Well, after a long six months of traning and finally finishing that up, I actually have been playing any game BUT omaha for the past month or two. I just needed a break from it after grinding it pretty much non stop to pay for my course.
Funny thing happens though when you pick up other games - you learn things that you can apply to your primary game. For instance, after playing 6max no limit for a while, a solid "TAG" style in that game will have a vpip of around 20% and a pfr of above 15%, and usually the closer these two numbers are in relation to each other the better.
I had been looking back on the forum at some of the first posts I was making in the omaha forum last August when I picked the game back up. For a while I was running at around a 30/6. How I managed to not go broke, I'm really not quite sure.
I've put in a couple sessions the last few days, and have been doing extremely well. I'm playing the best poker I've played in quite some time. For the next little while I'm going to focus on building myself back up. I haven't yet decided if I want to play 2 or 4 tables - that will depend on how I'm feeling.
I spent some time as well getting my tracker program more organized, setting up my head up display more effectively, and just generally making my layout more appealing and informative.
Another funny thing happened last night too...I was approached by one of the other S7S members who is looking to learn some of the ins and outs of playing omaha. Now this guy plays WAY higher limits than I do at his main game, but doesn't have much experience in omaha. We were chatting for about an hour on skype while I was two tabling. He's actually a VERY solid poker player and thinks about the game on a high level. I picked up a few concepts from him that I can apply to my omaha game, so it's a very interesting dynamic. I have no doubt that he'll be crushing the omaha games after a few more chats and sessions.
Anyway, looking forward to the next little while, hopefully putting in hands and building things back to where I can start climbing up through the limits.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
I Am A Work In Progress
Been playing a LOT of hands the past few days. I'm doing ok (results wise) but that's kind of a secondary concern right at the moment. What I'm more focused on is learning and improving and tightening up my game. If I can make some money while I do it, that's great, but I'm trying to build a base of solid play to work from long term.
TwoPlusTwo has a great thread that someone has compiled in their micro stakes no limit forum (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=98125) for people like me, trying to learn the fundamentals of the game.
I've also been getting a lot of help from more experienced players (specifically Simo8Ball from FCP). I can't say enough about how much these resources have been and will continue to be helpful to my game.
As much as sometimes we might think that we have things figure out - in poker, I don't think that's ever the case. I read a good passage somewhere yesterday that said (and I'm only paraphrasing here)"Poker as a game isn't played inside a box. The sooner you realize that and begin to think outside of that box, the better off you'll be).
In the past couple days working with Simo, and reading a ton, I think we've identified a few areas that I need to work on. I greatly improved my preflop play today - I was limping too much the past little bit - today I played 18/16. Much better than 21/5 imo.
Simo and I talked a bit today about bet sizing on the later streets. I've pretty much just been mashing the pot button on my bets post flop (Pot Limit Omaha experience probably to blame for that tendancy). The more ideal line seems to be to bet between 70-85% of the pot size. We'll give that a try tonight and see how things go from there. (then I'm sure Mark will find some other flaw in the game to work on, and we'll tweak that too...and on, and on...)
TwoPlusTwo has a great thread that someone has compiled in their micro stakes no limit forum (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=98125) for people like me, trying to learn the fundamentals of the game.
I've also been getting a lot of help from more experienced players (specifically Simo8Ball from FCP). I can't say enough about how much these resources have been and will continue to be helpful to my game.
As much as sometimes we might think that we have things figure out - in poker, I don't think that's ever the case. I read a good passage somewhere yesterday that said (and I'm only paraphrasing here)"Poker as a game isn't played inside a box. The sooner you realize that and begin to think outside of that box, the better off you'll be).
In the past couple days working with Simo, and reading a ton, I think we've identified a few areas that I need to work on. I greatly improved my preflop play today - I was limping too much the past little bit - today I played 18/16. Much better than 21/5 imo.
Simo and I talked a bit today about bet sizing on the later streets. I've pretty much just been mashing the pot button on my bets post flop (Pot Limit Omaha experience probably to blame for that tendancy). The more ideal line seems to be to bet between 70-85% of the pot size. We'll give that a try tonight and see how things go from there. (then I'm sure Mark will find some other flaw in the game to work on, and we'll tweak that too...and on, and on...)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Is there such thing as a poker drifter?
For some reason lately I can't seem to find my footing. I moved my money on to pokerstars, and was grinding the $10nl game. Played about 9k hands and won ~13 buyins. The progress is SO slow though and the game just feels like such a grind. I don't know if I have it in me to play as disciplined as I'll need to at that level.
Out of boredom moreso than anything, I started playing different games. Put in a few sessions of Stud8, 2-7 triple draw, and 5 card draw. Ended up booking small/marginal losses in each of those games - pretty much wiping out most of the gains I had made by grinding the 10nl...lol
This obviously is a bad habit to fall in to. Something else that has been hurting me is playing without rakeback. To higher limit players it's not as significant, but if I can add 10-20% per month to my poker bankroll just by playing with rakeback, I'm crazy not to at this point. Somewhere down the road I can play on stars when I'm at a high enough level to earn the fpp's that make it worthwhile, but for right now I need the money.
I moved some funds back to Absolute last night - I want to get to VIP status, and I also have some reload bonus money to clear now as well, which is nice. To a guy with $500 to start, adding a $110 reload bonus to that IS significant, especially since their bonus money doesn't subtract from rakeback earned.
I've played 1500 hands of 50nl there - I'm somewhat shortstacking it for the time being, buying in for $30 at a time. The bad beat jackpot is huge right now, over $640k, and 50nl is the lowest qualifying limit that it can be hit at. I think once that goes, I'll probably try and settle myself in at $25nl, but we'll see how things go.
Out of boredom moreso than anything, I started playing different games. Put in a few sessions of Stud8, 2-7 triple draw, and 5 card draw. Ended up booking small/marginal losses in each of those games - pretty much wiping out most of the gains I had made by grinding the 10nl...lol
This obviously is a bad habit to fall in to. Something else that has been hurting me is playing without rakeback. To higher limit players it's not as significant, but if I can add 10-20% per month to my poker bankroll just by playing with rakeback, I'm crazy not to at this point. Somewhere down the road I can play on stars when I'm at a high enough level to earn the fpp's that make it worthwhile, but for right now I need the money.
I moved some funds back to Absolute last night - I want to get to VIP status, and I also have some reload bonus money to clear now as well, which is nice. To a guy with $500 to start, adding a $110 reload bonus to that IS significant, especially since their bonus money doesn't subtract from rakeback earned.
I've played 1500 hands of 50nl there - I'm somewhat shortstacking it for the time being, buying in for $30 at a time. The bad beat jackpot is huge right now, over $640k, and 50nl is the lowest qualifying limit that it can be hit at. I think once that goes, I'll probably try and settle myself in at $25nl, but we'll see how things go.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Building A Foundation
Played some hands of $10nl today - about 400 hands, won 2.5 buyins there. I'm very happy with how I'm starting out with 6max nl. Granted, it's at the micro stakes level, but hopefully with experience and running half decently I'll be able to make the 75 buyins of $10 that I need to get to $1250. That also should help me figure out the nuances of the game enough to keep moving up through the stakes. By that point hopefully I'll also be through the 180 stake and have a little bit of extra cash to add to the roll.
In the 1100 hands I've played at $10 thus far, I'm up just over 10 buyins - I don't expect to be able to hold up nearly that pace of profit - but still if I can maintain a decent winrate, it shouldn't take me much more than a month or so to make enough to move up to at least $25, where I can make some half decent money and start earning some FPP's. That's a huge downside of playing at $10 is that you earn next to nothing in the way of bonus or points on pokerstars.
Played one 180 tourney last night, went out 33rd unfortunately. I got NO cards at all in the second hour of the tourney and ended up pushing JQs when I was shortstacked and ran it smack in to pocket aces unfortunately. I feel good playing them though, even though they are a bit of a grind. 3 down, and finishes of 22nd, 2nd and 33rd are pretty decent. My hope is that out of the 50, I can final table at least 5, and win minimum one. I'll be playing some more on my days off this week, so hopefully there will be some good news....
In the 1100 hands I've played at $10 thus far, I'm up just over 10 buyins - I don't expect to be able to hold up nearly that pace of profit - but still if I can maintain a decent winrate, it shouldn't take me much more than a month or so to make enough to move up to at least $25, where I can make some half decent money and start earning some FPP's. That's a huge downside of playing at $10 is that you earn next to nothing in the way of bonus or points on pokerstars.
Played one 180 tourney last night, went out 33rd unfortunately. I got NO cards at all in the second hour of the tourney and ended up pushing JQs when I was shortstacked and ran it smack in to pocket aces unfortunately. I feel good playing them though, even though they are a bit of a grind. 3 down, and finishes of 22nd, 2nd and 33rd are pretty decent. My hope is that out of the 50, I can final table at least 5, and win minimum one. I'll be playing some more on my days off this week, so hopefully there will be some good news....
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Short Session - Busy Night
Didn't play many hands last night, spent most of the night getting text messages from Las Vegas where Zach (Zach6668 from FCP) was playing day 2 of the $1500 limit holdem event at the WSOP. I can't imagine how much fun he's having actually playing in the event - I'm having a blast just following along with his updates and reading the story online at pokernews.com.
Anyway, while they were on dinner break I took the opportunity to put in an hour or so at the tables. Played just over 200 hands, won 3 buyins. I'm running so sickly well right now and just absolutely crushing the $10 game - beating it for better than a buyin per hundred hands. More importantly I think I'm playing a very solid game - focusing on playng pots in position, and being the aggressor in most situations.
Tonight I should get a chance to get some hands in. Will likely play a couple of the $22 180's for the stake - hopefully with similar results to the one the other night...Zach is also down to the last 2 tables of the world series event, so I'll be following that intently. I know some of the guys from the forum are going down to the Rio to cheer him on - look forward to being on the E-rail.
In other blog news, a while back I wrote about a guy from the forum who posts under the name "Elo and Ag", who I've since come to know as Patrick. He final tabled the 50k gtd on Stars last night and ended up 3rd to make yet another nice score. He's one of the best examples I've seen yet of a guy who's built a roll from pretty much nothing - exactly what I'm trying to do right now. Hopefully in a year or so, I'll be sitting on an "Elo-like" roll and getting ready to go out and play some of these WSOP events myself.....(hey, gotta have some kind of goal to work towards right??)
Anyway, while they were on dinner break I took the opportunity to put in an hour or so at the tables. Played just over 200 hands, won 3 buyins. I'm running so sickly well right now and just absolutely crushing the $10 game - beating it for better than a buyin per hundred hands. More importantly I think I'm playing a very solid game - focusing on playng pots in position, and being the aggressor in most situations.
Tonight I should get a chance to get some hands in. Will likely play a couple of the $22 180's for the stake - hopefully with similar results to the one the other night...Zach is also down to the last 2 tables of the world series event, so I'll be following that intently. I know some of the guys from the forum are going down to the Rio to cheer him on - look forward to being on the E-rail.
In other blog news, a while back I wrote about a guy from the forum who posts under the name "Elo and Ag", who I've since come to know as Patrick. He final tabled the 50k gtd on Stars last night and ended up 3rd to make yet another nice score. He's one of the best examples I've seen yet of a guy who's built a roll from pretty much nothing - exactly what I'm trying to do right now. Hopefully in a year or so, I'll be sitting on an "Elo-like" roll and getting ready to go out and play some of these WSOP events myself.....(hey, gotta have some kind of goal to work towards right??)
Friday, June 6, 2008
Rededication - The New Beginning
Well, it's been quite some time since I've updated obviously and there's much to get to. I stopped blogging a couple months back because I was involved in a poker training program with a player from the FCP forums. It was a 6 month program, during which the participants aren't to publicize their involvement in it, so it was hard to blog about my poker playing and not involve the training I'd been doing.
I've just recently become a "Steve7Stud" graduate, which puts me in the company of some pretty amazing poker players and will be a great resource to draw upon in the future. Since I was on the low end of bankroll as far as trainees went, tuition ate up a good chunk of my poker money, so I am pretty much am going to be starting from the ground up again, and I thought I'd reinstate the blog as a way to track the journey.
To start off, I have two separate paths I'll be taking. For cash game play, I'm starting right near the bottom of the 6max NL ladder, beginning at the $10 games. I plan to put in a good number of hands 4-tabling and get a good feel for the game. I'm starting with 50 buyins, and will only move up to the next level when I reach that number as well.
For tournaments, I will be playing 50 of the $22 180-player tourneys on Pokerstars in the next month or two. I was staked by someone that took a shot on me, and I hope to be able to turn that in to a worthwhile investment for him and make us both a bit of cash in the meantime. I've played two tourneys on the stake thus far, and actually ended up taking down 2nd place for $720 in the second one I played so that gets us off to an AWESOME start on the deal.
I won't be playing them very often, since if you final table them the tourneys are approx. 5 hours long so it's hard for me to find that block of uninterrupted free time - but I should be able to do the 50 tourneys inside of 2 months I figure.
Anyway, that's pretty much that for now. I played some $10nl last night, about 500 hands, and won 5 buyins. I don't expect things to be "that" easy going forward, but I definitely think the game is beatable for a good amount. Here we come, $1250...
I've just recently become a "Steve7Stud" graduate, which puts me in the company of some pretty amazing poker players and will be a great resource to draw upon in the future. Since I was on the low end of bankroll as far as trainees went, tuition ate up a good chunk of my poker money, so I am pretty much am going to be starting from the ground up again, and I thought I'd reinstate the blog as a way to track the journey.
To start off, I have two separate paths I'll be taking. For cash game play, I'm starting right near the bottom of the 6max NL ladder, beginning at the $10 games. I plan to put in a good number of hands 4-tabling and get a good feel for the game. I'm starting with 50 buyins, and will only move up to the next level when I reach that number as well.
For tournaments, I will be playing 50 of the $22 180-player tourneys on Pokerstars in the next month or two. I was staked by someone that took a shot on me, and I hope to be able to turn that in to a worthwhile investment for him and make us both a bit of cash in the meantime. I've played two tourneys on the stake thus far, and actually ended up taking down 2nd place for $720 in the second one I played so that gets us off to an AWESOME start on the deal.
I won't be playing them very often, since if you final table them the tourneys are approx. 5 hours long so it's hard for me to find that block of uninterrupted free time - but I should be able to do the 50 tourneys inside of 2 months I figure.
Anyway, that's pretty much that for now. I played some $10nl last night, about 500 hands, and won 5 buyins. I don't expect things to be "that" easy going forward, but I definitely think the game is beatable for a good amount. Here we come, $1250...
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