Almost one year later..

I've been considering a move back into poker for the past few weeks, and now seems as good a time as any. I took a break a bit over 6 months ago on the tail-end of a average-sized downswing, which maybe wasn't the best financial decision but certainly turned into a +EV lifestyle choice. Poker is fun and all, but it wreaks havoc on your emotional stability after a while, even for a relatively carefree guy like myself. So I took a break, reconnected with old friends, traveled the globe a bit, dove into 1 or 2 side projects, and generally floated through life until I felt restless enough to return to this little game.

Fortunately the O/8 games seem pretty good. It looks like a lot of talent has graduated up to some very big games, and the middle stakes arena remains reasonable. Stars spreads a couple 30/60 and 15/30 games that run often, as does Full Tilt, and I'm sure other places have sporadic action. I'm open to suggestions of course.

I'd say more, but there isn't much to add. I'll be playing these games for the time being; we'll see how it all goes. Take care.

Fake update

Not much here. Poker has been awesome, but life's a little too hectic right now to give a solid poker update. It's also a little boring in that respect - lots of 30/60 grinding and not very much high stakes (most of my idle $$ is going into equities right now). So watch some soccer and run well (or I'll do it for you), see you later.

Getting there

Omaha's been a variance-fest since my last post, but for the most part I've come out ahead. Lots of heads-up play at all levels (from 15/30 to 75/150), with session wins and losses of 50bb or so not all that rare. I've been 6-tabling a bit too, but that's been like running into brick walls lately with some really bad luck in unusually large pots. Anyway the World Cup's on, and life is good. I'll post a couple hands before the Mexico-Iran game:


75/150 Omaha Hi/Lo
2 players
Converter

Villain here plays reasonably well as far as I can tell (non-regular), but he's stuck a fair bit since the game broke up so I decided to stick around. I'm pretty sure I can outplay him, especially over time, but my main goal was to run up a big score fairly quickly and induce some of that latent tilt. So, my strategy early on was to play back aggressively, maybe win some big pots, and induce some of that latent tilt. I'm not sure where this hand falls in that spectrum of plans, but we didn't play HU very long and neither of us got stuck much at any point (the match was basically a draw at +5bb for me over a super-small sample), so it's probably OK to look at hands in isolation. One thing to remember: it's a 2/3 SB structure.

Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is BB with K♠ J♠ A♣ 7♣
SB raises, Hero calls.

I could 3-bet, but my hand isn't perfect and I don't know too much about SB's opening range. I don't want to build big pots preflop without corresponding reads at this point, even in position.

Flop: T♠ 9♦ 2♣ (2.67SB, 2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB 3-bets, Hero calls.

I don't love a raise here, although it's a toss-up given my plans for this match. Since we lack history, reaching a showdowns on high boards becomes a premium - it's crucial to force aggressive players to show a hand once in a while to feel out bluffing and semi-bluffing frequencies and basically not get run over. That said, my hand has no showdown value UI and I'm not in great shape against a decent pair (especially w/ overs) - a hand that wants a showdown 100% this early on.

In my defense, the typical player will raise 2-way hands from the SB (it's natural to attempt to limp in w/ more marginal hands getting 6:1 and hoping for free flops from the BB), and I'm 50/50 against something like A5QT (an extremely likely type of hand for SB). Taking control now builds an aggressive image and allows me to exploit my position later in the hand.

When I'm 3-bet I could simply cap, but I don't like doing that on dry boards because it's so likely I'm getting called down that I'd rather wait and raise a later street improved since I'm almost always getting looked up and probably have no fold equity UI.

Turn: 8♠ (4.33BB, 2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

Great card.

River: 2♠ (8.33BB, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Potentially a good card. I doubt he folds a good pair at this point, so early on in the match, and he may put in an extra bet with some weaker flushes. I could lose to the A-high or 2-pair that turned full, but it's not really worth considering.

Results:
SB mucks [Tc Kh As Qh]

This tells me a lot. 1) he open-raised a good high hand from the BB, 2) he 3-bet the flop with top pair and overs w/ no low chances, etc. Looks like he's willing to play big pots with some not-so-strong hands, but it's too early to really know.

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75/150 Omaha Hi/Lo
2 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is BB with A♥ 5♠ 9♥ 8♣
SB raises, Hero 3-bets, SB calls.

Same Villain, but a little later. He's been open-raising well over half of his SB's (limping the rest, and not randomly). I think it's a good idea to take control preflop from time to time with a hand like this.

Flop: 7♥ 8♥ K♣ (4SB, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero 3-bets, SB caps, Hero calls.

This is a pretty dangerous check-raise for anyone to make. A 2-low, 2-flush board against a preflop 3-bettor means that you'd better have a one-way monster or very strong 2-way hand to make a play like this. Hands like 2478, A5KJs, and KK45, etc. I should say, at this point, that I did not think Villain played particularly well and was apt to make a play like this with substantially weaker hands. Given that, my 3-bet in-position is quite reasonable but not necessarily best (alternative is obviously to call and raise improved - similar concept to earlier hand)

Turn: 7♦ (6BB, 2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

This card weakens my hand a little vs. his range, but I may still be ahead.

River: J♦ (8BB, 2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

Necessary. Some wraps didn't get there, the flush missed, and the low missed. Getting 9:1 against an aggressive and relatively unknown player, it's a call IMO.

Results:
SB showed [As 5c 8s 8d] and won

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75/150 Omaha Hi/Lo
2 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is SB with Q♠ T♠ J♥ Q♣
Hero calls, BB checks.

I think high hands are very good limps in a 2/3 game as a standard play. It's crucial to mix this up though, especially since many players enjoy playing back on high boards with relatively little (which lends you massive implied odds when you do flop well).

Flop: 7♣ 9♠ 5♦ (2SB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

Meh. It's rarely a great idea to check and call a flop bet w/ a one-way hand in a miniscule pot, but leading out a scary board in a small pot is a reasonable play. Even if Villain is pretty sure he has the best hand at least one way, there are may ways for him to be crushed and it can get rather expensive. Most players hate to tangle in small pots on drawy 2-low boards, so this is a decent "bluffing" opportunity for me from time to time, as long as I mix it up and do hold the monsters a fair amount (as it appears to him).

Turn: 8♥ (2BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.

I like this play a lot. His peel implies a low hand or a very strong high hand like a straight or set. If he was going to fold a 3rd low card, he would've simply folded the flop, so betting doesn't give me fold equity. If I check, he'll probably bet all of these hands (either for value, or as a half pot bluff) and I can simply raise. At this point I'm probably freerolling and he might fold a hand like K963 out of confusion, since he's almost certainly drawing dead at least one way, and the pot is still small. This also helps get some free cards those times I make a weak flop lead that can't stand to call a turn bet unimproved or bluff again without significant fold equity. Etc.

River: 6♥ (6BB, 2 players)

Hero bets, BB calls.

Results:
BB showed [Td Jc 8d As] and took 3/4. This really shocked me. His passive play cost him in this hand, and it could have been much worse. What if I held QT86 or similar? With the relatively uncounterfeitable nut high and a low in an aggressive heads-up game with many 2nd best high hands possible, it's a trip to threetown on the turn.

June goals, hands, + a misread

First, my mistake - Party hadn't committed to unlimited 30/60 tables, and with the new update there is nothing changed except far greater speed (which is welcome, obviously). It's hard to say, but I expect that hands/hr in full games have risen by 5-10 if the "instant dealing" feature I experienced last night continues.

June has been going well. My April/May LAG experiment ended up a mixed success earn-wise, but I managed to learn a lot about postflop play and heads-up play that should really help me moving onward. I'm pretty psyched, actually. This month I've only played ~5k hands of O/8 (smoking hot) and 2k of Stud8 (lukewarm, but still learning). My O/8 results are pretty sick, and the games are looking better than ever. Lots of bad players taking shots at shorthanded games, especially now that I'm trolling the 15 and 20 games more frequently. I'm not sure they realize how large of a bulls-eye they paint on themselves by sitting in a big game w/ zero reputation and a 10bb stack...but I do :)

That said, I'm looking to play a total of 35k hands in O/8 and 10k in Stud8, with at least 5k hands at the 75/150 level (1-table). I'll still play the bulk of my Omaha at 30/60, with some 20/40 heads-up (these tables never fill, so it's easy to build very short games) and 15/30 ring. With Stud8 I don't mind playing those stakes as well, because that's where I want to learn. Hopefully I can run 2-3bb/100 in O/8 and at least break-even in Stud8. And finally, I hope to play lots of heads-up and possibly throw my hat in the HU 75/150 ring by the end of the month or early July.

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30/60 Omaha Hi/Lo
2 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is SB with 5♥ 7♠ A♠ A♥
Hero raises, BB calls.

BB is a relatively poor HU player, as far as I can tell, but plays the full games well enough (on the looser/aggressive side). I've never seen him sitting before, so I assume he's not very experienced.

Flop: 6♣ T♣ 3♥ (3SB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB calls.

Turn: 4♥ (4.5BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

River: K♦ (6.5BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 8.5BB

Hero shows 5h 7s As Ah
BB doesn't show Jh Th 3s Qc

Very quickly, I wanted to post this hand as a refresher on how awful it is to frequently push something like 2-pair on a 2-low board in a raised pot. In this case he was a small to medium underdog vs. the majority of my range on the flop. If he's going to play this hand preflop, he needs to call a flop like this the vast majority of the time, hoping to raise the turn if I make a bad bet on a high card. If the turn comes low, it's often OK to just show down the hand - putting in any more bets on any street exposes him to the freeroll power of my range. Even if the low hasn't "hit" yet, I'm still a huge favorite to make a low while retaining high chances of my own, so IMO it's useful to think of these situations in terms of a "freeroll."

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30/60 Omaha Hi/Lo
2 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is SB with 8♦ A♥ 7♣ 4♠
Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Same Villain.

Flop: 2♦ 6♠ 9♣ (4SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero calls.

If I were a little more enterprising I might check-raise here. I had my reasons, many which don't translate well in an isolated hand of heads-up, but I don't think check-raising is bad.

Turn: A♦ (3BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero calls.

Not a great card, but folding is a catastrophe. Being able to make a bail-out low and a bail-out pair of aces in a decent sized HU pot is usually enough to drag one half, and I probably have outs on both sides if behind, even if the low ones are hidden.

River: 3♥ (5BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

This is a great card, and I considered leading it for value with a A2346 low. It's possible that Villain holds something completely frustrated, like 2346 or A5QQ, and will either fold a better hand or make a losing river call. But I have to pay off 2 extra bets when behind (calling a raise is obvious), which makes a decision tougher. What do you think?

Results:
Final pot: 5BB

Hero shows 8d Ah 7c 4s
BB doesn't show 9s Jc Tc Ks

Wow. Villain left after this hand, probably realizing that he's not playing well at all. Maybe it was tilt, but 3-betting this hand preflop with the intention to push hard on boards offering little intrinsic fold equity is absolutely terrible. These hands (KTJ9ds) are killer HU hands because they trap players who frequently openraise low hands and overplay high boards. They do NOT do well because of fold equity. Your low hands desire fold equity in heads-up play (since your opponents fear myriad draws/made hands and you have no fear w/ a good made low or draw), whereas your high hands should typically be played for value because opponents hate ceding high boards and constantly invent reasons to pay off. Don't make this mistake.

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30/60 Omaha Hi/Lo
6 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with T♣ J♣ K♦ Q♠
UTG raises, 2 folds, Button calls, SB folds, Hero calls.

My turn to play a high hand from the BB! UTG is a bad LAG, and Button is very loose and occasionally maniacal but typically knows what's up.

Flop: 2♠ T♠ Q♦ (6.5SB, 3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets, Button calls, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, Button calls, Hero calls.

A tough decision. I have top 2 and the nut OESD on a 2-flush board. I suspect that my hand is the best on the flop, with redraws, but the flush looms and I have no backdoor low chances. I prefer check-raising this hand, since people like to peel w/ raw low draws and I'm likely facing 2 of them, and neither loose player is folding a draw I fear for 2 small bets. When it's 3-bet back at me in 3-way action, I know that I'm at least facing a big pair (i.e AA/KK), a bd low, and a flush draw. Worse, my QT/KJ combos might be shared or there could be a set out (though for the most part I don't fear a set). I decide to not to jam and simply call - this is a close decision, and I may have gotten it wrong.

Turn: 4♥ (7.75BB, 3 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, Button calls.

Sort of interesting. I like leading these hands to prevent free cards, but it's likely that UTG has something he wants to bet (i.e. AA w/ some draws) that might allow me to check-raise. Now check-raising again is very ambitious, because my high hand might not be good, but I strongly suspect QT is the best hand here and that UTG will bet again with a probably AA. I prefer my line intuitively, but there may be some merit to the more enterprising c/r. Thoughts?

River: 7♥ (10.75BB, 3 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, Button raises, Hero calls, UTG calls all-in $18.5.

Cool. The board is still awfully dry, and now that the low comes through it makes sense for Button (the LAG) to attempt a value-raise with that hand. 3-betting is useless since Button's hand is face-up and UTG will be all-in behind me.

Results:
Final pot: 16.06BB

Button shows 8s 4c 6s Ad
Hero shows Tc Jc Kd Qs
UTG doesn't show 9s As Ah Kh

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30/60 Omaha Hi/Lo
8 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is Button with A♠ 6♠ Q♣ A♦
5 folds, Hero raises, SB folds, BB calls.

BB is a very tough regular.

Flop: Q♠ Q♦ 8♠ (4.5SB, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls.

Turn: K♠ (4.25BB, 2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

I did something here that I don't normally do. An experiment. I manipulated a timing tell, hoping to look like a busted low hand like A456 that feels like he's being bullied by BB. This makes sense, because most flush draws jam the flop for fold equity and a K/Q shouldn't raise here. Since, on this board, the most likely hand for me is thus a pure bluff, I tried to "sell" it with a 5-8 second pause that allows BB to think a little bit and imitates a frustrated low draw from an aggressive player.

I had hoped to get a weak call or raise, and it seemed to work. Even still, capping lets bluffs get away and I don't have the nuts here, so calling down is best.


River: 5♥ (10.25BB, 2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: 12.25BB

BB shows 8d 2d 3d Ah
Hero shows As 6s Qc Ad

Well. BB's bluff was ill-advised, but he played very well regardless. Preflop this is an excellent calling hand, since his low draw figures to be much stronger than mine and can be pushed very hard (with deception) on many flops. It's also a great hand to bluff high flops with, since it can back into a nut low very easily while generating great fold equity. Of course, BB wasn't bluffing persay, since he had the 8. On the turn, he simply smelled a bluff or timid raise and tried to squash it. I don't love his river bet, but the turn play is reasonable and something that players should watch out for from the better players, especially on boards where the nuts is unlikely to change by the river.

shorthanded revival!?

It looks like Party has done away with the crappy table limits (default= 2, 5-handed or more to open 1 new table up to 4 max). I think they returned to unlimited 30/60 tables, which they used to allow. This is AWESOME. Most of the time 3-6 games run between 3-6 handed, it's easy to get a heads-up match going, and a different set of tables still fill up so game selection is terrific. I'm excited. That's all for now - I hope to post some shorthanded O8 and Stud8 hands in the near future, but I'm a little swamped at the moment.

Still around

Life's been pretty busy, and poker pretty boring. I'm at the tail-end of my 2nd largest O/8 breakeven stretch playing full-ish games (still doing very well at heads-up and 3-handed thank god) and beginning to take my Stud8 game more seriously. I'd post some hands, but honestly it's June and I've been doing so mediocre lately that I really want to move on. I'm up 30bb or so since June 1 in O/8, which is very modest but a good sign.

I got a chance to check out the lax final four games in Philly last weekend, where the tailgate is several times more important than the sport. I don't mind lacrosse (at least men's), but I still think it's pretty bland to watch a team run around on offense passing the ball until someone rips a shot that maybe goes in - if not, most of the time that team recovers the ball and does it all over again. It'd be OK if you could see the skill involved in the plays and stuff, but you really can't - it all looks very basic, even though it definitely isn't. I'm holding out for the World Cup...soccer is by far my favorite sport, the US should be decent this year, and we get great games right out of the gate vs. Czech, Ghana, and Italy. If Arena gives Convey, Dempsey, + Johnson decent minutes in the opening games I'll be really psyched.

I was real close to going down to Germany to see the cup this year (just like I had planned to visit Torino). I'll definitely get there next time. The way I see it, I may as well enjoy the time + resources afforded by poker + just being a young 'kid' with no strings attached. There's still time yet.

Well that's all I got. Run well...I'll be trying.