EthanCainePoker.com

December 20 2009 Poker Challenge Update

Just a quick update on the Christmas 2009 Full Tilt Poker Challenge.  Did fairly well on the 5cent/10cent Ring Games today despite only getting an hour or two in.

Also played the Full Tilt Poker Daily Dollar.  Came in 720th place out of 5200 people.  It was fun but after 4 hours of play I only made $2.45 which is completely not worth it.  I’m actually bored with SnG’s for the moment.  I am going to focus mainly on Full Ring Games since thats where the real money is.

Anyway here is my current balance:

$76.34 Up In Profit So Far

-Ethan

Flush vs Top Pair – Check Raise ALLIN FTW

I made a moderately decent play today.  Guy raised PF with AQ, I was BB with K8 suited so it was only 20cents to call.  I was first to act as the flop didn’t look like it hit anyone so I bet the pot.  Guy called, Ace came on the turn.  I checked to feign weakness since I had the nut hand for this flop.  He bet $2 to try and get me off the pot.  I of course went all in, he called and my flush took it down.

Flush vs Top Pair

I heard one of the pros on Full Tilt Poker say when in low stakes someone goes all in after a raise its usually an “F*ck Off” bet.  Personally I have been trapped by people with monster hands more than people trying to bluff me so I would ignore the advice of someone just wanting you off the pot.  If you don’t have a decent hand FOLD.  Even if the guy is bluffing risking all your chips is not the way to find out.

-Ethan

Dec 19 2009 Christmas Poker Challenge

Just reporting in.  I have been faithfully playing 5cent/10cent tables and not playing over my bankroll which was my downfall before.  I have managed to climb back up from $40 dollars to a balance of $89.

$54.11 Up So Far

I attribute this steady climb too all of the studying I have been doing is actually starting to show in my play.  My sessions are still relatively short for some reason but I am visiting my parents and they see poker as a gambling demon so I play in a really small window on my desktop over my email screen.

Anyway I will keep you guys updated.

-Ethan

Christmas 2009 Poker Study Goals

As some of you know Christmas 2009 I currently have 2 weeks off that I can devote almost exclusively too working on my poker game.  I have thus decided to go through a number of poker resources that I have during the holiday season:

Everything Texas Holdem book – Great Fundamentals Book and this will be my 4th time through it.  Never hurts to brush up on the basics.
Zen and the Art Of Poker – Amazing Inner Game Book – I will reread it for a 3rd time
Poker Winners Are Different – Just picked this book up today from Chapters.  Really looking forward to it

Just Picked This Up - Will Post Review SOON

I have a good momentum going with this whole poker thing so I don’t think I will have ANY issues with finishing these books as well as getting poker in too.

-Ethan

Consistently Posting a Profit

Heres a snapshot of my last 10 sessions and as you can see I am consistently posting a profit which is the goal of all wannabe/professional poker players such as myself.

Consistency Consistency...not a very exciting but good

I attribute this change to small ball + tight aggressive play. I will, of course, keep working at this strategy and studying as usual.

-Ethan

Small Ball…Again

OK so I’m not going to do an update today on how I am doing because needless to say, BAD. I virtually lost everything through a few bad beats but mainly me over valuing my hands and getting greedy.

I grinded at 5cent/10cent for a while and broke even and pretty much decided too RELEARN small ball.

Daniel Negreanu has posted 3 Poker Videos describing Small Ball.

Essentially Small Ball is:
-Increase Your Stack with LOW Risk Play
-Small Ball makes you LOOK like a MANIAC
-Most CRUCIAL decisions come POST FLOP

SO I bought in for the max on a 2cent/5cent table which was $5….and lost all my money.
I repeated my max $5 buy in on a 2cent/5cent table AND lost it all…again…

THEN, I re-watched the videos, remembered the chapter in Zen and the Art Of Poker about balance and rhythm and finding your place.

I re bought in for $5 on 2cent/5cent and basically played position, sent out my small bets, folded alot of them after I received REAL resistance on my raises.

Eventually I hit decent hands, everyone thought I had nothing because I raised almost every hand I played and BAM…Stacked 3 people with 3 different plays.

Made $15 back, and on a 2cent/5cent table thats pretty impressive given the small stakes.

Going to keep at it with mastering Small Ball and see where it takes me.

-Ethan

Slow Play Quads vs Top Pair

Checked To The End..then BAM, Barbara Ann

Flopped Quads, checked all the way to the River where a K appeared and the AK guy kind of blew his load and went all in  which I obviously called.  The moral of the story is if you have the nuts simply check to the end hoping they bet so you can re-raise.

Just thought I would share this cause it was epic.

-Ethan

Back in Black…just

BEHOLD the graph representing my amazing profit!

You Can See My "Profit" Bar JUST above the REDLINE

Also my score has increased a couple points:

Behold "Earnings" of $5...I can ALMOST get a Big Mac Meal

This Puts Me @ $97.43+ for the Christmas Challenge

This money was mainly made from playing single table at the 25cent/50cent level.  I figured that playing FOUR 5cent/10cent tables = 40cent Rake per hand so if I simply play ONE 25cent/50cent table + stealing and bluffs I figure I will make more.

So far this has been proven correct as I made about $50 today with this strategy, AND unlike the previous time I made alot of money it wasn’t from sucking out and getting lucky.

-Ethan

Grinding or Playing Higher Stakes?

This month I have been grinding 4 tables at the 5cent/10cent NL at once using Short Stack Strategy which essentially means playing only TOP hands.

I got kind of bored and decided to move up a limit and just play ONE 25cent/50cent table really well.  The result was good.  While I make money consistently with grinding I found it a nice change to play properly with strategy and bluffing on ONE table.

I’m not sure which is going to be the most profitable but I do like the change once in awhile.  I think I will keep experimenting and get back to you guys.

-Ethan

Dec 11 2009 Update

Slowly moving on up and building the bank roll…$87.27 to date.  So that puts be at:  $52.27 up on the Full Tilt Christmas Challenge.

Prostitute Money.

-Ethan