Any online poker players on Sherdog?

jericksen5

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Anyone else on Sherdog still playing poker online? I stopped playing after Black Friday years ago, but have been playing again on US facing sites (mostly ACR) for the past year.

Interested in starting a Skype study group, or just talking strategy or general poker discussion if anyone is interested.
 
Haven't played in ages but happy to talk poker. I was consistently in the black, just not by enough to make it worth my while to keep investing time into it.
 
I used to gamble mma and play poker for money, now I just stick to play money.

I play on poker stars
 
Reporting in.

I like to play the loose-aggressive strat, that's me all the way. Must build fundaments for it on the table or it'll topple pretty quick.

First you get the hespect! Then you get the cips!
 
Reporting in.

I like to play the loose-aggressive strat, that's me all the way. Must build fundaments for it on the table or it'll topple pretty quick.

First you get the hespect! Then you get the cips!

Den you get day power. Den you get day woman.
 
Usually go to the track or Hardrock, but I just made a Bovada account so I'm going to start playing online again.
 
Here's something you can discuss in general.

Slowplaying bullets?

Pre-flop betting on 66 or 77

You get the flushdraw on the flop... Will you ever fold it?


Edit: My own 2 cents.

Fuck slowplaying bullets... Never again, ever.

I go for cheap as possible calls on low pockets to hopefully land a tripps on the flop or just a really low flop.

No, I don't let flushdraws go. Ever. Or yea sometimes I do on the turn.
 
Here's something you can discuss in general.

Slowplaying bullets?

Pre-flop betting on 66 or 77

You get the flushdraw on the flop... Will you ever fold it?


Edit: My own 2 cents.

Fuck slowplaying bullets... Never again, ever.

I go for cheap as possible calls on low pockets to hopefully land a tripps on the flop or just a really low flop.

No, I don't let flushdraws go. Ever. Or yea sometimes I do on the turn.

As a genral rule, I never slow play. There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, but they are few and far between. There is generally no benefit to slow playing, especially preflop, with a good starting hand. All your doing is making the pot smaller when you have a large equity edge, and allowing others to limp into the pot cheap and possibly out flop you. There is almost no value in slow playing preflop. All you are doing is losing out on value.

Preflop betting with low to middle pairs is complex. I'd actually draw a distinction between 66s (I categorize as a low pocket pair) and 77s (I categorize as a middle pocket pair). Generally speaking, I am only looking to get into cheap pots with my low pocket pair. Im folding these UTG, I'm still raising if folded to from middle or late position, and I'm folding to an open raise, unless there is more than one caller and I'm getting odds to call. With the latter 2 scenarios (the raise or flat), I will only do so if the villain(s) have at least 20xBB in the effective stack. The reason is, I only am going to hit my trips with a low pocket pair 12% of the time, which means I'm doing a ton of check folding post flop. In order to make playing these hands +EV, I need to be able to value bet for 20 to 25BB for this to be a long term profitable play. 77s are the bottom of my middle pocket pair range, so I will play them preflop as such, looking for position and isolation, and will play post flop poker from there.

If I get a flush draw on the flop? That's a really general question, that has a lot of factors. Assuming I'm holding 2 suited cards for the flush, and there are 2 on the flop, and also assuming I have the nut flush draw, then the first question is "how does this flop hit my opponents range". If I think the flop completely misses the villains range, and he's betting into me anyways, then it really doesn't matter whether I have a nut flush draw or 2 air cards, I am going to play back at him, either with a check raise, or a call, and check raise the turn. If I think the flop hits my opponents range, and does so in a way where I think he is going to stick around till showdown, then I am calling my flush draw only when it mathematically makes sense to do so. Since I have approximately 18% chance of hitting my flush by the turn, and 36% chance of hitting my flush by the river, then I first need to decide whether I'm going to take this hand to the river, or I am looking to peel a card to the turn, and fold when I miss. If I am taking it to showdown, then I am folding be to any bet over 36% of the pot to call, and calling anything less than that. If I'm only willing to go to the turn, then that call has to be less than 18% of the pot value or I am folding. Doing anything else is not long term profitable.
 
Here's something you can discuss in general.

Slowplaying bullets?

Pre-flop betting on 66 or 77

You get the flushdraw on the flop... Will you ever fold it?


Edit: My own 2 cents.

Fuck slowplaying bullets... Never again, ever.

I go for cheap as possible calls on low pockets to hopefully land a tripps on the flop or just a really low flop.

No, I don't let flushdraws go. Ever. Or yea sometimes I do on the turn.

How many people are at the table? If it's heads up, then 66 is decent. If there are six chairs filled, then 66 is garbage and I'm happy to ditch it after the flop if I don't hit another 6 (and most of the table is still involved).

AA or KK I might slow play heads up. Again, if it's a full table, I wanted to get as much into the pot as possible before the flop, and also remove some players so that I don't have to worry about some idiot hitting two pair with 4 9 off suit, that he got to see almost for free. If you have four or more players seeing the flop, AA really isn't all that special anymore.

Flush draw on the flop. Will I ever fold it? Sure, especially if by flush draw you mean I only have one of the suit and there are three on the board. If my high card for the flush is below a Q, I'm not getting excited at all about it.

If I have two of a suit and there are two on the board, I'm still going to be careful if my high card isn't Q or higher. Even Q or K high flush can get you into trouble.
 
@jericksen5

Yea the questions was very general.

Imagine this: You are a couple of hours into a tournament. You are doing ok. Y'all started at 1500 chips, you are now at 45k ranked at 67th in the tournament.

Your stack is mid-range on a table set for six.

The blinds are heavy at this point - limping is more or less asking for a shove and you would like a double up at this point to get into to the real stack size.

So big blind goes over to you and douchebag chip leader raises you preflop like he has been doing the last 4 times in a row.

You got A9 suited and decide for a call *Roleplaying intensifies*

The flop is K-J-2, nut flush draw is coming up. Pot is - let's say 4k

Asshole chipleader bets another 4k like he always does because - chips man!

---- This is now a table top rpg thread ----

Your move.
 
To expand on my fuzzy questions above:

No, it's not heads-up, it's at least 5 other guys at the table.

By flush draw I mean you have suited cards and you are at least 99% sure you are the winner if the flush hits.

I envision tournament style of play, 6 / 9 seats per table.
 
@jericksen5

Yea the questions was very general.

Imagine this: You are a couple of hours into a tournament. You are doing ok. Y'all started at 1500 chips, you are now at 45k ranked at 67th in the tournament.

Your stack is mid-range on a table set for six.

The blinds are heavy at this point - limping is more or less asking for a shove and you would like a double up at this point to get into to the real stack size.

So big blind goes over to you and douchebag chip leader raises you preflop like he has been doing the last 4 times in a row.

You got A9 suited and decide for a call *Roleplaying intensifies*

The flop is K-J-2, nut flush draw is coming up. Pot is - let's say 4k

Asshole chipleader bets another 4k like he always does because - chips man!

---- This is now a table top rpg thread ----

Your move.
Not to be a negative Nancy, but your stack sizes and bet sizes don't line up with your blind levels describing the hero stack as in push fold mode. Also, open limping is not part of any real sound poker strategy in general.
 
Not to be a negative Nancy, but your stack sizes and bet sizes don't line up with your blind levels describing the hero stack as in push fold mode. Also, open limping is not part of any real sound poker strategy in general.

Yes, a post-flop pot of 4K in this situation sounds very small, especially after a pre-flop raise.
 
Also important, who was the raiser? If he's. In early position, I'm probably not calling an open raise if I'm at 10BB push fold mode with A9s. That's probably a fold against an EP open, unless I have enough info to believe that the EP raise is doing so light with a wide range, in which case I'm just 3-bet shoving. Probably never flatting.
 
Not to be a negative Nancy, but your stack sizes and bet sizes don't line up with your blind levels describing the hero stack as in push fold mode. Also, open limping is not part of any real sound poker strategy in general.

I'll give you a great scenario where limping is a perfect strat.

>9 seats.
>Under the gun.
>First hand in a big tournament.
>Pocket Aces.

Why? Well I am glad you asked good Sir!

See when you play with complete asshats, this is the time you want to limp. When betting has gone around the table, guy #2 decided to all-in, and so did guy #4, #5 and then Megatron also called it with his K7.

Now you can fold your aces since there's already 4 retards all-in.


Regarding the hero stack, let's skip the RP since there seems to be no traces left of civility in this cold barbaric world.

I wanted to discuss the gear shift mid/late tournaments from tight-aggressive to a more loose play and possibly the frustrations surrounding it when going el-busto from a reckless play after spending hours tending to it's growth.
 
I'll give you a great scenario where limping is a perfect strat.

>9 seats.
>Under the gun.
>First hand in a big tournament.
>Pocket Aces.

Why? Well I am glad you asked good Sir!

See when you play with complete asshats, this is the time you want to limp. When betting has gone around the table, guy #2 decided to all-in, and so did guy #4, #5 and then Megatron also called it with his K7.

Now you can fold your aces since there's already 4 retards all-in.


Regarding the hero stack, let's skip the RP since there seems to be no traces left of civility in this cold barbaric world.

I wanted to discuss the gear shift mid/late tournaments from tight-aggressive to a more loose play and possibly the frustrations surrounding it when going el-busto from a reckless play after spending hours tending to it's growth.

I think I know what you were getting at with your role play scenario, setting the calculator aside.

If I were in the exact spot you were in, with those bets having happened, that is a situation where all of folding, calling and shoving are an option (to me). If you think the big blind is just full of BS and trying to buy the pot, you can go all in to get him out of it and you're still live if he calls (around 1/3 of hitting the flush and some chance of winning with high pair if you hit an ace). But if you look desperate when you shove, he could read you as trying to avoid future tough decisions with your flush draw.

Calling would actually be fair, because with expected value, 4K to call a 4K bet + a 4K pot isn't too bad. The problem is, he's betting again on the turn, whether you hit your card or not. If you miss, you're paying a premium for that river card, and probably having to go all in to see it anyway (depending on which parameters from your scenario are applied), so may as well try to shove him off after the flop.

Or just fold. Unless I think the BB is playing really loose, and especially with a fairly small pot, I don't see why I need to live or die with this hand. With the numbers you gave, I think I'd probably fold unless I thought this guy really hadn't even hit a K or J.

As for changing gears as a tournament goes on, I don't know what to say other than to agree in general. As the blinds go up relative to the stacks, the incentives change. It's easy to get nickel-and-dimed down to a position of weakness.
 
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In regards to a gear shift from early to late stages, I agree, fundamentally your play should shift from a tight range to a much looser aggressive play. Where this gear shift takes place has a few factors as well. The first being how far away from the bubble am I, and how large is my chip stack in relation to the blinds? Also, what is my goal at this point? Obviously everyone wants to take first place, but by the time your approaching the bubble, most players re-evaluate this goal (right or wrong). A lot of people aren't playing a ton of MTTs, so it's common for players to want to hang on long enough to cash at a decent place, vs others that are going balls deep for a top 3 at the final table. I tend to fall into the latter camp.

My early stage play is tight, and I'm not running big multi street bluffs. I'm looking to get involved only in hands where I have a large equity edge, and ok avoiding stacking off otherwise. Per ICM, the chips at these stages just do not have enough value to risk your tournament life.

In the middle to late stages however, as I am approaching the bubble, my range is opening up, and my play is getting much more aggressive. Since my goal is a top 3 place and not a min cash or slightly better, then I am willing at these stages to risk my tournament life on very small equity edges. In other words, I'm happy to to get my entire stack in on a coin flip. You basically need a monster stack to have any chance of making top 3, where the big pay jumps take place, and I have no interest in spending 8 hours of playing just to min cash. YMMV.
 
I think I know what you were getting at with your role play scenario, setting the calculator aside.

If I were in the exact spot you were in, with those bets having happened, that is a situation where all of folding, calling and shoving are an option (to me). If you think the big blind is just full of BS and trying to buy the pot, you can go all in to get him out of it and you're still live if he calls (around 1/3 of hitting the flush and some chance of winning with high pair if you hit an ace). But if you look desperate when you shove, he could read you as trying to avoid future tough decisions with your flush draw.

Calling would actually be fair, because with expected value, 4K to call a 4K bet + a 4K pot isn't too bad. The problem is, he's betting again on the turn, whether you hit your card or not. If you miss, you're paying a premium for that river card, and probably having to go all in to see it anyway (depending on which parameters from your scenario are applied), so may as well try to shove him off after the flop.

Or just fold. Unless I think the BB is playing really loose, and especially with a fairly small pot, I don't see why I need to live or die with this hand. With the numbers you gave, I think I'd probably fold unless I thought this guy really hadn't even hit a K or J.

As for changing gears as a tournament goes on, I don't know what to say other than to agree in general. As the blinds go up relative to the stacks, the incentives change. It's easy to get nickel-and-dimed down to a position of weakness.

Well people who know me quickly get used to take most numbers coming out of my mouth and drop them where they belong, beside the masterpiece that is the rest of my message naturally.

I consider numbers in sentences to be Skylar scenes from Breaking Bad and should be treated as such - Given less importance and not getting in the way of the real thing being said ;)
 
Here's a scenario I've been thinking about lately, in regards to the bubble stage on online full ring turbo SnGs.

Sklanskys GAP Concept vs -EV Shove Calling

For those of you not familiar with Sklanskys Gap concept, it basically says that a player needs a better hand to CALL a raise than a hand they would open raise themselves.

In other words, say you have AJo and your in middle position. While it might be correct to open raise with this hand, if you are instead facing a raise from a tight player UTG, your AJo no longer has nearly as much value as you are likely behind the tight UTG players opening range, and it is more likely correct to fold. This basic concept has really been at the center of ICM bubble strategy.

However, I recently read an article from a successful SnG pro, who is saying that this is actually incorrect, specifically in the TURBO format SnGs at the bubble stage. Here is the example that he used in the article.

Table is 5 handed, and the blinds are 200-400 with a 25 ante. Hero is 3rd in chips, and in the BB with 98o. First 2 players fold, and then the button shoves for 2300. He has both blinds covered and SB folds.

So what do we do here? ICM and the GAP concept dictate this is an easy fold with a marginal hand. However, this SnG pro argues what does this fold accomplish? If hero folds the 98o, 2 hands later our 1900 chip stack is now 1250. At 200-400 blind level, our stack is now close to only 3bb, and that same ICM strategy that told us it's correct to fold the 98o 2 hands earlier is now telling us it's correct to open shove that same 98o hand in this situation. All we have really done by folding to the shove is reduce our stack size, which will just reduce the pot size when we shove for a double up.

I thought this was a very interesting and outside of the box thought process, and have been pondering this for the past few days. What do you guys think?
 
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Here's a scenario I've been thinking about lately, in regards to the bubble stage on online full ring turbo SnGs.

Sklanskys GAP Concept vs -EV Shove Calling

For those of you not familiar with Sklanskys Gap concept, it basically says that a player needs a better hand to CALL a raise than a hand they would open raise themselves.

In other words, say you have AJo and your in middle position. While it might be correct to open raise with this hand, if you are instead facing a raise from a tight player UTG, your AJo no longer has nearly as much value as you are likely behind the UTGs range, and it is more likely correct to fold. This basic concept has really been at the center of ICM bubble strategy.

However, I recently read an article from a successful SnG pro, who is saying that this is actually incorrect, specially in the TURBO format SnGs at the bubble stage. Here is the example that he used in the article.

Table is 5 handed, and the blinds are 200-400 with a 25 ante. Hero is 3rd in chips, and in the BB with 98o. First 2 players fold, and then the button shoves for 2300. He has both blinds covered and SB folds.

So what do we do here? ICM and the GAP concept dictate this is an easy fold with a marginal hand. However, this SnG argues what does this fold accomplish? If hero folds the 98o, 2 hands later our 1900 chip stack is now 1250. At 200-400 blind level, our stack is now close to only 3bb, and that same ICM strategy that told us it's correct to fold the 98o 2 hands earlier is now telling us it's correct to open shove that same 98o hand in this situation. All we have really done by folding to the shove is reduce our stack size, which will just reduce the pot size when we shove for a double up.

I thought this was a very interesting and outside of the box thought process, and have been pondering this for the past few days. What do you guys think?

I should probably take a little more time to think before replying, but this is just off the cuff.

I'm going to need a really good reason to call all-in on the bubble with 98o and put my life on the line. Shoving all in with 98o is one thing...calling is another.

I have to assume I'm a dog before the flop there. Now, I agree that I may be looking at...35-40% chance of a double up on 1900 chips, rather than facing having to double up twice after I get nickel and dimed down to 1250. But I will have better starting hands to work with, and also the chance that my bet gets folded to.

Even if I get called on these future attempted double-ups, I'll just guess offhand that I'm shoving with a hand that give me >50% chance of winning (an assumption, I know). But even if I'm only 50/50 and have to do it twice, then my odds are about 25% plus the chance that I get folded to and walk away with the blinds (which admittedly aren't high if I'm betting 1250 and the BB is 400).

You know what...you presented a very good borderline scenario here. I'm leaning slightly towards a fold, but I'm really not sure.
 
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