8:05pm: Finally, three weeks in the making, I was able to release the third video tutorial. By the time I get finished typing this, it should be finished uploading. So if a few of you try and download it within 2-3 minutes of me posting this, you might get the “file not found” error because as of this moment it’s 36% done uploading. The error will fix itself once the upload is 100% completed.

I hope the tutorial is helpful for you guys. Personally I feel this is the best one, as I was able to directly influence my opponents actions more so than in the first two tutorials. Let me know what you think in the forums.

Enjoy!

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:46pm: I’ve noticed we’ve had a LOT of new visitors today. We are happy to have you guys. Everyone who has just discovered this site in addition to those who have been lurking but not registering, please feel free to register and join in the discussions in the forums. The forum is relatively brand new (just opened it this weekend), but we’re already starting to build a solid group of posters and we want you to become a part of it.

Even if you have nothing to say, just make a post to say hi. Anything - we just don’t give a _________ . But register today!

By the way, I hate spam, so you can rest assured that we will not send you any.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:29pm: I had to run some errands earlier today, but I’m going to dedicate this evening to cranking out the long awaited third tutorial. Once it’s recorded, which usually takes about an hour — it then takes me about another hour to convert and upload. The whole process may take as long as three hours, because I don’t have the luxury of my 20MBPS cable connection anymore, which was at my old apartment that burned down.

As of now, I’m on a verizon EVDO card so the uploads are about 10x slower than what I’m used to. Still and all, you guys should stay tuned today — it’s coming!

Oh, and I wish I had recorded the matches I played last night. There were plenty of situations where people over bet the pot, as I had discussed in previous articles. In fact, it happened twice: once while I was holding the second nuts, and the other when I was holding the stone cold nuts. Unfortunately I didn’t have my screen recorder loaded at the time - but I did take pics. Will post those later too.

I started late (2am) but went on to finish the night 4-2 before becoming extremely tired.

-trujm

12:52am: It took me the latter part of 3 hours, but I was able to put together 3 more games perfect for curing boredom. Look for these new games under the “games” menu:

Sexy Celebrity Photo Hunt
Park My Car
9 Ball Pool

I will try to add 3 per week. These take a little more effort than the Daily Hot Babe, obviously, so I will add more whenever time permits. Eventually I will have to subdivide and organize the games by category so that they will be more organized and easy to find. However, what we have for right now should suffice in keeping you entertained.

Enjoy!

-trujm

1:36pm: This is a pretty well written article that I found written by Jason Kirk. Just thought I’d share it with you guys.

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Sooner or later, no matter how skilled he may be, every poker player is going to hit an extended run of poor results. There are few things in poker that will test a player’s mettle more than running bad. Some melt under the pressure, even going so far as to leave the game completely. Others find that they thrive when they have to break their game down and rebuild it from the ground up. Whatever their response, everyone who runs bad inevitably questions their game and looks for a way to stop the bleeding. The most important thing to do in such a situation is to step back and make sure you’re asking yourself the right questions. If you do this, your chances of getting back on track should improve.

1. How much of your bad run is your fault?

While it isn’t a very comforting thought to someone in the midst of a losing streak, it’s very important to note that many players who think they are running bad because of poor cards are really running bad because of leaks in their game. Even worse, these may be leaks that don’t actually appear until a bad run begins. Players who find themselves unable to win can be prone to making basic mistakes because they find themselves jolted out of the mindset they maintain easily when winning. These mistakes can pile upon one another and make a bad situation even worse.

If you’re having a bad run, it’s of the utmost importance that you sit down and analyze your game in detail. This is where having access to a program like PokerTracker can come in handy. Start with your preflop hand selection and make sure you aren’t playing too many hands. Try to figure out whether or not you’re maximizing your position. Are you chasing draws without the proper pot odds? And are you making the most of opportunities to build big pots when you’re on a solid draw? Do you play too many weak or mediocre hands from the blinds? These are all holes in your game that you may not see when you’re having poor results, but which can be fixed easily. Repairing them may not stop the bad run completely, but it will go a long way toward getting you back to respectable results.

2. Do you need to step down in limits?

Bankroll management is a skill that not enough players learn - and it’s also one that can be crucial to saving your stake if you go on a bad run. Players who have built up a bankroll over time through playing in low-limit games, and then find themselves running bad in a middle-limit game they’ve grown accustomed to playing, can fall prey to a dangerous sort of pride. Even if their shrinking bankroll justifies a move down in limits to protect their stake, they feel too embarrassed to do so. They worry about what other players will say if they see them haunting the low-limit tables again, continue to play above their bankroll in the middle-limit games, and then find themselves completely broke or crippled to the point that they’re forced to move down.

Don’t make the mistake of being too proud. It’s better to step down voluntarily to a game you can crush than to be forced to because you lost all your bankroll playing above your head on a bad run. Stepping down can often be the extra cushion you need to weather the downswing you’re experiencing.

3. Are you playing the right game?

Many times a bad run can be at least partially attributed to your game selection. This can apply both to the specific game you’re playing (e.g. limit hold’em, no-limit sit-and-go tourneys, etc.) and also to choosing the right tables. The urge to “get back” when losing repeatedly can cloud your vision, leaving you stuck at an unprofitable table when there are plenty of loose, crushable games to choose from. You may also get into a rut playing your usual game that can only be done away with by playing a different game. Tournament players can be especially susceptible to this because a bad tourney streak can come about even when you’re playing well.

4. Do you need to take a break?

If you examine all the question above and find you’re still playing a solid game, usually the best answer to a bad run is simply to keep playing. Your results should even out in the long run. But if you’ve found flaws in your game, your bankroll management skills, or your game selection, sometimes the solution is simply to step away from poker for a while. This can be a painful choice for many players, but it’s also sometimes necessary. Many of the lessons we learn when playing poker don’t sink in all at once, and continuing to move forward with too much unprocessed experience in our minds can be counter-productive.

If you find yourself unable to fully concentrate, get away from the game for a while. Use the time you would normally spend playing poker to enjoy other activities. Clear your head. When you decide it’s time to come back to the game, you may just find yourself playing the best poker of your life.

1:37am: I am pleased to announce that I am running good at the right time, as I am now 18-4 since the fire, including my 6-2 stretch over the last 24 hours. I’m playing completely lights out right now, as my focus is especially sharp at this time. When you’ve lost everything you own, the little things don’t bother you as much, so consequently I’ve been much more relaxed during each game. That’s not to say I’m not always relaxed, but at this point I feel that each match I win is a bonus and I’m just thankful to be alive.

So many times in life we take little things for granted. I truly believe it is in human nature to do so, and everyone is guilty of it to some degree. Being as such, it is our duty to recognize when it’s getting out of hand and formulate some conditions to get back into the right mindset.

A lot of relationships end because people take the other one for granted. Sometimes people get “too comfortable” with each other, and they fail to realize the things that are truly important in life. Perhaps that’s why the divorce rate in America is so high now a days. Has it always been like this? No. But back then it was a simpler time, and there were less distractions. Now the media, news, books, movies, and other outside influences are tempting and testing human fabric. Will it ever change? I think it has to, or things will eventually fall apart.

What does any of that have to do with poker? Absolutely nothing. That’s why this one will be filed under “random rants”.

8:54pm: Another question I get asked a lot is:

“What’s the biggest mistake you see other players make when they play you?”

Well, of course there’s a few things. However, I will talk about two things that seem to stick out more than the others. My opponents seem to have a lack of traditional understanding of risk-to-reward ratio. Some of the mistakes stemming from this concept are small ones, but unfortunately for them, some of the mistakes are match-changing.

What are these two mistakes I speak of?

1. Chasing draws out of boredom

• I see it all the time. Someone is holding Qs6c, and the board has nothing for them (8c2sAs). All of a sudden, a meaningless spade rolls off on the turn (10s). I, on the other end, am holding Ks10c and value bet my hand on the turn (half the pot). For whatever reason, too often I see my opponent call right here in this situation JUST on the dry spade draw. Something in the human brain — boredom, the discomfort of never finding out that outcome or what could have been, or the human tendency to “never give up” — just won’t let these people fold, and little by little it chips them down until they have one move: all in or fold. Either that is the case, or even worse than that: they hit it (and it’s still no good!).
• Another draw that people chase way too much is the dry, one card open ended straight draw. For example, they hold 6sKc, and the flop is 7c8d9d. Granted that one should expect to realistically have 11 outs in the situation. However, that’s not the problem. The problem is the lack of implied odds you have to chase 8 out of those 11 outs. Couple that with the fact that 4 out of those 11 outs could get you into real trouble (10) if your opponent holds a Jack. And for what it’s worth, if your opponent comes out firing on this flop, J9 is a legitimate possibility of their holding. Going even further, your opponent could have been betting on a flush draw which means you have 3 less outs than you think. Should this be the case, then you have close to 0 implied odds as the only way you’re opponent is going to pay you off on the river is if they try and steal the pot if they miss. Even if someone does have a relatively strong hand and you do wind up hitting your draw, people tend to proceed very cautiously when 4 cards to a straight are on the board — so how much do you really expect to get paid even IF you hit. Overall, the risk-to-reward ratio for chasing this kind of hand is not in your favor. For the most part, you’re either going to win a small pot, or lose a very big one. These situations make much more sense in multi-way pots in cash games, where the pot odds alone are enough to justify the call. Heads up, just let it go. There are better spots than this — just be patient.

2. Over Betting the Pot Without a Hand

• I see this mistake a lot pre flop, especially in the 10/20 blinds. Every now and then someone will crank out a raise to something ridiculous like 280, without any explanation. At the 10/20 blinds, if you throw 280 chips into the pot with only 20 of mine invested, I’m not going to call you. I’m either going to push or fold, and if I push only having 20 chips initially invested, you can pretty much bet you’re beat at that point. Luckily people have done this enough in situations where I wake up with KK or AA, so I’ve been able to push and see what in the world kind of hand would cause them to do such a thing. Most of the time, it’s hands like 22-88 — low to mid pairs that people just don’t know how to play, so they don’t even want to play the hand in the first place. This is a huge mistake because 80 times out of 100 they’re going to win a minuscule sized pot, but the other 20 times out of 100 they’re going to lose a huge one.
• As much as I see this happen pre flop, I see it happen even more on the river. I’m not just talking about slightly over betting the pot. I’m talking about 420 into a pot with 80 chips in it, or even worse. Anytime anyone does this, it makes me smile because I know it’s never +EV for them against me. NEVER. I wrote an article previously about a hand where a guy did this while I was holding the nuts, and you can see how it worked out for him. The risk to reward ratio was not even close to be able to justifiably make that move. Truth be told, it rarely is — the only time I would suggest doing such a thing is when you actually have a near unbeatable hand and you think your opponent won’t believe you because you bet too much. Anything less than that is just plain foolery.

5:10pm: First it was free internet hot spots are Starbucks, then Barnes and Nobles, and eventually every major fast food joint caught on. Almost everywhere you can go with your laptop, there’s somewhere you can go to put in a poker session. What are the costs and benefits of this approach?

1. What are EVDO Cards?

Finally, you can have wireless broadband internet access to your Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux laptop without the need for a hotspot! Insert an EVDO Card into your laptop and, seconds later, you are connected to the internet at DSL-like speeds (500K-1,000K) - - - you are your own hotspot!

EVDO or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized (often abbreviated as EVDO, EV-DO, EvDO, 1xEV-DO or 1xEvDO) provides fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service directly to your laptop. You take the internet with you and surf the web in your car, on the train, in the airport, at a convention, on the road in your RV…

The broadband-speed 1xEVDO is currently available in most metropolitan U.S. cities (Verizon and Sprint are both continually upgrading their service areas to Revision A - the newest development in EVDO that provides dramatically increased upload speeds averaging 300-400kbps). If you are unsure whether you have EVDO coverage in your area, please visit EVDOMaps.com and see the results EVDO users across the country are experiencing in their area.

Update: Verizon’s EVDO network is now 100% Rev-A

EVDO is based on the 1xRTT standard, which is available in almost all cell phone coverage areas and provides Internet speeds of about 2-3 times that of dial-up (about 60K-100K). If you go out of the 1xEVDO broadband coverage zone, you will automatically be switched onto the 1xRTT standard, which means that you can still access the Internet almost anywhere your travels take you! learn more about 1xRTT vs. EVDO here!.

Currently, EVDO is available on the Verizon and Sprint networks. Verizon was the first provider to offer EVDO, but Sprint has been rolling out EVDO coverage very rapidly and their coverage is catching up to Verizon’s.

2. OK, I understand What EVDO is. Now, who offers EVDO?

Verizon Wireless and Sprint are currently the leading providers for EVDO coverage. There are multiple EVDO Cards (in PCMCIA, Expresscard and USB formats) that are available:

On Verizon:

• Novatel USB720 (USB)
• Novatel V740 (Expresscard)
• Sierra Aircard 595
• Sierra Aircard 595U (USB)
• Novatel USB727 (USB)
• Audiovox PC5750

On Sprint:

• Novatel U727 (USB)
• Franklin CDU-680 (USB)
• Novatel EX-720 (ExpressCard)
• Sierra Aircard 597E (ExpressCard)
• Merlin S720
• Pantech PX-500
• Sierra Aircard 595
• Sierra Aircard 595U (USB)
  

I would also like to mention that there are a number of these cards available for FREE, as long as you sign a two year contract. If you choose not to be under contract, it will cost you anywhere from $150 to $400 for the card, so that’s something you’ll have to balance when deciding if this is right for you.

3. Are they reliable for Poker?

Yes, but not AS reliable as land based cable connections. I’ve played probably 10 sessions since the fire, and I have yet to experience any kind of lag on my end by using my EVDO card. I got mine for free at Verizon (with 2 year contact). Here is a picture of my unit:

Just to give you an idea of what to expect:

• Average Download Speed: 125kb/s
• Average Upload Speed: 25kb/s
• Average Connection Time Before Service Drops: 4 hours (note: even if the service drops, you can be back online within 45 seconds). Just make sure you are in a relatively populated metropolitan area, and you may have no problems at all.
• Multi Table Capabilities: YES
• Noticeable lag between poker servers and verizon servers: MINISCULE, if any
• Can download things while playing poker: DONT RECOMMEND

All in all, I’d say that anyone who has not invested in an EVDO card should at least give it some thought. How many times has your home internet connection went down, and you knew you were being blinded out but there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. Having a back up internet connection method would be a great safety net for to take comfort in during all your sessions. The service is usually $60/month. But to that, I say that if it even helps you win one more match that you would have normally disconnected on, then it pays for itself.

3:21am: Well, I’ve been getting emails about it non stop. Finally since things have settled down since the fire, I have had more and more free time each day. Consequently, I will release the third video tutorial on Wednesday of this coming week.

Originally, I had one recorded and ready to upload. However, my apartment burning down delayed it’s release, naturally. In honor of the fire, I will choose another video to narrate and make my previous choice for tutorial #3 now tutorial #4. It is my decision to do this because I’d like to take the first 2-3 minutes of the video to tell the story of what happened the day of the fire.

Additionally, I also plan to add 3 more games this week to the games section.

So to all those interested, stay tuned — it’s coming!

2:01am: A little while ago I played a game with a very interesting hand. Obviously I flop a very good draw. If I could have seen what he had I would have still raised to protect my hand — and because there’s not many hands he could make on the river where he would call a large bet. However, because he played this absolutely terrible, it worked out for the best.

This re-iterates my point in my previous post about the quality of play on PokerStars. I’m not saying it doesn’t ever happen, but stuff like this is definitely not as common on Full Tilt. Very rarely does someone just hand you the match as he did here.

With this match, I’m now 3-1.

PokerStars Game #17022956581: Tournament #86260650, $50.00+$2.50 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2008/04/27 - 02:25:42 (ET)

Table ‘86260650 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1690 in chips)
Seat 2: Wes Warren (1310 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 10
Wes Warren: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [4s 3s]
trujm: calls 10
Wes Warren: checks
*** FLOP *** [5s Js 2d]
Wes Warren: checks
trujm: bets 40
Wes Warren: calls 40
*** TURN *** [5s Js 2d] [Ac] <– absolutely perfect card. now I don’t want the spade.
Wes Warren: bets 60
trujm: raises 200 to 260
Wes Warren: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [5s Js 2d Ac] [Ks] <— damn spade!
Wes Warren: bets 990 and is all-in | Youd think the way he played this hand that he has to have the flush, right? Right?
trujm: calls 990
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Wes Warren: shows [Kh 8c] (a pair of Kings)
trujm: shows [4s 3s] (a flush, King high)
trujm collected 2620 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2620 | Rake 0
Board [5s Js 2d Ac Ks]
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [4s 3s] and won (2620) with a flush, King high
Seat 2: Wes Warren (big blind) showed [Kh 8c] and lost with a pair of Kings

Sigh… More later…