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peterbirksI've played a couple of sessions on Full Tilt with short stacks (35BB on Full Tilt). Only about 400 hands all told.
I did this partly because I was getting paranoid about the bloody site. When you become convinced that unusual things are going to happen, you start playing incorrectly. This reached a peak on Sunday or Monday when I (foolishly? well, given it was Full Tilt, yes), called in the Big Blind with Jd Td against an MP2 raise from a TAG and a call on the button from a Laggy/Lappy player (didn't really have enough evidence on him, TBH). About $10 in the pot with $90 behind vs original raiser and $60 behind vs caller on button.
Flop came Kd 6d 4d, giving me the flopped flush. I check. Original opener bets $6, Button calls and I decide to defend against something like Ad Ah with a lumpy reraise to $36. Original raiser promptly shoves and then the button calls!
I've got a bad feeling that I might be drawing dead here, but there are many other permutations that don't look bad for me, including KK and 66 or KK and 44, plus the chance of KK in original raiser and a worse flush than me on the button. All of this was so odd that subsequently I couldn't work out how to pokerstove the ranges without just typing in individual hands.
Any hoo, I decided that I'd probably fold 9d 8d and possibly Td 9d, but Jd Td just raised too much hope of a worse flush in one of the hands, so I called. Original raiser turns over KK and button turns over Ad 9d, leaving me drawing dead for the main pot and 2/1 favourite of the $80 side pot. A six comes on the river to give the KK the pot.
So, that was that for full-stacking on FTP for a few days.
The good thing about playing 35BB is that you don't have many difficult decisions to make. And, if it does go wrong -- well, you've only lost 35BB. The "it cuts down your win rate" does not, unfortunately, apply to me on FTP at the moment.
Net result so far has been a $50 win and a $45 loss, without a moment's thought. Clearly if you want to get these super super nova ratings and the like, this is the style to play. You aren't going to have much of a win rate -- if any -- but you aren't going to lose much if you play vaguely competently. I just played it mainly as if it were a tournament and I was on 35bb, which probably made me a fraction tighter than I should be.
Another advantage of 35bb when on Full Tilt is that it benefits more from the FTP style at $100 full ring, which is a lot of multiple flat-calling of raises rather than reraises (and not so many Big Blind Squeezes). If you raise in MP1 with AKo and get three flat-callers behind, you are more vulnerable with a full stack than you are with 35BB. With the latter, once Axx or Kxx comes down, you know that all of your money is going in.
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The stack-off in the above hand was compensated for not 45 minutes later on Pokerstars, when I put in a raise on the button with AQo and was reraised to $11 by the Big blind. On Stars you really can't afford to give up with AQo when you have a raising reputation on the button. If I'm raising 40% of hands and I am being reraised about two times in five, I'm reraising my top 5% and flat-calling the 5.1% to 15% range. (Actually this isn't quite true, but I don't want to give much more away -- suffice to say that my "top 5%" isn't the Pokerstove "top 5%", and that the ranges blur, with some hands being reraise half the time and flat call half the time.) $22 in pot, $89 behind.
Flop came Qxx rainbow and Big blind leads out for $14. I raised to $28 and he promptly shoved. Luckily I had a note on this guy which said "prepared to put in big bluff", so I called and he turned over AKo.
TBH his play isn't that bad, although it might be better on a slightly wetter board. There's a fair number of hands in my range which beat him that I'll find it hard to call with here. However, I strongly suspect that the guy ONLY does that shove when it's AK (perhaps KK?), which makes it nearly completely a marked bluff.
Anyhow, I was pleased with my call, which, this not being Full Tilt, stood up.
______________________________
I did this partly because I was getting paranoid about the bloody site. When you become convinced that unusual things are going to happen, you start playing incorrectly. This reached a peak on Sunday or Monday when I (foolishly? well, given it was Full Tilt, yes), called in the Big Blind with Jd Td against an MP2 raise from a TAG and a call on the button from a Laggy/Lappy player (didn't really have enough evidence on him, TBH). About $10 in the pot with $90 behind vs original raiser and $60 behind vs caller on button.
Flop came Kd 6d 4d, giving me the flopped flush. I check. Original opener bets $6, Button calls and I decide to defend against something like Ad Ah with a lumpy reraise to $36. Original raiser promptly shoves and then the button calls!
I've got a bad feeling that I might be drawing dead here, but there are many other permutations that don't look bad for me, including KK and 66 or KK and 44, plus the chance of KK in original raiser and a worse flush than me on the button. All of this was so odd that subsequently I couldn't work out how to pokerstove the ranges without just typing in individual hands.
Any hoo, I decided that I'd probably fold 9d 8d and possibly Td 9d, but Jd Td just raised too much hope of a worse flush in one of the hands, so I called. Original raiser turns over KK and button turns over Ad 9d, leaving me drawing dead for the main pot and 2/1 favourite of the $80 side pot. A six comes on the river to give the KK the pot.
So, that was that for full-stacking on FTP for a few days.
The good thing about playing 35BB is that you don't have many difficult decisions to make. And, if it does go wrong -- well, you've only lost 35BB. The "it cuts down your win rate" does not, unfortunately, apply to me on FTP at the moment.
Net result so far has been a $50 win and a $45 loss, without a moment's thought. Clearly if you want to get these super super nova ratings and the like, this is the style to play. You aren't going to have much of a win rate -- if any -- but you aren't going to lose much if you play vaguely competently. I just played it mainly as if it were a tournament and I was on 35bb, which probably made me a fraction tighter than I should be.
Another advantage of 35bb when on Full Tilt is that it benefits more from the FTP style at $100 full ring, which is a lot of multiple flat-calling of raises rather than reraises (and not so many Big Blind Squeezes). If you raise in MP1 with AKo and get three flat-callers behind, you are more vulnerable with a full stack than you are with 35BB. With the latter, once Axx or Kxx comes down, you know that all of your money is going in.
+++
The stack-off in the above hand was compensated for not 45 minutes later on Pokerstars, when I put in a raise on the button with AQo and was reraised to $11 by the Big blind. On Stars you really can't afford to give up with AQo when you have a raising reputation on the button. If I'm raising 40% of hands and I am being reraised about two times in five, I'm reraising my top 5% and flat-calling the 5.1% to 15% range. (Actually this isn't quite true, but I don't want to give much more away -- suffice to say that my "top 5%" isn't the Pokerstove "top 5%", and that the ranges blur, with some hands being reraise half the time and flat call half the time.) $22 in pot, $89 behind.
Flop came Qxx rainbow and Big blind leads out for $14. I raised to $28 and he promptly shoved. Luckily I had a note on this guy which said "prepared to put in big bluff", so I called and he turned over AKo.
TBH his play isn't that bad, although it might be better on a slightly wetter board. There's a fair number of hands in my range which beat him that I'll find it hard to call with here. However, I strongly suspect that the guy ONLY does that shove when it's AK (perhaps KK?), which makes it nearly completely a marked bluff.
Anyhow, I was pleased with my call, which, this not being Full Tilt, stood up.
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