West London Grinder

Letter to durrrr

2010-03-16T23:47:00.001Z

Dear Tom Dwan,

May you share some of the bollocks you hold in abundance.

That it all, WLG.

Gross.

Baaaaaacck!

2010-03-12T02:37:00.002Z

Miss me?

Ok so yeah, I've decided to start blogging again. Basically I moved my blog to DC in an attempt to re-inspire myself, but this didn't work, and I decided to pick up where I left off. I used to beat 25NL for a very decent clip back in October, moved up to 50NL where I ran terribly, then started tilting chronically, I couldn't deal with my downswing and it caused me to pretty much move backwards in my poker career if you like.

I had my first losing month, followed by another, followed by another, and I dropped over $1.5k of my roll. Basically I just fell out of love with poker, with a belief I can still be great at it, but without the motivation or the mindset, so everything was wrong.

In February I withdrew my roll, deposited $1k again and decided that I'd had enough, and the only way I'm gonna move on up is by moving back down. So that's what I did. 40BI at 25NL, and I'd move back up at 40BI for 50NL, simple. But I didn't play much, I just went out a ton, got back my social life and hardly played, however I've found a new balance in my life, which involves me sleeping at 5am and waking at 9am, that way I manage to fit in Poker, Work and a social life! EZ game right!

At the start of March I had a prop with a mate that we have to play 25k hands each, which would smash my monthly record by some distance. I've well on course. I ran terrible at 25NL 6max, and was 6BI under EV in like 7k hands, and just couldn't win an all in, however I tried out Rush and am smashing it at the moment, so I may look to build my roll at this, and eventually move back to 6max before heading to 50NL, but it's soooo nice to be winning again and not tilting.

I'm also working on my game a lot, my redline is improving a lot as I seek thinner spots and keep pushing my edge, and I'm looking forward to getting a hell of a lot better in the next 6 months. I'll also be combing my p90x adventure in here too, if you haven;t heard of it, it's a 90 day intensive training programme, a lot of 2+2r's have raved about it, so me and a friend are checking it out, I'll keep y'all updated.

So yeah, time to grind.

New Blog Location

2010-01-11T21:11:00.001Z

http://www.deucescracked.com/blogs/runittwice

Please add it to your bloglists.

New Year, New Game!

2010-01-06T00:24:00.003Z

So I kind of fell out of love with the game that I was obsessed about. Maybe falling out of love is the wrong term, because I thought about it every living fk'in second of every day, but volume wise, I didn't really put much in, or at least as much as I'd hoped. At the end of 2009, I figured I needed to sort my life out, and getting a permanent job was the first step to doing it. Regular income, parents off my back about earning money and doing something, and getting a new social life, which is taking off too.

New Years was so sick. Went to the O2, £80 to ged'dit in, kinda sick but meh. Mate really badly wanted to go, didn't really wanna let him down plus I didn't wanna wake up in 2010, regretting my last actions of 2009, so this was good. Fell in love with Deadmau5 while out, was also Justice and Calvin Harris DJ'ing, plus some others, including Eric Prydz who was God awful, musta been out of his head.

But yeah, I dropped nearly 4BI on New Years Day, first hand was set over set, had flush over flush, meh, can't be arsed going into it, but I felt like I needed a change. I already know NLHE, so I don't really wanna get into PLO, so I decided HU was the best route, and my word I've enjoyed it. Probably 'cos I'm crushing, up about 8BI so far, encountered no variance yet cos of my sample size (2k hands), but I'm enjoying myself at Poker for the first time in ages.

Hope everyone is running well this year, have added my goals into the right hand side for this month, and hope I can still by them. I have a 20k hands prop bet with a friend, so I think I'll have ot grind some 6max at some stage, cos I picked up DJ Hero (xmas), Modern Warfare 2 (xmas), Need for Speed: Undercover (£9) and World Championship Snooker '09 (£4) over the last two weeks, and they're all pretty fk'in amazing.

Good luck all!

I'm a Hero, Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T21:02:00.004Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Here are some hands from yesterday's session. Kind of standard seeing as villain rep absolute air. But meh, I haven't posted some hands in a while, plus I think I would have folded to most of these a little while a go.

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

CO: $30.45
BTN: $18.15
SB: $10.00
BB: $87.75
Hero (UTG): $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with K A
Hero raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($6.00) 5 2 2 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.50, BTN folds, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($11.00) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $7.50, Hero calls $7.50

River: ($26.00) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $18.70 all in, Hero calls $18.70

Final Pot: $63.40
CO shows A T (a pair of Twos)
Hero shows K A (a pair of Twos)
Hero wins $60.40
(Rake: $3.00)

I rivered a flush draw, and like a fish, called with terrible odds anyway. Meh.

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

Hero (SB): $50.00
BB: $35.95
UTG: $66.05
MP: $51.85
CO: $58.35
BTN: $62.90

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with Q K
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) A 3 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

Turn: ($7.00) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $4.50, Hero calls $4.50

River: ($16.00) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $11.50, Hero calls $11.50

Final Pot: $39.00
Hero shows Q K (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
BB shows 4 5 (a pair of Sevens)
Hero wins $37.05
(Rake: $1.95)

Meh, he 3bets all Ax hands that are good enough to bet the turn and the river with, plus all draws missed, so easy call in the end.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $62.90
BTN: $81.25
SB: $39.40
BB: $50.00
UTG: $60.25
MP: $101.95

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with T K
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.00) 4 9 J (2 players)
SB bets $3, Hero calls $3

Turn: ($10.00) 9 (2 players)
SB bets $4.50, Hero calls $4.50

River: ($19.00) 9 (2 players
SB bets $30.15 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $30.15

Final Pot: $79.30
Hero shows T K (three of a kind, Nines)
SB shows 6 5 (three of a kind, Nines)
Hero wins $76.30
(Rake: $3.00)

Villains went off at me in the chatbox for this one "you gotta be kiddin me!!". I replied "Soz, I can see your cards." and he quit.

Also was browsing Shopto earlier and saw Need for Speed: Undercover for £9.95, World Championship Snooker 2009 for £4.95, and I brought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II for £42 aswell. Don't think I'm getting anything too exciting this Christmas, DJ Hero would be nice, but I thought it'd give me something to do after Christmas for when I'm not grinding.

I've been really focusing on my game recently. I'm a waiter in a restaurant, and all day long, when clearing tables or making hot drinks or meals for customers, I think about Poker. Different lines to take, past hands, how I can deceptively play hands, and it's starting to pay dividends for me. I've put in a maximum oif about 18k hands at 50NL, and I've lost about 10BI, but in the last 3k hands, my graph has been going upwards and I actually feel like I have an advantage over most of the players there now. I still need to refine my game a lot, but I'm feeling really good going into the New Year despite my results not reflecting my play so far.

I've also been asked to stay on at the restaurant into 2010 which gives me stability, I'm cool with working there for quite a while, there are some really good people there who are all super friendly, I've made a couple of good friends and everyone seems to have a laugh.

Good luck in 2010 everyone, may you all run goot!

Going for rustucko!

2009-12-19T19:49:00.002Z

So last night I sat down for a 5 hour session, my 2nd longest session of all time (pussy), and I dropped 8BI at 50NL. I played okay for the most part, but I ran sooooo bad, like the worse I've ran before, and you'll find that when you're running bad, you don't tilt half as much as you do when you're running neither good or bad, but then start running bad, you learn to brush it off, and that's what I did through the session.

Meh. Click here for the hands.

Anyway, back on my grind tonight, going for rostucko this weekend, hoping to put in 3k hands tonight and tomorrow, and fingers crossed, I run okay.

No updates recently mainly because I haven't played much with work n stuff, but I'm feeling hungry again, I'm looking for a 30k month.

Worst Month Ever

2009-11-30T23:15:00.002Z

I played hardly anything, I lost a whole bunch (best month profit wise only because of donkament score), and I ran like shit. I've decided to not play for the next week, I'm close to getting a staking arrangment sorted out also to help motivate me, the backer is in it for the long term, hopefully taking me to SSNL and beyond, and I'm looking forward to working hard at my game again.

My mindset has been a bit off, so when I sat down to play, I quickly quit because I just didn't feel like I was playing my 'a' game. I want a fresh mind going into the stake, as it'll be better for both me and the backer, and I want to work really hard at my game. I've got Stox membership, I'm going to rejoin DC next month and start posting a lot more in the uNL forum too.

Goal wise for November, I failed them all (almost anyway), goal wise for December, is just going to be to concentrate and improve. As part of the stake, he wants me to move down to 25NL and smash it for a decent winrate, which I'm happy with doing, I really want to get my confidence back, and at the same time, make us both some money.

Doubled my roll, ldo

2009-11-16T20:15:00.003Z

So last night, I decided to enter the $200k Double Deuce @ FullTilt. Don't ask me why, I was just looking in the tournaments tab and saw it running, decided to give it a whack, $20+2, 12,620 entrants, and top 1,365 get paid I think it was. I didn't get many big hands, but the tables were nitty enough to be folding a ton pre, and just c/f flops, so I took advantage and chipped up to just above average without much trouble.

Then, my internet cut out twice in an hour, and I missed about half hours play when the blinds started to get a little deep. I couldn't reconnect, I restarted my PC twice and still feck all, and when I came back, I was down to 5k in chips while the average was about 16k. I managed to work my way up to 21k before the next break just taking down some smallish pots, but never really got going from there. I managed to get in the money by just being relentless at the blinds and antes. When the bubble burst, everyone started dropping like flies, everyone stopped being nits and without many hands coming my way, there wasn't much I could do and I ended up going out in 813th for a $45 'score', doubling my BI.

It got to about 10pm, considering I had work in 16 hours, the last thing I should have done was browsed for more tournaments, but I wanted to gambool. I sat down at a $5/$10 table, a couple of $2/$4 tables and some 100NL tables, but the good thing was I couldn't be arsed to mess around, so I quit 'em and decided to go for it again, so I entered the $28k GTD anyway, $24+2, 1238 runners with 135 getting paid. The payouts were measly until you got to the final table, but I kinda knew I was gonna go sick deep in it, I just had that feeling. I think 25th or something was like $70, 10th was $252 and 1st was $6.5k, and I fancied it.

I started well, but lost half my stack when a fish raised the turn on 4K7Qtt turn multi-way, I was holding AK. I could have shoved but I really didn't see what I beat, the Q was a horrible turn card for me and I decided it wasn't worth risking my tournament life this early when I'm rarely ahead, so I laid it down and decided to wait for a better spot. I kept picking up some pots and found myself doing pretty well come 12am.

I don't really remember much about the middle, I was above average for the majority of the tournament because of a decent pot where I called a bet OOP and donked the flush river w/nut straight, and managed to get called by AJ (one pair) on a super wet board, this gave me some life. When we were 100 left, I started to built the chips, I was relentless and was running about 28/26 while everyone else were really nitty, it was super profitable.

Cutting a long story short, I got to the final tables and was 7th, the villain in CO has been shoving tons and I called w/A9o against his 76o, which would have propelled me to 2nd (double 3rd's stack), and in a good position to bully the table some more. He turn and rivered two pair to leave me on the shortstack and about 111k left. I shoved next hand w/97o, got called by AQo and flopped a 9, he turned a Q and I rivered a 6 to double up. I repopped some hands, shoved a couple of times before this hand happened;

Full Tilt Poker $28,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t12000/t24000 Blinds + t3000 - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t1449963 M = 26.85
MP: t837716 M = 15.51
Hero (CO): t311254 M = 5.76
BTN: t310101 M = 5.74
SB: t480017 M = 8.89
BB: t324949 M = 6.02

Pre Flop: (t54000) Hero is CO with J K
2 folds, Hero raises to t308254 all in, 2 folds, BB calls t284254

Flop: (t646508) 7 K Q

Turn: (t646508) 5

River: (t646508) T

Final Pot: t646508
Hero shows J K (a pair of Kings)
BB shows 5 5 (three of a kind, Fives)
BB wins t646508

2 outer on the turn, FML. 6th place for $1.3k, doubles my roll to nearly $2.7k which obviously is nice, but I really felt I could have shipped this. Props to DHM0219 though, he was relentless in his aggression and was unlucky not win it when he ran QQ into A9 and the flop was AAx for 4th place (I think), he was probably the best player at the table tbf and obviously knew what he was doing, he was so difficult to play against because he was 4bet shoving a ton, 3betting and opening nearly every hand, gg sir if you somehow read this.

So donkament finished at like 9:15am, I got something to eat and got my clothes ready to work, got about an hour of sleep in and away I went to work, stocked up on red bull ldo. I didn't feel that bad in work either tbh, was only a 14.00-18.00 shift which was fortunate, I would have called in sick if it was 10.00-18.00, no way would I have made that work out..

I'm going to leave myself with $2k in the roll, and withdraw about $685 for a new laptop, I'm not gonna take shots at 100NL just because I'm rolled for it because I don't beleive I have any significant edge up there, so I'm happy to have 40BI for 50NL while playing on a machine which is actually half decent instead of his heap of junk, gg I guess, your time is up!

I didn't proof read this and I'm tired as fuck so I apologize for any mistakes.

Sick Sick Sick Hand & Life Updates

2009-11-06T20:20:00.003Z

Ok, this hand was played about half an hour ago, I'm still tilting from it and extremely angry at myself for folding. I'm actually the most tilted I've ever been from Poker (except from taking a beat at 2NL one time and following the guy around for days tryna bust him), I'm so annoyed at myself because I feel I played the hand perfectly, except the river, I just don't trust me reads at all, when they're mostly correct.

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

BTN: $35.45
Hero (SB): $82.50
BB: $10.75
UTG: $50.10
MP: $18.85
CO: $101.10

Bit of history, I've 3bet the guy about two orbits before hand SB vs. CO, I'm running about 26/26 and have been running over the fish at this point iirc. Villain is a 23/17, w/57% fold to 3bet and a 2% 4bet range.

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with K K
2 folds, CO raises to $1.75, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, CO calls $3.75

So when he flats, considering I've 3bet him before and have been running aggressively, I take him off QQ+, AK, and put him on hands like 88-JJ, AJs+, and maybe KQs, his stats suggest he's never 4betting light, or a tleast rarely, so he flats his entire range here except QQ+ and AK. I have two blockers to Kx, so that makes it even more unlikely, he can have hands like QJs, T9s, J9s in randomly aswell, but I'm happy with the situation now.

Flop: ($11.50) T 9 Q (2 players)
Hero bets $7, CO calls $7

Once he flat calls, I'm very happy with my hand. He's raising QQ/TT/99, also I expect him to be raising KJ aswell, the fact that I have Ks means he can't have it (obv), which means he can't take me off AKss, and even if he has As to take me off AKs, I'm ahead.

Turn: ($25.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $12, CO raises to $29, Hero calls $17

I've narrowed his range down to like JJ or QJ here, with the occasion QT or T9, but they're unlikely. I'm not sure he calls another street with JJ or QJ, so I opt to bet about half pot, and hope he reveals the strength of his hand to me by either raising or flat calling. I'm looking real weak here, and when I call his raise, my hand looks like AA/KK always, so I hope he tries to take me off it on the river. I'm not worried much about him catching up, 'cos he's got like 11 outs if he's got QJ, or only 5 if he's got JJ, I'm looking for value more than anything from these hands, so I bet small, he raises like I want to, and I call. I don't like shipping because I'm only getting called by better hands, I'm hoping for him to hang himself on the river.

River: ($83.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $59.60 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero folds

Result, he does! But I can't call. I'm so angry with myself, I set the whole hand up perfectly, I did everything right to get him to spazz out with QJ/JJ, and he obliged, but I couldn't click call. I'm so angry with myself right now, I'm 95% sure I'm ahead at this point, I just could not click it, and I asked the guy for his MSN, he obliged and we spoke for a bit about the hand and image, his reasoning behind the hand and my reasoning.

Just wanted to blow off some steam and write about the hand, 'cos I'm so pissed right now, I made him my puppet and canceled my plan at the last.

---------------------------------

Life wise, I'm back in employment, start work Monday, and I can't even be arsed writing about it now 'cos I'm even more angry now I've written that ^ and ran back through it, so I'll probably update it tomorrow or something.

Good luck.

New Goal Added

2009-11-02T20:49:00.002Z

Just to note, I've added a new goal to my montly aim, just to help motivate me to towards putting in some kind of volume this month, I want to hit IronMan on FullTilt. 200 FTPs per day, around 1k hands I think it is roughly, so it should hopefully see me hit over 30k hands, which is my other aim.

Here goes.

October Review

2009-10-31T22:24:00.007Z

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

2009-10-31T14:57:00.000Z

Oh dear =D =D =D

Posts have been shit, sorry

2009-10-29T20:51:00.004Z

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

2009-10-24T17:20:00.002+01:00

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!

2009-10-19T18:04:00.003+01:00

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

2009-10-10T13:05:00.003+01:00

...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

2009-10-06T17:53:00.001+01:00

FML. That is all.

Bad start to better beginnings

2009-10-05T16:59:00.002+01:00

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.

Lacking teh grind

2009-09-28T16:51:00.002+01:00

I haven't played much solid poker in the last 2 weeks, I've been running bad and tbh can't really be bothered at the moment. I've got my first coaching session at the end of October and I really want that to be at 50NL, so I need to have some stabs at that first. I'm just bored of 25NL, I'm just a little underolled for 50NL at the moment, but wanted more than 20BI. I guess with a coach who's destroyed these limits 20 is fine, but I just wanted comfort.

I've decided to take some days off, and begin grinding again on Thursday or Friday, 1st/2nd October, fresh start. I wanna take some shots at 50NL by the middle of October, so I'm prepared by the end for the coaching. I moved some of my roll to Cake to grind some HU, but the rake was appaling, plus I ran kinda bad, so I gave some 6max a try and it was soft as shit, so soft that I've started giving the players absolutely no credit, thus spewing money here and there.

Time to start focusing again imo..

Yo Taylor...

2009-09-17T22:50:00.004+01:00

..l'm real happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! I found it funny, and what's even funnier, is the amount of people taking it personally, threatening to never buy anything Kanye again. Lol, get a life plz.

So I've stepped up my hunt for a coach, my first original choice was FenderJaguar, before I came across Grindcore on PokerSavvy. (Btw, bad news on the Grindcore front, after his BBV topic last week (which in case you didn't see), he's no longer accepting students, why the fuck didn't I approach him when I first came across him 2 months ago!) Anyway, I spoke to FenderJaguar and he explained that he charges too much for what it takes to beat 50NL, which was very honest of him, and he recommended me to one of his old students who's now coaching, alewis21. I've asked him about rates and availability, and if I like the sound of his course if you like, I'ma go with him. Ama0330 will probably be my next choice, I was impressed with the videos he put out on PokerSavvy, plus he's also recommended by Grindcore.

As for my game, I've focused a lot on hand reading in the last few days, accurately putting villains on tighter and tighter ranges and have made a few good decisions based on what I felt they were holding. I've been focusing a lot more when I play aswell which has helped, I've cut the spew out completely I hope and just tried to play a solid winning game, which is working out. I'm almost rolled for 50NL, which I will be when I get my next RB payment tomorrow plus the taketwo promotion at the end of the month (what a sick fucking promotion btw).

Is all for now, I'm off to grind.

Cleared Stars, IronMan still possible

2009-09-15T18:02:00.001+01:00

So I finished clearly Stars's 15k FPP $200 bonus last night (this morning, 5am counts right), so now I've deposited on FullTilt and activated the $600 bonus, I can withdraw from there too, instead of using the shitty 2+2 P2P transfer system which is so annoying. So many people want FT for Stars, and no one wants Stars for FT, there's like a ridic ratio, everyone was posting asking for the same as me, when fortunately someone picked me, ain't I the lucky one 8-) ..

So yeah, depo'd at FT and have until mid January to clear the bonus, which will be no problem. I plan on using the $600 to invest in Grindcore the coach. I've been thinking about it for about 6 weeks now and figure he can pick some holes in my game seeing as he grinded the same stakes as me and moved up very quickly, so he's probably the most recent on the market too.

Not much else to talk about, I think I gotta start focusing on my play again cos I'm wiening off the good play and starting to go back to the FPS in certain places, like trying to make hero calls. Also had a job interview last week, they'll let me know if I get it on Thursday, keep your fingers crossed 2+2r's!

Fuck IronMan, just for this manth!

2009-09-11T19:03:00.002+01:00

So in the first 10 days of the month, I qualified for ironman every day. Then I realised Stars are doing the instant cash bonuses, and I'm 1k FPP's away from getting the $200 bonus, so I'm in the process of moving my roll back to Stars to clear that as quickly as possible, and will then redeposit back on FullTilt and take advantage of their $600 deposit bonus, which is nice.

I've decided that I'll use the $600 to invest in Grindcore/EpicFoldGuy, which if you don't know, is a coach @ PokerSavvy. With a sick redline, I hope he's gonna transform my current weak/tight game, because that's pretty much what I am. I want experience in 3bet pots and how to play them, and also playing back at the regs, I don't do it enough and miss a ton of value, so hopefully he can teach me a thing or two. I'm currently downloading all his videos at PokerSavvy, so we'll so how they go and I'll make my decision in the next month or two, also got my eye on a couple of other coaches.

Month has gone okay so far, swingy still but the 7bb/100 goal is still get-a-ble, right now it's 4bb/100 with that sick downswing I had, so hopefully I can get it close to 7bb/100 soon.

Moved to FT and my current downswing

2009-09-04T22:11:00.002+01:00

So I moved my roll to FT for this month for rakeback, then realised that Stars are doing the instant cash bonuses, so I'm 1kFPP's away from the $200 bonus, so at some point month I'm gonna move my roll back across, get that 1k, get the $200 bonus, and then deposit at FT again and clear the $600 bonus. Then I'll probably move it to Absolute Poker and clear a bonus there, I've heard it's super super soft.

I've put in about 10k hands so far this month, breakeven including rakeback. I started well, winning at about 9bb/100 over 6k hands and then my downswing hit. I've played real solid but lost had several coolers one after another. HEM says I've above EV but that's only because of some combo draws or me re sucking out, it doesn't take into count the amount of times I've ran AK into AA or KK, or got QQ in vs AK and lost.

I'm happy with how I've played though, but I've still got some big leaks in my game. 3bet pots give me trouble as I have trouble assigning ranges, especially when I have like AK OOP and I 3bet, they call and the flop is something like; 752r; what the fuck do I do here? If he's not paired up then I'm ahead, and I never get better to fold, so I just check/fold here a ton, probably being bluffed a whole bunch too.

I've got to work hard on my game because I'm breaking even at 25NL over about 45k hands and it's starting to piss me off.

Seen the Doctor, it's not good news...

2009-08-31T16:36:00.003+01:00

...I've been diagnosed with a severe case of FPS, and it's incurable it seems. I've got it real bad. :( It's killing the confidence in my game as my graph goes up, and then I go and ruin it all, by doing something like: shoooovvvinng. Sorry, had to add the Sinatra in there.. I had a 10/8 nit open UTG, we're both effectively 200bb's deep and I call with KQs OTB, there's a 80/xx drooler in the blinds and he's coming along so I'm happy. Flop is JJQr, UTG leads out I call, and the SB fish calls too (he's all-in). The turn is a 9 of diamonds, which gives me a TP, a gutshot and a flush draw, so I call another bet, and the river bricks off and UTG takes a while before checking to me. Now, I can check behind here and lose the hand, or I can shove 150bb's deep and get this fucker to fold AA/KK, which I think a 10/8 is weeellll capable of doing, so I take a little, and over shove the pot, which I've done earlier and shown down a set, so my image is good, but no, he insta calls, I actually think he clicked the 'call any' button because it was virtually before I even pressed shove, and he flipped AA and scooped a 375bb pot.

The table breaks as the fish has gone, and he says "the fish has gone so I'm off too" and I was like "that river, I thought I could get you off AA/KK" He sits for about 15 seconds more, and leaves. With my money. FML.

Back to the original subject though, by far my biggest leak is FPS. Really, it's got really bad recently since watching some LAG videos, I've upped my 3bet a lot more and don't have the acquired aggression to follow through on later streets if called on the flop, it's like I instantly put them on overpairs which they aren't folding, or TP which would require me to fire 3 barrels, which has never ever worked when I do it.

When I concentrate I crush 25NL, but then I ruin it at the end of session by doing stupid things, making moves. I know I'll plug it eventually, but it's frustrating because it's holding me back from moving to 50NL, I think I'm actually going to create a custom felt for my tables that says "DON'T SPEW. Stop. Think. Fold." Or something along those lines, because it's a hench leak which has me by the horns and won't let go.

Your leak is Concentration

2009-08-30T15:12:00.003+01:00

Ever since I was a kid, my school reports would come back something along the lines of "very clever, but distracted too easily and has a lack of concentration." or "talks too much in class, but when he concentrates, he's a stop student." My weakness has always been concentrating for long periods, and when I put my mind to something I can excel, but it's focusing for long periods which is a weakness for me, and for a lot of others too.

In Poker, we need to make the right decisions when they come along, but to make the right decisions, we've got the focus on everything else that went on in the hand, like "what could villain could on the flop and then lead the turn with", or "what could villain raise the flop with but then check the turn with", instead of "I've got AA, we're stacking off here always." And that's the trap too many players fall into, not concentrating at the right times, but playing their cards for face value.

Yesterday I started a session and decided to really focus on my hands, and I found that talking aloud to myself was critical to this. I wasn't thinking about anything else, I wasn't listening to music, I was just watching everything around me and discussing my thought process aloud, and it worked like a treat. I was taking down a lot of small pots and my profits for the session were growing, where as without concentration, more often than not your HEM/PT line is going down until it comes across a big pot, then it dwindles again, before it comes to another big pot.

I felt myself wiening off my peaks levels, and as I did, my profits started shrinking as the session went on, I was making decisions off the cuff because I had a big hand, and I wasn't thinking too much before I clicked, and this has accounted for a whole amount of profits, massive amount, amounts you wouldn't believe. I was up 2BI last night before making 2 decisons which took me back down to ground zero, all because I wasn't concentrating on the hand when it was a clear fold, even with a straight.

If you find yourself losing concentration in session, quit. It's as simple as that, you're losing a ton of value, and a ton of money. Don't play because you wanna rack up 40k hands this month, it's just not worth losing $$$ over. Talk aloud and make the right decisions, maybe even record the session with Camtasia if it helps you talk aloud as standard, it helps, a lot..

Dilemma, Help Me!?

2009-08-29T14:00:00.000+01:00

Ok, I've spotted a 22" monitor in the Stars Store, it's sexy as fuck, and this is it.Now I have 10k FPP's, this baby cost 26k. I can earn about 4k per month give or take with GoldStar, so it'll give me about 4 months IMO, although I'd hope to be at 50NL by then, so I'd say 3 months, max 4. The dilemma is, whether I should move to FullTilt for Rakeback? I have an RB account over there but the player pool just seems so much smaller than Stars, and I've heard it's definitely a lot tougher because of the reg:fish ratio. I don't mind sitting with regs at my tables as I feel I can exploit a lot of their weak tendencies, but having a bigger pool will definitely make it more benifical, but is it worth going with RB for it?

Or should I stay another month @ Stars until I've gotten a better winrate at 25NL, and then move to FullTilt? HELP!

Well, I lied

2009-08-29T00:40:00.006+01:00

So I have played a little bit of teh Pokerz in the last couple of days.

Up a few BI, I played a good session tonight but ran okay, and I've steamed through 'What Would Joe Tall Do', which I'll name WWJTD from now on if ever mentioned. He's a limit players so obviously doesn't have the same mindset others have, as some of his plays have shown in the video, but having a DC Exec. with him, they kinda clear the mindset and give a whole new thinking of the hand, it's very good so far, definitely the most interesting series thus far in terms of the spots you get in every day.

Goals wise, I've marked all this months down as I won't be playing much on the weekend (I probably lied here too). I've put a K (for kinda) down on 25NL, as although I beat it, it was swingy and not very convincing, so I wouldn't call it consistent, but I would say the porblems were completely my fault, so I was 50/50 on that one, plus I didn't want a negative. ><

Will probably stick another post up at the end of August, for now chums.. (and btw, have reached GoldStar for the month the other day, good news.)

No more grinding until September

2009-08-27T21:21:00.003+01:00

So I've decided to take a couple of days off. I withdrew $150 from my $750 roll to buy a couple of pairs of jeans and I ran bad pretty bad after that. I played very bad aswell, for the first time ever I shoved in anger with a gutshot and villain snapped with AJ high, and he held. I was just running so bad, getting so infuriated with getting c/r on the driest of boards, all my cbets were being called down, and I wasn't in the mood to adjust to it, I was just feeling so annoyed at the time.

I finished watching Unconventional Wisdon the other day aswell which was a sick series, prolly gonna give it another watch some time as I missed a lot out, but I feel I learnt a bit from the series on the whole, and next up, 'What Would Joe Tall Do'? I like what I've seen of it thus far, so it looks good.

I'll set my goals for September now as I wanna get straight into it when it comes around, I wanna watch a whole series before then and just refine my game a little as it's gotten a little stale imo.

Beat 25NL for over 7bb/100.
Play at least 25k hands.
Watch at least 2 video series'

I feel 7bb/100 is a start, I had a rocky month and came out on top before my swing/bad play, so if I can work on my game a little and refine so rough edges, it'll give me a good base to work on and eventually crush it, little steps I guess.

[x] 6 months [x] my birthday [x] $1k

2009-08-21T23:45:00.000+01:00

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/x-6-months-x-my-birthday-x-1k-565594/

Gogogogo

Job, College and Poker

2009-08-18T11:27:00.002+01:00

Okay so I had an interview on Saturday, which went very well. Said I would have got the job on the spot 12 months ago but in the recession their getting so many good applicants for jobs that he needs to go away and think about it, so he said he'll give me a call in a few days after he interviewed the rest of the applicants. Really hoping I get it, like desperately hoping I get it.

I rung my college and spoke to finance, they said the course is £1.3k, which is a big no no at the moment. Unless of course my 2 NVQ's don't count as full NVQ's for the coming year, which I hope to God is the case, and I also hope that if I'm able to do the course without paying, that the hours aren't too long as if I get the job, the hours are 17:30-21:30 Mon/Tue/Wed, and 18:30-22:30 on Thur/Fri, so I don't wanna have to turn down college because I'm working silly hours.

In all honesty, the only reason I'm going back to college is for a bigger circle of friends, something to do in the day, and some more qualifications. I'd prefer to play Poker for a living over anything else realistic at the moment, and although I really would like to go into computing, I don't wanna borrow money from family when I know they can't afford it, and then in 3 years down the line finish college and not even get a career in the field to follow it up, give them the money back and say "thanks, but I didn't even need it."

Poker wise I took a day or two off last week because I was playing well behind my best, and it was costing me. I was real tired too the majority of the week do I didn't feel like grinding. I put in 500 hands last night and was up just under a BI, although it should have been a lot more. In general I'm finding 25NL easy, I just fail to make lay downs and continue to make stupid river calls, so I need for that to change before I gain a decent WR, I don't even look at my WR that's how meh it is, I think I'm just breaking even.

Football started on saturday, fuck yeah! 6-1 away to Everton, sick result and a sick performance. Got Celtic away tonight which won't be easy, generally we're the better team, but at Parkhead I believe they could probably beat most teams in the world, their fans are pretty much like their 12th man over there, so an early goal or two to silence them would be perfect for the rest of the night. I'd settle for a score draw (away goal), although a clean sheet and a win would be perfect.

First time 24 tabling

2009-08-13T13:13:00.004+01:00

So yesterday I decided to give 24 tabling a go for the first time. I've 12 tabled and 16 tabled before but I gave 24 tabling a shot and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, except my eyes started bleeding after an hour and I quit +2BI. It was only 10NL as I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it at 25NL obviously, and I was as high as +5BI until I got AKs in against AA pre, and got 2 outered on 3 different occasions, but it was a good experience I guess.

Hit a bit of a swing at 25NL, although I was playing far from my best game, I mean real far. I got into spots I shouldn't have, made a call when I knew I was beat (villain shoved for pot on 65AA8 river, and I had AQ, it's probably a piss easy fold, I don't think he does this with A7-AJ, and of course he flipped 88. Got QQ in against T8o on T74tt flop and he spiked a T on the turn obv.

College wise I've gotta give them a ring in the next few days and see how much I've gotta pay for the course. Of course I can withdraw my roll, and I wouldn't even care if I had to withdraw my entire roll, I would love to get a coaching/stake deal from 2+2. Kinda difficult to look for a job right now too as I don't know what's going on with college and what days I'll be there, so although I'm still looking it'll hard to apply for full-time jobs when I start college in 4 weeks..

Birthday in about 8 days too! Going out with 2 good mates on the saturday, and the saturday after prolly go down the pub 'n watch the Arsenal/Man Utd game with a mate I went to school with, probs won't get too pissed. Not.

SilverStar for next month and update

2009-08-10T12:44:00.004+01:00

So I've played about 13k hands so far this month, so I'm nearly half way to completing my prop bet with Prem. I've racked up about 1.3k VPP's aswell so Silver's in the bag, and I only need about 1.7k for Gold, so unless I get sick ill or something, I don't see it being a problem.

Last night was a good night, was sitting at one table 500bb's deep at one stage, in which I won my biggest pot - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4566106 Obviously I snap fold the flop and the turn if the UTG limper folded either pre or flop, but I just new the SB had a monster, I'd sat with him for 500 hands at the table, he'd let me steal a whole bunch without playing back, so when he 3bet I guessed he had a monster. I originally put him on KK+, and I was hoping it was AA as he'd have had a lot more equity on the turn once I hit my straight. Don't know what UTG was thinking though, fortunately he played it so badly I was allowed to see a turn. SH1P IT!

I'm finding 25NL quite easy, if a little swingy, I just need to choose my spots a little wiser and try not to spew in spots which should be avoided. By the end of the month I want to try and get my garph going up consistently, instead of up, down, up, down, up, down and back up.

All these 5am's (and then waking up 4 hours later) I keep having are having an effect though, I'm fucked. =(

Downswong

2009-08-06T17:41:00.004+01:00

Hit my worst downswing so far, was only 5BI but in the space of time it happened, it was pretty sick, I cut my sessions short because of it. I felt myself tilting and I couldn't win a hand to save my life, I was putting a lot of money in and having to fold on the turn or river because of certain circumstances.

All my big hands were hitting the wettest flops possible, like AQs on a QT9 monotone flop to which I was check raised on, I figured the villain is never value raising anything I beat, and he's never ever bluffing on a board like this so it's safer to lay it down than see a turn card and still have to fold a brick.

So that's my graph for the last few days, as you can see I ran okay for the first 1.5k hands, and it just went down hill from there, had my best day ever, $119, then had my worst day ever the very next day, -$116. Probably grind some tonight and see if I can ride it out, or just move to 10NL for some fun to blow off some steam and get over it there while crushing the terrible players down there.

Not sure how many hands I've done this month, but I must be nearing 7k I think, which is good because I'm on track. I'm also on track to achieve Gold Star next month at Stars too, earned 638VPP's this month and we're only on the 6th day, so if I can get 100 per day Goldstar will be mine. Not sure why I'm even on Stars tbh, I could be making RB at FT while taking advantage of the $600 deposit bonus, I kind of wanted to get settled at 25NL before I switched sites, so we'll see how it goes, if I don't hit GoldStar I think I'll move next month.

Prop Bet with Prem + August Goals

2009-08-05T12:53:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I've started a little motivational prop bet with Prem (eBuddy from SFM!), nothing major which'll effect either of our bankrolls, but just something little to get us each grinding. Basically he needs to play 25k hands (he plays 50NL), and I need to play 30k hands, with at least 15k of them being 25NL. I also need to finish unconventional wisdom on DC, which I'm 2 episodes through, although I may re-watch them if I have time. So yeah, only a $25 wager, I'm confident I'll do mine, and I'm pretty confident Prem won't reach his (sorry man). =)

As for August goals, well I don't wanna set a profit margin because I just wanna concentrate on getting better, working on better lines to take and figuring out others so I think I'm going to experiment this month with a few things. I want to beat 25NL consistently through the month, obviously play 30k hands, watch atleast 2 series' on DC and maybe I'll add something else in there too.

For now, bitches.

Teh Swine Flu

2009-07-31T19:41:00.000+01:00

Had swine flu all week, no grinding, more beats at 25NL before that, eugh.

Haven't played properly in about 2 weeks to be fair, so my BR is still about the $420 it wasn't 2 weeks ago, I think I may grind 10NL to get back into it and then revert back to 25NL after I've played a little and watched some more DC vids, notably Unconventional Wisdom and Remixed.

Silver for next month though, so it ain't all that bad.. Grinding tonight.

No motivation to play 10NL :/

2009-07-23T11:37:00.000+01:00

I haven't played in 4 or 5 days since running so bad at 25NL, I only dropped 3BI and am 5.5BI under EV for 2k hands, but even just casually grinding 10NL, I just can't be arsed. No I've been playing regularly for $25 stacks, a $10 doesn't bother me anymore, I find myself 3betting light, playing junk because I feel I have a bigger advantage, it's like I can't bring myself to play my A Game at 10NL because I've played 25NL..

I won't reach my 30k hands goal this month because my little break, but I should hit the rest of them. I've already well past $150 for the month, although that took a little hit because of the 3BI at 25NL, although still ahead, I still should watch some more vids which I plan to do and I've nearly finished HoC. v1, although I should probably stop reading 5 pages here and there..

I think I'll start properly grinding tomorrow night, the sooner I get past 25NL the better.

[x] over rolled for 25NL

2009-07-15T12:48:00.000+01:00

SHIP IT! Had a sick day yesterday, + 12BI I think, or atleast in the last 24 hours (inc this morning >). I started grinded at about midnight until about 5am and am up 8BI just for this morning, prolly gonna grind some more 10NL this afternoon to boost my roll and take some shots at 25NL when I get home tomorrow, but if I can pad my roll I guess my shot can last a lot longer, hopefully I won't have to move back down at any point.

I don't know how deluded I am, but I actually think I'm a lot better than most 10NL regs who take shots at 25NL, both pre-flop and post-flop. I see a lot of 2+2rs struggling to move to 25NL, but meh, [x] i'll show them all how it's done. *Cue FML post on the weekend.* I wanna watch some more 25NL videos at the weekend soon aswell, hopefully watch some of the 'The Coaching Tree' and start on season two of that by the end of the month, but we'll see.

I also used to play so bad on my sister's laptop, not sure what it was but I used to spew, I could never really play fully concentrated for some reason, I guess it was mainly a phsycological thing more than anything, but I've been running pretty hot on it for the last few weeks, albeit I haven't had much play time on there. I've kind of learnt a new kind of focus aswell, like when I played before I'd play to make money and not take much notice of the decision, I guess I played a little like a robot even when 4-tabling, but I stopped multi-tabling all together (4 tables not multi-tabling, I guess it's standard these days) and I just focus on my decisions a lot more, I guess that was a leak.

I'm not sure how much I'm up this money but it's way past the $150 I set last week, so aslong as 25NL doesn't go too bad, I think I've near enough past all my tasks, I think I can fire 30k hands in to, although the week my 'rents were supposed to go away doesn't look like it's gonna happen, they were taking my sister to Haven but I don't think they can afford it anymore now my step-dad didn't have any work at the start of the month, but we'll see.

[x] will be grateful to God if I can keep running like you.
[x] will be even more grateful if you can spare me a week of my parents at the end of the month.

Prem - HOLLA! =P

Quick update

2009-07-13T10:05:00.000+01:00

I run so goot! Had a great week at 10NL, have watched some DC vids, had a sweat with a 50NL reg and had some discussion with another about hand ranges and what not and learned a TON. I used ot play about 14/11 but opened my game to about 21/18 which is great, I rerally didn't realise how fucking passive 10NL was! Am winning at abou 9.5bb/100 for th elast 22k hands at 10NL, and am near enough rolled for 25NL! Ship it.

That's this month thus far, been playing well and am really confident about my game, I feel like I've learnt so much in the last few days and feel I'm pretty much ready right now to take on 25NL. I need I'm going to study equity ranges and what not before I move up, I feel I should understand profitable situations a lot more instead of kinda hazarding a guess at a +EV play.

SHIP TEH 25NL BY THE END OF THE MONTH!

Sorted my July Goals

2009-07-07T16:06:00.000+01:00

Played a little this month, about 6k hands I think and it went very well until 2 days ago where I stacked off easily and lost 4BI, but I've been in the profit and think I'm winning at about 7bb/100 over that period, which is okay I guess, should be a lot more. I want to set a reasonable goal for my winrate, but I feel like I need to learn to play my best all the time before doing that, and until I do that consistently I'm not sure on a realistic aim, so I've scrapped that for this month. My aims are as follow;

Continue beating 10NL nicely
Have at least $150 profit for the month
Finish HoC v1
Play 30k hands
Start watching my DC videos

I think they're all achievable, my parents are going away at the end of July too so I'll have a free house for a week to hit 30k hands if I don't achieve it by then anyway, I'm very confident I can get past $200 for the month as I've played quite solid recently, but just need to learn a little more consistency and patience when I'm getting drawn out on, and HoC is a must finish, I didn't learn much from the book but I've nearly finished so I might aswell get it over with already. I've got about 60GB of DC videos burnt to disk which I need to start watching, all the NLHE series and PLO series so if I can get through a disk or two of them I'll be happy.

June Review

2009-07-01T17:54:00.000+01:00

The month was a little mixed if I'm honest, it didn't start out too well, just getting used to 10NL and breaking even, but struggling. Then I kinda of realised I needed to play the same smooth game I knew best and it started to work. I got ill in the middle of the month so went about a week while playing about 2k hands, if that. But when I recovered I seems to hit some form, I concentrated a lot on my game and plugged my concentration leak which was a big bonus, I just seemed to auto-pilot 6tables while watching TV or listening to music, and it made no sense to do so. Here's my graph for June;

I didn't pass any of my goals except the first one, settled at 10NL. I didn't read much HoH, and I got no where near the hands total, i think 40k was a little ambitious tbf anyway, but I think I should finish HoH this month. Still no job, I need some money for college in September, and I didn't even attempt to learn any PLO.

I'll identify some goals for July in the next few days and get them up.

Playing solid

2009-06-24T19:27:00.000+01:00

So I dropped to 2tables on Monday, just wanted to concentrate on my game and how it's going, and focusing on reads and what not, and I did well, got my redline constantly rising, and my green line constantly rising too without any big pots, just chipping away at weakness.

Kinda ruined it last night though, loaded up some tables and had KQo OTB, raised pre, got the BB to call. He check min raised a 46Qtt flop, so I called, and he insta checked the turn. I figured he did this with straight draws and flush draws, especially as he checked the turn to me, almost as if he wanted to see a free river, so I 3/4 potted it and he raised all in and of course, came up with a set.

Was a bad play on my behalf, small hand, small pot and all that, I think if I check the river I can see a free showdown aswell.

[?] I'm a fish

2009-06-21T12:09:00.000+01:00

Right now I'm looking at my 10NL games and coming out with the conclusion that I'm a fish at the moment. I stack off too easily, I lose concentration and make hero floats/calls, I get a mindset that the villain has 'x' hand instead of 'x' range and proceed to call villain down, and although I'm in profit at 10NL since I moved back, my BR isn't moving because I win a few BI's, and then proceed to call villains down with shit.

I plan to try to change that in the next week, I haven't played a lot in the last 10 days because of varience kicking my arse but I'm going to give it a good go. Also I'm looking forward to the end of the July, my parents are taking my little sister to haven for a week and my other sister is coming along with my niece, however I'm hoping to get out of it because I can't afford it. I can, but I don't fancy wasting my money on something will will be costing me more money, ducy? So hopefully a week long grind is in store for me there, hopefully some 25NL shots too!

Keyword: Hopefully.

Very little play time

2009-06-14T21:38:00.000+01:00

I've been ill for the last 5 days so have played maybe 400 hands since Tuesday. I hope to play some tonight and get a lot of hands logged tomorrow.

Not much to say really, I don't have much passion to play as the weather is hot, my USB adapter is broken and keeps getting disconnected thus having to keep reconnecting and waiting for the blinds to hit me again, which tilts me, so all in all a -EV situation. I had KK on tuesday, I lead and got 3bet, I then got disconnected and it wouldn't reconnect so that tilted me for ages, the adapter is really annoying me now as there seems to be no solution at all, Netgear are shit.

Aggggh, life tilt.

So Far, So Good

2009-06-09T21:55:00.000+01:00

Had a good day so far at 10NL, I've stayed there throughout the month (except 9tabling 5NL @ my sisters one night to chill) which is one of my aims, although it started up and down, I've settled down and developed a good game for this level. I think I was up 4 or 5 BI's for today until I just took a couple of coolers to lose 2BI, but overall I played quite well.

I think I dumped a few $$$ though with some bad calls. I was raised all-in with AA on a 469tt flop after a limp/call, I think I can get away from there. I tanked for a while and I new I was beat but had to call as I guess he may have had TP with a flush draw, talking myself into calling.

But overall I've played a lot better and am starting to increase my roll.

Downswing

2009-06-04T17:37:00.000+01:00

..of some prop tst completely card dead which lead me finally getting aces for the first time in 5k hands, raising pre, getting a caller, and shove over a donk bet on a 8JJtt board, which of course he showed up with QJo, and he called a 3bet OOP, so whatever.

10NL is still a grind, I need to really improve my game but I know I can do it, I think I might ride my card dead period at 5NL while I get my confidence back and start playing 10NL again on Friday/Saturday night when the fish come out to play.

10NL's a steady grind

2009-06-03T03:10:00.000+01:00

So I'm not used to be put to difficult decisions since I graduated from 2NL and 5NL, and 10NL is noticeably tougher, albeit still very weak. I think my arrogance got in the way at the start, because I massacred 5NL and got told 10NL was just as bad, I felt as though I could probably walz through this level too, which is probably why I got off to a rocky start.

I've had a steady couple of days though, and I want to keep it going. I hope I don't have to play 5NL for a while, I'm happy grinding out small profits at 10NL and as long as I don't sink, I'll be happy to have a break even month as I'm learning a lot more at these stakes than at 5NL, plus if it needs be, I can also drop back to build my roll quickly and come back up.

Steady grinding though.

From PT to HEM

2009-06-01T01:57:00.000+01:00

I've made the leap!

$55 removed from my Bankroll, which I think is okay. PokerTracker was just a trial which is now over, so I feel I need some kind of software to help me find some leaks, and HEM was the cheapest, and best, arguably, available.

Paid, sent the email, requested every single HH from Stars, so hopefully it'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Fuck Varience and Fuck 10NL

2009-05-31T23:46:00.000+01:00

Every single hand I had this evening, was 2nd best. I lost 2 BI's as I quit out of frustration, I could have tilted (I did tilt and quit immediately), and losy a hell of a lot more. I had QQ twice, AK were the first 2 cards on the flop each time, everytime I had AK, i 3bet pre, miss the flop, cbet and get raised, these aggro donks that think ultraaggresion is the way to win are starting to annoy me, especially when I they bet EVERYTIME you check instead of cbet.

And donk bettors, why do it? Seriously, why? I 3bet pre with AK, flop comes Q76tt, they min bet, I raise and they call, and they do it again on the turn, I flat, then the flush hits the river and they insta-shove.

Everytime I move back to 10NL I seem to run like shit it's a joke.

PlatinumStar Baby!

2009-05-31T15:17:00.000+01:00

Finally did it, banged up 5 SnG's, knocked out in the first one as I got blinded out early, didn't get any cards and while multi-tabling, I lost count of the blinds and eventually saw I had 400 chips left and got caught out, then the next one I went out in 4th, I finished 3rd in another while getting the other two to heads up, losing while starting way ahead, and the winning the other one while I was starting with a 2,000 to 13,500 deficit, doubled up twice and ran the show from there on it.

Will probably play a little tonight, but won't play much tomorrow or Tuesday.

Grinding SnG's

2009-05-31T01:01:00.000+01:00

So I have recently suffered some serious burnout and haven't played much in the last week, I've just been playing set of 6 $1 SnG's while I'm bored and downloading some videos from DeucesCracked, and it's been going well. Played about 45 and have a 20% ROI which is obviously okay, I don't see it a long term thing, but it'll never hurt to have an edge in SnG's too when I'm bored and what not.

As you may have just read, I have subscribed to DeucesCracked too, I've watched quite a few video series os far and I must say it's definately helped a little, especially implied odds. Prime example, I'm in the SB with 44, it's folded to the BTN who makes a standard 3.5x raise, I'd usually flat here and set mine if we're both effectively the villains stack is 20-25x bigger than the raise, but realistically, what is flatting acheiving here? Call and fold any flop that doesn't give me a set, this is spew? 3bet or fold, simple, the villain's range is so wide on the BTN or CO that I can 3bet here and usually take it down, or I could have the best hand on the flop 70% of the time and still fold, it just doesn't make sense if I don't 3bet or fold here.

I've also got 14VPP's left to get before I get Platinum, I'll update that when I hit before bed!

10NL Failure, rebuilding the roll

2009-05-27T19:46:00.000+01:00

So I got to $240, decided to have a 4BI shot at 10NL which started okay but got coolered for 4BI, QQ vs. KK, set over set, set vs. straight and another BI with a couple of progressive folds in spots I felt I was beat despite putting a lot of money in.

I rebuilt my roll back to about $200 and took a little shot again, and again, lost to a couple of donk 2 pairs, it really frustrated me. I'm close to PlatinumStar, just gotta grind out some more VPP's for the month but with me being busy tomorrow and working on saturday, I need to get a move on.

I'm gonna grind the $1 DoN's for VPP's tonight, I'll get them quicker with a tiny profit but aslong as I reach Platinum I'll be happy.

[X] 2 outered by 3 villains, plus other hands

2009-05-23T18:50:00.000+01:00

The 2 outer was the final hand, FML.

The above hand, don't ask me what, I had felt like I was gonna hit a jack on the river, I genuinely knew I was gonna hit it and felt like I can bust his flush or naked trip aces.

[ ] $100 Day. FML.

2009-05-22T01:30:00.000+01:00

Ahh, so close to my first $100 day. I got to about $97 and picked up pocket kings, villain min raised me to where 4bet and min 5bet me, so I shoved obv, 6JQ hit so I figured I was beat here unless he had AK or KK for a split, and sure enough he flipped over AA and I lost, but I was close none the less.

$200 would be rolled for 10NL but I wanna get to $250 (25BI), moving down when I get back to $200 (20BI). It's a bit tight BRM but I don't wanna have to deposit again and I wanna have a decent padding at 10NL just incase something gay happens or something.

Today was a very good day.. [/NWA reworked]

Dropped to 6 tables

2009-05-21T15:16:00.000+01:00

So I decided to drop from 12tables down to half, 6ables, to great results. I've had a good day so far, $40 profit in about 2k hands just 6tabling and I feel like I'm playing with a lot more focus, I'm able to put villains on better hand ranges and make better calls/folds because of it.

I definitely think I'm gonna cut out mass tabling for quite a while, I want to move up and learn more a lot quicker than I am instead of just building a roll for 10NL and above, and I feel like I can advance more as a player the sooner I get to 25NL, so I'd rather get there by playing less tables than mass tabling and going on autopilot, but while learning at the same time.

Today was a good day ... [/NWA]

Horrible Day

2009-05-20T21:58:00.000+01:00

Didn't play at all yesterday, played about 800 hands today, and I lost 2BI. I got my overpairs cracked I think about 5 times, so overall I did well, I was just running well below EV, so my roll is at about $105.

Quite disheartening considering it was close to $200 last Friday..

Yuk!

2009-05-17T00:26:00.000+01:00

Eggh! Bleugh! Fuck it!

Horrible 2 days, really bad, from a $170 roll and taking shot backs at 10nl, it's down to about $110 after some horrible beats combined with some horrible play at 10nl. Looking back over some hands, they were gross, disgusting, I can't describe them, I don't even want to show them, puke everywhere, projectile vomit Theme Hospital stylee, eugh, bloatey head, *shakes head quickly*.

Will probably take tomorrow off from playing, in the afternoon at least.

Hmmm

2009-05-14T23:34:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I gave 10NL another shot and got coolered twice, the BTN flopped an invisible straight, 97s, flop came 68Tr, so obviously this isn't so good even with a set of 8's, villain checked behind, river came an A so I lead straight out, he raises and I shove and turns over the straight and makes the backdoor flush on the river just to rub it in, other one was AA vs. 22 AIPF.

So after losing 2 over 500 hands I decided to move back to 5NL and 12table for an hour or so, stuck in 1.5k hands and won 2.5 more BI so I'm just ahead from where I started. I'm going to 12table 5NL until I have $250 just to be safe, I like mulit-tabling and just chilling out with some music so I'll do that tomorrow, saturday and probably sunday if I can, and see where I am on Monday and Tuesday.

Gonna look into a DeucesCracker Membership too in the next few weeks.

10NL Not So Good

2009-05-13T17:59:00.000+01:00

So I took some shots at 10NL earlier, generally the play was just as bad, I picked off many river bluffs while value betting galore on my big hands. There were 3 or 4 bad hands where I lost a BI and gained them back through grinding small pots, and generally they could have been avoided.

Because I spot villains trying to be more aggressive, I seem to try and stoop to their level. Turning my hand into a bluff at most opportunities, re-raising scare cards and trying to bluff them off pots like they do to me, I think I need to settle down and just play my own nitty game.

I've got 17BI's for 10NL but I want 25BI's, which I can get by the weekend if I have a good next couple of days. I'm also looking into a deucescracked monthly subscription where I just go mad and download everything to a disk during my time with them, unfortunately I withdrew everything from my bank today as I'm going on holiday next year and I need to get that sorted out, so I think I may wait until next month when I'm beating 10NL and attempting shots at 25NL.

Got a couple of sick hands I'll get up tomorrow.

10NL starting from Monday

2009-05-12T18:33:00.000+01:00

So my BR is at about $165 right now, and with 2 full days of doing fuck all approaching me, I hope to take it to close to $250 for next Monday, in which case I'll move to 10NL full time. BRM suggest 20BI, which is $200, but we're only 100BB's deep, so I'd feel more comfortable with $250 behind me which is what I'm aiming for.

Playing really well right now and have immense confidence in my game, I'm running well and it's all going to plan, I just hope it lasts through 10NL too.

Day of Valuetownage

2009-05-11T19:59:00.000+01:00

Today was my best day in Poker so far, just under 3k hands so far, and $57 profit from the day. I never anything over $3 in a pot, and while I only won a $19 and a $7 as my biggest pot wins, I played very solid poker and was really patient, picking my spots and picking up loads of decent-ish pots.

This was my $19 pot;

And this was my $7 pot;

terribe from the villain, but what can I say? I'm on my way to PlatinumStar, my BR is $150 so 10NL isn't far away.

Going for PlatinumStar!

2009-05-11T15:40:00.000+01:00

If any of you fellow UK players haven't heard about the deal PokerStars are doing, it's as follows;

250-499 - SilverStar (usually 1,200 VPP's).
500-749 - GoldStar (usually 3,000 VPP's).
750-1,199 - PlatinumStar (usually 7,500 VPP's).
1,200-2,999 - 60,000 VPP's added to your account.
3,000-7,499 - 70,000 VPP's added to your account.
7,500+ - 80,000 VPP's added to your account.

I was gonna aim for SilverStar, but I've nearly hit that anyway, then I looked at GoldStar and that looks most likely, but for a challenge and the 150% VPP multiplier, I'm aiming for PlatinumStar. I've written out a bonusbook with all the formula's to reach it, and I'll need 29.35 VPP's per day to reach it, I'll add what I've got at the end of the each day and see if I can reach my target for the next day.

I'll have a better idea whether it's achieveable by the end of the week, but we'll see.

Beat: Mis-Click Folded a Full Boat

2009-05-10T23:46:00.000+01:00

FML. Villain said he had a straight, which isn't possible, so whatever, he probably had 9's full, wishful thinking maybe?

But then, on a different table.

But still, FML.

Brag: Signed Copy of Mike's Book

2009-05-09T11:52:00.000+01:00

So I log on to twoplustwo this morning and I have a PM from Amy Calistri, the co-writer and editor of Mike's Book, Check-Raising The Devil. She thanked me for my kind words about the book and expressed how cool Mike would think it was that I enjoyed the book and encouraged others to read it, here's a copy of the email.

Wow! Tim (Tim Lavalli, co-writer) and I were on the phone reading your review to each other. Both of us emailed Mike, but we're not sure he's seen it yet. But I know he'll think it's totally cool.

If you would respond with your name and address, I'll make sure Mike personally sends you an autographed copy.

Thanks Again,
Amy Calistri

Obviously I checked her previous posts and what not to check she wasn't just any old joe bloggs trying to send me shit in the post or get my address, but I though this was a nice gesture, I really loved the book and to be sent a brand new signed copy just for reading it and leaving positive feedback on is pretty cool.

Check-Raising The Devil

2009-05-08T19:47:00.000+01:00

This is a really awesome book, really awesome, I couldn't put it down. It came yesterday morning, and I'd finished it by this afternoon, I couldn't put it down. I'm not really an avid reader by any means, I enjoy autobiographies and enjoy Poker, so it was perfect, and it didn't fail to amaze me.

Mike Matusow's an interesting character anyway, misunderstood? Maybe. Everyone knows of his drug related problems and mental problems that have occurred because of it, and it was an amazing insight into his early life, through the good times, the bad times and the unlucky times, right through the whole drug dealing scandal and being fucked over by the police.

The chapters were short, but they kept me gripped. I went to bed at about 11pm last night, and I was still reading it at 4am, "just another chapter, just another chapter, okay one more, one more." I finished it off this afternoon and I'd really recommend the book to everyone, I think it's been withheld in American until 12th May because the front cover came out too dark, but when it hits the shop, buy it immediately.

It was humerous in parts, shocking in others but addictive all the way through. I loved it an dit's just a shame I've finished it, I could have gone on reading it for ever.

Hands of the Day

2009-05-07T20:45:00.000+01:00

Hand #1.
I don't really know what to make of the hand to be honest, I was donated chips. I was definitely ahead on the flop and was looking to get it in there, and to be honest, I felt like he was trying to push me off air because I cbet, I could have called and let him hang himself on the turn, but I figured he did this with AK, KQ and KJ too, so I wanted to get max value. The Queen wasn't the best card because it made the nut straight, and he could easily have been raising me on the flop with a draw, especially as we're both deep stacked, but obviously I'm never folding this, my heart did jump on the river though, I just hoped to God he didn't have AK.

Hand #2
This guy was playing really nitty, so when he entered the pot I knew he had a big hand. Not much to discuss about the hand to be fair, it played itself, but the flop wasn't too kind as in if he had AA, he had four 3's as outs too.

Hand #3
Three streets of value, surely the villain must have known he was beat at some stage in this hand. I wasn't too scared of the flush, it was the straight I was worried about, but I was 95% sure he had a J or a K along with a pair and was looking for a straight, obviously using that as an excuse to call along with top pair and I managed to get three streets from him.

Hand #4.
I'm not really sure if I was right to shove the turn here, but it gave me decent fold equity if he's holding AJ, straights and flushes got their, as did many 2pairs, I wasn't too fussed if he called or folded as I had TP along with straight and flush draws, probably an excuse to get it in, but I think I can edge him off AJ here as he seemed a solid player.

A Heater, What's That?

2009-05-07T14:59:00.000+01:00

I'd forgotten what a heater was until this morning, I just got action with everything. First time in about 7 weeks since I've had a decent run of cards and action consistently, I felt like leaving the tables with my profit but though about it for a second, and decided I'd enjoy my action while it lasted.

Had a really good day today, 1.5k hands and about $30 profit, taken my BR up to $85 which is good news, I really can't wait to get back to 10NL, or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself? Maybe I'll go back on a swing and be back to where I was, an hour long heater and I'm thinking of the next level? Bahhh, fuck it, I'm happy with my game for the first time in ages so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

The saying "you get out of your game what you put in" has never rung truer. I spent hours looking through PokerTracker 3 the other day and it's all coming to fruition, I've plugged some leaks which including calling too many raises OOP, and showing down too much junk. Also I wasn't really defending my smaller hands too often, I folding a hell of a lot and my non-showdown winnings was terrible, I'd give up so easily and allowed to be bluffed out of all kinds of pots, but I've looked at it, worked on and had a positive 3 days since.

I'm still trying to get a hand converter to work here, if anyone's reading this and they've used one on their blog which doesn't move the images to the next line, hook me up please!

Harrington on Cash Games v2 and Mike Matusow's autobiography came this morning too!

Last Night & 5NL Full Time

2009-05-06T15:42:00.000+01:00

Ahhh finally. Firsty, last night was fucked. Originally I met 2 mates down the pub for the football, which didn't go well, we were 2-0 down inside 12 minutes, needing 4 goals to win, so we had pretty much lost already. The pub was a little shit so we went out at half time and found a better one, I was sitting there and all of a sudden one of those moments occur, where you say something and everything goes quiet when you say it. "Fuck this man, this is an old mans pub." Literally everyone around me went quiet when I said it, 3 old blokes looked around and at me whilst me and my mate just burst into tears laughing uncontrollably, which was fair enough in my opinion, we were the only 18-19 year olds in there while there were three 20-26 girls across the room, and the rest were 40 year-old+ old blokes. So anyway, when it finished we went to Subway for something to eat, and my 2 mates wanted to go clubbing, I wasn't really dressed for it and neither were my 2 mates, but they decided to go to Kingston anyways and try to get in somewhere, and if all else failed, we'd go Cinema and watch X-Man Origins.

We ended up going to Kingston Uni and trying to get into their library, which didn't work, and all the clubs were shut (which I knew anyway, but they were adament they'd get into a student bar somewhere), so yeah, the cinema was shut aswell. FML. So we went to the train station and didn't get a pass at the station, just jumped straight on the train, then the conductor came, we decided to get off and walk back up the way he came and get on again, but he opened the doors where we were getting off so it was impossible, so we were stuck in no where at 11:10, no buses were running where we wanted to go, plus the last train was approaching and quick, we were fucked to put it mildly.

We decided to get a train to Richmond, where we'd get a night bus to where ever it goes and walk to my place while my mate would crash for the night. Fortunatly the train went to Twickenham on the way to Richmond, which was where we started, and my last bus ran until 11:49, so I was hoping I didn't miss it, or else I'd have a 2hour walk back home (which I've done before drunk, fun times). He stayed on and got his Mum to pick him up in Richmond (I feel sorry for her, coming all the way from Kensal Rise), and I managed to catch the last bus where I had an interesting encounter with a women at the bus stop. She decided to stand in front of the bus stand with her back to it while facing the other way, I walked up and stood behind her to look at the bus times, and she jumped in the air, screamed and jumped around to me. I looked at her, raised my eyebrow and asked her what her problem was and she was like "I thought you were trying to go through my bag." I laughed, she laughed, and then she proceeded to walk on. When my bus came, I got on it and she got on next stop, moral of the story is, she was still afraid of me. LOL. I got home at 12:30, browsed the net for a little and went to my sisters for the night (babysitting duties ftw!).

Back to Poker though, and I spent 4 hours on Monday looking through PokerTracker to compare what was happened to my game which was causing me to breakeven at 2NL and 5NL (lol!). I went through all the filters, saved them as .png's and then compared them at the end from when I was winning comfortably, to now, and the result were shocking, the thread can be found here (not all my findings are there). I was showing down so much shit, and I was calling so much OOP it was untrue, so I've tightened right up and am up 4BI today, at 22ptbb/100. To be fair though, I did suck out on one pot, which I'll get up later as the hand converter's being a bit of a bitch, but I got some action on a couple of sets and what not, although I did bluff away a BI overall aswell, so it could have been better.

I've been sucked out on so much, I feel as bad as someone farting in church now that I've sucked out on the river.

I feel dirty!

My PokerTracker Review

2009-05-05T00:18:00.000+01:00

Here are the comparisons, the top is the good times, bottom is the swing/break even, this is more for myself more than anything, so I can review it properly aswell as hopefully getting some suggestions from some higher stakes regs.

(I will be comparing 5NL, as the sample size at 10NL is too small, and 2NL includes me messing around with some stuff recently.)

GENERAL - PLAYER SUMMARY (click to enlarge)

As you can see this went downhill completely. My win rate was severally effected, not really much I can gather from these except that I was leaking, and leaking violently. I beat 2NL comprehensively, and 5NL was just as easy if a little less fishier, although still 95% fish at the level, I started off at 10NL on a heater I guess and that went down the drain, although I didn't really see much of a step up in my time there to be fair.

GENERAL - PLAYER STATISTICS (click to enlarge)

VP$IP & PFR - This is where I can really tell where I was leaking from. I kept a similar starting hand range, except I got a little more aggressive, I guess this is where I started raising all PP's in all positions and really learnt the value of set mining, perhaps at 5NL I can limp my low-mid PP's in early position instead of raising the 5xBB everytime I enter with them except iso-raising and if it's folded around to me in late position.

W$WSF - Hmm, this is strange, I actually improved this statistic by ~2.77%. Maybe this is because I took down more pots on the flop by cbetting my PP's instead of passively giving up when I missed when I limped in before.

WTSD% - I went to showdown .69% more, which isn't huge I suppose, so I don't think this is hugely relevant to be fair, the next statistic (W$SD%) will tell me if I've been showing down a lot worse than before.

W$SD% - I lost at the showdown 4.05% less than before, which seems pretty relevant. Have I opened my range up a bit more and taken them too far when I could perhaps have folded before hand? Seems like it.

Aggression Factor - Wow, .56 higher, which is about 35%, this is huge. My aggression has cranked up a ton, is this really needed at these stakes? Well 'mcfals02' had an AF of 4.05 @ 5NL, I'm not sure on the sample size, but his is monstrous to mine so is this one of the factor's behind me leaking money somewhere? Maybe.

Aggression Frequency - This has moved up 6.01% aswell, as expected, so the same conclusion can be taken from the previous statistic (AF), maybe this is a problem combined with something else? Although this is the same as 'mcfals02's, so I'm unsure.

3bet, F3bet, Att.Steal, C3bet - These are all pretty similar apart from my 3bet%. I personally think this is fine in my opinion, if anything my previous statistic was too low and most 3bets at these stakes are perceived as AA or KK, so I think this is certainly an improvement, tell me if I'm wrong?

Flop, Turn, River AF - A rise of 0.96% on the flop, .43% on the turn and a drop of .23% on the river. These are big numbers in relation to the size of the general %, so perhaps I need to learn more about cbetting flops, learning when's a good time to double barrel and perhaps when I can valuebet on the river?

CCPF - .38% down, which isn't really huge, I don't think this bares any major relevance, although maybe I can get it back up a little. My 3bet has risen and my cold calling has dropped, so maybe my aggression has taken over a little here again?

Fold to flop cbet - One thing I don't do enough, float or reraise a dry flop, like 'mcfals02' said, too much fit and fold IMO, I'll look at good spots to raise and good spots to float, another thing I'll work on.

Overall - It seems I've got a little more aggressive, which could be something. I think my AF & AFq was a little too different to what it was, maybe I can tone this down and just concentrate on seeing cheap opportunities to take down bigger pots? Overall not much changed massively except my aggression, which has alarm bells ringing for sure.

POSITION - POSITION STATISTICS (click to enlarge)

As you can see I learnt a bit more about position, although I didn't really abuse the button as some would say. Amazingly, my biggest winning position, the button, turned into my biggest loser (except the blinds), I'm losing money on the button! I've got a similar W$WSF, but my aggression is putting more money in the pot which is probably a major factor here, I'm losing a lot, but my Win % has risen, my W$SD% has dropped nearly 10% which tells me I'm showing down a lot of junk, but I've gone to showdown about 5% less, which is weird.

MONEY WON (NON-SHOWDOWN & SHOWDOWN) FOR HANDS PLAYED (click to enlarge)

Not a lot I can gain from this except the huge variance levels compared to that of before, over a similar sample size. My Non-Showdown's is on course, that's the same, it's the showdowns which are killing me, I'm showing down a lot of junk when I see a showdown, which I think I need to work on.

============================

I would really appreciate it if anyone's bored or whatever if they could look over this and suggest anything I may have missed, or even suggest more important statistics which are available in PT. My showdowns look like a big leak as does perhaps my aggression? I think I may change to a little more passive style for the mean time, not going overly aggressive with low-mid PP's preflop, and generally analyse hands a little more and look for spots to fold rather than looking for spots to call, after all, I should be laying back and allowing the fish to give me their money, instead of me looking to take it, right?

Targetting the 45 mans

2009-05-04T01:11:00.000+01:00

So I'm kinda miffed at my swing continuing, I'm beating 2NL and 5NL but barely, although I'm obviously gonna continue to play 5NL as I know I beat it, although the ptbb/100 is at about 4 after 1k hands, not a big sample size but compared to the 9 it was before, it's disheartening as I thought I could get over this swing/breakeven stretch.

I take the fishes money and proceed to valuebet the shit out of them, but I spew money somewhere, I need to look at it tomorrow in PT. It's comparable to that off filling up your swimming pool, going inside to get a drink and coming back and half of it's gone, it's wierd.

But yeah, the $1 45 mans are my target at the moment, just to explore my options of building a roll. I'm rolled for them barely (50BIs) so I think I'll give them a far shot and if I can profit in a few, then I might start grinding them hard in long sessions to get to 10NL quicker.

Happy May Day btw! lol.

Oops, [ ] BRM

2009-05-03T14:14:00.000+01:00

So I got bored at 2NL, I can't grind 9 tables for 4 hours, get 2 coolers at the end and be about $2 in profit, I just can't take it anymore. Even when I'm not getting coolered I just can't profit at it, I'm beating it for about 2ptbb/100, which is gonna take me an age to hit 5NL again, especially as I've probably played 10k hands and am up about $8. [ ] Suicide.

I know $50 isn't enough to be playing 5NL, especially as I can't deposit again (I'm sure I could if I needed too :P ), so I'm buying in for 100BB's, not 200, so $5, the same as 2NL. Obviously the variance is gonna be a lot higher, but I know I can beat it well and my game is suited the more I move up, so it'll be a lot more bearable.

I was considering grinding the $3.40 45 mans, but again, [ ] rolled. $1.10 45 mans, [ ] time. I'm at my sisters and the shopping is expected any minute so I didn't wanna load 4/6 tables up and then have to go away for 15 minutes while it's all delivered, so I decided I was gonna do it when I got home tonight. But, then I decided to go for 5NL, and I lost half a BI when my TT's AI on the flop lost to JJ, 259r board, I was pretty sure he had an overpair aswell, so that focused me a lot more too.

So far so good though, got that half BI back plus a little more plus playing a solid pure TAG game, folding KJ UTG, folding KQo to a raise and a call, playing premiums and set mining, and it appears to be working so far, although I've yet to get caught in a tough spot so we'll see.

The road to valuetown is a pretty one IMO.

BRM Changes

2009-05-02T10:41:00.000+01:00

I was reading 2+2 yesterday and someone mentioned BRM at the micros and how important it is, when in reality, at 2NL and 5NL, maybe 10NL, it doesn't have to be that strict. I mean, a fair bankroll is needed, I wouldn't feel comfortable at 5NL with the BR I have now simply because I don't want to have to redeposit, but $200 for 5NL is a little extreme, so I've decided that I'll move when I have $120.

Why not $100? Well because I want to move down if I drop to $100, my game isn't smooth at all and I'm barely profiting at 2NL right now, I just can't settle there and simplify my game to where it was when I was beating it at 17ptbb/100, I'm not too sure what it is, but I think my game is a lot more suited to 10NL+, so the quicker I get back there, the better.

5NL: $120
10NL: $200

I'll drop back to 5NL at $150, so I'll give myself a fair shot at 10NL again.

Phew, Found the Sweetspot

2009-05-01T14:48:00.000+01:00

So yeah, I've finally remember how passive 2NL is and how to keep grinding a profit without even receiving decent cards. Bet, cbet, double barrel, SHIP IT! Was looking around the blog scene and looking at some old 2NL posts I've seen from a few people and most of them were very tight, but not aggressive or passive, which I guess is where it becomes situational.

Looking back at my old 2NL graph when I was beating it at 17ptbb/100, it was going up the whole time, I looked at my new one and it was going down, I guess the problem was my non-showdown winnings. I've took my game a little more aggressive and I've got it going upwards again over 2k hands today, and my non-showdown winnings has improved too, so I've found the sweet spot.

I kinda feel good about my game, because where most people on a swing of my size would give up, or move up, I've taken great time and patience to look into my game and moved right to the very bottom to start again, I think a lot of different game plans were running through my head before and I was combining them all miserably, now I've found the right one I think I can probably use it to effect up to 10NL, by which time I'll look into shifting it for 25NL.

Will probably get another 1k hands done this evening, maybe more, and I'll get a graph up on Sunday, the same day where I'll be updating my BR on the right hand side, s'at $51 at the moment.

Ahhhh - What's Going On

2009-04-30T23:21:00.000+01:00

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

2009-04-29T12:00:00.000+01:00

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

2009-04-29T09:25:00.000+01:00

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.

When fish shove the river, they have the nuts.
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

2009-04-28T23:32:00.000+01:00

...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

2009-04-28T13:30:00.000+01:00

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!

2009-04-28T11:46:00.000+01:00

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

2009-04-27T19:04:00.000+01:00

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.

I feel comfortable at Stars, the players, the software, everything about it.
I know I can beat Stars, from 2NL to 10NL, no problems.
I don't want to get to know a new site just to clear a bonus.
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

2009-04-26T22:28:00.000+01:00

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..