So as not to only post hands I win and maybe get perspectives that could improve my game here is one I blew quite a few chips on.
AJ in the BB and hand is against the opponent who gave me loads of resistence for most of the night.
Definitely a massive case for reraising here preflop and I am sure plenty will feel it is a mistake not too but I was trying to play a more small ball style and underrep my hand versus someone who I knew might call my 3 bet, was capable or 4betting and putting me in a tough spot. I felt by flatting I could play the hand out with more info (albeit out of position) and get a better idea of what was going on. I also felt they would continue their line and I could extract chips postflop anyway much of the time whether I hit or not. Incidently QK had been in their 3bet calling range and it could have went worse.
The continuation bet on the flop meant nothing IMO, they were cbetting there with 2 christmas cards close to 100% of the time IMO. My call was to float and weigh up plays back in later streets, it wasn't in the hope of spiking an ace or jack and folding if not.
The turn diamond I felt meant nothing as to the other players range because as I say I felt they were cbetting the flop most of the time with anything they opened. This seemed like a good spot where I had called 2 bullets to fire one out and get air hands out of the pot. I figured that they must have me on something even if they do not credit me with the flush and might even have me on a small pair with a diamond back up and fold a lot of their range. If not I feel I can represent on the river again and possibly fold out Ax with a diamond that they may be holding and called the turn with.
By the river I didn't feel I could win the pot any other way than to buy it and fired a 1/2 pot bet out but was called with their QKo.
Excellent read mark, some fascinating stuff. It was a pleasure to watch qualify and indeed play against you (albeit briefly lol) in 3.5k Vegas final. to me you seemed to be playing to many hands, in the relative comfortable position that you were in, but having read your earlier post, in reply to Tikay's question, i can see why, skillz init. Gl in Vegas, i'll look forward to seeing you there, when i qualify (see i said when) at least you wont have to drink alone lol Regards Alan fyi (plo8 champ) Posted by ajmilton
Cheers AJ!
Always a pleasure playing with you even if not always profitable
Yes It was a choice of how to procede in that spot and I wanted to turn the heat right up after weighing up the factors.
I felt it was blind aggression though and wasn't happy I ended back so low although I feel the merits in the choice were okay. I was questioning myself though and was a bit deflated and in the end I was happy I managed to regroup, shake it off and come again.
Yes will be good to not be alone this time! Been a few times on my own but the Sky folks will be there and as we get a +1 I will bring my dad out who loves his poker. The grilfriend gets the short straw of watching our crazy dogs although she has been a few times and hates flying.
On the turn it appears opponent has shut down and any big bets will lose him, I also feel (wrongly) he will check behind. I bet 600 into the 6k or so pot. I know this might send alarm bells off for certain players, isn't getting proper value etc etc. I felt though that I could either be lucky and induce a reraise from certain players who think I am weak here or get some players to think I am giving them a great drawing price and am praying they hit.
On the river I bet a bit bigger hoping they have hit something, possibly with AK given the preflop betting and am just lucky they had a full house here.
Hi Mark, excellent read and looking forward to following your progress. Always a pleasure to share a table with you (must be my masochistic streak). Oh, and don't worry, you will know when you have been Jodded lol.
Only played for a little while tonight. Some OH8 DYMs and played the Mayhem freeroll for some fun on the side.
About £37 up in the DYM's and £10 in the Mayhem game.
One interesting hand I saved from a DYM (£5.50 BI I think)...
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
Player 1
Small blind
100.00
100.00
2606.87
markycash
Big blind
200.00
300.00
3195.00
Your hole cards
10
8
Q
3
Player 2
Call
200.00
500.00
3365.63
Player 3
Fold
Player 1
Fold
markycash
Check
Flop
9
J
2
markycash
Check
Player 2
Bet
500.00
1000.00
2865.63
markycash
Call
500.00
1500.00
2695.00
Turn
5
markycash
Check
Player 2
Bet
1500.00
3000.00
1365.63
markycash
Call
1500.00
4500.00
1195.00
River
5
markycash
All-in
1195.00
5695.00
0.00
Player 2
Fold
markycash
Muck
markycash
Win
4500.00
4500.00
markycash
Return
1195.00
0.00
5695.00
I would never have been in this hand voluntarily but I got to see a flop from the BB with 1 limper.
The player had been limping loads of pots and being very aggro post flop. I have a monster straight draw but no hand as of yet. He pots which I find suspect as it doesnt look like a flop even a wide ranging 2 way hand would hit hard so I call. The turn is a brick and changes nothing although it does give me a horrific low draw which 'could be good'. Opponent fires the pot again, now this is probably a fold with my stack but as the player was aggro constantly I decided to draw my line in the sand and call. The river is another brick for me but I can envisage a lot of hands that opponent has completely missed with and thought there was a fair chance he had no hand. I only have 1100 odd chips left and on the surface no fold equity, I figured if my read was correct though and I open shove the river he would have few options as his DYM game would be effectively ended and would have to fold.
I decided to go with the open shove and luckily on this occasion it worked out.
Not my best hand and probably one I should have got off at some point but due to the opponent I decided to play the pot.
Donked about in the Mayhem freeroll on the side and managed to take (I think 5 bounties but could be wrong) and built a nice stack only to run JJ into QQ for a 100k+ stack with 30 odd left. Still a free tenner is fine by me
So all in all £47 up for the short nights play.
I doubt I will be able to play much the coming week as it is the last week of uni (I finish after an exam next Monday) and I have a big essay to write for psychology by Friday. Will still try and squeeze a few DYM's and the Thursday night PLO8 league in though!
Looking forward to stopping uni next Monday as I will be hoping to up my poker volume in a big way!
Been very enjoyable playing over the holiday weekend and over £4,000 up in stuff counting the package win.
Wasn't really meant to be playing tonight (had some studying to do but was at uni all day and couldn't face it).
Played a couple of DYM's but the traffic was down, mainly due to Tikay being away I think and with only 1 or 2 tables at a time I got a bit bored and ended about £10 down.
Played the £5.50 PLO8 and £55 B/H and just couldnt get into them so ended on Sky about £70 down.
As I did on Sunday night I went and unwound with some $1 NLHE cash games for an hour or so and sat with $100. Left with $344 for a profit which equated to about a £100 overall profit for the night which I am happy enough with Mainly due to one pot with JJ which was 3 bet preflop and the flop came AJ4 and managed to get A4 and someone with A5 allin for a $274 pot.
On a side note, I planned to play the £1,100 qualifier for the WSOP main event but I am going to book flights for the £3.5k package very soon for me and my father who is going to come along for his first trip to Vegas. If I then qualify for the main event then I would have to mess about trying to change tickets (as I would need to be there a couple of days earlier) which I would do if it was just for me but don't really want to mess about with if my father is coming.
So I will leave the Main event quest for next year and hit a few other MTT's in Vegas if the $1111 buy in goes pear shaped.
Study all day tomorrow sadly but then a short session of OH8 DYM's in the evening.
Once uni winds up on Monday coming I will try and post a few interesting hands and hopefully get some discussion going
Good to have a diary from a PLO8 dym player. I will be reading with interest, and hopefully learning a bit from your insight and analysis.
It's great that you have decided to play on Sky regularly, I think that the PLO8 games here are gathering momentum, and the more players we can bring in can only be a plus.
On the hand above, funny how a hand that you would normally bin pre, can end up being a monster. I would love to know what the other player had, that he limped pre, and was willing to fire 2K into the pot and fold?
Well done winning the Vegas package, I hope you and your dad have a great time out there, and hopefully a little cash will be in the offing.
Thanks Donttlemum & Phantom Wasn't really meant to be playing tonight (had some studying to do but was at uni all day and couldn't face it). Played a couple of DYM's but the traffic was down, mainly due to Tikay being away I think and with only 1 or 2 tables at a time I got a bit bored and ended about £10 down. Played the £5.50 PLO8 and £55 B/H and just couldnt get into them so ended on Sky about £70 down. As I did on Sunday night I went and unwound with some $1 NLHE cash games for an hour or so and sat with $100. Left with $344 for a profit which equated to about a £100 overall profit for the night which I am happy enough with Mainly due to one pot with JJ which was 3 bet preflop and the flop came AJ4 and managed to get A4 and someone with A5 allin for a $274 pot. On a side note, I planned to play the £1,100 qualifier for the WSOP main event but I am going to book flights for the £3.5k package very soon for me and my father who is going to come along for his first trip to Vegas. If I then qualify for the main event then I would have to mess about trying to change tickets (as I would need to be there a couple of days earlier) which I would do if it was just for me but don't really want to mess about with if my father is coming. So I will leave the Main event quest for next year and hit a few other MTT's in Vegas if the $1111 buy in goes pear shaped. Study all day tomorrow sadly but then a short session of OH8 DYM's in the evening. Once uni winds up on Monday coming I will try and post a few interesting hands and hopefully get some discussion going Thanks for reading Posted by markycash
More likely a combo of CL football on the telly, & the lighter nights & (generally) fine weather.
When I play, I always insta reg the next table as soon as it spawns, as do Eon & yourself - that really helps get the games going. Folks don't like to start an empty table for some reason, but once they see a few names regged they happily join.
I deffo struggle to concentrate when only 1 or 2 games run, ideally I like 4 or 5 minimum to be on the go at the same time.
Fingers crossed the traffic remains sustainable for a while yet, if not, I'll have to find something else to play.
Hi Marky, Good to have a diary from a PLO8 dym player. I will be reading with interest, and hopefully learning a bit from your insight and analysis. It's great that you have decided to play on Sky regularly, I think that the PLO8 games here are gathering momentum, and the more players we can bring in can only be a plus. On the hand above, funny how a hand that you would normally bin pre, can end up being a monster. I would love to know what the other player had, that he limped pre, and was willing to fire 2K into the pot and fold? Well done winning the Vegas package, I hope you and your dad have a great time out there, and hopefully a little cash will be in the offing. Craig Posted by 67Bhoys
Hi Craig,
Yeah it would be interesting to know what the opponent had in that hand. As I said I should really have been off the hand at some stage but the way it was played his bets just screamed 'I have a big draw, go away'. The fact I missed so hard planted the seed on the river that maybe he did too and if I shove (although it didn't look like I had fold equity) it was for most of his chips.
Thanks regarding the Vegas win! It took a bit of persuading to get my dad to come, he doesn't like the heat and has no real idea what Vegas is like and, as mentioned, has never been before. He plays poker online every night though and really enjoys the game so I think (hope) he will have a blast. After a tough year with a few deaths in the family I am hoping he will enjoy the complete change of scenery.
Hope the tables are good to you Craig, thanks for following the diary and cya in a DYM soon no doubt
@ Tikay
I never considered the footy being on etc, makes sense when you mention it!
It does help autoregging for everything we are willing to play, I noticed how much that helped on another site. Myself and another reg always autoregged to get the ball rolling.
Regarding the table #'s... Yeah I find that 3 or 4 are optimal personally. I used to play between 6-9 the bulk of the time when I played full time but I find that after 4 it is easy to start to simply 'playing your hand' and miss too much of the information available at the table such as players betting habits. I started playing just 3 or 4 tables when MTTing when I started playing again a month ago and have noticed a big improvement in MTT results (mainly on other sites).
There is a tendancy to think that to make a decent amount online you need to be mass tabling with 3 monitors 'a la Shaun Deeb' and while I accept he has crushed the online scene; other players have also crushed the online scene with minimal tables. I know DJK123 who is a monster at the tables with stunning results usually just plays 4 tables.
Or maybe it is just an age thing and I cannot cope with 4 /> tables these days
Hi mark AJ is a hand I've always considered troublesome when calling an open raise especially out of position. His range will be wide giving you a difficult idea of how to go about missed flops. If you call the lop and miss the turn any betting you'll do will be made with caution knowing the risk of premium pairs is still possible and if you keep folding then it makes the call look -EV.
Good question as in my personal opinion there are a couple of areas related to note taking which can easily be overlooked.
Against regs at the tables for PLO8 DYM's then very brief notes are fine IMO as you 'know' the players and are playing them often and I find it is often better to judge how they are playing that particular night. I do not usually take notes on regs from these games at all but will take notes on all new players I play in them. The notes on the non regs are useful as obviously when they turn up again you do not need to 'figure them out' again. Also if they are way over aggro with 'Hi only' hands for example then you know you can play your low orientated hand more aggressively with less worry about being quartered.
Regarding note taking in general... I think it is critically important to remember that while it is fine to tag someone as "this person does x,y or z and is a donk/shark"; It is critically important to remember that while some people will mechanically play very similar all the time, some will change/develop their game over time and some will play different even on a night to night basis.
For example you might have someone tagged as a donk but the last time you played them they were drunk or tilted or whatever but on this occasion they are neither drunk nor tilted and have their 'A game on'. Obviously in this case just going by notes could be costly.
Also some people you might take notes on you may not see for a while and even in the space of a couple of months may have went from being a complete novice to someone who has played many games and tried to study the game a bit.
If I use myself as an example then sometimes I will be aggro and trying to absorb all information at the table and thoroughly focussed but another night (like last night due to traffic being down) I may be a bit bored and going through the motions and not too difficult to play against and take chips from. This obviously makes note taking on me personally less effective as I won't generally do the same things session after session for a variety of reasons.
I also try to note if people always open pots with the same bet sizing or if they alter their bet sizing according to their hand strength (which is obviously a bit of a tell) or if they alter their bet sizing according to position (which is completely fine). If you have this information you can know when you are getting an insight into their hand due to their bet sizing and when it simply means they are opening with their standard range.
Hi mark AJ is a hand I've always considered troublesome when calling an open raise especially out of position. His range will be wide giving you a difficult idea of how to go about missed flops. If you call the lop and miss the turn any betting you'll do will be made with caution knowing the risk of premium pairs is still possible and if you keep folding then it makes the call look -EV. Posted by craigcu12
Hey Craig, I will have a bash at this one later tonight or tomorrow morning if thats okay. Just going to play a few DYM's.
Good question which I will happily give my personal take on, whatever that is worth
Hi mark AJ is a hand I've always considered troublesome when calling an open raise especially out of position. His range will be wide giving you a difficult idea of how to go about missed flops. If you call the lop and miss the turn any betting you'll do will be made with caution knowing the risk of premium pairs is still possible and if you keep folding then it makes the call look -EV. Posted by craigcu12
Small session done (will post about that after this)
Regarding the AJ...
This is a pretty loaded question as it is completely depends on the situation. Whether it is a cash game/SNG/MTT, who your opponent is, what your stack size is, your exact table position (I know you said OOP but how OOP makes a difference), which players are behind you and what their stack sizes are, your table image, previous action at the table etc etc etc...
I think you play a lot of cash games so this may be a cash game question? I will try to cover briefly for general cash/SNG and MTT situatuations. Although I have been playing more cash games elsewhere and am on a mini heater, cash games are not really my speciality and some other players who specialise in cash games may want to chime in with more precise info.
Cash Games
Again this is very general as it will depend on many of the factors outlined above so much of what I say will be correct in some situations and wrong in others. In cash games I personally like generally to avoid calling with hands I do not know where I am at in OOP; I would rather be raising a more marginal hand in position. If I was playing the AJ to a raise I would mix it up dependant on the opponent and generally to balance my range. If it was against an opponent I was giving any credit to then in many situations I would just fold (I know some might think this is -ev but I would value position that highly). If I really did not know where I was but really did want to play the hand then I would probably be inclined to 3bet to at least isolate the player and get a bit more information based on how he reacts. The 3bet might look strong and if he is opening small pairs set mining and the flop is overcards then your cbet continuing your line in the hand then you may take the pot on the flop regardless of whether you hit or not. If you elect for this option then bet sizing becomes important so you are not leaking chips.
If this was a situation with AJ where the pot had not been opened then I would be standard opening and standard cbetting almost every flop versus 1 player regardless of the flop and weighing the situation up if there is more than 1 caller or we meet resistance. I would not be getting married to the hand though with only a standard open and cbet. Unless we connect in a massive way with this hand then we should generally (although definitely not always) only be getting heavy heavy action from hands that beat us. I mean if the flop is Axx and opponent is willing to put 100 bbs in over the hand, what does he have? A set beats us, several raggier aces may have 'aces up' and we could even have been outkicked all along. There are a ton of caveats such as figuring out if opponent is drawing or you can get them off the hand. In general though I would be standard opening with AJ and proceding with caution.
MTT's
A bit like cash games this is impossible to give a 1 answer fits all reply. It is so heavily dependent on your stack size, position, opponent, image, stage of tourney, type of tourney etc etc. At the early stages some players will 3bet if facing a raise much of the time and many will flat call, I wouldn't be folding as often early with AJ in an MTT in general compared to cash games though as we will be getting such favourable implied odds but I would be proceding with caution again especially OOP. I would also tend to flat call these days firstly as I prefer to play a more small ball style where we can get a dialogue via the betting going which serves to give us more information. I would also flat early on as one way where we can get more chips from AJ is by giving opponents a little rope to bleed chips (their betting range post flop is going to be utterly massive compared to their calling range if we are 3betting/raising/leading the action). The flat call also disguises our hand strength and encourages their action although if we brick it all early then most of the time we have to be prepared to just 'go away' so as not to leak chips.
In the mid stages it really depends on all the factors outlined above even more as any action we get involved in is much more expensive in relation to our stack. Also shorties will be shoving wide, certain stacks sizes will be 4bet jamming on any 3bet we make with a wider range and our implied odds are likely to be much less favourable. So it is all about our reads and assessing the numerous variables at these stages IMO and there just isnt a 1 reply fits all reply.
Much of the above goes for the latter stages too although if we are short or the players we are playing against are short then AJ is more valuable as players will make plays with a much wider range as they get shorter in chips. Open shoving/3bet jamming etc will become more common although thoroughly dependent once again on our position, whether there are antes, what our stack size is, what our opponents calling ranges are likely to be, what stage the tourney is at in relation to payouts, how much equity we can gain/loss etc etc.
SNG's
Much of what I wrote applies for MTT's will apply here. For example just the stage of the SNG will utterly change how we play the hand as will many other factors.
Hope some of that touches the point and is useful.
Other players will disagree with bits and some will agree. We all have our own styles which makes poker so interesting
In very general terms I would say if we are deep stacked to procede with caution and not overvalue AJ. Although there are plenty situations when factors such as stack sizes are tweaked where I will be happily prepared to bet my tourney life on it or play bigger pots in certain circumstances in cash games. Having said that the last bit would apply to any hand we have nevermind AJ...
Short session tonight as I am going to get on with some more uni work after this post.
Played the Mayhem freeroll as I have played it every other night this week and played 7 or 8 OH8 DYM's.
Managed to do the clean sweep and cash in everything tonight although the freeroll was just a small cash as my AJ (the irony - see above post) ran into KK and QQ with blinds at 1k/2k with my stack at about 16k (not much I can do there really).
Only around £47 profit as the volume was low due it being a short session but it all helps
Hard studying ahead of me tonight/tomorrow but tomorrow evening I will play the FOSP OH8 league and try and defend my title from last month and also the Mayhem freeroll and a few DYM's.
Amazingly it's the limpers and fish who make AJ hard because if they raise then it makes AJ need to be assured of hit but getting left with caution that they might be still ahead and if they miss I feel the need to fold for sure, even AQ and AK can be hard. open raising can be just as difficult because these players have got a very wide range creating difficult circumstances when you've missed because it's so difficult to put these players on a range and min betting has become a common habbit with them in recent years. ATM suited connectors feel better off because these hands are easy to give up on missed boards and it's easy to give threatening bets if not go all in when you've got a hit asi'll have 2 pair or a draw.
Comments
AJ in the BB and hand is against the opponent who gave me loads of resistence for most of the night.
Definitely a massive case for reraising here preflop and I am sure plenty will feel it is a mistake not too but I was trying to play a more small ball style and underrep my hand versus someone who I knew might call my 3 bet, was capable or 4betting and putting me in a tough spot. I felt by flatting I could play the hand out with more info (albeit out of position) and get a better idea of what was going on. I also felt they would continue their line and I could extract chips postflop anyway much of the time whether I hit or not. Incidently QK had been in their 3bet calling range and it could have went worse.
The continuation bet on the flop meant nothing IMO, they were cbetting there with 2 christmas cards close to 100% of the time IMO. My call was to float and weigh up plays back in later streets, it wasn't in the hope of spiking an ace or jack and folding if not.
The turn diamond I felt meant nothing as to the other players range because as I say I felt they were cbetting the flop most of the time with anything they opened. This seemed like a good spot where I had called 2 bullets to fire one out and get air hands out of the pot. I figured that they must have me on something even if they do not credit me with the flush and might even have me on a small pair with a diamond back up and fold a lot of their range. If not I feel I can represent on the river again and possibly fold out Ax with a diamond that they may be holding and called the turn with.
By the river I didn't feel I could win the pot any other way than to buy it and fired a 1/2 pot bet out but was called with their QKo.
Opinions more than welcome.
Always a pleasure playing with you even if not always profitable
Yes It was a choice of how to procede in that spot and I wanted to turn the heat right up after weighing up the factors.
I felt it was blind aggression though and wasn't happy I ended back so low although I feel the merits in the choice were okay. I was questioning myself though and was a bit deflated and in the end I was happy I managed to regroup, shake it off and come again.
Yes will be good to not be alone this time! Been a few times on my own but the Sky folks will be there and as we get a +1 I will bring my dad out who loves his poker. The grilfriend gets the short straw of watching our crazy dogs although she has been a few times and hates flying.
All very standard preflop and on the flop.
On the turn it appears opponent has shut down and any big bets will lose him, I also feel (wrongly) he will check behind. I bet 600 into the 6k or so pot. I know this might send alarm bells off for certain players, isn't getting proper value etc etc. I felt though that I could either be lucky and induce a reraise from certain players who think I am weak here or get some players to think I am giving them a great drawing price and am praying they hit.
On the river I bet a bit bigger hoping they have hit something, possibly with AK given the preflop betting and am just lucky they had a full house here.
Opinions welcome as always.
Only played for a little while tonight. Some OH8 DYMs and played the Mayhem freeroll for some fun on the side.
About £37 up in the DYM's and £10 in the Mayhem game.
One interesting hand I saved from a DYM (£5.50 BI I think)...
The player had been limping loads of pots and being very aggro post flop. I have a monster straight draw but no hand as of yet. He pots which I find suspect as it doesnt look like a flop even a wide ranging 2 way hand would hit hard so I call. The turn is a brick and changes nothing although it does give me a horrific low draw which 'could be good'. Opponent fires the pot again, now this is probably a fold with my stack but as the player was aggro constantly I decided to draw my line in the sand and call. The river is another brick for me but I can envisage a lot of hands that opponent has completely missed with and thought there was a fair chance he had no hand. I only have 1100 odd chips left and on the surface no fold equity, I figured if my read was correct though and I open shove the river he would have few options as his DYM game would be effectively ended and would have to fold.
I decided to go with the open shove and luckily on this occasion it worked out.
Not my best hand and probably one I should have got off at some point but due to the opponent I decided to play the pot.
Donked about in the Mayhem freeroll on the side and managed to take (I think 5 bounties but could be wrong) and built a nice stack only to run JJ into QQ for a 100k+ stack with 30 odd left. Still a free tenner is fine by me
So all in all £47 up for the short nights play.
I doubt I will be able to play much the coming week as it is the last week of uni (I finish after an exam next Monday) and I have a big essay to write for psychology by Friday. Will still try and squeeze a few DYM's and the Thursday night PLO8 league in though!
Looking forward to stopping uni next Monday as I will be hoping to up my poker volume in a big way!
Been very enjoyable playing over the holiday weekend and over £4,000 up in stuff counting the package win.
Comments on the play or x, y or z always welcome.
Thanks for reading and GL on the felt!
Wasn't really meant to be playing tonight (had some studying to do but was at uni all day and couldn't face it).
Played a couple of DYM's but the traffic was down, mainly due to Tikay being away I think and with only 1 or 2 tables at a time I got a bit bored and ended about £10 down.
Played the £5.50 PLO8 and £55 B/H and just couldnt get into them so ended on Sky about £70 down.
As I did on Sunday night I went and unwound with some $1 NLHE cash games for an hour or so and sat with $100. Left with $344 for a profit which equated to about a £100 overall profit for the night which I am happy enough with
On a side note, I planned to play the £1,100 qualifier for the WSOP main event but I am going to book flights for the £3.5k package very soon for me and my father who is going to come along for his first trip to Vegas. If I then qualify for the main event then I would have to mess about trying to change tickets (as I would need to be there a couple of days earlier) which I would do if it was just for me but don't really want to mess about with if my father is coming.
So I will leave the Main event quest for next year and hit a few other MTT's in Vegas if the $1111 buy in goes pear shaped.
Study all day tomorrow sadly but then a short session of OH8 DYM's in the evening.
Once uni winds up on Monday coming I will try and post a few interesting hands and hopefully get some discussion going
Thanks for reading
More likely a combo of CL football on the telly, & the lighter nights & (generally) fine weather.
When I play, I always insta reg the next table as soon as it spawns, as do Eon & yourself - that really helps get the games going. Folks don't like to start an empty table for some reason, but once they see a few names regged they happily join.
I deffo struggle to concentrate when only 1 or 2 games run, ideally I like 4 or 5 minimum to be on the go at the same time.
Fingers crossed the traffic remains sustainable for a while yet, if not, I'll have to find something else to play.
Yeah it would be interesting to know what the opponent had in that hand. As I said I should really have been off the hand at some stage but the way it was played his bets just screamed 'I have a big draw, go away'. The fact I missed so hard planted the seed on the river that maybe he did too and if I shove (although it didn't look like I had fold equity) it was for most of his chips.
Thanks regarding the Vegas win! It took a bit of persuading to get my dad to come, he doesn't like the heat and has no real idea what Vegas is like and, as mentioned, has never been before. He plays poker online every night though and really enjoys the game so I think (hope) he will have a blast. After a tough year with a few deaths in the family I am hoping he will enjoy the complete change of scenery.
Hope the tables are good to you Craig, thanks for following the diary and cya in a DYM soon no doubt
@ Tikay
I never considered the footy being on etc, makes sense when you mention it!
It does help autoregging for everything we are willing to play, I noticed how much that helped on another site. Myself and another reg always autoregged to get the ball rolling.
Regarding the table #'s... Yeah I find that 3 or 4 are optimal personally. I used to play between 6-9 the bulk of the time when I played full time but I find that after 4 it is easy to start to simply 'playing your hand' and miss too much of the information available at the table such as players betting habits. I started playing just 3 or 4 tables when MTTing when I started playing again a month ago and have noticed a big improvement in MTT results (mainly on other sites).
There is a tendancy to think that to make a decent amount online you need to be mass tabling with 3 monitors 'a la Shaun Deeb' and while I accept he has crushed the online scene; other players have also crushed the online scene with minimal tables. I know DJK123 who is a monster at the tables with stunning results usually just plays 4 tables.
Or maybe it is just an age thing and I cannot cope with 4 /> tables these days
Good question as in my personal opinion there are a couple of areas related to note taking which can easily be overlooked.
Against regs at the tables for PLO8 DYM's then very brief notes are fine IMO as you 'know' the players and are playing them often and I find it is often better to judge how they are playing that particular night. I do not usually take notes on regs from these games at all but will take notes on all new players I play in them. The notes on the non regs are useful as obviously when they turn up again you do not need to 'figure them out' again. Also if they are way over aggro with 'Hi only' hands for example then you know you can play your low orientated hand more aggressively with less worry about being quartered.
Regarding note taking in general... I think it is critically important to remember that while it is fine to tag someone as "this person does x,y or z and is a donk/shark"; It is critically important to remember that while some people will mechanically play very similar all the time, some will change/develop their game over time and some will play different even on a night to night basis.
For example you might have someone tagged as a donk but the last time you played them they were drunk or tilted or whatever but on this occasion they are neither drunk nor tilted and have their 'A game on'. Obviously in this case just going by notes could be costly.
Also some people you might take notes on you may not see for a while and even in the space of a couple of months may have went from being a complete novice to someone who has played many games and tried to study the game a bit.
If I use myself as an example then sometimes I will be aggro and trying to absorb all information at the table and thoroughly focussed but another night (like last night due to traffic being down) I may be a bit bored and going through the motions and not too difficult to play against and take chips from. This obviously makes note taking on me personally less effective as I won't generally do the same things session after session for a variety of reasons.
I also try to note if people always open pots with the same bet sizing or if they alter their bet sizing according to their hand strength (which is obviously a bit of a tell) or if they alter their bet sizing according to position (which is completely fine). If you have this information you can know when you are getting an insight into their hand due to their bet sizing and when it simply means they are opening with their standard range.
Hopefully something in there will be of use.
Cya at the tables soon
Good question which I will happily give my personal take on, whatever that is worth
Talk soon
Regarding the AJ...
This is a pretty loaded question as it is completely depends on the situation. Whether it is a cash game/SNG/MTT, who your opponent is, what your stack size is, your exact table position (I know you said OOP but how OOP makes a difference), which players are behind you and what their stack sizes are, your table image, previous action at the table etc etc etc...
I think you play a lot of cash games so this may be a cash game question? I will try to cover briefly for general cash/SNG and MTT situatuations. Although I have been playing more cash games elsewhere and am on a mini heater, cash games are not really my speciality and some other players who specialise in cash games may want to chime in with more precise info.
Cash Games
Again this is very general as it will depend on many of the factors outlined above so much of what I say will be correct in some situations and wrong in others. In cash games I personally like generally to avoid calling with hands I do not know where I am at in OOP; I would rather be raising a more marginal hand in position. If I was playing the AJ to a raise I would mix it up dependant on the opponent and generally to balance my range. If it was against an opponent I was giving any credit to then in many situations I would just fold (I know some might think this is -ev but I would value position that highly). If I really did not know where I was but really did want to play the hand then I would probably be inclined to 3bet to at least isolate the player and get a bit more information based on how he reacts. The 3bet might look strong and if he is opening small pairs set mining and the flop is overcards then your cbet continuing your line in the hand then you may take the pot on the flop regardless of whether you hit or not. If you elect for this option then bet sizing becomes important so you are not leaking chips.
If this was a situation with AJ where the pot had not been opened then I would be standard opening and standard cbetting almost every flop versus 1 player regardless of the flop and weighing the situation up if there is more than 1 caller or we meet resistance. I would not be getting married to the hand though with only a standard open and cbet. Unless we connect in a massive way with this hand then we should generally (although definitely not always) only be getting heavy heavy action from hands that beat us. I mean if the flop is Axx and opponent is willing to put 100 bbs in over the hand, what does he have? A set beats us, several raggier aces may have 'aces up' and we could even have been outkicked all along. There are a ton of caveats such as figuring out if opponent is drawing or you can get them off the hand. In general though I would be standard opening with AJ and proceding with caution.
MTT's
A bit like cash games this is impossible to give a 1 answer fits all reply. It is so heavily dependent on your stack size, position, opponent, image, stage of tourney, type of tourney etc etc. At the early stages some players will 3bet if facing a raise much of the time and many will flat call, I wouldn't be folding as often early with AJ in an MTT in general compared to cash games though as we will be getting such favourable implied odds but I would be proceding with caution again especially OOP. I would also tend to flat call these days firstly as I prefer to play a more small ball style where we can get a dialogue via the betting going which serves to give us more information. I would also flat early on as one way where we can get more chips from AJ is by giving opponents a little rope to bleed chips (their betting range post flop is going to be utterly massive compared to their calling range if we are 3betting/raising/leading the action). The flat call also disguises our hand strength and encourages their action although if we brick it all early then most of the time we have to be prepared to just 'go away' so as not to leak chips.
In the mid stages it really depends on all the factors outlined above even more as any action we get involved in is much more expensive in relation to our stack. Also shorties will be shoving wide, certain stacks sizes will be 4bet jamming on any 3bet we make with a wider range and our implied odds are likely to be much less favourable. So it is all about our reads and assessing the numerous variables at these stages IMO and there just isnt a 1 reply fits all reply.
Much of the above goes for the latter stages too although if we are short or the players we are playing against are short then AJ is more valuable as players will make plays with a much wider range as they get shorter in chips. Open shoving/3bet jamming etc will become more common although thoroughly dependent once again on our position, whether there are antes, what our stack size is, what our opponents calling ranges are likely to be, what stage the tourney is at in relation to payouts, how much equity we can gain/loss etc etc.
SNG's
Much of what I wrote applies for MTT's will apply here. For example just the stage of the SNG will utterly change how we play the hand as will many other factors.
Hope some of that touches the point and is useful.
Other players will disagree with bits and some will agree. We all have our own styles which makes poker so interesting
In very general terms I would say if we are deep stacked to procede with caution and not overvalue AJ. Although there are plenty situations when factors such as stack sizes are tweaked where I will be happily prepared to bet my tourney life on it or play bigger pots in certain circumstances in cash games. Having said that the last bit would apply to any hand we have nevermind AJ...
Played the Mayhem freeroll as I have played it every other night this week and played 7 or 8 OH8 DYM's.
Managed to do the clean sweep and cash in everything tonight although the freeroll was just a small cash as my AJ (the irony - see above post) ran into KK and QQ with blinds at 1k/2k with my stack at about 16k (not much I can do there really).
Only around £47 profit as the volume was low due it being a short session but it all helps
Hard studying ahead of me tonight/tomorrow but tomorrow evening I will play the FOSP OH8 league and try and defend my title from last month and also the Mayhem freeroll and a few DYM's.
Thanks for reading and GL on the felt!
thanks for that long post