Yo December, wassup? We get a chance in December to meet two prominent denizens of BQ. The Digest recognizes Wafflehouse1 as Poster Of The Month and digest columnist, papapyrite introduces himself to our readers. We hope you enjoy the December issue for those reasons and dozens more.
For your convenience, we have started including a few permanent links in the digest. You will find links to the forum FAQ, a great LHE library you may have never seen, and we have begun linking to the previous month's digest. The intent is to provide a ramp, in each issue to some frequently used reference tools.


We recommend you become market place approved if you are participating in MTT pools. Ice_W0lf has clearly delineated the forum rules with regard to buying and selling action. You can read and understand them here.
Ice_W0lf on buying and selling action


You may want to read the “Poker News Daily” article linked in the “Links Of Interest” section.
One of our links is to a thread in the BQ for the purpose of a gift exchange (Secret Santa, duh) Having read through the list of participants, this editor believes they may need your help. So anyone reading this who wishes to, please post your suggestions, in the digest thread, about what you may think an appropriate gift for any of the participants. Let your imagination soar and help these guys, OK? Post your suggestions in this thread.


BumbleBee99 is introducing Badugi to us this month. If you haven't already played Badugi you are missing an experience. Bee's guide may be helpful.





How the hell did I get nominated for the inaugural POTM piece? (At least I think I'm the first ) Is it my patience with all the noob questions in BQ? Is it my masterful performance in the forum games since reestablishment on RPM? No, and no. Hmmmmm, I know, it is my entertaining antics in the poker community. My degenerate shot taking, ability to bounce back after a big loss, and to take on huge challenges and overcome them no matter the cost.

Recently I have been having some mild success with my game. Believe me, it hasn't always been this way. I was first introduced to poker around 2001. All of my friends and myself would play these ridiculous home games sometimes lasting from Friday afternoon until late Sunday night. (Yes, this means continuous.) We didn’t use blinds, everyone just anted and we passed the deal around. 99% was NLHE, the other 1% consisted of regular poker games. We didn't play much midnight baseball, between the sheets, etc. We would all get our paychecks cashed and watch the stream of people roll in and out, buy-in, cash-out, all weekend long. At times we would have up to $1K or better in play. None of us were afraid to lose our weekly earnings, and some of us did. I luckily only would gamble with what I could afford to lose, which was usually a significant portion of my pay for the week. It also helped that a majority of times, I would come out a decent winner when all was said and done. What this didn't help was my foray into online poker.

I first played online at Party during the glory days. I was a god in my home games, this online should be easy money. What could go wrong? My friend and I split a $100 deposit and planned to run it up into millions. As good as I was at NLHE, and my knowledge of PLO, ensured our success. One 100PLO table later and we were busted. 30 minutes is all we lasted and none of it was enjoyable. We decided to never try this again. Little did he know I started back up a few months later when I started dating a new girl (whom I am still with) who had a nice computer. About $150 later I was starting to get some footing playing micros, and then, UIGEA. I was shell shocked. I was beginning to figure some things out and they took it away. Shortly there after I found FTP.

I never really had much of a problem steadily growing my bankroll, it was just how long it took to get it there. I would put $20 on and build it up to $100, buy in to a 100NL game and be busto. I did this god knows how many times. I was getting frustrated. I heard of this tracking software and decided to give it a go. I purchased HEM and realized I wasn’t beating the games when I bought in higher. Obviously they were rigged. I could crush the micros, but every time I bought in with my bankroll, I was bust. OK, easy game, quit doing that. So I did, until rush poker came along.
I remember the feeling of booking that first $2k night. It was pure bliss. I had finally got this game down. So what to do now? The choice was obvious, I would play 1KNL and buy-in with half my roll. If I lost it I would quit. LOL. GG money. By the time I quit, I was back down to the $50 I had started with the night before. I needed a break. I didn’t play all week and thought about how dumb I was. The following Friday, I started out at 10NL rush poker and before I knew it I was playing 200NL rush with a $2k stack again! Oh joy, my mistake has been corrected. Degens gonna degen. Saturday I was playing 600PLO crushing. Oh, lets try 1KNL again, that donk that took my money last week is sitting again. Facepalm. GG money. OMFG Ive done it again??!!! HOW?

It was around this very time I discovered 2p2. I lurked, I read, I studied, I bought books. I learned that my whole problem with the game was bankroll management and spewing when I tilted. I started to crush the rush. I was playing 25NL rush 4 tables and beating them at 4.5 bb/100. Life was good. I was starting to get a nice rep on 2p2 with all the BQ bros as well. I then hit my first downswing. I lost my mind. I moved up to 400NL rush trying to recoup my losses. All I did was lost. Monday came around and I was still super sad. I thought I would scrape up a small BR and grind it back. I got home from work and hopped on 2p2. It was lagging very badly and I couldnt get anywhere. Finally I get logged in to see FTP down?, Stars down? all over the place. FUDOJ. Just when I had it figured out, you take it away again.

The best part about this for me is the lack of low/mid-stakes action flying around. It is incredibly hard to bust a roll in one sitting these days. I currently hold several SN's on all the merge skins open to US players. I have accounts on Bodog and on the cake and Everleaf networks. I play mainly PLO ranging from 4PLO to 25PLO (based on the account I'm on), and have recently been picking up NL 6max at those same stakes. Things have been going super well ever since I took on the King of the Road challenge on RPM. (2k sngs, 15k hands, 5k vip points in 30 days) It forced me to play within my BR, and have tilt control if I were ever going to get it done. I was wildly successful, and am now one week into the 10K hand Monday promo on RPM as well. I was both profitable and successful in the first week at the time of this writing. By the time of this publishing I hope to have completed all 4 weeks, which would be my largest volume month since rush poker was taken. Wish me luck and good luck to everyone in your games! Also, I am always available in PM if anyone wants to talk strat, general gambling, or fixing a degen problem. -wafflehouse1



Hello 2 + 2
My name is Pyrite, and I would like to introduce myself to this community. My forum SN is derived from the name for a mineral which is commonly known as "fool's gold". I chose it to remind myself constantly that appearances can be misleading, and should not be the standard used to judge value in something or someone. This is true in poker, and in life, and I strive to determine value in either case by searching deeper than superficial characteristics.

In the real world I am a married father of four children, all now adults with some having children of their own. No, I'm not old really, but life happens very fast, and I must say I would not change anything. I grew up in California mostly, with a short stay in Connecticut for prep school while my dad did post grad work at Yale, then back to California for my high school years. I went to Mt San Antonio College for an AA degree, then rushed into marrying my teenage sweetheart. That marriage lasted less than 5 years of course, but forced me to get into the business world before completing my higher education.

I did finally go back to school, and earned my BS from Cal Poly in 1984. I was having the time of my life of course, single and a bit older than most of my classmates, making the most of college life. After graduation, I went into business with several friends, and have never regretted that choice. I have been very fortunate to be able to work at something I enjoy. I returned to school in mid-80's, part time for post grad work in mathematics, but quickly switched to computer science. As it worked out I never finished my post grad work and remain several units short of my MS. During this time however, I took the plunge again with my current wife, after being domestic partners for 2 years. My poker friends tease me that I can't risk being quartered, so I should stay with this one for the duration.

I have been playing poker part time since late 1999, starting with live play at casinos in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I have played low buy-in tournaments and small stakes cash games at most of the card rooms in Southern California; including Commerce, the Bike, Hustler, Morongo, Pechanga, San Manuel, Soboba and Barona. I have played at many of the card rooms on the Vegas strip, and downtown at Binion's, as well as many visits to Harrah's Lake Tahoe.

I started playing online around 2002 at Party Poker, mostly LHE and 7 card Stud. I was just a recreational donk, and didn't know enough to even beat the relatively cheap online rake, or even profit from the sick promotions they offered in those days. After the Moneymaker explosion in 2003 I signed up at Poker Stars to play online and started playing a little NLHE, though I was really awful. I played infrequently, and strictly for recreation, so I lacked any great desire to work hard enough to improve. I also signed up at FTP not long after they came along in 2004, and I started playing a few MTT online around that time. But my primary game was still LHE, and I usually would play 2 tables of $.50/$1 a few hours per week. After a brief time away from online poker due to work commitments and travel, I resumed playing online at FTP in 2007 and occasionally played on Stars. Party had withdrawn from the US market in 2006, so these were the primary rooms available to me. I signed up for a promo at UB in which they staked new players, and some time after that I remember making my first ever cashout from an online poker site. I signed up with AP as well, along with a few other smaller rooms. I had not been losing large amounts of money, but I was a losing player overall during all those years.

I changed my focus in mid-2009, when I finally decided to really learn how to play poker and not just gamble. I began focusing on NLHE more, and I started reading books and finding videos online to educate myself. I found a poker buddy that challenged me to get better, and for the last 2 years I have been on a journey to work on my game and improve constantly. I played a mix of LHE and NLHE, with a few STT's and MTT's on weekends. My favorite poker room during this time was FTP and I played there regularly up until Black Friday. Since then, I have been playing on Merge, Bodog and Everleaf primarily. I play mostly micro NLHE and PLO cash, and under $11 MTT's. I spent last summer attempting to play lots of STT's, both turbo and reg speed, small buy in below $7. I have very little experience at HU games, and rarely play any draw games. I enjoy playing nearly every other variant of poker, especially 7 Stud Hi and mixed games like HORSE. My goal is to play MTT's both online and live, while playing enough cash games to keep working on my skills and my discipline. I am at a point in my life where i have the time and the freedom to do the things I enjoy, and I am playing poker more now than ever before.

I look forward to getting to know more of the members here, and to learn from all the bright and talented people in these forums, while giving back to the community here in whatever ways I can contribute. Feel free to contact me via any of the services I have listed in my profile on 2p2. I hope to see you at the tables, and around the forum!

The BQ forum has a lot of fun with poker events, NC threads, and general needling of each other; this is all good. The glue that really holds a diverse community like this together though, is strat. Strat is the heart of the BQ Digest just as we consider it the cornerstone of a good forum, a forum that gives participants an opportunity and ideas to improve their game. The digest is doing its part, including Mike's solid strat column and providing links to your strat posts.


Our long term goal is to see enough well posted strat hands with meaningful replies in the forum that we don't have to go outside our forum to offer solid strat content. In the meantime we are reaching out to other forums for quality hand posts and quality responses.


Digest Insider News : During November and well before, PapaPyrite has been a progressive forum activist, quite instrumental in enlivening the forum. Pyrite brings in both information and challenge. Some days you are the windshield papa, wp. Otoh some days you are the bug, see Papa's verbal interaction with Bobo and huhu challenge with Mike for more on that. “You don't pull on superman's cape, and you don't mess around with Mike” or sumpthin? Does anyone agree with me that a papapyrite well would be fun?


A trolling moderator, sometimes known in BQ as L2duhB, posted misinformation that Auntie W. had been injured and was in a lot of pain. All of us on the digest and other regs in the BQ forum were quite concerned since we hadn't heard from her in a while. Green =/= good sense in all cases apparently. You are over the line in our opinion Leroy. Leroy later posted he didn't deliberately post misinformation. Orly?






A HUD is a powerful tool at the tables. For multi-tablers, who cannot remember every single action which has taken place at all of their tables, the use of a HUD is almost mandatory. Most of us who play poker seriously are aware of this, and use our HUDs to get reads on opponents. Yet some people are not using their HUDs to their maximum potential. The basic HUD configurations which ship with Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker are useful, but they become much more powerful when customized by the user for his or her personal use. In this article, I will talk about the stats which I use and in what situations I find them useful. Some of these stats are ones which I have displayed directly on the HUD; others are ones which I have available in the pop-ups. I will also mention what kind of a sample size you should have before these stats become reliable.

The basic pre-flop stats which everyone should use are VPIP and PFR. These stats are very useful for categorizing your opponents as TAGs, LAGs, aggro fish, or passive fish. VPIP and PFR will take a few hundred hands to converge reliably; however you can draw somewhat reliable conclusions about your opponents over a smaller sample. The fishier your opponents' stats look, the less of a sample of hands you need to realize that they are fish and adjust accordingly. And be especially aware of the gap between your opponent's VPIP and PFR; a large gap between these two stats is a telltale sign of a passive fish. Even after only 15 hands, I think it is fair to say that an opponent with an 80/6 VPIP/PFR is a fish. Now, he might really be a 40/10 or a 92/3 if you had a bigger sample on him, but that almost doesn't matter: his likely leaks are playing too many hands and playing them too passively pre-flop. On the other hand, if your villains have stats like 20/13 or 40/27 or 7/7 over only 15 hands, they may well be competent, and you should not try to deduce anything about their play from such a small sample size.



Another important stat to use is 3bet%. It is pretty important when you get 3bet to try to see if villain is only 3betting the nuts, or if he is capable of 3betting with some bluffs or light value hands. But beware of placing too much faith in this stat over a small sample. I believe you need at least 400 hands on an opponent or a sample of 100 opportunities to 3bet from the villain, before you can really start to use 3bet% as a reliable indicator of what your opponent is doing, as long as his numbers look reasonable. If his 3bet% looks very high, in conjunction with a high PFR, you can assume he is LAGgy, even with a smaller sample of hands. A closely related stat is fold to 3bet%. This stat will allow you to configure your 3betting ranges to take advantage of villains who may call too often or fold too often to 3bets. Since this is a very situational statistic, I don't think you should look at the number of hands you have on him, but rather the number of times he's faced a 3bet in order to decide if you can really use this statistic. You can start drawing conclusions about villain's play after relatively few samples....certainly by the time villain has faced 10 3bets, you can start to get an idea of how he plays when he gets 3bet. A note of caution to PT3 users: the way PT3 calculates the fold to 3bet statistic is somewhat misleading; if you fold to a cold-3bet in front of you, it considers that as folding to a 3bet, despite the fact that you hadn't acted yet until your fold. There are ways for PT3 users to get a more valuable statistic if you search around the forums. For both 3bet and fold to 3bet stats, I have a breakdown by position in my popup. This breakdown is only useful against the regs with whom I play frequently. Against almost any other opponent, the positional 3bet/fold to 3bet statistics have too small a sample size to be reliable.

I use steal% in order to see if villain is smart enough to open wide in the CO and BTN. This allows me to formulate a plan for how to react to their LP steal attempts. I also use this stat, in conjunction with their PFR, to get a general idea of how positionally aware they are. I think you can start to use this stat after about 50 samples. In my pop-up for steal%, it shows a breakdown for the CO, BTN, and SB; this information is useful, but requires a good sample. I also have re-steal stats by position in the pop-up, but they are very unreliable over a small sample size.

Post-flop, the stats I use the most are c-bet and fold to c-bet. You can use villain's c-bet percent, in conjunction with his PFR, to help you determine whether he is strong when he c-bets or whether he might be c-betting with a weak range. If he is raising pre-flop fairly often and c-betting 75% or more, then you can try floating or bluff-raising on the flop more than you would against an opponent who c-bets less often. Villain's fold to c-bet stat is most relevant in a HU pot in which you were the PFR and he cold-called. There are some villains who fold often enough that you can c-bet almost any flop. But there are others who will continue by floating or bluff-raising and against whom you probably should not c-bet with the very worst of your range. For both of these stats, I like to have a sample of at least 10 before I try to draw any conclusions about their play, although if villain's numbers are really out-of-whack I will start to pay attention to it earlier. Stats which I have in the c-betting pop-up are: call c-bet, raise c-bet, c-bet turn, c-bet river, fold to turn c-bet, fold to river c-bet. You will need to have played against an opponent for many hands for those stats to be reliable, especially the turn and river stats.

Another great post-flop stat to use is aggression %. This statistic allows you to see if your opponent is passive or aggressive post-flop. I have the breakdown by street available in the pop-up. After a good sample size, you can sometimes find opponents who are aggressive on certain streets, but play other streets passively. This will help you to determine your bluff-catching and floating frequencies. There are some who prefer to use aggression factor instead, but I find that aggression % gives you a more reliable indication of what your opponent is doing. In the end, it is probably a matter of personal preference which one of these stats you use. You can start to make deductions about your opponent's general post-flop play after perhaps 20 samples on this stat, but you will need much more in order to be confident of your read, especially for aggression % by street.

There are many other statistics which are available for you to put on your HUD, but it would be tedious and unproductive to list them all. The specific stats that you use should depend on what games you play, how many tables you play at once, typical villain tendencies in your games, and the size of the player pool. Regardless of the nature of the games you play, I believe you can increase your WR by carefully adjusting the way you use your HUD. Those of you who are just using the default HUD because it is “good enough” are missing some real value.


Reference Library: These links will take you to useful reference tools.

Link to November 2011 Digest
Link to Micros Limit Library
Link to BQ forum FAQ

Strat Links
Limit vs No Limit discussion from the LHE micros
Link to; Micro Stakes- No Limit, concept of the week thread
TPTK value post from NL forum
A well posted hand from the LHE forum, good discussion about a common spot
A hand where 2 pr unimproved faces a paired river, tough spot from NLHE mid stakes
Discussion from LHE micros about LHE vs NLHE and win rates. Prop bet offered.
JJ flops trips
JJ makes set on theflop

Milestone posts, Trip reports. and Fun posts:

3k milestone post by Wafflehouse1 our POTM
Pyrite Polls nits ITT!!!!
Nit vs LAG grudge match or something else?
Secret Santa
BQ Digest Challenge:no call

Of Interest:
Ice_W0lf on buying and selling action
Solid advice from an old hand at poker and gambling
Link to Poker News Daily article about Nevada internet gambling effort
Strip Poker
Second source






November, for me, started off quite well. I had a plan in place to put in a mighty grind, hoping for numerous forty hour weeks and soaring profits to go with them. I was going to read books, watch videos, study strat, and all around be a learning poker player.

Well, some of that happened. Not much, though.

My hours started to slip; I was still putting in sessions, albeit shorter than I could or should have. I found myself working on my case briefs for homework over reading and playing Zelda over videos. Basically, I was a failure at the whole ‘maturing and evolving game’ thing.

Except for the fact that I was winning. Rapidly. After stalling out for 6k hands, the graph shot up; at my highest point towards the middle of the month I cleared over 19 bb/100 just shy of 30k hands at 10NL.

When poker is going well, you feel invincible. While I was not playing high stakes, or even mid stakes, I was amazed that I could be making $10/hour doing something basically for fun, all while drinking a beer and lounging on the couch nekkid. On top of this, I took third place in a tourney for over $400, with a total result of going from playing under rolled for 10NL to nearly being rolled for 50NL in less than half a month. While I was not planning on shooting up to play that high, it was nice to have a cushion.

It also allowed me to cash out. I took out half of my roll to ‘cancel out’ my initial deposit and to help with Christmas gifts, which left me just slightly under rolled for 25NL while still playing 10NL. The feeling of taking money you have earned off of the site for the first time is, to be blunt, really effing awesome.

Until the withdrawal curse hits.

Poker players have all sorts superstitious names for when something in their results change, and I am sure every one of them have heard of the dreaded withdrawal curse. The sites, angry and upset that you are removing pennies from their coffers, hit that lovely ‘doomswitch’ and you watch your account wiped out before your very eyes. Of course, all of this is nonsense; the sites do not individually care what you do with some of your money, just so long as you keep playing with most of it.

But oh, it can still hurt even if it does not exist.

My first session of the downswing, I dropped sixteen buyins. I shrugged my shoulders, turned off the computer, and went to go and do something else. A session later that night dropped another six, with an additional five in yet another session; I was down twenty seven buyins in less than twenty four hours.

I’m not going to lie to you and say that I took it particularly well. I could tell you that I laughed, puffed out my chest, and kept chugging along like nothing happened. I could tell you that I did not think about it while I was going on with the rest of my life. But all of that would be a lie. The honest truth is, I cried: not choking sobs, just silent, silly little tears.

My roommate, who has been a professional player for almost four years now, sat me down and we had a talk about what my goals were in poker. And he suggested that I move up to 25NL to help combat the rake.

I know what you are thinking. You are saying, “Moving up in a downswing? Foolish girl!”. But he suggested I check out rake percentage breakdowns by stake, VIP calculations, and watch some tables while thinking through action. He advised me to ignore any mental feelings of negativity due to the downswing, and to try it out for awhile and test the waters. He also said he would help watch over my shoulder to keep me in line. I agreed with his reasoning, and decided to give it a chance.

I canceled my withdrawal. I was, again, over rolled for 25NL. I would like to stress the fact that I was not under rolled and desperately taking shots to try and win it back so much as I was belatedly moving up. (Having done the ‘lose it and chase up stakes’ strategy (oh come on, those glass houses aren’t stone proof, gentlemen…) and having it crash and burn, I can tell you that this is not the answer you are looking for.)

The second downswing was seven of my shiny new 25NL buyins. This time, I did not cry (I know, how metal of me) so much as I sat and said nothing. For a very long time. I just stared at the graph and thought about what I wanted to achieve in poker, and whether I was good enough to achieve that.

That was last night.

I have done a lot of thinking over the last few hours. And you know what? I am alright with all of this. I am still up over the month (due to that tourney score, mostly, but shush), and I am still way over rolled for 10NL. A point my roommate just made was that if my graph was flipped upside-down, I would be as happy as a clam. Thinking of the month as one long session, yeah, I did not make as much as I wanted, but damn, look at how much that line DID go up (again, including an invisible tourney score)!

Downswings are hard, but they are a fact of playing poker. You just cannot win all of the time, and sometimes when you lose, you will lose hard. But the most important thing I can tell you is that it is not the end. If you’re following proper bankroll management, you should never obliterate your roll, even during the worst of sessions; if you are finding it difficult to control the urge to needlessly risk your entire bankroll after a downswing, you may need to consider taking a step back and think about whether you may have a problem with gambling.

Here are some helpful links for dealing with downswings:

Success, Failure, and the Downswing Mindset

COTW: How to deal with and get out of a downswing

Surviving a Downswing


To promote the Beginners Digest and its new twitter account @2plus2BQDigest Auntie WDWF’s Corner is running a social media promotion contest, though a certain level of coercion should be noted from the other members of the staff.

Here are the easy steps:
1) Follow @2plus2BQDigest on twitter.
2) Promote the Beginners Digest and twitter in a creative and interesting way on your favorite social media site or forum. Write the URL or twitter account in sidewalk chalk outside the local casino. Break out the body paint and endorse us. Shave a picture of bumblebee99 into the back of your head. It should go without saying that the digest is not telling you to spam the living daylights out of your friends or peers.
3) Send us a screen capture or photo of your support via the twitter account or in the ‘Letters to the Editors’ section on the 2+2 forums.
4) Wait in agony to see if you’ve won!
*please note- contest entries will be accepted from The 1st day of the month through the 20th of the month. None received later than the 20th will be considered.

So, what fabulous prizes await the contestants in our contest? Every entry will receive a holiday themed ‘sign’ from WDWF with whatever you want on it. Ever wanted me to tell you that you were a dream boat? That I sniff butts? That I’m a loser who spends too much time on the internet? Go for the gold, baby!

But wait! There’s more! In addition, an elite panel of experts will look at all of the entries into the contest and pick the two they think are the most creative . The most creative entries will each receive $10 on the poker site of the winner’s choosing.







If you’ve never played it before, allow me to welcome you to the wonderful world of Badugi (pronounced Bad-oog-ee).

Quite simply, it’s a lo-ball draw game, mostly played as fixed limit and full-ring. Each player is dealt 4 cards, and there are 3 betting rounds; Pre-draw, Flop, Turn and River. There is no actual flop but it’s easier to distinguish each drawing round by those common terms, and like fixed limit hold em, the bets are double the big blind on the 3rd and 4th betting rounds

The idea is to discard and draw hands in an attempt to make a Badugi. A Badugi consists of 4 different ranked cards, all of different suits; e.g. As, 4d, 7c, Jh. Straights do not count against you, so being a lo ball game the best hand is A234 all of different suits. This is known as a Royal Badugi.

In the event of no badugi’s at showdown, the best 3 card hand, or Tri as it’s called, wins. For example As, 2d, 3c, 4c beats Ad, 2c, 4s, 5d. As with any lo ball game the best way to read your hand is backwards – so using the above example, less the suits, would be 4321 beats 5421; the lower number always wins.

Similarities with Hold Em

As with most forms of poker, particularly for beginners, tight is most often right. Picking good starting hands is key, as you don’t want to consistently be drawing 3 or 4 cards (in fact drawing 4 is really not a good idea in most situations.

Unless playing heads up, you should prefer a strong starting hand such as a 43AX tri than a KJT9 badugi. Versus 3 villains drawing 1 card each the chances that the King badugi holds and wins is pretty slim. A reason for this is that around 70% of dealt badugi’s are Jacks or higher. So almost everyone, that has half a clue, knows this they are drawing to hand that can beat a Jack.

The main leak for beginners at badugi is not understanding their own or their villains hand strength, along with continuing to draw to bad holdings (and good ones) when pot odds are unfavourable.

Conversely, knowing that most pat badugis (pat meaning a dealt badugi pre-draw) are Jack’s or higher, if you do get dealt a great hand such as a 6 badugi you are more often than not quite at liberty to get as much money in the pot as possible.

Another similarity with hold em is the value of position. It’s much preferable to see all the action ahead of you before your turn. If you are heads up for instance against a villain drawing 3 cards, and you are drawing 1 with a good 3 card tri behind you, you can comfortably bet knowing you are very likely ahead. If you see a villain draw 2 and check, while you want to draw 2 also, you can decide whether to get a free draw or not by checking behind. Or you might decide to bluff!

Notes are very important in badugi as with most forms of poker. You want to know who the tight ones are, who understands hand strength, whether someone calls down good 3 card hands and so on.

Snowing

Snowing is the term used for bluffing in draw games; e.g. Patting your hand in effort to convince your villain you have a badugi. This can often be pre-draw leading to snowing multiple streets, or after seeing an opponent draw that you know is capable of folding you might want to consider a snow if you only drew 1 card previously and missed.

Conclusion

This is meant as a simple introduction to the game of Badugi, and is very light on actually strategy. If you are interested in learning more there are some great sites out there with some in depth strat and maths, as well as 2+2’s own draw games forum.

Beginners Questions has it’s own ‘Teach Me How to Dugi’ Thread here where anyone will answer questions, and iirc correctly it references the excellent video on Cardrunners that also acts as in intro to the game.

As mentioned it is typically a fixed limit game, starting at 0.25/0.50 on Poker Stars and progressing through the ranks. Half Pot Limit cash games run on the Merge Network but this doesn’t seem as popular.

If anyone in BQ wants to try out the game at the very lowest stakes in a friendly environment, hit me up by PM or in this thread and we can organise a $1 tournament or something in Poker Stars Home Games, and I promise to find some of the fishiest fish to come and play too.







My two favorite times of the poker year are June and November. This is when I get to vicariously live out my ultimate fantasy, to play in the WSOP Main Event and reaching the final table piled high with stacks of cash. Ever since my first live poker tournament in 1999 I have dreamed of how it would feel to hold that bracelet, and wrap my arms around those neatly bound stacks of $100 bills!

Unfortunately, soon after my first live cash, I discovered that actually knowing how to play poker well was a prerequisite for living out this fantasy. So, watching this enormous extravaganza appropriately called the Main Event has become a yearly ritual for me, living out my fantasies through the characters that emerge from the hordes of poker players that set off on this quixotic journey each June in Las Vegas. Every year, I find that one or two players grab my interest and I am drawn into their life and journey like a moth to the flame. It truly becomes a firsthand experience for me, as I watch the larger than life spectacle unfold while imagining myself living through the main character of the moment.

This year’s WSOP ME drew a surprisingly large field of 6,865 runners, which thankfully silenced all the skeptics following Black Friday. I followed a few favorites as the first few days played out, finally realizing that Ben Lamb was simply destined to dominate this year. Can you imagine what that field faced when a young, skillful, brilliant pro goes on the heater of the decade? I’m coining the term “shark on a heater” in his honor! Benba simply could not be stopped this year at the WSOP, and the ME looked to be his crown jewel. But several other young guns and new faces offered a glimpse of the future, and I found myself captivated by a couple of these new young stars. One of these became a personal favorite of mine while watching day 7 and 8, especially nearing the FT bubble. I soon discovered that he has been a member here since March 2008, and I instantly became a huge fan of MastaP89; finding that I was mesmerized as Pius Heinz played fearlessly, even recklessly a few times, while storming to his rightful spot in the November Nine!

So, it was with great anticipation that I made plans to drive up to Las Vegas for 3 days to watch the final table and once again watch others live out my fantasy. The story lines were juicy, the characters beginning to flesh out and become legendary, and the television coverage was set to break new ground with 15 minute delayed live coverage. But on the eve of the final table reconvening November 6th, I was unable to confirm plans with my local guide Whydowe_fall. Fearing that Whydowe_fall had fallen down a set of stairs, thanks to erroneous rumors floated by a typically confused green man familiar to many in this forum; I reluctantly changed plans and set my DVR so I could watch every minute of the action on my big screen. However, after reviewing my diary for November, the dates were all mixed up and the rumors apparently started several weeks after the event, so I probably had the wrong dates set for the meet up in Vegas. Turns out my local guide had simply been busy baking pies, and avoiding outside distractions as she created her bakery delights, so we agreed to get together next WSOP; and I anxiously began watching the final nine players battle for the ultimate prize.

I was hugely disappointed at many of the players on that first day of final table action, and it appeared to me that most were simply overcome with the magnitude of the setting and the drama of the moment. I could imagine myself being intimidated by a final table appearance on worldwide television, but weren’t these supposed to be the best professional tournament players in the world? The more obvious long shots like Sam Holden and Anton Makiievskyi were eliminated quickly, soon followed by the oldest member of the November Nine, Badih Bounahra. The effects of the pressure and drama were clearly evident as the next few contenders fell, most noticeably Phil Collins as he began repeatedly limping hands while I screamed at my television. He followed O’Dea to the rail after playing like a deer caught in Pius Heinz’s onrushing headlights, the German pro showing the heart and commitment that was strangely lacking in so many of the others. Even benba had been strangely passive, but that was about to change. After the dinner break, benba and the other surviving young Vegas pro Matt Giannetti, locked horns several times providing some much needed excitement to the table. Finally, after crippling Matt once with a turned flush, benba finished Giannetti with flopped quads to set the final 3. Heinz held a large chip lead, but Lamb and Martin Staszko were starting to show signs of life, and looked to set up a memorable final.

The surprises on the final day of action began on the very first hand, as benba uncharacteristically overplayed his KJo and was crippled by Staszko. It seemed almost impossible that the shark on a heater could be so suddenly reduced to a mere mortal at the hands of the nearly unknown chess player from the Czech Republic. Shortly after, the seemingly invincible benba went out like a Lamb, and the final HU battle was set. The styles of the two Europeans, facing off for poker’s ultimate prize, were nearly polar opposites. Heinz represented the new breed in poker; a 22 yr. old pro coming from the online tournament ranks and displaying all the raw, but calculated aggression so effective in the modern game. Staszko, slightly older and coming from a chess background, seemed to be playing a much more cerebral and planned out strategic game.

The final battle was extremely satisfying to me, and should go down as one of the better final HU matches in the history of the Main Event. Lasting over 6 hours, just short of the record for final HU in this event, and with the chip lead changing 9 times during their epic duel, this was a final that fulfilled all my wildest expectations. I found myself feeling a part of history, and fantasized that I was playing like Heinz did that magic night. The spectators gave the event a soccer atmosphere, with a continuous chorus of chants and songs providing an electrical charge to the atmosphere in the Rio that early November night. Finally, the unstoppable force that Heinz had become during the final days had prevailed over the visibly tired and over-matched chess master. Holding big slick, he put an end to the marathon battle and claimed poker’s highest prize, the WSOP main event bracelet. It was a victory for poker in my view, as record numbers of people all over the world watched nearly live coverage, and a new young star was born.

Hopefully you were able to follow some of the great discussion and final table coverage; here are some of the most interesting threads from around the forum. I found it was almost impossible to keep up with the amount of information that was available for the last 2 days of the 2011 WSOP.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/37...-espn-1124574/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...ewers-1123964/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...j-off-1124716/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61...nside-1122457/



BQ Digest Challenge

We have revived and old idea and made it our own, and we are calling it - BQ Digest Challenge

This will be a monthly event, scheduled around the middle of each month. Entry will be free for the first few months, and the prize pool is $20 for 3 spots to be paid. Each month, I will make a new thread in the BQ forum to announce that month's challenge. Please come join the fun, and it might even be a way to improve some part of your game we hope!




Weekly Forum Games have a long tradition on 2+2. Here is the first post from an old thread back in 2008 - with some of the more seriously outdated info removed. (Notice that a certain EPT winner used to be a reg.)

The Who? and Why? are the same now as then, with an emphasis on "It's fun".
Quote:
Originally Posted by pzhon
[...]

This is an informational post about the Beginners Questions forum games which happen almost every weekend.

Who?You are invited. Beginners are welcome. Non-beginners are welcome. You can bring your A-game to test it against thinking players, or blow of steam by acting completely crazy. It's all good. You'll see both serious strategy discussions and silly boasts in this forum afterward.

What?
[...] (Thanks to davidv1213 for setting these up.) There may be bounties on a player or two, e.g., if you can knock Janelle out, you might get an extra $0.25, or $5.

These are not official 2+2 tournaments. They have nothing to do with the 2+2 company except that they are run by 2+2 forum participants.

Here are some threads with videos you can watch of past games:
Commentary on two entire tournaments
ceegee's forum cash game videos

There are similar games for participants of other 2+2 strategy forums, e.g., the Trout games.

Where?
[...]

When?
[...]

Why?
It's fun. It's educational. It's easy money when people respect your raises. You get to tag 2+2-ers with a note to bluff-raise them later. Come meet others who read or post in the Beginners Questions forum!
So much for history ... these are the games that are running regularly now ...




SHENANIGANS

SHENANIGANS is played on RPM in the Tournaments > Private > League tab. Sunday nights 21:15 EST is HORSE and the winner gets the choice of the game played on Thursday night 21:15 ET. They buy-in for each of them is $3 with currently no entry fee !!

Mike keeps a scoreboard of which the leaders will be invited to the year end tournament which will be played in January.

http://shenanigans-results.appspot.com/]Link to SHENANIGANS scoreboard

SHANOOBIGANS

SHANOOBIGANS is the most popular weekly game, probably because the buy-in is only $1.10, the game is always No Limit Hold 'Em and its at a Euro friendly time on Saturdays at 15:00 ET (8 PM UK time). A scoreboard is kept to keep track of entry tickets to the year-end tourney. Tickets are given for the points winner each month which allows new players joining late in the year a chance to get a ticket. Also, since there are a few regulars (including the host bb99) who don't yet have a ticket, the competition for the December ticket should be intense.

Link to SHANOOBIGANS scoresheet

Shanomaha

The newest Weekly Forum Game is Shanomaha. This is PLO and was created a couple of weeks ago as a "Pre-Shanoobigans" game. The first week it was just an hour before SHANOOBIGANS, but the overlap was too much for some single tabling old guys, so it was moved to the current start time of 13:30 ET

November SHANOOBIGANS results ...

The biggest landslide in SHANOOBIGANS history, AlienSpaceBat won with 81.6 pts and Wafflehouse1 barley visible in his rear view mirror with 50 pts. But don't feel to sorry for Waffle since he has the wild-card ticket virually wrapped-up, which leaves just one ticket left up for grabs.

Watch out for the SHANOOBIGANS and SHENANIGANS threads in BQ and come play with us !!


SHENANIGANS is currently played on RPM with a HORSE game on Sunday nights 21:15 EST, and the winner the choice of the game played on Thursday night 21:15 EST.

Watch out for the SHANOOBIGANS and SHENANIGANS threads in BQ and come play with us !!








(Sung to the tune of "Winter Wonderland")
Doorbell rings, I'm not list'nin',
From my mouth, drool is glist'nin',
I'm happy -- although
My boss let me go --
Happily addicted to the Web.
All night long, I sit clicking,
Unaware time is ticking,
There's beard on my cheek,
Same clothes for a week,
Happily addicted to the Web!
Friends come by; they shake me, Saying, "Yo, man!
Don't you know tonight's the senior prom?"
With a listless shrug, I mutter "No, man;
I just discovered laugh-a-lot-dot-com!"
I don't phone, don't send faxes,
Don't go out, don't pay taxes,
Who cares if someday
They drag me away?
I'm happily addicted to the Web!
Happ-ilyyyyy, ad-dict-eeeed to the Weeeeeb!!! (Yeah!)





Effective immediately, the following economizing measures are being implemented in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" subsidiary:
1) The partridge will be retained, but the pear tree, which never produced the cash crop forecasted, will be replaced by a plastic hanging plant, providing considerable savings in maintenance
2) Two turtle doves represent a redundancy that is simply not cost effective. In addition, their romance during working hours could not be condoned. The positions are, therefore, eliminated
3) The three French hens will remain intact. After all, everyone loves the French
4) The four calling birds will be replaced by an automated voice mail system, with a call waiting option. An analysis is underway to determine who the birds have been calling, how often and how long they talked.
5) The five golden rings have been put on hold by the Board of Directors. Maintaining a portfolio based on one commodity could have negative implications for institutional investors. Diversification into other precious metals, as well as a mix of T-Bills and high technology stocks, appear to be in order
6) The six geese-a-laying constitutes a luxury which can no longer be afforded. It has long been felt that the production rate of one egg per goose per day was an example of the general decline in productivity. Three geese will be let go, and an upgrading in the selection procedure by personnel will assure management that, from now on, every goose it gets will be a good one
7) The seven swans-a-swimming is obviously a number chosen in better times. The function is primarily decorative. Mechanical swans are on order. The current swans will be retrained to learn some new strokes, thereby enhancing their outplacement
8) As you know, the eight maids-a-milking concept has been under heavy scrutiny by the EEOC. A male/female balance in the workforce is being sought. The more militant maids consider this a dead-end job with no upward mobility. Automation of the process may permit the maids to try a-mending, a-mentoring or a-mulching
9) Nine ladies dancing has always been an odd number. This function will be phased out as these individuals grow older and can no longer do the steps
10) Ten Lords-a-leaping is overkill. The high cost of Lords, plus the expense of international air travel, prompted the Compensation Committee to suggest replacing this group with ten out-of-work congressmen. While leaping ability may be somewhat sacrificed, the savings are significant as we expect an oversupply of unemployed congressmen this year
11) Eleven pipers piping and twelve drummers drumming is a simple case of the band getting too big. A substitution with a string quartet, a cutback on new music, and no uniforms, will produce savings which will drop right to the bottom line
Overall we can expect a substantial reduction in assorted people, fowl, animals and related expenses. Though incomplete, studies indicate that stretching deliveries over twelve days is inefficient. If we can drop ship in one day, service levels will be improved.
Regarding the lawsuit filed by the attorney's association seeking expansion to include the legal profession ("thirteen lawyers-a-suing"), a decision is pending.
Deeper cuts may be necessary in the future to remain competitive. Should that happen, the Board will request management to scrutinize the Snow White Division to see if seven dwarfs is the right number.





T'was the Internet Night Before Christmas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Net,
There were hacker's a surfing. Nerds? Yeah, you bet.
The e-mails were stacked by the modem with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The newbies were nestled all snug by their screens,
While visions of Java danced in their dreams.
My wife on the sofa and me with a snack,
We just settled down at my rig (it's a Mac).
When out in the Web there arose such a clatter,
I jumped to the site to see what was the matter.
To a new page my Mac flew like a flash,
Then made a slight gurgle. It started to crash!!
I gasped at the thought and started to grouse,
Then turned my head sideways and clicked on my mouse.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
My Mac jumped to a page that wasn't quite clear.
When the image resolved, so bright and so quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick!
More rapid than mainframes, more graphics they came,
Then Nick glanced toward my screen, my Mac called them by name;
"Now Compaq! Now Acer!", my speaker did reel;
"On Apple! On Gateway!" Santa started to squeal!
"Jump onto the circuits! And into the chip!
Now speed it up! Speed it up! Make this thing hip!"
The screen gave a flicker, he was into my "Ram",
Then into my room rose a full hologram!
He was dressed in all red, from his head to his shoes,
Which were black (the white socks he really should lose).
He pulled out some discs he had stored in his backpack.
Santa looked like a dude who was rarin' to hack!
His eyes, how they twinkled! His glasses, how techno!
This ain't the same Santa that I used to know!
With a wink of his eye and a nod of his head,
Santa soon let me know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, gave my Mac a quick poke,
And accessed my C drive with only a stroke.
He defragged my hard drive, and added a "Dimm",
Then threw in some cool games, just on a whim!
He worked without noise, his fingers they flew!
He distorted some pictures with Kai's Power Goo!
He updated Office, Excel and Quicken,
Then added a screensaver with a red clucking chicken!
My eyes widened a bit, my mouth stood agape,
As he added the latest version of Netscape.
The drive gave a whirl, as if it were pleased,
St. Nick coyly smiled, the computer appeased.
Then placing his finger on the bridge of his nose,
Santa turned into nothing but ones and zeros!
He flew back into my screen and through my uplink,
Back into the net with barely a blink.
But I heard his sweet voice as he flew from my sight,
"Happy surfing to all, and to all a good byte!"





We sincerely wish all readers a great holiday season. Enjoy the season and enjoy your family. Play in SHENANIGANS and SHANOOBIGANS. The Digest continues to challenge first time players in either SHENANIGANS or SHANOOBIGANS in the month of December by offering any 1st time player a bounty, equal to the buy in, for each Digest editor they knock out of the game.


You can make suggestions or comments in this thread, by PM to any digest staff member, or in the “Letters to the Digest” thread. We appreciate your comments, critiques, suggestions, and your contributions of original work, links, or humor. You can contribute in this thread, the “Letters to the Digest” thread, or by PM to any BQ Digest editor.
Letters to the Digest thread

frist

Mea Culpa: I have no idea how I managed to make some of the column paragraphs into links. Sorry. I have no idea how to fix them either. Translating and managing the links was particularly puzzling to me this month. I will improve on that in future issues.

Just fix the closing tag on the link in WDWF's corner. It's broken somehow, so the link's carrying on until the next closing tag it finds.

Good job (Ya just abit of formatting to be fixed).

Have been looking forward to seeing Mike's article, and I'm certainly going to change my HUD before I sit down again.

Oh, and if you like this thread please do give it some stars! Hopefully it might attract the attention of those that usually overlook stickies.

Another awesome thread . Wp Lady and Gents

waffles, that small pic inserted in the POTM article is created specifically so you can use it (if you wish) as your 2+2 avvy for the Month of December. It si correctly sized for easy use.

Use it, make IHOPiz4sissies very jealous

Good job guys

nice work guys, good looks ! :-)

also -

Puissssssse pass the Heinz.....

"My poker friends tease me that I can't risk being quartered"

That seems to have happened to the two ladies at the top of the post.

^^ inorite?


Who is responsible for that, such classic Christmas cheesecake should not be ruined like that!

Anything for you guys:

Nice boots huh?

WDWF needs to get some footwear tips from those ladies, very elegant and holiday festive boots!

Nice job guys....

Welcome to the forums!

Nice to see more oztralians join us, always good fun

****BREAKING NEWS****

SHANOOBIGANS is now rake free! That now makes all SHANOOBIGANS & SHENANIGANS tournaments on RPM rake free!

Even more reason to come and play.

WoW such a good thread read

5 stars is my vote! I read about half way through and just had to say Im loving the read. and gotta rate it for bumblebee! now,

Back to the fun!

Great work, guys!

I didn't even finish the last bq digest. Shame on me.

I'm finally sitting down to read it all now, after skimming when it was first posted.

Waffle's post should be required reading for all the newbs that come along and say "I've built my roll to $200. Can I play 100NL now?" It's quite amazing to hear how he built his roll then lost nearly all of it several times. Degens gonna degen.

BQ digest is back? This may just be enough to bring me back from hiatus/general laziness.

Welcome back then! Bona used to be edtor of the original Micros Digest and now he has revived the idea here as the BQ Digest, which we think is the best work he has done on 2p2

Hope you enjoy!

Not anymore

Hai Ken, long time no see. We still playing SHENANIGANS too