Evolving Through the Pokerz

   Given that my volume was almost evenly split between October and November, I'm glad to see some improvement (although, getting in 15k hands in the last two days didn't really help me, but at least I didn't lose the volume prop bet!)

 I'm aiming for 10k next month (including coaching monies and rakeback/bonuses).  Wish me luck!! :D

  After October's good start, things kind of petered out, and I really found myself close to banging my head on the table trying to figure things out.  This month, I've looked at some of the things that were hurting my WR and I've gotten some coaching.  After having my database gone over, it didn't look like anything was glaringly bad, but there were definitely some small leaks and one huge one that certainly hurts.  Confidence.

  Sweating other players, I found myself making excellent reads and taking good lines (both as bluffs and for value) that I'd never have taken at the table because, frankly, I would just assume my thinking was wrong (breaking even for 50 hands still messes with me).  I was also playing a large % of my volume (at least 2/3 of it) during really crappy hours (thanks to my other gig).  Rush is a regfest between 11 and 2:30 EST, and the prime play hours (I'd say 9PM and on) I'd be too wiped from my day job to play.  Lately, I've been playing more at night (and definitely more on the weekends)  Here's my last 100k hands. 

 

 

   A good deal of this is variance, but I've also been sticking with the changes I decided to make in my game.  As a result, the game feels a bit easier (mainly because I'm playing fewer hands OOP and not going so batshit preflop).  

IThis is a mix of 100 and 200NL, most of which is 100)

   Overall, I have to say I'm pleased with how I played over the month, despite having less than stellar results.  I'm pretty sure this is my biggest in month so far in terms of volume, and I've done a lot to curb my tilt.  (I only had one incident where a mouse got smashed and that was after being 2-outered for the third time in a session).  I still have lots of work to do on my game (don't we all?) and on my tilt, so we'll see how things go.  Some targets I've set for myself for the month of October

a) Tighten up a bit more preflop out of position

b) Pick better spots for AK preflop

c) Work on balancing my river ranges, and pretty much all of my ranges when not playing as the aggressor.

   The score from the double deuce put me at about 3k overall for the month (which is still respectable, imo) but I'd obviously like to be performing better in cash games.  Talking with SoundedSimple and threads13 about variance has made me feel a bit better (I used to think 100k hands was a solid indicator of WR) so I'm excited about just playing as well as I can.

My roll is decent enough atm to take a few shots at 1/2, and so far, October is looking well.  If I can stay at a mix of 100 and 200 for the month, I'll be pleased.   

   While I started my online poker career playing tournies, I definitely consider myself more of a cash game player than a tournament player.  Every once in a while I'd use points to buy into a big tournament, or just play a 90-man out of boredom, and up until recently, my biggest tournament achievement was placing 43rd in a FTP double-deuce tournament (for those of you who haven't seen it, it's a 200k guaranteed tourney for $22 and usually has a pretty large field).  Last night, I made the final table in the Double Deuce (the field was around 9300) and took 9th place!  It was really exciting talking with the other players, laughing at shenanigans on the rail...and just lasting so long in a tournament!  The prize was pretty nice (2k) and it made this month feel pretty nice overall (especially since I've been running pretty crappily in cash game this month lol)

   

 

   In the spirit of trying to keep things current, I made some changes to my game (based mostly around my preflop and flop game) and results have seemed pretty good so far.  :)

 

Just a small brag doing okay at FR rush so far. 50k hands is a small sample, but still, it’ll be nice to put this up and look back on it later when I’m running terribad and am convinced I can’t win at poker. lol

As for my February targets, it looks (so far) like I’m going to fall short on both. I took a few days off to unwind and lately, I’ve been running into the top of everyone’s range. Still, I feel like I’m getting a bit better and some adjustments I’ve made to my preflop game have looked promising. I’m still tempted to shot-take every once in a while, but I’d definitely like to have 10k in my roll and some more coaching under my belt to start seriously playing 1/2. It might be overprep, but after spending as much time as I did bouncing around between 25NL and 200NL due to questionable bankroll management, I really don’t want to have to move down again. :)

I had my first tilty session in a while a few days ago and while I managed to cut it short, I still wound up donking off a couple of BIs. While it sucks, I feel like I’m getting better at being meta-cognitive while I’m playing poker. A new rule I have is that if I start cursing in my internal monologue, it’s time to close the tables down and take a break. One of the things I like about rush poker is that I can shut down/restart almost instantaneously instead of getting in line for waiting lists and playing dead hands till the BB comes around. As for my February goals, I’m behind pace on both accounts, but I’m doing my best to just take it one day at a time and not get stressed out. I’m reminded of Tommy Angelo’s comment about setting targets as opposed to setting goals (the jist is that missing a target is much less stressful than missing a goal and is easier to re-attempt). Again…the mantra…

Make the best decisions possible. EV will follow.

Full Tilt Poker $100.00 No Limit Hold’em – 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $56.50
SB: $75.90
BB: $79.00
UTG: $187.65
UTG+1: $198.55
Hero (UTG+2): $123.40
MP1: $415.35
MP2: $85.00
CO: $85.25

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG+2 with A K
2 folds, Hero raises to $3.50, 2 folds, CO calls $3.50, 2 folds, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($11.00) K 9 2 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6.00, CO calls $6, BB folds

Turn: ($23.00) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $12.00, Hero calls $12

River: ($47.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $24.00, CO calls $24

Final Pot: $95.00
Hero shows A K
CO mucks 6 6
Hero wins $92.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I thought this hand was really interesting and worth discussion. Playing 100NL rush poker with no reads, I feel like preflop and flop are pretty standard. The turn is a spot where I think we can barrel for value vs Kx, but I think everything else is folding. As such, I opt to check to elicit a bet from his worse hands that’d fold to a barrel and call villain’s bet. On the river, I think the standard play here is to check, but I really think that most of his bluffs give up at this point and if he does have something with SD value (a small PP or something like 56) our line might confuse him enough to call. Thoughts on the hand, any street imparticular, or bet-sizing are welcome!

As someone who isn’t playing poker full time, I relish any opportunity to up my hourly in any way that I can. I probably put in between 2-4 hours a day playing poker, and I really think that after four, I’d just crap out. Rush allows me to seriously up the number of hands I can play in an hour. I’m not sure if it has to do with minimized eye/mouse movement, but the thought of playing 16-tables of regular poker (which’d give me about the same hands/hr) seems incredibly daunting, yet 4-tabling rush is no sweat. Also, playing rush doesn’t give me the time to tilt…or overthink too many spots and that’s been really helpful.

Of course, in this new culture of looking up everyone’s results, it kinda sucks since rush hands aren’t tracked (yet). I try not to sweat things too much, but the fact of the matter is that my results on these sites isn’t stellar and there’s a significant part of my potential client base that will look at those results and deem me unfit by their standards. It upsets me a bit, but there’s nothing I can really do (except post occasional graphs and results here lol) and stressing out about results is one of the best ways to hurt my thought-process and overall winrate. I need to stay focused on making the best decisions. Results and money will follow. :D

RE