I don't have any idea what I did to piss off the Full Tilt random number generator, but ... I give.

I would have to check, and I'm too frustrated to wrestle with PT3 at the moment, but I think that's a new worst session ever.

In three days I'm down 40%.

Can't handle the swings.

Again, I'd have to check, but I'm not sure I won more than one pot when I got my money in and the hand went to showdown. It didn't matter if I got it in good, bad or indifferent, I lost.

So many times when I had the big pair of kings or aces and got snapped off by queens or kings. My opponents get there. I don't.

Frustrated. Sad. Angry. Annoyed. All of the above. Poker sucks.

Taking Sunday off, then it'll be a race. Can I get 2500 more points before I donate the rest of my bankroll? The smart money will be on busto.

This bout of complaining should be preempted by GCox, who already said it all:

Apparently, I am really bad at poker and cannot win a hand to save my life. Oh, I'm going to continue to play because I like to play, but I'm done even remotely considering myself any good. In fact, I might just start jamming every draw I have and see what happens. It certainly works for most of the other retards out there.

Until next time, if I check-raise you, go ahead and call, I guarantee you'll get there.

I feel your pain, brother. That's pretty much where I am right now as well.

I am especially bad at poker when the cards do not cooperate in the slightest and last night they were hostile like your bitter ex all hopped up on crack. Oh, and yes I have a tilt problem too. Not good times.

Things got off on the right foot as I got set-over-setted for stacks twice in the first five minutes of play. After that, I got into a routine where my opponents just had the nuts every f***ing time for a while. I threw in a couple losses with AK to A-rag on ace high flops and the usual assortment of HOLY FLOPPED OVERCARDS to my pocket pairs queens and under.

Wait, is that even Engrish?

Sigh.

To be fair, I screwed up plenty on my own. I let four flushes get there a couple times. I couldn't let kings go on an all rag board and I fully deserved to be stacked by the guy playing aggro after flopping two pair with 65s. I definitely suck.

I recovered - as usual - somewhat toward the end of the session, but never really got much momentum. I got it to within one buyin before the KK <<< 65s stacking put things back into reverse. Ended up down two which, when added to the one from Wednesday, is hurting since I play on a woefully short "roll".


Note to self: Investigate exactly how much but holy cow do you spew money on small pocket pairs out of position. Learn how to play jackass.


Yesterday might have been the most hands I've ever played in a single day. I didn't record the final tally, but I think it was right around 5,000. That's Rush Poker for you. I played in an evening the same number of hands you'd play in a week of live poker playing 24/7.

It was a bit much.


When I have a losing session, I will frequently find myself thinking that I should essentially quit. Convert most of my play chip collection to cash and use it for something else (like actual cheeseburgers). That feeling usually doesn't last too long but it definitely kept me up last night thinking about it.

I should be able to enjoy the game just fine regardless. I mean, when I started I played for the equivalent of pennies and in freerolls and built up from there. Would I still be able to tolerate that? I don't know.

What happens remains to be seen.

It goes on. The usual daily sessions. I'm silver for the month and will probably end up gold. I truly don't know why I bother - I'm not terribly impressed by the iron man rewards program. Perhaps it's just that I'm enjoying playing. Thank you Rush Poker for making it time efficient.

Tuesday's session recaptured Monday's losses in the first playable hand I saw. That was sweet.

Yesterday's session saw it given right back. Not so sweet. It took 800 hands before I saw AA or KK and I promptly got a walk with the first pair of aces. It ended up being the night of a hundred whiffs with AK - every time it was either a paired rag board, a monotone flop with none of my suit or my bets would be called all the way down by an underpair. Sigh.

Much of the damage was undone by one dubious play. Again with the 87 sooted 8d 7d. I was definitely on tilt at this point. A raise, a call, I call, button squeeze, two calls I feel like I have to call. Flop T96 two spades. Two checks, I open jam for more than the pot, the button calls with a set of tens (squeezing with tens? really?) and - miraculously - doesn't get there. Wat. Flopped straights aren't supposed to win.

I ended up down, but I'm basically exactly where I was on Sunday except I have more points.

One of these days I'm going to get an iPod for lack of better ideas. I haven't been able to decide whether to get a Nano or a Touch. I'm leaning toward the 32GB Touch but I'm really not sure. Something else to waste time thinking about.


Also in the 'one of these days' category I need to give some thoughts as to what I should do to try and fluff up my "roll" (LOL) at Stars. It would be nice to be able to play at a real level instead of being, you know, under-rolled for NL5. Since I've been playing so much NLHE 'cash' lately I'll probably stick with that and just deal with the inevitable LOLtastic moments.


Last entry to be filed under 'one of these days': I need to review my play to figure out why I'm dumping a lot more chips than I feel I should be. I mean, I was down nearly two buyins yesterday without anything close to a stacking - it was a lot of check/folding flops after I missed horribly. I suspect it boils down to multiple factors - (1) whiffing more than usual, (2) folding too readily to action on the flop and (3) calling/defending preflop with too many hands.

Find the leak, plug the leak.

And I'm out of time.

Stick liked to play online poker. A lot of online poker. Most evenings he could be found in front of his trusty laptop, grinding away at the cash tables.


One day his wife Jane said enough. "Stick," she said, "you need to stop. I'm tired of you wasting your time gambling." She waved her trusty rolling pin for emphasis. She badly needed a haircut. Clearly the situation was serious.


Stick sat out on all his tables and launched into a lengthy, well-rehearsed soliloquy on the history of poker and how it is not anything like traditional games of chance like roulette or craps. It was a good thing that he had a whiteboard handy to illustrate his points.


After several minutes he concluded with "which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill."


Jane was either deeply impressed or catatonic. Stick wasn't sure. She began to make noises that sounded like criticism of his conclusion for bad grammar and stuff. Stick knew he had to pull out the big guns.


"Oh, by the way," Stick said, "that box over there has some Pokerstars chocolates for you, and I concierged tickets to the Broadway production of Peter Pan. Consider them a gift from poker, the game of skill."

There was some kissing and stuff but the ending has been censored by the internet taste police.

BTW, if you read too much into this and think it reaches the level of gender stereotyping, feel free to swap the names of the characters, make them both "Chris" or whatever. It's a badly drawn comic not social commentary.

Frustrating.

That's the only word I can think of for yesterday's session.

It was one of those days when almost nothing went right. Thankfully I can use the word 'almost' or it would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

I went down three buyins early somehow as I whiffed time and time again. Every big pair ran into at least one over card on the flop. No sets. No draws filled - OESFD + brick + brick = aaigh. I ran aces into sets three times. All the usual stuff.

Luckily, I was able to mount a comeback. I did actually hit a set of tens and got paid by a player taking his TPTK to the mat. And someone was willing to stack off preflop with TT against my aces. I got all the way back to within one lousy happy meal of even, but I didn't quit playing. That would have made too much sense.

Instead, I got mixed up a hand. A make-or-break-the-session hand.

Lots of preflop action. I go along for the ride with 8c7c on the button. The money is all in by the turn. A set of aces, a set of queens, and my lousy naked flush draw. I don't remember if I flopped it or turned it - I think it was flopped but I didn't pick up any additional outs on the turn - but I was getting better than 6-1 on a huge pot with one card to come when I called off the rest of my stack. Marginal but man that would have been sweet. All three of us had big stacks.

Broke.

I built up again, this time to within a 50 piece McNugget meal of even. I enjoyed flopping a straight (on a monotone flop) with 69s from the small blind against the big blind's QQ - no frush outs for you. So close - again - to even for the session.

And then I turn Broadway and can't get away from it when the board paired on the river. I just couldn't decide if my opponent had the boat or just an overpair. Duh.

I trap an aggrotard in a blind vs blind battle, he shoves with air on the flop with KJs against my jacks. Boom river king.

Lose a flip against a shortstacker who squeezes with jacks. Really? Against like 4 opponents?

Sigh.

It's hard to tear yourself away and I really need to stop checking - ever- the cashier during a session. I played much much longer than I should have because I kept thinking if I can just win one more pot I can get back above the X 'dollar' mark. If I'd just quit after making my point total for the day I would have been slightly better off.

At the end of the day I basically reversed the last two winning sessions. Not a huge deal but still:

Frustrating.

And for future reference all bad beat story payouts (if any) will be made in c2008 Zimbabwe dollars. Or Sklansky bucks. Your choice. Maybe I should add FT points to the list.

Time is at a premium today, so here's the deal. I have five minutes to slap down whatever thoughts come to mind. There will be minimal editing. No organization. It might be stupid. Deal with it. Good thing I type fast.

Yesterday's session was about as dull as possible. I did the 4 table thing again to power through the points - I have to say I like getting it out of the way quick when I have other things to do. It was a modest win without a single memorable hand.

I will say that I've had better luck in the bigger game than I have in the fifty of late. It's weird. Maybe I've gotten too loose at the lower limits and I need to re-nittify.

It was nice of FTP to offer a bonus. I got the minimum offer, which was not a surprise. I cleared about a third of it yesterday so I'll be done soon. I will say it will be nice having constructive rakeback even if it's only for 3 days. Stupid rakeback.


Stars just released the schedule for the Spring Championship of Online Poker, or as I much prefer to call it: SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.

It's just wrong to have non-split pot games be part of the SCOOP. That's right, I said it.

Anyway, here's the schedule, it runs May 3 -16.

I have a $33 twicket and my quick browse shows three events with a $33 buy in: A 7 card stud event, a 4 max NLHE event and an 8 game mix event. All 3 are weekday events, two starting at 5:00 pm ET and one at 2:00 pm ET.

That' s going to be a tough decision.


BTW, there will be more posts about Stars than usual coming up. I have SCOOOOOOOOP fever.

Oops out of time. Boo.

The aggro play continued last night. It's like I have a big blinking sign over my head that says "please 3 bet me". It's not that hard to adjust, just annoying.

I got in my session with two tables of the fifty game and one of the hundred. It was pretty unexciting - I didn't make many hands and did too much check folding. Standard.

All the action took place in two hands.

First, at the big game, I flopped top set in a four way pot with JJ on a J T 4 board with two spades. Two checks, I potted it, the guy behind me shoved for like 7x my bet and - thankfully - the other two guys folded. JJJ > TTT and I double up.

I guess I could have commenced lockdown mode, but what's the fun in that?

A few dozen hands later, again at the big game this hand comes up. I pick up AKs in late position. I raise and get one caller - I forget whether the villain was in the blinds or was an early position limper. One or the other.

Flop is AA8. Check, I bet, call. There's a faint buzzing.

Turn is another 8. Check, bet, minraise. The buzzing has changed over to a ringing.

I know what that means. Warning bell.

At this point I knew there was a pretty good chance that I was up against 88. I even said out loud - "if he has 88 so be it, I go broke here every time". I lose to one hand. There are four hands that have outs among the dozen that chop the pot. Duh. Obviously I shoved.

And lost to 88. Oh well.

Since I had 2.5 stacks before the hand against 7/10ths of a stack I didn't actually go broke. But metaphorically speaking, yes, I go broke there every time.

I wasn't sure I would ever find the point where I will literally never fold, but I think I have. Wow. There ARE limits to my nitiness. I see monsters under the bed too often, but not this time - even if there were monsters I had my trusty Nerf lightsaber with me under the covers. It just turned out that this one beast was real and not imaginary.

Um.

Anyhow, I managed to pull out a small win for the evening despite a pretty poor effort at the fifty game. I did really really enjoy taking a joker to valuetown on one of my last hands:

I have Ah8h in the BB. It folds around to the small blind who completes. I check. Flop is rags with two hearts. Opponent leads small, I'm happy to call. Turn is an ace. Check, I'm ahead so I bet, call. The river is the magic third heart. I can almost hear the SB getting excited about setting me up. He's gonna check raise me right out of my seat!

(Can you do that when you're shortstacking? I guess.)

He checks.

I save him the trouble and shove.

OMGOMGOMG instacall!

Oops.

Your ten high flush no good sir.

Hero LOLs.

Yeah, yeah, I know. A very standard hand. So what. I'm just happy that I still get enjoyment out of crushing shortstacker dreams. If that's ever not the case I think it'll be time to quit.

Friday nights are strange.

I had some computer issues yesterday. I downloaded the trial copy of Pokertracker 3 -- I used to use PT2 but it's been quite a while since I cared enough to actually utilize it. I had installed version 3 the other day but hadn't imported any hands. So I set it up to do that, using the 70,000 odd hands I've played over the last couple months.

Big mistake.

It took an hour and a half to import the hands. Fine. I wasn't surprised by that.

But then there are other "housekeeping" operations which take place. The first one is "clustering", whatever the f*** that is. That took two and a half hours, during which the machine was unusable for anything else. And you can't cancel the process (at least within PT3) -- I had to wait for it to finish. I was able to opt out of the other steps at least, who knows how long that would have needed to run.

Yeesh.

What a cluster. You know, I had planned on using the computer for other things.

For one, I had managed about a third of my daily point total before PT3 made things totally unusable, so when the clustering finally finished I had about a half hour to get in the rest. To speed the process I set a new personal record and popped up four tables of Rush, two of the fifty and two of the hundred.

My lord.

It was like everybody had taken a dozen caffeine pills. I've never seen so much aggrotarding. Every hand I raised got 3-bet huge by the button (or close to it). People went absolutely nuts overplaying hands postflop. I had idiots ship in their stacks on the river with stuff like an unimproved KQo and with pocket 8s.

Since I actually made some hands, it was like free money. I mean I NEVER get paid on sets like that. I got paid by TPTK. I got paid by a guy who turned two pair with K6o. I got paid.

It was glorious.

I didn't make a ton, but it was a good day. I'm now back within sight of the high water mark set in January before I dusted off more than 1/3 of the roll. Good times.

If I could have a few more days like that I might tempt fate and try and cash out a chunk of the imaginary roll to fund a new computer. I'm really sick of dealing with this one and I'm sure you're equally sick of reading me complain about it.

By the way, four tables of Rush is doable, but it's a lot of button mashing. Two is infinitely more comfortable - and you can still get in six hundred plus hands an hour if you abuse the quick fold button like I do.


And there was more poker.

Earlier in the day I decided to spend lunch dinking around on Stars. The 40 kajillionth hand went off a little after 12:30 and I had a few tables up for the big milestone and the one before it. I didn't hit (obviously) - the closest I came was 106 away - but I managed to make back on one hand everything that I'd lost the day before. Jc5c for the win.

Those billionth hand promos are a lot of fun and they seem to be good for business - I didn't check the exact number, but Stars had between 250,000 and 300,000 people logged on when the big one hit.


I have more to say on other stuff but I'm out of time at the moment. I will probably throw up a post on why Rush Poker is real poker but no promises. For now, you can check the comments to my previous post for a brief reply by Hoy and then go read Waffles' response.

A fact that I (and you probably) know intuitively but need to be reminded of from time to time:

While players on average may be better as you move up in stakes, that doesn't mean that all players are necessarily better. It's entirely possible to find mouth-breathing donkeys that play even worse than those at your usual stakes when you move up.

I had an "in action" reminder of that yesterday. I didn't really feel all that much like playing an extended session so I added a table of the hundred game to my usual two tables of fifty. It went fine - although 3 tables is definitely my limit at Rush - and I didn't even have the customary downswing thanks to a player in the hundred game.

I picked up AA on the button. Donkey in MP raised, I 3-bet, he 4-bet, I was more than happy to 5-bet shove ... he calls and shows ... ATo. Sweet. Instead of getting away for less than 30 he donates an entire stack.

Thanks mostly to that stacking - although I did stack a couple guys in the fifty game too - I ended with a nice positive session. Best one in the last two weeks at least.


After getting in my hands I went over to Stars for a while to check out the 40 kajillionth hand promotion. I loaded up 10 or 12 tables of nanolimit NL and played through three of the milestones. The closest I came was (I think) like 106 hands off, so no love. And I dusted off better than a buyin in the process. I'm just not used to playing that many tables and cascading.

Oh yeah: And I suck, but that's a given.


Time to solicit guesses on a hand from Wednesday:

50 game. Hero has 6d 5d on the button. EP raises to 1.25. Hero calls. (Pot 3.25)

Flop is 3d 4d 8h. EP checks. Hero bets 2, EP calls. (Pot 7.25)

Turn is 9h. EP bets 6. Hero raises to 18. EP times down, then calls all in for 12.

River is 8c.

What is villain's hand?


Hoyazo had an interesting throwaway line in one of his rants yesterday:

The big news making the rounds in the local media is a national poll that ranked my home metro area in the top 3 among medium and large cities for being "happiest and healthiest".

Really.

You don't usually think of happy and healthy when you think of a state with 15% unemployment - highest in the country - and an ample supply of corn-fed fatasses who have been stuck inside all winter, but there you go.

I'm doing my part, at least on the happy side of things. I'm pretty freaking happy to be a break even poker player.

Same old story last night. The very first hand I received was KK and I spewed a few chips before an ace appeared on the board to put me out of my misery. Down, down. I recover when some tard decides to shove kings into my aces. I spew those gains away and end up dead even once again.

Damn I'm consistent. Consistently bad.

But happy. Really.

I forgot to dump this thought into my previous post, so I'm going nuts and blogging twice.

So as a regular player of Rush Poker I'm familiar with guys having pretty decent stacks. It's not at all unusual in the fifty game to have people with 150 or 200. I've gotten up there a couple times but that's about it. I've seen a handful of guys in the 300-500 range, but over 300 is pretty rare.

One of the guys in the pool yesterday had a stack of nearly 850. That's 17 buyins. Seventeen ****ing buyins.

My question: How?

For serious. How is it possible to run that good? During those brief windows of time when godmode is enabled for me, I might win four or five buyins. Getting that much involves running white hot. Super super hot. No beats of any variety.

LOL right.

Even when running good I inevitably get it in ahead and lose. Whether it's AA vs TT when some aggrodonk shoves preflop, or with a set versus an overpair on the flop or turn, or a set versus a draw with one card to come or whatever - eventually the bad guy gets lucky. Even if it's a one outer, there comes a time when they will hit.

Can you really avoid that long enough to rack up seventeen buyins?

Even if you always get to play for stacks against opponents who have you covered - obviously that's NOT the normal case when the buyin is capped at 50 - that's still 4 consecutive double ups plus a stacking of a fresh 50. Five wins in a row.

I know it's possible. But it sure doesn't seem like it. Especially since given stack limitations it's probably more like 15 wins without a significant loss. And this is at Rush Poker, where (theoretically) you don't have the luxury of reads.

Color me puzzled. And envious. Mostly envious.

No content.

Sorry.

Just playing. I fulfilled most of my Monday quota by staying up way too late on Sunday, so I only plugged away for a few minutes the night before last.

Last night I went back to basics - scroll down a few posts for the standard graphical representation. I got set over setted for a stack and top two with AKs got setted for much of another. So I did what I always do - buckled up and got to work. Stole dozens of blinds. Raised with impunity. Made a few hands - even had quads twice. Ground my way back up to positive territory then spewed a bit to end up dead even.

Edit: Oh, and I got stacked yet another time early when I played 75s from the button, flopped a 5 and a flush draw, floated, turned another 5, river brick, villain flopped top set. and boated on the turn. Oops. And here I was so proud of myself for my super-disguised trips. Moran.

Typical.

I think I need to add another section to my standard Rush graph, since the last couple times I've spewed off whatever profit I made late in the session to get back down to even.

Or I could just quit sooner. That might be a good idea.

Anyhow, I'm not building the bankroll but at least I'm loading up on points. Maybe one of these days I'll actually use them for something.


As usual I saw a few bloggers whiz by. Drizz and Smokkee were playing the fifty game - I managed to avoid getting tangled up with either of them. I should link 'em up but I'm busy. Blogs are on the roll to the left.


The Stars 40 kajillion hand promotion rolls on. I haven't logged on yet but might do so the next couple nights. IIRC they expect the big hand to hit either tomorrow or Friday. There are boatloads of cash being given away beforehand, so it's worth checking out.


So.

I really don't expect anything interesting to happen for a while. I have no trips planned and will probably just be logging time playing Rush Poker. That doesn't make for very exciting blogging.

I will say that I'm actually curious to see just how badly live poker will be wrecked for me after Rush - I haven't played any standard poker other than the WBCOOP tournaments on Stars and those were painfully slow. Live could be brutal.

Not that it wasn't already.


Oh. And there was a squib in the latest Full Tilt email saying to be logged in Sunday night for a special announcement. I wonder what that could be...

So about that post yesterday complaining about being break even? Forget it. I found a scenario under which I am thrilled to be a break even player. Time to start a list.

Times I am thankful to be a break even player:

1. When I'm down six buyins after 400 hands.
2.

Yeah. Yikes. Mix one part awful play with two parts not hitting anything ever and one part opponents hitting miracle cards and you get instant bankroll demolition. That was one scary ride man. Couldn't see the bottom.

Really, I should have quit early on but I didn't. It took another 1500 hands and a whole lot of questionable play, but I made it back. All the way back. I even went up a couple value meals but finally managed to make myself quit after some light spewage while I was still up a single cheeseburger...


I have no idea if this is making the rounds or what, but it made me chuckle: Dogs playing poker with HUD.


credit (AFAIK) to DukeMuscle, 2+2 poster and FTP 100NL regular.

The way I ended up playing yesterday I'm probably closest to the 28/28/5.8 dog.

I'm worried.

Worried about becoming Waffles.

At poker anyway.

I don't know that other aspects of Waffles and his life could possibly be duplicated.

Um. So.

Three lengthy sessions and I'm within a supersized Extra Value Meal of where I started.

Today's session ended within a couple of gumballs of dead even.

Oh well. At least I racked up a whole whopping mess (by my standards) of points.


Also: Argh. I hardly ever get anyone willing to stack off. Got it in good on the turn twice tonight and they sucked out both times (flush draw vs my top set; set vs my made nut frush).

Sigh.

If I had dodged a couple sets yesterday or either of the above I'd be bragging about running hot.

Instead I'm thinking about getting a box of Eggos for tomorrow and cursing the FTP RNG as usual.

What a stupid game.

I'm serious. Don't just sit there for hour after hour. Get up once in a while.

Anyway, after an unplanned absence of almost a week from everything including poker I got a fix this evening. Nothing remarkable - within a couple blinds of dead even. I'll have to decide if I want to try to at least make bronze for the month to keep my status. Probable.

Stars has kicked off their 40 billionth hand promotion and it's better than ever. I may have to poke my head in over there this weekend to see if I can't snag another piece of the giant pie stuffed with free cash.

... in yesterday's post? Yeah, well, every once in a while it doesn't work out exactly that way.

I mean I was set up for it. Not long into my session I picked up AA in the BB. One pot sized raise and a caller. I 3-bet it and not small. Both call. Flop of Q - rag - rag with no suits. I lead, get a call and a fold. Turn is an Ace, I underbet the pot, opponent shoves and was probably pissed that I re-sucked on his set of queens.

So: Instead of the usual ceremonial dusting off of a buy in or two I actually went up early. And I pretty much stayed there. Lockdown mode was definitely on.


It's pretty interesting to note the differences between the games. Rush NL50 to me plays a lot like pre-Rush NL100, except even more aggro. Lots of 3 betting. Compare that with Rush NL25 where I consistently pick up the blinds when I minraise any two cards from early position. Granted I don't do it with any two cards, but I might minraise a small pair or if I feel like playing a sooted connector. I'm flaky. If I tried that move at Rush NL50 I'm getting 3 bet 99% of the time.

Needless to say, different games require different play styles.


I really, really need to improve in a few areas. I am missing out on a TON of value when I don't follow through on a hand. Whether it's checking a river when I don't have the immortal nuts or stuff like this:

I have 22 in the BB. There is a pot sized raise from EP and a call from MP. I call closing the action.

Flop is T 6 2 with two diamonds.

I lead out with a pot sized or just smaller bet.

EP player calls. MP shoves.

Now this is the scenario I WANT. I have induced action. Sure I am behind TT and 66. I can't put either opponent on those specific hands. I'm sure that Ax of diamonds will come along, as will a whole bunch of dominated hands.

If I'm not going to call (or reshove, I forget exactly what the stacks were) here what the hell am I doing in the hand in the first place??

I finally decided that MP could well have TT or 66 since he flat called the preflop raise. I folded (IDIOT), sat out and watched the rest of the hand unfold.

EP thought for a few seconds and then called - he had QQ versus MP's KK and I completely missed out on a chance to take two players to valuetown. Ugh.

Learn how to play dummy.


Another area that I need to work on is dealing with squeeze plays. I had a hand at Rush NL50 recently where it folded around to me on the button. I potted it (1.75) with 99, the SB called and the BB popped it to 9. So I had would have had to call 7.25 into 12.50.

I think in this particular case it was a pretty easy fold - neither SS or BB had much of a stack behind (maybe 20 each), so not favorable odds for set mining. Without reads I didn't have a range pinned down for either but chances are very good that my equity isn't so hot.

At least in the 50 game there's quite a bit of squeezing from the blinds and I really need to sit down with a pencil and a computer and figure out exactly what kind of equity I need to continue with a hand.

Hmm. I've probably just offered up some more evidence for the 'wow you suck at poker' crowd, but I've never denied that. I have never made any kind of real study of "cash" (play chip) NLHE and after all these years still mostly play by feel and instinct - with instinct being wrong an awful lot.

Maybe I should title this section learn the game dummy or at least learn the math dummy.

So I created a handy shorthand version of what every one of my Rush Poker sessions looks like:

Yep. Exactly like that. Pretty much every time.

I played long enough to get back above break even yesterday so woo hoo for that.

Otherwise, I dinked around playing Rush with antes for a few minutes. Meh. I have no deep analysis and don't think I really care - I prefer whichever variety has a bigger player pool.

My draw didn't come in *again* so
let's go ram a building or something

Hey look it's a useless 'holiday' that happens to have a pretty good movie associated with it. I'm okay with admitting it - I like the movie Groundhog Day and will watch it if it happens to be on (that is when I have the TV on, which hasn't happened yet in 2010). It's definitely on the list.

I feel like I can relate - pokering has kind of been in Groundhog Day mode. Again on Sunday I went down early, dusting off two and a half buyins in the blink of an eye but then fighting my way back. I ended up down just over one buyin and I was so very close to being even --

I donkraised 9s8s and got one caller from the button. J72 flop with two spades. I lead and get called. My flush gets there on the turn. Again, bet and call. Another spade on the river and I get minraised. Nuts. The most passively played AA ever just has to have the ace of spades. I wonder if I'd overbet the pot or shoved on the turn (I believe I potted it) if he'd been able to let it go. I'm thinking not.

Anyhow, it was the same old story, donk and recover.

This is not a recording.

I didn't dig myself much of a hole yesterday and just had an unremarkable session. I had fewer playable hands than usual which is a mixed blessing. Ended up less than a buyin to the good.

Nothing else of note going on. There was apparently another FTP software update overnight and ante tables have been added to Rush Poker. I don't know that they'll be real popular but since I love the new gadgets I'll be checking them out.

Hopefully Stars will release the SCOOP (I keep wanting to refer to it as the SCOOOOOOOOOOOOP!) schedule soon. I rarely play tournaments because of my wonky life schedule and I want to be sure to block out enough time. I'm totally undecided as to what variety of tournament to play - probably because I suck at all forms of poker. Most likely though I'll end up with NLHE going for the dream of the biggest score possible. Or for that matter a meaningful cash of any size - it would be pretty nice to actually have a workable roll on Stars again.

Speaking of Stars, thanks for the many hits yesterday guys.

Social media: Putting your FAIL out there for the world to see since 2004.