My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome I've held this back, but I won't anymore. I'm also using software to help me learn, this is attached to the game itself and tells you your % chance of winning the hand. I used it initially to try and learn quicker, and for me to understand things more and I do believe it has worked to an extent. I now still attach it to games, but minimise it so I can't see it. I then play the hands myself based on the figures I have learned from the software and am getting the play right about 90% of the time now, but I still have a long way to go I know.

[bluekinkladze]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Whats the software Paul ?

[DeepBlueDevilFish]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome I took it as read that anyone trying to play poker seriously would be using the software you describe Paul. Certainly for a novice you'd be handicapping yourself if you didn't. What are you using by the way ?

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome http://www.calculatem.com/user_manual.html :ok

[bluekinkladze]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome And heres me desperately flicking through charts !!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o :rollin

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome I am reading a book too, although haven't had time last few days to pick it up. :(

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Ive seen the calculatem software . Never used it. Looked to me like it was geared at a limit game rather than NL.... Also I dont understnad how it can tell you your chance of winning the hand unless it knows what your oponent has. I had a guy tell me that when he called me all in with AJ against my AK it said he had a 40% chance to win. By my thinking it was more like 25%...either he has no clue or he has a bit of software telling him that AJ is 40% against a random hand maybe. But I dont raise with random hands sooo. Best thing you can do paul is try and work out what your openent holds, work out how many cards you can hit to beat that, and give yourself 4% for each one. This should put you in about the right ball park. Also now your back at .50/1 try playing 2 tables at once....just for an hour or two, and see how you get on.

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

I am reading a book too' date=' although haven't had time last few days to pick it up. :([/quote'] Does the book have a section on dominated hand theory? It should have. If you have not read this section yet read it before you play another game. It is perhaps the most important thing for a begining poker player to understand.

[DeepBlueDevilFish]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Hadn't come across that Dave M but found this article on it :- http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14477

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Not ready for 2 tables Dave, tried before, its too quick for me. :(

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Here's a hand Ive just played. ------------------------------- ----- HOLE CARDS ----- dealt to rtb147 [Tc Th] sunhome7: folds USDonkey: raises to US$3 adam84: calls US$3 rtb147: raises to US$10 Aulblue: folds USDonkey: calls US$7 adam84: calls US$7 ----- FLOP ----- [Ts 8c 9c] rtb147: bets US$20 USDonkey: calls US$20 adam84: folds ----- TURN ----- [Ts 8c 9c][9d] rtb147: bets US$107.96 and is all-in USDonkey: is all-in US$102.75 Returned uncalled bets US$5.21 to rtb147 ----- RIVER ----- [Ts 8c 9c 9d][6c] ----- SHOW DOWN ----- rtb147: shows [Tc Th] (A Full House, Tens full of Nines) USDonkey: shows [Js Jh] (Two Pairs, Jacks and Nines, Ten high) rtb147 collected US$273.50 from Main pot ----------------------- I think I played it well, the only cards that were beating me on the flop was QJ, which he surely wouldn't have raised with. He called me a british punk for the way I won. :lol

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Not just putting up winners here by the way, these are the only 2 big showdowns I've had today, playing off and on, apart from an all in pre-flop with an all in KK and my AA. :lol Here goes, I genuinely want to know If you think I played it correctly. ----------------------- ------HAND 15------ Game #470410424: Texas Hold'em No Limit (US$0.50/US$1) - 2005/06/08 - 13:49:26 (GMT) Table "Phantom" Seat 3 is the button. Seat 1: rtb147 (US$312 in chips) Seat 2: Da_kid (US$59 in chips) Seat 3: ifs1 (US$113.50 in chips) Seat 4: Jomar60 (US$145.25 in chips) Seat 5: Ableone (US$148.92 in chips) Seat 6: Deicer (US$225.09 in chips) Jomar60: posts small blind US$0.50 Ableone: posts big blind US$1 ----- HOLE CARDS ----- dealt to rtb147 [Js Qs] Deicer: folds rtb147: raises to US$10 Da_kid: folds ifs1: folds Jomar60: folds Ableone: calls US$9 ----- FLOP ----- [Qd 3c 8h] Ableone: checks rtb147: bets US$50 Ableone: raises to US$138.92 and is all-in rtb147: calls US$88.92 ----- TURN ----- [Qd 3c 8h][7s] ----- RIVER ----- [Qd 3c 8h 7s][Kd] ----- SHOW DOWN ----- Ableone: shows [Th Qc] (A Pair of Queens, King high) rtb147: shows [Js Qs] (A Pair of Queens, King high) rtb147 collected US$295.34 from Main pot ------------------------------------------------- I think I did, but I'll see what the experts say. ;)

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome 3rd big showdown of the day, but fcuk me what was he playing at - there were only 2 at the table btw. ---------------- -----HAND 5------ Game #470468354: Texas Hold'em No Limit (US$0.50/US$1) - 2005/06/08 - 14:06:13 (GMT) Table "Phantom" Seat 1 is the button. Seat 1: rtb147 (US$459.42 in chips) Seat 2: Da_kid (US$62.25 in chips) Da_kid: posts small blind US$0.50 rtb147: posts big blind US$1 ----- HOLE CARDS ----- dealt to rtb147 [8d Kc] Da_kid: raises to US$3 rtb147: calls US$2 ----- FLOP ----- [4s 4d Ks] Da_kid: bets US$5 rtb147: raises to US$10 Da_kid: calls US$5 ----- TURN ----- [4s 4d Ks][4h] Da_kid: checks rtb147: bets US$20 Da_kid: raises to US$49.25 and is all-in rtb147: calls US$29.25 ----- RIVER ----- [4s 4d Ks 4h][5d] ----- SHOW DOWN ----- Da_kid: shows [Qc Ac] (Three of a kind, Fours, Ace high) rtb147: shows [8d Kc] (A Full House, Fours full of Kings) rtb147 collected US$121.50 from Main pot ----- SUMMARY ----- Total pot US$124.50 Main pot US$121.50 Rake US$3 Board [4s 4d Ks 4h 5d] Seat 1: rtb147 (big blind) showed [8d Kc] and won (US$121.50) with A Full House, Fours full of Kings ----------------- He's trying to make me fold, but he can't win so why go all in. :\

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome and here is number 4. Come on Dave, where are you ? Waiting for you to tell me I played all these like a cnut! :lol ------HAND 5------ Game #470537334: Texas Hold'em No Limit (US$0.50/US$1) - 2005/06/08 - 14:25:59 (GMT) Table "Phantom" Seat 4 is the button. Seat 1: rtb147 (US$495.17 in chips) Seat 2: rossmore (US$154 in chips) Seat 3: QuoFun (US$104.25 in chips) Seat 4: Jupster69 (US$76.25 in chips) Seat 5: Bazza1975 (US$72.25 in chips) Seat 6: Anteup777 (US$98.85 in chips) Bazza1975: posts small blind US$0.50 Anteup777: posts big blind US$1 ----- HOLE CARDS ----- dealt to rtb147 [Ad As] rtb147: raises to US$10 rossmore: folds QuoFun: folds Jupster69: calls US$10 Bazza1975: folds Anteup777: calls US$9 ----- FLOP ----- [6c 4d Jc] Anteup777: bets US$13 rtb147: raises to US$26 Jupster69: raises to US$66.25 and is all-in Anteup777: folds rtb147: calls US$40.25 ----- TURN ----- [6c 4d Jc][Ah] ----- RIVER ----- [6c 4d Jc Ah][2h] ----- SHOW DOWN ----- Jupster69: shows [Js Qc] (A Pair of Jacks, Ace high) rtb147: shows [Ad As] (Three of a kind, Aces, Jack high) rtb147 collected US$173 from Main pot ---------------------

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Oh fcuk, Dave's here - now I'm for the high jump. :(

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

He called me a british punk for the way I won. :lol

Unsuprisingly he was upset as he had an 80% chance of winning the hand preflop :) As for how you played the hand, well you flopped your top set and you did well to bet agressively. Any jack or seven had a draw to beat you. The chance of the draw hitting would have been 2/1 over 2 cards so i would have liked to have seen you bet the size of the pot on the flop at least as your $20 bet gave him odds to draw but ho hum it got you a call. Then the nine comes. Excellent barring pocker nines you have pretty much the nuts now. And you move all in.....only the made straight is likely to call here. The ONLY other hand that can call is JJ. Over pair to the flop with the up and down straight draw. Check. Give him a chance to make his loosing straight, or give him a chance to bluff at it. My moving all in you give you guy a chance to get away from a hand that only has 2 cards in the deck to win. Couple of pointers though. Even after you flopped your set he still had 2 jacks, 4 queens and 4 sevens to break your trips. 10 outs = about 40%. This is why tens is always a dangerous hand because it really needs to flop a set to be safe, and there is almost ALWAYS a straight draw out there when you flop a set of tens. Same with a set of fives. Every straight MUST contain a 5 or a Ten! Probably dont want to be reraising with TT as a result. Take a flop sure. But dont reraise. As it stands paul you were very lucky here i think. You flopped your set which in itself was a 7/1 shot, but it wasnt enough to flop a set you pretty much had to flop T98 to get paid. Even QT9 he would prolly folded as while he has a draw hes gonna fear the Q. Certainly AT2 wouldnt have go you any money. Now as it stands you could argue that the only reason you put so much in was because you had the nuts. But a couple of questions to ask yourself... If the flop had come 238 would youstill have bet as agressively with your over pair? If the turn has been a 7, a queen or a jack would you still have moved all your money in? As it stands I dont think you did a lot wrong. Only things i can see is the reraise before the flop was a bit specualtive. If he moves all in you have to throw your hand away. Only other thing was you nearly shot yourself in the foot when you did hit your miracle board. The all in gave him a CHANCE to fold a lot of marginal second best hands that he MIGHT have had. If hes got trip 888 hes gonna get his money in somehow anyway and why let him of a pair of queens so easily....for example. In other words theres nothing wrong wrong with calling a dog hand against the odds if your gonna be able to make it pay if you hit big, luckily for you this guy was keen to get his money in anyway. The other thing worth of note is player "adam". Flat calls the $3. Flat calls the $10. Hes either a very weak player just calling al the time, or he was sitting pretty with something big like aces. However his fold on the flop suggests he had nothing and was weak - or is SO good he knew his aces were no good....

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

rtb147: shows [Js Qs] (A Pair of Queens, King high)

I dont think your play here was BAD as such. You made a raise with a decent ish hand. And then bet agressively on a flop that was very favourable to a pair queens. You got action from a sucker who thinks QT is a good hand to be calling raises with. Ironically this is exactly the reason i told you to fold QT to a raise if its heads up as you hit your queen and still dont know where you are. He was all in with 3 cards to save him! However i feel you VASTLY over bet the hand. 10x the BB raise is WAY WAY too much. Im supprised you got a call from QT. Generally only AA KK AK or possibly AQ would call. 3 of those 4 hands have you beaten on the flop. YOu then bet 2.5 x the pot which again is WAY WAY to much. There were no draws there, and that bet can again only be called by a hand that cann call a 10xBB raise. AA KK AQ or AK. AK would fold in a heartbeat and all the others are gonna love that flop and reraise you all in. Because youve now invested $60 into the pot you HAVE to call this all in inspite the fact you know your badly beaten because your so heavily commited now. One of many reasons why you want to keep the pot small but thats a lesson for another day. As it stands you got involved with a guy who was one of three things: 1) A complete muppet who was happy to donate all his chips on top pair no kicker or 2) A complete pro who tried to represent a big big hand not realising he was playing with a guy who as yet doesnt have enough experience to figure a big hand 3) A guy that has seen you raise it up big with TT and 99 and is calling the big raise figureing to be 50 50. Hits his queen, and finds this time you had QJ I think he was number 3.... Summary: you played the hand well - but you over bet it by miles. Got yourself in a situation where in theory you should only get action if your beat. And then you loose all your chips. In theory....lol

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

Jupster69: shows [Js Qc] (A Pair of Jacks, Ace high)

Couldnt have played this better myself. You make a strong raise in position with the monster hand. For some reason a guy calls out of position with QJo. Why anyone would want to call a 10xBB raise with QJo is beyond me, much less when they have to act first on the flop. He hits his jack top pair, and this is great news for you. Of course he bets because he has top pair OK kicker. It could be because hes seen you raise $10 before with QT which is why hes loving it now but even so he bets. Your reraise for the minimum he is absoloutely perfect. If you move all in he may start to wake up to AJ or a big pair and fold. If you flat call you send out a message that you have a little something something. Maybe second pair or A lower kicker, or are trapping with 2 pair or somesuch. Certainly if a King comes on the turn and you move all in he gets scared and its hard to get paid. HEck any time you go all in on the turn he might fear youve hit 2 pair a straight or any number of things. But RIGHT now he thinks hes got the best hand, and the minimum reraise gives him a chance to hang himself. He duly took it a reraised you call in. At a higher level game you would probably have to have a long think about what he might have and respect 2 pair or trips but at this level your aces are likely still good, you have an easy call, and you got paid. Nicely done! Of not is the fact that you raised the same with AA as you did with QJ. Its good that you do this as no one can tell when youve got the aces and no one can tell when its a specualtive QJ. It also means you get action on your big hands because they seen the same raise with QJ. That said I still think your over commiting with a 10xBB raise. Reel it in to 4 or 5 x the BB.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

If the flop had come 238 would youstill have bet as agressively with your over pair?

Nowhere near as aggressive.

If the turn has been a 7, a queen or a jack would you still have moved all your money in?

No chance, I moved all in because I had 3 of a kind with no overcard showing.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

That said I still think your over commiting with a 10xBB raise. Reel it in to 4 or 5 x the BB.

I was trying to bully. :lol I won a lot of easy blinds that way, but I'll take your advice. :ok

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

only cards that were beating me on the flop was QJ' date=

or the J7 or 67. You can discount J7 pretty much but people can and do play hands like 67s.

which he surely wouldn't have raised with.

Why wouldnt he? You made a 10xBB raise with QJ....if you can raise so much with so little why dismiss that others may do the same. Dangerous that paul :)

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

I was trying to bully. :lol I won a lot of easy blinds that way' date=' but I'll take your advice. :ok[/quote'] Dont believe the hype. You will hear many many players talk about bullying with the big stack, and putting pressure on the small stacks. However these are TOURNAMENT plays and they work because of people inherant fear of busting out. However, while I dont play cash games any more, I dont think there is any merit to ajusting your play because you happen to have more chips then the guy in with you. Certainly if he goes broke he can just reload, and you cant make him call for more than he has infront of him. YOu also wont make him fold the best hand just because he only has $10 left. He he has odds to call he will call. I think the ONLY time bullying might be an effective strategy in a cash game is if you KNOW a player is playing outside of his bankroll, and cant afford to rebuy if you bust him. This is exactly why everyone is clamouring for you to drop your stakes. Its not about the ammount of money in real world terms - its about the ammount of money relative to how much you have in your roll. Which is why you need to divide what you got by at least ten maybe even 20 and find the lmit that that suits. If that happens to be a $1/2 game or a $10/20 game doesnt really matter, you just need to be able to suffer a long looisng run without having to redeposit funds. You simply cannot play winning poker if you cant afford to loose whats infront of you. And thats a fact.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome All duly noted Mr Mardell and thanks for taking the time to reply. :)

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

All duly noted Mr Mardell and thanks for taking the time to reply. :)

No problem. I really believe you have what it take to be a winning player. It might not be millions but if you can play a game you love and knick a few bucks thats gotta be a good thing. You seem to have the patience, judgement and mathematical skills to be ABLE to play winning poker. Your plays are not so much BAD, they just smack of inexperience. I mean im not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, and have only been playing 3 years myself and am STILL LEARNING, but the fact your play almost exactly matches how I used to play 2 years ago allows me to make comment Which is exactly why im interested in your progress. Your already playing better than I did, and from what i saw of a young Jezza all those years ago, him too with just 2 months experience. Everyone makes mistakes though. Heck ive been known to call all in with 55 knowing damn well my man has aces. We all do it. What will determine how quickly you grow as a player is not that you made no mistakes, but that you learn from them... I look froward to reading more of your diary entries paul. Keep up your winning ways!

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome Cheers Dave. :)

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

3rd big showdown of the day, but fcuk me what was he playing at - there were only 2 at the table btw.

Just noticed this one You shoulda probably folded the K8 before the flop. Certainly after I got action id believe that my kicker had trouble, or that i was against AA or a 4. Once the case 4 comes down you know your only beaten by AA and your probably going to split the pot with a higher kickered king. Certainly AQ was the best "no pair" with 444AQ and i think that 4 on the end gave him enough reason to get the rest of his money in. Again im not sure how you got paid here but you wanna muck K8o even in the big blind when its $2 more to call. Assuming no one else was in the pot your calling $2 into a pot of $4.50 and while your getting 2/1 here because your king is so easily dominated, about AQ is the only hand he could have along with a pair of sevens or less that your actually priced to call for. Its like what i was saying about the QT. What exactly do you want to hit with K8? Remember its not about winning hands its about making your big hands pay and your second-best big hands not cost you too much Lowest king id ever consider playing is a K9. At least is can come TJQ, and even then id want it to be suited and id have to be in the BB or SB or Button facing no raise.

[DeepBlueDevilFish]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome This is an excellent thread chaps. Many thanks for sharing it with us. :clap :clap

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome It seems like I was getting involved in non sensical hands Dave, but all I was doing was mixing up my play, which I always do. Very occasionally I will call with this type of hand, because I think it can take a potentially nice pot. The thing with this guy in particular is that I had seen him go "All in" pre flop with another donut, and both of them had A6 and A7, which was a fcukin awful play, so I knew this was a bad player. I call him out of a feeling he's bluffing again, and when I see the King and 2 4's, I now feel he is only matching me at the very best with possibly another K, but because of his awful play going all in with A6 a few hands earlier, I simply had to see his cards. He then checks on the turn, but I now have a full house, so he's in big trouble and I am certain I've won from here onwards. He goes all in, in a vain attempt to make me fold, but I was having none of that.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome I also remember Jezza taking me out of the PL comp with a low straight, when I had pocket aces and one on the turn, so I will every now and again, get involved in a possible straight.

[Dave Mardell]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

Very occasionally I will call with this type of hand, because I think it can take a potentially nice pot.

Which is all fine so long as you can get away from it if you only flop a marginal piece of your hand. As it stands it sounds to me like you just had a good read on your man. He had the best hand when he raised but couldnt lay it down when you outflopped him, which makes him a bad player as well but sounds like you already figured that. The danger with hands like these is you can actually hit the flop pretty hard and still be loosing. Its easy to fold K8 when the board is AK6 or even K23 hearts. Problems if the flop is KK2 or AK8 and your man was raising with AK.. But just recently I seen a guy call a big BIG raise with A8o. Flop comes A88 he loves it moves all in finds the guy sitting pretty with AA. Hence the big raise. Rare situation but they happen. So in summary, mix it up from time to time by all means, but try to be mindful of the player who has called you, so you can better identify when you make a big, but second best hand.