Weary

I'm still runny-nosed from last week's virus, whatever it might have been, but I feel ok. If anything, I'm in a manic sort of mood.

The second quarter of 2009 looks very much like being as much of a write-off as Q1 2009 and Q4 2008 were blinding successes. At this very moment I am up precisely $600 for the past 10 weeks. On Friday night at 11.30pm I was about $500 down for the quarter.

I decided that I was in a good position to allocate myself a three grand sum for a "spin-up" and for some R&D. The idea was to play $200 and $400 buy-in full-ring, and also to get some hands in at $50 6-max.

I was $1500 down out of the three grand within two hours, but got $500 of it back by bed time. Another $200 was made on the Saturday and $300 yesterday, so I've still got a $2500 cushion.

However, the problem with this is that, unless I want to negotiate the toughest games on Stars, I'm lucky to find many $400 FR games on Party and Pacific -- most of the time it will be one $400 table and a couple of $200 tables (I'm also restricting myself to three tables, because a much higher proportion of decisions are "non-automatic" when you are either at a new level or playing a new game).

This evening there was a choice of some dire tables on Party or two $200 tables on Pacific, so I chose the latter and decided that I might as well allow myself some $100 tables during the week.

This proved to be the right decision, because the standard of play was v poor tonight.

$0.5/$1 Blinds No Limit Hold'em -
Table Lunen ( Jackpot - New type ) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 2: Relentless ( $227.78 )
Seat 3: BadHair ( $91.64 )
Seat 4: Hero ( $98.5 )
Seat 5: _.DoNk._ ( $97 )
Seat 6: Palmelot1981 ( $59.1 )
Seat 8: Manovolley ( $100.38 )
Seat 9: kanika16 ( $77.99 )
Seat 10: tilt_mojster ( $108.28 )

Manovolley posts small blind [$0.5].
kanika16 posts big blind [$1].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to Hero [ T♣; T♠ ]
tilt_mojster folds.
Relentless folds.
BadHair calls [$1].
Hero raises [$4].
_.DoNk._ folds.
Palmelot1981 calls [$4.5].
Manovolley calls [$3.5].
kanika16 folds.
BadHair calls [$3].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2♠, 5♠, 2◊; ]

Manovolley checks.
BadHair checks.
Hero bets [$11].
Palmelot1981 calls [$11].
Manovolley folds.
BadHair calls [$11]. this, it will transpire, is an absolutely awful play.

** Dealing Turn ** [ T♡; ]

Gives me top full house

BadHair checks.
Hero bets [$14].
Palmelot1981 raises [$43.6].
BadHair calls [$43.6].
Hero raises [$69.5].
BadHair calls [$33.04].

** Dealing River ** [ 7◊; ]
** Summary **
BadHair shows [ 5♡; 5◊; ].
Hero shows [ T♣; T♠ ].
Palmelot1981 shows [ 8♠ 7♠ ].
Hero collected [$249.74].

Woo hoo.


+++

The $50 6-max has been fun. It's a bit like driving a car and moving from a built-up area to an open road where there are no speed limit signs. You know that there is an optimum speed at which you should be going, and you know that it is faster than the speed you were going before, but you aren't quite sure by how much.

I started off deciding I'd go for something like 60mph (where 100mph is "total maniac"). This did not work well (although much of this is a learning experience, and perhaps I just need to fine-tune the style rather than change the speed) and I was soon three buy-ins down. This hand was the major contributor.

Opponent looked very loose and aggressive, and he wasn't that good (although one can be loose and aggressive and very good in 6-max). But I think my overbet made me vulnerable. If I could have set him in with a pot-size bet on the turn, it was probably right. As it is, I'm probably only making worse hands fold and getting better hands to call:

$0.25/$0.5 Blinds No Limit Hold'em -
Table Koblenz (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: AK_Durango ( $50 )
Seat 3: Hero ( $92.19 )
Seat 6: chetster888 ( $38.78 )
Seat 7: Lackadaisy ( $105.91 )
Seat 8: Villain ( $72.3 )
Seat 10: sahmat69 ( $54.97 )

Villain posts small blind [$0.25].
sahmat69 posts big blind [$0.5].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to Hero [ 6♣; A♣; ]
AK_Durango folds.
Hero raises [$1.5].
chetster888 folds.
Lackadaisy calls [$1.5].
Villain raises [$2.25].
sahmat69 folds.
Hero calls [$1].
Lackadaisy calls [$1].

** Dealing Flop ** [ K◊;, 9♣;, 5♣; ]

Villain bets [$7.6].
Hero calls [$7.6].

I think my implied odds are good enough, given the stack sizes and the fact that opponent's range is ridiculously wide.

Lackadaisy folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ A♡; ]
Villain checks.
Hero bets [$82.09].

This is a ridiculous overbet, but I thought that there was a good chance that I was ahead and that, even if ahead, opponent would call with second pair or a draw. Plus,l I have the nut flush draw.

Villain calls [$62.2].

** Dealing River ** [ 9◊; ]

** Summary **
Hero shows [ 6♣; A♣; ].
Villain shows [ 5◊; 9♡; ].

Well, I said opponent's range was wide, but 95o wasn't in my calculations.

Hero collected [$19.89].
Villain collected [$143.6].




I've now played 1400 hands and I'm just a single buy-in down. Since I ran KK (big blind) into AA (1st raiser on button) tonight, with the expected pre-flop result (both all-in), and since I am running slightly bad (EV is half a buy in down), I reckon that I'm beginning to get the hang of it at the lower stakes. I'm probably going to stick at it for 20,000 hands or so, unless I feel I'm really ready for the next level up before then.

At the moment my stats are 23%/13%, but the reason for the lower level of raises is that I can often get away with a late limp without being raised. If that's the case, the raise on hands such as suited connectors loses nearly all of its value (since opponents are just as likely to cold-call it). I suspect that at $100 buy-in my equivalent stats would be in the region of 19%/16%.

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