SharkScope Graph FTP

There are many of you out there these days who as me, “Where is the EDGE in Online Poker?” I have compiled some research over the last 2 months to try and tackle that question factually…. I hope this insight helps you when choosing where/when to invest a portion of your bankroll.

Sharkscope

As most of you know, I have recently joined  Poker-Coach.com. I believe if you are going to be a professional and coach others… the advice that you are dishing out MUST make sense. With that said, lets dive off into the numbers.

In my last blog I discussed more VOLUME in Online MTT’s … here is a screenshot of my most recent Sharkscope Graph for the last 60 days

As you can see… there has been a steady climb up! The perfect graph should look like this… Small steps down, and Large Steps up… Like a set of stairs! Where are these WINS coming from… Well, being the NERD that I am, I have the data for that as well as we will discuss further.

Official Poker Rankings - tenbigblinds (Full Tilt Poker)

Looking at the Data… PLO (Pot Limit Omaha), seems to be a SOFT spot in Online MTT’s.  Here is another sample of Data showing the overall respective ROI’s (Return On Investment) for the different Tourney Types.  As of today, I am sitting in the TOP 400 Players on Full Tilt Poker ( Based on Profit & ROI)… I can attribute a large part of this success to Pot Limit Omaha.  My stats are currently at 145% Return on Investment with over $10,000 in PROFIT!  It is my opinion that PLO Online continues to be the most +EV spot.

Looking at the AP/UB Graph, you can see there is not a ton of volume here.  Most of the wins are PLO wins…. Exception being the $7.5K 3 days ago.  I plan on more volume on AP/UB and Cake Poker over the next 3 months in the PLO area.

Sharkscope AP/UB

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Let’s consider for a moment the OBJECT of No-Limit Holdem….. TO GET YOUR OPPONENTS WHOLE STACK!

On to the title for this post….. the JAM!  Jamming (Moving All-In) for value at any point during the hand has become a staple in my arsenal.  I use this tactic in both Tournaments and Cash Games.  It is a deceptive move if used in the right spot.

As you can see in the photo above, I played a hand recently in which I used the JAM on the river.  Alot of players are so concerned with “Value Betting” and they forget the object of the game….. GET THE WHOLE STACK!

So, onto the hand above.  I was about 300 hands into this 2/4 NL session on Full Tilt.  The table was comprised of 6 Regular players, 2 randoms, and myself.  When playing against the reg’s online, it is necessary to adjust your opening range.  This allows the players to see you may be opening medium or spec hands from any position.  This assures future value from big pairs/premium holdings.

I am under the gun w/ Ac9c.  I open to $12 and am called by the Cutoff.   The flop was 6c 3c 2c …. giving me the stone cold nuts.  The cutoff had around $800 in his stack.. so I am thinking what hand can I represent her to stack this guy.  I come to the conclusion that I can represent the naked Ace of Clubs…remember I opened UTG ( I could hold AA/AK/AQ for all the player knows).  I lead for $8 into a $28 pot.  The player in Cutoff raises to $32 and I flat here.  My intention was to check-raise the turn… I feel my opponent would consider this a semi-bluff.  Turn was 9d… perfect… I check… player in Cutoff bets $72 and I raise to $174… player calls.  At this point I narrowed the range my opponent holds.  I have him holding like KcQc or some form of flush.  He wants value from his hand and thats why he doesn’t 3 bet shove the Turn.  River was a total brick…. I JAM MY REMAINING STACK $548…..

Let’s think about it… jamming here looks like a total miss!  It looks like I have the naked Ace and missed!  The player in the cutoff goes into the tank…and calls.  I take down a $1600 pot stacking my opponent (who by the way is a very well known regular).

Think about this concept…. value bets are good….but make sure you are not leaving to much on the table!  The object is to get the WHOLE STACK!

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1. VPIP = Volume Put in Pot Percentage
2. PFR = Pre Flop Raise Percentage
3. Aq = Agression Factor
4. F3BPF = Fold to Pre Flop 3 Bet
5. F4BPF = Fold to Pre Flop 4 Bet

If I need to define other terms I will by request. I run a HUD (Heads Up Display) from PokerTracker while playing. In my opinion this data is crucial whil multi-tabling cash or tournaments for that matter online. I will be using a replayer from Poker Table Ratings to replay the hands I discuss.

* I will post some screenshots of my personal HUD at a later time….for now, lets get into a few hands!

TOTAL POT SIZE – $1,201.00 (Hand – J9 Suited) 2/4 NL Full Ring

Hand History Live Replay – J9 Suited

This hand was interesting for 2 reasons, it involved raylapsley (FTP reg who plays 19/18/5), and one other maniac mob6kid (22/14/2). My strategy when i play against raylapsley is to 3 bet him preflop with a wide range in position. He only 4 bets preflop 2% of the time…3 betting him is always profitable. He is known for paying off light so….that makes it even more profitable.

As you look at the hand you can see I 3 bet the J9 suited on the button. Raylapsley opened raise from mid position with one caller behind…so my 3 bet looks like a standard squeeze. Flop comes down Q Q J…2 pair. I lead for 2/3 pot and instantly called by mob6kid. I have his range here on something like 8′s or 9′s…The turn brings a Jack and gives me Jacks full…mob6kid leads for 1/2 the pot. I tank the bet for 35 seconds and call. I figure he is bluffing here and a flat call may extract max value on the river. River is a 2 and mob6kid ships his remaining stack as expected. I call and he reveals 44 a continued BLUFF.

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Playing from the SB (Small Blind) is by far the most difficult position to be in any Poker Game.  It puts the player in the absolute WORST position possible post flop.  I will address some of my thoughts on blind play in this excerpt….please as always….take the information I provide as simply an opinion of how to look at a situation.

Most players justify playing way too many hands in the blinds simply because the blinds come around so often that they feel they are giving up too much if they don’t start calling raises with garbage like J7s in the small. This simply isn’t the case you are better off being patient in most cases since your good hands will get paid off.

If you live by this mantra….DO NOT PLAY FROM THE SMALL BLIND UNLESS YOU RAISE….IF THERE IS A LATE POSITION RAISE…YOU MUST HAVE A HAND TO RERAISE WITH PREFLOP!

This strategy allows you to do 2 important things:

(1) It allows you to take the lead on the pot from a late position raiser….who by the way may be opening the bottom end of their range on the button or cutoff.  When the late position raiser is facing a preflop 3 bet, they are usually aware they will face some form of C-BET (Continuation Bet) on the flop.  Knowing this, the late position raiser must consider the strength of their hand before continuing.

(2) It will force you to throw away marginal holdings you may just complete with.  This is critical….there is nothing worse than trying to play Ax suited out of position!  We have all tried to play a flush/straight draw out of position.  It just looks WEIRD and there are few spots in which you are ever given the right price (Pot Odds and Implied) to continue and even fewer times when making thoise hands do you ever get fully paid off!

By raising/reraising from the SB, you clarify/establish your position against the button.  BEWARE of sneaky opponents.  They may be Level 2/3 thinkers and simply flat your raise and float the flop hoping to take the pot away on the turn.  Vary your postflop play….C-BET 60% of the time, Check Raise 10% of the time, Check Call 10%, and Check Fold the other 10% of the time.

Here is a chart representing my position statistics from the month of February 2009.  Please notice position SB which is the Small Blind.  Last year, I was losing a tremendous amount of money from this position….after applying this strategy to my game, I am now profitable by $1,800+,  minus the cost of the blind over 30K hands!

If you take a look at applying this thought process to your game before making that decision to just “Complete”, good things will happen!

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My first Tournament was Event #3, a $550 Buy-In No Limit Event.  As expected the field was large and TOUGH.  I muddled around until the middle stages of this tournament with just an average stack size.  In Level 8, I finally decided to make a move!

With the blinds @ 300/600 (75 Ante), the UTG Player opens for a 4x raise.  I knew his range was weak and I decided to make a play on the button.  I flat the open raise with the intention of bluffing this hand on 4th street.  I held the J8 of clubs…the flop came down Ac Qd 4s.  The UTG raiser leads for the pot.  I float on the button with air here…intending to steal on the turn.  Turn was the 9 of clubs…wow…I actually have outs now.  The UTG player checks…I splash in a 3/4 pot size bet leaving only 35% of my starting stack behind.  He tanks it and SHIPS the rest of his chips…I have no choice but to call here getting 4.5/1.  The UTG raiser as expected was weak…he held JQ for middle pair and check raised me on the turn….WOW was my bluff that obvious?  Did he know I floated him?  Nah…..he knew he had a pair and and that was sufficient for him.   RIVER was the gutshot 10…making me the straight…doubling up and poised for my first Final Table of 2009!

Upon making the Final Table…i proceeded to SHIP my last remaining 12 BB’s with KQ suited v JJ of Mark Wilds.  No help and I bust in 8th Place!

On to my next event, My first ever Live Pot Limit Omaha Tournament!  It was Event #10 $500 Buyin w/ $500 Re-Buys!  Small but tough field, included players like Eric Lindgren, Clonie Gowen, Robert Williamson, and several other well known pro’s!

I played the tournament extremely tight, rebuying only 2 times.  It was actually a fun tournament, I never had any really key hands here just puttered through the field making good reads and good FOLDS!  I found myself at the Final Table 2 days later…chopping this Event for a net of $36,500 (http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result23147.htm).  I actually had this thing won with 3 players to go….was 3 outed twice to go broke…as is the case often in Pot Limit Omaha!

Extremely happy with my 2009 WPT finishes!  I played 4 Events making 2 Final Tables and getting off to a great start in 2009!

The Cash Game action was OUTSTANDING as well!  After playing in a few tournaments, I decided to sit the 10/25 NL Games.  These games were playing very deep.  Average stack sizes were around $10K !  I played 3 sessions over the week earning a total of $65K in those 3 sessions!

There was one interesting hand I will discuss here.  My friend Tyler Smith was on my immediate left during this hand and was as shocked as I was at this play:

I open UTG (Pocket 10′s) to $175.  The Cutoff calls, Button Calls, Blinds Fold.  Flop A,9,5 Rainbow.  I check, CO, and BTN Check.  Turn 10, I Check Again, CO Bets $675, BTN Folds, and I call.  River 3.  I lead for $1675 which is a 2/3 pot sized bet.  The CO Tanks….then RAISES ALL-IN…$12,750!  That’s RIGHT…a $10K Raise on Top!  Hmmmm….not the kind of guy who would Flat Aces pre-flop ( “I’m not gettin my aces cracked kind of guy” ).

The problem here is he is not bluffing!  He thinks he has the best hand.  After replaying the hand back, I was convinced he held 99 for a flopped set of 9′s.  I call and he turns out 99 with a sheepish grin…only to realize he should have bet the flop!

I end up draggin a $32K pot … one of the most interesting hands of 2009!

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