Monster Kill!

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.