TGC and Party Poker Reload X 2

The weather here has been simply awful. It's been cold and rainy for two days and today looks like more of the same. In short, the perfect weather for online poker!

Yesterday, I completed my PSO promotion at The Gaming Club. I finished with $75 of profit (including a $50 bonus), which is quite a disappointment considering that at one point I was up almost $200 (without the bonus). Bad play and bad beats, however, cut into my profits. In the end, I am reasonably happy; $75 is $75 and I now have enough PSO points to purchase a gift certificate for my wife. This sounds silly, but it's always a good thing whenever I can put poker money in my wife's hands.

When I woke up this morning, I noticed at www.bonuswhores.com that Party Poker had a 40% reload bonus. I immediately signed-up and then went to the 2+2 forum to see what those donkeys had to say about it. Reading that forum, I learned that there were actually TWO Party Poker bonuses that were STACKABLE. This is almost too good to be true! I immediately signed up for the second Party Poker Reload bonus. Sure enough, I now can clear $200 worth of bonus money if I can play 2000 raked hands in the next ten days.

I played exclusively $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em (full-ring) for my last Party Poker reload. I like the idea of playing only one game to clear a bonus. It's an interesting experiment and it helps keep me focused on playing my best game.

This time I have decided to play the first 1000 hands at 6-max $25 NL. I would like to play $1/$2 limit hold'em (full-ring), but my bankroll is a little short for that. If I am able to build my bankroll over the first 1000 raked hands, then I might try $1/$2 limit for the second bonus.

Tournaments and The Gaming Club

After getting my Party Poker reload bonus, I decided to try some new things within the poker world. I am bored and I need to find something to pique my interest before I bleed away the rest of my bankroll.

I spent most of the weekend playing sit-n-go tournaments (well, that’s slightly wrong… I spent most of the weekend with my family, but when playing poker…). Of the no limit hold’em variety, I played 50 person SNGs at Party Poker and 45 person SNGs at Full Tilt Poker. I also played some single table (9 person) HORSE tournaments at Full Tilt.

I lost both of my SNGs at Party Poker; I played both very well, building a decent stack until the blinds eventually caught up to me. I pushed it all in with the better hand both times but lost anyway. That happens in tournament poker, I suppose. I was quite pleased with my play considering my bad luck in the past with tournaments and my general inexperience with tournaments. I had similar experiences at Full Tilt, although I cashed in about 2/3 of the HORSE tournaments (I played 5-6 of these), allowing me to win a little over the weekend.

Part of my non-poker weekend involved at trip to Target to purchase various supplies, including baby formula – that stuff is expensive! It occurred to me while I was at Target that I could still chase a PokerSourceOnline promotion to play at The Gaming Club (the connection: PSO allows you to purchase Target gift certificates with their PSO points). Therefore, I deposited $200 on Monday into a new account at TGC. I need to clear 350 raked hands at $2/$4 (or $0.50/$1.00 no limit) to clear TGC’s $50 initial deposit bonus; otherwise, I need to clear 750 raked hands at slightly lower limits (e.g., $0.50/$1.00 limit) to clear the PSO promotion.

My first impression of TGC was that it was just like many other smallish sites. There is not a lot of traffic, which is a slight problem because I could not find a full-ring limit game at $2/$4. That meant that I’d either have to play no limit or play short-handed limit. Because neither of those options was attractive to me, I decided to try both (makes sense, huh? Try living with me…).

My initial session at $2/$4 short-handed limit was a good one, but I donked my profit away playing no limit. During my next session, I donked off a bunch of money playing limit when I got too aggressive on the turn with top pair, top kicker. I then started the bad beat train in which my opponents were seemingly catching two pair or their inside straight draw on every hand. Luckily, I compensated slightly by winning a big pot in my no limit game. I also started playing better in the limit game. By the end, I was again profitable, until my AQ ran up against AK (no limit). By the end of my first day at TGC, I had lost $16.

My second day (Tuesday) at TGC has been one of my dream poker days. I caught a few bad beats, but I have won enough big pots to push through. So far, I am up over $100, playing my twisted combination of $2/$4 limit and $0.50/$1.00 no limit. Right now, I am hoping that variance doesn’t catch up to me – at least until I clear the 350 raked hands for my deposit bonus. After that, I will be dropping back to stakes more suitable for my bankroll.

Party Poker Reload, Part III

In my previous two entries, I discussed my chase for a $100 Party Poker Reload Bonus. The bonus required that I play 1000 raked hands, which I vowed to accomplish playing exclusively full-ring $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em.

I must confess that I failed in my quest. I completed the bonus, but I only played 999 raked hands at these stakes. In the end, I was so sick of playing full-ring limit that I could not play even one more hand. So, I finished my bonus chase playing one orbit of 6-max, no limit hold'em (blinds = $0.10/$0.25). In those 5 hands, I netted about $4 in profit when I raised preflop (6X the blind) with AA and got three callers. I pushed all-in on the flop and everyone folded. But I digress; this is a blog entry about limit hold'em.

In Part I of this series, I commented on how good the play was at these stakes. In Part II, I commented that the played was poor. So, now, in Part III, I again have to comment that the quality of play was quite good.

Over the last 500 hands or so, I won only one pot where my opponent played absolutely awful. One person from early position limped and then someone from middle position raised. It was folded to me on the button, where I woke up with AA. Given the limp and the raise ahead of me, I decided to three-bet. The game was loose-passive and I was 6-tabling (more on this later); therefore, I was betting to reduce the size of the field more than I was betting for value. Everyone folded (including the limper) to the raiser, who four-bet it. I figured that he had AK, KK, or QQ -- perfect! The flop was ideal for me: A 5 5. He bet out on the flop and I called. The turn was a blank and I decided to spring my trap on the turn by raising. I was surprised when he three-bet it for me, allowing me to cap it. The river went check-bet-call and I took down at big pot (he had AK).

In the table below, I am showing my statistics for my little experiment in low limit hold'em. In the end, I won at a very nice rate of more than 3 big bets per 100 hands. You'll note, though, that most of my winnings occurred in three of the sessions. These were the sessions where I caught cards, played well, and had weak tables. What does this tell me? This reinforces the need to grind it out when playing limit hold'em. It's best to simply wait patiently, losing the minimum, until you have a strong hand and you can extract bets.


What else did I learn? I started focusing in on value-betting on the river. This is perhaps obvious to some, but I think it is worth re-visiting. I once read an article from Daniel Negreanu stating that value-betting correctly was the difference in his game that allowed him to move up beyond the $20/$40 limits. I am quite proud of the fact that I made only one incorrect value bet on the river over my last 500 hands. By the way, when I say "incorrect", I mean that I went against my "read" and tried to value bet an opponent who I thought might have had me beat.

In the end, I profited about $170 (bonus+winnings) from my experiment, which is a lot of money for someone playing with a very short bankroll. I also learned how unexciting it is for me to play poker these days. This reinforces my intuition, which tells me that I should quit playing poker because I play for fun, not money, and it is not fun anymore for me. This boredom becomes expensive when I start playing hands that I should not play and I bet them too aggressively. Alternatively, I start playing too many tables, so I can merely accumulate hands instead of playing hands well. My last few sessions were all played with 4 or 6 tables so that I could clear the bonus as quickly as possible; it is no coincidence, therefore, that I essentially broke even in these sessions. I would play well until I was "up" and then lose focus until I was "down", after which I would play better.

This blog entry seems somewhat negative, but I am trying to find ways to be excited about poker again. I have a home game to play this Friday, which should be a lot of fun. The other idea I have is to start playing way above my bankroll so that the amount of money involved will keep my focus. I have dabbled with this idea already, playing no limit hold'em (Blinds = $0.50/$1.00).

Party Poker Reload, Part II

In my last blog entry, I discussed my plans for the Party Poker reload bonus. I planned to exclusively play full-ring, $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em for this bonus. Because I am chasing a $100 bonus, this means that I need to clear 1000 raked hands. Based on my previous experience, about half of the hands at this level are raked, so I need to clear about 2000 raked hands. As of my last blog, I had cleared about 500 raked hands, netting a profit of $10 along the way.

I have since cleared another 200 raked hands and my profit has soared to almost $60. This increased win rate has come about, in part, because I have played better. I am not as loose preflop, but that has only helped a little. I have played much tighter on the flop and I am perhaps a fraction less aggressive. This has made a very big difference because I am no longer leaking money with top-pair, weak-kicker and the like.

One other big difference is that I have been catching cards lately. In my last two sessions, I have been dealt AA and KK at least 6 or 7 times (out of 400 hands) and most of the time these hands have held up. I also seem to be catching my flush draws and my straight draws.

I am also getting better reads on my opponents, which has helped me lose less. For example, one of the times I lost with AA, I put my opponent on KK preflop. When the flop came KQ3, I figured that I was in trouble and I turned into a call station and lost the minimum (note: I don't believe that making "great laydowns" is a winning strategy in limit hold'em for hands contested heads-up).

The other big difference has been the [low] quality of play at my tables. In my previous post, I commented on the relatively high quality of play at these micro stakes. Ironically, my last two sessions involved tables full of donkeys of the profitable kind. For example, I had a hand where five people limped (including the small blind), so I checked from the big blind with 3s 7s. The flop came with two spades, giving me a flush draw. Given the relatively large pot, the relatively loose-passive table play, and the fact that I had four people in the hand, I bet out and got called by everyone. The turn completed my flush and I got called in two spots. The river paired the board and the small blind suddenly bet out; I raised; he re-raised and I called. He flipped over three of a kind and I took down a monster pot with my trash hand. This donkey chased a hand that was drawing dead by the turn and then proceeded to pay me off handsomely. Now, this is how I remember $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em at Party Poker!

Party Poker Reload, Part I

I hate to confess this, but I have been seriously considering quitting poker recently. I don't play as much as I used to play, but even then... I am not focused or determined to win. I don't have the discipline to grind and I don't really care if I win or lose. This apathetic attitude shows in my results: I will play well for awhile, build my stack, lose focus, and then drop back to where I started. For now, at least, I have decided to continue playing -- but I am definitely going to cut back on the hours even more. I am not longer going to play "hours not results" but rather "when I feel like it".

This past weekend brought the Party Poker reload. I am chasing a $100 bonus for playing 1000 raked hands. I feel like I should work on my limit game, and I'd like to think that I could grind if I needed to do so. I have decided, therefore, to chase my bonus playing exclusively full-ring $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em. Based on my past experience, only about half of the hands are raked at these stakes. So, I need to play about 2000 total hands to clear my bonus. I'll be playing it in short sessions of 100-200 hands each, usually 3-tabling.

As of noon on Monday, I have cleared about 500 raked hands and I have netted a profit of about $10 so far. My play has been mediocre at best; I still have my problem of being loose-aggressive post-flop and that has hurt me. I need to work on that. I am also surprised at how tough these tables have been. There are very few very weak players -- either the wildy aggressive types or the complete call station types (VP$IP > 50%). If nothing else, this experiment of mine has taught me to respect my opponents even at these low stakes. Party Poker no longer seems like an ocean of fish to me.

I'll report back again once I have cleared the entire bonus -- I'll post my stats and some of my other opinions about the LHE game at Party Poker.

Limit Holdem Re-revisted

For the last six months, I have almost exclusively played no limit hold'em. I was addicted to the seemingly endless opporunities for a big score. Why grind it out playing limit when I can punish the fish for more money?

The problem with this flawed logic, of course, is that I make mistakes too; also, fish often catch their two-outer and suck-out. My mistakes and their suck-outs were usually very very costly. Then I'd go on tilt and lose even more money. I have promised myself numerous times that I would give up no limit, only to find myself playing it again during my next session.

I have not played much poker in the last three or four weeks. Poker has not interested me because I have not been winning. It turns out that I am addicted to winning, not poker.

During my "off" time, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the game and the way that I play it. The most basic fundamental theory of winning poker is to play tight aggressive. Wait patiently until you get a good hand and then bet it aggressively. I think I do a reasonably good job of playing tight-aggressive preflop. However, after thinking about it, I am a really loose-aggressive player post-flop. Thus, I identified a big leak in my game to plug.

Almost casually, I also started exclusively playing limit hold'em again. I feel like limit hold'em is a grinder's game and my short-term goal was to re-learn how to grind it out.

I have made a few mistakes along the way, but right now I am doing very well grinding away at low limit hold'em. I have ventured well above my bankroll to play as high as $2/$4 and I have luckily won at those stakes. Based on my recent succes playing limit hold'em and Omaha 8b, I don't think that I'll be playing NLHE for awhile -- at least until my next session!

Running to Stand Still

I must confess that the desire to play poker left me for a few days last week. I did not play very much and when I played, I played poorly.

My attitude towards poker began to change on Saturday, when I had an interesting session at Party Poker. I initially dumped a couple of buy-ins playing $25 PLO. I then decided to try $50 NLHE. I lost about half of my buy-in during the first two orbits trying to bluff a horrible call station. That was a big big mistake. I eventually got smart and developed a good game plan against this guy.

I would almost always raise preflop, trying to isolate myself against him. If I caught a good flop, then I would value-bet to my heart's content. If I missed, then I would check-fold. It was that simple, really. I played maybe 100 hands with this guy, winning about $75 in the room. The session ended when another member of TPF joined the room and I felt like my concentration was declining.

My next challenge is to conquer my "Poker Stars Curse". I have recently rebuilt my stack there from $5 to about $50 by playing low stakes NLHE. I decided to try $0.50/$1.00 (6-max) this weekend for fun. I did quite well by playing tight-aggressive. Unfortunately, I also played five one-table SNGs, and I failed to cash in ANY of them. Most frustrating was that I bubbled in FOUR of them. In one case, I pushed all-in preflop with JJ and lost to TT. In the other three cases, I made obvious mistakes. In short, I need to re-evaluate my short-handed tournament play.

Perhaps the most interesting session of the weekend was when I decided to invest my entire $50 stack at Poker Stars in a game of $1/$2 (6-max) LHE. I played like donkey at first, losing $35. I actually had to deposit more money into my account from Neteller to keep playing. Anyway, I eventually played one of those beautiful hands that makes it all worthwhile.

Here is the story:

Three people limped and I checked from the big blind with 78s. The flop was 8 8 4. I checked, planning to check-raise on the turn. My table was overly aggressive and this seemed like the best play. The turn was a King, and two people called my check-raise. The river was the case eight, giving me quads. The beautiful thing here is that both of my opponents held a king and one of them was overly aggressive. In short, the river got capped three ways and I took down a monster pot with my quads. In that one hand, I went from being stuck a buy-in to being even for the session.