jasonHoldEm
09-28-2003, 12:54 AM
Hi all,
Ok, I’m not really dead…otherwise this would be a really weird post. On Friday jasonHoldEm was officially laid to rest at Party Poker. I’ve been considering the idea to change my user name for a couple months now. I don’t necessarily think that my opponents can gain that much of an edge from knowing me here at 2+2; however, I think there’s enough there to be concerned about. As I move into the “bigger” limits I’m going to be running into more and more 2+2’rs and I’d like to have as much of an edge as I can against them (lord knows I need it). Eventually you’re going to figure out who a good player is just by playing with them, but at least they won’t be able to put “the name with the face” so to speak.
Things are good. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Actually this week has been pretty crazy, but it’s also been a learning experience and I think it’s been another step forward for me.
Monday night was great. A combination of some good cards, bad opponents, and those skills I’ve been working on to build bigger pots when I’m ahead, lead to a very profitable evening. I finished $164 on the plus side (41 BB’s) in about an hour and a half of play.
Tuesday was (of course) the exact opposite. It started off bad when I flopped set under set and lost a bundle, and just continued to get worse…one of those evenings where if you’re drawing it never comes and if they’re drawing it always does. Tuesday night also led to one of my most comical moments in my poker career, after two hours of losing my money I finally decided things weren’t going to turn around and that I should call it quits for the evening. I finished my orbits and when I stood up from my three tables I had lost exactly $164. Leaving me exactly even for the week. I guess I can’t complain too much.
Wednesday was a much more even session…pretty boring actually. Played for 1.5 hrs and made $83. On Wednesday I also was finally able to deposit money using IGMPAY. I maxed out the bonus at both Empire and Party, so I’ll be able to clear both of those bonuses during the rest of the week and should still do pretty well this week (considering I went the first two days breaking even).
On Thursday I started what I hope will become a regular afternoon session, at least until I clear my bonuses. The players seem considerably tighter during the afternoon hours. This was a little difficult to adjust to and I actually dropped down to 1/2 in search of more profitable games. I lost money at 2/4 and made some back at 1/2, but still finished my afternoon session down $25. I think tomorrow I’ll just play 1/2 from the start.
The evening session would have been another losing session had it not been for one (lucky) hand that turned things around for me. It was one of those situations where I actually felt bad for getting lucky (well…not that bad), but given the circumstances I think I played the hand correctly. The table was very loose and hadn’t been exceedingly aggressive. I picked up 33 in MP and decided to call after 3 limpers in front, CO limps as well and the button raises, the SB is on a short stack and makes it three-bets and puts himself all in. Everyone calls to me and I figure if everyone comes along I am probably getting sufficient odds to flop a set, so I cold-call two even though I don’t like it. Of course the button then decides to cap it and we have 8 people seeing the flop for 4 bets each (well, one person is all in for 3). Flop comes down ragged and jack high. BB bets out and everyone calls to me, so at this point there’s so much money in the pot I am actually getting enough odds to chase my 2 outer (I have to fear a bigger set I guess, so maybe I wasn’t getting sufficient odds, but at 35:1 I’m calling). So I call and everyone behinds me calls too. On the turn we’re still 8 handed and my beautiful 3 decides to show up. BB bets out again, everyone calls to me again and I raise, CO folds, and everyone else calls. River is a blank. It’s checked to me and I bet, button and the BB (and the all-in SB) are my only callers. I’m up against AKo, KJo, and JTo, my hand is good, I drag a ~$120 pot. I also cleared my IGMPAY bonus on Party tonight so I made $124 at the tables and another $100 in bonus. I’m now up about $250 for the week ($100 of which is bonus).
I just finished my afternoon session before I sat down to write this. I played 1/2 at Empire for about an hour and a half. I made $43 and finished about half the hands for my bonus. I actually really enjoy playing 1/2 because it’s “good for me” in that I’m willing to try out different things I don’t normally do at 2/4. I find I’m more aggressive at 1/2 than I am at 2/4, and I was very successful today with that aggression. Of course this wasn’t mindless betting, but rather picking those spots where I can pressure my weak opponents successfully and having the balls to follow through with it.
Today I did a lot of aggressive play when the board paired, I think this is one part of my game where I don’t play strongly enough. With only a few exceptions, if I was still involved in a hand and the board paired I was betting out, raising, or check-raising about 70-80% of the time. This is probably a little too aggressive for limits where the players have a clue, but it was amazing to watch them run away like scared little girls today. I didn’t keep exact stats, but I know I made a lot more money than I lost in this situation. I only had it backfire on me twice. Once when the player had the third card of the paired board (and a 2 kicker) and he just check-called me down, and once when someone called and successfully made their flush on the river (I didn’t pay off, but they showed). So essentially that represents a loss of 4 BB’s and I know I made more than this over the course of the session using this play. I wonder how much EV this play really has?
Right now I plan to keep my empire account under its current name (jasonHoldEm2). Maybe down the road I’ll change it as well, but for the time being I want to be able to participate in the 2+2 study table that has been started, and I’d like to do so without revealing my new name, so using my Empire account seems like the easiest solution.
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Woo-hoo! This week is officially my best week ever. /images/graemlins/grin.gif
Friday night's session was an ordeal. Played for 3.5 hours and actually had to rebuy at one of my tables. Rallied in the last hour or so to finish up about $100. Crazy night.
Played a nice afternoon session on Saturday. I absolutely adore 1/2 at Party. It's tought to accept the fact I used to struggle with this limit, but I guess that just shows how far I've come. I played for about an hour and a half and won $85. My win rate at 1/2 the last few sessions has been staggering, I'm making almost as much per hour as I am at 2/4 and without the swings. (I realize that the handful of sessions I have is not a significant sample...blah, blah, blah).
Saturday night was a little tough. My week has been going really well and I thought I'd sit at 3/6 get some more expereince. I don't know if I just picked the worst possible tables or what, but I got my ass handed to me for about 45 minutes and then got lucky on one big hand. That one hand put me up about $6 and I got out...no sense pushing things at a new limit when I "know" I can win at 2/4.
I dropped down to 2/4 and played for 2.5 hours and finished up $105.
This week started out a little rough, but since Wednesday it has been fantastic. I made over $500 at the tables and also cleared both the IGMPAY bonuses for an additional $200. My best week prior to this was $450 in table earnings.
I’ve decided I’m going to take tomorrow off and enjoy my good week. There are some things I need to get organized for the coming week (writing my A+ exam Friday most likely) and I really want to finish Middle Limit Hold’em.
My weekly results have steadily been increasing since I moved. I think I'm getting close to the higher end of what I can expect to earn without adding additional hours or moving up to 3/6 full-time. I do plan to add the afternoon session at 1/2 this coming week and see how that works out. This will give me an additional 5-10 hours of play a week (I've been putting in around 15-20 each week so far), and I hope this will help to continue increasing my weekly earn.
Whew...time for bed.
Thanks for reading,
jHE
Ok, I’m not really dead…otherwise this would be a really weird post. On Friday jasonHoldEm was officially laid to rest at Party Poker. I’ve been considering the idea to change my user name for a couple months now. I don’t necessarily think that my opponents can gain that much of an edge from knowing me here at 2+2; however, I think there’s enough there to be concerned about. As I move into the “bigger” limits I’m going to be running into more and more 2+2’rs and I’d like to have as much of an edge as I can against them (lord knows I need it). Eventually you’re going to figure out who a good player is just by playing with them, but at least they won’t be able to put “the name with the face” so to speak.
Things are good. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Actually this week has been pretty crazy, but it’s also been a learning experience and I think it’s been another step forward for me.
Monday night was great. A combination of some good cards, bad opponents, and those skills I’ve been working on to build bigger pots when I’m ahead, lead to a very profitable evening. I finished $164 on the plus side (41 BB’s) in about an hour and a half of play.
Tuesday was (of course) the exact opposite. It started off bad when I flopped set under set and lost a bundle, and just continued to get worse…one of those evenings where if you’re drawing it never comes and if they’re drawing it always does. Tuesday night also led to one of my most comical moments in my poker career, after two hours of losing my money I finally decided things weren’t going to turn around and that I should call it quits for the evening. I finished my orbits and when I stood up from my three tables I had lost exactly $164. Leaving me exactly even for the week. I guess I can’t complain too much.
Wednesday was a much more even session…pretty boring actually. Played for 1.5 hrs and made $83. On Wednesday I also was finally able to deposit money using IGMPAY. I maxed out the bonus at both Empire and Party, so I’ll be able to clear both of those bonuses during the rest of the week and should still do pretty well this week (considering I went the first two days breaking even).
On Thursday I started what I hope will become a regular afternoon session, at least until I clear my bonuses. The players seem considerably tighter during the afternoon hours. This was a little difficult to adjust to and I actually dropped down to 1/2 in search of more profitable games. I lost money at 2/4 and made some back at 1/2, but still finished my afternoon session down $25. I think tomorrow I’ll just play 1/2 from the start.
The evening session would have been another losing session had it not been for one (lucky) hand that turned things around for me. It was one of those situations where I actually felt bad for getting lucky (well…not that bad), but given the circumstances I think I played the hand correctly. The table was very loose and hadn’t been exceedingly aggressive. I picked up 33 in MP and decided to call after 3 limpers in front, CO limps as well and the button raises, the SB is on a short stack and makes it three-bets and puts himself all in. Everyone calls to me and I figure if everyone comes along I am probably getting sufficient odds to flop a set, so I cold-call two even though I don’t like it. Of course the button then decides to cap it and we have 8 people seeing the flop for 4 bets each (well, one person is all in for 3). Flop comes down ragged and jack high. BB bets out and everyone calls to me, so at this point there’s so much money in the pot I am actually getting enough odds to chase my 2 outer (I have to fear a bigger set I guess, so maybe I wasn’t getting sufficient odds, but at 35:1 I’m calling). So I call and everyone behinds me calls too. On the turn we’re still 8 handed and my beautiful 3 decides to show up. BB bets out again, everyone calls to me again and I raise, CO folds, and everyone else calls. River is a blank. It’s checked to me and I bet, button and the BB (and the all-in SB) are my only callers. I’m up against AKo, KJo, and JTo, my hand is good, I drag a ~$120 pot. I also cleared my IGMPAY bonus on Party tonight so I made $124 at the tables and another $100 in bonus. I’m now up about $250 for the week ($100 of which is bonus).
I just finished my afternoon session before I sat down to write this. I played 1/2 at Empire for about an hour and a half. I made $43 and finished about half the hands for my bonus. I actually really enjoy playing 1/2 because it’s “good for me” in that I’m willing to try out different things I don’t normally do at 2/4. I find I’m more aggressive at 1/2 than I am at 2/4, and I was very successful today with that aggression. Of course this wasn’t mindless betting, but rather picking those spots where I can pressure my weak opponents successfully and having the balls to follow through with it.
Today I did a lot of aggressive play when the board paired, I think this is one part of my game where I don’t play strongly enough. With only a few exceptions, if I was still involved in a hand and the board paired I was betting out, raising, or check-raising about 70-80% of the time. This is probably a little too aggressive for limits where the players have a clue, but it was amazing to watch them run away like scared little girls today. I didn’t keep exact stats, but I know I made a lot more money than I lost in this situation. I only had it backfire on me twice. Once when the player had the third card of the paired board (and a 2 kicker) and he just check-called me down, and once when someone called and successfully made their flush on the river (I didn’t pay off, but they showed). So essentially that represents a loss of 4 BB’s and I know I made more than this over the course of the session using this play. I wonder how much EV this play really has?
Right now I plan to keep my empire account under its current name (jasonHoldEm2). Maybe down the road I’ll change it as well, but for the time being I want to be able to participate in the 2+2 study table that has been started, and I’d like to do so without revealing my new name, so using my Empire account seems like the easiest solution.
--------
Woo-hoo! This week is officially my best week ever. /images/graemlins/grin.gif
Friday night's session was an ordeal. Played for 3.5 hours and actually had to rebuy at one of my tables. Rallied in the last hour or so to finish up about $100. Crazy night.
Played a nice afternoon session on Saturday. I absolutely adore 1/2 at Party. It's tought to accept the fact I used to struggle with this limit, but I guess that just shows how far I've come. I played for about an hour and a half and won $85. My win rate at 1/2 the last few sessions has been staggering, I'm making almost as much per hour as I am at 2/4 and without the swings. (I realize that the handful of sessions I have is not a significant sample...blah, blah, blah).
Saturday night was a little tough. My week has been going really well and I thought I'd sit at 3/6 get some more expereince. I don't know if I just picked the worst possible tables or what, but I got my ass handed to me for about 45 minutes and then got lucky on one big hand. That one hand put me up about $6 and I got out...no sense pushing things at a new limit when I "know" I can win at 2/4.
I dropped down to 2/4 and played for 2.5 hours and finished up $105.
This week started out a little rough, but since Wednesday it has been fantastic. I made over $500 at the tables and also cleared both the IGMPAY bonuses for an additional $200. My best week prior to this was $450 in table earnings.
I’ve decided I’m going to take tomorrow off and enjoy my good week. There are some things I need to get organized for the coming week (writing my A+ exam Friday most likely) and I really want to finish Middle Limit Hold’em.
My weekly results have steadily been increasing since I moved. I think I'm getting close to the higher end of what I can expect to earn without adding additional hours or moving up to 3/6 full-time. I do plan to add the afternoon session at 1/2 this coming week and see how that works out. This will give me an additional 5-10 hours of play a week (I've been putting in around 15-20 each week so far), and I hope this will help to continue increasing my weekly earn.
Whew...time for bed.
Thanks for reading,
jHE