Bickmat's Razz Poker journey

Well had my first razz coaching session with Dan Abrams aka Dr Razz. Dan is also the new Razz coach on www.stoxpoker.com and has his first video uploaded. Soon as I have time I'm going to sign up their as well. That should help with my holdem sit and go game as well.

Dan gave me some razz homework to get a baseline on how I would play different hands. I did fairly well but missed a few questions.

We then went over the ones I missed and he explained the logic of what the correct action was. There where no big thunderbolts of understanding but I'm not expecting there to be. It's more of a matter of getting the last few percentage points out of razz which involves more subtleties than a ritual formula for 'do this when this happens' rule set.

Anyways my next assignment is to put together some hand histories for him to review and critique.

On the poker front had another losing session. At this point I'm hoping once I stabalize my game I'll get back to posting regular wins. We'll see.

Normally I stick to heads up razz games. I thought I would try ring games and ended up with dismal results.

So for the next week or so am going to stick to the heads up sng to replenish the bankroll.

I had a few questions about the coaching I am doing with Dan Abrams aka Dr Razz. My first session should be later this week and post on how it goes.

Did a withdrawal to cover some razz poker coaching.

Edit: Someone asked who the coach was:

Dan Abrams aka Dr Razz (SGSpecial) - Personalized poker tutor at http://www.3-bet.net

As you know I've been trying the NL sit and gos and at this point am a losing player there. So I've been playing the razz heads up sit and gos and investing the profits into holdem.

Was mildly surprised when I went to make my blog post for the day and discovered I actually had a winning session last night.

I'm also going to withdraw some in order to pay for some razz poker coaching. I think I've got a decent game currently but want to take it to the next level and there just is not a lot of info on razz out there.

Played a little bit last night and was fairly successfull.

Played a $10 and $30 sit and go consecutively and won the $10 and lost the $30.

While these games where going on I played a $5 no limit holdem sit and go. I was doing well and had a massive 10k chip lead versus 2k at the end. But I ended up takeing second due to some freak suckouts. In one case I flop a set og 6's go all in and get called and my opponent catches a runner runner straight. In another case I flop 2 pair and again my opponent catches a river river straight. So a very dissapointing finish.

Was about to go to bed when I saw a lone player the the $15-30 table. I've done well against this player before so sat down. Was up when a new player sat down so I cautiously stayed in and then SGSpecial - aka Dr Razz sat down. I sat out and watched him beat up on the two other players (busting one) before calling it quits.

I was in Cancun all last week for a company conference. I mostly played $30 razz heads up sit and gos and $5 nolimit holdem sit and gos.

I'm definitely losing money with the holdem sit and gos and winning money with the razz ones. I have been improving in the holdem sit and gos and have started to hit 3rd or 4th place fairly consistently.

So at this point I'm investing my profits from my razz game into holdem. Once I can show a sustained profit at the $5 no limit holdem level I'll move up to the $10 level.

Well I bottomed out at about $950 this week but think I've managed to get myself out of the rut I was in. Basically I'm reining in some of my aggression and playing more tightly.

I've also been grinding out the $20 and $30 sit and gos which has been pretty easy. My win rate is about 60% on those.

I also plan on doing some work this week on the hand parser that I've been talking about . My first goal is to parse out the Heads up Sit & go matches.

Saw a post on thepokerenthisast.blogspot.com that he is hosting a private razz tournament on Full Tilt

When: October 19th at 22:15 (that is 9:15 central time)
What: Razz Tournament #29111966 (10/19/07 22:15ET)
Where: Full Tilt under private tournaments
Buy-in: $5+.50
Password: pokere

I don't even what to talk about it. I'm just going to post the numbers.

Well saw goodhand168 and tried him again. I ended up lossing by a single card almost every time. More than once I had 3 babies in the hole and he would defend a k and draw out on me so very frustrating loss.