Quick razz update

WARNING! This post is one of those occasional ones where I talk about my personal recent poker-playing results, a topic that really should be of interest to virtually nobody. Permission to skip reading is hereby granted.

But if you want to know....

About two weeks ago, there were no tables going for my regular $1/$2 PokerStars razz game. I had to decide whether to move back down to $0.50/$1 or take a shot at the next level up, $2/$4. Well, that took all of about five seconds to decide, since I had been both playing well and running good (still makes me wince to say or write that phrase).

The results? My online bankroll has swelled. It's almost double what it was when I first took the step up two weeks ago.

I have not kept careful track, because until now, I considered this whole razz thing some combination of (1) an experiment, (2) fun, (3) stretching my wings a little, (4) a step towards eventually having some root competence at all of the major forms of poker, (5) a very small supplemental income that I could make while doing other computer work between hands (like blogging). The last is possible because, at least at these levels, there is not a whole lot of variation in players' styles, so I feel less need to pay attention to the play of the hands I'm not in.

But now I have to reevaluate. My results for the past four days have been +$205, -$120, +$40, and +$165. This is still playing just 3-4 hours a day, never more than one table, in the background while I'm doing other stuff on the computer, so occupying maybe 20% of my time and attention. To my great surprise, at these rates, it starts to become a significant fraction of my total poker income, and I think I'm going to have to start keeping more diligent records, rather than writing it off as too little money to bother tracking.

There is a definite, palpable difference in the quality of play between $1/2 and $2/4 that I did not detect with the previous step up. The most noticeable change is the virtual absence of the completely clueless players who are just giving away their money (although I lucked into one of them Thursday, the $205 day).

The other thing I've noticed is that there are many more close decisions. At the lower levels, it was common for opponents to be chasing so hopelessly that decisions on the river were a breeze, because it was virtually impossible for them to catch up with just one card to come. (Or, conversely, it was virtually impossible for me to have the winner.) Now, however, I find myself much more frequently in hands that appear very nearly tied going to the river, and it's a lot harder to tell whether I should bet or check if I'm first to act, or call or fold if I'm last. Multi-way pots at the river are far rarer, because players don't tend to chase as hopelessly or mindlessly. But over my last few hundred hands, Stars statistics show me winning 65% of hands that make it to showdown, so I'm apparently making those last, difficult decisions at least a little bit better than my average opponent is.

I find myself having to think hands through more carefully than before, and actually remember at what points in the hand an opponent checked, bet, or raised, to gain clues to whether he liked or disliked a particular card (mainly for trying to tell whether he hit a disguised pair). Similarly, a change in the rhythm of betting seems to be a clue I need to pay attention to more than previously, and for the same reason. I think this is a result of the decisions being closer, so every piece of information I can glean matters. When playing lower, a good percentage of the time I was either so obviously ahead or so obviously behind that smaller clues just didn't need to be factored in.

Overall, I'm quite pleased to discover that my hourly win rate has kept up proportionately with the doubling of the stakes. It flattened out for the first several days at this level, when I basically just broke even, until I realized that the game really was harder now and required more analysis before acting. Some of my old habits weren't cutting it very well, and better opponents were able to exploit my mistakes. But I've already plugged a couple of leaks, and the early results seem to be quite favorable.

The one easiest to describe is that I've given up playing most starting hands with an 8 in them. Tightening up in that way means I go through longer stretches without playing a hand, but get rewarded by taking down the really big pots when I finally go after them. The 8 hands were really pretty much just break-even, winning little or no more often than they lost. The price I paid, though, was less credibility, because they were dragging down the percentage of times I won at showdown, which I think, in turn, made opponents more willing to call, suspicious that I might be playing a mediocre hand again. My impression is that I've gained credibility by habitually playing only stronger hands, and I win more pots without showdowns by betting in situations where I've secretly double-paired.

Although, as I mentioned, there are far fewer players who are completely at sea in the game than I was seeing before, one of the unusual little pleasures is that a couple of times a week somebody sits down apparently thinking that it's a straight stud game, and plays what appears to be completely backwards, then after losing one big hand beats a hasty retreat. Sometimes they put an explanatory message in chat about their horror at discovering the mistake after the first showdown. Other times they just slink away, and we're left to guess that they accidentally clicked the wrong button in the PS lobby, and didn't notice the label on the table until it was too late.

There's really not much of any other way to explain hands such as the one below. "HR58" had just sat down one hand before. ($80 is the standard buy-in here, and you can see that he started this hand with $79.75, down one ante.) He called capped betting on 3rd street with K-Q-9, and it only went downhill from there, culminating in a call of a river bet with a Q-9 low, against two opponents! He probably thought his pair of aces was good, poor chap. I wonder if it occurred to him that something was wrong when he had an open A-A but the computer didn't give him first chance to act. Of course, his play was pretty bad for straight stud, too, but not nearly as atrocious as it was for razz, so guessing that he was mistaken about the game is the charitable conclusion.

He did not stick around for a third hand.


PokerStars Game #19207922211: Razz Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/07/29 - 21:20:00 (ET)
Table 'Annschnell III' 8-max
Seat 2: rocky8 ($36.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Dust_0ff! ($93 in chips)
Seat 4: ragmuppet ($37 in chips)
Seat 5: bearfan99 ($108.75 in chips)
Seat 6: HR58 ($79.75 in chips)
Seat 7: Rakewell1 ($39 in chips)
Seat 8: bizzlenuts ($72 in chips)
rocky8: posts the ante $0.25
Dust_0ff!: posts the ante $0.25
ragmuppet: posts the ante $0.25
bearfan99: posts the ante $0.25
HR58: posts the ante $0.25
Rakewell1: posts the ante $0.25
bizzlenuts: posts the ante $0.25
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to rocky8 [Js]
Dealt to Dust_0ff! [7d]
Dealt to ragmuppet [Qs]
Dealt to bearfan99 [Jh]
Dealt to HR58 [9d]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [3s 5c 7h]
Dealt to bizzlenuts [2s]
ragmuppet: brings in for $1
bearfan99: folds
HR58: calls $1
Rakewell1: raises $1 to $2
bizzlenuts: raises $2 to $4
rocky8: folds
Dust_0ff!: folds
ragmuppet: folds
HR58: calls $3
Rakewell1: raises $2 to $6
bizzlenuts: raises $2 to $8
Betting is capped
HR58: calls $4
Rakewell1: calls $2
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to HR58 [9d] [Ac]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [3s 5c 7h] [3c]
Dealt to bizzlenuts [2s] [5d]
bizzlenuts: bets $2
HR58: calls $2
Rakewell1: calls $2
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to HR58 [9d Ac] [2d]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [3s 5c 7h 3c] [8h]
Dealt to bizzlenuts [2s 5d] [Ts]
Rakewell1: checks
bizzlenuts: checks
HR58: checks
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to HR58 [9d Ac 2d] [As]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [3s 5c 7h 3c 8h] [Ah]
Dealt to bizzlenuts [2s 5d Ts] [7c]
Rakewell1: bets $4
bizzlenuts: calls $4
HR58: calls $4
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to Rakewell1 [3s 5c 7h 3c 8h Ah] [4d]
Rakewell1: bets $4
bizzlenuts: calls $4
HR58: calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rakewell1: shows [3s 5c 7h 3c 8h Ah 4d] (Lo: 7,5,4,3,A)
bizzlenuts: mucks hand
HR58: mucks hand
Rakewell1 collected $54.75 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $56.75 Rake $2
Seat 2: rocky8 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Dust_0ff! folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 4: ragmuppet folded on the 3rd Street
Seat 5: bearfan99 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 6: HR58 mucked [Kh Qd 9d Ac 2d As 5h]
Seat 7: Rakewell1 showed [3s 5c 7h 3c 8h Ah 4d] and won ($54.75) with Lo: 7,5,4,3,A
Seat 8: bizzlenuts mucked [6d 8c 2s 5d Ts 7c 4s]

(I have to give myself a little pat on the back for this hand. In retrospect, I actively bet and raised all I could on each of the three streets where I was ahead--3rd, 6th, and 7th--and on the two where I was behind--4th and 5th--just called once and checked the other time. Golly, that's sort of like what the books say that one should be doing! I'd better be careful, or opponents will start to think I have a super-user account!)