Grinding up from the bottom

I have had exams the past few weeks and now have to write a 25,000 dissertation so I have not been playing a lot of poker. Played live for an hour or so and won 15bbs. I left because this really a aggressive (irl not poker) regular came to the table and I just couldn't be bothered with him snapping at everyone and everything that makes a sound. Played a little online and have won a little but nothing worth mentioning. Basically I can't be bothered right now with everything going on, I guess that shows I can balance life and poker well but really I was taking poker so seriously that I am burnout and am now glad to relax and take a break. My exams were way more chill than poker! If there is one thing that poker has really given me it is a complete immunity to stress and setbacks. It seems nothing phases me anymore.
I finish my dissertation on the 3rd on June and after that all have to do is sit around so I guess I might start playing poker again but right now I'm enjoying the holiday!

I have had exams the past few weeks and now have to write a 25,000 dissertation so I have not been playing a lot of poker. Played live for an hour or so and won 15bbs. I left because this really a aggressive (irl not poker) regular came to the table and I just couldn't be bothered with him snapping at everyone and everything that makes a sound. Played a little online and have won a little but nothing worth mentioning. Basically I can't be bothered right now with everything going on, I guess that shows I can balance life and poker well but really I was taking poker so seriously that I am burnout and am now glad to relax and take a break. My exams were way more chill than poker! If there is one thing that poker has really given me it is a complete immunity to stress and setbacks. It seems nothing phases me anymore.
I finish my dissertation on the 3rd on June and after that all have to do is sit around so I guess I might start playing poker again but right now I'm enjoying the holiday!

I have now banned myself online so now I play live for a few hours after I finish work for the day and everything is going good. I have been working my way through the 'Thin Red Grind' and the 'Thin Red Line' and they are both amazing series, seriously check those out. I have been finding a lot more spots where it is a profitable to bluff and its 100% due to those series. Stuff like when you check back the flop in a multiway and then someone donks the turn and you know that if they check the river they will fold 100% of the time (villain dependent). This stuff is especially useful in live cash because everyone plays so straight forward that its very easy to know exactly where they are at. 

So yesterday after my last post I grinded more Rush but was again trying to force winning which results in diaster and lost 3 buyins- no big deal but still no fun. I quit and went to the gym and then game back ready to take all my cash offline has I really have to revise for my exams in 1 month's time. As I am about to block myself on FTP. I look at my cash back bonus status and think to myself I should clear this before cashing out as its a very important part of my WR. Then I think to myself I am going to not play at all for at least a week so I get into working so one last big hurrah- I play a $3 donkament to see if I can bink a big score. I min cashed but whilst playing I noticed the sickest value tournament, the $20 rebuy $28k guarantee. I register and hit the ground running and was chip leader at like level 6 through level 10. Just stayed in near the top from then on and was super agro and came 4th for $2.3k profit! BOOM.

A few days ago I was playing live cash and I got talking to this intelligent recent graduate about poker. He tells me he plays 10NL Rush and says you can't get reads and it can't be beat. I asked him what his stats were and they were all standard but he says its impossible to win due the super high rake. I was just shocked that he though the reason he couldn't win was because the rake, obviously its higher than bigger stakes but everyone is so terrible it just seems crazy to me. Anyway whilst playing with him live i thought he pretty bad and suffered from FPS in a lot of spots like a lot of other 'thinking micros players'. 

The first episode of 'The Thin Red Grind' really exemplifies my thoughts on micro players. They just do goofy stuff sometimes. Mike Caro called it Loose Wiring in his book and its a concept that you really have to understand to win at micros and SSNL Live cash. I approach the every game thinking everyone who is playing is retarded until proven otherwise. I don't run massive bluffs or any shit like that, play it straight up and you will crush. If you come across a player who you know is good either avoid them like the plague or adjust. Playing live cash over the last year or so I have come across less then 10 players I respect, maybe less than 5.

I truly believe if you approach games where most players are recreational/bad regs you will see a lot more success then trying you out level everyone all the time. Not to mention its a lot less taxing. 

As for my results I cash out everything but $10 online because I had to work but have spun it up to $90 playing 5NL Rush and have also had 2 small winning live sessions. I'm still 10bi down from my highest point in live cash but I don't feel any rush to win any more right now so don't really care.

I am taking a break from studying today so I'm going to try and break $110 then take a 2bi shot at 10NL Rush.

For the past few days I have been absolutely obliterating the 25NL Rush Poker of FTP, unfortunately I have to stop playing seriously for the next few weeks because of school but hopefully I will play a little bit. Last Thursday I was discussing poker with a friend of mind who is a a complete poker degen. Though very clever  and very good at poker he can't break through because of massive tilt issues. We were trying to explain to a noob what it takes to be good at poker, we talked about hands ranges post flop and told him to stop calling 3bets OOP with 100% of hands and standard stuff then my friend said something which really resonated with me:
'You have to get inside people's heads and know exactly what hand ranges they have in every spot, one 22/20 can have a very different set of hands in a spot compared to another 22/20.'
at the time I didn't really think about it but then when I got home I opened up poker stove and actually looked at the top 20% of hands and I realized I have been playing way way too loose. the 20% of hands is basically just Broadway hands down to JT, no 79s or 78o! Since then I have basically completely stopped calling behind except with pocket pairs and JK+ and I have become much nittier in terms of starting hands in every position. This has allowed me to completely play more tables and has also stopped me getting into the super complicated spots I used to get into. though I 'knew it' before I did not put into practice that winning online is not playing super agro and running people over all the time but its grinding it out by playing optimally. 
Anyway so I have to write a few thousand words this week do some finance coursework then start revising for my exams in April so no poker! Banned myself from FTP and anything but Rush is too slow now so maybe now I will get some work done.

Well it has been a swingy month. I got a ton of school work to do and played a lot of live poker so I didn't play as many hands online as I had originally intended. The month started badly then I upswung like crazy and double my online roll to $500. Then last Friday after a long day at school, having not drunk or eaten anything up to that point and with a massive headache I decided to play some poker. I made a bad bluff at 10NL so I double it stakes, then lost and doubled again, then again and then again. I lost $280 in like 10 mins. After that, dejected due to my lack of control I got up and stopped playing. Since then I have been grinding back up and I finished with around $30 profit for the month :(

Looking forward I have my exams in 2 months and therefore will barely play in April. I am already on the leader board for the 'Challenge Durrrr' thing and am going to play those freerolls and hopefully luckbox something. 

Day nine, only +30 from starting due to downswing but feeling great. I have made a couple of adjustments that I think will mean that I destroy these games, the results aren't there yet by I have EV bucks up the ying yang. Where good play goes good results will follow. Probably won't be able to play to much for the next week but I'll hopefully get the hands in. 

Blog saver:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/0ff85dd3c8/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis

Because I can beat bigger games live I have felt rushed to grind up a roll online so I can play for decent money. This feeling has lead to be playing way too many hands at the same time, this has caused me to play badly and tilt and lose money. Therefore instead of rushing to reach a hand goal and certain bankroll quickly I am just going to take it as it comes. My new goal us to just play as well as I can and maximise my long term expectation as much as possible.Since adopting this approach I have been playing much better and have had a 6 buyin upswing in less than 2000 hands. The Eightfold Path  to Poker Enlightenment video series have definitely helped me to enter this better state of mind. 

It seems there is a pattern beginning to form. I lost ~$20 dollars online, but won £200 live. The thing about my live game is I feel like I know exactly what everyone is thinking because I can look at them and gauge what they are doing, also the more money at stake means I probably play better. I have been thinking about moving up online so the money means more to me but that is most likely a recipe for disaster. I am at school so I don't have access to my HEM but The big hands I lost were house over house, AK v KK and I think one other, I think I was running pretty very dry so I dont feel terrible about losing but I hope I can post some positive online results soon.