***** Hand History for Game 40737021585 ***** (Merge)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, September 18, 08:26:58 ET 2011
Table Waimea Bay (40737021) (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: ArtVandelay4 ( $25.00 USD )
Seat 2: Badidy ( $39.35 USD )
Seat 3: KimJongIllIn ( $15.00 USD )
Seat 4: pound190 ( $72.18 USD )
Seat 5: MDoranD ( $66.92 USD )
Seat 6: BaTiSi3O9 ( $31.88 USD )
MDoranD posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
BaTiSi3O9 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
ArtVandelay4 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MDoranD [ 5h 5d ]
ArtVandelay4 checks
Badidy folds
pound190 folds
MDoranD calls [$0.25 USD]
BaTiSi3O9 checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, 7s, 4s ]
MDoranD bets [$1.00 USD]
BaTiSi3O9 calls [$1.00 USD]
ArtVandelay4 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
MDoranD bets [$2.00 USD]
BaTiSi3O9 calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ad ]
MDoranD checks
BaTiSi3O9 bets [$5.00 USD]
MDoranD calls [$5.00 USD]
BaTiSi3O9 shows [4h, 2s ]
MDoranD shows [5h, 5d ]
MDoranD wins $16.63 USD from main pot


Might have to frame this one on the wall next to my PC :) even better Ill put it on the Christmas cards this year in lieu of a family pic.

Whats up guys! I wanted to update everyone on my poker and also where I'm at coaching wise. As my last blog indicates, I've been steady grinding on Lock Poker since a few weeks after Black Friday. During this time, I hit the biggest EV downswing of my poker career. As of today I'm 40 buyins under EV on Lock. Yes, 40 lol. That said, i've learned a lot about poker and myself while going through this epic yet hopefully once in a lifetime negative variance ride. I feel like I'm coming out of this a much stronger player. I am very proud to say that despite being 40 buyins under EV I'm still showing a solid win and winrate at Lock overall.

Also, I've decided to take on 1 to 2 more students for personal coaching. In order to vet myself to anyone interested, heres my cumulative graphs courtesy of PTR. First, the vast majority of my hands played the last year or two on Stars:



And of course my recently tracked hands on the Merge network:



The super vast majority of all these hands and winnings come from 50nl and below.

I've been coaching on the side now for at least the last 14 months or so. I'm currently charging $45 per hourly session or $200 for a package deal of 5 sessions which includes a HEM review of your last (up to) 50k hands. IMO you cant find a better deal anywhere on the internet if you play anywhere from 2nl to 50nl. Payment at this time MUST be done through PayPal transfer, and I will eat any charges that stem from PayPal.

PM me if you're interested in coaching. References from current and former students can be provided upon request! Thanks for all the nice comments and ratings on my vids guys, I truly appreciate it.

The damn site is rigged as hell.

Im officially 21 buyins under EV in 23k hands. This is all 25nl:










Did I mention this all took place in ~8 days. FML.

I just want to say it takes enormous f*%$ing poise to break even while running so G&#^D%M) poorly IMO. I should get a lsdkfh award or something. Im going to find Mr. Lock or whoever owns this site and go take a crap in his mailbox.

Hey guys,

Are you able to play poker right now? If so, you can help me. I had planned for my monthly video to be another live play vid since many seem to like them...however, Black Friday made it so i cannot sit down and record anything! So here's the deal...If you play 50nl or lower 6 max stakes and would like me to do a leakfinder on your game, I need a member to shoot a vid of themselves playing.

Lets call it 4 tables for 40 minutes? That should give us enough to talk about hopefully. No audio required, just you playing.

Just reply here if you could make the vid in the next week, along with a short description of where your game is right now and what stakes you play and I will pick someone in the next few days from anyone who responds and PM you with what to do from here. Thanks to anyone who responds.


Also, as someone who has made a living for the last few years playing micro to small stake poker, the loss of even a week of play is a substantial loss for me. Im looking to make up for this loss by offering a discounted rate off of my normal coaching rates. For those that are interested, I will offer coaching at $45 an hour (10% off current rate) and even better than that for a larger package of hours. Please PM for details. Payment will have to be done through Paypal or similar site.

Good luck to anyone affected by this terrible temporary travesty.

Hey guys. Over the last year or so ive spent a lot of time thinking about my play from the blinds. I thought that i was losing way too much from these positions and made a concerted effort, with some others (friends and students), to improve.


The first task was trying to figure out what was a good goal to set. With all the info about poker out here, there really isnt a ton of discussion about what qualifies as a good or successful winrate from the blinds. The little I was able to find online combined with what what I came up with by looking at quite a few players different winrates is below (as i talked about in my last video):


From the SB: -15bb/100
From the BB: -30bb/100


Getting better in our blind play is super-duper important. Firstly, most of us that frequent sites like 2p2 or CR are going to be long term winners from the other 4 non-blind positions. Thats the easy part. However when we subtract our losses from the blinds many people become breakeven or losing players overall. Thus the ability to curtail losses from the blinds is essential to being a long term winner.


The second task was identifying where the leaks were and then fixing them. (I.e. the hard part) I noticed that many people dont have set plans or ranges for blind vs blind play. This is the next area I wanted to concentrate on. In my large database, right around 33% of the time when I was in the SB it folded to me. 1 out of 3 times! That sounds like a lot of free money to fight over between 2 players. So damn, if we can be somewhat more competent in this area we can have access to a lot of nearly free money. I played with tons of ranges in HEM to see what was working, and what wasn't. I thought about what player types tended to fold and which ones didnt and adjusted some for that.


Of course we also have to think about our BvB play when it folds to the SB and we are in the BB. Many players dont play well in this spot. Many defend too wide, or not wide enough. The keys I found to BB play here is to plan the hand based on villain tendencies, the strength of my hand, and the flopability of my hand. Many SB's dont have a plan past C-Betting the flop, so I took into account what hands I should continue with by floating and which ones to raise with based on that knowledge.

Then it comes down to which hands to 3 bet vs people outside the blinds, which hands can be profitable to flat with vs. a late position raise (hint: not that many and for most people not as many as you think), and making some subtle changes to my play in limped pots from the blinds.

The end result is I feel like I have a much better understanding of what I should be doing from the blinds, and I feel much more confident in my plan for most hands. Steady and ongoing work though will be required in order to maintain this, of course!

So with all that said, here's my recent results, shown by positional winrates. This screenshot is of my last 120k hands of 25nl 6 max.





As you can see above, I'm incredibly happy with my SB results, and pretty darn happy with my BB results. If i can continue with this pace of winrate from the blinds, needless to say, I'd be ecstatic. More updates soon guys.

OK so with my new vid coming out tonight I realized I hadn't updated the ol' blog in a bit with some results. So without further ado!

My 25nl results since Jan 13th, about 90k hands:




Another vid due out in March so let me know what you think of this one or what u want me to talk about on the next one. Thanks guys!

I hit a wall yesterday while playing where I couldnt win a hand it seemed. I decided to try to play out of it if i could seeing as I didnt feel tilted. Long day, but heres the results:





Sometimes days like these feel as good as a big winning session :)

Oh and BTW guys, look for me on FTP at table "MDoranD". I've been playing a little bit there each day just because well, its pretty damn cool to have a table named for me. Come play if you want and we will all learn and get better.

Since Im not in school anymore and many of you college guys are taking finals now, I thought it would only be appropriate to post my PTR 25nl Report Card.





Maybe the woman will hang it on the fridge next to the kids real ones :)

Marvak7!! Marvak will be submitting me a vid along with his recent database of hands for the Leakfinder. I'm excited about it!

Here's a link to the thread in the 50nl and below forum if you want to see more about it:

http://www.cardrunners.com/cr_forums/showthread.php?93541-POST-HERE-to-enter-the-MDoranD-LEAKFINDER-PART-2

Ill update when its finished. Congrats again Marvak7!

That's right! I'll be doing another contest where the winner gets a leakfinder vid done by me and produced by CR. Responses and views from the first vid we did for Part 1 winner CR member "Teamwillow" was a good success, so we are bringing it back and hopefully doing them more frequently to help our small stakes CR members!

Qualifications are just as before and just as easy! If you are a CR member and your regular game is 50nl 6 max or below and you are interested, simply (1)post in this thread linked HERE : that you would like to be entered into the drawing, and (2) also make sure you post at least one hand in the micro forum (during the qualification period) here on CR that you would like some feedback on. That's it!

The entry period is from RIGHT NOW till November 30th 2010 @ 11:59 PM EST.

As an extra bonus for this vid, if the winner has HEM and wants me to review their recent database as part of the Leakfinder, then I will have them ship me their hands and add that into it. Either way it should be really good IMO.

Thanks for all the positive remarks you guys gave I really appreciate it. LETS DO THIS