heyo, was sick as a dog for like a week and a half and still haven't fully recovered. during most of the time i was sick i stayed away from playing poker because i have zero ambition to do anything when im sick except for lay around and be sick.
i believe my first session back was thursday night and i broke even. i lost about 250 in holdem over a short period but managed to win the majority of it back playing huplo.
friday nite i played for just a bit since i was feeling a little worn out and booked another 190 win in huplo and didn't play any holdem really.
then for the first time in my life, i woke up too early on saturday morning for my golf game and had an hour to kill. so i thought i would just go 1 table some 50 plo hu as usual while i had breakfest and coffee. 10 mins into sitting down i some how see that this really bad 1/2 2/4 reg i've played with before is sitting at like 10 tables of 2/4 hu plo, hu ha and 6 max plo. a bunch of his hu tables were empty and just couldn't resist taking a shot since i fiugred his nl game is pretty weak and he must be horrible at omaha.
so i sat on 1 table of 2/4 hu ha and got stacked in the first 10 hands or so of holdem. he had opened the first 4 buttons so i decide to 3b K9s and he calls. flop is dry T42r so i cbet and he calls. turn is an offsuit J and i thought and fired again. i thought he would fold most of his pp's under a Ten at that point and maybe even a weak Ten. he calls and i spike a K on the river with only like 220 left in a 400 pot i shipped it in and he snapped me off w/ a set of 4's. i think it's a pretty standard hand that he played well and i got unlucky to hit runner runner bluff/value cards. so stuck 400 right off the bat before i decided what my stop loss was so i kept going with one more bullet.
through the omaha rounds i thought i he was playing pretty poor and i had mounted a comeback and was only down like 250 so i joined him on one of his 2/4 huplo tables as well and started 2 tabling him. i managed to work my stack up on both tables just grinding him down until we got in it on this hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4155883
now stuck a 1/6th of my br i battle back and probably had the deficit down to just 400 before slipping a bit and ending the brief session 600 loser.
i wasn't really pissed at all, it was a great spot for a shot and both hands i got stacked in i think i played fine so what can you do. it was one of the rare times i've had where my poker play spawns some degeneracy. like taking a shot at 1 table at 4x the limit with a 1 bullet stop loss is no big deal really but i had in the back of my mind when i started that, i was quitting the session at 7:15am because i had to pick people up at 7:30, i was only putting one buy-in in play and i was only playing one table. at 7:30am when i finally quit i had broken all those guidelines.
yesterday afternoon i took a few minutes to play a short huplo session that ended up going longer than i wanted but was finding it hard to quit but i think i ended up losing maybe 30 or something after 2 tabling for a bit and then 1 tabling for a while. the 1 tabling match was against a decent opponent that didn't seem to have great omaha fundamentals but really adapted well and did a much better job changing gears than i did. it was a good learning session thats for sure.
gotta get back to playing holdem tonight as i don't want to venture too far off the path with plo. i think i might just play two tables for a bit and really concentrate on every decision.
i've kinda come to terms with the fact that im much better suited playing for fun rather than being the ultimate grinder thats got a sick hourly. i actually think i have a better shot of making more money playing less tables and less hours but concentrating when i do.
tg
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
little of each
monday i played very little but managed to bust some dudes bankroll for 190 playing huplo and then lost 60 or so in a 100 hands of nl before calling it quits cause i was on the phone and not feeling well. (good quit!)
last night i started a short session that ended up going long (for me) and played close to 1200 hands of nl and maybe another 150-200 hands of huplo. i started off with about 600 hands of nl 4 tabling and was up a bit, then played 2 tables of 50 huplo for about 20 min before just going down to 1 table cuz my mind was spinning with the 4 cards and all. i doubled a 1/2 stacker who hit-n-ran, then played a different 1/2 stacker that i built up and then eventually busted getting me to even.
i took a small break and then decided to hit the tables again and stuck to nl 4 tabling with some absolute whales. i usually just end sessions when i want regardless of how good the tables are because generally the bad players will always be there at a 100nl but i had two tables with two different guys playing 60/40 and never folding to 3-bets or cbets so i stuck around. i lost a couple decent sized pots with the one dude playing 200bb deep but eventually got some back and then stacked him 165bb deep to give me a 130 profit on the session.
the session was weird and im not sure whats happened to me but im playing this laggy 26/21 style now and it seems to fit. i don't know, maybe its just some sort of progression point that im at right now.
also sent an inquiry into why event 18 (216 huplo and 22 huplo for the mini portion) at the upcoming ftops has no satellites running. they replied that they will be up shortly and i think i'll try to grind those a little bit (esp if they are sngs) to try and make some extra coin while getting a cheaper shot at the gold!
tg
last night i started a short session that ended up going long (for me) and played close to 1200 hands of nl and maybe another 150-200 hands of huplo. i started off with about 600 hands of nl 4 tabling and was up a bit, then played 2 tables of 50 huplo for about 20 min before just going down to 1 table cuz my mind was spinning with the 4 cards and all. i doubled a 1/2 stacker who hit-n-ran, then played a different 1/2 stacker that i built up and then eventually busted getting me to even.
i took a small break and then decided to hit the tables again and stuck to nl 4 tabling with some absolute whales. i usually just end sessions when i want regardless of how good the tables are because generally the bad players will always be there at a 100nl but i had two tables with two different guys playing 60/40 and never folding to 3-bets or cbets so i stuck around. i lost a couple decent sized pots with the one dude playing 200bb deep but eventually got some back and then stacked him 165bb deep to give me a 130 profit on the session.
the session was weird and im not sure whats happened to me but im playing this laggy 26/21 style now and it seems to fit. i don't know, maybe its just some sort of progression point that im at right now.
also sent an inquiry into why event 18 (216 huplo and 22 huplo for the mini portion) at the upcoming ftops has no satellites running. they replied that they will be up shortly and i think i'll try to grind those a little bit (esp if they are sngs) to try and make some extra coin while getting a cheaper shot at the gold!
tg
Monday, April 13, 2009
unbanned self
well the last week was another rollercoaster. i don't remember all the numbers but i dropped like 4-500 last tuesday and had another one of my stare at the wall pondering existence moments. then thursday nite i had my lesson with my new coach and i managed to run sick hot and made like 600+ in a short amount of time. on friday i played a very small session and lost 150 then saturday i sat down and put in a so so session followed by a bad one and dropped 400 again. the jury is out on how well i was playing but one of the stacks was QQ v AA bvb against a reg, again. yesterday i played a little and managed to win like 350 back which was good.
my coaching lesson was great, we came across a lot of spots and overall found a few spots where i can significantly improve upon.
now around late last week i also decided to unban myself from playing small amounts of huplo under the conditions that i only play to break up my nl sessions, i only play droolers, i only play .25/.50 stakes and i set a stop loss of a $100. also i also dug up some training videos and starting watching them to help improve my play. i believe i played a bit on friday but don't remmeber the results, on saturday i started my afternoon session dropping a $100 but then played a bit after my nl session and made just over a $100 back. yesterday while just trying to get the holdem manager features working properly i stacked some guy and then made another 100 or so after my nl session for a pretty good run.
im also excited that the ftops has gone way of the scoop and is offering a 1/10th the buyin scale series in may. (mini ftops) the result will be absolutely monster fields with good pay days and realtively low buy-ins (avg $22) and i plan on playing whatever ones are running during my cash sessions.
til next time,
tg
my coaching lesson was great, we came across a lot of spots and overall found a few spots where i can significantly improve upon.
now around late last week i also decided to unban myself from playing small amounts of huplo under the conditions that i only play to break up my nl sessions, i only play droolers, i only play .25/.50 stakes and i set a stop loss of a $100. also i also dug up some training videos and starting watching them to help improve my play. i believe i played a bit on friday but don't remmeber the results, on saturday i started my afternoon session dropping a $100 but then played a bit after my nl session and made just over a $100 back. yesterday while just trying to get the holdem manager features working properly i stacked some guy and then made another 100 or so after my nl session for a pretty good run.
im also excited that the ftops has gone way of the scoop and is offering a 1/10th the buyin scale series in may. (mini ftops) the result will be absolutely monster fields with good pay days and realtively low buy-ins (avg $22) and i plan on playing whatever ones are running during my cash sessions.
til next time,
tg
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
april so far
first off looking back at march i only lost like $300 online instead of the $700 i thought.
april so far has been ok but nothing spectacular. i think im up like $250 in nl6m but down some from small tourny buy-ins and a few hands of huplo.
plo in general is like crack cocaine for me and my first small foray into huplo was absolutely addicting until i dropped 150 last night playing some guy that sat in for $20 at a $50 table. now i have to swear off plo again for the near future if i plan to ever live a sane existence.
i have been playing quite a bit though so far this month which is good and i've kept the majority of my play to 4 tables which is ideal. i've recently made some fairly substantial changes in my pre-flop game concentrating on isolating fish and attacking tight blinds with a much higher frequency and it resulted in developing a pretty wild image. i think over my last 2500 hands i was playing 25/21 or something similar although last nites tables would not allow for such and i was back down to taggy numbers.
but in all seriousness i really just need to concentrate post flop. my major problem is i generalize post flop play way too much without regards to what villains actual range is and how he thinks. i tend to just think on auto pilot and barrell this turn or cbet this flop cuz i think i would generally fold his range to those bets. it's a compounded problem though because i think a lot of my own post flop play is somewhat irrational when facing the pfr. so when im playing against good players im misrepresenting their thinking and when im playing bad players im giving them too much credit for folding.
for the life of me i cannot do it but i need to start putting players on specific ranges and then whittle them down street by street while simultaneously evaluating my equity against the perceived range. sounds easy but 20 minutes into a session im right back to spazz click button mode.
end incoherent ramble/
in other news i've hooked up with a new coach that im really excited about. im really excited about this new opportunity but realize i need to start putting much more work in myself in order to get the full benefit of the coaching i recieve.
gonna play tonight and although i have extreme mtt jealousy right now due to the big scoop series on stars im cutting out all mtt activity for the time being as well as a self ban on any variation of 4 hole card games.
tg
april so far has been ok but nothing spectacular. i think im up like $250 in nl6m but down some from small tourny buy-ins and a few hands of huplo.
plo in general is like crack cocaine for me and my first small foray into huplo was absolutely addicting until i dropped 150 last night playing some guy that sat in for $20 at a $50 table. now i have to swear off plo again for the near future if i plan to ever live a sane existence.
i have been playing quite a bit though so far this month which is good and i've kept the majority of my play to 4 tables which is ideal. i've recently made some fairly substantial changes in my pre-flop game concentrating on isolating fish and attacking tight blinds with a much higher frequency and it resulted in developing a pretty wild image. i think over my last 2500 hands i was playing 25/21 or something similar although last nites tables would not allow for such and i was back down to taggy numbers.
but in all seriousness i really just need to concentrate post flop. my major problem is i generalize post flop play way too much without regards to what villains actual range is and how he thinks. i tend to just think on auto pilot and barrell this turn or cbet this flop cuz i think i would generally fold his range to those bets. it's a compounded problem though because i think a lot of my own post flop play is somewhat irrational when facing the pfr. so when im playing against good players im misrepresenting their thinking and when im playing bad players im giving them too much credit for folding.
for the life of me i cannot do it but i need to start putting players on specific ranges and then whittle them down street by street while simultaneously evaluating my equity against the perceived range. sounds easy but 20 minutes into a session im right back to spazz click button mode.
end incoherent ramble/
in other news i've hooked up with a new coach that im really excited about. im really excited about this new opportunity but realize i need to start putting much more work in myself in order to get the full benefit of the coaching i recieve.
gonna play tonight and although i have extreme mtt jealousy right now due to the big scoop series on stars im cutting out all mtt activity for the time being as well as a self ban on any variation of 4 hole card games.
tg
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
V
that's what my graph would look like from the last week or so.
i took a couple unintentional days off just due to being busy, i played two sessions on sunday both going horribly and dropped $600+. i was pretty dejected from that so the next session i played i just chilled and 3 tabled 50nl and played a $24 45 man sng. i did well there making like $170 at 50nl and min cashing the sng (6/45 for like $54) over only a couple hundred hands.
last night i decided to play back at 100nl but just stick to 4 tables. i ended up 5 tabling a bit plus playing a $24 mtt and ran very well. i made like $480 in cash games and busted the mtt early in the 2nd hour when i lost a flip w/ QQ v AJss on a T hi spade draw flop.
anyways, it's a new month so another fresh start. march wasn't great but it wasn't horrible. i probably lost a little in mtts and think i lost around 700 playing cash mostly due to the 1/2 disaster but made 1.6k in live games in vegas. i guess the major downfall of march is that none of my winnings made there way back to my br :(
tg
i took a couple unintentional days off just due to being busy, i played two sessions on sunday both going horribly and dropped $600+. i was pretty dejected from that so the next session i played i just chilled and 3 tabled 50nl and played a $24 45 man sng. i did well there making like $170 at 50nl and min cashing the sng (6/45 for like $54) over only a couple hundred hands.
last night i decided to play back at 100nl but just stick to 4 tables. i ended up 5 tabling a bit plus playing a $24 mtt and ran very well. i made like $480 in cash games and busted the mtt early in the 2nd hour when i lost a flip w/ QQ v AJss on a T hi spade draw flop.
anyways, it's a new month so another fresh start. march wasn't great but it wasn't horrible. i probably lost a little in mtts and think i lost around 700 playing cash mostly due to the 1/2 disaster but made 1.6k in live games in vegas. i guess the major downfall of march is that none of my winnings made there way back to my br :(
tg
Thursday, March 26, 2009
made a video
made a 45min video of myself 6 tabling for my coach's review last night. managed to run sick good over the 450 hands and made $170.
i actually flopped a straight 3 times although i only really got paid on one and had to fold the river on the other.
hoping to play tonight.
tg
i actually flopped a straight 3 times although i only really got paid on one and had to fold the river on the other.
hoping to play tonight.
tg
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
hiatus over
been a long time since posting. i said in my last post i wouldn't post again till i had some green numbers. well i've had some wins but probably still too many losses. here's a recap of the last month and a half:
i'll be back to posting regularly whether it be good or bad from now on.
tg
- kept playing 100nl online after last post for another 2 weeks or so with mostly poor results until i had like back to back 4-5 buyin losses and decided i was done playing till my vegas trip.
- during one of those lossing sessions i decided to dick around in a $24 6max ko bounty tournament so that it would keep me interested in playing the cash tables. 5 hours later at 4am i took 3/904 ppl for 1.8k which was def a roll saver.
- took about a week off prior to vegas trip
- went to vegas and played mostly 1-2 (300 max bi) and 1-3 (500 max bi, i usually bought in for 400) first night in vegas im up about 400 early before i get fall down drunk and give away profits. second day i puke all day, put in a small session at night winning about 250. next day i played made like 500 or something. day after that was my biggest day building my 300 bi up to about 1.5k. last day there i drop 200 when i didn't even want to play for a grand total of 1.7k profits i think.
- unfortunately none of the profits got back into my br as i bought my gf some stuff, treated myself to some nice dinners and shopping, came home and paid some bills and poof it was gone which is fine.
- took another few days off after my trip and started back online around the middle of this month.
- felt like i had some confidence back in my game, started analyzing my leaks a little more intently and put together a nice little string of winning sessions.
- played a ton this past weekend started off playing really well i thought, picked up a few flaws in my thinking from a training video and was doing pretty well until i just started getting murdered by the deck again. i ended up playing 1/2 at a couple tables because of a huge whale and he proceeded to stack me twice, once for 150 bb's so i dumped 700 in that session only later to come back and stick to 100nl and get murdered for another 5 bi for a -1.2k day.
- also since my mtt score i've playing some of the smaller ones that won't affect me roll wise but could produce a nice payout. i haven't had much other success but the fields are usually huge so it doesn't mean much. i've also played a couple 45 man sng's which are just unbelievably juicy but haven't picked up a cash in those yet. i did play a satellite to the 750k guarantee the other day ($216 bi) and managed to cash a seat but by the time the tournament rolled around i didn't have the focus or patience to play it so i unregistered and took the converted T$ to help offset the cash losses.
- keep grinding 100nl while playing roughly 4 tables but sometimes 6 if i can get a good seat on a fish at more than 4.
- play the occasional $26 mtt or 45/90 sng just cuz it keeps things interesting and the fields are so still super soft.
- keep up consistent coaching sessions weekly which over the last month or so hasn't happened for one reason or another.
i'll be back to posting regularly whether it be good or bad from now on.
tg
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
hot n cold
hot on playing better, cold at winning monies.
played last thursday and lost 3 buy-ins ($600) and did a 2 hour coaching review after wards of all the interesting hands. we addressed a flaw in my game where i was isolating limpers a little too weakly and maybe some small pre-flop leaks i have where im under valuing suited aces and over valuing hands like 64s. other than that and one other hand i botched i think i played a pretty sound session and unfortunately had a bunch of hands where the turn was an absolute gross spot and i was forced to fold with better than 60bb's in the pot.
played again saturday morning and got stacked on some std cooler/beat, can't remember, and kept running into shitty turns a la thursdays session and lost another $300.
sunday morning i got up early to watch a footy match online and decided to play a couple $40 cap plo games while watching. i ended up losing like $180 getting it in capped 4 times, once w/ 26% equity in a 4way capped pot pre-flop against AAxx, AAxx and KKxx holding 7653 w/ 3 clubs. my equity would have been much better but all 3 villains hands had blockers to my hand. other than that i got top 2 in vs middle set as the pfr, QJ97 vs Q8xx on a Q877 board and lost to a rvr 8 and some other hand where i had 82% equity on the turn and lost.
after the game i grabbed some breakfest and played 4 tables of 100nl while paying some bills and what not. not sure how but i managed to drop another $300 when i can only remember getting stacked once. anyways, i wasn't concentrating like i should have been so i accept the fact that my play was probably sub par. i played a little last night just while messing around with my hud settings and installing some new table mods. i think i got stacked once when i had TT on a 987hh flop and got it in vs AJhh but not sure of the total damge.
on top of all that i had to cashout my rakeback money ($1700) along with another $1600 from my ftp account and have spent my few hunderd dollars of stars money on coaching so im now officially a little bit closer to rock bottom. i think my online roll now sits at like 5k, a far cry from the high water mark of 28k last summer.
plan is to grind 100nl for the rest of the month until i go to vegas Mar 5th and hopefully when i return i'll go back to playing 200nl again.
i think i'll also take a break from posting depressing results in the blog so i probably won't post until i have some green numbers to show.
tg
played last thursday and lost 3 buy-ins ($600) and did a 2 hour coaching review after wards of all the interesting hands. we addressed a flaw in my game where i was isolating limpers a little too weakly and maybe some small pre-flop leaks i have where im under valuing suited aces and over valuing hands like 64s. other than that and one other hand i botched i think i played a pretty sound session and unfortunately had a bunch of hands where the turn was an absolute gross spot and i was forced to fold with better than 60bb's in the pot.
played again saturday morning and got stacked on some std cooler/beat, can't remember, and kept running into shitty turns a la thursdays session and lost another $300.
sunday morning i got up early to watch a footy match online and decided to play a couple $40 cap plo games while watching. i ended up losing like $180 getting it in capped 4 times, once w/ 26% equity in a 4way capped pot pre-flop against AAxx, AAxx and KKxx holding 7653 w/ 3 clubs. my equity would have been much better but all 3 villains hands had blockers to my hand. other than that i got top 2 in vs middle set as the pfr, QJ97 vs Q8xx on a Q877 board and lost to a rvr 8 and some other hand where i had 82% equity on the turn and lost.
after the game i grabbed some breakfest and played 4 tables of 100nl while paying some bills and what not. not sure how but i managed to drop another $300 when i can only remember getting stacked once. anyways, i wasn't concentrating like i should have been so i accept the fact that my play was probably sub par. i played a little last night just while messing around with my hud settings and installing some new table mods. i think i got stacked once when i had TT on a 987hh flop and got it in vs AJhh but not sure of the total damge.
on top of all that i had to cashout my rakeback money ($1700) along with another $1600 from my ftp account and have spent my few hunderd dollars of stars money on coaching so im now officially a little bit closer to rock bottom. i think my online roll now sits at like 5k, a far cry from the high water mark of 28k last summer.
plan is to grind 100nl for the rest of the month until i go to vegas Mar 5th and hopefully when i return i'll go back to playing 200nl again.
i think i'll also take a break from posting depressing results in the blog so i probably won't post until i have some green numbers to show.
tg
Thursday, February 5, 2009
so i have been playing bad
really bad. after 2 sessions with my old coach he made the comment that "i look a lot like a player that he was coaching 6 months ago". (ie. me, before i started coaching with him)
i've basically gone back to all my old bad habits. one lesson i've learned from the last 6 months is this. i need a second set of eyes, experienced eyes, reviewing my play with me on a constant basis. although i try my best, i require someone to argue plays with me and challenge me to think better. it's just too easy to convince yourself the play you made is right because you have a vested interest in it being right.
so for now, im going to be working with my coach twice a week, work on getting back to playing super solid tag poker and winning all the monies!
tg
i've basically gone back to all my old bad habits. one lesson i've learned from the last 6 months is this. i need a second set of eyes, experienced eyes, reviewing my play with me on a constant basis. although i try my best, i require someone to argue plays with me and challenge me to think better. it's just too easy to convince yourself the play you made is right because you have a vested interest in it being right.
so for now, im going to be working with my coach twice a week, work on getting back to playing super solid tag poker and winning all the monies!
tg
Monday, February 2, 2009
jan results
back, fully medicated and not wanting to quit pokah, kinda.
january finished up ok, my first session back after my meltdown i made 3 buy-ins and then broke even on the 31st making my total hands played 10,635 for the month. pretty low but kinda what i expected since i didn't play early in the month and then took time off mid month.
i ended up making like $225 so weeeeeeeee i didn't lose this month! that plus a $200 ironman bonus i cashed in and another $250 or so i won on stars playing ssplo while killing time on lunch. then there's rakeback but i never really keep track of that.
i had a few minutes today to sit down and play and feb sucks huge balls. in 186 hands i got my ass handed to me and lost a couple stacks (maybe multiple, i didn't look) due largely to getting set over setted twice.
my dilemma now is how much to withdraw for my trip to vegas later this month. i need to withdraw nowish cuz of the time it will take to get the cheque sent out and then my bank always puts a hold on it. with roughly 10.5k online between ftp and rakeback (using the money on stars for coaching) im kind of in a tough spot. ideally i'd like to take 5k to vegas with me so i can play some 2/5nl if i so desire but that would leave me underolled for 200nl the rest of the month. i guess i could just take out 3k which would not affect my online roll too much and then play 1/2 on the front end of my trip and then take shots at 2/5nl later in the trip when i don't have to worry about going busto.
at first i had mixed feelings about this trip for the above reasons, i hate withdrawing from online because the money never seems to get back into my account and i get frustrated when i make progrees in stakes and then have to go backwards due to outside sources. i really do not want to head back down to 100nl full time. so after a little thinking i decided that instead of playing half drunk and donking around for fun i could really grind my ass off while there and make it more of a business trip. i don't care how shitty my results have been in the last few months there is no way im a dog at the live 1/2 games and most likely a hefty fav. so if i can put in some big sessions (time wise), maybe i can use this as a bankroll booster instead of buster. i'll be there for 5 nights so thats plenty of time to make the moniez.
one other thing, i have reunited with my old coach and i feel better already after just one session. im hoping to work with him quite a bit before the vegas trip and maybe, and just maybe i can have a month reminisent (sp?) of spring/summer of 08.
tg
january finished up ok, my first session back after my meltdown i made 3 buy-ins and then broke even on the 31st making my total hands played 10,635 for the month. pretty low but kinda what i expected since i didn't play early in the month and then took time off mid month.
i ended up making like $225 so weeeeeeeee i didn't lose this month! that plus a $200 ironman bonus i cashed in and another $250 or so i won on stars playing ssplo while killing time on lunch. then there's rakeback but i never really keep track of that.
i had a few minutes today to sit down and play and feb sucks huge balls. in 186 hands i got my ass handed to me and lost a couple stacks (maybe multiple, i didn't look) due largely to getting set over setted twice.
my dilemma now is how much to withdraw for my trip to vegas later this month. i need to withdraw nowish cuz of the time it will take to get the cheque sent out and then my bank always puts a hold on it. with roughly 10.5k online between ftp and rakeback (using the money on stars for coaching) im kind of in a tough spot. ideally i'd like to take 5k to vegas with me so i can play some 2/5nl if i so desire but that would leave me underolled for 200nl the rest of the month. i guess i could just take out 3k which would not affect my online roll too much and then play 1/2 on the front end of my trip and then take shots at 2/5nl later in the trip when i don't have to worry about going busto.
at first i had mixed feelings about this trip for the above reasons, i hate withdrawing from online because the money never seems to get back into my account and i get frustrated when i make progrees in stakes and then have to go backwards due to outside sources. i really do not want to head back down to 100nl full time. so after a little thinking i decided that instead of playing half drunk and donking around for fun i could really grind my ass off while there and make it more of a business trip. i don't care how shitty my results have been in the last few months there is no way im a dog at the live 1/2 games and most likely a hefty fav. so if i can put in some big sessions (time wise), maybe i can use this as a bankroll booster instead of buster. i'll be there for 5 nights so thats plenty of time to make the moniez.
one other thing, i have reunited with my old coach and i feel better already after just one session. im hoping to work with him quite a bit before the vegas trip and maybe, and just maybe i can have a month reminisent (sp?) of spring/summer of 08.
tg
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
not. good. at. poker.
haven't played at all in the last 5-6 days and was super excited to play tonight. well within 45 min of starting my session im tilted out of my mind, got outplayed by the regs, got owned by the fish im supposed to be better than and i've come to one conclusion.
im just no good at poker. i have zero natural instinct for card games, i don't possess a fearless gamble and basically have been spinning my wheels for 4 years.
its funny because i often see people on training sites complaining about not being able to beat 25nl and shit and they've been playing for 2 years. well today i realized i am no better than them. right now i am such a huge dog to 200nl regulars it's embarassing.
the last 6 months in particular have been a vicous cycle, play a session, get raped, get pissed off and want to quit, cool down and by the next day have a renewed vigor about the game and a self assurance that i can get better. well i can't and i won't.
no amount of coaching or studying will ever turn me into a winner. im ashamed over the last few months every time someone asked me how poker is going but i deserve it because in early 08 i was taking every opportunity to let people know how well i was doing when they asked me.
i really wish i had the courage to cash out and quit. if i had some kind of other money making idea i would because i don't want to work a 9-5 the rest of my life. but i don't and the vicous cycle just keeps repeating.
tg
EDIT: day after edit, this is the kind of post that occurs when you don't take your meds and run slightly bad. i'll be back.
im just no good at poker. i have zero natural instinct for card games, i don't possess a fearless gamble and basically have been spinning my wheels for 4 years.
its funny because i often see people on training sites complaining about not being able to beat 25nl and shit and they've been playing for 2 years. well today i realized i am no better than them. right now i am such a huge dog to 200nl regulars it's embarassing.
the last 6 months in particular have been a vicous cycle, play a session, get raped, get pissed off and want to quit, cool down and by the next day have a renewed vigor about the game and a self assurance that i can get better. well i can't and i won't.
no amount of coaching or studying will ever turn me into a winner. im ashamed over the last few months every time someone asked me how poker is going but i deserve it because in early 08 i was taking every opportunity to let people know how well i was doing when they asked me.
i really wish i had the courage to cash out and quit. if i had some kind of other money making idea i would because i don't want to work a 9-5 the rest of my life. but i don't and the vicous cycle just keeps repeating.
tg
EDIT: day after edit, this is the kind of post that occurs when you don't take your meds and run slightly bad. i'll be back.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
winners tilt
had a good session the other night managing to play 1500 hands in one sitting which is rare. the plan was to play for an hour and a half or so, go to the gym and come back and play for a bit more but i didn't feel tired or worn out and every time my tables started breaking a new fish would sit down at a bunch of tables so i kept playing.
i was doing pretty well and built up stacks on a few tables making some good reads but in the end i think i got a little sloppy with my play. i think maybe my worst form of tilt is winners tilt and i tend to go into spazz click mode when im up. i play a little spewy pre-flop at times when winning and also tend to just make plays that are unwarranted. oh, and i don't like folding to river bets either.
anyways, im going to brush up a little bit on my hu game which is kind of non-existent. back last spring sometime i was playing hu semi-regularly at 50nl and did quite well over a small sample but stopped playing just because i didn't feel i had the optimal mindset going in to hu matches. if i lost a pot or got stacked a couple times i felt like i was getting owned and would get down myself, basically taking the results personally. also, the amount of guys i would sit down with that would hit n run were absurd and it bothered me a lot. the reason i feel a need to get back into it is that the other night while playing a did a search on one of the fish at my table to find out what other tables he was on. he was playing some dude hu so i put my name on the list not expecting to get a shot at him but a couple minutes later i did. he actually had a fairly decent pre-flop game hu but his post-flop skills were severely lacking. he stacked me once early but i managed to end up a few bucks on him before quitting to call it a night.
so i think i would like to occasionally play some hu in the future when i can find a spot worth playing. i won't be making it anything close to my main game but i think often times some of the biggest fish are playing hu, taking a shot with case money and i think having some hu experience can only help my developement.
tg
i was doing pretty well and built up stacks on a few tables making some good reads but in the end i think i got a little sloppy with my play. i think maybe my worst form of tilt is winners tilt and i tend to go into spazz click mode when im up. i play a little spewy pre-flop at times when winning and also tend to just make plays that are unwarranted. oh, and i don't like folding to river bets either.
anyways, im going to brush up a little bit on my hu game which is kind of non-existent. back last spring sometime i was playing hu semi-regularly at 50nl and did quite well over a small sample but stopped playing just because i didn't feel i had the optimal mindset going in to hu matches. if i lost a pot or got stacked a couple times i felt like i was getting owned and would get down myself, basically taking the results personally. also, the amount of guys i would sit down with that would hit n run were absurd and it bothered me a lot. the reason i feel a need to get back into it is that the other night while playing a did a search on one of the fish at my table to find out what other tables he was on. he was playing some dude hu so i put my name on the list not expecting to get a shot at him but a couple minutes later i did. he actually had a fairly decent pre-flop game hu but his post-flop skills were severely lacking. he stacked me once early but i managed to end up a few bucks on him before quitting to call it a night.
so i think i would like to occasionally play some hu in the future when i can find a spot worth playing. i won't be making it anything close to my main game but i think often times some of the biggest fish are playing hu, taking a shot with case money and i think having some hu experience can only help my developement.
tg
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
decent week
felt like i played pretty well over the 2k hands or so i've played over the last week. i think i've done pretty well over that time frame results wise so it feels good to win a little bit.
saturday i played another live session and made $160 in about 5 hours of play but it was one of the live sessions that makes me never want to play live again. just a bunch of whiners with the typical "oh my god i play perfect and never win" bullshit. i busted some reg w/ AA vs AK for 60bb's and he whined about it until i left. a lot of these regs are just so horrendous i have no idea why they haven't clued in yet but i guess thats the great part about poker. i had one kid that was playing super weak tight but wouldn't shutup when it came to berating this super bad short stack player beside me. so i had to listen to them bicker back and fourth on either side of me and at that moment i thanked god for internet poker. (and partly swore at the casino for banning ipods otherwise i wouldn't have had to deal with it)
best parts of the session were:
i also had a sick situation happen online last night. i got KK in vs AA pre again for the second time in a short little session i was playing after work. the first time i lost but the dude was only 1/2 stacked so it wasn't too bad, this time though villain was full and spiked a set on the flop. i then proceeded to hit runner runner for a straight and started to think that maybe it's my time to go on a little run. about 5 min after that the absolute biggest fish in mid/low stake nl sat down at my already decent table. this guy is down 220k over a pretty big sample playing 2/4 and 1/2! it's so sick so i had a ton of stuff to do but i felt obligated to stay and play. the wait list for the table was 49 people long! anyways i stayed for a bit, missed out on a lot of the stuff i was supposed to do but did manage to make a few bucks off him before i had to go.
im gonna try and play a lot tonight and maybe even try to luckbox a donkament.
tg
saturday i played another live session and made $160 in about 5 hours of play but it was one of the live sessions that makes me never want to play live again. just a bunch of whiners with the typical "oh my god i play perfect and never win" bullshit. i busted some reg w/ AA vs AK for 60bb's and he whined about it until i left. a lot of these regs are just so horrendous i have no idea why they haven't clued in yet but i guess thats the great part about poker. i had one kid that was playing super weak tight but wouldn't shutup when it came to berating this super bad short stack player beside me. so i had to listen to them bicker back and fourth on either side of me and at that moment i thanked god for internet poker. (and partly swore at the casino for banning ipods otherwise i wouldn't have had to deal with it)
best parts of the session were:
- same donk short stacker thats arguing with weak tight calls a raise from mp in the bb with like $37 behind. flop comes QTX and he bets out $30, pfr puts the other $7 in and he folds stating he was trying to get him off 2 pair.
- weak tight won't stop bitching and whining so after i take down a pot that he obv folded in he states that his 3rd pair was huge there, i laugh and he then starts telling me how he's going to call all my raises and outplay me post flop. i could do nothing else but laugh my ass off.
- half decent (or so i thought) reg raises in the hijak, my buddy cold calls in the blinds and they take a Q73ccc flop hu. my buddy donks out, hijak min-raises and my buddy calls. turn Qx, my buddy checks, hijak bets like 1/2 pot and my buddy c/r ai for another 100 on top. hijak tanks for close to 5 minutes, keeps holding his cards up and cutting out the call. then mucks his JJ face up while declaring he guarantee's it's the best hand and there is no way he's beat. i see this about 5 times a session, "im 100% sure i've got the best hand but im gonna fold"? (my buddy had AcQx)
i also had a sick situation happen online last night. i got KK in vs AA pre again for the second time in a short little session i was playing after work. the first time i lost but the dude was only 1/2 stacked so it wasn't too bad, this time though villain was full and spiked a set on the flop. i then proceeded to hit runner runner for a straight and started to think that maybe it's my time to go on a little run. about 5 min after that the absolute biggest fish in mid/low stake nl sat down at my already decent table. this guy is down 220k over a pretty big sample playing 2/4 and 1/2! it's so sick so i had a ton of stuff to do but i felt obligated to stay and play. the wait list for the table was 49 people long! anyways i stayed for a bit, missed out on a lot of the stuff i was supposed to do but did manage to make a few bucks off him before i had to go.
im gonna try and play a lot tonight and maybe even try to luckbox a donkament.
tg
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
salty
haven't played a ton this month but have had some really good sessions of late. i feel like i've played some of my best sessions of the last 5 months this week. i really owe it to going back and watching the unconventional wisdom series on deucescracked which really helped me to realize how robotic/abc/face up/straight forward/auto piloty i was playing.
it's easy to think you're running bad when you truly are just playing bad. lets face it, there is no way i was just running bad over the last 5 months. my stats are reflecting the change and i had kind of become this 23/21 wanna be tag with a pretty high aggression frequency since all i ever did was bet/bet/give up or bet/bet/bet.
lately i've been back to bobbing and weaving a bit more, giving aggro players rope, squeezing value out of hands and i think making some disciplined lay downs.
so poker is looking pretty positive except one thing is missing. im pretty sure my financial results are the shits still. i've played the bulk of my 4.7k hands over the last few nights and i now realize what running bad is actually like. i guess maybe it's just a product of game selecting well and playing with a bunch of monkeys and just like the ol party poker days, sometimes they are just going to stomp you. i have no ideas what my $ numbers are because im only going to review them monthly but im hoping it's not tooooooo brutal or else i might have to grind 100nl.
on another note i stacked off w/ QQ to AA again tonight which got me to thinking about how often i seem to run monster into monster against other tag regs when battling in steal scenarios so i went back through hem and filtered my results over the last 4 months when i get JJ/QQ/KK all-in pre-flop. im down 1.8k in those scenarios so maybe it's not all my imagination.
my gf comes back tomorrow so my poker playing will be cut down but i didn't seem to play all that much more when she was gone anyways.
tg
it's easy to think you're running bad when you truly are just playing bad. lets face it, there is no way i was just running bad over the last 5 months. my stats are reflecting the change and i had kind of become this 23/21 wanna be tag with a pretty high aggression frequency since all i ever did was bet/bet/give up or bet/bet/bet.
lately i've been back to bobbing and weaving a bit more, giving aggro players rope, squeezing value out of hands and i think making some disciplined lay downs.
so poker is looking pretty positive except one thing is missing. im pretty sure my financial results are the shits still. i've played the bulk of my 4.7k hands over the last few nights and i now realize what running bad is actually like. i guess maybe it's just a product of game selecting well and playing with a bunch of monkeys and just like the ol party poker days, sometimes they are just going to stomp you. i have no ideas what my $ numbers are because im only going to review them monthly but im hoping it's not tooooooo brutal or else i might have to grind 100nl.
on another note i stacked off w/ QQ to AA again tonight which got me to thinking about how often i seem to run monster into monster against other tag regs when battling in steal scenarios so i went back through hem and filtered my results over the last 4 months when i get JJ/QQ/KK all-in pre-flop. im down 1.8k in those scenarios so maybe it's not all my imagination.
my gf comes back tomorrow so my poker playing will be cut down but i didn't seem to play all that much more when she was gone anyways.
tg
Monday, January 5, 2009
not how you want to start
played 243 hands tonight before shutting it down due to the fact i was tilted which is good. i can be happy about that. here are the hands i got stacked on:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674793 - super high variance play but villain 3-bets a lot and since the rest of the table was pretty soft i expected to be there for a while and wanted to send a message to him early. his message back was "i have the nuts".
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674813 - not a great flop and i didn't expect him to be calling too light here pre-flop. (22/18/41 over 120 hands) i put his flop raising range at JJ+,AQs,KQs,QJs,JhTh,T9s,AQo and against that range i have 44% equity so i think i played it fine.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674840 - villain is unknown but early reads was that he was fishy. flop kinda sucks since if he is fishy he has Ax and KJ hands in his range although probably lots of pairs and sc's as well. i really just want to get it to showdown and may bet the river if he checks a third time to try and get value out of a curios pp or 8x hand. assuming he bets the following range on the river 88,ATs+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,AQo-ATo,KTo+,QTo+,JTo my value jam will be called by 88,AKs,KTs+,JTs,KTo+,JTo which i have 92% equity against so i think it's a pretty easy play.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674874 - both villains in this hand are pretty terrible and have been limp/calling a lot of flops and check/folding to lots of cbets. it's not the worst flop to cbet 3ways since i have overs + gutty + bdfd. turn jam is extremely terrible and in excusable. i'd say he's folding the turn less than 10% of the time and the turn if anything has improved him so yeah, pretty terrible. sucked even more when he started explaining to me how he was trapping me on the flop (with a gut shot). owned by a fish :(
tg
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674793 - super high variance play but villain 3-bets a lot and since the rest of the table was pretty soft i expected to be there for a while and wanted to send a message to him early. his message back was "i have the nuts".
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674813 - not a great flop and i didn't expect him to be calling too light here pre-flop. (22/18/41 over 120 hands) i put his flop raising range at JJ+,AQs,KQs,QJs,JhTh,T9s,AQo and against that range i have 44% equity so i think i played it fine.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674840 - villain is unknown but early reads was that he was fishy. flop kinda sucks since if he is fishy he has Ax and KJ hands in his range although probably lots of pairs and sc's as well. i really just want to get it to showdown and may bet the river if he checks a third time to try and get value out of a curios pp or 8x hand. assuming he bets the following range on the river 88,ATs+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,AQo-ATo,KTo+,QTo+,JTo my value jam will be called by 88,AKs,KTs+,JTs,KTo+,JTo which i have 92% equity against so i think it's a pretty easy play.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3674874 - both villains in this hand are pretty terrible and have been limp/calling a lot of flops and check/folding to lots of cbets. it's not the worst flop to cbet 3ways since i have overs + gutty + bdfd. turn jam is extremely terrible and in excusable. i'd say he's folding the turn less than 10% of the time and the turn if anything has improved him so yeah, pretty terrible. sucked even more when he started explaining to me how he was trapping me on the flop (with a gut shot). owned by a fish :(
tg
09 goals
haven't played a session yet in the new year but spent the weekend going over some possible goals for 09. i think setting goals for a full year in advance is a bit unrealistic as so many things change over the course of a year so i will set my initial goal for the first 5 months of the year.
for now, im going to stick with the goals above and if i have to i will revamp them when the time comes.
excited to play tonight after a nice little break.
tg
- play on average 15k hands a month keeping it to 4 tables at a time unless a massive whale is on a bunch of tables.
- start back at 200nl (tonight) and be playing 400nl by June 1st.
- this means that i'd be winning at roughly 3bb/100 over that time which is higher than i've averaged so far (2.50bb/100 in 08) but i also plan on getting better and playing better.
- hook up with a coach and have weekly sessions.
- work harder on game away from the table more than ever before.
- i might have to withdrawal 3k to pay off some bills
- im probably going to vegas in late february/early march and will need to withdrawal some money for that.
for now, im going to stick with the goals above and if i have to i will revamp them when the time comes.
excited to play tonight after a nice little break.
tg
Friday, January 2, 2009
2008 year in review
so the graph pretty much tells the story. couldn't lose for the first half of the year, couldn't win for the second. i think i said it in a previous post but i think i must have ran very well in the first half of the year as well as made more money from playing a tighter game pre-flop which in turn puts you in better spots postflop.
i think the first half of the year i was playing a 18/15 style preflop and a real fit or fold post flop game which isn't the most profitable way to play poker but at low limits it can definitely work. the peak off the graph is when i was at 400nl and i did pretty well for my first 20k hands or so before things started to go sour. looking back now, i think the point of when i started losing was the same time i decided that i needed to open up my game. this included starting to open up more speculative hands, 3-bet more, introduce 4-bet bluffing etc.
since then i've been a steady loser not only at 400nl but 200nl as well. the thing with poker though is that it's easy to tell yourself you're just running bad but it does you no real good because before you know it, you're making bad plays and not taking responsibility for them.
take this example, i had a hand where a loose passive player limped the co and i chkd my option in the bb w/ J3o. flop is JJ8 rainbow, i lead out and he calls. turn is a small brick, i lead out again and he raises pretty much committing his stack. it's very easy to stick it in there and be shown a better Jx and chalk it up to a cooler but when you're analysing your play there is no way you can kid yourself into calling there.
so after i had opened my game up i went into a stage where i was playing scared poker. every flop i saw i convinced myself my opponent had a set, played timid and got slayed. i eventually got out of that mindset and have made great strides in my game since but i still think my game is far from great.
when i was 9 tabling the last couple days i realised that although it might be profitable, it causes me to develope bad habits and ultimately is causing a regression in my game. i love the fact that i can play 2k hand sessions but whats the point if im playing them all like garbage. i guess it's better to just play 600 hands to the best of my ability and if i can only get 12k hands in a month than so be it. this is something i've known all along but once in a while i need a reminder.
this is just one big ramble but when i look back on 08, im not going to think of it as a failure. i made money which is a lot better than a lot of people can say. my roll is slightly larger than last year but i've also cashed out upwards of 10k over the year. im dissapointed in the last 6 months though because i had so much hope back in july, i was crushing my way upward and had reached 400nl about 4 months earlier than i thought i would have. i remember signing up for a coach and stated that my goal was to be a winning regular at 400nl by the end of 08 so i guess i've missed that goal since im not playing 400nl currently but i do have a positive result lifetime at 400nl.
as for goals this year im unsure. i haven't really thought about any yet and i haven't played the last couple of days. i will probably think of some tonight and make another post about what i want out of 09 before i play my first session of the year.
tg
Monday, December 29, 2008
xmas wasn't so merry
on the poker front at least.
i got home from work and fired up 4 tables of 200nl before heading to the casino and quickly dropped $600 on pretty standard stuff i think, can't really remember. that put my ftp roll to 8k so i decided i was done with 200nl for a bit and would drop down to 100nl for the next little while.
headed to the casino which was dead and there were only 2 tables running full of regulars. luckily the regulars are just as incompetent as most of the tourists, they just know how to handle chips. i was kinda card dead most of the session, i had QQ early but got multiway action on a Ace hi flop and folded the turn. JJ same thing and then i picked up AA, two limpers utg and im 3rd to act. i make it 16 cuz either guy never folds once he's put money in, all fold to utg who calls and miracuosly utg+1 finds a fold. flop is K62 rainbow with a single spade, utg check/calls, turn is a brick spade putting a flusd draw out, utg check/calls all-in, a 3rd spade hits the river and he shows As5s for the nut flush. it was pretty hilarious and the guy tried to justify it and was just spewing at the mouth. the only thing that irked me about it is that he's a hot head at the table and if the rolls were reversed he would have been irate. didn't matter to me, so i rebought.
i crusie along and end up building a stack back up to like $260 (from the $100 cap buyin) when this hand comes up. im in the hijak and a really bad loose passive makes it $6 from mp, i cold call with 64o (kinda loose), the co who is somewhat sane and borderline decent makes it $20, btn cold calls which means he has two cards, fold back to mp and he calls and im getting a good enough price. (i think) flop comes down a beuty 235 rainbow giving me the nuts, we all check and the turn is another 2, mp checks, i lead out, co raises, btn goes all-in which is either a boat or 2, nothing less but more likely a 2. i ship in and co tank calls w/ AK muttering something about having outs to our overpairs. i show my straight, co mucks and leaves the table before the river is dealt drawing dead and btn shows J2o for trips. river is a 5 fillng him up, he shakes my hand and tries to leave the table thinking he lost before i tell him to sit down and that he won the pot. dealer tries to push the pot to my buddy in the sb that was never even in the hand.
after that, i rebought one final time and was in for $370, after my stack had dwindled down to like $80 i shoved over a raise and call w/ AQo and got called by JJ and lost the race. dejected and somber from losing in such a juicy game i did what any other respectable poker player would do and took the last $90 in my pocket to the roulette tables. 90 on red and a hundo black got me back to only being stuck $200 on the day.
my buddy and i then left the casino to go to our usual home game. except this time they wanted to play a cash game rather than our usual sng format which is something i've been trying to get them to do for a long time. so we get there and they are playing .50/$1.00 with a min buyin of $20 and a max of $40? so right away im arguing that there should be no max and after a while get my way and buyin for a $100 easily covering the table. then im told that we are going to be charged a rake for playing? keep in mind this is 6 friends playing, not some random people showing up. we play on a fucking plastic table top octagon that doesn't fit the table. i kinda went off about it and said if you want, we can play at my house where i have real table and good chairs and i won't charge a dime. then i offered to pay everyones rake up front cuz it was christmas and i thought the idea was ridiculous. anyways, the rake idea was abolished it was 6 handed game. i dicked around a little bit winning lots of small pots uncontested and losing most of the ones that were contested.
then this hand came up which almost ruined a good friendship and christmas in one fowled swoop. i raise utg w/ AcKc and the host calls on the button. hu the flop is 246cc or something similar, i bet he calls, turn is a brickish Ten or something, i bet he calls, river is a 5x and i shove for a little more than pot. now i was kinda drunk and dicking around so i won't defend the play at all but at the time i just figured he had like A6 or something and would never call a bet for the $71 i made it on the river. he thinks for about a minute and asks me to count it out and then says "call, i have the nuts" and rolls 8c7c. now to my friends defense, they don't understand how poorly it is to slow roll or laugh at people when they lose pots. they all thinks it's fun to rib and it usually is, but when i've dropped 2k in the last 2 days online and then donated $400 to the fish at the casino my tolerance for being slow rolled is a little low.
so that was christmas eve, christmas day i decided not to play and forgo the gold ironman status for the month since it's probably only another $10 to my bonus and im risking losing hundreds when playing tilted.
on boxing day (26th) i decided to play and started off 4-6 tabling 100nl in the morning and played around 800 hands. in my afternoon session i decided to try and 9 table to see where it got me. i actually really enjoyed it and was amazed about how many hands you can get in per hour. i had no real problems keeping up with the action on all the tables other than the odd time out pre-flop. the bad news is i ran like absolute trash but the good news was that i played pretty well and managed to come out of it up a $100 over 2k hands.
the next day i put in two sessions of about 1k hands each and did the run good and made around $750 on the day. i find i get worn out quicker playing 9 tables but a little break does me a lot of good and then i can get back at it. putting in 2k hands a day is pretty insane for me but im pretty optimistic i can make it work. i'll stick to 100nl for a little while longer because i don't think i'd be able to get away with it at 200nl. the competition at 100nl is just so much softer.
gonna play tonight aiming for another 2k hands.
tg.
i got home from work and fired up 4 tables of 200nl before heading to the casino and quickly dropped $600 on pretty standard stuff i think, can't really remember. that put my ftp roll to 8k so i decided i was done with 200nl for a bit and would drop down to 100nl for the next little while.
headed to the casino which was dead and there were only 2 tables running full of regulars. luckily the regulars are just as incompetent as most of the tourists, they just know how to handle chips. i was kinda card dead most of the session, i had QQ early but got multiway action on a Ace hi flop and folded the turn. JJ same thing and then i picked up AA, two limpers utg and im 3rd to act. i make it 16 cuz either guy never folds once he's put money in, all fold to utg who calls and miracuosly utg+1 finds a fold. flop is K62 rainbow with a single spade, utg check/calls, turn is a brick spade putting a flusd draw out, utg check/calls all-in, a 3rd spade hits the river and he shows As5s for the nut flush. it was pretty hilarious and the guy tried to justify it and was just spewing at the mouth. the only thing that irked me about it is that he's a hot head at the table and if the rolls were reversed he would have been irate. didn't matter to me, so i rebought.
i crusie along and end up building a stack back up to like $260 (from the $100 cap buyin) when this hand comes up. im in the hijak and a really bad loose passive makes it $6 from mp, i cold call with 64o (kinda loose), the co who is somewhat sane and borderline decent makes it $20, btn cold calls which means he has two cards, fold back to mp and he calls and im getting a good enough price. (i think) flop comes down a beuty 235 rainbow giving me the nuts, we all check and the turn is another 2, mp checks, i lead out, co raises, btn goes all-in which is either a boat or 2, nothing less but more likely a 2. i ship in and co tank calls w/ AK muttering something about having outs to our overpairs. i show my straight, co mucks and leaves the table before the river is dealt drawing dead and btn shows J2o for trips. river is a 5 fillng him up, he shakes my hand and tries to leave the table thinking he lost before i tell him to sit down and that he won the pot. dealer tries to push the pot to my buddy in the sb that was never even in the hand.
after that, i rebought one final time and was in for $370, after my stack had dwindled down to like $80 i shoved over a raise and call w/ AQo and got called by JJ and lost the race. dejected and somber from losing in such a juicy game i did what any other respectable poker player would do and took the last $90 in my pocket to the roulette tables. 90 on red and a hundo black got me back to only being stuck $200 on the day.
my buddy and i then left the casino to go to our usual home game. except this time they wanted to play a cash game rather than our usual sng format which is something i've been trying to get them to do for a long time. so we get there and they are playing .50/$1.00 with a min buyin of $20 and a max of $40? so right away im arguing that there should be no max and after a while get my way and buyin for a $100 easily covering the table. then im told that we are going to be charged a rake for playing? keep in mind this is 6 friends playing, not some random people showing up. we play on a fucking plastic table top octagon that doesn't fit the table. i kinda went off about it and said if you want, we can play at my house where i have real table and good chairs and i won't charge a dime. then i offered to pay everyones rake up front cuz it was christmas and i thought the idea was ridiculous. anyways, the rake idea was abolished it was 6 handed game. i dicked around a little bit winning lots of small pots uncontested and losing most of the ones that were contested.
then this hand came up which almost ruined a good friendship and christmas in one fowled swoop. i raise utg w/ AcKc and the host calls on the button. hu the flop is 246cc or something similar, i bet he calls, turn is a brickish Ten or something, i bet he calls, river is a 5x and i shove for a little more than pot. now i was kinda drunk and dicking around so i won't defend the play at all but at the time i just figured he had like A6 or something and would never call a bet for the $71 i made it on the river. he thinks for about a minute and asks me to count it out and then says "call, i have the nuts" and rolls 8c7c. now to my friends defense, they don't understand how poorly it is to slow roll or laugh at people when they lose pots. they all thinks it's fun to rib and it usually is, but when i've dropped 2k in the last 2 days online and then donated $400 to the fish at the casino my tolerance for being slow rolled is a little low.
so that was christmas eve, christmas day i decided not to play and forgo the gold ironman status for the month since it's probably only another $10 to my bonus and im risking losing hundreds when playing tilted.
on boxing day (26th) i decided to play and started off 4-6 tabling 100nl in the morning and played around 800 hands. in my afternoon session i decided to try and 9 table to see where it got me. i actually really enjoyed it and was amazed about how many hands you can get in per hour. i had no real problems keeping up with the action on all the tables other than the odd time out pre-flop. the bad news is i ran like absolute trash but the good news was that i played pretty well and managed to come out of it up a $100 over 2k hands.
the next day i put in two sessions of about 1k hands each and did the run good and made around $750 on the day. i find i get worn out quicker playing 9 tables but a little break does me a lot of good and then i can get back at it. putting in 2k hands a day is pretty insane for me but im pretty optimistic i can make it work. i'll stick to 100nl for a little while longer because i don't think i'd be able to get away with it at 200nl. the competition at 100nl is just so much softer.
gonna play tonight aiming for another 2k hands.
tg.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
i never liked festivus anyways
well a continuing theme of this blog for the last few months, i got smoked last night 6 tabling 200nl to the tune of 1.3k.
i held my emotions in check during it and it wasn't that bad until i lost two huge pots in succession and made a mediocre stop. i don't have the hh's but the big pots were:
AJ vs K3 on a AT37 board, villain was a spew monkey playing wildly bad so i extended my session cuz i was on his left, anyways, i 3-bet him pre knowing he would never fold anything, potted the flop and check/called his inevtable shove on the turn. he binked a K on the rvr. this was a $500 pot.
KK vs 6c4c on a board that ran out 7c3c3x5c3x and i got raised ai on the river when we were both pretty deep. when he raises the river i think im beat 99% of the time but i had earlier made a huge river c/r on him and got him to fold a big hand which he was none too happy with in the chat so i had a feeling he wanted to play back at me. this led to me calling but i knew it was wrong. $700 pot.
AQ vs JJ on JxxAx board, $600 pot, villain had be calling a lot of my raises in pos and floating the majority of flops so i cbet the flop 3w (i believe i had a bdfd to go with the overs) and he just called, turn Ace i check/called thinking i'd give him the opportunity to try and take the pot away although in hindsight im not sure how often he'll stab at an Ace on the turn. on the river i check/called all-in which i think i have to now that my hand is so under repped and he had top set from the get go.
so 3 pretty shitty spots but in the last 2 hands my play was not optimal and i need to take repsonsiblity for those results. so this has knocked my roll down to 8.5k on ftp, 1.2k in rake account and a couple hundo on stars. im going to stick to 200nl for now but will move down to 100nl if my ftp roll hits 8k.
im actually off work in an hour and am heading to the casino this afternoon for a little xmas 1/2nl. i'll also try to squeeze in a small session before i go to get the 200pts i need for the day.
tg
i held my emotions in check during it and it wasn't that bad until i lost two huge pots in succession and made a mediocre stop. i don't have the hh's but the big pots were:
AJ vs K3 on a AT37 board, villain was a spew monkey playing wildly bad so i extended my session cuz i was on his left, anyways, i 3-bet him pre knowing he would never fold anything, potted the flop and check/called his inevtable shove on the turn. he binked a K on the rvr. this was a $500 pot.
KK vs 6c4c on a board that ran out 7c3c3x5c3x and i got raised ai on the river when we were both pretty deep. when he raises the river i think im beat 99% of the time but i had earlier made a huge river c/r on him and got him to fold a big hand which he was none too happy with in the chat so i had a feeling he wanted to play back at me. this led to me calling but i knew it was wrong. $700 pot.
AQ vs JJ on JxxAx board, $600 pot, villain had be calling a lot of my raises in pos and floating the majority of flops so i cbet the flop 3w (i believe i had a bdfd to go with the overs) and he just called, turn Ace i check/called thinking i'd give him the opportunity to try and take the pot away although in hindsight im not sure how often he'll stab at an Ace on the turn. on the river i check/called all-in which i think i have to now that my hand is so under repped and he had top set from the get go.
so 3 pretty shitty spots but in the last 2 hands my play was not optimal and i need to take repsonsiblity for those results. so this has knocked my roll down to 8.5k on ftp, 1.2k in rake account and a couple hundo on stars. im going to stick to 200nl for now but will move down to 100nl if my ftp roll hits 8k.
im actually off work in an hour and am heading to the casino this afternoon for a little xmas 1/2nl. i'll also try to squeeze in a small session before i go to get the 200pts i need for the day.
tg
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
snowed in
so i was snowed in all weekend which resulted in lots of poker. i got home friday afternoon and between then and sunday morning i played about 3700 hands which is quite a lot for me. a lot of it was 4 tabling but i ramped it up to 6 tabling later in the weekend. last night i played a bit again and got another 800 hands in or so.
not sure of the net result of the weekend but i did peak at my montly results last night since i was really uncertain where i was at. i knew that sunday morning was a pretty poor session where i got stacked a few times and was involved in some pretty marginal spots. on the contrary my saturday sessions were good and i ran up stacks on most of my tables.
turns out that after about 9k hands this month im down $100 but have a winrate of 2.5bb/100 since i made about $500 when i moved down and played some 100nl. at one point i was down 1.8k on the month but then went down to 100nl and have got it back to even now.
something else i've noticed is that i seem to dial in a lot more on my reads when im playing more tables rather than less. this seems counter intuitive but it the more thats going on, the better i focus and the less i drift off. (i've always thought it was the opposite) the negative to multi tabling that i've felt in the past is that i rush too many of my decisions. i think this all stems from an ADD problem but im no doctor. so i think from now on my main game will be 6 tabling as long as games are good.
i might also take a crack at 9 tabling once in a while but would probably move down in limits before attempting that.
also, i need to collect 200 points a day for the final 9 days of the month to get gold iron man status which in turn will increase my iron man year end bonus so i will be playing everyday for the rest of the year, albeit sometimes just long enough to get the 200 points required.
tg
not sure of the net result of the weekend but i did peak at my montly results last night since i was really uncertain where i was at. i knew that sunday morning was a pretty poor session where i got stacked a few times and was involved in some pretty marginal spots. on the contrary my saturday sessions were good and i ran up stacks on most of my tables.
turns out that after about 9k hands this month im down $100 but have a winrate of 2.5bb/100 since i made about $500 when i moved down and played some 100nl. at one point i was down 1.8k on the month but then went down to 100nl and have got it back to even now.
something else i've noticed is that i seem to dial in a lot more on my reads when im playing more tables rather than less. this seems counter intuitive but it the more thats going on, the better i focus and the less i drift off. (i've always thought it was the opposite) the negative to multi tabling that i've felt in the past is that i rush too many of my decisions. i think this all stems from an ADD problem but im no doctor. so i think from now on my main game will be 6 tabling as long as games are good.
i might also take a crack at 9 tabling once in a while but would probably move down in limits before attempting that.
also, i need to collect 200 points a day for the final 9 days of the month to get gold iron man status which in turn will increase my iron man year end bonus so i will be playing everyday for the rest of the year, albeit sometimes just long enough to get the 200 points required.
tg
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