Sucky Sunday

Jeh likes to point out that I'm the king of premature celebrators (yes, twss). Good thing I bragged yesterday about having not had a losing day in almost two weeks. STREAK'S OVER!!!!

The day started with a 30-person, one-hand MTT. That's right, one hand. Despite my theory of staying out of the fray early, I (un/fortunately) picked up TT UTG in hand #1. I actually thought about folding, but I couldn't do it. I raised pot (to 70 -- blinds being 10-20), next guy calls, as do the cut off and button. Flop is 3-T-J, rainbow. Wahoo. So now I get to exploit the first hand madness that I see in every MTT. I bet out 200 (pot is 310). Guy to my left makes it 600 (YES!) and other two fold. I pause....and when my status bar is just to go blank I shove all in. He insta calls and his JJ is shown. Turn and river are blanks. Super fun tournament.

As for the rest of the day, I played about 460 hands at 7 different $.02-$.04 6-max tables over the course of the day and was a giant loser...to the tune of $8.54. Can't say I played super great or super tilty. I suffered a couple painful beats and did well not to tilt. However, I certainly went haywire on the last hand, losing my biggest hand of the Challenge ($12.54). Ouch. Flopped the toppiest of top sets, but the board also brought 3 clubs. When my opponent check-called the flop, I figured there was a good chance he held one big club. I decided that if I shoved, he'd only call me if he happened to be holding a big flush. Plus, I still had a few outs (boat/quads). Wrong and wrong. And thus went my $6.55. Feedback please. What would you do on the turn? I seriously doubt anybody shuts down on the flop when we flop top set. True? If I check behind on the turn, what do I do when he bets half-pot, pot or all-in on the river. I guess the answer is call, call and fold. Yes?

Oh well. Eeyore retiring (well maybe) for today......

A Few Brief Sessions

Haven't had too much time to play in the past few days. Played a 23 hand session Friday and profited a tidy $3.12 (I believe I win in the dollars-per-minute category). Played a similarly short 105 hand session this evening and netted $4.87. No extraordinary hands. I've been playing (for the most part) patiently and doubling up through the tilty maniacs.

Overall, the 'roll is now at $133.18....having played 4509 hands. Happy with that, and haven't had a losing day since Jan. 18. Here's hoping the Eeyore graph trajectory remains the same....

Overplaying AKo

I'll be brief about my Tuesday play. Same as Monday, I played three 6-max NLHE tables ($.02-$.04) and one $1.10 MTT.

The live play was fine, but I lost two big pots when I was in great shape when the money went in. I nearly tripled at one table, which offset (plus a little) my losses at the other two. For the day, up $.18 overall, including a net $1.28 at ring games.

In the MTT, I think I made a pretty big mistake....and I say that not just because of the result. As always, start with T1500. Thirty players, and we were down to 14. I played less than 10% of hands in the first two or three orbits (multi-tabling helps restrain my urge to screw around), and then I more than doubled up in the course of three hands. I was sitting at about T3200, and the blinds were 100-200, with an ante (I think it was 30). There were 7 at the table, and I picked up AKo on the button. One limper, and I raise to 500. The SB calls and the BB (who I recall having about T5000) raises to 1600. The limper between the BB and me folds. At this point, I feel like I can go all in (I have 2700 left, and there's about 3300 in the pot) or fold. Knowing little about the BB (playing 4 tables makes it hard for me to focus in on every player; and I believe this guy was pretty new to the table), I guess I should've saved my chips for another battle, but I shoved. SB folds, BB calls and turns over AA, with even my Kd covered by his Ad. The end.

Given the stage and chip stacks, should I have waited for a different spot? To be honest, I was looking for reasons to shove. I figured he could be trying to take it down there or narrow the field. "Unless he has AA or KK, I'm fine," I thought. I had almost exactly the average stack size (45k/14 remaining players = 3214). The biggest error was probably playing so aggressively (without a made hand) against a guy who 3-bet the pot OOP when I knew nothing about him. Thoughts?

Happy to have been up ($.18!) for the day....and very happy for rakeback. With rakeback, the Eeyore 'roll stands at $124.61. Look out, world. (rakeback accounts for 55% of the gain over three weeks. wow!)

Solid Monday

Played for a couple hours last night, but most of the excitement occurred in the first three hands at the first table. I 3-tabled $.02-$.04 6-max and played a $1+$.10 MTT (30 players).

At the first ring game, I picked up KhKs in the SB (my 2nd hand). Ended up getting all the money in and the flop brought 3 hearts, including the Ace. Rivered a flush and doubled up. Picked up AdTd on the button on the very next hand. My victim from the last hand raised to $.12 and I flat called. The flop was AA2. We both checked, the turn brought a 6. He bet, I raised, he pushed all in and I called. He had A3o, and I was at $12 after hand three. I played a couple more orbits and then left at $11 when another player doubled up to $11 (didn't want to have 10% at risk).

I lost small sums at the other two ring games (played very well - for me - but suffered a couple frustrating beats, including one gutshot when I had an overpair to the board -- got the villain to call an all in bet on the turn with just a gutshot. He got there.).

In the MTT, I finished 4th, resulting in a $3.60 prize (a little more than 3x's the entry fee). It took over an hour, and so it's unclear to me whether it's a proper investment. This is the third MTT I've entered. I didn't cash at the other two. I'll continue to play them on occasion, as I can use the tournament practice, and I can play one MTT while playing three live games. Anyone else playing MTTs?

Overall, up $6.30 for the session, and the Challenge roll sits at a few pennies below $120. Pleased with that....

Nine Wasn't Enough

Bad sign when you run (ok, slowly amble towards) the computer to play an hour of Challenge poker 15 seconds after 9 hours of "P"PP?

Pretty uneventful session, finishing a whopping $.53 to the good. Doubled my buy-in at one table, and went busto at another. Slowed down on the flop with AA, but shipped on the turn.....and my villain called with an open-ender. Nice river, sir or maam.

Overall, as poorly as I played a "P"PP today, I'm happy with my minimal loss there and my 53 cents of pure, unadulterated, non-furry sugar in the Cake Challenge tonight.

Eeyore's Uptick

Since my Monday buffoonery, Eeyore has been enjoying a nice uptick, from the $91 nadir to the present bankroll of a little over $111. I tightened up, stopped (for the most part) trying to bully my way to pots (note to self: check raising with air is a patently bad strategy in $.02-$.04 NLHE) and have tried to concentrate on NOT tilting when I feel that evil feeling coming on. It's helped. Since then, I've only gone busto at one table and have won nearly each session, as the pretty graph above indicates.

A few interesting hands from today.

I flopped huge on this hand, but was unwittingly behind. No way I was letting this monster (top pair, nut draw) go, and I got there on the river. While behind, I was a 54:46 favorite (not that I knew that at the time). Can't imagine playing this any other way. At worst, I was a 2:1 dog (if he flopped a flush), but I couldn't put him on a flush when he called my pre-flop raise...and the A was on the board and K was in my hand. If he was (e.g., with QJs), he was.....

I played one more ($1.15) MTT, just for variety. Busted out 23rd (of 30), but think I played well. Lost 250 on the first hand. Picked up 99 in middle position, made a 3x raise and a c-bet on the flop when 3 undercards (but two of a suit) came. The villain (who was the BB) called and then bet the pot on the turn when the apparent flush got there. I hovered from there (playing only about 15% of hands) until my busto hand occurred. My executioner made a bad call to my pre-flop raise and got the PERFECT flop. Bye bye, Eeyore. 0 for 2 in MTTs now, and will probably play one now and again for funsies (tm).

Can't decide whether to be proud of this one. The villain had 7To in the SB vs. my 8To in the BB. Interesting flop for us both. I bet aggressively on the flop and turn. It was one of those hands that, when called on the turn, I was 90% sure I was dead. Thank g-d for position, as I got to simply check back, in this case for the win.

With rakeback (yea....rakeback), the Eeyore role sits at $111.22.

How to Extract Value at Micro Stakes

At the risk of running into another slew of "it's player dependent" responses, I'm seeking some input as to how to extract value in pots where I hold a monster. Obviously, it's player dependent, but as a baseline does it make sense simply to steam ahead and hope to be called/bluff-raised...rather than trying to slow play at micro stakes?

In the 2000 or so hands thus far, I've run into this a fair number of times. Here's a very recent example. All I know about this guy is that, in the immediately prior hand, he stacked off on the flop with a horrendous holding. Note how terrible his pre flop calls (plural) were. So, on the very next hand, when I flop 2 pair and river a boat, I'm not afraid of being beat and am concerned from the outset on how to get max value out of this chump. My river check (hoping for a bluff) didn't work.....

Thoughts?

Monday Malaise

Played about 50 hands of PLO (down $2 and change) and about 300 hands of NLHE (down $8) yesterday. At PLO, I played the same loose passive style as I had the day before (before reading Marsh's and Chuck's comments), and had neglibly negative results. If I keep playing PLO, I'll tighten up pre-flop, per Chuck's suggested parameters.

The NLHE turned out to be somewhat of a disaster, although it's hard to pin down how things went awry. On one table, the game broke after 10 hands, with me down a whopping $.19. On another, I played 62 hands before going busto. I nearly doubled up early on, and played tight thereafter, slowly bleeding down to around $6. The table dropped to 3 players, including a maniac who kept raising huge (opening the pot for $2+ with $.06 in blinds out there). I picked up 99 on the button and raised the pot. He (in the BB) came over the top all in (about $3) and I snap called. I would've layed that down (probably) to most other players, including ones I knew nothing about, but this guy was looking to give his money away. This time, of course, he held a real hand.....AQ.....and flopped an A. After that, I got a little tilty and went all in pre with AQ, meeting up with TT, and I didn't improve. On the final table, I ground my $4 for 207 hands, and never once was above my starting $4. Got close, but lost one decent sized coin flip. On my last hand I held $2 and AQs on the button. The CO raised pot, I re-potted and he put me all in. Frankly, I was a little tilted/tired, and I went with it. He had KK and I was done for the night...having lost about $10 overall.

Disappointed with the way I played, but tomorrow is another day. AQ is apparently not my friend.

A Quick and Profitable Visit to PLO Land

Heeding Jason's suggestion (let the criticism begin there), I signed on and 2-tabled $.02-$.04 PLO. Played for only about 30 minutes (61 hands total), but nearly doubled. Won $6.97 (bought in for $8).

A couple observations.

First, I found 2-tabling PLO much more daunting than 3-tabling NLHE. Obviously, it's because of my lack of familiarity and comfort with the game. It felt frenetic to me, and I mistakenly mucked (when I meant to raise) a monster (middle set on an otherwise dry board) when I was trying to bounce back and forth. Frustrating.

Second, I'm sure my pre-flop hand selection was awful. I tended to call somewhat liberally (most runs, any pairs bigger than 7, most big cards, if some suited help) and tried to play tighter on/after the flop. Everything came up roses tonight and so I didn't feel the pain I might've deserved, but any comments on that approach? I was able to do this because both tables were loose, passive (not a lot of pre-flop raising, except occasionally by me).

Because I felt a bit overwhelmed by the "action" of 2 tabling, I didn't track all the hands I found interesting. But here are three for your review/comment. Please let me know what you think of my decisions pre-flop and post-.

1. Wow, I lucked out on this flop. Three players and I limp on the button with 776T and call the SB's pot-sized raise. Flopped middle set (amazing, given he had the case 7), and decided that he was bluff check-raising me on the turn. Looking back, it's very possible that I misplayed every step of this hand....except for the raise on the flop.

2. Was my underbet of the flop a mistake (is it an underbet to bet 40% of pot?), when I flopped 4s full of 3s? I hammered the turn and river, but what is the proper play on the flop there? Super short handed like this, ok with me calling on the button pre?

3. Runner, runner rules. (Man, I do sound like Jason.) This one will make Marsh bellow about my "running like a god" good fortune. Who has a theory as to WTF this bozo was doing on the river? Why did he re-raise me all-in (for an additional $.69 into a pot of $6.00 or so) with, um, absolutely nothing? Weird, but thanks....

Maybe I should try playing just 1 table while I try to figure out some starting hand parameters. Or, do you think the loose/passive play pre-flop & tighten post-flop is reasonable, as long as there isn't too much action pre-flop?

Ran Bad, Played Miserably Worse

What a frustrating two hours. Again, 3-tabling $.02-$.04 6-max. Marsh will be pleased to know that my g-d like running came to an end. So, I ran poorly (missed flop after flop, turn after turn, river after river) and I couldn't get my opponents to fold. It took me over an hour of playing to finally quiet down. Ordinarily, I don't see much sense in limping pre flop in 6-max. Am I out to lunch? My mindset is to aggressively play pairs and big cards (with the occasional wildcard 9Ts mixed in) pre flop. Problem is (especially problematic when NOBODY WILL FOLD) I flopped next to nada. It took me quite a while to stop C-betting and quiet down.

The adjustment I made - with some success (helped me recoup about $4 in losses) - was to raise far less pre-flop, and to (ick) limp in and hammer away when I actually caught a piece. I stopped stabbing and it helped. Is that the right adjustment? Seems odd to play loose in a 6-max game.

As for interesting hands, I was too disgusted with myself to keep active track after a while. A few hands:

1. On this one, I, in position, called a min raise pre with 44. Flopped a set (yes, Marsh, another one -- trust me, this was the only set to greet **TLK 10** tonight) and took it down on the turn. While I heeded the advice not to call a raise from the blinds with a small pair, this one seemed ok, as it was a min raise and I had position. Thoughts?

2. Here, I went kablooee. Head hanging low, but since I did this two or three times tonight, perhaps publicly shaming myself will lead to better discipline in the future. I give the villain points for slow playing his flopped nut flush slowly and letting me impale myself. [BTW, this wasn't the worst play of the evening. On another table, I went crazy pre with 99 in the SB -- I found it wise to 4-bet all in, leading to the ecstatic BB's call with QQ. Duh.]

3. Agree with my fold on this one? I had AQ, btw. The link isn't showing my cards for some reason. This was fairly typical of my evening, but I think the laydown was correct. Agree? Villain was a moster stack ($18 or so at a table with $4 max buy in).

'Tis all. Dropped almost $10 tonight. Ugh. Fortunately, I won't be able to play for a few days. Brain needs to reset.....

Nice Quick Session

Fine......TWSS. Infants.

Logged on for only 45 minutes tonight, 3-tabling $.02-$.04. Actually, most of the 45 minutes was 1-tabling, as a helpful run of cards helped me (essentially) bust one table in 12 hands, and another table broke.

Overall, I played just 97 hands, and was up $8.44 for the night. The only semi-interesting hand once again involved my attempt to properly play a small (middle here) pair in 6-max. Raised on the button with 88. Flop 8-9-10, two hearts. SB bets out, another calls and I raise pot, at which point I was pretty well committed (given stack sizes) if either re-raised (indicating a made straight). Of course, I didn't notice the stack sizes until after the villain smooth call-re-raised me. Got lucky on the river. Feedback please.

Over the next two hands, I hit AA (felting a guy who had 55 and pushed it in pre-flop--maniacs rule), and then QQ (and felted a guy who had JJ). At that point, I had $12 and departed. From a cash management perspective, I could've stayed (nobody had close to having me covered), but the table was down to three players, and I did the Adam chicken thing and ran..... Would you bail in that situation? I think the next biggest stack at the mini-table was between $3-$4.

Overall, up to $104.22. Given my start, Eeyore is less unhappy than normal.....

Ok, Graph Looks a Little Less Sad

Played again tonight (for about an hour). Two-tabling $.02-$.04. I think three tables is optimal for my attention span when I'm doing nothing else, but I'm watching the Simpsons, so two tables seemed smarter.

BTW, I'm **TLK 10** on Cake. Is it possible to search for players on Cake? I.e., is there a function on Cake where I can search to see if MConstant (or the rest of you's) are playing?

Maniacs help. Played better than I had to date. Results were definitely assisted by some of the maniacal playing I was expecting at these micro stakes. A good example, where the huge stack goes nuts with QJo. Thank you, riverinit.

Flat call or raise pre with small pairs in 6-max? Soliciting input on how to play small pairs pre-flop. My instinct is to raise and try to take it down pre. Ignoring the results, in this hand I limped pre with 3s, turned a 3 and lost to a flopped set of 9s. Had I raised on the button, the BB would've either re-raised me off my hand or I would've lost a bigger pot. Right? Or is that too result-oriented? This flopped set worked out better, but I don't see that the result was affected by my pre-flop raise. I won a big pot because my opponent hit two pair on the flop when I hit my set. I'm struggling to understand how the pre-flop raise/flat call affects the results. Thoughts?

Slow played this flopped set into oblivion. Boy, I hit quite a few sets in a short amount of time. In this one, I kept waiting for my opponents to bet out, and then tried to overbet the pot on the river. Fortunately, and inexplicably, my opponent only called with the nuts.

Look mom, I'm a Blogger

Thanks, Marsh, for helping me get this set up. I'm sure Royal and Jeh likewise thank you.....

Rough sledding early in the Challenge for Team Eeyore. I've played only three live sessions (all $.02-$.04 6-max NLHE), plus one experimental $3 MTT, and have, eh hem, lost each time. At present, down a little over 11%. I'm not sure if others have had the same reaction, but my early $.02-$.04 experiences have been different than expected. I expected a lot of pointless, maniacal shoving, but haven't found it. It seems relatively tight and non-tilty. Disappointing, but I'll try to get more disciplined.

Now that Marsh has taught me how to get URL's for sharing hand histories, I'll include those from time to time. Thanks again, Marsh.