General Poker Articles
Interest
As most people know, banks make their money by investing customers’ money. They use fancy calculations to decide how little money they can keep on hand for people that come in wanting to withdrawal. The rest is then invested at a higher interest rate than they pay their customers.
Negative EV Hours
I listen to all of Bart Hanson’s Cash Plays podcasts on pokerroad (most are pretty good - check out the Samoleous interview if you haven’t), and one of the shows had him discussing the idea of negative EV hours with a psychologist.
The basic gist of the idea was that a lot of poker players focus on logging hours no matter the circumstances, when oftentimes playing when you’re in a bad mood or when there are no good games going is giving you diminishing returns to the point where you would actually make more money by just not playing.
Learning What Works for Me
I decided that I am better suited for limit games, in particular playing HORSE seems to be my best bet; it has taken me a while to come to the conclusion that limit poker is not a four letter word. I will continue to play NLHE SNG’s and tourney’s I enjoy the kill or be killed aspect of the competition, but cash games not so much.
1994 Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton a Cheat?
Well, that’s the allegation in 2+2. Big news, the superuser account on Ultimate Bet is highly suspected of being 1994 Main Event champion Russ Hamilton, along with some other co-conspirators. Russ has been known to angle shoot before (gaining weight for the 1994 silver bonus during the ME, hosting a fake $100k televised UB tournament), and it appears that his reputation is at serious stake right now. Here are some cliff notes posted in 2+2: (the thread is like 100+ pages long)
—-excerpted from 2+2—–
Away from the Bosom of Hold ‘Em
Like most online cash game players, 99 percent of my time is devoted to Hold ‘Em. I stopped playing limit hold ‘em last year, and I now pretty much exclusively play $0.50/1 and $1/2 NL cash. It’s a nice situation: there are many many games to choose from, usually with at least one fish per table. Still, it can wear thin like every routine.
Atlantic City and The Eternal Question.. East Coast vs West Coast
Today I’m blogging from NJ. I am a New Jersey native.. born and raised in South Jersey. My boyfriend moved here in High School and that’s actually when we met. His twin is marrying an elementary school friend of mine this weekend so we’re both staying with our folks.. anytime I visit my mom I have no choice but to travel the 30 minutes down the Parkway to Atlantic City.
Pokering
- Post on more then one forum 4 to 5 times a week.
- Watch 3 to 5 hours of videos per week
- Play more games that I have an edge in.
- Be more selective of the cash games I play, pay attention to the players.
Running bad and wondering where it goes
Lately I’ve been playing the 1/2 NL games on Pokerstars. I’d been warned that 1/2 is a pretty big jump from smaller-stakes games, and the warnings are fairly accurate I think. The average regular is far better than at lower stakes: looser, more positionally aware, better at bet-sizing and better at hand reading. Most don’t stack off too light, and can put you in very tough spots on later streets. Squeezing pre-flop is really common, too much so I think but I’m pretty sure cardrunners has convinced people that it works with any two cards.
Status Report
I’ve been sucked into poker vortex, and I’m lovin’ it. I’ve managed to win enough in my PLO cash games to fund all of the events that I’ve played at the WSOP. I haven’t had any tournament cashes though. Some poker smarty once said that in tournaments, “all you can do is play well in enough to put yourself in a position to get lucky when the blinds and antes start getting high.” I’ve been within fifteen from the money five times only to run into a sick beat or a cooler. Which is frustrating, since it’s maximum effort and time commitment for no return, but I have been bringing my A game, and I feel good about that.
Thoughts on variance
Before I continue my little WSOP trip report, I’m having a few existentialist thoughts on variance. No, I’m not having a losing streak, but several of my friends are. Yeah, variance can be brutal in this game, when all your opponents’ 2-5 outers seem to come in and you start doubting, whether to raise your AQs in the BB when there’s already 5 limpers in. But at what point is it not variance anymore? At what point it is you who’s playing bad? Maybe you were on a heater before? Maybe you are tilting because of your downswing?
