Just Meh

Ok so I wanna start grinding some MTT's soon, until all this fraud business is sorted out. My card details appeared on a list of cloned cards, so I was able to withdraw my roll to my bank account fine...but as soon as I try ordering a Pizza to eat while watching Chelsea v Man United on Sunday my account was blocked. So no pokers until my new card comes in like 10 days...I hate banks, but I guess they had my back this time.

So pokers, I have been watching 180man SNG Grinder and its pretty cool...I did used to like playing the MTT SNG's when I first started playing poker. I guess I have everything I need from my SNG days, Wiz, TableNinja some books and some toothpicks to prop my eye lids open. Ill do some studying before I play them again because I am going to be rusty as hell

My MSc results were published today. Pretty pleased overall, I didnt like the format of how they were handed out. There was a group of 7 of us and we had to tell our supervisor our matriculation number so he could access them. He would then read them out to you. I was like "Oh man, please dont have failed and be embarresed in front of everyone" but I had done well. Currently averaging a 68% average which puts me right on course for a MSc with Merit or if I do more work an MSc with Distinction which would be sick.

Ive had it with iPoker, I have been running stupidly badly on my last 50k hands around $300 under EV in total and I am playing 10 fucking NL. Its stupid, Im constantly being set over set running KK and QQ into AA constantly preflop. This last hand was the straw that broke the camels back, I am never playing on this stupid site ever again. Thank god for RB is all I can say.

IPoker Network $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1617527

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $10.89
UTG: $12.16
CO: $10.00
BTN: $9.75
Hero (SB): $10.00

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with K K
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, BB raises to $1.05, Hero raises to $2.40, BB raises to $10.89, Hero calls $7.60 all in

Flop: ($20.00) 9 7 J(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($20.00) A(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($20.00) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $20.00
BB shows 6 9
BB wins $18.67
(Rake: $1.33)

I had got tired of my kettlebell workouts, so I decided for a new one to get rid of my Christmas paunch. I downloaded Kettlebell Burn 2.0. I like it, its simple but bloody effective. I may have gone a little OTT for the first workout trying to do the entirety with a 24kg bell, I nearly puked half way through the metabolic pairings so I took a 5 minute break and went down a weight.

Poker wise, I need to review the fundamentals. I went through some hands an I have had some really bad habits creep into my game..which is probably why I have been break even at 10NL for an embarrassingly long time. Time to start again from scratch, but it will be worth it. I have $300 in RB coming in on Wed so my roll will be $600 which is enough for $20NL but I will stay on the Euro and Pound 10NL tables for the next 30K hands to make sure I have ironed out any major leaks, the biggest of which was 3betting shitty hands from the SB and playing way too many 3 bet pots OOP against people who just dont fold.

I have some good books to read over the next few weeks. billyjex's 6 max book, seems perfect for micros; The Poker Blueprint; Easy Game Volume 3; Small Stakes NLHE...studying these chapter by chapter will do me for a long time.

Plan: 70/30 split of playing and studying, probably more with session reviews during the day in the library in between lectures since I have a lot of gaps in my timetable this semester. Try to play 2k hands a day, trying to masstable RB last week and putting in 30K hands in 3 days really burned me out, not doing that again. Playing 6 tables maximum, the play on iPoker is kinda slow and nitty but this is enough to get solid reads and plenty of time for note taking 

Playing on iPoker is insane, the aggro fish and preflop wars can lead to a ton of swings. I made some adjustments and got back to break even. Can I please run good for a while please. Made some nice plays to scoop £30 off a whale and I ended up £60 on that table :) another thing I have been doing is staying on a table when i breaks, sometimes you are left heads up with a total fish...then its only a matter of time until you stack them or you get lots of other fish joining you. Fun times. Another thing I have noticed the play is not as crazy on the euro or pound tables, might just be a superstition though but I just need to play more to build this roll quick and pay off some of my overdraft.

Also, thank god for rb :)

Well that was fun, everytime people hitting their draws, me losing flips or me flopping top two getting it in vs a set :(

Try again tomorrow I suppose and go over the session. I tilted a bit, I remember pulling my hair shouting when I lost the last big hand,

I think I overplay hands in certain spots, it leads to a lot of variance.

I took a break from poker when I started my MSc. I wanted to get the first semester done with minimal distractions. I sat my exams and they all went pretty well overall, bit concerned about the last one but I still think I passed it. Anyway, back to poker. I have been spending far too much time playing xbox so I am starting to play poker again. Starting with So Fresh So Clean and performing the training drills daily which were posted in a video by Krantz and other videos as well. 

I realised when I was studying for my exams that I do actually quite enjoy it, sure it can be boring at times but currently during my week off...while not revising for exams is nice, I have been bored....very very bored. So I am starting a new structure for 2012. Im picking up guitar again and going to learn music theory, something I have been putting off for a long time. Study poker daily and get to my target weight using kettlebell training. When my next semester starts I will be on campus, either studying poker or studying for my courses. I can play poker on the university internet so I will probably mix that in as well.

Poker goals: Get to 100NL to begin with

Fitness goals: Get to 13st and be training with a 32kg bell

Music: Start writing some songs

Yesterday was a very important day. I completley changed what I wanted to get out of the game and the way I am approaching it or even thinking about it. While I was watching WiltonTilts Blueprint the one thing he said that really stuck with me "I dont understand the people who dont change what their doing, even after we have given them advice on how to change" obviously its not verbatim but you get my point. I certainly fell into the "If I could just do x then I would become a winner" category of player, always blaming my bad plays on variance and bitching and whining on this blog constantly when I ran 20BI under Ev at 10NL. Reading books and never reviewing my sessions, because well...Im lazy, its just easier to grind.

So after I watched the video, I sat down for a good 2 hours and just came up with a ton of filters to use in my session reviews. It was good, I even did a proper session review and really identified where I have been going wrong. I even found the review quite interesting, maths is probably my strongest subject in school and university...why have I only just bothered to learn poker mathematics properly now? Today my free trial of Flopzilla runs out, absolute insta purchase. Its an excellent bit of kit and can only help my postflop game and hand reading.

Number 1, is induced tilt from looking at my HEM graph while playing, its a terrible habit I have gotten into and need to break asap. 

Number 2, trying to get a breakeven red line at 10NL. When I changed to this approach I went from a winner to a breakeven/marginal loser, all that matters is the greenline. 

Number 3, is not following the Baluga theorem when its so crystal clear that I am completely crushed by their perceived range. Yeah sure I have called before and they have been bluffing but this happens so rarely that you can just assume it doesnt happen at the micros.

I have also put my decision to play PLO on hold. Its a cool game and one that I do really enjoy playing. However playing a game with such high rake and no RB on probably the only site with decent traffic below 50PLO was going to take far too long. So for now I am going back to iPoker and taking the 50k hand challenge seriously.

Onwards and upwards

I have played quite a few hands the last couple of days. 3.5k hands in beating PLO2 for about 25bb/100. I have made some bonehead plays but its to be expected. 

On other things, I have started the Insanity workout this week. Oh boy was it tiring, but I am going to stick with it since exercise has to become a daily part of my routine. Hopefully in the morning.

Ok here I am, back on DC with a full subscription again. I just cant stay away for too long. I played for the first time in months yesterday, and I didnt play a single hand of Hold Em, not one. I have switched to PLO and I am loving it, it just holds my attention much more than NLHE and I am not sure why to be honest. I play tighter, dont run any silly bluffs and have been folding when its obvious that I am beaten. I really do enjoy PLO enough to start from PLO2 and work my way up with a $80 BR, its going to be fun. The play at PLO2 is just amazing, its so funny...people literally giving away pennies. The best one I saw was someone go all in for 250BB with TP on the turn on an extremely drawy board.

All the other aspects of my life right now are in check. I am exercising everyday for about 90 mins. I have been doing kettlebell training for a while now and I started Insanity yesterday. Exercise really really does make you feel much better about yourself. When I started my exercise regime I weighed 230lbs, now I am down to 203lbs and am a lot better for it and my target weight is to be 180lbs by Christmas. I am also getting into the swing of things with regards to my MSc which I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship for, so financially I have no worries at all until I graduate again.

Onwards and upwards in the world of PLO, and no more bad beat bitching...I havent even looked at my HEM graph or pokerstars cashier once, something which used to tilt the hell out of me.

Daryl

I had my first proper session at 20NL today. It was good, I was cbetting well and 2 barreling at most of the opportunities. I managed to spike 4BI over 1K hands. I was about the call it a day and then these three hands happened. I might put in place a stop loss and a win loss, its pretty discouraging when this happens.

IPoker Network $20.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1377087
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $22.88 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 23, 3B: 0, AF: 4.0, Hands: 22
BTN: $20.70 - VPIP: 25, PFR: 25, 3B: 14, AF: Infinity, Hands: 16
SB: $17.90 - VPIP: 12, PFR: 8, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 121
BB: $11.33 - VPIP: 44, PFR: 10, 3B: 9, AF: 0.7, Hands: 87
UTG: $20.00 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 17, 3B: 8, AF: 4.3, Hands: 189
Hero (MP): $22.19 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 19, 3B: 8, AF: 2.8, Hands: 8078

Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero is MP with A T
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.70, 3 folds, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) A K 2(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.80, BB calls $0.80

Turn: ($3.10) 6(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2.00, BB calls $2

River: ($7.10) T(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8.00, BB calls $7.83 all in

Final Pot: $22.76
BB shows 6 6
BB wins $21.63
(Rake: $1.13)

IPoker Network $20.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players - View hand 1377077
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $32.85 - VPIP: 12, PFR: 8, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 121
BB: $20.60 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 15, 3B: 6, AF: 2.8, Hands: 212
CO: $20.00 - VPIP: 17, PFR: 17, 3B: 0, AF: 1.5, Hands: 18
Hero (BTN): $56.66 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 19, 3B: 8, AF: 2.8, Hands: 8078

Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero is BTN with K K
CO raises to $0.60, Hero raises to $2.10, 2 folds, CO calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) 6 8 Q(2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $3.00, CO raises to $8.60, Hero raises to $54.56, CO calls $9.30 all in

Turn: ($40.30) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($40.30) 4(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $40.30
CO shows 6 6
CO wins $38.30
Hero wins $36.66
(Rake: $-34.66)

IPoker Network $20.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1377078
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $31.75 - VPIP: 12, PFR: 8, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 121
SB: $21.04 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 15, 3B: 6, AF: 2.8, Hands: 212
BB: $6.22 - VPIP: 33, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: Infinity, Hands: 6
UTG: $36.50 - VPIP: 17, PFR: 17, 3B: 0, AF: 1.5, Hands: 18
Hero (MP): $38.30 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 19, 3B: 8, AF: 2.8, Hands: 8078
CO: $20.00 - VPIP: 12, PFR: 8, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 121

CO posts a big blind ($0.20)

Pre Flop: ($0.50) Hero is MP with K K
UTG raises to $0.80, Hero raises to $2.90, 4 folds, UTG calls $2.10

Flop: ($6.30) 4 6 4(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3.20, UTG raises to $10, Hero raises to $35.40, UTG calls $23.60 all in

Turn: ($73.50) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($73.50) 5(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $73.50
UTG shows A A
UTG wins $70.50
Hero wins $1.80
(Rake: $1.20)

I was pretty tilted by the last hand, I do think I overplayed the hand somewhat on the flop...but I dont see how else the outcome would have been any different.