College Night

Brag:

So, at Rice, all our dorms are separated into colleges, and you pretty much stay at the same dorm for all 4 years. Each semester, we have a college night, where the college buys booze and food, and you start drinking from the afternoon until you pass out. Well this year our theme was global warming and below was the email my friends sent out to the college:

***************************

GLOBAL WARMING has caused large areas of the Arctic ice shelf to break off and
melt, diluting the North Atlantic Ocean with large amounts of fresh water.. This
has disrupted the ocean's thermohaline circulation and slowed the Gulf Stream,
causing a rapid heating of the northern hemisphere. This has triggered a series
of anomalies, which have led to a coming GLOBAL SUPERSTORM hovering over
Hanszen College. The impact of the storm on Hanszen is uncertain, but
scientists are predicting that THE END IS NEAR.

There is only one solution.

Hanszen must PARTY LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW. This could easily be our last
College Night ever. Let's celebrate the power that is Global Warming. A
little rain is no excuse!

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Well, this was the most fun I've had at a college night at my time at Rice. We got this inflatable slide with a tiny pull on the end, and we basically got really drunk and started doing all types of crazy shit down the slide. I think my highlight was a backwards slide, with a flip (inadvertently) half way down the slide.


Beat:

I was careful for the entire day not to put my shoulders at risk. I have dislocated my left one 8/9 times in my lifetime, and the right one once. Well, I was watching out for it the whole day. I didn't attempt going on the slip and slide head first because I didn't want to expose my shoulder. Near the end of they day, I decided to join in a game of slide HORSE. You had to replicate the slide of choice by the leader. Part way through the game, I attempted to go into a Superman pose, bounce off the slide, and then kick out my legs to end up going feet first down. On the bounce, I felt my right shoulder pop out. I was pretty pissed off at myself.



On a different note, later that night I went out to a bar with some of my friends. I usually don't get that many sugary drinks, but I guess tonight was one of those exceptions. The first somewhat notable drink I tried was a Yummy Bear or a Pink Beer. It's a shot of framboise, which is a raspberry lambic stout (one of the bar tenders explained this to us), and PaulanerHefeweizen. I really like Hefeweizen, so I thought this drink could be amazing. It was a little too fruity for my taste. The raspberry really overpowers the entire drink. Later on, I had a Colorado Bulldog. It's basically a White Russian with coke. I really liked this drink. Not only did it taste like a milkshake, but it brought me back to my high school days. If you haven't seen the movie "The Big Lebowski", I urge you to go watch it. I think it's one of the funniest and best movies I have ever seen. In high school, I watched this movie a lot. And there would be times, when we would do a Lebowski and White Russian night. We'd also smoke some weed to complete the Lebowski trifecta. Those were fun times. If you haven't had a White Russian, that's a damn good drink as well. Tastes like chocolate milk. I remember when I was younger I used to drink a lot of chocolate milk, I haven't touched that stuff in over a decade. Well the Colorado Bulldog was tasty, but it also elicits a lot of great and happy memories for me, perhaps from simpler times in my life.

Up and Down

Well, I know I should have been doing homework today, but I decided to play a little poker.

At first things didn't start so well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?993381

This was a couple minutes in, and I began to dread the session. It's hard to feel optimistic when you're in the middle of a huge break even session. However, things instantly began to look up.

I induced one huge bluff. I was calling this guy no matter what. He had been position floating me a lot, and I had decided on the flop that I was calling him no matter what. The A on the turn scared me a bit, but the river card let my call be that much easier.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?993391

I never took down any other huge pots, but near the end of the session I was up about 300. I was playing pretty good poker without having any monster hands. It felt good. Then this happened.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?993399

I played this hand horribly. I thought I would slow play the hand, so I check/called the flop, and I checked the turn intending to put a check raise in. However, when he quickly potted the turn I was completely confused. I had showed absolutely no strength, so with a big hand, why would he try to blow me off my hand. However, by the speed at which he potted it, I also thought monster. I was actually thinking that he had KQ. Any sizeable reraise I put in would commit me to a push, so I decided to just maximize my fold equity and shove over him - at least I had outs.

In retrospect though, I should not have played the hand like this. I didn't think and reevaluate the situation. I went into the turn thinking I was going to checkraise, and that turn card made it easier for me to do so. I should have thought about it, and I like a call better here, so that I can reevaluate it on the river. However, now that the hand is over, I realize why he put that pot sized bet on the turn. I played the hand exactly like a flush draw would, and he was scared of being drawn out on. I guess it was so hard for me to see this because this is exactly, how I wouldn't play my set. I wouldn't want to blow out of the flush draw, because everytime the flush draw calls, I make money. In fact this is more like how I would play the flush draw, I play them very aggressively. I need to hammer it into my mind that not everybody plays the way like I do.

After that hand, I played for a bit more, and then decided that I was going to quit. I don't want to feel like I have to make my money back. I just need to keep an even keel. So I already sat out on ALL my other tables. I was utg here, and I wasn't going to play the next hand, so this was the very last hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?993443

I was so excited on this flop, I thought I was actually going to end up tonight. However, I guess Full Tilt knew that I was going to sit out, and decided to tease me a little. That's just fucked up. There was no way that I was not going to get all my money in on this hand. I actually miniraised because I thought the sb might have had a big pocket pair, but when he folded and the bb instapushed, I knew that he had slow played something. But there's no way I'm EVER going to fold this hand. That's just silly.

On another note, I've been going through my PokerTracker hands, and I haven't sucked out on anybody in a long long time when all the money is in the pot. Nothing. I haven't even sucked out in a position where I'm a 2-1 underdog. I guess this is partially because I won't put my money in a situation where I could be a 2-1 dog. I haven't shoved any draws, is what I'm trying to get at. But FullTilt's random number generator has got some catching up to do for me. Is it wrong that I actually expected to see a to heart peel off in the first hand and the case 9 to come out in that last hand? I don't think so.

Where here is a graph of today's session if anybody's interested.


Well, I'm off to do homework now so that I can graduate this May.

I was called a cheater....

So recently I've been ponying up some money for coaching. I figure it's good investment because it'll enable to improve faster, and he can tell show me how he plays. After my unsuccessful move up and my long break even session I figured I needed somebody to figure out what my leaks are and plug them up. I think he has really improved me game.

So, a couple days ago I told couple of my friends who don't play poker that I've been getting coached in poker. When they asked me what it entails, I told them that my coach calls me through Skype, and then we use a program so that he can see my tables. He then basically tells me what he does in each situation that comes up. He goes through his thought processes and I get insight into how a winning player thinks. However, one of them asks me, "Isn't that cheating?"

I told her no, because it's not like we're affecting the outcome of the game. But she explains to me that somebody is basically playing for me. She then asks me if you're allowed to do that live. I said no. She then proceeded to call me a cheater.

I mean is it cheating? It's a common fact that plenty of people shadow each other over the Internet and they give each other advice over the Internet. I know for a fact that a lot of the top players do it with each other. I've read a post about a top Internet pro, who when starting out would play on the same computer with a friend and they would discuss what to do with each other. I personally don't have a problem with that. They're not affecting the outcome of the game. This is completely different than when two players sit on the same table and tell each other there hole cards, that would be cheating. I've also heard some people say that using PokerAce HUD is cheating. PokerAce HUD gives players information that the computer calculates - it's outside help. However, everybody uses it, and it's impossible to multi table without it.

I've thought about this a lot and I never ever considered any of this cheating. I guess it's because I learnt how to play poker online and through the online community. In the online community both of these practices are perfectly acceptable, however, if we had outside help in a casino it would probably be called cheating. I guess as technology progresses, we're going to be faced with different scenarios which might have been deemed immoral by previous standards.
Back in the day children were allowed to work, because it was necessary for subsistence families to have their children work in order to survive. However, once the industrial revolution came around children were taken advantage of, so, child laws came about, and it became immoral to hire children. The same thing happened when genetic engineering first came about. At first it was a huge controversy, it was immoral to change the natural order of things. But, as people started seeing the upside, it became more acceptable. I think that in the next 5 years, we'll be seeing the same perception about stem cells, there's just too many benefits in stem cells. I for one would like a new ACL, shoulders, and perhaps they can enhance my calves so that I can fulfill my life long dream of dunking.


So in short, is shadowing and PokerAce HUD cheating? No, because the online poker community hasn't deemed it so.

Breaking Even Sucks

Okay, so up till today, I've gone on a long long break even session. This is basically all of this month up to today. There was definitely a day when I could have sort of broken out of it, but I tilted away a bunch of my losses. So here's a picture of the break even stretch. Right around hand 7,000 I made a bunch of stupid calls, and tilted it up. Guess I still have to work on that tilt control.


But today things finally turned around.


WEEEEEEEEE

Now I just gotta keep on going.

My 2/4nl debacle

Well, up till the late March, I thought I was doing pretty well for 1/2nl. So, I decided to steadily take shots at 2/4nl.

I first started buying in short, and I would play extremely tight. I was looking pretty much to double up. I think I was pretty much a break even player when I was doing this. I've never given too much thought about how to play a short stack, so, this was what I attributed that break even stretch to. I realized that I was still playing all pocket pairs, and at points I was set mining. That's not a good strategy with a short stack. I realized this. However, sitting at the 2/4nl tables let me get some idea of how they played, and I finally decided to start buying in with full stacks.

My first couple forays didn't go so well, I probably lost 2 buyins pretty handily because I was 6 tabling. I had four tables of 1/2nl and two of 2/4nl. Recognizing that this was a big leak, I decided that I was going to drop down to just 4 tables, and play only 2/4nl.

Well, my results were less than stellar.


Well up to about hand 2500, I was buying in short. As you can see, nothing much was going on. However, I then lost 2/3 buyins when I 6 tabled, and then, a lot of my hard work just went down the drain in one session.

I lost roughly 10 buyins in one session. I don't want to say that I went on tilt like I used to do, but I wasn't playing good poker at all. I probably decided to worst time of day to start playing 2/4nl. I decided to play at the end of a long winning session in 1/2nl. It was 2am CST, and none of the regular games were going on in Absolute Poker. Most of the players were regulars, and I got utterly destroyed and outplayed.

It doesn't help that Absolute doesn't have a lot of games going on. So, at night, it seems as if the 5/10nl players and 10/25nl players, move down to the next highest stake at 2/4nl. So, I was getting played back a lot. I guess I may have initially painted a target on my back because I think at first I was playing scared. I would fold top pair good kicker to any flop raise, and I really just wanted a lot of my hands to go to showdown. Well after a while of leaking like that, I got a little frustrated. I started moving at pots, however, people either had hands and wasn't folding to my moves, or, they were being way too over aggro. Regardless, I decided not to fight them, and just laid a lot of hands down.

As you can see, I wasn't winning any pots at all. I have to admit, the cards really weren't going well for me, but I definitely wasn't playing my "A" game. Plus, I should have quit when I lost 5 buyins, but I lacked the self control needed, and tried to power through it. Silly me.

During that stretch, I more than 4 buyins with AKs/AKo, 1/2 buyin with AA, 1/2 buyin with KK, and the rest may have been spew. Not sure.


Here are a couple AK hands.

I posted this on 2p2. And got a lot of comments on it. Some said to check the turn, others said to shove the turn. But this guy had been floating me so much, that I think I should have shoved this turn. I'm not sure about calling that all in. I guess I haven't played with him enough for me to figure out what he shoves with. I also should have reraised a lot bigger pre flop. I did this on Absolute and there was no bet pot button, and I screwed up my pot calculation.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?990575


This one was heads up. I don't think I can get away from it. I was check shoving the whole way. This was against the same guy above. I don't know what he thought I had on the flop, but I got absolutely no respect from this guy, and constantly floated me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?990592


Here's another one. I don't know what this guy thinks I'm repping. I guess that shove right there really does look like a straight draw, but I didn't want to reraise and have him flat call and be left with a difficult decision on the turn. And he does have the up and down straight draw, and he has one of my outs. GAMBOOL!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?990586


Here's another one where my tptk is no good. Up to this point, a lot of people were calling my cbets and then firing on the turn when I checked. I checked with the intention of shoving.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?990600


Here's the AA hand that I screwed up. This is against a stupid donk. I should have shoved the flop. I was going to shove the turn, until the absolute worse card came out. I think it was a good fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?990613

Feel free to berate me if you think I played these hands like a donkey. I don't think I played them too bad, other than calling the shove on the river when the guy had trips.

Moving Up The Poker Stakes

Okay, so basically I didn't build my bankroll playing cash games, so I never had to develop the necessary tilt control and perhaps introspective objective look at whether or not I was actually a good cash game player. I had horrible discipline and would make stupid plays for the sake of making a crazy bluff just because I got bored. Although I did play .1/.25nl, I don't really think I was a winner in those stakes at all. I got pokertracker after I decided to move up to .25/.5nl. I got bored playing .1/.25nl and since my bankroll got bigger from playing other forms of poker I decided to move up before I think i was a clearly ready.


Below is my graph of all my pokertracker hands at .5nl. Clearly you can see that I experienced some large swings and had less than stellar winrate, especially for those limits and when party poker was still in the U.S. I only logged in 10k hands, and before I was ready to move up, I decided I was ready to move up to 1nl.





When I moved up to 1nl, I started playing on pokerstars.com. Although I started to get better, I still had major leaks in my card playing abilities. I still had basically no tilt control.




You'll notice that once I start losing, it doesn't quite stop. So, before this year, I pretty much was a breakeven cashgame player. However, after I saw the Brian Townsend video, I got my act together (poker wise) and started studying and committing myself to the game.

Well, here are my poker stats for the first couple months of this year. I moved up to 1/2nl. And I'm very happy about my results at 1/2nl. A lot of the work that I have been putting in is showing in my 1/2nl results, and I feel that I'm playing some of my best poker.



I'm pretty happy now that I'm having decent success at cash games at a respectable stake over a pretty large sample size.

My Stint as a Break Even Cash Game Player

I consider myself to a be pretty decent poker player. I've definitely made much more money than I've put in. However, the majority of my success has been in tournament poker. Most of my money has come from multitable tournaments (MTTs), some from single table tournaments (STTs), and before this year, I was pretty much a break even cash game player.

Poker players are known for overestimating their own abilities and perhaps even inflating their winnings. I don't think people do this intentionally. They either keep somewhat haphazard records, or I guess they don't want to consider that they're not as skillful as they would like to think they are. I'm guilty of both. I thought I had pretty good records of my tournament winnings. I keep a record on my computer, and I knew I was a winning player, but how much of one? Well, in my records I had myself as a huge huge winner. Using my records I can calculate my return on investment (ROI) for MTT tournaments, which is how much I should be making for each tournament I enter, and I calculated mine to be just over 200%. This was pretty amazing, and I believed it, too. I didn't intentionally leave out any tournaments to increase my stats because I wanted to gloat; I've hardly told anybody this statistic. I really wanted to keep an accurate database of my winnings, and that was the point.

Well, earlier this year, bluffmagazine.com came out with a database of all online tournament results. I signed up for it, because I sorta wanted to confirm my own database. I was shocked at how bloated my results were. I haven't gone through the math to add up all the numbers from the different sites I play, but I they calculate my ROI to be much closer to 100%. In fact i think it might be lower and close to the 80% range. This was a sort of wakeup call because it really forced me to reexamine some other "Truths" I held about my poker game.

I've always played cash games sort of on the side even when I played a lot of tournament poker. I reasoned that because I was a winning tournament poker player, I must be a winning cash game poker player. After all, it is the same game, right? Due to this "Truth", I attributed my lack of success in cash games to variance. It must be because I wasn't "running good". In other words, I got a bad run of cards, and there's nothing that can be done about my lack of success.
In fact, it's very common to hear that a recent string of losses, or lack of success, is because of a "cold deck of cards". After all, isn't poker a game of variance?

If you read my previous post, this attitude for me changed after I watched Brian Townsend's (SBRugby) instructional poker video on cardrunners.com. I have so much respect and admiration for him as a poker player, and from what I can tell he seems like a great guy. You can watch him play for $60,000 stacks daily on FullTiltPoker.com and I'm pretty sure he's already made more than a $1 million in poker this year alone. You can go to highstakesdb.com if you want to look up his actual winnings this year. He doesn't have to teach people how to play poker, he's already extremely wealthy. He says that he's doing it for altruistic reasons, and that he wants to give back to the poker community - I believe him. There's a large percentage of high stakes cash players who refuse to teach poker and give their insights into how to play poker, because they're afraid that they'll divulge some secrets about how they play to their regular competition and it'll eat into their profits. For that reason alone I have a lot of respect for him.

In his video, Brian Townsend's advice is that you need to take personal accountability of your results in poker. He doesn't deny the fact that variance does exist, but constantly attributing less than stellar results to a bad run of cards is not extremely detrimental to a players ability to improve. Yes, at times you will be given bad cards, however, most losses and downswings are much more often due to bad play than people would like to admit. This was the major step that I took to start to become more successful in cash games. I seriously looked over how I played, and started evaluating the way I would think of playing cash games. I started looking over all my old hands and tried to objectively evaluate them. I started seeing a lot of leaks, and general tilty play where I would call an all in or push all my money in at the most horrible points.

After realizing this, I have probably had the most educational three months of poker since I started playing. I've actually put in the time and effort into learning poker theory, putting in the hands to practice this game, and I am getting a lot better at controlling my tilt. Tilt still affects me, but nowhere near the extent to which it did before.

I know I've written a lot, but I'm done ranting for now. I'll be posting graphs of my poker results which will basically summarize my journey so far.