Goodbye 888 Poker

Dear 888 Poker,

It was a good run while it lasted but you just didn't fulfill my needs as a poker player. Sure, it was fun in the beginning with your initial deposit bonuses but after those were cleared you quickly became stale. I still remember the times we spent staying up all night, it was just bad beat after bad beat with the inevitable tilt that followed.

You introduced me to many new donkeys, fishes and elephants. For that I am grateful. I still remember the "f u", "moron" and "idiot" comments left in the chat box after I'd stacked somebody.Those were truly the fun times.

You stood by me while I won and lost the biggest pots in my life. I'm still not sure why I decided to play 100PLO8 with only 2 buy-ins but its something I shall not forget. The racing of my heart when a huge pot was brewing, the uncertainty which filled my thoughts when an aggressive LAGtard potted into me, the feeling of utter invincibility after running a successful bluff. All these things now etched into my mind like a beautiful dream.

The swings may not be large compared with other players, nor the amounts in the pot significant to some but I take pride in the fact that they were mine. It was my decision to play in 50 and 100PLO8 games under-rolled. It was my decision to check, bet, fold, call and raise on each flop, turn and river. It truly was a liberating feeling of having that self-imposed onus on yourself. Its up to you to make the right decision and if you're correct, more often than not you'll be rewarded with the pot. By playing higher-stakes than I'm used to, 888 Poker you helped me remember that.

You might ask 'Why did I choose to leave you now?'. The answer to that is because I've already withdrawn my initial deposited amount several times over and that I feel its not worth it for me to deposit again and feed you anymore rake. I've left the amount equal to several buy-ins at the micro-limits on there just in case we decide to get back together again but don't get your hopes up. The bankroll which I was once slightly proud of is now just a remnant of its former self.

Goodbye 888 Poker and possibly goodbye PLO8.
I think I'm going to concentrate more on Pokerstars and PLO now.

I'll leave you with these hand histories of our times together.


Winning Hand 1 - Freeroll city

I like my raise on the turn with a no-bust low + a wheel wrap in this $33 pot. An awesome river card falls giving me nut-nut. I get paid off in 2 places after betting half pot on the river.

Winning Hand 2 - The underfull is good for once

This is the biggest pot I've won. The flop came to give me an under-full. I put Mr Preflop Raiser on AA-Low rather than a J after better so small on the flop. It turns out he didn't have AA and so I had the high locked up and was freerolling him.

Winning Hand 3 - Bulldozing my way to victory

This was one of my biggest bluffs....or I think it was a bluff. Perhaps I had the best hand with my AT but I didn't want to check behind to find him holding JJ, QQ or AA. I did put him on AA but I also think that I represented a K well. He only had $10 behind when we reached the river and when I went all in, he tanked....and mucked. Easy game.

Winning Hand 4 - Playing with my whole roll

This is one of the hands at 100PLO8. I'd just lost a big pot prior to this hand and was playing with my whole bankroll on the table. I was in desperation mode trying to chase losses. Luckily I stacked one of the guys and accomplished my task.

Winning Hand 5 - No possible low bluff

I missed my no-bust low draw + gut shot draw and so resorted to bluffing on the river. I'm successful in my endeavor and win the pot. I put him on a low-draw/flush draw, even if he did have nothing, was it better than my nothing? I didn't want to risk it.

Winning Hand 6 - Self-leveling cooler wars

Ah, this was a lovely $84 pot. It was a 50PLO8 HU match. My opponent was VERY aggressive, raising with lots of marginal hands. I elected to play passively preflop because of his tendency to pot re-raise alot before the flop. I notice he may have been tilting after losing some previous hands.

As it played out, the min-bets of his was new. He would usually bet the pot whenever he wanted to bet. I suspected they were vacuum bets trying to induce me to bluff him off his 'weak' holdings. Unfortunately he leveled himself and got caught in his own trap. The thoughts that were going through my mind was.... I seriously hope you don't have a set and please don't have a better low draw than mine.

Fortunately lady luck was on my side and I picked up the better low on the river, scooping the $84 pot.

 Losing Hand 1 - Check Raise bluffing at the wrong moment

I got to look at the flop for free with my mediocre hand. I flopped bottom 2 pairs and with no low-draw out there would probably be the best hand. I get one caller after betting 3/4 of the pot. The turn comes a Kd. I check, he bets which I consider a float bet. So I basically decided to turn my hand into a bluff by check-raise bluffing the K, representing the nut straight with AJ. If he did anything other than raise there, I was 100% going to bet the river. This bet was designed to make him fold his two pair hands, flush draw or maybe even J9. Unfortunately he re-pops me, tell me he means business. I fold but I think it was a good attempt.


Losing Hand 2 - Uncomfortable nuts

Play sets like drawing hands.... I partially took Dan Deppen's advice to heart but at the same time I wanted to price out random drawing hands (25, 56, (A2 probably won't fold but it might)) while wanting to make sure the turn didn't bring a low card. I suppose I didn't follow my game-plan and with no low possibility, I probably should've folded my hand preflop. Either way, I got it in with somebody with AA, the no-bust nut low draw/wheel wrap and a backdoor flush draw. Sickness was soon to follow as the turn brought a 6 and the river no help.

Losing Hand 3 - Hoping to hit the runner, runner Royal Flush ahaha

This hand pretty much speaks for itself. Even though my opponent had a set, I still had 43% equality with my nut flush draw, gut shot straight draw, backdoor flush draw and backdoor low draw.

Losing Hand 4 - Semi-bluffing a semi-bluffing hand

This particular opponent was very aggressive, I'd seen him show down with complete junk hands in previous hands. I really did not expect him to show up with a premium hand there. I was about 90% sure at least my 23 low was good there, let alone my low wrap. But I guess I was wrong.

 Losing Hand 5 - An uneducated bluff

Ah, this was a failed bluff attempt. I honestly wasn't betting my pair of Ks for value. Since no low came in, I was kinda hoping he would put me on TJ (A long shot I know) and would be willing to fold some flukey 2 pairs (3s + 6s, 9s + 3s). But the possible missed flush draw on the board didn't help my cause and he snapped me off.

Losing Hand 6 - Set over set over set
Last hand!
This was abit of a cooler. I flopped bottom set and was against, not only top set but middle set too. The funny thing is, I had more equity in the hand than the middle set person due to my nut low draw.

Heres the graph of the awesome swings.

May Update

I apologise that I haven't updated in awhile. I would like to say that I've been busy but the truth is that I just didn't have anything to report. There have been a few changes to my poker game I'll like to report. For example I stopped playing PLO (With the exception of juicy HU PLO games) and I'm playing at 4 different poker sites simultaneously.

Oh I forgot to mention, I'm exclusively playing PLO8 nowadays. Once I feel that I've developed my skills in that game, I'll go back to PLO or another game.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long post so...lets get started:

Titan Poker (iPoker Network)

I already received my poker books from twoplustwo which were High-Low Split Poker by Ray Zee, Heads Up No-Limit Hold 'em by Collin Moshman and Poker Essays 1, 2 and 3 by Mason Malmuth. I've almost cleared the 1st deposit bonus but even after I clear it, I have a feeling I'll still play on this site. For some reason I really like the software and the play has been quite soft.

Here are my results so far from Titan Poker.

Haha! I'm such a luck-box-en, running above EV.

All of these numbers don't add up and I'm really not sure why. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm playing in 3 different currencies (£ Pounds, $ Dollars and € Euros) and as you can see from the above graph, I'm not doing so good in the Euro games but I'm doing ok in the others.

I've been on a downswing at the moment, why you might ask? Its probably because I'm shoving slight edges. I'll post some hand examples.

Titan Poker - Hand 1

Lets see:

I remember at the time I wish I'd raised preflop to knock out such a junky hand. So yeah, I flop top and bottom pairs, the nut flush draw and a mediocre backdoor low draw. Unfortunately my opponent had top 2 + the K flush draw with no possible low draw.

The opponent was pretty aggressive and I had a feeling he might be shipping it with an wrap + a minor flush draw and I was kind of hoping thats what he had. If he did have a hand such as A(JQ)9 then I would've been an almost 70% favourite. But as it turns out I was a 53% favorite but it wasn't enough to secure me the win. I kinda liked the turn as it gave me the low draw but the river counterfeited me, so sick.

Titan Poker - Hand 2

 Ah yes, this was a hand I wanted to get all in on the flop . I flopped a small flush draw + the nut low draw (with counterfeit protection). I think I chose to check raise preflop because this particular opponent was opening alot of pots with such junk (as with this hand (JQ)(3K) isn't such a great hand in PLO8). I think I played it fine up until the turn. Should I have folded the turn? I was getting better than 2:1  so if I thought my hand had better than 33% chance to win then I should've called. As it turned out, it was a borderline decision.

Titan Poker - Hand 3

My opponent made 3 huge mistakes in this hand.
1) Not reraising more preflop. I'll call that min reraise all day every day.
2) Not c-betting on the flop. A pair of Aces + the nut low/wheel draw is an awesome hand.
3) Donk pot betting the turn. really?.....seriously? I really dislike this play. I may have folded if I had for example a naked flush (with no low) or a set or a low draw that just got counterfeited but anything else, he was dead. I would've preferred a smaller bet + fold to a raise on his part.
I really had the feeling that we'll be splitting this pot when he pot bet the turn but I guess we didn't, I'm happy with the result.

Titan Poker - Hand 4

This hand was interesting, I remember that I was on tilt against this particular opponent. I'm not sure what he did but I think he made me fold the nut low on the river in a large multi-way pot where I would've won half.

Back to the hand, as sense came flooding back to me I'd already clicked pot on the river and just said "ah well, if he has me beat then good for him", I did have the jack blockers though which made it less likely he had made the straight. But no, he snap called with a pair of 9s maybe he thought he had the straight? or that I was bluffing such that his 9s were good?

888 Poker (Pacific Poker Network)

To be honest, I don't really like the 888 software. Some of the gimmicks they have for games are interesting until the novelty wears off. As soon as I finish the twoplustwo bonus, I don't think I'll be paying there that often.

Here are my results for 888:

AND.....again running above EV. As Jeff Hwang and Dan Deppen say, the expected values of hands run so closely in omaha that you're never going to be a huge favourite against another hand. So take whatever edges you can. This is especially true in PLO8 where its split between the high and the low.

I didn't realise that I'd been running so hot, Its only been 2 days in June and I've already made double of what I did in May LOL!

I'll put up some hand examples:

888 Poker - Hand 1

I did well to not bet in position on the flop, as I usually would have and thats probably what my opponent was hoping for. I decided to flat call the bet and raise on the turn as I had an open ended straight draw (on a rainbow board) and a good low draw.

PKgrower certainly did make a mistake in slow playing his top set in a multi-way pot. I suppose thats one problem with trying to play tricky.

888 Poker - Hand 2

The extra 3 in my hand pretty much hurts it, I would've preferred a 5 or another low card to protect it against being counterfeited. But I flopped the nut low draw/wheel draw and good flush draw.

Let's calculate my outs.
For Low: (9 cards)
Any of the 9 Low Cards (6c, 6s, 6d, 7c, 7s, 7d, 8c, 8s, 8d)

For High: (3 cards)
Any of the 3 Heart Card (9h, Th, Kh)

For Scoop: (7 cards)
Any 5 or Low Heart: (5h, 6h, 7h, 8h, 5c, 5d, 5s)

I had 19 cards to win at least half of the pot. Even against his set, I was 51% to win and considering how well I've been running, I hit a lovely 8 of hearts on the river to scoop the pot.

I think I'll finish off my post here. Theres only William Hill Poker (iPoker network) to report but that one isn't really that exciting. But for a quick summary, £35 initial deposit -----> £17. I lost half of my bankroll! lol

April Update

Pokertableratings.com (PTR) no longer supports PS! This is such a shame seeing as I used it frequently to check all sorts of stats. I did however manage to find some interesting information on there before they discontinued tracking PS hand histories.

According to PTR around mid-april, I was the 3rd biggest winner at $0.01/0.02 PLO with an impressive win rate of 21.15BB/100 hands. Its still missing about $150~ worth of winnings though.

What I don't understand though is the person below me played 42 hands and won $298. At the microstakes that is unbelievably crazy. Even if he did win 1 max buy in for every hand that he played (42x$5 = $210), he still wouldn't make how much he made. He must have been on some mad heater!

As far as April's results are concerned, I hadn't really put much volume into playing at PS and when I did play, it was usually just short sessions. I think thats maybe why my winnings aren't that high compared to other months. I'm also playing more and more PLO H/L or PLO8. I'm starting to really enjoy split pot games, they're fun to play and much more complex as opposed to their high-only counterparts.

I also started playing at Titan Poker, solely because I signed up with twoplustwo and if I manage to accumulate 1,250 Titan Points, I can get 5 free twoplustwo books. This is my main objective at the moment.

I've played about 1,000 hands of PLO and after some sick coolers and bad beats, I almost busted my bankroll. Afterwards, I decided to concentrate on PLO8 due to the split pot nature of the game and the huge amount of rake it can generate (rake = points). I've played about 3,000 hands of PLO8 and have managed to slip into a nice profit margin. I've made half of my target number of points so the books should be mine soon.

Tilty Session - Some NLH and PLO Hands

I just played a session of 5 PLO tables and 1 NLH table. I felt pretty tired but didn't feel like sleeping and had nothing else to do. I lost about 4Buy-ins (~$20), 1 Buy in at NLH and 3 in PLO. Even though I've lost more before, I felt this particular session I couldn't do anything right. In the end, I made alot of speculative calls and even more bizarre bets and raises.

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This is the hand that tilted me the most. It was on the NLH table I was playing and it reminded me of why I chose to focus on PLO rather than NLH.

A background of the players: Most of the players at the table played in a standard tight aggressive (TAG) fashion but with some easily recognisable leaks (As expected). There was however one ultra aggressive player who would make 50BB raises preflop into a 4BB pot and all sorts of other weird plays. He didn't really allow players to see many flops so I decided to wait for a premium hand. I picked up AA in the SB, as you can see below.

 After watching alot of poker videos on youtube. I decided to emulate the play of Chris Ferguson when he was playing in the million dollar cash game. The one where he raises with AA UTG and flat calls a 3-bet and Mike Matusow with QQ goes all in and he snap calls after the 3-bettor folds. Unfortunately in this case he didn't go all in but made a 3-Bet, I put in a 4th, him a 5th and finally me a final 6-Bet.

I did this because I felt that if I had 3-Bet in the SB then he would have just flat called and so would the button. But regardless of whether this was a bad decision, I still got more money in preflop. Looking back at the hand now though I think I could've 6-bet a little big bigger (not that he would've folded anyway)

I decided to check raise all in on the flop because I knew he wouldn't have been able to resist taking a stab at a nice looking pot regardless of what he had. I was hoping he was thinking I had AKs or a similar hand in my range which didn't connect with the flop.

Him on the other hand was looser than my ex-girlfriend and more aggressive than Isildur1. I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up with 27o in that spot.

When his hand was revealed it was... lol wut J4o. I was pretty confident but obviously PS had other plans with my 95%~ hand. Runner, runner straight. Ughhh... I felt pretty sick but in a weird way, I was happy. I knew once in a while the 5% would win. It still tilted me slightly though.

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The next hand, It wasn't a big pot nor was I a massive favourite (~65%) but it was the hand which made me remember why I dislike NLH.

I picked up on the fact that he was shoving wide after a couple of the other players kept using him as an ATM. I decided that if I was going to play a hand, I had to be prepared to call an all in. A6s was miles ahead of anything he was shoving in my mind.

But still... J3o? Seriously? and to hit a Jack on the flop. He obviously lost his stack after that but decided not to reload. I lost my chance to withdraw from the bank of donkeytown.

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I'll move on to some of the PLO hands I played.

The first hand was 3/4 through the session.

The SB decides to pot 3-Bet my initial raise. This to me at this level screamed out AAXX, what the other 2 cards were, I had no idea. I decided to call because I hate folding to 3-bets even if my hand was abit speculative.

I flopped a nice looking wrap and a backdoor flush draw. There wasn't really any point in calling since he was so short stacked at that point after betting pot and making it clear he was pot committed. If he did indeed have naked aces, I would've been about a 60% favourite. I had 20 immediate outs if he did have naked aces, any 7, 8, J, Q or K would have won it for me. Of course there are other runner runner possibilities, 2 pairs, trips, flush etc

If by some chance he did have a hand like KQJTds I would have been in ALOT of trouble and would have had only 4 nut outs (4 7s).

His hand however was a sexy looking AAJQds which was bad news as he had a similar straight draw as me. 

According to these odds. We were splitting the pot about 25% of the time and I only had about 28% to win (Backdoor flush, running 6s, any 7 or any Q).

As it was, the turn and the river were in the hands of the poker gods and in the theme of tonight's session, I missed my draws. Nothing I can do about it but concentrate on the other hands.

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The 2nd and last PLO was very interesting after analysing it later. It was practically one of the last hands I played for the session as it made me realise that I wouldn't be able to hit ANY draws no matter what. Its just one of those nights.


While playing PLO and reading strategy books. I've always known that a 4 card wrap was a slight favourite over a set on the flop, add a flush draw and practically its a bad beat if you lose. This next hand however taught me something else.

What it taught me was top set + a flush draw is a favourite against the nut straight on the flop. At the time, I thought I was a slight underdog but I was tilting abit and hadn't flopped anything good in awhile, so I got pretty excited with my hand and what I flopped.

In this case:
Tilt + wrong decision = right decision + bad outcome

Heres the hand:

When my opponent check raises me on the flop, it instantly tells me he has a straight. Most players at this level aren't tricky enough to check raise on lock-down boards without the goods.

Two thoughts were going through my head when he raised.
1) I could simply call his raise and try to hit one of my 16 outs or 3 for a chop but I simply don't have the patience to get to the river and fold when I miss everything.
2) I wonder, would he really get all the money in on the flop with the nut straight without a re-draw???? I know I wouldn't, I hate being freerolled.

From this, I concluded he must have at least 2 of my flush outs as well at least one of my chop outs.

As it turns out, the only reason he was confident his hand was best at the flop was because he had the T blockers and with only two Ts left, its much less likely for me to have one for the same straight.

I had 14 outs (1A, 3K, 2Q and 8 Clubs) on the flop and 2 for a chop. On the turn if I didn't make my hand, the number of outs would've gone up to 17 (If it wasn't a 9 or a J).

According to these odds, I was a 60% favourite on the flop with about 6% to chop the pot. Whereas my opponent was only 34% to win.

Eventhough I was only a slight favourite, it still boggles my mind that I was ahead. I know the stuff about the rule of 4 and 2 when it comes to calculating your outs and what percentage of the time you'll hit on the turn or river but still.

I still haven't slept so maybe this is the reason why my mind is retardedly slow in comprehending this concept.

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I'll just leave this following example for your viewing pleasure and if you do decide to play PLO then remember one of the most important things to know:

Sometimes, the best hand isn't always the best hand!

Swingy March

March! What can I say about March? It was an exciting month, not only in terms of Poker but in my private life too.

Whenever I can, I work as an extra in movies,TV Shows and commercials. The payments for these jobs can take up to 4/6 weeks but for one of my jobs, its been about 3 months. This sucks MAJOR balls! I'm running out of money so I decided to withdraw $200 from my PS account.

As soon as I withdrew, I had about $40 left! and 4 tabling $0.01/$0.02 with max buy ins ($20). I had half of my bankroll on the table! That is such bad bankroll management and I do not recommend it but screw it, I didn't have much choice unless I wanted to play less tables. I played my usual game and now my PS bankroll currently sits at $85.

 PokerStars MicroMillions Tournaments


March was also a great month for micro stakes tournament grinders. Pokerstars hosted a series of (100) tournaments with small buy-ins but with huge guaranteed prizes. I choose to play in a number of these tournaments even though I hadn't played many tournaments recently.

Prior to the Micromillions (MM), my biggest score in a poker tournament was $20 in a razz tournament (7th) and my highest finish was 3rd in a PLO tournament. These were both on FTP about 2 years ago and were both freerolls. The razz tournament was a WSOP special freeroll and the PLO tournament was a regular freeroll with 7,500 participants.

I initially wanted to play in 57 of these events but ended up playing in only 5. This is because the tournaments I wanted to play in (mostly non-NLH) were running at such awkward times and for the most part, I was sleeping through them!

Micromillions -01: $0.11+R NL Hold'em [6-Max, Turbo, Rebuy Madness], $25K Gtd
I busted out in 1,931 out of 71,420. It was a pretty deep finish. Unfortunately with the extremely tiny buy-in, the payout wasn't as much as I wanted. I received $8.07 for my 1931st place finish! Its pretty terrible for 3-4 hours of playing but hey, its still about 8000% of the buy in.

 I think I played pretty solid until my final hand. I had AJo in early position and made my usual 2.5xBB raise. SB 3-Bet me (which he did often). I thought about it for awhile and I wanted to fold but because I hadn't 4-Bet before, I thought that I would get more credit for having a big hand. With this read-dependent fold equity and the fact that we were about even stacks. I decided to 4-Bet to about x2.25~ of their 3-Bet amount. It didn't work, they tanked and decided to shove. I was pot committed and called. They tabled AKo and Bam! Just like that, I was out and had a huge dislike for AJo.

Micromillions -02 $1+R NL Hold'em [3xTurbo]. $75K Gtd (30,372/44,741)
Micromillions -12 $1+R NL Hold'em [3xTurbo]. $75K Gtd (16,511/2,8185)

I'll group these 2 tournaments together because well.... to be honest, I didn't cash and I only remember what happened in one of them although I'm not sure which one. 


This hyper aggressive omega class super fish was open shoving every hand! When he busted, he just re-brought and kept re-shoving. This is so hard to play against when you don't pick up any hands. So I waited for a premium hand and for them to give me their stack. I picked up AKo in early position, I made my standard raise and them, like clockwork shoved for 3000 in a pot containing ~100 chips. I instantly called and they showed 59s. They hit a 5 on the river without me hitting anything and just like that, I was out, I was annoyed but hey, its poker and if the fish don't win once in awhile then there wouldn't be any ;)

Micromillions -04 $3.30+R PL Omaha [6xMax]. $25K Gtd (4,433/6,936)

This is the only Omaha tournament I played in. I think I played well... apparently, not well enough. All in all, final hand. I got most of my chips in the pot with AAJ4s and had less than a pot size bet on the flop of T73 rainbow. I shoved and they called with KKQTs, they called and hit a Q on the turn.

Micromillions -34 $5.50 NL Hold'em [Knockout, Turbo, Pro Special]. $25K Gtd (4,875/26,439)

I had a free ticket for this tournament for a small deposit on PS. I think the amount was something like $30 and you get a free ticket for a $5.50 tournament. You received $1 for everybody you knockout except Pros for which you received $50. I never had any pros at my table but I did manage to bust one person. That's it really. I had about 4M on the button with JQo, it was folded around to me so I shoved all in on the SB and BB who both had similar stacks to me. BB Picked up a real hand and called with AKo. Nothing hit, Out. But I was happy with my play.

Micromillions 50K Gtd Freeroll

I didn't realise I qualified for this tournament, heck I didn't even remember they had this promotion. But I got an E-mail from PS and because I had played in at least 5 MM tournaments I got a free ticket to enter this tournament.

I think I played awesome and of course with tournaments, getting lucky in the right spots. I finished in 228/26,500 for a win of $20.50! my highest in any poker tournament! :D

Theres not much to say about the final hand. I lost a coin flip (66>AQo) all in preflop on the previous hand and had about 2BB left. I got it in with A6o and lost to QQ. Not much of a bad beat but it would have been nice if I could've sucked out.

The March Grind

Anyway, back to March. It has been one of the most swing-est months while playing poker. It was pretty sick but I stayed focused and concentrated on the hands. Heres a graph of March

PS also launched Zoom poker. This is similar to FTP's Rush poker. I was kinda addicted to Rush poker, I remember once I lost $50 while trying to get enough Full Tilt Points to achieve their Rush week's silver $50 cash bonus haha..I did manage to persevere though and I did get my money back. Anyway, back to March's winnings.

I managed to make $113 but considering the intersecting dance the Amount won and EV lines are doing in the above graph, I think it was an okay month. Plus the amount I won in tournaments which haven't been added here.

 So now comes the April grind!