I am having a small break from playing poker which obviously doesn't stop me from thinking, reading and talking about it. I've decided to perform an analysis of the most common regs I play almost every day. So on top of the notes I allready have I will see if this can help me even more. Any of you secret readers who have done this?
Ok, so I had a horrible day yesterday. Not only because I lost much but because I didn't play my best, lost focus, got emotionally disturbed and so on. I find this to be one of the great mysteries of poker for me and probably one ofthe largest mistakes blocking me from being a constant winner. I always come to this pot. I grind for a week or two, I win, I lose, I have an ok winrate and then suddenly one day it is like I can't win a hand, I lose everything. Yesterday I lost to quads two times in 5 minutes. Both times I sat on the best full house. One time with an Ax hand the other with AA. I had a great hand, but I did not have the nuts.
More and more I am realising what separates a big winner from a marginal winner is often not their poker abilities but their avoidance of tilt. Even though I didn't play horrible yesterday I still spew away chips in situations where I have a really good hand but clearly not the best one. I need to stop this.
Something that always comes after these days are doubt. I doubt my ability to play poker, to ever move up, to beat the stakes I play, to improve, I doubt almost everything. I can't see the path to improvement anymore. Usually I have to watch a couple of videos and the memories of the path I used to follow reappears. Anyway, this shit is disturbing as hell. It just have to stop. Reset, now.
I'm really close to reach my goal to reach 100k FPPs before December. 1k hands so far today and only 1k to go. Feels great! Next month 40k hands 5/10 would probably get me the 300k milestone so that's a must. Sometimes when I am done with a session I am astonished by how much my went to showdown changes. I can get as low as 30 sometimes and high as 40 sometimes. It's nothing strange really, I am familiar with statistics and variance and it can be a real pain and what I can remember from business school it's boring as hell too so let's not talk about that more.
Yeah, nearly forgot. I have a warning to place out here, do not under any circumstances see the movie Clash Of The Titans.
Just finished my last session for today and as I suspected I didn't manage 2k hands, finished at 1,6k. Nothing special happened really. Started out great had a dip in the end running like shit. I also encountered Tryptamean at 5/10, please go back to where you belong.
Said earlier I was going to H&M to check out the Lanvin clothes and so I did. I liked them, quite dressed with a bit of edge. Bought a bow tie but could easily have gone on a spree grabbing both a smoking, some jackets and maybe one or two shirts.
Went to the gym as well. Always feels great to excercise. I am slowly getting into good old shape and havn't missed out on many opportunities to go to the gym this fall/autumn.
Heading to H&M in a bit ti check out the new collection from Lanvin. After that some small errands, gym and perhaps some food before hitting the tables. My original plan was to get 2k hands in but since I got to bed quite late last night, went on a late Harry Potter movie which I enjoyed... nerd, I might have to settle for less which sucks. Nah, 2k hands it will be!
Yesterday I stumbled upon an article at 2+2 about ranges. Seemed like interesting and heavy shit. I'll give it a go later today in one of my breaks. If it's any good I might link it or write about it here later.
So far today I have played 1600 hands. I have maintained focus all the time and am pretty happy so far! One funny hand came up, I end up heads up versus one of the weaker regulars when the table breaks and this is what happens:
$5.00/$10 Limit Hold'em - 3 players
Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is BB with K
J
1 fold, SB raises, Hero 3-bets, SB caps!, Hero calls
Flop: (8 SB) 7 J
5(2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB 3-bets, Hero calls
Turn: (7 BB) 6(2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls
River: (9 BB) 4(2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls
Final Pot: 11 BB
SB shows 3
3
Hero mucks K J
SB wins 10.9 BB
(Rake: $1.00)
Only thing I can come up with is that villain is trying to represent an overpair and want me to fold a TP kind of hand which is never going to happen. If someone else have an explanation of this hand please feel free to enlighten me.
Time to grind some more before going to the movies, Harry Potter tonight. I've always been a sucker for sci-fi and fantasy. Guess it has something to do with escaping reality.
Just played a session right after watching the pilot of Boardwalk Empire. Seems like a great series! Always loved the 20's and Steve Buscemi is just a bonus! I have a feeling I will be watching another one after I'm done with this!
So back to my session. I am pretty satisfied apart from two hands against a multitabling 33/24. Quite surpised I would run into them at Stars... Most of of the Stars' VPP collectors play in the same robotic manner, somewhat straight forward with spazzy moves mixed in and yeah, most of them fancy a showdown every now and then.
$5.00/$10 Limit Hold'em - 6 players
Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is UTG with T K
Hero raises, 2 folds, BTN calls, 1 fold, BB calls
Flop: (6.4 SB) 4 A 3(3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BTN folds, BB raises, Hero calls
Turn: (5.2 BB) T(2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls
River: (7.2 BB) A(2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls
This is really early in the session. Villain, 33/24, will be raising his TP+ hands and his good draws on the flop. My brain malfunctioned when the T hit and I called down hence my read. I actually felt like folding on the flop here since villain is aware of my UTG opening range and how it hits this board. However, I have been working on getting to showdown more and I still find the wrong spot from time to time. Shame on me.
$5.00/$10 Limit Hold'em - 6 players
Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is MP with Q A
UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, 4 folds, UTG calls
Flop: (7.4 SB) 5 Q 7(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG raises, Hero calls
Turn: (5.7 BB) K(2 players)
UTG bets, Hero calls
River: (7.7 BB) K(2 players)
UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, Hero calls
Second hand versus the same villain. I just called the flop to pop the turn and somehow failed to do so when a K hit. When the second K came I just couldn't keep my fingers away from the raise button and told myself I would fold to a 3-b. Yeah, you can see how good I managed to follow through there.
That's all for today folks. Boardwalk Empire anyone?
Managed to squeeze in a short session before movie time. I played 4 tables of 5/10 FLH SH and found GianthBuddha sitting all over. I ran pretty good and nothing really special happened except getting really unlucky versus Buddha one hand where both the turn and river managed to cooperate in diabolic fashion making me lose some dough.
Now I'm going to watch "Reign Of Assasins". I think the movie is chinese and it is rated 7.1 at IMDB which always is a nice indicator. Of to the movie!
Just wanted to give a brief introduction what this blog will be about. I currently play 3/6 up to 10/20 FLH mainly on Stars but also at iPoker and some other sites. I mainly play shorthanded but I don't give up on a good fullring table and I am trying to get into heads up. So, I will be writing about my adventures, thoughts, dreams, frustration and alot more related to my poker play.
Goals for the rest of November will be to play 7k hands 5/10 FLH SH and get 35-40k FPPs. For the rest of 2010 I want to reach my 300k milestone at Stars which should be done if I play 30k hands 5/10 FLH SH in December. Hopefully if I won't run superbad I will have enough in my BR to take more shots at 10/20 starting January next year. Apart from these volume goals I want to table select good at all times, play preferably 4 tables, max 6 and try to think through all decisions and make as few mistakes as possible. Improving my HU game would be great too.
That's it for now guys!
