5 hours ago
Monday, August 04, 2008
Taking leave
There has been another death in my family and I will be out of town for quite a while. I'm not sure when I'll be ready to pursue poker again. Take care ...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Attack of the min bet and raise!
Last Friday night's had me scratching my head. I haven't really played a Friday or weekend session in some time but from what I remember most weekends are filled with the worst of the worst. These players are the lowest of the low and oh boy do they put some beats on solid players. Needless to things haven't changed much from what I remember.
I took my fair share of beats and so did every other solid player at the table that I was with. One such character, MelbourneJoe, who was seated at a few of my tables took some bruising beats and man, whew, I know the feeling all too well. It is tough to see your AA broken by an Ace-rag preflop push or your QQ go down in flames to Q3o in another preflop donk fest. I mention MelbourneJoe because of the players I have run into and have noticed to be solid players he is the most profitable and probably most consistent that I have seen seated at my tables. Over a stretch of 36,000 games he has a profit over $82,000 at 7% ROI. This guy is truly amazing! He loads up to 20 tables at a time that I've seen. He is just nuts! One day maybe I'll get back to 16-tabling, but untl then I'll just stick to 4-tabling.
The thing that had me scratching my head was the over abundance of the min bet and min raise I saw. I'm used to seeing it from time to time especially from the weaker players and on occasion from a solid player directed at a loose aggressive player who doesn't seem to observant. But last Friday, I was so confused at the frequency I saw it. Now personally I hate the min bet and min raise. Nothing drives me crazy faster than to get min raised in my big blind, it makes my blood boil. But last Friday there were min raises pre-flop by the hi-jack, cutt-off, button, small blind and even early position. Not by just a couple players but rather it seemed like 70% of the table was doing this crap. Even when the blinds became high in relation to the stack sizes (100/200 and 200/400) there was min betting on the bubble out the ass!
I began to think maybe there was some revelation in sng strategy that I was unaware and suddenly the most profitable thing to do was min bet and raise! It began to puzzle me. Now most weak players tend to min bet/raise garbage or weak hands. In my experience a select few will do so with monster hands but on average the weak player tends to overbet his monster hand. Now when it comes to solid players who very rarely min bet it tends to be opposite. I say "tends to" because if the min bet is directed at another solid player who knows the original bettor has to have a big hand to be min betting with to induce action, well the original bettor may even have 53o because he knows that his opponent knows he can't do it with anything less than a monster, therefore at certain times his trash hands are just as good as premium pairs. That goes into the whole arena of levels of thinking and even though it has great merit in sng play the lack of chip depth is the main limiting factor in reducing the number of complex plays you can make during the course of a sng.
Anyhow getting back to the point, I was caught a bit off guard with the constant min betting preflop with large blinds. Normally when the big or medium stack opens for a raise you need to have a better than average hand to repush especially on the bubble. With that in mind I was a bit frozen far too often and not sure exactly what was the optimal way to adjust to the CONSTANT preflop min betting.
After the evenings session I went over to sharkscope and began looking at the competition, more specifically everyone except the few who weren't min betting/raising like rabid monkeys. Sharkscope backed up what I thought was the case, the vast majority (90%) were losing players. Man it was just weird to be seated at a table of min bettors at the $22 level. Might have been just a fluke to see it and about 2/3 of my tables that night but damn. For a moment there I thinking I was doing something wrong! Ha!
After the session I also loaded up several of the tournaments in Sng Wizard and looked at the different scenarios and feel comfortable that I handled most of the min bet situations correctly and I also feel comfortable that if I get "lucky" enough to draw a table full of these individuals I'll feel right at home in how to combat these types of players.
I took my fair share of beats and so did every other solid player at the table that I was with. One such character, MelbourneJoe, who was seated at a few of my tables took some bruising beats and man, whew, I know the feeling all too well. It is tough to see your AA broken by an Ace-rag preflop push or your QQ go down in flames to Q3o in another preflop donk fest. I mention MelbourneJoe because of the players I have run into and have noticed to be solid players he is the most profitable and probably most consistent that I have seen seated at my tables. Over a stretch of 36,000 games he has a profit over $82,000 at 7% ROI. This guy is truly amazing! He loads up to 20 tables at a time that I've seen. He is just nuts! One day maybe I'll get back to 16-tabling, but untl then I'll just stick to 4-tabling.
The thing that had me scratching my head was the over abundance of the min bet and min raise I saw. I'm used to seeing it from time to time especially from the weaker players and on occasion from a solid player directed at a loose aggressive player who doesn't seem to observant. But last Friday, I was so confused at the frequency I saw it. Now personally I hate the min bet and min raise. Nothing drives me crazy faster than to get min raised in my big blind, it makes my blood boil. But last Friday there were min raises pre-flop by the hi-jack, cutt-off, button, small blind and even early position. Not by just a couple players but rather it seemed like 70% of the table was doing this crap. Even when the blinds became high in relation to the stack sizes (100/200 and 200/400) there was min betting on the bubble out the ass!
I began to think maybe there was some revelation in sng strategy that I was unaware and suddenly the most profitable thing to do was min bet and raise! It began to puzzle me. Now most weak players tend to min bet/raise garbage or weak hands. In my experience a select few will do so with monster hands but on average the weak player tends to overbet his monster hand. Now when it comes to solid players who very rarely min bet it tends to be opposite. I say "tends to" because if the min bet is directed at another solid player who knows the original bettor has to have a big hand to be min betting with to induce action, well the original bettor may even have 53o because he knows that his opponent knows he can't do it with anything less than a monster, therefore at certain times his trash hands are just as good as premium pairs. That goes into the whole arena of levels of thinking and even though it has great merit in sng play the lack of chip depth is the main limiting factor in reducing the number of complex plays you can make during the course of a sng.
Anyhow getting back to the point, I was caught a bit off guard with the constant min betting preflop with large blinds. Normally when the big or medium stack opens for a raise you need to have a better than average hand to repush especially on the bubble. With that in mind I was a bit frozen far too often and not sure exactly what was the optimal way to adjust to the CONSTANT preflop min betting.
After the evenings session I went over to sharkscope and began looking at the competition, more specifically everyone except the few who weren't min betting/raising like rabid monkeys. Sharkscope backed up what I thought was the case, the vast majority (90%) were losing players. Man it was just weird to be seated at a table of min bettors at the $22 level. Might have been just a fluke to see it and about 2/3 of my tables that night but damn. For a moment there I thinking I was doing something wrong! Ha!
After the session I also loaded up several of the tournaments in Sng Wizard and looked at the different scenarios and feel comfortable that I handled most of the min bet situations correctly and I also feel comfortable that if I get "lucky" enough to draw a table full of these individuals I'll feel right at home in how to combat these types of players.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Back in the $22's
It has been a while since I've played a $22 sng. Yesterday I started playing at the $22 level on Stars, a week ahead of schedule, and man it feels good. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind grinding the $5.50's but the wins at the $22 level seem so much more meaningful. The losses are equally painful but that comes with the territory the higher the buy-in gets.
I've run into a few solid players already but I feel on average the play is just about the same as the $11 level. Heck, the play is as bad as the $5.50 level at some tables. It is a bit early but I think I just might be able to surpass my goal of maintaining 16% ROI at the $22 level. We will see by the end of the month how things are going, but for now they are good.
I still haven't had a magical night yet. Even tonight on the bubble I had the following happen: KK run into AA, 99 into KK, failed to fold my JJ to an Ace-rag player, lost my fullhouse to a 1-outer on the river, lost TT to J7o headsup at 400/800, chopped at least 3 pots with my big ace versus Ace-rag on the bubble, and so forth. BUT despite the tough luck and coolers I still managed 45% ITM and 25% ROI. When that magical night comes around, oh boy it is going to be fun!
For now I'll just keep improving and playing my "A" game. Back to the tables.
I've run into a few solid players already but I feel on average the play is just about the same as the $11 level. Heck, the play is as bad as the $5.50 level at some tables. It is a bit early but I think I just might be able to surpass my goal of maintaining 16% ROI at the $22 level. We will see by the end of the month how things are going, but for now they are good.
I still haven't had a magical night yet. Even tonight on the bubble I had the following happen: KK run into AA, 99 into KK, failed to fold my JJ to an Ace-rag player, lost my fullhouse to a 1-outer on the river, lost TT to J7o headsup at 400/800, chopped at least 3 pots with my big ace versus Ace-rag on the bubble, and so forth. BUT despite the tough luck and coolers I still managed 45% ITM and 25% ROI. When that magical night comes around, oh boy it is going to be fun!
For now I'll just keep improving and playing my "A" game. Back to the tables.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Mid-month checkup
It is the 14th of July and it is close to the middle of the month. Well actually there is about 2 1/2 weeks of play until the 31st so it isn't quite the middle of the month, but close enough. Anyhow the first two weeks of the month have been going well. With my newly adjusted goals I'm right on target to have a successful month. I've played 63 sngs with a profit of $163.50 (29% ROI). I can't complain about my results thus far despite some brutal bubbling sessions. All I can continue to do is get my money in with the best of it and hope my AJ+ holds up against Ace-rag or my pair holds up against the lone over card. I remain confident that in the end my edge will be realized monetarily.
I've run into some solid players at the $5 and $11 levels on PokerStars over the past few weeks. Some of the names that come to mind are GARDOCK, Reb3186 and bgdg0606. I did a quick search of GARDOCK on Sharkscope and it says that he's played about 10.7k sngs with an average ROI of 15% for a total profit of about $22k. That is quite impressive in my mind, very impressive. Not because he's profited over $22k but because he has an average ROI of 15% over 10,000 sngs. When I have played 10,000 sngs I hope to have an ROI close to his, wow, 10k at 15% ROI is truly amazing IMO.
Back to the tables.
I've run into some solid players at the $5 and $11 levels on PokerStars over the past few weeks. Some of the names that come to mind are GARDOCK, Reb3186 and bgdg0606. I did a quick search of GARDOCK on Sharkscope and it says that he's played about 10.7k sngs with an average ROI of 15% for a total profit of about $22k. That is quite impressive in my mind, very impressive. Not because he's profited over $22k but because he has an average ROI of 15% over 10,000 sngs. When I have played 10,000 sngs I hope to have an ROI close to his, wow, 10k at 15% ROI is truly amazing IMO.
Back to the tables.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
