i've been playing quite steadily of late and spent even more time working on my game. so far i've been putting all my time in at 25plo which is the lowest i've ever played. something i've figured out about myself though is that i tend to jump into things head first, get overwhelmed, get frustrated and move onto something else. if i look back at prior times when i've taken shots learning plo i've started off playing 6 tables or something stupid at 100plo, lost a ton and couldn't understand why (thought i was playing pretty good) and then quit saying that game has too much variance and is stupid...
so this time i'm starting out at rock bottom, and expecting to lose. it's only natural that i lose to begin with because even though players are playing poorly at this level, so am i, just in a different way. playing this low has also helped me get used to the inevitable swings in plo so going forward i'm hoping to be a little more thick skinned towards the uppers and downers.
overall im putting more effort away from the table than ever before. to truly get good at this game (or any game) i have to increase my study when not playing. typically i've always watched training videos but i generally don't pick much up. this time around I started taking detailed notes on some series which i've kinda phased out of since it was taking me around 3-4 hours to watch a 50 min video. instead i am focusing on the concepts in the videos and generally taking a lot more away from them than i used to. i've also spent some time going through articles and plo ebooks highlighting important concepts and reviewing them periodically to keep them fresh in my mind. lastly im working a lot more with holdem manager to review hh's and try to plug leaks after play as well as figure out equities since it's entirely different than holdem.
i guess one more thing is i'm working with a coach as well and he's the best coach i've ever had, by far. i think as long as i'm working with him, working hard away from the table and playing focused i'm going to be a tough son of a bitch at the tables.
tg
Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
what could have changed?
haven't blogged in 2 months which is a record for laziness. this will all change though.
last time i blogged i was grinding mtt's, committed to them and had set my one of my only goals for the year as "keep playing mtt's".
well 2 months later and i am no longer playing any mtt's. true to form i've once again switched my specialty so to speak. it wasn't anything in particular that made me give up mtt's again, i really just stopped enjoying them. i guess the one thing was the time requirement that it took to play and i had a lot of weekends where i was sitting at my computer at 11pm one tabling some donkament. i also got a little tired of staying up work night till 2am only to min cash some $20 tournament.
so one day when i only had about 2 hours of free time i started messing with some mix cash games and low and behold i fell in love with the freedom to get up and go whenever i chose. i slowly started dabbling in the mix games and would still play mtt's but it was getting harder. i would sit down for a session and just pray that i busted everything quickly. while playing some micro stake mix games i realized how crucial the big bet games were to a win rate. i also realized that i had no clue how to play plo.
so fast forward a week and all of a sudden im playing a bunch of plo, trying to learn the game and now im not playing any mtt's and it just kinda took.
that's it for now, i'll explain further in my next blog.
tg
last time i blogged i was grinding mtt's, committed to them and had set my one of my only goals for the year as "keep playing mtt's".
well 2 months later and i am no longer playing any mtt's. true to form i've once again switched my specialty so to speak. it wasn't anything in particular that made me give up mtt's again, i really just stopped enjoying them. i guess the one thing was the time requirement that it took to play and i had a lot of weekends where i was sitting at my computer at 11pm one tabling some donkament. i also got a little tired of staying up work night till 2am only to min cash some $20 tournament.
so one day when i only had about 2 hours of free time i started messing with some mix cash games and low and behold i fell in love with the freedom to get up and go whenever i chose. i slowly started dabbling in the mix games and would still play mtt's but it was getting harder. i would sit down for a session and just pray that i busted everything quickly. while playing some micro stake mix games i realized how crucial the big bet games were to a win rate. i also realized that i had no clue how to play plo.
so fast forward a week and all of a sudden im playing a bunch of plo, trying to learn the game and now im not playing any mtt's and it just kinda took.
that's it for now, i'll explain further in my next blog.
tg
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
grinding
actually did some fair amount of grinding over the last weekend playing an extended schedule both friday and saturday nights generally reg'd for everything $33 and below, $10r and below on both stars and tilt between 8pm and 11pm. On saturday i also played some of the hyper turbo's to the $55 - 70k guarantee on stars as well as a sat to the ftp fifty fifty, getting into the stars and not the tilt.
friday was balls busting most everything and going semi deep in two only to get bounced late. saturday was much better and at some points i had 10 tourneys going and new ones popping up, i built stack in almost everything i played so set a overly optimistic goal of making 2 final tables.
i ended up pretty close, busting the daily double B on tilt in 17th and making the final table of the $55 on stars. the final 2 tables of that tourney was pretty intense and i felt the pressure more than i remember ever feeling before but still felt i played really well. when down to 12 handed the field was kinda tough with a couple supernova elites that obv knew their push/fold from sngs, a couple of regs that are solid mid stakes mtt grinders and then one dude that was just horrible but seemed extremely nice in chat. anyways, once we got down to 8 handed one reg started talking chop which i found surprising since the horrible player had the chip lead and i wasn't interested in giving up an edge although there was an over 10k discrepancy between 8th and 1st. anyways, bad chip leader shot down the chop right away saying there was no way he would chop so we played it out. i ended up busting 5th for 3.9k which i was very happy with although i had a legit shot at taking down the 13.5k for first. my two defining hands were a raised pot against the bad player who had defended his bb to my utg open 5 handed (never folded his blind) and i had AJo. flop comes down Q63r and since he had been doing a lot check/raising on flops i just checked it thru, hoping to induce bluffs on the turn. turn is an Ax and he checks again, i value bet and he snap calls. river is a second Qx and thinks for a second before potting it, effectively putting me all-in. really sucked and i had no time bank so didn't really get to deliberate the decision. even though he was bad i think he had to have QX or better like 85% of the time and then maybe a weak AX the other portion. soon after that i shoved A4o from the co w/ 11bb's and ran into AQs.
good boost to my br though and i have some stuff to look forward to soon that i'll detail in the next post.
tg
friday was balls busting most everything and going semi deep in two only to get bounced late. saturday was much better and at some points i had 10 tourneys going and new ones popping up, i built stack in almost everything i played so set a overly optimistic goal of making 2 final tables.
i ended up pretty close, busting the daily double B on tilt in 17th and making the final table of the $55 on stars. the final 2 tables of that tourney was pretty intense and i felt the pressure more than i remember ever feeling before but still felt i played really well. when down to 12 handed the field was kinda tough with a couple supernova elites that obv knew their push/fold from sngs, a couple of regs that are solid mid stakes mtt grinders and then one dude that was just horrible but seemed extremely nice in chat. anyways, once we got down to 8 handed one reg started talking chop which i found surprising since the horrible player had the chip lead and i wasn't interested in giving up an edge although there was an over 10k discrepancy between 8th and 1st. anyways, bad chip leader shot down the chop right away saying there was no way he would chop so we played it out. i ended up busting 5th for 3.9k which i was very happy with although i had a legit shot at taking down the 13.5k for first. my two defining hands were a raised pot against the bad player who had defended his bb to my utg open 5 handed (never folded his blind) and i had AJo. flop comes down Q63r and since he had been doing a lot check/raising on flops i just checked it thru, hoping to induce bluffs on the turn. turn is an Ax and he checks again, i value bet and he snap calls. river is a second Qx and thinks for a second before potting it, effectively putting me all-in. really sucked and i had no time bank so didn't really get to deliberate the decision. even though he was bad i think he had to have QX or better like 85% of the time and then maybe a weak AX the other portion. soon after that i shoved A4o from the co w/ 11bb's and ran into AQs.
good boost to my br though and i have some stuff to look forward to soon that i'll detail in the next post.
tg
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
2010
been getting deep in a lot of stuff recently when i have played which has not been often. i do tend to get a little lazy and complacent after a win which i think is natural but i will start ramping it back up again.
last night was my first session in a long while and i got beat up pretty good for the most part early. i played a session starting at 6pm which is a little earlier than usual and only reg'd up till 7:15. by 10pm i was 1 tabling the $11 20k guarantee (that gets like 35k i think) so i also fired up 3 tables of 100nl full ring on stars. managed to do the run good on that and made 3 buyins while i played the next hour. by 1am i was back 1 tabling and pretty deep but eventually bounced 24th/3200ish in an unfortunate flip. i had about 35bb's and min-raised a short stack shove w/ AKhh and funny enough i get flatted by the bb. flop is 8hi with my flush draw, there was a ton in the pot plus side pot so i shove and he calls w/ a slo played QQ and i bricked off. (fav on flop!)
i did have a final table last week when i came 7th in the $11 1r1a on stars for like $850. generally im pretty disappointed with a final table that results in a poor finish but i got it in pretty bad twice when i was ninja'ing a 6bb stack and got A7 thru A9 on a 9 hi flop and binked a set with 22 vs QQ. so even though i had the chip lead at one point at the final table i can't be to disappointed with the finish.
i also got deepish in a $10r on stars that had like 3500 entrants and busted 95th or so but that tourny had like a 15k first prize and 5 figure scores for the every spot in the final table.
on to 2010 and my goals are as follows:
tg
last night was my first session in a long while and i got beat up pretty good for the most part early. i played a session starting at 6pm which is a little earlier than usual and only reg'd up till 7:15. by 10pm i was 1 tabling the $11 20k guarantee (that gets like 35k i think) so i also fired up 3 tables of 100nl full ring on stars. managed to do the run good on that and made 3 buyins while i played the next hour. by 1am i was back 1 tabling and pretty deep but eventually bounced 24th/3200ish in an unfortunate flip. i had about 35bb's and min-raised a short stack shove w/ AKhh and funny enough i get flatted by the bb. flop is 8hi with my flush draw, there was a ton in the pot plus side pot so i shove and he calls w/ a slo played QQ and i bricked off. (fav on flop!)
i did have a final table last week when i came 7th in the $11 1r1a on stars for like $850. generally im pretty disappointed with a final table that results in a poor finish but i got it in pretty bad twice when i was ninja'ing a 6bb stack and got A7 thru A9 on a 9 hi flop and binked a set with 22 vs QQ. so even though i had the chip lead at one point at the final table i can't be to disappointed with the finish.
i also got deepish in a $10r on stars that had like 3500 entrants and busted 95th or so but that tourny had like a 15k first prize and 5 figure scores for the every spot in the final table.
on to 2010 and my goals are as follows:
- have fun playing poker
- stick to mtt's
- win tournaments and make money
- play in some live events
tg
Sunday, December 20, 2009
shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
played a bunch last night, got deep in the 8pm $27.50 on stars but got bounced 21st when 55 lost to A8o ai pre. also was hu for a seat the $250 2day ftops event and lost A5 vs Jx or something. did win a seat to the fifty fifty but unregistered because i was getting killed in most of my early tournies and didn't want to start another one.
was pretty bummed, been getting deep a lot but no big scores no matter final tables. had plans to play tonight but then said naw screw it, bunch of good sports on tv, then changed my mind, changed it again and finally sat down to play around 9pm but wasn't too motivated. reg'd for about 7 tournies i think including the fifty fifty w/ my T$.
8 hours later.
holla!
tg
was pretty bummed, been getting deep a lot but no big scores no matter final tables. had plans to play tonight but then said naw screw it, bunch of good sports on tv, then changed my mind, changed it again and finally sat down to play around 9pm but wasn't too motivated. reg'd for about 7 tournies i think including the fifty fifty w/ my T$.
8 hours later.
holla!
tg
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
in the hole
so i've been getting beat up pretty good in the omaha 8 games on ftp. mostly 3/6 has annihilated me and i've been breaking even at 2/4. to be honest though, i've been playing horribly and probably deserve the result. while my pre-flop hand selection is coming along my post flop play has been abysmal and i have been spewing hard. last night was the first session where i actually buckled down and started folding some hands post flop and i think i plugged one very large leak in which i was overplaying mediocre high hands multi-way when the flop has brought a low or a low draw.
anyways, i have a new kind of outlook on my poker game and that is "while i have more knowledge and skill than your average poker joe, i by no means have god given talent for cards and have to work relentlessly at improving my game in order to be a winner. And after all that, i'll never be as good as i can be and will never reach a point where i can rest on my laurels."
pretty deep.
so in my omaha 8 learning curve i've set a few rules:
i'll also look to focus on my mtt tables and will only mix in omaha tables when im down to 2 or 3 tabling mtt's. playing 6 tables with a mixture just seems to disorientate me and i end up ignoring the mtt tables and am trying to follow action on the omaha tables.
played a few mtt's last night and went deep in an $11 20k guarantee on stars but busted 41st/2700ish when i re-stole a button open w/ KJs in the sb and villain made a good call w/ A9o about 20bb deep.
im pretty hungry for some mtt success, even a final table but haven't been able to do much. it's partly due to the lack of tourny's i can play though as i usually register for everything up to $35 buy-ins and under between 7pm and 8pm. this usually gives me 3 or 4 tourny's on stars and 1 on ftp although my pleas to ftp have seemed to work and they added a $11 15k guarantee at 7pm. this is great except for 1 thing, it's a superstack tourny which gives slower structure and more chips which im all in favor for but the tourny gets like 2700 runners and from what i can tell, runs 10 hours. this means that if i were to final table, i'd be up till 5am on a day that i have leave for work a mere 2 hours later. now the top prize last night was like 4.7k which is very good for a $11 mtt but you could essentially play for 9 hours and final table only to make like $300. kinda not worth it to me.
so thats about it, i've been splitting my away from the table time to watching mtt vids and reading a bunch of o8 material along with re-reading the Ray Zee hi lo split for advanced players book.
let's hope something good materializes.
tg
anyways, i have a new kind of outlook on my poker game and that is "while i have more knowledge and skill than your average poker joe, i by no means have god given talent for cards and have to work relentlessly at improving my game in order to be a winner. And after all that, i'll never be as good as i can be and will never reach a point where i can rest on my laurels."
pretty deep.
so in my omaha 8 learning curve i've set a few rules:
- only play 2/4
- no more playing short handed, once a game breaks below 4 players i'll probably sit out.
- no more playing while i'm multi-tabling mtt's.
i'll also look to focus on my mtt tables and will only mix in omaha tables when im down to 2 or 3 tabling mtt's. playing 6 tables with a mixture just seems to disorientate me and i end up ignoring the mtt tables and am trying to follow action on the omaha tables.
played a few mtt's last night and went deep in an $11 20k guarantee on stars but busted 41st/2700ish when i re-stole a button open w/ KJs in the sb and villain made a good call w/ A9o about 20bb deep.
im pretty hungry for some mtt success, even a final table but haven't been able to do much. it's partly due to the lack of tourny's i can play though as i usually register for everything up to $35 buy-ins and under between 7pm and 8pm. this usually gives me 3 or 4 tourny's on stars and 1 on ftp although my pleas to ftp have seemed to work and they added a $11 15k guarantee at 7pm. this is great except for 1 thing, it's a superstack tourny which gives slower structure and more chips which im all in favor for but the tourny gets like 2700 runners and from what i can tell, runs 10 hours. this means that if i were to final table, i'd be up till 5am on a day that i have leave for work a mere 2 hours later. now the top prize last night was like 4.7k which is very good for a $11 mtt but you could essentially play for 9 hours and final table only to make like $300. kinda not worth it to me.
so thats about it, i've been splitting my away from the table time to watching mtt vids and reading a bunch of o8 material along with re-reading the Ray Zee hi lo split for advanced players book.
let's hope something good materializes.
tg
Thursday, November 26, 2009
variety
so been keeping busy playing my usual schedule of mtt's. nothing to report other than i keep getting inside the final 10% of these large stars tournies only to bust out well ahead of the final table. this means a lot of week nights when i play im up till 1am when i have to get up and work the next morning. it's well worth it when you pocket a couple months of salary but cashing for $50 puts a little extra sting in the ear when the alarm goes off.
i did make some attempts at mass tabling some super turbo sngs on ftp and did alright. i think the best i got up to was 8 at a time although i had tried it out first playing a 16 tables of 1c/2c frnl. the ahk scripts def help but i felt like a total robot. i think 9 tabling tiled is prob the best way although stacking tables def has it's benefits.
last week when i was 1 tabling a deep finish i popped open a limit 08 game and played a bit. of all the games it just unbelievable how juicy those games still are. like even razz is played fairly well now and people know when to steal and when to donk out when their opponent bricks. o8 though, any 4 will do, any 2 pair is getting shown down for hi when a low is out and any 2 cards that have made a low is paying off.
it's funny, i really like the game when it's shorthanded and i can play a lot looser. i took a crack at playing it earlier in the year but was playing like 2 tables of full ring and just got bored stiff. it was recently that i watched some danzasmack o8 vids on deucescracked that i started to see spots where i can open it up, especially since a lot of the o8 games seem to break down to 3 or 4 handed at times and players just don't have a clue how to adjust.
i've ground out a couple hundo winner over only like 1k hands of mostly 2/4 with some 1/2 and 3/6 but it's been fun and a change of pace and it also generates some good rakeback which i've noticed is something that mtt's just don't provide. the real test will be what happens when i start losing.
stay tuned...
i did make some attempts at mass tabling some super turbo sngs on ftp and did alright. i think the best i got up to was 8 at a time although i had tried it out first playing a 16 tables of 1c/2c frnl. the ahk scripts def help but i felt like a total robot. i think 9 tabling tiled is prob the best way although stacking tables def has it's benefits.
last week when i was 1 tabling a deep finish i popped open a limit 08 game and played a bit. of all the games it just unbelievable how juicy those games still are. like even razz is played fairly well now and people know when to steal and when to donk out when their opponent bricks. o8 though, any 4 will do, any 2 pair is getting shown down for hi when a low is out and any 2 cards that have made a low is paying off.
it's funny, i really like the game when it's shorthanded and i can play a lot looser. i took a crack at playing it earlier in the year but was playing like 2 tables of full ring and just got bored stiff. it was recently that i watched some danzasmack o8 vids on deucescracked that i started to see spots where i can open it up, especially since a lot of the o8 games seem to break down to 3 or 4 handed at times and players just don't have a clue how to adjust.
i've ground out a couple hundo winner over only like 1k hands of mostly 2/4 with some 1/2 and 3/6 but it's been fun and a change of pace and it also generates some good rakeback which i've noticed is something that mtt's just don't provide. the real test will be what happens when i start losing.
stay tuned...
Monday, November 16, 2009
sngs
haven't played much at all due to traveling and being busy. played a small session saturday night and went deep in the stars 25k busting 13th out of a 1300 person field. my bust out hand was pretty standard but i think i may have made a couple errors late that probably didn't affect the outcome but need to be revisited. i won a 45 man turbo on stars and cashed in a turbo 180 which are both pretty cool sngs and i hope ftp will add them too.
in order to work on my push/fold shorter stack play i've also decided to play sng's again. i believe they're a great companion to playing mtt's and will also help fill in the tables when i may be down to 1 or 2 tabling multi's. i experimented the other day playing 12 tables on ftp and it wasn't that hard. i downloaded a ahk script program that helps so i think i will start grinding away at those a bit more to improve my ss game, help provide a little stability to my roll and grind out some rakeback.
tg
in order to work on my push/fold shorter stack play i've also decided to play sng's again. i believe they're a great companion to playing mtt's and will also help fill in the tables when i may be down to 1 or 2 tabling multi's. i experimented the other day playing 12 tables on ftp and it wasn't that hard. i downloaded a ahk script program that helps so i think i will start grinding away at those a bit more to improve my ss game, help provide a little stability to my roll and grind out some rakeback.
tg
Thursday, October 29, 2009
first month of mtt's
so since my last post nothing too much has happened. i've had one final table, in the ub $66 which gets around 250 runners i think (only thu-sun i believe) and finished 6th for $850ish.
that was at the beginning of the month, then i went on like 0/20 streak with zero cashes and since then i've been cashing but getting bounced after that. i had one deep run where i bubbled the final table getting 10th/1735 in a $3r that i played for fun. i ran like god though and kept getting coolered and then sucking out to stay alive.
i've played a bunch of the 45's on ftp but haven't had any success to speak of. i was deep in a few things the other night when i got a phone call and started spewing horribly in anything cuz i wasn't concentrating, i ended up making a huge -ev shove in a tier 2 18man sng where there was 6 left, 5 getting $75 tokens and 6th getting $57 cash. i had about 7.5bb and was sitting about 3/6 and i look down at KTs, shove then see that the bb is the only one with over 10bb and he has like 30bb. i was like ah fuck what an idiot, then i notice that the sb only has 1.5bb so now i know the bb will spite call me, he does w/ 98o and sends me to the rail. i then spewed off my stack in a 180 when i was 1/20 and finished 15th.
blah.
joined back up at pxf, also had a coaching session with an mtt coach that was good and have been brushing up a lot on my push/fold and raise/call vs raise/fold vs shove stuff.
tg
that was at the beginning of the month, then i went on like 0/20 streak with zero cashes and since then i've been cashing but getting bounced after that. i had one deep run where i bubbled the final table getting 10th/1735 in a $3r that i played for fun. i ran like god though and kept getting coolered and then sucking out to stay alive.
i've played a bunch of the 45's on ftp but haven't had any success to speak of. i was deep in a few things the other night when i got a phone call and started spewing horribly in anything cuz i wasn't concentrating, i ended up making a huge -ev shove in a tier 2 18man sng where there was 6 left, 5 getting $75 tokens and 6th getting $57 cash. i had about 7.5bb and was sitting about 3/6 and i look down at KTs, shove then see that the bb is the only one with over 10bb and he has like 30bb. i was like ah fuck what an idiot, then i notice that the sb only has 1.5bb so now i know the bb will spite call me, he does w/ 98o and sends me to the rail. i then spewed off my stack in a 180 when i was 1/20 and finished 15th.
blah.
joined back up at pxf, also had a coaching session with an mtt coach that was good and have been brushing up a lot on my push/fold and raise/call vs raise/fold vs shove stuff.
tg
Thursday, October 1, 2009
triumphant return!
so after about a 2 week hiatus of literally no poker i started to get a little excited again. excited about playing tournaments no less.
here are my thoughts on making the switch back to mtt's, again:
after buy-ins i think it was a 1.78k night and i had a total blast. i admittedly ran pretty hot and got super lucky in the one 45. i felt very rusty and im sure alot of my push / fold play was sub par but i can work on that. i've been studying up on some videos of late and also looking at some potential coaching just to get me sharp again.
glad to be back playing donkaments.
tg
here are my thoughts on making the switch back to mtt's, again:
- 90% of my poker profit comes from mtt's
- i just don't seem to have the drive and focus to be a winning cash player
- mtt's give a sense of general excitement and aniticipation
- mtt's are actually not that bad for my schedule, since going to cash games i generally burn out real fast during sessions and end up not playing very much where as i can sit down, fire up a bunch of tournies between 7-8pm, play them out and if im done early im done early or if im up late so be it.
- tournaments are still extremely soft (with a few exceptions) where as cash games as low as .25/.50 players are becoming much more adept.
- lastly and this a big one, when i play cash games there is a certain ceiling that i can hit when winning. this ceiling is rather low because my table time is restricted and i can only efficiently 4 table. so even if i got to the point where i was top 2/4 reg, i'd still only be making a couple grand a month which is awesome but at the end of the day, seems like an awful lot of work for some extra cash. with mtt's, i can score big anytime i sit down. if i sattelite into a big event i have a (albeit very slight) chance of having a 6 figure score which to me at this point is potentially life changing.
- $11 - 20k guaranteed on stars
- $11, 1r1a on stars
- $22 180 man sng
- $27.50 8pm on stars
- $26 8pm guarantee on ftp
- 2 $26 45 man sngs on ftp
after buy-ins i think it was a 1.78k night and i had a total blast. i admittedly ran pretty hot and got super lucky in the one 45. i felt very rusty and im sure alot of my push / fold play was sub par but i can work on that. i've been studying up on some videos of late and also looking at some potential coaching just to get me sharp again.
glad to be back playing donkaments.
tg
Monday, September 21, 2009
not wanting to play
for some reason last week i just lost all motivation to play poker. like i could care less right now about watching training vids or playing at all.
it's really weird, im generally super excited to play and can't wait for my next session but right now i have no want for it.
i was going to sit down and play anyways figuring i would get into it after a little while but have decided against that. i think i'll just take some time away from the game and come back refreshed. (hopefully)
right now im pondering a return to mtt's but we'll see.
tg
it's really weird, im generally super excited to play and can't wait for my next session but right now i have no want for it.
i was going to sit down and play anyways figuring i would get into it after a little while but have decided against that. i think i'll just take some time away from the game and come back refreshed. (hopefully)
right now im pondering a return to mtt's but we'll see.
tg
Thursday, September 17, 2009
jokerstars
played for the first time in a while last night and stars handed me my ass dropping $350 in like 500 hands. makes the grand total for the month like -1.1k over very few hands. yuck.
didn't bet any of the UFN fights last nite although i liked one fight but didn't pull the trigger.
just bet a couple golf futures for this weekend, bit of a whim but i like both guys and they're both due in a small 30 man field.
J. Furyk +1802 - 1u
G. Ogilvy +3504 - 1u
gotta go finish handicapping this weeks nfl and maybe even look at some more bets on this weekends ufc card.
tg
didn't bet any of the UFN fights last nite although i liked one fight but didn't pull the trigger.
just bet a couple golf futures for this weekend, bit of a whim but i like both guys and they're both due in a small 30 man field.
J. Furyk +1802 - 1u
G. Ogilvy +3504 - 1u
gotta go finish handicapping this weeks nfl and maybe even look at some more bets on this weekends ufc card.
tg
Monday, September 14, 2009
switched to stars
finally fed up with ftp enough to leave and go to stars. early on it's been really tough getting used to and i decided to go on uber monkey play mode and donate like $850 playing 100nl. since then i started reviewing my hh's again and focusing more when i play and it feels like things are coming back.
really haven't played much though, only a couple thousand hands.
i also moved some money onto a couple of different online sports books so that i could bet some nfl and mma. i've settled on betting in units of $10 and so far am taking a very cautious approach to it. im trying not to just bet hunches, instead going with sound reasoning and only picking a few spots where i really like a side. i don't expect to be uber successful at it but it will be a fun experience and i know i'll have a better chance at making a little money doing it rather than betting long shot parlays and futures.
i've bet 2 mma fights already for ufc103, they are:
in nfl, i went for 3/3 in my first week:
tg
really haven't played much though, only a couple thousand hands.
i also moved some money onto a couple of different online sports books so that i could bet some nfl and mma. i've settled on betting in units of $10 and so far am taking a very cautious approach to it. im trying not to just bet hunches, instead going with sound reasoning and only picking a few spots where i really like a side. i don't expect to be uber successful at it but it will be a fun experience and i know i'll have a better chance at making a little money doing it rather than betting long shot parlays and futures.
i've bet 2 mma fights already for ufc103, they are:
- vitor belfort over rich franklin +129
- mirko cro cop over junior dos antos +116
in nfl, i went for 3/3 in my first week:
- Seattle laying 7.5 to St.Louis (they won 28-0)
- Atlanta laying 4 to Miami (they won 19-7)
- Tennessee getting 6.5 to Pittsburgh (they lost 13-10)
tg
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
random junk
so i played one last session before i went on vaca, was up 700 to stuck 450 to up 100 to stuck 500 to finish up 230.
went on vaca for a while and didn't play much upon on my return. went back to losing a little bit each session but nothing major. all my sessions last week were super short but frequent so that explains it. then on friday i had a really quick session and won like 350 in 15 minutes.
then i withdrew 1k to cover some expenses so i was down to about a 6k roll online. got to thinking about how each sessions results has been affecting my mood and how im kinda rollercoasting with only 2-3 buyin swings and what it comes down to is being under rolled for 200nl.
so for that reason i decided to drop down to 100nl again and played a session there on monday where i was crushing it before my computer went apeshit and started crashing repeadetly. overall i made like 250 in a couple hundred hands.
i think im gonna grind there for a bit, at least till i have an 8k roll but maybe even more. so far in my 200nl shot taking im only up like 3 buyins over like 22k hands or something for a pretty small winrate. i feel i have a good edge in those games but 100nl is even softer so i should have no problem there.
this month i ended up down like 180 i think but who knows if my computer didn't crash out. couldn't play last night cuz it really crashed, may play tonite if i can get it fixed in time. im also back to the brink of being done with ftp and if i can find a reasonable route of getting money off there and onto pstars i think i will forego the ease and luxury of cash rakeback for the pastures of great customer support, top class run business and overall less stressful atmosphere than that of ftp.
a shame really since i used to love that site.
tg
went on vaca for a while and didn't play much upon on my return. went back to losing a little bit each session but nothing major. all my sessions last week were super short but frequent so that explains it. then on friday i had a really quick session and won like 350 in 15 minutes.
then i withdrew 1k to cover some expenses so i was down to about a 6k roll online. got to thinking about how each sessions results has been affecting my mood and how im kinda rollercoasting with only 2-3 buyin swings and what it comes down to is being under rolled for 200nl.
so for that reason i decided to drop down to 100nl again and played a session there on monday where i was crushing it before my computer went apeshit and started crashing repeadetly. overall i made like 250 in a couple hundred hands.
i think im gonna grind there for a bit, at least till i have an 8k roll but maybe even more. so far in my 200nl shot taking im only up like 3 buyins over like 22k hands or something for a pretty small winrate. i feel i have a good edge in those games but 100nl is even softer so i should have no problem there.
this month i ended up down like 180 i think but who knows if my computer didn't crash out. couldn't play last night cuz it really crashed, may play tonite if i can get it fixed in time. im also back to the brink of being done with ftp and if i can find a reasonable route of getting money off there and onto pstars i think i will forego the ease and luxury of cash rakeback for the pastures of great customer support, top class run business and overall less stressful atmosphere than that of ftp.
a shame really since i used to love that site.
tg
Monday, August 17, 2009
losing streak
have lost my last 4 sessions so that's 8 in a row now. yuck.
it's not that bad though as over the whole 8 sessions im only down like 11 buy-ins and fortunately i started the month up 7 buy-ins quick. it's easy to go on a stretch like this because my sessions are usually very small (hand wise) with a session usually consisting of 500-1k hands.
feel like I've been playing pretty good of late, just running into spots where it appears villains have the nuts and im near the top of my range but not beating what they're repping.
im going away on vaca for the week starting tomorrow so unless i get some hands in tonight i probably won't play again till Saturday.
tg
it's not that bad though as over the whole 8 sessions im only down like 11 buy-ins and fortunately i started the month up 7 buy-ins quick. it's easy to go on a stretch like this because my sessions are usually very small (hand wise) with a session usually consisting of 500-1k hands.
feel like I've been playing pretty good of late, just running into spots where it appears villains have the nuts and im near the top of my range but not beating what they're repping.
im going away on vaca for the week starting tomorrow so unless i get some hands in tonight i probably won't play again till Saturday.
tg
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
early august
have been playing a decent amount so far this month. most of my action has come at the 1/2nl deep w/ ante tables. these games have been by far the most aggressive games i've ever seen no matter played in. the amount of 3-betting / 4-betting / 5-betting pre-flop is just gross and every pot that is eligible will be squeezed regardless of positions and player types. the games are full of regs with the occasional fish or nit but for the most part it's just regs battling and stacking off 200bb deep w/ cheese.
the games are incredibly fun to play in but i believe i will stop playing them because a) the variance is insane and b) i may be a dog in most line-ups as i think a few 400nl regs are the mainstays in the games and are down at 200nl while learning adjustments for the ante games.
i will say that i have learned one very important thing of late though and that is not all tag/lag regs are created equal. i generally tag a player as a tough reg after i see his preflop stats after a 100 hands or so but lately as i'm getting better at hand reading and evaluating ranges i'm seeing some of the better players making pretty terrible mistakes. not that i don't make some really bad mistakes myself but i've generally felt that if you played 23/19 preflop and were a 400nl reg you were awesome at poker. true most people including myself have a decently solid pre-flop game but post flop is where the skill is and im starting to identify the tag fish when i see them. (as well as stop acting like one myself cuz i def am)
so anyways, i had a good start to the month following up a that $370 session with a 1k winning session but since then it's been $425, $415, $625 and $50 losing sessions. this puts me at slight loser for the month which is fine since it's only swinging 7-8 buyins which is normal. the first losing session i played pretty poorly and was unfocused for most of the session but i believe i've played a lot better since then and just haven't gotten the results.
funny enough the $50 loss tilted me after i was done the session because i saw that i was up about 700 playing pretty well, winning lots of small to medium sized pots before getting stacked twice and losing a couple of other good sized pots. i know for a fact though if i wasn't playing well this little losing stretch would have probably looked more like a 15 buyin downswing so hooray for not being a total fish.
short term plan is just to stick to the regular 200nl games and only play the ante tables when the game is soft. while enjoyable, the ante games are playing too tough right now to justify playing in them over a typical soft 200nl table.
tg
edit: oh yeah, also played 2 of my biggest pots in recent memory, once getting my TT in vs KK on a T42 flop over 300bb deep vs a tagfish that was tilting (i won) and the other was my AKo allin vs 9h7h in a 3bet pot 200bb deep on a K84hh flop (i lost). the second was cool because i would never usually raise and stack off like that 200bb deep but i had been raising this tagfishes cbets all night and he had been folding so it was a great spot to setup.
the games are incredibly fun to play in but i believe i will stop playing them because a) the variance is insane and b) i may be a dog in most line-ups as i think a few 400nl regs are the mainstays in the games and are down at 200nl while learning adjustments for the ante games.
i will say that i have learned one very important thing of late though and that is not all tag/lag regs are created equal. i generally tag a player as a tough reg after i see his preflop stats after a 100 hands or so but lately as i'm getting better at hand reading and evaluating ranges i'm seeing some of the better players making pretty terrible mistakes. not that i don't make some really bad mistakes myself but i've generally felt that if you played 23/19 preflop and were a 400nl reg you were awesome at poker. true most people including myself have a decently solid pre-flop game but post flop is where the skill is and im starting to identify the tag fish when i see them. (as well as stop acting like one myself cuz i def am)
so anyways, i had a good start to the month following up a that $370 session with a 1k winning session but since then it's been $425, $415, $625 and $50 losing sessions. this puts me at slight loser for the month which is fine since it's only swinging 7-8 buyins which is normal. the first losing session i played pretty poorly and was unfocused for most of the session but i believe i've played a lot better since then and just haven't gotten the results.
funny enough the $50 loss tilted me after i was done the session because i saw that i was up about 700 playing pretty well, winning lots of small to medium sized pots before getting stacked twice and losing a couple of other good sized pots. i know for a fact though if i wasn't playing well this little losing stretch would have probably looked more like a 15 buyin downswing so hooray for not being a total fish.
short term plan is just to stick to the regular 200nl games and only play the ante tables when the game is soft. while enjoyable, the ante games are playing too tough right now to justify playing in them over a typical soft 200nl table.
tg
edit: oh yeah, also played 2 of my biggest pots in recent memory, once getting my TT in vs KK on a T42 flop over 300bb deep vs a tagfish that was tilting (i won) and the other was my AKo allin vs 9h7h in a 3bet pot 200bb deep on a K84hh flop (i lost). the second was cool because i would never usually raise and stack off like that 200bb deep but i had been raising this tagfishes cbets all night and he had been folding so it was a great spot to setup.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
long time no blog
haven't updated in a looong time. boils down to plain ol laziness.
June ended up being my best month in a looooooooooooooong time. i think i cleared 1.8k in the nl cash games mostly at 100nl and a little 200nl mixed in. it was definitely a good confidence boost to have a winning month since it had been a while.
in the beginning of july i hardly played and when i did i was dicking around with the 7game mix on ftp. it was my usual random bored with holdem lets play something else phase i go through every once in a while. i lost a few bucks playing that before i woke up and went back to taking shots at the 200nl games.
the first half of the month was a bit of a write off because i didn't have much time to play and when i did the new software update on ftp was fucking up horrendously. later in the month though when some bugs were ironed out i was grinding decently hard and although i was stuck about 1.3k for the month early and down to a 5k roll i managed to go on a nice 2.3k heater before settling down with like a 700 win for the month.
i've only played one small session this month (yesterday) and made like 370 in just a few hands playing the new ante tables that have finally made it down to the lower limits. for now it appears that a lot of these ante tables are reg filled but im really hoping some of the nittier 12 tabling regs start playing them because it will be so much more profitable for a looser player.
i must admit during the last month i was ready to move my roll off of ftp to stars but the addition of some security upgrades along with ante games and deep games will keep me there. (plus they gave me a $200 bonus for playing the shitty sw while they get the bugs out)
i also finally got a bluefirepoker membership and it's the absolute nuts. so far i'd say the nl content alone is the best on the internet bar none and im sure the plo content is just as good if not better. so far i've only watched some phil galfond and dr giggy vids but they are both extremely great teachers and i feel like im learning a ton. i also found the little bit of socalquest and samoleus content i've watched to be awesome as well.
i'll cut this post here but will update later in the week with some other thoughts on whats going on right now.
tg
June ended up being my best month in a looooooooooooooong time. i think i cleared 1.8k in the nl cash games mostly at 100nl and a little 200nl mixed in. it was definitely a good confidence boost to have a winning month since it had been a while.
in the beginning of july i hardly played and when i did i was dicking around with the 7game mix on ftp. it was my usual random bored with holdem lets play something else phase i go through every once in a while. i lost a few bucks playing that before i woke up and went back to taking shots at the 200nl games.
the first half of the month was a bit of a write off because i didn't have much time to play and when i did the new software update on ftp was fucking up horrendously. later in the month though when some bugs were ironed out i was grinding decently hard and although i was stuck about 1.3k for the month early and down to a 5k roll i managed to go on a nice 2.3k heater before settling down with like a 700 win for the month.
i've only played one small session this month (yesterday) and made like 370 in just a few hands playing the new ante tables that have finally made it down to the lower limits. for now it appears that a lot of these ante tables are reg filled but im really hoping some of the nittier 12 tabling regs start playing them because it will be so much more profitable for a looser player.
i must admit during the last month i was ready to move my roll off of ftp to stars but the addition of some security upgrades along with ante games and deep games will keep me there. (plus they gave me a $200 bonus for playing the shitty sw while they get the bugs out)
i also finally got a bluefirepoker membership and it's the absolute nuts. so far i'd say the nl content alone is the best on the internet bar none and im sure the plo content is just as good if not better. so far i've only watched some phil galfond and dr giggy vids but they are both extremely great teachers and i feel like im learning a ton. i also found the little bit of socalquest and samoleus content i've watched to be awesome as well.
i'll cut this post here but will update later in the week with some other thoughts on whats going on right now.
tg
Monday, June 29, 2009
playing 1/2
i've played two more sessions at 1/2 winning about 275 in the first and breaking even in the second. both sessions were about 850 hands and the second session was 6 tabling most of the time.
since reading the baluga book i feel my fundamentals are a little stronger and that 6 tabling does not cause me to horrendously spew like before. i guess thats only true for a short period of time though because my second session saw me up a couple buyins halfway through before spewing it off to break even.
lesson learned: 6 tabling can be profitable in small doses, 4 tabling is still optimal.
i also played a $24 8pm mtt on friday night while playing and busted 507/14xx runners after shipping 14bb's w/ A2s on the button over a bad players limp and the sb woke up with KK.
i plan on playing tonight and will probably play 200nl although if im feeling a bit unfocused i might just play 100nl for a bit. (been a little on the sick side last few days)
my roll is about 5.9k so everything above 5k is in action when playing 200nl and if i lose it i would probably drop to 100nl for a bit to make sure im playing good.
regards,
tg
since reading the baluga book i feel my fundamentals are a little stronger and that 6 tabling does not cause me to horrendously spew like before. i guess thats only true for a short period of time though because my second session saw me up a couple buyins halfway through before spewing it off to break even.
lesson learned: 6 tabling can be profitable in small doses, 4 tabling is still optimal.
i also played a $24 8pm mtt on friday night while playing and busted 507/14xx runners after shipping 14bb's w/ A2s on the button over a bad players limp and the sb woke up with KK.
i plan on playing tonight and will probably play 200nl although if im feeling a bit unfocused i might just play 100nl for a bit. (been a little on the sick side last few days)
my roll is about 5.9k so everything above 5k is in action when playing 200nl and if i lose it i would probably drop to 100nl for a bit to make sure im playing good.
regards,
tg
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
another shot
played a shortish session on Monday night and made 400 so last night i decided to take another 1/2 shot.
i played 600 hands i think and made about 120 but also dropped 35 playing some 2/4 o8.
br is at about 5.5k right now and i'll play 1/2 again tonight.
tg
i played 600 hands i think and made about 120 but also dropped 35 playing some 2/4 o8.
br is at about 5.5k right now and i'll play 1/2 again tonight.
tg
Monday, June 22, 2009
the weekend
i set a goal for myself to play 5k hands this weekend since the weather was supposed to be crappy and i didn't have anything to do.
i started off playing 1300 hands Friday nite and made $130 or something but didn't feel i played my best. i wouldn't say i played horribly but definitely not optimally.
saturday i put in 2 small 500 hands sessions making another 570 which was good for a $700 weekend.
after that my weekend got unexpectedly busy and i never got to play again. my saturday session i was a lot happier with my play. i have to remind myself sometimes not to try and be a hero and make huge calldowns since most of the time players at 100nl are not capable of making big complicated bluffs.
i also tried to play a mtt on saturday morning and just could not get into it and busted back raising AK into QQ. never know, i may try and play another tonight.
tg
i started off playing 1300 hands Friday nite and made $130 or something but didn't feel i played my best. i wouldn't say i played horribly but definitely not optimally.
saturday i put in 2 small 500 hands sessions making another 570 which was good for a $700 weekend.
after that my weekend got unexpectedly busy and i never got to play again. my saturday session i was a lot happier with my play. i have to remind myself sometimes not to try and be a hero and make huge calldowns since most of the time players at 100nl are not capable of making big complicated bluffs.
i also tried to play a mtt on saturday morning and just could not get into it and busted back raising AK into QQ. never know, i may try and play another tonight.
tg
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