Luckily, everything went as planned today (except that we had to take two seperate seats) so we arrived in Vegas at 10AM local time. Slots are greeting you the moment you get off the plane with their screaming lights and buzzy sounds, but we passed up on the "opportunity" to turn a quarter into a gran and took a taxi to the Luxor, where we will stay one night. Dropped off our bags, and went to search for a place where they broadcasted the European Championship Final. Finally we ended up at the Hilton with it's big TV screen walls: amazing and grotesque would probably the best words to describe it. I barely resisted the urge to bet on Spain (5/1). Too bad I didn't, but I'm glad they won nonetheless. Sorry Germans, but they deserved it more and given it was 44 years that they had won a major prize, I think it's about time this great football nation showed itself again. Many at the Hilton agreed with me, because there was some cheering here and there for l'España. During half-time, we paid about 20$ each to eat a reasonable buffet. So far I can't say I'm wild about the Las Vegas cuisine, but it was allright, especially when you've been underway for 36 hours and ate nothing but airport food until then.

Tipping culture is big here, in so far that people's wages are adjusted downwards. It's accepted that tips are an essential part of people's income here. Basically anyone who performs some kind of service for you is expecting one. Especially the cab drivers expect like 20% tips, (which are an absolute must btw, because walking around in 40° heat is simply unbearable), but they can tell you some nice stories and give you good hints about general stuff in return.

I'm going to post some pics and let those do the talking for me, and post an update tomorrow when I played my first day (and hopefully not my last) at event 52 (NL Hold'em 1500$). Going to hit the nl600 cash tables at the Rio now and subscribe myself to the event. Laters.

 (More)

Hey,

It's been a (very) long time since I updated this blog, so I'll just steal the top spot from Timor for a day and give a little update on my "career". Since I moved up to NL200, I had a *massive* heater, a big (16BI) downswing, a 15k hand break-even stretch and another downswing (haven't checked how much, but it's big ^^) So my winrate fell from what looked was going to be a steady 4ptbb (playing 6 tables or so) to a mere 1.33ptBB/100. Due to a few cashouts my roll also fell to ~6600$, so I decided to move down to NL100 for a while to build my bankroll a little, but especially get my confidence and a-game back. So, after about 3500 hands there this week-end, that's not gonna happen. It's just waay too easy compared to NL200 :D I've reverted to a tighter, 19/15 style with 33ATS and 82 or so fold BB to steal. I'm just stacking donks all the time, and regulars are real easy to play, so I don't need to play fancy at all... Anyway, this combined with the fact that there's a rather juicy promo on party this month led me to planning the following four weeks (till the 26th of July) to play over 130k hands at NL100. (More)

Well, we certainly didn't start off on a positive note. After a hectic Friday where I had my last exam, had to pack my bags and say goodbye to some family members, I got to bed pretty late. Since our flight left at 12.45PM the next day, we had to take a train to Brussels Airport at 9AM. With a mild morning mood but pretty happy that "the day" had finally arrived, me and my mate Dimi, who's accompanying me for this trip, went to the US Airways stand. There, we got some unpleasant news: our flight to Philadelphia was delayed 4 hours, to 5PM. That meant that we would only have an hour to change flights in Philly, which would of course be a tight task to pull off with all those ID and luggage checks.

As you would have guessed, we didn't make it. Right now we're stuck in a temporary hotel that US Airways arranged for us until our next flight that departs tomorrow at 7.50AM.  

Pretty funny thing though, every check I had to go through at the airports basically goes the same:

 "How much money are you carrying with you sir?"

"About 10000$."

"Why are you carrying so much money? What's your purpose of your visit to the USA?"

"I'm going to Vegas and play some poker;)"

"*vague smile* Are you a professional poker player?"

"Not yet ;)"

 "Ok, have a good time sir."

 Federal officers are generally kinda strict here and not very friendly, but other than that my first impression is that American people are very friendly. Hotel girl was kinda laughing at me because she thought I looked like some kid from Little Rascals. Well, thanks...I guess.

 So, I guess pretty disappointing as a first post, but (hopefully) we'll be in Vegas tomorrow with something more to tell.

Nightynight from Philly

Hello,

I am a S&G coach for pokerstrategy.com. I believe my employer offers some real winning strategies on different types of games. I have tried many of these games. I played bss FR, bss SH, and obviously, I played A LOT of S&G’s. However, 1 game i never tried is the well known Short Stack Strategy. I notice that there are a lot of threads around here, saying that sss doesn’t work, or doesn’t work @ certain limit. It would be a losing strategy, and the SHC would be wrong.

Since the SHC is made for microlimits (NL10-NL25), and I am a total sss-newb, I have started this campaign on the lowest limits. If this thread is popular, I will keep playing sss, and move up in limits. Because I don’t think there is any real difference between NL10 and NL25, I will start on the latter limit. Once I made 25 stacks (250 PTBB’s) on every limit, I will move up to the next one.

I started playing 6 tables at a time yesterday (I advice beginners to start with at most 4) and I quickly expanded to 13. I needed to memorize the SHC first, and then I played as many tables as can fit my screens. I played at stars, and here are the stats of my first session:

Woohoo, major upswing!

Despite the fact that I play at stars, which is supposed to be one of the toughest platforms out there, the skill level of my opponents is absolutely horrible. I don’t think 9PTBB/100 hands is maintainable, but 1PTBB/100 is already enough to make solid profits. Only 15 more stacks to go and I’ll move up to NL50.

My playing style: SHC, postflop strategy as suggested by pokerstrategy.com, except in spots where a different move is obviously better. For example, with jacks, on a QQ4 board, against 2 opponents, I instapush. With 99 from sb first in, and on a reraise from bb, Im not folding it. Etc.

But, overall, I don’t steal at all (i will implement steals when the time is ripe, because that’s what beginners are supposed to do too).

I hope I can show you sss is still profitable, and that I can teach you some.

Of course, I already posted a couple of hands in the board. I mean, I’m only a newb, remember? So I have plenty to learn about this strategy, and I will do my best to show you what is possible with pokerstrategy.com.

Hello,

I can assure you, I sticked to the basic articles 100% when I started, and I adjusted because I posted hands, asked coaches about stuff, etc. I picked up a lot of new strats, like raising ATC bb into completing sb, and some restealing stuff, and that’s what I implemented.

Anyway… drumroll…rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

BAM

I MADE IT!

25BI’s up within 5 days, and ready for nl50. I have to go to xarry’s coaching this week, cause otherwise I will have to play nl100 next week, while I only attended 1 beginners nl25 coaching. That isn’t wise, so I need the coaching. I will try and destroy nl50 within 1 week, and go up and up as far as I can.

made a nice picture in pokerev. This is the NL25 final graph:

Now I will updat you on what this project has brought me, and what I expect it to bring me in the future. I will also explain how I play, and how I adjusted the way I play in the last couple of hands, and which I will bring to the NL50 tables.

This project has brought me more inside on preflop equity. Preflop equity is one important aspect of any NL poker game (NLSH cash, any tournament poker, etc.). I think it will bring me even more knowledge about this in the future, when I move up in limits. You should look at sss like this. If poker is a wargame, and your chips are your soldiers, then all you are doing, is sending out small commando forces to the battlefield, try to enslave just a couple of enemies, and bail! It’s a tactic for little girls actually, because you bail as soon as you got any profit, and you’re a sissy actually. But, why should I care? I make lots of moniez (over 10$ an hour on NL25), and it’s still an interesting gametype to master.

The preflop equity knowledge is something I can use when I play tournament poker or SH cash poker too, so that is all very good, and it feels like I’m learning how to play poker step by step this way. I want to master an optimal, or at least close to optimal strategy, and beat the higher limits.

This project is also supposed to get really profitable in the future, because I want to beat at least NL200, but actually even higher limits, in the future.  Now for my playing style. As I said in the first sss post, I started using pokerstrategy.com’s strategy, as described in the basic articles. I play 18 tables, but that’s where experience comes in handy, and I don’t advice beginners to play more then 4 when they start playing. You’ll move up slower, but it’s not easy to multitable so much if you’re not used to making such fast decisions.

However, I learned a lot during the 5 past days, and this is how I differed play:

raising AQo, AQs, 1010 from UTG+2. I usually look at the table, and if it’s too loose, I will just fold them, but often, I will raise those hands.

Stealing from late position:

I started stealing from late position. I raise to 3.5bb’s+1 per limper from CO, 3bb’s+1 per limper from BU, and 5bb’s+1 per limper from the blind position. I will next show you the ranges I can steal with. I haven’t stole that much on nl25, only learning about steals when I almost made the 125$ already. But these are the ranges against standard (12/12) players, loosening up against tighter players, and tightening up against looser players. Here they are:

BU: 55+, A8o+, A5s+, KJo+, KTs+, QJs, raise to 3bb’s.

CO: 66+, ATo+, A9s+, KQo, KJs, raise to 3.5bb’s

MP: 77+,  AJo+, ATs+, KQo, KQs, raise to 4 bb’s. I will certainly be a bit tighter here with a couple of tight limpers in front of me.

SB: I will raise the same hands in sb, that I raise from CO, to 4bb’s.

I will post my progress on NL50 on this thread, as well as on my sss thread on the forum. For now, thanks for reading, and good luck on your own ministack adventures!