Testing the FullTilt Bankroll

The Disney Cruise was great fun for all. As soon as we got off the ship, both of my kids asked when we can go on another cruise. Like we can just book one for next month…

Many, many weeks ago, I cashed in some of my 40,000+ FullTilt points for two books – “The Poker Mindset” and the FullTilt tournament strategy compendium with chapters written by all the famous poker immortals associated with FullTilt. I ordered these specifically with the thought that I would read these on the cruise.

The books did not arrive before we left for vacation. I said, “Dammit, these are the two books that I want to read on the vacation. Is that too much to ask?” So, I went and bought the FullTilt tournament book. I was able to read parts of a few chapters on the trip. Kids are time eaters, even on vacations. The Post-Flop NL chapter by Ted Forrest was great, and reinforces much of what I have written in this blog about feel for the game and the Zen mindset that can set in with deep concentration at the table.

Of course, when I got back from vacation, the two books that I had ordered from FullTilt had arrived. Some poker friend will be the recipient of a shiny copy of the FullTilt tournament book in the hear future…

*********

I can’t bring myself to spend 25,000 points and order a FullTilt jersey. But the football jersey would be cool. I would just feel like a complete geek wearing that in public, even thought I am, in all honesty, a complete poker and chip-collecting geek. It would be cool to have my name on the back, but it’s the logo thing on the front that would make me feel embarrassed. Unless I was playing at a final table at the WSOP and FullTilt was paying me to wear their logo. Maybe some day.

**********

I emptied my FullTilt account of everything but $2000 (voluntarily). Then I went on a bad streak and ran it down to around $700. Exactly $800 of the losses were due to two bad beats at the $2/4 NL tables. Upon further review, my official definition of a “bad beat” is when I lose a hand after getting all the chips in the pot as a 75% or greater favorite. I guess I should not be playing $2/4 NL when I only have 5 buy-ins, but I play better at a level that at least feels slightly meaningful.

So after I hit the $700 mark, I decided to play only $100 buy-in or higher SNGs. Again, not optimal bankroll management (for just my FullTilt bankroll), but what the hell. I play better when there is more at stake. I concentrate more carefully on each decision when I reach a certain cash threshold. As for SNGs, that threshold seems to be $100 for me.

I was playing well and got an average run of cards, and the FullTilt account is back to around $1400. Full recovery to $2000 is the goal, and then I’m going to try the Bad Bankroll Management Challenge.

***********

I really like the heads-up SNGs. I am involved in every hand and constantly make decisions. I like reading my opponents patterns. It’s the best way that I have found, on-line, to replicate what I like about live play – reading the opponent. At a full on-line table, the other players are just so many avatars. But heads-up, I can focus exclusively on one opponent and his patterns. I’ve had good success in heads-up play, and its more fun for me.

I like playing a single-table SNG and a heads-up SNG at the same time. The heads-up table takes enough of my concentration to ensure that I don’t get bored with the full table and play too many hands, or over play medium-strength hands. The heads-up table essentially provides more patience to wait for the best hands at the full table.

Even at the $100 SNG level, its amazing how many players still make huge mistakes. Like pushing 44 after an EP raise at the third level with an average-sized stack. Or pushing middle pair on the flop during the third level when the stack sizes still allow plenty of room to play.

A New Challenge

I think I need a new poker challenge. With much of my on-line play, I kind of just sputter along. Over the several years that I’ve played, I am slowly, ever so slowly, building up a bankroll. But on-line is much harder than live play for me.

On three occasions in the past I’ve “taken a shot” at higher on-line limits -- $5/10 and $10/20NL. All three times, I had initial success and then dropped it all back. When giving it back, I’d fairly say that 50% was due to variance and 50% was due to bad play brought on by the variance.

I’m thinking of an accelerated “shot taking” chance. For example, start with a decent amount, like $500 (the “Starting Stake”), and put it all in play. Then, with each win, immediately put the Starting Stake plus all the Winnings from the Starting Stake in play. Instead of using good bankroll management with the Winnings, continue to push by putting the whole Starting Stake and all the Winnings in play. But never put in play more than the Starting Stake plus all Winnings. I will play mostly cash games, with some SNGs thrown in for variety.

If I crash, it would be like one losing session and I’m just out the Starting Stake. With solid play, I should be able to avoid a crash with anything but a bad beat. At least that’s the theory. I have the feeling that a lot of high stakes on-line players quickly built up this way.

I’ll set the goal at $10,000 -- if I can parlay the Starting Stake into $10,000, I will stop and go back to good bankroll management. (I might change my tune if this actually works and I hit something like the $5000 or $8000 mark. It would be difficult to set down at an on-line table with $5000+, but we’ll see what happens.)

I’d like to eventually be playing on-line for the same stakes as I do live, so there’s not so much disparity for me between on-line and live games. I pay more attention and play better when there is more at stake, which might explain why I often sputter along at the lower on-line stakes. Sitting down with $400 at a $2/4NL game and cashing out after an hour with $500 just doesn’t seem to have much pop when there is so much money in play on-line.

Busting the Boss

Another Vegas tale. Playing with idiots is fun. In my last cash game session, I set one guy on super screaming monkey tilt without saying much of anything. He thought he was the Boss of the table from the moment he sat down. He was immediately spouting poker lingo, pot odds, math, and talking about pro players. He bought in for $400. I was way up by the time he sat down, so my range of PF hands was large at this point.

After he had won a pot or two, he raised in MP to $25. Everyone folded to me in the BB, and I called with T8s. This is my favorite hand. I have no idea why.

The flop is Th-Ts-6h. Bingo. I check. He bets $50, and it’s a bet of confidence. I can tell he’s 100% sure that he is ahead.

I raise to $150 total and stare at the felt in his direction. After about 10 seconds he shoves, and I can tell he still thinks he’s ahead. I call and immediately show my hand.

The Boss blows up, and the jibberish he started spouting made everyone laugh at the table. “Nice hand! Way to go! Great play! You hit your 42 to 1 against long shot! Nice play!”

He slaps AA on the table. Like I didn’t already know what he had. Then he continues.

“I’d say nice play, but it wasn’t! That was a horrible play!” He’s yelling everything. “Keep playing like that and I will bust you! Players like you pay my monthly salary! Keep it up!”

This guy plays like this for a living? Scary thought. The whole time I’m just stacking his chips, saying nothing. Then he asks, “Why’d you call with that hand?! What were you thinking?!”

Interesting question. The real answer should be obvious – I know what he had PF by his body language (AA, KK, QQ or AK), and that if I hit something good, I will take his whole stack. Against many other players, I would easily muck PF. Of course I can’t say this, so I just reply, “Its my favorite hand.” Also an honest answer, but he thinks that I am messing with him.

“Your favorite hand, huh?! Well, I had my favorite hand, too! Which hand was better?! Which one of us is better there, huh?”

I just finish my stacking and continue playing. During the next hand, I quietly repeat, “It really is my favorite hand.” He thinks I’m needling, and I am, sort of, but its still the truth.

Our conversation is over, but the Boss is just about as pissed as a player can be at the table. Its good to get the donks steamed. He rebought for $300.

I few orbits later, I busted him when I flopped two pair with T9 against his AK on a board of K-T-9. I had called his raise again PF, and a series of raises on the flop got all his chips in. He didn’t learn much from our prior battle. He shipped the remainder of his stack my way. “You’re just too good for me!” he yelled. “I can’t play with you any more! Shit!” He stomped off.

After the Boss left, the dealer said, “Thanks for getting rid of that guy. He’s an ass. We all hate him. He treats everyone like that.”

Another player at the table said, “He’ll have to go make his monthly salary somewhere else tonight.”

Patience, patience, patience

Live Cash Game

I played in a live Ameristar $2/5 NL cash game last Friday, and came away with $1300 profit. My live game picked up where I left off in Vegas. I went into the session with the goal of continuing my focus and remaining patient, and it paid off. I started tight, then loosened up and pulled off some bluffs after I built up my tight image and a big stack.

I rarely overplayed a hand, and was very willing to release if I felt that I was beat. This is a significant adjustment for my cash game play. In the past, I think I would call down with inferior hands too much. Now, I keep reminding myself in tough situations that better opportunities will come along, and I save my chips for those moments.

I had a solid read on everyone at the table. I like live poker so much more than on-line, because of this main difference. There moments again where I knew exactly what my opponent was holding, or what another player held when I was not involved in a hand. Generally, it is much easier to read hands when you’re not involved and you can focus all of your attention on the read. When you’re involved in a hand, the distractions of running through calculations and the natural nervousness that comes with people watching you are distractions from reading your opponents hands.

With significant live practice, however, distractions during a hand are easier to block out. When I’m really relaxed and in the zone, there is no need to “block” anything out – instead I’m just 100% focused on the moment and reading what my opponent has, and I don’t have to run through any calculations or worry about people watching and waiting for my move. I’ve come to be very comfortable in these situations. I still see a lot of players get very nervous when the spotlight is on them during a hand, and you can see them tense up and lose the ability to focus on their decision.

Picking off the LAG

My patience paid off against one particular player. He sat down about an hour into the session, two to my left. So, I was horribly out of position against him. He was 20-something and seemed to be a walking advertisement for Nike, with a Nike hat, shirt and jacket. I named him Swoosh. He immediately started raising pre-flop nearly every hand, and made obvious continuation bets and bluffs on later streets. For a while, he got away with this and didn’t have to show down a hand.

His stack fluctuated wildly, and he eventually picked off some players for big pots with goofy hands. He’d hit two pair with K6, for example, that turned into a boat with another 6 on the river. Everyone had trouble putting him on hands and playing back at him. After about 2 hours, he’d built up a healthy stack, and my goal was to get it from him.

But, the opportunity never seemed to arise. He routinely called my PF raises when I had good hands, or he would make a big raise after I limped with several other limpers. I didn’t get frustrated, I just told myself to stay calm and wait for an opportunity. The hand started with all but two players limping to me in the SB. I called with 56o, a nearly useless hand except for straight potential. BB checked.

The flop was Q-3-4 rainbow. I decided to lead out for $25, specifically thinking that if I connected later I might win a decent pot against Qx. Swoosh called and everyone else folded, so I knew he had at least a Q. Would this be the hand that I’d get some of his chips?

The turn was (Q-3-4)-T, now with two spades. I bet $40, again with the specific thought that if I hit my hand would be completely disguised. Swoosh raised to $90. I put him on either two pair with QT or a draw with two spades or something like KJ or AJ. With a $50 call into a pot of about $215, my thought process remained the same – I’d either be folding on the river, or getting a lot more of his chips.

The river was a beautiful (Q-3-4-T)-7, no possible flush. My leads on the flop and turn actually paid off -- it seems like these are usually wasted bets, unless my opponent folds. There was virtually no way that he would guess my hand since I led out on the flop and the turn. It probably looked like I was betting something like KQ or QJ, possibly a flush draw on the turn. So, my only thought on the river was how much would he call?

I bet $80, which either looked like a blatant value bet or a weakfish bluff. He stared at me, and I decided that this was one situation where I should make direct eye contact and try to play some mind games. He was exactly the type of player that would read any confrontational non-verbal signals as a sign of weakness, forcing him to play back more aggressively. Strong means strong, but he would read it as strong means weak following classical tell literature.

He usually bet very quickly, but here he paused for a while during this staring contest. To my surprise, he raised $120.

Wow. This was completely unexpected. I double-checked – I do have the nuts, right? Yes. We continued our staring game while I tried to figure out how much more he would call. I raised another $150. My initial $80 river bet had grown to $350 total.

Swoosh had about $600 more behind, and I had him covered. He started fumbling around with chips, and it looked like he was trying to put together $150 in red and green. Then he just jammed all the chips together and pushed everything in.

I couldn’t call quickly enough and flip over my cards. Showing 56o for the nuts put the frighteners on everyone, and I was able to run the table after that because I could be holding any two cards. A player at the other end later said that Swoosh had Q4 -- what the hell does he beat after I put in the third bet on the river? He slow played himself to death.


The next day, I went and bought one of these with some of the winnings at Best Buy:





Internet Play

As good as my live play has been going, I am running exactly the opposite on-line. During my first session after the Vegas trip, I played several SNGs and was crippled or knocked out of five in a row when I got my all chips in as about a 75% favorite or better. The first two SNGs I lost with AQ vs A7 and AK vs AQ. No big deal.

But, this trend continued. I ended up running several hands on PokerStove just to make sure I wasn’t losing it and overestimating my edge. It was an amazingly horrific series of beats. The session ended when I was knocked out as a 92% favorite against a 4-outer on the river. Incredibly frustrating, but nothing that I can do in these situations. I just hate it when beats bunch up and make me feel like I’ve completely lost the ability to play poker. Could someone please make the bad beats spread out a bit more?

So, switch to on-line cash games. I am reminded that live play ruins my on-line play. I rely heavily on my reads in live games, so much of what I base my decisions on in live games is completely lost on-line. Its like I have to re-learn how to play on-line cash games after playing mostly live. Without live reads, I find myself lost at times when faced with a crucial but close decisions. On-line, I lean more toward calling rather than folding because the players are much more loose overall. Combine this with a beating in SNGs, and the picture starts to look bleak.

Live upswing = on-line downswing. Frustrating when I know that I won’t get to play live again for quite a while.