Mind Games

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Depends on when you were in WA
Usually you would not need a visa.
From sometime in 2020 until just recently the border was closed to non-essential travel

2007

Fortunately I had a lot of other things to do which playing them

I've been playing NL 25 on PokerStars for the express purpose of qualifying for promotions.
The trick is to qualify for the promo while actually winning money in the games.
I think I succeeded today

That is one massive suckout helping that result...
It isn't mentioned below, but here is Equilab's analysis on the flop
Board: 8♣Q♥J♠
       Equity     Win     Tie
BU     86.97%  80.91%   6.06% { Td9d }
SB     13.03%   6.97%   6.06% { 9s8s }

My equity improves OTT, but it still isn't the best...
Board: 8♣Q♥J♠ 8♦
       Equity     Win     Tie
BU     76.14%  72.73%   3.41% { Td9d }
SB     23.86%  20.45%   3.41% { 9s8s }

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $26.71 (107 bb)
MP: $12.20 (49 bb)
CO: $26.01 (104 bb)
BU: $34.64 (139 bb)
SB (Hero): $25.00 (100 bb)
BB: $29.02 (116 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with 8♠:9♠:
3 players fold, BTN raises to $0.63, Hero calls $0.53, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.51) 8♣:Q♥:J♠: (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.48, Hero calls $0.48

Turn: ($2.47) 8♦: (2 players)
Hero bets $1.23, BTN raises to $3.64, Hero raises to $13.57, BTN raises to $33.53 (all-in), Hero calls $10.32 (all-in)

River: ($50.25) J♥: (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $50.25 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
BU shows 9♦:T♦: (a straight, Eight to Queen)
(Equity - Turn: 76%, River: 0%)

SB (Hero) shows 8♠:9♠: (a full house, Eights full of Jacks)
(Equity - Turn: 24%, River: 100%)

SB (Hero) wins $48.25

Normally, when I have a mid-range PP I'll set mine and give up on the flop, but in this hand, after opponent checks the flop I thought I would take a stab, and perhaps get folds from some hands — better or worse I didn't care.
Of course, I don't mind getting called by worse.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $29.67 (119 bb)
MP: $24.38 (98 bb)
CO (Hero): $25.82 (103 bb)
BU: $17.68 (71 bb)
SB: $47.43 (190 bb)
BB: $28.25 (113 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is CO with 7♣:7♠:
UTG raises to $0.60, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.60, 3 players fold

Flop: ($1.55) 3♣:8♦:Q♣: (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.02, UTG calls $1.02 <<< UTG tanks, then calls. Not nice

Turn: ($3.59) 7♥: (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2.37, UTG calls $2.37 <<< again UTG tanks, then calls. Nice

River: ($8.33) 2♠: (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $8.20, UTG calls $8.20 <<< no tank — just a call

Total pot: $24.73 (Rake: $1.11)

Showdown:
CO (Hero) shows 7♣:7♠: (three of a kind, Sevens)
UTG mucks K♠:Q♥: (a pair of Queens)
CO (Hero) wins $23.62

[1]

I was going to bet the river for "thin value", but opponent saved me the trouble

I suspect that opponent also thought that worse could call
PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 5 players

UTG: $17.68 (71 bb)
CO: $32.89 (132 bb)
BU (Hero): $28.00 (112 bb)
SB: $34.93 (140 bb)
BB: $34.24 (137 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with 8♠:T♣:
2 players fold, Hero raises to $0.60, 1 fold, BB calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.30) K♥:6♠:K♠: (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.30) 4♠: (2 players)
BB bets $0.60, Hero calls $0.60

River: ($2.50) Q♠: (2 players)
BB bets $3.40, Hero calls $3.40

Total pot: $9.30 (Rake: $0.42)

Showdown:
BB shows J♦:6♦: (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
BU (Hero) shows 8♠:T♣: (a flush, King high)
BU (Hero) wins $8.88

I ran the "Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool" It appears that we're less then 1/4 the way through, and it has taken 12 hours so far. I find it hard to believe that there are 33 billion files on my computer, let alone 4 times that number!

I'll let it run out — I'm curious to see what they think might be "malicious"

Oh, 17 infections found already...

I assume most of them will only turn out to be somewhere in the "potentially unwanted" range, though.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Oh, 17 infections found already...

I assume most of them will only turn out to be somewhere in the "potentially unwanted" range, though.

I've no idea, it is currently running through a backup of an old computer that was on an external drive, so hopefully if there are any naughty-nasties, they'll be in there.

I've been playing NL 25 on PokerStars all week for three promos

Promo #1: Broadway challenge: Each day you rake 50 cents or more, you get 1 card collect all 20 cards and you get $10. Along the way if you get all 5 of a suit you get either $4 or $6. Four of a kind you get $4. So easy money.
Promo #2: Cash Race: The idea is just play. You get awarded points based on the rank of your hole cards. You don't even need to play 'em. Top point-getter at NL 25 gets $200. So far, in 4 days I've had two $3 days and a $10. Easy money.
Promo #3: Weekly Challenge: Generate $40 in rake in the week, and get $16 back. You can complete this twice in each week. I just finished the first one today, so I'm not likely to get my second one.

The trick of course, is to complete the tasks in profit.
So far, so good.

And that's just the NL 25 — include the PLO8 and 5-Card Draw and it gets a bit better...

180 hands, only 3 went to showdown

I've been playing 3 tables, and sub-sessions of 60 hands each, then taking a break to check things.
After the first 12 hands, I started becoming more aggro post-flop, and starting defending BB wider vs SB raises

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $25.00 (100 bb)
MP: $16.00 (64 bb)
CO: $23.29 (93 bb)
BU: $25.71 (103 bb)
SB: $26.92 (108 bb)
BB (Hero): $32.69 (131 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with J♦:9♣:
4 players fold, SB raises to $0.75, Hero calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) A♦:A♠:8♠: (2 players)
SB bets $0.48, Hero calls $0.48 <<< nothing says "you're full of 💩 better than a flat call with a pair of aces showing.

Turn: ($2.46) T♦: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($2.46) K♠: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.42, SB folds <<< overbet with diddley-squat FTW

Total pot: $2.46 (Rake: $0.11)
BB (Hero) wins $2.35

Too bad they're totally useless
PokerStars, $2.94 + $0.36 - 2-7 Single Draw No Limit - 150/300 (75 ante) - 6 players

UTG: 17,619 (59 bb)
MP (Hero): 7,050 (24 bb)
CO: 7,355 (25 bb)
BU: 6,887 (23 bb)
SB: 8,316 (28 bb)
BB: 2,325 (8 bb)

Deal: (900) Hero is MP with 3♠:3♣:2♦:3♥:3♦:
UTG raises to 750, MP (Hero) folds, 4 players fold

Total pot: 1,200
UTG wins 1,200

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Too bad they're totally useless

Unless you are going for one phenomenal bluff, which you shouldn't dare not showing if it succeeds. Likely a bad spot for it, though.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Unless you are going for one phenomenal bluff, which you shouldn't dare not showing if it succeeds. Likely a bad spot for it, though.

Approaching the bubble with a short stack is no place to be jamming crap in a PKO.

I bust shy of the money (just 2 places) and had to console myself with daily quads that meant something...
This would have been a session-saver if the session had needed saving...
PokerStars, Omaha H/L Limit - $2/$4 - 6 players

UTG: $96.88 (48 bb)
MP: $52.42 (26 bb)
CO: $123.06 (62 bb)
BU: $94.56 (47 bb)
SB: $26.00 (13 bb)
BB (Hero): $53.32 (27 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($3) Hero is BB with 8♣:8♦:7♣:T♦:
3 players fold, BTN calls $2, SB raises to $4, Hero calls $2, BTN calls $2

Flop: ($12) 8♠:J♠:K♥: (3 players)
SB bets $2, Hero raises to $4, BU folds, SB calls $2

Turn: ($20) 2♥: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $4, SB calls $4

River: ($28) 8♥: (2 players)
SB bets $4, Hero raises to $8, SB raises to $12, Hero raises to $16, SB calls $2 (all-in)

Total pot: $56 (Rake: $1.25)

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 8♣:8♦:7♣:T♦: (HI: four of a kind, Eights)
SB shows 2♦:4♣:T♥:A♥: (HI: a flush, Ace high)
BB (Hero) wins $54.75

It's 19:43, and I'm in 300th place, with 300 paid.
The cutoff time is 21:00 local. Think I can hodl?

I'm finding it harder to succeed at NL 5 than at NL 25.
At NL 5, players are calling 4Bets w/ A4o, so when the flop comes A,9,4 I'm pretty sure I can bet, bet, bet because no-one would ever call with A4, right?

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I'm finding it harder to succeed at NL 5 than at NL 25.
At NL 5, players are calling 4Bets w/ A4o, so when the flop comes A,9,4 I'm pretty sure I can bet, bet, bet because no-one would ever call with A4, right?

Maybe moving up to where they respect your raises works after all...

How did the cash race go?

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I'm finding it harder to succeed at NL 5 than at NL 25.
At NL 5, players are calling 4Bets w/ A4o, so when the flop comes A,9,4 I'm pretty sure I can bet, bet, bet because no-one would ever call with A4, right?

Maybe moving up to where they respect your raises works after all...
🤣

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
How did the cash race go?

Finished 311th — so no joy

Adventures in NL 2-ville

I'm debugging a script that (might) help track the cash race, and didn't want to be playing NL 25 while working on it.
This hand illustrates why micros are so hard to judge
PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players

UTG: $1.91 (96 bb)
MP: $2.18 (109 bb)
CO: $1.98 (99 bb)
BU: $3.39 (170 bb)
SB: $1.87 (94 bb)
BB (Hero): $2.36 (118 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with A♥:7♠:
UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, CO calls $0.02, 2 players fold, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.07) Q♥:7♣:6♣: (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks

Turn: ($0.07) J♠: (3 players)
Hero bets $0.04, UTG calls $0.04, CO calls $0.04

River: ($0.19) 5♣: (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks

Total pot: $0.19 (Rake: $0.01)

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows A♥:7♠: (a pair of Sevens)
UTG mucks 4♥:4♦: (a pair of Fours)
CO mucks K♠:A♠: (high card, Ace)
BB (Hero) wins $0.18

No, I'm not "taking a shot" I was just playing around
Once I had completed 300 hands at each of NL 25 (down 5 BI) and 300 hands of NL 2 (up 2 BI) I was going to play 60 hands of NL 100 to see if I could get on that leaderboard.

Here's how it worked out going for the promo:
  Stake  Score  Position  Paid  Prize 
  NL 25  2,558       167   300   4.00 
   NL 2  2,033     1,104   500   0.00 
 NL 100  2,521        85    50   0.00 

An interesting thing about this promo — you can tell how well you're running by the current score.
If you are just not getting the high hands, your score will be low.
The cards are scored like so:
 Card  Points 
    2       2 
    3       3 
    4       4 
    5       5 
    6       6 
    7       7 
    8       8 
    9       9 
   10      10 
    J      11 
    Q      12 
    K      13 
    A      14 
In addition there is 100 extra points awarded in the first 10 hands for a J
In the next 20 hands it is 200 points for a Q
In the final 30 hands you get 50 bonus points for a K

In the olden days the $11 Sunday Storm ran $1.50 SnG satellites that were *really* soft. The trick was to play them over and over collecting tickets, play the Storm with one of them, and collect T$ for the rest.
Well today I played a bunch of satties, and won a ticket.

Hopefully a decent run tomorrow will offset my absolutely horrible day today.

Playing PLO8 5 on 888 these are remarkably common
888Poker, Omaha H/L Pot Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 9 players

UTG: $5.72 (114 bb)
UTG+1: $0.63 (13 bb)
MP: $5.59 (112 bb)
MP+1 (Hero): $5.36 (107 bb)
LP: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO: $1.73 (35 bb)
BU: $0.49 (10 bb)
SB: $3.31 (66 bb)
BB: $0.45 (9 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP+1 with 7♠:7♣:3♠:A♣:
UTG calls $0.05, UTG+1 calls $0.05, MP calls $0.05, Hero calls $0.05, LP calls $0.05, CO raises to $0.10, 2 players fold, BB calls $0.05, UTG 3-bets to $0.15, UTG+1 calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, LP calls $0.10, CO calls $0.05, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($1.07) 4♠:7♥:Q♠: (7 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $1.07, UTG+1 calls $0.48 (all-in), MP folds, Hero calls $1.07, LP calls $1.07, CO calls $1.07, BB folds

Turn: ($5.83) 8♠: (5 players, 1 all-in)
UTG bets $0.05, Hero calls $0.05, LP raises to $3.78 (all-in), CO calls $0.51 (all-in), UTG calls $3.73, Hero calls $3.73

River: ($17.68) 4♦: (5 players, 3 all-in)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.36 (all-in), UTG calls $0.36

Total pot: $18.40 (Rake: $1)

Showdown:
MP+1 (Hero) shows 7♠:7♣:3♠:A♣: (HI: a full house, Sevens full of Fours; LO: 8-7-4-3-A)
UTG shows 9♦:A♠:9♠:Q♦: (HI: a flush, Ace high)
UTG+1 shows 4♥:J♠:A♦:2♥: (HI: three of a kind, Fours; LO: 8-7-4-2-A)
LP shows 2♠:8♣:8♥:3♥: (HI: a full house, Eights full of Fours; LO: 8-7-4-3-2)
CO shows 6♦:5♠:2♣:K♥: (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 8-7-5-4-2)
MP+1 (Hero) wins $7.42
UTG+1 wins $1.63
LP wins $8.35

I remember those good old days: You could even play SnG sattys for 70 Coins. I used to play those sattys, collected tickets but I used to play the Sunday Storm then every time. Nowadays you got those super-hyper-bingo sattys or those hyper-hyper-lotto-sattys where you late reg to the target tournament if you win. I stopped playing sattys because there are mostly only those hyper-turbo-gambling-bingo-ones! I see no point in playing those.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
I remember those good old days: You could even play SnG sattys for 70 Coins. I used to play those sattys, collected tickets but I used to play the Sunday Storm then every time. Nowadays you got those super-hyper-bingo sattys or those hyper-hyper-lotto-sattys where you late reg to the target tournament if you win. I stopped playing sattys because there are mostly only those ! I see no point in playing those.

I quite agree.
I played a few of those anyway, at either $0.11 or $0.55 a pop — but the one I got the ticket in was a 12-player standard 6-man SNG.
Busted out fairly early though, when my bottom set met a rivered flush.
So it goes