Today it finally happened. After 150k hands of hold 'em. I dont even know what to say, the emotions are pressing on.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: micula213 ($100) -
Seat 2: PADDLENUT ($78.45) -
Seat 3: VonKelmi ($119.50) -
Seat 4: Ahora ($54.50)
Seat 5: cougrrrr ($139.75)
Seat 6: Sharagoz ($101)


PRE-FLOP:

PADDLENUT posts small blind $0.50
VonKelmi posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: Sharagoz


FOLD Ahora
FOLD cougrrrr
RAISE Sharagoz ($4)
FOLD micula213
FOLD PADDLENUT
CALL VonKelmi ($3)


FLOP:

Pot: $8.5


CHECK VonKelmi
BET Sharagoz ($6)
CALL VonKelmi ($6)


TURN:

Pot: $20.5


CHECK VonKelmi
BET Sharagoz ($16)
RAISE VonKelmi ($40)
RAISE Sharagoz ($91)
CALL VonKelmi ($51)


RIVER:

Pot: $218.5




SHOWDOWN:
VonKelmi:

Sharagoz:


Sharagoz collected $199.5 from main pot




My first one outer!
A month ago I flopped my first royal flush. I've almost done it all now, the only thing Im missing is getting quads cracked / cracking them.

On High Stakes Poker season 3 (I think), Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu played a 600k pot that didnt matter. At the time it was the largest cash game pot ever shown on television. Its quite a paradox and one of the biggest paradoxes in no limit hold em: Huge pots that makes no difference.

If you're a NLHE player you regularily play big pots that doesnt matter. The most common example is AA vs KK. You get delt AA and all the money goes in pre flop. Your opponents has KK. Usually you'll win a 200bb pot; great, but it doesnt really matter.
The reason it doesnt matter is because the same thing would have happened if the cards were switched. Its a cooler and coolers makes no difference in the long run. They average out. You'll be on the cold side your share of the time, and on the hot side your share of the time. In the end the result will be zero. "No brainers are no gainers".

The only pots that matter are the ones where the players are put to real decisions and in coolers nobody makes any real decision. All the money is going in, the only question is how. This concept does not only apply coolers, but to all hands that would have played out the same had the cards of you and your opponent been switched. Your profit or loss comes from hands that would have played out different had the situations been switched.

Realizing this had made me care a lot less about coolers. In the old days whenever I was delt aces I was always hoping one of my opponents would have kings so I would be a big favorite to stack him. Nowadays Im hoping he'll be delt something that is gonna put him to tought decisions. Like pocket tens or maybe AQ on a KQx board.
Its the tough decisions that matter the most. Decisions where people risk making big mistakes. Im hoping for tough decisions both for me and for my opponents when I play a hand with them. Its what will seperate us in the long run.

I recomend this excelent article for more on this:
Reciprocality: The Cause of Profit at Poker by Tommy Angelo
http://www.tommyangelo.com/articles/reciprocality.htm

This is my first blog. Im starting it mostly for my own sake because I never really talk much about poker with anybody. I think a lot about poker though, so much that it almost scary in fact, but I never really talk to anybody else about it. The reason for this is that I dont know anybody in real life that is serious about playing poker. Some of my friends do play, but they're just recreational players who play purely for fun, and they dont study the game like I do. If I talk to them about poker, they usually just want to share bad beat stories. Not very rewarding. The few times I've talked about poker to people who doesnt play it always ends up with them asking a lot about how much money I've made, what the biggest pot I've played is, etc. I dont really want to talk about that either, because they'll probably get the wrong idea if I give them the numbers.
The only poker discussions I've taken part of so far are mostly hand discussions on the 2p2 forums. Extremly valuable for my game, but sometimes I just want to ramble on about random ideas and thoughts I have regarding poker, and 2p2 is definatly not the place for that. From now on I'll use this blog for that. I think it will be a relief.
I'll be writing about how Im doing at the tables, some thoughts I have on poker, and probably a hand or two every now and then when something interesting comes up.

For this first entry Im not gonna write about my poker life though. Im gonna use it to thank cardrunners for helping me so much with improving my game.
I got to know about cardrunners through cardplayer TV. CR has a content share deal with them, and send some 10-15min vids every now and then that are posted on CP's site and viewalbe for free.
I was a winning player before I got to know about cardrunners, but just watching their vids on CP changed everything. There was a drastic improvement in my game just from watching a few of those 15 min vids. I discovered a major leak in my game, which was way too low pre flop and flop aggression. After I realized how much this had helped me I signed up as soon as I got the dough, and I definatly dont regeret that. I've only been a member for a month but it feels like its ages ago when I think about how much my game has changed. The price is a bargain for any half serious poker player and the idea is brilliant. How much would you have to pay to get private lessions from a poker pro? I know Tony Angelo charges 8k for a 4 day program, and 200 bucks pr hour after that. Spend 200 bucks on CR and you got 300 hours of lectures from some of the best in the online poker world, viewable whenever you like the next 6 months. The only difference is that CR is one way communication, but the value of it is still extremly high.

Cardrunners has been the reason behind the biggest improvement in my game since I first read super system. I dont consider SS the best poker book, but since it was the first poker book I ever read it was the one who changed the way I thought about the game and made me realize how complex this card game is and how much strategy there is to it. With SS my game had a revolution. Since then it has been a slow evolution, but now with CR I've had a 2nd revolution.
Thanks to Taylor and Andrew for starting this, and thanks to the other pros for their excelent contributions. I wont be canceling my subscription anytime soon.

Hand of the day
This one came up at pokerstars NL100 today. I was not involved in the hand, just watching as it happened. I dont have the hand history on this computer so Im just gonna write it from recall. Im pretty sure I got all the important details right.
Its folded around to Player 1 on the BTN who makes a standard open of 4. SB folds, Player 2 defends from BB. Their effective stacks are 80bb. The flop comes ATT twotone. BB checks, BTN bets 6 into the 8.5 pot, BB calls. The turn is another ace, BB checks, BTN checks. River is an off suit 2. The board is now AATT2. BB checks, BTN bets 50 into the 18 pot, BB thinks for about 2 seconds and calls. BTN turns over KJ, BB folds 33.
Thats right, BB called off his whole stack not even able to beat air. Pocket 3's are actually the nut low in this situation, and the best he can hope for is to tie if his opponent has 23 or 33. The chance of that are viritualy non existent.
I have no idea what the BTN was doing, if he made a value bet or if he was bluffing. Maybe he was value bluffing. Either way it worked out pretty well.
Got to love NL100.