Posting time
Dec. 2nd, 2005 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirks"I waould rather eat my own testicles than read about someone's antics at 5-10 or lower".
Probably a misquote from a 2+2 post "Wny poker bbloggers are gay". But, hell, it makes me smile.
It's incredible how much you can get done when you come home from work and say "right, no time for poker or sleep. You have work to do". What is also incredible is how much remains to be done, even when you have been on the go for three hours non-stop.
An interesting month: Four levels and one unmitigated disastrous weekend at Royal Hold 'em where I either got what I deserved (which I suspect is the case) or was unlucky. Having gone away and thought about it, I have a hunch I know where I went wrong. of course, it might have been an idea to do that before hand. Serves me right for taking Malmuth's ideas as my base camp. I should have been on the other side of the mountain.
I have a feeling that, no matter what the level, I still can't yet hack it at three tables. perhaps that's because I don't really focus. My mind is always on other things as well. So, progress this month. Don't three-table (yet) and don't play Royal Hold'em. Sorted.
Probably a misquote from a 2+2 post "Wny poker bbloggers are gay". But, hell, it makes me smile.
| SITE | $2-$4 | $1-$2 | $3-$6 | $1-$2(RH) | $25 | $5-$10 | $5 | Grand Total | Rate p/h | |
| Stars | $17 | $289 | $306 | $38.25 | ||||||
| Paradise | $300 | $105 | $9 | $414 | $8.40 | |||||
| Ultimate | $34 | $298 | $68 | $228 | $88 | $84 | $2.17 | |||
| Empire | $167 | $84 | $83 | $8.12 | ||||||
| Stan James | $45 | $45 | $13.85 | |||||||
| Betfair | $7 | $7 | $5.48 | |||||||
| Party | $185 | $115 | $42 | $27 | $2.50 | |||||
| Total | $368 | $403 | $38 | $228 | $45 | $242 | $7 | $787 | ||
| Hours | 31 | 26 | 4 | 19 | 3 | 11 | 1 | 95 | ||
| Avg per Hour | $11.88 | $15.52 | $10.13 | $12.00 | $13.85 | $22.56 | $5.48 | $8.28 |
It's incredible how much you can get done when you come home from work and say "right, no time for poker or sleep. You have work to do". What is also incredible is how much remains to be done, even when you have been on the go for three hours non-stop.
An interesting month: Four levels and one unmitigated disastrous weekend at Royal Hold 'em where I either got what I deserved (which I suspect is the case) or was unlucky. Having gone away and thought about it, I have a hunch I know where I went wrong. of course, it might have been an idea to do that before hand. Serves me right for taking Malmuth's ideas as my base camp. I should have been on the other side of the mountain.
I have a feeling that, no matter what the level, I still can't yet hack it at three tables. perhaps that's because I don't really focus. My mind is always on other things as well. So, progress this month. Don't three-table (yet) and don't play Royal Hold'em. Sorted.
FOCUS
Date: 2005-12-03 04:40 am (UTC)Congrats on a good month. Hopefully it will be similar glad tidings in Vegas. Regarding focus, the thing is to have something to focus on. Staring at the tables intently is only the same as sitting there and saying OMMMM.
Do you own a copy of 2+2's The Psychology of Poker? One of the most valuable tidbits in it is Dr. Al's advice to use "visible thinking", that is, to go over in your mind the reasons for taking or not a certain action on each hand. And to do this it also helps to have a regular mental checklist to go over on each hand. Once you get in this habit, even while playing with music in the background, it will be easier to focus.
As to what types of things belong in your checklist, that would vary by the type of game you are playing. Greenstein's book also is helpful with this in his hand play examples. For myself since all I play is big bet, I analyze in terms of equity. If you are interested more in this then there is a recent thread in the Poker Theory forum on 2+2 regarding Poker/Chess/Backgammon that you could find and read my 2nd post in. There is more to this, again depending on the type of game.
Anyway, good luck in Vegas and safe trip and return.
BluffTHIS!
Re: FOCUS
Date: 2005-12-03 09:49 am (UTC)I do indeed own a copy of Schoonmaker, although I can't say that it overly impressed me. But I do like the "visible thinking". Part of the "knitting" problem with Limit is that a lot of it islike knitting, or driving -- the actions are automatic. This leads to a lack of focus.
What I try to do is watch other players' actions and to build up character profiles, but even when playing one table my mind wanders. In mid-limit, getting a handle on what other players do in certain situations is probably the most valuable treasure, since players (particularly multi-tablers) tend to be consistent in their actions. As you get to higher levels you have to allow for more game-theory like applications (i.e., how often will he do x relative to y?( but at mid-limit, if an opponent does x once, then he is likely to do x again when a similar situation arises.
I find this far more useful than just listing the fish and trying to find the games that they are playing in -- mainly because fish die fast. Knowing how a profitable opponent plays remains a viable currency for much longer.
I've been thinking about equity myself the past couple of days, because it's a much more important factor in low-limit loose-passive games. Last night on Paradise I was in oone of these at 5-10, believe it or not. So I threw in a raise from the small blind with Ace-Jack suited after there had been five limpers. This is not a typical play from me :-), but it seemed to me that I needed to get the loose players' money in before they realized that they had missed the flop.
Needless to say, the flop came Kxx with none of my suit. Since I was in unfamiliar territory, I wasn't sure if I should give up here and now or carry on betting. I decided on the latter, and was only just beaten to a $92 pot by the button, who called on flop and turn with bottom pair (sevens) and a nine kicker. I gave up on the river, but with a board of KQ87x, maybe I could have got him to fold. Harman recommends checking here on the grounds that the pair will "always" call, while the losing hand will always fold, so you might as well check and call, hoping that your opponent is bluffing. But I'm not sure if this applies to this kind of game. I only have to get him to fold one time in eight, after all.
Re: FOCUS
Date: 2005-12-03 09:03 pm (UTC)You are right regarding the majority of the fish, in that taking very detailed notes on them isn't really rewarding but that doing so on good players is. The same goes especially for LAGs (remember how Dr. Al said to watch for when they don't raise for clues to their hands).
I don't play limit anymore, but I do occasionally read some of the limit threads on 2+2 of posters I know are top notch like Ray Zee and J.A. Sucker and Tommy Angelo. Also Ed Miller's posts I would highly recommend to you. Although it is one of the few 2+2 books I don't have yet, Ed's Small Stakes Holdem should be must reading for you if you haven't already. And in some of his threads, he does advocate making the type of raise you made with AJs.
However in those low limit loose games, I think making any continuation bets 5 handed when you miss is a waste of money, and I myself would just quietly check and fold and pray for a free card to spike an A. 3 handed is where I would make a continuation bet and hope that they put me on AK and folded. Even if the K hadn't been on the flop, overcards out of position blow in either limit or no-limit. As to how you played it, Harman's advice is right on and that is the correct way to my mind to play it since with a big pot they simply aren't going to fold anything that beats you. However I would be value betting middle pair in such a case in limit.
BluffTHIS!