- Level IX (300/600) -
9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: werd2u (6090 in chips)
Seat 4: koomo (3860 in chips)
Seat 8: ME (3550 in chips)
werd2u: posts the ante 50
koomo: posts the ante 50
ME: posts the ante 50
koomo: posts small blind 300
ME: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Jh 4c]
werd2u: folds
koomo: calls 300
ME: checks
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 3d]
koomo: bets 3210 and is all-in
ME: calls 2900 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (310) returned to koomo
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 3d] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 3d 3c] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
koomo: shows [Ks Ah] (a straight, Ace to Five)
ME: shows [Jh 4c] (two pair, Fours and Threes)
koomo collected 7150 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7150 | Rake 0
Board [5s 2c 3d 3c 4s]
Seat 3: werd2u (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 4: koomo (small blind) showed [Ks Ah] and won (7150) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 8: ME (big blind) showed [Jh 4c] and lost with two pair, Fours and Threes

Was I right or wrong? There is no answer. The fact is we both made what we thought was the correct play. Although I’ll be honest if I had Ace-King in my hole cards I wouldn’t have just called the blinds and give the opportunity to my opponent to outdraw me.

With the blinds so high after the flop I decided to call with an open ended-draw. Why? I’ve been playing with this guy for a good half an hour and I know that he wouldn’t play low cards knowing how risky they are. You could say he was a pretty tight player. In any case, he pushed with an inside draw  which I think was pretty wild for him but it comes back to the blinds. Since there was already 1350 chips in the middle, any raise he made would give me at least a 3 to 1 on the money and with 3 to 1 on the money it makes it possible for you to call with more speculative hands. In my case I had exactly 12 outs or 11 since I saw he had an ace when we both showed cards. The outs were any Aces, Sixes or Jacks. So 11 outs is about 23% chance of winning or in pot odds a little over 3 to 1. 3 to 1 is equivalent to 25% so there’s a 2% difference.

So I made the call because my hand value and the value of the pot were about the same. Although I lost it doesn’t mean I made a wrong decision. This is where many pros will have different opinions. In my book, slight percentage variations can be worth playing if you have a good feel of your opponent but in many cases, even if the odds are only 1% shy of being favorite you should fold.

The reason is because I’ve been tilting a few weeks ago and didn’t feel good about playing. That’s an important lesson that separates the disciplined players from the undisciplined players. Poker is after all a game a skill but without proper discipline all the skill in the world won’t help you.

When playing poker games, you are accepting that at some point during the game, you will have to take chances or mostly known as take a gamble because you can only hope to win even if you have the best hand. What I mean is if you have the nuts before the last card you could win 99% of the time but there is that 1% of the time where your opponent could draw for a better hand if that draw exists.

At some point you’re going to have to decide whether or not you want to commit all your chips or not with a 99% chance of winning. This example is a bit drastic but the same principle applies to situation where you have a 70%, 80% or even 90% chance of winning. Would you put in all your chips knowing you’ll win 9 out of 10 times? The answer would be yes but after careful evaluation of possible hands your opponent could have.

Now if you can’t accept losing 1 out of 10 times then this is where the game is going to get you. When you’re tilting or whenever someone is tilting, no matter how good you are, players will tend to loosen up their plays. Why? In order to become tilty you must have lost a pretty big hand to someone’s lower cards so you might get the feeling that if you play crappy hands you could outdraw your opponents. That is completely false and over the long term will cost you a lot.

So what to do when you can’t seem to win at any game or level? Simple, take a deep breath, scream if you want to (make sure you’re alone), let go of the table, DO SOMETHING ELSE! The screaming part is doing something else, although not too healthy so I wouldn’t recommend it. Bad beats are always going to happen but not as often as you might think. If you feel the cards are running against you then why not stop before losing even more money? There’s always tomorrow, there’s always another time. If you can’t discipline yourself with this you’re going to lose a lot of money and before you know it you’ll be on thin ice with your bankroll.

What I like to do? Open up heads-up play money tables and simply push all my chips on every single hand. This way I could lose but that’s fine since play money is only for fun, it doesn’t include real money. Although I like to do that, I will usually start with whatever chores I need to do for the day and then if I still feel tilty and have time I’ll start play money tables. Usually I don’t have the time after my chores or I’m simply too tired =P.

- Level VII (100/200) -
9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: iopå (8795 in chips)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (2495 in chips)
Seat 8: ME (2210 in chips)
iopå: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts the ante 25
ME: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts small blind 100
ME: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [9d Th]
iopå: folds
WhiskeyR: raises 200 to 400
ME: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [9h Qd Ts]
WhiskeyR: bets 2070 and is all-in
ME: calls 1785 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (285) returned to WhiskeyR
*** TURN *** [9h Qd Ts] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9h Qd Ts Jd] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WhiskeyR: shows [Kh Ah] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
ME: shows [9d Th] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
WhiskeyR collected 4445 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4445 | Rake 0
Board [9h Qd Ts Jd Jh]
Seat 3: iopå (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (small blind) showed [Kh Ah] and won (4445) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 8: ME (big blind) showed [9d Th] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens

By the way he’s a very strong player, only mistake he made was that one and he was rewarded for it. Anyways Ace-King is pretty strong and will usually help you alot in winning hands without showdowns but at this point in the game Ace-King is not that strong because with our stacks being so small and the blinds being high you can see that odds are both players will put all their chips in and go to the showdown.

In this case if he had pushed preflop there was no way I could’ve called but giving me a cheap flop to see was his mistake. After I made two pairs on the flop WhiskeyR still had many outs but he had to either hit runner cards for a better two pair or hit one of the 3 Jacks remaining in the deck. Hitting a King or an Ace was not enough. Well obviously he had to hit one of the remaining 3 Jacks to complete a straight and hit one of the remaining 2 Jacks on the river to add insult to injury.

Preflop is very important and this is another player who couldn’t see that because he gave me a cheap flop. Yes it’s possible my opponent could’ve made a straight already but if he had a marginal hand or King-Jack he probably would’ve pushed all his chips and I would’ve folded avoiding a bad beat.

So did I make the right call? Well in a heads-up situation two pairs on the flop is pretty strong and even if he did make his hand I was still good to hit one of the remaining 4 outs for a full house or a runner-runner for a straight, better full house or even four of a kind. Either way I had more outs than he did so pushing all his chips with Ace-King after the flop came out was his mistake and I couldn’t have played this better. Another situation where the better player gets it handed to him.

• He has pocket Aces which in this case you are about a 4-to-1 underdog.
• He has Ace-King which would make him a 7-to-3 underdog or roughly 2.5-to-1. If he has Ace high with any kicker your odds will go up with pocket Kings.
• He has a lower pocket pair, Queens and lower which would make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.
• He has any cards which would still make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.

As you can see, out of 4 possible situations your opponent doesn’t stand much of chance since he’ll be a big underdog 3 out of 4 times. Unless he has the Rockets, his best chance is to hit one of the three remaining Aces in the deck assuming he has an Ace in the hole. Without that, hitting two pairs, a set or making a made hand is practically impossible with only 5 cards to come. Well that’s what happen in the following hand, take a look at the hand first and I’ll go over it after.

- Level III (25/50) -
9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: d-jarl (1455 in chips)
Seat 2: BankerREL (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 (1750 in chips)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow (1425 in chips)
Seat 5: willies777 (1640 in chips)
Seat 6: buonanotte (1335 in chips)
Seat 7: ME (1330 in chips)
Seat 8: BinAllN (1620 in chips)
Seat 9: Premier (1455 in chips)
ME: posts small blind 25
BinAllN: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Kc Kh]
Premier: folds
d-jarl: folds
BankerREL: raises 50 to 100
jlmadsen80: folds
ChrisSolopow: calls 100
willies777: folds
buonanotte: raises 250 to 350
ME: raises 980 to 1330 and is all-in
BinAllN: folds
BankerREL: folds
ChrisSolopow: folds
buonanotte: calls 980
ChrisSolopow said, “99″
*** FLOP *** [Tc As Ks]
*** TURN *** [Tc As Ks] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc As Ks 6c] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Kc Kh] (three of a kind, Kings)
buonanotte: shows [Jd Jh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
buonanotte collected 2910 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2910 | Rake 0
Board [Tc As Ks 6c Qh]
Seat 1: d-jarl folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 2: BankerREL folded before Flop
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow folded before Flop
Seat 5: willies777 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: buonanotte (button) showed [Jd Jh] and won (2910) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 7: ME (small blind) showed [Kc Kh] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 8: BinAllN (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Premier folded before Flop (didnt bet)

As you can see, everything happened in the preflop stage. After a minimum raise from an early position player, there was one limp and on re-raise from the button. That’s when I pushed all my chips in the small blind. Did the button make the right call? No, preflop stage is very important, especially in a tournament format but clearly this player had no idea and I’ll go over why. First of all he re-raised because he wanted to fold other players and determine how good his hand was compare to the others which is fine but after I re-raised he should’ve known he was beat by either higher cards or a better pocket pair. What saved him? This player is an idiot who couldn’t get a proper read and figure out I was a tight-aggressive player.

Basically if he knew how to play he would’ve figured out I played a minimum of high cards which was giving him at best a coinflip situation. I knew I was getting more than a coinflip and I could’ve smooth call the 350 raise but with the initial raiser and limper behind me I couldn’t risk one of them calling having too little information on them, so playing it tight was my best shot. So I re-raised for all my chips. Why not just make a standard re-raise? I only had 1330 in chips and making a 2X or 3X raise would leave me with less chips then my initial re-raise so instead of smooth calling a monster and giving a flop I made forced him to take a bad gamble in which he would be about 4-to-1 underdog or 2.5-to-1 if he has an Ace.

With the blind being so low the move for him was to fold because he didn’t have to commit all his chips for a hand like Jacks when you can be beat by so many overcards and 3 pockets. He took the gamble and won with a made hand. Basically his re-raise was completely lucky because if he knew what he was doing he would’ve known that after my raise his Jacks didn’t stand much of chance and would’ve laid it down hence the reason of the raise. Obviously he made a bad move but that’s ok, sooner or later this kind of bad play is going to cost him.

So let’s took at a recent hand history from Pokerstars (by the way I only play SNG tables at Pokerstars for now). Also for privacy and security reasons I took out the tournament number as well as my account name. Now take a look at this following hand, I’m the orange one and my opponent is the green one.

PokerStars Game - Level V (75/150)
Table 1 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: accuser (3000 in chips)
Seat 4: CerebralTrap (3315 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (1265 in chips)
Seat 7: mrcashman222 (930 in chips)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (4590 in chips)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (400 in chips)
Iceman1278: posts small blind 75
accuser: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Ad Qh]
CerebralTrap: folds
ME: raises 1115 to 1265 and is all-in
mrcashman222: folds
krazyeyz: folds
Iceman1278: calls 325 and is all-in
accuser: folds
Uncalled bet (865) returned to ME
*** FLOP *** [8d 6h Th]
*** TURN *** [8d 6h Th] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6h Th 6c] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Iceman1278: shows [2h Jh] (a flush, Jack high)
ME: shows [Ad Qh] (a pair of Sixes)
Iceman1278 collected 950 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 950 | Rake 0
Board [8d 6h Th 6c 7h]
Seat 3: accuser (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: CerebralTrap folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: ME showed [Ad Qh] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 7: mrcashman222 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (small blind) showed [2h Jh] and won (950) with a flush, Jack high

I didn’t go broke yet but lost a lot of chips and eventually did not finish but that’s beside the point. My point is why would someone play all their chips with a hand like J-2 of hearts. You would probably say a donkey and I couldn’t agree more but this WASN’T A BAD BEAT. I repeat, NOT A BAD BEAT. It’s a tough one to swallow but I was only a slight favorite in this hand. Did he make the right move? The answer is unfortunately yes and here’s why.

First of all this player was more than short stacked which means he was going all-in on any cards when he was in position. In this case he didn’t but what made him call is because he was the big blind and had to cough up 150 out of his remaining 400. At this point in a SNG he couldn’t fold and wait another hand because with only 250 left even if he had pocket aces anyone would call him and he would risk being outdrawn. He wasn’t necessarily pot committed but pretty darn close.

Before looking at what I did, I need to mention that this was an average player because he played too many marginal hands and risked a lot of chips for weak hands which is why he ended up with 400 chips in the first place. Now looking at my all-in move, was it correct?

Some would disagree while others would agree. Again it depends on your situation. In my case we were 6 at the table and I had less than 10 big blinds or BB. I could have made a standard raise to 450 chips and folded the flop if I missed but I didn’t want that. With only 4 players left to act behind me and knowing that none of the players would call me unless they had a powerful hand except for the short stack I knew pushing all my chips was the best move. The reason why I knew no one would call me except for the short stack is because the big stacks don’t need to take risks right now so they can just sit out and wait for monsters to outplay me.

As for the two small stacks, the first one would only call and take a risk if he had high cards which he didn’t and as for the small one I was hoping he would make a desperate call so I could add his chips to mine. As it turned out I was right, the board just didn’t agree with me.

In the end I lost to a flush, and eventually didn’t have enough to survive to the end because it crippled me big time. My opponent did make the right decision of calling but the only reason why I consider him a donkey is because he put himself in this situation early and got a lucky break.

Anyways these situations happen and that is even more true in tournaments because as you reach the end of the tourney there are going to be showdowns no matter what. What ticks me off though is knowing you made the right decision and still losing. I wouldn’t take is so personally if I had marginal hands but when it happens often with monsters and power hands it kind of gets on your nerves.

In any case I’ve lost enough SNG tables today so I’m calling it quits for today. The only thing left is my 3.30$ w/rebuys tourney. I’m actually playing it right now and I’ve survived the rebuy period so hopefully I’ll cash in in the next hour or so.

The problem is having this bad feeling that no matter what you play you’re going to lose. Well I felt like because I was losing hands varying from top pair all the way to made hands. Losing top pair with or without kicker will happen once in a while but losing made hands to a single outer is pretty rare, most of time impossible.

Now what pissed me off is losing in both kind of situations. As you can see I’ve dropped a little. Hopefully tomorrow I can catch up on my loss and make gains. Personally I am tilty, but I still have the patience of playing the cards at the right time. Being tilty makes me think more radically which pushed me to make calls I shouldn’t have made. Anyways in a SNG format, you can’t always win so the trick is to play many tables over the long term to make it profitable.

I don’t know why but I feel like I’ve hit all the wild players yesterday and it just kept on going… Like if Pokerstars was trying to make sure I keep losing to suckers who keeps outdrawing me. Anyways they kept getting the right board to beat me so I guess this just wasn’t my day. By the way when this happens my favorite thing to do is simply get some shut eye. After losing hands like pocket kings to an ace rag, I just pick up my Pokerstars stress ball and throw it as far as I can. Somehow it’s suppose to make you feel better in my case I just feel like throwing something bigger haha…

Well it actually wasn’t made to be thrown but who cares the ball doesn’t hurt anyone. If you play often and hate bad beats I strongly suggest you buy one of the stress ball from Pokerstars which can be bought with your FPP points that you earn by playing at Pokerstars.

Although the game was against me I still managed to come up with a gain even if it is small but that’s fine because I play low stakes anyways. Now I probably could’ve made more if I played longer but my point here is no matter what happens in poker, if you play well it doesn’t matter if you’re getting good cards or bad cards, you’ll eventually make gains in the long run.

Everyone is going to get their run of good cards and bad cards but when it comes to playing them, will your opponent play them properly? If not you’ll be able to take advantage of that even if you don’t have the best cards to play with.

Fortunately for me I played once 2 days ago and increased my bankroll to 400.00$ which is pretty awesome considering I only had 123ish last time I played. Just so you know I made this money online by playing SNG tables which is short for Sit N Go.

This kind of format is a great way to learn about poker tournament without necessarily investing the time for it. By playing a small tournament of 9 to less than 100 people, you get to learn about how to play in tournaments and what kind of strategies to adopt.

Basically my favorite part of the game is Texas Hold’em tournaments, nothing else. Well honestly I haven’t had the time to study carefully other games such as Omaha, Stud or 5 Card Draw but I’m sure they’re as interesting when you learn them.

Anyways my tip regarding SNG is to be very patient. Waiting for premium hands or playing relatively good cards in position will give you an edge throughout the SNG or tournament. Also, by playing less hand early on you can easily disguise your plays later on to make more money as the blinds go up. Another benefit is the fact that you can study your opponents when the blinds are cheap and determing which ones try to play too many hands and which one you can start bullying as the blinds go up.

Just to let you know I haven’t touched my PokerStars since I wrote my first post so you’ll be happy to know I haven’t increased my bankroll yet. Don’t worry though in 2 days I’ll be back at it but for now I’m enjoying the sun and the sand =P.

Have a nice one.