Where is my mind?

I havent updated the blog in quite a while now. Several reasons for this but one was that March started out with a major discipline downswing combined with a monetary downswing. Im still down around 15BI after 50k hands or so. Even so i dont feel to bad. My game hasnt been perfect but that wouldnt be realistic to always keep up my a-game. But i have definitly kept working and been improving steadily. Watching videos, discussing hands and reading books.

I wasnt planning to do a long post. Im to tired at this point of the day which is why usually end up not posting nothing at all. I just figured a short post was better then nothing. Ill be back

I decided to trash the journal style of the blog and turn it into a more normal blog-style. I initially started it to motivate myself to get in the hours which simply isnt a problem anymore. I also was starting to feel at unease and somewhat stressed and although its no the blog to blame i dont think it’ll hurt to cut down on the daily “must do’s”.

So with that out of the way ill try to do a summary of the last days. As i mentioned in my last post i had a coaching session with my dear coach derBrain. We went through some interesting hand histories and discussed some subtler points. For me personally there is nothing that kickstarts my game and get me out of the abc grind like a coaching session.

So i went back to the tables after the session with good confidence and played a pretty solid session. But it was absolutely INSANE how much i had to jump around tables to not sit with 3+ shortstackers. Even though it had always been bad to some extent that night was just utterly ridicuolus. Then i played the day after that and it was just more of the same. For me it really felt like Stars turned into crap over night. So i decided to say bye-bye to my bonus because i couldnt be arsed to spend a week grinding the vpps. And so i got set up on a new euro site and every day kinda feels like christmas.

Also i had to do something about the stress that had been eating my guts for the last week. It probably was a combination of being a slight loser for 20k hand and just the pressure catching up with being a fulltime poker player. And it also was causing me to no play my a-game. So i decided to watch ‘The eightfold path to poker enlightment’. First episode was ok but nothing groundbreaking for me personally. But episodes 2,3 and 4 did an amazing difference for me. To a much lesser extent do i let close spots get stuck in my mind and nag away for the rest of the session. And to a much greater extent do i manage to see every decision as an individual decision while still planning out the hands as not to get surprised.

So where i am right now is simply a much better place then i was just a few days ago. I feel much more relaxed, im managing to put in my a-game at the start of the last few sessions and my b-game has definitly improved a ton. Im very interested to see what the coming week got in store for me.

Very standard day, fell a bit short of the hourly goal. Made one really bad calldown on the river with TPTK against a bad lag in a spot where his play made little sense but in reality it was obvious he had the nuts. Other then that i had a crazy amount of rivers killing my hand, set over set and aces over my kings. Im absolutely amazed looking at the graph at the end of the day im only down one buyin. I feel like im playing really solid although im getting a bit bored and stagnant rarely encountering really rough spots anymore. Hopefully my bankroll will allow me a shot at nl200 soon enough.

Tomorrow coaching session which im looking forward to.

Decided to go for the standard grind today and ended up playing pretty darn solid. Had a few maniacs and with being so much more comfortable playing postflop both in and out of position i opened up my game quite alot against them. It worked out very well and since they most likely are going to bust withing a 100 hands i think it really adds upp if you can take a few pots off them before that happens.

Ive failed last sundays goal of posting in the forums. Ive been spending some time lurking though and while there definitly is some interesting discussion i feel like most of it either isnt appliable to 100nl or its spots where its just a matter of having a read. Ill probably get more active once i start moving up in stakes.

Lockdown went well. I managed to push in 12 hours before i was starting to lose enough focus that there was no point to continue. Ended up more or less break but would have been slightly up if i had played perfectly.

Im still fine tuning my barreling spots. Both when it comes to barreling other people and calling them down. Basically i havent been doing at all in 3 bet pots earlier but with the higher preflop aggression of 100nl its more or less mandatory if i want to play optimal preflop. Also people tend to have pretty obvious bet sizing and timing tells which obviously helps a ton. Something else i tried out is the check-raising marginal hands on the river against small blocker type bets which is also a very nice and nasty tactic.

The last area where i feel like i can open up my game is starting to coldcall a bit more preflop both in and out of position. It obviously makes postflop alot trickier but that works both ways as people seem to be really uncomfortable when getting played back at postflop. Also it should allow me to open up a bit more against steals which is always handy against some of the more aggresive players.

I will see if i continute the lockdown tomorrow. Might revert back to 8h day and go back to quality. Quantity was nice for discipline but in the life long session its hardly optimal. I hate failing at set goals though. We shall see.

Ok today was well..mediocre. I choose to classify it as my day off. Spent way to many hours looking at that tournament show here on DC. Cant get enough fslexcduck. Then followed up by some very interesting sweating session with a few friends. Followed it up with 100 hands or so and managed to super level myself into a bad calldown. I dont mind people outplaying me and taking my money, nor when i get coolered or have kings versus aces for the third time in a row. But i absolutely puke at giving regdonks my money where they clearly doesnt deserve it.

Anywho, to be able to sum up this week as a smashing success some grinding time has to be recouped. Thereby this weekend is herby known as LOOOOOOCCCCCKKKKDOOWNWW !! Aiming at putting in 28 hours minimum of solid freaking a+ 4 tabling during saturday and sunday. Already kinda regretting i wrote this down because it means not doing so will officially be a huge freakin failure. Cant let that happen ! Interesting days to come for sure

Still have trouble getting in all the hours i want. Really need to plan to be able to get in exercise and some kind of life while still getting in 8h of solid play.

Anyway still on a heater, although i sometimes i start to think how much of a heater it is with all these regs donating stacks with horrible obvious bluffs or just plain overplaying their weak draws. Im still trying to get comfortable in 3- and 4bet pots and get away from the “one cb and im done” kind of deal i had at 50nl. Definitly will re-check some hands and see where i might get people to fold made hands by taking strong bluffing lines.

Also starting to think about when ill take a shot at 1/2. Probably gonna put in another 15-20k hands atleast and if im still doing good after that and im comfortable in my play ill probably give it a try. No point sticking around at a limit if i dont have to. That being said, maybe in a weeks time ill have quit poker and be flipping burgers after a 50bi downswing. Shouldnt get to far ahead of myself and just keep playing one hand at a time.

Busy day but still got in 5h or so and picked up the graph.

Still didnt feel a 100 percent today so just got in a few hours of non A+ play. Still played reasonable though and hope to be back in shape. Down about 5bi from the peak but expected EV is actually up so i definitly had a few coolers.

Went to bed late, had trouble sleeping and then woke up early and got to the gym. Have been feeling like a zombie for the entire day after that. Watched two episodes of pr1nnyraiding season 2 which were very interesting. Tried to get into some hands but just didnt have the mind in the game and ended up making some bad plays. Probably spewed off half a BI or so. Good thing is i got in the money good in a couple of spots and ended up losing some big pots so my EV graph is starting to look alot prettier. Tomorrow is revenge time.