I buy in for $1500 which is the max in this game and I get dealt TT in the bb. Ep limps, mp limps, I raise to $60, both call. Flop AK2r, I lead for $110, ep calls, mp folds. Turn 8 I reach an inflection pt and decide to barrel off barring the board pairing the riv...after all, the flop should hit my range harder than his considering I was the preflop raiser oop. I lead for $250 on turn, he thinks for a couple secs. and calls. Riv 5, no flush, I bet $700 which puts his last $650 all in and before I can get all my money in (some were benjamins cuz I didn't have all my cash exchanged yet) he has his money in. I squeamishly turn over my hand and he proudly turns over... KJ. I hear a couple of "sick call" comments and I roll my eyes. I won't say how bad he played the hand. You can't be results oriented when playing for a living, so if we run that scenario many times, I'll have most of if not all his money so I don't feel bad at all about barreling off that hand. Also, I didn't give off any tells cuz I have plenty of live poker background, so I know that didn't factor into him calling multiple streets w/ mp.
The worst part about the hand was not losing the $1k. After the hand, I thought, well I can play off my image now and get paid off on all my made hands. After 5 hands, they move the guy. Turns out the table was a must move table that feeds into the main games. After a couple more laps they move me into a table w/ unknowns, so I can't even take advantage of my play of that TT hand. I did crush the table though...in terms of playing good. Managed to get about $600 up on the new table w/o showing a hand then got a guy all in on a K65 fl w/ AK vs his KJ for a $1300 pot and lost to a riv J. I didn't feel bad though...cuz I felt good about how well I played overall...and that's all that matters in the long run.
So in the online poker front, I've been falling really behind on hrs played. I don't feel that bad about it cuz I've been spending a lot of time reading poker materials, watching vids, and just thinking about the game. I should've been doing this last year instead of wasting hrs playing video games (WOW anyone?) and spending too much time managing all my fantasy league teams, esp. fantasy football (couple friends and I did manage to beat Eric Lindgren aka Edog for a hefty sum in one league, although it's hefty for us, prob. chump change to him... # is around mid 5 figures). Anyway, the lacking aspect of my poker game is just the fundamental/technical aspects and I'm just trying to understand all of it. If I can acquire all of that knowledge, I think I can succeed at higher stakes, cuz I have the mental, awareness, hand reading skills, and discipline part down pat (along w/ whatever else it takes to succeed in poker).
Also I've been expanding my game by playing some hu (heads up). It's funny cuz I tried to sit down on some 2-4 tables on ftp and stars and almost everyone sits out when I sit. Obv. they must be ptr'ing me and don't want to play a winner (I guess this is bumhunting). I don't want to start playing too big since hu is somewhat new to me, but I think I got a decent grasp of it already. I do want to play anyone at 2-4, even the good regs, so I can get better, but it's not easy to get any matches going. I literally had to note everyone that didn't want to play so I remember not to sit down on their tables in the future. I think I got about 4-5 guys to play me after sitting down on over 80 tables total from both sites, and among the 5 guys, 3 of'em sat out after a few mins. So props to the 2 guys that gave me action, and lost. Here's my HEM in hu play this month... there may be a few hands where we were hu on a 6max table (inc all the 3-6 hands)....small sample size I know, but I think I can eventually pad my ptbb/100 stat playing more hu..... 
Well, there is 1 more day this month and I'm not sure how much nl cash I will be grinding tomorrow, seeing that it's sunday and I love to play the mtts. I think my total this month is around +$40k which I really can't complain about, esp. considering that I am gonna fall under 100hrs grinding online nl cash game, which is my bread and butter. I will post exact #s within the next couple of days....hopefully I can have a big score or 2 tomorrow!
First Comment, my experience has been (and losing $1k can be a bummer), is if you have a pair of 10s, and the flop looks like that? You are probably on the losing end. Personally, I would only have carried on IF there were baby cards there, this is for both Full Tilt and Stars site.
ReplyDeleteAs to those sitting out in HU games, at the lower buy in levels, this wasn't a problem for me (however, I get up from the table when I win, and refuse rematch offers).
ReplyDeleteNow, you can report those folks, because this is a KNOWN issue if you search the FTP forums (and I KNOW you know how to do that). They are supposed to be willing to play, NOT sitting there waiting for fish. Search for the thread of where to report (or just post their usernames in the forum?), and get them booted. This is effective, since FTP wants the rake, and table hoarding (they start at the top of the alphabet of table names), is against the rules.
You will want to contact Support on Stars about this too. As you know, Stars is quicker to respond, but no forum. They aren't supposed to be doing that on Stars neither.
In the Interim, set up your own tables maybe? And wait to see if someone sits down.
I usually give up w/ TT on an AKx rainbow flop but I elected to turn my hand into a bluff..I know I was beat, but considering I was the preflop raiser, AKx should usually hit my range harder than his, and therefore I decided to 3barrel to rep big Axs, KK, AA. I also felt weakness on his end, and actually I was right. If you think about it, I will get a fold from KJ and even weaker Ax hands a high enough % of time by bluffing every street to make it profitable. Plus it's great advertisement if you do get caught.
ReplyDeleteThanks for informing me about the HU rules.. I will not report them, since there are so many of them that will not play...instead I will prob just sit on my own tables and hope someone, anyone, sits down and plays.
Wow, i did not know u can get them booted for that. Hard to table select playing HU then.
ReplyDelete