........for now at least. If I'm honest I've drifted off course over the last 3 years and the time I invested in poker probably played no small part. Having at least an extended break, and maybe I won't feel the need to come back. Shame really, as I was on a nice little heater and planning on having another crack at the 50NL games which got the better of me last time round. C'est la vie.
Have a little under £1K to cash out including bonuses, so gonna do that and invest in a 160GB iPod and a dope pair of headphones to indulge my other love, music :D Rest I'll probably just bank.
So much for updating this regularly - I've had mixed success with the resolutions I set myself a while back, although I have had more time to grind since becoming unemployed last week. Every cloud....
Have been doing fairly mediocre at 20NL on the European site I stuck some money on - running at 5bb/100 over 50K hands. Not really sure what the best winrate you can expect over a meaningful sample is these days. Definitely start doing worse when I go into passive mode, usually after getting coolered, losing a flip or something (anyone else with this issue?), although I've been looking harder for more spots to bluff creatively of late. Below are a couple, together with what I was thinking at the time...feel free to denounce them as epic spew ;).
Pre-flop fairly standard vs a reg who was folding about 75% to 3 bets. BB I had confirmed as a fish and thought his cold call represented AK and other assorted broadways, together with mid pocket pairs. Timing tells came into play postflop - he ultra-super-snap called my cbet, then bet the turn almost as fast. Wasn't quite sure what to make of his flop call although I weighted it towards Ace-highs and 88-TT, weak J-x. Initially then I was just prepared to c/fold the turn though as it looked a pretty crumby barrel card and I was minus any super-solid reads post flop. His INSTA bet looked so super fishy though and I just couldn't give him credit for any value hand whatsoever. Even marginal pairs that might have been looking to protect would most likely need to think somewhat either about the flop call or the turn bet, and his line just felt like a premeditated bluff attempt, hence I shoved.
Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero is BTN with 7 A 2 folds, CO raises to $0.60, Hero calls $0.60, 2 folds
Flop: ($1.50) 8 6 2(2 players) CO bets $1.00, Hero raises to $3, CO raises to $8.80, Hero raises to $19.74, CO folds
Final Pot: $19.10 Hero wins $18.15
This one I'm slightly more confident in - villain was a 35/25 aggrotard, cbetting 80%. Folding the flop felt pretty weak and calling didn't seem super attractive either as he barrels turns a lot and I'm losing to better ace highs/low pairs, so I decided to raise. His 3 bet on the flop looked like a re-bluff with air + I was actually ahead of 9-7/7-5, some combos of which were definitely in his range given how loose he was, plus I had an overcard and back door draws as some lifesaver equity should he actually have had the goods, so again I just moved in.
Both moves felt like the right thing to do at the time but I'm open to criticism and would welcome any comments :) GL!
Having officially been a member of DC for 1 whole year (and
unofficially a bit more, as I had a previous account for a short while that I
discontinued the use of), figured I would make a post to take stock and figure
out what I can do moving forward.
Recapping the Past Year:
As of August 2010: had $2.5K roll on Stars, 50NL full ring
reg.
Between then and August 2011: went on big losing stretch
September last year (NB: not so much a downswing, more the fact that I was
probably shit) – and cashed out the remainder of my bankroll, pretty much giving up
playing FR and poker generally through late 2010. Come New Year though, I started
messing around playing 6 max on Full Tilt with the fistful of dollars I had
left on there. Built up to playing 25NL with a $600 roll, then Black Friday hit
so obviously haven’t seen that money yet. After finishing uni I deposited £50
and have been grinding that since, currently playing 20NL, hopefully
shot-taking at 40NL soonish.
Despite being pretty optimistic about poker right now, the above
isn’t a lot to show for a year ‘s worth of effort.
So, some realisations:
I’ve decided that I’m MASSIVELY inefficient and
unproductive in the use of my time – the amount of time I’ve wasted
procrastinating neither grinding volume or doing other ‘life’ stuff I need to
get done is just criminal. The fact that I have seldom ever got in 20K hands in
a month is ridiculous.
I should have moved to a Euro Site much sooner –
the combination of worse players (IMO) as well as the boost that playing in
sterling and euros gives to my hourly rate makes so much sense. Plus as I’m
English being able to hold the money in my account in sterling is an upside
too.
Should start a bankroll and stick with it!
Continually starting fledgling bankrolls from scratch is a waste of time and
effort.
Some resolutions:
Improve time efficiency
Re-apply myself to studying away from the tables
As part of 2. get more involved in DC – have
been really bad at posting hands, and I’d like to record myself playing at some
point, maybe join a study group etc…although this will probably have to wait a
month or two until I move house and get my set up fully sorted
Play at least 20K hands a month
And that should pretty much do it for now, hopefully the
results will follow….
Life outside poker: went to Creamfields at the weekend – was
good, if ridiculously muddy :)
Don't know how many tranceheads there are out there, but thought I'd share this. Favourite song atm. Lyrics resonate. Plus the guy in the vid has some moves!
No poker related updates to detail for now (so far this year I've conspicuously failed to put in volume) so figured I'd just make another playlist for the benefit of the other poker playing house music affficionados out there. Fair bit of progressive with some tech/electro thrown in, to help you bump and grind (pun intended) your way through March. As always, good luck at the tables.
Personally, I've always found house music good to workout/grind/generally live to - it's pretty feel good stuff and good for motivation. Was compiling a playlist the other day and thought I'd post 10 current favourites (in no particular order) here in case anyone hears something they fancy adding to their iPod. Further recommendations appreciated from anyone else who likes this sort of thing.
T
J
