It's been awhile since I've updated, but not much has changed. I still haven't tested for PTQs even though they start next weekend, but I've played some limited with Conflux and a decent amount of poker.
I went to the Conflux prerelease and went 2-2. My rares weren't that great, and neither was my manafixing. I had a Sigil of Distinction, but my other rares were pretty unspectacular. A couple of nights later we did a six-man 3v3 team draft, just playing for the rares. We only had enough packs to do SCC, so that's what we did. I firstpicked Resounding Thunder, got passed a Jungle Shrine, Wild Nacatl, then another Jungle Shrine and wound up the pack with some other animals, Resounding Roar, and Esper and Jund Panoramas. I was planning on being straight Naya going into Conflux, but there aren't really enough animals to make that worthwhile, especially with the manafixing. Instead I ended up 5c Naya-based with 4 (!) Matca Rioters and 2 Paragon of the Amesha, plus Fiery Fall, Exploding Borders, and a Charnelhoard Wurm to top it off. I only had one maindeck two-drop creature to go with 2 Kaleidostones, but that was fine since my 3-drops were so good.
The games were pretty uneventful and I 3-0, 6-0ed the draft. Having your Matca Rioters and Charnelhoard Wurm given first strike via Rakeclaw Gargantuan is pretty unfair. The four nonbasics I picked up early allowed me to play one of each basic land and still have really good mana.
On the poker front it's been a wild week. After I requested my weekly paycheck last Friday (the 6th) I decided to try to have a big week and put in quite a few hours over the weekend. Unfortunately I played pretty badly and ran worse and ended up stuck a couple hundred bucks. I tend to exercise avoidance to adverse situations, so I didn't put in many hours Monday through Thursday, and the hours I did put in were scattered about cash games and tournaments, which didn't bear much fruit. Fast forward to yesterday and I'm stuck about $500 for the week and planning ways to mise for the next couple of weeks until I can make back enough to pay myself. I enter a round of 4 Sit-N-Gos and things go fairly well, so I decide to try a handful of MTTs again. Four hours later I'm at the final table of the $26-buyin $12.5k guaranteed with 60% of the chips in play. Depressingly enough, I went for the win instead of trying to just move up to second (which would have been very easy) and ended up busting out in 4th, good for $1300. It sucks to run so hot and get so close to winning a big one and fall short. For the record, 1st would have been $3600 and 2nd was $2300. When you take a step back though, it's a lot of money to me right now and I really needed it.
Strategically, I didn't really do anything differently than I usually do. I just tried to play tight when my table was active and capitalize when I thought I had a good seat to steal blinds. I won a big coinflip with AJo vs A8o vs TT after we were in the money which sent me up to 2nd in chips, and I was able to bully the table and run hot in coinflips to stay in 2nd for the final table. Once there I turned a straight against the other chipleader and took the massive chiplead. I think my downfall included me getting bluffed out of a big pot, but I'll never know.
I'm back to playing a bunch of MTTs today. Seems like a solid plan for the time being. Wish me luck.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
E is for Effort
So my weekend was pretty much what I hoped it would be. I even had a hand in celebrating my best friend's 21st birthday. I'm just going through life day by day right now, trying to play enough hours to stay ahead of the bills while enjoying the days as they go by. I even worked out yesterday, and will probably continue to do that off and on in hopes of losing a little weight/becoming healthier.
On the poker front, I'm still playing 25NL, because in the short stint I played in 50NL I wasn't making as much per hour in that game. I'm sure I'll continue to dabble in 50NL once every week or two, because eventually I'm sure it will be profitable to move up, TT and because I'm already adequately bankrolled for it.
TT overpair hand
I think I got confused on this hand because the first preflop raise was a minraised. Normally in a 3bet pot you're free to stack off with an overpair if you think you started with the best hand because your 3bet has made it unprofitable for your opponents to setmine against you. If they flop a set every once in awhile it's fine, because enough of the money is going in preflop that it isn't profitable for them to continue to setmine in that situation (assuming <~110 BB stacks). However, in this situation not enough of the money went in preflop for me to stack off with a weak overpair, even though I didn't think he could have JJ+. PokerStove tells me that I can't stack off if he can only have QhJh+ or a set, but that I can stack off if he'll stack off with 88 or 99. I think my play is fine but I might bounce it around some forums.
On the poker front, I'm still playing 25NL, because in the short stint I played in 50NL I wasn't making as much per hour in that game. I'm sure I'll continue to dabble in 50NL once every week or two, because eventually I'm sure it will be profitable to move up, TT and because I'm already adequately bankrolled for it.
TT overpair hand
I think I got confused on this hand because the first preflop raise was a minraised. Normally in a 3bet pot you're free to stack off with an overpair if you think you started with the best hand because your 3bet has made it unprofitable for your opponents to setmine against you. If they flop a set every once in awhile it's fine, because enough of the money is going in preflop that it isn't profitable for them to continue to setmine in that situation (assuming <~110 BB stacks). However, in this situation not enough of the money went in preflop for me to stack off with a weak overpair, even though I didn't think he could have JJ+. PokerStove tells me that I can't stack off if he can only have QhJh+ or a set, but that I can stack off if he'll stack off with 88 or 99. I think my play is fine but I might bounce it around some forums.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Blowout Potential
Man oh man, the last couple of days have been insane.
At some point, something clicked and I started playing better than I have in a long time, possibly ever. On Tuesday I followed some maniacs around and let them spew their money off to me for hours on end. This led to probably the most profitable day I have ever had in the cash games. On Wednesday I played a bunch more, and although the games weren't quite as soft I still made an insane hourly clip. Over those two days (plus this morning's insomniac session) I more than doubled my bankroll. Feast your eyes:
Obviously when I'm having this much success I'm more than happy to play for hours on end. That graph is from over 21 hours of play, times 4.05 tables on average. Anyway, suffice to say I'm pretty ecstatic about this and am going to be looking to put a ton of hours in so I can actually start spending this money.
In other news, I have a pretty sweet weekend planned. One of my female friends from high school is in town and we're going to dinner on Saturday, then I'm TOing the Conflux prerelease on Sunday at TU. After the prerelease hopefully finding at least 5 more people to draft the new set while watching the Super Bowl on the projector. Should be fun.
Hands to go out on:
DEUCES.
-Ben
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Help legalize online poker
Vote for this:
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=087800000004m5M
It's part of the system Obama is using on his site to rank issues and gauge what is important to Americans. Let him know you want online poker to be legalized and regulated.
By the way, the whole change.gov site is pretty tight. I'm glad this administration appears to be aware that technology exists and can be a useful tool for government
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=087800000004m5M
It's part of the system Obama is using on his site to rank issues and gauge what is important to Americans. Let him know you want online poker to be legalized and regulated.
By the way, the whole change.gov site is pretty tight. I'm glad this administration appears to be aware that technology exists and can be a useful tool for government
Last night my teeth fell out like ivory typewriter keys
This weather sucks. Snow and ice make important things hard to do. Luckily, I don't have many responsibilities but do have a space heater which comes in clutch this time of year.
I played several hours yesterday and deep into the morning (5ish) but it wasn't a really focused, hardcore, grind-it-out session. I started off playing some cash games, but much LAGgier than usual. Overall yesterday I ran 22/17 over 2678 hands, which is a bit looser than my usual 19/15, but I think it's an upgrade. The added looseness and agression allowed me to confidently make some calls in big pots with hands I would otherwise not have had the courage to call with. I ran bad for awhile and lost two pots for full stacks with KK and then AA after getting it in on the flop against unimproved A5s (runner-runner wheel) and 22 (runner-runner straight again).
I've noticed that after I get unlucky in a big pot or two, not matter how much I force myself to smile or ignore it, I almost always lose money for the next 30 minutes. I'm not sure if it's my table image, undiagnosed tilt, or just superstition/coincidence, but about 30 minutes after those big pots I decided to stop and donk off some money in a couple of the guaranteed MTTs. I used to do well in MTTs, but I haven't played them much lately and honestly didn't expect much this time. I lost 1/3 of my stack in the first one in a pot I shouldn't have gotten involved in, then lost the rest with AKo vs JJ all-in preflop. In the second tournament things were going pretty well, but then this hand happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3776139
The river was a definite "just call." Even after I raise, I should just throw the hand away rather than call off the last of my chips to his 3bet, since basically I'm never ahead and he's never bluffing. 20BB isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I'm not really sure if I should have reraised preflop, but I didn't want to have to stick over 40BB in preflop, he was 1st in chips at the table and I was 3rd, and he raised from early position, so I think it's fine.
After busting out of those two tournaments I watched some videos on PokerTube, and eventually opened up four more tables. One of the videos I watched was an episode of "I Bet You," Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari's reality show where they bet on anything and everything. In this show they bet on who would be a better Love Line host, who could train a mouse to run through a maze the fastest (w/Shannon Elizabeth), who could carve the best ice sculpture (also w/SE), who could pick the best Roshambo ringer off the street to play Annie Duke, and more. It moved along pretty well. If you like Phil and Antonio, or just degenerate gambling, you'll enjoy the show.
Anyway, for the rest of my pokering I played fewer tables than normal, and tried to table select and concentrate a little more than I normally do; any at all would be an improvement. Most of the time when I play online I'm playing enough tables that I don't pick up reads beyond the pots I play and the stats my HUD tells me. In addition I often get bored and check email or Youtube or mess with Media Player or whatever. Last night I found that playing fewer tables doesn't decrease my hourly rate by much, if at all. I'm still experimenting and trying to find that sweet spot of profitability.
Some hands:
Flop a set vs top pair, villain turns two pair
Sweet revenge on the guy that cracked my KK+AA
Sometimes people spew when you 3bet a lot
More of the same
In the end I made back what I lost in the early cash games and tournaments plus about a buyin and a half, and tinkered with a lot of different ideas. Not a bad night.
I played several hours yesterday and deep into the morning (5ish) but it wasn't a really focused, hardcore, grind-it-out session. I started off playing some cash games, but much LAGgier than usual. Overall yesterday I ran 22/17 over 2678 hands, which is a bit looser than my usual 19/15, but I think it's an upgrade. The added looseness and agression allowed me to confidently make some calls in big pots with hands I would otherwise not have had the courage to call with. I ran bad for awhile and lost two pots for full stacks with KK and then AA after getting it in on the flop against unimproved A5s (runner-runner wheel) and 22 (runner-runner straight again).
I've noticed that after I get unlucky in a big pot or two, not matter how much I force myself to smile or ignore it, I almost always lose money for the next 30 minutes. I'm not sure if it's my table image, undiagnosed tilt, or just superstition/coincidence, but about 30 minutes after those big pots I decided to stop and donk off some money in a couple of the guaranteed MTTs. I used to do well in MTTs, but I haven't played them much lately and honestly didn't expect much this time. I lost 1/3 of my stack in the first one in a pot I shouldn't have gotten involved in, then lost the rest with AKo vs JJ all-in preflop. In the second tournament things were going pretty well, but then this hand happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3776139
The river was a definite "just call." Even after I raise, I should just throw the hand away rather than call off the last of my chips to his 3bet, since basically I'm never ahead and he's never bluffing. 20BB isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I'm not really sure if I should have reraised preflop, but I didn't want to have to stick over 40BB in preflop, he was 1st in chips at the table and I was 3rd, and he raised from early position, so I think it's fine.
After busting out of those two tournaments I watched some videos on PokerTube, and eventually opened up four more tables. One of the videos I watched was an episode of "I Bet You," Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari's reality show where they bet on anything and everything. In this show they bet on who would be a better Love Line host, who could train a mouse to run through a maze the fastest (w/Shannon Elizabeth), who could carve the best ice sculpture (also w/SE), who could pick the best Roshambo ringer off the street to play Annie Duke, and more. It moved along pretty well. If you like Phil and Antonio, or just degenerate gambling, you'll enjoy the show.
Anyway, for the rest of my pokering I played fewer tables than normal, and tried to table select and concentrate a little more than I normally do; any at all would be an improvement. Most of the time when I play online I'm playing enough tables that I don't pick up reads beyond the pots I play and the stats my HUD tells me. In addition I often get bored and check email or Youtube or mess with Media Player or whatever. Last night I found that playing fewer tables doesn't decrease my hourly rate by much, if at all. I'm still experimenting and trying to find that sweet spot of profitability.
Some hands:
Flop a set vs top pair, villain turns two pair
Sweet revenge on the guy that cracked my KK+AA
Sometimes people spew when you 3bet a lot
More of the same
In the end I made back what I lost in the early cash games and tournaments plus about a buyin and a half, and tinkered with a lot of different ideas. Not a bad night.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Weekend Update
This weekend was pretty tight. Went to FNM Friday and 4-0ed with Chapin's 5-color control. Deck was pretty tight. I just played the original maindeck with a Counsel of the Soratami over Courier's Capsule, though I think Courier's Capsule might be right now. The sideboard I ended up liking was:
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Firespout
2 Cloudthresher
1 Broodmate Dragon
3 Condemn
The Oblivion Rings were pretty nice against B/W tokens since they handle Bitterblossoms and Planeswalkers. Everything else is fairly standard.
Saturday I went to another random Standard tournament and won 3 more matches. Came home, played some poker, then logged onto AIM. Got an IM from a screenname I didn't know. Turned out it was Matt Hansen, a very good Magic player who I met at Nationals. I had heard that he quit Magic for poker. We got to talking and realized we are at about the same place as poker players, so we had some nice chats about hands and more. As feared as Matt was as a Magic player, it's exciting to have him on my side at the poker table.
Had a lazy Sunday, hung out with friends for awhile and found out about a new card game called Epic, which is set to have prereleases February 21 and 22, and release in stores March 1. We downloaded the free starters and played some games. It's deceptively simple, and was developed by Frank Karsten, Darwin Kastle, and Rob Dougherty, among others.
In a nutshell, here's how it works. First off, it's very simple to Magic. There are dudes ("champions"), counterspells/Stifles ("Stop" cards), action card that destroy other cards, and many keywords that have Magic equivalents. There are a couple of main differences: resource system and win condition. Instead of using lands or permanent incremental resources, you get one "action point" per turn, and every card costs either one or zero action points. This creates interesting situations and makes counterwars basically impossible. There are two main win conditions: taking your opponent from 30 to 0 or decking yourself. All the games I played with the starter decks were won on life though.
Another exciting thing about this game is that it has already been announced that there will be $5k tournaments for it, simliar to the Star City $5ks for Magic.
For more information, go to epictcg.com.
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Firespout
2 Cloudthresher
1 Broodmate Dragon
3 Condemn
The Oblivion Rings were pretty nice against B/W tokens since they handle Bitterblossoms and Planeswalkers. Everything else is fairly standard.
Saturday I went to another random Standard tournament and won 3 more matches. Came home, played some poker, then logged onto AIM. Got an IM from a screenname I didn't know. Turned out it was Matt Hansen, a very good Magic player who I met at Nationals. I had heard that he quit Magic for poker. We got to talking and realized we are at about the same place as poker players, so we had some nice chats about hands and more. As feared as Matt was as a Magic player, it's exciting to have him on my side at the poker table.
Had a lazy Sunday, hung out with friends for awhile and found out about a new card game called Epic, which is set to have prereleases February 21 and 22, and release in stores March 1. We downloaded the free starters and played some games. It's deceptively simple, and was developed by Frank Karsten, Darwin Kastle, and Rob Dougherty, among others.
In a nutshell, here's how it works. First off, it's very simple to Magic. There are dudes ("champions"), counterspells/Stifles ("Stop" cards), action card that destroy other cards, and many keywords that have Magic equivalents. There are a couple of main differences: resource system and win condition. Instead of using lands or permanent incremental resources, you get one "action point" per turn, and every card costs either one or zero action points. This creates interesting situations and makes counterwars basically impossible. There are two main win conditions: taking your opponent from 30 to 0 or decking yourself. All the games I played with the starter decks were won on life though.
Another exciting thing about this game is that it has already been announced that there will be $5k tournaments for it, simliar to the Star City $5ks for Magic.
For more information, go to epictcg.com.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thanks That Was Fun
So, a running theme of this blog will probably be me bitching about variance in poker, whether I like it or not. I'll try to keep it to a minumum. The above graph is of 6,768 hands I played in a roughly 27 hour span starting at midnight Thursday. Nice little tilt-fueled rollercoaster. When I hit the lowest point I went and slept for a couple of hours, came back and rallied. Should be able to move up tomorrow or the day after if I don't tilt. Some hands:
I river the nuts and my deepstacked opponent shoves into me
Quads get paid off
Nice turn card
Might have gotten a little out of line preflop
As far as Magic goes, I need to play some games of Extended at some point. I think old Death Cloud decks will probably be replaced by more aggressive brews like Michael Jacob's, but we'll see. If TEPS becomes a mainstay it may be time to dust off your Elves. I'm interested to see what people will do with the new stuff out of Conflux, but it seems like there's a lot of ridiculously overpriced (manawise) cards again. First they make smaller sets, now this? Forecast: cracking packs will be an even worse idea.
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