1) these are reasons i really despise lo8 -- pretty big swings even when you're getting your money in not-so-bad AND there's no such thing as a fold button for fishies.

2) that being said, when you do run well, it's an easy game to love. 50-100 bb swongs are not so uncommon in certain games.

3) regarding folding (or lack thereof) by villains, i think the catch here is that you really need to focus more on making hands and value betting (often relatively light) rather than playing an aggro game. at these kinds of lower limit games, i bluff FAR below game-theory optimal simply because i get called down super light. i only start bluffing close to optimal frequency when i notice that i'm getting more folds than i would expect from certain villains in certain contexts. no fps since villains usually won't fold without complete air.

4) the next to last hand you listed above seemed a bit spewy on the river. i like check/call best (by far), then bet/fold, and then your line. maybe you had a read that he raised into lots of aggression with tp types of hands? note that he didn't need to spike the T. he wasn't folding the turn, and probably would not have folded any non-flush river even if unimproved.

5) on the last hand, i really think this was really bad fps/tilt (i think you know that). you weren't going to have any problem getting the money in if you wanted to... no need to rush on the flop.

Just dropped another $100 in 40 minutes of LO8. Just as sickly as yesterday....

I'm playing 14/7 on a 6-handed table and this guy can't find a fold here? This is like the only hand I played super aggressively postflop all session. How in the hell is this a snap call???
http://weaktight.com/205197

$2/$5 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
5 players
Converted at

Stacks:
UTG ($273.00)
CO ($251.50)
Hero ($195.00)
SB ($80.00)
BB ($166.50)

Pre-flop: ($7, 5 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, CO raises to $10, Hero calls $10, 2 folds
44.90% (EV = $2.12)
55.10% (EV = $4.88)

Flop: ($27, 2 players)
CO bets $5, Hero raises to $10, CO calls $5
37.70% (EV = $7.72)
62.30% (EV = $19.28)

Turn: ($47, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $10, CO calls $10
60.60% (EV = $30.60)
39.40% (EV = $16.40)

River: ($67, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $10, CO calls $10
100.00% (EV = $77.00)
0.00% (EV = -$10.00)

Final Pot: $87
CO shows:
Hero shows:

CO wins $85 ( won +$45 )
Hero lost -$40.00

I was finally able to turn it around tonight. Playing $3/6 LO8 I won 3 big pots early and was up $100 within the first 3 minutes of play. Then up $160 not too long after.

I was finally able to beat one of these clowns raising with middle cards
http://weaktight.com/207361

And another where the pot got big on the turn where I was big favorite and held for the scoop.
http://weaktight.com/207363

And finally a little bit of luck on my side as I made a marginal flop call in a big pot and got perfect Turn and River cards
http://weaktight.com/207364

And then I proceded to give almost all of it back.

The defend with any trash > AAxx
http://weaktight.com/207365

And then some whiffs and badly timed bluffs. I keep thinking I can get folds when certain cards come out and never give them the credit for holding middle wrap type hands.

So when I win, it's only +$28.50 as opposed to dropping $100 or more whenever I run badly. Actually only $18.45 when you count the $10.05 loss messin around in PLO for a few minutes before dinner.

That one should have been a winner too, but got it all-in on the turn as a 3-1 favorite with the nut straight vs a naked flush draw and lost, which was the difference. Only other hand I stuck it in with was 8775 on an 885 flop and split. Guess it coulda been worse since he had an over (9865).

Not a disaster, but definitely frustrating to only win $28 after that start tonight.

And FU very much #2 courtesy of Stars

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$10+$1
9 players
Converted at

Stacks:
UTG (3440)
UTG+1 (2445)
MP1 (5595)
MP2 (3078)
MP3 (5280)
CO (4730)
BTN (3380)
SB (4802)
Hero (2575)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-flop: (150, 9 players) Hero is BB
2 folds, MP1 calls 100 (5495), 4 folds, SB calls 50 (4702), Hero checks (2475)
25.30% (EV = -$21.82)
74.70% (EV = $130.82)

Flop: (309, 3 players)
SB bets 200 (4502), Hero calls 200 (2275), 1 fold
25.40% (EV = -$19.91)
74.60% (EV = $328.91)

Turn: (709, 2 players)
SB bets 500 (4002), Hero raises to 2200 (75), SB raises to 3900 (102), Hero goes all-in 75 (0)
25.00% (EV = -$2585.25)
75.00% (EV = $1669.25)

River: (5259, 2 players)
100.00% (EV = $5250.00)
0.00% (EV = $0.00)

Final Pot: 5250
SB shows:
Hero shows:

SB wins 6875 ( won +2675 )
MP1 lost -100
Hero lost -2575

Just dropped another $158 playing 2 tables of LO8 for an hour, mostly $3/6 and $2/4 with a little $5/10 mixed in. Completely my fault. This could have been avoided totally if I had just folded AA2x, AA3x, AAxx for that matter, A2Kx, and A3Kx preflop every time and avoided the players calling raises with any 4 at all costs. If they could see my cards and pick the board cards, they couldn't have done any better.

Long rant, ridiculous hands upcoming. (All this shit happened in just 167 hands)

- [Ks][Qc][2c] CO vs 55VP from UTG - flop 3rd nut flush + nut low. Get 1/4'rd.
http://weaktight.com/210389 (He actually had a rare legit hand)

- Defend BB vs BTN raise with [Js][8c][3d] and c/r [Kh][Jd] flop (2 pair+NFD+BD2NL). Get called by [Kc][9c][6h] (bare top pair on Flop). Miracle on the turn counterfeiting my low draw and he goes runner-runner low for the split. I lose $.50 on the hand.
Lesson: 70% equity not enough to jam flop. Wait till safe river or risk building rake.

- 4 limpers and I just complete in SB [3s][3h][2h]. All the low cards are gone, right?
[Ac][Ah] flop - WRONG! Trip Aces (no good obv.) + NLD. Runner - runner broadway, fold river still 3-way action.

- Please explain this flop call to me. PLEASE! Can he see the turn ahead of time? No other expanation.
http://weaktight.com/210397
Flopped nut low and 70% equity = GSSD w/ overs to 1/2 the pot on the flop.

- [As][5d][2d] absolutely no match for the DEFEND by [8h][6d][2s]. SCOOPED!
http://weaktight.com/210398 (Spewy river call. I just needed to see it.)

- Lesson #2: AAA3ss isn't as bad in LO8 as it is PLO.
Lesson #3: Lesson #2 is WRONG! if you're raising someone with TT54. You'll be drawing dead on the flop.
Flop = T66

- A2K7ss - counterfeited on the turn
- A2Q7ss - counterfeited on the turn
- A3Q8ss - counterfeited on the river
Only lost 1.5 BB or less each time, but it adds up. Especially when you haven't had one hold up for even half the pot in that time.

- Raise [Kh][9d][2d] on BTN. SB call the raise. He must have a strong hand. Limper and BB call.
Board is HU after my Turn bet with the vulnerable nuts on [Th][7s] board.
river. SB leads, I have to call getting 9-1. Flips over [Qs][8c][5s].


- UTG+1 raises [9h][5s][3c]. Stupid me defends BB with [Ks][Qd][3h].
Board = [Ad][4c][Kd]. How could I possibly think he's folding that trash when the comes on the river to give him the scoop?
T953 - an EP raising hand.
AKQ3ss - a real piece of shit.

- Yay! I'm finally the dog on the flop and avoid the low, hit the river to scoop my 1st of 2 decent pots.
http://weaktight.com/210406

- AAT2ss = trash
http://weaktight.com/210408

- AQJ4ds opening from BTN = no match for middle cards defending from BB J865.
Need a lot of luck to split against that monster. He only had 3 clubs in his hand. That's why only 4 showed up on the board. What was I thinking with red cards?

- AT82ds, stick it up your ass. Counterfeited for 1/2 pot on the river. Not like the other decent hand is going anywhere either. You need to defend with a real piece of shit in the BB (like 6TQ4??) to flop the nuts and river the 2 out scoop in this game.
http://weaktight.com/210410

- More defend with middle card shit and guaranteed a profit. AKT3ss can't beat AT97ss.
- A23Jds can't beat anything.

- AAJ7ss - 81% equity on the turn. Scoop 1 time please?
http://weaktight.com/210417


- More defending with absolute shit works out well.
http://weaktight.com/210419

- Shit. AAxx again. Raise UTG. UTG+1 cold calls. Flops the flush with 7652. Goes to war with BB who flops top set. I get out cheap.

- Hi only hand with my last few $$$ finally works out on like the 100th try in a family pot.
http://weaktight.com/210420
But as you see, I still needed to suck out twice though.

Summary: Scooped only 2 pots. Both with no low possible. Both as a decent dog on the turn. NONE with A2xx or any big low suited type hand. Once again got brains bashed in with most solid holdings. Occasionally lucky enough to split and break even against trash that flops disgustingly well.

New strategy: Play middle wrap type hands more aggressively, defend and go to showdown with any 4. Dump any A-A/K/Q-2/3-x hand and all preflop.

EDIT: The week in LO8

$2/4 308 hands -$159
$3/6 268 hands -$263
$5/10 121 hands -$107

AAxx hands (21x) -$100.50
AAx(2/3) hands (9x) -$79
A(2/3)(K/Q)x hands (35x) -$23

$500 is significant, but not disastrous. It would have been a little less than 3 months ago. But now it's like a $150 loss then. Now $500 represents just about 10% of my bankroll.

The real problem is that I now run the risk of busting my Stars account and there is no easy way to move money from Full Tilt so I might have to become a bit more nitty again because moving money from FT to PS might be a bitch.

I'm probably gonna pick up the $285 Gold Star bonus next month, so that should help.

----------------------------
Fun With PT3

So far, I'm loving the concepts, but not entirely over-whelmed by the application yet. Still needs some fixes, but if it gets to where it wants to go, I'm really going to be happy with it....or maybe unhappy because it means that everyone else will have this info too and poker will become that much harder.

The bitch now, since I'm using the trial version and haven't purchased yet, is that I liked to keep my databases seperate and that's not possible with the trial. In PT2, I had 1 each for LHE FR, LHE 6-max, NLHE FR, and NLHE 6-max.

The HUD
I never used PAHUD (used GT+) so this is different than anything I'm used to. I wonder how much information is overload though. I set up 3 lines of stats for MTT's yesterday and that seemed to be too much on a 9-handed table. It covered up everything. I'm probably going to have to go back to just the basics for Full Ring.

Anyway, even though I've yet to play a cash game with it, I have the HUD set up as follows....

Player Name (Hands)
VP$IP / PFR / AF / WTSD
3Bet / Call 3Bet
Fold to CBet / Raise CBet / C/R Flop / C/R River

I was going to add some Steal and Blind defense stats, but that just seemed like too much. I'd have no table room left. I might even try to find a way to condense to 2 lines.

I also want to change the background color to have it more transparent. I think it's currently set to black, but I don't want to mess with anything and screw it up even worse. I see the option to change the background behind each particular stat, but not for the entire stat grid as a whole.

Also tried to figure out how to color code different stats according to ranges, but couldn't find the option. Again, probably overkill though.

I also miss the EV stats on the replayer which aren't there yet. That was one of the features I most often used in PT2.

Going over yesterday's hands today, that TT vs QQ hand becomes even more of a shitty spot because it was actually a Blind v Blind situation 4-handed after the previous hand and with those stats. I open-raised SB, he 3-bet (again), I 4-bet, he shoved.

Other than that, there were several hands I was really happy with on 2nd look as well.

There was an AK hand where I raised a limper (40BB stack) and flopped an Ace. The turn was a K that completed a flush, which I checked w/o a card of that suit. River was a K and I bet small getting him to c/r me all-in with A2s (no flush).

And also 44 in CO, 3-bet by the BTN (a fairly tight-ish aggro player). I called, but not really for set value.
Flop was [7c][8h]
Perfect c/r'ing hand. He bet $7 into a $10 pot, I c/r to $17 and he folded.

I was giving him 3.5 to 1 on that c/r but I think the point is, he either has to feel he's crushed here or he's going to shove anyway w/ a FD+overs or something like that. He can't float lightly here even with the odds. I think most of his range is random overs which he has to fold.

Stack sizes played a role in the c/r too. He had $32 left after the $7 c-bet. $17 was enough to commit him, but not me. Not that he knew that though.

--------------------

Still making strides with the HUD. Figured out how to do a couple more things, including color code and hopefully make the background more transparent. There is a "groups" tag with some functions I didn't notice.

The tab probably has more than I even understand now, including hopefully a way to scatter the stats in a less obtrusive way around the players on the table instead of having it all bunched in a grid. Then there's also a pop-up feature which I don't even understand.

I wish someone would make a detailed manual on all the HUD functions and applicability. I'll probably have to eventually sit down and just single table and play around with it for about an hour, but who the hell has time for that now. I still need about 650 points for Gold Star this month and I'm not gonna get that single tabling. So I'll just have to live with what I got right now.