Tag: Online Poker

Bring on the Tilt…Full Tilt

Nick Momrik3 Comments

Tonight I installed Full Tilt and deposited $50 just in case I feel like playing the WPBT HORSE event on Sunday. I figured I might as well check out the interface, so I signed up for a $5+0.50 SNG.

Minimum raises were the norm and it was a rather tight table for the most part. I didn’t pick up any steal hands in position, so I just waited for some monsters. My first winning hand was 43o that flopped two pair. No one called my pot bet. I couldn’t slow play it because there was a flush draw on board and I needed to make sure nobody had the odds to call. Soon after I found rockets and doubled up. Not too many hands for the next few orbits and then I get QhTh in the big blind with a limper and the small blind. The flop gives me top two pair, so when it’s min bet by the small blind I bet pot. I didn’t realize it, but this left him with 50 chips and he of course bet out on the turn, which brought another queen, filling me up. He turns over Q5o. The only cards that can help him are the two tens, which would give us a split pot. Do I even need to say what the river is? A fucking ten. The player survives to live another day. I was the chip leader at that point and I could have really used that pot, but instead I run into runner runner. Maybe I used up my bad luck though.

I take a few pots here and there without any showdowns and then with 5 players left comes this hand…a loose player min raises UTG. He’s been calling all-in bets with hands like QTo and QJo. My AsQs on the small blind is looking good, so I push in. He calls of course and flips over two tens. He actually has a hand this time but it’s a race. I’m loving the flop which brings an ace and a queen. I only needed one, but that’s fine. The turn is a blank and I bet you can’t guess the river. Yup, another 2 outer on the river beats me when that fucking ten comes again.

As I look back at this hand I didn’t give the guy a chance to fold. I should have just called his pre-flop bet and he would have had an easy fold on the flop when two overs hit. Do you agree? How would you have played the hand? This just goes to show my inexperience in tournament poker.

I didn’t mind Full Tilt’s interface and after my deposit I have $50 in bonus cash calling my name. From what I’ve seen it isn’t worth my time though. Empire should have a reload bonus coming up in a few days.

A Fresh Start

Nick Momrik5 Comments

I hadn’t played poker since the 28th and my sister is coming to visit for a few days so I figured tonight was my best chance to play some poker. I’m glad I played. After a few hours of play at the Party Poker .50/1 tables I got in 300 hands and lost 8.5 BB. It was the greatest poker I’ve played in quite some time.

You might be wondering how I can you lose and say I played my best. My VP$IP was less than 12.5% and my W$WSF was less than 17%! That’s just the cards I was getting; not many premium hands and not many flops hit my hand. I only cold called a raise pre-flop once in 300 hands. I had Ac4c and three other players had already cold called the raise so I figured I was getting some good odds if I nailed a flop. If I didn’t catch on the flop, it was an easy fold. Looking back I should have probably even folded that one.

I just wasn’t getting any quality hands or hitting any kind of flops. A week ago I would have been frustrated, giving away bets. Today I was patient. I was aggressive when I hit and my big hands paid off for the most part. There were only two hands where I lost more than 2 BB and one of them was only 2.5 BB. The other hand cost me 5.5 BB, which is about 3 more than I should have. I found AhQh in early position, so I raised it. Everyone folded around to a tight player on the button who re-raised me. I called. The flop came queen high so I bet my top pair top kicker and was raised. I told myself he had rockets or cowboys, but I re-raised and then the pot was capped. I knew I was beat, but I check-called the turn and river anyways. The player showed KhKc for a big surprise. In the future I’d like to be able to fold after the flop raise. I fell in love with my hand even though I called his hand. Bad play.

I reviewed my 10 biggest losing hands (most were in the 1-2 BB range) and I only made that one mistake I just went over. After looking over my 10 biggest winning hands I couldn’t see any place where I could have extracted another bet out of my opponent. I’d say that’s a pretty good day at the tables, even if it was a losing day.

How do I know all of this? Well, when you combine the information gathered by Poker Tracker with the great advice in the Poker Tracker Guide, you have an easy and effective way to review your online poker play. I wish I had this a few months ago when my game went down the shitter.

I know I’m only 300 hands in to my new start, but with the new auto rate rules from the guide book, Poker Tracker has me tagged as a Good Player (Tight Aggressive Solid). That must mean I’m doing something right so far. Let’s hope it continues and the cards improve. If so, my bankroll will quickly build back up and I’ll be sitting at the $1/2 tables again in no time.

Review: Killer Poker Online

Nick Momrik3 Comments

Killer Poker Online: Crushing the Internet GameI’ve read some columns by John Vorhaus online and enjoyed what I read. His book, Killer Poker Online: Crushing the Internet Game, is a completely different story. The book is a waste of time and money. I’m glad a friend bought the book for me or I would have been very disappointed in the read.

I read the book expecting to get some new insights into online poker. I was looking for strategy and examples of online play. In the first paragraph of the Introduction, Vorhaus writes:

…I want to put forth the startling idea that, hey, maybe Internet poker’s not such a hot idea…

What? Is this really in a book about crushing the Internet game? Instead of reading about poker strategy, the book taught me the basics of how online poker works. Chapter 2 is titled “The Mechanics of the Thing” and explains the computer recommendations for running a poker client, what a screen name is, what the lobby is, play money tables, hand history logs, setting your options and various other things.

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Feeling Comfortable Again

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I’m starting to feel comfortable again at the tables. Earlier today I played for a few hours on Party again, but with much better results. I’m feeling good playing 4 tables of $1/2 6-max, so I think I’m going to stick to it for awhile.

I eliminated the tilt factor completely today. Sure, I took my share of bad beats, but I didn’t let it affect my game. Guess what? I came out ahead! Imagine that. For most of the session I was up a little at a table or two and down at the other tables. For the most part, I was down 25-30 BB for the majority of the time I played. Near the end of my session I was able to get some hands to hold up and ended up winning back what I had lost yesterday and a little more. I finished up about 33 BB to the good.

-EV stopped by my table for a bit and was getting better cards than I was at the time. After winning about 10 BB (I think), he took off for what he said was juicy $5/10 table. It was nice to chat it up for a bit with a fellow blogger.

I don’t think I’ll be playing anymore today, so it’s nice to finally have a winning day.

Back at Party

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With Party‘s redeposit bonus I couldn’t resist switching back over from UB. After making my deposit the bonus didn’t show up in my account, so I had to contact customer support this morning. I’m happy to say they fixed the problem in a few minutes. I’m going back to the $1/2 6-max tables at Party, with 4 up at a time. The pace of play is slower than at UB, so it’s much easier to keep up with multiple short-handed tables.

After getting the bonus funds I played for a few hours this morning and broke even at the tables. During that time, I cleared almost 1/3 of the 1400 raked hands that I needed. My main focus was to play a solid game and not let any bad beats get to me. I let a couple of bets slip away, but overall I did pretty well.

I ran some errands during the day and jumped back on for a few hours tonight. Again, my play was solid for the most part. I had a some bluffs at the wrong time, but not too many. I was 4-tabling again and one thing I’ve noticed is that the rate at which I would get beat by a backdoor draw or a runner runner seems so much higher because I’m playing to many tables at once. The beats did get to me a couple of times, but for the most part I kept it under control. I finished down about $50 for the day, but cleared the entire $200 bonus, so overall it was a +$150 day.

Looking through my spreadsheet and Poker Tracker, I noticed that I haven’t had a winning day at the ring games since the 11th. That’s not really a good indicator of anything because I took an entire week off from poker. I felt pretty good about my play today. It was much better than it had been over the past couple of weeks. Slowly but surely I’ll get my game back and build the bankroll up too. Another thing I noticed in Poker Tracker was that I’m only $1.14 ahead for online ring games! How does that happen when I have a bankroll of over $2100? One big tournament win and bonus funds, that’s how.

Back to the Grind

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Last night after work I decided to step back into the ring. I had some cash left in my UB account so I sat down at two $1/2 6-max tables. It was more of the same. Suckouts everywhere. They are causing me to go on tilt. I see tilt coming, but it’s too late. This […]

Ready To Quit

Nick Momrik9 Comments

I’m seriously ready to quit. That’s how bad it’s going. If I wasn’t witness to the string of bad beats I’m going through I wouldn’t have believed it was possible. Seriously…it’s that bad. I’ve bled off 1/3 of my bankroll in a week. No lie. My opponents gut shot straight draws are hitting much more often than my flush draws. Go figure. I really hate complaining, but I’m going to lose my mind. I’ve checked my stats with Poker Tracker and I’m still playing tight. I’m betting my big hands. It’s not like it’s rocket science at these low limits.

I’m not even going to go into details by posting any hand histories, because it would turn into a novel. Besides, who wants to read them anyways. It just goes to prove…the fish aren’t just playing at Party Poker. They are in full force at UB (sign up with “mtdewvirus” as your referrer) and they are sucking out on me in record fashion.

Maybe I should come up with a new hobby. But what hobby out there allows you to make money. Or lose it I should say. 1/3 of the bankroll in a week. Think about that. That’s over 200 BB at $2/4. I wish I could have a week where I came out ahead that much. I’ll need a couple of those just to recover.

What really hurts is the fact that it’s not only the bad beats that are killing my bankroll. I can’t hit a huge draw to save my life. Flush draws are out the window. The same with open-ended straight draws. What about FD + OESD? Yeah right. Or FD + gut shot straight draw? Do I even need to answer?

Does anyone know any prayers to the poker gods? Maybe a rain dance?

Is It Rigged?

Nick Momrik66 Comments

I haven’t posted since Tuesday, so I thought I’d give a quick update of how it has been going at the tables. In one word…shitty! The bad beats are coming in from all directions. I flop 2 pair and someone calls me down going runner runner for a bigger two pair. I flop the nut straight and someone hits a 3 outter on the river for a bigger straight. I flop a full house with the hammer and someone spikes an ace on the river with his A7 for a bigger full house. I flop trips and someone calls me down hitting a 2 outter on the river for a full house. These are just a couple of examples. The other day in a span of 10 minutes I got beat on the turn or river 5 times by someone with 5 outs or less.

It’s simply impossible to come out ahead when the other players are pulling cards out of their ass like this. It’s at times like this when it really makes you wonder if online poker is rigged. I know it’s now, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit the thoughts enter my head once in awhile. I can’t complain about the horrible players I guess, but it would be nice if my monsters would hold up to those drawing dead (2-4 outs) once in awhile. It’s extremely hard to recover from losing a 20 BB pot that you were the clear favorite in. Especially when it happens more than once.

Sorry about the bad beat whining, but I needed to get it out of my system somehow. Screaming at my monitor hasn’t seemed to help at all.

Say NO to Tourneys

Nick Momrik1 Comment

That’s my new slogan. At least for the next two months. Tournaments are definitely -EV for me at this point. If I’m going to reach my goal, I can’t keep giving my money away in tournaments. I was “suckered” into another one last night. A $30+3 on UB with $5,000 guaranteed. As I logged into my account and looked over the tables I noticed this tournament had 109 people and only 5 minutes left to register. Top 20 places were paying and unless 167 people entered, UB was going to be adding a decent amount of cash to the prize pool to reach that five grand. For some reason I thought UB cut off registration 5 minutes before the start of a tournament so I signed up. Well, 71 other people must have been thinking the same thing. When the tournament started there were 181 people and UB didn’t have to put up any dough. What at first looked like a 1 out of 5 people win money deal turned out to be no deal.

For the first three levels I saw exactly 0 hands out of the blinds. All I could find were unsuited low cards or marginal cards out of position. I think I managed to win one hand when I made what I thought was a great move with my big slick after the flop only to be called by another big slick and split the pot. As always seems the case, I ended up going in on a draw and lost. Out in 81st place. When will I get it through my head not to put all of my chips on the line for a draw? I do it over and over and over again in tournaments and it just doesn’t pay off. I always bluff at the wrong times too. I guess a draw is a semi-bluff, so no difference there. So the tournament set me back $33 or about 8 BB at my regular $2/4 game. Nothing huge, but it slowly eats away at the bankroll.

That’s it though. No more. I’m vowing to not play another online tournament (except WPBT events of course) until after the goal period is over and I can study some tournament strategy. I like tourneys and no-limit, but I suck at it. I know I suck, but I’m still playing and giving my money away.

I also played some of the $2/4 6-max games last night and lost about 30 BB. It’s always the same thing when I lose. I don’t want to show fear, so I call down a raiser or a check-raiser with my 2nd best hand and lose precious bets. Call it the “I don’t want to be bluffed syndrome.” Sometimes I feel like an incompetent plumber. I know the faucet is leaking and I know how to fix it, but I just sit there with my ass crack hanging out. Drip…drip…drip…

Root of all Evil

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I drove back to Saginaw today and just pulled in about an hour ago. I don’t remember seeing so much fog in an afternoon and I had it the whole trip. At least I didn’t hit any animals like I did on the trip up north. I hit a porcupine (pictures) and will have to get my frong bumper ever “rigged up” or replaced. Just what I needed less than 2 months before the lease is up on the vehicle. So we’re talking at least $300. Nothing I can do about it, so it doesn’t pay to go on tilt.

I didn’t think I’d get in any online poker over the weekend, but I got bored and installed Empire Poker on Mom’s computer so that I could work on the 1050 raked hands I needed to clear for their recent bonus. Playing $1/2 6-max it took me 1,600 hands to clear the $150 bonus. In addition to clearing the bonus, I came out 40 BB ahead for an average of 2.5 BB/100 hands. It was a good weekend for the bankroll. If not for a couple of 2-out suckouts in a row, it would have been much much nicer though. That’s poker.

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