Decided to play yesterday ...

I was one day from reaching the "gold" iron man status on full tilt, so I decided to play a bit yesterday. Hopefully, this is the start of a new upswing. I won back all of Monday's losses plus a lot more, winning several buyins for the day over about 600 hands.

I think I played well, but the things that were going wrong in the past all went right. When I choose to reraise a guy who raised every button in heads up with J4s as a resteal, the flop was 974 and I turned a jack for two pair. On top of that, the guy decided to get frisky on the turn with AQ. I flopped trips or sets and got paid off several times and won an all in coinflip with Q3 suited vs. AJ on a J73 board when I had the flsuhd draw.

I actually played 1/2 NL full ring but dropped to $0.5/$1.00 NL HU cash. I figured heads up was too swingy to play 1/2 NL HU. I discovered there is a MASSIVE difference in player quality at 1/2 NL HU vs. $0.5/$1.00 NL HU. The main thing, I think, is there are so many more regulars at 1/2 NL HU it is tough to find the fish. I didn't have that problem at the $1 big blind games. I hope that is a sign of things to come - as I may play that a bit more.

E

Cash Game Downswing

I think I can officially call myself in a downswing. After losing a 2.5 more buyins at 2/4 NL I dropped down to 1/2 NL where last night I another 2.5 buyins. Combining that with the previous week, and I am in a 10+ buyin downswing in cash games. This is probably my biggest cash game downswing in terms of buyins in over a year.

Why the downswing?

1. I think part of it is a leak I discovered. At 2/4, at least, I have lost several big pots calling big bets with good but not great hands. I am working on putting in a raise earlier to define my hand, or simply being willing to give up a hand out-of-position. This probably accounts for 2-3 of the buyins.

2. Bluffs being caught more often than normal. It just seems that I don't bluff often, but when I do I happen to get caught. I will pull a bluff in a situation where a player can only call me with 20% of his range, and he has that 20%. That is a bit of bad luck.

3. Horrible outdraws. Last night I had AA lose to 54s when he turned a flush. I had reraised PF and he called, then potted the flop and he called so the pot was about 150 with about 140 left when he hit. I also had a redraw to the nut flush, but did not hit. KJ all in vs. TT on the turn of a QJ9x board and river is an 8, etc., etc. I don't like telling bad beat stories - this is just an explanation.

I will take a couple days off, then perhaps play again Thursday.

The good news - my bankroll is big enough to handle it, although I am dropping to 1/2 NL until I get out of this rut. Also, I have been doing great with satellite tourneys and the number stars T$ and W$ in my possession (over $480 and $600, respectively) and UB T$ (about $750, I think) are all from recent wins and have countered most of this downswing. Now I just need to turn those into tourney wins!

2/4 NL

The good news - I am now very confident I can beat the game at either Cake Poker or Full Tilt Poker.

The bad news - I have lost about 2 buyins this week. That being said, 4 hands have really hurt:

1. AA vs. KK all in pre-flop, KK outdraws.
2. KK vs. AA - all in on blank flop. He wins
3. KK vs. QJ when we get short stack to commit 80 of 240 stack pre-flop. Lose when JJ3 flops.
4. Three barrell bluff called by good player - he called me down with T8s on a T high board. He made a good play/good read.

If I win one of those, I am about even, if I win two, I am ahead. If I win 3, I am up a couple buyins.

That being said, there were two hands where I lost a lot by calling down too loosely - so I could have done better. But overall, I am very confident right now that I can be a winner at the 2/4 NL games. I think I will be making that my new home.

Jekyll and Hyde Weekend

The Jekyll was my performance in tourneys and satellites – the Hyde was cash games.

I finished down 2.5 buyins – most from 2 hands this afternoon. The first when I got all in with a set versus a flush draw and gutshot and he hit the gutshot, the 2nd when against the same guy I got all in with a pair and nut flush draw vs. his straight. Just bad luck to not win one of those. I had one or two questionable plays yesterday but also some bad luck to keep me even for yesterday at cash games. I also lost about 5 buyins at HU SNGs, once again it just seemed like nothing was breaking my way. Before this weekend, I had been in a mini-downswing on cash games – probably down 3.5 buyins prior to this weekend – making it a 6 buyin downswing over the course of the week or so. Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary. But, I had been running so well that it seems odd to be having a rough week.

As bad as this weekend has been for cash games and HU SNGs – it was good for tourneys and satellites. Saturday morning I played a few satellites, one of them being the $20 turbo/rebuy for an 800 EPT seat on stars. I won that and cash out the 800 W$. This will give me a good start at making my run for the WSOP. Today (Sunday) I won a seat to the Sunday million (which I cashed for T$) and also a $530 seat to the UPC on UB – which I cashed for T$. So overall, counting T$ and W$, it has been a profitable weekend. I made a run in the pokerstars 50K freerole for supernova players (cashing an entry I won over the weekend). I finished 27th. I was disappointed in my bustout, as I was slightly above average, and had a blind-steals gone bad with 64s and T9 (vs. AK and QQ short-stacks), and busted when my K7 lost to AJ after spiking a K but having him hit a river-ace. I won $175 there, but would have loved to have made a run at the final table where top price was 9.4K. I think I played those last hands right, however, and I am definitely glad I played aggressive trying to accumulate chips when I thought I was making +EV plays.

With classes starting again last week – my time to play decreases. I don’t teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, however, so I hope to play some tourneys – mainly on Wednesdays, Fridays and over the weekend.

Great Post on 2+2 and a couple random thoughts

It takes a lot of time, but Phil Galfond answers lots of questions on this post on 2+2. To save time, just look for every post from Jman - he usually posts the question he is answering before he replies. There are some great NL tidbits in here.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/printthread.php?t=88525&pp=100




A couple random thoughts:

Different sites and difficulty of players

I had always thought players at pokerstars were a bit tougher than full tilt poker or elsewhere. A discussion at ITH has made the reason for this obvious. Those who 12-table full time earn so many FPPs on stars that they can become supernova elite. With that, they earn approximately 50% rakeback based on the bonuses and other items they can cash in their FPPs for, and Pokerstars buys their way into two free 10K tourneys. This is pretty tough to beat. For a part-time player, pokerstars is not as ideal for me - since I spread out my play enough I won't even reach the regular "supernova" level.

Full Tilt Poker still has some 8-12 tablers playing, but not as many. This means more spots on the tables are filled by your average player or by a complete fish. That makes for slightly easier games.


A few observations about the 12-tablers at $1, $2, or $4 big-blind no-limit holdem.

They are beatable - but not for a huge margin. They will likely not adjust to you since they don't have the time to pay attention. They will know your PT stats though.

The tighter ones don't raise lightly, especially in EP.

Good 12-tablers (who still can only be average overall, since they can't adjust to how you are exploiting them) are generally good about controlling pot size with marginal hands. If there is an EP/MP raiser and they call with AQ suited - they will generally not raise on a Q high flop nor bet/raise the turn. Likewise, some will slow down with AA. They could go bust with it - but won't usually be the one pushing the action.

You can pick on their blinds more loosely than a fish. Just don't get too crazy - they might catch on to you.

Woot - a Royal Flush!



PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (9 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

SB ($569.70)
BB ($858.30)
UTG ($264.25)
Hero ($110)
MP1 ($384.20)
MP2 ($449.05)
MP3 ($62)
CO ($400)
Button ($648.60)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with As, Ks.
UTG raises to $12, UTGB raises to $44, 7 folds, UTG calls $32.

Flop: ($94) Ts, Qs, Kd (2 players)
UTG checks, UTGB bets $66 (All-In), UTG calls $66.

Turn: ($0) 8s (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($0) Js (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $226

Results in white below:
UTG has Qc Qd.
Hero has As Ks (straight flush, ace high).
Outcome: Hero wins $226.

2008 Poker Goals

I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve and New Years Day. Watching some football, I figured I would jot out some of my goals for 2008.

1. Continue to make some side-money for my family. I would love to make enough to finish our basement and fully-fund my roth IRA and my wife's roth and conventional IRA. (I know - saving for retirement - pretty exciting thing to do with poker winnings.)

2. Play a few more tourneys. Related to this, I would love to play a major live tourney or two, but I am not sure when/where I will get the opportunity. I am sure I will play a few WSOP ME satellites, and if I make it I will just figure out how to work out the timing.

3. Work my way up to 5/10 NL holdem.

I will do this short-stacked, at least initially. I am already playing 2/4 and 3/6 short-stacked in 6-max and full ring games and enjoying good results. I hope to keep this up and keep moving up limits as long as my profits keep going up.

4. Begin Poker-Coaching.

I hope to have a post about this posted soon - but soon I will be offering poker coaching. I have done some already, and I have found it rewarding on a number of levels. First, I enjoy teaching (it is what I do for my career). I have enjoyed teaching the players I have coached as they have enjoyed success. Second, having to articulate ideas for someone else can helps me better understand various concepts. Research has shown that people learn best by doing or instructing others - and I think poker is no different.

Review of 2007 goals and how I fared


1. Continue to provide a nice supplemental income for my family.
I was successful in this goal. The only bad part is now occuring - taxes.

2. Continue with NL cash games.
I was successful in this game. I have dramatically improved my NL cash game play throughout the year. This is my bread-and-butter game, and I am in the process of moving up to 2/4 and 3/6 NL games when shortstacking. I have even played some 5/10 NL games.

3. Play more "higher buy in" tourneys.

I failed here - A string of surgeries for my family and my son starting school contributed to me playing tourneys less than once-a-month since June.

4. Win a WSOP seat or two again, but make a deep run.

I barely tried. I did almost win a seat when I finished 4th in a WSOP $33 rebuy when my AA lost an all-in 3 way pot with 4 left. If I win that I have 60+% of chips in play - but those are the breaks.

What did I accomplish that was not a listed-goal?

Emotional control. Maybe reading the poker mindset helped. Maybe the article by Angel Largay helped where he discussed being afraid of being a losing player during a downswing. Whatever it is, I have been much better about handling the emotions that come when losses of $500-$1000 are common.

PokerElmo Offering Private Poker Lessons

I am now offering private poker lessons/coaching. I specialize in heads-up NL holdem, full ring NL holdem, and 6-max NL holdem. However, I have also made thousands of dollars in SNGs and NL holdem tourneys over the past few years playing part time and have coached players in those areas as well. I am a professor of economics and teach game theory, and this is a foundation for my teachings.

I charge $80 an hour.

My services could be valuable for several types of players:

- Break-even or losing recreational amateur players who want to lose less/win more and become happier with how they play.

- Serious amateurs who are seeking to increase their earn rates and move up limits.

- Professionals who specialize in other areas of poker who want to be able to add HU NL holdem as a profitable game.


Why me and not someone else?

While I am certainly not the right choice for everyone, there are several reasons why you might consider me for your poker-coaching needs.

* I am a teacher. I am a professor of economics at a university and my job is to teach complex topics to people with many different incoming skill levels. I have even taught a class on poker at my university.


* I am a significant winner at the areas I offer coaching. You will be getting someone who knows what they are doing.


* Those who I have coached have been impressed. One player won his seat to the WSOP main event while I was coaching him in a $640 WSOP satellite on Pokerstars. This was a friend, and I offered to coach for free. However, he was so happy/impressed with my coaching decisions that helped him win his seat that he voluntarily gave me 5% of his WSOP action.


Please email me at matt_rousu@yahoo.com if you have any questions or are interested. Or log into the forums at www.internettexasholdem.com and send a private message to Poker_Elmo.