Moved up in Stakes

I hate to write anything good about my poker play because the Poker Gods seem to look down on any positive thoughts and decide to stick it to you where the sun doesn't shine. That being said, I have moved up in stakes in my No Limit Play. I was playing the No Limit Hold'em $10 tables and now have moved up to the $25 dollar tables.

The difference in play is like night and day. The higher limits respect your preflop raise a lot more, don't tend to call your raise with the bizarre low number/high gap cards like 2/6 off or 3/7 off and then hit it big on the flop. They don't seem to chase the flush draw as much. I just think it is a better quality of play and it is suiting my style much better. And I am respecting the other players raises a lot more and folding now instead of calling because I have doubts on what my opponent is playing. Amazing how much money you can save by folding.

I think when you raise preflop the .50 or .75 cent raise means a lot more than the .30 sent raise at the lower limits. When you bet a dollar that seems to be more like real money to the players than when you bet a few dimes.

I moved up at Absolute and Full Tilt because my bankrolls on those sites can support the higher stakes. I still buy in short but it is still a respectable amount, just not a full buy in.

Now Poker Gods don't read this as me getting cocky or bragging. I'm not. I'm just telling my two readers what is new in my poker play.
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Grinder has been writing more about politics lateley. I am not thrilled about either of the party candidates, Barack Obama (or Hillary if she can pull of a miracle) or McCain.

I had to chuckle at the latest exchange between Obama and McCain when McCain is taking Obama to task about Al Qaeda being in Iraq and that is why they call it Al Qaeda in Iraq. Obama comes back with the comment that if Bush and McCain hadn't invaded Iraq there wouldn't be any Al Qaeda in that country. How do you respond to that? He is right. Sadam had his country in control and I don't think he had anything to do with Al Qaeda.

It would even be hard for McCain to justify invading Iraq because of Sadam. There are at least 10 other countries on this earth with worse dictators than Sadam was. You could argue that Cuba with Castro was a better country to invade than Iraq. We could have taken Cuba with just a naval bombardment. And what about Iran?

Sorry <Grinder, didn't know you wrote about the exact same thing.

Not Much New

Not much new to report. It has been several days since I have played any poker. The last time I played I dropped a buy-in at the Full Tilt $25 No Limit Texas Holdem tables. I had sat down for a long session of poker but Mrs. Wolverine put the kebosh on that when she told me she had different plans and they included me so I was unable to come back from my loss that day. I hope to sit down to a nice 2 or 3 hour session today and see if I can't make back that money and more.
I am drinking a new beer, to me. It is Sleeman Honey Brown Lager brewed by Sleeman Brewing Ltd of Guelph, Ontario in Canada. I really like it. I think it is a better tasting Honey Brown than J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown. (and I really like J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown)

Sleeman's describes their beer as:
A refreshingly smooth, full-bodied lager, with a subtle touch of all natural honey which creates a slightly sweet finish.

Beer Advocate gives it a so-so C+/B- rating and the reviews pretty much sum up the rating, a good but not great beer. Beerman Sez has this to say about it -
The Beerman first saw this HBL at a hotel near Toronto when it was being delivered to a friend's table. It was love at first-sight and first taste. This is crisper and not as heavy as Dundee's HBL. If you buy the Beerman a Sleeman Honey Brown you will make a new friend.

The price of this beer, on sale, is on par with J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown so I can see myself drinking more of this in the future.

Book Review: Daniel Negreanu - Hold'em Wisdom For All Players

Daniel Negreanu's Hold'em Wisdom For All Players is NOT a book for beginners but it is not that good of a book for advanced players either. This is a book for experienced beginners. This book expects the reader to have a pretty good working knowledge of Texas Hold'em. The expectation is that you will have read other material and played enough Texas Hold'em to know what pot odds are, what 'outs' are, what starting hands to play and many other basic Texas Hold'em strategies.

This book is not a book for advanced players wanting advanced strategy plays or more in depth concepts like how to play from Under the Gun or how to play the blinds, etc. This is a book for the fairly new Texas Holdem player that is trying to steadily improve his game and move up from microstakes play to higher buy-in poker. This is a good book for that type of player and I am one of them. I am trying to hone my game and improve my knowledge so as to be able to move up to higher stakes Hold'em and I really enjoyed reading this book.

Hold'em Wisdom For All Players is what I understand to be a collection of articles that Daniel Negreanu did for various websites and magazines. 50 of these articles have been compiled into this book and each one is presented as a chapter. Chapter 1 - Top Ten Rookie Mistakes, chapter 2 - Top 5 reasons why your losing at Poker, Chapter 10 - The Five Times Rule are just a few of the 50 topics presented in this book that are worth reading and rereading. Each chapter is written with Daniel's folksy style. What is unique is that it is done with Daniel's unique teaching approach, easy going manner and common sense.

This is a very easy book to read and when you are reading this book you can almost hear Daniel Negreanu talking to you. Before you know it you have reached the end of the book and not once have you come across a concept or strategy that was boring or drawn out enough to make you check to see how much longer you had to go before you reached the end of the chapter.

Daniel presents his strategies towards the novice player but will include his thoughts on how the advanced player would play or what advice he would give to an advanced player. This allows you to get an understanding of how your poker insight will change with increased experience.

MagicHoldem.com

There was a comment in my last post to become an affiliate for MagicHoldem.com, a Poker Odds Calculator. It is a real time Poker Odds calculator and it supports over 100 poker rooms. There is a 100 hand trial period so I downloaded it and played today so that I could evaluate it.

To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled with it. I think it is great for someone starting out as a novice playing Texas Holdem but, other than the odds calculator and showing the outs that are available it really was very helpful to me. If anything, it played a little looser than I do.

Here is how it looks when it is being used:

And here are the explanations for the different tool bars.

One hundred free hands wasn't nearly enough to evaluate this program. You only get to see about 20 hands that you actually play and most of those you fold on the flop so they are about worthless. Even Poker Tracker gives you 1000 free hands to evaluate their program and MagicHoldem.com needs to give you more free hands.

This program was just like Pokerbility that came out about two years ago. I evaluated that program and found it severly lacking. MagicHoldem is much better than Pokerbility was back then but it may have fixed some of its bugs by now so I hate to compare the two. MagicHoldem does more than Pokerbility did.

Pros and Cons about the software

There weren't too many Pros. It is nice to have the Pot Odds and Outs figured out for you. It does give you advice on whether to call, fold, raise or reraise preflop.

The cons were many. You had to have the poker room at the default size for the program to work so it limited your ability to multi-table without having overlap. It didn't even work when I launched Absolute Poker but it did work on Full Tilt and on PokerStars. On Absolute Poker it kept asking me to put the poker room at the default size before it could work and the poker room was at the default size.

There was no difference between advice for Full Ring tables or Siz max tables. It didn't change its advice depending on table position as several times I would be Under the Gun with A/rag off and it would say call or raise. It did the same when I was dealt 6/6 UTG although a raise there would be the better move.

I think this program if fine if you only do one or two tables at a time and if you are new to the game. It can be very beneficial but if you are a veteran player this will just clutter your screen.

Win some, Lose some

I played on PokerStars today for the first time in a month. I played three 2-table SitNgos and one free roll sponsored by Poker Web Blogs. I finished 1st and 2nd in two of the SitNGos and 12th in the other. I bubbled the Poker Web Blogs free roll when.

My ouster in the Free Roll was a classic Poker Stars rewarding the large stack's play. I had enough chips to fold my way into the money as payoffs went to the top 54 places and there were 56 runners left out of a few hundred. I get A/K in the BB and raise it up and two limpers call, including the Big Stack. The flop comes down King high with two diamonds. I go all in and the big stack calls and shows the two diamonds in his hand and, of course, the river fills up his flush and IGHN. Bubble Boy. In hind site I guess I should have folded into the money or not gone all in but I was really hoping to double up my chips so I could make a run at the final table.

It was a free roll and I would have won a couple of dollars at most but I had invested my time and had a good hand only to lose to a flush. That seems to be the story of my life in poker.

I was four tabling Full Tilt later in the day and I had already won a couple of buy-ins when I get Ace/Queen. I raise and get one caller. The flop comes down with Ace/rag/rag including two spades. I raise it up big to discourage the flush draw and the villain calls. The turn brings a queen and I have two pair and the villain only has a couple of dollars left. I bet enough to put him all in and he turns over two spades and the river fills up his flush. He just wouldn't fold those spades.

The sad part is that was the only hand he won the whole time I was at that table. Less than 20 hands later he goes bankrupt and leaves. The only hand he won was against me by staying in and hitting his freaking flush.

WTF?

Mrs. Wolverine and I are big fans of Survivor but CBS has to be saying, "WTF?" when, on the very first episode, Jonny Fairplay decided he didn't want to be on the island anymore and asked to be voted out. Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton was one of the best known Survivor Villains when he used the ploy that his Grandma had passed away to garner sympathy from his fellow players.

Jonny Fairplay was one of the most recognizable players in Survivor History and his presence in the newest Survivor was a dream to the Fans that are playing against their Survivor heroes.

Then he decides to quit and before you know it he is gone. All of the bluster, scheming, gamesmanship, etc. that Jonny Fairplay brings to the game is gone in the very first episode. The CBS Execs had to be stunned. Jonny Fairplay was a Ratings Magnet.

Last night's episode was a classic in the Survivor Genre. The Fans Team had lost the competition and had to vote someone off the island. Mikey B was garnering up all types of scenarios and dictating his small colition on how they were to vote. Then behind his back Joel pulls the rug out from under him by getting a bunch of the Fans to undercut Mikey B and vote of his newly acquired girlfriend, Mary.

It was a classic Tribal Council and Mary and Mikey B never saw it coming. I think this is going to be a very fun Survivor to watch.

Blah, blah, blah

Not much to report on the Poker Front. The worse thing to happen to me in poker recently was Full Tilt giving me the $75 dollar bonus to earn. I earned around $30 of the $75 but loss overall even with clearing almost half of the bonus. I played too many hands and took too many chances and played way toooo many hours in a row trying to clear this bonus. I told myself if I could just break even I would earn money from the bonus but, unfortunately, I played much less than break even. Now I am backing off from playing for a few days and will start up again this week-end.

I'm going to refocus on playing only quality hands and rebuilding my bankroll on both Absolute Poker and Full Tilt. I am pretty sure I can slowly rebuild my bankroll as long as variance doesn't rear its ugly head and smack me down.
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Is it just me or does GQ Magazine have more women on its covers now than men? Used to be it would have a well dressed man with the latest fashion trends but now it always seems to have a bikini clad woman on the cover.

Don't you just love the covers of Men's Fitness and Shape magazine? The covers are so eye catching and the lead-ins for the stories makes you want to pick them up and read them from cover to cover.

"Lose Fat not Muscle" "Back in Shape by Spring" "Get Big Arms!" for Men's Fitness.

"Chocolate That Keeps You Slim" "4 Weeks to your Best Butt" "Dress 5 Pounds Thinner" for Shape.

Winna', Winna', Chicken Dinna

I was a winner today on Full Tilt. My aces held up, my sets held up - it was a beautiful thing. It made playing such a pleasure. Pocket Queens vs A/10. No problem, I'm a winner. A/K against pocket 10s, see ya! Everything was clicking and now I am happy, happy, happy.

Weather in Michigan is freaking cooooold. Snowfall is pretty good too but not as much as Grinder's in Wisconsin (North of Madison, I believe). It is suppose to warm up in a day or so and be back to 'normal' temperatures, mid 20s.

Just getting my Taxes ready to send in. We will be getting a bit of a refund this year. Always a good thing. The Government economy stimulator money is going to pay for our vacation to The Grand Tetons National Park this fall. Mrs. Wolverine and I are going to go see our youngest Daughter out by Jackson.

They have about 400 inches of snow in the Grand Tetons and more is expected. This is a very different winter for my baby as she has been in Michigan winters all of her life and hasn't experienced that type of snowfall and cold temperatures.

Same ol', same ol'

Here we go again. I'm trying to clear the Fullt Tilt bonus playing $10 No Limit Holdem and am doing quite well. I have doubled up on a couple of tables, have cleared part of the bonus and am feeling quite good that things are changing around for me and this looks like a good day. Then this hand occurs and brings back more of the same old shit.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

BB ($10.40)
UTG ($4)
Wolverine Fan ($9.95)
SB ($10.05)
Preflop: Wolverine Fan is Button with 5s, 5d.

UTG checks, Wolverine Fan calls $0.10, SB completes, BB raises to $0.3, UTG calls $0.10, Wolverine Fan calls $0.10, SB calls $0.10.
I was up over a buy-in so it was worth it to me to do a little set mining.

Flop: ($0.90) Jd, Qc, 5c (4 players)
Bingo! Just what the doctor ordered.
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $3.8 (All-In), Wolverine Fan calls $3.80, SB folds, BB raises to $10.2 (All-In), Wolverine Fan calls $5.95 (All-In).
I am worried about being beaten by set over set but that is why they call it gamboooooling.

Turn: ($24.20) Ad (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($24.20) Qd (3 players, 3 all-in)

Final Pot: $23.76

Results below:
BB has Jh Qs (full house, queens full of jacks).
UTG has 8h Qh (three of a kind, queens).
Wolverine Fan has 5s 5d (full house, fives full of queens).

I am golden until the River and he hits his 1 outer (1 fucking outer) and instead of doubling up I am stacked. He had 8 outs total to beat me, the 3 jacks, 4 Kings and the one queen. After the flop I am 85% favorite to win the hand and after the turn I am 93% favorite to win the hand.

How can you lose when you are a 93% favorite??? I guess you ask the New England Patriots that,eh?

I managed to come back a little after that but I ended up down $6 for the session instead of up $15 if I win this hand.

Man, I hate this game.

18 Year Old Prima Donnas

Today is the big day for College Football as it is National Signing Day for Freshman recruits. This has become such a media event as the 18 year old prima donnas have to call a press conference to announce their decision. And this year, the biggest prima donna of them all, Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, has postponed his decision.

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited about this day because my Michigan Wolverines are in the thick of things this hear with their recruiting class and they are aggressively persuing Pryor. It looks like a very good recruiting class for the Wolverines and can get even better if they land Pryor.

The media circus starts when grown men make it their livelyhood to rate the different players throughout the country and then rate the colleges on the selection of players they obtained. There are over 1000 high schools in the United States that play high school football. That would mean there are over 1000 quarterbacks, 2000 running backs, 5000 offensive linemen that suit up every Friday night. Can you honestly tell me that you can accurately rate the top ten quarterbacks or top ten running backs? Can you honestly say that the offensive lineman from Traverse City, Michigan isn't as good as the offensive lineman from Odessa, Texas? What if one of those linemen was blocking for the sophomore running backs that were inexpereinced in hitting the holes or what if that lineman was an excellent run blocker on a team that threw the ball 70% of the time. How can you compare the two?

You can compare them as to size, 40 yard dash speed, amount of weights they can lift but that only tells you so much about them. You don't know if that Odessa player was up at 5AM every day to milk the cows and when it came time to play on Friday night, frankly, he was just tired and worn out from a full week of work and football practice. What if he and the quarterback were in love with the same girl and, all of a sudden, he wasn't able to block that linebacker coming on a blitz.

You get my drift. There are too many players with too many circumstances happening in their lives to accurately rate them and to say one is better than another. Mike Hart wasn't heavily recruited by anyone but his heart and determination made him one of the best running backs in the nation.

Ask me 3 years from now how this freshman class compares to others or how it rates not that they are in their Redshirt Sophomore year of football.

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I was able to win a few dollars playing poker today. Believe it or not my pocket Kings held up against pocket jacks to help me double up. The funny thing is a Queen came on the turn and I had to laugh because that is exactly the card that cracked my Kings the last two times. I was able to come through today by waiting for quality hands to make my move with and it paid off finally when the best hand preflop held up.

The thing I am proudest of is that I never went on tilt after the bad beats I experienced the last few days. It would have been so easy to or to type personal attacks on the villain that beat me in the chat box. Instead I just took a deep breath and tried to continue strong play and win that money back. The only thing that mildly upsets me is when the person that beats me leaves the game shortly after so I am unable to win my money back from them. I consider the money they won from me as a loan and I want my chance to get it back plus more.

Is a Break Even day a Good day?

I broke even today which, compared to that last two days, is a vast improvement. It is getting so that I hate to write on my blog because it is always about losing when going in with the best hand. Twice today I was all in with Kings vs. Queens and both times they hit their Queen on the river to win the hand. Then I lost full house over full house when the villain called my full house with his trips only to have the one other card on the board pair up on the river to give him a bigger full house. Of course all of the money was in after the turn. I can't fault him for going all in with his trips but, damn, when do thing start to go my way so I can win a bundle and not just break even?

I am sorry for whining and you can call it variance all you want but after a while it just gets impossible to be optomistic about your good hands. I am about ready to quite this blog but I think I will just turn it into a Golf and Beer blog and mention poker just a little bit.

I'm not sure I am a very good poker player and, lately, the results show that I must not be very good. A good player should be a winning player and I am not a winning player in 2008.

I have played 90 Turbo SitNGos and have a 20% ROI. Not very good. It was double that for a while but slowly I have lost more than I have won or have finished 3rd a lot more instead of 2nd or 1st.

They say in cards that every game is independent of another, in fact every hand is independent of another but why do losing streaks just that, streaks?

Starting to get the golfing bug so maybe I will write more about golf.

How does Tiger Woods do it tournament after tournament. Ernie Els had him and Tiger outplays him down the stretch and wins. Freaking amazing. You would think some golfer would get hot and shoot lights out against him to beat him but so far nobody has.

Flushed!

Poker was terribly, terribly bad last night. Full Tilt gave me a $75 dollar bonus that I could earn so I thought all I would have to do is break even and I could make some money. Not so easy last night. I lost at least 3 buy-ins to players that hung around trying to hit their flush, no matter what size bet I made, and they came through. 3 or more times the flush hit on the turn or river and I am rebuying. It was maddening. At these stakes there is no such thing as pot odds. I lost another buy-in to a rivered straight draw.

You are probably wondering why I am losing so many buy-ins? Remember, I buy-in short so I am not losing as much as you would think and every time I had the best hand when all of the money went in. My hands may have been just slightly favored but they were the best hand every time. I am still buying in short as it is the best way for me to play emontionally.

I did win some hands and I did double up a couple of times and I cleared part of the bonus but overall it was a major losing session. I am going to try again this afternoon and see if I can't clear more bonus and get back to even.
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I was rooting for the Patriots and they failed to come through with their undefeated season. The Giants deserved to win as they made the plays when they had to. I knew they were goign to score on that last drive because everything went their way. Manning should have been sacked and instead he throws up a prayer that was answered by the most unbelievable catch ever. Two other times he could have been intercepted but the ball just went off the Patriot's fingers.

My Super Bowl meal and drink was very nice. We grilled out super burgers topped off with guacomole, home made chile cheese fries and beer. I purchased a six pack of Guinness Draught bottles and a 4 pack of Boddingtons pints. The Guinnes was just a bit strong for Mrs. Wolverine and myself (not nearly as smooth as the pub draught) so I made a Black and Tan or Half-and-Half, if you will, by combining the Guinness and Boddington's. This combination turned out to be the perfect drink to go with our Super Bowl meal.

I was surprised at how much the Boddington's tasted like domestic beer so combining it with the Guinness was a better use of it than just drinking it straight. I was quite dissappointed in the Boddington's and will not be getting it again as it is quite pricey.