Alexos' Adventures in Donkland

interesting, I like the 99 but don't like the AJ......when people c/call that turn in what was a 3-way pot OOP, his range is heavily weighted to very strong draws (that got there) and 2 pair.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

interesting, I like the 99 but don't like the AJ......when people c/call that turn in what was a 3-way pot OOP, his range is heavily weighted to very strong draws (that got there) and 2 pair.

You don't think he plays KTs, KJ, TT/JJ some %, QJ/QT with backdoors some % this way?

As for strong draws, I disagree. There's only KXdd and A6dd. What other non showdown value draws c/c turn instead of leading?

Originally Posted by griffey24

I really don't like that 99 hand. I don't think its true that people will mostly bet JT/diamonds etc on turn. Lots of ppl will try a delayed steal, and bet river when checked to again.

Especially when a huge portion of our made hands will check this turn,most ppl will try to be balanced by checking draws too. I mean, how much of our range is really betting this turn?

I agree AT/AJ might check turn, they have showdown value. But they need a bluff betting range here, as I give up a lot in this spot anyway, so I'd be very surprised if people don't bet TJ or FD here. They can't always have the nuts when they bet turn so they need to balance with those hands.

I think my phrasing might be confusing. When I was saying "our".. I meant villains range and not hero's. How much of villains value range is credibly betting the turn? I'd say most of his range is almost always checking back, 88-JJ, Qx and even some Kx, so to balance he'd prob be checking back lots of draw type hands.

Originally Posted by griffey24

I think my phrasing might be confusing. When I was saying "our".. I meant villains range and not hero's. How much of villains value range is credibly betting the turn? I'd say most of his range is almost always checking back, 88-JJ, Qx and even some Kx, so to balance he'd prob be checking back lots of draw type hands.

So we're basically saying the same thing, I just have the view that people will sometimes bet this turn, whereas you think they check 90% of their range.

You'd be surprised how often I see people bet midPPs or Kx here and not pot control.

how bout a 500k goal for team canada (u me dyl and is) this year? i m good for 100, i ll assume you re good for at least 200 which leaves 200 between is and rav...

thoughts on this pointless wondering?

how bout a milli instead?

1500 hands sesh, up 2k.

Played some 3/6 and 10/20 since there were not many 5/10 running this morning. Played for 2hrs and didn't even see the time fly by, which is a great sign. Usually I look at HEM every 10 min and force myself to extend my sessions, so this new operation is the best thing I could've done. Will post some weird hands later. I played my A game again but did make a few costly mistakes.

1 mill seems a little greedy

let s undershoot and overachieve

we can add mark, with a shark like that, 1 milli is no thangg

Bad sesh, 800 hands, down 3.8k. Felt a little tilty towards then end after KK<55 in 3b pot, and AK<A9 allin pre, so booked it. Not gonna post hands as its mostly just bad beats and coolers, zzz! I'll save the interesting ones for tonight though.

I think we should have another joint blog for Team Canada: Operation $600k 2011.

One million is ridiculous haha.

One million, assuming its me, alex, mark, dyl and conor. That's on avg $16.6k per month for each of us.

We can pick a nice round number. Operation $600k, which works out to $10k per month per each of us?

I'm down for that. Good goal and to motivate each other. If we don't include Mark, since he's not into blog posts, then we can make it $500k for the four of us at a bit over $10k a month.

Team Canada sucks.

Originally Posted by griffey24

I think we should have another joint blog for Team Canada: Operation $600k 2011.

One million is ridiculous haha.

One million, assuming its me, alex, mark, dyl and conor. That's on avg $16.6k per month for each of us.

We can pick a nice round number. Operation $600k, which works out to $10k per month per each of us?

I'm down for that. Good goal and to motivate each other. If we don't include Mark, since he's not into blog posts, then we can make it $500k for the four of us at a bit over $10k a month.

What's with these reasonable goals? I'm out of this team if this is how its gonna be!!

Played 5 tables of 10/20 this morning and dropped 3 buyins. Got some standard coolers and played okay not great. I'm not even sure if I had an edge at those tables but wtv, I'll def need to study some opponents before I move back up there w/out game selecting.

Not enough 5/10 running and I don't want to play multiple sites, so I'll turn this into 100k hands at 3/6 to 10/20. Bad start so far!

haha, so much for no more 10/20!! Played bout 500 hands and dropped 8k this morning. No good!!!! BR at 20kish, gonna play only 3/6 and 5/10 for real now.

Kinda down and don't feel like grinding anymore. Physio + downswinging just makes me too tired to wanna grind. Bah, back at it tomorrow in full force, believe that!!

And I told you that we don't stop, ha ha - HA! Pretty sick run-good there, one 25/50 60bb suckout in there FTW.



Back at it tomorrow, as much as I feel like I'm owed a lot of EV, it doesn't feel as good to book a win b/c of luck. Tomorrow will do some real studying and grind hard. Ty poker god.

haha nice what was the 25/50 hand?

AQ>QQ AIPF while table was breaking and it was obvious I was playing my BTN 3 handed then leaving, he was 35/26 3b of 17% so this was a huge cooler.

Also got AA and slowplayed in blinds w/30bb. C/shoved T72ss flop he calls 88 I hold.

you grinding this? Eureka Poker Tour| PokerStars.com

Originally Posted by andy-akb

you grinding this? Eureka Poker Tour| PokerStars.com

considering it:P Too many ghetto places though, wtf is this romania country?

Played pretty solid today, no huge bluffs, pretty nitty with 3betting and stuff, which is definitely something I will try to do more often some sessions. Also experimented with minraising 80% of BTNs, and so far people seem to adjust poorly, so I'll keep doing that on most tables. Oh and I played some 2/4 since there were so few 3/6+ running at night, but don't want it to become a habit. Also experimenting with 35bb at 2knl and 5knl, I think it's a decent way to start playing those games more often and get used to the sick swings - no ratholing obv.

Originally Posted by andy-akb

you grinding this? Eureka Poker Tour| PokerStars.com

Eureka!

IN what way do they not adjust properly to min-raises on btn?

call too much pre, fold too much post?
fold too much pre?
3bet too much pre?

Originally Posted by griffey24

IN what way do they not adjust properly to min-raises on btn?

call too much pre, fold too much post?
fold too much pre?
3bet too much pre?

...2 of those seem like good adjustments. Mostly they fold too much.

Just had a mini-aha moment: Instead of surfing the web while watching poker videos, I should study poker/opponents instead. Eureka! The problem is there hasn't been any good vids in about 2 weeks, wtf are these training sites doing. Maybe I'll check out an old nutsinho or sauce vid since I only saw those once.

Had a good workout this morning, upper body weight training on balance board/ball to strengthen my knee while working upper body as well. Upper body pretty weak since I haven't done much last 6 months, but it felt good.

Bit of studying then want to grind at least 2-3k hands today. Gogogo

No huge grind today but played alright and higher stakes again, some 10/20 and 25/50. I grinded up some stacks from 35BB up at 10/20, and did a few spewy plays but I'll blame it on not being used to play that stack size:P Back to A-game tmr!

1) Don't think he can play his hand any worse, and I obviously expect him to shove river with a straight, lol.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2117.75)
Hero (BB) ($1073)
UTG ($1037.25)
MP ($2004)
Button ($614)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K
3 folds, SB bets $25, Hero raises $80, SB calls $60

Flop: ($180) K, 8, 7 (2 players)
SB bets $100, Hero calls $100

Turn: ($380) J (2 players)
SB bets $190, Hero calls $190

River: ($760) 10 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $693 (All-In), SB calls $693

Total pot: $2146

Results:
SB had 9, 8 (straight, Jack high).
Hero had K, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $2143


2) AA slowplay works out.

No-Limit Hold'em, $50.00 BB (4 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($6317)
BB ($5231.30)
Hero (UTG) ($1722)
Button ($8923)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, A
Hero bets $100, Button raises $250, 2 folds, Hero calls $150

Flop: ($575) 2, 3, J (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $300, Hero calls $300

Turn: ($1175) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: ($1175) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $1172 (All-In), Button calls $1172

Total pot: $3519

Results:
Button didn't show
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and threes).
Outcome: Hero won $3517

Rest are pretty standard. I think I'm two barrelling certain spots where I should def fire the third bullet even if I don't "rep" much. I will need to play with pokerstove soon and figure out what these spots are, yet another thing to add on the to-do list aaahhh!!!!

Obligatory comeback ala Griffey.

Haha.. this seems to be a nice trend lately of the big comebacks and then insta quit haha. I like it!

KK hand - he knew you'd turn your top set into a bluff ldo, so c/c.

Originally Posted by griffey24

KK hand - he knew you'd turn your top set into a bluff ldo, so c/c.

You think I turned it into a bluff? I know it's marginal b/c I do get there with some FDs, some 9x, but I just totally discounted those from his range so it's just value vs his two pair.

haha nooo obv its not a bluff.. geez sarcasm-meter!

pretty standard shove, whe he's in theory shoving all straights and flushes

Originally Posted by griffey24

haha nooo obv its not a bluff.. geez sarcasm-meter!

pretty standard shove, whe he's in theory shoving all straights and flushes

Haha sarcasm fail! Yeah, he sucks. But like, he won't even have a lot of two pairs since I block the K so it's a pretty close spot.

Gonna post some results later. I think I should prob just focus on BB/100 and EVBB/100 since I play so many different limits. So far looks like EVBB/100 is 2.5 so nothing to complain about, even though my target is a bit higher.

Also gonna pull a Genitruc and try to play 100hrs this month, it's not much but having a goal will help me play moar!

Seriously.. all you poker grinders need to think about what having a full time job would entail.

8 hours a day (add in 1-2 hours more if you account for commute) - 9 hours a day at least. 5 days a week. 45 hours a week, which is at least 180 hours a month and thats only including weekdays and not including weekends.

Add in at least 5 hours a weekend, and that's 200 hours a month at least.

I'm pulling 40-45 with a full time job. 100 hours should be a piece of freaking cake!

Don't necessarily agree since poker is very different in terms of effort u need to put in compared to most desk jobs. But I do agree 25hrs/week is very doable, plus a few hrs of studying.

Obviously I know that 9 hours a day of grinding would be VERY difficult and draining.

I'm more saying to view that as the max possible and work from that in terms of what fraction of that total is reasonable.

I think 5 hours a day, with breaks between sessions is more than do-able. Which will work out to more than 140 hours a month.

Set the goals high imo!

(edit: mostly what I'm saying is that I don't think many poker grinders who have been playing full time for several years appreciate how much time they truly have to grind, until they are stuck in a full time job)

Well I can also argue one of the reasons for being a poker player is the freedom of not having to work crazy hours so seems counter intuitive to force yourself to put in lots of hours unless ur goal is to accumulate boatloads of money.

But then u will argue I spend most of these valuable hrs on 2p2 and chatting anyways... and you would be correct :P

I would argue.... "who doesn't want boatloads of money!?" :P

I guess I don't if I can't enjoy it!

Ok so far this year 31k hands of mainly 3/6 to 25/50, EVBB/100= 2.6. Need to put in more hands ffs. At leaaast 95hrs left to play on the month.

comparing most 9-5 jobs to attentive grinding is pretty absurd imo. i know many many people who get through their 9-5's without ever feeling the pressure of performance or the threat of variance affecting their livelyhood.

I'm not saying a 9-5 is anything similar to grinding poker. But what I am saying, and I'm 95% certain of this, is that if you take a poker grinder, put him in a 9-5 job for 6 months, I guarantee he'll come back with a new appreciation for grinding and probably grind more than he was doing before the job!

....put a Canadian in the Ivory Coast for 6 months, he'll appreciate food water and peace when he comes back.

Busy day, negotiated some sweet affiliate promotions for me and my peeps, got some Wii Fit done (ghey), and made 5k in 3hrs.

94hrs to go, need to play 5hrs tomorrow so I don't fall too far behind. Housewarming party & Superbowl this weekend, gonna be busy!

NOTHING sucks more than 9-5. Nothing. I will do anything to not go back to 9-5.

Originally Posted by courtiebee

NOTHING sucks more than 9-5. Nothing. I will do anything to not go back to 9-5.

60+hr weeks suck even more, and this is prob what I'd be doing if I wasn't playing poker. Guess I have to grind even harder now, hah!

What job would you be working if you weren't playing poker?

I've done 60+ before too and yeah, that was terrible. But I made sick money!

I don't care about money though. I'd rather make 40k/year playing poker than make 80k/year working for some company that forces me to be in a certain place at a certain time with 2 weeks vacation every year and 2 hours of commuting every day. Waking up every Monday morning wishing the entire week would disappear so that Friday could come seems like a stupid way to spend life.

Originally Posted by courtiebee

What job would you be working if you weren't playing poker?

I've done 60+ before too and yeah, that was terrible. But I made sick money!

I don't care about money though. I'd rather make 40k/year playing poker than make 80k/year working for some company that forces me to be in a certain place at a certain time with 2 weeks vacation every year and 2 hours of commuting every day. Waking up every Monday morning wishing the entire week would disappear so that Friday could come seems like a stupid way to spend life.

Yep totally agree. This is why I'm saying it's "okay" to be satisfied making 80k or wtv when u can prob make 200k if u grind day in day out but have no life.

I'd have some kind of finance job, and prob want a 75k+ salary so inevitably that means lots of hours at the office!

edit: Idk about you guys, but when I play like 4hr+ in a day it takes me at least an hour to stop being in poker mode and have my brain reset and function properly. Gotta take that into account imo

grinding poker just reminds me of preparing piano repertoire for concerts and competitions; you can t compare the draining intensity of throwing yourself into an activity with grinding a 9-5, it's simply apples and oranges. 8-10 hrs/day of that was harder than anything else i could imagine doing.

agree with grif that working a 9-5 gives you a great appreciation of the grind though

why do i have to stumble upon this discussion now! One thing I do miss is that feeling of 'enjoying' the weekends...though maybe that's just because monday-friday can suck so much.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

One thing I do miss is that feeling of 'enjoying' the weekends...though maybe that's just because monday-friday can suck so much.

haha yeah, I feel this way about stat holidays too. People are always excited about those and I don't even know they exist anymore.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

why do i have to stumble upon this discussion now! One thing I do miss is that feeling of 'enjoying' the weekends...though maybe that's just because monday-friday can suck so much.

Join me in the job grind Rav! Then we can both complain

CBCsports.ca | 2011 NHL All-Star Game | Which team is overrated?

Another productive day at the office. Played 4h15, 3.7k hands, up 4.7. 89hrs to go on the month.

Putting in >800 hands per hour, which is 80k hands per month if I work 25hrs/wk, and totals 12k rake. Not bad if I can keep this work ethic.

If I put in 3k hands this weekend it's a miracle.

How many tables is that?

8-9 usually, software is fast. I never know exactly since I have at least 13 open at all times since there are no waitlists, so I need to ninja click empty seats.

Originally Posted by Alexos

8-9 usually, software is fast. I never know exactly since I have at least 13 open at all times since there are no waitlists, so I need to ninja click empty seats.

Oh is that how you do it? I just have the lobby set to "hide full tables" and when a seat is available, I ninja click through the lobby.
Having 13+ tables open would probably tilt me haha.

yeah if i just look at lobby i wont have time to check out the table and click fast enough.. competition is fierce!:P

just tilted a few buyins away at 400nl, pretty pissed at myself but wtv, gn

played 2 1hr sesh today, i feel like i lose focus after 1hr so i tend to quit around then. Need to get better at playing longer sessions, and part of that is cutting out msn/surfing completely while playing.

85hrs to go, way behind schedule!

5hrs and 4k hands today, just played hu against the spewiest reg on the site and lost a cpl buyins. I need to get better at hu because this guy can be my late-nite ATM machine next cpl weeks.

82 hrs to go... big grind tmr 6 hrs is the plan.

Yah your QQ hand vs his KT sucked. I didn't see other stack off, I think you called JT in 4bet pot?

GG Alexos! upswing is a 5hr sesh, downswing is a 45min sesh.

Gonna pounds some beers and battle my scandi friend tonite, wish me luck.

puke

new avatar is a serious win.

late nite sesh to save the day, only down 2k and played 3.5hrs, coulda been worse.

I realized another big leak i have, whenever I lose i play pretty good aggro poker, w/out being reckless necessarily.. whenever im winning i play passive nit poker, as if my brain actually expects me to hit flops and win hands that way, since ive ran so good that day. Huuuuuge leak. I need to play shark poker all the fkin time goddamnit.

Ship the avatar run good

Originally Posted by Alexos

I realized another big leak i have, whenever I lose i play pretty good aggro poker, w/out being reckless necessarily.. whenever im winning i play passive nit poker, as if my brain actually expects me to hit flops and win hands that way, since ive ran so good that day. Huuuuuge leak. I need to play shark poker all the fkin time goddamnit.

This is exactly the same thing I do....weird.

i don't get it...which is your shark poker? and i concur with that reaction, i'm quite similar, which is why when I start losing buyins the variance just seems to hit the fan (see my latest blogpost).

Think this is pretty standard.

Its the same way as we make bigger folds when we're up. Even in marginal spots, when we're up but a line seems clear value we're probably more likely to make that fold than when we're down and everything is hitting the world and we need to see what ridiculous river he hit this time.

Lucky for me, I start every session down from spew so I'm the opposite haha. Spewing smacks me back to my nitty senses. "Ok.. time to calm down now, its only been 40 hands and you need to play a 1.3k hand session."

shark poker is being hungryyyy and playing aggro every hand, saying fk variance, and climbing the stairs to +EV heaven. Fish poker is playing like a fkin pussy that doesn't wanna give up his winnings.

I'd say shark poker is best.

Productive day, up 6.5 in about 4hrs. Also joined a gym, visited my dentist, did groceries, ate sushi. Hard to top that!

see it isn't that hard. on a scale of 1-10 how exhausting was today? what gym did you join? energie cardio is starting to tilt me hard because they're too cheap to buy any of the new kind of workout stuff, i.e. kettlebells/TRX type stuff.

I'd say it was about a 7, and that's probably because everything went well pokerwise. Feels rly good though, and I feel everyday should be above 5 on that scale or I'm wasting my day.

Funny thing about Energie Cardio is that I have a 3 month free pass. I google map that shit and it's like 15min away, I'm like okay, since its free and all, might as well go there. I end up forgetting the directions at home, drive 20min in traffic to try and find it, end up getting lost, so at that point it's pretty clear I'm never going to an Energie Cardio ever again, free pass or not. So I ended up joining a very nice small gym called Atlas, 2min drive from my condo. Prob doesn't have kettlebells but everything else is pretty new and high tech. Gym + poker 4+ times a week will definitely get me above 5 on that scale!

Joining a gym.. sweeet!

I suppose I'm a member at a gym. Use it approximately twice a year, which works out to around $168/visit.. not too shabby imo.

Just over 5hrs of play, and up 5.8. Definitely not impressed with my play on the last session, but whatever. Gonna do some stationary bike then have a nice meal/relax, and maybe play one more night sesh. I spew too much sometimes, I'm certain I could laugh for hours just looking at the other reg's notes about me. Sigh!

Originally Posted by griffey24

Joining a gym.. sweeet!

I suppose I'm a member at a gym. Use it approximately twice a year, which works out to around $168/visit.. not too shabby imo.

Your poker training vids cost about 300$/vid too. Life fail lol

59 hrs to go, gawd I played so much this week.

Pretty meh past 2 days, -4 today and down a bit yest too. I prob won like 2 allins during this timespan, and one of them was AK>KK. I also realized I slowplay too much. 2 years ago it was okay because people weren't calling so light on rivers, and running huge bluffs when I underrep my hands. Nowadays with people calling Ace highs, being able to turn hands into bluffs, and generally hand reading much better, this has become a huge leak. It will take some times for me to get adjusted to this, but I gotta fix this leak asap!

Gonna squeeze in a gym session this afternoon and then valentines dinner tonite.

Big grind in the week ahead for the rakerace, 55hrs to go.

If you have the Pape tonight, TR is required