MacBook Update

So, about 1 week in I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice. Not only does Full Tilt work on it, but so does PokerStars. Don't see me going back to Windows in the next couple of years, except to install it as a guest OS under MacOS. Also managed to break my duck on the SNG front, so far in November over $200 profit and up nearly $1k in the last 30 days. Sharkscope lifetime says I just went past $1500 for SNGs on Full Tilt tonight as well. Bizarrely, I still do better in the $22 games than I do in the $11 ones.

Anyway, back to the Mac before anyone starts to think this is still a poker blog... Mouse pad is just so god dammed sexy, swipe all 4 fingers down to show all open windows so you can choose one, all 4 fingers up to clear the screen, 2 fingers in any direction to scroll, plus all the iPhone touch screen controls to zoom and rotate. Startup and shutdown time is much better than any Windows machine I have seen, I think I am online within 30 seconds of pushing the power button, and the battery can last 7 hours. If you need a new laptop and can afford to pay the Apple premium, it will become a guilty pleasure.

OpenOffice is available too, same controls and file formats as Windows, my results spreadsheet works just the same on the Mac as it did on the PC. And it's still free :)

October Round-up

October ended up finishing quite nicely for me as I won the early evening $5 PLO rebuy on Full Tilt again, which returned $440 for a total of $10.50 in buy-in and add-on. Total profit for the month was just over $750, all of which and more has been spent on a Macbook Pro which I am using to make this entry. It's a great little toy and unlike the Windows laptops, just seems to work. I even connected my wireless headphones via bluetooth without breaking into a sweat.

I have also download and installed Full Tilt poker for the Mac. So far I have played 6 STTs and 1 MTT on it with no cashes and not even a bubble. Not all of this is bad play, but it is a bit tilting to be missing by so far. First game should have given me the clue, in a PLO8 STT, I flop a set of Js from the BB on 47J board, fill up on the turn and get all in 3-way, only to see a 3rd 7 give someone else quads and a 3-way scoop.

Elsewhere have played a few more games on PokerStars. Now I am used to the interface I think I have worked out that the PLO8 SNGs are generally populated by clueless idiots, especially the 18 runner $16 games. I know I have not played that many games, but it is so easy to double up on the first table and the only time the going gets any kind of tricky is on the bubble with 5 left.

Anyway, going to see if switching back to the Windows laptop makes any difference to my results, GL in your games.

An Apple a Day

So, going to start with some off-topic musing. Last year I read a book called The Tipping Point. It was about how trends started and what caused them to happen. Ultimately, it comes down to a group of people who are recognized as leaders by their peers triggering a behaviour. It happened in Greenwich Village in the 1980s with Hush Puppies, some skate board kids wearing a particular brand of trainer or one boy in a Polynesian culture taking his own life. Each of them triggered a cult like rise to fame for their actions.

Personally, I work in the IT industry, am a bit of a geek, good with numbers and particularly patterns. Last week I was at a meeting with, er, lots of other geeks, all working at big IT companies like Dell, Oracle, IBM, CA, HP and Symantec. The one thing that stood out was how many of them had an Apple Mac, or were planning to buy one in the near future. In fact, it was probably 80% of the people I spoke to, with the guy from Dell winning the prize for owning the most with 3. Two years ago at the same meeting, the same group of people were just getting into the Nintendo Wii and wondering if they needed an XBox or a PS2 to go with it.

The point of all this? I think Apple might just be about to break out of the zealot user base they have owned for years and into the mainstream. In my world, I started with an iPod, graduated to an iPhone and will be getting a Macbook - as soon as Apple announce whatever it is that will be their Windows 7 release spoiler. But I'm not the only one. I'm not sure Linux is for me, certainly it won't have many poker options, but there are some available for Mac. I am also fed up with Windows just breaking - having worked with it for nearly 20 years it's turned into a right dog and as Vista has proved, you really cannot polish a turd. So, get some shares in Apple now if you have some spare cash, with the exclusive iPhone distribution agreements coming to an end, the next wave of new owners will be wondering how they ever managed to do anything with a Windows interface - and looking at the other kit they sell. [BTW, didn't bump into anyone from Apple or Microsoft at the meeting]

Back to the intended topic for this blog.

Eventually got back to winning ways in September. Ended the month $420 up with no outstanding highlights, just solid returns on SNGs and even some positive returns from capped 6-max PLO cash tables. Also played a few games on Pokerstars and finding that the $5 O8 STTs are slow, but easy to beat. Trouble is they take too long and even on there take a while to fill. All this meant that at the end of the month my Full Tilt balance was bouncing around the $1k mark again. With $1k tucked away in a savings account, it is starting to look like I will be able to afford a trip to the WSOP in 2010 (only 1 year late) with the aim of playing a $1500 PLO or O8 event.

Highlight so far this month was last night, deciding on a whim to play the $4k gtd $24 PLO knockout on Full Tilt. Started at 9:15pm, ended about 2:00am when I finished 4th for about $500 profit including bounties. Interestingly I only had 1 bounty when we reached the money (27) and 4 by the time I went out. Actually think I played awesome apart from 2 hands, one where I rivered to win a pot that put me into the top 10, the other where I blew more than half my stack min-betting into a calling station with 4 left. Thought that perhaps trying consecutive min raises on flop, turn and river might be interpreted as strength - but not by a useless Italian fish...

Anyway, couple of my better hands - this was a total soul read:

Full Tilt Poker Game #15167418576: $4,000 KO Guarantee (111043850), Table 5 - 800/1600 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:32:30 ET - 2009/10/06
Seat 1: trubbzz (18,178)
Seat 3: the77pig (57,660)
Seat 4: electric chair (62,060)
Seat 5: il_pata (71,861)
Seat 6: boildoc (4,433)
Seat 8: pempe2 (70,555)
Seat 9: jerome555 (17,388)
pempe2 posts the small blind of 800
jerome555 posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Th Qd Js 8c]
trubbzz calls 1,600
the77pig folds
electric chair calls 1,600
il_pata calls 1,600
boildoc folds
pempe2 calls 800
jerome555 checks
*** FLOP *** [6c 7s Qs]
pempe2 checks
jerome555 checks
trubbzz checks
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 4,000
il_pata has 15 seconds left to act
il_pata folds
pempe2 folds
jerome555 calls 4,000
trubbzz folds
*** TURN *** [6c 7s Qs] [3c]
jerome555 checks
electric chair bets 16,000
jerome555 calls 11,788, and is all in
electric chair shows [Th Qd Js 8c]
jerome555 shows [As 9s 4c Jc]
Uncalled bet of 4,212 returned to electric chair
*** RIVER *** [6c 7s Qs 3c] [3h]
electric chair shows two pair, Queens and Threes
jerome555 shows a pair of Threes
electric chair wins the pot (39,576) with two pair, Queens and Threes

And this was a golden hand that took out an overly aggressive player:

Full Tilt Poker Game #15167599179: $4,000 KO Guarantee (111043850), Table 5 - 1000/2000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:41:47 ET - 2009/10/06
Seat 2: wolverine6 (50,288)
Seat 3: the77pig (18,260)
Seat 4: electric chair (87,949)
Seat 5: il_pata (73,761)
Seat 6: boildoc (46,515)
Seat 8: pempe2 (73,768)
Seat 9: dinamo15 (55,808)
the77pig posts the small blind of 1,000
electric chair posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [3d Qd 8h 3c]
il_pata folds
boildoc calls 2,000
pempe2 calls 2,000
dinamo15 folds
wolverine6 calls 2,000
the77pig calls 1,000
electric chair checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 3s 9h]
the77pig checks
electric chair bets 10,000
boildoc folds
pempe2 raises to 40,000
wolverine6 folds
the77pig folds
electric chair raises to 85,949, and is all in
pempe2 calls 31,768, and is all in
electric chair shows [3d Qd 8h 3c]
pempe2 shows [Kh Ac 9d 8s]
Uncalled bet of 14,181 returned to electric chair
*** TURN *** [Ah 3s 9h] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 3s 9h 3h] [6d]
electric chair shows four of a kind, Threes
pempe2 shows two pair, Aces and Nines
electric chair wins the pot (153,536) with four of a kind, Threes

Checking through the rest of the hand histories I can't actually find that many hands where we went to showdown, this was pretty typical, just taking the pot with a continuation bet on the flop from OOP:

Seat 1: LUu-9 (73,924)
Seat 2: wolverine6 (41,258)
Seat 4: electric chair (147,592)
Seat 5: il_pata (122,329)
Seat 9: dinamo15 (81,208)
electric chair posts the small blind of 2,000
il_pata posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Jc Qs 9s Qh]
dinamo15 has 15 seconds left to act
dinamo15 folds
LUu-9 folds
wolverine6 has 15 seconds left to act
wolverine6 raises to 10,000
electric chair calls 8,000
il_pata folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Ts 3d]
electric chair bets 24,000
wolverine6 folds

Anyway, net impact is that Full Tilt balance is now in excess of $1500. Just realized that BA now fly direct to Vegas and I have enough BA exec club miles to fly there 1 1/2 times :)

Super Turbo Update

Hello Reader

Sorry about the lack of updates, went on holiday to Spain and never got round to putting some words together. Strange, 2 weeks off and it was not quite like I had never played before, but it was pretty close. Ended up down $100 for August overall, but got my mojo back and am already up almost $250 for September.

Still messing around on Full Tilt with the 300 chip PLO super turbo's. Have played 188 of the $7.50 buy-in ones so far, most frequent finishing position is 1st at 37, bubbled 26 times and 3rd 24 times. Overall profit $379 for about 27% ROI.

Also deposited some money onto Pokerstars for the first time, did this so could play in a 180-man $11 SNG with the Betfair flashmob, managed to get my stack up to a decent level, before donking out in 37th with AK vs AJ on a JJx flop. I still managed to work out that continuation betting the flop was a very easy way to build a stack. Still, not that fussed about Holdem so have started looking at the Omaha hilo STTs. Standard early in these is absolutely woeful as a rule, just need to get used to the interface and work out how to click a button just the once instead of multiple times to make it work. Played 8, cashed in 4, but bubbled twice as well.

Anyway, without doubt the most frustrating hand I have played since the last update is this one. Villain was overplaying bad O8 hands, so when the flop came I thought I had hit the jackpot. On checking the hands on cardplayer I found I had an overall expectation of 0.79, which was a little more than I thought. But to lose to a pair of 3s...

Full Tilt Poker Game #14351273137: $10 + $1 Tournament (105429995), Table 1 - 1200/2400 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 18:48:35 ET - 2009/08/29
Seat 1: electric chair (40,598)
Seat 2: Rdevil14 (42,871)
Seat 3: Mrs ACE 84 (44,004)
Seat 6: c3events (87,388)
c3events posts the small blind of 1,200
electric chair posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Ad 5h 4h 2d]
Rdevil14 folds
Mrs ACE 84 folds
c3events raises to 7,200
electric chair raises to 21,600
c3events calls 14,400
*** FLOP *** [2h Kc 3h]
c3events bets 43,200
electric chair calls 18,998, and is all in
c3events shows [3s Js 6d Ac]
electric chair shows [Ad 5h 4h 2d]
Uncalled bet of 24,202 returned to c3events
*** TURN *** [2h Kc 3h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [2h Kc 3h 9d] [Ts]
c3events shows a pair of Threes, for high
electric chair shows a pair of Twos, for high
c3events wins the pot (81,196) with a pair of Threes

"M"

First Half Summary

After another abysmal start to the year, I rescued the whole lot in April with a my first $1k month and followed up by dumping nearly half of it back in May. I have still not worked out how I managed it, cash mostly. Up in all the various formats of STTs I played, up overall in MTTs, but only made a profit in the rebuys.

Following the mid-month posting, I managed to spin the profit up to $609 for the month, and $450 for the whole year. Might have to rethink the targets for the year now I have missed the WSOP and will need to run really well to buy into any of the WSOPE tourneys.

Still doing well on the 300 chip super turbos as well, maintaining ROI in excess of 20%. Have also done a little bit of research on Sharkscope. Odd how I think the largest winners are some of the biggest donks I play, especially at the $22 and $33 level. Anyway, will end with a small brag post, my Full Tilt account has just squeaked past the $1k profit mark on Sharkscope - see my roller-coaster graph below :)

The Butterfly Effect

Oops, it's half way through June and no summary for May yet. $465 down sums it all up really, mostly on Sun, mostly related to not playing well on cash tables. June has perked up though, with a nice multi-table win in a PLO rebuy for $550. Played it very well, if a little tight, got to the rebuy break with about 4000 chips, added on to take me up to 6k, noticed the leader was on 60k (or 40 buy-ins!). He was still there on the final table and doubled me up to first when I slow played a flopped top set Qs.

Anyway, reason for the title of this post is my further adventures into the 300 chip PLO super turbos. Have played nearly 100 of the 9-seat $7.50 buy-ins and my ROI is getting on for 25%. With chip stacks so short, a single mistake can be magnified and cost you the chance of cashing, or winning. Becoming chip leader is also very important, as it gives you the ability to push all the other stacks around. I played 1 game last night, here is how it went (warning, you will not run this good, ever!)

Hand 1:
Dealt to electric chair [Js 7s Ks Kh] - ooo, nice starting hand, will reraise pre
NeedLuck2day folds
free-dic-u-lust raises to 60 - I will always reraise this with any kind of start hand
lost pension calls 60 - calling just builds the pot for me to raise with
CedarValley calls 60 - see above
Simsas folds
snipes2k1 folds
pokerdegree folds
electric chair raises to 300, and is all in - sometimes this will give you an uncontested pot as weak raisers and limpers will often fold here

free-dic-u-lust calls 240, and is all in
lost pension calls 240, and is all in
CedarValley calls 240, and is all in

- hmmm, not really expecting 3 callers, let's see if we have two AAs out there:

electric chair shows [Js 7s Ks Kh]
free-dic-u-lust shows [5c 8d 8s 5s]
lost pension shows [9c 6c 6h 2h]
CedarValley shows [Ac 4h Qh Qd]

lol, wtf, I am ahead, main worry being the A or Q outs

*** FLOP *** [Jd Th Jh] - yay, top set
*** TURN *** [Jd Th Jh] [8c] - hmm, behind to the str8
*** RIVER *** [Jd Th Jh 8c] [7d] - RIVER!!!!!

electric chair wins the pot (1,230) :) :) :)

This really is the nuts position to be in, 1 hand gone, 3 out, I have quadrupled.

Hands 2-5, folded all, hand 6 was my BB and I got a walk. Hand 7, my SB:

Dealt to electric chair [5s Ac Qh Th] - folded round to me so I obviously raise:
electric chair raises to 120
yves34 raises to 300, and is all in - BB raises all in, just what I wanted
electric chair calls 180
yves34 shows [9s Kc 7d 8h]
electric chair shows [5s Ac Qh Th] - I like my hand, my straight potential is higher and my A my be good if it pairs

*** FLOP *** [5c As Qd]
*** TURN *** [5c As Qd] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [5c As Qd Qs] [Ad]
yves34 shows a pair of Aces
electric chair shows a full house, Aces full of Queens

Two hands played, two full houses, 5x starting stack.

Hand 8, raise AQQ4 preflop from button and pick up the blinds.
Hand 9 fold
Hand 10 raise AA97 preflop and pick up the blinds
Hand 11 fold
Hand 12 all fold to my BB for another walk

Hand 13
Dealt to electric chair [Jh 6s Jd 4c]
- I got outs
electric chair raises to 120

NeedLuck2day raises to 255, and is all in
electric chair calls 135
NeedLuck2day shows [4h 3d 5c 4d] - LOL, I am so far ahead
electric chair shows [Jh 6s Jd 4c]

*** FLOP *** [Ac Js 4s]
*** TURN *** [Ac Js 4s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Ac Js 4s 7c] [As]
NeedLuck2day shows a full house, Fours full of Aces
electric chair shows a full house, Jacks full of Aces
electric chair wins the pot (510)

Oooh, that's gotta hurt, my 3rd boat of the game in only 13 hands

Hand 14, fold
Hand 15
Dealt to electric chair [2s Jc Th Ah]

- I have an Ace and the button, so...
electric chair raises to 175

snipes2k1 raises to 205, and is all in
electric chair calls 30
snipes2k1 shows [Ac Ts As 7c]
electric chair shows [2s Jc Th Ah] - ah, I am in trouble

*** FLOP *** [3h 2d 9h] - I have some outs
*** TURN *** [3h 2d 9h] [4c] - I have more outs
*** RIVER *** [3h 2d 9h 4c] [8h] - Jackpot!

Hand 16 and through the bubble, I lose an all in preflop race:
pokerdegree shows [6s Ad Td As]
electric chair shows [Qh Kc Qs 5s]
*** FLOP *** [Jc 7d Ac]
*** TURN *** [Jc 7d Ac] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 7d Ac 9c] [Qc]
pokerdegree shows three of a kind, Aces
electric chair shows three of a kind, Queens
pokerdegree wins the pot (630)

Hand 17, I have to fold my probe bet on the flop to a reraise
Dealt to electric chair [Kc Ah 8c 4h]
Simsas folds
pokerdegree calls 25
electric chair raises to 150
pokerdegree calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Qd 6c Qs]
pokerdegree checks
electric chair bets 150
pokerdegree raises to 480, and is all in

Hand 18
Dealt to electric chair [Jc 7d Js Tc]
pokerdegree calls 50
electric chair calls 25 - let's see what happens on the flop and disguise my hand
Simsas checks

*** FLOP *** [6h 2h Jd]
- nice, 1/2 pot bet to see if we have anyone chasing a flush
electric chair bets 75
Simsas folds
pokerdegree calls 75 - we do :)

*** TURN *** [6h 2h Jd] [6s] - time to slow play
electric chair checks
pokerdegree checks
*** RIVER *** [6h 2h Jd 6s] [Jh] - too nice, only option is to value bet and hope for a call
electric chair bets 150
pokerdegree calls 150

Hand 19, fold
Hand 20, walk
Hand 21,22, fold
Hand 23, my BB
Dealt to electric chair [9c Ah Tc 7s]
- I have an Ace, with connected cards in the rest of the hand
Simsas folds
pokerdegree raises to 180
electric chair raises to 300
pokerdegree calls 110, and is all in
electric chair shows [9c Ah Tc 7s]
pokerdegree shows [Qs Th Kd Jc] - I think it is about 50:50 here

*** FLOP *** [5c 4c Qc] - floptastic
*** TURN *** [5c 4c Qc] [Ts] - he has outs
*** RIVER *** [5c 4c Qc Ts] [6h] - held...
electric chair shows a flush, Queen high

6 hands later...
Dealt to electric chair [Kc Kh 7h Ts]
Simsas calls 40
electric chair raises to 240
Simsas raises to 400, and is all in
electric chair calls 160
Simsas shows [4h 7d Tc 5c]
electric chair shows [Kc Kh 7h Ts]
*** FLOP *** [As 6c Jd]
*** TURN *** [As 6c Jd] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [As 6c Jd 8d] [6s]
Simsas shows a pair of Sixes
electric chair shows two pair, Kings and Sixes
electric chair wins the pot (800)

Not every game goes this way, but when you hit a few cards it can be very satisfying. A few tips: get more than starting stack quickly, that way you can put pressure on everyone with a shorter stack than you. Do this by raising preflop. Bet in position when it comes round unopened, almost never call (except when you know that you are hitting the deck and quads are coming). Fold most hands that have been raised before it is your turn to act, (re)raise AAxx, KKxx and QQxx with the intent to get all the chips in.

Looking back at the MTT win, I know that my pre-flop play was improved by playing these short stack games. This meant I was able to get away with some outrageous bluffs at important times, with a short stack. For that reason alone it would be worth playing these if you are at all unsure where you are with your preflop game.

Lastly, have played 3 STTs tonight, cashed in 2, total in for June $465.46, total out in May $465.15 = down-swing reversed.

Going to Duffs Full House tomorrow in Waterlooville for the opening night. New poker club being opened by a couple of posters on the Betfair forum. Hope it works out for them and that they can organize some events when I am not on holiday, see you there if you are going.

BOOOOOOMMMMM

End of the month and finally, for the first time since I started keeping records, I have gone past $1k profit from poker for the month, $1,005.53 to be exact. I was up to $1050 a few days ago, but managed to get back down to $900 before recovering in the last 3 days of the month. This means I am also in profit for the whole of 2009, to the tune of $300. Not much in the big scheme of things, but poker is always more satisfying when you are winning.

I continued to run golden (or play well) on SNGs, in the money in 60/114 (53%) of the ones I played in April with an overall ROI of 48%. What helped here was moving up to the $22 tables. I have a pretty good strike rate at this level and have noticed that the players I think are the biggest fish tend to be the ones at the top of the sharkscope leaderboards. The Brazilians in particular seem to be running good, which suits me because I know I am a favourite every time the chips go in against them.

Lastly, have dabbled in the super turbo PLO SNGs on full tilt. You start with 300 chips and blinds at 15-30. Instantaneous action that definitely seems to suit my game, or maybe it's because the $7.50 buy-in encourages the fish to participate when they don't have a clue about starting hands. Generally, only 1 other player seems to be competent, which is why you can be HU at 30-60 blinds and still going at 100-200.

Here's hoping next month is as fruitful, might even dig out some hand histories for the next update.