Best money I have ever spent

The CDs are world class.

261 hands dealt
258 flops seen (two accidentally folded and one taken down pre!)
$17.15 profit
164ptBBs/100

One tabled again, sat down with $5, whittled down to $2.50 very quickly after having to fold two sick rivers. Built back up to $11.63 after hand 114 of the session. Made a tea and lost $5.50 in the twenty hands I played whilst drinking it. I then left the table before I tilted. And made another tea.

Especially impressed with the 3am compilation. Kool and the Gang, Buggles and Jackson 5 comprise the first three tracks. World class.

More Omaha music

Just charity shopped my bollocks off for some more music to listen to whilst blowing my roll playing every hand of PLO8 I'm dealt.

Went to that Mind place ('for better mental health') again where the CDs were only 50p. This time when I got in I saw some CDs for 10p! Madness. I snapped up five of those bad boys but I'm instantly regretting it - they're all scratched to fuck. I haven't tried to play any of them yet but I'm guessing they're no good.

I also snapped up an 'expensive' 50p one as well. This one's called 'Word of mouth' and features 15 tracks by various artists including AMP FIDDLER, JUANA MOLINA, DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS, and SUFJAN STEVENS. Who the fuck are they? Oh well, could be good.

One of the 10p ones was a bit of a bargain, Paul McCartney's memory almost full. Sweet, hope that one works. The others look shit. Got some songs from the 80's on two CDs and something called 'Pop Icons' with Christina Aguilera, Five, Westlife, etc. Christ.

In one of the cases, called '70's Summer Hits' are two CDs, neither of which are called '70's Summer Hits'. There's one called 'Sunday Magic' with two half naked people on the front. Dread to think what's on that disc. And the other is called '3am Party'... dread to think what's on that disc.

My Omaha CD collection to date:

Music for summer Evenings - National Trust (1998, compilation) 100p
Power of a Woman - Eternal (1995, album) 100p
White Ladder - David Gray (1998, album) 50p
Lifting me - The Corrs (1999, single) 50p
Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney (2007, album) 10p
Word of Mouth - Various 'Artists' (2004, compilation) 50p
Pop Icons - Various (2003, compilation) 10p
1980's hits of the decades - Various (80's compilation) 10p
Hits of the 80's - Various (1986 compilation) 10p
Sunday Magic - ? (2004, ?) 5p
3am Party - ? (2004, ?) 5p

Not pretty.

Good start, except one horrendous pre flop fold

Just played a little one-tabling session whilst railing a good friend, Ptevey, in the million on Stars. I think he played really well to get as far as he did but just couldn't find a spot late on and eventually went out about 200th or something for a nice cash. WP sir.

That's a screenshot of my first session, 126 hands played, 125 flops seen for a $15.90 profit. This is 315ptBBs/100 which is sure to come down. I had a really nice table (not many pre flop raises) and only time will tell whether my strategy can handle a table of pre flop raisers.

Really disappointed about the one fold I made by the way, just a complete lack of concentration. I split a sick pot I should have scooped and insta-folded the next hand utg in disgust. Just forgot I had to limp! It's so unnatural playing some of the shit hands I have to but it seems to have worked so far. Maybe it is +EV to play every hand at this level of the game.

Small sample, I know, and hopefully no more folding from now on. Disgraceful behaviour. I wonder what the players at the table must have thought (if anything) when I folded. Must have put me on 9999 or something. Though this is always a limp utg in my book. Plenty of scoop outs.

Just thought I'd whack some of the few hands I've saved on the pokerhand site in the last couple of 'working weeks' just in case any one fancies a butchers through them. Most of them pretty pointless hands from a couple of gamble gamble sessions but feel free to rummage and berate:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797571

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797397

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797186

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795379

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795339

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795318

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2793145

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2792974

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2764956

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2764918

Some of those hands are proper tilty actually and maybe I should have kept them to myself. Couple of interesting ones though, especially the TJQK one I think it was with fd and sd on a paired board. Obviously very opponent-based action.

Future for me in poker?

Cool.

Been doing loads of 'normal' 'work' for the last two weeks which has been a lot of fun. Spent most of my time at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, mainly on a team-leader's wage (though not doing a great deal of team-leading) working behind various bars around the ground and also spending a lot of time pissing about in the cellar, throwing a ball around and changing the occasional barrel. Again, on a team-leader's hourly rate(?).

Taking a step back from poker has given me a chance to have a serious clear-headed think about my future (or lack of it) in the game.

There have been many times over the last few years where I've gone through spells of playing poker for money instead of working. During these times I have hated the thought of giving it up to go back to work.

And, so, it never fails to confuse me that, when the time comes to go back to work, I always enjoy it and can't think of anything worse than giving it up to grind the poker.

Especially in the summer.

So, given that work has almost always earned me more money than any 'healthy' spell of pokering has, I'm not even sure why I have played (and sometimes continue to play) poker as a sole source of income. So I will probably not be doing so in the near future.

I say 'probably' because:

As it happens, having played what I would consider enough hands at the $25, $50 and even the $100 level of O8, I genuinely think I could beat the game quite well. I am not prepared to put in the volume of hands required to earn a living at the $25 or $50 level (as do-able as I think it is, I would rather be out of the house working this summer than grinding out 6/7hrs of poker a day for a similar return), but if I had the BR not to worry about the swings of $100 and $200 PLO8 it would probably be worth my while taking some time off work to earn some decent money!

So, as it's very unlikely that a spare couple of grand is going to come my way in the form of a BR, I'll 'probably' be working for the rest of this summer. I think this is the sensible decision and does not at all feel like the disappointing realisation that maybe it would have been a couple of years ago. Instead, it's actually something I'm quite looking forward to.

A word on Hold'Em:

I have obviously played a lot of Hold'Em in my days and I simply don't think I'm good enough to beat that game at any meaningful stakes consistently. I don't even enjoy playing endless hands of Hold'Em any more so, even if I am capable, I have no desire what so ever to sacrifice work to make a living playing Hold'Em poker.

So, with Hold'Em completely out of the equation and given that I have no wishes to grind away at the smallish stakes of Omaha I can afford, I have cashed out most of my BR (total cash out for the month of $495.09), and have left just $20 'fun-money' in my account.

I have a potentially disarrrsterous plan for my small BR which I'll come onto later.

I don't intend to cash out from Stars at all over the summer as I'm hoping that work will continue to support me well enough (and start paying off debt at the same time...). I hope to continue playing the odd hour on a night with the micro/small stakes.

If I have built up a big enough BR by late 2008/early 2009 and it still feels right, I will consider putting in some hours at the money-making stakes.

So, that's all the long-term poker shit I've been thinking about over the last couple of weeks, have I been playing much?

Hardly at all. Took a few pot shots at 25c/50c and maybe a bit of 50c/$1, not sure. I had one half-hour of fun when I decided to sacrifice $40 by sitting with $20 on two NLO8 $50 tables with the intention of really gambling it up and leaving if I lost the $20. Well, I quickly lost one of the buy-ins and was down to $4 on the other table before rallying back to eventually leave the table with $55 for a $15 profit! Good times. Wish I could show you some of the hands, winning and losing but the pokerhand site isn't working. Had some great banter at the table as well with a couple of the regulars who, having 'played the game for years', thought I was a right wally. It was actually quite amusing as I have been playing O8 for only a month and know for a fact that most of them are easily rapable (and the not-so-easily-rapable ones are at least easily playable).

Also played a couple more O8 tourns ($17 ish outlay for no return), but the most interesting thing I've experimented with poker-wise since my last post is the 6-max tables. The average pot sizes at most stake sizes of the game seem larger than at the full ring tables. This seems a little odd and at the 1c/2c tables the av. pots are massive, usually $1 but sometimes as big as $3.

This got me wondering whether it would pay to see 100% of flops at these tables.

So, as I don't think I'm mentally or financially ready to start playing poker seriously again yet, I am going to set myself another one of those 1c/2c challenges just for fun.

My goal is to prove that the 6-max PLO8 1c/2c tables are beatable when seeing a flop with 100% of hands.

My first instinct here is that the reraised pots in which I have to see a flop with terrible starting hands could prove a little too expensive for my monsters to make up for but hopefully I'm wrong. Even if once every 200 hands I'm forced all in pre with rags vs two monsters I'll be struggling to make even that loss back over the next 199 hands let alone show a profit. Anyway, we'll see.

Don't expect any great volume. Or profit. Inabit.

Blow Up

I've let myself down slightly in the last couple of days.

On Sunday afternoon I really didn't feel like playing any poker, the first time that has happened for a few weeks. And if you don't feel like playing, don't play. Simple, yeah? No. Like the mug that I am, I played anyway.

I really should have just watched a film or something or gone out, asked someone if they fancied a drink or something. But no, I cracked open a few cash tables and plugged away.

It went okay but I was just really bored of it, nothing on TV either. Then I realised that I hadn't played an Omaha multi since I learned how to play the game so checked the tab and signed up for the next three tournaments going. This is how they went:

- $11 PLO8 rebuy

In for $81 to go out shortly after the freeze period started for no return. The villain in this hand stacked me twice in the rebuys and then this to finish me off. It was very ridiculous. I don't really have a very good h/l hand but I was just playing the player (idiot):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2763467

I was nearly sick at the hand but spending $81 on a tourn with my BR was inexcusable. Bad beats should be pretty insignificant if you're thinking about the bigger picture.

- $11 FLO8 freezeout

Standard was really really bad. Got it in towards the end with a fd and nut low draw, both were live in 3-way all in but missed. Luckily no option to rebuy.

- $5.40 PLO8 freezeout

Cashed but ran into quads to come 20 something for a shit profit. The $400 for 1st looked achievable at one point but not to be.

That was a very bad night.

The next day (yesterday) I tried my best to stay away from the poker but I was bored again with my friends at work so I started playing again. Worst decision ever. Trust me, if you're anything like me and you don't feel like playing, don't play - you'll lose.

I got bored of the Omaha pretty quickly so sat at an empty NLHE $50 to gamble it up a bit. Two people sat down with me at exactly the same time which I was a little suspicious about. I posted the BB and:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2769734

I nearly ripped my hair out, and even with my hair as long as it is it wouldn't have hurt anywhere near as much as that hand did. I left the table immediately. Blatant bit of rigging, it's sick.

I played a bit of razz for fun, lost more than anyone should at that game so sat down at a play money NLO8 with my 1000 chips. Lost them in a sick 8-way all in, I was miles behind but I think I got just about the right price...

I then played five PLO8 STTs (two 9-handed $16 turbos and three 10-handed $3 turbos). I bubbled the two $16 ones which were soo sick and came third in all three of the $3 ones. I should have won all five! After that sickness I turned the laptop off and, pleasingly, it stayed off until this morning. What an awful two days.

So, that's it, I've decided, two days too late, I'm officially taking a break.

Yesterday, I got straight onto the phone to my temping agency for some work. I need to get out of the house and away from the computer. So I've taken some shifts off them and another agency so I'll be taking a 'break' and going to work for a change. Got 36 hours booked for the next few days which should be fun. I'm behind the main bar at Edgbaston Cricket Club all day tomorrow, then at the International Convention Centre on Thursday and I'll be spending most of Friday at the National Exhibition Centre. Anything to escape the tilt.

I'm left with $271.55 in my Stars account after cashing out $215. $471.55 profit is still okay but not as okay as it was before I touched it on Sunday afternoon.

May not post for a while now. GL all.

Days three and four - And who says 12-tabling isn't profitable?...

... me.

I just couldn't handle it. I 12-tabled the $25 tables for three hours on Friday and got through about 1500 hands. The first two hours were fine bringing in a steady $37 profit. I then took a break to get a drink and first hand back suffered a horrendous beat bringing me back to about even and I just kept sliding for the next hour and finally gave up showing a loss of $20 over the three hours.

Luckily, earlier in the day I had done a deadly slow but profitable bit of 3-tabling so at the end of day three (Friday) my stats were:

Days... 3
Hands... 6501
Time... 18hrs 55mins
Profit... $189.65
WR... 5.8ptBBs/100
HR... $10.02 ph

After my eye test on the Friday I went on the search for another couple of albums (Eternal's time has already passed I think) so I found another little charity shop called Mind - for better mental health. The nutters were selling albums for 50p. Ship it.

The uncomfortable part of my eye examination involved have some drops put into my eyes designed to widen the pupils to make the back of my eyes more accessable. Clever stuff but it did make seeing incredibly difficult. Things were very blurry from close range and I even had trouble crossing the road, I must have looked like a right wally.

So, looking for an album on the shelves of this new charity shop proved very tough. I pulled out CD after CD but couldn't read who they were by so had to put them back. But then I saw a cover I recognised, and it just happens to be one of my favourites. David Gray - White Ladder. 50p, genius. Even though I own a copy somewhere, I had to have it. I also decided to take a 50p gamble on another random CD so I just picked one up, handed over my quid and felt my way home.

It turns out that the second 50p there is probably the worst money I have ever spent. The 'album' turned out to be a two track (well, one track and a re-mix of that track) promotional CD for Pepsi. It's called Lifting Me by The Corrs. It is fucking awful and I can't believe I actually spent 50p on it. Actually, thinking about it, Acorns sell singles for £1, perhaps I could sell it onto them for 80p. Every one's a winner!

Now that's some nice Entrepeneurism, playing the charity shops off against each other... And then maybe I could give the profits to charity. Quite a nice way of creating EV.

Anyway, this brings my Omaha CD collection to:

Music for summer Evenings - The National Trust (1998, album) £1
Power of a Woman - Eternal (1995, album) £1
White Ladder - David Gray (1998, album) £0.50
Lifting me - The Corrs (1999, single FFS) £0.50

I had people over all day yesterday so only managed to squeeze in 609 hands so I guess I'm a little behind schedule now having only played about 7k hands through four days:

Days... 4
Hands... 7110
Time... 21hrs 25mins
Profit... $210.35
WR... 5.9ptBBs/100
HR... $9.82 ph

I have been playing Omaha for 17 days now and my total profit has reached $640.94. A poor reflection on my opponents for sure, and I really didn't expect this kind of success when it all kicked off with the 1c/2c challenge.

A friend of mine, Fran, was given $10 by Betfair which has rapidly grown into a bankroll. I'm racing him to $1k now. So GL with that sir but I hope I'm still winning...

Day two summary. Must learn my lesson...

... 9-tabling O8 just doesn't work.

Once I'd eaten and watched a bit of tennis I made the choice to give 9-tabling another go. It hasn't worked so far but I want to teach myself to do it.

I started 9-tabling at 3pm and played non-stop for 2100 hands to finish at about 7.30pm. Based on this sample, if I was to achieve my target of 10ptBBs/100, 9-tabling at this $25 level would give me an hourly rate of over $23. I am yet to profit from a 9-tabling session so far so for the sake of my current target of $700 per 14k hands per week I'm probably better off going back to the profitable 6-tabling but this is the HR I'd like to be achieving.

I played terribly of course and a late flurry allowed me to escape with just a $9 loss. I want to be able to 9-table though and even though it's detrimental to my current challenge I think training my brain up at this level could be financially beneficial in the long run. I'll sleep on it.

I don't have any hands from today as there always seemed to be a table popping up which became annoying but there were some beauties as usual. I made some woeful calls though, it's lucky I didn't keep records in a way.

I won a quick $20 6-tabling whilst talking to Fran on MSN tonight which helps today's figures slightly. Well done Fran, you earned me more in 50mins than Eternal did in 4hrs. Playing Eternal at full volume failed to make any difference during the 9-tabling madness by the way. In fact, I think all it has achieved is alienating me even further from my housemates and it almost certainly signals the end of their exhausting campaign to convert me into a 'Drum and Base' man. I'm sure they would now agree I'm a lost cause.

Summary after day two:

Days... 2
Hands... 4155
Profit... $132.55
WR... 6.4ptBBs/100 hands
Time... 12hrs 15mins
HR... $10.82

I believe that my WR and HR would both be higher if I had 6-tabled all the way through but I think that learning how to 9-table now will make for a healthier HR in the long run (while still perhaps sacrificing a couple of ptBBs/100). It may turn out that I am just incapable of 9-tabling of course but we'll see.

Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble, I'm fucking knackered. More tomorrow I guess. Night.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Next Big Blind

Day two has arrived.

It will be a late start today as I've had a busy morning. Went to the doctor's to sort out a free prescription - thank Fuck for the NHS (and all you healthy people who help to pay for it).

Being diabetic means I am supposed to get myself regular checks of my eyes (and feet for some reason) so I decided that today I would finally get off my arse and find an opticians. Forget the feet for now. I walked (carefully...) into Bearwood and stumbled across an opticians that advertised 'Free Diabetic Screening'. Perfect. Trust me to choose Thursday the 12th to book an eye appointment for the next day though. It's just one beat after another.

"Can you come in tomorrow morning?"
"Tomorrow...?"
"Yeah, Friday the 13th."
"Yep, brilliant!"

I'll be blind by Sunday, guaranteed. I'm glad I've finally got it sorted though, it's something I should have done weeks ago.

I then went into Somerfield to do some shopping feeling pretty happy with myself that I was finally giving the illness the respect it deserves and thinking vaguely responsibly towards it for the first time. But then I saw a monster 300g bar of Toblerone on offer for £3. Fucking snapped it up, great purchase.

Sitting in front of my laptop, as I have been doing for the last couple of weeks, there has been something really troubling me day after day - my music collection. Or lack of it. I have no CDs at the moment and the only music I have is on my laptop: Elvis Presley - 30 No. 1 Hits, Massive Attack - Mezzanine, and Dusty Springfield - Hits Collection. All absolutely world class, granted, but, I have to say, they have started to grate on my brain a bit over the last couple of days.

Trolling through Youtube would do the trick but it just isn't practical whilst 6/7-tabling the Omaha. But I really need something to listen to to keep me sane(ish) while I'm playing. So after the ill-fated Somerfield trip I suspected I'd have a lot more success in the relatively safe sugar-free zone of the Acorns Charity Shop.

And I wasn't disappointed... A handwritten sign on a dirty sheet of lined paper was music to my eyes, 'All CDs - £1'. Such a bargain. I plan to buy at least one album a day from there to keep me happy while playing, I'm fairly sure they'll pay for themselves even if they only succeed in keeping the tilt away for one track an album.

They had a fairly healthy collection but for some reason had the singles mixed in with the albums, all £1. Which nutter's going to buy a single? They should make the singles like 20p or something. I'd buy them. If I ran the place, that's what I'd do. In fact, once I've bought all their stuff I may have to open up my own one to get rid of it all again. So bare that in mind, if you ever need to buy a single come to me in a years time when I've bought out Acorns. 20p.

I bought two albums to keep me going. The first is Music for Summer Evenings - an exclusive compilation for BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine. And the second, Eternal - Power of a Woman, their difficult second album from 1995.

I look forward to trying them out after a bit of lunch (Toblerone on wholemeal toast). Due to the late start my aim is to play about 1k hands today and make it up over the week but I'll see how I'm playing.

Inabit.

Day One Summary

Not playing any more today, it's over. Just had a horrible session to finish the day off. Before it started I was +$140 for the day (through 1365 hands) and was heading towards a $200 day for a bit of the final session but the last 100 hands killed me and I've ended up with the figures of:

Days played... 1
Hands... 1803
Total profit... $121.35
Win rate... 13.5ptBBs/100 hands
Time played... 7hrs 55 mins

This little bit of tilt finally forced me to leave all tables before my planned 2k hands were up:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2743408
Another one of those 'if my high's no good, my low draw's live' hands but I was fairly sure I was drawing to the low only so getting them in as 40/60 dog was silly tilt born out of frustration at the card-deadedness of the previous million hands.

As card dead as I was for large spells today (only played 21% of hands), the game always seems to throw up loads of interesting hands so I'll try and pick out my favourite few from today:

Put him on exactly the hand he had but wasn't sure of the best thing to do - see a blank turn then make him pay or plonk them in on the flop as I did?:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2742232
63% expectation apparently on the flop so it seems okay.

Sick cooler I think:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741819

My play is dodgy throughout but the river fold is an important one. He killed his action completely (I call a pot bet for sure) but every other player I have come across at this level calls the shove with my hand so I don't blame him at all:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741497

Top set, lowwy board:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741381

Wally rewarded:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741375

Wrap hits nicely:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741361

Button was an idiot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741312

I don't know:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2741152

Nice to have some hands hold up and even some hit draws in there.

Bit tired and the rain's depressing me so I'm going to sleep.

Or maybe I'll watch The Apprentice final on BBCiPlayer with a cup of tea, who knows.

Ruling

Just a quick one, which makes a change I suppose.

Just felt the need to amend the rules of my new mission slightly. I think the 2k hands a day thing could prove a little awkward, what happens to days where I only have time to put in 500 hands? Have I failed? Do they count towards the record?

So, rather than 2k hands for each playing day, I've decided to make the target 14k hands per week. This means I can play as many or as few hands on any given day as I like and as long as I've played 14k by the end of the week I've succeeded.

So, overview of new mission:

Game... NL/PLO8
Stakes... 10c/25c
Target hands... 14k per week
Target win rate... 10ptBBs/100 hands
Target profit... $700 per week

I shall be starting shortly, not long got up. I've had my breakfast (five slices of wholemeal toast and a cup of tea) and a shower and I plan to play right through until about 2pm at which time I'll stop for lunch (beans on wholemeal toast presumably). With a cup of tea.

An extra 2p?? WTF?

Just returned from my fortnightly 'big shop' at Iceland. I got the usual: two loaves of wholemeal (£1.60), a pack of four tins of beans (£1), a small bottle of milk (£0.40), and a packet of bananas (£1).

It should last me.

It usually comes to a tidy total of £4 dead so I stood there smiling in front of my regular cashier (till-woman?), my four quid at the ready, when she bluntly blurted out, "four pounds and two pence, please." What the... break it to me gently why don't you? After all we've been through.

It turns out that good old milk was the culprit here, 42p ffs. It's sick, an extra 2p for a small bottle of milk. Honestly, the amount I spend on butter, milk, eggs and cheese I'm seriously thinking about growing my own cow.

At one point yesterday I was stuck $160 from 10c/25c PLO8. I must constantly remind myself that this BR has come from that $15 deposit at the start of the '1c/2c challenge' on Wednesday. So, twelve days later, after starting the day on $413.96, going down to $255 was really disappointing and, though I was unlucky with cards, was ENTIRELY my own fault. Nobody forced me to play.

So I moved down... briefly.

I played two hands of PLO high $10 just for a change. I sat down with $10 and bluffed the fuck out of my first hand and got caught which prompted the comment 'lol, donk at the table' from one of my opponents. So I tried to catch someone out the very next hand. It didn't go well:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731966

NH, sir. I left the table.

I'll now put some links to a few of the hands I played during my tilty phase yesterday. Make of them what you will:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731844
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731879
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731884
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731929
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731950
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731984
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731895

Some horrible stuff in there from me. The queen-high flush one was sooo lucky and I really annoyed myself with the set of kings hand. The turn call is shit (drawing to half) and I have played enough to know that his bet on the river is screaming, 'I've scooped, mate. Inabit.' But I called anyway. Sooo bad but thought I'd share it with you.

My bankroll is now back to about where it was before the massive downswing, I clawed it back to $273 late last night (after a cashout of $115). Some of the following hands are the reasons why. Most of the poker-playing people who know me know that I have lost many a bankroll in the past by tilting and playing games well above my roll (and probably skill level) so those people won't like the stakes of this selection of hands but fuck it, it worked out (and I wasn't tilting when I played it).

His play is very questionable here if you ask me, I don't mind him flatting pre with the intention of moving me off a low flop but I'm going nowhere there. Of course I got verylucky to scoop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733331

Horrible play from my opponent gifts me $55 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733547

Nuts hold for $86 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733564

Small pot but interesting decision on every street:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733777

Sick battle of the blinds. Unlucky not to be ahead and then to miss given he'd flopped the nuts:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733970

I played one table of PLO8 $100 and one table of NLO8 $50, focusing more on the $100 table. I profited from some nice flops and some bad play by my opponents but I think I also played well. I really thought about, and eventually tightened up, my preflop raising hand selection in the 500 hands I played at the $100 table.

At 1c/2c, 2c/5c, and often 10c/25c my preflop range included:

- Any pocket pair tens or above (if I hit it's often top set and opponents don't fold middle or bottom set or dodgy low draw for any price)
- Any suited ace (as 2nd nut flush doesn't fold at this level)

But I soon noticed that there were at least a couple of really solid players at the $100 table sitting with full stacks. The players sitting with much less than a buy-in were idiots. The good players fold middle set to my top set and the poor players aren't sitting on enough money to pay my top set enough to make up for the times I miss after raising pre. So pairs without a nice low draw were often folded (or just limped in pots that looked to be heading towards a cheap multi-way). [[Any decent pair at the lower levels, with or without a low draw, became a raise simply to make it more expensive for the numerous players willing to chase a low draw after the flop.]] The decent players at the $100 level wouldn't chase a low draw without a good high draw to back it up and so my top set on a lowwy flop didn't want to be in a big pot with the solid players anyway (especially given the size of my BR).

Also, taking the second hand above as an example, if I don't have the low draw to back up my suited ace, I am going to be frustrated fairly often when I flop my miracle and have to split the pot with a low as weak as that. By narrowing my suited ace range to include a fairly decent low card as well I will be scooping a lot more often. Thinking about it, this rule probably applies to every level after 2c/5c and is an adjustment I will think about when returning to the $25 level.

So what are my plans from now on?

My number one aim is not to go broke. For this to happen, it's important that I don't move up too quickly (no more PLO8 $100 for a start). I find it easier not to move up when there is something stopping me. I found it very easy to stay at 1c/2c for 10k hands whilst doing the challenge and so it seems reasonable to to think that setting myself some kind of challenge at the $25 level will keep me there until I'm ready to move up.

The '1c/2c challenge' involved me attempting to make a certain amount of money for every 100 hands I played. This target was 50ptBBs/100 hands (pokertracker Big Bets are two big blinds). I really enjoyed this challenge and am more than happy to try something along these lines for my new chosen level of 10c/25c.

I have rummaged through the '2+2 forums', which are very good by the way, and the consensus seems to be that there is no one on Stars at the 10c/25c level consistently grinding out a 10ptBB/100 hands profit. So even if it is unattainable, this has to be my target. But this is just half of my new challenge. My other target is to make every day a 2k-hand-day. Some days I'll be working obviously and there will be days where I have some other plans but I want every playing day to consist of a solid, worthwhile stint.

So the new mission for Pgchips on Pokerstars is:

Stakes... 10c/25c
Hands... 2k per day
Target win rate... 10ptBBs/100 hands
Target profit... $100 per day

Based on the information I have read I'll be lucky to reach my targeted win rate and also 2k hands is a lot for me in one day as I even find 6-tabling tough but as always I'll try to give you an honest (and maybe this time interesting) account of my progress, win or lose (though if I lose for too many days on the bounce I'll find myself back at the '1c/2c challenge'!).

Unlike the 1c/2c thing, I have no end-date in mind and neither is there a specific number of hands I'd like to troll through. I'll just plug away until either I have the advised bankroll for the next level (or a number I feel comfortable taking a shot with), or I get bored, or I got broke.

Cheers for reading if you still are.

Terrible downswing

Woke up at about 2am today and naturally cracked open 9 tables of the old Omaha. Quite what I was thinking I don't know - this is clearly far too many. Rushing all over the place and couldn't concentrate at all and made sooo many mistakes, played shit. I did lose two full stacks with aces vs aces, the second of which was my AA33 vs AATJ aipf. I flopped a low draw but he runner jacked it to scoop. But that's just variance, the fact is I played shit and made some terrible crying calls on other tables. And some fucking shit bets as well. It took me only an hour to lose $87 in the space of 500 hands. Over half of that was the full stacked aces but with the other hands I was dealt I could have broken even if I really wanted to.

Looking back, as a player just learning the game having started properly just over a week ago, opening 9 tables of $25 Omaha 8 straight after waking up was a fucking awful idea. Without any breakfast as well, ravenously stupid.

So I immediately closed all the tables, I didn't even sit-out-next-blind them as it would have been -EV to do so, and went for some breakfast. What my housemates must have thought of me cooking a Spag Bol at half three in the morning on a school night I'm not sure but I needed some serious de-tilting grub so I don't give a fuck.

Got back and watched The Apprentice on BBC iPlayer with a cup of tea. I enjoyed the break and am glad I resisted the temptation of nicking some biscuits to dunk. I'm better off without. Though in the days to come, if my aces keep losing, I'm sure I'll be jumping at the chance of that tasty sugary suicide.

Straight after The Apprentice I banged open just 6 tables, much more manageable. I played a bit better but still couldn't seem to win any hands, especially against this one player. These two hands against him fucked me right off:

I should have set him in on the turn as he can fold any river that doesn't house him or give him his weak low and he obv calls all in on the turn. Think I should also set him in on the river as I have to call his all in having checked and he checks a worse flush behind which he has to call with. Obvious house anyway, bad river:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731581

This hand was another tough one to take. I was only in pre because that guy is such a twat. By his third raise it was obvious he had aces but there was half a chance my low was live and my fd was very likely to be good too so they had to go in. Loved the turn, not the river:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2731628
(With my fd and low draw live the hands have 50% expectation each so I think the hand plays itself even though it became clear he had flopped the nuts.)

He left after this hand and so I closed down all the tables I was on too. He absolutely raped me. Somehow managed to break even in this session of 780 hands so the total for the day is:

1280 hands for a loss of $87.37,
leaving my total $25 stats looking like this:

Hands... 4.3k
Profit... $116.54
Rate... 5.5ptBB/100

Not pretty.

2c/5c is for wimps, moving up to 10c/25c

Just a quick update in case anyone is still vaguely interested in this Omaha lark. I've pretty much decided to bypass the 2c/5c level. As I have already said it's exactly the same as the 1c/2c level and so would certainly bring in a steady profit but I really want to get better at this game so I have jumped into NL and PL $25 permanently.

I worked Friday night and was too tired to play when I got back so I slept until Saturday night, watched a bit of telly, and then cracked open as many $25 tables as I could afford. I'm still playing full ring (9 handed) and both NL and PL until I can work out which one I prefer.

I got lucky in the 500 hands or so of 10c/25c I played on Thursday night and the only thing I learned really was that my 1c/2c game didn't fit into the game at all. So I knew starting again today I had to work out how I needed to improve pretty quickly (preferably before going broke).

The first 650 hands were very tough. I didn't feel good at the tables and was lucky only to be $10 in the black. I took a break to eat and think about the difference between the 1c/2c level and the 10c/25c.

The decisions are consistently just that little bit harder. For example, it's easy to check fold aces on a K45 flop at 1c/2c because with 60/70% of players seeing a flop aces are just no good. But when you see a flop two or three handed at 10c/25c there's a fine line between checking then giving the benefit of the doubt to a bettor or banging in some money blind hoping a low draw may pay. Basically the betting at 1c/2c was easy, it was almost always betting the fuck out of the best hands and making draws pay but at these slightly higher stakes a lot of dangerous information bets have to be made. For this reason I think the winrate at this level is going to be much more erratic than it was at the micro. We'll see.

Position became an important factor as well at this level I found. At the micro level position was completely irrelevant as you either had a hand you wanted to bet or you didn't. But the tough post-flop decisions that must now be made at 10c/25c are obviously a lot easier to make when you have seen what your opponents think of the flop first. Bluffing is even possible - brilliant!

So, after the cretinous first few hundred hands of the day I started booking my ideas up and I finally got a good feel for the tables. I ran well in places but missed a few very important freerolls so I think I ran about average overall which is nothing to complain about I guess.

Including the shit session earlier, I got through 2469 hands of both NL and PLO8 $25 for a total profit of just under $145 for the day. Overall, I have now played 2969 hands at the $25 level for a total profit of $204 @ 14ptBB (pokertracker big bets - two big blinds)/100 hands.

3k hands is a very small sample given how wrong this game can go at times but I would certainly settle for 14ptBBs/100 in the long run so hopefully the next 3k hands will show a similar profit. Fingers crossed.

As I have said, I don't have Pokertracker or the like so I have to try to keep records of hands I like manually (which is hard when you're seven tabling Omaha) and unfortunately I don't have records of most of the interesting hands but I'll put up the few I have here to show you. I would love anyone to point out any obvious mistakes as I'm keen to learn.

Massive call on the turn, didn't like the river when I saw it as I put him on A3xhh although A345 was in my mind too. Bad call looking back as the nuts may have been sitting behind me but still, very nice three quarter:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2726017

-----

One of my favourite semi-bluffs of sorts:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2725925

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Not thought much about this one but I don't think I like it (not the result anyway - a two would have slipped on the river!!!). Heads up I'm happy going with this as there's a good chance my low is live as well as my high but three handed my low is dead to a two, the best I can realistically hope for is the high and probably for only half the pot, I'll Cardplayer it actually because it must be close:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2725873

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Very dangerous spots these for a bare top set, if there's an A2xxcc knocking about I'm in bad shape but I didn't get away and got lucky:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2725772

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Another example of a dangerous top set call - if the push was for $30 I seriously have to consider folding but not for $10 into $2:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2725760

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One of the worst calls I have ever seen! About 16% expectation I reckon:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2725636

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Get away pre?:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2723615

-----

Terrible call from me in one of the early sessions. I knew he was lowwing on the flop and so it should have been obvious that my high was no good on the turn when he shoved, pretty embarrassing call:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2723304

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Sick missed flush:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2723219

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Cooler... except probably for bare kings:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2718427

-----

What goes around comes around:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2709336

Guess you'd have to be really bored to wade through all of that lot but any hand analysis appreciated as always... GL folks.

Let's try... 2c/5c PLO8!!

Monster stakes, eh?

Since the 1c/2c thing went okay with a profit of about $140 I have decided to step up to 2c/5c to see if the standard is just as bad. It's a $10 max buy in which isn't quite as deep as the $5 at 1c/2c but is still pretty deep at 200 big blinds.

So what did I find out about full ring 2c/5c?

Well, it's much the same as 1c/2c really. Few familiar faces, some of the rocks of 1c/2c, but the tables seem to be filled with just as many idiots as 1c/2c (perhaps just an ever so slightly richer breed). Guess I shouldn't be surprised given how ridiculously small these stakes are, a lot of them are probably playing the game for the very first time. And I suppose the rest of them just don't give a shit win or lose.

So I banged in a decent sized sample session of about 1800 hands which brought in a profit of $56 at a rate of 62 big blinds per 100 hands (verysimilar to 1c/2c).

I can't help but think I must be running very very well at the moment because making money just shouldn't be this easy. I decided to test just how well I was running by taking a dip in the relatively deep waters of NL $25!! Pretty reckless but why the fuck Stars don't have a PL or NL level between 2c/5c and 10c/25c is beyond me. That is a long spell at 2c/5c before you're 'properly rolled' for the next level up. Anyway, fuck 'properly rolled', I took a spin.

Given my BR I decided to stay out of trouble preflop, try to get to rivers cheaply and just push a three quarter in my favour but it didn't turn out like that. One idiot at the table kept stacking people luckily and then every time he lost a pot he'd shove next hand. Well, he lost a pot and shoved next hand which forced me into this good but very scary call. Nearly folded but decided it was pointless me sitting at the table if I was going to fold an edge so I shipped them in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2713553

His hand just does not deserve half of that pot! Cardplayer has me at 65% expectation pre vs his hand but not a very interesting stat given that he could have had anything (don't know how to find out how good my hand is vs a random hand - would be a very useful programme for NL). I left after that hand as there's just no point in gambling my BR away but fully rolled that game would be brilliant.

Well, that was all yesterday and today I started off with another 200 hands of 2c/5c but again I found the 10c/25c games far too tempting. I 'sit out next blind'-ed the 2c/5c tables and put myself on the waiting list for four PL $25 tables (none of this dangerous NL business for the time being).

I'm just a beginner at omaha hl and so I can't say for certain, but the standard at these tables felt okay. The average pot sizes are generally pretty low, as is the players per flop percentage.

There have been times over the last two days where the 2c/5c table I was playing had a larger average pot than some of the 10c/25c tables I was watching. This is partly because I was on them but it does also demonstrate how much tighter these $25 players are.

I played 500 hands of PL $25 and ran pretty well, I felt very comfortable at the tables though which will no doubt tempt me back.

So, a quick summary, in the last two days I have played about 2000 hands of 2c/5c and 500 hands of 10c/25c for a $115 profit (felt like I ran above expectation in both games though).

This brings my total Omaha high low profit to $254.33 for the last seven days. Let's hope it continues...

Next...

I played 955 hands overnight which finally brings to an end this thoroughly pointless, I mean, enjoyable mission.

Session stats:
Hands... 955
Profit... $23.62
Rate... 124bb/100 hands

I ran pretty well with both cards and opponents tonight (some absolute cretins knocking about), it was hilarious.

So my overall stats:


TOTAL HANDS PLAYED... 10,000
OVERALL PROFIT... $139.05
WIN RATE... 70 BIG BLINDS/100 HANDS


Not bad I guess for a fun little challenge where I wasn't sure whether I'd even make a profit or not (now that would have been embarrassing). 10k hands took a lot longer than I thought though, I honestly thought I'd be done in a couple of days but even 8-tabling as I was at times it took nearly a week. Ridiculous use of time.

If you enjoy poker and have never tried Omaha h/l I really would recommend it. I don't think I've played a less stressful week of poker in my life. But I guess, as always, the stress comes at the higher levels.

Must stop getting 'Phoenixed'

Downloaded the fuck out of Stand By Me (1986) the other night and watched it for the first ever time this morning. Really enjoyed it, despite having to wait until the end credits to hear the song! Was really impressed with one of the boy’s performance in particular and I privately tipped him to be a star of the future/present. I didn’t recognise him so I Wikipediaed the lad only to find that it was River Phoenix who died of an overdose five years later. Great tip, Nathan!

Was due in to work at the NEC at 5.30pm today but I waited for a bus for 45 minutes which then sat in the rush hour traffic for another 30 so, not atypically, I turned in late - got there some time after 6pm. By then they had someone else in to do the shift so the fuckers sent me packing.

It was only a four hour shift but it still pissed me off a little and I didn’t want the four-bus round trip to be a total waste of my time (unlike the 9k+ hands of 1c/2c Omaha I’ve played in the last four days!). So, with zero dosh in my pockets, I decided to use my charm and my agency ID card (preferably just the card) to find me some free fun at the NEC.

First stop, canteen. As I entered, the first thing that hit me was the noise. The place was full of the public, ‘Must be a concert on, I wonder which one...’ I looked around for clues. It was busy, full of smiley, laughy teenage girls most of whom were accompanied by, and were desperately trying the hide the embarrassment of, their doubly excited mothers. ‘… Ah, Westlife!’

As temporary staff working a full day at the NEC we sometimes get a hot meal for our troubles but we usually get pointed towards the huge pile of sandwiches labelled ‘dry’ which are lovingly tossed aside for us slaves. So for the short four hour shift I had been shipped in for today I wouldn’t have expected even a ten minute drinks break. So, literally five minutes after being effectively sacked before even starting a four hour shift, I naturally felt a little cheeky as I impatiently stood in line for a free public-worthy hot meal.

My conscience had its doubts as I stood in and amongst the honest, money-paying customers and considered backing out, but as I shuffled closer and closer to the food I could see it, I could smell it, I could almost taste it and then my brain finally understood what my stomach had been rumbling on about. The beauty of it was that I had no money on me and so there was zero danger of me crumbling to guilt at the tills and just handing out dosh to save any possible trouble. I literally had nothing to lose so marched on, tray in hand, towards what was quickly becoming dinner time.

I had fish and chips with peas, a side salad, two bread rolls with butter, a healthy (well, deadly…) slice of chocolate gateaux, a diet coke and a coffee. The animal rush of excitement that the sight of, and the smell of and the thought of eating this wonderfully overflowing tray of food had created, easily out powered the weak, human guilt and worriment of moments earlier. And so there was no holding back when it came to till-time and the much anticipated portrayal of a full-time hard-working NEC grafter taking a quick ‘fifteen minutes’ out of his long busy day to grobble down some grub before rushing back to the grind.

I finally reached a very miserable looking till-woman and decided to only show my agency card if I really needed to. My natural wit and charm will win her over, I thought. ‘So…, do you enjoy being a… till-woman here?’ Shit, I panicked. She looked up, bemused, ‘I’m a fucking cashier. And no.’ I quickly pulled out my card and she waved me along in silence. Always go for the card first for fuck’s sake. One must speak only as a last resort.

Finished the food which was amazing (usually is when it’s free - bargain). So, not a wasted trip after all, £11.50 worth of food for a £3 bus ticket. But then I got greedy...

People started heading towards the seating area. Clearly the show was about to start and now I wanted to see it. Well, the food was a piece of piss, how hard could it be to smuggle myself into a Westlife concert? I took a quick look and the security looked worryingly tight. And muscley. They were looking at everybody’s ticket on the way through but fuck it, I've got a magic agency card and not to mention my charm to fall back on…

I walked up to one of the giants guarding the entrance and proudly (and silently) whipped out my card. He looked at me and all I could nervously manage was ‘catering staff’. He laughed, ‘no mate!’, and went onto check the next ticket as I swiftly headed towards the bus station. And home.

So no Westlife for me then but I can’t really complain, I had a good run. And I’m back working there tomorrow as well so I'll have another go. Just hope that same ticket-checker isn’t there. Or the till-woman. Or Westlife.

So, to sum up, good day. No work but free grub. (Actually I could have just said that to start with and spared everyone the details, but oh well, if you've read it all, fair play).



Played another poor session last night which leaves me with the miserable figures of:

Hands… 9045
Profit… $115.43
WR… 64/100

Seem to have tailed off a bit in the last 5k hands but as always I have no idea what I’m doing differently. May actually plot a graph of my progress if I can remember how to use Excel (is that where graphs are made?). I know the general shape will be upwards but it’ll tail off miserably into the shape of a sideways frown towards the end instead of the planned and expected smile.

I need to win $84.57 in the remaining 955 hands at a rate of 9c per hand! It’s impossible but as a disappointed friend of mine told me on MSN, ‘impossibility is no excuse for failure’. He’s right and I’m ashamed.

I’ll do a rundown of every 100 hands from now until the end just in case I get anywhere near.

Not quite sure what to do once this experiment is over. Guess I should probably start living again at some point. Or maybe I could try the same thing with Hold’em and compare the profits made/losses lost and experiences had/hadn’t.

At current rate I’ll have made about $130 in a 10k hand week. Nothing to write home about (well, nothing to even blog about really) but if I could put in a couple of thousand hands a week every week just playing whenever I’ve got a spare minute it could soon add up at the end of the year. And if I did that every year until I’m eighty it could work out to be a nice little pension of a couple of hundred quid or so.

Anyway, can’t be arsed to write any more, I’ll let you know what happens (if anyone’s still reading).

I'm no better than them

Got to episode 5 of Frasier before cutting the first session of the day short after just 465 hands. Played terribly and got stacked for the first time in over 5000 hands... and then for the second time. And then the third. One of them was a bit of a cooler, flopped house vs flopped quads. Knew he had me on the turn but by then I had a cheeky low draw so was forced to call for my 57 low! Was live but missed.

Made a nice fold a bit later on though which cheered me up a little. I had 77JJ in the bb, flop AA7, I bet and found a reraiser. A7xx is unlikely but possible and something like A24Q gives him a monster to be fair, so out of position I just let him have it. He showed A237 the sicko! Obviously no one at the table could understand my fold, and even after an explaination some of them still couldn't see the obvious precariousnessness of sevens full with no low draw there. (35% expectation against A24Q for example.) Never thought check-folding a flopped house might be the right thing to do...

Got stacked again with A234 on a dream 442 flop vs A4QQ. Turn blank, river Q gave him the scoop but, anyway, enough of the bad beats...

Lost over $6 in those 465 hands which was another big blow:

Total hands... 5986
Overall profit... $89.27
WR... 75/100
Flops seen... 39%

Had some food, potatoes and peas (it's all I had in the house) which was horrible and tried to watch Vicar of Dibley on BBC one. It was shit so decided to get back to the Omaha. With Blades Of Glory on repeat in Media Player I started my longest session to date.

I played pretty poorly again, couldn't seem to make a fold.

[Everyone can and does bet the pot with the nut high in this game and so the winners come from the group of people who make the right folds. The most important example of this is being able to fold the nut low in multi-way pots when you're dead for the high. Similarly, drawing to the low with no high draw in multi-way pots is not good.

There aren't a great many crying calls going on to be honest, not on the river anyway (it's usually pretty easy to spot the nut high) but players lose a lot of money because of their inability to fold the bare low at any stage of the hand and especially for a big bet on the river.]

For the reason above I have found myself folding the nut low a hell of a lot, sometimes even check folding the nut low on a flop if my hand has no high prospects. Basically, if there's a chance I'm getting three-quartered I'll get out. (most of) My opponents at this level do not get away when I'm three-quartering them which is what makes me the winner!

Unfortunately, today I couldn't seem to get away. I got three-quartered a number of times when I really should have been out on the flop. It's stupid really because theoretically I only break even if I make exactly the same calls as the others. (I actually think I make better checks and bets than them as well so I'll still win, just not as much!)

Played 1845 hands and made a relatively small profit for such a ridiculously long session of poker.

Total hands... 7831
Overall profit... $100.63
WR... 64/100
Flops seen... 41%

$200 profit after 10k hands is very unlikely after that session, guess I'll do well to make $150 now but never mind, there's always the next 10k hands!!

Notice the 41% there. Loosening up my range only made for some very difficult decisions post flop. Got excited by flopping some nut straights on lowwy and flushy flops which are just not that good. Will go back to playing as I was but hopefully, this time, with the addition of the 'fold' button.

Peace.

Setback

Real hungry and proper tired after a long and painful 1k+ hand session. Was forced to fold a lot of rivers early doors and could only break even over the first 500 hands. This sent me stumbling over the halfway mark of 5k hands showing a profit of only $85, $15 short of target. The next 500 hands were a bit better but I still couldn't bring myself back on target. I didn't run particularly well this session and feel I was lucky to show any kind of profit at the end of it.

Total hands played... 5521
Overall profit... $95.33
Win rate... 86 bb/100

Still about $15 short but I'm sure I can pull it back with a good run. Interestingly (well, vaguely...), I saw exactly 37% of flops again. I have played twelve spells of poker in this experiment and in two thirds of them I have seen 37 or 38% of flops. I guess this is the magic number at full ring 1c/2c plo h/l, though I wonder how drastically different the profit would be were I playing 3% looser/tighter... Perhaps 37% is the peak of EV pre flop at these tables. Fuck knows.

Anyway, I think I'm doing okay despite not once hitting my 100/100 target. I'll stick with it and try and find a way to squeeze out that extra little bit of EV. Most of my opponents' post flop play is so poor I'd probably choose to widen my pre flop range before I tightened it. That's something I'll think about and probably gradually introduce.

Some kind of Omaha pokertracker software would be unbelievably helpful here as well. There are still some preflop hands I have questions about but there is a danger that knowing the answers would make the game a bit too mechanical and dull and, dare I say, easy (at this level anyway).

To be fair, in these games, common sense post flop is infinitely more important than pre flop hand selection. I'd say that any player with a bit of brains about them could show a profit playing 100% of hands. (Hello, next experiment sorted!)

Dangerous Minds was the background media for this session. I watched it three and a half times and loved every minute. It failed to produce the results though so I guess it'll have to take a seat on the bench next to Elvis and Inertia Creeps for the time being.

Tomorrow we'll see how Season six of Frasier fares.