JeffreyLipsey.com

Well now that November is gone I guess I can update again. What was originally going to be a real busy month only ended slightly so; I had plans to go to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving which fell through (a blessing maybe?). Otherwise I had the chance to see my Mom again as she came out for a long visit for her work and I was able to introduce Marlyn to my Grandparents and other family out in Denver. I guess you can still consider that a crazy month!


Another big change that some of you may have realized is that I am taking over many of the adminstrative duties over at Grinderschool.com to give JGB and his wife a break from their tireless work over the past 2 years. This has added on about 2-3 hours extra work for me a day and so far I like it and combined with some extra coaching I’m enjoying my life right now.


On the poker front I didn’t get to play much this month. Whether it was Denver or my Mom or Grinderschool or just myself, I only managed to get in 30 hours not including any coaching sessions. I know some of you saw me playing some weird games over the month. While in Denver I played a $20 180-man SNG and took first in that for a cool $1,000 in winnings so that felt really nice. After that I played Multi-Table Tournaments for 1 day and remembered why I disliked them so much. I was talking with Reasons14 on Skype (one of the SNG Instructors on Grinderschool) and he was talking to me about guys that would crush the $10 180-man SNG Turbos for like $100 an hour and I couldn’t believe it! So I tried that for a day and after losing 25 straight tournaments in a row without cashing I decided that was a bust to; probably the only thing I did this month which I didn’t have any fun at.


I also started the month grinding out some 100nl Full Ring on Stars again; sometimes its hard to remember just how nitty that game is. My friend Kavin had a killer month there so congrats to him as he started to get back in the groove. He put in over 120 hours on the month and his results show it; if only I can get off my ass I can have a good month too.


And then at the end of the month I played my share of Ultra-Turbo HUSNGs on Absolute, anywhere from $20-$50 buy-in. Those things are so much fun; they have 2 minute levels and you start with 500 chips. If I feel like I’m getting outplayed I’ll just time bank down for 4 hands until the blinds go up then I’ll just play game-theory optimized at 10-bb or less. I can probably grind out a 5-10% ROI in those things before rakeback but I would need to risk like 2-3k/day in order to see any kind of decent profit. The tournaments last 7 minutes or less and I’m only 1 tabling so you can see that I’d have to play 8/hr for 8 hours a day to get that kind of exposure at the $50 level and its not worth it. That doesn’t mean I will stop playing these but I’ll keep working on my skill level and maybe I’ll take shots at the 100s and see how I do.


For those long time readers, the reason I got so few hours in this month is not another one of those ‘unmotivated’ months or anything; I just seriously don’t know where the time goes all day. I was talking with Adil that I’m done at about 11 am every day with Grinderschool stuff, take 30 minutes for lunch and start dinner around 6 pm. That’s a good 6-7 hours of my day that usually just goes away and since my GameFly cancellation I’m not playing any video games (unfortunately). I don’t even feel like I’m watching that much TV during the day right now; although if I do watch its usually PBS Cooking shows (Spain: On the Road Again) in the early morning.


So that’s where I am at right now. I need to make a greater effort to put in more hours in December and Adil wants me to go back playing HU Cash. In order to win you need to have confidence and in order to have confidence you need to win; right now I am confident in my $50nl HU game so that is where I’ll be I guess. I figure I’ll win 40 buy ins there before I take any more shots at the 100nl HU game again; I feel like I can still crush 100NL HU when I’m playing my best. Unfortunately it doesn’t take much for me to go from awesome to break-even playing Heads-Up and the last thing I want to do is break-even.


So until next time I am out. Funny thing is I complain about all those people with poker blogs who don’t have them updated when I go to do link exchanges. And then you come see mine and its like once a month lol.

Man I’ve heard so much talk about ‘quitting when you’re not playing your A game’ or ‘improving your c game’ and while I understand it as a concept I feel like its retarded to think of it as a literal reality to which we can actively control. But then I thought what if I could actually create my “A,” “B,” and “C” games so I know when I’m playing like that and can both 1) quit when I’m not playing at a certain level (short term) and 2) work on improving that level (long term).



So here goes my attempt at my own play to find out what stage of play I’m at. I’ll try and do + or - for each level too as well as possible hourly rates but we’ll see.



C Game or Worse



I am not putting opponents on ranges. I’m instead ‘playing my cards’ and hoping to hit something so I can when a big pot. I am:


1. Not making any adjustments. I win when the player type matches up well with the current style I am playing; I lose when the player doesn’t match up well.
2. Incorrectly determining the value of hands. I determine on the flop how many streets of value I plan to get and follow those guidelines through out the entire hand:

3. I take bad betting lines to achieve these value standards definied above. I pot control too much and allow opponents with either balanced betting ranges or purely value ranges to influence my own play. Generally, they call more than they bet so I should be the one betting especially out of position.
4. I miss value with my strong hands on the river when a scare card doesn’t hit and my opponent will only raise with the nuts.
5. I make bad bluffs against opponents with no reads and they’re usually expensive. I then continue bluffing instead of tightening up.
6. I always think opponents are bluffing me and then become a calling station with MP/BP on more than 1 street especially after a tendancy of already calling down once or twice.




B Game



I’m trying to put opponents on ranges but am not doing so successfully. I then:


1. Make bad adjustments while trying to see a showdown
2. Giving inaccurate labels to players over a small sample of hands and keeping me from entering the A game
3. I improve the value lines above to:

4. I value bet too thin on the river on scary boards. Usually this is with two pair on 4 straight boards
5. I don’t let my opponent bluff into me when he’s shown aggression and I have the nuts and its easy to get stacks in.
6. I take small stabs at pots but give up after my opponent calls after showing weakness. I continue to just take small stabs.



A Game



I am accurately putting my opponents on ranges to the river:


1. I’m making good folds on the Turn/River and only because I can put him on an accurate range
2. I’m making good call downs with weak hands such as 3rd pair/Ace high
3. I can value bet 3rd pair/Ace high on the turn after checking the flop and not value-town myself
4. I can value bet 3 streets with top pair hands
5. I take good bluff lines and if I get caught I stop, tighten up and get value



I’m putting the A Game last only because I feel it deserves the least amount of importance. If we know that we’ll always play when we’re at least playing at a “B” level where we are showing a high hourly then knowing the difference between an A+ and A- game seems negligible. Especially when we should be spending most of our time improving the C and B game that we play.



Conclusion



I feel like over an entire heads-up match I go through all of the various game types. I usually start in my C game looking at how my opponent is playing. I then go into my B game and start adjusting and I keep adjusting until I am able to get into my A game and eventually stack him.



On my ‘C’ days that I play I take too long to make any adjustments or notice the adjustments to make. The longer it takes to go from C game to A game the more money I lose making incorrect adjustments and getting to showdown. By the time I hit my A game and start to win money back I have to hope I’ve not lost enough that my opponent hits and runs when he will feel like he’s getting outplayed.

Now the the future other-side-of-the-family has left after a two week stay, it is time for me to get down to business. This week has been the most productive hours wise, but least productive dollars wise, this year. Prior to today, the past 3 sessions this week I averaged over 5 hours/day and -500/day which isn’t a good number to produce.


I ran real good for a couple months over a smaller sample so its possible its just correcting itself, although I’ve looked over some of my Hand histories and I’m not playing nearly optimal either. So until I’ve made back what I dropped as a downswing I wont be adding in any 200 NL and just stick to the 100 NL tables.


I’ve been taking some notes though as I play so maybe I’ll use this space for that. Here’s what I have so far with the dates:

07/17

Players who have shown the tendancy to slowplay their big hands

habitually tend to have a weak range when they fast play very dry and

bluffable boards

Instant checks on any street seem to be very weak, especially in position

weak turn bet by donk followed by big river bet = nuts?

put players on tilt by calling with weak and marginal hands then hitting,

draws too

guys who try to berate their opponent might be more susceptible to tilt

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07/16

players with wide ranges can also value bet thinner, this is why calling

down more than 1 street with bottom pair or ace high vs opponents with

such wide ranges generally isn’t a good idea.

With effective stacks 150 bb+ and against players who don’t fold to

3bets: make reraise sizes larger, from 3x to 4x etc.

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07/15

against players with tight BB calling ranges OOP, they are probably less

likely to fold to flop cbets due to their higher range

players who raise every button and cbet a high % have air a lot in their

range, these guys are good to check/raise draws

flop check then turn raise line usually air? depends on board texture i

think: flush comes in air

if someone (donkish) normally 3bets a std size then makes it

smaller/larger how does that effect the strength of his hand?

how to play against min4bet

Its not finished or anything mainly because I just copy/paste it from note pad and its nothing more than the thoughts going through my head while I’m playing.

Available Games: Multi-Table Tournaments, No Limit Cash


Stakes: Anything below the $109 buy-in level; Small Stakes Full Ring (100 NL and Below)


Rates: Negotiable. However, my standard rates are:


MTT: $200 per 100 hand block but $100 if the entire sample is below $22 Buy-In (rates cut in proportion to # of hands i.e $100 for 50 hand block etc.). $50 per hour of live coaching of up to 4 tournaments at any one time. $100 to review an entire tournament from hand 1 until the end (I prefer a Final Table finish without a win).


Full Ring: $100 per 50 hand block, $150 for 100 hand block and $200 for 200 hand block. Also, $50 per hour of live coaching of up to 4 tables at any one time.


Note 1: Live coaching requires use of Team Viewer software (free) and ventrillo (free); set up is pretty painless.
Note 2: Comments on hand histories only require the use of an Internet Chat Medium (AIM, MSN, Yahoo). Please do not send hand histories where you run obscenely bad/good (i.e. Busting tournaments with AA, etc.) You’ll notice that I put “100 hand block;” that is not a typo. You have the responsibility of picking and choosing the best 50/100/200 hands to send me (so the session isn’t filled with discussing junk hands). I recommend stats and reads for full effect.

Please send all coaching inquiries to: elipsesjeff@gmail.com