October Review

Overall, I guess the month was a small success. I didn't get in half as many hands as I wanted too, mainly because of FIFA '10. Although, even when I wasn't playing the game, I still wasn't all that focused on grinding. Mainly because I couldn't be bothered dealing with the expected swings of 50NL, I'd just begun crushing 25NL on a regular basis and it felt good, and after I took my shot at 50NL, I expected to get crushed eventually, and when it didn't happen, I didn't wanna play because I thought it would come sooner rather than later, but then I couldn't motivate myself to play for smaller at 25NL, so I was kinda stuck.

Goals wise, I did quite well:
[x] Take shots at 50NL - They went very well, although just over break even, I've yet to move down so I'm delighted, rakeback has been huge too, so I highly doubt I'll be grinding 25NL in the future, unless for other certain purposes.
[x] Focus more on decisions - Definitely sorted this one out. Without this I'd have got crushed, I'm proud of myself that I've spotted two leaks in the last couple of months, mental leaks, and plugged them with consummate ease. They were both holding me back, FPS and focusing, I guess they're kinda in the same boat, but I've improved so much after focusing a lot more on the tables, aswell as of it.
[x] Watch more DC/Stox - Was kinda meh on this one, I'd say I watched 6 videos through the month, 2 of which were in the last 2 days. I think I'll set a bar of 10 next month, Stox and DC, I think I need to nail the Mathematics of NLHE from WiltOnTilt, this may uncover a leak, I don't do much math on or off the table, we'll see. I'll pass it for this month though.
[ ] Book some coaching - Didn't need too! Did well enough to continue on my own, but will definitely review this next month, I'll certainly get a coach before I take shots at 100NL.

Profits wise, it was decent, +$583 inc. rakeback. Not huge, but plodding along nicely, and considering I only put in 17k hands, it's not bad. I've set a goal for a $1k month before the end of 2009, which should happen in December depending on the hours I put in. Which kind of brings me to a next point, I've been offered a temp. job from 6th Dec-31st Dec, hours are 10pm-6am, so my clock will be insane, plus I dunno how much time I'll have to grind! Especially as the games from 6am-11am UK time are pretty fk'in poor. =[ Here are the graphs and stats:

25NL Graph w/stats

50NL Graph w/stats













Month Graph w/stats













So as you can see, 25NL was very good, 50NL was okay, I started okay, just had a wee downswing at the end, and got most of it back, although still need to work on the rest next month. I've been thinking over some aims for the next month, and they are (drumroll):

• Play 30k hands @ 50NL
• Watch 10 coaching videos
• Profit for the month overall
• Read the Theory 4rum @ 2+2 more
• Gather a maths base for Poker

I think that'll do, I may look at coaching but I might save that until December, I may also withdraw some money for a new laptop, I'm in dire dire need of a machine that actually runs half decent, but for now, time to watch get a buddy into Fringe at last. ;l

ARSENAL 3-0 tott*nham

Oh dear =D =D =D

Posts have been shit, sorry

I haven't really been interested in posted for the blog in the last month or so for some reason, so the quality of posts have been poor and rushed, just because I didn't wanna let it die, I posted here and there little updates and very little else, I'll try a lot harder from now I think.

So this month has been okay, I put in a serious lack of volume in for the early few weeks of October when FIFA '10 came out, but I've improved, and have done about 8k hands at 50NL. I dropped 3.5BI yesterday which kinda hurt me a little, losing $175 in two hours isn't something I'm used to, but I think it was worth it, as it got my focus back. I moved to 50NL expecting to get stuffed, but I've done reasonably well so far, and although haven't got a winrate at the moment, feel like I've just got to make some minor adjustments.

I've noticed some differences between 25NL and 50NL, notably the aggression. I feel as though I have to valuebet a lot thinner to make more money, and also focus more on hand ranges instead of thinking 'well, he's called a bet, it's not very draw heavy, I think c/f is the best play on the turn', I've started thinking along the lines of 'how does he have a K in his range', and putting them on certain hands I think they'd play this way. For example:

Not a big pot by any means, but I felt my thought process was good. I use the HUD for basic things like determining what kind of player the villain is, whether they could be 3betting me light ect ect, just the standard things, but I don't really use to to help me determined ranges and stuff, not as much as I should anyway. My thought for the hand were as follows:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $38.60
CO: $27.25
Hero (BTN): $55.80
SB: $50.50
BB: $51.80

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with 5 6
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, BB calls $1

I open ATC on the BTN if the blinds will let me, as they have been, so I do and I get a call. Villain is a 20/17 w/10% 3bet and 79% fold to steal.

Flop: ($3.25) 2 3 K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

I flop a gutshot so I fire a cbet, the board is kinda dry so figure I don't really need to make it $2.50, he's calling mid-pairs for the same price, calling a K for the same, so no need to put in extra money if it achieves the same thing.

Turn: ($7.25) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5, BB folds

He calls, and this is where the HUD came into use. He's got a 10% 3bet over a decent 3k sample, so he's 3betting hands like 99+, AK, KJ+ and possibly KT, he's not bad enough to be flatting hands like K7o, so I don't see how he has any K's in his range here, and if he does, it's weak. So primarily, I put him on a small-medium pair, or a hand like A4s/A5s, or something like 54s, which I think he'll probably pitch anyway, but he's not very strong generally and can't take another barrell, so I fire and he folds.

Generally I'm looking to c/f here, but I've learnt that at 50NL I need to focus more on ranges, something which wasn't really 100% necessary at 25NL, or at least not as much so. The hand itself wasn't anything special, but I felt like I need to start putting more stuff in the blog to make it more read worthy, other than "omg I moved up, I've found it tough, I'm gonna work harder from now, here goes nothing."

Will play some tonight and post up sopme interesting hands, maybe I'll use this to review some hands I played like a fish aswell, I need to start looking over my sessions and I guess this is a good a place as any to do so.

Sticking @ 50NL

Yessum! I think I'm going to stick at 50NL. I took my first shot, and haven't had to move down to 25NL at any stage since. Okay, I've only played 5k hands, this is nothing obviously, but I've got a 7bb/100 winrate which is pretty respectable, so I've been fortunate enough to run well so far.

I don't have any motivated to play any lower, which is why I've only played 13k hands this month. I didn't really wanna take 50NL shots, but I didn't wanna play at 25NL, so now I've braved it and started really well, it's made me wanna play a lot more.

I had my best poker day yesterday (+$170, not much compared to how long I've been playing), and another good day today has been my roll move to about $1.4k. I'm not sure I want a coach now! Haha, I think I'll keep going on my own for a while and definitely get the coaching before I move to 100NL, probably some time next month I guess, hopefully anyway.

Time to get ma fk'in grind on!

So I've played the smallest volume I've ever done this month, and it's the month I move up to 50NL and then start crushing 25NL. I've purchased 400k hands from HandHQ, they're importing as we speak, and I've got 22BI for 50NL, so I'm just gonna go for it tonight, and every night from now.

WATCH THIS FK'IN SPACE, I'll update tonight after my sesh, and every night after I think..

Not quite lockdown, but it's coming I think..

Start of Month Review, w/ graph

...Maybe adding "w/graph" will get some more lookers and comments!

So my goal this month was to start taking shots at 50NL, which I have, kinda, but only about 1.5k hands. I think I'm down about 2BI, (PTR has me down 4 :/), but haven't got the hands in my HEM at home 'cos they're at my sisters, but 25NL has gone well, and I've ran like shit. 6k hands, 7bb/100, but 6BI under EV. How sick, in 6k hands! But yeah, small sample but I'm starting to kill there, and I'm definitely a lot more confident in my game.

I'm looking forward to getting stuck in at 50NL, but I want to have a comfortable BR for it, I don't wanna have just $1k, move back to 25NL when I have $800, rebuild and lose it again, I wanna set myself a big limit, but at the same time I'm eager to get crackin' with it, so we'll see.

I'm just playing 50NL when I feel refreshed and ready to focus, otherwise I play 25NL when I've not as fresh or willing to sit and concentrate like a hawk. I've obviously got an edge at 25NL so it's capable, but I don't wanna make terrible decisions at 50NL because I'm not focusing, like when I reraise shoved over a fished pot bet on 99xK board and he showed K9, lol.

My hand reading is getting a ton better, and my discipline in folding is also better. Having watched a lot of videos and saying "wow, how can you fold that there, he's made like 3 small bets." It kinda hit me that these are the spots which cost me $$$, and also small spots that don't make sense but I'm not prepared to risk high variance by making the correct move, which is to get super aggro, so I definitely need to stop worrying about losing $$$ if i think it's the right move at the time, I guess I have to start trusting my reads a lot more.

So here is my 25NL graph for the month, as you can see, if I ran on EV, my graph would be shagable imo, but meh, not a lot I can do. I'm happy I've plugged some mental leaks, and am making the correct decisions and reads, so aslong as I stick at teh gameplan, I'll be fine.


Good luck.

Life Tilt

FML. That is all.

Bad start to better beginnings

So I begun the month at Cake, and dropped about 4BI at 20NL. I played terribly, the play is actually terrible itself, but I give players absolutely no credit what so ever which effects me because I get all fancy n shit. I stopped FPS'ing at FT, but I can't take 20NL seriously at Cake, the players are terrible. But yeah, I started the month bad.

Then I gave FT a bash the same night determined to get my money back, and I did, I won five BI ~ 25NL that night and in the morning, although was running kinda warm at that stage. Dropped 2 yesterday and picked another up this morning, so all in all it's been a good start to the month.

Been carried away on FIFA '10 too, so little grinding. I need to start taking shots at 50NL before my coaching starts, which costs $300, and my roll at the moment is about $1k, so I need another $300 before that starts. Hopefully I'll take the shots before 20th, so I can make a video, send it to my coach before he starts with the session plans for the rest of the course.