Take your seats and open your notebooks, its time to make some $$$. First lets begin this class with the topic of datamining.
In the past I have blown off datamining, but after a good dialogue with a solid MSNL player I am now open to the idea. For those that don't know what datamining is, datamining is the process of opening up the maximum amount of tables in a poker program (AP) and using a script to extract the hand histories that are recorded, even though you are observing . The obvious benefit to datamining is next time you sit at the table, you could possibly have hundreds if not thousands of hands on a player you have never played with. I was suggested to download Idleminer as it works well with AP.
A few days go by and we now have a strong database of hand histories, so lets apply them. SpadeEye is the ideal application we will use to find the juiciest tables. Here is some more information taken from the SpadeEye website:
SpadeEye is a windows program that makes pokertable selection and datamining easy and fast. The main feature of SpadeEye is to be able display the list of the players sitting at a poker table, their statistics, as well as the tables averages, without having to open the table window. In order to gather statistics about the players a fully customizable datamining module is included which automatically gather hands from online poker sites.
I look forward in applying these two applications to my game. In other news...
Microsoft unveiled a cool new tabletop touchscreen computer on MSNBC. It looks like something out of Minority Report (as they mentioned in the segment). View the video here.
I just finished a session of 200NL and I am down 3 buy-ins. I am having problems with LAG's in 200NL who always seem to outdraw me (because they call everything). Poker can be frustrating sometimes. It's back to 100NL for now. New goal build up to 5k and THEN take a shot at 200NL.
Here is a hand from tonight that I enjoyed. I have played with the villian many times before and he loves to take shots, bluff, outplay his opponents etc. So I put the hammer down on him.
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $1/$2
5 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: $26.95
CO: $491.80
HERO: $252.60
SB: $253.72
BB: $403.55
Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is Button with :10h :Qd
2 folds, HERO raises to $8, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: :6c :4s :4d ($17, 2 players)
BB checks, HERO bets $13, BB raises to $50, HERO raises all-in $244.6, BB folds.
Uncalled bets: $194.6 returned to HERO.
Results:
Final pot: $117
Well it turned out my Friday night plans were cancelled so I managed to play in the 5k freeroll as I posted earlier. Out of 108 entrants I placed 14th for a $60 profit. Small, but its free money so I will take it.
I enjoyed the rest of the weekend playing little poker. I went to a BBQ Sunday and ended up playing some Guitar Hero once the weather turned bad. It's amazing the cult following that surrounds that game. I watched some guys play the game on expert and it was pretty amazing.
In other news, I scored two free tickets to the Dave Attell comedy show in DC this Friday night. This show will be recorded by HBO and like I said, is free! There are still some tickets left, click here if your interested. Here is a clip from one of his standups:
In review, my bankroll stands at around 4.5k. There are three days left in May so I will see if I can get it up to 5k but I am in no rush. Here is a great post by Brian Townsend about being on top and not losing it all like Mahatma.
If search the word "poker" on Flickr you will undoubtedly see dozens of photos of high stakes poker pro Liz Lieu. So much so that she has flooded Flickr with over 600+ photos of herself. Is she conceited or does she have a PR person that is trying to promote her through a sort of gorilla marketing campaign?
With a little research, it turns out she is not just a pretty face but the real deal. With over half a million in tournament winnings, my hat goes off to the pretty woman from Vietnam. Instead of finding cool poker related photos on Flickr I found you Liz Lieu (over... and over... again).
In other (geek) news, I purchased a Targus Wireless Keypad and I love it. I play on a laptop so all the number keys are in a horizontal line across the keyboard. This can be a pain in the ass typing in bets night after night. Now with my wireless mouse and keypad I can just sit back in my chair, completely hands free of the keyboard.
In other (poker) news, I played 5 tables of .50/1 last night. I find it hard to concentrate with the smaller bets but I think I played fine. I lost 1 buy-in ($100) where I had AK on a A73 flop and another guy had 77, what can you do. I honestly look forward to not playing poker tonight and possibly tomorrow. I need a break.
I recommend you read this post over at Tao of Poker by Pauly.
It is excellent. A+++
I just got this e-mail from AP. I would like to play in the 5k freeroll but there is no way I will be home friday night. Impossible. I need a designated hitter.
Dear VIP,
Congratulations you’re one of our TOP 400 VIP Status Point earners for the last two weeks. You have qualified for our exclusive VIP Invitational Tournament on Friday May 25th at 21:00 ET. The prize pool is $5,000 paid over the top 18 finishers. The player field will be less than 400 and the competition level will be high! You can find it under the ‘Tourneys’, ‘Special’ tab, tourney #1524236. All you need to do is click on ‘register’ any time before the tourney begins.
Good Luck!!!
Truth is a hard pill to swallow... and the truth (gulp) is I haven't had a winning session in over five days. My bankroll is down to 4.6k which isn't busto, but I have had to make adjustments. I downshifted from 1/2 NL to .50/1 NL and 2/4 NL is not even in the picture.
It is nothing new to say poker is a grind, when it rain it pours, cei la vie, etc. I honestly think I need to take a break from poker for at least a few days. If I posted a graph of my play for the month of May it would look similar to the outline of Mt. Everest.
I ran into a 95/66/2.5 villain last night. In layman's terms, that is a player who plays ever hand and he raises ever hand. Needless to say Moby Dick ate Captain Ahab and I was stuck -$700 at the table. This player was unreal hitting every flop hard with two pair, sets, etc. He ended up leaving the table up $1,200. I have never seen a bad player hit a luck streak like this guy online.
Here are five major hands ($200+ pots) between the villain and I.
Oh that's how you raise with T4!
I've got the flush... oh your horseshoe gave you a bigger one!
Bluffing off with AQ... of course he has the J.
wait a minute... did I win?
Calling the psycho down with two ladies
I have truly been grinding in my last few sessions and I need to turn this boat around. I don't want to post any "poor me" bad-beat stories, so instead I will provide you with a few good links that are worth reading. I also promised my girlfriend last night that once I hit 12k online I will cash out 2k of it and take us both to Vegas. At this current pace that might be awhile.
Bills 10 things you can do to improve your poker game
Ok I am not going to post up a weekend report because it was just brutal. I was sitting with 8k and I decided to take a shot at 2/4 NL ($400 buy-in). After around 1,500 hands I called it quits. I believe with a bigger bankroll (maybe 15k or so) I could easily play as a regular in these games, but right now the average session swings of 1k are too big for me. Overall I had some bad beats, set over set, flushes hitting on the river for the villian etc. so I am now back to grinding at 1/2NL but still with a healthy 6k bankroll. One thing I wanted to mention is I will give the 2/4 regular players credit. They are VERY aggressive, the tables are full of LAG's, and it is just more intense.
So you just lost 2k what do you do? You get out of the house and unwind! You remind yourself that your health is much more important than some number in your online bank account. So as they say on 2+2..... lets gogogogogoogo!
Saturday I checked out the air show (aka The Joint Services Open House) with my girlfriend. The demonstrations were awesome. The most impressive display was watching the Redbull Skydiving team, they are all insane and fearless. Here is a video of one of their drops.
Sunday It was really nice out so I took a trip over the National Zoo here in Washington D.C.. It was really cool to see all the animals and I took alot of good photos, as photography is another hobby of mine.
Earlier this week I was in a discussion on 2+2, debating if it is more efficient to buy-in for 200BB or 100BB when playing NL on AP. Since I have made good money buying-in for the max (200BB), I stuck to my guns and disagreed with the shorter buy-in theory. But then I had a change of thought. I had a PM conversation with a very solid regular and came to the conclusion that I would give the 100BB theory a shot. So last night I bought in for 4 tables of $200 (100BB) instead of 4 tables of $400 (200BB). Here are the results...
Up $500 (2.5 buy-ins) for the night. I found that I played my stack more efficiently with 100BB compared to 200BB. Below are my two big hands for the night.
Hand 1 - 22 vs QQ
I don't believe I would of gotten paid off by my all-in move on the river if had $327(200 BB) behind instead of $127(100 BB). Also I think my turn-check sealed the deal on this hand, had I bet the turn I am sure he would have folded. NH.
Hand 2 - 99 vs JT
This hand worked out well, villian is putting me on an overpair by the looks of it. Once again I don't feel I would have made the most out of this hand with 200BB compared to 100BB.
In other news, I now have 8k and need to make a short term goal. I am thinking of taking a shot at 2/4 NL with 100BB ($400) sometime soon or maybe just continue to grind 1/2 NL until I have 10k and then take a shot? What are your thoughts, leave a comment.
I am up around $4.3k for the month of May so far. I have also paid over $1,200 in rakeback so I have a little more than $400 (30%) coming to me on the 15th of the next month. So far so good.
In case you were wondering who the distraction in the graph is, it's Carmen Luvana. Run a google search you will not be dissapointed (NSFW).
In other notes, I ran into another huge fish that was playing a table of 1/2NL and a table of 2/4NL last night. Moving foward I have now decided that I won't chase fish to 2/4NL until I am good and ready. Standard raise preflop is $16 and the 3-bet from the button is $48... and we have'nt even seen the flop yet. That and stacks are $800 deep.. wawawewa!
I found this great article written in the Wall Street Journal about a Harvard session where they analyzed if poker is a game of skill. Check it out here.
I checked my account this morning before I headed off to work and sure enough $107 has been added to my AP account. Awesome. There is no money like free money and I can't believe I played without rakeback in the past. If you don't have it sign up for rakebreak and get 30% of your rake back to you. Next month I am expecting over $600+ in rakeback due to my high volume of play (Right now I have paid over $1,100 in rake for the month May and its only the 15th)
I have defiantly had better weekends. For the last two weekends I attended weddings, bachelor parties, and just had an awesome time. This weekend was just...meh (shrug shoulders). Let's recap...
Friday night my girlfriend and I go out to dinner at McGinty's in downtown Silver Spring. I ordered a chicken breast vegetable medley and my girlfriend had an irish version of a chicken salad (huge). The food was good, they serve wine in glasses without stems (odd), but per the portion size by price, its a little pricey.
After dinner we jump into my car to embark on a late night adventure till I meet a new unwelcomed friend... Mr. Concrete pole. I parked on the top level of the parking garage and when I turned the key of my car I decided to pull a James Bond high speed reverse spin around until.... I met Mr. Concrete pole. Going about 20 MPH in reverse I slammed into this pool and completely wrecked my bumper, rear trunk cap, taillight etc... F*@$%!! We drive back to my apartment, rent Night at the Museum which was entertaining... and call it a night.
Saturday morning I drive around to get a few estimates $1,100, $1,600, etc. Finally I say screw it, and I just report it to my insurance company (what do I pay those bastards for anyway?). I only have to pay the $500 deductible and I am good to go. I go home and grind it out online, as you can see in the post below, and I win $2,500 for the day! Sweet! Car worries out the window!
Sunday sucked - bottom line. I woke up in the morning, played the usual 4 tables of 1/2 NL and was down -$500 before noon. I lost three hands where I fired 3-barreled bluffs and the villain would not lay down their hands despite having a weak kicker and the board scaring even Chuck Norris (which is honestly..... is not possible).
I shut down my laptop and head of to my parents house for Mothers day. Swing by Giant, purchase a nice arrangement of flowers for mi mama and I'm golden.
After a few hours of lounging around their house I get bored and decide I am going to make the impulse buy to buy an additional monitor for my laptop to get a better read of the action on the tables. Right now when I multi-tables I have 80% window overlap... it sucks.
I go to Best Buy and pick up a 17" LG LCD Monitor. After dinner I fly back to Silver Spring hook it up to my laptop and I discover it is worth every penny! Not only can I fit all 4 screens on my new monitor with 1280x1024 resolution and only maybe 10-20% overlap, but now I can use my laptop monitor for other applications. This new setup should will work great in the future. In the meantime I manage to lose another -$500 to the river. Time after time, two outers, rivered straights, and ugly two pairs all come on the river -you name it. I lose -$1,000 for the day beat myself up about it, really analyze how I lost it, and I am now ok with it. I am still up $1,500+ for the weekend.
On another note, I hit VIP Platinum status on AP. I have accumulated over 20,000+ AP points which can get me a free buy-in into the $150k Guaranteed Tournament held every Saturday ($200+ value) or I can just hold on to them, which I plan to do. Also I will be receiving my $107 in rakeback money tomorrow which I look forward to.
Tonight I broke two personal online records. First, I won my biggest online pot ever for over $1,000. At the bottom of this post you can find the hand. Second, I won a total of $2,550 for the day. Wow... that is the most i have ever won online in one day.
Stage #655123697: Holdem No Limit $2 - 2007-05-12 15:48:00 (ET)
Table: BEAUMONT AVE (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 3 - KFLYDENT ($210 in chips)
Seat 4 - NEWFOUNDGLRY ($41.85 in chips)
Seat 5 - PESCADORAUGA ($509.43 in chips)
Seat 6 - MRABSOLUTE80 ($85.70 in chips)
Seat 1 - KARSTENB ($151.70 in chips)
Seat 2 - HERO ($528.50 in chips)
NEWFOUNDGLRY - Posts small blind $1
PESCADORAUGA - Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Jc Jd]
MRABSOLUTE80 - Folds
KARSTENB - Folds
HERO - Raises $8 to $8
KFLYDENT - Folds
NEWFOUNDGLRY - Folds
PESCADORAUGA - Raises $14 to $16
HERO - Calls $8
*** FLOP *** [5d Kd Jh]
PESCADORAUGA - Bets $25
HERO - Raises $50 to $50
PESCADORAUGA - Calls $25
*** TURN *** [5d Kd Jh] [4h]
PESCADORAUGA - Checks
HERO - Bets $100
PESCADORAUGA - All-In(Raise) $443.43 to $443.43
HERO - Calls $343.43
*** RIVER *** [5d Kd Jh 4h] [10d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO - Shows [Jc Jd] (Three of a kind, jacks)
PESCADORAUGA - Shows [Ad Ah] (One pair, aces)
HERO Collects $1016.86 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($1019.86) | Rake ($3)
Today I took a step back looked at my blog and I came to the conclusion that I need some more high-content posts. Posting up graphs of big wins is fun, but it doesn't really create any form of discussion. Instead I am going to make a personal blog goal to post up one high content post a week. Here is a small start... a little rant I want to take on 3-betting... please stay seated, relax, and join me on a journey through 3-betting (or the lack there of):
3-bet: Taking control of the hand
You are playing 1/2 NL, a loose villain raises in MP, you look down and see AJs on the button. What do you do? You can either: A) Passively call and then when you miss the flop the villain fires a c-bet and you fold, B) 3-Bet, thereby taking control of the hand, villain checks the flop and you fire a c-bet, villain folds. or C) You hate money, fold, and decide your time is better spent examining why there is so much dust on your monitor.
The answer is B. 3-betting is one of the most under utilized weapons to .50/1 and 1/2 NL players online and live. Not is 3-betting a good weapon to use on the BTN but in the SB as well.
You are playing 1/2 NL, it folds around to a semi-loose villain who raises on the BTN as he has done for the last few orbits, you look down and see KQos in the SB. Its that time again! 3-bet his raise from $8 to $24. I would say over 70% of the time he will fold right then and there. If not, fire a nice $37 c-bet on the flop and let him think rrreeeaaalllyyy hard if he wants to go to the river with his hand. Another advantage of 3-betting in the BB or SB is it will sometimes slow down the villain from stealing the blinds on the BTN. Not always.. but sometimes.
Last few days have I have been pretty much breaking even but so far the month is going good.
As of close last night, I have ran my initial $200 deposit up to $6,150+. I hope the momentum does'nt slow down anytime soon.
I did run into some variance last night... where I lost a $400 pot when I had J8 and the flop was J82. A fool limped in with KK, we exchange punches on the flop, both get it all in, and he catches runner-runner-flush. I lost another $400 pot where a guy called my check-raise-all-in for $200 with a flush draw and hit. Such is poker.
Despite these two hands I came out +$200 for the night which is fine by me. I am very busy with work and a few other things so I will have to keep this breif. I do recommend you read the funniest 2+2 thread ever. Enjoy.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5959332&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
Alright im $51 shy but whatever I hit it. My biggest weekend yet. I am now 4-tabling 1/2 NL as my staple game and making some good $$$ more posts to come later.
Wow I just finished out a great session online tonight. I felt like I got hit with the deck in the face, which may be the case, but I also demonstrated good table selection which was key to my success for this session.
I doubled up my $400 buy-in playing 1/2 NL when my AA ran into a JJ. The villian was very very very aggressive so I played my hand with weak bets and he ended up coming over the top on the turn as I hoped. I think he would have done the same move with air in the reaction to my weak play against him. I ended up lucky number $777 for the night.
In other good news I will be recieving a deposit of $106 back into my AP account thanks to Rakebreak!
