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.

Hand #14486906955

Tournament – 7 Card Stud *High-Low* (40/80), Ante 5, Bring-In 10

Brian Townsend (Seat 2): 3,155

Hong Kong1 (Seat 3): 1,492

NODAR1 (Seat 4): 744.50

TheComeUp (Seat 5): 2,456

*3rd Street* – (0.50 SB)

Brian Townsend: Kc Ts Kh___raises

Hong Kong1: xx xx 2s___*brings-in*___folds

NODAR1: xx xx 5h___calls___calls

TheComeUp: xx xx Ks___completes___calls

*4th Street* – (6.75 SB)

Brian Townsend: Kc Ts Kh 5s___*bets*___raises___calls

NODAR1: xx xx 5h 6d___raises___raises

TheComeUp: xx xx Ks 2h___calls___calls

*5th Street* – (9.38 BB)

Brian Townsend: Kc Ts Kh 5s Jh___*bets*___calls___calls

NODAR1: xx xx 5h 6d 9h___raises___raises

TheComeUp: xx xx Ks 2h 8h___raises___calls

*6th Street* – (21.38 BB)

Brian Townsend: Kc Ts Kh 5s Jh Jc___*bets*___raises

NODAR1: xx xx 5h 6d 9h 3c___raises___calls $19.50 (all-in)

TheComeUp: xx xx Ks 2h 8h Qs___calls___calls

*River* – (29.62 BB)

Brian Townsend: Kc Ts Kh 5s Jh Jc Js___*bets*

NODAR1: xx xx 5h 6d 9h 3c xx___all-in

TheComeUp: xx xx Ks 2h 8h Qs xx___folds

*Total pot:* (29.62 BB – 2,369.50)

Results:

Total pot $2,369.50 Main pot $2,248.50. Side pot $121. | Rake $2

Note: this site shuffles the hole cards.

NODAR1: [Qd 7c 5h 6d 9h 3c 3s] – HI: a pair of Threes

If anyone knows a good converter for the stud games let me know.

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

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Studying

September 5, 2009 by Brian Townsend

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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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I have been really busy the past month moving back to Santa Barbara. It’s been a lot of work getting everything sorted out and in order. We had a house warming BBQ last night which was a lot of fun, but suprisingly a lot of work to get set up. There is a great outdoor firepit and the hot tub was very popular. I had some good friends in town from the east coast and it was great to reunite with everyone back here in Santa Barbara.

Since the 11th I have played some mixed games, but not as much as I would like. The next two months I am going to have alot of free time, and I expect to grind alot. I hope I can get 50k hands in next month.

So far I have had results which you might have expected. In total since the 11th I have played 19k hands of the mixed games and I am up 26k. As you might expect I am making the most money in PLO and holdem. In the three stud games I am up 1.5k over 9k hands. So basically it seems I am breaking even, which is fine since those are the games where I have the most learning to do. I feel like I have come a long long way already in my stud knowledge.

My hand reading in Stud high is getting very good. I am able to put people on very accurate ranges and play them accordingly. I also feel comfortable in Razz as a basic strategy seems easy to implement. I think I have a long way to go in many of the finer points of Razz though. Stud 8 is by far my worst game, though my results have been okay. I have no concept of my equity in pots and have alot of trouble with hand reading and applying equities to make my decisions. In the past week I watched almost everyone of Eric “chipsahoya” Rodawig’s stud 8 videos which has helped a lot.

The game where I have had the worst results thus far is omaha 8. I thought I would do really well in it since I had played it more than the stud games in the past. I feel like I am playing well, so it may just be a normal downswing as I have only played 3k hands.

I haven’t been focusing much on 2-7 triple draws since it is only on Stars and I am unable to track my results. I feel like I am probably a slight loser or break even in it right now.

I think the games I’ve been playing in have been great. I think most people play NLH pretty well but suprisingly enough the game I think people are weakest at so far is limit holdem. I see a lot of bad plays like bluffing with bluff catching type hands. An example would be turning ace high into a bluff on a JT742ss board. I would guess that there is some bad play in stud games that I am unaware of, but I have been shocked at the poor play in limit holdem.

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A year recap and a new direction.

August 16, 2009 by Brian Townsend

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It has been almost exactly a year (11.5 months) since my red pro status from FullTilt Poker was suspended and I was banned from PokerStars. I have to admit that last year at this time I was at the lowest point of my poker career. I couldn’t win at PLO for the life of me. I had a breakeven year and before that breakeven strech I went on the biggest downswing of my life. As far as my poker career, I was at the lowest of the low. I must say I had some very good people around me who stood by when times were really tough. I was even a bit suprised by people who I thought would have turned there back on me when I wasn’t doing well didn’t and even more suprised by some good friends who really came through for me when times where tough.

What a diference a year can make. I set myself a challenge to grow my bankroll from 100k, just playing PLO. I did amazing, winning 2.5 million dollars in the last 11 months and over 2 million of that was in this year. I put in countless hours of work and feel like I am playing as well as anyone in PLO right now. The past 4-5 months I was playing the nosebleeds and did incredibly well, grinding from 25/50 up to 300/600. If my 2nd 1/2 of the year were to be as good as my 1st, I would have my best year ever.

I have learned a few things in the past year. One is that the diference between a good/great 10/20 or 25/50 player and the nosebleeds is incredibly small. I personally feel many of the best PLO players are playing 25/50 on stars and fulltilt. Obvously there are amazing players at the nosebleeds but there are a handful of guys just as good as them playing 25/50. The real diference between the two limits is that the random fish you have coming into the games is much much higher in the 25/50 games, but the best players are similar in skill and in many cases the 25/50 player can be better, just from sheer volume of hands played.

I am saying this not to make a point about who the best players are, but rather to say I learned that you aren’t better than anyone because you are playing at a higher limit. Great players play everywhere. You can take that even further and don’t think you are better than anyone else because you are a poker player. Or that your career path is more valid because it’s more lucrative than say a teacher, firefighter or carpenter.

I grew up in a very judgemental household where people doing things in a diferent or unfamilar way were often looked down on. In the past few years I have learned to shed that and become a bit more accepting of diferent ways of doing things. When someone tells me they believe in the astrological signs, I no longer look at them like they are insane. I accept that this is the way they choose to look at the world and who am I to tell them diferently.

So where does this leave me? Well I have accomplished everything I set out to do in PLO. I am very confident I can beat pretty much any PLO game that runs and although I don’t have a significant number of hands at 200/400 and 300/600 to be sure of this, my result so far point to this being true.

A week ago I decided to withdraw all my money online and start learning the mix games. I did this for a few reasons, but the main one is that I get bored once I feel like I have mastered a game and accomplished what I wanted to. I also realize that PLO is a very swingy game. The 300/600 with an ante games play so big that a winning player could easlily go on a 3 or 4 million dollar downswing. The thought of losing everything I made this year or in the past year on such a downswing sickens me. Although its unlikly with what I feel my edge is in those games, I still don’t have a massive edge and no one really does. I would estimate the biggest winners long term are going to have a 2-3BB/100 winrate. This will cause massive fluctuations.

To be honest I guess I am getting a bit older and am not willing to take the risks that I once was. I used to not mind the thought of losing a lot and grinding back up, but now I have no desire to have those swings in my life as they are incredibly stressful.

The final reason I want to learn the mix games is that I want to be a more complete poker player. The best poker players in the world don’t just play one form of poker HU and thats all they specialize in. They can play every game well HU or ring. I have always aspired to be this type of poker player and learn diferent games such as LHE and PLO. In the short run learning the mix games is going to hurt my hourly rate, but long term its going to really help me by making me able to play every game and thinking about poker in a bigger picuture. I also think the future of the nosebleeds is going to be in the mixed games and not PLO. I don’t really have any good reasons for this, its just my intution. Worst case is I learn the mixed games for awhile, think about poker as a whole in a better way and end up playing mainly PLO.

Because of my desire to learn these mixed games I have withdrawn everything and have begun grinding the 20/40 and 40/80 games which in terms of big bet poker is playing 5/10 or 10/20 blinds. One of my friends asked me why I don’t learn the mixed games on the side while playing PLO when good games where running. I replied that I felt like I couldn’t play my best at the mixed games while playing so much larger at PLO. So I left myself 50k and want to grow this into enough to play the 1k/2k and 2k/4k mixed games.

Since doing this, my mixed game results have taken a great turn. I was losing very badly in them before the 11th when I took my money off and since then I have won almost 20k in 9k hands. I really think grinding up is the best way for me to learn these games and I have no chance of playing larger than I should be. I lost alot of money thinking I was better at poker games than I was and sitting in some big games.

Realistically, this is going to take me two years or more, athough I would like to think next year at this time I could be playing in those games. Thats just not realistic though as there are many games (Stud, Stud8, O8) which I have almost no experience with and they will take me a very long time to master. I think I will learn games much more quickly than in the past as I feel I have mastered two, PLO + NLH, and am very good at LHE.

Instead of diving in and grinding hands, I am thinking how I want to learn these games. In the past I learned completely by trial and error though grinding tons of hands. Although this is a reasonable way to learn and how most poker players improve their game, I want to take my learning to a step higher this time. Everytime I have learned a game I have become sucessively better and in turn it’s taking me much less time with each game I learn as some concepts (Position, blind defence etc.) carry over between games. This time though I want to map out my learning process and be very exact with how I learn the games, so I don’t have to grind countless hours. I want to think about situations so if I riase first to act in stud with KhKcks with two aces behind me and get repopped and call down only to be shown trip aces the first 10 times this situation comes up, I don’t color my judgement and think that raiseing rolled up kings first to act is a bad decision.

I don’t want to mindlessly be pressing buttons as I play and when good things happen I repeat them. That is a horribly way to learn. I want to always be asking myself the question “Why am I doing this?”. If I can’t answer this question then I need to spend some time away from the tables to answer it.

I am really looking forward to the challenge.

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Busy…

August 10, 2009 by Brian Townsend

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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.

http://weaktight.com/1383980

A good side of a cooler when I held the nut flush vs my opponenets 2nd nut flush.

http://weaktight.com/1383981

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.

http://weaktight.com/1383983

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July Wrap Up…

July 31, 2009 by Brian Townsend

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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.

http://weaktight.com/1342887

http://weaktight.com/1342891

http://weaktight.com/1342892

http://weaktight.com/1342894

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Swings…

July 27, 2009 by admin

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First I have been on the good side of the PLO swings the past couple of days. The swings in these big PLO (Or any PLO game) are so sick. In the past two months I have had two 600k swings. Most sessions I am swinging 10BI’s and even had a downswing of 300k at 25/50. Its just massive amount of variance. I was pretty depressed after my last session where I lost 300k and 600k in 3 days. I played really well except for one short session where I was a bit tired.

This losing even effected my personal life where I was rude and short with some family members. I really hate when poker effects my personal life. It rarely does but this loss really hurt for some reason even though I was only down 60k or so for the month.

So today I sat down and boom I win 340,000 in 161 hands. I had a great day the past two days as well winning about 80k putting me at +360k for the month. Here are some of the hands over the past few days.

Please hold…

http://weaktight.com/1333067

Always nice to wake up to aces with that action in front.

http://weaktight.com/1333078

A nice suckout.

http://weaktight.com/1333079

A bit of FPS.

http://weaktight.com/1333081

Don’t bluff me!

http://weaktight.com/1333082

Don’t bluff me again!

http://weaktight.com/1333083

Some days you play PLO and the board pairs every single time you have a flush and they have a set. Luckily for me I have been fading everything the past couple of days.

http://weaktight.com/1333084

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The End of a Heater

July 25, 2009 by admin

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PLO can make you feel like the greatest poker player in the world and then the next session make you feel like the worst. I was going to post some losing hands from the nice heater I had but didn’t get around to it as I have been playing alot the past few days. Unfortunately my results have been very poor with me losing 450k. In one session I played great, and really brought my A+ game but managed to lose 350k. The session from two days ago I wasn’t playing great and was on my C+ game and lost another 100k.

I was up about 1.5 million on the year and it really sucks to lose 1/3 of that in two days. I am not very happy about it and I hope I turn it around soon.

This hand sums up my last two days really well.

http://weaktight.com/1324796

I do know one thing I am very confident that I am going to have really great results in these 200/400 PLO games. I just hope they keep running.

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Lots of 200/400 action and a nice heater

July 22, 2009 by admin

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The past few days have been going really well for me at 200/400. There has been alot of games running and they have been really good games. I am up about 400k (330k at 200/400 and the rest at 25/50-100/200) in the past few days thought I have been staking someone and am down 100k in that. I have been playing really well and focused and using good discipline on what games to play. I think I have an edge against most any 6 handed lineup but I still don’t want to play unless I feel as though I have a large edge.

I used to not really care much about game selection but in the past year I have started to play when games are good, particularly at 200/400. 200/400 with an ante plays so big with such huge amounts of variance. In the sessions I would constantly be swinging 10 BI’s. Game selecting well helps me lower this variance as my winrate will be higher. That said there is still huge amounts of variance in these games and I bet a winning player could lose 2M playing 200/400 PLO with an ante.

Now for the big hands, and there have been some massive ones.

I am surprised I am only up 30k in expectation over the past few days. I know that doesn’t mean to much but I felt like I was running very hot. I guess I have been on the good side of coolers.

I suck at folding. Weeeee!!!!!

http://weaktight.com/1319527

51% equity for the 200k pot…

http://weaktight.com/1319530

cooler with the nuts vs 2nd nuts

http://weaktight.com/1319532

AAxx vs KKxx allin preflop

http://weaktight.com/1319533

Once in awhile I get tricky. I like my opponents call as my hand looks alot like a draw.

http://weaktight.com/1319536

A couple push and pray hands. I am happy to go 1-1 in them.

http://weaktight.com/1319537

http://weaktight.com/1319538

Sucking out on top two…

http://weaktight.com/1319539

Getting it in vs top set.

http://weaktight.com/1319540

Not to see a raise and reraise when you limp with aces

http://weaktight.com/1319546

I was lucky to have 50% equity here.

http://weaktight.com/1319547

winning with kings vs aces.

http://weaktight.com/1319548

I will do the losing hands in the next blog entry as this is getting really long.

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Lots of 200/400 action

July 20, 2009 by admin

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I have been playing alot of 200/400 PLO over the past few days. I am down about 40k in that but up 30k from all play in that time. I felt really comfortable the past few days even with the massive swings. Two days ago I started off playing and won 180k in about 30 min. I then proceeded to lose 250k over the next few hours. Today’s session was the exact opposite. I started off stuck about 120k and battled back to +120k. Then I lose a few pots and was going to call it a day when I lost a 100k pot on the final hand of play putting me +30k for the day. Its pretty annoying when that happens but what can you do.

Here is that final pot from today.

http://weaktight.com/1313246

And some interesting hands from the past few days.

Here is the largest pot I played, unfortunately I didn’t win it.

http://weaktight.com/1313247

A great flop for me.

http://weaktight.com/1313249

Always nice to get it in with double suited aces even if its a cooler.

http://weaktight.com/1313253

Running into aces.

http://weaktight.com/1313255

All this PLO action has been great, but its cut into my mixed game time. I am on track to finish the hands that I set out in my goal except for the stud ones. Instead of playing 5k hands of stud I am going to just play 5k hands of mixed games.

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