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!

Saturday Session

Sometimes I just want to play poker all day long, lol. I didn't think I was going to play today at all but I got the itch. I tried to avoid it by doing other stuff, but in the end I played a 20 minute session. Didn't go quite as well as last night's 20 minute session, but up about 1.2 BI's in 360 hands. Got coolered once, blind vs blind. He had 66, I had 77 and he flopped a 6 high board. Thankfully he only had around $4.50 to start the hand so I didn't lose a ton. I stopped a bit earlier than I could have as I told myself if I hit $550 in my BR I'd call it for the rest of the afternoon. Might try to slide in a night session tonite as I have to work at 2am, but we'll see how things go.

Just waiting for my nephew to get here before heading to Medieval times, wahoo!

What a crazy day

Jeez, talk about your ups and downs. Maybe its just Rush poker, but man the swings are pretty insane at $25nl for some reason.

Played a total of 3 sessions today... first one was just over 1000 hands for a $0.64 profit. 2nd was 1750 hands for a -$94.64 loss. Ugh, that one was nasty. Aces 10 times, and I either basically took the blinds or lost a massive pot. 2 of those were to guys flopping top pair, and hitting a miracle river to trip up... one was to a set, meh. I actually got it all in preflop vs 10s another time and he spiked a 10 on the flop, but I hit a 2 outer on the river to take the pot. Kings, win 4 small pots and lose a large one. Queens I had 7 times and won 3 times with em. Once I took the blinds, other times a c-bet took it down. Between Aces, Kings and Queens, I was down $77 on the session.

I think the most painful hand was where I limped with 8-9hh hoping to see a cheap flop and get 4 behind me and the 2 blinds in. Flop is 7-6-10 with 2 spades, the blinds check, and I lead out for 2/3 pot. I get shoved on (!!!) for $23.50 into a $2.50 pot, and get 1 caller behind that for another $5.25. I actually debate folding here considering how bad I had been running in the session. I then realize I'd be a fool for folding the nuts, and would really only be behind 8-9ss. Of course the guy turns over Q-10 of spades (other guy had K-10 of hearts). Turn was a harmless 2 of hearts, river a terrible 4 of spades. Bink, ship the $53 pot the other way. Why can't I seem to win those when the guy I'm against actually has a decent stack instead of winning the ones where the idiot has $7 in front of him. *sigh*

The bankroll was starting to hurt at that point being down to around $415, which was crushing knowing that another BI or so I'd have to drop down to $10nl again.

Figured I'd log a quick session before bed while the girl was reading a bit for a book club, and am I ever glad I did. Played 311 hands, up $95.90. Only hand I have that really hurt was set over set which lost me about $14. Won 5 pots for a net of over $15 because people play pretty bad. Best hand went like this:

I'm in the SB with 88. Villain raises to $2 UTG covering my $33 stack. I flat from the small for set value only. knowing I probably get paid at least another few bucks on the flop if I hit, if not making a big pot.

Flop 6-4-8 with 2 hearts. Bingo! I check, he leads pot ($4.25), I raise to $9, which is either incredibly stupid or perfect. Leaves me with $21.75 in my stack, making the min raise not commit me at all. Not that I think villain is looking at this, but he shoves on me and I snap-call, and he shows A-2 off with no heart. Awesome, he gets it in needing perfect perfect. Turn river come 2-2 and I double up through him (FU $3 rake!!!)

Ended up a winner on the day for $1.90, or nearly 8bb over 3000 hands (and an extra $14 or so in rakeback). After 8600 hands, still beating $25nl rush for 4.75 bb/100, a decent clip, but one I know I can improve on if I actually have some of my bigger hands hold up for once.

What I'm really weirded out by is checking my $25nl stats by position. I'm actually a 24.21bb/100 winner from the small blind ($56.29 profit), but I'm -$47.76 from the button and -$15.92 from the cutoff. Huh? Am I just raising too many hands in position perhaps? I'll have to look more into this and figure out where that leak is, because its definitely not right.

Medeival times tomorrow, can't wait! Won't get much play time, possibly a bit tomorrow night or sunday afternoon, but we'll see. Hopefully no more insane swing like that, just straight up winning sessions.

Quick night cap

Girlfriend was doing something for a few minutes, so decided to do a quick little night cap.

7 minutes

111 hands

$22.89

7th hand have 10s UTG+1, make my standard 3x raise, get min raised by mid position, which typically means either QQ, KK, AA or AK. Occasionally something different, but given our positions I'm 99% sure hes got a larger pocket pair. Flop 6-7-10 rainbow, I check and he bets $3 into $3.35 with ~$12 back. I raise to $7 praying for a shove, and he obliges... turn and river blank, and I drag a nice $32 pot (after rake, what robbery!) to start the session.

Only other interesting hand went 2 limps to me in the cutoff with AJ, I bump to $1.50 and get called by the button and both limpers (!!!). Flop is A-7-3 with 2 clubs, and I nearly give up on the hand but decide that my best approach might be to bet and make an easy fold to a raise, or shut down on a call. Sure enough first 2 check, I fire $3 into $6.50 (yeah its weak) and they all fold... huh, weird. Don't know what to make of that, but I'll take the easy $4.50.

In the 5532 hands I have logged that are marked as $25nl Rush, I'm up around $100, or 7.25bb/100. Of course, in the hour and a bit I played tonite I was up nearly 5 buyins which helps! If I can keep that up for another 10k hands, I'd be ecstatic! Sitting at just over $490, which means with Rakeback tomorrow I'll break the $500 barrier in just over a week... sweet!

Updates

Hrmmm, so its been about a week since my last update... had some bad sessions in then, but am on a good upswing now.

I decided to bump up a bit to $25nl as I just couldn't get a handle on $10nl. Yes, it sounds weird, but I was pretty well rolled for $25 so I figured I'd give it a shot and move down if I didn't do well, and I stuck to that. Lost a bit, moved down to $10nl, won a few buyins and moved back up. Felt good that I was actually able to stick to something like that and not just try to move up or stay and recover any losses. I did make some adjustments to my game when moving up. I'm definatly not playing as many hands, which is good, and am making big folds instead of big calls. Still have coolers, but thankfully the last few days I've been on the right end of them and haven't had to move down again. I've actually come to the point that I'll lay down an overpair on occassion, a huge step forward for my game I think.

The last 2 days I've been on a pretty nice upswing, partially because of the laydowns I'm making and a little bit of run good (with a cooler or two thrown in). I'm sticking with reads and really trying not to get into tricky situations, since I know I can get easy money elsewhere.

Not a bad win rate, 36 bb/100 I think? I don't expect it to continue at this rate since the sample size is only 1600 hands, but I'm still very happy with it, and its given me more confidence going forward.

I did play some Omaha when a buddy was over, and got my money in good 4 times and lost each one. *sigh*, $40 right there. I think the worst was my AAQ10 (with clubs) against K J 10 3 or something stupid, and he flops trip 3s and rivers a boat. I know I can beat low stakes omaha, but I don't like the 6 max format they have for rush, and really can't handle those kind of swings right now... unless its up of course, lol.

Tomorrow is rakeback payment day, which should net me another $30-$35, which would bring my current BR to a hair under $500. I think if I can push it to $800-$900 fairly quickly, I'll be taking out my original investment just to protect myself, and be free rolling. Hopefully that happens sooner than later! My last 10 sessions, 7 have been winners and have netted me $141.14 over 7711 hands, or just over 7bb/100, a number I'm very happy with. If I can keep up even a 5bb/100 win rate until the end of Feb, I figure my BR will be up around another $200 and I can start taking minor shots at $50nl, which would be great.

This weekend is busy for me, as me and the girl are taking my nephew to Medieval Times, which is a really cool dinner theatre where you have live jousting. It should be a blast, I haven't been in a long time and I'm sure both of my guests will have a fantastic time as well.

Adios for now!

Quick morning session

So today is friday, the great payment on rakeback day. Whoo hooo.

I got an email on my BB that the transfer had been complete at around 6:30 this morning. $33.92 in my account from games played from Feb 2-8th. Monies from before I started this whole deal, sweet. I wanted to say good bye to my girlfriend before I went to work, and she wasn't getting up until 7am, so what to do for 20 or so minutes? Get in a quick session!

I quickly decided that since this was basically free money, I'd take a quick shot at $25nl and if my stack dropped below about $10-$12, leave. This was something I had been planning on doing after good days, taking a quick shot with 1 full stack and seeing how it went to try to raise my comfort level there. I will only do it with profits I've made on the day though, never to try to recover a loss.

I sit down and load up one table of $25nl and one table of $10nl. Nothing of real interest, I run my stacks up to around $35 and $13 and call it a day. Quick little $12-$13 profit in the morning is nice, as I'm pretty sure I won't get in much play time tonite or this weekend. Maybe a couple of quick sessions but nothing too huge, as I'd prefer to spend this weekend with the girlfriend just hanging out. It probably means I miss the 20k freeroll that my rakeback site offers on sunday as its valentines, although I might try to slide in, hehe. If the girl if home, I'm 100% positive I won't want to play in it. If she happens to go to the gym around that time, I might try to. Meh, not to worried about it. 

Roll is now sitting on approx $260, a nice little boost. I'm now ever so slightly winning at the tables, but really need to increase my winrate to get anywhere close to my goals. My evening session was great because I wasn't on the losing end of any big pots, and the most I lost in a single hand was $1.55 with top pair and nut flush draw that missed. If I can keep playing in position and not getting into over-inflated pots with a marginal hand, I think I'll see alot more success.

Looking forward to the (long) weekend, so won't be updating until monday I would think!

Getting there

Had a decent couple of sessions yesterday. Won't get into too many details, but an afternoon session was awful card wise, night session was much better and far worse players.

Afternoon went something like this, losing all of these hands:

Flopped set of 9s vs flopped straight
Flopped trip aces vs river flush (with 2 pot sized bets, horray)
Flopped set of aces vs turned straight
pocket aces vs a-10 (10-10 flop, probably should have gotten away from it and saved the extra $5)
55 vs 57 (2nd nut straight vs nut straight, yes it was a raised pot)
KK vs j8 (yes, he called off to a pot sized 3 bet pre-flop, hit 2 pair. I flop gutter and flush and miss both)
aces vs kings (kings set on turn)

Pretty standard I guess, just frustrating to lose what seemed like every big pot I played in. I couldn't flop sets in multi-way pots, I think I flopped sets after limping 3 times (2's-4's from EP), and when I finally flop a set of 9's, he shows up with JQ on a 8-9-10 board. Don't think I'm ever folding in that spot against an unknown, as they'll so often stack off with an overpair or worse there. 

The night session went well, especially one really strange hand. I have KK UTG+1, make it 3.5x to go. I get 5 callers, which definatly scares me and would mean I pretty well never c-bet on the flop. If I wiff, I'm almost positive someone has a set. If I do flop a set, depending on the texture of the board I may or may not c-bet and pray someone else flopped something big. Anyways, the flop comes out 10-10-10 and it gets checked to me. I decide to play the hand strong, and I'm definatly stacking off to the remaining 10 if someone has it... I just don't want a random ace to drop on the turn and make me feel sick. 

Anyways, I bet nearly pot and get called by the BB, who I cover. I'm pretty sure he'll stack off with nearly any pair there, and I'm pushing the pot hard to any uncard that falls on the turn. I've got the third nuts, and really, I'm pretty sure hes never showing up with AA in that spot. If he shows up with the 10, so be it. 

Undercard hits the turn, he checks, I fire nearly pot again and he calls. At this point I'm positive I'm good, as my pot sized turn would be shoved on behind with about a 1/2 PSB left in his stack. River blanks, he checks, I bet enough to put him all in, and he calls and shows up with A6 (no 6 on board I don't believe). WTF? God, I wish I could find these players more often, stacking off over 100bb with not even a good bluff catcher. 

That pot really helped my evening session, and I ended up quite a bit, enough to easily cover my losses from the afternoon and bring me back to down about $7 overall, and profitible with rakeback. Its nothing huge, but its a start.

Goals

After last nights session, I really need to fix a couple of leaks that I seem to have. 

Stop flatting with speculative hands

I tend to call an open raise too much with suited gappers and such. I think the only valid time to flat those hands is if there is atleast one other called behind, and I really shouldn't be calling if we aren't both somewhat deep. If villain is sitting on a 70bb stack, I don't think its a winning play. I should either be folding or raising (from CO or button) with those hands. 

Stop Floating

I found myself floating way to many cbets in position yesterday with hands that more than likely wouldn't stand up at show down. Floating with a pocket pair on a board with 2 overs just isn't likely to make me any money unless I hit a 2 outer. Does the float work on certain boards? Of course, I'll float occasionally with 77 on a 10 high board. I'll float with mid pair on a pretty scary board. But floating 77 on a board with a 10 and a Q probably isn't a profitible play. I need to either raise immediatly if I think my hand is good, or just let it go and wait for a better spot. 

Play most pots in position

I don't know why I can't get out of the habit of flatting or raising from early position with hands like J9 suited, JQ suited and things like that. I need to really get rid of those hands and tighten up from early position in these games. Since its rush poker, you have basically no read on any of your opponents, and while I occasionally steal the blinds, I often get into situations where I'm playing a raised pot out of position with a marginal hand. I think I need to tighten up to playing just pocket pairs and AK/AQ from up from. 

I should be looking to isolate a bit more in position and really try to use that to my advantage. Its amazing how far I've come in the last 8 or so months.... Back then, I just played my cards and didn't care where I was at the table. Last night I was able to throw away AJ UTG+1 without a second thought, something would never have done at this time last year. Its also a hand I have no problem laying down if there are enough people in the pot ahead of me. I feel I play pretty well in position against most of the players at these stakes, and need to keep it that way. 

Stop being a calling station

I don't think I'm being agressive enough (agg factor of around 2 overall I believe), especially on the flop. I really need to determine if I think my hand is good at that point and punish people, and try to build a decent sized pot with my draws in position. When I think I'm beat, I really need to fold instead of paying off that last 6bb bet "just to see". I did make a number of tough lay downs yesterday that I normally would have called off, but there was still a number of calls I feel were questionable after reviewing how the hand played out. Saving those extra bets is where I feel my profit will actually come from.

Fix my red line

I have to find a way to fix my non-showdown winnings, and I think most of that comes from the point above. I expect my red line to increase if I stop calling down as much.

Overall I feel yesterdays session went pretty well, and I actually learned a couple of things, something I'm hoping to do every time I play. After rakeback, I did finish down around $8 or so, which isn't too hot and I really need to fix a few leaks to make money. My biggest goals at this point are to save those extra bets when I'm pretty sure I'm beat, and really work on getting the most value out of the hands I do pick up. Until next time!

Cheers,

Tom

Weird Start

Well yesterday was the start to my challenge, and what a weird start it was.... it was a pretty down, up, down kind of session. I really think that I played far too long in the session, and really need to concentrate on keeping my session lengths down to an hour or so if I'm playing Rush. I think I did a decently long hour rush session, and after the first hour or so things just started to go downhill. I did make up quite a bit with a quick mid-evening session that saw me pull back and pretty well have a 1.5 BI down day, which I'm OK with. I made some bad calls in spots, and one really bad mis-click that cost me around 60bb. I get re-raised after a squeeze and when I try to click fold, I somehow click call instead, which is just awful... I'm pretty well never flat calling a 4 bet, its either shove or fold at that point (unless we're super deep), and I had something like 7h 8h.

Link to Graph

I only really had 2 suckouts over both of the sessions. The first I raise UTG+1 with QQ, get 3 bet by the cutoff, I 4 bet for about 3/4 of his stack, he shoves and I'm almost forced to call. Thankfully he wasn't deeper, but he showed up with KK. The board 5 flushes spades to chop it up, phew. 

The only other major suckout I had was a hand I played from mid position with Ac8c. One limper early, I raise to $0.45 (big stakes, I know), limper calls. Flop AsAh5c. At this point I can really only think of 2 hands that limp call that beat me, 55 and A5. Other than that, most other hands would warrant either raising up front or 3 betting behind. If he had open raised, I would have been alot more worried about being beat, and may have folded pre-flop given my position, but in this case he leads out pot into me, I just over min raise, he shoves, I fist pump call off. Of course he shows up with 55. I peel an 8 on the turn and lock it up. 

Another hand saw me go from a nice favourite to a actually losing money on the hand. UTG opens to 3x, flat from mid, and I flat in the BB with As5s. UTG is short (about 60bb I think?), mid player covers me about 140bb deep. Flop comes Kc5c5h. Bingo! UTG leads, mid player flats, I pop, UTG shoves for a little over a min raise, and mid flats again. Of course I shove behind and get called. UTG shows up with AhKh, mid player calls with 8c9c. Where do I find these players, seriously? I get it in against 2 other players as a 60% favourite, and a king falls on the river to counterfeit my FH. I thankfully end up taking a decent side pot to at least somewhat salvage the hand.

I think the most interesting hand I had all night (I can't seem to pinpoint it on the graph as I don't remember the final pot size) was a 3 way all in on the flop. It played a bit scary but I don't know if I could have found a fold in this situation. UTG raises to 3.5x, I flat from mid with JhJc. Player behind me makes it $1.40 to go, UTG flats and I flat behind, which is probably the most questionable portion of the hand. I feel that the squeeze can be a pretty wide range here at 0.05/0.10, and the UTG flat call made me feel I was ahead of him. I figured he'd be playing 66-1010, A10+ there. Still not sure about the player behind me, but I figured I'd see what happens on the flop and don't want to build a crazy pot right now, as if I get 5 bet I have to fold.

The flop comes out 8-9-10 hearts. Wow.... I'm still not positive I'm ahead, but feel pretty comfortable playing this hand for a large pot at this point. UTG checks, I check behind and the remaining player bets about 3/4 pot. UTG player then shoves! Huh? What the hell could he possibly play in this way?? I can't possibly think of anything he would shove with. Would he call a raise with Ah7h or lower? Could he have Ah-Kh or Qh? A set of 8's or 9's? Jx-Qh? 

I think the only hands I'm in REALLY bad shape against are JxQh, or AKh AQh, at which point I'm drawing to runner runner full house, or one of my straight flush outs (assuming he doesn't have the Qh). Either way, I figure based on the action so far, I've quite possibly got the better hand right now, and have outs to a better hand if I find I'm behind. I debate and shove, expeting the other player to just fold. Of course, he calls, which really shocked me and made me worry I was up against AKh, or atleast Ah10x. 

But alas, UTG turns over the other 2 jacks, so I'm freerolling against him. The player behind rolls over 10c8c. Huh? In my opinion its a horrible call, what is he really ahead of there that won't have a huge amount of outs? Sorry, if I flop top and bottom, c-bet it and get check raised all in with another player calling, I can't continue with it. Its just too scary a board to get it in with 2 pair, but meh, he decided to do it anyways. I bink the Kh on the turn to scoop a nice pot.

I think that was one of the few times all day I actually hit a draw.... I don't know if I've ever had that many draws miss, which sucks when I'm playing them aggressively in position. I had one other hand where I got it in with an OESFD with 2 over cards to the board (10-J on a 9c8c3s  board) and the guy shows up with pocket 5s. I don't know how I miss the world on that board, and he takes a pretty big pot from me. I'm still happy with getting it in as a 72% favourite.

That leads me to one other thing, which I think are possibly the two worst things that can happen playing Rush. The first is having a guy call pot bets on the flop and turn with a flush draw, missing his flush draw but hitting his over card on the river. Talk about frustrating, good god. I think that happened to me around 4 times yesterday, and I hope that doesn't keep up. I was pretty sure each time after the flop that they were on the flush draw (except once I really put a guy on a set with how he played it), and each time they would hit an over card to my pair on the river to scoop it. 

The second most frustrating thing is waking up with aces or kings in the BB and having it fold around. Seriously??? I get people raising any two on the button, and I get it folded to me when I finally wake up with a hand? Ugh. I think I saw aces once and kings twice in my BB.... twice folded to me, and one other time I managed to take a pretty decent pot off the SB after I floped a set vs his K10. 

Other than that, I had one or two set over sets situations where I happened to be on the good end, and I think only one over pair vs set that I was on the losing end of. I haven't been able to get a set vs an overpair in a while, so hopefully the next session I can cooler a couple of people to boost me back up. 

The pokers!

I've been a break even/slightly losing poker player for about a year now. Actually, I only started playing a year ago, and have only been more "serious" about playing for about 9-10 months.

I've primarily been a tournament player in the past, mainly because I didn't feel comfortable enough in cash games, something I really do want to change. I have had moderate success in tournaments, but really have never had a "big" score. The biggest I've had to date was qualifying for the $1k stimulus event at last years WSOP, which was huge for me at the time. I played in a $5 super satellite, qualified for the $30 satellite and finished in the top 80 (out of 6500 or so) to win a $2500 trip to play in the event, which was huge to me at the time.

I have played in cash games before, both locally and in Vegas. I haven't kept accurate enough stats to know how well I'm doing in those games, but I'm guessing with the limited amount of times I've played them I'm probably break even.

The past few months I've been trying to play cash games online, which has not gone fantastically for me. I switched from trying to grind sit'n'goes to primarily playing cash, and had a hard time adjusting, most of that due to some tilt and shot taking, which I run really bad in. Like last night, losing a 350bb pot ($172 @ .25/.50) to a 2 outter (my set vs overpair). I don't mind if this happens in the stakes I'm really comfortable in, but when I'm taking a shot and trying to boost my BR a bit more, it really hurts. That pot would have really helped. Of course, after that hand I go on insane monkey tilt and blow a bunch more trying to recover. I'm probably down lifetime about $200 online, but have more than made that up playing live tournaments and doing a job on the side dealing. Thankfully the $500 isn't hugely important to me, although it would be really nice to have back right now :)

I guess the main reason for me starting this blog is to try to make sure I stick to some kind of BRM rules, and to be honest with myself about my progress. I'm going to start with $200 on full tilt, and will try to work that up to $2500 by the time I head to Vegas this summer, probably the start/middle of June.

I feel I really need to outline my goals here to ensure that I have something to look back on and really make sure I stick to a proper strategy to make this work :

- Don't take shots without having the BR to sustain the hit that could happen
- Don't move up in stakes trying to recover daily losses
- Make GOOD poker decisions at all times, no matter the stakes
- Be able to make big laydowns in tough situations
- Realize a losing day is OK to have, and don't chase trying to get back to even
- Stick to games that I know I can beat
- Don't run any crazy bluffs at the micro stakes

I'm still unsure if I should 6 table ring games, or just 2 table rush poker. The volume of hands in rush is insane, but I seem to get myself in a lot of cooler situations that I can't seem to get away from. Those situations are going to continue to come up, but its important that I be able to focus on making correct decisions to minimize the losses in those. At the same time, I need to ensure that I get the most value from my own hands, something that I've struggled with in the past. 

I have about 3-3.5 months to build up any kind of BR to take with me to vegas... I'm still going to be going either way, but would really like to have a comfortable BR that allows me to play in the 1/2 (or slightly higher) games while I'm there, as I know that I play much better live and the play in some of the hotels in vegas is extremely weak.

Me!

I figure I'll start this blog off with 2 entries, this one being a little introduction to me!

I'm a 29 year old Kitchener resident that works full time and has the most amazing girlfriend a guy could ask for. Seriously, she is incredible, and no words can describe how much I love this woman... definatly the one I plan on spending the rest of my life with. I'm blessed that I have a stable, well paying fantastic job that gives me the freedom to do some of the extra things I enjoy in life and really enjoy getting up each day... mostly.

I grew up in KW, and have pretty well lived here my entire life outside of about 2 years spent between Cambridge and Hamilton. I have a fantastic family that I am very close with and that mean the world to me.... all of them, and there is alot. I only have 1 sister, but 6 aunts on my mom's side, which is wonderful considering how close we all are. Its a great feeling to know that I have that many people around that have cared about me and my well being for so long.

I'm an aspiring poker player that just wants to chronicle my progress as I try to build up a little cash flow to allow me to play some while in Vegas twice this summer. I feel the game I have is fundamentally sound, but I know that there are still leaks I need to improve on in my cash game to really help me out. I hope that by blogging on my progress and writing about tough spots I get myself into, I can correct some of those leaks and develop into a more skilled, confident player.

I'm making it a goal to update this with progress after nearly every session I play, as I want to be able to write while its still fresh in my head, and it will really force me to track my overall progress to ensure I'm still doing well. I'm sure I'll slide a bunch in about other matters in my life too, since poker typically tends to be boring by itself.

Tom