Ivano's TSP binkage variance galore

Lambert180

How is the roll getting on Ivan? Seems like you're crushing PLO/NLHE cash near enough every time you post, thought you'd be well on your way to 50/100NL.

F_Ivanovic

Currently at £3,750 and playing 50NL a lot of the time. I've taken out a fair bit (£350ish) over the past month which has halted my progress to £4k on several occasions. Not to mention spending £230 in 2 weeks on the high roller and failing to cash! (did get close last week though)

I've not really been putting in anywhere near the amount of volume I would like to. Only just reached 5000 points last month and really should be aiming for around 10k points every month. Also not always been posting when I've had a bad session, although there haven't been too many of them. I said at the start of this diary I was going to aim to be a 100NL reg by the end of 2013. In truth I could start playing there now with the BR management I used to have and probably at the start of this diary even I planned to play 100NL with a £5k roll but now I'm thinking I won't give it a shot until I'm up to £7-£8k.

Had a mixed night so far tonight. Out the high roller early and cash was down, then up then down again. Played 50PLO and had got into profit when I got it in with AAKQ on a J34r 3 way in a 3b pot. Up against 255x and 3458 so still had ok equity. T on turn giving me any broadway card on the river to win the pot and J came on the river. Then had AKK8 and 4bet pre. Short stack was all in for 60bbs and I still had 160bbs behind with the bigger stack. Flop is A34 giving me TP + NFD. Beautiful. I c-bet and they shove drawing incredibly thin with JJ54 (+fd which i dominated) - so only a J or 2/runner straight could save them. Turn 7 and river 6.

In the half 7 deepy which I finished 2nd in last night I got off to a great start and got a really big chip lead when I doubled up with KK. Sat back for a while after that. 9 left and I was getting a nice run of cards. I raised AJs UTG and got 3b by CO and I folded. Then I raised UTG again next orbit with QQ and got 3b by the same player again. Really deep with them so I should probably flat but cause they did it previous orbit I decide to jam. Run into KK. Probably standard but hurt a bit. Then next orbit I had KK UTG. Raised it up and SB calls and jams on 844 with 77. Then went back down again after losing 88 against AQ. A while later I won a nice sized pot and then I pick up KK again and get it in vs QJ and hold.

So still in with 7 left. Chip leader atm with 60k. Almost final table. Running a lot better tonight than last night when I finished 2nd (in terms of starting hands I'm picking up) 

F_Ivanovic

So a new month, a new chance to get back to getting back into priority. I've started off well on that front and have 940 points for the first 2 days. Last night was a pretty successful night at the PLO cash tables where I made close to £300. However the tournaments I entered put a small dent into my profit.

Mini - Got off to a good, steady start but then spewed away some chips to leave me back with average. Then got a nice double up to 5k before losing TT to AK. Next hand I had AA though to double me back up. Lasted maybe half an hour before busting.

Main - Ugh. Flopped a set of 44s on KQ4 and raised it up. Turn was a Q and got it in. They had Q9 and hit a 9 on the river.

Deepstack - So aiming for 3 final tables in a row here. Got off to a terrible start where I just couldn't hit any flops and opponent always seemed to hit something. Was down to 3k and hovered there for a long time before I finally got my double up. Had a bit of a disaster exit hand. Chip leader who I'd just seen completely spew chips off to someone else when he calls 24o to a UTG raise and bets turn/shoves river with air then raises it up UTG. I'm in the BB with AQo and 3bet. He calls and flop comes 458. I should probably c/r AI here but for some reason I decide to c-bet myself and he comes over the top all in. I pretty much snap him off thinking he can have so much air here. Run into the nuts with 67o!! 

£55 BH - Got off to a steady start in this when I picked up JJ and someone potted into me twice on a T high board. River scare card hecked through and they showed down QT. Then I went just completely card dead for ages. I finally picked up a hand - 88. Flat an UTG open and then a short (but not that short) stack shoves. I know it's a fold but stupidly make the call. Find myself up against QQ.... but quads come to save the day! After this I went back to being horribly card dead though and I had to be creative in finding good spots to steal/re-steal. Had one where I opened Q9 and got 3b and decided to 4b shove to get it through. I found myself 12/12 with 10 paid. Picked up AT OTB with 11bbs and shipped it in (not a hand you want to be min-r/fold or min-r call particularly) but ran into BB who woke up with Aces.

F_Ivanovic

So I reached over £4k last night in my BR. Had a quick session this afternoon of 50NL. I managed to double my BI but then had a horrible hand with Gazza 200BB's deep where I lost it all. Less said about the hand the better!

Anyway thought I'd post some more stories about sixth form days and how I got into gambling/poker. First time I remember playing poker was in the common room in our sixth form. Think we were playing 10p/20p blind levels and I remember sitting down with about a fiver. There was someone to my left with about £18 and the rest of the table were playing really short stacked from what I recall. After a while most of the short stacks had busted/gone to class and I ended up playing HU or 3 way with this other big stack and another mate of mine. Then the head of sixth form walked in and saw us playing... uh oh. The cards were confiscated and that was that!

We may have played poker a couple more times after that but it was too much off a faff making sure no-one caught us!So instead we turned our gambling to knockout whist. Was much easier to play for money because we could just put the pot in the middle and cover it with a book or something. (or just exchange it after) Most of the time I ended up playing HU or 3-way knockout whist but by far my favourite was when we played 5 or 6 way because there seemed to be more skill involved here whereas in HU it was much easier to determine what the best play was. Also we used to not shuffle the deck at all to make memorising what cards had come/gone be skillful. When we played 5/6 way we would mainly play £1 or £2 games.

When we played HU it would often start at £1 games but the more someone got stuck, the more we'd play for. So we would end up regularly playing for a £5 each time. I experienced my first ever downswing playing this game as well. I was playing this one lad for a fiver at a time and then up to a £10 at a time one afternoon and I ended up being down £100 to him by the end of it. Over a weeks wages!! (I worked at a supermarket at that time about 16hrs a week) I didn't have that money on me at the time so I had to owe it to him. Word got out round sixth form that I owed someone £200 through gambling - don't know how it had been doubled!) and I was threatened with being kicked out of sixth form because of that (in addition to me not turning up to any classes!)

The next day this lad met me after school and drove me to tesco to get his money for him - was a bit of a surreal experience at the time being literally forced to give his money there and then. But it didn't deter me from playing much! Overall me, this lad and a mate of mine were the best players at this game and pretty much knew how to play it perfectly. So we'd win money off everyone else. Nearing the end of the year we went on a geography field trip and for the whole journey I played with this lad on the bus for both the journey there and the journey back! Started out with £1 games and at £5 down he wanted to play double or quits. I obliged (and won) and then did the same at £10 to win £20. We then went back to playing just £5 games until I got up to around £60 when we started playing £10 games. By the time we got back to school I'd won £100 off him.

Then the next day he began playing me again and I found myself £200 off him. I wanted to stop playing there because I felt a bit bad taking any more money off him than that (plus didn't even know if he could afford any more than that) - he had to go to class and our mate (the one who was good) said he'd play for him. I didn't really want too but agreed in the end. Not only to that but also to play £50 a game!!! He was having the worst luck against me though - we moved up to £100 a game when it got to £600 and by the end of the day he was down £1000 to me. In the end I never saw any of that money though - I said to the lad I'd ignore the £800 that the other mate lost for him and just keep it at the £200 which he was fine with. He said he'd be able to pay me next year (it was coming to the end of the school year) and I said I was OK with that. However, I then (unsurprisingly) failed miserably on my exams. Achieved a U in Maths and Chemistry and an E in Physics and Geography. Best mark was a B in General studies. So I left sixth form at that school and moved to a different college; where thankfully I did much better! But because of this I never saw this lad again. (no facebook at that time!!)

One final quick story - last day of sixth form I made around £90 in one day! Took £30 playing against a few different people and then took £60 off this one lad.

rancid

Nice build on your roll Ivan

I guess we will be butting heads very soon


gl

gazza127

Nice post mate.

Just wondering what your thought process was for that hand we played was?  Was that a value raise on the turn (as I dont normally have it) or was that an out and out bluff that backfired?

F_Ivanovic

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

Nice post mate. Just wondering what your thought process was for that hand we played was?  Was that a value raise on the turn (as I dont normally have it) or was that an out and out bluff that backfired?
Posted by gazza127

Bit of both haha. I'm not really sure - I just thought I'd get you to fold a lot - perhaps some better hands and aswell as all your bluffs. And if I did get called then I had probably had 6 outs (2 queens, 4 tens) - it was a bad play though I think and was really annoyed/tilted about it for a good while after - even when I was trying to get to sleep that night! Also I think a bit of it was because of me playing too much omaha - I just thought "yeah, i have blocker to nuts, lets bluff at it" without realising that this is omaha and you can call me with much, much wider than the nuts!!

cooooie

the deep stack you bust 77 vs 1010, amirite?  what were you thinking ? :P

F_Ivanovic

Last two nights have been unbelievably tilty! Yesterday I had a great start to the deep stack and then kaboom - lost it all and don't even remember how. Entered the £55 BH and that went really well. Was a front runner the entire way and then had a somewhat barren spell of cards. Blinds at 600/1200 and I had 30k and an aggressive chip leader opens the BTN for 3x to 3600 and I have KJ. Seems like a great spot to reshove but I'm a huge fan of small ball so it sucks when I'm forced to play like this. I did end up shoving and got called by A5 which held up.

Then tonight in the main BH I got off to a flying start as well. 10 minutes ago I was in 6th place with 18k chips. I'm now out. Had a new player join the table and straight away it was apparent he was very loose/aggro. Picked up KT OTB and isolated a limper only to get 4 calls. New player donks out 800 on a QJ6 flop I decide to just flat getting great odds. Turn is a T - not the best card but I flat his bet again with a plan for the river. River is a 7 and he bets 4k into a pot now about 8k. I don't think he can ever be that strong here and AK is in my range. So I decide to shove and get looked up by the one hand that would have folded on any other river card - J7!! Brilliant. Note to self: don't make moves on someone you have no reads on.

Still I'm up (just about) on the past 2 nights. But could have been so much better.

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

Last two nights have been unbelievably tilty! Yesterday I had a great start to the deep stack and then kaboom - lost it all and don't even remember how. Entered the £55 BH and that went really well. Was a front runner the entire way and then had a somewhat barren spell of cards. Blinds at 600/1200 and I had 30k and an aggressive chip leader opens the BTN for 3x to 3600 and I have KJ. Seems like a great spot to reshove but I'm a huge fan of small ball so it sucks when I'm forced to play like this. I did end up shoving and got called by A5 which held up. Then tonight in the main BH I got off to a flying start as well. 10 minutes ago I was in 6th place with 18k chips. I'm now out. Had a new player join the table and straight away it was apparent he was very loose/aggro. Picked up KT OTB and isolated a limper only to get 4 calls. New player donks out 800 on a QJ6 flop I decide to just flat getting great odds. Turn is a T - not the best card but I flat his bet again with a plan for the river. River is a 7 and he bets 4k into a pot now about 8k. I don't think he can ever be that strong here and AK is in my range. So I decide to shove and get looked up by the one hand that would have folded on any other river card - J7!! Brilliant. Note to self: don't make moves on someone you have no reads on. Still I'm up (just about) on the past 2 nights. But could have been so much better.
Posted by F_Ivanovic

This isn't the Ivan that I know and love, what have you done with him?!

Lambert180

To be honest, all jokes aside about the whole raise/folding from small stacks etc, I think 3bet shoving 25xBB on Sky is way too big.

It's the same as the risk/reward you were discussing by open shoving 14xBB... equally I don't think it's ever very good when we 3bet jam 25xBB, unless it's a bounty hunter and we know they're bounty chasers who will call very light.

Never getting called by worse and only occasionally gonna be 40/60s like A5o, more often it's folds or we're crushed/flipping. I guess if he's really that aggressive and opening SUPER wide, then the money we get from folds will make up for it.

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

To be honest, all jokes aside about the whole raise/folding from small stacks etc, I think 3bet shoving 25xBB on Sky is way too big. It's the same as the risk/reward you were discussing by open shoving 14xBB... equally I don't think it's ever very good when we 3bet jam 25xBB, unless it's a bounty hunter and we know they're bounty chasers who will call very light. Never getting called by worse and only occasionally gonna be 40/60s like A5o, more often it's folds or we're crushed/flipping. I guess if he's really that aggressive and opening SUPER wide, then the money we get from folds will make up for it.
Posted by Lambert180

I'm not sure whats worse tbh, the 3bet jam for 25bb with K high, or the call with a raggy ace

F_Ivanovic

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

To be honest, all jokes aside about the whole raise/folding from small stacks etc, I think 3bet shoving 25xBB on Sky is way too big. It's the same as the risk/reward you were discussing by open shoving 14xBB... equally I don't think it's ever very good when we 3bet jam 25xBB, unless it's a bounty hunter and we know they're bounty chasers who will call very light. Never getting called by worse and only occasionally gonna be 40/60s like A5o, more often it's folds or we're crushed/flipping. I guess if he's really that aggressive and opening SUPER wide, then the money we get from folds will make up for it.
Posted by Lambert180

Vs a min-r, for sure but with a 3x open there is a decent amount in the middle to win. 5400 in the middle already and so I'm risking 30k to win 35400 and close to a 20% chip up. If it works 75% of the time that means 3/4 times I win a total of 16200. So the 25% of the time I get called I really don't need that much equity vs their calling range to make it a pretty big +ev play.

However, I didn't really know what villain was capable of folding and how exactly wide he was opening OTB. Folding felt way too weak but I didn't think I could peel with these stacksizes. Also didn't fancy making a small 3b.

@hh: I don't know what I've done with the real me haha. A5 call is obv way worse than my shove with K high

F_Ivanovic

So it's been a pretty interesting week. I feel like I've ran well in some places and ran terribly in others. Played really well and then really average. But... to summise I'm up about £700 this week and only £250 shy of £5k. If I can get a couple more weeks like this leading up to christmas then I may well be rolled enough to take some shots at 100NL. But there's no need to rush anything and that will probably only happen if I can find some good tables!

Tonight I played in the Primo, deepstack and mini and had a PLO table going for a while as well. 

Mini was a... car crash. Played too aggressive too early just for the heck of it. 3bet 78 and had to fold to a shove and then 3bet 67 and 3 barreled on a terrible board and that was game over!

Deepstack had a slow start and then started building up some nice momentum and got a decent stack size. Then I won a big pot and put myself on a nice stack size of around 25k (2nd chip leader) - but I took my foot off the gas after that - didn't help too much that I was card dead! My stack dwindled somewhat and I ended up going from a comfortable chip leader to middle of the pack. I picked up AKo with 23bb's or so and min 3bet ChickMelt to 2k. Flop was Jxx and I c-bet 1/3 pot, turn was a blank and I decided I was going to empty the clip at this point. I fired turn around 60% pot and he called again. Followed through on a blank river and got it through. Got to the final table with a 55k stack and fancied my chances to come at least top 3. 

Unfortunately ChicknMelt helped put an end to that. UTG opens and gets 2 callers and I'm in the BB with AKs. Shoving would be risking 50k (potentially) to win the 10k in the middle. So it's a pretty fine option but I know I'm rarely being called by worse. So instead I decide to 3b to 9000 with the possibility to fold if UTG is the one that comes over the top. Anyhow, it's not UTG but ChicknMelt who does. I toyed with the idea of folding but it was only 22k more to win a huge pot. But to me his hand looked like TT-QQ that didn't want to 3b the UTG open but then was happy to get it in after UTG folds. (thinking I could be squeezing wide) - he does indeed have TT which holds up. I go out next hand by shoving over big stacks BTN open with A3. He calls with A7 and although I hit a 3 he rivers a straight.

Primo... well post is getitng too long now and tbh don't remember an awful lot. It went like this though - card dead for the entire tourney. Got it in twice PF. Once with T7 to outdraw AK and once with KJ to outdraw AK. Then I just held on for dear life to min-cash because I just didn't find myself with any good spots to shove. Finally bust when I shoved UTG (6/7bbs) with 79o and couldn't outdraw pocket sixes. 

F_Ivanovic

So tonights deepstack lasted a good long time.... Picked up QQ on the BTN. Bearlyther was in SB and in the past 4 hands he had 3bet my UTG open and had 3bet gazza's BTN open. So when he 3bets me again I either thought he was on some card rush or just playing extremely aggressive! I opted to think the latter. (My BTN open was 120, his 3bet to 400) andI chose to 4bet to 1020. He decides to min 5bet to 1660 and my read at this point was that he had complete air and would fold to a 6bet shove. So I opt to call with the intention of stacking off post-flop on ANY runout.

Flop is 789r. Pretty scary given a lot of his junk might have connected in some way with this flop. He c-bets 1/4 pot and I decide to just flat. Turn is an A and he checks, I check (hoping he'll bluff river) River brings a 4 and a BDFD which I'm obv not worried about. He jams and I quickly call - only to see he flopped the straight with 56o! Oh well. Happy with how I played it. Most of the time I get his stack.

gazza127

Lets be perfectly clear here.  I did not 4 bet with 56.

Bearlyther did.

Don't want you destroying my tight image.

F_Ivanovic

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

Lets be perfectly clear here.  I did not 4 bet with 56. Bearlyther did. Don't want you destroying my tight image.
Posted by gazza127

eh, I did say bearlyther?! I mentioned your name cause he had 3bet you the previous hand

Tight image though, yeah right

Did you think I played the hand correctly? Not folding the river? I mean I'm not sure he would bluff river with them stack sizes but I can't just set out to play a hand 1 way and then change my mnd half way through!

gazza127

im folding mate.  Either shoving the 5 bet pre... or playing like you did but definitely folding river.

He's got almost 0 bluffs in his range by the river.

F_Ivanovic

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

im folding mate.  Either shoving the 5 bet pre... or playing like you did but definitely folding river. He's got almost 0 bluffs in his range by the river.
Posted by gazza127

So what would you put him on the river? I just thought he had so many bluffs pre that he absolutely has to have some bluffs on the river. Or maybe he just 5b bluff hoping it would work and his plan was to shut down post flop completely bar hitting a dream flop. I dunno.

Shoving the 5bet pre just seems like the easy way out! But I probably don't get value from too much worse and he folds all his bluffs.  Would you not have shoved flop? 789 board with QQ. Seems pretty dangerous to allow a free card

F_Ivanovic

So a +£100 evening thanks to some PLO but not really that happy because I made some really bad plays in the main BH. I started quite brightly in the BH and picked up some nice sized medium pots to get me to 3k. Then I got a nice sized double up; I had Qd5d in the BB and saw a flop with the SB. It comes 347 with 2 diamonds and I raise their lead. They flat and the turn comes a 6 giving me a straight + flush redraw and bet/called their shove. They had a straight as well but I rivered a flush.

Moved tables then and had someone really loose on the right of me who would limp into pots with any 2. I accumulated a lot of chips off them just by constantly raising their limps and taking it down post flop. I was up to 9k and picked up TT in the BB. Slipwater raised it up to 450 and I decide to just flat (he had about 3k back and didn't fancy 3bet/getting it in with this hand here) Flop is 986 and I call a c-bet. Turn is a 6 and they bet again. At this point I probably should have folded - I just wasn't beating much at all but I called and then called a J river to their shove (almost certainly should have folded to this - I don't think he will bluff there with what he had left)

Then had a mare' when I min-r KT only to get a call and shoved on from BB. Not much more to call but I had a read he was pretty tight and with other player involved I opted to fold. Flop was KTx and I would have won. Next hand AK UTG. I min-r again with only a 14bb stack size; get 2 calls and miss the flop and have to fold to a donk lead. I then defend KTs to a min-r from the BB and make a move post-flop only to run into a FH! Ended up tilting for first time in a while and began open jamming every hand in the mini. Got a double up when 94 > AQ but then got bust half an hour later after I'd calmed down with AQs against 88.

cooooie

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

So a +£100 evening thanks to some PLO but not really that happy because I made some really bad plays in the main BH. I started quite brightly in the BH and picked up some nice sized medium pots to get me to 3k. Then I got a nice sized double up; I had Qd5d in the BB and saw a flop with the SB. It comes 347 with 2 diamonds and I raise their lead. They flat and the turn comes a 6 giving me a straight + flush redraw and bet/called their shove. They had a straight as well but I rivered a flush. Moved tables then and had someone really loose on the right of me who would limp into pots with any 2. I accumulated a lot of chips off them just by constantly raising their limps and taking it down post flop. I was up to 9k and picked up TT in the BB. Slipwater raised it up to 450 and I decide to just flat (he had about 3k back and didn't fancy 3bet/getting it in with this hand here) Flop is 986 and I call a c-bet. Turn is a 6 and they bet again. At this point I probably should have folded - I just wasn't beating much at all but I called and then called a J river to their shove (almost certainly should have folded to this - I don't think he will bluff there with what he had left) Then had a mare' when I min-r KT only to get a call and shoved on from BB. Not much more to call but I had a read he was pretty tight and with other player involved I opted to fold. Flop was KTx and I would have won. Next hand AK UTG. I min-r again with only a 14bb stack size; get 2 calls and miss the flop and have to fold to a donk lead. I then defend KTs to a min-r from the BB and make a move post-flop only to run into a FH! Ended up tilting for first time in a while and began open jamming every hand in the mini. Got a double up when 94 /> AQ but then got bust half an hour later after I'd calmed down with AQs against 88.
Posted by F_Ivanovic

your edge in PLO seems massive, you seem to be cashing every entry. Unless its run good. Either way, enjoying this blog.

btw, do you have a readon slip water, cost id either 3bet/jam slipwater in that spot...

F_Ivanovic

Not really but he'd been playing pretty snug and the 3x raise seemed quite strong (everyone was raising strong hands 3x because of the really loose player on the right that would have been in the SB in this hand) So I suspected his range to be something like 88+, AJ+, KQ. I'm 50% vs that range but if I 3b he might fold some of the hands which I'm beating.

So my plan was to just call to set-mine and possibly call 1, maybe 2 bets if board was OK. I should have stuck to my read OTT and folded there I think but oh well. He had QQ btw.

As for PLO - definitely some of it is run good but I definitely think I have a good edge against most opponents at the level I play at. 

2 hands of note tonight: One I bluffed 3 way on the river. The turn gave me 2 pair and a FD but there was a straight OTB and someone potted. River came a paired card and I bet 2/3 pot to represent a FH (a realistic holding given my turn play) and got it through. 

The other I had AhAd8hTs. It went UTG raise, CO call, I 3bet in SB, BB 4bets, UTG calls, CO calls, I pot and BB calls, UTG folds (I suspect he might have had KK or QQ - he was the one 170bb deep with me aswell, rest of table was 100bb)

CO had AcQhJc9c (or something similar/thereabouts) and BB had 2d3s4d8s.

Flop came 2h3h9c, turn was a 4s giving BB the lead. The action went too fast for me to realise though - and then river was a 9 and I looked to see CO had a 9 and thought oh damn! Then the pot came to me and I realised it was a 9h giving me the nut flush! I was a 39.7% favourite pre-flop so I whilst I do make a lot of money there it's also going to be big variance!

I have had plenty of times where I've got it in pre with AA as a favourite and lost but usually when stuff like that happens I still often have a breakeven/only slightly losing session as I just pick up so many small/medium sized pots post flop just by playing a tight range and playing aggressive post flop.

bearlyther

Hi Ivan was an interesting hand that.  Like you say i had been 3 betting loads and i felt like you may be the type of player that may have been capable playing back at me exploiting my 3 bet percentage thats why i thought it was a decent spot to 5 bet bluff.  When you called tho alarm bells rang immediately however i wasnt too worried on that flop.  I decide to check the ace turn as figure you can have some in your range and can jam turn and also to protect my checking range and i can jam any river anyway with the stack to pot ratio left if you check back.  If i had a bluff however i reckon its a card id be more likely to jam on than the blank 4 on the river.  

Wish you all the best with your challenge to get to 100nl and will keep an eye on the thread from time to time.

F_Ivanovic

Yeah I was kind of hoping you'd jam the ace turn because I knew it was a great card for you to bluff on. I was a bit surprised when you decided to check it and figured you might have hit the ace when you decided to check it. Oh well. Would have been interesting if I did indeed have a bluff in that spot and how I would have reacted to your 5-bet with my read that it was a bluff!

Played a bit of cash earlier this afternoon. Didn't fancy a proper session and wanted to improve HU omaha so decided to sit down and play someone. Didn't go well though - I lost 80BB's in the first hand when I 3-bet with AKQ7r. Flopped top pair on a two tone board (with NF blocker) and c/c. Turn was a blank and I decided to lead as I thought I was ahead here and opponent was drawing. River is an inocuous looking board pairing 4. I think I have the best hand so go for thin value only to get shoved on for 10 more into an 80 pot. Should have just folded but I decided to call for the information and the off-chance I was winning. Lost a few small sized pots and then found a good spot where I had a wrap and BDFD. Villain raised flop and this time I just decide to call since I had position. Turn is a dream card giving me the nut straight and a FD. Villain slows down and just c/c.

River is a 3 which paired the board and villain checks to me. Had he shoved I would have considered folding here as a FH is very possible but when he checks I think I must be good here so decide to shove for 1/2 PSB. Villain snaps and shows me quad 3's. So that was £100 gone! VWP by villain I might add though.

At this point I decided to quit. I think I had a small edge which might have got bigger the more I played and developed reads. However, variance can be brutal in Omaha especially HU and I didn't fancy continuing and losing 5/6 BI's if I was running bad. It might have led to tilt and ultimately me spewing off more money. Which in turn might lead to me feeling depressed again. So overall I think quitting there was fine/a good decision.

Played 1 table 20NL holdem instead and within 40 mins or so I was up almost 3 BI's.  So only a -£50 loss for the day which I'm more than happy with! Been my first losing day in a while actually. I'm playing pool tonight so won't be able to recoup my losses to make it a winning day.

Chris_Mc

GREAT READ ON YOUR ORIGANAL POST, ALTHOUGH IM A VERY LOW STAKJES PLAYER HOPE TO ONE DAY ACHIEVE NICE PROFITS.

MIBY NOT QUITE HIGH AS YOUR BUT AT LEAST A PROFIT TO BE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. 

PLUS THE WIFE FINDS OUT IVE THAT MUCH IN AN ACCOUNT IT WOULD BE RIGHT IN THE BANK....... 

I HAVE  YOUNG FAMILY, SO WOULD HATE TOO TILT ON A NICE PROFIT TO BE FAIR SHE WOULD PROBALLY BE RIGHT.

REALLY ENJOYED THE READ THO.

F_Ivanovic

Just realised it's been a while since I've updated.

So it's nearing Christmas and that time of the year that I need to go out and do some Christmas shopping, yay! I don't even know what I want for Christmas. I have a PS3 which I hardly play on so a game for it would be somewhat pointless. I don't need a new pool cue or any sporting equiptment. I guess I need clothes, but they're boring. On the plus side this is why I'm so good with money these days - I just don't feel the need to ever spend on something unimportant anymore. The same can't be said for first year of Uni though when I spent a fortune on clothes & eating out.

On to the poker: So I've put in some decent volume over the past few days but once again it might be too little, too late to make priority. I need to put in the same volume for the rest of December to have a chance of Priority. I really want to be playing more tables (4/5 regularly) but I just seem to play so much better just sticking to 2 or 3 tables. 

Saturday I had my biggest losing day in a long while and finished -£230 down. I got a couple bounties in the main but missed the cash - no cash in any other tourney so that was a £40ish loss there. The other £190 must have been cash. I didn't think I lost as much as I did, but hey ho. Nothing went right and I also had a horrible spew in one hand where I tried to rep AK on an AAK5T board. I bet river, villain raised and I decided to jam with complete air knowing villain couldn't have AK. They snapped me off with AT lol. Another bad pot happened when I 3bet with AJ. Flop was TT3 and I called a donk lead. Turn was a T and they shove like £25 into £20. It just smells of BS so I call it off to see myself up against Q3! Omaha was no better - kept bricking all my draws and making bluffs that got called!

Sunday was better. Started off badly when I played some omaha and got it in with 2 pair + FD to lose against a bare wrap (OTT) and then made a bad hero call in holdem. So probably around £70 down to begin with. Picked it up and won some nice pots before I was back in the red when I got it in with nut FD in omaha only to lose to a flopped straight in a 3b pot. I got it in with AAxx vs KKxx after that and held and had a nice pot in holdem when I had AQ on AT3Q and got it in vs AT. Despite this come tournament time I was only slightly up with the tournament entries putting me £50 down for the day. Ended up min-cashing the primo - I built up a nice stack early on and stayed near the top for quite a while but then went card dead for ages. Ended up raise/calling AJ with about 15bbs against someone I had seen have weaker aces in the same spot. They had AK but I turned a J before a K hit the river! After that I one tabled 20PLO for around an hour and won 5BI's. So ended up £140 for the day.

Today - Had a 2 hour afternoon session of 4 tabling. Finished about £90 up most of it down to a PL050 HU game although won about £20 on a 30NL table. Was near enough £60 up on that table and then I 3b with AJ in the SB and got called in 2 places. Flop was J23 two tone and I ended up bet/3-betting to GII only to find myself up against 23!

F_Ivanovic

Quick entry tonight. Played BH + Deepstack tonight. Tried playing my cash game in the tournament and well.. it worked for a bit. I picked up a bounty and got a double up early on. But then my overly LAG style got the better of me. Did the same in the deepstack too and it worked much better here albeit with me getting somewhat lucky early on when I got it in wth 3's on a 245 flop to river a 6. Used my stack to my advantage after that. Got to 7 players left and the 3 bigstacks were all on one table (our table) - I was torn between playing TAG and LAG and played a mixture of both including one hand when I 3b with 22 and 2 barreled on a AJ54 board to get it through.

Final tabled and cashed but bust out 4th when I 3bet/shoved over a BTN open with AQ. Called by TT and although I flopped a Q river brought a T. I was 2nd in chips as well and really don't know if I should have just flatted pre and played more small ball against the chip leader. Oh well.

D_Legend

Black jack is a killer of a game just got into i wish i never started

F_Ivanovic

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

Black jack is a killer of a game just got into i wish i never started
Posted by D_Legend

True. Not sure how it relates to my thread but nvm!! I think one of my biggest +ev decisions is sticking away from 'gambling' when I know that I'm not a favourite. ie. casino games/sports betting. I've never played a slot machine in my life and I've played roulette once - the one time I did play I stuck money on red/black and won 8 in a row and quit!

Anyway took a break from poker for the past couple of days and strangely I've been feeling really down. I come back to playing tonight and I'm feeling in a much better mood! Reason I haven't played for a couple of days is last time I played I was playing 50PLO Omaha and had increased my stack to £167 or thereabouts. Then picked up KK77dd in the BB and 3bet an UTG open who had me covered. I chose to 3-bet here because even if they had AA then they might be reluctant to 4-bet given stack sizes - his hand becomes face up with a lot of money behind. But lo and behold he does 4-bet - and I call knowing that 1 in 4 times I'll flop a set and that my opponent is playing face up with 2 of his cards.

Flop is T53 with a diamond flush draw and he pots into me!! Before this I was happy to raise/GII but his pot bet just screamed of AA with the nut flush draw - the ONLY hand that has me in terrible shape as I'm drawing to 4 outs. But despite this I end up calling the flop because I just think I'm too strong to fold. Turn is a blank and villain shoves. I'm thinking "arhghghgf" and planning on just folding and instant quitting table. But for some reason at the last second I convince myself to call hoping that villain just has a bare AA and that I have the right odds to call (I only have 13 outs so I don't think I have the right price anyway) Villain had what I suspected and I bricked the river and a £340 pot gets shipped his way. 

Couldn't stop thinking about this hand all that night after I quit. The previous time that happened was the hand vs Gazza a few weeks back. 

I've come back feeling more refreshed tonight. Only played the mini primo and a couple of omaha tables. +£100 in omaha and made a small profit in the mini thanks to a few bounties. I was up to 4th at one point with a 17k chip stack but it all went downhill and made a pretty horrible play to bust, but oh well.

PokerNoon

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome:

In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl Q+A welcome : True. Not sure how it relates to my thread but nvm!! I think one of my biggest +ev decisions is sticking away from 'gambling' when I know that I'm not a favourite. ie. casino games/sports betting.

Completely with you on this one.

I can never get my head around the attraction of casino games like roulette, or slot machines in general. It's impossible to win over time, so what's the point?

At least with poker, or general sports betting, it is possible to gain an edge if you have enough skill.