To put things into context as a poker player I suck; and that is not a self loathing or destructive statement as it sounds. Two years ago in a local pub I found a game that grew into a passionate pass time and that was poker. Thanks to the friendly people there I got to grips with the game. Then moving on to on-line play I experimented with different platform and stuck with PKR in the attraction that not only do they do the standard free rolls they did free 6 cent give away, perfect way to start a bankroll and then grind it up. So with the support of my girlfriend I started to build up my bankroll to about $15, great I obvousily know what I'm doing. Just like that I bleed my bankroll out and I was back to square one. How did this happen I was doing so well? Well the conclusion I came to was my a game had gone and it was time to go back to basics, and blog my musings and track my overall progress.
So being the first blog I won't go into my profit margin as I'm playing free games but the state of affairs means that since Sunday(when I went bankrupt) I have made a total of 26 cents over the course of 6 games, though this can't be attributed to much as I'm not paying anything to play.
What I will muse over though is pot odds and percentages. I was aware of these concepts before Re-booted my game as such but maths never really went into my decisions. I think a lot of your run of the mill players as well don't take maths into consideration as well as I qoute one of the people i play with at my live pub games " I just go with what feel's right". I think what they mean there is that they go with there reads on people more than there card percentages and not just the feel of the cards. so i learnt that pot odds are calculated from how much money goes into the pot compared to your pot (e.g. 50 into a 200 pot gives you a 4:1 odds) and compared to your outs maths calls dictate you should be aiming for the right price(if your 25% to hit calling a 4th of the pot for 4:1 surely cannot be bad right ?) Surely this depends on the size of your stacks though as an effective stack of say 1200 would be more hesitant to call a 25% call if say a 4th of the pot was 400 meaning you had to call a 3rd of your entire stack. Also i feel that knowing your player can be fruitful compared to your odds.
Game Type: HOLD'EM
Limit Type: NO LIMIT
Table Type: TOURNAMENT
Money Type: TOURNAMENT CHIPS
Blinds are now 100 / 200
Button is at seat 8
Seat 1: tipolcostel - 1,150
Seat 2: JmPastor - 1,235
Seat 4: Dessert666 - 1,025
Seat 5: gonnawinsoon - 2,110
Seat 7: DarkSwirl23 - 2,470
Seat 8: roveto62 - 6,035
Seat 10: sagafjord - 975
tipolcostel posts small blind (100)
JmPastor posts big blind (200)
Dealing Cards
Dealing [A h][A c] to DarkSwirl23
Dessert666 folds
gonnawinsoon calls 200
DarkSwirl23 raises to 400
roveto62 folds
sagafjord folds
tipolcostel calls 400
JmPastor calls 400
gonnawinsoon calls 400
Pot sizes: 1,600
Dealing Flop [4 c][Q s][J h]
tipolcostel bets 750 (all-in)
JmPastor folds
gonnawinsoon calls 750
DarkSwirl23 raises to 2,070 (all-in)
gonnawinsoon calls 1,710 (all-in)
Returning 360 to DarkSwirl23 uncalled
Pot sizes: 3,850
Pot sizes: 1,920
tipolcostel shows [2 c][J d]
gonnawinsoon shows [4 s][4 h]
DarkSwirl23 shows [A h][A c]
Dealing Turn [9 d]
Pot sizes: 3,850
Pot sizes: 1,920
Dealing River [K h]
Pot sizes: 3,850
Pot sizes: 1,920
DarkSwirl23 has One Pair: Aces
gonnawinsoon has Three of a Kind: 4s
gonnawinsoon wins 1,920 from side pot #1 with: Three of a Kind: 4s
roveto62 cheers.
gonnawinsoon wins 3,850 with: Three of a Kind: 4s
JmPastor claps.
Now this example shows exactly what the odds are showing, I receive Pocket Aces and have one call before me. So I try to play tricky and just minimum raise it up to 400. What am I hoping to achieve here for a start, my goal here is to get the maximum of 2 or 3 players to see a flop and then re evaluate and keep pricing myself in right ? by doing this minimum raise i'm asking the the caller behind me to put in 3:1 on his money (200 into a 600 pot). This play also gets worse by having someone call in front of me now he has to put 200 into a 1000 pot giving him 5:1 odds, probably still a bit high for you wanting to hit one of your 2 4's left in the deck but better price than i should have giving him. The rest of the hand shows the disastrous consequences.
Any suggestions for my next blog please feel free to comment
Dark Swirl23
