Again it has been weeks since I last posted anything. If you check my blog often, I apologize again. During the summer I was on the computer all day and would post frequently. Now, even when I'm on the computer, my time is pretty budgeted due to school. I have been playing quite a bit lately but making time to post in the blog is something I'll have to work on. I have 90 minutes of free time on campus on Tuesdays and Thursday but I usually use this time to sleep in the library--I'll make an exception today as a sign of my intentions to get this blog back up and running.
First, let me say I've spent a lot of time studying poker lately. Even for someone that is making a significant sum of money and has played hundreds of thousands of hands, I'm amazed at how much I learn on a daily basis. I've watched a lot of Cardrunners/PokerXFactor videos lately, watched high stakes online games, and read a ton of new blogs. My favorite new blogs include:
Adam Junglen, who recently outplayed Patrik Antonius (perhaps the best NLHE player alive) and got unlucky--this was one of the most talked about hands on P5's ever and I suggest you read his 3 blogs about the hand to gain some top notch insight. I also read
gobboboy who took 2nd to Gus Hansen in the Aussie Millions for something like $800k. The final blog I've spent a lot of time reading is
Brian Townsend's (aba20/sbrugby). If you live under a mountain and don't know of BT he was on HSP and has to be one of the top NLHE cash game players alive. He also has videos on CRs.
As for my own game I've been playing all head's up (HU) lately. I have played $1/2 and $2/4 HU on FTP and have loved every minute of it. I never really played much HU before but I feel like my edge is huge. I am running at something like 19.9PTBB/100 over 9.8k hands--I've had really good runs of 10k hands that represent positive variance but even if I'm on a big run, 19.9PTBB/100 is pretty outstanding. I would expect my long-run expectation at this level still to be north of 10PTBB/100 even if I wasn't getting hit with the deck.
Playing HU is a pretty awesome experience the first time it really "clicks". People at these limits are often clueless and tilt easy. I've noticed that if you just apply constant--but not ridiculous pressure--you can pretty much dominate most of the players. I don't raise every button but I never limp and this makes it very hard to determine my range of hands PF because I'm only folding roughly 35% of the hands I'm dealt and the other 65% I'm raising. 65% of the hands represents a huge range and determining if I hit the flop or not has to be nearly impossible. People are too passive and just call OOP far too often and then over-value hands in big pots due to my constant aggression. Just because I raise 65% of the hands I'm dealt on the button does not mean I'm 3 barrel bluffing and your bottom pair is good. Knowing when to release a good hand or when to stop bluffing is the key to beating HU poker. Too often people try to run me over after a couple hundred hands of my pounding on them; at this point all I need to do is pick up anything decent on a flop to stack them. I'm writing this at the library but I will post some HH's later as examples. I also see people calling my 3 bet's in position too lightly. If I'm willing to put in 10 BB's OOP I have your J9s dominated a good portion of the time and even if I don't, I have a suited connector and I'm not playing a big pot without a big flop. To put it more concisely , people are too passive OOP and overestimate implied odds IP.
Table selection is also clearly more important HU. I'm not sitting down with someone that already has 4 stacks in front of them. That person has been there a long time and it is very hard to lucksack your way into 4 full buy-ins. I actually tend to target guys with 40-60% of the max. buy-in. My implied odds are reduced but these players play scared and are incredibly easy to read. If I have to take their money $100 at a time instead of playing some massive match with $400 in play against a tough, full stack I'll gladly do just that. The best is when a player sits down with an odd amount like $102.95. I would have to guess that this represents the players BR and when your roll is in play you have to be either a) too timid or b) tilting. Either one of these means I'll have your stack shortly.
Hopefully you enjoyed the read and will check back soon. I may start posting some results here again as I have a new personal goal. I probably won't post specifics of the goal but my posting results I keep myself motivated.
Thanks for stopping by,
Kevin
