Tom

Today I played the longest session of my life, and the results were attrocious. I started off like a roller coaster up and down highest peak was ~+2k lowest point was -5k or so finished the day -4k which is really bad considering my session was 6.7k hands.

I'm checking my pokertracker apparently I'm down 5k at 3/6NL over 2000 hands today and +1k at 2/4 over 4.5k hands... either way these results are attrocious. This is a really weird run I'm in... I keep getting these one outers where I get AK v AA and flop will come A72, nothing I can do about that.... I just gotta get stacked... I'm also finding that I'm losing KK v AA way too often, QQ v KK, overpair vs set. It's really weird, I have not been on such an attrocious run in a very long time. Last time was first week of may where I lost 20 buy ins playing 2/4NL full ring. I hope this will not intrude with my goal... but running bad is definatley less motivation to play.

Ironic thing is that I always over-roll any stake I play even though I almost never run bad, a bad run for me is losing 2-3 buy ins generally which is always less than 2% of my bankroll but now it seems like it was a good move doing this.

My original plan was to play 5/10 once I polish up my short handed ability and take stabs at 10/20. But it seems there will now be a change of plans because I never immagined so many setup flops and bad beats. It's almost funny, if I'm winning on a flop I'll get sucked out, but if I'm losing then it's one of those sitations where I have what appears to be the nuts but I'm drawing dead like AK v AA A76 flop etc..

I honestly am considering playing some full ring as I seem to almost never run that bad over there but I think things will work themselves out...



A LOT of hands today, I will not explain many of them as many of them are preety standard.


http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60889
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60697
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60700 *Setup I felt something fishy about his play, terrible play by him.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60708
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60710 **I was on a rush here so I decided to play Q6s, I actually almost broke even here because the ten 8 guy called
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60715
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60717
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60718 *Again, I hit the impossible card.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60726
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60727
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60732
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60741 *I have no idea what some of these people are thinking seriously wtf
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60763 **100% SETUP - I do not go broke here unless the queen comes, in fact I would probably check/call medium sized bet and fold to a big bet.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60775 *I guess I should have folded the turn... stupid play by me.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60778 *Again, WTF are they thinking
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60790 *Shit like this going on all day, you may notice I have a decent sized stack, but I ended up losing it.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60793 *One of the few hands I misplayed today.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60795 *Again, wtf is he thinking.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60796 *I do make the most of my good hands at least
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60797 *This hand really pissed the shit out of me, not because it's AA v KK, but because they teased me with the K on the turn. That really pissed me off, this is almost like an insult. So many setup boards and now this shit.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60805 *Amazing how I still maintain my composure after this shit
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60809 *This hand annoyed me too not because of the post flop play, but because people call $30 with a trash hand like A2s and hit monster flops like that, really was begining to annoy me.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60812 *Another setup flop... I actually felt he may have it on the turn but it was realativley cheap. What bothers me here is that he checks the river, wtf.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60813 *I actually won a hand...but of course I lose the main pot...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60814 *I thought I would try something differnt and smooth call a raise, and he hits his 2 outer... absolutley unreal...First time I attempt a different play and he hits a set...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60818 *Sigh 95-94% favorate on the flop is not enough.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60819 *This is bad beacuse the ace paired on the river and I could not put him on a flush because he was a loose-cannon, if the ace does not pair up I fold this...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60825 *Hey look I won a hand!
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60828 *Honestly, if you read the HH I cannot pinpoint how I lose money.. these people play so terrible I don't get it... Again wtf are some of these people thinking.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60834
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60841 *I cannot beleive he bluffed me out of a sidepot with a man all in... this is really bad play. I just assumed this is one of those spots where he cannot bluff.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60846 *Again they tease me, this is really annoying
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60858 *Have yet to win a coinflip
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60860 *A3, Honestly wtf is he thinking
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60862 *Such rigged flops, this is honestly unreal
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60865 *This one I actually could have gotten away from, but again its a very close call
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60866 *Unreal that he hits his 4, this is complete bullshit. I suppose I'm getting punished for not protecting my hand. 2nd time all night I try a differnt style of play and I get killed for it...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60872 *Sigh
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60874 *I suppose I should have folded the river, top 2 pair + flush draw is clearly not good
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60876 *Sigh, dumbo thinks his jacks are good and of course they are.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60878 *I guess he knew it was coming and value bet before hand because this is complete bullshit
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60884 *Honestly who the hell folds here, how many 1 outer flops can come in one day, unreal...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60885 *My play is deteriating here I suppose
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60886 *Funny part here is that somoene else in the hand folded ace-8, but apparently that does not stop him from hitting 2 pair
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60887
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60888 *Honestly wtf he calls with 4 high flush out of position and he thinks he can check raise me the river idiot
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/60889 *Unreal how this keeps hapening... unreal...

Thoughts:
I honestly don't know what to sa of my play today.. there were just so many setup flops I don't know if I could have played these hands differently, or if I should play them differnetley. For the time being I will play 2/4 untill everything balances out... then I will move back up to the stakes I should be playing. I hope this does stop, nothing more I can say.

Goal: (~6800 hands today) 93 200 more to go.

3 votes

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Day 2

Well I assumed eventually I will stop running bad and getting these rigged flops, but apparently it was just the beginning. Today's beats were almost worse than yesturdays because I often got my money in with the best of it and ended up getting sucked out to 2 outers. I played ~3400 hands today which is a solid number, I feel I could play a little more but I'm going to be downloading high stakes poker episode 11 so my connection will be used up. Started off my session good, won the first two all in pots, and then the string of bullshit happens again, amazingly enough I finished +$1200 today. If my hands held I could have easily been +3-4k but
I don't mind, I'll take what I can get I'm not a greedy guy.

I've also adjusted my style a little, this new change really helps me out a lot, I think it's something I should have stuck with (I used to do this but then I stopped). I am now raising less preflop, especially in position, so I get more action and I can control the size of the pot accordingly. Because pots grow exponentially lowering you'r opening bet by 1-2bb's really allows for better post-flop play. And this is where I feel I have my largest edge over most people. By playing big-bet poker the playing feild is neutralized and my edge becomes smaller. Because of this my varience today was extremley small, even though I took a ton of bad beats all in one long string I was never stuck more than 1 buy in from my original starting point.


Hand history's from today:


http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61139 *Funny I do a 4x pot bet and he honestly thinks his ace high flush is good Looking back at this, I susepct he would have probably called an all in bet. There are some people who will just never fold even when it's so obvious.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61181 *This is just 100% rigged
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61238 *Yay I have AA AA is only a preflop favorate when you'r not running bad
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61240 *Weird I felt he had the overset when he min check raised me, but I suspect he would play AA/KK the same way as well.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61248 *Standard
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61265 *I suppose this is my mistake, I should not have reraised the river... but this player is a complete donkey he would play AK, A9 etc.. the same way
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61266 *I was initially just trying to pickup the hand preflop, but I hit a dream flop and went with it. Kudos to pooruser on the good read, if he ended up winning with jack high this woulda been a sick hand.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61272 *Icing on the cake =)



Goal:

93 200 left - 3400 today = 89800 hands left to play

The goal is moving along smoothly. At this rate I will finish ahead of time, and more importantly I will have developed the discpline to play long sessions, completing this will really help me grow as a player this is something I have been lacking for a long time.


Also on another note, I'm extrmley proud of my play today, I find it amazing I finished in the (+) even with the number of suckouts I remember at one point I was thinking to myself, "geez here we go again" but I grinded it out and pulled together a preety solid session. I'm wondering maybe I can start maiking 3-5k a day once I get a break-even run of cards and maybe... just maybe even a good run of cards? We will see.

3 votes

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Did not play very much over the last two days, I've been buisy. But they will be included in the challenge. If anything they will make it more interesting Overall I've played ~1700 hands and I'm up ~ $3000 or so. So this weekend I'm going to have to hit the tables very hard, and hopefully get in 10k+ hands.

Also on another note this new style I'm playing is working out extremley well, it's a more passive/cautious approach but because I have such a big edge over most of these players when it comes to post-flop play there's no real reason for me to play big-bet poker. This concept was actually introduced to me when I was listening to Daniel Negraneau's video blog ( www.fullcontactpoker.com ), and his presentation in the World Poker Conference ( www.thepokerbay.org) He made a few really intesting points. "If you'r mother had to play Phil Ivey in a heads up match tomorrow, and she knows nothing about poker, how would you go about teaching her how to beat him? Answer is preety simple, just go all in every hand. Phil Ivey's monstereous post-flop skills are now completley meaningless and he is forced to race in order to win. Mom could probably end up winning ~30% of the time.

Since the last week or so I've been overly-aggresive (I found myself getting more aggresive with each session) I think I reached a climax where I was just racing for stacks which is not my style. Since I've calmed down my varience is now squeeky low and I'm playing poker again.

Todays session was short, I will save myself for the weekend where I plan on ripping it up. I played ~1550 hands total and finished +$2500 nothing special.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61609 *Tried to keep the other guy in the pot, had the guy with AQ not folded the turn, for sure I would have stacked him on the river not that I'm going to complain about the outcome anyway.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61611 *I'm in a mode now where I'm just taking flops. If he's raising with something like AJ or KJ I don't want to force him out preflop.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/61612
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62572
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62576 *His line didn't make sence checks twice then reraises, obviously I lucked out here. But had I not hit and he still leads on the river I probably pitch this hand.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62586 *Crazy straate
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62607 *I think I misplayed this hand. I should have definatley reopoed this one and isolated Zan who'm I have position on.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62616 *Can't win em all. He calls 3 bet on the flop with A6... that's just incredible...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62626


Goal:

89800 left - 1700 (last 3 days) = 88100 hands left to play

So far 5 days 12k hands, definatley not gonna cut it at this pace... gotta hit it up hard this weekend and make it up.

3 votes

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These are my 2/4 stats so far since this goal has began. Funny Radiohead msg'd me saying "Tom you'r tightening up you'r vpip is only 28 over the last few thousand hands" Funny guy.

Played ~3600 hands today really weird stuff. I think for the first time in a while I got a little bit tilted. This guy VaeSolis + a few other people kept reraisng me almost every single time I entered a pot. For a while I was just folding letting them have it, but they kept firing. So after a few hundred hands of this I think I got frustrated and I ended up going from ~+1$600 to -$1000, which is just a massive swing for 2/4. Of course I kept playing, I wanted to play through it and I did. I went from being -1000 to +2k by the end of the evening. But had I not gotten frustrated this could have easily been a 3-4k day.

It's a good learning experience though, because up to this point no one has ever challenged me yet. Everyone has been playing like a pushover, change is good. Not being able to adjust quickly enough cost me, but it wont again (hopefully).

Hands from today:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62957
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62967 *I never knew where I stood here, but he really overplayed his QK
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62981 *Terribly played QQ, he deserved to lose the way he played it :/
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62990 *I was 80% sure he had AK, really unfortunate hand. I like my play here though
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/62996 *Good read, bad result.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63010 *Again
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63022 *For whatever reason I felt this player was just stone cold bluffing. We had been bluffing back and fourth a lot winning pots with 3rd pair or even ace high. Only hand I was worried about was pocket tens, but I don't think he would limp in from the SB with TT, so I felt he was just making a play and insta-called this.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63023
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63029 *Rigged river... if the river is anthing else I can get away from that $120 bet, but I'm forced to call here.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63031 *I obviously could have gotten more value here, but this is an extremley tough spot.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63034 *Normally I push here, but I felt I had no fold equity. I'm getting better than 2:1 on every street, and I would have pitched the river had I not hit.


Goal:

88100 left - 3500 = 84600 hands left to play in 29 days

4 votes

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Okay so today I played ~4100 hands and finished +$4100, first 10+ buy in day in a long time. I made the money in bunches which is interesting but not unexpected seeing as this is how it generally goes for whatever reason. I made another adjustment to my betting strategy today, now I just randomly mix between 3-4x raises regardless of # of limpers I invite people to call and make mistakes. I say random but one thing I will almost never do is raise 3x on button wiht 3 limpers already in pot, in such extreme situations I'll make the 4 bet.

A lot of my money today was made through small-medium sized pots, I was just really solid value from just about every type of hand weather it was 2nd pair, top pair weak kicker it made no difference.

Hand histories from today: (today I seemed to play really aggresive post-flop because I found people were just not folding, so I decided to extract maximum value)



http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63347
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63350
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63352 *lol, I wonder if these people are surprised that they lost the pot, who knows =)
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63377 *I like my line here, only thing I should change I think is a larger flop bet, maybe 60-70%
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63379 *Maybe I should have check-called, I thought I had more fold equity here.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63380
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63394
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63399 *For whatever reason I put him on a straight draw Qx, I really thought X was A and not a pair. It didn't make sence for AJ, JK to play like this or even 2 pair.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63404 *He called 30bb ($120) preflop with KQ suited wow.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63409 *Big laydown for me, I almost never fold flushes. But I honestly did not feel good about this hand so I pitched it. I'd say this is ~50/50
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63422 *Table talk
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63425
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63427 *lol why does everyone auto-slowplay these hands it makes no sence.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63428
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63431
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63432 *Poor guy gotta go broke here.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63433 *Slowplaying works sometimes, this is one of them.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/63434 *I thought he had either flush draw or T9, obviously I play like a wuss when I'm out of position but on the river I was preety sure I was good.



Goal:

84600 left - 4100 = 81500 hands left to play in 28 days

3 votes

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I've really been doing too much poker-related stuff - playing, watching videos, reading etc... and I felt I needed a break just to clear my mind a little so the last few days I' just chilling. When I return I'll decide what to do.

3 votes

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Sure my results are decent but I have a feeling after one month of pure tournies I will have no more desire to play tournies anymore... I much perfer cashgames - I consider myself a cashgame player first and foremost. Even if I do bring in one big cash I don't see myself doing this longer than I have to.

I'm not giving up or anything like that... but I won't spend my whole day trying to grind these low-mid buy in tournies which have almost meaningless payouts ($2-3k for first place = dirt change) It's really difficult to come top 2-3 in a tourney but that's where the money is located, 6th outa 1300 is just a waste of time. So I will return to cashgames and only play higher buy-in tournies.

Iv'e worked very hard becoming a good cashgame player - Not to say I can't play both but I really do enjoy the cash more, the profit is more consistant and I feel I'm accomplishing something as I move up stakes, whereas I can play the biggest online tourney and loose QQ v TT and just sit there thinking "WTF", gotta wait for next week for another chance... If you play well the results will come with time, that's for certain. If I keep putting in my money with the best of it in these tournies eventually I should have a big score, but I doubt that big score will be much larger (if at all) than consistant grinding at the cashgames.

1 votes

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Well the past few days there's been a lot of stuff going in my house that has prevented me from playing eg. painting walls (the room smells like paint and I'd prob get high or something if I stay in there too long :/) so I was unable to play today and maybe tomorrow as well . I do not want to start slacking off however... once this is finished I plan on putting in some heavy hours.

1 votes

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I'm gonna spend a lot of time perfecting the new style I have chosen to play. Loose aggesive is a very difficult style because you must constantly play pots with marginal holdings. Ever since I've been playing loose aggresive (for whatever reason) I've been taking a ton of bad beats but I've been getting action with my good hands too which seems to make up for the bad beats.
Since my switch my new stats are:
31.71 VPIP
12.35 ptbb/10
22.26% PFRaise

+ I'm winning ~80% of the hands I play which is good. My showdown % is only 44% but I win a ton of uncontested pots. Today I played ~1550 hands +$2200. I will try to play a longer session tomorrow, hopefully 2000+ hands.

This new style is still somewhat incomplete I think, I need to play a few more sessions like this to see if I can maintain this. Althought as is, I thik I should be able to achieve this because it's not like I'm running well, I still loose set over set, overpair vs overpair etc... I am losing more pots than ever but I'm almost winning a lot more so on a break-even day where the cards don't slap me in the face I should be able to do very well. I hope

I also wanna give props to fumbo420 and xxthejokerxx for inspiring me to develop a new style. I'm not as crazy as Joker or as tight as Fumbo but somewhere in between. Even though you probably don't read this I gotta give credit where it is due.

1 votes

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Well I'm continuing to polish my style adding a few hands to my arsenal little by little and wow it's really working out well. I did make some absolutley terrible calls today that I currently regret. Sometimes you get this guy feeling your beat but you can't get yourself to fold and after you call he shows exactly what you thought he had and you'r sick to you'r stomach about it.. That happened today I had a bad feeling this tight player flopped top boat vs my trips and I just completley donked off my money...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46112


** I made a note earlier to trust my instincts and they were telling me to fold, but somehow I convinced myself he could have AA/KK which given the pre-flop action is completley impossible this is a terrible play because he would reraise with AA/KK I think I'm behind here 80% of the time if not more, terrible.

A couple of hands from today :
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46083
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46123
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46129
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46133 (I'm really proud of this one, I played it very well)
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/46140

Today I played 1371 hands 34% VPIP (9 handed) 23% PFR 13.49ptbb/100 +$2300 Preety decent stuff my win-rate is almost double what it used to be since I've changed my style... that's insane . I'm also going to make an effort to correct my sleeping patterns I'm going to bed very late and waking up 2-3pm, which is something I am not proud of, I will try and wkae up at least 10-11am, not right away, I will try to wake up a little earlier each day (maybe 15min) untill I eventually reach my desired goal.

Also I will try and make it so when you click on a link it takes you to the site, I'm not sure how to do this at the moment, but once I figure it out I will update it.

1 votes

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