So... Not posted for a while. Just haven't had the time really or too much of interest to post about!
Shortly after my last post i recorded my 2nd ever losing month and my 2nd losing month in a row!!! Things clearly haven't been going too great! Nothing drastic, down $122.03 for the month which is recoverable in a day so not a problem. The only problem is i need money and cant pay myself! lol Ive actually undergone a minor crisis so far this month on Stars having cashed out $500 (couldn't resist the current exchange rate!) and then gone on a big downswing so Ive moved down limits and had to focus on rebuilding! The only good thing to come out of this is that Ive actually found my niche (is that how its spelt?) games in the 18 seat and 45 seat turbo sng's. They're quick to fill, don't last too long so i can be flexible with my sessions and basic strategy so it makes multi tabling easier! I've also been chatting and swapped some HH's with a German gent who i met through the PokerxFactor forums and now chat to online regarding the strategy in these sngs as he plays them for a living at low limits! The one thing i do respect with these guys grinding the low limit games is the time they manage to put in. i feel like Ive played loads if i play say 10 or 12 games in a day but these guys are putting in 40-50 games a day easily and a lot more if they want... I need to find some more drive i think!
Played a bit at the start of the month, +$69.31 by the 3rd. I had a few days off then as had a pretty busy schedule for the next few days -Rally GB :) The Thursday was the ceremonial start in Cardiff and shakedown in Swansea (although i ducked out of shakedown as didn't fancy the 2.30am start!). The rally was pretty cold as its been well below freezing most nights here and only just above freezing during the days, especially on top of the Welsh mountains. At least the rain held off though else it'd have been awful! Even managed to rush back in time on Saturday evening for the ice hockey and Devils won 2-1 in OT (although they should've put the game away a lot earlier than they did against the Stingrays!). Anyway, once I'd returned and got over the long weekends rallying, i settled back into some poker on Monday (well... in between sleeping and going out to some mulled wine and mince pie charity evening!) although the session wasn't too productive. 7 games and -$34.70 profit halved my months total profit...
Tuesday was far more productive however, playing 15 games and ending the day with +$105.30 profit bringing the monthly total to a massive $139.91 - doesn't sound like much but today's session pretty much doubled my Stars bankroll so its not too shabby considering it was done playing $6.50 sngs.
I've got to admit to having another lazy day today - I'm still not totally over this long bout of flu Ive had! Still feeling pretty drowsy and under the weather! Didn't get up till late then went out to Maenllywd for a pub lunch before popping over Emma's mums house for a bit for some coffee... Then the evening was taken up by a trip to the Millennium Centre to see Jimmy Carr. Pizza Hut takeaway on the way home and then i fell asleep for a few hours! lol So much for work... (or poker!) Managed to squeeze in a 8 game session at about 4.30am (after i'd watch the UFC which was pretty brutal tonight!) and almost wish i never played. busted the first 2 18 seat sng's in... 18th place. lol and yes, i do play tight to begin! i cant remember exactly what happened but i know i had an overpair v someone who turned trip 7's because they'd called a preflop raise with K7os and then a pot size flop bet with middle pair... Then out of another shoving 8's from SB, BB called with A4 and of course found his A on the flop. In another i managed to run pocket J's into 8's all in pre in a big pot only for them to spike the 3rd 8. and it goes on... I just found it such a frustrating session.
The games at low limits are generally bad but i hadn't seen it this bad for a while. Push fold just had no value as people were calling off their entire stacks with J high and so on, i was getting zero respect with my shoves and even though, i couldn't actually beat J high (they were still +EV shoves) i was never very far behind, both live cards yet couldn't catch once!!! (and believe me, it happened a lot!) i bubble both the 45 seaters i played. So frustrating but i guess i have to just plug on and grind it out as these players are gonna make me rich in the long run! i just need to remember to run my poker tracker as i didn't today and it could've saved me from some of these people who seem to have no concept of push fold or ICM. To top it off i then got slow rolled 3 handed. Blinds were big and we were in the $ in an 18 seat, i had A9 in the BB and the SB (who had me covered) limped in i shoved and he then thought for about 15 seconds before calling with AJ.... i mean GRRRRRRRRRRRRR WHY! lol
I think i should return to bed now as I'm tired and clearly taking things a bit too personally! lol
Current December profits = +$120.31
Thursday 11 December 2008
Sunday 30 November 2008
So Close! :(
I haven't player too much the last few days for various reasons but decided to play the free roll satellite into the World Cup of Poker. Basically there were 2 free rolls and top 9 from each go through to the final on the Sunday. fields of around 400 in each of them. I donked out of the first free roll in about 50th place but managed to qualify in the second which meant I'd made the final, top 18 shootout where the top 2 go though. The final started today at 2pm local time and I'd been out night rallying in Brecon all last night and didn't get home till gone 5am! Add to that the fact that it was probably -5 up there all night, ice everywhere (meant for plenty of action on the event and some interesting driving conditions through the lanes but that's another story!) and I'm still unwell! its been about 4 weeks now and still drags on :( i actually have no voice at all for the past 2 days! i can only whisper. lol Anyway, all that meant that i wasn't feeling my best when i clambered out of my warm bed at just gone 2pm to force myself to play this tourney. The entire way through, as ever with my tourneys, i was nursing a short stack... Managed to keep clawing my way up the places though until i eventually found myself 3 handed and on the bubble of being part of Team GB albeit as the short stack. Anyway, i turned my hand to some power poker and managed to clamber into 2nd place with about 7.5k in chips to the shorter stacks 6k. In the BB and the big stack, once again raises so i reshove with AK suited, don't think theres much more i could do, then the board bricked out... and his pocket 4's stood up leaving me cruelly out on the bubble! Always the way. grrr nothing to show for it either which makes it even more annoying! Neither of the other 2 players were that good. I think my results were about the most solid of them both but there were go. it's all irrelevant. The one odd thing is that the guy who knocked me out is 'Purr of Aces' who has a won a seat into the WCOP GB team a couple years back! but he's not even a great player. After being at his table 2 days running, he just seems to run incredibly hot and get lucky all the time. Perhaps I'm just sour but it does seem a bit fixed. lol (even though i don't believe in poker sites fixing things. especially stars!) Oh well. there we go. I'm sure ill get lucky one day! :( Perhaps i should've flatted with the AK and seen a flop but it just feels so weak against a serial raising big stack who had already folded to a few of my reshoves...
bubble boy...
Apart from this tourney, as i say, i haven't played too much. Thursday saw me lose all 6 tourneys i entered. Wednesday was a bit better - played a mix of 12 sngs ranging from stt to 180 seaters. scraped into the cash in 22 and won one of 45 seaters outright but all the other loses meant i only had a slightly positive figure at the end of the day so another waste of time. I really need to get a half decent bankroll again and go back to the mtt's i think. They suit my style so much better as i think Ive demonstrated in these WCOP free roll donkfests (although that said, compared to other free rolls, the standard was a lot higher in these as a general rule).
I'll leave it there for now as i feel awful, cold and am being moaned at to take recycling out by the missus so I'll be back with another, hopefully more positive post soon :)
bubble boy...
Apart from this tourney, as i say, i haven't played too much. Thursday saw me lose all 6 tourneys i entered. Wednesday was a bit better - played a mix of 12 sngs ranging from stt to 180 seaters. scraped into the cash in 22 and won one of 45 seaters outright but all the other loses meant i only had a slightly positive figure at the end of the day so another waste of time. I really need to get a half decent bankroll again and go back to the mtt's i think. They suit my style so much better as i think Ive demonstrated in these WCOP free roll donkfests (although that said, compared to other free rolls, the standard was a lot higher in these as a general rule).
I'll leave it there for now as i feel awful, cold and am being moaned at to take recycling out by the missus so I'll be back with another, hopefully more positive post soon :)
Tuesday 25 November 2008
Life Tilt...
I genuinely am suffering from it!
I've been feeling quite positive and happy in myself the last few days which is odd considering how tough a time I'm having of it at the tables. I had a good time on the weekend, let my hair down a bit after the rugby at a [spunge] gig - went and did a spot of skanking in the pit while a bit drunk. Was good fun, made better by the fact there were plenty of decent girls around. lol
Ice Hockey on Sunday was decent with Devils winning 4-1 and we went out to celebrate after with a nice meal. It was Emma's birthday Monday so had another relaxing day ending in a pleasant meal out... Dad went into hospital for his operation which went OK but he's not able to do much other than hobble around! I think a lot of my positive feeling has been down to me sorting out my sleeping pattern! I'm sleeping at almost normal times now; for the first time in a long time! The only bad thing at the moment is that I'm STILL feeling ill! its been about 3 weeks now! i went to the doctor who was no help and said it seemed viral so they couldn't do a lot but i just cant shake it off! Hopefully it goes away soon as i don't feel great with it! Just constantly under the weather :(
At the tables its been a pretty dismal time as late, my bad beat stories continue and just seem endless. i don't think I'm playing badly, just not getting any breaks but then again, i am starting to question my play which probably isn't good for my confidence! I've moved down stakes to an extent, playing $6.50 tables now! and $11 non turbo sngs to try to reduce the variance. I have to admit, the non turbo's seem a lot softer than the turbos although that said... i still cant win at them!!!! i keep getting unlucky on the bubble and busting out either just short of the cash or in 3rd!
I may have previously mentioned that I'm chasing a bonus on stars which is actually going to take some achieving to get! I'm also trying to get to Silver star on Stars, i only decided to pursue this about couple of days ago though so i basically have to get over 1000 fpp's by the end of the month! It may not sound too hard if you play higher stakes or are higher up the stars reward ladder but at bronze star and with a FAR FROM HEALTHY bankroll after my recent bad run its looking almost impossible!!!! After cashing out $500 from stars a few weeks back, Ive done nothing but lose money and have dropped about $400 in just over a week! that's basically like a 35 buy in downswing for me with the stakes i play and it shows little sign of slowing down! I refuse to play any lower than I'm currently playing because its just not worth my time! I may, for the first time in a long time (probably over a year!), have to redeposit to help boost my bankroll there! and just when the £ has lost all value against the $! i should be withdrawing now, not thinking about reloading! :( I'm going to struggle on with $135 bankroll and hopefully start picking up a few scores again before the bankroll evaporates but if if continues as it has been, ill be depositing long before the week is out! lol
Ive watched a sngs PXF video today with /beanmo who's a sng legend and also invested £66 (damn exchange rate! grr) in SitnGo Wizard software so i could go over my recent sngs push/fold seeing as my problem seems to be around the bubble! Typical that i cant even get it working properly! i can get all my old hand histories to open but not my most recent ones! This hasn't helped with my life tilt. I thik i may just call it a night and get some sleep and hope i feel better in the morning!
Things cant get too much worse in poker terms anyway (or at least i hope they cant!)
I've been feeling quite positive and happy in myself the last few days which is odd considering how tough a time I'm having of it at the tables. I had a good time on the weekend, let my hair down a bit after the rugby at a [spunge] gig - went and did a spot of skanking in the pit while a bit drunk. Was good fun, made better by the fact there were plenty of decent girls around. lol
Ice Hockey on Sunday was decent with Devils winning 4-1 and we went out to celebrate after with a nice meal. It was Emma's birthday Monday so had another relaxing day ending in a pleasant meal out... Dad went into hospital for his operation which went OK but he's not able to do much other than hobble around! I think a lot of my positive feeling has been down to me sorting out my sleeping pattern! I'm sleeping at almost normal times now; for the first time in a long time! The only bad thing at the moment is that I'm STILL feeling ill! its been about 3 weeks now! i went to the doctor who was no help and said it seemed viral so they couldn't do a lot but i just cant shake it off! Hopefully it goes away soon as i don't feel great with it! Just constantly under the weather :(
At the tables its been a pretty dismal time as late, my bad beat stories continue and just seem endless. i don't think I'm playing badly, just not getting any breaks but then again, i am starting to question my play which probably isn't good for my confidence! I've moved down stakes to an extent, playing $6.50 tables now! and $11 non turbo sngs to try to reduce the variance. I have to admit, the non turbo's seem a lot softer than the turbos although that said... i still cant win at them!!!! i keep getting unlucky on the bubble and busting out either just short of the cash or in 3rd!
I may have previously mentioned that I'm chasing a bonus on stars which is actually going to take some achieving to get! I'm also trying to get to Silver star on Stars, i only decided to pursue this about couple of days ago though so i basically have to get over 1000 fpp's by the end of the month! It may not sound too hard if you play higher stakes or are higher up the stars reward ladder but at bronze star and with a FAR FROM HEALTHY bankroll after my recent bad run its looking almost impossible!!!! After cashing out $500 from stars a few weeks back, Ive done nothing but lose money and have dropped about $400 in just over a week! that's basically like a 35 buy in downswing for me with the stakes i play and it shows little sign of slowing down! I refuse to play any lower than I'm currently playing because its just not worth my time! I may, for the first time in a long time (probably over a year!), have to redeposit to help boost my bankroll there! and just when the £ has lost all value against the $! i should be withdrawing now, not thinking about reloading! :( I'm going to struggle on with $135 bankroll and hopefully start picking up a few scores again before the bankroll evaporates but if if continues as it has been, ill be depositing long before the week is out! lol
Ive watched a sngs PXF video today with /beanmo who's a sng legend and also invested £66 (damn exchange rate! grr) in SitnGo Wizard software so i could go over my recent sngs push/fold seeing as my problem seems to be around the bubble! Typical that i cant even get it working properly! i can get all my old hand histories to open but not my most recent ones! This hasn't helped with my life tilt. I thik i may just call it a night and get some sleep and hope i feel better in the morning!
Things cant get too much worse in poker terms anyway (or at least i hope they cant!)
Friday 21 November 2008
zzzzzzzz
Not played a whole lot but thought I'd post an update as its been a few days.
Had a good day on Tuesday, ended up $48 in profit as i won a 18 seat sng. lost a couple too mind. lol
Wednesday ended up $12.10 down so basically break even. just didn't catch any breaks really, losing flips left right and centre so the fact i was only just down is a good result.
Played just one double or nothing PLO sng which i cashed in so was +$9.60 for the day. woo
Today's been a nightmare. still playing now but thought I'd post here at the same time as i cant believe what I'm seeing. lol Never had a day like it!
AK v KJ all in pre - J comes...
Q's v J's, all in pre, J on flop
K's v 9's, all in pre, 9 on flop
AT v AQ, all in on a ATx flop, Q on river
and the best to last... AK v 5's on a AKxx board, all chips went in on turn (5's re shoved!), i called for all my chips with top 2 pair AND nut flush draw... river 5 : unbelievable....
And that's just naming a few hands - there were definitely more. lol
I've kept my cool so far as Ive been playing OK and getting the chips in good but it's slowly starting to get to me as the bad beats are getting a bit relentless! -$76.20 so far today and counting :)
Had a good day on Tuesday, ended up $48 in profit as i won a 18 seat sng. lost a couple too mind. lol
Wednesday ended up $12.10 down so basically break even. just didn't catch any breaks really, losing flips left right and centre so the fact i was only just down is a good result.
Played just one double or nothing PLO sng which i cashed in so was +$9.60 for the day. woo
Today's been a nightmare. still playing now but thought I'd post here at the same time as i cant believe what I'm seeing. lol Never had a day like it!
AK v KJ all in pre - J comes...
Q's v J's, all in pre, J on flop
K's v 9's, all in pre, 9 on flop
AT v AQ, all in on a ATx flop, Q on river
and the best to last... AK v 5's on a AKxx board, all chips went in on turn (5's re shoved!), i called for all my chips with top 2 pair AND nut flush draw... river 5 : unbelievable....
And that's just naming a few hands - there were definitely more. lol
I've kept my cool so far as Ive been playing OK and getting the chips in good but it's slowly starting to get to me as the bad beats are getting a bit relentless! -$76.20 so far today and counting :)
Monday 17 November 2008
It's a bit rough at sea...
It's been a few days since my last post so thought it was time for a quick update.
Things have actually picked up somewhat recently to an extent... won another 45 seater sng on November 13th for $154 and did some workings on my results, basically trying to get an idea of what are my strongest games. Ive come to the conclusion that its the smaller field mtt turbo sngs as they re basically like single tables only with an inflated prize pool. The fields aren't so big that its a total crap shoot by the end, just solid push/fold strategy. For this reason I've started playing the 18seater sngs as well (although things haven't been too smooth so far!) and we'll review how things progress...
Went to the Wales v Canada rugby game on Friday 14th which was rather dull. Wales playing a young team and saving their best players for the bigger games coming up which meant the game was quite scrappy and although Wales won, wasn't the best watch! played a bit of poker both before and after but didn't have too much luck, ending the day -$47.25 giving a monthly total of +$247.90
The weekend i haven't played a huge amount but equally the games i have played haven't been too kind! Saturday i played two 45 seat sng's and a 180 seater which resulted no $0 return so i ended -$36 and Sunday's been even worse... Two 45 seat sng's and 4 18 seaters with absolutely no return...
Saturday (and the later games on Friday actually) i didn't play too well so im not so annoyed about those as i stopped early and cut my losses. Sundays games have been very frustrating though! early exits out of the 45 seat sngs which perhaps i could've avoided. things like TPTK v aces, etc. The 18 seaters have been annoying though bubbling 2 of them once with Q's v A9 and then AT v KJ (i was the one shoving, not calling in both situations) and got 7th in another which again wasn't too full of luck! It's only a small sample size though so I'll stick at them. Perhaps pokers just not profitable anymore... lol I find it bizarre how even a day of poker can change your opinions on it so massively. The cards aren't noticeably much different, just the outcomes after the community cards are dealt and i think it hurts more as Ive been used to making a lot more than i am at the moment and i cant fathom out why I'm struggling so much these days! Not sure if it's variance, game selection, my play or whether i was just getting it good before... I could really do with a nice score again soon though.
Perhaps getting backing could be an option allowing me to play higher stakes... I'm really not sure! I think even small swings effect me a bit though, maybe not my game but i don't like losing money too much! lol
Things have actually picked up somewhat recently to an extent... won another 45 seater sng on November 13th for $154 and did some workings on my results, basically trying to get an idea of what are my strongest games. Ive come to the conclusion that its the smaller field mtt turbo sngs as they re basically like single tables only with an inflated prize pool. The fields aren't so big that its a total crap shoot by the end, just solid push/fold strategy. For this reason I've started playing the 18seater sngs as well (although things haven't been too smooth so far!) and we'll review how things progress...
Went to the Wales v Canada rugby game on Friday 14th which was rather dull. Wales playing a young team and saving their best players for the bigger games coming up which meant the game was quite scrappy and although Wales won, wasn't the best watch! played a bit of poker both before and after but didn't have too much luck, ending the day -$47.25 giving a monthly total of +$247.90
The weekend i haven't played a huge amount but equally the games i have played haven't been too kind! Saturday i played two 45 seat sng's and a 180 seater which resulted no $0 return so i ended -$36 and Sunday's been even worse... Two 45 seat sng's and 4 18 seaters with absolutely no return...
Saturday (and the later games on Friday actually) i didn't play too well so im not so annoyed about those as i stopped early and cut my losses. Sundays games have been very frustrating though! early exits out of the 45 seat sngs which perhaps i could've avoided. things like TPTK v aces, etc. The 18 seaters have been annoying though bubbling 2 of them once with Q's v A9 and then AT v KJ (i was the one shoving, not calling in both situations) and got 7th in another which again wasn't too full of luck! It's only a small sample size though so I'll stick at them. Perhaps pokers just not profitable anymore... lol I find it bizarre how even a day of poker can change your opinions on it so massively. The cards aren't noticeably much different, just the outcomes after the community cards are dealt and i think it hurts more as Ive been used to making a lot more than i am at the moment and i cant fathom out why I'm struggling so much these days! Not sure if it's variance, game selection, my play or whether i was just getting it good before... I could really do with a nice score again soon though.
Perhaps getting backing could be an option allowing me to play higher stakes... I'm really not sure! I think even small swings effect me a bit though, maybe not my game but i don't like losing money too much! lol
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Better days...
06:06am Wednesday November 12th
I've been totally away from things over the weekend and totally lost track of time! Saturday evening was my first ever rally. The Peak Revs Road Rally, starting in Leominster, about an hour and half drive away. Got up around 3pm and watched the Welsh game of rugby while rushing to get things ready as I'd arranged to meet my driver at 4 in Brynmawr! I obviously wasn't going to be there on time (no surprises there for those of you who know me!) so had to text him and apologies. Eventually made it to his by about 4.45 and we quickly left to head up to the start. It was both our first events so we weren't too sure what to expect and to make it more stressful, other than plotting and reading OS Maps, i barely understood the format and time cards etc on road events! It's a bit like poker i guess where to the outside it seems easy but theres so much more to it. The idea is to plot a route given to you about an hour and half before the official start then drive it, visiting different controls (to prove you've taken the correct route) averaging 30mph. Sounds simple but its far from it and totally impossible to average 30 the whole way! You've got to stop at the controls so obv lose a lot of time there, if you wrong slot or similar you lose A LOT of time, you get 'fails' if you don't visit certain controls or if you approach them from the wrong direction which all does against your final result. Put simply, they're pretty difficult and hard work! Its basically 120 of flat out driving through the lanes, forests and white goers (some of which you wouldn't even think a car could get down)!
We started at 00.39am (we were car 59 so started 59 mins after car 1 hence the odd time) and got to the finish at about 6.15am which was out main aim! Despite a nightmare start things slowly picked up as we got the hang of it and we actually ended up doing OK! 7th in class (out of 15) and about 35th o/a (out of 60). and only 1 off sideways into a hedge on a tightening 90 left although we had a few other moments...
Anyway, enough of rallying for now! As a result i wasn't home till about midday on Sunday having had no sleep so slept most the afternoon, then most the following night and day as well. Managed to miss most of the WSOP Final Table coverage which was annoying, only saw a bit of the HU and then read up on the rest. Also missed the Calzaghe v Jones Jr fight but got it recorded so that was fine, watched it back Sunday night!
Eventually got around to playing some poker on Monday night (i couldn't sleep after sleeping most the previous day! - 13 hours) No idea how Henry managed to sleep 23 hours though - that's just madness! Care to explain if you read this Swiss? lol
played 2 tables of .10/.25 PLO on Full Tilt and finished +$44.35 up on the one table and +$1.25 up on the other so it was nice to claw some ash back for a change. Later that evening played 3 HU sngs in PLO against the same opponent whom kept offering a rematch and i won all 3 of those too! I did run quite nicely in the HU mind! ended the day +$77.10 which was a pleasant change considering my recent results!
This evening i was having another fairly lazy time.. Played the $5 WPL tourney and got 2nd/13, got it in good HU only to get 3 outted and come 2nd, its only a bit of fun though so i don't even track the results from the WPL tourneys - they're definitely profitable though and a good laugh too!
Later this evening, after reading the PxF forums about bankroll building and how some guy claims to be able to get from $450 to $12,000 multi tabling 20 or so $10 and $20 sngs on Stars by Xmas! I decided to have a crack and opened up Stars and started 2 $16 turbos and 2 45 seat $12 turbos.
The 2 $16 ones weren't too successful with me busting in 7th and 6th place. A combination of bad play and bad luck... i wont bother with the HH's now. The 45 seaters on the other hand went well. I played much better and got the breaks at the right times, well most the time! Got 3 outed a few times in the but made a nice comeback! won the 1 outright and took 3rd in the other giving me $142 profit from the one and $65 in profit from the other - I can't complain at that! It was nice to take down a tourney again, even if it was only a 45 seater!
Anyway, the day ended +$175 so I'm fairly happy with that. I'm finally in profit for the month and have something to build on again!
Ship it!
To finish, a couple pics from the Road Rally:
I've been totally away from things over the weekend and totally lost track of time! Saturday evening was my first ever rally. The Peak Revs Road Rally, starting in Leominster, about an hour and half drive away. Got up around 3pm and watched the Welsh game of rugby while rushing to get things ready as I'd arranged to meet my driver at 4 in Brynmawr! I obviously wasn't going to be there on time (no surprises there for those of you who know me!) so had to text him and apologies. Eventually made it to his by about 4.45 and we quickly left to head up to the start. It was both our first events so we weren't too sure what to expect and to make it more stressful, other than plotting and reading OS Maps, i barely understood the format and time cards etc on road events! It's a bit like poker i guess where to the outside it seems easy but theres so much more to it. The idea is to plot a route given to you about an hour and half before the official start then drive it, visiting different controls (to prove you've taken the correct route) averaging 30mph. Sounds simple but its far from it and totally impossible to average 30 the whole way! You've got to stop at the controls so obv lose a lot of time there, if you wrong slot or similar you lose A LOT of time, you get 'fails' if you don't visit certain controls or if you approach them from the wrong direction which all does against your final result. Put simply, they're pretty difficult and hard work! Its basically 120 of flat out driving through the lanes, forests and white goers (some of which you wouldn't even think a car could get down)!
We started at 00.39am (we were car 59 so started 59 mins after car 1 hence the odd time) and got to the finish at about 6.15am which was out main aim! Despite a nightmare start things slowly picked up as we got the hang of it and we actually ended up doing OK! 7th in class (out of 15) and about 35th o/a (out of 60). and only 1 off sideways into a hedge on a tightening 90 left although we had a few other moments...
Anyway, enough of rallying for now! As a result i wasn't home till about midday on Sunday having had no sleep so slept most the afternoon, then most the following night and day as well. Managed to miss most of the WSOP Final Table coverage which was annoying, only saw a bit of the HU and then read up on the rest. Also missed the Calzaghe v Jones Jr fight but got it recorded so that was fine, watched it back Sunday night!
Eventually got around to playing some poker on Monday night (i couldn't sleep after sleeping most the previous day! - 13 hours) No idea how Henry managed to sleep 23 hours though - that's just madness! Care to explain if you read this Swiss? lol
played 2 tables of .10/.25 PLO on Full Tilt and finished +$44.35 up on the one table and +$1.25 up on the other so it was nice to claw some ash back for a change. Later that evening played 3 HU sngs in PLO against the same opponent whom kept offering a rematch and i won all 3 of those too! I did run quite nicely in the HU mind! ended the day +$77.10 which was a pleasant change considering my recent results!
This evening i was having another fairly lazy time.. Played the $5 WPL tourney and got 2nd/13, got it in good HU only to get 3 outted and come 2nd, its only a bit of fun though so i don't even track the results from the WPL tourneys - they're definitely profitable though and a good laugh too!
Later this evening, after reading the PxF forums about bankroll building and how some guy claims to be able to get from $450 to $12,000 multi tabling 20 or so $10 and $20 sngs on Stars by Xmas! I decided to have a crack and opened up Stars and started 2 $16 turbos and 2 45 seat $12 turbos.
The 2 $16 ones weren't too successful with me busting in 7th and 6th place. A combination of bad play and bad luck... i wont bother with the HH's now. The 45 seaters on the other hand went well. I played much better and got the breaks at the right times, well most the time! Got 3 outed a few times in the but made a nice comeback! won the 1 outright and took 3rd in the other giving me $142 profit from the one and $65 in profit from the other - I can't complain at that! It was nice to take down a tourney again, even if it was only a 45 seater!
Anyway, the day ended +$175 so I'm fairly happy with that. I'm finally in profit for the month and have something to build on again!
Ship it!
To finish, a couple pics from the Road Rally:
Friday 7 November 2008
Donkaments...
Afternoon,
Unusual for me to be writing in my blog at 12.45 in the afternoon! Just had a super frustrating session though so thought I'd write it down to make make it go away. lol
After a far from active day yesterday, in poker terms anyway, i didn't think I'd get much time to play today either but have managed to squeeze in an hours session now over lunch before my busy afternoon begins... I kinda wish i couldn't have fitted it in now though as it went far from smoothly.
After watching the Card Runners PLO videos the other night, i thought I'd sit down at a .10/.25 plo table and give it a whirl. I genuinely think i played the session fairly well, obviously i have more than a few leaks seeing as Ive only just started playing them seriously but ended the session in the red, -$43.25
Before i begin, I'll ask as ever, if you fancy giving me some advice on how i played the hands in your opinion, its usually appreciated!
Biggest pot i lost was $59.20... I was in the BB with A864 (the A being suited). early pos raises to .55 and gets 2 callers. i complete from the BB with my marginal hand because of the suited A plus it was costing me .30 to get into a pot of $1.90 so a no brainer really i thought.
Flop come A52 (2 spades - not helping me as i had none!) giving me a gut shot and top pair. i actually misread my hand to begin with and led out with a $2 bet thinking i had 2 pair (into the $2.20 pot) and got 1 caller, the SB so i had position for the rest of the hand. turn brought the 3 hearts giving me the nuts at that time but make 2 possible flush draws, neither of which i had...
The SB now led out into me with a half pot bet making the pot $9.30, this looked weak to me and drawy so i re potted it to $15.50, looking to get it all in. The river then brought the 9 spades meaning if he had a spade flush draw, he'd just made it else i was good. He then shoved the river... Great, i called feeling i was behind but it was costing me $11 to win a $59.20 so i think i had to call as he could've shoved the river with a straight or similar i think.
If he'd had a huge hand then i wouldn't mind so much but he had KQJ8 single suited so basically had nothing but a flush draw the entire hand!
This was by far the biggest pot but i also lost hands with top set of K's v another flush draw but folded them on the river then other chap made his flush...
lost a pot with J's on a 335 flop V's someone with AJ39, not too sure why they were even in the hand, raising it from utg.
another pot went astray when i re popped a short stack with a flush draw on the flop and he called with an over pair (8's) which stood up v my draw and over cards)
And made another BIG lay down with top 2 pair and the nut flush draw on the flop! I accidentally timed out while deciding whether to re raise the 2 other players or flat call, decided on flat calling and trying to call it down as i thought at least one of them had a set but accidentally timed out but my read was right, and i wouldn't have got there with the draw (no surprise there then).
Oh well, on another day i could've been +$100 after today's session but instead ended it in the red :( I definitely think i make this game profitable for me... the question is how profitable though and whether i can stand the obvious sick variance it deals out....
We'll have to see as the month goes on.
Unusual for me to be writing in my blog at 12.45 in the afternoon! Just had a super frustrating session though so thought I'd write it down to make make it go away. lol
After a far from active day yesterday, in poker terms anyway, i didn't think I'd get much time to play today either but have managed to squeeze in an hours session now over lunch before my busy afternoon begins... I kinda wish i couldn't have fitted it in now though as it went far from smoothly.
After watching the Card Runners PLO videos the other night, i thought I'd sit down at a .10/.25 plo table and give it a whirl. I genuinely think i played the session fairly well, obviously i have more than a few leaks seeing as Ive only just started playing them seriously but ended the session in the red, -$43.25
Before i begin, I'll ask as ever, if you fancy giving me some advice on how i played the hands in your opinion, its usually appreciated!
Biggest pot i lost was $59.20... I was in the BB with A864 (the A being suited). early pos raises to .55 and gets 2 callers. i complete from the BB with my marginal hand because of the suited A plus it was costing me .30 to get into a pot of $1.90 so a no brainer really i thought.
Flop come A52 (2 spades - not helping me as i had none!) giving me a gut shot and top pair. i actually misread my hand to begin with and led out with a $2 bet thinking i had 2 pair (into the $2.20 pot) and got 1 caller, the SB so i had position for the rest of the hand. turn brought the 3 hearts giving me the nuts at that time but make 2 possible flush draws, neither of which i had...
The SB now led out into me with a half pot bet making the pot $9.30, this looked weak to me and drawy so i re potted it to $15.50, looking to get it all in. The river then brought the 9 spades meaning if he had a spade flush draw, he'd just made it else i was good. He then shoved the river... Great, i called feeling i was behind but it was costing me $11 to win a $59.20 so i think i had to call as he could've shoved the river with a straight or similar i think.
If he'd had a huge hand then i wouldn't mind so much but he had KQJ8 single suited so basically had nothing but a flush draw the entire hand!
This was by far the biggest pot but i also lost hands with top set of K's v another flush draw but folded them on the river then other chap made his flush...
lost a pot with J's on a 335 flop V's someone with AJ39, not too sure why they were even in the hand, raising it from utg.
another pot went astray when i re popped a short stack with a flush draw on the flop and he called with an over pair (8's) which stood up v my draw and over cards)
And made another BIG lay down with top 2 pair and the nut flush draw on the flop! I accidentally timed out while deciding whether to re raise the 2 other players or flat call, decided on flat calling and trying to call it down as i thought at least one of them had a set but accidentally timed out but my read was right, and i wouldn't have got there with the draw (no surprise there then).
Oh well, on another day i could've been +$100 after today's session but instead ended it in the red :( I definitely think i make this game profitable for me... the question is how profitable though and whether i can stand the obvious sick variance it deals out....
We'll have to see as the month goes on.
Thursday 6 November 2008
A new month...
05:22am so i really need to get to bed. We'll keep this short.
Not been up to much really so far this month. Moved back to some of the small mtt's and sngs but not played anything properly. I was in profit for the month until this evening but am now down $53.10 mainly thanks to me blowing $25 in a 5 re buy (i swear i run really crap in re buy periods!) and then took a shot at a $33 tourney which i was playing well and chipped up but then hit my usual boredom syndrome and ended up bluffing it all off trying to play my big stack aggressively and ended up busting outside the $$$ - not too bothered as i know exactly where the errors were. I basically played crap. My heart just isn't in it at the moment. Really not sure how to get it back! I think its because Ive been running a bit naff and not had a nice win for a good few months so its got me down a bit.
Spent tonight watching a card runners video on PLO cash games which was actually really interesting. It was one of the really basic ones so i wasn't expecting much (as i know the basics!) but there were a few good observations about connecting cards with gaps and how gaps at the tom are much worse than bottom gaps etc. I wont go into details :) I then spent some time figuring out how to use my Poker Tracker Omaha and setting it up. Haven't really got my head around how to use it with some of the less mainstream sites yet but have managed to set it up for the main sites and log a few test hands on Full Tilt which is probably where I'll begin playing...
I'll leave it there for now. need to get some sleep as i haven't been feeling too well recently
Excellent evening on Monday at the Devils Halloween party but we'll leave that for another time! lol
Not been up to much really so far this month. Moved back to some of the small mtt's and sngs but not played anything properly. I was in profit for the month until this evening but am now down $53.10 mainly thanks to me blowing $25 in a 5 re buy (i swear i run really crap in re buy periods!) and then took a shot at a $33 tourney which i was playing well and chipped up but then hit my usual boredom syndrome and ended up bluffing it all off trying to play my big stack aggressively and ended up busting outside the $$$ - not too bothered as i know exactly where the errors were. I basically played crap. My heart just isn't in it at the moment. Really not sure how to get it back! I think its because Ive been running a bit naff and not had a nice win for a good few months so its got me down a bit.
Spent tonight watching a card runners video on PLO cash games which was actually really interesting. It was one of the really basic ones so i wasn't expecting much (as i know the basics!) but there were a few good observations about connecting cards with gaps and how gaps at the tom are much worse than bottom gaps etc. I wont go into details :) I then spent some time figuring out how to use my Poker Tracker Omaha and setting it up. Haven't really got my head around how to use it with some of the less mainstream sites yet but have managed to set it up for the main sites and log a few test hands on Full Tilt which is probably where I'll begin playing...
I'll leave it there for now. need to get some sleep as i haven't been feeling too well recently
Excellent evening on Monday at the Devils Halloween party but we'll leave that for another time! lol
Friday 31 October 2008
October...
4.30am GMT Friday October 31st.
As good as the end of the month so I'll make an end of October post (i want to get this month out of the way and move on!)
So the aim this month was to concentrate on cash games and see how quickly i could move up. I've actually enjoyed learning and playing them more than i expected (i was expecting to be bored stiff but doing it because of them supposedly be a better way to make $). I've been using the cash game videos on Card runners to learn them and cant see how I'm not beaten them better. I think I'm a level 3 thinker, or at least level 2 and listening to what to card runner pro's say i should be crushing these games. I don't feel like i am though.
I've played mostly on Full Tilt as its the best site to data mine and nice software and at low stakes, the games aren't too tough. Ive tried out ipoker, Party and Stars too though. Over the month I've logged 5306 hands. 4292 of which were on Full Tilt. I actually ended in profit on Full Tilt, albeit just $28.90 4.5BB/100 (a win rate that isn't actually that bad - should be getting about 6BB/100 or maybe a bit more at $25NL. Overall i ended in the red though!
-$185.49 - OK, it's nothing drastic but my first EVER losing month since i started tracking my results properly a year ago! I think that tell me something about cash games.
I genuinely believe that i can easily beat these games if i put in enough hands. 5000 hands is hardly enough to get a good idea of variance but i don't think i want to keep concentrating on something that is obviously not that profitable for me! I'll continue learning and playing cash games now and again however for November am going to move back to tournament and sng play! Back to what i know and we'll compare the results.
Onto the specifics... After my losing session last time i took a couple days off from playing then returned to the tables on Wednesday. Ended Wednesdays 25minute 4 table session +$33.25
My only big pot was $52.50 ($27.50 profit) holding AQ v AJ on a A24 rainbow flop - Got all the chips in on the flop and the best hand stood up.
Biggest losing pot that session only cost me $3.50 with K's which i raised pre with 1 caller, i was in SB so out of position. Flop A44 which i cont. bet, got flatted so didn't put any more in. Folded on the turn.
Earlier today things weren't quite as straight forward - played for just over an hour 6 tabling ending the session -$19.05. No huge pots for + or - really... biggest losing pot was with A7 against a fishy player who was quite passive. Board read AQ2TT and he had KJ. Should've realised he had KJ though as i kinda knew it once he got more aggressive after the turn so should've saved myself a few $ there! Another interesting pot was an unraised one, SB v BB v Button. I had KQ in SB so completed. Board 56Q43. I bet every street and just got called down. Don't think there was too much i could do really on that hand as felt i was good and bet river as a kinda blocker bet.
Biggest pot i won was $22.60 with J's v AT which i was quite pleased with how i played it. as the flop was K high yet i still got value out of him and read his holding well (flush draw).
The session I've just finished though was the icing on the cake i think! lol ended the session -$33.55 but there were a few big pots, some of which were quite frustrating! For the first time all month, i found a table with a player i just couldn't help sticking around to play with. playing about 50% of pots and about 25% of them he just open shoved or re shoved. We'll start with the plus points of the session. Two nice pots, the first was $44.20 profit - a $91.15 pot at .10/.25! lol
I button raise with A9 and the loon (who actually had position on me which wasn't ideal) open shoved again. He'd already showed down so much rubbish so i called and he actually had A8! (the best i actually saw him have all session! lol) - this time the best hand held up. The hand before that i won a $55.40 pot on a board of 7QJK4 (3 hearts on the board.) - I actually reshoved him all in on the river - my holding... K9! he called with J8! lol Gives you an idea of how he was playing! They were the plus points of the session. I had a lot more frustrating pots though! lost a $65 pot against the same guy (if you want to know his ID just ask! it was on Full Tilt - I'll def be looking out for him in future) where i button raise with 9's, he reshoves all in, i call and he shows J8os! board runs out 5Q64J grrrrrr
I lost a $60 pot 'racing' with Q's v AK, all in pre (against a different player on another table)
Another pot of $50, all in preflop with AK against the loon who had K7! on a rainbow flop of AK5 you'd think i was fairly safe to win - Not against this guy though who catches running clubs to scoop the pot!
Another frustrating pot where i made a poor read but that said, struggled to put him on much, i had AQ and 3bet someone preflop, he called so we saw a flop HU. Flop 7JT (2 diamonds) he checks, i cont. bet and he calls. Turn pairs the board and he checks again, i fire again - this is my mistake as my bet of $6 makes the pot $15 and i fail to notice he only has $10 back. He moves in and i call as it's only $4 to call with 2 overs and a gut shot. He's got 98 and has flopped the straight... nice for some.
Anyway, enough bad beat stories from me :) One thing that has struck me about the cash games online is the amount they rake them! Especially at lower stakes. Q's v AK is usually about 66% v 44% which should mean its fairly profitable to move in with Q's against AK - apparently at low stakes though the rake actually makes it a -EV play in the long run! On Full Tilt alone, playing $25NL over 4292 hands Ive paid $126.05 in rake!
So... anything you'd like to see my concentrate on playing in November, i really should set up my Poker Tracker Omaha software seeing as Ive bought it. Perhaps I'll try learning that. Play a bit of Razz maybe and just revert back to a few mtt's and sngs. I may try to improve my HU game when i get around to it. I hear it can actually be a pretty profitable form of poker. I'm not sure, Let's just have fun and hope it results in some profit as it'd be nice to win something for a change after having a few crap months!
How the hell have i spent an hour typing this! I really should go to bed! busy weekend coming up so i doubt I'll get much chance to play after today... Saturday i have ice hockey in the evening, then off right down to West Wales (Talbenny) early Sunday morning rallying then back and pretty much straight to Newport to the Feeder gig. Monday evening is then 'Franny's Fright Night' - Basically the Devils Halloween party so I'll be out chatting up Peter Aubry again. lol
As good as the end of the month so I'll make an end of October post (i want to get this month out of the way and move on!)
So the aim this month was to concentrate on cash games and see how quickly i could move up. I've actually enjoyed learning and playing them more than i expected (i was expecting to be bored stiff but doing it because of them supposedly be a better way to make $). I've been using the cash game videos on Card runners to learn them and cant see how I'm not beaten them better. I think I'm a level 3 thinker, or at least level 2 and listening to what to card runner pro's say i should be crushing these games. I don't feel like i am though.
I've played mostly on Full Tilt as its the best site to data mine and nice software and at low stakes, the games aren't too tough. Ive tried out ipoker, Party and Stars too though. Over the month I've logged 5306 hands. 4292 of which were on Full Tilt. I actually ended in profit on Full Tilt, albeit just $28.90 4.5BB/100 (a win rate that isn't actually that bad - should be getting about 6BB/100 or maybe a bit more at $25NL. Overall i ended in the red though!
-$185.49 - OK, it's nothing drastic but my first EVER losing month since i started tracking my results properly a year ago! I think that tell me something about cash games.
I genuinely believe that i can easily beat these games if i put in enough hands. 5000 hands is hardly enough to get a good idea of variance but i don't think i want to keep concentrating on something that is obviously not that profitable for me! I'll continue learning and playing cash games now and again however for November am going to move back to tournament and sng play! Back to what i know and we'll compare the results.
Onto the specifics... After my losing session last time i took a couple days off from playing then returned to the tables on Wednesday. Ended Wednesdays 25minute 4 table session +$33.25
My only big pot was $52.50 ($27.50 profit) holding AQ v AJ on a A24 rainbow flop - Got all the chips in on the flop and the best hand stood up.
Biggest losing pot that session only cost me $3.50 with K's which i raised pre with 1 caller, i was in SB so out of position. Flop A44 which i cont. bet, got flatted so didn't put any more in. Folded on the turn.
Earlier today things weren't quite as straight forward - played for just over an hour 6 tabling ending the session -$19.05. No huge pots for + or - really... biggest losing pot was with A7 against a fishy player who was quite passive. Board read AQ2TT and he had KJ. Should've realised he had KJ though as i kinda knew it once he got more aggressive after the turn so should've saved myself a few $ there! Another interesting pot was an unraised one, SB v BB v Button. I had KQ in SB so completed. Board 56Q43. I bet every street and just got called down. Don't think there was too much i could do really on that hand as felt i was good and bet river as a kinda blocker bet.
Biggest pot i won was $22.60 with J's v AT which i was quite pleased with how i played it. as the flop was K high yet i still got value out of him and read his holding well (flush draw).
The session I've just finished though was the icing on the cake i think! lol ended the session -$33.55 but there were a few big pots, some of which were quite frustrating! For the first time all month, i found a table with a player i just couldn't help sticking around to play with. playing about 50% of pots and about 25% of them he just open shoved or re shoved. We'll start with the plus points of the session. Two nice pots, the first was $44.20 profit - a $91.15 pot at .10/.25! lol
I button raise with A9 and the loon (who actually had position on me which wasn't ideal) open shoved again. He'd already showed down so much rubbish so i called and he actually had A8! (the best i actually saw him have all session! lol) - this time the best hand held up. The hand before that i won a $55.40 pot on a board of 7QJK4 (3 hearts on the board.) - I actually reshoved him all in on the river - my holding... K9! he called with J8! lol Gives you an idea of how he was playing! They were the plus points of the session. I had a lot more frustrating pots though! lost a $65 pot against the same guy (if you want to know his ID just ask! it was on Full Tilt - I'll def be looking out for him in future) where i button raise with 9's, he reshoves all in, i call and he shows J8os! board runs out 5Q64J grrrrrr
I lost a $60 pot 'racing' with Q's v AK, all in pre (against a different player on another table)
Another pot of $50, all in preflop with AK against the loon who had K7! on a rainbow flop of AK5 you'd think i was fairly safe to win - Not against this guy though who catches running clubs to scoop the pot!
Another frustrating pot where i made a poor read but that said, struggled to put him on much, i had AQ and 3bet someone preflop, he called so we saw a flop HU. Flop 7JT (2 diamonds) he checks, i cont. bet and he calls. Turn pairs the board and he checks again, i fire again - this is my mistake as my bet of $6 makes the pot $15 and i fail to notice he only has $10 back. He moves in and i call as it's only $4 to call with 2 overs and a gut shot. He's got 98 and has flopped the straight... nice for some.
Anyway, enough bad beat stories from me :) One thing that has struck me about the cash games online is the amount they rake them! Especially at lower stakes. Q's v AK is usually about 66% v 44% which should mean its fairly profitable to move in with Q's against AK - apparently at low stakes though the rake actually makes it a -EV play in the long run! On Full Tilt alone, playing $25NL over 4292 hands Ive paid $126.05 in rake!
So... anything you'd like to see my concentrate on playing in November, i really should set up my Poker Tracker Omaha software seeing as Ive bought it. Perhaps I'll try learning that. Play a bit of Razz maybe and just revert back to a few mtt's and sngs. I may try to improve my HU game when i get around to it. I hear it can actually be a pretty profitable form of poker. I'm not sure, Let's just have fun and hope it results in some profit as it'd be nice to win something for a change after having a few crap months!
How the hell have i spent an hour typing this! I really should go to bed! busy weekend coming up so i doubt I'll get much chance to play after today... Saturday i have ice hockey in the evening, then off right down to West Wales (Talbenny) early Sunday morning rallying then back and pretty much straight to Newport to the Feeder gig. Monday evening is then 'Franny's Fright Night' - Basically the Devils Halloween party so I'll be out chatting up Peter Aubry again. lol
Monday 27 October 2008
All downhill from here...
Don't seem to be catching too many breaks at the moment! It's been a bit tough. Not too sure if its my play and I'm getting a reality check after my good start to the month or just standard variance. I'm hoping the latter and think it probably is to an extent. Obviously there's always room for improvement and i know that ive made a few sloppy & spewy plays recently which have probably cost me about $25 in total - not a lot but it adds up and effects your BB/100 a bit which is largely what I'm playing for. The money isn't really enough to be of big interest as I'm used to trying to take down a few thousand in the mtt's - $25 is just one buy in so i cant think about the stakes too much - I'm actually impressed how Ive focused on just playing solid poker and not thinking about the stakes too much.
Early Sunday morning before i headed to bed after a long wet night out rallying, i thought I'd have a crack at Stars games again to try to at least get my graph into the green... It wasn't to be though. Just seemed to pick up big draws and never hit in this session. For example, raised from the button with AT suited and got a re raise from the SB. flop came K42 with 2 spades giving me the nut flush draw and a pretty good flop. The sb cont. bets the flop in position strongly so i decide to re pop him, expecting a fold but instead got a call from Q's somehow - not sure how he could have done that given the way I'd played the hand but there we go... obviously the board bricked out. Stacked for the first time.
Next big pot i limp in from sb with KJ suited and get re popped by the bb so i flat him. Flop come 39T with 2 spades giving me a flush draw, straight draw and 2 overs. I opt for the check raise and he obliges by betting $3.5, i raise to $9 and he re shoves all in. At this point I'm expecting to see Q's. K's or A's but am obviously still calling given the pot size and my many outs. Of course, he flips over AKos with no spades and once again the board bricks giving him the pot with A high! Stacked for the 2nd time...
So frustrating although i can see the positives in it too as these people aren't too great. I'm certain the 2nd hand was the correct play. My first flush draw hands was just down to a wrong read and i perhaps built the pot up too much pre flop/ on the flop which meant i had no choice but to call with my flush. Still, i don't think i did too much wrong. Please feel free to disagree!
Basically, i ended up ending the session $44.95 down overall which wasn't the best.
Decided to have a shot at one of the matrix sng's on Full Tilt just for fun and a change to the cash games which weren't going my way and ended up doing quite well. Won 2 of the 4 tables, 3rd on another and 2nd overall... Perhaps i should go back to sng's/mtt's?! lol
Sunday night/Monday morning i was feeling a bit tired and unwell but thought id have a game anyway to pass the time (or more to put off going to bed)! Wasn't too sure what to play. Was very tempted to play some sng's again but told myself to stick at the cash games... Sat down at a $2/4 razz tables for about 10 Min's but couldn't really track it properly (as i haven't bought PT stud) so opted to leave after I'd won a couple of pots... $20 up wasn't a bad start given i only played about 5 hands!
Then sat down at the Full Tilt cash tables which have so far been fairly kind to me unlike Stars! My bad luck/play decided to follow me over from Stars though and it was the start to another dull session. lots of small insignificant pots then when i get it all in I'm either behind or failing to win the hand! i decided to 4 tables and accidentally sat down on 2 $50NL tables but thought I'd take a shot as I'd been quite good so far with my bankroll management! The other 2 tables were $25NL tables...
My $25NL tables were OK really. just standard ups and downs but as has been the case recently, a bit of a grind. The $50NL i found were surprisingly soft. They seemed almost softer than the $25NL tables, part of my reason for sticking around. The 1 table i was pretty much break even the whole session but the other one got all the action.... I actually ran quite well with starting hands but they weren't good news.
First up, dealt K's and think excellent, time to double up (as I'd already lost a few small pots but use auto top up so had a full stack of $50)... Raised from early position 5 handed and got 3 bet by a fairly solid seeming player but I'm not folding K's the way i feel. i guess you could say i was chasing a bit which isn't good but I'm not folding K's anyway i don't think! After his 3 bet i think we can get in pre as he wasn't 3betting me lightly and i was correct when he re shoved my 4 bet all in. I obv called only to run into the inevitable A's and despite making a set, it couldnt beat his set! Not a lot done wrong, just a cooler so i battle on just dented slightly. A few hands later i pick up A's and have a lot of people enter the pot so i make a big raise only to get re shoved pref lop. i was clapping my hands as thought i was going to get my original $50 back as didn't think he was too strong given his stats and weak open. i obviously call only for him to have A's too so we chop it up! ahh well, onto the next hand i think. Next i run T's into K's although this is a hand i think i may have slightly overplayed as he played his K's strongly. i think i may have been on tilt a bit, mixed with no sleep, i just wanted some chips back! lol lost another pot of about $12 when a short stack open shoved preflop so i re shoved to isolate and got HU's with my AQ v's his 4's. Q on the flop but a 4 also spelt the end to that hand... i lost another biggish pot with AQ v's K's against a LAG player, overplay JT trying to outplay someone tight on a safe flop, Q's into A5 on a AA3 flop - you get the idea.... lol
I played 262 hands in the session and had only 5 hands i won which were over $5 pots! and they were all fairly marginal ones like AK, 5's and KQ which most didn't even get to showdown (as you'll see my my graph below in a sec.)
Sorry for the bad beat diary today! I'm just tired and fed up! looking back over my hands I'm not too surprised i feel like i do mind. Ended the session $92.05 down. it gives me a BB/100 of 6.5 overall for the month which isn't actually all that shabby i suppose. still $48.25 in profit overall although it's not going to be that way for long if things don't change around pretty quick!
One final question... Should i start playing myself again?.........................................
Early Sunday morning before i headed to bed after a long wet night out rallying, i thought I'd have a crack at Stars games again to try to at least get my graph into the green... It wasn't to be though. Just seemed to pick up big draws and never hit in this session. For example, raised from the button with AT suited and got a re raise from the SB. flop came K42 with 2 spades giving me the nut flush draw and a pretty good flop. The sb cont. bets the flop in position strongly so i decide to re pop him, expecting a fold but instead got a call from Q's somehow - not sure how he could have done that given the way I'd played the hand but there we go... obviously the board bricked out. Stacked for the first time.
Next big pot i limp in from sb with KJ suited and get re popped by the bb so i flat him. Flop come 39T with 2 spades giving me a flush draw, straight draw and 2 overs. I opt for the check raise and he obliges by betting $3.5, i raise to $9 and he re shoves all in. At this point I'm expecting to see Q's. K's or A's but am obviously still calling given the pot size and my many outs. Of course, he flips over AKos with no spades and once again the board bricks giving him the pot with A high! Stacked for the 2nd time...
So frustrating although i can see the positives in it too as these people aren't too great. I'm certain the 2nd hand was the correct play. My first flush draw hands was just down to a wrong read and i perhaps built the pot up too much pre flop/ on the flop which meant i had no choice but to call with my flush. Still, i don't think i did too much wrong. Please feel free to disagree!
Basically, i ended up ending the session $44.95 down overall which wasn't the best.
Decided to have a shot at one of the matrix sng's on Full Tilt just for fun and a change to the cash games which weren't going my way and ended up doing quite well. Won 2 of the 4 tables, 3rd on another and 2nd overall... Perhaps i should go back to sng's/mtt's?! lol
Sunday night/Monday morning i was feeling a bit tired and unwell but thought id have a game anyway to pass the time (or more to put off going to bed)! Wasn't too sure what to play. Was very tempted to play some sng's again but told myself to stick at the cash games... Sat down at a $2/4 razz tables for about 10 Min's but couldn't really track it properly (as i haven't bought PT stud) so opted to leave after I'd won a couple of pots... $20 up wasn't a bad start given i only played about 5 hands!
Then sat down at the Full Tilt cash tables which have so far been fairly kind to me unlike Stars! My bad luck/play decided to follow me over from Stars though and it was the start to another dull session. lots of small insignificant pots then when i get it all in I'm either behind or failing to win the hand! i decided to 4 tables and accidentally sat down on 2 $50NL tables but thought I'd take a shot as I'd been quite good so far with my bankroll management! The other 2 tables were $25NL tables...
My $25NL tables were OK really. just standard ups and downs but as has been the case recently, a bit of a grind. The $50NL i found were surprisingly soft. They seemed almost softer than the $25NL tables, part of my reason for sticking around. The 1 table i was pretty much break even the whole session but the other one got all the action.... I actually ran quite well with starting hands but they weren't good news.
First up, dealt K's and think excellent, time to double up (as I'd already lost a few small pots but use auto top up so had a full stack of $50)... Raised from early position 5 handed and got 3 bet by a fairly solid seeming player but I'm not folding K's the way i feel. i guess you could say i was chasing a bit which isn't good but I'm not folding K's anyway i don't think! After his 3 bet i think we can get in pre as he wasn't 3betting me lightly and i was correct when he re shoved my 4 bet all in. I obv called only to run into the inevitable A's and despite making a set, it couldnt beat his set! Not a lot done wrong, just a cooler so i battle on just dented slightly. A few hands later i pick up A's and have a lot of people enter the pot so i make a big raise only to get re shoved pref lop. i was clapping my hands as thought i was going to get my original $50 back as didn't think he was too strong given his stats and weak open. i obviously call only for him to have A's too so we chop it up! ahh well, onto the next hand i think. Next i run T's into K's although this is a hand i think i may have slightly overplayed as he played his K's strongly. i think i may have been on tilt a bit, mixed with no sleep, i just wanted some chips back! lol lost another pot of about $12 when a short stack open shoved preflop so i re shoved to isolate and got HU's with my AQ v's his 4's. Q on the flop but a 4 also spelt the end to that hand... i lost another biggish pot with AQ v's K's against a LAG player, overplay JT trying to outplay someone tight on a safe flop, Q's into A5 on a AA3 flop - you get the idea.... lol
I played 262 hands in the session and had only 5 hands i won which were over $5 pots! and they were all fairly marginal ones like AK, 5's and KQ which most didn't even get to showdown (as you'll see my my graph below in a sec.)
Sorry for the bad beat diary today! I'm just tired and fed up! looking back over my hands I'm not too surprised i feel like i do mind. Ended the session $92.05 down. it gives me a BB/100 of 6.5 overall for the month which isn't actually all that shabby i suppose. still $48.25 in profit overall although it's not going to be that way for long if things don't change around pretty quick!
Not too sure what my plans are now to be honest. Do i continue plugging away at the cash games, concentrate on a different form of cash game as I'd originally intended - i always seem to do quite well at the razz games and enjoy the plo games too - they're probably more profitable than the hold em too! or shall i go back to mtt's. not too sure. I'll have a think and come back with the answer in the future. It's likely to be a combination mind. lol
5.08am been tired for the past 4 hours so I'd better head to bed. Before i do though i'll end on a positive note... Excellent evening of hockey with Devils beating Capitals 9-nil, 2 fights and generally an entertaining game - Went for a skate after too and was chatting with Peter Aubry (Devils net minder), congratulated him on his shutout. Pleasant to catch up with him again after our 2 hour long chat at the bowling evening a few weeks back! :) lol I have a weird thing about being friends with Canadian hockey players i think. lolOne final question... Should i start playing myself again?.........................................
Friday 24 October 2008
Poker stars here we come...
Up until recently Ive been playing just on Full Tilt so decided we'd have a change of scenery and test out some new waters...
Monday - playing on Full Tilt i had a fairly relaxed couple of short fun sessions really. nothing serious and ended the day with a small profit of $12.55. One thing that baffled me today though is my 'red line'.... My show down winnings were pretty good today but my non showdown winning (AKA red line) were dire! If i knew where the cash was going it'd be OK but i really struggle to see where I'm losing all these pots without showdown! not sure if its variance or me playing poorly. I'm going to guess the latter based on the fact I'm too much of a fish to work it out even with the Poker Tracker stats in front of me!
Tuesday - Didn't play today... In fact I'm not too sure what i did today! would have hardly noticed if the didn't exist!
Wednesday - After a £20 buy in shorthanded home game where i finished my usual 4th outside of the cash i headed home for a short late night online session - First stop was Party (with my very limited bankroll of just 2 buy ins for $25NL - i will reload there at some point i expect). The games on Party were pretty good, very loose and passive. I think it'd take me a while to adapt to that kinda of player as full tilt has a mix of good players and bad. Party seems to be largely poor play which is almost more difficult to play against to start! The software was a bit frustrating as it didn't seem to work with my HUD stats properly which annoyed me a bit. Overall i ended up $19 down which was frustrating but the session was a positive one and the games are definitely profitable long term! most of that loss came from a hand, all chips went in preflop where i had A's v QTos... you work that one out - he naturally outdrew me though rivering a straight... After that a couple other beats i decided to call it a night and protect what little bankroll i had left for a day when I'm running better!
Thursday - Weathers been naff today! hasn't stopped raining all day! (well my day anyway which starts at about 4pm! lol Went to a motor show in the evening and then out with the motor club for a Chinese. The motor club boys are really unbelievable - gotta be seen to be believed. Some of the stuff they come out with is soooo funny but hugely embarrassing to be associated with them - i genuinely don't know how they don't get us thrown out of the restaurant.
Tonight was particularly funny as they decided it'd be a good idea to pretend it was the one guys birthday when he came in late and sang happy birthday at the top of their voices (i quietly joined in and played along) in this restaurant all so they could try to scab some free food. then decided to do it again when the other lad came in late and told the waitresses they were twins! lol (they obviously aren't and neither was it either of their birthdays!) - They did managed to scab balloons and a slice of cake with candle, and attention from the staff mind! After a nice and sideways drive home through the lanes i settled in to an evening/night of ice hockey and watched as my beloved Maple Leafs turned a 2 nil deficit after the 1st period into a 3-2 win by the end of the game! yay! They're playing well this season! Also, a pretty impressive hit by one of the Bruins players that put Mike Van Ryn THROUGH the plexi glass! only people hurt were a couple of fans though who got covered in the shattered glass! lol
Anyway, after all that i settled into a couple hours poker... Decided to give ipoker a shot but couldn't get poker tracker to track the games for some reason. Hardly seemed worth the hassle either as the games were unexpectedly tight and small average pot size which i wasn't really expecting on the ipoker network - it's usually pretty fishy. Anyway, after losing a $10 pot by attempting to represent an A by three betting someone i had no stats on i decided it best to run to a different site. Poker stars then became my site of choice and i was actually pretty impressed! There were some very tasty looking tables on offer! i quickly jumped into 2 and they didn't disappoint! People 3betting and even 4 betting with very little. My cards were very nice as well being dealt plenty of premiums... The only problem, and it proved to be quite a costly one, was that my hands were being outdrawn relentlessly! After 30 minutes at these awesome tables i found myself over 4 buy ins down! $110 almost in the red! Rather than give up, i opened up another 2 tables and then soon after changed the original 2 tables as the profitable players had hit and run with all my money! i ended up spending the next hour and half grinding my way back up! Still ended up $30.20 down but its a lot better than it could've been!
To illustrate the kinda results i was getting here's a few examples.
Hand Amount of times dealt in session Amount won/lost
AA 2 -$10.75 (vs T2 despite me 3 betting preflop!!!)
AK(os) 8!!! -$4.70 (i don't think i hit the board once all night!)
AQ 6 -$17.50
AJ 5 -$1.75
KQ 9!!! -$36.45
KJ 7 -$19.85
Anyone notice a trend? Some of it may have been down to small mistakes by me.. possibly my AQ hand where i tried to squeeze with TPTK but walked into a set but other than that it was largely down to missing flops and cont. bets not getting through. Need i say it but my red lines not too good on stars either! lol I'll definitely be putting some more time in on stars though as the games were actually much softer than I'd expected...
This updates gone on a bit tonight so I'll leave it there for now! I shan't bore you with any graphs this post either. It's long enough already! wish me a bit more luck for future sessions please?! i need it to avoid life tilt :)
Over and out...
Monday - playing on Full Tilt i had a fairly relaxed couple of short fun sessions really. nothing serious and ended the day with a small profit of $12.55. One thing that baffled me today though is my 'red line'.... My show down winnings were pretty good today but my non showdown winning (AKA red line) were dire! If i knew where the cash was going it'd be OK but i really struggle to see where I'm losing all these pots without showdown! not sure if its variance or me playing poorly. I'm going to guess the latter based on the fact I'm too much of a fish to work it out even with the Poker Tracker stats in front of me!
Tuesday - Didn't play today... In fact I'm not too sure what i did today! would have hardly noticed if the didn't exist!
Wednesday - After a £20 buy in shorthanded home game where i finished my usual 4th outside of the cash i headed home for a short late night online session - First stop was Party (with my very limited bankroll of just 2 buy ins for $25NL - i will reload there at some point i expect). The games on Party were pretty good, very loose and passive. I think it'd take me a while to adapt to that kinda of player as full tilt has a mix of good players and bad. Party seems to be largely poor play which is almost more difficult to play against to start! The software was a bit frustrating as it didn't seem to work with my HUD stats properly which annoyed me a bit. Overall i ended up $19 down which was frustrating but the session was a positive one and the games are definitely profitable long term! most of that loss came from a hand, all chips went in preflop where i had A's v QTos... you work that one out - he naturally outdrew me though rivering a straight... After that a couple other beats i decided to call it a night and protect what little bankroll i had left for a day when I'm running better!
Thursday - Weathers been naff today! hasn't stopped raining all day! (well my day anyway which starts at about 4pm! lol Went to a motor show in the evening and then out with the motor club for a Chinese. The motor club boys are really unbelievable - gotta be seen to be believed. Some of the stuff they come out with is soooo funny but hugely embarrassing to be associated with them - i genuinely don't know how they don't get us thrown out of the restaurant.
Tonight was particularly funny as they decided it'd be a good idea to pretend it was the one guys birthday when he came in late and sang happy birthday at the top of their voices (i quietly joined in and played along) in this restaurant all so they could try to scab some free food. then decided to do it again when the other lad came in late and told the waitresses they were twins! lol (they obviously aren't and neither was it either of their birthdays!) - They did managed to scab balloons and a slice of cake with candle, and attention from the staff mind! After a nice and sideways drive home through the lanes i settled in to an evening/night of ice hockey and watched as my beloved Maple Leafs turned a 2 nil deficit after the 1st period into a 3-2 win by the end of the game! yay! They're playing well this season! Also, a pretty impressive hit by one of the Bruins players that put Mike Van Ryn THROUGH the plexi glass! only people hurt were a couple of fans though who got covered in the shattered glass! lol
Anyway, after all that i settled into a couple hours poker... Decided to give ipoker a shot but couldn't get poker tracker to track the games for some reason. Hardly seemed worth the hassle either as the games were unexpectedly tight and small average pot size which i wasn't really expecting on the ipoker network - it's usually pretty fishy. Anyway, after losing a $10 pot by attempting to represent an A by three betting someone i had no stats on i decided it best to run to a different site. Poker stars then became my site of choice and i was actually pretty impressed! There were some very tasty looking tables on offer! i quickly jumped into 2 and they didn't disappoint! People 3betting and even 4 betting with very little. My cards were very nice as well being dealt plenty of premiums... The only problem, and it proved to be quite a costly one, was that my hands were being outdrawn relentlessly! After 30 minutes at these awesome tables i found myself over 4 buy ins down! $110 almost in the red! Rather than give up, i opened up another 2 tables and then soon after changed the original 2 tables as the profitable players had hit and run with all my money! i ended up spending the next hour and half grinding my way back up! Still ended up $30.20 down but its a lot better than it could've been!
To illustrate the kinda results i was getting here's a few examples.
Hand Amount of times dealt in session Amount won/lost
AA 2 -$10.75 (vs T2 despite me 3 betting preflop!!!)
AK(os) 8!!! -$4.70 (i don't think i hit the board once all night!)
AQ 6 -$17.50
AJ 5 -$1.75
KQ 9!!! -$36.45
KJ 7 -$19.85
Anyone notice a trend? Some of it may have been down to small mistakes by me.. possibly my AQ hand where i tried to squeeze with TPTK but walked into a set but other than that it was largely down to missing flops and cont. bets not getting through. Need i say it but my red lines not too good on stars either! lol I'll definitely be putting some more time in on stars though as the games were actually much softer than I'd expected...
This updates gone on a bit tonight so I'll leave it there for now! I shan't bore you with any graphs this post either. It's long enough already! wish me a bit more luck for future sessions please?! i need it to avoid life tilt :)
Over and out...
Sunday 19 October 2008
Ups and Downs...
Mixed feelings about my game the last few days. The negative variance has set in and Ive seen myself have a few losing sessions recently. Just keep losing all my big showdowns such as J's running into A's on a low flop, 9's into T's, K's V AQ on a Q high flop (all in on flop with a 3rd Q showing up on the turn) and the list goes on... On the plus side though, i think I'm getting the hang of utilising position, flop texture and aggression to win a lot more pots without going to showdown so despite my losses when it gets to showdown, Ive actually improved my red line and am for the first time showing a profit with Non Showdown Winnings! woo. It looks from the graph below like my losing at showdown stats are directly as a result of my improved non showdown winnings but i don't think they are really connected - just bad luck and perhaps some marginal calls on my behalf.
Overall, I'm still quite positive about my results at the cash tables so far... I'll continue to play at .10/.25 stakes for the moment simply to put in enough hands to get a decent idea of my BB's/100 earnings at the moment it's dropped down to a much more normal looking 8.32 BB's/100 but that's after my recent poor run. If things pick up and i can maintain a BB/100 of above 5/100 after 10,000 hands then I'll start playing at .25/.50 and start logging some hands there. Doubt I'll notice too much difference in play but still, going to do everything properly...
Away from the poker tables its also a mixed story. I had a terrible test day for rallying today - had no sleep (literally) over night, then over 5 hours of driving up and back to the test venue only for the drive shaft to go on the car as we pulled out of the garage 1st thing in the morning. Spent most the day under the car, trying and failing to botch it together so we could at least get some testing done - We failed though! On the other hand, i had an enjoyable evening at the Wheatus gig - good old and new memories. Ive also discovered that i can actually enjoy going out and drinking a few alcoholic beverages given the correct company! lol and also rediscovered my love of making new female friends. hmm. I'll leave it there...
Back to the Card Runner vids and Full Tilt tables tomorrow i guess!
Tuesday 14 October 2008
A few days in... All is good!
I'm pretty pleased after my first few days at the tables. I've not actually played many sessions and the ones i have played were pretty short but fairly sweet... I think i must be running well at the moment as my hands seem to be holding up in general and i even caught a 2 outer in one hand with J's v Q's where the chips went in pre-flop vs a relative short stacked player.
I'm not sure how long other peoples sessions are but i find mine are pretty short. I tend to take a few hands to settle into the table then start making a few chips then after 30 mins or so start feeling a bit uneasy and itchy and end up finishing the session. I think I'm scared of having a losing session! lol Not sure if its good or bad - I'm guessing the latter...
Above is a graph showing my October earnings so far (well i say October, i only started tracking 6 days ago...). All is well apart from a couple of issues i have.
I'm actually about $25 down with my 'money $ won with showdown' which i need obviously need to do some work on! It's not a big problem at the moment as even in the top cash players it usually only accounts for a relatively small proportion of their earnings - Most the money comes from hands that go all the way to showdown... That said, i shouldn't be losing money from it!
Also, something i cant do much about is rake. Ive paid $40.65 in rake so far and have no form of rake back program on Full Tilt. It's quite annoying really as i don't want to change my account name and have to reopen a new account but it's like throwing money away not claiming rake back... I have rake back on Cake poker but PT3 doesn't work with it at the moment and i think I'd struggle without it! Even in a commercial fishing pond like Cake!
I'm going post on the PxF forums i think (as i find them better than the card runner forums) about your expected $/Hr rate or BB/hr rate at different stakes. I'm currently running at 52.7 BB/hr & $26.35/hr at the $25NL and that's playing just an average of 2.2 tables at a time over 8 sessions (each session averaging 49 mins each).
The above stats strike me as being pretty impressively high so I'm just bracing myself for variance to kick in and my numbers to plummet. Anyway, while it's going well I'll just keep grinding i guess!
If anyone can help with any of my above queries feel free to drop me message! Cheers
I'm not sure how long other peoples sessions are but i find mine are pretty short. I tend to take a few hands to settle into the table then start making a few chips then after 30 mins or so start feeling a bit uneasy and itchy and end up finishing the session. I think I'm scared of having a losing session! lol Not sure if its good or bad - I'm guessing the latter...
Above is a graph showing my October earnings so far (well i say October, i only started tracking 6 days ago...). All is well apart from a couple of issues i have.
I'm actually about $25 down with my 'money $ won with showdown' which i need obviously need to do some work on! It's not a big problem at the moment as even in the top cash players it usually only accounts for a relatively small proportion of their earnings - Most the money comes from hands that go all the way to showdown... That said, i shouldn't be losing money from it!
Also, something i cant do much about is rake. Ive paid $40.65 in rake so far and have no form of rake back program on Full Tilt. It's quite annoying really as i don't want to change my account name and have to reopen a new account but it's like throwing money away not claiming rake back... I have rake back on Cake poker but PT3 doesn't work with it at the moment and i think I'd struggle without it! Even in a commercial fishing pond like Cake!
I'm going post on the PxF forums i think (as i find them better than the card runner forums) about your expected $/Hr rate or BB/hr rate at different stakes. I'm currently running at 52.7 BB/hr & $26.35/hr at the $25NL and that's playing just an average of 2.2 tables at a time over 8 sessions (each session averaging 49 mins each).
The above stats strike me as being pretty impressively high so I'm just bracing myself for variance to kick in and my numbers to plummet. Anyway, while it's going well I'll just keep grinding i guess!
If anyone can help with any of my above queries feel free to drop me message! Cheers
Saturday 11 October 2008
The Beginning....
So... I've decided to take the plunge and start keeping a blog to keep track of my progress as i venture into what is a new form of Poker for me.... Cash games.
Since the beginning I've always specialised in multi table tournaments and SnG's however have been lacking motivation recently and as a result, lacking in results and therefore money! In an attempt to re motivate myself, i decided to subscribe to Card Runners (as well as PokerXfactor where I'm already a long term member) and also invest in some cash game tracking software so set about purchasing Poker Tracker 3 and Poker Tracker Omaha. The original plan was to play non hold em based cash games as the Razz games ($2/4 & $3/6) on Full Tilt have proved pretty profitable so far. I've actually found myself playing Hold em though and it's been a pretty good start.
I've been playing at FTP as it's easy to data mine the tables and the games don't seem too tough. I think that the mixed cash games are probably more profitable and i will get onto playing those in the future however am going to basically start at the very beginning and try to build a bankroll using cash game NLHE and PLHE.
Having uploaded my old hand histories it became evident that i had never had a winning session in NLHE cash games! I hadn't played too many but it still came as quite a surprise considering my relative success in mtt's over the past 2 years. I think Ive simply been far too aggressive in them and playing them like sngs! This is clearly not a profitable strategy.
The poker tracker software is awesome and has already helped me massively both to keep my game on track, track other peoples play (so i know when to steal to blinds and when not to, etc) and also to generally keep track of my sessions and profits. It's made for some interesting reading...
I've been playing a few short sessions at .10/.25 (low stakes i know but going to try to rebuild a bankroll from the bottom and work my way up slowly) and actually had some encouraging results. Having played 4 sessions so far, all 4 have been profitable so far! I know it's a very small sample size but considering my past results I've clearly improved vastly already! Not too sure what kind of hourly profit is good at .10/.25 limits but I'm currently working on $28.78 p/hr. Better than i earn from my day job so just got to see if i can keep it up and improve it as i move up the limits now. Total profit so far of $99.30 - not huge but its certainly nice to be winning consistently unlike my recent mtt and sng results which weren't going so well!
Anyway, apologies if my grammar isn't great (as if anyone will be reading this anyway!)
Haven't written anything like this since high school a good few years back!
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