Hey all,

Cardrunners is now hosting my blog, which can be found at http://cts.alturl.com/ (link fixed).

I've been traveling and have posted a few updates recently.

Good luck at the tables,
Cole

     I played a decent session today, around 2000 hands.  During the first 1900 I lost 4 out of 4 coinflips for $5,000 each, just AK < 99 etc over and over and over.  I made a nice recovery though and finished down only $1,500 or so.  An hour later I returned to the tables, played 100 hands against complete idiots, and won $27,500 putting me at +$26,000 on the day.

     Here are some fun hands from this month:

FullTiltPoker $25/$50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 2: stoxtrader ($5 867)
Seat 3: PimpOwnage ($28 214)
Seat 4: Hero ($5 001)
Seat 6: Michael Norris ($4 098)
Hero posts the small blind of $25
Michael Norris posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #3

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
stoxtrader folds
PimpOwnage raises to $175
Hero raises to $622
Michael Norris folds
PimpOwnage calls $447

Flop:
[ ]
Hero bets $777
PimpOwnage calls $777

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
Hero checks
PimpOwnage bets $26,815, and is all in
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero calls $3 602 and is all in
PimpOwnage shows [ ]
Hero shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of $23 213 returned to PimpOwnage

River :
[ ] [ ]
PimpOwnage shows a pair of Fours
Hero shows a pair of Tens
Hero wins the pot ($10,050) with a pair of Tens

SUMMARY:
Total pot $10,052 | Rake $2
Board:
[ ]
Seat 2: stoxtrader didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: PimpOwnage (button) showed [ ] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 4: Hero (small blind) showed [ ] and won ($10 050) with a pair of Tens
Seat 6: Michael Norris (big blind) folded before the Flop

Full Tilt Poker $50/$100 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Jake38 ($16 287.30)
Seat 2: gandi9 ($20 742.90)
Seat 3: Hero ($10 050)
Seat 4: sbrugby ($15 609)
Seat 5: Batera ($10 000)
Seat 6: serb2127 ($13 641)
Hero posts the small blind of $50
sbrugby posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #2

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Batera folds
serb2127 raises to $350
Jake38 folds
gandi9 calls $350
Hero raises to $1,500
sbrugby folds
serb2127 folds
gandi9 calls $1,150

Flop:
[ ]
Hero bets $2,355
gandi9 calls $2,355

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
Hero checks
gandi9 has 15 seconds left to act
gandi9 bets $8 160
Hero calls $6 195 and is all in
gandi9 shows [ ]
Hero shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of $1 965 returned to gandi9

River :
[ ] [ ]
gandi9 shows a pair of Threes
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Threes
Hero wins the pot ($20,547) with two pair, Queens and Threes

SUMMARY:
Total pot $20,550 | Rake $3
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: Jake38 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: gandi9 (button) showed [ ] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 3: Hero (small blind) showed [ ] and won ($20 547) with two pair Queens and Threes
Seat 4: sbrugby (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Batera didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: serb2127 folded before the Flop

Full Tilt Poker $25/$50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Spresso81 ($2 000)
Seat 2: Hero ($5 247)
Seat 4: wuddacooler ($9 269)
Seat 5: OMGClayAiken ($15 267)
Seat 6: doughlumps ($9 248.50)
Hero posts the small blind of $25
wuddacooler posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #1

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
OMGClayAiken folds
doughlumps raises to $175
Spresso81 folds
Hero raises to $677
wuddacooler folds
doughlumps calls $502

Flop:
[ ]
Hero bets $800
doughlumps calls $800

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
Hero checks
doughlumps bets $7,771.50, and is all in
Hero calls $3,770, and is all in
doughlumps shows [ ]
Hero shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of $4 001 .50 returned to doughlumps

River:
[ ] [ ]
doughlumps shows two pair, Queens and Fours
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Sixes
Hero wins the pot ($10,541) with two pair, Queens and Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot $10,544 | Rake $3
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: Spresso81 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Hero (small blind) showed [ ] and won ($10 541) with two pair Queens and Sixes
Seat 4: wuddacooler (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: OMGClayAiken didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: doughlumps showed [ ] and lost with two pair Queens and Fours

     People frequently tell me, "yeah but for each one of these I bet there are ten times where you called a push with middle pair and were up against the nuts."  Well, nope.  Being a good high stakes player is all about adjusting to the flow of the game, seeing all the variables, and being able to put your opponent on a hand.  I occasionally make a bad call or two, but I haven't had a single one this month for stacks where I got it all in with middle pair or anything.  These hands also show how being a tough, aggressive player can tilt the hell out of your opponents.

     I'm now up about $100,000 in October, which is great considering I had a -$69,000 day.  I haven't included any images lately so what the heck, here's one.  This is my no-limit hold'em play on Party/FTP/Crypto during October.  I'm also down $35,000 or so in pot-limit Omaha and up just under $40,000 in UltimateBet's no-limit games.

     Yesterday three friends and I were on our way to see a 4:35 showing of The Departed but we were extremely late and decided to botch the plan and go to Atlantic City instead.  We booked a hotel room and got their around 1 a.m. and immediately went to the Taj.  The night started with about three hours of 2/4 limit hold'em combined with a ton of Red Bull and vodkas.  We were all playing pretty crazy but live play is so soft that it's hard to lose.  It was Rich's birthday and the variance gods gave him a sick run as a present -- K8 on a K88 flop vs AA and AK in a reraised pot, 3-betting 72s preflop and flopping two pair vs two people with TPTK, etc.  We had a blast and then headed to the blackjack tables;  the pit is awesome because they bring you bottled beer instead of crappy styrofoam cups of warm Heineken.  I played a few hands of blackjack from $20 to $100 and finished up $150 or so.  Everyone else also finished up and we had an awesome night.  We left the casino around 5 a.m., went to some bars, then slept from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m.  Before leaving we played cards for a few hours and then we hit Philadelphia on the way back for some cheesesteaks.  Awesome trip all around, everyone made some money and had a great time.

     I fired up the tables last night and played a decent session, and I got in a fair amount of hands today as well.  From last night and this morning I'm up around $65,000 which is a nice comeback from my failed shot at 200/400NL.  Been runnin hot in both life and poker the past couple of days.

     Ugh, I got killed in fantasy football this week.  McNair needs to throw for 900 yards and 14 touchdowns tomorrow night for me to have a shot at winning.

     At the tables in October I'm up $61,570.57 on Party/FTP, $8,196.08 on Crypto, down $36,292.00 in PLO, and up $42,249.42 on UB for a grand total of +$75,724.07.

     After my best day ever comes my worst day ever.  Frustrated.  Going to bed.  -$69,000.  Guess I can't complain too much -- only 4 days into the month and despite today I'm up still up $15,000 or so.  Plenty of stuff like

Full Tilt Poker Table Excalibur - $100/$200 - Pot Limit Omaha
Seat 1: howisitfeellike ($6 696)
Seat 3: HFAD ($10 888)
Seat 5: Gus Hansen ($62 735)
Seat 6: Hero ($20 300)
HFAD posts the small blind of $100
Gus Hansen posts the big blind of $200
The button is in seat #1

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Hero raises to $700
howisitfeellike folds
HFAD calls $600
Gus Hansen calls $500

Flop :
[ ]
HFAD bets $2,100
Gus Hansen folds
Hero raises to $8,400
HFAD has 15 seconds left to act
HFAD raises to $10,188, and is all in
Hero calls $1,788
HFAD shows [ ]
Hero shows [ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
HFAD shows a straight, Ace high
Hero shows three of a kind, Aces
HFAD wins the pot ($22,474) with a straight, Ace high

SUMMARY:
Total pot $22,476 | Rake $2
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: howisitfeellike (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: HFAD (small blind) showed [ ] and won ($22 474) with a straight Ace high
Seat 5: Gus Hansen (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Hero showed [ ] and lost with three of a kind Aces 

and

Full Tilt Poker Table Evening Dew - $200/$400 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Bebop86 ($6 400)
Seat 3: gandi9 ($66 885)
Seat 4: Urindanger ($56 948.70)
Seat 5: tehdrunky ($44 238.45)
Seat 6: jakz101poker ($62 850)
Seat 7: Hero ($27 180.60)
Seat 8: Ozzy 87 ($41 252)
Bebop86 posts the small blind of $200
gandi9 posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #8

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Urindanger folds
tehdrunky raises to $1,400
jakz101poker folds
Hero calls $1,400
Ozzy 87 folds
Bebop86 folds
gandi9 folds

Flop:
[ ]
tehdrunky checks
Hero bets $2,222
tehdrunky calls $2,222

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
tehdrunky checks
Hero checks

River:
[ ] [ ]
tehdrunky bets $6,000
Hero raises to $23,558.60, and is all in
tehdrunky calls $17,558.60

Showdown:
Hero shows [ ] (a flush Queen high)
tehdrunky shows [ ] (a flush Ace high)
tehdrunky wins the pot ($54 958 .20) with a flush Ace high
Hero is sitting out

SUMMARY:
Total pot $54 961 .20 | Rake $3
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: Bebop86 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: gandi9 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Urindanger didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: tehdrunky showed [ ] and won ($54 958.20) with a flush Ace high
Seat 6: jakz101poker didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Hero showed [ ] and lost with a flush Queen high
Seat 8: Ozzy 87 (button) didn't bet (folded) 




Plenty more beats and setups, but I'm going to bed .

     I've been super busy with school lately so I haven't had too much time for blogging and poker.  However, I did finish off September strongly and made just under $200,000.
     It's 7:30am here and I just finished an all-night session of high stakes poker.  I played well, ran well, and had my best day ever:

     Exhausted.  Just plain spent.  Been playing for probably close to twelve hours straight.  Glad the results came through though, to finish up $84,000 in one day is pretty unreal :).  Had plenty of suckouts and setups too (i.e. KK < 54o all-in preflop for $20,000).

     I've been asked plenty of questions about my preflop reraising article and I'll try to answer some of them now, although I'm tired and may not write well/get to all of them.  First, I heard a lot of "so which strategy is superior, never 4-betting, 4-bet shoving, etc?"  Poker is all about adjusting to your opponents.  It's important to implement a style that is most profitable against your tough opponents, and one that makes it hard for them to play back at you.  If directly to my left is a 14/10 supernit, 4-bet shoving suited aces is awful.  If directly to my left is a 30/25 LAG who is reraising me light, then I will probably mix in some 4-bet shoves to curtail his 3-betting and enable to me isolate the fish more easily.  Related to this question is "what stakes can you 4-bet semibluff push at?"  If you are sitting at a 1/2NL game where any preflop reraise signifies TT+/AK and no one folds TT+/AK preflop, then obviously DON'T 4-bet bluff!!!  My article was moreso directed at higher stakes players, but should still be interesting to low stakes players.  Maybe I'll elaborate more some other time.

     So the U.S. is trying to ban online poker.  A few sites (Party, Crypto) have publicly announced that they will no longer be accepting U.S. customers.  This sucks, but there will always be people gambling, and there will always be poker sites to take them.  I think most of the people saying "online poker is over" are overreacting.  Also, Party's press release seems a little sketchy and there are rumors that a Vegas casino will try to buy Party and then propose legalized, regulated online poker, but I really don't know much about this.  Anyways, I think it's just important not to panic and to stay optimistic.

     That's it for now, I'm getting to bed.  Ok ok one hand from tonight that took a lot of balls:

***** Hand History *****
Table Table 124344 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: hotmark777 ( $55577.30 )
Seat 2: sefat53 ( $20424.83 )
Seat 4: svizec24 ( $17585.56 )
Seat 5: GREGnizzle ( $8061 )
Seat 6: madphly ( $22167.55 )
Seat 10: qKx7j8To1 ( $5919 )
Seat 3: Hero ( $17554 )
Seat 7: jkghrtef ( $4875 )
Seat 8: coiolzz ( $24261.60 )
Seat 9: Boss_ ( $4350 )
coiolzz posts small blind [ $25 ].
Boss_ posts big blind [ $50 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
FOLD qKx7j8To1
FOLD hotmark777
RAISE sefat53, $300
CALL Hero , $300
CALL svizec24, $300
FOLD GREGnizzle
FOLD madphly
FOLD jkghrtef
FOLD coiolzz
FOLD Boss_

Flop: (Pot: $975)
[ ]
BET sefat53, $1900
CALL Hero , $1900
FOLD svizec24

Turn: (Pot: $4775)
[ ]
BET sefat53, $12000
Sunday Million satellites are running 24/7 - check the lobby for your options to qualify and win big this Sunday!
ALL-IN Hero
CALL sefat53, $3354

River: (Pot: $20129)
[ ]
sefat53 shows [ ] a pair of jacks .
Hero shows [ ] two pairs aces and queens .
Hero wins $35480 from the main pot with two pairs aces and queens .

     I've been playing only 25/50 and higher for the past week or so and have been doing pretty well.  I got crunched last night for a few buy-ins at the 50/100UB game (-$35,000 to be exact) when none of my semibluffs hit and all of my opponents' did.  Today I did pretty well though and finished up just over $40,000.  Here are my updated stats on the month:

     I got a lot of feedback on my last theory post and a good amount of interesting questions/comments that I'll be responding to in a new post within the next few days, I'm just a little busy now with school.  Anyways, I'm done for the night with poker and need to go get some work done.

     I haven't posted a theory entry in a while and I've had some thoughts on preflop (re)re-raising so I thought it'd be a good time to write them down.  Hope some find this helpful and feel free to contact me with anything you disagree with or anything you find interesting.

     In shorthanded no-limit hold'em games, players are opening all sorts of hands and usually no one has any sort of premium hand.  Because players' opening ranges can be fairly loose, they frequently cannot stand a reraise (3-bet).  One of the best 10/20 players on PartyPoker, formerly BLdSWtTRs, popularized a style of preflop play that involves 3-betting tons of open raises.  Frequently he takes the pot down preflop, and when he doesn't he is able to easily manipulate the pot in position postflop.  When a player opens from the cutoff, it is not uncommon to see him reraised by a light 3-better with 22, 76, A7, Q8, etc.  This deception can be great when playing deep stack poker, espeically in position.  BLdSWtTRs is an extremely successful player and his light 3-betting style has become very popular.  A very good 2+2 poster, AJFenix, also started this great post on light 3-betting and it caught on with 2+2 midstakes players (many of whom have moved up to the high stakes games).  Three-betting light also puts your opponents on tilt and is definitely a weapon to use at the tables, but many players overuse it a bit in my opinion.

     Light three-betting has become very popular and it's important to know some ways to combat this technique.  First, there is the 4-bet bluff.  For example, consider a 10/20 game with $2,000 stacks.  I open from the cutoff with 76 for $70 and the button reraises me to $240.  The usual play here is to fold, but if I know the button is 3-betting me with a wide range, I could 4-bet him as a bluff.  In order for the bluff to be at all credible I'd make my 4-bet to about $720.  I'm risking another $650 to win $340 so if he folds roughly two thirds of the time I show an immediate profit.  Personally I am not a fan of 4-bet bluffing with stacks of 100 times the big blind.  Too often the button will just go ahead and push all-in over your 4-bet and you will have to 4-bet/fold.  Mathematically you will be making a mistake a lot of the time if you are 4-bet/folding hands such as AT when he is 5-bet shoving hands like 99, which would not be that uncommon in a shorthanded game.  I have tried playing a style involving some preflop 4-bet bluffing but I wasn't very pleased with the way it worked out.

     Another reason to 4-bet is for value.  Making a 4-bet for value with a hand like pocket kings is ideal as long as it doesn't give away the strength of your hand, but the problem is if you never 4-bet as a bluff, people will fold everything other than aces and kings, and move in on you with these two hands (against which you are a dog).

     To make handreading more difficult for opponents, and to avoid the mess of 4-bet/folding incorrectly, one style of preflop play involves never 4-betting.  Playing within this framework we would just call all of our opponents 3-bets with our good, excellent, and sometimes speculative (for deception) hands.  This makes it difficult for our opponents to know when we have a monster and their mistakes are amplified because the pot is reraised and all postflop bets will be very large.  There are definitely disadvantages to never 4-betting though:

• Constantly playing large pots out of position against the light 3-better.
• Fails to get maximum value in preflop with our monster hands.
• Difficult to read our opponent's hand if he has a wide reraising range .

     Most solid mid and high stakes players use a heads up display to give them the playing stats of all the players at their table.  If they see that you are a loose player, they know you are opening lots of hands that you should fold to reraises and they will tend to 3-bet you a ton with garbage.  The problem with never 4-betting is that you don't punish their light preflop 3-bets.  Because you never put additional pressure on them preflop and are constantly folding your 86 to their 3-bets, they have no incentive to stop 3-betting you.  I've played quite a bit with never 4-betting and was fairly pleased with this style.  The added benefit of remaining deceptive in reraised pots is very nice against a light 3-better who is likely to fire any flop.  However, there are certainly a few exceptions where I would make a 4-bet.  These include

• Deep stacks.  If we are playing with say 200BBs and I have a monster, I want to get as much as possible in preflop.  I will balance this with the occasional 4-bet bluff when deep stacked.
• Multiway pot.  If several players call my raise and someone reraises, I will frequently 4-bet with good hands as an attempt to get the pot heads up or as a resteal if I think the reraiser is running a squeeze play.
• When I have the nuts and I'm sure my opponent has a very good hand.  If I raise under the gun and a very tight player reraises me, I can be pretty sure he has a strong hand and I will try to get the maximum value out of aces preflop rather than give him a chance to fold postflop.

     Towards the end of August I tried out a bit of a more crazy style.  I was still working out the kinks so I lowered the stakes and played around 10,000 hands at 3/6NL using lots of 4-bet pushing.  I played a very loose-aggressive style (stats of 31/24/crazy) and was constantly being 3-bet preflop because I was opening with so many hands from all positions.  Whenever I was 3-bet by someone who I perceived to be a competent player capable of 3-betting me light I would go ahead and shove all-in with aces, kings, and ace-rag (suited or unsuited) assuming we had around 100BB stacks.  Typical hands would look like

***** Hand History *****
Table Monster #1277497 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: LeRequin_ ( $743.25 )
Seat 3: OoOsLAPOoO ( $707.50 )
Seat 4: Donkey_Klonk ( $731.50 )
Seat 6: kiosk_______ ( $298 )
Seat 5: Hero ( $624 )
kiosk_______ posts small blind [ $3 ].
LeRequin_ posts big blind [ $6 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
FOLD OoOsLAPOoO
FOLD Donkey_Klonk
RAISE Hero, $21
FOLD kiosk_______
Gerdi666 has joined the table.
RAISE LeRequin_ $71
ALL-IN Hero
LeRequin_ : what are you doing down here
FOLD LeRequin_
Hero does not show cards.
Hero wins $704

***** Hand History *****
Table Monster #1280723 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: rilleg ( $3032.26 )
Seat 1: Hero ( $1273.86 )
Seat 3: AlwaysPlayDrunk ( $833 )
Seat 5: RavenQ ( $617.45 )
Seat 6: stargate_58 ( $654 )
Seat 4: grapevinekid ( $591 )
RavenQ posts small blind [ $3 ].
stargate_58 posts big blind [ $6 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
RAISE Hero, $21
FOLD rilleg
FOLD AlwaysPlayDrunk
RAISE grapevinekid, $55
FOLD RavenQ
FOLD stargate_58
ALL-IN Hero
ALL-IN grapevinekid

Flop: (Pot: $85)
[ ]

Turn: (Pot: $85)
[ ]

River: (Pot: $85)
[ ]
grapevinekid shows [ ] two pairs tens and nines .
Hero shows [ ] two pairs kings and nines .
Hero wins $682.86 from side pot #1 with two pairs kings and nines .
Hero wins $1187.50 from the main pot with two pairs kings and nines .

     Ten thousand hands isn't nearly enough to determine a winrate, and I felt like I bluffed a tad too much postflop when I tried out this style so my winnings could have been higher, but here were my numbers:

     Let's do some of the math behind preflop 4-bet shoving.  I will be using PokerStove for most of the analysis.  It's really nice free software, I'd highly recommend checking it out.  Consider a 3/6NL game with $600 effective stacks.  I open from middle position with A5 for $21.  The button, an aggressive 22/17 player, reraises me to $77.  I shove all-in for $600.  Let's assume he will call me with { QQ+, AKs, AKo }.  Against this range my equity is right at 30%.  Actually, against just about any sane calling range I have around 30% equity with a suited ace.

              equity (%)  win (%)   tie (%) 
Hand 1: 30.1525 % 28.99% 01.16% { A5s }
Hand 2: 69.8475 % 68.69% 01.16% { QQ+, AKs, AKo }

     So when my 4-bet shove is called my expectation is

          0.30 * (600 + 21 + 6 + 3) - 0.70 * (600 - 21) = -$216

     When he folds to my 4-bet shove, I win

          77 + 21 + 6 + 3 = $107

     Then if he folds to my 4-bet shove 2/3 of the time, the play is roughly neutral EV with A5 in this situation (2*107 - 216 = -$2 in EV).  His calling range of queens or beter and ace-king is precisely the top 2.6% of hands.  So for him to fold to my 4-bet shove more than 2/3 of the time and make my shove profitable, he needs to be reraising me with more than 7.8% of his hands.  The top 7.8% of hands is the range { 88+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AQo+ }.  When I have a loose, wild image, players are 3-betting me light with all sorts of stuff, including suited connectors and small pairs, most of which they will have to fold to a push so the shove shows an immediate positive expectation.

     My opponents see that I am 4-bet shoving with a loose range and they may try to adjust and start calling me more frequently.  The problem for them is that I'm also shoving with my monsters (aces, kings, and ace-king), so by calling me with say TT they will be a huge dog a significant portion of the time.  This style of play is difficult to adjust to and I frequently got absurd amounts of action when I shouldn't have: 

***** Hand History *****
$600 NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 29, 01:38:31 ET 2006
Table Monster #1277309 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: ForNoGoodReason ( $543.40 )
Seat 4: tcsboy ( $721.90 )
Seat 5: NEED4SPD5 ( $993 )
Seat 6: IBWNZOREDU ( $1053.99 )
Seat 3: Hero ( $1012.15 )
Seat 1: DockSlapped ( $600 )
tcsboy posts small blind [ $3 ].
NEED4SPD5 posts big blind [ $6 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
RAISE IBWNZOREDU, $24
CALL DockSlapped, $24
FOLD ForNoGoodReason
RAISE Hero , $105
FOLD tcsboy
FOLD NEED4SPD5
ALL-IN IBWNZOREDU
FOLD DockSlapped
ALL-IN Hero

Flop: (Pot: $162)
[ ]

Turn: (Pot: $162)
[ ]

River: (Pot: $162)
[ ]
Hero shows [ ] two pairs aces and fours .
IBWNZOREDU shows [ ] a pair of fours .
IBWNZOREDU wins $41.84 from side pot #1 with a pair of fours .
Hero wins $2053.80 from the main pot with two pairs aces and fours .

     Perhaps more importantly than getting action on my monsters and +EV shoves with hands like ace-rag are the metagame implications of 4-bet shoving with a wide range.  Playing a loose-aggressive style can be very profitable but it is extremely difficult to do when my opponents are constantly 3-betting me.  When I frequently 4-bet shove over my opponents 3-bets, many of them just stop 3-betting me altogether which is great.  The nonstop shoving preflop really puts a lot of my opponents on tilt (see the AQo vs AA hand) and I have no problem getting action when I need it.  In sum, I was fairly pleased with the way a 4-bet shoving style worked out.

     It's always important to stay deceptive in no-limit hold'em, and this includes preflop play.  A good player should be able to play many preflop styles (TAG, LAG, 3-betting a lot, 3-betting very little, etc) and implement them at the right times.  By adding a new gear or two to your game you can improve a lot as a player.  Just when your opponents think they have adjusted to your play, you switch the gears on them (i.e. from 4-bet shoving a ton to never 4-betting) and throw them off again.  Forcing them to play this constant guessing game of what mode you are in ensures they make plenty of mistakes and you will reap the profits.

     Well I hit $100,000 on the month this weekend and it's only been ten days which is great.  I'm up $26,000 or so on UB, down a couple grand on Full Tilt and Interpoker, and here are my numbers at PartyPoker:



     Football season is starting back up which is awesome -- my fantasy players are kicking ass and I'm in first place in our fantasy league.  Tomorrow the Redskins have their season opener, or more accurately the start to their championship run, and I think some friends and I will go out to the bars and catch the game.
     Anyways I'm pretty tired but I'll try to post some interesting hands this week.

     Yesterday I played a few thousand hands at the Party 25/50 and just kept swinging all over the place, +$20 -$20k +$20k -$20k but quit down around $3,500.  However I did throw some cash into my UltimateBet account to get in on some of the high stakes action there.  I played 25/50 and 50/100 NLHE along with some 25/50 PLO and finished up $16,000 there.  The games were so-so but I think I played alright.  I won a $22,000 pot in the 50/100 game which was nice.  The PLO game had a huge soft spot in it against whom I flopped quads so it was good to get his money before the other sharks did.
     I'm getting close to $100k, I'm up around $78,000 so far this month.  I may check out the high stakes games on other sites and try to play 25/50 a little more often when my game is feeling good.

     The NFL season starts tonight and I'm playing in a $1000+9 buy-in league with some poker buds.  Here's my lineup:

no limit soldiers UHHHH

	Player	Week 1 Opp	Inj	YTD Pts	Avg Pts	NFL News
Select 1 QB:	Culpepper, Daunte MIA QB	at Steelers Thu 8:30 p.m. ET				New!
	McNair, Steve BAL QB	at Buccaneers Sun 1:00 p.m. ET				New!
	Roethlisberger, Ben PIT QB	vs Dolphins Thu 8:30 p.m. ET	Out			New!
Select 2 RB:	Alstott, Mike TBB RB	vs Ravens Sun 1:00 p.m. ET
	Barber, Tiki NYG RB	vs Colts Sun 8:15 p.m. ET
	Bell, Mike DEN RB	at Rams Sun 1:00 p.m. ET				New!
	Bell, Tatum DEN RB	at Rams Sun 1:00 p.m. ET				New!
	Dillon, Corey NEP RB	vs Bills Sun 1:00 p.m. ET
Select 3 WR:	Brown, Reggie PHI WR	at Texans Sun 1:00 p.m. ET
	Burleson, Nate SEA WR	at Lions Sun 1:00 p.m. ET
	Jackson, Darrell SEA WR	at Lions Sun 1:00 p.m. ET	Probable			New!
	Lloyd, Brandon WAS WR	vs Vikings Mon 7:00 p.m. ET
	Robinson, Koren FA WR	Bye				New!
Select 1 TE:	Cooley, Chris WAS TE	vs Vikings Mon 7:00 p.m. ET
Select 1 PK:	Rackers, Neil ARI PK	vs 49ers Sun 4:15 p.m. ET
Select 1 Def:	Bears, Chicago CHI Def	at Packers Sun 4:15 p.m. ET
	Eagles, Philadelphia PHI Def	at Texans Sun 1:00 p.m. ET

     This week I'm starting Culpepper, Barber, Mike Bell, Brown, Jackson, Lloyd, Cooley, Rackers, and the Bears.  I'm matched up against a team with Willie Parker tonight so the Dolphins better wreck the Steelers!