BQ Digest, July 2012 - Beginning Poker Questions

Bona · 07-01-2012, 11:45 AM

"The mission of the BQ Digest is to inform and entertain our readers"
"Mikes007, BumbleBee99, WhyDoWe_Fall, PapaPyrite, Bona"

In this month's issue the Digest features SheepRustler as Poster of The Month. SheepRustler participates in BQ discussions and events and posts good strat. SheepRustler introduces himself in his own words below.

Papapyrite continues to keep us up to date about poker legislation, Mikes007 expands his perspective on common leaks, Auntie WDW_F shares her introspective and fascinating journey with us, and Bee reports extensively on accomplishing the razz challenge the forum selected for him.

"Poster of The Month"

Hello all. My name is Cian aka Sheeprustler on here and pretty much everywhere else I frequent the internet. I am a student journalist and a reg speed sng grinder for my sins. I also run a small staking operation with a friend. I am from Ireland.

I have been playing poker about eight years, and started taking it seriously four years ago. I have been in college about two years and haven’t been able to play as much as I would like in that time. I have a chance to play a lot of poker for the next six months though and I plan to take it.

I’m quite lucky because my college is letting me run the staking operation as my college work experience until next January. This means I will be able to put a ton of work into staking, improving my own game and interacting on twoplustwo.

My main goal for poker is to be able to make a sustainable living from the game. Because poker players don’t get sick pay, health insurance or holiday pay I think that figure is somewhere north of $50 an hour from playing hours. I say ‘playing hours’ because you can probably add 25% unpaid time to that for studying and reviewing. I would like to be in this earning position in two years.

I’ve really enjoyed my increased participation in the forums lately and hopefully I can be as active as possible for the next six months at least.

**********************************

The last two months have been busy in the forum with the annual BQ Heads Up No limit team event, aka uHUNLA. Great fun was had by all. Our elected leader, Leroy_Jenkins, managed the event and did a great job. Wondering how much fun this actually was for the guy who was responsible for "making the trains run on time" we asked Leroy to give us his thoughts on the event from the perspective of organizing and running it.

Bhunla from the Kommiczars Point of view ? ...by Leroy_Jenkins

I hate it lol . I dont like to be mean to people . So threatening players to play their weeks overdue match that they will lose their deposit if they dont play is not something I enjoy . Players failing to schedule their matches on time was the most stressful part of the whole game . I think the problem is that late in the season a player sees they have no chance of winning the whole thing , so they try to blow off their matches . The problem is that the outcome of the match they are trying to blow off may have serious implications for their opponents team . Finals and late season matches will often come down to tie breaker matches , so failing to play a match can seriously skew the numbers . If you sign up to play , then play it out

Keeping the captains from strangling each other was also kind of hairy . If I ever an the kommiczar again , I will be alot more selective of the captains . I tried to be as impartial as possible for any issues that came up . I often asked OB for advice , and he was extremely helpful . Big thanks to OB This bhunla may not have ran so well without him imo .

As a captains point of view ?

I loved it ! The first thing I did as a captain was set up a team skype chat . I didn't get much if any static as a captain of my team . And talking strategy in our chat was a lot of fun . We didn't always talk hu strat either , but also a lot of nlhe strat in general . I love talking strat with players better than myself because that's how you get better ldo . I am positive that everyone on my team learned something in our chat . So as a captain , I cant say enough about my team . I would take them again in a heartbeat .

As a players point of view ?

I loved it ! . Nothing better than trash talking ( in good fun ) with your opponents , and your opponents teams . I wish some more unnamed regs would have played , but I wont bring them up here . ** cough** spliff , DiamondDog, Ozi , CMAR **cough**

Sorry , had to clear my throat

Where were we ? Oh , as a player... I really had a good time meeting everyone and playing some poker .

Overall , I don't think any rules need to be changed or omitted . I think bhunla is a good structure and should not be changed . (Unless you can find a way to make players play their matches on time.)

by...papapyrite

The battle lines in the U.S. are being drawn between state governments and the Federal Government regarding the online poker issue. While new legislation from two prominent Senators has not been introduced in Congress as of yet, several states are rapidly passing the Congress when it comes to enacting their own legislation. According to a former Congressman, this is something that the Congress is attempting to stop.

“States are moving rapidly and the federal government is saying, ‘time out’, ” former Nevada House of Representatives member Jon Porter said recently during an Internet gambling conference. As the states are moving forward with their own versions of online poker regulation, expected legislation from Senators Reid and Kyl may not even see the floor of Congress this year.

Meanwhile, Nevada has just issued it's first two licenses for two rival gaming companies to provide systems for online poker partners. These are only the systems licenses, to supply the gaming technology systems to whomever will actually run the websites. So it is now a waiting game for both Bally and IGT, as they can't actually do anything until casino operators are licensed to offer online poker games to Nevada residents.

The casino industry would prefer to see federal regulation of online poker, but are not just sitting on the sidelines as the states move forward. Several of the top casino operations in Nevada, including Caesar's Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and MGM Resorts continue to push for federal regulation - but have also applied for licenses in the intrastate Nevada industry, seemingly playing both sides.

It appears that as the battle for online poker in the U.S. evolves, there could be a collision course being set between the power of the federal government to act in the national interest, and the rights of the states to govern their own citizenry. Add the wild card element of a very powerful brick & mortar casino industry, which has deep pockets and is looking to get in on the action, and the stage seems set for an epic battle this year and next.

First Nevada Online Gaming Licenses

Spain Grants Gaming Licenses

Delaware Considering Online Gaming

Illinois Wants Online Poker

New Jersey Online Gaming Bill Advances

Companies Bid For New .poker Domain

California Legislation Threatens US Market Viability

by...Mikes007

In previous columns, I have discussed some of the leaks to beware of in our own games, as well as leaks to look for and exploit in our opponents' games. I have focused on specific leaks at the tables, ways to fix these leaks, and ways to take advantage of our opponents who have these leaks. In this column, I would like to take a step away from the tables and look at more subtle leaks which may affect our thinking or our general approach to poker.

Perhaps the easiest trap for beginners fall into is to be results oriented. There are no shortage of threads in BQ wherein the original poster gets all the money in as a favorite, loses, and asks “Should I have played the hand differently?” In the overwhelming majority of cases, the answer is “no.” Poker is interesting in that there is very little short term correlation between ability and results. It is good that it is so. If poker were like chess or golf in that a markedly better player can easily defeat worse players almost all the time, then fewer losing players would play. It is this disconnect between ability and immediate results which allows fish to rationalize and justify their plays in their own minds. Whenever these fish win a pot their abilities are confirmed in their own minds, and thus they are encouraged to continue playing, even if they consistently lose. You should have other criteria for determining whether you played a hand correctly or not than whether or not you won the hand.

Something very closely related to being results oriented is placing too much emphasis in short-term results. I have seen many threads in which a poster declares that his winrate is 20bb/100 or some such. Later in the thread it turns out that the sample size for such winrate is 7,000 hands or so. Almost all of these players are not 20bb/100 winners, rather they have been running well over a very small sample. It is very difficult to know what your winrate is over fewer than 100,000 hands in NL Hold'em. Even after 100,000 hands, you don't really know your winrate exactly; rather you have an idea of what your winrate might be, plus or minus 1 or 2 bb/100. For games other than NL Hold'em you may need more or fewer hands in your sample size to be confident in your winrate – this largely depends on the variance inherent in the game in question. But 7,000 hands is too few to get any kind of idea of your winrate in any commonly spread form of poker.

Neither should you place much emphasis on your HUD stats over a small sample. Any information that you have on your opponents is valuable, but none of this information is 100% reliable. The reliability of any stat in your HUD increases with a greater sample size. And it is very important to note that the sample size that is relevant is not the total number of hands that you have on that opponent, but rather the total number of opportunities you have for the statistic in question. Let us say that your opponent is a 27/20 in a FR game. Certainly he is a highly aggressive opponent with a wide range, right? What if you only have 15 hands on him? These stats would mean that he VPIPed 4 times, and PFRed 3 times in those 15 hands. With such a small sample size, you can conclude almost nothing about him, except that the fact that he raised most of the hands he played means he is more likely to be a reg than a fish. If we change one of his actions from PFRing to folding preflop, then his stats would be 20/13, which are very different. If instead we take one of the hands he folded and suppose that he had PFRed with it, then his stats would be 33/27, which are the stats of a maniac (in full-ring). Basically, any time you are using stats which would change radically if your opponent had taken a different action once or twice, those stats have very little value.

Now lets look at a more esoteric statistic. Suppose you open-raise preflop and get a cold-call. Your opponent is a 14/11 reg on whom you have 2015 hands. You cbet the flop and your opponent calls. In order to determine whether or not you can barrel the turn, you look at your opponents fold to turn barrel stat, which is 0. Since you have 2015 hands on the villain, you figure that the statistic must be reliable. Therefore, you determine that you will only barrel those turns on which you have a value hand, but the value hand can be much weaker than usual, since your opponent is going to pay you off light. But wait! Not so fast – the sample size which you should care about is NOT the total number of hands you have on this opponent, but rather the number of times he has faced a turn barrel. In this case, after consulting your HUD popup, you see that he has only faced 1 turn barrel over those 2015 hands, and therefore this statistic is almost meaningless. You should use your normal turn barreling strategy, and not change your strategy based upon his fold to turn cbet stat. Lest anybody think that this is an artificial and contrived example, the villain I have described here is an actual player on the Merge network from my own database and I have reported his stats exactly as they appear on my HUD.

A topic which is very important for beginners to understand, but which many ignore, is bankroll management (BRM). The purpose of bankroll management is to allow you to play with enough money that you can have a few bad sessions and still not go busto. In NL cash games, you should have 20-40 buyins for the level which you are playing in order to protect yourself from the effects of negative variance. You can get away with closer to 20 buyins if you have a great edge over the other players, or if you can easily replace any money which you lose. You should keep closer to 40 buyins in your bankroll if the games you play in are tough or if any loss will be difficult for you to replace. Other games require different bankroll management – many MTT players keep 100 buyins or more in their roll, as MTTs have huge variance, and bankrolls for limit games are measured not in buyins but in BB. Note that BRM is a tool used by winning players to reduce their risk. If you are not a winning player yet, then you should realize that you have a good chance of going bust no matter what your bankroll is. In this case, you should consider your bankroll a training budget and plan your stakes accordingly. Once you have determined what kind of bankroll management you are going to use, it is important that you stick to your plan and not degen all your money away. It is fine to take shots at a higher level, if you think you have an edge and if the amount required for your shot-taking is such that you can still play your normal game, even if your shot-taking fails and you lose. What is not fine is risking so much of your bankroll that you run the risk of being underrolled for your current game. Even if the higher-stakes game is incredibly soft, the risk/reward ratio of taking a seat in it is not good, if it could possibly decimate your bankroll. Winning a few buyins at a higher level is great. But losing your bankroll can put you out of action for a long period of time, during which you lose the EV of all the hands you otherwise could have played. The chance to maybe win a couple of buyins at a higher level surely is not worth the risk of being put out of action for a long time.

Many times, players neglect BRM due to the effects of tilt. After suffering a couple of bat beats or coolers, there is a temptation to jump up in stakes and win back your losses. It is important to resist this urge as much as possible. The universe doesn't give a damn if you've lost 4 buyins. The games at higher stakes are going to be difficult or easy as they would otherwise be, whether you've won 4 buyins or lost 4 buyins or put half your roll on 32 in roulette. If it was not a good idea to play higher stakes before you lost 4 buyins, why in the world would it magically become a good idea to play them after you've lost those buyins? If anything, you will be playing worse after losing, not better. You want to win back your 4 buyins? Well ok, then. Take a break and come back to the game later on when you're in a better mental state. The tables aren't going anywhere; they will still be there in a few hours or a few days. And you can win your 4 buyins back at the same games where you have won your buyins in the past; rather than foolishly venturing underrolled into bigger and tougher games.

Something which happens to many players when they start to become good at poker and play enough that they become regs in their game is that they accumulate hands with the other regs in the player pool and start to become familiar with their styles of play. Then, these regs all start to try to exploit each other, and adjust to the changes that they all make in their games in order to re-exploit each other. It is important to try to exploit other players whenever you think you have found a +EV situation. But often, players take this too far and end up getting in leveling wars or “regwars” against other solid players. A certain amount of this kind of thing is inevitable; but it's important to keep your perspective and not get carried away. These players are regs for a reason – they are somewhat competent and are familiar with the different lines which can be taken preflop and postflop. Even if you can exploit such players, the amount for which you can exploit them is very small, and in fact may be less than the rake in all the hands you play against them. Rather than focus your efforts on these situations, which are marginal at best, it will be much better for your results if you focus your attention mostly on the weaker players at the table, and not look for excuses to play against other regs. This includes leaving the table if there are so many regs at the table that your EV is marginal or negative.

As you can see, there are a number of “mental leaks” which can severely affect your results in poker. As in many endeavors, it is important to be self-aware and to constantly evaluate your actions and your thought processes to ensure that you are making correct decisions.

by "Auntie" WhyDoWe_Fall

For the past while, I have been on vacation. Within a week I had hiked/swam the Zion Narrows, accumulated enough bruises on my legs in Bryce Canyon National Park to warrant strangers asking if I needed help out of an abusive relationship, had a panic attack due to heights on the Island in the Sky, ate mouthful upon mouthful of sand at Sandstone Arch, rode the laziest ass in the world at sunset in the desert, and had a squirrel attempt to pluck a protein bar from my hand at the Grand Canyon only to wrestle it away, proving that humans are just plain better than nature at tug-of-war.

I typed up that entire description mostly to make fellow Digest writer Papa Pyrite jealous, but the point still stands that I had one of the best times of my life recently, and had no time to play poker.

It was exactly what I needed.

I have been dabbling with poker for a very long time, with nothing to show for it; I have notoriously poor bankroll management and really love spewing winnings away at video poker and blackjack. Over the course of my career, I have played hundreds of thousands of hands (I am pretty sure that, if you tally up all of my hands over all of the sites I have played on, I have cleared well over a million), but I am still pottering around in the lowest of the micros.

I live with a player who built up his entire livelihood from a one-time deposit of $50 on Tilt years and years ago; he has offered to coach me numerous times, but I have always turned him down for some reason because I seem to have some sick aversion to getting better.

On my vacation, a few things clicked into place that never had before.

I need to stop going about poker the way that I have been.

It is not about number of hands or win rate or 3 bet percentage. It is about being comfortable with what you are doing, and I realized that I had never been comfortable playing poker before. Whenever I had played poker, I had had a voice in the back of my head reminding me that I was a poor student, that I needed to make money at this, that if I did not get better and have something to show for it that I would have wasted the last four years of my life essentially playing videogames.

I am going to share a secret that I am entirely ashamed of: I have deposited a lot of money onto sites. A lot. We are talking multiple thousands, over the course of multiple deposits on multiple sites. That is money that I easily could have used elsewhere, instead of living student loan check to student loan check, borrowing money from my parents when I should have been just fine. All of that money has been squandered away, and… well…

I think I am ready to admit that I have a gambling problem.

All of my life, I have been considered about average intelligence. When I was growing up, I didn’t have looks or athletic skills or a lot of money, so it was by being smart that I stood out. Now I am realizing, however, that I am very dumb in a lot of ways.

Poker, and everything surrounding it, is one of them.

In the month of July, I am going to step back from poker. I am going to use the month to work on myself, from my body to my mind to my relationships. I am going to buckle down on my weight loss/fitness. I am going to work on my novel (pretentious much?). I am going to spend more quality time with the people that I love the most. I am going to read more, hike more, and explore more. I am going to become me again.

Maybe after I find out who Paige is, I can find out what kind of poker player Paige is.

The process of self-discovery might take more than just the month of July. It might take all of August, or all of this year. It might take the rest of my lifetime to find a way that I can define myself proudly.

You cannot rush this stuff, you know.

I have, overtime, become less and less involved with 2+2, but I am still around. That will not change. This community has become like a second family to me, and many of the guys in Beginners Questions mean more to me than anything and have helped me in ways that I could never express. But if I am going to find out what makes me tick, I am going to have to find out what makes me a broken clock in the first place. I doubt that you will see me much, if at all, on the forum for the next month.

Not that I contributed much to strategy or worthwhile discussions anyway. Mostly what I am good for is making filthy jokes and posting pictures of boobs (though there is certainly great need for both of those things in the world). I am not leaving the Digest, either, because who knows what sorts of trouble those boys would get into without me around to keep them in line.

I am sorry that this article was all me me me. It kind of had to be though. I guess if you want there to be something to take away from the story, it is that time off can give you a new perspective and that it is ok to be imperfect, but it is not ok to just tell yourself that you are a failure and move on.

I hope that I will be able to figure out what I am doing, and then step forward from there. My goal is that, by growing as a person, I will be able to finally become comfortable as a person who plays poker. If it happens, it happens, and if it does not, I had a lot of fun playing along the way.

by...BumbleBee99

Day 1

Played first 100 hands of Razz at $1/$2. The only strat I have really looked up is regarding starting hands and what is best to play for a beginner. It went pretty well and I finished up 22bbs/100. Was up $44 with 20 hands to go, but ended up cry-calling a HU $26 pot with a pair of 3’s after the pot built nicely 3 handed to lose a to J7.

Most interesting hand came up here: http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1749985 I’m not really sure what the villain was thinking. My thoughts were I likely had the best 4 card hand which I “think” I repped sufficiently. Don’t think I would have won at showdown so bluffed the river.

These 100 hands will be sent to Dr Razz for diagnosis, and as one poster put it in Skype chat he is looking forward to the analysis of that hand as “donk-on-donk violence”

.

Really have to concentrate to keep track of folded cards. Think it will also take a while before I can 2 table.

But I kind of enjoyed my first session. Winning always helps! I hope it continues but let’s see what the whole month brings.

Day 2

Only played 40 hands due to internet problems. Managed to show a couple bucks profit, but no really interesting hands. The table was mostly 5 handed though so you really have to pay attention. I quit when it got to 3 handed as I don’t want to play HU/3 handed yet.

Day 5

Had a couple days off due to excessive drinking which, while factually proven to enhance Badugi skills, is detrimental to Razz I would think. Swingy session today, got stuck about $40 pretty quickly so dragged out the session chasing losses. Finished with 250 hands for the day and down $50.

Learned that Razz is not a game to try and force the action when the cards aren’t falling your way. Annoying seeing people bink left and right when you can’t hit ****. So I definitely need to try and be more patient. Most of my losses came from big pots I shoulda just folded early.

As today was a Saturday most of the villains were multi-tabling 4 tables or so, so it was actually hard to make some plays. Will have to wait and see if they are weekend warriors or regs, as I hadn’t come across most of them before. Hope to see them tomorrow as I have some idea what they are like now.

Day 7

Bustoed SCOOP Badugi M Event in 96th

Suppose I’ll play Razz tomorrow.

Day 8

Suffering FPS w/o even knowing the fkn game! Lost a few pots where I should just leave. I hate playing 1 table because I get bored and try do to stuff that is stupid. Calmed down when I got hold of myself and played ok until the 100th and final hand of the session.
http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1757627

I think I should raise 3rd and cap 4th, but Seat 5 completely threw me! I mean wtf is he raising the worst door card for?? Anyway, it threw me and then 7th sucked anyway. ****ty way to end a session. Down about $35.

I did start to make notes on some villains based on their HUD stats, so I at least did something constructive

Finding out who the robo-multi-tablers are will help.

Watched Episode 6 of Best of 7 series on DC. There wasn’t actually much Razz content but I picked up a few straight-forward tips that I should really listen to and put in to practice:

Folding 4th Street more / Do Not Bluff in the Wrong Spots!

Day 9

Played a quick 50 hands after work, with focus on playing straight forward. Picked good starting hands, threw away on 4th bricks, didn’t try to get tricky with a low door to a steal, and stole with low doors. Simples!

Stress free, although I did save one hand (which was my final one for that session, what is it with last hands?!?!). http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1758397 I think I sucked out but will run the equities shortly * – what was noticeable was the villain has really nitty stats but then opts to play the (86)4. I only had about 40ish hands so I won’t read too much in to it yet.

* ok, so from 70/30 on 4th (exc. dead cards) I go to 45/55 on 5th and way behind 30/70 on 6th so suck out completed.

Played another 150 hand session which was pretty spikey: Won some big pots, including one with my first bike, http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1758527. I did have the villain marked as fishy, hence defending with the K in the window. I would probably dump that against other villains.

All the pots won were contradicted by the pots I lost, so thankfully the early short session has left me up for the day a little.

I moaned that brick, brick, bricking is so annoying on Skype and got told I should be used to it playing a lot of Badugi. I am, I suppose, but it’s different in Razz. Can’t quite explain why yet, or whether because it’s a new game to me but it certainly feels that way.

700 hands in so far this month and well on the way to 2k . Just would like more up-slopes on my graph rather than down ones

Day 10

I have been forgetting all about position, like a proper tuna fish. I have been so preoccupied with other things, and then I just suddenly remembered it like an epiphany! Even though, so I have read but not looked at myself, the starting hand equities run pretty close between the best starting hand 32A and the best of the rest starting hands like 654*, it still pays to be the aggro player when last to act.

Great session today, just over 100 hands. Finished $40 up, thanks in no part to winning my biggest pot at Razz, $36, http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1759572.

I enjoyed being more aggro than I have been since I started this, and rather be the one thinking and then calling, putting others to the decisions. I ran well and played well, even bricking 5th, 6th and 7th in one hand and still winning. It was a bit of a crying call, but the villain had played 1 hand and sat down with $10 on a $1/$2 table and very likely paired so I couldn’t give him much credit. http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1759555

Co-incidentally, this is the first day I have had a couple (OK, 4) beers while playing after a hard days work. I am now just back over the $0 line on the graph. God bless beer

* 32A is 52.8% against 654 on 3rd street, w/o counting any dead cards.

Day 12

Good day. Played 25 hands at $2/$4 as that was the only table running. Team on line pro Tzen1 was there for a few hands, but the table quickly broke and a $1/$2 table was quickly up and running. Played 80 hands there and ran great. This one hands provoked a bit of debate in the Skype chat, particularly 3rd and 5th street. I thought bet folding 7th was good until that was questioned too lol

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1761039

900 hands in, and back up $40 (the exact same place as after the first 100 hands!) With 2+2 being operational again, I managed to get Dr Razz’s e-mail address from my PM’s so now I’m waiting on a review of my first 100 hands, gulp! If you can remember that far back, I did get off to a winning start but I hope he finds some dumb stuff I did.

After a good couple days of running good, and thinking through my play (albeit maybe incorrectly) I’m feeling pretty positive. I’ve met a few players, but there aren’t any stand-out ones so far. In fact, the player that I have over 500 hands on is a big loser – although that doesn’t take in to account the hands he’s played that I don’t have in my database of course.

Off-topic side note: Won $70 playing Badugi. Started a table against a Korean. Filled up soon, and hit 2 Royals and and a 5 though

Day 14

Nearly half way there after today’s quick 50 hands. Too tired to play more. Played a solid 8/7 sooper nitty game as a lot of my starting hands were crap, plus some of the players I hadn’t met before were bluffy buggers. Like this guy http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1763328. First hand with him I think, but I had spotted he was aggro and played his door/board. I don’t know if calling 5th and 6th is the best play here but my spidey sense thought he wasn’t as strong as he made out. Particularly after not capping 4th.

The other interesting hand I played was this one http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1763292. I think capping 4th is a good play even if he is drawing to the 5, as 2 of the other 6’s are now dead. I need to run the equities on this to make sure but I’ll do that tomorrow. Also, getting raised on the river would have sucked and I spent a bit of time thinking whether c/c, b/f, b/c would be best. I figure b/f is the best option and a much better Razz player agreed. Whether I could actually fold is a different story!

Day 15

Well my plans to play today got put on hold as I got my hand review back from DrRazz. (I intended to insert the review here but can’t get the code from Universal Replayer for some reason

If anybody actually wants to see it and has UR PM me and I will send the file to you). This was really useful in seeing what I was doing right and wrong, although I think my play was slightly skewed as I knew these hands were going to be reviewed so I was pretty focused and trying hard.

Also found out that DrRazz got the go ahead to use them in Cardrunners video so that should be fun to watch!

I also remembered to look up an article by a former poster in a previous incarnation of the Digest here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...dition-801661/

Along with Melchybeaus 6k post https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...posts-1199554/ on all things Stud, there are some good resources available for Razz players. I downloaded a couple of the Joe Tall Razz videos from the series that Melchy recommends.

I best get cracking tomorrow and this weekend to make sure I don’t have to rush the last 1,000 hands I need to play.

Day 16

Had to play after not playing yesterday, but I was too eager and butchered 2 hands very early on against a really aggro villain:

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1765392
http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1765408

Not sure how badly the villain played, but I know I didn’t play them particularly well. After that I was playing catch up but got to 96 hands before the table finally broke.

Quite pleased with one hand where I obviously hit the board from God. http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1765453 I have the villain marked as a fish, for overplaying 2 card starting hands too frequently and not having a fold button despite his own and other boards. Got 2 bets I don’t think a normal player would give me. Got lucky with the board too, as I would have hated to fold.

$30 down but hopefully back to sensible self tomorrow and not go in too crazy from the start. Also suffered from TMI after yesterday looking at the review and reading some of Melchy’s answers. Did realise I was FPS’ing quite quickly and managed to reign it in for the second half of my session.

Day 17

Played 160 hands at $2/$4 and had a great day, up $70. Won my biggest pot http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1766447

I think I played well with most of my winnings coming from showing down the best hand. I folded in a lot of the right places, and made some good bluffs on 3rd and 4th to take down a few small pots. Need to bottle how I played today so I can play like this more often. If I could bottle it, it would probably end up being called Sex Panther!

800 hands to go to hit 2k!

Day 20

Played 200 hands at $1/$2. Came out with 2.5BB/100, but was particularly pleased with my play. Here’s my graph http://i.imgur.com/eF1ms.png

Was pleased because the first 120 hands were all about folding 4th. A few 100 hands ago I would have lost a lot more money than $10 over those hands. I misplayed the hands around 175 but other than I think I played very well. Didn’t have a great run of cards so spent most of the session writing notes and watching what other villains did. I think it’s safe to say that I could justifiably criticise a lot of the play today. Could just be because it’s Sunday and some of them were mtt’ing NL tournies at the same time. But some guys really over-estimate the number of Razz tables they should be playing imo.

Day 21

125 hands at 2/4, +$30. Won my biggest ever pot with a sexy raise on 7th which was lol-called. http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1771641

Not sure if the rest of the streets where played the best, but I did use my read on Seat 7 and was kept in the pot by the fact it was large and multi-way.

Day 23

100 hands of 2/4. Won $45. No hands of any really interest. I’m finding I’m reading boards, both mine and villains, pretty well and also identifying the fish pretty quickly that a) do not read boards and b) call too much.

375 hands to go with a week to do it. Would like to get it done this weekend.

Days 28 & 29

Final graph and stats are posted here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...7&postcount=54

I deliberately waited a while before writing up my thoughts about the last 2 days because I didn’t want to skew my review of the whole challenge.

The last 2 days sucked and I couldn’t win for love nor money (which continued well after the end of this challenge to the point where I haven’t played cash Razz for a while now), but on the whole I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Razz and learning some of the subtleties of the game. I now no longer hate it, even though it is very frustrating at times, and when I play the occasional mixed-game tourney look forward to the Razz rounds. I’m still no expert but spotting bad plays and players is much easier now.

If anybody has made it to the end of this article

and is looking for a game to play outside their normal game, you can do no worse than giving the ole Razzle-Dazzle a whirl.

*****************************

STRAT HANDS:

Hero hits monster on the turn

Shove the river?

QQ turn raise?

AK hits the flop

PLO counting outs

STT shove the flop?

LHE hand from the micros forum

AA hand from HUNL forum (in honor of uHUNLA

)

MTT hand, top two misplayed?

PLO insights by napsus

LO/8 hand with a wheel

Another LHE hand-small suited connectors

The below posted part five from DD's strat series contains links to all previous parts.The other one is DD's part six, implied odds.

DiamondDog series part 5 with links to previous parts (awesome series)

OLD GOLD:

Beginners tools thread

Link to Micros Limit Library
Link to BQ forum FAQ
Read the FAQ
Bellatrix on huhu
Beginners path to solid play (from LHE forum but concepts transfer) A milestone post

LINKS TO PREVIOUS DIGESTS:

BQ Digest May and June 2012

BQ Digest April 2012
BQ Digest March 2012
BQ Digest February 2012
Link to January 2012 Digest
Link to December 2011 Digest
Link to November 2011 Digest

[/QUOTE]

MILESTONES, WELLS, FUN POSTS:

[/URL]MelchyBeau 6k milestone

Bat's in the well

uHUNLA week three

uHUNLA Week 5

uHUNLA Finals thread

The BIGBADBABAR story revisited

Special thanks to Leroy for providing two hands and to Mike for reviewing them

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikes007

This month, we have two hands which have been submitted by a reader for me to review.

In the first hand, we are told that villain has a turn cbet% of 40%.

Merge - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: $11.03
BTN: $3.61
SB: $4.92
BB: $12.93
UTG: $9.85
UTG+1: $15.22
UTG+2: $6.85
MP: $24.73
Hero (MP+1): $25.27

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 9

J

UTG raises to $0.30, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls $0.30, fold, BTN calls $0.30, fold, fold

I think this preflop call is quite loose, unless we have reads on the original raiser and believe that we can semi-bluff or float a lot postflop. Additionally, our position is not great; if any of the remaining players 3bet a lot, we are certainly better off just folding. I think this is a much better cold-call if we were on the button.

Flop: ($1.05, 3 players) Q

7

8

UTG bets $0.62, Hero calls $0.62, fold

This is not really a great flop for us. We do have a gutshot to the nuts, however I think it would be much better if we had an overcard or a back-door flush draw to go with our gutshot. Additionally, we must consider that UTG will be a bit more honest here with his cbets, since he is betting into 2 players. I believe that against a standard opponent, we will not be able to take the pot away or make the best hand often enough for us to float here.

Turn: ($2.29, 2 players) Q

UTG bets $1.24, Hero raises to $3.35, fold

Hero wins $4.54

Having called the flop, I believe that this is a fine card for us to bluff-raise, but only if we believe our opponent likely to fold his overpairs. We're representing a set or a Q, which are certainly in our range on the turn. Against standard regs, this is a good play, as long as we don't overdo it to the point where they start to call us down light. From what I've seen of the player pool at 10nl FR on Merge, I think most regs can be liberally abused with turn bluff-raises, as they will fold way too often here.

The second hand features a villain who is described as 19/11 over 68 hands. His aggression frequency is 46%, his fold vs steal is 78% and his WTSD is 20%.

Hand Information
, 0.1 BB (7 handed).
Hand History converter courtesy of pokerhandreplays.com
Table Information
Seat: 1 Player 1 ($6.79)
Seat: 2 Player 2 ($3.11)
Seat: 3 Player 3 ($7.98)
Seat: 5 Player 5 ($6.35)
Seat: 6 Hero ($10.17) Dealer
Seat: 7 Player 7 ($9.6) Small Blind
Seat: 9 Player 9 ($8.22) Big Blind
Dealt to Hero

Preflop (Pot:0.15)
Player 1 FOLD
Player 2 FOLD
Player 3 FOLD
Player 5 FOLD
Hero RAISE $0.35
Player 7 CALL $0.3
Player 9 FOLD

Certainly it is standard to open KK preflop here.

Flop(Pot: $0.8)

Player 7 CHECK
Hero BET $0.53
Player 7 RAISE $1.56
Hero CALL $1.03

I believe it is standard to bet/3bet and get it in on this flop. There are quite a few hands for our opponent to have here with which he will likely stack off. Lower sets, two pairs, and pair + OESD will have a hard time folding here, and there are only 2 hands which beat us: AJ and J9. There may be a case for just calling our opponent's raise here, if he likes to bluff-raise flops and follow up by firing the turn, yet he tends to fold to flop 3bets. However, with only 68 hands on our opponent, it is unlikely that we could have such a specific read yet.

Turn(Pot: $3.92)

Player 7 CHECK
Hero BET $2.61
Player 7 CALL $2.61

Turn is standard.

River(Pot: $9.14)

Player 7 BET $4.57
Hero FOLD
Showdown:
Player 7 MUCKS
Player 7 wins the pot: $13.71

This is a very tough river to play. The backdoor flush draw got there, as well as a lot of gutshots. The fact that our opponent just check-called the turn means that he will have a lot of these draws in his range. We are getting 3-1 odds and need to be good 25% of the time or more in order to make this call. I think that without specific river reads on an opponent, we are probably not good even 25% of the time here, and we should fold, but it is a very close decision.

Some fun was had by a group of Skype "regs" regarding the notion of folding KK preflop. Now we all know that every hand is situational, read dependent, opponent dependent, yada-yada but KK seems to be a starting hand that can create argument. Much hilarity developed around the number of KK hands posted and your editor can't resist highlighting it here. In our opinion the score of the debate was something like:

Skype regs: 1

Mikes007: 1

AlienSpacebat: 1

So--->>> the issue is still cloudy in our opinion. Here are some of the threads.

Another KK hand?

Mebbe we have more Kings in the deck than we used to?

KK preflop thread for LOLs

ELEVEN KK hands ELEVEN!!

Link to "The Worst Play Ever" by Tommy Angelo

Below are two links to entertaining items. Our monthly crossword puzzle and some humorously captioned photography. Enjoy.

When a picture is better than words

Link to interactive puzzle

We thank you for reading the digest. We hope we are fulfilling our mission to inform and entertain. You can make suggestions and comments in this thread, directed to the digest staff as a whole or to any individual contributor. We hope you like it but we grow by listening to our readers suggestions.

We suggest you get involved in SHANOOBIGANS, SHENANIGANS, and other forum projects (always something going on around here

). We suggest you post hands and respond to posted hands in the forum. We all grow from that. Have a great July!!!!!!!

wafflehouse1 · 07-01-2012, 11:47 AM

Frist

Quote:

Originally Posted by zumby

Pretty deep article WDWF, respect and good luck with your goals.

After now taking time to read, +1 to this.

Dunna100 · 07-01-2012, 11:48 AM

Secondst

zumby · 07-01-2012, 11:52 AM

Pretty deep article WDWF, respect and good luck with your goals.

sheeprustler · 07-01-2012, 11:55 AM

Good job again guys.

TheDefiniteArticle · 07-01-2012, 12:34 PM

Awesome, as usual. The link to the first razz hand has some HTML in the link itself, so instead of http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1749985 it's http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1749985[/URL] (inside the URL tags).

Bona · 07-01-2012, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDefiniteArticle

Awesome, as usual. The link to the first razz hand has some HTML in the link itself, so instead of http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1749985 it's http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1749985[/URL] (inside the URL tags).

Sharp eye sir, thanks.

PSA: Although this one was fine we recommend you never open one of bee's links with someone watching or at work.

**AlienSpaceBat** · 07-01-2012, 12:42 PM

fixed teh link

bumblebee99 · 07-01-2012, 01:04 PM

I am 69% confident all my article links are SFW.

PapaPyrite · 07-01-2012, 01:16 PM

Great articles! Just got the chance to read the other columns, this Digest may have the best content yet IMO

WDWF, wow, that was the single most honest, sincere, and self-aware piece of writing I've read in a long time, well done. You know I have nothing but

for you always, you're awesome!

Mike, as usual, is without peer when it comes to strategy, and more importantly, explaining things in a way in which even I can understand. Love reading your work Mike

Bee, as always you're the most entertaining, I love your sense of humor. And you always manage to pull me into your world when I read your articles...which is the mark of great writing. Bravo!

bumblebee99 · 07-01-2012, 02:24 PM

All mah links seem busto

Dunna100 · 07-02-2012, 02:45 PM

Finally finished reading this.

Tyty & gl to wdwf with 'finding yourself'.

For those in power, after so much fun with the Bhunla comp, maybe another BQ comp in a few months time of a different variant?

Bona · 07-02-2012, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dunna100

Finally finished reading this.

Tyty & gl to wdwf with 'finding yourself'.

For those in power, after so much fun with the Bhunla comp, maybe another BQ comp in a few months time of a different variant?

All the BQ events are initiated, organized, and promoted by BQ posters, none of us have "power". Cook something up man, and make it happen

**Ice_W0lf** · 07-02-2012, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bona

none of us have "power".

I disagree

whydowe_fall · 07-02-2012, 04:14 PM

Thank you for your support, guys. It means so much to me. ♥

McNeese72 · 07-02-2012, 04:16 PM

Nice job, guys.

After reading Mike's columns the last two BQ digests, I am learning why Mike does those things he does to me whenever I try to play NL Holdem with him.

blub, blub, blub [fish noises]

Doc

McNeese72 · 07-02-2012, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whydowe_fall

Thank you for your support, guys. It means so much to me. ♥

Went to Bryce Canyon in 2003. Got pictures to prove it......uh......somewhere.

Doc

Bona · 07-02-2012, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ice_W0lf

I disagree

ya, bad inclusion there. I was thinking of us riff-raff proletariate types and not referring to the green overlords. I think I overlooked them because the greens are too lazy to do anything but ban poor pee-jug on trumped up charges.