Moving my blog to CR

I'm going to move my blog to CardRunners. You can find it here. If you are not a member of CardRunners and want to find out what it's all about, send me an e-mail and I'll tell you more about it.

Let me know if you have any problems getting to it. I'm still not sure which format I like better.

Poker is all luck ...

I'm on a heater at 25NL - up ~ 8.5 buy-ins in 763 hands. I'm 4-tabling. I've more than doubled my initial $200 - I'm very happy.

One thing that I'm doing is taking a much more passive line. Instead of 3-betting, I'm calling hands that are very playable yet can't take a 4-bet and playing them in position:

JTh, plays well post flop IP:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1524771

KQs, I get lucky on the river and it's value town. I was going to fold to a big river bet:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1524775

I'm also making folds when I don't want to see later streets:

AK, I open UTG, am 3-bet by a player whose PFR is 4% and AF is 0.29 (over 45 hands). We're deep. I can call, but I just fold. It's going to be a bitch to play post-flop and get paid. If it's suited I call.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1524782

I might be good, but why invest another $5 + be faced with a river bet?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1524790

The delayed continuation bet ...

Here is a hand which is a perfect example of when to delay c-bet. The villain was starting to get really aggressive with me and I just folded TPGK to him the hand before SB/BB to a big river bet:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1524608

25NL

I decided to play some 25NL - I was starting to get really frustrated with 10NL. People are uber-passive and play with very short stacks. I just wasn't getting paid off. If I ever have to rebuild my bankroll, I don't think I'll start at those lower limits.

It seems like 25NL is just a world of difference. I decided to tighten up and played well. Bankroll is at $379.95. I don't see myself playing any more 10NL - even if I drop. I'll play 25NL for a while and then take a shot at 50NL. So long bankroll rules :)

Aces hold up. I really like a 4-bet there vs. super-aggro player.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1517143

Stats:

And positional ones:

300BB pot

I have middle set, 90% to win on the flop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1514129

Big fold by me to the overbet. Villain was 7/3/0.67:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1514130

I'm up $77.20 so far over 3,351 hands running at 11.52 bb/100

Long session, up 1/2 buy-in

I was playing really well - up 2 buy-ins pretty early. I stacked this huge donk with a set:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511904

He decides to play back at me and hits a 5-outer to stack me. I like 4-betting him pre-flop as well as checking the flop - it lets him bluff my "AK". Too bad he hit on the river:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511918

Not sure what to think of this one on the river. I have trips and get check/min-raised on the turn. He shoves the river. It's just hard for me to fold trips to some of these guys though:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511924

Nuts vs. 2nd nuts + redraw for me:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511934

Not sure how I feel about this one either. I guess I'm committed on the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511938

Standard vs. short-stack donk:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1511944

So basically I got coolered a lot vs. a bunch of people. I still had enough winners to make it a winning session though.

Running Challenge ...

In addition to Poker, I would like to keep track of my running here as well - to keep myself accountable. My goals are as follows:

1. Qualify for the Boston Marathon. To qualify for it I will have to run a 26.2 mile course in 3:10 which is 7:15 per mile. I've run a half-marathon at that pace and have run a marathon at 7:45 pace. This one was a huge goal of mine before I had two serious foot injuries.

2. Break 18:00 in a 5K. I've done it before (PR - 17:59) and would like to do it again. I ran a test run yesterday and lost to a 57 year old man. Weak. To run this I'll have to run 5:47 mile splits.

Today I ran 6 miles in 48 minutes which is right a 8:00/mile. I'm just getting the distance under my legs so I felt good. Tomorrow I'm taking off.

Brian - you've gotta get back to running buddy :)

Sustainable? I don't think so.

MTT Ratio: 3.89 ... I should probably play a few more tables, but this seems to work for me right now. Very few people are playing back at me and it's crazy how light people will get their money in.

Some hands are posted below.

10NL update ...

I think I'm going to up my tables to 6. This level right now is so passive and people don't believe that you ever have a hand. Bet, bet, bet. I won't be bluffing much.

I'm up a little over 2 buy-ins so far. Will post some hands later, although there have been very few interesting ones.

Q7s flops combo-draw:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507849

K6s flops a combo in re-raised pot vs. super-aggro-donk. The guy was playing 33/28/8:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1508412

Here I thought he was 3-betting me light since I've been so active at the table and I decided to 4-bet in order to isolate the donk caught in between. Worked out perfectly:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1508489

Small pot, this so f-ing standard at this limit so far:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1508495

Dropping Down ...

I'm going to go back to the origins of this blog and see what I can do with $200. I'm going to play 10NL on FTP until I get to $450 and then I'll jump to 25NL. A few other rules:

1. No more than 4 tables at once.
2. No more than 1000 hands per day.
3. Post a few hands each day.
4. Fold
5. Stakes are low, have fun, don't sweat it.

Bankroll Rules:

$0 - $450: 10nl
$450 - $1000: 25NL
$1001 - $2500: 50NL
$2500 - $7000: 100NL
$7001 - $14000: 200NL

I'm mostly doing this because I have very little time to play and I don't want to "worry" about poker too much. I feel like I can do this pretty mindlessly.

Day 1: Played for 52 minutes (321 hands) and picked up $18.05 (28.12 BB/100, $20.83/hr). Ran at 32/25 and had a 53% ATSB. Raise, raise, raise, play smart post flop. I was 3-bet less than 3 times total. Here is one of the hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1499548

I really want to see if I can build a roll starting at these limits ...

A hand from a coaching session ...

What do you think of my flop/turn/river play?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12105952&an=0&page=0#Post12105952

Messing around with a higher VPIP ...

I wanted to get a feel of how playing a style of VPIP 30+ feels like so I played 852 hands of 100NL. I also played that level because the guys I'm working with play 100NL.

The session was really swingy - most hands were pretty standard (the coolers, etc). The biggest pot came on this hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1461398

Not playing much ...

I'm not playing much these days. Between teaching full time and coaching my cross country team, I just don't have any extra time on my hands. I'm working with two 100NL players on their game in my spare time, but that's it.