been finding my poker feet again lately on titan. so far so good although things could have gone a little better, my aces full of fours was obv going down to quad 4's, sigh!
will share some more once i sort out a few things like poker tracker 3, anyone used it? any good?
also found the following blog which has been making me laugh over the last couple of weeks, one/angry/kid
worth a gander if you're feeling a little angry!
getting myself set for vegas now, i leave early next week for my whirlwind 3 day business + pleasure trip.
i'll be staying at mandalay bay which i'm quite happy about as it looks pretty cool from what i've seen. no idea if they have a poker room, i'll suss that out on the ground otherwise i'll head to the bellagio.
also organising a table at tao as well. a friend has a fair few contacts in vegas so is sorting that stuff out.
other then that its going to be a mad dash between meetings and the felt.,,or the slots if i'm really time pressed.
it will be a good first taster regardless and since my total expenditure for the trip will equal what i lose, if i lose, you can't really beat that!
lets hope i hit a lucky streak while i'm there
still travelling and haven't had the time to really bust out a serious session but have been dabbling. finding it really hard to motivate myself however when i only have 30 mins here or 45 mins there. just not enough time to get into the game, get some reads and make moves.
i think i may have a solution though. today mansion sent me a software cd containing a mighty $15 worth of free moolah! now its not a lot but i quite fancy playing with this little roll and seeing where i get too. i'll start at the micros and work my way up and hopefully take over the world without spending a penny.
hopefully i'll kick that off shortly and fill you all in on the progress.
now back to travel...boring....except i have to go to vegas at the end of the month for a meeting....vegas baby!! can't wait, its gonna be a blast. i won't have a ton of free time but i'm gonna make the most of it. i'll probably try and only sleep on the plane ride out and then back again! not sure where i'm gonna be staying, organised by the corporation, but i probably won't be the bellagio...if its not then i'd like it to be here!
on a final note, it seems wombol has reinvented himself, or is in the process of doing so. he's started a new blog called social supremacy check it out if you have a minute. its not quite poker but its interesting none the less.
anyhoo folks, good luck at the tables
was wondering the other night how i was gonna boost my roll rapidly, and then, as if by the power of god the answer arrived, by email via burkina-faso...
"Dear Comrade,
How are you today? Hope all is well. Please be informed that I have decided to contact you for a fund transfer transaction worth the sum of US$10,500,000.00 into your reliable bank account as the sole NEXT-OF-KIN to the foreign deceased customer of our bank (an International Billionaire French Businessman) who was killed with his entire family by PLANE-CRASH in Central England atmost 3 years ago. Since his death occured, no body have show up as his next of kin for the claim because the account is untraceable.
Upon the investigation I carried out from his records, I found out that his foreign business consultant whowould have trace the account died earlier before the deceased. Therefore, this is a confidential and sealed deal.
For thesuccess of this transaction, you should apply and act as the onlyexisting NEXT-OF-KIN to the deceased which our bank will replace the deceased account information through proper documentation in position ofyour own account.
This transaction is risk-free, it will never harm your good reputation in your society because no one can trace the account, and on the instant of the transfer of the fund into your account, the chapter of this transaction will be closed entirely.
Note that in a business of this nature, the bank dont want to know yourdifference between the deceased country, religion or believe because our bank inheritance law is against that. So, it is a preference for us achieve this success without any problem.
Please note down that once the fund get transferred into your account, you will take 39% of the total sum while the rest will be for me as I will arrange myself down to your country to take my share.
I need your urgent response and include your private telephone/mobile numbers for easy communication.Please reply if you can be trusted in this deal.
Thanks,
Mr.ADAMA KADIOGO"
how can i possibly turn this man down, he seems very nice and even wants to protect my good reputation in society. i'm going to contact him right now! Read more...anyone else get that tingle of disappointment as the czech republic vs swizzleland game kicked off on saturday? i certainly did, if only england were there, but then after 20 mins of the game i actually felt a little relieved i wouldn't be subjected to the stress and disappointment of england crashing out to a ronaldo penalty or some other dismal result.
with renewed enthusiasm i've decided to step back into the long forgotten waters of sports betting. i've steered clear of sports betting since the world cup because quite frankly i'm shite at it!! but nows the time to give it a little go me thinks.
i've deposited £25 into blue sq and i'm gonna see where that gets me. i'm not going to set the world on fire but it makes the games a little more interesting. my plan is to place a £5 bet on the results of each days games to improve my odds a little.
yesterday i put £5 on germany and croatia to win and tripled my dosh so good start. not sure about todays games yet but already looking forward to it.
finally i feel like my feet have touched the ground! may has been a total whirlwind and i've had to neglect a fair amount of stuff in my life, including this blog. but hopefully i'll be able to stay in one place for longer then 5 days in june so i can get a bit of normality back.
on the poker front i have played 0 online hands in may, how mad is that, nothing, zip, nada! i did manage to play some pokes on the plane to seattle though, its about 9 hours or so direct with ba and i was sitting next to a colleague who hosts a regular poker evening with some of his mates. he was larging it about his skills so we played for about 2 hours or so with some travel chips that he had. we were only playing 10/20p blinds but i still managed to take about £30 from him which i was very chuffed about. can't say any of it was luck either, just none of his lines made any sense so i was happy to call him down with as little as 2nd pair and i was often right to do so.
when in seattle i went on a mega shopping spree as well, spunked a fortune. got myself a brand new 32gb ipod touch which i'm rather pleased with. i love the fact its wifi enabled so i can log onto the net wherever there is a hotspot. also got some kick ass trainers for the gym which i'm addicted too. i hate it when i miss a workout now as i feel sluggish and shitty. also went mad on clothes, jeans, t's, polos and the like. i don't like buying shirts or suits in america because, if i'm honest, the sizing’s are just fecked up! its either tent like, too long or its double breasted which i just don't like.
also been playing around in the world of psychological and physiological dynamics. really interesting stuff and how, just using really basic stuff you can change the way you are perceived. since i was at a conference there was ample opportunity to play with peoples heads that i would never see again and i got quite a lot of it working pretty quickly! think there is good applications in the poker world as well, obviously in the live game as opposed to the online one but should be worth exploring.
hopefully june will be a little better for my pokes journey, will update soon.
may has been a whirlwind. i've been travelling so much for work i haven't had time to catch my breath. i've been to sweden, ireland, france, germany, russia and on sunday i head off to seattle for a week. given the rediculous amount of flying and sleeping in hotel rooms my poker has suffered, in that i haven't ben able to play poker. am really hoping to rectify that in the next few days to get one sess in before i fly out to the usa, but its touch and go.
on another topic, it looks like 88% concentration aka ed hollis' blog is the community's favourite, narrowly pipping the women adverse amatay. i've put up a new poll as we begin to build up to the wsop so please take a look and vote.
other then that i've just been enjoying the heat streak that seems to be over london at the moment. i don't know how long it will last but its so nice to get out of bed at 6am ready for the trudge to the gym and be greated by the nice warm rays of the sun. cheers me up a little.
anyhoo chaps, great to finally post and hope all is well out there in pokersville
i've jumped all over the place trying to decide who aprils babe pf the month should be and its a pretty tough choice. but after watching 'into the blue' again the other night i have decided that jessica alba should be aprils babe of the month.
so there she is, just lovely :)
this isn't poker related but i think its a great way to highlight how rediculous big businesses really can be.
i currently work for a huge american company employing over 100,000 people globally, half of which in my opinion are wasted resource and here is some evidence to back that up...
on friday a guy came round to hang two pictures near our photocopier, which he did. later on friday 2 further guys came round to inspect the pictures and decided to rehang them 2 inches lower then they already were. today (monday) 2 women came round to check all the pictures that were hanged on all the floors, it didn't look like they were happy! later one of the women and 2 guys came back round and she showed them where they should be hung. then later still another guy came round to move one of the pictures from being next to the other to under the other.
so far, 2 days 5 visits and 7 different people have been required to hang 2 pictures.
wasted resource, of course not! and this may not be over yet!
i've been feeling a little strange about poker the last few days. i feel like our relationship his hit a funny patch for no real apparent reason.
as i'm sure most poker players will agree, we have a love/hate relationship with the game. sometimes we love it (usually involves winning) and sometimes we hate it (mostly involves losing). for some reason i've slipped into the hate category with no significant losses to shout about.
i think these ups and downs are natural, amatay seems to go through 6 or 7 of these daily so i guess i'm allowed one! i'm probably going to take the rest of the week off playing and hopefully get my gggeeerrr-roove back and go from there. i've also got another idea in my head which i'm working on. for those of you who don't know me, i tend to come up with a fair few ideas/hair brained schemes to make some extra dolla and am currently trying to do that as well, hehe. none of them ever work but its normally fun finding out and i always learn a new skill.
cheers fishsters, oh and some nice voting action going down around my poll, keep it up!
yes it does, and i want to take advantage of what you peeps out on the interwebs think. to do this i'm going to run a monthly poll, eyes right, which will ask a simple question for you guys and gals to vote on.
i've started with a simple blog poll but ultimately i'd like to hear your suggestions on what you feel are valid questions. the next poll will begin at the start of may and i'll share the results each month.
in the meantime please take 30 seconds to answer the current question and we will see where we end up.
just finished a huge session for me and didn't perform as well as i had hoped. down just under a buy-in, which is not catastrophic but still a loss.
found a super huge mega fishie though, the whole tabl was there just to milk this guy playing aomthing like 85/50/2. i lost a buy-in early when his monster 6/4 off beat my a/k but managed to make it back with another a/k all in pre to his 8/9. picked up a few other pots here and there but even though he was a mega fish he was hard to play against because you never knew where you stood against him. plus with everyone else being so aggro with him you had to pick your spots pretty carefully.
on other tables i didn't have a great time either, a few pots here and there but in general i just wasn't hitting anything and there were too many calling stations to really bluff at a flop.
i did start noticing, more clearly then before, certain lines other players were taking and how strong they really were. if i had ben able to enter more pots i think i could have exploited them some more but i just wasn't comfortable opening with the mighty 7/3 or q/2. really need to forget my cards and just play the player but its a weird feeling!
thats about all for now. have a work night out tonight...which i'm paying for and won't be drinking at because i'm still on meds. boo!
no poker news to blog about but i have managed to get some evil sinitus infection from my never ending cold.
i caught a cold about a month ago which i got over about two weeks ago then instantly caught another one! aarrgghh, so annoying, the second one was a little worse but i thought i was getting over it. how wrong i was, i woke up on thursday night/friday morning and literally couldn't breathe. i've never had acute sinitus before but this was fricking awful. I mean, one side of my nose had swollen shut and the other was clogged with snot....nice! i kept thinking i was going to suffocate and it totally freaked me out.
since it was like 2am friday morning and there is nothing i can do i watched some tv, went on the net and then tried to sleep but had no luck so got up and wandered the flat until about 6am when i started to get ready to head to the docs. got to the docs at 7:45, had some antibiotics by 9, went to work, came home from work as i was fecked and have been slowly tried to get better.
i'm still a little fooked, can't breathe properly and had to leave the charlton match at half time because i thought i was gonna pass out but there is a little progress here and there which will hopefully see me right in the next couple of days. I managed to sleep for 5 hours last night for the first time since thursday which has made me feel a bit better but i really need to get some decent shut eye if i am to recover. so frustrating.
i might get some pokes in later if i feel any better but otherwise its another day away from the tables which is putting me behind my monthly goals. coupled with the time i have missed at work recently i've got tons to catch up on there which further fooks me up. mother feck sticks!! oh well, health first, pokes later.
today i performed my first ever proper stack a donk. the stack a donk play permeates a lot of the videos on card runners and up to this point i've never had the opportunity to perform it.
for those of you not familiar with the play its not simply getting it all in with the best hand or making progressive pot sized bets until its in the middle. its a play where you release the initiative with the goal of calling that lovely juicy bet you expect.
here is my hand history with an explanation,
Table Greycrest (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Holdem
SB posts small blind [$0.25]
BB posts big blind [$0.50]
Seat 3 (BTN) has the button.
Seat 1 : MP with $41.70.
Seat 2 : CO with $98.30.
Seat 3 : BTN with $43.25.
Seat 4 : SB with $56.60.
Seat 5 : BB with $80.10.
Seat 6 : Hero with $52.25.
so after a horrid nl25 session i decided to have a little go at nl50, not in a tilty way but because i had already withdrawn my roll from pokerstars ready to go into my ftp account meaning i would be rolled for nl50 shortly. so although not officially set for nl50 i decided to go ahead anyway, bbbrrraapp!
so far so good, have been reviewing a few nl50 vids on cardrunners to get my head on right and eliminate some donkfish mistakes. going into nl50 though i was already 3 buyins down from my last escapade so need to get that back before it really matters.
second, first impressions are much the same. there are a few more iron men about but the play doesn't seem that much better. people are very hard to bluff (which has cost me) but i've been getting good action when it counts.
so stats since i have made the move are as follows, small sample size but am happy so far, i wouldn't go as far to say as i'm crushing, in fact i would say i'm no where near that, i've enjoyed 99% bad card which i've managed to lose a little on and 1% awesome, smack me square in the face with the deck and call me shirley good cards which i've managed to get paid off on!
nl50
442 at 14/11/3
+$115.80
26bb/100
the above also includes my first ever $100 day, woop, makes me wonder why i'm not a professional :)
thats about all for nows i guess. got no correct answers for my pop quiz, not even close answers so you can all stay in the dark and i'll have the slightest of edges over you all when we play, ah ha!
Stacks:
UTG with $39.35
MP with $30.90
CO with $25.00
BTN with $34.85
SB with $24.40
BB with $25.00
fellow fishies, its pop quiz time. think you know your poker numbers? then post your answers in the comment field;
1. how many possible hands can you be dealt preflop?
2. how many possible hand combinations are there after the flop has been dealt?
3. how many hands beat your pocket jacks pre-flop?
over to you, if you dare!
well i managed to escape any major embarrassment on april fools day, although i did believe that they had discovered flying penguins in the falklands for a little while. luckily i didn't mention it to anyone and my gullibility went undetected!
been doing quite a lot recently outside of poker which is good, been catching up with a lot of friends for a few bevs, been screaming at charlton a fair amount (not so much fun) as they throw away their chance at the play-offs, got a bbq on sunday with some buds although i hear its going to rain/snow, have booked a trip to go zorbing with my fiancee which is likely to be a laugh or make me sick and am heading away for a few days soon to stay in a castle up norf and just disconnect a little. so all in all been a good few weeks with even more planned in.
also back at the gym after a three week lay-off because i had the lurg. feels good and healthy again although i'm aching all over as well...but thats a sign of progress!
pokerwise i've just finished a little session and made just over a buy-in. quite happy with myself running at about 15bb / 100 which is above where i wanted to be. have also taken steps to consolidate my rolls so should be taking another better prepared shot at nl50 in the next few weeks.
also just watched a heads up match between green plastic and annette_15 which was pretty cool. green plastic was steam rolling over annette before he kinda out thought himself and made a few mistakes for annette to pull it back. i think green plastic was up by a little overall but could have been much much more if he slowed down a little towards the end.
thats about all at the moment. hope all else is well in blog land and thanks for reading
cash games
nl25 (full ring)
1495 hands for -$4.55
-0.61bb / 100
nl50 (full ring)
1043 hands for -$148.90
-14.28bb / 100
nl25 (6 max)
2255 hands for +$36.70
3.25bb / 100
total
4793 hands for -$116.75
-1.77bb / 100
full tilt bonii +$40
full tilt rakeback +$4.19
total march -$71.86
---
2008 to date +$135.76
wow, not a great month really looking at the results, but if you looked at it from a learning perspective and an overall game improvement position this month would be far ahead of all the others combined. as you may have seen i completely ripped my game apart and started again and i'm feeling really good about it. every aspect of my game has improved and from a long term point of view i should be able to substantially increase my winnings from losing so heavily this month as it really kick started me to look at my game critically.
for me, next month is hugely important. hopefully it can really be a defining point in moving up the levels. my usual volume targets stand but once i've won about $50 more i'm going to combine my bankrolls and take another, better financed shot at nl50. hopefully with my game improvements over march i can make nl50 my new permanent home.
i'd also like to up my win rate from around 3bb / 100 to more like 8-10. i don't think this is gonna be a huge problem as i feel my new style of play can sustain this, but only time will tell.
so with that said i think i'm done for march now, hope everyone enjoyed better results then me and see you at the tables in april.
its been a tough one this month, and i've actually had to settle on two babes of the month, oh no i hear you cry, two hot chicks :( sorry peeps
firstly due to her return in some awful yet sometimes lingerie-tastic tv ads i've decided that march's first babe of the month is myleene klass.
i'll probably post her infamous shower scene from i'm a celeb for your pleasure as well, but until then here she is!
secondly, there is a certain red hed out there that tickles my fancy and who sprung to mind after i saw her in an easter weekend movie, and thats the rather naughty lindsay lohan! enjoy people
so i've retooled my game now and i just wanted to really review the process and share my thoughts on my game as honestly as possible throughout the process.
before retooling:
looking back on the way i played before i'm surprised i made any money! hows that! i was really tight and selective about the cards i played and i never made a move on anyone unless i was tilting and just got lucky they didn't have the goods either.
the way i played, i really grinded, waiting ages for those premium hands only for everyone to fold to my raise as it was the only one i had made. i got lucky on some instances where some donkfish would play a long with me and i'd stack him but those occasions were pretty rare and i think playing at 3bb/100 provided that point.
so why did i play that way. well probably because of slansky and malmuth! play tight, play super tight. give credit and only show down the nuts. thats all well and good but in nlh you rarely get to see a showdown so waiting around for the cards and the play to align so i could show down aces really didn't help me on a path to a steady profit :)
looking back, i really sucked, and i mean really sucked! most poker players blame the cards, suck outs, bad beats or the poker gods and i did the same. but guess what, it was me. i was just a bad player!
post retooling:
right now i love my game. i'm really happy with the way i play, my reads, my aggression, my table awareness and many many other things. the retooling process was well worth the effort and the strange feeling of admitting to myself that i wasn't a winning player or would never move beyond the micro stakes.
i will however say that since i started retooling i have run bad in places and you only have to look at the two hands i posted a few days back to see that i'm not making it up and i'm not lying to myself. reviewing the session where i lost $46 or about two buyins you can clearly see that the biggest pot a lost outside of those to $25 a piece coolers was $2.25, there were no mistakes in between, no chasing draws, no calling when i was behind, i was just playing solid grade 'a' poker and it was working.
i had another little session just to see if the above wasn't true and to see if i hadn't learnt as much as i thought and the results are as follows
nl25
106 hands at 17/16/8
+$39
74bb/100
verdict: crushed!
so with that said i look back over the last week where i basically erased everything i had learnt right or wrong and approached the game as a total newbie. i invested about 8 hours running through videos in detail and probably the same playing 2 tables and my understanding of the game has increased sooo much!
there is still so much more to learn but right now i actually feel like i have the foundation of a game that i can build on, get better and ultimately move up the levels and make a profit. the futures bright, the futures poker, hehe!
so i've watched all of the videos on playing nl 6max as a solid tag player and i have learnt a shag load! seriously, all those hours spent on the train reading slansky and malmuth were wasted compared to watching 5 hours of solid video coaching!
after the last video there were a few more areas in my game that i in hindsight needed some work and they are
1) table selection: i was totally looking for the wrong things and now after a little experimentation i think i'm back on track.
2) slow playing: thought i was well cool, innit, for slow playing my aces. financially its not true, have had my eyes opened here.
3) value betting: i was either missing value or looking for it in the wrong spots.
so my final retooling session went pretty well and i think i plugged the holes from the last session
nl25
235 hands at 11/9/9
+$28.05
24bb/100
verdict: crushed once again! really felt on fire today. my play was solid, i kept putting the donks on hands, picked my spots and crushed anyone that tried to play back at me! think my stats were a little low but really wasn't picking up anything and as the videos said, forcing it at the micro stakes usually back fires, which is pretty much what happened last session.
key hands:
did i lose value here?
so with that said, i'm pretty pleased with how following the video series turned out. there is still a ton more to learn and there are loads more videos to watch but am pretty pleased with where i am. i think once i practice this style a little more and get really comfortable with the plays a good next step for me is to see where i can open up my range a little more. will let you know how that goes.
gonna watch rounders now and critique matt damons play...donkfish!
was completely motivated, fighting to get at the tables, ready to apply everything i have learned and then this happened. feeling totally dejected now :( did i play either of these hands wrongly?
i know that its variance and making donkfish calls keeps the donkfish coming back but come on, could i not have scooped one of these? all my hard work for the day gone plus more, meh
sat down, very first hand and this happened, total cooler
pocket snowfish
then after going on a little raising with nothing run and enjoying a little 3 betting i get this hand and i was praying the donkfish had seen me being aggressive so i could stack him
pocket cowfish
and to round it off, do i have any beer in the house, course i effing dont!
so i've watched the 4th video in the five part series i'm following and again its pulled out some seemingly obvious points that i need to tweak in my play
1) table image: i always thought that this was something only the high stakes players needed to worry about but as the micro players get better the more attention you need to pay to your table image.
2) hand reading: i also need to define peoples range a little more and use the turn card as the defining point in the hand where i can really narrow down a holding.
3) timing tells: again not something i have ever really looked at in detail but its another weapon in my armour.
so after watching the vids i hit the 6 max tables again but didn't fair as well this time
nl25
363 hands at 12/11/6
-$32.90
-18bb/100
verdict: overall i felt i played ok, there were some big holes in my game as i was trying to put 4 hours worth of videos in to practice and it backfired in places. i was also playing at some massively loose aggressive tables which didn't help my game at all, and i was defo not getting the help of the deck. however i think i learnt a lot from this and it will help me put down some stronger foundations as i move forward from here.
key hands:
why did i slow play this? stupid mistake
felt my aggression here was fine and just got unlucky
so yes, it was a loss, but i have identified my leaks and can move forward from here with them plugged. one video to go now and i should be back on track.
so very happy with the results of my first session after erasing everything i had learnt and starting again. i then watched the third video in the 5 part series and pulled out a few more areas i need to address, as follows;
1) flop texture: harder to read then i thought, spotting the nuts is the easy part but evaluating it with your oponents range was something i wasn't doing often enough, or i just gave them credit far too often.
2) continuation betting: simple right? i thought so but continuation betting when you have missed or are out of position combined with the flop texture is tricky.
3) building value in a pot: get the money in when you are ahead! easy to do when you have poc aces but i never considered their range vs mine in any given situation. for example maybe a/q off is massively ahead of their range, so build value earlier!
so after my second retooling session my results were as follows;
nl25
150 hands at 11/11/26
+$10.05
13bb/100
verdict: very happy. the tables i played at were a lot tricker this time, with the majority of players playing full stacks and having decent lag stats. it kept me on my toes but i still owned the hands i played. the reason for the massive aggression factor above is that not one hand made it to showdown, in fact i don't think there was one hand i played that i didn't take down on the flop! and i picked up some decent hands to 3 bet a fair few time. again, played near 11 vpip and 11 pfr, this may be where i net out at, only time will tell, 300 hands just isn't enough.
key hands:
much better aggression from me here
my aggression pays off
so although its only 2 sessions i already feel my game has improved hugely. really highlights the massive leaks i had previously. the first hand posted above is a prime example, i would never have 3 bet just 48 hours ago! two more videos in the series to go and i'm very much looking forward to continuing this upward momentum!
right, so i have watched the first two videos of a five part series on cardrunners to help me play in a more optimal way and exploit the fish-er-roos that swim down at the small stakes to micro stakes.
after the first two videos there are a number of areas that i have identified that need to be addressed pre-flop to improve my game. these areas are;
1) opening up my range: looking over my stats i am defo tight nitty. its why my big hands get paid and why my stack slowly but surely dwindles and i'm easily exploitable. i need to open this up more.
2) open limping or over limping: i just get nothing from these plays, i don't get any information, i don't take control of the pot and i give myself a weak image on the process.
3) never reraising: even with my monster hands i never reraise pre-flop. don't know why, i need to get more money in the pot when i'm ahead and protect my weaker hands by controlling the pot more often.
4) position: yes i knew how important position was but i never applied having position in the correct way.
so to my first retooling session, stats are as follows;
nl25 6max
149 hands at 12/11/8
+$20.55
27bb/100
verdict: crushed! big word for only 149 hands but i played exactly the way i wanted to and got the result i wanted to too. i think my stats of 12/11 are good, i think they will naturally go up as i was getting a lot of trash hands in the session and will probably net out at around 15-18 vpip with a pfr of 14-17.
key hands:
biggest pot won
biggest pot lost
overall i was a lot happier with my play, i felt i was controlling the pot and the table when i wanted to and pressured other players a lot more therefore causing them to make mistakes such as the big hand above.
i also felt that my pre-flop game was a lot more natural and effective. i played correctly in all the spots i was put in and the end result was a winning session. there were a few occasions where my post flop play was a little weak but the videos haven't covered that yet and i don't want to continue to play the way i was before so in instances where i wasn't sure or they were marginal i folded.
next stop is post flop play so hopefully i can improve that and make better judgement calls moving forward.
i think my recent horrid run at nl50 has really opened my eyes to where my game is at. i was out of my depth at times, making stupid calls, playing weak and generally doing the total opposite of crushing!
with that in mind i've decided to totally retool my game. there is a great selection of videos on cardrunners that will hopefully reset my head and get my playing in the most optimal way. to do this i need to drop back down to nl25 and also swap to 6max. now is probably the right time to do this as i'm very motivated and don't see any long term winnings coming from the way i am playing at the moment.
what i'm going to do now is watch and internalise a video at a time and then play a short 60min session, 2 tabling only and see where it gets me. after each session i'm going to share my results and thoughts and hopefully further ingrain the thinking and play into my subconscious. i'll combine the first 2 videos together as part 1 is very much an intro so there should end up being 4 'reports' on how my game takes shape.
so watch this space, the first report should be later today and hopefully it will have a positive return on investment!
still taking a shot at nl50 and the differences are coming through and i'm starting to adjust my natural game. so far i've noticed the following;
1) tighter - the games have tightened up a little i think, not by much but i would say players ranges are a little tighter so you need to be playing hands that can withstand a little pressure
2) aggression - this has shot up from nl25. players really push marginal hands on the flop and also play their draws aggressively, especially flush draws
3) floating - never really noticed this at nl25 but have certainly seen players floating and pushing on the turn
4) shortstacking - geez, its everywhere, really hard to find a game with all players sitting on a full buy-in. funny thing is, players seem to be shortstaking with 50-60bb or so but aren't willing to commit as easily as they do in nl25. think this is defo -ev
still looking for more differences and no doubt i'll continue to spot them as i play there but the good news is that i've managed to wipe out the disastrous start i had at nl50 and turn the month around to be in profit...just :)
also still unsure what to do with my first rakeback. any suggestions would be helpful!
so woke up this morning, saw i had a few emails in my inbox, rubbed my weary eyes and noticed they were both entitled full tilt poker fund transfer. panicked, screamed a little that someone was trying to hack my account, ran in circles for a few minutes, before discovering it was a transfer of funds into my account!
(this is leapfrogs 'my first computer' and my killa setup, bo!)
happy that money was going in rather then out i read a little more and saw it was my first rakeback payment of $4.19. i double checked to see if the decimal place should actually be one space to the left, and then when unfortunately sure it wasn't i still felt rather pleased with myself.
the question now really is what should i do with the money, i can't let my first rakeback payment just slide into my account unnoticed. i feel i should take a risk, stick it on a 180 sng or try and satellite into a bigger satellite, into a bigger mtt into the main event maybe?
suggestions welcome as i only ever play cash games so if people know of some small tornies etc that i can buy into on ftp then please let me know.
well took a much postponed shot at nl50 today. didn't really go to plan but have to say the play at this level isn't really that much better then n;25, or at least the tables i was sat at weren't.
i did find that draws were played a lot more aggressively which put me on the back foot a little and meant i lost some pots i should probably have won if i was a little more aggressive.
i'm happy to say the random pots are still present, for example i got myself into a battle of the blinds with a/5 on a a/j/3/4/5 board...i wonder what the small blind had, ace two of course, you couldn't write this stuff!
anyhoo, although i'm slightly underolled for nl50 i'm probably gonna take a few more shots before i decide if i need to drop back to nl25. i certainly wasn't blessed with any hands and i know where i went wrong and those leaks are easily plugged. hopefully i can run well and make the move a permanent one. fingers crossed!
so after losing and watching some card runners videos i decided to try and rail some pros on ftp. i didn't expect any big names on there as the timing wasn't right but as per usual mike matusow was there...he's always online!
he ended up switching to play some stud from the omaha game he was playing and must have run into a friend of his as they started chatting, and then the subject of high stakes poker on gsn came up. the thread was all very cryptic and i've included below in its originality, spelling mistakes and all. my only editing is removing all of the dealer and ftp updates that come up in the chat box as well.
what do you guys think, could high stakes poker really be over?
Dealer: Mike Matusow mucks
Dealer: Mike Matusow wins the pot ($600)
Dealer: Hand #5528221137
Dealer: Mr_BigQueso antes $100
Dealer: Moish5 antes $100
Dealer: Mike Matusow antes $100
---
Moish5: mikey baby
Mike Matusow: sup baby
Mike Matusow: weeeee
Mike Matusow: how u been bud
Moish5: good
Mike Matusow: cool
Mike Matusow: u home
Moish5: mikey you should get ome on high stakes
Mike Matusow: i will
Mike Matusow: loooks like no more hsp
Moish5: what hsp
Mike Matusow: its gonnabe pad high stakes cash games
Mike Matusow: on nbc
Moish5: not no limit
Mike Matusow: yes
Mike Matusow: and hu challenges
Moish5: high stakes limit games
Mike Matusow: but be nl caash
Mike Matusow: nl
Moish5: i want to play with you helmuth
Moish5: victor
Mike Matusow: ok let me callmori
Mike Matusow: illtellhim u alot of fun and see if we can ge tu
in
Moish5: ok
Mike Matusow: i think it be great
Moish5: sammy eli
Mike Matusow: lol
Moish5: i need the fame you need the money
Mike Matusow: dont want to loose or be tough to win need
some nits
Mike Matusow: lol
just had a horrid session, dropped 2 buy ins in an hour. nothing went right, no cards, no flops and any move i made got called down. even when i had a hand which was twice, somehow my donk of an opponent would play some random hand and get smashed in the face by the deck!
feeling rrrreeeeaaaallllyyyy tilty at the moment and want to jump back on the tables and try and win it back. musn't though, am gonna watch the other half of the muddy waters vs green plastic head up match on card runners to cheer myself up.
farking donkeys, aarrgghh
has been an eventful start to the month so far. i'm hoping march will be a turning point or at least a stepping stone month for me with only positives coming from it. so far three good things have happened
1) it is roughly 6 months before the lovely christina milians birthday, so even though i'm clutching at straws here is another looooovely pic of her
2) i've taken the plunge and joined cardrunners, have started to watch the videos and read the forum. seems to be a wealth of info out there, plus its quite enjoyable just to watch some of their pros crush the higher stakes even if its way out of my reach for now
3) just had another profitable session which gives me a little buffer in my roll and i'm thinking of taking a shot at the next level. i'll probably play a few more hands at 25nlh just to clear the next bonus level on ftp but then i'm thinking i'll take a shot. if i lose then i'll drop back down and start again but am feeling good about my game at the mo and if confidence is high its worth a gambol. watch this space
so i've decided to take the plunge and get a cardrunners sub. i've only ever heard good things about it but have always been tentative about what i could actually get out of watching the videos, i mean surely reading those light hearted and easy going slansky books is as good as it gets, right?
the tipping point came on thursday when i had some spare time and watched a taylor caby heads up sample video. now i don't even play heads up but just watching and listening to his thought process totally blew me away. i mean you always hear about playing the player and not the cards, and you always see the pros on shows like high stakes poker playing, what looks like, some random two cards, but watching this video actually demonstrated how little cards mattered and what the pros must be thinking when they play.
yes, he wins some big pots with his big hands, but watching him call a 3 bet with 10/8o then floating the guy before taking the pot away from him on the turn with total air was amazing!
so hopefully i'm going to sign up today and get going with the coaching videos as well and becoming as active as possible on the forum. then it won't be long before i'm crushing ivey on the $500/$1000 nlh heads up table of death on ftp!
cash games
nlh25
4290 hands for +$70.55
3.29bb / 100
pokerstars bonii +$50
full tilt bonii +$20
total february +$140.55
---
2008 to date +207.62
crazy month again, i wasn't in profit until the last week of february and then finally my patient aggressive play was rewarded with some of my bigger hands getting called and holding up. with things finally coming together i've actually managed to post my best month profit wise so far in my short poker career. add in a few bonii and i'm pretty chuffed with it.
reviewing my hands i see that i probably could have performed even better then i have if it wasn't for some truly horrible suck outs. thats variance i guess and i was rewarded in the end by continuing to make the right decisions. i did however have one suck out of my own when i ran my jacks into kings, bad thing was i new he had me beaten but i pushed over the top anyway and managed to hit a third jack on the river :) i thought i was never going to suck out on anyone but i finally did. woop woop
i'm seriously considering getting a subscription to cardrunners at the moment. i watched an introduction video and i have to say i remembered so much more from that one video then i do reading chapter after chapter of dry poker books! anyone else out there have a subscription and think its worth it?
think thats about everything for feb, thanks for reading and commenting this month. hope march is good to everyone, unless your playing me!
not been in the news recently but has always been a firm favourite of mine with some great music videos like dip it low, and a movie where she's a cheerleader, man of the house!
february's babe of the month is none other then christina milian
enjoy her loveliness
...well if you can then alpha-bet may be for you, especially if you like to play with words.
grub smith, regular poker columnist for poker player magazine, and of fhm fame has only gone and given up his day job to take the world by storm with a new kind of gamble!
thats right, it seems that grub has taken one of the bizarre ideas he presented in his column and has made it a reality! imagine crossing poker with scrabble and basically you have alpha-bet.
does it have a future, who knows, will it take the world by storm, maybe not but if you are just plain curious check it out - alpha-bet
finally i'm in profit for the month, its been a rollercoaster thus far but just rounded out a session leaving me one fith of a buy-in up for the month!
would have been a lot more if my qq didn't get done over by 5/8o, i mean i'm sure the guy new that my pre-flop raise, and re-raise of his flop bet meant his pair of fives were good...and he was half right when he hit an 8 on the river!
anyhoo, in prof, thats all that matters!
have been moving some money about between poker accounts and thought that even though i play at the micro stakes there is no reason why i shouldn't enjoy my winnings. i know i won't be splurging any time soon on a house, a fast car, a trip to vegas or even a picture of dogs playing poker, but there is one thing that my winnings will let me enjoy...
...thats right fish-er-roo's, tonight i have $6 of poker winnings burning a hole in my pocket and i'm gonna enjoy one on the donkeys. so here's to mr 7/8o all in on a 9/q/a board, or miss i can't lay my 2nd pair down regardless of the bet to me. you may suck out on me more often then i like, but tonight, one beer at least is on you!
thought i'd log on for a quick sess tonight to try and recoup some of my losses from my spew fest the other night. i found myself a few decent tables and sat down ready for action.
i few hands in i'm dealt the loathsome pocket aces, i'm sitting one off the hijack so min raise to try and get a little action from a blind at least and draw 2 callers, one little scamp being a short stack. flop comes down dry and my pot bet is swiftly raised all in by shorty. no hesitation on my part, call and...
aarrrggghhh! ...or so i thought, but then i remembered the words of short-stacked shamus and ryverrat who commented on my last aces nightmare. with that in mind and a few woo saa's i was back to normal within seconds. just glad the scamp was a shorty so i had a shot at a speedy recovery.
a few hands later and i picked up the dreaded aces again. straight away i feel petrified i'm going to experience more of the same, or converesly no action at all. either way i was ready to laugh it off. much to my surprise i got the action i wanted on almost exactly the flop i dreamed of. all the money went in and the only thing i'm scared of is some poc 8's.
no poc 8's (i don't think i would have been able to hold it together if he did have 8's though) and my aces are good and i felt my poor little opponent, woo hoo! some semi faith in aces has been restored, there is still a long way to go but job done for now!
so i've been playing at full tilt for a couple of weeks now and i thought i'd write a review of my experience thus far.
i joined full tilt after being a regular stars player but finding that at my micro limits there was little to no chance that i'd ever clear any kind of bonus as a reward for my play. with this in mind i thought a little trip to full tilt with the chance of recouping up to $600 sign up bonus plus the 27% rakeback was worth my while.
software
i like it and i don't. having plied my trade at the super smooth pokerstars you come to expect absolute finesse. full tilt software is good, don't get me wrong but there are things like, the sound effects not matching up to the animations, or the inability to get hand histories emailed to you instantly that seem like bigger problems then they are after playing at stars.
i know people talk about online sites being rigged, and i don't subscribe to this, but i have to say the random number generator at full tilt does seem to produce some crazy action! i mean i've had some serious bad beats since playing there, but i also seem to get dealt a lot more premium hands, or at least high hard hands. i used to enjoy massive barren spells at stars with not even a k/jo. at full tilt i seem to get a couple of face cards every few hands.
overall though, the software is good, its not stars good, but its easily second best. my pokeroffice client works perfectly with it and have had no problems, just small irritations.
traffic
full tilt is the second largest site behind pokerstars, recently overtaking party poker to take the title of number one challenger to stars dominance. i only play micro limits at the moment and traffic down the bottom is strong and steady. i must admit its rare that i find an open seat at any of the full ring tables but after jumping on few waiting lists i'm usually playing within 5 minutes.
play
i thought full tilt had fairly decent players, that was my understanding after reading the reviews, but after playing the micro limit tables i have to say its not true. i mean, its great, there are fish-er-roos everywhere, swimming around with not much clue. players down the bottom seem quite happy to call an all in with a/10h on a 3c 6s 9h board vs my qq, there is obviously nothing you can do when they hit a runner runner heart flush but apparently if you keep putting the money in ahead you'll be a long term winner! given players fishee tendencies it means play can be quite erratic with swings up and down in every session through odd calls and bizarre suck outs. it makes bluffing or reading opponents fairly hard but of you can adapt your game to the fish-er-roos play you'll be laughing.
support
only needed support once and that was to get some hand histories sent, they were emailed fairly promptly which was great. i did notice that the format of emailed hand histories is different to live hand histories giving me some database issues but all got fixed fairly swiftly.
usp
unique selling point that is. it has to be the pro's, full tilt has millions of them and its dead easy to watch them play. only the other night i railed durrr vs. ivey on the $500/1000 nlhe table of death. crazy sums of money were changing hands and durrr was enjoying most of it. i love this feature on full tilt and often surf around looking for some pro's after a session just to enjoy some high stakes action.
overall
i have to say that so far i'm enjoying myself on full tilt. its very different to stars and i sometimes jump back over to enjoy the finesse of the stars client but full tilt feels more like what poker should be. if stars feels like sitting in a monte carlo casino then full tilt is like your in a saloon throwing chips about, sipping whiskey while packing a 6 shooter! if i can handle the random beats and crazy action i'm sure full tilt will become my new permanent home and i recommend you give it a try.
thats pretty much all i can say. i've just experienced my worst losing session i've ever had and going over the beats i'm not sure what to say. i just couldn't buy a break, nothing went my way and i mean nothing. every hand i made got cracked. my aces full of eights got beat by aces full of nines, my aces high flush was busted by a straight flush, the list goes on and on.
then this happened and it sent me on tilt. i've never really been on tilt, maybe for a hand or so while i gained my composure back but i lost it with this and started hurling chips all over the place. i mean i couldn't throw them at people fast enough. i'm sure the full tilt servers had problems keeping up with the chips flying out my account. what a disgrace.
i think i need a little break. i may log back on later to try and recoup some winnings but i'm hurting pretty bad at the mo. god dam 9's!
one for the boys, totally what i think the power of the web should be about, don't worry its work friendly direct daniella
Read more...just played this hand and wanted your thoughts on villains (bb) line here and if you feel a call is justified. villain was playing 15/8 over a fairly small sample
Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
MP2: $7.05
CO: $13.70
BTN: $34.10
SB: $9.55
BB: $27
UTG: $5.15
UTG+1: $26.10
Hero (UTG+2): $26.60
MP1: $8.80
Pre-Flop: 5
5
dealt to Hero (UTG+2)
2 folds, Hero calls $0.25, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $0.25, 2 folds, SB calls $0.15, BB checks
Flop: ($1) 5
T 6 (4 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $1, MP2 folds, SB calls $1, BB calls $1
Turn: ($3) K (3 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $2.50, SB folds, BB calls $2.50
River: ($8) A (2 Players)
BB bets $8
runner runner flush?
Read more...so just after i posted about getting unstuck i thought i'd hit the tables for a quick session, nothing too intense just a speedy hit and run. so there i was, about even when this happened
i'm thinking great, set over 2 pair, only four outs can ruin this, i'll take it down and off i go...then
awesome, i'm stuck again! anyhoo, i hung around and managed to get myself back in the green but i was so close to freaking out, i guess it was a good lesson in tilt control which i managed to pass but oh so annoying none the less!
i haven't been running or playing that well so far in feb. i've had moments of genius followed by bigger moments of stupidity leaving me behind rather then significantly ahead. the times i've been ahead its business as usual but when i'm behind there seems to be something strangely satisfying about it!
little crazy sounding but when i'm winning, i'm just winning. i don't impose any stop win system, i just play till i start to feel like i'm losing concentration and then i'll log off and chill out a bit. however when i'm stuck everything seems to become clear. if i'm far behind then i'll usually write the session off and focus on one single goal, and thats to get unstuck. as soon as i hit the green, whether it be as little as 10 cents i'll usually log off and feel extremely satisfied with myself. i feel like i've achieved something that having a winning session doesn't really give me. i feel like i've climbed out of a hole and played good solid poker to do so, as usually its loose wayward play that has got me in that situation in the first place.
i don't think its just me that feels this way, i think its universal. i think getting unstuck is a poker players mount everest, its never easy and requires real concentration, effort and self restraint, its a grind if you will. but when achieved it really is like conquering a nemesis.
so to me, getting unstuck is actually more satisfying then booking a straight forward winning session. i feel like i've saved myself and what ever the win is, no matter how small, feels like a resounding victory.
so here's to getting yourself stuck just to have the pleasure of unsticking yourself!
stress is something that everyone experiences throughout their lives. whether the stress comes from work, home or other its never a pleasant experience.
i'm currently hugely stressed at work due to problems caused by colleagues which i'm having to sort out. its the usual backroom staff screwing things up with absolutely no regard to what happens in the front office. the problem with workplace stress is that its constantly changing, one day it can be due to x the next day y. the following week it can be z, q and s, who knows! its therefore very hard to work out a way to deal with that stress because no two situations are the same.
professional poker players as a rule are subject to high levels of stress as well. this can stem from, amongst other things, wagering huge amounts of money on a single hand, being down to their last buy in or having their tournament lives on the line. however the advantage a poker player has is that there is really only a limited scenarios that can cause you stress. yea, sure you can argue that no two hands or tournaments are the same, but essentially the stress causing principles are the same. a bad beat is a bad beat, getting knocked out a tornie is the same regardless, so once a poker player has experienced these situations 10, 20, 100 times their stress reaction to them is diluted or reduced. Over time a great poker player experiences almost zero stress to any situation because they have been their before, and any sign of stress or an adverse reaction could be construde as a tell, obvioulsy not recommended.
you may wonder where i'm going with this, well my point is, that although a professional poker player may experience a higher level of stress then a regular 9 to 5'er in the earlier part of their career, i would say that the longer they play the less stress they experience, whereas poor old 9 to 5'er still has the same ever evolving stress quotient!
so my conclusion is that basically the more stressed i get on the 9 to 5'er side of the fence, the greener it looks on the other side. the only way to tell is experience both, which is out of reach for most but as it stands now, i'd rather be taking a bad beat on the cyber felt which i know how to handle then dealer with the muppets in the backroom!
i've been reading an interesting article on pot commitment and a players commitment threshold and have to say i think its probably one of my biggest leaks.
i often find that i'm dropping between 10-15% of my stack to see a turn card, which in nl25 is only a dollar raise pre flop and a pot size bet on the flop. so as you can see a very easy place to find yourself.
the article goes on to explain that whenever you commit or know you will have to commit more than 10% of your stack, that you have a plan in place before you do so. this plan should basically be the way you want to play the hand.
for example, say you call a raise from the cut off with k/jo and hit a jack high flop (js/10h/6s). this is great for you, your opponent checks and you bet the pot and your opponent calls. the turn is 7h and your opponent checks again. what do you do here?
the commitment threshold states that you have put in over 10% of your stack so you need to decide whether you are willing to go all in here. is top pair, second kicker a hand you are willing to go all in with?
you're probably thinking, why on earth would i consider going all in, well imagine you bet the pot again and your opponent check raises you. now you are in an extremely tough position, you could be facing either of two flush draws, a straight draw, a combo draw, set or even an overpair and you have committed over a third of your stack ($1 dollar preflop to call the raise, c. $2 pot bet on the flop then c. $6 pot bet on the turn with $25 effective stack)
folding after investing over a third of your effective stack here is a mistake, and getting yourself into this position is also a mistake and a leak.
an effective plan to deal with this situation could be keeping the pot as small as possible. the bet on the flop is fine but the bet on the turn can lead you into trouble, a check behind gives you a chance to avoid running into a flush or a straight depending on what falls on the river and should both draws miss you hopefully entice your opponent to bluff off chips which you can safely call at a reduced risk to your total stack.
what do you guys think? i've never looked at planning a hand in this way but running through the examples in the article it makes perfect sense.
any comments welcome
not due to any demand, and probably not due to any sane reasoning but because i had some time on saturday i decided to set myself up on facebook!
thats right, seymour cards has gone facebook stylee. i now have a rather fetching profile and a bit of bla about me and my hobbies, don't know why i bothered but i wanted you all to know i have!
so far i have one friend, i don't know who they are, they asked me and because i didn't have any friends i decided to say yes...god thats sad and pathetic.
so if you wanna be my second friend then click here to see my profile. you can even take my wall virginity if you want, i'm easy!
cash games
nlh25
3018 hands for +$37.07
2.46bb / 100
party poker bonii +$30.00
poker office software bonus valued $79 (not included)
total january +$67.07
---
2008 to date +$67.07
so a bit of an erratic month in january. i can't say i played any better then average. i feel i ran well in spots and i played a patient game giving me opportunity to maximise some big hands, however there were stupid mistake in there that really dented the overall result in places.
i do feel that i'm slowly absorbing some of the more complicated concepts as i keep getting these eureka moments in strange places. i'll be in the gym or something and all of a sudden out of nowhere i'll suddenly be like, wow, now i get that hand, why didn't i see the implied odds there. or of course that play meant uber strength why am i calling when i should be folding! strange how these things must be working away in your subconscious and then pop to the from when they are done...like a microwave cooking a curry...ping!!
i need to sort out some serious hands in feb as due to my holiday i didn't get to play the amount i wanted. i also think i'm going to move my play over to full tilt so i can take advantage of the rake back, unless anyone can convince me another site is way better. i also want to post some simple strat stuff as well. nothing major but will get me thinking about poker properly.
thats all from me, me thinks. hopefully will kick off feb in style shortly
think i'll make this a regular occurence if only to brighten up the page when i look at!
this month i've decided that the newly single (well she soon will be) cheryl tweedy cole is the babe of the month.
enjoy!
down two buy-ins so far today. all to the same guy who seems to enjoy playing random cards 3 apart then rivering some odd straight while i'll hit top set or top two pair. lovely.
am currently a little irritated by this so am logging off to calm down...woo saa, woooo saaaa
edit: pulled some of it back, feeling a little better for it. think its time for another break from the tables, have some lunch and contemplate further how i 1) got stuck, and 2) get unstuck!
edit 2: clawed back a little more, stopping for the day now to see where i went wrong.
well had some grand ambitions to play poker on sunday but failed due to the horrific state i was in post knees up on saturday night.
the wedding party was a good crack, 100 royal airforce guys getting sloshed in the officers mess went surprisingly problem free. i did plan to run off during the night and find myslef a plane to sit in but was sternly warned by my buddy that i'd be arrested by the military police and held on base which isn't quite as nice as being arrested by the regular police, so decided to give it a miss.
i ended up drinking black sheep all night and the following morning i was a mess. could barely talk or see. and was in such bad way i dragged myself to a little chef of all places to have a fry up. unfortunately even the magic fry up failed to help and i fell a sleep in the back of my car as i had to check out the hotel at 12.
feeling slightly refreshed a little later in the afternoon i headed home and watched the last few episodes of las vegas season 4 on dvd before ordering a curry and heading to bed.
10 hours kip later and i feel like a new man. hit the gym this morning and am just having myself a healthy soya latte before i have a few meetings!
i do need to get in one more decent session before the end of the month though so will aim to do that on wednesday before posting januarys results.
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