Being a Lolpro for dummies.

[Evilpengwinz]

Haven't posted in the last couple of days, maily because I've been too tilted to do so and would've bored everyone to death with bad beat stories and how terribly I played.

Originally, I intended to put in a lot of volume over the weekend so that I could get ahead of my volume target this month, thus allowing me a couple of days off at the end of the month, or a few days to maybe try to qualify for last month's target of Sky's Priority Club if I reach my 7k target for the month with enough time to spare. Instead, I only played an hour on Saturday. Nothing seemed to be going my way, and I couldn't win a flip. Called it quits and was pleasantly surprised to find I had somehow only lost 2 buy-ins in that session.

Sunday was no better, although this was due to me being an aggro donk and getting owned by everyone else. A couple of buy-ins were lost to me thinking "X is a reg and knows I am LAG". So of course, I level myself into thinking that they'll know this and adapt by getting in worse than the standard AK/QQ+ against me, when they probably don't care what rubbish I've had that has gone to showdown and what my 4bet bluff range might be in a particular spot, they still won't start getting Jacks in pre, no matter what I do. They're having fun and winning a few quid from exploiting the worse players at this level, so why should they start doing anything different, especially when that means stepping out of their comfort zone of putting tons of money in with non-premium hands pre-flop? It might not be optimal for them to fold Jacks pre-flop to me, but I need to stop pretending that everyone is suddenly going to start getting in 100 big blinds with AQ/AJs/TT+ against me, because not everyone will care to adapt to my wider pre-flop 3bet and 4bet ranges.

Another few buy-ins managed to go in the direction of one particular unknown player who I have never seen before, although hopefully I'll see him more in the future

As a result of dropping over a dozen buy-ins in my last few sessions at 30NL and the subsequent loss of confidence in my game, I spent most of today going through hand histories with friends on Skype. This reminded me that I'm not as much of a donk as I thought. Some really unusual spots came up in this discussion too, which I may post in the PHA section in the next couple of days if I remember to do so.

Because of this lack of confidence, I tried to mix things up a bit by playing a 3 table 20PLO session. 40 minutes and 4 buy-ins later, and it was back to Hold'em for me. Two and a half days into the month and we're already down over £300. Marvellous.

Fortunately, today's 30NL session went much better, and saved this post from being as miserable as it otherwise would've been. Before the session, I said to myself that I wasn't going to get involved in any levelling BS. Put away the cold 4-bet with the ace blocker for one night and see what happens. Instead, think about what my hand is, what my opponent's range is, how my hand plays against that range, and whether to raise, call, or fold. Easy game I managed to pull back 4 buy-ins in this session, despite losing both my flips and KK<AA AIPF. Probably the best session I've ever had at 30NL in terms of how well I played, tbh, even if the result could've been a couple of buy-ins better if I ran slightly better.

I'm not sure whether I'll be anywhere on Sky's latest cash promotion as there were a lot of regs who were there for the duration of my session. Not too bothered as the other regs will get 2 days more than me because of the promotion clashing with SPT, but if I accidentally bink a buy-in or two by doing what I was going to do anyway, then it's a bonus.

Results 3rd June
Since last update: -£192.84, -$5.60
This month: -£192.84, -$5.60
Sky Poker Points: 796/7,000 (= £7.96 rakeback)
30NL hands played: 3,768 (-£85.96)

[Evilpengwinz]

Do you ever play at KC Club Swindon?

I've never been, I'm tempted to play one of their £66 deepstacks sometime though.

[Evilpengwinz]

Sky Poker Tour Update

Last Month, I managed to qualify for the most recent leg of the Sky Poker Tour in Birmingham, which took place on Saturday. When I qualified, I was considering going to Birmingham on Saturday morning, play, then go home either Saturday evening or get the first train home on Sunday morning depending how I performed in the tournament, although it wasn't long before some other Sky regs convinced me that I should be there on Friday night as well.

They were right.

I got a text at about 5pm to meet up in a bar with some Sky regs somewhere near New Street station, before going around a few hotels in Birmingham city centre to pick up people and allow others to check in, usually getting a pint from the hotel's bar while we were there. It had already been arranged for a group of about twenty of us to go to Akbar's curry house later that evening. A few people went back to the casino for the side event, but given that it was a deepstack starting at 9pm (LOL), it was an absolute no brainer to not play this and be up until stupid o'clock. I heard several rumours of when the tournament actually finished, the earliest being 5am and the latest being 8:30am after a 7 way chop as the casino closed at 9am. I don't know exactly when the tournament finished, but having the normal Friday night deepstack starting at the usual starting time when the casino should've expected to have more than the usual amount of people due to it being labelled an SPT side event was a pretty dumb move on the casino's part IMO.

As a result, most of us went to a pub a couple of hundred yards down the road from the curry house where we stayed until shortly after 11pm when they stopped serving drinks for the night. We eventually ended up back at the casino shortly after midnight, and I didn't end up back in my hotel room until about 4:30am. It was lovely to meet some of the Sky Poker regs and do something other than play Poker.

Saturday, by contrast, wasn't so fun. I started the day running bad by missing breakfast by about 5 minutes, and my tournament lasted exactly one hand - AA v JJ AIPF. I still don't really know what the best line is here, although I'm leaning towards just folding to the 3bet.

The blinds were 25/50, and we had 7.5k starting stack. It's a one day event with 30 minute clock. The opponent was a random player who I didn't know from the site, and they didn't show up when I checked the Hendon Mob database after the table draw was published, either. I'd usually open to 150 but I was thinking "I have Jacks, live players are terrible LOL, let's go to valuetown", so decided to make it 200 instead so that the pot was bigger when I inevitably got stationed by someone, This is when the hand starts going wrong. The guy to my left 3bets to 700, and I'm hating my life.

The blinds were in seats 1 and 2, I was seat 6, the villain was in seat 7.

There was a chance the random guy knew me from watching me on Sky's televised "Master Cash" tables, although I'd taken my name badge off before the tournament started to stop people from knowing who I was and potentially gaining that advantage. As I've never heard of this guy, this isn't something that ever comes into my thought process here.

At this point, we either:
1) Fold - I have Pocket Jacks. It feels really bad to fold to a 3bet, even in the first hand of a live tournament vs a random unknown player.
2) Call - We're out of position. We check to the pre-flop aggressor and we're always going to be in awkward spots post-flop unless we flop a Jack because it's the 1st hand so he should never be doing this light. Donk betting in a 3bet pot is awful readless. Set mining Jacks in a 3bet pot given the amount we have to call and the stack sizes is unprofitable too, IMO. How often do we check/call the flop then check/fold on a later street? Being out of position makes this a poor option.
3) 4bet - Do we want to get Jacks in here? Probably not. Do we want to 4bet and fold to a 5bet? Again, probably not.

I hated every option available to me, and in hindsight, the best option is probably to just throw it in the muck once we get 3bet. I really don't know as I don't really play enough full ring or live Poker tbh. Nobody would ever know I folded Jacks there either, and I would still have 7.3k chips. As I believe I'm better than 90-95% of the field, this probably makes it easier to fold too, as I should be able to bully people who don't know how to play a 10-20bb stack correctly and don't know how to adapt to having antes later on (There's no antes on Sky).

Being an aggro donk, I decided that when in doubt, I should snap 4bet to 1.7k and get it in without thinking about it. If I'd thought about this for 30 seconds, I would definitely not be 4betting here. Villain turns over Aces and holds. Gg me. The only consolation was that if I'd flatted, I probably stack off anyway because the flop was low and monotone, and I had as well as having flopped an overpair.

Inevitably, I post what happened on Facebook and get the usual "You're shit at Poker, WTF are you doing putting your tournament life on the line with JJ?" from certain players. This shows exactly why getting JJ in here is bad, because the vast majority of people are never, ever getting it in with worse here readless.

As I was already in profit from satellites anyway, this result isn't a disaster, but it was a massive disappointment to go out first hand nonetheless.

I had to wait for ages for a £1/£1 cash game to start, as the casino didn't have enough dealers. I got into a £10 SnG which I chopped HU for £35. Probably lost a few pence of equity but whatever. When the cash game did eventually start, nobody could decide what to play. We eventually ended up playing £1/£1 NLHE + PLO. I spent the following 3 hours topping up constantly, because I couldn't win a pot. Already down a buy-in, I managed to get KKxx in the PLO round, and get into a pot against an awful player. Flop comes K54 rainbow. Top set on a dry board. Finally, my luck is changing. The session had been a grind, but maybe I'll stack this fish and end up winning a few quid after all. The villain ended up somehow getting to the river with a bag of spanners and hitting a backdoor flush. Marvellous.

£410 down and tilted, I stopped playing cash and went to rail some friends - One was a team mate and another was a friend who I had 10% of, and there was a couple of other familiar faces in there too who I wanted to do well. But the only thing on my mind was my exit hand earlier and how this fish had managed to stack me (Yeah, entitlement tilt. Must reread "The Mental Game of Poker"). I looked at the table to see that someone had snap moved to his left as soon as I left the table, and within a few minutes, the fish had left the table with my money. However, I wasn't enjoying being in the casino any longer, and was just staring at the ceiling looking pissed off, anyway. I left the casino, although I felt bad for not sticking around to rail people who were deep in the tournament who would've probably railed me.

As for the venue, it was terrible. The most tilting thing was that there was a dealer on the PLO cash table who didn't know how much pot was in a £1/£1 cash game when I announced "Pot" with no straddles or action before me, so until that dealer left I had to actually work out how much "Pot" was and announce that amount when raising pre-flop. If the dealer doesn't know how much pot is, then don't put them on a table where there's PL games being played ffs. I was also disappointed that they couldn't have spread the tables out a bit more, as the tables were cramped to the point where I couldn't get out from my seat when I busted the tournament until I'd asked the guy behind me to tuck his chair in!

Maybe it wasn't really as bad as I thought and we're just fortunate to have great venues like DTD in this country. Genting Birmingham was very impressive when I was there for the GPS in February, as well. Broadway was definitely the worst place I've played Poker to date, though.

-----

In the meantime, my downswing at the start of the month seems to have ended. I've only played 4 of the last 8 days online because of SPT, but results have definitely improved, and I was delighted with how I played on Monday, too, especially considering I usually play terribly after something like what happened at the SPT because I start lacking confidence in my own game, so it was great to immediately get back to winning again. I need to start putting in some volume, though.

-----

Results 11th June
Online since last update: +£178.78, +$6.70
Live since last update: -£385.00
This month online: -£14.06, +$1.10
This month live: -£385.00
This month total: -£399.06, +$1.10

20NL hands played: 2,517 (+£211.96)
30NL hands played: 3,968 (-£108.95)
Sky Poker Points: 1,523/7,000 (= £15.23 rakeback)

[simonnatur]

Think you're probably being a bit unfair to Broadway. I wasn't there this weekend but sounds like they were doing their best to offer your game of choice which isn't normally spread there. Obviously they're going to be stretched at times like this and there won't be a limitless supply of experienced poker dealers.

I have no connection with Broadway except from playing in cash games there. In my experience the poker room is well run and excellent value for money since they charge an hourly fee rather than raking.

[Tal]

Think you're probably being a bit unfair to Broadway. I wasn't there this weekend but sounds like they were doing their best to offer your game of choice which isn't normally spread there. Obviously they're going to be stretched at times like this and there won't be a limitless supply of experienced poker dealers.

I have no connection with Broadway except from playing in cash games there. In my experience the poker room is well run and excellent value for money since they charge an hourly fee rather than raking.

I agree. It was cramped but it's a busy casino on a Saturday night, where they're running an SPT (with all the rigmarole that entails), an evening comp that gets 100+ runners plus 6-10 cash games. Not many places that can do that, let alone give you much space.

As for running the other comps, it's down to players as to whether they turn up and play it. The Friday night comp regularly gets north of 100 runners, so the casino would be mad to turn those punters away because there's also a tour event.

Wasn't ideal, but I think you've hit the nail on the head about DTD spoiling us all.

[TightEnd]

Extremely unfair on the Broadway. I ran the event, and have ran several there and they did an excellent job juggling a completely full tournament with demands for cash, sit and gos and the rest

The staff, Mark and Jana running the room for example, were superb

[TightEnd]

and if I may say so some of the attitudes in your post jar a little. taking your name badge off so people don't recognise you? Hendon mobbing players? a general air of disrespect for live players?

Its a £100 community tour, and I suggest you'd enjoy the experience more if you played it as such

[horseplayer]

try and enjoy yourself a bit more?

you play online a lot (Fair enough) so treat live as a way of relaxing maybe you will enjoy it more

when i still occasionally play live poker i do so as a way to relax from being at the pc most of the day, infact i am probably one of the live "fishes" you speak so highly of

"The most tilting thing was that there was a dealer on the PLO cash table who didn't know how much pot was in a £1/£1 cash game when I announced "Pot" with no straddles or action before me, so until that dealer left I had to actually work out how much "Pot" was and announce that amount when raising pre-flop."

really most tilting thing to have happened ? hardly a big deal is it

[TightEnd]

Lee

a no baseball cap policy tilts you?

really?

You understand why they'd have such a policy, surely?

you've been in really stressful life situations all around the world and a no baseball cap policy tilts you?


Not sure I understand much about anything these days lol

[titaniumbean]

open 150, peel 3bet ainec.

[The_Don90]

As someone who speaks to you often I'll comment.

I think The SPT was pretty well run, the wobbly table thing mentioned was rather annoying i must admit, would have hate to have got chips then suddenly the table wobbles and half of them are in the middle and im pot stuck with 72o. I didn't play cash so can't comment there and i think they stopped the Sit and Goes being run after a while.

While i think you may have benefited from joining me/others on the rail and having a good old drink i respect your decision to leave.

Broadway did well in my opinion, although i feel some things could have been better, i haven't spent alot of time at DTD due to location(and lack of a driving licence), but i feel even the self dealt game at my local casino often has better dealers than what was on offer. Thats not a critism though as one dealer who i thought was pretty bad said he was a reserve, thus i think the casino did make a pretty strong effort.

Once Tikay stopped shouting things, and the casino floor took over it was also impossible to hear who was being called. Again i won't complain.


I feel I've now been harsh here. I hope its came across as constructive.

I hope to see you at the 6 max for what its worth, maybe ill pick somewhere to eat this time around

[Knottikay]

Just found your Diary Andy!

Not read it all, but only wanted to say one thing....

You owe me a Budweiser at the next SPT 


GL.....try not to get banned off this forum too 

[Evilpengwinz]

Think you're probably being a bit unfair to Broadway. I wasn't there this weekend but sounds like they were doing their best to offer your game of choice which isn't normally spread there. Obviously they're going to be stretched at times like this and there won't be a limitless supply of experienced poker dealers.

I have no connection with Broadway except from playing in cash games there. In my experience the poker room is well run and excellent value for money since they charge an hourly fee rather than raking.

Tbf to Broadway I liked that they charged an hourly fee, and their samosas at the dinner break were awesome.

Wasn't ideal, but I think you've hit the nail on the head about DTD spoiling us all.

Yeah, maybe I was slightly harsh on Broadway because when I think of what I expect from a cardroom or casino, I think of DTD and Genting Star City. It's still the worst venue I've played at to date though, IMO.

"The most tilting thing was that there was a dealer on the PLO cash table who didn't know how much pot was in a £1/£1 cash game when I announced "Pot" with no straddles or action before me, so until that dealer left I had to actually work out how much "Pot" was and announce that amount when raising pre-flop."

really most tilting thing to have happened ? hardly a big deal is it

It annoyed me because that's what the dealers are being paid to do, and should be trained to do. I'm allowed to say "Pot", and therefore, if the dealer doesn't know how much a pot raise is, then they shouldn't be dealing a pot limit game.

[Evilpengwinz]

and if I may say so some of the attitudes in your post jar a little. taking your name badge off so people don't recognise you? Hendon mobbing players? a general air of disrespect for live players?

Its a £100 community tour, and I suggest you'd enjoy the experience more if you played it as such

I don't agree with this post tbh.

Hendon mobbing players when the table draw came out seems like an obvious thing to do to me so that I have some idea of how good every player on my table is before sitting, as I didn't recognise any of them. I would do the same if it was any other tour, so I don't see how it 'only' being a £100 tour with a more friendly atmosphere means I should take it any less seriously. £110 entry is still a lot of money, and so is the >£5k for first place.

Name badge at the tables - Why should people have information on me for free when everyone else is a random person who I have never played against before and I still have to get reads on them? If people are talking at the table and someone asks me my name, then I would have no problem telling them who I am. If everyone is sat in silence apart from announcing their actions, then I see no reason to wear a name badge as it's giving everyone else free information (My online alias, and therefore, access to their notes on me) for nothing.

I'd usually open to 150 but I was thinking "I have Jacks, live players are terrible LOL, let's go to valuetown", so decided to make it 200 instead so that the pot was bigger when I inevitably got stationed by someone

I'm assuming this is what you were referring to about disrespect towards live players - I wouldn't say that's being disrespectful, I was simply stating my (rather naive) thought process behind why I chose to raise bigger than I usually would pre-flop in this hand, based on what people tell me about live Poker and me being fairly new to live Poker.

[Evilpengwinz]

I have to say I find the Broadway to be a super tilting place!

The only positive I find is the cardroom manager, who is always super accommodating and friendly.

The cardroom itself:

a. knackered tables wobbling all over the place.
b. poorly trained dealers.
c. no baseball cap policy winds me up (might be no hoods too?)
d. 'deep' tournaments starting ridic late in the evening (2030-2100 hrs, I mean WTF?)
e. Really crapshooty structures in some tourneys.

Shame as the place has so much potential.

+1 to b, c and d. I also heard a lot of people complaining about a, although I didn't experience it myself.

open 150, peel 3bet ainec.

+1, would have done this 99.9% of the time.