What I'm reading today

[Felipe]

b00mp it! b00mp it!

[PygmyHero]

Thanks Felipe, I don't think I've ever been bumped before.

For those who follow this thread - I regret to inform you that I will not update it for 4-5 days over Thanksgiving. If I have time tomorrow, I may try to hit you with a little extra dose of material. If not, I strongly suggest you finish / review the WA/WB post, and make sure you hit Shillx's post in the last link.

[Guruman]

got this link about overcard cont bets in limit holdem from the session review.

I mean wow man. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[PygmyHero]

It's back!

With the holiday season nigh, I've been a little distracted. Additionally, the forum split has been a little odd for me since I'm trying to learn short handed HE, but I still would like to devote time to the Micros.

I've been reading a lot of threads that won't necessarily improve my game, but that have been enjoyable reads. So to ease my way back into the 'Reading Today' series, here are a few trip reports.

Here's the oft-cited and hilarious Inthacup Vegas trip:

Forum: NVG (News, Views, and Gossip)
Poster: Inthacup
Post: A trip report I never posted...
Number: 684930
Date: 5.14.04

There are also links to two other trip reports near the end of the thread. I thought they were also pretty good, though not as outright hilarious.

This next one isn't funny, but extremely enjoyable nonetheless. It's by that Greg Raymer guy who I guess did something big in 2004. Of course, this trip report is pre-WSOP champion days, and, in light of that, this comment by Greg is pretty amusing:

[ QUOTE ]
I sure hope it's not too long before I win one of these big ones. I hate waiting. ;-)


[/ QUOTE ]

Also, if you read all the way to the end of the thread (it's not too long), there's are a few interesting comments about Hoyt Corkins, who was not nearly as well known when Greg first posted this. Here's Greg again:

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds like that Hoyt guy who is the chip leader at the final table. Sounds like he's not really that great of a player, just another one-speed super-aggressive player on a run of cards.


[/ QUOTE ]

To be fair, he recants these comments a few posts later in the thread.

Forum: MTT Archives (Multi Table Tournaments)
Poster: Greg (FossilMan)
Post: FossilMan's Foxwoods Trip Report, Championship Event
Number: 408838
Date: 11.16.03

Greg can write. It makes me hope he gets that book out soon.

[PygmyHero]

So after posting Inthacup's hilarious trip report yesterday, I was thinking about all the funny posts I'd ever read on 2+2, and figured they deserved their own post for easy reference.

This one's hilarious, though I probably can't appreciate it fully since I'm not extremely familiar with all the old posters and their style.

Forum: Mid- and High- Stakes HE Archives
Poster: CatsPajams
Post: Why I love these forums
Number: 158774
Date: 10.13.02

Here's a classic and oft-cited thread. Sadly, I think I'm still only at step one.

Forum: THE Archives (Texas Hold 'Em)
Poster: Anonymous
Post: Evolution of a 2+2er
Number: 42826
Date: 3.21.02

This post wouldn't be complete without this classic post:

Forum: THE Archives
Poster: Joe Tall
Post: The damn Fish!!!!! Loose games RANT!
Number: 491819
Date: 1.23.04

Here's one I only recently discovered, courtesy of illunious' favorite threads thread:

Fourm: SSH Archives
Poster: tpir90036
Post: pushing too hard with Bad Larrys?
Number: 540586
Date: 2.22.04

The OP's not funny - make sure you scroll down and read tpir90036's later posts. The funny one's about 10 down.

Another discovery from illunious' thread:

Forum: NVG Archives (News, Views, and Gossip)
Poster: astroglide
Post: request:from the anals (not annals) of the unofficial 2+2 irc chatroom
Number: 577694
Date: 3.14.04

Make sure you read TylerD's response.

And, of course, watching the videos at this next site is most assuredly PLUS EV!

KJo

Inthacup's trip report belongs in this thread, but I just linked it yesterday (12/7/05). I would also probably include the notorious pattern mapping thread here, which can be found in my 10/24/05 post.

[PygmyHero]

Being aggressive preflop with a good hand is important, and I have been working to apply this in my game, particularly in situations where I have a big ace or a decent pocket pair. The rub is basically that I must raise to destroy the implied odds of all the hand that are limping against me (small pairs, suited connectors and the like). Here's Clarkmeister with an explanation:

Forum: Small Stakes Archives
Poster: Clarkmeister
Post: A good theoretical question
Number: 287441
Date: 7.2.03

Here's another thread where Clarkmeister and others explain why you should raise preflop when you have the best hand. The Hero has JJ in the SB against 4 limpers. I think this is an especially good thread because this is a situation where a lot of people are more likely to just complete, knowing that their jacks will often not survive the flop.

Forum: Small Stakes Archives
Poster: bad beetz
Post: raise jacks out of the small blind?
Number: 301785
Date: 7.26.03

For more reinforcement of the same concept, you can re-read the 'Playing AKo Preflop (Raise or Call)' post I made on 11/7/05.

Personally, I need a lot of reinforcement, so here are two more tools.

The Poker Room Database.
You can use this to find the EV of specific hands in various positions against a certain number of opponents, and at a particular limit. If you don't want to repeatedly query the database, just take a look at the top left links on that page: total stats by card, and total stats by EV.

Please be aware that these stats are NOT a calculation. Rather, they are the result of many many hands dealt at Poker Room, and played by the players there. I am not sure how many hands, nor do I know how often the database is updated.

The GoCee.com Poker Database
This page show the percentage of time a certain hand expects to win against x opponents. Note that this is against a certain number of opponenets, NOT the number of hands that were dealt. So the against 9 opponenets colum means you're at a full 10 person table (you are the 10th person but don't count as an opponenet). Likewise, against 1 opponent is HU.

Basically, you should be raising preflop if you expect to win more than your fair share. Your fair share is:

1/number of hands dealt.

Or,

1/(number of opponents + 1)

if that format makes more sense to you. So against 3 opponents, your fair share is 25% and you should raise with any hand that figures to win more often than this. Note that the table currently lists hands in the conventional order (AA, AK, AQ, ..., A2, KK, KQ, etc.), but you can also sort the table by percentage of pots won (that is, the best performers will be at the top). Again, the idea is to raise any time you will win more than your fair share, even if you hand does not currently figure to be best at the moment (there are certain hands that typically fall into this category - suited aces for example).