Ace from Space,King from....

I warmed up last night by playing some 6 max hyper turbo's whilst watching The Big Game and other poker I had recorded during the week.

Around 10pm I fired up the tournament lobby,applied the turbo/hyper turbo filter and registered for 8 games ranging from a $5 turbo to a $50 hyper mtt.

As I crashed out of one after another it crossed my mind that if I want to play Mtt's then I'd better get used to the variance.If I'm buying in for aprox $200 per session it probably wont be long before I go ten sessions without a cash and I'd guess that would be a fairly standard run.Maybe that kind of inevitable run when it happens will send me scurrying back to Sngs but for now I'm loving the blood pumping world of turbo/hyper Mtt donkaments.

Even as I was losing flips etc and crashing out I was having a great time trying to read my opponents ranges and making moves to exploit their weak spots.So much so that even when I was only playing 3-4 tables I switched the tv off and focussed on only the poker.I was also well aware of making mistakes myself and when it comes to Mtt's I'm still trying things out to see what works and what doesn't much of the time.

Specific hands from last night are a blur.I do remember getting my money in with AQ v KK for the world in one game and ( Tony G style) thinking "there's the Ace from f*ckin space" when I hit my Ace on the flop.It may not rhyme but I also recall thinking just a second later, "And there's the King from "FFS,why can't I just suckout one f*ckin time instead of being two outered the river".

After resigning myself to a $200 losing session I made a couple of small cashes, one of which was a frustrating 30th place from 2500 runners in a top heavy $15 game for a $58 payout.

After that exit I was left playing only a $9.90 $5k Gtd game with 837 runners where only making the final table paid.Adjusting strategy for that one was interesting as I don't think I've ever played an Mtt with such a top heavy payout structure.

Anyway I did make the final table and with four left I shoved A5 into other shortish stack and he snap called

with Aks and I didn't get any help from the board.What a croc! Nice to cash for $753 though and get off to a good start to the month but really I'm just happy to look at those winnings as fuel to play yet more Mtt's and hopefully become a better player at them.

Staying Calm and Carrying On...

After losing about $100 on Friday night at the felt I was around $200 down on my end of December Stars bankroll figure and opted to get away from the hypers and play a night of turbo/hyper Mtt's.I watched "Knocked Up" as I played and could have made my own version of the movie called "Knocked Out" as I couldn't seem to win a hand and was getting screwed on the river more times than Tarka the otter wearing his new aftershave.

I suppose it would make for a more interesting blog post if I wrote about how gutted I was to be nearly $500 down for the month and how I had to try and dig deep to get back on track but in truth it just didn't play out that way.I've played thousands of hyper sng's and a bad run of 9 Mtt's didn't dent my confidence at all.Besides I'm well aware that I can't expect to cash everytime I play a Mtt session.

Anyway after the Mtt's were over I hit the hyper sng's,starting with some $7's and moving on to the $30's.I was only four tabling the $30's as they're still new to me ( only 200 played) and after buying in for the first four I realised if I didn't cash I would be over $600 in the hole for the month.That wasn't a nice prospect but I was really quite calm about it and kept telling myself that it's only possible to control my play and not the cards.

I played 32 hyper sng's before hitting the sack just after 3am and managed to go on a wee run in the last couple of sets, winning four in a row to leave me down just over $100 for the month.I'll never know, but even without that boost I still think I'd have slept like a baby last night as I knew I was playing well enough and that nasty runs happen all the time.

Back soon...

Dudleys Philosophical Musings

Maybe you had to be there, but Dudley was over last night for a fine beers/smoke/poker/ session and while he was here he asked a question I'd never even considered before and which made me look again at life and my approach to it.As he supped his beer and stroked his beard * Dudley asked not why we are all here,what life is all about or how to find true happiness.No,Dudley ( and he got quite heated about it) demanded know "Just what exactly do spotty dogs do anyway?".Answers on a postcard...

He must have brought some run good with him as I played around 60 hyper turbos and came out ahead and I even managed to get old Duds to load a few up and he finished in profit for the evening too.He also played a few NL08 games and although I tried to follow the action I still can't quite get my head round this having the best low card hand shennanigans.Watching one player finish a hand with a straight flush and only splitting the pot just didn't seem right!

We were having such a good time relieving the fish of their money it was almost 4am by the time we got a taxi organised for Dudley.I called it for him and booked it under the name Dudley, a name given to him by Rosie a few years ago.I'm not even sure I rememeber what his real name is!

Dudley Do-Right is his full moniker and I think it was chosen because he used to leave anon comments on my blog and sign off as Dd and not because he's handsome,brave and daring like the Canadian cartoon Mountie with the same name.
He certainly looked pleased that he was going to have to confirm that name to the driver before he got in the taxi.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

* fictional beard added for intellectual gravitas.

Plugging Leaks

I've only read a few chapters of Jared Tendler's book and it's helping my poker game already.I've got a bit lazy when it comes to improving my game and I tend to just jump on and play most weekends without reviewing previous sessions or giving much thought to any leaks I have.

I've written here before that I don't tilt much and that means I don't do the common stuff like stepping up levels to chase losses or just spewing off chips with silly calls and shoves.That's not to say I don't get frustrated.I played 75 six max hyper turbos last night and many of the repeated bad beats seemed almost surreal at times.I was actually quite pleased I only lost $69 after taking a real battering for most of the night.

Anyway this post is about leaks and the first one I have is related to how I stop myself from going on full on monkey spew mode when running badly.My technique in turbo/hyper turbo games is to tighten up and go back to my basic game for a few hands/table orbits until that sick bad beat feeling passes and then I open up my game again.I've now realised that this may seem effective and may save me spewing off my stack, but it is in effect a form of tilt in it's own right. Tightening up too much and getting even marginal push/fold decisions wrong will be costing me money.

The other leak I've identified when playing six tables of 6 max hyper turbos is that the action is so fast that I tend to just go all in or fold.Now although against better players this would mean my ranges are more balanced and it would be harder to put me on a hand,$7 players are only really focussed on their own cards and most wouldn't notice me trying to get more value by min raising stronger hands and shoving weaker ones. ( for example)

I mentioned playing 75 games last night.I only started six tabling towards the end of my play and I went to bed wondering how much I could make over a 7 hour day if I played 24 per hour.From reading the Two Plus Two forum today I think the answer is not as much as I thought! I've currently got a 5% roi over 832 six max hypers but I would need a sample of many thousands for it to be truly meaningful.Apparently most winning players make more from rakeback ( player points on Stars and the VIP bonus system)than they do from the games.

I also now realise that with 150-250 buy-ins recommended to be able to comfortably deal with the crazy hyper turbo swings,I really would be just taking a shot if I put aside $900 to take a 30 buy-in shot at the $30 level.I may do it anyway just for kicks and give myself a 10 buy-in stop loss limit to keep me within my gulp limit over any given session.

Ok,that's more than enough for a quick post on leaks.Back soon...

Hypers and Hotkeys

I played nearly 160,6 max $7 hyper turbo sng's over the weekend and still feel like I was in lazy mode as I was only four tabling most of the time and took regular breaks to roll up/watch football.Thanks to reading James Atkins blog I discovered that Pokerstars now has programmable hotkeys and they're quite easy to set up.

The only problem I have is that the hotkeys don't work when I have Pokertracker running.They are only in beta mode so hopefully the compatibility problem is one that will be resolved as life at the virtual felt is a lot easier when I just have to hit one button to fold and one to shove all in.

The main edge for any winning sng player comes around the payout bubble and I like the fact that the 6 max format means more bubble play than standard 9 player games.The players at the $7 level are generally terrible and are quite easy to run over at that stage of the game too. I think the edge gained there helps balance out the edge lost by the blinds increasing so fast and only having 500 starting chips.

I mentioned only playing four tables due to laziness and other distractions, however there is one other major reason for not playing at least six tables and for taking small breaks inbetween each set of games and that's tilt control.I'm fairly untiltable when it comes to normal turbo sngs, but I did notice when continuously playing six games that a few bad sets can cause me to start making bad pushes/calls.I'm still fairly new to hyper turbos and maybe I just need to get used to even faster swings than I see in my usual turbo games.

Tilt control and the ridiculous leap in buy in from $7 to $30 at the hyper turbos are the main reasons I've not been tempted to move up.Some $15 hypers would be nice Pokerstars!

Back soon...