Update (its been a while!)

So its been challenging this week for me as I'm getting up at 5am to start working out for an hour or so before work. Its a little tiring but hopefully will be worth it in the end!

Its taken away my poker playing in the mornings, which is good and bad I guess. I started to play more 0.05/0.10 in the new year and it went horrible, I think I was down 12-13 bi's. Some of it was coolers, some of it was bad play. I think at this point I've fixed some of that play though. I did drop back down to 0.02/0.05 to try to recover some as my BR took a hit and went under $500 for the first time in a while.

This morning I actually played a bit as my biceps hurt enough that I couldn't straighten my arms without them hurting like crazy, so my workout was pretty fast. The session started awfully, with 2 set over sets and an overpair loosing to a rivered set. Early on in the session (130 hands in) I was down about 2.5 BI's. I ended up finishing the session (417 hands) up 0.10 though! I know I can beat 0.05/0.10, I just have to make sure I'm playing smart the entire time. For Feb I'm up just over 3BI's at 0.05/0.10, which starts to make up for my being down 12BI's in Jan.

Also, I broke 100,000 hands at 0.02/0.05 which was a cool accomplishment for me. After 104,722 hands, I'm a 4.61 bb/100 winner. I'm happy that I was able to maintain a decent win rate, although I know it could be MUCH higher. I had a bad stretch at the start of Feb where I was down 8-9 BI's pretty quick, but I guess it happens. Over the long run I'm a decent winner at those stakes, so atleast I know I can always drop back down should I have to!

Anyways, I'll try to update this more but its a little difficult when I'm not putting in a ton of volume!

Merry Ho-Ho's!!!

Well first off I guess I should start this post with a Merry Christmas to all!

I'm at my inlaw's place right now, have been here for the past 6 days. Brought my laptop with me so I've been able to surf and even get in some games!

It was strange, before I left I felt like I couldn't really win at all, and hadn't been putting in much volume. Since I've been here I've been on a bit of a tear and brought the BR back up to around $560.

I think the only thing I've done is just tighten up my game... by that I don't just mean playing less hands, I mean playing a better selection of hands in better positions. Hell, I folded AK from UTG today after a 3 bet from UTG+2 got raised by the button. I don't want to play AK in a 3 way pot out of position against other deep stacks. I cut my losses at the 3bb raise I put in and just dumped it. I would have won the hand I believe, but I would have been put in a bad spot had I missed the flop, so I decided to just dump it instead.

I ended up starting this post about 1.5 hours ago, but decided to jump into a session instead. It started out as a mistake, as I quickly dropped 2 BI's. I decided I would just grind it back and try to show myself that in the long run I can be a winner at this level. I don't have HEM or PT installed on this lappy so I can't show any graphs, but I can't wait to get home and see how my stats look from when I was here, especially what my vpip/pfr/3bet/steal stats look like. I think I tried to play alot better position poker, and I was really aggressive with my 3 betting with hands that can play well after the flop rather than just 3 betting for the sake of 3 betting. Suited connectors/1 gappers, suited broadway, KQ type hands were all being used to 3 bet or isolate limpers. Its amazing how many people will limp/call 5bb pre flop and just fold to any bet on the flop.

I ended up playing ~1230 hands, and came away as a $10.63 winner (~212 bb). I still averaged out to 17bb/100, a pretty good feat considering how it started.

I really only got involved in about 4 pots that were > 100bb. The first was very early in the session where I donked off a stack to a guy I clearly knew I was losing to. I really do need to just learn to fold more often early in a session until I'm in a rhythm. He called a min raise from MP, I 3 bet from the button with jacks, original raiser folds and he comes back over top of me. I should have just folded at that point knowing hes not doing that without a big hand. Of course, like a donkey I stack off on the 2-4-9 flop to kings.

Another I had a guy dump about 85 BB to me where I bet the entire way with AJ against A5 on a J2A46 board.

The other 2 were interesting, I'll try to post the HH conversion

Full Tilt, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players

Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

UTG+1: $1.38 (27.6 bb)

UTG+2: $1.28 (25.6 bb)

MP1: $5.34 (106.8 bb)

MP2: $10.09 (201.8 bb)

MP3: $4.99 (99.8 bb)

Hero (CO): $10.13 (202.6 bb)

BTN: $5.32 (106.4 bb)

SB: $5.29 (105.8 bb)

BB: $5 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q Q

5 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, BTN folds, SB calls $0.13, BB folds

Flop: ($0.35) 9 5 9 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $0.20, SB calls $0.20

Turn: ($0.75) 6 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $0.40, SB raises to $1.20, Hero calls $0.80

River: ($3.15) 8 (2 players)

SB bets $2.85, Hero calls $2.85

Results: $8.85 pot ($0.59 rake)

Final Board: 9 5 9 6 8

Hero showed Q Q and won $8.26 ($3.86 net)

SB showed J A and lost (-$4.40 net)

I think I pretty much butchered this hand starting on the turn. I really can't beat anything but air at that point. On the river its even worse, as I'm losing to most hands that villain shows up with there. Ahh well, I guess it pays to be terrible sometimes?

Full Tilt, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players

Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

CO: $3.04 (60.8 bb)

BTN: $5.07 (101.4 bb)

SB: $10.62 (212.4 bb)

Hero (BB): $5 (100 bb)

UTG+1: $5.10 (102 bb)

UTG+2: $4.66 (93.2 bb)

MP1: $1.78 (35.6 bb)

MP2: $2.38 (47.6 bb)

MP3: $1.93 (38.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7 A

7 folds, SB raises to $0.15, Hero raises to $0.45, SB raises to $1.25, Hero raises to $2.35, SB calls $1.10

Flop: ($4.70) 5 A 6 (2 players)

SB bets $4.70, Hero calls $2.65 and is all-in

Turn: ($12.05) 7 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

River: ($12.05) Q (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $12.05 pot ($0.66 rake)

Final Board: 5 A 6 7 Q

SB showed J 9 and won $2.05 (-$5.00 net)

Hero showed 7 A and won $9.34 ($4.34 net)

I played this pretty terribly as well. I should have either shoved or folded pre after his 4 bet. As played (although I'm not sure why he calls the 5 bet), I probably should have gotten away from it on the flop. With half my stack already in, I'm not sure how much better of a flop I can get in a 5 bet flop, which was the main reasoning behind my call. Luckily I was ahead anyways and didn't need the turn card.

Anyways, its starting to get late/early, and I should get to bed. My lovely fiancee will kill me if she knows I was up this late, lol. I'm glad my night ended the way it did though. The BR is sitting nicely now. I actually had it at 462 earlier in the week, then logged in on the 23rd in the evening and lost 4 bi's pretty quickly. Thankfully I've gained most of that back, and I can't wait to get back home to get some stats and see if there were any obvious leaks in my game that I can fix. The leaks I'm worried about at this point should be simple ones considering the stakes, but the quicker I find em the better. I'm really trying to get a fundamentally sound game before I move up. Hopefully in the new year I can start playing around at 0.05/0.10 again! Wahoo!!

Cheers and happy holidays!!!

FML

Epic downswing lately. Since the 19th, I'm down $52. BR is just over $500 now (thanks to rakeback!).

The last 2 days have been especially brutal, being down $31, but running at EV I'd be at -$2.71. Awesome.

Some of the more brutal ones:

KK vs QJ all in on a jack high board... Q on the turn.

QQ vs JJ all in pre, jack on the flop.

KK vs A5 all in pre. Board runs out 93482

AK vs QQ all in pre... hit an ace on the flop!!! Wait, queen on the turn.

22 vs QQ on a 28Q flop. And just for the hell of it, the other Q on the river.

Then this at the same time on 2 different tables. AK suited in the sb all in pre vs button with JJ. Board runs out 46947 (2 of my suit even). Other table, my 99 on the button vs SB's AK. Board runs out KQK8A. Yeah, awesome... those two boards are flipped around on the tables, and I win an $18 and a $10 pot instead of losing them.

And those were just in the LAST SESSION.

Other great ones in the previous day or so

67hh vs AQhh all in on 3695 2 heart board. Heart on the river.

KK vs A9 all in on a 982 board, 9 on the turn

AA vs KJ all in pre, board runs out K82J5 (4 flush without my ace even)

KK vs AJ all in pre. Board runs out Q7A4K (4 flush for his J. Dirty river)

*sigh*

I did try some 0.05/0.10 as well, which didn't end so great. Ended up down $25.85, but just means I dropped back down, and thank god I did because if I took these kind of hits at 0.05/0.10 I'd be alot worse off. Its funny, the money doesn't really even matter to me, I just want to prove to myself that I can actually make money at this and try to slowly move up in stakes. This last downswing has been pretty brutal, but I just need to stay focused and not just donate money away from donkey tilt, which I've been pretty good at (except one hand I stacked off with KJ on a K high board to a set of kings... which is kind of brutal anyways).

Overall I'm still winning, just not nearly at the rate I was. Hopefully I can turn it around soon!

Oh yeah

Funniest pot I've played recently... my call pre was meh, but after the flop is when it gets interesting.

Full Tilt Poker Game #25098940175: Table Flash - $0.02/$0.05 - No Limit Hold'em - 09:25:48 ET - 2010/10/29

Seat 1: killersan815 ($2.24)

Seat 2: corleone gz ($7.36)

Seat 3: TribalHound ($0.39)

Seat 4: Dawnraider1 ($3.48)

Seat 5: thewader ($7.65)

Seat 6: LPMENIS ($5.62)

Seat 7: Vetas82 ($2.41)

Seat 8: Poseidon041 ($7.82)

Seat 9: karmamoney ($2.82)

karmamoney posts the small blind of $0.02

killersan815 posts the big blind of $0.05

The button is in seat #8

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to thewader [6d 6c]

corleone gz folds

TribalHound raises to $0.39, and is all in

Dawnraider1 folds

thewader calls $0.39

LPMENIS folds

Vetas82 calls $0.39

Poseidon041 calls $0.39

karmamoney folds

killersan815 folds

*** FLOP *** [8d 6s 6h]

thewader checks

Vetas82 bets $0.80

Poseidon041 raises to $7.43, and is all in

thewader calls $7.26, and is all in

Vetas82 has 15 seconds left to act

Vetas82 calls $1.22, and is all in

Poseidon041 shows [Ah Jh]

TribalHound shows [Th 7h]

thewader shows [6d 6c]

Vetas82 shows [Ad Jd]

Uncalled bet of $0.17 returned to Poseidon041

*** TURN *** [8d 6s 6h] [As]

*** RIVER *** [8d 6s 6h As] [9d]

Poseidon041 shows two pair, Aces and Sixes

thewader shows four of a kind, Sixes

thewader wins side pot #2 ($9.78) with four of a kind, Sixes

Vetas82 shows two pair, Aces and Sixes

thewader wins side pot #1 ($5.65) with four of a kind, Sixes

TribalHound shows a straight, Ten high

thewader wins the main pot ($1.53) with four of a kind, Sixes

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $18.17 Main pot $1.63. Side pot 1 $6.06. Side pot 2 $10.48. | Rake $1.21

Board: [8d 6s 6h As 9d]

Seat 1: killersan815 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 2: corleone gz didn't bet (folded)

Seat 3: TribalHound showed [Th 7h] and lost with a straight, Ten high

Seat 4: Dawnraider1 didn't bet (folded)

Seat 5: thewader showed [6d 6c] and won ($16.96) with four of a kind, Sixes

Seat 6: LPMENIS didn't bet (folded)

Seat 7: Vetas82 showed [Ad Jd] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sixes

Seat 8: Poseidon041 (button) showed [Ah Jh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sixes

Seat 9: karmamoney (small blind) folded before the Flop

I'm baaaaack

Well, its only been 8 1/2 months since my last post! Shortly after the last one, I decided not to pursue the goal as it was taking up too much of my time and causing me to ignore other aspects of my life.

I did go to Vegas twice this summer, one for poker and the other for a wedding. The poker trip with my buddy ReMax was good... I lost a tiny bit playing live but played pretty well overall and just hit a cooler or two. Next time I'd want to go with a few more BI's so I didn't have to play so nitty. The second trip I played one session that lasted about 25 hands, got it AIPF KK vs AA, and just quit after.

I will say that since the end of September (pretty well 2 months ago), I've started to play alot more without such a demanding goal. I started with whatever I had left in my online roll in August, which was around $225-250 if I remember right. I figured that this time around I'd simply use nitty BRM and try to grind my way to some winnings. The first little while I just bounced around, as high as $270 and as low as $150 or so played 0.02/0.05 blinds. Yeah I started with 40 BIs, and it really let me play the way I've always wanted to. Thankfully I did find a few leaks in my game that I corrected, and in the past little while have really turned it around. Actually, alot of that has come in the past 11 days since I actually re-installed HEM and looked at my stats. Since Nov 9th, I've played 22 session, having only 5 losing ones, and one of the losing sesh's was 0.02. Over 14.7k hands, I've profited $142.81 winning 19.07bb/100. Hopefully I can keep up with that and really push through to the next level soon.

At this point my roll is sitting at $536.85. I did dabble with 2 tables of 0.05/0.10 tonite as well, which was somewhat successful. After playing so much .02/.05 it feels weird to be shoving in spots so deep, but I guess like anything, theres an adjustment period. It just feels weird considering I was playing .10/.25 and even some .25/.50 less than a year ago without blinking an eye. Oh well.

This time I am sticking to a strict BRM, and its much easier since I don't have a time frame I'm interested in. 100 BI at my current level meant I was able to move up and give the next level a quick try. I wanted to make it 50bi at the next level but the jump to .10/.25 would take forever. I'm trying not to look that far ahead and instead concentrate on making good decisions. Thats it for now, but it feels good to be playing again, and even better to actually be winning!

Oh yeah, and in other news, I'm getting married to the best girl in the world! I guess I'd love to be able to make enough in the next 8 months to be able to put some towards our wedding or honeymoon, but I'm not too worried about that. I'm just more excited she said yes, and that was probably the best day in my life to this point. Love you sweetie!!!

Ugh

What a brutal week. I haven't really updated because I really haven't felt it lately. 

I had a terrible week at the tables, starting early last week and going on a 13-14 BI downswing at $25nl. Granted, I'm sure one of those BI's was due to extreme monkey tilt, but I just couldn't seem to get anything going. Alot of it came in one session where I should have just set a stop loss and called it quits, but thought I could play my way out of it. I think I ran Kings into Aces 4 times, had an underset 3-4 times, and generally ran bad in all my flips or against draws. I've never seen so many flush draws get there, I swear. 

After dropping that many BI's, I decided that I really needed to drop down and work my way back up, which so far has gone alright. I cleared a $50 bonus at FT, and am working on clearing a $100 bonus as well playing mostly $10nl. So far, so good in that regard, and I think the BR is back up around the $500 mark. Not nearly where I wanted it to be, but not too much I can do about it but keep working away. 

The $100 bonus is actually on an old account from an address before I moved and didn't have rakeback on. Haven't used it in a while, but thought this might be the best time to really work on my game and get back to the basics. I quickly transferred $125 to that account and started playing NL25, which was a mistake. After dropping a BI, I quickly realized if I wanted to actually clear the bonus and make a bit of money, I needed to take it slow and steady, so I dropped and actually played some NL5! Wow, what a change. I'm amazed at how lightly people stack off there, and I'm guessing I could probably make more playing NL5 than NL10, lol. After getting a bit back playing NL5, I bumped up to NL10 with just over 10 BIs, cleared the first part of the bonus and have (I think) around $145 there now. Really, only a $10 profit overall, which is much lower than it should be as I made a few spewy calls. I really need to stop doing that, and cut my losses in hands. I find it alot harder to fold a hand at 10NL and people seem to just want to give thier stacks away super light, but every time I get into a deep pot with someone they seem to finally have it. Making 2-3 slightly better decisions and I'd probably have another 2-3BI's. 

The other change I made playing for the $100 bonus is I'm back down to 2 tables of Rush. Too many times playing 4 tables I found myself making bad decisions that I could avoid if I had been paying more attention. I miss the straight draw that gets there, I miss a 4 flush board (once), things like that. Playing 2 tables lets me concentrate a bit more.

Hopefully I'll have most of this second bonus cleared within 2 weeks and be back up to where I was last weekend, even a bit higher. I don't want to end up just clearing this $100 bonus and not actually making other money on it. I want to be able to clear the whole $100 and add another $100-$150 in winnings on top of that. I do need to get it done in a decent amount of time so I can get in some hands with Rakeback, but I feel the bonus is slightly better for me overall than rakeback will be. 

The other thing I'm not sure of is if I'll be able to play in the rakeback freeroll this month. I missed it last month and really wanted to play in it this month, but I have a work change on the 13th starting at 11pm and going for 10-12 hours. Of course, the freeroll is on the 14th at like 3pm, so we'll see if I can either drag my ass out of bed or stay up for it. Its a $20k freeroll, so I'd really like to play this one. 

Hopefully another update in a few days... I deserve a good upswing, and hopefully it comes shortly so I can bump back up to NL25 and get back on track. I'm still working on fixing some leaks, but am feeling more confident in my game now than I was when I started this challenge. I don't know if I'm more detached from the money but running a 2-3 barrel is OK for me now, providing that I feel its a +EV move.

I'd really love to do some sweat sessions or get a few coaching sessions, but don't know if its money spent wisely at this point. We'll see how the next few weeks go and what the prices are. I think a few coaching sessions could up my winrate significantly, but it might take a while of sustained winrates to offset the cost. I think if I keep studying my game and really try to nail down what I feel are the major leaks in my game I can show more profit. Time will tell!

One more update

Horray for work!!! I love being up at 4am trying to do stuff for work, ugh. Tomorrow and Monday are going to be brutal!

It did, however, mean I got to play some more poker tonite, and thankfully it was good to me! Was pretty swingy and up and down, but for the most part the downs were coolers rather than bad calls, which was a nice change. Still had one pretty bad call where I somehow out-leveled myself into calling.

Had 2 sessions late last night/early this morning, and the BR did get a pretty nice boost and just jumped to $655 thanks to a pretty big pot I just played right at the end of my last session.

The first session was pretty decent, started down 2 buyins after about 350 hands, but ended up playing almost 2,000 for a $30.50 win. Feels good to be able to battle back and actually pull out a profit in a decently long session.

Second session was pretty well consistently down a buyin. at at hand 750 I was about breakeven. Stopped the session at 836 hands at $72.16 profit. Nearly 3 buy-ins in 90 hands, nice little upswing. Granted, most of it came on a favorable cooler for me :)

Hand 820 or so (how do I tell in HEM? Hrmmm, wish there was an easy way). I have aces in MP, bump to $0.75 with $50.35 behind. Villain calls one behind me with covering stack, and we pick up the BB as well ($42.75 after the call). Flop comes A-K-J 2 clubs. Ugh, a great and awful flop for my hand at the same time. I decide I don't want to give any free cards and just play it fast. I bet $2 into $2.35 (probably a bit light re-thinking it), covering player behind bumps it to $8.35 (pot), BB folds. I say fuck it, if I end my session like this so be it. I click to sit out the next hand and shove my stack in.

What happens next??? Well, I minimize the window and just stare at my cashier window on FT, just waiting for it to drop knowing how bad I run in most of what I would consider my important pots.

Then... BAM, it jumps from $606 to $655. WTF? I actually won it?? I go back and check the history, and turns out the player behind ended up flopping a set of jacks. Kind of a cooler for him, but still foldable as one of the two clubs on board was the Ace. What hands would I really be doing that with? May be he thinks any ace, AK, ect... I dunno, I think in his spot I can find a fold there, but thats just me. As the hand played out I ended up turning quads to lock it up... what a fantastic time to hit quads, when I'm not even looking. Although I'm pretty sure had I been watching I would have seen a jack pop out on the turn instead of an ace!

Oh well, I ended the session on that note and get to go to bed in a pretty good mood once I'm finished work.

My last 11 sessions (all at $25nl rush) have shown me a profit of $310.96 over 8000 hands, or a winrate of approx 15.5bb/100. Thats pretty gross to me, and something I just pray I can keep up. I don't know what I adjusted in my game thats turned things this far around for me, but I'm excited for the next couple of weeks and what I might be able to do!

Want to spend tomorrow with the girlfriend since I miss her a lot right now (and yet shes just in the next room), but should have time to play on monday for sure. Alright, back to work for me!