Positive Variance

PG&C Thread

2012-01-15T01:31:00.002Z

Finally got round to starting a thread in PG&C:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/poker-goals-challenges/ssnl-beyond-my-6max-journey-2012-a-1153109/

Might be updating this blog a bit less often as a result - I still intend to keep posting about poker here but it'll likely be a "bigger picture" like weekly / monthly graphs and general thoughts rather than HHs and graphs from each individual session.

Go check it out! Who knows, maybe it'll turn into something epic :)

- HappyPixel

January so far

2012-01-11T23:53:00.002Z

Just a quick update, I've been putting in a lot of volume this year and running great too so I'm up about $1.5k including FPPs and generally feeling really good about my work ethic and my game. My BR is about $5.3k now so I'm back at 100NL and the tables have been surprisingly soft lately. Graph of this year:

Jan 2012 so far

26.5k hands is pretty sick in my books. Doing a $50 pool for 1mm hands in 2012 with a friend, which is massively -EV for me as I have a full time job and he plays poker full time.

[x] Prop bet fish

I guess it's good to have some motivation though so hopefully I'll make that $50 back from playing more...

As you can see from the graph I've been trying out HM2 and I'm undecided about it - I really appreciate the massively increased import speeds and general snappiness. It's also got a lot of polish about it, but there are a lot of minor issues I have with it, e.g. the lack of contrast on the graphs, the random horizontal scrollbar (I mean wtf is that for) and a couple of annoying things about the HUD and report layouts. But overall it's pretty good and I'll probably end up upgrading to it this month (before the upgrade discount expires).

Not gonna deluge you with HHs so here's my biggest wins and losses (in BBs) since my last post:

Biggest win:

Poker Stars, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $52.75 (105.5 bb)
BB: $64.05 (128.1 bb)
Hero (UTG): $106.65 (213.3 bb)
MP: $53.60 (107.2 bb)
CO: $51.55 (103.1 bb)
BTN: $20 (40 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A A
Hero raises to $1.50, 4 folds, BB raises to $2.50, Hero raises to $13, BB calls $10.50

Flop: ($26.25) Q T T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $13, BB calls $13

Turn: ($52.25) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $40, BB calls $38.05 and is all-in

River: ($128.35) 8 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $128.35 pot ($3.00 rake)
Final Board: Q T T 4 8
BB showed J J and lost (-$64.05 net)
Hero showed A A and won $125.35 ($61.30 net)

Biggest loss... pretty spewy this deep although I do think it's a really good board to barrel off on with like 100-120bbs. At least he tanked river for a while before calling, lol.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $68.50
MP: $93.90
CO: $137.25
BTN: $50.00
Hero (SB): $84.35
BB: $33.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with T J
2 folds, CO raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5, 1 fold, CO calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.50) Q 3 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $7, CO calls $7

Turn: ($24.50) A (2 players)
Hero bets $16.50, CO calls $16.50

River: ($57.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $55.85 all in, CO calls $55.85

Final Pot: $169.20
CO shows A Q (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Hero shows T J (high card Ace)
CO wins $166.20
(Rake: $3.00)

And a bonus hand vs a reg just so I'm not the only person spewing off stacks in 3b pots:

Poker Stars, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 3 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $30 (60 bb)
Hero (BTN): $52.95 (105.9 bb)
SB: $59.05 (118.1 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with Q K
Hero raises to $1.25, SB raises to $4.50, BB folds, Hero calls $3.25

Flop: ($9.50) K 6 2 (2 players)
SB bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($19.50) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $11.50, Hero calls $11.50

River: ($42.50) 8 (2 players)
SB bets $38.05 and is all-in, Hero calls $31.95 and is all-in

Results: $106.40 pot ($1.00 rake)
Final Board: K 6 2 5 8
Hero showed Q K and won $105.40 ($52.45 net)
SB showed J 9 and won $0.00 (-$52.95 net)

Organised a poker game at work next week so I've got that to look forward to, hopefully I don't spew off too much money, lol. Or maybe I should... quarterly appraisals are coming up soon after all!

- HappyPixel

'12 tabling

2012-01-03T22:03:00.000Z

This year I've been 12-tabling with mixed success - we're 3 days into 2012 and I've already played about 9k hands which I'm really happy with. Results-wise I'm only up about $120 after a -5BI session I just finished (ran pretty awful) but I'm pleased with how I've been playing today and yesterday. On Sunday I found myself drifting off a lot - ended up playing super nitty and missing a ton of spots, but since then I feel I've been playing my A-game about 85% of the time...

Gonna keep this short, so here's some fun hands:

Reg on reg violence

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $50.25
BB: $52.00
UTG: $64.15
CO: $50.00
BTN: $67.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with T T
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) 6 2 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BB raises to $6.50, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($16.00) J (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $10.50, Hero calls $10.50

River: ($37.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $33.50 all in, Hero calls $31.75 all in

Final Pot: $100.50
Hero shows T T (two pair, Tens and Sixes)
BB shows 8 Q (a pair of Sixes)
Hero wins $98.50
(Rake: $2.00)

Another reg (lol)

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $56.70
UTG: $61.30
CO: $50.00
Hero (BTN): $51.85
SB: $51.10

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with Q Q
1 fold, CO raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, 2 folds, CO raises to $10, Hero raises to $51.85 all in, CO calls $40 all in

Flop: ($100.75) 8 3 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($100.75) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($100.75) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $100.75
CO shows 4 6 (two pair, Tens and Sixes)
Hero shows Q Q (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Hero wins $98.75
(Rake: $2.00)

vs some random fish :)

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP: $52.70
CO: $48.90
BTN: $37.50
Hero (SB): $61.40
BB: $12.65
UTG: $21.95

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with 9 J
4 folds, Hero raises to $1, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($2.00) A K Q (2 players)
Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50

River: ($8.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Final Pot: $8.00
Hero shows 9 J (high card Ace)
BB mucks 3 T
Hero wins $7.65
(Rake: $0.35)

vs a tightish reg, bit of a spew perhaps but I think this gets way more "wtf-fold"s than it should

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $50.00
SB: $50.25
BB: $50.00
UTG: $76.35
CO: $85.25

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with J K
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($3.50) 4 Q 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.50, SB calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.50) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $15, SB folds

Final Pot: $8.50
Hero mucks J K
Hero wins $8.10
(Rake: $0.40)

vs the same villain as last hand, a few orbits later... loving life when I see the river card with that history

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $50.75
BTN: $78.35
SB: $50.75
BB: $26.15

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 3 3
Hero raises to $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($3.75) 2 7 J (2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BTN calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.75) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($8.75) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $12, BTN calls $12

Final Pot: $32.75
Hero shows 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes)
BTN mucks J K
Hero wins $31.15
(Rake: $1.60)

vs some spewtard reg

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 playersDeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $52.05
Hero (BB): $61.55
UTG: $55.60
CO: $54.85
BTN: $73.65

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with A J
2 folds, BTN raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3.25) 3 3 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.55, Hero calls $1.55

Turn: ($6.35) T (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $4, Hero calls $4

River: ($14.35) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $8, Hero calls $8

Final Pot: $30.35
Hero shows A J (a pair of Threes - Ace kicker)
BTN shows 7 K (a pair of Threes)
Hero wins $28.90
(Rake: $1.45)

- HappyPixel

Done for 2011

2011-12-30T22:17:00.002Z

Life stuff

Away from the tables Xmas was great, got to see my family again and got some awesome presents, including an espresso machine so I can caffeinate myself with unparalleled efficiency. Going back to Bristol on New Year's Day, then I have a day off to chill before going back to work...

Poker stuff

After a bit more grinding over the past few days I'm finally done for the year! December giraffe with obligatory Xmas downswing:

December 2011

Table winnings: +$1k
VPPs and Stellar rewards: +$500
Total: +$1.5k

Meh... marginally better than a kick in the balls I guess. I don't have all my 2011 hands available at the moment so I can't produce a yearly graph but I think I'm up about $14k on the year, which is decent given Black Friday massively screwed everything up. I also ended up building a roll from just FPPs (now about $4.5k) over the last few months so as expected it's been a bit slow lately.

In terms of profit, December wasn't that good a month but it was significant in that I realised a lot of things about my game:
- I prefer being a BR nit
- I don't like switching limits all the time
- I prefer playing more tables, as I find it really hard to cope with the long, drawn-out downswings that come with only playing 4-6 tables
- I can beat 6max, but only if I feel comfortable with my game and don't do anything too ridiculous

These things in mind, I'm switching back to playing more tables (probably 10-12) which should give me a higher hourly and reduce the standard deviation of my monthly WR by about 30%. I'm also changing my BRM:
- Grind a stake until I have 50BI for the next stake
- Take a 10BI shot at the next stake
- Move back down if I drop below 40BI for the stake I'm taking a shot at

e.g. grind 50NL until I have $5k, then take a $1k shot at 100NL. This should result in a lot less switching between limits, which I found pretty frustrating. Being able to take a larger shot also means I can focus a lot better without constantly being distracted by my bankroll.

As for 2011 goals, I'm still undecided... with Stars tinkering with the rake system (read: fucking everyone over) I'm not sure I wanna commit to any VPP goals, or whether I'll even play all my volume on Stars. I think a big factor will be how strong FTP is looking when it returns... we'll have to wait and see I guess.

For profit and volume targets, I'm going to provisionally say $30k total profit after RB/bonuses, and 800 hours played - I managed to squeeze in about 70 hours this month with quite a few distractions so hopefully it shouldn't be that hard.

Hope you've all had a good 2011, and Happy New Year in advance.

- HappyPixel

Back at 100NL

2011-12-23T23:43:00.001Z

Life stuff

Today I had the day off work so I treated myself to a good lie-in, then got the train back to my parents' house in Surrey... thought it was gonna be packed but it was practically empty so I guess everyone else is either travelling really early or really last minute this year.

I'm in quite a good mood at the moment - looking forward to Xmas and everything's been going great lately. Finally winning some $ this month, got my degree results (distinction with 90% in my dissertation ^_^) and won employee of the week at work last week which I was pretty chuffed about. So it's shaping up to be a very merry Christmas this year!

Poker stuff

Finally had a few good sessions and made it back to 100NL, BR is sitting at around $4.2k I think. Also just hit Platinum Star so I should be making reasonable RB next year - not sure if I'll go for 200k VPPs but at my pace for this month it should be doable if I play a decent amount of 200NL next year. Anyways here's my December graph so far:

December 2011

Could be better, could be worse, meh. Sucks to think it could come crashing back down like the start of the month but I was thinking on the train today... as much as poker players bitch and moan about how bad they run and how stressful it is, how many people can say they make 4 figs (or more for some) a month from a hobby? Not many, and if putting up with a bit of variance is the price you have to pay, then so be it.

Anyways here's a few 100NL hands from the past week:

Villain was a reg, I'm not a huge fan of his c/r... I don't have many better hands here but I'm not 3betting many AQ/AJ type hands pre and the board is bone dry apart from the FD. Regardless, felt good to win a 375bb pot especially as I don't play deep tables that often.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em $0.20 Ante - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $186.80
BTN: $128.00
SB: $256.85
BB: $109.00
UTG: $224.80
MP: $239.95

Pre Flop: ($2.70) Hero is CO with 8 A
1 fold, MP raises to $3.70, Hero raises to $11, 3 folds, MP calls $7.30

Flop: ($24.70) 3 A 8 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $16, MP raises to $55, Hero raises to $175.60 all in, MP calls $120.60

Turn: ($375.90) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($375.90) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $375.90
Hero shows 8 A (two pair, Aces and Eights)
MP shows K A (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins $372.90
(Rake: $3.00)

There aren't that many regs I'd do this against but this guy was 3betting way too much and not folding to 4bets. Sucks to flip with KQs but I think he sometimes ships it with hands like A5s or 33 so I still think 4b/c is better than 4b jamming.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $141.05
UTG: $100.00
MP: $100.00
Hero (CO): $267.10
BTN: $113.75
SB: $107.25

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 9 9
2 folds, Hero raises to $3, BTN calls $3, SB raises to $11, 1 fold, Hero raises to $24, 1 fold, SB raises to $107.25 all in, Hero calls $83.25

Flop: ($218.50) 8 5 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($218.50) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($218.50) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $218.50
Hero shows 9 9 (a pair of Nines)
SB shows K Q (high card King)
Hero wins $215.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Villain seemed pretty good - I figured he usually raises turn with 2pr or a set given how drawy the board is, so the river c/r is normally either a hand like K8/K6 or a made hand like 98/87/76/77/54/44 etc turned into a bluff. Lots of combos of those and I feel he's good enough to turn a made hand into a bluff so I think my call is fine.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $101.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN/SB with K 7
Hero raises to $2, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4.00) 8 6 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3, BB calls $3

Turn: ($10.00) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $7.50, BB calls $7.50

River: ($25.00) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $18, BB raises to $55, Hero calls $37

Final Pot: $135.00
BB shows 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes)
Hero mucks K 7
BB wins $134.50
(Rake: $0.50)

Sigh, Russian shorties...

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $137.05
UTG: $48.55
MP: $105.05
Hero (CO): $102.30
BTN: $76.95
SB: $39.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, SB raises to $8, 1 fold, Hero raises to $102.30 all in, SB calls $31 all in

Flop: ($79.00) 4 2 J (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($79.00) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($79.00) 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $79.00
Hero mucks A Q
SB shows Q A (a flush, Ace high)
SB wins $76.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Snapped river here, villain's line doesn't make much sense at all... probably only folding spade rivers as I think they make up a large part of his range here

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $100.00
Hero (BB): $101.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 8 8
BTN/SB raises to $2.50, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($5.00) A 5 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: ($5.00) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $4, BTN/SB raises to $13, Hero calls $9

River: ($31.00) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $19, Hero calls $19

Final Pot: $69.00
BTN/SB shows T 7 (high card Ace)
Hero shows 8 8 (a pair of Eights)
Hero wins $68.50
(Rake: $0.50)

And finally... I wasn't involved in this hand but the chat was absolutely hilarious

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP: $76.00
Hero (CO): $115.40
BTN: $100.00
SB: $62.10
BB: $100.00
UTG: $193.70

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 6 J
1 fold, MP raises to $3, 2 folds, SB calls $2.50, BB calls $2

Flop: ($9.00) 6 Q 7 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP bets $73 all in, SB folds, BB calls $73

Turn: ($155.00) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($155.00) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $155.00
MP shows K A (a pair of Queens)
BB shows Q A (three of a kind, Queens)
BB wins $152.00
(Rake: $3.00)

MP: CARE
MP: POKER IS STUPID ANYWAY

- HappyPixel

HU is fun!

2011-12-14T23:53:00.002Z

Played a short (1.5hr) session today - I was planning on playing a bit longer but ended up going out Xmas shopping... didn't really end up buying anything but got a good bit of investigation done! Bristol is actually amazing for shopping - there are loads of baller shops like Hotel Chocolat and Molton Brown around Cabot Circus, as well as several big department stores like House of Fraser (which is probably the most up-market of the major department stores). Just a shame most of them aren't open past 7pm on weekdays so I'm gonna give it a go at the weekend.

That little digression aside, today's session went pretty well. Wasn't terribly exciting until the end when I got some decent HU action going vs some regs - on that note, it seems no-one wants to play me at HU any more, which is funny cause I'm not exactly a beast at HU...

Plenty of interesting hands from today though:

Villain is pretty much unknown. Pre is a bit meh but BB is a fish and everyone else seems fairly straightforward. Flop and turn are very standard - raising turn would be way over-repping my hand.

River is a nasty spot, as I only have to be good 22% (rough guess) of the time... although to be honest I think it's a pretty clear fold vs almost anyone - whether reg, fish or unknown. I guess you could argue that our range is somewhat capped after we just flat his 1/2 pot on the turn, but you just don't see people bluffing this spot, especially with a minraise. Also there just aren't enough 2pairs out there to warrant a call if he were a fish, and he may well just flat them on the river anyway.

Was pretty happy that I actually folded though cause I am usually a big station in these kinda spots, so wp me.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $52.20

BB: $36.00

UTG: $50.00

Hero (MP): $54.10

CO: $50.00

BTN: $50.00

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

UTG raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1.50, 2 folds, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($5.00) J 2 7 (3 players)

SB checks, UTG bets $3.55, Hero calls $3.55, SB folds

Turn: ($12.10) K (2 players)

UTG bets $6.50, Hero calls $6.50

River: ($25.10) 4 (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $16, UTG raises to $32, Hero folds

Final Pot: $57.10

UTG wins $54.35

(Rake: $2.75)

Villain seemed pretty competent over a small sample HU - he had decent frequencies and seemed aggro but not massively out of line.

Pre is standard, as are flop and turn somewhat. River is a bit more interesting - I feel like I have the best hand about 90%+ of the time here, as he's probably never c/c'ing a big hand or a FD on the turn. I think very often he'll show up with a 98/66/55/7x type hand here, and the river looks like the ultimate obvious scare card so I shipped it expecting to get snapped off a lot.

I was right - he did snap it off with one of about 2 hands (A4/A7) that beat me, meh. Again, I'm happy with my river play as I occasionally pussy out here.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em $0.10 Ante - 2 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $52.65

BB: $60.00

Pre Flop: ($0.95) Hero is BTN/SB with J A

Hero raises to $1, BB raises to $4.50, Hero calls $3.50

Flop: ($9.20) 7 4 2 (2 players)

BB bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($19.20) 8 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $11, BB calls $11

River: ($41.20) A (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $32.05 all in, BB calls $32.05

Final Pot: $105.30

Hero shows J A (a pair of Aces)

BB shows A 4 (two pair, Aces and Fours)

BB wins $104.80

(Rake: $0.50)

The next few hands are all against the same reg at HU. He seemed really nitty, folding nearly 70% of BBs and only opening half his buttons (which is just waaaay too tight at HU). That said, he was 3betting and 4betting a fair bit (just not flatting a whole lot pre), so I felt I could 5b shove 55 against him:

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $53.90

Hero (BB): $53.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 5 5

BTN/SB raises to $1, Hero raises to $4, BTN/SB raises to $9, Hero raises to $53 all in, BTN/SB calls $44

Flop: ($106.00) T 9 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($106.00) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($106.00) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $106.00

BTN/SB shows Q A (a pair of Tens)

Hero shows 5 5 (two pair, Tens and Fives)

Hero wins $105.50

(Rake: $0.50)

After that I thought he was getting a bit tilted - AQ < 55 hurts a lot more than AQ < JJ despite them being practically the same :)

I felt he wouldn't really be donking many value hands 3 streets here but could be steaming from losing the flip and donking random draws and air, just trying to brute force me off the pot. So I flatted flop and turn, and snapped river. Probably folding a spade river as I think spades make up a lot of his range here...

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $50.50

Hero (BTN/SB): $108.65

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with 9 7

Hero raises to $1, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($2.00) 7 2 8 (2 players)

BB bets $1.40, Hero calls $1.40

Turn: ($4.80) A (2 players)

BB bets $3.45, Hero calls $3.45

River: ($11.70) 2 (2 players)

BB bets $7.50, Hero calls $7.50

Final Pot: $26.70

BB shows K 9 (a pair of Deuces)

Hero shows 9 7 (two pair, Sevens and Deuces)

Hero wins $26.20

(Rake: $0.50)

Standard up till turn (I don't think barrelling turn here is a great idea). Again, I thought he would be steaming a bit and I have the best hand a ton, so I made a slight overbet and he snapped it off very fast :)

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $50.00

Hero (BTN/SB): $125.35

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

Hero raises to $1, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($2.00) 7 2 6 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.00) 6 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($5.00) T (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $5.50, BB calls $5.50

Final Pot: $16.00

BB mucks 2 A

Hero shows T 8 (two pair, Tens and Sixes)

Hero wins $15.50

(Rake: $0.50)

Gonna catch some sleep now. For better or worse, my next update is gonna be about 100NL, stay tuned...

- HappyPixel

Update

2011-12-13T23:16:00.001Z

Things have generally been going much better over the past couple of days. I've eased off on the volume front a bit - I played about an hour yesterday and an hour today, making about $250 at 50NL. Not a huge win or anything but it's just what I needed right now - it feels good to book a couple of wins and get an early night for a change. Bankroll is just under $3k now and I'm close to a $100 bonus so with any luck I should be back at 100NL shortly, wheee.

It does suck to be breakeven nearly halfway through the month, but I guess that's the price I have to pay when I'm focusing on playing less tables and moving up faster. The solution to all my woes used to be "MOAR VOLUME" but it's a bit harder when you can no longer play 1200 hands/hr... it's pretty easy to be stuck in a downswing for weeks (or even months) and that's just something I'll have to get used to.

In other news, the 3-button theorem is still alive and well going into 2012...

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $19.90
BB: $50.00
UTG: $51.60
Hero (CO): $58.70
BTN: $30.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 7 7
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, SB calls $1.25, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4.50) Q J 6 (3 players)
SB bets $0.50, BB folds, Hero calls $0.50

Turn: ($5.50) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $4, SB calls $4

River: ($13.50) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12.55, SB raises to $13.90 all in, Hero calls $1.35

Final Pot: $41.30
SB shows 5 J (a pair of Jacks)
Hero shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
Hero wins $39.30
(Rake: $2.00)

- HappyPixel

Stressboxing with HappyPixel

2011-12-12T19:33:00.002Z

Just a quick update... been really fucking stressed lately :(

Poker hasn't been going any better this week (volume is still very good though if that's any consolation... which it really isn't tbh, I'd rather have my $1.5k back, lol) and work has been really stressful for various reasons. I still love poker and I love my job but when they make up 70 hours a week between them I find it pretty hard to cope. Miserable weather never helps either, so all in all I've had a crap month and just need to vent.

Anyways, Xmas is coming up soon, so I'm sure I'll take it easy and chill out for a bit.

I don't want to bore you all with a load of standard beats so here's a couple of nice wins vs a mega whale the other day:

Hand #1

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $434.55

BB: $133.55

UTG: $60.95

MP: $50.00

Hero (CO): $80.45

BTN: $100.50

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

2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($5.00) Q 4 3 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, SB folds

Turn: ($12.00) A (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $95.50 all in, Hero calls $75.45 all in

River: ($162.90) K (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $162.90

Hero shows Q Q (three of a kind, Queens)

BTN shows 4 A (two pair, Aces and Fours)

Hero wins $159.90

(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #2

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $50.00

Hero (BB): $79.25

UTG: $40.65

MP: $30.00

CO: $165.90

BTN: $78.35

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

UTG raises to $1.25, 2 folds, BTN raises to $9, 1 fold, Hero raises to $79.25 all in, 1 fold, BTN calls $69.35 all in

Flop: ($158.20) 3 9 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)

hoooooooooooold oooooooone tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime

Turn: ($158.20) 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($158.20) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $158.20

Hero shows A K (a pair of Nines)

BTN shows J 7 (a pair of Nines - lower kicker)

Hero wins $155.20

(Rake: $3.00)

- HappyPixel

Getting Crushed

2011-12-06T23:39:00.001Z

It's been a really frustrating month so far - ran like god for the first 4 days then lost $600 yesterday and another $600 today. Makes for a pretty horrific looking graph:

December. Ugh.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have found it so frustrating under my old BRM system but it hurts to lose 30% of your roll in just over 24 hours. That said, I do intend to stick with my aggressive BRM and I've moved back down to 50NL for the time being. Hopefully I'll be back at 100NL within a few days. It's always tempting to keep adjusting it on the fly but the first rule of BRM is you don't fuck with your BRM.

Something I will consider adding to it is a set of stoplosses - it's good to take a break after you're stuck a few buyins, even if it's just for 15 minutes. About half way through my session today I just shut all my tables down and took a breather - it's not really a huge deal for me to have to hop back on a bunch of tables as I start most of my tables anyway. Not that it helped me run any better but I didn't go too apeshit about gay hands like this (villain was a reg):

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $100.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $120.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN/SB with A Q
Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $9, Hero calls $6

Flop: ($18.00) Q 2 4 (2 players)
BB bets $9.50, Hero calls $9.50

Turn: ($37.00) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $20, BB calls $20

River: ($77.00) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $81.50 all in, BB calls $61.50 all in

Final Pot: $200.00
BB shows 5 5 (a full house, Fives full of Deuces)
Hero shows A Q (two pair, Queens and Deuces)
BB wins $199.50
(Rake: $0.50)

Le sigh.

I also think it's a good idea to move back down in stakes for a bit after losing X buyins (where X is probably around 6-8). Again, not such a big issue if you use more conservative BRM, but on a short roll it helps a lot. Might try this out for the rest of this month (in addition to the base BRM of taking shots at 30BI, moving back down at 25BI).

On the plus side I've been playing my A-game a large majority of the time this month, even during the downswing. I'm also pretty happy with my volume, which stands at 11.5 hours for the month - should be on pace for about 10k VPPs this month so I should easily be able to make SN next year if I decide to stay on Stars.

Gonna get some much-needed sleep now, adios

- HappyPixel

November Retrospective & 2012 plans

2011-12-04T16:33:00.001Z

November Retrospective

Giraffe:

November 2011

Online: +$262
Live: -£58 (lol donkaments)
FPPs: +$300ish (ignore the RB line on the graph)
============
Total: +$450ish
============

Hours played: 38.5 hours online between Nov 11th and Nov 30th, which I'm pretty happy about given I work full time.

Overall November ended up being a pretty frustrating month; getting back into the swing of things after a long hiatus is never easy, so I guess it wasn't totally unexpected. I felt very confident at 50NL but seemed to be playing poorly when I took a shot at 100NL - however I think towards the end of the month I started playing much better and got off to a flying start in December:

#winning

Obviously I'm running hotter than the sun this month but I've also been playing excellent poker (and I feel I'm pretty objective about how well I'm playing). I think the single biggest thing I've improved at since the start of November (and since my many previous shots at 6max) is starting to really nail down some game theory.

GTO? GTFO.

Many people will disagree with this, but I think learning how to construct balanced strategies is actually very important, even at uNL/SSNL. I'm not saying you should actually play close to GTO (game theory optimal) as there's still plenty of room for exploitative adjustments, but it's a good idea to understand how to play ranges rather than hands.

As a corollary it helps tremendously with keeping your frequencies in check - rather than spontaneously deciding "I feel like bluff raising this flop", forcing yourself to think about how your range looks on that board texture and making a decision whether to bluff raise regulates your frequencies much more reliably. Human beings are terrible random number generators.

As for exploitative play I think it's still a good idea to ask yourself "would I be deviating from a balanced strategy?" If the answer is yes, you better have a damn good reason to make that adjustment. If the answer is "I don't know", you're probably ought to go brush up on your theory a bit more. I've probably saved myself a good few buyins worth of spew by stopping and saying "wait... I don't need to defend/bluff with this hand to prevent myself from being exploited, and I have no additional information that says I should".

Onwards and Upwards

My plan for December is to grind as much as possible and re-evaluate. Might be a bit difficult to get that much volume in around Xmas but I'm hoping to have about a $6k BR so I can start taking shots at 200NL. For the time being I'm going to start taking shots when I have 30BI for each new level, moving back down at 25BI. It's more aggressive BRM than I'm used to, but it's certainly nothing crazy and I plan to stick to it until I start withdrawing money each month.

After New Year I'm hoping to start a thread in the Poker Goals & Challenges forum, which should provide a bit more motivation, as well as allowing me to post a lot more hands and small updates which I wouldn't want cluttering up this blog.

I'm also planning to start revamping this site over Xmas and New Year - just got MonoDevelop working on my desktop so I can start playing around with .NET. Hoping to write this using ASP.NET MVC, which we've been using recently at work with a lot of success.

Anyways, until next time, gl gl

- HappyPixel

NINJA BUMP

2011-11-12T21:55:00.011Z

After 6 months of being really busy (and a bit lazy) I've decided to resurrect this blog. Hooray. So... what have I been up to? In short:

Dissertation

Had to do a project for my MSc around July-September (at least I think that's when it was, seems like ages ago now) which involved writing a rather neat-looking program in Java and OpenGL. My project was called "Edge-Preserving Mesh Smoothing" which is basically noise removal in 3D... tbh a lot of it was pretty mundane but I ended up doing a good amount of original research and designed a pretty solid algorithm so hopefully that'll go down well. I wasn't so happy about all the jumping through hoops (e.g. "reflection of skills learned" etc) which I thought was way too wishy-washy to add any value to it, but c'est la vie.

Apparently I don't get my results until January, by which time it'll be a distant memory...

Job

I started working full-time as a graduate web developer about 6 weeks ago... it's a smallish (about 30 people) company based near Bristol and so far it's been awesome. The first couple of weeks were training, then we were thrown in at the deep end, working on big websites like Sophos and easyJet. Kinda cool knowing you're working on something that will be used by millions of people.

We have a lot of other big clients although I'm not sure which ones I can name. Lately we've been doing a really slick-looking website for a big health company's new product - rounded corners, drop shadows, AJAX popups, overlays and custom dropdowns all over the place... spent about half my time stamping out ridiculous IE7 bugs >_<

I'm just thankful we don't support IE6

Poker

If you play 50NL 6max you may have seen me back at the tables the past couple of days. I spent most of September grinding FPP satellites and spinning up a bankroll from that, then had no internet until a few days ago, which SUCKED. As of this weekend I've been back on the grind, which has gone pretty well so far. I would post a graph but because I run Linux I play on a virtual machine and can't really be bothered to boot it up just to get a screenshot. [Edit: just finished a session and figured I might as well...]

This weekend, all 50NL

It's refreshing to play 4-6 tables instead of 18, and it's been good experience starting lots of tables and sitting HU vs regs to get tables going. I just hope I can convince myself to move up more aggressively this time. I always thought I had a lot of discipline when it came to bankroll management but it works both ways: if you're rolled for a higher stake you really ought to take shots and push yourself rather than stagnating at the same limit for ages.

Anyways, the plan is to keep playing a lot until the end of the year, then set some goals for next year. It's a shame everything went tits up with Black Friday and FTP etc earlier this year, 2011 was looking promising but hopefully I get a decent shot at my goals in 2012.

On another note, I might be completely re-doing this site some time over the next few months if I can be bothered, stay tuned!

- HappyPixel

Hero raises to $2 (AI)

2011-05-20T01:32:00.005+01:00

Nano steaks pokers

As you can probably tell, poker's been on the back-burner for me since Black Friday. As soon as I heard the news I panic-withdrew my entire Stars and FTP rolls so I haven't really had the means to grind, although my motivation's been lacking a bit so I'm not that bothered. I did stick $100 back on FTP though, just for a laugh, and I've been playing some 1c/2c 6max with that... after my exams I think it's a good time for me to drop the tables down and go back to 6max again.

I know I've done this before with varying degrees of success, but after Black Friday I don't see mass-tabling full ring as a great option any more. It's a lot harder to get as much "quality" volume in with the smaller player pool so I'd rather try to actually get good at poker. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with being an FPP pro and I think high-volume grinders get a lot of unfair criticism for being bad or whatever (I mean RB is money at the end of the day), but at the moment I think it's a better option to take another shot at improving and trying to stick with playing fewer tables.

So for now, I'm gonna be messing around at 6max with pretty aggressive BRM, most likely taking a shot at 20BI and dropping back down at 15BI, until I reach 100NL or thereabouts, i.e. making a reasonable hourly. Probably not gonna bother posting 2NL graphs (unless someone actually gives a fuck, lol) but I'll post updates from time to time.

Not sure where this leaves my Supernova chase, as I have a decent number of FPPs now (about $1k worth, I think). I may decide to grind it out and hit Supernova so I get decent value for my FPPs, otherwise I'll have to just grind there for a month and hit Platinum so I get a reasonable exchange rate. Alternatively I could grind FPP satellites since this is probably just a one-off thing. Either way I don't think the difference will be more than $200 or so, so I'm not that fussed.

Equity Calculator

Yesterday I was throwing together a draft of the interface for my equity calculator. One of the annoying things about software development is that you can write a program that solves a really difficult problem and output the results in a console, but that means sod all to most people. As the resident computer geek you get people watching you type "ls" in a command line and saying "woah that looks crazy, are you hacking or something?" and to avoid the pains of explaining what a command line is in laymans terms, you nod and say "yeah, hacking".

It's alive!

It's nice to have something to show for your efforts. At the moment it's pretty much just a clone of PokerStove, but I'll be working on refining the interface and adding a few features Stove doesn't have, e.g. selecting more hand groups such as all Axs, Axo, Kxs etc; only showing 2 players by default (by far the most common scenario) and having a button to add more rather than showing all 10; hand weighting (either by # of combos or by percentages).

- HappyPixel

Oxford Cup 2011 and Gus Hansen!

2011-05-09T15:24:00.008+01:00

This weekend I travelled up to Oxford with some guys from Cardiff Uni PokerSoc to play in the Oxford Cup, a student poker tourney. The actual tourney was on Sunday, but there was some weird event on Saturday which we were invited to, as well as a talk by Gus Hansen at the Oxford Union, so we all went up there on Saturday morning and stayed the night in a hostel.

Invitation-Only Flippament

The Saturday event was apparently the first (and hopefully last) ever "duplicate poker" tournament, and was "officially sanctioned by the International Federation of Poker" (lol). It involved 6 teams (the Six Nations: England, Wales, France, Ireland, Scotland and ummm... Rest of Europe) sitting at 6 tables, one team in each seat on each table, with a load of identical pre-ordered decks so as to eliminate any form of variance.

As expected it was pretty shambolic: for a start there were 8 of us from Wales, and they'd already printed the 6 name cards so I didn't even get to play, although I wasn't that bothered once I saw the first few hands from the rail. Most hands were multi-way AIPFs such as QQ vs 4 lots of unpaired undercards, I even watched one of my team members ship 54s pre and get snapped off by a dominated hand, lulz. Funnily enough it was advertised as some kind of superduperskillament when it ended up being decided by who is dumb enough to call it off 5-ways pre with 32o and bink. We then had to sit through a whole minute of the Scottish national anthem afterwards, sigh.

Anyways, there was some 20p/40p cash going on afterwards. Was running alright for a bit, got £60 in pre with QQ vs AK, we ran it twice and I held both times... then a bit later I got it in with 88 vs T7dd on Q86 two diamonds (vs the same guy), we ran it twice and he hit both times to scoop a £250 pot. Obviously I've played much bigger pots but still kinda frustrating.

Gus Hansen at the Union

Later that evening we went to see Gus Hansen speaking at the Oxford Union - he was pretty hilarious despite all the dumb questions like "do you still play for real money?" and "what was your thought process behind this hand you played several years ago where you shoved 5bbs with Q8s in a tourney?". Apparently he'd had lunch with Richard Dawkins earlier that day, which is very random, so he ended up talking about whether his new BFF would make a good poker player, lol. Shame Dawkins wasn't actually there, as he's one of my heroes (whatever you think of his views on religion, I think he deserves a lot of respect as a scientist). We did manage to get a couple of photos with Gus though (I'm on the far right) and he signed a few copies of them at the tourney on Sunday:

The man, the myth, the legend

We went out for a couple drinks and played a bit more cash, pretty uneventful though and I was really shattered so I ended up playing like a massive nit, finished up slightly. There was one mental hand where UTG limps for 40p, old guy in MP makes it £2, BTN makes it £6.60, BB cold-calls, UTG makes it £22.40, old guy quickly makes it £82.40 (he's about £350 effective with UTG) and everyone folds. He shows T7o. WTF.

Afterwards we went back to the hostel and played a satellite to breakfast, as there were 5 of us and only 4 breakfast coupons. We were using a wide variety of Scrabble, checkers and chess pieces, and some little plastic men as chips. Solid effort. Tim donked out but we played a £1 SnG afterwards and he won that so we pretty much ended up paying for his breakfast anyway. Unfortunately he's not a morning person and had to late-reg for breakfast, which by then was only wafer-thin ham and mayonnaise, ul.

Oxford Cup 2011

On Sunday we played the Oxford Cup, which was a £20 rebuy. Structure wasn't all that great but it got 200 runners which is pretty decent. Gus was playing, so we had a £20-each bounty pool on knocking Gus out, but none of us were on his table. I was in for £60 (initial double stack plus the add-on), so I bought 7k worth of chips and had a really uneventful first few levels.

At 300/600 I still had about 7k chips and was getting really bored and hungry, so when we went on break I thought "fuck it, gonna start shipping so I can get some food". Shortly after the break I shoved a few hands and took down some blinds, then moved to another table and shoved about 10bbs on the BTN with K7s. Guy in the BB, who had been playing fairly tight-passive from what I'd seen (he was on my starting table) says "I'm gonna be really stupid and defend my blinds". True to his word, he called with Q6o and I held.

I then had about 18k at 600/1200 and another guy who was on my starting table opened to 2600 in MP. I'd seen him open a decent amount on this table as he had quite a lot of chips, so I figured it was an alright spot to shove Q8s in the BB. He snap-called with AK and I binked an 8 to double up. He seemed a bit pissed off and I heard him saying to someone how he would normally fold AK but he "knew I was making a move", lol live players.

Shortly afterwards the same guy limped in EP, someone overlimped and I looked down at A5s in the SB. I'd often shove in this spot but I figured he's probably looking for any excuse to call a shove from me. But getting 7:1 I thought it was fine to just complete, so I called 600 more and the BB shoves for 15k. Folds round to me and I tank for a bit... I don't play tourneys so I honestly don't know if this is correct, but I think he can do this reasonably wide and I was getting decent odds so I called and held against 98s. Picked up a few more pots, soon I'd gone from 7k to 75k in a couple of blind levels and we went on break.

Soon we were down to 2 tables and there was a decent crowd and lots of photographers around; I peaked at 130k then blinded down a bit, eventually it's 5k/10k and I have about 95k. Some guy who had been blinding down and hadn't played a single hand for a good hour or so decides to shove his last 25k (with 54o haha)... BTN who just about covers me shoves AQo and I snap in the SB with TT and lose a flip, gg. Apparently some donks on the rail were talking about how TT is such a standard fold (for 9bbs), lol live players again. Anyways I pick up £220 for my efforts, meh.

The fruits of my labour

I still hate live tournies although this one was more bearable than most, partly cause I ran half decent and because Gus Hansen was somehow playing a £20 rebuy. Also saw some of my friends from Cambridge briefly which is always nice.

NitZilla

I've spent a while over the past week or so developing an equity calculator for my poker suite. It turns out it's a pretty simple problem to just solve (just find a way of evaluating hand strengths and run through all the possible combos), but a really difficult problem to solve at all efficiently. The first time I got my program to correctly calculate AA vs KK preflop, it took a whole 2 hours to run, which is not all that surprising when you think how many possible 5-card boards there are, and that my program was going through them exhaustively. Many re-writes later I got it down to 40ms (about 200,000 times faster than my original). By comparison, PokerStove does it in about 6ms, which is really impressive but I'm still very happy with my program.

A lot of the way my program works is inspired by this article by the author of PokerStove. One of the things I realised early on is that flushes really screw things up. If you can ignore suits, you only have to go through all the rank combinations, which is roughly 1000 (4^5 ish) times faster. So I decided to pre-compute the hand strengths of the best hands that can be made from a list of 7 ranks (without using flushes) and from a list of 5 to 7 distinct ranks that are of the same suit (considering only flushes and straight flushes). I stored all these values in hashmaps, as it's pretty easy to store both hand strengths and lists of ranks as integers. It also does a load of bitwise stuff to speed things up, e.g. my program does some nice stuff like ANDing with 31 (11111 in binary, five cards in a row) to check for straights.

Then for the vast majority of 7-card hands and 5-card boards (where you can't make a flush), you can just use the rank strength and work out how many combos there are when you include suits. For those where you can make a flush, you take the maximum of the flush and rank strengths.

The program still has to calculate the strengths at the start, but that only takes about half a second, and the first run takes about 300ms, presumably because of JIT compilation. After that it's a pretty consistent 40ms. I still have to write a GUI for it and add stuff like flop/turn/river calculations and range evaluation, but it can already do preflop (the hardest part by far) with 2-9 single hands and dead cards. I think Omaha shouldn't be too difficult to do either, although I'm not sure if there's any standard way to concisely write down hand ranges.

New Background

I changed the background of this blog, it's an edited version of the GNOME 3 wallpaper which I assume is under the GPL so I guess this background is too. Hope it's not too bright or distracting or anything, let me know if you like/dislike it.

Also remembered you can use almost any HTML tag you like on Blogger, so I've started using proper horizontal lines as separators instead of a bunch of - or = signs, much nicer and easier... for those that have a blog of their own and don't know how, just type <hr /> in the body of your post and it'll put a neat horizontal line there. =)

- HappyPixel

Blog changes, job, my own tracker and more :)

2011-04-29T23:20:00.013+01:00

Note

This post is very tl;dr and contains a lot of techy talk later on so feel free to skim over any bits that put you to sleep, but there is poker-related stuff throughout so keep an eye out for that :)

============

Blog Changes and Job Offer!

This blog was originally intended to be mainly about poker, but I feel it's a bit boring for my readers to read (and for me to write) the same old ramblings, so I think from now on I'm gonna start blogging about a wider variety of hobbies and life stuff. I've already made a few posts about photography and other random shit, and I think they break up the poker talk quite nicely, so you can expect to see some more photography, music and tech talk. Don't worry, I'm still going to post about poker - I'll try to figure out some way to categorise my posts a bit better in case you want to filter them by topic. I'll probably also start using headings to divide my posts up a bit and I'm hoping to give this blog a facelift some time in the near future.

Brizzzzzzzle

I've also realised that my posting frequency fluctuates a great deal... this depends on a lot of factors: mainly how enthusiastic I am about poker at the time, and how much coursework I have. Thankfully I've just finished all my coursework for the conceivable future and managed to land myself a graduate job as a software developer at a small IT company in Bristol, starting at the end of September. Honestly I can't wait to start, as it seems like an awesome place to work and one of my coursemates got offered the job too, so congrats to my future colleague! :)

============

Technology and my own poker tracking software

So speaking of technology, my course (computer science) has really opened my eyes to a lot of technology I'd never really bothered to try before (or had half-heartedly tried and given up on). One of these is Linux: after using Fedora 14 in the Linux labs at uni and seeing how atrocious the Windows XP machines were in comparison, I really took a shine to it and decided to dual-boot Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop. Wasn't long before I ditched Windows and cannibalised its disk space, lol.

The only major downside I've seen so far is that it's difficult to play poker on Linux... using Wine I can get FTP and Stars to run, but FTP seems really unstable and you can forget about getting any kind of tracker to run. I've tried using FPDB but I really can't get used to it and it's still in alpha with a lot of bugs.

I'm actually working on my own tracking software, which I'm going to write as much in Java as possible (although inevitably for the HUD and window management I'm going to have to write some OS-specific stuff in C/C++, and X11 window management is an absolute nightmare).

Needs work imo

Obviously this is a huge task and I've started projects like this in the past then given up on them shortly afterwards, but lately I've become really focused on programming, especially now that I've got a programming job lined up. The name is still to be decided so feel free to leave suggestions (NitZilla is the working name atm). I don't know what the scope is going to be, or whether I'll end up releasing it to the poker community, but on my to-do list at the moment is:

- importing hands into a DB

- support for both Holdem and Omaha Hi

- equity calculator similar to PokerStove

- hand replayer

- graphs

- reports

- TableNinja-like functionality (for hotkeys and automation of common tasks)

- table management similar to PlaceMint

- HUD

- table scanning similar to TableScan Turbo

So it's more of a suite than just a tracker. I know FPDB is already out there as an open-source tracker, and buggy/incomplete as it may be at the moment, it looks very promising; however, this is kind of a pet project of mine so I'm gonna go ahead with it anyway.

My message to aspiring programmers out there is that if you find something interesting but you're not sure if you can do it, just go ahead and launch yourself head-first into it anyway. Misadventure is one of the best ways to learn, and in the past week or so I've learnt so many more things about Java (JNA, JNI, Xlib, SWT, concurrency, enums to name a few) than I have in two entire semesters of Java lectures. I guess this goes for more than just programming, so consider it a piece of general life advice.

============

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Mini-Review

One last thing I'd like to talk about in this post is Ubuntu 11.04. I dunno how much of my audience can relate to this, but I want to rant about it for a bit, so feel free to skip this if you're not a geek.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm running Ubuntu on my laptop. 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) was one of the slickest things I've ever used, ever. Seriously, my mind was blown. I upgraded to 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) a couple of days ago and so far, I've been thoroughly disappointed. Something I must commend Canonical on is the upgrade process: click the upgrade button, 1 hour later you have 11.04 with no questions asked and just have to restart once.

Unfortunately, I don't have many other nice things to say about it. The main gripe I have with it, is that they've changed the default interface from GNOME Panel to Unity. Whilst I'm willing to give new things a try, I think this was a pretty terrible decision on their part.

Some of the features of Unity are great: I like the vertical launcher, which makes a lot of sense given most screens are widescreen nowadays. It works pretty well, although it took me a while to figure out how to switch the icons around (you have to pull them out first before dragging them). I also like the keyboard shortcuts on the launcher, using the Super key (when they work). I've never liked the default auto-hide feature, as I like my desktop to be a bit more static, but managed to lock it in Compiz Config Settings Manager (which I'll talk about below).

They've introduced global menus, which are a bit of a mixed bag. They make a lot of sense when an application is maximised, but honestly when an app is not maximised, I want my menus to be on the windows and not all the way at the top of the screen... I'm also not a huge fan of the Dash, which is definitely something that works a lot better on netbooks or tablets rather than laptops or desktops, although I can see how people may like it. What I hate about it most is the retardedly huge icons and wasted space, and as far as I can tell there's no way to change it.

Which brings me on to what I hate the most about Unity:

(a) It's difficult to configure... the only way to change Unity-related settings is to install Compiz Config Settings Manager, which isn't installed by default. Even then, there are many things you can't configure at all, and seeing as customisation is one of the main attractions of Linux, I'm very disappointed by this.

FFFFFFFUUUUUNITY

(b) It's buggy as fuck! Seriously, in my first 3 hours using Unity, I crashed it no fewer than 10 times. Notably, every time you change any setting (no matter how minor) in CCSM, Unity stops rendering the panel, and I managed to screw it up so badly that Unity wouldn't load at all, even after restarting my machine. Eventually I had to delete all my config folders, which is less than ideal. The Dash also glitches out a lot, and the global menus render pretty choppily.

Overall, I'm not impressed with Unity at all. I feel it's fine to include it with Ubuntu, but it's clearly not a mature technology (I'm not the only one having problems with it, 50% of Canonical's testers managed to crash it!) and it definitely shouldn't be the default interface. I think once they iron out the bugs it'll be a decent product, but until then I'm sticking with classic GNOME and might give KDE and GNOME shell another try.

If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back. Apparently this post is about 1500 words long, which is impressive considering it took me several days and a lot of misery to write a similar length essay about virtualization in data centres earlier this week :)

- HappyPixel

eek

2011-04-16T03:42:00.003+01:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post as I've been really bogged down with coursework etc but as of a few hours ago the sky is falling again... FTP, Stars and UB/AP have just been indicted on fraud charges by the FBI and pretty much shut down in the US, at least for now... obviously really fucking worrying both short-term and long-term, as it's my main source of income at the moment and I have $xx,xxx on those sites.

Just panic-cashed out my FTP roll onto NETELLER (although I managed to fail spectacularly and accidentally paid $160 in fees by ticking the GBP box, fml) which happened instantly. Still waiting for my Stars cashout to be approved though, which is very worrying, as it normally only takes a couple of minutes.

Dunno what's going on really and it doesn't help that 2+2 is absolutely flooded with traffic and not loading, guess we'll have to wait and see...

Done for the month

2011-02-27T18:57:00.002Z

I just played my last session of the month (wanted to hit $6k), and having hit that goal I've decided to call it a month... this has been officially my best month ever by a decent margin and it's a pretty amazing feeling, given I came back to FR around mid-January and didn't expect to pick it back up so fast. Here's my Feb graph:

Totals:

+$4868 table winnings

+$250 Stellar bonuses

+$900 FPP value

------------------------

+$6018 total

Running good at NL200 :)

Obviously really happy with Feb, hopefully in March I will play more of my hands at NL200 and take some shots at NL400. Would be nice to have a $10k month since that's been my goal for the last couple years now - still kinda unlikely but you never know. Oh and I got another royal today, bit weird cause it happened in the last session of January too, lol.

- HappyPixel

Losing sessions noooo

2011-02-19T17:41:00.006Z

The last few days I've been running pretty bad and had a few losing sessions, hit a $1.2k downswing (which is not actually that much given I'm playing about 30% of my hands at 200NL) but managed to recover from it pretty quickly... I guess it was bound to happen eventually though, as before this Thursday I'd only had one losing session this month and that was only -$60 lol.

Anyways, overall I'm doing very well this month, up about $4.2k after Stellar bonuses and FPP value (which I've decided to count as my RB rather than assuming 43%) and I'm slowly catching up to my VPP pace which is encouraging. After pretty much giving up on live poker I should be getting a lot more hands in at the weekends and going out a lot more too - went to Oceana last night and ended up in Live Lounge as per always, lol. Probs going out again tonight, 2 out of 3 cats agree that doing things other than live poker at the weekends is hugely +LifeEV :)

Some lol hands from the past few days (already posted these in uNL BBV):

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

BTN: $90.00
SB: $100.00
BB: $216.00
UTG: $100.00
UTG+1: $98.50
Hero (MP1): $312.30
MP2: $171.90
CO: $221.80

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP1 with A A
2 folds, Hero raises to $3, 3 folds, SB calls $2.50, BB raises to $216 all in, Hero raises to $312.30 all in,1 fold

Flop: ($435.00) 7 5 A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($435.00) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($435.00) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $435.00
BB shows 5 J (two pair, Tens and Fives)
Hero shows A A (a full house, Aces full of Tens)
Hero wins $432.00
(Rake: $3.00)

---------------------------------------------

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

BTN: $143.90
SB: $235.70
Hero (BB): $209.45
UTG: $203.00
UTG+1: $137.60
MP1: $386.45
MP2: $94.55
CO: $129.30

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with A 8
4 folds, CO raises to $5, BTN calls $5, SB calls $4, Hero calls $3

Flop: ($20.00) 3 6 Q (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $14, CO folds, BTN calls $14, SB folds

Turn: ($48.00) J (2 players)
Hero bets $32, BTN calls $32

River: ($112.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $40, Hero calls $40

Final Pot: $192.00
BTN shows A K (high card Ace)
Hero mucks A 8
BTN wins $189.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Pretty hilarious although I stand by my call if he can turn up with AK here...

Bit of music, only stumbled across this the other day as I don't have Super Colossal and it's quickly become one of my fave Satch performances:

- HappyPixel

Quick update

2011-02-14T01:20:00.002Z

Just had one of my most epic comeback sessions ever, here's my Feb graph so far (the $1100 W at the end is all one session):

Needless to say I'm pretty pumped after going from +$200 to -$900 and back to +$250 in the space of 4 hours... tables are just ridiculous, full of 70+ VPIPs doing stuff like this:

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

MP1: $223.05
Hero (MP2): $229.95
CO: $200.00
BTN: $200.65
SB: $255.75
BB: $168.80
UTG: $208.25
UTG+1: $203.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is MP2 with 2 A
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, 3 folds, BB raises to $10, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($21.00) 2 A 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $14, BB raises to $28, Hero raises to $219.95 all in, BB calls $130.80 all in

Turn: ($338.60) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($338.60) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $338.60
Hero shows 2 A (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
BB shows Q 8 (two pair, Queens and Eights)
Hero wins $335.60
(Rake: $3.00)

Even the regs are going nuts, maybe he read my 5k post and took it to heart...

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

MP1: $137.30
MP2: $107.10
CO: $100.00
BTN: $135.20
SB: $191.65
Hero (BB): $106.50
UTG: $128.70
UTG+1: $123.95

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 6 5
6 folds, SB raises to $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6.00) 5 6 4 (2 players)
SB bets $6, Hero raises to $19, SB calls $13

Turn: ($44.00) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $23, SB raises to $169.65 all in, Hero calls $61.50 all in

River: ($213.00) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $213.00
SB shows 9 8 (a pair of Nines)
Hero shows 6 5 (two pair, Sixes and Fives)
Hero wins $210.00
(Rake: $3.00)

- HappyPixel

Feb so far

2011-02-10T08:02:00.003Z

February has been going great so far, I was slacking on the volume a bit for the first week (Saturday live session fucks you up for a couple days) but the last 3 days I've put in some decent sessions, really been playing my A-game which is encouraging. Graph so far:

+$300 rakeback +$330 live = roughly $2k

VPP-wise I've been struggling to keep pace, really it's not that hard to put in 3k hands a day but like I said the weekends kinda mess with my sleep cycle so much I should probably just cut out the live sessions altogether... I'm considering doing Friday instead of Saturday as I won't have to wait till 8am for the first train back, I'll see how that goes. Saturday is better for going out and doing something social anyway.

Oh and Stars buyin changes are happening today, booyah.

Anti-tilt music:

- HappyPixel

January Recap

2011-02-01T02:37:00.003Z

Just finished another marathon session to end January, 5.5k hands and $1.70 profit lol... really pleased with it though, was the best I've played in months. Sadly I got KK < AA 3 times, set under set, AA vs 77 on Q627 and AA vs T5s on 655 in 3bet pots... shame as it could have been a very good session otherwise, epic red line imo:

As a small token of consolation I did get one of these today:

Anyways here's my January graph, overall I'm quite pleased with the volume as the vast majority of it was in the last 10 days... also I can definitely handle 18 tables without autopiloting too much, as long as I'm not tired/drunk etc, which makes a pretty huge difference to my rakeback which now works out around $25/hr. Graph of the month:

+$1.1k rakeback

+$1.5k live

==================

+$4k total

Not bad considering I had exams, hopefully February goes even better :)

- HappyPixel

Heaters gonna heat

2011-01-27T16:32:00.003Z

Ever since exams I've been on a bit of a heater, although my volume is not quite what I was hoping for. Put in a couple of 5k hand days but yesterday I slacked off a bit and only played 800 hands after a sick little session where I mixed in some 200NL tables and ran like god... poker is easy when you get it in with KK vs AA and flop quads. Post-exam graph:

Gonna hop back on the tables now, this month I've been mixing mainly 50NL and 100NL but now I'm doing 100NL and 200NL I should be able to get back on pace soon :)

- HappyPixel

King of the Ring

2011-01-25T06:26:00.005Z

Well, maybe that title's a bit too grand but I have been crushing full ring so far this month. Since exams finished last Thursday I'm up about $1600 between live and online which is not bad... also bumped up my table count from 12 to 18 with decent results, so I should be able to catch up to pace without too much difficulty.

I've been running great and it's a small sample, but I'm still very happy with 12bb/100 over 15k hands and I'm glad I've adapted to it so quickly. I think the stint at 6max did me some good, I'm now playing a much more solid TAG game than a year or so ago when I was more of a nit.

Having said that, full ring is all about figuring out when to nit and when not to. Take this hand for example (both regs):

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

UTG: $50.00
UTG+1: $106.05
UTG+2: $119.10
MP1: $119.60
MP2: $97.60
CO: $161.85
BTN: $336.10
SB: $145.30
Hero (BB): $132.35

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A A
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $3, 3 folds, BTN raises to $10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $32, 1 fold, BTN raises to $336.10 all in, Hero calls $100.35 all in

Flop: ($268.20) 4 3 Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($268.20) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($268.20) 7 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $268.20
BTN shows K K (a pair of Kings)
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins $265.20
(Rake: $3.00)

Villain:

Hero:

Sick cooler huh? No dawg. Against some random aggro fish it's a sick cooler... against a reg with zero history who cold 4bet you after you 3bet an EP open, it's spew. Sure I can show up with an occasional cold 4b bluff (I did it with QJo in a similar spot earlier today vs an aggressive 3bettor) but that's gonna be very rare, and if I have QQ/AK am I really expecting him to ever ship worse hands for 130bbs? Even KK would be pretty damn thin.

- HappyPixel

Exams, oh noes!

2011-01-17T23:27:00.004Z

I have exams tomorrow nooooooo! :(

Thankfully this is computer science at Cardiff and not maths at Cambridge... don't get me wrong, it's a good uni and a decent course but it's refreshing to be doing light revision for a few days rather than flat-out intense revision for 6 weeks solid, lol. Need 50% overall to pass this module, did pretty well in coursework so only need about 27% in the exam to pass :)

Anyways, as you can see I've slipped way behind pace, I have actually played a few thousand hands since my last post - mainly Rush which didn't go that well and didn't count towards my precious VPP count but hey I got some random $50 bonus from FTP so whatever. Also played some real pokers on Stars, here's my Stars FR graph for this month:

lol samplesizes, yeah I've been running very well but it really does suit my nitty disposition a lot better than 6max... if -4BI constitutes an awful session then I'm all for nitting it up.

I *think* I have a week off after exams (probs ought to double-check that before I don't turn up for a week lol) so hoping to rinse Stars for 50k hands and a lot of monies... I doubt I'll catch up to pace by the end of this month but shouldn't be too far off.

Been listening to some LTE lately, solid.

- HappyPixel

Back to FR?

2011-01-09T22:50:00.004Z

Well, after a really awful session at 6max yesterday and generally being breakeven over the last 60k hands I decided to re-evaluate my options. I looked back at my 2009 and 2010 databases and checked the "# of players" report which pretty much told me I suck at shorthanded play, lol.

My overall winrate at FR was about 7.5bb/100 compared to more like 2.5bb/100 at 6max over pretty big samples, and my SD was about 10bb/100 lower. Granted, the 6max is a bit more recent and the games have got tougher since then, but I think it's a bit of a no-brainer for me to switch back to FR at least for the immediate future. Where that leaves me on my SN chase I don't know - if I stick with 12 tables I'm getting a lot less VPPs per hour so 300k is gonna be kinda hard, then again it works out as a few extra % RB at FR anyway. I might bump the tables up to 16 or so to compensate, as it's obviously a lot easier to play more tables at FR than at 6max.

If you look at my progress box in the sidebar you'll see I'm already a bit behind pace although I kinda expected that as I have coursework and exams coming up over the next couple weeks so I'm not too worried about that, but depending on how it goes at FR I might aim for 200k VPPs instead, or possibly just 100k and put in the rest of my volume on FTP or maybe a Euro site.

Feels kinda like I've gone round in circles a bit as I was playing 100NL FR a year ago, but it makes a lot of sense for me. I think most of the people reading this blog are FR players so maybe I'll see some of you at the tables ;)

- HappyPixel

Supernova in 2011!

2011-01-05T09:23:00.006Z

gogogo!

I've decided I'm gonna take the plunge and try to hit Supernova this year, probably the 300k milestone which I'm a bit behind pace for at the moment but it's still early days. Stars is definitely a lot tougher than Full Tilt so my winrate has taken a hit, but I'm not sure it's enough to cancel out the ~1.4bb/100 extra rakeback I'm gonna be getting.

I've got used to the software and no longer hate it as much as I did a couple weeks - I bought a mod that gives me full-face cards rather than overlapping ones, and I'm using a trial of TableNinja which is working great. I don't really trust myself with hotkeys so it's just for putting default bet sizes in the bet box, but it's saving me a few hundred clicks an hour and seems to work a lot more reliably than other programs / scripts I've used so I'll probably end up buying it.

Results-wise it's been a bit disappointing, I'm roughly breakeven over the last 2-3 weeks despite putting in nearly 60k hands, although I've been getting used to playing higher volume than before, and it's not a huge sample or anything so I'll have to re-evaluate it when I've put in another 100k hands or so. Thankfully I'm up about $2k in rakeback, bonuses and FPPs :)

I have found myself auto-piloting a lot and just playing really nitty, around 18/16 or so, which is not totally unexpected when playing 12 tables but clearly I was missing out on a lot of +EV spots. I've switched it up a bit over the past few days, running more like 22/19 and barrelling off a lot more postflop, and as a result my redline has gone from a -10bb/100 trainwreck to being roughly breakeven over the past 5k hands or so. I know it happens a decent amount over such small samples and I'm not a redline whore or anything, but I feel it's a decent metric of how much attention I've been paying and whenever I look back at better months in my DB it's been breakeven or slightly losing.

Gonna get back to grinding now, GL in 2011 everyone

- HappyPixel

Post-Xmas Update

2010-12-29T06:48:00.002Z

Time of good will and happiness, yadayadayada where are my presents? Contrary to popular belief, atheists are just as greedy and materialistic as Christians, and in that respect I did pretty well out of this year's Xmas :)

Xbox games... consumables (ship the Hine)... copy of Atlas Shrugged... uh, don't ask.

Seriously though, despite no-one in my family being remotely religious, it was nice to spend some time together, even if there isn't a whole lot to do where I live. My grandma was in hospital after falling over so I had to go visit her on Xmas day, which was a little depressing as the place was full of old people who were sitting in the TV room sleeping with their Xmas hats on, lol. It was hilarious listening to my grandma moaning about how senile and decrepit the others were, while my Dad was cringing and trying to get to her to show a bit more tact, as they were about 10ft away. "Oh don't worry they can't hear me anyway", loooool.

Poker-wise, I've only put in about 15k hands since my last update, roughly breakeven but nothing that interesting to report. Been running pretty bad since, but I won't bore you with HHs etc.

In total I've played about 38k hands in the last couple weeks, without feeling like it's a ridiculous amount of effort or anything. Granted, I haven't had that much else to do, but I think I can continue to put in close to this volume during term time (at least after my exams) if I make an effort, and cut my live poker down a bit, as I'm often putting in 40 hours at the felt during weekends. The games on Stars are a bit tougher than FTP and I'm still getting used to the software (which sucks at smallest table size, and I tile all my tables) but given the FTP rake changes, doubling my RB is something I can't really pass up. An alternative option is to play FTP and Stars at the same time, picking the best tables from each, but because of the way the Stars VIP program works, it's gonna eat into my RB a lot. Could still be a viable option though, if it increases my WR, also I get free CardRunners that way. Or I could play several different stakes at once, like 0.50/1 and 1/2 - that way I'm putting in all my volume on Stars and get a large pool of games to choose from. Still weighing up my options, feel free to chime in.

- HappyPixel

Snoooow

2010-12-23T15:43:00.007Z

The past week or so there's been an absolutely insane amount of snow, I woke up one morning to find Cardiff looking like a big ski resort, lol. Anyways term was over so my parents came to Cardiff to give me a lift back, and while they were busy digging the car out of the snow I managed to get a few photos.

The journey back ended up taking 7 hours (normally takes 2.5 hours)... despite the UK generally having quite cold and miserable weather it doesn't really snow that often, so the country kinda grinds to a halt when it does. This mess of a weather report from a few days ago made me laugh:

"Today's weather will be... all over the fucking place"

On the poker front, I've put in about 25k hands over the past week which is pretty decent. Again, profit hasn't been amazing but that does include a nightmare -$1.1k session the other day, probably my worst session ever in both $ and buyins (all 100NL). But I've more or less got unstuck since then, and I've cleared $650 in bonuses and waiting for a $450 RB payment so overall I'm up about $1.5k in the past week:

I also watched a vid by Nikachu on 3betting, which along with all the hilarious rabbit animations was actually very insightful. It's made me rethink my 3b game a bit, which has been working pretty well and has the added benefit of shaving 10bb/100 off my standard deviation. I feel like it's a step in the right direction - if you check out some of my posts from summer 2009 I was playing really solid and winning very consistently without too much fancy play, which is something I've been trying to replicate in 6max.

Anyways I'm probs not making another post for a few days, so Merry Xmas everyone!

- HappyPixel

10k hand session

2010-12-16T02:48:00.003Z

Term is basically over (got 1 more day of lectures, no more coursework thank God) so today I put in a cheeky 10k hand session, which I'm pretty sure is my longest session ever in terms of hands... was about 11 hours but it seems all the 15-hour live sessions have made for pretty good practice :)

Not a great session in terms of raw profit, but I did make $300, plus $170 RB and I bought and cleared a $250 Black card bonus, since I'm trying to use up my FTPs before my Black Card expires. I know I keep saying this but I will probably move to Stars after new year... should be able to get the equivalent of 40-45% RB without too much difficulty, much better than the crappy 27% with contributed MGR. Today's session really made me realise how much I'm being screwed by FTP. On their Ironman scheme I get pretty much nothing unless I grind out 500 FTPs a day, 20 days a month - the 6.4k FTPs I earned today mean jack shit:

Regardless I'm pretty happy with a +$720 day to get me back on track a bit after the pain and misery that is Aspers. Also played a £100 live donkament over the weekend, always good to break up the grind a bit with something different but it did make me remember why I hate tourneys... as for Xmas, will probably be playing a decent amount, should be able to use up all my FTPs pretty easily, might go to London to play some live if I can be bothered. Anyways, time to end this post as I have lectures in a few hours then hopefully hitting the pub for a bit afterwards

- HappyPixel

I love AK

2010-12-04T17:54:00.003Z

Mini whine time, lost £830 yesterday lol... here's one of those "this is going on my blog" hands:

I limp AK UTG, Mr Donk City makes it £21 as per usual, some random guy calls, I ship for nearly £200 effective. Mr City snaaaaap calls and the other guy folds.

Rob says "In before bad beat".

Board comes J3356. He rolls over Q6.

I say "In after bad beat".

- HappyPixel

Update

2010-12-03T17:44:00.004Z

Just a quick update since I'm about to pop out for another weekend of degeneracy...

You've probably already seen this but if not you need to watch it cause it's awesome lol:

I've been back to Swansea a couple times and did a bit better, got my £400 back. Also played a short online session for another $550:

Yesterday I went down to Gala for the first time in yonks, lost £330 at 25p/50p lol... was playing a little more aggro than usual but I probs wouldn't play anything differently on reflection. Bricked a big semibluff, thin valued TP 3 streets into quads and lost a bunch of all-ins vs some fish who left with £400 profit at the end, ah well.

Anyways the felt is calling again, gtg

- HappyPixel

Swansea

2010-11-22T23:09:00.019Z

I headed down to Swansea yesterday with a couple friends - after missing the first train like donks we got there around 9pm and had to make up for lost time. Pleeeeenty of hands to talk about so if you like that kinda stuff you are gonna love this post...

Game was £1/£1 NLHE with an uncapped buyin (dunno how I put up with 150bb max all this time). There was only 1 proper table running and it was full so we did a little flippament between the 3 of us for waiting list order, I won so I was top of the list and in the mean time we got put on a temp table. I bought in for £200, wasn't there for long but I did get into a decent pot:

Hand 1

Hero (£200) is UTG+1 with AT

UTG limps, Hero raises to £7, Chinese guy in MP (~£100) calls, shortstack in SB (£35) calls, station in BB (~£150) calls, UTG calls.

Flop (£35): T92

Shortstack leads for £7, station flats, UTG folds, I think for a bit and pop it to £30, Chinese guy cold calls, shortie folds and station calls.

Turn (£130): 3

I love my life, station checks to me and I ask how much he has, he has about £110 so I stick it in. Chinese guy snap calls, station tanks for about a minute and says he can't fold (surprise surprise) so we are 3 ways in a ~£400 pot.

River (~£400): 6

Decent river since only 87 got there, I flip my AT and they both muck, station later confirms he was chasing a draw.

Shortly after this hand a seat becomes available on the main table so I get moved. I sit down a look around to see 7 Asian guys who are around my age and clearly minted, talking loudly and splashing about, sweet. Doesn't take long for me to notice the average pot is well over £100, almost every hand was straddled and it would go limp, limp, limp, £18, call, call, call, £70 going into the flop. I wasn't that involved for the first orbit or so, then Rob gets moved to my left just in time to witness this:

Hand 2

Hero (£400) is CO with 99

UTG+1 straddles to £2, UTG+2 limps, MP limps, Hero pops it to £15, talkative splashy guy in BB (~£300+) calls, both limpers call.

Flop (£60): Q96

BB leads for £1 (lol), UTG+2 calls, MP raises to £11, Hero makes it another £50 on top, and BB instashoves for what looks like about £300-350 total, although I never got an exact count because it folds round to me and I snap call. He asks me if I have a set and I say yes, he then offers to run it twice and I snap agree since the pot is like £700 lol...

Turn 1 (~£350): 3 (fml?)

River 1 (~£350): 7 (the actual fml)

Turn 2 (~£350): 6 (phew)

River 2 (~£350): 8

He then turns over T8 for the naked double gutter so we chop it up and he says "you should have only run it once haha!"

I then played a few (relatively) small pots, kept getting the crap raised out of me by some aggro fish who Rob aptly referred to as Looney Tunes... bit of a weird character since he was a big white guy playing loose/crazy and raising me postflop every time I got into a hand with him, but he didn't seem like your standard ego player, in fact I hardly heard him say a word the entire session.

Hand 3

Hero (~£350) is MP with JJ

No straddle this time, 1 limp, Hero pops it to £10, several folds, Chinese guy from hand 1 calls on BTN, Looney Tunes (~£400) calls in BB and limper folds.

Flop (£30): KT5

Looney leads out for £5, I think about making a small value raise but decide against it and just call, Chinese guy calls.

Turn (£45): J

Bink. Looney leads out for £15 and I decide against an aggro donk I should try to look pushy so I quickly make it £65 total (obv playing for stacks here, if he somehow has a straight then nh). Chinese guy folds and Looney calls.

River (£175): 3

Brick city on the river, Looney Tunes checks to me and I thought about my bet sizing for a few seconds. I was originally gonna make it £150+ but settled on £125... in hindsight I would make it bigger but I didn't quite know the full extent of his looniness at the time. He quickly calls and mucks when I show, Hero wins the £420 pot.

I was eventually up like £450, Rob was also up a couple hundo after check/shoving flop in a huge 3way pot and taking it down uncontested. Tim was down 300 or so but has been on a bit of a heater recently :)

But don't worry, it's all downhill from here.

Hand 4

Hero (£650) is UTG with A8

Action was getting pretty crazy preflop but I definitely wanted to play this hand when stacks were mainly £200-400. I decided to limp and see what people did rather than making it £5, getting a bunch of callers and getting popped to £35. Strangely it ended up limping round and it was 7 to the flop (I think).

Flop (£7): AQ4

Blinds check, Hero bets £5. Normally a bit thin but these lads are so bad that this is a clear value bet. Folds round to Chinese guy from hand 1 (£280) in the CO, who calls. Everyone else folds.

Turn (£17): 8

Loving life now, I bet £15 and Chinese guy quickly calls.

River (£47): A

After he calls flop and turn, he has Ax a lot which is always gonna bet when I check to him, and is probably call a c/r, whereas he may just flat if I bet. If he has QxI get paid regardless and anything less than Ax is probably just folding to a bet, so I decide a c/r is definitely the way to go. I check, he bets £36, I deliberate for a bit and make it another £125 on top. It's a limped pot so he never has AQ, and I'm thinking of Vegas and the fucking Mirage as he shoves for £96 more. Of course I snap call and get shown AQ for the £560 pot. Marvellous.

There was another huge hand which involves me check/shoving the turn for nearly £300 as a semi-bluff, over Looney Tunes' overbet on a 4-straight board... sounds retardedly awful but I had good reason for doing so. Sadly it turns out he had it and I bricked all my outs so I'd rather not relive the hand in this blog post, lol...

Thankfully I wasn't the only person who was constantly getting owned in £600 pots:

Hand 5

Rob (£275) is UTG+1 with TT

Rob raises to £7, 2 callers, gambly Asian guy from hand 2 (~£260) squeezes to £26 on the BTN, Looney Tunes cold-calls in the BB. At this point Rob takes my advice from earlier that week about shipping over squeezy players when there's mega dead money, and ships it. BTN super-snap calls and Looney Tunes folds. Rob says "I'm crushed".

Before anyone thinks of offering to run it twice, dealer starts dealing out the QJxxx board and BTN flips over AJ to Rob's surprise/disgust. Looney then laments about how he folded Q4 to the shove, lol.

After this the action kinda died down a bit and they stopped dealing at 4:30am, although they let us continue self-dealt with no rake, so of course we stayed and all continued to run awful. No mega pots after this, although Tim had AA < 88 AIPF, Rob had AK < 99 AIPF (K6979 board just to rub it in) and I had a flush under flush, so we finished down about £400 each, despite being the only 3 regs at the table for most of the night.

Ah well, good fun lol... also I think I need to learn Mah Jong cause we heard people playing it all night and there's probably huge money in it!

- HappyPixel

November Rain

2010-11-04T19:12:00.005Z

This is a long overdue update, but I've been very busy and this has been a pretty depressing week. I just got hit with a few more pieces of coursework, so I now have no fewer than 5 assignments due in the next 3 weeks or so, and as of yesterday I've been dealing with some absolutely outrageous personal shit. I'd rather not talk about that but suffice to say I'm not a happy bunny right now...

The poker front has been going a bit more happily though - I'm definitely starting to get the hang of the live nuances and have been making a mint against the donks down at Gala and Croups... up about £550 in the past week despite a bad session on Sunday where I lost a bunch of preflop flips for large sums of money against some random megafish, who promptly donated it all to the Mr Khan Foundation... -_-

I also hit a total of £1k in real cash monies - I have fond memories of hitting that milestone online and I'm glad it only took a few weeks to do it live. Plus the visual effect of having £1k+ in £20 notes is pretty damn satisfying. My recent blog posts probably make it seem like I have nothing better to do than take photos of money but I'm still new to live poker and the novelty hasn't worn off yet, lol

gg wallet.

Anyways, I ended up chatting to some online reg in Croups the other night, turns out I've played against him quite a bit online, lol. Croups does seem a lot reggier than other places, but the fish seem a lot splashier, less old nits who sit with 40bbs so it seems like a decent place to play, especially on Fridays when they run a £35 donkament.

I might be off to Swansea some time to check out Aspers and possibly Grosvenor since I've heard good things about them, but until then I probably won't be playing as much because I'm so busy now. I've also come to realise that since starting to play live, I've only put in one short session of online poker, and although I've made a good £750 or so playing live the past month, it only equates to like £5-6/hr. Obviously it's good fun / more social, and imo it's easier to put in a 10 hour live session than say, a 4 hour online session, but I feel like my bottom line is suffering a bit too much. A good compromise might be cutting out my Sunday Gala session and playing online instead, since I'd still go Friday and Saturday anyway, and Sunday isn't generally as good as Fri/Sat, whereas online it's still pretty soft. I guess I'll have to see how that works out.

As for photography, I haven't been doing much of that recently - the pic below is a kinda abstract one from donking around with low light and the blinds in my room. Pretty noisy though... might look better in B&W although I'd have to tinker with the levels a bit.

I was thinking of going to Bute Park with my camera around 6:30am after Gala a couple weeks ago, cause there was a full moon, but ended up being too tired so I'll wait for the next one and try to get some cool shots.

- HappyPixel

Gala loooool

2010-10-17T08:15:00.005+01:00

Finally got my internet back in working condition after berating the support people again, looks like I'll be back at the tables soon. In the meantime I've been down Gala at the weekends grinding some 25p/50p. Super soft (obv), can be pretty fun at times so I'm probs gonna keep going along anyways despite the crappy hourly. Bit of an aquarium that place, saw some Chinese lad flat £70 pre with QJo with like £50 behind the other day. Been running a bit cold the past few times though, didn't really get much going till I stacked someone for £75 near the end of my session today. Also managed to somehow lose a £25 chip on my way from the table to the cashier yesterday which was pretty much my profits for that session, gg.

Got into a strange spot today with my mate Rob who plays a lot of live...

UTG straddles to £1, 2 callers (both randoms) then Rob calls in SB, I call in BB with Q9, UTG checks.

Flop comes QT6, Rob checks, I bet £2.50 and get 2 callers, Rob thinks for a few seconds and calls.

Turn 7, Rob checks and I bet £7 into £15, 2 folds and Rob calls.

River T, Rob leads £12 into £28...

I'm probs quite nitty in his eyes so I doubt he calls flop and turn with Tx that often when I bet into 3 ppl, then again it's a weird spot for him to bluff when my hand looks a lot like Qx. I doubt he's slowplaying this board with QT/66 etc so I'm only worried about KQ/QJ and I think he raises those pre at least some percentage of the time, also he's first to act so he probs just leads flop. I discussed this hand with him and someone else afterwards, pretty inconclusive tbh so if you have a bit of insight then just leave a comment. Bit of a wtf spot.

Oh and I witnessed a fine piece of shortstack justice today, dude from PokerSoc sits with £20, plays like a nit and blinds down for several hours then picks up AK and gets it in vs AQ for £15, board comes QxxQQ and he stands up and walks around for a few minutes in disbelief. Priceless.

Anyways I really ought to go to sleep soon, it's nearly 9am... my sleep schedule is pretty fucked these days, I have 9am lectures during the week and then stay up like a caffeine-fueled degen on weekends, rinse and repeat. Haven't posted a photo in a while so here's one I took the other day, figured these £50 notes make nice subject material since you don't see them often and they look kinda baller :)

(edit: fixed the colour balance, looks much nicer now)

- HappyPixel

Croeso I Caerdydd

2010-10-03T20:22:00.011+01:00

Fwynhau eich arhosiad!

Good old Google Translate. That said, the Millennium Stadium is Stadiwm y Mileniwm and bacon is bacwn so just replace some random vowels with the letter w and you should get by alright. Or you can just speak English like everyone else =)

Anyways... this year I'm living in shared student accommodation, which I'm pretty happy with so far. It's a bit cheaper than Cambridge and a hell of a lot cheaper than London would have been if I'd chosen to go to Imperial or UCL. I'm in a 6-person flat with a communal kitchen / living area but there's an en-suite in each room, so it's pretty similar to what I'm used to anyway. My flatmates seem really nice, although I've been here a week and I still haven't met the person next door to me... I've had conflicting reports that they're a girl, that they're a guy, and that they have moved out (which would make a lot of sense, lol). Didn't see them today when the fire alarm went off, but I'm really relieved that a) it's taken 7 days for the fire alarm to go off and b) it's like 10x less loud than the ones I'm used to.

Was a bit hectic moving in though:

- had a really busto mattress which they had to replace

- no chair

- carpet had a load of burn marks (apparently the previous guy smoked a load of shisha and/or weed) so they had to replace it

- the key I was given didn't fit in the lock at all, so I didn't have a key to my own room for the first 24 hours or so (faaaaaaaaaail) until they replaced the entire lock the next day

- internet keeps disconnecting every 2 mins... I'm still sorting this out, can't really play poker until then :(

Thankfully they are really efficient at replacing stuff so it could have been a lot worse I guess. Also had to change mobile network since T-Mobile has no signal here, should have my old number back in the next few days when I can be bothered to get my PAC code.

Moving in aside, I've had a great time meeting all the other postgrads - there's been a bunch of postgrad welcome events like pub quizzes, walking tours, pub crawl etc. Bit more tame than the undergrad Freshers' Week but I guess that's to be expected when a lot of the other postgrads are 30 and/or married... it's a bit weird for me as I'm 21 and fresh out of my undergrad, where everyone was the same age as me. I do still feel like an undergrad, hopefully I won't be an old man for another couple years or so, lol.

Also went to the Societies Fayre the other day, ended up joining a few of them... looks like PokerSoc does weekly tournies starting with a freeroll next Wednesday, as well as some 10p/20p cash. Dunno how big the society is but should be a bit softer than a table full of Cambridge mathematicians and economists. I'll see if I can get them to degen it up with some Skinner and 32bb straddles.

PhotoSoc looks pretty good, and I also joined ArtSoc since they do some photography stuff and both societies offer beginners' classes. There's a MathsSoc too, dunno how good it is since it's only been around 2 years but figured I might as well join and at least go to the socials. Tbh, the socials are one of the reasons I wanted to join a bunch of these societies - might be difficult getting a bunch of postgrads together to go out so this is a pretty good way to meet lots of new people and go for a cheeky night out. On a side note, it looks like PhotoSoc and ArtSoc are 80% girls and even MathsSoc seems to be mainly girls (I know, wtf?) which kinda makes up for the fact my course is 14 guys and 1 girl. Good to have a bit of balance, right?

Sorry for the lack of poker content lately, there's been a ton of life stuff going on. Should start playing once I get my internet fixed, until then here's a little something I heard a while ago and just remembered (ignore it if you've heard it before):

"In PLO, the hand 9 3 3 3 can make the nuts at showdown in 3 different ways. How?"

- HappyPixel

NY and Back Home

2010-09-25T20:16:00.004+01:00

I was gonna do this update like a week ago but the Wi-Fi in the NY hotel was kinda crap and I just couldn't be bothered just after getting back home, so here it is.

New York was good, although overall I think I preferred Chicago (possibly because I've been to NY before). For photography and sightseeing I think NY is a little disappointing - I went up the Empire State building, but the queue is deceptively long and when you get to the top it's very crowded so it's really difficult to get good photos. Also you can't see the biggest landmark in Manhattan because you're kinda... standing right on top of it, lol.

I was a lot more impressed by the "Top of the Rock" - you can go to the Observation deck of the Rockerfeller Center which has way shorter queues and a much better view. You get an unobstructed view of pretty much the whole city, including a great view of the Empire State and Central Park. I definitely recommend going there instead of the Empire State - there is a recessed top deck with no full-height railings or glass panels, which is ideal for taking photos. I went at sunset and got a few nice shots (I'll post a couple of them below), although I wish I'd brought my telephoto lens for some close-ups.

I also went on a boat tour which went around the whole of Manhattan - it's a great way to see the city (especially if you want to see the Statue of Liberty), although we got the 3hr tour which goes full circle and was kinda tl;dr because the last hour was mainly just getting back to the start point, the 2hr tour would have been better. Anyways, got some decent close-ups of the Statue of Liberty which is always nice.

One of the best things about NY is definitely the museums - I think it's fair to say NY boasts some of the best museums and art galleries in the world. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a bit of a geek like me there's a TON of stuff to see. The AMNH has an impressive collection of animal exhibits and although I generally think Modern Art is super pretentious/ridiculous, I though MoMA was well worth seeing.

So since getting back, I've been taking it easy, played a bit of the internet pokers and won a few hundo, but nothing that notable to speak of. Tomorrow I'm off to Cardiff which I'm really looking forward to, probs better go pack now and I'll post another update once I've settled in a bit.

- HappyPixel

Chicagoooo

2010-09-11T18:13:00.007+01:00

Sup guys, I'm blogging from Chicago which is an awesome city from what I've seen. My family managed to luckbox a free upgrade to these really nice suites so I'm very comfy right now. Weather has been great, it's been sunny until this morning when it rained for a bit, although this place is definitely called the Windy City for good reason, which is bad news for me and my long hippie hair, lol.

This place is really photogenic and I've been doing a lot of sightseeing, so lots of nice photos and I'll post a few of them on here. On our second day here we did a Segway tour which was great fun. Also went to the Hancock Obvservatory which has a cool view but is pretty disappointing if you want to take photos, the glare on the windows ranges from moderate during the day to awful at night. Managed to get a ton of great shots from the boat tour though, as well as from Buckingham Fountain at night, my 50mm lens was great even without a tripod.

The food has got to be one of my favourite things here, there's a huge Hispanic population here so there are plenty of places that do Mexican food - shame there's no big chains like Chipotle in the UK, I swear I could eat that stuff every day. They do great breakfasts here too, tons of diners that do all different types of eggs and pancakes. I don't have any pics of the food so this isn't gonna be a Doublefly type blog post but suffice to say I'm not gonna starve here.

There's a bunch of huge shops here although we're travelling light so I haven't bought a whole lot of stuff. I did drop 4 buyins on a pair of Bose QC3s which are pretty sick, works out a fair bit cheaper than in the UK so I thought I might as well get them here. Should come in handy for the flights too. Anyways, here's some photos, I'll probs do another blog post once I get to NY.

- HappyPixel

September

2010-09-05T08:21:00.002+01:00

September is going OK so far, had a bit of a disaster yesterday where I was playing like shit and snapping off overbets vs fish with A-high. Gotta work on that spewing thing. A lot of the regs at 100NL are retardedly over-aggressive but I think I put myself into too many marginal spots and end up doing the lot off in awful spots, probs ought to just tighten up instead of shipping it in at every opportunity. Still a ton of fish at 100NL and no real reason to get into reg wars.

Anwyays here's my graph of the month so far, it includes a $50 FTP bonus so I'm up about $500 so far. Never seem to start any month well nowadays but I guess it could be worse (see July). I'm happy to have put in 9k hands though, probs should make the most of the weekends.

I'm going to NY and Chicago with my family in a few days time, should be nice to go somewhere far away for a change, I mean wtf is there to do in Surrey?

- HappyPixel

Robusto again!

2010-08-31T03:38:00.002+01:00

Well, it's not all doom and gloom after all, I've been on a bit of a heater lately:

Obviously $1250 after RB is not a great month but I think over the past couple of weeks I've got a lot better. Moving from 12 tables to 6 tables was a bit easier than I thought it would be, and I've been spewing waaaaay less, as well as running a lot better.

Given that I've dropped to 6 tables I think I'm gonna abandon my goals for now and just focus on playing better and moving up since it should be a lot more worthwhile in the long run than just trying to grind the hell out of 100NL right now. There's definitely a compromise to be struck between quality and quantity but I think I'd rather get better first and start grinding more once I'm confident I can beat 200NL, taking some shots at midstakes. My immediate goal is to get my lifetime total at 100NL 6max above BE - PTR has me down about $500 so it shouldn't be too long until I'm officially a winning player lol.

If it continues to go well at 100NL I probs won't spend too long there and will try to push myself into taking shots at 200NL which I'm well rolled for. Progress has been slow the past couple months so I really want to avoid stagnating.

Anyways, that was August out the way so here's some of my fave HHs from this month:

Hand #1
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $208.45
CO: $101.85
BTN: $130.00
SB: $111.30

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 4 4
1 fold, BTN calls $1, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: ($2.50) 2 K 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($2.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $4, BTN calls $4

River: ($10.50) J (2 players)
Hero bets $15, BTN raises to $30, Hero raises to $203.45 all in, BTN requests TIME, BTN calls $95 all in

Final Pot: $260.50
Hero shows 4 4 (a full house, Fours full of Twos)
BTN mucks K A
Hero wins $258.50
(Rake: $2.00)

Hand #2
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $147.60
MP: $101.50
CO: $141.25
Hero (BTN): $280.00
SB: $104.45
BB: $197.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with A K
2 folds, CO calls $1, Hero raises to $5, 2 folds, CO calls $4

Flop: ($11.50) 2 T K (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $10, CO raises to $60, Hero raises to $275 all in, CO calls $76.25 all in

Turn: ($284.00) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($284.00) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $284.00
CO shows 2 K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
Hero shows A K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
Hero wins $281.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #3
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $100.00
BB: $100.00
UTG: $49.50
Hero (MP): $100.00
CO: $135.45
BTN: $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP with A A
1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, CO calls $3.50, 1 fold, SB requests TIME, SB calls $3, 1 fold

Flop: ($11.50) 3 T A (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $6, CO calls $6, SB calls $6

Turn: ($29.50) 4 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $22, CO calls $22, SB requests TIME, SB raises to $55, Hero raises to $90.50 all in, CO requests TIME, CO raises to $125.95 all in, SB calls $35.50 all in

River: ($301.00) 9 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: $301.00
SB shows T T (three of a kind, Tens)
Hero shows A A (three of a kind, Aces)
CO shows 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes)
Hero wins $298.00
(Rake: $3.00)

- HappyPixel

New low point

2010-08-23T21:32:00.002+01:00

Sorry in advance for another whiny blog post but I'm getting so fucking stressed with this game and I'm now at a new low this month:

Lifetime I'm now stuck $2k at 100NL 6max over 50k hands (breakeven when adjusted for EV) which is really frustrating given how soft the games are... I've tried a variety of styles and still have yet to see any kind of positive results, I guess it's time to look towards getting coaching.

- HappyPixel

2 interesting spots

2010-08-22T03:13:00.008+01:00

Often when a spot is "tough" at the tables, it becomes a whole lot clearer (normally "well THAT was retarded...") a couple hours later when you have more than 30 seconds to figure it out. There aren't that many hands which I feel are actually very close either way, but they do come up, and I'd really appreciate some input on these hands. I've included my reads/thoughts in blue.

Having read Poker Meister's blog, I really like his HH posts since they generate a lot of good discussion, so I might start doing this more often if it works out well.

Hand #1

Villain is relatively unknown, I think he was roughly 15/15 over about 12 hands so probably a reg.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $264.05
Hero (SB): $183.40
BB: $100.20
UTG: $215.65
CO: $104.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with A Q
1 fold, CO raises to $3, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.50, 1 fold

Without knowing any more about him I think 3betting is a little thin.

Flop: ($7.00) 3 2 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $4, Hero raises to $13, CO calls $9

Hard flop to hit, he is probably cbetting all his air and I have 2 overs so I think it's a great spot to c/r. Again, he's unknown so I don't expect him to get super tricky and float or 3b with air that often.

Turn: ($33.00) Q (2 players)
Hero ???

So here's the tough bit imo - we hit our gin card on the turn, and my first thoughts were to value bet and shove most rivers since we're so polarised and he often has 9x/TT/JJ. On the flip side, he's an unknown reg and I don't know how thin he likes to bluffcatch, so he might end up folding those hands a lot. He can also have QQ+ and sets, and if he does occasionally have a float, he might bet if we check to him.

Hand #2

CO is 29/22 with 10% 3bet over 115 hands, he has raised 2 out of 6 flops so far.

BTN is 29/24 with 7% 3bet.

SB is a fairly straightforward 22/18 with 7% 3bet.

BB is a weak player, 29/10.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $100.00
BTN: $172.20
SB: $140.00
BB: $105.50
Hero (UTG): $213.45

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with 7 A
Hero raises to $3, CO calls $3, 1 fold, SB calls $2.50, 1 fold

We are 5-handed with a weak player in the BB so I think opening this hand UTG is fine. The CO is a pretty aggressive 3bettor so it's perhaps a bit thin.

Flop: ($10.00) T 7 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7, CO raises to $23, SB folds, Hero ???

I bet this flop with the intention of barreling off a decent amount. While we have a bit of SD value, it's going to be hard to get value from a worse hand on later streets anyway, and our hand is really vulnerable so I think betting and using our pair as semibluffing equity is a much better option than checking.

When he raises I think it's close between a fold and a shove (I don't like calling since our hand is so vulnerable and we're OOP). He can definitely be raising this flop with a lot of hands, like a BDFD, overcards, 98, etc. as well as sets, but we have a blocker to 77 and he probably flats with sets on this board pretty often, especially because it's a good board for me to barrel. I also think he 3bets QQ+ and maybe JJ most of the time preflop, given his high 3b%, though it's possible he could flat expecting BTN or SB to squeeze.

I guess the main question is, how often does he raise a hand like AT/KT/JJ for value here? I don't think it's good without history, but given how aggro he is, he may well do it anyway. Also of note is that we are 3way, though he may think that's a good reason to bluff since it looks stronger.

If we have, say 15% equity when called, we are effectively risking $60 to win $40 so he has to fold 60% if we shove. Normally giving someone a 60% bluffing range is pretty optimistic but here I think it's very close.

If you think either of these hands is actually a no-brainer either way, please let me know!

- HappyPixel

Tits up

2010-08-20T01:11:00.003+01:00

August isn't looking so good right now, all-ins really aren't my cup of tea:

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $100.00
Hero (BB): $126.70
UTG: $42.00
MP: $56.75
CO: $175.45
BTN: $123.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A K
UTG calls $1, MP calls $1, CO raises to $5, 2 folds, Hero raises to $16, 1 fold, MP calls $15, CO calls $11

Flop: ($49.50) 7 2 A (3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO requests TIME, CO bets $29, Hero raises to $110.70 all in, MP folds, CO calls $81.70

Turn: ($270.90) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($270.90) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $270.90
Hero shows A K (a pair of Aces)
CO shows K A (a flush, Ace high)
CO wins $267.90
(Rake: $3.00)

Graph of the month so far:

I'm really starting to miss FR where I had a higher winrate and lower variance (no multiple $1k downswings on a weekly basis) but I feel I ought to press on with 6max since the games are a lot softer, especially at 200NL+ where FR seems to be pretty much dead unless you're RobSainter or something...

I seriously need to sort out my spew problems, I went into today's session with the MO of not spewing, literally the first hand of my session I get it in vs an unknown with AQ for 75bbs, oops lol.

Tough HH for you guys, villain is a reg, 22/19 with 8% 3bet, no history that I can remember but he seems a bit on the barrel-happy side, with cbet of about 60% on each street. Any comments would be welcome!

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: $118.60
UTG: $101.50
Hero (CO): $194.65
BTN: $169.60
SB: $147.30

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with Q A
UTG raises to $3.50, Hero calls $3.50, 3 folds

Flop: ($8.50) 2 J A (2 players)
UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($20.50) 8 (2 players)
UTG bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($50.50) A (2 players)
UTG bets $37, Hero ???

- HappyPixel

Vegas here I come!

2010-08-13T11:57:00.003+01:00

A couple days ago I turned 21 so it looks like I'll be off to Vegas sometime - not sure when, since my Masters course is a solid 12 months but will probs go for the next WSOP...

August is looking a bit better, still haven't been playing much because I have so much going on - my entire family has their birthdays within an 18 day period in August so it's a really busy month! Something I've done recently is drop the number of tables I play from 12 to 9 - after my second session of the month I looked at my stats and thought "HOLY SHIT I'M PLAYING 13/11 AT 6MAX"... I think it's time to actually focus on playing rather than autopiloting for a 4k hand session. My game seems to have healed up a bit since then, so I'm now BE on the month.

I should be putting in a bit more volume the next couple of weeks, as long as I don't waste too much time playing RDR and BFBC2 which I got for my birthday (both awesome games btw). I know I'm waaaay behind pace now (and I doubt I'll catch up by the end of the year tbh) but my main focus now is beating 100NL for a good clip over a decent sample, then I can move up to 200NL and beyond where I can make some serious money.

Haven't posted a photo in a while, so here's one I took in Lymington with my 55-250mm lens (250mm, f/5.6, 1/250 if you're interested). For such a cheap lens I was really impressed and got some great photos, lots of wild horses who invaded our picnic, lol. This is probs my favourite one though.

- HappyPixel

August

2010-08-06T05:41:00.002+01:00

Sup guys, I'm back from Spain now - had a blast and picked up a bit of a tan... off to Lymington for a bit tomorrow but I managed to sneak in a session today, sadly it's looking a lot like the start of July all over again:

Bleh, whatever. Bit of spew in there tbh, taking a break didn't really do me much good. Tables are lolsoft though:

Hand #1
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: $176.05
UTG: $109.45
MP: $122.95
Hero (CO): $100.00
BTN: $100.00
SB: $188.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with J J
2 folds, Hero raises to $3.50, 2 folds, BB raises to $8, Hero raises to $100 all in, BB calls $92

Flop: ($200.50) 7 K 4

Turn: ($200.50) 2

River: ($200.50) 8

Final Pot: $200.50
BB shows 3 K (a pair of Kings)
Hero shows J J (a pair of Jacks)
BB wins $197.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #2
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $107.35
Hero (SB): $138.00
BB: $71.80
UTG: $108.55
MP: $126.35
CO: $104.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with K A
4 folds, Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $9, Hero raises to $138 all in, BB calls $62.80 all in

Flop: ($143.60) Q 6 T

Turn: ($143.60) Q

River: ($143.60) 2

Final Pot: $143.60
Hero shows K A (a pair of Queens)
BB shows 9 Q (three of a kind, Queens)
BB wins $140.60
(Rake: $3.00)

Pretty sure I'm just gonna stick it out at 100NL, no real point moving down when I think I'm +EV. Ride the variance train imo.

- HappyPixel

July is over!

2010-07-24T03:05:00.007+01:00

So July is pretty much over for me now, I'm off to Spain from Sunday until 4th August, so I probs won't be playing any more hands this month. All in all, this month was a bit disappointing although it's fair to say I made a good recovery towards the end. Graph:

Totals:

+$108 at 100NL

+$432 at 50NL

+$906 RB

+$75 bonus

+$75 coaching

+$259 staking

----------------------

+$1855 total

Pace is about $8k so I'm pretty far behind but I put that down to running and playing bad early in the month, and dropping down to 50NL. I think moving back to 50NL was a bad idea since it stunts my growth so much; I'm really overrolled for 100NL so there's really no reason for me to drop down unless I feel I'm -EV at a certain stake (although perhaps I was at the time, since I was spewing so much).

Anyways, holiday should be fun and a break from poker is pretty welcome right now.

I finished my month off with a decent session of 100NL, got into a couple of interesting spots vs a really aggro reg, 25/20 with 11% 3bet over a decent sample. I think I played both spots fine but if you have a different opinion please post it.

BTN was a reg, folded to 3bets quite a lot. Obviously I can't really flat with BB behind me so I 3bet. I feel an over-aggro reg like this is going to think that everyone else 3bets a lot more than they actually do, so even though my image was pretty tight on that table he probably thinks it's a great spot to cold 4b bluff (which I think is fine). His sizing is a bit fishy though, I would expect him to go to 24bbs or so with a legit hand, imo most regs aren't all that consistent with their sizing in spots like this. If he calls, I figure KJs doesn't do too badly vs his range (although I would rather have something like 22-77). So I stick it in and he snap folds.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: $100.00
CO: $128.45
BTN: $144.75
Hero (SB): $120.95

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with K J
1 fold, BTN raises to $2.50, Hero raises to $9, BB raises to $20, 1 fold, Hero raises to $120.95 all in, 1 fold

Final Pot: $42.50
Hero mucks K J
Hero wins $42.50
(Rake: $0.00)

Later in the session, same table - having watched Newman's DC vid on exactly this kinda spot, I think it's a good spot to "polarise" my range (even though it's not polarised because both of us rarely have 3x or 87s). I think he almost always has a bluff-catcher so I shove river, I think the weakest hand I value shove is J9s since he could potentially be trying to induce with something like J7s. He ended up snapping river.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $106.65
BB: $100.00
UTG: $431.35
CO: $72.00
Hero (BTN): $134.60

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with J A
2 folds, Hero raises to $2, SB raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($13.00) 5 6 J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7, SB calls $7

Turn: ($27.00) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $20, SB calls $20

River: ($67.00) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $101.60 all in, SB calls $73.65 all in

Final Pot: $214.30
SB shows T T (a pair of Tens)
Hero shows J A (a pair of Jacks)
Hero wins $212.30
(Rake: $2.00)

Good to have it work out and not get snapped off by 87s or something, lol

Games are not dead btw

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $100.00
Hero (BTN): $143.90
SB: $151.15
BB: $45.35
UTG: $104.55
MP: $172.45

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with T 9
3 folds, Hero raises to $2, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($5.00) 6 9 5 (2 players)
SB bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($15.00) 3 (2 players)
SB bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($45.00) J (2 players)
SB bets $45, Hero raises to $121.90 all in, SB calls $76.90

Final Pot: $288.80
Hero shows T 9 (a flush, Jack high)
SB mucks 6 K
Hero wins $285.80
(Rake: $3.00)

- HappyPixel

SB wins $1.29, oh the humanity!

2010-07-20T04:21:00.007+01:00

My brother is making good progress, he's already getting tilted at nano-stakes beats which is the mark of a true grinder in the making imo

Hand #1
Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $1.38
BB: $10.03
UTG: $4.00
Hero (MP): $2.22
CO: $4.14
BTN: $4.11

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP with 9 9
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.07, 3 folds, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($0.15) 9 8 T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.15, BB raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $0.66, BB raises to $1.02, Hero raises to $1.38, BB raises to $1.74, Hero raises to $2.15 all in, BB calls $0.41

Turn: ($4.45) K (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.45) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.45
BB shows J Q (a straight, King high)
Hero shows 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines)
BB wins $4.16
(Rake: $0.29)

Hand #2
Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: $1.84
UTG: $3.48
MP: $1.62
Hero (CO): $4.90
BTN: $2.05
SB: $0.68

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is CO with A K
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.10, 1 fold, SB calls $0.09, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.22) 8 Q 8 (2 players)
SB bets $0.58 all in, Hero calls $0.58

Turn: ($1.38) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($1.38) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $1.38
Hero shows A K (a pair of Eights)
SB shows 4 A (two pair, Eights and Fours)
SB wins $1.29
(Rake: $0.09)

But he did still manage to make a whole $3 including RB today, which he seems very happy with.

Despite him running bad, I've been running much better the last couple of sessions and I've nearly broken even without RB so I'll be on my way back to 100NL shortly and should be able to start winning some decent money (fingers crossed). Graph so far:

- HappyPixel