Rambling reads..

The s-man was over again last night for more high octane,adrenaline fueled.....tea drinking.We also watched Russia scud Sweden 2-0 to set up a mouth watering quarter final with the Dutch.When he left just after 11-ish I headed online to play some poker.I ended up only playing a couple of games with Juice, the 42 yr old half drunken birthday boy.I took 2nd in one $11,18 player turb and crashed out the other one.

I'm not sure the following will be much use as it's not really anything new but I did mention yesterday that I'd written a post on how to pick up reads online so here it is,written after a few smokes and whilst
two tabling.It's more for sngs, but some of it may apply to cash games.

Now I've made my excuses here goes...

From the moment you sit down to play reads can be picked up.If the site shows avatars and people choose to show online poker training/forum logos ( with obvious exception of Intellipoker!) that would indicate the player at least gives some thought to the game away from the tables.Where are they from and what time is it where they? Are they up late,possibly stuck ( down and trying to pull losses back) drunk etc?

Gameplay:Do they limp from early position at the start of the game as this is usually the sign of a weak player.Any player ( apart from me and Rosie!) can get a rush of cards ,but even just playing a lot of pots early on is often the sign of a poor player.

What do they showdown when they do this? Do they complete the small blind often if the pot is unraised? Folding everytime in that spot even when being offered good pot odds ( ie 25 chips to call into a 225 pot due to limpers) is usually the sign of a tight/multi-tabling player.When folded to them in the sb do they seem to be folding most hands or blind stealing when it's too early in the game to really matter?

If they do complete the small blind ,do they check down a losing hand when they miss the board? ( eg you have J2 and they have Q4 on an A59K2 Board)They're usually going to have a tight raising and calling range if they do check it down there.

I almost always muck my hand if the villains don't pay to see.The only exception is when I want to let the big blind know I'm only "stealing" because I have a genuine hand.( Thus allowing my tight image to remain and meaning I can steal later more easily) Players who are ego driven and always show bluffs or show when they think they've outplayed someone are usually fish too.

If you're only playing one/two tables Sharkscope can be very useful.As indicated previously,Losers are generally too loose early and winners play a tight game at that stage.In practice this means that loosers will be raising and calling with a much wider range of hands than winners.

I also note players I spot limping or min raising with AA/KK/QQ for future reference.I've learned that although once in a while I'll get caught out by that move,generally peoples bet sizes are an honest reflection of the hand they have.( certainly at $33 and under) Some players will trap and get tricky but they are rare at low levels.If their c-bet is small ,they've usually missed etc.

I also reverse that and if for example I have AK,raise preflop and get a couple of callers then I'll try and make my c-bet tell the "honest" story of what I want them to think I hold.If it's a low ragged rainbow flop then a monster hand probably wouldn't bet the full pot as there's no danger and I don't want to scare the villain away.I'd try and bet enough with my AK ( obviously I want to take it there and then with Ace high on a ragged low board) to make it seem that I had Aces and wanted action.If it's a slightly drawy board ( eg flush draw out) I'll bet more to make it look as if I'm trying to defend my monster from being outdrawn.( pot size or sometimes over)

Ok,as I've gone a bit off the topic of reads I think I'll end this post before it gets any more disjointed.

Hopefully I'll have some dang exciting news for UK/Euro bloggers to post about soon....

Mon Update

I was wary of hitting the tables again yesterday and after crashing out of two $16's when my premium pairs were busted by Ace rag, I still wasn't feeling much love for the game.I scraped 4th place ( top four pay from eighteen players) in my last game and began playing the Bloggerment later with very little confidence that my luck would change.I was right!

Congrats to Riggstad who took the title back to the USA after romping to victory.Next week though,it's coming home!Thanks to all 24 players who showed up.

I didn't play many hands in the game.I did repop a raise and got all in with AK v AJ and A5.I wasn't exactly surprised that the A5 flopped two pair.I went out 9th when I shoved 88 into KK.

I played a $6 with Juice ( cheers for the pep talk mate) later and this time my KK was busted by 22 ( all in preflop).I was going to fire up three or four $16 games, however I decided to try and just focus really hard on a couple instead.

Thankfully I managed a win and a 3rd place to end my evening.I was still a bit annoyed at the 3rd place as it was another suckout which sent me out, although after the weekend I've had at the tables, I was just quite relieved to finish with two in the money finishes.

I still wish I hadn't felt so bad yesterday.I have other things on my mind too, but I shouldn't let poker affect my general mood as much as it seems to.Poker is a game where emotion needs to be left behind and cannot be results based only.Looking back over my nasty weekend of variance I wonder if perhaps I was seeking out too many races and all ins at times.( looking to confirm to myself just how badly I was running)

Anyway back later in the week...

Knock knock + stats Ytd

The title is because ( I made up with my Mum at the weekend) my parents have offered to buy me a new front door for Xmas! What a great idea!

Congrats to Spid for taking down the Bloggerment for the second time.I finished a lowly 12th after overplaying 66 and then running A8 into Hammerheids AJ.

I mentioned overplaying the sixes and both Cogs and Rosie ( both players I respect) have mentioned my habit of overbetting recently.I think it comes from the fact I usually only play turbos and not standard speed games.I have tried to tone down my preflop raise sizes a little but my “bet big or go home” philosophy has served me well and I’m not sure I even want to adjust my strategy too much.

I hit up a couple of $16 turbos afterwards and had my Aces scudded by KJ only a few hands into the first one.Yes the fish called off his whole stack without hesitating with KJ.A king on the flop and Jack on the river left me shaking my head at my poor luck.The second game I played ended with yet another nasty one and I reflected that at least I’ve played enough turbos now to not get too hacked off.

Partys cash tables were calling and I’m pleased to say I won $75 during a very short $100 nl 6 max session thanks to fish who called with crap.I only won two big hands for my profit.In the first one my AK was good on a King high board and for the second I called a raise from a tilty shortstacked moron with A10.We saw an Ace high flop and I checked to the raiser,awaiting his enevitable all in bet ( he had k6 sooted and had missed board totally) and he didn’t let me down.

I read an interesting article on tilt recently which concluded that winners tend to sit on gains and losers chase losses.Despite the impression probably given by this blog I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I don’t play more often.Yesterday I was free all day but my first game was the Bloggerment at 9pm.Most evenings I don’t start playing until later either and I wonder if the desire to sit on my winnings ( lowly as they are) has something to do with it.The other factor is that I usually feel exhausted from work between 7-10pm and it’s only usually after 10pm when I get my second wind and feel like I could stay up all night.

The article also mentioned that bad beats lead to tilt because when people see that they are for example, 80% favourite when their money goes in on a hand ,they mentally bank the winnings, which leads to a major shock to the system when they lose to that nasty 2 outer.Perhaps I reasoned , I deal with beats quite well most of the time because I’m an inherently cynical pessimist who doesn’t mentally bank the pot when I’m a big favourite, because I’m just waiting on the “enevitable” bad beat coming!

Either that or the repetitive nature of the beats has numbed me slightly to them.I’m not claiming I’m immune and several in a row can still awaken my tilt monster but generally I reckon I cope reasonably well.

Ok, here are my updated end of the month stats.I now have only one month to go before the end of my 3rd year of real money online poker and the last time I checked on June 7th I'd made $1599 in profit since Oct 31st '06.The overall total was $4254.Profit since June 7th is $1967.Overall profit this year so far is $3566.I made aprox $4k per year in my first two years and after a poor start to this year it looks like I'll make about the same again.

Full Tilt $1530, Party $1625,Pokerroom $440 ,Pokerstars $685,Ladbrokes $1941.Total $6221. ( + $414 since 20th Sept).This also excludes my Bet 365 "take a shot" roll.