check out this cash game article on P5s...

Changing the Rules
by Green Plastic on 5/29/2007 07:38


Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby is an owner and instructor for CardRunners.


Loose aggressive play over the past two years has given some smart players the chance to make extraordinary profits by playing a style that exploits more conservative players. However, the general level of skill for the average player has increased greatly in this time span. It is now possible for some smart players to exploit the "LAG" (loose aggressive) player, which results in profitable play without as much variance as the LAG will see. This article will explain some methods for doing so.

Loose-aggressive opponents change games in ways tight players do not. Against them, you need to protect and risk your stack differently; you need to track all your opponents--even the tight ones--as they deal with the LAG, and you need to reexamine the most basic elements of your game. Even some of the fundamentals of no-limit hold'em, such as not playing too many hands and betting in proportion to the pot size, need to be scrutinized.

Before you decide what to adjust, you need to decide when to adjust. An opponent who raises 25% of his hands or sees 30% of the flops is a good target. Some opponents will also make continuation bets 80% of the time or more. In each of these cases, your opponent is habitually committing money when he's weak, whether it's before or on the flop, and you should retool your game accordingly.

You can begin by simply playing against the LAG more often. Call with some extra hands in position, especially if the LAG has raised from middle or late position. Plan to raise when you hit the flop, and also sometimes when you don't. A good guideline is to see 50% more flops against a player like this: if you usually see 20% of the flops, make it 30%, given that the LAG has opened the pot. By playing extra flops and also reraising sometimes with air before the flop, you'll create more spots to take the weak money the LAG is putting in the pot. Tightness is a cornerstone of traditional winning play, but if you have position against an opponent putting too much money into the pot too frequently, you will be folding away profitable spots if you wait for the strongest starting hands.

You can also depart from traditional bet sizing when you're battling a LAG. Minimum raises get (and usually deserve) derision, but they can devastate a LAG, who will very often be caught with little or nothing. Often a bigger raise would be overkill; your opponent will fold trash no matter what, and a small raise lets him make a bad call now or a bad decision later. If you use this play, mix it up: do it with top pair or a worse pair, a draw, or nothing at all. If your opponent can't reraise you profitably with air and isn't happy about folding his borderline hands, you have the best of it. You leverage your opponent's looseness into both cheap bluffing spots when you're weak and inflated pots when you have a big hand.

Finally, you might think about adjusting your play based on how other people are playing the LAGs. There are many players who lose all sense of rationality when LAGs are running the table. They frequently call VERY lightly in and out of position, and may be prone to making light raises with trouble hands such as Ax when the LAG opens ahead of them. If a LAG opens and one of these players quickly calls behind them, you might consider raising a hand like 79s or 88. The player that just called is unlikely to have much at all and the LAG by definition will rarely have a hand.

For the players that decide to reraise the LAG very liberally preflop, you can take this one step further and push them around a bit. For example, if a known LAG opens on the button and a loose reraiser raises from the blinds, this is a good spot to put in another raise, with our without a hand. The important thing to remember here is that you are going to get called sometimes and you are going to get busted every once in a while by doing this. What you must be able to do is adjust your play once that does happen. At that point, your raises will get little to no respect, and you can profitably sit back and wait for some good cards to make another play like that.

Minimum raises and preflop calls with weak hands are improper, according to the fundamentals of poker, but correctly adjusting to a LAG requires moving beyond the fundamentals that assume your opponent is entering the pot with strong hands. When he's not, playing back frequently will give him fits, and small bets and raises are strong enough to battle the weak hands that make up so much of his range. Use your money more often and more efficiently, and you will crush your loose opponents.

WSOP fantasy, plus side bets

since im basically new to cash games, i am unsure of what to post in my blog. i have saved a few hands, but not exactly sure i want to post them. i thought about starting the most horrible play of the week or day, but then decided that would be basically posting bad beats, which is gay. then i thought about posting hands that im not sure if how i played them was correct, because im running into that a lot. all in all, im not sure in the direction im gonna take this blog while im learning cash games. but i am definitely sticking to my sng break, as i believe cash can be more profitable with less variance (i may be wrong). my biggest struggle so far is sticking to my 30k hand requirement before raising my stakes. 1/2 is so small and i crave going up. gonna try my best to stick to the plan though.



ok, so on the forum i post most at, we are doing a few wsop fantasy contests. one where we drafted players, and one where we got to pick any players the were picked in the draft but just 1 player from each round (unless we picked 2 in the draft round, then we picked 2 as well). so in the draft, none of us will have the same players, and in the other we will prob have a lot of duplicates.

the scoring system is:


(PRIZE MONEY) / (ENTRY FEE) * (TOURNEY MULTIPLIER)


TOURNEY MULTIPLIERS:

1x = $1,000 & $1,500 BUY-IN EVENTS
2x = $2,000 & $2,500 BUY-IN EVENTS
3x = $3,000 BUY-IN EVENTS
4x = $5,000 BUY-IN EVENTS
5x = $10,000 BUY-IN EVENTS
15x = $50,000 H.O.R.S.E.

ALL EVENTS EXCEPT #2, #17, & #41 WILL COUNT TOWARDS POINT TOTALS


also, aparently i suck at drafts... i took so much shit for my picks.. lol
im a gambler, not an expert... sorry. lol

here is my drafted team, entry fee was $10... PLZ go easy on me.. lol

1. T.J. Cloutier
2. William Chen
3. Sorel Mizzi
4. Johnny Chan
5. Adam Levy
6. Jon Turner
7. Mark Vos
8. Tom McEvoy
9. Steve Gross
10. Jean-Robert Bellande
11. Jim Bechtel
12. Thor Hansen

a lot of my picks got taken before i could get them too. TJ and Chan were my big mistakes, i could had gotten a few of my other picks (which i didnt know of earlier, should had researched).

second team, pick 'em $5 entry:

phil hellmuth
paul wasicka
justin bonomo
sorel mizzi
jon turner
adam levy
nenad medic
david levi
John Hoang
joe tehan
marcel luske
Toto Leonidas





side bets!!!!!!!!!!!!:

Vs sportsfreak

TJ Cloutier Vs Jeff Madsen

$20 i get +150

--

bet is Vs lucko21

T2's team Vs Fritz's team for $20

top2pear
1. Barry Greenstein
2. Carlos Mortensen
3. Antonio Esfandiari
4. Josh Arieh
5. Brad Booth
6. Huck Seed
7. Hoyt Corkins
8. Michael Gracz
9. Dewey Tomko
10. Chris Bigler
11. Keith Sexton
12. Harry Demitriou


Fritz
1. Gavin Smith
2. David Williams
3. Can Kim Hua
4. Kirill Gerasimov
5. Julian Gardner
6. Kevin Saul
7. Shaun Sheikhan
8. Vinnie Vinh
9. Joe Cassidy
10. Dave Colclough
11. Surinder Sunar
12. Nick Niegarth

gooooo T2!!!

--

bet Vs dwal

my team Vs his for $50

Stoner
1. T.J. Cloutier
2. William Chen
3. Sorel Mizzi
4. Johnny Chan
5. Adam Levy
6. Jon Turner
7. Mark Vos
8. Tom McEvoy
9. Steve Gross
10. Jean-Robert Bellande
11. Jim Bechtel
12. Thor Hansen

Dwal
1. J.C. Tran
2. John Juanda
3. John D'Agostino
4. Bill Edler
5. Andrew Black
6. Max Pescatori
7. John Cernuto
8. John Hoang
9. Al Barbieri
10. David Benyamine
11. David Oppenheimer
12. Greg Mueller


--

bet Vs lucko21

jon turner & sorel mizzi

Vs

chris ferguson & scott fischman

for $40 i get +125

--

bet Vs lucko21

mizzi Vs fischman for $50

--

bet Vs lucko21

johnathon little
Vs
justin bonomo

for $50

--

bet Vs fritz

Jon Turner
Vs
Kevin Saul

for $25
========

im sure more sidebets to come.

just got NOVA on stars, and poker update....

just got nova today, which means playing stars should yield about the same as ftp's rakeback in bonuses, maybe a little more.




also, i have been playing less sngs than usual.they been real swingy, and are getting tougher at the stakes i play. i have been fooling around with cash games. i never been good at cash so i been trying 1/2nl 6 max for now. just playing for an hour or 2 a day, i got about 8k hands in so far with great results. so i think i am going to slowly switch to more and more cash games because i think there is more money to make there. i realize i only have 8k hands so far, but with a MT ratio of 2.25, i am making ~$70 an hour. i also realize i prob wont be able to keep that rate up, but feel if i get my MT ratio up a bit and get better, i should be able to make more than i do at sngs.

my current goal with cash is to be profitable, and to keep my win rate at a good level, improve my game, and when i get to 30k hands start mixing in a few 2/4nl tables in and see how i do.


glglgl

good ICM article

good article from zee justin on his site. i will copy the best parts of the article here, i suggest going to his site to read the whole article, and browse his other articles.

Dissecting a Hand #2 [02.19.2006]



Imagine you are playing a $200 sit’n’go on PartyPoker. Blinds are 200/400 and there are four players left. Here’s the kicker, not only does everyone have exactly 2500 chips, but everyone plays optimally. You are in the small blind and it folds to you. Which hands will you go all-in with?


Before answering this, remember that everyone plays optimally. This means that the big blind will know exactly what range of hands you are going all-in with. Despite this, the correct answer is that you should be going all-in with every hand. This will probably seem ridiculous. If the big blind knows you are moving all-in with any two cards, he will be calling with a wide range of hands, right? Wrong.

This is not a cash game we are talking about. It is a Sit’n’go. There is $2,000 in play, but it does not all go to the winner. $1,000 goes to first, $600 to second, and $400 to third. That means that if the big blind calls and loses this hand, he gets nothing.

You have just moved all-in in the small blind without looking at your cards. The big blind has two options. He can fold, in which case he will be left with 2100 chips, resulting in an equity of $446 according to ICM. It is then correct for him to call if and only if the call will result in equity of $446 or more.

Since the big blind has perfect information (in other words he knows you play perfectly and will move in with any two cards), we can calculate his equity exactly. Let’s do some math. When the big blind calls, there are two possible results. He can win or lose (technically the pot will occasionally be split, but that will complicate the calculations significantly while having virtually no effect on the conclusion, so we will ignore that possibility). He will lose X% of the time, and win Y% of the time. When he loses, he will be eliminated and will receive no prize money. His equity therefore is 0. When he wins, he will have 5000 chips. According to ICM, this will give him an equity of $766.60.

His equity when he calls is therefore 0X + 766.6Y. His equity when he folds is $446, so calling is only correct if 766.6Y > $446. This simplifies to Y > .582. In other words, the big blind will only call our all-in if he has a hand that will win against a random hand at least 58.2% of the time.

According to Poker Stove, the following hands will win at least 58.2% of the time against a random hand: AA – 55, AKs – A4s, AKo – A7o, KQs – K8s, KQo – KTo, and QJs – QTs. There are no other hands that will win more than 58.2% of the time against a random hand. Note that these hands account for 18.4% of all hands.

Now that we know how the big blind will react to our strategy, we can calculate our equity. Before the hand started, our equity was $500. If you were to fold your small blind, your equity according to ICM would be $473.6. However, instead of folding, you are going all-in with 100% of your hands. 81.6% of the time your opponent will fold and you will have a resulting stack of 2900 chips which according to ICM has equity of $549.6.

18.4% of the time, your opponent will call. Against the range of hands that he calls with, your random hand will win 35.375% of the time according to Poker Stove. This means that 64.625% of the time when you are called you will lose all your chips and have an equity of $0. The other 35.375% of the time you will win, resulting in a 5000 chip stack which has an equity of $766.6.

Your final equity therefore is:
(81.6% x $549.6) + (18.4% x 64.625% x 0) + (18.4% x 35.375% x 766.6) = $448.47 + 0 + $49.90 = $498.37. Note that this is $24.77 greater than your equity would be if you just folded all your hands. $24.77 may not seem like much in relation to a $2,000 prize pool, but remember, this is a difference made in just one hand. If you gave up $24.77 in equity on every single hand you ever played, you would go broke fast.

So far all I have proven is that pushing any two cards in this spot is better than folding every hand. Clearly no one is going to be folding pocket aces in this spot, so that really doesn’t prove much. In order to prove that this is profitable with any two cards, I need to show that it is profitable with 72o.

If you are going all-in with 72o, you will never be folding any better hands, so just like before, your opponent will know you are pushing any two cards in this spot; therefore, his calling range will remain the same. Against your opponents calling range, 72o will win 27.055% of the time (note that it performs slightly worse than 32o against that range). We can adjust our formula from earlier resulting in the following:

(81.6% x $549.6) + (18.4% x 72.945% x 0) + (18.4% x 27.055% x 766.6) = $448.47 + 0 + $38.16 = $486.63. That means with 72o, your equity from moving all in is $13.03 greater than your equity from folding. Again, I want to stress how significant this $13 is. An expert $200 sit’n’go player will often hope to make around $30 per sit’n’go entered. This means that almost half of his profits for an entire sit’n’go will be relinquished if he makes the mistake of folding 72o in this one hand.

In the scenario we are discussing, the gap increases greatly due to the bubble. The big blind is aware that if he calls and loses he will go home empty handed. Despite the fact that you will be raising more hands than normal from the small blind, the big blind will be calling with fewer hands than normal, making your equity go through the roof.

It is important to remember that in the hand we are discussing, you are against opponents who play optimally. In reality, you will never encounter opponents that play optimally. Most opponents will have no idea you are making this play with any two cards, and they will call less often as a result. At the same time, they will often misjudge the importance of the bubble. Some players will play for first and will call too often, while others will play to make the money and fold too often. For this reason, it is important to know your opponent’s style of play. Against tight opponents, you can move all-in on their blind quite often, but if your opponent is willing to call with any hand that he thinks might be best, you will have to tighten up considerably.

There is also another added benefit to moving all-in on this hand. If your opponent folds (which he will do often), you will now have the chip lead. This means that everyone else at the table will have to worry about the possibility of going broke on every future hand, while that will never be possible for you in a single hand. You will still have almost as much to gain as your opponents on every hand, but you will no longer have as much to lose. Furthermore, this advantage increases with each additional hand you win. If you can steal the blinds on the next two hands as well, you will all the sudden have a monstrous stack of 4100 chips, with the next biggest stack being only 2100.

Another concept that you should understand is that unlike in cash games, chips do not have a constant value in sit’n’gos. At the start of the tournament, you have 1,000 chips worth a total of $200. That means that each chip is worth twenty cents. At the end of the tournament, one player will have all 10,000 chips and he will be rewarded $1,000. By the time that happens, each of his chips will have dropped in value to just ten cents per chip. Over the course of a sit’n’go, a chips value will gradually drop in value until it reaches half its initial value.

If you only take away one thing from this article, it should be the importance of moving all-in in sit’n’gos when the blinds are high, especially when you are on the bubble. The most likely result will be increasing your stack by the blinds, which is a significant gain when they are large. Sure, you will occasionally be called by a good hand and lose your whole stack, but if your opponents are at risk of elimination, then they won’t be able to call as often as they would like. Edges like this may seem tiny or too risky, but it is important that you take advantage of every edge possible if you want to become a great poker player.

cyberholdem & trimp Qs on 200 sng

same thing today

cyberholdem wrote:
Iam not so an advanced player as you sponer, so i think i cant help you a lot, but i have some questions that may help me:

# 2 AQo : I mostly limp in the early levels especially UTG - UTG+2 because you risk chips for a little profit; or play they on the higher levels tighter????


most people do limp here, i for some reason go against the rule here... just seems to fit along with my style more. i rarely limp 1st in.

bigjoe2003 would limp there, it isn't wrong.

cyberholdem wrote:
#9 AJs : you hit the nutflushdraw and make a checkraise ( maybe you check because he has reraised ); if your opponent would checkbehind, do you bet or check????



this really depends on what card came.



cyberholdem wrote:
#13 JJ : I love the fold after the reraise, what do you assume does the reraiser ave QQ+, AK, AQ, AJ ????; I think this is one of my leaks, that i sometimes not respect the play of my opponents.



a lot of people will fold JJ to an all in early, i usually only fold JJ if i am facing action by multiple opponents that seem strong, if it was just one guy, i would raise, and if he shoved, i prob call.

so many times even with multiple people, i would still be ahead...but obvious the chances of ending up way behind or have 3 overs against me is to strong. i have to many chips to risk here. i have a nice stack, and i rather just wait for a better, spot, i don't care what cards they have.


cyberholdem wrote:
#32 JJ in SB : You call the AI from the BU ( 8 BB ); because you can put him on a stealraise / any 2 in this spot !!! ???


maybe not any 2, but definitely a big range.


cyberholdem wrote:
#38 Q9o BU : why is this no stealraise against the blinds??? so more so as you raise in #39 from the CO with Q5o ??????


stack sizes are awkward, they can easily push here wide. the next hand, i have better players in the blinds, i am in earlier position, which makes me look stronger, and it is now the bubble.


cyberholdem wrote:
# 40 A7o : call AI from BU; is this a instacall ??? you have to hit the A and behind after A8+ ???



ya, i think so, premier is pushing very wide here... and i have chips. to be honest, i am more likely to fold if blinds were up, that way i could run over bubble with a shorty sooner. as soon as he pushed, i prob looked to see if their were antes yet, and if there were, i would had looked how long till the blinds went up.


cyberholdem wrote:
#69 T5o : you have about 10 BB why do you shove this????????


because if he calls wide, it is still +ev.



=======
trimp has left a new comment on your post "$200 sng, PxF replayer, with bigjoe2003 & premier":

Hand #38. Why are you not taking these blinds?


cyber had the same question, answered it above.



I was pretty surprised to see you fold JJ and 99 to Premier's raises.
After the 99 fold, you push with K5. Why? Doesn't seem like the right time to do this.


i was prob ahead both times, with JJ i had plenty of chips and not worth risking the majority of them there. i could be far behind, i could be up against 3 over cards.... just best to wait.

with the 99 it was the bubble time, and we had a short stack who will be forced to Gamble soon, not worth coinflipping for most of my chips here, i don't think premier comes in without a pretty strong hand either.

K5 was an easy push, blinds are up and no one can call except maybe bigjoe2003.

checkeater's Qs about the $200 sng

same thing, mine in red, his in yellow.......


checkeater wrote:
Hand 9-Sprstoner 3x raise with AJs 3rd pos, 4th position reraises to 150, bb calls Sprstoner calls too. 8c 2s 4s bb checks Sprstoner checks Feldspar makes continuation bet of 270 and spstoner check raises him to 690 Feldspar folds. Ok now my question is with 15/30 blinds should we be betting half our stacks on a draw I know if he has TT or 99 spstoner is a small favorite with the flush draw plus possible 2 overs and 270 is big bet and I cant see just calling because hes prolly not checking the turn so the price will go up for river card so I understand not paying 270 for 1 card so if your choices are call 270 or raise to 690 I might see how raising to the 690 might be the correct play but I’m not sure if folding might be best with 15/30 blinds.


i very rarely fold to a min RR pre if i have chips... i hope to catch a nice flop and make them pay for giving me such huge odds.

i caught basically a dream flop, however some of my outs are probably dead.

i recently came off a bad run in sngs, and i decided part of the reason was i became predictable.people knew when i was strong and got out of the way. my 1st adjustment was to slowplay, that didn't work so well either. so decided to become more aggressive with more hands, and the only ones that made sense were draws. this seems to be working, so if i am playing a hand like i flopped a set, i may have, or i may have an awesome draw. and i am looking to make more adjustments if i need to.

he probably folded an AKish hand, because he would probably call with 66.


checkeater wrote:
Hand 17- Feldspar vs Premier Feldspar bets 3x raise from 5th position 25/50 with QQ and Premier has AK sb he reraises to 550 definitely committing himself to an all in call if Feldspar chooses to do so which is what happened. Now I know your not supposed to play a hand out of position like that and it is extra incentive to take the pot down now and I also know that there is value to seeing all five cards when you have AK and you might be priced out after the flop since Feldspar only had 880 left and might go all in on any flop. This is along the same lines of Hand 9 but with having 1500 at 25/50 is it wise to put your whole stack at risk like that early on maybe Premier thought he was weak since Feldspar bet out of the 5 spot? Let me know what you guys think?


if i was premier, i prob shove there instead of the 550 raise. my normal rule is, if i have more than 10 times the bet i raise instead of shove, which premier had there... but he was OOP, and both players left in hand had less than 10 times the bet.


checkeater wrote:
Hand 21- Donato vs Sprstoner Donato has 1100 at 50/100 should he fold that under the gun? Or if he is going to make a 3x raise shouldn’t he be prepared to fold? I understand pushing with 11bb is a little much but if he is going to call the push by Stoner anyways why not bet more like 4xor 5x?? Is my thought process incorrect?



i would say, i think i would rather fold utg if i was him, he has an awkward stack size, and to many players to push through at this time.

if he is calling a push anyways, it is better to push, that way he doesn't get stuck with a shitty flop and not know what to do if he got called.

checkeater wrote:
Hand 49- Spstoner vs DH Time blind vs blind Spstoner makes bet with Aqc and DH calls now I always bet out if I opened with raise even if I have AAA after flop I bet out but since spstoner had such a favorable flop hitting top pair plus the flush draw should he maybe check to see if DH will bet, I know probably not since he will be scared of A on board but with such a favorable flop I wonder if scaring him away was correct or not?



i thought slowplaying was giving away to much info about my game, so i decided to play most hands the same way. that is a perfect flop for a C-bet if i miss. and BvB he may re-pop it with a smaller pair.




also one question from tripoker:


tripoker wrote: Maybe you should find stiffer competition. lol. Wow that was amazing a sng player that likes to play poker. Could you explain your bet sizing of hand number 9.



i think it makes me look stronger, for the bet to be a little smaller. i try to play these flops as if i flopped a set. i am not opposed to a push at all.

drarr's Qs on the $200 sng

anyone notice i was catching some cards? was nice..... anyways, i will make drarr's questions in yellow, my responses in red.


Hand 29: Would you have raised A7s there if you didn’t know they were strong players in the blinds, who probably wouldn’t get involved without a decent hand? Also what would you have done if Premier had reshipped you there (I’m guessing calling and hating it).



yes, this is a borderline hand that can be easily folded, and yes i prob was more likely to raise here because bigjoe was in the BB, most of the time in these sngs i get a descent amount of respect if i haven't been pushing yet, and make a standard raise from early to mid pos. i also note the players who are mad at me and make comments about my retarded pushes/plays, because they are out to bust me.



Hand 39: Similar to above. Would you have raised here with weaker players in the blinds? Also is the reason behind this raise to see if your big stack has respect from the button player? It just seems a strange spot to steal in when blinds are only 100/200 and you’re sat on a 5k stack.


in this hand because of the bubble, i am more likely to raise a very large range no matter what.


Hand 61: What range did you have bigjoe on here? Although his raise is really a push it looks like he may be trying to encourage action from the BB by leaving chips behind.


bigjoe is doing this with a very wide range, i would say at least 35%, maybe any 2. this is a trick. him and his buddies do this because they think it creates artificial fold equity (i don't fall for it).
he can have 3.5 bbs, and he will raise 2.5bbs and it works sometimes, at least it looks like it does.

$200 sng, PxF replayer, with bigjoe2003 & premier

this was posted for discussion on the PxF sng discussion group in their forum, it is something new, that should be informative. you can view the sng in the replayer with a free account, but i don't believe you can get into the forum unless you pay. so i will bring the discussion here since many of you don't pay PxF.



$200 sng


i will post the questions and my responses during next few days. give you guys a chance to watch it 1st.

i love making new friends.....

stronghandle said, "g catch idiot"
sprstoner said, "lol"
stronghandle [observer] said, "i mean seriously...what ru doing though"
sprstoner said, "out playing you"
stronghandle [observer] said, "out playing me?......catching a 3 outer....ur an idiot....i've played u b4 thats why it was such an ez call"
sprstoner said, "again.. lol"
stronghandle [observer] said, "gl douche"
stronghandle [observer] said, "lol is right.....bucklox"
stronghandle [observer] said, "blahhhhhh"
stronghandle [observer] said, "BUCKLOX"
stronghandle [observer] said, "can u plz tell me where ur going 2 play next......plz"
sprstoner said, "be playing these for a while"
stronghandle [observer] said, "the deadest money of all ttime"
sprstoner said, "plz follow me... like extra donaters"
stronghandle [observer] said, "here it comes"
stronghandle [observer] said, "u fn idiot"
sprstoner said, "spoken by a losing player"
stronghandle [observer]: hands down the worst player i've seenn......bn playin 4 years,,,,,lat
stronghandle [observer]: lol
sprstoner [observer]: lol
sprstoner [observer]: plz keep playing sngs










so what you took a bad beat... was it the 1st time.. lol

i know, watch the rest of the sng and cry like a baby, might make you more of a man.. lol

btw, he never played in any others i was in after this one tonight, and i played at least 10 more.

i hate insulting ppl that donate, but this dude was really getting on my nerves..... couldnt help it...

<--- dumbass

last months stats

here is my totals from last month, still very bad in the sngs, but they started to improve... also last month i was gone for 2 weeks with no poker. as you see, i have been trying a little more cash games lately and doing ok. I'm kinda embarrassed, but i am only playing 1/2nl now, as my bank roll has been hurt and I'm really just learning cash games. never been good at them, so I'm studying the game now. these totals count my 2nd WSOP seat as $11k in the MTT section.

from Jan 1st to end of April:

things are not as good as i would like, but not to bad i guess.

====


i have been doing very good lately, I'm expecting an awesome may.

email response from stars

in reguards to 2nds seats and buying into events with W$ and FPPs.

Hello Shawn,
Nothing has changes with the procedure for winning a second seat; you will
still be credited with W$10,000 and $1,000 cash.

You may still buy in to select preliminary events with W$ or FPPs. We
will credit your account with 85% of the buy-in, and you will receive the
other 15% credited to your PokerStars account after you register for the
Event and bring proof of registration to the PokerStars suite at the
Treasure Island.

Regards,
Mike Jones
PokerStars Poker Room Management Team

bad news -WSOP

email from stars.....



First and foremost, congratulations on winning a seat to the 2007 World Series of Poker* on PokerStars! Winning your buy-in is a tremendous accomplishment. This e-mail contains very important information regarding World Series buy-in procedures. Please read this e-mail carefully.

PokerStars staff members have worked tirelessly for several months in an attempt to directly buy-in PokerStars' World Series qualifiers to the Main Event. Unfortunately, Harrah's policy refuses third-party registrations. With that in mind, by tomorrow morning we will deposit your $10,000 buy-in into your PokerStars account.

When you wish to cash out the $10,000 please email wsoppayments@pokerstars.com. We have set up this email specifically to expedite the cash out requests for all World Series qualifiers.

While it was our intention to arrange hotel accommodations as we have in the past, we are now unable to handle these arrangements. However, we will still pay you the $1,000 in lieu of accommodation if you wear PokerStars clothing exclusively (note that all FPP qualifiers are obliged to wear PokerStars clothing). We will send you an email nearer the time with instructions on how to pick up your player bag, where after the $1,000 towards accommodation will be deposited into your PokerStars account. If you're still playing in the main event on July 11th, we'll deposit another $1,000 towards your additional expenses.

It is now your responsibility to buy-in to the Main Event, and to arrange for your own travel and accommodations. All of us at PokerStars sincerely regret any inconvenience that this may cause.

Please see the following options on how to officially buy in:

1. Pre-register for the WSOP* Main Event

- Go to http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/registration/2007/
- Click on Pre-register now for the 2007 World Series of Poker!
- Fill in your player information and tick Event 55
- Tick which day you prefer to start
- Tick the method of payment you want to use for the deposit of the buy-in amount
- After completing the pre-registration form, you will be contacted directly by Harrah's.

2. Register directly at the Rio

- Go to the Rio Conference Center where the World Series Events are taking place
- Go to the Cashier with proof of ID and $10,000 cash for the buy-in

Harrah's is offering special room rates to all players who pre-register for the World Series events. You'll get special pre-entrant rates starting at $85 per night. When you officially register and pay your entry fee for the Main Event, the hotel will automatically convert your rate to the exclusive entrant rate. These pre-entrant rates are available at Bally's Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, Flamingo Las Vegas, Harrah's Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, and Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. For more details please go to http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/reservations/

In addition we have also added a page on our website with Las Vegas hotel details, at http://www.pokerstars.com/wsop/hotels/ to help you make accommodation arrangements.

Thank you for your understanding and your continued loyalty to PokerStars.

If you have any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to contact us at wsop@pokerstars.com

Sincerely,
The PokerStars WSOP* Team

* World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ("Harrah's"). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with, PokerStars or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.




i emailed them back asking about the W$ money i won from my 2nd seat that i was intending on buying into prelim events with... ill let you know what they say when i get the response. i already received my 10k for seat #1.

I'm not sure the wsop will be worth playing this year now, this hurts bad. i will be there to investigate though.

did you guys see this ICM article?

it is on P5s by Jennifear, it is a pretty good article, although she tries to just simplify ICM to much. overall worth a read... I'm going to copy a piece of it here, although i suggest you read the whole article here.


the red text is directly copied and pasted:

The stacks are:

Chipleader - 7000 (cutoff)
Hero - 5000 (button)
Third - 2500 (big blind)
Fourth - 500 (small blind)

Blinds are 50-100.

The chipleader has been pushing all-in nearly every hand since the action became four-handed fifteen hands ago. The action is on the chipleader, who pushes all-in once again, and we expect that his total range is any two cards.

Let's determine what we, as the Hero, can call with:

Before the hand, here is how the equity is split up:

Player Chips Equity
Hero 5000 $65.63
Chipleader 7000 $73.95
Big Blind 2500 $49.16
Small Blind 500 $11.25

If we call the push and lose, our equity is $0.00 because we finish fourth, so we lose all of our $65.63 in equity! (also take note that in this scenario, the shortstack has nearly quadrupled his equity without moving a chip):

Player Chips Equity
Chipleader 12150 $92.19
Hero 0 $0.00
Big Blind 2400 $63.34
Small Blind 450 $44.47

If we call and win, we take a nice lead, but our equity only moves up $19.87 in the right direction:

Player Chips Equity
Hero 10150 $85.46
Former CL 2000 $48.58
Big Blind 2400 $52.66
Small Blind 450 $13.30

So in this case, we risk $65.63 to potentially win $19.87. Given this info, we must call with cards that will win 76.74% (3.3/4.3) of the time to make this call +$EV.

The mistake people make a lot of the time in this spot is calling with hands that will usually win them chips (cEV), such as AJ, 99, etc. It is +cEV to call with hands as bad as K10 in this spot, meaning that we will, on average, win chips calling with K10. However, it is only profitable in this instance to call with AA and KK. Your risk is too large to call with QQ, as it does worse than the 76.74% required against any two cards. Please note that if you could narrow the pusher's range to any ace or any pair, KK would be a clear fold in this instance. This is one of many situations in bubble play where a play that wins you chips more often than not can be a very unprofitable play (+cEV but -$EV).








here is a link to a thread about this article, with some discussion.