Mookday, an End to the Silliness, and Thinking Before you Act in Poker

Mookie day. Why do I keep looking so forward to this thing again? Despite having no chance of ever winning this tournament, I'll always love the Mookie and it really makes the middle of the week fun for me. Unlike previous years, I've spent so much of my poker time this year focusing on cash games and lately on sngs, I have probably played a literal tenth the number of mtts that I played in the past two years. If you take the blonkaments out of the picture, it's probably even less. Big tournaments are just not something I focus on anymore like they once were. But I'm still as in to poker as ever, and hopefully that shows from my ongoing commitment to poker talk here at the blog. This despite the last couple days of fun and games here.

I don't really have a whole lot to add to everything from the past few days, other than to say that in my view I think people's reactions have far, far outpaced anything that led to those reactions, at least anything that came from me. But after the recockulous threads here from the past couple of days I guess I wanted to give some closure to the whole thing from my end. I guess first I should link to this post, which I guess says it all as far as what one blogger -- named LJ by the way -- is feeling about me these days. Hopefully everyone can go and read that post and get their jollies out about what a dick I am. Get the Jergerns™ ready guys. Personally, I would rank this as maybe the third or fourth most personally attacking post against me that I've seen in my three years plus of blogging about poker every day of the work week. It's not the worst, but it's up there. For what it's worth, and I communicated this to LJ via email last night, I do not feel the reaction is anywhere close to justified by anything I've said here. Obviously LJ disagrees with that and I support her in feeling and voicing her disagreement. I will stand by my opinion about the hand in question 100%, and personally I don't think that the way I went about mentioning my feelings was wrong or inappropriate, though again I accept that reasonable minds could maybe differ on that point. Again, I'm all about that disagreement.

I also wanted to address something that I have received personal emails and girly chats about and something which was also commented about in LJ's post above. I cannot and would not want to try to stop anyone from accusing me of "trashing" someone in my blog about a play they made. People should have whatever reaction they have to reading one of my posts or anyone's post for that matter, and if they feel a certain way then they should write it down if they see fit in whatever medium they would like. That's how I handle my own interaction with the blogiverse and I would expect nothing less from anyone else, no matter who they are. That being said, and I've written about this here before several times for my truly longtime readers, I purposely choose not to include people's names or links when I discuss a bad play that someone made in my view. I try very very hard not to call individual, identified people names in my blog, nor to ever attack them personally but always instead to keep things about poker, and on an anonymous basis at that. I generally do include names or links when I see someone make a good play -- witness again ScottMc's abuse of me in the MATH just from yesterday's post -- and I do that because I think it's nice to give credit to people for playing well when someone does it. If someone makes a big tournament score or wins a ton of money playing cash and I know about it, I am likely to blog about it and to identify them by name. But if I see a bad play, my choice is sometimes to blog about it, and when I do I almost never use someone's actual name or link. The only reason for that is that I have no desire or intention whatsoever to make someone feel bad or to embarrass them or call them out at all. There's no other sinister reasoning behind it, and I am totally confident that my true readers know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. When I'm not even using someone's name or link, then I fail to see how I can be described as trashing a person at all. If you disagree, then so be it. Disagree away. And I won't even get in to the notion of someone coming to LJ's support in her blog about how sad it is that people trash other bloggers for their play the morning after blonkaments. In LJ's blog of all places. The ironing is delicious (Trip, that reference is for you). Suffice it to say that I have for some time and will continue to comment here if I witness someone making what I view to be a bad play. It's not about sour grapes -- the AQ hand with LJ didn't even have anything to do with me at all for example, nor do many of the other hands I mention here (some of the bad plays I discuss here actually benefitted me greatly) -- but if I think there is something to be gained for someone, some wisdom to be gleaned about this game from a particular play I saw, I will continue to post about it here.

This is what I do. This blog has been therapeutic for me in many ways and it has helped to me improve my own poker game immensely. I've written about this many times before too, but I think there is obviously no coincidence that I started blogging daily in January 2005, and I made my first big mtt win at the end of that very same month, after several months of pure losing in online play. But more than helping my own game, the biggest reason I blog is to give something back to the community. I also surely see no coincidence that, for example, my blog is listed in basically every single Mookie winner's profile as far as a place they love to read, and more than that, a place where they have found significant information, help and improvement in their own poker games from reading. That is why I'm doing this, still going long and strong after three years of blogging about poker every day. Every time I see that in a Mookie profile, or see someone's comment in their own blog about something helpful to their game that they found on my blog, it empowers me. That's what keeps me going. Yes I must have more haters (literally) than any other blogger out there. I speak my mind and I don't pull many punches when it comes to poker. But say whatever you want about me, I am here trying my damnedest to help other people's games, not to tear anyone down. I have profiled literally hundreds of hands that I played poorly just to get people thinking, and to share ideas from lots of players who are highly skilled and analytical about poker. And you people have told me time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again how horribly I played these hands. I leave the comments up there for everyone to see, no matter how derogatory or downright nasty they are to me, my game, my friends, my family, whatever. I write strategy posts. Yes it helps my own game quite often to codify and organize my thoughts on a particular element of poker strategy like this, but if you think I'm doing that just for me, then you are seeing but not really seeing, reading but not really understanding. I could write these things down on paper for myself then, or in a personal online journal that only I have access to. If you can't appreciate my desire to help others instead of hurt them through the way I deliberately decline to call out someone when I discuss a play they made that I found to be questionable or flat-out bad or whatever, and from what I post on this blog in general, then so be it. I can live with that. But to portray me as someone who is out "trashing other people" for their play after blonkaments, I find that characterization to be not only unfair, but really not accurate for a guy who takes so many steps not to even identify the person or persons I'm talking about, and for someone who is recognized repeatedly as helping so many other bloggers' games in many different ways. I spend hours every single day preparing for and writing these posts, and while I won't deny some element of blogging for my own self, it's 90% done for you. All of you. Characterizing me as someone who trashes other people in my blog is in my opinion, and perhaps my opinion alone, doing a great disservice to me as well as to the many others who read here and actually improve their own games from what I have to say. Just my two cents, and with the incredible number of haters I have out there there is no doubt a ton of disagreement with my view on this. So be it. But that my friends is all the closure I think I have on this little bit of "high school drama" as it's been described from the past couple of days.

That, and to just mention that I can't wait to see who the first donk is who posts a totally inappropriate and insulting picture of a handicapped child to make fun of people being annoyed over the past few days. Sometimes people just kill me.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention something about ScottMc's elimination of me from the MATH the other night that I failed to mention the other day. So if you recall, he reraised me preflop, I stoopidly called his preflop raise into a heads-up pot with JTs, and then had the worst possible thing happen to me which is exactly why you don't call preflop rereraises into heads-up pots with JTs: I hit the flop pretty well, just well enough to end up losing all my chips into it. The flop came all raggy with two of my suit, and I bet, scott raised, and then I reraised him allin in a large bet. Scott had pocket Kings. And yet, you know what Scott did before he called my allin raise and busted me from the tournament when my 9 outs failed to hit? He fucking thought about it! I mean, this guy had an overpair, a big overpair, and the flop had come all raggy after I had raised and called a reraise preflop, so there was no reason for him to really think I had hit this particular flop hard. And yet, when I put him to the test for all his chips early in a tournament, he actually fucking paused to think about whether he should call. That right there is a good poker player my friends. Frankly, the pause there should be automatic for anybody with just one pair on the flop at any point with a big stack in a tournament, but the bottom line is that there cannot be more than 2 or 3 bloggers total who are anything but insta insta instacalling in that spot. Scott has repeatedly shown me something with his play whenever I've sat down at his table or just watched him from the rail, and with all the ranting and raving I do about the recockulous instacallers out there, who are basically just about always wrong to be instacalling like they do, I wanted to be sure to mention this specifically here because it is just about the single best lesson anyone could learn about playing competitive poker. Overpair Kings on a raggy flop, against a guy who is known to be aggressive, first few rounds of an mtt, and yet he still stops to think for a good 10 or 15 seconds when put to the test for a large call of much of his remaining chipstack. That is a Man right there. I wouldn't have folded that hand to me in that spot either, but dam if I wouldn't have paused for a few seconds to consider the possibilities. Could my opponent have flopped a set? Two pairs? What about big draws, like an Ace plus a flush draw. Am I getting the right price here to call and be facing those twelve outs twice? Am I prepared to take on that kind of risk this early in a tournament where I think I have a skill advantage over the other players? That's the kind of analysis that a real playa does in poker, it doesn't matter what level you're at or what level the competition is either. Even a doofus can pick up a hand or flop a set just as often as you or me. Scott earned even more respect from me for that play, and I just wanted to specifically call it out here.

And, since Scott is male and not female, I don't have any issues with him on a gender basis after all. God sometimes people just kill me, have I mentioned that recently?

OK so tonight is the Mook, 10pm ET as always on full tilt, password as always is "vegas1". Be there for the most fun the bloggers have as a large group every single week, week in and week out. And I should warn you, this whole business from earlier in the week has actually created a considerable sense of calm about my game. I played a few tournaments late last night, and basically played as well and as patiently as I have played in quite some time. I took down 2 out of 3 more $55 turbo sngs for a total profit of a little over three hundy on the night in only maybe 90 minutes of play, and I even ran well in the 14.5k guaranteed 6max knockout tournament at 11pm ET Tuesday as well, eventually succumbing just before the money when I ran an Ace into a better Ace in a blind vs blind confrontation. But I'm feelin' good, and hopefully getting some things off my chest that have been bothering me for some time this week is going to help to limit my tiltability as we move forward from here. I guess what I'm trying to say is, tonight might be my night in the Mookie....Oh and tune into BuddyDank radio as well for the Mook which I imagine should be a good time as always for the Mookie. I will try to do the same as I make another deep run to the final table this evening. See you then.

Oh yeah, don't forget Tripjax's "Blogger Luck Game" coming up on Sunday night at 10pm ET on full tilt. This is an $11 buyin private tournament, the password fittingly is "lucky", and there will be 3-minute blind rounds. And the best part, 100 starting chips. Delicious. Now we will get to see just who is the luckiest of them all. I will definitely be there, and hoping desperately not to have this guy at my starting table. I may have written the book on super turbo tournament strategy, but no way I can withstand four pocket Kings in the first 30 hands of this thing. No effin way.

MATH Recap, and Improving Your Game

First off, thank you for all the encouragement from the commenters to yesterday's...uh...interesting post. Normally I might apologize to my readers for having to see that kind of rantage, but it seems that the overall reaction was one of enjoyment to read my honest thoughts, and to that extent then I am happy I could help brighten some of your days as I brightened my own just by writing that crap down. But I really do appreciate the kind words and the encouragement, and the suggestions for me to help address my poker issues these days. Who knows where this crazy game of ours will take me next, but I am truly appreciative of all you guys and the thoughts and suggestions that I have constantly been peppered with over these past couple of years. In fact that's a perfect segue into what I plan to write about today, but first let me update with what happened at the Hoy last night on full tilt.

It seems like only yesterday when I read on Daddy's blog -- in actuality about six months ago -- that he would be playing in his first Mondays at the Hoy tournament as part of the original BBT. I was honored, as I was with my regular weekly tournament's first visit by the likes of Iggy, Pauly, Al, Speaker, Change and all those guys I consider to be my literal idols and the idols of the blogiverse in general. A visit from the sickest man alive to my own private tournament was quite an honor, but I was also impressed by the quality of Daddy's play, and this week it all finally came to fruition when he took down his first Hoy title, winning the latest BBTwo Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions freeroll seat in the process after outlasting 61 of his closest fake internet friends in the most skill-based of all the Hoy tournaments we've ever run.

So with 62 runners on the night, it made for a sweet $1488 prize pool for the latest MATH event, a turbo 6-max extravaganza that I knew was designed to ensure that the most skilled player took it down and got into the Aussie Millions ToC. The action was fast and furious like only a turbo event can be, with several players busting out in the first 5 or 10 minutes just the way I like to see. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance at all to suck out on anyone, making this just like the last 85 tournaments I've played in. My starting table must read my blog, because for the first 45 minutes or so nobody would play a dam pot with me, except for one where I got 99% of the way towards being sucked out on again. Basically I had top pair, I think maybe with the sooted jackace or something, on a board of J32 with the 3 and the 2 both in my soot. Long story short, he bet the flop, I raised allin, and he called me with? 88. My Jacks were ahead and could only be beaten by two outs. Unfortunately, as we have seen recently with me, two outs twice is far more than it takes to beat me in a blonkament, and the river brought one of those two 8s to give my opponent a reflockulous set against my top pair. It wasn't until the chips slid my way that I realized it was the 8 of my soot, giving me the flush and reminding me that he actually only had one out, not the two I had thought. Still, the momentary laugh that welled up within me was worth the price of admission right there. And don't worry, about 30 minutes later I found myself allin against Loretta with two overcards and a flush draw, 15 outs total, and lost with the favored hand to knock me out of 2nd place overall. Not a suckout by any means, but worth noting. I also got recockusetup against Blinders when he was dealt pocket Aces (who the fug gets pocket Aces during a turbo? Luckbox!), following that up by flopping a set of Aces on the AKx flop, and then of course I made two pairs with KT on the river, costing me half my stack once again in the unavoidable setup hand. And then the piece de resistance, when I reraised my college buddy buckhoya allin while back in 3rd place when down to 20 players remaining with my 99, and he told me in the girly that he was calling just so he could go to bed, which he did and flipped up A9. Ace on the flop of course, and I was in last place and gone two hands later. How fun.

So, in the end I recorded no suckouts of my own and in fact never even came close, and got beat from behind once, recockulously and unavoidably set up once, and sucked out on horribly once. Chalk another one up for the bad guys. I just cannot get out of my own way in these blonkaments no matter what I do or how well or bad I play or how hard I try to get in behind and suck out. One thing I will say though is that, at least for now, I think the turbo experiement is over with the Hoy. I know, I know that's going to upset most of you, for sure. But we had some much earlier-ending tournaments for the past two weeks and hopefully that's been helpful for some of you wimps or west coasters out there, and I figure I must have been doing something right when I was switched to a new table for the first time, and sitting there in the chat from just before I showed up at the new table was this comment from NumbBono: "F Hoy and his turbo tournaments." So that's always a good sign that the public is happy with what you're doing :).

Seriously though, no more turbo for now although personally I thoroughly enjoy a good old-fashioned luckdonk fest. In fact, next week's MATH tournament is already set up on full tilt, and it is another brand new style of tournament for the Hoy: a $10 rebuy event. I've been looking forward to this one for a long time, and in fact have been talking with a few other bloggers about setting up a regular $10 rebuy blogger event, so I'm excited to move away from turbo for now and on to something else new and exciting. Now, after two early weeks for the MATH, next Monday is gonna be a late one with an hour long rebuy period starting at 10pm ET, but I remain steadfast in not changing the start time so the west coast donkeys can still get in there and contribute to the prize pool. And I picked $10 instead of the normal $26 buyin so as to keep the total buyin costs roughly the same at least for the normal non-donkified players -- you can still buy in, rebuy once and add on at the end of monkey hour all for roughly the same cost as one normal Hoy buyin. Hopefully you will all enjoy this latest variation on a common theme, and I know I for one already cannot wait until next Monday for that one. As I mentioned in my comments yesterday, I only wish I could pick my starting table next week, and stick all the luckboxes and all the suckout artists on there so I could get my revenge again and again and again against you clowns. Oh well, you can't have everything I guess.

So back to this week's MATH results. Here are your 8 cashers for the event:

1. Daddy $491.04
2. buckhoya $312.48
3. Gary Cox $215.76
4. columbo $163.68
5. cardgrrl $119.04
6. mattazuma $81.84
7. cracknaces $52.08
8. emptyman $52.08

And here is the updated 2007 MATH moneyboard, including the results of this week's tournament:

1. Columbo $1526
2. Bayne_s $1400
3. Hoyazo $1162
4. RaisingCayne $1110
5. Daddy $999
6. cmitch $840
7. Kajagugu $806
8. Astin $793
9. Pirate Wes $792
10. VinNay $775
11. Tripjax $759
12. Iggy $745
13. Gary Cox $734
14. NewinNov $677
15. Fuel55 $666
16. Lucko21 $665
17. Waffles $650
18. IslandBum1 $642
19. XxMagiciaNxX $630
19. JJ $630
21. Surflexus $608
22. Jamyhawk $576
23. Buddydank $553
24. Numbbono $549
25. swimmom95 $545
26. Chad $537
27. Emptyman $513
28. Byron $510
29. Julius Goat $507
30. bartonf $492
30. mtnrider81 $492
32. PokerBrian322 $490
33. riggstad $487
34. wormmsu $475
35. scots_chris $474
36. LJ $470
37. Mike_Maloney $456
38. RecessRampage $434
39. Otis $429
40. twoblackaces $426
41. Miami Don $402
42. Zeem $389
43. Joe Speaker $384
44. jeciimd $382
44. Jordan $382
46. Blinders $379
47. leftylu $374
48. cardgrrl $371
48. lightning36 $371
50. ChapelncHill $353
51. OMGitsPokerFool $324
52. buckhoya $312
52. oossuuu754 $312
54. Wigginx $288
55. ScottMc $282
56. Fishy McDonk $277
57. actyper $276
58. Irongirl $252
58. Manik79 $252
60. Wippy1313 $248
61. Easycure $244
62. Garthmeister $216
62. wwonka69 $216
64. Omega_man_99 $210
65. katiemother $209
66. Pushmonkey72 $208
67. Thepokergrind $198
68. Mookie $191
69. StatikKling $180
70. 23Skidoo $176
71. Santa Clauss $170
72. jimdniacc $166
73. Iakaris $162
73. Smokkee $162
75. cemfredmd $156
76. lester000 $147
77. Heffmike $145
78. Julkeus $144
79. brdweb $143
80. DDionysus $137
81. Patchmaster $135
82. InstantTragedy $129
83. NinaW $120
84. UnTiltable $118
85. Fluxer $110
86. -o-LuckTruck-o- $103
87. hoops15mt $95
88. Gracie $94
88. Scurvydog $94
90. Shag0103 $84
91. mattazuma $82
92. crazdgamer $82
93. PhinCity $80
94. Presidentdave $79
95. maf212 $78
96. evy35 $72
97. Alceste $71
97. dbirider $71
99. kevin-with-AK $66
100. Rake Feeder $53

So this turned out to be a large week for the Hoy moneyboard, as we got two big moves in the top 5. First, this week's winner, Daddy, moves into 5th place thanks to his $491 windfall in addition to his ToC seat today, an impressive performance given such a small number of MATH events he has played in. But the biggest news of all is that Columbo busted out with a big cash this week as well, propelling him above BBT1 winner Bayne and into first place for the year in total MATH winnings! This is the first time columbo has led the leaderboard all year, now with a $126 lead over Bayne in second place and nearly $400 over myself in 3rd, so congratulations out to columbo in addition to Daddy for their big moves this week in Mondays at the Hoy.

So, I struggled a lot about what to write about today, poker strategy wise. I've got tons of ideas swirling around my head as always, much of which is affected by current events in the world of poker and bloggers. In the end, I have decided that today I would write a little about improving your game. It's something that I referred to in yesterday's post and for whatever reason it's still on my mind today. I'll put it this way: anyone who is truly serious about their poker game -- anyone, with no exceptions at all -- must make constant improvement a constant focus. Period. You must. And don't get me wrong -- you can play poker all you want, and not give a crap about improving your game. I'm not trying to tell you that you have to do anything. But, if you're serious about your game, then you have no choice but to work to improve. Constantly. And it's hard work, don't get me wrong. But it has to be done, if you really, truly care about getting better. Nobody is going to deny this either.

Now, to different people, this constant focus on improving your game to prevent it from stagnating or even moving backwards can take different forms and mean different things. To some it can mean constantly reading poker books. To others it can mean regularly discussing hands and hand histories with their poker friends. Some people may join ghey forums like pokerxfactor or cardrunners and pay their hard-earned money to hear other people's strategies and thoughts on the game. Maybe others will prefer to work alone, setting aside an hour a day to review their own hand histories and take an honest look at their game and at what has been working and what hasn't been working for them. Personally, as I've said previously, I do pretty much all of the above. I've had some nice success playing this game we all know and hate love, but I go through these phases where I basically suck. I can't tell you how many times I have realized yet another weakness in my game over the past few years (and longer, really), and adjusted the way I play in those situations as a result. I remember when I was raising too much preflop. I remember when I was betting too big on the flop. I remember when I was continuation-betting too much and too indiscriminately. I remember when I was playing too loose preflop. I could go on and on. But I figured these things out about my own game, through a combination of reading, studying, talking with others and spending a huge amount of time reviewing my own hand histories, screen shots, and shit I've done at the virtual felt, both with myself and with other people whose game I respect.

What can you do to improve your game? Here are five general ideas I have used and do use regularly, not that any of these are anything revolutionary:

1. Read. I know it's hard for many people to find time to read poker books, but there simply is no other better resource for building your poker knowledge than poker books, articles and similar materials. I've mentioned this stuff several times in the past here, but to recap, following is a list of poker texts that I have personally read and that I personally will say are completely essential to anyone serious about improving:

a. Super/System. The nlh section written by Doyle was the first real poker strategy book I ever read, and to this day it remains the foundation for my style of aggressive play, truly the only strategy for playing consistently winning poker. Tournaments or cash.

b. Harrington on Holdem. As I've mentioned, I found Volume 3 to be pretty much worthless and in fact to detract overall from the value of his books, but Volume 1 is really essential for any tournament beginner, and Volume 2 is perhaps the single best book ever written about poker tournament play. I've said it here before and I'll say it again, but if you haven't read Super/System and Harrington, then I'm better than you in poker tournaments, period. 'Nuff said.

c. Caro's Book of Poker Tells. More applicable to live poker, but frankly the concepts listed here can apply more broadly to poker in general. To me this is essential reading for any serious poker player.

d. You might as well pick up the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide as well. This is not quite as awesome as the first three books above, but any time you can get that much accomplished, proven greatness together in one place to write about play before the flop and after the flop all in one place, it's a solid read.

e. Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros. If you're into learning about Limit holdem as well as the other HORSE games, and you can get around some of the worst writing style ever including massive! overuse! of! apostrophes!, then this is a great primer of those games from one of the world's indisputably best tournament poker players.

f. Theory of Poker and Holdem Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky/Malmuth/Miller. This stuff is key for any limit holdem poker player, and you can't help but improve your no-limit game as well just from reading these classic poker texts. Period.

g. No-Limit Holdem Theory and Practice by Sklansky. A recent text but it's one that I have read and re-read at this point probably four or five times. Lots of great stuff for any nlh cash player.

The other thing I would say about reading poker books is just to say that me, personally, I tend to read these things 3 or 4 times at least before I feel like I've actually "read" them. I mean, I have without a doubt read Super/System cover to cover at least 20 times. You read that right. My copy of the book is so worn that I had to buy a new one just to be able to keep it all together. I've read those other books on the list at least 3 or 4 times, every single one of them. That's the only way to really absorb all that material, no matter how great your reading comprehension is. These aren't like novels, and it takes tons of repetition for this stuff to really sink in.

2. Practice what you read. Along with reading and re-reading the seminal poker texts out there, you have got to practice. Practice by playing while you're reading these books, and make yourself apply the techniques and strategies you're learning. If you just sit and read all day without any practice involved, you are not going to be able to "get it". There's just no way, no matter how much you read and how much you want to improve. You have to read, then practice, then read again, and then practice again. It's the only way.

3. Discuss. Find people whose poker game you respect, and talk to them. Discuss hand histories. Would they have called or folded with QQ in that spot? Would they have folded or reraised with AQ in that spot? Do they like to value bet 1/3 of the pot, 2/3 of the pot or allin in that particular situation. Run this shit by other people. And please, find people who actually have game and who actually understand how poker works. That part is up to you, but discussion with other living, breathing human beings has been a major, major reason I ever started this blog in the first place, and it has without a doubt been the single biggest reason I have had whatever successes I've had in this game.

4. Listen. To me, this really goes without saying and goes right along with item #3 above, but along with discussing poker strategy with other experienced and skilled players, you also have to listen to what these people fucking tell you. Believe me, there's no point to talking poker with other good players if you're just going to disregard what they tell you. Sadly I know a lot of people who do just this. I guess they think it sounds good or looks good or something to say to anyone who will listen how much they're working with so-and-so or whatshisname on their game, but in reality, they simply don't change their game at all as a result. The only reason to talk poker strategy with other players is to have an open mind about rethinking some of the thoughts and ideas you yourself bring to the game. Otherwise, seriously, don't waste their time or yours doing this shit. No point to talking with someone else about poker only to refuse to apply anything you hear or anything you think you're "learning".

5. Be quick to identify leaks in your game, and then react to them. Just like I mentioned in point #4 above, it does you no good to continually identify the same weakness over and over and over and over and over again, and then just keep making the same exact mistake that you know exists, over and over and over and over and over again. That is insanity. If you realize that you have been c-betting too regularly and need to pay more attention to the texture of the flop, then start paying more fucking attention to the texture of the flop. If you find you have been misplaying middle pocket pairs, then try something new the next time you're dealt a pocket pair. Play it less aggressively, or even fold them more preflop if you have to if you've been continually busting with these hands from tournaments of late. If you wake up one day and realize that you've been putting everyone else on a bluff every single time they raise from late position preflop and losing a lot of big pots as a result, then stop assuming these people are always bluffing so much. In some ways you're a damn fool if you keep identifying the same problems again and again, but you just keep reacting in the exact same way every next time you're placed in that situation. Identify, and react. Don't just identify and identify and identify the same problems without attempting to fix them.

6. Don't make instantaneous decisions at the table. I can't stress how important this one is, especially to some people, and invariably it seems to be tied up very well with item #5 above. You can't imagine what I feel when I see someone who I know claims has been working on a particular leak in his game, just go and do the same dumb, indefensibly -EV instacall the very next time they're faced with the same situation. Instacalling has its time and its place, and I'm not trying to condemn the entire practice of instacalling as an activity here. But what I am saying is, there is nothing wrong at all with taking a few seconds, or even several seconds, any time you are faced with a situation at the poker table where you might have an opportunity to make a smarter, better-thought-out play. So, back to our examples above, if you've been calling off too much bullshit with shitty medium pocket pairs for a long time, you cannot allow yourself to be the person instacalling two big preflop allin reraises with pocket 6s early in a tournament and with one guy still to act behind you who has already called one preflop raise in the hand. That is indefensible and it is the definition of not getting better. Instacalling has a time and a place, but most of the time it's a bad idea in most poker situations. If you could get just that idea into your head, your game will improve right there, without a doubt.

And next time you instacall two allins ahead of you even with a hand like pocket 9s, you just fucked up. You might go on to win the hand. You might actually make the call and turn out to be up against pocket 8s and pocket 7s. But if you instacalled there, that is bad tournament poker and you just fucked up. Indisputably. Accept it.

OK that's all for today. Tonight will be my first night at the virtual felt without a blonkament (no bodog for this donkey) and without FTOPS to focus on for better than a month now, so it will be interesting to see where I end up sitting in my nightly tribulations at full tilt. If you have any fun ideas, hit me up on the girly chat and I'll get in there with you.

I Guess We Know Somebody Reads My Blog....

and that somebody is pushmonkey72. That is basically the only explanation I can come up with for my most untimely elimination on the first hand back from the break in this week's Mookie tournament. I was somewhere around 2300 chips to start the second hour, and the action folded around to pushmonkey in the small blind, who raised it up from the 120-chip big blind to 360 chips in what I perceived to be a pretty sure steal attempt. I looked down to find A6o. So, rather than beat around the bush given my read on push's play, I figured maybe he'll call me with less than my A6o and I just moved allin for my last 2300 or so in chips. Push's response?

Insta-call.

I mean this was probably the quickest of all the instacalls I have seen coming my way over the past several blonkaments. It was as close to beating me into the pot as can happen on full tilt. I knew I had to have been duped as he made the insta-call. It happens sometimes, I know it does, because people have me pegged as an aggressive move-maker with shitty cards, so every now and then when the perfect scenario arises like a blind vs. blind battle where the other guy actually has a big hand, I will often get slow-played or check-raised because people think they can catch me trying to make a move. And this had to be what had happened here. How else do you instacall an allin reraise from me for about 7 times the original bet, representing just about all of pushmonkey's stack of chips. Right? I mean, if he had sat there and thought about it for a bit, and eventually decided to begrudgingly call, then I'm thinking my A6o could be good. He could have K9s. He could have A3s. Any hand like that might agonize but then eventually make the donkey-call. But when push instacalled, I knew I was beat and probably dominated. Oh well.

Let me ask you this: what's the worst possible hand pushmonkey could be instacalling me with here? Keep in mind, my allin reraise 7 times larger than his open raise had been, and would require push to get basically all of his own chips into the pot in order to call me. And again keep in mind that he absolutely insta-called. So what's the worst possible hand he could instacall there with? Think about your answer, then look below.












T9. Offsooot. That's right guys, it's a ten-high, unsooooted hand. Good old T9o, that preflop allin showdown powerhouse. 6 on the flop helps me a tiny bit, but then Ten on the turn does me in and IGH in 70-something place out of 107 runners in the Mook. "Nice call" is all I had time to type into the chat as soon as I saw what pushmonkey was holding. Because no matter how that hand had turned out, I wanted to make sure that push knew what a wonderful, strategic and +EV call that was for him to make. T9o is what you always want to call an allin with preflop with plenty of chips and against a very large allin reraise before the flop, even against an ATC guy. Riiiiiiiiight.

Let's assume pushmonkey thought I was completely full of shit. Of course, that is itself a foolish thought to have in this spot with me moving allin like that in such a large overbet, but let's just say for the sake of argument that pushmonkey thinks I am literally pushing with any two cards (ATC) here. So then he calls me instantly with T9o? I have news for ya: T9o is still clearly below an average hand in holdem. T9o doesn't beat any hand with a Jack, Queen, King or Ace in it, or any pocket pair when run at them heads-up over all five cards like calling my preflop allin reraise would guarantee him. I mean, this hand wasn't even sooooted so I can't even dismiss push as just a sooooted donk. So instead I got to sit and watch him bust maybe 20 minutes later in like 60-somethingth place. Quelle surprise.

But you do know one thing: Pushmonkey72 reads my blog. He must. That is the only even semi-plausible explanation for making that specific call at that particular time. Insta call, that is. Push must know how any tard insta-calling me with shit -- the more garbagey the instacalling hand, the better in fact -- over the past few weeks of blonkaments is sucking out against me. He must have literally taken comfort in knowing that, with such a horrible hand to even consider calling an allin preflop reraise with still enough chips to do plenty of damage, his chances of sucking out were exceedingly high. Why this has been happening to me so consistently during the BBTwo tournaments is beyond me, but if you phucking idiots don't stop picking me as your "horseys" and your "Pick 5" or whatever you want to call it, then you are just not living in the real world. And you're throwing your money away. Picking me to win a Mookie tournament makes you especially assy btw. How ridiculous. I'm to the point now where I'm a fucking circus freak show. I'm purposely getting insta-called allin by any fucking shit that any donkey can throw at me, because people know their garbage is going to suck out on me and they want to see me write about it.

Mission accomplished. Again.

Unfortunately, the tournament suckout streak that started for me on Tuesday and bled right into the Mookie on Wednesday also extended to FTOPS #1 on Wednesday, which was the $216 buyin nlh 6-max tournament to start off FTOPS VI. It was an auspicious beginning for me, as I sat down to a starting table with five other players at it, two of which were well-known professional poker players. To my immediate right was Matt Matros, with full tilt handle "jacksup", whose book I recently completed and who played a fairly solid game throughout the time I was at his table, which was every hand I played in the event. Also with me for just about every hand I played was full tilt pro GregFBTMueller, who I have to say played atrociously and donked his way up and down every window on the computer again and again and again in this thing, eventually donking his way to an over 10k stack by the time my run ended. But the best part about having these two pros at my table was that I completely smushed both of them. Again and again and again. Of course there was the one hand where Matros called my preflop raise with his short stack, we saw a heads-up flop of 864 when I held A8s, and he overbet allin on the flop. Naturally I called with my top pair against his short stack, and he flipped up the very pokerstarsian 75o for the flopped nuts. Unreal. But otherwise, I think I won 12 pots from Mueller and something like 17 from Matros. As I told KOD in the chat, those two clowns should be having nightmares about me after what I did to the two of them basically from start to finish. 6-max is without a doubt my favorite game, and one of my best, and I took it to these players and everyone else who sat at my table all throughout the tournament.

Unfortunately, the big recockuflop with the nut straight to Matros and one other big suckout just as the Mookie started at 10pm ET kept me from getting my 3000-chip starting stack above I think 4500 or so through most of the first two hours of the tournament. I probably lost about 5000 chips on just those two suckouts, and that right there is the profit that should have been in my stack heading into the second break, by which time I had already outlasted all the other bloggers I know were in this event.

Still, I was right around that 4500 chip level just a few minutes before the second break -- at the time I was around 1100th place out of around 1600 players remaining from the 3600+ who started at 9pm ET -- when I open-raised from the button for the umpteenth time, this time holding KJs. Some donk in the blinds calls my raise, and you can just tell he has put me on another steal. This is one of the great things that happens from playing hyper aggressive poker like I love to do in 6-max play -- you get action with your stronger hands because people think you're always in there with garbage (see the pushmonkey hand above for another nice example of this). Anyways so the flop comes down King-rag-rag, giving me top pair good kicker for a blind vs blind confrontation. I know the guy thinks I'm stealing, so when he checks to me, I bet out around the size of the pot, simply knowing he was going to call me given the fairly raggy board and his deep conviction that I didn't have shiat. Then the turn comes down and it's another total rag, but one which also gives me two hearts on the board for a flush draw. This time I do my "go-and-stop" move, where I bet the flop in an apparent c-bet but where I actually have a strong hand, get called, and then I deliberately check the turn to pretend like I was just stealing all along. This "go and stop" works best when you're playing heads-up OOP against a guy who you know already does not trust you for whatever reason. When I check the turn against a guy like this, it's like giving a cat some catnip -- they just can't fucking stay away. Figuring out what is in my opponent's head and then devising just the strategy designed to exploit that particular player's weakness or mindset is what playing good instinctual poker is all about, and this move was one for the ages no doubt.

So my opponent took the bait of my turn check, and simply could not stay away. He bet out the size of the then large pot. I deliberately paused for a short time, maybe a few seconds, and then pushed allin with a reraise with my top pair Jack kicker (plus K-high flush draw) on this Kxxx board. His turn bet had been about 1k into a pot of about 1k, and my turn raise was allin for another 3000 or so I think. My opponent calls after maybe three seconds, and tables his KTo on the K high board. And there you have it -- my subterfuge once again successful, as was my overall large tournament strategy of waiting as far into the hand as possible to make my move, thereby decreasing the chances of some crazy suckout with 5 or even two cards still to come. In this case, I got KT to call my KJ on a K high board where I also had a flush draw, and I didn't get all the money into the middle until after the freaking turn card! I mean just think how much better that is that I got to keep most of my chips until after the turn card when there was just one card left to come, rather than getting him allin preflop with his KT vs. my KJ, giving him five chances to spike a Ten. Instead in this case, he had just one chance left to eliminate me, and just two outs to do it.

The 19-to-1 river card? Ten. Not of hearts, which would have made me a flush. Apparently even two outs once is not too small for me to dodge. Two frucking outs, which I had the discipline and the skill to wait until after the turn card to get the money in for. How much better can I play that hand? So instead of a huge double-up and a jump into the top few hundred chip stacks, IGH in 1600-somethingth place. That was as rough a beat as you're going to see in one of these things, and a bitter ending to start my FTOPS run after totally kicking ass and winning nearly 5 grand during FTOPS V back in August. Dam that one still stings the next morning, what can I say. And now I don't want to talk about it anymore.

So moving then back to yesterday's river-decision hands, for starters of course let me say thanks to all the commenters, who gave I thought very well-reasoned and sensible arguments for their positions. I will start off by saying that I purposely chose these three hands to profile about playing at the river because, to be honest, I was dubious with how I played each of them myself. At least one of the hands I thought I definitely screwed up, and I might have with the others as well as far as not making as much money, or not losing as little money, as I could with them. So these comments and thoughts are very valuable to me, and hopefully to you all as well.

So, starting with Hand #1 from Wednesday's post, this is the one where I called a preflop raise with presto, checked on the 992 flop and my preflop raising opponent checked behind. Then I bet $20 into the $32 pot when the turn card made the board 9922 and I held the pocket 5s, which my opponent smooth called. Then the river brought us this situation:



and I asked how you would play this here. Bet or check? If you bet, how much?

My favorite comment and the one that is most in-line with my own thinking on this point came from cmitch, an awesome cash player in his own right and someone who really understands the 2-4 6max games that I play, where he said: "If you check, you are basically telling him that you are giving up on the hand and have to fold to most bets and he could be betting with an Ace." That's the long and short of it right there. I felt I had to bet here. The bottom line is, this guy has played this hand like he has two good high cards (AQ, AJ maybe, etc.) right from the very beginning. Surely it could also be another middle pocket pair, probably higher than mine, but that's the chance you take when you play a game like this, especially 6max which tends to be significantly more active and move-makey than the full ring poker tables. If I check, he is likely to bet with an Ace, and I am likely to give serious thought to folding. Instead, I prefer to make fold equity work for me instead of against me, and I also want to give him the chance to call me with his Ace-high hand. Odds are much greater than he will call with an Ace than that he would ever bet out with an Ace. My best chance to profit here is to bet out -- not too big, because my hand could be beaten in a lot of different ways here by a preflop raiser -- but enough so that he will fold, and yet little enough that he will maybe call with an Ace high hand. And I'm basically going to fold to any normal-sized raise; that's just the way it is, and I definitely have the discipline to do that.

So I opted to go for this bet:



And he folded:



I'm still trying to figure out if this is a good outcome or not. I guess I'll go with yes, since I won a nice sized pot with a pretty shitty hand and without knowing exactly where I was at against a preflop raiser all along. But did I bet a little too much here? Should I have bet a little less in the hopes that he calls with an Ace high? It seems like mostly everyone who suggested betting out suggested half the pot or even a little less. I guess if my only objective were to get the Ace-high hand to call, then that is clearly the better move. But to be clear, in this case my roughly 2/3 of the pot bet is being done for a slightly different reason as well, which is the very significant purpose of camouflaging my river bets with strong hands as well. I don't want to be stuck betting 1/3 of the pot with the nuts at the river, so I don't want to be the guy who bets 1/3 the pot when I want a call but am not confident about my hand, and 2/3 the pot when I know I am good. That would make me very easy to read and very easy to play. Balancing the types of hands I will bet 2/3 of the pot with is of the utmost importance to me over any session or sessions in which I play, so I let that consideration push me towards my more normal 2/3 pot bet in this case even though I would have loved the Ace-high call here. To tell the truth, I'm still struggling with that question now.

On to Hand #2, this was the hand where I called in super-cheap to see a 4-way flop with my K3o, and the flop came down 6K3 rainbow. I bet out on the flop, got called by just one player in middle position, and then I once again did my "go and stop" move, checking the turn when an offsuit Queen hit the board, and my opponent followed my lead by betting out $20 into the $38 pot. In retrospect I probably should have raised him here, but this guy had been an active raiser and reraiser -- remember there are a lot of move-makers at this level and game -- and I did not want to face a large reraise with just top and bottom pair, which I knew was going to put me in jeopardy of losing a large pot because I definitely have to be tempted to call there. Having no clue what he might have held preflop due to the limpage, I just didn't feel comfortable with that possibility, and I guess the chance that he could have held KQ also entered into my mind. In the end, I made what was probably a mistake and just smooth called, opting to see what the river brought before I committed any more chips. I wish I had played this differently, but it is what it is and I eventually eventually saw a raggy, offsuit 4 hit the river for a final board of 6K3Q4, and me holding K3o. With $77 then in the pot, I asked whether you guys advocate trying to check this hand down, or rather betting out, and if so, how much.

In this spot, a lot of players I respect the games of commented that they would check-call here. My issue with that play is that, although I definitely have my doubts as to whether or not I'm beat here, I think I could easily be up against another King, and I want to get paid by that guy. Unless it's AK or something, I do not think one pair is likely to bet out against me on the river, although my turn check-call might help induce some action. But here for me it really comes down to something that Alan said in the comments: "I don't want to miss out on any money where he might call with one pair but also just check behind you." Exactly. One pair is not too likely to bet here, and I want to make sure I make something at the river here against one pair or a lower two pair. So I wanted to bet. With $77 already in the pot, though, something about this hand had my spidey senses tingling a little bit, and with just top and 5th pair on the board, I again did not want to face calling a larger raise than necessary, or risk being called by something like top and 3rd pair and losing a larger than necessary pot, so I don't quite agree with the 80% of the pot recommendations that a few of the commenters made. I opted to go with some of the later commenters' recommendations, reasoning that a bet of just more than half the pot is large enough to get some good value, and yet not so large that I will be really pissed if I get called and lose, or worst of all if I have to fold to a big reraise. So I ended up betting $41 into the $77 pot, just more than half the pot which is about as low as I will ever bet in this situation -- like Lucko said in the comments yesterday, I am fine with blocking bets in theory, but in practice more often than not when someone tries a blocking bet on me, I bluff raise them and they fold. I don't find blocking bets useful for my own style of play, so a little over half the pot is as low as you're ever going to see me go in a situation like this.

My opponent considered briefly and then called my $41 bet at the river, and I won a $159 pot. If you're interested, here is what he actually had:



Sucks. I'm sure I could have gotten more out of him than just $41. He wasn't going to call an allin overbet with his TPTK here (I don't think), but surely I could have probably even pushed this as high as the size of the pot and he would have called it. But given his range, and the incredibly pussified way he played his TPTK hand, I still am unsure whether the slightly smaller or slightly larger bet size is the best move here.

In Hand #3 yesterday, I called a preflop raise out of the big blind with 3 players and my JTs to see a flop of KQT, giving me bottom pair on a scary board and also an oesd. The flop was checked around. The turn brough an Ace, making two spades on the board and also giving me the nut straight. I bet out $35 into the $59 pot on the turn, thinking that the Ace clearly was a great card for me in that in must have hit someone else's hand, and with all those high cards I could easily be up against two pairs or a set or something in a hand with a preflop raiser and two callers of the preflop raise. Just one player called that $34 turn bet, and the river brought a raggy offsuit 5 for this situation:



Here is again where I asked what you would do here, with me holding the stone nuts. All but one of the commenters suggested betting out here, and not hoping for this guy to bet at me so I could checkraise him allin. I agree 100% with that approach, but once again I was not sure about the proper amount to bet. In the end I decided to go with the full pot bet:



my opponent folded, and I won a nice pot of $127. But I think I probably bet too much here, and it seems mostly all the commenters agree. In retrospect, I think the key point is that with 4 to the straight very overtly showing on the board, I should have known I would get a fold from anyone not holding a Jack when I bet $124 into the $127 pot at the river. If I could do it again, I would definitely bet less. Maybe around half the pot, or more likely, for the same balancing reasons I discussed above, I would probably have dropped in about 2/3 of the size of the pot, maybe in the $80 range. If he folds to that then so be it, but if I can get an additional $80 in there with the nuts, and at the same time protect all my other 2/3 pot bets at the river when I do not hold the nuts, I wish I had done it that way. Bad play by me, but lesson learned. Next time, I get paid at the river with the nuts. I just wish I knew what this guy had in his hand in the end.

OK that's all for this topic for today, though I have lots more hands saved up just like this for future discussion. Don't forget, tonight at 9pm ET is the latest Riverchasers tournament on full tilt hosted by Al (password is "riverchasers"), and it is also FTOPS #2 at 9pm ET, tonight being the $322 buyin razz tournament. I know at least myself, KOD and jeciimd have satellited into this thing, so you can look for us tonight during the Riverchasers to see how we're holding up. But I suggest you do it early, because I know I speak for at least myself when I point out how completely maddening playing razz tends to make me. I don't know that I have ever played it at the $300 buyin level before in a tournament, but I already know that the calldonkeys will still be out in force, chasing their stoopid two-brick hands on 5th street and similar moves, and invariably they will cocksuck out on me and take me down early and often. Ah well, it's nice to have something to look forward to tonight, isn't it?