Ahhhh - What's Going On

I don't know the problem is here, I really don't. I'm breakeven at 2NL! OK, it's only 6k hands, but I've taken so many coolers it's unreal. I've been beat by set over set on 4 different occasions, flush over flush twice and had my AA cracked about ~7 times, I'm just running so bad at the moment, it seemed to be happening and not stopping.

I'm still at about $45, and if I'm got some food in the cupboard downstairs I may just go all night on this one, I've got fuck all to do tomorrow so why not. I've got a lot of Poker on my PS3 to watch so I might look to get through a bit of that tonight too.

I'll try and get some of those hands up I talked about, not going well.

HoC Delivered & Server Restart

So I just loaded up 8 tables, sat there for a sec and realised nothing was happening. I checked my router and it was on, the USB was working so I sat there for a moment and realised they're probably restarting the server, so anyways, they say it takes 15 minutes or so but it's neer back up until about an hour later or so I thought I'd update this in the meanwhile.

Back to just above $40 after going down to about $27 after my Aces got cracked 4 times in a row, and my AQ on a Q862Q board didn't hold up. Funny thing is, the villain bet so quickly each time that I knew I was beat 100% of the time, I called his hand on the flop, 88, and he showed them at the showdown, when the Q came at the river he couldn't get his chips in quick enough but for some reason I called anyway, I 100% knew I was beat aswell. But yeah, back to above my starting budget and I feel like I've adjusted to 2NL again, so it's onwards and upwards from here!

Harrington on Cash Games v1 came this morning aswell, it's a lot thicker than I expected. Obviously it's for FR but I feel like I can adjust most of it to 6max, no problem. I'm not sure it'll be useful to about 10NL to be honest, 2NL and 5NL is all about being nitty and just picking off fish where as 10NL is a bit more aggressive and there's less fish, albeit still a hefty amount.

So when the server comes back I'll get back to grinding!

First 1k - Learning Curve

So last night I completed 1.5k hands, I lost a BI which you can read about in the post below, but I'm glad I did as it taught me 2 things.

1. When fish shove the river, they have the nuts.
2. I remember how to beat 2NL, 11/6.

Trust the fish, I remember how small ball I used to play, if I'm gonna call a bet, I may as well be the aggressor in the hand, and I take down a lot of small pots, which is basically what the deuce is all about, taking the small pots and every now and then getting the big ones too. I didn't feel comfortable with 4 tbles, it was boring folding every hand gt tiresome so I moved to 6 and it was a lot more bearable, so today when I get back to an even $40, I'll be 8 tabling 2Nl for more hands and hopefully a better hourly rate, obviously the goal here is to get out of here as soon as possible.

I'm just moving the 2005 HU Championship to my PS3 so I can watch it while I'm playing. I've watched the first 3 episodes of the 2009 Championship and it was cool, so I watched the 2008 event and it looked quite fun, just finished downloading 2005 and 2006 the other day, although 2007 is going real slow as it's not hosted at thepokerbay (N).

Anyways, I'll write back when I finish the session later this afternoon, Arsenal vs. Man Utd tonight so I won't be grinding, plus I've got babysitting duties tomorrow so I'll be going to my sister's after, thus my next grind won't be until tomorrow evening, deep into the early hours and continuing on Friday afternoon.

First Few Hours of Challenge

...And I lost a BI. $6.23 down, I got AA 4 times, and lost $6.78 with them, quite unbelievable, each time the villain made a straight, and to be honest, I could have probably found a fold on each time, especially the last one. Wow, I really didn't remember how boring 2NL is, how people grind this is unreal, 5NL is so much more bearable, except I want to stick to BRM for this.

EPT is on Channel 4 in half an hour so I'm just gonna browse tinternet for a bit, grab something to eat and begin grinding again when it begins. Will probably grind for an hour while that's on, watch 'The Wire' for an hour and go to sleep, wake up early and begin the grind again.

Will post an update in the morning before I begin, or after I finish grinding for the afternoon.

World Series of Poker 2009

Under a month away!

Finally! This is what really got me into Poker, when I first started playing I read up on past champions, previous tournament and I started downloading the episodes of the 2008 events just in time for the final table in November, I loved it and couldn't get enough., since then I've been hooked.

I've added a countdown on the side to countdown to the start of the 2009 WSOP, I just hope it lives up to the hype. I understand Poker a lot more than when I watched last years so it's going to be a lot more enjoyable for me to watch it, I'm not quite sure of the TV schedule and I'll probably read about it before I watch it, but I'll try to avoid doing so.

Unfortunately the Main Event final table is about 6/7 months away so we're gonna have to wait for that, I'm just hoping we have a current well known pro winning it, last year I was rooting for Chino Rheem, hopefully he has another deep run this year, and it'd be nice to see Matusow get further than he did last year aswell, his book has only recently come out so I'm definitely gonna purchase that when I get some dosh in my bank.

Fuck Off, Sister!

I'm fucking dying to get this started, I haven't played Poker for about 4 days! I just wanna get it started already, I told myself I wasn't going to start until Friday originally, but my niece stays around on the weekends so it leaves me little play with until maybe the evenings, even if she's downstairs with my Mum, my Mum's always calling me for favours 'n shit so I can never settle down for a decent session, so I decided to start on Monday morning as no one was in all day, until I woke up at 10am and found that my Mum didn't go to work, so that put me off for a day as she wanted me to help her with some shit.

"Ok, I'll start Tuesday", I tell myself. Until I get a phone call at 7pm asking to my babysit while my sister gets called in for emergency work on Tuesday, 9-6. So that rules that one out, so I'm now sitting here with my niece jumping all over me because she thinks it funny when I tell her to get fuck off and proceed to pretty much throw her off the sofa onto the floor, she comes back for more. She sleeps from 1-4 but I really can't settle down playing Poker at my sister's, I don't know what it is, I just seem to run bad for some reason, it's probably a mental thing more than anything and when I get a decent roll ... lol, my niece just took a drop ... I'll play some more at my sisters and get it over with once and for all!

So yeah, I won't start tonight as the football's on (Chelsea vs. Barcelona) and I could do with some FIFA, so I'll wake up tomorrow morning, do the shitty chores in the house for half an hour and eat my breakfast, which should leave me with the whole day to begin my grind! That is unless either my Mum decides to take another day off work for some reason, or my Sister decides she wants to come around for a bit, I can pretty much guarantee something will get in the way.

We'll see..

Bankroll Management

I have never been a complete Bankroll nit in my short time as a player, I've never played completely underolled as I've read too many sob stories of how it ends up, that's not to say I've never wanted to take shots at 100NL on a couple of occasions, but I've kind of fiddled around with what I can beat. For instance, I moved to 5NL when I hit $80, when real BRM suggested $200, and I moved to 10NL when I was at $170, which was close enough. I knew I could beat 5NL so it didn't matter so much, 10NL is a little bit of a bigger leap and I did okay however I had to cash out some dosh anyways so I moved back to 5NL, so I was never a BRM rebel so to speak, I stuck reaonably close to it.

This time however, I'll be going with it all the way so I can actually maintain a roll if I hit another sick downswing like I just experienced. I guess most of it was tilt and changing my game too much, maybe getting too technically with players who couldn't understand what I was doing, which in effect casued me to spew I guess. So the rules will be as follows;

• Move up when I have 20 buyins for the level above.
• Move down when I only have 17 buyins for the level.

So although I know I can beat 5NL, I won't be moving back until I hit $200, and although I'm pretty sure I can beat 10NL for a decent winrate too, I don't think I'll move up until I hit $400. Although technically the buyin is the same, the stakes are more than doubled therefore I feel double the roll is just as important than double the buyin.

I will not be cashing out again. Even if I'm desperate for money, I won't be going it. I might however, move my roll to an account created in my sisters name, just to clear a 250FPP bonus to get me 12 months at StoxPoker.

1. I feel comfortable at Stars, the players, the software, everything about it.
   
2. I know I can beat Stars, from 2NL to 10NL, no problems.
   
3. I don't want to get to know a new site just to clear a bonus.
4. Stox will help me improve me my game which will be vital for 25NL+.

This won't be for a little while obviously, but I plan to do it at some stage in the future for sure.

New Beginnings

Previously I had a blog which basically begun with me grinding $30. I took it to over $300, before withdrawing $220, then going on a sick downswing and break even stretch, leaving me with $25. I was beating 10NL, but it all went wrong, 5NL became a joke, and I couldn't even profit at 2NL, probably because of tilt and the mental block. Trust me, if you're underolled as it is, don't withdraw, it's a huge mistake which effected my game, and also many others who's posts I've read on twoplustwo, I'm not quite sure what it is, but it fucked me up pretty hard. So I added $15 from my bank, and will regrind it from $40, and this will begin Wednesday 29th April. The aims for the next month are as follows, and I originally I wasn't going to begin my grind until they were done, but I aim to get them done in May.

• Read every topic in the 2+2 sticky thread.
• Watch every available video at PokerTrikz.
• Read the whole of Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1.
• Stick to within my bankroll limits, which I'll specify.
• Play 30,000 hands through the whole month.
  

I will begin watching tonight, and will begin reading tomorrow afternoon. I also have Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1 coming sometime next week, so I will be reading that every night, at least 10 pages. Obviously I plan to read a lot more, but the bare minimum is 10 pages at a time, I feel like I only reading take it when I get into it and focus. I will focus on 2NL, playing small ball poker, that involves not betting on draws heavily, being ready to fold big hands in spots I'm pretty sure I'm beat, and trusting the opponents lines more than I did before, which include c/c, c/c on a 2flush flop and turn, and then leading out on the river, I reviewed some session in PT and some o the money I leaked was a joke in spots like this.

Keepin' the grind on my mind, and my mind on the grind..