Zen Poker - my way to the good life and moneys

i m in a good mode today, variance isnt on my side, but the weather is awesome, life is good and I can do what I want to do!

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1130479
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $65.80
Hero (BB): $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with J T
BTN/SB calls $0.25, Hero raises to $2, BTN/SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.00) 9 8 7(2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, BTN/SB calls $3.50

Turn: ($11.00) Q(2 players)
Hero bets $10, BTN/SB calls $10

River: ($31.00) 8(2 players)
Hero bets $18.30, BTN/SB raises to $36.60, Hero calls $16.20 all in

Final Pot: $100.00
BTN/SB shows 8 7 (a full house, Eights full of Sevens)
Hero shows J T (a straight, Eight to Queen)
BTN/SB wins $99.50
(Rake: $0.50)

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1130481
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $68.65
BB: $29.75

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with K K
Hero raises to $1, BB raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $9, BB raises to $29.75 all in, Hero calls $20.75

Flop: ($59.50) 4 J 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($59.50) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($59.50) 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $59.50
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
BB shows 8 8 (a flush, Jack high)
BB wins $59.00
(Rake: $0.50)

and some others where the board didnt want to go my way....

all the best to you out there,

cheers,

Aquila

i m taking a couple of days off. I ve been playing HU since christmas and it went really well, even though towards the "end" (last days) i felt i was losing focus and my game became much more swingy. I made close to 40 buyins in the time, which is nice, but given the way I played and the players I play at NL50 is actually not that great. I did so many unnecessary call downs...4b QQ, flop AKx, ch he bets i call, turn x, i check he checks, river x, i check he bets I call villain shows AJ. Imo I should just bet/fold the flop and be done with it. Besides calling way to much, I realized I wasnt aggressive enough and started slowplaying like a complete retard.
3b AK, flop A75, I check!!! wtf! turn 8. I bet he minraises, I call, river blank, I check he pushes and obviously I call and he shows 96....surprise surprise...

Right now I m very unhappy about myself, played completely retarded, didnt learn anything, didnt do any review, played when I was tired (got up to early due to the dogs), didnt listen to inner voice :) got mad everytime something didnt went 100 % my way = TILT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in poker and real life....

I started thinking about switching to a fixed bet type of poker, but seriously why should I? I should take more breaks the moment I feel my game is slipping. step away from the tables, only play when I am positiv and relaxed. I should get back into sports as well! I studied sports and I ve always been a sportsmaniac, until I had an injury in the ankle of my right foot. Diagnosis: Arthrosis and thus constant pain when I do any sort of sports that involved jumping. Given that my absolute favorite game is Beachvolleyball, not the best think to have....I cant even fucking go out and run, cause it hurts while I m running and afterwards. Due to that I gained over 20 kilos and exceed the 100kg mark right now. I m so ashamed! whiny post! ;)

I really hope that the weather becomes better, so that me and one of my dogs can go out cycling again. I ve got two siberian huskies. One 2 year old female and 9 month old male. The male just lost his balls :) poor guy....he is still to young to pull  so right now its only the female. I ve got an x-back (pulling equipment) and its really lots of fun to do it. 

another topic: i ve been playing dragon age on the ps3 for a while, finished it 2x and liked it quite a lot. I ve played games like baldurs gate and neverwinter nights before, thus I am quite used to their game design. The graphics werent the best, but they always do a great job in creating unique npcs imo.
I m  a little bit bored by it now and I have started playing street fighter 4 and gt5 now. gt5 came along with the ps3, thus I ve played it quite a bit and its ok. I m not really a racing game fan. Regarding Street Fighter: I ve played street fighter 2 when I was young a lot :) against buddies. The game seems fun, but we will see...

anyway, I am frustrated and tilted, but I am also motivated and hope to make a breakthrough soon and that is due to this rant:

http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/citizenwind/rant-just-fucking-do-it

I printed it out and will print out a couple more times and hang it next to my desktop, next to my bed, in the bathroom and so on....

I know that I should just fucking grow up and study hard! Fuck I m lazy and I m mad at myself for being it!

So, if any of you feels like giving feedback I d be really happy :)

anyhow,

a pic of my two dogs for something nice and beautiful :)

all the best,

Aquila

Alright, x-mas have been kind to me pokerwise. Played HU on Stars and made ~1.1k at NL50 within 4 days.

So yes, I ve decidided to go for HU. I m to old to play billions of tables at the same time + I enjoy HU a lot (responding/exploiting to opponents tendencies is really something I enjoy). 

Tilt certainly will be something I really need to work on. I ll start meditating , hope that helps, maybe some1 got a good link...

oh yeah, I will see the Dalai Lama in april. He is visiting my city and I paid 50 € for the ticket. but wtf, how often will I get to see this guy???

So far so good,

post soon.

Cheers,
Aquila

Hello!

Welcome to my second part of my "basics". Something I forgot to mention yesterday, among lots of other stuff, is that I am german, thus my english probably will be a bit basic and most likely sometimes plain wrong...my apologies to anyone who is offended by my style of writing and spelling.

With that being said, let me get going why I started a blog. As I wrote yesterday I have been playing NL like 90 % in the last 6 month or so. On the site I play (which I won't mention for thus obvious reasons) and on Stars where I played before I have aways been a solid winner over the last 6 month. On Stars I have been beating the NL50 6max with ... let me check PTR....3.33 (no kidding) BB/100 over roughly 70 k hands, while I have been beating the NL50 and NL100 with roughly 5 BB/100 over the last 50 k hands. This aint a brag! Still I question myself a lot whether NL really is the right game for me. You might wonder why?

Well, its actually quite simple. I really suffer a lot and question/switch to other games once I have a losing day. Its not like I had any downswings over extended periods of time (I guess thats almost impossible where I play....), once I lose like 3 buyins I tend to instacashout and go to Stars and play Stud8, Omaha08, SNGs or something else for some days until I usually realize that a) they are not necessarily easier to beat b) I am usually not as "good" in these games (which leads to c) c) I am not that good at exploiting people in these games.  Relating to the 3 buyin losses, these are often flips like AK vs QQ or although the inevitable allin with KK vs AA. I know its not very smart and realistic to be upset or even influenced by these. But psychology isnt always reasonable...to give you a proof and since people always seem to like graphs I have inserted my last 20 k hands.

As you might guess there were 2 times within this period of play where I cashed out from this site and played on Stars...

Just looking at it I am actually ashamed to post it! I am winning and 20 k hands is nothing and I know that I should just get over it and accept it!

Still, allins just tilt me. I feel like I dont have any control and that they are unavoidable in NL. Which leads me to believe that NL might not be the best choice for me. I really want to get good at one game (and later others) and make a "solid" income there withouth having to rely to much on Rakeback. AND I want to become mentally "stable"! 

Ok, so 2 things I have talked about now:

- becoming mentally stable

- choosing ONE game and sticking to it!

now theres another factor I want to address: LEARNING STUDYING IMPROVING

I am freaking lazy! I ve got like all the material, I am a "member" of a really good PLO skype group (obviously I have been playing PLO too....), BUT I don't use it!
Do I really ever analyze my opponents? NOPE! On my site its so easy, there are only maybe 10-20 regs at NL100 when I play. It would be so simple to analyze there play (at least I guess so, I ve only done it like once or twice (I was so proud!). I ve read lots of pokerbooks and I also watched videos do a certain degree, but none of that seriously. I know what it means to study hard. When I had my master degree exams, I had to study freaking hard for genetics. Obviously I had to learn through out my whole studies, thus I believe I know quite well how I personally like to learn so that it actually sticks. Since learning is oftern very different from person to person, I believe that this is something worth knowing.
Anyhow, I know that I am "capable" of becoming a lot better by studying seriously.

I feel like this (a bit, lol):

"In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost." Dante Alighiere Inferno

I am taking 3 days off from playing poker to come to terms with myself (is that correct?). Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

Cheers and thanks :) ,

Aquila

Hi,

welcome to my first ever blog!
 Lets get started with some quick facts!

Age: 30 

BR: around 5.5 k

Game: hmm, difficult....I grinded NL50 and NL100 for the last 2 month, 6max that is... Right now, unsure...

Have played all kinds of games, like stud8, stud hi, fixed limit holdem 6max, NL FR, NL HU, PLO, Fixed Limit O8, Razz...

Goals:
now its gonna be a little be interesting!

- master one game (I am a strong believer that I should master one game first and then when I made it there pretty high, then I can move over to another game, but not before). As you can see this is something I haven't managed to accomplish so far...

and rest will follow tomorrow...

gn8 and gl at the tables,

Aquila