the title really says it all. after black friday ive had plenty of time on my hands, and matt asked if id make some videos for leggo. I semireluctantly agreed for all of the reasons ive talked about before. I decided to make a 2-3 part video series, (now finished) of me playing .25/.50 6max nlhe. i decided on that game/limit just because browsing the video requests thread the majority of users come to leggo for 6max nl cash and the majority of users play stakes between .25/.50 and 3/6. looked like a good place to start.

in the comments section for this blog just holler out any video requests/ideas you want from me. i wont necessarily listen to you- there definitely is no chance of any 200/400 vids anytime soon from me- but ill take what i hear under consideration and try to make videos which are interesting to make for me and educational for as many leggo users as possible.

gl all
Ben

For those of you who don't closely monitor your apocalyptic prophecies, 2012 is said to be the end of the world, having something to do with the Mayan calendar or Nostradamus or astrology or something. Admittedly, as a cynical poker player, at first I was skeptical of these dire predictions. Make your amends fast though fellow sinners, I've found two incontrovertible signs of the end of the world, each more glaring and horrifying than the Rapture could possibly hope to be.

1. So my girlfriend is in the bathroom taking a shit this morning and I'm computerless and bookless and televisionless. Sipping my tea trying to wake up, I bleerily scramble for any reading material and find a Vogue magazine. I read the cover- Lady Gaga is releasing a new album and bright colors are in this summer. Ok, whatever. So I open the magazine, intending to find the table of contents in order to look at Lady Gaga in what I hope is going to be a fedora made out of octopi. Now, Vogue is as thick as a Bible, so I expect to have to wade through a few pages of adds in order to get to my table of contents and I have mentally prepared myself for this. I set the mental over/under on 12 pages pre-table of contents. There were fifty-four pages of adds. At which point I browse the table of contents and note that it starts on page 156. Naively, I decide that this must mean that I missed the initial page of the table of contents, as I have to confess that after the first 15 pages of adds I got a little trigger happy and skipped a few chunks of pages which were melded together and stunk of perfume. So I went back meticulously, pried the gyrating perfumed images off of each other but still could not find a table of contents. So I plunged forward after page 54 to continue the table of contents whose indexing stopped at page 273 of what was certainly a 600 page magazine and whose index did not include the heading for my Lady Gaga article- from which I concluded that the table of contents continued past page 54 on what I thought surely would be page 55. Much to my surprise, the index did not continue on page 55, Vogue decided to pleasure me with another 45 pages of adds before giving me the second page of the table of contents on page 99. Still vainly searching for my octopi fedora and taking a few sips of tea to calm my nerves I decided to take this adventure to its logical conclusion and continued to peel forward through pages of women in gold thongs and 9 inch heels peering at me seductively whilst posed spreadeagled on the back of a live tiger which was emitting a scent of artificial roses. Finally, I solved the mystery when the table of contents terminated on page 156, each page of which was separated by a 40+ page parade of adds. I hadn't missed a page afterall, there were just 156 pages of adds before any content!

2. The other day as I was walking to the streetcar stop on my way to class I spied a somewhat modest forest green Honda Pilot SUV parked by the side of the road. As I approached I noticed that carved into its side, likely with a coin, knife or small rock in foot high letters was scrawled "global warming". As I continued my walk to the streetcar I tried to reconstruct in my mind the scene and psychology which could have produced such an act. The only plausible explanation is that someone is so unbelievably angry at every car they see while walking/biking in their neighborhood that they eventually boiled over, and on this deserted street vented their righteous anger at this specific destroyer of the planet by quickly carving "global warming" as obnoxiously as possible on their Honda Pilot. I reflected also, on an incident which had occurred last winter where my own Rav-4 had been egged one night, an incident which I had chalked up to drunk people/teenagers and had not conceived of as retaliatory action against the symbol of my flagrant carbon emissions. Could it be the same Eco-Warrior? Possibly...

I don't really have the inclination right now to go on a rant against the environmental movement except to note two things. First, there appears to me to be a an almost religious dogmatism in environmentalists when they consider any act from their environmentalist viewpoint- the dogma being that any act which 'hurts' the planet is evil/immoral. I'd like to just note that as a proud holder of a developed central nervous system capable of experiencing a wide and varied spectrum of pleasures and pains as well as a cerebral cortex capable of reflecting on them, that I also am a part of this planet and to make my life better in any way I'm prepared to sacrifice a large number of, say phytoplankton or amoebae or mosquitoes or granite unless said sacrifice is disrupting the larger ecosystem of which I am a part. Secondly, these usually quite pleasant environmentally minded people seem to sometimes confuse metaphor with reality and then get mad at me for not feeling empathy towards their metaphor. The metaphor of thinking of the planet as a 'living thing' or as 'mother earth' can be a really useful metaphor when it gets us to think about the vast and varied number of complexly interconnecting systems which support life on Earth and how we should fuck with them at our peril. The metaphor fails, however, when idealistic environmentalists get angry at me for 'hurting the planet', say by emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Is emitting carbon a bad thing? Yes, obviously, we have way too many people emitting way too much carbon too quickly to support as much life as we want to support. Am I hurting a living thing, some ephemeral connection between all plants and animals with a centralized consciousness a la Fern Gully which people need to be agents of and defend? Hell no.

Played a long session against noluck17 today, as well as some 3handed with kped. It was nice to win a lot, especially since last time we played 40/80 hu noluck took me for 260k or so in 2500 hands. I think he plays pretty well to be honest, he makes up for doing a lot of exploitable things with his raw aggression. The fact that he wasn't afraid to stick it in made me have to tighten up quite a bit in spots I like to play back. Anyways, I'll post a couple cool hands and I'll also leave one in the high stakes forum since I was really confused in the hand.

Full Tilt, $40/$80 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 3 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $31,137.25
BB: $13,498.75
Hero (BTN): $16,879

Pre-Flop: Q J dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $240, SB raises to $880, BB folds, Hero calls $640

Flop: ($1,840) 7 J 2 (2 Players)
SB bets $1,280, Hero calls $1,280

Turn: ($4,400) 3 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3,122, SB raises to $28,977.25 and is All-In, Hero calls $11,597 and is All-In

River: ($33,838) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $33,838 Pot
SB showed Q Q and WON $48,095.25 (+$31,256.25 NET)
Hero showed Q J and LOST (-$16,879 NET)

This is one of those spots where I'm not happy to get it in but I'm going to have to take my lumps with a hand this good. Checking this class of hands back makes my turn strategy too polarized imo.

Full Tilt, $40/$80 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 3 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $19,983
SB: $20,799
BB: $13,922

Pre-Flop: 8 6 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $240, SB folds, BB raises to $880, Hero calls $640

Flop: ($1,800) 9 3 T (2 Players)
BB bets $1,280, Hero raises to $3,341, BB raises to $5,600, Hero raises to $19,103 and is All-In, BB calls $7,442 and is All-In

Turn: ($27,884) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($27,884) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $27,884 Pot
Hero showed 8 6 and WON $6,061 (-$7,861 NET)
BB showed 7 J and WON $27,883 (+$14,041 NET)

And... hero gets it in awful. Sigh.

Full Tilt, $40/$80 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $36,951
BB: $22,502.25

Pre-Flop: 6 7 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $240, BB calls $160

Flop: ($480) 6 3 9 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $320, BB raises to $1,440, Hero calls $1,120

Turn: ($3,360) J (2 Players)
BB bets $2,720, Hero calls $2,720

River: ($8,800) 4 (2 Players)
BB bets $7,280, Hero calls $7,280

Results: $23,360 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero mucked 6 7 and LOST (-$11,640 NET)
BB showed 9 K and WON $23,359.50 (+$11,759.50 NET)

A really nice value bet by him against the saucestation.

Full Tilt, $40/$80 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $49,956.75
BB: $17,119.25

Pre-Flop: Q A dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $240, BB raises to $880, Hero calls $640

Flop: ($1,760) J K T (2 Players)
BB bets $1,280, Hero calls $1,280

Turn: ($4,320) 8 (2 Players)
BB bets $3,440, Hero calls $3,440

River: ($11,200) 2 (2 Players)
BB bets $11,519.25 and is All-In, Hero calls $11,519.25

Results: $34,238.50 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed Q A and WON $34,238 (+$17,158.75 NET)
BB showed K Q and LOST (-$17,039.25 NET)

Mixed it up with a slowplay... which worked I guess?


Full Tilt, $40/$80 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $32,825
Hero (BTN): $43,659

Pre-Flop: Q K dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $240, BB calls $160

Flop: ($480) 5 T J (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $320, BB calls $320

Turn: ($1,120) 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1,040, BB raises to $4,240, Hero calls $3,200

...

Below is an interview I did for a friend's poker newsletter coming out in April. I figure if I'm going to be posting free strategy advice all over the internet I might as well post it here as well. I think this might be interesting for people since it involves three huge pots where I do some really weird/aggro things which might not make sense. Watch my rationalizations. I'd love to convince you guys my plays are good, but I'm not going to post the accompanying math or really do any in depth analysis so you just get a summary in paragraph form. I think this interview is OK because it's very clear and compact- I get a whole lot of important info packed into a paragraph. I think it's bad because it's imprecise and I don't show my work/math so you don't really get the explanation of the situation only the conclusion. Comments are fine but I'm not going to be expanding on strategy stuff so don't expect stuff like that

*You always seem to be involved in some of the most bizarre and interesting hands in the history of online poker. There was an interesting hand that took place 6 months ago.
First, were you on tilt?

No, I wasn’t on tilt.

What was going through your head during the pre-flop battle?

AARookie is a very aggressive 4bettor, particularly against aggressive 3bettors like me which is probably a good thing. I’d estimate in this spot he was 4betting me around 30% of the time which comes out to a range of around 8% of hands. I think call is standard in my spot with my hand, however with >400bb stacks and an opponent with a wide 4betting range I think 5bet bluffing is pretty nice as well. Once I saw the 6bet I was priced in against any range which was not exactly KK+ so I had to call. I think 7bet bluffing is too loose.


*How did you feel after making the “right” play on the river, only to be outdone by a gutsy Hero call? I know once in a rare moon, my heart would beat really fast and my hands start trembling and I literally have to quit because I can’t control my mouse.

Well, I mean, the decision in the hand occurred on the flop. If I float with no pair no draw OOP in a 6bet pot the only possible explanations are that I was tilting or that I thought my opponent’s range was extraordinarily weak. I’m guessing a combination of timing and betsizing and history tipped me off to making this float. It was a few months ago but I believe my reads were that he would check back QQ, KK and Ax/Axs which he would be 6betting preflop with. That left him with hands like KsKx, AA, AK if he decided to 6bet which is somewhat unlikely combination wise relative to frequent bluffs on a board like this. Therefore, I decided to play for a turn check/check line given my good pot odds on the flop such that I could make a very profitable river jam. I don’t think I was ‘outdone’ at all in this hand: all of my reads/decisions in the hand worked out how I wanted them to work out based on this range. Had this been a 15bb pot instead of a 400bb pot no one would have gotten excited.

Did this hand affect your confident at all? If so, how did you gain it back?

If AArookie is disposed to call/bluff me this lightly then I need to make my preflop 3+betting ranges more linear and I need to make my ranges nuttier and less polarized postflop. Or some combination of these two things.


Stakes: 40/80nl 6-Max. Game was 5-handed
Hero (SB): $33,739.5
(BB): $42,479
UTG: $19,498
CO: $47,508
BTN: $16,000
Pre-flop: 9c6c dealt to Hero (SB) ... UTG folds. MP folds. BTN raises to $178. You 3-bets to $720. Villain 4-bets to $1920. You 5-bet to $5127. Villain 6-bets to $9055. You called.
Flop ($18,288): 8s 2s As … You checked. Villain bets $6650. You called.
Turn ($31,588): Qc … Check check.
River ($31,588): 4c … You shoved. He called with 4d6d.
--- --- ---
Hand 2
BB: $36,123
Hero (BTN): $49,870.5
Pre-flop: 8sQs dealt to Hero (BTN) … Hero raises to $600, BB raises to $1,800, Hero calls $1,200
Flop: ($3,600) Ad 4d 7s … BB bets $2,600, Hero raises to $6,325, BB calls $3725
Turn: ($16,250) 2h … BB checks, Hero checks
River: ($16,250) Ts … BB bets $11,200, Hero calls $11,200 … BB shows Qd9d and won $38,649.5


You said that it would’ve been so much easier to just float the flop than raising it. Can you expand on this?

If I float the flop the hand is very easy to play, although still marginal from an EV perspective. If the turn is a spade/Q then I can call another bet, as well as on some other cards sometimes. If he checks the turn I have a profitable bluff on any card. I can then double off the river with near 100% frequency on cards like the 6d and then check and lose on cards like the 9h.

Also, let’s say you call the flop and the board runs the same, would you bet the turn if checks to? Would you call a river bet if you do check the turn? Would you bet the river if the turn goes check check and BB checks the river?

I just answered that, but it will almost never go check/check on the turn. If it does go check/check then I will almost certainly bluff the river when checked to.
What if you improve to a pair of nines or queens on the turn, would (or should) you bet?
If I had a nine in my hand I would call another bet if I improved to a pair of nines.


--- --- ---
$100/$200NL
BB: $35, 147.5
Hero (BTN): $21,299.5
Pre-flop: 9hQh dealt to Hero (BTN) … Hero raises to $600, BB re-raises to $1,800, Hero calls $1,200
Flop: ($3,600) 4d Ad Td … BB checks, Hero bets $1740, BB check-raises to $3,600, Hero calls $1,860
Turn: ($10,800) Qh … BB bets $4,300, Hero calls $4,300
River: ($19,400) 7h … BB bets $25,447.5 and is All-in. Hero calls $11,599.5 and is All-in


You said, “When I do something like this to someone I don't pat myself on the back for making a great play, basically, what I'm doing is saying my opponent is an idiot. For me to bet/float, bluffcatch and bluffcatch on a board which is good for my opponent's preflop 3betting range after they checkraise me I need them to have a range wildly unbalanced towards bluffs and to have given me enough information through their play such that I can call 3streets with a clowny hand.”
This hand was inspiring. Not because that you won a huge pot with a weak hand but because it shows that there is a lot to poker that is still unexplored.
If someone out there wants to improve and work on his game, what do you suggest ie how would you do it if you have to do it all over again, knowing what you know now in terms of learning and improving as a poker player?

I would play a lot of hands and study a lot. Basically do exactly what Jose ‘Girah’ Macedo has done.


Lastly,
1. Who is a part of your poker inner circle? Not necessarily the best but players who you exchange ideas with.
2. Which player changes your game the most? How did he change the way you think about the game, the way you play?
3. Who do you think is the best HUNL and 6-max at the moment?
4. What is a common mistake(s) small-stakes players make?
5. Assuming the momentary reward...

Full Tilt, $100/$200 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $36,123
Hero (BTN): $49,870.50

Pre-Flop: 8 Q dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $600, BB raises to $1,800, Hero calls $1,200

Flop: ($3,600) A 4 7 (2 Players)
BB bets $2,600, Hero raises to $6,325, BB calls $3,725

Turn: ($16,250) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($16,250) T (2 Players)
BB bets $11,200, Hero calls $11,200

Results: $38,650 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
BB showed Q 9 and WON $38,649.50 (+$19,524.50 NET)
Hero mucked 8 Q and LOST (-$19,225 NET)

No, Sauce, you don't want to be a hero. Be a trusty sidekick and just float the flop, it would have been so much easier.

(Note to self)

I've been gambling it up quite a bit recently at a variety of games and limits. I have been beating up on Daniel Negreanu at hu NLHE, but I have been getting beat on almost as badly by Also11, except that Also plays me for twice the stakes.
This is going to be one of those blogs where I post hands- there might be some good strategy... and then again there might not be. There will, however, be some big pots. In a gesture of appreciation to all of you who enjoy oogling me losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, I will convert my HHs to make the experience as pleasurable as possible. All hands are against Also11 except for the last one which is against Paula35.

Poker Stars, $100/$200 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $51,620
Hero (BB): $57,590

Pre-Flop: K A dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $600, Hero raises to $2,200, BTN calls $1,600

Flop: ($4,400) K 8 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $2,430, BTN calls $2,430

Turn: ($9,260) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $6,240, BTN calls $6,240

River: ($21,740) A (2 Players)
Hero bets $16,220, BTN raises to $40,750 and is All-In, Hero calls $24,530

Results: $103,240 Pot ($2 Rake)
BTN showed A 8 and WON $103,238 (+$51,718 NET)
Hero showed K A and LOST (-$51,420 NET)

There are a variety of options in this hand on the turn and river, but I think the line I took is most standard as well as best. I hate my life on the river, but my hand is just a teeny bit too strong for me to find a fold.

Poker Stars, $100/$200 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $29,614
Hero (BB): $45,830

Pre-Flop: 6 5 dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $600, Hero raises to $2,000, BTN calls $1,400

Flop: ($4,000) T 5 6 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $2,800, Hero raises to $6,820, BTN raises to $11,600, Hero raises to $43,830 and is All-In, BTN calls $16,014 and is All-In

Turn: ($59,228) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($59,228) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $59,228 Pot
BTN showed J A and WON $59,226 (+$29,712 NET)
Hero showed 6 5 and WON $16,216 (-$13,198 NET)

I should definitely be mostly b3betting flop here, but I decided to take a tricky c/r line with a vulnerable nut type hand since I felt I could rely on him betting with all of his semibluffs of various strengths, which incidentally I also want protection against and want to force a flop float/tough turn decision from. His flop 4bet tells me he thinks I have pure air and he expects his hand to both highcard me and have the best draw. So it looks like I made the perfect play...

Poker Stars, $100/$200 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $35,297
Hero (BB): $28,447

Pre-Flop: 6 2 dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $600, Hero raises to $1,800, BTN calls $1,200

Flop: ($3,600) 2 3 9 (2 Players)
Hero bets $2,140, BTN raises to $4,800, Hero calls $2,660

Turn: ($13,200) 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $8,600, Hero raises to $21,847 and is All-In, BTN calls $13,247

River: ($56,894) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $56,894 Pot ($2 Rake)
BTN showed 3 J and WON $56,892 (+$28,545 NET)
Hero showed 6 2 and LOST (-$28,247 NET)

This is another one of those hands where tricky, crazy, aggressive, Sauce123 takes the most standard line possible. Also's play is also standard and of course fine.

Poker Stars, $100/$200 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $57,584
Hero (BB): $26,144

Pre-Flop: 9 9 dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $600, Hero raises to $1,800, BTN calls $1,200

Flop: ($3,600) J 8 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $1,780, BTN calls $1,780

Turn: ($7,160) 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $3,800, Hero calls $3,800

River: ($14,760) K (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $50,204 and is All-In, Hero calls $18,764 and is All-In

Results: $52,288 Pot
BTN showed 8 9 and WON $83,726 (+$57,682 NET)
Hero showed 9 9 and LOST (-$25,944 NET)

This was probably a bad bluffcatch on my part. The rest of my line is definitely best. An alternative line is bet/bet/jam but I think that's a bit ambitious with a made hand...

Seat 1: KidPoker ( $48445.50 USD )
Seat 2: Sauce123 ( $63074.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
KidPoker posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ 8h 9h ]
Sauce123 raises [$250.00 USD]
KidPoker raises [$900.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$700.00 USD]
Flop straight one time
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, Th, Qc ]
KidPoker bets [$1200.00 USD]
Bink ! Uhmmm... more money in pot. Ready... GO!
Sauce123 raises [$3150.00 USD]
KidPoker raises [$7900.00 USD]
Let me count the ways he can't have AK. Uhmmm, errrrr blank turn please.
Sauce123 calls [$5950.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4d ]
KidPoker bets [$15000.00 USD]
It would be too cruel, be good and hold one tiiime
Sauce123 raises [$52974.00 USD]
KidPoker calls [$23345.50 USD]
Sauce123 wins $14628.50 USD
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
KidPoker shows [Qs, Qh ]
I can't possibly hold, it's just inconceivable.
Sauce123 shows [8h, 9h ]
Sauce123 wins $96890.50 USD from main pot
GG

Parmenides figures out that what is is one. By this he mans eternal and unchanging and uniform. Consequently, all change as well as the external world is an illusion.

Plato figures out our ideas are imitations of eternal, perfect forms. Consequently, knowledge is knowledge of Form,

Berkeley figures out that all that really exists are ideas. Consequently, he proves the existence of a very, very busy God by assigning him the task of holding static all of the ideas of what we formerly called the objects of the external world.

Spinoza figures out that to be truly infinite God must have infinite 'aspects.' Consequently, he infers that although we are only privy to two of these aspects as puny humans- namely extension via the external world and essence via thought- there must necessarily be an infinity of unknowable other 'aspects'.

That's it for today lol.

Hey All,

Not a ton to write about these days with regard to poker. I've been playing a mix of nlhe, plo, 2-7 nl single draw and 2-7 nl triple draw. I've kinda tapped out of the big 8 and 10 games at the moment just because it takes so much experience to play every game well or even competently. Really what freaks me out is looking at Phil G, Brian Townsend, Cole South and Stinger's results in the big mixed games. These are (in my opinion) 4 of the best poker players in the world and collectively they have been getting shafted to the tune of 5 million or something in these games. From the various gossip I've heard, they are probably down most of that in EV, but the bottom line is just that there's a ton of variance in the games and they might not be as soft as they seem, In some ways it stands to reason: all the experienced live pros have found a way to bust the new crop of online guys for a bit- 10 or 20 years of experience playing everything gives them a huge advantage even if the online guys are more analytical, smarter, and will get better faster. I'd rather not bust my roll that way even if there is a lot of action to be had.

As far as my poker playing, the most fun I've had is putting in a bunch of hands at 2-7 nl single draw and triple draw. I think they are more fun than nlhe and plo and I hope they catch on and get more popular. I think there's a perverse satisfaction for fish to play them too when tilted because they get to draw to the worst hand. I've mostly been playing the commerce regulars in 2-7 single draw- Yan Chen, Alaei and then also Nick Schulman and occasionally John Hennigan or David Openheim. They definitely have more experience than me but I'm hoping they do a few things wrong which I think they do wrong. There have been a lot of really sick spots where say I flat a 3bet with 842 and resolve that I'm going to bluff or bluffraise if I draw top 2 or better. Then one of my commerce opponents pats and leads for 2/3 pot and my reads are that they are going to hold about 5% bluffs, and 95% T8+ which they aren't going to fold. So I just ship my stack in and sure enough they snap me off with 98642 and "Lo, Sauce1234 doth sacrificed his stack to the Gods of Game Theory." Uhm .. Reload ?

If you're ever particularly stoned I absolutely recommend playing the NL 2-7 TD variant: it's a huge action game with a ton of skill involved. And there's just something magical about drawing one vs your opponent's 97+ and binking that wheel yessssss.

I might suck at PLO. I don't understand how I can still suck so bad, I've been playing the godamn game for 2 years now and I think I'm just doomed to everlasting suckage. It just scares the shit out of me really, I look down at my hold em manager and see a 230 bb standard deviation and given that standard deviation and the (rather small) number of hands I play, there just isn't any way to know what my edge is. Ever, really ...

No limit hold em is still fun. Negreanu has come back bigger, faster and stronger and he's romping around at 100/200nl ante on stars. I think he plays pretty good minus a few leaks I won't talk about. The games are insane though, since the lineups are usually like Jungleman, Molswi, Takechip, Hal0, Kanu, Me, Nuts, Kingsofcards, Urnotindangr and everyone is like 300+bb deep. Each of those killers 3bets and 4bets like 15% and then 20% respectively and it just seems impossible to fold anything to anyone, ever. I don't even really know who the fish is in these games, maybe it's me ??

Rumors of my death have been exaggerated. Granted, I am running around 80bi below ev recently and have had to move down, but someday on the wings of the deuce games I shall rise again or die drawing.

In life news, which I almost never post in this blog, I'm still plodding towards my degree in philosophy at the University of Toronto. Toronto in the winter is an extremely cold and grey place. Because of pathological stubborness, I have decided to bike to school (around 4 miles each way) throughout the winter. I must hate myself. Also, long johns are the nuts. I think that's how I know I'm becoming Canadianized, I own multiple pairs of long johns which are by far my favorite article of clothing and go under my jeans whenever I leave the house. I'm considering a balaclava as well, but I'm still weighing the implications of getting that gross frozen spit caked on it all the time, especially before my early morning classes when my breath is especially stinky. Note: Canadian winter is depressing.
Luckily, during reading week my girlfriend and I are going to Turks and Caicos and staying with a friend there. If any readers here are Turks and Caicos experts or general Caribbean vacationing studs please leave me suggestions for warm and relaxing things to do. Scuba diving classes ?? I think I could get into that.

Canadians have this weird obsession with groundhog day. Every province has its own groundhog with its own name and they all celebrate groundhog day on the same day province to province and it's kind of a big deal. What happens if the groundhogs get conflicting forecasts ? That's what I want to know.

GL

Ben

Hey all,

Sorry about the lack of updates. On the one hand I find it flattering that 200k people have read this ridiculous blog, and on the other I find that a bit terrifying. People seem to like it though and I find having an audience makes me more excited to write things down, and makes me think more clearly.

As far as poker is concerned, I just started back as of January 2nd after about 25 days with no poker. No particularly great reason for it, just a combination of downswinging and wanting to be completely free to spend time with family/friends over the holidays and then some nagging finals from school. Not much to say about my personal life, most blogs I've read involving people's personal life are either fun to ridicule from behind the safety of your screen or just mind numbingly mundane and boring. Also, you won't find me flying to exotic locales or having threesomes with Thai Ladyboys, mostly I just live like a college student and gamble for a bazillions of dollars while i sit in my boxers which is pretty damn fine. I think. Poker-wise, I'm still getting destroyed but feel very good about my game, I've been plugging some leaks I didn't really know I had which is always a good feeling. I'll save 2011 goals for another time, but the immediate goal for January is to win some flips from Urubu who is paying me 2%/pop to do 25k flips with him. Good hourly imho.

Ok, so preface to the X-post. A recent thread was put up on 2p2 called "Getting sites to improve their hu policies". I spent the last two nights after my poker sessions making long posts in the thread which I think are kinda interesting and I'm curious if you guys agree or disagree with me. So here are my two posts in the thread:

1. I'm really sleepy, but here's kind of a convoluted argument I think might be right or kinda right.. If nothing else it's original.

Answer: The problem lies in the sites' decision to offer too many options to the casual player, as well as with the sites' refusal to cut down on the number of +ev lowrisk bumhunting options available to pros. The end result of which is less amateur players, which is worse for everyone. There need to be less games, lower stakes, more action, less waiting.

Here's why
First, I just want to compare an online cardroom to a brick and mortar room. One obvious difference is just that the online room does not have to conserve resources in the same way as the b&m room, which allows the online room to spread basically infinite numbers of poker variations. e.g. nl 20-50bb fast tables, an entire A-5 lowball lobby with 14 stakes and no players, etc. At first, this freedom seemed to me to be a huge advantage for the online room, which could cater to what everyone said they wanted all at once. "If we can give everyone what they said they want in a poker game, then the most people will play poker at our sight." This seems pretty plausible, especially when it's nearly free to implement, but I think it is actually hurting online rooms like stars and ftp.

The different thing about a b&m room is that I've found there is at least a tacit and maybe explicit (after all I play pretty much all online so I don't really know) agreement between the regulars and the cardroom managers. The regulars of course aren't prop players exactly, but it benefits the cardroom that they play everyday. They tip the floorpeople, but not all that much, and of course the regulars make the fish go broke faster. But really what happens is that everyone works together with a wink and a nod for the most part, and fun games form which fish know how to play and want to play. Even when no fish are playing at the moment, usually something is running, so that if a fish walks in the room the door is open and a game is waiting. Achieving this sort of atmosphere requires a good bit of altruistic action on the part of both the managers and the regulars, but the net result is that it benefits everyone and keeps the room running.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this sort of picture. It's just what I've observed at Turning Stone (when the room was healthy) and at Commerce and at Bellagio. I think a lot of this cooperation is the result of face to face interaction and a relatively small manager-player pool. The rest is because resources are expensive/scarce. Dealers have to be paid, rake is high shorthanded, there are only a finite number of physical tables therefore regulars/managers need to agree on a (relatively small) number of games/stakes to be run. This kind of collective action seems kind of second nature to old live players, if I understand them correctly.

Back to online poker...

The cardroom type atmosphere, which I think is really great at getting fish to play and keep playing, doesn't really exist in online poker right now. e.g. the cluttered lobbies, instantly breaking games, constant empty tables, pros drooling over fish in chat etc. I say the online room needs to try to imitate the casino a bit more, except online, there isn't any face to face everyday interaction between any of the parts of the cardroom/regs/fish, so they need to do something a bit differently. I think, maybe counter intuitively, that the rooms need to drastically cut down on the number of possible games available at high stakes where the player pool and accompanying fish pond is so small. Like, maybe, 3 or 4 hu tables at 25/50 (empty or with one person sitting, respawning when there is action), 2 or 3 6max tables and a couple full ring tables. Also, the sites need to have people actively managing the cardroom and having a dialogue with the regulars, so that there is the appearance of constant action on the site at all stakes and the fish sees people playing poker and money flying around, not 195 pros waiting in line frothing to take his money. The best example of this kind of cardroom management online was at Party Poker back in the day where there were tons of pros rolled to play higher than 10/20 and 25/50 and chase the fish had games been available, but everyone was sort of forced into the same box and had to play 10/20 together since Party wouldn't open up more games. I think this is especially true now at the 5/10 to 50/100 level where the number of regulars just dwarfs the number of fish, especially hu. All the nosebleed action on FTP definitely is good for the game overall which is a key exception to this rule, although at 500/1k there really aren't too many regulars and the regulars aren't afraid to play each other (Ivey, Durrr, Antonius) which is kind of insane but totally awesome. The sites need to look at the fish pool and regular pool for each stake and decide what games/how many games to offer and how to incentivize regulars to play in such a way that fish want to play, since the regulars have shown that they aren't going to do it themselves and will mostly try to maximize their own personal EV (and minimize their risk) at each moment, even while making -EV cooperative decisions for the future of their cardroom/player pool/stake.




Here's a response by 'Roulette Grinder'

Very good post by sauce123. I am also someone that believes the success of party back in the day was not just due to more fish/lack of ptr. It was also due to limiting the # of tables/stakes (something the OP is also fighting...