Videos, NL Update and More Tourneys!

12 tables no overlap. My setup above. I'm not playing more than 6 yet but nice to have extra room to preview Borns hockey fighting vids or Headwaiters S & M archives. I need NL Bad Ass and Portland native Joey Wong to send sum wrestlin vids and i'm set.

So 15 days into my switch from LIMIT to No Limit i'm 10-1-1. The BR is healthy and the tude is good. I have stats on 24,000 Tilters at NL100 and am starting to play NL200 as I datamine players at that level. It seems that there are more bad "stat" players at that level so big fun should be had as I move up. Hopefully 1 month there and then NL400. I like 25 buyins for each level before deserting my previous level but will take shots and datamine before I have the full 25.

The Shark Network signed 2 NEW Poker sites today. Big Freerolls and buyins will be added for December at Crazy Poker and Vegas Poker 24/7 next month. Check out our forum for updates and info.

I'm going to do a video to promote the new Sharks Vegas Strip site. It will be a NL100 video on what I do to prepare for a session, then i'll play. I'll show how I use Pokertracker, Poker Ace HU display, identify donkelicous (I hate the word juicy) tables and players, datamining, the use of gametime (if you don't have PokerAceHUD), I'm not professing to be a great NL player or a great teacher here. Hopefully my low limit players will get some ideas and maybe it will inspire a few to finally get PT.
One thing I don't see on Cardrunners, PokerXFactor or Stox Poker is playing based on reads I get from villains tendencies. I know who is a stealer and whos weak based on a huge database. You can steal super tight/agg "TAGS" blind. Good players with great stats often are playing 12 tables and are just playing ABC poker. Exploit this, its easy and fun. I'll show how I do this in the video.

I think the key to my early success in NL is due to PT and table selection. There are many real good players at this low limit. Great stats, aggressive and huge winrates. I don't play those guys much. I'm running good and adding to my roll daily against bad players and making plans to move up to bigger buyins.

This video will answer many questions I have been receiving lately on multi tablin and using stats to clobber your unsuspecting foes.

If you have anything you would like me to address in this video or have any ideas please post them in our Pokertracker Forum. Your ideas would be appreciated.

I hope to have guest videos by Connjure (Omaha sit n gos) and other top Shark players. These will be free to all members. We'll take requests too. Limit? Multi Table Tourneys? Shoot me some ideas in the forum.

Had a nice turnout at Poker.com for the VET Series last night. I took 2nd for a small cash. Several cry baybees couldnt understand why big stacks put them allin with mediocre holdings. Hey, if ya don't have a big enough stack to protect yer hand don't cry when ya get launched. You didnt chip up early like your opponent did. So you had to hope you win races allin as a small (or big favorite). To these whiners I say.......Buh Bye.

Shoot me some video requests in the forum NOW! So far Born suggested I tape me an Raisin playin' "lucky burglar". Lets keep it Poker related ya pervs. Jiggy...don't you start!

Participate in our FORUM now. Huge lineup of Tourneys upcoming in December. More MONEY added!! Omaha, and maybe a ladies event.

Win Streak Ends, Lets Start a New One!

Played a 22 hour str8 session starting at 4pm Monday and ending 2 pm Tues. 4700 hands were played. As expected I was due for a bad night (I try not to think about the inevitable, but dark thoughts creep in)and the beats and coolers arrived early and often in this crazy day. Heres a fun hand I played. My lil buddee with the 3 4o got very aggressive on the flop and decided the turn made it time to go to that happy place on the turn, ALLIN baaaaybeee. I like that part at da bottom that says"Raisin" wins $247.



Appears i'm rollin huh? haha!

So i'm stuck 600 about 8 hours in and can't stop now. The PT was saying all tables were donkelicious and hey, I gotta increase me streak to 6 wins. 14 hours later I got it back to -300 and SED (shut er down). My kickback ate up almost 1/2 of the loss so certainly not a bad outcome when AA is only +60 (24 times) and KK again comes sparingly (14 times). Average would be 21 times. I am adjusting my play with AA and reading 2+2 strategy on the play of AA. I'm fine tuning that part of my new game. No doubt I have not played it optimally at times.

Wednesday night i'm back in the saddle, datamined 16 tables and sit in the 4 best seats. The plan for tonight is to reraise pre more to 1) disguise monsters. AA and KK will get more action if you rerayz with 87s, 99, AK, etc. 2) the 12 tablin tight regulars will often fold to this play 3) rerayz outa blinds. this will keep stealers honest. Play back hard at guys that are hi % stealers.

1300 hands later its a small win and learned some new tricks. The rerayz outa the blinds worked great especially against a 52% steal artist that pounded my BB even after I made him pay several times. This was the action several times. folded around to cutoff, stealer boy raises 4XBB fold fold sharkee pops it 12Xbb stealer calls. I bet flop, buh bye. Most guys think this move is a big pair. I did it mostly with hands I would normally fold to a raise. Fun.

I did get more action pre on my monsters since I rerayzed about 30% more this session. That will continue. I think I played AA better. I'll continue to work on how I play the most powerful hand in pokah. Its fun to play long sessions since you get many opportunities to work on different situations. I replay key hands in PT and try to improve each time I sit.

I continue to play back at any player that bets $1 (several bet this strange amount into $8, &$12 or $20 pots). It doesnt always work. Apparently thats a tricky move to show weakness for many of these highly skilled bots, I lol'ed. They bet 1, I rayz to 5 they call with monsters and fold anything else. A ton of MIN rayzors also. Just horrible weak play. 6 max is about aggression and 3/4 to 1 pot size bets, IMO. Don't play weak and bet $1 or 1/2 pot. Don't ever limp first in at 6 max. Come in for a rayz or fold. I won several hands with 22 or 33 UTG with a rayz and CBET (continuation bet).

Sharks in the News!

Zacaroni makes another big score. This time at Absolute. Sweet win and $3300. Cha cha ching. Read about it in the Shark Forum

One of our top posters and all around fun lady "HyppieChyck" made it thru 487 donkeys to score another big cash for 2nd ($823) at our top site Absolute. 6 hours and lotsa shark member sweat helped her torture the final table. Read about her play in our "Success Stories" thread in the forum. Proud Shark! Way to go HC!

My right hand girl ChipTricks will be making the big move from Florida to Vegas soon. Big move for a young family. Best wishes and looking forward to having you back playing soon. Great lady, player and mom.

Texas Dan. Long time Shark aggressive Vet picked up another reader for $800 in a Bugsys (Bugsys? lol) $55 buyin. Great 4th place finish and more cashish for a great MTT player. VN Dan! More on this in Success stories. Whos Next?

Please no MIN raisin or MIN reraisin! All Shark vets use the same policy. You will be re-popped on principle with or without a hand. Bet, raise or fold. Your bets should make a statement.

Thank you, Shark.

2600 hands, Tunnel Vision & Carpal Tunnel

The NL experiment continued with my 4th and 5th sessions. Winner! 5 for 5 and it appears i'm ready to move up. NL100 is fun bois, grrrls and mental deficients.

I'm always mentioning that I wouldnt complain EVER if just a few bad beats went for me instead of against me. I understand that if yer money is going in good most of the time that you need to expect more bad beats then good. Check out this lil diddy I pulled on a super nice villain "reming" I believe. He didnt whine and it was a huge pot. The money got all in on the flop. We chatted about this sick cooler that went against me, then against him to take his stack. We agreed all the money was getting in on the flop no matter what the turn/riv brought. He made a nice comeback after this beat and didnt give up.

The short stack was a distant third, I was second until the purdy ACE hit the turn and wiped out that yung mans hopes and dreams.



This hand above almost got me even after 2000 hands today. Then this set below arrived about 15 min later. The villain was smack talkin the whole table, callin us idiots and bad words that I had never heard or seen typed before. I made a note to self "trap loser boy ASAP" and this hand came up shortly thereafter. Poor bastard. ChaChing!



This is the PERFECT flop in this low limit game. They think AK is the nutz before the flop and when an A or K hits it is the nutz. I lol'ed. nh sir! Its only a PAIR sphincter boy.

We got it all in on the flop. Loser boy was quiet and outa smack talk in the aftermath. Poker is lotsa fun sumtymes.

Still having trouble with AA/ 11 times today and -21 including two runnins with KK allin preflop. Lost both to riv cowboys. So a struggle for 8 hrs and a great last hr (9 hrs str8 session) at the puter to pull off a nice +200 day. Had KK a VN 16 times but only +100, Ran into AA twice and went down both times hard. Thats 6 max. Lotsa hands, good action and weak passive limpers at every table.

The amount of blinds and limps you steal from these guys blows me away. I saw this action at least 20 times today. Is anyone watching what i'm doing? Limp,limp,limp, I raise 5X on the button SB folds BB fold, all limpers fold and I steal their lunch monies. You don't need a hand. If one calls and an Ace or King flops you bet they go buh bye. I don't anticipate NL200 being like this, so i'll enjoy for now.

NL Newb Adventure Continues

3rd night in the books and still have not had a losing session. Last night I had weak starters but ran over the passive limping call monkeys. I didnt see world class "sweater" Matt "Bornsupreme" my cleaner last night so was surprised to do so well. I made +575 in the 2 hours he watched me (first NL night) when the deck hit me like no bodies bidness. Then he left and I gave much of it back. I might have to pay him in tourney chips to sweat me late night when the worst players come out and I fire up the mister lappy.

My pre raise was lower than normal (last night, see PT stat link below), and steal is 10% lower so i'll make sure I crank those up tonight. My river aggress is also weak. Just a small sample problem there I think. I want 24-26 see flop (VPIP) 17-18 pre rayz 35% steal and 3.4 to 3.8 total aggress.

PT stats for last night

+512. Had ACES only 4 times and was -2 for the session. AA is a great opportunity to stack these low limit guys. They really love TPTK and make ego calls when rerayzed when their AK hits the K28 floppage.

Making less mistakes each night but still a total newb at this game. I'm never going back to limit. The chasers pay to see all seven now.

Done with limit. No Limit Baybeee!

2 long sessions in the books (NL 100 buyin). about 4000 hands. Made many mistakes but overall played well. Was up $520 in first 3 hrs then got pounded by mini monsters beatin by lge monsters.

Had AJs and flop came AJ6. We got it all in on turn when a blank hit. He had 66. ty dealer!

Booked two small wins. Thx for sweat Born! I caught a nice heater when he showed and stacked 3-5 guys.

4 tables are easy and when I get proficient 6-8 should be fine. (6 max).

I dialed in my stats last night. They are close to what I want after reading and datamining hard the last 10 days or so.

VPIP 23
Pre rayz 16.5
Steal 33
total aggro 3.4

Pulled off many bluffs, value bet the river hard, and punished the weak/passive/limpers. Need to work on not pushing overpairs so hard. That cost me $200 when my 10 10 met AA on flop of 2 8 7 (flush draw flop) and 99 met AA again on a board of 2 6 7 (flush draw flop). ITS ONLY A PR! I was rollin and cocky and pushed when the flop betting got heavy. Newb mistakes that I will no doubt do often for first month or 2. Its easy to think you are ahead with overpairs because many of these monkeys will go allin with a flush draw. They often have only 30-60 in front of them and when I see a flush draw flop I think they wanna play for it all with da draw. Thats not always the case as I learned when I shipped $200 across the table.

Today I am data mining for tonights session. Tilt allows 15 tables to open which is vn for massive mining. I purged all my LIMIT hands (and raisins) from the data base. I'm serious about not going back to limit. Now PT runs much faster.

Had a blast. Nice to use your brain instead of brainless limit. Gonna try to get in 3000 hands tonight. In the last month I have earned 2 full tilt hoodies, 2 tilt "page & tuttle micro fiber full zip" jackets (these are very nice but run huge). Go 1 size smaller than normal. And 2 long sleeve mock tees (run reg on size). These are very nice quality also. This is all at lower limits so you can score even better swag as you move up.

----------------------------

An excellent thread was started by me buddee Troutkiller (Dan) in the Shark Forum. Here is my response to his problem of being shortstacked
often in Tourneys. There are many more great responses in there. ReelCrazy (Steve) always has good input.

Tournament Short Stackers Thread

From above thread, Shark wrote:

Watch the Prof Players Poker Tour. There is an episode that Fischman goes in hyper mode early much like Arieh, Phan and others do 24/7.

Its a clinic. They call call call when he has monsters and he pushes them off their hands with draws or nadda. Try this a little at a time until you feel comfy. I'm still not great or even good at it but you gotta do it a ton to get it down.

Open for a raise, bet yer draws (or nuttin) like its the nuts, especially heads up. Or Reraise a pre flop rayzor with 98s or 66. When the flop comes A 10 2 or K 10 2 continuation bet 3/4 pot and take it down You created a nice pot with aggro play.

This is sometimes difficult against calling stations. You need to identify them early. Usually lower limit players or freerolls. Identify the stations early. They are gonna chase any draw, don't respect position and wanna see all 7 cards. I think it works way better in $30-$100 buyins then our $5 buyins. Better players have seen what happens when they raise, get rerayzed and call. Low buyin players often just call. Hey, I got money in there I can't laydown. These are the guys you wanna trap with yer monsters. Get them outa there so you can get the weak passive guy in that chair.

Many are playing to survive or make the money. This use to be me.

These players think all reraises are monsters especially pre. Imagine what you would do with KK or AA pre then bet 98s like that. Its still a helluva hand if ya get called. And man, when the flop comes 7 10 J or with a low flush draw you might get all da dough in da middle against AA KK QQ.

This play works great in NLring also. I did it about 10 times in 1800 hands last night. It worked everytime. (thx for excellent sweat bornholio!). I did it with nadda against very aggro pre flop rayzors mostly. They like to bully the table with big raises with like A10o or QJs. They fold meekly when I rerayz pre (playing .50/1.0, they std rayz usually to 3.5, I re to 10 bucks, continuation bet flop and they usually just fold. Can they even continue if an ACE hits with A10s? Its dangerous. They might get stacked by AK. This is the power of aggro play. You pick up pots that many are just spectators in. Plus you set an image that you are the wrong guy to bully or steal from. They'll find a different huckleberry.

Chip accumulation. I can't wait to start playing every day, good structure, medium buyins in Vegas. Repetition, practice, try different moves. I wanna be the guy at the table that you can't read and don't wanna play against.

---------------------------

Are you a fan of the WHO? I just watched the DVD "Quadra, Live, Tommy" that came out last yr. What a great DVD. Billy Idol plays the drunken bellboy (very funny) and Pete Townsends brother Simon is great also.
This and REM's Perfect Square (best dvd all time) are my favorite DVD's. Anyone have any suggestions on other rock DVD's? I have the RUSH one (came out last yr, so-so) and Bad Company live merchants of cool (good).

If you enjoy watching great drummers check out Neil Peart of RUSH in their DVD released last year "R30". From the overhead shot of him it shows him surrounded by 18 drums and about 16 cymbals. Completely surrounded. I counted the drums but got bored counting cymbals so rounded that off to approx.

If you think there is a better rock drummer I call bullshyt. I heard he recently lost his wife to cancer and daughter to a car wreck.

Paul Rodgers voice blows me away on the Bad Company DVD..

Bloodbath for Sharky

I dropped 1K this weekend to sick beats and bad image since I never hit the flop. 8700 hands. $400 in rakeback makes it sting a lil less. A horrible -600 weekend, stiff back and puter headache.

Typical hand. Capped pre I have AQs. Flop 629 I bet get raised, I reraise turn is a Jack, I bet, call. riv blank, I bet, call. bad guy shows QJ. I saw a version of this at least 10 times.

I play this hand above so good and just can't win.

Over and over and over. 4 tablin I get my first set in an hour. Chased down by 24s flush. Capped pre of course.

AA loses to 73 and K2 in span of 10 min. QQ goes down three outa 4 times in 1 hr.. PT shows for the last month I have received KK only 64 times. Average would be 90.

Every time I have AK/AQ the flop is 284 with 4 callers. lol. Flush draws are converting 15% of the time. You know the drill. Back to sits and MTT for me. I'm even this month only because of rakeback and sits/mtt/

Can't beat 2/4 to 3/6 what a fukkin joke.

----------------

Well I changed my mind after a good nites sleep. I'm playin $100 buyin NL today.

After getting turned and rivered till I puked this weekend I decided to play NL Ring, newb stakes $100 buyin. I'm a newb at ring so thats a good spot fer me.

Holy table selection batman! I had no idea. Over 50 NL100 tables going at Full Tilt. I was having trouble finding one good limit table at 2/4 to 5/10 limit. Ton of 6 tablin pros at that game now.

I can't seem to find a bad one at NL.

I hate to say never but I don't think I will over go back to limit. +280 in the first 2 hrs, 2 tablin. I think I will go to 4 tonight.

Playin 6 max. These donks are not seein the river cheap.
_________________

Before I understood variance (especially limit short) I would have shut my puter off for a few days and reevaluated my game after taking a beating like this. But now I know when i'm playin good. I have stats to back it up to. My riv aggression sucked all weekend. That means time after time I didnt make my draw. If I have a so-so hand i'm bettin for value.

I'm jacked about the new game and runnin great so far. I'll play it all week and give you a new post in a few days. Hopefully the NL donks will be gettin the bloodbath. As I was writing this sentence another guy went all in against sharkees nutz. Stacked him. Yes baybeeee! He had second pr weak kicker. GG nh.

Grind update

Played 2700 hands Friday and 4200 Saturday. 5-7 tablin' 2/4 to 5/10 short limit at Tilt. Not sure if you have ever stared at a puter screen for that long before but it feels like some1 kicked me in the back of the head with work boots this mornin'. 2 tylenols, 3 baileys and coffee, greasy breakfast is the best cure, IMO. Just need the breakfast and i'll login and try to knock out 2-3K hands today.

I played well and booked a small profit friday (bout $200+Rackback). Normally I would not be super happy with a small win with this much time invested but I can't make a fuckin flush. For 2 days now, i'm running about 15% conversion on a flopped flush draw. I like to mix up my play on flush draws. Sometimes raise, sometimes just call. I'm so sure it won't hit at this point I have mostly been calling to save the few extra bets. Also, in this short game its very aggressive, often you get reraised as 98.5% of short monkeys raise all their flush draws. Thats why a call is a good option often.

I dumped almost $400 on saturday. Mostly the flush problem. I tilted briefly but then got refocused and waited for the inevitable 6 table heater. It finally came when I was stuck $600 (about 3000 hands in) and I made $400 in about 45 minutes. Flopped str8s, flushes all hit and this bit "o" fun in a 3/6 game. Raised pre and I just call with 45c. flop comes all clubs and I don't need to convert my flush on later avenues. I'm gonna play this fast since my flush is dangerously low. The other 2 guys cooperate as one flopped a set of nines and the other guy hit his set on turn. We all pour every bet avalable into the middle and no more clubbies come and i'm good. $121 pot. Rakeback swallows up about half of the $400 loss so i'm about even for the 2 marathon sessions. Its a shitty result but considering the bad run of cards I feel really good about my play.

When you look at your riv aggression factor in PT and its almost half of normal for 5000 hands (1.2 instead of my normal 2.0) that means i'm not betting the riv since I didnt make my hand, over and over and over. Sure i'll bluff at the riv at times but these guys are not laying anything down in a $50-70 pot for a $4 or 6 riv bet. Many will reraise with middle pr. Then whadda you do with your 8th missed flush draw in a row, Bufford?

I'll still usually call with an ace high because of odds (or a small pr). This stat helps me mentally. It proves that some nights you can't make a hand. Keep firing and hope the variance gods decide to help ya out.

I was a winner at 5/10 and also 3/6. Got pounded at 2/4. 5 to every flop and 4 of 6 players at each table chasing gutshots or playing any ACE RAG. Normally thats a good thing but somedays (see 11/10, 11/11) that A3 that calls every bet to riv beats my AK on the A 8 6 10 3 board. One of the 5 callers will hit his rag and you will go down. Same with the gutter chasers. Over and over they hit after passively calling all the way. When the weak passives finally bet into you on the riv you know what happened, cry call them and say nh monkey boy.

So the new plan is to stay away from 2/4. 3/6 and 5/10 only.

Do I want them playing good? No. Just make them pay to chase, and hope that your night will turn around. Go to bed at 4am, wake up, take 3 tylenol, baileys and coffee , greasy breakfast and login and try to play your best. Thats what i'm doing. I'm going to get so good that i'll be bulletproof.

I wanna be 6-8 tablin 10/20 in 2 months. See ya at the tables!

Shark

Poker, Let it Ride and Wife Swappers

Just a FYI, I will never, ever say in this blog "sorry, I have not blogged in a while". Usually when bloggers say that they don't post again for 2 months. I'll post when I fuggin wanna and if my 32 readers get upset I can handle the heat. Bring it, ladies.

I just made the wife swapper deal up to get more hits so if you thats why you're here you might be disappointed.

My Dad heads down to Vegas a couple weeks ago to play a lil Let it Ride at Ballys. Hes got $50 $50 %50 out and 5 bucks on the "3 card prop bet". Hes dealt KK rag (its a 10's or better game to win) so he stays on all three bets. Bingo next card is the K, set!! River CASE KING! Thats about $8K ladies and mens. Tip the dealer 4 hundy and feelin good about the $155 wager.

So now hes a Let it Ride guru and is heading back down tommorrow. His fav dealer will be there and he says hes gonna take em down. I'm trying to get him on a +EV game (uh....poker?) but hes on a roll so we'll see if he can beat them this trip. I think that game sucks but then I have never hit quads there either.

Dad and stepmom Sharon took us out to a VN din din at the Casino for my birffday last night and a good time was had by all. Crab encrusted halibut for sharkee, killer bread, trey absolute tonics and a nice apple crisp for dessert. Raisin had the halibut and pumpkin burnt creme.

So we head home since I am sick of live ring and I wanna spend one of the $75 tourney coupons I won that day (won 2 wednesday). Crank up the Full Tilt, decide not to take a run at Ivey sittin at 1000/2000 (my PT says I can beat him, BR says I don't have enough to even chat with him).

Jump in the 7K guarantee and 223 players will soot up for a top prize of 4,000. 5 hours later (4am est) I finished 5th for a VN $1100 cash. My game is improving and last night I did it with mediocre cards. If the deck starts cooperating I will be blogging about a big win soon. I knew I was in deep doo doo when I had KK twice in BB (final table) and all folded to me. With 3 giant stacks that only happened a few times in 2 hrs at final table. We were 7 handed for almost an hour. Good match.

Good low limit Pokertracker thread going in the forum right now. Clik here donkey boy

If you have not posted in the forum lately help out a tired, broken down, one toofed (its extremely sharp) shark out and make a post. If you prefer not to please post your address here in the comments section and i'll get my cleaner (BORN) to stop in for a fresca.

We have a freeroll at Poker.com this Saturday! Shark November Pool Partay. Put bandaids on yer nipples its gonna be chili. Vet Series resumes this Sunday. Knock me out of the Vet and you will be outfitted with a shark bad a$$ tee. email me your info.

Support our sites! Absolute, Poker.com and others are working hard to allow all of my laggy donkelicious gamblin degenerates to soot up for VN added monies!

I asked the warden if we could do sum wife swapping soon since I heard it was fun and a good way to meet new friends. She smacked me head and said i'm not funny.

I'm going to 6 table 2/4 to 3/6 short limit at Full Tilt the next 2 days, come by and say howdy if you are on the site. My goal is 10,000 hands by Sunday.

The games there are very nice. Tip: Play the 18 man, 2 table tourneys also. Top 5 get a $75 tourney chip and sixth gets $57. I'm stockin up on TChips since these are very easy to cash in. One double up early and you can practically coast to the money. They have 3 $75 buyins daily and they are filled with bad sattelite winners. Great MTT and some are double stack events. So you are playing in a 10K or 7k MTT for $26 if you cash in one of these 18 man deals. Look for RaisinHavok at Tilt.

Shout out to me buds:

Joey from Oregon. Great NL MTT playa and world wrestling federation shill
Poker Blog!

Gumby Blog, Strong poka skilz and great writing from this shark vet

Headwaiter Sports Sports Betting guru and shark Vet. Get yer picks from a pro.

I missed a few more friends, i'll add more next time. I gotta get back to the tables. A heater of large magnitude is upcoming. I can feel it!