AAlex06 - Grinding to the sky!

Hi there,

I will begin this post by saying that I hate myself. What the "F" is wrong with me? Last night I made some awful calls, some awful play. God!

After I was up almost 2 BI, I started to level down until 1 BI. I guess from that moment I was already tilting. I was check/raised by some guy (tight pasive guy) and guess what? I called...And even better I called also his shove on the turn....I am the best, isn't it?

But the hand that put me on tilt for the rest of the evening was when I went AI prf with JJ 200bb deep. I don't know why I made that call....And believe me that I knew that he has something like AA, KK or AK. His 3bet range percentage was about 2% (KK,AA,AK is about 2,6%).

Of course the next two hands, AI prf w AK were the results of tilting, stupidity or any other characteristic  fo the fishes.

Jesus, I still don't believe how bad I was playing last night. Please give some advices in managing tilt and bad habits like this.

Cheers!

P.S. I put below the hands in question

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 743555
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $12.33
Hero (CO): $7.92
BTN: $12.50
SB: $9.78
BB: $4.55
UTG: $5.24

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with J A
UTG calls $0.05, MP calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.22, 3 folds, UTG calls $0.17, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.56) K 4 6 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.40, UTG raises to $1.40, Hero calls $1

Turn: ($3.36) 9 (2 players)
UTG bets $3.62, Hero calls $3.62

River: ($10.60) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: $10.60
Hero shows J A
UTG shows 4 4
UTG wins $10.08
(Rake: $0.52)

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 743556
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $9.88
Hero (CO): $12.29
BTN: $3.12
SB: $6.36
BB: $4.37
UTG: $2.20

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with J J
1 fold, MP raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $0.65, 3 folds, MP raises to $2.15, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.37) 4 T T (2 players)
MP bets $7.73, Hero calls $7.73

Turn: ($19.83) 3 (2 players)

River: ($19.83) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: $19.83
MP shows K K
Hero shows J J
MP wins $18.85
(Rake: $0.98)

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 743560
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $7.04
UTG: $5.00
CO: $5.00
BTN: $3.68
Hero (SB): $8.18

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with A K
1 fold, CO raises to $0.20, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.65, 1 fold, CO raises to $1.90, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.85) Q 8 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $3.10, Hero calls $3.10

Turn: ($10.05) T (2 players)

River: ($10.05) 7 (2 players)

Final Pot: $10.05
CO shows K K
Hero shows A K
CO wins $9.56
(Rake: $0.49)

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 743561
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $6.94
SB: $5.05
BB: $6.00
UTG: $9.56
MP: $3.68
Hero (CO): $5.00

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with A K
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.22, 1 fold, SB raises to $0.56, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5, SB calls $4.44

Flop: ($10.05) 6 A J (2 players)

Turn: ($10.05) 4 (2 players)

River: ($10.05) Q (2 players)

Final Pot: $10.05
SB shows A A
Hero shows A K
SB wins $9.55
(Rake: $0.50)

Hi guys,

Rough period for me at the tables. I am still struggling to get to 10NL. My bankroll is at 330$ (only 33BI at 10NL), and I am not considering to level up until I have 40BI. I feel this is impossible to me to reach that BR. :-D I don't know why...I had some upswings but immediately afterward the downswings hits me pretty hard. A lot of coolers but also a lot f bad playing from my side.

I have a question...Maybe in this way I can clarify some of my thoughts. How many table are you playing? I suppose that all of you are multi tabling players. I play currently 4-5-6...6 is the maximum.

Cheers!

Hello guys,

I didn’t wrote anything here during the weekend, because usual this is a very busy period of the week for me. These are three days in which i can make a lot more things than in the rest of the week.

This weekend I was fishing (no, not at poker :-D)…really fishing. Is one of the favorite sports of mine. I was also at some idiotic movie: Shutter Island. Of course if it’s weekend I play soccer with my buddies, and after that we cooled ourselves with some beers.

Here in Romania spring has come and the girls it seems are everywhere. Nice view here guys. Believe me :-D …no good times for staying inside and playing poker… :-D.

Also I played a lot of poker this weekend and my profit was around 5BI overall. Also I keep watching the next episodes from The thin Red Line and soon I want to finish that video.

This was my weekend in short terms. How was yours?

Cheers!

P.S. A funny hand with a very funny villain. Enjoy!

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $2.61
SB: $0.85
BB: $9.90
UTG: $5.00
Hero (MP): $5.00
CO: $12.71

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with A A
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.20, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.20, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.47) K 8 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.30, BTN calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.07) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.11, BTN calls $2.11

River: ($5.29) 9 (2 players)

Final Pot: $5.29
BTN shows 6 Q
Hero shows A A
Hero wins $5.04
(Rake: $0.25)

Hello my friends,

I had a rough night at the tables. Lost approximately 20$ over 1k hands with the worst moves from my side. All that I won the night before…now is gone. :-)

I am little angry on me because I made a lot of mistakes. The biggest was that I thought that at these limits are way too much bluffs. And they aren’t. :-)
I think I will put a sticker on my LCD with “Watch out idiot! Your opponents from 5NL aren’t bluffing so much as you think! Your middle pair is not strong enough when a loose/passive player show aggression on you!”. :-)

Also I think I was tilted a little bit and frustrated. But this is life…I am sure that tonight I will be more careful and try to get better at this game.

Cheers!

Hi there,

It’s again morning, so it’s again the time when another post it’s coming.
Today I want to ask you if in your entire poker career you made any sacrifice in order to be able to learn, train and play this game.
How did you managed your time, your relationship with your girl…your hobbies besides poker?

I ask you this because lately I don’t have anytime for the above “things”. My life is now split in 8 hours at my It job, 1.5 hours at the gym and from 22:00 PM till 02-03 AM I am playing poker. So no more time for my girlfriend…or for going out for a beer.

I think for a period I can make all these sacrifice…anyway my “love story” it’s nothing serious :-), let’s say that I can short a little bit my gym sessions also at 1 hour…
I want to play this game, I don’t want to quit like others…and I can sacrifice a lot to accomplish this. But, I want to know if this is right…?

What kind of sacrifice did you made for poker?

Now, regarding the actual poker…I had a very good session last evening. It was a little bit short thought (800 hands ~ 2h40min) but the profit was nice ~19$ at NL5. The dealer was very generous with me :-) but also my dear villains from the tables…they are so nice when they go all in with something like Q2o and you have trips. :-)
Today I have to make me some time at job to watch the second episode from “The Red Thin Line”…and maybe read some more pages from “The Poker Mindset” book.
Tonight, after job, I hope I will have some time to post also on the forums some hard hands from my previous sessions.
What about you guys? Nice period also?

P.S. Sorry for my bad english!

Whack’em!

Hello my friends,

As I promised I come back with details after the first day at 5NL.
It was kind of tough and frustrating for me. Because it was the second attempt of playing at 5NL, I played little bit “scared” about dropping again to NL2, a little bit too tight I guess.

Anyway, after some 3 hours of playing I was at -12$ profit. But until the end of the session (~1,2k hands)I managed to calm down the variance and my profit was of 5.55$. Is not much but it was a fine evening because I know that I played every hand as good as possible for my currently knowledge level in poker.

The problem now for me is to succeed somehow to desensitize from the money I play because I am in danger not to take the right decisions everytime because in my mind is the afraid of coming back to NL2.

The difference between levels is not big…maybe more regs but also with a lot of flaws and leaks.

I hope this night will have some good poker.

Whack’em!

P.S. Below I put a very “interesting” hand played last night. Don’t laugh to loud. I was “impressed” by his preflop raise with KTo (almost 7xbb) :-D

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $6.38
SB: $6.18
BB: $8.53
UTG: $5.57
MP: $10.15
Hero (CO): $5.39

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with K A
UTG raises to $0.35, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.35, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.77) 7 6 K (2 players)
UTG bets $0.60, Hero calls $0.60

Turn: ($1.97) 6 (2 players)
UTG bets $4.62, Hero calls $4.44 all in

River: ($10.85) 5 (2 players – 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $10.85
UTG shows K T
Hero shows K A
Hero wins $10.35
(Rake: $0.50)

Hi guys,

Very good news. I had a pleasant surprise last evening. After a session of approximately 1k hands I had a profit of 3.5$. Don’t laugh :-D Remember I play at 2NL. So my bankroll should be around 141-142$. But last night when I went to cashier I observed that I’ve received one bonus of 10$, so right now I am at 151$.

Tonight I will level up again at 5NL. I hope this time it will be a persistent movement until I can reach 10NL.

Unfortunately now I have to go to work. :-) Enough with my freedom and my “shinny” career in poker :-) It’s time to go to “the farm”.

See you on the forums!

P.S. Look at this sick hand from my last session. Bad luck! Or isn’t? Where did I go wrong here? No any special readings of villain…just seated at the table.

Poker Stars $2.00 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $5.65
MP: $2.06
CO: $10.47
BTN: $1.18
Hero (SB): $2.00
BB: $2.61

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with K K
UTG calls $0.02, MP raises to $0.08, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.24, 2 folds, MP calls $0.16

Flop: ($0.52) 2 Q 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.35, MP calls $0.35

Turn: ($1.22) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.41, MP calls $1.41

River: ($4.04) Q (2 players)

Final Pot: $4.04
MP shows Q K
Hero shows K K
MP wins $3.89
(Rake: $0.15)

Hello my friends!

First of all I want to say thanks to DC for the opportunity to create a blog of mine. Second of all, I want to apologize for my bad english, as I am not a native english speaker.

A few words about me. I am 28 years old, my name is Alex and I live currently in Romania (Dracula’s country :-D ). Until few months ago, poker was for me just a hobby and every time when I received my salary I was deposit aprox 50$ to PokerStars and played for fun…and of course I ended losing every time.

At some time I saw at TV some guy from my country that win the second place to some EPT tournament. And than I realized that poker is for others a lifestyle. That was the moment when I’ve decided to take my chance and try to learn this game.

So, I’ve deposited on Poker Stars 50$ and start playing at 2NL. My plan was to reach 150$ (30 BI) before to advance to 5NL. I’ve reached this BR and leveled up to 5NL. Than I won till my BR became aprox 190$. After that moment downswing started and I’ve lose something like 60$ and so I leveled down back to 2NL…and starting all again.

Currently my BR is at 138$. I hope that this week to advance again to 5NL.

That’s my story till now. I will try to update my situation after every day.

Thank you!