Thanks For All The Fish

Virtually nothing to report.

2009-03-28T11:15:00.002Z

Profit: $10

I've bearly played any poker in the last month due to just not caring to be quite honest. Nothing poker has done in particular, just realising that other things are more important and need sorting out in my life - especially considering I play at such tiny stakes. I will get back to poker at somepoint and might grow some balls and play at significant stakes, but for now I just don't care. Sorry folks.

One good thing though....

$10.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, March 27, 10:06:37 ET 2009
Table Skien (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: fionandrea ( $7.26 USD )
Seat 3: avi999 ( $10.00 USD )
Seat 5: smael076 ( $31.09 USD )
Seat 6: garpiano ( $10.00 USD )
Seat 8: RTRFelix ( $18.28 USD )
Seat 10: PoincareOnAcids ( $18.57 USD )
PoincareOnAcids posts small blind [$0.05 USD].
fionandrea posts big blind [$0.10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Qd Td ]
avi999 folds
smael076 folds
garpiano folds
RTRFelix raises [$0.40 USD]
PoincareOnAcids folds
fionandrea calls [$0.30 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, Kd, Ad ]
fionandrea checks
RTRFelix bets [$0.60 USD]
fionandrea raises [$1.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
fionandrea bets [$3.25 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$3.25 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
fionandrea bets [$2.41 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$2.41 USD]
RTRFelix wins $13.85 USD from main pot
fionandrea shows [Ah, Qc ]

Thanks!

When it's not worth fighting the apathy.

2009-02-22T14:50:00.003Z

Loss: $52

Another whinge type post, sorry about that. I guess it can't be too encouraging and motivating to read my posts when they are usually about how unhappy I am about poker, but you know the saying: you've got to tastes the lows before you reach the highs.

The month of February has been a boring one for my poker. That's not a surprise when I continue to play the same style of games and the same limits over and over again. "Why don't you try something different?" I hear you cry. Well I would if I had the motivation and the interest but I just don't at the moment and I feel that if I am doing something different just for the sake of it, rather than for educational or entertainment value, there's not really much point in doing it. I'm almost certain to lose more money than I would just going through the normal poker motions at games and limits I'm used to and can at least get through by instinct more than anything else. As the blog title suggests, if I fought the apathy by doing something creative it could cost me a lot more than it currently is.

I'm down $50 this month which is perfectly acceptable since I went on a riot in January. I've dropped down to 10NL just until the bad form comes to a end (bad both in the sense I feel as if I am running bad and I'm not playing with any conviction) and when things pick up again I might move up again. It feels like (and it's always feel in poker, whether it's actually true or not is an entirely different question) that I'm getting three-outered a lot with hands like KQ v KJ for small-mid size pots. I flopped a straight with 10 8 the other day in an unraised pot. Unfortunately my oppo had the higher K 10 straight so I said goodbye to a stack. But I was hilosophical, said 'meh' and just moved on. The right poker attitude certainly, but it's not usually my attitude. It felt more like 'yeah, whatever' rather than 'that's variance'.

Generally speaking I'm just not bothered at the moment. Sorry, this was a rubbish post.

Plod, plod, plod - and when to just stick it all in.

2009-02-01T16:06:00.002Z

Profit: $13

Played another 3k hands for not much progress but I'm not too bothered as I think I've been playing ok and I haven't really felt frustrated.

Basically two hands have cost me any profits I might have made and I'm not sure if I played them right. Typically they were both in the 20NL rooms and they cost me full stacks which now means my current record for 2009 stands at:

10NL = $142 profit
20NL = $19 loss.

Irritating.

Any, the two hands are these.

***** Hand History for Game 1395875915 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 25, 08:19:53 ET 2009
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: NobleArdes ( $26.52 USD )
Seat 3: fabislovi ( $15.09 USD )
Seat 5: lank1 ( $4.20 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.60 USD )
Seat 8: MajorLeak ( $31.58 USD )
NobleArdes posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
fabislovi posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac As ]
lank1 folds
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
MajorLeak folds
NobleArdes folds
fabislovi calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Th, 5d ]
fabislovi bets [$0.40 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$1.20 USD]
fabislovi calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
fabislovi checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.20 USD]
fabislovi calls [$2.20 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2h ]
fabislovi bets [$3.00 USD]

Now at this point I'm thinking about whether I have the best hand or not. This guy was a 77/45 so I don't think much of his game and shown down some strange hands already. The thought process is this: if I do think I have the best hand then surely I should raise it up and get all my money in the middle. In the past, or what I usually do, is just call because I have doubts about my hand but if I'm calling then I believe there is a good chance I have the best hand so I should raise... correct? Well I did go all in and he table the old 97h. Fair enough.

***** Hand History for Game 1395846399 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 25, 08:05:12 ET 2009
Table Argonauts (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Dildo88 ( $20.52 USD )
Seat 5: HareKrsna ( $27.88 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $21.04 USD )
Seat 8: mancmart ( $27.42 USD )
Seat 10: Pokerpython ( $26.13 USD )
HareKrsna posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ad Kd ]
mancmart raises [$0.80 USD]
Pokerpython folds
Dildo88 folds
HareKrsna folds
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 6s, Kh ]
RTRFelix checks
mancmart bets [$1.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.40 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
RTRFelix checks
mancmart bets [$4.50 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$4.50 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
RTRFelix checks

Not really sure what I'm doing in this hand with the check calling. I guess I should be 3betting pre flop but I don't like to do that oop. Again though, by the river I think I have the best hand and plan to check raise him all in. He does bet, I do check-raise him all in and he has 33 for the flopped set. I'm not complaining about the result of the hand because I don't think I played it very well but how should I have played the hands to prevent this from happening? 3bet preflop, check-raise fold the flop, or is that a hand where I shouldn't be folding and losing a stack with AK because the majority of the time I will have the best hand?

These hands are the reasons why I'm not doing anything at 20NL I think.

The Curse of the Backer?

2009-01-17T12:02:00.005Z

Profit: $110

It's been a while since I updated the blog and I can't blame myself. From July to December is was just one long struggle, never getting any traction and slowly bleeding away the $200 stake I was playing with. I ended the staking deal with $100 and returned it with thanks to my backer.

I attempt to regain some confidence I dropped backed to 10NL, although I have kept 20NL tables running as well so I've actually increased my multi-tabling from 4 to 6. I'm surprised at how easily I can manage it actually. It must just be that, after three years of online experience, a lot of the decision I make are second nature and require a simple and immediate click. The problem has been more with the software. Ipoker doesn't always tell you when you've got to make a decision on a different screen so I occasionally drop some hands which can be quite frustrating. I could cascade the windows but if I did that my HEM settings wouldn't work and I like them the way they are.

So for the past two weeks I have been playing 10NL and 20NL and I have been crushing.... 10NL. Anyway. In 2.5k 10NL hands I've made $107 (that's 40bb/100). I'm definately running hot, there's no question of that. But if I look at my 10NL stats back in June, just before I moved up, I won $166 in 8k hands. Again I was running hot then but I also think I've simply got 10NL nailed down and have done for quite a while.

I know I'm running well because my KQ is busting AA when we get it all in preflop for 10bb (short stacks shoving) and when I have KK on a K236 board and I call a raise, the board pairs on the river and we get it all in and the oppo has 45.

Switch to 20NL though, and things instantly turn the other way. I've played 1k hands since New Year's day and I'm up $3. My aces ran into a set of threes yesterday. What is going on? I'm starting to think that the difference in quality between 10NL and 20NL is significant and that hoardes of micro-grinders roam around that limit on ipoker. The answer is, I guess, to radically change my game at 20NL. I'm playing 17/13/3 at 10NL which is quite tight and cagey (aggression is probably a bit high because I'm running hot). At 20NL maybe I need to have that range up to 20/18 with a lot higher aggression on the flop and turn to win hands without showdown.

So lots of stats there but the bottom line is that I've wiped out all the losses I made over the past six months (although it strictly my bankroll anyway) and ponder again how to make fundemental changes to my game in order to move up the limits. Videos I guess.

Final note, the MAD series has started at raise the river. I played in the first event and I think I was second in chips going into the final table. Top three got paid so I was still looking to build a stack for the bubble as the blinds were pretty silly. Got 60% of my chips in with JJ v 55 and a 5 popped on the river. Next hand shoved a raise with AJ and got called by AK. Nice.

Get on over to RTR though, every tourney has an overlay and we have a superb loyalty deal with Cardoza.

Year review and... blah, blah, blah.

2009-01-01T18:51:00.011Z

Everyone else seems to be doing one so I might as well divulge my thoughts on my poker year 2008.

Maybe a huge flaw I have in my overall poker stratgy is not setting a goal for last year. I just looked back through the blog and it appears that I couldn't bothered and just plodded along from the off. I think I set a general goal of making $1000 profit for the year which I failed to do - I made $650 according to the manual money tracker I use. The manner in which I made the money didn't please me as more than a third of that was through rakeback rather than winnings.

So with no goals set I just played the same games throughout the first six months. After going on a monster heater in June I picked up a staking deal and went up to 20NL which is pretty much where my year ends in terms of poker progress.

Here were my stats leading prior to 20NL

And then here there are after going up to 20NL - maybe a couple of weeks old.

There are far from perfect of course but I think they are more inline with what they should be - less limping/calling, more three betting and more aggression but it's actually led me to a loss rather than a profit.

I've talked about the particulars before so I'm not going to go on about it. The net result of the last six months has been regression. A lack of results has seen me question my confidence, ability and skills to the point where I don't know if I'm doing the right things anymore. I have forgotten how to play poker.

With that being said I'm throwing myself at your mercy. I need help to improve my game. I need a tutor/mentor rather than a backer. I have watched tons of videos and read endless amounts of articles but I just don't seem to find them helpful. In the infinite world of poker situations, I never seem to be able to relate the situations I'm in to the situations I've looked at on videos unless they're really obvious or I've perfected how to deal with the situation myself. My biggest holes seem to be:

Not playing enough hands in position to raises - should I be calling with KQs from the cut-off to a raiser. Probably, but how do I play when that flop comes or this flop comes etc.

I'm really poor at playing single pairs - I don't call, bet, raise enough, with mid pair or top pair no kicker. You could say, then just do what you're writing here. But when I do I inevitably get the sitatuation wrong, spunk off a chunk off my stack bluffing or calling and then decide never to do it again so I don't learn how to play the hand.

Not getting value - This might be because people aren't as shit as they are in 10NL but can the difference between the levels surely be as big as to suggest that in 20NL people run for the hills when you flop a set and bet out even though you do the same with, junk, draws etc? It's probably just an excuse I'm trying to find like every player does during bad times, but betting for value just doesn't work at the moment.

I can't be bothered writing about any more leaks I have, it's boring. Plus I don't know if I am right with these concepts. I need an objective opinion and forums just don't seem to work for me in that respect.

If poker has been good for one thing this year is has been Raise the River. I've met a lot of good people on the site and I've learned a lot of new things about making videos, podcasts and supporting a website in general. Maybe that's where my future lies in poker. Not playing it, but selling it to the masses and encouraging people to play it.

Whatever, here's to the next year of poker..... give me strength lord.

Happy new year folks!

2008-12-31T12:18:00.002Z

***** Hand History for Game 1350313970 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 31, 12:43:44 ET 2008
Table Featherback (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: KingJames232323 ( $19.60 USD )
Seat 3: ignition2009 ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 5: WonderfulTonight ( $22.81 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $38.70 USD )
Seat 8: hannes4668 ( $26.70 USD )
Seat 10: Poppu73 ( $42.93 USD )
WonderfulTonight posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ad Ah ]
hannes4668 folds
Poppu73 folds
KingJames232323 raises [$0.80 USD]
ignition2009 folds
WonderfulTonight folds
RTRFelix raises [$2.80 USD]
KingJames232323 calls [$2.20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 7d, 6h ]
RTRFelix bets [$4.00 USD]
KingJames232323 raises [$16.60 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$12.60 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Td ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]
KingJames232323 wins $38.30 USD from main pot
KingJames232323 shows [Qc, Qh ]

Still, there's more to poker than just poker.

And I did this too...

2008-12-15T22:28:00.000Z

Instead of playing I'm doing this...

2008-12-13T22:53:00.001Z

Beats losing money, let's put it that way.

My game... exposed. (Sorry, it's a long one).

2008-12-05T18:23:00.000Z

I got a message from, I think, my one loyal reader who’s been reading about my poker exploits since they first started two years ago on this blog. It said the following:

Hey, something seems off here...in 5 months you did not put in very many hands, I dont think...are you simply playing one table at all times...?

I dont know...granted, i'm not good enough at poker to really judge but it seems to me that at this point you've got no results to show for the effort. You must have WAY more leaks than you realize or care to think about, because frankly, with your discipline, the fact that you're playing so few hands for such small stakes after all this time just doesnt make sense.

I think you need to really reflect on your game, what you are somehow missing in terms of theory or practice that is holding you back so much.

I've been an avid follower of your blog and i've been reading it for at least a year, if not 2. I read a lot of two plus two and it seems that those who are decent enough at poker get out of the microstakes within a few months or a year...but you're still there, toiling away. Something is missing and you need to figure out what it is, methinks.

To respond to that. I’m not sure if I haven’t been playing less hands than usual (with the exception of October when I didn’t play at all due to generally being pissed off with the whole thing. Since my staking deal (which is still ongoing) I have played about 25,000 hands. That started in July so it’s clear from that that I’m a recreational player.

You are right, gniz. I’m very honest when I need to be and I definitely have many leaks in my game – like most players at my stakes. I’m not aggressive enough, I fold too much and so on and so on. I don’t take enough risks so I loss quite a number of mid-sized pots. But that’s nothing new, I’ve always been like that. So all I can say is with all the leaks I’ve always had how have I gone from being a winning player to a losing player over the past five months. Variance? It could be but I’m not about to use that as excuse. The simple answer is I don’t know. It’s possible that with moving up from 10NL to 20NL I’m being outplayed, but I find the theory of a vast difference in skill between the two levels highly unlikely.

As with everything in poker, to get to the bottom of this, it requires a whole load of discussion and analysis. So here’s the anatomy of a very typical session that I’ve had that reflect precisely how the last five months have been. I’m warning you, this is going to be a long one.

I’m posting all the significant hands that dictating the session and proved to be interesting/tough decision to make.

***** Hand History for Game 1303427946 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:10:19 ET 2008
Table Cobar (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: DivinIvan ( $5.06 USD )
Seat 5: Toni2112 ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 6: madgali ( $5.83 USD )
Seat 8: Tesla1979 ( $24.29 USD )
Seat 10: RTRFelix ( $20.00 USD )
Tesla1979 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Tc Kd ]
DivinIvan folds
Toni2112 calls [$0.20 USD]
madgali folds
Tesla1979 calls [$0.10 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
Toni2112 calls [$0.80 USD]
Tesla1979 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 8d, 4d ]
RTRFelix bets [$1.60 USD]
Toni2112 calls [$1.60 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
RTRFelix checks
Toni2112 bets [$2.70 USD]
RTRFelix folds
Toni2112 wins $7.83 USD from main pot

Nothing too untoward about this hand. I might have the best hand but there seems little point in gambling for a small pot. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303429604 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:11:00 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: thatDRUNKguy ( $3.70 USD )
Seat 3: brunodakite8 ( $7.45 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $2.78 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 8: LINGM ( $10.70 USD )
Seat 10: noldini555 ( $30.13 USD )
gtiandy posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 5d 8d ]
LINGM folds
noldini555 folds
thatDRUNKguy folds
brunodakite8 calls [$0.20 USD]
gtiandy calls [$0.10 USD]
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 8h, 8s ]
gtiandy bets [$0.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.40 USD]
brunodakite8 raises [$7.25 USD]
gtiandy folds
RTRFelix calls [$6.85 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
RTRFelix wins $14.73 USD from main pot
brunodakite8 shows [Ad, Kc ]

Any early gift in the session. Thanks. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303436047 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:13:45 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: thatDRUNKguy ( $3.70 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $4.63 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $27.38 USD )
Seat 8: LINGM ( $10.40 USD )
Seat 10: noldini555 ( $27.65 USD )
gtiandy posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac Ah ]
LINGM folds
noldini555 folds
thatDRUNKguy folds
gtiandy calls [$0.10 USD]
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, Qs, 3h ]
gtiandy bets [$0.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
gtiandy bets [$0.60 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$1.80 USD]
gtiandy calls [$1.20 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
gtiandy bets [$2.43 USD]
RTRFelix folds
gtiandy wins $6.61 USD from main pot

I couldn’t put him on anything other than a queen once he called my check raise. He was pretty loose but a fold seemed obvious to me. Irritating but I played in a funky way so I must expect funky situations. However with a 69 vpip I should have just raised preflop to get some money in. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303454416 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:21:34 ET 2008
Table Chandler (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: Zigauner ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 3: RTRFelix ( $20.62 USD )
Seat 5: rawezh ( $10.63 USD )
Seat 6: Fireknight31 ( $36.01 USD )
Seat 8: richmuka ( $5.13 USD )
Seat 10: k3itH ( $25.62 USD )
rawezh posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
Fireknight31 posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Kd As ]
richmuka folds
k3itH calls [$0.20 USD]
Zigauner folds
RTRFelix raises [$1.00 USD]
rawezh calls [$0.90 USD]
Fireknight31 folds
k3itH calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, 6d, 5d ]
rawezh checks
k3itH checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.40 USD]
rawezh folds
k3itH calls [$2.40 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4d ]
k3itH checks
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
k3itH checks
RTRFelix checks
k3itH wins $7.60 USD from main pot
k3itH shows [3d, 3h ]

Perhaps the biggest leak in my game is that I don’t not know when I can get people to fold hands. I probably could have got this guy to fold by the river but I just don’t know how to do that. Whenever I have tried it I it has worked so rarely that I just can’t work out when it’s right to do it. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303463917 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:25:37 ET 2008
Table Savannah (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: dunder82 ( $26.61 USD )
Seat 3: ROSIER01 ( $10.15 USD )
Seat 5: Folder1706 ( $18.10 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.10 USD )
Seat 8: tommyxx74xx ( $9.25 USD )
Seat 10: izzyfisher ( $42.60 USD )
Folder1706 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 6d 4h ]
tommyxx74xx folds
izzyfisher folds
dunder82 calls [$0.20 USD]
ROSIER01 calls [$0.20 USD]
Folder1706 folds
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 5d, 7s ]
RTRFelix checks
dunder82 bets [$0.35 USD]
ROSIER01 calls [$0.35 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.35 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
RTRFelix checks
dunder82 bets [$0.80 USD]
ROSIER01 calls [$0.80 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
RTRFelix checks
dunder82 checks
ROSIER01 bets [$8.80 USD]
RTRFelix folds
dunder82 folds
ROSIER01 wins $12.75 USD from main pot

This is another hand which is typical of recent months, never hitting my draw when the potential is there to make a load of cash. Raise on the flop? Well I could have done, looks like I would have had to fold to a big reraise though. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303478962 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:31:54 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: aaby ( $5.47 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $12.37 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $16.97 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $23.73 USD )
gtiandy posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 9d 9h ]
aaby folds
thebrownlow folds
gtiandy calls [$0.10 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$0.40 USD]
gtiandy calls [$0.40 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, 6s, 8s ]
gtiandy bets [$1.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Tc ]
gtiandy checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.60 USD]
gtiandy calls [$2.60 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
gtiandy checks
RTRFelix checks
gtiandy wins $8.36 USD from main pot
gtiandy shows [7s, Th ]

So the same guy I confronted before I know now that he’s a wild man. But the board is pretty congested and I just know, just know he’s got something. All this does in reinforce the feeling that I’ve got good instincts to pick out a rat even when the guy is very loose. Probably lost the minimum but there again. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303481345 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:32:54 ET 2008
Table Cobar (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Seat 1: Teddybaer699 ( $17.15 USD )
Seat 3: IdomIn8uall ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 5: rawezh ( $6.42 USD )
Seat 6: Batakliev ( $18.35 USD )
Seat 10: RTRFelix ( $24.76 USD )
Teddybaer699 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
IdomIn8uall posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Qs Td ]
rawezh calls [$0.20 USD]
Batakliev folds
RTRFelix calls [$0.20 USD]
Teddybaer699 calls [$0.10 USD]
IdomIn8uall checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 8d, Qd ]
Teddybaer699 checks
IdomIn8uall checks
rawezh checks
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
Teddybaer699 checks
IdomIn8uall checks
rawezh checks
RTRFelix bets [$0.80 USD]
Teddybaer699 folds
IdomIn8uall calls [$0.80 USD]
rawezh folds
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
IdomIn8uall checks
RTRFelix checks
IdomIn8uall wins $2.28 USD from main pot
IdomIn8uall shows [7s, Js ]

I guess I should attack, attack, attack, but even if I did raise preflop to get rid of the junk, how do I play that flop if I walk into any aggression. I played this hand, and play many hands like this to a small pot or a monster pot (when I flop straights and full houses) but avoid losing medium sizes pots which I could easily have done here. Again, I’m avoiding the trap. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303489646 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:36:22 ET 2008
Table Chandler (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: mamastar ( $7.97 USD )
Seat 3: RTRFelix ( $19.60 USD )
Seat 5: eskelito ( $15.03 USD )
Seat 6: Fireknight31 ( $41.46 USD )
Seat 8: Schmunzelhase ( $19.80 USD )
Seat 10: k3itH ( $24.99 USD )
Schmunzelhase posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
k3itH posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 8c 6c ]
mamastar calls [$0.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.20 USD]
eskelito calls [$0.20 USD]
Fireknight31 folds
Schmunzelhase calls [$0.10 USD]
k3itH checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, Qc, Jh ]
Schmunzelhase checks
k3itH folds
mamastar checks
RTRFelix checks
eskelito checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
Schmunzelhase checks
mamastar checks
RTRFelix bets [$0.60 USD]
eskelito calls [$0.60 USD]
Schmunzelhase folds
mamastar folds
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
RTRFelix bets [$1.40 USD]
eskelito calls [$1.40 USD]
RTRFelix wins $4.75 USD from main pot
eskelito shows [8s, Ts ]

Again, just looking to win a small pot and I did exactly that with the right betting amounts. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303491546 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:37:11 ET 2008
Table Savannah (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: dunder82 ( $32.89 USD )
Seat 3: ROSIER01 ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 5: Folder1706 ( $19.60 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.20 USD )
Seat 8: tommyxx74xx ( $13.86 USD )
Seat 10: izzyfisher ( $42.99 USD )
RTRFelix posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
tommyxx74xx posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
ROSIER01 posts big blind [$0.30 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 5h 4s ]
izzyfisher folds
dunder82 calls [$0.20 USD]
ROSIER01 checks
Folder1706 calls [$0.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.10 USD]
tommyxx74xx checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 5s, 5d ]
RTRFelix checks
tommyxx74xx checks
dunder82 checks
ROSIER01 checks
Folder1706 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
RTRFelix bets [$0.60 USD]
tommyxx74xx folds
dunder82 folds
ROSIER01 calls [$0.60 USD]
Folder1706 folds
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
RTRFelix bets [$1.40 USD]
ROSIER01 calls [$1.40 USD]
RTRFelix wins $4.85 USD from main pot
ROSIER01 shows [Ad, 8s ]

Dunno how I get anymore money out of him than that. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303495850 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:38:58 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: aaby ( $9.99 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $14.16 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $19.40 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.20 USD )
Seat 8: Satomi84 ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 10: cavallaro01 ( $9.70 USD )
gtiandy posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Th Tc ]
Satomi84 folds
cavallaro01 folds
aaby calls [$0.20 USD]
thebrownlow folds
gtiandy calls [$0.10 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$0.40 USD]
aaby calls [$0.40 USD]
gtiandy calls [$0.40 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 6c, 4d ]
gtiandy checks
RTRFelix bets [$1.20 USD]
aaby folds
gtiandy calls [$1.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
gtiandy bets [$4.20 USD]
RTRFelix folds
gtiandy wins $8.19 USD from main pot

That same weirdo again. Do I want to bother with such a small amount in the pot?

***** Hand History for Game 1303502885 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:42:01 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: aaby ( $9.39 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $14.16 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $20.59 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 8: Satomi84 ( $21.42 USD )
Seat 10: cavallaro01 ( $9.50 USD )
cavallaro01 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
aaby posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac Qc ]
thebrownlow raises [$0.40 USD]
gtiandy folds
RTRFelix raises [$1.60 USD]
Satomi84 folds
cavallaro01 folds
aaby calls [$1.40 USD]
thebrownlow calls [$1.20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, Ad, 5d ]
aaby checks
thebrownlow checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.60 USD]
aaby folds
thebrownlow raises [$5.80 USD]
RTRFelix folds
thebrownlow wins $12.80 USD from main pot

Now this is a razor thin decision but like other hands I just can’t work out what I beat here. Two people have come to the flop with me here on a three bet. It’s a pretty dry flop so I’m either way ahead or way behind and the arsehole min-checkraises which is always a bad sign. His fold to 3bet was 50% and his CR was 20% so it is quite high. I either shove or fold here and I decided to fold. Really don’t know to be honest. In hindsight possibly a bad fold. But your critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303516152 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:47:51 ET 2008
Table Savannah (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: dunder82 ( $38.21 USD )
Seat 3: dahomster ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 5: Folder1706 ( $24.60 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $21.55 USD )
Seat 8: tommyxx74xx ( $2.65 USD )
Seat 10: izzyfisher ( $42.26 USD )
Folder1706 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 9h 5s ]
tommyxx74xx calls [$0.20 USD]
izzyfisher calls [$0.20 USD]
dunder82 folds
dahomster folds
Folder1706 folds
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 3d, 5d ]
RTRFelix bets [$0.60 USD]
tommyxx74xx calls [$0.60 USD]
izzyfisher raises [$2.00 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.40 USD]
tommyxx74xx folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
RTRFelix checks
izzyfisher bets [$3.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
izzyfisher wins $8.44 USD from main pot
izzyfisher shows [Ad, Ah ]

Something went wrong here with a disconnect protect kicking in. I probably would have played it to the river and folded the four flush board. I was in the big blind so it’s hard to justify going nuts when I have no idea what he’s got. But you critique….

***** Hand History for Game 1303531447 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:54:38 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: aaby ( $10.46 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $28.88 USD )
Seat 5: gtiandy ( $19.86 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $18.70 USD )
Seat 8: Satomi84 ( $19.50 USD )
Seat 10: cavallaro01 ( $6.60 USD )
cavallaro01 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
aaby posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Jd 9d ]
thebrownlow folds
gtiandy calls [$0.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.20 USD]
Satomi84 folds
cavallaro01 calls [$0.10 USD]
aaby checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Ts, 3s ]
cavallaro01 checks
aaby bets [$0.20 USD]
gtiandy raises [$0.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.40 USD]
cavallaro01 folds
aaby calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Tc ]
aaby bets [$1.00 USD]
gtiandy calls [$1.00 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
aaby checks
gtiandy checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.50 USD]
aaby folds
gtiandy calls [$2.50 USD]
RTRFelix wins $9.50 USD from main pot
gtiandy shows [Td, 6s ]

Getting some of my money back from this guy which was inevitable I would say. Raising the flop seems pointless with two people in the pot with me – one who’s particularly active. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303531419 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 09:54:37 ET 2008
Table Cobar (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: Teddybaer699 ( $15.38 USD )
Seat 3: IdomIn8uall ( $19.79 USD )
Seat 5: antihcv ( $5.82 USD )
Seat 6: Jarod93 ( $20.73 USD )
Seat 8: Tesla1979 ( $19.20 USD )
Seat 10: RTRFelix ( $26.18 USD )
Jarod93 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
Tesla1979 posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac Jh ]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
Teddybaer699 folds
IdomIn8uall folds
antihcv raises [$1.80 USD]
Jarod93 folds
Tesla1979 folds
RTRFelix calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, 7d, 3c ]
RTRFelix checks
antihcv bets [$4.02 USD]
RTRFelix folds
antihcv wins $7.73 USD from main pot

This guy 3bet 9.1% and 39 vpipi. I guess he has 99 or something similar. Should I be folding preflop or 4betting light? You critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303548410 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:02:20 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Seat 1: aaby ( $6.96 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $31.92 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $22.90 USD )
Seat 10: cavallaro01 ( $12.68 USD )
aaby posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
thebrownlow posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 8c 8h ]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
cavallaro01 folds
aaby calls [$0.70 USD]
thebrownlow calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, Jc, 8s ]
aaby bets [$0.60 USD]
thebrownlow folds
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
aaby bets [$3.60 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$21.50 USD]
aaby calls [$1.96 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
RTRFelix wins $29.93 USD from main pot
aaby shows [Qd, Jh ]

Played fine I think. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303551340 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:03:36 ET 2008
Table Cobar (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: Teddybaer699 ( $14.51 USD )
Seat 3: IdomIn8uall ( $19.90 USD )
Seat 5: antihcv ( $9.61 USD )
Seat 6: Jarod93 ( $20.13 USD )
Seat 8: Tesla1979 ( $17.80 USD )
Seat 10: RTRFelix ( $25.21 USD )
Jarod93 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
Tesla1979 posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Qh Qd ]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
Teddybaer699 folds
IdomIn8uall folds
antihcv folds
Jarod93 raises [$2.70 USD]
Tesla1979 folds
RTRFelix calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, Kd, 8h ]
Jarod93 checks
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
Jarod93 bets [$5.80 USD]
RTRFelix folds
Jarod93 wins $11.31 USD from main pot

Another tough hand to try and work out. Villian has 25/17/6.7 with 4% 3bet so I’m inclined to think he had a monster and tried to trap me on the flop. But you critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303564421 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:09:23 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: madmessie101 ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 3: thebrownlow ( $31.57 USD )
Seat 5: chamber19 ( $20.70 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $29.53 USD )
Seat 8: dahomster ( $19.50 USD )
Seat 10: cavallaro01 ( $12.68 USD )
dahomster posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
cavallaro01 posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ah Th ]
madmessie101 folds
thebrownlow folds
chamber19 folds
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
dahomster folds
cavallaro01 calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, 3h, 6s ]
cavallaro01 checks
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7s ]
cavallaro01 bets [$0.60 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
cavallaro01 checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.20 USD]
cavallaro01 calls [$2.20 USD]
cavallaro01 wins $6.94 USD from main pot
cavallaro01 shows [Jc, 7c ]

I cocked this hand up. Should have c/bet, should have shut down on the river but this is one of those hands where I think, I’m supposed to be here because I can get him off a pair etc.

***** Hand History for Game 1303573355 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:13:19 ET 2008
Table Chandler (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: SC008IE ( $12.21 USD )
Seat 3: RTRFelix ( $20.64 USD )
Seat 6: HushHushHushHush ( $19.40 USD )
Seat 8: FransdeBatz ( $11.48 USD )
Seat 10: Den1skaSnetk0ff ( $19.80 USD )
Den1skaSnetk0ff posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
SC008IE posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Tc Ac ]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
HushHushHushHush folds
FransdeBatz calls [$0.80 USD]
Den1skaSnetk0ff folds
SC008IE calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 2s, 3d ]
SC008IE checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.00 USD]
FransdeBatz folds
SC008IE raises [$8.50 USD]
RTRFelix folds
SC008IE wins $12.68 USD from main pot

74/18/2.2 for villain. Erm? You critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303582611 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:17:20 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: madmessie101 ( $20.52 USD )
Seat 3: MrMcDee ( $20.20 USD )
Seat 5: chamber19 ( $19.90 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $26.74 USD )
Seat 8: dahomster ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 10: alerik123 ( $19.70 USD )
RTRFelix posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
dahomster posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Th Ah ]
alerik123 folds
madmessie101 folds
MrMcDee folds
chamber19 raises [$0.80 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$2.70 USD]
dahomster folds
chamber19 raises [$5.90 USD]
RTRFelix folds
chamber19 wins $9.70 USD from main pot

I guess it’s better than calling. This is one of those hands where I want to experiment. Try and find out when people three-bet preflop with a mediocre hand. Take down the pot there and then against a tag and so on. But the move didn’t work and I doubt I’ll try it again. Was it the right move? No idea Usually I would just fold this hand out of site. The experiment failed. You critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303587044 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:19:20 ET 2008
Table Chandler (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: SC008IE ( $13.29 USD )
Seat 3: RTRFelix ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 5: terjisogomo ( $21.07 USD )
Seat 6: HushHushHushHush ( $20.71 USD )
Seat 10: Den1skaSnetk0ff ( $19.70 USD )
HushHushHushHush posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
Den1skaSnetk0ff posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 9c Ac ]
SC008IE calls [$0.20 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
terjisogomo folds
HushHushHushHush folds
Den1skaSnetk0ff folds
SC008IE calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, Qs, 6c ]
SC008IE checks
RTRFelix checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
SC008IE bets [$0.95 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$1.90 USD]
SC008IE calls [$0.95 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
SC008IE checks
RTRFelix bets [$17.30 USD]
SC008IE folds
RTRFelix wins $22.72 USD from main pot

Whacky guy from before. One of those “he might call with anything because he can’t fold pairs” situation. Sadly it didn’t work out like that. You critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303588685 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:20:03 ET 2008
Table Cobar (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: elblackspy ( $1.90 USD )
Seat 3: IdomIn8uall ( $19.10 USD )
Seat 5: GrindingKnight ( $4.00 USD )
Seat 6: Jarod93 ( $28.28 USD )
Seat 8: Tesla1979 ( $19.06 USD )
Seat 10: RTRFelix ( $28.01 USD )
Tesla1979 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ 7d 7c ]
elblackspy folds
IdomIn8uall folds
GrindingKnight folds
Jarod93 raises [$0.80 USD]
Tesla1979 folds
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ah, 4s, 2d ]
RTRFelix bets [$1.40 USD]
Jarod93 calls [$1.40 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
RTRFelix checks
Jarod93 bets [$3.00 USD]
RTRFelix folds
Jarod93 wins $7.28 USD from main pot

This time I wasn’t probably getting fed up of people seemingly always having the better hand. You may have noticed that I’m not losing any big pots. It’s just a slow bleed all the time.

***** Hand History for Game 1303592598 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:21:48 ET 2008
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: madmessie101 ( $20.52 USD )
Seat 3: MrMcDee ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 5: chamber19 ( $22.60 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $24.34 USD )
Seat 8: dahomster ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 10: alerik123 ( $20.00 USD )
RTRFelix posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
dahomster posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Jd Js ]
alerik123 folds
madmessie101 folds
MrMcDee folds
chamber19 raises [$0.80 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.70 USD]
dahomster folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 8h, 7h ]
RTRFelix checks
chamber19 bets [$1.15 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.15 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7s ]
RTRFelix checks
chamber19 checks
** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]
RTRFelix checks
chamber19 bets [$2.75 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$2.75 USD]
RTRFelix wins $9.12 USD from main pot
chamber19 shows [5s, 6s ]

Played well I thought. Never put him on a hand better than me and was sure he might try and bluff the river. Pretty difficult to be aggressive on the flop as if he reraises me I would put him on 77 or 88 since he called a preflop raise. You critique…

***** Hand History for Game 1303600626 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:25:24 ET 2008
Table Savannah (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 3: rocco0 ( $21.00 USD )
Seat 5: kastaloss ( $20.27 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.04 USD )
Seat 8: joeykenish ( $19.70 USD )
Seat 10: izzyfisher ( $53.68 USD )
RTRFelix posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
joeykenish posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ks Ts ]
izzyfisher folds
rocco0 folds
kastaloss raises [$0.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.30 USD]
joeykenish folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, As, Td ]
RTRFelix checks
kastaloss bets [$0.80 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kc ]
RTRFelix checks
kastaloss bets [$1.80 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.80 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
RTRFelix checks
kastaloss bets [$17.27 USD]
RTRFelix folds
kastaloss wins $23.16 USD from main pot

Fair enough. Another thing that seems to happen a lot is the killer card coming on the next street which either hits the common outs or kills my hand.

***** Hand History for Game 1303604790 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, December 03, 10:27:17 ET 2008
Table Savannah (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 3: rocco0 ( $21.00 USD )
Seat 5: kastaloss ( $23.16 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $16.04 USD )
Seat 8: joeykenish ( $19.50 USD )
Seat 10: izzyfisher ( $53.68 USD )
joeykenish posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
izzyfisher posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac 7h ]
rocco0 folds
kastaloss folds
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
joeykenish folds
izzyfisher calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Ad, 3d ]
izzyfisher bets [$0.80 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
izzyfisher bets [$2.20 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$2.20 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
izzyfisher bets [$7.00 USD]
RTRFelix folds
izzyfisher wins $14.32 USD from main pot

I think I must be getting frustrated by this point and calling two streets with top pair weaker kicker is something I exploit (or used to). He can be betting with KoQd. Anything really. When he bets on the river I’m pretty certain he’s not betting a flush draw (unless he flopped it.

And that’s it. Lots of little hands that I seem to be getting the majority of wrong. I feel as if I’ve literally forgotten how to play poker it’s been so long since I’ve felt good about my game and the game itself. Every session is similar to this. Sure, I might occasionally stack someone or they stack me but the general running theme is a slow bleed from pots all like the above.

People have suggested reading books and watching videos and I’ve done both of those and more besides. The trouble started WHEN I started doing that in the first place. It’s almost as if the tactics and the strategies delivered and suggested in these videos does not apply to the stakes I play at. Now I’m not entirely convinced by my own statement there because it could be that by game and confidence has been rocked by variance, or I could just not be playing well. All these different factors constantly colliding with myself has created metagame within my own poker mindset. Does that make any sense.

Should I have moved out of microstakes yet? Well for the volume of hands I’ve played in cash rooms (about 150,000) possibly not. I’m taking my time, especially considering the form/run I’m in/on.

I got another post from the same person very soon after which said:

BTW, i'm not by any means trying to downplay your accomplishment, which is that you're in the relatively small group of long-term winners in poker...but that aside, i really think something is holding you back, and maybe you need to speak to a really decent player who can help you iron shit out.

You’re absolutely right and I wish I knew decent players who could help me out.

Sorry, for the longest post ever.

As you were. More or less.

2008-11-29T11:01:00.001Z

Hello fans.

Sorry about a lack of updates. I’m not dead, contrary to the rumours. Sometimes I just don’t feel like blogging and the last month I’ve felt like that. And this could be just a quick update before I disappear into the poker darkness.

There hasn’t been any point in blogging anyway because the story’s the same as it has been for the last five months; a slow bleed of the main artery. Since I last blogged I’ve put in a fair few sessions totalling 8,000 hands and I’ve lost $16 which is a loss of $0.48 an hour. As you can imagine it’s been near torture. I’ve gone on winning streaks, winning maybe half a buy in every time, followed by losing streaks doing exactly the same thing. The small comfort I can take from it is that my theoretical is plus $27.41 which means, I think, that I’m not running too well.

If I were to summarise the last six weeks it would be this.

I’ve been big-hand dead. I can’t remember been able to play big pots for full stacks with the nuts since, well, ever. My draws haven’t been coming in and when I do get a sniff of a big hand people have folded on the flop. There’s probably leaks in my betting patterns that might answer that but I can’t find them. I thought it might be that I’m playing too tight but I am playing with a 22 vpip 15 pfr which doesn’t suggest I’m being tight. I think I’m just not hitting hands, which is fair enough I suppose.

I’m also completely missing flops which is getting rather frustrating because, as Tuff_Fish once said, “hell, everyone just wants to call me like crazy.” So I’ve been having to show real discipline not to just fire off chips into a wasted pot when people are not going to fold. If there is one part of my game that needs vast improvement it’s this part, I’m not good at reading when players might be likely to fold to aggression. When I decide this kid’s got nothing I almost always get it shamefully wrong and have to fold on the turn/river with my tail tucked between my legs. But when you’ve not hitting any hands and getting frustrated you just push yourself to try and expand your game. Bad idea.

The culmination of these things leads to hands like this.

***** Hand History for Game 1294763647 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, November 28, 10:23:01 ET 2008
Table Alpha (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: elbraxo ( $8.36 USD )
Seat 3: furious21111 ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 5: RTRFelix ( $20.00 USD )
Seat 8: rapidrollin ( $3.39 USD )
Seat 10: JEGAGNE66 ( $18.71 USD )
furious21111 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Qd Qc ]
rapidrollin calls [$0.20 USD]
JEGAGNE66 calls [$0.20 USD]
elbraxo folds
furious21111 raises [$0.90 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$0.80 USD]
rapidrollin folds
JEGAGNE66 calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, Qh, 3c ]
furious21111 bets [$1.60 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.60 USD]
JEGAGNE66 calls [$1.60 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
furious21111 checks
RTRFelix bets [$6.00 USD]
JEGAGNE66 calls [$6.00 USD]
furious21111 folds
** Dealing River ** [ Jh ]
RTRFelix checks
JEGAGNE66 bets [$10.11 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$10.11 USD]
JEGAGNE66 wins $39.22 USD from main pot
JEGAGNE66 shows [6h, Kh ]

I know I should be able to find a fold here and if my confidence was high and I was playing well I would. But when five months of frustration builds up, poker finds a way to make you lash out for just one hand, in the worst spot at the worst time.

But I will keep plugging away.

I’ve been playing at the 0.10/0.20 stakes for five months now and have so far lost $78 in 23K hands. In the same time with identical stats at 0.05/0.10 stakes I’ve won $38 in 1,400 hands. Is the difference in quality between the two levels that great or am I just running through variance. If I knew that…

Team Event Victory But That's Yer Lot.

2008-10-17T22:07:00.005Z

Just a quick update more than anything else (although my quick updates often do tend to turn into mini war-and-peace epics).

I haven’t played any poker at all with the exception of the Raise the River team event final last Sunday. I went into the 6-man SNG as the lowest ranked player to qualify, being third in the heat stage 6-man SNG, but somehow ended up winning it.

It’s a little bit more complicated than that. Since no players from one of the three teams had any representatives in the final (read the previous log for a more detailed explanation of the format), it was a three-on-three situation with points (1-6) being awarded for sixth to first place. Highest points tally wins.

Our team got off to a pretty slow start with captain cell and myself falling under the 1,000 chip mark. But our lady team-mate, Mair, was in no mood for pleasantries and crushed the table from about half an hour onwards. It’s what she does.

I think our team eliminated two of their players with some interesting bad beats. Can’t remember the one that dumped hammerhied out but Cadmunkey got a real dirty one when Cell’s KQ ran into Cad’s AJ and the board came KQK – how’s that for flopping someone stone-ass dead (or thereabouts)?

With all three of us still in and just Amatay left for the opposition we, as a team, were assured victory so I decided to suckout for once with my AQ cracking Amatay’s KK. Ace on the river, natch.

So with us three all from the same team left there wasn’t much to do but settle bragging rights for the win. I decided it might be a good idea to slap a filthy beat on Mair next so I got my money in pretty badly with AJ v 88 and whatever Cell had (he was short-stacked). Board came 10 9 10 9 X. See ya, Mair. Dispatched Cell after about 20 hands but only because I had a comfortable chip lead.

I would say from zero to hero but I was basically a lucky mother crusher and we split all the winnings from the event evenly anyway so I gained nothing extra from taking the SNG down. Who cares, eh?

I made about $20 from the event so I can’t complain.

I’m no nearer to going back to the cash table grind however and have thought about maybe playing some SNGs again or trying some of the MMMTs (which I’ve just dubbed as MicroMultiTableTournaments – 18, 27, 45 manners at Pokerstars etc). I don’t know if I can prize myself away from the lucrative loyalty deal I have with another site I usually play at though. And, to be honest, I just don’t feel like playing at all at the moment.

Like I said, though. I don’t honestly know when I’m going to start playing poker properly again. I’m enjoying my time off and can’t see what there is to go back to at the moment; it feels like just too much of a grind.

Speak to you all soon… fans!

P.S. Happy birthday to myself, or rather this blog. It’s two years old now. I’ve come along way since then…

…hang on. No I bloody haven’t!

Poker: it's (not) a team game.

2008-10-10T11:52:00.001Z

Which the exception of a team event taking place at Raise the River I’ve not played any poker so you’ll be delighted to hear I won’t be moaning in this blog! I couldn’t tell you when I’m going to play again though, I barely seem to have any interest at all in even loading up a poker client. Remember that blog post from a couple of weeks back; You’re either 100% committed or totally disinterested? I’m still in the latter.

The Raise the River team event brought up a couple of interesting conundrums to put to you, my loyal and non-existent readers. The format was/is (we are half way through it): three teams have four players selected by team captains. Two players from each team play heads-up with players from other teams while the remaining two players from each team go into a 6-man SNG. The winners of the heads up games and the top three from the SNG go into a final 6-man SNG with the winner of the game sharing the prizing money between the team.

Of course the team aspect has conjured up all sorts of banter and it’s been a good laugh so far, but the interesting component has been team play which pretty much polarises the whole concept of poker which is probably the most individual, selfish and greed-driven game you can imagine. Of course, in heads up it doesn’t matter but for the team event teamwork actually prevailed, or at least I think it.

I was playing with team-mate Cell1919 and I had the button every time he was in the big blind. On one or two occasions I stole his blind with absolutely nothing just to keep my chip stack healthy. Then, as the game got close to the bubble there where a couple of occasions when we were in the blinds (the original small blind player in our button-big blind equation had been eliminated) and I called the small blind with complete trash and we both checked the board down. I guess it was pretty pointless since the other team wasn’t involved in the hand and we were never going to chop the pots unless miracles happened. But, without basically telling each other what hand we had (which we didn’t I hasten to add) we were minimising the risk of crippling each other, and we could have easily done that in one hand when I turned two pair and he rivered trips which, in a blind V blind match would basically have meant all the money going in the middle.

The other point to mention is that when either one of use raised the other player simply didn’t get involved. I know there was one occasion when I had AJ in the small blind and because Cell had raised UTG I just ditched it because I didn’t want to risk getting into a confrontation with my team-mate. This meant that we never really got into a spot where we could team up on an opposition player basically playing four hole cards to the oppositions two – that would have made for some very interesting spots.

We did this checking down business at least three times while it was 4-handed, which was the bubble. Baring in mind that the other two players were on the same team too (with Burnley Mik’s team of cretins going out early on) this critical hand came along which decided the bubble and which three players would go into the final:

So, splunk1 (me) and Cell1919 are on the same team, as are CarlYork and Hammerhied.

PokerStars Game #20953092929: Tournament #112303760, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/10/05 15:57:18 ET
Table '112303760 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: Cell 1919 (2800 in chips)
Seat 5: CarlYork (950 in chips)
Seat 6: Hammerheid (3030 in chips)
Seat 8: splunk1 (2220 in chips)
CarlYork: posts small blind 50
Hammerheid: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cell 1919 [Jh 3d]
Mair38 [observer] said, "yeah lol im downloading so it spikes every now n then hehe"
splunk1: raises 250 to 350
Cell 1919: folds
Cell 1919 said, "lolol"
CarlYork: raises 600 to 950 and is all-in
Hammerheid: calls 850

Now I’ve thought about this hand for a while and tried to work out if I made the right decision here. First of all, why would hammerheid call the shove by his own player? Is it survival of the fittest or is he trying to protect his team-mate from me with a hand like 7-2 so that, if he loses he redistributes the chips to a more even playing field while stealing 350 for my stakc? I doubt this since each game has individual prize money as well. The next question is why did hammerhied just call and not shove over the top if he wanted all of CarlYork’s chips and protect his hand a little bit from whatever I might have? I guess just calling might represent huge strength – it certainly would if we were just playing as individuals. And finally, what the hell do I do here?

Let’s ignore Carlyorks hand here, I don’t have to beat that. All I need to do it beat hammerhied’s hand which would mean I come out about even (because I might lose 1,000 to Carlyork but win about 1,200 from Hammerhied, so it’s slightly profitable and definitely profitable with the chips I’ve already invested in the pot). Other than both having overpairs the worst situation would be that they have all the othercards, eg AJ and KQ. However that’s unlikely so it could well be possible that they have each other’s outs like AQ v KQ which would be OK for me. The next thing to factor in is that I have more chips than CarlYork which means that if Hammerheid wins he knocks us both out but I go through in third place to the final. The worstcase scenario would be if Carlyork won the hand but also Hammerhied beat my hand which would mean I went out in fourth. And finally, I have pocket tens with 1200 left and about 2200 in the pot I’m getting pretty good odds to push it all in. Here’s the result.

splunk1: raises 1270 to 2220 and is all-in
Hammerheid: calls 1270
Cell 1919 said, "ouch"
*** FLOP *** [9c Qh 2h]
*** TURN *** [9c Qh 2h] [6s]
CarlYork said, "STAN YOU'RE SPOSED TO BE MYTEAM MATE"
*** RIVER *** [9c Qh 2h 6s] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hammerheid: shows [Kc Ad] (a pair of Kings)
splunk1: shows [Tc Ts] (a pair of Tens)
Hammerheid collected 2540 from side pot
CarlYork: shows [Qd Th] (a pair of Queens)
Hammerheid collected 2850 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5390 Main pot 2850. Side pot 2540. Rake 0
Board [9c Qh 2h 6s Ks]
Seat 4: Cell 1919 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CarlYork (small blind) showed [Qd Th] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 6: Hammerheid (big blind) showed [Kc Ad] and won (5390) with a pair of Kings
Seat 8: splunk1 showed [Tc Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens

So I don’t know whether to be pleased or not with the result. If I’d folded both Cell and myself would have gone through anyway and up until the river it was fairly dicey stuff. Was I routing as much for an ace or a king as I was for the case ten? A weird one and probably one that we will never see of its ilk again.

Poker’s a funny game to begin with, but when you bend the rules for your own amusement it’s virtually impossible.

The final will be contested between Amaty’s team and Our team because Burnley Mik is rubbish and none of his team made it to the final. It’s basically 3v3 which should make for even more teamwork (or not in the case of Hammerheid). See you all in the final. (check out www.raisetheriver.com/discuss to find out more about the names and the competitions mentioned in this blog).

Mentally exhausted

2008-10-03T21:18:00.001Z

Over the course of the last few months I’ve been trying to find ways to describe how hard poker has been for me (and remember, take this all into context, beyond the fleeting moments I play and the blogs I write, my poker results have no impact on me other than to lose or gain more faith in the game itself) and this hand came up recently that I think polarises exactly what’s been going on.

A UTG limps in and the small blind completes and I sit with AJs. I check to see a flop. No idea why to be honest, I think it’s just the way things are going. It might be because I expected the UTG to reraise which is what seems to be happening quite a lot recently (limp-reraising when I have hands I’d liked to see a flop with).

Anyway, the flop is 10, A, 6 with two hearts. Flop looks good to me so I’m going to be playing it for a medium sized pot I reckon. I bet pot and the UTG calls while the SB folds. Turn is a seven so I bet again and he just calls. I’m a little dubious now thinking he might have two hearts or some sort of draw which he needs to complete. River is an offsuit 9 but it’s not the greatest card in the world so I check and he bets pot which is about 25bb

I don’t know why but I somehow convinced myself he was bluffing or had a worse ace. Because he limped the only hands I could put him on that beat me were a suited A8 so I called. Turns out he was happy to limp under the gun and slow play a set of tens on a draw heavy board.

It’s up to you to discuss the hand in terms of how I played it. Personally I think I played it very poorly but probably lost the same amount as playing it properly and aggressively. It was a tough situation that came after the culmination of another ‘dead’ session. By ‘dead’ session I mean another session in which I was flop dead (got plenty of decent starting cards but never hit the flop) never won any confidence boosting pots and actually feel as if I regressed as a player.

I came back today for another session and got, to be honest, totally owned.

Here’s a brief run down.

GAME #1196957070: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-10-03 21:20:17
Table Ramasses
Seat 1: 699266777115 ($5.72 in chips)
Seat 3: bluehearts501 ($18.65 in chips)
Seat 5: juancamillo ($5.31 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: zommsam ($3.75 in chips)
Seat 8: RTRFelix ($21.76 in chips)
Seat 10: demute ($22.06 in chips)
zommsam: Post SB $0.10
RTRFelix: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RTRFelix [DK HJ]
Dealt to juancamillo [H10 C9]
demute: Fold
699266777115: Fold
bluehearts501: Fold
juancamillo: Call $0.20
zommsam: Fold
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.80
juancamillo: Call $0.60
*** FLOP *** [S8 DJ D8]
RTRFelix: Check
juancamillo: Check
*** TURN *** [S3]
RTRFelix: Bet $1.00
juancamillo: Call $1.00
*** RIVER *** [HQ]
RTRFelix: Bet $1.85
juancamillo: Allin $3.51
RTRFelix: Call $1.66
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10.19 Rake $0.53
juancamillo: wins $10.19

Everyone seems to be getting there at the moment.

GAME #1196931132: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-10-03 21:07:17
Table Brazil
Seat 1: GulDamar ($4.20 in chips)
Seat 3: sever83 ($32.00 in chips)
Seat 8: RTRFelix ($21.70 in chips)
Seat 10: Edath ($36.61 in chips) DEALER
GulDamar: Post SB $0.10
sever83: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Edath [C6 C7]
Dealt to RTRFelix [HA H2]
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.60
Edath: Call $0.60
GulDamar: Fold
sever83: Fold
*** FLOP *** [S6 C3 S8]
RTRFelix: Check
Edath: Check
*** TURN *** [H3]
RTRFelix: Check
Edath: Bet $0.75
RTRFelix: Call $0.75
*** RIVER *** [SJ]
RTRFelix: Bet $2.60
Edath: Call $2.60
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.79 Rake $0.41
Edath: wins $7.79

I don’t know if this is the right spot to bluff and he seemed a pretty good player but this is just systematic of either: me bluffing at the wrong time, bluffing when people will call with any pair, or me trying to implement techniques I’ve seen in videos which simply don’t work at these levels.

GAME #1196914761: Texas Hold'em NL $0.05/$0.10 2008-10-03 20:59:07
Table Ranunculus
Seat 1: BerSerKKK ($3.71 in chips)
Seat 3: RTRFelix ($9.50 in chips)
Seat 5: MrBlue53 ($11.11 in chips)
Seat 8: 7ENO7DU7 ($9.85 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: JPODK ($2.89 in chips)
JPODK: Post SB $0.05
BerSerKKK: Post BB $0.10
MrBlue53: Post BB $0.15
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrBlue53 [HK S9]
Dealt to RTRFelix [SK H10]
RTRFelix: Call $0.10
MrBlue53: Check
7ENO7DU7: Fold
JPODK: Call $0.05
BerSerKKK: Check
*** FLOP *** [HA H7 DK]
JPODK: Check
BerSerKKK: Check
RTRFelix: Bet $0.45
MrBlue53: Call $0.45
JPODK: Fold
BerSerKKK: Fold
*** TURN *** [H2]
RTRFelix: Bet $1.10
MrBlue53: Call $1.10
*** RIVER *** [HJ]
RTRFelix: Check
MrBlue53: Bet $2.10
RTRFelix: Call $2.10
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.37 Rake $0.38
MrBlue53: wins $7.37

I miss read the board a little bit here and thought the king on the board was a heart so only the queen of hearts beats me so I put him on a king, just not the king of hearts.

GAME #1192902232: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-10-01 15:55:12
Table Gracemere
Seat 1: d113k ($21.01 in chips)
Seat 3: dtGr ($9.82 in chips)
Seat 5: dfhfdhh ($11.85 in chips)
Seat 8: RTRFelix ($20.28 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: OGriffin ($24.55 in chips)
OGriffin: Post SB $0.10
d113k: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RTRFelix [DA CK]
Dealt to dtGr [SQ SK]
dtGr: Raise (NF) $0.60
dfhfdhh: Call $0.60
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $3.00
OGriffin: Fold
d113k: Fold
dtGr: Call $2.40
dfhfdhh: Call $2.40
*** FLOP *** [HK CQ HQ]
dtGr: Check
dfhfdhh: Check
RTRFelix: Bet $17.28
dtGr: Allin $6.82
dfhfdhh: Fold
*** TURN *** [SA]
*** RIVER *** [H10]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32.40 Rake $1.00
dtGr: wins $21.94
RTRFelix: wins $10.46

This is probably why I’m doing scared stuff like checking AJ preflop because when I am aggressive people call and get there anyway.

GAME #1196951921: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-10-03 21:17:39
Table Boswell
Seat 1: pinkvodka ($11.77 in chips)
Seat 3: RTRFelix ($22.11 in chips)
Seat 5: pisiss18 ($5.58 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: iowrussia ($9.07 in chips)
Seat 8: Shoi ($20.20 in chips)
Seat 10: iREuL ($52.77 in chips)
iowrussia: Post SB $0.10
Shoi: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pinkvodka [D5 HA]
Dealt to RTRFelix [SQ HQ]
iREuL: Fold
pinkvodka: Call $0.20
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $1.00
pisiss18: Fold
iowrussia: Fold
Shoi: Fold
pinkvodka: Raise (NF) $11.77
RTRFelix: Call $10.77
*** FLOP *** [D10 C6 D4]
*** TURN *** [C3]
*** RIVER *** [S7]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $22.84 Rake $1.00
pinkvodka: wins $22.84

Blargh, standard at the moment.

GAME #1196976128: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-10-03 21:30:02
Table Collinsville
Seat 1: 1nStaBluFfShOve ($23.47 in chips)
Seat 3: Prax27 ($24.19 in chips)
Seat 5: RTRFelix ($21.39 in chips)
Seat 6: ImPhil747 ($16.40 in chips) DEALER
Seat 8: Angelw4good ($13.88 in chips)
Seat 10: demute ($21.98 in chips)
Angelw4good: Post SB $0.10
demute: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RTRFelix [DA SQ]
Dealt to ImPhil747 [CA C6]
1nStaBluFfShOve: Fold
Prax27: Fold
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.80
ImPhil747: Call $0.80
Angelw4good: Fold
demute: Fold
*** FLOP *** [C5 CJ D10]
RTRFelix: Check
ImPhil747: Check
*** TURN *** [CK]
RTRFelix: Bet $1.40
ImPhil747: Call $1.40
*** RIVER *** [H10]
RTRFelix: Check
ImPhil747: Bet $7.20
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $19.19
ImPhil747: Allin $7.00
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $37.09 Rake $1.00
RTRFelix: wins $4.99
ImPhil747: wins $32.10

Just completely befuddled by the time his river bet came. Again this was the last hand of all the tormenting that happened above so the river shove is unquestionably tilt. It takes a straight to tilt me but tilt is still tilt.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

With all these hands I’m not trying to say how unlucky I am. I’m far from disowning responsibility for my own actions. Some of these hands I played terribly. If I’m totally honest a growing part of me doesn’t care anymore and just puts money in the pot to see if I got outdrawn again or whatever (although this is still only a very, very small part of me because I do realise I’m still being staked).

What I do think, however, is I believe I’ve forgotten how to play any form of poker consistently. I’m a grotesque mish-mash of styles, none of which are working in any form of harmony. It’s a like a golfer trying to a new swing, a bowler changing his action or a darts player hesitating at the oche; it’s the poker equivalent of the yips.

The options are: I plough loads of time, money and effort into fixing these problems. As the title suggests, however, I just can’t be bothered. I’m mentally spent with poker at the moment. Even the breaks don’t seem to be working. I played 50% less in September and have played less than 1,000 hands this month and I’m still playing and feeling the same way about poker.

Maybe a coach is the way forward. Well, I suppose it’s the way forward for everyone. It’d be great for someone to dissect my game, tell me what I’m doing right (I still know I’ve done something right over the last three years to have 85% profitable months and never go close to going broke etc) and then take me to the next level. At the moment I don’t think I’ll ever get there by myself. Anyone coaching pros out there with an ounce of sympathy. I’ll even put on puppy dog eyes…..

Don’t worry folks. I’m still smiling and I keep on blogging, but something needs to happen soon. I can’t keep writing negative blogs.

Poker: Are you in or are you out?

2008-09-19T16:59:00.001Z

Are you the same as me? You’re either 100% committed, total captivated, and obsessive about poker, or you’re a bit meh.

Since my instinctive outburst last weekend (and although it probably sounded stupid and very whingy I had to tilt it out of my system because the alternative would have been doing on the tables) I haven’t played a single hand of poker. I want to avoid poker in its entirety for a day and was doing well until Nick (knightmare nick) phoned up and asked me what I was doing and I realised now might be a good time to do another podcast for RTR.

So we did a podcast (which, no doubt, you’ve ALL listened to) and then watched Nick play on some $3 18 manners on Pokerstars. Again, I was dumbfounded by the appalling play on display. Nick was doing some really horrible things like limping UTG or limping with AX after two callers and loads more crap. But the thing was that the table was letting him do these very weird plays so he was seeing lots of flops and capitalising when others made mistakes. I thought to myself, I could kill these tables. But I probably couldn’t and I don’t know how anyone else might either. Their so much limping, min betting and min raising, OR completely the opposite, over-aggressive stuff like raising 10X preflop, and shoving/shove reraising that there is no middle ground for a person with knowledge and experience to crave out their edge. It was essentially bingo. Good players can probably get down to the top eight or nine consistently, but to get into the money their probably going to have to race for all their chips and get lucky. Which is what Nick did twice to get a first and second for his challenge.

Perhaps I’m being a bit bitter about other people’s success but I’m not sure how you can really carve out a profit in poker these days, except for being comparable to other regulars with a healthy rakeback tucked into you expected value. Burnley Mik of the the RTR forums put on a post about this saying how can you beat the game with so many tutorial sites making the average player fairly good. Again, my rather sharp and bitter response was, “The answer is we've all missed the bus until the next poker boom - if it ever happens,” so I guess now might be a good time to expand on this.

Whatever percentage of luck and skill you think there is in poker the truth probably is that it’s not a lot. Maybe 80-90% luck and 10-20% skill with whatever’s left contributing to mental skill (bankroll management, ability to not tilt etc). I dunno, maybe some percentages are exacerbated for different people. The bottom line is that I think you’re left with a fairly small percentage that represents your edge. What’s a good win rate for a cash room player, 3 big blinds per 100 hands? What’s a good ROI for a sng or MTT player, 5-10%. Whatever it is, it’s slight. Then it’s eroded by the rake so you’re left with an even tinier percentage. AND NOW let’s factor in what Mik’s said about all the video sites making players better, the current online gambling vortex the US is in preventing the mainstream from really getting involved and five years of poker since the beginning of the poker boom and you’re left with a percentage that’s so insignificant that hardly seems worth playing at all.
Now, back to my original point – I’m sorry, most of the above was a complete detour from the first point I was trying to make. If you’ve noticed I’ve not mentioned anything about hand analysis, player strategies and so on and so on. That’s because, at the moment, I’m not into poker in the slightest. This always happens when I don’t play for a few days. I lose complete interest in loading up tables and even get nervous butterflies in my stomach when I start to think about playing again. Will I remember everything I’ve learned from the past three years of playing, what if I have another bad session, etc, etc etc?

Contrast this to two weeks ago when I couldn’t stop thinking about how to play hands, was constantly thinking about how long it would be until my next session, watching video upon video upon video from Deuces Cracked, spending hours setting up HUDs and day after day of actually playing poker and you can see I’m about to mirror my point from Nick’s $3 Pokerstars games: there is no middle ground.

I don’t know if you’re the same and I don’t know if it’s my personal makeup or the game of poker that’s just like this. All I know is that I’ve not played poker for a week and I have virtually no immediate desire to play it.

On a side note, I’ve been picked to play in a team event at RTR which should be good laugh. I was astonished to find myself not being picked last by team captain Cell 1919; especially considering my recent moaning and bad run of…. no, I won’t say luck… bad run of situations. I’m teamed up with APAT champ Mair (which can never be a bad thing) and Nick who, and I really hope he doesn’t read this, isn’t actually to bad a sit and go player. He’s a pretty one dimensional player but it a good way because he’s very aggressive at the right times and will always put his opponents to the test so he’s often in 50/50 or 60/40 or 45/55 spots but pretty much 100% of the time he’s the one putting the chips in so he’s always got that additional fold equity tangent coming into play.

My God, a whole paragraph praising Nick. I’ll never let it down!

You may have noticed that this blog is becoming more and more Raise the River-centric so make sure you pop on over to the site.

Hope you enjoy reading and thanks for the comments about my blunt honesty, even when I do sometimes sound silly. Despite all my protestations I’ve never lost any money playing the game and this will be my third successive year making a profit. Just need to add a couple of zeros to my limits which should, in turn, add a couple of zeros to my hit counter.

Anyway. Poker, are you currently in or out? There’s no dabbling, no occasional jaunts, no one for the weekend. You’re either obsessed or apathetic. I definitely fall into the latter category. For the time being. We all know what this games is like.

Stream of consciousness…

2008-09-12T22:52:00.000Z

Right at this very moment in time I’m on the verge of quitting poker. I’m furious, mad, enraged, pushed beyond breaking point.

I’ve just come out of another losing day, two buyins down. In the very last hands I got JJ, JJ and AQ. With one of the JJ I took it down pre-flop. With the AQ I bet, got three bet all in by a micro stack. Loose player called behind so I did. Flop was AXX with two diamond. I put out a sizable bet and it gets called. Turn is a blank. He checks, I check. River is a third diamond. He puts most of the rest of his money in and I push. Of course he has AJ of diamond. I played it god awfully. Terrible, shocking, diabolical. With the other jacks I bet, get called in three spots and then get a massive overbet three bet. I fold, it’s the right play. Board comes AXJJX. I’m furious. Terrible, shocking diabolical. It doesn’t matter if I play a hand perfectly, terribly or average the result on the board will completely smash my decision into dust.

And that’s what’s ground me down. I’m on mental fatigue tilt. Fifteen thousand hands and ten weeks of utter frustration like the above hands, occasionally pin pricked by massive scores. This even includes two one-week breaks to try and refocus. Don’t tell me about the fact I’m only $55 down over this period. The actual amount doesn’t matter because (as you will know if you read my blog) I’m staked. It’s just been the most difficult period of poker I’ve played in the three years I’ve been playing it. I just can’t work ANYTHING OUT in my head. Every set I flopped today saw no returns (even from loose cannon maniacs), every three bet I did got called and called again on the flop when I completely missed and c/bet. Every all in against a short stack lost (even when I crushed them on the flop and got the rest of it in). NOTHING, and I really do mean NOTHING worked. Argh!

I’m just typing what’s coming into my head as I go along. I’m poker broken. I feel like the worst player on the earth with the worst luck and the worst victim mentality of all time. Seriously, if you see me at the tables over the next week sit down, I’m dead money.

I don’t want anyone to respond to this. I’m throwing my chips out of the pram. I being a total dickhead because I need to get it out of my system. Poker has burned me out. It’s clear I’m never going to make any money from this game – I’ve even said that before – so why do I continue to invest so much time and effort into it? Why am I watching poker videos on strategies I’m either to scared to employ or seemed convinced won’t work because their concepts nobody at 0.1/0.2? Why, why anything?

I’d wish you good luck at the tables but only idiots and crap players need luck so if you want it you’re in the wrong game, bub. Sod off tables, sod off poker, sod off AQ, sod off JJ. Oiuhvwqeoiv;nekjvnaiuvbqewiuvbwieuvbeiu eioufnpeiubvpieuwbvpiewubvpiuebviqeubviebv iuqb piuebviuqbeijkbrihueuiiuuiruibherubobuievqbui!

Time and effort invested but still treading water

2008-09-08T14:32:00.002Z

I’ve played a fair bit since my last blog but I haven’t anything to report in terms of the bankroll other than it is where it was last time.

That includes the staking bankroll, which is now continuing into its third month. I keep promising I’ll eventually give my backer some cash return but at the moment I can’t give him anything but whingy blogs about how I can’t get over the hump.

Since I started the staking deal I’ve gone from $120 loser to $70 winner, back to $80 loser and then up to nearly level again.

That brings me up to this weekend. Over the past week or so I’ve been investing a lot of time into poker, without really playing that much. I finished off reading the Poker Mindset which I have to say is one of the most disappointingly over-hyped books I’ve read. I mentioned before that I personally thought a lot of the concepts were blatantly obvious and if you need a book to tell you them then you’re in trouble. Also, some of the stuff the authors talk about just isn’t true. In particular there’s one bit where they talk about when to quit and they say: “If you quit because you’re ahead or behind, then you really are just delaying the results of your next hand until your next session,” and they go onto prove this by showing a graph. Well of course that’s blatantly not true. Poker isn’t a linear set of circumstances that never change (like reading a book or watching a film). Every decision you take beyond playing a hand has an impact on what you do next – whether it is consciously or subconsciously.

I’ll admit that this critique of the book is rather contrived and lazy but there we are. If you want to argue about it, post a comment. Suffice to say I think it’s done very little to change my poker mindset which (although the blog posts may not seem to reflect that) is pretty solid.

As well as the book I’ve been watching more Dueces Cracked Videos, (although the most recent ones I’ve been watching by Foxwoods Fiend while entertaining are possibly distorting the way I should be playing at my stakes) and I’ve been investing a lot of time into getting my support software working to its best potential.

One change was through necessity. Poker Tracker 3 is gone. 5gb of hard drive space for 500k of hands? Bloody hell! So I spent much of the weekend transferring my stuff to Holdem Manager which does look very good I must admit. It has the old Realtime HUD software that I used to use which is pretty awesome. But, as with any new HUD I’ve had to spend hours reconfiguring it for my personal preferences. And finally I invested $4 in 250k of observed hands on the stakes I play at just so I have some information on the big losers, winners and regulars on the tables I play on.

Now, onto the poker and the purchase of the bulk hand histories had an immediate and positive impact. Table selection is made easier because I can work out whether tables will be profitable after 15 or so hands (if the majority of players are TAGs with a lot of hands and profit and no big fish, just leave). It’s also helping with making decisions that win small to medium pots too such as when to c/bet, when to steal blinds and when to take away those pots against those that missed A high flush draws and straight draws when they blank on the river and could win with high card – I’ve had a few of them already.

However, the general summary of the weekend has nothing to do with the subtleties mentioned above. The weekend was governed by the massive variances of good cards and bad cards. On Saturday I crushed the tables with monster hands and monster fishes. I made nearly three buyins within 250 hands.

Then on Sunday I gave it all back (and a fraction more) in 400 hands with, not bad beats, but just some smelly cold decks and running into monsters. I had a flopped straight lose to a turned flush – lost the minimum. I had two players flop sets that turned into full houses and they both checked-called the flop, river trying to trap me - I had JJ both times and probably lost the minimum. I had another half dozen situations where I just had to lose 15-30bb pots finding out where I was and then I lost this hand,

***** Hand History for Game 1154579099 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, September 07, 09:46:24 ET 2008
Table Bloomington (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: aguendass18 ( $4.37 USD )
Seat 3: meatncheese ( $7.14 USD )
Seat 5: GoogleWTC7 ( $17.55 USD )
Seat 6: madmessie ( $37.01 USD )
Seat 8: RTRFelix ( $21.31 USD )
Seat 10: Tatanka74 ( $6.93 USD )
GoogleWTC7 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
madmessie posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Kh Ac ]
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
Tatanka74 folds
aguendass18 folds
meatncheese folds
GoogleWTC7 raises [$1.70 USD]
madmessie folds
RTRFelix calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, Ks, 2h ]
GoogleWTC7 bets [$2.00 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
GoogleWTC7 bets [$3.00 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$3.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8c ]
GoogleWTC7 bets [$10.75 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$10.75 USD]
GoogleWTC7 wins $34.30 USD from main pot
GoogleWTC7 shows [As, Ad ]

I keep getting into this situation with AK and I think it’s a leak in my game. I’m not sure whether to 4bet preflop or continue what I’m doing and be able to find a fold on the river, or am I just going broke here? I feel as though I shouldn’t be.

So, back to the Pokermindset philosophy. Was I destined to win $50 and then give it back no matter whether I played the last 650 hands in one session, two sessions or seventeen sessions? No. I would have obviously won or lost some of the money if I had carried on Saturday but definitely different volumes. I don’t think I played horribly on Sunday, the situations just weren’t conducive to making money. I’m not complaining about losing the money. It’s just what happened, I accept it and move on.

So here’s a graph of how the staking deals has gone so far. Up and downs but, inevitably I am still where I started.

Are the limits more challenge? I don’t think so. Am I getting really unlucky? I don’t think I’ve had loads of bad beats. Occasionally very expensive ones, but not loads. Am I not playing as well as before? Well I’m playing with a much deeper level of thinking and I believe that my average level of play has improved, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll earn more money because 20 tabling as a nit is probably the most profitable way to play these stakes. Am I tilting? Maybe occasionally but even when I do that I still get it in good, the only difference is it produces higher variances.

So why aren’t I making money?

The answer at the moment is that I don’t know. Probably a combination of all the things above combined with confronting thousands of situations which have produced a slightly negative period of poker luck, which is offset to neutral by the fact I think I am a better player then most at these stakes so have a slight edge.

Does any of this make any sense at all?

And so the grind continues...

2008-08-30T23:00:00.004Z

In terms of actually playing poker, the last two months have unquestionably been the most challenging.

I have played around about 12,000 hands in that time and my results show that I have gone absolutely nowhere. I've won pots, I've lost pots, I've made good reads, I've tilted bits here and there. I've questioned my own confidence and ability in the game, I've questioned other's ability to play the game. But the net result is that I'm about $40 worse off than when I started the month of July. In reality I'm not even down, I'm on a completely even keel. The staking deal with Jonnyfish from Raise the River is still in effect and is now going to continue into a third month (thank you very much, Jonny).

I'm just looking at my pokergrapher graph which I thought would be fairly stable but in actual fact it is currently the most volatile I've ever seen it. In part this is down to me playing in stakes twice as big as the previous 81k hands, but the other factor must be the change in my play that I've experienced over the last month or so.

I'm not going to say that I've turned into some maniac nut job with no concept of discipline, but in terms of finding some aggression and being able to actually use, I'm virtually unrecognisable from before (take this in moderation though, I was a stone cold nit before). I'm starting to get my money in more with just a pair or making huge bets with bluffs. I'm not about to say that I'm playing the best poker I've ever played, that was during the month of June when I went on a 17 buyin tear. What I will say, however, is that I'm playing the most advanced poker I've ever played. I'm thinking a lot more about what my players are holding and what they intend to do with their hands. I'm thinking a lot more about how I can manipulate situations to my advantage without any consideration to my own holding. In short, I'm evolving as a player, but it is a very painful process. Some of the things I'm trying simply don't work at the 20NL stakes. And, of course, sometimes I just get things completely wrong and end up learning a valuable but expensive lesson.

I'd really like to think that in terms of what I've actually made from the last two months can be written off (well, it has to be because I've not earned anything for me or my backer), but what I've gained personally from it will do me a lot of good in the future. It has to.

The last blog was a fairly fed up one. But after the break I've come back with an interesting new attitude. When I lose a hand I've not even been shrugging my shoulders. I've just be reviewing the hand and trying to determine whether or not I made the correct decision. That's all poker is about. The result is out of your hands. As long as you made the right decision then, in the very long term, your results will reflect that.

Here's the best example I can give you. In one hand I flopped a set of queens and got it all in against aces for a $65 pot. Not the biggest pot I've ever played but the most I've personally had to invest in a pot. An ace came on the turn and I lost $32. "Career defining hands" (as I like to call them) have caused me to go on attitude tilt. No actual tilt in a game and lose loads of money, but just a complete loss of confindence then not playing for a couple of weeks. This time, however, I reviewed the hand, saw that I'd played it as best I could and moved on. I ended the session up $40 through some brilliant play when spotting an opportunity to overshove the river and get a call and, more impressively, calling someone down to the river for all my chips with just top pair on a very ugly board - I just knew he didn't have it and went with my gut instinct. I should have finished the sessions over $100 up but I didn't. I didn't seem to care though. By far the most important thing going off in my head was that I'd played one of the most focused sessions I'd ever played and played it brilliantly.

And that, folks, is poker.

Self-Reflection

2008-08-15T16:05:00.001Z

The fickleness of poker, and my own attitude towards it, often means that breaks are not planned. They just happen. And more often than not they happen after a series of poor sessions. That is my current situation.

I got the jonnyfish staking bankroll up to about $280 a week or so ago before slumping completely. The first $80 or so can be accredited to just having a colder deck to play with. No massive bad beats (and it feels like months since I’ve gone through a stretch of really bad beats), just tricky spots and tough situations.

At the time I was starting to get a bit miffed (not titled, just frustrated that I could not seem to get any traction going – as anyone would feel) so I delved into the deuces cracked videos again and came out of them with a “to hell with it” attitude.

For one session I decided to mix things up and play fairly LAGGY. It turned out to be a disaster but not because of the overall strategy. After about 350 hands or so I was maybe half a buy-in down but was enjoying playing and learning a new type of strategy. I’d even suffered a monster cooler, flopping a flush and then rivering a straight flush, only for my opponent to get a better straight flush – certainly a first for me.

No, the two terrible hands were these:

GAME #1110874993: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-08-09 22:29:35
Table Boswell
Seat 1: RTRFelix ($19.80 in chips)
Seat 6: biancaatje86 ($24.22 in chips) DEALER
Seat 8: rickimarnts ($20.84 in chips)
Seat 10: ivan193 ($20.00 in chips)
rickimarnts: Post SB $0.10
ivan193: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RTRFelix [HQ HA]
RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.80
biancaatje86: Fold
rickimarnts: Raise (NF) $20.84
ivan193: Fold
RTRFelix: Allin $19.00
*** FLOP *** [D7 S7 H4]
*** TURN *** [H9]
*** RIVER *** [S5]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $39.84 Rake $1.00
rickimarnts: Shows [H5 S9]
rickimarnts: wins $39.84

I didn't see his first hand exactly but he'd lost $10 in it and I was pretty sure (and prepared) to take a risk here. There's not much I can say really as I made the right read and got punished. I would consider this one of those "career defining moments" that may forever but me off the idea of going with my gut instinct with no pair preflop. It's the right mathmatical decision but it leads to me losing $30 more in the space of 10 minutes.

The VERY next hand.

GAME #1110876261: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-08-09 22:30:26
Table Boswell
Seat 1: RTRFelix ($20.00 in chips)
Seat 5: pet190 ($20.00 in chips)
Seat 6: biancaatje86 ($24.22 in chips)
Seat 8: rickimarnts ($39.84 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: ivan193 ($19.80 in chips)
ivan193: Post SB $0.10
RTRFelix: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RTRFelix [S8 S9]
biancaatje86: Call $0.20
rickimarnts: Raise (NF) $0.40
ivan193: Call $0.30
RTRFelix: Call $0.20
biancaatje86: Call $0.20
*** FLOP *** [D9 H9 D4]
ivan193: Check
RTRFelix: Check
biancaatje86: Check
rickimarnts: Bet $1.60
ivan193: Fold
RTRFelix: Call $1.60
biancaatje86: Fold
*** TURN *** [H10]
RTRFelix: Bet $2.40
rickimarnts: Call $2.40
*** RIVER *** [S10]
RTRFelix: Check
rickimarnts: Bet $35.44
RTRFelix: Allin $15.60
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $59.64 Rake $1.00
rickimarnts: Shows [C10 C9]
rickimarnts: wins $59.64

Can I get away from this hand after the previous hand the fact his stats are 91/45 2AF? Yes, emotions take over and (after all the hands I've been through) I'm far from being able to make the classic Felix laydown. I can probably only split the pot here at best anyway but the poker gods colluded to set this one up considering the previous hand.
The feedback from these hands (that I posted in a huge thread on the forum) are a shade on the negative side saying that I should take each hand as it comes and not think so much about my opponents move in the second. I find that a bit curious since the first hand tells me this player is a fish and I just found myself in a very unfortunate situation with it being the very next hand, but whatever, swings and roundabout discussion I think.

Anyway, the loss of two buyins was enough to make me quit and take a break, which I’m still on.

I just don’t know what to think about the game to be honest. Have I actually developed as a player in the last two years or am I still just using the strength of my patience to clean up micro stakes players who really couldn’t care less? Despite the Raise the River forum being a fantastic poker community and a hotbed of discussion, I often find myself drifting along on the fringes being more interested in the poker stories, doing things for my podcast and working out how to make the website a better place to be. The actual playing of the game is somewhat of a periphery concern. If somebody asked me, would you like to be a professional poker player I would probably say, “no, but I wouldn’t mind working in the poker industry.”

As usual this is probably just the low end of a trough in my poker development and it’s crazy to have such an attitude about my play and my results when, in truth, they don’t matter one jot because I’m being staked and the only score that will matter is the one I have come the end of August. Again, such a statement makes me wonder why do I play poker? Reading, writing, and producing poker content? Yes, I can understand why I’m doing that because I’m a creative kind of person who likes to learn and wants to get involved in a professional level on media aspects of the industry.

Poker is still interesting. But playing it? Not so much now.

Progress update

2008-08-06T15:43:00.003Z

Loss: $22

First movement in the bankroll in six weeks.

I played in the RTR bounty tournament and had a healthy noose around my neck of $10 which I had to stump myself. I also backed a horse who was donating his winnings to charity so there was no way I was going to make anything from this game.

That must be why I called an allin on the very first hand with tens and ran into aces. Good game, Evertone Yorkie, enjoy my bounty. I was really looking forward to the tournament as well. I'd planned to do a comical commentary about it. It turns out the only funny thing about it will be its length... 60 seconds.

On the cash room front I haven't played that much because I've been visiting my brother in Scotland. I have managed a couple of hands though and increased the bankroll a further $15. Again the river shoving instead of value betting is shoving some nice profits, but I've also run into a couple of stinky situations which I'm not sure I've played right. For the details check out my forum thread about it.

I'm not going to talk about specifics here since all the interesting hands are in that thread. I can talk about concepts though. I'm really starting to make better use of HUD stats for playing against opponents. It used to be that I would just look at their vpip, pre-flop raise %, fold to c.bet and how much money they had won or lost. I've adjusted my stats now though so that I can look at aggression factors, blind stealing, 3bet % (which are quite important for preflop bet sizing) and check-raise tendencies.

I'm thinking a lot more about hands now too. I'm developing two or three plans for each situation and changing my plays as the situations dictate. The final concept I'm more aware of is quicker reactions to changing tables. I'm not staying in tables after the fish have left and I'm re-evaluating the tables every 15 minutes to see if the conditions are still favourable.

It is the videos that have done this, which is why I've decided to fully subscribe up to the site and watch more and more videos.

Poker is intersting again and I like that.

Evolution in Moderation

2008-07-30T22:33:00.000Z

The deuces cracked videos are already starting to have an impact on my game. Most influential of which has been using player statistics more to create a reliable read and better suited decisions.

One such example was a player who was short stacking and had doubled up with 22 v AK. A little later I had AJ and raised and he reppoped for 15bb. He had 40bb in total so based on his previous move, the fact that he was very loose 50/35 and had just enough fold equity to maybe lay down his hand, I shoved with AJ. He called and tabled 88 and I Barry Greenstiened him (Ace on the River) but the point was that, numerically speaking, it was the right play because there was a chance he would fold and I was almost certainly in a race if he didn't - which turned out to be the case.

The other move I've picked up is just hammering in all the money on the river instead betting for value if you think your opponent might call with a worse hand. On a board of 101059J I held the 78. With a tiny amount of money in the pot (about $2) I bet, he raised and I thought for a moment before shoving. He called off his 75bb stack with 107. There was a bit of risk there as a lot of hands beat me - I only had the idiot end of the straight. However, the board just seemed to suggest that he had a hand but not as good as mine. I felt he had trips and I was bang on the money.

As far as the staking is concerned, my backer has agreed to extend the deal until the end of August which means I will have a whole month to put these and more strategies to use.Staking bankroll is now $235, down from the low of $85 a week and a half ago.

Now, to explain the evolution in moderation. One thing I'm trying to do is subtly introduce all these things I'm learning into my game. I may be aware of new things, but knowledge and application are two completely different beasts. Experience beyond all else is the most important part of poker. Every time I recognise an opportunity to think about these new strategies I will be at least factoring them in to my final decision. I may decide not to adopt the approach at that time but I will be analysing the hand to see what would have happened had I been in the hand and then take it onto the next situation when I might be more confident and knowledgeable about its application.

You can't just drive because you've seen it in the movies. That's why I'm still taking things slowly but surely.

First "Beyond the Bankroll" Investment Since I Started

2008-07-28T22:19:00.002Z

I've mentioned before in my blogs that one of the key factors when playing poker was to never invest anything into it from outside the bankroll. If I went bust I would not play ever again. It was a psychological decision to prove to myself that I this hobby would not turn into a gambling habit. Being addicted to the game of poker, that's fine. But gambling, that's a big no, no.

So after my initial $75 investment late in 2005 I have not spent a single further dime on poker - apart from a £5 yearly subscription to Pokerplayer Magazine. This act of frugalness is probably the reason why I'm so protective of what RTR call my infamous bankroll. Ignoring the size of it for the stakes that I play it (it truly throbs), what probably concerns me more is the amount of time and emotional investment there is in it. At its lowest it was down to $7, at it's highest... well it's where it is today, considerable more than $7.

But a couple of days ago I caved in and use my credit card to purchase something for poker. Although there is no question that I'm not bad at the game, I've done little in recent months to educate myself. I've just been playing hands and using the experiences from that. This is, of course, narrow-minded and is probably what's causing some interesting discussions about my nittyness in the RTR staking thread I have. I've accepted that this may be the case so I my credit card purchase has been on a subscription to Deuces Cracked. It's one of the many video tutorial sites that promise that the money you invest in them will be rewarded with more profits almost instantly. I have no doubt of that for mid-stake players but for micro stake players the investment is quite expensive. But, as we all know, I have an infamous bankroll.

You could argue that since my bankroll could afford it I'm not actually spending money outside the bankroll and I may even cancel the subscription after my 7-day free trail - thus spending no money at all. But it's another symbolic step in poker journey. In the last month I've been staked (for a tiny profit at the moment), moved up to a higher level and found my feet (I think) and made a commitment to expanding my knowledge of the game. Baby steps, but steps none the less.

Now, in an odd twist, tonight will be the first time in a month that I'm actually buying in to anything. The RTR admin/mods vs the forum bounty tournament. I've got $10 on my head for $5 tournament. As I said to mik, this must be the first time I've willing entered a negative EV tournament.

I'm obviously starting to lose it.

Since you've been gone.

2008-07-24T23:16:00.002Z

Well, since I've been gone actually.

Yes, just cutting and pasting from the forum posts was a bit shit so I abandoned that pretty sharpish. If you do want to read through my current staking adventure then you can read all about it here in my staking forum post at Raise the River.

I will, of course paraphrase here though.

For about 4,000 I performed awfully. I was running at about -10bb per 100 hands which is unheard of for me. It wasn't down to the perceived pressure of playing at higher stakes either (although, again, to suggest that there should be any pressure at 20nl is laughable in itself). Being staked has really helped me to lose my sense of the concept that I'm gambling with real money. This hasn't had a detrimental (or, indeed, beneficial) impact on my game. It just means that when I finish a session down I don't feel depressed or down hearted; I can get over the bad sessions quite easily. My stats are still about the same and I'm not taking random coin flips or being really aggressive. It's simply improved my overall disposition when playing and thinking about poker. Since this is my own blog I'm to plug the fact that you can hear a little bit more about this particular issue in the new Raise the River Podcast (holds up ipod, gives a cheesy grin and teeth sparkle).

Anyway, after my massive heater at 10NL just before getting staked, I went through a bad spell. Surprisingly no bad beats at all (I can't remember the last one in fact), just premium hand after premium hand losing. At one point AA, KK and QQ combined had made me -$100. I mean I was eventually getting my money in bad after they had been cracked so it was pretty gruesome at some points. To begin with I coped with it well and minimised loses, but after the 20th or so time I did have a couple of sessions when I started to tilt. I thought I was starting to reach a stage in my poker progression where I thought I was somewhat tilt proof. But poker always has that habit of biting your testicles off when you least expect it.

After 4,000 and being down $120 I was seriously starting to worry that I might spunk off the whole $200 staking investment. Then, in just one session I recovered $95 of it.

I'd been finding that playing TAG with the usual hands wasn't working. I think I explained this in the podcast. Say you have AK and you raise 3x preflop. One guy calls. The flop comes A65 with two suits. He checks and you bet about 2/3 pot. By now you've invested 10% of your stack. Bang he check raises you to three times your bet. So now you're having to make a decision. If you call you've put in about 35-45% of your stack so there's more in the pot than you have, and you're going to face a tough decision on the turn. If you shove the check-raise you're basically putting yourself in with top pair which is how most people at micro stakes go bust. This is a situation that I seem to be facing more and more these days and the decision is always super razor thin.

So I gave up doing this and played ultra passive. I called, called, called until I made a hand. It controlled the pots nicely and I was able to speculate with some really naff hands in position - yes, I was even limp-calling (KILL HIM!).

But as soon as I switched gears I hauled in four buy-ins (admittedly help by flopping 886 with 66 in my hand and two full stacks getting all their money in).

I played against convention and my instinct and for one brief session I killed the games.

I've been slightly up since the one monster session so my staking bankroll now reads at $191, just $9 down.

The question is should I keep on with this passive calling style and call it "adapting to the games I'm playing in" or do I stay stubbornly to the general principle that TAG works at all the low limits and revert back to it?

I think I'll leave it there for now. I have other things to write about but I think I've bored you enough for one night.

Just one final thing. Huge congrats to RTR's Mair 38 for winning the APAT team even in Blackpool. Kudos also to Lou Saban who finished in 10th and applause to the RTR team who finished second.

Staking record

2008-07-01T21:12:00.001Z

Staking duties demand that I report on my sessions so I thought I'd post them here as well as on the RTR forum.

Session review 1 - $3 down: Was pretty card dead throughout and there was some aggressive preflop stuff going on so I couldn't really get involved. A few occasions where I raised with A10 in position and got shoved for 20-30 bb by a short stack and hate doing possible races in those situations. Was $12 down at one point and then I picked up a couple of hands (only top pair and two pairs) and got it back up to $3 down.Session review 2 - $6 down: Much more interesting sessions after some early card deadness. Doubled up with this which I thought I played ok. Dealt to RTRFelix [D8 D9]m4ncstar87: FoldShinChan123: Foldgaboru1: FoldRTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.70semiconductor: FoldOMV79: Raise (NF) $1.80RTRFelix: Call $1.10*** FLOP *** [S9 H5 C6]OMV79: Bet $2.20RTRFelix: Call $2.20*** TURN *** [C7]OMV79: Bet $5.60RTRFelix: Call $5.60*** RIVER *** [H4]OMV79: Bet $9.90RTRFelix: Allin $9.70*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $37.90 Rake $1.00OMV79: Shows [H7 S7]RTRFelix: wins $37.70OMV79: wins $0.20He priced me in on both streets and I thought he had a premium pair, but the principle was right. I knew if I hit any of my turn outs I would have him.After that though I had two hands which could have got me in a lot of trouble but didn't. GAME #1051727412: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-07-01 21:34:35Table BrazilSeat 1: RTRFelix ($20.44 in chips)Seat 3: mondeo500 ($12.96 in chips)Seat 5: NC Job ($24.16 in chips)Seat 6: YourShitIsBad ($39.80 in chips)Seat 8: Jeje1274 ($19.40 in chips) DEALERSeat 10: 77Pikey77 ($12.96 in chips)77Pikey77: Post SB $0.10RTRFelix: Post BB $0.20*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RTRFelix [HA HK]mondeo500: Raise (NF) $0.80NC Job: FoldYourShitIsBad: FoldJeje1274: Fold77Pikey77: Call $0.70RTRFelix: Call $0.60*** FLOP *** [CJ C5 SA]77Pikey77: CheckRTRFelix: Checkmondeo500: Bet $1.2077Pikey77: Raise (NF) $12.16RTRFelix: Foldmondeo500: Allin $10.96*** TURN *** [D2]*** RIVER *** [H8]*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $25.72 Rake $1.00mondeo500: Shows [DA CQ]77Pikey77: Shows [CA S5]77Pikey77: wins $25.72I specifically don't three bet with AK unless I'm in position against certain players. I like to play smallish pots with AK because you're only ever going to win small pots because you're playing a kicker game with AK. Out of position I'm happy to check-call (maybe check raise dry flops) when I flop an A. Something smelt bad throughout the flop action so I thought I made a pretty disciplined fold. Then I had this hand which I'm pretty satisfied with the way I played. GAME #1051731453: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2008-07-01 21:36:49Table ErmeloSeat 1: ShinChan123 ($25.27 in chips)Seat 5: RTRFelix ($28.36 in chips) DEALERSeat 8: OMV79 ($23.59 in chips)Seat 10: m4ncstar87 ($43.39 in chips)OMV79: Post SB $0.10m4ncstar87: Post BB $0.20*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RTRFelix [HQ CQ]ShinChan123: FoldRTRFelix: Raise (NF) $0.70OMV79: Foldm4ncstar87: Raise (NF) $2.00RTRFelix: Raise (NF) $6.60m4ncstar87: Call $4.60*** FLOP *** [C4 CK S8]m4ncstar87: CheckRTRFelix: Bet $9.00m4ncstar87: Raise (NF) $36.79RTRFelix: Fold*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $58.09 Rake $1.00m4ncstar87: Shows [SK HK]m4ncstar87: wins $58.09It was a difficult hand because the guy's stats were 45/26. I had to bet the flop to avoid getting into trouble later in the hand. I maybe could have sized my bet a little better (maybe 1/2 the pot) to save a little more money. Of course AK was the most obvious hand when he shoved so I folded and he showed me that so I think I half dodged a fairly expensive bullet.So on reflection I think I limited my losses quite well in this session. I maybe could have quit earlier but you can always say that.

Sorry that it looks crap. I can't be bothered formatting it.

Monster Kill!

2008-06-29T09:24:00.004Z

Profit: $156

P.S. will edit this post properly later. Having to dash out.

If anyone has ever played any of the Unreal Tournament games you'll understand what the headline means. For those of you who don't, look at the green figure. It is all from 10NL cash rooms. No big tourney scores, no hugely rediculous pots for the size of the tables. Simply 15 buy ins in about 4k of hands. Wow.

Coming out of the last blog I was constantly finding myself in difficult spots. I was getting checked raised with top pair and top kicker by players with full stacks. I had flush draws with overcards facing big bets. I was rivering straights when the board paired or the flush came. In short, I was having to make razor thin decisions in all of the pots of consequence.

I decided to take a quick break from the usual grind and played some heads up instead. I wasn't playing for any money (they literally were 0.01/0.02 games), I just wanted to play something that would involve a lot of turn and river decisions. I think I came out even (thanks to a couple of ropey beats) but felt refreshed in the sense that I'd not thought about the money and just played for strategy's sake.

Then I returned to 10NL tables and, simply put, I have destroyed them.

There's no arguing about it, I'm on a heater, the biggest heater I've ever had. The graph shows that I've not suffered a single bad beat in 4,000 hands. I've had to exercise pot control a couple of times when I've not been sure of my hand and maybe got rivered, but any allins against draws and worse pairs have held up.

I've been flopping a huge number of sets, and many of them have been turning into full houses too. Also, it's quite fun making speculation calls with 34 suited and flopping 34X against someone you know has a premium pair and can't fold it.

And that's the other thing I've been doing really well: reading players, reading situations and making good decisions every time. I put them on a hand, or a range, and I'm right. I decide I have the best hand, make the play and I'm right. I smell something fishy, make a fold and prove to be right. I suppose you could call it the poker equivalent of a zen state. The wealth of cards I'm getting have put me into a very positive playing state of mind

So the question now becomes this. I know that in terms of the cards I'm on the run of my life. But comparing it to my previous bitchings and moanings about bad situations, bad beats etc where is the equilibrium? Apart from making better reads, I don't think my actual play mechanics have changed at all. I keep arguing at the fact that I seem to be going through extremes of either card deadness/bad beats/grind for a few weeks of misery, followed by microcosms of ultra card rushes.

Of course I want this heater to run for the rest of eternity but I know it's not going to. And when it does come to an end what comes next? Another 10k hands of grind. Or something more sensible where I get my fair share of bad beats and lucky suckouts and make a gradual profit because I have an edge on my opponents. I dearly want it to be the latter option.

Whatever happens in regards to the cards, one thing that is happening is that I'm permanently moving up to the 20NL stakes for the next two weeks. I've been staked $200 by someone on the Raise the River forum to try and break away from my timid gambling ability.

There's a great argument here that I should be taking advantage of this heater and taking the shot myself. And if I were ever to become a successful and profitable poker player I would do that. It's not that I think my heater is about to end. I just want to try and tackle a new level without having to think about the consequences on my bankroll and the time I've invested into this great run. I'm freerolling at a higher level to try and discover whether my level of play will be profitable at 20NL. I guess it should be but I don't know. And with a 50/50 split I'll still be making the same amount I do at 10NL. I'm just not having to make any investment, which I think, should enable me to continue making the same sound decisions I've been making in cash rooms for a year and not think about the bad beats I will inevitably endure.

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while (Gniz basically ;) ) you'll understand how significant this step might be. I've been a sound poker player for a while and if I continue to play well and the cards run at least fairly, this could be a watershed moment.

I suppose the only concern is I'm now playing against two weeks of well above average expectation.

Struggling Economy

2008-06-16T15:34:00.002Z

Loss: $2

You may have detected a hint of frustration in my voice (or my words) during the last blog and you would have been right.

I took a bit of a break and then came back to it after finally being able to withdraw most of my CDpoker (ipoker account) which I've been working on to clear the bonus for the past six months (yes, six months). I started on a new ipoker site with a very, very good rakeback deal (check out Raise the River for more details (soon) about that) so I can now enjoy what everyone else raves about.

I made a good start too with good cards, good play and good confidence. But, as always seems to be the case, I had one hand that switched things back against my favour. In a room with a total maniac in (dusted off 140 bb in four hands) I was dealt KK. I was under the gun but was pretty sure I'd get reraised if I just potted it to begin with. A very loose player next to me called but the maniac didn't. Shit. Big blind also came in for the ride.

Flop came J210 (I think). I bet 4/5 pot and loose player min raises. Oh bollocks. I shoved and naturally he called with the J2.

Unfortunately the downward spiral, as you can see from the graph, starts there. The following session was, I think, one of the worst sessions I have ever had for complete deadness. There were no bad beats, no unlucky hands, no players to call fishes. It was just one of those sessions where I was 3bet every time I raised with a marginal hand, floated on every flop when I c/betted with nothing, flopped completly board-suffocating monsters when other players had nothing, card dead, flop dead etc. I found myself in a dozen difficult situations. I think the biggest pot I won was 88 cents in 400 hands.

One of the last hands probably summed up the session, although by that time I might have been tilted to a point where I wasn't playing a very strong game. There was a raise and a three bet to 8bb in front of me so I called in the sb with JJ. Flop came 2910. I checked with the intention of a min-check raise (partly to find out where I was for little cost and partly to annoy someone with that move). It's a shit move and I know even more now how shit it is. He called the min raise so the pot was about $8 now with a blank on the turn. We both check and the river pairs either the 9 or 10. Can't remember which but I decide to put in a blocking bet of $3.50 which, I hoped, represents that I'm value betting and will call a shove with about $3 left. He tanks for 10 seconds before shoving for the rest of his chips. Despite getting odds of lots to 1 (about 7-8) I know I beat nothing - QQ or KK seem his most likely holding (with TAGish stats). It's probably not the correctly play by the books, but this is one of those micro NL specific hands where I know I'm behind and need to save whatever I can.

I quit the session soon after about $20.

So onto yesterday and very early on I have JQ and limp in (because of five other limpers and me in the sb). I'm looking to flop better than top pair to continue on with the hand and I do with a flop of JJ4. I bet, one other full stack raises and a short-stack call. Great. Not sure what to do so I decide to call and try and play the pot as cheaply as I can. Turn is a 4. Oh well, going all in now I guess and splitting the pot at worst. Not when the full stack tables 44.

Despite this I battle into a profit for the session when I raise K9 preflop and get a flop of K9X while someone holds AA. No worries, I was the aggressor, I played it well. But the very next hand I river a straight which makes someone else a flush so I go back into the red (didn't get stacked because I sensed the flush and just called a small river raise by my opponent). So any confidence I got from playing K9 hand well is slapped back in my face with second best hand syndrone.

I've used the term before but it's very appropriate: I just can't get any traction going at all. Any hint of good play is smashed into the ground because I'm losing all the big pots at the moment - even though I'm getting it in good for most of the time. And as for races with short stackes (say AK v 77 and 10 10 v KQ all in preflop when the other guy has 20bb) I never seem to win then. This thought stems back to last summer. I would love to get the stats for these sorts of situations but I have no idea how to do.

The top figure shows not much movement in my bankroll but the graph depicts the manner in which it's moving.

Hard times and poker certainly isn't fun at the moment.

Misery

2008-05-30T21:36:00.002Z

Loss: $13

Anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time (and all the power to you, I admire your 'grinding' in terms of reading this) will have come accustomed to my inability to take shots at higher levels. Well, today I'm going to try and bring some reasons to the table why.

Well, actually, there's only one reason but it's impossible to avoid it: every time I take any kind of shot I get completely and utterly crushed.

My records since the start of the year look like this.

In 10NL I've won about $194 at about 3.3 bb/100 (which is actually off my pace of last year by quite a distance - and it does include some ropey FTP 10nl tables that I quickly sacked off anyway). None the less I've been making money. And that's from about 30k hands.

At 20NL and 25NL on Full Tilt poker and ipoker this year I've made a loss of $56 in just 2k of hands running at -6.57 bb/100. Terrible right? Well of course. Let's find out why. Let's look at the big pots I've lost at these stakes.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688124

This was a difficult hand which I played poorly but got nailed by just the right river card to rob me of half a stack. The overshove by him led me to believe he had a Q with a good kicker.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688133

I think this hand developed from me being a little frustrated from getting no good cards or action for a while and getting pissed off with people raising me all the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688146

I think I talked about this hand a couple of days back. The move came from maniacal player who just happened to complete his hand when I completed my hand.

So in those three spots I definitely got my money in bad. And I should be down because of them . But now we have two hands that define my real pain and suffering.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688153

It took a very long time to recover from that hand.

And now this today. I had previously made two loose calls with this player drawing to a straight and nailed it on the end so I thought this hand would be the perfect opportunity to completely rinse him with over-aggression.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688160

It's a very simple hand with a very simple result. But it's yet another crucial hand where I've been cained. From this hand I would feel comfortable carrying on with these stakes and (maybe) start to make more progress. But nope, I've been blasted down again. This is probably the biggest pot I have ever lost and I'm gutted.

This incident happened today by the way and I carried on because I was sure I wasn't tilted. And sure enough, in a 10nl game I made an all in call with AK on a A22 board and the villain hand AJ. So I was then just $10 down for the session. Then I had KK. I raised. One shove, then another shove. It's hard to fold in those circumstances (about a week ago I made the call and won a $40 pot) and I didn't fold. One guy tabled 77, the other AA. They both went on to make sets. Cheers.

I still carried on and ended up playing this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688180

I honestly thought I'd hit my straight on the river and was annoyed when he didn't call. Then I looked back at the hand and realised how inadvertently lucky/skillful the play was. I quit right after that hand ending the session down $13 - and that included the AA and KK hand.

Maybe I should be pleased that I'm only a buyin and a bit down after some really high variance hands/plays etc. But I don't feel as though I've played well and the poker gods have conspired against me at those, what I could dub, career critical hands.

I've got to be honestly with you. I'm struggle to tolerate both my attitude and the game itself right now.

Playing instead of blogging...

2008-05-25T08:57:00.002Z

Profit: $22

...because I can't sit around wallowing in my own misery. Just have to put Wednesday's indiscretion behind me and move on, and I did.

On Friday I got a letter through the post from Party Poker offering me ten free dollars. I decided to use that on Friday as a cleansing experience. I can't be arsed trying to earn XX points to make the money actually mine these days, so I plonked the $10 on a 25nl game and lost it within the space of 30 minutes. That didn't concern me though, it wasn't part of the bankroll and I just needed to be reminded of how important it is not to play recklessly with my own proper bankroll - in terms of over aggressive shoving play I mean, not bankroll management.

So I returned to proper play on Saturday evening with some five/six table action on ipoker. I usually four table but I wanted to see how I would do playing a shorter but more intense session. There was no downtime between hands, I had to keep an eye on every table.

Within an hour I had made back my $30 loss from Wednesday. I can't confess to playing awesome poker or anything like that, the deck simply smashed me in the face pre and post flop. I got pocket Queens six times, although, oddly enough, that was one of the hands I didn't do well with.

When I was $30 up I had this hand. I 3bet to $1.50 an initial raise of 40c. Original raiser calls. Flop is 6310 (not sure of suits). He checks, I bet $2 into $3 pot, he min-raises so I fold after not much thought. Right decision or wrong decision? Razor thin because if you look to the last blog I had a similar thing with jacks only I shoved and the villian ended up with kings.

I decided to quit soon after with a $22 profit. Not got all of Wednesday's loss back but the session made me feel a bit better about myself.

Also staking Everton Yorkie at the moment from Raise the River. He's a micro-limit player and I sported him $12 for some MTT. He came second in his second tourney for a $13 score. I'm freerolling now!

And finally, check out my podcast if you want to.

Blogging instead of playing...

2008-05-21T15:57:00.002Z

Loss: $16

...because if I play anymore I might go on tilt.

Just had a disaster session in which I lost $30. Dire.

I've been continuing to include 20/25nl tables in my sessions and I happen to have J10. Limped in and flop was AQX two spades. Turn brings K of spades. I bet $1, get raised to 10$ by someone who had done some very maniacy type stuff. I decided he didn't have a flush and called. He had 89s. One of those situations where things have to set themselves up. Player read gone all wrong.

Then later I had JJ. Raise, Get min raised by a half stack and see a flop of 632. He checks, I bet and he raises to about $5. I push and he calls and tables KK. Again, if he didn't have half a stack I probably would have avoided a bullet. $35 gone.

I was in the middle of quitting the game when I had to go all in with QQ against AJ which did hold up to with $5 back, but a $30 loss is bad. I'm not showing a $30 loss because last night, after a bad start I played well with some delayed c/betting and slowplaying premium pairs. But today wipes that out and more.

Confidence dented, afraid to risk 25nl, cycle repeats. Sigh.

I can be your hero, baby.

2008-05-15T19:41:00.004Z

Profit: $36

So I'm sat in a 25NL room, a rare and exciting event for me. I've made a bit of money, I'm up for the session and I feel it's time to take a shot (in the sense that I'm actually upping my stakes, not taking, what would be considered, a genuine shot).

I've spotted a pretty juicy room where there are a couple of maniac fishes more than willing to dust off their bankrolls with top pair and any sort of kicker. One crazy player has already bumped his stack up to $50 from just $5 with luckbox shoves and calls. Every hand is being raised and it's difficult to play a pot without quite a bit of expenditure. So I wait and I wait. There's another player waiting and waiting, looking for a situation to pounce. We're both rocks, proudly displayed on the library's 'Just Arrived' shelf. We are as easy to read as a tabloid newspaper, but nobody in this room is reading anything. They're just pushing digital tiddlywinks.

I'm dealt KQs under the gun and limp. I know all the rules, but micro stakes don't conform to the rules. This is a situational limp. I have to try and control the pot as much as I can until I hit my draws. A King doesn't interest me here. I want Jacks, Queens, Tens, Nines, Aces or lots and lots of spades; I'm looking for draws. The second rock limps, another maniac limps and the super short-stack big blind checks. Flop comes 357 with two of my suit. I'm on the second nut flush draw. I check (again, remember, this is a very situational play, I never normally play this passively). Second rock bets 3/4 pot. Maniac folds. Super-shortstack shoves for about 2.5 times pot. I fancy myself in this spot but I have no idea what the second rock has: possible set or, worst of all, AX of my flush draw. So I elect to call the shove to see what my rocky friend will do. He calls as well. River completes the flush and second rock bets $5 into $7.

Oh shit.

Every alarm goes off. I even get a call from the security company wired up to our house alarm who thing I'm being broken into. I agonise for the whole of the time bank. Do I shove or fold? No raise before the flop, no re-pop of my call to isolate the short stack. He was definitely on a drawing hand and he hasn't played a hand since I sat down. This sudden aggression must surely mean one thing.

The last thing that goes through my head before I click is: we'll this make a good story for the blog - what a hero fold this is going to be.

I fold, he tables 108s for the flush and rakes homes the pot. Brilliant read, Rob, shame you gave him just a little too much credit.

A razor thin decision, a very interesting hand and some promising conclusions, if not the right result. It is said (somewhere, probably) that if you're unable to fold the best hand, you'll never be a successful poker player. Well, at least it makes me feel a little bit better.

I'm not too bitter either because in the 10NL rooms I won some gigantic pots. Got it all in with KK preflop with two other full stacks who had sod all (not an ace between them). Then I flopped a set with 66. Bet, raise, I shove, all three opponents in the pot call. I fade spades and an A (someone had the rockets) for a $40 pot - probably the biggest 10NL pot I've ever played.

Crazy action and I'm just thankful those hands held up. But that flush hand, ohhh it was a close one!

Grand Theft Auto 4

2008-05-13T18:42:00.006Z

Profit: $47

Before I begin this entry I have somewhat of a shocking admission to make. When I keep saying I am teaching, I actually mean I am an English teacher. Worse still, I have a degree in creative writing. Yet when I look back on my grammar, punctuation etc, etc, I am shocked by my own material which is, quite frankly, laudable (as demonstrated by the word 'laudable'. Yes, Gniz, is was very ironic. I'll use your adjective instead - laughable).

But, in saying that, I've never taken this blog too seriously, rarely update it, and always plough through it as quickly as I can when I do write something. Anyway, I'm here to apologise for every violation of the English language before this blog and after it. You'll just have to live with it.

Now, onto the title. Like every male (and some females) under a certain age with crocked thumbs and square eyes, I've mostly been playing GTA 4 over the last couple of weeks. It is, as we all expected it to be, pretty spectacular . But since the GTA series is the 'sandbox' genre benchmark, it hasn't actually improved upon itself. The graphics have been tarted up as expected but the missions are identical, if not worse than, previous incarnations and if I have to take another bloody person out on a pointless date/night out - which is basically, taxing from one location to another to play a really shitty mini-game - I'll lose my rag a take a shot at 0.50/1.00 NL (hurrah!).

I could find more things to criticise about it (and I will, the car handling is cack) but it must have done something right because I averaged three hours a night on it until I finished it at the weekend. It's funny, isn't it, how you can claim you have no time for things, but if something comes along that 'gets' you, you make time.

As for poker, well I'm astonished the above figure is so far into the green. Literally every session I have played since my last entry has revolved around me losing a buyin within 100 hands and then patiently making it back and a little bit more over the next 4-500. I thought I was coming out even or maybe a couple of dollars up, but no, I've been doing all right. Fair enough.

Sadly I can't remember any of the hands (apart from making a great call with a J high flush when the board showed four to the flush and the other guy fired three shells, including a river shove) but I think my general play has been mixing up my flop and turn betting strategies. The only other thing is I don't think I've been running that good. Not horrible by any means, but long stretches of being dealt J5, Q3, K2, 93 etc. Grinding basically. But, I suppose, if I'm an artist at one thing, it's the most uncreative part of poker that I glide effortless through with masterstrokes.

Oh, with prose like that you can tell I'm a pompous bachelor of the arts!

P.S. graph hopefully shows how I've been running - spunking off chips with general play, before winning a nice pot to get back into green.

P.P.S. if anyone would like to stake me to take a shot at a higher level I might consider it. It's the only way I'm going to break the cycle of micro-grinding lack of confidence. COME ON, ONE TIMEEEEEEE!

P.P.P.S. might even be able to squeeze out another podcast this weekend. Raise the River should cross its fingers and hope.

Taking Punishing Blows

2008-04-25T14:53:00.002Z

Loss: $17

Poker is continuing to have it's evil wicked way with me at the moment.

As stated in previous blogs, life variance is preventing me from playing much at the moment anyway, but when I do I'm getting drilled for every action I do. Whether I get unlucky or make a stupid mistake it's always costing me a large amount, if not all, of my stack.

I played on Wednesday and had a flopped flush get beaten by a better flopped flush, KK V AA and set under set. That lost cost me a buy in and a half. After 200 hands of excellent recovery play I pulled it back to to even par, then I made some terrible mistakes.

I raised with 86 in the cutoff and got min-reraised by AQ. No problems, I don't mind playing a pot in position with this holding. Flop comes 862. I call his weak beat because I know he needs to catch up. Turn is a queen. At that point I need to raise his 1/2 pot bet because I know he's starting to get interested in the hand. River is an Ace and he instantly bets pot and instantly my head says AQ, but I can't fold and I donate 60bb to him. Tit.

I did a couple more like that afterwards so ended half a buyin down for the session.

But the real cherry on the proverbial has been the 45 minute session I've just enjoyed. Found some very juicy tables on Betfair and found myself with AAs. As regular readers will know I usually shove with these preflop as my Poker Tracker stats tells me it's the most profitable way to play them on microstakes rooms. But I want action so I raise 7xbb knowing I'll get a caller. I get two but no worries because the flop is 33J. One get guy bets about pot, the other calls and I shove. Both call for a $24(ish) pot. The shortstack caller has 22 while the full stacker has JQ. Turn brings the Jack of course and I have to suck my thumb.

This seemed to tilt me no end and I think I was aware of this because I rebought for only $3. A little later another maniac calls my 30bb shove on a JXX board. I have KJ and he has AJ. Fair enough. This is what I would call a situational setup. I was tilted and rebought for a small amount. Of course with a large stack I would never get all my chips in with KJ but I have no room for maneuver so I ship against the one hand in his range I think he has that beats me. Natch.

Knowing I was tilting I was preparing to quit when another hand comes up with a maniac. I have J10 and he has J4 (yeah, yeah, raise preflop, but this guy called in the cutoff with it). Flop is JJ4. He's betting every street in every hand so I hope for him to hang himself when the K hits on the turn. And with $2.7 in the pot he shoves for $5 which just smells of a bluffer firing all streets and then trying to buy the pot. And even if he isn't I beat a lot of hands. But of course, he has the flopped boat.

I'm not going to say it's just the cards doing me over at the moment because there's commentary in those hands that I'm disgusted. It just seems at the moment that I'm suffering the reverse of how I usually run: make a big score and then take ages running 30-50% of it off. Now I seem to be suffering a massive drop before spending ages recovering 30-50% of it. And with all the underpinning moans about having no gambling balls and my grinding tendencies, I'm pissed off again. I've barely even played!

Not sure when I'll play again. I'd like to think it will be sometime this weekend but it's more likely I'll sleep on today's events and tomorrow I will think so myself: why bother playing to get punched in the face again?

The one action I did take is remove my roll from Betfair. I had ran it up from $7 to $127 before taking today's $20 hit. The software is hopeless for multitabling. I've left £10 in which I might use for a bit of harmless sports betting.

Long term poker plans though? No idea. Just haven't got the time nor the inclination.

Oh and for people who have sent me comments for site link-ups..... sorted.

Never let your guard down.

2008-04-18T23:10:00.003Z

Loss: $16

After a pretty rough week of my new job in teaching I needed to unwind. Playing poker probably isn't the best thing to try to 'unwind', but I did so nonetheless and I quickly got a dose of the hard truth: if you drop your pants, even for a split second, poker will take its chance and bite you in the balls.

I'd been playing for about an hour and had been completely card dead, and I mean card dead. I hadn't picked up anything better than two pair in over an hour of play and I was a buyin down. I wasn't pissed off. In fact I was pretty content at the thought that I'd only lost a small amount despite having absolutely nothing to play with.

Then I got KK and decided to slowplay them. A multitude of recipes all cooked up into once nice brothy stew of stomach-wrenching pain.

I raised pot before the flop and found myself staring at a flop of J23 with three people in the pot. Usually I'd bet the flop hard and be happy to either take down whatever I could in the pot or crush someone with AJ. Instead, out of position, I decided to check. The turn is a 4 so I decide to bet to see if anyone has a gutshot with an ace in their hand. One player folds, the other raises about 20bb. Rather stupidly I decided to push, convincing myself the other guy had AJ or 1010 or something rather shit. Turns out he had the old 56 and I was drawing dead. It's not often I do that, but here's an rare example so make a note: I was very tired from work, I was bored from crap cards and probably tilted from crap cards, I made a zero play (I'm only ever going to get called by stuff that crushes me) without putting the correct thought processes into action and suffered the ultimate consequences - being stacked.

And whenever I do get it all in behind and lose I doth my cap and say 'nh' because I've been outplayed. Or in this instance I completely outplayed myself. Poker has no emotions, it doesn't care what sort of day you've had at work or what sort of session you're having now. If you lose your concentration, lose your nerve and lose you ability to think the way you know how and should, poker will remind you, in its own inimitable way, why you shouldn't. I have no one to blame, no cards to shout out, no players to criticise, I just got it wrong.

In the grand context of my poker novel this is but a minor setback. The proverbial car engine breaking down in the middle of the desert which allows the protagonists to get to know each other a bit better while they work together to repair the broken machinery. I hope I know poker a little better after this. If I'd followed my emotional read and quit a few hands earlier I would have halved my losses ($20) for the session. It's something I've never paid enough attention to: shifting tables, shifting sites and ending sessions early when my heart and mind have gone from the endeavour.

I've made mistakes and I'll make many more as I continue to play, but that's what any journey is all about. It's not the result that matters, it's the jounrey there that makes us who we are.

Am I waffling now? Yes I am.

My theraphy for this setback was to go out and buy a Nintendo Wii. It's funny how a silly $10 loss can bite at me for a whole day while the £230 purchase of something I don't need and shouldn't buy doesn't phase my thoughts. What is it about poker that causes me to shit bricks at the thought of losing any money? If I could answer that I'd either be bust or playing proferssionally by now.

Although, thinking about it, poker may be the exception. The final result is pretty sweet.

Mini Hibernation

2008-04-13T22:09:00.002Z

Profit: $24

I've managed to get in maybe 1k of hands over the last the week but, to be honest, I've really not had much time for any poker and I doubt I will over the next six weeks.

I got a teaching job in February and since starting my teaching hours have trebled so I'm now close to working full time.

Only teachers can appreciate how hard the job actually is (believe me the holidays aren't worth it) and it's even more difficult for new teachers as you have to learn everything on the job (yep, even the subject knowledge) and until you get competent it's a hard grind - just like microstakes poker.

I'll keep blogging, just don't expect much. And with this I almost feel as though I've missed my chance to really give poker a go. I haven't grown any balls to play at higher stakes and now I won't have the time or mental strength to really concentrate on my game. I guess I'll be playing to relax and chill out from now on.

My profits have come from the usual cash game grinding. I have tried a couple of satelites into the Pokerstars 100k but there are three things stopping me from making any progress:

1. I'm crap at MTTs - just get bored of muck, muck, muck, muck, muck, big hand, action decided preflop etc.

2. I find Pokerstars to be one of my boogey sites.

3. I don't run good in MTTs. Not unlucky, just rarely win crucial races and always get mullered when I have to shove with hands like A10 and KQ - example today shoving 1010 into QQ when short stacked.

In my cash room play I did have one notable hand I'd liked to run off.

I have QQ and raise about 7Xbb after three limpers. Two call and the flop is 777. I bet, one folds, the other calls (we are both +100bb stacked. I bet again on the turn 9 and he flat calls again. Pot is about 80bb now with something like a J, 8 or 10 on the river - something that brought a possible straight and flush anyway. He checks to me again and I......

Well, what would you do?....................

With him calling two bets on a very suffocated board I'm thinking there's an outside chance he has a 7. He limped called so he could have A7. Pocket pairs are possible but I don't give him a set (ie. 88877, 99977 or whatever the cards higher than the seven were). A flush and straight are out there but I just don't know how anyone can call bets on the flop and turn drawing to a hand which can quite easily be beat.

Well I checked and he tabled the last hand I expected him to have but must have subconciously factored in, he had AA - yeah, he did limp-call with it.

I'm trying to work out if I played that really well - betting the right number of times and the right amount to get the information I needed and minimise how much I lost in the hand - or really weak - just having no gambling and ramming and jamming the pot. If he'd shoved at any point I would have gone broke so his passive play obviously set off my spidey sense.

Other than that hand, all pretty standard.

Flush my money down the loo so break time.

2008-04-07T13:06:00.003Z

Loss: $23

I recovered what I lost in the previous blog but them promptly gave it back. Just had a couple of sessions where I didn't think I could win any hands involving big pots and that seemed to be the case.

The hands were:

Overplayed Jacks - I very rarely go bust with Jacks and Queens so this have been due to frustration tilt.

Just Stuck with bad odds numbers - You flop a flush 0.89% of the time with suited hole cards. If he has a naked A of diamonds I'm in good shape. If he doesn't have the A of diamonds I'm in very good stakes. Still, his turn bet gave me information I chose to ignore.

Fairly standard I think - Although the swine did slow role me.

Misread his hand - I was almost certain he had trips as well with a worse kicker so that's I checked the turn. And since I had the A he was drawing to three outs, which obviously he hit. He'd done a very weird move of shoving me all in on a tiny pot a couple of hands previous so I thought he was a fish.

So all these were for full stacks which is quite unusual for me in 1.5k(ish) of hands. They were tough hands with some thin decisions but I don't think I played any of them optimally.

After these hands I decided to take a break. I'm not pissed off with these hands because I enjoyed a huge heater before and I'm still comfortably up from that. I think I'm suffering a bit from poker burnout. That's not all due to playing either. I've been putting so much time into the poker podcasts that I've just been thinking and doing poker solid for about two months.

So I haven't played a week and I've enjoyed my time off. I substituted my poker playing time by playing the truly awesome God of War II. I used to be a real gaming geek but haven't had time or the interest to play in recent years. But God of War (both PS2 games) are probably the most intense and enjoyable games I've played for years and years.

I've completed it now (only 15 hours of gameplay) so I'll be getting back to the tables soon.

Making a bonehead play

2008-03-27T23:46:00.005Z

Loss: $18

I should be $7 down but I made a really silly move today because I was tilting ever so slighty due to being card dead and a couple of small coolers (flopped straight getting hit with a runner runner boat).

I had KJ and limped in to a three-way pot. Flop came JK9 and for some reason I shoved into a guy who had raised my flop bet. Of course he called and snapped me off with 99. I have no complaints about the hand. It wasn't a setup, I just played it very badly and did what's called a zero play. I was only going to get called by anything that beats me so I should have 3bet him on flop and fold to his shove. That error cost me a full stack. As Mannering said, "Stupid boy."

About an hour later I did the exact same thing on a min-raised preflop pot which came 23Q and I had AQ. I bet, he raised and I shoved. Fortunately he folded saying he had JJ so I got away from it that time.

It's not all doom and gloom. I was $30 down at one point so I did recover. No real complaints about anything really. I've not been on the heater the last couple of days but there's no excuse for some moves I've made. Just all part of the learning process I guess.

Bankroll back below $1k. Could be like this for a few more posts I reckon. Over it, under it, over it.

Crushing

2008-03-24T23:04:00.003Z

Profit: $113

This is one of those good posts. A rarity in any poker blogger's journal but inevitable at some stage. I have been crushing the poker tables since my last post.

And, to be fair, I was doing quite well last time I posted too. I just had that one mishap which I chose to moan about.

But since then I can't remember a single suckout of significance. All I seem to have done is either miss my draws and not lose much money or hit my draws and make loads of money. I've flopped quads twice and been paid off, hit sets, flopped two pairs, turned flushes, rivered straights etc, etc, etc. I've not been suffering from second best hand syndrome and stupid Americans continue to ask me why a pro is playing 0.05/0.10 cash rooms on Bodog - I put it in my profile as my occupation and people seem to believe me, unless I'm not giving yanks credit for double sarcasm - and then I stack them.

Yes, I will admit with a small amount of glee and welcome wildly with open arms that I am on a heater at the moment. And it just goes to convince myself that when I do get cards I win lots and lots of money, but when I don't have cards I don't lose much and it takes a lot longer to do it.

I do have words of criticism festering at the tips of my fingers. But you know what? I'm not going to write them down now. Let's not spoil a post in which I can rejoice. I've won ten buyins in a couple of thousand hands and my bankroll has broken the $1k mark. It's good and I congratulate myself on 18 months of poker in which I've learned a lot of strategy and never had to pay a single penny for it. Where I go from here isn't important for this post. This post is where I've come from.

In other news. Yes, you've guessed it. I've gone and done another poker podcast for those boys over at Raise the River. I'm getting more and more involved there but will update on that in another post.

Thanks for reading and I'll try and remember this blog a little more in the future as it's not been getting enough attention.

Massive up, big down. Podcasts

2008-03-08T22:37:00.003Z

Profit: $30

Again, I haven't played much in the way of poker because I've just got so wrapped up doing the podcasts for Raise the River. I've always been a creative person and learning about podcast production has reignited my creative juices (ow er!) after a barren couple of months. Links are on the right hand side if you want to listen to them and get involved in raise the river, it's a fab british poker community.

Ok, so the poker I did play was going brilliantly. I don't think I was doing anything special to be honest. I must have been on a heater because, though a lack of match fitness (if you can call it that) I was just playing tight, passive poker until I made my hands. Grinding basically.

I did take the advice of some people at RTR who suggested I take a shot and I did... at the .10c/.20c . I didn't really do much until I got AA and went all in preflop. Someone had KK. That always helps. I don't quite know how I did it but I made about $60 in four sessions of easy poker.

But then, sadly, I had this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2235903

You know, I would have taken the split pot fine. But it's just shattering to have this kind of hand happen to wipe out half of the profits I'd made over the last couple of sessions. The manner of the beat is bad, but it's more the situation that grates (and it usually is with me). It was in the higher stakes table (I had two lower ones on the go), I was going to quit before but the action was so juicey in the tables that I felt I could hit a monster and get paid off, I had the nuts but was drawing dead.

At the time I was a bit "meh" what you gunna do? But I haven't played since and I'm left asking myself these same stupid questions again. Why am I playing poker? I seem unable to get beyond the gambling aspect of the game. My bankroll is too important and I am too results orinatated.

You know what I probably need - and this isn't a request for staking, it's just what I think about my poker mindset - I probably need to play with someone else's money. I need to develop a disregard for money. I need maybe $200 to four table on .25/.50 and play what's in my head, not what the figures say on the screen.

To be honest, I probably need to go poker broke so I can have that experience of it. It wouldn't be the end of the world, I would just start again if I wanted to.

Now I'm rambling.

Bleh. I've made a profit since my last post, my roll is healthy and I'm a winning play yet I'm far from happy with my poker game. I'm obviously a spoilt, little poker brat. The URL confirms that.

Loan Shark

2008-02-25T18:55:00.002Z

Loss: $5

It's probably a very good thing that I've hardly played any poker for three weeks because I could be down loads. As it stands, since the middle of January I'm down about $60 which is quite a feat considering I've hardly play and I play at such low stakes.

The only poker I've played since my last blog was the RTR heads up championship on Friday. I played aggressively from the outset, getting a straight in my first hand and picking up loads of money With a 2/1 (ish) chip lead I got coolered with 1010 v JJ - it was early on though so maybe I should have been able to get away from it.

The only other money I've spent is bankrolling a player called EvertonYorkie, my first staking in poker. It's only $20 and I felt a bit sorry for him as he's a micro stakes player like me and he bust his roll at the weekend. I don't want anything in return, other than my original stake at some point, and to know I made a positive difference to his poker journey.

Other than that, it's been more podcast development and life variance.

Raise the River Podcast: Episode 1

2008-02-15T19:16:00.002Z

Loss: $12

I've played virtually no poker in the last week. I had a quick session on Bodog and found very little traction again (badbeats causing the small loss) and then I played in the $5 Bloggerment on Sunday and go no cards - finished 9th.

This will has all been about producing a podcast for Raise the River. It's a UK poker forum that I hang out at and, after support from the pilot editions that you can find in my previous post, I decided to create a 90 minute podcast.

For all the info check out the thread http://www.raisetheriver.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=2964, or dowload it from the link on my sidebar.

Comments very welcome.

No poker but plenty of podcasts

2008-02-07T12:39:00.000Z

I haven't played any poker since my tirade on Monday but I have been doing a lot of work revolved around it.

Partly because I want to learn more about radio broadcasting and production and partly because I want to make a meaningful contribution to the raise the river forum, I've but together two poker podcasts for them.

http://www.raisetheriver.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=2847

http://www.raisetheriver.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=2865

By my own admission the broadcasting is a little suspect, but I'm relatively pleased with my production skills and they are very first efforts.

Check 'em out and sign up for the forum.

Return to Bodog. Full Tilt sacked (for a second time)

2008-02-04T18:26:00.000Z

Loss: $6

I decided to try Bodog once again, just to see if the connection problems of before had gone. It turns out they now have 6-max 10nl games. Great I thought. So I went on and before I knew it I'd won two buy ins with a set holding up against a flush draw and winning various small pots. After just 60 minutes of play I thought I'd quit for once while being massively ahead. So that's what I did.

A couple of hours later I decided to play again but was lured to Full Tilt this time because they've just offered me a bonus. So I thought to myself: let's just multitable and grind for a few hours and earn the bonus and maybe a little more besides. No chance.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a winning session on that site. I played at the weekend, managed to get quads and a straight flush within three hands but STILL made a loss. Today was just as bad. Second best hand syndrome. Players either calling me or reraising. I suppose there is the argument that they could be outplaying me but I can't really see that at 10NL. I, of all poker players, should not subscribe to the idea that sites are rigged or that they have doomswitches and stuff but Full Tilt really does have a vendetta against me and it's the only site I've not made any cash room money at. I'm on an $80 down swing at the site at the moment at Full Tilt. Horrible.

Anyway, I was getting more and more frustrated when this hand came up. I raised with AQ and got reraised. I elected to call and got a flop of Q62 two clubs. He checked to me so I put out a bet and he raised.

At this point I was trying to put him on a hand and all I could think of was AK, JJ, 1010, 99 or a strong flush draw. I just couldn't work out what beat me other than aces or kings but I just didn't put him on them. It was his very first hand so I was kinda thinking he was a loose maniac so I repopped him all in. Naturally he called with 66. It's horrible really, both on my part and the cards' part. The shove was clear tilt by me while a low pocket pair reraises preflop to flop a set while I'll get my top pair top kicker is setting me up for a big fall. That's basically how Full Tilt seems to work with me.

How is that I can do so badly on one particular site? What ever the case I've elected to withdraw most of my roll from FT (again) leaving $50 incase I decide to play some SNGs there again. However, I've been on a bad run with them at Full Tilt too so who knows when I'll play there again. Over 12k of cash room hands at FT I've made $14. It's clearly not my site.

Another thing that annoyed be about today's sessions is that I played just an hour when I was doing well but two hours when I was doing badly. I'm always too eager to get even when I'm behind (although not by ultra tilt and going up a couple of levels – just long, boring grinding).

Again I'm only down a fraction of my bankroll but poker is really hard work yet again. The good times don't last long enough and the bad times always gnaw at my confidence. I thought I had learned something about value betting, avoiding bad spots, knowing when to fold, when to chase draws and so on but recently all these things have been put into question.

Why do I seem to go through cycles of crushing or getting crushed? There is no middle ground it seems. And now I'm waffling and moaning...

Good night.

Face lift

2008-02-03T20:58:00.000Z

Loss: $2

I'm like a kid who's found the keys to the toy cupboard.

I've been playing about with my site and I hope you like/enjoy the changes I've made to it. I've not finished making all the changes I want to make yet so if you have any suggestions (like getting rid of that music that's ace the first time but really annoying after the 17th) then post away - I know you all love to.

I was offered a new blog with UK pokerscene but I've found the blogging software (wordpress) to be very unworkable so I'm sticking to good old blogspot.

I’ve played a bit but only at the ultra micro stakes to continue my progression with aggressive poker. To be honest I have found myself reverting back a little to TAG poker but it might be because I’ve been a little bored in recent games.

I should be showing more profit I think but I’ve had a couple of smelly bad beats when all my money has been in the middle. The fantastic suckout I remember is raising preflop with 88 and getting a flop of Q78. I bet, he raises, I shove and he calls with Q10. Turn a 7, river a Q. Still, it was microstakes so it doesn’t matter at all really. Just annoys me.

I've just realised that in the last 20k hands I've made about $30 which is probably why I'm bored of things at the moment. Nothing's really going wrong but nothings really going right and you can probably imagine how much of a grind it is when I'm only playing 10nl.

I do want to play higher, but I don't think I'm playing well or running well so moving up is just silly. I think I need to be staked really. Someone offer me $150 to play at 25nl for 10k hands with 50% return and I'll try it. If not, I fear I'll be stuck at 10nl for the rest of my days. Can only blame myself though.

Mind you, give it a few more weeks and I'll have made more than Bluescouse. He's nearly busto and in debt. Eeeek.

At least I'm not on that side of the gambling coin.

One last thing. Nobody seems to be listening to my audio blogs so I might ditch them - unless you convince me otherwise. I don’t think my commentary was going all that well anyway.

Another audio blog.

2008-01-30T23:24:00.000Z

No Loss or Profit.

http://boomp3.com/m/ae1efddc7f0d

Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2023454

Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2023425

Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2023445

Hand 4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2023469 - I am splunk1 in this hand. Not the hero.

2nd Audio blog

2008-01-28T18:23:00.000Z

Profit: $8

By the way, let me know if you have problems with the audio.

http://boomp3.com/m/b3410c80bb98

Something a little different.

2008-01-28T00:47:00.000Z

Profit: $7

http://boomp3.com/m/56d0ebc4ad9d

15 minutes in...

2008-01-25T23:50:00.000Z

Loss: $10

All in preflop with AA

Called by a full stack with J10 suited

K9K6Q

I'm not hanging around for another two hours/500 hands of this shit again.

Good night.

My Worst Session Ever

2008-01-25T09:21:00.000Z

Loss: $4

I don't think it's the most money I've ever lost or the worst performance in terms of my own play, it simply was an unbeatable session.

Over the course of 600 hands I didn't hit a single set (so obviously no full houses). I rivered straights that were outdone by flushes. A large number of my bets recieved the minimum check raise treatment. I got AK 12 times and failed to win a single significant pot with them. I flopped a lot of hopeless pairs that didn't develop. I missed all my draws (pretty much)....

I ended up losing $27.

I was dead, literally. Before the flop, on the flop, after the flop and on the river. I can't remember having a single hand which I was confident I was ahead with.

And it's not a though I tilted all my money off with crazy, creative displays of reckless flamboyance. The most I lost was on a terrible bad beat AK, flop is KX10, villian goes all in, I call. He tables QQ. Turn J. River 9.

That was for 50bb but that actually was the only bad beat I had. The rest of it was very slow death treatment. 30bb there, 20bb there, 17 bb here.

I felt completely helpless - a feeling that's cropped up a number of times over the past two weeks. Maybe, just maybe, I can suggest from a positive aspect that I managed to minimise my loses on some truly awful cards, (I didn't stack myself through frustration) but I can't really confess that this makes me feel any better because the best solution would have been to play 200 hands and quit then knowing that it's not going to be your day.

This session wipes out the progress I made this week as I made $30 on 888. But even throughout the week I've been dealt some vicious bad beats. Another AK produced a KKX flop and I progressively got someone to commit a lot of their chips with 88. Sadly an 8 came on the river and killed me. In another room I flopped a flush only for my opponent to river a full boat. And the worst one was having KK and pushing someone all in on a XX7X board with three diamonds. My opponent called with 76, one diamond, I had the king of diamonds. River a seven.

What do I do? At Christmas I took a break for a week and came back and went on a tear. I could do that again, but I want to play because I'm sure it's just variance doing me over.

Sigh...

Doomswitch activated?

2008-01-20T00:33:00.000Z

Loss: $18

I've heard this term used before for when poker sites decide that it's time to rob you of all your winnings and your confidence and I feel as though I've had a dose of it this week.

I had three huge sessions this week of about 800 hands each (usually I play about 400) and in all those sessions I've started with big losses and then recovered brilliantly to be level for the session.

In particular on Wednesday night I had a torrid time but was sure and determined that if I kept my head I would finish level for the session. I waited and I waited and I waited and I finally got the hands and situations to get level. Brilliant, I thought, a real boost to my confidence.

Figuring ipoker (where I've been playing exclusively for a few weeks) was drying up on me I tried one, just one, room on Full Tilt. On the very first hand I had to make a big laydown with kings after investing half my stack. Then I flopped a set with 22. I got a call from my bet and the guy shoves all in for his whole stack on a board of 23Q6 with three spades. I work things out in my head. QQ makes no sense, 66 is unlikely (why would he just call the flop?), spade flush is surely impossible (why shove?). The only hand I can think he might have is 33, which still doesn't make any sense. I call and he shows JJ. Awesome call, fourth spade on river, he has a spade.

So within 10 hands on Full Tilt I'm $15 down for the session. I continue playing and get absolutely nothing (I'm playing on ipoker at the same time), not connecting with any flop. But I say to myself, I know I'll recover because I'm good enough to do that.

I get KK all in against JJ and stack someone. Then someone slowplays their JJ on a J high board when I have QQ and turn a Q. Here we are, the patience is paying off yet again. I'll catch these players given time.

Then I get AQ and the flop comes AQJ. I'm raised on the flop and I repop him. He repops me all in. Maybe, just maybe, if I wasn't $9 down for the session at this point I might (just might) find a way to fold this hand. But I call and he has K10. It's a cooler hand, I'm not complaining about that. It's just come at the worst possible moment. It's an awful bad beat in terms of the week/session situation. I've had a rough week in which little has gone right. I've had to work hard just to stay near even. I'm on the verge of pulling things level yet again and I've worked hard and waited ages to find the right spots and then I'm nailed by this hand which takes away all I've worked hard for to counteract the misery that has gone before it. I quit straight after recording a loss of $25 on the day.

I shouldn't be thinking like this. I'm still $100 up for the month and I feel I've been playing pretty well. Especially in terms of patience because the sessions have been so boring.

Ahhh, this is a bit of a cheesed off post. Just annoyed and worried about having another session like this.

Bloggerment 43

2008-01-13T22:57:00.000Z

Loss: $5.50

I think I gave a good account of myself in defending the bloggerment title, but I'm gutted to have finished 5th - top three got paid.

The early running went ok with Matty H UK tilting off the rest of his stack to me and I made a couple more early hands.

But for the next hour or so I was all over the place on the leader board. I busted another player for about 2,000 chips when I called his all in with A2, he had 66 and I got my ace (lucky boy) and then promptly gave it back to someone else on the very next hand when I shoved a reraise with 88. He had QQ. In a similar situation I called someone's all in with AQ when they had JJ. And just as we started the final table I pushed with AK and rivered a JJ hand.

We got five-handed with four of us on roughly 4k and a massive stack with 12k. In went ultra tight and I went ultra card dead. I had one had 77 which I might have pushed a reraise with but I was sure I would find a better spot. Another 20 minutes went by with nothing and I eventually went with a Q 10 raise on the button. Sadly I had the massive stack in the BB and he reraised. With 1,7oo and the blinds at 200/400 I felt I had to go with it. Unfortunately he had AQ and I didn't suck out.

I'm truly gutted because I had a chance to cash. If I hadn't have been so liberal with some silly calls/pushes earlier on I might have had an extra 3/4k which would have helped a tremendous amount during the five-handed bit.

Even so, I set out to make the final table and I did that.

Continue to plug away

2008-01-13T16:56:00.000Z

Profit: $35

I'm pleased to say that I haven't gone on a downturn after last Sunday's success, but it has felt like a grind.

Looking at the graph it seems as though I've played a lot of big pots, but it hasn't felt it. To be honest it's felt like a bit of a grind. Maybe it's because I've had a number of session where I've either started with a large win or a large loss and then gone in the opposite direction during the rest of the session where, eventually, I end up half a buy in. I guess in the long run it's all good.

I've noticed in recent months that I haven't been posting any particular hands and talking about them. Instead I've been analysing general situation play (playing from the button, reading flops etc). I think I'm going to get back to some specific hands analysis, see if I can generate some conversation from my followers...

As far as I know there will be another Bloggerment tournament on tonight. I intend to defend my title. I would be delighted to reach the final table and astonished if I cash. If I won? Well, it would be right up there with Jonny Chan's WSOPME double.

Felix

Cash room progress.

2008-01-10T01:51:00.000Z

Profit: $85

Even when I had that horrible 24 hours just before Christmas I was still confident in my game. I was sure at the time that I'd simply had 500 or so hands of bad beats and missed draws. Even so, I took Christmas off to get it completely out of my system.

I posted that 'easing myself back in' blog and have been a good run ever since. On Sunday I made quite a bit in cash rooms but the Bloggerment win had to be reported first.

It's all come from that 'fake $50' I got free too. I got an account on one of the ipoker skins where they gave me $50 free dollars for signing up. Instead of blowing it on a $50 cash room I decided to use it as a buffer bankroll - something I could use to make sure that X-mas was just a fluke set of results. But I've got to like the software and it's also given me a chance to try out a program called Realtime Hud. It's a free alternative to Poker Ace and its far better. It keeps its own database (apart from poker tracker so you don't have to run that in the background) and it allows you make changes on the layout itself (rather than in a separate window). I've already found it very, very useful, especially for determining when and where to c/bet.

The main part of my game I've been working on is position. I'll raise from the button and cutoff with a very wide range of hands now because I'm so confident in my situational awareness after the flop. I'm not limping in at all now which is something I'm really pleased about because I used to be very passive in that regard.

My bet sizes are just about right - as they have been for some time now - and I think I've pretty much nailed my river value betting. When I lose a hand with two pair, I lose maybe 20% of my stack. When I win against two pair I win 50%+ of their stack maybe 90% of the time. It's those sorts of critical points in my game that I feel I've really worked during the last three months.

I've said this before but I've thought about it again today and it's so important: I just never get stacked unless it's a cooler or a bad beat. I don't ever really lose big pots. In 3,600 hands this year I've lost $3 or more eight times (only three pots above $7). In contrast I've won $3 or more 29 times. This means that I'm getting away from the hands such as top pair/top kicker that tend to get most of the action on the flop and turn, and not chasing big/expensive draws. But when I do hit my hand I am able to extract value.

The only problem with all this progress is that I've done it with fake money. I don't mean play money, just money that isn't mine yet. I've got to do some stupid points clearance to get to it and it's going to take ages. I need 6,000 points and I currently have 400.

This is an irrelevant point to be honest because I've already promised myself that I'm not going to remove any of the bankroll this year. It's there to be built upon so I can eventually play higher stakes. So far it's free money that I've nearly trebled in ten days.

The goal, for now, is this: Continue to build this bankroll in ipoker and try and take shots at higher stakes when I can. Then, when I eventually clear the points. I'll remove the money and put it in another ipoker account where I can enjoy rakeback at I'm missing that on my current ipoker site.

It'll take time an patience but if there's one thing I've got it's those two things.

Here's hoping my next blog doesn't record the usual 'downswing after a happy, confident post' routine.

Bloggerment 42.

2008-01-07T13:12:00.000Z

Profit: $47

I was playing cash rooms during the evening when I remembered a tournament that goes on every Sunday evening that some of the Raise the River forumities go to. Admittidly I'm more of lurking there than a poster but I thought I'd try my luck since I never play on pokerstars and have a small bankroll on there. My bankroll is slighlty bigger now :)

I think I'm supposed to use an official picture but this is only the second Bloggerment I've played and that was ages ago so I don't know what I'm supposed to use.

What I can say is that despite never playing nine-handed games, rarely playing sit and gos and having not won a MTT of any description for more than a year, I played a perfect tournament.

I can't remember playing a hand incorrectly - one that cost a significant amount of my stack anyway. In the early running I raised in position, took a couple of small pots and was able to apply pressure on reraises. In particular I remember Burnley Mik reraising me when I had Queens. I shoved and he folded saying he had JJ.

Throughout the first hour I kept up with the chip average but nothing more. Whenever I did pick up any momentum a player called Zagga noticed and stuck in a couple of reraises which forced me to fold. A pretty crucial hand early on was when I had KQc and the flop brought rags with two clubs. Against top pair I was about 50/50. Zagga raised my flop bet which would have meant me going all in. I remember typing "it's too early to race" and just threw it away.

The hand before the break, with about 2,500 chips (starting stack was 1,500) I flopped a straight with 45. It wasn't a significant hand in terms of gathering chips (my opponent folded my flop raise) but it did trigger a couple of thoughts in my head which contributed to the final result. I realised that I was getting pretty good hands which were producing on the flop. With the stack I had and the escalating blinds I decided that if I had a 50/50 where I could be the aggressor I would take it. I also realised that I had a pretty good image and people were folding to me more often than not and I had only shown good cards. Again, the blinds meant that it was a preflop game so I was going to start raising as much as possible before the flop.

With 21 entrants the final table soon came . I was still in mid position with about 3,500 chips. With hands like KJ, A8 and low pocket pairs I raised whenever it was folded to me. I remember raising with J5 on the button and taking down the blinds. I'd say that for about half an hour I did this, taking 6/7 pots. They were critical pots that took my stack to about 5,500. Still about average.

Other than taking pots down before the flop there wasn't much action to speak. The only notable thing I I can remember is shoving with Q2 against a micro short stack (1,000 chips at most) and sucking out on him when he had Q8.

We were six-handed at this point and with a very marginal chip lead I decided to raise whenever it was folded to me in position. Doing this really bore out the truth about bullying midstacks when close to the bubble (top three got paid). Nobody wanted to risk their chips with me. Then the hand came which I predicted I would have to gamble on and win to have a chance.

With KQ suited I limped in along with another limper. I was prepared to go with the hand but Zagga, who had picked me off a number of times with reraises was in the small blind. I think he completed which smelled weak as he had be raising a lot and I couldn't see he trapping with the blinds so large. Then the big blind with about 4,000 total raised to 1,600. This was it I decided. I would shove for 6,000 and pray that Zagga had nothing. I guess my cards would be live against the raise so combined with the slim possibility that both folded I would get my 50/50 against the probable call by the big blind with AX or a lower pp than K or Q. Zagga folded and the big blind called the rest of his stack with 22. A K came on the flop and I pushed my stack up to 10,000.

I had twice as many chips as anyone else now so I was prepared to gamble with a wide range of hands if I could be the one raising the pot in the first place. In the end it didn't turn out like that. I got JJ and reraised Hulljimi all in who had about 3,500 chips. He called with 88. The board came A10Q7 with three spades, I had the jack of spades and he didn't have the eight of spades. He had one out. A black eight came, the eight of clubs.

I didn't even realise at the time I'd been one outered. Oddly enough I didn't feel that bad. I was still the marginal chip leader but it was basically a crap shoot. Hulljimi went on a rush going from short stack to chip leader with 14,000. We were down to four players on the bubble. The next hand I played was AJ.

I was in the big blind with 7,500 chips. The small blind shoved with 3,500. Again I felt I had to gamble although I was pretty sure that, at worst I was in a coin flip. He showed A2 and I dodged a gutshot on the river. With that hand the break came and I was in the money.

About 15 hands went by with Hulljimi and myself with about 12k. Zagga, who had basically had position on my all tournament and played well but been unable to win any big pots, was the short stack. He tried to steal Hulljimi's big blind with 10 4 but was called with one of the worst hands to be up against for him - 44. Zagga didn't catch his ten and so Hulljimi and myself went heads up.

Basically one hand decided it. I raised on the button with 75o and he put in a min raise to 4,000. It was costing me 2,000 to call with position and 7.5k left. I could easily call and then fold this on the flop and still be able to shove with fold equity in the next couple of hands. The flop came 753. I'd been c/betting throughout the tourney so I had to bet. I just hoped he had AK or a decent pocket pair. I bet 4,000, he shoved and I called. He showed JJ and he didn't hit on the turn or river.

Lucky? Well in the grand story of the tourney not really. His minimum raise allowed me to see a flop in position with enough chips left to have another chance. He'd also got the luck with the one outer earlier on.

I now outchipped him by three to one and was looking to apply pressure with any A or K. He dodged my all in reraise with AJ before I shoved with K2. He called with Q 10, didn't hit and I secured my second 'bracelet' win - by that I mean a multi-table tournament

Thinking back, other than the 75 hand at the end I don't think I was in for all my chips at all during the tournament; a testament to how well I picked my spots.

Because of my sng experience and because I played perfectly when I won a $2 rebuy tournament without rebuying and being the chip leader for half the tournament I know the basics of tournament play and have the ability to apply them. This win just proves to myself that I have solid tournament skills and well as cash room skills (I've had success in those too but I'll leave that for another blog).

Well done sir. You may pat yourself on the back for an unexpected but very welcome win!

Just easing myself back in

2008-01-03T00:46:00.001Z

Profit: $15

A fairly nondescript session in which I made a few bucks through silly billies and got hit in the deck a little bit. I was using the free $50 I'd been given by a site before I had the break so I wasn't risking any money at all really.

I tried to play on Bodog again but had serious connections issues yet again. It's a shame because I would like to try the easy-peasy beginner rooms again. Unfortunately I had at least four auto folds because the connection was so bad. Will try again but I don't hold much hope.

I guess I should do a 'goals for the year' post but I'm sat in bed and its difficult to type properly so I'll the long-winded post until tomorrow.

Alright, move along. There's nothing to see here.

2007-12-30T23:54:00.000Z

It's funny how quickly you can get out of the habit of playing poker.

I've not played a single hand since the session last Friday. As I said then, the longer I don't play, the less the urge to play will be. Right now I have no urge at all. Instead I've been playing the Complete LEGO Star Wars Saga on Xbox 360 and its blooming marvelous.

I probably won't play again until the new year. No rush really. I'm content.

As promised, I've played no poker.

2007-12-22T21:59:00.000Z

It seems odd to post a post telling you there's nothing to post about. But that's half the battle with poker, isn't it?

I won't deny that I've had urges to play but I also know that one bad beat would send me on tilt and I'd just donk off another couple of buy ins. And as time goes by the urge decreases and I just do other things. I almost feel as though I'm in profit today simply by not playing - even on the day and time when most of the fish are in the sea.

X-mas bonus

2007-12-21T14:51:00.001Z

Fake Profit: $50

It's an instant bonus from a site and I'll need to do loads to clear it. But it's better than another slap in the face.

I'm NOT hitting the tables with it today though. I'm not stupid you know.

Ahem.

Merry Christmas... I guess

2007-12-21T14:24:00.000Z

Loss: $50

On Full Tilt I played a session in which I didn't win any pots more than $1.50 and didn't lose any pots more than $3, yet I still lost $25. You can imagine how frustrating that is. Completely card dead.

I returned to 888 today and had my all in AAs cracked by JJs which was just what I needed. I carried on playing for a little while longer and spotted a room where the average pot was $10 (in a 10nl) room. Before I knew what I was doing I was sat at the table and getting it all in prelflop with AQ. I was up against J6 which turned into a boat. What a stupid move. Even with an edge I should not be sitting in a room with all-in maniacs.

This is shocking and I'm appalled with myself. In my previous blog I mentioned things were getting tougher and I should have maybe had a break or played some cheap sngs to lower the variance. But I didn't and now I've been punished and my confidence hit. Again, I can't even begin to think about taking a shot at a higher level. Now, even though I have an urge to play, I'm probably not going to play again until after Christmas.

If you look back to Dec 21st this exact same thing happened: a complete collapse.

Shit, balls, ass!

Merry Christmas.

Banging my chips against a brickwall.

2007-12-19T19:18:00.000Z

Profit: $15

Ahhh, it's not that bad actually. The last week just hasn't been going as well as recent previous weeks.

I've just had a rather frustrating 700 hand session in which I won a buyin relatively quickly, only to spend the next three hours handing handing little bits back in missed draw and calling small pots on the river and losing. Nothing too damaging at all, I just felt as though there was little I could do. Then I had KK, raised, got called in one spot and then raised by a fairly loose player. Aces did come into my head but I pushed anyway. He didn't call immediatly which pleased me. With the timer running out he called a full stack with 66. A six peeled off on the turn. Nice.

They say that cash room sessions are often determined by your premium hands and today seemed to be the case. I lost another hand (about half a stack with KK) when the board was QXXX with three diamonds. I had the K diamond and pushed a short stack in for the rest of his chips (maybe $1.5 into a $4 pot) and he showed AQ diamonds - make a note of this, it's not often I get it in drawing dead, lol. AK also lost me some money as well.

I did, however, show good tilt control. After my KKs got sucked out I carried on playing and was even for those hands. I did have a hand which I raised with QQ (4x standard raise) and was put all in for $6. I simply decided to fold it not knowing anything about the player and deciding the only hand he could have that would make me happy was jacks.

After all this I was down $5 for the session. I would have been up $15 if my KKs would have held. I have to be delighted with this sort of outcome considering the beat and the fact I don't think I played that great.

Poker Grapher is saying that at one point I was up $46 this week so I'm obviously on a little bit of a slide at the moment. But at the same time I've played and made a bit on Carbon poker, which Poker Tracker doesn't track at all, and continued to build my bankroll on betfair, which Poker Tracker doesn't track very well. I've turned my Betfair account from $8 to $74 (in about three weeks) so far. Nice one.

Just one more story. I was playing a bit of live poker with my friend (not for money, just for a laugh) and we played a hand where the board read something like Q92Q6 (no flush). I can't quite remember how the betting had played out but my friend made a bet on the river and I said to him, "I know exactly what your hand is. It's A9."

I folded and he showed A9.

It's only really a minor thing but it was satisfying to note how I deconstructed the hand in my head and called his hand. I'm doing the same thing over and over again online so it just reinforces what I believe in myself. While I still think I have a lot to learn about player reads and agression, reading individual hands is something I excel at.

Bankroll Building

2007-12-12T10:35:00.000Z

Profit: As much as $50

In the last three weeks or so I have felt on top on my game.

Variance probably has something to do with it. I probably am running good, but when it's like this you always prefer to think that you're playing well. And I am playing very well.

I know I'm playing very well because I'm always getting my money in good and I can only remember getting stacked once during the last couple of weeks when I overplayed top pair/King kicker after being influenced by some pokerace stats that were not working properly. Other than that, my money has been going in good and I only lose a portion of my stack when I get a bad beat.

Perhaps it's the volume of hands I'm playing at, or the simple fact that I've played so many hands. Either way I seem to know exactly where I am in 95% of the hands I played at the moment. I've been playing small-pot poker making small raises and information bets pre-flop and on the flop to keep the pots small. Then, on the turn and river, I capitalise on mistakes with perfectly weighted value bets and deceptive weak bets that disguise the strength of my hands.

Again, through the sheer volume of hands played I can fold KKs when an A flops and I get raised and not be bothered about it at all. I can fold straights to flushes, I can fold flushes to full boats. I can fold overpairs to seemingly innocuous boards. Ignore the cards, variance and such forth, my situational reading has improved tremendously over the last month or so. My session discipline is getting better and better too. With the benefit of a large screen to play on, I can comfortably four table now. It stops me getting bored and prevents from making flashy, unnecessary moves. And because I get into more situations it makes those hard laydowns easier to stomach because I know it's likely I'll find a better spot in 5/10/15 minutes' time.

Bankroll management, as ever, is great. The problem this year is that I've withdrawn from the accounts and not reinvested back into poker. This has left the bankroll hovering around $4o0 so I've found it difficult to convince myself to take shots. Since August, however, I've kept the bankroll circulating around different accounts and it's now swelled to around $750 in total (spread across about five sites).

I'm still testing the waters of various sites and have found:

Full Tilt to be pretty good because there are always tables to be found and the software is excellent. The rake is harsh however.

Pokerstars to be completely pointless at microstakes.

888 (pacific) to be a lovely fish pond in the evenings

Betfair to be pretty juicy (but the software still makes my macbook fan go wild).

Carbon Poker to be lacking enough players and delivering earlier bad beats.

PKR to be very juicy, I doubled up within five hands of playing on the start, but the software to be insufferable.

I'm going to continue to look for site and will eventually consolidate my bankroll into my favourite sites and start to look at permanently going up to higher game level.

Despite (what I considered) to be three solid months of bad beats, I'm running at about 15-17% ROI on sngs and a 6-10BB per 100 hands rate on cash rooms. From what I read elsewhere, the very fact I beat the rake at microstakes is good going.

I think it might be fair to say that after two years of playing poker at a very casual level, I know the basics and can hold my own.

Stick that in your bad beat column and smoke it!

2007-12-03T00:03:00.001Z

Profit: $17

KK
Raise pot.
Two callers.
Flop is 555
I bet just under pot (about 90c)
Min raised
Call by other player.
I reraise to $5
Both call, first player now all in.
Turn is a 2
I shove for remaining $2
Second player calls.
First player shows KJ
Second player shows A8.
River 5.
Lose pot of about $27

Meh.

Earlier on in the session (different table) I shoved preflop with the rockets and was called by AK and JQ and my hand held up so it's not all bad.

$27 though, on that. Wow.

Swings and roundabouts

2007-12-02T13:10:00.000Z

Profit: $30-40 (not sure though, could be less).

Who hasn't used this headline in a poker blog?

I want to describe to you a session I've had this morning that sums up the way my poker has been going for the last couple of weeks.

I started playing on carbon poker and got 56. I limped in and the flop came 556. I checked and one player bet with about 30bb. I decided to just smooth call him until the river to try and get his stack. Turn blank, river K, all in, I call. He has KK. Fair enough, that's a beat but not a terrible one. I don't think either of us was folding from the flop onwards so I was destined to lose the money.

A little later on I get 1010 and raise. Two callers. Flop is nine high, not draw heavy. I bet and am raised. The raiser seems to be fishy and likely to over value top pair so I guess at something like A9. I re-pop for most of his stack (about $6) and he goes all in. I call and he has 79. He gets runner-runner straight. The table immediately empties. Nice.

Feeling quite aggrieved at the $13 loss, but not tilted, I head over to Full Tilt (irony and all that). After 10 minutes I flop set over set and stack a player for $9. Then I flop another a set of 8s and get it all in with someone who's flopped a straight - the board was something like 89j rainbow so when he re-raised my raise I should have figured he had the flopped straight but I guess my judgement was clouded by the huge pots I'd already played. I was in a bit of stubborn 'well I'm not folding a set' mood. Anyway, the turn is a J so I fill up and stack someone for another $10. A little after that I call a shortstack's all in with AK. He has 88 and I lose $2.50 - coming from my SNG experience I should know better than to race because I never seem to win them.

I think I flopped another three sets after that but didn't get paid off on any of them. For the 40 minute session I finished up about $4.

Everytime I start a session I get heavy beats and end up $10-20 down but I then go on a tear and end up in profit for the session. This was one of the less volatile days. Yesterday I was $20 in the red at one point but ended up by $16. It's not that I'm gambling much either. The lucky boat that I got today was a rarity in that I was behind. I would say that 90% of the time I'm getting my money in as a 3/2 favourite. I just seem to be playing a lot of big pots recently. Obviously this is due to my table selection which has improved. I'm actively seeking at the tables where I can trap players. I'm not saying that I'm just waiting for the nuts. I'm getting in there with suited gappers and playing weaker hands in position. I'm playing hands that will crush the players with top pairs who just can't fold. I'm reading situations well and reading players pretty accurately too. I think I've definitely added something my game in recent weeks.

It's annoying that I always seem to start with a downswing but it has helped me to disconnect from short-term events. Before I'd have to stop if I lost a buy in. Now I just go 'meh' and carry on without tilting. As long as I think I have an edge at the table and the cards aren't screwing me over (sometimes you just have to quit if you've been outdrawn four or five times in a row) I'll stay in the room because I know I'll eventually be a winner in the game.

I know I said a couple of months ago that if I ever started playing on micro-limit cash games you should shoot me but I think it is my best game - at the time I was just pissed off with poker in general. I can hold my own in sngs and have profitted from them but too often it comes down to having to go all in on the bubble with overs versus a pair. They don't allow for patience which I have in abundance.

Moving onto a slightly different topic. I'm starting to realise the value of rakeback now. I've been playing carbon poker and betfair where I get rakeback and even at these small limits it's nice to get a further 2-3% edge on the tables. Unfortunately I already have accounts at Full Tilt and 888 where I make most of my cash room profits so I can't benefit from rakeback. I've been looking for other sites which might offer it. I quite fancy a party poker client site (I already have a PP account). The trouble is finding sites with lots of players at the lower limits that I can play at. If anyone has ideas, suggestions I'd be open to them. Thanks.

I've recorded another video, one that illustrates perfectly my crazy recent sessions but I'm trying to find the best way to compress it into a smaller file.

One last thing. Is it impossible to make money at pokerstars? I've been playing in there micro rooms for a couple of months now and am down maybe $10 or so. I find it an immensly difficult place to play at. Maybe the micro limits are full of sharks.

Videos!

2007-11-28T20:40:00.000Z

Loss: $5 (ish)

I did videos ages ago with my friend. Sadly he went bust and I never got the hang of doing recordings on other poker sites (than Bodog). Now I've got myself a cable that allows me to play poker on a huge screen, thus lowering the resolution and being able to make recordings at about 100mb for every 30 minutes.

And so, without further delay here is my first video. It's a test video rather than something to do deep strategy about. Comments would be very welcome on quality. A couple of interesting hands but nothing spectacular.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FZ10IQ4L

Enjoy.

Played loads and loads

2007-11-23T23:12:00.000Z

Profit: about $50

I've put in the hours recently and I think I've been playing quite well.

I wouldn't say the deck has hit me in the face but I would say that I've not had many setup hands as I haven't been stacked for a while. I've had to throw in some pretty big laydowns but I've been playing on a site (carbon poker) where you can show your folds. Often when I do show a big fold they seem to think its courtesy to show me, and if not that they want to rabbit.

I'm being proved right more than I'm being proved wrong which is pleasing as I've always wondered if I am too tight. I probably am too tight pre-flop and on the flop - I don't think I raise enough - but I know how to put bets in to get information I need about whether my hand is bad. I'm never sure if it's good but I know when I'm bad.

I also found $8 in my betfair account and ran that up to $40 before suffering some set backs. I had a session on Wednesday when I just missed every single draw. I got frustrated and push with K8 on a K89 board after the guy min-raised my flop bet. I should have called and check-folded the turn because it was an unraised pot so I had no idea what he had. On Thursday I got nailed again. In one hand I had AKh, two callers called my re-raise and the flop came JQX with two hearts (wasn't royal draw). I bet out on the flop and they both called. Then my connection cut and I got back in to find they had both gone all in with a 9 on the turn. It was $2 to call into a $12; one of those horrible situations where I have to call knowing my chances are slim. Of course I missed.

Immediately after that I went on a card rush and won all the money back through what was aggressive and slightly tilted play. Then I got JJ, raised and got reraised all in. $7 call after I had invested $0.35. Stupidly I called and he flipped over Aces obviously. I guess I was just caught up in my rush and felt invincible. Straight after I went on another card rush and recovered some but not all of the money. I'm down to $23 on betfair. Maybe I should just do what Gniz suggested and take a shot with it - although there isn't much to take a shot with. lol!

Played on Full Tilt today and had 109 early on. A couple of limpers so I raised pot and got one caller. Flop came 109x. He bet, I raised to $3 and he went all in. I called and he showed A4 and missed what almost became a runner-runner flush. Raising limpers is something I rarely do. Partly because I haven't got the balls to do it with trash but mostly because in 10nl everyone calls the reraise anyway. But I've been watching more tutorial videos and have been learning stuff like this. Also check-calling with tp out of position and calling with bottom-middle pairs in position is something I've picked up.

After that hand I went on a good run. In one table I kept getting shoved out of hands. But for once my patience paid when I flopped a set of 5s and allowed the aggressive player to his stuff and donate his stack to me. A lot of other hands hit too and I went on a bit of heater. Played well, avoided some tough spots and got value from my hands. Read situations quite well too. I ran up a $30 session.

It's pleasing to know I can earn money in a short space of time when I get good cards. The struggle is the period in between when I go card dead and I spend ages dropping $10 because I can't get anything going.

I've really been concentrating on table selection in the past couple of weeks, choosing the tables with the highest avg pot and % of players to the flop. The idea being that I purposely play like a nit and hope to win the big pots. It's been going ok but when I get into the rooms the tables aren't always as choatic as the stats suggest (sometimes I suspect betfair bases its stats off one hand). I'll have to try the same in rooms with small avg pots and % players to the flop and play agressively in them.

Generals points for the rest of the year:

Keep playing single tables while watching tutorial vids. I pick up some useful tips and the poker keeps me interested during deads bits of the video.

Be more agressive and loose in position. Raise with 108s and the like on the button. My strength is getting away from danger spots so I should be capable of playing these hands to win big pots. Also call raises in position with hands like this.

Make a note of every minimum raiser and check-raiser. I hate these types of players and need to make sure I don't give them money on c/bets.

Going all in pre/flop with AA is still very profitable. I can either take six out of seven pots pre/flop or on the flop with aggressive small pot poker - and lose a big pot when the rockets get outdrawn - or go all in preflop all the time and get the idiots calling with 77, AK and so on and win a huge pot every 10 times or so. Unless I know some maniac is going reraise me preflop and then call my all-in reraise, the safest and most profitable options seems to be to just go all in. I should probably do the same with KKs as I bet the statistic would be the same, but the thought of someone calling me with AK and hitting that A... enough to make the blood tingle.

There are probably some more points I could make and I probably will do in a later blog, but I'm tired and I've alread typed a lot.

One last thing. I've tried doing some video recordings on the macbook of my games but the fan always goes crazy and the voice sync is terrible and never works. Can anyone suggest a recording program that works? Camtasia and Camstudio don't do the trick.

PokerRoad Forum

2007-11-14T22:41:00.001Z

I've been a big fan of poker radio shows The Circuit, Pokerwire Radio and now PokerRoad and I was lucky enough to get an e-mail read out on the show about forums. They're looking for fans to start up a forum so I'm trying to get one going at http://pokerroad.mybb2.com/. If you're a fan please sign up and spread the word.

Now, onto my poker.

Loss: $10-15

I've not played much at all. Two weeks ago I played a hand where I limped in with A6. Flopped the nut flush draw on a J10x board. I call flop bet and complete my flush on the turn. I check it round (three players). River is a 10. First player makes a pot bet, next player goes all in for about $8 (10NL) and I call without thinking. As soon as I call I know he has J10 and I get stacked. I was barely paying attention to the game (watching telly and chip riffling) so I knew at that point I needed a rest from it.

Took a week off and came back a couple of days ago. Not playing much though. I'm actually only playing one game at a time while watching tutorial videos because I think my game has just hit a road block and I don't think I'm learning anything. Managed to run up $15 quickly on sit and gos but lost half of it playing today with a couple of standards beats followed by very poor play. No complaints really. The damage was done a couple of weeks ago when I suffering from the second nuts syndrome in cash rooms. I also hand some spots where I had reads on players and knew exactly how to stack them but never got the cards to it. A lot of players overvaluing top pair. Problem is I haven't been able to beat top pair since May and when I do they have the boat, flush etc. Frustrating times.

Bankroll is still very healthy. I have 100+ buyins for the sit n gos I currently play at and 20+ buyins for 10NL cash rooms. I know now that I'm not going to hit my target of $1000 profit for the year but I can also be content with the fact that I'm having a winning year - even if it is for little or no money. I reckon I've probably earned enough to pay for the macbook I bought (although I paid only £300/$600 for it). I've not spent any of my own money on poker at all this year except for a £5 subscription to Poker Player magazine and some 60p requests for poker books at the library.

I could really do with going on a heater for a month or so to get my confidence back up. I'm loving observing the game (watching, reading, listening) but hate playing at the moment.

Sometimes poker isn't very fun.

2007-10-31T10:55:00.000Z

Loss: about $25

I've been going through another spell of nothing working at the moment so that's why I'm not blogging much because it's broken record material.

In summary I've only been getting action with the near nuts when the other guy has the nuts(e.g. getting having the 10 on a 5510X5 board against an aggressive pusher but, on this occasion, had the 5... having 44 and making a c/bet on a 932 board, turn brings a 4 and I get the money in only to find the other player had 99) or having the nuts and getting no action.

I've tried going into each session saying to myself "really concentrate and make notes and play aggressive" but it only take one cooler hand like the above to set me into defensive passive mode.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still following the poker scene and enjoying the return of Joe Sebok and crew at pokerroad.com, but my own poker seemed to hit a road block this summer and hasn't moved since.

May take an extended break from the blogging. But, as any poker enthusiasts knows (who isn't busto), I'll be back.

If you were wondering why I hate pokerstars....

2007-10-18T22:32:00.000Z

Loss: $15

...here's the evidence.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1602523

I know all the danger signs about limping into pots etc. But this guy was a total fool, like the one last night and he'd overbet, or raised stupid amounts, for the past 4/5 pots. It was feel move, I got it right and I got punished.

It's a $20 swing hand so I shouldn't be showing such a big loss at all.

I know these guys fund my poker but it's bloody annoying when you have a shit session and then have it finish like that.

Stats, figures and graphs

2007-10-18T20:15:00.000Z

Profit: $8

Thought you might like to see some of my graphs and comment on them. Obviously not played nowhere near enough hands yet, but still, they're looking alright.

Position wise and hand strength seems to be pretty much perfect yet I still don't feel as though I'm playing that well or getting enough good cards. Ho-hum.

Generally quiet

2007-10-18T17:27:00.000Z

Profit: $10 (ish)

I'm putting a student newspaper together again at the moment so I've not had much time to play poker, but what I have played has been generally boring.

I put some money on Carbon Poker. Having played on similar software at poker.com and liking it, plus a rakeback and (alleged) bonus (which never materialised scheme I thought I might find the place nice to play at

The software is pretty good. You can rabbit hunt and show cards when you fold, which is especially useful for showing Phil Hellmuth-esque laydowns. The hope is that fish will just try to run me over when I do that but I know when to trap when that happens. On the bad side, the betting slider is a bit naff and the all in button is to close to the bet button (not hit it by accident yet but I could see it happening).

The worse thing, though, is that there's not much traffic, especially at my levels, so I'm having to be extremely selective in my games. I'm up about $13 on there since I started playing.

I put a little bit more money into Pokerstars too to give it a chance but I've not had much go for me. Very flop dead during the 750 or so hands I've played. I've had quite a few big hands run into bigger hands too.

I was on the verge of withdrawing last night when I went into a room with a maniac who had the deck smash him in the face for an hour. Early on one player was going in all the time. When 10 10s came along I naturally called but so did the maniac player going all in for his last $5. Board was X7Kx8X. All in player had AK and the maniac had 78. For the next hour he ran his stack up to $55 with unbelievable play; calling every draw and hitting it. I was desperate to get some money off him and I finally did when I pushed with AQ on 24Q board. He called with 46. Then I raised with AA, he re-raised so I pushed and he called with 77.

That got my stack up to $26 and then the maniac left - he dusted the rest of his chips off in a .25/.50 game. I was just leaving the table when I got A10 of clubs. Rasied it preflop and got one caller. Flop came 776 with two clubs. I bet he called. Turn an offsuit 8, check, check. River was J clubs I think. I can't remember who had position so I'm not sure if I raised his bet or he raised me. Either way he raised me up to about $4 to call. Alarms bells went off so I didn't put him all in and elected to call. He showed 88.

I think I played the hand ok and paid him off the minimum. I'm trying to work out whether I should have put a bet in on the turn but my instincts were spot on on the river with the board paired. That's what Pokerstars has been like for me so far: cooler city.

I'm not annoyed nor fed up though. Just a quiet phase of poker playing.

Blogger tourney and crap sites

2007-10-14T20:08:00.000Z

PROFIT: $5

I am no longer registered in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker because I had 87 and flopped 6910 with two diamonds. One player bet, another raised so I shoved for 11,000 chips (started with 10,000 with 25/50 blinds). One player called with 85 diamonds and two more diamonds came on turn and river. I probably should have just called the raise in case a diamond rolled off or the board paired. The blinds were only 50/100 so I didn't really need to make a move. But I was the favourite with a chance of getting 25k. I was watching Top Gear too so I wasn't really paying attention.

This is why I rarely ever play MTT because I never get very far in them. I've not been running good enough to go deep in a tournament like that. In fact, I haven't cashed in an MTT for a year - and that was when I won a $2 rebuy event without rebuying.

Poker's been pretty lame in general to be honest. I've not been playing much and when I have I've been general card dead. I occasional win a big pot when I flop a set or somebody goes all in when I have aces, but I'm not playing interesting pots. A lot of the time I raise preflop, make a continuation bet when I miss the flop completely, get called and then my opponent shoves all in on the turn. The flip side is when I flop a monster with 17 people in the pot and they all fold to my continuation bet. It's just boring basically.

I'm not being helped by the sites I play at at the moment either. My connection always cuts out on BODOG so I've withdrawn all my money from there. The new software on 888 is absolutely terrible so I went back to the old software which has been fine. But today I've gone only to find a handful of 5/10 cents games which are full with 30+ people waiting to get on them. Weird.

I tried Betfair and did ok on there, but again the software is poor. The Cashier is web-based which makes it difficult to access finances instantly. Also, the table do auto pop-up which is really annoying. When I turned that off I kept missing hands on other tables. I've sacked it off.

My options are to put some money back in Pokerstars but when I've played there I've suffered crazy beats - I had two A-high flushes walk into straight flushes and a full house get nailed by quads within the space of 100 hands. I also hate the way that when you go all in in cash rooms the opponent's cards aren't turned over until the end of the hand. Also the software feels clunky and primitive. But this is the biggest poker site so, I assume, it has the most fish. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

Blogger Tourney

2007-10-13T20:42:00.001Z

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7040378

It's been going well.... except for today

2007-10-09T16:44:00.000Z

Profit: $20-30 (?)

Again the figures are close to a complete guess because I've not been logging my results as I should do. I have set up poker tracker on my macbook, though, so when I get enough figures I'll start posting them.

The figures were looking very good until today. I would say that for the last week I've been crushing the cash room tables using my new tight/aggressive style. I don't think I had any more red-hot decks but I have been getting maximum value from my hands most of the time.

What I've been learning most over the past week is using a raise as a defensive move. For example, I might raise with top pair no kicker or a draw because, if the player calls I often get to see the river for free. That way I get two chances at my draw and I can put my opponent on a hand if he checks the turn.

So everything was going great until today, sadly. I can't really describe one thing in particular, everything went wrong. It started with this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1568333

For some reason I just convinced myself someone had an overset. I guess by folding I thought I was trying to showoff a huge laydown to myself. Instead I just looked stupid - to myself of course, no one saw what I had. I know this sounds arrogant but I guess my thinking was just above the table. I honestly thought one of them had me utterly crushed.

From then on it was terrible.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1568340

Again I was over thinking this one. Why would he go all in without knowing what action I was going to take on the flop? He got excited and pushed. My reason for calling? I thought he might have a pair with an open-ender or/and a flush draw. This isn't a bad beat hand and it can't really be a cooler because the opponent gave me all the info I needed with his push.

I had loads of these finicky hands (not quite as extreme as that) where I was getting check raised or people were calling the flop and then pushing/big betting the turn. I never got anything better than a pair (when the pots were worth contesting) so I had to fold, fold, fold.

Looking back on my stats the most amount of money I lost in a single hand was $5 in a 25NL. I wasn't getting stacked, I wasn't getting my money in bad, I wasn't getting sucked out on (much, AA, KK and KK got cracked for $3ish a time), I just wasn't getting the right cards or the right situations. I've never known a time where I've played ok and not tilted yet lost so much. I lost $30 which was really frustrating.

Despite that, I've had a good couple of weeks and I'm pleased with my game generally. At least I lost money making laydowns rather than bad calls and bad beats.

The important thing is to react to this in a positive manner during my next couple of sessions.

More outrageous hot decks.

2007-10-02T20:29:00.001Z

Profit: $30

So I had 15 hands of monster cards a couple of days ago. Yesterday I had 30 minutes of crazy stuff, but not before a set back.

Over the weekend I got my bankroll over a magical figure and decided to up my sit and go stakes from $2 to $5. I was determined to play at those stakes for at least ten buy ins to see if I could compete at that level. Sadly, in the two games I played I was totally card dead and never stood a chance. I played really well in both of them and had this had which I was particularly proud of.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544152

I don't know how I came out of that hand with any chips at all. I thought I controlled the pot well and managed to fold superbly at the end when the odds to call were crazy.

I stuck around in that game and it took a nasty KQ v KJ beat to knock me out.

After not cashing in either game without ever having a chance my confidence was a bit down. It was further knocked by a $2 sit and go where I'd murdered silly players going all in only to see my KK get cracked by JJ.

But then, after I decided to try out my new tight/aggressive style on cash rooms, this lot happened.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544174
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544183
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544186 - the dream situation. I didn't have to do any work!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544195
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544198

Now I'm not for one moment saying I played any of those hands well - with the exception of the K 10 hand when I had a good read on the player and worked out, correctly, that if he was only calling he had a weak king - they all played themselves. But I did complain about all the bad beats I've taken over the last six weeks so I have to record the good cards too. Mind you, I'm not sucking out on anyone, I'm playing the maths and my new found aggression. Again it helped that all these were in cash rooms which really maximised the profit I could make from them.

For once, I have nothing to complain about :)

Running well but playing some of my best poker

2007-09-30T11:09:00.000Z

Profit: about $25

I've just had a hand where my 1010 ran into AA and I ended up with a straight, so there are one or two suckouts (but really only one or two). No where near the number I need to pull up along side the rubbish I've had for six weeks, though.

My general play, however, is about the best I've ever played. I seem to be able to dissect hands to the detail and have a pretty good idea what decisions I'm going to make on the turn and the river - an area I've believed I've struggled with in the past. My aggressive betting tells me where I am and what to do next.

Also, I've been learning the art of when to fold big reraises now. I could have 4,000 chips raise with A 10, get reraised all in by some guy with about 1,200 chips and realise it's probably right to fold. No limping in, flopping middle pair and then having to call the min raise or all in. Preflop and flop aggression is a lot less expensive than turn betting by which time you're hand is well defined anyway - no more calling all ins with 12 outs and missing.

I'm playing positional and strong hole cards aggressive which gives off an image of me being a bully, what they don't realise is that I know when to fold and in the long run, if I get the right hand I will trap them. I just had a game where I had 4,000 chips and kept limping and making small raises to the big blind. He kept coming over the top with huge raises and bets that were clearly bluffs. I limping in with AK, flopped the king, bet, he did a big reraise and I got all his money.

Perhaps the most satisfying of all is the fact that I'm making the right decisions and the cards have been holding up. I'm no longer losing every single race and when I'm 70/30 favourite I actually win 70% of the time.

I can't ask the cards to stay running good, but I've forced myself to play a much improved style of poker. Gone (I hope) are the bad old days of passive/aggression, tight/aggression is far, far better. The last three or four days have been enjoyable poker, even including some cash room success. And in all honesty I deserve this and a whole lot more.

Six weeks of bad beats followed by 15 hands of awesomeness...

2007-09-27T22:32:00.000Z

Profit: $20

In the space of 15 hands I had JJ, AA, KK, 99 turn into quads, and 9 10 flop a straight. Obviously with cards like that you're going to make money and I did. I was playing in a cash room so I was able to maximise the profit because people simply didn't believe I was on such a rush of cards. Neither did I.

After making $16 from those hands I still found time to get smashed over the head with a bad beat. With AJ on a flop of Jx10x I got all of a short-stack's money in. He called off half of what he had left on the turn with K10. Obviously a 10 on the river. I lost about $5 on that hand.

Sit and gos have been going well, today at least. With my tight aggressive play I know exactly where I am in every hand. Case in point. Raise with KQ and get one caller. I am in position on every street so with a board of QXX with three spades I fire on the flop and turn and get called both times. I know he has the nut flush draw and I get him to put half his stack in when a spade rolls off on the river. He checks to me. Does he think I'm an idiot or something? I check and of course he has the Ace of spades, five of clubs.

I'm feel like I am playing close to my A game and today I've recovered all of yesterday's bad beats. That's part of the problem though; I'm always having to recover rather than take strides forward.

Just want to give a shout out to gniz whose comments I appreciate and welcome on my blog. You're right about the variance and I take solace from the fact that, so far, my variance has resulted in a flatline, rather than a downswing.

And as if I needed to underline the point

2007-09-26T22:24:00.000Z

First hand in a sit and go.

I have KK and go all in because people think it's a maniac just trying to be funky. I get the call I want from 66s. I'm delighted to see a 6-ball come on the turn.

No, really, I am. It shows I've played the hand perfectly, and got fucked perfectly. Again.

The ownage continues.

2007-09-26T21:49:00.000Z

No change (maybe slightly up or down).

The cards on me that is, not me on the game.

After my tirade during the last blog, I decided to really focus on my game. I thought, maybe it's not the cards, maybe it's my attitude that causes me to play bad and blame it on the cards.

The immediate return was pretty good. I cashed in a couple of tables and felt really confident about my game. I could count the number of mistakes on a single hand (a couple of zero plays where I would raise before the flop, a short stack would call, check the flop to me and then reraise my pot bet all in with a typical trap move. I could save money by just betting a third of the pot to get the same result). But these were minor errors and my strategy of tight aggression with good cards and positional plays, something I've not done much of in the past was working very well. I put about $20 on my bankroll. Not much but I was more happy with the game I've been playing. I've actually enjoyed the last couple of days playing poker which is a first in something like six weeks.

Sadly any work on my bankroll has just been completely undone by the cards (yet again) completely) owning me. Because I've been playing tight and aggressive, making raises and bets and reraises I've been having a pretty good idea where I've been in hands. Today the cards have just been pounding me; people coming over the top of me and doing sly min raises on my semi-bluff c/bets. I know I'm behind and I've been folding a hell of lot today when I know I'm beat.

A classic example was having AQ. I raised it on the button with one caller. Flop was Qxx. I put in an aggressive 3/4 bet which is called. Turn is a king and an quick check by the villan. I know he has the best had now and we check down and he shows K7. I've noticed that, with me raising a lot more preflop I'm getting called by trash. Sadly, if they hit their cards and you know they're not going to fold there's not much you can do.

In five games today this pretty much happened so I was forced to fold into short stack mode. Each time I nursed it superbly into the bubble but could never progress from there.

And now, just to rub more salt into the wound, I flopped a straight, managed to get all the money in with two players - one with a flush draw and the other with two pair. Obviously the guy filled up (this scenario has actually happened twice in the last three days). And then, knowing that my raise with AK is going to make some fishy idiot go all in, I get three outered by the lovely A7. I called the situation exactly but my pessimistic prediction was right again, I knew he would hit his out. Maybe I need to start preaching the law of attraction. I'm now on a seven game cashless streak.

In summary I've think I've been playing close to the 'zone', probably making the right decision 90% of the time. Unfortunately that's still not good enough for a player still serving drinks ice cold.

I Can't Even Think of a Good Headline

2007-09-22T11:50:00.000Z

Loss: $20 approx.

I've haven't been blogging because poker has been fucking awful. I'm drawn to such foul language because I've been on the receiving end of three months of bad variance which has just culminated in the following beats in three sit and gos.

All the money goes in with my set of eights against a set of fives. Five rolls off on the river.

All the money goes in with my A7 versus KQ on a AXX board. Basically he needs runner, runners. K on turn and river.

My AQ v AJ to basically decide the bubble (this was in the room where I'd been one outered and managed to recover brilliantly. Money goes in preflop and Jack rolls off.

A10 v 82 all in preflop. The guy gets a four card flush.

AQ v K10 all in preflop. Two kings on the flop.

Some of these aren't massive bad beats but they add to the massive, huge, un-fucking-believable ones at the top of the list. Amazingly I still managed to cash in one of them. A second place that means I only lost $2 from the three games. But that's all that happens at the moment: have a series of bad beat games, scrap into the money a couple of times with no chance of winning it and then have maybe one or two games on the spin where I get my money in horribly, suck out and go on to win. This isn't the poker I signed up for. The only comfort I get is that my bankroll is still frozen in the same place - with the exception of playing some cash rooms and losing $1 or $2 by playing passively, looking for a big hand.

That's been the story since the middle of July now (bar three days or so when the cards were average and the winning hand actually held up). I'm always getting my money in good lose most of the time. Even worse, whenever I get my money in on a coin flip (usually because escalating blinds cause a pocket pair v overcards situation) I go in and expecting to lose and I do. Trying to be as objective as I can I think my race ratio at the moment is more like a 4:1 dog.

I've tried to analyse my game and see where I was going wrong but it's extremely difficult to do when the deck is just crushing your nuts constantly. All I could find was that calling isn't working - mainly because I never hit my draws, I honestly can't remember the last time I called a draw with the right odds and actually connected, meaningfully anyway. As a result I've adopted a fold or bet/raise strategy. I'd like to say it's made a difference but 70% of the time I get knocked out on bad beats anyway so I simply have no idea.

Anyone who has been reading my blogs will know that I always try to analyse my game when a bad beat has occured to see if I missed a bet, slow played in the wrong fashion etc, but at the moment I can't do that. Poker literally has broken me.

I can't even blame it on one site even. After suffering beat after beat on Full Tilt I played on 888 after months without bothering and the same was happening on there. Even worse, the deck was taunting me. I fold 82o only for the board to come 888 with people getting all their money in. Full houses, flushes and so on, all coming when I've folded trash. And when I do play a hand I get stacked with K10 when the board is K7XXK and the other guy has K7.

It's impossible to think about taking shots, reading books or adopting new strategies at the moment. Variance is just crushing my game, my luck and my confidence completely.

Can I hope that this one outered I've just suffered is a turning point?

Not bloody likely.

Fuck poker, fuck it up its stupid little ass!

Alive and well but too much negativity in my game.

2007-09-13T21:08:00.000Z

Loss: $15-20 (not sure as I've not been keeping records)

I've not been blogging much for two reasons.

Firstly, I've been putting together a student newspaper for the last two weeks and it's just been solid. Very much a grind if you will.

Secondly, the good run you saw on my graph ended pretty much with that blog. I've been getting three and two outed a hell of a lot recently and I just can't be bothered talking about it because it doesn't get me anywhere. The last twenty to thirty games have been the worst of them all so far. Look, I'm moaning already.

I just don't feel as though is worth playing at the moment. I get unlucky, take a break hoping that things will be better the next day but they're not and it's been like that for three months now (bar about three weeks where I've made all my money - about $100).

I'll keep playing and I'll keep blogging but things right now are as shite as they can be.

He who doesn't dare...

2007-09-02T18:39:00.000Z

Profit: in the region of $30-$50

I've have waited a whole month; about 150 games and somewhere approaching 50 hours. The cards have been as tough as I can ever remember and the bad beats have been numerous and soul-destroying. Yet, throughout this whole period not once have I considered upping the stakes nor tilt my money off in some other silly way. I've studied my game, when it's been worth studying, and I have made slight adjustments. By not daring, waiting for the variance to turn around and by just playing the best poker I could play, I lost no money through the worst period of poker I have ever endured.

Things were starting to turn around when I last blogged and things have been exceptional ever since. I'm getting decent cards and, importantly, when the money's gone in I've been ahead, even more importantly, the cards have been holding up - like they should do. In terms of strategy I've been going more with my reads and instinct and dropping the hammer when I don't think people have me beat. So if they bet and I have top pair or a draw and I think I'll be ahead I'll either raise them massively or go all in. They may be able to outdraw me, but I'm making sure it costs them their tournament to do it.

As the graph shows. I've been very, very patient with my bankroll management. Merely grinding to keep it at the same level. Now I'm on a bit of a tear so I'm starting to up the stakes a bit. I've played a couple of $5 games and cashed in them.

I think I realised things had turned around when this happened. I called a minimum re-raise with K10 spades to see a flop of AQJ of spades. The other guy went all in.

This is my reward for playing awesome poker over the last month. Not in terms of cards or return on investment, but in terms of ultimate patience.

Trying different games.

2007-08-26T22:14:00.000Z

Profit: $22

It's been better, I can say that. The cards have started to improve a little and I am playing a hell of a lot better.

I've changed tact a little, putting in half pot bets instead of 3/4 pot bets just to minimise how much I lose when people check-raise me (which is either a symptom of these sorts of sit and gos or it's just happening a lot to me) and I've started dropping the hammer a bit more. When I decide someone doesn't have it I push all in or raise a big amount. So much of my frustration and lack of progress in recent weeks has been because people have been hitting their inside straight draws or the boards brought all the cards I don't want to see. I mean, I know you want people to call you when given incorrect odds, but at the moment I just need some confidence boosts by winning pots and building chips.

Looking at the recent comments I've made about my games, most of the times I've not cashed have been due to bad beats so at least I can say I'm playing better. I've not been bubbling much either. Out of the last 20 games I've only bubbled three times (cashed in 13 of those).

So, yeah, things are improving. But only slightly and I don't feel confident enough yet to up my stakes.

In the meantime I've been trying a new card game. It doesn't cost anything to play and is far more enjoyable than poker. It's freecell and I love the way it gets you thinking four/five/six moves into the future in order to solve the puzzle. And what's more, you get to see all the cards. Now that's a game I'd like to play!

Just a quick note. Very sad to hear about the demise of pokerwire. They did a radio show with Joe Stapleton, Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith which was just about the funniest radio show I've every listened to. It's about poker-life rather than hands or strategies and it evolved into something special. The Tom McEvoy arse-wiping story still brings a smile to my face even now. There are about 50 shows (loads from this year's WSOP) and they're well worth listening to. Download them, for free, at itunes.

And just one more thing. It's good to be back in the green!

It's been terrible

2007-08-22T13:05:00.000Z

Loss: $17

After that long-winded post on (whenever it was) I thought my luck was going to change. Unfortanately it's got even worse over the last three of four days.

I have played a lot of poker in these past few days and I've suffered a large number of two and three outers. And I've had barely any games where I've got above my starting stack.

But these are all old and often repeated stories now. Suffice to say it's been going very badly, at one point I hadn't won a sit and go in 27 attempts. I don't think I've ever gone on a run like that before.

I've tried to make changes, one of which was to change my avatar on Full Tilt from a smily fish to a hard-nosed dog. That didn't work obviously. Of course, the other suggestion when things aren't going your way is to try a different game or site. Well I tried a different site (bodog) and got even more outraged on there. I was flopping monster everywhere and winning the hands, the only problem was I wasn't in the hands because I kept getting disconnected. You wouldn't believe how annoying it is to hold AJ with a flop of AJX with someone reraising you and there's nothing you can do. Even though that was happening I came away only a dollar down.

In summary poker is shit at the moment and has been for the past month.

As T-100 said just before he was lowered into the steel: "I need a vacation."

Do the stakes really matter?

2007-08-15T20:20:00.000Z

Profit: $3

Prompted by a comment made in my previous log (I have been busy today, haven't I?) I wanted to discuss the stakes I currently play at.

I started playing with my own bankroll about a year ago. I started on $4 sit and gos. Now I'm on $2 sit and gos. In between I've won one MTT and played in cash rooms with as much as $50 of my bankroll on the table. So have I taken a step back in my poker progress? Well, let's look at some cold hard facts about my game.

I started with a bankroll of about $100 and over the course of three months I ran it up to about $500. At that point I started making proper entries into Poker Tourney Tracker and the stats are:

Total Buy-Ins: ($ 3043.85)
Total Gains: $ 3691.14
Net Gains: $ 647.29
Return On Investment: 21.3%

Take into account that the buy-ins figure won't be right because PTT doesn't track cash rooms properly. I've made about $200 on sngs and $400 on cash rooms, although I've played twice as much on cash rooms and are always gambling with more money. I would say that, in total, I've probably made about $1,000 playing poker over the last year (maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. I can't be sure because I didn't start tracking my winnings until last November).

The majority of these winnings have come from sit and gos of under $5 and $10 cash rooms. The biggest ever win was $130 in a MTT rebuy event (my only MTT cash to date). The biggest pot I've ever won is about $75 in a cash room. The most I've ever lost in a single day is about $40. These are the cold, hard facts of my poker game - it's small ball and it's hard work. Am I good player?

According to a comment posted on my blog, only 5% of poker players make any money. I read that it was closer to 20%. Either way, pure numbers tell me I'm a good player. And I'm now starting to realise that the best part of my game isn't the game at all, it's bankroll management. Since I started last year I've haven't gone broke once on any account where I've put in my own money. I've taken heavy hits and withdrawn all I've had left a couple of times, but never have I emptied an account through tilt, which, frankly, is the only way you'll truly bust yourself. I've rarely tried to chase losses on the same day and I can't remember once going into a higher stakes room after getting beaten up on the table. These last couple of weeks for example have been a real test of my discipline. My bankroll literally hasn't moved for two weeks despite a lot of play and I've been desperate to go up to higher rooms just to try and make something happen. But everytime I think about it I realise that if I do that I'm gambling rather than playing poker and that's where I think I have an edge - I'm just waiting for the variance to turn its circle.

The sad examples I look at are people like Bluescouse, the famous mad player whose blog, at times, makes you think it's all made up. Of course, the blog only tells a tiny story of his poker games (mostly pushing with 106 suited) but it is a masterpiece in bankroll management. He withdraws money and puts it back in on a daily basis. He continues to siphon funds from elsewhere until he's also dead. And then, all of a sudden, he makes a miraculous recovery and his bankroll is back up in the tens of thousands. People try to give him advice but, obviously, he's not going to take it; he seemingly has no concept of money.

If the bluescouse blog is true, there is no question that the ending will not be a fairytale one. The swings are too volatile and the player in question is more a gambler than a poker player. He may make 200k in six months or whatever, but in two years will he have made what I (a novice poker player) am likely to make, about $1,500?). The bookies would put me down as the favourite.

It might sound cocky to say that but in these last two or three months in which I've hit poker roadblocks, I've really begun to understand it's just as important to lose as little as you can as it is to win as much as you can. The poker friend I used to talk about is now bust and out of the game. He lost all the money he won and maybe a little bit more - I think he had the classic gambler's case of not admitting how much they've lost. His bankroll management, like Bluescouse's was terrible and he paid the ultimate price: his poker life. He says he won't return to the game and I hope he doesn't because he knows it could do a lot more damage to him next time (and, friend, if you're reading this, you know you shouldn't be. Poker isn't for you).

I'm comfortable playing for $2. If I stuck a zero on the end of that number I know my heart would start to race and I would make the wrong decision and, worst of all, I would gamble. It is going to take time but time is something every poker player has but doesn't realise. Every hand I play, every bet I make, every fold I make and every pot I scoop is just one small part of the puzzle. The most important thing of all is to make sure you can afford those pieces to the puzzle because, one day, you'll see the things and have the pieces most others don't have.

Please note this entry is subject to a huge edit when I realise how badly put together it is and how much waffle I've actually wrote.

A game in detail

2007-08-15T12:24:00.000Z

I'm just anting up for a sit and go now so I'm going to run through all the hands I play and try to analyse where I'm going right and where I'm going wrong. Please, chime in if you want. Table is 6 handed normal on FTP.

13.25: First hand, 72off. Nice easy decision.

13.27: KQ suited, raise to 80 (15/30) blinds. utg+1. Two callers. Flop is AJX with one spade. I might make a stab at this if there is only one other player. I'm drawing to four outs I would reckon (10) or runner runner spade for the flush. I check and guy bets pots (270). Easy fold.

13.29: A7off in sb. Min raised followed by called means (for 45 more chips) I would like to see the flop and maybe catch a monster. Nothing comes on flop and the same guy who bet pot last time does it again. I make note of it while folding. 1345 chips

13.33: Have 89o on button. Would raise but the BB is microstacked with 150 chips and I suspect he might just go all in if I raise. I call instead and he does go all in. I fold. 1315 chips

13.35: Blinds now moved up and the above three remain the only hands I've played. Earlier micro stack has had quads, flush and full house in three successive hands to go from 200 chips to 2400 chips

13.36: KQo on button. Raise to 120 and get reraised to 440 by aggressive guy to my left. He has lots of chips and for me to call it would take my stack down to 800 with 800 in the pot. I'm basically putting my tournament on the line out of position to a big stack if I call. I fold. 1100 chips. And again I feel short stacked and I haven't even played a hand yet.

13.38: Limp in with A4 and the flop comes AK4. I bet 100 into 120 pot and take it down. 1210 chips.

13.40: Aggressive guy to my left has been eliminated. We are down to four players. Stacks at 4.3k, 2.5k, 1.2k (me) and 900. Blinds 25/50. Fast game.

13.44 With the blinds now at 30/60 and me only having 1.1k. I feel I have one raise and bet move. After that I'm all in.

13.45: K2 on K78 board. Short stack bets pot which seems like a pot milking bet. I think about reraising but just can't do it. 865 chips - now the short stack on the table.

13.47: AA in sb. Pot raise called. K22 board. I think about checking but if he has a K he's going to put me all in whether I bet or check. I bet about 250 into 300 pot and take it down. 1,000 chips.

13.50: KJ. Call min raise by other short stack. Flop is 1024 all diamonds - my K is a diamond. He min bets (120) so I shove for about 850. I figure I'm in good shape against anything other than the diamond Ace. He folds. 1200 chips.

13.55: 88. I pot raise two limpers and take the pot. 1300 chips.

13.56: Blinds now at 50/100 with the table still roughly the same in terms of stacks. I raise pot with AQs and win uncontested.

13.57: 55 utg. I think about raising but don't want to have to call an all in. Instead I call and see a flop of K54 with everyone in it. I bet 300 into 400 pot. Nobody calls.

13.59: AKs on button. Raise it, am reraised. With 1k left I could fold but I don't reckon I'm going to get a better spot so I push. He calls with KQ. Board is 7J9105 which gives him a straight.

I'm out in forth having never been able to get above my starting stack and being unlucky when I get all my money in.

I don't think I could have commented on a better game to sum up how things are at the moment.

Bloggements, leagues, suckouts and badbeats. But no change in the banrkroll

2007-08-15T10:06:00.000Z

Loss: $4

I've been doing slightly better in sit and gos although my overall bankroll remains pretty static. I've had some good results (turning 500 chips on 40/80 blinds into a victory) and some bad results (calling with top pair, top kickers when occasionally frustrated).

Silly things keep happening too. I've just had a 44 on a 7274 board walk into 72off which is nice and I had AK lose to AK (off suit that flushed for him). But I've also cracked higher pocket pairs and got lucky in hands, only to not cash anyway. Flopping sets only for the board to bring utter shite on the turn and river has been common and my short stack aggression is still running into guys with better kickers or top pair compared to my middle pair.

Most frustrating of all, however, is never having a large stack. I honestly can't remember the last time I had 2,500 chips during a tournament unless it's during heads up or three way when the blinds make it a crap shoot anyway. I've tried getting a little more creative recently and playing more hands and more aggressively but it's not really done me any harm or done my any good. I still can't get chips and I end up having to make a play with AK or 88 when the blinds are 50/100 and I have 900 left. After a raise I'm committed to the hand really and I usually brick out or they hit. Essentially I'm not really playing poker at the moment. I'm just sitting in a game for 20 minutes and then going all in.

In my first 80 games on the sit and go trail I made $100 exactly. In the preceding 90 games I've made $3. I think lesser players would have got pissed off, played in higher stakes games and blown half their bankroll. Me? I waiting until my fortunes turn around and I start playing better poker.

Beyond the main story, I played in a couple of the Raise the River Tournaments over the weekend. I went out without a whimper in the Friday night one (didn't get any cards and lost a couple of races) but caused a lot of fireworks in the Bloggerment on Sunday.

Earlier on my AA nailed Burnley Mik's KKs - another victory for the white rose of Yorkshire - and then, after some pretty good play to add another 1000 to my stack my QQs ran into AAs and turned into quads. Were my fortunes about to change?

I get AK

I think it's raised and I reraise and get called.

Flop is AKX

I bet about pot, reraised all in and I call. He shows KK.

At the time I was second in chips and he was the only other guy on the table who could cripple me.

After that I still had time to double up and bust out with some premium hands.

My font will turn green again with double digits. I promise.

Comments from Poker Tourney Tracker...

2007-08-10T16:24:00.001Z

Loss: less than $1

Here are some of the comments I've been leaving on poker tourney tracker; the program I used to log my financial swings.

Someone made a good value bet on me and crippled my stack. No complaints in this.

YES! My first win in lord knows how many games. Played excellent poker, especially heads up. Well done, pat on the back.

Short stacked and trying to get back into it. AQ on flop of Q79. He has 77. Typical of what's happeneing at the moment,

Short stacked, short cards. Fucked yet again.

Short stacked but with about 800 chips. A 10 bricks out to K 6 money all in pre flop.

Heads up with 1:3 chip deficit. Flop set of 4s he pushed with top pair. Runner, runner flush. Amazing...

Massive, long boring game with two ultra tighties. But I really, really needed that win!

Short stacked again. Flopped set is nailed by a flopped straight.

AQ v 66 and I don't hit.

Just a horrible crap shoot and I got lucky. Horrible play in general though. I am close to hating poker at the moment.

Can you detect a hint of frustration in my comments?

Need to cleanse the system of bad beats.

2007-08-05T19:23:00.000Z

Loss: About $15

It's funny how losing makes you play more. When I win I can usually manage only three or four games but I've just had a mauling session of around seven or eight games. Maybe I should rent out Bankroll management for idiots from the library.

I've been playing ok poker over the weekend. Made some great laydowns (such as laying down 77s on a 236 board when I was reraised, other guy showed kings, unraised preflop) and usually getting my money in good. Unfortunately here are some of the highlights of what has been the worst run of beats I can remember.

AA lose to J9 after hefty preflop raise
99s lose to 66s all in preflop
AK loses to AK all in preflop
JJ loses to 1010 preflop
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1336743 - piss off

There's loads more but I can't be arsed finding them. I have been close to card dead throughout the weekend too. There has only been one occasion (today anyway) where I've had chips. I had 6,000 and found my AJ losing to A2 and then, during heads up, this fucker!?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1336766

On all the other sngs I've played I've not been able to get beyond my starting stack so I've been nursing short stacks and when I've made a stand I've been dominated (77 v JJ or JJ v QQ etc) bricked out on 60/40s (AJ v K10 etc) or pushed with a pair on the flop only to find the other guy hit his top pair.

The cards have been haunting me all weekend, I swear it to you. I reckon I've played well, I really do. I'm sure I've only tilted when I've been crippled in tourneys so the damage has already been done. The problem is when the cards are like this is can't help but affect your confidence and mine has been hit. Every time I start to feel good about my game and consider moving up the stakes a little bit I get hit by a setback like this.

I'm just so glad I'm playing sit an gos at the moment because I could have quite easily of lost $50+ dollars in cash rooms this weekend. I definitely would have gone on tilt. But, despite the mother of all bad beats days I'm only walking away a fraction down on the profit I've made on sngs since I started them three weeks ago.

Poker is a grinding bitch of suckout dredge again and I hate it when it's like this. I'm on a run of only three cashes (all of them 2nds) in 13 games and Sharkscope now seems to think I'm on tilt. Bastard.

P.S. sorry, I know nobody ever wants to hear badbeat stories but I hope to read this one day and hopefully present a period when I was able to minimise losses.

More sit and gos.

2007-08-04T15:33:00.000Z

Profit: $13

The sit and go quest continues although I feel to have flatlined a little. The last 30 or so sit and gos have yielded just $10 worth of profit. I've found myself still winning enough tourneys to keep my money graphs going up but I've also been bubbling quite a bit with thirds and fourths.

I just don't seem to be reading the situations right. For example I was fractional chip leader with about 2,500 chips. The table seemed to have gone into tight mode and the blinds were beginning to get big so I decided to switch gears and raise pot with KJoff. One caller and flop is Q7x. He checks to me and I put in bet of just under pot. He re-raises me all in. At this point I hate my hand but there's 2,000 in the pot it's 300 to call and I still have 1,200 left and so on and so on. I hated my hand - even less when he showed KQ.

I'm not for one minute saying I played that hand well or was unlucky or anything like, it was just a horrible situation which I seemed to dig myself into and I keep doing it. I've also had issues with not having enough chips when it gets 3/4 handed and I find myself gambling with hands I don't really like.

Again, though, it's nothing to get worried about. After all I'm still making a profit and feels practically impossible to have days where I can lose anymore than $10 (at the current stakes). I wouldn't say it's feeling like a grind at the moment, I think I just need to mix things up and play some multi-table tournaments. I'd like to find some cheap six handed ones but I haven't seen any yet. Also, I'm used to cashing often and MTTs usually don't work like that (no cashes.... big win).

Anyway... we'll see.

Sit and gos continue to go well but...

2007-07-31T13:18:00.000Z

Profit: About $20

My sit and go quest at the moment is still going excellently. If I've inputted the figures correctly I currently have a ROI of 50% which is just staggering. I've sharkscoped myself a couple of times too and I always seem to be in hot form. I've double the bankroll I started with on Full Tilt and have made $100 on $2 sit and gos in a month which is nothing short of amazing.

I'd say the deck has been hitting me at a ratio of 60/40 but I've been playing exceptionally well too. I've been making great laydowns and making great calls with stuff like A high and just knowing the other player has nothing. I've even been changing gears at the right time too. Again I thank the structure of the sit and gos at Full Tilt which are perfect for me.

Sadly there is still a leak to my game... cash rooms. I just had a quick blast on one and promptly lost $10. I walked into a better full house, flopped set, AK didn't hit and QQ got cracked by K5. That's basically it for cash rooms. I don't know how I put up with them for so long; they're shite. I've more or less emptied the cash room bankroll from 888 (not lost it, just withdrawn) and will be reinvesting it in either sngs or elsewhere.

I've probably learnt a lot from cash rooms such as betting for value and playing patient poker, but the stakes I'd played at were almost impossible to make a profit from because of the rake and the fact that everyone calls.

So it's sngs all the way now. If I mention micro limit cash rooms again, shoot me.

Get just about any poker book you want for next to nothing.

2007-07-25T20:37:00.000Z

Profit: $15(ish)

I should have mentioned this before but it's never really occurred to me how useful this could be for some people.

As we all know, poker books can be very expensive. As most of them are shipped over from from the US they often cost in the region of £20. Of course, you could sign up to poker sites and get free books and goodies that way but you often miss out on rakeback offers and the like. There is an alternative however and it comes from what would appear to be an unlikely source: local libraries.

I used to work in a library and one of the things we often had to do was request books from out of our stock. This would mean either getting the book from a library outside of the region or buying it in for our stock. I decided to see what would happen if I requested all three volumes of Harrington on Holdem. Prices will obviously vary throughout the UK but where I worked it cost 60p per book and then a further 60p if the library decided to bring it in from a library outside the region. I was delighted to discover a month later that all three Harrington books had been bought into stock and were available to loan.

Now, the real beauty about all this is that poker books aren't the most sought after items from libraries so you can often loan them out and then keep them indefinitely - and if you can't you always know where you can pick it again up if you need it. I've had the Harringtons now for over a year now: I just keep renewing them.

So, instead of paying £60 for one of poker's essential bibles, try requesting it down at your local library. It cost me £1.80. That's bankroll management!

And don't get embarrassed about using a library. It's a public service; it's there to serve you. People order bus-spotting books, manga comics and all sorts of crazy literature, so why shouldn't you be able to request some poker books? My local library is a mecca of poker books now. I'm eagerly awaiting Positively Fifth Street as I type :)

I'm so good people think I'm cheating!

2007-07-23T16:39:00.000Z

Profit: $15

Not too many more games, as you can see, but I cashed 50% of the time and I had a lot more first places this time - my heads up play has been improving.

Bit of silly story in one game though. We were three-handed all with 3,000 chips. The guy to my left was going all in with what seemed like any ace. I was prepared to call him with a good AX or a high pocket pair but it never came. Instead I had to rely on a tighty who kept limping in so I raised with junk. It kept us level until the two other players eventually went all in. When mr tighty got knocked out the other player promptly accused me and mr tighty of colluding. I asked him for his evidence but he didn't really produce much of substance. The mechanics of the table simply stopped me from going after him and having to go after the other guy, who, in turn occasionally went after the other player. We were all trading chips for about 15 minutes because it was obvious none of us wanted to drop below 2,000 chips and have to go all in at some point with poor fold equity.

I busted the guy when he went he reraised with AX. I had AQ.

Still really enjoying the sngs and will continue to stick with 'em

Crushing sngs

2007-07-18T18:43:00.000Z

Profit: $30

I've continued to plug away at the Full Tilt sit and gos and my fortunes have begun to turn around, which is nice.

I've played maybe 15-20 6 table sngs multi-tabling three at a time. They've only been $2 ones (just so I can get my eye in on the format again) but I've been smashing them up so far. I've cashed in probably about 60-70%, mostly seconds but some wins as well.

I have to say the formats at Full Tilt are fantastic. The blinds go up every 6 minutes so you probably get in 8-10 hands per rounds but there are so many levels that you can play a lot of poker. Blinds seem to be

15-30
25-50
30-60
40-80
50-100
60-120
80-160

So you're getting 7 levels which your 1,500 chip starting stack can comfortably cope with. I can play a tight/aggressive style but still make big laydowns and know that I still have a shot. In one game today I flopped quads, didn't get any money. Then I flopped trips and checked twice. Sadly the other guy flopped trips too with a better kicker so when we started betting on the river I was crippled down to about 400 chips. But with some calculated all-ins and steals I was able to nurse a short stack for 40 minutes and come second - it was really satisfying.

It can be slightly frustrating when all-ins and crazy plays end up with two massive stacks compared to your starting stack when it gets three handed, but again the blinds levels usually ensure that you can get your stack in with the best of it. Occasionally heads up sees two players with 4,500 chips playing each other with the blinds at 40/80 (sometimes less) but it does mean I can get some good heads-up experience in.

So, yeah, I've really enjoyed the last couple of days. The cards have been fair to good, I've been playing well and I've been winning money. Not much it must be said because the stakes are so small that $30 profit is actually a comparatively huge amount. If I keep playing well and cashing I'll step up to $5 sngs. But for now I'm just enjoying not playing cash rooms and I don't want to heap pressure onto myself to try and regain the big losses of earlier in the month.

No sign of a change in fortunes this weekend

2007-07-15T21:33:00.000Z

Loss: about $5

As I promised myself (and well done for doing it as I think it represents good bankroll and temperament management) I didn't play any poker for a couple of days. When I did return, as promised, I avoided cash rooms and played in minuscule $2 sit and gos. It turned out to be the right choice because the cards hammered me.

The following are hands that either crippled me or knocked me out games.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1266747 - I was simply trying to ensure I got all my money in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1266755 - A standard suckout but it was during heads up so it cost me a shot at winning a lot more money.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1266764 - Pretty much the same situation expect the money went all in on the turn when I had him crushed (more or less).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1266771 - Nice... with 500 chips left I pushed a couple of hands later with 67 and bricked out.

I lost three races and critical junctures too.

By no means do I think I'm playing great. But I've been satisfied with my play in all maybe 80-90% of the sngs I've played so far. I've got my money in good 70% of the time, been in races 20% and misplaced/tilted 10% of the time.

The stakes are irrelevant at the moment. My confidence is very low, I don't feel to be playing well and I feel the cards are against me at the moment. Playing in the lowest stakes until these three points of self-analysis change is definitely the wisest course of action.

:(
:(
:(

Signing off cash rooms...

2007-07-12T11:03:00.000Z

Loss: $37

I tried again to make some headway in cash rooms last night and ended up getting smashed.

The first three hands summed it up really.

I got AA very first hand and went all in (as I always do because I hate playing them after the flop) and everyone folded. Fine.

Next hand I folded 89 off. I seriously considered calling (there might have been a small raise I can't remember. I was in the SB though so position probably put me off calling. Flop came J10Q. A lot of money went into the pot with someone eventually showing AK. I would have gone broke for sure.

Next hand my A4 suited flopped a flush into a limped pot of 3/4 players and I got absolutely nothing for it.

After that it was a haze of general shitness. One table was mega loose. Players coming over the top of me all the time on continuation bets. I was so looking forward to actually flopping something but I literally never did once. In another room my preflop AAs got cracked by a short stack's JJs.

I was down about $15 or so at this point when this hand killed me completely.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1256188

The combination of factors that saw me go bust on this hand were that: this pieree fella had been a complete maniac and had already busted himself with Q2 or some shit that gave him a pair or an inside straight draw; I'd got sick and tired of people coming over the top of me and this raggedy two pair represented the best hand I'd had in well over an hour; I was most likely on tilt by then.

And the final point is what is leading me to quit cash rooms for a while. My confidence is low, the cards are doing crazy shit and the grinding play and mentality that I've developed over the past few months has screwed with my game.

Before I do anything else I'm going to have a break from poker. I feel tilty even writing this so the felt isn't a place I should be. And when I do return (most likely next week) I'm going to play some cheap sit and gos and maybe a few MTT. When I was playing sngs exclusively I was making a similar amount to cash rooms anyway.

My bankroll is still healthy but in this last week I've lost about $70 which is huge considering the stakes I play at.

So I guess I'll see you when I see you.

Flatlined

2007-07-11T19:20:00.000Z

Loss: $34

Ok I think this hand sums up how things have been recently.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1253982
I tried my hand on Full Tilt poker again (why do I do this to myself?) and on pretty much every hand I played (around 1,200) I would get decent flops such as top pair and a good kicker and the then turn would bring flush draws and the river would bring straights, flushes, full house and holdings I never knew existed. When I do have cinch hand they have absolutely nothing so I get no value.

Yes, I'm complaining about the cards. But I've not been playing well either. Take this hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1254000

This was a proper hand of poker which I got completely wrong. Calling the turn was a horrible play looking back on it. I'm either folding there or reraising. At least I should be if I weren't stuck in my ways with the passive/trappy stuff that I've been doing for the past three to four months. It does prove profitable when the cards are going right for me but when they don't it's an awful grind. And because I'm used to it now I find it difficult to play tables where players are slighlty better and won't be so easily trapped. I've forgotten how to raise and reraise to be honestly.

To try and address this I've started playing sit and gos again. The pressure of the blinds should force me to be slightly more creative and aggressive. For now I've just been playing $2 six max FTP tables. They're really good actually because you get to see a lot of hands but the blinds eventually catch. I think I'm about $10 up on them at the moment. I've tried taking my game into cash rooms but I've run into trouble so far. No major issues, I haven't been stacked, just my big hands getting cracked (AA and KK quite a lot recently)

However, the money seems immaterial at the moment. I'm not really playing poker, I'm playing patience: waiting for big hands and then betting for value. It may earn money in the long (oh so very long) run but it doesn't earn skill and useful experience.

As they often say in poker: I need to switch gears.

Some poker, but not loads.

2007-07-02T22:31:00.000Z

Profit: $42

I'm still not really in the mood for poker I have to admit. The grinding that I've been doing for the past couple of months seems to have taken its toll on my enthusiasm for playing. That and a horrible June.

When you look at it it's really not that bad to be honest. It's very spikey, suggesting I played a lot of big pots. But I only played 3.5k hands because I was just getting really bored and frustrated at a lack of progress - especially compared to last month when I made $200(ish). The total for June was -$30 - the extra loses not shown here were probably on Bodog.

This is the first month I've actually made a loss since the start of the year. My figures current read as:

Jan: -$7.94
Feb: $87.30
Mar: $127.20
Apr: $112.10
May: $180.00
June: -$32.50

So the year stands at a profit of: $471.16

I suppose you could say that I'm probably doing better than some professionals this year (in the sense I've made a profit:)

As stated at the start of the year, my goal is to make $1,000 profit and that remains my goal. Had it not been for June being a washout (in more ways than one) I'll probably be ahead on the race. Instead I'm slightly behind. AK v QQ I guess.

I'm starting to play more and more in $25 rooms which is good. So far I haven't been stacked, but I don't think I've stacked anyone else either. It's as though I've been easing myself into the stake level without any dramas. I am getting a little fed up with 888 (pacific) now though. Table selection is getting so hard because so many rooms are fast tables. I tried what looked to be a juicy one a couple of days again and I think this hand sums them up.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1228251

The guy who shoved after the flop was a wild maniac. Vpip around 75% and he'd already lost quite a bit. He insta-shoved too which should have helped me with my read. I only had 10 seconds to think though and I just folded, really annoyed that I didn't get enough time to make the call which I should and probably would have done (to be fair I probably should have re-raised preflop but it was on of those days where I kept getting outflopped).

So I'm looking at other sites again. As I've said already though, I seem to be a complete failure on other sites so I haven't got a clue what I'll do. I bet I probably end up playing no poker at all again.

Ho-hum.

No poker, no update.

2007-06-21T12:31:00.000Z

Loss: $1

Since the downswing last week I've not really been in the mood for playing poker. I don't think I've suddenly gone off it or anything. I'm still reading literature (definitely peruse Bigger Deal if you can) and watching stuff like Poker After Dark but I played poker four/five times a week for three/four months straight and I just fancied a brake - might as well take it while the cards and my general play aren't up to scratch.

I did play one game actually, now that I think about it. On Saturday Bodog were doing a $1 rebuy tournament where the winner won a WSOP seat. I registered but the tournament started with 640 players. With only one person winning I couldn't really be bothered with it so I decided not to rebuy. I went all in with AQ after about 30 minutes and walked into AK and KK. The dream is over for another year.

Poker will return, I just don't know when. I'm a bit like bluescouse I think. I could grind out a 2k/3k a day but it just doesn't seem worth it.