Limit Hold'em is still profitable! 26/02/2011

After my big loss yesterday playing $2/$4 Omaha 8 I quickly got over it, lost my sad face and thought, "Fuck it, let's play Limit Hold'em!" So I fired up 5 tables of $0.50/$1 full ring and 3 of $1/$2 full ring and about 8 hours later that same day, I had won another $100.

Today I played a $6.60 Stud 8 MTT for my poker breakfast, which took about 3 hours. I came 2nd and unfortunately it only paid two places. After watching more House (Now on Season 4 Episode 11) I had a bath, got dressed and fired up some Limit Hold'em DeucesCracked videos. During watching those I decided to start playing. So I opened 2 tables of 6max $0.50/$1 FLHE and I was away. I played for about 6 hours, I am guessing I played something like 1200 hands. It was a weird session because I was massively crushing it on one table (sat with $16, finished with $92) yet getting massively donked on the other (finished on $6, had reloaded a couple of times). Ultimately it led to a profit of only $5.35, which sucks for the amount of time spent but at least I didn't lose. I quit when I realised I was getting tired and impatient and I'd just lost a big pot with Qs9s on one table where I ran into slowplayed AA and 44 where I flopped a set on an A94 flop and bet, guy with 7c6c called and turned a flush+straight draw, he rivered it and I capped the river because I thought he had aces up. That second hand is pretty ridiculous but it's not the first time I've lost with a set to some miracle backdoor hand playing this game.

What is fun about that whole endeavour is that it made my bankroll become exactly $999.99. Going to stick with the Limit Hold'em games and hopefully get back to where I was before BR-wise, toward the $1175 mark.

Signing off,

LV

Took a shot at $2/$4 FR LO8 - 25/02/2011

I lost $235.50 over the space of 252 hands. I played from about 2.30 AM to 9.20 AM. BR now $898.09.

Mostly I ran really bad. I was card dead mostly and almost every time I raised preflop I missed the flop, would have fish in the hand so could not bluff, and so I check/fold. When I did make a big hand it got beat. I tried to isolate fish, I tried to play a few more hands to make something happen, but either they hit the flop, I counterfeited my low draw or I missed completely. I couldn't get any steal situations on the button because a fish already limped in before me.

At the start of the session I was up about $30. Slowly but surely I lost my profit and couldn't recoop, then I went totally card dead, which led to me eventually tilting a bit, trying to make some moves to make something happen (mistake), still being disciplined postflop, untilting then getting a series of good situations where I got unlucky and lost hand after hand.

Ultimately this means I will go back to playing smaller stakes games, probably Limit Hold'em as planned in my last post, win it all back and then have another go.

Now -$768.50 in $2/$4 Limit O8 lifetime. Sad face.

Until next time, signing off,

-LV

24/02/2011 - Thursday morning - Limit Hold'em is profitable!

4275 hands played and I'm now up $100.20 at $0.50/$1 Limit Hold'em this month. I think I started my session before midnight playing 4 tables. I finished it at 7.30am this morning playing 3. It's approx 8:40am at the time of writing.

BR is now $1140.19! I plan to play 20k hands at this level then move to $1/$2. Obv I am massively overrolled for $0.50/$1 but I want to be sure I can beat the small stakes in Limit Hold'em (LHE) before I go to $1/$2 and higher. I have in the past felt Hold'em was my weak point. If I can refine my skills playing LHE I think I will improve on versatility, enabling me to play the game everyone's playing, instead of constantly desiring mixed games and more particularly, O8. If I can get good at Hold'em I'll feel more comfortable playing the WSOP Main Event in the years to come. That's not particularly my dream - I'd much rather play the $1500 events and $50k HORSE! But at least I'll be able to have a crack at it.

All that said, I still prefer my bread and butter Omaha 8. But as always, variety is the spice of life.

By the way, if you don't already watch it, the TV show House is great. I highly recommend it!

Here's something for your perusal! A classic LHE blind battle. Chilliflush opened preflop and I went with my read that my K high was good the whole way and called each time he bet. He bet flop, turn and river.

Signing off,

-LV

Update 23/02/2011

It's been a month since I last updated. The truth is I haven't played a lot - a few days tops. I made Bronze last month for Iron Man but I've come nowhere near this month. I played a lot after that last update but I mean I didn't play after the start of February.

The good news is that when I have played I have won. After that last post I went and lost even more, and went down to $550. After I collected myself mentally I managed to win it all back - I've mostly had winning sessions since then. I'm sitting on $1069.09 and feel confident about my game whatever the variant of poker.

Most of the wins have come from playing $0.10/$0.25 PLO8 and 6max Limit $1/$2 O8. I crushed in both, netting what I guesstimate is $400 total? The rest has come from $1/$2 2-7 Triple Draw and more recently, $0.50/$1 Limit Hold'em.

I figure I never did badly at Limit Hold'em so I may as well give it a go. The full ring games are still great and there are usually 2 or 3 fish playing above 40% of the hands with low aggression. The tight players don't really play that tight either. The tight Limit Hold'em players are playing probably between a third and a half more of the hands than the NLHE afficionados. I can't say I'm a fantastic player because there's certainly spots in which I feel totally lost (when I am unsure whether to peel the flop or not) but so far I've won $39.55 in 799 hands which is an excellent result over a relatively tiny sample. I am going to play this a lot and see if I can win long term at it. It feels easier than O8 although it's more complicated to play. I think that is related to the fact that split pots are rare so the rake is much more beatable. It wasn't an issue for me in FLO8 because long term I have won >$1000 at that game. However if I scooped every hand I played in which I won money like in Hold'em I'd probably have won double that amount. I think the fact my HEM stats say I've won $25 more than I've paid rake playing Hold'em could well make my hypothesis hold true. But it's a small sample and there's no way 9BB/100 is sustainable, so we'll see how it all pans out!

I haven't really got any hands worth posting. Like I said, I'm confident in my play so any hand I post would either be some irrelevant bad beat post or one where I played great and got uber value. It's pointless posting either. So you should expect only to see the "Swings & Roundabouts", ergo the ups and downs of my roll, and the details of what I've been playing.

I know I should play more. I've said to my staker i should have $1500 come the end of March. But I don't like playing when I feel poker is boring me or my head isn't in the right place. Every time I want to sit down and be able to focus without any mental hindrances so that I play my A game. 'Variety is the spice of life', I tell my friend Maxcel, despite his nagging at me trying to get me to have grind on the mind as much as he does. The guy plays every day for hours! Most of the time that's just not for me. Poker will still be there tomorrow I reckon.


I won't be getting any rakeback. I'm trying to get that resolved. But my affiliate is not good at being an affiliate and he seems quite shady. More on that coming soon.

On a final note, I'm going on holiday to Madeira in April.

Signing off,

-LV