Moving up in 2011

Well, after ~11,000 hands of 25NL, I'm finally back in the black. My play at 25NL has been marked by bad play and tilt. I dropped around $175 the other night, and by the end of the session was just open shoving every hand. I guess that's one negative about being so detached from the money. I definitely need to start quitting earlier in the session and just not playing if I feel like I'm not on my A game. Its pretty frustrating because I know I have a solid edge and I'm the one holding myself back. My A game has been pretty solid so far and I'm happy with my decision to try and move up through the limits again.

It's out there, get on your grind and get it

Welp. First day of 25NL went pretty poorly. In 2235 hands I lost $180, running $75 below AI-EV. Overall I'm pretty happy with my play, just lost a few unfortunate hands. The two most frustrating hands were these two where I got it in with 84% and 69% equity and managed to chop. Oh well, such is poker. Having played a lot of 100NL and a lots of shots at 200NL, plus the fact that I still have a sizable poker bankroll offline at the moment, having withdrawn for this challenge of moving back up, the money doesn't affect (effect?) me at all. Its still frustrating to lose, especially when I feel I have a sizable edge against my opponents.

When comparing 25NL to 10NL I don't think it plays very differently. Still plenty of fish around, still plenty of bad regulars. I didn't notice anymore pre-flop aggression than I saw at 10NL, but there were a few more regulars willing to play more hands post flop. They just seemed to call more in position in order to see flops, frequently calling my c-bets just to fold to further aggression. I never really had people playing back at me or adjusting to my aggression pre or post flop. If your a winner at 10NL I think you can play the same game and be a winner at 25NL as well.

One thing I did notice though is that many regulars didn't appear to be table selecting very much. So many regulars are regfish that I guess it doesn't really matter, but there were tons of tables with 6 17/15 nit grinders which kind of surprised me. I started a decent number of tables today and those seemed to fill up VERY quickly with fish. If your comfortable playing 10-25 hands of heads up (if your not watch some videos and become comfortable. It will help your 6max game, allow you to start tables, and play HU grudge matches) I would highly recommend starting tables. 

The two chops referenced above:

Hero (BTN): $42.19
SB: $30.52
BB: $27.40
CO: $39.33

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with T T
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, BB raises to $2.75, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($5.60) 9 7 6(2 players)
BB bets $3.73, Hero raises to $9.00, BB raises to $19.54, Hero raises to $30.08, BB calls $5.11 all in

Turn: ($54.90) 8(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($54.90) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $54.90
Hero shows T T (Ten High Straight)
BB shows 9 T (Ten High Straight)
Hero wins $21.02
BB wins $26.45
Hero wins $5.43
(Rake: $2.00)

Hero (SB): $27.46
BB: $29.03
CO: $86.96
BTN: $25.93

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with J J
CO raises to $0.70, BTN calls $0.70, Hero raises to $3.05, 2 folds, BTN raises to $10.10, Hero raises to $27.46 all in, BTN calls $15.83 all in

Flop: ($52.81) 3 Q 9(2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($52.81) T(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($52.81) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $52.81
Hero shows J J (Flush Queen High)
BTN shows T A (Flush Queen High)
Hero wins $1.53
Hero wins $23.88
BTN wins $25.40
(Rake: $2.00)

After ~30 hours and 20K hands I won $300 at 10NL.

I got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but that was quickly removed from my mind as I went on a nice 20BI heater. From there it was pretty smooth until I reached around $250. After reaching that point it seemed that every time I got within $10 of my $300 goal I would instantly drop 3-6 BI and had to grind it back. Tonight I finally got there.

I played 10NL for a long time back in '08 and some in '09, beating it for a good win rate. I was amazed at how many more regulars there were this time around, especially the nitty ones who just nut peddle all day. The rake at 10NL is also pretty ridiculous. Over 20K hands, I paid  $258 in rake.

Winrate:

Hourly:

Graph:

I'll try to update this blog more frequently as I work my way through 25NL.

Throughout most of of 2010 I was playing 50NL & 100NL, with some shots at 200NL thrown in. I was consistently winning and life was good. There were a few smallish downswings along the way, as well as some drunken gambling that didn't turn out well, but for the most part it was pretty smooth sailing.

However, come November I began to start losing, consistently. Every session was the same and I just got sick of it, resulting in my play becoming constantly worse. I ended the month down around $1,500. I took a few days off in December for finals and came back to it once I was home with lots of free time to grind. It started out better than November and I was able to win back most of what I had lost. Unfortunately, in the second half of the month I dropped ~$2,000 and was stuck for the month.

I took a step back and decided that I wasn't getting better at poker, but trying to use cruise control in order to get by. At one point I couldn't stand watching the results of my all-ins so I was cascading my tables, sometimes up to 18 at a time. Not paying attention, just clicking Call, Fold, or Raise as soon as another table popped up to the front.

I decided the solution to this was to give myself a challenge which would give me something to grind for, as well as proving to myself that I was still a winning player in today's games. In late December I withdrew everything except for $300. My plan was to start at 10NL and win 30 buy-ins at each limit (before rakeback) on my way back up to 100NL and hopefully beyond.  I'm going to use this blog to track my progress as I work my way back up the limits in 2011.