WHERE'S MY CHEESE???

It took me a while to figure out why latin hypercube sampling code, which worked every other time, suddenly started giving me segmentation fault errors when I executed it.

Apparently, you can only store ~1 030 000 values in a 1D matrix in fortran (although, this may be memory dependent).

Finalllyyyy got my code to work. Frickin' gfortran compiler is a piece of horse crap. g77 4eva. Now I can do a bunch of other stuff (play poker, do laundry, read books, tame a wild buffalo) until my code is done executing (~2 days).

CARRRRROTTTTSS
I found out that I really like chewing things. Gums, vegetables, all sorts of food. The only problem is that when I am chewing large quantities of food, I usually swallow the food leading to largeus stomachous. So I will focus on chewing on the first two items. I guess I will find out what happens when a person eats 5+ lbs of carrots a week.

One guy already tried it out:
http://orangeman.commo.de/

I cashed again in a 10K guaranteed MTT. Made $40 from $6.50 spent on satellites. My KK lost to AQ all in preflop at a crucial moment in the tourney. If I won that hand I would be at least $15 richer.

Going to see the Angels play the Rangers tonight. I am one of those people who said FU to baseball after the 1994 strike. But I'm going tonight with some friends, so it should be fun.

First cash in 10K guaranteed tourney
I satellited ($3.50) into a 10K guaranteed tourney (entry fee $13.20). The last 3 times I had done this ended with me busting out before the money.

But this time.......
I went out 28/675 for a $65 payday (70 were paid). Two key hands of the match:
(1) I'm short stacked ~6BB in the SB with about 50 ppl before the money. I have 98o and push allin on a steal. The BB calls me with KJo, but I suck out.
(2) There are 28 people left and I have AKo in early position. The blinds are ridiculous now and the avg stack has ~7BB. I have 8BB and push allin. I get called by KQo, lose, and am crippled. If I win that hand I would be 3rd in chips and cruising to a much higher payday.

Anyways... There are so many things in life that seem so difficult until you actually do them, and then they become easy. One of these things for me was cashing in the bigger $$ tourneys. I know that not cashing in 3 tourneys is not something to be concerned with and happens all the time to even the best players. But it is still a small relief that I've gotten over that hurdle.

It reminds me of a story I was told by my basketball coach many years ago. Before Roger Bannister ran the 4 minute mile, no one had ever done it and many thought it was impossible. The year after he did it, a ton of people ran a 4 minute mile. So....... basically I am the same as Roger Bannister... right?

3rd publication
I'll be up to my 3rd publication soon. Grad school = pwned. It's too bad all three papers are in seperate areas and might not help me in my (eventual) PhD thesis.

Here is my first:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V1N-4HSY4H3-1&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2006&_alid=452535523&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_orig=search&_cdi=5679&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=237aa5126da2654035c7bbd7528e839d

Note: Received 17 October 2003; revised 19 October 2004; accepted 27 September 2005. Available online 13 December 2005.
TWO YEARS from received to accepted! They lost the paper in some admin. shuffle.

One other has been accepted and a third is being submitted (should be accepted).

YES YES YES
Damn I'm soooooooooooooooooo gooooood. Here is a post I put in the BBV section of 2+2.

Bankroll up to $494.68. Damn, I love running good.

""
Nothing THAT special here. Just bragging because I recently moved up from the $10 to the $25 and this is the biggest pot I've ever won in a NLHE cash game. It was especially meaningful since I lost 3 buyins fairly quick after moving up two days ago. Now I'm in the black at the $25's!

10-Handed
Blinds 0.12/0.25
UTG: ~$39
UTG+2: ~$52
CO-1: ~$32
CO: ~$125
Button: ~$25
SB: ~$8 (posts 0.13)
BB (Hero): ~$25 (posts 0.25)
(there are other players, but they don't matter)

Dealt to Hero: Ts Th

Preflop:
Everyone above limps
Hero raises to $3.25 total
UTG, UTG+2, CO-1, CO call. Button and SB fold
Pot: $15.95

Flop:
234 rainbow (sweet)
I have $21.13 left, POOOOOOSH.
UTG folds, UTG+2 insta-calls, CO-1 insta-pushes for a total of $30. CO folds and UTG+2 calls.

I'm thinking crap... ran into a set or straight or something bad.

UTG+2 has T4 sooooooooted
CO-1 has 64 sooooooooooted

Turn and river are 7 and J... ship itttttttt ($76.14)
""

Hazzahhhh
I got back those 3 buyins I lost, plus made some $$ at stud8 (easssyyy money there). I am getting more comfortable at the higher stakes, but still have a little ways to go.

Thought of the day:
Imagine you could roll an N sided die for all your wealth (house, $$, stocks, etc). If it lands on side M, you will lose it all, but if it lands on any other side, you will win double your wealth. How many sides would this die have to have in order for you to take this gamble?
Ex.: A die has N=20 sides. If it lands on side 1 you lose everything. If it lands on sides 2-20, you double up.

I think I would need about a 10-20 sided die.

Awwww
Took my first shot at $25 NLHE with my $411 bankroll. I lost about 3 buyins and gave up. If my bankroll falls to below $250, I will go back down to the $10 tables and rebuild.

Some thoughts:
1.) The games are just as juicy as the $10 tables... (sarcasm) big surprise (/sarcasm)
2.) I will need some time before I am comfortable playing at higher stakes. This uneasiness will probably fade away after a couple sessions.
3.) I don't feel THAT bad after losing 1/5 of my bankroll. I have lost 4-5 buyins at the $10 before and have recovered quickly. I think I will nutpeddle for a while, until I regain my confidence.

Worst hand of the session.
I am in the BB with AsAd. Blinds 0.13/0.25
A very, very, VERY loose donk limps UTG, two others limp, the button min raises and the SB calls.
I raise it to $3 and the donk calls. Pot is ~$7.50. We both have ~$25 behind
Flop is 578 with two spades.
I pot it, he min raises me (uh oh). I have no idea what to do now. I don't really have a range of hands for him because he is so very loose. I just can't picture him with something like 64 or 96.
I just say, screw it and push all in. He has 64 with two spades. WTF!?!?!!?!. All I could do is just take it.

After watching him play longer, I have no doubt I made the right play. He would have done the same with top pair or even a draw. There were too many draws on the board to just check it (I think).

Later, I got stacked with my QQ by a JJ in the BB on a J77 flop :(
I also lost a lot of money with top pair, 2nd best kicker in an unraised pot (KQ was an especially bad hand today).

After a sick run of cards and a sick run of idiot's making bad plays and NOT getting there, my bankroll ballooned up to $411+. I'm glad I started with a small bankroll and am moving up limits. This allows me to learn a lot of very important lessons cheaply. I still find myself making some of the old mistakes (like calling $7 in a $2 pot with 89 on a QJTJ board against someone who is not prone to making huge donk moves... he had K9), but doing them far less frequently.

The Sklansky/Miller book and Live at the Bike have been great resources... they both go over many of the same topics. I used to think that that slowplaying with a monster hand was a great play since I didn't want my opponent to fold (which is almost the opposite of how I play now). After playing a ton of hours, I have a much better idea of when to slowplay and when to bet into people.

I played some $1/2 limit, 5-handed, home game last night and it was a roller coaster. I made some great reads and some bad ones, but overall did well. After 8 hours, I was +$30, but am owed some Sklansky bucks. There was one guy who would call EVERY flop with almost nothing and would call to the river with any pair. He would only raise after the flop with 2 pair or better.
A typical example: He had T8o UTG. He called the KK6 flop, called the turn 7 raised the 9 river.
At one point, he was up ~$150 (we called him 'river supreme' and 'Mississippi'), but wound up donking off most of the chips and ended the night winning $30.

I also played heads up 0.5/1 with someone for about 5 hours and won about $10. He raised almost every hand preflop and called every check raise on the flop.

The biggest weakness in my limit game is that I do not value bet enough. I probably missed out on at least $10 in both games by not value betting.

bankroll update
I will move up to the $25 NL tables when I get $500 (20 buyins).

I have about $285 now. NLHE cash games are just soooo juicy... at these limits.

Snakes on a suck-ass film
So I saw Snakes on a Plane (SOAP) last night. Man, what a disappointment. I get the whole, 'let's make fun of other crappy adventure/horror/terror films' by taking it to the extreme idea, but it wasn't done well. There were a few moments that were funny, but I was left unimpressed overall. It was actually a lot more violent that I thought necessary and that detracted from the comedy a bit. I thought the opening 5 minutes was the best.

bankroll up to $250+. Sweeeeeeet.

Crushing the $10
So, I'm ready to move up to the $25 limits. The $10 NLHE tables are way too easy. I'll be playing on a small bankroll, but I'm pretty confident that I won't go busto.

Example of how bad people play at the $10 level:
blinds $0.05/$0.10
UTG+1 ($8), Me($10) on button with AA
UTG+1: Raises $1
Me: Raises to $2.5 (there is no reason to slow play big hands preflop at this level)
UTG+1: Reraises to $5
Me: all in, UTG+1 calls

So, I'm expecting KK,QQ,AK,AQ or maybe JJ. I give him too much credit. He has 22 and does not improve.

I'm reading 'No Limit Hold em' by Sklansky and Miller. A lot of what they state I've figured out through trial and error at the tables. Ex.: The 'bread and butter' hands are pocket pairs and AXs since they will most often make the nuts or near nuts and you can confidently put your stack in the middle (and will get called by slightly worse hands). The book also has allowed me to view the game in entirely new ways. Ex.: With pocket pairs, you generally want to play large pots since you will likely have the best hand when you hit your set. So think about building a bigger than normal pot preflop. You want the other players to give you their stacks, but they can't if there isn't a lot of money in the middle already.

I'm looking forward to when the 'Small Stakes No Limit Hold em' comes out.

Learned a lesson the hard way
So, I learned a tough lesson in getting freerolled two nights ago.

Situation: .05/0.10 NLHE cash game

I had about $15 and AQspades in late position.

There were a couple limpers and I limped. I like to make cheap investments preflop and push hard postflop. I will raise about 50% of the time here, but may have to adjust this strategy at higher limits. There were about 5 players in the pot

The flop was KsQhTd, one spade on the flop. Not a bad flop, but not a great one. It is checked around and I fire about .40 into a 0.50 pot. I get one caller. Turn is Jh. This isn't a terrible card since my opponent probably doesn't have another A (but who knows at these limits). I bet about $1, trying to lure him in. He calls and the river is 7h, putting three hearts on the board. My opponent immediately goes allin for like $10.

He can have three hands here.
An Ace
A flush
A 9
or Some garbage like 2 pair

So, There is about $4 in the pot. I need to call $10 to win $2 if he has an A, to win $14 if he doesn't have an A or flush, or lose $10 more if he has the flush.

Now I have 20 seconds to decide. I immediately dismiss everything but an Ace or flush because I have a note on him saying 'watch out for large river bet'. This means my best hope is to risk $10 to win $2 in a chopped pot. I felt a flush was unlucky because he would have to get it runner runner.

So, like a donkey, I call and lose to the flush AhTh. In retrospect, there is no way I should have called his river bet. I was getting very poor pot odds and I knew from experience he has a great hand when getting his chips in the middle. At least I learned this lesson at the low limits. Comments?

up and up and up
Up to $191+

I am adding $0.5/$1 stud and stud8 to the repetroire (misspelled?).

Pacific Poker is soooooooo nice.

new tally
Up to $84 from my original $20... I love Pacific Poker.

All in preflop with 99??
As I play more and more poker, I am beginning to appreciate that the optimal decision is very situational. Last night I was at a table (very low limits) where a super LAG donk was raising 10BB almost every hand. He followed up the preflop aggres with a lot of postflop overbets (ex: $3 into a $1 pot).

One hand: LAG raises 10BB with T9s in early position, then calls an another's all in for 50BB.
Another hand: LAG raises 7BB with J8o, then calls a 30BB reraise.

I am to his left, which is actually a bad thing. I would rather be to his right so I could limp/reraise him with a lot of dead money in the pot.

So he has about 400BB (he stacked a few people with crap cards), I have about 100BB.

hand 1: I have AKo in late position. He raises 10BB, I push all in and get stacked by LAG's TT. Awwww.
hand 2: I have 99 in late position. He raises 10BB, I push all in and get stacked by LAG's KK. Awwww.

On both hands, I could have flat called and reevaluated on the flop knowing he would bluff many hands. I had position after all. But I think I did the right thing. There are very few times when you can get all your money in preflop knowing you are probably ahead without having KK or AA. I didn't want to let other's pick him off or for him to leave with a huge stack. Plus, if I double up off of him I may be able to double up again before he leaves.
Comments?

I later double up off of him when I hit a set on the flop and he bets 6 times the pot with and open ended straight draw.

Movin' on upppp
Through skill and good fortune my $20 has grown to $70+. I am 2-tabling the 0.05/0.10 no limit games and will soon add a third table. Soooo exciting.

Best hand so far:
I am in the big blind with Aspade Kclub. UTG makes it 0.30 and about 4 people call. I think most people would raise it right there, but I prefer to play high cards as cheaply as possible out of position. Maybe this is a leak in my game.
I don't like how at these limits people will call off a lot of chips with pocket pairs. I prefer to see a cheap flop and punish them on later streets. If it was limped around, only raised 0.20 or I was in position against most of the field, I will raise 1x-1.5x the pot almost every time. Comments welcome.

Flop: KJ3 all spades.

I check with the intention of check raising hard after the preflop raiser bets and others call. Preflop raiser bets like 1/3 of the pot (weakkk) and the button reraises the pot. That was unexpected. I felt that I would be ahead most of the time here and that the dead money in the pot still justified a big bet. So I just go ahead and reraise the pot. UTG folds and button pushes all in (he didn't have that much more anyways).

Button shows KJ offsuit... turn spade! SHIP ITTTTTT.

Some stats:
Odds on the flop:
ME:45% HIM:55% TIE: <1%

If button had KQ and no spades
ME: 91% HIM: 8% TIE: 1%

If button had a set of 3's:
ME: 31% HIM: 69%

If he had the flush on the flop:
I have 7 outs... so I would be roughly 28% to win.

So, I wasn't a favorite when the money got in. But I still think it was the right move.

My $20 Challenge
I am going to start with $20 at Pacific Poker and try to run it up to $1000 before the end of the year. I am already up to $27 playing the $10 NL tables. I am only doing 1-table now, but will move to 2 tables when I make $40, 3 tables $60, 4 tables $80. I will move up to one table $25 when I get to $200 or so.

My new poker home is the NLHE cash tables... I cannot believe the poor quality of play. I've tried limit hold'em, NLHE SNGs and limit O8, and have done decently at all of them. But limit poker is pure death for me now. There are too many times where I flop a decent but vulnerable hand in a multiway pot and want to really make people pay to stick around. It feels great to punish people for drawing to a flush by making pot sized bets.

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