February 10th, 2005 (Thursday)

I'm still at work but I'm getting ready to leave. There's a snow storm coming, but instead of the originally predicted 20 inches, it looks like we might only get a dusting of 2-5 inches. Mark was planning on hosting a home game tonight, so it seems a reasonable thing to attend since the weather isn't terrible.

If I do go to his house and play, I probably can't expect much of a win tonight - maybe another $20 or so - maybe less. The win on Tuesday night was big, but very uncommon.

Whether I go tonight or not (and I have a feeling I will), I'm going to try to get about 100 raked hands in on Empire between putting the kids to bet and leaving. I don't know that it will happen, but I've still got a substantial number to finish off and I'd rather not play beyond my capacity tomorrow night. I will if I have to - I just don't want to. With 464 raked hands left to earn - I'd need to 4-table at Empire for a solid 3 hours probably or 3-table for 5 hours... it might be less than that - but I think that's about what I would need. With 100 hands taken care of tonight - the remaining 360 will be a long night, but at least I could keep it to a reasonable 3 tables + one Pokerstars tournament table...

I think I'm pretty much done with playing the $1 tournaments on Pokerstars. Now that they are running frequent $10+1 tournaments, I'm much more inclined to play those. In addition, I also want to start considering the no limit tournaments and getting in on the action there.

My ring game play at $1/$2 has really skyrocketed in the past week, which is good and bad. First of all, I am itching to move up completely to $2/$4, but I first want to complete the bonus at Empire. Secondly, I don't want to move up since my current average BB/100 at $1/$2 (for this year) is at 14.4 - and for $2/$4 (for a significantly smaller set of hands) is only 3.6.

In the home game on Tuesday, someone asked me if I really considered the games in a home game "safe" - meaning he wondered if I actually knew how to play them. When I told him I did, he asked me how. Since I'm playing among people who are pretty much clueless, and I don't care one way or the other if they improved, I offered him this:

Most of the games in a home game are based off of 7-Card Stud. Those that aren't are either a) 5-card draw or a college game (7-27, 5 card red-black etc). In order to play any of these games effectively, you have to decide what is a good hand. In regular 7-stud - a high pair is frequently a winner, but so is 2-pair, trips, or a straight. When you introduce wilds, it simply adjusts the "minimum" winning hand upwards.

For "Follow the Queens" (a favorite at that game because its an easy game to play), there are either 4 wilds or 8 wilds. With 4 wild cards, I'm more inclined to get down to the river with a minimum of a straight. However, with 8 wild cards, I don't like to pay for a street without a solid boat or 4 of a kind.

For special split games, like Low Chicago for instance (high hand splits with low spade in the hole) - the high hand isn't adjusted, but you pretty much must assume the pot will be split. If I've got the 3 of spades - I better see the ace and the deuce in other peoples' hands before I continue if there's heavy betting.

5-card draw is simple, but the other games like 7-27 and 5 card red-black - I'm only likely to continue past the first betting round if I have a very good chance of pumping the pot (usually because I have a lock without a possibility of splitting). In 7-27, I will rarely draw to hit the 27 - and will only play for the 7 if a) I'm dealt one, b) I've got a 6 or 8 and everyone draws a card or c) I've got a 5 or 9 and everyone draws 2 cards AND no one bets...

[Continued]

Well, I didn't end up playing online last night because my son was testing his limits again when I was trying to get him to sleep... He's just learned how to open a door on his own and it is a great game for him to open his bedroom door, peak out and yell "Daddy!" until I come to put him back in. He was trying my patience because I was trying to clean up from dinner and get ready to go out once my wife and our friend arrived. I ended up laying down with him for a while and he got so frustrated that he hit me - accidentally boxing my ears - so now I was frustrated AND I couldn't hear...

Lindsay (my wife) and Erin (our friend) showed up a few minutes later and suddenly my son was ready to sleep... irony at its best. At this point, I was inclined to stay home and sulk about being a bad father, but Lindsay convinced me to go out and we went to Mark's to play some poker.

Lindsay and I played from 10:30pm until about 1am and we were the big winners. She was up about $12, I was up $65. For a $20 buyin - that's not too bad... Mark was the only other player who cashed out any money of significance, but I think he was still down for the night overall. Dan, Chris and Mandy were all pretty much broke (Dan cashed out $9, but was down about $60 overall...)

There weren't many significant hands from the night, just one 5-card draw hand and one "Low in the Hole" hand.

5-Card Draw:

Dan (on my left) is the dealer and chooses 5-card draw. He deals out the cards and Chris (on his left) leads out with a $0.50 bet (which means nothing). Everyone calls around to me and I pick up a set of sevens with deuce four. Since everyone called, I decided I would raise it two dollars - knowing I'd still get a couple of callers, but I wanted to get them in with the worst of it. Dan and Chris both called the raise, but now Mark comes alive with a reraise for another two. Since Mark is somewhat skilled, I suspect that he has at least trips - but most likely has a pat hand. Both Mandy and Lindsay fold and I call. Dan and Chris call as well.

Chris takes 3 cards (heh heh heh), Mark takes none, I take two and Dan takes one. Chris checks and Mark bets out two. I pick up my two cards and find two kings. Now I have to decide what to do. Since I suspect Chris and Dan will both fold to any sort of raise, but may call the two from Mark - this is a tough decision. I could raise and get one more bet from Mark; if I simply call, I might get the two from Dan and Chris. In the end, I decided to raise and sure enough only Mark called (grudgingly...) and showed his wheel.

Low in the Hole: (Dealt as 7-card stud, of your hole cards, the lowest is wild for you and you alone. On the 7th card, you can choose to have the card dealt up or down (in order to preserve or change your wild potentially)).

Mark was the dealer for this hand, and Lindsay (on my right) was dealt an ace up. I had an 8d door card. In the hole I had two more diamonds - the four and the three. Lindsay checks, I check, Dan bets $0.50 (means nothing...) with a jack door card, Chris calls with a four door card, Mark and Mandy both fold and Lindsay calls; I call as well.

On fourth street I get the six of diamonds - so now I have four diamonds with a couple of draws to a straight flush. No one pairs up, and Lindsay checks again. I check and now Dan bets out for $1. Chris calls, Lindsay folds - I call.

On fifth, I get a rag king, Dan and Chris both pair their door cards. This of course concerns me. Dan has the bigger pair and leads out for a $1 bet (max is $2). Chris flat calls. I decide to call (if I hit my straight flush and they have boats or better - this stands to be a huge pot).

On sixth, I hit a three to give me a straight flush to the eight. In addition, Dan and Chris apparently get cards to help their hands (or they stop slowplaying...) because Dan leads out for $2, Chris raises $2, I reraise and Dan caps.

On seventh, Dan leads out again, Chris flat calls and I raise. Dan - about to raise - thinks better of it and just calls. Chris calls too. They both show four of a kind and I take the pot.

Numbers for the day:

2/10 10:30pm $2 Mixed Games, $40 buyin ($20 for me, $20 for Lindsay), 1:00am, +77

Net change for the day: +$77.00
Total change for the month: +$535.51
Total change since Jan 1: +$999.20

Starstealer, do you have any good tips for shorthanded and HU Omaha Hi/Lo?

I should since I play it so often, but let me think about it first:

1. Short-handed you will still often get the odds to draw (in limit), because sometimes you will have those massive draws. More importantly, if you have solid draws that are not to the nuts - they are still worthwhile (as opposed to full ring - where you should be very wary of them).

2. Aggressiveness is not something most Omaha Hi/lo players are used to. Usually when I get down to heads up, I go from a tight-passive preflop player to a loose-super-aggressive player on the flop. This tactic is often enough to get most of my opponents' stacks just by blowing them off of their hands.

3. Hand selection is key - when you are being aggressive, I'm most comfortable with at least bottom two pair on the flop or a solid draw to a hand.

Against a calling station - you'll still need to show down the best hand, but you'll only need to do it once before you take their stack (because they will call along and you take their money).

Against another aggressive player, don't worry about slowplaying, but make sure that you back off when you in fact have nothing. I find I win more pots with a 3-bet or capping it than going to showdown.

In terms of what cards I would fold with it depends. If my opponent is passive - I will most often raise from the SB with any holding and will continue pushing on any flop that fits me partially. Against this type of opponent on the BB, I will most often check to see the flop with most holdings (including premium ones).

Against an aggressive player, I will push about half of the hands (regardless of their value). If I get played back, I will usually see a flop and make a decision from there whether to pursue the hand further. If I am reraised preflop, I will usually only continue with 2 pair (even bottom two) or a solid 9+ draw.

One last thing is to vary your style - even though I am hyper-aggressive preflop most of the time, I do change gears for a few hands to pretend that I'm trying to slow down. In these cases, I'm just looking to throw my opponent off guard. In these cases, I will check raise more often.

Hope there's some nuggets in there (I realize it is pretty general - but heads-up games are all very distinct in their own way...)

/d

February 15th, 2005 (Tuesday)

I'm still at work, but it bears thinking about what you will do in the evening when you have the chance, just to prepare yourself for the games you will play.

I'm meeting my wife at the local mall tonight to play with our kids in the play space they have there before heading home and cooking dinner. Given that I won't get out of here for another hour, it will likely be 7:30 or 8pm by the time we get home - which is a late night for the kids especially since I doubt they'll have eaten by then - I may tell Lindsay to get them McDonalds or something on the way home...

In any case, if the past few days have been any indication it will take anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours to get Gabriel to sleep. He's just learned how to open the doors of our house on his own and he thinks its a great game to open the door to his bedroom, pad his way through the kitchen over to the living room or my own bedroom and yell "BOO!" before turning and running into a random room - either his bedroom or his sister's (who is usually woken up by his games...). Lately I've been holding his door closed and tucking him in every 15 minutes or so - and that seems to be working - but it does mean I stand next to his door for the better part of an hour...

In other words, if I do get to play some poker tonight, it will probably be a late start. I still need to deposit onto Interpoker and take advantage of the monthly bonus there, so I'll probably start with that and a $20+2 SNG on Pokerstars.

After my play on Friday night (where I 4-tabled for most of the night), I'm pretty sure that 3 tables is my reasonable maximum before my game really starts to plummet. Since that seems to be the case, having two tables at Interpoker and one or two SNGs at Pokerstars seems like the right recipe for the night. Since I'll need 450 raked hands at Interpoker, I'll aim for getting 100-150 of them tonight as a simple goal.

There are two tournaments on Pokerstars I could feasibly play tonight - the $10+1 NL HE at 9:35pm or $5+.50 NL HE at 10:39pm. I'm tempted once again to try to win an entry into the $200 tournament (so that I could play in the Omaha $200 event), but I'll probably think better of it by the time one of them starts.

(Continued)

Well, I did play the $10+1 NL HE tourney - and I got knocked out in 8 hands. Still beat out about 150 people - which is just absurd...

I also played a satellite to the Sunday $200+15 tournament which has a guaranteed prize pool of $350,000 - and I won it (check out my tournament report if you want to read about it).

I also deposited $200 into Interpoker to start working on the bonus over there. Although I played about 250 hands, I have no clue how many of those are raked - so I'm not sure how close I am to making that $90... I was pleased to see that it is just deposited into your account to play with while you earn it. I played two tables there and finished up on one by $46 and down on the other by $28 or so (I don't have my numbers in front of me - but it was something like that.

In any case, I finished the night with a net gain of $8 and change plus the satellite seat into the $350,000 tournament on this Sunday. I'm pretty sure that if I just hit the money I'll be esctatic - my total bankroll right now is around $1350 online, so $300 minimum would be a nice addition to it...

Numbers for the day:

2/15 9:35pm $10+1 lite-turbo NL HE multi (1240) 5285919, 1072nd, 8 hands, -11
2/15 10:00pm 500FPP satellite to $350k, (285) 5285589, 1:08am, 198 hands, +T215
$252.99 + T215

2/15 deposit $200 Interpoker - 450 hands needed for $90 bonus
2/15 9:36pm $1/$2 HE ring (10) $40 buyin, $20 rebuy, 12:05am, 138 hands, -27.25
2/15 10:11pm $1/$2 HE ring (10) $40 buyin, 12:17am, 116 hands, +46.00
$218.75