Archive for December, 2007
Time for a Change
So I returned home a few days ago from visiting family in California. I played 3 sessions of poker. 2 of them LHE and 1 1/2 NLH. I got my butt handed to me in the LHE sessions which is unusual. I was playing my normal tight aggressive game and people were just playing horribly in my opinion. I lost $500 playing 4/8 w/half kill and 6-12. I finally realized that 6-12 is now the new 3-6. I have been playing live poker in cards rooms for 4 years and have had always had winning years playing live limit ring games. This year I haven’t played much live as compared to years past. I haven’t added these results to my yearly stats but I’m sure I’m a small winner or even a slight loser this year in LHE. Now unfortunately I don’t have the BR to move up in limits. The highest I played this year was 8/16 at Pechanga Indian Casino and ended slightly down. That game was crazy with tons of donkeys and maniacs. I would like to move up into the higher limits but can’t afford it. I thought I was ready after beating the lower limits for the past few years but since I haven’t been playing much, either I’m rusty or need to change my strategy against this “new breed” of players. All I know is that LHE has become frustrating for me.
A Little Holiday Hold ‘Em
Well, I’ve returned back to Florida from spending the holidays with family in South Jersey. I must say that I am glad to be back.. it was cold and rainy up there. I did manage to get in 1 NLHE tournament in Atlantic City yesterday. The Showboat had a $53+12 tourney at 2pm (10K starting chips). My younger brother and I both bought in… There were 75 entrants. I have 2 hands I’d like to tell you guys about. One was the hand I felt was what eventually led to my departure in 24th place and the other my brother went out on in about 50th.
MGM
This being my last week in Vegas for a while (have to treck cross-country back to
New York next week) I went over to MGM last night. Bought into the $1/2 NL game for $200. I was being friendly and talking to the players around me. Bets and raises were carrying respect in general at the table and play was generally tight. Good for stealing, bad for getting value. So I stole a few and ran it up to around $350 after 2 hours. But then within 20 minutes 4 players left and were replaced, and the table dynamics changed. The new players generally seemed more serious, would be more aggressive and tend to believe less often. This is just from the table feel I received from them right away and I think realizing this is one of my major strengths and why I like live poker so much, even though I play mostly online these days just out of convenience.
I suck at poker
I just thought I should get that out of the way right off the bat. Maybe it is a bit of an overstatement. I did tear up the home game I used to play (did that for about two years), but that means basically nothing when you take into account how horrible the players were at that home game. I have been playing poker for about four years. I started off playing small buy-in tournaments with a group of friends from high school, but that got pretty boring once I realized very few of them were taking the game seriously. They were there for the social aspect of poker. After I realized I would not get any better playing with those guys on a weekly basis, I deposited $50 (the minimum) into Full Tilt. That was about six months ago and ever since then I have been playing mostly micro-limit NLHE in an attempt to build up some kind of bankroll. There have been plenty of ups and plenty of downs (see: title), but overall my game has improved exponentially. I take poker more seriously than anybody I know. I love discussing strategy, although none of my friends have any idea what I’m talking about when I bring up things like fold equity, implied odds, and scooping. I am also a huge poker fan. I constantly check the live updates during WPT events and am addicted to poker podcasts (such as Rounders, PokerRoad, etc.). I am passionate about becoming a better poker player. I read poker books, study my hand histories, read articles and posts on 2+2, and think about the game as much as possible. It isn’t always easy juggling a double-major at the University of Oregon but I do what I can. I have noticed that my current downswing coincided directly with the start of the school year. Whatever. I still want to keep getting better.
The Rumble: On Sklansky, Malmuth, and Allegations of Plagiarism
Some of you might have heard about this here debate that emerged over the last couple of weeks over on Two Plus Two. Kind of thing I find quite interesting, though not everyone else might. Proceed at your peril.
By the way, as anyone reading this blog no doubt already knows, Mason Malmuth will be appearing as a guest on the first episode of the new Two Plus Two Pokercast. (Don’t know if this here topic will rate as something worth spending time on or not.) Malmuth is always a terrific interview (caught him most recently on Dr. Alan Schoonmaker’s Poker Psychology podcast). And we all know Adam and Mike do a terrific job with guests, so be sure to tune in.
Chip Reese advice for poker and life
Lots of people die every day but we don’t know most of them. When family or friends die, obviously it affects us and we miss them. When friends of friends (that we aren’t really acquainted with) pass on, we naturally feel for the friends and family left behind. This is natural as we are a naturally compassionate species.
Welcome to my World
Hey everyone, welcome to my crazy world. I think I have started my first post here about five different times and I have ended up scraping everyone. I am really not all that good at introductions, but once I get to know you a bit I should be able to open up and really let you guys and gals into my head. My blog here will probably be more stories than strategy. I am a small time grinder, not a high-stakes pro. Some of the other writers here make their living playing poker, and hopefully someday I will be able to say that as well, but right now I am just trying to put together enough of a roll to move from the “micro” tab at Pokerstars. I do OK for myself but I have trouble staying focused. Hopefully this blog will help me stay on track. I really think I am close to making my move next year.
Zen and Poker
Hi all. First blog entry here. I used to keep a blog updated over on blogspot but stopped last year. Those who visited seemed to like it, but a lack of a way to draw readers in unmotivated me. Is unmotivated an actual word?
Anyhow, I’d like to thank Adam and bigpoker.ca for the opportunity to bring my Zen and Poker blog over to this site.
Boom in Germany
I am in Germany right now, visiting friends and family over the holidays. Naturally with all the family stuff it is a time of little poker. I think I have played maybe 2k hands in December, which is really sad, because there seems to be an influx of bad players in the last few weeks. I don’t know if that is because of the proposed changes to the Internet Gambling bill or because of new players of emerging poker markets, but the games are not nearly as dry as they were 6-9 months ago.
Start of an era?
Yes, I hope to blog on a regular basis. Not always that easy but I am giving it my best shot for 2008. I have have a pretty good 2007. I ended the year winning the nightly $100k on Pokerstars for about 29k. A week later I won a $200 live tourney at Pot of Gold for about 6200. Definitely a great way to end the year in poker. Going forward I hope to spend more time on the road playing tournies in Vegas and LA and of course more time online if the games don’t dry up. Right now I play live tournaments up to about a $2k buyin. I would like to play some main events this year. I hope you follow along as I progress and move up stakes and bankroll.
