Thursday, March 11, 2010

OK I'm Back

Haven't posted in a while due to a health problem I've been trying to deal with. I may write about it here at some point but I don't know yet. I've been spending alot of time looking at treatment options and and different ways to get the treatment I need, so I have'nt had much time to play or blog. Plus I feel like shit, so thats a factor too.

Anyway, I've played a few SNGs, with a mix of turbo, super turbo, and regular, and some multi tables, but mostly single table. It's a pretty small sample at this point since I haven't really had much time to play, but it looks to me so far like the single table turbos are where I'm doing the best. So I'll be concentrating on them for a while. Bankroll at 47.08, so I've made a little profit messing around with the different SNGs, hopefully when I concentrate on the ones I'm best at I'll start seeing some real growth, maybe.

I read a good passage in "NLH Theory and Practice" about raising for value and relative stack sizes. No Idea why I never thought about it this way before. It says:
"The shallower your stack, the more compelling raising for value becomes. Put another way, the larger percentage of your stack (or your opponents' if thiers is shallower) a preflop raise constitutes, generally, the stronger your hand must be to make the raise.
If a raise is only two percent of your stack, you need not raise with all your strong hands, and you need not necessarily have a strong hand to raise. If a raise is twenty percent of your stack or more, you should typically raise with all your strong hands and rarely otherwise."

So, essentially, while mixing up your play is good, pay attention to the relative stack sizes to know when mixing up your preflop raises is appropriate. Big stacks, more creative, smaller stacks more straightforward. So thats my poker thought for today.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Vicodin, Poker, and why poker players shouldnt drive.

As I'm sure we can all agree, Vicodin is a wonderful drug for any sort of pain, or for recreation for that matter. It is not, as I've mentioned before, much good for ones poker game.

I had another little twinge in my back/kidney area yesterday afternoon. So, rather than suffer like I did last time I took one of the vicodins I had left as soon as I got off work. As a result, or maybe not, yesterdays after work poker session resulted in a pretty good sized downswing. It could just be variance but I was definitely having a little trouble concentrating and could only play one table. I probably shouldn't have been playing but I've had quite a bit of time off from poker lately and I wanted to play.

I've enjoyed getting back into SNGs. The escalating blinds put you in positions that force you to try some creative plays and not be so abc all the time. I like that, it keeps me from getting bored and as a result helps keep me from getting frustrated. I'm well past the 20 I was going to play and this morning I've been playing some 1.50 turbos. I think I'm about even for the morning, the variance on these is necessarily going to be a bit higher because of the push or fold situations that you get in alot of the time. But they're alot of fun and I'm doing better now than I was when I first started. I had to turn up the aggression level quite a bit from how I was playing the 1.00 regular SNGs but it seems to be working well. I know, I know, I said only 20, but I'm having fun with the SNGs, and it's my money so piss off.

Which leads me to the story of why I shouldn't drive and think about poker at the same time. I was on my way home this morning after dropping a friend off at work and going to get a couple more vicodin from another friend when I totally ran a red light. It was only a combination of Fords and Goodyears wonderful engineering, and my skill and experience ( "I'm an excellent driver.", Denis Hoffman in Rain Man), that kept me from hitting the crossing traffic. I braked hard and was just barely able to make a right turn to avoid hitting the truck that was coming into the intersection from my left. Tense!! I think my asshole tore a little hole in my seat when it clenched up.

Now mind you I'm on a road that I've driven no less than once a day for the past 3 years, havn't taken my vicodin yet, and have been awake for at least an hour. So there's absolutely no reason I should've missed this light. But I did, and it was all pokers fault, mostly. I was thinking about turbo SNG strategy versus regular, which hands I should be shoving with from what position, which ones I should be calling shoves with, which ones that while they look tempting are probably best to just fold, what might be worth trying to limp with pre-flop etc, etc, etc. And I got so absorbed that I damn near wrecked my truck and someone elses. So if anyone's reading this take my advice and don't think about poker while driving, it could get ugly.

I plan to play some more today so I'll just post the numbers tonight, I say as if anyone cares.