Wednesday, March 30, 2011

winnnnner!

Well I broke the streak yesterday...I won a few thousand online and broke even at canterbury. It feels good to get back on the right track...

Speaking of canterbury...they have really good eggrolls if you are not asian and dip them in ranch dressing... ;)

Is it friday yet? I'm ready for baseball and a few days off from poker. Maybe a week. I might have to go to san diego soon to do some golfing to get ready for the good weather here...just like jumpstart my spring...it's been so gross lately in minnesota.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

4 straight losing days

I haven't been playing that much in the last few days but anytime I do, I lose. 4 straight losing days at heads up limit holdem is tough to do. I don't think I've ever done it before. I've lost 4 times in a row a million times, but not at my goto 'get out of a downswing' game haha. I'm not sweating it at all I'm just pretty tired of it. The downswing is up to like 400 bets which is the most for heads up limit holdem for me I think. My biggest was 1k bets but that was ring game... I think it helps that I'm still having a mediocre positive month still...

Gonna sit a few hours this afternoon and then head up to canterbury with jay and wilmes for a little live poker...should be real fun.

I also picked up a gamepad which I'm going to try to get working for when I want to 1 table heads up and lean back. If anyone has any recommendations on how to do this (I know there is good software out there I just haven't done my research yet)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

quick downer, avoiding burnout

I've been playing a lot online the last week and it's been going great...until the last 1300 hands which I'm down like 230 bets. Mostly low stakes so not much money but very frustrating nonetheless. I never have anything and they always do.

I have a buddy in town and another one on spring break and we're going to play lots of online poker I'm sure so this afternoon I've just putzed around without tables open. I tried playing civilization 5 but the new graphics card i got (geforce 570) has been having stability issues so that didn't happen as I didn't have the patience to deal with it.

I finally moved my postgresql hand history database to the terabyte drive so now i finally have the space to make a massive database. I'm exited and eagerly awaiting the import.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

a little ring game break, etc etc

I got tilted last week playing ring games so I decided unless there is a world class fish playing at 100/200 or 200/400 I'm going to skip the ring game grinding. No more 30/60 50/100 etc. I just feel like chilling and heads up is good for me like that. So instead to make sure I get hands I'm playing $5/10 and 6/12 lhe hu and 1/2 NL also. It's pretty relaxing and far less irritating. Hopefully the pros don't bust 8sup while i'm gone... ;)

This snow is actually the only snow all year that has bothered me. Usually I like snow and winter weather, but I'm fully in spring mode and it's time to go and not come back.

My bracket is doing ok...top of the middle of the pack...and I am still in the hunt but probably somewhat of a longshot. I have ohio state winning it all..

I started playing civ 5 again and while I've been a lifelong fan of the civilization series (esp civ 2) I just can't get hooked on it. This is like my 3rd run at it and it's the same as every other time. I just can't get engrossed.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

heads up 30/60 battle, heads up as a game

That was pretty tiring. I just got done 'battling' a guy 3 tables of 30/60 lhe heads up for 1500 hands. It was a very peculiar match for me. I usually don't bluff too much (obv other than continuation betting/barreling) and this guy said he usually played 14 tables of no limit..so he was ultra foldy, perhaps more than anyone I've ever seen.

He would constantly check back the flop and fold the turn. He raised my turn bets no more than like 8 times in those 1500 hands. He never adjusted. I just kept bluffing and bluffing and bluffing some more. He won at showdown over 75% of the time. It's just we only went 28% and most of the rest of the hands I won by bluffing. It's not too often you get to play a guy like that so I had to be a little more conscious of what optimal strategy vs this type of player. My friends and I haven't talked many times about how this is the easiest player type to play against...so think of that next time you play heads up and aren't used to it. call call call call etc

I went to canter the other night and had a good time, although I don't find omaha 8/b fun. Luckily I only had to play like an hour of it. A buddy is in town and another has spring break next week so I'll probably go up there next week a handful of times...which is rare for me lately. I had a big stretch where I played a ton, but not lately.

I hadn't even thought of this when I started writing this blog, but there is a thread on 2+2 that is generating a bit of interest. Bryce claimed he thinks sites should get rid of hu tables and instead institute a game where you can like enter a player pool to play a random person who is in the pool for 200 hands.

This is ridiculous.

My response to that I wrote in the thread is as follows:


"There is no shot the sites get rid of heads up tables.

Suggesting it should be removed is pretty lol. Either table selecting your opponents and playing them or not being able to play heads up with somebody if you both want to play heads up for a certain stake is ludicrous.

It doesn't even make that big of a deal with this 'lobby' busyness. I agree it is slightly less inviting but it's definitely not an important enough of a factor in trying to convince somebody it should be removed. It's just so avoidable (by filtering) and maybe the fish are a hair uninvited by it (but truly I bet most don't notice/think about it/care) but it sure doesn't seem to be affecting most of them - there are tons of guys who keep losing tons and tons of money. People want to gamble and they will put up with some bs to do so. This is light bs and is insignificant in the case for removing heads up.

This is coming from somebody who also sits heads up $500/$1000 sit and goes so I definitely feel comfortable playing anyone and am willing to play more than most...It's just not right to take away the heads up game from people who want to play that way."