Operation Little Bitch

i don't know why i decided to name my operation bonus whorer, probably because half of my profits so far are from bonus money. anywho, my bankroll has 300BB so i won't go broke playing 1/2, and after some more bonus whoring at blackjack sites i can afford to play 2/4 without going broke, but i've already jumped once, so i've decided not to jump again, regardless of how much extra bonus money i get.

anyways my goal is to win 300BB at the 1/2 level, and then move up to 2/4, and do it again.

i just started, but here are my stats.

Limit: 1/2
Hands: 231
VP$IP: 28.57
W$WSF: 33.33
WTSD: 42.53
W$SD: 48.65
PFR: 8.23
Earnings: 2.45BB
BB/100: 4.9

very small sample size, as i've just started. but can you see any glaring mistakes in those numbers?

Limit: 1/2
Hands: 231
VP$IP: 28.57
W$WSF: 33.33
WTSD: 42.53
W$SD: 48.65
PFR: 8.23
Earnings: 2.45BB
BB/100: 4.9

very small sample size, as i've just started. but can you see any glaring mistakes in those numbers?

What are you using to derive these numbers? Based on earning of 2.45 BB, your BB/100 should be around 1.1 BB/100.

Originally Posted by hypermegachi

Hands: 231
VP$IP: 28.57

Your sample size is way low, but I hope you don't trend towards playing nearly that many hands in a full ring game. My 6 max VP$IP is at around 24% and some would argue that I'm a tad too loose. Heck, my 17% at full ring isn't exactly rock tight either...

yeah that's what i thought...playing too many hands...taking them too far. i think i still have the "clearing bonus" mind set because i purposely try to play more hands to clear more bonuses, so i end up playing more marginal hands.

well i took a huge dip yesturday, AA got cracked twice. once to a gut shot on the river...man that really hurt. he calls my preflop raise. calls my flop bet. calls my turn bet. then raises my bet on the river...which i had to call. turns over the made gutshot on the river. then the other AA hand, cold called preflop with a medium suited connector. flop gives him a straight and flush draw. i keep betting out, and the river completes him. i wasn't too pissed about this one, he was supposed to win over 50% of time.

according to bisonbison's auto rate from 2+2, i'm LA-P right now...i'll need to tighten up and try to achieve TA-N so i can get that eagle icon

Limit: 1/2
Hands: 507
VP$IP: 27.81
W$WSF: 29.35
WTSD: 39.67
W$SD: 38.36
PFR: 9.07
Earnings: -57.44BB
BB/100: -11.33BB/100

wow i'm starting to believe all the conspiracy theories against absolute. i've never seen so many made river straights, or paired boards ever.

well since i did buy pokertracker to see how i'm doing, well all my good hands are getting their asses kicked.

AA 11 times, net +2.50, 63% win
AKs 3 times, net -7.75, 33% win
AKo 12 times, net +26.25, 66% win
AQs 5 times, net +5, 60% win
AQo 17 times, net +45.75, 58% win
AJs 3 times, net -3.50, 33% win
AJo 12 times, net -15.5, 33% win
KK 5 times, net -4.5, 60% win
KQs 4 times, net +3.25, 50% win
KQo 11 times, net -22.50, 18.18% win

pretty brutal results i'd say. most money lost are the following hands:
KQo, 99, A9s, 97s, AJo, QQ (net -14.5), KJo, TT

Hyper, is there any particular reason you are playing 6 max? Personally I'm scared to death of 6 max. End up in a lot of tricky heads up situations. I might try it later, but for now, I know I'm not good enough. Full ring for me.

do you guys think 30% is too loose for 6 max?

Fnord wrote quite a bit about his 6-max starting requirements. I would check it out. I searched for it just now but was unable to find it. It's there somewhere though.

i'm playing 6 max because that's all there is at absolute (and i'm trying to clear my bonus there). but i think i'm starting to learn that just because it's 6 max doesn't mean i should loosen way up. the only difference is the blinds hit you way more often, but there's a lot less "dead money" in the pot in 6 max, which lessons the value of a lot of speculative hands, so perhaps i should be playing even tighter than a full ring game?

oh man i just realized now that my aggression numbers are all wrong. i included preflop for calculations...

anyways, here's updated stats. maybe because it was friday, maybe it's because i got better, but i've cut all my negative stats in half in one night, so i'm pretty happy about that. soon i'll hit the positives and get my 2BB/100.

Limit: 1/2 - Hands: 1231
VP$IP: 26.73, PFR: 8.94, Aggression: 2.13
Earnings: -25BB
BB/100: -2BB/100

brutal session tonight. took a beating when my fullhouse lost to a bigger fullhouse. i've decided to rename this to Operation Little Bitch because of all the operations i'm the only one showing negative progress.

i think i'm gonna steer clear from shorthanded for awhile. is 900 hands big enough of a sample size to determine that i'm not that good shorthanded, or just a regular -50BB swing?

Originally Posted by hypermegachi

i think i'm gonna steer clear from shorthanded for awhile. is 900 hands big enough of a sample size to determine that i'm not that good shorthanded, or just a regular -50BB swing?

I just (hopefully) came off a 2k hand -110BB swing at 5/10 6 max. Swung 40BB at a table with a maniac alone!

Some stuff I learned

o Need to stick with AK/AQ more often
o Blind defense/offense needs more work
o Starting hands needed tweeking.

Anyway, dropping several ~20BB pots to manaics that caught good really hurt too...

taking advantage of the party reload right now. and since last night, after 863 hands i'm down another 21BB ::

last night was horrific, within the 1st hour i dropped 50BB quad tabling. i took a break and came back later the night, and played 2 tables instead, and went up 10BB. and then today, triple table i went up another 10BB. i won another $15-20 bucks or so playing stud 0.5/1

well then...probably all within normal variance. it's just annoying i haven't seen green yet

updates on my stats:
2297 hands
VP$IP: 26.12% (i'm trying to lower this to 20)
PRF: 8.66% (i'm fine with this figure as long as it's over 8)
Aggression factors:
flop: 2.84
turn: 2.71
river: 1.65
overall: 2.28
(aggression seems to be fine i think)

now for the depressing part ::
earnings: -62.5BB
bb/100: -2.72

i have found some leaks in my game tho, which is nice. a lot of my biggest losses were my monster hands, which lost to bigger monster hands that most of the time hit on the turn and river. i have a problem of not respecting raisers. i would bet out, they would raise, and i would reraise, which they would cap after.

for example, i hold AJ, and raise preflop. flop comes A4x, and i bet it, they call, and the turn comes 4. i bet, and i get raised. my gut tells me he probably has the 4, but i'll reraise instead. big leak i think. i should either fold if i think i'm beat, or just call and then check/call the river to find out.

when my monsters run into bigger monsters i have a hard time figuring out if i'm behind. example, i have 33, and i hit my set on the flop, and i build the pot. turn comes a 9, which hit someone else for their set. when they raise me, i reraised instead of calling. yep, i gave them no respect at all. when the river came, i thought...yeah i shouldn't have reraised i'm probably behind, and i make the crying call.

well 1st correction for me, is to respect people's raises. hopefully this will work out better for me in the future.

VP$IP: 26.12%

Thats a huge percentage. At Stars I was averaging 12% and I still could hardly break even on super tight tables. Everywhere else I am averaging 16% of the hands using a combination of Sklansky's Loose and Tight Table combinations. Are you possibly playing marginal hands like QJo and KJo when you arent in position or low Axs and even Kxs out of position? Look for these and go over your 'cold calls' in poker tracker and you will be able to cut these down.

Originally Posted by elipsesjeff

VP$IP: 26.12%

Thats a huge percentage. At Stars I was averaging 12% and I still could hardly break even on super tight tables. Everywhere else I am averaging 16% of the hands using a combination of Sklansky's Loose and Tight Table combinations. Are you possibly playing marginal hands like QJo and KJo when you arent in position or low Axs and even Kxs out of position? Look for these and go over your 'cold calls' in poker tracker and you will be able to cut these down.

12% is way too tight for me. i was once playing that before, and there's no fun in that. i'm aiming for 20%. or 19.9% so PT picks me up as TA-A instead of sLA-A. i'll always call QJo and KJo from any position as long as it's one bet, and i'll fold them for 2. my cold call % is less than 0.5%.

12% is way too tight for me. i was once playing that before, and there's no fun in that.

I agree, no fun at all in playing 12% of hands. Thats one reason why I dislike playing at Stars so much at higher limits, it caused me top play too few hands.

19% is okay, you'll probably end up down to 17 or 18 and you wont even know it.

i lied, checked my PT stats, and i'm cold calling almost 5% ::
well yet another leak i must fix...

Originally Posted by hypermegachi

i'll always call QJo and KJo from any position as long as it's one bet, and i'll fold them for 2. my cold call % is less than 0.5%.

Bad hyper bad!

holdem is a game of domination, by raising they are saying they have a big hand. QJo and KJo are not strong enough hands to constantly call raises with.

Originally Posted by mike4066

Originally Posted by hypermegachi

i'll always call QJo and KJo from any position as long as it's one bet, and i'll fold them for 2.

Bad hyper bad!

holdem is a game of domination, by raising they are saying they have a big hand. QJo and KJo are not strong enough hands to constantly call raises with.

i guess the small bet and big bet confused you....i'll play for QJo and KJo for 1 small bet, but not 2. if i called 1 small bet already, and it is raised after me and when it comes back it's one more small bet, depending on the playing i'll call or fold.

Originally Posted by hypermegachi

i guess the small bet and big bet confused you....i'll play for QJo and KJo for 1 small bet, but not 2. if i called 1 small bet already, and it is raised after me and when it comes back it's one more small bet, depending on the playing i'll call or fold.

Sorry for some reason I was thinking you were cold calling a raise with them. Being raised behind and calling is one thing, being raised up front then calling = bad....

slowly grinding some profit. i'm still in the red, but i haven't played many hands since my last update. finals are coming soon, and my poker playing will slow to almost a halt

but once i'm done i'll probably play like 40000 hands over christmas :P

i've won about 20BB in the past 300 hands, so now i have 2600 hands of 1/2 and my profits are -40BB at -1.5BB/100.

playing the style of SSH has definitely caused bigger swings in my winnings. after all, normally you wouldn't raise with mid pair decent kicker...but SSH recommends it if you will drive out weaker hands...which it often does. it takes about 20 times of the same situation happening before you can show a profit...because you need about 1 in 10 times where you take the pot down to be profitable...and for those 20 same situations to come up will take more than 2600 hands. anywho, i'm stickin with SSH strategies until it's painfully obvious i'm using it's strategies wrong (like -BB/100 after 10k hands)

anyways, it's time to set a goal. by the end of january 2005, i want to have won 300BB in 1/2, and play 2/4 in february.

but once i'm done i'll probably play like 40000 hands over christmas

Jesus man. Are you playing 4 tables at the same time. I play 4 at the same time for 5 hours and only get 1000-1050 hands. The reason I ask is most people dont play 4 its usually like 2. Christmas break is 30 days about and at 2 tables at 10 hours every day that still only leaves you with 30,000. God I didnt realize how much some of you play poker. I probably only play a few thousand a month if that. Just get busy doing other crap.

boondock, i think 30000 hands is possible over xmas break, but i think 40000 was just "one of those exadurations" that hyper uses. I can play 200 hands per hour 3-tabling, after 5 hours thats 1000 hands....etc.

I don't think you realize how much free time we are going to have over break. No job, no girlfriend and no responsibilities mean all pokee, all the time.

I CANT WAIT!!!! .......damn school

I can play 200 hands per hour 3-tabling, after 5 hours thats 1000 hands

What games and where? Thats awesome I wish I could always play tables that fast. I always play 4 and its just a tad over 200 a hour usually. My last session was 5hrs 10min or so on 4 tables and I only got 1089.

Yeah I could play that many if I wanted to but after about 4 hours straight 4 tabling I feel like doing something else for awhile but usually will push it out to 5 hours. Everyday doing that would give me a headache. The cash is always a great incentive though.

{Sticky removed per new sticky policy}

well looks like i'm finally starting to grasp the idea of shorthanded play. i read up a lot of information, and changed a lot of my playing. the past 500 hands i made a killing. overall i'm still down because of my horrific start with 6max, but ever since i started playing how i should be playing 6max i've had good results.

here are stats for the past 500 hands only...

+5.7BB/100
VP$IP 24%
WTSD% 28%
W$SD 67%
PFR% 12% (needs to go up more)

and my aggression stats which i'm very happy with:

flop 4.4
turn 5
river 2.4

avg. 3.6

FYI, here are my 5/10 6max stats so far....

8.2k hands
23.62% VP$IP
16.36% PFR (trending up a bit)
35.5% VP$IP SB (trending down a bit)
Fold SB to steal 75%
Fold BB to steal 55.6% (trending down)
Att to steal 34.2%
Won $ WSF 39%
Net +3,232.22
Rake 1,563
3.92BB/100

AF
F 4.32
T 3.61
R 2.44

finally it's about time i'm destroying these games!!!

for the month of december:
hands 867
VP$IP 24%
VP$SB 43%
folded SB to steal 100% (hmmm)
folded BB to steal 80% (blind defense still in training)
att to steal 28%
Won $ WSF 28%
Won $ @SD 59% (yeah i'm running hot)
PFR 12% (still not at 15 yet...)
5.65BB/100 (w00t!)

and for the combined all 1/2 6max including november training month:

hands 3206
VP$IP 26.5%
VP$SB 40%
folded SB to steal 94%
folded BB to steal 72%
att to steal 19%
Won $ WSF 33%
Won $ @SD 54%
PFR 9.8%
1.02BB/100

seems like i need to work on raising more hands preflop, and work on my blinds.

next update after 5k hands.

well this has been a fun and educational experience at 1/2. if all goes to plan i'll be going 2/4 very soon. i'm just $100 short of a 300BB bankroll, but i have a whole ton of bonuses lined up so it will be a piece of cake.

anyways, final stats out of 5594 (and december 3255) hands...

VP$IP 25%, 22.3%
VP$SB 39%, 40%
Fold SB Steal 86%, 86%
Fold BB Steal 67%, 67%
Att. Steal 19%, 22%
Won $ WSF 34%, 32%
BB/100 1.52, 3.11
Went to SD 31%, 30.7%
Won $ SD 54%, 55.5%
PFR 11%, 11.6%

AF
F 3.2, T 2.9, R 1.7 && F 3.7, T 2.6, R 2.0

my first 2000 hands really sucked, i was learning shorthanded and paid some tuition

i still need to loosen up my preflop raising standards a whole lot. i want to hit the magic 15%. also blind stealing and defense may need to go up as well. i just never bothered because at 1/2 i didn't really give anyone enough respect that they would actually try stealing blinds.

there is no 6 max in 2/4 3/6@ party you plan on playing else where?

Originally Posted by AllinLife

there is no 6 max in 2/4 3/6@ party you plan on playing else where?

currently i'm readjusting my strategies for full ring play, 2/4 at party. i expect to pay some tuition again before i start winning. i skipped 1/2 full ring so 2/4 will be a challenge nonetheless.

over 500 hands so far i'm losing -2BB/100. that's nothing, i just need 2 or 3 big pots and i'm break even again. however, my VPIP of 19.7% is way too high. i think the SSHE tight charts are probably too loose for some 2/4 games. all my other stats like PFR are fine. i'll need more hands to see how my aggression numbers converge. the first 2 sessions i was playing against maniacs and hand to call down a lot. as a result i'm under 2 for aggression.

How are you guys calculating cold calls? I run PT, but cannot seem to find the stat.

Maybe you are refering to CCPF, which is coming in for two or more bets.

Hyper, is this what you refer to in your 6max essay as cold calling?

Originally Posted by Chicago_Kid

Maybe you are refering to CCPF, which is coming in for two or more bets.

Hyper, is this what you refer to in your 6max essay as cold calling?

yep! in 6max especially you should be almost always reraising or folding against a raise. in full ring the odd occasion someone UTG will raise, and about 5 or 6 people call it, and you have the button with ATs....you can call that because you have implied odds to hit that flush. 6max, the best you can hope for is if EVERYONE calls the raise, which is almost never.

Thanks.

BTW---your 6max essay was excellent, IMO.

Been tweaking my play a bit using some of your tips. I think they have gotten me over the top based on a small sample of 1200 hands. I will continue the test under an increasing sample size, as the swings were quite large! Gotta learn to stay calm and keep it up.

Hands that hurt me during this small sample:
A9o, QJo, A8o

Speaking of which, how do you handle A-mid offsuits? Do you play these early? I've typically been playing them middle and back only and sometimes raising A-mid suited (e.g., A9s) when folds come to me in mid or late.

Originally Posted by Chicago_Kid

Speaking of which, how do you handle A-mid offsuits? Do you play these early? I've typically been playing them middle and back only and sometimes raising A-mid suited (e.g., A9s) when folds come to me in mid or late.

- suited or unsuited ace-mid are good stealing hands, and against certain opponents good blind defense hands too
- chuck them early position, you're pretty much screwed if even one person calls after you, and you'll be sandwiched between a blind too if they call