and the $1,788,001 first place prize. Well known pro Johnny Chan is also still alive in the event, although he only has about 40 BB's left with his stack of 500k.

Stay tuned for final table coverage of this event later this week...

In other news related to this blog, I have decided to try to monetize the site a bit more, by adding a search bar to the top of the page. You can search any poker-related themed search there and it will gather results from some of the top poker websites on the net. It's sort of a "one-stop-shop" to gather information on your favorite poker players, poker news, or even poker strategy! Also below this search bar is a list of my "poker buddies", I have added 2 of my friends, as well as 2 fish that I found while playing, if you check this page daily you can find out if the 2 fish are on(eyesofhorus, sydney john) and try to take more of their money! That's all for now, look for another post in the next couple days to finish up coverage of the 2010 LA Poker Classic.

Poker Visions

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:23:00 +0000

This morning I awoke to possibly the best dream a poker player can wake to, I had just gotten done on the sickest heater turning $100 into $100,000+ and I was so ecstatic to show everyone how gross it was. It felt so real that I had this money in my account that I feel like it is going to happen sometime.

I've been listening/watching some really good videos on poker, that I feel have been some of the best I've seen. I switched over to Deuces Cracked for a 7 day free trial, since they have DRM free videos, which is a huuuge +++ compared to CardRunners, since if I found a great video to show my friend, it wouldn't work cause there is protection against copying it to another computer. That is dumb, if you are going to charge me to access your videos then let me do with them as I please when I get them. I understand that allows your videos to get possibly shared with people who aren't paying for your site, but that is a risk you have to take if you want to capture a large portion of the market.

Anyways enough of that rant I thought I would try to share some of the great tips I had found by watching the great video series "The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment" - it sounds pretty crazy but bear with me. The video series is not about poker strategy at all, instead it offers some great insight on the mindset you should have while you play poker. The things I was hearing from the speaker, Tommy Angelo, were very familiar words of wisdom that I had listened to in a live lecture from Dr. Wayne Dyer. I was again hit in the face with this theme of mindset being a key factor in the way we go about our lives. Overall this positive attitude and mindset can only help you out in your personal life, and I can already tell it has helped out in mine.

Though I have only seen about 3 and a half of the 8 part series, I still think I can provide you some of the key lessons I learned from the first couple episodes. One of the key things Tommy covered in the first episode was about Right View vs Wrong view. The key themes in Right View were having the mindset of "the professional" where you have to think about every choice you make at the poker table and base it off of profit. An example he gave was what if there was this man that absolutely had to win at poker, and if he lost he died. He would do everything in his power to base everything off of profit.

One of the big parts of Wrong View was being results orientated. Tommy explained that this can only lead to tilt, and can cause you to think you made a bad play. This leads to you chasing your losses and playing sub-optimally. This next part of Wrong View is something that I have been working very hard at when I get in the mindset of playing poker, and that is to avoid using words like "donk", "fish", "finally", "usually", "hate", "pride", and the whole mindset that comes with using or thinking those words.

Tommy explained Tilt in one of the best ways I have heard it described, simply any non "A" game performance. He also did a great job explaining how we get on tilt, which included bad beats, tiredness, and being under rolled. The one on the list that I hadn't even thought about was being under rolled. It just seems so obvious of a fact to know that if you are playing with less than 20 buy-ins for whatever game you are entering that you are probably playing on scared money. I feel like this has been one of my biggest reasons for playing sub-optimally at times, I played scared money and couldn't make the "right" play because of it.

Tommy went on to explain that we shouldn't worry about the gray area in decisions, it is something pointless to get bogged down in when the choice is close to 50/50, forget about it and head on to the next hand!

Well this has been a summary of the first half of the first episode, look for more of it to follow in the next couple weeks!

Biggest Live Poker Win of My Career

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:41:00 +0000

So I just won $240 playing poker at the Island Resort and Casino…I just feel validated as a poker player after this win, malllll. My favorite hands from the session include some key bluffs, some key calls, and some key just mall hands. I was never all in for my entire stack, but I did have at least 1 moment where I may have been in jeopardy. I will try to tell this story chronologically to make the most sense, but it may get screwed up in the middle, so don’t yell at me!

First hand I play of the night was AJos, guy to my right (young kid who I had respect for) raised it to 12 or 15, I call and so did 1 or 2 more. The flop was Jack high, original kid bet 15-20, I called and may have gotten 1 or two more calls. Turn was a blank and he checked, I bet about 30 and took down my first pot of the night. My next major hand came with me holding AQ and raising to 15 preflop, I was on the button and the guy who I had pegged as a donk called in the sb. He decided to check dark, and I obliged to check behind him when the J28 board hit the flop. The turn paired 8’s and the guy bet 5. I called because I put him on nothing, the river came something useless like a 3 or a 5 and he bet out 25. I was unsure why he would be betting here for so much, things didn’t add up so I decided to make the call and was right when the guy turned over A6. I was congratulated by everyone at the table for making a great call, which only helped out my confidence moving forward.

To sum up most of the night I played pretty tight, only limping in with pocket pairs and weak aces. I wasn’t worried about any of the players picking up on my tendencies since they seemed to be playing their cards and not worrying about what I was doing. My next semi-good play came against someone I had pegged as a good player, I had limped in with 88 and he raised it up to 16, I called and saw a flop of JJ4. I check-called his bet of 20. A 6 hit the turn and I was 93% that I had the best hand so I decided to not let this player catch a river on me and lead out for $40. He folded his hand and I won another decent sized pot. I just made great lines in all of my hands, I didn’t allow lady luck to come into the equation very often, I made sure my opponents had to pay to see what I had and didn’t give them any free cards when I knew I was ahead.

After this point in the night I may have been up about $120 or so, nothing too special but nothing to sniff at. I was still feeling confident that I could beat the game, and showed my prowess after pete and moose came in to check on how I was doing. I decided to play a pot against a kid who I was sure was trying to steal my big blind. It got folded to this kid who was playing fairly well, he was on the button and raised it up to 15, sb folded and I was left with Q9 in my bb to defend against this kid. I obliged his raise and saw a flop of 10 4 8. I was so certain this guy didn’t hit that I was willing to bluff at this one. I checked it over to him, he bet $20, and I min-raised him to 40. I felt like this showed him I had a hand that I wanted to get paid by. I was pretty sure he was going to toss his hand in, but he called very quickly(a fact that the donk to my left told me as he left to get a smoke “he called really quick”). I was worried at this point, I had just invested 55 of the $75 that I was up at the table, and it didn’t work right away when I tried to bluff…BARF to say the least. Well luckily for me a Q hit the turn, I was relieved to see this and bet out confidently $50. He folded and I won another great sized pot.

One of the key pots of the night comes against another player who I thought was really good. I raised in the cutoff with AJ and got called by this guy in his small blind. The flop was nothing that hit me at all, 7h 8h 3c. I was debating checking behind, but I felt like I could take it down with a bet, mostly because I had been playing so tight, he had to give me credit for a hand. He didn’t and he called. I was unsure what he might have, maybe a flush draw or something like that. I was so happy to see a Jack on the turn. He checked again and I decided to bet out 40. He called and then the river came out an 8. He put out a bet of 30 and I wanted to barf. I wasn’t sure if this donk had an 8, but I had to see it. I called and tapped the felt and said “an eight is good”. He didn’t have the eight, but instead had the J9 of hearts. A monster draw that IMO he misplayed. He should have definitely have check raised his monster draw, and gotten me off the hand. Last legit hand of the day was with me holding JJ, guy raised to 10, I call, 2 to flop, he bets 10, I raise to 30 he folds, mmmalll. I think next time in order to remember more of the key hands I may find a way to write down or record the hands that I played. Gus Hansen did this for one of his books where he took time after each hand to quickly get out of his seat and record what he had and how the action went, it proved to be very effective as the book turned out great. I may not do something as extreme as recording after everyhand, but maybe take 5 minutes every hour to record what I am thinking, feeling, how things are going, etc…This way I can reflect not only on the hand I got involved with but also the state of mind I was in at the time. Anyways hope your new year has been as good as mine so far, have a good one!

00'-09' A Decade In Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:08:00 +0000

I think this will be my final post of the decade, so I'll try to make this an interesting one! Well poker-wise not much has happened lately for me, I've had exams and whatnot to be concerned about, which meant 0 online poker for me. I did about as well as I expected in my classes, with the exception of 1 class, but whatever I passed everything so no biggie.

So I guess I could reflect on my first decade that I can remember being a part of. I remember vividly Y2k and the start of 2000, how could anyone forget it? I remember still being into wrestling at the start of the 2000's only because I remember Chris "YTK" Jericho and many other things. 2001 was a year that I will never forget, ever. I think it is still a strong reminder that we have threats to us inside our borders that we should take care of, as well as enemies from afar that desperately want to bring damage to the USA. In 2002 I would have been turning 13 which is always an awkward time, pretty sure it was like 7th grade, haha nothing to exciting happening to me there.

2003
I would classify this as my roller coaster year. My 8th grade year echoes many stories I've heard from other people in that it just sucked. I didn't really like it because it was the first year I felt like I was picked on a bit. I don't know why it happened but it just did, not a fun experience if you have ever been on the receiving end of being picked on. Not to mention it wasn't just at school I was getting this shit but back at home from my older brothers who found it necessary to use me as a punching bag at times. Don't feel too bad for me because this is the year I got introduced to poker, and I really haven't looked back since! This is the root of this blog, due to a group of middle school friends, I learned how to play poker and quickly wanted to be the best out of our friends to play. I remember just having that "itch" to want to get better, to learn how to be a champion and really understand the nuances of the game. Trial and error pretty much provided me my biggest learning tool. I saw what good players did to win money, and I saw how my bad play lost me money. This was accelerated tenfold due to online poker, I remember playing online with my buddies on True Poker, what a great time. I was probably a losing player for maybe the first couple months of playing, but I soon would pick it up!

2004
Well who gets re-elected president but Mr. George W Bush, don't ask me how he did it but somehow he managed to capture the popular vote this time. I don't think John Kerry was the right candidate for the job, if there was a stronger candidate maybe the democrats would have won. Politics aside I remember this year simply because it was the first year I got drunk, and it was with my big brother Pete. We went up to my grandparents land where they have a tree farm, and drank out of a keg. Pete was a senior in High School and I was a Freshman, well actually I was between 8th grade and Freshman year since it was during the summer, but who cares. I can still remember what it was like, probably one of the most fun I've had drinking due to the atmosphere of the place and not having to worry about getting caught. In poker I remember watching my first full WSOP and actually probably tracked some of it Online. I was really starting to get into everything poker. I wanted poker chips, I wanted poker on TV, I wanted poker on my computer. Everything! I can't forget 2004 because that was the first time I played on Full Tilt! Not for money but just for play money, and I was pissed the first time I played! I was so mad that there were so many more bad beats being put on people that I un-installed it right away! (Looking back not much has changed ;]) I think 2004 was the real year that I got hooked playing cards. The big thing we were doing back then was tournament poker. We played tournaments every time we played poker, I don't remember playing 1 single cash game session. This in a sense was a good way to start playing, since we didn't have the chance to lose a lot of money at one sitting, and instead got to know how to play before we were risking too much money. I remember back then our parents got mad at us for even thinking about playing for $20 a person in a tournament, like it was blasphemy or something haha.

2005
Well if 2004 was when I was hooked on poker, then 2005 was the year that I really started to play poker. I remember thinking about the game differently at the end of this year, simply because we played almost every day in the summer over at Nygel's house. It was the single greatest thing that could have been done for me cash game wise. Those sessions of playing at Nygels taught me so much about live cash games that are invaluable, and come by putting in the hours to play. I look at all the newer cash game players that we have in our poker games and it's clear there is a separation between the regulars who played over at Nygels, and the occasional players, no question about it. We got a variety of looks at different styles, and had to constantly change our game up depending on who was in the pot. I can confidently say I was a winning player, which only hooked me more into the game of poker. Personal notes on 2005 - I got my drivers license, umm kind of blanking on everything else but poker is the main focus of this blog so I'll switch over to talking about that.

2006
I am now full fledged into the poker scene. I'm listening to poker podcasts, I'm reading blogs, I'm watching poker on TV, on the internet, and playing live. I can put 2006 out there as another great year for poker, minus 1 thing...the UIGEA. This awful peace of legislation put the advances in the poker world back a good 2 years, just terrible. I can remember being bummed about that, but I think this is the first year I really started to play online poker. I can tell you that overall I am probably a losing player in 2006, I had some nice wins, but being a noob online can cost you 4X's as much as it does live. I think live I have been I winner since 2003, and it continued in this year, pretty good live games every other weekend. I think I may have started subscribing to CardRunners at the end of 2006, which improved many parts of my game.

2007
Another year and more poker being played, this is summer between Junior and Senior year, and all I can remember is more live cash games being played. Everyone was better at this point, all my original friends who played over at Nygel's stepped up their game and made me have to improve mine. I think this was my first trip to Michigan and Minnesota to gamble. My first trip to Minnesota was a great one for me, playing limit 2-4 and winning over $100 in one session. I remember feeling on top of the world while playing, my big brother looking through the shades at my giant stacks and just nodding impressively. His little punching bag had grown into a force at the poker tables. I also booked wins in poker at Michigan, probably not gambling (who honestly wins playing blackjack??). I remember going there for the first time with my good friend moose and his parents, and just being the happiest person in the world. I was finally of age to gamble in the great state of Michigan, and I was sure going to take full advantage of it all.

2008
Probably the most dynamic I have been in poker came in 2008. I started to learn all types of games playing HORSE and many other variances of poker. I also booked my biggest win at live poker playing at Michigan, winning at least $150 (I'll try to look back in my blogs to see what the exact number was). I just hit the stride in my poker career in 2008, I feel like I was on top of every aspect of my game, and I really feel like this was one of my best years of my life. I booked wins online, booked bigg wins playing live, and continued to improve my game. This year will be remembered as the last year my High School friends got to play on a consistent basis. We all went our seperate ways at the end of this year, and learned how to cope without playing poker together (at least I did).

2009
Finally I look back at this year, my last year in the decade of the 2000's. I have been through another roller coaster this year, finally cumulating in my "quitting" of online poker. How well did that roll out? Well I ended up NOT quitting permanently but stopped playing large cash games online. I think this was a good idea overall, it helped me ease out of online poker in a slower safer way. I guess quitting cold turkey really is harder than it sounds. So with that I end my decade in review. I hope you enjoyed this decade as much as I did, until next time mall.

Part 3 of video

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Part 2 of video

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:29:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:24:00 +0000

Here's part 1 of my heads up session, I think I really played well throughout, it's your decision to agree or disagree!

2 months 2 million...well at this rate...

noreply@blogger.com (Jimbo1167) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:53:00 +0000

How about 1 buyin 2 minutes? Yup yum yum, first hand I've played in awhile...

I love my bet on the river, I let left myself 28, giving him the thought of fold equity, but there was 0!
Game Notes: 1st hand of Heads Up 50NL

Seat 1: Romanov88 ($244.70) - -
Seat 2: Americano55 ($50) -

PRE-FLOP:

Romanov88 posts small blind $0.25
Americano55 posts BIG blind $0.50
Dealt To: Americano55

RAISE Romanov88 ($1.50)
RAISE Americano55 ($5)
CALL Romanov88 ($3.50)

FLOP:

Pot: $10


BET Americano55 ($6)
CALL Romanov88 ($6)

TURN:

Pot: $22


CHECK Americano55
CHECK Romanov88

RIVER:

Pot: $22


BET Americano55 ($11)
RAISE Romanov88 ($55)
CALL Americano55 ($28)
UNCALLED Romanov88 ($16)

SHOWDOWN:
Romanov88:

Americano55:

Americano55 collected $99.5 from main pot with a full house, Kings full of Aces

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $100 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: Romanov88 small blind showed [Td Js] and lost with two pair, Aces and Tens - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)

Seat 2: Americano55 big blind showed [Kd Kh] and won 99.50 with a full house, Kings full of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($49.5)

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