A Comment on the mix games.
September 8, 2009 by Brian Townsend
When I was comparing limit games to no limit or pot limit I always used a 6x multiplier. So 10/20 NLH requires similar bankroll and has similar swings as 50/100 or 60/120 LHE. In the mix game rotation they use a 4x multiplier which I feel is to small and doesn’t give the limit games enough weight. I have been playing 1k+ hands every day and my results are always determined by one or two big PLO or NLH pots.
To counter this lower multiplier tho there are only two big bet games and five or six limit games depending on if you are playing on stars or fulltilt. I guess this helps negate some of the edge that someone good at the big bet games will have. Still though I think to make it more fair they should use at least a five times multiplier on the limit games.
The past couple of days I have also been thinking how I want to learn. I have been giving alot of thought to computer models and I realize that people are limited in there calculations. Poker was a game which computers are best served to help us model situations. I have hired a computer program who is designing some programs which will hopefully help me alot with the mixed games.
As I have been playing the past week I realized I am sort of wasting my time learning by grinding. I think its important to grind some but I think I should split my time between study away from the tables with computer simulations and at the tables learning from experience. I think ultimately learning away from the table with sims is ideal, but unfortunately computers aren’t powerful enough right now to do a complete model of most poker games.
That said reviewing hands is very boring for me compared to playing so hopefully I can keep putting in the time away from the computer.
Here are a few hands from the past couple of days.
A big Stud8 pot that I played very aggressively with my one pair.
If anyone knows a good converter for the stud games let me know.
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Studying
September 5, 2009 by Brian Townsend
Kara left Santa Barbara and is back in England for some work things so I am on my own for the next month or two. I have been taking full advantage and putting in the hours. In the first four days of the month I have played 7k hands. If I were to get 60k hands in this month I would be very happy, but that’s probably going to be tough. I have been studying every night going over my hands.
When I started focusing on the mix games on August 11th I thought this would be my best to worst list of games.
1) PLO
2) NLH
3) LHE
4) O8
5) Razz
6) Stud
7) 2-7 TD
Stud 8
I have been focusing on Razz and I feel like I am starting to make to good strides. Razz isn’t nearly as complicated as the other stud games, O8 or 2-7 triple draw. I have also been doing alot of study in Stud 8 as I thought that would be the toughest game for me. I have done really well in it and I have to give alot of thanks to Eric Rodawig’s videos as they have been excellent for a starting stud 8 player like myself. There isn’t much information in videos or books about the HORSE games and his videos are 10x better than any other on the Internet. So now after this study and seeing some results here is the order of skill in games now.
1) PLO: Mix game players are terrible at PLO, they really don’t get hand strength. I can’t be to critical of them as I am sure they think the same about me in other games I am weak in.
2+3) LHE/NLH: This may be more a result of the competition than my personal skill. I feel as though my limit holdem game has come a long way though and people don’t play it nearly as well as NLH. I feel most people are decent at NLH and some are atrocious at LHE. I have TheBryce to thank for part of my success in LHE. If you have never seen a Bryce video they are far and away the best on the Internet. I watch many videos on every major training site and the Bryces videos are a step above everyone else’s.
4) Razz: I have a razz simulator being built for me which will help with calculations. I ran through alot in the past week by hand and I feel pretty confident in my razz game.
5) Stud 8:My improvement is all thanks to Eric Rodawig.
6) Stud: I am up small and feel like I have a good concept of hand values. I need to spend some time crunching numbers but I think I will get there with some time spent.
7) 2-7 TD: This could very well be my worst game as I am only playing it when I play on stars and I have no way to track my results.
O8: As was evident in my previous list by placing O8 4th I thought I would be crushing this game but I have been getting murdered.
I am going to shift my focus from razz to O8 the game I am weakest in. I think my basic razz strategy will be enough until some of the very tough games where I will have to reanalyze my play and realize that my edge will probably always be very small in a game like razz.
My plan for learning O8 is to focus initially on starting hands and coming up with a good opening, three betting and blind defense strategy. I think I have mostly formulated it except for which hands are in what % grouping of hands. I will have to spend some time reviewing sessions and using http://www.propokertools.com/simulator/handPercent…
I also think part of my problem with O8 is that I am not starting with a blank slate. I have so much PLO background that it sways my mental calculations on hand strengths. I overvalue mediocre high hands. This is why using the propokertools simulator will help me realize which hands are in what %. I also think I need to really focus while playing. When the Stud games are on I really turn on my focus while during the Omaha and Holdem I go into auto pilot. Its fine for me to autopilot through NLH, PLO, and LHE but I need to focus on O8.
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Moving.
August 28, 2009 by Brian Townsend
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A year recap and a new direction.
August 16, 2009 by Brian Townsend
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Busy…
August 10, 2009 by Brian Townsend
I have been really busy the past week with a bunch of personal stuff so I haven’t played too many hands. I only have put in 3000 hands this month which is way way under the number of hands I have played the past few monhts. I have made the most of the hands I have played and am up 350k.
I have been doing really well getting in hands of mixed games and am on track to reach my goal of playing 10k hands of mixed games this month. I have been playing 20/40 and 40/80 mixed when the big PLO games are dead.
My results aren’t great. I am losing at -2.5 bb/100 in the stud games and I am losing at limit O8 as well. Its a very big project to learn these games and I am not very focused when I play. I don’t pay attention as I should and am not taking it serously enough. It doesn’t really hurt to lose so I don’t strive to get better. I just do what feels right and if I lose I don’t think twice about it.
It’s really tough to take the mixed games seriously when I am also playing larger PLO. I try to but I never review hands or think about my play. I just mindlessly press buttons. Hopefully I can get a bit more focused when I play.
Anyways here are some big pots from the month.
Sucking out vs a straight.
A good side of a cooler when I held the nut flush vs my opponenets 2nd nut flush.
A dry overpair holding up vs a very nice draw.
http://weaktight.com/1383982
A hero call gone wrong. I love when people post their hero calls and are correct, because they never seem to post hands like these where they are drawing dead.
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July Wrap Up…
July 31, 2009 by Brian Townsend
July was a very nice month for me. I put in alot of action at the nose bleeds and did well. In total I ended +280k for the month.
As for my goals I didn’t do as well as I would have liked.
1) Play 10k hands of limit O8, no higher than 50/100
2) Play 5k hands of Stud or Stud 8
3) Watch of make a video from on of the mixed games everyday.
4) have a winning month at 25/50 PLO
Of these four goals I accomplished only one. I ended up having a winning month at 25/50 PLO which feels great after losing 300k their. As I said earlier I probably wasn’t playing my best when I lost 300k, but still it just shows the variance in the games. I want to be very carefully when playing 200/400 and 300/600 with an ante because I believe a winning player could lose 3 million in those games.
The ante makes the PLO games play so much bigger. Most of my 300k downswing came in the ante games which I think almost doubles the size of the game. So 25/50 with an ante is almost as big as playing 50/100.
So the goals I set were a bit lofty so for August I want to set goals I think I can accomplish. I probably could have completed my July goals if it weren’t for all the action at higher stakes. I also had alot of real life stuff to deal with.
So my goals for August are
1) play 10k hands of mixed games no higher than 40/80.
2) watch a mixed game video twice a week
3) Only play big PLO when games are good, I am rested and focused.
Things have been going amazingly well this year for me. This could easily be my best year has a poker player not only financially but also in terms of the troubles I have had with multiaccounting and downswings at PLO. I know when things go really well I get complacent and don’t play my best. Hopefully I can keep my focus and drive that I have had all year and finish up strong.
A couple of big pots from the past few days.
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Rough session
June 23, 2009 by Brian Townsend
Last night I had a rough session playing in a short handed live 500/1000 PLO game. In total I lost 363k. In terms of BI’s this wasn’t a big loss for me but losing about 25% of what I was up for the year in one night wasn’t too fun. I thought I played really well and even quit after 10 hours when I felt myself getting tired instead of tilting away the remaining 200k that I have at the bellagio.
The game was really great, probably one of the best I have played all year, with people who sat after they had been out partying. Can’t really ask for more than playing 500/1000 with drunk people. I didn’t really lose any massive pots just 50k-100k here and there.
In one hand against a drunk player I opened from the button with AK45ss in a four handed game while there was a straddle so I opened to 6k. The drunk big blind called and the two other players folded. The flop was K82r giving me top pair top kicker and a backdoor flush draw. I bet 10k into a 15k pot. He check raised me to about 35 or 40k and I called. Turn was a 2 bringing a flush draw. He checked I bet like 20k into an 90k pot and he called. River was a brick he checked and I checked back to get shown A642. Not a horrible beat or anything, just kinda sucks since I haven’t played this large in a few years.
Its funny how losing 363k bothered me. I used to not get to bothered about losing but for some reason losing 25% of my profit on the year really got to me. There was a great game supposed to be running tonight but the thought of the possibility of losing 500k or so just sounds so unappealing to me. My brother is getting married this weekend so I am going to take the weekend off and see how I feel about playing next week when I get back into town.
All that said I really don’t regret my decision to play. I was very focused and played well, and the game was amazing. Not much else you can do but put yourself in those good situations.
So today I played some 50/100 HU PLO on fulltilt against a very good aggressive player, I won 50k off of him and 40k overal today. We played for a few hours and I ran very hot. I think I was out played, but ran well above expectation.
Flopping top two vs two pair in a RR pot.
A big suckout by me.
A great flop for both of us in a four bet pot.
Sucking out with aces.
Running into top two pair.
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Getting what I was wishing for.
June 22, 2009 by Brian Townsend
I arrived in Vegas yesterday and there was some great live action at the Bellagio. I wend downstairs at about 2AM and started playing 500/500 with a 500 ante 1/2 NLH 1/2 PLO in a very tough shorthanded game. This game was a must move game for the 300/600 PLO main game which later was bumped up to 500/1000. I have been very fortunate that most of the action thus far this series has been NLH and PLO. There has been some limit O8 and triple draw, which are two games I am learning to play now.
The first large pot I played was very standard against a well known player. I reraised his button open with aces and we got it in on a T97 flop. He had the nut flush draw and we ran it four times with me winning three of them.
The next large pot I played did not go so well for me. It was against the same player, who was playing very aggressivly and reraising alot preflop. In a three handed game I opened to 2k from the button with AT of clubs, the small blind flat called and he reraised to 9k from the big blind. I called and the small blind folded. The flop came 259 with one club and he bet 9k or so. I called and the turn was an ace not bringing any flush draws. He bet 23k and I called again. The river was a 6 and he fired his final 52k. I called and was shown 56o. Obvously it sucks to be shown that hand, but I like the way I played the hand. I think the two most marginal decisions are on the flop and river.
My opponent is very good and aggressive so when I flat call a 259r flop he will put me on alot of very marginal hands, like small pairs and ace highs that I did have. In turn with will cause him to barrel alot of turns causing me to fold my hand. To balance that though anytime I turn a pair he will continue betting with his entire range.
I don’t really see any other play than calling the turn, raising seems horrible to me. The river I could fold against some people, but this player is good and will value bet thin and I am actually ahead of some of his value bets. I think he would try to value bet JJ-KK, and any worse ace on the river. That said there are alot of better hands in his range which he is value betting, but I think him having 56o illistrates how wide his preflop rerasing range is.
So that had me stuck about 50k or so. I then went on to win many hands without a showdown, by running some medium sized bluffs and winning pots without a showdown. I also won a few smaller pots vs aggressive shorter stacks when things like my KKxx held up. This resulted in me winning 90k on the day in about eight hours of play. I am off to the gym now and going to head back down tonight for some more action.
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Small winrate, big month
June 20, 2009 by Brian Townsend
This month has been strange in that I am crushing 50/100-300/600 and getting destroyed at 25/50. I am down 130k at 25/50 this month but up 460k playing 50/100 and higher stakes. About 100k of that 460k is from live play this month. This is a real nice change for me because in the past I would get crushed anytime I played larger than 25/50 while doing really well in the 25/50 games. PLO is such a crazy game with the swings. I have played 10k hands of 25/50 PLO this month and am down 21 buy ins losing at 21 bb/100 while I am winning at higher stakes I am winning at 75 bb/100 over about 5k hands. I think this variance is what makes PLO such a great game.
I think part of the reason my results have been poor at 25/50 is not just because of variance but also because I haven’t been as focused as I usually am. When I have been playing 25/50 I have been playing six tables and whenever I play more than four my results start to hurt. I think the rest of the month I am going to cutback on the number of tables and really try to focus while playing and make sure I am not emailing or browsing the internet.
Here are some hands from the past few days.
A nice cooler…
I don’t like my line here, and I was lucky to win the hand.
Getting caught bluffing. Again pure spew by me.
Flop is thin.
Underset.
This is probably to loose, but hes reraising a massive range in this spot and I am only in trouble vs a pair and larger wrap. Still though putting in 400BB with this marginal draw isn’t great.
This is just gross.
Can’t ask for more than getting it in preflop with AA vs KK.
Two spew plays against Niki.
Not much to say.
Learning mix games is coming along well. I have been focusing on triple draw and limit O8. I think it will take me about a year to get decent at them, I will focus on the stud games. I have just been grinding some 2/4-5/10 online when I feel like playing and the PLO games are slow.
This past week I had an amazing time in California visiting some friends. I head back to Vegas for a week then back to California for my brothers wedding. I hope the live games start to pick up this week as they have been pretty slow all summer.
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Tilting…
June 15, 2009 by Brian Townsend
The past few days I recouped my losses from that horrible day. I played really well online and won 26k live.
I just finished a very frustrating HU match where I tilted a ton. Luckily my opponent was just playing for 15min because I was about to go lose 100k to him or so. I mean just doing stupid stupid things. Here is an example:
Ya it worked in this particular hand, but this is pure spew and I haven’t played this bad in a long long time. I lost 20k to this opponent in about 15min, before he left and I am VERY thankful he left. Usually I want to keep playing people, but this was one of those times I was very thankful he took off. I was completely hot in my face and not folding any hands.
Today I took off from Vegas and am spending the next week in Santa Barbara. Cash games have been totally dead in Vegas the past week with only a 100/200 1/2 NLH 1/2 PLO running. Hopefully things pick up later this series.
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