Welcome to the World, Sweetheart!

Monday, April 17, 2006, 9:57pm EDT
6 pounds, 7 ounces, 19 inches long



Welcome to the world, Alexis Danielle!!

An Oldie But a Goodie...

Just was browsing the archives at 9-2 Offsuit, and I found an article about moving from Limit to NL--an article I should have read 6 months ago...

From sexypanda over at 2+2:

Moving to NL from Limit

--Adjust your thinking about preflop hands, a lot. Big unsuited cards go way down in value and will make costly second-best hands. Small pairs go up in value. If AKo is your only unsuited playable hand you wouldn’t be far wrong. Add AQo but for god’s sake be careful with it.

--Pairs are great — sets are how you will make money. If the game is not too aggressive you can get away with playing any pair from any position. (Given that you’re going to be playing quite a deep-stacked NL game, you should possibly start to worry about set-over-set when you have bottom set and it’s getting a lot of action. But generally sets are a goldmine.

--Having just said that you can disregard position with the baby pocket pairs, position is really important in NL. Big pairs and big suited cards only up front (small pairs as well if you can get away with it). As it gets to later positions, start to add in medium suited connectors like JTs, then later still you can add small suited connectors and one-gappers, plus the little suited aces. Learn about the 5-10 rule: basically you should only feel comfortable calling a raise with one of these drawing hands if it’s for less than 5% of the effective stack size (which is the minimum of yours and his).

--Don’t go broke in an unraised pot and promise yourself you won’t go all-in with only TPTK. This is not absolutely correct for all circumstances but if you stick to this rule you will thank me later.

--If you get an opportunity to push all-in with AA preflop then don’t be afraid to do so. (E.g., you raise with AA and get a significant reraise, or you hold AA in late position and there’s been a big raise.)

--On the flop if you hold a truly great draw (e.g., open-ended straight flush draw, nut flush draw with top pair) then feel free to raise a significant bettor all-in. You do not want to see a blank on the turn and have to face a big bet for the right to see one more card.

--Have a standard preflop raising amount: 4 x the big blind plus 1 BB more per limper is good. Don’t bet more with better hands and less with worse hands, for obvious reasons.

--Have a default postflop betting amount too (although there will be strategic reasons to vary this occasionally). I suggest 2/3 of the pot.

--Be prepared to bet when you have a hand like TPTK and happily fold it to a raise (they are usually not putting a play on you but are saying they can beat TPTK), but also to bet just the same when you have a set and then go all-in when that bet is raised. It’s important to always bet like you mean it, even though sometimes you are fearful and desperately want everyone to fold (e.g., a top pair medium kicker situation) or desperately want to be raised so you can go all-in (e.g., you have the nuts).

--Remember that flush draws won’t have great implied odds, as when the flush comes it’s obvious and people won’t call a big bet. So be sure you really do have the current pot odds to call a flush draw. Straight draws, especially double gutshot straight draws, are much better in this regard.

--Again, don’t go broke in an unraised pot. Remember that if it wasn’t raised some people could have anything at all.

--And one more time: don’t go all-in when your TPTK gets raised. Good aggressive limit players have learned to go to the felt with TPTK more often than not, but this habit is going to kill you in NL.

--And generally don’t be the one calling all-in: you want to be the bettor as then you have fold equity (although maybe not much in a loose game).

Great stuff, all involved. It deserved to be resurrected.

The Benefits of Having a TAG Image

WARNING: Hand history to follow. I know most people hate HH's, but I had to share this one.

I'm playing 5/10, TAGging it up at a nice 15/9/3.5 clip or so, and I'm in middle/late position (MP3 to be exact)...

Me: 7h 6h

What the hell, I raise after two limpers (UTG and MP1). When you have a truly tight image, you can actually win a bunch of small pots this way (by raising pre-flop and leading out on the flop). Someone will call two cold or a raise with a marginal hand looking to hit a flop and when they miss and you lead, they dump it. So, great, I raise. It gets folded to the small blind who 3-bets. Uh-oh. Didn't want that, but since I'm already in for two, I should call the third bet, right? Of course. UTG folds, MP1 plays along and I call. So what flops?

Flop: 8s 4d 5h

Yahtzee. I start to giggle maniacally, and my wife peeks in from the kitchen to see if I've lost it in my pre-daddy hysteria or to see just what the hell is wrong with me. I answer her with (almost in sing-song), "Somebody's losing some mo----ney... Somebody's losing some mo----ney!!!" She realizes that she doesn't have to worry about me losing it because of the kid--it's already long gone.

To my further surprise, the SB leads out. MP1 calls, and I figure I'm not giving anybody a chance to catch a hand, so I raise. Both call. Yipppeee.

Turn: 3c

SB leads out AGAIN. I LOVE THIS GAME! MP1 calls again, and I raise--AGAIN. Rinse, repeat, right? Both call, again. Heehee.

River: 8c

Board pairs, so unless someone's playing 88 or has a set, a distinct possibility, I'm good here. The action's checked to me, I lead out, EXPECTING a check-raise, and just get called in both places.

The SB shows Ks Kd, MP1 shows 9h 9d (??!?!?!), and the $175 pot slides toward my little shark bubble. Then, the tilt begins. "You stupid donkey mutherf***er...(sic)" "Stupid moron..." "Friggin' PS is rigged..." MP1 just said, "nh," but the SB wouldn't let it go. He keeps it up for another 15 minutes, after which he's donked off the remaining $160 in his chipstack and leaves, busted.

Mission accomplished.

The lesson? Simple. When you've shown down your AK's, your QQ's, and other big hands, people put you on big hands when you show aggression. When you throw in a 76s here and there, whether you win the hand uncontested pre-flop or like I did, with a flourish of blood and chips, it's important to show that as well. It puts doubt in your opponent's mind. What is it? Deception. If all you've done is coerced even one player to keep playing with you after a pre-flop raise, you've succeeded. Next time, you'll show AA on an ace-high flop.

The way a poker player succeeds is not in playing a particular style, even to perfection, it's in being able to switch it up by flowing freely between styles during a session and maximizing not only value and odds, but also maximizing deception.

Comment Confusion

Apologies to all those who commented on the blog recently and weren't answered. I somehow clicked on "moderate comments" without knowing, and I had a truckload of comments to publish.

Thanks to CC for the heads up!!

It's My Blog and I'll Cliche If I Want To...

"You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time for countin'
When the dealin's done."

I played a 3/6 last night and ran up a $100 buy-in to $260 in a matter of 25 minutes. I did it by just brute force and superior hands. I had a erstwhile student of sorts at the table, and he was truly marveling at the Shark's way of running a table over. I've done this before, many times before, especially at the 3/6 game on Stars, and I continued to play for about another hour.

Losing every penny.

I know it's no big deal at the grand scheme of things, and I recouped my losses at other tables I played (2-tabling each 3/6 and 5/10), but damn, 40+ BB is a long way to fall. The thing about poker that frustrates me to death, and is truly my weakness, is that I can play with great cards (anybody can), I can play with okay cards, I can play with mediocre cards, I can even play with bad cards. But there are times that it's like the poker gods look down upon you, feeling all good about yourself, and decide it's time to remind you that THEY are the ones in charge. They smite--and they smite hard.



They let you make great hands, like AK on a flop of A-K-2, and the give your opponent a hand like 22. They let you make the nut flush, then pair the board to give another player a full house.

At what point do you look at your swollen stack and say, "Let's get this wad off the table...?"

When do you walk away? Last night, I didn't walk away quick enough, and I let a $200+ win turn into a break-even session by playing my ass off on the other tables.

This can't be a +EV way to play. Anyhow, I donked it up playing $50 PLO enough to register a cute little profit, so all's well that ends well...

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On the baby front, nothing new to report. The legend of the full moon is definitely in my mind (an old hospital wives' tale that says that OB admissions and deliveries spike during the full moon--and it's actually true, for some not-known-to-medical-science reason), so I don't personally think that the Mrs. is going to make it through the weekend without popping out a baby Shark.

Remodeling is officially finished as of today. The last of the rugs were put in, so I've finished my basement, re-did the baby's room, re-painted the entire house, and re-carpeted the entire house. My ass is dragging, and that should explain the lack of posts...It's been over the last six months, and now we have from tomorrow until the baby's born to adjust to our new-found normalcy, before the baby comes to flip our lives completely upside down.

And I'll love every minute of it.

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I'll finish tonight with a post that was linked on 9-2 Offsuit, and written by a guy named Tommy Angelo:

Betcha can't turn your computer off.

See. Told you.

Oh, you weren't ready? You didn't know there was a challenge coming?

Okay. Take your time. Time's up. So, what'd you decide? You don't want to take the dare? You just want to keep your computer on and have me go away?

I'll be gone, soon enough. But first, let me tell you the prize, so that you will know exactly what it is you are about to say no to. Turn your computer off, right now, and you will increase your poker strength.

On three.

One . . .

Two . . .

Three.

Still here? What, you don't want your poker score to go up?

If you want to get better at poker, then you have to get better at stopping. If you want to get better at stopping, then you have to practice stopping. Here's how. Take something you are doing, anytime, anywhere, and stop doing it, for no reason.

For instance, let's say you are walking. And then all of a sudden you stop walking. Technically, that would be stopping walking. But if the reason you stopped walking is because you arrived at a destination, well, sorry, that's not good enough. In order for your stopping to count as stopping, it has to be done intentionally intentionlessly. That's right. I said you must stop on purpose, but with no purpose. And if none of this makes sense to you, that's only because you haven't started stopping yet.

Okay, let's try something. A practice stop. I'll do it with you. Here's what you do. Close your eyes. Wait. Not yet. First you have to finish reading the instructions. Okay. On the count of three, I want you to close your eyes, close your lips, take your mouse hand off your mouse, take your other hand off whatever it is on, put both hands in your lap, and inhale, then exhale, and keep track of your breathing for three breaths. Think of this as a gift from you to you. Okay. On the count of three, we are going to stop and count to three. Here we go.

One …

Two …

Three.



Nice.

Okay, where were we?

What's that? You want me to go back to the part about getting better at poker and explain just what the hell I am really getting at here? Alright alright, you deserve that much I suppose, whether or not you did the stopping thing.

The surest way to get better at poker is to get better at everything and have poker rise with the tide. Let's say you wanted to get better at listening. Or you wanted to get better at not getting upset. Or let's say you wanted to get better at knowing what to do when you get checkraised on the turn. What gets in the way of your listening? Your thoughts do. Why do you get upset? Because you think thoughts that are upsetting. Why do you lose focus at the poker table? Because your thoughts are streaming by, taking you with them, into the past and future.

The thing to do is to learn how to stop your thoughtless thinking, whenever you want to, in order to clear room for something better. If you want to be as good as you can be at poker, you need a mind that is so strong it can stop itself.

Wanna know how to get one? It's real simple. And real hard. You have to think of your mind as a muscle, and then put it through resistance training, over and over, like at the gym. Let's try that beginner's exercise I showed you. Okay, here we go. Hands in lap. Mouth closed. Eyes closed. Three breaths. Ready. Go.

At this point, all readers of this article can be broken into two groups. Those who did the stopping, and those who didn't. I have a closing message for each.

To those who did not stop, it's okay. You will have infinite opportunities to start stopping.

To those who did stop, you really do deserve something special, especially if it was your first time. So I am going to give you a very, very valuable reward. It comes in the form of another challenge.

Betcha can't do it again.

Nice hand, sir. Nice hand.

Looking for Advice

Yeah, I'm usually the guy giving advice, but now I'm asking for my readers out there in the blogosphere for some advice. Mostly you folks out there with kids, young ones especially.

How do you handle the whole work-home-poker paradigm? As many of you know, I'm a pharmacist, I work between 8-12 hours daily, and with the soon-to-be-arriving little one at home, I'm frankly worried about not only normalcy at home being flushed down the toilet, but also my burgeoning poker career as well. I'm prepared to make sacrifices, and I don't have a problem with that. Heaven knows, I love this little girl so damn much, and she's not even here yet.

But how do you balance it all? I'd like to get in 500-1000 hands a week, go to work, take part in my child's life, and be a good husband all at the same time. Should I just plan on forsaking sleep until my child turns 3, or is there a better strategy?

I've been reading CC's Quest of a Closet Poker Player very intently, especially because it seems a ton like my life right now with the Mrs, not to mention the fact that he's putting out the flat-out best stuff I've read in years over there.

You see, I'm a hyper-competitive person by nature. It's why I have had to train myself to not take bad beats so badly. It's why I don't just want to be a good player--I want to be among the best LHE players on the planet. It's why being a good father and husband isn't good enough for me. I want to be Super Dad...



Is it really possible? I see guys like Joe Speaker who have been through hell and back and who still manage to be a great father, poker player, and have a damn good time all at the same time. There are others out there--we all know who they are. Am I just afraid that I can't balance it all? Or is it something that works out just so long as you work at it every day?

Being a first-time father is one of the most frightening things I can imagine. I'm frightened that I won't be as good a father as I want to be, worried that I'm too selfish and set in my ways to be the father that my daughter needs me to be, worried that my life will change in ways I just don't want, worried that there's just so damn much bad out there in the world, and worried about how I can protect my family from it all. Then, there's poker. How do you all do it?

Thanks for listening, and I appreciate any advice out there...

Wow--It's Been Almost Two Weeks...

...and life couldn't be busier for the Shark. The remodel of the basement into a family room is finally complete, the former-office-turned-baby's room is complete. Now, we're clearing stuff out of the house, removing all the tools back to my brother-in-law(and contractor)'s workshop, and getting all the last minute preps ready for our new arrival's arrival.

Can you believe I've played maybe 50 hands of poker in 2 weeks? And in one of them, I was in the BB with K2s, the button raised, I defended and flopped a flush draw, raised and called a 3-bet, then proceeded to suck out a flush on the turn against 4 players. One guy at the table in particular proceeded to call me an idiot donkey bastard, etc., etc., etc. for about the next 6 hands, one of which he called down with his pocket 2's against me because he KNEW I was an idiot donkey who was probably bluffing. Whoops. Turned over KK.

Anyway, this is more of a post letting my two loyal readers know that I'm not actually dead. I am alive, and I will be playing again soon, but now, I'll be playing on my brand spanking new Dell 2001FP. Got it from Dell for $369 (gotta love coupons and Slickdeals.net), and if you don't have one, it's a multi-tablers DREAM. 1600x1200 resolution (so you can play 4 tables simultaneously without overlap), and it just KICKS ASS.

Check out the banners in the sidebar--go support PokerSourceOnline, they're good people, and of course, play at Full Tilt Poker--bonus code Pokershark.

Enjoy April--my March review post will be up as soon as I can get to do it!