The Weekly Journals of DavidRoss

Week 28

Well it was a very interesting week around here, both poker and non-poker related. Even semi-poker related. I received a call from a guy I contracted for before. He has a client looking for someone with my skill set for a contract of indeterminate length. It would be contract dollars and American dollars because the contract is in Seattle. It’s the Sound Transit authority who need help and they have the software I specialize in. I have a telephone interview with them for next week. With my wife now working out of the home though, traveling will be a big issue for us. I’ll have to hear how good the offer is and see fi it’s worth the disruption. When I traveled before I had a stay at home wife and I never had to worry about these things. I guess I’ll know more next week.

The semi-poker related happening was a request for an interview I received from a free-lance journalist doing a piece on the popularity of on-line poker and asked if he could talk to me. He’s read the postings I’ve made here. I figure anything that might make the games more popular has to help all of us so why not. Just wondering if I should allow my real name to be used or not.

The poker this week was very good. Wild, but good. I decided to give the shorthanded games one more week and I’m glad I did. I ended the week up $1,913 playing 4 5/10 6-max tables each day. I also got my affiliate payment for October and it was almost the same amount. That’s a nice monthly bonus. I think it’s ear-marked for Christmas presents.

I started with a wild night on Sunday where I was up $600 in the first hour, down as much as $700 after midnight, and up $211 again when I quit at 4:00 AM. I was running so well at quitting time that I stayed up another hour. Monday was a huge day, where I won $830 for my 5th straight winning day shorthanded after I lost the first 4 days I tried it. Tuesday, my bubble burst and I lost $974, in very little playing time. I think I only played 5 hours, and I got crushed every time I made a hand. Wednesday was easily the wildest day I’ve ever had. On my single Party table I lost $974. It was rebuy after rebuy. But on the 3 Empire tales I won $1,940 giving me my first 1K day since early July. The Party losses caused a potential problem. Because I’ve been withdrawing from my Party account in order to build up the Empire account, I almost tapped out on Party. I guess It wouldn’t be a disaster, but the thought of buying chips on my credit card is awful. It seems to take 2 or 3 days to get from Empire to Neteller so I would have to use the card or only play 3 tables if I tapped out. I was down to under $400 at Party. Fortunately it didn’t come to that as I won steadily at Party for the rest of the week. Thursday was amazingly quiet compared to the early part of the week. I was never up more than $300, and never down at all. I won $247. Friday was another losing day, getting down a lot early, and finishing well to only lose $357. That left me $950 ahead for the week, hardly amazing, and very similar to my 3/6 results of late. It had me wondering a lot whether or not to stick with the shorthanded play or not. Then Saturday I had a rush. I won $948, winning on every table I played. It feels very nice to have a big week again. I will give it another try this week.

I would still hesitate to recommend the short handed game to everyone. Same reasons as last week. While I always suggested the 3/6 full games were beatable by any 2+2 reader, I don’t think that’s true about the 5/10 games. The concentration required for multiple games is intense. Even playing 4 full ring games, I could keep track of what was on TV. The baseball playoffs, or Monday night football for example. With the shorthanded games I just don’t notice anything. I have to take frequent breaks too. Every hour at least I get up and sit out an orbit or two and just walk around. The swings in fortune can be very tilt-inducing, and although I have seen more horrible players than normal, heads up it can be terrifying to play someone who plays anything and raises with it. I also find myself playing 2 hands at once more often then I did before, and it means I’m slow on one of the tables. That usually annoys the other players, which is never good. But, if I disregard the first 4 days I played, when I was still trying to figure out how to play, I’ve won $3,500 in 10 days.

How great is this? I’m in the SB with 77 and there are 2 limpers to me. I limp and the BB plays. Flop is Kd 7d 7h. Wow! Now what. I check and cross my fingers. The button bets and I just call. BB folds, but utg plays too. Turn is 9d. Flush is there. I check again and again the button bets. I decide to try and keep the utg in and just call. Utg calls too. River is the 8d. I hope the A is out there and I finally bet my quads. UTG raises me. Yes! Button 3 bets. Woo Hoo!! I cap and they both call. Utg had Ad Jx and my just calling kept him in. Button had 88 and rivered the full house. Again an early raise probably knocks him out too. Nice $183 pot.

When do you believe your KK is beat? I have red Kings in the BB and there is an EP raise. I 3 bet and he caps. Flop is Qh 6h 2c. I check, he bets and I raise. He 3 bets and I just call. Turn is 8h and I fire out again. I get raised again. I just call. River is 4h, I bet again and now he just calls. He did have AA, no heart and I stole one. I guess I just check/call the river if the heart doesn’t come, I’m just wondering how many times I have to be told I’m beat before I believe it. I was never folding though.

Same situation. I limp with Kh Jd after 1 limper, and the button raises. Both blinds call and 5 of us see the flop. Flop is Ks 8s 4d. Checked to me and I bet. Button raises. SB calls 2 and BB and EP fold. I was very tempted to fold here. I’m probably drawing to 3 J’s, maybe 2 if one of them is on spades. But these games are so aggressive it’s hard to fold top pair anytime. So I called. Turn is the 5c. Button bets and we both call. River is the 7c and again the button bets. SB raises making my decision easy for me. I fold and button calls. Button had AK, but SB had 64o hitting his straight. These are the situations I didn’t find myself in very often in full ring games, but I seem to find them a lot shorthanded. And I’m calling down too often I think for fear of being run over.

Using my table image. I am doing a lot more of this than ever before. I think you have to in these games. I have Tc Jc utg and I just limp. Only the 2 blinds call. Flop is 7c 4d 2s. BB bets out. He is red hot and has been running the table. He has also made comments on everyone else’s play, and I know he thinks I’m a rock. I call with my overcard-backdoor flush combo. He would play just about anything here and I think my call will ake him nervous. SB folds. Turn is another 7. He bets again and I raise. He bullet folds. Sweet. I think doing this occasionally is important to maximize my image.

I have decided that the turn check-raise may be the most powerful play in poker. Almost always, the player will call down afterwards. I don’t know if it’s anger at getting raised or what, but I do it too. Usually player 1 bets the flop and player 2 calls. Then player 1 checks the turn and player 2 bets. Player 1 now raises and you know he’’s got a big hand. But player 2 will call the turn bet and also the river bet. I’ve rarely seen this as a bluff, but it works almost every time. I’ve used it several times this week when flopping monsters. Raising with position never seems to work as well, quite often there is a fold, but I’ve seen some horribly week hands call down the check-raise.

This phenomenon killed me in this hand. I have 5c 4c in the SB and the button limps. I call and the BB checks. Flop is 7 6 3 rainbow, giving me the nuts. I bet out, BB folds, and the button calls with Td 8d. Turn is an Ace and I check. He bluff bets and I check-raise him. If you’re in you’re right mind you fold here, and he’s a good player. But he called. River is a 9. I bet and he raises me. I figure he’s made 2 pair and 3-bet and he caps. It worked out almost exactly as I wanted it to. He stayed for no logical reason other than we hate folding to check-raises. Sigh.

Another example of the odd play (to me anyway, I never played like this full table) in shorthanded games. I open raise with Ks Js. BB calls. Flop is As 8d 3h. BB bets out. Some of these guys will bet any flop, especially if it has an A or a pair. Normally this is an easy fold but I called. Turn is 7s giving me the flush draw and he bet again. I raised and he folded. Wow.

Have a good week.

Week 29

Another week spent playing 4 5/10 shorthanded games with pretty good results. I still haven’t decided if the results are good because of the higher stakes or the fewer players. I spent fewer hours playing this week than any other week except my vacation for various reasons. The week started extremely well. I won $475 on Sunday night, and had a so-so day on Monday when I won another $267. Then on Tuesday night I had the most amazing session. I curled late, and only got home after midnight with a couple of beers in me. I was feeling quite tired but decided to play a short while anyway. By 1:00 AM I was up $1,170, and I went to bed. It was just incredible. I got big pairs and they held up, I flopped draw after draw and they all came in. My AK hands all hit on the river making the pots bigger and just like that I was up over $1,900 for the week. Wednesday was yet another winning day, 5 in a row now and a soled $552 went into the bank. It had me dreaming of a $3,000 week, and of course that was the kiss of death. Thursday was my first loss in a while, $212 in another short seeion. I took the afternoon off to take my daughter to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, an annual event for the 2 of us. The big highlight is the horse show in the evening, but we saw a 1,200 lb pumpkin and a 12 foot long zucchini too. On Friday the bottom fell out. After a slight win in the afternoon, I got a late start to my evening session because my daughter needed to work on the computer. In just 4 hours I lost $931. The exact opposite of the great session on Tuesday. Big pairs cracked on the river, draws missing, and my opponents getting their cards on the river. A small win on Saturday of $263 put me up $1,583 for the week.

I played fewer hours for a number of reasons. My afternoon sessions are getting chopped up because of family commitments. My daughter needs a ride at 12:45 each day, and my son needs one at 3:00. So it seems I don’t start until after 1:00 most days and I lose a half hour driving, so instead of 3-4 hours I was playing before, I’m only playing 2-3. Then I lost some evening time to curling and late starts and I think I probably only played 30 hours this week.

I now have 3 weeks of shorthanded 5/10 in, with a total win of $4,100. The last 3 weeks I had playing full 3/6 tables I won $3,300. I can’t really make any conclusions yet. Would I get the same results out of 4 full 5/10 games just because of the increase in stakes? Or are the shorthanded games the reason I’m doing better? I’m tempted to play some full 5/10 games and see how that goes, but I think I’ll play at least one more week of shorthanded games.

Sleep is an elusive state lately. The usual day for me has me going to bed after 3:00 AM, and it has been more like 4:00 AM lately. I get up at 7:30 and make breakfast and lunch for the kids, then I drive them to school for 8:30. My oldest son broke his foot on the day of my wife’s birthday party. He was fooling around on a swing we have in our Maple tree with his cousins, and he jumped form a height, and landed on a rake. He rolled over on the ankle and came limping in. We had a house full of people and a party starting in a couple of hours, so we basically ignored him, told him to put some ice on it and be tough. When he still couldn’t put any weight on it 2 days later we finally went for an x-ray and of course it was broken. There goes our parent of the year award for this year. He’s on crutches for 8 weeks now and I have to drive him to and from school each day. I come home, check my e-mails and write for a little bit then try and sleep until noon. For some reason lately I’ve been having some trouble getting to sleep though. Early in the morning my head is still whirling from the games, and the shorthanded games seem to take me longer to come down from then the full table games did. The end result is I need another nap in the afternoon or early evening, and almost every night I fall asleep with my 8 year old, after we read a story and turn out the light. Saturday and Sunday I have to get up early to drive my daughter to her job and I think it’s been 2 months since I last slept for 7 straight hours. I’m not sure if that’s healthy.

I have a telephone interview set up for Monday night with the people in Seattle about the contract. I’m not sure what I’m hoping for there. IF the money is good I’ll take it, but if it’s just average it’ll be a tough decision. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

I was explaining something to my wife about poker the other day and I surprised myself. Playing 5/10 the number of hours I play, I was telling her how important it is to make one extra bet that your opponent wouldn’t make in the same position. That 1 extra bet, either made or saved works out to 1 extra bet per 300 hands (around 75 hands per hour on 4 tables), and makes a $20,000 difference per year. 20 GRAND!!! From 1 extra bet per hour. That’s huge. That’s worth grinding for and reminds me not to piss away bets on silly chases. Surely I can find 1 extra bet per 300 hands. Something to strive for.

I’m playing so many hands I guess the unusual is just a mathematical certainty at some point. I flopped a straight flush this week. I held Td 9d and the flop came Kd Qd Jd. I got 3 way action too since the Ad was out. When a diamond rivered I raised and amazingly the Ad didn’t cap it. No pair on the board, he actually thought I might have the straight flush. Oh well. I flopped a full house on two consecutive hands with 44 in the hole both times. Same guy paid me off both times too. Pretty rare.

Skip this paragraph if you’re looking for poker content. I just want to write something about my eldest daughter. We’re having a difficult time right now academically. She and I have always been very close. We are so alike, yet very different. She is extremely intelligent, yet struggles in school. I always found school easy, and was able to get by doing a minimum of work. My report cards were always good, but suffixed with the comments, “not working up to potential”. She is following in my footsteps, but her marks are far worse than mine. I’m very concerned that she won’t be able to get into University (She would start in the fall of 2005) if she doesn’t get her act together. Her latest report card came home this week and that’s what has raised the issue again. I’m not just being one of those parents who think their kid is better or smarter than they really are. We’ve had 4 of them and I can recognize the differences. She knew all her letters and numbers, and was speaking in sentences at 16 months. At 4, she could read and calculate that if we went 150 km on a quarter tank of gas, that we could go 600 on a full tank. When they did the testing in grade 4 she scored in the 99th percentile and was identified as gifted. That made certain programs available to her, but we opted to send our kids to a private school because of my older son, who struggles academically. He has ADD and we wanted to keep all the kids together. Interestingly enough the 2 younger kids are great students, getting almost all A’s, yet neither has the raw intelligence of my older daughter. Year after year we have had teachers tell us what a great kid she is, but her work is sloppy and she’s very lazy. She doesn’t turn in assignments, and loses up to 20% of her final mark because of indifference. She does very well on verbal tests and assignments, but struggles when having to put things on paper.

We have tried punishments, and rewards, and a lot of yelling on my part, but nothing seems to work. The only thing that will work is a change in attitude on her part, but I am powerless to make that happen. It’s very frustrating. Obviously we all want the best for our children. In my own case I fell I was a real later bloomer because of my indifferent academic performance. I graduated University doing the bare minimum required, and it came back to haunt me 10 years later when I applied to an MBA program. Despite a very good score on the GMAT exam, my university marks had me declined admittance. I worked at a number of low paying boring jobs after graduation, and again I had no motivation or drive. Finally I went back to school and took a computer course, and found my niche. After the kids were born I started my own business and worked quite hard, but I always had the university degree to open doors for me. I truly believe my daughter will also be a late bloomer, but I’m afraid that if she misses out on University, some doors will be permanently closed to her.

I saved this hand because I was curious to see what he had. I raised UTG with 88. Cold called to my immediate left, and everyone else folded. Flop was Ad 7h 5h. I bet hoping to represent the A, and he called. Turn was the 7c. I bet again and he called again. Yuck. I will usually fire again on the turn because a lot of guys will call the flop bet but fold. Now I’m in a tough spot. There aren’t too many hands except flush draws I can be ahead of here. River is the 4c. Usually I will check here and hope to induce a bluff from a busted draw. For some reason I decided to fire away here again, and he just called. I won when he had J5o. Wow.

A pretty bad river call. I have 55 in the BB. UTG limps, and the button raises. SB calls and I call too. 4 to the flop. Flop is Ks 5s 3h. Checked to the button who bets. SB calls and I raise. UTG 3-bets, button folds, SB calls and I cap it. Turn is Kd. This is gonna be good. I bet, UTG raises, and AB calls 2 cold. I 3 bet and they both call. Huge pot. River is the 3d. I feel like I got kicked in the nuts. SB checks, I check and UTG bets. SB calls and I make the crying call. I could have saved the $10. They both had K’s.

My favorite play, but what was he thinking? I have Ac 3d in the SB. 2 limpers in and I complete the blind. BB checks. Flop is 8c 3s 2s. Checked to the button who bets. I raise from the SB. I really like this play and I use it a lot with any piece of the flop or sometimes a draw. It makes the rest of the hand easy to play. Everyone folds to the button who calls. Turn is the 7h. I bet and he calls again. Hmm. A lot of the time you win with that turn bet. Probably a check – call on the river now. River is the wonderful 3h. I quickly switch from praying he has nothing, to praying he has top pair. I bet and he calls. Hand history shows he has K9o. Wow. I guess he thinks I bluff a lot.

Have a good week everyone.

Week 30

I think I could use a valium after this week. I’m sure I’ve said the same thing before but this was the wildest week I can remember. It began with a real good Sunday night where I won $611 in only 4 hours of play. It continued to go very well when I won another $400 Monday afternoon in less than 2 hours of play. Then the bottom fell out. Over the next 30 hours or so I lost over 200 BB’s for only the 2nd time. It started with a $300 loss in the hour between picking up my son from school and my daughter from her work. It continued Monday night when I lost another $1,300 in a long frustrating session. Actually frustrating doesn’t begin to describe it. I hit flop after flop only to run into bigger hands, or draws that got there on the river. It’s the most helpless felling and even after experiencing these runs every week I still can’t get used to it. Tuesday afternoon saw me lose another $500 and putting me in a big hole for the week. We curled Tuesday night and had our best game of the year, and my fortunes seemed to change. I came home and won $575 before quitting for the night giving me a small win for the day, and starting me on a great run. Wednesday I won $824, Thursday I won $355, and Friday another $685. Saturday I went to a party and only played for 3 hours but I managed another $269 win to finish the week on a roll up $1,647.

It’s another solid week, and I feel slightly better than the 3/6 games were running. I’m still tempted to try 4 full 5/10 games and see what happens but for now I’ll stick with the shorthanded games for 1 more week at least. I still can’t figure out how soda and the other shorthanded specialists are putting up such incredible numbers. I don’t know how they avoid the huge losing streaks I keep going on or do they just maximize their wins better than I do?

The system at Party/Empire has been really unstable again lately. When I first started playing there this summer it would crash all the time but they seemed to have solved the problem Now it’s happening again. I don’t know if it’s a capacity thing or not, but it’s really frustrating to have all your tables freeze or slow to a crawl, then wait for 3 reboots and then try to get on a waiting list again. It’s happening at least twice a week, and sometimes more. I even played a couple of hours at Pokerstars one night because I don’t have any money at Paradise anymore. I only have $350 at pokerstars for the zoo tourneys, so I played some 2/4 for 2 hu9rs and won $15. Woo hoo.

I heard a radio ad for Party Poker on the all sports station in Toronto this week. If they are advertising in all the big markets it should be good for the games again.

I was overwhelmed this past week at all the responses I got about my daughter. I was very touched that so many of you took the time to write about your experiences. It really helped me to put things in perspective. In the end of course I only want her to be happy, and we had a really good talk at lunch on Thursday. Of course it’s not going to change her study habits any, but maybe I can deal with it better.

I had a very satisfying session earlier this week at one table. There were 2 players at the table hitting everything. One guy had over $1,000, and said he started with $150, and a woman with around $800. They both saw the river if they saw the flop and although they were both killing me on the river I felt like I was getting a really good read on their play. I had rebought once already and was down to about $150 when the cards stopped hitting for them on the river. It took several hours, but both of them went bust before I quit and I got a lot of it. Good raising preflop, and on the early streets when I was ahead was all it took. They would cold call with anything and stay to the river. I ended up with $1,000 and they both tapped out. I’m trying hard to focus on table selection. There are some very solid shorthanded regulars, and I’m just not going to make money off them. I am much more willing to leave a table now and look for greener pastures.

Part of the losing streak. I have 99 and limp from the cutoff behind another limper. SB plays too and 4 of us see the flop. Flop is KK8. Checked to me and I bet. Both blinds fold and EP limper calls. I know this guy pretty well, and I can’t imagine him playing anything except a K this way. He wouldn’t risk a free card with a pocket pair or an 8, and he rarely just calls. There is no way I’m betting the turn. Turn is a 9. Except for now of course. He checks I bet and sure enough he raises. I 3 bet and he caps. River is a 2. He bets. I consider. KK, K9, K8, K2 beat me. KK I don’t believe. I think I know him well enough. K2 he wouldn’t play in EP. K9 seems very unlikely so K8 is the only one I really fear. I think he’s just overplaying his K and I raise again. He 3 bets and I cap. He has K9. I think I should have just called the last bet, but I’m comfortable with everything up to that point.

Same session. I have 55 on the button. 2 limpers to me and I limp. SB raises and 4 of us see the flop. Flop is Q95. SB bets and we all call. Turn is a 2, SB bets 2 calls and I raise. Only the SB calls. River is an A. SB bets, and I raise. He 3 bets and I cap it. He had AA.

Same session. I have KJ in the SB and limp behind 1 limper. Flop is QJ7, all diamonds. I don’t have a diamond. I bet the flop and only the limper calls. Turn is another J. I bet again and now he raises me. I just call, not sure if I want to raise him on the river. River is another 7. I check, he bets, I raise and he 3 bets. I cap resigned to my chop, and he shows 77 for quads.

After 4 weeks of shorthanded play here are the major differences I’ve noticed.
1) I haven’t changed my starting standards because I have always used positions from the button as my guide. For example I play KJo from 3 off the button, so it’s always playable in a 6 max table.
2) You will find yourself heads up far more often than in a full ring game. This makes for some interesting adjustments. There are a lot of players you can’t fold to heads up. I’ve seen guys 3-bet 97o pre-flop to get you heads up, and then pound every street. Reading your opponents is incredibly important.
3) There is a lot more aggression with hands that are generally less strong than what I’m used to. People will 3 bet the flop with top pair weak kicker. Again you have to be willing to stick with hands that are nowhere near the nuts. This also creates some embarrassing situations. Twice I have called down quads with A high. Doh!
4) I am slowplaying marginal hands more than usual, but playing big hands harder. No one believes your raises on the flop anyway, so you can push monsters harder. But if I play Axs from the button and an A flops, I will wait for the turn to raise

I had a telephone interview with the people in Seattle this week. I think I can help them, but I’ve asked for my full rate. I think if I discounted it I’d have a better chance to get the work, but I decided I want the full rate if I’m going to commute across the continent for any extended period of time. This way I don’t really have to make the decision. If they offer it I’ll take it with no regrets because the money is good. IF not, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

Have a good week.