Thursday, August 6, 2009

keeping pots small and pot button

www.dudeopia.com

Lately instead of raising to 3.5-4x as the first into a pot I've been raising to 3x or 2x if I'm close the the button with a short stack still left. Now I've been wondering about why my cbets are not working as much and the conclusion I came to today is simply that the pots are smaller which causes smaller cbets. The great thing about it is it throws people off what they are used to. Some people go into a hole b/c a raises is smaller so it will be harder to get me off a marginal made hand, some like the idea of not having to raise as much as a bluff but a lot of times have few or no outs.

The pot button on full tilt offers some interesting dynamics in that certain players, mostly fish, love to use it. The problem is that a good top pair hand ends up being a complete bluff catcher as the pot grows exponentially. There's not a better situation than having a set with the preflop raiser mashing pot oop.

The funny thing is I'm only up 1/2 a buyin over 17k hands this month at nl50fr. Extending on my last post I've pretty much accepted that I'm only able to play 1-2 hours of my A game each day. Hopefully that changes but grinding fpps at $15/hr while mentally preparing for the bigger games isn't so bad.

This hand sums up both of my thoughts. not sure why this guy thought I was folding the river after calling a pot sized turn bet.

***** Hand History for Game 13858140193 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 06, 03:24:29 ET 2009
Table Timber Canyon (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: liveblind ( $23.20 USD )
Seat 2: dtorres3 ( $9.40 USD )
Seat 3: momo99 ( $31.50 USD )
Seat 4: DONK4LIF3 ( $9.25 USD )
Seat 5: Kairos_X ( $16.85 USD )
Seat 6: elgreenhornet ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 7: primemutton ( $64.15 USD )
Seat 8: MeiBra ( $18.55 USD )
Seat 9: celQ ( $12.10 USD )
MeiBra posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
celQ posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgreenhornet [ Js Kc ]
liveblind folds
dtorres3 folds
momo99 folds
DONK4LIF3 folds
Kairos_X folds
elgreenhornet raises [$1.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$1.00 USD]
MeiBra folds
celQ folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 4c, 6d ]
elgreenhornet bets [$2.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$6.75 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$6.75 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$20.25 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$20.25 USD]
primemutton shows [Td, 8c ]
elgreenhornet shows [Js, Kc ]
elgreenhornet wins $57.75 USD from main pot

Monday, August 3, 2009

skipping around in limits

I'm about 2 weeks away from my 200k vpp milestone and preparing for the move to full tilt. So for the last few days I've been grinding some nl50 full ring a for a few hours a day just to keep busy churning out some vpps and then will hit nl100 and 200 6 max for a session each. I know I've been running better at the higher limits and probably just good overall.

However, I can't help but feel there is something mental at play. I know I was playing pretty poorly during some of my nl50 sessions which make up the majority of my hands this month. Then it seems when I switch over to the higher levels at 6 max I am playing very well, avoiding tricky spots while adjusting to others looseness and aggression properly.

These 2 hands made me feel really good about not losing a lot more. I can shove and get called by worse sometimes but I'm beat more often than called by worse. Villian in first hand is 60+% vpip and very passive. In the hand right before I got 3 streets of value where I had tptk against his nut flush draw turned 2nd pair. If he raises me on the flop or turn it's arrin and I hope I can do the same on any river since every q is in his range but the ace certainly made me stop and think.

***** Hand History for Game 31225461060 ***** (Poker Stars)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 04, 12:26:22 ET 2009
Table Slipher III (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 2: seadragon68 ( $9.00 USD )
Seat 3: threeacesnkk ( $9.10 USD )
Seat 4: karter_35 ( $9.70 USD )
Seat 5: QuesqueFuque ( $23.70 USD )
Seat 6: bundesmiro ( $38.95 USD )
Seat 7: Jackpot6666 ( $116.35 USD )
Seat 9: elgrenhornet ( $81.25 USD )
bundesmiro posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
Jackpot6666 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ Jh Jc ]
elgrenhornet raises [$1.50 USD]
seadragon68 folds
threeacesnkk folds
karter_35 folds
QuesqueFuque folds
bundesmiro folds
Jackpot6666 calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Js, Qd ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$3.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 calls [$3.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$6.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 calls [$6.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ad ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$14.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 raises [$28.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$14.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 shows [Jd, Qs ]
Jackpot6666 wins $74.25 USD from main pot
elgrenhornet doesn't show [Jh, Jc ]

No reads on villian in this hand... His stats didnt show up when I opened it in hem. It seemed like this guy was trying to get as little value as possible.

***** Hand History for Game 31221907018 ***** (Poker Stars)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 03, 09:54:26 ET 2009
Table Geranium (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: snellesnelle ( $220.20 USD )
Seat 2: mdeckND ( $239.60 USD )
Seat 3: elgrenhornet ( $208.25 USD )
Seat 4: showtime ( $38.00 USD )
Seat 5: xSuPrA ( $236.75 USD )
Seat 6: iamajax ( $257.10 USD )
showtime posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
xSuPrA posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ 8d Jd ]
iamajax raises [$8.00 USD]
snellesnelle folds
mdeckND folds
elgrenhornet calls [$8.00 USD]
showtime folds
xSuPrA folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Qd, 8h ]
iamajax checks
elgrenhornet checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
iamajax checks
elgrenhornet bets [$10.00 USD]
iamajax calls [$10.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
iamajax bets [$26.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$26.00 USD]
iamajax shows [5c, 5s ]
iamajax wins $88.00 USD from main pot
elgrenhornet doesn't show [8d, Jd ]

Saturday, August 1, 2009

healthcare

I go to showdown way too much. Those little river bets in small pots kill me.

I don't have health insurance right now, although that may change b/c UTD has a student policy available. The reason is simple, I'm young and don't want to pay $200+ a month.

A lot of liberals think health care is a basic human right along with housing and a job. Besides the basic conservative line of thinking that the freedom of choice and responsibility is more important there is also the issue that dead beats would just take advantage and never feel any consequences. I do think it would be great if health care was available and affordable to everyone.

The only problem is that our government, much like the 18% of Americans under 65 including the young and healthy, cannot afford it which begs a question that is never asked. Why is health care so expensive? I have a few hypotheses that have no facts to back them up but are based on the little information I acquired while working in medical billing.

Most insurers have agreements with what hospitals or doctors they use. If you go out of the network for the insurer you use your bill is not covered. So the hospital thinks this is great and even gives the insurer a discount. I looked at so many eob's, explanation of benefits, which is basically a receipt showing what the insurer paid and they are writing off anywhere from 25-75% of a bill, especially medicare.

So the hospital is getting screwed because if they don't like it the insurer will go to another network. In order to recoup the reduced income they have to raise prices. Keep in mind uninsured individuals don't get to write off any part of their bill. So now fewer people can afford to pay out of pocket and are forced to not pay or file bankruptcy. The insurers who don't like the increases prices look for ways to deny a claim for any bogus unrelated reason they can find. Well now the hospital is losing more money and must increase the prices again.

One side note involving medicare... All hospitals must serve everyone whether or not they have any intention of paying. Although this has to be done what ends up happening is illegal aliens go to the emergency room for every little need and never paying. I'm not saying they all do it blah blah but so many claims with a Hispanic name and no social security number ended up going through our system 3 or 4 times before somebody higher up than me just had to claim it as a loss.

I have no idea what the laws and regulations regarding insurers are but that is where the problem lies. Medicare/medicaid is already 1/3 of our national budget. National programs are wasteful and inefficient and only serve to give those in power more power to garner votes. Find out why health care prices are so exorbitant and fix it. Everything else will fall in line.