Archive for February, 2010

I hardly ever play online.  I get no real pleasure from it.  When I do, I generally play Triple Draw on Pokerstars, on the grounds that it’s a game I like and you don’t get to play it much.  I felt a need to play a bit tonight, but there were no spots in Triple Draw, so I played a $10 SNG at NLH, just for fun.

In the space of 5 hands:

• I had AK beaten by AQ (who was all-in) with a Q on the river
• AA beaten by A9 – 9 on the flop, and 9 on the river (all-in on the turn)
• T9 beaten by TJ – flop TT9, J on the river (all-in on the turn)

I’m not fussed about bad beats, they happen.  Bad beats are also not the reason I dislike playing online, I just thought this was amusing.

Haven’t said much about TDL for a while, but I was reminded recently of a discussion I had with Mike, about the seeming horror of being dealt a 1 card draw to the nuts in Triple Draw.

Sounds odd huh?  Where’s the horror in being dealt a TDL monster?

Well, here’s the thing.  When playing TDL tournaments, it’s the 1 card nut draws that end up busting me.  When you are dealt a 1 card nut draw, (henceforth ‘1CND’), you are absolutely committed to that hand to the death.  That means raising, betting, re-raising etc, all the way.  That’s 4, 5, 6 or more big bets, and if you miss your draws, you’re a gonna.  I played the $2500 TDL event in the 2008 WSOP and I busted when dealt 3 successive 1CND’s and missed every one, for somewhere around 16 big bets.
With a 1CND, there is a 17% chance of hitting on the first draw (by ‘hitting’, I mean hitting the nuts, as opposed to an 8 or other lowish hand, which could also win).  So the odds are pretty much against you making your hand.  At the same time, you don’t, in my experience, get very well paid off when you hit the hand early.  Staying pat tends to wreck your action, so you only really seem to get paid off when you hit with the 3rd draw, thus not getting you great returns for your 1CND’s.

Conversely, when you have some kind of 2-card draw, that improves to a 1-card draw, then a low hand at showdown which wins, the tendency is to win a much larger pot.

So the question is, is even playing a 1CND even a +EV play?  Should you fold them?  Of course not, you love those hands, you must play them, they are monsters.

And that’s the seeming paradox.
Mike and I did have some discussions about it, I’ll post some of our emails later.

The other week I attended the Black Belt Poker Academy, 6 hours of seminars and live hand analysis, followed by entry into a £50 freezeout.  This was put together and run by Black Belt Poker, which is run by Neil Channing and Nik Persaud, and hosted by The Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London. At the back of the large poker room is a small, secluded room with 3 tables. The guys had set up a projector for the lectures, and overall it was a good space for the 17 of us and the 4 guys from Black Belt Poker – Alex Rousso and Hugh Kirton joining Neil & Nik.

The Lectures

Each of the 4 guys had a presentation of their own:  Alex Rousso kicked off with a talk about ‘meta-learning’ – how we learn, what sources we use and how we absorb information.  He also strayed into the area of tells, which proved to be very popular and a bit of theme for him thru the rest of the day.  He also suggested a reading list, including Joe Navarro’s book “Read ‘Em and Reap” which I have since bought and would recommend to anyone.
Following Alex was Nik Persaud with a talk about the fundamentals of the game.  By that I don’t mean “poker for novices” – he is referring to David Sklansly’s phrase about the ‘Fundamental Theory of Poker”:

• Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.

So Nik was focussed on how to examine what is going on at the table in order to pounce on your opponents mistakes, while minimising your own.  He engaged well with the attendees, asking questions and getting people involved.
The third presentation was by Hugh Kirton and was about different levels of thinking in poker, with Level 1 thinking being “what are my cards?”, Level 2 being “what does my opponent have?”, Level 3 being “what does my opponent think I have?” and so on.  It is interesting how the same hand plays out with these differing levels of analysis, and the key is that you really need to be playing 1 level better than your opponent – if you are 2, 3 or more levels ahead of him then basically you’ll find yourself over-thinking your decisions.
Lastly, Neil Channing wrapped things up with an entertaining talk dissecting major hands he has played on televised events.  These were definitely not standard, but were very revealing about Nick’s thought processes, his analysis of different players in the hands, and how he reaches his decisions.

Live Hand Analysis

In between the presentations we split up into 3 tables of 6 players or so, with each table being dealt by one of the Black Belt guys.  They dealt, we played, and throughout the hands our actions and behaviour were analysed by the dealer, and ourselves.  In the half hour so that we did these there was only really time for 2 or 3 hands, but it was fasscinating and invaluable stuff, one of the highlights in fact.  Being able play a hand and have it dissected by a pro, pointing out what you may have missed, validating your actions or suggesting others, is a rare and valuable way to examine your game and your own thought processes.
My two sessions were dealt by Alex and Neil respectively.  Alex focussed on player behaviour and tells, which was great, and very new knowledge for a lot of us.  Neil focussed more on putting people on hand ranges to match their actions, and again it was very revealing.  I was fortunate to be involved in 2 big hands, one in each session, and in both cases it appeared that I played the hands pretty well.  This kind of validation is confidence building, and something I was hoping for.  At the same time, during Nik’s presentation, I answered a question incorrectly, (or correctly, but for the wrong reason), and thus gave me something to reflect upon.

The £50 Freezeout

The tournament had about 50 players and was self-dealt, which is a shame for such a big casino.  it was also a bit crap-shooty, but nevertheless, the one thing you really want to do after talking about poker for 6 hours is play the game, so the idea fo buying us into this as part of the fee for the day was brilliant.  There was also a prize for whoever lasted longest from the 17 Academy participants – buy-in to London Live, an excellent tournament by Black Belt Poker that will take place in May.  I didn’t get far enough for that, but I will be entering this tournament anyway, it looks great and the chance to play against a few of these guys will be a great sharpener before the WSOP in June.

After I busted from the tournament I hung around in the bar at The Vic and chatted to a few members of Black Belt Poker, people who play on the site and make up the community there, and Neil, who was sitting around and chatting while waiting for a cash game to begin.  I have to say they are all great guys.  Neil and the gang are very genuine in their interest in helping to develop players, and their focus on the live game makes for a very refreshing change to the endless focus on online poker.

The Site

Just to say a couple of things about Black Belt Poker themselves.  As you may know, I’m not one for playing online, but this site offers much more than just another online poker destination.  There are a lot of great, well-written and in-depth articles about everything from news, features about poker thru the years and training.  They have focussed on getting a ‘community’ feel to their site, and I think it’s worked.  I will definitely be signing up, setting up a profile and checking out the forums, even if I don’t actually play.

The Verdict

A hugely enjoyable day.  I was hoping the day would help me examine my game again, give me some new perspective and help me get back some form I felt I had lost a bit.  The Academy has certainly done that, and I feel very much energised to play again, and can’t wait for upcoming tournaments and, of course, the WSOP.  There is also a 2-day bootcamp in May, which will be more advanced and have some 1-1 time, and I may well do that too if I can find the time.

Well done Black Belt Poker.

Played the monthly £100 freeze at The Rendezvous in Brighton tonight. Again, looking for discipline early and then build from level 3 onwards. Managed once more to get caught up early and lose chips. Here’s a particular hand where I was caught in 2 minds.

There are a few limpers, I have As2s late on and I call. The blinds call. The flop is AhJc9c. The BB bets out. Now I decided fairly quickly that she didn’t have an ace – I did think about it, but something told me that wasn’t what she had, I couldn’t tell you what that something was tho. I also didn’t put her on the flush draw, I had a feeling she had either the Jack or the 9. Anyway, I called, with the intention of betting if the turn was not a club. It wasn’t, it was the 6h. Surprisingly to me she bet out again. I still didn’t give the ace, and she wouldn’t be betting the flush draw now, so in my opinion it was still the Jack or the 9 and she was probably putting me on the flush draw.   I didn’t fancy a raise tho, which is at odds with my analysis. I called.  The river was the 2s, so no change. She bet big. Now is where I’m stuck, coz I still have her on the Jack or the 9, but I don’t figure her to be strong enough to be betting out for the 3rd time without being ahead of me. I decide to call, and she does indeed have the 9, but she also has an offsuit 6 which hit the turn, for 2-pair, and I’m beat. Quite why I’m getting involved in a big pot with a tiny ace is beyond me, it’s what I’ve been trying to avoid doing.

How’s this for a weird one, which didn’t involve me…
There are 3 limpers at 100/200 blinds. The BB raises 300. Yes, 300. Clearly no-one is going to fold to that, and everyone calls it. I now have the BB pegged for aces, coz it’s such a small raise. It’s a terrible raise tho, coz no-one can fold and surely you don;t want to play aces against 3 players. The raise pretty much screams aces tho. So anyway, the flop is 3-4-x, no suits. The BB checks, one of the limpers bets 500 and only the BB calls. The turn is a Queen. The limper goes all-in for about 6000. At this point I believe he must know full well the BB has aces, and so he must have a set. I put him on a set of 4’s. The BB calls. They turn over their cards. The BB does indeed have aces (no surprise there), but the limper shows AQ! Good grief, you couldn’t make it up. He clearly didn’t even think what her pre-flop raise meant.

Down to 6.5k at one point, I made it back to about my starting stack by the 1st break and felt alright, and back in control.

Pocket 10’s
After the break with the blinds at 100-200 I got dealt two black 10’s. The guy UTG shoved all-in blind for 1800. He was pretty frustrated, and with reason – at one point he’s raised 400 (at 50-100 blinds), and got called, and lost on a showdown when his opponent showed J6-offsuit for a flopped full-house! So anyway, I re-raised so no-one else would join in, and he flipped over K3-off. First card – King. One down.

Pocket 10’s Strikes Again
Next hand, the same two black 10’s. This time I raise to 550, and the guy who just beat my last 10’s flat calls. He only has 3000 behind, (having doubled thru me on the previous hand). The flop was A-K-4 with two diamonds and he insta-shoves. Now, it did smell of a stop-&-go to me, but he told me what a great flop it was and I actually thought he was sincere, plus I didn’t like the Ace AND King on the flop. I folded face-up and he showed K8d of 2nd pair and the nut-flush draw. Consecutive losses with 10’s and back down to 6.5k again.

Return of the Son of Pocket 10’s
A new table, and managed to make a couple of thousand back with a set of 3’s. Then, back to 7k again having had to fold a couple of flop’s after being re-raised, and I got dealt 10s, again, this time on the button. Blinds were now 300/600 with 50 ante, it folded round and I raised to 2000, leaving 5000 behind. The BB shoved for 10k and obviously I called. She flipped over AA and I had to force myself to even watch the cards come down.

Pocket 10’s were not my friends tonight.

So, another tournament where I just haven’t been able to build any kind of stack to put myself in any kind of decent position. Next week’s Black Belt Poker Academy might be very well timed, I welcome this opportunity to check my game out. I used to do consistently well in these kind of events, I could almost guarantee that I’m be in there or thereabouts when it down to the business end of it, but in the last 6-month’s I don’t ever seem to managed to get over my initial starting stack size, and it’s a bit of a concern. Let’s see what happens next week, and there’s a £50 freeze at the Vic after the Academy, so we’ll see how that goes too.

I have signed up to a poker ‘bootcamp’ Looking forward to it, I have a feeling that it might be a good time for me to examine my game a bit and to have such good mentors on hand to discuss things with will be wicked. They do a much more in-depth 2-day event in May and I might do that too, the timing would be great with Vegas just around the corner in June…

I’ll do a full write-up of course. I haven’t signed up for BlackBeltPoker online because really I just don’t play online, but if anyone out there is learning then it looks like a great place to do it.