Almost a month in
by risk2Dupside on 01/25/09
Hi all..
I've been chipping away for almost a month now so figured I'd update. I work at least 50 hours a week so my volume is probably not as much as some people, but I've managed to log about 165 4.40/180-max games on Stars in the last three weeks or so for a 30% ROI, which I'm not super happy with yet. I've started to realise how much variance there is to your profitability once you go deep...I've FT'ed about 15 times in that sample and haven't managed better than a second, with four thirds..mostly thanks to some unfortunate suckouts or coinflips that didn't go my way. Always disappointing when you feel like you have a handle on the players and managed to get it in good/even and not convert. The sample size is still small though, so we'll see how the next month pans out.
I thought I'd chip in some initial thoughts on the game...some things I'm learning, others that just really piss me off, etc. As follows...
1. The majority of 4.40/180 players OPEN LIMP. This really annoys me and I try hard to exploit this. I either use it as a way to get a cheap look in position with speculative hands, or if I have a premium hand I will make sure I get as much value out of it as I can pre-flop. Sometimes this means you end up holding something like AKs or KK and getting five callers of your PFR, but the key to making this work for me is being a little tighter post-flop. This leads into my next thought...
2. Pot control is crucial. Controlling the size of the pot is really important, especially early in the tournament and if you have no read on your opponent's holding. This often means doing things like checking behind on the turn when holding things like TPTK. Occasionally this will allow your opponent to suckout on the river by hitting his weaker kicker, but it will also prevent you from getting pwned if he has a set. The other really cool bit about checking the turn is players will automatically assume that you don't have TP and will either attempt a bluff on the river or call you down with TPWK. The only exception to this is if you think your opponent is flushing/drawing (almost always obvious because they nearly always check/call rather than bet out), and I go right out and make them pay. They will never get another chip out of me if they do hit, and ironically you see a lot of times people will hit their draw and check to you anyway assuming you will bet.
The other thing I don't do is re-raise pre-flop early in a tournament unless I have QQ+ (late in the tourney is another matter). I am happy to flat call a raise with something like AK since the strength of your hand is disguised and I find I can get paid off from weaker aces (as above), and because 30% of the time I'm going to brick and with a starting stack of 1500 you don't have a lot of times you can brick before you get stuck. With things like QQ+ I am almost hoping to get all the chips in the middle on the flop, which leads into my next thought..
3. Appropriate bet-sizing is where you get most of your chips from. If I have something like QQ+ and I'm facing a raise, I am usually re-raising to a size where I can either commit my opponent to the pot on the flop (early in a tournament) or on the turn. For example, if we are still at 15/30 and I'm sitting with KK looking at a three-bet to 90 and a caller, I will re-raise to 300. Assuming I get both of them to the flop, I am looking at a pot of about 945 when we probably have 1200 behind. On any non-ace board I am either betting 600-800 on the flop so that we are virtually committed on the turn, or shoving if anyone bets out. I don't know if I've explained this perfectly, but what I'm trying to emphasise is having a plan of action pre-flop that includes thoughts about how to size your bets such that you can maximise the amount of chips that get into the middle.
4. Fold equity is almost non-existent in some games. Unless you have a particularly good read that your opponent is weak/tight, there is almost no point bluffing at pots as many players will call you down with second pair or worse. The way you exploit this is maximising value from your good hands by not being afraid to bet them hard. Don't think, "omg how can you call me in that situation?!?!" - just expect that they will, and bet/check/fold accordingly.
5. Note taking is really useful. Even just in my limited sample size, you see the same people reloading in game after game. I make sure I take notes on players and always go through the instant hand replayer to check what hands they have mucked. The things I am keeping a look out for are:
- whether they open limp
- whether they will call speculative hands out of position
- standard betting size and whether it changes with premium hands or non-premium hands
- propensity to bluff
- propensity to three-bet reraise preflop (rare)
- whether they are board/position/stacksize aware
- what hands they are shoving/raising with
Obviously I don't get that down for every player, but I definitely get a lot of it down in shorthand. And I am usually checking OPR once we're ITM or if I identify what looks like a 'thinking' player.
6. Never give up. If you've got less than 10BBs for some reason you are far from out of the tournament. So many of these players will look you up really light if you shove, or will be completely unaware that you have sized your bet such that you will be committed to virtually ANY flop (and therefore probably have a premium holding) and unwittingly commit themselves to a non-premium/speculative hand when they don't have implied odds to call you.
The other thing is that player personalities become a lot more obvious in small stakes. You can usually tell who is there for fun, who gets their pleasure from shoving/bluffing, who thinks they're Gus Hansen, and who plays tight and complains about everybody else. All useful things are you are (hopefully) scooping up pots and making your way towards the money.
Anyway there are probably some great players on these blogs that can correct, extend upon or add to these comments, but this is what seems most apparent to me thus far.
Cheers
r2du
I've been chipping away for almost a month now so figured I'd update. I work at least 50 hours a week so my volume is probably not as much as some people, but I've managed to log about 165 4.40/180-max games on Stars in the last three weeks or so for a 30% ROI, which I'm not super happy with yet. I've started to realise how much variance there is to your profitability once you go deep...I've FT'ed about 15 times in that sample and haven't managed better than a second, with four thirds..mostly thanks to some unfortunate suckouts or coinflips that didn't go my way. Always disappointing when you feel like you have a handle on the players and managed to get it in good/even and not convert. The sample size is still small though, so we'll see how the next month pans out.
I thought I'd chip in some initial thoughts on the game...some things I'm learning, others that just really piss me off, etc. As follows...
1. The majority of 4.40/180 players OPEN LIMP. This really annoys me and I try hard to exploit this. I either use it as a way to get a cheap look in position with speculative hands, or if I have a premium hand I will make sure I get as much value out of it as I can pre-flop. Sometimes this means you end up holding something like AKs or KK and getting five callers of your PFR, but the key to making this work for me is being a little tighter post-flop. This leads into my next thought...
2. Pot control is crucial. Controlling the size of the pot is really important, especially early in the tournament and if you have no read on your opponent's holding. This often means doing things like checking behind on the turn when holding things like TPTK. Occasionally this will allow your opponent to suckout on the river by hitting his weaker kicker, but it will also prevent you from getting pwned if he has a set. The other really cool bit about checking the turn is players will automatically assume that you don't have TP and will either attempt a bluff on the river or call you down with TPWK. The only exception to this is if you think your opponent is flushing/drawing (almost always obvious because they nearly always check/call rather than bet out), and I go right out and make them pay. They will never get another chip out of me if they do hit, and ironically you see a lot of times people will hit their draw and check to you anyway assuming you will bet.
The other thing I don't do is re-raise pre-flop early in a tournament unless I have QQ+ (late in the tourney is another matter). I am happy to flat call a raise with something like AK since the strength of your hand is disguised and I find I can get paid off from weaker aces (as above), and because 30% of the time I'm going to brick and with a starting stack of 1500 you don't have a lot of times you can brick before you get stuck. With things like QQ+ I am almost hoping to get all the chips in the middle on the flop, which leads into my next thought..
3. Appropriate bet-sizing is where you get most of your chips from. If I have something like QQ+ and I'm facing a raise, I am usually re-raising to a size where I can either commit my opponent to the pot on the flop (early in a tournament) or on the turn. For example, if we are still at 15/30 and I'm sitting with KK looking at a three-bet to 90 and a caller, I will re-raise to 300. Assuming I get both of them to the flop, I am looking at a pot of about 945 when we probably have 1200 behind. On any non-ace board I am either betting 600-800 on the flop so that we are virtually committed on the turn, or shoving if anyone bets out. I don't know if I've explained this perfectly, but what I'm trying to emphasise is having a plan of action pre-flop that includes thoughts about how to size your bets such that you can maximise the amount of chips that get into the middle.
4. Fold equity is almost non-existent in some games. Unless you have a particularly good read that your opponent is weak/tight, there is almost no point bluffing at pots as many players will call you down with second pair or worse. The way you exploit this is maximising value from your good hands by not being afraid to bet them hard. Don't think, "omg how can you call me in that situation?!?!" - just expect that they will, and bet/check/fold accordingly.
5. Note taking is really useful. Even just in my limited sample size, you see the same people reloading in game after game. I make sure I take notes on players and always go through the instant hand replayer to check what hands they have mucked. The things I am keeping a look out for are:
- whether they open limp
- whether they will call speculative hands out of position
- standard betting size and whether it changes with premium hands or non-premium hands
- propensity to bluff
- propensity to three-bet reraise preflop (rare)
- whether they are board/position/stacksize aware
- what hands they are shoving/raising with
Obviously I don't get that down for every player, but I definitely get a lot of it down in shorthand. And I am usually checking OPR once we're ITM or if I identify what looks like a 'thinking' player.
6. Never give up. If you've got less than 10BBs for some reason you are far from out of the tournament. So many of these players will look you up really light if you shove, or will be completely unaware that you have sized your bet such that you will be committed to virtually ANY flop (and therefore probably have a premium holding) and unwittingly commit themselves to a non-premium/speculative hand when they don't have implied odds to call you.
The other thing is that player personalities become a lot more obvious in small stakes. You can usually tell who is there for fun, who gets their pleasure from shoving/bluffing, who thinks they're Gus Hansen, and who plays tight and complains about everybody else. All useful things are you are (hopefully) scooping up pots and making your way towards the money.
Anyway there are probably some great players on these blogs that can correct, extend upon or add to these comments, but this is what seems most apparent to me thus far.
Cheers
r2du
Comments
Post your comment below