Keep uploading video's

The last video I uploaded was an old one. Sorry for that. Here is the link to the new one. comments and questions are alwas appreciated.

Cardreading skillzzzz

This kind of hand really makes a good day. Like it that he shows...

PokerStars Game #16908379523: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2008/04/22 - 04:05:23 (ET)
Table 'Coppelia' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Edme79 ($299.60 in chips)
Seat 2: 0Human0 ($247 in chips)
Seat 3: HaLoHaLo ($198 in chips)
Seat 4: flairgirl1 ($122.75 in chips)
Seat 5: groente99 ($98.85 in chips)
Seat 6: kadi100 ($560.80 in chips)
HaLoHaLo: posts small blind $1
flairgirl1: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Edme79 [6h Ad]
groente99: folds
kadi100: folds
Edme79: raises $4 to $6
0Human0: folds
HaLoHaLo: folds
flairgirl1: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [As 6d Kh]
flairgirl1: bets $8
Edme79: raises $14 to $22
flairgirl1: calls $14
*** TURN *** [As 6d Kh] [8h]
flairgirl1: bets $20
Edme79: calls $20
*** RIVER *** [As 6d Kh 8h] [2s]
flairgirl1: bets $74.75 and is all-in
Edme79 said, "A8?"
Edme79 said, "pretty sick"
Edme79 said, "you show?"
Edme79: folds
flairgirl1 collected $94 from pot
flairgirl1: shows [8d Ah] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $97 | Rake $3
Board [As 6d Kh 8h 2s]
Seat 1: Edme79 folded on the River
Seat 2: 0Human0 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: HaLoHaLo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: flairgirl1 (big blind) collected ($94)
Seat 5: groente99 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: kadi100 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Early mornings

To bed at 3h30 and rise and shine at 7h30... wtf. Back to poker at 8h30, made $600 by 11h00. Cashgames rule.

As you can read in my previous post the tournaments ended without any big results. Went pretty deep in the $55 tournament, but finished 50 something. Had a decent stack and wanted to resteal someone who had taken every opportunity to steal blinds. Unortunately he woke up with a hand. Next hand I pushed 44 from the SB and the BB had KK. Sunday Million kind of scked, finding KK to be up against AA in the very first blind level. The 250K at iPoker was ok. Not to problematic. Bleeded to death and it was folded to me in the SB, where I pushed with 75 and the player in the BB called with QT.

Video
Promissed you a new video last week. I am now uploading. So when it does that, I have time to discuss two hands.

Hand


Three barreling here is pretty standard I guess. However, I like the small river bet. It looks like a valuebet. The problem with this hand is that he will check call almost any 9 or T on the river, even if I bet bigger. However, he will fold all draws betting here. So no need to bet big.

Video is uploaded. Here is the link...

Tournament night

Cleaned the house today, so ready for poker night :)

First, I skipped the party tournament. Too early. I just started the 250K gtd on iPoker, which has a small overlay.

I will only update things here with results. When I get deep I will do some more updates. Since I won another SM $215 ticket today I can pretty much freeroll this tournament night.

Tournaments:
20h00: $250,000 gtd - iPoker. Out 117th. +$85. 75 vs QT.
20h05: Daily 15 grand - Stars. Out 1540th. -11$. AK vs QQ.
20h30: $3 rebuy - Stars. Out 2900th. -$9. QQ vs KK.
21h30: Sunday Hundred Grand - Stars. Out 5856th. -$11. J9o vs 88.
22h30: Sunday Million - Stars. Out 7025th. KK vs AA.
23h00: $55 25K gtd - Stars. Out 57th. +$72.28.
0h00: WSOP qualifier - Stars - DNS

22h45... Like wtf. Cooler town deluxe. Just busted the Sunday Million in the first blind level. Got KK for the 2nd time. I opened, one caller, reraise I 4bet and villain pushes. Showing AA. Bye, bye Sunday Million. Still in the Sunday Hundred Grand and the 250K at iPoker. Both a bit above average stack. Doubting if I'd play the WSOP qualifier tonight. Not a good feeling about it. I will see.

0h15... Only in the $55 tournament at stars. I hate tournaments, just waiting for that one big hit. So I played the 250K at iPoker. Weee. 117th for a mere $300 and a $85 profit. Hello. 3,5 hours play. Didnt register for the WSOP qualifier. Not really motivated and winning very little, to spend $650.



So I opened some cash tables on stars. Very first hand:



Always nice to hit a set. I check raise both players. The caller calls again. I have no info, never seen him before. But I assume he has a drawish hand, perhaps an ace. The turn completes the most likely draw. I bet a very small amount. First it is for value. He could decide to push here, but it also show a lot of weakness from my side. He will most likely push or raise with a straight and call anything else. It leaves a bit more than a pot bet on the river as well. Showing weakness, might mean he will bluff push the river. River is the 9, which could be awfull. It completes a backdoor flush and there is a very obvious straight. He pushes here and still I think I have a pretty easy call. The only hand that he could have that beats me is 56.

Ship them tickets

Played a bit of cash today. 3 buyins under expectation, but still 3 buyins up on 200NL.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee. I qualified for the Sunday Million (double shootout) and for the $650 WSOP qualifier. That was one ticket in a double shoothout. Will probably play bth tomorrow.

Provisional schedule tomorrow (Amsterdam time):
18h45: 300K gtd - PartyPoker
20h00: $250,000 gtd - iPoker
21h30: Sunday Hundred Grand - Stars
22h30: Sunday Million - Stars
0h00: WSOP qualifier - Stars

Probably will play some smaller tournaments as well. Latersss.

Things are tough

Bit of a crappy brainwaivy post, but its 1h30 in the morning and usually I am sound asleep at this hour of the night. So pleeeeez forgive me.

It is a very, very swingy month. One day you win six buyins, next day you loose 8. Really frustrating. Im probably break even for the month or so. Loads and loads of beats and coolers, but thats life. Played a shitload of hands already this month, but no real payback. Hate it when that happens and when fish continue to sck out and then leave the table. That last thing is the only thing in poker that gets me frustrated really bad. On stars there is this fish ...foil something from valencia on 200NL. Buyins for 20BB, hits and leaves. 10 tabeling and ruining the game. So hate that. People without any skill, respect, ethics or whatsoever. But hey, part of poker too.

So I took a shot again at 1K NL. Not to bad. Only had one tough hand when I held ATo and raised. BTN called, who just joined. Board comes QT7 and I bet. Villain calls. Turn comes Q, I check-call and river comes 7 and I check-call. Really wonder if this was optimal.

Became a platinum star VIP on Stars. Still a good site to play at. Doomswitch is active on Stars and iPoker, but somehow I dont wanna go to nEverest.

PokerUTD is still rocking big time. A friend I referred had a problem depositing. Support added us on msn to solve his issue. Never seen that at any other site this quickly for new players. Love it.

Noticed Carlos is having a rake race with seats for the top two spots to the unibet open in Madrid. Might give it a shot. We will see.

Sunday will probably be tournament day/night. Looking to qualify for the Sunday Million and WSOP qualifier and will probably just buyin to the big event on iPoker and PartyPoker. Got kind of a freeroll on iPoker. Titan is always crediting my account with $50. So I played a sit and go and won, which made me $250, which I will use to buyin. Perhaps more luck/ fewer beats and coolers than in cash games.

Furthermore I have started some coaching. I am coaching Ferry for some time now and am also starting out with someone else.

Feld just frustrated today about how poker is going lately. Thoughtprocesses are good, attitude good, skill good, results suck. So to get my mind of things went to buy some clothes today, which is nice. Will probably also buy a new TV (37" Full HD from Philips or Samsung. Not sure yet).

Also looking for a nice job. Tired of sitting at home playing poker.

Cheers and adios!

Pokernews articles

I added a bunch of links to the left of the blog. They include all articles I have written for Pokernews thus far. Quite a few actually. I will update the list as more articles are being published. I trust everyone did read my article in the last issue of pokernews magazine :).

Suggestions about topics that need to addressed in the Pokernews strategy section are always more then welcome.

Some hands, as promissed

Long time due, but here are some interesting hands, as promissed.

Hand #1


This one was pretty nice. Villain is in position and calls and raises a lot. My image is somewhat aggressive, but not too much. Like 18/16 with 8% 3bet. I open from the cut off with 9To and he just calls. Blinds fold. I make a standard cbet, a bit small, betting $10 into a $17 pot. However, he makes a small 3bet as well. Ok, I have got air. him 3betting so small on a board with a flush draw and straight draw is surprising, so I think he has a draw or a weak pair at best. I decide to call here, because there can come a lot of scarecards for him if he has a pair. Moreover, he always bet the flushdraw if it hits. On the turn though, I hit a pair and start thinking if it might be good. I check and he instabets 3/4 pot. This makes me wonder if he has a hand or not. He could have a set here, but would probably have played it differently. In his range i dont see many queens. QK, QJ would either 3bet or fold preflop. So I think my hand might be good here. The river more or less blanks. 56 makes a straight now, but I dont think he would continue betting this hard with an open ended draw. He would more likely check the turn behind. Now the pot is $149 on the river, which he insta-pushes. I think my pair could be good here. How he played the hand, wanting to show a lot of strength. So I have to call $106 for a $261 pot. Basically it is a bluff catcher to call here with 9To. But how the hand played and some gut feeling, combined with ok odds I think I can call here against this opponent. It’s a hand where you feel like a monkey if he shows a set of sevens and you feel good if happened what happened.

Hand 2


Villain played 26/19 with 5% 3bet and a 2.0 aggression factor. We had some clashes during the session and he pushed me off aces before. However, this hand is a bit different. I raise in position with aces and villain just calls. He subsequently donkbets into me on a very drawheavy board. I decide to call here. I have the ace of diamonds, which is important since there are two diamonds on the flop. If I raise and he pushes I have a decision for 150BB, which is a bit to much. So I decide to call here for potcontrole. I underrep my hand here and might get some value from weaker hands on later streets. However, I am definitely willing to give up on the turn should he bet big again when a scare card hits. Basically, when a 9, or a J hits. I don’t think his hand is as strong as a combodraw, two pair or a set, cause he would have check raised me on the flop, instead of donkbetting this dangerous flop. Now he could have something like 67dd, 77, 99, 9T, TQ, JQ, JK etc. The turn is the two of hearts. The blank of blanks on this board. However, he checks and I make a ¾ pot bet. Still I think my hand is severely underrepresented. However, he checkraises me to $80, which is almost three times my bet. Wow. Here, I definitely think he would not have played his hand like this with a monster. I am not that aggressive, that I will always bet when he checks to me. When I would have had a draw I would have checked behind. There is no reason for him to consider me having a bad hand. He probably thinks I am stealing the pot, while having floated the flop. His range has not changed. Only hand he could play like this is 97dd, but that’s a very small part of his range. I am ahead now against all one pair hands and draws. Since he is quite aggressive with donkbetting and check-raising I push here. He folds…

Hand 3


This hand is more about inducing bluffs. Player is insanely aggressive. 37/32 with 13% 3bet. Aggression factor is 2.4. He minraise-opens UTG and I 3bet from the button with Jacks. I make it little more than four times his bet. I tend to 3bet bigger if villains minraise. Same as they limp, I make it 5 or 6 times the BB. He calls. Which tells me he doesn’t have QQ+ or AK, which he would have 4bet. Leaves somes small pairs and suited connectors and perhaps an AXs hand. So the flop comes low with two diamonds. Lot of draws here. I cbet ¾ pot and villains just calls. Ok, no really strong draw or a set, which he would have checkraised most often. Turn blanks with three of spades. I think it is fine to continue betting now. I think it is fine to check here. Since he is so aggressive and I don’t want to play for stacks here with JJ I want to check behind, planning on calling most river bets. He is aggressive, so I am fairly sure he will bet anything on the river. He bets a little more than half the pot, so easy call.

Hand 4


We are five handed. Villain was a bit donkish, playing 44/10 with 1.3 aggression. This hand somewhat backfired. Villain opens UTG and I 3bet with AJo. Mainly to isolate, since I have position. He calls. I hit top pair ace on a board that has not hit a lot of hands. There is a flushdraw however. But since the ace is part of the flushdraw, I am less worried about that. I want to get value. He called my 3bet. So if he has an ace, like AQ, AK my hand is garbage. I know he bluffs a lot, so that is what I am looking for. I can check behind and still get value from weaker pairs. He bets the turn and I call here. Still think my hand is good and he almost never has an ace here. River is a queen and he fires pot again. I underrep my hand again and decide my hand is probably good, against all hands, except the unlikely QQ he was holding.

If you like more hands, or specific situations, let me know and I will see what I can do. I taped a video and will probably upload it this week. For now: bye bye.

Playing at stars

Been playing at Stars a fair amount lately. At the beginning I was up like 18 buyins in 5K hands on 200NL. Just a huge amount of fish there, much more than I have seen on iPoker. However, this also causes a fair amount of beats. Loosing preflop allins: AQ vs 88 (not really a beat though, but wtf AI with 88), AK against K9o, KK against 89s and the good old AK against J3o. All for more than 100BB. Gotta love that. The funny thing is that in every one of these hands the fish called all-in! Names to add to your stars fish list: xbangbang07x, ajmaq, choial. Dont really see why the general consensus is that the games are harder at stars. almost every random table I join has donks sitting with VPIP of 40+.

For the weekend I am not going to play and hopefully have a fresh start next week. So far this month is below expectation, with just a small profit. I will post some interesting hands next week.

Voting for my Eurolinx video

Voting has begun for the Eurolinx mutli table challenge. Three video's are competing to win the big screen monitor. Voting can be done here. You have to log in with a Eurolinx account though.

Start of the month

I am now playing a tournament and in the break. So time to update this blog. Start of the month was pretty rocky. Was down 2,5K very quickly, but back in the green since today. I have played a bit more on Stars, since it is so fish infested. Nonetheless I played a lot at PokerUTD as well.

Later this week I will post some hands, since people tend to like that.

So far I have played some 100NL, 200NL, a lot of 400NL and some 600NL. I want to move up, but there are few tables available at 600NL. Bankroll-wise 1K NL may not be good yet, but if I see a fish I just go and sit.

I am going to play the King match as part of a promotion on PokerUTD. Will probably play this week against Flatrick. It is a heads up sit and go. Winner will receive $1000 + another token for a king match and the looser will receive eternal humiliation and $500. So i'd better win :).

Tournaments are going a bit better lately. Fewer marginal situations and I start winning some flips. I get in the money a lot more often and find proper spots to put my money in.

Tournament 15K gtd
Bit about the tournament I am still in. Down to 58 out of 2885. It is the 15 grand at Stars with an $10+$1 buyin. I have a bit underaverage stack. 73K with 100K average now. Was down to 2K a few hands ago, but got back to 50K within 3 hands. lol.

Pfff. Getting blinded to death. Its 10 minute levels. So first one in wins the pot. Dont get any decent hands. 60K left, 51 players. Average 115K.

Could steal some blinds. 66K left. 42 players. Average 140K.

Up to 80K. 41 left. First prize is $4.2K.

Chancard was reading my blog. He is at my table lol. I only steal with AA obv...

Up to 96K. 31 left and have half average. Come onnnnnn!

Crapperdecrap. out with QJ. Flop two pair but caller rivers two pair with A6. 28th and $54.82. What a waste of time. Back to cashgaming. 1K up today :) on 200NL.

Inside the mind of a fish

I assume some, or most of you have read the book “The Poker Mindset”. It is generally about having a good attitude towards poker, and more specifically about dealing with beats and handling variance. It looks very nice in writing, but in practice it is a different story. After getting beat after beat a little piece about “Inside the mind of the fish”.

Even a serious player can get out of control when he is running bad by getting coolered or getting beats. Check out the forums and you will find thousands of bad beat stories and tilting players. Being tight, loose, passive or aggressive, sometimes it takes a number of bad beats to get on tilt.

So assume you are playing against a fish who gives you a bad beat. The hand below is used as an example as the thoughtprocess of a fish.



Own thought process
I look at my cards and see Kings. Nice. I raise and attend to the needs at the other tables I am playing. 30 seconds later the table pops back up, when it is my turn again. I see 4 players have called my raise and it is checked to me. Are these guys calling everything with anything? I have top trips on a drawheavy board. Lets bet here about $50 into a $70 pot and keep a close eye on how the hand unfolds. Wtf, 3 callers. What would they have. Some pair or a weakfish draw? I would not like to see a spade, a nine or a six on the turn, which would complete draws. Hmmm, a 5 of hearts. 69 and 64 make a straight now and another flushdraw is added, besides the flopped spade draw. Nobody raised the flop, so I assume there is no set or any very strong combo draw. The cut off would certainly have raised that, since he is a decent player. Fish1 is weak-passive, so he could still have a hand. Fish2 is aggressive and would certainly raise a good hand here. Pot is $270, lets be a good amount, like $210 here. I am probably still ahead, but lot of scarecards. I should not be slowplaying this. Wow, two fishies keep calling. River is the 4c. Do not really like it, but a six is unlikely, unless they had 56s or something. But they would have pushed that hand on the flop. Let’s see. OMG, wtf, the fish is suddenly betting $70 into a $900+ pot. Should I raise here? Hell no. He probably has it. So hate these donkies. Let’s call. I don’t hope the other one comes over the top. He folds???? Showdown: 67o. Nice hand sir… Reload please. If only I could be inside the one braincell of a fish.

Fish 2
Blub. Blub. I must be good. Joined this table with $80 and now I have $534.10. Bit lucky though, but hey, no one can win this game if it wasn’t for luck. What we have here: JsQs. Two cards with pictures and of the same colour. That is close to the nuts. Someone raises and a call. I call as well. Perhaps I flop something nice. Wow nice flop, two cards of the same colour. I can hit a flush on the turn or the river and I have a runner runner two pair draw if someone happens to have the king. $50 only. Not too expensive since I came here with $80 anyways. 5 on the turn. No spade. Shame. The last spade will probably come on the river. Hmm, the guy bets $210. Someone folds, which increases my chances. Still, if I loose this pot, I will still have a nice profit at this table. I call. Mehh, 4c. That sucks. Let’s check the “Fold to any bet”-box. Better luck next hand.

Fish 1
Blub. I am in the small blind. Someone raises and two callers. 67. It’s only $12 more to call, so why not. Here comes the flop. K87. Hmmm, bottom pair. Could have been better. Let’s check and see what happens. The donk at the other side bets again and two people call. I am priced in here. Must call. If I hit another 7 I am taking down this pot. Call!!! A 5 on the turn. That is not to bad. Would have like the 7 better though. However, it seems to increase my chances. But first I check. The donk bets again. Someone folds and someone calls. Should probably call here. I have one pair and a draw. I call again. River is the 4. Bingo, jackpot, ka-ching. Now, shall I bet here or check-raise. No, I have the best hand, I bet. I do not want to chase the other two players away. I just valuebet $70. He calls. Nice. Shame the button folds. More then $1000. I love it. *Sitting out*. See ya…

Conclusion
What you see here is that the fish are only thinking about their own hands and not about how these hands are doing against hand ranges of other players. Fish2, sees he has a flushdraw and he is not even one second concerned about someone have a king-high or an ace-high flush draw. He just assumes that if another spade hits, he will pick up the pot. He looks at his own chances of improving and does not even consider someone else having him absolutely crushed. He just calls the flop and does not consider the possibility of the two players behind him check-raising. When the river cards hits, he is disappointed and just folds to any bet. He figures how it is possible to miss the draw with so many spades left in the deck.

The other fish figures he is priced in preflop. He does not consider position, by being on the SB. Even though his position is good, compared to the original raiser. When the flop comes he sees he flopped a pair. A pair, in his own little world, is always good. A pair is the start of a better hand. The fact that the initial raiser is betting against 4 other players and that it must mean he must have some kind of hand, is completely irrelevant. When he sees two people are calling the bet of the initial raiser, he, wrongly, figures he is priced in again. On the turn he realizes not only a 7 will do now, but there are more cards that could help him on the river. Once again, the fact that the board is double suited does not mean a thing. That he in fact only has a few really safe outs, is not something fish1 can comprehend. Then, on the river, his bingo card hits the deck. He looks at his cards and triple-checks if he really has a straight. Yes. Now he is concerned how to get some more money out of the two other players. He just bets small, as to not chase them away. Once again, the fact that someone would have the 6 that would make a straight, would be completely illogical and is not part of his logic. The fact that he won the hand means he is doing something right. He is a good player, just looking for some fun. The extra money is his, and now he can safely close down the poker client and go watch TV again. Next time he could win more and play longer.

Well this is an example of the thought process of a fish. You can’t blame him. Hell, I can’t blame him. Every time he makes these decisions, he is loosing, in the long run. You would want these fish at your table all day, every day. They are your bread and butter. The people that pay for your pizza, your rent, your mortgage, your car and finance all other every day needs. The fact that he is lucky, makes him come back to the poker game. He now won a $1000 pot, and next time you will see him at a $5/$10 table.

Do not chase him away. Do not berate the fish. Think of him as the guy you are loaning money too, and who will, sooner or later, give it back to you with high interest. Do not tilt. There is no point there. It is about the long run. Not about the short term losses!!!!

Hope you liked it!

Edmé