ashutoshnaik

Cash Game Strategy: Bluffers vs Chasers

April 25, 2019 in Uncategorized

In continuation of my previous blog on cash games :

Cash Game Bankroll Management

Today, I would like to talk about:

Bluffers vs Chasers

There are 2 types of cash game villains I have come across – the bluffers vs the chasers. A Bluffer is someone who will attempt to bluff you off a strong hand, especially if he senses a bit of weakness or fear, whereas a chaser will not attempt to bluff you but play sub-optimal cards against sub-optimal odds and make the big river bet in the end, which looks like a bluff but is actually a value bet 🙂

Let me illustrate with an example:

Lets say you have KQ and the flop is K 2 3. Great flop for you, you have already bet preflop and and are now betting the flop. The turn is a Q, Now u have top 2 pair and nothing to worry, you make an even bigger bet on the turn. The villian calls. The river is a 5. Harmless card right, You bet even more, but suddenly the villian goes all IN. What happened here is that the villian chased his gut shot with hole cards of 46. This is a typical CHASER, you will see enough examples of these in live games, especially among amateurs, and also Teen patti players. If you are playing with the same player more than once, and observe this pattern, and especially if it looks like a teen patti player, or a recreational player , you are most definitely beat and should consider finding a FOLD somewhere inside you on the river.

Now consider you are against a BLUFFER. You bet the flop, the villian is likely to reraise you on the flop or turn. BLUFFERS are usually good players with understanding of the board texture, betting patterns. Lets say a flush or an open ender completed on the turn or river, and if you raised preflop, they pretty much would narrow your range to high cards. and would try to get you off the hand by representing the straight or the flush. The hand I discussed previously ( KQ) was an extreme example, but consider the fact that if you raised preflop with AA and the board is 6s 7s 8 Ts J , a BLUFFER would like to take a stab at the pot, and put you on high cards, aces, kings or bigger pairs, this type of a player is more dangerous to play against. A good counter measure to adopt against such a player is to raise the same amount with all cards, from suited connectors to good pairs. IF you bet 1000 with suited connectors, and 1500-2000 with JJ+, your range could be polarised, unless of course you mix it up.

Whenever I encounter this type of a situation in my play, I ask myself, Is this guy capable of bluffing the river ? Maybe not, because of course its easy to say but it needs courage and balls to make a big river bluff especially when you have shown so much strength already. So if a bluff is more or less ruled out, Well, Is he capable of chasing a gutshot despite no pot or implied odds ? If I feel yes, I will try to find a FOLD somewhere inside me. Well, it doesn’t always work, but that’s the thought process anyway 🙂

Until next time

Cheers
Ashutosh

Cash Game Bankroll Management

April 24, 2019 in Uncategorized

Hi guys,

Although I initially made my initial bankroll via tournaments a few years back, lately I have focused exclusively on cash games, and been successful. My day typically starts around 9 in the evening on most days that I play, and ends at 5 am when the tables break, I do miss writing so I have decided to start blogging when I can.

In this blog, I am going to talk a bit about bankroll management.

For most live cash games, you need at least 40 buyins. I would advise you to budget for atleast 2-3 buyins per day. If you have less buyins, I would advise not to play unless you have 40 buyins, unless of course you are a recreational player. If you are a recreational player, do not worry about the losses, just enjoy the game, and try to make money if possible. If you dont make money, think of it as an entertainment expense.

So to buyin for 10K, you need around 4 lakhs, to buyin for 20K, you need to set aside 8 lakhs and so on. Do not use this money for anything else, just for poker. If it helps, keep it in a separate bank account. The moment you start using this money for something else, you will not be able to make optimal and fearless decisions.

For most value, you should buyin for table max. I would say for most 100-200 games in Goa or elsewhere, this should be around 250 BB or 50,000. However, that depends on how good a player you perceive you are, and also on your current financial situation, your mental state of mind, and your willingness to take risks. If you consider yourself to be the most experienced player on the table, you should buyin for table max. If you consider yourself a weak player or if there are other better players than you, then you should be close to table minimum. It also depends on your strategy, whether you want to play short stack or deep stack.

Some Advantages of playing a short stack:
– You can be sure that nobody is going to bluff you. Most of the time the money is going to
be on the flop or preflop or by the turn. You will rarely be putting any money on the river.
– You should be aggressive with the short stack, instead of waiting for premium hands. This
means you should call with all your range preflop and on the flop, simply because most of
the pots will be multiway and you will get great odds. For eg, if you have a nut flush draw, 2-pair, or even top pair on a low board,
– If your personality is tilt friendly, just avoid playing deep stacked. If you are short stacked, the maximum you can lose is your buyin. If you are deep stacked, the flood gates will open, and most of the times, you wont even realize it.

Some Advantages of a deep stack :
– All options open to you – bluffing, value betting, and deep value extraction.
– If you cover someone, they will have a fear deep inside that you can stack them in a single hand, they will have to play their best game, and also you have to be more careful of them as well, as you can get trapped.
– You should know when to go overboard with a mid pair, when to fold the second nuts, and when to bluff raise. You should be comfortable with your stack. Preflop cards go down in value here. Turn and river are the most important streets to play. Preflop calling range can be wider especially when you are in position.

Now for the final part –
How to play a cash game on any given day depends on a lot of conditions I would advice players to have good sleep, good food , and be mentally stable before the start of a session as much as possible. Playing poker is like flying a plane. I saw a sign outside a plane cockpit which said something like – “Flying is mentally challenging, keep your mental worries outside the door”. The same goes for poker.

Start a session at optimal game theory, and how you proceed the session depends on a variety of factors such as
– Whats your mental state right now, and how are you feeling right now ?
– What is the mental state of your opponents right now ?
– Who is tilting, who is stuck, how are people playing ?
– Who is a strong player on the table, who is a weak player ?
– What is my position on the players whom I consider are strong players, how do they perceive me ?
– If you are playing with the same players everyday, try to profile them in your mind, watch them playing other pots, even if you are not involved in them and try to know what they are capable and what they are not, their mood swings etc. However, as I said, nothing in poker is absolute, the better players will reverse their tells on you. They might give you the impression that they are on tilt, whereas they are very much calm and playing optimally from within ?
– Is there someone who is targeting me, how can I adjust to his game ?

All these factors should influence your game.

If you see the slightest sign of tilt, you should stop playing. Go for drinking, partying, or an expensive massage or anything you want, especially if you are deep stacked, the flood gates will open and you wont even realize it .If you are in for table max, even a couple of buyin loss can set u back by a huge amount in absolute terms.

Next time I will discuss other aspects of Cash Games

Until then, Run Good and Good luck at the tables

Regards
Ashutosh

Hello 2013!

January 9, 2013 in News

Wish you a happy new year 2013!

Been too long since I blogged. Things have been topsy turvy over the last few months. In November, I was made redundant from my last job, due to some issues with the management. This forced me to go pro for the 2nd time in 2 years, but just after 2 months, I realized that I was not ready to be a pro player. Ironically, the month I spent playing poker fulltime, was the only net losing month in 2012 for me, and I was making money when not playing professionally. I didnt lose much money during my pro period, however I realized that professional poker (poker as only source of income) was not for me – not here, not now! It wasnt about making or losing money anymore, but I had to ask myself deep questions like – what will give me happiness over the long run? Is it money, is it just money or are there other things that make me happy? Do I want to completely let go of my education and work experience and completely put all my eggs into the poker basket? Am I a good enough player ? Am I ready to take the swings ? Do I really want this ? etc etc.

The net decision I made, was not to make a living from poker. It was too stressful, and I discovered that I had a passion for the other things I do, which I used to do prior to making a living out of poker. I would defintiely pursue it as a seroius hobby though. One of my friends had predicted that I would run good if I was not depending just on poker for money. I was indeed hoping his prediction came true, which it did, because after taking a 23 day break from poker – which is f** long, by the standards of any serious poker player, I am doing good now. I ve been playing a lot since then and had a very few losing sessions, compared to the number of winning sessions.

During this break from poker, I went on a vacation to the UAE, did fun things, and I also got a chance to work on the weaknesses in my game. Without going into the details of my weaknesses, which I definitely wouldnt like to disclose to you guys as I will be playing you againt too often at the tables, lol, I would say that more than the technical or psychological things, which i thought I was decent at, the most important thing I am working on is emotional tilt control. Out of my redline, I would say, 40 percent came out of tilt poker, 40 percent from bad beats and 20 percent from bad play. Now the 20 percent bad play, needs a lot of refinement to fix and is an ongoing process, but I figured that the easier part to fix was the 40 percent loss from tilt. How many times after getting a bad beat, have I thrown away 1-2 Buyins just playing suboptimally. The key is to play your A game at all times. If you cant play your A game, then go home, come back some other time, some other day – there will always be a game running, and at the serious level, when you are playing with big money, there is really no excuse to continue playing, when you know you are playing suboptimally. Now, coming to the the 40 percent of bad beats – these are unavoidable, but you can definitely control the 40 percent tilt, and this is actually easy if you put some real work on it. I am trying things like meditation, stupid as it may sound, but meditation, yoga and exercise as well as taking periodic breaks are actually helping me.

I did go to Goa around the new year, and spent 3 days playing poker there. In fact I didnt celebrate new year’s eve at all, this time. After playing 2 nights continously, I took a days break on 31st night to rest – just did not feel like partying! I did do good poker wise in Goa. I figured that it was the best time to play poker in Goa. We had almost 6-7 tables running everyday, and had a lot of action.

My plans for this year are to focus on the local cash games, and try to move to the higher stakes, and try to improve my game and adapt to the changing poker dynamics. 2012 though profitable, was only half as profitable as 2011 for me, when I was on a tourney and cash game heater. I had such a good run in 2011, although I think I used to play worse then, compared to now. 2012 was not a year of fireworks but a year of consolidation, and learning about this beautiful game. I hope to make 2013 a much more profitable one, and given how its started, I might be on the right track. My game is definitely suited for higher stakes but I want to continue playing with my own money, and not get into any long term staking agreement, always played with my own money till now, so it will take me sometime to get to the high stakes, if at all I do. However, I think I would try to sell action, especially for the bigger games, and this is something I would look into.

I am happy with what I am doing now, and finally seem to have found a balance between poker, work, relationships and life!

Take it easy!
Ashutosh

Up Down Down November

December 7, 2012 in News

Hi guys,

I haven’t blogged in a while, so thought of blogging. November hasn’t been very good to me. I started this month well, but soon fell into the abyss of variance, as you can see from my graph. I am sure I played bad too, but got a little bit unlucky in large pots, where my advantages on the flop and turn didn’t hold up but I am not too affected by it, as long as I am putting my money in good.

The scene of live poker has moved from Goa to the home games that are mushrooming across different cities, And whenever I have time, I do grind at Golden Aces and IPA these days in Bangalore. The low rake is very helpful. I ll definitely be in Goa though for PGT, and during Sun Burn (26 – 31st December), so hope to put in some days then.

Cheers until next time!
Ashutosh

The year so far

October 15, 2012 in News

Hi guys,

Has been really a sick couple of weeks, and I recently won 6 out my last 8 cash game sessions, although no major cashes, and my graph looks like this (attached ).. This is for the period jan 2012 till date.. if you look at the last part of the worm, it is looking up and thats great news for me. I dont want to speak too soon though, as I had a few crazy up and down months, and also this is not any significant upswing, but I am really looking forward to the rest of the year, having fixed some important leaks in both my tournament and cash game, I am really looking forward to the future. I have also found a lot of my strengths and weaknesses over the past couple of months. Despite some sick downswings, I have averaged 4.98 BB/hour for 373 hours in live cash games this year and a RoI of 35% in live tournies over a period of 38 tourneys this year, I cashed out in 9 (tournament events, deals, satellites and local tournies). My weakness is that i suck online, and that is an area I have to improve in the future, but I am doing good live. I have to work on getting my concentration level up for online play, and I definitely suck at multi-tabling. I really want to make the most of the next few months and finish the year on a high note.

Many people think that poker is a way to easy riches, but the best definition of poker that I have found is that, “its a hard way to make an easy living”. Never give up, sooner or later, your edge comes through. For this edge to come through, you have to put in volumes, thats the only way to win at this game. Also, have a detachment with the cash that you bring to the table. U may be carrying a lot of money in your pocket at all times, but remember that out of this, only a little percentage is your winning, try to avoid the temptation of using your poker bankroll for anything else.

Until next week, Cheers!!

Ashutosh

PGMP part 2 and crazy Saturday night Cash Game

October 8, 2012 in News

Hiya guys.

The second edition of PG Mentorship program is out. I can’t tell you how much this has helped me. Its a golden opportunity simply becuase I seriously don’t know why Adi is giving it for free.. he could seriously charge a lot for this kind of top notch coaching. So I suggest you better apply, before he changes his mind 🙂

Regarding my run this week, I played 3 cash game sessions this Saturday in the span of 14 hours, and after ups and downs, made around a couple of buyins profit from it.

Some crazy hands –

1. I 3bet a guy who I considered a weak player, with QQ from SB he calls.. flop is 5 8 9 with 2 hearts… I have 9K remaining, I check, anticipating a good raise from him regardless of any two cards, since he saw i was short, he bet 6K, with 7K in the pot, i knew he had nothing ..so i shoved.. he calls and shows, A 6.. for a gutshot, but the turn is Ace and river is 6. Crazy suckout. And to make things worse, the fish immediately leaves the table with my money. Urgghhh!!

2. I reload for 15K, After a few hands i again get QQ on UTG+1. I had 9K remaining that point. I limp, one fish raises 1.5K, 2 flatters, so there is 4.8K in the pot, i limp shove expecting to pick up the dead money rake free. To my suprise, both fishes flat. Luckily the board is J 8 4 4 4.. and I hold, getting a triple up.One of them showed 7 7 saying “I never fold 77 preflop, you can ask anyone”, and the other guy mucked.

3. One crazy hand happened when i was on a 50K stack.. I raised with KQ UTG+4, 4 guys flatted including button, flop was k 8ss 3ss.. UTG riased 3K, one guy flats, I raise 8K, button flats my 8K, UTG+1 who was a passive player this hand and was targetin ime all day long, open shoved 50K in the pot man, leaving me 35K to call. He was a hyper aggressive player, I painfully folded, just cuz i had one pair, and this fish was playing any 2 cards preflop, and also becuase i didn’t know what button would do, behind me to act. The button folded, and Eventually this player showed a king and asked me if i was good. I think I was in a way ahead, way-behind kind of situation, he probably hit his 2 pair or AK in the worst case. He was targeting me all day long, so i changed my table. Went to another table and did good. This fish owned me this night, but at least I made some money off him before I left the table.

I m looking forward to Golden Aces main event. Mostly going to attend it, before the 5 day PokerGuru tour grind!

Until next time. Cheers!!

Ashutosh

Last 2 weeks

September 25, 2012 in News

Hello guys,

Hope you all have been doing good.

Firstly a big shout of congratulations to Sameer Rattonsey, Abhishek Goindi, Samohh, and Sumit Sapra on their International successes!

Regarding me, I have had a torrid last couple of weeks. Been on a terible cash game downswing both in the local games and in Goa, although have been doing decently in tournaments. I bubbled the final table in 2 of the last 4 live tourneys i played, and finished 8th and 13th in the other 2. Satellites have been better and I have managed to chop a multi event satellite. Also since I have been selling action and have got some free tournament tickets, I m breakeven in tournaments, but cash has been bad.

I m going to take a little break from cash games to re-analyse my game. I lost a couple of 60K pots, where I was 85 to 90% favorite on the turn. In one of the pots, On a flop of 10 7 2 2, I called an all in of a player who had K 10, when I had JJ, only for the king to appear on the river.

Have been playing a bit aggressive in tournaments, and I feel that I have a good early and mid tournament strategy now, which is helping me to chip up quite a bit until the final stages. I need to work a bit on my final table and late tournament strategy.

Some hands from the tournaments that I can remember

1. 20K main event
– blinds 100-200 UTG I raise to 525, UTG+1 flats, with KK, with 12K stack, – Player 5 from middle position flats, Uday Patil from button goes all in for 4000, folds to me.. From his body language it smelt like an Ace King, I go all in on top, UTG +1, calls with AA. Uday Patil shows AK, Aces hold, I am down to 4000 chips.
– I chip up to 8K, lose a flip when I had AQ vs K3.. and out of the tourney in 13th place.

2. 10K double chance
– Was pretty deep in this one, Lost a couple of BvBs, to finish 10th – called bvd 78ss vs 79 and then shoved 15 BB with A4ss BvB, ran into JJ, nothing held.

3. 5K thursday event
– Finished 8th. I dont remember the action but I had a very strong hand and was trying to murder the table when I got out.

The good thing about the goa tournaments was that there were a lot of amateurs playing the tournaments as well, thus I feel that we have a little bit of an edge if we can exploit it.

I am looking forward to India Poker Legend this weekend – will play the 10K super satellite to the 100K event, and the 6K bounty.

Among other things, I have backed one of my good friends, who is going to Vegas – he has blogged about it here ( [URL]http://suggyman.com/preparing-for-my-2012-vegas-trip/[/URL] ) – bought 33% of the action, so hoping he does well. He is a very good $1-$2 cash games player, and is going to have a few shots at $2-$5 as well. He is going to play from the 30th of September to the 7th of October – 12 hours per day on the fishy cash game tables in Vegas, so Josh, if you are reading this – Good luck to ya!

Well that’s all for me – hope i have some good news the next time I blog

Cheers!

A good weekend

October 3, 2012 in News

Hiya everyone

I played 2 days of poker this week, including the IPL 6K bounty tournament this weekend and a big round of congratulations to the “Vinay Suchede family” for their great performance during IPL. Seems like on that day, Vinay’s mom could do nothing wrong and shipped the 6K bounty, which was her first ever live tournament.

I couldn’t cash in the IPL this time. Just played the 6K bounty. My stack was varying between 4K (starting stack) and 6K in the first 3 levels, until I raised from CO with 55, button and BB (YJ Kim) flats.The flop was Ass 5ss rag. BB checks, i check, button raises, Kim 3-bets, I 4-bet, and eventually all our stacks are in on the flop.Great bounty equity. But YJ Kim who had a flush draw, hit his flush, and the board didn’t pair up for me, and that was it.The other player had AK.

I had a good run in cash games this time. Was 1.2L up after 2 sessions so was good running.

Some hands from cash games that I can remember:

– I raise UTG 2000 with KK, LAG on SB with 15K stack flats, Flop is ace rag rag. SB checks, I bet 4K, SB goes all in, I muck.

– I raise 1K from MP with KQss, same LAG flats from button, Flop is J 6ss 8ss, He checks, I bet 1.5K, he calls.Turn is jack, I check, he bets 2.5K, I raise to 5K, he calls. River is a rag (flush doesnt complete), he bets 2K, i call with king high.. he shows a jack.

– On a 20K stack, i raise UTG+3 with 88, MP flats, SB flats. Flop is 7ss 8 8ss. Check through, Turn is 9ss. SB bets 3.5K, I tank call, MP suddenly raises to 8K, Sb flats, I figure that they have to pay me on the turn if they have to, I go all in, both call, and sweet triple up. Wish somebody had a straight flush, I could have won the bad beat jackpot. lol

– Won a huge hand when I had AJ and the flop was AJ rag.. 2 guys paid me off on all 3 streets – one guy had a flush draw with a pair, and the other had AQ.. For once, I held!

I have made a few changes in my cash game, but only time will tell if it will work – sample size too less now to draw any major inferences.

Before PGT, I m thinking of golden aces main event – I like their structure, 30 minute levels and 15K stack. Let’s see if I can make it for that one.

Cheers until next time!

Regards
Ashutosh

Poker in the rainy weather

August 30, 2012 in News

Hi guys

The weather is very raining these days, the rains are coming down and Goa looks more beautiful during the rains. And it feels like a good time to play some poker. I had a chance to meet Kid Poker – Nitish Gupta, who is doing good for himself playing deep stacked cash games in Goa these days 🙂

I was in goa this weekend for the main ips event. The winners of all IPS tourneys, even 5K were getting a free 30K CoC seat for their November main event, thus making it more than rake free and good value oriented tourney. In the main event, I got a double up early, when I hit a set of kings on the flop, and won a good pot. In the medium stage of the tournament, I got involved in a hand. UTG raised with A 10o, One player flats with 9Jss. The flop was A 10s 8ss,I 3bet the original raiser and eventually all our money went in on the flop. Unfortunately the flush didn’t hit, and I was down to 40% of my starting stack. I got my stack back after an hour, when I raised with 44, got 4 flatters. The flop was King jack 6o.. Every one checks to the raiser, that is me.. And I checked back. Luckily for me, 4 came on the turn, and I got full payment. After that I was cruising with a good stack until my final hand, on the final table bubble, when Rajesh Goyal raised UTG with KK, Rakesh Sharma went all in with 15 BB with KJ, and I have AA in the big blind, so I decide to go all in. Rajesh Goyal calls and covers me. But unfortunately the only remaining King, came on the flop, and that was it for me.

Next day, I played the 5k event. I was running pretty good, but on the final table bubble again, dumped off my stack when my flopped full house was no good as an unknown player flopped quads on the turn. I was not at all affected by these beats, because these beats are nothing compared the kind of beats I have got online, and I am happy to go out with the best hand. Intervntion’s training is really helping my game.

I had a good session in cash games though, made up all my buyins and also a profit. On the first day of cash games, I was not in the zone at all.. For eg. I lost a buyin when I paid out a guy who had top set with ace high ( yes an absolute misread ), but the second day I managed to do good and won some good pots. I actually wanted to play more since the table was fishy but made a -ev decision to get up since I was leaving goa in a few hours, and I didn’t want to risk getting stuck again. But then, I had postponed my departure from goa by a day, just to recover my losses.

The cash game scene is looking good in goa now, with 3-4 cash tables running all night this weekend for the smaller stakes and also a big game running upstairs. Its a good time to play in goa. And I feel that, the action will be good in goa until the new year. The 100-200 and 200-500 game in Goa is beatable, but you need a decent bankroll for it. Even a 2-3 lakh bankroll is okay (you d need more if you play 200-500) as a start for the season, if you are willing back yourself to lose it all. For 2-3 Lakhs, At 15K, you have around 15-20 buyins, which is a good start. But remember that a no limit player can only make money, if he is ready to lose every chip in front of him. Sometimes, you have to trust your reads, and a misread can result in some ups and downs. When I deposit something in Royale, I think that I have already lost the money, and then play. This helps me actually play my game and not get intimidated.

I have also got started off with 50K on pokerkingz. Going to give it a try. Will try to be back for the UPC too.

Until next time… Cheers!!!

My experiences in Nepal

June 19, 2012 in News

Hi guys,

So I was just lazing around and working on a boring Wednesday
afternoon, and intervention suggested that I should attend the cash
games festival in Nepal, and after a little bit of thinking, and
getting some issues sorted – (should really thank Aditya “Bitti”
Agarwal and Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal for the all-expense paid
trip, organized at the last minute), I was on a flight to Kathmandu
on Friday morning heading to Nepal for the very first time, and with
the excitement of traveling and playing poker in a new country.

For those of my friends, who have no idea about poker, I have divided
this blog into two parts, first – no talk about poker and the second
just about poker, so you can skip to whichever section you want.

Firstly nothing poker:

Kathmandu was a beautiful place, and although their airport is
crumbling, I liked the different indigenous architecture that it had
compared to the other airports I visited. When you land in Kathmandu,
your flight is encompassed by the clouds, when you are in the high
ranges of the Himalayas, and you don’t see anything around you for a
little while, and then suddenly out of the clouds, you see the airport
landing strip – it’s beautiful. The people in Kathmandu are very laid
back and the girls in Nepal are very friendly and beautiful. The
hospitality and the food at the hotel and the casino were top notch,
and I want to congratulate Bitti again for organizing this event well.

Although the visit was short, and I couldn’t do much sightseeing, I
did make a lot of friends this time in Nepal, learnt some Nepali (you’d be surprised how easily the Nepali girls are impressed if you
can speak a word or two of Nepali), and hope to visit again sometime
soon. All the nights were spent playing poker, but I really want to
try to make it see to the Everest Base Camp someday, and also want to
visit Pokhara in Nepal – I heard it is beautiful.

I had a great time socializing with my poker friends too – our outings
across the city exploring areas, and parties at the hotels were fun. I
have found some of the best friends of mine among the poker crowd –
it’s funny if you come to think of it. Off the table you can be best
friends, but when on the table, you just want to rip the person apart,
and take all his money, you want to break him, tilt him. Well at the
end of the day I have realized that one poker player can understand
the other, after all. It’s healthy gaming rivalry only on the tables.

Now some tips for those who are thinking about traveling to Nepal –
For those who think, the Indian currency is becoming more and more
worthless due to the free fall against the dollar recently, there is
some good news – the Nepali rupee is pegged at 1.6 to the Indian
rupee, so everything in Nepal is very cheap and affordable, and the
Indian currency is worthwhile at least in Nepal. Also, you can’t carry
500 and 1000 rupee notes either on the way to Nepal or back, so it was
funny in a way that I was carrying a lot of Indian 100 rupee notes..
Even a 10,000 rupee bundle in 100 rupee notes feels so heavy in the
pockets. I did carry a lot of US dollars too though, and that’s what I
eventually converted anything to during cashout – there is no problem
carrying USD.

Now a little bit about poker:

We were staying at Casino Venus, which was a part of the Malla Hotel.
The casino itself was separate from the hotel, and we had some good
action during the poker cash festival. I played over 28 hours of poker
during this weekend, and had some ups and downs, mostly because i was
rusty and hadn’t played live cash in a while, however despite some
sick bad beats especially in big pots, (for e.g., lost a 80K pot when
I had top 2 pairs to a tilting player who made a call with a one card
gutshot and he hit on the river), overall I ended up being in
positive, and it was a rewardable experience. I am glad I didn’t get
stuck or lose money in Nepal. I was a little bit in negative until my
final hand, when I won a biggish pot with Aces, just 30 minutes before
my departure to the airport on Monday morning. Regarding the players,
mostly the crowd comprised of the Goa and Calcutta regulars, there
were a couple of good local Nepali players too, who were very
knowledgeable, I saw them calling some of the big pots regularly with
Ace High. I had a chat with the local players, and you can surely get
at least one or two tables running every day in one or the other
casino every day in Nepal (like he said the action is good at Hyatt
generally), so even if you don’t go as a part of a cash games
festival, you can get some action.

Among my future plans, it is back to Goa now, and I will be mostly
playing 3 of the next 4 organized tourneys in Goa – CR cup, IPS, and
then PGT. I am also looking forward to grinding in cash in Goa too.
Really want to get into the cash game mode for some time and make some
cash.

Overall a very remarkable trip, and definitely you should visit Nepal
for a change, and, maybe I will try poker in Colombo, Sri Lanka next!

Until next time… Cheers!

Online Grinding!

August 20, 2012 in News

Hi guys,

With not much live poker going on these days I turned my focus towards online poker for a while and ran really bad with some sick beats in crucial situations. However, I realized that it is a volume game online, and unless you put in the volume, there is no way you can turn this around.

As an example, I tried to google for the statistics of some of the fellow PGT members – and you can see that each of them, have played thousands of tourneys, but I have played around 350ish ( which is terrible to say the least), so although the ability level is around the same as per sharkscope (between 60 and 75%), I haven’t been able to show a good profit on PokerStars, although I ve cashed out more on other poker sites.
[LEFT][INDENT][SIZE=2][COLOR=red]Player Count Av. Profit Av Stake Av ROI Total Profit Ability[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2]
[/SIZE] [/INDENT][INDENT][SIZE=2] gunner9696 4566 $0.77 $21.57 3.7% $3495 73
[/SIZE] [/INDENT][INDENT][SIZE=2] ashnaik 368 $0.7 $3.81 55.2% $257 66
[/SIZE] [/INDENT][INDENT][SIZE=2] WirAnjuna 1566 -0.$25 $3.66 19.4% -$398 63
[/SIZE] [/INDENT][INDENT][SIZE=2] VinaySuchede 1978 $0.64 $1.61 26.1% $1273 70[/SIZE]
[/INDENT][/LEFT]
[B]Disclaimer – this is based on the free opt-in and publicly available information at sharkscope.com fetched on 21 Aug[/B]

I feel one of my strengths in live poker, has been that I can get out of tough situations, especially in deep stacked cash games. This has helped me save a lot of money in the past, but I ve realized that in online tournaments its much more -EV to give the benefit of doubt to the opponent for a very strong hand, in the long run. Sure, you can get out of those situations once in a while, but in the absence of live tells, Adi has been trying to tell us to loosen up, and go for it.

There was a time when TAG (Tight Aggressive) was the way to play. But these days, the LAG (Loose Aggressive) style is more in vogue, both for cash games and tourneys. Note that there is a difference between a bad LAG and a good LAG. A good LAG can keep stealing pots, but have the nuts in big hands, and unless you keep chipping up, there is no way you could win tourneys unless you win very large flips at the end. The way to win online, is not playing the live game, but playing the percentage game, playing more tables, upto 24, if you can, and playing more percentage poker. I don’t know any poker pro that plays just 1 table at a time. Imagine playing 24 tables, you can do in 1 hour, what a man can do in 24 hours. lol.

Cant say how crucial bankroll management is, and one guy I admire in this department from PGT is Vinay Suchede. The guy has like $1500 in his account, but still plays around $1-$5 MTTs on an average, which I feel is the way to go. No wonder that his graph is going straight up. I ve been guity like most on this front, often playing games much beyond my bankroll.

I am going to cross the 1000 game mark on PokerStars soon, and put up some really good volume when I can. Trying to get some $$ arranged on stars at the moment, and once I have that, I am on the grind!

Another good news is the full tilt is going to open soon. I ve always made more money on full tilt than stars, and will be happy for my friends who have tons of money, much more than me stuck on full tilt. Hope they start paying people out soon.

Adios and for this week, let me just say – Jai Poker Baba!!! (Hail the Poker Gods!!!)

Cheers!!!

A weekend in Goa for the IPS main event

July 9, 2012 in News

Hi guys,

Hope you are all doig good. Pretty lean season for poker everywhere around the world because of course all the action has shifted to the Rio All-suite Hotel and Casino in Vegas for the WSOP. Not much happens around the world when that happens. And I hear that Adi is killing it in Vegas, which is really good news for everyone associated with PokerGuru. As of this writing, Adi is just started playing the Day 1C of the main event. I hope he has a deep run in the main event and figures in the November nine, man that would be pretty sick and well deserved for one of the the best tourney players in India. I am myself planning a trip to Vegas for cash games sometime in November-December.

I had taken a little break from poker, as I took a slight hit at the cash games around 2 weeks back, but I was in Goa this Saturday for the IPS main event, this is one event I do not miss, since I free roll this event as I get a free main event seat by virtue of being last years player of the year.

I came to the casino early and was still in two minds on whether to play cash or not, since no satellites were happening when I saw the bad beat jackpot in CR being claimed. Marga Jee, a cash game regular had QQ, an unknown player had rockets. The flop was A Q rag, turn was Q. I was pretty happy for them, and glad that a reg won it. Nimit Patel was also on the table among the regs. The jackpot is now reset to 20 Lakhs so it’s still not bad.

I played IPS main event next, played really Aggro to reach the final table as the chip leader but eventually finished 4th. Was a bit disappointing but the levels were really jumping later n I lost a few crucial flips, such as 99 vs K 10, QQ vs A 6 etc. Whatever I learnt from intervention, regarding pre flop play definitely helped me in reaching the final table as the chip leader, now looking forward to the post flop lessons and final table lessons 🙂

I m looking forward to the PokerGuru Tour which is the best value tourney tournament in India. Last time, we had almost the entire final table in the money, so book your tickets for this one. It’s also rake free, and the final table will be reset to 40BBs.

See you during the PGT!

Regards
Ashutosh

Online Rankings

i Top Ranked Poker Players in India
Member Won
Member Won
Member Won
₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
₹1,21,00,140
₹1,20,22,333
5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,15,16,843
6.M L M L
₹1,14,45,592
₹1,09,13,473
₹1,05,83,948
₹99,75,577
₹99,60,672
Member Profit
Member Profit
Member Profit
₹55,77,649
₹50,59,154
₹47,48,174
₹46,35,740
₹44,93,503
₹43,56,316
₹43,24,686
₹42,41,254
₹41,92,614
₹41,05,805
Member Points
Member Points
Member Points
43,040
36,048
28,827
4.N K N K
28,769
26,548
25,649
24,726
24,446
9.M L M L
23,604
23,352

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