Whale !

What a night last night! I had been wanting to play in PokerStars 100k guaranteed tournament, and decided that last night was going to be the night. The $150+12 buy-in is pretty steep; other than SNGs, I've never bought into at MTT for more than $50+5, so I was going out on a limb.

While I play NLHE MTTs, I like to keep a cash game table running on the side to try and prevent me from being too loose when playing the MTT. Patience is not my greatest poker virtue, so it's much better to play 40 hands/hr when playing 3 tables, than it is to play 40 hands/hr at 1 table, especially a NLHE MTT. I decided to play 1 200PLO8 6max cash table at UB while the tournament was going on.

While I donked out of the tourney in the first 1/2 hour (semi-bluff on the turn ran into AA who was unwilling to fold to a scary board) I was fortunate to have the worst possible PLO8 player ever sitting to my left at the PLO8 table. IT WAS AWESOME! He played EVERY hand PF and more importantly, he played them passively. If there was a raise or a re-raise, it didn't matter, he'd call. Even better, he was hitting cards left right and center to break my opponents.

I have to admit, it took me about 20 minutes to stop bluffing the river at him cause he would not fold a marginal hand. I lost about $100 doing that, though it was $100 I had already won off him, so I was still floating around $200.

I was also blessed with a table with 3 opponents whom I play against often who are tight/trappy. This was perfect for me. Here's why:

• Any pot I was going to play, which was as many as humanly possible, I would raise. Whale to my left would auto call. Then, most of the time the 3 t/t players would fold, but if they didn't, I would play the flop uber tight. Since they are so trappy, they would always check the flop to me hoping to get in a c/r. Since the Whale was passive, I knew he wasn't betting the flop without the goods, so I could check every flop I didn't like and bet every flop that hit me hard.
• If the t/t's didn't call, then it was value bet or check the whale. I won with so much trash, it was incredible.

The best hand was one I folded PF. I raise (7), Whale calls (7), one of the t/t's re-raises (22) (can anyone say AAxx), LAG to t/t's left in the SB calls (21), I muck, and whale calls(15). Pot is $70+. Flop comes QJ2, Whale checks, t/t checks, LAG bets pot for his stack, Whale calls, t/t moves all in for $150+, whale calls. $600+ pot, t/t has the AA, LAG has str8 draw, Whale has QJ. Turn is a 5, river is a Q, Whale WINS! Next hand, LAG tilts off another $100 to the Whale, and starts berating him. I'm just praying he's going to shut up soon(DON'T SCARE THE FISH!!!!), and one of the t/t's tells LAG to be more polite. Eventually the LAG leaves, and I breather a sign of relief.

It's the best hand of the night, because it gave the Whale so many chips that I could begin siphoning them off. He had bought in for $200 and was at his peak sitting with more that $850 in front of him. Slowly but surely, I began taking his chips away. I went from $200 to $650, while his stack dropped from $850 to $280. He called it a night at 11:45, and 1 of my opponents bolted immediately. I played a few more minutes, but all I was winning were the blinds, since everyone was folding to my raises now, so I left too.

Overall, with a couple of other games I played, I was up $450 on the night despite spending $162 on the tourney. That was worth it. I'll play the $150+12 again, but not soon. I think I need to work on my NLHE tourney game a little more at lower level to find and practice my strategy.

Micheal Binger has a PhD in physics!

I've recently signed up for the RSS feed for UB's blog, where their resident pros blog sporadically post their musings. Today, Micheal Binger was commenting on his little break from poker to organize his place so that he could get all his physics shit in order.

I have so much respect for people with PhD's. Even though I was successful in school, I couldn't wait to get out after getting my college degree. I work with a couple of PhD's and I know I just couldn't stay in school for as long as they did. I needed to apply my knowledge.

But I guess I'm just a practical problem solver. The PhD's I know tend to have problems separating the theoretical and the practical. They come up with all these wonderful equations on how to solve abstract concepts, but can't them apply them in a useful way.

But clearly in Binger's case, he's been able to apply some abstract concepts to the poker table and be successful with them. Good for him. He just gained a little more respect from me today.

Freeroll

I ended up playing tonight despite going back and forth on the decision. I was already up $1100 on the week, *and* I had just crossed the 10k lifetime mark again ($10005 to be exact). Those shouldn't be factors deciding whether or not to play, but I'm still not able to shut them out completely yet. I feared that the psychological hit of either giving up my first 1k cash game week, or crossing below the $10k mark (which I haven't seen since 2008) would deteriorate my game the following week.

So I starting working on my taxes and doing various other things (like downloading a guitar tuning app for my iPhone. Not bad for a free app...). 10PM rolled around, and I didn't feel like doing taxes anymore, so I looked at my poker stats. I decided that I could tolerate going under 10k since I should be able to re-cross that threshold if I continue to play well, but that I could not tolerate dropping below 1k for the week. That left me with $117 to play/freeroll with for the night. The only way to guarantee that I didn't drop below that threshold was to play SNGs.

I opened up both UltimateBet and PokerStars and decided that if I found a good opponent HU, I'll play, or else I'll go to bed. I found a fairly predictable opponent at the $100+5 on UB. If I lose, I close shop. If I win, then it becomes another judgment call.

First game, I beat him in 3 blinds levels (~30 minutes). I took little pot after little pot, and avoided calling any of his check-raises (calling c/r's w/ weak hands is a leak I must close) as to keep the pots we played small. This opponent gives up WAY too many small pots which allows me to accumulate chips without having to show many hands. In general, I played well and didn't need much luck, but I got really lucky on the last hand. I was up in chips 1950/1050. I had A259 and raised on the button to 90. He re-raised to 270 and I called. My hand was too good to pass up calling there. HU w/ A2, you have to see a flop. It definitely was not good enough to jam the pot though.

The flop came 335 which, with my hand, even against a re-raise, is still possibly good. It's one of those hands where I may be ahead for high (he had A2 w/ no pair or no 3) or for low (he has A3 counterfitted low draw), and I'm occasionally far behind and need serious help. He pot bet (540) the flop, which doesn't actually tell me anything about his hand, but taking all the possibilities for me, it's an auto-shove to get his remaining 240 into the pot. OOPS, he shows me one of the best possible hands he can have in that spot: A237. It's ok. Turn is a king, and I hit my 2 outer 5 on the river. Game over. +$95 more to my week tally.

I get up, walk around and come back, and he's sitting down for another one. So I gladly sit down as well. Same flow through the early part of the game. I take little pot after little pot. Then, when I'm up 3/1 in chips, UB generously gave my opponent life. He calls on the button to 40, and I check the BB w/ 8c5h3c3d. The flop comes QsJh3s. I bet out with a pot size bet (80).

A couple of reasons for this: 1) In this case to protect my set against the flush draw and 2) because it's the sort of flop where, if I had a simple combo draw type hand against this opponent, I would bet and could win in right there, or with a second bet on the turn. But instead or mucking or calling, he re-pots it to 320. If our stacks had been closer, I muck because I want to keep the pots small, and I'd give him credit for a good hand. However, when his stack is shorter, he is looser, so I'm less afraid of a higher set. He ends up showing AsQcJc9d for top-two pair. The turn is an 8 and the river is T to give him a runner runner straight. What goes around comes around...

We are now roughly even again. I take a second to compose myself as I have, more than once, lost control at times like that and TILTed off the few hands following. I get ready to grind again and things go as before. I take more *small* pots uncontested and quickly I'm back up to a 2/1 chip advantage. I guess the pots are no longer so small as the blinds have been going up. Last hand, 30/60 blinds. He raises from the button to 180 and I call from the BB with AcQc7d3s. The flop comes Kc5c4h. I'm not normally a check-raiser in these games, as most opponents recognize a check/raise as incredible strength (which is why I mostly bluff c/r, but that's a story for another time), but here it is an absolute must. With the pot at 360, and opponent at 800 after the flop, I can get the rest of his chips committed in a spot where I'm likely the favorite, so I check. He cbet's to 360, and I c/r to 960 and he calls with his remaining 440. He shows AdJh5s4c for top-2, no low draw. Turn is a 7 and river is a 2 for the scoop.

I decide that 2 is enough, and that I should brag blog about the night instead of playing another.

What a week: $1324.33 profit. I still can't believe it. I must remain focused and constantly remind myself that 9 weeks ago, making $100/week was considered to be a solid accomplishment.

Volatility

No matter how much you know it's going to happen, it's always shocking how the swings of this game can take you all over the place.

I made $1450 in the first 2 weeks of Feburary, then I lost $1376 in my last 4 sessions of Feburary, mostly in the first and last of the 4, and then, in the next 4 sessions to start the first week of March, I pulled back $1000 of that.

I'm now playing a lot of 1/2, so with the buy-in at $200, I guess technically these swings are not that large (7 buy-ins), but it still feels that way since I'm just really starting to play at that level.

When I started playing cash games to begin the new year, I was playing some 25PLO8 and 50PLO8 at PokerStars. Then I migrated to UB for a bit, to see what is was like. The problem (which turned into a benefit) was that there were 50PLO8 games and 200PLO8 games, but no 100PLO8 games, which is where I had played in the past and where I thought I should be playing now. So, I started playing 50PLO8 tables with a table of 200PLO8 on the side. It turned out that my style of play was better suited for the 200 game than it was for the 50 game, so I slowly phased the 50 game out.

It's still hard to believe that 5 years ago I was playing 2PLO8 (0.01/0.02 blinds) trying to build a tiny little bankroll and wondering when I'd play the 25PLO8 games. Now I'm playing the 200 and 400PLO8 games and winning.

Now I need to sustain that level of play and win consistently.

February Summary

The month belonged solely to UB for the first time in a while. For the first half of the month, I continued my awesome streak. I cleared just under $1500 in 2 weeks, but then in 2 of the last 4 sessions, I gave most of it back. For the month, I was up $120. Here's the breakdown:

UB:
$50+2.5 PLO8 HU SNG: 4/0 $190.00
$100+5 PLO8 HU SNG: 2/1 $85.00
50PLO8 1 sessions: ($4.05)
100PLO8 2 sessions: $123.31
200 PLO8 9 sessions: ($719.18)
400 PLO8 1 session: $393.98
bonus: $55.00
Total: $124.06

Considering how bad my last sessions were, it's a nice accomplishment to have been positive for the month. So far, March has been good, hope it keeps up.