Training, Grinding

For the past few weeks, I’ve been training pretty hard and playing a good amount of poker in my free time. I actually had to take yesterday off as well as morning practice today, only doing afternoon fitness with my private coach, because of a hand injury that no amount of tape seemed to remedy. There’s a grand prix this weekend, which is an inter-academy tournament which I am looking forward to, but I hope my hand won’t give me problems. I’m definitely hitting very well, my coach has worked on some things with my foundation and footwork; my forehand and serve feel great. Aside from losing to Vaidisova earlier in the week, I’ve been pretty satisfied with how I have been doing.

Poker has been up and down. I’m playing 6max almost exclusively, and I feel like I’m comfortable in almost any lineup at 5/10, which is where I’ve essentially been printing money this year. However, to say that 10/20 has been rough would be an understatement. Here’s a few examples of what I have been experiencing at the seemingly unbeatable limit:

***** Hand History for Game 1248713079 *****
$2000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Saturday, February 07, 09:28:30 ET 2009
Table ALPHA DRIVE (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 4: PRAHLADF ( $5184.88 USD )
Seat 6: ZCJ90 ( $7758.88 USD )
PRAHLADF posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
ZCJ90 posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ZCJ90 [ As Ac ]
PRAHLADF raises [$50.00 USD]
ZCJ90 raises [$200.00 USD]
PRAHLADF raises [$600.00 USD]
ZCJ90 raises [$1200.00 USD]
PRAHLADF calls [$760.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 8d, Kh ]
ZCJ90 checks
PRAHLADF bets [$3764.88 USD]
ZCJ90 calls [$3764.88 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Tc ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ]
PRAHLADF shows [Ks, Th ]
ZCJ90 shows [As, Ac ]
PRAHLADF wins $10369.01 USD from main pot

***** Hand History for Game 1298385351 *****
$2000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Friday, March 06, 04:24:28 ET 2009
Table BUTLER RD (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 3: G0N3INW1ND ( $3970.00 USD )
Seat 4: DOSUN88 ( $3396.50 USD )
Seat 5: SENIOR JOTA ( $5117.00 USD )
Seat 6: HATA19 ( $2000.00 USD )
Seat 2: ZCJ90 ( $4504.50 USD )
DOSUN88 posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
SENIOR JOTA posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ZCJ90 [ 9c Td ]
HATA19 folds
ZCJ90 raises [$70.00 USD]
G0N3INW1ND folds
DOSUN88 calls [$60.00 USD]
SENIOR JOTA raises [$250.00 USD]
ZCJ90 calls [$200.00 USD]
DOSUN88 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9h, 4d, Tc ]
SENIOR JOTA checks
ZCJ90 bets [$415.00 USD]
SENIOR JOTA raises [$1200.00 USD]
ZCJ90 raises [$2025.00 USD]
SENIOR JOTA raises [$3647.00 USD]
ZCJ90 calls [$1794.50 USD]
SENIOR JOTA wins $612.50 USD from main pot
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
ZCJ90 shows [9c, Td ]
SENIOR JOTA shows [Ks, Kc ]
SENIOR JOTA wins $9076.00 USD from main pot

I’m not too worried though, since having such poor results at 10/20 I decided that I was going to be much more selective in terms of the games I play in. While I am most likely one of the biggest winners at 5/10 on UB in the past month or two, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with game selecting at 10/20 for now, until I’m way overrolled for it, like I am for 5/10. I generally don’t like game selecting, because I don’t mind playing tough opponents and getting into difficult matches, because it makes you so much better. I can play anyone I like at 5/10, because the variance isn’t too big with $2000 buyins, and many of the better players who I would avoid are playing 25/50 or higher. I feel like 5/10 has been my niche, so to speak, and I have never had trouble beating the games because I seem to have a pretty good idea as to what level of thinking people are on.

I’m excited to get my rakeback from last month, I get a payment once a month on the 15th. I’m expecting something like 6-7k, as well as $1300 for getting second in the rake race (my rakeback provider hosts a monthly contest for everyone registered through them).

As this is the first year where I haven’t been in school, I’ve become a little bored of my lack of education for these past seven or eight months. One website I’ve greatly enjoyed lately is TED, which hosts talks about important ideas from people around the world. One of my favorites:

Probabilities This one is pretty much exactly how poker players think, judging things in terms of EV, or “Expected Value”. It’s great to see that someone else shares my view that many people misjudge what their financial priorities should be.

Here’s a list of a bunch of great videos, I’ve probably watched almost all of them: SMP Videos

Lastly, one strategy hand as requested:

***** Hand History for Game 1296599897 *****
$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Thursday, March 05, 05:03:35 ET 2009
Table THOUSAND OAKS (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 5: ZCJ90 ( $2192.00 USD )
Seat 6: HITITONETIME ( $1215.51 USD )
Seat 1: JOETFK ( $2142.23 USD )
Seat 2: BOROVICH05 ( $1253.62 USD )
Seat 3: RUBBERSOUL ( $1998.50 USD )
Seat 4: BLACKHOLE_ ( $974.50 USD )
HITITONETIME posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
JOETFK posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
BLACKHOLE_ posts big blind [$5.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ZCJ90 [ 9s 6s ]
BOROVICH05 folds
RUBBERSOUL folds
BLACKHOLE_ raises [$30.00 USD]
ZCJ90 raises [$110.00 USD]

I make a standard 3bet light against a fairly tight regular

HITITONETIME folds
JOETFK folds
BLACKHOLE_ calls [$75.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, 6h, 4s ]
BLACKHOLE_ checks
ZCJ90 checks

I decide to check back the flop where I’d usually bet. I would bet most of the time because it seems like it’s unlikely I am going to get to showdown free against anything I beat (I’d imagine that range would be AKo (which I’d much rather get it in preflop if I were him), AQs and AQo).

** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
BLACKHOLE_ bets [$170.00 USD]
ZCJ90 calls [$170.00 USD]

Standard turn call. He’s of course representing slowplayed sets, big pairs, and perhaps AQ (which I’d check if I were him), but my flop check will often induce air to try to take the pot away now.

** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
BLACKHOLE_ bets [$425.00 USD]
ZCJ90 calls [$425.00 USD]

The river brings a four-straight to the board. Now there’s an interesting dynamic when good players get to this spot, and basically there are very few (none) hands that he can have with a 5 for a straight, so the only reason I’d fold is if I think he can value bet thinner easily. Of course he’s got to operate under the assumption that I’ll call the river with worse than what he’s value betting (less than the seemingly easy straight to have, I mean you only need one five!) so if he bets AA here I need to be able to call with KK, AQ, and JJ probably, all of which may not even be in my 3betting range.

BLACKHOLE_ shows [Jc, Tc ]
ZCJ90 shows [9s, 6s ]
ZCJ90 wins $1422.00 USD from main pot

His preflop call is too light with only $1000 effective stacks. Playing a pot out of position against another solid aggressive player with JTs just isn’t a good idea when you’re only a hundred big blinds deep. Quite frankly, I’d be much more wary and probably fold if I’m playing against one of the handful of 5/10 regulars who give me a lot of trouble, but I didn’t think blackhole is capable of making a thin value bet on this river, and is probably check/calling a lot of hands that he seems to be representing with this river bet. Essentially all I’m worried about is QQ and of course that isn’t enough to deter me from making a fairly light river call.