FTP

FTP stands for a few things: Foster the People, something you use to transfer files, and an anti-police slogan to mention but three. It also stands for Full Tilt Poker, and guess what, Poker Stars have just bought the site and might be getting my $1446 back that I'd almost given up on having tried to cash out last June. This is excellent news for everybody with money locked up on the site.

Sixty-nine, dude!

Monday night was a good one for me. I made $84, mostly in two short sessions of 25c/50c single draw on Poker Stars. Here are three of Monday's hands:

Hand 1
Donkery was living up to his name. The more I saw him play, the more I wished I'd called the four-bet with the advantage of position.

PokerStars Game #52356126865: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/11/08 0:47:55 ET
Table 'Aguilar' 7-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: papasipeye ($57.05 in chips)
Seat 2: Speedy_PT ($49.50 in chips)
Seat 3: got2Bnow ($11.20 in chips)
Seat 4: Donkery ($18.65 in chips)
Seat 5: plutoman20 ($28.15 in chips)
Seat 7: jkyb ($52.75 in chips)
Speedy_PT: posts small blind $0.25
got2Bnow: posts big blind $0.50
wk20a: sits out
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [Th 8c 2s 6h 3s]
Donkery: raises $1.50 to $2
plutoman20: raises $4 to $6
jkyb: folds
papasipeye: folds
Speedy_PT: folds
got2Bnow: folds
Donkery: raises $12.65 to $18.65 and is all-in
plutoman20: folds
Uncalled bet ($12.65) returned to Donkery
Donkery collected $12.75 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.75 Rake $0
Seat 1: papasipeye (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Speedy_PT (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: got2Bnow (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Donkery collected ($12.75)
Seat 5: plutoman20 folded before Flop
Seat 7: jkyb folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Hand 2
This was the big one. It had shades of that $100 pot I played a few weeks ago. Pre-draw, wk20a could have had anything up to a ten, but when he bet on the end, I expected to have the second-best hand. What would I have done if I'd hit a nine (which, as it turns out, would have been enough)? I really don't know.

PokerStars Game #52356177524: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/11/08 0:50:23 ET
Table 'Aguilar' 7-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: papasipeye ($57.05 in chips)
Seat 2: Speedy_PT ($48.50 in chips)
Seat 3: got2Bnow ($8.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Donkery ($26.10 in chips)
Seat 5: plutoman20 ($23.50 in chips)
Seat 6: wk20a ($19.25 in chips)
Seat 7: jkyb ($53.85 in chips)
jkyb: posts small blind $0.25
papasipeye: posts big blind $0.50
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [5s Ac 4h 2s 8c]
Speedy_PT: raises $1 to $1.50
got2Bnow: calls $1.50
Donkery: raises $2 to $3.50
plutoman20: calls $3.50
wk20a: raises $8.50 to $12
jkyb: folds
papasipeye: folds
papasipeye said, "nice hand"
jkyb said, "thsi a big one"
Speedy_PT: calls $10.50
got2Bnow: folds
Donkery: calls $8.50
jkyb said, "wow"
plutoman20 said, "guess i've got the odds"
plutoman20: calls $8.50
Speedy_PT: discards 1 card
Donkery: discards 1 card
plutoman20: discards 1 card [Ac]
Dealt to plutoman20 [5s 4h 2s 8c] [7d]
wk20a: stands pat
Speedy_PT: checks
Donkery: checks
plutoman20: checks
wk20a: bets $7.25 and is all-in
Speedy_PT: calls $7.25
Donkery: folds
plutoman20 said, "87 dammit"
plutoman20: calls $7.25
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wk20a: shows [6c 9h 8d 2d 3h] (Lo: 9,8,6,3,2)
Speedy_PT: mucks hand
plutoman20: shows [5s 7d 4h 2s 8c] (Lo: 8,7,5,4,2)
plutoman20 collected $69 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $72 Rake $3
Seat 1: papasipeye (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Speedy_PT mucked [6d 4c 7c Ts 2c]
Seat 3: got2Bnow folded before Flop
Seat 4: Donkery folded on the Flop
Seat 5: plutoman20 showed [5s 7d 4h 2s 8c] and won ($69) with Lo: 8,7,5,4,2
Seat 6: wk20a (button) showed [6c 9h 8d 2d 3h] and lost with Lo: 9,8,6,3,2
Seat 7: jkyb (small blind) folded before Flop

Hand 3
This was the very first hand of the second session. I'd had my eye on this table for a little while and Donkery was seemingly betting and raising willy-nilly. Here he might have remembered the earlier hand where I folded to his four-bet and thought I'd do the same again, but this time I estimated his range at anything from the nuts to a royal flush. I'm ahead of the majority of that, so I decide to gamble. He had a nine draw, and thankfully missed it.

PokerStars Game #52357702451: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/11/08 2:19:35 ET
Table 'Aguilar' 7-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: papasipeye ($65.95 in chips)
Seat 2: elchino_007 ($64.40 in chips)
Seat 3: BOOTS1918 ($75.90 in chips)
Seat 4: Donkery ($37.65 in chips)
Seat 5: plutoman20 ($30 in chips)
Seat 6: kdogg224 ($8.10 in chips)
Seat 7: cielorazzo12 ($81.85 in chips)
Donkery: posts small blind $0.25
plutoman20: posts big blind $0.50
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [5d 2d 9s 6c Td]
kdogg224: folds
cielorazzo12: calls $0.50
papasipeye: folds
elchino_007: folds
BOOTS1918: folds
Donkery said, "change your name deck"
Donkery: raises $5 to $5.50
plutoman20: raises $8.50 to $14
cielorazzo12: folds
BOOTS1918 said, "what"
Donkery: raises $23.65 to $37.65 and is all-in
plutoman20: calls $16 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($7.65) returned to Donkery
Donkery: discards 1 card
plutoman20: stands pat on [5d 2d 9s 6c Td]
elchino_007 said, "LOL"
BOOTS1918 said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donkery: shows [7s 3s Ac 2c 9d] (Lo: A,9,7,3,2)
plutoman20: shows [5d 2d 9s 6c Td] (Lo: T,9,6,5,2)
BOOTS1918 said, " idiot"
plutoman20 collected $57.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $60.50 Rake $3
Seat 1: papasipeye folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: elchino_007 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: BOOTS1918 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Donkery (small blind) showed [7s 3s Ac 2c 9d] and lost with Lo: A,9,7,3,2
Seat 5: plutoman20 (big blind) showed [5d 2d 9s 6c Td] and won ($57.50) with Lo: T,9,6,5,2
Seat 6: kdogg224 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: cielorazzo12 folded before Flop

The Full Tilt single draw games run at smaller stakes, right down to the 2c/5c blind level. They also feature antes of half the small blind (or slightly less in some cases). I think this is a good thing as it promotes action; there is sometimes a distinct lack of that in the 25c/50c games on Stars (although not on Monday night!).
Lower stakes mean you can experiment a bit (particularly with bluffs) without risking too much. Of course the small stakes also mean you're more likely to get called.
In a 10c/20c game on Full Tilt on Monday night, we were heads-up to the draw, he drew two and I drew one, pairing my six. I bluffed my pair, he then check-raised me, I folded, then he showed me two tens!
In a 5c/10c game last night I four-bet pre-draw out of position with a very pretty looking "skip straight flush", J9753, all hearts. My opponent had been three-betting liberally, and the last time I'd four-bet I'd had a pat 8-7. He folded. If he'd reraised again I'd have let my hand go; had he called I'd have patted and bombed the pot after the draw.

Draw on Full Tilt

Full Tilt, the world’s second-biggest online poker site, introduced draw games last Friday. This potential bonanza had been talked about for a while, but no dates were ever mentioned so I wasn’t exactly holding my breath. Then suddenly, it happened. My intention was never to deposit ever again, but the opportunity to make money from these new games seemed too good to pass up, so I transferred $600 onto the site. Now is a great time for Kiwis and Aussies to deposit (with the NZ dollar at almost 80c and the Aussie at parity against the greenback) and a horrible time to cash out.

So far it hasn’t turned to the cash cow I was hoping, although I had a busy weekend so I couldn’t play many hands. I started with $1-$2 badugi – one of my bread-and-butter games on Poker Stars – but I dumped $42.50 in that game in double-quick time. The play was far more aggressive than I’m used to on Stars – capped pots pre-draw with nobody pat were fairly standard – so it was high-variance stuff. I probably misplayed two or three hands and got a bit unlucky when my pat tens ran into better pats and people hit sevens and eights with their two-card draws.

I’ve also tried KCL (they have that at lower stakes than on Stars) and ace-to-five triple draw, a new game for me. Ace-to-five appears a less interesting game than deuce-to-seven but it has the potential to be profitable because my opponents might not know what they’re doing. There is one major snag however: I might not know what I’m doing either. Here’s my take on strategy so far:

• People tend to overvalue hands in this game. Something like 7643A isn’t as good as it looks. It’s number 14, equivalent to 87632 in 2-7 (in fact it’s even worse than that – see below). So by drawing to fives and sixes, people will pay off multiple big bets when you hit.
  
• Why is an A-5 hand worse than its 2-7 equivalent? Well, you’ll see monster hands more often in A-5 (that’s a scary fact given how often people show up with a wheel in 2-7). Take two-card draws to the nuts for instance. In both games there are ten of these, but in 2-7 some of them (namely 754, 753, 743 and 543) are unplayable unless you’re in position or can get in cheaply from the blinds; they can make the nuts but they can also make disasters. So a lot of these nut draws (and other things like 764 and 653) are folded from the start and never materialise. In contrast, it seems you can open any two-card wheel draw in A-5, from any position (I might be wrong about this). There’s also the fact that flushes count against you in 2-7, although the effect of this would seem to be small.
  
• On the subject of two-card draws, 62A (which can make nos. 2, 3, 4, 12, 13 and 16) appears to be better than 543 (which can make 1, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 21). They both seem playable in any position. Conversely, 72A (which can make 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16) doesn’t look as good as 654 (4, 5, 6, 19, 20 and 21). I don’t think you should play either of those out of position.
  
• I’m still not sure what to do with one-card seven draws like 732A and 762A. I’d be more inclined to break the latter but I guess you should probably break both pre-draw if it’s multi-way. I’d be hard pushed to break a dealt pat seven.
  
• On the last draw in 2-7, a pat jack is a favourite over a one-card draw. In A-5 you need a pat ten to be a favourite. But in both games it can often be close to a coin flip, and if you’ve got a big draw beneath your top card you should probably go for the monster.
  
• In A-5 the likelihood is that someone will hit a hand before the last draw, so there are fewer opportunities to bluff on the end (or to snow) than in 2-7.