Thursday, November 1, 2007

Cake Challenge Update - Ryan

Current Total: $85.57

Cake Challenge Hand Notes

Working the slow climb. Some thoughts…

Accepting and embracing your expected return rate and being happy with it is key to having the right Zen attitude for the Cake Challenge. I suppose that is part of ignoring the stakes overall. Thinking, “I just doubled up a buyin!” feels way better than, “I just won $4!” I have to take my satistfaction in the steady climb relative to where I started, not in how much it represents in US dollars. My worst session since my last update happened when I saw dollars and cents and not BBs and Buyins.

Tracking players and taking notes is another key to success, and one I haven’t been doing enough of. When a player three bets preflop, gets put all in, and instacalls with A9s, you have to make a note of that. When a player overbets all in preflop and shows KK, you have to make a note of that. Know your fish and know your sharks.

Speaking of player notes, correctly responding to and correctly making huge overbets is critial, and building books on other players will make a huge difference there. As I said in some hand notes, it’s like half the table plays like SLP-era Noah. All-in overbets happen all the time, and having some sense of who does that with the nuts, who does that with marginal hands, and who mixes it up a bit is a big factor.

So, I ran into Brad, former SLP player, on Cake last night! I’d mentioned our blog to him in an email, so he must be lurking about around here, and decided to jump on to Cake (or, it’s quite a coincidence if he was a Cake player before). Come on Brad, come out of the shadows and post a comment! If you are doing a Cake Challenge of your own, we want to hear about it!

9 comments:

Marshall said...

Notes for MalakiCnstnt: Habitual Slowplayer LOL.

I have been taking not so detailed notes on many of the players I recognize at my tables too. I try not to be too general, I just put what they did with a specific hand, and when. A typical note will be:

"over bet preflop with KK, then jammed on an A high flop."

I don't want to catch someone on tilt and make a generalization about them that costs me one or two big pots later.

Ryan said...

Yes, good point. Note-taking is important, but note the move they just made specifically, don't make a sweeping generalization based on one hand. If it starts to build a pattern, then you can delete the specifics and replace it with a well-founded generalization.

jsola said...

Yeah that's what I tend to do.

What kind of things do you people take notes on?

My most common notes are things like:
* hasn't played a hand in x orbits
* limp/call
* limp/fold
* 3 bets me light

Eventually if I play with someone long enough I'll boil those down into an all-caps generalization like "STATION" or "AGGRO DONK."

Austin said...

I don't have permission to view your spreadsheet anymore, did something change?

brad said...

ok, out of the shadows...

i've been eavesdropping on TNP for about a month, and i signed up for cake about 10 days ago.

wasn't sure if i'd have time for the challenge. hence, the shadows.

but i've had quite a bit of time this week, and i've worked my $50 up to $99.83.

ryan -- hook me up with posting permissions here. i'll probably chime in from time to time. although, with my 3 jobs and graduate school, my energy for blogging is pretty minimal.

Marshall said...

Wow what stakes are you playing Brad?

Ryan said...

I ran into Brad at .02/.04, so I believe he is taking something close to Ferguson's approach.

And yes, I hate both you guys, Marsh for Crushing me completely, and Brad for passing me in a week...

brad said...

I'm at .02/.04

I think I'm following about the same rules as everyone else: Max buyin of 5% of my bankroll, and I leave the table if I get up to 10%.

I had a LOT of time this week, though, and was multi-tabling most of the time, so I've played 1700 hands already. All but 50 hands were at 10-seat NLH tables.

Marshall said...

Well done sir. Props.