<-- Ratholer

Nitted up. Didn't help a whole lot, lost a couple of buy-ins.

Really, I've lost all confidence in my game right now, and for good reason. It's 100% true that I've run awfully in this downswing. Nobody would deny that if they saw it. However, even if I ran average, I don't know if I would be a break-even player, if that. Looking at some of the big hands I lost... well, there's a whole lot of "WTF were you thinking you fucking donk" moments.

There's just something about the online game that completely destroys my focus. I can't explain it. I get distracted very very easily... plus the lack of real time to make a decision makes things much much harder for me.

With the way I'm playing right now, the frame of mind I'm in and the distractions I have (ex. exam time) I have no confidence in my ability to be a winning online NL 6-max player. I no longer have the bankroll to feel comfortable playing PLO or HUNL. (I will always feel I have an edge in these games if I can afford it).

The solution is my latest experiment, shortstacking. In the last two days, after working out some rough math, I've played roughly 4750 hands mass-tabling, mostly 100NL. I broke even over that stretch despite continuing to run brutally (more on that below), but because I'm putting in way more volume than I ever have before, I've made $100 in rakeback over that time. Even if I run at 1 PtBB/100 and play only 10K hands a week at 100NL... with rakeback that's still ~$450 a week. I'll take it.

Even when I get my BR back to where I'm comfortable I may continue shortstacking just because it's so gosh darn fun. I always assumed that SSing would be a dull, boring style of poker, and maybe it will be eventually. However, right now playing flippaments on a dozen tables is pretty awesome.

Here's how I ran today.
In 1355 hands, I played 27 hands that finished +/- $18 or more. I won 12 and lost 15.
The 12 hands I won, I averaged +$25.7 (I played some 200NL). In these hands I was the dominant favourite 7 times, was flipping 3 times, was dominated 0 times, one was a 60/40 and 1 was a 3-bet bluff on the flop w/ an OESD against a maniac.

In the 15 hands I lost, I averaged - $36.46. In these hands I was a dominant favourite 3 times, was flipping 5 times, was dominated 4 times, was 60/40 favourite 1 time, 1 was where I bluffed off some money PoF after I had gotten deeper than normal, and 1 where I had to 3bet/fold (again, a lil deeper than normal).

I made a couple of mistakes that I can't afford to make when my strat is so marginally profitable anyways, but I feel pretty happy about how I'm playing my shortstack. (And how other people play shortstacks! Good lord!). We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, and I found myself playing some HULHE today, but got out losing only $35.

Good news: I got Chinese Democracy, the new GnR album, and I had pretty low expectations but it's fucking awesome. Listened to it 4 times since Friday. Put it right up there w/ Appetite for Destruction IMO.

It's time to nit up. I swear.

Bankroll's getting to the point where I'm not really comfortable testing the variance of my preferred games, 6-max PLO and HU NLH, so I've dipped back into 6-max 100NL. Kinda been running in place.

Besides running really bad, which is 100% true, I think my problem is that I've tried too hard to loosen up in both NL and PLO, pre-flop and post-flop (especially w/ my c-bets). When I was crushing 50NL, 100NL, 100PLO and at the beginning 200PLO it was with a tight, solid style.

Really, it took a lot to just say "hey... I'm still a beginner". A year ago I was playing play money SnGs. 7 months ago I was playing $1 SnGs. It took until late May or early June before I started playing cash - where I started out as a loser in FR 25NL. It's kinda mind-boggling to think about, but I've probably only played about 60k hands of 6-max cash.

So, time to go back to my old nitty 18/16 self until I get more experienced and more comfortable with this stuff.

I've been busy hating life

Yeah... In the midst of a $3k+ downswing... from my high point of like $8.2k I'm down a full $5.5k. Sweeeeeet.

I feel like I've been running absolutely terribly... definitely a few bad beats, ran kings into aces a couple of times, losing PrF flips like its nobody business... but apart from one massive, massive KK I'd rather not discuss further, it's mostly been a slow bleeding. You know the kind... never winning a pot, your monsters don't get action, your marginal hands get 3-bet, your c-bets keep getting raised, valuetowning yourself, etc. etc... maybe I've just been playing bad and spewing money, but I feel like I'm usually pretty aware about if I'm playing bad, and I think I've been playing fine.

Obviously I've had to move down and datamine the crap out of 100NL and 100PLO. I'm going to concentrate on PLO for a bunch of reasons:

1) Even though I've run terribly in PLO as well (something like $2k below expectation), I feel much more alienated towards HE than PLO.

2) PLO should be more profitable than HE.

3) 100PLO was where I first started boomswitching and shot up from like $2k to $5k in a couple of weeks. Good memories/good karma.

Currently playing my first PLO session of 'The Rebuilding' and it's going well, up about 2.5 buyins so far. Experiencing that good ol' awesome PLO variance, as I've been flipping pretty bad, but I did pull a massive suckout on a guy where he must've been something like 85% on the flop. (Don't want to run the #s or post the hand, because it was really spewy). Reminiscent of my first 100PLO run where I was something like $1k above expectation in my first 3kish hands I think.

Good luck me!

Busy couple of days

After that whole clusterfuck of posted below, I set myself strict, strict guidelines to follow:

1. No playing higher than .5/1
2. No fixed limit poker.
3. No playing drunk
4. No sessions longer than 5 hours
5. No playing poker past 1 am on most days; midnight on days before an 830 or 930 class
6. Stop-loss of 3 buyins

The bolded ones were broken within 24 hours, as I played a very drunken 400NL session that netted -$900. Even then, I STILL managed to run bad. So, I figured that with me ~$3500 bankroll it was a good time to seek out a HU opponent at 5/10. So I met Past. I took him for over $1600, including the hand below, and somehow finished my drunken session significantly up. Whoops.


Click here to view a larger version.
Interesting note: After this hand, he tried to get me on another table. I told him half my $5k BR was on the table ("that's plenty enough for another table"[!!]), I was a small-stakes player and I was wasted. He didn't really let up and told me I was hitting and running him. (I left about 5-10 mins after this hand).

Sooo I decided yesterday the time was ripe to enter the $216 FTOPS #1. I thought I played as well as I have in a long, long time, chipped up to ~$7k from the starting #5k, I was sitting well in the top 3rd of the field until I ran my 97s into KQ on a Q97 board, and... you can guess the rest. Self-excluded myself for the night after that hand, it would've vaulted me well into the top 100 (out of about 4k left).

Started watching Sixpeppers' new deepstacked video series in CR, and it inspired me to play some 1/2 deep today, after I swore I wouldn't play higher than .5/1. I decided to only play 2 tables, because I start to get in trouble when I play much more than that... this way I was really able to develop reads very quickly, who to c-bet, who I can abuse with 3-bets, etc. I think my good player really continued and I finished up about 2.5 buyins, so my bankroll sits at $5665 with a $376 rakeback deposit coming probably tomorrow.

Things are looking up.

Edit: I noticed a couple of typos at first, and planned to edit them out, but there were so many in the whole thing that it just made me tired to think about fixing them all.

More Awesome Bankroll Management

Iiiiiiiiiick.

After grinding out a decent frofit in HUNL and PLO the last couple of days to re-build up to $5900, I went on another sick PLO downswing. Semi-drunk, tilted and wanting to chase money, I opened 8 400PLO tables, at least a couple of them deepstacked. At one point my entire bankroll was on the tables (it stopped auto-topping up, which was what brought me to my senses). It could have been a lot worse than it was:



Bankroll stands at $4404 and it's official drop-down time.

Alerting FTP players + Cardrunners Members

Some really cool stuff.

Sign up for this promotion, and you get your CR membership for free if you can earn 4500 FTPs in a month. Also something called StoxPoker is involved, haven't checked that out yet.

I was never into CR before I heard about this, but I signed up for it and it's very very cool. So far I've mostly gotten into sbrugby's 'I like to move it move it' series and a bunch of Stinger's PLO vids. Currently watching OMGClayAiken/Phil Galfond/Jman's 1 vid, which is excellent.

So, go sign up for this stuff.

God I hate PLO (Variance)

Let's take a look at the big losing hands of the day:

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



CO: $195.35

Hero (BTN): $308.20

SB: $275.40

BB: $214.00

UTG: $160.00

MP: $313.55


Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with A J 9 8

1 fold, MP calls $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $9, 2 folds, MP calls $7


Flop: ($21.00) 4 7 6 (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets $19.50, MP raises to $79.50, Hero raises to $185, MP raises to $290.50, Hero raises to $299.20 all in, MP calls $8.70


Turn: ($619.40) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)


River: ($619.40) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)


Final Pot: $619.40

Hero shows A J 9 8 (a pair of Queens)

MP shows 9 3 5 5 (a straight, Seven high)

MP wins $616.40

(Rake: $3.00)



Pretty standard semi-bluff against a guy who can't let go of his idiot end w/ no re-draw... oh, did I say semi-bluff? I meant value-bet. I had 51% equity.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter


MP: $184.25

Hero (CO): $335.15

BTN: $395.20

SB: $157.50

BB: $222.00

UTG: $349.95

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with 6 8 6 4

UTG calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1, BB checks


Flop: ($8.00) 8 6 4 (4 players)

SB checks, BB bets $2, UTG folds, Hero calls $2, SB raises to $8, BB folds, Hero calls $6


Turn: ($26.00) K (2 players)

SB bets $22, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $22


River: ($70.00) 2 (2 players)

SB bets $42, Hero raises to $196, SB calls $83.50 all in


Final Pot: $321.00

Hero shows 6 8 6 4 (three of a kind, Sixes)

SB shows 7 5 T A (a flush, Ace high)

SB wins $318.00

(Rake: $3.00)



Maybe a little less standard, but I make that play all day long against a reg. I assumed he had the 75, so I was drawing to a board-pair to win or a diamond to bluff. Unfortunately he had the NFD that I was representing. At least it was a reg, so perhaps this fail might pay some dividends in the future.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



MP: $162.85

CO: $80.25

BTN: $179.75

Hero (SB): $318.85

BB: $138.80

UTG: $413.90


Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with 4 5 Q Q

UTG calls $2, MP calls $2, CO calls $2, BTN calls $2, Hero calls $1, BB checks


Flop: ($12.00) Q A 8 (6 players)

Hero bets $11, BB folds, UTG folds, MP calls $11, CO folds, BTN calls $11


Turn: ($45.00) 5 (3 players)

Hero bets $37, MP folds, BTN calls $37


River: ($119.00) 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $70, BTN raises to $129.75 all in, Hero calls $59.75


Final Pot: $378.50

BTN shows 8 8 7 4 (a straight, Eight high)

Hero mucks 4 5 Q Q

BTN wins $375.50

(Rake: $3.00)



Set over set turns into a bit of a clusterfuck. Oh well, I just had 90% equity on the flop and 73% on the turn.
Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



MP: $152.65

CO: $87.25

BTN: $186.75

Hero (SB): $334.85

BB: $141.80

UTG: $399.70


Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with J Q J 8

UTG calls $2, MP raises to $4, 2 folds, Hero calls $3, 1 fold, UTG calls $2


Flop: ($14.00) 3 J 9 (3 players)

Hero bets $12, UTG calls $12, MP calls $12


Turn: ($50.00) 5 (3 players)

Hero bets $43, UTG raises to $179, MP folds, Hero raises to $318.85 all in, UTG calls $139.85


River: ($687.70) T (2 players - 1 is all in)


Final Pot: $687.70

Hero shows J Q J 8 (a straight, Queen high)

UTG shows 9 9 Q 8 (a straight, Queen high)

Hero wins $342.35

UTG wins $342.35

(Rake: $3.00)


Ditto. 85% on the flop, 94% on the turn.

Some winning hands in between means I finished down less than 3 buy-ins - a sneeze in PLO - but it could've been a pretty good day.

Hope I keep running good at NL.