In the past, I've been very resistant to adopting any kind of strict stop-loss policy. My reasoning was basically that when tons of money starts flying back and forth, someone is probably going to tilt. I thought that by using analysis and using the rational part of my mind to know how to balance my play I would be the one to tilt less. After all, even if I am losing and frustrated a bit, I can still follow my gameplan which I have set out, since I don't have to make particularly complex snap decisions in most situations. I thought this would enable me to play nearly as well losing as when winning, which would be great, since then I could pretty much never quit if I thought I had a non negligible edge. The other huge attraction of not quitting was that I often have to wait for action for hours: so when I do get in a good/fun game, I want to get a bunch of hands in if at all possible. The one caveat I had was that if I saw myself play a hand in a way which was obviously bad- for example the AA hand vs noluck17 I just posted- then I would force myself to quit instantly. The other caveat I had was that if I was getting very tired, unfocused, or feeling like I 'couldn't win' the match, then I would just quit as well. For example, if I finished a 2k hand match with a regular and a regular I would normally play sat down with me, I would always quit, thinking that I would inevitably be more tired than my opponent. As another check on my tilt, I would go over every big and medium pot more carefully after sessions when I was stuck and look for mistakes. This seemed like a good idea, and I have been winning a bunch, but I'm going to rethink it. I'm curious what other readers think of this first paragraph, does it sound right or not? So, cliff notes, I thought that (in contrast to all accepted poker wisdom) I was going to be able to play well when losing. My quantitative reasoning for this was also as follows: in hu poker, we can expect large and frequent swings, some people call every large loss tilt, but it could just as easily be variance. Why quit and cowtow to variance ?

Anyways, I'm pretty sure this is wrong, for a few reasons. In order of importance.

1. Why would I possibly think that winning the most money is the goal of poker? There is a reason we poker players do not follow the Kelly criterion for our bankroll management or any modification thereof. In the past 5 years since high school that I have played poker, I don't seem to have grasped the lesson that when I lose a lot, I don't have control of my emotions. Granted, a lot of times I do- there are a ton of sessions where I lose 20bi and don't care. However, there are zero sessions where I lose 3 bi and get frustrated. When I get frustrated, I do things like act grumpy to my friends/girlfriend (I'm usually a pretty chill guy by all accounts, so I'm not really too much of an asshole when losing, but it is a bit out of character) and complain to various people I know on skype/aim/life. I don't like myself when I complain about poker, a game which has treated me very well. I think the only way I can accomplish the goal of (almost) never feeling intense frustration at poker and having that frustration reinforce acting like a whiny bitch/ being an asshole is to circumvent the shoddy emotional part of my brain (which 5 years has proven I can't overcome) and quit early and often. I think the magic number here is 3 buy ins, 1 buy in when taking a 'shot'. In my head I was thinking "weeellllll 4 bi against a regular multitabling does not really matter, that sounds about right." Then I realized to get that worm of doubt out of the way I had to make it 3, where in my mind I'm thinking "3 buy ins WTF. Against a tough regular that does not matter AT ALL. I can lose that in a couple hands randomly."

2. Thus far, I have sort of granted that I play nearly as well losing as I do winning, and have criticized myself for making bad away-from-the-table decisions. That being said, a little analysis shows that this probably is not true either. Let's do a little empirical analysis. In the past 4 months where I have data, I have played roughly 80k hands of hu nlhe and hu plo, 22k of which have been with stacks greater than 175bb. My standard deviation for the deepstacked hands was 215bb for nlhe and a bit less for plo. I have also had a negative winrate- in this admittedly small sample (all I am trying to say there is that I don't have a winrate reason to really want to play super deepstacked). Ok. So in this 80k hand sample, I have had a 4.44 bb winrate. What are my largest downswings in bi? 1) -37.5 bi in 2k hands vs noluck17. 2) -28 bi in 2800 hands vs nutsinho, 3) Some string of losses vs urnot, I think on the order of -18 bi in mb 7 or 8k hands, 4-5) some -20bi PLO sessions, a -10+ bi day vs harrington, I can think of at least 3 other -20 bi sessions at 25/50 hu since last summer. So now let's examine these 'big-loss' sessions vs what I should expect to see using the ++ev poker tools variance simulator. I inputted winrate= 4.44, #/hands=2200, #/trials= 40, std dev=200. http://www.evplusplus.com/site_media...downswings.png

I think this is pretty striking. Bump the #/trials to 400 and it still tops out at -25 bi.

What does this mean? Well, I have pretty good empirical evidence to think that when stacks get deep and I'm stuck, I am a breakeven or losing player, no matter how much I have tried to analyze the game or police my own emotional state.

3) I've spent a ton of time experimenting with different strategies, and testing out different ideas. Why have I had this emphasis on experimenting with strategies, but have made much less effort to experiment with game rejection decisions which could conceivably help my winrate much more than little strategic tweaks. In the future, I am going to try to look at how I play given different psychological variables (am I winning/losing?, have I been playing a long time?, how many tables am I playing at once?) and see if there is statistically significant evidence for me to make firm behavioural rules for myself. I hope there is, since I don't have to get any smarter to quit playing at certain times, all I have to do is get less dumb.

Rule #1: 3 bi stop loss (from any point in a session). We'll see how it goes...

gl all

Ben

It's really frustrating to have to go broke and move down, but there it is. Hopefully, I will be able to move up again by next spring. I'll be dropping down to the range of stakes from 25/50 to 100/200 and probably putting in some hands up to 250/500 mixgames as well. I've never been good at bumhunting, so when I sit at a stake, I'll usually play most people who sit. So I won't be fishing at bigger stakes.

I don't really have a ton of regrets as to how I played during this downswing. I just lost too many big hands, and too many hands overall to not go broke. I'm sure some tighter players might have been able to lose less while running bad. I have a big emphasis on analysis- so when I think a range is weak I go after it, sometimes that doesn't work out when I never have a hand and my opponents call with atc.

Most of this downswing occurred playing fishy regulars hu who I know play pretty weakly. For instance, I lost 400k to luckexpress in 1200 hands of 2/400 plo and on and on and on. Fish sits at high stakes and busts me. Can't really complain, I have the edge, and they decided to gamble with me, they have to win sometime! I just wish I could string the improbable and massive losses out a little more and not have them all converge at once. The latest disaster was a 40/80 nlhe session against noluck17, a regular on ftp. I mean, I lost 300k in the session at 40/80, which is 37.5 bi. Normally, I think taking that kind of loss in a session means I was tilting, but this match was so batshit insane preflop that he was getting in hands like 88 for 200bb and AQo for 300bb and playing 800bb pots with TPNK. So it was really just some crazy streetpoker. Here are some hands, maybe they are interesting...

Seat 4: Sauce1234 ( $41525.50 USD )
Seat 5: noluck17 ( $120183.65 USD )
Sauce1234 posts small blind [$40.00 USD].
noluck17 posts big blind [$80.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 4h 5h ]
Sauce1234 raises [$200.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$880.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$720.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, Jh, 2s ]
noluck17 bets [$1440.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$1440.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
noluck17 bets [$4080.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$13028.00 USD]
noluck17 calls [$8948.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7c ]
noluck17 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$26097.50 USD]
noluck17 calls [$26097.50 USD]
Sauce1234 shows [4h, 5h ]
noluck17 shows [6s, Js ]

Not a ton to say here. I bluffed with the bottom of my range on a card which hits my range hard. The only variable is his turn betting/calling range, which I know from experience was extremely wide, going down to hands like 8s8x and 7s7x as well as ofc pure bluffs and AK of any suit. I can't hate this play, I just ran into the top of his range. Kudos for him for fake timebanking the turn for like 25 seconds like he does with marginal hands.

noluck17 posts small blind [$40.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$80.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Qc Kd ]
noluck17 raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$800.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$2400.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$5348.00 USD]
noluck17 calls [$3588.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, 3c, Qh ]
Sauce1234 bets [$7131.00 USD]
noluck17 calls [$7131.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 bets [$15120.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$15120.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Qd ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 checks
noluck17 shows [Kh, Ac ]
Sauce1234 shows [Qc, Kd ]

Obviously preflop is really strange by me. He had been 4betting 13% for the match and 15% near the end of the match with deep stacks. My 5bet is for value, though I am planning on raise/folding to a 6bet. Postflop I played it well vs him, I would have had to call a river jam since he may jam AA as well as like a Qxss type hand and maaaaybe a bluff.

Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Kc Kh ]
noluck17 raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$800.00 USD]
noluck17 calls [$640.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, 3c, 9d ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 bets [$1440.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$1440.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 bets [$4080.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$4080.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 bets [$20240.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$20240.00 USD]
noluck17 shows [6c, 7h ]
noluck17 wins $53279.50 USD from main pot
Sauce1234 doesn't show [Kc, Kh ]

Again, not much to say here. I was planning on c/jamming river, but when he overbet I decided to just call which proved to be the right choice.

Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 9s 9d ]
noluck17 raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$800.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$2400.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$1760.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 8s, 6s ]
Sauce1234 bets [$3921.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$8240.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$10070.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$39013.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$9083.25 USD]
noluck17 shows [Tc, Ts ]
Sauce1234 shows [9s, 9d ]
noluck17 wins $24178.75 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ As ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
noluck17 wins $51428.00 USD from main pot

Not a ton to say here. My hand is just too strong to not get allin, and I chose this line to get it in with. I would have hero folded to the flop raise with 99 no spades or 8s7x, but I think my hand is just too strong, considering he can have a bunch of hands like As3x or As8x and the pot is huge. There also might be an occasional pure bluff here. I mean it obviously sucks to be completely dead against his actual hand.

Seat 4: Sauce1234 ( $22157.50 USD )
Seat 5: noluck17 ( $172741.65 USD )
noluck17 posts small blind [$40.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$80.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Ad Ah ]
noluck17 raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$800.00 USD]
noluck17 calls [$640.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, Th, 7s ]
Sauce1234 checks
noluck17 bets [$1440.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$1440.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
Sauce1234 bets [$4131.00 USD]
noluck17 raises [$170421.65 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$15706.50 USD]
noluck17 shows [Td, Kd ]
Sauce1234 shows [Ad, Ah ]
noluck17 wins $150584.15 USD
** Dealing River ** [ Ts ]
noluck17 wins $44314.50 USD from main pot

This is the last hand of the match. I think a fold is probably correct over the turn raise since the only plausible value hand I beat is AK and he might slowplay that. he could conceivably have a weak combo draw but I think that's unlikely. Other than that, my flop line is fine, my turn line is terrible, I should c/c down. Misplaying this hand so badly made me quit the match, I thought I wasn't thinking sharply.

Seat 1: noluck17 ( $125353.75 USD )
Seat 6: Sauce1234 ( $20278.00 USD )
noluck17...

Poker has been incredibly frustrating the past month or so. I was briefly rolled to play 2/400 as my main game and take shots at the very biggest games, mostly 500/1k CAP. I feel like my hu plo game has improved quite a bit as well. I think I have some technical leaks to plug still, but I definitely think I have an edge on a lot of the regulars playing the big games, and a big enough one to stomach the nasty variance that comes with playing them hu. I've also been playing a fair amount of hu nlhe against urnotindanger2 who I think I have a big edge on as well. I just can't win though, despite being very confident in my game and my game selection. My last 36k hands my won$wsf is at 48.5% and my w$@sd is 43.5%. HU those are at 49 and 42%. The reason for this downswing is clear from looking through my database: I'm getting consistently coolered, sucked out on, and just getting dealt the worst hand much more than my fair share. I'm not an expert in statistics, but intuitively the most likely explanation by far here is just an extended string of bad luck, nothing else. I've played enough 35k hand samples of poker at this point to tell when I'm getting fucked over, and I'm getting fucked over. So what can I do?

Well, nothing really. I'm doing just about the only thing I can do which is move down to 100/200 for awhile, where I'm still very comfortably bankrolled. The wrong move would definitely be to move down to say 25/50, where my game can get rusty, and if I am in fact doing something wrong, I can bleed a lot of money away complacently. Other than that, I just study my game and try to innovate and find new ways to get better. I'm going to begin work with a new piece of software and a new coach in the next few days to work primarily on my hu nlhe and plo games, and try to make more precise gameplans for my regular opponents. I've also been playing a bunch of nl 2-7 single draw as well as some 10game and 7game mix. The only game I can seem to win in is nl 2-7 sd, where I have been dominating at 50/100 and 100/200. I can't believe how bad people play, I've been playing since the update on FTP came out and the toughest player I've played so far is Phil Galfond, and I think it was his first time ever playing the game! I don't want to give too much strategy away, but I have never found a form of poker where game theoretic principals are more directly applicable, even with very deep stacks.

The worst part of this downswing is that I feel helpless, and so therefore incredibly frustrated. I keep going over my matches and I find some small mistakes, but I come out of the study thinking how big of an edge I have and how bad I have had to run to lose to these people. Losing to worse regulars, and more generally, just losing at poker and having to move down tilts me just much, much, much more than losing a ton of money. Now, I know this is weird and atypical: most of the professional players who I chat with constantly tell me sob stories about how much below ev they have run over some sample and how much more cash they should have. And I think that is and should be the emotional norm. My case is just really strange as I don't play for money really, except as a tool to compete on a higher level with better players. My emotional test for this strange conclusion has been to think about how I feel after each session I play before checking my results or trying to mentally count them up or something. They don't seem to be correlated too much at all: sometimes I get hammered for 150k and I go out to dinner, have a couple drinks and don't think about it for more than 5 minutes. Sometimes I win 40k, but feel like I could have played better and I feel a bit frustrated all night. Mostly, (in contrast to the addicted gambler) I feel fine when I know I played well, I feel I'm moving toward my goals in poker in some way, and I feel that I'm comfortable at my current stakes and can take a few losses. Right now, I just project running this badly into the future: if I run like this for 70k more hands I'll be playing 25/50 and on down and down. Is it more likely that I run bad for another 35k hands after just running bad for 35k hands? No, of course not, but it sure does feel that way and I don't know any way to shake that feeling really.

Each time I go through some soul-crushing downswing it just puts more time and effort between where I am now and when I can play 500/1k, do the durrr challenge, play Ivey/PA etc. And I don't have THAT much time: I'm trying to graduate college, chill with friends, enjoy my life, and start to make plans for a career after poker. I want to be beating the biggest games before I move on from poker, and won't have the amount of focus to compete at the highest level. Even now, it is somewhat of an uphill battle as I divide my energy between poker and school, compared to those pros who just think about poker. Also, the level of play is high enough at the nosebleeds that if I run very badly lifetime, I will never accomplish those goals, and no amount of will power will possibly allow me to change that. Now, having graduated statistics 101 and being familiar with variance I can intellectually accept this, but losing when I feel I "shouldn't" is frustrating, and I can't really change that.

So I guess I'll just vent on the internetz for your mild enjoyment or possibly extreme boredom.


Gl all
Ben

PS: In some ways, times like this are where the old-school gamblers would say you have to show "heart". Sure, I could conclude that I can't beat the biggest games and move down and crush smaller stakes and spare myself the vicissitudes of extended downswings. But I'm not going to. I think I can beat these games, and I'm going to try to do that. I wouldn't have had this confidence in my game two years ago the first time I played nosebleeds. Cashing out my roll and moving up the ranks a 2nd time post UIGEA has taught me that if I got lucky to be here, I got lucky both times I tried it. So, I'll move down when I don't have the money to play these games, and if I have the money again later, I'll try try again. And I'll try to stop complaining, life is good.

Rough month so far for me, poker-wise. I've put in more volume than I thought I was going to be able to, considering school, which is good. Unfortunately, I'm at this odd point in poker where 25/50 is too small of a game for me, but 2/400 is a little big, and 500/1k is of course temping but definitely too big. So this has me playing a strategy of game selecting well at 2/400,game selecting a bit more loosely at 1/200 and playing pretty much anyone at 25/50 or 50/100 in order to get better. The other big problem is that most of the juiciest games at 2/400 and 3/600 are PLO. I think I have a big edge in these games, however, there is just so much variance in the game that even the best players are pretty likely to go broke. By pretty likely I mean 5-10% to see a 50+ BI downswing (So, -2mill) within a given year. And I'm thinking that the best players have true winrates in the 4-8 ptbb/100 range. I'm probably winning less than that almost certainly since I'm not a PLO specialist. So I'm gambling here, and there isn't a ton I can do except hope I win a bunch before I hit a crippling downswing so that I can stand the hit. Luckily, I play a lot of other games as well, so that will cushion the swings a bit, but I'm just trying to explain how scary of an endeavor trying to take shots at the nosebleeds is. You have to be good and lucky to stay, and no matter how good you are, you just can't be unlucky. That's exactly what has been happening to me lately, I feel like I'm playing in great games but I've just been getting destroyed, mostly by Gus at 500/1k hu CAP PLO where I dropped 200k yesterday in an hour or so. And I've just been running brutally bad situationally, part of which is accounted for by the fact I play a very demanding (situationally) style, but most of which is just bad luck.

Aside from the PLO, I've been playing a bit of 7game and 10game up to 500/1k when the game is very good. I think I'm about breakeven in those games if 1) they are good and 2) I'm playing my A game. For any experienced 10game players they must be a goldmine though. That being said, I don't think barely anyone is even competent at all 10 games, especially the stud games where people play terrible but I play even worse. 2-7 SD is a really fun game as well, I'm hoping there will be more high stakes action there. Ditto with triple draw where there already is a ton of action, the problem with TD is just that the best regulars are actually quite tough already since it has run on stars for a long time. There are also a ton of bad/mediocre players, but the sharks make the games too tough for me to consider playing since I suck just a bit less than the fish.

Finally, I've been getting a bunch of action at 1/200 nlhe against Urnotindanger2. Long hu nlhe matches over multiple tables is for sure my favorite kind of poker on the planet, 1) because it is so intense and difficult not to tilt and stay focused 2) because after a few thousand hands there is so much information available to analyze. I think 2) gives me an edge as matches get longer since I'm not afraid to do work away from the table and make drastic adjustments in my game. Urnotindanger has been just incredibly frustrating to play though as my strategy has been relatively static each time we've played, and he hasn't changed his game up at all either. I mean, after each match, I will go over all the hands and make subtle adjustments, but my general gameplan has stayed the same. Which is why it is doubly frustrating to be down like 200k in $$ and 400k in ev to this guy, and moreover, each time he beats me he constantly says how bad I play and how great I run to only be down 200k. This is one of those matches where I feel I have an edge and I'm just going to have to go busto before I will deny him action, I don't know what else to say... So let's hope I run a little better or this is going to be a countdown to busto !

Some hands for the people who like hands:

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $40599.50 USD )
Seat 2: URnotINdanger2 ( $87604.50 USD )
URnotINdanger2 posts small blind [$100.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$200.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Kd Kc ]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$300.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$1200.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$3400.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$2400.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, 8s, Ac ]
Sauce1234 checks
URnotINdanger2 bets [$3200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$3200.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
Sauce1234 checks
URnotINdanger2 bets [$8600.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$8600.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3d ]
Sauce1234 checks
URnotINdanger2 bets [$72004.50 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$24999.50 USD]
URnotINdanger2 wins $47005.00 USD
URnotINdanger2 shows [Qs, Ah ]

I'm not sure what else to say in this hand without giving away too much. I think my pot odds are good enough to make this call a call.


Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $64688.50 USD )
Seat 2: URnotINdanger2 ( $39321.00 USD )
URnotINdanger2 posts small blind [$100.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$200.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Qh As ]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$300.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$1200.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$1000.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, 7s, Ac ]
Sauce1234 bets [$1625.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$4600.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$9275.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$33321.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$27021.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 shows [Ad, 8d ]
Sauce1234 shows [Qh, As ]

I don't see a point in this hand where I'm not ahead of his range. And I don't see a point where I want to give free cards to what I think his range is.

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $48350.00 USD )
Seat 2: URnotINdanger2 ( $36791.50 USD )
Sauce1234 posts small blind [$100.00 USD].
URnotINdanger2 posts big blind [$200.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Ks 5s ]
Sauce1234 raises [$500.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$2200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$1800.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, Jc, 9c ]
URnotINdanger2 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$3400.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$3400.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ]
URnotINdanger2 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$8000.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$8000.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6s ]
URnotINdanger2 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$34550.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$22991.50 USD]
Sauce1234 wins $11558.50 USD
Sauce1234 shows [Ks, 5s ]
URnotINdanger2 shows [Tc, Qc ]

This is either okay or bad or very bad, I'm not sure which. But if you add those three descriptions up it's hard to come out with 'good'.

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $48821.00 USD )
Seat 2: URnotINdanger2 ( $86059.50 USD )
Sauce1234 posts small blind [$100.00 USD].
URnotINdanger2 posts big blind [$200.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 6s 4s ]
Sauce1234 raises [$500.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$2200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$5020.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2...

Played a wild and crazy 4200 hand hu match vs urnotindanger today at 100/200. started off stuck 200k or so and was stuck pretty much the entire match but manage to claw back at the end to book a 112k win. i was happy that i tilted only a little bit if at all the whole match even tho i could have been really frustrated at times.

anyways, so here's the REAL point of this post. I love observer chat !

SaiLoceans (Observer): playing 4 high flash and he think is GREAT palyer.. plssss gine me break

streint (Observer): GOOFBALL SMELLS THE SAME LIKE GENIUS

Let me know via comments which one you guys vote is more awesome and ill send the "winner" 100$ and the runner up $50

gl all

Ben

I've read a whole bunch of poker books, quite a few of the famous ebooks, made a bajillion posts and watched 100s of poker videos. I'm also a critical son of a bitch, so here's what you need to read/watch to make you a sicko.

I think in my career I have learned the most in order from 1) playing, 2) studying my play all by lonesome 3) forums/aim conversations 4) books 5) videos 6) coaching and giving coaching. That being said, I think this more refers to how you should should break up your time, as in you should be spending by far the most time playing, then studying your own play etc and on down this list. I think I get nearly the same returns from everything on the list, but just need to do less of some things than others.

Poker books are an especially strange beast because to get to the few great ones you have to wade through mountains of mediocrity and bullshit. I'll attempt to expedite this process for you, and hopefully draw your attention to a few gems you might have missed thus far. There are also various subgenres, and I will try to break them up since they don't really overlap or have the same aims. Without further ado:

Practical Books:
By this I mean books which give you specific advice about how to play hands in specific situations and attempt to tell you how to play a certain form of poker, say nlhe, by covering as exaustively as possible, all the various situations you will encounter. Famous examples of this would be Harrington on Hold em, Bobbo's Ebook, Learned from TV's ebook, and most other poker books on the market, I think you guys get the idea. I know people also love shootaa's book, Rizen's book, Baluga's book and Supersystem is very good as well.

I think all of these books are missing the point a bit, even the ones (like Bobbo's) which approach their task with rigor and intelligence. The thing is, a book is an especially bad form of media to cover something like poker, way superior forms are things like videos, forum posts, and aim conversations as well as private study. The reason for this is that a book is especially suited for presentation of long, complex, integrated ideas which take an extended sitting to understand. For example, consider a novel or an academic work or a historical narrative. Breaking those things up into chapters and looking at them in different places and different times defeats the unity of the work; a chapter in a novel might not be compelling or make any sense at all in isolation. This just isn't true of poker situations. Talking about 3betting a button raiser from the small blind is it's own confined sort of topic, and the sum of all these little poker situations requires so much memorization and repetition and critical thinking that it isn't really effective to read and implement the strategies in a poker book at all once- there's just too much to handle.

Trying to lump all these situations into one big book gives both too much and too little complexity all at once. With literally millions of strategy posts on various forums there is infinitely more bullshit to wade through, but that is balanced by the fact that there are so many interesting perspectives, so many different minds working on problems and the situations can be broken down to the highest level of specificity possible: individual hands between individual players.

The other massive problem for a poker book is that it's very difficult to revise, whereas the games it's trying to describe are constantly changing. Poker is historical, strategies which worked well in the past may not work in the future and we really aren't too close to solving poker no matter what people may say. This is a good thing, it means there is still a lot of game to be played ! Imagine trying to learn to play no limit hold em from Doyle's section in Supersystem 1 in 2010. Doyle is talking about games which don't exist anymore. Writing a poker book you run the massive risk that with each day/week/month/year that goes by, your book becomes less correct and less effective and less worth the time of your readers and this is even more true now than ever before with the Internet.

Cliff notes: don't read any of em, or if you do, read a new one from someone who is a good writer and who is winning a ton of money currently.

Poker Theory Books

These are a hell of a lot better because the book is a good form for theoretical thinking. Unfortunately, unlike the practical books, most of the content passing for theory is random musings from people who win a lot of money and then make up their own stories about why they did and call it theory. Also unfortunately, there are books with elegant theories and good writing from people who are just plain wrong and who's seemingly convincing arguments will end up losing you money playing poker. But there are a few gems, ok, well two.

1. Theory of Poker by Sklanskinator: It is slightly dated now, but it gets you all of the basic probability theory stuff which you need to get somewhere and it's boring to read a math textbook so read ToP instead. About half the book is superfluous, but the good stuff is really good and it is relatively straightforward and therefore a good place to start.

2. Mathematics of Poker by Chen and Ankenman: This is, in my opinion, the best poker book ever written and it just isn't close. There are a ton of powerful ideas in the book with quantitative work to give them backbone. Just don't take the book as the gospel, there are problems with it, but its originality as well as the erudition of the authors makes it my favorite.

How not to be an idiot at poker books

Winning at poker isn't all about odds and strategy, you have to avoid hookers and blow too. Sometimes we need smart people to tell us this and make it stick, a few people are especially good at it.

My favorite here is definitely Elements of poker by Tommy Angelo. Tommy is very practical and a great writer and all around cool guy.

Honorable mention to Barry G's Ace on The River which is just a strange book, but strangely fascinating.
Poker books which are not even marginally poker books

Sometimes I read articles in other places and they strongly influence my thinking about poker without saying anything about poker.

1. The Black Swan by Taleb. Poker is full of Black Swans, and just about the only thing in poker which is Gaussian is all in equity and combinatorics and the most basic stuff. Add in a drop of human psychology and strategic play and welcome to the land of the Black Swan. That goes for your (supposed) winrate too !

2. Reductionism by Alan Garfinkel (http://books.google.ca/books?id=pEzc...finkel&f=false).

Often it doesn't make sense to subsume one theory into another even if one theory can explain everything that the other theory explains but with the supposed advantage of being more parsimonious. The poker application is subtle but unbelievably important. If I ever write a poker book,...

After a great summer of poker September has gotten off to a horrific start. ive played maybe 21k hands, won 500k w/out showdown and lost 750k at showdown while winning 43% of showdowns and 48% when seen flop. those are ugly numbers. I'm down something like 250k on the month, most recently -380k vs leggopoker's very own nutsinho in just 1900 hands of 50/100 hu. I think that qualifies as a true beatdown. he played extremely well vs me, so i dont want this to sound disparaging at all. though im sure he would agree he outplayed me so i wont hurt his feelings.

an aside:

One important thing in poker is that sometimes you gotta quit someone. I felt pretty comfortable against nuts in this match in the majority of spots, and i can point to a lot of important things i think he was doing wrong. the point is, that doesnt matter in a case like this where i lost so much. there are multiple levels of incomplete information in poker and one of them is how you figure out your own edge. What if im wrong about what is "good" in poker, about what is a leak? what if i dont accurately estimate my edge vs this specific player or some set of players? Both of those possibilities are very low probability events, because to be true they require that one or many of the things im very sure about in judging poker, which i have learned over 1000s of hours of play and study are wrong. However, if i am wrong about the way i handicap hu poker matches, the accompanying price is catastrophic. I'm just going to go broke. Why? Because against the player who's edge over me I fail to notice theoretically (rather than empirically because empirically they will be winning all my cash and kicking the shit out of me) I will play until I have no money left, thinking im "rolled" for the game and the swings. But there wont be swings, and my variance will be infinite, because i will be a dog. I really, really, really, really, dont want that to happen. So when someone wins a lot of money against me, they lose my action for some (large) period of time. the cost of being wrong is too high... Another way to think of it is to imagine what % of your bankroll you would be willing to wager that you have an edge vs a given opponent (counting external factors like your computer is hacked, etc). this will take into account your own risk tolerance and whatnot. if the opponent is just obviously a fish and we discount things like being hacked then our BR % might be 100. In other words we might just choose to go down with the ship, as we are sure of our edge and the payoffs are very high. That won't be the case against a very good regular though like nutsinho, even if i think im slightly better. My BR number might be something like 20%, maybe less.

(i dont know of the above is coherent or interesting, but its something which is very useful for me)

im just going to post a few hands, they are kind of cool maybe, and some quick evaluations of my play.


***** Hand History for Game 49885280866 ***** (Poker Stars)
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, September 20, 12:40:15 ET 2010
Table Daniels Rm 100 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 3: nutsinho ( $39746.75 USD )
Seat 5: Sauce123 ( $35958.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
nutsinho posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
nutsinho posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
Sauce123 posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ Kd Kc ]
Sauce123 raises [$350.00 USD]
nutsinho raises [$1000.00 USD]
Sauce123 raises [$2614.00 USD]
nutsinho calls [$1914.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 3h, 5c ]
nutsinho checks
Sauce123 bets [$3624.00 USD]
nutsinho calls [$3624.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
nutsinho checks
Sauce123 bets [$7223.00 USD]
nutsinho calls [$7223.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
nutsinho checks
Sauce123 bets [$9216.00 USD]
nutsinho raises [$25860.75 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$12856.00 USD]
nutsinho wins $3788.75 USD
nutsinho shows [5h, 7h ]
Sauce123 shows [Kd, Kc ]
nutsinho wins $71915.50 USD from main pot

river is likely a check here with stacks, dont think its particularly close. if he didnt have the option of raising on the river i think my bet is +ev. my plan was to treat myself as effectively all in if i bet the river in this case, because i thought the frequency of facing a raise was less than 15% and i also thought that because of my pot odds he has to be bluffing and incredibly small amount ot make my call at least neutral ev. tho on the face of it, it looks like it is very hard for him to be bluffing.

***** Hand History for Game 50134998438 ***** (Poker Stars)
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, September 25, 03:06:31 ET 2010
Table Daniels Rm 100 IX (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 3: nutsinho ( $33964.00 USD )
Seat 5: Sauce123 ( $33082.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
nutsinho posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
nutsinho posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
Sauce123 posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ 5s Ks ]
Sauce123 raises [$350.00 USD]
nutsinho raises [$1400.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$1100.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, 8s, Ts ]
nutsinho bets [$1600.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$1600.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
nutsinho bets [$8432.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$8432.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
nutsinho bets [$22407.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$21525.00 USD]
nutsinho wins $882.00 USD
nutsinho shows [Js, As ]
nutsinho wins $66163.50 USD from main pot
Sauce123 doesn't show [5s, Ks ]

i dont even know how to evaluate this hand, but i do know im never folding K5ss.

***** Hand History for Game 50076326891 ***** (Poker Stars)
$10000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, September 23, 08:47:45 ET 2010
Table Daniels Rm 100 II (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Sauce123 ( $31494.50 USD )
Seat 6: nutsinho ( $33908.50 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
nutsinho posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
Sauce123 posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
nutsinho posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ 2h 2c ]
Sauce123 raises [$350.00 USD]
nutsinho raises [$1400.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$1100.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 9h, Kd ]
nutsinho bets [$1800.00 USD]
Sauce123 raises [$4125.00 USD]
nutsinho calls [$2325.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
nutsinho checks
Sauce123 bets [$4825.00 USD]
nutsinho calls [$4825.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8d ]
nutsinho checks
Sauce123 bets [$10500.00 USD]
nutsinho raises [$23433.50 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$10519.50 USD]
nutsinho wins $2414.00 USD
nutsinho shows [9s, 9d ]
nutsinho wins $62988.50 USD from main pot
Sauce123 doesn't show [2h, 2c ]

my flop raise sizing is too small here for stacks slightly. turn is to get him to fold hands...

Man, I just played Suck My Ace on stars for a couple thousand hands. The match was really crazy, and he's definitely a tough player. However, I caught him going bananas in some spots and these hands are just TOO COOL.

Here I got extra frisky, and got owned, figured he is bluffing himself some % on the river but I can't call etc.

***** Hand History for Game 47504549593 ***** (Poker Stars)
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 31, 12:10:04 ET 2010
Table Doris II (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: Suck My Ace ( $9514.25 USD )
Seat 2: Sauce123 ( $14032.25 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Suck My Ace posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ Ah 8h ]
Sauce123 calls [$25.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$150.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$150.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, Tc, Kh ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 bets [$300.00 USD]
Suck My Ace calls [$300.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
Suck My Ace bets [$700.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$700.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
Suck My Ace bets [$1900.00 USD]
Sauce123 raises [$12832.25 USD]
Suck My Ace calls [$6414.25 USD]
Sauce123 wins $4518.00 USD
Sauce123 shows [Ah, 8h ]
Suck My Ace shows [9h, Td ]
Suck My Ace wins $19028.00 USD from main pot


A big ol' call

***** Hand History for Game 47502629967 ***** (Poker Stars)
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 30, 10:57:40 ET 2010
Table Auriga IV (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Sauce123 ( $24397.00 USD )
Seat 2: Suck My Ace ( $9124.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Suck My Ace posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ 8h 7s ]
Sauce123 raises [$125.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$450.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$350.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, Ks, Ac ]
Suck My Ace bets [$700.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$700.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
Suck My Ace bets [$1800.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$1800.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
Suck My Ace bets [$6124.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$6124.00 USD]
Suck My Ace shows [5c, Tc ]
Sauce123 shows [8h, 7s ]
Sauce123 wins $18247.50 USD from main pot

An Even Bigger Call

***** Hand History for Game 47505763559 ***** (Poker Stars)
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 31, 01:03:34 ET 2010
Table Doris II (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: Suck My Ace ( $15942.00 USD )
Seat 2: Sauce123 ( $8217.50 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Suck My Ace posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ Kc 9d ]
Sauce123 raises [$125.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$550.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$450.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, 7c, 8s ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jh ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 bets [$873.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$2000.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$1127.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
Suck My Ace bets [$13342.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$5617.50 USD]
Suck My Ace wins $7724.50 USD
Suck My Ace shows [6c, 9c ]
Sauce123 shows [Kc, 9d ]
Sauce123 wins $16434.50 USD from main pot

Leveling Run Amok

***** Hand History for Game 47505896695 ***** (Poker Stars)
$5000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 31, 01:09:33 ET 2010
Table Doris II (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: Suck My Ace ( $6501.50 USD )
Seat 2: Sauce123 ( $17657.00 USD )
Sauce123 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Suck My Ace posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce123 [ 6s 4s ]
Sauce123 calls [$25.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$200.00 USD]
Sauce123 raises [$691.00 USD]
Suck My Ace raises [$1150.00 USD]
Sauce123 calls [$659.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, 9s, 5c ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5s ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 checks
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
Suck My Ace checks
Sauce123 bets [$16257.00 USD]
Suck My Ace calls [$5101.50 USD]
Sauce123 wins $11155.50 USD
Sauce123 shows [6s, 4s ]
Suck My Ace shows [Kc, Qc ]
Sauce123 wins $13002.50 USD from main pot


Just really crazy so many wild hands happened in the same session, there are 4-5 other hands almost as insane, but marginally less so.

Gl All

Ben

I'm back grinding, but thankfully I'm at home. Right now that's a little town called Canmore, about 15 minutes outside of Banff in Alberta. It's just a sweet place to be in the summer, with 360 degree views of the rockies from the valley floor and tons of hiking/canoe/whitewater/anythingyoucouldpossiblythinkoftodooutside. There are also some sweet restaurants in town, the best being a bistro called Crazy Weed. I only bring this up as a public service announcement to all you young aspiring food nerds/poker players. Try pork belly next time you see it on any trustworthy menu. It's like bacon's decadent cousin. The dish I had it in was a pork belly salad with watermelon and some kind of sweet Asian inspired vinagrette. mmmmmm. Ditto for sweetbreads, you won't be sorry.

Poker is going reasonably badly lately. I played an ungodly amount of hands in July and won cheeseburger money. I think I ran pretty badly and played pretty well, but then I always think that, though when playing as many hands as I did you aren't going to be playing your A+, well rested, ready-for-anything game. I tried 16 tbling 5/10 one session as well and as usual I got just destroyed, despite game selecting. A tip of the cap to all you multitablers, I just can't do it. I actually had a week straight where I lost every session, which is pretty demoralizing, and during that stretch I only played in very good games. People continually underestimate variance, which isn't surprising given our brains are made to hunt and gather. I'm in a skeptical state of mind with regard to my winrate, my own estimation of my winrate, my BR management, my game selection etc just because I read Fooled By Randomness for the second time. If you haven't read it, I'd check it out as it's a fun read and pretty informative read about qualitative ways to understand randomness. If you aren't scared yet, take a gander at IggyMcfly's thread in BBV where he runs 85bi below EV in PLO in .... 13k hands. Then about 40 other regs chime in and say that the same thing happened to them only it was 120 bi in 40k hands or some other such bonechilling number.

The most fun thing I did during this stretch was do an experiment of 3betting every hand I decided to play from the BB in both NLHE and PLO. There were some strong empirical and theoretical reasons for my trying this, and I might try it again at the slightest provocation. I also love the idea of finding strategies which seem so crazy that people will be wating in line to play me. This strategy led to some unbelievable aggressive dynamics in 3bet pots. This is one of those pots:

***** Hand History for Game 22418760136 ***** (Full Tilt)
$5000.00 USD PL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, July 18, 04:13:12 ET 2010
Table Sands (heads up deep) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $16073.50 USD )
Seat 2: URnotINdanger2 ( $50101.00 USD )
URnotINdanger2 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Qs Kc ]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$125.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$338.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$238.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, As, 4c ]
Sauce1234 bets [$400.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 raises [$1150.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$1940.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$1190.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8c ]
Sauce1234 bets [$2135.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 calls [$2135.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8d ]
Sauce1234 checks
URnotINdanger2 bets [$7200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$7200.00 USD]
URnotINdanger2 shows [7s, Th ]
Sauce1234 shows [Qs, Kc ]
Sauce1234 wins $24125.50 USD from main pot

This was another cool one, against a crazy Swede

***** Hand History for Game 22570312726 ***** (Full Tilt)
$2000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 24, 11:47:11 ET 2010
Table Vilberti (heads up deep) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $9918.00 USD )
Seat 2: Denoking ( $3113.00 USD )
Sauce1234 posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
Denoking posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 8h Ah ]
Sauce1234 raises [$50.00 USD]
Denoking raises [$195.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$155.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, Qd, Js ]
Denoking checks
Sauce1234 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8s ]
Denoking bets [$360.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$360.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
Denoking bets [$2538.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$2538.00 USD]
Denoking shows [3c, 5c ]
Sauce1234 shows [8h, Ah ]
Sauce1234 wins $6225.50 USD from main pot

As far as goals go, I'm still working a ton on my game, though I can't say it has shown much in my results recently. I'm still waiting for that magical rush where I can do no wrong and am able to run up my BR enough to lose it again playing nosebleeds. I'm at this strange BR level right now where I feel sorta bad donating to people like URnot and chewy and Ashman as it might make me move down after even a few bad sessions in a row. I just can't wrap my head around how many buy ins I need to be playing tough regulars hu, deep, on multiple tables. It's gotta be like 100+. I'll try to learn my lesson, but realistically, I won't.

GL All

Ben

Every year when the WSOP rolls around I get bracelet lust. This happens to every poker player, I'm pretty sure. In my case the lust progresses like this, jealousy, fantasy, and finally reality. Step 1: all day every day I toil away in obscurity, bleerily studying in HEM numbers and grinding literally millions of hands against the toughest players in the world while people like Phil Helmuth flounce around preening for the camera and rake in multimillion dollar endorsement contracts. They then become household names internationally recognized as geniuses or at least savants and I have to explain at the family Christmas party to each relative in succession why I don't envy and adore and aspire to follow in the enormous footsteps of the TV pros. Step 2: I then imagine winning the ME, giving, sarcastic, funny interviews instead of the standard, boring ones, getting staked by megapokersite.com for multimillion dollar catered freerolls in tropical countries and having wealthy businessman contact me through their lawyers for high stakes hu matches at their ranches. If I am feeling especially generous with myself I bust Phil Ivey at this point as well.

Then the reality sets in. I can't sleep in Vegas, there's just too much energy, it's too hot and sterile and weird. I could go on, but I won't. So this time I just stayed up 50 hours straight playing, grinding the 2500 WSOP during the day and 10/20 hu at night. Eventually I was able to sleep on a friend's couch and upon waking up I did basically the same thing again for the 6 endless days I was there. I made day 2 of the 2500 6max busting AIPF eventually. I won my first match in the 10k hu and lost my second to Phil Gordon of all people who made a possibly great call on me with KT on a A99ss7s blank river when I bet/bet/overbet. So a tip of the cap to you Phil Gordon. Things went a little better online, but I lost about 35k staking so I think I ended up about even there. I wasn't playing particularly well though in my zombified state, that's for sure. By day 4 of Vegas I realized that a bracelet for me is just not worth the grind. Sitting in a chair in the Rio for 12 hours a day every day playing one out of five hands is just not my strength as a poker player, and I don't really want it to be. It had been 2 years since I was last in Vegas and hopefully now that I have immortalized my feelings for the place on the internetz I'll remember to never go back.

In happier news, I am on an absurd rush online. I am still grinding up my 1k roll I deposited in September, and now I am finally getting back into high stakes after quite a few tribulations. As of January I had ran up my roll to 100k, and by mid March I was up to about 250k. Then I had a -100k session against Chewy. So I played 10/20 until May and ran it up to 250k. Then I had a -100k session against Pandora's Bux and moved down again. Then in June (I went on a monthlong roadtrip with my gf as well so had a break there) until now I went on a more or less sustained rush and am up to 350k or so, playing mostly 10/20 with a few sessions of 25/50. I think it's correct to aggressively manage a bankroll, especially when I am sure I have a positive winrate, it just sucks to be constantly moving up and down in some ways from an emotional standpoint. So hopefully I don't jinx it !

Here are a few interesting hands, I've been playing a lot of wild sessions with tough regulars like Ashton, DerekJC, Chemiztry and Urnotindanger which produced some 1000+ BB stacks and correspondingly ridiculous hands.

This is just a big fucking pot.

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $34854.00 USD )
Seat 2: DerekJC9954 ( $21801.00 USD )
Sauce1234 posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
DerekJC9954 posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ Jh 3h ]
Sauce1234 raises [$70.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 raises [$220.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$640.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$480.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Ah, Kc ]
DerekJC9954 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$625.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$625.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
DerekJC9954 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$2150.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$2150.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
DerekJC9954 checks
Sauce1234 bets [$6150.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 raises [$18306.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$12156.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 shows [4h, 6h ]
Sauce1234 shows [Jh, 3h ]
Sauce1234 wins $43601.50 USD from main pot

Some people don't have a bluffing range in some spots, specially really infrequent ones. I try to have one everywhere, for better or most likely for worse. Since Derek is a value monkey I expect him to almost always bet any middling kings on the end as well as all flushes and some bluffs. Which means I am going to sometimes check a boat with these stacks but maybe it doesn't matter because he just jams a flush over a bet thinking 'lol he has a king'. Or more likely he jams any med-large flushes over a bet, and calls a bet with the rest of his range, I donno.

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $21844.50 USD )
Seat 2: DerekJC9954 ( $5334.50 USD )
DerekJC9954 posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 6h 9s ]
DerekJC9954 raises [$50.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$40.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, 5c, Kd ]
Sauce1234 checks
DerekJC9954 bets [$80.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$260.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$180.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
Sauce1234 bets [$500.00 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$500.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
Sauce1234 checks
DerekJC9954 bets [$1200.00 USD]
Sauce1234 raises [$21024.50 USD]
DerekJC9954 calls [$3314.50 USD]
Sauce1234 wins $16510.00 USD
Sauce1234 shows [6h, 9s ]
DerekJC9954 shows [3c, Ac ]
DerekJC9954 wins $10668.50 USD from main pot

This is just cool because I knew this was going to happen from the turn onward and I was thinking 'man I get to make a 9 high snap call, this is so cool !'.

Seat 1: Sauce1234 ( $17909.25 USD )
Seat 2: theASHMAN103 ( $13650.50 USD )
theASHMAN103 posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
Sauce1234 posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Sauce1234 [ 3c 9c ]
theASHMAN103 raises [$125.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$100.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ac, 6s, Js ]
Sauce1234 checks
theASHMAN103 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
Sauce1234 checks
theASHMAN103 checks
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
Sauce1234 checks
theASHMAN103 bets [$225.00 USD]
Sauce1234 calls [$225.00 USD]
theASHMAN103 shows [5h, 3h ]
Sauce1234 shows [3c, 9c ]
Sauce1234 wins $749.50 USD from main pot

GL everyone.

Ben