July 2007 results

July proved to be a fantastic month for me; I almost made my day-time salary. The first 7 days made me about $100/day each. I slowed down a bit in playing because I was preparing for my holiday.

I hit the cryptologic network to play 6max limit and play for the $10/table hour bonus, which made me a decent amount of money and a healthy winrate. I enjoyed playing limit again and think I'll even be better now I've read stoxtrader's book about it on my holidays. I think my winrate will drop a bit but I hope to keep it at about 2BB/100, which makes the bonus-whoring quite lucrative. I could even settle for 1BB/100 as the bonus makes me about 5BB/100 :)). I think I keep on playing the limit games there and join the 2p2 session reviews to improve it, but I don't know how good it is to play both limit and no-limit.

The no-limit games obviously went really great and I know for sure I won't be able to keep this up (the first day of July proved this) but it does make the transition to 100NL easier. The full-ring stats were some short-stacking but I doubt I'll ever do that again :)


August goals are to keep playing the short-handed limit games and start playing some more MTTs seriously. I think I'm not doing very good in those, although they are usually filled with horrible players. Maybe I'm not able to keep up my concentration for such long amounts of time, but I also know I never review them or post about them.




Total roll: $8300.

Lol minbet

I said I shouldn't be playing limit FR anymore because it's not worth the time. Such statements are obviously connected to (perceived, short-term) negative winrates and can easily be taken back by (perceived, short-term) positive winrates. I found a game with a % saw flop around the 40; the amazing part is that it even stayed around this number. There were some new loose players which made it a very profitable game. I don't know how many of the good players I have in my database, because I don't play there that often, but I think I can assume somebody sucks unless proven otherwise.

Two nice hands:

Hand 1

EVP 2.00/4.00 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, Q.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 2 folds, Hero gets a warm feeling inside and raises, 1 fold, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.

Flop: (12.50 SB) T, 2, 6 (6 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.

A very good flop, time to start building a pot. Nobody folds, it almost starts to look like a live game. Although some of the callers probably have junk, there will be some flush draws and overcards out here.

Turn: (9.25 BB) 4 (6 players)
BB bets, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, Hero raises, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.

Betting into such a large field does show strength, even if it's a donkbet. From a good player, such a bet could mean a very good hand: he expects the field to call and me to raise, to make a gigantic pot. In this case BB didn't look like a very good player, and which such an gigantic overlay I have to raise anyway.

River: (21.25 BB) 9 (6 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds.

Luckily the river was a blank. Even with such a pot, the last value bet is important.

Final Pot: 23.25 BB
BB mucks and ship it @ $90 for a $72 profit. It's like stacking somebody at 70NL with only a 16NL risk :)

Hand 2

EVP 2.00/4.00 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, A.
1 fold, MP1 calls, Hero raises, MP3 calls, CO calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls, MP1 calls.

The amount of cold-callers in this game truly was amazing and heart-warming.

Flop: (12 SB) 7, T, J (7 players)
SB checks, BB bets, MP1 folds, Hero raises, MP3 calls, CO calls, SB folds, BB calls.

A monotone flop, coordinated and I have none of the suit. Although it doesn't look great, the pot is big with 7 players, so I have to do whatever it takes to win this pot, even if it costs me a few bets. I was actually happy that BB donks, allowing me to raise and face somebody with 2 cold. Obviously they didn't fold; how would you get a 7-way raised pot if they did?

Turn: (10 BB) 2 (5 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, MP3 calls, CO calls $6.97 (All-In), BB calls $3 (All-In).

A welcome blank turn. BB is betting again, whereas he could have build a large pot by 3betting the flop, trapping the field. Both he and the CO are all-in anyway, so the only concern should be MP3. If I could get him to fold a one-card flush draw it'd be a great result, but I doubt he would.

River: (17.49 BB) 5 (5 players, 2 all-in)
Hero bets, MP3 raises, Hero calls.

Another good blank. I wasn't happy about MP3 raising but getting 20:1 I could never find a fold here.

Final Pot: 21.49 BB
MP3 had KK with a (lol) and MHIG.

Taking shots at 100NL and dealing with aggression

I'm taking some shots at 100NL 6max, and so far I'm running hot. I'm getting confident in playing 50NL, so I'm slowly adding some 100NL tables to the mix - playing 1 table at 100 and 3 at 50. Going to a higher level has always been a problem with me; I can vividly remember my struggle going from $0.02/$0.04 limit to $0.05/$0.10, because I adjusted my play so much for the higher level. I started to bluff more, calling down more (in hope of 'making it' at the new level) and other -EV things.

More recently, moving from 25NL to 50NL started with a steep 3 BI downswing, although I got my money in as a favorite. So far I have only played 500 hands at 100NL, but it's time for a review.

Hand 1

Villain turned out to be 24 / 2.6 / 1.67
Everest Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (6 handed) handconverter.com

Hero ($147.50)
BB ($100.00)
UTG ($121.70)
MP ($3.85)
CO ($142.25)
Button ($108.59)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Jh, 9h.
UTG raises to $2, 1 fold, CO calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, BB calls $1.

Flop: ($8) Jd, 2h, 9c (4 players)
Hero bets $8, BB calls $8, UTG folds, CO folds.

Turn: ($24) 6s (2 players)
Hero bets $24, BB raises to $48, Hero raises to $137.5, BB calls $42 (All-In).

River: ($251.50) 6d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $251.50

The big turn bet was a misclick, I think I should have bet around $18 here. After his minraise, I only thought about folding or moving all-in, and never considered calling. I probably didn't save any money that way, as it was going in anyway on the river, but it might have saved me a bit. I'm still not sure to do if the turn went
Hero bets $18, BB raises to $36, Hero...

Hand 2

Everest Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (6 handed) handconverter.com

BB ($198.00)
UTG ($202.25)
MP ($100.00)
Hero ($92.90)
Button ($29.84)
SB ($99.00)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ac, Ah.
1 fold, MP raises to $3.5, Hero raises to $12, 3 folds, MP calls $8.50.

Flop: ($25.50) 7s, 7h, 2c (2 players)
MP checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($25.50) 8h (2 players)
MP bets $19, Hero calls $19.

River: ($63.50) Th (2 players)
MP bets $63.5, Hero folds.

Another one messed up. I tried to play it tricky by checking behind the dry flop, but I should just have shoved the turn before the board got even worse. I think I could also call the river because I have underrepresented my hand so much. In any case I shouldn't be trying to be tricky at a new level and without reads.

Hand 3

Villain turned out to be 42 / 13 / 2.00 (~80 hands) but I don't see how I could have played this in another way:

Everest Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (4 handed) handconverter.com

Button ($101.60)
SB ($28.85)
Hero ($87.50)
UTG ($67.35)

Preflop: Hero is BB with As, Ad.
UTG calls $1, 2 folds, Hero raises to $3.5, UTG calls $2.50.

Flop: ($7.50) 8d, Td, 5c (2 players)
Hero bets $5, UTG calls $5.

Turn: ($17.50) 7c (2 players)
Hero bets $12, UTG raises to $58.85, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $88.35

Hand 4

I don't think I could play this another way but Villain's line still confuses me. He was 36 / 19 / 21 (over 50 hands):

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (5 handed) handconverter.com

BB ($157.85)
UTG ($43.95)
Hero ($98.45)
Button ($118.85)
SB ($123.00)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Ks, Ts.
UTG calls $1, Hero raises to $4.5, 2 folds, BB calls $3.50, UTG calls $3.50.

Flop: ($14) Kc, 3s, Kd (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $9, BB raises to $153.35, UTG folds, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $176.35




In general, I think I will have more difficult decisions with aggressive villains. At 50NL, I'm usually the aggressor, but when people start playing back at me I often am lost. I also don't know if the 30/20 players are good or bad LAGs. I think it's often the latter, but when I move up I'll probably meet the former sooner or later. I will have to learn how to play with them, because the current weak-tight-aggressive me will be on their menu.


I welcome your comments on the hands & on dealing with aggressive players in general.

Brag: already $1k this month

After a good session yesterday night and today I finally made over $1k in one month (and we are only halfway). It's clear I'm running hot right now and I don't think I'll reach the $1k each month, but for now it feels good. I furthermore should stop playing FR limit; each time I find a game with 35% VPIP, it's filled with tags just a few orbits later. I might still have an edge against them (I'm postive this month) but I don't think it's worth the effort.


Including the $200 bonus I'm slightly above the $1k barrier. The few hands 200NL FR were shortstacking, trying to clear some more bonus, but I think I also should stop doing that :).