Day 6: -$16.35 (-16 BB at $.50/1)

Overall: +$71.85 in 958 table minutes

Once again, variance prevents my ascent to the higher planes of 6-max existence.

Hand 1: LAG UTG raises, there's a coldcaller, and I 3-bet with QQ. LAG calls and the coldcaller times out (all-in). The flop is Q54 with a heart flush draw and we cap it. LAG is capable of overplaying hands and draws. At this point, I don't care what he has. It's worse than my hand. The turn is an 8 and we cap it again. The river is a 3. I bet and he raises. At this point, I failed to think through the hand properly. I didn't 3-bet him. I forgot that he raised preflop, so I included hands like 63s and 76s in the hand range. And then I got concerned. That slowed me down and I just called. He had 44 and I could have squeezed him for two more bets.

Hand 2: A different LAG limps UTG and I raise AJo in the cutoff. SB calls and BB 3-bets. There are 4 to the flop for 3 bets each. The flop is AQ9 with two diamonds (of which I have none). BB bets and we call all the way around. The turn is a jack of diamonds. It's checked to me and I bet, and get called in all spots. The river is the T of diamonds. I'm ready to fold, but we check around(!). Semi-coldcalling SB wins with A6 with this 6 of diamond. BB had KK for the useless straight on the river. LAG had Q8s for middle pair. Twodimes says that I'm 62.5% to win on the turn. My share of the 11.5 BB pot was about 7 BB, plus a little more when I'm able to value bet the river. Hands like this keep me from moving up.

Hand 3: A bad break. I have KQo and I raise a limper and the SB from BB. The flop is Q82. Check-bet-call-fold. The turn is a 4. Bet-raise... you know where this goes. I call down and lose to 88.

Hand 4: More play against a weak-tight villain. He raises UTG and I call with 44 in BB. The flop is AT9. I check-raise and take down the pot with almost certainly the worst hand (any broadway-broadway combo has a gutshot and likely peels, so he likely had 88 or worse).

Hand 5: Another bad break. I have J4 diamonds in BB and get a free flop against a button limp and SB. The flop is 532 and I donk it. I get raised, SB coldcalls, and I call. The turn is the king of diamonds bringing me one card closer to a backdoor flush. Check-check-bet-call-call. The river is a 5 of diamonds, completing my flush. SB wakes up and bets(!). After a moment's thought, I decide to raise because I expect to get paid off by at least one of them. They both call. The showdown is A3 non diamonds for SB (middle pair donk after all this aggression?) and button raised the flop with Q8 diamonds for two overcards and the same backdoor flush draw, but one rank better. It amazes me that he didn't 3-bet after making the draw he was pushing on the flop and turn. I guess it saves me money. But this is another hand that keeps me from moving up.

Hand 6: My big money hand of the night. I check 62s from BB after two limpers and SB enter the pot. The flop is T97 giving me a flush draw and the one card gutshot draw to an idiot straight. After some debate, I decide to donk. I get called in two spots. The turn is the 8, giving me the straight. I bet and get raised. This tells me my straight is almost always no good, especially since the card completing the high end is a broadway card. I would fold except that I have the flush draw (in fact, this is the sort of hand I would not have bet without the flush draw). It's coldcalled and so all three of us see the river. The river makes my flush. I donk it to make sure that I get some value out of it. The turn raiser raises again, and the coldcaller coldcalls again. After a brief hesitation, I realize that I have the best hand here a huge portion of the time and value 3-bet it. Both villains had KJ for the straight and I scoop an 18 BB pot. This is the sort of hand that keeps me from having a massive downswing.

Day 5: +$31.20 (+31 BB at $.50/1)

Overall: +$91.20 in 730 table minutes

Back to the winning ways. I played much better today and it felt good. I'm once again within one average day of getting to the next level.

Hand 1: This is actually a hand of little consequence. I'm in the BB with AJo. The action is fold, raise, cold-call, 3-bet, fold, and it's my turn. I fold. It turns out the first player open-raised with 72s, the coldcaller had J7s, and the 3-bettor hand QJo. It's still a fairly easy fold, though, unless I've got better information on the raiser and (more importantly) the 3-bettor.

Hand 2: Here's a botched hand. I raise AQs UTG and get called by both blinds. The flop is KKQ two-suited (only one of my suit), they check to me and I bet. They both call. The turn is an offsuit 7 and they check to me again. I stupidly checked. This is a no-brainer bet-fold situation. The river is an ace, a player bets into me and I call, and I chop with A8s (who had the flush draw on the flop).

Hand 3: It's good that I get some hands right. Aggressive UTG raises and it's coldcalled. I've got 55 in the small blind. I semi-coldcall. The big blind folds and it's three to the flop. It comes out 962 rainbow. I check, PFR bets, coldcaller folds. PFR is a somewhat tight player, but he seems very raise-fold postflop. As I look back at his stats, even after 81 hands his AF is still infinity on the flop and turn. I check-raise him because most of the time he has overcards and I'm getting value. Surprisingly, he folded (most players with overcards will call). This probably means he had a pocket pair like 88 and I pushed him off the best hand. Woo hoo!

Hand 4: I have KJo in the small blind and it's raised to me by the cutoff. Sometimes I fold this, depending on the player. However, this player was pretty new, so I didn't have much to work with. I decide to 3-bet him and see how it plays out (semi-coldcalling is okay in this spot if I'm sure I can outplay both BB and PFR postflop OOP). This knocks out BB and it's heads up. The flop is 773. I bet, he calls. The turn is a 5, bringing a double flush draw, and I bet again. He raises. Two overcards suggests 6 outs and I'm getting 7.5:1 to call. However, I discount a little because of the flush draw, the paired board (sometimes I'm drawing dead), the chances that sometimes my overcards are dominated, a small discount if he decided to get tricky with AA/KK, and I think I'm down to 2-3 outs. I fold.

Hand 5: Sometimes I overplay a hand. It's true. But it's often correct in blind defense against players who fold. I defend my BB from a button raise with QTo. The flop is 872 with a flush draw. I check-raise. The turn is a 2, bringing the flush, and I bet again, getting called. The river is an offsuit 4. This is a spot where I go ahead and fire off the third round to try to knock out ace hands which happened to be holding a club. I actually prefer that the turn does not bring the flush redraw in these spots because it often means I must bet the river. Unfortunately, he called and won with A7s.

Hand 6: A bad beat (because they happen). I steal from SB with J7o against a tight player, and he 3-bets me (crap). The flop is 877 and he bets into me. I'm about to raise, but then I see that his stack is small enough that he's likely going all-in. So I wait until the turn to raise to try to get him to commit the whole thing. The turn is a 5 and I get all his money in the middle. Sadly, the river is a 6, giving 99 his 6-outer to win.

Day 4: -$9.60 (-10 BB at $.50/1)

Overall: +$60.00 in 548 table minutes

I have no reason to complain. Even though the cards suck and I can't believe the sorts of beats I'm getting, I have no reason to complain. Things like this build character. Plus, I know how soft the game is, and I know it's just dumb luck that I wasn't able to get out of the first stage today.

Yes, I have my collection of poorly played hands. Those will always be there. Ego gets in the way, and I do stupid things because I think I understand the villains better than I do. Straight-forward play is where most of the money is at this level, and I need to keep that in mind. It's not like the weak-tight games where I can open-raise from almost any position and get heads up, and then most of the time take the pot with a flop and turn bet.

Also, seat selection made itself apparent tonight. I sat with a LAG on my left, and it was much harder to do anything I wanted to do. I know I laugh at those who really focus on seat selection at these stakes, but it is true that it affects your winrate. Being stubborn, I stayed in my seat and played it out. I've got to re-learn a bunch of things about short-handed play, and being OOP against a LAG is one of them.

Hand 1: This was the stupidest click of the night. I raise a limper with AJo from SB and get called by BB (the LAG above) and (of course) the limper. The flop is 746 two stpades (I have the ace of spades). I bet, get called by LAG and the limper folds. The turn is a T of clubs. I know that LAG is going to bet just about any hand if I check to him. I know he's capable of raising a pair on this low board against my bet because he (rightfully) puts PFRs on high cards. So what do I do? I check and then check-raise. Why? I don't know. I'm pretty dumb that way sometimes. I had seen him fold a couple times to turn check-raises, but the action was completely different. He called the check-raise. The turn is a 4. Now I'm faced with exactly the same situation. I expect him to bet almost any hand here (the 4 is a good bluff card), but do I really want to call with ace-high after he calls the turn check-raise? I decide not to call his bet. He rubs in the fact that he bluffed me by showing 92 spades for the missed flush draw. Surprisingly, there's no ego-tilt from this. I played like crap, and got beat by crap. In my right mind, I probably check-call both streets and laugh at the LAG... just like I used to...

Hand 2: This hand is of the bad-beat type. Two limpers and I limp from SB with A2o. BB raises and we all call around. BB is somewhat new to the table, and he seemed fairly passive, so I didn't expect him to raise. The flop is K54 with two spades and one club (I hold the ace of spades again). I check, BB checks, and the first limper bets, folding out the second limper. I call because this is an easy spot to peel one off with the gutshot, backdoor flush draw, and plenty of pot odds. I just hope BB doesn't hold something like AK and check-raise. He just called, which is good. The turn is the magic card, the 3 of clubs. I check and suddenly BB bets. Wonderful! Usually a play like this means AA, KK, or sometimes AK. The flop bettor raises. Even better! I 3-bet with my straight, BB calls, and the other guy caps. This is good. The river is the ace of clubs. Backdoor flush draw... Alarm bells are ringing and I flash back to the other backdoor flush. I get scared like a weak player and I check. BB donks all-in for $0.80, and the aggressor raises to the full dollar. I call. The aggressor had 55 for a set of fives, and I win $0.40 from that. BB turns up J8 of clubs for the runner-runner flush to take the big pot away from me. Yes, I should have gone harder against the flop bettor because I know he usually doesn't have 67, 62, or a flush with this action. But I suck at poker.

Other bad beats: Let me just get them out of the way here. KK runs into A2 on a 622 flop. KT flops two pair heads up and the other guy turns an "obvious" flush that I'm compelled to pay off. A different LAG raises bottom pair and catches trips on the turn, I pay off with top pair. I correctly value bet my weak pair against a loose chaser who hits runner-runner flush. I do it again to another player, and it happens again.

With all of this going on, how did I manage not to lose a bunch of money? When your opponents play this loose, you can win win win with value betting and good preflop calls.

Hand 3: I have 55 on the button. Limp-raise-coldcall in front of me, so I call with my pocket pair. This is a standard call with three players already in the pot in front of me. Against players who chase too much, you can make this call with two players in. All six players see the flop, and it's a money flop, A35. The action is fairly boring. I check/3-bet, and lead the turn and river to get paid off by 54o and ATo (the preflop raiser -- too bad he was all-in on the flop).

Hand 4: I have A6o and open-raise from the cutoff. Button (the LAG from above) calls and it's heasd up on the flop. It's 776. I bet, he calls. The turn is a 2. Bet-call. River 7, bet-call. My boat beats his ace high (A3o).

There are a good five or six hands with that sort of action, getting called down by junk hands. They keep me afloat when the bad beats come. And when the bad beats aren't there, they contribute to a high winrate.

Just FYI on some stats: 26.18/20.02, 3.67/3.40/1.47/2.98, +7.11BB/100. I c-bet too much, which is making my flop and turn AF a little higher than they should be.

Day 3: -$20.45 (-20 BB at $.50/1)

Overall: +$69.60 in 315 table minutes

Well, I probably shouldn't have played tonight. I play in a weekly home game with some friends and it was bad news. I should have taken that to suggest that I should do something else tonight. Here's what happened.

We're playing NL tournament style. The blinds were at 50-100 and I picked up KK UTG+1 (10 handed table). I raise to 250 and get called in 3 spots. The flop is AK3 rainbow (two red, one black). I lead out 500 and get called by one player. The turn is a 5 of hearts, I bet 1500 and get called again. At this point, I figure her to be sitting an ace and can't fold it. The river is a 4 of hearts, and I think for a while. I bet out 1100 as a small value bet, hoping to get called by that ace or maybe two pair. To my surprise, she pushes all-in for another 800. This makes me unhappy. I can't see her raising two pair, and I can't see her raising a set, so that means straight or flush. Even if she had a set of aces, she wouldn't raise this river. I look at my stack and see just over 1100 chips. Then I stare at the pot a while. 250 times 4 is 1000 preflop. Another 1000 on the flop. 3000 on the turn. My 1100 plus her 1900 makes another 3000 on the river. Sigh... 8000 in the pot and 800 to call. Am I folding a set of kings on the river getting 10:1? I know I should. I should trust the read. But I called. She had KJ of hearts. Ugh.

A little while later, the blinds are 100-200 and I push my 225 stack into the pot with QJo. It's 5 to the flop (a chance to quintuple up!). The flop is 943. Checked to the button who throws in a 500 bet. He knocks everyone else out and he turns over A3. The turn is a Q, but the river is a 3. And I go home in last place this time.

I don't really want to say much about the hands I played tonight, except that I played really bad. I wasn't steaming over the loss, but I just wasn't really concentrating that hard. So I lost 20 BB and quit when I realized how poorly I was playing.

In other news, I downloaded a skin and and the black PA layout for Stars. It's nice, but I need to take the time to memorize what all the numbers are. Of course, I don't datamine, and don't play that often, so I'm not sure how useful those numbers will be... But we'll see.

Day 2: +$54.75 (+55 BB at $.50/1)

Overall: $90.05 in 248 table minutes

I'm amazed. I'm a bit lucky, I guess. Either that, or these games are much much much softer than I realized. In about 4 table hours, I've almost reached the first checkpoint. Simply amazing.

Anyway, back to logging interesting hands:

Hand 1: This hand was made more interesting strictly because of the short stack. I have AKs in the cutoff and raised a single limper. Both blinds called, and it's 4 to the flop for two bets each. The flop is 552 and SB bets all-in for $.45. It gets called around to me. At this point, I might actually have a value raise, but I decided to just call to see what the turn would be and what the turn action would be. The turn is an offsuit 7, and now the action is checked to me. At this point, it should be pretty clear that everyone is on two unpaired cards with an outside chance of a small pocket pair (33/44). So I bet my hand expecting to pick up the pot right there. It worked. SB turns over A3o for the flopped gutshot and I take down the pot. In retrospect, I think a flop raise would be a good value raise against this flop and this field.

Hand 2: I have AQs and raised the UTG poster. BB and the poster call. The flop was Q72. BB checked and the poster bet. I raised, knocking out the BB, but poster 3-bets. I hesitate for a moment, deciding between capping now or calling and raising the turn. With the brand new player, I'd rather cap the flop and see his response on the turn. I'll save the call and raise the turn for a player who I know is capable of overplaying a hand. For all I know, he has 72o and flopped two pair. So I capped him. The turn was a 2 and he bets again. At this point, I figured him for a 2, Q7, 77, or a funky AA/KK and go into calldown mode. The river was an inconsequential 6 and I called his bet. He turned over 73o for flopped second pair with no kicker. Hands like this one are making me fly through this level.

Hand 3: There is a limper and the button raised. With KTs, I'm not sure what I want to do here. Since players have been consistently too passive at this level with their preflop raises, I chose to just call instead of 3-betting. The presence of the limper also helps me make this call so that I'm getting good multiway action from players who call too much. I thought about folding, but figuring that I can play well enough postflop, I decided to go ahead and take my chances. BB folded and the limper called, giving us a 3-handed flop. The flop came K57. The action was checked to the raiser and he auto-bet (the timing looked like an auto-bet). I thought about raising, but just called. I was in semi-WA/WB mode at this point, mostly because of how quickly villain seemed to bet his hand. Plus, I somewhat expect the other player to be padding the pot when he calls. The turn is another 5 and I checked. But now the limper wakes up and bets. After a moment, the button called the bet. I had to think about this play for a while. The limper's bet into two players didn't feel much like a bluff, but it could have been. Button's call told me that probably had a pair, which often means he also has a king, which often means I'm outkicked. Putting the two probabilities together, I don't think I'm ahead often enough to warrant calling down. So I mucked. My assessment was right in that the limper held a 5. I was surprised to see that the button called with 99. It was a good reminder to me that players at this level are really very loose and that I need to expand my hand ranges a little bit more to encompass their plays.

Hand 4: I might get a little heat from playing this hand so passively on the river, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. I had 75o in the BB, and there was a limper and SB in the pot. The flop was 955. I bet after SB checked and the limper called. The turn was a 9, and I bet again, getting called again. At this point, I'm not sure what is up. Maybe the limper has an ace. Or he has a 5 or a 9 or a pocket pair of some sort. Anyway, after running through a quick list in my head, I figure that the best play for the river is just to check-call. If he has an ace, I'm not sure if he's really calling (this could be another example of me giving too much credit). If he had a 9, surely I'm getting raised. If he had a 5, it's a chop and a bet (probably) feeds the rake. So I check-called. I was in trouble on the flop as he held K5. I think this hand would have been more interesting if the 9 had not fallen.

Hand 5: This hand goes into the annals of the strangest plays I've pulled. I've got 53o in the big blind. The button limped and SB folded, giving me a heads up flop. The flop came AK5. Normally, I would be betting this. In fact, I'd be betting a whole bunch of things. But I knew that villain was an aggressive player. I checked, figuring him to bet it with any two cards. He bet, and I called. I thought about check-raising, but I don't like that line unless I feel like I can really fold to more action. The turn was a J, and I check-raised him. This was an absurd thing to do. Even though I really felt like he was on a nothing hand, I was beating literally nothing. And when he called, I figured I was in trouble and was prepared to check fold. The river 8 changed nothing and I checked. To my relief, he checked behind. And I won the hand! He has 32o for the flopped gutshot. I played it badly. But I got away with it. Poker is fun.

Day 1: +$35.30 (+35 BB at $.50/1)

I put in just over 2 table hours (just over one hour of real time) and came out way ahead. Part of me feels like I've forgotten how to play against very loose opposition. I backed down my raising standards (I had been getting pretty LAGgy at the full ring $2/4 games because players were underdefending), and I like how it feels. I also need to remember how to take notes and learn how to do this with two tables going at the same time. At these stakes, I can play pretty mindlessly, but I know that as I move up I need to be more disciplined about paying attention.

Interesting hands to note:

Hand 1: I picked up KQo in the big blind and raised the two limpers and the small blind. The flop is KQ9 all hearts. I bet, the first limper called, and the second limper raised, which folded out the small blind. The second limper is a LAG. I think his stats at the time were something like 60/40 and I seem to recall having him pegged as one who could easily overplay a hand or draw. So I 3-bet him, figuring him for a flush draw or worse made hand than top two and hoping the limper in the middle would call with a one card flush draw as well. Unfortunately, the limper folded and the LAG capped. The turn was a beautiful Q to give me a boat and a licence to go nuts. We capped the turn and river, and it turned out he limped in with A8 hearts and flopped the nut flush. Lucky me. I'm a little surprised that he limped in with that hand instead of raising it.

Hand 2: I raise UTG limper from MP with AKo. The action is folded to SB who 3-bet me. This knocks out BB and UTG (!) and I choose to just call. I didn't know much about SB. He had pretty loose-passive stats, and I wasn't able to think of anything that he had done to give me a sense of his play. I'm in a little debate with myself over that call. I expect him to have a reasonably strong hand, either AK/AQ or a large pocket pair. A preflop cap will do little to slow down AA/KK, though it might slow down QQ/JJ/TT (if he would raise TT). So instead of throwing an extra bet in the pot with usually the worst of it, I just called to see what the flop would bring and let him have the lead. The flop is K84 with two hearts (I hold the K of hearts) and he bet into me. Here's where things got played a little funny (as if preflop wasn't already funny). I just call. I'm not sure what I was thinking. The turn came Q heart, he bet, and now I raise with the king flush draw. If I get 3-bet here, I know I can call and fold the river UI, but I rarely expect to see him 3-bet. And he didn't. The river is an offsuit 9 and he checks to me. Of course, I bet my hand, he calls, and he wins with pocket aces, with the ace of hearts.

Hand 3: I did something really stupid with 72o. I checked in the BB after one limper. The flop is 992. Of course, I bet my hand, but he called. The turn is an 8 and I bet again. He calls again. At this point, I suspect my 2 is no good against either a better 2 (say Q2) or a small/medium pocket pair. The river is a king and I check. The limper now bets. I think this should be an easy fold. It would be hard for him to call both bets unless he had QJ/JT or maybe T7. But after thinking for a moment, I convinced myself that there's enough of a chance of a bluff for me to call (5:1). Villain wasn't particularly aggressive, so I had no reason to actually believe it. But I went with that feeling and called. I lost to JJ. He played it bad, but so did I. I should either bet the river or check-fold. Check-calling gives him too much money when he value bets.

Edit: Lots of typos. Apparently, I'm not so good at error-free blogging. I just can't keep in the same tense as I type! Oh well... maybe the next one will be better.

Rules of the Game

I've spent the last 5 years playing online limit hold'em. I've been grinding along from level to level, dutifully putting 10,000 hands one-tabling at each level and patiently building up experience and bankroll. But I'm in the mood for a change of pace. I'm taking a break from my one-tabling at $2/4 full (about 6100 hands) to try to climb the ranks of the PokerStars 6-max circuit. Here's the gameplan:

- Start with 100 BB at $.50/1 ($100)
- 2-table at this level until I drop to 50 BB or build up to 100 BB at the next level
- When I reach either checkpoint, move up or down accordingly
- Repeat until I'm bored or until I've reached my upper limit

Here are the levels and corresponding dollar amounts (move down/move up):
$.25/.50: $25/$100
$.50/1: $50/$200
$1/2: $100/$400
$2/4: $200/$600
$3/6: $300/$1000
$5/10: $500/$2000
$10/20: $1000/$3000
$15/30: $1500/$6000
$30/60: $3000/$10000
$50/100: $5000/$20000
$100/200: $10000/$40000
$200/400: $20000/$60000

Of course, since I set the rules, I give myself the right to bend the rules as I go (for example, at some point I expect to be forced to drop to one table). I also reserve the right to quit. The point of this blog is to give me some way of keeping my records straight and my comments together.

I would like to make it to the top, but realistically, I suspect I'll hit my peak right around $10/20.

Don't expect daily updates. Don't expect weekly updates. I play poker as a hobby, and I'll put in the time when I have it. I might have a free weekend with little to do and put in several hours. Or I might be bored some evening and squeeze in 30 minutes. I might give up this project or forget to post. But that's how it goes.

Edit: I mistyped some numbers in the levels above.