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More likely a combo of CL football on the telly, & the lighter nights & (generally) fine weather.
When I play, I always insta reg the next table as soon as it spawns, as do Eon & yourself - that really helps get the games going. Folks don't like to start an empty table for some reason, but once they see a few names regged they happily join.
I deffo struggle to concentrate when only 1 or 2 games run, ideally I like 4 or 5 minimum to be on the go at the same time.
Fingers crossed the traffic remains sustainable for a while yet, if not, I'll have to find something else to play.
Yeah it would be interesting to know what the opponent had in that hand. As I said I should really have been off the hand at some stage but the way it was played his bets just screamed 'I have a big draw, go away'. The fact I missed so hard planted the seed on the river that maybe he did too and if I shove (although it didn't look like I had fold equity) it was for most of his chips.
Thanks regarding the Vegas win! It took a bit of persuading to get my dad to come, he doesn't like the heat and has no real idea what Vegas is like and, as mentioned, has never been before. He plays poker online every night though and really enjoys the game so I think (hope) he will have a blast. After a tough year with a few deaths in the family I am hoping he will enjoy the complete change of scenery.
Hope the tables are good to you Craig, thanks for following the diary and cya in a DYM soon no doubt
@ Tikay
I never considered the footy being on etc, makes sense when you mention it!
It does help autoregging for everything we are willing to play, I noticed how much that helped on another site. Myself and another reg always autoregged to get the ball rolling.
Regarding the table #'s... Yeah I find that 3 or 4 are optimal personally. I used to play between 6-9 the bulk of the time when I played full time but I find that after 4 it is easy to start to simply 'playing your hand' and miss too much of the information available at the table such as players betting habits. I started playing just 3 or 4 tables when MTTing when I started playing again a month ago and have noticed a big improvement in MTT results (mainly on other sites).
There is a tendancy to think that to make a decent amount online you need to be mass tabling with 3 monitors 'a la Shaun Deeb' and while I accept he has crushed the online scene; other players have also crushed the online scene with minimal tables. I know DJK123 who is a monster at the tables with stunning results usually just plays 4 tables.
Or maybe it is just an age thing and I cannot cope with 4 /> tables these days
Good question as in my personal opinion there are a couple of areas related to note taking which can easily be overlooked.
Against regs at the tables for PLO8 DYM's then very brief notes are fine IMO as you 'know' the players and are playing them often and I find it is often better to judge how they are playing that particular night. I do not usually take notes on regs from these games at all but will take notes on all new players I play in them. The notes on the non regs are useful as obviously when they turn up again you do not need to 'figure them out' again. Also if they are way over aggro with 'Hi only' hands for example then you know you can play your low orientated hand more aggressively with less worry about being quartered.
Regarding note taking in general... I think it is critically important to remember that while it is fine to tag someone as "this person does x,y or z and is a donk/shark"; It is critically important to remember that while some people will mechanically play very similar all the time, some will change/develop their game over time and some will play different even on a night to night basis.
For example you might have someone tagged as a donk but the last time you played them they were drunk or tilted or whatever but on this occasion they are neither drunk nor tilted and have their 'A game on'. Obviously in this case just going by notes could be costly.
Also some people you might take notes on you may not see for a while and even in the space of a couple of months may have went from being a complete novice to someone who has played many games and tried to study the game a bit.
If I use myself as an example then sometimes I will be aggro and trying to absorb all information at the table and thoroughly focussed but another night (like last night due to traffic being down) I may be a bit bored and going through the motions and not too difficult to play against and take chips from. This obviously makes note taking on me personally less effective as I won't generally do the same things session after session for a variety of reasons.
I also try to note if people always open pots with the same bet sizing or if they alter their bet sizing according to their hand strength (which is obviously a bit of a tell) or if they alter their bet sizing according to position (which is completely fine). If you have this information you can know when you are getting an insight into their hand due to their bet sizing and when it simply means they are opening with their standard range.
Hopefully something in there will be of use.
Cya at the tables soon
Good question which I will happily give my personal take on, whatever that is worth
Talk soon
Regarding the AJ...
This is a pretty loaded question as it is completely depends on the situation. Whether it is a cash game/SNG/MTT, who your opponent is, what your stack size is, your exact table position (I know you said OOP but how OOP makes a difference), which players are behind you and what their stack sizes are, your table image, previous action at the table etc etc etc...
I think you play a lot of cash games so this may be a cash game question? I will try to cover briefly for general cash/SNG and MTT situatuations. Although I have been playing more cash games elsewhere and am on a mini heater, cash games are not really my speciality and some other players who specialise in cash games may want to chime in with more precise info.
Cash Games
Again this is very general as it will depend on many of the factors outlined above so much of what I say will be correct in some situations and wrong in others. In cash games I personally like generally to avoid calling with hands I do not know where I am at in OOP; I would rather be raising a more marginal hand in position. If I was playing the AJ to a raise I would mix it up dependant on the opponent and generally to balance my range. If it was against an opponent I was giving any credit to then in many situations I would just fold (I know some might think this is -ev but I would value position that highly). If I really did not know where I was but really did want to play the hand then I would probably be inclined to 3bet to at least isolate the player and get a bit more information based on how he reacts. The 3bet might look strong and if he is opening small pairs set mining and the flop is overcards then your cbet continuing your line in the hand then you may take the pot on the flop regardless of whether you hit or not. If you elect for this option then bet sizing becomes important so you are not leaking chips.
If this was a situation with AJ where the pot had not been opened then I would be standard opening and standard cbetting almost every flop versus 1 player regardless of the flop and weighing the situation up if there is more than 1 caller or we meet resistance. I would not be getting married to the hand though with only a standard open and cbet. Unless we connect in a massive way with this hand then we should generally (although definitely not always) only be getting heavy heavy action from hands that beat us. I mean if the flop is Axx and opponent is willing to put 100 bbs in over the hand, what does he have? A set beats us, several raggier aces may have 'aces up' and we could even have been outkicked all along. There are a ton of caveats such as figuring out if opponent is drawing or you can get them off the hand. In general though I would be standard opening with AJ and proceding with caution.
MTT's
A bit like cash games this is impossible to give a 1 answer fits all reply. It is so heavily dependent on your stack size, position, opponent, image, stage of tourney, type of tourney etc etc. At the early stages some players will 3bet if facing a raise much of the time and many will flat call, I wouldn't be folding as often early with AJ in an MTT in general compared to cash games though as we will be getting such favourable implied odds but I would be proceding with caution again especially OOP. I would also tend to flat call these days firstly as I prefer to play a more small ball style where we can get a dialogue via the betting going which serves to give us more information. I would also flat early on as one way where we can get more chips from AJ is by giving opponents a little rope to bleed chips (their betting range post flop is going to be utterly massive compared to their calling range if we are 3betting/raising/leading the action). The flat call also disguises our hand strength and encourages their action although if we brick it all early then most of the time we have to be prepared to just 'go away' so as not to leak chips.
In the mid stages it really depends on all the factors outlined above even more as any action we get involved in is much more expensive in relation to our stack. Also shorties will be shoving wide, certain stacks sizes will be 4bet jamming on any 3bet we make with a wider range and our implied odds are likely to be much less favourable. So it is all about our reads and assessing the numerous variables at these stages IMO and there just isnt a 1 reply fits all reply.
Much of the above goes for the latter stages too although if we are short or the players we are playing against are short then AJ is more valuable as players will make plays with a much wider range as they get shorter in chips. Open shoving/3bet jamming etc will become more common although thoroughly dependent once again on our position, whether there are antes, what our stack size is, what our opponents calling ranges are likely to be, what stage the tourney is at in relation to payouts, how much equity we can gain/loss etc etc.
SNG's
Much of what I wrote applies for MTT's will apply here. For example just the stage of the SNG will utterly change how we play the hand as will many other factors.
Hope some of that touches the point and is useful.
Other players will disagree with bits and some will agree. We all have our own styles which makes poker so interesting
In very general terms I would say if we are deep stacked to procede with caution and not overvalue AJ. Although there are plenty situations when factors such as stack sizes are tweaked where I will be happily prepared to bet my tourney life on it or play bigger pots in certain circumstances in cash games. Having said that the last bit would apply to any hand we have nevermind AJ...
Played the Mayhem freeroll as I have played it every other night this week and played 7 or 8 OH8 DYM's.
Managed to do the clean sweep and cash in everything tonight although the freeroll was just a small cash as my AJ (the irony - see above post) ran into KK and QQ with blinds at 1k/2k with my stack at about 16k (not much I can do there really).
Only around £47 profit as the volume was low due it being a short session but it all helps
Hard studying ahead of me tonight/tomorrow but tomorrow evening I will play the FOSP OH8 league and try and defend my title from last month and also the Mayhem freeroll and a few DYM's.
Thanks for reading and GL on the felt!
thanks for that long post
Well got a major part of my uni work out the way today (a large essay on attachment theory and developmental disorders for anyone who was curious lol). Just an exam on Monday and them I am done with uni until September and can focus on poker!
Played 5 OH8 DYM's to start this evening and cashed in 3 out of 5 so fine I guess although any profit would have been microscopic.
Played the Mayhem freeroll and cashed for £10 and took 3 bounties, haven't really got going in this promo yet and lost every key pot when down to like 50 players but am slowly creeping up the leaderboard.
Then played the Thursday FOSP OH8 league MTT's (4 of them). Managed to get two 1sts and just didn't get going in the other 2.
All in all £40 odd up which I am happy with for tonight as I wasn't playing any big buy ins or volume and was more just chilling enjoying the league games.
Looking forward to finishing uni so I can get into the poker properly, been back playing for just over a month now but had uni stuff to deal with the whole time which is a little distracting.
Thanks for reading & GL @ the tables!
Was feeling tired today so had a nap before I played however I just woke up feeling even more tired so that didn't work.
Decided to play the Mayhem freeroll which I played badly in. Player to my left had massively reraised everything I done and I took a race on eventually with them with 77. Might be fine in some tourneys but my stratedgy in these is to very carefully build up a small cushion in a small ball style and then start going after the bounties, not take races on at levels 1 & 2. Was no need to take the race on but I guess that poor decision might go back to the tiredness bit...
Played 12 OH8 DYM's and managed to cash in 9/12 for a £35 profit so cannot grumble. Also some good banter at the tables this evening which always passes the time
The final push of uni studying lays ahead of me this weekend and then I am free of those shackles and can try and up my volume of donkings on the poker tables. Am a bit underprepared for the exam on Monday so the number of games I can play will be limited over the weekend while I get to grips with the joys of globalisation, the 'global south', modernity and cosmopolitanism (can't wait) /sarcasm.
Anyways the banter at the tables made it a fun session even though I was feeling a bit tired so thanks for that!
Hope you all have a lovely and profitable weekend & thanks for reading!
I probably shouldn't have played tonight, mentally drained with the studying for Monday's exam so just feeling tired all the time. I don't normally complain like this about 'being tired' (I know people have much bigger problems) but it definitely affected my mindset in terms of playing poker tonight.
Played a bunch of DYM's and was £29 down, wouldn't mind if it was variance but I was just playing hands wrong and doing stuff I wouldn't normally do (just poor strategy, got there in the end bbMike). I know the exact mistakes I was making. There wasn't enough pot control at the early stages, I was playing draws too hard and I was being too lazy to be active and pick up chips in easy spots to maintain my stack.
Still managed somehow to turn the night into another profitable one though winning £30 in the Mayhem freeroll and taking 8 or 9 bounties.
So a whopping £1 profit
Going to take tomorrow night off (apart from the Mayhem freeroll as it is the last day of them for the leaderboard). I don't want to play and just go through the motions and I will probably need to cram a lot of boring stuff into my head for Monday!
Will be way more upbeat after Monday, I promise! Really looking forward to having a few months to just play poker without too many distractions and will try and brighten the diary up a bit and put a bit more effort into it
As ever, thanks for reading and GL @ the tables!
Off to watch the end of the VLV freeroll then get a nap before the Khan v Alvarez fight
I might have to mull this one over
Definitely one to ponder though!
Regards Marky (probably donating portions of his bankroll to AJ in the summer)
We seem to get into a lot of interesting pots together
I "met" your mate, AREZ_One yesterday, we shared several tables.
I introduced myself, & we chatted a bit.
In one game where we were 4 handed, 3 of us shared most of the chips @ 150-300, we all had 3000+, & Mr Shortie was in the BB with 390 after paying his SB. I'm in the BB. It's folded round, & Mr Shortie "made up" the SB, leaving himself 240 @ 150-300, & obviously, I set him in. He folded. I think Arez may have arched an eyebrow.
Hope the exam things are going ok.
Studies are done! So happy to be done (will make a post later tonight after playing my evening session). Hoping to utterly alter my playing schedule and turn up the heat etc etc etc.
Hope all is going well with you Tikay and that you are cleaning up @ the tables!