Comment Response And The Friday Report

From Team Mirketti:

I have a question before you forget about 6 max completely. When you are on a table full of loose cannons (VPIP's in the 50 to 70 range), how do you play against them? Do you tighten way up, because you'll get paid when you hit something against them? Do you loosen up a little because you know they don't have quality hands most of the time? Do you play the same? Or do you get the heck out of there and find a table that fits you better?

I am having trouble when there are too many of those players at my table.

Also, when getting started for the night do you watch the tables you are going to play before you sit down at the table?

In answer to your first question I open my range of what I will call a preflop raise with and what I will 3 bet with preflop.  For instance If I have AJo and a typical TAG player raises from early position this is a folding hand, but against a very loose player I am either gonna flat or 3 bet him.

No I do not watch the tables.

Finally, me going back to full ring is less about results and more about comfort level.  At full ring I am usually the most aggro player at the table.  I never have to question myself about any move I make or what I am doing.  Often at 6 max I found myself unsure on certain approaches and I feel I was out of my element.  Full ring also has much more predictable players.  When these guys 3 bet preflop I can narrow the range of 95% of them to one of maybe a half dozen hands.  It's just where I belong.  The only reason I went to 6 max in the first place was availability and number of tables available, but when weighed out, the pros and the cons, in my particular case it is no contest.  I am a full ring player, always was always will be.



First off I have great news not poker related.  I was approved and accepted by a medical clinic and Wednesday is my first appointment.  Best of all, it's totally free.  The doctors and nurses all work there on a volunteer basis.  It's for people who "fall through the cracks"  People like me who have a job and work for a living but don't make enough they can afford $200 office visits and don't have medical insurance.  I think this will go a long way to the good in the fight not to lose my leg because of the ulcer.  I am both happy and grateful to these people that I am able to say, "I have a regular doctor that I can go see and get regular treatment."

On the poker front.  Changes have been made in the yearly goals and I have updated them on the right column of the blog, 

Hands Played:  300,000  Currently over 10k hands behind schedule.  Oh well time to grind, lol
Bankroll:  $1000 This remains unchanged
Earn rate:  4 big blinds per 100 hands  This is also unchanged

Playing $10NL will be a different scenario.  As things stand I will never be able to 6 table $10NL full ring as the tables are just not available so I will be mixing limits.  Some $4NL tables mixed with some $10NL.  in fact I have switched to a 30/20 approach now that I am back to full ring and even with the bankroll slightly under $300 going into today's action $10NL is still a viable possibility if I so choose to.  If there are not enough $4NL tables or table selection is poor I will add some $10NL to the mix.  There doesn't usually seem to be more that 3 $10NL tables running at any one time, and about the same at $25NL so if and when the time comes I will be mixing those 2 levels and maybe all 3 who knows.

Yesterday was 1102 hands and a tiny profit of 34 cents.  Up as high as + 2 buy-ins and down - 2 buy-ins during the session the break even final tally was grudgingly acceptable.  Tomorrow is always another day and after scratching my way out of a 2 buy-in hole I was willing to accept it and call it a night.  The main reasons for the results were ($4.39) after flopping a set of fours and being on the wrong end of a set over set situation, ($4.12) with AT when I flopped top pair to have some passive calling station just call with AQ, ($4.00) with AKo when I had top pair against a slow played set of nines and another ($2.47) on a river call when I had top 2 pair only to get rivered by a flush.  I had made pot size bets on the flop and turn and checked the river enticing a bluff, but this idiot kept calling pot sized bets with just a flush draw.  I guess I should have folded and saved the $2.47, but on the other hand he could have fired out that bet with a lower 2 pair, although in my gut I knew he had the flush so in hindsight I should have laid it down.  A total of $14.98 in losses that if even just one of them besides the last one were turned around the session would have been a 2 buy-in profit.  Checking the reasons for a subpar session as I have done here is a good analysis tool I feel as if you can explain the reasons about specific hands, it keeps me a step ahead.  The $3.30 PL HO tournament was a bust as I lost with AA vs AT when he flopped a straight.  Mind you that flop is 80-1 against it happening but when your running like ice cubes these things will happen.  When I bust out I will bust out large so the nearly $30 I am down in tournaments this month, while frustrating, is of little concern as I know the streak will turn.  Maybe tonight who knows.

So I fired up 6 tables played 130 hands, down ($0.98) and took a break for a little over an hour before getting back in the action.  Changed the dressing on my leg, but its a wet/dry gauze dressing and I cannot begin to tell you the amount of pain removing gauze that has dried out and sticks to an open wound like fkn glue.  But this helps debried the wound, get the infectious stuff out and it's doctor's orders so I do it, but OMG I am ready to scream sometimes it hurts so much doing it.   Off this weekend so I can grind away at my leisure and since I was not working tomorrow the $5.50 NLH $500 Gtd and $5.50 PLO/8 $250 Gtd along with the daily $3.30 PL HO would be on the play list this evening.  Put in 854 hands tonight and the feel of the games had stalled  Was up 3 buy-ins then got knocked down to just below 2 buy-ins up and then nothing was happening.  Things seemed to be in neutral so I called it a night on the cash games with a $7.63 profit.

Tournaments so far this month have on more than one occasion caused me to come close to heaving my laptop across the room and then smile as I would watch it smash into several pieces.  After relatively early knockouts in the $3.30 PL HO and the $5.50 PLO/8 that put me 0 for 9 this month.  Flop a set get beat, flop top two get beat, have AQ vs Villain's KQ and get beat straight vs higher straight.  The only thing left was The $5.50 NLH $500 Gtd and I had no great thoughts this would be any different.  It's funny, when your not doing well or running bad in tournaments or whatever you want to call it, you start expecting the worse to happen.  Like when I had a shorter stack than me all-in with my AQ and he had AJ, I actually expected a jack to hit somewhere on the board.

One hand of note happened fairly early although after the first break I called a preflop raise with A8s and this is something I don't usually do but my opponent was a LAG and in this situation I felt a very very strong possibility I had the vest hand.  Flop was J8X.  I checked and his bet was low maybe only half pot if that and this is often an indication they missed.  I'm thinking he is holding AK, AQ, KQ, or with his laggy style, quite possibly, something even worse.  Turn card was a blank and again a check by me and a relatively small bet which I called.  The river put a second 8 on the board but also completed a flush draw in spades and I was holding clubs.  I shoved hoping he would see this as a bluff and if he had anything would call and also hoping he was not holding spades.  He tanked and finally called, turning over..................AA.  Wow did I ever have that figured wrong.  That put me to $5k.  Later to $20-$22k where I seemed to languish for a long time.  Shoved here and there and with $12k I managed a double up just before we hit the final table.  I ended up finishing 8th in the 153 player field cashing for $24 and change.  Not much, but at this point I will take anything positive.  Good night for now.  Back at it tomorrow.

Play well.