Stengalen on a freeroll towards PLO pro

Since my demise a week ago when I lost 13.5BI in one tilting crazy session I've been taking it easy on the poker front. Mostly due to work but also because I was a so disappointed with myself. I've only played 3518 hands winning $107.40 but aside from the small win I've played well and felt really good about my game. Short sessions with small wins, quitting immediately after a bad beat every time. I've ended the sessions regardless of how the beat was dealt or how I've felt about it just because I need to learn how to quit.

One of my goals was to play 50k hands of PLO 25 Zoom and move up to PLO 50 Zoom but that won't happen. My new goal is to finish the 50k hands and start over with at least another 50k hands before considering the move up to the next level. I'm in no hurry so no problems. I'm down $334.66 at PLO 25 (EV -$90.81) over 44947 hands. It sucks since the loss is all due to one session and of course running almost 10BI below EV sucks as well but that's to be expected. I'll post a graph once I've reached the 50k mark.

2 weeks to go before I can finally say goodbye to work and start the grind for real. And more importantly, I'll have time to study the game and hopefully improve in the process. I'm also thinking about playing on multiple sites and acting a bonus whore for a while. If anyone has any tips about good bonuses and/or rakeback deals the please let me know.

I was supposed to write a blog when I reached 40k hands but couldn't motivate myself to write the damn thing. I lost 20BI in 10k hands and unfortunately I can't blame bad luck. I played OK at the start but things just didn't turn out OK. Yesterday I woke up at 1 am and couldn't fall a sleep no matter how hard I tried so I sat down on the sofa with my laptop and started to play 4 tables of Zoom PLO 25. 6309 hands later I had lost $333.53. More than 13BI lost to a tilting, shitty session. I wish I could show the graph but for some reason I can't upload images to this blog post? You'll just have to use your imagination.

So my BR took a hit, my confidence was shattered and all hope was lost. Fortunately I'm not the type of person who rolls over and dies when things turn bad. What happened yesterday is in the past and I can't change it but I can learn from it. Firstly, I still have huge tilt problems. I thought those days were over but apparently not so at least I know I'll have to keep working on my mental game. Secondly, I'm not good enough to play on autopilot no matter how low the stakes are. When I play 4 tables I make too many mistakes since I don't think things through so I need to limit the amount of tables to max 3 and only ad the fourth when I'm on a roll. I've said this before but when on tilt I ad more tables and until I learn not to I'll be the fish with a hook up my ass.

I played a short session today and booked a nice win of $47.14 in 592 hands. I played really well and made a couple of really good laydowns in tough spots so all is well again at least until the next session.

For your enjoyment I'll end this post with the worst and most tilting hand from yesterday. I thought I had a straight flush and would have had it if the queen had been a diamond :) I was reeeeally tired and at that moment I couldn't understand why I lost the hand... Lesson number three don't play when I'm starting to see things that aren't there :)

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 1940365
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $25.00
SB: $47.20
Hero (BB): $25.00
UTG: $25.64
MP: $31.89
CO: $46.73

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with K 5 9 T
1 fold, MP calls $0.25, CO calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.85) Q J 4(3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets $0.81, Hero calls $0.81, MP calls $0.81

Turn: ($3.28) T(3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks

River: ($3.28) K(3 players)
Hero bets $3.13, MP calls $3.13, CO raises to $10.25, Hero raises to $23.94 all in, MP calls $20.81, CO calls $13.69

Final Pot: $75.10
Hero shows K 5 9 T (a straight, Nine to King)
MP shows 4 2 Q A (a straight, Ten to Ace)
CO shows A 6 Q J (a straight, Ten to Ace)
MP wins $36.55
CO wins $36.55
(Rake: $2.00)

Can I ever find the time to run really good? It feels like I'm destined to be a break even player which sucks but hey at least I'm not loosing money :) Have played a lot the last few days which feels good since I really haven't been able to play as much as I've wanted the last month. I'm actually OK with the results since there has been a lot of situations where I really couldn't find a fold like stacking of with top full house against quads twice. The graph isn't what I would like it to be but I guess I'm saving the good run for the bigger games. The results or lack of results isn't the biggest problem at  the moment it's the lack of time. I haven't improved at all and haven't had the time to study the game. I joined DC since I knew that I need to improve my game but can't find the time to look at videos or read the forums. This will change once this month is done so hopefully once I do have the time I'll also improve my game. The mental game is something I have improved a lot and since it was my biggest problem and the reason behind my little project I guess everything is moving in the right direction though I still am a fishy nit :)

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 1925952
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $41.87
SB: $77.67
BB: $25.00
UTG: $40.70
MP: $27.72
CO: $29.01

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with A 9 A 8
UTG raises to $0.85, MP calls $0.85, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.85, 1 fold, BB calls $0.60

Flop: ($3.50) T 3 6(4 players)
BB bets $2.50, UTG raises to $10.84, MP folds, Hero calls $10.84, BB folds

Turn: ($27.68) A(2 players)
UTG bets $16.70, Hero raises to $30.18 all in, UTG calls $12.31 all in

River: ($85.70) Q(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $85.70
Hero shows A 9 A 8 (three of a kind, Aces)
UTG shows K K 5 J (a straight, Ten to Ace)
UTG wins $83.70
(Rake: $2.00)

Haven't had the time to play as much lately due to work and other personal stuff but at last I've reached the 20k hands mark at PLO 25 Zoom. I had a rough time earlier at this level and wrote a couple of blog posts about that but since then things have picked up and I'm playing well even.

 4 BI below EV which is OK but would like to have some run good soon. The most important thing is to keep playing well and avoiding tilt and so far so good. One more month left at work so I'm not sure if I'll be able to play too often but will try to reach the 50k hands mark before the end of October. Then I'll have to make a decision regarding moving up or playing a bit more at PLO 25. The rake at PLO 10 was 9.1bb/100 compared to 7bb/100 at PLO 25 which makes a big difference in the long run especially since the games aren't harder to beat. The rake should be even smaller at PLO 50 but I need to be rolled for that and at the moment I'm not and won't be for a while. I was planning on depositing  more but I'll go to Mexico for a couple of weeks in December so I can't really afford to deposit too much at the moment.

I'll take my girlfriend to this place, Gran Bahia Principe Sian Ka'an. The Superior Penthouse Suit with a jacuzzi on on the balcony :) 

After that trip I probably need to start making some money at poker :)

From now on I'll post a graph for every 10k hands instead of posting randomly like I've done so far. This is my graph of the first 10k hands.

 I wrote a couple of posts about my downswing yesterday and probably did it to manage tilt in some extent but more likely I just had to let of steam and complain. I complained about variance which is kind of pathetic since I'm playing PLO!  In 3k hands I managed to lose almost 13BI and it wasn't variance alone I also played bad especially on the river calling of bets out of frustration even though I knew they made their draws. I've looked through my HH and I know what I'm doing wrong so now it's up to me to stop doing it. Maybe I'll get bluffed a few times more often but at these stakes there really isn't much bluffing on the river.

In the last 1k hands I managed to make a comeback and won almost 6BI playing really good and hopefully that will continue. I know I can beat this game but to do so I have to stay disciplined and stick to my game plan. One obvious thing that I'll never do again is to play 4 zoom tables at once. This is something I've only done when tilting and doing it makes everything worse. 3 tables seems to be the optimum amount so I'll stick to that and try to play 2 or even 1 table if things go bad. This is something I've said to myself on several occasions but tilting habits seem to be hard to change. I listened to a podcast with Tommy Angelo and Jared Tendler in which a poker pro and coach phoned in asking about how to help a student that couldn't stop doing the same stupid mistake over and over again. It's been the same thing for me. I know what I'm doing wrong but can't stop doing it which is frustrating as hell. So two things I have change is my call frequency on the river and the amount of tables I'm playing. We'll see if I can do this or maybe I'll prove the old Swedish saying  right. "You can't teach an old dog to sit" :)

Started  the day with really bad play and tilted so I tried to refocus. Came back and then everything went wrong. I've lost 7BI today but the annoying thing is that my graph shows that I should have lost 8BI. It didn't feel like I was playing that bad so I started to look through my losing hands and there aren't many plays that I regret. One hand I had 8 A K A raised pot and only a limper from UTG called. The flop was 7 Q K giving me nut flush draw to go with my aces and the king that paired. I bet, he called and the turn was K so after his check I bet again and called his small all-in. River was a 5 and he turned over his 7 Q 9 7. Can I really do anything differently? Of course he could have queens or a king and a queen but since he only called on the flop it seems unlikely and trips sevens wasn't something I was concerned about. I could check behind on the turn but that seems nitty as hell.

Still on the plus side since I moved up to PLO25 Zoom but only $21.44 in 8.360 hands. Rake paid so far is $144.13... It really would be nice with 50% rakeback but not possible on Pokerstars at the moment since I'm playing these micro tables. Hopefully everything goes according to plan so that I can move up to PLO 100 Zoom where the rake isn't as bad, even though it still is too high in my opinion.

Only 3BI but I played really bad in several big pots and it sucks since I knew I was tilting. Time to breathe... Just to show you how much I suck and how badly I play when tilted, enjoy!

PokerStars - $0.25 PL Hi (6 max) ZOOM - Omaha Hi - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Astrix1 (BTN): $22.58
Stengalen (SB): $25.10
Mongeygang87 (BB): $35.47
k3rsakov (UTG): $29.47
patelbsb (MP): $12.18
shewa07 (CO): $38.95

Stengalen posts SB $0.10, Mongeygang87 posts BB $0.25

Dealt to Stengalen:

k3rsakov raises to $0.70, fold, fold, Astrix1 calls $0.70, Stengalen calls $0.60, Mongeygang87 raises to $3.50, fold, Astrix1 calls $2.80, Stengalen calls $2.80

Flop ($11.20, 3 players):

Stengalen checks, Mongeygang87 bets $7.25, Astrix1 raises to $19.00, Stengalen raises to $21.60, fold, Astrix1 calls $0.08

Turn ($56.61, 2 players):

River ($56.61, 2 players):

Stengalen shows
(One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 55%, Flop 19%, Turn 15%)

Astrix1 shows
(Three of a Kind, Nines)
(Pre 45%, Flop 81%, Turn 85%)

Astrix1 wins $54.61

Haven't had the time to play much since I moved up to PLO 25 Zoom which sucks but when I do play I tend to play my A game almost all the time. I'm also running good and during my 4331 hands there has only been one pot where I got sucked out on really bad and that was against a half stack. I've made three big mistakes and on one of those I managed to win the hand anyway so running good.

 This run will come to an end at some point but for now I'll just pretend like I'll be able to continue to beat this game with 19.32bb/100 :) Hopefully I'll be able to put in some volume soon but it's hard since I still have my day job (until October 31st). BR is now at $1323.30 so if I don't start running really bad I won't deposit anything until I reach the next level of this challenge.

Of to bed, crush and run good!

Nice to run good when moving up the stakes. PLO 25 Zoom is more or less the same as PLO 10 Zoom if not a bit easier. Maybe I've just been lucky and found the fish in the right spots or maybe the fish like the deeper waters. I've played 2789 hand at PLO 25 Zoom, +$95.27 (13.66 bb/100) over this small sample.

Since I signed up here at DC I've watched a lot of videos and I have to say that this site is really good. The videos are really helping me in improving my game and even more, helping me with tilt and coping with downswings. I've listened to Tommy Angelo's videos on my iPhone while out running and even though some of the things he says might be a bit too much for me, his overall philosophy and approach to poker and life is interesting. Vanessa Selbst videos are really good as well and the one thing  I really took noticed of and implemented right away was to always think before taking action. I've been guilty of clicking the buttons without much thought for a while and maybe it worked back in 2006 but nowadays it's a certain path to going broke. Having a plan for every street and always knowing what to do if the villain chooses whatever action before acting myself is something I really try to do. Fishy thoughts, I know, but then again maybe I was/am a fish learning how to swim with the help of DC.

There are a lot of videos here at DC which is actually a problem in the sense that I don't know which one to see. I'd like to see them all but don't really have the time and don't know if they are all worth the time. Any suggestions?