Another day another dollar
Oct. 9th, 2005 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksAs I woke up this morning dawn was preparing to break. I took a look out of the spare bedroom window and spotted the potential for a "nice" dawn. I've been waiting for one of these on a Sunday for ages. So, I grabbed the camera, legged it up to the heath, and took a couple of pictures. Not as nice as I had hoped, but still quite pretty.
Currently looking at the Party waiting list and there only appear to be 4000 players. What happened? A Server failure? I see that the higher stakes games are now available on the skins, so one has to expect more defections to the rake-back offering sites.
Party really have to do something about this. Either they stop the deals with their skins (which would probably result in some massive legal bills), or they start offering rakebacks. The latter probably would cost them less than they think, since a large number of regular players would stop playing on the skins and return to the Party mainframe. I guess that they are scared of starting what might be perceived as a price war.
+++
My hatred of tournaments continues apace. I have now cashed once (4th out of 44) in 26 tourneys. I suppose that, if I played in as many tournaments as I play in cash games, this would only be equal to a single bad week. I'm not even losing coin flips (I could probably handle that). I just seem to be utterly cold-decked. I'm beaten when I go all-in.
A typical tourney today. Play tight for the first four levels. Outplay opponents on the flop (usually from the blinds), to keep my head above water. Get up to 2200. Continue in this getting-no-cards vein, stealing blinds here and there, until my 350 chip raise with 95 off (blinds 50-100) is reraised a mere 102 chips all-in by the button. I have to call here (I'm getting 10-to-1) and reveal my rags. That destroys any stealing opportunities until the table breaks. Needless to say my 95, surely favourite against KJs, fails to win.
Surviving to level 7 (blinds 150/300) I'm shittled down to 1650 chips. A player with 5000 chips raises to 900 in MP2. I have A8s in the Big blind. Do I reraise all in?
Of course not. I know opponent cannot pass the reraise. So I make the technically correct play and flat call. The flop comes QJx rainbow. I bet the rest of my stack and he thinks for all of a nano-second before calling with AQ. See what I mean?
I'm playing exactly the same way as I played when I was on a run of cashing one in three. That's how tournaments work, and that's why I don't like them. Hell, if I had 25 losing sessions out of 26 at cash, I think I would step out of a window.
How many "lucky" players are out there who have a big positive figure against their name in tournies, solely because they have been lucky? I'm not saying that they are useless -- merely that they are probably only a little bit better than average. If the long run is longer than you think in cash, how much longer must that run be in tournaments? I have certainly seem some tournament players in big tournaments whom I consider to be seriously average, but who always seem to get that one lucky hand at exactly the right moment.
I could adopt different tactics, I suppose. The agressive play early on looking for a double-up, followed by the big raise pressure plays. The trouble is, while my current strategy is not working for me at the moment, the "early double-up" strategy hasn't worked for me ever. Even if the double-up succeeds, I just don't have the "nose" for how to pressurize with the big stack. I end up losing it all back.
Currently looking at the Party waiting list and there only appear to be 4000 players. What happened? A Server failure? I see that the higher stakes games are now available on the skins, so one has to expect more defections to the rake-back offering sites.
Party really have to do something about this. Either they stop the deals with their skins (which would probably result in some massive legal bills), or they start offering rakebacks. The latter probably would cost them less than they think, since a large number of regular players would stop playing on the skins and return to the Party mainframe. I guess that they are scared of starting what might be perceived as a price war.
+++
My hatred of tournaments continues apace. I have now cashed once (4th out of 44) in 26 tourneys. I suppose that, if I played in as many tournaments as I play in cash games, this would only be equal to a single bad week. I'm not even losing coin flips (I could probably handle that). I just seem to be utterly cold-decked. I'm beaten when I go all-in.
A typical tourney today. Play tight for the first four levels. Outplay opponents on the flop (usually from the blinds), to keep my head above water. Get up to 2200. Continue in this getting-no-cards vein, stealing blinds here and there, until my 350 chip raise with 95 off (blinds 50-100) is reraised a mere 102 chips all-in by the button. I have to call here (I'm getting 10-to-1) and reveal my rags. That destroys any stealing opportunities until the table breaks. Needless to say my 95, surely favourite against KJs, fails to win.
Surviving to level 7 (blinds 150/300) I'm shittled down to 1650 chips. A player with 5000 chips raises to 900 in MP2. I have A8s in the Big blind. Do I reraise all in?
Of course not. I know opponent cannot pass the reraise. So I make the technically correct play and flat call. The flop comes QJx rainbow. I bet the rest of my stack and he thinks for all of a nano-second before calling with AQ. See what I mean?
I'm playing exactly the same way as I played when I was on a run of cashing one in three. That's how tournaments work, and that's why I don't like them. Hell, if I had 25 losing sessions out of 26 at cash, I think I would step out of a window.
How many "lucky" players are out there who have a big positive figure against their name in tournies, solely because they have been lucky? I'm not saying that they are useless -- merely that they are probably only a little bit better than average. If the long run is longer than you think in cash, how much longer must that run be in tournaments? I have certainly seem some tournament players in big tournaments whom I consider to be seriously average, but who always seem to get that one lucky hand at exactly the right moment.
I could adopt different tactics, I suppose. The agressive play early on looking for a double-up, followed by the big raise pressure plays. The trouble is, while my current strategy is not working for me at the moment, the "early double-up" strategy hasn't worked for me ever. Even if the double-up succeeds, I just don't have the "nose" for how to pressurize with the big stack. I end up losing it all back.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 02:51 pm (UTC)I would very rarely raise with the likes of 95, for the precise reason you state. If you get looked up, your cover is seriously blown.
But I'm more concerned by this :
"Surviving to level 7 (blinds 150/300) I'm shittled down to 1650 chips. A player with 5000 chips raises to 900 in MP2. I have A8s in the Big blind. Do I reraise all in? ... I make the technically correct play and flat call"
I wouldn't even think about that one, I'd just fold. It's nowhere near good enough to commit with (whether you call or reraise) against a raiser.
Aggressive early on is one option but it's by no means necessary IMO. I prefer to wait for a double up and if that doesn't happen, get to work once I drop below around M6. This works better if you pick and choose the games with weaker line-ups though.
Andy.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 03:12 pm (UTC)OK, I've been looked up, so now all I have to do is find a real hand (because I can be fairly sure that I will be called when I get it). Unfortunately, that particular bus was cancelled.
On the failure to fold the A8s. Yes, I probably should walk away. I have about three rounds worth of blinds left. Within a couple of hands I will be down to 7x the SB rather than 10x the SB. But I still have 20 minutes worth of play.
My reasons were twofold - one psychological and incoreect, the other mathematical and correct (well, less incorrect).
After an hour of garbage, A8s almost looks like a monster. 300 of my 1950 chips are already in there. I became emotionally attached to my hand. Bad play.
On the mitigating side, m'lud, I made the play because I thought (perhaps incorrectly), that I had a 50% chance (or thereabouts), of being in front, or, rather, of winning the hand. Opponent could have, say, any pair 4s or better, any two paints, any Ax suited or AJ off to AK off.
In retrospect, this analysis may well be incorrect, but it was what I felt at the time.
When I was playing online tourneys a few years ago, one of my notes to myself was frequently "don't worry about being worn down to the felt if the cards don't come". Perhaps I should revist that motto.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2005-10-09 10:10 pm (UTC)Mostly it's 30-70 players, perhaps 3 to 9 paying, usually O8 (fixed or pot limit) or Razz. I seem to be able to cash in about 20% of those. 6th of 162 inthe Stars LO8 on Friday - my favourite event, with 4 cashes in three months or so. Of course the 2nd and 1st in consecutive weeks in July tend to fire up the fondness.
I'm definitely in the tight, tighter, tightest school - I can't find anything to disagree with in Andy's comments. I think the hyper-aggressive style can work really well if you can play more tourneys and have the big-stack bully game sorted out properly. I can manage maybe five MTTs at most in a normal week, so I want to get as deep as possible, even if it can mean bumping along with a below-average stack and hoping to outwait the donkeys.