playing 6-max cash

The key to beating 6-max games is simple. DON'T SPEW.

like this...

Dealt to Egarim [Ad Jc]
ALLIN4HIGH folds
KnAbWoNsX raises to $12
Egarim calls $10
zordingdedingue folds
*** FLOP *** [3s As 4d]
Egarim checks
KnAbWoNsX bets $17
Egarim calls $17
*** TURN *** [3s As 4d] [3c]
Egarim checks
Captai Morgan11 adds $90
Captai Morgan11 has returned
KnAbWoNsX bets $45
Egarim calls $45
*** RIVER *** [3s As 4d 3c] [6s]
Egarim checks
KnAbWoNsX bets $115
Egarim raises to $720.40, and is all in
KnAbWoNsX calls $411.20, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $194.20 returned to Egarim
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Egarim shows [Ad Jc] two pair, Aces and Threes
KnAbWoNsX shows [3d 6d] a full house, Threes full of Sixes
KnAbWoNsX wins the pot ($1,202.40) with a full house, Threes full of Sixes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,204.40 | Rake $2
Board: [3s As 4d 3c 6s]
Seat 1: ALLIN4HIGH didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: mscell is sitting out
Seat 3: KnAbWoNsX (button) showed [3d 6d] and won ($1,202.40) with a full house, Threes full of Sixes
Seat 4: Egarim (small blind) showed [Ad Jc] and lost with two pair, Aces and Threes
Seat 5: Captai Morgan11 is sitting out
Seat 6: zordingdedingue (big blind) folded before the Flop


Mistake #1: I should've just 3-bet like I normally do. However, I chickened out here because I'd be doing it every time and I have a lot of history with Knabwonsx where I've 3-bet him a ton preflop.
Mistake #2: Spewing on the river obviously...
Here was one hand vs him where I actually had it.

Dealt to Egarim [Kd Kh]
Sweden75 folds
childish games folds
KnAbWoNsX raises to $12
Egarim raises to $40
Jomibakkus7 folds
riverbaby11 folds
KnAbWoNsX calls $28
*** FLOP *** [2s 5s Jc]
KnAbWoNsX checks
Egarim bets $72
KnAbWoNsX calls $72
*** TURN *** [2s 5s Jc] [Kc]
KnAbWoNsX checks
Egarim has 15 seconds left to act
Egarim bets $180
KnAbWoNsX has 15 seconds left to act
KnAbWoNsX raises to $500
Egarim raises to $618.70, and is all in
KnAbWoNsX calls $118.70
Egarim shows [Kd Kh]
KnAbWoNsX shows [Ts 9s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 5s Jc Kc] [Qs]
Egarim shows three of a kind, Kings
KnAbWoNsX shows a flush, Queen high
KnAbWoNsX wins the pot ($1,464.40) with a flush, Queen high
Egarim is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,467.40 | Rake $3
Board: [2s 5s Jc Kc Qs]
Seat 1: childish games didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: KnAbWoNsX showed [Ts 9s] and won ($1,464.40) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 3: Egarim (button) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 4: Jomibakkus7 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: riverbaby11 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Sweden75 didn't bet (folded)

I think it is a huge mistake to be calling those raises out of position with suited connectors vs good players. You just find yourself in too many tough spots such as 9 or 10 high flops. Good players are not stacking off to those hands, so it is tough to play those profitably out of position vs good players.


Finally, never ever call a 3-bet with KJ. I'd rather have 87 any day.

Dealt to Egarim [Kd Ac]
Jens_of_SE folds
gsheezy2 raises to $14
paddiewaddie has 15 seconds left to act
paddiewaddie calls $14
gorillapoker11 folds
Egarim raises to $56
sohigh247 folds
gsheezy2 has 15 seconds left to act
gsheezy2 calls $42
paddiewaddie folds
*** FLOP *** [6h 4d Kh]
Egarim has 15 seconds left to act
Egarim bets $88
gsheezy2 calls $88
*** TURN *** [6h 4d Kh] [Tc]
Egarim checks
gsheezy2 has 15 seconds left to act
gsheezy2 has requested TIME
gsheezy2 bets $65
Egarim has 15 seconds left to act
Egarim raises to $588.20, and is all in
gsheezy2 calls $177, and is all in
Egarim shows [Kd Ac]
gsheezy2 shows [Js Ks]
Uncalled bet of $346.20 returned to Egarim
*** RIVER *** [6h 4d Kh Tc] [Qd]
Egarim shows a pair of Kings
gsheezy2 shows a pair of Kings
Egarim wins the pot ($787) with a pair of Kings
gsheezy2 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $790 | Rake $3
Board: [6h 4d Kh Tc Qd]
Seat 1: gorillapoker11 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Egarim (small blind) showed [Kd Ac] and won ($787) with a pair of Kings
Seat 3: sohigh247 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Jens_of_SE didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: gsheezy2 showed [Js Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: paddiewaddie folded before the Flop

So I stopped writing... Sue me

I guess too much real life = no writing in blog.
Quick summary of recent events:
At the WSOP I cashed in Event #52 $1500 NLHE and finished in the low 1000s in the Main Event for $0. I played a couple Venetian Deep Stack tourneys with no luck as well. No big online wins since, but plenty of deep runs. Today, I finished 8th out of 920 in the $163 on FTP, 91st out of 4k+ in the Sunday Warm-up (1mill guranteed), cashed in the million, and 17th out of 1174 in the $530 on Stars. Tough long day. I feel like I'm playing very well and very due for a win.

Lately, I've decided to take on the 6-max cash games for NLHE and PLO at 2/4 and 3/6 stakes. So, far I've been learning a lot and making a lot of money in the process. Unfortunately, I will start working at my "real" job very soon, and my poker time will be substantially cut in a week. This comes at a bad time since I feel like I'm really crossing into a higher level where I can substantially increase my profitability. But that's life. I have no complaints. Either way, I'm excited to jump in and learn as much as possible in my trading job. I feel like the ceiling for money is a lot higher. I hope to still be able to play on Sundays, but it very much depends on how demanding work will be. I would love to take down a tourney before I start working. I keep going deep, but nothing so far. I'm pretty happy with my play, but I still have a few tune-ups to make. I saved some hands to post, but I already discussed them all with a friend. Unfortunately, I'm too tired to re-write everything that was said. Well, off to sleep after another grueling teasing Sunday.

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MIA

I've been MIA from this blog for quite some time now. The main reason is simply that I have not felt like writing at all. I didn't want this blog to feel like a chore, and if I don't feel like writing then I simply won't write anything. I do wish I would have written about a lot of events that took place such as my experience at the WSOP and Australia. I had a great time in Australia, met some poker players, and got to talk to some pros. I enjoyed talking to Erik Seidel a lot, and I thought he was a very down to earth guy and a class act. John Juanda seemed like a really nice guy. They shared some interesting stories with me, but I feel it is not my place to share. I will say that there were some pros that I thought were too full of themselves. However, the majority of the FTP pros were class acts.

Australia was wonderful. The weather was warm and sunny. I was able to sunburn myself pretty badly despite the fact that I rarely ever burn. Unfortunately, I didn't cash in any events, but I also took some horrific beats. In the PokerPro (Tables with screens like online poker), I was seated with Hachem and TimeX. I did resteal Timex once early on in the small blind when he raised the cut-off with Q2os and he folded and showed 77. Later, a loose passive fish limped utg and a euro pro raised 4-4.5x behind him with 15bbs to start. I flatted in the small blind with AA knowing the fish would come along which he did. Flop was something like Qxx and we checked to the Euro pro who shoved AK. I called. Runner runner straight leaving me with like 5bbs. GG. Timex went on to take down that tourney.

In the Main Event, I ran bad and played really bad. I don't have any significant hands that I recall. In the 6-max tourney, I probably had my most memorable poker experience in Australia. Fairly deep in the tournament but before the money, I was seated at a very tough table, and I had a ton of interesting hands. I had 2 young Euro pros on my left, one of which was a FTP pro whom I did not know. Three to my left was Eddie Scharf (FTP pro). Although I didn't know who he was, I knew he was an FTP pro. Two to my right was Sorel Mizzi who moved there a little later. And the guy on my right was a tight unknown. Later, at the FTP dinner I was able to talk to Eddie Scharf, and he told me that it was an extremely tough table to play on. Sorel was reraising him nonstop, and I was reraising Sorel nonstop. I was also battling it out with the Euro pro two to my left as well. Anyways, I basically had a small-medium stack when Sorel sat down. Sorel had a HUGE stack with well over 100bbs. I think he had like 70k at 200-400. I probably had like 20k. Well, the short version is that I end up destroying Sorel and taking most of his chips until he was short-stacked with like 10-15bbs. However, I ended up giving my chips to the Euro pro and to the random donks who sat down. At the end, I lost 3 straight coinflips and a 33%er preflop. It wasn't meant to be.

The table was awesome to play on. We were thinking on much higher levels than I ever get a chance to play on. It was a very intense table. My most memorable hand was when Sorel raised it up UTG+1. He was raising pretty light and I had the button with 87s. I didn't want to flat call because I knew he would double barrel very light and put me in a tough spot. Also, I knew that if I flatted he would put me on a hand like the one I had. So, I felt like he had too much fold equity for me to play my hand profitably by just calling preflop, and I wasn't getting paid if I did hit. At this point we were both very deep, so I calculated about how much I had. He had me covered. I knew that if I reraised him big and he 4-bet me I would not have room to shove again. So, I made up my mind to reraise him small KNOWING he would 4-bet me and I could 5-bet shove on him. Basically, whoever had the opportunity to go all-in first would win the pot. So, I did exactly this. I reraised him very small so that it looked very suspicious. I think he raised 2.5x and I reraised a little more than 2x his raise. Within 15 seconds he then reraised 3x my raise just as I expected. I looked down at my chips and quickly up again as if I wanted to shove them in (which I did!) just as amateurs do with aces. I pretended to think for like 10 secs and pushed my chips into the middle. My heart rate barely went up. My eyes never blinked. Sorel asked how many chips I had, but once I showed him my 5k chip stack, he quickly mucked. It was a great table and a lot of fun. Although, I didn't cash in any tourneys, I was able to make a good portion of the buy-ins back from playing 5/10NL. I would have played higher, but I didn't have the cash reserves on hand. In any case, the 5/10NL was a great game and played higher than the stakes. The Australia locals are horrific. The action is great.

Online poker has been rough on me as well as the player I am staking. I've played really well at times, and just taken brutal beats. However, I realize that MTT's have high variance, and I'm trying to keep my spirits up. I also recognize that my tournament sample is considerably smaller than most tourney pros, so I am proud that I have maintained such a high ROI. Variance is bound to even out I guess. In any case, I'm feeling pretty good about my game. The only think I'm lacking now is patience and focus. Once, I get those two things back I will be tough to beat.

I've also started back up playing PLO cash games. I may begin posting PLO hands again soon. I'll be playing anywhere from 2-4 to 25-50 PLO. PLO is a gambling high variance game. I realize that I need become more adept in dealing with the bad side of variance. I have noticed myself tilting more and more these days. Hopefully, I will get back to playing well consistently and making sure my D game is not too far from my A game.

I'll be back again. I guess I feel like writing now. :)

No Poker

I really haven't played any poker lately. I have tons of papers and finals this week and next. Meanwhile, I've been having interviews nonstop. It looks like I'll be getting a trading job one way or another. I'll be having some big decisions to make soon. Right now, I'm still trying to figure out all the details. So, until December 21 when all my finals are done, I expect little if no poker.

750k FTP Final Table Again...

I'm too tired to go over the tournament. Basically, I hit the final table again and lose a 60/40. GG. 8th out of 4025. Final Hand:

Seat 2: tschueg (1,097,586)
Seat 7: Egarim (585,506)
antes 7,500
ELIA posts the small blind of 30,000
tschueg posts the big blind of 60,000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Egarim [As Tc]
3 folds
Egarim raises to 578,006, and is all in
3 folds
tschueg has 15 seconds left to act
tschueg has requested TIME
tschueg calls 518,006
Egarim shows [As Tc]
tschueg shows [Qh Kh]
*** FLOP *** [Jh 6s Ks]
*** TURN *** [Jh 6s Ks] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 6s Ks 8c] [4s]
Egarim shows Ace King high
tschueg shows a pair of Kings
tschueg wins the pot (1,246,012) with a pair of Kings

Donkey play

Early in the 162 on Stars:
Dealt to Egarim [Qd Qh]
2 folds
beauW: calls 20
2 folds
Egarim: raises 80 to 100
1 folds
gbit272: raises 160 to 260
2 folds
Egarim: calls 160
*** FLOP *** [8s 6s 9h]
gbit272: checks
Egarim: bets 280
gbit272: raises 320 to 600
Egarim: raises 2170 to 2770 and is all-in
gbit272: calls 2150 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [8s 6s 9h] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [8s 6s 9h Th] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gbit272: shows [Ad Ah] (a pair of Aces)
Egarim: shows [Qd Qh] (a pair of Queens)
gbit272 collected 6060 from pot
I totally botched this hand on the flop. I really have several options here. #1 I can check behind on this flop which I don't mind too much. #2 I can bet this flop, but once he check raises I can call or fold. I should never 3bet all-in in my opinion as I get no call value. He is only calling me when I'm beat, so my value here is reraising for fold equity when he has AK here. The only possible hands that I beat are Tens and Jacks that he could possibly call me with. However, if he has anything else, I am in very bad shape. My best plan is to call here if I don't believe him, and fold if I do. I'm probably not folding here often because it doesn't make sense to check raise such a dangerous flop with aces. Of course, I have to realize I'm playing against donks who don't know better. In any case, I made a horrific play and got what I deserved.

PLO Bad day

I'm stuck 10k on one table thanks to some nasty coolers/beats. PLO is definitely a high variance game...

Hand #1
Dealt to Egarim [Ah Ks Kd 2s]
1 folds
Egarim: calls $50
2 folds
LuckyGump: calls $25
Bamboo100: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qh Qc Kc]
LuckyGump: bets $100
Bamboo100: folds
Egarim: calls $100
I could raise and build a pot here if he has a queen, but I know he's a cautious player and won't commit much. Also, I think his range for leading here is light, likely a flush draw.
*** TURN *** [Qh Qc Kc] [As]
LuckyGump: bets $347
Egarim: raises $1041 to $1388
LuckyGump: calls $1041
At this point he leads strong which tells me he has a strong hand. I'm thinking he probably has AQ in his hand here, and this is the time to build a pot imo.
*** RIVER *** [Qh Qc Kc As] [3d]
LuckyGump: bets $3123
Egarim: calls $1256 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuckyGump: shows [Ad Ts 5c Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Queens)
Egarim: mucks hand
LuckyGump collected $5635 from pot
Wow. One-outered on the turn. How sick is that? First off his aces is disguised since he didn't raise preflop (although I and many others probably do that a lot since you don't want to give away your hand out of position). Secondly, I have an ace in my hand! What are the chances that he one-outers me here? So tough to put him on aces full here. Sigh.

Hand #2
Dealt to Egarim [2h As Ad 3d]
3 folds
Egarim: raises $100 to $150
Goldenfaith: raises $300 to $450
Egarim: raises $900 to $1350
Goldenfaith: raises $1920 to $3270 and is all-in
Egarim: calls $1150 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Qs 6d Jh]
*** TURN *** [Qs 6d Jh] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 6d Jh 7d] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Egarim: shows [2h As Ad 3d] (a pair of Aces)
Goldenfaith: shows [Qd Kh 6h Ac] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
Goldenfaith collected $4998 from pot
Pretty standard. I get it in as big a favorite as possible in PLO. I am a 70-30 favorite which is seriously the best you can do preflop. His reraises were horrible...

Aussie Millions Package 2?

I played in the $535 Aussie Millions Satellite again today. This time two seats were being given away and third place paid out $500 (Of course, I just receive 18k since I already won my package). So, I got down to three-handed. Stacks were around 90k, 80k, and 40k+, and I had the 80k stack. Unfortunately, I played less than optimally and finished in third place. I've never been in a situation like this short-handed where there is such a big difference in payouts. Although, I ran bad, my strategy was not sound. I was playing too many pots with the short stack when I had little fold equity. Another tough lesson learned. This time I gave up 17.5k. It was definitely one of my most frustrating finishes to date. I ended up playing poorly in the Sunday Million after this finish, but eventually I got my head straightened and went deep in the money in both the Second Chance and FTP 750k. Nothing to show for it though.

Dilemma

It seems that the Aussie Millions package conflicts with the PCA package. I have already won my Aussie Millions seat, but planned on going to the PCA (I intend to win a PCA package within the next couple weeks, but if I don't win one I can tag along with brother and buy-in directly). Now, I have to decide whether to just go to Australia, or split time between the Bahamas and Australia sacrificing some value.

So, I won my Aussie Millions seat thinking it would just be for the Main Event which starts the Jan 14th. The PCA is Jan 5th - 10th. However, I receieved an e-mail from FTP stating that I will depart from LAX Jan 7th and return Jan 21st. So, here are my possible choices:

1. Go to PCA. Fly out of Bahamas Jan. 11th. Make several connections and fly the whole day arriving in Melbourne on Jan. 13th.
Pros- I get to play in the PCA and Aussie Millions with my bro. I get to see Bahamas and Australia. I get two shots at two big tournaments.
Cons- Plane tickets cost 2k a person for roundtrip tickets to Melbourne. FTP will give me 3k to make my own reservations. So, -$1,000 if I take a person. I sacrifice a week of free hotel in Australia, time spent relaxing, VIP functions with FTP Pros, and an assortment of entertainment that I do not know the specifics of.

2. Go to Australia and skip the PCA
Pros- I get to enjoy Australia to the fullest extent. I've always wanted to go there. I get to enjoy all the FTP VIP functions and hang out with the Pros, etc.
Cons- I miss out on the PCA and possibly millions... My brother will have to meet up with me on the 13th in Australia.

So, what should I do?...