http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/blog.php?1744-rentdollarinplay Join the largest online poker community in India and play in our exclusive free tournaments. en Mon, 20 May 2013 17:11:18 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/blog.php?1744-rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?593-No-Limit-Irish-poker-and-a-quot-Muchos-Gracias-quot-to-Adi Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:55:38 GMT Full Tilt poker introduced a new variant of poker last week called "Irish No Limit". The game is really fun and I have been hard core grinding it over the past week on the HU tables. The rules are real simple:

1. Dealt 4 cards pre
2. Discard 2 cards on flop
3. Follow NL rules all the way.

3 betting range for this game seems to be slightly different from standard NL, calling ranges for 3 bets pre also probably needs some adjustments. 3 betting sizes probably needs to altered as well i guess even for 100bb stacks.

Most of the people I have played at 100-200 in this game seem to 3betting a ton more preflop compared to either NL/PLO HU, dunno if that is just a function of my small sample size or running into random button clickers or some other strat implication that i havent grasped.

It also seems more prudent to play a tad more tighter pre OOP in single raised pot compared to NL. Again this is feel based, completely based on my experience of playing this game over the past week and might be completely off.

But overall the game is generating a lot of action and with limited number of spawned tables action is plentiful and very very good.

Now comes the more important part of this blog.

As most of you know, Aditya Agarwal has been selflessly running his pokerguru mentorship program over the past couple of years, teaching people the correct way to approach and play online MTTs, drilling into noobs like me the basics and subtle nuances of mtt play, analyzing hands that others have played, analyzing HHs from tourneys he has run deep in, and in general giving out top-class coaching and advise that should surely have a siginificant dollar amount attached to it.

Aside from the enormous dollar-value that his FREE coaching program has for any aspiring MTT player, in my opinion his program has created something else equally ,if not more, important.

The crowning achievement of Adi's program in my view has been that it has created an active online community for serous-semi-serious Indian poker players via his skype groups.

People in this group post stuff from mindless chatter regarding retarded 2p2 threads, rant about bad beats and run bads, notify everyone when someone is running deep, discuss strats which often take off in different tangents and in general provide a meeting place for Indian poker players.

Mind you not everyone is always active or participating in that group, but more often that not pros like Kunal Chandra, Samohh, Danish will show up, Arjun the 4better is pretty active, Prabhat was very very active till a couple of weeks ago with his unique in your face hand criticing methodology, Infusion_Leo has recently started participating in this and some of the upcoming online MTT players like Antilog,PB and DV are very very active in this group as well as PPA-India founder Vinay.

His program has created a sense of community amongst the Indian players.

I hope that when Adi finally winds down his coaching program he will still have the skype group up and running, participate in it himself as regularly as he does now, and others who are in this group will follow his lead and keep the community going.

Till next time
Good luck at the tables
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?593-No-Limit-Irish-poker-and-a-quot-Muchos-Gracias-quot-to-Adi http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?577-some-hands Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:49:05 GMT First 3+ tabling match of the year versus serial 2p2 hu4rollz challenger chemztry. Played him the past two days at 3-4 tables of 1/2. Villain... First 3+ tabling match of the year versus serial 2p2 hu4rollz challenger chemztry. Played him the past two days at 3-4 tables of 1/2.

Villain is (was?) pretty good and super aggro. He is not super aggro preflop, but is extremely aggro post with lots of turn overbets and his bet sizing in general tends to be on the very larger side when he goes for c-raises or cbets and barrels through. Doesnt pot control flops much in single raised pots at all so that oop defense versus him needs to be tighter than usual.

Think he has been on an extended break and just coming back to the games which kind of nullifies his edge a bit. Also read on 2p2 small stakes forum just a day before this that chemztry is playing 100 and 200 rush (he used to play midstakes+).

Hands:

within first 5 hands, river is a pretty good card as lots of A high floats get there

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084603

standard spot, flop raise also ok, but i usually prefer turn jam

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084605

important hand gameflow wise as it lets me play flops and turns more comfortably in the future,

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084608

standard eeks

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084610

bink

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084614

cool cooler coolest

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084654

misclick 3 bet followed by obligatory barrels

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084661

couldnt put him on a hand here, though backdoors get there, still have to call

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2084669

Plenty of other hands but too tired to get them now, but both days he quit without warning so need to be careful in giving him action over multiple tables in the future. Seen him hit and run Ronladinhiho at 100PLO over 3 tables also.

Till next time
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?577-some-hands http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?542-2012 Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:42:19 GMT Given that we have till the 21st to live, this would be a good time to recap the year, in terms of poker.* Volume:* Was humongous. Played 681k... Given that we have till the 21st to live, this would be a good time to recap the year, in terms of poker.

Volume:

Was humongous. Played 681k hands on pokerstars, 193k on ipoker and have played 29k hands on fulltilt. Astoundingly 75%+ of the volume was in HU. So was it worth-while putting up this much volume?
I am currently sitting on 291k VPPs on pokerstars, if I somehow get to 300k VPPs by the end of the year then that will be worth about 22800 USD. I also have 45% RB on ipoker so have cleared 10k+ in RB from ipoker. So $$-wise not too shabby. But physically it has taken its toll, Till October I have slept less than 6 hours a day on week-days.
My schedule has pretty much been:

Weekdays:
wakeup 7:30
in-office:8:30,
power nap at lunch: 11:30-1:00
out of office: 6:00
home : 6:30
family time: till 10:00 (me and wife were in different cities till september, so family time was nada till sept on weekdays)
grind: till 2-4 am usually

Weekend:
take friday red-eye to wife's place
take monday early morning red-eye and get straight to office from airport.

Physically it has been a struggle trying to juggle everything, so who knows if it was worth it.

Table Winnings:

I made about 64k on the tables, with majority of the volume being at 1/2 and .5/1 (made 265 buyins at 100hu), also included about 9k made on a 50-50 stake playing upto 3/6 (mostly bumhunting 3/6 on euro sites). Lost a 5k roll when the poker site purple-lounge went down, about to lose another 6k roll as an ipoker skin poker-mambo is about to go down. Both of these sites were heavens filled with maniacal latinos. Lost around 2.5kish when a horse decided to run-off with his roll. Oh and most importantly ran under EV (yea yea not like 100bis but still) for the year.

Played a bit live FR, and was up over all as i didnt bust my checking account, but no idea how much.

Heartbreak sessions of the year:

http://gyazo.com/fd78cfee55f4f3bdbbc42a422620be0d

This happened sometimes towards mid september. I was taking a shot at 5/10 in a month where I felt I was consistently playing my A+ game. Had a good couple of days and was feeling invincible, then ran into someone who cleaned me up (that someone turned out to be twoshae, didnt know his ipoker screen-name). But was a great learning experience playing someone as good as him, so no complaints (not really ofc, but sounds studish saying so).

Biggest accomplishments of the year:

Didnt deny anyone action upto 2/4. Played everyone from gdlucksir, speckbasu,eatitpal, acerb1c, snackcheck etc even ended up playing a massively -EV session on 3 tables with imfromsweeden. From mid october though game selecting at 400nl but still playing anyone over multiple tables on 1/2.

Is SNE possible:

Nopes, not untill I can re-learn FR and 6-max and start mass tabling 2/4 and 1/2.

2013 poker goals:

Re-learn 6max cash. Its unbelievable how bad my current 6max and FR game is. Absolutely atrocious to say the least.
Get better at huPLO
No game selection at 400 NLHU (need a roll boost for that also).

Anyway I have a 22 hour flight on monday with an 8 hour layover, so you can imagine I am absolutely smitten with life at the moment.
Stay good all, maybe will see some of you in calcutta next week, time permitting.

So that pretty much wraps things up for the year, oh no still need those 9k VPPs. Fun times. Firing up those tables in 5,4,3.........2.........

-sunny

Most importantly a huge thank you and plenty of hugs and kissed to my wife who has been super understanding and accomodating throughout the year. Shes the best. ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?542-2012 http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?478-Poker-101s-calling-3bets Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:54:39 GMT We continue from where we left off in part 1 (http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?444-Poker-101s-part-1) and we will touch on some of the... We continue from where we left off in part 1 (http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry....er-101s-part-1) and we will touch on some of the aspects of playing 3 -bet pots and try and have a very basic framework for defending a 3bet.

I guess i should clarify that most of this applies to decent-good villains and not weaker players (we expect to make money versus them by playing exploitatively and more easily) in a cash game setup with atleast 70-80bbs (some of it is applicable to 50bb stacks)

The standard 3bet scenario is we open 3x and get 3bet to 10x by an OOP villain (eg, btn vs sb/bb, btn vs bb in a HU game). Our apriory knowledge is that the decent villain knows that in a 6max/9 handed game, in general a competent button's strategy is to open close to 60%+, while in a HU game this is close to 85%+.
If we defend , there is now 20bb in the pot

Hand classifications:

Facing a 3b, a reasonable way of defining our defense range is to decompose our range as below:
1. No brainer: hands that will play themselves and will win >20bb (amount in the pot after we call the 3bet) greater than 50% of the time.
2. Profitable: hands that we dont need to win >50% of the time, if we are calling 7bb to win a 20bb 3bet pot, we expect to make >7bb on avg with these hands so that the play is +EV.
3. Tweeners: These are the hands that are part of our variance roller coaster range which are probably 1-2bb within the 7bb mark, but not playing them (a decent % of time) would make us massively exploitable versus good villains.
4. Trash

Depending on the game type,our assessment of the 3bettor, stack sizes our hands move around between the above 4 categories in a dynamic manner, meaning the above decomposition is not rigid when it comes to actual hands.
Eg: In a HU game if we have a dynamic where the 3better is 3bet-5b jamming any pair, then something like ATo, KQo is now "almost" in (1), where our gameplan is to to 4 bet stack off with these hands.

Stack to pot ratio (SPR) considerations for 3bets defense:

Belugawhale,Aejones and others in a 2p2 post (forget the link) talks about some "back of the hand type" SPR ratios that are worth mentioning here.

Below 3.5:1 SPR 78s (suited connectors) is much more difficult to play than KJo (high card hand), between 100-140bb starting stacks they are more or less the same and above 7:1 SPR 78s is more valuable than KJo. This kind of gives you a basic framework of when or when-not-to play certain hands.

Reason why 78s is better at a higher SPR is that, more often than not we flop a draw with 78s. With 80bb starting stacks with 20bb in the pot preflop (exactly 3.5:1 SPR), if villain c-bets around 10-15bb, we can profitably jam our draw. At slightly bigger SPR, instead of straight jamming the flop, we can call flop with the intention of jamming over a turn bet. Essentially a greater stack depth gives us more flexibility with this "tweener" (see 3 above) hand, on shallower SPR our fold equity with the draw is massively diminished.

Additionally at very large stack depths KJo could be troublesome vs good villains as very frequently we will face barrels with what might well be the 2nd best hand.

Player type:

A lot of people have trouble with villains who will 3bet a lot and in the majority of scenarios follow
through with one or multiple barrels.

At 100-130bb stacks, while trapping with our big hands is a fair play vs them (we prefer a value 4bet at bigger stack sizes just to allow us to get 3 streets with a bet -bet-jam line or straight up 4bet also at 100-130bb IFF a 4bet dynamic is in place), we also need to remember that due to their barreling tendencies in 3bet pots, they actually end up giving us an even fairer price to call a 3 bet with our tweeners (vs this player type we are now calling 7bbs to potentially win 30-35bbs instead of 20bbs).

This non-intuitive "better odd" laying by aggressive but not solid LAGs, is what is termed as them
setting up a bluff equity for us. We'll make them bet fold a variety of flops, or float the flop with a variety of hands and make them fold the turn.

By corollary villains who are aggressive preflop but will c-bet infrequently in 3bet pots,
sets us up to defend a variety of hands towards the low end of category-2 versus them. These are hands which have good showdown value and can be played profitably in a showdown bound dynamic as villain himself will pot control for us.

To summarize

Our main objectives of calling a 3bet should always be one of the following:
1. We are trapping with category-1 hand postflop and looking to to trap one or multiple barrels and get some people to stack off lighter than they should
2. We intend to bluff our opponents to win the pot due to certain tendencies that they might have (bet folding, blind barreling) which creates a bluff equity for us.
3. We are reasonably assured that we can play showdown bound poker and show a profit.


Hopefully this long rambling of a post is useful to some of you guys.

till next time
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?478-Poker-101s-calling-3bets http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?444-Poker-101s-part-1 Sat, 10 Nov 2012 06:17:15 GMT I decided to do a small series of posts (depending on interest if any) that kind of highlights the "modern" fundamental approach to No-Limit poker (emphasis on online cash game , particularly HU and overlaps with 6max). In the first post we talk about the obvious first thing in poker --- preflop fundamentals and some aspects of preflop metagame.

Much of the material is graded non-rocket science and is kind of an assimilation of ideas from various coaching programs, skype group strat discussions, nuggets of invaluable advise from some of the beasts of the online poker world with a little bit of personal experience of playing way too many hands etc.

1.Opens:

In general the absolute basic strategy is we should be opening 100% of our buttons to start with. If we are 3xing, in a HU match we put in 2.5bbs to win 1.5bbs, so mathematically if villain is folding 60% of the time (2.5/4) we show profit and thus the natural progression that opening any 2 cards in position is profitable (till villain adjusts).

Till even last year for HU 3x was the standard opening bet size, but now in most reg vs reg matches 2x is the unspoken standard. Reason for this is kind of two fold:
1. There is a perspective that 3x opens are exploitable by heavy 3betting early on in a match.
2. A more math based reasoning is: that less no. of BBs you raise the better the odds villain gets to play, if villain passes up these +EV calls (or 3bets) with a weaker range we benefit, on the other hand opening a larger size villain gets worse odds, and he passing up -EV calls (or 3bets) do not benefit us.

Consider point number-2 above in terms of a full-ring live game, if you are at a tight table it
makes sense to have your opens smaller from the steal positions (hijack, CO, button), but at a looser table you can choose your opening size to be much larger and be on the good side of the math. Consider further a typical 6max cash game, and now you can see that from a purely math perspective why the standard open from the steal positions (CO,button) is 2x, while as you progressively move away from the BTN towards UTG your opens can be as big as pot.

Further consider how (2) above dictates our preflop OOP defense range. If we are playing way too loose the math says we loose money, on the other hand we know that the button is opening 100% to 2x, so to prevent button from printing money simply by opening 100%, we need to widen our BB defense range Usually in a HU match the good regs will defend 60% or more to 2x opens (ppl like sauce who play esp loose OOP will have that number as high as 85%).

The beauty of HU poker stems from the fact that as both the button and the blind reach the post flop stage, their ranges are significantly weaker than that for a 6max or 9 handed game. This in turn leads to the fact that marginal spots now occur much more frequently. And this is where the ability to effectively hand read and identify tendencies (frequencies) become super critical.

2. Preflop Metagame-> Frequenies:

Note at the very beginning that "metagame" is often misunderstood and therefore mis-applied.

For preflop, it simply means that our preflop strategy is such that it is based entirely on "frequencies". We exploit the villain by messing with his frequencies forcing him to make more mistakes.

Messing with frequencies preflop is essentially getting a player out of his comfort zone such that with either our relentless pounding of the button while in position or heavy 3betting OOP, we force villain to adapt such that he is now forced to play the part of his range in which his frequencies are not optimal or he is not comfortable playing it.

In essence we make a tight villain play the middle part of his range a large portion of the time, where his frequencies arent optimal, while the loose villain isnt effectively able to play the same middle part of his range and thus has his ranges skewed towards nuts or air.


We often hear about how the best players are those who adapt quickly or are able to change gears or merge ranges effectively. What all this fancy phrases essentially mean is that the best players have frequencies that are optimal across the entire air---to---nut spectrum of a hand range.


3. 3 betting

This post having now crossed its official optimal word count quota, so we will leave the aspects of current 3betting trends to another time.

Till next time, Happy Diwali
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?444-Poker-101s-part-1 http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?423-The-live-poker-binge Sun, 21 Oct 2012 02:05:44 GMT I spent the past month playing lot more live than i usually do, part of the reason being i won a HU volume prop bet on 2p2 (350k HU hands at 100nl+... I spent the past month playing lot more live than i usually do, part of the reason being i won a HU volume prop bet on 2p2 (350k HU hands at 100nl+ with profit of atleast 1ptbb) and have been struggling to put in online volume this month since (18k hands LOL). Mostly been playing live in a few rooms that run regular games mostly 1/2/5 and 5/10, 10/10, 10/20 over the weekends.

While the lineups arent super tough, the games are usually played very deep, with atleast 2 peeps who have lot of experience grinding live deep FR; then there are the reg-rec players with big pockets and buyins being uncapped are willing to buy/rebuy 500bb+ , add to that a few bankroll sharing/staker-horse kind of dolts and lineups arent really one where i have a 15BB+ edge.

Now i am not super comfortable playing 500bb deep at FR/9 handed ROE games (HU is a different story) versus people who have wide/unpredictable ranges and are ready to gamble it up fr 500bb stacks at any point (trust me when i say that those who say playing super deep vs this player type is a dream havent played enough super-deep live poker).

So as a first adjustment I started off following someones approach who i consider one of the best mid-high (10/20 and up) stakes live FR player, quoting (those who follow the poker scene this is not gaucho2121, who paid for his NYC law school+2 houses cleaning up lol-awful rich NYC home games):

1. I look around the room and figure out which table I want to be at
2. I sit down and buy in for the amount of the the loosest player at the table
3. If I don’t know anybody I buy in for 70 BB’s
4. I watch very closely and try to come up w/ an individual plan for how im going to break every player at the table. The plan includes a lot of factors but im really keen on whether the player is a “fit or fold” type, what the players weakest holding they’ll go broke with are, what the player is capable of in regards to running bluffs and how many bets the player needs to see before he considers a bet “significant”
5. Now I might add more money…a lot more money.

Regarding live tells:

It is absolutely essential to realize that "tells" in live poker are over-rated. You just dont pick a tell in the middle of a hand and make a heroic calldown or bluff shove (for every time u can gloat on being correct on picking up this "tell" there will be atleast 2-3+ times in which you were dead wrong).

Instead getting reads on a player is like a continuum, you start of by getting their tendencies right and then zooming in and being even more specific, most live players will let you do that as they are usually massively unbalanced (example: in a 9 handed 250bb+ game with a UTG raise, and UTG+1 flat, readless, what is your MP 3betting range, how about from the BB?). But putting the story together, takes time, a lot of time.

Regarding bet sizing:

The next crucial thing is bet-sizing. This is obviously something in which I am sure i have an edge over the live reg-pool.

Next time you mash the live pot button, or bet 12k INR into a 14k INR pot, take a moment and think if 12k makes what i want to happen further in the hand happen, will 11k be able to do that? How about 10k/9k?

Conversely if betting pot on the flop gets me a call, how about pot+2k or pot+5k, will he still call that? If you are saving/adding 5-10bbs to every hand you are playing, think about the difference that you would be making to your bottomline.

Regarding playing SCs:

And then there is everyones favorite the suited connectors. Everyone loves to play 5s6s, but few realize the amount of money that is burnt, many would struggle to answer in one sentence against what player type can you play 5s6s for 300bb+ stacks with (1) an open raise, (2) a call, (3) a defense from the blinds, (4) if you are calling multi-way with 5s6s frm the button why are you not calling J7o?

Sadly since theres no database to filter for hands for live poker, they will continue to play these hands, with complete disregard of who is in the hand. Hint: Trouble hands go up in their "troublesomeness" once the stacks get very deep especially versus tough TAGs (analogy: for the 150bb online HU player/6max player, do you 3bet QJo, KJo pre?)

Finally i constantly find myself reminding:

When you are playing super deep and high (i consider 10/10 high probably even 5/10 with straddle and 300bb+) versus the good gambling sort of player pool on a regular basis, a moderate to averagely good run on their part will destroy my bankroll, its not like 6-tabling 2/4 online HU where i not only get to see 300+ hands/hr, my risk has a spread.

Oh and never-ever over estimate your win-rate or hourly. The most very decent- good Commerce (LA) regs who rigorously grind 5-10 for a living have an hourly less than $70/hr.

happy durga pujo to you all and subho bijoya to the bongs and navratri to the rest.

till next time
-sunny


PS: In a hand when you 3bet - exactly which hands would you 3b to in this situation? Now, imagine writing that range down, and handing it to the two villains in the hand- how could they best play against that range? Now try to imagine whether you could tweak that range to beat the range which beat your first range. Now hand that range to the villains. How might they exploit that new range? Repeat.

You want to be doing some process similar to this for every decision point you have in a hand. Ask yourself: if the villain knew my strategy (but not my exact cards) how much could he do about it? And try to make it hard for him.
-sauce 123
]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?423-The-live-poker-binge http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?400-sadpanda.jpg Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:42:18 GMT Worst month of the year (nut worst psychologically) , and that too a month that promised much riches. Was up a bunch till mid month. Then took a... Worst month of the year (nut worst psychologically) , and that too a month that promised much riches. Was up a bunch till mid month. Then took a shot at 5/10, got my ass handed over to me on a platinum platter, ran back to the micros with my tail (and the ego) tucked firmly between my rear-end and didnt win anything after that. Pretty much "up one day down next day and up and down" the rest of the month and ended up rakeback-proing the second half. No graphs for September as I am too sad to post it (being up 13kish by mid-month running solidly above ev and still having my ass raped could also be a risen).




Volume was huge (id guess 75%+ is the last 12 days) as i kept on playing marathon headsup sessions trying to turn the month around. But nopes nothing worked.

From min-raising to 2.5xing to limping to c-r any TP any kicker to 6 bet jamming 45o 250bb deep, to applying zeebo theorem of c-r turns on dry boards and jamming rivers (rep the nuts FTW-- NOTTTT), to making massive cll downs, pretty much each and every play from that famous playbook tilted
" the entire spectrum of donk101 to advanced-donk HUstrategy" was tried by yours truly and the only constant throughout this process was one more stack donated to the effing fishes.

Thankfully I didnt play any PLO during this stretch.

But a new month brings new hopes (and more importantly your ability to turn on the "played this month only" filter on pokertracker) and thus I proudly proclaim I'll be back.

And September heres to you



till next time
-sunny


]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?400-sadpanda.jpg http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?363-August-wrap Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:13:23 GMT Started off really slow in august due to a shit ton of stuff that needed to get done, but fortunately have almost the whole of the last third of... Started off really slow in august due to a shit ton of stuff that needed to get done, but fortunately have almost the whole of the last third of august off from work (stupid HR policy of vacations being reset to 80 hours on august 31st, which creates a mad rush to get vacations accounted for in august). Been playing 10-12 hour sessions since wednesday night, which is probably going to continue till this weekend.

Anyway, hands at 50,100,200 HU (all NL, up about 8.8k)

http://i.imgur.com/tgDbC.jpg

Unfortunately on backers request, results for 2/4,3/6 are not to be posted in public domains anymore. But had a +14bi day at 2/4 immediately followed by a -10bi day. Up substantially at 2/4 HU (PLO and NL) primarily by bumhunting ipoker and entraction. Ended up playing less than 1k hands at 3/6 as 2/4 action was really good on the euro sites this month. The stake is almost done as i have <5k hands to play.

I was planning on playing some of the indian sites but then got spooked with all the chatter about faulty RNGs etc, and frankly didnt get enough time to sort money transfers as well, what with the month being hellishly busy. So probably giving the indian sites a miss as of now.

Played a couple of live sessions in a home game and ended up playing this pot. Game is 9 handed 10/10 USD PLO/NL ROE 250bb+ deep. Most people playing FR PLO like its a NL+2-card game, potting weak 2 pairs, bad draws, overplaying AA-junk-junk multi-way etc etc. Anyway I am completely card dead in PLO and then this hand comes up in NL:

UTG (typical live fish but with big dollar, very funny guy, iranian dentist whose practise is worth close to a few millys atleast and our host, VPIP close to 90): 6kish -limps

MP : limps
HERO(MP+1): 2.4kish limps 8s9h
BTN/CO (i forget which, supposedly competent live cash player): 3-4kish limps
SB: calls
BB : calls

Both blinds are very very loose and the entire table is super sticky pre-flop and atleast till the flop.

Flop (60): 6d7dAh
Checks through

Turn: 5s
UTG bets 155, Hero calls 155. BTN makes it 700, UTG all in for 6k, Hero all in for 2.4kish, BTN all in for 3-4kish

River Qs

UTG: black AA
BTN: 3d4d

Being a friendly game (and more importantly if you refuse you'd probably not get an invite to the game next time around) we did run the river thrice but i managed to dodge a million outs X3.

gl at the tables
-sunny

edit: F live poker, after playing FR live poker at 20(?)h/hr for two days I was on suicide watch ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?363-August-wrap http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?339-A-session-re-cap Tue, 07 Aug 2012 02:03:22 GMT One of the longer matches played last month vs a super aggro reg on 3 tbls of 1/2. Villain has somehow sustained 60% 3b across 3 tbls for the ... One of the longer matches played last month vs a super aggro reg on 3 tbls of 1/2. Villain has somehow sustained 60% 3b across 3 tbls for the whole match like a boss, barrels 3bet pots almost always, making it kind of difficult to peel vs him, c-betting flop and turn in single raised pots almost 100%, never pot controls. Very very floaty to flop c-r

some big hands:

################################################

tried to counter huge 3b %with c-r flops, getting all junks and SCs to fold

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

Hero (BTN/SB): $200.97
BB: $354.68

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with Jh Ts
Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $22, Hero calls $19

Flop: ($44.00) 2c 2d Ks (2 players)
BB bets $21, Hero raises to $48, BB raises to $85, Hero folds

Final Pot: $140.00
BB wins $139.50
(Rake: $0.50)

############################################

onto minraising btn, flop flat by villain is vgood

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

Hero (BTN/SB): $274.42
BB: $350.51

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with Jd Td
Hero raises to $4, BB raises to $16, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($32.00) Qc 9d 5d (2 players)
BB bets $22, Hero raises to $49, BB calls $27

Turn: ($130.00) 4d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $74, BB raises to $285.51, Hero calls $135.42 all in

River: ($548.84) Ts (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $548.84
Hero shows J T (a flush, Jack high)
BB shows 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines)
Hero wins $548.34
(Rake: $0.50)

#################################################

nice peel pre, solid flop jam ,nicer turn

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

Hero (BTN/SB): $576.98
BB: $202.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with As Ad
Hero raises to $4, BB raises to $20, Hero raises to $43, BB calls $23

Flop: ($86.00) 2s 4s 7d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $42, BB raises to $159 all in, Hero calls $117

Turn: ($404.00) Qh (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($404.00) 9h (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $404.00
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
BB shows 4 Q (two pair, Queens and Fours)
BB wins $403.50
(Rake: $0.50)

################################################

turn jam is ok vs his persistent half pot barreling in 3b pots

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

Hero (BTN/SB): $490.60
BB: $201.20

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with 5c 8c
Hero raises to $4, BB raises to $20, Hero calls $16

Flop: ($40.00) 5s 4h 9c (2 players)
BB bets $21, Hero calls $21

Turn: ($82.00) 6s (2 players)
BB bets $42, Hero raises to $449.60 all in, BB folds

Final Pot: $166.00
Hero wins $165.50
(Rake: $0.50)


################################################


i hazz nuts

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

BB: $220.93
Hero (BTN/SB): $250.63

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with Tc Kc
Hero raises to $4, BB calls $2

Flop: ($8.00) Ah Qd Js (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB raises to $22, Hero calls $16

Turn: ($52.00) 8d (2 players)
BB bets $36, Hero calls $36

River: ($124.00) 2d (2 players)
BB bets $158.93 all in, Hero calls $158.93

Final Pot: $441.86
BB shows Kd 7h (high card Ace)
Hero shows Tc Kc (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Hero wins $441.36
(Rake: $0.50)


################################################

hope it looked like a missed draw to him, gt snap called


Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players

BTN/SB: $200.00
Hero (BB): $472.06

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with 3h 3d
BTN/SB raises to $4, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($8.00) 7h 4c 3c (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $4.58, Hero raises to $20, BTN/SB calls $15.42

Turn: ($48.00) 2d (2 players)
Hero bets $32, BTN/SB calls $32

River: ($112.00) 2h (2 players)
Hero bets $416.06, BTN/SB calls $144 all in

Final Pot: $400.00
BTN/SB mucks 7c 8d
Hero shows 3h 3d (a full house, Threes full of Deuces)
Hero wins $399.50
(Rake: $0.50)

cross-posted frm http://in.pokerstrategy.com/forum/bo...p?boardid=1552 ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?339-A-session-re-cap http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?329-July-wrap Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:59:38 GMT Hey guys Long time no update, though in my defense i have been grinding a TON. Juggling a 8-6, 30k hands of poker and a wife is a tedious job,... Hey guys

Long time no update, though in my defense i have been grinding a TON. Juggling a 8-6, 30k hands of poker and a wife is a tedious job, trust me. Anyway the big highlight of the month is that I got convinced by some people that I am actually under-rolled for multi-tabling 3/6 HU NL and PLO in reg battles, so i got a 50-50 stake from a HU sicko for like 40k hands. Unfortunately 2/4 is also part of the stake. I get to keep my action at all other levels.

Heres the graph in PTBB for 2/4 3/6 at about the 10k hand mark (90% NL, rest PLO all HU)

http://i.imgur.com/FSf5c.jpg

Up about 9kish on the stake at a clip of 11PTBB/100.


Hand of the month:

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
PokerStars
2 Players
Stacks:
BTN Hero ($598) 299bb
BB Nori Sokrat ($292) 146bb

Pre-Flop: ($3, 2 players) Hero is BTN Kc 4c
Hero raises to $6, Nori Sokrat raises to $24, Hero raises to $50, Nori Sokrat calls $26

Flop: 8d Ah Jh ($100, 2 players)
Nori Sokrat checks, Hero bets $38, Nori Sokrat raises to $77, Hero calls $39

Turn: 5h ($254, 2 players)
Nori Sokrat goes all-in $165, Hero calls $165

River: 6c ($584, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $584
Nori Sokrat shows
Qc 9h
Hero shows
Kc 4c

Hero wins $584 (net +$292)

Nori Sokrat lost $292


For the hand above had big reads on villain.

#############################################

Funniest hand of the month:

fish at 50nl leads 3 streets with increasing betsizes with 38 on aaaxx board clls river shove as well, i ask "misclick"
reply "nahh im just bad"

###########################################
Non stake grind (mostly 1/2 and .5/1) in PTBB



around 6-7k, also played a bunch of hands at 50nl when action at higher stakes were nada.
Most importantly: no. of donkaments played for the month = ZERO :cool:

Also got to know (via skype) and got talking to a fair number of indian grinders which was really nice (u know who you are and u guys are great), maybe I'll drop into a live indian poker-room sometimes in the near future and get to meet all these wonderful folk (thoughts of playing live poker though makes me break into instant sweat)

One word of caution though for the real young amongst you indian grinders, especially those in school (undergrad). Dropping out of college to play full-time is really a bad idea, it might seem gung-ho and all that you are following your dream and all that stuff. But the reality of the situation is that online poker as of now has a really murky landscape and games are getting tougher by the day. Unless the biggest market for online poker comes back online, a boom for online poker is not in the horizon.

Finishing a degree doesnt take that much and will give you a whole number of fall-back options. I know a large number of young guys from euro countries who are beast players (eg, discomonkey on PS, tilt_dnk also on stars) who have far higher win-rates as well as binks than you and me, but are all disciplined enough to complete college.

Sigh I think this ended up being extremely preachy and enormously long.

gl at the tables
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?329-July-wrap http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?283-2-hands-and-the-poker-mind Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:21:50 GMT I have been struggling a bit lately with my game (inspite of putting up decent results attributed mostly to run good) and so decided to pen down a... I have been struggling a bit lately with my game (inspite of putting up decent results attributed mostly to run good) and so decided to pen down a few thoughts regarding hand analysis and decision making in poker.

Most of us know pretty well, that the amount of variables involved in a poker decision are huge, from the level 1 "whats my hand" to the nth level "he knows i know that he knows that i know he knows my range looks polarized" thinking.

So what exactly is a thorough and complete hand analysis and what constitutes a complete poker mind? Here are two well known examples from the poker world of in-depth hand analysis by two of the best in the world:

Phil Galfond's analysis

Sauce's hand analysis

The examples above give you an idea as to how deep and thorough the thought process is of the very best, but more importantly it also shows how quickly these guys are able to put together information from player history, dynamics, tendencies, HUD stats and create a complete picture of what is going on.

The second part, I think, is what separates the best from the rest. After all we all have a HUD, we use words like dynamics and reads like chump change, yet how good are we really at assimilating and processing all the information that we have to make an informed poker decision? Are our poker instincts so finely honed that making these decisions are almost a second nature to us at the poker tables?


-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?283-2-hands-and-the-poker-mind http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?279-Robusto-June Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:38:37 GMT June has been going a bit weird. Teeing off from previous post, i started june about 6k in the hole, but had a spanking saturday and sunday to make a... June has been going a bit weird. Teeing off from previous post, i started june about 6k in the hole, but had a spanking saturday and sunday to make a strong comeback. 3 tabled a reg at 2/4 on sunday and ran pretty good versus him and he spewed off majorly in the end and I ended up 10Bis and in the green for june.

This is the hand that started the spew, in the past 20 mins villain has been 3 betting 70%+ , so i adjusted by 4 betting him polarized deep.

PokerStars - $4 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (SB): $1084.30
BB: $940.80

Hero posts SB $2.00, BB posts BB $4.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero has Jh 8h

Hero raises to $12.00, BB raises to $40.00, Hero raises to $92, BB calls $52

Flop: ($184.00, 2 players) Td 8c 5h
BB checks, Hero bets $82, BB calls $82.00

Turn: ($348. 00, 2 players) Jc
BB checks, Hero bets $176.00, BB calls $176.00

River: ($700.00, 2 players) Kc
BB bets $590.80 and is all in, Hero calls $590.80

BB mucks Qd Kd
Hero shows Jh 8h

After speaking to a few people decided not to multi-table regs at 2/4 at the moment, but instead playing everything between 50 and 200 and bumhunting 2/4.

Had a very fun match at 50nl versus a super aggro russian who proceeded to donate close to 10bis, match was very swingy though due to his super aggro style.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Also a very good 2/4+ reg at Stars --> "sex**fun**time***" has started sitting me a ton at 100, we've played about 3 sessions this month and he has been owning me upto this point. I havent yet got a grasp on some of the things he is doing. And of course he is the 100% min raiser pre, and half potting everything post, a type i usually i detest playing against.

Heres a heart-break soulread which got washed out on the river:

Poker Stars, $0.5/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players

Hero (SB): $114
BB: $144.20

Preflop: Hero is SB with 4c 5d
Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $10, Hero calls $7

Flop: ($20) 8h Ac 8d (2 players)
BB bets $11, Hero calls $11

Turn: ($42) 5c (2 players)
BB bets $24, Hero calls $24

River: ($90) 6h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Results: $90 pot ($0.50 rake)

Final Board: 8h Ac 8d 5c 6h
Hero mucked 4c 5d and lost (-$45 net)
BB showed 3c 6c and won $90 ($44.50 net)

Pre is loose, but he was 3betting a ton, flop is a float with position and backdoor double gutter (LOL?) which i planned on jamming, and more importantly position, turn is the major soulread call, but BLAHH RIVER !!!

One irritating thing about this month is that i have been starting every session being down 3-4 BIs within the first 45 mins. So almost everyday has been a comeback day which is really not how i would want things to go . Need to look at what is going on there, but havent had much time to go through my DB as work has been very very hectic.

Also Prometheus sucks, but dibakar and shanghai rock !!

till next time
-sunny (operating on 5 hours-a-day sleep for june)

PS: anybody needs any advise on cash games feel free to pm, i've answered most (all) of the pms i got ... ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?279-Robusto-June http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?269-Swingy-day-WSOP Sat, 02 Jun 2012 11:19:28 GMT WSOP news first: A friend from our heads-up skype group had a great run at the 1500PLH WSOP event 5 and almost came home with a bracelet.... WSOP news first: A friend from our heads-up skype group had a great run at the 1500PLH WSOP event 5 and almost came home with a bracelet. Unfortunately for him he finished runnner-up. However inspite of having a huge chip disadvantage when HU play started, he managed to put on a great fight (HU play lasted almost 3 levels). He is an online heads-up sng reg (mid-high stakes), cardrunners instructor and plays as PrimordialAA. Quite a few of us in the group have %s of his WSOP package (i hv 1.5%) and heres hoping he continues to beast the rest of the WSOP.

I myself had an interesting start to June. Played a marathon session of heads-up NL and 6max PLO with a mini break thrown in between.




The initial drop to 5kish is 3 tabling a super nitty reg who kept on showing me the nuts in almost all big-medium pots. Then played a very good reg and pretty much crushed him playing my A+ game to be up 1kish for the day.

Came back after a mini break to play a huge fish at 1/2 who 4 bet shoved twice pre with 78s and 9ts and obviously won versus my AA and AK. He ended up hit and running me for close to 5 buyins+

Played another reg (a really passive bad one) who ended up with quads on the river for a gigantic pot vs my turned straight at 2/4.

Made some back on PLO and zoom (not in the graph) when heads-up action was dead, to be stuck about 3k for the day.

Fun day :)

Will be on the grind this month, pretty hard the first part of the month actually. Heres to turning things around tomorrow. Had some fun-interesting spots, maybe will post some hands on the forums.

-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?269-Swingy-day-WSOP http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?260-May-wrap-up-and-a-move Sat, 26 May 2012 05:21:03 GMT So I had a work related move come up and find myself back in a familiar foreign country in my old home town after a hiatus of just over a year. ... So I had a work related move come up and find myself back in a familiar foreign country in my old home town after a hiatus of just over a year.

Before the move, I played a few of the 1st week SCOOP-M-Ls, got some stacks and then crashed out in some redonkulous fashion. Hats off to MTT pros though, for the life of me I cant fathom how mtt pros go about playing tourneys for a living and still retain their sanity, I played one sunday of mass-multi tabling a semi full schedule of MTTs and midway through the session I was pulling out chunks of hair at a time in utter frustration. (MTT pros check out this simulation by noahsd : http://www.nsdpoker.com/category/poker-pro/) . Anyway I cashed one NL SCOOP-M and one PLO-M, and that was that for SCOOP.

Cash game wise here's a graph of my bread and butter game (part April included) NL headup @ .5/1, 1/2, 2/4 with a shot at 5/10 chasing a whale (see the bump around hand 13.5k) who asked for higher limits after being down 8buyin at 100nl (0.5/1) in less than 500 hands. I added a fair bit of euro sites to my schedule, where action in general is softer, rakeback is much much higher (40ish), but action tends to be fairly slow compared to Stars and in most cases the software is absolute shit.



I also played a fair amount of small- mid stakes 6max (took a shot at an apparent soft 2/4 euro 4 handed lineup but got coolered/played bad in that) and quite a bit of PLO (up around 3kish in 6max down atleast 4-5k in PLO). I am not sure what to do with my PLO game right now, EV-wise I am running way below EV, but more importantly my mental setup for this game doesn't seem to be right.

I'm off for a small vacation tomorrow with the wife and a few old friends, so poker for may is pretty much a wrap.

I have some coaching sessions scheduled next month with jesse (etrncdrnr on twoplustwo, https://twitter.com/#!/entrncdrnr) to go over my heads-up game and plug some leaks. Jesse btw is one of the best small-stakes to mid-stakes HU coaches out there and his website is a gem with a shit ton of solid information
(http://fortunefavorstheb0ld.blogspot.com/)

cheers
-sunny

]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?260-May-wrap-up-and-a-move http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?239-Oh-hi-there Tue, 08 May 2012 09:15:51 GMT Image: http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6637/20bids1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/20bids1.jpg/) I am pretty sure my ipoker...


I am pretty sure my ipoker RNG got messed up while it was being downloaded. Thats almost a 20bi downswing at ipoker 6max and its starting to get mildly irritating at this point. There is of course the more than occasional spew that comes in with these kind of downswings, but I am pretty sure i'm getting anal-raped by the RNG's turn-river card run-out system. You know the miracle one outer, or the more familiar runner-runner flush or the everyday occuring turn-creates-a-gutshot-river-obliges syndrome.

Here's a gem 250 bb deep on a 6max tbl playing hu vs a super spewy whale:

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem

HoldemManager2

Hero : $1040
BB : $871

Pre-Flop ($6, 2 players) Hero is BTN with Ah Ac

• Hero raises to $12, BB raises to $38, Hero raises to $96, BB calls $58

Flop ($192, 2 players) 4h 8h Jh

• BB bets $775 and is all in, Hero calls $775

Turn ($1742, 2 players) 5c

River ($1742, 2 players) 7s

BB shows 3c 6s and wins $1742 with a straight


But as a certain learned person at the mid-stakes 6 max forum used to say (before black friday rendered him unemployed, he currently spends his days ruling over the starcraft universe btw) theres only one way to get out of this rot son and it involves:
1. man up
2. put in more volume

to which i say



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



On the bright side i got 44% rakeback on a ipoker skin (betmostpoker).





till next time
-sunny ]]> rentdollarinplay http://www.pokerguru.in/forum/entry.php?239-Oh-hi-there