Party Poker High Rollers

I started with a $27.50 Satellite to a $265 Satellite to the $2600 High Rollers $300,000 NLHE poker game on Party Poker. I used my system as laid out in my book.

It is possible to use a small bank roll for huge returns with some luck and a superior strategies against opponents you can uncover if you are watching for specific behaviour. Return On Investment: For a $27.50 US investment, I gained a $2600 ticket to a game with a first place prize of $93,000. The return on investment so far is: ($2600 - $27.50 )/ $27.50 = 93.45 times investment. In a time when normal investments like stocks and bonds are pro-rated to make you lose, you can make straight money on poker.

Saturday KO $75,000 Satellite

So close...had aces cracked otherwise I was in the top two.  But the fact is there is convergence of cards factors no player can predict or avoid.

Pokerstars NLHE $27 21 out of 824

I cashed for nearly five times my buy-in on a Sunday while I cleaned my rifle.

PokerStars Saturday Micro $3.30 - 5th out of 3100

Pokerstars - Sunday Million $15 NLHE

Guess who's a chip leader in the satellite to the Sunday Million? You can play like me if you read my book.

PokerStars top 2.5% with 5.5 times investment.

I finished 15th out of 597 players - the top 2.5% -  for a total return of  5.564 times my $2.20 investment. 

Sunday Storm $11 Pokerstars

I finished at the top of #PokerStars Sunday Storm. Last weekend.  I use the strategies I talk about in my book.

#PokerStars Bit $44 57th

I limped into the money with a long run of no cards so I didn't get very far. Finishing 57th gains me 1.64 times as my original investment.

Pokerstars $7.50 8-table - Top 4

I finished 4th out of 1152 players. I started at the same time as the last tournament, and got lucky Nines versus Kings to make the top 3. But the rest of the tournament I just played the way I know I can.  I took some hands off to take the garbage to the dump. I folded some good hands in tricky low value spots. I bluffed and got caught. I bet the nuts and wiped out players. I folded when I didn't have a good read on a player or a s But otherwise this wasn't taxing nor hard to complete.

My final return was $289.53. Based on my original #investment of $7.50US, that is a return over 8 hours of play and skills I talk about in my book was 38.6 times my initial investment.

Big $3.30 - top 15%

Finished top 15% in #Pokerstars in Big $3.30.  I should have finished higher but I lost my pocket Kings to donk with Ace Ten which gutted my stack right before the money bubble. I cocooned up to preserve my chips and limped into the money. Then I lost a close race.

In conservative terms, investing $3.30 and 3 hours background activity won me a simple 60% return ( not annualized).

I used strategies I talk about in my book.

Example of Psychological Counter Strategy

0.0.1 Counter Strategy

Here is an example of counter strategy - not playing the percentages and likely hand ranges like everyone teaches but instead playing player psychology. A tight Russian player raises from early. There is a middle caller who’s also a regular. I look down at  

 I am in the small blind so I think about calling. I recognize the first aggressor is normally tight so I don’t position reraise. I just call to see the flop and hope for a monster.

 

Naturally I am ahead of both players with the nuts. I know that tight Russian #1 might have a pair of aces. Other player has unknown since he was calling. I am sure if first aggressor has aces that he will lay them down to protect his stack if he thinks he'’s behind. 

 

There is a flush draw so I want to protect my hand. But more importantly, I want to trick them into thinking I am bluffing. There are two spades and the most likely play is reraise with two spades. Now, here is the psychology. The tendency is to protect an overpair. The tendency of all these pros is to assume the player has flush draw with an all-in. And the most important tendency is: someone goes all-in on a draw only and not a made hand. They always assume someone is bluffing if they go all in. If you had a made hand you would not want to push people off the pot. That makes them blind to the possibility that they are beaten. 

I am in the small blind to I am first to act.

I lead into the pot 60%.

That bet leads to a pot-sized reraise from the first aggressor. The middle player also calls which is confusing but OK.

Without much time, I reraise both of them all-in. That also looks suspicious, I am acting in the way they expect but not in the way they think.

The tight Russian calls without thinking. The other pro thinks about it for a moment and calls as well.

That was the entire hand, the rest is unimportant. Whether or not I win this hand, the point is I got two professional players to commit their stacks on the wrong impression. They turn over their hands. They made a wrong decision and were the ones behind, but were made to think they were ahead.

Tight Russian has  

  and the other hapless pro has

so at least he was drawing to win. But he's a 30% at best.  This is how you can triple up against "good" players.  It's not about ranges in any one hand, it's about out thinking them. They do the same action over and over and over. They aren't even thinking anymore.

Tight Russian is drawing dead. Hapless pro is drawing to the full house. Board runs out: 

I tripled up

      ♢

Counter Strategies are viable strategies

If you are wondering how to beat people at poker, one way that doesn't take a lot of effort is to change the way you play.  I write about this in my book here.

http://pokerdaemon.blogspot.com/2014/06/superior-texas-hold.html



So if you are playing a player that you think plays a certain way, then look up how to play against that person and use that strategy.  It's that easy, pretend you are acting and assume the role.  Fish against a shark.  Act like a landmine against a Maniac. And so on....

Play that session like you looked at the game differently.