Yesterday was pretty cool for me in my poker life. I did a sweat session with GrantKropf from DeucesCracked. Basically we use a program called Teamviewer which lets us look at each others screen, and then use skype to talk.
This was a really unique and interesting experience for me for a number of reasons. First is that, while I have a number of poker friends that I see in real life on a regular basis, none of them take the game as seriously as I do and none of them play limit hold em, let alone HULHE. So discussions we have tend to be on no limit sng theory, as thats what we play most often when we get together.
With Grant it was quite different, because we are playing the same game and both take quite a bit of time to get better at the game. Grant is currently playing one limit higher than me at 3/6, while i am playing 2/4, but the game is still quite similar... the villains dont change much in these limits. When we make the jump to 5/10 some of the theory needs to be adjusted. So how this worked was we took turns playing villains and going over spots to decide what to do and why we are doing it. I believe i am quite a bit more showdown bound than Grant, so it was interesting to listen to his thought process about why he folds hands. I also like to see more flops than Grant, as I want to fold likie 7% of my hands, and he probably folds closer to 15%. Despite that, we had a super productive session and watching each other play and discussing our thought process was super valuable for my game.
Grant got a little lucky in the sweat session to run into a maniac that dropped a bunch of bets to him really quickly... I ran a little cooler, but still managed to turn a nice profit for the day.
The big thing that changed for me after doing the sweat is really paying attention to hands and making more notes. That's something that I've been really bad at in my game, and seeing Grant be able to make a call or fold because of previous information is definitely going to be beneficial for my winrate.
I played a shorter session so far today, and may play more, but its really nice outside so I'm going to take advantage and read my book out there for a bit.
Also, Shannon Shorr, who is my favourite tournament player to follow TV final tabled the WPT Championship... so thats pretty cool.
And I've been listening to the Justin Shronk tribute, which is really sad.. he was doing a good thing at Poker Road and i'll definitely miss what he added to that show.
LQ
Currently Listening: Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Currently Reading: East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Showing posts with label poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poker. Show all posts
2009-04-25
2009-04-23
Get Fighted
I had a pretty interesting session today at 2/4 HUHU I got in 450 hands and turned a pretty nice profit.
I played a couple guys who berated me pretty badly for my play. This has been written about before, but i really dont feel like im playing my best unless someone calls me a donkey at some point in the session.
Some players just dont get that when i make a play at them and then they 3bet me, i often have enough equity to continue now that i've bloated the pot. For example I had K3o on a QJ2 board with two of a suit giving me two backdoors. I decided to c/r since i could take down the pot right there. villain immediately 3bet me, giving me 9-1 on a call. I called and say a beautiful T roll off giving me enough equity in my hand to peel and the implied odds of knowing that i dont put more money in the pot untill i hit my hand.
I did hit my hand and he showed me a set of jacks and bemoaned how awful i am.
What he doesnt get is that im raising there for a bunch of reasons. One is so that I'm not always raising with a strong hand and that will force him to call me down with A high more often when i c/r him, which is going to be profitable for me since most of what i c/r with is a value hand.
Anyways, moral of that story is that there is often more than the face value of a play going on. Even though against his exact hand i was -EV to make that call on the flop, his total range, balancing, and implied odds more than make up for that exact situation.
I'm starting to feel better about my HU game, as i took a month off, which left me a little rusty. I'm starting to get in the groove and understand spots and i feel like im hand reading pretty well right now.
Hopefully that continues on.
Life update: We booked a caterer for our wedding today, which we are both really happy about. And im going to give a couple squash lessons right now, which will be alright.
LQ
Currently Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Currently Listening: Alexisonfire - Watch Out
Currently Watching: Entourage Season 2
I played a couple guys who berated me pretty badly for my play. This has been written about before, but i really dont feel like im playing my best unless someone calls me a donkey at some point in the session.
Some players just dont get that when i make a play at them and then they 3bet me, i often have enough equity to continue now that i've bloated the pot. For example I had K3o on a QJ2 board with two of a suit giving me two backdoors. I decided to c/r since i could take down the pot right there. villain immediately 3bet me, giving me 9-1 on a call. I called and say a beautiful T roll off giving me enough equity in my hand to peel and the implied odds of knowing that i dont put more money in the pot untill i hit my hand.
I did hit my hand and he showed me a set of jacks and bemoaned how awful i am.
What he doesnt get is that im raising there for a bunch of reasons. One is so that I'm not always raising with a strong hand and that will force him to call me down with A high more often when i c/r him, which is going to be profitable for me since most of what i c/r with is a value hand.
Anyways, moral of that story is that there is often more than the face value of a play going on. Even though against his exact hand i was -EV to make that call on the flop, his total range, balancing, and implied odds more than make up for that exact situation.
I'm starting to feel better about my HU game, as i took a month off, which left me a little rusty. I'm starting to get in the groove and understand spots and i feel like im hand reading pretty well right now.
Hopefully that continues on.
Life update: We booked a caterer for our wedding today, which we are both really happy about. And im going to give a couple squash lessons right now, which will be alright.
LQ
Currently Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Currently Listening: Alexisonfire - Watch Out
Currently Watching: Entourage Season 2
2009-04-22
New Blog
So i did it.
I started blogging again.
I'll quickly give some background on my previous blogging attempts and on me:
I hosted a blog in 2004 that I lovingly called The Blake Olsen Theory. I rocked that blog for many months and quite enjoyed the experience. I had a few other blogging friends and we enjoyed linking each other and all that fun stuff you do when you're new to the online publishing world.
I also hosted a blog on Cardrunners, which im sure is still there under Liquid_Quik if anyone is interested in checking it out.
About me in general and what makes me an authority worth reading in this saturated blogging world:
While this will be primarily a poker blog, I don't want it to be simply that. I actually would be really sad if that was all I wrote about. I am 23 and live in British Columbia Canada. I recently graduated with my History and Education degrees from Vancouver Island University, and am also a certified squash professional.
I also love poker. my game of choice these days is Heads Up Limit Holdem, and that is the game i feel most comfortable with right now. I have also logged a decent sample of sngs, micro fullring and 6max and MTTs. I know Omaha 8 or Better pretty well and i would argue that that is my second best game. I have played all the games in the HORSE rotation as well as a bit of Badugi and Triple Draw. I love learning all the different games.
I have been playing poker for 5-6 years, like everyone else, and I got my start with friends playing a quarter game and we played all the random poker variations before holdem got huge. When the holdem boom hit we played that pretty extensively and I loved the game for a long time.
My purpose with this blog, if I am to set a mandate for it, is to chronicle my life journey through poker and all the things that go along with it. I feel like that is my main focus, but not exclusively so.
wish me luck.
LQ
PS: current poker content - this has been commented on many times in the forums, but it makes me feel like im doing something really well when someone decides that its time to tell me that they hope my family dies in some horrible accident. This happened to me tonight at 2/4 on route to a dude dropping $120 in my lap. holla.
I started blogging again.
I'll quickly give some background on my previous blogging attempts and on me:
I hosted a blog in 2004 that I lovingly called The Blake Olsen Theory. I rocked that blog for many months and quite enjoyed the experience. I had a few other blogging friends and we enjoyed linking each other and all that fun stuff you do when you're new to the online publishing world.
I also hosted a blog on Cardrunners, which im sure is still there under Liquid_Quik if anyone is interested in checking it out.
About me in general and what makes me an authority worth reading in this saturated blogging world:
While this will be primarily a poker blog, I don't want it to be simply that. I actually would be really sad if that was all I wrote about. I am 23 and live in British Columbia Canada. I recently graduated with my History and Education degrees from Vancouver Island University, and am also a certified squash professional.
I also love poker. my game of choice these days is Heads Up Limit Holdem, and that is the game i feel most comfortable with right now. I have also logged a decent sample of sngs, micro fullring and 6max and MTTs. I know Omaha 8 or Better pretty well and i would argue that that is my second best game. I have played all the games in the HORSE rotation as well as a bit of Badugi and Triple Draw. I love learning all the different games.
I have been playing poker for 5-6 years, like everyone else, and I got my start with friends playing a quarter game and we played all the random poker variations before holdem got huge. When the holdem boom hit we played that pretty extensively and I loved the game for a long time.
My purpose with this blog, if I am to set a mandate for it, is to chronicle my life journey through poker and all the things that go along with it. I feel like that is my main focus, but not exclusively so.
wish me luck.
LQ
PS: current poker content - this has been commented on many times in the forums, but it makes me feel like im doing something really well when someone decides that its time to tell me that they hope my family dies in some horrible accident. This happened to me tonight at 2/4 on route to a dude dropping $120 in my lap. holla.
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