Dec 13, 2005 – 08:12AM
The latest rankings were released by Pocket Fives early this morning. I had dropped from 66th to 68th in the last week. I personally believe the drop is fair. I haven't had any significant finishes in 2-3 weeks now (which is fine with MTT variance) while several of the players who were previously ranked below me have been tearing things up. My moving down I believe is really more a side effect of them moving up, and they were very deserving.
As most of you know, I make a conscious effort to take at least 2 days a week off poker, and if you're a serious player I recommend you do the same. It helps me catch up on my sleep, take care of other things, get my mind away from poker, and most importantly, it makes my wife happy. So, no tournament updates on my poker playing or anything.
I have a pretty full plan for tonight. Around 8pm I will start the Super Tuesday, the Stuper (Stars 150+12) and the 75k on Paradise. Depending on how I'm doing in those three (I typically try and do no more than 5 tables at a time, although I'll occasionally do 6) I'll add the UB 100+9, Stars 45k, Empire Happy Hour, and Party 40k in that order around 9pm (all times central) depending on how my desktop real estate is doing. If I bust out of enough that I have room I'll add the 'Pearl' on Paradise around 10pm to close out my night. A few people have asked what kind of nightly schedule I keep, so there it is.
Keep in mind though that I set priorities on what I want to play, and make sure I never open more tables than I feel I can handle at a time. I also try and make very sure not to let myself get into gamble mode too early in order to either bust out or double up in one tournament real quick so I can make another. I'm better off doing the very best I can in every tournament I enter, and I try to stress quality over quantity (even though I do play A LOT of tournaments).
Kind of a boring update today, but I do have one more post I want to make that is very off topic from this, so I'll add that later for some 'meatier' content.
-Rizen
Dec 12, 2005 – 09:12AM
Okay, I promised a quick entry based on something that happened to me Saturday night. I'm going to start by introducing a pretty basic poker concept, but it's important to know for what I'm going to say.
In poker there are 'levels of thinking' that all players go through. The first level is 'what are my cards?'. These people are playing cards. Most people make fun of these players, but in truth they're mostly just wanting to have a good time and pay our bills, so we can't complain. They look at what they have, and evaluate all their decisions based on that and that only. The second level is 'what are my opponents cards?'. This takes a bit more thinking as you have to guess your opponent's cards based on his action. You can then evaluate your opponent's strength or weakness based on that and and decide if you should fold, bet/raise for value, or bet/raise as a bluff.
That takes us to the third level. 'What does my opponent think I have?'. You can go through infinite levels of thinking, but I find that the difference between decent players and good/great players is they think on the third level or higher. The easiest example of this is that when you raise a hand pre-flop, most opponents will automatically put you on an Ace. This isn't always true, but most players automatically think people raise Aces. So when that Ace flops and he checks to you, you bet because he thinks you have an Ace, and he will not play back at you without a hand that can beat an Ace (this isn't always true, but I'm generalizing).
People often call this representing a hand. You play your hand in such a way that you represent a certain holding, which allows you to get away with a bluff when you don't actually hold those cards. Now, one thing to keep in mind is if the opponent you're playing can't at least think to the second level (meaning he actually thinks about your cards and not just his) then this sort of play is useless.
The reason I think of this?? I was in the 45k on Stars Saturday night when I was dealt AQo in middle position. I raised up the pot and it was folded to the big blind, who flat called. The flop came down JJ5. He bet into me a fair amount, I raised him, and he called. The turn was a Q, I bet, he called. River was a rag and I bet and he called. Turned out he had ATo. Now besides the fact that he played this hand horribly, he started berating me for my awful play basically saying 'how can you raise that flop, I bet like I had the Jack'.
Ignoring how insanely awful his play all the way through was, the fact is he didn't represent a Jack. Had he had a Jack, he would have check raised or check called the flop to extract more money on his trips. His betting was precisely how I knew he didn't have a Jack. I raised him with the intention of him folding, but hitting the Q on the turn was a bonus. I never feared I was behind because he never properly represented a Jack.
In short, when you play think about what exactly your actions are telling your opponents about you, and make sure it's what you want to say. Every bet tells a story, and as the storyteller you control everything. You can tell a truthful story (in the form of a value bet) or a lie (in the form of a bluff). The key to everything though is making sure the lies you tell are believable, and disguising your truths just enough that people become suspicious.
Lots of people think that bluffing is making some sort of elaborate bet or play to steal the pot, when often bluffing is just a subtle lie carefully crafted to make your opponent believe you hold something you do not. So next time you're thinking about bluffing, take a deep breath and think about how you would play your hand if you actually held the cards you were trying to represent, and then play that way, and you'll find your bluffs will have a lot more success.
-Rizen
Dec 12, 2005 – 08:12AM
Well, my overall Sunday results weren't as good as I would have liked. Let's start with the tournaments first. I cashed in 3 tournaments yesterday (I think I played about 12 total). Which really is a pretty good rate, but in all the tournaments I cashed in I didn't go very deep, so I won about twice my buy in in the 3 cashes, which didn't make up for the losses from the other tournaments. I'm fine with this, MTT is usually periods of trying to tread water between your big final table scores.
I did make 1 final table this week in the Empire Happy Hour, but that was it. Other than that I had about 10 cashes and was in the red for the week in MTT play. With some of the smaller field tournaments I play (nightly UB $100 and Empire Happy Hour) I can usually make at least 1 final table a week, and while variance is a pain, I'm a little disappointed if I don't get at least 1.
On to the prop bet. I don't normally like these sorts of bets. As I've put on my blog earlier, I typically frown on any type of side bet that may impact my ability to make the best decisions possible over the course of a tournament. That being said, the prop bet on Pocket Fives really has a structure that plays to my strengths a lot. Here is a link to the thread outlining the prop bet.
Anyways, to make a long story short, out of the 16 entrants at $1k a piece I took 2nd in the prop bet, which was good for a little under $5k (so $4k profit). JJProdigy ended up running away with the whole thing after an awesome performance in the Paradise 100k. He is a great player and deserved the win, although I could have passed him had I been able to go deeper into the UB 150k at the end of the night than he did.
All in all between cash games and the prop bet I finished the week close to $3k in the black, which is never a bad thing. I feel like I've made some good adjustments to my game towards the end of last week too, so hopefully this week will be just as good, if not better.
-Rizen
Dec 11, 2005 – 07:12AM
Ah Sunday, one of the greatest days of the week. I get to watch my Kansas City Chiefs play as well as play in the biggest tournaments of the week online. I look forward to Sundays a lot. It is a day of good football and great poker. I have a pretty big slate today starting with the big Bodog and Poker Room tournaments at 1pm EST, followed by the big 500k guaranteed tournaments on Party and Stars at 3:30. Depending on how I'm doing I may or may not add the big tournaments on Paradise and Full Tilt, and I'll definitely be playing in the 150k on UB.
I'm really hoping for decent results today since my Fri/Sat results were not what I hoped they would be. I only have 1 cash so far this weekend (unless you count a turbo rebuy sat I played yesterday) and it wasn't that significant. I've played pretty well for the most part, just haven't been able to close the deal. Sunday is a big day for cash games too, as they're typically softest on Sundays so I'll try and mix those in some as well as I bust out of tournaments.
I'm not really going to include any random poker thoughts today. My son is a bit anxious for me to get away from the laptop and between church, football, and poker I doubt I'll have much time to write anything of much substance today. I have a pretty good idea for something to write tomorrow though based on something that happened to me Sat night. I'll expand more on that tomorrow though.
-Rizen
Dec 09, 2005 – 09:12AM
Well, I hope I'm not blowing all my decent ideas in the first week of my blog, but someone asked me a question the other day that I found a bit perplexing. I was asked 'Eric (this person uses my real name), what are your poker goals for 2006?'. To be perfectly honest with you, I really don't have any. My goal for 2006 is the same as my goal for 2005: to make the best possible decisions at all times at the poker table. I think setting any goal beyond that is really a mistake since it can impact your play. It's kind of the same reason I typically don't do last longer bets in tournaments. If I made it a goal to make 6 FTs a month next year, and Jan 31 came around and I had made 5 FTs and I was on the bubble of the 6th, I would hate to think that I might play just to make the FT and reach my 'goal'.
In the same setting, I never want my poker decisions to be impacted by a 'last longer' bet either. LL bets can be fun, as long as the stakes are meaningless enough they won't impact your decisions at the table, otherwise I'm more interested in keeping my mind clear to just make good decisions, without worrying about picking up that extra $100 for outlasting my buddy.
Do I think having goals is a bad thing? No, I even have some very loose goals for myself. That being said, I keep my goals pretty generic. My goal for 2006 (other than making the best decisions possible at the poker table) is simply to play more big live events. I'm hopeful I can either qualify or make the trip out for the World Series this year, and I'm going to PCA in January. If I can qualify for another big event or two and get 4-5 live events under my belt this year I'd be pretty happy, even if I don't cash in any of them I think the experience will be invaluable and hopefully launch me into 2007 as an online AND live player.
My advice to you if you're trying to set goals for your poker game, is to keep them very open ended and don't limit yourself or tie yourself to specific numbers. I think goals such as 'play better than last year' or even 'make more money than last year' are fine. I think goals like 'make X # of final tables' or 'make X # of 5 figure cashes' are bad goals, and can actually hurt your growth as a player. Goals should be something that guide your playing and keep you on the right path to improving as a player, not something that constrict you to trying to attain a certain number. I've had one hell of a year in 2005, and while I certainly hope 2006 will be a better year for me results wise, the only thing I can assure you is that in December of 2006 I will be a better poker player than I am in December 2005. Only time will tell if that bears out in the form of superior results or not though.
-Rizen
