Moved house last weekend into a really sick sick house. But only problem is, it is taking Sky (get my TV/PHONE/INTERNET all through them as one package) their sweet fucking time to get it all set up. I got the satellite set up on saturday, and got TV, but it takes like 7-10 days to get the phone line activated and THEN i gotta wait another 7-10 days for the line to be actived for broadband. Seriously fucking sucks.
SO right now, I cannot play any online Poker. Depressing, because I was almost rolled for NL50, and was grinding at some nice 16 big blind/100 hands rate, for last 50k hands.
On Monday, I was down at the live tourney again, and fuck me, so annoyed. I was pretty much chip leader for the entire time untill about last 18 or so, then it all went pete tong. I lost every flip vs short stacks, and all of a sudden i was getting eaten up by the insane blinds. However i was getting a bit cocky versus short stacks. My own fault. I learned that just because I have a massive chip stack does not mean I should be bullying the short stacks in the blinds with shit hands (Q9o for example). On button vs short stacks I lost was AJ < KT. Then I had KQ, and made raise and he shoves all in(min re raise), and he has AK. FML. I really need to work on my late game in tournaments. I always seem to fail hard when it gets to the bubble. ANd oh yea, i busto out of tourney in bubble short stacked with AT vs KK on big blind. FML.
Apart from that, life is shit. My full time job, my hours have been cut from 39 to 22 hours. So not good. In a way its good for Poker, cuz I can grind even harder online, but other way is bad, cuz I dont think I could manage to maintain my lifestyle with 22 hours a week. I need to find a new job, and in the current economic climate, this is no easy thing.
Anyway, rant over. I sound like an emo fag atm.. Once I get my net up and running, I am hoping to get some stats etc up and review my online play.
GOod luck in the scoop MTTs fellow LPers. I wish I could be there too...
So at the start of March I said, that I wanted to beat NL10 and get Silver star. As of yesterday I completed both these goals.
After pissing around in Jan and lack of play in Feb, I had just over $200 (wasted so much $ on MTTs) at the start of the month.
I am grinding NL25 now (only up 3BI so far). I actually hit $500 last week, and jumped into NL25 a little hastely, loosing 4BIs, and dropping me back down to $400. So I went back to NL10, to prove to myself that I really can beat NL10, and in no time I was back up to $500. Reaching Silverstar was a nice bonus. People said I shouldn't aim for this, and should just play. Well yea, that is what I did. I just grinded al ot of hands, to get me to NL25, and was hoping I could reach Silverstar. in the process.
It feels good to beat goals. So now for new goals. I have played about 8,000 hands now at NL25, and it has been very swingy. I definitely need to work on playing my A game at NL25. I have noticed alot of things that are different from NL25 and NL10. Unlike NL10, where I rarely see min raisers, I have seen a TON of min raisers at NL25. These guys have stats like 50/2/30. Their min raise line is so obvious now. When guys like this min raise in early pos, it usually implies big hand like premium pocket pair. At first, when someone min raised and im holding AK, i was just laughing, and 3 betting up, and then they would come over the top with a huge raise, and im like wtf, calling, flopping my K on board, and they min raise the flop, and i get it in, and they turn over AA. So yea, I have seen this a few times. Ive lost some chips to these plays. So at first I was totally confused. But now I am starting to understand mindsets of some of these donk NL25 regs. There are other little things that are different, but I feeel I am starting to adapt to how NL25 plays. The good thing is, there are still a TON of fish that have not got a clue wtf they are doing.
So for now my goals are to beat NL25. I am keeping the strict no tourneys, as I seem to make more profit playing cash games. I feel tourney play is for another day. Only downside is, I have got alot on in real life coming up. I am moving house next weekend, I am prob going to have no internet for at least a week. Im dreading it lol. But it does give me some time to get lots of shit sorted that I keep putting off, because all I want to do is grind!
My long term goal for this summer, is to reach NL100. I do work in a FT job atm, but every moment I can get where I am in a fit frame of mind, I play as much as possible. This month so far, I have put in just over 24,000 hands (16,000 of them at NL10). Looking to put in alot more table time before I move house and can not get on internet! Ahh gonna suck. Hopefully will get it up and running asap
Some music that I have been listening to alot while grinding;
Busted out of a Live 60man tourney in 11th, missing the Final Table. FML
I must say, it is one of the shittest feelings going out in the bubble, but every player has to experience it. It does make you feel sick. But the reality is I probably should have not been in the situation I was to get busted. Here is the round up; I will try to keep this shorter, as previous Blogs seem to be too long for the most casual readers, and I really do not get much feedback
Full house tourney 60man. £60 buy in total incl addons. Pretty fast blinds of 20minutes. Played pretty solid. First few levels picked up trash. I have learned alot in past few weeks, that there is just no point trying to play "small ball" style poker early on in these live donkaments. People will call you with any face card, no matter what the kicker. So if you gonna play early on, be sure you got a decent Ace or a pocket pair. Picked up few standard hands first few levels, and made some chips etc. After first break I was over average. Pivotal hand was this. I had just won a couple of reasonable hands, and I now had double the average stack (was around 70k, average was bout 30k). I was feeling good after taking down a few hands, and i was dealt several good hands in a row. I picked up AJo UTG. Prob should have folded this, but I opted to raise it 3.5xbb (blinds 500/1000) Folded round to the small blind, who re raises to 10k This guy, likes to re raise from blinds alot, and not many times have we seen his hands. Stupidly I call. This was a big -EV mistake. AJo is a horrible calling hand here, right? I should have folded or shoved him (he had around 17k left after his raise). I of course miss the flop, and he shoves all in, forcing to me to fold and donate him 10k. This did annoy me. I knew after I called, it was a shit call.
Later on, I had A8clubs on button, and raises it up 4xbb. I didn't realise the big blind was short (my position at table made it difficult to see him) Mental note #2 - make sure u know who you are raising into when its getting late in tournament! He shoves an extra 3bb to go all in, and i have to call. He has ATo and I miss flop, and again donate to the short stacks.
Picked up 99 at the cut off. So the UTG guy, who had just moved from the other table, and had folded few hands, rasied it up 9k (1500/3000 blinds). I knew this guy from past few weeks, and he plays pretty solid. I was 90% convinced he had a strong Ace, AK or AQ by the way he thought about his bet and how he made the bet. (This is one of the things I love about live poker rather than online!) It folds to me. So I got about 45k left. I think quite hard about it. I run through the possibilities of what could happen. if I call here im left with 36k and he is first to act over me, and he has around 32k left. So high possibility he will shove on flop no matter what. If i get 1 or 2 face cards on flop, im fucked. If i shove all in, he is left with difficult call to force his whole stack in. I knew he wouldnt call wrecklessly here, but I also knew that I was ahead, and he prob would call and it would be a race. I decide, that I have to go for it, and push all in. He says "that was one hell of an acting job" lol. Thing was, I wasnt acting, I was just thinking, and running through all the possibilites through my head. He thinks looong and hard. Looking at his cards, sighing, counting his chips, looking at his cards again, thinking more, murming some words. I gotta say, my heart was racing and I was sweating, but was keeping cool. He asks "if i fold, will you show me?" and I say yes with lots of confidence, because right now, i was starting to wonder what he had, TT JJ?? i was getting worried, surely if he has AK, he gotta call? Anyway HE FOLDS, and shows AK. I feel smug inside as my first instinct was correct, and I show over 99. Alot of talk round the table about the hand, with the usual "i would have insta called with AK there" etc etc. I felt I made the right move here. and woulda been happy to go out there or double.
Ok fuck, im ranting bit too much here. Anyway to cut long story short, I wasnt picking up much and blinds were so steep. Had around 80k and blinds were at 5k/10k now, with 2 tables running, and a few places to the final table. Lots of trash, and if I did pick up a hand, I raelly just had to go all in, I was so short, that I cant play poker with my stack. Its all in or fold. Down to bubble time, and sigh everytime i was BB and SB, i was getting the worst cards. J4o, everyone folds to SB, who rasies it up. FML. Have to fold (got like 35k left now. Next hand im SB with 56hearts. Everyone folds, and for some strange reason I think this is best hand im gonna get. Bit wreckless considering the BB had big chips, he was bound to call. I forgot about mental note #2 here. I guess under the pressure of the bubble and being so low, I had to go for it. He called blind, and what did he have? KK. FML. rofl Busto in 11th.
I am gonna win one of these tourneys soon. I know it. Each week I am playing better and better and gaining more and more confidence.
Anyway, regard online poker this month, it has been amazing. I was basically back to my initial $200 on stars, and last week was really focused to grind hardcore on tuesday, after my exit in the live tourney night before (went out with AK vs AA). Over the course of Tuesday (which I was off work) and Friday I grinding just over 9000 hands;
Needless to say, I absolutely dominated NL10. I just found the secret to beating it. it felt so good to demolish NL10. I think the most imprtant factors were, playing a comfortable amount of tables on the SAME SCREEN. before I would have played 6 tables on TWO screens, but this is not as comfrtable, as you have to move your head around quite a bit, and it actually gets a little dis-orientating. Instead playing 6 tables on the one screen, is waay more comfortable for me. I also disabled chat, and wow I find myself way more focused. This is a big +EV move. You dont get distracted by all the moaners of the day.
So I have grinded at NL25 before, but tilted and lost alot on it before. But I know I can grind it. On Sunday I decided to start NL25 now, but I didnt run so good, running into some fish, that stacked off me with some shit beats;
I made some spewy calls when I should have folded. I am now on $401. Should I grind up NL10 again, or persevere with NL25? Think im gonna grind NL10, and maybe open 1 or 2 NL25 tables.
Thanks for reading if you have managed to last this long!
Once again, decided to hit the live tourney. Same format as before.
I have to say I was pretty happy with my play, and I made the right moves. Little disappointed I did not make the money, but I did go out with grace.
So heres the round up. There was 49 players this week. Start stack 4k, 2 rebuys (6k, then 8k you have to have less than 4k to rebuy. and after break, can addon for 8k each) So starts off with hardly any players arrived, and just was 3 players at my table for first couple hands. Not much happen, see a flop or 2, make a cbet, but catch nothing. Then the table fills up, and i sit back and see how it goes. So this week, my table was the complete opposite as last week (last week there was 5-7way pots..). Much tighter here, with rarely anyone getting a free flop. SOmeone was always raising, and most ppl folding, and 2-4 way flops.
I pick up trash all first hour and a half. Utter trash. I think i saw like 2 flops. I stole some blinds once, and won a flop with pair of Qs. All pretty small pots. Then I am sitting in BB, with 58o, 1 guy calls, and SB completes, and i check. Flop comes 5s Qd 8d. SB checks, and I bet potsize. Player 3 calls, and SB folds. River brings a Jc. So I am thinking hes calling with a medium Q, maybe QT, Q9. I bet 75% pot size. He calls after some thought. So I am thinking, he thinks im on a flush draw or air, and I am thinking he still has a Q, and doubt he has the flush draw. River comes Jd. And I am thinking, balls, gayness, fml. I check, and he thinks about it, then checks. Sure enough he shows Qs 7s, and he takes pot. I show my 2 pair that I was representing, and I loose bit of chips. River killer, but not much I can do there.
So that put me back to just over 4k, with the break coming up shortly. I couldnt rebuy as I was still above 4k. I make it to the break with 3.6k and use the 2 addons. After the break, sadly not much changes, and my run of trash cards continue. Pick up Jacks, and bet 6xBB UTG - everyone folds. Steal some more blinds with 77, and again with JJ few hands later (no one wants to play, as I really had been playing tight, not because I wanted too, but my hands were so bad, I couldnt even loosen up!)
Then the sickest hand of the night happens, which I am not in sadly. But holy shit, it was so sick. Very similar to a hand I went out with in a MTT online quite recently. It went 4 way to the flop, with no raising pre flop. Flop comes Ks Qh Th. SB checks, BB checks, player 3 moves all in, who was pretty short (Around 10-12bb), player 4 then announces all in, everyone out of the hand is thinking, wow sick.. then the SB then shoves all in, and we are all going WOW, sick, and THEEEEN, the BB shoves all in, and the table erupts, and everyone from the other tables come over. Just holy fuck 4 players all in on the flop. Pure sickness!
Players show the hands;
Player 3 - Jh 8h - Str8 flush draw
Player 4 - Ah 9h - Flush draw, but now the str8 flush is dead for player 3
SB - K Q no hearts - 2 pair
BB - A J no hearts - flopped the straight
The guy on BB, is shittin bricks, because he knows hes ahead, but there is SO many outs that kill him. both turn and river are blank for all players, and 2 players are busted, and one guy seriously crippled, with one guy winning a huuge pot. Sick shit!
I make it to the second break with average chip count. By now alot of players have busted out. The blinds are getting real steep now, and I dont really pick up any big hands, but manage to win the blinds each round, and hover around average chip count.
Now the blinds are 2000/4000. I am sitting in the SB, with around 35,000. it folds to the button who limp calls. To my left is the BB who only has 12k left. I have JQhearts. I know if I call, he will surely shove, and, then the button could come over top (who has about 55k). I think for a moment, and announce all in. BB calls, and the button folds. BB shows pocket Ts, and I just have overs. So was this a bad move here? Should I have just folded and got out of the way, or was my shove a correct play? I dont hit anything on the board, and this knocks me down to about 23k.
Next hand I get AJo on the button, and it is folded round to me, and I move all in. Blinds fold and i show that I have a hand. Then the next hand i have AKo. Once again its folded round to me, and i move all in again. This time the button calls (who just won nice amount of chips of me couple hands ago), and the blinds fold. So I am thinking, hes prob PP, and its a race. I ask, "pocket pair yea?", and he nodds with a smile. I say "so its a race", and he looks at me and says , "im afraid its no race", and slowly shows me AA. oh fuck, sick hand lol. Little bit cocky to slow roll me the show, but he had a hand. board is dry and im knocked out in 14th place.
So alot happens in the last few hands, how do you feel I played them here? I feel i made the right moves here, with these hands, considering how steep the blinds were and my stack size. With the bubble approaching soon, I felt I had to go for it. AK in that situation is insta shove right?
Anyway, was a good night, and I will be back for more...
Another early exit in a Live tourney. I really went out so stupidly, I was kicking myself. Anyway heres the round up;
So starts off, and my table is absolutley crazy loose. 5-7 way flops. So i sit tight, and play pretty tight. Pick up some pairs, and raise pre flop, and yea flops still manage to have 3-4 players in it. So I get the idea, that this is a BIG trapping table. No sense betting on flop, as there was ALWAYS someone betting on it. Particularly this one guy. Wow this guy was on some heater. Pretty much every hand he was in, and every hand he was showing, hitting every flop. meanwhile my 72o cards were keeping me out of trouble lol.
To my right, I seem to have a pretty decent regular. Stating that he had won the tournament last night. To my left, was a pretty solid player too. He was playing pretty tight, after stacking off someone early on with a straight flush.
I raise 4xbb preflop with AQo on button, and of course get 2 callers. Miss the flop, it was K53 or something. It checks round to me, and I cbet. One folds, and the guy to my right, pretty much insta shoves (who was getting quite low). I fold, even though I was cert he had air here. This bits crucial as to what happens later.
I make it to first break, and everyone uses any remaining add-ons (it was 2 rebuy/addon max). Just below average stack. Pick up KK and win that pot on the flop, which earned me some chips. I decide to loosen up a little, and pick up A9o UTG. Raise 3.5xbb, everyone folds round to the BB, who calls. Flop comes 4 7 5 rainbow. I cbet 1/2 pot, and he calls. Turn comes 9, and i fire out another 50% pot, and the guy INSTA shoves all in (pot is around 10k now, and he shoves around 12k in). The really fast all in just screams bullshit. So I ask him, "got 2 pair?" and he sorta looks confused and says "maybe". I then say, "you wanna check your cards to make sure?" and he looks utterly confused, saying "nah I know what I got". Anyway, I just get soul read and call his all in. And then he totally flips, "omfg how the fuck u call that? omg jessus". And he shows 62o rofl. He misses his str8 draw on river, and i pick up a big pot.
Now I get respect from players, and decide to keep up the pressure. Few hands later, I pick up A9 on the button. I raise 3xbb and big blind calls. Flop comes A T J (2 clubs, I have no clubs). Big blind checks. So whats my line here? I raise 3k (blinds are 500/1k atm). He counts out some chips and min raises to 6k. And this is where i totally loose it. What was I thinking. I re-raise to 15k (leaving me like 5k left). Just what the fuck was I doing? I though he was trying to push me out here. I should have flat called. But anyway, he then says "ah what the hell, im all in". Im thinking, FUCK? For some no brainer reason I think hes on a flush draw or he has JK/JQ. AFter putting so much into pot, and leaving me like 5 bbs, i stupidly call. He shows AT, and im truely fucked. The turn comes 9, and river is a miss. Now the interesting thing is, if i did flat call there, and the 9 shows on that turn, what am I doing now? I prob would have ended up putting alot of chips in and loosing anyway.
So what are your thoughts on how to play this flop in my position?
Well this annoyed me, as I had been playing well, and just stupidly dont think and rush the decision. Gonna stick to online for a month, and head back there in April.
Not played a great deal of poker this month, due to being very busy in my Real life. My job is quite stressful as its a tough climate to be in Sales. There's days I am waking up and going into working feeling physically sick. It cant be good. But I gotta grind away at this job. I sell/design mid to high end kitchens/bathrooms/bedrooms/offices. And with the current recession going on, its pretty grim. But its funny, my job is very much like Poker. I have a basic wage but its pretty basic, I make my money by earning commission. So when your selling, times are good, and you are getting a nice fat pay cheque every month, but when times are hard, times are hard. Its like Variance in Poker. Very up and down. So just have to think more outside the box to succeed in my job.
During Feb I had moved up to NL25, and had a downer of 8 BI's. Some horrid bad beats. So I am back on NL10. So my goals this month;
- Beat NL10 again
- Make Silverstar VIP
Going to a Live Poker tourney this Monday, but apart from this, I wont be playing any Tournaments this month.
Oh and an interesting thing was, that I met a "Poker pro". heh. A friend of a friends, met in bar, turns out he played pretty high stakes. He had been traveling for past year and is getting back into the scene again. Also turns out he was one of the players that was in the tourney when the Cavandish place was Raided by the police few years back (http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/2/northern-ireland-poker.htm) Interestingly, he is going on Monday. Not seen any proof of this, and didint get his online aka. Will have to find out. Maybe he will do some coaching if he is any good.
Oh and Ireland > England in Rugby yesterday. Fuck yeah Close game
Went down last night to the live tourney again , and got completely steam rolled. Depressing. Busted out in 40 something outa 50 something. Sucks.
Yeah, i felt i just got owned so hard. Thing is, i just got so much trash hands. To my left, I had this guy, who right from the get go was playing super aggressive, raising every pot. Annoying for me, because it kinda fucked my laggy play style, of coming into pots with marginal hands and winning on flop, because this guy would always call or reraise. It was pissing me off a bit early on, and I lost some chips. Should I just tighten up and wait for a decent hand? Well thats what I tried, but there were no decent hands coming. Just trash after trash. Any times I did try to get into a hand, I seemed to get no respect. Made a 3bb with QK raise from mid position, and got 4 callers fs. Then every flop I was coming into I was completely missing it. I tried some stabs at it, but there was always someone coming over the top. FML
Anyway, so I really need to work on my tournament play. I am so used to playing 6man cash tables. I need to work on playing fullring for this tourney. Perhaps do some more 2 table sit+gos.
On a positive note, i picked up a $125 bonus for the milestone hands. But I am sucking pretty hard on the cash tables atm. Bankroll from mid Janurary;
Maybe I need to loosen up even more. Hmmm
Oh and I discovered a sick workaround for PokerCoPilot so you dont need to buy it...
So I headed down to this card room near me last night for a tourney. Now I have played Poker with friends at mine and their houses before, but never at a casino/card room before. So I was a little nervous, but actually more excited. Here in Northern Ireland, Poker is a bit of a grey area when it comes to the law. I am sure some of you will have heard about the card room that got raided by the police a few years ago, and also the moving of the N.I poker championship down across the border, which was also called off due to police pressure. N.I has different laws than that of mainland UK, regarding gambling laws. THe main reason, is because of paramilitary groups, who could exploit it and use it as fronts to lauder money. But these times are mainly in the past, so i hope the laws changes soon. So as you can imagine playing poker Live in N.I is not easy. But I heard about this place on the net, and it does seem pretty legit. I dont know how it is legit, but it is a nice setup. Pretty much it mainly does Poker games, but has loads of slot machines and roulette, blackjack etc. It is a mini casino.
So anyway, the tourney was a £20 BI, with 2 rebuys. Start stack 4k, first rebuy if below 4k - 6k, and addon after first break, 8k. There were 45 entries, and first place was £900, with top 6 being paid. Not bad. I went with the mindset, to check the place out, enjoy myself and just see how it goes. I didint really want to use both my buy ins, and would be happy, if I go out early. So down to the players on my table. I think, our table was possibly the best table in the tourney. These guys were ALL talk, showing cards galore. Which was great for me lol. I just kept my mouth shut and never showed, if I took down a pot. I think it started to piss them off. I was playing relatively laggish early on, applying pressure, seeing where I stood. I got some pretty nice flops.
But then I made a BIG schoolboy error. Being my first time at a proper casino poker table, I was still learning how the betting worked. THe blinds were 150/300 I believe, and I was on the Button. I put in a 1k chip, and then said Raise. Where as i should have been saying raise then chip in. The reason is, that if you put a single chip in preflop, with no wording, then its taken as a call. News to me! lol The blinds just called/checked. I had like Q9suited, and flopped a straight, was checked to me and i bet 30% of pot, they both fold. This is where i made mistake, I showed my hand, and everyone was like "wtf Q9!? This kid is getting fkin raised now" lol. Maybe it was good, but i dunno. Another monster hand i picked up was this. Was UTG+1, had 44. Called, and it was folded round to SB, who had a good think about raising, then decided to just flat call, with BB checking. Board came 4s 6d 4d - sick flop lol. He bet bout 2k into the 6k pot, BB folded, i call. turn brought another diamond. He bets 3.7k now, and I raise to 7.8k, and then he shoves it all in, and i snap call him. He shows the K high flush, and I pick up a pretty sick pot lol.
So right now, I am sitting with around 70k chips, with average around 30k. I had been playing well, and bar one or two players at the table, they were all pretty shit. One guy had picked up KK 4 times at the table, showing EVERY time lol. He was so bad. He made a horrible call with 57o with a 3 5 9 board. Other guy had AA, and river brought another 5. He was bad, and was getting very lucky. Thankfully I bullied him with my stack and pushed him all in with AJsuited, vs his A6o, which took him out. Then I made a bad play, which made me start to play bad I think. I had picked up pocket 44 again, and the Button makes a small raise of 4.7k, (the blinds are 1/2k). I call from the BB. Now before the dealer shows the flop, he announces that he is allin blind. Flop is 7 9 9. His all in was around 24k, and I had about 60k. I REALLY should have folded here, but I honestly thought he was bullshitting. It was a bad read and a bad call, he turns over AA and I loose alot of chips.
After that hand, i just start getting utter trash hands, and blinds were going up pretty steep. I tried to make some plays, but completey missing the flop, and allthough trying to stab it, everytime ppl check/raising or coming over top with me. I was down to about 6-7 BBs, and now my only move was all in. Picked up AQ, mid position, and i shove it all in (at this point ive got 35k, and blinds are 3/6k), and i get a fast allin from a pretty big stack who had just moved from another table. He shows AK, and the board is dry, and i bust out in 12th place.
So I didint win anything, but I thought I played pretty well. I defintely was pissing off some of the players at the table, especially this one guy, who seriously would not shut the fuck up. He was yap yap yap yap, bla blablabla. Thank god for earphones!
A good night and good fun, and I will be definitely going back.
Think I def got leaks. I find myself making bad River calls too often.
So I have been playing some Sit+Gos, and been having moderate success. I have won 3 out of 6 9man sit+gos and finished 3rd in one and 4th in the other two. I also finished 4th in a 27man sit+go yesterday. Not all winning, but I definitely feel I seem to focus much better when playing sit+gos.
Been grinding away at NL10 for past week, when I am not working my FT Job.
Here are some stats. I am on a mac, so dont think its as fancy as the Poker tracker programs for PC...
Looking at my position stats, I seem to be leaking when in the blinds. Would this be because I am just flat calling/checking too much? Or am I actually being too defensive and betting on blinds and loosing on flop? If you look at my top hands lost for me, I have not played T6 once, and its my 3rd loosing hand lol. This could mean alot of folds on blinds? I honestly don't know
I feel a little annoyed that sometimes when I make good progress, then loose alot of chips on a hand with a strong preflop and flop, but only to get called by fish and to hit on the runner. Frustrating!
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