Keeping the record straight

The rain finally stopped in New Zealand today, so I've been out doing a bit of sightseeing. Went to Auckland's Sky City casino last night and played some poker. They have a nice enough poker room, but the rake is a bit high. I played NL200, the game was as soft as a sponge, but luck was not on my side. There were about 6 people to every flop even after a raise, but I didn't catch any cards. They have a weekly tournament each Sunday, so I might give that a go. I'm working while I'm in New Zealand so don't have a lot of time for poker, but I'm going to try and play about 3 hours each morning before work. I played a bit of NL100 on Pokerstars this morning and was up about $100.

Today's Topic: Keeping accurate records.

Anyone who wants to take poker seriously needs to keep accurate records. Poker is a game with such large variance that it is hard to gauge your ability without carefully tracking your performance. A lot of losing players choose not to keep record because they don't like to amid to themselves that they are losing. Everyone is a losing player to start with, but to become a winning player you need to track your performance to see what parts of your game you need to improve most, and see what games you are winning and losing at.

The tools I recommend to track your poker performance are:

• Small diary: Especially if you play a mixture of live and online games a diary is essential. It is the easiest way to keep accurate records on a day to day basis. This information can then be entered in to a database or spreadsheet later on. The details I keep in my diary are the amount of money I had on the poker site at the start and finish of the session, the start and finish time of the session, and the site or venue where I played. I then enter this information into Statking at the end of each week.
  
• Pokertracker: Pokertracker is an essential tool for any online poker player. Pokertracker supports nearly all of the poker sites, and is invaluable for tracking your statistics and improving your game. Pokeroffice is also a good option for anyone who only plays on the major sites, and is better than pokertracker in many areas. Its main disadvantage is its lack of support for many of the smaller sites and networks, but if you only play on the major sites then it is a good choice.
  
• StatKing: While Pokertracker is great for tracking the finer details of your game, it does not easily allow you to track things like bonus payments, live game play, etc. The best tool I have found for tracking every aspect of your poker money management and even general gambling is Statking. It enables you to input and customize all of your poker activities, and review your poker profit and losses in many different ways.
  
• 2p2 SNG Spreadsheet: If you mainly play sit n go's then this is an excellent free spreadsheet for keeping track of all your sng results.
  

There are various online tools for keeping track of your poker result. I've tried using a couple in the past but have been concerned at having all of my results online. If the online site goes out of business or has an error then your records could be lost. I personally prefer to keep my records stored on my own computer.

It can sometimes be hard to keep an accurate track of your poker results, especially when you are in a downswing, but it will pay dividends and help improve your game in the long run.

Today's Link:

Sorry, but while in New Zealand I haven't had much time to search for interesting poker links, so I might not be able to post to many until I return to Australia.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm off snowboarding for the weekend, so will see you all next Monday, and don't forget a dollar won is always sweater than a dollar earned.

 

In the land of the long black cloud

I have just arrived in New Zealand. The plane was delayed by 6 hours (fun, fun) so didn't land until 4 in the morning. New Zealand is a beautiful country, but it sure does rain a lot here, hasn't stopped since I got off the plane. I'm hoping to get some skiing in while I'm here; the mountains are about six hours drive away, so might go down in the weekend.

Played a few hours of poker this morning and had another winning session. I think that since Neteller returned the American funds, online poker has been a little bit softer. Couldn't be sure but a few months ago online poker at the major sites seemed really tight.

Today' Topic: Poker in New Zealand.

Wide scale recognition of poker in New Zealand has been a relatively recent phenomenon. It has only been in the last three years that Poker rooms have opened in the Auckland and Christchurch casinos. Poker is shown on pay TV, and a local poker show has been played on free to air TV. More and more pubs and bars are offering free weekly pub poker competitions. Recently a lot of poker articles have been written in the local media mainly about the popularity of poker around the world.

Not many New Zealand players have had international poker tournament success. Probably New Zealand's best known poker player is "Lee Nelson" who has made around 2 million dollars on the tournament circuit.

Like most of the world, Poker seems to be going from strength to strength in New Zealand, and a healthy future seems assured.

Johnny & Larry

Not much news on the poker front. Played a bit of NL100 on Pokerstars (getting closer & closer to Supernova) and was up a little. Played a couple of satellites for Sunday tournaments with no success. I've gotten used to playing 7 cash game tables while having a couple of tournament tables running in the corner. It definitely helps break up the boredom that creeps in while playing cash games, it also helps me play a bit longer. If I'm still in a tournament I keep the cash games open, so I have been grinding out more hands overall.

I really want to improve my tournament play, so this seems like a good way to do it. Play a lot of satellites during the week, while playing cash games, then concentrate on just tournaments in the weekend. I'll start keeping a list of my tournament results to show you my progress.

Today's Topic: How long is too long.

I think that a lot of player when first starting out play as many hours as they can, to try and improve their game. While this isn't a bad thing, poker players need to be aware when it is a good and bad time to be playing. Playing quality time rather than quantity time will always pay better dividends.

• When not to play poker:
  
  • When you are tired: One of the common mistakes is to play when tired. Either by starting to play after a long stressful day, or by playing a single session for too long. I find that when multitabling online the maximum amount of time that I can play without a break is 3-4 hours. After 4 hours my game and my results definitely deteriorate, even though I may not realize it at the time. When playing live in a casino I have no problems playing 8-10 hours at a time as long as I take a quick break every couple of hours. It has been proven in studies that gamblers who gamble when tired have a lower risk aversion and will be more willing to take foolish risks when tired. The same applies to poker. Work out how long you can play before your game deteriorates, and ensure you take a break at this point.
    
  • When you are stressed: If you have other things going on, like an ongoing argument with your partner, or lots on your mind, realize that it is a bad time to play. If you want to play to get your mind off things, then play at a lower level than you normally do.
    
  • When you are drunk: The amount of player that boast online about being drunk after midnight on a Saturday night, while donking off their stack, is amazing. I know that you are not always thinking straight when drunk, but under no circumstances should you ever play poker for money when drunk.
    
  • When you are not in the mood: Sometime I find that I am bored and while I'm not in the mood to play poker, I play anyway. Often in this situation I will play a bit looser and take more risks than normal to try and kill the boredom. This is not a good time to play.
    
  • When table conditions are bad: Sometime I'll log on and looking down the list of available tables I don't find many with flop seen % over 25%. When table conditions are tight either find another site to play on, or play a different game.
    

Today's Link:

This month's cardplayer magazine has an interesting article written by Daniel Negreanu. In it he looks at why some people climb all the way up the poker ladder and others don't. He uses two different players, Larry and Johnny" as an example. I am more of a Larry player, and want to be more of a Johnny sometime. Link to the cardplayer article here. Also there is an interesting discussion of the article at 2 + 2, link here.

Another day, another dollar

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I played a fair amount of poker over the weekend. I used up most of my Full Tilt $26 tokens, with little reward for my efforts. I run so bad in tournaments. I get my money in with the best hand, but that suckout is always only one river card away. Also played a lot of NL100 on Pokerstars. The tables were fairly soft over the weekend and I ended up a fairly decent winner.

Can't wait to start playing the NL200 tables, but since I'm heading off to New Zealand tomorrow for 3 weeks, I'll probably won't make a serious attempt at it until the beginning of October. In the meantime I think that I will play 3 tables of NL200 along the top of the screen and 6 tables of NL100 underneath, just to get me used to the NL200 tables. From my datamining the softest NL200 site I have found with a decent amount of tables running is Ipoker. I don't have a big enough bankroll sitting on Ipoker to play NL200 at the moment, and since they don't accept Epassporte I will have to play NL200 on Pokerstars for the time being.

Todays Topics: Satellite poker tournament strategy.

I've found that satellite play can be extremely profitable and is one of online pokers "hidden treasures", especially if you are on a smaller bankroll. I have started playing the multi table satellites to all the major sites big Sunday tournaments. I plan on making Sunday, Tournament day, and play in any of the big Sunday ones that I have won a satellite seat to during the week. So far I have won a seat in both the Pokerstars and Full Tilt Sunday games for little investment.

The most profitable satellites I have found are the ones where 10% or more of the players win a seat. The really cheap satellites where only the top one or two players win a seat become too time consuming to be profitable.

First thing you need to do is to see how many chips are in play, and how many you need to reach your goal. This is usually not the total chips/places paying, but less. That's because there will be some players with above average chips at the end.

In the first period it's like in any other MTT. There are weak players, and you want to get their chips. Remember though, that you can't bluff a weak player. You have to be patient and wait for the good cards. After a few blind stages the crazy all-iners are reducing, so you can play your normal style.

After an hour you should be a little above average. If you are less than 10BB, you have to try to double up, if you make it great, if you don't you've saved time, and didn't wait till the blinds eat you up. You shouldn't sit back in the middle of the tournament, even if you have more than average chips. You have to keep working, and take risks sometimes.

If you are near the end, you don't need to take risks. You have to watch for short stacks that don't defend their chips, raise them, and get little wins wherever possible. You don't need to risk half of your chips or more, because the goal is to be in the top X, no matter which place. Raising all-in when you are not short-stacked is a big mistake here. Even if you have KK, just raise 3-5BB, and if there's an ace on the flop fold and think about the chips you saved.
If you are out of the playing places, then you have to double up or try to steal the blinds that are not willing to play. Even the chipleader can fold to your raise, because he can feel that he's almost there. You will see who these people are.
You need to be really patient at the end. Someone WILL lose their head. You have to think before acting. The position, the players, is it worth taking this risk? You will reach your goal if you keep focused.

Today's Link:

I can't think of many links today. This one is a little bit weak but sorta funny. It's a picture of a guy who had been playing a cash game 48 hours straight at a US casino, and has build a huge chip stack. Link here.

Are kings really king?

It's been a bit of a nothing week for me so far. I've been playing the $24 tourneys on Full Tilt and after 6 of them I've made one cash for about $38 and one for about $96. Cash games this week I've found fairly tight. It's strange how some weeks the tables seem tighter than others. I guess it's a case of continuing to grind it out. I played one table of NL200 along with my NL100 tables today. It's a very small sample so far, but I think the NL200 tables might be as soft if not softer than the NL100 tables. My theory is that most people playing live poker play NL200 live. As a rule the level of play at the NL200 live games is fairly poor. Because they play NL200 live when they decide to play online they choose the same level they play live (NL200). Of course the level of play is generally a lot higher at the same limit online so it makes for softer games at this level with these live players. People who started playing online usually start at a lower limit and work their way up, hence making the NL100 games tougher. It's only a theory and might be completely wrong, but from my play and datamining of the NL200 games I think that I should find little difference to the NL100 games. Fingers crossed.

Today's Topic: KK vs AA

A lot of No Limit players refuse to fold their KK preflop regardless of the action around them. Analyzing over 500,000 hands played at NL50 and NL100 I can say with certainty that not folding KK before the flop under any circumstances is a big mistake. Some might say that the only hand that can beat KK is AA, and what would be the odds of running into that? The odds would be roughly 1 in 24 or 4.39% of the time. So on average once every 24 times that you get KK someone else at the table will have AA. You get KK once every 220, so on average once every 5000 hand you will run into this situation of KK vs AA.

My experience has been in NL50 and NL100 games that if the pot is raised to you with KK you re-raise it and then get re-raised by either the initial raiser or another player and you are both deep stacked (more than 70BB) then unless you have notes or a read on the other player to suggest otherwise, the majority of the time you will be up against AA. It is overall an EV + decision to fold in this situation with KK. If the player you have raised, re-raises you and has less than 50BB, then because of the money already in the pot and because of their increased range of hands with less than 50BB's I have found it to be EV + to call in this situation.

So next time you're deep stacked opponent puts you all in when you are holding KK, as hard as it might be to fold those Kings, you will be making the correct decision in the long run.

Today's Link:

Brian Townsend known online as either ABA or SBRugby, has gone from playing playing .5/$1 nl holdem 2 years ago, too playing in the highest limit games available on the internet. In the last few weeks he has been on a massive downswing losing over 3 million dollars. Read all about it on his blog. Link here.

I’m Back

Sorry for no post yesterday. It was my girlfriend's birthday. I took her on a romantic mountain picnic and got back a bit too late to work on the blog.

I've started a new arrangement for my poker time. I've collected over 20 $26 Full Tilt tokens, and I seem to be winning them quicker than what I can use them. So I've started running 7 cash game tables and 2 tourney tables simultaneously. I don't know if it is a good idea, and sometimes does get a bit confusing differentiating between cash and chips, but it does keep me focused and interested. Lately the cash games have become a bit of a grind (normally a sign that I'm ready to move up a level), so mixing it up a bit has really helped my motivation and interest. It probably isn't optimum profit wise, but I do want to improve my tourney play, so will keep at it for the rest of the week.

I'm off to New Zealand for 3 weeks next Tuesday. I'm taking my laptop with me, so hoping to keep playing and blogging while I'm over there, but I might miss a few days when I'm busy.

Today's Topic: 5 steps to No Limit Holdem success:

If you play small stakes no limit holdem full ring cash games, here are the top 5 pieces of advice from Ed Millers "No Limit Holdem theory and practice" to ensure success.

1. Play tight: Playing tight is the easiest and most important step you can take to improve your game. Fold your trash hands. Most hands are trash. It's easier to define what's not trash, so I'll do that. The "Not Trash" list:
   

• All Pocket Pairs
  
• Two suited cards Jack or Higher (e.g., K J )
  
• AK, AQ, AJ, and KQ offsuit
  

Ok, it's not quite that simple. I have another list, the "Sometimes Trash" list:

• Suited Connectors (e.g., 8 7 or J 9 )
  
• AT and KJ offsuit
  
• Suited Aces (particularly the big ones like A T )
  

Everything else is trash. Don't play trash. (I'm not going to say this over and over, but I'll say it once here. These are the rules. Good players can and do break them. But you gotta learn the rules before you start breaking them.

1. Don't play out of position: People playing out of position is the #1 mistake. Being out of position hurts you in every aspect of the hand. It makes it harder to read your opponents' hands, it makes it harder to bluff successfully, and it makes it harder for you to make money on good hands and get away from bad ones. Basically, it puts you at a big fat disadvantage.
   
2. Don't over commit in small pots: No-limit decisions revolve around pot size. More to the point, they revolve around the balance of risk versus reward. How much risk you should take depends on what the reward is. When the pot is tiny compared to what's in the remaining stacks, like on the flop after two or three layers limp in, that's a small pot. When the pot is relatively large compared to what's in the remaining stacks, like on the river after there's already been a lot of betting, that's a big pot. Here's one guiding principle: Big hands deserve big pots, and small hands deserve small ones. If you have a super-strong hand like a set, then you want to get all the money in. If you have a weak or vulnerable hand, then you want to avoid a big confrontation. It sounds simple, but many no-limit players go wrong here.
   

3. Bluffing: Bluffing is the most mystical aspect of no-limit. Bluffing isn't the be-all-and-end-all, but it's a very important no-limit skill. A lot of bluffing in no-limit is "smallball." You throw out a modest bet to try to pick up a pot no one else wants. A continuation bet after the flop can be an example of such a bluff. So are position bets, bets from the blinds after a checked flop, and so forth. If no one else seems to want a pot, often you should toss something out there and see if you take the pot down. With big bluffs some general practical guidelines for getting the most out of your bluffs are: be in position, and make the bluff enough to force a fold.
   

4. Keep your head in the game: It's impossible to have no-limit hold'em success without tackling the mental side of the game.
   

Today's Link:

The above advice and more can be found in a lot greater detail at Ed Millers excellent website "Noted poker authority".

Satellite king

Had a bit of a downswing on the cash table's yesterday morning. Didn't feel like playing cash games last night so fired up some of the super soft $26 token satellites on Full Tilt. They cost $8 each and the top 5 of 18 win a $26 token. I can play 4 at once while doing other things, only playing premium hands. Doing this I won 6 tokens from 8 satellites in about 2 hours. I used 4 of my $26 tokens to play the $75 satellites (same structure) and won 2 $75 tokens. So in 3 hours I ended up with 2 $75 tokens and 2 $26 tokens for a $70 investment.

Using the tokens to play in tourneys I haven't found a big difference in the skill level between the $26 and $75 tourneys. Unfortunatel, while I consider myself fairly competent at both cash games and sit n go's, tourneys are my weak point. When I have a medium stack half way into a tourney I play way too tight. I can't quite get the adjustment right; when I try to change I get overly aggressive and end up pushing with average hands. At least with winning the tokens cheaply it gives me a good chance to improve my game without much expense.

Today's Topic: Moving up limits

Over the next couple of weeks I hope to be making a move to NL200, so I thought I would list my criteria for moving up a level.

• Have a sufficient bankroll: First and foremost have a minimum of 2o buy-in's for the level you are looking to play at. So if you are looking to play NL100 have a minimum of $2000. If you fall below the 20 buy-in minimum drop back to the lower level until you have over the 20 buy-in threshold again.
  
• Ensure you are a winning player at your current level: I like to win a minimum of 2bb/100 over 100,000 hands before I consider moving up a level. This is very conservative, but I would recommend that you are a winner over at least 20,000 hands before moving up a limit. Some peoples reason for moving up a level is that there are too many lucky donkeys at their current level to enable them to win. The logic is that if they move up to a higher level with better players, the lucky donkeys won't suck out of them constantly. Let me say that there are lucky donkeys at every level, and if you can't win at your current level, your chances of winning at a higher level are even less.
  
• Don't multiable as many tables when first moving up: It takes a while to get use to playing the new betting structures at a higher level. I recommend if you usually play 9 tables, drop back to 6 when you first move up. If you usually play 6 move back to 4 until you get use to things.
  
• If uncomfortable with the higher blinds, buy in short: When you first move up it can be a good idea to buy if for half the maximum until you feel comfortable at the new level. It will certainly make all-in decisions a lot easier, and lower your initial variance.
  

Today's Link:

Coverage of this year's WSOP main event starts tomorrow (Tue) on ESPN (US) at 8pm and 9pm EST. You can view it online via one of the free global live TV services such as TVU Player.