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Sets Are Best - CraigSG1 Diary. UPDATE
CraigSG1
Member Posts: 1,826
Hi all.
Lets give this a go, I hope to make this interesting and learn a few things and maybe help a little too.
Im 43, from Hull and a long time Sky Poker player. The name of this comes from the fact that I have a set of twin daughters aged two who are my life. They had a pretty hard start being over seven weeks premature but have out done all expectations to be the strong force of natures they are.
Ive been a very successful small stakes player, I mainly stay small because of the time I get to play and my bankroll - I keep it to around £150 normally and when it gets to around £300+ I take it out. I play normally between £2-£5 MTTs and earn myself some nice pocket money and not to tilt my BR off if my anxiety gets the better of me which I have done in the past. Ive gotten a lot better and thanks to some nice results in the past few months my BR is around £900. I planned to grow it to use it to buy a new phone this year and not feel guilty about it coming out of any other money we have. Ive gotten to my goal six months ahead of schedule which im very happy about.
I would consider myself very accomplished at these stakes and how they operate so if any one would like some advice I would be happy to help. And I plan on posting a few hands too, anything interesting.
Ill try and keep it positive, no bad beat stories.
So here goes and go well!
Lets give this a go, I hope to make this interesting and learn a few things and maybe help a little too.
Im 43, from Hull and a long time Sky Poker player. The name of this comes from the fact that I have a set of twin daughters aged two who are my life. They had a pretty hard start being over seven weeks premature but have out done all expectations to be the strong force of natures they are.
Ive been a very successful small stakes player, I mainly stay small because of the time I get to play and my bankroll - I keep it to around £150 normally and when it gets to around £300+ I take it out. I play normally between £2-£5 MTTs and earn myself some nice pocket money and not to tilt my BR off if my anxiety gets the better of me which I have done in the past. Ive gotten a lot better and thanks to some nice results in the past few months my BR is around £900. I planned to grow it to use it to buy a new phone this year and not feel guilty about it coming out of any other money we have. Ive gotten to my goal six months ahead of schedule which im very happy about.
I would consider myself very accomplished at these stakes and how they operate so if any one would like some advice I would be happy to help. And I plan on posting a few hands too, anything interesting.
Ill try and keep it positive, no bad beat stories.
So here goes and go well!
Comments
So, I squeezed a £2.50 profit out of the night when I played a couple of SnG's. A £3.30 Six max which I won and a £2.20 DYM which I cashed in. That rescued my bricks in the £2.20 and £5.50 BHs.
Couldn't get much going and ran into hands. Standard stuff, couple of mistakes but nothing major. My SnG's played ok but did get very lucky in my DYM when with AK I ran into KK and the flop came K high. I hit running cards for a straight so you have to acknowledge your bad beats when your on the right side.
Now that's a wonderfully clever thread title.
What are the girl's names?
Queenshark got annoyed but to me its just standard.
Im in such a powerful position with such a dominated stack on the bubble and can just push freely. Now the interesting bit is should Queen call with K10s. Further info is he is still 2nd with more chips than Nash. And that for me is the key.
I would sigh fold this hand, I would only call if I was Nash in the BB. I would like to know if im wrong on this but I would rather push with 72 in this situation because the power of getting the chips in first is huge. You can fold out all sort of better hands. For example, you could have 75s and push and fold out so so many hands, even a lot of Kh and if your called you still have good equity.
So you need to be hyper aware as your chips dwindle to look for these spots as best you can. Try and make sure you know your opponents as some will just call whatever. Always try to be the pusher than the caller. Yes you will get called and think you look like an idiot but you will still win at times and the bonus is you could maybe use that perception later and get more value for your good hands.
I will always scan chip stacks and make some decisions already before my hand is dealt or the action comes to me. For example I may look at a couple of players and decide if its folded to me im pushing no matter my hand or decide which range of hands I am going to squeeze with or 3b all in etc. Again, you may get it wrong but make sure your decision process is in place.
Try and make sure you know your opponents as some will just call whatever
bonus is you could maybe use that perception later and get more value for your good hands.
Again, you may get it wrong but make sure your decision process is in place.
I agree with @benc , those are some very good pointers. Although I am by no means a great player or know much poker theory, those tips you posted are quite easy to implement for any player, but the difficult part can sometimes be remembering to do them during play.
Hopefully see you on some tables in the coming weeks. Good luck until then
At that point its almost like they just revert to desperation to recover control and take actions that only ever make things worse.
When I started out as a doorman a lifetime ago one of the first pieces of advice I was given was, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth".
Naturally I enquired about coping mechanisms and was told "Just make sure your plan includes being punched in the mouth".
Good advice for the job, life and poker.
Keep posting.
thedazzman - Thank you, a good thing to do is write some pointers or things that you need to remember on a bit of paper and read them before every session. Not too many, just things that you find you are doing wrong and that should install bette habits. You can then change these notes as you go.
Theedge949 - yes, the same expression as no plan survives contact with the enemy. As the tourney progresses your decisions start to get easier. You have less BBs and the more you play the faster you can notice certain scenarios. Its all about trying to make those decisions easier.
For example your around 10-15bb and your looking for spots to get your chips in. Its then all about looking where you are, your stack and others and then assigning a range your happy to go with. The closer to the blinds you are that range can increase.
So, lets say you have A10 on the button with 10bbs. Your thinking, yep - happy to go with this. Don't then switch off! If someone who is playing tighter limps or raises you need to reevaluate. If there is an open jam before you or a 3b all in you can probably just bin your hand.
Same goes the other way, you have Q5s on the button. Your probably thinking, sigh - ill fold this. Again, dont switch off! If it folds to you or someone who limps every hand limps you can profitably jam here. If your called that's fine, your never dead and add that to the times you get folds its just a good profitable move.
Ill admit I didn't play my best, tried a new strategy which I felt worked fairly well. I wont do this all the time but I will implement it for a while now and then to get a better picture how its working. But I was mainly a little distracted watching the cricket.
Normally im watching something poker related. I wont be too hard on myself, I just ran into some hands and a few new people who have now gone on my Don't Bluff list and Value bet to death list.
Sorry, I'm just a daft kid at heart.
I cashed for £10 in the free roll but twice suffered beats at the end to scupper a deep run. Admittedly it is very very **** shoot with huge blinds and when chip leader running into AA didn't help. Still, i'll take it.
Couldn't really get going in the £5BH, got a head prize but then kept running my very good hands against some very loose callers who just kept hitting. Then I again ran into AA to leave me on life support and then dead two hands later.
I made a great run to the FT in the £2BH. It started very slow and then half way won a big pot with AK three way. I played very well and picked off a few more head prizes and took the chip lead near the bubble. I couldn't use my stack too much as I had some very loose callers or people just open jamming.
That was a trend that continued on the FT. I was chip leader for a long time but didn't get anything for a while and two others got very close to me. But what Madde it very hard was just three of my four opponents just open jammed a lot. I stayed patient and had to let a few good hands go like K10s, 44, A9s.
Then disaster 5 handed, I lost a flip 88 v A10 and then the same guy beat me again in another race to bust me. And just like that out.
It was just very hard to play when your opponents are just relying on luck and I can't use my edge at all. I just had to wait for hands and they didn't come, and when they did I lost a flip. Im thinking back over some folds but Im happy with them. Yes I maybe ahead but im giving up my biggest edge by gambling. I win the flip and I have a clear chip lead and normally that gets me to HU and from there a better than even chance of winning.
Next time!
I think it was BvB. Pretty standard flip at that point (I did run extremely well tonight). and from what I remember from that table, you played well.
Stick at it, and when those flips go in your favour, you'll make plenty of FTs and deep runs.
Enjoying the diary so far. Good luck in your next round of games.
P.S. nice call vs my audacious bluff with pocket 2s in that £2.20 BH
And yes it was you, and don't worry. Like you said, totally standard. You did seem to be all in at me a lot and I had to fold a few hands like 33,55, Kjs and A9s.
Well done on winning. Great feeling isn't it?!
Hi Ash - It was ok, just one of those where a couple of cards means a much much better session! And thanks, that's what you get for going with your gut I guess. Like I said at the time the bet didn't make sense. It felt like the right call, I wouldn't have minded had I been wrong.
Tonight I had a small run in the £2BH, took a head but couldn't get going. Also tried the £2 rebuy as its an early night tonight. At work at 7 and need to fit my weekly 10k run in before hand. Im also a gym goer but with early starts I haven't been this week.
The rebuy lasted exactly one hand. I had KK with a diamond on a Jh all diamond flop. Got it in and the guy had top set! I know its a rebuy but for me this rebuy doesn't warrant a lot of rebuys because of the payouts. I know many disagree but I have a decent record in this just buying in once and then always having the add on. I think long term because if you say rebuy twice and add on that's almost £10 each time you play. And you make the money just 1 in 5 say so that's £50. You then need to finish top three to start making a profit.
Anyway, I once again went deep in the FR. Played very well and cashed for £10. But once again it could have been so much better, I first had 1010 all in 3 way v AQ and KJ - the short stack won and I managed to make most ion my stack back. I then got QQ and lost v A5o to a four flush for a small loss. I then got 99 and again got it all in against the same players from my 1010 hand - this time AJ v AK and it was a chip lead pot and a big one at that but a river K knocked me out!
These are the small margins on what an MTT win hangs.
Another close call again.
So, here's my thoughts. Standard raise and call by us and a good flop for me obviously. I have the range advantage (meaning I have the stronger hands in my range to yours) so I can do pretty much anything here. I will sometimes bet and sometimes check. This balances my range so that if I have missed I can check and my opponent doesn't have free range to always bet and bluff me off. I could have a pp that doesn't like the A for example so checking my good hands helps me control pots if that's the case.
The turn is fairly innocuous and I decide to make a small bet, I definitely think I have the best hand and im trying to get a 9 or a pp or even some face cards to call. Now Ash decides to raise which is fine. That may get my KQs etc to fold but im never folding any A or decent PP or even FD. Its an easy call for me, no need to raise because im only ever getting called or raised again by better.
The river is a scare card but for some reason the speed of your bets (turn and river) just told me you didn't have me beat. Also the size.
Now for me, against good players. And by good I mean those that think about the hand, this is a perfect card for an over bet. Especially had you sized your turn raise bigger. Because had you had 88s or 99s or A3s and had boated up your not getting calls from my big pairs but you are targeting those good Aces in my range or your hoping ive made a flush. Because had you had those boated hands you would be making it a lot bigger. Or you should be anyway. That way you can now add bluffs if you think you know the range of hands your opponent has. Of corse those players that are never folding any top pair never mind a good one bluffing just isn't an option.
I hope people got all that, its like I said before. Its all about evaluating your opponents and playing accordingly.