Live Players Love to Payoff and Chase

I've played over 6 sessions now and even took a shot at a 5-60 spread limit game. I was waiting to get into a 2-60 spread limit game when I saw that 5-60 was running. I went to watch and saw this older lady tilting her head off. She was open raising to 30 and 50 when the blinds were 2-5. Bet Bet and c/open fold junk on the river. I immediately put my roll that I brought to play 2-60 and sat down with $400. I played tight and waited for a hand because I knew it could easily go all in vs this tilting lady. She losses her stack and rebuys for another $500. Sweet, she might be loaded. It's 7 handed and it is folded to me on the Button. I open to 15 and SB (Tight) calls and tilting lady in BB folds. Flop is 99A r, I c bet to $30 and try to get a fold because I have air and I'm repping the Ax. SB c/c. Turn is a J. I bet $60 and SB c/c. River is a J and then SB donks $60. I tank/fold trying to fake that I got an Ace. SB shows 9To for the flop trips slow play. Tilting lady eventually get's up but the game was still good. There were a few calling stations that I could take advantage of if I picked up a hand. I played for another 30 minutes and won about $140 in this game. If would of stayed if I could stomach the swings but I don't think I'm ready yet. If the games play that soft, I will def take more shots.

Over the 6 sessions, I'm up over 7 bi. Running hot but playing great too. I've folded KK pre to AA preflop and QQ to KK preflop. Individual with AA had been playing super tight/passive pre. He had over limp AKo SB 5 ways. Individual with KK had previously limp/call with Q3dd vs my iso r and c/c flop J3x r and ck atw ftw vs my AKo high. This time he had open r $12, got a call to his left and I picked up QQ MP and made it $36 because I wanted him to call. LP cold calls $36 and folded back to him who made it $96. I tank folded and LP calls. Funny thing was flop was Qxx. I would of flopped top set. Money got in somehow and he showed KK FTW vs LP.

I've been listening to Bart Hanson's Podcast on Deuces Cracked and he's def got a lock on live players. He recs, don't iso 3 bet so much and just try to keep the pot as small as possible preflop. Make a big hand and value bet the hell out of em. That's the only strategy you need to beat 2-60 spread limit because all the rec/regs come here to gamble and not fold.

I've played 2 crazy hands.

Hand 1) I picked up a read that LP was tilting because he had been losing/bluffing his chips away. LP open r $8 and folds to me in the SB. I see KT hh and make it $40. Folded back to LP who calls.

Flop: 789 r (pot is around $80)

I c bet $60 and LP calls

Turn: blank turn and I bet $19 because that's all that LP had left and LP calls

River: is a Q

I tell LP he probably wins and LP flips over QJo for the river top pair FTW. Lol, I could of won with KThh high!

Hand 2) Vs Same Villain in LP and about 10 minutes later from Hand 1.

I'm utg with JJ. I open raise to $8 and utg + 1 calls. LP (tilting) raises to $24 and it folds to me on the BB. I max raise max to $84. UTG + 1 (Tight) raises all in for $160 and LP reraises all in for about $168 total. I think about it for a sec and call because I overhear utg + 1 talk to his neighbor about how crazy I was and LP.

Board Runs JQx r, 2d for the backdoor Flush draw and river T.

Old man utg + 1 smiles and flips over AKd FTW (Main pot = $480). I flip over JJ for the small $16 side pot. I later ask LP what he had and he told me he had pock T. So Sick!

Like I said, lesson learned. I don't mind that I played aggressive preflop vs LP who was tilting. However, I think it's best to keep the pot's small preflop and own them postflop. I'm not a great player, but I def got an edge vs most of my live opponents postflop. They just play so so bad you won't believe it.

Live Poker at Running Aces

I just played a session this past Saturday between 6:30pm-midnight at Running Aces in Columbus, MN. It's a spread limit game $2-$60, blinds 1-2, min buy in $50 and max buy in of $200. Basically, you can bet between $2 and $60.

My table consisted of very tight passive and loose passive players who love to get to showdown. I found out quick that c bet's don't work but turn bets do. So I stopped bluffing on the flop and started betting for thin value. If I had nothing I would check/fold flops multi way, delay c bet IP or donk low flops and scare cards on the turn. This strategy worked and I ended up winning $168.

This was my biggest hand that I won.

(9 handed) I started with about $135. I was on the SB with KK. UTG and BB were both over 200bb deep. They were both splashing and playing alot of big pots and winning.

UTG (loose passive) straddle to $4. UTG + 1 (Loose Passive) limps, MP limps (Tight ABC), and CO limps (Nit). I look down and see KK on the SB. I raise to $24. BB cold calls and UTG calls and it is folded around.

The pot is around $88. 3 handed heading into the flop.

Flop is J84 2 hearts. I c-bet max $60. BB calls and UTG raises the max to $120 total. I call the rest of my chips and BB calls too. There is a very small side pot.

Turn is a 7. It goes check check.

River is a 5 and it goes check check. No flush card hits.

Board is J84 7 5

We all flip our cards over. BB has TJo for flop top pair. UTG has AJo for a flop TPTK. I flip over KKo FTW. Main pot was around $420 after the rake/tip.

I plan on going atleast once a week on either Fri or Sat evening. If every weekend is like this, I'm hoping to win some extra spending cash. They have a 5-60 spread limit game but that sounds horrible because you can only bet 60 max. You'll probably end up betting 1/2 pot or even less on the turn or river in multi way pots. I might give if a try is the table looks soft though. For now, 2-60 spread limit will be my game.

I miss Poker

Got my money out already by PokerStars. I'm def lucky that I switched from FTP to PS because FTP was a great site. I switched sites because they changed their rakeback system from dealt to rake contributed. IMO, FTP software is way better than PS but there is no comparison when it comes to customer support. PS wins on that front. Hopefully, all their USA players at FTP and UB/AP get their money back and USA regulates online poker.

I really miss poker. Still going to study this game and watch poker videos. I might even get some coaching because there seems to be big discounts now since the whole Black Friday situation. Demand is def less now for coaching, which is good for players who want coaching.

Poker Player's Alliance Action Alert

Wow, I can't believe what is going on. I took a couple of days to post this because I wanted to gather my thoughts and not panic. I got over 4 figures stuck online and have no idea when I'll be seeing it again. I took a month off then started playing again only to see this happen. I was in a groove and was looking to grind.

Click the link. There is a prewritten letter that you can email to President OBama, the Attorney General and your local/state congressman.

PPA Action Alert

Jan 2011 Review and Current Poker Plans

I ran really bad and played bad. I have no excuses. I did take one shot at $200 NLHE FR Rush when I was confident with my game and I'm proud that I did that and didn't go up there just to chase losses. I lost about 1 and 1/2 buyin with that shot and had the discipline to drop back down to $100 NLHE FR Rush.

Overall, I basically ran even if you include my black card $1k bonus, $500 end of year bonus and $100 Holiday bonus. Def not happy with my results but I gotta accept that I need to reevaluate my poker game.

I withdrawal all of my FTP money and have about a $5k bankroll at PokerStars. I plan to play less tables to learn the software and pick up better reads. I just played a 8 tabling session of $50 NLHE FR at PS and I felt comfortable. I'll keep grinding $50 NLHE FR until I feel I'm mentally ready for $100 NLHE FR. It'll probably take over 10k hands or so because I took a beating last month. Feels good to be playing regular tables too, it's nice to build history with players and keep your same position at all times.

Going to reevaluate my game and make a strong run for $200 NLHE FR this year. I feel I'm on the brink of beating $100 NLHE and taking another shot at $200 NLHE FR. I'm currently participating in Citizenwind's private forum on CardRunners. I've been trying to be active with posting and responding to hands. It should take my A game to another level if I keep it up.

I'm also going to be watching Nanonoko's poker strategy videos at PokerNews. I gotta see what he is doing because his results are ridiculous.

Also checkout NuteDawg's podcast interview at CR and Nan Ying's podcast at DeucesCracked. If def inspired me to be a better player.

Here are the links for NuteDawg's Podcast and Nan Ying's.


1)CR Podcast NuteDawg


2)Episode 107 Nan Ying


It's all about isolating the fish, playing with logic, and the good old bet/fold, check/fold, and bet bet bet for value. I find that it's very hard to play logically when I'm losing stacks. It's def one of my biggest weakness that I need to work on right now.

Goals for January 2011:

1)Clear my $1k black card bonus, $500 end of year bonus and $100 Holiday Bonus (Completed)
2)Stop Being a Calling Station (Not completed, still not bet/folding in right spots or check/folding)
3)Transition over to Poker Stars (Completed)

Goals for February 2011:

1) Play solid ABC Poker or quit session
2) Learn to bet/fold, check/fold and bet bet bet for value. In other words, stop being a calling station and pot controlling too much.
3) Stop open r/calling preflop trying to hit sets vs unknowns or nits unless very deep, a fish and/or you got solid reads of how they play postflop.
4) Play tighter OOP and looser IP. Take advantage of position more and isolate the fish IP.
5) Be more active in forums by posting/responding to hand history/theory discussion.

December Review and Transition to PokerStars

Played a little over 26k hands at FTP $100 NLHE FR Rush Poker in December. I basically broke even and won a little with rakeback/bonuses. I bought the $1k bonus in the black card store and I'm in the process of clearing it in January along with my $500 end of the year bonus. It's nice that they both clear at the same time too.


Goals for December 2010:

1) Complete Rush week and earn $250 bonus.
2) Play A game 100% of time or just quit for day/session
3) Earn at least Gold for the Iron Man so that I can collect my end of year bonus.
4) Stop being a calling station without solid reads.


1)Completed
2)Probably played my best about 80% of the time. I'm still making terrible preflop calls and stupid hero calls without solid reads.
3)Earned Gold
4)Failed

Goals for January 2011:

1)Clear my $1k black card bonus, $500 end of year bonus and $100 Holiday Bonus
2)Stop Being a Calling Station
3)Transition over to Poker Stars

As for goal 3, I'm in the process of taking the majority of my play to Poker Stars. Since FTP changed how they calculated rakeback, it's better value for me to play at Poker Stars. I figure I can get atleast 100k vpp and earn SuperNova. If I go on a heater and improve my poker game, I can go for 200k and slowly move up to $200 NLHE FR.