Johnny

Warning: Some of the links in this entry go to external sites and some are NSFW. If you hover over the links titles will pop up saying “EXT” for external link (link other than my home server), “NSFW” for the obvious, or “CLICK AWAY” if you wouldn’t mind if your mom/wife/priest saw it. Due to it’s nature the last link shouldn’t be clicked on by anyone.

So, who knew my first entry would be about shortstacks? I’ve come to accept that they are a huge hole in my game that I fear I can’t get out of.

I’m going to go over some hands from Friday night. Hey, if any of our great circle of friends on Ridge would like to comment on the hands or my thinking please make a thread in the strat section of the forum and copy them there, or make a guest blog post to post here. I’d greatly appreciate some analysis.

First hand…

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 9 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

SB: $137.20
BB: $79
Hero (UTG+1): $198.80
Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG+1)

UTG folds, Hero raises to $7, 5 folds, SB calls $6, BB calls $5

Flop: ($21) (3 Players)

SB checks, BB bets $21, 2 folds

Results: $21 Pot ($1.05 Rake)

BB mucked and WON $19.95 (+$12.95 NET)

Not a thrilling start. Here we made a standard raise UTG+1 with AKs and both blinds flat called. The big blind bet a little more than the pot and we dumped the hand. We had no reads on villains yet, but it soon became clear that BB was a shortstack pain, betting the pot or pushing every flop until he busted a couple hands later, so it was slightly annoying.

As it turns out, that kind of play was going to be somewhat standard for this session. Here are a couple of pots that I wasn’t involved in that will give you a feel for the two tables.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

CO: $342.90 (Solid player)
UTG+1: $36.70

Pre-Flop:

UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $2, MP folds, CO raises to $8, 3 folds, UTG+1 raises to $36.70 and is All-In, CO calls $28.70

Flop: ($76.40) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($76.40) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($76.40) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $76.40 Pot ($3 Rake)

CO showed (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$36.70 NET)

UTG+1 showed (a pair of Kings) and WON $73.40 (+$36.70 NET)

So, this guy who had been playing solid tried to raise the shortstack out, which doesn’t work because that’s why they are playing those stacks to begin with, then calls his push with a bad hand. His brain got eaten too.

Another hand…

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 8 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

SB: $54.05
Hero (BB): $182
UTG: $321.60
UTG+1: $223.45
MP1: $132.90
MP2: $68.80
CO: $100
BTN: $66

CO posts $2

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (BB)

UTG calls $2, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls $2, MP2 calls $2, CO checks, BTN raises to $4, SB calls $3, Hero folds, UTG raises to $15, 3 folds, BTN calls $11, SB raises to $54.05 and is All-In, UTG raises to $93.10, BTN calls $51 and is All-In

Flop: ($194.05) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($194.05) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($194.05) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $194.05 Pot ($3 Rake)

SB showed (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-$54.05 NET)

UTG showed (a pair of Sixes) and WON $191.05 (+$125.05 NET)

BTN showed (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-$66 NET)

So, the play is just a bit loose for us today. UTG was a pretty solid player himself and had no issues going all in against these guys with his AJ. Also, we love button’s minraise with QJ. Sometimes it really obvious to see when they are too loose, sometimes it isn’t. Our friend Ugi can tell you, minraising the button is just doing it the wrong way.

In what is the very next hand we find ourself with cowboys and we’ll be OOP. The converter is really messing up this hand so I’m going to post it freestyle.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players

Seat 1: Sitting out (shortstack busto dead button)
Seat 2: Hero ($180.00) SB
Seat 3: ($446.65) BB
Seat 4: (223.45) UTG
Seat 5: ($130.90) UTG+1
Seat 6: ($66.80) CO
Seat 7: ($98.00) BUTTON
Seat 8: Sitting out (shortstack busto dead CO)

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero

UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, CO limps, Button limps, Hero raises to $12.

Why $12? Because of the crazyness of the tables and our position I raised 6x, 4x plus 1x for each limper. In retrospect I would have liked to have made it $14 or $16 because of the difficulty of defining these shortstacks hands with anything standard.

BB folds, CO calls, Button folds.

Flop ($28) Flop: ($194.05)

Hero bets $28, CO folds.

Basically, I’m not fooling around. One of these guys is likely to call that pot sized bet or even push with a straight draw or a flush draw, any jack, or any ten. They don’t play shortstacks because they want to make difficult decisions. I don’t see any purpose in betting any less. If they fold, great, I’ll take it right there. If they push I’ll call because their range is infinite. If they flopped a set or JT then gg me again, just another unpleasant surprise.

Just a couple of hands later we have teh rockets.
Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

Hero (MP): $192.60
CO: $443.65
BTN: $248.85
SB: $138.95
BB: $38.80
UTG: $78

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP)

UTG folds, Hero raises to $7, 2 folds, SB calls $6, BB calls $5

Flop: ($21) (3 Players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($21) (3 Players)

SB checks, BB bets $21, Hero raises to $42, SB raises to $63, BB calls $10.80 and is All-In, Hero calls $21

River: ($178.80) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

SB bets $68.95 and is All-In, Hero calls $68.95

Results: $316.70 Pot ($3 Rake)

Hero mucked (two pair, Aces and Fives) and LOST (-$138.95 NET)

SB showed (a full house, Jacks full of Fives) and WON $313.70 (+$174.75 NET)

BB mucked (two pair, Jacks and Fives) and LOST (-$38.80 NET)

What happened here? Ugh. We made a standard raise first-in in MP. On this table we should have gone higher. SB is a previous shortstack who has doubled and BB is a moron. What do we bet? Both of these players have shown that they will not lay down their blinds very easily. A $20 would be begging the BB to push, but would he do it? Maybe a $12 or $14 bet out of the gate would have been better. Ideally we don’t want to isolate ourselves against the shortest stack on the table, but with these two in the blinds they are going to hang on and add problems to our pot if others call. Damn shortstacks. Anyway, as played our pre-flop is entirely wrong.

So the flop comes and they check to us and we check, which is some terriffic misclick equity for them. There is, of course, zero reason to check this flop unless you want a villain to catch up a little so that you can get more value on later streets, but that just doesn’t apply here. I must have been really distracted during this hand. I remember checking and immediately cursing.

The turn pairs the board and villains get aggressive. At this point I’m steaming because I misclicked on the previous street and I realize that my rockets are going to lose to these morons. I minraise the $21 bet, again showing I’m briefly out of my mind, and just call the rest down. While the one villain flopped top set, the other is true to his shortstack dingleberry role. But I played this hand worse than anyone.

Just a couple hands later, bam, more rockets.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

BB: $197
Hero (UTG): $206.25
UTG+1: $408.65
MP: $183.80
CO: $309.70
BTN: $87.75
SB: $223.20

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to $7, UTG+1 folds, MP raises to $124, 4 folds, Hero raises to $206.25 and is All-In, MP calls $59.80 and is All-In

Flop: ($370.60) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($370.60) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($370.60) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $370.60 Pot ($3 Rake)

Hero showed (a pair of Aces) and WON $367.60 (+$183.80 NET)

MP showed (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$183.80 NET)

Here, again, we made a standard raise, first in. Our SB is a moron but his little stack has been pumped up. BB we don’t know. Our button is the only shortstack left.

MP kindly took the decision making out of the hand for us, ty sir. Thanks to his standard 17.4x raise with JJ we could play this hand while being completely oblivious to our surroundings.

But what do you do when you flop air against a shortstack maniac?

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 9 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

SB: $67.80
BB: $84.95
UTG: $55
Hero (UTG+1): $183.80
UTG+2: $45
MP1: $39.55
MP2: $169.80
CO: $183.50
BTN: $239.10
UTG+2 posts $2

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG+1)

UTG folds, Hero raises to $8, UTG+2 calls $6, 6 folds

Flop: ($19) (2 Players)

Hero checks, UTG+2 checks

Turn: ($19) (2 Players)

Hero checks, UTG+2 checks

River: ($19) (2 Players)

Hero checks, UTG+2 checks

Results: $19 Pot ($0.95 Rake)

Hero showed (Ace King high) and LOST (-$8 NET)

UTG+2 showed (a pair of Sixes) and WON $18.05 (+$10.05 NET)

Here we’ve been flat called by the shortstack who had just posted in. He sat with just $45 on a $200 table. We’re out of position, we have AK, and we flopped air against a villain who is likely to spooge his chips all over the board. If he limped then called the liklihood of a small or mid pocket pair is good, but he posted in and called, so maybe he has a weak Ace or who knows what, the guys range is infinite. I just checked it down, feeling that a continuation bet would lead to a villain push. He might have folded with his small pockets, but that’s not why these guys buy in short. This is where I need some work.

The tables turned tight and I turned to Pokerstars, which provided some fishy action of it’s own and no reason to slow play a set.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

BTN: $103.35
Hero (SB): $100.85
BB: $97.80
UTG: $65.70
UTG+1: $109
MP: $60.45
CO: $208.20

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (SB)

UTG calls $1, 4 folds, Hero calls $0.50, BB checks

Flop: ($3) (3 Players)

Hero checks, BB bets $3, UTG calls $3, Hero raises to $9, BB calls $6, UTG calls $6

Turn: ($30) (3 Players)

Hero bets $14, BB raises to $87.80 and is All-In, UTG calls $55.70 and is All-In, Hero calls $73.80

River: ($261.30) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $261.30 Pot ($3 Rake)

Hero showed (three of a kind, Eights) and WON $258.30 (+$160.50 NET)

BB mucked and LOST (-$97.80 NET)

UTG mucked and LOST (-$65.70 NET)

Ok, this is too long. I’ll make them shorter. I’m going to keep trying to look at a few shortstack hands every so often as time goes on. I hope that I didn’t take the joke too far with all the links.

So, here’s the obligatory intro. 

I’m a part-time poker player, right now living at $1/$2 NL on Full Tilt.  Cash games are my preferred playground.  I’ve done alright in some multi table tournaments along the way, and I’m just getting into dabbling in ICM and Sit and Gos for fun.   I’m an art dealer, picture framer, and designer for my day job.  This makes cash games more practical as I’m normally very busy during the biggest tournaments on the weekends.

It was St. Patrick’s Day 2006 and I had been thinking of checking out this poker thing for some time.  We chose to stay in that night and cook some corned beef and cabbage, have a few beers, and stay cozy because it was cold.  I mentioned my interest to my girlfriend, Spammy, and she directed me to a site that gave you a bonus for signing up to poker sites. Hey, free money!  And that’s how I started that night, like so many others, signing up for Party Poker with a $100 free bankroll and getting $20 and a free t shirt along the way for joining the Poker Player’s Alliance.

I dabbled a tiny bit in the beginner’s micro tables on Party, but I didn’t want to really play until I understood more about the game.   I didn’t even know how blinds worked.  Searching for information I came across some really great people who loved talking about poker, and those guys are my current comrades here on the forums at Felt Poker.

Back then I read some really helpful articles, absorbed the strat forums while reading people discuss hands where they had hundreds of dollars in play and that seemed so far away to me, and originally registered on the forum in order to take advantage of the tutoring.  Pretty quickly I learned about this Sklansky guy and what he had to say about the ranking of hands.  I learned about how I was trapping myself.  I learned about bankroll management.  Once I had some basic strategy down I hit the Party beginner’s tables running.  I was still doing some awful things like limping with AA or KK until the river then pushing, then crying on the forums when I lost of course, but the knowledge that I did pick up right off the bat made me an overall winner.

I can’t say that I truly ran up that $100 in free money to my current roll because I used thousands of my own money to continually deposit for bonuses.  However, I’ve never put any money outside of the profits derived from that $100 on a table.   It’s been a slow progression compared to a lot of people and I’m still striving to build my first $10k, but I’m more than 1/2 way there after 19 months of learning and around 130,000 hands played.

Because of the way I’ve progessed, I’m a big believer in the importance of bonuses and incentives to cushion the bankroll of beginning players.  I did not play a single hand for over my first year when I wasn’t also earning some type of bonus.  It’s just now, after a year and a half, that my monthly wins and losses have begun to dwarf the impact of these incentives.  They are why I can say that, overall, my bankroll has grown 17 out of the 19 months I have been playing.  And, now that I’ve published that in a blog, here comes the brag curse!   Someone ask me for a dollar.

So with this blog I plan to record my progess in achieving my first $10k stack, post about beats and interesting hands,  record some of my thoughts on how hands played out, and just make general bloggy type posts.  Hopefully when I’m dead wrong one or two of my friends from Ridge can make a guest post and set us straight.  As I get used to what this blog software can do I can hopefully make them interesting or at least funny!