General Poker Articles
Shipped my first MTT
Just a quick update… I only play MTTs sporadically and I’m sure I am down lifetime at them… but I shipped a deep stack $22 freezeout on Pokerstars this past Sunday. A great feeling, although because of the deep-stack slow level format it took 10+ hours to win a 400 person $8k prize pool tournament. I felt like I had jet lag at work the next day.
Anyway that has accelerated my plan to move up to $1/$2 since first prize was ~$1550, which is conveniently about the amount I wanted to make before moving up from 100NL. So 1/2 here I come, wish me luck. Best of luck to the three (?) remaining readers of this blog.
The Coaching Debate
This past weekend I had a brief session where I was coached by a local high stakes player. Actually, “coached” is probably overstating it, as a) no money was exchanged and b) he was playing, not me. I watched him on Teamviewer – a very nice collaboration tool that I recommend for poker coaching and sweat sessions – and we were talking on the phone while he played. He played 5-6 tables ranging from 5-10 NL to 25-50 NL at pokerstars.
Review of The Workbook from DailyVariance Publishing
As I mentioned in my past post, Try Nguyen (Slowhabit) of DailyVariance publishing was kind enough to provide me with a review copy of “The NL Workbook: Exploiting Regulars.”
This is exactly the sort of book I’ve needed, for a number of reasons. First, the majority of my play is at small-stakes (mostly 100NL, sometimes higher) at the major sites like Pokerstars and Full Tilt. At those sites and stakes, there are a lot of regulars; not as many as at mid-stakes, but even 100NL is a level where the majority of players play somewhat frequently, have reasonable stats, and can read hands the tiniest bit. Unlike microstakes, the median player is not a 72/10 fish who just wants to limp-call every hand. There is a set arsenal of plays that most players are familiar with, the so-called “standard” lines that most TAGs learn from training sites or simply from trial-and-error.
Reviewing “The Workbook – Exploiting Regulars” from DailyVariance
Recently I was in touch with Tri Nguyen of Daily Variance publishing, and he was gracious enough to offer me a review copy of their new e-book, “The No Limit Hold Em Workbook: Exploiting Regulars.”
Tri is the author of two other well-regarded ebooks on poker strategy, “Let there be range!” and “The Pot Limit Omaha Book: Transitioning from NLHE to PLO.” Tri is a successful mid- and high-stakes player whose books are well received in the online poker community, garnering praise from forum readers and the coaches at major training sites.
Live by the Sword
*********** # 155 ************** PokerStars Game #33900674639: Tournament #200030247, $1.00+$0.10 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (800/1600) - 2009/10/11 10:42:02 ET Table '200030247 57' 9-max Seat #3 is the button Seat 1: Absyrtha (51665 in chips) Seat 2: orangeflame (49762 in chips) is sitting out Seat 3: jannet86 (168989 in chips) Seat 4: bigbamboom (20509 in chips) Seat 5: caraicho (60251 in chips) Seat 6: jannik2401 (87084 in chips) Seat 7: berjac1 (21110 in chips) Seat 8: RONNOR 303 (43425 in chips) Seat 9: PICXOU (188698 in chips) Absyrtha: posts the ante 150 orangeflame: posts the ante 150 jannet86: posts the ante 150 bigbamboom: posts the ante 150 caraicho: posts the ante 150 jannik2401: posts the ante 150 berjac1: posts the ante 150 RONNOR 303: posts the ante 150 PICXOU: posts the ante 150 bigbamboom: posts small blind 800 caraicho: posts big blind 1600 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to bigbamboom Q♦ T♠ jannik2401: folds berjac1: folds RONNOR 303: folds PICXOU: calls 1600 Absyrtha: folds orangeflame: folds jannet86: folds bigbamboom: calls 800 caraicho: checks *** FLOP *** 2♠ T♥ 7♦ bigbamboom: bets 4800 caraicho: folds PICXOU: raises 4800 to 9600 bigbamboom: raises 9159 to 18759 and is all-in PICXOU: calls 9159 *** TURN *** 2♠ T♥ 7♦ 8♣ *** RIVER *** 2♠ T♥ 7♦ 8♣ 9♠ *** SHOW DOWN *** bigbamboom: shows Q♦ T♠ (a pair of Tens) PICXOU: shows T♦ 2♦ (two pair, Tens and Deuces) PICXOU collected 43668 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 43668 | Rake 0 Board 2♠ T♥ 7♦ 8♣ 9♠ Seat 1: Absyrtha folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 2: orangeflame folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: jannet86 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 4: bigbamboom (small blind) showed Q♦ T♠ and lost with a pair of Tens Seat 5: caraicho (big blind) folded on the Flop Seat 6: jannik2401 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 7: berjac1 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 8: RONNOR 303 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 9: PICXOU showed T♦ 2♦ and won (43668) with two pair, Tens and Deuces
The evolution of Bigbamboom
There is hope for all of us trust me. Here is a cool story for you….first my history recently.
It’s been a while – been following the posts of all of you and keeping track of the pokersift site. I’ve played quite a bit and continue my evolution as a poker player. For a while, I kept a decent run of SNG’s especially at the 18man Turbo level, slowly moving up in stakes from 1.75 to 3.25 to 6.50.
Review of Poker Co-Pilot for Mac
A while back I received a review copy of the very promising software Poker Co-Pilot. If you’ve ever owned a Mac computer, you’re familiar with the problem: virtually all poker software is developed for Windows exclusively. Some of the larger rooms like Pokerstars, Ongame and Full Tilt have Mac clients or browser-based poker, but the associated tools like HUDs and database trackers have been solely the domain of Windows.
Poker Co-Pilot is the first serious Mac competitor to Hold Em Manager and Pokertracker. It’s still in the early stages of development, but offers the potential of a fully comparable Mac tool, at a reasonable cost and with the minimalist Mac look that many people enjoy.
Update from the small-stakes
Just a few quick bullet points in lieu of a full post:
A Good Night at The Bike
Two of my San Diego poker buddies and I had a great night up at the Bicycle Casino in LA this week. My friend, Jake (who goes by chilidog on 2+2), finished 5th in the Legends of Poker plo tournament while Chris and I ran over the cash games. We were playing 1/3 NL Omaha High only with a $80 buy in, which went up by $40 every time you rebought. This is a very strange game to find in a casino, which meant that few of the people at the table knew how to play it well. I invested that initial $80 in the game and left with $1480.
Ramblings of a poker player
Warning, rambling ensuing!
I never finished the WSOP posts. You can guess how it went. I lost… and lost… and lost again. It doesn’t matter what and how. One important moment was just the 2500$ 6max LHE Event, when I realized I was outclassed. The biggest soft spot I had in the 5 hours I was in, was a FTP pro. Lots of internet kids/posters I see at the nosebleed stakes all the time and whose game I respect so much playing the event, so at least it was cool to be playing in the same event as them, but otherwise I felt really blergh.
