Playing Blindfolded - Position and Aggression Wins

It is a fact that the best poker players are more aggressive than the average player.  The best poker players also take advantage of table position relative to the button.  Position is more important than the cards you actually hold.  Another important thing to remember is that very few pots actually end up going to a show down.  Your seating position versus other players position relative to the button has more value than your actual starting hand. 

I am proposing an experiment.  Play a low limit 3 to 5 table Sit N Go tournament blindfolded.  Well not literally but you will not be able to see your hole cards.  Put a Post it Note over the area of the screen that displays you cards and commit yourself to not taking a peek.  If you are using a poker database with a HUD, disable it for this experiment.  You must be playing completely blind.  So what is the point of this exercise?  It will force you to see opportunities that you may have been missing.  You must carefully study your opponents.  The only information you will have is how often does someone open a pot.   How much do they bet?  Do they fold often when facing a 3 bet?  Use only this information and your relative position to make your decision on how you will play your hand. 

Most of us spend too much time looking at our hole cards and not enough time studying our opponents for weakness and looking for a spot to use our position and stack to win the pot.  How many times have you been sitting in the cut-off or on the button and an aggressive players opens,  the player to the right of you calls and  you say to yourself, "I bet  if I go all in here, I will likely win" , but you look at your hand and see an 8 - 3 off suit and fold.  Because you cannot see your cards you will have to look for the spots like this and shove all in.   

As the tournament progresses you will develop a feel for playing different stack sizes as well.  Look for spots to put an overactive player to the test for his tournament life by forcing him to call your all in.  Most players do not like to call with all their chips without a premium hand if it means a loss will end the tournament or cripple them.  Look for the spots where you think you can exploit and punish the weak players at the table and make them pay to continue playing the hand.  

Remember this is just an experiment to help you view the game in a new dimension.  I really doubt that your results at the blind game will be better than when you can see you hole cards, however, when you play your next tournament where you can see your cards, use what you learn from this experiment.  I am certain this experiment will make you will be a better poker player. 

Good Luck!!!  Let me know how this experiment works for you.

Rush Poker Report - Late Position

Full 9 Max table - $.25/.50 - Mercury

Late positions includes seat 8 (Cutoff) and 9 (Button).  These are the most profitable positions to play from in any hold'em game and this is especially true at Rush Poker tables.  Opening hands from the cutoff can be just about anything from suited connectors, pairs from 55 and up, and any A. If the pot is unopened when it gets to you, open with a 3 BB raise.  This is usually enough to cause the blinds to fold and allow you to pick up the blinds.  If you get push back from the button or the blinds you can easily lay down as you do not have enough skin in the game to cause any concern.  Because Rush Poker is played at such a rapid pace you can get away with raising and picking up the blinds much easier than in a standard game.  Unless someone has a very good starting hand in the blinds they will likely just fold and move on to the next hand.

From the button in an unopened pot open open raise 3 BB or more with any 2 cards.  Yes, any 2 cards.  Unless the blinds have a real hand they will fold and move on.  Trust me, you will make money with this play because you will win the hand many more times than you will have to fold to a re-raise.  The button is by far the most profitable seat at the table.  If there is an opening raiser and you have a hand that you think is or could be the best hand at the table, raise 3x the opening players raise and see if he really has a hand.  If the opening raise is 3 or 4 BB, go ahead and make it 10 - 12 BB.  More than 50% of the time you will cause the opening raiser to fold unless they have any extremely strong hand.  Unless the opening raiser has a hand or is an extremely poor player,  why is he prepared to play out of positions for the rest of the game?  Ideally you win right there, however, if you get called by the initial raiser, he is shouting  "I don't have KK or AA".  With your position you are in a really good spot to win this hand if you remain aggressive.  There are of course those time that you get a seasoned player that is willing to slow play AA but this is not the norm. 

My winning formula for Rush Poker is boring but quite simple.  Limit your opening hand selection for all seats except the cutoff and button to large pairs - JJ through AA, and AKs.  Play the cutoff and button extremely aggressively.  Try it and let me know if it works for you.    

My win rate at Rush Poker is a fairly steady 3 BB/100 hands based on 213,000 hands.  This translates to $1.50 per 100 hands or $6.00 per hour at one table since the average number of hands per hour is 400.  I usually play 3 tables at a time.  $18.00 per hour is a very acceptable result in my opinion. 

To check out Rush Poker for yourself, Click here.

Next Post -A Poker Experiment - Playing Blindfolded - Aggression Wins

Rush Poker Report - Middle Position

Full 9 Max table - $.25/.50 - Mercury

It's been a while since my last post because my regular job has kept me too busy to play enough poker to give my opinion on Rush Poker from middle position.  

This my for the record section of the blog.   I was able to put in 9 hours x 2 tables the last couple of days.  My results were not as good as my report from my last post covering early position.  I made a total profit of $122.40 which is $13.60 per hour on 6,943 hands which is 1.76 BB/100. 

Middle position would be seats 5, 6, and 7 at the Full Tilt 9 max table.  Because of the speed in which you can play hands at Rush Poker, it is rare to find players that play speculative hands from middle position like you would find in a regular game.  It is easier to just fold and move on.  I do suggest playing a slightly increased number of hands from middle position but still not what you would play at a regular 9 max table.  When you see an early position raise or you get re-raised it usually indicates a much stronger hand than you would normally expect.  I added the following hands to my playable hands from middle position if I am the first to open the betting.  99, TT, 88 from seat 7 as well as AQo, KQs (see previous post for all hands).  I still stick with my 3BB opening  bet.  That's it for the extra hands to play from middle position.  With these hands you may get looked up and have to decide based on the action you received if it is worthwhile to continue or simply fold.  Remember, with a 3BB raise you only have to pick up the blinds 2/3 of the time to break even. 

Playing middle position is still a risky play because you have 2 - 4 more players to act after you plus the blinds.  Risk is determined by how much information you have about relative hand strengths and middle position does not provide you with all that much and you still have a bunch of hungry sharks to get through and a potential 4 more rounds of betting before you win anything.  The small and big blinds look attractive because with only a small bet by another player it costs little to play from this position or does it?  After the flop the blinds are the hardest to play from because you will have little information about those to act after you and this is why the blinds are the biggest money losing positions even for the best players (See previous posts - Playing the Blinds). 

 

To check out Full Tilt Rush Poker for yourself, Click here.

Next Post - Rush Poker - Late Positions-------------------------> Stay tuned

Rush Poker Report - Early Position

Full 9 Max table - $.25/.50 - Mercury

I started playing Rush Poker about a month ago and have found it extremely profitable, certainly better than my results at $5/10 NL.  The strategy for winning at Rush Poker ring games is slightly different than at a regular 9 max table because the action is so must faster.  Most people are only playing premium hands and folding small to medium pairs and suited connectors and just moving on to the next hand.

Early position at a Rush Poker table is easier to play than other tables if you stop playing speculative hands.  I would suggest only playing premium pairs like AA, KK, QQ and JJ, as well as AKs, AKo, and AQs from early position.  A standard 3BB raise from 1st or 2nd position in most cases will cause everyone to fold and you pick up the blinds.  If someone else raises you are in a great position to re-raise with all these hands or maybe just call with all but the AA and KK.   I know I will get some arguments with my next statement.  I like to limp from early position with AA and KK  at Rush tables from early position.  There are 8 people left to act after you open and you can almost guarantee, someone will raise.  When it gets back to me after a raise I usually make a pot size bet.  From here this is what usually happens.  40% of the time you get re-raised or your competitor goes all and then you can call the all in or go all in yourself, 30% of the time people fold (a good thing because you just won), and 20 % of the time you get called.  It is the 20% of the time that gets more difficult to play.  The guy that just called your re-raise has a good hand but what does he have?  If the flop comes up with lots of cards in the play zone you could be in trouble because most people that don't just fold to a pot size re-raise likely have hands like AK, AQ, or a big pair.  On the flop if there is a T, J, Q, K, or A or 2 cards to a flush proceed with caution.  I would try control the size of the pot from here until you get a better read.  If your competitor has made a set and you didn't it could get expensive.   Post flop play is now played the same as you would at any other table.

The other possibility is that you just get your AA or KK called by 1 or more callers.  In this case you are likely not going to make much money but you have to make sure you don't lose a whole bunch of money because you are now playing against players that played any 2 cards and you will have no idea what they are.  In this case I mix up my betting sometimes raising 3/4 the pot or check raising.  I like the check raise better  with more than one caller because quite often the person behind you will raise and get the other players to fold  and you are now heads up.  If your check results in a raise and a then a re-raise from other players, you are probably beat and should fold and wait for another spot to get your money in the pot. 

This past weekend I played for 8 hours x 2 tables.  Total number of hands played was 5,430.  Total profit was $162 - $20.25 per hour or 6 BB/100 hands.   I doubt I can maintain this win rate over time.  I will keep you posted.  A word of warning.  Be prepared for big swings in this game.  

To check out Full Tilt Rush Poker for yourself, Click here.

Next Post - Rush Poker - Middle Position --------------> Stay Tuned

Rush Poker - Texas Hold'em on Steroids

First of all, what is Rush Poker?  It is essentially Full Tilt's Texas Hold'em with a twist - it is played super-fast.  You still get two hole cards with all the regular rounds of betting if you decide to play the hand.  If you fold or "quick fold" as they call it, you are immediately moved and are seated at a new table with new opponents.  It is possible to play upwards of 400+ hands per hour.  

OK, so what are the advantages of Rush Poker?  You can play considerably more hands per hour than at a conventional table so you are always making decisions as to whether to play or fold so it is hard to become bored and complacent.  Also since you always have new people at your table it is much more difficult for your opponents to get a read on your playing style.  The player who hasn’t played a big blind in the most hands is the big blind.  The move to a new table is instant after folding your hand.

An advantage of Rush Poker is also one of its disadvantages because you have a difficult time gathering data on your opponents your decision making comes down to playing your cards rather than your opponents.   This makes Rush Poker a useful Texas Hold'em learning tool.  If you are trying to adjust how you play various hands from different seating positions, this is a great place to test them out.  There are table limits from $.02/.05 all the way up to $2/4.  The low limit tables provide a unique opportunity to try different hand strategies from various table positions with an extremely low risk factor.  As your confidence in a new game strategy is validated and proves profitable at a lower level, move up a level and see if it works there.  I would caution you not to move up more than one level at a time until you are comfortable playing at your new stake level.  If your bankroll takes a hit at the higher level, move back down and rethink your playing strategy.  

Recently some of the poker analysis software tools have been upgraded to accommodate Rush Poker.  Hold'em Manager now will gather statistics on your Rush Poker table opponents so after a short while of playing you start to get a profile of your opponents.  The data is displayed with a rapidly changing HUD (heads up display).  It takes longer to build a profile on your opponents than at a conventional table because the entire player pool could exceed 500 players but on the other hand you can play upwards of 400+ hands per hour.  Hold'em Manager's real time HUD stats can help you make the correct decision in tough situations or in regular game play.  Wouldn't you like to know that the guy that just entered the pot from the cutoff tries to steal the pot 80% of the time?  These guys are just ripe for the picking when you know that they are bluffing most of the time. 

If you want to get your feet wet at free Rush Poker tables there are many to choose from.  As with any other free games you will not get a real poker playing experience because people seem to do the dumbest things when there is no real money involved. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think. Click here to go to Full Tilt Poker for more details about Rush Poker. 

The Poker Experiment - PART 3 - Winning Statistics

To follow on from the previous post with the winning players analyzed with stats garnered from Poker Table Ratings (PTR) 10+ Billion hand database.  This is what I found.

Stats of interest.  Most of the winning players had very similar overall numbers. 

VPIP  - from 23 to 34% - Best results in and around the 27% range

PFR - 19.4 to 29.1% - Best results in 24 - 25% range

CB - from 44.1 to 46.9% --  44.1 to 45.5% produced the best results

WTSD - from 24.1 to 28.8% 

W$SD - 51.19 - 52.85%

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VPIP - Voluntarily put $ into the pot

PFR - Preflop raise

CB - Continuation Bet

WTSD - % went to show down

W$SD -  % pots won at showdown

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are so many variables and styles of play it is difficult to pick out one and say - EUREKA that's it- but studying consistent winners and trying to get my stats in line with theirs is a good place to start.

There is a consensus in the poker community around some of these statistics. 

For PFR 

0-10%:  Weak opponent who only raises premium hands
10-15%:  A  little more aggressive but still only raising premium hands
15-30%:   Raising a wide range of hands, dangerous player watch out
30%+:  Over aggressive maniac who will rarely have a hand.

A really good analysis of VPIP and PFR can be found at:  http://www.pokercrusher.com/stats.html
Their analysis gives you a good idea of what cards a player is playing to achieve these numbers.  

I said it before and I'll say it again.  If you aren't using a Poker Database that will display player statistics at the tables you are playing you are at a distinct disadvantage. GET ONE!!!.  Check out Holdem Manager and Poker-Edge as a couple of different options.  

The Poker Experiment - PART 2 - The Blinds

     

In previous posts I examined stats from my database identifying the winners and losers and examined win statistics by position.  In almost every case whether the player was a winner or loser the stats from the blinds showed losing results.  In order to see whether this trend is true I decided to validate this by using the 10 Billion plus hands available at PokerTableRatings (PTR) to look at in depth stats of the players I was tracking to see what their long term results were.  PTR does not give total stats by position so I had to delve into each players sessions for the past month to have a look for myself. 

Points of interest noted from the sample analyzed. When I looked at 2 years worth of data on my player selection (see previous post), most all of them were winning players in the long run.  Results varied from .48 BB/100 to 3.29 BB/100 but winners none the less.  The samples hands by player ranged from 500,000 hands to 1.7 Million hands so the sample sizes were sufficient to account for any short range variance. 

In almost every case playing from the blinds resulted in a net loss overall.  Even if every hand was folded from the blinds this will produce a losing stat of course but every player I looked at had horrible results from the blinds overall validating my conclusions from the previous post.  The consistent winning hands from the blinds were AA, KK, and sometimes QQ but this is true from every position.  AQ and JJ produced awful results for most players as did most small to medium pairs.  The blinds are very tricky to play all but premium hands from. I have modified my current blind play to make a significant reduction in hands played from the blinds to see what this will do.   I am tracking my over BB/100 win rate to see if over the course of the next month my win rate will increases by doing this.  

My next post will give you the most interesting statistics or traits of the players used in this analysis.  I am going to see what other forums and sources have to say about the statistics I gathered and will present next time. 

Examine your play to see what your statistics are.  If you don't have a poker database and are serious about winning at poker - GET ONE.  The cost of purchasing a database software and the value it can add to your play is priceless.  A couple of packages to explore are Holdem Manager and Poker-Edge. 

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.   Comments are always welcomed.

The Poker Experiment - PART 1 - Position Play

It was back into the database again to have a hard look at what the heck is going on.  I increased my sample size to include 1.3M hands from all poker sites.  I then had a look at the players that won or lost the most money and had highest or lowest BB/100 win or loss rate out of the sample.  Unfortunately I am not in the win category with theses players because these are the best of the best.  The difficulty here was finding players other than myself in the database with a sample large enough to have some degree of reliability. The players I decided to look at had to have at least 5,000 hands to be considered.  A larger sample would be better but what I am after is to see why the best win and why the worst lose.  A good place to start is win rates by position.  

The Winners

# Percentage Won or Lost by Position Hands  BB/100 Stakes SB BB Early  Middle  Cutoff Button 5207 14.84 $5/10  -6.78 -17.45 18.18 7.43 -4.61 94.49 5623 21.45 $5/10  18.75 -23.50 83.90 7.55 31.72 42.64 7844 12.87 $5/10  -2.06 -51.09 12.64 34.57 15.17 73.29 8223 12.87 $5/10  7.25 -12.20 -9.46 13.35 -9.38 90.67 10401 9.48 $5/10  0.00 -70.09 19.34 25.72 63.30 43.05 The Losers # Percentage Won or Lost by Position Hands  BB/100 Stakes SB BB Early  Middle  Cutoff Button 7198 -5.26 $5/10  -13.71 -21.79 9.24 -24.27 30.56 -5.77 7875 -6.01 $5/10  -38.39 -41.02 12.54 -7.66 34.14 12.99 8192 -14.48 $5/10  -23.68 -59.87 -3.17 19.12 16.18 -20.20 11113 -4.76 $5/10  0.00 -38.43 37.70 44.97 -31.01 19.17 12292 -9.36 $5/10  -27.28 -66.37 42.23 -21.91 13.81 27.87

The most interesting thing to note here is that even the very best players are overall losers when playing from either the SB or BB.  The losers category have even worse numbers from the blinds.  The winning players all have positive win rates from early position through the button while the losers have mixed results from all these positions. 

It is still to early to draw any major conclusions other than to note that regardless of your playing skill we all play too much from the blinds that result in poor results.  I am going to carefully scrutinize my blind play in the upcoming sessions to see if I can play less from these positions and boost my overall winrate.

In future posts I intend to use the same players from this sample to study starting hands, style of play,  preflop aggression, raises, VPIP etc. to see what lessons are to be learned here. The database software used is Holdem Manager.  I will talk more about it in future posts.

Stay tuned.

Winning and Losing Starting Hands - Texas Holdem

Back to the database again to see what preflop hands win the most and which lose the most.  Based on a sample of  227,400 hands,  the winners are from highest to lowest.

The Winners                                                              Winning Percentage

Big Pairs – JJ – AA  (AA being the best)                                 87.9

Medium Pairs - 77 - 10,10                                                          68.7

Big Ace hands - AKs, AQs, AKo, AQo                                      89.1        

Suited Aces - Any 2 cards suited with an A                               73.5

Suited One gappers                                                                     23.9

Suited two gappers                                                                      17.5

The Losers

Non suited one gappers                                                               12.2

Low Pairs - 22 – 66                                                                        8.2

Suited connectors                                                                           8.8

Non Suited connectors                                                                 38.5

Non suited Aces                                                                            26.8

Other non suited hands                                                                   5.0       

                                                 

Every one of the hands in the winners section produced a profit over the sample.  Every loser hand resulted in losses.  I find some of these stats very odd and they require more digging to find out why some are like this.  We all know that big pairs and big ace hands will result in the highest win percentage.  I was really surprised to see that suited aces have such a high win percentage.   

In the loser column, the only surprise was suited connectors only winning 8.8% of the time and producing a loss over this large a sample size.  I really want to take a look at some of the hands in more detail to find out what happened.  I was under the impression that suited connectors should produce a profitable result.  I must be playing them wrong.

More on this subject in the next post.

Tournaments versus Cash Games - You Decide

For the purpose of this post and all future posts all games will be NO-LIMIT Holdem.

Whether you choose a one table Sit n Go tournament or big multi table tournament there are a lot of similarities.  Be conservative in the early stages of a tournament until you get a good starting hand unless you are running low on chips and then get aggressive. The strategy for a tournament is to survive until the end or make it into the money.   Most cash game players are not the best tournament players and vice versa.  Why is this?  In no limit tournament play you buy in for a specific amount and are given the same number of chips to start as everyone else.  In tournament play building a stack is important but in the early stages you are risking a lot to gain a little.   In cash games the amount you can lose is the total amount in your bankroll.  Since every single chip has a value in cash games, you can lose money real fast and just keep buying more chips hoping to recover your losses.  This is the category of cash game player that covers many players today.  I have read that 90% of cash players are losers.  They probably lose at tournament play as well but the total losses would be considerably less because of the fixed buy in.

Tournament players tend to play too aggressively and too often.  Bluffing is a big part of tournament play that does not lend itself well to cash play.  Tournament players can get aggressive and bluff profitably if they have accumulated a large stack and are able to push the short stackers into folding all but the best hands.  In cash play the blinds are not constantly increasing in value so there in no real reason to bluff often.  A good cash game player is a patient player.  They tend to wait for a premium hand and trap poorer opponents into "donking" off their stacks with a losing hand. 

I tend to play a tight aggressive style of cash game play.  I usually wait for good hand and raise it.  At an aggressive cash game table it may be better to toss hands that work at less aggressive tables and wait for the premium hand like AA or KK or AKs and try to make your money here.  I don't treat AQos as a premium hand anymore because I have lost the most money with it.  Even AA and KK can be played poorly and still have disastrous results.  The saying that with AA and KK you will either win a small pot or lose a big one is very, very true.  Too many players in cash games are willing to take a coin flips for their entire stack.  I have been one of these players but on my road to recovery I have resigned myself to walking away from these situations unless I am relatively sure that the other player is bluffing.  There will always come a better spot to get your money in the pot than a coin flip.

In tournament play it will be necessary to take coin flips on your road to the final table.  It is not possible to survive in a big tournament without taking a big risk now and again.  When players reach the "bubble" just before the money most players tend to slow down their aggression for fear of being knocked out of the money.  This is an opportune time for the big stacks to pick up the blinds and add to their stacks. 

The post has been a bit on the rambling side but this is how I write and these are my opinions and findings.  So which is best tournament of cash game?  The decision is entirely yours.  My preference is a combination of Sit N Go's and cash games with the odd multi-table tournament here and there.  It is easy to play a couple of cash games and a Sit n Go at the same time. 

I have had extremely positive results playing $10 and $20 buy in Sit no Go tournaments at 6 max tables. 

In September and October of 2010 I played 89 of these tournaments and finished in the money 54.3% of the time for a 43.9% ROI.  I get good results here but my passion is cash games and I want to get better at cash games where my ROI is way too low.

Analyzing the Stats - The Blinds

Digging into the database has begun.  Let's start with some interesting stats and try come up with reasons as to why they are what they are. The following stats were surprising to say the least but I suppose not totally unexpected if you read what others have said. The data was mined form 685,000 hands player over the period January 2009 to October 2010 at many different sites.  At this particulars site I played 28,727 hands.   There was a mix of stakes but the greatest number were played at $5/10 NL.  Total dollars won was $560.65 (.1846 BB/100).  Here are the results by position expressed in win rates BB/100.
Position                           BB/100                    Hands Played

Small Blind                                  -11.62                     5,745

Big Blind                                      -15.63                     5,792

Early                                               1.1                       2,355

Middle                                          12.77                      4,199

Cutoff                                               .8                        5,093                              

Button                                          18.49                      5,543              

Total                                                                         28,727

Position is everything in Holdem.   One of my greatest leaks is defending my blinds way too often with hands that I cannot continue with or know how to play after the flop.  In upcoming posts I will post specific  hands that have been the big losers and try to determine if there is a better way to play them or if they should not have been played at all. 

I have ran through a number of the small and big blind loser hands.  Most of the hands I open with are solid hands like AKs, or AQs or pocket pair.  When I get looked up I have a problem with post flop play.  The largest losses come when I hit top pair good kicker make a pot size raise and get called or raised.  In my head I say "Oh-oh"  and have a hard time playing the turn and the river.  My opponent is either a good player and is waiting for me to show weakness or has hit something I cannot beat.  So my options are check, raise, or check/raise.  In this case I usually elect for a 3/4 to pot size raise.  When I win the pot it is usually because the game ends right there but in the losing hands I either get re-raised or called again.  OK, what now.  If I check it is usually followed by a raise.  If I call rather than re-raise this is a sign of weakness and I know it will cost me money to get to a showdown.  If I 3 Bet I am usually committing myself to playing all in.  How would you guys play a hand like this.   This is probably a bad beat but how could I have played it differently?  4BB preflop, pot size bet on flop, and all in on turn.  Should I bet more preflop with AKo?  All in on flop not the answer. ??

$0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players


UTG: $35.40
BTN: $92.60
Hero (SB): $39
BB: $48.15

Pre-Flop: K A dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG calls $1, BTN folds, Hero raises to $4, BB folds, UTG calls $3

Flop: ($9) 3 J 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $9, UTG calls $9

Turn: ($27) T (2 Players)
Hero bets $26 and is All-In, UTG calls $22.40 and is All-In

River: ($71.80) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $71.80 Pot ($2 Rake)
UTG showed 6 4 and WON $69.80 (+$34.40 NET)
Hero showed K A and LOST (-$34.90 NET)

I am also aware that I have a hard time folding a drawing hand post flop, top pair poor kicker, or big pair when I probably do not have the best hand and this is a big leak that I have to plug.  An example follows.  This is just plain stupid but I am sure many of us have done this before.   This is a play I made too often from many positions not just the blinds.

$1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players


BTN: $137.45
Hero (SB): $69
BB: $413.75
UTG: $172.85
MP: $120.25
CO: $102.35

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, CO raises to $6, BTN calls $6, Hero raises to $18, BB calls $16, CO folds, BTN calls $12

Flop: ($60) A 2 4 (3 Players)
Hero bets $51 and is All-In, BB folds, BTN calls $51

Turn: ($162) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($162) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $162 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed Q A and WON $159 (+$90 NET)
Hero showed K K and LOST (-$68 NET)

Study your Game - Plug the Leaks

Most of today's winning poker players dissect their game play to see why they won or lost.  There are many poker database software packages that allow you to save copies of your game history and review all your statistics.  I will discuss some of the most popular poker database applications in future posts to give you the low down on features, functionality, and overall usefulness. 

Understanding why you win or lose is a vital part of plugging leaks in your game.  Leaks or mistakes are the reason you are either a winning player, losing player, or break even player.  This blog will share my analysis of why I have either won or lost in a session.  This exercise will force me to study my own game to uncover my mistakes and sharing what I learn with my readers.  I hope to make you a better poker player by learning from what I find. 

Poker analysis software also provides the ability to look at the stats of other players that you have played against. A good way  to see who the best players are is to filter players with the highest number of hands played and look for the ones with the best win rate.  Obviously the reason they are in your database is because you played against them.  Why did they win and how did they win? Did you win or lose to theses players?  Why did you win or lose?  As I delve into my database I expect to uncover how the best players make their bankrolls grow and attempt to apply their winning strategies to my game and share this with you. 

Feel free to jump in and offer your thoughts on my analysis.  The good, the bad, and the ugly are welcome.  

Poker Then Poker Now

I have been playing online poker since 2003 and have found that the skill of the average online player has increased exponentially since the early days of poker.  Back in the day it was easy to play middle of the road Texas hold-em poker and turn a profit.

The dramatic shift happened sometime around 2007 - 2008 where the really bad players dropped off significantly (or improved way more than I did), and the good players got even better.  I took a severe bankroll beating the last couple of years.  I try various new techniques that seem to work for a while and then just as my bankroll is improving - BANG!!

The purpose of this blog will be to recount my poker experiences, tell you what I learned and hope to get some insight from others like me that believe it is possible to play winner poker and make a profit because there are many people that do.

I have tried just about every poker site and network on the planet and have found one or two that provide better opportunities to win and some that are impossible to win at.  In the coming days I will go back to my database and look at the results and post them here for you to read.  I have played over 1,000,000 hands in the last few years and have everyone of them for review.

I hope that those of you out in cyber space that enjoy my passion for the game of poker will weigh in on the issues to once again return to the good old days of winning poker.