Memories,

Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were.

Actually, the colors here are very graphic – devilish red.

Remember how I talked about moving up Remember how I said PokerStars was so kind? Well, lets entitle the second act as “The Card Fairy’s Revenge.”

Sunday was a bit off but nothing serious. Pretty much the same for Monday – down a bit but optimism still prevailed – a couple of hands the other way and it would have been a nice day. No blue Monday but Tuesday sucked and sucked out. From Tuesday on, I couldn’t drive people off of hands of any type. Just when I threw in the towel for today, I won with aces up.

I’ve had aces up a ton of times of late; often in the first four cards. Well, that last win was the only win I can recall. Once or twice it was with honest hands. The bulk of them were like a flush with the person drawing for a low flush of some sort and then catching three runners with the three downs playing.

It got so unnerving that I bought Poker Tracker Stud. I’ve never been a huge fan of it but thought it could answer some questions I had. The author admits he isn’t a stud player and that kind of shows up. One of the things I wanted to clear away was the bringins counting as playing. None of the sites tell you how many time you brought in. I’ve even asked FullTilt to add it and got a sullen response. So, I thought I could get that out of the data. I sort of infers that it is aware of that. But, my data is remarkable similar to what I get from the sites that don’t break it out.

The program has modifiable rules. The author again states they are pretty fragmentarily designed because – you got it – he isn’t a stud player. He is good about answering emails. I get responses in a few hours. But, the querry about that met with more indicators he wasn’t a stud player. The explanation nicely detailed blinds counting as they should. I guess he missed the fact that Stud doesn’t have blinds.

In the rules that are the default, I am a Tight-Passive-Passive. That comes with a fish icon. It doesn’t bother me all that much because the people that scare me at the tables mostly carry the same icon.

The rule for L-P-P is done:

• Vol. Put Money In Pot % is greater than or equal to 30.00
• 3rd Street Raise % is less than 5.00
• Aggression Factor - Total is less than 2.00

The first relates to the bringin situation. If this can’t correct for bringins, I’ll wing it.

Line 2 might apply but I think but I’ve been there and done that and have scars. I think it’d be a great thing to review as one moved up levels where defending a good but not great hand might work better.

The last is great if you are playing fewer streets. In Hold’em the flop determines a lot and should be defended properly. Stud isn’t as cut and dried. In viewing the players active, I’m in about the middle with maniacs and card blessed the only ones substantially higher.

I gave the Hold’em demo a try a bunch of time ago. I seem to recall that it reported on winning hands much better. Unless I missed it, the stud program doesn’t do as well. Maybe, I just need to play with some filters though.

I think I am relatively tight. I vary that a bit based on the door’s texture. I do play more than just the premiums. I’ll usually raise late with a nice concealed pair. I’m not as quick as I was with a big exposed pair holding. And, I may play big hands slow against aggressive play.

Raising is something I’d like to work out better. I don’t know that is possible at these lower levels but it’d be nice to pull that info up. I’ll have to work on that with the hope I can figure the filters to do it.

Aggression is often punished. Big hands meet bigger hands all the time.

One interesting stat was the number of different player I played against this month. It totals over 700 in 60 hours of play. The bulk of them carry the default icon — meaning less than 50 hands. I mentioned the other day that a lot of people are giving Stud a go. This is pretty decent validation of that premise.

Well, it is a day later and Tracker isn’t quite as hopeless as I feared. I still have questions about ranking using their defaults but the other info is starting to come together. Is it worth the $55 I paid? Can’t say for sure.

ADDENDUM:
Homework: Computer Exercise # 4