I played some rush poker this weekend and made about 5 buyins... Pretty nice! 5-10 cent level, quite low, but still is a nice return for the time invested (I think 3.5 hours). I originally hated rush, because I made a few BIs and then lost them along with more...however, the game just requires some basic adjustments I believe. Number one, LAG play seems to dominate. The reason is because the natural tendency for rush players is to tighten due to the fact that they can keep clicking fold quickly until they see a nice high pair or nice ace in their hand. Given this, it is easier to put players on that range of hands in certain situations. Hence, playing more hands and outplaying people postflop is a key to success here. Second, stealing is worth it because people are playing tighter. We are seeing so many hands in rush that all of the little blinds we can pick up can really help our stack in the long haul. More thoughts to come after my session tonight...
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Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Poker goals for 2010
-to hit a four figure score
-more mtt volume, 400 tourneys tracked on OPR
-3 live tourneys played for 75 bucks or less jn AC
Monthly updates to come...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
-more mtt volume, 400 tourneys tracked on OPR
-3 live tourneys played for 75 bucks or less jn AC
Monthly updates to come...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Doubled my bankroll today
So I decided to fire up some tourneys on two different poker sites this morning with my coffee. Little did I know, I was about to double my bankroll...two games were my usual 45 person tourneys, 3 and 10 dollars, bought into two micro rebuys, and one 25 dollar freezeout with 120 players.
Results and analysis:
25 dollar freezeout: 2nd place for $476
3 dollar 45 person: win, $50
10 dollar 45 person sng, 2nd place $112
Some takeaways: patient poker and selective aggression helped to hit these scores. Also, sound understanding of how to play a short stack and how to play a big stack, and how to combat each I feel is crucial. I played with both of these sizes of stacks and found that opening up my game and being willing to take a lot of flops with a bigstack really induced some fear into smaller stacks while chipping me up. Finally, situational poker, reading abilities, and psychology can go a long way. I played one hand where I raised pre, a guy leads into the flop (dry board). I did not have enough chips to c bet and lose, and he knew that. He led into me, and I reshoved all in with Jack high, having a read that he would not bet at me if he hit top pair. So, I shoved over the top since i knew he didn't have top pair. He folded, I win a nice pot.
More tourney scores to come,
-casino
Results and analysis:
25 dollar freezeout: 2nd place for $476
3 dollar 45 person: win, $50
10 dollar 45 person sng, 2nd place $112
Some takeaways: patient poker and selective aggression helped to hit these scores. Also, sound understanding of how to play a short stack and how to play a big stack, and how to combat each I feel is crucial. I played with both of these sizes of stacks and found that opening up my game and being willing to take a lot of flops with a bigstack really induced some fear into smaller stacks while chipping me up. Finally, situational poker, reading abilities, and psychology can go a long way. I played one hand where I raised pre, a guy leads into the flop (dry board). I did not have enough chips to c bet and lose, and he knew that. He led into me, and I reshoved all in with Jack high, having a read that he would not bet at me if he hit top pair. So, I shoved over the top since i knew he didn't have top pair. He folded, I win a nice pot.
More tourney scores to come,
-casino
Sunday, November 22, 2009
First decent tourney win
It's after 6 am and I just wrapped up my first decent poker tourney win! Damn, feels good. Two dollar rebuy, and the top three of us split for 410 dollars each. Time to get some rest.. Game commentary and some hand analysis to follow soon.... Jtac84
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Poker hourly rates vs ROI - and bankroll thoughts
Lately I've been thinking about the concept of ROI and hourly rates earned in online poker. While I do want to earn a profitable rate, I feel that the most important thing to me at the moment is how much money I can make in the shortest time frame. Given this thought, my current focus in online poker is going to revolve around playing for the highest hourly rate.
Hourly rates in cash games versus SNGs: With a $300 bankroll at the moment on pokerstars, I am rolled for 10 NL cash games or rolled (arguably) for $10 SNGs. I am not much of a fan of variance because I can have a hard time emotionally dealing with short term losses. So, my games of choice I think will revolve around full ring/6max NL cash or single table SNGs. If my game choice is the SNG, the Turbo format obviously is the better choice to maximize hourly rates. But, I do have one concern with the Turbo format. I feel that I have less of an edge to outplay opponents because of the fast rising blind structure. Much of the ending stages of Turbo SNGs are just a pushing match and the luck factor greatly increases relative to a non-turbo SNG game.
Regarding cash games, I am quite torn between Full Ring and 6max. 6max will allow for more thoughtful play and the ability to really extract good value from opponents if you can read them. However, full ring will allow for massive amounts of multi-tabling, and thus, more hands per hour.
What kind of hourly rates have people earned with a comparable bankroll and game selection to what I have just described? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
jtac84
Hourly rates in cash games versus SNGs: With a $300 bankroll at the moment on pokerstars, I am rolled for 10 NL cash games or rolled (arguably) for $10 SNGs. I am not much of a fan of variance because I can have a hard time emotionally dealing with short term losses. So, my games of choice I think will revolve around full ring/6max NL cash or single table SNGs. If my game choice is the SNG, the Turbo format obviously is the better choice to maximize hourly rates. But, I do have one concern with the Turbo format. I feel that I have less of an edge to outplay opponents because of the fast rising blind structure. Much of the ending stages of Turbo SNGs are just a pushing match and the luck factor greatly increases relative to a non-turbo SNG game.
Regarding cash games, I am quite torn between Full Ring and 6max. 6max will allow for more thoughtful play and the ability to really extract good value from opponents if you can read them. However, full ring will allow for massive amounts of multi-tabling, and thus, more hands per hour.
What kind of hourly rates have people earned with a comparable bankroll and game selection to what I have just described? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
jtac84
Friday, November 28, 2008
my first poker blog post
I played poker on Thanksgiving eve at the Borgata in Atlantic City and had quite a boring session for several hours, followed by some action at the end. Unfortunately, the end-of-session action left me in the negative and it should have ended in the positive. Here's the synopsis of the session:
A new young kid came to my table and he had been there for about 45 minutes. We'll call him the villain (and me the hero). So, during my session I played very ultra-tight. I'm generally a conservative player which is based on my personality and the fact that I don't have tons of cash to burn through in my poker habits. Most of the players at the table pinned me on the tight image I projected and I did not get much action when I bet and raised. I showed down two premium hands over a few hours of play. Back to the hand in question...
The new young kid at my table was aggressive. I saw hands he had shown down within 45 minutes to categorize him as loose aggressive. He has playing a fair amount of hands. One hand in particular that I made a note of, was when he raised from early position with KQ offsuit. Within the period of time this new player was at my table, I actually loosened up my play a bit. I made one huge overbet steal preflop after 6 people limped in (which I did with an AK). There was lots of liberal calling of raises, so I had to raise to 27 dollars preflop after the whole table limped in order to limit the field to one player or to just steal the blinds. The villain saw me make this steal and I think this led him to act the way he acted in the hand with me where he was able to practically stack me. Here goes the hand in question between me and the villain...
I am in the big blind and the villain is in middle-late position, at our full table of players. He raises to $7 preflop as the first person in the hand (this is a $1-2 NL game by the way). All others fold and the action comes back to me in the big blind. I look down at AK off suit. One thing to note: at the start of the hand I had $185 in chips and he had around $130. My thought was to either re-raise to $20 or to just flat call since I'm in the big blind and wait to see what the flop brings. I flat call his raise and the flop comes A-5-8 rainbow. My instinct was that I was ahead of his hand on this flop because I've seen him raise and play against raises with him holding sub-premium hands. I wanted to extract maximum value here because I think that he's either got a lesser ace than I do, or I believe he's got a pocket pair lower like 7's to up Kings. It's rare that he had set on this flop, but possible. The set did not worry me. If he doesn't have an ace here and I lead out from out of position, I do not want him to fold there because I'd make hardly any money on the hand. So, I decide to check-raise him. I check, then he decides to bet out $10. I raise him up to $25 total. He thought for about 20 seconds and he then re-raised me $40 more on top. Given this situation, I definitely do not pin him on a set. A set would flat call and hope to raise later in the hand, in my opinion. So, I'll give him either AQ, AK, pocket 10's - pocket Kings. Given this range, I beat every hand exept for a split pot if he's got AK. I am so sure than I am ahead here, so I re-raise all-in. He thinks for 30 seconds and calls. Then he asks, "do you have an ace?" I say "Yeah." He flips over pocket 9's and says.... "awww, man... I need a 9." I turn over my AK. The turn brings an 8, pairing the board. River cards brings.... yup you guessed it.. the worst possible card... a 9! He caught a full house to beat my two pair.
In the end, my read was right. I was ahead on the flop and I got him to get his stack in with mine on the flop, which would allow me to extract maximum value over time if I keep making the correct read in this situation. It sucked leaving the casino after a 3.5 hour booring session and to end it on a cooler like that. Oh well, that's poker.
A new young kid came to my table and he had been there for about 45 minutes. We'll call him the villain (and me the hero). So, during my session I played very ultra-tight. I'm generally a conservative player which is based on my personality and the fact that I don't have tons of cash to burn through in my poker habits. Most of the players at the table pinned me on the tight image I projected and I did not get much action when I bet and raised. I showed down two premium hands over a few hours of play. Back to the hand in question...
The new young kid at my table was aggressive. I saw hands he had shown down within 45 minutes to categorize him as loose aggressive. He has playing a fair amount of hands. One hand in particular that I made a note of, was when he raised from early position with KQ offsuit. Within the period of time this new player was at my table, I actually loosened up my play a bit. I made one huge overbet steal preflop after 6 people limped in (which I did with an AK). There was lots of liberal calling of raises, so I had to raise to 27 dollars preflop after the whole table limped in order to limit the field to one player or to just steal the blinds. The villain saw me make this steal and I think this led him to act the way he acted in the hand with me where he was able to practically stack me. Here goes the hand in question between me and the villain...
I am in the big blind and the villain is in middle-late position, at our full table of players. He raises to $7 preflop as the first person in the hand (this is a $1-2 NL game by the way). All others fold and the action comes back to me in the big blind. I look down at AK off suit. One thing to note: at the start of the hand I had $185 in chips and he had around $130. My thought was to either re-raise to $20 or to just flat call since I'm in the big blind and wait to see what the flop brings. I flat call his raise and the flop comes A-5-8 rainbow. My instinct was that I was ahead of his hand on this flop because I've seen him raise and play against raises with him holding sub-premium hands. I wanted to extract maximum value here because I think that he's either got a lesser ace than I do, or I believe he's got a pocket pair lower like 7's to up Kings. It's rare that he had set on this flop, but possible. The set did not worry me. If he doesn't have an ace here and I lead out from out of position, I do not want him to fold there because I'd make hardly any money on the hand. So, I decide to check-raise him. I check, then he decides to bet out $10. I raise him up to $25 total. He thought for about 20 seconds and he then re-raised me $40 more on top. Given this situation, I definitely do not pin him on a set. A set would flat call and hope to raise later in the hand, in my opinion. So, I'll give him either AQ, AK, pocket 10's - pocket Kings. Given this range, I beat every hand exept for a split pot if he's got AK. I am so sure than I am ahead here, so I re-raise all-in. He thinks for 30 seconds and calls. Then he asks, "do you have an ace?" I say "Yeah." He flips over pocket 9's and says.... "awww, man... I need a 9." I turn over my AK. The turn brings an 8, pairing the board. River cards brings.... yup you guessed it.. the worst possible card... a 9! He caught a full house to beat my two pair.
In the end, my read was right. I was ahead on the flop and I got him to get his stack in with mine on the flop, which would allow me to extract maximum value over time if I keep making the correct read in this situation. It sucked leaving the casino after a 3.5 hour booring session and to end it on a cooler like that. Oh well, that's poker.
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