Inspired by a thread in the PLO forum about possible collusion, I thought I'd relate a fun little story involving live collusion.

This happened at the gutshot in london about 2 years ago, £1-2 PLHE.

Obviously, no-one likes being colluded against. If they're good at it, it's difficult to prove. Sometimes even when they're bad at it. Sometimes, though, you can use this information to your advantage, if they don't know you know. This was one of those spots.

So, 2 vietnamese guys were playing on my table. One two to my right, one 4 to my left. They'd been talking in vietnamese a lot, but being careful to stop as soon as a card got dealt. That's not enough to make me suspicious - in a city like london, you'd get suspicious all the time. The problem was, they were getting involved plenty. Not just not avoiding each other, but rather getting involved in multiway pots and trying to push other people off hands. You know the score - you call one raise, then you face a reraise behind you, and the original raiser 4bets, and you can't call unless you've got the nuts. Once, fine, but it happened 3 or 4 times over a few hours.

I didn't really have enough evidence to alert the floorman, and I probably should have got up. But I'm an action junkie. And these guys were terrible.

So. Preflop, I'm in the cutoff with 78s, and vietnamese 1 (V1) makes it £7. I call, and V2 calls in the BB. The flop comes T75 rainbow, V1 bets £10, I call, V2 calls. The turn is another 7, whoopdedoo, and they both check to me, so I fire out a £40 valuebet. They both call. The river is a 4 that completes a runner runner flush, and again they both check to me, so I fire another valuebet of £100. Now V2 decides to checkraise all-in to £330, and V1 superturboinstasupersnapcalls for his last £150. Under normal circumstances, I'd just fold here - the oesd on the flop got there, the running flush got there, I could have been behind all the time.... but something didn't add up, and I strongly suspected these guys of colluding. I have to call £230 for £750, ok odds. I took my time and ended up making the river call, forcing both to show their hands: T5 for counterfeited flopped top and bottom, and QQ from the preflop raiser.

Of course, it's entirely possible they were just huge donks, but that doesn't make for quite as good a story as winning a £1k pot and busting two colluders at once. They both upped and left after the hand and I don't think they've been seen back since.

Good times!

And if the story doesn't entertain, here, have a picture of a hot ginger.

Blog entry proper coming soon.

$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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$3/$6 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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Playing live as well, like 7 hours/day at the moment.

It's going great, tbh, I'm running hot, but playing better than I have ever done live, and I can only see myself improving.

I want to do a long post but I'm perpetually shattered at the moment and can't find time. I've only done like 5k hands online in june at most.

I'm not doing too great live in 2008, a lot of that is due to game selection getting tougher, but I certainly haven't been playing as well as in the past. That said, I've undertaken a large-scale plan to improve. Tilt isn't a huge problem for me but I've no doubt that I could have saved myself at least £1k if I'd just been in a better frame of mind, but then again telling yourself 'don't tilt' typically doesn't work that well. As per some Tommy Angelo wisdom I've been working on two things in the last week: regularity in the way I handle my chips, and quitting decisions.

The first seems like a really small, unimportant thing, but it's really helping. Previously I gave off the tell of betting at an angle to the felt when I was bluffing and straight towards the pot when I have a hand. This new way, every time I put any money into a pot of any significance, once I've decided whether I'm calling or how much I'm betting/raising, it looks exactly the same. Hand on stack, count out chips, pause, push them over the line. I've pretty much got that down, now. The thing is, having to focus on one small thing (and making sure you don't forget) helps in other regards as well. I'm now as focussed as I can be when I'm in a hand and much more focussed than previously when I'm not involved. Picking up tells on other people, vital information, and I'm 100% sure that no-one has been able to get any tells from me.

In terms of quitting, usually I leave a game when I run out of money or the game breaks. Sometimes I made good quits but largely I'd grind, grind, grind, get sucked out on, tilt, do my money, order a taxi. My roll is short (mostly invested in a great PLO horse on stars, otherwise invested in roulette - do ask) and that hasn't helped, but I still felt good about quitting last night and tonight. Last night I was grinding the PLO table and doing well when I realized that there was basically no value on the table, maybe one loose-passive chaser who happened to be deep and to my right but I wasn't sure whether the other guys at the table were going to make up the £12/hour extortion at the Vic. So I upped and left. Tonight my target left, I had a solid LAG directly on my left, and I'd had a nice win, so no real reason to stay. I could have left a couple of hours earlier when I had just been coolered twice against the same loose-passive OAP 'rock', but after a smoke and a quick break, I collected myself and played some damn good poker.

One thing that's REALLY empowering in live poker. No matter what you have, who's supposed to show down first, whenever you can, turn over your hand. Like, Danny moves all-in on the flop, you call, flip immediately. You have the nuts on the river and have just called a shove, insta-table. Huge bluff on the river, called, SUPERSNAP-table. It works even better when you have a solid image. The look of amazement on their faces when you brazenly, shamelessly turn over a complete bluff, their first thoughts clearly that they've misread your hand or the board, looking back, looking back at their hand, then sighing relief when they realize they've won and they table their hand. All the meantime I'm just sitting there not giving a fuck. Next time, when you instatable your nuts, the same thoughts go through their heads, and they're utterly confused. It really gives you a sense of power that may not have any tangible, quantifiable profit, but it's just one of those small things that can really help you feel comfortable and powerful at any table.

These are mostly Tommy Angelo wisdoms - my mate currylover has been trying to help me with my live game but I've been away in the clouds, believing I can coast on my technical skills, not realizing that in live poker the other stuff counts for more. So it's starting to sink in. And I've got high hopes for the future - I can feel my game and my focus improving signficantly and it's not too much of a leap of faith to imagine being properly rolled for my live game of choice and firing rape and pillage all over those suckers.

If my blog's not entertaining enough, have a picture of Megan Fox, and fapfapfap.

20 euros unlimited rebuy (no vig) PLO on T6, starting in 25 minutes.... should be a laugh. The best thing is, I know all my opponents are good, i.e. they'll respect my raises, so I can play like a maniac like I did last time. Handed out a few bad beats and then had my sojourn ended by one, but lots of fun whatever happens.

See you guys down there! forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php

I've been having some personal problems recently, including breaking up with the girlfriend and being asked to leave my house, but it looks like I'm over the worst. If anything I'm in a good mood at the moment, despite all the shit that appears to be piling on top of me, but I have certain issues that need resolving if I'm going to become a happy, successful adult, so I've booked a consultation with a psychotherapist for friday.

So, what's new? I'm hoping to get myself another live staker, for one thing. My last one didn't go so well, ran incredibly badly and lost £3k over a 2 month period, like 45 hours of play at £1-2. Probably a little bad play as well but I wasn't really tilting and live players are generally awful. I mean, I'm sure I give off some tells, but not that much, maybe a few experienced live players will be able to look at me and instantly know whether I'm weak or strong but I'm pretty confident few others can. In any case, even if I'm giving off signals, live players generally play so badly that I've still got a decent edge. And I'm just now starting to get a good inkling of when other people are weak or strong. It's easier for new players, just looking at their hands and the way they handle their chips is immediately giving me a strong sense of what kind of hand they have. Soon I'll finish the Joe Navarro book and maybe I can find another live edge.

I'm playing lots at the moment, trying to put in the hard hours. Easier since my girlfriend and I split up. I'm also quite comfortable now with 7-8 tables, where previously I tried to limit myself to 4 or 5. I'm coming to terms with the fact that there's not a huge amount of point to putting hard hours in midweek as the donks just aren't there. I'm happy to beat up on the regs, but sometimes some of them beat up on me, and we're just passing money around. I'm sure I've got an edge, but is it enough to justify the hard work? I'm not so sure.

My new video... the last time I tried, I was in a mire of depression, and I wasn't playing great. You know, when you have something important to do, but self-doubt creeps in, so you put it off. There's also the added pressure of my last vid being so well-received that my next is expected to be just as good. I'm always paranoid about being caught out as a fraud for whatever reason, even though I know it's ridiculous. I've tried maybe 5 times now? Got a whole page of A4 full of notes and plans for it, but everytime I've tried something goes wrong. I'll try again this week - don't want to make promises I can't keep so I won't, but hopefully it'll be done by friday.

My favourite author is Kurt Vonnegut. You may have heard of Slaughterhouse Five, if you're well-read, or if you ever watched that POS Colin Farrell/Al Pacino film 'The Recruit' you may get the reference to ice-9 from 'Cat's Cradle'. Both excellent books. I've got most of his work now, my favourite is probably 'The Sirens of Titan', a sort of time-travelling, moralistic, philosophic story, with the same 'Vonnegutian' (I love that this is an accepted word now) undertones of pointlessness and the feeling of 'enjoy the moment coz everyone's gonna die at some point.' For the same reasons, I guess, that I like Kafka, Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk. In any case - excuse my ramble - the last two books by Vonnegut that I've read recently were 'Deadeye Dick' and 'Player Piano'. The latter I couldn't finish, I got bored waiting for something to happen. The former, well, it was an enjoyable read, but there just didn't feel like there was any point to it. He's still my favourite author, and he's turned me from my middle-class conservative roots to a full-on left-wing liberal. Other than Sirens of Titan, if you want to read some of his work, I'd suggest 'Mother Night', 'Breakfast of Champions' (made into an early 90s film with Bruce Willis zomg) and I believe the last book before he died last year, 'A man without a country'. He also wrote the short story I always reference if I want to appear sweet, sensitive and romantic to a girl - trust me boys, it works without fail - in his compendium of short stories 'Welcome to the monkey house'.

The book I've just started tonight looks very good. It's called ' L.A. Diaries' by James Brown, all about addiction and self-destructive behaviour. Recommended to me by LuckyJimm, if you guys know who that is. I'm already about a quarter of the way through and it's excellent. If you've ever struggled with addiction of any sort, struggle with personal demons and self-destructive behaviour - which I guess covers 99.9% of us - you'll find some sort of resonance in this book.

Thanks, btw, to Ezra, who's helped me to appear in print in I believe next months' edition of PokerPlayerUK.

So, you've got this far, and stayed the course. It's only right that I reward you with some juicy strat.

First, I'll post a hand I played in an NLHE tournament earlier this week, just to convince any of you who railed me going deep in the FTOPS $1.5M guaranteed that I'm really not a great tournament player:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$17500 Guarantee
9 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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My thoughts? He has 89/68/46 here about 5% of the time in total, AJ another 5% roughly, and a house of some description the rest, maybe 5% he might turn up with QQ or something. This is completely readless, btw. Feel free to rubbish my skills.

Onto some juicy PLO.

$2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


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I don't think I ever play hands that are all of the same suit. 3.3-1 or whatever he's getting isn't enough, I think I'd need about 15-1 to play this hand. But, villain is bad, and we have to be glad for villains to make what we call 'composite mistakes', where an error on an earlier street means that you're fighting uphill in the rest of the hand. Villain actually proceeds to play the rest of the hand perfectly, but still loses. Why? Well, partially bad luck that I hit on the river (even though he only has 55% equity), but if he folds preflop he doesn't find himself in this mess. Check-calling with a wrap on a flushing board is pretty standard - the straight draw is the flush draws best friend, as they say. You are, in fact, allowed to fold this, but I'm loose and aggro on all streets and he knows that he will get paid off if he hits. The turn fills his nut straight, and he's right to lead out - it looks like a stop-and-go on his part, and certainly a move he would make with, for example, two pair, a gutshot, and the nut flush draw, and he would have decent equity with this hand anyway. Unfortunately, when you flop a set and a flush draw, a wrap (especially an inside wrap) is a massive dog, and even when he hits his hand, he now has to fade the board pairing and the flush, not to mention my split outs with a ten. From my point of view, my turn all-in is representative of the fact that villain is perfectly capable of making a move with a big draw and some sort of made hand that I beat. With a set and a flush draw on the flop, I could slowplay, but I have neither top set nor the nut flush draw, and there are worse draws to charge in any case, and betting is the only way to win a big pot.

I'm gonna make sure I include at least one interesting hand history with commentary with every blog post. I must apologize for not having done a blog post in almost a month. A lot of apologizing going on. Really, I'm truly sorry.

One thing that made me laugh today at the tables. I raise preflop with AAxx; bad villain reraises; shortstack goes all-in. Two solid players in the blinds both overcall. It gets back to me and I know that bad villain likes to gamble preflop, so I re-open the betting with a CiB. He shoves. Both solid players take a while to muck their hands, obviously I call and the board blanks and I take down a 250BB pot or something. Both the solid players were demanding that I thank them for folding! They folded a TJQKds and a 5678ds and I would have finished third in the hand. I mean, I can't help but laugh at the fact they expected me to thank them for folding. Sorry for the meh anecdote but it just made me laugh.

Final note - a couple of us 2+2ers have started a PLO-specific site that merits a plug here. It's not much at the moment, it's just basically a social networking platform, but it's going to be huge in the coming months. Ideas are whizzing around and we're getting Bob Ciaffone and Stewart Reuben onboard, and Gus Hansen sounds like he's interested. Expect big things to come; get in on the ground floor: www.plomaha.com

Wazz

Forgot the most important detail! On thursday night at 10PM GMT (5 ET), I'm co-hosting a 25 euro rebuy (1 add-on or rebuy) on t6 with blopp from 2+2 - forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php. 2nd place gets an hour of coaching from blopp, 1st gets an hour of coaching from me and a custom 2+2 undertitle courtesy of scoot. We're also gonna have loads of sidebets going on - get involved! US-based players can't deposit but you can do member transfers without depositing, and snort has offered to help out in that regard - I'll vouch for him - so you've got no excuse.

Hope to see all of you playing!

Very busy at the moment.... playing the FTOPS, coaching, and have been in a lot of demand since my video went up last week.

I'll start off by saying how delighted I am by all the positive responses to the video. I never expected it to receive such adulation, and can only hope that my future videos get anywhere near that level. I was supposed to have my next one done already, but have been far too busy to make that happen. A couple of people have requested a HU video, which I may do at some point, but I'd like to focus a little more on the technical side of 6-max play before I move on. My next video will be focussing on some more preflop ideas and will start to get into the more complex situations that we get into postflop.

With regards to FTOPS, until sunday I'd played I think 14 events, and hadn't lasted more than an hour in any of them - very disappointing. I entered the $300+22 NLHE $1.5M guaranteed on sunday, > 5000 entrants - around the middle stages I ran hot as hell, I basically couldn't lose a pot. I ran out of steam towards the end, and was card-dead with about 100 left, until I made my first real mistake as far as I saw and shoved A2o over the top of an EP raiser who I thought was weakish but turned up with TT. My biggest cash in a tournament to date, for over $8k - very happy. Very grueling, though - 11 hours of play, and I was mentally and physically more exhausted than I have been at any point in my life.

I caught 4 hours sleep after that, then another 4 before the start of the $1KNL $1.5M guaranteed last night. I cashed again! Only making it just past the bubble for a profit of $900-odd, but I played ok (the technical side of my NLHE MTT game needs a lot of work), making some good reads, but I just wasn't getting any respect on my raising or 3bets, so had to shut down without a hand. In the end, with an M of just under 6, UTG with K7s and the blinds about to go up, I felt this was my last chance at having some meaningful fold equity, and with the payouts not increasing significantly for another 40 or so bustouts, I shoved, getting calls from AJ and QQ, hitting my K but busting anyway - would make the same play again.

I played live on friday night for the first time in 2 months, after my disastrous 13 session losing streak, and won £300. Disappointing from the point of view of having been up £1300 at one point, but obviously I'm still happy to have come away with a win. My opponents were terrible, and I feel that even if I was tilty and drunk I'd still be massively +EV. They're upping the stakes to £2-5 with a minimum buyin of £1k, which is outside of my roll, but I'm looking to get some people buying my action so I can afford it.

My friend deals that game, and it was the other side of london, so I stayed over at his place. When I came back home on saturday, I found that someone had used my email address to sign up to loads of sites - bodybuilding.net, and a few others - not only that, but my Norton was turning away about 10 internet attacks a minute. Very worrying. Fortunately my Norton was up to the job, but with over $10k online between a few sites, I'm going to have to look into some serious defence - free zonealarm isn't going to be enough.

In other quick news, my housemates have asked me to leave. They all work boring office jobs and earn £20k/year for their 60-hour weeks, and I feel there's a lot of resentment on their part when they come home knackered and find me on the couch in my dressing gown playing GTA4. There's a lot more than that - they don't like my girlfriend much, partly because, well, she's not quiet, and they need their sleep. They're no good at communicating, though, and I had to have one of them contact me on msn and say 'hey, are you around for a house meeting tonight?' My response: 'yes but will be busy playing poker. Please just man up next time and ask me to leave. I've already started looking for a new place to live.' Him: 'ok'. Losers. Great shame, my house is really beautiful, in a lovely area of london, and ridiculously cheap at £550/month.

I also played a quick PLO cash session on sunday night - didn't do great, -$900 or so, didn't play great either, but whatever.

Pretty sure there's a few things I've missed out on here, but there's always next time.

http://weaktight.com/170708

I'm 24. Yeaaaaaaaah! Video has uploaded (and works). Nowt much else to report.