The holidays have come and gone, but the 1/2 cent grinder continues his struggles for the top, and it has led to recent profitable results. From when we last met, I have found out the joys of different games and the profitability of sngs. My first big break came about 3 weeks ago, when i placed 3rd in a 10 cent, 360 man sng on Stars for 4 dollars. This win propelled me into the joys of multi-tabling these sngs, where I am averaging a final table every 4 tournies, to make it a profitable experience. However, my biggest discovery over the holidays has been 1/2 cent plo and plo h/l. Steve Zolotow talked about in Super System 2 about learning all the games or broadening your range. I felt that a basic knowledge of all of the games would be fine, and by sticking to the fundamentals outlined in poker books, I have gained from the experience. I take for example this hand from my plo experience. I was utg with AA45 nut clubs, and i flatted for 2 cents. I feel like people overvalue aces, if you don't flop a nut draw or at least a set, what can they be possibly worth to you? Granted, the way people play at these levels, they may be considered the nuts in every situation, but I have come to the realization that this should not be the way I play the game. Anyways, its a 6 handed table so everyone limps in and the flop comes Jc10c4s. This was within my criteria for a good flop, but it was not a made hand yet so I checked in 3rd position. Everyone checked to the button who bets out pot. My read so far on this guy is that he liked to make positional stabs at the pot whenever it was checked around to him, but he could of had 2 pairs or a set here and was defending. However, considering my hand was not yet made I just flatted again as did the cutoff. The turn comes the 2 of hearts, giving me a gutshot as well as the nut flush draw. With a potential 9 outs to make the flush and the 4 3's to make a straight, I decided to make a blocker bet of of about 1/2 pot to see if the set was out there. I fired 26 cents into the 48 cent middle, and i get flat called by both men. Now, unless these players are really bad and don't re-raise with a set their, which would be a terrible play given the drawy nature of the board, I can assume that the button may have a hand like AQJK or something like that and I put the cutoff on 2 pairs or an inferior flush draw. There is no justification for a flat there with a set, and my pair of aces may even be good here, which is a sick thing. Anyways, river comes the 9 of clubs, giving me the ace high flush. Now, I am thinking to myself what people will call to pay me off. There's about 1.10 in the middle now and i started off the hand with about 3. I bet slightly more than half pot, about 60 cents. However, before i can even put my money in, the cutoff has repotted all in and the button has called all in. That makes for about a 5 dollar pot, and it looks like an instant given my reads, but then i think to myself, what the hell can he instant pot with if he thinks i've got the nut flush. I'm getting 3.5 to 1 on a call with the nut flush, but then it hits me, Jc10C9c...their is a possibility of a straight flush out their. The cutoff could of had a hand like kq98 with the q8 of clubs or something like that and drew into the nuts. Even with such a good price, and only 2 hands that could have me beat, I typed in the chat box "donkey/genius fold of the ace high flush" and threw it away. And guess what, the cutoff shows Qc8cKhAh for the nuts and the button mucks Kc3c5d6d for the 2nd nut flush. Granted, after looking at it a bit it seemed like an easy fold given the action and what was out there, but at the time it seemed a whole lot more difficult. The straight flush guy told me "gf" in the chat box, and if I can get the respect of my peers, than that's all that matters. However, in the 20000-30000 odd hands I played, I stuck to Hold'em a lot, meeting some interesting opponents along the way. I'll give you a couple of hands as an example, I was playing 6-handed 1-2 cent NL that was pretty loose, so I was being conservative. The guy 2 places to my left was called five_duece, and I looked online to see that he had been playing 12 sngs, but that was like 6 months ago. I began chatting it up with this guy, who seemed nice at the time and I asked him about his name. He told me that the first hand he ever won at poker was with the 5-2 off and that he always played it, no matter what the action was like in front. I found this to be peculiar but he said that it was the "greatest hand ever!" Anyways, about 30 hands later, the same guy raises 4.5 times the bb (9 cents) from the cutoff and the bb calls. Flop was 57K and as the bb checks, five_duece leads out for 12 cents, the bb calls. Turn is a 9 (rainbow board), bb checks again and deuce bets out 26 cents this time, to which the bb folds. Now, from my own personal observations, this guy had raised almost no times preflop and was not a continuation bettor, so this seemed odd to me that all of a sudden he had become so aggressive. However, his biggest mistake was showing the 5c2h that he had and proceeding to tell me "See, I told you it was the best hand." Now, while re-reading Super System 2 over the holidays, i remembered the section on Recall, and analyzing differences in your opponents patterns to use them later on in profitable situations. I was about to put this theory to good use. At the start of this next hand, we both had about 5 dollars and i got 9s in the bb. Wouldn't you know it, five_duece comes out with his 9 cent bet that I had only seen once before when I was in the bb. Knowing I could extract more if I let him lead, I just flatted and we went headsup. The flop came 95K, rainbow, pretty much a dream for me and he led out 14 cents this time, in a weak attempt at variance. I just flat again, letting him think that he's leading the action. Turn is a 2, and I think thats the best card in the deck. He bets out 28 cents and I knew I had to raise here, but I didn't know how much. This could be a scenario where I need help, but I min raised him back to 56 cents in an attempt to entice. This worked pretty well, as he shoved all in here with a furious overbet. Sure, KK crossed my mind, but I felt that my buddy was dependable so I called. river was a Q and he rolls over the 52, while I show him my set of 9s. He gets so mad that he starts calling me a fucking donkey and a luckbox and all this crap, and I just sit there and don't say a thing. He eventually left, and I raked in a 10 dollar pot at 1/2 cent, all thanks to my use of recall. Its been a great ride so far, and I want to try some 1.10 tournies but we will see how the coming weeks come as school is back in session, but it feels good when you make a read and its right. But that's just poker, and I am just a 1/2 cent grinder. Bankroll: 61.48 Holdem Hands Played: 20174 Omaha Hands Played: 8490

My name is Jeff Hunter, 22, just out of university and still planning to teach as my full time career. I first stumbled upon pocketfives under the advice from a friend a couple of years ago, but I never really got it. Besides, all it seemed to be at that time was just a listing of the best internet poker players at the time. I never took a chance to look at the forums and that was my fault, but recently i've started to get back into poker and wanted to outline my pursuits to the world. This is not my full time career, I do not have any notions that this could become that, but I am just a recreational player whose trying to develop my skills further to make this a profitable side venture. However, I was unwilling to put any money into my account because I didn't want to risk anything, so I started the freeroll grind.
Granted, from experience, I can certainly say that this was not the most profitable solution for me, because you cant play sophisticated poker against weaker players. They just assume that because they have bottom pair on a 3 heart board with no heart in their hand that they must be good, so while you may go in a favourite, they still manage to hold. Sure, I won my share of tickets of pokerstars, but it never produced anything major. Yet, through the acquisition of 8 tickets, I manged to scrap together about 5 bucks in the various weeklies, usually never getting anywhere too deep. And thus began my cash table journey at the seemingly lowest of the low, the 1/2 cent tables.
Through my basic poker knowledge and having read through Super System and Super System 2, I knew that bankroll management and straightforward play could usually lead to profit at these levels, but I was unaware of the minefield that presented itself. I popped in a dollar, trying to control my bankroll, however miniscule it was, and sat down to an amazing scene. High stakes players say they don't get excited about winning the money, its all about beating the best players in the world. Go to the other end of the spectrum however, and your praised for acquiring 5 cents. Anyways, about 20 hands or so in, i was up about 19 cents when i got qq on the button at a 6-man table. UTG raised to 7 cents, player next to him 3 bets and the cutoff 4 bets. Logic of course told me that my queens were no good so i folded. Both the blinds folded and UTG went all in for like 1.50, the other two shoved in smaller stacks. I prepared to congratulate myself for a good fold as an a56106 board peeled off...I mean, logic has never been proven illogical before....except at a 1/2 game. UTG showed 33, guy beside him showed 44 and the cutoff shows 78 suited! I could not believe it, I could not justify it, but I soon realized that most players at this level think that suited connectors and small pairs are the nuts. While sophisticated folds may always be the case at higher stakes, I found out that you have to be willing to gamble in the right spots to make any sort of headway.
But thats just poker, and I am just a 1/2 cent grinder.

Bankroll: 6.89
Hands Played: 174