NL10 Day #2 - Part II

And at last, a losing session. It's weirdly encouraging to know that a negative session precisely when I didn't play my best poker at the time. It encourages me because it makes me confident that playing A-game is definitely the most important thing, especially in the long run.

Won one pot without showdown before the flop after I 4-bet all-in from the SB with KQo based on a read I had. It worked, but could have easily gone really wrong. I did NOT want a call on that spot... Earlier on, I had JJ in UTG, raised 3BB, 3-bet from button and I flat call. Flop comes 289, two hearts, and I check-raise all-in, again based on read. Unfortunately I was really wrong, as he snap-called me with KK and, as poker loves donks, I rivered a J to double up. Yes, I apologized on the chat box... didn't deserve that one!

On the negative side, single-handedly responsible for this being a losing session, were two pots where I got stacked-off, or shall I say, I stacked myself off, if that even makes sense. In the first, I have a huge losing fish on my left whom I'm waiting for the right spot to exploit. In this hand, I'm on the CO holding AsTc, he's BTN, it's folded to me, I raise 2.5BB, villain flats, both blinds fold. Flop comes 5TQ rainbow, I c-bet 2/3 of the pot, standard, he again flats, after taking a while to make the call. I'm definitely not putting him on a Q and I believe I have the best hand at this point. Turn is a 7, two diamonds on the table now and despite the possible flush draw, this card looks pretty much like a brick to me so I fire a second, almost pot-sized, bullet of $1.20 to a $1.45 pot. My opponent again calls and I'm kinda clueless right now about he may be holding, but I believe he's holding a weaker Tx or even A5, typical of fishes calling every street at these stakes. River is a 9d, putting three diamonds on the board. I wasn't worried about the diamonds but this makes a possible flush, so I bet again for value, but only a third of the pot, maybe out of a little weakness on my part. My opponent goes instantly all-in, another behavior typical of a big fish and instead of taking the cautious route and accept that maybe I read this one wrong, I decided to go with my gut feeling and my read and called. He shows me AdKd to take all my chips. Hard to see this one coming...

The other bad hand is a good example of psychology gone wrong, in which I enter a new table and instantly get KK. There's a raise and someone flats it and I go immediately all-in for $10, trying to cause the impression that I'm a huge maniac and hoping that someone calls me with [AK-AJ,QQ-TT]. And someone did! What really screwed it all up was an A spiking up right on that flop and the caller holding AQ offsuit! So I'm out of chips and again rebuying...

Even if I do believe that I was a little unlucky in both cases, maybe I should have been more cautious, especially in the last hand. I should have 3-bet pre-flop and probably would've folded on the flop with that A and a show of strength of my opponent, making me lose minimum. Ah well...

Positive thing also is that this session allowed me to collect a 1,500 yearly VPPs bonus from Stars, worth $10. I wasn't aware how this works and when I figured out I could get $10 from the VIP store directly into my account I noticed the 750 VPP bonus sitting there waiting for me as well. Nice. Also broke the 1k hands barrier in this session. 1/10 of the challenge is done.

Session stats:

Minutes Played: 122.0
Hands: 331
Winnings: EUR -5.35
VPIP/PFR/AF/3Bet%: 22.2/14.8/2.73/5.8

NL10 Day #2

Saturday afternoon home alone is perfect for another of these online sessions. Somehow I don't feel like playing for long periods of time right now, so I sat for one hour of NL10. We'll see if this is a continuing trend, but I seem to get tired more easily playing cash than tournaments. The static nature of the game probably explains it. Tournaments are always moving forward and the differences between early, middle and late phases make it always exciting, I guess.

Anyway, another NL10 session and this one has been the most profitable one so far. Two days in and four sessions later, I'm still to have a negative stretch. But they will come. Ohhh, they will come. This time, I ran into a few fishes and was able to actually exploit them. I also had a few cards and was able to extract some value from them. I'm going to paste two hands here, which we won't go into much detail, but are illustrative of the nonsense that goes on at these stakes:

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com

Button ($10.40)
Hero (SB) ($12.26)
BB ($10.16)
UTG ($10.30)
MP ($11.09)
CO ($9.74)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A

1 fold, MP bets $0.40, CO (poster) calls $0.30, 1 fold, Hero raises $1.25, 2 folds, CO (poster) calls $0.90

Flop: ($3.15) 9, A, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $1, CO calls $1

Turn: ($5.15) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.70, CO calls $1.70

River: ($8.55) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $8.26 (All-In), CO calls $5.69 (All-In)

Total pot: $19.93

Results:
Hero had A, A (full house, Aces over nines).
CO had A, 7 (two pair, Aces and nines).

Outcome: Hero won $21.53, CO won $0.05

This is what happens when people think top pair is the nuts. Another example was the following hand.

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com

Hero (Button) ($11.02)
SB ($21.94)
BB ($5.55)
UTG ($10)
MP ($14.13)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, 8
2 folds, Hero bets $0.25, 1 fold, BB calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.55) 2, 10, 10 (2 players)
BB bets $0.40, Hero raises $0.90, BB calls $0.50

Turn: ($2.35) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($2.35) 8 (2 players)
BB bets $1.30, Hero raises $4.40, BB calls $3.10 (All-In)

Total pot: $11.15

Results:
Hero had K, 8 (flush, Ace high).
BB had 7, A (two pair, Aces and tens).

Outcome: Hero won $10.60

Again, top pair rules. In both these hands - and on a few others - I was able to take more liberal, relaxed, lines because I had somewhat solid reads on my opponents. I started using a well known website to fetch player profiles in cash games and it's been helping me quite a bit.

Anyway, session stats, as usual:

Minutes Played: 60.3
Hands: 182
Winnings: EUR 14.28
VPIP/PFR/AF/3Bet%: 19.8/14.7/24.00/4.8


Happier about my aggression and 3bet%, which won me a couple of good pots without showdown. More to come soon!

NL10 Day #1 - Part II

OK, let's just completely forget the live tournament I was talking about. It was just one of those usual home games where all of a sudden a lot of different people show up whom you never saw before in your life, whom after 10 minutes you can immediately tell they know shit about poker but who are on a HUGE hot run. Impossible to play against, unless you keep folding until you're 10BB and then shoving with any ace. Just not in the mood tonight, so even though I reach the final table, tried to steal the blinds with 84s and was caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Whatever, I really felt like going home anyway. It's wrong and I know I should adapt to any circumstances and any tables I may find.

Anyway, back home earlier than expected so decided to try another NL10 session at PokerStars. This time played for half an hour and it was again a positive session, this time thanks to a really lucky hand just before the session ended. Earlier on I had gotten in a couple of bad spots, once thanks to a bad read where my opponent had a set and I thought my top pair was good enough and another where I lost most of my chips to a higher flush. Tough to get away from those... then right when the session was drawing to a close, almost doubled up with QQ vs KK, a hand in which I 4-bet all-in before the flop, was on a flush draw after the turn and ended up rivering a Q. I had been losing almost $8, was able to slowly grind my way back to losing only $2 and this hand turned things around for good. Here's the stats for this second NL10 session:

Minutes Played: 87.1
Hands: 304
Winnings: EUR 4.37
VPIP/PFR/AF/3Bet%: 25.7/15.8/4.60/3.0

I think these are good solid stats for now, maybe the 3-bet % should be higher, provided I find the right spots. Something to tinker with in the next sessions. Here's how the graph is shaping up and you can see how up and down this session came out to be:

NL10 Day #1

As promised, I'll be posting incremental results from my cash game NL10 sessions, along with a few hand analysis, if need be. Today is the first day and along with the small sample presented in the last post, I kicked things into gear officially by playing exactly one hour of NL10 at PokerStars, with these session data:

Minutes Played: 60.4
Hands: 203
Winnings: EUR 8.49
VPIP/PFR/AF: 20.6/14.3/18.00


Obviously a good starting session, putting total profits so far at EUR 11.43, little over one BI (buy-in). I always seem to run good in everything's first session, problem comes later...

There was this one hand I'd like to dissect for a bit:

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com

CO ($8.13)
Button ($10)
SB ($15.64)
BB ($10.19)
UTG ($10.90)
Hero (MP) ($17.05)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, 10

1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, 2 folds, SB bets $0.45, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.10) 6, 6, 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.10) 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($1.10) 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Total pot: $1.10

Villain is 21/21 over 40 hands (sample too small, surely) and I was basically playing this hand to try and hit a spade flush and limp-calling was only justified by having position post-flop. The flop was both good and bad, as it brought the flush draw I was seeking but those sixes could mean disaster. The SB checked and rather than risking a check-raise I decided to check behind, as I could probably get some value on later streets. When the SB checked again on the turn, I took it at as a sign of weakness and incorrectly check it behind again. Should have bet here, both for value and to protect my hand against a possible higher flush on the river. Then the river again doubled the board and it got really dangerous. It's true the SB never showed strength but then again, on a hand I misplayed almost from the beginning I rather win a bit, than risk losing more than I should to a possible full house. I checked again and took the pot, as the villain was holding AT. Turns out I would hardly get any more value for my hand, anyway...

Going to play a $10 buy-in 2-table live tournament tonight, will probably post a couple of hands here when I get back.

A New Challenge on the Horizon

Despite what I previously posted about challenges and not really being able to see them through, I'm now embarking on a new one. The reason is two-fold:

a) I'm sick and tired of playing tournament poker. I've been on a huge cold phase that's been going on for about a month now and I'm running from the aggravation of elimination for a while. Just sick of so many incredible bad beats in recent times. Nonetheless, I'll still be playing tournament poker live, just not online.

b) I believe that to be successful you have to pick yourself from the floor many many times and try as hard as you can to learn from your mistakes. This is so much a cliché as it is one of the simplest truths in life. The rate at which you learn from mistakes is directly proportional to the quickness of your development, in this case as a poker player.

So basically for the time being I'll be playing tournaments live and cash games online, particularly at PokerStars. So far, since I started playing poker, 99% of my focus has been tournament-oriented and now I feel it is time to pay more attention to cash games. This goes hand-in-hand with trying to develop my post-flop skills.

Now that I'm using Hold'em Manager, there's a huge wealth of stats readily available to help me analyze my game. Because I'm still quite inexperienced using it, for now I'm using some basic stats on my HUD: VP$IP, Preflop Raise, Steal, 3-Bet, Agg Factor, Flop CB, Fold to flop CB and # of hands. I think for now this is more than enough and later on I should be paying more attention to positional stats, eg., how many times a player has raised pre-flop from the button, versus from UTG and so on. The other aspect of Hold'em Manager that is really nice is the winning graphs, which you can display by # of hands, days or months.

So, as with any challenge worth its salt, I'm putting down a few rules for this one:

1. I'll be playing exclusively on PokerStars $0.05/$0.10 6-max tables, with 100BB as a buy-in, thus $10.
2. I will play for sessions no shorter than 1 hour and no longer than 2 hours.
3. If I feel I'm catching entirely too many bad beats or that I'm obviously off my best game, I will stop playing immediately, even if breaking rule 2.
   
4. The challenge is over when I reach 10,000 hands.

So the idea here is to see how I do over a 10k hands sample in NL10 on poker stars, a sample big enough to eliminate most variance. By playing somewhat short sessions and trying as much as possible to be honest with myself when something is putting me off my game, it'll also hopefully eliminate most silly playing on my part from the sample.

I'll be posting regular updates with my progress. To kickstart things, here's the first sample, not really representative because I've only playing for about half an hour.

World Series of Bubbling

I've stolen the title from a tweet Barry Greenstein just made and I guess it fits my poker game tonight.

Last Sunday played the last tournament of a season we got going here in Evora and made it to the season's final table, to be played 10-handed in a few weeks. Looking forward to that one, since it's basically a deep-stacked sit 'n go and I guess those are my home turf. I don't think I'm a favorite, but I do think I have a shot at winning that thing, provided the Poker Gods give me a break and stop laying the bad beats down on me. I wanted to log a few hands from that one, but it was absolutely crazy, an rollercoaster all night that defied all theory and probabilities. So, let's just be done with it and be mentally prepared for the final table in two and a half weeks.

So tonight it was a two-table tournament, in a place I use to play sometimes, nothing more than a home game but a competitive one at that. Bad beats abound but I do respect a couple of players there and enjoy playing pots with them. Tonight I bubbled when I had everything to get every chip on the table, but again destiny denied me that pleasure. I do believe I played well, except for one key hand early on, but what can you do.

In this post I'm going to analyze a few key hands...

Hand #1 - "The Bad Read"

Setup: This is very early in the tournament, blinds 50/100, I have my starting stack of 5000 chips, give or take. Villain in the CO is a strong, experienced player, whom I respect a lot.

I have 99 on the BB and I raise pre-flop to 300, receiving only one call from the CO. We see the flop heads up and it comes 5 7 Q rainbow. Perhaps I should have check on the BB, effectively set mining but the more aggressive image I'm looking for made me take the raising line. Being the pre-flop raiser, sucks to be playing OOP with a queen on the flop, but a continuation bet is mandatory here so I fire a 450 bullet on this very dry flop. Villain thinks for a few seconds, claims I don't have a Q and cold-calls. At this point, with no obvious draws on the board, I don't think he has a queen, but a 7 or 5 is possible.

The turn is another 7 which makes it less likely for him to have one in his hand. Then again, it's a possible holding, given his reluctant flop call. It's important to underline that I'm playing against a good player which makes the post-flop play a lot more complex. Against a weak player, I'd be quite more comfortable, as they usually play much more fit-or-fold and that reflects in the way they bet. What I'm trying to say is that against a good player in this spot I have a lot more implicit fold equity as I'm able to represent some hands, something which would go way over the head of a weak villain.

There's basically two different lines I could take here. If I check, I'm not able to represent much as this opponent knows I'm unlikely to slow play a set of 7 in this spot. Checking would basically mean giving up the hand, as I'd have trouble calling a strong bet with one card to come. So I decide to represent pocket fives, or even a 7, betting what I hoped would look like a value bet, 550 into a 1200 pot, a slight underbet. After slight deliberation, my opponent calls. The river is an ace and with the line I took, I cannot back down now, because if I check, I open the door for a strong river bluff from my opponent, which I can't reasonably call. The only thing I can do is maintain my line and fire a third desperate bullet, as my pocket pair can beat very few hands. I bet another 800 chips and my opponent tanks for a bit but calls. I show my 99 and he shows a 7, for a set, taking the pot.

My read was wrong at all levels and his flop call made a middle pair his most likely holding. The 7 on the turn should have slowed me down a lot, but instead I went in denial and fired every bullet I could, not believing the harsh truth. The river didn't help, and the outcome was disastrous. With this hand I lost nearly 2000 chips, more than a third of initial stack.

After that initial setback I was able to get back on my feet, chipping up to around 6000 chips after some really lousy playing from a weak opponent. He gave me odds all the way to the river, I kept paying and hit my top pair by the river. Lucky me, but really disgraceful from him. Couldn't really win more pots after that but I cruised to the final table anyway, with around 5000 in chips. Blinds were already at 300/600, so I needed to double up soon. I shove QTo, get called by 77, a Q pops up on the flop and no more help to my opponent on the turn and river. I double up to about 10k chips.

Some time later, I'm against with around 10BB, blinds go up to 400/800, UTG limps and I shove AcKs from UTG+1. All fold to the limper, who calls with A6o! Flop immediately brings a 6, but justice was replaced when 4 spades hit the felt and I'm saved by a rivered flush. Another double up, getting me to about 15k chips and close to the chip lead.

A few hands later I have KK in the hijack, raise to 3900 with blinds 500/1000 and everyone folds. I show my cowboys face up, as I'm now chip leader and stealing some blinds is definitely in my plans for the next few hands. The very next hand I have... KK again! And this is the key hand for me in this tourney.

I have two black kings in the CO, pop it up to 4800 to discourage most calls as I'm not looking forward to play a multi-way pot. The button thinks and cold calls leaving about 7000 chips behind, effectively putting almost half his stack in the middle. The SB instally goes all-in for about 3000 more and it takes me all of two seconds to re-raise it all-in. The initial call came from whom I perceive as a weak player, so I don't put him on AA, thus I shove to discourage him and going heads up with the short stacked SB. To my dismay, he makes a crying call, putting the rest of chips forward. I'm NOT happy to play a 3-way pot with KK, but I'm encouraged when I see the button flipping AQo (!) and the SB showing AKs. Two aces left in the deck. Flop brings nothing relevant, but the turn is an ace and the river is... a queen. Absolute tragedy strikes, as the bigger stack comes from behind and takes the entire pot, almost tripling up, eliminating the SB in the process and leaving me crippled with about 7k chips.

I could probably have pushed all-in before the flop and we know the ace would hit anyway, yet I would lose less as only the short stacked SB probably would have called. But then again, it doesn't make much sense, as my raise (almost 5BB) was already strong enough to discourage non-premium hands from calling. I think I just got really unlucky in this hand.

From here on I'm only looking for a hand to shove my meager 4BB (t4275) stack, after the blinds pass through me once and I wake up with AdQd. I push and get called by the now mega chip leader, with... T8o. An 8 hits the turn and nothing else helps my hand, and I bubble. Sick.

Not much to be learned tonight, except for that initial mistake. Other than that, just quickly forget this bout of bad luck and move on to the next tournament...

Still on Tuesday Night Game

To complement my earlier post on my latest live game, I thought it would be interesting to analyze the three main hands I found myself all-in pre-flop.

The first is my bad beat of the evening, AhKh vs. Th9h:


While my hand isn't dominating the villain's hand, it's still quite powerful being two overcards in the same suit, so I'm shutting out a possible flush for him. Roughly 64%-36%, as indicated by the picture above taken from a poker odds calculator. I commented last night that this move was definitely +EV off the top of my head, but the math proves it:

Stacks: Villain (4500), Me (6850), blinds 200/400
Pot: 4500 + 200 + 400 = 5100

So, if I go all-in and everyone else folds, I'm playing for villain's stack so I stand to win it plus the blinds, thus being the 5100 in the pot. If I lose, I'm down 4500 as I didn't put any blinds or antes in the pot. ICM tells us that this situation has a positive expected value:

EV = (0.64) * t5100 + (-0.36) * t4500 = t1.644

On the long run, I win 1644 chips on average with this move. Definitely positive EV, even though ICM tells us that, had I eliminated the villain, the equity he lost would be divided among the remaining players and wouldn't come all to me. We'd all be nearer the money, not just me. I'd just win a little bit more equity than everyone else.

The second situation is right after this hand when I shove 5BB with Qd9d. As I said earlier on, I was ready to go all-in with basically any two cards. It's interesting to note at this point that any random two cards will beat a top hand roughly 1/3 of the time. Add to that the fact that the probability your opponent holds an overpair is 10% and you see how justified my any-two shove here would be. I end up getting called by Ah8h and here's how we shape up to see the flop:


We're racing and I got lucky on the turn, dodging a flush draw on the flop, which made it 85%-25% before the turn. Nothing really interesting here, other than the fact that it allowed me to stay in the tournament.

Finally, we analyze the hand that sent me home. Villain open shoved around 10BB from early position and he had been quiet for a while, even folding his BB to previous action so I knew he had to be strong. I was praying for AJ, which would be the best I could hope for, but he ended up flipping AdQd, so we were off to the races:


A slight edge for me, but the flop was awful and I was virtually drawing dead by then. I think it would be very difficult for me to fold in this spot, given our stack sizes but had I been in the vicinity of 15BB and I'd definitely lean towards folding, after putting my opponent on a premium hand range. Again, let's look at ICM for my expectation on this spot:

Stacks: Villain (8000), Me (6000), blinds 400/800
Pot: 6000 + 400 + 800 = 7200

EV = 0.54 * t7200 + (-0.46) * t6000 = t1128

This means I'd only have -EV had I been against QQ+, which makes this a good move in the long run, as my opponent would rarely have such a high pocket pair in this spot. It's true it sent me home, and I'd prefer to be the one open shoving instead of calling a shove, but then again I wouldn't gain any equity by folding, as the blinds would come up and put me in a very difficult position. Only a great run of cards would save me then, so I might as well gamble, like I did here.

Some lessons learned and I'm definitely looking forward to playing my next tournament.

Tuesday Night Game

Not withstanding what I wrote in my last post, I got an invite to play a live game tonight and I accepted it. Playing live is an opportunity I hate to pass up, unless higher values come into the equation.

Decided to change my game a bit, playing much more aggressive from the get go, almost trying to be the table bully. Won a nice pot early on with showdown and then a couple more with standard c-bets on the flop, taking advantage of a couple "fit-or-fold" type players. Built some stack but then got involved in a big pot, failed to make a good read and went back down to a little below my initial stack. Moved tables, but before I did that I was able to scoop another juicy pot on the flop. I had AQo on the SB, couple of limps, button raises 3BB, I make a standard 3-bet and get check-called by villain in the CO. Definitely fishy, but then again I saw this player slow playing his KK before the flop, so it wouldn't surprise me if was on an {AK,AQ} type hand. Button folds and we see the flop. All rainbow rags, I fire a pot-sized c-bet which sent villain to the tank but thankfully forced him to muck his hand. I definitely put him on a AK-AJ, maaaaaaaybe KQ-suited range, so it was kind of a standard play from both of us.

Then on the other table, we were playing 5-handed and I stole the blinds once with Ace-rag, keep afloat, with about 11-12BB. Then this hand comes up where it is folded to the CO who instantly goes all-in, I wake up with AhKh on the button and instant re-raise all-in. Fold, fold and we see the flop heads up. He turns Th9h face up, for a little disguised WTF moment on my part and flop comes not one but two tens, evolving to a full house by the river, and I shrink to some 5BBs. Bad beats, I love you dearly. Poker loves donks.

Reduced to little more than ashes, I was ready to shove the next hand with pretty much any two cards and I wake up with Qd9d. More than enough. I shove and get called by the BB, showing Ah8h. Two hearts on the flop, giving my opponent a flush draw - something I'm getting quite used to stomaching when flipping lately... - but the turn is a 9 and he doesn't complete his flush. I double up and am back above the waterline with some 5,000 chips.

It's soon time to join the two tables, as my former table also got 5-handed and the final table was underway. Sadly being in push-or-fold mode, with blinds 300-600, I shove a couple of times, once with Ace-rag (showing the rag face up to the table) and once with JTo, showing it face up as well. The reason I decided to show these bluffs to the table is because lately I feel I have too solid an image at the places I play in. Basically, people are respecting me too much and I'm not getting enough value for my premium hands because of that. The only way to counter that seems to be showing some bluffs and get a looser image.

After those steals I got up to 6,500 chips, more or less, when someone goes all-in pre-flop a couple of seats before me and I hold JcJs. In this spot, with half the table still to act, I would probably tank for a while and eventually fold, guessing my opponent, raising from early position with around 10BB would have to be on a pretty tight range of {99+,AK,AQ} and maybe AJ suited, a range which kinda dominates me or at least gets us flipping. However, I came to this tournament with a more aggressive approach and it wouldn't make much sense to fold JJ after what happened earlier. Either I doubled up and was back in the game, or I would go home. He flips AdQd, for two suited overcards, which makes this a 54%-46% race, me being slightly ahead. At least I guessed his range right! The flop is awful with an A and two diamonds giving him top pair and a flush draw and after another diamond hits the turn, I'm drawing dead and on my way to the rail.

All in all, I'm happy with the way I played and I enjoyed the more aggressive line I took. If I didn't take that huge AK vs T9 bad beat, I would shoot up to near the chip lead and I would be a serious candidate for ITM and maybe winning the tournament, as the more aggressive players were either short or already out of the way. So, tonight I can safely blame it to luck that I didn't go further and can rest peacefully in the knowledge that my AK call was definitely +EV, being dominated only by KK+ which that villain certainly wouldn't open shove with in the first place.

I definitely feel that aggressive poker is a must to be a contender in big tournaments and I plan on keeping my game going on this direction, while developing post-flop skills to go with it. While not playing a hand, it's great to sit back and watch, trying to get a read on the players that are in the hand. There's no better way to develop your reads.

Position-Aware Bet Sizing

One of the important aspects of being positional aware at the poker table is sizing your bets depending on where you sit at the table, the same your opening range needs to vary accordingly. The earlier your position, the tighter you should open and the inverse is obviously also true.

When it comes to sizing your opening raises, I've read different - and contradicting - theories in different literature, which fall into three different categories.

1. Always bet the same amount
2. Bet more the earlier your position
3. Bet less the earlier your position

The second option is what I have always implicitly used and, to be honest, I don't know why. I guess the reasoning is that you have more players to act behind you, so your raise should be bigger to discourage calls from weak holdings. I also understand the merits of betting the same amount no matter what, as to disguise your hand, considering you bet the same be it with a premium hand or a more marginal holding.

However, I was just reading Phil Gordon's Little Green Book and I fell in love with the way he thinks about sizing your bets when opening the pot. He basically says that the earlier you act, the less you should raise, for a few different reasons:

• Committing fewer chips to the pot when out of position. Being OOP after the flop makes it difficult to play and so you want to control the pot a bit more.
• A smaller raise encourages opponents to play against you when you have a premium hand. Which, by the way, is what you will have when opening from early position, anyway.
• Bigger raises from late position put real pressure on the remaining players to fold and make it harder for the blinds to re-raise. When in late position, your opening range is wider, so you want to discourage most callers, while giving value to your more speculative hands.
• When raising in position, there is more money in the pot. If you have position, you're in better shape to take the pot, so you want it to be bigger when you're in that situation.

Phil advocates the following chart of bet sizing, relative to the BB:

Early: 2.5x - 3.0x
Middle: 3.0x - 3.5x
Late: 3.5x - 4.0x
SB: 3.0x

I can't wait to try this in my next tournaments and see for myself if it's an EV+ strategy.

Stop

Well obviously I couldn't get through with the challenge. Knowing me, I'm actually surprised it got to day one! Variance is a bitch and the truth of the matter is that to properly take on a challenge of this nature, I'd have to be focused on it and not just play on a now-I-can-play-for-half-hour basis. That or losing sleep playing poker which only adds up as the week goes on.

No matter. Not a problem. We'll put this challenge of mine on hold and focus on more important things on my path to become a better poker player. Today I feel like talking about burnout.

Too much is too much

Whatever you do in life, if you do too much of it, you will eventually (and occasionally) get sick of it. Sometimes it gets borderline compulsive and obsessive and when it gets to that, you better watch out and do something about it. Gaming and gambling are among those activities with the most propensity for compulsion and damaging your life. I obviously do not jump in the "if it's gambling, it's evil" bandwagon, I'm a player after all, but I do believe in balance.

Sadly, I've never had much balance in my life. When I find something I like, I have trouble letting it go and do it almost obsessively. I'm just not very good at giving myself orders so in the past, when faced with the necessity to study and the will to play, I very rarely studied. It was only when things got out of hand and the prospect of flunking became a very real threat, that somehow the switch was turned and I did apply myself to the books.

Poker, obviously, is a perfect ground of confusion and losing your balance. It's obviously a notion quite impossible to grasp for people who don't play or are not interested in it, but it's definitely a game that can mess with you, as it deals with both luck and skill. While I'll postpone a discussion of skill vs. luck in poker, for now suffice it to say that Poker being the game of incomplete information and skill that it is, it can lead you to an insatiable desire to improve your game, to become better, to become closer to the best players out there.

In my case, while I do have a strong urge to learn and improve my skills, I'm guilty of a bad learn/play ratio. Too often I forfeit reading and thinking about the game outside of the tables, for time spent sat down at a table, especially online. And if you think rationally about it, this behavior can only lead to disaster. If you play a very competitive game but don't spend enough time improving your skill, it's obvious the results won't improve either and the longer you play with less than satisfying results, the more upset and frustrated you become. And I've already started feeling the burden some time ago.

Don't Erase, Yet Rewind

So, the conclusion is that I need to stop thinking about challenges and about enlarging my bankroll and, god forbid, making a living through Poker. If I have a genuine love for the game, which I do, I should put my foot on the brake pedal right now and for a while play less poker and think/read/learn/study more about the game. I do believe I got to a point where I evolved into an slightly above average player, which doesn't necessarily mean a winning player and maybe not even a break-even player. But I do feel I need to take it down a notch, reducing time spent playing, especially online, and using that time to read and think more about strategies, situations, analyzing hand histories, watching videos, etc.