Min Cash Syndrome

In an earlier entry I mentioned that I had often suffered from Min Cash Syndrome, with that in mind I have decided to write a short piece on what it is, what causes it and ways to try and overcome it, while this won’t transform your game it might help give you a few ideas to think about.

What is Min Cash Syndrome?

MTTs payout to a predetermined amount of the highest placed finishers, but the vast majority of the prizepool is weighted towards the top 3 players. If you finish just inside the cash you will often receive only 2 to 4 times your initial buyin and this is commonly called a min cash. If you find yourself min cashing frequently but rarely finishing in the top 3 then you are likely to be suffering from Min Cash Syndrome (MCS). While there is nothing wrong with MCS, it is generally accepted that MTTs are more profitable if you aim to win them rather than min cash since the prize for winning once is a lot more than for min cashing a few times.

What are the Common Causes?

Some of the common causes of MCS are:

1.    Poor Bank Roll Management – if you are playing in an MTT that is above your bankroll then any min cash will often be a large percentage of your bankroll so your natural instinct will be to make it into the money first

2.    Poor confidence – you may be on a downswing and have not cashed at all lately so aim to just make the money to try and boost your confidence

3.    Tight game – you game is naturally a tight one this will often mean you are shorter than average by the time the bubble bursts so you are less likely to make the top 3

4.    Poker is just a hobby - any profit from your hobby makes you happy so your primary goal is to cash

5.    Qualified via a lotto – If you qualified to a $20 + $2 MTT via a lotto for $2.31 you may think a min cash (~$40) is a good return on your $2.31. Note this is really a myth as over the long term the ticket costs you more since you pay an additional 5% rake so a $2.31 lotto giving 1 in 10 tickets to a $22 MTT will cost you $23.10 in long run…)

Do you see any of the above in your game and do you want to try and overcome MCS? If so then read on....

How to Combat MCS?

1.    Employ better Bank Roll Management, there are plenty of good articles on this subject if you are not sure about proper BRM rules

2.    Shake off the confidence issues, start afresh with a new approach/philosophy and try not to let short term results affect your game

3.    Abuse the bubble - Play in MTTs with smaller fields to practise bubble play (usually there will be longer bubble periods in smaller fields) don’t open limp because you are trying to preserve your stack, if you want to play a hand and there is no action before you then raise it up, this will help you obtain more chips in the long run than limping and hoping to hit. Take notes on who ladders and look to punish them now and in future MTTs

4.    Try not to let your stack get too small (anything less than 10-15bb is trouble although this depends on the structure etc.) you don’t want to lose your fold equity (people are more likely to call if you shove 5bb than 12bb so you rely on luck more with a smaller stack)

5.    Drop stakes to practise, you won’t be as worried about min cashing in a MTT that is below your usual buyin, although you should be aware that steal attempts are less likely to work in lower level MTTs

6.    Be prepared for longer cashless streaks, if you are trying to obtain a big stack you will inevitably bubble more, but this is made up for the rewards you get when you get a big stack and get a deep finish

7.    Don’t let looking at the payout structure tighten your game, you should only be looking at it to work out when the bubble is so you can use that to take advantage of others who are trying to min cash

8.    Be aware of other players who may be taking advantage and re-steal from them. Once people see you won’t be pushed around they are less likely to steal your blinds

Here is a hand from near the bubble of a recent $20 MTT which gives a brief illustration of accumulating chips without a hand on the bubble:

Blinds are now 1,000 / 2,000

Button is at seat 8

Seat 1: Seat 1 - 26,342

Seat 2: Seat 2 - 38,436

Seat 3: Seat 3 - 78,297

Seat 5: Seat 5 - 22,325

Seat 6: Seat 6 - 100,495

Seat 8: ForFoxSake - 85,288

Shuffling Deck

Moving Button to seat 1

Everyone posts ante of 200

Pot sizes: 1,200

Seat 2 posts small blind (1,000)

Seat 3 posts big blind (2,000)

Dealing Cards

Dealing 9d, Kc to ForFoxSake

Seat 5 and 6 fold

It’s folded to me on the cut-off, I have over 40bb which is above average and my K9o is certainly worth a raise here, I make it just less than 2.2x as this has been my recent standard open raise size

ForFoxSake raises to 4,355

Seat 1 folds

Seat 2 has requested more time

Seat 2 calls 4,355

Seat 3 calls 4,355

Pot sizes: 14,265

Dealing Flop Ac, Qs, 6d

Seat 2 and 3 check

Both blinds call and check the flop to me, the flop is fairly dry other than gutshot straight draws so I decide to c-bet slightly less than half the pot

ForFoxSake bets 6,577

Seat 2 folds

Seat 3 raises to 16,000

I get check raised, but I don’t believe my opponent has a strong hand here, it’s likely a weak ace or a QJ type hand, I would expect strong Ax hands to 3 bet preflop, I would also expect a set to just call on the dry flop and check raise the turn, so the majority of the time this is a medium strength hand trying to define where they are. Since we are on the bubble and because of our stack sizes I can re-raise to an amount that puts a lot of pressure on my opponent but still allows me to fold if he shoves and I will still have a playable stack of 25bb.

ForFoxSake raises to 28,000

Seat 3 folds

ForFoxSake doesn't show

ForFoxSake wins 46,265

I win a nice pot with some good thought and reasoning, but sometimes these spots will go wrong and you will lose chips but as long as you are making good reads and decisions in the long run you should find yourself accumulating more chips which should help you make deeper runs. There are times when it is difficult to employ this strategy, for example if the table is really aggressive or if players are calling every street then it is often better to wait for good hands and bet for value as bluffing is going to cost you chips far too often.

If you decide to try any of these things out, good luck and be sure to let me know how you get on.

2011

I started 2011 by going on a 2 week cruise around Hawaii, paid for by my results of 2010. Being onboard a cruise is fantastic, most importantly a wide range of food was available 24 hours a day and since it was all inclusive I made sure I got more than my fair share! There were lots of facilities onboard, such as a full gym (which I avoided, I don’t work out at home so I certainly wasn’t going to start on holiday!) and a casino, which of course is where my I spent a lot of time. There was one poker table, it was an automated PokerPro table, which combines online and live poker, you sit around a table that has a screen for each player and one in the middle. Most of the people that played where middle aged / old Americans, even from the first night I realised this could very profitable for me despite the 20% rake charges on SNGs, which had a 1500 starting stack and quick blinds. The play was very loose early in the SNGs and would tighten up as the blinds went up and players were blinding down to 2bb or less, I would press in the middle stages and my strategy paid dividends, I won 6 of the 14 SNGs I played and cashed in 4 others. I made over $1,000 profit I also won a blackjack tournament for $500; due to others lack of understanding in tournament blackjack and some luck of course.

When I arrived back home I had a largely uneventful first quarter of 2011 but in March PKR held a PKR Social event at the Fox Poker Club in London. This included a Friday night SNG fest with free bar; needless to say much fun was had with variety of SNGs played, including doubles and one up Hold’Em.

Riots in London


The $130 event started on the Saturday and I immediately lost most of my stack with KK to a flopped set, I didn’t play the hand too well but I managed to double up soon after shoving JJ and holding v AK after that I managed to pick up blinds and squeeze a few times, no one seemingly wanted to risk becoming a short stack themselves and eventually I got back to a competitive stack. There were a couple of distractions to the poker though, first off there were riots down Shaftesbury Avenue outside the club as can be seen in the video above. Also some of the PKR staff dressed as Teletubbies as part of a lost bet, this made for much fun and laughter and shows the spirit of the occasion. I continued to play aggressive, making moves as we approached the bubble and I made the final table eventually finishing 7th, I open shoved 73d in the small blind but the big blind called with KQ and I was virtually out, down to one ante and despite winning the next hand I lost the next. It was a highly enjoyable weekend all round.


Teletubbies Invade

PKR Teletubbies from Paul Condron on Vimeo.

I won a couple of Montes and the Gold freeroll but finished 3rd in a WSOP Package qualifier, with the top 2 getting tickets which hurt but another couple of Monte wins saw the start of a run of good luck for me which gave me several good results around June time. I was also trying to play more cash games, but lacked the commitment necessary to grind out the number of hands necessary to improve my game, cash was just a table filler alongside my MTTs, but I did enjoy playing in some cash game TV episodes, including the one below which featured several 4 figure pots. I had played a loose game in the cash TV game the day before which was $0.50/$1 which helped give me a LAG image for the $1/2 game the next day which enabled me to win some big pots, unfortunately I lost a $1k pot to Durrrsucks when I had a higher set on the turn but he hit quads on the river, then most of the money went in as I had a loose image I felt my set was good most of the time despite the action he was giving me.

PKR Cash TV June 17th


In August I attended my first PKR Leeds meetup, again this was a great weekend full of poker, beer and general degeneracy. I managed a couple of 4th place finishes but the poker was really an aside to some of the banter. If you have never attended a PKR meetup, I highly recommend you do so as they are full of friendly faces. I also attended a team event in Sheffield, where we bubbled the prizes despite me bubbling the final table and Destacker winning the event, this was also followed by a mini meetup in Southampton which was more of the same!

One of my goals at the start of 2011 was to play more live poker, but aside from the social events it wasn’t until December that I played my first major MTT of 2011, this was the Fox Club Main event, which is a £330 2 day event with a 22k starting stack and 45 minute levels. After 4 hands I was down to 18k, I had played all 4 hands and got outdrawn for small pots in each, still it wasn’t a big problem as it gave me useful information. I struggled to win any big pots all day, but managed to keep my stack ticking along slowly. During the last level of the day I got more aggressive and managed to win a flip which left me with above 60k going into day 2. Day 2 started well, I won a small flip and picked up a few small pots to get to around 80k when the aggressive chip leader opened and one player called, I looked down at QQ and as I only had 20bb decided to squeeze shove, the raiser folded but the caller snapped and he showed KK and he held, which left me hitting the rail a dozen or so places from the money.

A couple of weeks later I headed to the Dusk till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham for their £1k buyin Monte Carlo event, which had a 30k starting stack with 1 hour blinds and played over 3 days. Day one started well, half the table were absent for the first level which allowed me to collect lots of pots, I only showed down one hand in the first level which was AJ on a ace high board. The second level started and by now most of the table were present, I got dealt QQ on the button and open raised (which I had being doing every orbit with little resistance from the blinds) the sb folded but the bb 3 bet, this was the first time she had 3 bet me, I put in a 4 bet and got called. The flop came QT6 rainbow and the big blind led into me, at this point the effective stacks were about 200bb deep and I figure that she either has a big hand and is looking for me to raise or is betting for info and plans to fold to a raise. I decide that if it’s the latter she is likely to shut down on later streets anyway and as we are so deep I want to try and get all the chips in so I raise and she 3 bets and so I shove as by now I am pretty certain she has a big hand (I am thinking either a set or AA) she thinks for a while but eventually calls and flips AA, the turn is a king but the river bricks and I get a nice double up. The rest of the day was fairly standard, the early double allowed me to change gears when I needed too, tightening up for periods when the action got loose and loosening up towards the end of the day when everyone started to think about day 2. I made day 2 with a good stack but was busted within the first two hours, I ran a set into an unlikely rivered straight and had lost with a straight to a flush and ended up short, I ended up squeeze shoving 15bb when I saw an ace in my hand, I got called by 99 and when I saw the other card was a 3 I was in bad shape and I didn’t improve. After a promising start I was really disappointed to be out so early, but I felt my play had been good I just lacked a bit of fortune in day 2.

Toward the end of 2011 I won a couple of Prime Times having played really well on both final tables but I had bubbled a qualifier for WPT Ireland, my satellite woes continued, despite playing nearly every final satellite going I never quite got over the line, coming close on a couple of other occasions, I just never won a crucial flip here or there and on occasion had become a little too tight hoping others would bust out rather than taking the lead myself. 2011 had been an OK year for me, it wasn’t as good as 2010 even taking out the Masters victory, I had played a lot more higher stake MTTs and despite several 4 figure scores I didn’t have a level of consistency throughout the year and also paid the price for playing lots of big satellites which have a steep payout structure which I failed to cash in on.

2010

In early 2010 I was starting to get more deep finishes and was winning smaller MTTs, at that time PKR had a $25 6 seater MTT that started around 5.30pm and this suited me perfectly and I had quite a bit of success in it, I was starting to read players and take notes, whereas before I would rarely bother doing anything more than using a symbol to classify them. I had also discovered PokerStove, this is a small useful application that allows the user to input hands or hand ranges and it will calculate the various equities. If you have never used PokerStove it is certainly worth downloading and spending sometime exploring a range of hands and learning the various equities of hands, this helped me to clarify shoving ranges.

This new knowledge again moved my game up a notch, I was starting to open shove a wider range and I picked up a 3rd in the PKR Open Bounty for over $1,300 but that first major MTT win was still eluding me. I didn't have to wait too long as in March 2010 I took down the Sunday Open, a $25 buyin MTT which had 841 runners, I picked up $4,400 for my efforts and a few days later I got a 2nd place in a $55 Prime Time for $2,500. I was no longer letting my stack dwindle into oblivion, I was shoving in spots with weaker hands that I would have auto folded before. The next couple of months were relatively uneventful, a handful of minor cashes then in May I won the Sunday Grand Prix, which was then a $100 buyin 6 seater MTT, I picked up another $2,500 score for it, I then cashed again in the Masters and had a couple of final tables in the Open and my confidence was high.

July 3rd 2010 and its Masters day, I already have a ticket in my account but I registered for a $2 lotto and picked up the only ticket (these lottos had no rake and sometimes had an overlay, so they were lottos with neutral or even +EV). I registered for the Masters, I won't go into it in detail here as I could (and probably will) write an entire entry on it but I feel I played well and got some luck in the right spots and ended up winning, it was 6.30am when all the chips went my way and it was a great feeling, I had wanted to win the Masters ever since it first started and there my avatar was, arms aloft and the message on the screen came up telling me I had finished 1/456 and had won $27,360. It was an amazing feeling and the adrenaline had been flowing and buliding for some time and there was no way I was going to get any sleep that day!

Soon after I got heads up in the $100 grand prix, ironically against Tsuga who I had beaten HU in the Masters, he won this time but I was pleased with 2nd for another $1,500 and 2 days later I got another 4 figure score for winning a $12 deep and steep game, things in my poker world were going great and seemingly on the up, but the inevitable happened and I got over confident and went on a downswing. All of a sudden the cards weren't going in my favour and I believed I could outplay anyone and so was playing poor hands, this combined with trying to qualify for PKR Live V saw a big downswing. French players had also been excluded from PKR and this meant that prizepools were smaller and the overall standard had improved, not all French players are bad but generally a lot of them were of a worse standard than the average player I was playing against. This was my first major downswing and I was not handling it at all well, I wanted to continue to get results to try and prove that the masters win was not just a fluke, but the more I was losing the more I began to think maybe it was. In time and with the helped of friends I came to realise that I should just focus on playing the best poker I could and let the cards fall how they fall, and not be concerned with what others thought of my game.

I finally managed to qualify for PKR Live V in the last chance qualifier; I was really excited but also terribly nervous. I had not met any of the PKR Community before, nor had I played anything closely resembling a live game. I headed off to London and soon got lost trying to walk to the hotel, the GPS on my phone was playing up but I gradually got close to the Travelodge when I hear a Dutch lady calling my name, I turned around and there was Tigerrr with other friendly Dutch faces and they made me feel welcome, soon after others started to arrive and the drinks were flowing, I was struggling with nerves, both because I don't like crowds particularly and also I was worried about having to play live for the first time, I didn't get any sleep at all. When the time came and the cards were dealt I played pretty poorly, didn't have too many hands and never made any real impression on the tournament, I was pretty disgusted with the way I played my exit hand, I just got moved to a new table and was fairly short and got dealt AJs, I ended up calling pre and on the flop (as a float) and shoved the turn when I got a flush draw but my opponent had Aces and he deservedly held and that was me out. I managed to final table the terminator side event, but once again I didn't play that good, I just managed to get some luck at the right time and ended up a respectable 9th, which I was pleased with for my first live poker weekend.

PKR had changed their MTT schedule and introduced a $77 8 seater MTT which they call the Monte Carlo, this starts at 6.30pm and has a 10k starting stack with 15 minute blinds, it is without doubt the best structured daily MTT on PKR and it doesn't finish too late so it suits me well. I cashed in it 6 times in 2010, 4 of these were wins and the others were a 3rd and 6th, in truth I ran pretty good in this particular MTT but to start with there weren't many of the site's top players playing in it so when I was getting deep I was able to control the action quite a lot of the time, undoubtedly (and unfortunately!) the field has got a lot tougher since.

I made almost as much profit from poker in 2010 than I had earned in my full time job that year, but this doesn't mean I was ever seriously considering turning professional. MTT poker is full of massive levels of variance and there are just not enough quality MTTs on PKR for someone to be able to make a consistent and decent living from PKR MTTs alone. I never really played on multiple sites, poker was a profitable hobby for me and I was enjoying life on PKR. I was happy spending the money I was making, looking back now I wish I had saved a larger proportion for my bankroll as I could have begun to play some bigger events, life is full of regrets, we simply have to accept the fact that we can't change the past, only use it as a lesson in the school of life. On reviewing 2010 it was clearly a great year for me pokerwise, despite suffering my first major downswing I had achieved more than I could have hoped for at the beginning of the year. I was beginning to think about starting to play more live poker and although I knew it wouldn't top 2010, I was looking forward to what 2011 would have in store for me.....

2008 and 2009

In January 2008 I decided that aside from reading more poker strategy material I would also join a new site to give me a fresh alternative, this site was of course PKR and I was immediately impressed with the 3D environment and the emotes. I made an initial deposit of $250 and with no appreciation of BRM I was buying into $10 - $30 MTTs, in the first week or two I got a couple of minor cashes and a week after this I registered for a $30 MTT with a $10k guarantee, there were 354 runners and I was playing my basic tight ABC game and before I knew it we were in the money and getting quite deep, I was running well and winning most of the all-in confrontations I got involved in and soon made it to the final table, I laddered as much as possible and eventually finished 2nd for $1593, which dwarfed anything I had cashed for previously. Soon after I finished 2nd in a $100 turbo (I had won a ticket via an $11 satellite) on ongame for $2420, once again by playing tight and laddering and all of a sudden I felt like the tweaks I had made had turned me into a world beater. My first victory on PKR came soon after, albeit for $228 I was growing in confidence and started registering for $50 MTTs, alas my weak ABC game was no good and my winnings started to disappear, I flirted between different sites for large portions of 2008, totalling a total of 35 MTT cashes on PKR. I wasn't sticking to BRM and was playing any MTT that was between $3 and $50 with varying degrees of success, I was getting lots of min cashes but could never seem to get any wins but as I was essentially breaking even this didn't bother me too much.

In late 2008 I made PKR my main site again, I started to read the forum and began to understand BRM, at this point I realised that although I felt I was better than the average player, I also knew there were plenty out there who were a lot better than me, I have never been bothered by being the best at anything as long as I felt I was competitive in something that was enough for me. I lacked the drive to really pursue improvement in my game, sure I had read a book and some forums and that was enough for me, as I said I was breaking even / making a small profit and this was enough for me to feel competitive and kept me in a comfort zone. Some people have a natural talent for picking up new things quickly, others have to graft, but as long as you work hard enough you can match and possibly overcome those with talent, the tale of the tortoise and the hare is an old one but it is an important lesson, one which I fail to keep in mind as often as I would like even to this day. When it comes to poker I think I am some animal in between, one that is not as quick as the hare or as slow as a tortoise - I have some natural talent because of my mathematical brain but I also should be putting in lots of effort if I want to beat the hare.

One dark side emerged during the end of 2008, I started to tilt when busting from MTTs in spots where I felt I was donked, people have different ways to handle tilt, unfortunately mine was to play games in the PKR Casino where my losses totalled over 4 figures, this is why I cannot tell for sure when I started making a profit at poker, any profit I was making I ended up losing, money that it had taken me time and effort to win at the poker tables. I have since blocked myself from the casino and side games and I would highly recommend anyone with compulsive tendencies to do so. I can understand why poker sites have these side games as they must generate a huge amount of income for them but I am still disgusted at myself for wasting money in such a way.

2009 started in a similar vein to 2008; I won close to $1,000 in the first week of January, winning one MTT and placing 3rd and 4th in two others. I started to post on the forums now rather than just passively reading (ironically it was my casino losses that prompted me to start posting and that was where I found out I could get the games blocked) and I could feel the community spirit within PKR. I felt like an outsider despite various warm welcomes it is always difficult for me to break into new circles as I am naturally very shy and I am not a conversation generator. Over time though I get to know people and feel more comfortable and the same thing happened with the forum. Later in the month I qualified for a PKR TV MTT (see video below) and found myself on the Final Table, looking back at it now I am horrified at my play, I was trying to be aggressive but did a poor job at it, but it’s important to realise that we all make mistakes in life, poker is no exception, the key is to learn from these mistakes and improve.

PKR Tournament TV Episode 85

                                               

I plodded through most of 2009 with the same style, generally tight and essentially a card player who wasn't really learning at any noticeable rate and was still failing to turn cashes into wins, I had a stumbling block approaching the bubble. It is a classic problem which I call Min Cash Syndrome, it is something that some people find difficult to overcome and I was no exception.

In November 2009 I entered the PKR Masters a $250 showpiece MTT, armed with a tight ABC game and experience of playing similar events elsewhere before where I had cashed a couple of times for $700 - $900, I was hopeful I could cash, however my laptop was constantly struggling to cope with running PKR and I had to reboot it every 30 minutes or so which meant I was missing hands. In truth I don't remember much about how I got to the final table, but I was short a lot of the time and playing a short stack shove/fold strategy this was in part due to the laptop but it was also my style. I missed a few good opportunities to 3 bet shove which I didn't even consider then but I would push them in a heartbeat now. I made it to the final table where there was a late position raise and I was next to act with KQ, I had to 3 bet shove (with fold equity) or fold, I folded trying to ladder my way up, but crucially I was aware that I probably should have shoved the hand and a later posted it on the forums where it was confirmed by the good MTT regulars that it was an easy spot to shove. When we got down to 7 players remaining I found pocket 7s and shoved from mid position it folded to the big blind, who just happened to be Destacker, someone who I was aware was a good player, he had me covered by about half a big blind and he was thinking about his decision, I was praying for him to fold as I figured I was flipping at best, but he called with AQ and flopped 2 pair and I was out for just over $3k.

The Masters final table was a defining moment for me, I purchased a new laptop to ensure I wasn't having connection troubles so I wouldn't miss any hands but also I started to move away from my tight ABC game. Two weeks after I won a $10 buyin 477 runner turbo for just over $1k, I had been pushing a range of hands which I would normally have insta mucked and I was getting lots of folds. A lot of players argue there is no skill in turbos, but this is certainly not true, they reward aggression and sound BRM as players with those skills will push the thin edges that exist in turbos, sure the variance in them is high but there can be just as much value in them as regular MTTs as so many players fail to adapt. I was pushing lots of hands approaching the final table and I got lucky 2 or 3 times when running into a big hand but I felt that my approach was the best one and felt I deserved the win.

I still had a long way to go though, when making changes to your game it is easy to relapse into old habits and I would do this frequently, or I would try and play aggressive and I would pick the wrong spots or run into hands and I would get disheartened. Life is a lot like this, if you are trying to quit smoking or intending to go the gym regularly it can be very difficult to stick to it, especially if the results of your efforts are not apparent as soon as you had hoped. I had a lot of leaks, examples being overplaying blind on blind hands, I was not bluffing enough postflop and I still didn't have clear hand ranges in my mind, should/when I play AJo UTG, when should I call a preflop raise with 66 in the small blind? I decided it was time to purchase another book; I had seen good reviews of the Harrington on Hold’Em Series and purchased copies from E-Bay. I feel these books are a must read for anyone who feels they are at a basic level of understanding of the game but who want to improve. These books won't make you a world beater - most of the successful players have read them and the game has moved on and become a lot more aggressive since, but they should certainly open your eyes and help identify where your game could be improved. They provide a solid foundation from which you can learn and adapt to suit your own style. I learnt about ideas such as M and inflexion points and these helped me take my game up another level in 2010..... 

Pre 2008

I want to try and give a brief summary of all my poker playing days for completeness, however as this all happened years ago I only have my memory to go on so some details may be vague or slightly inaccurate, hopefully as I my entries get closer to the present they will become more detailed so bear with me on the older ones :-)

I first started playing poker while studying for my A-levels, our group started out playing other card games for fun but eventually started playing 5 card draw for small stakes. We didn't want to get caught with money on the table so we kept score on a notepad and settled at the end of each week. We had a £5 cap which only resulted in almost every hand getting capped, it was fairly easy to make money at this by simply waiting for big hands and capping the action as someone would always call! 

When I went to university I didn't play much poker at all, other than the odd occasion for 1/2p stakes, the most popular card game was hearts which I seemed to come out on top of more often than not by making a few simple deductions about the way my friends would play and also counting the suits to help determine what was left, this can be crucial in hearts if you want to avoid collecting tricks you need to ensure that you either have a lower ranked card of the leading suit or have none of that suit. There were times when I could almost name the last 2 or 3 remaining cards in some opponents hands just because of the way the round had developed and the predictable nature of their play.

Along with hearts I had also discovered games such as internet chess, dominoes and pool which I would use as an active excuse to avoid studying my boring maths course. I soon discovered an advert for an online poker room on the ongame network and I joined up and starting playing Hold'Em for play money. Back then online MTTs were still in Beta stage so I played ring games and due to the nature of play money it was very easy to win. 

Once I left university I began searching for a job, but in the meantime I was making some small cash playing the freerolls (back then $1,000 freerolls were not uncommon on poker sites) my biggest freeroll win was $75 and I was continuing to play a very tight game that had served me during my A-Level years and this style helped reduce variance and my winnings lasted for a few months. Eventually I got a job and made my first real money deposit and continued with a tight game, this was serving me well for making my roll last and I was making very small profits but I was basically relying on cards, I remember once folding A9o on the cut-off when it had been folded to me and I had 8bb, it turned out that the blinds both had big hands and I would have lost so I felt my move was correct but have since learnt that results based thinking is not the way forward for a serious poker player.

At this point I had never read a poker book/magazine or seen any strategy forum and was essentially in my own vacuum, believing that I had an edge in the game due to my mathematical knowledge. I had an understanding of pot odds through statistic courses so I was not chasing draws in bad spots. It wasn't all good news though as my maths was blinding me to some facts about poker, it was essentially a card game where cards usually don't matter. I was rarely bluffing, I hardly c-bet, I wasn't speculating with suited connectors preflop in good spots and I was folding good hands too often against a single opponent these were big leaks in my game and I often wonder how much I could have won in these early days if I had known then what I know now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it just shows how valuable experience and the willingness and ability to learn are if you want to be a successful poker player, it’s easy to learn the rules of Hold'Em but there are so many variables to it that there is always something to learn even for the most seasoned professionals.

I realised my game could be improved and so I withdrew a small amount of money and got into a habit of buying some poker magazines and also purchased my first book which was The Theory of Poker by Sklansky, it seemed like an ideal book to start with given my ability to deal with formulae and it helped me solidify my existing knowledge and also introduced new concepts to me such as implied odds which I hadn't really considered before. Thus I started to call in spots where I wouldn't have previously where I felt the implied odds were good, although I was still a tight player this minor change proved to be the first significant improvement in my game and I saw an almost instant impact in early 2008......

Welcome to Foxes Never Quit

So I finally decided to join the blogging world, after much deliberation and procrastination I have finally decided that a blog will help me improve my game and if a few people enjoy reading some of it then that is a pleasant side effect. My first blog is going to be a bit of background information on myself, so largely dull and uninspiring but nonetheless a good starting point for me.

For those that don't know me at all or that well, my name is Kevin and I am a part time poker player, I mainly play at PKR under the alias ForFoxSake, but I also have accounts at some other sites under slightly different names. I also love Leicester City Football Club, which in part explains my username and the title of this blog, Foxes Never Quit is something of a motto with LCFC, the ups and downs of the club's fortunes in recent years has tested many a loyal supporter, but that is part of the enjoyment for me, you never know what the team will produce next, unlike supporting a club like Manchester United, where it's expected that they will win all the time. I suppose poker is the same, if we were to win every session we played it would become monotonous (although the steady stream of winnings would more than compensate!), basically we have to suffer the downs so that we can truly appreciate the better times.

I am not going to write my life story but I studied A-levels and went to university to study a BSc in Mathematics, although I didn't particularly enjoy the subject matter it was something I have always been good at, I am a natural problem solver and quick calculator and I love games of logic, so it was only a matter of time before I discovered poker.

I started playing 5 card draw during my A-levels but it was only once I finished university that I started playing online poker, I started out as a very tight player who enjoyed a new found hobby and was breaking even. After winning a small MTT I decided to try and take it a little more seriously and purchased Sklansky's theory of poker and soon after the Harrington on Holdem series. Since then my game has improved steadily although I still have much to learn, poker is an ever evolving game and it's important to continue to learn and adapt, sadly this is one thing that has been lacking in my game recently, I have been playing too much at the expense of reviewing my sessions and finding new material to absorb. I am in the middle of a terrible downswing (isn't every poker player!) and I am not enjoying the game right now. This is where I hope the blog will help, I will be able to post recent results as well as the odd hand and I hope this will encourage me to review and improve and help me rediscover my former love of the game.

This first entry is short, but its a key milestone for me in that I have started my blog and I have planned for the next series of blogs to be short summaries of my poker over recent years.

For those that want to read a little more here is my player profile on PKR.

Until next time I wish you lots of good luck on and off the tables, I warmly welcome any comments and feedback you may have :-)