Is the rake a big problem mate? I heard they charge a large hourly instead of a capped pot percentage which sounds ridiculously bad for regs. Or is it not that big of a deal?

For £1/£2 its done on a pot basis, 5% capped at £10. I can never remember what it is for £1/£3 and £2/£5 sorry...I think the Vic does a session charge.
For £1/£1 I think its £10 uncapped which is why I'd rather shortstack £1/£2 than play £1/£1.

In real terms, I don't think the rake is "unfair" (nobody likes rake obviously) but the games play sufficiently deep-stacked that make the rake less of an issue than typical 100BB online games.

Hello 2+2! I've had a super lazy saturday, so I thought an update to this thread would inspire me to get stuff done. An interesting week or two all in all,

-The results of the EU referendum were shocking to say the least. I was actually going to put half a bag on us remaining when the odds were 2:1, (I'm not really an events-gambler), so that at least gave me some relief. I wonder how (or if at all) its going to effect the many bulgarian and spanish grinders in the games I play.

-Overall I'd say the Live Poker ecosystem has been steadily improving compared to recent times. There's been a distinct lack of good £1/£3 and £1/£2 deepstack games; anyone who plays London LLSNL games for a living will know that games these good can sometimes be worth a whole month of normal £1/£2 if you play and run well. That being said the Midstakes/Highstakes action has been very good, as anyone who's played these games will tell you.

-My results have been on the swingier side recently, but luckily managed to have an extremely profitable Thursday and Saturday session. In general these games have played out in an extemely loose-passive fasion, and as always if you run decently these games are going to be very very profitable for you. Hands from these coming up...

-Unfortunately I bricked the Hippo cash race. The blinds structure was predictably laughable, but as I had to get up in the morning I didn't particularly mind. The field was also extremely reggy but what do you expect when entry is decided on the basis of hours played. This being said I still felt like I had an edge from my SNG/push-fold days in my early twenties. I played well but unfortunately lost every flip to bust out a pathetic 19th/50th (ah well).

-And while I'm on the subject of tournaments...



I'll probably buy in to Day 1b of the Hippo Summer Classic. If anyones sattelited through or buying straight in and wants to hang out, post ITT and we'll work something out.

Have a great weekend!

when is this tournament? i may make the trip. where can you qualify too? glgl

^

http://www.pokerstarslondon.com/tournaments/



They run live sattelites for their quarterly tournaments on Thursday and Friday usually which are about £75 entry. I'm not sure of the exact details, if I find out I'll post ITT. They usually give all the details on their twitter. I'm sure there's online qualifiers too if you're interested ; )

Played a rare online session today, with the other WOAT's at NL25 zoom. As you can see, things didnt go particularly well over 500hands but thats online poker for you.



Not exactly an ideal spot but I think its still a pretty easy call with the odds I'm getting. ITH I intuitively knew I didnt need to be good very often to make the call. Quickly doing the maths, I only lose to 66(1) TT(3) JJ(3) J6s(1) T6s(1) K6s(2) = 11 combos. So he does this with 5 combos of A6s, and occasionally 86s,76s I'm in the black.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 155.24 BB (VPIP: 12.00, PFR: 12.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 27)
SB: 331.28 BB (VPIP: 22.58, PFR: 16.13, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 62)
BB: 109.24 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
UTG: 64.96 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
Hero (MP): 142.64 BB
CO: 88.92 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A Q

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.4 BB, 2 players) 6 6 T
BB checks, Hero bets 4.44 BB, BB calls 4.44 BB

Turn: (15.28 BB, 2 players) J
BB checks, Hero bets 10.64 BB, BB calls 10.64 BB

River: (36.56 BB, 2 players) K
BB checks, Hero bets 33.16 BB, BB raises to 91.16 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 58 BB

BB shows 6 K (Full House, Sixes full of Kings)
(Pre 34%, Flop 96%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows A Q (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 66%, Flop 4%, Turn 0%)
BB wins 210.88 BB

I think this was a bit thin, but its not impossible he raises pairs like 44s, 55s etc, 8x which want to hero OTR when the FD bricks hence the polar sizing.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 145.32 BB (VPIP: 19.40, PFR: 15.92, 3Bet Preflop: 4.40, Hands: 206)
SB: 204.32 BB (VPIP: 57.14, PFR: 42.86, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
Hero (BB): 128.4 BB
UTG: 166.44 BB
MP: 121.8 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
CO: 114.76 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T T

UTG calls 1 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 0.6 BB, Hero raises to 5 BB, UTG calls 4 BB, fold

Flop: (11 BB, 2 players) 3 3 8
Hero bets 3.44 BB, UTG raises to 12.12 BB, Hero calls 8.68 BB

Turn: (35.24 BB, 2 players) K
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: (35.24 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero bets 24.52 BB, UTG calls 24.52 BB

Hero shows T T (Two Pair, Tens and Threes)
(Pre 57%, Flop 73%, Turn 5%)
UTG shows K J (Two Pair, Kings and Threes)
(Pre 43%, Flop 27%, Turn 95%)
UTG wins 80.48 BB

OTF a bit on the fishy side, but I think he barrells turn enough with OC's like AQ/AK/KQ blah blah to justify calling OTT getting 3:1.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 249.76 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 37.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
SB: 101.4 BB (VPIP: 25.53, PFR: 17.02, 3Bet Preflop: 9.52, Hands: 49)
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
UTG: 118.52 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
MP: 142.08 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
Hero (CO): 120.68 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 7 8

fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 9.4 BB, Hero calls 6.4 BB

Flop: (19.2 BB, 2 players) 5 5 T
BB bets 10 BB, Hero calls 10 BB

Turn: (39.2 BB, 2 players) 8
BB bets 19.08 BB, Hero calls 19.08 BB

River: (77.36 BB, 2 players) 6
BB bets 37.64 BB, fold

BB wins 73.88 BB

Gl at the tables!

Hmmm that's a good point! Guessing the Hippo games will get a lot softer, but run less often.

That value bet with the TT feels way too thin.

Subbed

Put up a selfie - I'm intrigued which reg you are!

I'm also working and play recreationally in Hippo and Empire, sometimes 30+ hours a month, sometimes barely 10 so we have definitely played at some point.

Yeah, I imagine there'll be less of them. However saying that, particularly in £1/£2 I feel regs overstate the importance of other regs. The reasons I think that are as follows:

1. The action is 9-handed, which obviously incentivises tight (for live poker) play.

2. Theres an incentive to flat strong hands like AQ and in exceptional cases AA/KK when theres an enormous whale in the blinds.

3. I think squeezes are somewhat infrequent due to the short-stacked nature of the many cold-callers when someone raises first in.

tl;dr in £1/£2 at least worrying/even thinking about other regs is not even worth your time. Focus on proper game selection and aggressively seeking opportunities to play as many pots with fish with reasonable holdings.

Think I was in full-on live poker mode that day, "I have 3rd pair, decent kicker 3way, ok lads lets go for value" . I think its very thin yes, but based on my assumptions about these type of limpers I think he has a PP/8x enough of the time to make it a profitable value bet. Sizing I could probably go smaller, but as I mentioned above I think fish love heroing on bricked flush draw runouts enough to go for gold.

No selfies ITT Looking forward to the battles bud

Some of you may be interested in this short Radio 4 documentary.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06w...odes/downloads.



I think I'll reserve my own personal comments as I know the guy in some small capacity. Having said that, I will say 40-50BI at Live £1/£2 is a bit overkill..!

glgl

Swap around the flop sizes in the first two hands (relative to the pot).

listened to the podcast. my god that womans voice is annoying. i felt it painted poker players in a pretty awful light too.

Thanks man. Yeah, dont really know what to say than I agree haha. Ton of BBs range inelastic to 1/3psb or 3/4psb.

Also yeah the 1/3psb OTF on 833ddx hand really bad as their range is likely PP heavy. #howtobutcherbetsizing101


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah hated it. Unfortunately I cant comment on it personally, as one or two people have guessed who I am...you playing 1b tomorrow?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

oh ****! 1b, what time?

2pm tomorrow, come say hello! Usually massive value too (unsurprisingly)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Urgh, that's a real shame. I've got other things on unfortunately if I happen to get out of them I may late reg!

Ok I'm on my way to play

:<

Today I'm off to play the quarterly hippo donkament! I managed to sell 50% of my action *to my colleagues and a few other regs too. Undoubtedly I'll be playing cash after too through to sunday morning too, so a pretty full-on days grind awaits me.*

I think its been a while since I've done a review of my game, so what better time than now:

Good

1. Pulling trigger in some nice spots where my range is much stronger than my villains

2. Making some great absurdly thin-looking value bets

3. Properly adjusting to very deep-stacked play (400BB+)

4. Trying to be an entertaining person at tables with a lot of recreational players. See the bad also...

Bad

1. Frequently drinking half an hour before leaving weekday sessions. I dont think it makes me looser (if anything I play nittier), but its expensive, not good for your 4x a week and blunts my mind in the last half hour or so.*

2. Splashing around with the table whale a bit too much. Im not exactly sure where I need to draw the line, but I've measurably become looser even in games where the whale only has £250 or so in a 1:2.

3. Letting how much I like someone effect my poker face especially in river situations

4.Not betting big enough OTT (pot geometry considerations)

5. And as always, not putting enough effort into putting villain on an approximate range no matter how loose he is. I really think that putting people on a range/hand reading is the only real key to absolutely smashing these games.

6. Lack of online volume. If I dont get some zoom in for a while I tend to become somewhat sloppy pre and post.

7. Being emotionally driven by people I dislike being paid off. I'd say there are absolutely some really nice regs I play with but there are many whom I have absolutely no respect for at all the way they treat fish/table marks, and how miserable all the time. I think i definitely need another tead through Angelo again

I think in a month I"ll look back at these points to evaluate if I've addressed them or not. Gl!







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

weeeeeee Ill be there at 2:30 or so gl champ


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GL to you two in the donkament.

Ty man. We're on the same table somehow!

Thanks bud, busted on prob the softest table known to man, rebought though! ££££


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good thread, GL this summer. I guess we might have played together?

Thanks! Found your thread a really good read too (more updates though please!)

Yeah, I definitely know who you are and bumped into you very briefly Thursday evening. I also run an inferior live poker twitter account...

-----------

Not a great weekend! I Busted the hippo tournament twice in an unspectacular fashion. I also played cash after too but I'll come back to that in a subsequentpost.

I felt I played the 0-15BB stack well, making some disciplined preflop folds and aggressive LP shoves despite not having played MTTs in a long time.

Unfortunately I cant say the same of my 15-30BB play where I felt frequently lost e.g. can I open 22-55 in the LJ, how wide to open in the SB if folded too. It goes without saying this can be strongly dependent on table dynamics, but unlike in cash I have no "black box/ready to go" solid strategy to implement in MTTs.

I somehow managed to get drafted on the same table as benabadbeat as well! The table was extremely soft, with flops regularly being 4-even 8 handed. I'm sure he'll post some if tge more entertaining hands he played in his own thread.*

Barring one other live reg, he's one of the few long-term proper professional online poker players Ive met "IRL". To me the difference between online and live pros is night and day, although I'm really only basing this on a sample size of two.*

If you were to ask a midstakes+ guy like him a certain spot on a given flop texture he'd know:

1. What to do with his entire range.
2. What and how many streets of value for a given holding
3. What bet sizes make sense based on likely distributions of equity without needing to go anywhere near flopzilla/equilab.

Other characteristics that stick out for me are:

1. Enthusiam for the actual game of poker
2. Depth of analysis given regardless of the apparent simplicity of a question. This is probably unfair given that one of my two samples is a coch for cardrunners!
3. "Quick-thinkness" (cant really come up with a suitable adjective, in other words I think online players tend to be a lot sharper poker-wise than live players.

None of this is really surprising given that he's played millions of hands over a number of tables (As live players we have traded this luxury for much softer, deeper games).*

However I feel that 90%+ of the LLSNL players I know aren't anywhere near this comprehension, and their entire poker skillset is designed merely to be at £1/£2 rather than know how to play poker.

*Even if this isnt really a problem, in general I don't really feel that a lot of the LLSNL guys I know well are particularly keen/bothered to improve their £1/£2 game. I know very very few players who are willing to go over HHs in great detail, come up with trial exploitative adjustments and in general really pick apart their game. I know very very few players who have booted up equilab or properly watch a training video, let alone completely dissect a poker hand.

Perhaps this is due to having to spend 8-10hrs a day, 4 days a week in a basement i.e. the whole experience becoming a bit of a chore if you go full-time. In other words, a full-time job and its not surprising that off-table work is rarely done due to the realities of live poker (bad months, having to play with tedious players 3+ times a week, running bad etc).

I think someone who regularly plays live poker would portray this post as a bit of a rant/thing against live pros, but to reiterate:

1. I know many more live pros than I do online pros
2. This only really applies to £1/£2
3. I'm a recreational player whom for this is all a bit of a hobby.
4. I dont know every one; in fact some of the more silent/OCD/miserable ones might be doing this without me realising.

Cash write-up coming next post....






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk