A bit of an update ...

Eew, I can hardly believe how long it is since I updated my blog! ...

Since my last entry, with the exception of playing in some "coolers" (single-table SNG's with ten players and five equal prizes for 1st-5th, known at PokerStars as "double or quits", and really very easy money indeed - at least for the lower-stake games, if approached with patience and discipline and without bluffing), all I've been playing is triple-draw.

Mind you, I have played over 10,000 hands now, and shown a profit (mostly when I'm "supposed" be writing up my PhD thesis!). After playing 10,000+ hands, I've now re-read Negreanu, realised I did not understand most of it on an initial reading, and started to understand it. So the plan now is to play about another 10,000 hands and then re-read it for a third time ...

The standard of play in this game at PokerStars is, shall we say, "very mixed".

I'm playing $2/$4 limit when I can, sometimes $1/$2 or $3/$6 if that's what available.

It's really a wonderful game, much more intricate and skilful than it looks at first, second or third glance, and very interesting. Meanwhile, I will - as they say - "draw to smooth hands"!

More Triple-draw

Since my last post nearly a week ago, I have played nothing but triple-draw and a few holdem SNG's (with nothing much to report from the latter: progress continues).

Triple-draw is a brilliant game, far more complicated than it at first appears. Like the best new plays, it has a bit of everything: twists and turns in all the right places, suspense and excitement galore and sometimes a devastating dénouement.

I've made little financial progress overall, but I'm learning the game.

The standard of play in the low-stakes PokerStars games is absolutely dreadful, and in the higher stake limit games seems excellent. Ideally I'd like to be playing $2/$4 limit, but there isn't always a game at the times of day I can manage. When the choice is between $0.25/$0.50 limit and $30/$60 limit, what can you do?

Triple-draw 2-7 small blind: hand-selection

So, I am learning to play Triple-Draw 2-7 Lowball, which is wonderful. You can read a bit about it here.

My primary source of information on how to play this game is Daniel Negreanu's long chapter on it in the new edition of Doyle Brunson's poker book, and there are also articles by Mark Gritter (who very kindly replied to my pestering message requesting information) and others here, and some more listed here.

I am short of insights into hand selection in the small blind. Negreanu considers "playing from the blinds" more or less as an entity and says comparatively little specific to the small blind position. If everyone's folded up to you in the small blind, it seems fairly clear that one should expand one's range for raising, in an attempt to win the BB. My concern relates more to situations in which one or two have called before you. Position being so important in this game, and the SB being the worst position for future betting rounds, it seems that the opposite might be the case, if anything. Even if one is "getting good odds" in the sense that one has made half a bet already, it seems that one loses more than one gains by calling with a normal sort of "opening range".

At the moment I'm raising (and re-raising) in this position with two-card wheel draws and one-card smooth 8-draws, and folding more or less everything else, if one or two other players have already called/raised. (I almost never call before the first draw: if I don't want to raise or re-raise, I fold). But I'm thinking this must be a little bit too conservative? If anyone has any insights to offer, or wants to discuss it, they're more than welcome to reply here as a "comment" (click where it says "komentari" below - comments are moderated), or perhaps more easily just to email me (address shown in the sidebar on the right), or even to reply to my thread in the 2+2 poker forum, and thanks in advance!

But much more importantly, I have very recently acquired a wonderful dress, which was made in France, in the 1930's (I think), and it's a glittery one! It's being altered for me as I write this!