More Isildur1 - From the Rail

It looks like Isildur is really committed to climbing the stakes and building his bankroll quickly. I'm sure that he has backer(s) and all are looking to repeat his meteoric climb from zero to millions so they can cash in.

Today, Isildur sat down with a player that goes by 'luvtheWNBA' on FTP. According to PTR, luvtheWNBA is quite the cash game player, netting over $900k profit in 90,000+ hands of 25/50 and 50/100 NLH HU.

I think that I was able to capture some stats that are accurate about the session:

1283 Hands played at $50/$100 NLH HU
Isildur1 finished down $17525 - nearly 2 buy-ins.

From what I could tell, luvtheWNBA was a passive player, precisely picking spots and generally playing better premium hands. When Isildur would roll his $10k buy-in on one table up to ~$30k range, he would immediately close the table and start from scratch. He really wanted to bank those winnings and not leave them subject to getting taken in one hand at a NL table.

Interestingly, $50/$100 NLH HU is a game that Isildur historically had a lot of success at. Coming into the day, in just under 6,000 hands, Isildur had a profit of around $97,000. (8+BB/100). In terms of games that he has logged lots of hands at, $50/$100 seemed like one of his most profitable. At one point, it looked like Isildur was up a buy-in or two for the session.

There were a few decent sized pots toward the end of the session. One was worth nearly $10k - it went to the river and luvtheWNBA took the pot without a showdown. In another, Isildur managed to maximize his monster, when his pocket kings tripped up on the flop, and he turned a full house when the board paired a 3. He made pot sized bets up until the river, when he shoved for his last $9k. He got the call, and took down a $21.4k pot.

In a rare pre-flop 3 bet, Isildur raised it up to $1100 with pocket 10s. He got a call, and luvtheWNBA outflopped him, catching top pair with a K. A 60%pot bet by Isildur was called. Both players checked an A on the turn. When a 10 came on the river, luvtheWNBA shoved all-in and Isildur called, taking down the $22.4k pot with trip 10s.

Final interesting note from the session, at one point luvtheWNBA accused Isildur of trying to manipulate table position and gain more button opportunities by closing down tables and opening new ones. Isildur claimed it was just to get his growing stack off the table and re-start with $10k.

Hopefully more to come - maybe even tonight. I see that K0STYA_Spb is already back online and probably looking for more.

Isildur1 is back!

I saw tonight on pokernews that Isildur has come back and is playing at lower levels, trying to work his bankroll back up (playing 25/50 NLH) on Full Tilt. I happened to be logged in at the time, and...lo and behold...Isildur1 was there, playing anywhere from 6-8 tables with a player that I've not heard of: K0STYA_Spb.

I went and checked things out at Poker Table Ratings, and by luck, I left the individual player screens up. This would allow me to open a new window and compare their winnings/losses to get an estimate of how the night went for these two.

Note - I didn't get to PTR right when they started, and I only hung out for about 3 hours, so I probably will not get the stats for the entire session. However, here is an idea of how things went:

1651 hands (again, not full session, just time period I tracked)
Isildur1 down $15646
Roughly -20BB/100

I'm sure another site will be able to come up with more thorough stats for the heads up battle. I never really saw Isildur take down too many pots, and saw him rebuying quite a bit. If what I was watching is right, the final totals for the night should significantly favor the Russian.

The other interesting thing here is that Isildurs opponent was seemingly a very weak 25/50 NLH HU player. Before their session he was a -2.57BB/100 player at that level, having lost a total of $172,000.

Oh well, at least it is fun for we railbirds to hang out and watch!

Another Deep Run...

I played another $150 Freeroll on FTP tonight. I played it really well, being in the top 100 or so in chips for most of my run.

However, with a stroke of tough luck, I miss the cash again.

All folds to me in LP with T9h. I raise it up 3x, and only the BB calls. I had position. Flop comes 8-A-J rainbow. Flopped an open ender. BB lead out with a bet about half the pot. I flat called. Turn came 7. Hit my straight. BB lead out with another bet of 1/2 pot. I insta-shoved and he insta-called. I tabled my straight, he tabled a set of 8s. As luck would have it, he paired the board with a J on the river, and his 8s Full bested my straight. Despite being #20 in chips with 66 left, this guy had me covered. That pot goes my way, and I am chip leader.

Oh well...pretty frustrating to play all that long and really expect to make the cash finally, and go out that way...

WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! Bloggers can register to play for free in the WBCOOP, if you don’t have a PokerStars account you can get your Free Poker Download at PokerStars

Registration code: 149901

WBCOOP is back!

Wow - not sure how I missed this one (probably because I've been playing almost exclusively on FTP the past 9 months!)

After reading through more of Otis' wonderful writing, I stumbled to his "Up For Poker" blog (shared with Luckbox and G-Rob), and found the exciting news that the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker is back on PokerStars.

See more here: WBCOOP

Off to submit my entry and get into the fray!


Wish me luck...

RP: "The Real Cost of Having a Baby"

My apologies, as this story is only loosely related to Poker. It is extremely important, along with hitting too close to home, so I feel compelled to plug it.

Brad 'Otis' Willis is a household name in the poker community, and an all-around good-guy. Prior to writing on poker, Otis was an award winning investigative journalist.

This is the story of his fight against the medical system when his latest child was born.

I can feel for this, as when our 2nd was born, despite having insurance, we faced a litany of strange charges and doctors that came out of the woodwork to claim 'present' at a procedure and charge us $1,000's.

Please read, share your thoughts, and should this blow up bigger, put your weight behind Otis:

http://www.rapideyereality.com/archives/2010/01/19/st-francis-hospital-the-real-cost-of-having-a-baby/

Cardrunners

I have spent quite a bit of time (as previously mentioned) trying to come up with various ways to improve my game. I've heard a lot of good things about the Cardrunners crew, so I spent some good time on their site over the past few days to check them out.

First off - I have to plug this - their founder (Taylor Caby) is a fellow Alum of the University of Illinois. While he came a few years after me, its great to see such a successful Illini!

What I'm impressed with is the transparency of the strategy that these guys use. CR has players that are extremely successful in all levels and formats (SNGs, MTTs, high-stakes cash games) and they all seem to come straight with the knowledge.

Of course, this is my evaluation of the free content...not the paid stuff. Of course, the stuff that is supposed to lure you to subscribe would be good.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a membership. This would not only give me an avenue to learn a lot more, but CR also provides members with really nice analytical tools to help players improve their play and research.

What do you all think? Any CR members out there or someone who has another recommendation?

My recent play

I've talked a little bit lately about my hope to focus my play and to set very tangible goals to strive for in my poker play. I've been pretty disciplined lately - and while I am sorting out what I want my goals to be, and how I am going to achieve them, I have stuck to playing freerolls.

There are cash freerolls on FTP nearly every other hour. The opposite hour there are freerolls to a 'round 2' tournament which runs weekly and has a $1,000 prize purse.

I've run pretty well in these lately, but due to the stingy and deep format of the freerolls, I've not cashed. I've made it to 2 Round 2 events (by placing in top 250 of 10000 in Round 1). However, I've missed playing in both of those round 2 events, since they run right in the middle of the day on Sunday - not a good day.

The $150 freerolls have been pretty good too. I've placed in the top 200 about a half-dozen times in the past few weeks - but as I said - no finishes in the cash.

A first reaction is likely to be - 'these are freerolls, what good are they'? To me, they serve a few purposes:
-- Learning more about myself as a player
-- Playing against a lot of styles, and still trying to make successful plays
-- Keeping me from playing anything else before I set my goals and determine my bankroll

The first two points here are pretty important to me. I've really focused on learning how I play, trying to mix things up and no matter the outcome, trying to make the right poker move. In the past month, I've taken a series of particularly bad beats, where I've gotten all the chips in with a dominating hand only to have an opponent hit a 1,2,3 or 4 outer. Oh well, its poker. At some point the karma will tilt in my direction too (and hopefully when the stakes are bigger!)

The other thing that I've realized out of this freeroll binge is that I really like Razz as a change of pace game. I like the stud format, and I also think that I'm pretty good at it. Always easier to like something that you're good at, right?

For now, off to keep plugging away at freerolls until I get my goals and bankroll sorted out. Anything interesting happens in them, I'll be sure to post it here.

Bankroll Management

I've been thinking a lot about Bankroll Management lately. The most likely reason is that I have not at this point determined what I will stake my 'return' bankroll with. See, Over the last 6-9 months, my play online has been largely for fun and recreation. Don't take that to mean that I didn't play seriously and continually try to improve my game. However, my play did not have stated purpose (build bankroll to X$, make X tournaments, etc., etc.) My play was just because I like the game and purely because I wanted to play. Because my play was casual, my investment in myself was just the same. If I wanted to play in a $20 tournament, I would put $30-$40 into my account, and play the tournament and a SNG or two. This was good fun for the one night, but without a bit hit in a deep tournament, this strategy was highly unlikely to lead to a bankroll swell.

Back to now - I have loosely set some goals for my poker play. They aren't ready for publishing as of yet...I will do so in good time. However, one goal that I do have is to play in the 2011 WSOP.

To accomplish my goals, I feel that I need to stake myself to a decent bankroll and add a level of discipline and focus to my game that has been missing. Don't flippantly sit at a table or play in a tournament or SNG when I have only 10% attention to pay to it. Track my play, study my hand histories, trends, etc. - and try to become a better overall player.

Still not sure on the # for the bankroll. It will be a very conservative number...but one that I think that I can meaningfully devote my (little) spare time and energy to building.

Feel free to post thoughts on your bankroll management strategies in comments...

Dr. Pauly review of Rush Poker

Pauly feels the same as I do about this Rush Poker deal...but he reviewed it in true Pauly style: http://bit.ly/8I0Tyo

Full Tilt "Rush Poker"

Wow. As if the ability to 4, 6 or 8+ table online poker wasn't addicting enough, FTP had to go create the closest thing to digital poker crack as there is. If you haven't seen it, login to your FTP account and check out "Rush Play". The concept is that you don't play at a static table...you are part of a pool of players that sits at a table to play a hand, then the table breaks. This allows FTP to put people at a table continuously to play rapid fire hands. As well, you now have a Fast Fold button that you can click to fold before action is on you. FTP then zooms you to another table that is dealing. I played about a half hour, and here are some stats:

Statistics for 232 Hands
Street Saw Saw/Total
Flop 73 31%
Turn 43 19%
River 32 14%
Showdwn 29 13%

Street Won Won/Saw Won/Total
Pre-flp 3 1% 1%
Flop 8 11% 3%
Turn 3 7% 1%
River 1 3% 0%
Showdwn 17 59% 7%

I didn't have the guts to play this with real money as of yet. The action is beyond fast. I 4-tabled the free $ tables. I more than doubled my total buy-in, but in free play its nearly impossible to correlate chip stack to quality play. I really just did it to get a feel for the speed. If I really think I would play this with real money, I'd first spend more time playing the free tables, getting accustomed to the speed of things. Check it out next time you login to FTP. Crazy stuff.

Baby Zach!

A new little poker fan has been brought into the world!

Our third child, and first boy, was born on 1/16. Zachary Daniel - 6lbs 7oz.

He's already watched football, basketball and online poker....fully initiated!

Proud Dad, signing off...

Back to Poker

It is long about time that I write again about my various poker exploits. I've been putting it off for months now. To be honest, they probably aren't terribly interesting to the average reader, but there is a therapeutic selfishness somewhere in here. I promise (as has been the case in the past) there will be plenty of times that I pen things that 'entertain'.

I've currently got a job where I work some weird hours. It is a 'corporate stiff' job, but since my company is HQ in India, I find myself up at all hours, and still slaving away during the regular US work day. This has successfully gobbled up most of any free time that may exist once you account for family and work. The good news is that the poker world on the intertubes is a 24x7 affair. Combine this with my HD DVR that records lots of televised poker (Poker After Dark has been particularly good in the past year, IMO), and Poker has become about the only hobby of mine that I can make any time for.

I have also kept up attempts to run as many 'home games' as possible. The wives in our neighborhood run a monthly Bunco night...so the husbands try to get together for poker as regularly as we can. It winds up being probably once every other month. We like to run it on a night we can buy a UFC fight too.

I've had so many poker related thoughts and opinions over the last many months that I was just too damned lazy to get penned down. That stops now. I'll spare writing very much where I re-has old things (WSOP 09, Isuldur1, Poker After Dark cash game(s), etc.). I'll try to keep it current. The common thread will be my personal poker playing. This blog will play host to my written goals about poker. The one that I'll put here now is that I want to play in a WSOP event during the 2011 series. That may seem like a long way off, but it with a new baby at home, I will not have a ton of time dedicated toward building a bankroll for a while.

Inspiration from Dr. Pauly

So, this post will be brief....but thanks to Dr Pauly at the Tao of Poker, I have dediced to once again blog some thoughts on the subject of poker. (For those that don't know, Pauly hung his poker blog up temporarily, until he found rejuvenated spirit for it)

When our home game died out, so did most of my blogging material. HOWEVER, those that know me know that I am never short of an opinion, and this was as good a forum as any to blast those opinions to the world.

So.....I'm back.

Home Game @ Justin’s

So I am a little behind in getting this recap up….I told Justin that he needs to get wifi, so that I can sit at the table with my laptop and make live updates. Some of the things that have been coming out of peoples mouths for the last few weeks has been downright hilarious, and the lag in my posting this will almost certainly water the humor down. Oh well---here goes.
5 players tonight…missing a few of the usuals, and have a new face to add:

First position: Man’s Man
One More Card Justin
me
A. “Straight Outta” Compton (we’ll see if the name sticks…because I’m SURE it’s the first time hes heard it)
Supple Haunches in LP

So who is missing??? Well, if you remember, we lost Atlanta Eric---to---of all places---Atlanta. AND, Potty Mouth Mike is conspicuously absent tonight….more on that to come

So even before we started, it seems like someone put a quarter in Mans Man…hes all full of piss and vinegar. First he had commentary on why Potty Mouth is absent:

“…cleaning his house? He’s washing his damn vagina”. Nice

Then he has some commentary on his strategy for tonight:
(in best spacey blonde voice, clapping hands like Jock Jams) “Be aggressive…..Be Be Aggressive”. Wow---could have bet my first born that something like that would have never happened….maybe its setting up to be a strange night at the table. And---of course---his rants were poignantly followed by a “BLOG THAT, Mother Fucker!”. And it is done.

The first orbit of the night started out with a bang. I caught A10c, and everybody folded to me in the small blind. Had a few options, but in the spirit of being consistent in my betting to mask the strength of my hand, I raised an average amount. BB called me, and board came J-10-7-Q-2, rainbow. My AJ held up, with marginal betting along the way. One More Card was the BB that hand, and he had some words of wisdom for the table following that beat…I assume they applied to the hand he just lost.

“Don’t play those damn middle pairs---they bend you over the table---and squirt it on your back”

Well---all B&D aside, I pulled down a decent pot for this early in the night.
Things stayed in relatively high gear, as we moved into the 2nd level of blinds. We were still early in the night, and had quite the showdown hand. I was on the button, and had J9. There were 4 calls of the BB, and I checked to see the flop---everyone still in the hand.

The flop came J-8-J. I just hit the JACKpot! AND…I’m in position, so if there is a thief out there, I can slap his hand with a strong re-raise. Straight Outta Compton bet out 100 (pretty significant bet at this point)…and in first position, a potentially dangerous move without having made a hand on a flop like that. Supple quickly raises 3x. WOW! What action for my trips. Maybe they slow played a monster, KK/AA, and they think that its great right now. Then---Mans Man CALLS. One More Card didn’t live up to his name, as the pot got too rich for his blood. He folds out. I like the action, but with a low kicker, am a little nervous about the other J taking me out. Can’t fold the hand---I call. Compton quickly folds. 3 handed action, with a huge pot brewing. Turn comes a 7, and there is nothing to mention of a flush draw on the board. This looks like gold to me. Supple bets another 300, Mans man calls---and I decide to make my move. I’m ALL IN. I get both guys to call…..WHATTA POT! We turn our cards over in preparation for the river……here is what we have:

Board: J-8-J-7
Supple: J6
Mans man: 77
me: J9

DAMMIT!

All that betting and Mans man turns 7’s full on fourth street. ARRRGH! Only 2 cards can help me now, and 8 or a 9. Of course, the river comes K---and I am crippled. Supple is out, Mans man has a huge stack.

So I’m crippled---but not dead.

We’re 4 handed, and relatively soon after that monster hand, I was dealt 55. I raised (who am I kidding, at this point by raising, I was pot committed). I managed to get 4 callers, which I thought was a good thing…I thought people were playing loose. The flop came Jc-10-5c. I worried about the straight and flush draws—but as I said, I was pot committed, so I went all in. Straight Outta Compton called me, and showed his KK. I was actually really happy to see that, since he had fewer outs than if he were drawing for the straight or the flush. Turn and river came A-2, and I nearly quadded up.

This knocked Straight Outta Compton out, and we were down to 3.
Here is where I get distracted, and I am not sure what happened to some of my notes…but I do know that Compton went to playing with his Skytel pager…muttering:

“Oh Minesweeper, how many craps have we shared?”—referencing the fact that he takes his company issued pager into his 2nd office when nature calls. They have a very sweet relationship…

Again---apologies for the time jump in here, and there are undoubtedly good stories about how Mans Man lost his stack---but heads up wound up being One More Card Justin vs. me. I had him just barely covered, and immediately, he offered a split. I didn’t take him up on it—I told him that I don’t get the chance to play him heads up often, and wanted to see what I can do.
As I have made plenty of references to previously, Justin is easily the hardest player to read that I consistently play against. We have all agreed that if any of us were to get entry into a major tournament, that he would have the best shot at advancing far. I think I am a pretty solid player, but he definitely gets into your head, and works the whole “play against the player, not the cards” angle to his advantage.

We had a pretty intense 25-30 minutes, where we pushed about 40% of the chips back and forth across the table, until we were right about back at even. We got to a hand where the flop came 9-2-3 rainbow, and he moved all-in on me. I was a little bit worried, because I didn’t have a particularly strong hand, but with 8-9, I did hold top pair. I decided to call, and things looked pretty good. Justin flipped up J-3, holding middle pair, and with a turn and river of 8-4, my hand actually improved to two pair, and I took down what worked out to be the final pot. I had Justin covered by a tad bit, and I brought home my first title in some time. I was on a pretty rotten dry streak, and this one felt pretty good—especially in beating Justin.

All for now—we haven’t played since. Definitely not the same without E…damn Emory University.