mathare's Poker Diary

[mathare]

18th January 2009
I'm back on the tables so I wanted to keep track of my results on here as well as in Poker Office and in my spreadsheet. Hopefully this will help keep me focused and also allow you lot to provide some feedback and encouragement along the way.

I played one $1/$2 table last night for just under two hours, although during that time the table dropped from 10 players to 5 or 6 so I sat out for a little while and my computer had a little spaz fit too so I didn't play 2 hours worth of poker.

Stats
Hands: 110
Won Hands: 11.82%
Saw Flop: 8.18%
Won Saw Flop: 77.78%
Showdowns: 3.64%
Showdowns Won: 100.00%
Pre Flop Raise: 5.45%
Won: $32.15
BB/100 hands: 14.61

I know it's early days but I am delighted with my first session back in the saddle. A good profit and complete comfort back in the game. I had a few tricky hands early on in the session and made some good pre-flop folds as there was a lot of pre-flop raising and most flops were only 2 or 3-handed. I played tight but aggressive and reaped the rewards. Let's hope for another session along those lines tonight...

[counterfeit]

Good start mate.

[mathare]

19th January 2009
Only a short session but another profitable one I wasn't in the mood for a long session and have started going to bed earlier than I used to so I try to stop doing too much on my PC after 10pm so I played for just over an hour this evening. I had my doubts about playing a short session but it worked out well and felt good. I think the game I was in was good and had I played on I could have won more (which is the same as last night really) and I know what they say about quitting when the game is good and so on but I could tell both last night and tonight that I was going to start flagging soon so I figured it best I stop.

There are a couple of key hands I wanted to pluck out from tonight's session as they show pretty well what I am up against. The table was like last night's - tight and with a lot of pre-flop raising so few players were seeing the flop. But a new player had just joined the table to my right a few hands before the first hand I want to look at.

Myself and our villain (80voglia) have roughly even stacks at around $70 each. I'm in the small blind and get dealt AcAs. A mid-position player raises and the button (our villain) calls. I re-raise, the BB folds and both players call. The pot is $10 (ignoring the rake). The flop is 7c Ks 9s. I bet out with my overpair and to make any flush draws at least pay a little for their draw. All draws have huge odds here but I can't give away free cards. At this point I know the mid-position player is TAG but I don't know much about the button. Could I have check-raised? I considered it but I wasn't sure either hand would bet so I figured I'd bet out, hope for a raise and look to re-raise. The mid-position player folds and the button raises. Aha! I re-raise, he caps it and I call. The pot is now $18

At this stage I am curious as to what he has. He could still be on a draw or overplaying a King I think. I don't think he has trips so I feel I am ahead.

The turn is Qd, a blank in all likelihood. Is he out of line with KQ? Not likely given the pre-flop action. Was he in there with JTs for the flush and straight draw? I don't think he had QQ so unless he has top two I think I am ahead still but I want to try to find out where I stand. A bet will give him 10/1 odds though so he could still draw out on me, and by now I am assuming he's drawing. I bet, get a raise and call the raise to exercise a little pot control. He's not going away and two pair is becoming a possibility as he's aggressive in this pot for sure.

The river is bad - Jh. A Ten and I am smashed all over the place, so the chances of his draws coming in have gone up. The chances of two pair have just increased too. For that reason I check-call his bet and he takes down a $30 pot with Kh7h! He had two pair on the flop after cold-calling a raise pre-flop. With K7s. OK, once I re-raise he has the odds etc but that's lousy play by our villain. I'd like to think I didn't lose that much on that hand; I could certainly have lost more on the turn I reckon but the river froze the action.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I'd taken a hit that put me back down to $57 so still in profit for the session. But later on I was able to get my money back of the villain.

I'm one off the button and get AhKs, the 3rd or 4th time I had seen AKo this session. UTG calls and our villain raises. AK is a drawing hand but also a top pair hand so I want to limit the field so I fire in a further raise. To my surprise the button cold calls the three-bet. Hello! He's another TAG player but I know for a fact he's multi-tabling so probably playing ABC poker. The blinds fold but UTG calls as does the villain so 4 players go to the flop (pot $13.50).

The flop comes 9c Kd Ad and it's like a dream for me. I know I need to cut out the diamond draws so this is a flop I need to show strength on. I cannot hold back here as there was a lot of pre-flop strength shown round the table. I need to see where my hand stands - are AA or KK out there? I would have expected a cap if they were but we'll see. UTG checks, the villain bets and I raise. The button folds (after cold-calling a 3-bet - mistake while multi-tabling perhaps?) as does the UTG player and I have this heads-up with $17.50 in the pot as our villain calls (of course).

By now I am starting to mark the villain as LAG, very loose in fact. Not quite a maniac but he's well on his way.

The turn comes Qh which stops me in my tracks momentarily. It's another card in the playing zone (for most players) and completes a potential straight but I still have top two. I have pushed AA and KK way down in terms of likely holdings for my opponent. QQ? Nah, I just don't feel he has QQ after the way the hand has played out. AQ is possible but I still beat that. Flush draw? Maybe. Straight draw? Maybe. Straight? Nah! My opponent checks (!) so I bet and get a call. Was that weakness on his part? The pot is $21.50.

The river comes the best card in the deck for me - Kh. That's my full house so let's see what you have sunshine. You don't have AK based on previous play so I'm not splitting this. The King hasn't completed any draws to flushes or straights so I am very sure I am good here. He check-calls my river bet but I figure it's a crying call. He flips over....Ac3c! Yes, Ace-Three suited. I think he check-called the last two streets when his backdoor flush draw was shot and he had no kicker in case he hit another Ace. The pot was too big for him to put it down. That hand was good enough to put me back over $70 - back where I was before he got out of line with K7 and cracked my Aces earlier.

So that's the story of tonight's session. One thing I have noticed when I wrote that analysis up was how much more able I was to think through his potential holdings but at the table I couldn't, at least not consciously. But throughout the session I always felt as though I had a good idea where I stood. It was a sort of sub-conscious reading of players - I can't really put my finger on it. It seems to work though :)

Oh, one last thing - Poker Office replayer is awesome for looking back over hands when doing analysis like the above. I couldn't be without it :)

Stats
Hands: 178
Won Hands: 10.11%
Saw Flop: 9.55%
Won Saw Flop: 70.59%
Showdowns: 5.62%
Showdowns Won: 90.00%
Pre Flop Raise: 6.18%
Won: $52.50
BB/100 hands: 14.75

I didn't expect to maintain that BB/100 hands for a second session but I am under no illusions that it will soon start to drop. I'd be over the moon with anything 5+ and happy with 3+ I reckon. I am so full of confidence at the minute that I reckon at this level that's possible. Let's see shall we...

[mathare]

20th January 2009
Another fairly short session - an hour and a quarter or so - but I think is going to be quite typical of evenings when I play poker so I don't mind that. With limit poker it's long enough to get into the game, scratch the poker itch and hopefully make a few quid along the way. And so it proved again this evening with a further $21 of profit in the bag, much of it coming from a LAG player who seemed to want to play almost every hand and lost a lot of them!

I did my usual trick of playing only one table but having several open with Poker Office running across them all. I may not want to multi-table quite yet myself but if my opponents are doing so why not record as much data on them as I can? So I had another 4 or 5 tables open as well as the one I was playing on. I feel things are going well and I am back into the swing of it so I may well start playing two tables at once soon enough.

One thing I did notice tonight was I fell back into old habits of 'net surfing at times during the game - that and checking Poker Office stats rather than focusing on the table. I don't think that disadvantaged me particularly tonight but it is a habit I was trying to break. I need to keep my eye on things like that and stop myself from doing it.

Stats
Hands: 266
Won Hands: 9.40%
Saw Flop: 11.65%
Won Saw Flop: 58.06%
Showdowns: 6.39%
Showdowns Won: 88.24%
Pre Flop Raise: 5.64%
Won: $73.55
BB/100 hands: 13.83

I told you that win rate couldn't be maintained didn't I? It's dropped nearly a whole BB/100 hands this session!

[mathare]

25th January 2009
I felt like an afternoon at the tables today so that's just what I had and it was a rather mixed bag. I played on just one table for the first hour or so and it was looser than previous tables I had played - not that that bothered me as I am a naturally tight player anyway. But I think it did put me off my game a little as I found myself pushing edges that perhaps were perceived rather than actual. On that table I was down below half the amount I bought in for (I buy in for $50 on these tables) for a while but a couple of decent hands towards the end of the session got me back withing 5 cents of level so I decided to call it a day on that one. My eyes were getting tired as was my brain.

I added a second table to the mix after an hour or so and had a much better time at that one. I dropped around $20 in the first round or so but soon made that, and more, back. I was up over $20 at one stage but eventually cashed out with just inder $12 profit from that table.

The most pleasing thing about today was the amount of table time I got. The sessions weren't that profitable so my hourly rates etc have dropped but I did pick up a lot of experience which is what I was after.

Stats
Hands: 625
Won Hands: 9.92%
Saw Flop: 15.68%
Won Saw Flop: 43.88%
Showdowns: 6.08%
Showdowns Won: 73.68%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.68%
Won: $75.45
BB/100 hands: 6.84

[mathare]

28th January 2009
It was 'more money than sense' day at the tables today it seems. All I had to do was hold my nerve with some decent hands (and a couple of hands that were no better than just 'not bad') and I could rake in a decent profit for a short session. In an hour and a half I made $33 at the usual $1-$2 limit tables.

The biggest profit of the night came from a hand where I held KK in the big blind. A mid-position player limps along with the button, the SB folds and I raise. Both limpers call so three of us see the flop of 2-A-7 rainbow. I bet out trying to see if there is an Ace out there (I'm up against a tight player about whom I know quite a bit and a loose player about whom I know fairly little but he's obviously loose). The mid-position (tight) limper folds and the loose button calls. The turn is a K so I bet out with trips as the button seems loose enough to call on that board. In fact he raises, I re-raise (with the 4th best possible hand) and he caps it. I obviously call as at this I think he may have two pair but not AA to have me in a set over set situation. The river is a 4. I bet, he raises, I re-raise, he shoves his last $0.25 in and I call. I paused over my re-raise as I was seriously wondering what he had at this point. He turned over A5o. Loose call from the button pre-flop followed by utter craziness. Top pair no kicker played badly really. He reloaded after that hand too and lost his next buy-in pretty quickly too. It was a shame to see him leave.

I also won a decent wedge with QQ on a 4-6-6-3-2 board when my opponent flipped up KQo on the river and another good hand with AQo on a board of J-7-4-8-J facing K5o at the river. He was looking for a flush draw but I had a bigger card of the same suit so had he hit his flush he would have lost more to me than he actually did.

Stats
Hands: 715
Won Hands: 9.37%
Saw Flop: 14.55%
Won Saw Flop: 45.19%
Showdowns: 5.73%
Showdowns Won: 75.61%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.41%
Won: $119.1
BB/100 hands: 8.33

[mathare]

29th January 2009
Not a great session this evening - my first real setback on my new limit poker journey. I wasn't feeling too great and poker was supposed to be a bit of a pick-me-up, a feelgood if you like. I don't feel any better for it and the loss is a little annoying but it's not catastrophic in the slightest. I got my money in when I was ahead most of the time this evening and got outdrawn in some decent pots is all. There were also a few hands where pot odds basically demanded I play them to showdown even though I knew I was beaten but that's limit poker at times.

In a way I am quite pleased to have booked a losing session as I was beginning to think I was having it all far too much my own way at the tables and I needed to be kept in check a little.

Stats
Hands: 850
Won Hands: 9.18%
Saw Flop: 14.94%
Won Saw Flop: 42.52%
Showdowns: 5.88%
Showdowns Won: 68.00%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.76%
Won: $98.45
BB/100 hands: 5.79

[mathare]

31st January 2009
A long afternoon at the tables this afternoon. I had two tables on the go and mixed results, recording a loss on one that all but wiped out my profit from the other. But in most cases I got my money in good so it's just that the hands didn't always go my way - nowt I can do about that.

One thing I can do something about though is my tendency to see too many hands through to the showdown when I have missed completely and all I could beat is a worse bluff than mine. I'm exercising pot control by check-calling but I should be folding earlier in the hand when it's obvious I am beaten. I keep using the pot odds as an excuse to keep calling but if I miss the river I don't have a hand (Ace high maybe). Do I think my opponent would be bluffing with less than that often enough to justify the call? It turns out he's not bluffing with complete air as often as I thought he would be and I reckon this probably my biggest leak at present. It could also be a side-effect of not focusing on either game today. My old web surfing habits were back on display and I need to keep that in check.

Here's hoping for better next time I play (tomorrow?)...

Stats
Hands: 1370
Won Hands: 8.91%
Saw Flop: 15.55%
Won Saw Flop: 40.85%
Showdowns: 6.20%
Showdowns Won: 60.00%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.81%
Won: $101.70
BB/100 hands: 3.71

The stats are starting to settle down a little now and the one that concerns me the most right now is the showdowns won (60%). That indicates I am taking too many hands to the showdown, trying to pick off bluffs that just aren't there as I said above. I want this stat to pick back up again as it has dropped off pretty fast today.

[mathare]

1st February 2009
Another fairly short evening session at one table is all I could manage today but it was profitable, a lot more so than yesterday's efforts across the two tables too. I saw some really poor play tonight too, thankfully not mine. I had learned a bit of a lesson about pot odds and checked Poker Office for some stats about hands I was taking to the showdown after the little observation yesterday and feel as though I improved today. But some of the players I played with were rubbish! I have noticed that I now have half a dozen or so players in my database who have lost $100 or more in around 1000 hands or less playing $1/$2 limit. That's some bad play. Of course I have them all on my buddy list now :)

Tonight I also faced some loosey goosey players. One was borderline maniac, raising it up a lot pre-flop but also getting into raising wars with marginal holdings. Thankfully I was able to observe him do this for a while before I got a big hand so I knew how to get the best out of him. I faced him in a few big pots with big hands and got paid off quite handsomely. My good hands didn't always stand up tonight but that's to be expected. A decent enough session all in all though.

Stats
Hands: 1465
Won Hands: 8.94%
Saw Flop: 15.43%
Won Saw Flop: 42.04%
Showdowns: 6.42%
Showdowns Won: 59.57%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.71%
Won: $126.55
BB/100 hands: 4.32

Note that showdowns won figure is still dropping slowly. I thought I was getting better there. I may need to do some more analysis in Poker Office to see if I can spot any real leaks I can work on to help improve that.

[mathare]

2nd February 2009
It turns out that I have been rather harsh on myself when it comes to showdowns won and the hands I have been taking all the way. I had in mind that I was dropping towards the 50% figure, a point below which I am losing more hands at the end than I am winning and thus a place I was keen to avoid. But it turns out that I am winning quite a bit overall with hands I show down. I asked Poker Office to spit out the stats for these hands at the $1/2 level and I although the sample is small (105 hands showndown) I am winning $2.39 per hand. I had been beating myself up over this and yet it doesn't seem like much to worry about.

So what is holding my win rate back? Not that I'm not unhappy with it but I do feel it has the potential to be better. That's a question for another day maybe. I have only around 160 hands per position (at this level) so it's not a great sample there either but the profit by position could be a smoother distribution. I have some positions where I win a lot and some where I win very little. And then there are the blinds but I don't think they're supposed to be profitable really. Something for me to ponder though.

Stats
Hands: 1610
Won Hands: 8.82%
Saw Flop: 15.28%
Won Saw Flop: 42.28%
Showdowns: 6.52%
Showdowns Won: 59.05%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.58%
Won: $120.30
BB/100 hands: 3.74

[mathare]

3rd February 2009
Poor session for me tonight and it's kinda hard to say where it really went wrong. It was just one of those days where little went right rather than one specific thing going wrong. It was one of those games I keep finding myself in these days where there are pre-flop raises almost every hand but it's usually only 2 or 3 players on the flop, if there is indeed a flop as quite often the raise will steal the blinds. And the raises are coming from all positions and all sorts of players so it's hard to know where you stand at any one time. And when I get the opportunity to steal I don't have anything like the hand I'd be comfortable stealing with so I have to fold. I'm not seeing flops from the blinds due to the raises and the dross I am being dealt. I have had a few good hands and in most cases I have been beaten in a decent pot by what was the worse hand when the action kicked off. I'm either getting called by poor hands pre-flop when I raise with a decent hand and getting beaten or my half-decent starting hands are turning into poo on the flop and I get beaten there and then.

Limit hold'em is much more about cards than no-limit poker. In NLHE your position is key, then it's stack sizes, aggression, control and cards come along eventually. In limit poker it's all about pot odds so it's much more a game of the cards you and your opponent hold. You can't easily raise someone out of the pot. Tonight my small pairs and suited connector hands have been out as I don't have the pot odds to play them. Same goes for marginal big card holdings (KTo etc). With pre-flop raises and few/no callers there's just not enough in the pot to risk it. And it seems tonight that when I do get a hand that's playable no-one else hits enough to be interested. I just had AQs so raised after a few limpers. Three of us saw the flop which contained an Ace and two of my suit. It went check-check, I bet out and they both folded. Should I have checked too? Who knows.

Tonight has been one of those nights with hand after hand that's 93o, Q4o, K9o in the SB with a mid-position raise and no callers - hands that just aren't playable. 68o in the BB and a mid-position raise. No callers before me so I can't justify playing hands like that. I'm losing more than normal out of the blinds this evening. Often my c-bets are being raised when I have missed the flop. All in all a rather frustrating couple of hours at the tables, but that's poker! A few hands towards the end of the session pulled it out the fire a little but I am still disappointed with my efforts tonight.

Stats
Hands: 1748
Won Hands: 8.81%
Saw Flop: 15.22%
Won Saw Flop: 42.11%
Showdowns: 6.41%
Showdowns Won: 58.04%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.72%
Won: $108.85
BB/100 hands: 3.11

[mathare]

4th February 2009
I'm hoping to get on the tables later this evening but while I wait for my tea to be cooked I thought I do a quick bit of analysis on my Poker Office stats to see if anything jumps out.

I thought about analysing starting hands but I really don't have enough data for anything meaningful unless I start grouping hands. I can analyse my play by position though. Seats 0 (the button) and 7 seem to be most profitable for me, standing head and shoulders above all others. I can understand the button but seat 7 is over $75 better than the seats around it. In fact I am a slight loser in seat 8 for reasons I have yet to fathom out. It has to be said here and now that I don't have huge amounts of data with under 200 hands per position but even so, why am I losing from late-mid position? I have had hands such as TT and 99 beaten and been forced into folding ATs, KQs and KQo due to excessive raising ahead of me either pre-flop or when I miss the flop entirely but these aren't huge losses so perhaps it's more a question of why I am winning so much in seat 7. I've had AA and KK four times compared to none in seat 8, plus AKs and other suited Aces that have won me cash. I've also had pairs such as TT and 77 hold up along with the marginal face card holdings I have been losing with in seat 8. I think is likely just short term variance though so nothing I plan to do anything about.

If I look at how my stats vary with position I can see I am tightest in early position loosening up as I get later and later. Good. My PFR % is highest on the button, understandably. In early position it's highest UTG and then dips a few percent before climbing to be more consistent through middle and later positions. I don't have enough data for these conclusions to be that meaningful though. With under 200 hands per position and a PFR of under 8% we're talking even fewer hands so I can't concern myself with these figures too much. I am happy enough with the patterns that are kinda present and haven't spotted anything that alarms me.

The only other thing I have spotted from my PO stats is that when I really miss the flop and have either nothing at all or just one overcard I am losing cash. With an overcard I am losing most by leading out, with nothing the losses come from calling. Do I need to tighten up pre-flop? I actually think it's still short term variance shining through as this is based on under 25 hands or so.

So I think it's carry on as you were, build up more data while keeping an eye on your game and see what happens, really.

[MattR]

Maybe with the small data it's just a case of winning a couple of bigger pots when sitting in position 7?

[mathare]

Maybe with the small data it's just a cast of winning a couple of bigger pots when sitting in position 7?

I'm pretty sure it's exactly that Matt and I have no plans to alter my play from any position based on my analysis so far. I have been getting the hands in some seats and not others but my sample size isn't large enough to be able to smooth these things out

[mathare]

4th February 2009
Pretty much the same as last night - a nothing night with few decent hands and even fewer that were playable by the time the action got to me. There were few flops too so my merit point earn rate was down tonight too, and I was trying to earn enough points in the next few days to make sure I keep my VIP level for next month as I will be away for the second half of this month and won't have chance to play then. I'll have to do some serious multi-tabling this weekend I think.

Stats
Hands: 1852
Won Hands: 8.91%
Saw Flop: 15.17%
Won Saw Flop: 41.99%
Showdowns: 6.21%
Showdowns Won: 57.39%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.67%
Won: $102.70
BB/100 hands: 2.77

[mathare]

7th February 2009 (part 1)
As part of my attempt to preserve my current VIP status on Bet365 I need to put the hours in this weekend to get the merit points I need. I need to get them by the end of the month but go on holiday on Thursday which means this weekend is really my last chance to put a serious dent in the total required. With that in mind I put in a short session this morning and racked up about 10% of what I needed at the start of the day. I'll put in more time at the tables, multi-tabling too, this afternoon but this morning was the same sort of fare as the other recent sessions - the table was quite aggressive pre-flop but tight too (or at least not many saw each flop). I also found myself on the wrong side of some situations such as AQ v AK but such is life. I escaped with only a small loss.

Stats
Hands: 1926
Won Hands: 9.09%
Saw Flop: 15.32%
Won Saw Flop: 42.03%
Showdowns: 6.28%
Showdowns Won: 57.02%
Pre Flop Raise: 7.68%
Won: $100.82
BB/100 hands: 2.62

[mathare]

7th January 2009 (part 2)
It looks like a forced end to the afternoon session as the Bet365 poker server seemed to go down about 20 minutes ago while I was in the middle of playing two tables and hasn't managed to come back to life since then.

As seems to be the norm when I play two tables I had one decent winner and a loser all but wiping out the profit from the winning table. If my stats are correct (I can't check them as the poker server is down) I made a slight profit. I dialled up the aggression this afternoon and loosened up a little too, figuring that too often my raises weren't being called and so I wasn't really making much profit on my good hands. If I could be seen to be giving a bit more action then maybe I would get more action. It seemed to work with some big pots being played out (I took down a $39.50 pot when my 99 connected with another 9 on the flop and my opponents had AA and KK, for example) but I also found myself losing some bigger pots when I get outdrawn or faced opponents playing dirge but connecting with rubbish flops.

One thing I did notice about my play though was I was giving up on quite a few pots on the turn. I had the odds to play pre-flop and take a card after the flop but then I had no chance of winning the hand so would just give it up. That seemed to happen to me a lot this afternoon. I need to analyse my play and look for the leaks and weaknesses I know are there (my win rate is dropping quite steadily so there must be issues with my game) but before I can do that meaningfully I am trying to log a decent number of hands. I am trying to be objective about my play though and trying to reduce poor decisions as I play. It's very much work in progress though.

Stats
Hands: 2226
Won Hands: 9.75%
Saw Flop: 16.40%
Won Saw Flop: 42.19%
Showdowns: 6.74%
Showdowns Won: 56.00%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.22%
Won: $105.72
BB/100 hands: 2.37

I said near the start of this poker escapade I'd be happy with a BB/100 hands of 3 or better. Was that too optimistic? It's certainly dropped off a long way and slips with each passing session. It's something I am keeping my eye on though...

[mathare]

8th February 2009 (part 1)
What a weird old morning session I have just had. OK, the fact that I played too tables and lost on one but not the other isn't that odd as that is becoming the story of my poker career (more on that later) but some of the things I saw amazed me even after all these hours at the tables.

Let's start with table 1, where I started off by getting hit square in the face by the deck. First hand was an unremarkable 46s in the BB which I folded to a raise. The flop gave me a straight flush draw which the turn then completed and the pot was one by a guy with middle pair. Mildly annoying.

Then I got dealt AA next hand (in the SB). There's a limper (UTG), a raise and a call before it gets to me. I re-raise, the limper cold calls two bets and the other two call my re-raise to give us 4 players to the flop. The board shows 6d-8s-7s so with straight draws and flush draws possible I obviously lead out. All my opponents call. The turn is a blank (2c) so I lead out again. If there is a draw out there they have odds to hit it but there is little more I can do as I don't feel a check-raise would work too well here. UTG calls, the pre-flop raiser folds but the othe guy raises. I figure he could have been slow playing a strong hand on the flop so fearing a made straight or a middle two-pair I just call, as does UTG. The river is another relative brick (Jd) so there are no flushes possible and straights would need two connecting cards in the pocket. I bet out again as I reckon I am ahead still, barring the possibility of middle two pair that got lucky with that flop. Both my opponents call. The late position player shows A8o - what? Guess what the UTG player had before we watch me drag the pot in? Yep, the unthinkable. He cold called two raises pre-flop plus bets and raises on the board because he had 72o! Seven-Two offsuit, under the gun, and he limps then cold-calls two raises and takes down a $34 pot! Unbelievable.

I got my money back next hand with QTs though, and two hands later I won a reasonable pot with AA again. Nine hands after that I got KK and won a similarly sized pot. Then I lost another biggie when my opponent hits a two-outer on the river, drawing to an inside straight with JJ against my KQ (which had formed two pair on the turn). Later on I lost a stupid pot with A6s when I shouldn't have even been playing it. Similarly A9s a few hands later. The other biggish loser I had was AJo which I somehow couldn't fold even though I was pretty sure I was beaten. It wasn't like the pot odds were that special either.

That last hand has become fairly typical of my play and so I am going to work hard on stamping it out. I must pay more attention to pot odds and where my hand stands compared to the rest of the board. What could my opponent be holding? Am I likely beaten? Can I outdraw him? Do I have the pot odds to do so? They are the sorts of questions I need to be asking. Looking at my play this morning, and Poker Office confirms this, I seem to end up on the flop with nothing or just an overcard too often and this is costing me quite a bit of money, especially as I seem to keep betting these situations. You can't scare an opponent off the pot so easily as you can in NLHE - this is much more a game of cards and actually having a decent hand to take your opponent on with.

On the second table I got a good ace (AKo) beaten by a poor one (A2o) when he hit his kicker on the flop. I failed with a few steal attempts, trying to steal with dirge and not giving it up when it became obvious my opponent had a better hand and I missed the flop by a mile. I had to give a few hands up after a bit of betting on the flop/turn when I was faced with more action than I felt my hand could take. All in all I lost around $15 on this table, and as I only made around $3 on the first table I booked a loss this morning.

The slight bright side is the fact that I made another good dent in the number of merit points I need to maintain my current VIP level on Bet365. I should be able to acquire the remaining points in around 3 table-hours.

Stats
Hands: 2368
Won Hands: 9.84%
Saw Flop: 16.60%
Won Saw Flop: 42.24%
Showdowns: 6.93%
Showdowns Won: 54.88%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.23%
Won: $94.41
BB/100 hands: 1.99

My BB/100 hands is now under 2 and I am pretty sure that is because I am losing more than I should on hands when I know (or should know) I am beaten. As I said earlier I am not paying enough attention to pot odds and that will cripple me in this game. I am going to think about the lessons I have learned over lunch and come back to the tables this afternoon with a better attitude to the game. Hopefully.

I'll come back to the multi-tabling issue later. I need to check a few things out first.

[markwales]

Hi Mat - great write ups as always.

Do you have a rakeback deal? Not sure whether 365 do them, however I could get you a min of 30% (up to 40%) on another iPoker skin which will significantly improve your return playing cash games.

Let me know if you are interested.... similarly anybody else wants a decent deal on iPoker give me a yell on here or via PM.

Keep up the good reporting.

Mark

[mathare]

Thanks Mark.

I don't have a rakeback deal - I looked into them before starting this new adventure and decided the options were limited as I have accounts with most of the major poker rooms already. I'll PM you for more details though if that's OK.

[mathare]

8th February 2009 (part 2)
Another entry but not to update you on my latest session. Instead I have some analysis to share with you. This morning's multi-tabling followed what seemed like a very familiar pattern of a winning table and a losing one so I wanted to see if that was just a trick of the mind or whether the sessions I have recorded do actually follow that pattern.

I analysed all my fixed limit hold'em sessions and found that on 20 occasions I have played two tables at once (never more than two though). Of those 20 occasions I have won on one table and lost on the other 12 times, 5 times I won on both tables and three times I lost on both tables. So it's not just a trick of the mind - it does seem that I tend to win on one table and lose on the other albeit I have a small sample from which to draw these conclusions.

How does multi-tabling affect my win rate? Overall my multi-tabling sessions are profitable but it turns out nowhere near as profitable as when I play just one table. If I am playing two tables at once my win rate averages out at 0.25xBB/hour but when playing just one table that figure is 0.84xBB/hour. So as much as I don't feel able to focus on a single table so play another to hopefully give me less time in which to get distracted I am killing my win rate. Interesting. Looks like I should play just one table at once then. At least now I know.

[mathare]

8th February 2009 (part 3)
This time I am bringing you the results of a session at the tables as I played another couple of hours this afternoon - on one table only, of course - and it went rather well. I wasn't particularly focused on the game as I was preparing some analysis (the results of which I will share with you later) but I got some good cards and some lucky breaks and more than doubled my buy-in making this my best ever limit session in terms of cash won.

The first big win came with AJo which hit two pair on the flop and beat KK. The roles were then pretty much reversed a few hands later when my KK downed an opponent's ATo. My (equal) biggest win of the session came when I took a chance with 88 in late position calling an early raise, flopped a full house and took an opponet holding KK for a bit of a ride. Another hand saw me win a good pot with K7s making a flush on the turn and my opponent folding on the river. I also had KJo win a big pot from the SB facing another KJo when I hit a lucky flush. A few hands later I lost a chuck with KJs drawing to a flush from the flop but never connecting. This is the only hand that really stands out as a significant loser in this session and I had the odds at each and every stage to draw so I don't have a problem with my play here. KJs came back to me a few hands later and I took down another nice pot when I paired my King on the river. Again I was drawing to the flush from the flop with the odds in each round and got a fortunate river. A couple of speculative AQs hands came along that cost me a few bucks each but in each case I missed the flop, took a cheap card and then folded when I missed the turn too and didn't think I could outdraw the other guy. I don't mind that sort of play as I am giving myself a chance to win but also limiting my losses. The biggest 'chancy' play also came off for me this session. I called the extra half bet from the SB with 52o after two limpers and caught a gutshot draw that I hit on the turn. I didn't have the odds to draw on the flop but I figured if I did hit on the turn I could get paid off well enough and if I missed I'd just fold. It worked and I made over $10 that hand. I did play QJo quite poorly towards the end of the session, taking it all the way to the river even though I had missed and ran into AK that connected with the turn and river but this was very much the exception to my play this afternoon.

Looks like the lessons I learned this morning sank in and I really improved my play. Sure, I got lucky in a few places but we all need a bit of luck now and then.

Stats
Hands: 2495
Won Hands: 9.86%
Saw Flop: 16.59%
Won Saw Flop: 42.75%
Showdowns: 7.01%
Showdowns Won: 56.57%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.18%
Won: $144.54
BB/100 hands: 2.90

The stats are starting to settle down now, which is good. I must admit though I am pleased to see the Showdowns Won and BB/100 hands stats go up a decent amount after this session.

I'll be back later with some interesting findings from some analysis I started this afternoon...

[mathare]

8th February 2009 (part 4)
More analysis I'm afraid.

Today I decided to carry out an idea for something I thought of the other day while I was playing and looking at a few stats in Poker Office. I noticed my database contained data on a couple of players who were big winners at this level, plus data on players who were big losers in the $1/$2 limit games I am playing. How do my stats as a moderate winner compare to these big winners/losers? With that in mind I set up a spreadsheet and copied into it the detailed overview stats for me, the two biggest winners in my database, the two biggest losers and two players in the middle of the pack with a decent number of hands under their belt. What follows is the analysis of that data.

I think the first thing I should say is that I know there is more than one way to skin a cat. Several different playing styles can be profitable and a leopard can't change his spots (to carry on with the cliches) so I don't plan to drastically modify my base game but I do want to see if there are things I can do to make more profit and also see if I am exhibiting any signs of the losing play. I'm going to use the Poker Office detailed stats as the basis for this so I'll be looking at areas such as hand selection, aggression, blind stealing, blind defense, betting actions and sandbagging.

The Players
The players we will be looking at here are:

• me (terrorwrist) - 2393 hands, $103.76 profit
• Zacharyas - 3608 hands, $263.16 profit
• Entarion - 3585 hands, $243.99 profit
• Thx4AllTheFish - 3040 hands, $26.03 profit
• Branniganzapp - 1961 hands, -$13.79 profit
• Offtank - 1273 hands, -$255.11 profit
• Siami77 - 1746 hands, -$212.38 profit

Some of these players have under 2000 hands logged but I still think I have a decent line on their play so I'm happy enough to include them in this analysis process.

Hand Selection
I see 16.50% of flops which is the highest of all players featured. The others are all in the range 13.40% to 14.90% so I am over 1.5% up on these players. When we look at VP$IP I am more in line with the others with my 16.90% comparing reasonably well to the rest. Zacharyas has 16.40%, which is the highest of my rivals, with 14.00% (Branniganzapp) as the lowest. Outside the blinds I see 11.20% of flops while my profitable rivals see fewer (10.50% to 9.60%). The losers I am analysing see fewer flops when not in the blinds too so it's hard to be very sure about what to make of this. Am I little too loose overall? Hard to say when looking at figures such as these in isolation. We need to wait and see what each player makes of the hands they are choosing to play, including me.

Post-flop my figures are a bit more in line with the better players. My flop-turn percentage is 67.90%, around half a percent below Entarion and over 3% above Zacharyas. Am I taking too many chances on the flop? When the betting limits are lower, as they are on the flop, it's tempting to just take a card off to see what happens. I mentioned earlier in this diary that I seem to be losing heavily when I have nothing/one overcard on the flop. Maybe I need to stop taking cards here but it's hard to give an opponent too much credit on a raggy flop when you have overcards. Something for me to bear in mind anyway. My turn-river percentage (68.40%) is 5% down on both Zacharyas and Entarion, the players I should be looking up to. But it's also the lowest of all players under scrutiny here so maybe that's not a bad thing. It does suggest I am less willing to proceed with my hands though so perhaps I am a little too loose getting to this stage of the hand but more able than some to give it up and cut my losses. That said, my showdown percentage is the highest of everyone's at 7%. The others have a player within half a point of 6%, generally. Perhaps I am taking too many longshots all the way and hoping my high card hands are good?

It looks like, from this stage of the analysis, that I could perhaps benefit from tightening up slightly pre-flop as that should improve things on all streets. Not too much though, just drop one or two of the marginal hands I must be playing. Poker Stove says 16.5% equates too 66+, A5s+, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QJo - is that an accurate representation of my range? I'd like to think I don't play suited Aces that low unless the situation is right, and I play smaller pocket pairs under the right conditions but I guess the range is probably right in general. I know from memory though that the games are often too tight to make small suited Aces profitable pre-flop (insufficient pot odds) so I ought to keep my eye on how/when I play such hands. That ought to help me tighten up, especially if I do the same with the pocket pairs too.

Aggression
My pre-flop raise (PFR) percentage is one stat that stands out a mile from the others here. Or rather everyone else's towers above mine, which is only 8.20%. The winners (Zacharyas and Entarion) are both up around 12%. Poker Stove has my range as roughly 88+,ATs+,KTs+,QJs,AJo+ whereas 11.5% equates to 77+,A9s+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,ATo+,KQo. Obviously hands that can be raised with vary with position but I do need to widen my range it seems. Some of the hands I would class as marginal I ought to be raising with, perhaps because of the tight nature of the game. Incidentally, the losing players have PFR percentages up around 11.5-12% too but obviously play these hands worse on later streets. My first in raise percentage is low too (as you'd expect given my PFR), at 5.20%, a good couple of percent down on the others. If I widen my PFR range I expect this figure to increase as a natural by-product so I won't be taking specific action to improve this stat.

Poker Office, like other similar tools, calculates aggression factors based on how aggressive your betting actions are (betting and raising v checking and calling). The next stat to stand out massively is my pre-flop aggression factor which is a pitiful 0.80 when my rivals are all packing figures around 2.0. More pre-flop raising is quite clearly the order of the day. Pots are being raised and I am calling with hands I should be re-raising with, as well as widening my raising range as mentioned earlier. The winning players in my database share a similar aggression factor profile across the other streets and im each case my own figure is pitiful compared to theirs. I seem particularly gutless on the turn, perhaps because I keep ending up there with questionable holdings (see above). More raising/re-raising is quite clearly in order. Overall my aggression factor is a wimp-like 1.10, half that of my successful rivals. I said recently I had dialled up the aggression, I clearly need to do it more. I know tight-aggressive poker makes money so I need to align my game more with that and not be scared to move my chips into the middle.

Stealing
To me this is a less important part of the game in limit poker than it is in no-limit poker but let's look at the stats anyway. A few blinds stolen here and there can make a difference, after all. I am attempting to steal fewer blinds than my successful rival so maybe I need to try it a little more often. I try it 28.1% of the time with the winners up over 30%. I am folding my blinds to too many steals too it seems as my 'fold to steal' percentages are the greatest of the lot. In fact I fold my SB to a steal around 20% more often than Zacharyas and Entarion. I fold my BB to a steal around 5% more often than Zacharyas and again around 20% more often than Entarion. The losing players are folding to steals less often than me too so do these stats actually mean anything? The samples aren't that big as what Poker Office classes as a steal doesn't happen that often (around 2% of hands). I could try fighting back a little more though, especially with hands I expect to be live against a blind thief.

When I do try to steal how does it go? My stats here are actually pretty much in line with the winning players so this is one area of my game that doesn't seem to need much attention. I don't try it with rags so I should just carry on as I am it seems. That's nice to know.

Blind Defense
Holding on to your blinds can be as important as picking up a few steals along the way so what's this aspect of my game like? We saw earlier than I often fold to a steal attempt but what about general blind defense? I honestly don't think there is enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions but I seem to end up at a showdown when defending my SB and winning money 50% of the time. I can't find anything that easily shows how many hands we're talking about here and I can't find a definition of blind defense in the Poker Office manual so I am not going to worry about this. I can only assume it's a small sample that these figures are based on as I don't do anything 100% of the time. I am guessing it's the number of hands I didn't fold my SB/BB to a steal, in which case we're talking about two hands for the SB and 10 for the BB. These figures aren't worth analysing for any of the players so let's just move swiftly on.

Betting Actions
If I have made one of my rare pre-flop raises when do I do next? I lead out often enough, based on the figures for all players, but according to the stats for the winners I don't raise or check-raise enough. And I call way too often (14.4% for me compared to 8.8% and 5.7% for Zacharyas and Entarion respectively). More aggression is called for. I have check-raised once out of 135 opportunities to do so. I've only raised 9 times. It's too passive and I need to start raising more and calling less. If I think I am ahead and someone has bet into me then raise them.

My general pre-flop play is too passive, as we saw earlier. I am folding around the right number of times but not raising enough and calling too often. We looked at pre-flop raising ranges earlier so I won't spend any more time on it here. I'll just remind myself of the need to aggress more pre-flop.

Once the flop has been dealt do I get any more aggressive? My poor aggression factors would suggest I don't but let's look at the cold, hard facts. I raise approximately half as often as my winning rivals. Am I giving too many players the chance to draw out on me by not being aggressive enough? I should be betting and raising more often and calling less often based on these figures. I fold about the right amount though.

The same goes for the turn really - more betting and raising is called for as the winning players are much more aggressive than me. They bet out around 8% more than me and raise around twice as often, around 8% compared to my 4.2% of the time. I ought to be checking and calling less, which will happen naturally if I bet/raise more often. I should perhaps fold fewer hands too, and the best way to accomplish that is to play better hands to start with rather than get to this stage with trash.

I am fairly aggressive on the river in terms of raising but I need to bet more and call less. I should be forcing my opponents into a tricky decision rather than check-calling for pot control as I think I am beaten. Pound them with repeated betting throughout the hand.

Sandbagging
Or check-raising as it is more generally known. Am I doing it often enough? Hell no! On both the flop and turn I ought to be doing it around 5-6 times as often as I do at present. That's a big difference. When I have a good hand and don't fear draws I could (should) try a check-raise and demonstrate greater strength and more tricky play that way. A lot of players, myself included, seem to check-call. I often lead out but I reckon I should be throwing in the occasional check-raise to mix things up a little and hopefully boost my bottom line.

Conclusions
More aggression! Rrraaarrrrrrr! I ought to perhaps tighten up a little but at the end of the day the biggest problem seems to be passivity. More raising on every street. I don't need to go mental and raise everything and anything but widen mt pre-flop raising range and then when I play a hand, commit to it and put my opponent to the test with bets and raises. I need to give myself both ways to win rather than having to rely on having the best hand. Yes, I will lose big pots this way but I will win big pots too, and steal a few I shouldn't have won. It's going to lead to greater variance in my results but it's what is required.

I have attached the spreadsheet in case anyone wants to look at it (and so I have a copy available too if I need it in the future).

[mathare]

8th February 2009 (part 5)
A very quick update as I am going to bed now. I played enough hands to clear the rest of the points I needed to maintain my VIP level and then gave up. I made a slight profit, which in itself is surprising as I was very distracted and hardly concentrating on the game as my mobile phone died a few hands in and now won't turn on again Because of that, and the fact that I am trying to resurrect old handsets as I type I won't be analysing this session too much, you're just going to get the updated stats really.

Stats
Hands: 2576
Won Hands: 9.98%
Saw Flop: 16.58%
Won Saw Flop: 42.86%
Showdowns: 7.03%
Showdowns Won: 55.80%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.35%
Won: $145.99
BB/100 hands: 2.83

[mathare]

3rd March 2009
I'm afraid until I get things back up and running properly these diary entries may be rather sporadic and less detailed than you have come to expect. Let me explain...

I have been away for a couple of weeks in Brazil and when I got back I was itching to get back on the poker tables again and continue to both improve my fixed limit game and make a bit of cash along the way. So last night I fired up Bet365's tables and Poker Office and started playing. But the live tracker didn't kick in. Hmmm. I restarted PO but no joy still. I carried on playing but also logged on to the PO forum to see if this was a known issue. It certainly seemed as though some were having issues with iPoker skins after a recent software update. I hadn't noticed Bet365 software update but that's not to say it didn't. I looked for a new PO patch but couldn't see one - annoying but never mind. I then downloaded PO v5 (which I had been ignoring for a while until it stabilises but it seems they have now end-of-lifed v2.x). I tried my registration keys but they didn't work so fored off an e-mail to their support guys. I was still playing at this point and after some real donk hands I got myself back within 70c of level for the session and gave up. No idea how many hands I played or how my stats have changed from that session though, unfortunately.

This evening I had got a reply from the PO guys so got POv5 up and running but it wouldn't import my POv2 database properly and I can't get the live tracker working properly so I played without it for another evening. The first table was going well after 45 minutes or so and with that in mind I started a second table. And yes, I know I said a while back I was going to stick to one table but I obviously lied! And for a change I had a great session on both tables, up $32.10 on one table and $29.82 on the other so not a bad night at all! :)

I'll try to bring you updated stats again when I get PO up and running properly and bring my database up to date

[mathare]

3rd March 2009
I have just had a brainwave! I have imported my Bet365 hand histories into POv2 so I can now bring you (and me) up to date stats...

Stats
Hands: 2821
Won Hands: 10.28%
Saw Flop: 16.48%
Won Saw Flop: 43.87%
Showdowns: 7.02%
Showdowns Won: 56.57%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.61%
Won: $207.21
BB/100 hands: 3.67

Everything is moving very much in the right direction. Tighter, more aggressive and more profitable. Yay!

[mathare]

8th March 2009
I just wrote a decent length post about an awful afternoon session that I played across two tables, losing over $50 on one and over $35 on the other but I have lost that now and don't plan to type it all out again. It wasn't tilt - just really, really poor play. I didn't have Poker Office to rely on as it's still not working for me but that's no excuse for how badly I played. I chased hands long enough to cost me money but no long enough to fluke a few wins and claw back some of the cash I lost on previous chases. I basically played without my poker brain switched on. I don't know why I played so badly but the fact of the matter is I did. I need to take a bit of time out to reflect on this session and learn from it.

Stats
Hands: 3176
Won Hands: 10.01%
Saw Flop: 16.81%
Won Saw Flop: 41.57%
Showdowns: 7.02%
Showdowns Won: 54.71%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.85%
Won: $120.96
BB/100 hands: 1.90

See - not a good day at all. I got some big hands beaten by bigger hands but also by lucky fish playing dross. I still shouldn't have lost as much as I did though and I am now rather angry with myself. I need to calm down and analyse what went wrong this afternoon before I allow myself to play again, so I won't be playing poker this evening as was my original plan.

[mathare]

15th March 2009 (part 1)
My first session for a week as I definitely needed time out after last Sunday's disaster. That said I haven't used the week off in a very creative way, at least not from a poker point of view. Where I should have been reflecting on the way I played last weekend, analysing hands and generally look at holes in my game I actually gave poker the complete swerve and worked on other things instead to clear my head.

One thing I was actively working on this past week was trying to get Poker Office v5 up and running properly. I have traded a few e-mails with their support guys but we're still not getting anywhere. I can't import my old POv2 data fully and POv5 still isn't tracking my play on Bet365. They came back to me the other day with a few suggestions that I tried out today, the main reason I played this morning, but it's still no good. But having logged on to the tables I figured I stay a while and at least knock off some of the merit points I need to accrue each month to maintain my current VIP status (silver). A mixed session across two tables netted me around $5 profit and it still doesn't feel right playing without Poker Office. I am sure that is affecting my game. I know I should be able to play without it - I can't use it in live play, obviously - but it's a good comfort blanket. And if others at the table have some tracking software then I am losing out by not having mine available to me.

This week I also read a brief article (part 1 of a series) about poker tracking software and what stats to use and what to look for. When I get POv5 up and running fully I will be modifying my HUD stats to better reflect what the key stats are. I will also be using some of the insight gained from this article to review my play a bit better, maybe this afternoon.

Stats
Hands: 3311
Won Hands: 9.94%
Saw Flop: 16.76%
Won Saw Flop: 41.26%
Showdowns: 6.95%
Showdowns Won: 54.78%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.67%
Won: $128.66
BB/100 hands: 1.94

[mathare]

15th March 2009 (part 2)
Oh dear! This was not pretty for anyone who happened to be watching me play cards, which hopefully was no-one but me. Some of the plays I made were scary viewing even for me though.

The idea was very simple - fire up two $1/$2 limit tables, plug away for a couple of hours playing tight, aggressive poker. Nothing really new there I guess but when was the last time I was actually able to fill this brief? I am struggling to recall the last time I played poker I would be proud of; it certainly wasn't tonight. My post-flop play was truly appalling at times. I am still calling single flop bets with nothing but overcards or a weak pair (at best) and then folding to any turn bet unless I really connect. Why do I get myself in these situations? How? Poor pre-flop play is probably the answer. The hand starts with the deal and what I do pre-flop sets me up for the rest of the hand. I know that, so why can't I play like I know that? I am sorry to say that at some points of tonight's play I was playing blackjack hands - any two face cards or ace and face - as though they were much stronger than they really were, especially given the action before me. True, I wasn't calling raises with them or re-raising so I wasn't going to war with them. But I shouldn't have been playing them as often, or as passively, as I was at times. Once I had decided I was going to play the hand I should have at least followed through with my actions and tried to make my opponents see it was the bullets or cowboys I obviously seemed to think I had.

Passive play was kinda the order of the day though, despite the plan I sat down with. I just seemed unable to click the raise button unless I had a good hand (AQs, JJ+ etc). I was letting players bet the flop, calling and then letting them take it on the turn. No fight in me at all, and I had no idea what my opponents had as at no stage had I tried to define my opponents hand. I was way too cally and that is something I really need to get away from as soon as possible.

I need to start reading up again on post-flop play and re-learn how to play tight, aggressive limit hold'em. I have played that style in the past and if I can find it in me again I can destroy these games and start to move up the levels. Sure, the games are tighter and more aggressive than the books reckon the low stakes games are but that's the nature of internet poker these days. That said, there are still plenty of loons playing really badly at these stakes - I see them every session - but they are often aggressive with it. And that's why I need to re-learn proper tight play so I can take these looser aggressive players down with solid hands and win big pots off them. I have moved Super System 2, Small Stake Hold'em (Sklansky, Malmuth & Miller) and Gary Carson's Hold'em Poker to the top of my 'books to read/re-read' pile so in the next couple of days I will start on one of those and have a limit hold'em refresher course. With games as they are today I need to think about how tight I need to play in each position and how much aggression to show and when. All I know at the minute is I need to show more bite in my game as I am trying to be a shark but am rather toothless at present.

I looked at my detailed PO stats during my play this evening. It's not something I would normally do as I am trying to get better at focusing on the game but I think in this case it helped as it made me realise how passively I had been playing. I will analyse those stats in more detail another day (I'm too tired at the mo) but for now let's just say my aggression factor is under 1, and anyone who knows anything about these tracker stats will know that's bad! I'm also not sure I am using my position well enough. Any idiot can try to steal the blinds if it is folded round to them and play tighter under the gun but how tight should I be playing in each position? Or rather how much can I loosen up as I get towards the button? In tight aggressive games such as I am encountering is it ever profitable to play suited connectors from middle position? I need to re-read the aforementioned books and get the game back in my head as well as my head back in the game, if that makes any sense.

Tonight I was getting my share of decent hands beaten early in the sessions. I'd be ahead until the river and lose to two- and three-outers, that sort of thing. But luck evened out enough for me to have some hands hold up later on and to get lucky with a few draws. I have to say that given some of my play it can only have been luck that saw mew win some hands tonight. But I managed a profit and that's the main thing. In fact I managed a profit on both tables, which is somewhat unusual for me. A profit of around $14 on one table and over $25 on the other so today I have undone quite a lot of the damage of last Sunday and put me back on the road I should be on.

Before I finish with the updated stats (having manually loaded the hands into PO, of course, as the trackers aren't working) I feel I ought to just clarify why I was playing 2 tables when earlier in this diary I worked out it was more profitable for me to play one table at a time. The reasons are many and include a desire to practice multitable play - I need to get good at it as I feel I need to be able to play several tables at once if I am ever to make a decent profit from my poker. And if I am going to learn from mistakes I make then I want to make the mistakes cheaply which means getting used to playing several tables at the low levels so I have all the mechanics of the play as second nature. It also builds up my merit points and increases the number of hands I have logged in Poker Office, which all equates to experience and that's something else I need to build up as fast as I can. With experience comes a more finely-tuned instinct as to where I stand in a hand and knowledge of how my opponent plays in certain situations. I need to learn to read opponents while playing several tables, looking for timing tells, how they have played from certain positions before and what hands they are showing down and that comes with practice too so I am making a concerted effort to improve my play at two tables at once. Time will tell if it works.

Stats
Hands: 3485
Won Hands: 9.96%
Saw Flop: 16.99%
Won Saw Flop: 41.22%
Showdowns: 7.03%
Showdowns Won: 54.69%
Pre Flop Raise: 8.67%
Won: $168.81
BB/100 hands: 2.42

[mathare]

16th March 2009
Not a playing update this one but a review/analysis session. I said yesterday that I should be looking at my detailed Poker Office stats in more depth to try and spot where I am going wrong (or not making the most of the game at least) so that's the plan for this evening.

First let's define the game we're looking at. It's 10-seater $1/$2 fixed limit Texas hold'em on Bet365. The game is usually tight with I'd say an average of 3 players on the flop, and the pot is usually raised pre-flop. That raise can come from any position and while I'd like to read more strength into early position raises I don't feel that a raise UTG is particularly indicative of a very strong hand in general; I have seen a lot of players overvalue pocket pairs below TT and also two face cards, Ace suited etc. A raise UTG doesn't automatically mean JJ+, AQs+, AK as one may expect. That's far more like my raising range UTG though. The game has a good amount of stealing and attempted steals from late postion, with varying success rates.

That's how I see the game but do the stats I have recorded in Poker Office match my perception of the game I am playing? PO reckons 19.7% of players see the flop, which when you consider that there is blind stealing that will sometimes result in no-one seeing the flop it means 2-3 players (on average) are seeing each flop dealt so I am pretty much on the money there. What about pre-flop raising? I have players in my datebase (with at least 500 hands played) whose PFR is just under 6% and plenty who are up in double figures, but the average seems to be around 10.3% or so. That seems to stack up pretty well with what I am seeing - basically it means the average hand is raised once pre-flop.

Now let's look at my figures in the context of that game. The number of players per flop is around 20% of the table. I am seeing only 16.99% of flops so I am tighter than the average player. However, my PFR% is a poor 8.67% so I am playing too passively. Interestingly, based on the default settings, Poker Office has be down as tight-aggressive pre-flop and passive post-flop. I can certainly agree with the latter part of that. So overall I am probably tight enough but nowhere near aggressive enough. But how does that breakdown by position?

UTG I am a slight loser in dollar terms (-$10.90). I am seeing 9.50% of flops, which is the tightest I play in all positions. I am probably taking too many hands from this position to a showdown as I lose more than I win (win 47.06%). My PFR% is 6.86% which is too passive. That says to me I am calling too many hands UTG. In fact I call something like 1 in 3 hands I play UTG. That's interesting. Why would I limp UTG? In this sort of game there is little point limping AA, KK etc as I am likely to get a caller and if not then I win the blinds and move on. So that suggests I am limping marginal hands under the gun, and too many of them at that.

UTG+1 I loosen up a tiny little bit, seeing 9.52% of flops, but I am a winner to the tune of $73.25. I am taking the same percentage of hands to a showdown as I did UTG (4.5%) only now I am winning 58.82% of them. I am raising less though, only 6.61% of hands, which again suggests I am calling with roughly 1 in 3 hands I play from this position. I need to work on that, for sure.

In seat 5 (0 is the button so seat 5 is UTG+2), I open up more seeing 12.26% of flops and raising 9.47% of the time. This has seen me net a profit of $29.22. I take more hands to showdown (5.29%) which is fair enough if I am playing more hands, but again I lose more showdowns than I win (47.37%). Taking too many hands too far when it's obvious I am beaten? Not being aggressive enough post-flop perhaps?

Seat 5 is the anomaly in the figures for the percentage of times I saw the flop as that figure now drops to 10.8% for seat 6. My PFR% drop too, to 8.03%, but my profit increases to $55.15. I win the same percentage of showdowns from this position as I did for UTG+1, 58.82%. Still too passive but at least I am winning my showdowns.

Seat 7 continues the rise in percentage of flops seen, going up to 11.8%. I raise more here too, 9.27% of the time pre-flop. Tight, and for me that counts as aggressive too, so it's no wonder this is my most profitable seat with $130.82. I see quite a few showdowns in this position, 6.74%, and remarkably I win 75% of these. That's what should happen when you play tight-aggressive. I need to do more of this.

What happens when I move one seat on to seat 8? It all goes wrong! I see 12.01% of flops, which is in line with loosening up in position (except seat 5), but I can't win a hand. I'm raising less pre-flop (8.77%) than I was in the previous seat which suggests I am calling a raised pot with some (comparatively) trash hands and seeing them to a showdown 6.17% of the time. I only win 31.58% of showdowns, less than 1 in 3, so I must either be badly unlucky hear or pressing on with hands I should be able to spot are beaten. Either way I am a loser in this seat to the tune of -$21.40.

One off the button (seat 9) also seems me showing a small loss (-$6.45) but I have around half as many hands for this seat as the others as it only comes into play when the table is full and everyone is dealt in. I see 10.59% of flops, raising 9.41% of the time which is much more like the gap I want to see between those figures. It's natural to see a higher PFR in this seat though as it's a potential steal position, but even so the figures are better than for other seats. I'm only winning 40% of showdowns though so again I am playing too passively post-flop and calling too many bets for too many streets.

I loosen up to see 16.71% of flops on the button, which is still below my table average of 16.99% but seems reasonable enough to me, at this stage. I am raising 14.94% of the time too, some of which will be steal attempts (10.38% in fact as that's my first in raise figure) but they all count. Those figures are close enough to one another to keep me happy. I am going to a showdown 8.1% of the time and winning 59.38% of those so my play from the button seems pretty good. That probably explains the profit of $100.04, which sounds pretty good.

And now the blinds. Oh. The blinds aren't supposed to be profitable (apparently) but is losing $0.14 a hand from the small blind good or bad? That's 28% of the blind every time I am in the SB. I think I am too loose here as I see 27.13% of flops. That seems too many to me, especially when I scroll down and see I have lost decent money with some trash in the SB. I have lost with AA, AK etc too though. Roughly 1 in 11 hands goes to a showdown (9.3%) and I win more than my fair share of those at 55.56%. I am raising 11.11% of the time from the SB, why? I think I should be giving more up from the small blind as it seems like I am calling a lot if I see 27% of flops yet raise only 11% of the time.

The BB is my biggest cash loser around the table at -$127.67 which equates to a loss of $0.33 per hand. That's approximately in line with the small blind in terms of percentage of the blind I lose each hand from that position though. I see 43.11% of hands from here so I hope I am getting a lot of checks or at least priced in a lot. I go to a showdown 13.78% of the time and then win 55.56% of those, so I am winning hands from the blinds. My PFR$ is 2.55% - should that be higher?

One thing I should say about the above is that the samples I am working with are still quite small. I have under 400 hands per position at this level. I really want to get that up to over 1000 per position, which means I need over 10,000 hands in total. I have booked 3485 hands in 55h 45m so we're looking at over 150 hours of play before I can draw more meaningful conclusions. That's probably 3-4 months down the line, in all reality.

I said the game was tight and that ought to mean hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors aren't reallly profitable hands to play and that high card hands should go up in value pre-flop. What do my own results say about this?

Again, we're dealing with small samples here (I haven't had any pair more than 20 times) but let's see what we find anyway. KK is my most profitable pair ($5.98/hand), then QQ, AA, TT, 88, JJ, 22, 77, 99, 66, 55, 33 and finally 44. I am winning with each of those up to 66, at which point I start to make a small loss. By the time we get to 44 I am losing $1.0/hand on average. In fact I have yet to win a showdown with 33, 44, and 55. I haven't even won a hand with 44! This says I need to stop playing these hands as they're not profitable. Pocket pairs from 66 downwards should probably just be folded unless by some fluke I do have a few limpers and don't think the pot will be raised, or I am in the BB. I need to give up the Pre-flop raising with 77 downwards too it seems. I haven't been doing it a lot but I shouldn't be doing it at all I don't think.

Suited connectors now, and my suspicions seem to be correct. I have played AKs, KQs, JTs, 98s and 65s profitably but QJs is my biggest loser. Sure, one bad hand here and there can skew the stats massively at this level but it seems like I need to only be playing the biggest suited connectors. JTs+ seems to be the order of the day. I need to sort out my pre-flop raises too as I haven't been raising JTs or QJs and these could be good package raising hands in position if I need to up my pre-flop aggression (which I do).

I said earlier that big card hands should play better in a tight game so let's have a quick look at that. I'll look at all hands that include two cards T or bigger. Actually these don't seem to play as profitably as I thought, especially the big Aces with the exception of AK. I am raising heavily with AQo pre-flop, seeing a lot of flops but losing 2 in 3 showdowns. In fact I lose more than 50% of showdowns with KQ, AT-AQ, QJs, KTs, JT and QT. Am I overvaluing tens with face cards? I also need to think about the hands I am raising with pre-flop. I haven't been raising with the weaker suited Kings and Queens and have been raising quite consistently with the big Aces and Kings. Should I using hands like KTs as a package raising hand? This is something to bear in mind when I read the books I put aside the other day.

Using Poker Office I have graphed my aggression factors and they don't make pretty viewing. They are basically static (and way too low) but they are slowly decreasing, which means I am getting slowly more passive not more aggressive. You can't win much playing passive poker so I really need to learn how to make more aggressive plays. Yes, I could go about raising every hand at every opportunity to get my aggression up but that's not poker is it? I need to take onboard advice from Sklanksy, Malmuth, Jennifer Harman etc and read more about how to play aggressively in the right manner. My total aggression factor is currently 1.0; pre-flop it's 0.8. I need to be raising more pre-flop and post-flop I need to consider check-raising more, and re-raising when I have a good hand or a strong draw rather than just calling raises. I guess I just bottle it, perhaps subconciously trying to limit my variance rather than getting my money in good. It could also be that I don't know what range to put my opponents on as I haven't taken the opportunities presented to me to buy information and define their hand with judicial raises.

That's enough for tonight I think. I have given myself a few things to think about. More pre-flop raising, and I can use face card hands and bigger suited connectors for that. I should stop playing pocket pairs 66 or less unless I really have the pot odds to justify the play. And I should generally stop calling and think first about raising/folding before calling. At least that ought to put me in the right frame of mind for trying to pick out the TAG gems in the books when I start re-reading them.