Medium Pair Stats from Poker Office

Blindman was right when he said that he needed more info. Consistent with the attached stats, I nearly always raise with my pps and c-bet them too. This gets me committed and I can see with the replayer that I force out worse hands and encourage big pots when facing better hands.

I need to focus on Big Hand, Big Pot, Small Hand, Small Pot in these situations even more. I was also folding to Turn check/raises on blank and scary boards which may or may not have been a mistake. I might have lost more, but it is possible that I was being moved on.

The long and short of it is that I am a modest net winner with 66 thru 22 and medium pairs are more like these than the premium pairs and should be played accordingly.

Cashed again ...

Looking forward to Sharkscope again. I think NLHE cash games have helped my tourney results. Basically, I am way more aware of the fact that your entire stack is regularly under threat. I find myself calling down for pot control, a skill I never had before Harrington on Cash and Bart on PokerRoad Cash Plays.

So why am I so cocky this evening, another cash for $485 in a tourney has brought my bankroll over the $2000 target. I still think that it is not NL50 related though, so I will continue grind it out a bit more befoire taking a serious shot at moving up permanently. Certainly not until my medium pairs gaping hole is plugged; all advice there most welcome!

While playing the tourney, I had two NL50 games going. Got my money in ahead twice on one table to lose 1 cumulative buy-in before standing up from that table. The variance evened out on the other table where solid play and a few timely steals saw me stand up with $111. Across both tables, after 150 hands I was up 15 BB/100, I think. Still on track over a very small multitabling sample size if it is.

Finally, thanks to everyone who has commented. I honestly didn't think that anyone would find this little blog and it sure is nice to have company. Woo Hoo!!!

Medium Pairs are killing me! -238 BB/100

Well, I took a little time out to check my PokerOffice stats and to my amazement there was a massive leak staring at me within minutes. I've looked before but never found such a leak. But the difference this time was the filtering and the volume.

By 4-tabling FR NL50 for a couple of weeks, my inner game seems to have settled down. Previously, I'd bounce about when losing at one to another Limit, NL and Omaha. That kept me fresh and reduced tilt but constantly changing my style, I think and affected my stats and what I could reliably read into them.

This time, I filtered 8 or more players NL50 and sorted my hands by BB/100 won. Not surprisingly, most profitable are the premium pairs AA thru QQ in that order, which I'm very pleased about. They say that anyone can play AA, but for the record, incredibly I used to be a losing AA player at one time. As I found out and you all know, never slow play AA!

But medium pairs are obviously vastly different. After being dealt a relatively small volume of medium pairs, 73 in total, my losing rate is a wopping 238 bb/100. The funny thing is that I lose more with JJ, then TT, 99, 88 in order.

The good news is that whjen I fix this massive leak, I should help lift myself above break even ( the purpose of this intraverted blog). With self awareness can come self improvement, so I'm halfway there. Please feel free to leave any study pointers as a Comment for me and others. I'll update later when I've worked the answer out, for now plugging this has got to be my priority.

I've just received a CardRunners subscription for Fathers Day, so maybe the answers will be in there.

As an aside, I have continued to be break even over the weekend. Found the grind a bit boring at times and took a quick stab at one NL100 table. Spewed off $50 on a bad call but recovered to be up $15 after approx 150 hands. Played well in general, I think. Folded all medium pairs preflop :-).

Another relaxation was my first Omaha HiLo tourney for $22. Came 15th out of 52 which I was content with given that I've never read about it or played before, just what I pick up on podcasts. Basically, don't leave home without A2. Bad news is that A2 doesn't appear too much (or I was card dead) and when it does, there may be no qualifying low :-(. Nitty never wins, eh?

Omaha is my favourite game (more thinking), so I'm looking forward to moving over to this style when I've improved my NLHE more. The availability of beatable of NLHE games in Oz is my focus for now. I've never played split games of any type, but have the books waiting for when I do. The beauty of poker ... the journey is only just beginning.

The good and the bad ...

The hot run has come to an end and I'm back on track for incremental volume gains (after wooshing way ahead). As hot as I ran last weekend, to be expected, I reversed it donking 4 BIs on 2nd best hands. Encountered slight tilt but nothing dramatic and stepped away. Weekend is around the corner, maybe I can run good again.

Returned to take a shot at a Tourney given that I had a couple of uninterrupted hours to spare. Pleased to report coming 3rd in the rebuy for approx $850. Bankroll and Sharkscope are healthier, but I'm not going to count this toward beating the NL50 consistently. Actually, I got an insight into how tough it would be to grind this level for a living.

The downswing has prompted me to review the actual play of my big hands against HOCP recommendations. Not sure how that analysis will go, I'll let you know.

Study, Study, Study ...

Two players with the same aptitude, talent and knowledge will have approximately the same results over the long run when luck evens out. IMO, aptitude and talent are relatively fixed (psychologists probably disagree) but knowledge can be increased with relative ease.

The more enjoyable it is, the less work involved. At the minute, my knowledge increase comes from three sources iTunes, Books and Experiential (Play).

iTunes, I subsribe to 4 or 5 podcasts. BigPoker.ca (now 2+2 Pokercast) is my favourite as Mike and Adam are funny Canadians that like my kinda music and have great guests. I've also grown up with them over the years. PokerRoad Radio is a close second and gets better all the time. Bart's Cash Plays have taught me a lot about how the pros think about the game. PokerRoad gives a lot of insight into life on the road as a Pro. Not what I am striving for, but very interesting.

Books, I've used the 2+2 signup to score quite a library, although Harrington is all you need to become a winning player (all 5), I think. I've jumped about of late working my way thru different books. The Mathematics of Poker is a heavy read, but is full of interesting concepts that I hope will apply rigour to my thinking. Phil Gordon's Little Books are entertaining and educational. Kill Everyone is next. I've learned a lot from books and it is this that has put me ahead of the average player I think.

Experiential learning. Whilst important, I kid myself that I am doing it for learning purposes as I don't review key hands at the end of sessions, as I know I should. It does help me relate to and absorb what I read in the books though. If I am serious about my goals though, I will need to track the % time spent on each.

For Bankroll and time reasons I have not yet subscribed to a Training site. It is only a matter of time though as this has to be the most painless way to learn.

Television has got to be the worst for education with its AI shovefests. Although it is educating the public to play loose which can't be bad. I haven't seen HSP yet, I hear that is different and worth watching.

Finally, best of all is talking about poker. Bad news, I only know two people who take it seriously (one lives in Perth, the other is focused on his business right now), good news is that there are thousands on 2+2 and other Forums willing to help . I started this blog at the same time as I discovered forums - so I'll let you know :-).

This journey is so similar ...

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=286204
... you can read Parts 1 thru 6 as the first 3 years for me before starting my blog.

Kurt sounds like a really cool guy. By the time you stumble upon this, I expect that it will have been updated with a happy ending (if there ever is an ending - maybe that's the attraction of poker).

I'm not sure that I would have stumbled upon this story if I wasn't writing my own blog. It's like buying a new Mazda 3 and suddenly seeing them everywhere on the roads where you hadn't before. It's early days, but I'm getting to enjoy this blogging and I haven't even had one comment yet. Just shouting into space. BTW, if a man shouts in space, is he still wrong?

Running good, feels good!

Well a quick update after 3 hours of multitabling. I've been running good and feel like a champ. I have concentrated a bit more because of the blog, so it has paid itself off already. I've made a couple of lay downs that I would otherwise have gambled on (and lost). Mainly because the grind of gaining back that ground having set my first ever poker goal didn't look like fun. I've realised that there are probably better spots to get the money in the middle.

I know why so many people want to go professional. It seems like I have a gift for the game today. Luckily, after 3 years, I know that it is just called variance and you can look forward to a post in the not too distant future when online poker seems such a lonely spot.

Bankroll. For the record, I have never reloaded from my original deposit of $25. I have moved sites but always within what I have withdrawn. I have a few residual accounts where I play low limit Omaha etc.

With this exercise, before moving up to the next level, I ran a calculation and gave myself until Nov to reach a certain limit. Well, I made those gains overnight so I need to decide whether I need to check if my head is still above water in Nov, or otherwise. Instead, I have revised the goal to be Nov or $2000, whichever comes first as the final goal is still rather ambitious and risks sooner may teach me more. Wish me luck, I am sitting on $990!

Running good, I don't feel like studying just now which was meant to be my next post. I'm logging off now and will get back to that next time ...