I’ve been in San Francisco to play in the WPT Bay 101 tournament and visit my brothers. Unfortunately, I busted out pretty early in the WPT event. Max lasted closer to the end of day 1 but busted before the day ended as well. It really blows because I love live tournaments a lot, I wish I was in it for longer just for the experience of playing.

Thankfully, it gave me time to play some online and its been paying off. I’m up about 50k on the trip. Mostly HU cash, and mostly from today.

I had a match against a guy I have played a fair amount before. His sn is IKA258. Honest assesment: He’s a pretty solid player. He’s not a guy I’m thrilled to play but I’ve had a strong desire to challenge myself against good players. I’ve had that desire because as I’ve stated before, I feel like I’m playing the best poker I’ve played in my career, and I think I can beat almost anyone right now.

To be fair, here is a total cooler hand on his side.

PokerStars Game #59371024427:  Hold’em No Limit ($25/$50 USD) – 2011/03/17 16:28:16 PT [2011/03/17 19:28:16 ET]

Table ‘Aurora XII’ 2-max Seat #1 is the button

Seat 1: heybude ($10315.50 in chips)

Seat 2: IKA258 ($12007.50 in chips)

heybude: posts small blind $25

IKA258: posts big blind $50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [8c Ad]

heybude: raises $50 to $100

IKA258: raises $300 to $400

heybude: calls $300

*** FLOP *** [Jh Ah 8s]

IKA258: bets $500

heybude: raises $750 to $1250

IKA258: calls $750

*** TURN *** [Jh Ah 8s] [3s]

IKA258: checks

heybude: bets $1850

IKA258: calls $1850

*** RIVER *** [Jh Ah 8s 3s] [As]

IKA258: checks

heybude: bets $6815.50 and is all-in

IKA258: calls $6815.50

*** SHOW DOWN ***

heybude: shows [8c Ad] (a full house, Aces full of Eights)

IKA258: shows [Js Jd] (a full house, Jacks full of Aces)

heybude collected $20630.50 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $20631 | Rake $0.50

Board [Jh Ah 8s 3s As]

Seat 1: heybude (button) (small blind) showed [8c Ad] and won ($20630.50) with a full house, Aces full of Eights

Seat 2: IKA258 (big blind) showed [Js Jd] and lost with a full house, Jacks full of Aces

But otherwise, I had some pretty sick hands. Here’s two great ones with analysis.

Hand 1: Well executed bluff catch

PokerStars Game #59367692400:  Hold’em No Limit ($25/$50 USD) – 2011/03/17 15:22:23 PT [2011/03/17 18:22:23 ET]

Table ‘Natascha VII’ 2-max Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: heybude ($5696.50 in chips)

Seat 2: IKA258 ($9067 in chips)

IKA258: posts small blind $25

heybude: posts big blind $50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [8s Kc]

IKA258: raises $100 to $150

heybude: calls $100 (standard)

*** FLOP *** [7s Ac As]

heybude: checks

IKA258: bets $250

heybude: raises $450 to $700 (Not that standard. He has been checking behind weak and medium sd value hands like bottom and mid pair, he could very well check king high, low pocket pairs, and 7′s. I could just call and call down some run outs but I think I’m getting a lot of folds flat out.)

IKA258: calls $450

*** TURN *** [7s Ac As] [Qh]

heybude: bets $1100 (I bet here because I had been c/ring and c/feding the turn a lot and because he has so much air in his cbet range that I think I have enough FE. C/c the turn also seems legitimate and actually seems better in hindsight. Although it involves more river soul reading.)

IKA258: calls $1100

*** RIVER *** [7s Ac As Qh] [3c]

heybude: checks (I can’t represent anything so I check)

IKA258: bets $7117 and is all-in (My instant thought is call here because I was too overwhelmed with reasons why he doesn’t have anything. One, I thought he was likely to play a fd like this the entire way. Two, I think it’s probable he 3bets the flop with various A’s because he tends to try to represent bluffs with his nut hands. Three, he goes all in, slightly overbetting the pot, while in previous hands with nut hands he bet under all in. Finally, there are tons of combos of flush draws he could have, much more than the combinations of nut hands that I think he rarely has here.)

heybude: calls $3746.50 and is all-in

Uncalled bet ($3370.50) returned to IKA258

*** SHOW DOWN ***

IKA258: shows [2s 4s] (a pair of Aces)

heybude: shows [8s Kc] (a pair of Aces – King kicker)

heybude collected $11392.50 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $11393 | Rake $0.50

Board [7s Ac As Qh 3c]

Seat 1: heybude (big blind) showed [8s Kc] and won ($11392.50) with a pair of Aces

Seat 2: IKA258 (button) (small blind) showed [2s 4s] and lost with a pair of Aces

Hand 2: Pretty standard bluff

PokerStars Game #59371729421:  Hold’em No Limit ($25/$50 USD) – 2011/03/17 16:42:57 PT [2011/03/17 19:42:57 ET]

Table ‘Natascha VII’ 2-max Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: heybude ($6573 in chips)

Seat 2: IKA258 ($15368.50 in chips)

IKA258: posts small blind $25

heybude: posts big blind $50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [As Qh]

IKA258: raises $100 to $150

heybude: raises $350 to $500

IKA258: calls $350

*** FLOP *** [5s 6d 4d]

heybude: bets $500 (Standard at this point. I think if I check I get bluffed off my hand too much, especially since it seems like every time I have checked in a 3bet pot he has bet and I’ve folded. This is also is a great hand to double barrel with on good turn cards.)

IKA258: calls $500

*** TURN *** [5s 6d 4d] [9d]

heybude: bets $1350 (I think this is a spot where a lot of people c/f. But I bet because the 9 and the flush is basically a blank for his range and hit my range. It’s thin, especially because the profitability of this play is dependent on a planned 3 barrel on certain run outs, which includes most diamonds that hit. He has been unafraid to call me down in these spots but this hand has come after a long time of me tripling in a 3bet pot and having it)

IKA258: calls $1350

*** RIVER *** [5s 6d 4d 9d] [Js]

heybude: bets $4223 and is all-in (Basically, another perfect card for my range and blank for his. It’s not really a question at this point.)

IKA258: folds

Uncalled bet ($4223) returned to heybude

heybude collected $4699.50 from pot

heybude: doesn’t show hand

………………………………………………..

Since I quit my chase, I’ve been playing a lot more HU cash and faring quite well. I honestly feel like I’m playing the best I have ever played. The wide variety of games I’ve delved into over the years has had a positive effect on my cash skills.

Today, I played the tightest regular I have ever played in my entire life. He was so tight even in the face of enormous aggression that I had Max get on Skype and Teamviewer just to laugh at how ridiculous my strategy was. Here are the stats to show just how crazy it got.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7579/nit1w.jpg

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2024/nit2.jpg

If you look at the 2nd link, you can see my redline going up drastically for the first 250 hands. For those first hands, this was the gist of my strategy: 3bet all hands (yes, even 32 off suit), except those that can cold call preflop but don’t have much 3bet value. Since he was folding 77% to 3bet in the beginning, I decided I would employ this strategy until the normal adjustment of 4betting a lot as a bluff and value came. But it wasn’t happening. He still was folding to 3bet 70% of the time. At that time, my 3bet% was just as large, in the 70% range.

After awhile the madness ended as he slowly began to start calling more 3bets, and 4betting a thin value range as well as bluffs. At that point, I switched to a linear value range for my 3bets. But I still did not want to start folding.

Looking for other ways to play my weak hands profitably, I started to realize he was folding a lot to flop c/r’s, as well as checking behind midpair, bottom pair, and ace high. My new strategy? C/r nearly every flop until he started to cbet his weak showdown value. I continued to rarely fold preflop. This basically went on until I had to quit for dinner.

………………………..

It’s a lot of fun playing cash again. I’ve been away for awhile so hopefully I start getting more action. I’m willing to take on basically anyone at this point. I don’t remember feeling this confident since the spring of 2009, it’s nice to have some swagger back.

Last year, I did a list of the best HU SNG regulars. I think it was a good list of some great players, in fact most of the players are the same as they are this year. But now I have more experience, better knowledge of what is good and what is bad, and more history with everyone who plays heads up sit and goes. I am sure that this list is the most accurate you will find. All 5 players on this list are deserving of the title of elite player. And although I stand by this ranking, I do not think any of these players would feel like they would have much, if any, of an edge against the other.

5. Whassssuuuppp: I love Whas’s game more than anyone else’s on this list. He has a tremendously good balance of looseness, aggression, and stationy-ness. He adjusts incredibly well to his opponents, often changing his strategy drastically to adapt to his opponent. He’s a good hand reader, and understands theory well. I have a few knocks on his game. One, he can get way too stationy and make some bad calls. Two, he plays very exploitable strategies; he rarely employs a strategy that is theoretically sound. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter and even works to his advantage because people have no idea how to adjust to it correctly (I don’t because I can’t always figure out what the hell he’s doing).

4. Lotte Lenya/H2olga: I have to admit, I have only played Lotte a handful of times, mostly because I realized he was good and avoided him. He plays a sound, aggressive strategy and understands the math of SNGs incredibly well. I actually met him in London and I exchanged some high fives regarding our agreement on what to do on various hands me, him, and Melanie Weisner were discussing over drinks. After talking with him for awhile I realized he had a very high level of understanding about the game. He was one of the top winners last year and I wouldn’t doubt he will have the same success this year.

3. Iftarii: Iftarii is by far the best hand reader I have ever played against. I often cannot figure out what inspires him to make a call, but he’s often correct to make one. I said last year that Iftarii can get inside your head better than anyone else I’ve played. His overall strategy is good and he plays better OOP in single raised pots than any regular. However, I do not think his general strategy is as optimal mid-late game as the top players on this list. He seems to me to be too tight. It’s a small criticism but when your on the list of the best in the world it’s enough to send you to number 3.

2. Skaiwalkur/ R-quaresma: When I first played against Skaiwalkur, it was when he was just starting out. But after the match was done I posted in a poker forum that he was the best HU SNG player I had ever played against. And the handful of times I have played him since then I came away even more impressed. Already a very successful high stakes CAP game player, Skai plays the most optimal game out of anyone on the list. He is someone who clearly understands the math of poker at an extremely high level. His hand reading is solid as well, and really there’s not much more you can ask for in a player.

………………………..

1. Adonis112/livb112: Last year I didn’t rank livb accurately. Coming from a cash background, there is a lot of different things a HU SNG player can do that seem bad. Adonis was no exception, he did a lot of different things that will make a deep stacked player say “that dude sucks.” But after getting a lot more experience and understanding of shorter stack poker I realized that what I thought were mistakes are actually very solid strategies.

He plays very theoretically optimal. He is a superb hand reader. He plays endgame as perfectly as I can imagine it being played. He seems to win every pot against me but rarely gets caught bluffing. He has made over two million dollars lifetime. ’nuff said? The easy pick for #1, but the right pick.

Last year, I did a top five for HU SNG regulars regardless of stakes. This year, I’m going to revise that list. But before I make that list, I figure why not give my opinion on the players I play the most. The guys I run into when I’m mass multi tabling 1130′s through 345′s. Although it’s hard to do this list since people tend to move up and down stakes a lot, I tried my best to include all regulars I felt played mostly midstakes. Also, the criteria I’m using to evaluate who the best regulars are is simply who has the best overall strategy, hand reading ability, and adjustment ability. There may be some bias as the only method of observation is my experience playing these players. Nonetheless, I am confident this list is representative of the best players at midstakes. Also, as I tend to only play on Stars, I can’t account for regulars on Full Tilt, which I’m sure has a fare share of good players.

5. smeochilt

The best thing about Smeo is his endgame. He plays relentlessly aggressive as stacks get under 20bbs and plays a generally solid strategy in other aspects of the game. He has adjusted very well to me in my experience playing him. However, he can be too stationy at times. I have yet to see a huge weakness is any aspect of his game though.

4. fisfarfar

Of all the regulars on this list, I like fisfarfar’s game the best. He plays very creatively, opens a lot of buttons, and is very loose in general. He understands theoretically good bluff spots and therefore will force you to call in situations where you are behind and is apt at bluffing you off the best hand. Still, some parts of his game are too passive and he tends to play too exploitably late game.

3. micide

I haven’t actually played micide in awhile but I remember him playing me very well. He isn’t afraid to start 3betting the shit out of you if you’ve been opening too many buttons. His game is generally solid. Nonetheless, he can be too passive in big pots, but I don’t think this is a mistake vs most of the players he’s playing.

2. berndsen12

Berndsen had a huge heater for awhile, and now he’s not doing as well, but that doesn’t make me think any less of him. He has a very isildur like game. His overall strategy makes him basically impossible to bluff which can be very frustrated at times, and his strategy is very solid. I would rate his overall strategy as one of the toughest out of any regulars. I do think there are aspects of his game that are bad, but because he’s a guy I find myself playing a lot, I’m not going to divulge what I think those aspects are.

1. trader0811

It’s funny, trader and berndsen have very similar games. They have the same type of strengths: His overall strategy is very tough to beat. And they have the same types of weaknesses, which again I do not want to divulge. But what puts trader ahead of bern in my opinion is I think trader’s game is more solid and toned down, which I’m not sure  fares better against me, but I think it accounts for his success at HU SNG’s in general.

Opponent is simply some random fish guy. He has shown me an overbet of two times the pot when he had the nuts. Max let me know before the match that he had played this guy before and he played very nitty. I have seen him bluff in a small pot but that’s it. He had just won a big pot 2 hands before.

PokerStars Game #57893630208: Tournament #366264320, $550+$20 USD Hold’em No Limit – Match Round I, Level II (15/30) – 2011/02/18 15:07:44 PT [2011/02/18 18:07:44 ET]
Table ’366264320 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Gringonneur (1585 in chips)
Seat 2: heybude (1415 in chips)
Gringonneur: posts small blind 15
heybude: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heybude [Kc Tc]
Gringonneur: raises 60 to 90
heybude: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [9h 6c Td]
heybude: checks
Gringonneur: checks
*** TURN *** [9h 6c Td] [3d]
heybude: bets 90
Gringonneur: raises 210 to 300
heybude: calls 210
*** RIVER *** [9h 6c Td 3d] [5h]
heybude: checks
Gringonneur: bets 1195 and is all-in
heybude:

I was playing 6 tables at the time so I’m not really sure what kind of range he checks behind here. He wasn’t opening 100% preflop, he was opening about 70%. I would guess on this board someone would plausibly check behind a lot of air.

What do you guys think? Call or fold? Do you play it any differently?

When I started out playing hu cash, I had never heard of the term game selection and consequently I didn‘t use any. I never tried to avoid anyone at my stakes, I even enjoyed the challenge of playing known winners. Because of this, I got very good at playing against regulars. Now-a-days, everyone is a game selector, but unlike cash, regulars can’t avoid playing you by sitting out. If you can learn how to beat regs, you’re going to get a lot more games (which is extremely important for an SNE grinder) and you’re going to become a better player, which in turn will increase your profit substantially. Sounds exciting? Here are some tips on how to become a reg crushing machine.

Read the rest of this entry

VPP total: 60.5k

So if you didn’t already know, I’m going for SNE this year. It’s my first time going for it and I’ve got to say I’m pleasantly surprised at how easy its been so far. I’m usually playing 2 tables at a time (almost never more than 3) and mostly at the 570 and 345 level. I didn’t play the first 4 days of January so getting 60k vpps in what is essentially 8 work days is pretty awesome. My goal is to get over 120k vpps every month and hopefully get this thing done by September, giving me the last 3 months to squeeze out the 1.25 mill milestone bonus if I choose to do so.

I’m very very happy with my play so far this month. I’m transitioning back from Superturbos on ftp, so I have a great foundation in my 25bb and under play. Sadly, my 30-70bb play wasn’t really up to par, and consequently I went on a little downswing. Now I think that a lot of that was bad luck, but over the past weeks I’ve been watching videos and talking to Danny a lot, and I think my play has improved drastically already. If I continue to put in the studying and work with Danny over this entire year, I think that I can achieve a extremely high level of play.

I also find myself getting really excited over the prospect of Danny getting the vpp record. What he’s doing is truly astounding and I suggest you watch him play if you get the chance, the level of play he’s able to achieve while playing over 6 tables at a time is totally insane.

Go Danny!

I’m not going to sugar coat it (not that I need to for anyone who has seen my sharkscope graph), December has been a very bad and frustrating month for me. The bad is that I have lost a lot of money. My ROI at 2250 turbos is -17.5% since the beginning of December. I believe I have went 0-6 or 0-7 in 5600′s. The frustrating is that I’m actually up a lot if you go by buy ins, and feel that I’m playing the best I ever have played at SNGs.  Objectively, the competition I have been playing is obviously tougher at the higher stakes, but nonetheless I don’t play in games I don’t feel like I have a greater than 0% ROI playing.

Most of the games have been vs a player named Berndsen12. He is a very good player, and I have been playing him mostly to make the 180k vpps I needed to make in December a lot easier, which it has. Although he is a very good player, I believe that I am a very good player who has a small edge on him. Despite this, the results have said otherwise. This entire month I don’t recall more than one session out of the more than 10 sessions we played where I was up on him.

I had a mini meltdown one morning after losing to him for the third straight day. I called my life coach brother Aaron and Max up for some consoling. Downswings can be really tough, especially when they are the consistent losing type of ones. You forget what its like to win, and it becomes hard to believe your objective opinion that you are a winner. But after talking to my brothers I got a lot more positive, realized that I’ve been getting unlucky and need to stay in my right mind to turn that luck around.

Consequently, I have done very well in the past few days. I have dabbled into the short stack cash games I’m going to try on a more regular basis next year with some great success. Yesterday I had the best day buy in wise I’ve ever had playing SNGs. I try not to subject myself to the fallacy that everytime I run well I have played well, but running well has made it easier to see the very goods and the some bad aspects of my play.

While downswinging, I could not wait for next year to come so I could play much less SNGs. But now I’m excited to finish the year strong. I am planning not to go for SNE next year, but it seems like it is something that may happen anyways. If my main games are SNGs and 6 max cash, I should rack up VPPs non stop. But I’m not going to pressure myself to get to one million. I want to give myself to option to play in other, non VPP accruing games if I feel like they are the best for me to play.

I’ve been so busy of recent I haven’t even thought about the blog so sorry for the lack of updates. Max and I were in heavy negotiations for a triplex here in Iowa, and we managed to get a great deal. It marks the beginning of a company we just created: Steinberg and Steinberg Real Estate. Basically our plan is to buy real estate to rent out and sit on it. I’ll keep you guys updated on how the business is going. The triplex we just bought was 73k and brings in 1200 a month.

I have 140k vpps to go for SNE. This is probably pretty daunting for most players but it isn’t actually that difficult for me to achieve. Even though this morning I made 8.5k vpps in 2 hours, I make about 2k vpps per hour playing HU Sngs normally. So basically it’s going to be 5 hours a day for 14 days. I do more than that when I’m not traveling so it’s not really a big deal. I’m 100% confident I am going to make it.

In other news, I’m considering what exactly my plan is for poker next year. I am planning to go to Las Vegas in the spring to give high stakes live poker a shot. I think my poker strengths are very well suited to live, but the biggest reason I’m going is for the experience. Seems like a pretty fun thing to do, can’t imagine how pumped I will feel when I bring home a shitload of cash (Not looking forward to how crappy I’ll feel when I don’t).

But that is only going to be a month of the year. A few days ago I was certainly done with Hu Sngs. I did not want to play them anymore because I didn’t think they were going to give me the most earnings. I think the shallow stacked and cap games on PS and FT could be my biggest profit potential. When January comes I am definitely going to give those games a shot and see how I fare over a big sample. But now I’m not so cold on HU Sngs. I think with rakeback I broke even on them this year. But as crazy as it sounds after 2 years of these things I think I have finally gotten to the point where they are going to be really profitable for me. Even if my ROI is just 2%, I earn so much rakeback 6 tabling it becomes a significant winrate. I’m excited next year to see if I can really start seeing results from all the work I’ve put in on them.

Wish me luck.

I busted out of NAPT LA within a couple hours. I just basically lost every pot I played, standard tournament variance. But losing the tournament turned out to be a good thing in one sense: It gave me the opportunity funniest poker hand I’ve ever been a part of. And I couldn’t have orchestrated it more perfectly.

So after I bust out I head over to the live cash tables to find my brother Aaron. To kill time we decide to play at a 2-3, 300 dollar buy in table together. After about an hour I have accumulated a pretty large stack, 1,100 or so, playing totally insane. A wave of new people come to our table, including a dirty looking young fellow with a mullet and country singer like facial hair. He is using a bunch of poker jargon and is acting generally like a live regular. Thankfully, he hasn’t seen my crazy play.

Not so long after he joins the table I pick up AdTd in the BB. Mullet dude raises UTG to 15 (standard in this game), guy calls in early MP, and I call in the BB. Both opponents have about 100bbs. Pot is now 48. The flop comes Th9h5s. I check, Mullet dude cbets to 40, MP folds, I call. Turn is the 6h, completing the flush draw. At this point I decide to turn my hand into a bluff and bet out 70, intending to bet all in on non heart rivers.

He doesn’t think for that long before turning to me and asking me “Would  you say you think you play well in general?” The table laughs. I think, at first, not to say anything, but then I realize what he means. By play well, he means am I “stupid” enough to be betting less than a flush here. So instead of silence I respond “Well, I think I play pretty well.” After about 5 seconds he folds KhKx face up.

I couldn’t help myself. I muster up the most surprised look on my face I can, flip over my hand slowly, and say…

“Wow, all I had was top pair!”

He stands there stunned for a few seconds. “Well I guess that answers the question of whether you play well or not.”

…God I love turning made hands into bluffs.