Another word for Passive ...

Jeff Hwang's book has paid for itself already 10 times over and I've only read 20 pages. If you have been following my PLO posts, you'll see that my solitary attempts at playing style analysis of winners over a much too small sample size threw up a surprisingly high number of passive players. Totally different to the 6-max aggression of NLHE. I've now discovered the correct term for it - Floating - thanks Jeff.

Winning players float and steal, float and steal at an alarming regularity. It's akin to Brunson stealing the blinds relentlessly when he wrote SuperSystem. Sure the games will change in the not too distant future, but for now an understanding of the game and that play is probably enough for you to stand a good chance of winning. Thankfully very few people visit my blog or the secret would be out.

Running good helps ... a lot.

Just cashed in a random $100 Turbo NLHE Tourney. When the cat is away, the mouse decided to fire up a single MTT and concentrate for a change. I'd like to say that it was pure talent, but I've never, ever run so good. Got my 2-outer on the river when my JJ came up against KK on the final table AI preflop. I usually got my money in slightly ahead and won almost every coinflip - except the last obviously when my 55 lost to AJo (winning that would have made me chip leader). Can't compain though with 3rd and my biggest ever cash, just over $3000.

Who said blogging isn't profitable, rumour has it one of us may even run deep in the Main Event. Good luck!

Walkabout meanderings

It's been a while and there has been a lot to report but I've just never seemed to have the time to get it down on paper. Blogging is probably a habit and I just got out of it for a while. As this will be a brief snapshot from memory I realise that a whole lot of memorable things will be lost. Luckily there are many more memorable moments ahead.

Last night's was definitely my first live Royal Flush, unfortunately I dug a deeper, deeper hole for myself and was on the wrong side of it. It was a home game at my place $.50/$$1 relatively deepstacked with about $350 facing $450, 1am. Villain who we call Double Barrels is the ultimate LAG. Flop came AsQs4h, 2 spades. I bet, he called. Js on Turn and the board looked mighty scary, rather than slow down this was my chance to fire a second barrel at a juicy pot with air - call, bugga. Ts to make the Royal Flush Draw. Now if he doesn't have the Ks he can't call a big bet and even if he has trips we tie with Top straight. Great theory - rest is history as the mobiles captured the smiling Geoff stacking almost all my chips.

As the poker Gods would have it, QQ very next hand. Flop AQ7. Long story short I was pegged as tilting and more than doubled up. Very next hand, Kh4h and flop came AhQh7. Checked around. A big stack hits trips on Turn and bets big, I call. River blanks, he goes AI, I call and all of a sudden I'm almost back to where I was before the Royal Flush. Happy Days!

This was our second early morning home game in a row. Wife is off to UK and I was home alone (with my poker buddies, of course.) Previous night was same format cash game and I posted a modest win there too. We get T$100 chips for $50 and you can re-buy top-up at any time. Every 2 hours we vote on raising the binds / buy-in. When majority say yes, we double the stakes, blinds and buy-in. Sometimes we get to T$4/8, Friday we ended at T$2/$4 and last night T$1/$2. No-one gets hurt but the stakes seem meaningful to us so the play has relevance. I'd highly recommend the format. Other tip is to have multiple buy-ins prepared in advance in zip-lock sandwich bags.

I've had a lot of live poker since posting past and am well up I still buy in to the minimum tables and the rake is a killer so I'm pleased to beat break-even. I'm better at reading people and certainly classifying their styles broadly within a few hands. Patience and aggression are winning.

Omaha is restricted to online and I'm going OK there too. Up and down but modestly up overall. Have moved up from the micros to PLO50 again with the odd shot at PLO100. Jeff Hwangs new book arrived in the post from Amazon and I'm about 12 pages into it. Just reading the intro on floating has turned a profit already. I am still so naive in that game, yet breaking even; so logic tells me that the games are incredibly soft.

Lost my iPod about 2 months ago and the kids have given me one of their earlier ones so I'm catching up on multiple podcasts. PokerRoad Cash Plays and 2+2 PokerCast with Mike and Adam are truly incredible resources and very enjoyable.

I'm enjoying TV poker too which I've never had access to before gettilg cable TV. It is a shovefest, I know, but does provide an opportunity to dream. I must say that the spots that Freddie Deeb and others can put you in would be very very uncomfortable on a televised table. One day ...

Work has picked up in more ways than one. One of our Partners is aquiring the other and that is creating opportunities. I've also been travelling a lot (hence the live poker) and enjoying the challenge again. We have more work than people again which means that I can relax a bit more in these recessionary times.

Family are all well and life is all around good (apart from the Swans)! I'm now going to catch up with all of the blogs that I follow on this drizzly Sunday afternoon. Hopefully life is treating you all well!

Brandon Cantu wins Event 48 - PLO8

What a sick flop to win/lose a bracelet on!

To quote "We finally have a winner. After a series of hands in which all the chips went in the middle, Brandon Cantu eliminated Lee Watkinson. On the final hand, Cantu raised his button to 150,000 and Watkinson called. The rest of the chips went in on a flop of 6h4cQc. Cantu showed AhTc7c4d, a pair of fours with a club draw. Watkinson showed a huge draw, 2c3c5h7s. Any non-board-pairing low card would have been a great card for Watkinson. Instead the turn fell 9s and the river fell 4h to make trip fours for Cantu and finally send Watkinson to the rail. Watkinson walks away with $141,873."

More on the subject of perspective

Nothing to do with poker but, for those in the IT business, too funny not to share ... The Vendor-Client Relationship in Real World Situations.

On a more sobering note, the latest image of Tank Man in case you haven't seen it.

Mini Hat-trick

Everything is perspective and at the minute, 1c/2c is reality to me and I'm winning and feeling good about it. Looking forward to moving up through the levels again soon.

My main focus this past 3 nights has been to try to bring my A-game to the $11 PLO Tourney on Stars. Compared to my microstakes, it is mega bucks; which is helping me take it seriously. Each night it has approximately 70 runners and I've cashed 3 out of 3, limping home near the bubble each time.

The secret? As Laff says, "Tight is right!"

Star City and Pokerstars $1 Million Turbo Takedown

It has been a big weekend of poker with 2 live sessions at Star City and a crack at winning a Porsche Cayman S in the Million Dollar Turbo Takedown.

I went straight from work on Friday night and managed a 10-hour session straight. Sat in the $5/$10 Limit table with 5 or 6 to every flop, capped or not. I decided to play high cards, pocket pairs and suited connectors. In theory, this should be a pretty lucrative game and I'd be interested to see how lucky/unlucky I was using PokerEV. Long and short of it was that I dropped $300 in first 3 hours by coming 2nd each time and having been rivered more often than not. Then I had 2 hands in a row that I won and I was back to all square. Hovered there for another hour and could feel boredom creeping in so I moved to a 80-100NL game.

My 2nd hand of NL, I find KK in the BB. Maybe 6 limpers for 2 dollars so I made it $20 to go. UTG+1 called and everyone else folded. Flop came with 3 low cards, so I c-bet for $20 thinking that it would be enough or tempt a chase by AK etc. Turned a low club making 3 clubs on board so I pushed the remaining $40 into a $90 pot and villain took forever to call. River blanked and I thought I was good, but he turned over a baby flush. Like the Limit table, I recovered this over the hours ahead and cashed in at 3am exactly even to the $. In hindsight, I made the most of the situation with very little to get my teeth into.

In Australia, P-platers can only take one passenger after 11pm which is a really good law. My daughter needed to get to the Presets with her friends, so I scored an unexpected econd session on Sunday night as chauffeur. Exact same story played out. Second hand of NL, KK UTG+1. I make it $10 to go and get 2 callers when the SB makes it $35. Fearing a strong hand, I called to see if an A would flop and attract a couple of other callers too. The flop came A55r 3-ways. SB checked and with only $45 in front of me it seemed like a reasonable play to push it in. Call, All-in and I was in bad shape. Yip, SB had AA, nh sir, bugga. My Limit seat came up and I still struggled with coming 2nd on the odd occassion I got in a pot. At 10pm with 1 hour of play left, I decided to give the NL a go again and lo and behold, I cashed in at 11pm for a total loss of only $6.

Whilst I played my own cards reasonably well, my reads were well off and I couldn't put anyone on hands. If I'm not raising peflop, I fail to define how others play against me. The regulars change gears depending on how everyone is playing. Over time, I'll need to pick up this skill. More thought required.

The Stars Turbo Takedown was a tough little tourney as the blinds rise quite quickly. I had 2 maniacs at an otherwise passive table with 2 dead no-shows to my right attracting aggressive blind stealing and c-betting. With my wings clipped early, I stuck to solid ABC poker. When the bubble eventually burst I was in approx 1700th position with an M of 7, which was above average. They dropped like flies from 10,000 with the payout structure very flat, another $5 for 500 spots or so.

I played fairly solid hoping to double up or steal as the opportunities presented themselves which I did. Critical hand was the SB shoving on me and I had A8o and decided to gamble. The wider his range, the better off that I am and I decided that with the blinds and antes about to eat in for us both this could well be a steal so I called. Alas, he had AKo and the flop of AK7 had me on the rail in 5972nd for $55.

In retrospect, I'd do the same again because of blind pressure on each of us and the fact that the real money requires a top 100 spot at least, more like final table. I probably forfeited $10-20 of ladder climbing equity for a tiny crack at the Porsche. It's important to dream to keep poker fresh!