I started playing online poker about 5 years ago. I have taken stabs at a true online poker grind several times - all ending in failure.
This time will be different...
Follow me on my journey and see my ups and downs.
I needed 390 VPP points and had two days to do it. So last night I decided to see if I could do it. I opened 6 $100NL tables - but I only bought in for 70BB's. I monitored my VPP points very carefully to determine how much I was earning playing at $100NL. After an hour I discovered I was earning 115VPP an hour, or about 19 per table per hour.
So, I knew I would need to play for about 3 1/2 hours to make Silver VIP. I figured I could do that over two days pretty easy - If I didn't go on a bad run of cards.
This is my first time 6-Tabling $100NL. Though I bought in for 70BB, that is still a big stack. This wasn't a tilt session, though I was certainly way over my $515 bankroll. I had $420 at the tables and about $95 in the cashier. There was a point when the most I could open was 5 tables because I lost a buy-in and did not enough for the 6th table.
My highest point I was up over $150. At my lowest I was down $65. That is a $215 session variance swing. Pretty big roller coaster ride. I ended the session down $5. Had I been playing for money, I would have stopped playing when I was up $150. But I wanted that Silver Star VIP - so I kept on playing.
I am very okay with the results. Would have been nice to have made some money, but it is better than a 1-2 negative buyin session.
Overall $100NL plays about the same as $25NL. I did not see a major difference. That gives me a lot of confidence. I wish I had the bankroll to continue playing $100NL, but at 7 buy-ins, I would go broke eventually.
However, I have decided to take a more aggressive approach to my bankroll management. Instead of requiring 25 Buy-Ins, I am taking that down to 10. I can play 6 tables at once and am able to reload 4 times. This is taking a risk, I know. But I am going to try to triple the bankroll in July. I can do that at $50NL. So with a $505 bankroll, that gives me 10 buyins.
I should be able to average 10BB per 100 hands per table. I figure I play about 60 hands per hour per table. So, that means I should earn 6BB per hour per table OR $3 per table per hour. So that is $18 an hour at $50NL. Not too shabby.
Of course, we will have to see what poker tracker stats end up being.
My stats for one month of play since starting this project are:
7000 hands Starting Bankroll - $530 Ending Bankroll - $507 Profit/Loss - ($23) Poker Stars VIP - Silver Star
Bankroll wise, not a bad month. You cannot win every month and at least I am only down $23. Would have been nice if my bankroll was in the positive for the first month of my project, but I have a very good feeling for July.
I am moving end of July to another apartment - so that may have a very big impact on my poker playing.
Nonetheless, my goals for July:
Gold Star in July $1500 Bankroll MAYBE move up to $100NL
Beginning poker players or recreational poker players tend to play too loose of a range of starting hands and bluff too often. Then they study and gain experience and tighten up their starting hands and bluff a lot less often.
Then something strange happens. They move up to a level eventually where everyone plays very good and they have to bluff more often and loosen up their starting hand ranges.
If you play poker long enough, you will come full circle. The difference between an amateur and a professional bluff is the professional is playing the player and not the cards while the amateur is playing just his cards.
Advanced poker play is all about representing a specific hand in any given position and playing it as if you had those cards. This requires you to have good reads on what your opponents are representing. The key word here is representing. At advanced poker tables - your opponent can be playing the same bluffing game.
The trick to this high level bluffing is to know when the board has ruined your bluff or helped your opponents bluff.
Even bluffing has rules. If you are representing pocket AA and after the flop you put your heads up opponent on pocket KK and on the turn comes another K - and you haven't improved to trips or better - you should play accordingly and either fold or fold to a big re-raise.
By accordingly, you assume your opponent has put you on pocket AA and he knows that you have put him on pocket KK. If he plays like he has trip kings - you do not want to change what you are representing to pocket KK too because then your opponent will know you were bluffing the pocket AA.
If however the turn comes an A then your opponent will put you on trip Aces. This is good for your bluff!
The trick is to know what your opponent is representing on the flop and know what you are representing. Then play the board accordingly.
Easier said than done.
If you only play the cards then you are limited to what luck brings you. With expert bluffing though, you get to create whatever cards you want and create your own luck.
Of course, this is simply a play in your playbook. You cannot use this play all the time or it will quickly be discovered and won't work. But your opponents never know when you will get those lucky cards - so every once in a while you can represent lucky cards and as long as you don't go to showdown, who is to be the wiser?
I had every intention to play a lot of poker this weekend. I have 850 of 1200 points towards making my Silver VIP at poker stars. I can get the last 350 VPP points in about 10 hours. Now, I am doubting I will make it since there is only today and tomorrow left. I might give it a try though. I reset back to zero on Wednesday. If I can make it to Silver, I will accumulate FPP's 50% faster for the month of July.
We are moving end of July - so I am certain I won't get as much playing time in July.
My bankroll sits at $515. Since I began this blog I have tried several strategies and played a couple different levels. All in all, I am minus $15. LOL. I believe I have played about 5500 hands.
Damn...the king of pop is dead. I have mixed feelings about Michael Jackson. I will just say it like this - the world is both a better place without him and at the same time the world will never be the same without him.
We've lost one of the most talented performers the world has seen.
He was a questionable pedophile and just plain weird - but damn could he sing and perform.
I sat down last night for 40 minutes hoping to play a bit before the dinner with friends. I opened 6 $25NLHE tables and put my strategy into play. Same strategy as last night, try to win 15BB on each table. Once I win 15BB, I close that table. I try to blind steal in middle and late position with a CB on the flop. I check/fold the turn/river unless I catch a good hand. The rules I am trying to abide by is only play the Turn/River with trips or better. TPTK and Top Two Pair get me into trouble too often to play them.
Now within 40 minutes I won a big pot at one of the 6 tables. Unfortunately I broke one of my rules doing it. Here is the hand below:
Now, I had good hole cards. I re-raised the Villian, who called me.
I am putting the villian on a blind steal with any A, K, two pair, suited connectors, or any two face cards. He is in middle position with no limpers or raises in front of him. The fact that he raised it 2.6BB instead of 3-4BB tells me he might be blind stealing often. The smaller the blind steal raise, the more often they are trying to steal the blinds. Of course, he could be a TAG, but then why did he not raise 2.5BB instead of 2.6BB. Just seems like a blind steal to me.
The flop gives me TPTK and the Villian just checks. That is a sign of weakness to me. Why raise pre-flop and then check the flop OOP.
I open raise the flop and Villian check-raises me - but it is a mini raise. So I just call. I did notice an A high flush draw on the board.
The turn gives me my top two pair. It also completes a flush draw. Villian open raises the turn with a half pot bet. Now that is indicative of a value bet. In retrospect, regardless of how this hand turned out, I really think I should have folded here. But, my gut told me villian was playing tricky. That turn completed a flush and he saw that as a scare card to bet into me. I called his bet.
By calling the turn bet, I know I am pot committing the Villian and have decided to see the showdown.
River comes blank.
At this point we're both pot commited, so of course villian goes all-in and I call. Now, I really thought villian was going to turn over a flush. But no, he turns over TPGK.
Wheeew.
Gut 1, Villian 0.
Still - I wish I had not played this hand the way I did. As you will see in my next hand, putting a villian on a semi-bluff with a scary board doesn't always pan out.
Now, before I show you this next hand, I want to mention that I probably should have called it a night. I was ahead over $25 in less than 40 minutes and I only had at most another hour to play. That is a good day. But, I decided I wanted to bring each of the remaining 5 tables up to their 15BB before closing them. I did close the table where I won the big showdown.
Here is the funny thing. I infact brought up 4 or the remaining 5 tables up to the winning 15BB. Pretty successful huh! Oh how I wish I would have just called it a night then.
But no...only one more table to go and I was hovering at $24 of a $25 buy-in.
In the future - I have a new set of rules. Once I reach the 15BB for each of the 6 tables - or the nights goal winnings - I stop playing for the night - period. I know this rule won't work long term because of variance, but for now it keeps me out of trouble.
So, here is the hand:
Once again, I am in the cutoff. Now keep in mind, this is a TAG player. My HUD stats for him were something like 10/7/2 after 50 hands. The table was also a very tight table with a VP$IP/PFR of 9/7. So basically, these players are not bluffing and are playing very ABC TAG poker.
My mistake was I was in the cutoff and it folded to me. I open raised with excellent hole cards. When the small blind 3 bet my raise, I assumed he was defending his blinds. Perhaps he figured me for a blind steal and had decent enough cards to defend against me. I thought - sweet!
Now, ABC TAG poker at an ABC TAG image table should have had me folding to a re-raise preflop. I needed pocket AA or pocket KK to call a 3 bet re-raise preflop. BUT, I thought I playing a blind steal defender. I really should have known that TAG ABC players do not defend from the small blind without premium hands.
Sigh.
Flop gives me TPTK. Now my own rules state that I will bet the flop. Villian checks the flop. He He He. Okay.
This is a TAG table and a HUD TAG player who 3-bet re-raised me preflop. He checks the flop when an A shows. This should have sent alarm bells ringing. Considering I was in the cutoff blind stealing position, villian knows I am going to bet the flop.
Indeed, I do bet 3/4 pot.
Villian just calls.
Turn puts bottom pair on the board (22). So now I have Top Pair and Bottom pair.
Again - my rules should have been to check/fold the turn here since I only have two pair and not trips or better. Especially against this player and against this table.
But no.
Villian, once again checks the Turn. This is a weak play from a very TAG player. A TAG player who re-reaises preflop and check calls the flop knows the only way to win the turn is to bet - unless he is slow playing a monster.
I bet 1/2 pot and villian immediately calls. Bad, bad, bad.
Honestly, at this point I know villian is pot committed, and so am I. I should have either folder or gone all-In.
River pairs the middle card. There is no flush or straight draws on the board.
Villian goes all-in - of course. And I call. Really - I probably should have folded. Why not - all I have is top two pairs and villian could easily have trips. Did I really think the villian was bluffing all this time with less than trips. I think villian put me on two pairs on the turn when I bet.
Villian turns over pocket AA. DUH!
SO last table of 6 in a big winning session all goes down the drain when I break the same rule that won me a big pot - over playing top two pairs. Had I just stuck to the rule of check/fold the turn/river with less than trips - I would have been okay here.
At least I paid top dollar for that lesson.
Now...the night is not over. I check my bankroll and I am actually now behind about a dollar. Sheesh.
That is not bad all considering. I won a big pot and I lost a big pot. I could have called it even for the night considering I only played for 45 minutes. At least I was not down a full buy-in right.
Now some will consider this a tilt move. And it probably is. But I decide to play a $20+1 Heads Up SitNGo to try to make up the winnings I just lost.
LOL.
This was a difficult heads up match. I just couldn't beat the guy. Finally I got him. I really haven't decided if I am a good heads up player yet. I think I have much to learn about aggression still. I am pretty sure I win over half of my heads up matches though.
So here is the heads up match. Now, I posted the entire match - all 77 hands. However, you can click the "END" button to just watch the last hand. The 77 hands takes about 15 minutes or so.
Victory in my TILT - I won! I ended the night up $15.
Last night was a good poker night. I set out with a strategy to open six $25NL tables and quit each table as it reached a positive 15 Big Blinds. The reason I chose 15 BB is because I am willing to play poker for 3 hours and I want to make 10BB/100 hands. I average about 50 hands per hour per table. So that means I need to average 5BB per table per hour to be be making 10BB/100 hands. Make sense?
So in my first hour of poker I made at least 15BB per table. On two or three tables I got involved in big pots and won the showdown. One table I left with over $40 and another with over $35. Nice!
After closing all 6 tables I ended up ahead $55. That is 220 BB's in an hour!
My plan was to mainly blind steal. I was careful about blind stealing in early position and only opened pre-flop with limper's in front of me otherwise. I used ACE HUD to determine which players were TAG. If a TAG had HUD numbers of 10/7/2 I was very careful with them.
Once I pre flopped raised I always bet the flop 2/3 pot. I was VERY good about folding to any flop raises and if they called on the Flop I would check/fold the turn/river. I only played the Turn and River with Trips or better and with good reads. The 2 or 3 big pots I won at showdown I won with trips against top two pair and a straight against trips.
Basically I wanted to avoid big pots unless I had a very good hand. TPTK or Top Two Pairs gets me in trouble more often than not.
Being ahead $55 I decided to play some heads up. Turned out not to be such a good idea. But that is 20/20 hindsight vision for you. I started with $5 heads up. I lost 3/4. So I turned to $10 heads up. I lost 2/3. When I finished my cash games my bankroll was at $517 and after those heads up matches I realized I was down to $479. Damn. I decided I would play one more heads up, a $20 match. I wanted to at least get back to $500. As luck had it, I won that match and ended the night at $498.
Overall, I made $38 for the night! Not bad, not bad.
Tonight me and Lynn (my wife) are meeting some friends for Mongolian BBQ in Rancho Bernardo. Should be fun, but that also means no poker tonight. I might try to sneak in an hour though.
On poker stars each month you can qualify for VIP status. Currently I am at the bottom, which is bronze. If I make another 450 VPP points, I will move up to Silver. I have to earn those points by June 30th. I earn about 45 VPP points every hour when 6 tabling. So 10 hours of poker and I make the level. At silver you earn FPP (Frequent Player Points) 50% faster.
So my two goals for the rest of June is to make Silver VIP and to grow my bankroll to $600.
Then I will have to play enough in July to keep my silver. I can earn the Gold VIP at my current level of $25NL if I 8 table. Perhaps if I can consistently win at 6 tabling, I will move up to 8 tabling. At Gold VIP I earn FPP's 100% faster.
Both Silver and Gold offer daily, weekly, and monthly freerolls. I rarely play freerolls, but I may check out these VIP freerolls. Since you must be a VIP to play them, they may not have a huge playing field.
To make the Platinum VIP I will need to 8 table $50NL 16 hours a week. Platinum is where I want to be. Platinum is the highest monthly achievement.
Now, there are two yearly achievements - Supernova and Elite Supernova. Supernova requires 100,000 VPP points before December 31st. If you achieve that, you keep that status until February. It is possible to earn Supernova anytime in the year.
For example, I earn 100,000 VPP on August 1st 2009. I am a supernova automatically until the end of February 2010. I then have to earn 10,000 VPP's each month keep the status. You can go 1 month earning less than 10,000 VPP's without loosing your status, but if you go two months, then you go back to bronze VIP.
Any ways, I don't foresee earning Supernova this year, since I started so late. But I plan to earn Platinum this year and keep platinum. I should be able to earn Supernova next year (If I am still playing).
The biggest consideration here is Poker Stars doesn't offer rakeback. If I continue winning, I plan to play at Full Tilt Poker more often since I get a 27% rakeback. Playing 6-8 tables at once, 2-3 hours a day, 5-6 days a week @ $100NL, I can make between $340 - $675 per month in rakeback. That is a pretty coin to be earning. I get nothing on Pokerstars. Full Tilt Poker (FTP) has a VIP program too - but not sure what it is. Rakeback and Blind Stealing could easily be 60-70% of my poker earnings.
I am on a limited bankroll, otherwise I would be playing at Full Tilt Poker right now. I plan to move to Full Tilt Poker once my bankroll reaches $4000. The idea is to have two $100NL bankrolls of 20 Buy-Ins (100BB) - one at Pokerstars and one at FTP.
Not sure how I will play these two bankrolls yet, but I figure it is good to have two bankrolls at two of the best US sites.
I do hear the play is better at FTP, so I will have to test the water there to make sure I can beat those tables.
Variance is part of poker. But when I am going through it, I prefer to switch up my games. I always play NLHE. I used to play LHE - but I prefer NLHE.
Anyways - the cash games are in variance mode right now. That or I need to plug some leaks in my game.
To avoid going tilt I plan to switch up and play some tournaments. I did some heads up tournaments last night and I think I did very well. I may try some more of those.
There are some big heads up tournaments. I know there is a $10K heads up MTT in Vegas. I think online they have some big ones too. I may take a stab at an 8 man MTT heads up on Poker Stars.
But I have also been thinking about trying for a Sundays Million satellite. I like the odds with the 27 man MTT satellite to the Sundays Million.
I don't know. I figure I will take a look at some MTT options and try something. Maybe a $10 180 man MTT. Those can take 3 hours and you have to get lucky - but who knows.
I figure I might be able to balance out my cash game variance with some tournaments. If I hit some $27 SitnGoes I might grab a cool $120 addition to my bankroll.
Yesterday I played in my first Heads-Up MTT (Multi-Table Tournament). Just 4 people. It was $10NL + $0.50. I decimated my first opponent in record time - about 5 minutes. I then watched the other table since I was waiting to see who I would play against. One of the guys was very aggressive and I thought for sure he would be my opponent. But as it turned out he did more bluffing and the opponent played good cards most of the time. It did take a while for them to determine my opponent. I have to give the losing opponent credit - he never gave up. When he was under 10BB he still waited for good cards before shoving. Several times he doubled up.
At the final table I quickly became chip leader. We started with $3000 in chips - so it was deep stacked, but the blinds did go up per normal. Within 5 minutes I was 4000 to his $2000. We played for about 15 minutes. My opponents weakness was he was a calling station on every street. He was always either paying to keep me honest or drawing. I almost always had a good pair. Many times he folded on the river bet.
I decimated him pretty much throughout the game.
This was a great win for me. I made $40.
I had lost my poker battle earlier in my regular game: 6 Tabling $25NL. I was down 2-3 buy-ins. So after playing some heads up tournaments, I ended up down only about 1 buy-in.
Bummer. I played by the rules I set for myself regarding blind stealing. I was actually doing very well for a while. I played some premium cards and got either outdrawn or outplayed. It happens. Overall I think yesterday was more about variance than me making mistakes.
Time will tell.
I did go a little tilt though after loosing another 2 buy-ins. I played two $100 NL tables. But within 5 minutes I realized playing there was just stupid. So I left. No biggie.
I realized it was pointless to play more $25NL that day since I was a little on tilt. So I switched up my games. I decided to try some Heads UP NL tournaments. I am a pretty good heads up player.
The cards were certainly running good in my heads up tournaments. I won two $10NL and lost one $10NL. I won another $20NL. Then I lost the second $20NL. I will say that both times I lost I had excellent cards and it was very late into the match. One time I believe I had trip 10's. I had the pocket 10's and flopped the trip. The board had a 3, T, 6 rainbow. I slow played, but still betting. Opponent played into me on the flop and I re-raised. He re-raised me back. I called. Turn comes J and I go all-in. Opponent calls me. He turns over pocket QQ's. lol. I did not mind loosing that match.
The second $20NL I lost with a straight to a full house. I don't remember the details except I had him beat with a flopped straight. And then he flopped trips. We ended up both pushing the felt and I felt good seeing his trips and my straight. Until he caught the boat on the turn and river. Still...I have no problem loosing to that match.
Playing poker is a game of attrition. You're the general and you fight battles every day. Your bankroll is your army of men, each dollar representing a single soldier. Or if you play the $0.25 big blind limit like I do, each dollar is 4 soldiers.
Each day you fight your battles and some days you win and some days you loose. In poker this is known as variance. However, variance is a tricky enemy. Variance doesn't always mean that you played your "A" game and just got bad beats. Variance can mean your strategy in that battle was flawed. Variance can mean you made mistakes. Hopefully you know the mistakes you made otherwise variance will continue to rear its' ugly head in the next battle.
Yesterday, I lost my poker battle. I am lucky enough to know it was not due to playing my "A" game and getting bad beats. In my case I simply made some mistakes. Yesterday was day two of implementing my new blinds stealing strategy. I was stealing too often against loose/passive and loose/aggressive players. It is entirely possible some of those players are familiar with blind stealing and have developed a defense for it that I have not learned yet.
In battle you can win if you have a more advanced weapon. But if your enemy finds a way to neutralize your advanced weapon, you are doomed.
It is also entirely possible that some of my enemies were using poker tracker or ACE HUD to look at my stats and figured out my playing style. Honestly, I don't credit my enemies at $25NL with that much respect. So I will assume I can adjust my blind stealing strategy and defeat those sons of **tches tonight!
Basically, I need to blind steal more in middle and late position. I think I have been blind stealing 40% of the time. That is more than ideal.
Also - I broke my own strategy rule by fighting for big pots on the flop and later streets. I thought I could bluff aggressively on the turn and river and win the pot. That was a mistake. I lost 3 buy-ins last night with such strategy.
The blind stealing was working beautifully last night otherwise. People constantly fold pre flop to my blind stealing and most fold on an open bet on the flop. Even most people fold to a re-raise on the flop. If I blind steal out of position (OOP) and my enemy calls my preflop raise and then he bets first on the flop - I will sometimes re-raise them. Most of the time they just fold. When they call - it means I need to check/fold the turn. But last night I almost never did that and that was such a bad idea.
So tonight I will fight my nightly poker battle differently.
- I will NOT re-raise preflop on blind steals. - I will NOT re-raise on the Flop. - I will NOT continue to Raise on the Turn or River if an enemy has been calling my raises.
- I will Check/Fold the Turn if called on the flop with a blind steal (assuming I do not make a good hand.
- I will focus my blind stealing in middle and late positions.
- As a general rule, I will only blind stealing if I am first into the pot.
Wish me luck in tonight's battle!
I only lost what I won the day before. But I must say I did learn a lot from it and perhaps that is the cost of education.
I will say that I have been trying out new strategies lately.
Short Stack Strategy (SSS) I tried a short stack strategy - and failed miserably. But I learned a lot about playing short stack and that will definitely add to my playbook if I ever find myself as a short stack. I play short stacks at every table and I now know what they are going to do. I know WHEN to fold to a short stack.
Blind Stealing Strategy I am now trying to implement blind stealing. Although I must fine tune it, I think this will be a permanent part of my everyday playbook. I certainly can spot fellow enemy blind stealing. Next I need to learn how to defend against blind stealing. Not only so I can defend myself but so I can out think someone trying to defend against my blind stealing.
The next strategy I may learn There is something I hear in the grapevine on poker forums about how players stats are on turn betting (or lack thereof). Everyone knows a preflop raise who check the flop is a major sign of weakness. But how a preflop raiser plays the turn after betting the flop is another more advanced level of thinking. I need to learn how to play the turn more effectively.
I believe other players are calling my flop bets and are beating me on the turn and river. They may be out-bluffing my bluffs. Or they may KNOW I am blind stealing and that their middle pair will stand on the show down. It is possible they successfully are putting me on a range and on the turn and river they figure their middle pair is good and I am bluffing.
Obviously - I should not be bluffing the turn and river.
This is a very important topic. In cash games blind stealing is one of the most profitable strategies you can have in your poker playbook. If you read "Pokey's Blind Steal" blog, you will remember that a full 30% of his poker profits comes from relentless and aggressive blind stealing. The keywords here are Relentless and Aggressive. If you remove relentless from your blind stealing you can still succeed - albeit at a much lower percentage than 30%. But you cannot remove aggressiveness from your blind stealing and succeed. Aggressiveness is absolutely critical!
So what is considered aggressive blind stealing? If you are about to perform a blind steal, you open raise 4 big blinds. When the flop comes, irregardless of what flops - you open bet 3/4 of the pot.
That is it. Anything less is not being aggressive enough.
Remember, this is a numbers game. 2/3 of the time your opponent will miss the flop. Most of the time your opponent will fold to a second bet on the flop. Of course this is assuming you have fold equity due to your TAGish table image. If you have been playing LAG and getting caught on the river with loose cards - don't try the blind stealing so much. First work on restyling your table image back to TAG.
Now there are some rules in blind stealing. Rules is probably not the best way to put it - perhaps observations is a better choice.
You want to observe some things when blind stealing.
First, there are starting hand ranges even in blind stealing. For a very relentless blind stealer (I recommend being relentless if you have a very TAG play style) here is your hand ranges:
ANY: A, K, Pair, Two Broadway Cards (Face Cards including Ten), Suited Connectors down to 87s.
That is about 40% of the hands out there.
Notice I said Suited Connectors. I did not say Connectors, I did not say Suited, and I did not say to include gapped cards. They need to be both Suited AND Connected AND at least 87s. Trash anything else.
The idea for this hand range is you have a very decent chance of catching good cards on the flop. So when you bet the flop, irregardless of the flop, you will be ahead some of the time. If you just get called, chances are good you will catch a good turn or river card.
That being said - when blind stealing your goal is NOT to go to Show Down. For that matter your goal is not to go to the turn or river either. You are looking for everyone to FOLD on the flop after your bet.
Another important "observation" - Position.
Position always is important. The later the better. However, my personal style is to blind steal from any position some of the time. The reason for this is because you don't want people to catch on that you are blind stealing. When you are blind stealing you are always first to bet and are always representing a TAG hand for that position. You should rarely be blind stealing from early positions. Your bread and butter is middle to late position. The best position to blind steal is when you are on the button and it has been folded to you.
How much to bet? Easy - you bet consistently 4 big blinds. The best part about relentless aggressive blind stealing is people who do realize what you are doing will call you sometimes to keep you honest. But because you bet consistently the same whether you are blind stealing or holding a monster - your opponent will never know for sure which one it is. This gives your good cards better value. You will see less folding to your pocket AA when you blind steal because you're opponents won't figure you for a NIT (Very Tight, Very Aggressive). Nit's rarely play, they fold to any aggression - UNLESS they have the nuts. NIT's are also easy to figure out and you can steal their blinds all day long.
Another important observation. When playing $25NL and someone starts re-raising your raises - believe them and fold! Blind stealing is about winning small pots. Remember why you got involved in the hand in the first place and lay down your hand if your opponent bets into you. Are they just keeping you honest? Maybe. But at these limits it is very rare for someone to re-raise your raise and be bluffing. Respect the re-raise. Generally speaking if you open bet the flop and get called, then open bet the turn and get re-raise - you need to fold unless you have the best hand.
Another important observation. Never limp and never call. Do not limp pre-flop in position with the idea of open betting the flop. If you are going to blind steal you must open bet preflop. If you are in late position and someone before you limps in - then you must do a standard 4 big blind bet plus 1 big blind for every limper.
Remember - play consistently so your big hands get more value.
Also - Lets say you open bet the preflop and get one caller. If that caller goes before you do and bets the flop (standard 1/2 - 3/4 pot bet) - re-raise that flop 3X pot. Your cards do not matter here. If he calls that bet, then check fold the turn most of the time. Every once in a while if you have a good read on your opponent it is okay to fire the second barrel on the turn - but keep this a rare event. Remember - if they call your re-raise, they probably have a good hand. When you re-raise them on the flop your goal is for them to FOLD. If they call - that is bad. If they re-raise you back - that is bad.
I did add this blind stealing strategy to my game on Sunday. It worked like a magical charm. I was a little amazed how often people fold pre flop to a blind steal. I was also shocked how successful betting aggressively on the flop was. The few times someone did either call me or raise me on the flop - it took discipline to fold those hands.
There was a few times when I flopped very good hand while blind stealing and I continued playing aggressively on the flop, turn, and river. Those times gave credit to my blind steals.
When I did play my normal premium hand ranges for a TAG, I played them the same strong way and when they went to show down - those too gave additional credit to my blind stealing.
The most interesting thing I noticed about blind stealing is my poker stars stats. You would think I would end up playing more hands. My normal range of hands played as a TAG is 22%. So with blind stealing you would think that would jump up to 30-35%. But in fact my range went way down! I was playing 13%. I'll have to continue monitoring that number to see if it continues. That 13% was for about 800 hands.
The other thing I noticed is my overall aggressiveness went way up. Once I stopped calling too often and implemented a bet, fold, or raise strategy - my aggressiveness went up up up. This is good.
Opponents with Poker Tracker and ACE HUD will decide the kind of player you are by your two statistics: VP$IP & PFR.
VP$IP = Voluntarily Put $ In the Pot PFR = Pre Flop Raise
The ideal is these two number need to be as close as possible.
Before I implemented the bet, fold, or raise strategy my numbers were 24/10.5.
After I implemented the bet, fold, or raise strategy my numbers were 25/24.
See the difference? Those numbers equal respect in your opponents eyes.
Okay - this post is long enough.
For those of you who did not read Pokey's blog about his blind stealing strategy - the link is below. He explains the same stuff I go over - but in a better and more efficient way. Definitely worth the read.
On Sunday I ended my session up 2.7 Buy-Ins after 2.5 hours ($68). I 6 tabled all weekend $25NL. I discovered 6 tabling is just as easy for me as 4 tabling. I now think I could probably play 8 tables at once - so I may try that in a week or so.
The weekend started a little wishy washy. On Friday I was ahead about $16 after 2 hours. Then within 30 minutes I was not only not ahead, but I was down $18. Talk about a big swing!
Saturday I had to go out of town, but I snuck in an hour of poker thinking I might be able to swing it back to the positive - no such luck. I went back a full buy-in more - for $41 in the negative.
Sunday I decided to do some poker strategy studying. I first did some investigating on how to properly use Poker Tracker Stats and how to use ACE HUD. The good news is my Poker Tracker (PT) stats are pretty solid. The only major issue with my PT stats was my aggression was slightly lower than I would like for a TAG. I discovered this was due to me calling way too much when I should be raising or folding.
I do a lot of reading on poker forums on the internet. I discovered a fantastic blog about how to use poker tracker statistics to discover your leaks. In the blog was two examples of very good TAGs with amazing PT stats.
The good news is my stats were pretty close to what they considered ideal. The only problem being my loose calling rather than aggressive betting, raising, or folding.
I now understand what statistics to strive for. I won't go into details, but I will include the links for your reading pleasure:
In my next post I will cover in more detail the blind stealing. I applied this strategy to my play on Sunday and it really worked very well. So well in fact that I think I think it may be a quantum leap in my playing style.
Probably a good time to update everyone on how my bankroll is holding up.
I don't have pokertracker in front of me to post, but really there is not much to post yet.
Keep in mind that I started this current bankroll project about 2 weeks ago. I started off on a bad footing too.
Bad Start
For the first week I was trying a Miller short stack strategy (SSS. I would buy in for 20-25 Big Blinds and play VERY TAG. Basically with a short stack you only get to play two betting rounds - Pre Flop and the Flop. You're waiting for JJ-AA and AK. Everything else you fold. You can open up in late position if you want down to 99 and AQ, KQ.
I gave this strategy a big try at the $10 NL FR ($.05/$.10 NL tables Full Ring). I also gave it a go at $25 NL FR. I even tried it at $25 NL 6-max.
This strategy required open raising 4-7 bets Preflop and All-In on the flop.
To say the least, I failed miserably at this SSS (short stack strategy).
I quickly changed back to my normal Full Stack 100BB game and started winning immediately.
So, keep this in mind with my current poker tracker big blind/100 hands numbers.
My Poker Tracker Big Blind per 100 hands OR PTBB/100 was in the negative when I stopped playing short stack strategy - at 3 limits: $25NL and $10NL and $25NL 6-max).
I've consistently won at $10NL and $25NL since switching back to Full Stack.
Currently I have played about 5500 hands including both short stack and full stack strategies.
My overall PTBB/100 for all limits is currently at -$0.89.
I stopped playing $10NL after about 1000 hands at Full Stack Strategy because I felt I was way over bankrolled for $10NL and I just knew I was earning about 8PTBB/100.
I've played about 2000 hands at $25NL as a full stack and another 1000 hands as Short Stack. My current PTBB/100 is $1.5PTBB/100 hands. That is a positive.
So basically things are improving drastically now that I switched back to Full Stack.
I am playing around 2000-3000 hands a week. S0 in a week or two, I should be around 5-8PTBB/100 at $25NL.
The Game Plan
1. To stay at $25NL until I have 40 Buy-Ins ($1000).
2. Start 6-Tabling this weekend at $25NL.
3. Once I reach 40 Buy-Ins @ $25NL, I will take a stab at $50NL. I will give myself 5 buy-ins @ $50NL to see if I make the grade. If I loose those 5 buy-ins, I'll move back down to $25NL until I get back to 40 Buy-Ins and then I will take another shot at $50NL
These two hands are not mine. I got them off pokerhandreplays.com.
These two hands absolutely define what variance is in poker. They show you WHY you must have good bankroll management. These are the types of hands you would play the same because you simply have to play them the same. They are definetely +EV hands - though they both lost.
Check em out!
$15/$30 NL ($3000 NL) - You need a minimum bankroll of $60,000 to play here
Hero (QQ - Button) loses - three of a kind, jacks wins over a pair of queens
$20/$40 NL ($4000 NL) - You need a minimum bankroll of $80,00 to play here
Hero (AQ - Small Blind) loses - four of a kind, tens wins over a flush, ace high
I won't do too much commentary about this hand. But it was a good pot to win for me, so I will show it.
Basically I am in the hijack position (right before the button) with Jc9c. Not the best hand, but there are two limpers so I limp in too. The SB completes after me, so that's 4 limpers and the BB. I don't expect much from this hand - I have no great reads and there are too many players going to the flop. But I do have good position if the other players don't bet the flop.
Then the flop comes Ac 8c 2c - bingo! I just flopped a flush and the A is on the table.
Everyone checks until the opponent before me raises it to $1 - roughly a 3/4 pot bet.
Got to love my position! I 3-bet re-raise to $3. To my surprise, he calls the raise.
Turn is 10s. Perhaps my opponent played AT and just made two pair? But he is facing a flush on the table, so he checks.
I bet $4. Again - he calls!
The river is another club. That is not great since if he had ANY club, it would be a tie. Luckily I got position on him again.
Once again he checks. Okay. I figure he must have had a decent pair, maybe two pair. Perhaps he put me on a flush draw with just one club - though my betting should have changed his thinking on that unless he puts me on a semi bluff.
But once that last club falls, he has to worry. If he has no clubs and I have just one club - he is facing a flush on the river to a big pot.
I bet 3/4 pot and he folds. I take down a $15.25 pot.
Okay - I think I played this one correctly. But as luck had it, I lost in the first hand.
I am BB. UTG just calls, Cutoff or HighJack raises it up to 4BB, SB calls the raise. I have Pocket AA in the BB and am loving all the action.
I 3-bet Re-Raise the cutoff bet to $240.
UTG folds. Cutoff folds. SB once again calls. That is a bit strange, but tournament players are a different breed than cash game players.
Flop comes 6d Kc Tc
With SB just calling, it is possible he might have the KT. That is the best I can give him credit for with calling the big re-raises PF.
SB checks. Weak play normally, but this guy has been check calling all along. I figure him for a loose-passive player.
I raise the flop to almost 3/4 pot - hoping to stop him right there.
He goes all-in - which would have been a 3-bet to my raise.
Seriously, I couldn't see what he could have gotten except 2 pair or a flush draw. What could have possessed him to call those bets and raises?
So - I put him a semi bluff with a flush draw.
I call his All-In.
He turns over pocket 66 and shows that he caught his set on the flop.
I cannot believe he called all those bets and raises for a pocket 66 set mining hand. IMHO he played wrong and will loose more money playing this way.
But, to his luck and the lack of mine, I am drawing to 2 outs for another A - not good.
I loose the first hand in the tournament.
In retrospect - I should probably have folded to a re-raise on the flop. It was too early in the tournament to get an accurate read on a late position opponent. All I had on the Flop was an over pair. I should have simply folded and would still have had $860 in chips to play with - plenty to work with early in the tournament.
I was playing $25NL for about an hour and got really bored. All I was getting was set mining and straight or flush drawing hands - which I played mostly by limping in. When they hit the flop, everyone seemed to fold to any aggression. Boring!
So I thought to myself, hey why not play a tournament instead!
I closed the 4 $25NL tables and entered a 27 man 3 table tournament for $5.50. It has been months since I played any tournaments. I normally play only JJ-AA, AK in early part of these MTT's.
Twenty hands into the tournament, I play this hand:
8 handed - I am in late position right before the hijack position. It folds to me and so I open raise 3BB. Small blind calls.
Flop comes: Js Qs Td. Small Blind Checks - normally a sign of weakness and I just hit TPTK heads up against a weak pre flop caller. Of course I raise it to about 3/4 Pot bet.
Opponent 3-bet re-raises me. Ha!
This is where I should have folded. I should know have given the opponent credit for two pair at least.
All I had was TPTK. At best I had a gutshot high straight draw or a draw to another pair.
On the board is an obvious straight draw. I don't think the opponent had the AK, or he should have played it differently. But certainly he could have had A9,QT, or K9 giving him an OESD. The QJ is suited so if he has any two spades he is also on Flush Draw.
But no...I re-raise him. Opponent re-raises me and suddenly we are both All-In on the flop.
Now to my credit, I simply figured he was bluffing or at best on the straight or flush draw. I figured I had TPTK and that may very well be good. If I caught the K I would have the high straight. Then only trips or a flush would beat me.
Should I have bet my tournament on that hand - of course not.
Opponent indeed was on the draw. He had low pair and two spades for a flush draw. He also had a gutshot straight draw. Keep in mind though that the opponent would have made the low flush and the low straight. That is still a gamble as he could have been beat to a higher flush or straight.
But he had enough outs to call me in his mind.
Immediately he gets a third ten on the turn for his trips. The river he makes his other hole card with an 8 and gets a full house.
I should not have re-raised the flop.
I cannot say the opponent played wrong. Perhaps he gambled too much IMHO - but he certainly had more outs than I did.
I am constantly updating this blog layout to make it more and more beneficial. Over the years I have found some really great poker web sites. I added a link bar to the right that you can check out. You could spend hours on some of these sites reading the poker forums or watching the poker videos. I know I have.
Of note - one of the sites is a membership site, where you pay. I think you can still check out the free portion of the site and there is some good stuff there (Members Forums and Hand History Tools). But, if you are a serious grinder like me - amateur or pro, this site is worth the money. I am not currently a member, but I was in the past.
Since I am not a member, I don't have a way to put a link in this post to get a nice affiliate profit for signing you up (never throw away free money). But they do have one - so maybe after I join later I can post this again with that affiliate link. But nonetheless, I recommend them whole heartily.
The best thing about this pay site is top poker grinders play at all different limits and different types of poker games and record there sessions on video. They commentary throughout the entire session. You get inside their mind why they play a certain way, how they out play their opponents, etc. It is the best learning tool I have ever found. There are thousands of videos and new ones every day. Green Plastic was one grinder on the site I watched consistently.
Hello fans. I did not play poker last night. So today I will tell you about a very important subject - how to get rakeback. What is rakeback, you may ask? Well every time you sit down at a poker table the house collects a rake. This rake is what makes the poker site money. You don't play against the house, but the house gets paid nonetheless.
Rakeback is a one time opportunity when you first set up a poker account at a particular site. You can only get a rakeback if you do things just right.
For instance, I use http://www.rakemeback.com. I have used them for years and they are legitimate and consistent.
RakeMeBack.com offers a 27% rakeback at Full Tilt Poker. That means you get back 27% of all money you pay in rake. Once a week I get a deposit into my Full Tilt Poker account from www.RakeMeBack.com. To give you an idea of how much money this is, here is an example:
For 27% RakeBack at Full Tilt Poker:
If you 4 Table $100NL 15 hours a week - you will pay around $269 per week in rake to Full Tilt Poker. That means Full Tilt Poker is getting paid around $1069 a month for you to play at their poker site. It is nice to be king eh!
But, with rakeback, you will get deposited into your account every week from www.RakeMeBack.com $73. That is about $315 per month you will earn from rakeback! Now this is money you normally would never see again!
Nice huh!
It is crazy to play at a poker site that offers rakeback and not have that rakeback deal.
But there is a catch. Rakeback is a marketing trick offered to vendors to bring new players to the tables. You cannot get rakeback from Full Tilt Poker. You can only get it from rakeback vendors, like www.RakeMeBack.com. You have to go to www.RakeMeBack.com> and follow their specific steps.
You cannot already have a Full Tilt poker account and then get rakeback later. You have to be a new customer.
So this is a one time deal. I was lucky enough to have never played on Full Tilt Poker - not sure how I managed that. SO recently, I went to www.RakeMeBack.com and followed the steps to getting a rakeback deal at Full Tilt Poker. Worked like a charm and now for EVER I get 27% of all my rake back every week! Sweet deal!
Now Full Tilt Poker is not the only rakeback deal at www.RakeMeBack.com. I have 3 rakemeback deals at three different poker sites.
Now I recommend you sign up at www.RakeMeBack.com, but just so you are aware, there are others. The rakebacks from the poker sites attract a lot of vendors. I just recommend www.RakeMeBack.com because I use them and I know they are legitimate and consistent. I have never had any problems with them. Not all rakeback vendors have such good track records - so PokerPlayer beware.
If you decide to open an account with www.RakeMeBack.com, it is free and there is no obligation. But please use the many links I have in this post to sign up - yes I get a bonus. I would recommend them even without a nice little bonus from www.RakeMeBack.com - but my motto is why throw easy money away.
I think I get 1% of whatever rakeback you earn if you sign up through my link - forever - but only through 3 poker site deals, one of which is Full Tilt Poker. So once you sign up - make sure your friends sign up through you too - and get the easy money as well.
Here I am in the BB with K8o. One Early Position (EP) limper, One MP Limper, One LP limper, AND the SB completes. Normally if I am in the BB and it comes back to me with limpers, I loosen up my calling ranges and put in a raise.
I don't always play this way. This is a once in a while play in my little poker playbook.
In this case, however, I chose to just check all those limpers. In retrospect, that was probably not the best play.
With so many big stacks in this hand and limping in I should have put in a raise and chased most of them out. The one or two that might have stayed tells me a little about what hole cards they have. Just checking here gives me no information on the other 4 players and I would be better off folding if I don't raise. Plus - you never want to more than 1-2 other people in a pot with you unless you are trying to set for trips or draw to OESD/Flush's - which I wasn't.
But here is what happened.
4 Players saw the flop plus myself - so that is 5.
I am pretty lousy position here with no information about my opponents calling ranges. I am second to bet. Luckily my opponents also have no information on my hole cards either. I just hit Middle and Low pair. There is an A on the board. In this case I am very glad to see that A because chances are someone here played Ax Rags and thinks they have a decent hand here.
I open raise $1 - 3 folds. Then MP1 re-reraises me to $2.75.
There is our Ax rags my friends. If he had AK, he would not have limped in. The gamble here is that he might also have A8.
I choose to 3-bet re-raise the raiser (a little over 3-bet actually). Remember, in this situation aggression can make a winning hand fold.
If he has A8 by some chance, now he would definetely call me or go all-in - in which case I would fold.
If he just had the A pair, then he now has to wonder if I was trip setting him.
He folds.
I think this opponent was a good player because after the hand he asked me if I had K8. That means he was capable of putting me on a range. I did tell him I had the K8.
This also means I was probably correct in putting him on Ax rags.
Lost 1/2 a buy-in last night at the $25NL. I was 4 tabling for about 2 hours. It is understood that you cannot possibly win every session. Being down half a buy-in is pretty great for a losing session - I have seen much worse.
I actually did pretty break even most of the night. I lost one or two buy-ins by calling to show down a couple All-Ins. But I also won a few of those too.
Really, I called it quits after I lost a couple big hands, otherwise I may have ended the session in the positive.
I am happy with the session overall.
Here is my first crack at showing you guys some hands I played last night.
So this is where is all begins. The first post. Starting Bankroll = $530 Starting Limit = $25NL 4 Tabling Full Ring 2-3 Hours a day 5-6 days a week
I use Poker Tracker 2 and HUD. Albeit, I don't know how to use either much yet. But at least I am importing hands and looking at my stats.
Playing Style - TAG I play 22% of starting hands
Goals =
1. 6 Table $25NL by July 1st, 2009 2. Move up to $50 NL by August 1st 2009 (or sooner) 3. Achieve Silver VIP status at Poker Stars by August 1st. 4. Play 50K hands by October 1st, 2009 (Poker Tracker) 5. By October 1st, 2009 - Have a Poker Tracker BB/100 of 5 or greater.
Some Fun Videos:
First, Amatuer - yes - but he plays on PokerStars and who knows - maybe I can make one better than him. (not a difficult task)
I don't know why - but I love this song just because it mentions Poker Face:
