uNL

announcement

2010-05-07T19:12:00.006-04:00

You can find me in the future here.

cya

Slow month take off

2010-05-07T03:40:00.003-04:00

Nothing too exciting so far this month poker wise. I decided to reduce the amount of tables I am playing from 9 to 6 with the plan to play less auto pilot and therefore not only to concentrate more on some leaks I still have but also to try out other lines in certain situations. The plan works out pretty decent up to now. My confidence in my game comes slowly back and it is always fun to try out new things at the tables. I am just thinking a lot latley about the game in general, had this week already two good sweats and on top of that watched a vid from Split. It is pretty cool that he is now doing vids for Card Runners after Stox Poker got shut down since I realy like the stuff he is publishing. So everything together a lot of things which will improve my own play a lot.

Besides this it seems there is although some improvement in my mental game. Yesterday I checked out my current results at NL50 and I realized I am down ~$700 from my peak in March. The good thing is I am not upset about this nor feel sorry for myself. I know I have just a rough time and that this part of the game. There is no reason to stress myself to get it all back fast becasue that is not how it works in poker. There are times where nothing works your way but that is just short term. We can not influence the results in poker but the thign we an influence is the way we play. So just make the right decesions and everything even out in the long run. Ít took a long time for me to realize this but I am happy to be now a lot closer to the mind set needed in poker.

Today is the start of the 16th Mini-FTOPS. I will play in event #1, a $20 No-Limit Hold`em tournament. From my experience in the past I think the field will be around 6k entrants with a first price of ~$25k!
Ship it one time please lol.

Not sure yet about tomorrow. I will probably play the the $10 Rebuy (event #5) but I am not sure about the $20 Turbo Rush (event #6) yet. The field is probably pretty weak since a lot of people play aweful in a turbo structure (blind levels are increasing faster than normal) and it is although Rush, a variation which seems to attract a lot of fishs latley.

In case I bink the tourney today you guys are the first to be knowing it ;)

Sigh final exams are in four days, I am happy when I have this shit behind me.

r2w

Report April

2010-05-02T14:26:00.006-04:00

April is finally over and I am not too sad about it. Just another awful month.

My little venture at NL25 came to a quick end after I dropped 6BI in my first session - 4BI under EV.... So I jumped back to NL50 and was somewhat lucky to end the month with a very marginal win after gruelling long session at Friday.

On a side not I did not play any rush but for some straneg reason HEM thinks so and tracked some NL25 hands from normal tabels as Rush hands. But whatever.

At least I made a decent amount with Rakeback over the 36k hands I played in April (never played more hands before).

I although played three tournaments at Friday. Not too much to say about them. Busted out early in the $5.50 Turbo with TT < AA. Got a little deeper in the $8.80 one but busted out of the mone there, too. Preflop I 3b AA in LP vs a EP open raiser. He flats, board is 78Tr, he checks, I shove the rest of my stack (~75% pot) and he calls with JJ. Turn is a J and GG me. Not that far away from the money. My deepest run I had in the $11. Got there ITM pretty easy with an average stack even I splitted a key hand earlier where I got AQ vs A8 AI on an ace high flop and he luckboxed a split pot on the river. In my final hand I shove TT vs a donk ( he calls one orbit before my resteal with Q6 vs my 99 and obv we split by the river) who got a caller behind him. He made of course the call for most of his chips with K8s and the cold caller came although along with 99 (lol). Board is J4JKx and I am out for a minimum cash.

When you run bad you just run bad everytime everywhere I guess.

No real goals for May since I will have to invest some time for my final exams so there will be not that much poker in the first 12 days. Besides this I want to write a raw version of the COTW (Switching Gears) I signed up for June. Otherwise I am looking forward to the Mini-FTOPs this month and maybe I can run good there one time. We will see.

My shedule will look like this I think:

#1 $20+2 NLHE (Fri 7th 13ET)
#5 $10+1 NLHE Rebuy (Sat 8th 15ET)
#6 $20+2 NLHE Turbo Rush (Sat 8th 17ET)
#19 $20+2 NLHE 1r1a (Thu 13th 13ET)
#22 $20+2 NLHE 6max (Fri 14th 13ET)
#23 $50+5 NLHE 4x Shootout (Fri 14th 17ET)
#26 $10+1 PLO Rebuy (Sat 15th 15ET)

This will might change and I will add or leave out some of them depending if I have the time to play.

Moving Down

2010-04-24T19:39:00.000-04:00

After another few shitty sessions on Friday I decided to move down to NL25 for the moment. I am still very good rolled for NL50 but I just need some confident in my game which can not be that bad like my latest results are.

Today I stayed away from the cash game tables and played some tournaments for a change of scenery. I played like a total of 15, most of them NLHE but although some PLO and mixed ones in. PLO is a really interesting game I have to say and the overall play looks very horrible to me. The venture ended with a minus of around $100. I had two small cashes but for most of the part I just ran not very good.

So I will play NL25 from tomorrow on for the rest of the month I think. I really hope I can grind out some money.

Damn ya poker gods....

2010-04-22T17:49:00.000-04:00

Once you think everything is going smoothly for a month the poker gods come into play and fuck around with you. Thats all for today to say.

Peace

Halftime month report March

2010-04-16T05:18:00.009-04:00

Ok, so here is something new I want to introduce: I will write every month a halftime report for the month where I will give an update of how I am doing so far in that particular month. I think that is a good way to keep track for myself and the few out there who are really interested in what I am writing here lol.

So while this should give a good overlook about current results I do not want to stress myself or anybody else too much about short term results. I am reading a lot of poker blogs (~20 at the moment) and I always dislike to some point the short term ramblings in them. Nothing wrong with rambling about the latest downswing but those "I played yesterday a session and ended 2BI down after 800 hands. So so sick!" entries are not really that interesting since guess what? That happens to all of us more or less every day! We play a game which is all the long term. And with long term I mean long term. Hundred of thousands of hands. Period. Maybe a post about this topic in more length a bit later.

So here we go finally with my halftime report for April. Nothing too much exciting happend since my last blog. I am up another 1.5BI which puts me up for a total of ~12BI up for the month. So far my win rate (WR) is around 5.9BB (Big Bets) for the month which is obviously not sustainable in the long run... I would be happy to beat the games at 3-4BB at one point! Of course I take this high WR as long as it will last especially since I played a bit fuzzy the last two days. At least I had the feeling I did. Seems like I have to replay some hands to see if I really played a bit odd in a few spots.

The only thing which really sucks is my volume so far.... only 10.4k hands! That is a shy ~3.6k hands behind pace for the prop bet this month (aiming 28k hands whit 9 tabling again). I will for sure not fail again and donate another $150 like last month. It is time to stop being lazy and getting some more hands in! So I have to play each day from now on ~1.2k hands to finish the month with at least 28k hands. This should be not too difficult!

On the final exams front I got the "invitation" to it yesterday with the post. They are split between 11st and 12nd May. On 11st the so called "open part" will be written. That means you get a bunch of questions about project managment and have 3.5 hours to answer them. This part will counts 40% to the end note of the graduation. On 12nd the two other parts are will be written: economics & social studies and marketing. Each test will last 60 minutes and counts 20% to the end note. The good thing is they are both multiply choice so is it a lot easier to handle than the first part!

The last 20% is for the verbal test which will take place approximately 6 weeks after the written part. I have pretty much a lock on the economics & social studies part. I got this Monday in a simulated test around 94.5% and that without learning. So I will and have to concentrate more or less full on project managment but is so incredible boring!

I think thats all for the moment but stay tuned for the things that will come!

Chillin` like a villain is over again

2010-04-11T14:47:00.003-04:00

My vacations are over in a few hours which is obviously not that good. I had a great but pretty uneventful time. I splited my time mainly between Poker and Assassins Creed 2 for my xBox (got it last weekend). I am nearly halfway through it and it is a very good game so far. A lot of the annoying of part 1 got removed or is just way better. The only thing I am not really love is the bunch of Jump and Run you have to do but that is just me since I am just not too much into that.

Poker was just a blast since my last blog. I managed to make 10 BI in maybe 3k hands which is just awesome. It seems like I am running on the other side of variance again but I think my play was pretty good, too. But then again Poker is so much easier to play when the cards just fall your way everytime.

When the heater is on it is in my opinion paramount to remember there is always spots to improve your game. It is just so easy to forget about that while running good since the money just rolls in your account even you are leaking in one or in another part of the game. And there is always room to improve. Poker is not a static game so even we assume someone is playing perfect now that doesnt mean he can beat the game endlessly. At least not when he doesnt pay attention to the state of the game. It is just important to be always a step ahead of the rest of the field. The time flies by and prior secret moves which are becoming general wisdom. So everybody are doing them at one point and the own edge is getting smaller. Of course it is not like everybody is doing it means everybody is doing it right so its a bit hard to say how smaller the edge is really getting.

With this in mind I am really psyched about Poker at the moment. I just enjoy to play and finding those parts of my game where I can improve and although adding a few moves to my repertoire. I think I am on a good way to beat NL50 for a good clip since I just see so many mistakes at the tables every day. In review it is pretty funny to think about me being a bit afraid about the "unbeatable" limit NL50 when in fact it is not really that much harder tahn NL25. The regs are for sure a bit better and the preflop action is a lot more aggressive. But there are a lot of fish out there and a lot of the regs are just meh (later post).

On a side note I have to stop being lazy when it comes down to my final exams. They are in exactly one month and so far I did exactly zero for them. I think I have pretty much a lock in them but it can not hurt to do a bit for them. Even I will not care too much about the results I want a decent graduation. It is always good to something to fall back on even when I am hopping to go pro at the latest in January 2011. But only time will tell if I have really what it takes to go this way.

I hope everybody has a good month!

Business like usual?!

2010-04-06T21:43:00.003-04:00

I just ended one of my probably longest sessions I ever played. I played over 3.5 hours straight for a cool 2.2k hands. Unfortunately I finished it down 1.5 BI which put me break even for the day since I played a shorter session earlier where I won 1.5BI. I am bit upset about this since in the second session I got more than my fair share of AA and KK and although flopped great with some other hands. But every tiem I had it I got no action but got out drawn a pretty awesoem amount of the time. At least I reached my goal for the day which was playing 3k hands.
I did not play all Eastern cause family stuff and it was time to get back on track!

Even I am running a bit better than in the second half of March I still got more then my fair shares for bad beats/coolers. I do not want to complain too much about variance since this is nothing I can control. But when I am looking at my results at NL50 I can not be too happy. I played over 45k hands break even. This is a small sample size and not only variance is the reason for this. A fair share of it is although bad play i.e. spew and some tilt. It is not that NL50 is not beatable but it seems that I am maybe missing some points to beat it in the long run. But then again I remember I needed like 60k hands before I figured out how to beat NL25. Maybe I am just a slow learner lol.

One thing I will maybe do is to move down to NL25 to grind it a bit out. I am still well rolled for NL50 but I am a bit annoyed of the games and my results in them at the moment. I just need a string of winning sessions again to feel better about my game again. And therefore NL25 is probably the right play ground for this.

At the end a funyn hand from last Thursdays:

Full Tilt Poker $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 627606
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $51.85
UTG: $50.75
UTG+1: $52.75
UTG+2: $47.00
Hero (MP1): $64.10
MP2: $61.75
CO: $65.10
BTN: $54.70
SB: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP1 with 7 7
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $1.25, Hero calls $1.25, MP2 calls $1.25, 1 fold, BTN calls $1.25, 2 folds

Flop: ($5.75) 8 J 9 (4 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero checks, MP2 bets $1.00, BTN calls $1, UTG+2 folds, Hero calls $1

Turn: ($8.75) 2 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks, BTN checks

River: ($8.75) T (3 players)
Hero bets $5.00, MP2 raises to $10, BTN folds, Hero raises to $61.85, MP2 calls $49.50 all in

Final Pot: $127.75
Hero shows 7 7
MP2 mucks 6 6
Hero wins $122.40
(Rake: $3.00)

So here I call preflop to set mine vs a pretty unknown guy. The flop call is maybe a bit debatable but I have a inside straight flush draw and therefore awesome implied odds since it is likely some one is drawing to the ace high flush. And there is a small chance although a offsuit ten or a seven is good here. I do not think MP2 nor the BTN has a strong hand here like since MP2 would propbaly bet here bigger and BTN would raise here with a set. I am pretty happy it is checked behindme on the turn and I can draw here for free. On the river I hit gin and decided to bet out hopping to get raised from the ace high flush or even the king high flush. And there is a chance he he/they are still caliign with a smaller flush to look me up. When someone has the Queen of spades here it would be pretty sick but no way I lay down my hand here.
MP2 is nice enough to raise my even it is only a min raise. I decided against to 3bet here but just shipped here since he will ever call here with the ace of spades here and probably every time with the King of spades. He insta called here and showed the 6 high flush (!)..... Pretty nice from him to level him self into a call.

March Review / April Preview

2010-04-02T17:39:00.000-04:00

A bit late for this but I had no time yesterday so here is it now.

Like said in the last blog I got on a downswing in the second half of the month which destroyed a good start into the month. But it is nothing I did not seen before and I knew that sometime this year my first downswing in 2010 have to come. That is just the nature of the game. Like said before just the timing was not really great. I thought about putting in a hughe session at Wendsday to have the small chance to finish above $0 for the month but... Well, just let say sometimes in life it doesn`t go like planed. And I have to admit it would have been a sick grind with a pretty low chance for success. So I lost on the top the $150 in prop bets but that is the way it goes sometimes.

So lets have a look now how I did in March:

[ ] Work your way through "The Poker Mindset".

I have to say thats it is a really good book and maybe I will write a book review about it in the next future. It definitively helped my approach to the game and pointed a few points out I never thought of before. But I think I do not practice everything from it so I will reread it at some point for sure.

[X] Play at least 28k hands.

I am a bit proud of this since I never played so many hands before in one month.

[ ] Get Iron Man.

Fail. I missed it by one day which kinda sucks. I wished it would be on a monthly base like the VIP system at Stars fro example since I made overall a lot more points then 25 x 200 you need fro Iron Man. I think I made like ~8k points.

[X] Perform good at the Mini-FTOPS

I am happy with my play and that is all what matters. It would be cool for sure when I made a big score on those but nothing you can do when the cards just do not fall your way. And I made a tiny profit which is better than nothing.

In total March was not a month I am really happy about but at the same time it was not that bad. I played good most of the times and variance is just a part of the game we call Poker. It would be wrong to reduce the whole month just to its result since its a marathon for sure.

That said I have definitively to work on my game to archieve the goals I set myself for the year. It is alreaydy 1/4 of the year gone and I am not anywhere near to reach them. Maybe I have to rethink some of them. But we will see.

I have no real goals for April besides playing at least 28k hands again and just keep improving at my game. I have vacations until the 11th so there should be hopefully some time to put soem voule in while revamping my game.

Worst day ever

2010-03-30T04:26:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I had my worst poker day ever in terms of losing money/BIs. I lost ~5.5BI (i.e. $275) in only ~1.7k hands.

I should realized it will be not my day at the tables when I joined a 2+2 reg at some tables where he sat alone and I lost a quick 2BI to him cause some coolers. Too bad I got 2x AA and 2x KK in the first 60 hands of our little HU match and he folded every time preflop. Well, nothing you can do and it was a good match vs him. Maybe I run next time better lol.

But this was just the start for a pretty brutal day since I just lost a bunch of pots after he finished our HU match. I think the biggest pot I won the whole session was ~40bb while I got a total 11 times AA alone (got although a good amount of TT-KK) and flopped every other hand a set (nearly 18%). But when you run bad you run bad and even you get some decent/good hands they held not up until the river or someone has just a better hand than you.

A pretty funny hand was the one when a 10/7 guy cold call a 3bet in the blinds from me after I reraised a regish guy with AKs (he folded). Flop came K52 which gives me TPTK and the nut flush draw. I cbet, he check raised and even I had already an odd feeling I shoved for the rest... he had 22 and it was runner runner brick for me.... I have no clue why a nit set mine here OOP with the orignial raiser still left to act. That is just so bad but whatever. GG him.

The thing I am really proud if is that I stayed complete under control and had a cool mind regardless of the beats and coolers I got. I think it is safe to say I played a really decent game in this session and that is all what matters. So good I did not started some tilt spew on top of it.

But this downswing has a bad timing. I have only today and tomorrow left to get back over $0 in total earnings this month or I will lose another $150 in the prop bet I am running this month again. That is pretty sick since after last Friday I was down only $14 and was pretty sure to get back in the winning zone with 3 days left (the weekend was a poker free one). But now I am down $300 for the month and I can not really see getting it back since I will play maybe 3-4k hands today and tomorrow. So unless I am running stupid hot from now on there is the high chance to fail the prop bet on the winning side - I have already 26.8k hands down so I will get the minimum 28k hands for sure.

This is already pretty long again so here the cliff notes:

-First downswing of the year (~13BI at the moment)
- still in a good state of mind
- will probably fail in a prop bet for another $150

I will keep focused, play my best and minimize my losers until the tide changed. Nothing else I can do.

and some more donkament stuff

2010-03-20T18:07:00.006-04:00

I missed the KO tourney at Thursday since I did not realized it is already summer time in the US. Here we put the clocks forward at 28th March lol.

Therefore I had one of those cash sessions I just want to forget. It started with running meh/bad and then ended with me playing bad and lost a total of 5BI.... I felt totally crushed after this but put a session a few hours later in (was already Friday) and ran more or less break even while 2BI under AIEV. The funniest hand way by far when I got it AI on the flop 9QJ with QQ and ran into T8.... Today I ran a bit better and got it in on the flop with top set vs middle and bottom set for a nice 160bb pot.

The only good thin about the last few days is that I really opened my game but it seems not to work that good at the moment post flop...

So today was the last mini-FTOP I will payed this series. It was a $10+1 PLO rebuy which I thought was a good traning place to get into PLO.

I did not get any too great cards at any time and when I finally hit something I got no pay out.... Well, in one time I over played Top set on the turn 3 handed but what ever... I rebuyed a total of 3 times only for points and paid the add on for cash. I ran out of points and already invested 300 medals for buying points.

So we I was more or less card dead and got a bit short when I finally got a pretty good hand which did not played out like I wanted it:

UTG+1 (t4352)
MP1 (t13586)
MP2 (t22628)
MP3 (t13360)
Hero (CO) (t5950)
Button (t7188)
SB (t3260)
BB (t7290)
UTG (t19620)

Hero's M: 13.22

Preflop: Hero is CO with , , ,
5 folds, Hero bets t900, 1 fold, SB raises to t3000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t5100, SB calls t260 (All-In)

Flop: (t6820) , , (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t6820) (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t6820) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t6820

Results:
SB had 10, 10, 5, K (two pair, Kings and fives).
Hero had A, 9, A, J (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: SB won t6820

I guess this is somewaht standard vs a short stacker but I just can not win a hand when I get it in as a 70/30 favorite (which is pretty awesome at PLO).

So I was really short and it did not take long until I busted out:

SB (t3502)
BB (t19061)
UTG (t24212)
UTG+1 (t20430)
Hero (MP1) (t3290)
MP2 (t12026)
MP3 (t43571)
CO (t3865)
Button (t11082)

Hero's M: 5.48

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with , , ,
2 folds, Hero bets t1400, 5 folds, BB calls t1000

Flop: (t3000) , , (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1890 (All-In), BB calls t1890

Turn: (t6780) (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t6780) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t6780

Results:
BB had K, 3, 4, A (straight, five high).
Hero had 5, 10, 10, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: BB won t6780

I think given my stake size this here is totally standard and I was at least a 53% favorite here.

Busting out in ~1.3k with a total of 4.6k entrants (top 450 got paid) is not that bad but I wish I could run better just one time....

So this series ended for me with a whopping ~$52 profit which is not the out come I was looking for lol. Well, at least I made some money and I am pretty happy with my play overall.

Now back to the cash games for the moment and hopefully I can end this month not like total crap after this week.

Busted out #7 mini-FTOPS for lolz

2010-03-13T18:39:00.003-05:00

No cash this time. I got a few good hands at the beginning but then went card dead or got no more action when I had finally a hand. On the last hand I shoved QQ UTG with 12bb left only to run into KK.... And that only ~1100 spots before the money....

The pay out structure sucks just realy hard this time. There were over 13.5k entrants and only the top 945 got paid again! This means only the top 6.9% of the field will get paid.

Feeling pretty sick out lasting 11k people for nothing.

Maybe next time!

Busted out #4 mini-FTOPS for min cash

2010-03-12T17:24:00.007-05:00

So I just busted out of the fist mini-FTOPs event I will play this series.

It was a $20+2 No Limit Hold`em 1 Rebuy+1 Add on tourney. There were a bit over 8k entrants with a prize pool over $350k while the 945 places got a payday. The first place was ~69k!

The very first hand I hit top set with TT in BB vs MP but only got his cbet. Then I busted my fist Buy-In on the following hand:

Villian is so far a 35/30ish guy after 12 hands so I think tthe river call is okay:

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25.00/t50.00 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP1: t2340.00 M = 31.20
MP2: t2805.00 M = 37.40
CO: t3835.00 M = 51.13
BTN: t5295.00 M = 70.60
Hero (SB): t1850.00 M = 24.67
BB: t1755.00 M = 23.40
UTG: t5840.00 M = 77.87
UTG+1: t1864.00 M = 24.85
UTG+2: t2123.00 M = 28.31

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is SB with T T
3 folds, MP1 raises to t150, 1 fold, CO calls t150, 1 fold, Hero calls t125, 1 fold

Flop: (t500) K 3 3 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t350.00, CO folds, Hero calls t350

Turn: (t1200) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 checks

River: (t1200) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t1840.00, Hero calls t1350 all in

Final Pot: t3900
MP1 shows 3 5
Hero mucks T T

So I had to rebuy and this was the very next hand vs the same villian:

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25.00/t50.00 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: t4465.00 M = 59.53
UTG+1: t2805.00 M = 37.40
UTG+2: t3685.00 M = 49.13
MP1: t5295.00 M = 70.60
Hero (MP2): t2000.00 M = 26.67
CO: t1680.00 M = 22.40
BTN: t5840.00 M = 77.87
SB: t1814.00 M = 24.19
BB: t2123.00 M = 28.31

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is MP2 with 5 4
UTG raises to t150, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls t150, 1 fold, Hero calls t150, 2 folds, SB calls t125, BB calls t100

Flop: (t750) 3 2 9 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets t550.00, UTG+2 folds, Hero raises to t1850, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls t1300

Turn: (t4450) 8 (2 players)

River: (t4450) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: t4450
UTG shows A A
Hero shows 5 4
Hero wins t4450.00

After this I went pretty card dead but shortly after the add-on period (for another 2500 chips) I managed I get it AIpre with AK vs AQ and I held up. After this hand my stack was double the average one but I was complete card dead and the tables was full of maniacs so I could not steal at least. When we were 3 hours into the toruney I got some nice hands but did not any serious money with them. I got KK in the BB and a short stack opened 3x UTG1. I shove since I was pretty short although and he folded. LOL. Then I got AKo twice but could only picked up blinds and antes. So I crippeld down pretty bad (I got no other playable hands).

Then I made a somewhat sick mistake thinking we were only 9 spots away from the money when we were in fact 109 spots away. That was the reason I folded KJo with a M of 5 UTG.... Well, I would get called by AKs but the board was xxKJx.... LOL. I am wondering how deep I would made it when I would made the shove.

But somehow I still got in the money and right after the bubble busted I got it AI with AA UTG and a shorty and a big stack called. I hold up and got my stack to 25k. I think the average at this point was maybe ~36k. Suddenly I thought I had a decent chance to make a deepr run but just a few hands later this one came up:

I made it in the money and got my last 11k up to 25k after I got AA the very first hand after the bubble busted.

Final hand:

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1000.00/t2000.00 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP1: t29928.00 M = 9.98
MP2: t49537.00 M = 16.51
CO: t22288.00 M = 7.43
Hero (BTN): t23763.00 M = 7.92
SB: t112773.00 M = 37.59
BB: t56556.00 M = 18.85
UTG: t89302.00 M = 29.77
UTG+1: t35084.00 M = 11.69
UTG+2: t30329.00 M = 10.11

Pre Flop: (t3000) Hero is BTN with 9 9
5 folds, CO raises to t22038, Hero raises to t23513, 2 folds

Flop: (t47076) J 8 K

Turn: (t47076) 8

River: (t47076) K

Final Pot: t47076
CO shows K 6
Hero shows 9 9
CO wins t49326.00

Well, I got it in as a 70/30 favorite but obv I can not win such a key hand. So I cashed in for $70.94. I swapped 10% with a fellow FT reg who busted not far away from the money so I made a whopping ~$63 since I brought in with points only.Should be more after over 4 hours of playing but nothing you can do.

On a side note I did not played one cah game hand so far today and I doubt I will do it. I am pretty pissed of right now and will just play some X Box 360 now lol. Maybe I find the motivation to play a bit later.

The next event is tomorrow and maybe I can make it deeper this time.

Edit: So I decided to put in a small session since the tables on a Friday are most of the times awesome aka very fishy and I wanted to stay in pace for the prop and for my Iron Man chase. I had maybe the greatest run over cards ever speaking of starting hands . I got 3x AA, 2x KK, 6x QQ (I folded one of them pre vs a reg 3bet OOP and would flopped top set lol), 2x AKs and 6x AKo in only 675 hands. But at the end I am only up $2.65!!!!

I made maybe one spewy shove with just an overpair but it was a 3bet pot we played 3way and there were already a lot of money in the pot on the flop.

Oh, and I got owned by a fish HU when he limps AKo OTB and the board came xAAx. Obv I had A7. At least he was only 40bb deep lol.

So so sick esp I was already up $80 at one point in the session!!

I am pretty upset with Poker for today so now it is def time for the xbox!

Bday, real lífe ramblings, month take off

2010-03-05T09:21:00.002-05:00

My bday party was pretty cool. So on Monday I went out to dinner with the GF and my very close friends at this realy nice restaurant near my home. It has this NYC style - brick and motrar look, some cool wood interior and some smooth Jazz music in the background . Maybe a bit hard to explain but I hope you get my point. And they have a hughe bar! Which ended with me having already two coktails before I got my entree and a third before I finished dessert. Good times.

After this we went to a bar to far away. It is not a gorgeous place by any meanings but the alcohol is not that expensive and they have a separate smooking room. Non smooking bars sucks! A few Barcardi Sprites (one of my favorite long drinks) and a few more Tequiallas later I had a realy good time with some very interesting discussions about politics, sports and life in general. I was home at like 3AM - glad I had the next day off from work lol.

Well, I spend some money on the night but is was worth any penny. It is just great to have all of your important non family people around you and just having a good time. Especially that will not happen again in the near future. My best friend traveled the next day to Australia the next day for one year. This was the reason the party started already on Monday evening even I had birthday on Tuesday. I hope he will have an amazing time there!

I am happy when I finish my job training this June. The last ~3 years where just meh. I lived on a very thight budget while doing nothing I realy enjoy. I mean it is not the worst job in the world by any meaning but it just nothing I am in love with. Even I am glad to see the end of this life period this leads into the next problems. I have just no real clue what I will do after it. I could go the safe route and take the job offer I have from the company where I am at the moment. This means a poor paid half-time position for at least one year. Which means to live furthermore on a tight budget while searching for a somewhat nice flat (want to move thogether in with the GF from August on).

Besides this offer it seems the job situation is pretty bad right now. I will get a good graduation so this is not the problem. There are just not that much open positions! And even I would find something decent it is just not realy what I want to do longer than I have to. In my opinion working only for the money without passion for the work is just soul reaping in the long term.
So what do I want instead of grinding the office life? Well, obviously grinding the tables! I know playing for a living is note like heaven on earth. It contains a lot of up and downs and is just a hard way to make an easy living. But the idea of playing someday professional is in my mind for a few years now and finally it seems I am somehow on the right route to archive this. The only argument against taking this route is the fact I have no savings. But without money on the side for 3-6 month life expenses going pro is a pretty meh idea.

It looks like I have to get a job I will hate not too much after the final exams and save some money first. So sick.

Just in case you every wonder how the office life is:

I had a pretty good take off into March. Like always I have the strong feeling it could be better. It is funny when so many people congratulate you on your improvment and you self have the feeling you still sucks sometimes bad and only win because there are people out there who just sucks way more than you do. It is not like I have a low confidence. I am just very competive. When I do something I want to be the very best at it. This is like I always was. Applied to Poker this means I want to one of the best at every limit I play and not just a slightly winner or even worser a rakeback / FPP pro. Am I already one of the best? For sure not. Do I have the ability to be at that stage someday? Maybe. Time will tell. Will I do everything I can do to archive this goal? You can bet on this!

That said I am happy with the start of this month and hope the rest of the month will be that good, too. But in Poker only the longterm counts so I will forget about results and only try to make the right decisions every time I play for the rest of the month.
That said I am in pace right now for my volume goal this month but today the whole family will come over and celebrate my and the birthday of my younger brother (he went 20 on Monday) so not too much Poker today and no clue how much I can play at the weekend. We will see.

r2w

February Review / March Preview

2010-02-28T12:51:00.000-05:00

And another month is in the books for 2010. Bring on March now!

My 23rd birtday is right behind the corner. I am not really into celebrating my birthdays too much. They just remind me that I am another year older and still wasting too much time and energie on things I am not really into. At the moment I have this feeling in particular about my current job training. I know the worth of having a solid education but I have just not the desire to grind out the office life longer then I have to. Even I not realy care about this topic anymore I will try to put in some study time from now on for my final exams this summer.

Anyway before this here will get a life tilt rant I just stop it for now and safe it for another post in the future lol.

Time for talking about Poker now!

At first a short recap of my month. I went on a nice upswing at 25nl the first few days of February. I felt pretty good about my game at this point and I hit the target in my BR for shot taking 50nl. I had a so so start but after some other spew sessions this month I brought "The Poker Mindset"to finaly help myself fixing my mental leaks. I did not finished this book yet but from what I already read it is a realy good one. Maybe I will make a book review here once I read through it. Otherwise my confidence is growing from session to session. It just seems the improvments I made are paying divides even there is still a lot of work to do. Besides this I brought a sweet new 25.5" monitor for my grinding. It is just great to have such a big monitor. I can see all stats without problems but at the same time the tables have a good size and I can pretty easy 9 tabling with a tile/stack layout. On top of that I brought althoug a new Mod for the cards, chips and table. The style is nothing else but top notch and way better than the standard stuff on Full Tilt in my opinion. And last but not least FT gave one of the random boni which was for me $50. So with the hit you get on your RB it is still a free $34. I like free money and already cleared the bonus (just needed a few thousands hands for that). Finally some graphs:

So my results for February are the following:

[ ] Stay calm and focused everytime you play.

Besides this one day I was pretty near to archive this goal.

[ ] Take shots at NL50.

In fact I am for the moment a NL50 reg. Cool thing.

[ ] Play 20k hands. 75% at NL25 and 25% at NL50.

Meh another close one. Since I was not able to play most of the time at the weekends I failed to archive this one even by not that much. At least I played a lot more NL50 then NL25 lol.

[x] Get at least Silver in the Iron Man Challenge.

Yeah

So what is coming up this month? A lot I can say!

In the spot light is of course my further improvement as a player and getting used to NL50. This means working on some theorey but although putting a decent amount of hands in. There is no better way than just playing, playing and more playing. This together with focusinng on some mental stuff should make it possible for me to performe a lot better at the tables this month.

Although this month:

Prop bet: This month I am back in the "low volume" prob bet for both the $50 and the $100 pool. So with a total of $150 on the line I am feeling even more motivated to go for a nice amount of volume. I realy like to organize these bets and in some way I find it cool that they are even a bit popular in the forum now.

Mini-FTOPS: The next series of Full Tilts Tournaments series is in the air. With my tournament back ground it is still fun for me to play a few of them from time to time. And there is of course still the dream of this one big score! My performance in the last Mini-FTOPS was at best mediocre. So this time it is hopefuly a bit better. Here a quick overlook about my shedule. I would like to play some more events but given my work/school shedule and the difference in time zones (+6 hours) that is simply not possible. So here it is:

# 04 Event: $20 + $2 NL Hold 'em 1 rebuy and 1 add-on $300k GTD ( March 12th 13:00 ET)

# 07 Event: $10 + $1 NL Hold 'em Rebuy $350k GTD (March 13th 15:00 ET)

# 18 Event: $20 + $2 NL Hold 'em Cashout $60 GTD (March 18th 18:00 ET)

# 23 Event: $10 + $1 PLO Rebuy $150k GTD (March 20th 15:00 ET)

And at the end my goals for March:

[ ] Work your way through "The Poker Mindset".

Not just read it but learn and apply the concepts from it!

[ ] Play at least 28k hands.

That should be doable while playing 90-120 minutes per day 9 tabling. Before I start 12 tabling i just want to see I can win over a somewhat decent sample size.

[ ] Get Iron Man.

That will be the first month I try to do this. But with the volume I am planing to play this should be no problem. I just have to watch out I play at least the 25 days I need to and can still take 6 days off pokerwise.

[ ] Perform good at the Mini-FTOPS

No profit goal or such things. I will buy in most of them with points so it is a bit like free rolling. I will just try to play my best and maybe I can make some deep run. When I play good but bust out of the money... Well, nothing I can do and the variance in 6k+ starter fields is just sick.

I see this is already way too long again so I just wrap it up at this point.

May the grind be with you in March!

March !

2010-02-26T13:13:00.002-05:00

Ah, the last week of another month by.

For me, it has always been how much I enjoy my life that mattered most. Unfortunately that has cost me much money in wasted tuition etc, but as I stand now I cannot say I regret one thing, for the person I have become is what I am most pleased about.

February was a rather hectic month in the beginning / middle, but has ended nicely. Again I feel I have been taking massive steps forward in my own development, and coaching / staking has really began to show some fruits. If any of you are reading this, I would just like to encourage you to continue working hard, you are all coming along very nicely.

March will be the first month I really dedicate myself to grinding in the hopes of really making a good sum. I am shooting for 10k in profit and hopefully something like 14-15k total after RB/Staking. Achieving these goals would really give me a good feeling of accomplishment.

Assuming I can meet those high expectations, in April I would shoot for something similar to give myself a bit of financial cushion before moving into midstakes / learn PLO.

Run good everyone.

Andrew

Crushing

2010-02-21T15:55:00.008-05:00

Things are going really well lately. I loosened up my pre-flop game quite a bit after a very very good coaching session. I'm sure some of my recent success has to do with people seeing 12/9 on their HUDs for me while I'm really playing 17/13+ on good tables. I wonder how long it will take people's HUDs to converge and play back at me and further I wonder if I can re-adjust back to nitty at that point and collect the spew.

Anyways, here is a giraff. I think the small red-line downswing at the end is the beginning of people re-adjusting or if I was just slacking on the table selection (I was playing really hungover all weekend).

Time to move up soon?

Things I have to learn about myself

2010-02-18T02:21:00.011-05:00

Warning: This post contains a lot of whine/rant. So in case your a not in the mood for this just dont read it ;) Anyway I just want to use this post to look at it later and laugh about myself and how dumb I was back then.

Yesterday was one of those days which makes me wonder if I am ever capable to find my way in the poker world. I am not talking about variance. This is just a part of the game and I am happy I dont get mad too often about it. No, I am talking about one of my blow-ups I have from time to time. And when I steam its epic. You know the older TV coverage from Mike Matusow when he make one off those hughe donk bluffs for all his chips? In that case I am sure you got my point.

The problem is I do not realize I am in self destruction mode until it is too late.
So my first session yesterday already started bad. Pretty early in the session I turned TPTK on a paired board vs a 30/10 guy who limps/call pre. He c/r me on the turn (I just checked behind flop). Now I should realize that Baluga is Baluga since his theorem is never wrong lol. Needless to say I happily called his raise there and stacked him off on his river shove. Of course he showed the flopped full house. I ended the session like -1/2 BI down and felt pretty stupid since without that hand I would end it +1/2 BI.

Then I had a really good coaching session with Mao. and felt pretty motivated to start another session. I did so and was up ~$40 pretty quick after a guy limps / shove AQs for ~85bb UTG vs my raise from the BB with AKs. It is really sometimes just an easy game lol.

After that nothing too exciting happend and I was near the end of my session when I made the first stupid move. I c/r the turn from the SB vs a BTN steal with TT on Js8sxx. In first line the c/r vs this particular villain was no good idea but then I made one of the cardinal sins: I called his 3bet AI since there was already so much money in the pot. LOL. Even you get like 3.5:1 for your call never ever call there. You are never good dummy!
To be honest I have no clue why I c/r the turn there since my normal line would be to c/f it after c/c the flop. Smells like fancy play syndrome imo.
But obv not ended my session right then. Before I ended it I overplayed two times overpairs for 100bb each. Ouch. Find the fold button dummy!
I got "unlucky" in only one big hand where I lost a $120 pot. I called QJo pre and saw a beautiful TcKcAx flop 4 way. It got checked to me and I obv bet big there and got c/r from the SB who called my 3bet shove with TT. Turn a 9. River a 9. GG me. Well, he had his ~30% equity in that spot but LOL for his play here.

All together a painful -$167 session for a day result of -$195. I never lost so much in just a single day before. The fact wich really hurts is that I lost it all cause of my own stupidity. I could easily end up the the day at least break even if I could found the fold button!!!
I am really fed up with those blow ups I have. I can play solid for most of a month but in the middle of the month I have those 2-3 days where I just act like I never played poker before. Besides the money I lost during those episodes they just crushed my self confidence every time. I just stop myself to be the player I know I could be.
I should finally learn someday that if I am just patient enough and fold in the right spots there are still plenty of spots where I will get their money with not much effort. It is really that easy: just wait and while you wait make less mistakes than them. Finally they will make a mistake and you get their money. GG.
Hopefuly one end I will learn it and (more important) apply it.

At the moment I am not sure which way I want to go in the next time. Here are some ideas without a particular order:

Stay at NL50 until you hit your 5BI stop loss - Since I lost cause of mindset problems and not skill problems (even I admit I have some leaks in my game) this is not complete out of line. But like I said before my self confidence is maybe a bit too low for it.
Move to Poker Stars 50NL for a change of scene - Starting somewhat fresh on a new site is maybe not a bad idea. I could aim at the 100k VPPs for SuperNova . That would be a long way but with enough effort doable. But then the games there have the reputation to be harder than the ones on FTP. And there are a lot of SSer now.
Stay at FTP and move down to NL25 again - Another good option and maybe the right one. Just grind out some money and get a bit of confidence back.

So no real clue now what to do. Hopefuly I can decide what I really want to do soon. I think at first I will ship now the "Poker Mindset" to get my head back on track. Since this here is already way too long I wrap it up here.

So long!

r2w

Shot taking, bragging and other stuff

2010-02-11T03:10:00.012-05:00

Hello together,

I think it is time for a little update about my month so far. First to say it is a pretty busy one. I started another low volume prob bet in last minute (on February 1st) after some people asked me to do so even I will not participate in it this month. I was just not sure if I would be able to put in 25k or more hands this month. In review maybe a mistake. And low volume is a bit of an understatment as there are some people comitting themself to 100k or more hands (we have one in for 400k hands!). So I was pretty busy the first few days with that but I like to organize these prob bets and I wish everybody in it GL!

But even with little time to play I started great into February. I was a quick ~5BI up after three short sessions. So I decided to try NL50 out on last Thursday. I got a sweat from a well known and respected 2+2er who was very helpful with pointing out the differences between NL25 and NL50. One week later I am doing okay but not great at NL50. The adjusting progress just cost me some money. But I will be honest and admit that I although made some dumb plays. So overall I could do so much better at the moment. But well, mistakes happens and will happen in the future, too. Especially when you start to wonder why you get two or three times more 3betted preflop or get paranoid they play back at you in every single pot lol. Nothing I can do besides to learn from them and not repeat them the next time.

On a related note I made at Thuesday a coaching deal with another known 2+2er. I have great respect for his approach to Poker and he is a nice guy, too. So I think it will be great for me to have him as my coach and I am sure he can help me a lot to beat NL50 and above.

Yesterday I got my new monitor. It is a sweet 25.5" (odd size I know lol) one. Realy bigger then I thought it will be but I am very happy with it. I got it for €267 shipping included (that is around $367). So its a pretty decent prize for this size and the quality seems to be good, too. My old monitor which is a 19" one will now be used as secondary monitor for chatting, browsing, etc while I am playing. The only thing I have to do now is to make a good layout when I am playing. The Full Tilt software makes the tables way too small when I choose the tile option. They are then at the smallest possible size while there is still space left on the screen lol. So I have to resize them manually. I want to play up to 12 tables when I feel comfortable at NL50. Maybe too much for tile them withouth great overlap so I have to see if I can stack them maybe in a good way.

I think thats it for now. I know everyone has a great February so far.

r2w

February.

2010-01-31T00:39:00.003-05:00

On the verge of my twenty-second birthday I want to take a few minutes to look at where I am at. In the last year I have gotten back into poker / been serious about it for the first time in my life. While I never dwell on decisions, there have definitely been moments where I have wondered why I choose to make life more difficult than it has to be.

I think this is supposed to be some sort of turning point, or that one is forthcoming. The one where the light switch turns on and my chronic underachieving and general apathy turns into focus. The focus though, cannot be artificial, I know it must come from wanting to better myself, not wanting things. Many of the people I know and used to look up to, I now realize fall into the latter half, funny how they can achieve something I want with reasons I think are completely wrong.

Anyways, this is a poker blog.

For myself, though poker is a game where improvement should come every time one thinks about it, I really seem to have plateaus somewhat in my development. Sort of like my graph, slightly over b/e then a jump... rinse, repeat. I know what I feel are the big jumps, are actually a culmination of ranging improvements, but being able to 3b flops, flat c/r and raise turns etc take a good deal of confidence to follow through with.

January was a good month. Did not play until like the 23rd ran hot as hell made 4k, hoping run good continues.

- February Goals -

100k hands.

+4pt wr.

workout every once in a while.

Andrew.

January Review/February Goals

2010-01-30T12:01:00.010-05:00

OK, it is time for my monthly review since I take this weekend off pokerwise. So here it is:

I had a bit of a rough start into this month but nothing really to worry about. After this short episode I caught a very nice upswing. But then I had one session when I went on tilt and blew some BI. It is pretty easy to see in the graph where that happend. But besides that I am happy with January. It is my best month ever at the cash tables so far while my confidence into my game grew slowly but steady this month. Of course I find still enough spots where I did not take the best line.
But instead of being upset with that like in the past I am now excited about the complexity of Cash Game Poker and how there are always spots to improve. So it is a good thing to remember myself that I still have much to learn even I improved a lot this month since I worked really hard on my game. And it is nice too see this work paid itself off.

So here is my graph just for NL25:

The first thing I am really happy about is my red line. It is way better then anytime before even it is still not great. But I find my blue line decent, too. I definitively found the fold button way more often in January in spots where I had to do and therefore stopped my POW magic lol.

And here is my overall graph with the summary of the different stakes:

So I played a bit off NL10 in the beginning of the month since the NL25 tables were so meh most of the time. But after Full Tilt increased the minimum table buy in they are better then anytime before. So no more dime for me next month. The few NL2 hands happend when I rearranged my HUD. But it wasm nice to win a cheeseburger in just 1,5 orbits lol.

My goals for this month were:

[ x] Stop spewing!
Yeah. Besides my tilt session and some minor pay offs I did not spew in January.

[ x] Clear $125 Iron Man Year End Bonus
Ship the free money!

[ x] Play 25k hands
Yeah.

[ x] Improve your red line
It is better but still space to improve.

[ x] Keep Iron Man Gold status
I booked this, too.

So everything more or less achieved and here are the goals for February:

[ ] Stay calm and focused everytime you play.
I caught myself to be mindless and therefore sloppy with my game when I grind sometimes. Since this is a safe route to burn money I need to stop that. I am yet not sure how do achieve that but I will hopefully find a way.

[ ] Take shots at NL50.
I think I am finally at a point where I can try to do so. My bank roll is big enough to make this step and I have no problem to move down again when I fail.

[ ] Play 20k hands. 75% at NL25 and 25% at NL50.
Since February is such a short month and I will play just 4-6 tables when shot taking NL50 compared to the 8 tables I play normally at NL25 that goal seems reasonable.

[ ] Get at least Silver in the Iron Man Challenge.
Looking at the goal above this one seemsmore realistic then aiming another month for Gold.

That was everything for now. I hope you will all have a great month in February and I hope I will have some time/motivation to blog here a bit more then I do at the moment lol.

r2w

January and Travel

2010-01-26T23:23:00.004-05:00

Hey Guys,

It's been a while since I updated.January as usual,is not good Poker-Wise.I'm running bad and playing bad as well.Nothing I can do on the former,but lots of things I could do on the latter.I'm not gonna whine about the number of set over set I have encountered this month,because it's just plain retarded.Lots of things I can do regarding the latter.

I've been grinding too much for my level and not doing anything about it.Just plain grinding which is bad.This week,I'm gonna start reviewing my session and discuss about it within the forums and the chatroom.I am guilty of not doing anything much about improving my game in terms of watching videos and reading strategy posts as well.So I gotta pick up on that this week.Mostly this is due to Time-Management.I am not using my time efficently.My sleep schedule is different from week to week,and I'm pretty sure I do useless things when I'm awake apart from grinding.I'm definitely gonna write up something about time management on a piece of paper.

On to the Travel Topic.2010 is going to be a good year for me in terms of Travel.Hopefully,I'll be able to visit lots of interesting places.Before heading back to Asia this summer,I am planning to see Paris,Lisbon,Barcelona and Italy.I will need to grind really hard to afford this trips.
Its not gonna be cheap.I'm gonna stop by Jordan,Syria and also United Arab of Emirates during May as well,then back to Kuala Lumpur(home).On the course of being back in South East Asia,I would like to stop by Borneo Islands,Bali,Thailand,Vietnam and Cambodia.Easy to mention the countries without having the Money!So Poker Gods,do your Job and make me a luckbox or better yet,a donkament win!

All for Now.Thanks for reading.
good luck!

MOTHER FUCK JANUARY

2010-01-23T19:05:00.005-05:00

January should so far be my best poker month to date. I have put in the most volume I have in one month (thanks to Winter Break!) however I have run like absolute shit for most of the month. I know every poker player likes to think they run the worst - but this has been really awful and frustrating.

Here is the EV graph for the month thus far:

Now I know even EV adj my winrate is not so impressive. My excuse is basically 24-tabling and frustration about running bad. I've also tried to experiement and make some adjustments throughout. I feel overall I can win at 3.5ptbb while playing 16+ tables. This is reflected in the prettier slope near the end of the graph. This is mostly due to a few preflop adjustments I've made recently.

Hope to run better. This is getting old.

Good luck all. Cheers

January is halfway over.

2010-01-17T20:01:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,

Though I have not written in a while, I would like to keep this guy goin forward with all of us. Mostly my lack of posting has been due to my semi-vaca from poker, however this week I finally began my crusade on 2010.

Things have been going quite well, all the adjustments I have really thought out are helping my game significantly. I know FTP is softer @ ssnl, I am hoping the 200 and up games are profitable so not to be forced into early NLH retirement. By all means though I am not trying to get ahead of myself, as almost certainly I can forsee myself getting it handed to me when I move up again, but it would be nice if games stay reasonably profitable for a while :).

Future plans:

50k hands per week till Feb, 2.5+ptwr.

Feb continue on 100, get into 200.

Build roll on stars and hit Nova ASAP.

Learn PLO prob starting @100.

Possible SNE run if good at plo ?

Hope everyone is doing well in 2010 !

Mao.

Back to real life

2010-01-11T06:42:00.004-05:00

So I am official back to real life with today being the first office day for me this year . I really enjoined the last three weeks I had vacation. It is just so much better so sleep until noon, then firing up some tables and chatting in the chatroom and/or in the forum and then playing some more poker until hanging out with my GF in the early evening.

But now I am sitting here from 8AM to 4PM again and just hate it lol. I really hope I reach my poker goals this year and can make poker my profession from 2011 on. I can not see myself forever in that soul reaping job I am in at the moment.

Pokerwise this month is pretty meh so far. I am with ~8.9k hands in pace for the prop bet which is good but I am only a bit over break even so far (1/2 NL25 and 1/2 NL10). But after some reallly good sweats (espically the one with andrew ;) ) I have at least a pretty decent idea where my leaks are at the moment. Now I only have to get myself into plugging them the right way.

That will be maybe not that easy because I have simply not that many time to play/study/watch Stox vids like I want to. But well, with a bit time managment I should find some space in my shedule to do so.

On another note I am (and pretty much every other reg I guess) still waiting for Full Tilt to increase the minimum table buy in. They announced to make that happen this month after they failed to make it in December. But I have some doubt we will see this change very soon.

r2w

Year end review / Welcome in 2010

2010-01-02T11:25:00.012-05:00

So 2009 is over and pokerwise I am not too sad about that.

Of course it was an interesting year and a lot happend. I started with playing Double or Nothing SnG on OnGame before I switched to Poker Stars in early Summer and played there 90man SnG and some Stud Hi. But this was just a pretty short peroid before I made the move to Full Tilt. And after I played there some more Stud Hi and LHE I finally concentrate on FR cash (even I had in September a short visit at 6max) since July.

But December was just a month to forget. My results are okay but could be so much better. But I screwed it up playing awful a.k.a. spewtastic poker. I really never played so worse like I did most of the month. I have not really a clue why I did so but I do not want a month like that again for sure.

At the last week I had to mix in a lot of NL10 to get the volume I needed for the prop bet. The tables at NL25 were just awful. So I made the prop bet even it was very very close at the end and I am happy to split the $300 price pool two ways for a nice little side income.

So lets see now how I did in December overall.

December Goals:

[X] Have finally a winning month (before RB). Even it could be way better like 3.5pt at NL25 and around 4.5-5pt at NL10.

[X] Play 25k hands. Yea and I am happy about that.

[ ] Improve overall as player ( posting hands, reading COTW, etc.) Big Fail

[X] Table select as good as I can. Meh somekind. It is just hard sometimes to do so proper

On the positive site is that my red line is a little bit better. After some great help I found out that I have two major leaks which are the reason for my hughe red line losses. I work hard to fix them now. And I reseted my HUD. Some parts of it are now color coded which helps my game a lot. I although optimized my preflop play a bit and it is now a bit better.

So here are my goals for January:

[ ] Stop spewing!
[ ] Clear $125 Iron Man Year End Bonus
[ ] Play 25k hands
[ ] Improve your red line
[ ] Keep Iron Man Gold status

And here are my goals for 2010:

[ ] 20k in winnings (RB and Boni although count)
[ ] Move up to NL50 until March
[ ] Move up to NL100 until July
[ ] Take shots at NL200 from November on
[ ] Have a positive result overall in tournies
[ ] Learn 6max
[ ] Learn PLO

I know that are pretty big goals but I like to set myself such ones. I believe the only thing which still stops me to excel at Poker is myself. So with the right mnd set and enough hard work I think I have a real shot to reach all these goals.

I wish a happy new year and an awesome 2010 a the tables and in real life to all my co-contributors of this blog and its readers!

r2w

Happy New Year, Last Update of the Year

2009-12-31T19:25:00.000-05:00

so i stopped running awful and put in an 18k hands session in order to close out the 100k prop bet. won 1.3k and finished the month up 4.2k on the tables. so i am satisfied. more confident than i was even 3 days ago and ready to start the grind tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a Happy and crazy New Year. It is 730pm in NYC and I am going to go out and start up the craziness in an hour or 2. Bring on 2010!

The end of the year is in sight...Running like garbage

2009-12-29T05:30:00.006-05:00

Hey guys so I was intending to update this every week but I didn't quite get around to it. Finals finished off okay and I did fairly well. To poker; So I am going to miss every single one of my goals that I set for myself at the end of the month mainly because finals actually ended up taking time. Which is fine. I usually set goals as something to strive for and then don't mind missing them.

So this month, I am right now as I type up 3k on the tables for the month. This is of course awful. For some reason I am playing 100nl because it is usually quite easy money for me. But wow, I have never truly run bad before as they say. My high for the month was 5k around 2 weeks ago after a nice little heater at 200nl. That daydream of a 5 figure month quickly ended with the subsequent 2k downswing. Having been traumatized by 200nl, I decided to grind out the rest of the month at 100nl. It started off great with me winning at a steady clip and eventually winning back about 1.2k over the next 15k hands. Which is when the run bad started to happen. I then proceeded to lose everything possible in the most ridiculous situations I have ever seen. You name it, I lost it.(well not AAvKK but considering I never got AA in against KK that makes sense, I have however been setmined in 3 and 4bet pots by JJ from 11/8 types about 3 times!)I proceeded to drop 1k. Then two nights ago I thought I finally broke out of my downswing, shipping about 750 in 3 consecutive winning sessions. Then tonight happened. It was painful, brutal. It still hurts. I am currently down $760 in tonight's session. Of that, I am of course the customary $450 below ev, but that does not even include the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. So there you have it, 3 1k+ downswings this month in 80k hands. And I have been spewing less than usual. Let me tell you something folks, this stuff hurts.

I mean I guess the only thing to do is to keep on grinding because I am fairly sure that I am better than 95% of the players at 100nl (arrogance itb(in this blog)). Really I would like to quit for the rest of the year because as I outlined in my 2010 goals I need to play an insane volume but I am still 20k hands short of the 100k prop bet and I really do not like to lose. My intent is to put in back to back 10k hand days and then take the 31st off. Party for new years. And then whenever I wake up on the 1st I will switch to grindcore mode.

Also, something that has been bothering me lately. I have been talking to my brother about other poker networks besides Stars and FTP. Of course the traffic is less on them and the high volume rewards deals are not as good (SNE etc) but the rakeback is great and the games are soft. Apparently some of them also offer special holiday promotions that sound like awesome fucking deals. I was thinking that next year if I do not end up pushing for SNE and stop my play at 700k or 800k I would switch my play to one of the other networks. Or maybe even before those VPP numbers because if I hit 800k not going for SNE seems dumb. Something that goes right along with this is the large amount of money that seems to be available at 6max. Maybe I will contemplate switching. As well as PLO.

So I might as well set goals for January and 2010 now.
January:
[ ] 300k-400k hands
[ ] 15k month
[ ] 20% 200nl, 80% 100nl

2010:
[ ] somewhere between 600k-1million vpps
[ ] 150k profit from poker in total
[ ] learn HU/6max/PLO
[ ] do well in classes and find something interesting to do in the summer (suggestions anyone?)
[ ] go to the gym some
[ ] enjoy life and hit up vegas/AC when i turn 21 in March

Vanguard

December Results, New year goals

2009-12-29T00:43:00.002-05:00

December has been a tough month poker wise, I really wanted to make platinum star and started 12 tabling 50nl. I did that for half the month and I wasn't doing really good. I then dropped the number of tables to 8 .. and I may soon drop that number to a big 6 and work on my game (because yes, I am still overrolled for the level) a bit more before attempting 12 tabling that level.

December results:

Down 12 BI at 50nl
Donked a BI at 100pl PLO
Won 20c on PKR as a tilt management mesure (I have a roll now there bitches!)
[ ] Made platinum
[X] Made gold star
[X] Got coaching
[/] Read part of my books I had to read
[ ] Pass all my class (fuck)

Can't remember the others and I'm too lazy to look them up.

January goals:

Focus more on school
[ ] Win at 50NL
[ ] Get a session review by my coach
[ ] Read again in my poker books
[ ] Be nice to goose

The graph:

I think most of it is some run bad, except for the 100 at PLO. Let's play some solid poker next month!

Happy New Year !

Merry Christmas !

2009-12-24T13:35:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all grinders ! May the odds be with you !

Thoughts

2009-12-20T23:42:00.002-05:00

Have a few thoughts that I needed to get out there

1. I need to be mod of the unl stars reg thread
2. Martin has to be some collaborative gimmick account, nobody can be that stupid.
3. I need to put in about two 500k months next year if i want to get SNE.
4. I need to be mod of the unl stars reg thread.
5. Jab, that post is entirely too long and i'm not reading it

-future mod

Poker is not dead

2009-12-19T23:12:00.003-05:00

Hello,

Last week I used the new HEM feature called "Hold'em Vision" and I came up with a pie chart of different player profiles.

Here is what came up :

As we can see, poker is definitely not dead. Most people are unknowns or loose passive, and you can easily regognize the TAGs and LAGs at your tables and try to avoid them if you feel outskilled.

Just wanted to share the chart, I think it's cool!

December Wrap Up, Plans For New Year

2009-12-17T00:19:00.006-05:00

December was a fairly short month poker-wise. I only had the chance to play 75k hands which took 65 hours. This was good for 15$/hr before rakeback. Since I am only platinum star at the moment, rakeback at 50nl is only worth about 10$/hr. But 25$/hr playing cards isn't too bad :).

I started the month at 25nl since I hadn't played for 10 days due to studying for my actuarial exam. My results at 25nl were very good (5ptbb over 25k hands, but I ran SUPERGOOD). I also played a lot looser at 25nl than I would at 50nl. I suppose this is due to my comfort at that those limits.

My results at 50nl were somewhat mixed. On one hand, as soon as I moved up from 25nl to 50nl I immediately dropped 9BI in 1 session (-$450). On the other hand, since then I have been able to mass table (24) and maintain 2.5ptbb. Also, during this stretch there were a number of times were I played poorly, paid people off, spewed a few stacks, and generally played poorly. If I were to cut these out, I'm sure my winrate would be over 4ptbb over this sample (40k hands). Assuming I can stop making those mistakes when I return, I will definitely consider moving up. Finally, today I ran like god at 50NL and made 10BI in a cool 5.5k hands (9ptbb, lol).

Here is the graph of today, so pretty!

Here is the monthly graph.

My goal previously was to improve my redline as I thought this was a major leak. As you can see my redline is much better over a lot of the sample but the overall winrate is not. I cannot be entirely sure that the redline dip near the end is correlated to winning more - or if I was just running way better. Regardless, I feel a little more comfortable playing somewhat weak-tight; I need to find the right balance to maximize my earnings - regardless of if it's with or without showdown.

I will be taking most of the rest of the month away from poker to study for finals. I have 4 finals spread over Monday and Tuesday next week, the most difficult (and only difficult) which is Tuesday morning. For the next few days, I will be banging my head against the wall in the library. After finals, I fly to Uruguay on X-mas eve and fly back New Years eve (GG FML :( ). My grandparents live down there and my grandfather recently turned 90 so the family is heading down.

When I return in January I have 19 days off before my final semester of college.
My immediate goals are:

Not forget entirely how to play poker
Jump back into 25nl and win at 4ptbb/100 over decent sample before moving back up, hopefully take no more than 3 days
Move back up to 50nl and get comfortable again - win at 3ptbb/100 masstabling, play 10k hands a day for 14 days (at least)

Long Term:

Move up to 100nl by march
Win at 2ptbb mass tabling by May
Get coaching if necessary - although I'd really rather develop my own style and progression

Here are a few interesting hands from today in order of my favorite:

Hand 1 is against a very strong reg at 50nl, perhaps one of the best players at the limit. I do not have particular history with him but he knows who I am and knows that I know who he is. Also, in retrospect this is a pretty bad play - his 4bet range is only 1.6% in my DB, but it just felt like he did not have it. 5-bet light anyone?

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 429925
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $55.00
UTG: $50.75
UTG+1: $104.70
UTG+2: $50.00
MP1: $53.70
MP2: $51.40
CO: $50.35
Hero (BTN): $52.00
SB: $47.35

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with A 3
5 folds, CO raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, 2 folds, CO raises to $12.50, Hero raises to $21, 1 fold

This second hand I would appreciate feedback for. I'm not really sure if it's a +EV move; it worked this time but who knows. Villain is 13/11 over 1.2k and a solid winner at 50NL according to PTR. He check raises flops 11%. My image should be pretty nitty looking, but from the CO my range includes all sets on the board + nut straight and I know that he knows this. My flop 3bet should be negligible in his DB.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 429927
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+2: $50.75
MP1: $54.90
MP2: $99.15
Hero (CO): $99.80
BTN: $68.80
SB: $56.70
BB: $25.75
UTG: $50.00
UTG+1: $56.70

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 2 2
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $2, 2 folds, Hero calls $2, 3 folds

Flop: ($4.75) 5 7 6 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero bets $2.50, UTG+2 raises to $6.50, Hero raises to $12, UTG+2 folds

Again, I would really appreciate feedback. This would probably be a better bluff assuming I actually had some equity if he calls like a gutshot or up and down or something... I assume if he had a set he's calling in order to bink FH or shoving and definitely not folding.

And finally, one hand where I run like god (like I said, been running like god all day). Villain here is a 45/3/1.8agg mega fish. Pretty sure after he minraises the turn I can get his stack assuming I improve. I was not expecting aces, but obviously made a note on him after the hand.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 429930
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $47.35
BTN: $55.65
SB: $77.00
Hero (BB): $50.00
UTG: $68.05
UTG+1: $57.95
UTG+2: $25.00
MP1: $60.70
MP2: $58.95

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 4 5
4 folds, MP2 raises to $1.50, CO calls $1.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($4.75) 3 K 4 (3 players)
Hero bets $3, MP2 folds, CO calls $3

Turn: ($10.75) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, CO raises to $7, Hero calls $3.50

River: ($24.75) 2 (2 players) SKEEEEEEEET
Hero bets $19, CO raises to $35.85 all in, Hero calls $16.85

Final Pot: $96.45
CO shows A A (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows 4 5 (a straight, Deuce to Six)
Hero wins $93.45
(Rake: $3.00)

Have a great holiday everyone and see you on the tables in 2010!

Conquering yourself.

2009-12-12T17:36:00.003-05:00

Though I haven't played too much this week, I feel quite happy with myself. It always sounds silly when I hear the ole 'everything happens for a reason,' and I chuckle at the young girls justifying themselves with it. I can definitely see the real value in the statement though, you are who you are because of what has happened to you, and of course you should be happy with who you are.

My last few months have been anything but smooth sailing, but I could not really see it playing out in a better way. Without question I get the most out of losing sessions, searching for the spots I can improve on, and my game continues to get better for it.

After being what I think was a marginal favorite @100 for the early part of the month, and watching my redline plummet, I finally retooled my game and things are looking a whole lot better. Half of the battle may have been realizing that the regs @100 aren't for the most part good, but rather are better than the regs @50 at exploiting some common leaks.

So I feel pretty confident in my game, now I need to learn to really apply myself to playing. Talking with a friend of mine last night, he suggested setting goals / scheduling your days. As a successful person himself, I believe that trying this may help me, though I cannot be motivated by feeling 'as a failure,' so hopefully something else with goals can motivate me. If anyone has any suggestions on motivation, I would love to hear it !

Run good guys !

AG.

Blogs and More

2009-12-11T10:49:00.001-05:00

Hey Guys,

Its been sometime.Gotta remind myself to update it every week or so.It's great to write sometime instead of mashing the check,fold,raise,call and arrrriiiinnn buttons!

1st-Poker
Been playing a lot in the month of October and November at 50NL,but i had to make a big withdrawal for real life.I've gotta to eat,right?So i had to drop down to 25NL to grind it out,and i have to grind BIG,as i want to push myself back to 50NL in January.I'm pretty glad i made the drop as it made me a better player,i think!I'm not going to explain a lot about it,but its just a gut feeling that i learn a whole lot more in terms of Full Ring.I'm in the 100k prop bet for this month and I'm at 50k hands as of today.I probably need to grind out 5k hands per day the next 10 days or so.I could be grinding less with 20 days to go,but I'm taking a week off for Xmas holidays.I'm heading to Dubai to visit my dad.I'm pretty excited about the trip as I have never been to this part of Asia and it will be a good time to take some time off from grinding.

As for the goals for December(it's a bit late,but what the hell).
I'm planning for
a) 100k hands 25NL FR
b)4ptbb hopefully
c)2-3k including rakeback.(the most important)
d)Finish up reading on 2 poker books
e)Finish up Coaching Tree S1 again(i could probably finish this during my flight to Dubai)
-takes about 11 hours including a stop at Doha

2nd-Blogs and more Blogs.
I read blogs almost every other day,but only poker blogs.Stuff from Phil Galfond,Card Runners,Deuces Cracked and others to name a few.The stuff they post is pretty inspirational.The last blog from Phil Galfond and Cole South were pretty good.Not going to say much from it,but you guys should read it.Everything should be balanced.Poker,Life,being happy and so on.Good stuff imo.

3rd-Life
So,Im studying in Germany and I'm quitting my degree after approx 3 years here.Well,long story short!It's tough!I'm studying Electrical Engineering at the moment,and i hate it,i seriously fucking fucking fucking fucking hate it.There's a lot of factors why i hate it,but people would be really asking,why did I study it in the 1st place,right?Well a) I thought i would like it,seeing how science was my shit back in high school,b) My country's Education System is so fucked up,that it makes us think that Science is good,and being in the Business is bad.What I should have done,is to quit earlier,but no!It didnt really hit my mind to quit after the 1st year,because it wasnt so bad.As time passes by,it just got worst and worst,and I've come up to a point where enough is enough!

Well,i could go on and try to finish it up like a robot but it could take some time.At the end of the day,I'm just so tired of it and i need a new start.As for the factors

a)The University where I'm at,is so bad especially my faculty(fellow students,professors,lecture halls,environment and etc is just purely bad)
b)Language is pretty hard
c)Life here is pretty bad overall and I am very unhappy at the state of which I am in right now(I hate of what I've become studying here)
d)Culture,Food,and People really depends on personal preferences,so I'm not going to delve into it.

As for the new start.I'm going to take up a Finance Degree in the States.I believe that this degree is my thing and i will definitely excel in it!No doubt about it.As for when?I am planning to start studying in September(Spring Quarter,and if not Winter Quarter).As for where?I am not sure yet,I'm still looking around on which University to go.Studying for a Degree in the States is so fucking expensive,and with me being out of state,is like a poker player running -50 BI below EV.I am going to grind so hard that I cant even see clearly for the next 6 months to finance my own degree.So I'm basically withdrawing everything for my studies and I believe that this will be the most profitable thing for me to do for the next 5-10 years.It's going to be hard and long,but it's the best option for me right now.

Well,it's a fucking long post.Thanks for reading!
Run gooootttt people!

Random thoughts out of boredom

2009-12-09T09:00:00.010-05:00

Here I am sitting now at work for one more hour with not much to do. And since I can not surf at the forum I just will throw some random stuff out here to kill the time a bit.

So far I have something like 6.4k hands down this month which is pretty okay for me. But I am only break even over this sample which is ~1.6pt (about 4BI) under AIEV only. I know HEM EV calculation is not 100% right. But it is at least an indication that I am not running that good especially the other funny things like set under set, set under straight or straight under straight are not into this calculation.

I know this is just variance and over the longrun the distribution between good and bad run is for everybody the same. So I can not really care about it even it makes me sick what kind of beats I get.

But what I care about is the fact that I have the feeling I just give every single session like ~1.5pt (maybe a little bit lesser) cause bad / suboptimal play away. A main problem is still my red line but my not good run influences that, too. But besides this I have still so much work to do especially on turn and river I think.

But then again I maybe try to plug / optimize too many things at once. It seems like I should really concentrate on one or maybe two things at once and therefore doing them right.

I have the hope I can turn things around for this month and have a shot to win / tide the prop bet. I do not care that much about the $50 I put on the line but I simply do not like to lose bets lol.

Another thing I am really looking forward is the solution on SSer FTP wants to make this month. I am bit afraid they will not pull off something this year because we are talking abot FTP which have not the reputation to change things really fast. Anyway a real solution on this matter would make the games so much better i.e. profitable IMO.

Already talking about FTP: the next Mini-FTOPS are there. But I will only play one event, the $22 tourney on 18th Dec (150k GTD). I considered to play a few more but this would just collide with my work/school shedule and I am not in the mood to pony up too much in tournaments entires when I am struggling at the cash tables. When I run good in this toruney I will maybe play the $55 ME on 20th Dec, too.

Thats enough for the moment. I killed enough time and can finally call it a day here.

At the end a funny hand I played when I started a table last Staurday.

reflop: Hero is SB with ,
Hero bets $0.65, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) , , (2 players)
BB bets $0.25, Hero raises $1.50, BB calls $1.25

Turn: ($4.50) (2 players)
BB bets $0.25, Hero raises $4, BB calls $3.75

River: ($12.50) (2 players)
BB bets $19.73 (All-In), Hero calls $18.98 (All-In)

Total pot: $50.46

Results:
Hero had 3, 3 (three of a kind, threes).
BB had Q, 9 (high card, King).
Outcome: Hero won $49.96

May all our opponents be like this.

r2w

Introduction, November, Looking Forward, Life

2009-12-07T16:24:00.009-05:00

Hi, my name is Josh and I am a junior at NYU studying Physics and English. No, they have nothing to do with each other. I have almost no direction in life, and at this exact moment I don't think I really mind that much. A blog serves a dual purpose, one of self-reflection and one of education of our readers. I think that the former should most definitely supersede the latter. But this is irrelevant and I seem to be prone to ramble. Onto business.

I started playing poker and found the uNL forums of 2p2 sometime around April of this year. I post as Vanguard on the forums. The forums have truly helped me become good at what I do and enabled me to reach a point where I could write my own entry to the vital COTW (Concept of the Week) series. I am currently a reg somewhere in between 100nl and 200nl full ring who is trying to gear up (pad my roll) for a Supernova Elite (SNE) run next year at 200nl. This grueling feat is well worth it monetarily but is extremely trying both mentally and emotionally. With SNE and table winnings I hope to net somewhere in the neighborhood of 150k+ in earnings.

November was a decent month for me with respect to poker. I made about 3.3k on the tables and nearly 2k in rakeback all while receiving coaching from petteytheft for my move to 200nl. This was crucial due to my mental block with respect to moving up. I also learned a few things. Despite this essentially tying my best month with respect to earnings, I am very disappointed because this was the first month where the tilt monster reared its ugly head. I ended up tilting off about 3k which obviously is quite a significant sum of money. Live and learn I suppose. This is my November graph.

December is supposed to be a big month for me. I need to get my roll to where I want it to be for 200nl SNE run. What I want is about 15k. At the moment I have 8.5k in cash, and 160k fpps. Basically I want to buy a 4k bonus, clear it, and hit the 200k milestone, all while staying at mainly 100nl grinding out my usual 2.5ptbb or 3ptbb. I have fallen way behind on hands needed for that because of school, but this was expected. Once I complete my last final on December 22nd, I am going to move into grindcore mode. With one week done I made about 900 on the tables. After going up a quick 1200 I have been basically break even with a small downswing over this past weekend. Games have been awful with people chasing bonuses. I hope game get better but whatever, I can beat nits. Wish me luck!!!

Vanguard

Quick Life Update

2009-12-04T16:36:00.003-05:00

I passed my actuarial exam (pretty surprisingly, I might add!) so I will be returning to poker for the next 2 weeks or so at which point I will take another break for finals.

Most of my time will be spent at 25NL for the remainder of the year trying to tweak my game. I have invested some time into learning how to use AHK scripts and I find the increased efficiency pretty cool. If anyone has suggestions of scripts that are extremely helpful please post in a comment. I'm looking for a script that will minimize all tables I am on in which I am not in the hand (if this is possible) - will ship 50$ to anyone on stars who can find this/write this.

Cheers

gogogo TEAM !

2009-12-01T13:09:00.003-05:00

Lets all make this a good December !

So everyone has some nice goals, I am hoping to play 200k hands, and post a WR > 1.5pt, got a nice boost this morning with a +650 sess. Hopefully I can finish the hands and not owe goose a nice christmas egg.

November Wrap Up

2009-11-30T19:20:00.004-05:00

November has been my worst poker month to date. The first 50k hands of the month looked really good as I cut tables (and volume) to focus on improving my game - heatering for like 12k hands midway did not hurt either. All indications pointed to a strong month with a solid 2.5+ptbb winrate. However, such is poker and nothing in poker is guaranteed as the last 20k hands I played this month have been some of the most painful to date. The all-in luck analyzer in HEM is not a good indication of the luck in poker... but it's certainly a start. As you can see, the divergence is pretty painful.

Without further adieu, results:

Post run-bad the month looks like .5ptbb at 50NL. While a lot of this can be attributed to running bad, my NSD were still terrible for most of the month (leaking monies!!). Near the end of the month I started to improve, but not enough to counterbalance the runbad.

As a result of running awful, I decided to take a break from poker for Thanksgiving until Friday Dec 4th. I've really enjoyed my time away from the game, and have been spending time preparing for a very difficult actuarial exam (Exam 2 - Financial Mathematics) which I will take Friday. Generally, it is suggested to study 100 hrs for every hr of the test. This test is 3.5 so I should have studied 350 hours... I've probably done half so prospects for passing are not great. Hopefully, I can put in some solid volume (lol!) into studying and pull this one out.

As far as poker goes, I will most likely return to the game this coming weekend at some point and I've decided to put some volume in at 25NL so I can show some profit. I also want to add some more aggression to my game, so I can practice finding the right targets at 25NL (although I expect to lol in pain when no one folds their over-pairs).

Back to the books for me... hope everyone is doing well!

Josh

Month summary & next month goals

2009-11-30T15:16:00.010-05:00

Alright, November has been the best month for me in my 1+ year of playing cards. Some people will tell me I've been on a super-heater or something and I guess I've been a bit. I also think those results are due to the fact that I read 2p2 everyday and post mostly everyday in strategy posts which helps me in figuring out some spots and thinking about spots.

During the month I've been 6-12 tabling strictly depending on table selection and how I felt about my game at the time I start a session. I've also tried mixing up levels, at the beginning of the month I played strictly 25NL, after I've won a couple of BIs I included some 50NL tables. At the end of the month I was playing 50NL and included several 100NL tables.

I played some SnG during the month too when I don't feel like 'grinding' but more like playing cards for entertainment.

Here's my November:

Graph:

Stats:

(I know I'm running hot with sets :P)

My next month's goals maybe won't make sense but whatever I'll just state them anyway..

[ ] Become a regular at 100NL

[ ] Take shots at 200NL if BR permits it at some point

[ ] Finish reading Professional No Limit Hold'Em

[ ] Make at least 1K next month

[ ] Play 30K hands and try to hit Platinum

[ ] Sweat 2 people ( General Johnson already has a reserved spots here :P )

[ ] Get sweated

November Review / December Goals

2009-11-30T13:02:00.009-05:00

Latley I feel pretty ok about my game after I cut my tables from 8 to 4. But yesterdy I got totally hammered on the tables and booked an awful -5 BI session over 1.2k hands.

Here is my month overall

Seems like I have still a lot of work to do before I can beat NL25.

December Goals:

[ ] Have finally a winning month (before RB)

[ ] Play 25k hands.

[ ] Improve overall as player ( posting hands, reading COTW, etc.)

[ ] Table select as good as I can.

I wish you all an awesome December at the tables and in life.

r2w

Supernova

2009-11-29T01:29:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to make a quick post.

I hit Supernova today.

Now I can focus at becoming good at this game!

Almost there...

2009-11-28T00:18:00.002-05:00

Well my chase for Supernova is almost over. Just wanted to give a quick update on my status.

I currently have 2046.24 vpp's to go!

Here's a current screenshot.

I hope to have it tomorrow evening sometime!

On a sidenote, who's playing in the turbotakedown tomorrow?

Intro

2009-11-26T17:32:00.005-05:00

And finally the first post from me.

My poker history in a nutshell:

I started with Poker in November 2007. Till summer 2008 I blow some small rolls because of missing BRM and tilt issues. At this time I decided to take Poker more seriously since it sucks for me to be a semi-clue less tilt monkey. I concentraded mainly on SNG where I was somekind decent I guess.
But in the summer this year I got the feel that they are already to much explored and the edge in todays game is pretty slim.
So I moved to the Cash games at the end of July. Since then I play NL25 FR on Full Tilt.

So far I am still struggling with it but I have the hope to be able to beat the game somewhen in the near future. So this blog is a good way to records my progress in the Poker world.

r2w

P.S.: In case you find spelling and/or grammar mistakes you can keep them since I am not a native english speaker :D

Introduction and end of year goals

2009-11-24T22:13:00.002-05:00

Yo,

My name is Yannick and I've been playing poker for a bit more than a year now. I've started playing 2nl with a $50 roll (overrolled baby). I'm now pretty much playing 50nl and taking unrolled shots at 100nl when I feel frisky.

I speak french. =)

For the end of the year goals part, I'd like to be taking serious shots at 100nl if not being a reg there already by mid January if everything goes well.

I'll try posting interesting hands here if I encounter any and give my opinion about it.

Laters,

Yannick

Hai

2009-11-24T16:18:00.003-05:00

My name is Gooose, aka Mooose, aka Rocketfish. I have played poker for several years, made a bunch of manies. I can currently be found at 25nl-100nl for anyone looking for donations. I don't really have anything to say so I don't know why I am poasting this. This blog will be used for all my thoughts that everyone should be aware of.

You stay classy SanDiego-Anchorman

Pilot Post

2009-11-24T10:33:00.005-05:00

Hello All,
I've been wanting to blog since the beginning of the year,but I've never put any effort into starting it.Out of the Blue,comes crzytimes on the idea of sharing a blog with other poker players(Thanks Andrew on it).So with that,is how I got into my 1st post running.

Poker History:
I've been wanting to play poker since young,but i never got the chance.Well,growing up in a country like Malaysia has its limitations.Things are just generally more passive in Asia.Therefore chances like this doesnt come along.Malaysia Poker Boom didnt come on Chris Moneymaker's win but more of a like Jerry Yang's win.

Now that I'm in Germany,studying.That learning curve came by.It all started with a small play money home game,and then i got introduced to High Stakes Poker.I got hooked,and i never looked back from then on.For about 6 months-1year,all i played was home games which i crushed game by game by simply watching HSP.Luckboxing all the way i guess

So i started with a $10 dollar depost on Stars(fuck the $600 deposit!!!) middle of last year,and i was grinding 2NL and 5NL for about a month before i start on SNG for about 6 months.I bought books and read some strategy posts online about cash games and sng to help with my progress.After a while,i realised that SNG was a bitch,and you dont earn shit unless you go sky high.

To keep my poker history short.I jumped into cash games and started crusing on 25NL 6max and 50NL 6max(doomswitch at 50NL).So i started hopping into FR,although at 1st ,i fucking thought,how fucking boring is this(9 fucking handed),then i somehow started opening 24 table-since its wasnt worth the wait playing 1 table).I realised how much fun from then on.Only then i discovered 2+2.I kept reading but never joined the site till like 2 months ago.

Now I can be found tangling with other regs on 25NL and 50NL FR Stars.
This sounds like fun eh-blogging?Putting your thoughts into a notepad post!
Thats it for now

Thanks for reading,
take it easy

100nl... and playing poorly.

2009-11-23T14:34:00.009-05:00

One thing I have discovered through my poker playing, is that being results oriented is almost always a mistake. Today's early session was a pretty good example, though i finished +220, I played poorly, and am upset I didn't win more.

That being said the FTP 100nl tables were lolsoft, but I had a few interesting hands that I'd like input on.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($192.95)
Hero (BB) ($119.45)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J
7 folds, SB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6) 10, 3, 9 (2 players)
SB bets $6, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($18) Q (2 players)
SB bets $11, HERO ?
Total pot: $18

Hud has him at 16/9 14%stl, so no real reads yet.

I would like commentary on all streets, on what anyone thinks is optimal.

Same with this hand... I thought about checking the flop MP2 was a 33/11, and mealowns, mj, and tiranook are pretty std.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 ($556.90)
SB ($122.90)
Hero (UTG) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, A
Hero bets $4, UTG+1 calls $4, 2 folds, MP3 calls $4, CO calls $4, 1 fold, SB calls $3.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($21) A, J, 2 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $14, 1 fold, MP3 calls $14, 1 fold, SB raises $49, HERO ?

Total pot: $63

Just wondering what people think is optimal here? through the whole hand.

annnnnd one more.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($200)
Hero (Button) ($113.80)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 4, 4

5 folds, Hero bets $4, SB calls $3.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($9) 4, 10, J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $6, SB calls $6

Turn: ($21) A (2 players)
SB bets $16, Hero calls $16

River: ($53) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, HERO ?

Total pot: $53

Thank you guys, hope you run good.

Andrew Gambino

Thinking... about how to think.

2009-11-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

So there are two main aspects of poker, the thoughts you put into a hand, and how well you range your opponents hands.

There is no question you can be a successful uNL'er without good skills in either, but just knowing fundamentals and using your basic deduction skills.

As I have progressed in poker, I have discovered what I think are four levels to real time thinking.

1.) I has xx, I know its a _____ strength hand.
2.) I has xx, the board is xxx, I know the relative strength of my hand to the board.
3.) I has xx, my opponent has done ___, on this board he can have this range of hands and my hand has ___ value agaisnt that range.
4.) My opponent's range is ____, on this board he can have x combos of ___, if i take ___ action my EV is ___.

I don't know if everyone else has trouble with this, but I certainly do. I often hear people refer to their A,B,C games etc, from what I have discovered, the way I am thinking is directly related to the way I would label my play.

I am not quite sure why [perhaps muscle memory of the brain], but I have had a lot of struggle getting into the correct thinking mindset, and sometimes still regress. Now, I have been playing poker for ages, and have really just discovered what I feel is the correct way to think in the last few months. It still disgusts me that it is so challenging to think correctly, and I feel like it is actually quite a hurdle to players. [as it is to myself]

I would like to know, how do you all think in real time ? Why do you think that way ? and how do you want to think ?

AG

Introductions and Intetions

2009-11-22T19:12:00.000-05:00

Given that it's the year 2009, I'm sure anyone reading this blog has read a dozen others - many of which will almost certainly be much more interesting and informative than mine. I think the purpose of blogging is as much personal as it is a way to share information and creative ideas with others. I hope to look back on this first post and each consequent post with sense that I'm going somewhere and as my blog progresses that I do too.

About Me
My name is Josh, I am 21 years old and about to finish my second to last semester at college. I attend NYU and live in Manhattan (the Gramercy Area). I study Math primarily, with a minor in Business Studies. Up until the last 5 months, I thought (and still may) I would graduate and work for a large-well known company as an actuary (see end for definition of actuary). While interning for one such company this past summer, I began playing poker online in earnest.

(Actuary: The actuarial profession is basically a field of study that uses different kind of applied mathematics in order to quantify and price financial risk. For instance, as an actuarial student one studies probability, financial mathematics, life contingencies, etc... The purpose of this discipline would be for instance to set rates on a health insurance policy. In fact, if you are insured in any way (auto insurance, anyone?) the price you pay on your plan is in part paid to an actuary for their services.)

During August, I borrowed 10$ from a friend (aka Scotty too Hotttttie) on Pokerstars. I did some brief research, found the 2+2 forums, where I was introduced to Pokertracker/Hold'em Manager. I started playing 2 tables of 2NL... until my bankroll could support more tables. By the end of July I was 24-tabling 2NL and by the end of August I 24-tabled 10NL. (Basic Bankroll Management meaning I needed 30 buy-ins of 100 big blinds to move up a limit.) Here is my lifetime graph from July and August. As you can see there are some bumps and ebbs, but pretty much no troubles.

Would I prefer to sit in an office from 9-5 with a guaranteed wage, or play a game I love in order to support myself? So I returned to school in the Fall with the goal of improving my poker game to the point were I could make an economic choice to play for a living rather than to work, at least for the time being.

To date, September (my first month back at school) was my best month of poker and the sky was the limit. I started September "shot-taking" 25NL, which means I still considered myself a 10NL player. By the end of September, I was shot-taking 50NL and considered myself a graduate of 25NL. I'm not sure what has changed since then... some people might call it "drift" but my game has changed significantly perhaps, for the worse since then.

Here is my graph from September 2009.

As you can see my NSD is slightly negative, but I'm playing pretty solid TAG poker. For those more familiar with "poker numbers" I was playing about 13/10, 12/9 through this period with about 3-4% 3-bet. My winnings were very very good. I was a soild 4ptbb winner over my life-time at 25NL (while 24-tabling).

Since then, my game has gotten significantly looser and not in a good way. I've been playing between 17/14, 15/12 but I haven't turned up the aggression enough (I think!). As a result I'm losing a lot of money NSD... (the bad redline). Here is graph since the end of September. Essentially over this period I'm about a 1.5-2ptbb/100 winner at 50NL playing anywhere between 16 and 24 tables at time.

The looser that one plays the more variance there is. I think overall an optimal winrate would be achieved playing about 17/14, but one cannot shirk their nature - I need to get back to where I was before - tighter is better for me. Why change something that's working well?

Typically I'd like to set up a system where I set goals at the beginning of every month and see how I do at the end. Here are the goals for now until the end of December.

1) Focus on school, not poker!
My grades this semester have not been bad (split A's and B's). However, my formal education will be over soon and even though I do not care about grades per say, they do stick and it would be nice to have some solid scholastic credentials to my name. I also have the second actuarial exam coming up, I have not been putting close to enough time into studying so I'd like to at least put up a good fight as November comes to a close. My test is December 4th.

2) Poker goals
Tighten my game back up to 14/11 at the loosest, 12/10 at the tightest. I need to stop opening marginal hands UTG/EP especially some small pairs and implied odds hands. I think play at 50NL isn't to the point where I need to worry about my image too much. I think playing with an imbalanced range isn't too big of a leak here. Numerically, I'd like to see myself beating 50NL for 3-4ptbb/100 over 100k hands in the next 40 days.

I hope this first post was some-what entertaining. Thanks for reading!

Plans for the rest of 2009

2009-11-22T18:02:00.001-05:00

First off, I'd like to apologize right now. I'm not nearly as good of a writer as Andrew is. Now that we got that out of the way, I wanted to mention a little bit about myself and my goals for the rest of 2009.

I predominantly play 50nl FR on Pokerstars under the s/n "crzytimes". Sometimes you will see me at 25nl FR, 25nl/50nl 6max, 25plo or 2nl/2plo flipping away stacks. Here is a list of my goals for the rest of the year.

Reach Supernova status on Pokerstars
Reach a 3k bankroll for shotakements at 100nl FR Jan 1st
Study more 6max poker after achieving Supernova status
Study more PLO
Continue to do sweat sessions and provide guidance to nanostakes players

I look forward to updating weekly on my status towards my goals. Here's a screenshot of my "countdown to 'Nova" vpp tally on 'stars.

Good luck on the tables and stay off my blinds,

James Horein

Moving into 100nl, getting a blog.

2009-11-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

As I have recently discovered, poker is an enigma. There are days where we swear we are destined for stardom, and then hours later feeling like all the air in the world wouldn't be enough to get us feeling fresh again.

My mission in starting this blog is to get whatever one is feeling out at that certain time. Poker is a game of information and knowledge, yet it is a game that rides the emotional coaster better than anything else. You may have a nugget of knowledge one day, and forget it in the excitement the next. Hopefully this blog will serve as a method of getting out what you want to say, be it an interesting theory, getting your thoughts on a hand out, or just posting about your recent downswing.

Mostly I will be trying to chronicle my rise [or fall] through the ranks, and getting as many thoughts on paper as I can after a session.

Hopefully we get some authors on this blog, if you are browsing and would like to join, just shoot me an email.

May you all run good,

Andrew Gambino