Shark Bait

I'm sure most of you guys are aware of Sharkscope. Its basically a site that allows you to check a specific player's online poker tournament results. There's usually 2 uses for it.

One, you can use it to check you own stats. This allows you to determine whether you are making money playing online. The number of games you've played, your ROI, your average profit, even total profit.

Second, you can use it to check your opponent's stats. This enables you in limited ways to determine if he or she is a good player. You can then adjust your play accordingly. But more than this, I actually use Sharkscope as a tilt breaker. What do I mean by this?

Sometimes you play a hand perfectly, raising when you have to, betting the flop hard to scare away the draws. Getting your money in way ahead. But then, there's this guy who just keeps calling and calling. Eventually, he rivers his gutshot and takes away a big pot. It is times like this that make you want to tear your hair out and beat the living shit out of the guy. Instead of steaming and ranting, just relax, type his screenname in sharkscope. And revel in the knowledge that this same guy has already lost a few thousand dollars playing small stakes poker and is destined to lose more.

It gives you great comfort and some closure knowing that the poker gods are fair and fishes will be fishes, even though they do get lucky sometimes.

What is irritating about Sharkscope is that it only allows you 5 free searches a day. If you want more than this, then you have to pay a monthly fee which is quite steep and unnecessary. The other sites naman like officialpokerrankings track mostly MTTs and not STTs.

I've recently discovered another site called Top Shark (just google the name) which basically offers the same service but is actually free of charge. Meaning there is no limit to the searches you can do and it tracks both MTTs and STTs. You can even filter it by date or by the type of game (MTT, SNG or HU), by limit and even by buy in. There is also a ranking system. Just so you can see how well you stack up against other players. The other cool feature is you can display your stats in other websites like a blog or forum by pressing "get player graph link"

The only drawback with Top Shark is the number of poker sites that they cover. It is significantly less than Sharkscope. But the major ones like Full Tilt and Pokerstars are there. The other is the coverage date. It only started tracking data around end of 2007. So data prior to this date is not included in their stats. Sharkscope's date coverage extends up to early 2006.

Now for those people who think their privacy is being violated by these online tracking sites. You always have the option of blocking your name. But you should be aware that nothing screams donkeyplayer more than a blocked name. I know that sometimes it is embarassing to see your stats and knowing that everybody can see just how fishy you are. But one should treat it as some sort of constructive criticism and as an incentive to get better.

So the next time you're playing donkey style and you hit your 3 outer in the river, and the other guy types "Yeah, nice call, lifetime -32% ROI loser". Don't scratch your head wondering where he gets his data. Heheh.

ICM

Last night, I decided to play 2 STT games simultaneously with the express intention of loading the hand history into SNG Wizard to analyze my bubble play. I don't normally use any kind of ICM calculator during actual play, since it takes a long time to set-up. And I am of the belief that even though it helps you earn some money, it also acts as a crutch and you tend to rely on it more than you have to. Its better to rely on your own ICM knowledge and then compare results afterwards with the software. Analyzing hand histories every once in a while using an ICM calculator is critical to figuring out your wrong moves and leaks.

In the 1st game, I finished 1st. I loaded the hand history into SNG Wizard. And waddyaknow. It turns out that I did not make one single mistake. A perfect ICM decision game and I end up 1st. Hmmmm...

In the 2nd game, I finished 5th. Same software. But this time SNG Wizard told me I made 4 mistakes in the ICM pushes that I made. Or rather the ones I didn't make. 3 of the mistakes were me being in the small blind with a hand like J2 and Q7 which I folded. But the software was asking me to push. The other mistake was actually a borderline push on my side. I pushed with A8 in the cutoff+1 and the software was asking me to fold, but A9 was already a push. So I'm ok with this decision.

I am actually aware of this "SB not pushing" leak in my game. But for now, I just cannot wrap my mind around the concept of pushing from the small blind when it is folded to you with a very wide range of hands. I do push loosely when its just SB vs BB. So hands like Kx or J9 or Q9s, I would push. But still iffy on the crappier hands even if the math says otherwise.

To conclude of course that playing perfect ICM will allow you to ITM everytime is fallacious. It is entirely possible to play with no ICM knowledge but still end up winning the game. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, you can play and make perfect ICM decisions and still not end up ITM.

To put it simply, ICM is just a mathematical model that allows you to make the correct push fold decision in the latter stages of an SNG or STT. It compares the equity of folding and the equity of pushing. And whichever is higher is the decision that you make. Actually, it is a little more complicated than this. But this is the easiest way to understand it without making it seem like mumbo jumbo to the average poker player.

ICM is not the end-all of SNG play and it is not perfect. It relies a whole lot on the hand ranges that you think your opponents will push or call with. Wrong assumptions will result in wrong decisions.

But one thing should be clear. As you mature in the game and you increase in limits, the only way to make consistent money if you are an SNG player is to know when to push or fold during the bubble. And the only way of precisely measuring this decision is thru ICM. Mastering ICM will enable you to make positive expectations decisions everytime and obviously this will lead to profits in the long run.

Say Cheese

I'm sure by now, everyone and his brother has seen the Haydengate videos.

Some random thoughts:

1. The girls in the video seem to be genuinely unaware that Hayden was filming the whole thing.

2. Say what you want about the immorality and depravity of Hayden's act. The red-blooded male in me cannot help but shake my head and admire Hayden's taste in women. Those 3 girls are HOT.

3. The most important question everyone is asking is who released the videos to the internet ? I am sure it was not Hayden Kho himself because that would be the epitome of stupidity. If you know your filming fetish is illegal, you'd do everything in your power to keep it a secret. I've even heard some rumors that Hayden was being blackmailed by somebody who got the videos and was demanding money in exchange for not releasing the videos.

OK. Enough Cheese. Back to Poker.

Breakthrough

Woohoo. I know its just 3rd place. I know its just $255. But heck, after a really bad April, I'll take anything. Besides, my total investment amounted to the ridiculous amount of $6. The original buy-in and one add-on.

The short break and the realization of some leaks allowed me to tighten up my game. I was also heeding my own advice to just play without any pressure. Hence the lowly $3 tournament which I don't normally play.

I tinkered a bit with my playing style and my adjustment basically amounted to being more patient in waiting for the premium hands and trusting my instinct to fold when I know I'm beat. I realized when I checked some of the poker tracking sites that I'm basically seen as an aggressive player preflop and I think that some of the other donks could be subscribing to these and playing back with nothing. So toning down a bit on the steals was part of the plan.

And it worked. Well except for the last hand. Chip leader and me both flopped top pair and all the money went in. He outkicked me. I raised with 7-3. He played 7-9. LOL.

For the love of the game

I'm currently in semi-hibernation mode when it comes to my poker playing. Not stopping completely, but basically just playing whenever I feel like it and not forcing myself to play every night just to earn extra money.

I've come to realize during my self imposed break that poker playing has become some sort of required activity that I do as part of my "breadwinner" role in the family. So I play even when I'm tired. I play during my rest days. I play on Sundays and holidays. I even force myself to wake up in the wee hours of the morning just to play. I realized during the short break just how "forced" my poker playing has become.

So instead of being the fun activity that it originally was, it's now become some kind of chore. Of course, the money is there for the taking and some would say that its a wasted opportunity if I reduce my playing frequency. But I think its worth it in the long run in terms of improving my total well being and allowing me to spend more time with my family.

Its true that the money's quite good, but I don't really need it to provide for my family. It was just a supplement. Yes, it paid for the last HK trip. Yes, it paid for some fun stuff like the Xbox360 and a netbook. But I could easily have paid for these things from my regular income.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy playing poker anymore. I firmly believe that I will be a poker playah the rest of my life. But I think I will enjoy it more if I approach it the way I did before. No expectations of regular monthly winnings. No forcing oneself to play because of the possibility of a big win or because I got a free ticket. But just playing for the sake of enjoyment and for the love of the game.

You could say that its hypocritical to disassociate poker with the money. Because in poker, more than any other game, money is the ultimate litmus test of one's skill. I'm sure that none of us enjoys playing with play money except probably for the weirdos in facebook. By the way, what's with that gig ? Lately I find myself talking to people who when I say I play poker, they would immediately say they also play and brag about the thousands of dollars that they've accumulated in Facebook.

I'm like, ok, so what can you do with your facebook dollars ? Can you exchange it for things or some sort of benefit ? And they'd look at me funny as if I was the one going bonkers and say that its like some sort of prestige thing to have mucho money in facebook poker. Uhm, yeaah, riiiight, I get you. =)

Going back to my topic. I'm just saying that poker is more fun when there's no pressure to earn big money. I used to treat it like a hobby which gives me free money whenever I win. But I think I kind of lost my way and lately was treating it as some sort of money making venture which made losing and variance harder to accept. And this was the reason why I was tilting easily.

So now I need to go back to the previous mindset. No expectations. No pressure. Just playing the game and beating the hell out of the fishes.