The Poker Chronicles

[I started following Matt’s Play Poker, Live Large plan in September, 2005. With Matt’s permission, I’m posting updates on my progess.]

Play Poker, Live Large Project: First Blood

I’ve played 24 hours of Party 0.5/1: one eight hour session, one seven hour session, one five hour session, and one four hour session. In that time I’ve played about 1600 hands.

My VP$IP is 17% and my PFR is 6.5%. That’s normal for anyone whose preflop strategy is the one suggested in SSHE. However, I’ve been extremely lucky over these 1600 hands so I place much less weight on the remaining stats.

I’m making 3 BB/hr which is much better than the 1 BB/hr I’m shooting for. My won $ at showdown is 65% which is so high I think I might start calling down more hands to pick off bluffs. My aggressiveness factor is 2.

Party 0.5/1 players tend to be extremely passive. On the flop, they raise only with a draw or top pair / 2d best kicker or better. On the turn and the river they raise only when they can beat top pair, top kicker. This makes them very easy to read and I think that’s what leads to the high win at showdown percentage. If anyone knows how to use PokerTracker (or another program) to put numbers on these vague statements please let me know. I’d like to find out exactly how often a raise means that a player can beat top pair top kicker.

There are many places where I can improve. Stealing the pot when everyone checks on the flop is one area where I should be more aggressive. I should also learn how to attack the blinds when the hand is folded to me in late position.

Up next: 16 hours of weekend poker

"Stealing the pot when everyone checks on the flop is one area where I should be more aggressive. I should also learn how to attack the blinds when the hand is folded to me in late position."

Huh? You're playing Party 0.5/1. You can't steal flops and it doesn't get folded around to late position.

Raise more preflop and concentrate on applying the postflop ideas in SSHE correctly to the game you are playing. The key to crushing lowlimit games like the Party 0.5/1 is to value bet, value bet, and value bet some more. Finally, 1600 hands is statistically insignificant so don't worry too much about your stats at this point. Good luck.

You should work on raising your VPIP and PFR. 17/6.5 is not something SSHE would advocate; it's a bit weak/tight. (20/10 would be better) This is not a big deal as you only have 1.6k hands logged and you're just starting. But just remember that's not the stats you want to be shooting for :-)

And you're right about your Won at Showdown being too high. Try to get it to 50-57 %. These are minor suggestions from a 2/4 player and I'm sure there's plenty of things I've got wrong about the game. Good luck on the tables.

DonkDetector wrote: "Huh? You're playing Party 0.5/1. You can't steal flops and it doesn't get folded around to late position."

It gets folded around to late position all of the time. And if "steal flops" means take down a hand with A high against three opponents that happens all of the time too.

DonkDetector wrote: "The key to crushing lowlimit games like the Party 0.5/1 is to value bet, value bet, and value bet some more."

I'm starting to understand this. I need to punish the calling stations instead of slowing down and assuming they have me beat.

DonkDetector wrote: "Raise more preflop" and daz wrote: "You should work on raising your VPIP and PFR. 17/6.5 is not something SSHE would advocate; it's a bit weak/tight"

I'm applying SSHE tight strategy exactly as Matt suggested. My VPIP and PFR numbers will be around 17/6.5 because that's what you get when you use that strategy.

daz wrote: "And you're right about your Won at Showdown being too high. Try to get it to 50-57 %"

I'm working on this. Are you playing Part 2/4? How does it compare to 0.5/1 and 1/2 in difficulty?

Well, I would still say you're doing yourself a bit of a disservice playing less than 20 % of hands. I play SSHE tight and am at 20/9.6. I haven't read Matt's book, so w/e. At any rate, you won't notice much difference on low limits.

2/4 was a big jump for me from the cushy 1/2 tables. The swings are obviously larger but the players are just a little bit better. You have to tighten up a bit. I'm surprised and disappointed that you have so many blind stealing opportunities in .5/1 - that does not bode well to the future of the fishies on party poker.

I started on 2/4 from playing 1/2 6-Max and am around 22% VPIP. Personally, I don't think 2/4 full is any harder than 1/2 6-max. This may be because 6 max betters prepare you for more thoughtful decisions.

Daz you wrote: "I play SSHE tight and am at 20/9.6."

That can't be right over a large number of hands. The preflop strategy in SSHE defines, without any ambiguity whatsoever, what you would do in every situation preflop. With a small number of hands you might be at 20/9.6. But there is no way you would be at those numbers over a large number of hands. Are you sure you are not using the loose strategy? What do you do with Axs and small pocket pairs in early position?

Matt, care to quantify your worst session ever? As one of many that hope to eventually play the 30 I think real numbers would be greatly appreciated.

what's the deal with PP blocking the acronym WTF in chat?
WTF!

Ugh. I'm staying from Party during my PLO8 sessions.

Last thing I need is the doom switch for runner-runner low + runner-runner small flush to kill my recent win streak.

Okay, so color me retarded and give me a sandwich, but what possible reason could you ever come up with that you would WANT to LOWER your Won $ @ Showdown #?

Isn't the goal to be holding the best hand if it goes to a showdown? Which it invariably does on 99.7% of the hands at .50/$1.

Johnny FlopBoot wrote: "Okay, so color me retarded and give me a sandwich, but what possible reason could you ever come up with that you would WANT to LOWER your Won $ @ Showdown #?"

To increase the money you make. It's easy to increase your won $ at showdown % -- just fold any hand that isn't the nut. But if you did this you would fold many winners. That's what a really high won % at showdown % shows -- it shows you are folding too many winners.

Johnny also wrote: "Isn't the goal to be holding the best hand if it goes to a showdown? Which it invariably does on 99.7% of the hands at .50/$1."

The goal is to maximize the amount of money that you make. (Incidentally, showdowns happen on far fewer than 99.7% of all hands on Party 0.5/1.)

Okay, so taking that into account.. wouldn't the better option be to raise your "Went To Showdown" % and yet still keep the high "Won $ at Showdown"?