Diminished Bankroll, Rakeback
Sorry, I know It's been a while since my last post since I haven't been playing too much. I decided during this time to to take a bunch of money out of my bankroll in order to pay for some credit card debt my wife racked up right before we got married last August.
I decided to leave myself with exactly 500BBs to play my normal level game ($3/$6) and I decided to create a "live bankroll" of 100BBs (also at $3/$6) for when I go to the casino, while liquidating the rest. There are a couple of reasons that this decision was actually pretty easy to make.
For starters, I hate getting a huge bill from Disney Visa that has $100 in finanace charges tacked onto it every month. It feels like constant ass rape, which it most definitely is considering that I didn't even personally spend the money. The wife also stresses about this particular bill, so I want to make her life a little better by helping her out with it. Also, with me taking a bunch of money out of poker, the wife has agreed that it would be ok to put more money back into poker if I ever went broke. This means that playing low enough to "absolutely not go broke" no longer needs to be my philosophy. I can accept some risk of losing it all because I will be able to get more money for the bankroll if the need arises.
I also decided that I need to spend more time going to the casino and playing live. For starters, it's a nice change of scenery. Also, the games are more loose, easy, and fun than the $3/$6 games online. I love playing against people who limp UTG with 94o, and you only rarely find people that do this in the online games these days.
I also found a way to get 42% (!!!) rakeback on the pokerroom network this weekend. This is huge. Needless to say, I'll be doing most of my playing there for a while. I would estimate that this rakeback will equate to a little over 1BB/100 in my $3/$6 game, which is too good to pass up even for the better game selection and better software available at other sites. I used to get 25% rakeback on the Party network back when the Party network existed. I was playing $1/$2 and $2/$4 at the time, and about 1/4 to 1/3 of my overall profit came from rakeback alone. Rakeback is really, really sweet. Especially this much rakeback.
I have been playing a little bit on this new site and I've been doing ok. They spread 5 card draw, and draw games are the only reasonable poker game that I really have no idea how to play. I beleive I am going to try to learn how to play this game, probably at the $1/$2 level. I've played a little bit and won, but that doesn't mean that I know anything yet. My basic philosophy is to not play shorts (pairs 1010 and smaller) unless it's a free play out of the BB or it's a multiway pot, I'm in the SB and can play cheap, and the BB is passive preflop. Also I try not to play straight and flush draws unless I'm getting the right price, which is rare in a 5-handed draw game. These things should sound obvious, but it's amazing how many times you see someone jump two bets with a flush draw or a pair of 7's. So I've been playing a little bit of 5-draw and it's going pretty well. Hopefully that continues.
I have also been playing some $3/$6 ring games and doing well in those. I definitely need to continue to spend at least some of my time playing ring games, since the style of play you need is so much different compared to 6-Max. You just can't run the table over in a ring game -- somebody has a hand much more often in a ring game pot.
Here's a hand from the $3/$6 realm that you should enjoy. I don't have the whole hand history thing figured out for this site yet so I'll just relate it as I remember it:
10-handed table, I'm UTG with ThTd, UTG+1 posts both blinds (he missed them and couldn't wait 2 more hands apparently). I raise, UTG+1 calls, 2 more cold-callers, BB calls. Flop comes 9hTcAc, I bet, UTG+1 calls, CO cold-caller calls. Turn comes the Ts, giving me quads. I bet, both players call. River comes Jd. I bet, UTG+1 calls again, CO raises, I 3-bet, UTG+1 calls 2 more bets, CO calls. I scoop with quads against UTG+1's AKo and CO's Q8o.
There are some things we can learn from both of these guys. First, AKo cost himself a bunch of money by not either re-raising preflop or raising the flop. Both of these are likely to get a heads-up pot, and he can then just call me down in a heads up pot when he figures out that he's beat. Instead he gets himself a big multiway pot with AKo, which is bad. He also lets in some weak draws by never raising me postflop, which is bad bacause they cost him money down the road when that draw gets there and gets him raised on the river. Here's a public service announcement -- ONE PAIR IS NOT A HAND YOU WANT TO PLAY IN A MULTIWAY POT, even if it is TPTK, even if you have AK, and especially on a drawing board like 9hTcAc. This guy made the wrong decision at literally every single point in the hand, except when he just called my first bet on the river. Then again, what else should I expect from a guy who posts $4.50 UTG+1.
Also, Q8o teaches us some things. Obviously cold-calling an UTG raise (or any raise for that matter) preflop with Q8o is bad, but is it ok to call the flop and turn with the gutshot? If I somehow found myself with Q8o facing a flop bet in this guy's situation, I would definitely call (or possibly raise, depending on how much control I had over the other two guys in the pot). So I call the flop bet, but I miss my gutshot on the turn. Not I'm facing a turn bet and I'm getting 9.5:1 with my gutshot. There are times when I would say that this is an ok (marginal, but ok) spot to call. When there is a flush draw, a pair on board, a coordinated board, and I'm not drawing to the nuts is defintely not "the right time."
I might play online a little today, but besides that I have the home game tonight and hopefully the casino tomorrow. Stay lucky!
I decided to leave myself with exactly 500BBs to play my normal level game ($3/$6) and I decided to create a "live bankroll" of 100BBs (also at $3/$6) for when I go to the casino, while liquidating the rest. There are a couple of reasons that this decision was actually pretty easy to make.
For starters, I hate getting a huge bill from Disney Visa that has $100 in finanace charges tacked onto it every month. It feels like constant ass rape, which it most definitely is considering that I didn't even personally spend the money. The wife also stresses about this particular bill, so I want to make her life a little better by helping her out with it. Also, with me taking a bunch of money out of poker, the wife has agreed that it would be ok to put more money back into poker if I ever went broke. This means that playing low enough to "absolutely not go broke" no longer needs to be my philosophy. I can accept some risk of losing it all because I will be able to get more money for the bankroll if the need arises.
I also decided that I need to spend more time going to the casino and playing live. For starters, it's a nice change of scenery. Also, the games are more loose, easy, and fun than the $3/$6 games online. I love playing against people who limp UTG with 94o, and you only rarely find people that do this in the online games these days.
I also found a way to get 42% (!!!) rakeback on the pokerroom network this weekend. This is huge. Needless to say, I'll be doing most of my playing there for a while. I would estimate that this rakeback will equate to a little over 1BB/100 in my $3/$6 game, which is too good to pass up even for the better game selection and better software available at other sites. I used to get 25% rakeback on the Party network back when the Party network existed. I was playing $1/$2 and $2/$4 at the time, and about 1/4 to 1/3 of my overall profit came from rakeback alone. Rakeback is really, really sweet. Especially this much rakeback.
I have been playing a little bit on this new site and I've been doing ok. They spread 5 card draw, and draw games are the only reasonable poker game that I really have no idea how to play. I beleive I am going to try to learn how to play this game, probably at the $1/$2 level. I've played a little bit and won, but that doesn't mean that I know anything yet. My basic philosophy is to not play shorts (pairs 1010 and smaller) unless it's a free play out of the BB or it's a multiway pot, I'm in the SB and can play cheap, and the BB is passive preflop. Also I try not to play straight and flush draws unless I'm getting the right price, which is rare in a 5-handed draw game. These things should sound obvious, but it's amazing how many times you see someone jump two bets with a flush draw or a pair of 7's. So I've been playing a little bit of 5-draw and it's going pretty well. Hopefully that continues.
I have also been playing some $3/$6 ring games and doing well in those. I definitely need to continue to spend at least some of my time playing ring games, since the style of play you need is so much different compared to 6-Max. You just can't run the table over in a ring game -- somebody has a hand much more often in a ring game pot.
Here's a hand from the $3/$6 realm that you should enjoy. I don't have the whole hand history thing figured out for this site yet so I'll just relate it as I remember it:
10-handed table, I'm UTG with ThTd, UTG+1 posts both blinds (he missed them and couldn't wait 2 more hands apparently). I raise, UTG+1 calls, 2 more cold-callers, BB calls. Flop comes 9hTcAc, I bet, UTG+1 calls, CO cold-caller calls. Turn comes the Ts, giving me quads. I bet, both players call. River comes Jd. I bet, UTG+1 calls again, CO raises, I 3-bet, UTG+1 calls 2 more bets, CO calls. I scoop with quads against UTG+1's AKo and CO's Q8o.
There are some things we can learn from both of these guys. First, AKo cost himself a bunch of money by not either re-raising preflop or raising the flop. Both of these are likely to get a heads-up pot, and he can then just call me down in a heads up pot when he figures out that he's beat. Instead he gets himself a big multiway pot with AKo, which is bad. He also lets in some weak draws by never raising me postflop, which is bad bacause they cost him money down the road when that draw gets there and gets him raised on the river. Here's a public service announcement -- ONE PAIR IS NOT A HAND YOU WANT TO PLAY IN A MULTIWAY POT, even if it is TPTK, even if you have AK, and especially on a drawing board like 9hTcAc. This guy made the wrong decision at literally every single point in the hand, except when he just called my first bet on the river. Then again, what else should I expect from a guy who posts $4.50 UTG+1.
Also, Q8o teaches us some things. Obviously cold-calling an UTG raise (or any raise for that matter) preflop with Q8o is bad, but is it ok to call the flop and turn with the gutshot? If I somehow found myself with Q8o facing a flop bet in this guy's situation, I would definitely call (or possibly raise, depending on how much control I had over the other two guys in the pot). So I call the flop bet, but I miss my gutshot on the turn. Not I'm facing a turn bet and I'm getting 9.5:1 with my gutshot. There are times when I would say that this is an ok (marginal, but ok) spot to call. When there is a flush draw, a pair on board, a coordinated board, and I'm not drawing to the nuts is defintely not "the right time."
I might play online a little today, but besides that I have the home game tonight and hopefully the casino tomorrow. Stay lucky!
posted by the_real_zano at 10:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home