The Year That Was

    To every thing, turn, turn, turn,
    There is a season, turn, turn, turn,
    And a time for every purpose under heaven       The Byrds

   It's the end of another poker year, and time to take a look back and analyse my results. Although I previously vowed to concentrate less on results and more on just enjoying the games, a little end-of-year analysis can't be a bad thing. OK, so the calendar year hasn't ended yet, but for reasons I need not go into here, my poker playing year ends on 30th November. Furthermore, for convenience I divide the year into 4 seasons: Dec-Feb (Summer season), Mar-May, June-Aug, Sep-Nov.
   I started this year in a poor situation. After a disastrous Winter/Autumn 2012 I was showing an overall loss. During the 2013 Summer season I was playing online SitnGos only and, fortunately for my bankroll, came up with some good results, achieving a return on investment (ROI) of 29% for the period. Then in the Autumn season I started playing 7 Card Stud cash games as well as SitnGos. This period started out OK but then I went into a bit of decline. By the end of May my results were looking so bad that I decided to take a month off from poker playing altogether. Nevertheless, this period did show a very small overall profit (about $40).
   I started the Winter season with a new attitude, and a new game. I started playing live Texas Holdem Tournaments in this period, as well as the other two previously mentioned online games. Although I played only about 9 weeks of poker in this period I clocked up a 65% ROI. This was almost entirely due to a couple of live tournament cashes. Then came the Spring season. I managed to show a net loss in every game type in this period, amounting to a total -12% ROI. So not a good way to end the year, but I'm still showing a net profit for 3 out of 4 periods, which is encouraging.

   As far as the different game types go, it's been a bit of a bumpy ride. This has been especially true of online SitnGos. Although I haven't been keeping records of the number of hours played for each game type, I'm sure that I've played far more hours at SitnGos than any other game type this year. It is certainly true that this game type accounts for most of the money I've spent this year. My SitnGo year started out really well, then went into a bit of a decline as the year progressed, showing negative results in the last two quarters. Oddly enough, the Autumn season showed a small profit but it was my awful April results that drove me to take a break from poker for a month in this period. That frustration has not returned, even though the 2nd half of the year has shown a net loss. Overall, the Summer season has saved my SitnGo results and I finished the year with an overall 7% ROI for this game type.
   As for 7 Card Stud, things have not gone well. My ROI for the 3 quarters I played this game are as follows: -27%, 14%, -29%. It's a surprise to me that I actually managed a period where I showed a profit in this game. I just could not get a handle on how to play 7 Card Stud. I tried playing tight, I tried playing super-tight, I tried playing like everyone else and just calling, calling, calling in the early stages, and I tried playing make-it-up-as-you-go poker but nothing seemed to work. The Winter season profit appears to be just due to variance and is not related to any particular playing style. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time to work it out; it's certainly true that by the end of the year I was looking for excuses not to play any more 7 Card Stud. In the end I showed an overall 17% loss for this game type. This may sound bad but I had the good sense to play this game at very low buy-in levels, so this loss amounts to only about $20.
   The live Texas Holdem tournaments have given me my best results for the year, although I've only been playing them since the middle of the calendar year. I started out in this game type with some very good results, although the cashes dried up a bit towards the end of the year. But I'm still reasonably confident that that I'll be able to keep up a good win rate going forward to the new year. I'm still refining my tournament play as much as I can by studying strategy articles from various sources. I've just played in the last game of the series for this year, although the organisers are now considering setting up a game for New Year's Eve. My ROI for live tourneys was 39% this year. Nice.
   Despite the ups and downs, it's been a pretty good year, both in terms of results and of the degree of satisfaction I get from playing poker. Going on tilt halfway through the year and taking a break as a result led to me developing a much better attitude towards my poker games. Apart from that, I'm very pleased with the fact that I'm now back to playing in regular live games. I started the year with a net loss but ended up seriously back in black, although I've dropped back down a bit since hitting my all-time high August bankroll level. Over all games, for the 12 months to 30th November my ROI was 23%. I'm pretty happy with that.
   Heading into the new year I've already started playing my Summer season game. This year it's online Texas Holdem tournaments: no rebuys, no add-ons, no turbos. Just straight-up tournaments. I've also worked out how to get around the problem that I had the last time I played tournaments as my only game. Previously I couldn't always find suitable tournaments at convenient times. But now that I play on PokerStars as well as 888poker, I have access to a wide variety of Multi-table SitnGo tournaments, usually involving 18 or 27 players. These on-demand tournaments are available pretty much all the time. So I'm launching myself into a new season of excitement, adventure and really wild things. Or something.
  

Blinds Up!

  It's eleven fifty-seven
  And I'm running out of time     (Who sings this?)

At my regular Friday night tournament the blind structure is always the same, but the organisers sometimes change the time between levels and/or the starting stack size and/or the opening blinds. The blind levels usually go 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 1000/2000. This means that your stack loses half its value at the first level, then changes much more slowly for the next 3 levels before halving in value again. But last Friday the organiser, B, decided to change the blind structure, but only for the later levels. So the blinds increased more gradually after the 500/1000 level but the earlier 2nd level jump stayed the same. He also increased the starting stack from 25k to 30k, which I thought was a bit odd because both measures were likely to increase the duration of the tournament.

  However you've got to roll with the punches and adjust to these things so I went ahead and paid in along with the 32 other players. As usual, the play was loose and passive but the increased starting stack suited my tight early-stage playing style. I just bided my time, raising my big hands (but not too much) and limping in with drawing hands and the occasional marginal hand from late position. It didn't take long to identify the loosest out of a very loose bunch: two chronic calling station on either side of me. Over the course of two hours I saw one of these two, M, limp in with AA, KK and AK, and somehow win with these hands by calling to the river in multi-way pots. In fact M hit quad Aces at one stage, which should have won her the 'monster hand' jackpot but not long after that someone on another table hit a 5-high straight flush.
   I got into an interesting hand with the other calling station, U, when I raised pre-flop with AQ and he called me. I missed the flop, but it was paired, so I bet at it and he called. I missed the turn as well so I checked and so did he. After missing the river I bet at it again and he called, turning over AJ. My Ace high beat his. Mostly I just stayed out of trouble and managed to pull in a few pots, which kept me above the average stack. Hands that have got me into trouble in the past seemed to be coming through. With pocket Jacks I bet on what seemed a pretty safe board and dragged in some chips from a player who flopped top pair. Then with KK I re-raised a fairly solid player pre-flop then when I bet the flop she folded.
   With the big starting stacks there were only a few players knocked out in the first couple of hours. I managed to chip up a bit and was actually the big stack at my table going into the middle stages. However, I guess I got 'big stack fever' and got a little too active, missing some draws and losing some chips. By the time we were down to a couple of tables the stacks were getting short and players started getting knocked out pretty regularly. At this stage I had around the average stack, but this amounted to just 12 big blinds! But I wasn't prepared to do what many others tend to do in this situation and play conservatively with a short stack. So I waited for my chance and when I picked up pocket Jacks I called an all-in bet from R. She turned over 55 and when a Jack hit the flop it was all over. Just to rub it in, the river was another Jack. So that made my stack size a bit healthier as we approached the final table.
   My wife and I both made the final table (the top 10). D came onto the table with an enormous stack of chips, at least three times the size of the next highest stack. The shortest stacks started to drop out fairly quickly. With 7 players left I found myself in a hand with my wife (P) and B. With K9 in the hand, the flop gave me middle pair (nines). The flop was all clubs and my King was a club, giving me a draw to the King high flush. When I bet, B pushed all-in. I seriously considered calling with my flush draw, but eventually decided to fold.  P however did call with the Ace of clubs and B showed his flopped flush. With no clubs on the turn or river my wife went out in 7th place and I breathed a sigh of relief over my decision to fold. It was not long before the 6th player was eliminated and I was in the money. The short stack who had limped across the bubble then exited, leaving just four of us.
   By now it was approaching midnight and we all had at least 20 big blinds each. The band had long since stopped playing and the bar was about to close. B shouted the three of us a drink, perhaps in recognition of our stamina, and we carried on. By this stage we had a volunteer to do the dealing for us, which made things easier, and faster. At this point I was enjoying playing my natural end-game and felt reasonably confident that I had a good shot at first place. I was bluffing at a few pots, raising any decent hand, and chipping up bit by bit. I showed a couple of my bluffs, just to keep them guessing. One in particular, was an attempt to steal with 72 that didn't work out. I figured that this would keep them calling when I actually had a hand. Fortunately for us, B is not only the poker tourney organiser but also the club president, so he arranged to have the club stay open to allow the game to go on. Meanwhile my wife, who was sitting behind me, was starting to fall asleep.
   I managed to chip up a bit with the following hand. I raised with AQ pre-flop and was called by D. The flop came K J * . He checked so I bet half the pot. He called. I missed the turn as well but put in a bet and he called again. When the Ace hit the flop I bet again and he called with his King. I took a nice chunk of his stack with this hand, and also managed to tilt him a bit. So I was the big stack for a while, until I picked up pocket Kings. By this stage B had started pushing all-in a lot. When he pushed this time I called him and he turned over JJ. Jacks had been good to me so far and this time they were good to B. He hit a Jack on the turn and I lost the hand. I thought that was it for me but when we matched our stacks up I still had about 5 big blinds left.
   So I struggled on as the short stack, but with some careful play and some good all-in pushes, gradually built my stack back up, knocking out P in the process. By 1am D was the small stack and B and I had around 15 big blinds each. As it was getting so late, B suggested that we split the prize money but I was determined to at least try and eliminate D. So I suggested that we play till 1.30 and then split if there was no result. By 1.15 D was out and B and I split the remaining prize money; probably the best result I could have hoped for in the circumstances. Then we played our hands all-in to determine who would get the extra point for the challenge points table. In terms of points at least, I came first.
   After that marathon session I hope that B adjusts his blind structure and/or starting stacks for next Friday. After all, if you're running a cash tournament, you should ensure that it's structured in such a way that it is able to be played out to the end. While I'm happy to finally break my losing streak in this most recent series of games, it's disappointing to not have the opportunity to win the first prize outright. I've come in the top two on three occasions so far but in two of these I've split the prize pool because it was getting late, and I came second in the only game where I actually got to play to the end. Nevertheless, with only one more round to go before the end of the year, this result means that I'm no longer in danger of barely breaking even in live tourneys and should come out with a nice little profit. Heading into the Christmas season, it's not a bad position to be in.

November Notes

       Money, get back,
       I'm all right Jack
       keep your hands off o' my stack           Pink Floyd


 INTER-CLUB
   In previous posts I've mentioned the Inter-Club poker tournament. This is  a $20 tournament that is held every 4th Sunday at various club venues. There are six clubs involved in this (I think) and each club enters a team of eight players. The idea is that, apart from the prize money,  players are awarded points according to their finishing position in each game. These points accumulate through the year and at the end of the year there is a prize-giving event where both individuals and teams are awarded cash prizes according to their over-all places on the points table. Each month a proportion of the prize pool is set aside and this is used for the end-of-year awards. I'm not sure how much this is but it is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total.
   I've played in a couple of these events and I even finished in the top three once, but the fact that a big chunk of the prize pool is 'raked' puts me off making it a regular thing. I know that there is a chance of getting some of that back by either finishing well in a number of games, or by getting into a strong team that usually finishes well. But of course that means you'd have to commit yourself to playing every month. And of course if you play in a team, you're dependant on your team-mates' results, and if you don't (you can play as an individual) then you're at a disadvantage because you're up against people playing as teams.
   So I've decided not to play in this tourney as a rule. However my wife enjoys it and has ended up playing regularly for the Onehunga RSA team, so I guess I'll go along for the ride occasionally. There's one coming up that will be held at a club I've never been to before, so I guess I'll go along to that one. The only question is whether I'll play using my poker stake or just take the entry fee out of my spending money. I shouldn't use my poker stake because I only want to use that money to play in games that have a good pay-out structure (i.e. have a low rake). On the other hand, a good win would boost my bankroll, and it needs that at the moment.
   The thing I don't get about the way this tourney works is how you reconcile playing for a team with playing for yourself. Are you really supposed to take it easy on a fellow team member sitting at your table? So if a team-mate raises pre-flop when you have, say JJ or AQ, what are you supposed to do? Fold? Re-raise to let them know you have a hand? And what if you fold some good holdings to help your team-mate out and then they get eliminated, leaving you short-stacked? After all, the higher you finish in the rankings the better for your team, right? It's essentially a game that is based on collusion, something that is strictly prohibited in 'normal' poker. So on the odd occasion when I play in this, it will always be as an individual player. It's less confusing that way.

WITHDRAWAL
   I've always been a little nervous about the notion of withdrawing money from a poker site. The conventional wisdom seems to be that it's dead easy to deposit money with poker sites, but devilishly hard to make withdrawals. Once the sites have your money, they don't want to let it go. But I've always figured that if I accumulate funds at a site, more than I need to play, then I'm better off to have it earning interest in my bank account than to have it earning interest for them. So a few months ago I decided I had more than enough in my 888poker account and should take some out. Almost immediately, the US government started fighting with itself, triggering a cash flow crisis and causing the US dollar to plummet in value against the New Zealand dollar. This strengthening of the $NZ might have been good for anyone planning an overseas trip, but it was bad news for me. So I figured I'd better wait for a bit, and when the $US reached the point of buying NZ$1.20, then I'd take my chances.
   I had previously made a sort of withdrawal from Fulltilt Poker, by transferring my funds to Pokerstars but it's not really the same thing. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago one of my work-mates, who plays poker on Pokerstars, decided to make a withdrawal. Apparently it was a bit of a hassle and it took him more than a week of e-mailing back and forth before he finally got his money. Also, because I'd made my deposits using a Visa debit card, I wasn't sure how a withdrawal would work. I thought I might have to use Skrill or Neteller, or some other e-transaction site.
   In the end, here's what happened. I went to the 888poker cashier, selected withdrawal, and entered the amount. The cash money disappeared from my account almost immediately and the 'history' tab listed my withdrawal as 'processing'. A couple of days later it was listed as confirmed. I checked my bank account, but the money wasn't there. However it was the weekend so I waited until Monday and checked it again. The money was in my bank account. It turned out to be a painless, ridiculously easy process. So much for all the horror stories.

FRIDAY TOURNAMENT
   I've been playing regularly in the Friday night $20 tournament at the 'Workies' since early July. I started out with a hiss and a roar, making the top two twice, cashing several other times and often finishing in the top ten. But my results have dropped off a bit in recent weeks. In the last nine games I've cashed just once, and that was a 5th place money-back situation. In fact, in the last seven games five of my finishes have been between 10th and 14th. I seem to be specialising in finishing just outside the final table.
   After winning the previous 'ten week challenge', I decided to try and improve my game further by checking out some strategy websites. One of these was by 'Serial EPT Qualifier' Pierre Neuville on www.pokerlistings.com.  He advocates a strategy based on relative chip stack size. The idea is to stay at or above the average stack size by adjusting the amount of acceptable risk vs likely reward. Although this strategy is specifically aimed at online qualifying tournaments, I decided to give it a go and spent a few weeks constantly monitoring relative stack sizes and trying to keep above the average stack size.
   Then I came across a series of strategy lessons available on You Tube that seemed quite useful. These are by someone called 'Gripsed' and can be found by searching for 'poker tournament strategy' on You Tube. These are divided into different stages and, although I think the later stage videos are less applicable to the loose live game I'm playing in, the early stage advice seems to be much more useful. This strategy focuses more on actual stack size rather than relative stack size. The idea is to play tight in the early stages and look for opportunities to draw to a big hand in multi-way pots. Apart from that, there are different strategies outlined for different stack sizes. The essential message for the early stages is: don't panic, look for the right spots to make a move.
   So I've been more or less following this strategy for the last few weeks. Even though my results so far have been pretty poor, I intend to persevere and see where the"'Gripsed plan' takes me. It has occurred to me that deviating from the way that I was playing before may not be too clever. After all, I was winning when I first started playing this tourney. But I've been playing poker long enough to realise that my initial success could have been a lucky streak, just as my recent losses could be the result of an unlucky patch. I haven't been playing in these tourneys long enough to know one way or the other. There's also the fact that the number of entrants in these tourneys has been increasing. When I first started there was typically 18 to 25 players in the game. Now there is usually 30 to 40. That has to make some difference. So for now I'll be following my new strategy and when the series ends in a few weeks I'll review my progress and decide how to proceed when the tourneys start up again next year.
   I've also decided that I'll be playing primarily in online Texas Holdem tournaments during the summer period, so that will give me a chance to tinker with my playing style and hopefully find out what works for me. That's the theory anyway.
  
  

  

The OMG Hand

    This is the world we live in
    And these are the hands we're given         Genesis

  So anyway, I'm playing in my regular Friday night live tournament. The starting stack is 25,000 and the blinds, at 300/600, are at the third level. So the tourney is still in the early stages. I'm sitting at a table with a number of new players and it's fair to say that it's a very 'sticky' table. In other words, most of the players are finding it hard to release their hands. There's a lot of calling and very little raising or folding. My stack size is above the average, somewhere around 28k.
   I'm sitting in the big blind when I'm dealt KK. As usual, nearly everyone limps in, just calling the big blind, from the player on my left around to the small blind. By this time I figure there's over 3000 in the pot. So the first thing I do is make sure the dealer doesn't start dealing the flop, as everyone is used to the BB just checking most of the time. Then I have a decision to make. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'd decided to limit my pre-flop raising of big hands to around 5% of my stack and just take my chances on the flop. But this is not a big hand, this is a monster hand. And as even the greenest poker newbie knows, AA and KK play very well against one or two callers, but very poorly in multi-way pots.
   I have three options at this stage; push all-in, raise or call. Actually, I don't even consider going all-in. I'm not willing to risk all my chips on the second nuts. It's not at all unlikely that I'd get called by a medium to large ace, and if an ace hit the board, I'd be in big trouble. So it's raise or call. I'd be risking less by just calling, but I'd also be turning my Kings into Dogs with so many drawing hands in the pot. The trouble is, I know that if I raise, I'll have to commit a big chunk of my stack to the hand. I know that if I raise, say five times the blind, I'd be lucky to push more than a couple of players out of the pot. So I decide to raise big in the hopes of forcing everyone to fold. I throw 7000 into the middle, amounting to over 11 times the BB, and about a quarter of my stack.
   The 'under-the-gun' player folds and then I sit and watch as player after player calls my huge raise. By the time the Small Blind calls there are a total of five players in the pot besides myself, and my jaw has dropped enough to go CLUNK on the table. OMG! The pot is now a monster, amounting to an entire big stack on its own. I know these guys are likely to call light but this is ridiculous. I figure there must be at least one ace out there, maybe several. At this point the worst thing that could happen to me would be seeing an ace on the flop.
   So the flop comes A A x. OMG! This is the second worst thing I could see. On the face of it, it could be good news. With two aces on the board, the chances of another ace being out there are reduced. But I just can't get past the number of hands that are in the pot and find it hard to believe that none of the hands that called such a big bet have an ace in them. I can just imagine someone limping in with something like A 5 and then calling into a huge pot in the hopes of hitting on the flop. Then the Small Blind bets 10k. OMG! In hindsight, most players wouldn't do this if they just hit trips. In my experience, a player who hits trips on the flop will usually check. They don't want to scare anyone off. They'll wait for someone else to bet and then either call or raise. If no-one bets, then they can always bet the turn or (if they're very patient) the river. Betting this flop seems more like the action of someone with two pairs.
   However, I'm thinking that even if she doesn't have it, there are still four more players to act behind me, any one of which could have me beat. And if I call this bet, I'll have to keep calling to the river and will probably end up all-in with what could be the second best hand. So I fold my KK and then watch as every other player folds in turn. Then as the player to my right drags in a massive pot she obligingly turns over her hand to reveal..... QQ.   OMG!  Oh    My     God.
   It took me a while to regain my composure after this hand. I played a number of hands after this on auto-pilot, and kept playing the hand over and over in my mind. I nearly went on tilt. I was tempted to push all-in with my next halfway decent hand in one of those call-this-you-bastards moments. But after taking about 45 long deep breaths I finally calmed down and got back into the game. In the end I got knocked out in 11th place. Maybe if I'd called that bet I would have got into the money with my early big stack. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
   Looking back at this I don't see what else I could have done differently. I really don't see myself playing it any other way. The only realistic possibility would be the pre-flop all-in push. But this is an option that puts all my chips at risk for what could be a coin flip. Of course, the advantage of this is that you are forcing your opponents into making a decision. But then again I thought I was doing that by putting in a huge raise! If this ever happened again, what would I do? Probably the same thing. Then again, maybe I'll toss a coin (or a chip); all-in or raise. Let the chips fall where they may.

The Law

I needed money 'cause I had none,
I fought the law and the law won        The Clash (The Crickets)

   A few weeks ago I decided to check out the legal position regarding the playing of online poker in New Zealand. I don't recall what sparked this enquiry, but it wasn't hard to find the information I needed online. The situation seems pretty straightforward. It's illegal to run an online gambling site from within New Zealand. It's illegal to advertise online gambling sites in this country. But it is not illegal to play online poker. According to the Department of Internal Affairs website (www.dia.govt.nz/Gambling),  'It is not illegal for someone in New Zealand to participate in gambling over the Internet if that website is based overseas.' The site then goes on to warn of the possible dangers of playing for money on sites that are not covered by New Zealand law. This is pretty much what I expected. However the situation for live games is a little more complex.
   Before I go any further, let me make something clear. I am not a lawyer. I have no legal training nor any expertise whatsoever in legal matters. What follows is a summary of my understanding of the law as it relates to poker in New Zealand. Most of this information comes from the Department of Internal Affairs website mentioned above. I am not qualified in any way to offer advice on gambling law and anyone reading this should bear this in mind. Is that clear?
   Apart from casino games, which are in a different category altogether, poker games fall into one of four categories of 'gambling activity'.
   Private Gambling. This  covers any game played in a private residence: in other words, home games. Basically, no-one can profit from the game. There can be no rake, entry fee, commission or any other charge on players, and all stakes must be paid out. Apart from this, the game must not be advertised. So you can invite your mates around for a home game as long as you don't advertise it to all and sundry. Interestingly, there is no limit on the size of the prize pool in these types of games. Also, it must be 'primarily a social event'. I don't know how you could possibly make a judgement on that; isn't any live poker game a social event?
  Class 1 Gambling. This category of poker game is any that is held at a venue other than a private dwelling and where the total prize pool is less than $500. Once again, all prize monies must be paid out and no-one can profit from running the game. The rules and condition of the game must also be clearly spelt out to the participants. These types of games can be run either by an individual or by a 'society' (e.g. a club). However games run by a society have to meet special conditions, which also apply to class 2 games. So for all intents and purposes, class 1 games are those run by individuals.
   Class 2 Gambling. Any gambling activity where the prize pool is greater than $500 can only be run by a society for the purpose of raising money for 'authorised purposes'. The prize limit is $5000 and, unlike the other two game types, money MUST come out of the prize pool. This money goes to 'charitable or other purposes beneficial to the community'. There is a list of approved purposes on the DIA website. As before, no individual can profit from the running of the game.
   Class 3 Gambling. Any game where the prize pool exceeds $5000 must also be run by a society as above and also requires a licence from the DIA.

   I first checked out these rules a few years ago when I decided to run a poker cash game up at my club. Along with a fellow home game regular, I looked into the legal requirements, then we set up a Class 2 game by first getting the approval of the club committee. The charitable aspect was pretty simply done: we charged entrants a 10% surcharge on top of their buy-ins and that money was donated to charity. We did it this way because we thought the prize pool might go over the $500 mark but as it happened we only got 5 or 6 players in each session, which kept the stakes well under that level. Since then I've had a casual interest in the level of compliance of the various games that I've played in. It turns out that most of them have been more or less within the law.
   A few years ago my wife used to play in a monthly pool tournament held in a 'garage club' in South Auckland. I used to go along as a supporter (mainly supporting the bar) and sometimes joined in a poker game that was often played at this venue. This game was run by L, the owner of the venue. There was generally a house rake of one minimum bet for each hand. So the blind bet (usually $2) went to the house, which amounted to quite a bit over a few hours of play. Of all the games I've played in, this one would be the farthest outside the law.
   The home game that I used to hold at my place was kind of in a grey area. We also used to collect the blind bet for the host, which on the face of it is illegal. However it's not that simple.  Firstly, although the game was generally held in my home, the 'host' changed with each round. Each of the people in our group took a turn at being the designated host and collected the 'kitty' at the end of the evening. What's more, the designated host was expected to provide snacks for everyone, and also finger food for supper. Paying for this usually took up a big chunk of the money collected. So although this game didn't comply with the letter of the law, I think it was more or less in line with intention of the law.
   As for the games that I've played in that have been held in pubs and clubs, they've generally been pretty straight (with the possible exception of National Pub Poker League games). I guess it pays to stay on the right side of the law when you could end up losing your liquor licence. The game I used to play in at the Phoenix Tavern was a Class 1 game and, apart from a couple of special games, all the prize pool was paid out. And the one that I'm playing in now on Friday nights is a Class 2 game and as far as I'm aware, the ten per cent that comes out of the prize pool goes to charity as required.
   The one area where a lot of these games don't measure up is in providing information to the participants about the rules and conditions. It may be a bit of a hassle for the organisers, but I'd like to see someone get up at the start and briefly go through the game structure, prizes, and any relevant rules and conditions of play. But that's a small criticism. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the games that I'm currently playing in, whether live or online. It's nice to be able to play a little poker without the authorities breathing down your neck.



  

Stud

  Oh, Red went and bought himself a monkey
  Got him from a pawn shop broker
  Taught that monkey how to guzzle beer
  And he taught him how to play stud poker        The Coasters

   I've been playing Fixed Limit Seven Card Stud online for nearly five months now, having first started back in March. I'd never played this game before so I decided I'd better start by just dipping my toe in the water. So, having read a little on Stud strategy, I started out by playing in the play money games on PokerStars. After a couple of sessions playing for 'funny money' I started observing the real money games and then, finally, actually started playing at the lowest possible level; the 4c/8c game. So I was committing $US2.00 of my hard-earned cash to each session (ie 50 blinds).  I decided to adopt this cautious approach after getting a bit of a caning in the previous two 'new games' that I'd tried my hand at. The idea was to lose as little as possible.

   There's not a lot of information out there on this game but I read as much as I could find. Most articles are aimed at mid to high stakes play, not the loose tables you find at the micro level online. But the general consensus seemed to be to play good starting hands hard, to limp in with drawing hands and to play tight. In other words, the same sort of general advice you'll get for Holdem or any other poker variant. But one important difference between Holdem and Stud is that you can see most of your opponents' cards, which helps in deciding whether your drawing hands are 'live' or 'dead'. So when I started playing I concentrated on limiting the number of times I entered the pot by playing a reasonably tight starting hand range and avoiding playing drawing hands where many of the 'outs' were already gone.
   I soon found that Seven Card Stud games at this level are just as loose as other poker games at micro stakes.  Typically most players will limp in to see 4th Street and then check or call all the way to 7th St, always hoping to make a winning hand on the next street. You don't usually see any betting or raising until someone has made a hand, and then the raiser will get called all the way to 7th St by several players. Betting or raising with a good starting hand does little if anything to reduce the field and stop players from drawing out on you. In fact, the vast majority that go to showdown are won by hands that were made on 7th St. Typically, someone chases a made straight to the final street and then hits a full house, or someone with nothing but a pair of Queens makes a backdoor flush on 7th. This can be very frustrating. I've lost count of the number of times I've had the best hand up until 6th St then been outdrawn on 7th.
   Having said all that, on occasion I've come across an odd phenomenon where players start behaving in a completely contrary manner. Sometimes when I raise on 3rd St with a good starting hand I find myself in a raising and re-raising battle with two or more other players. Then, if I bet again on 4th St it starts again. By the time I get to 5th, I'm slowing down in fear of what the other players might have. Invariably I find if these hands reach showdown that the other players had nothing. Call me paranoid, but it's almost as if there is some sort of secret 7-Stud players' agreement to punish the 3rd St raiser. "How dare you raise on 3rd St when we just want to draw to showdown". The most memorable time this happened to me was when I had 999 on 3rd St, a MONSTER starting hand, and one player kept re-raising me, even though he was only showing a 5. By the time this had gone on for a few rounds I was sure he must have started with 555, or at least AA5. It turned out that he had something like J85 (not suited)! Weird.

 One good thing about playing Stud on Pokerstars is the hand replay feature. Players can choose a setting that automatically mucks their hand if they lose at the showdown. That way, other players don't get to see what they had. But it turns out that if you use the hand replay feature, you get to see the content of hands that were mucked at showdown. I've found this to be a very useful feature. You can pick up a lot of good information on the sort of hands people were playing by going back and checking the hand replay.                                                                                                          

   I've played in 16 money games so far, the first one of which was on the 10th April. In the early period, from March to May I had more losing than winning sessions and registered a net loss. This was no surprise, given that I was just getting started. In the next three month period I also lost more games than I won, but I actually ended up with a net win. This was somewhat surprising to me, as I remember the losses a lot more than I remember the wins. I guess the wins were just bigger than the losses. However, I'm not jumping for joy just yet. This game is proving to be very difficult to master and my last four sessions have looked like this: L L W L.

   This is my third year of playing a new version of poker. The first was Pot Limit 6-max Omaha and the second was Fixed Limit 6-max Texas Holdem. I found both these game types to be difficult to master. Omaha is a game of big hands and big draws. Typically, pots are won by two pair or better, with straights and flushes turning up much more frequently than in Texas Holdem. And players often have big draws that they chase all the way to the river. In Fixed Limit Holdem it's very difficult to bet drawing players out of the pot. This is because the fixed limit structure almost always gives the callers the right odds. So you get a lot of chasers following you to the river. Seven Card Stud seems to combine the worst features of these two games. On the one hand it features big hands and big draws and on the other, players usually have the odds to chase their draws, especially in an eight handed game. In short, Seven Card Stud is a devilish mix of the worst possible features of other poker variants.
   Nevertheless, I intend to persevere and keep trying to find the key to successful Stud play. At least I had the good sense to start playing at the micro level. So I have a very simple short term goal for this game; to have enough wins to justify moving up to the next level. If I can start playing 5c/10c Stud, then I'll really know that I've made it.
  

August Journal, Part Two

   Sometimes it seems like winter's end
   The weeks they just go on like a friend of mine     Texas

Monday 19th. Online 7 Card Stud.
   Too busy to play poker on the weekend, so squeezed a session in on Monday evening. Went in with no particular plan. Tried identifying the most successful players by monitoring their stack sizes, but there were too many variables to keep track. Played for three hours, had a small loss.

Tuesday 20th. Online SitNGo session.
   Had a sudden rush of enthusiasm to play some more poker.
*Game 1. Mid-game I hit the nut straight on the flop. Player 4 bets, I re-raise and he goes all-in with pocket 7s and a straight draw. I double up. I have a big stack for most of the game but gradually it dwindles until I have the smallest of the four remaining stacks. To my surprise, the three others all go all-in and I'm left in the top two. The remaining player has a massive chip stack and I can't beat him. Second place.
*Game 2. In this one I had a player to my left who kept quoting statistics about the odds of various hands improving. Not many good hands at first. I'm the short stack by the time I make the top four but careful, conservative play gets me across the bubble. After a long heads-up battle I make first place.
*Game 3. A very loose, passive table, with many players limping in pre-flop. I hit trips twice in a row, both times with hands that I would have folded to a pre-flop raise, and end up doubling up. In the end I cruise into the money and take out first place.
   A very good session; possibly the best SitNGo session I've ever had.

Wednesday 21st. Online SitNGo session.
   Only two games in this session.
The first is quite an active game. I don't get much traction and then lose a lot of chips trying to bluff the table (poker rule #7: you can't bluff the table). The second game starts well but then I lose a lot when my hand keeps improving - from top pair to two pair to a flush - and I re-raise a player who has a better flush (poker rule # 12: don't raise a player if you're only going to get called by a better hand). But I claw my way back into the running with a couple of good all-ins. Eventually I make the top two with the biggest stack but it's a real arm-wrestle. Finally I lose an all-in with my A8 vs Q7. This second place finish gives me a small profit overall. Two winning SitNGo sessions in a row! Things are looking up.

Friday 23rd. Live Tournament.
  I go into this tournament with a strategy to deal with all the loose calls. I've decided that I'm willing to raise up to 5% of my stack to protect my good hands pre-flop. Things start out pretty well and I drag in some decent pots. Then I lose about half my stack when I raise with AK and get called by K8 and my opponent (a notorious calling station) hits two pair on the flop. I reach the late stages with less than ten big blinds but there are a number of players with even shorter stacks. So I play conservatively and manage to hang on and reach the final table. In the top eight with an average stack I raise with QQ and the big stack re-raises all-in. Having committed about one quarter of my stack, I call and he turns over AT. There's an Ace on the flop and that's the end of my game. Not only does the player who knocked me out go on to win, but he overtakes me on the Ten Week Challenge leader board. Damn.

Saturday 24th. Online 7 Card Stud.
   Just for a change, I manage to find some spare time on the weekend for a poker session, so I play some 7 Stud in the afternoon. Once again I have no idea what sort of strategy might work, so I decide to play it by ear. Things start out poorly but after a while I win some good pots and after 4 hours of play I've more than doubled my buy-in. For now I'm just putting it down to dumb luck because I really can't see that I'm playing any differently than before.
   Unusually for Pokerstars, there is quite a lot of chat during this game, with a fair bit of joking around between me and two others. Then one of them suffers a bad beat when he loses a big pot to another player who hits quads on 7th street. So the loser goes ballistic and starts abusing the other player and ranting on for ages. Eventually he calms down a bit but that pretty much kills the friendly vibe of the table. I wonder how some of these people would behave in a live game?
   Hands where I saw 4th street: 46%
   Hands that went to showdown: 11%  (22 times)
   Hands won at showdown: 68%
   Hands won without showing: 11

Wednesday 28th. Online SitNGo session.
   This Wednesday night session turns out to be a real struggle. Can't seem to hit anything in the first two games and when I do, someone else has something better. Trying to bluff a draw chaser out of the pot in game 1 doesn't help (poker rule #1: you can't bluff a donkey). I end up all-in against AJ in both games, the first time with KQ and the second time with a desperate K8 push. I lose on both occasions, finishing 6th and 7th.
   Game 3 features lots of early knockouts. By the time we reach the fourth blind level (50/100) there are only three players left. I start as one of three small stacks against one huge stack but manage to work my way back up. I go into heads up play on roughly even terms and end up coming second after pushing all-in with 77 vs AK. In game 4 I double up early on then play fairly tight in the mid stages. But I lose a lot of chips when I decide that my pocket sevens are good with 3 Kings on the board, only to discover that my opponent has paired his Ten for a better full house. Oops. But I still manage to limp into the money, coming third, and coming out of the session with a very small profit.

Friday 30th. Live Tournament.
   There are 29 players at the tourney this week and the organisers have made it a Turbo; a stack to blind ratio of 3000/400 gives me less than 80 Big Blinds to start with and the levels increase every 12 minutes. I know I have to get into a lot of pots in the early stages but I'm coming up with nothing and by the time we hit the first break I'm down to about 15 BBs. Then a player raises the minimum pre-flop and I push all-in with AKs. He calls with his 99 and I hit an Ace and double up. Things improve from there and I manage to stay around the level of the average stack. The rapid increase in the blinds means that by the time we are down to the last 15 players the BBs are 10k and the average stack is 70k! So there are a lot of short stacks in the game. By the time I reach the final table some of the remaining players are nursing stacks that amount to just 3 or 4 BBs. I cruise into the money then play my way into the top two.
   Heads up, I'm up against R, the same guy I got into the top two with last time. But it's only 11pm and there's no splitting the prize pool this time. We each have about 6 Big Blinds so we know the game's not going to go on too long. After swapping chip stacks back and forth for a few hands R lets me check my Big Blind with 84 and we see a flop. I hit middle pair with my 8 and push all-in. R calls with a straight draw and 2 overcards. He pairs his Queen on the turn and the river is no help. I take second prize again and regain my lead on the Ten Week Challenge ladder. Maybe I should change my opinion on turbo tournaments.
  












  

August Journal, Part One

   Woke up, fell out of bed,
   Dragged a comb across my head...            The Beatles

Friday 2nd. Live Tournament
   I went to the Texas Holdem Tourney at the Workingmen's Club, as per usual. Started out well when I hit a full house early on, but after that my hands were just not connecting. Every time I got an ace, it got beat. By the middle stage my stack was almost to the all-in-or-fold level. Then I hit the nut flush a couple of times and chipped up. They started the tournament with 30 minute blind levels, then they dropped down to 20 minutes. My wife was knocked out in 8th place. By the time we reached the bubble (5 players paid) I had less than 10 big blinds left. Managed to limp into the money. Then with 5 players left I had a couple of good collects (one of them another flush). I became the big stack bully and cruised into the top two. It was nearly midnight by this stage so we split the prize pool and I went home with $182. Nice.

Monday 5th. Online SNG session.
   I had a day off work so decided to play a few $5.50 SitNGos on 888poker.
1. Bad decision. Early in the game I call an all-in river bet with 2 pair and get beaten by a flopped straight. Left with just 1 1/2 big blinds. I go all-in and hit a straight on the turn with four other players in the pot. Then there is a straight on the board on the river and the pot is split five ways! I get knocked out a couple of hands later, 8th out of 9.
2. Arm wrestle.  One of those games where everyone hangs on and the blinds get big with 5 or 6 short-stacked players still in the game. I get off to a bad start, down to all-in-or fold mode. Then I double up and hang around among the shorter stacks, just trying to stay out of trouble. With the BB at 500 (they start at 20) and 5 players still in, three players go all-in and I make the money. But with only 3 BB left, the best I can manage is 3rd.
3. Running good. I double up after getting top pair and calling big bets all the way to the river, where I hit a straight. Turns out the opposition was betting on a flush draw that never came in. I'm to the right of an aggressive player who raises a lot when he's the big stack, then starts going all-in a lot when his stack gets downsized. Eventually I call his pre-flop all-in with AQ and beat his A7. I cruise into the money as the big stack then have a long heads-up battle before finally taking out first prize.
4. Oops. I pick up AK in the first hand and raise to 4x the BB. One player re-raises and there are 3 callers (!) so I 4-bet it and he calls. The flop is something like 3 6 9. The opposition puts in a big bet and, foolishly, I re-raise all-in. He calls with QQ and I leave the game with egg on my face.
5. Roller coaster. I start out well but then lose a lot of chips trying to bluff a persistent player with middle pair. By mid-game I'm down to 5 BBs but chip up with some successful all-ins. I cross the bubble in 3rd position but a series of poor hands and poor decisions result in a 3rd place finish.
   My first winning session for this game type for quite a while. Hoping to keep up the momentum.

Wednesday 7th. Online 7 Card Stud.
   My regular Wednesday poker night. I go into this low level 7 Card Stud session on Pokerstars with the aim of playing tight. I want to see 4th St (the equivalent of seeing the flop in Holdem) less than 40% of the time. I also aim to chase draws only when I have the right pot odds and always be aware of the number of 'lost outs' - cards that could help me but are showing in someone else's hand. After a while I find that betting when I'm showing a big card and everyone else is checking is usually profitable. I get off to a good start and stay ahead for quite a while. 2 1/2 hours in and my percentage for seeing 4th St goes above 40. Three hours in and my stack drops below my original buy-in. After 4 hours I finish slightly behind. I seldom come out ahead at this game.
Hands where I saw 4th St: 43%
Pots won at showdown: 50%
25 pots won without showdown.

Friday 9th. Live Tournament.
   Back to the 'Workies' again. My wife and I turn up and find that there are 32 players this week, a new record. This game is one of a series of ten and players who make the final table (top 10) each week get points for their finishing position. The overall points winner after ten weeks gets a cash prize. I discover that I am currently in first place on the points table. Nice.
   As for the game, I get nowhere fast. My best pre-flop hands all night are A9 and 99. I pick up the A9 in my first hand and raise. I get re-raised and fold. My opponent then shows he had AQ. It's always a bonus when you get free information. The 99 did much better. I ended up flopping a set of 9s vs a set of 3s. Collected a nice pot. But didn't get much more after that and ended up all-in with pocket 7s vs AK. Knocked out 18/32.
   My wife also got knocked out about the same time, but still managed to win some money. There is a jackpot each game for any player who gets quads (four of a kind) or a straight flush. You pay an extra $2 each week to be in this jackpot. My wife pays into this and she hit quad Aces. So we had to stay around to the end of the game to collect her money. There were quite a few 'rail birds' watching the game at the end. It's getting quite popular.

Wednesday 14th. Online SNG session.
   Normally I try to fit in a SNG poker session on the weekend, but it's not always easy to manage. As Fridays are now booked, I've decided to play alternate sessions of SNGs and 7 Stud online, regardless of the day.  So my Wednesday poker night this time is a SNG session on 888poker.
1. Very sticky players in this game - they just won't let go. I double up early with a set vs top pair. Then I lose a lot betting QQ hard when a chaser hits a straight on the river. 7/9
2. Early on I get AKs and end up 3 betting it. With an Ace and Queen on the flop I bet big and he calls. A Ten on the turn gives him a set and I end up all-in on the river with a losing hand. 9/9
3. This time it's my flopped top pair vs top set on the flop. I keep calling his bets and am all-in on the river. 8/9
4. I last longer in this one. I end up in a five-way arm wrestle. With fewer than 10 BB I try to trap my opponent when I flop 2 pair. But he turns a flush. Trapped myself. 5/9
5. Should have quit by this stage but decide to play just one more... I pick up chips here and there but am short-stacked towards the end, then get lucky with a couple of all-ins. Make the final three as the short stack, but manage to play my way into first position. Yay! 1/9
6. OK, one more... Lose a lot of chips by playing mid-strength hands from poor position (when will I learn?). With a short stack I limp in with a weak King. I go all-in when I hit top pair and am beaten by both callers; a flopped 2 pair (8 4) and a turned straight (A K). 8/9
   Another losing SNG session.

Friday 16th. Live Tournament.
   Another big turnout at the Workies: 31 players this time. They vary the starting stacks and blinds each week. This time we start quite deep with 150 BB. My first table has some VERY loose players who will call almost any pre-flop raise. I get a number of good starting hands, raise 3x the blind, and get called by virtually the whole table. For example: I raise with AQ, hit an Ace on the flop, and my big bets are called to the river by a player with J2s ! Of course he hits a flush on the river. Later, I knock him out when I get sick of my raises being called and limp in with JJ, only to hit a set on the flop. He calls my river all-in with middle pair. Haha. I do OK for a while but eventually get worn down and finish 13th.
   I'm trying to figure out the best way to play against such sticky players. Should I push my pre-flop raises higher to try and isolate one or two callers, even if it means committing a significant number of precious chips to just one hand? Or should I just limp in and hope my hand improves enough to beat all the other callers and take out a huge pot?  I have to decide how I'm going to approach this style of game in future. Now I've really got Friday on my mind.

Attitude Adjustment

Life is what happens to you
while you're busy making other plans.            John Lennon

www.kiwiology.co.nz
   A few months ago I decided to take a month's break from poker. This was in the middle of a prolonged downswing. My results changed from very good to very bad from April this year, and looked set to continue downhill indefinitely. Something similar happened about the same time last year and my winning margin had turned into a losing margin by the end of the year. In an effort to prevent this from happening again, I called a time out. I had become increasingly frustrated with my sudden change of fortune and figured that taking a break would do me good.
   Although I spent the time reading up on poker strategy and thinking about how to improve my game, I didn't actually play any poker during that period. It was actually surprising to me how easy it was to go a month without poker games. Although I missed playing, I managed to find plenty of things to fill my time; things I used to do before my poker obsession started. By the time that I returned to the game I was feeling refreshed and ready to play.
   But my plan to break my losing streak didn't work. I continued to lose in my online poker games in a fairly consistent manner. In fact, in July I had a run of 15 online SitnGo games without cashing even once. The Seven Card Stud games were just as bad, with a steady run of bad results, albeit at very low buy-in levels. But this time around, the string of losses didn't bother me. Each time I lost I just brushed it off and carried on. No worries. At first I figured that this new-found attitude would wear off in time, but it didn't. It appears to be a permanent attitude adjustment. Although my live poker tournament results were a bit better, the new attitude was also evident when things didn't work out. In my second live game, when I was in the top seven players and went all-in with pocket aces, only to be knocked out by someone who called me with Q2 offsuit, I just shook his hand and walked off with a smile. No worries.

   I've been trying to put my finger on what it is that's had such a drastic effect on my way of approaching the game. The more I think about it, the more I come to the realisation that it's about expectations. I think that one of the things that got me so annoyed about my poor form earlier was the contrast with the previous period of very good results. Since the beginning of the year my bankroll had been increasing slowly but steadily and I'd come to the conclusion that I'd finally figured out how to play SitnGos successfully. Going on a losing run even though I hadn't changed my strategy was a bit of a shock to the system. But coming back into the game, although I hoped to start winning again, I wasn't expecting to.
   On reflection, this all goes back to the time when I first started taking the game seriously. When I first started reading about poker it was something of a revelation that there were actually people who could make a living out of playing poker. I think it was always in the back of my mind that if I got good enough, I could be one of those people. As a result, I became very results driven. Even a casual look at my previous posts shows a pre-occupation with my results and the size of my bankroll. So whenever I posted a few losses it was a big problem and the more I tried to analyse my way out of the hole the worse my play got. It wasn't about the game anymore, but about the results.
   Having a break from poker has given me a new sense of perspective. I'm now much more relaxed about the games. I'm no longer obsessing about whether my bankroll is increasing and drawing graphs of my progress. That doesn't mean that I don't care about winning, just that I care less about losing. Most importantly, I'm enjoying playing like I used to and am focused on the game itself rather than the results. Of course I still try to improve my game and play as well as I possibly can. Playing poker is such a terrific challenge and there is always something new to learn. So that's what I concentrate on: learning to play the game as well as I possibly can and letting the results take care of themselves.

Going Live

      Today I might be mad,
      Tomorrow I'll be glad,
      I've got Friday on my mind.      The Easybeats

   As mentioned in my previous post, I've discovered a weekly live Texas Holdem tournament. This tourney is on a Friday night, and costs $20 to enter. My wife and I found out about this in late June and we've played five weeks in a row since then, although we're probably going to give it a miss this week as we have a pool competition on Saturday that starts quite early. If you make the money in this tourney (usually the top five) you're probably going to get home close to midnight. Typically there are 20 to 25 players involved, which means a total prize pool of around $500. So far I've finished 18th, 7th, 3rd, 6th and 5th, leaving me $20 down overall. I'm reasonably happy with this result although I think I need to work on my endgame a bit to get a better payout when I make the money.
   I'm impressed with the professional way in which this tourney is run. Firstly, it invariably starts on time, at 7pm. When I used to play in a tournament at a pub a couple of years ago, their 7pm start time usually became 8pm or later. The current tourney organisers also use tournament management software, displaying all the relative information on a big screen for everyone to see. It's good to be able to look up and see when the next break is, when the blinds go up next and by how much, how many players are left in, what the average stack size is and so on. Also, they usually manage to find someone to do the dealing once the numbers get down to the last three or four. I discovered last week that ten percent comes out of the prize pool for a charitable donation. This is a requirement under New Zealand's gaming laws, and is not much different from the standard ten percent game fee of most online tournaments. So overall, a very good event to be involved with.
  After playing online for so long, I didn't realise how much I missed playing live poker until I started up with this game. There's just nothing like sitting around a table with real live people, peeking at your hole cards and stacking up your chips. Although it's taken me awhile to get used to the duties of live play. You have to remember to post the blinds, not to act out of turn, to announce your raise, not make string bets and to refrain from commenting on the cards while the they are still in play, among other things. Unlike playing on a computer, you've got to do it all yourself.
   The people who play in this tournament are a pretty good bunch, all very friendly and have welcomed us into their game without reservation (even though my wife and I are not even members of their club - yet). Many of them have been playing for a while and know each others' play quite well. But I haven't come across anyone with a particularly intimidating playing style. Play is generally pretty loose and passive, especially in the early stages. For most of the players, it's all about the draw. Of course, being a club, there is a fair bit of drinking going on by some of the players, myself included. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that my lack of top two finishes has something to do with the cumulative effects of alcohol consumption, so I guess I'd better cut back a bit.
   Apart from this weekly tourney, we got involved in a monthly Texas Holdem tournament that involves a number of different clubs. This is a teams competition that is played once a month on a Sunday. Each club puts up an eight player team and they all play in a $20 entry tourney. Each person plays individually, in the usual way, but they also get points for their team, based on the position they finish in. Apparently some of the prize money goes into a separate pool that is paid out to the highest-scoring teams at the end of the year. As individual, non-team players can also participate, my wife and I both entered and played in this game. Oddly enough, it was held at our home club. It turns out that the poker players from our home club had been entering teams in this competition for some time, but this was the first time we'd ever heard about it. Anyway, my wife and I both went deeper into this tourney than any of our RSA team players managed, and I ended up making the top three out of a total of 59 players. We three split the prize pool and I walked away with $200. Nice.
   Despite this success, I'm not sure if I'll play in this monthly game again. A big chunk of the prize pool goes into the end-of-year pool, which amounts to a pretty big rake unless you are in a team and play in every tourney. Even then, any end-of-year payout would depend on how well your team-mates did. I just don't see poker as a team sport.
   But I will definitely be turning up at the Workingman's Club most Friday nights for the weekly poker tourney. My immediate goal is to take out first place and get a decent payout. But regardless of the results, even if I come up with a string of poor results, I think my Friday nights are booked for quite a while.

News Briefs

        What's the buzz?
        Tell me what's a-happening.           Jesus Christ Superstar

    Having taken a one month break from poker play in an effort to break my most recent losing streak, I am now back in the game. Although I haven't been playing poker, I've still been keeping in touch with the poker world in various ways:

SECRETS OF SITNGOS. I went down to the local library and got myself a poker book to study: Secrets of Sitngos. This was the only book I could find that dealt specifically with SitnGo tournaments, and I found it to be moderately useful. As usual it was aimed mainly at higher-level players but there were a few ideas that I found to be of interest. I particularly liked the end section, where particular scenarios were put forward and the reader was given the opportunity to answer a multiple choice question on what to do next. However much of the book was based on a theory called the Independent Chip Model or ICM, a mathematical model based on the assumed real-money value of tournament chips in different situations. This mathematical stuff went pretty much completely over my head and frankly, if being a good player in SitnGos is dependant on applying complex mathematical hand analysis, I guess I'll just have to keep swimming with the other fish.

POKER ON TV. I'm still watching Poker after Dark and The Big Game each week. In fact my wife and I have got into the habit of watching these shows over breakfast on Saturday and
Sunday mornings. The new 'loose cannon' (the amateur player) on The Big Game is doing pretty well, especially after doubling up through Phil Hellmuth. He's so far ahead of the other contenders now that he's basically shut up shop. He even folded pocket aces at one stage in order to preserve his big stack. Meanwhile I've found yet another poker show playing on Thursdays. This one covers the Aussie Millions tournament and one of the commentators is Aussie poker pro Joe Hachem. His comments about the play and what he thinks the players are going to do, or what they should do, are always interesting and insightful.

POKER SCHOOL. I also checked out the Poker Stars Poker School which looks to be a useful tool for learning about correct poker play. However I only read the first few sections, as I wanted to concentrate on the SitnGo book. I will get back to it sometime soon, but for now I'm concentrating on actually playing.

WSOP. The World Series of Poker is now in full swing and I've been checking out some of the results on www.wsop.com .  It's nice to be able to go to the website and see who's winning or losing in different events. They're even streaming some of the final tables live, with commentary. Last year they showed the Main Event live (delayed by about 10 minutes actually) on ESPN. I don't know if they're doing that again this year, but I think Day One starts tomorrow, so I'll be keeping an eye out. Actually, I may be approaching saturation point for Poker TV programmes.

LIVE TOURNEY. After searching high and low I've finally found a decent live poker tournament. It turns out that the Workingman's Club just up the road from the RSA where I usually hang out has been running a Texas Holdem Tournament every Friday night for the last three years. This tourney is $20 entry, no rebuys, no add-ons, no extra chips; just what I've been looking for. The entry fee is technically beyond my buy-in limit but I'm willing to bend my buy-in rules for the sake of being able to play in a live tourney. My wife and I have played for the last three weeks and intend to continue going up there pretty much every week. The first week I was eliminated 16 out of 18, week two I came in 7th and this week I made 3rd out of 26 and made my three buy-ins back.

NEW CONCEPTS. The book I previously mentioned introduced me to three new poker concepts.
   The ICM. The Independent Chip Model basically tells you how to act based on your chip stack and that of your opponents and a number of other factors. Apparently you can get software that does the calculations for you. I'm not really interested in going down this road. I had enough maths in school.
   Sharkscope. This is a website that gathers information on online players. You go to www.sharkscope.com , type in a player's username, and get a lot of information on their results from the tournaments they've played online. This could be potentially quite useful. I went to the site and discovered that 888 poker doesn't allow this sort of data mining so there is no info available for 888 players.  So I tried typing in my own username for Pokerstars, as I've played a couple of SitnGos on that site. The info that came up said that I'd played 1 SitnGo and 1 Omaha Pot-limit Tournament. I've never played an Omaha tournament in my life, so I guess the information available on this site is not entirely accurate.
    ROI. I've seen players refer to 'return on investment' before, as a measure of success in games, but never paid much attention to it. But having it explained in the SitnGo book has made me realise that it is a much better way of measuring poker success than my current method. It's very simple. ROI is just a measure of the amount won (or lost) as a percentage of the amount 'invested'. This provides a useful measure of results regardless of the buy-in level. I will definitely be re-assessing my record-keeping to accommodate this new concept.

NEW ATTITUDE. The online games I've played so far since my break have yielded very poor results. It seems that my losing streak is still alive and well, as far as online games go anyway. But the difference is that it's not bugging me anymore (at least not so far). I've come back into the game with a whole new attitude. Maybe I was getting so worked up over losing before because it was in contrast to my previous good results. Now, even though I'm losing consistently, and have actually dropped down a couple of levels in my SitnGos, I accept my losses with good humour and just keep trying. I seem to have gained a sense of perspective on my poker play that I didn't have before and I think that I will be re-assessing my whole approach to the game. But more on that later...
  

Skycity

  You always said
  The cards would never do you wrong
  The trick you said
  Was never play the game too long          Bob Seager

    Auckland got its first (and only) casino in 1996. Not long after it opened my wife and I went and checked it out, just to see what it was like. I guess we must have enjoyed it because we've been going there maybe two or three times a year ever since. Back then there were no poker tables at the casino. Some of the gaming machines were poker machines, where you get dealt a poker hand and try to draw a prize-winning one. There was also a table game called Caribbean Stud Poker, where patrons play against the house like they do in Blackjack. But there were no live poker games available, not that I was looking for that at the time. Generally my wife would play on 'the pokies' and I would play Roulette, or occasionally try my hand at Tai Sai or the 'Winning Wheel'.
   They installed poker tables on the mezzanine floor sometime in the early Twentyfirst Century and I finally got around to trying it out in 2008. The poker primers that I'd been reading inspired me to go and try my hand (so to speak) at casino poker games. So, after a couple of stiff drinks at the bar I went and bought in for $100 and joined the $1/$2 cash game. After getting over my initial nervousness, I found it quite enjoyable. Although it was my first ever casino game I probably wouldn't remember much about it if it wasn't for a particular incident.
   I'd been playing for a while when I picked up a small pocket pair. Two other players saw the flop, which was A A X. There was a bet and a call from the other two, and I called as well. There was more betting on the turn and the river, and for some reason I kept calling. I don't know why I thought my two pair was good in the face of two players' aggressive raises but I did, and both my opponents turned over aces. This was an embarrassingly bad play but it was made much worse by what happened afterwards.
   One of the players who'd turned over trips was astonished by my stupid call. He proceeded to address the table at length about how he couldn't understand why I'd do that. He spent some time carefully dissecting the hand while I sat there and tried to shrink into the back of my seat. He never actually addressed me and he never actually called me an idiot, but he might as well have. I was well aware of how bad the play had been, but he was just making sure that everyone else knew. Not long after that I picked up AJ suited and raised. Mr Analysis then re-raised all-in. I thought for a bit , then called him. I think it's fair to say that a good part of my decision to call was a desire to get even. He turned over pocket sevens, and by the time we reached the river I had nothing and he had a full house. That was the end of my first casino game. Not a great start.
   I went back up and played three more times over that summer holiday period, with mixed results. It was a while ago now but I do remember flopping an Ace high straight at one stage, and also seeing my pocket Queens become trips on the flop and then quads on the river. I also recall one game where one of the players was a big-stack maniac, raising nearly every hand and annoying the hell out of everyone else. At this time the poker area was very busy, with a number of different levels of cash game being played and regular low buy-in SitnGo tournaments. They were even playing Omaha cash games for a while there.
   I came back to play some more casino games towards the end of 2009. Skycity was running a prize draw promotion on Wednesday nights and my wife was keen to try and win the big prize. So we went up to the casino on a number of Wednesday evenings over the holidays and I took the opportunity to play a little poker. By this stage the blinds in the lowest level cash game were $2/$3, so a $100 buy-in only amounted to 33 big blinds, rather than 50.

   The great thing about casino games is that you get all the fun of a live game without the hassle of having to deal. The dealer does everything for you, even keeping you informed of whose turn it is to act. All you have to do is concentrate on your game. What's more, there are a lot of gamblers around, which is generally a good thing for someone who knows a little about correct play. Of course the down-side is the rake. From my reading I understand that Skycity's ten percent rake is on the high side, and makes it difficult for anyone to win in the long run.
   By the end of 2010 I was playing in regular tournaments at a local pub, so I gave the casino a miss. However, I did go up there in January 2011 to check out the Monday night tournament that some other players had told me about. First I went up to the casino on the weekend to get all the details, and confirmed that it was $20 buy-in and $20 re-buy. So I turned up on Monday night and bought my tourney chips along with maybe 50 or 60 others. I was somewhat surprised when I sat down at the table to find that nearly everyone else had a bigger stack than me. That's when I learned that players could buy in for double the starting stack for an extra $10; something that the cashier I'd spoken to on the previous day had neglected to mention. Much to my disgust, I started the game at a disadvantage and eventually got knocked out after going all-in with KQ. Then when I tried to re-buy I found that I had to use casino chips rather than cash; something else I didn't know. Luckily for me one of the other players helped me out and sold me some of his casino chips which enabled me to re-buy. The tournament hadn't been going for an hour when I ended up all-in pre-flop with KQ again, and lost again.  It turns out that there was also a variable re-buy and a two-level add-on available in this game. If I were to buy-in, re-buy and add-on for the maximum amount it would have cost about $100. Very far from the $20/$20 cost that I been told about! That was my one and only Skycity poker tournament.
   It was not long after this that I started playing online. I was now in a position to play poker at any buy-in level I chose, which allowed me to start a proper bankroll management plan. No more expensive buy-ins for me. So on the odd occasion when my wife and I went to the casino, I stuck to the roulette. Except for one occasion last year when I decided to have a 'just-for-fun' game; one that I would play with my gambling money, not my poker bankroll. By this stage the 'poker zone' had been moved to a new location; a much smaller room on the other side of the mezzanine, tucked away out of sight. I guess the poker boom was over. The blinds had also been increased to $2/$4. Even though I bought in for only 20 big blinds I did very well in this game, coming out after a couple of hours with nearly $600. That was my best result ever in any poker game in terms of actual payout.
   Despite this success I haven't been back to the 'poker zone' and don't intend to do so any time soon. Since then it's been moved again: it's now in an even smaller area with only a handful of tables in a sort of sports bar arrangement. If I ever play poker at Skycity it will be when I have a large enough bankroll to support the buy-in, which is still a very long way off indeed. At the moment the cheapest available game is a $60 weekly tournament, which is way beyond a comfortable buy-in for me. Even so, I consider it to be a medium to long term goal to one day play poker at Skycity again. Meanwhile, I'll be rubbing shoulders with the other gamblers at the roulette tables.
  
  

Time Out

   You got to lose,
   You can't win all the time,
   Well I know pretty baby,
   I see trouble coming down the line.        George Thorougood and the Destroyers

   Well it's Wednesday night, but unlike many many previous  Wednesdays, I'm not playing poker. After celebrating playing over a thousand hours of poker in my last post, I am now taking a break from all poker play. It's amazing how quickly things can change over the course of a few weeks.
   I mentioned in my last post that my bankroll hit an all-time high in mid-April, but since then things have taken a turn for the worse. The 'flat patch' that I was in has turned into a sudden steep downturn. Since the beginning of May I've cashed very seldom in SitnGos (3 thirds and 1 first in the last twenty games) and as a result I've had the first losing month since November of last year. As Texas Holdem SitnGos are my strongest game, this is a bit of a worry. I can't help thinking back to this time last year when my results started to decline and continued on a downward spiral through to November ('Midwinter Nosedive', 23 July 2012). I don't want that to happen again.

   But the problem is not so much the string of losses as the nature of those losses. As far as I can tell, I haven't altered my basic game-plan, but I just keep getting beaten. I seem to have been suffering an incredible run of bad cards and when I do get good cards I hit nothing, or some-one else has something better, or some fool calls with rags and draws out on me on the river. Now this sort of thing happens all the time in poker, but it seems to have been happening to me non-stop over the last few weeks. All this has led to a great deal of frustration, and the more frustrated I get, the more I make bad decisions, which just leads to more frustration.
   Playing Seven Card Stud hasn't helped in all this either. Although I knew it would be difficult learning a new game and although I am playing at the absolute lowest level to minimise any losses, my frustration has only increased every time I play this game. I thought that Pot Limit Omaha was a game invented by Satan himself, but it may be that Seven Card Stud is his true favourite. The game seems to be specifically designed to minimise the value of starting hands and to encourage players to draw all the way to seventh street (the seventh and final card). The vast majority of winning hands are made on seventh street and it's ABSOLUTELY DRIVING ME NUTS!
   As a result, I've been increasingly playing on tilt. I go into a SitnGo session with the knowledge that my recent results have been poor and consequentially, I'm desperate to win. Then, when something bad happens I'm thinking 'here we go again' and I start playing recklessly. It all came to a head a few days ago when I played in two SitnGos. In the first I suffered a bad beat to an inferior hand and decided to just push all in pre-flop whenever I got a halfway decent hand. I was thinking, 'come on, call this you jerks!' Of course I got knocked out early. Then in the second game I persisted in betting 3/4 of the pot on bottom pair and a gut-shot (inside) straight draw on every betting round. I simply refused to give credit to the calling player for a decent hand and got beaten out of most of my chips by top pair. Well duh! After that I decided to take a step back and take a couple of deep breaths.
   I took some time to take a look at my records and see if I could find a reason for this loss of form. So far, I've found nothing. I've been playing at the same level, on the same site, and often against the same players for some months. I don't think my play has become predictable, and I don't think I was playing any differently when this decline started. As far as I can tell, I've just hit a rough patch: a run of bad luck.

   So it's time to call a time out. The expert consensus seems to be, when things are running badly, take a break. Trying to play through a rough patch is not generally recommended. So I've decided to give poker-playing a rest for a while. As I came to this decision on May 22nd and the winter solstice is on June 22nd, I thought a month-long break might be appropriate. I've already lasted a whole week without playing any poker, so that's a good start.
   However, I don't think it's possible for me to stop thinking about poker. I'll use the time to read up on SitnGo strategy to see if I can pick up any useful advice. I've already checked out a couple of interesting websites: www.cardschat.com and www.suntzupoker.com . Both these sites recommend a SitnGo strategy that is pretty similar to the one I'm already using. I've also found a book at the local library that might be useful. So I'll take a look at that and spend some time looking through some of the other stuff that I've printed off from time to time but never really taken a good look at. At this stage, I'm planning to make my last poker-less week completely poker-free. No study, no planning, no nothing. I've got a big family event coming up in that week, so that should be suitably distracting.
   Then, come the shortest day, it's back into the fray  refreshed, rested and ready for anything. That's my theory anyway.