The road to my first bracelet

Frustrated 25NL player

nienie23 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:44:28 +0000

Ok. If I look at my blog entries, on april 7th 2010 I said I was going back to 10NL. 3 months later, back at 25NL. Well, in 2 weeks, I lost a bit more than what I grinded in 3 months. That's about $300. After reviewing my hands, I counted aproximately $60 of big mistakes. The difference? I just lost. Although I love the game, I love studying it, watching videos, etc. I am losing my faith in all of this. Am I just a cry baby? Frustrated? Or maybe it's all normal and in the long run, I'll see the results. Do I have enough of one life to see the big picture? I can live with bad beats, I do. 2 weeks ago, after a few minutes into 2 table session, I flop TPTK. Villain chases with his small pair and hit his set on the river. I played the hand right and lost. The odds were always in my favor. Villain just got lucky. 10 minutes later, this exact scenario happened another 3 times, 4 in all, against different players, different tables. That's 4 buy in gone. Ok, fine. Let's keep playing as best as I can. Got stack twice more within the next 20 minutes. Finished the session with just a small loss.

All sessions did not end the same. You don't always flop the monster hand. Too result oriented? Maybe. I am not result oriented to the point that I freak out because my AA lost. But I am after losing 3 months of hard earned grinding at 10NL. Should I go back to 10NL? Why? Chasers will still hit. Morons who want to see a flop with Q3 offsuitÂ might stillÂ flop 2 pairs and crush your KK. But since they never raise, you'll end up all in on the river. You don't get stacked, you stack yourself. Maybe I should just keep working hard, redeposit if I need to and play the best I can. Problem is, after a while, one start thinking this:

1- A poker site isÂ business first.

2- A business is there to make money.

3- To make money, you need happy customers who will come back.

4- A customer with 55 who misses his set on the flop has 8% chances of hitting it on the turn or river, i.e. 92% chances of losing the hand. And that is not a happy customer. Let's fix this. Or one who enters the pot with trash like Ad 3s. Lets make him flop 3 diamonds while villain has JhQh. lol. I would not think of putting too many chips in that pot even if the flop was Qd Jd 4d. There is anotherÂ diamond coming.

P.S. Anyone with enough live poker experience can tell me that it's the same as internet poker?

Shortest Blog Entry Ever

nienie23 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:30:44 +0000

Got nothing to say. Grinded my wayback to 25NL and I am there to stay, full of confidence. See ya at 50NL.

"Think, think, think, that's all I do"

nienie23 — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:22:50 +0000

This is a quote from a very important and well known canadian. Anyone can guess who? It also summarizes my poker since my last blog entry. Yes it was trench warfare at itâ€™s worst. But the suprizing thing was to find out who the ennemy was. Anyone can guess who? OK so thatâ€™s twice the same question but I need two different answers. Iâ€™ll give you, for free, the second answer. The ennemy was the â€œOLD MEâ€. The one I worked so hard to get rid of. The one that does not want to leave the table until he gets â€œTHE HANDâ€. You know â€œTHE HANDâ€ that saves the day? Just like in that James Bond movie â€œCasino Royalâ€. Some guy is all in with his flush ace high, gets called by a full house, who gets called by a higher full house, but Bond, James Bond, who had position on every one, had the straight flush, even hit the gutter. Well, I ainâ€™t no James Bond. Repeat after me: RE-CI-PRO-CA-LI-TY. Got it? If you want to be better than the other players, do things better; quit better. And I talked about this earlier in this blog. Maybe next time nothing works I should read my own blog instead of beeing a bloggy moron at the tables.

*"Think, think, think, thatâ€™s all I do"
Anyone found who said this?

So yes thatâ€™s what I did. Between the time poker stars got their knew tables and HEM got the huds back at these new tables, I learned to think. Did not have a choice. So I started observing and taking notes. What I found was just great. For example: what is a TAG and how many hands do you need before some stats tell you that villain does not Cbet unless the flop hit him? Let me answer this. I sat at a table, hudless. After the first hand, I pop up HEM replayer to get the stats of everyone. The guy to my right is a TAG.

First hand against him: he opens with a raise from CO, I call with my QJsuited. Itâ€™s headsup. Flop comes raggy and rainbow. He checks, I check. The turn, a King, he bets small, I call. The river, another rag, he checks I check. He had KQ offsuit. Our TAG is a preflop TAG, postflop PASSIVE. One hand to see that his Cbet is fit or fold.

A NIT raises from BTN and gets called by BB. BB bets the flop, NIT raises, BB calls. Turn: BB checks, NIT bets, BB calls. River: BB checks, NIT bets, BB calls. BB had TPGK, NIT had one over card. Preflop NIT, post flop BAD AGGRO.

â€œThink, think, think, thatâ€™s all I doâ€
If you can have two hands of notes or more on every player, youâ€™ll have them at your mercy. How can you put a 80% vpip on a range? I donâ€™t have clue but with a few notes and some good observation, youâ€™ll find patterns and have a good idea what his action means. The thing that sucks is when they start leaving. You have to start it all over again.

â€œThink, think, think, thatâ€™s all I doâ€ Anyone? Scroll down for answer.
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â€œTHINK, THINK, THINK, THATâ€™S ALL I DOâ€
Winnie the Pooh

Hey!!!! What do you want, Iâ€™m still a big baby.

No more grinding 10NL, it's trench warfare at its worst

nienie23 — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:55:09 +0000

Yes it is. Just picture yourself knee deep in mud in a trench on a cold october night just after the rain stopped. The last attack left you almost all by yourself. The only sound you hear comes from those flares crossing the sky under their little parachutes, making all those weird shadows move accross the battelfield. Then suddenly, a whistleblow from the ennemyâ€™s trenches. Theyâ€™re coming again. You donâ€™t think you are going to make it this time. The dealer deals you two cards. With your dirty and trembling fingers, you lift the first one: Ace of spades. You lift the second one: Ace of heart. The best possible starting hand. But for some reason, you are not happy about it. Flashbacks from the last few attacks come to haunt you: Your AA all in vs JJ, he hit his set. All in vs KT offsuit, he made a flush with his king. AA in the BB on a table full of loose passive players, they all fold to you. You want to grab those damn aces and throw them away. You want to dig deeper and hide. You want raise your hands and surrender but you just canâ€™t. You know you have the best possible starting hand and the odds favor you. So you are going to focus on the present, every thing else is pointless, and you are going to play those aces the way you are supposed too. It is folded to you. You raise from the Cut Off. BTN folds. You know SB is an aggro and has been terrorizing the whole table for the last few orbits. You hope he does not fold. Please donâ€™t fold. He shoves. BB folds. You call with a nasty thought: Good bye asshole. Letâ€™s hope the poker Gods donâ€™t make you pay for that thought. LOL.

This is what the last 12 days of poker have looked like. I sit at the table wondering whatâ€™s going to happen to me. Certainly not the right mindset. It is true that my AA won me nothing but made me lose buyins. It is true that my good draws that I like to play aggressively never hit. It is true that in 3 days (I stopped counting after that) I was dealt 116 pocket pairs and flopped 1 set. I wonâ€™t even talk about flushes. They are like UFOs; Iâ€™ve heard about them but never saw one. BUTâ€¦â€¦â€¦

This is not the first time I have gone through this. I really think that poker is 80% between your ears and 20% at the tables. And when nothing works for that long, you have to review that 80%. That means, stay away from the tables for sometimes. I should have done that 7 days ago. Maybe tonight should be anything non poker related. Tomorrow, poker related stuff but no playing. I should focus on 4 things: Anything Tommy Angelo related, hand reviews looking for mistakes (that I always do), looking for lack of value betting my good hands (that is definitely a leak) and finally, and that is not going to be easy, looking for lack of aggressivity. After 12 days like this, I am sure my aggressivity is gone.

Anyone playing on pokerstars? Do you love their new cash tables? 20-50bb, 40-100bb. Itâ€™s hudless time. I guess HEM will need some time to adjust. But it made me realize I might be a tiny bit too dependent of my hud. I took this as an opportunity to learn to take notes and look for tendencies. This is a fulltime job: Play, observe, take notes. But I think it will be worth it. Stats tell you a lot but most of the time, you donâ€™t have enough hands to be accurate. But when you have some good notes on players, and if the little bastards donâ€™t leave the table, you quickly realize that nits and loose passive players are very predictable. They bet what they have.

Hopefully, this annoying episode will end the sameway the others ended, making me a better player.

Back to grinding 10NL

nienie23 — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:27:39 +0000

They say that the best tool a poker player has is the ability to go down limits when things donâ€™t go well. Yeah!!!!! I have it, but trust me when I say it sucks.

Ok, so here I am reviewing my 25NL sessions. What went wrong? A few costly mistakes, some suckouts but I found out something you canâ€™t quantify. Every sunday, I print a weekly poker schedule and through out the week, I write what I do. During those two weeks at 25NL, I did nothing but play poker and review sessions. No DC videos, no hand reading practice, no book reading, no nothing. Just poker sessions, session reviews. Just like some guy who wants to be a doctor but just donâ€™t want to study. From now on, between every session, I need to do 2 hours or more of poker related stuff. A DC video is about one hour plus the time I stop it to take notes. That leaves 45 minutes. 15 minutes for a session review. That leaves 30 minutes for hand reading practice, book reading, posting hands on forum, answering posts on forum, etc. So far, so good.

Another thing I found out is that every 10 minutes in a session, I have to monitor myself. So, every 10 minutes, I ask myself 3 simple questions:

1- Am I playing my A, B or C game? I added B+ game which is a good game but I donâ€™t feel 100% into it.

2- How is my mind set? Am I focused like a student preparing for an exam? Am I just on cruise control. Am I losing patience because I won only one decent hand in 30 minutes but lost 5? Am I just tired?

3- Are the tables still worth playing?

Once you answer these questions, youâ€™ll know where you stand. Donâ€™t be affraid to quit after only 30 minutes into a session if you are not satisfied with the answers. But donâ€™t be affraid to stick around after one hour if you are in your A game, you are focused and the fishes are some â€œDurrr wannabesâ€ who will gladly shove the river with ace high, trying to represent the ace high flush you have.

POP quizz: On the evening of april 6th 2010 on poker stars, do you know who was the luckiest man at the tables? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $8.80
UTG: $22.60
CO: $10.00
Hero (BTN): $13.40
SB: $17.35

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with 7 7
1 fold, CO checks, Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, BB calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.05) 7 A J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB raises to $2.50, Hero calls $1.50

Turn: ($6.05) 7 (2 players)
BB bets $2.70, Hero calls $2.70

River: ($11.45) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $3.10 all in, Hero calls $3.10

Final Pot: $17.65
BB shows J J (a full house, Jacks full of Sevens)
Hero shows 7 7 (four of a kind, Sevens)
Hero wins $16.95
(Rake: $0.70)

Houston, we have a problem.

nienie23 — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:49:21 +0000

Yes we do. I think my little rocket is running out of gas. The road to the first bracelet will be a bit rougher then expected. Well, I never expected it to be easy. But I am sitting a those 25NL tables watching my bankroll melt. I lose 4 more buyins and I go back to 10NL. I keep putting the blame on those suck outs I had during the last two weeks but now, I better start finding a solution within myself. Maybe I let something go. Maybe with loosening up to isolate bad players, I became too loose, maybe I exagerate those implied odds to give me a reason to call. One thing for sure, there are a lot more 3betters at 25NL. I better start learning to deal with this and 3 bet myself. And if I donâ€™t find much, Iâ€™ll just sit thighter and play my cards as best as I can. One thing for sure, I let most of everything poker related out of the picture, reading, DC videos, hand reading practice. I have to put something in my head: if I want to be a professional poker player, I better start think like one and do my weekly homework. That too maybe at fault.

One thing that amaze me at the tables is those players who obviously learn to play poker on TV. That guy limped from UTG with J-3 offsuit. What a great hand. What could go wrong with this? So I raise my pocket Queens and of course UTG calls. HU pot. Flop comes: 4-5-7 rainbow and he shoves. Of course, heâ€™s on a draw and thatâ€™s what they do on TV, no? Here is a little something I use against bad players a this limit. Itâ€™s not a law nor it is 100% accurate. You have the same preflop scenario and the fish (OOP) check-raises you on the flop. You can let go of your beautiful overpair. Mr fish flopped a set, maybe 2 pairs. He knows he beats you and let you put some more money into that pot. If he shoves instead of check raising, he is not that strong but he has something and wants to take that pot away from you. In our little example, I thought he had a six, giving him a double ended straight draw, so I called. I could hardly believe he shoved with nothing more than a gutshot but he did â€˜cause thatâ€™s what they do on TV. And of course, he caught a 6 on the turn. There went another buyin.

Healthy mind in a healthy body? I talk about that in my last entry. For all of you fatsoes who are reading this (I use to include myself into this category), that should be a goal too. A few months ago, I was sitting in a bar and there was a mirror to my left. I glanced at myself and one thing came to mind: Jabba The Hut. Not a pretty picture. You want to lose one pound a week? Easy. Stop eating like the pig you look like and start eating like the human beeing you are. Want to lose 2 more pounds a week? I enrolled in a boxing gym. $40 a month. 90 minutes a day, 3 days a week will do the job. Every time I jump rope, I am thinking of those little girls in the school yard jumping, singing and laughing at the same time. I have a hard time jumping and breathing at the same time and I do not laugh. But it works and it feels great. Hope this will show in my poker mindset. I think it does.

Damn. This is 24 hours later after posting the entry. I watched â€œReal life micro no limit grinder episode 4â€ The first part is about what to do and what not to do when nothing works. I followed some advices like: play at a lower stakes until you get your confidence back. Well, at least the 2 buyins I lost were smaller than at 25NL. As far as the confidence is concern, weâ€™ll have to wait a bit more. After 30 minutes, I got hit 5 times by hands like these:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $10.00
BB: $9.85
UTG: $4.80
CO: $6.45
BTN: $19.80

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with A A
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.20) 6 4 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.90, UTG calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.00) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: ($3.00) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1, Hero calls $1

Final Pot: $5.00
Hero mucks A A
UTG shows K 3 (a straight, Deuce to Six)
UTG wins $4.80
(Rake: $0.20)

I swear to God, when I saw the deuce on the turn, I knew villain had a broadway and a 3 suited. So why did I call his river bet? â€˜Cause I could not beleive my thinking was right. After 5 hands like these, you just canâ€™t think straight. So much for the confidence. And in that half hour, this was my best hand:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $3.90
UTG: $3.70
CO: $20.40
Hero (BTN): $10.00
SB: $9.90

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with K A
UTG raises to $0.40, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, 3 folds

Final Pot: $0.95
Hero mucks K A
Hero wins $0.95
(Rake: $-0.00)

Well, Iâ€™ll do a session review to see if I made any mistakes. Then tomorrow, Iâ€™ll just go and try to play my cards as best as I can.

No Limit Holdâ€™Em and the Bullshit of life

nienie23 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:51:57 +0000

I was suppose to write something every week in that blog, even just a few sentences, just to keep track but in the last two weeks, I could not care less. I was bombarded by the bullshit of life; not much work, low salaries, bills right on time in the mailbox, checks never on time in the mailbox. I even had to cancel my trip to Cuba. That sucked. And then you sit in front of your computer and you play your best poker. One thing about Poker, it makes me forget about all that crap. But the period of two to three weeks I am talking about is the red circle on the graph. It shows that I was not at my best. So many B games. But I also believe thatâ€™s where poker players are made. On my last blog entry, I posted a hand where I flopped quads and villain hit his flush Ace high on the river. He lost it all. It was a fun hand but there is no merit in winning this. I could have sat my 15 years old daughter in my seat and Phil Ivey in villainâ€™s seat and sweetheart would have stacked the pro. Itâ€™s when things donâ€™t work well that a difference between the good players and the bad players is made. Thatâ€™s what Tommy Angelo calls â€œreciprocalityâ€. Although that red circle was a drag for two weeks, it was a victory. To me, reciprocality meant learning to quit. I played my shortest session ever: 36 minutes. Losing your patience? Why donâ€™t you quit. Anger building up? Quit. Quit before you B game turns into a C game.

Another thing that helped a lot were those coaching sessions. I learned to isolate weak players, making me win a little more chips here and there. I learned to steal blinds more often. I learned to recognize good flops to C bet, bad flops not to C bet. That way, I could win a little more money on my few winning hands and lose less on my losing hands. Add to this quitting on time and you get whatâ€™s in the red circle, which is better than what happened before, losing it all and ending up at the â€œzeroâ€ mark or even worse.

Enough with the red circle. Now, the blue square. The checks arrived, the bills were paid and the bankroll went up. Coincidence? What do the pros do when they have a bad week? Another thing I promised myself to do and I just did. In one of the first poker book I read, it talked about having the right mind set at the poker table. And to have the right mind set, what better thing than a healthy body. A healthy mind in a healty body. So with the return on my â€¦â€¦.Sigh!!!!!!â€¦.. plane ticket to Cuba, I bought a home gym and all I need to go jogging. And after two weeks, all I can say is: â€œwow, this is greatâ€. Itâ€™s still too soon to say if this has changed my game but every thing seems easier at the tables.

Beyond the blue square, it looks like a disaster in the making but itâ€™s not. I deposited enough money to have 30 buyins to play 25 NL. The line that looks like a crashing plane is just my first session at 25NL. Although I told myself I would just play my normal game, I was nervous even if most players were clearly bad players. I lost a bit more than 2 buyins. And after reviewing my session, I had to admit to myself that the quality of my play was mediocre. I even made three mistakes that cost me most of my loss. But no way was I going back to 10NL. I kicked myself in the butt and the next sessions were just fine.

A SAD RIVER FOLD*

Hand #1
Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $4.15
Hero (BTN): $12.65
SB: $11.40
BB: $6.35

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with 3 3
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.85) 9 7 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.60, BB calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.05) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.90, BB calls $0.90

River: ($3.85) 9 (2 players)
BB bets $2.90, Hero folds

Final Pot: $3.85
BB wins $3.70
(Rake: $0.15)
<

TIME TO QUIT
Hand #2
Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $12.40
BB: $2.40
UTG: $5.95
Hero (MP): $10.00
CO: $11.80
BTN: $11.15

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with A K
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.40, 3 folds, BB raises to $2.40 all in, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($4.85) K 3 7 (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

Turn: ($4.85) K (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

River: ($4.85) Q (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.85
BB shows Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Kings)
Hero shows A K (three of a kind, Kings)
BB wins $4.65
(Rake: $0.20)

VILLAIN ON A LUCKY DAY
Hand #3
Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $13.10
Hero (BB): $56.55
UTG: $38.90
CO: $28.55
BTN: $7.80

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with A K
3 folds, SB calls $0.15, Hero raises to $1.25, SB raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $47.75, SB calls $9.60 all in

Flop: ($26.20) 7 A T (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

Turn: ($26.20) 2 (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

River: ($26.20) K (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $26.20
SB shows K K (three of a kind, Kings)
Hero mucks A K
SB wins $24.90
(Rake: $1.30)

View all 3 hands

Still going up

nienie23 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:05:11 +0000

Up by 690BB, yeah!!!!! I had my best victory on saturday morningâ€™s session. Lost 25BB. So why a victory? After 20 minutes into the session, and thanks to â€œThe eightfold path to Poker enlightmentâ€, I realized I was in my C game. Isnâ€™t that great? You suck and you know you suck, so you still suck but you suck less just by knowing you suck. Saturday was my last day 2 tabling. So I immediately checked both â€œsitout next blindâ€. But after one hand, I unclicked. Lets reassess this. Losses so far: 30BB, big deal. two flops X-X-whatever and the guy I isoed had K-X, A-X. Tables: table 1, aggro to my left, letâ€™s get outta there, table 2, fine. Concentration: ups!!! not much, cuban coffee not doing its job. Letâ€™s play another 20 minutes and weâ€™ll see. 50BB down, big deal but I am really in my C game. Last orbit. Dealt a pair of red nines, flop comes all diamond, the turn, another diamond gives me 3rd flush and villain, a straight ace high with no diamond in his hand. Donâ€™t know why he bet the river. So yes, it was a victory. I got out in time.

Last session of the week was not that great but no disaster. 3 tabling for second time with a vpip of 23 on table 1, 26 on table 2 and 30 on table 3. That means that I ended up playing 3 tables at the same time a lot. I might have screwed up a few hands but I am keeping this review for tonightâ€™s coaching session.

Here is a memorable hand

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $11.20
SB: $9.90
BB: $6.25
UTG: $12.70
Hero (MP): $19.75
CO: $19.40

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with J J
UTG raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.50, 4 folds, UTG calls $1

Flop: ($3.15) 8 J J (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($3.15) Q (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1, UTG raises to $3, Hero calls $2

River: ($9.15) 9 (2 players)
UTG bets $4, Hero raises to $8, UTG raises to $8.20 all in, Hero calls $0.20

Final Pot: $25.55
UTG shows Q A (a flush, Ace high)
Hero shows J J (four of a kind, Jacks)
Hero wins $24.30
(Rake: $1.25)

Here is a scary hand. Kids, donâ€™t do this at home. I sure wonâ€™t do it again.
Villain had been 3betting almost every time I tried to iso a weak player, obviously aware of this. Time to teach him a lesson. lol because for some reason, I completely ommited the fact that he could have a hand.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdâ€™em â€“ 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $10.40
BB: $10.00
UTG: $8.25
Hero (CO): $10.00
BTN: $17.85

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with K Q
UTG calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.50, BTN raises to $1.50, 3 folds, Hero raises to $2.50, BTN raises to $3.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($7.25) Q 2 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $3.50, Hero raises to $6.50 all in, BTN calls $3

Turn: ($20.25) 6 (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

River: ($20.25) 7 (2 players â€“ 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $20.25
Hero shows K Q (a flush, King high)
BTN shows K K (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins $19.30
(Rake: $0.95)

Plans for this week: Finishing elements of poker, finally got it (why does a book need 2 weeks to travel from California to Montreal, Canada? Gas is expensive these days, may they went back to using horses). Finishing the video serie â€œCoaching treeâ€. And finally, I really need to do more â€œhand reading practiceâ€. 10 hands a week is really not enough.

Lift off, we have lift off

nienie23 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:14:06 +0000

This is what the past two weeks looked like: lift off. I first made a deposit of $230 on full tilt on september 2008 and reached $0 13 months later. Made a second deposit of $200 on Poker Stars (not full tilt, we all know itâ€™s rigged, lol, not) and said to myself:"This is my professional poker site, i.e. I will not play if tired, on tilt, not concentrating, etc. For every hour at the tables, there will be one hour of reading and learning. Before each session, I will have reviewed the previous one. Six weeks later, I got myself a coach. Thank God I did. Every dollar spent on him is an investment. On the first coaching session, he spotted three terrible leaks and we started working on them immediately with session reviews and videos from DC. I began feeling at home at the tables, my home. Even though I have a hard time with Math and Hand reading, I can now adapt to my opponents.

Three important things happened to me in the last two weeks. First, table and seat selection is everything. I have zero tolerance for a table I donâ€™t like. Fishes to my right, nits to my left. A maniac to my right and I wait for the right cards and clean him. A maniac to my left, Iâ€™ll just leave. I will also start playing heads up when I spot a player sitting alone at a table with a short or medium stack, making sure he is at my immediate right. For some reason, this scenario seems to attract more fishes.

Second thing is something my coach told me talking about some golfer and that golfer said:" Itâ€™s funny, the more I practice, the luckier I get". Now, I plan my studying. Every thing I do, I do it with a pen and paper. For the eight episodes of The eightfold path to poker enlightment, I must have 12 pages of notes. This lets the theory sink in faster. And when you plan a whole week of study in advance, you can cover different aspect of your play.

Third thing is from Tommy Angeloâ€™s serie. Last saturday, I planned to play a session in the morning, after a shower and with a good Cuban coffee. While in the shower, I thought to myself: â€œI had a great week, I better brace myself for the down swingâ€. Then Mr Angeloâ€™s views on this came to mind: â€œA streak is just a thought, itâ€™s in my head. When I am at the tables, there is no past (last weekâ€™s winning), there is no future (next weekâ€™s bad beat?). There is only the present, the current hand I am involved inâ€. And then, I took off.