I'm back in school after a two year hiatus, doing a one year base course of natural science. It consists of math, biology, chemistry and physics. The goal is to study and become a biologist so I can push for a legalization of marijuana in Sweden. There's no one in the swedish media pushing for it and who better than a biologist, right?
It's sort of nice to really do something instead of just playing poker, being with friends, smoking weed and stuff like that whenever i want to. School itself isn't bad, but it makes everything that's not related to school ten times better, you need the sour to appreciate the sweet. The worst thing is that I haven't had any time to play poker so far, I could've made time but I've instead chosen to just relax or study on my free time instead playing poker and studying. A good choice imo since it makes my life alot better.
I've been trying some HU since don't have much time because of school, I've played like 2-3h. My opponents so far has been really bad and easy to exploit.. hopefully most players on nl50 hu are :D. I'm up about $20 but I haven't even played 500 hands.
Today was the first day in 2 weeks I played some 6max, my plan was to play nl100 but there weren't too many really juicy tables so i took a look at nl200 which had alot of juicy tables . I opened up a mix of nl100 and 200 tables which soon became 4 nl200 tables. The games were much softer than nl100 on weekdays, i ran good overall and was lucky with picking up TPGK hands vs. the right opponents, made some semi big bluffs which all worked and I was lucky with the flop textures on a lot of flops which enabled me to take down alot of pots with a cbet.
I did however lose the biggest pot I have ever played:
Submitted by : barbieman
Full Tilt Poker Game #14676028308: Table Candy (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:54:58 ET - 2009/09/13
Seat 1: gauchoBluffs ($539.10)
Seat 2: igi3 ($209.15)
Seat 3: fotbalfish ($241)
Seat 4: hh1982 ($234.60)
Seat 5: Schuss ($142.50)
Seat 6: Hero ($305.55)
Hero posts the small blind of $1
gauchoBluffs posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #5
Holecards Dealt to Hero
igi3 folds
fotbalfish folds
hh1982 folds
Schuss folds
Hero raises to $8
gauchoBluffs calls $6
FLOP (pot: $15)
Hero bets $10
gauchoBluffs raises to $28
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to $78
gauchoBluffs has 15 seconds left to act
gauchoBluffs raises to $531.10, and is all in
Hero calls $219.55, and is all in
gauchoBluffs shows
Hero shows
Uncalled bet of $233.55 returned to gauchoBluffs
Turn (Pot : $814.65)
River (Pot : $814.65)
gauchoBluffs shows a straight, Jack high
Hero shows a pair of Sixes
gauchoBluffs wins the pot ($608.10) with a straight, Jack high
Hero adds $200
Summary Total pot $611.10 | Rake $3
Board:
Seat 1: gauchoBluffs (big blind) showed and won ($608.10) with a straight, Jack high
Seat 2: igi3 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: fotbalfish didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: hh1982 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Schuss (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Hero (small blind) showed and lost with a pair of Sixes
He was playing 24/14/7 after 50 hands and had been playing really fast postflop, I thought he'd try to get it in on the flop with TPTK or any draw so I was pretty happy to get it in. My read on his range was right but unfortunately I didn't win this one. Still ended the day +300 after 600 hands so I'm still very happy with the result, and how i played.
This blog is mostly just for me to remind me wtf i was doing this month, my goals for the month, how it went and my goals for August.
July Goals:
1. [ ] 20k hands
2. [x] 1k profit including rakeback
3. [x] Move up to NL100
4. [ ] Run 15 times
5. [ ] Watch 8 CR Vids
1. 20k hands: My goal was to play at least 20k hands, I played 18k, which is kind of lazy. But I went on a four days cruise with my family with 6h stops in Riga and Visby. There was a nice buffet on the boat and you could drink as much wine and beer during the 2h buffet as you wanted. Which usually meant two glasses of white wine for me, just because they had so much sea food.
The average age on the boat was probably 45 but it was okay anyway, still had a good time going out drinking with my brother, his girlfriend and my sister every night.
2. $1k profit: I don't usually set monetary goals, but I wanted to set one this time, a low one that i'd make almost every time. As a confidence booster from last month when I broke-even and had the worst month in about a year. The month started off slow and I broke even for about the first 4k hands, the following 8k hands I won 10BI, then hit a downswing for 14BI in 3 days x.x
I ran bad, but also made some huge spews which is annoying and retarded. I should just be able to tell myself that losing is part of poker and that's that. I probably would have made about 5 more BI if I hadn't spewed this month. In cg I was break-even before yesterday but had a heater on the last day and made $500 in 1,1k hands. It's always nice to at least profit! Even though I ran below expectation this month I think I would've made twice as much if I just hadn't spewed. And making $1k in a month on cg isn't bad at all! I really need to work on not spewing, cuz I'm definitely not crushing NL100 and I need every $ I can get.
I made enough on rb and had some small tournament cashes to fulfill this month's goal of making $1k, but just barely, thank you 31th for letting me run good :D.
3. Move up to NL100: uhm.. done.
4. Run 15 times: I ran 10 times, which is still good, 15 times is sort of overkill. I've joined a soccer team which is tonnes better training than just running. The club has teams in the 8th, 7th and 5th division. Haven't played in a club for 10 years so I'm a bit rusty. But I've always had a talent for sports and might even play for their 5th divisions team at the end of the season (2 months). It's more likely that I won't though. If I don't get injured I will most likely be one of the starting eleven next season.
5. Watch 8 CR vids: Watched 5, atm I feel like it's more important for me to just play and get used to NL100 than watching videos. I mostly just watch videos after running bad to get back on track.
On a side note, I was accepted for my university course! it's a one year base course in natural science which hopefully leads to me getting a biologist degree. The course starts in the end of August, which means I won't be able to grind whenever I want to or as much.
August Goals:
[ ] 20k hands
[ ] Clear the $500 bonus on FTP
[ ] Go to every soccer practice
Why do i have to run bad every time i play NL100??? I've been trying to jump up from NL50 to NL100 for like 6months and every time i do, i run into a wall of shit. I'm beating NL50 for about 4.5ptbb over more than 100k hands....
I can't win any coin-flips and it feels like I get outdrawn every turn or river in big pots. My AK never hits the board. If I have KK and somebody calls me there's an A on the board or a c/f. AA never gets any action. 4 last times that I've had a flush a 4th flush-card comes on the river. I've made one call-down that i'm not satisfied with during this time, and it was retarded. I leveled myself into calling after running like shit. JJ on a 345K6-board, villain had flopped a set. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while, but this hand was an unnecessary loss, no reason behind the call. Sort of the retarded "omg i run so bad, look!"-kind of call.
This was the last big hand I lost last session and it will represent all the others
Submitted by : barbieman
Full Tilt Poker Game #12646345210: Table Cory (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:16:39 ET - 2009/06/06
Seat 1: nygreek72 ($117.05)
Seat 2: nortonious ($0), is sitting out
Seat 3: Broady25 ($63.25)
Seat 4: Hero ($112)
Seat 5: pokertruth ($110.85)
Seat 6: Noose 777 ($128.45)
Noose 777 posts the small blind of $0.50
nygreek72 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #5
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to Hero
Broady25 folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to $3
pokertruth raises to $10.50
Noose 777 calls $10
nygreek72 folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero calls $7.50
*** FLOP *** (pot: $30)
Noose 777 checks
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets $22
nortonious adds $20
nortonious has returned
pokertruth has 15 seconds left to act
pokertruth calls $22
Noose 777 folds
*** TURN *** (pot: $74)
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero checks
pokertruth has 15 seconds left to act
pokertruth bets $68
Hero raises to $79.50, and is all in
pokertruth calls $10.35, and is all in
Hero shows
pokertruth shows
Uncalled bet of $1.15 returned to Hero
River (Pot : $168.20)
Hero shows three of a kind, Queens
pokertruth shows a straight, King high
pokertruth wins the pot ($230.20) with a straight, King high
Hero adds $98.85
Summary Total pot $233.20 | Rake $3
Board:
Seat 1: nygreek72 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: nortonious is sitting out
Seat 3: Broady25 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Hero showed and lost with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 5: pokertruth (button) showed and won ($230.20) with a straight, King high
Seat 6: Noose 777 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Preflop: Pokertruth seemed to be an aggressive player who could be bluffing here, notorious was just some donkey who could've had any two. I viewed notorious money pretty much as free money, I thought about 4betting and just picking up the pot. I just called hoping for notorious to get a piece of the board since he'd prolly stack off if he did.
Flop: With such a drawy board I decided to donkbet, if pokertruth had a hand he'd c-bet with I thought he'd just push over me. If he folds he wouldn't have cbet in the first place and no free cards for AK or a random K/T. When he just calls I got a bit surprised and put him on KK-AA or JJ, Still didn't get why he just didn't push.
Turn: The hand should've been all-in on the flop so i'm a bit wtf, i probably should've pushed myself.
I know, I would've gone broke most times anyway. But this sucks. I know I beat NL100, there are too many players that sucks far more than I do, but I still can't manage do win on NL100, it's so fucking annoying and frustrating. I've spent 6 months rebuilding and over and over again and this shit just keeps a happening. Last couple days I haven't played my A-game since I'm losing every fuckin hand, but I still get it in good and would win if it wasn't for all the flips, setups and bad beats going against me.
End of whine, hopefully the rest of this weekend will treat me better. If it doesn't, I guess I'll take a break and go back to crushing NL50 which would be really boring.
Haven't played that many tournaments lately, but I had somewhat of a revelation on of how to play them, which catapulted my tournament playing skill. I'm only playing $5-20 tournaments so the fields aren't that hard. The last couple of times that I've had a playable stack deep in a tournament, I've just started taking down loads of pots, Building a stack. But lost an all-in close to the final table. Therefor I felt like a tournament win wasn't far away.
This time I won that important all-in just before the final table, a 2:3. Shortly after I had the fortune to pick up KK when another big stack had AK = aipf, after that i didn't look back and just owned the final table.
NL50 has been decent this month, started the month a bit slow by running bad and playing far from my A-game. About halfway through I started playing way better and hit a heater shortly after, making my results to sky-rocket and pump up my winrate to 3BB/100. (I have about a 100k sample as a 5BB/100 winner on NL50, I'd be surprised if that's my real winrate tho.) This is definitely my best month so far, looks like it's gonna be very close to a +$2K month. So I'm on pace for my 2009 goals;
Play 200k+ hands in 6max cash games
Make $10k profit
Beat NL100 (& NL200)
I have a couple secondary goals as well, I guess I'll work on them when I start running bad/ get fed up with 6-max nlhe;
Improve my tournament play
Start playing some FR cash
Learn PLO
I have some problem with my motivation right now, over the last 60k hands of NL50 I've been running about 5.60bb/100. Idk, but I think it's pretty decent. I feel like I'm in somewhat of a standstill of my progress, even though I'm winning steadily at NL50 and I feel confident that I can beat NL100 I just feel like I could progress so much faster. Therefor I'll try to play more hands, even though it gets really boring after a couple of days to put in 1k+ hands. Get a trial subscription at DC which will hopefully raise my bb/100 on NL50 and let me beat NL100 easier.
I've felt pretty frustrated with my NL100 shots, I've taken like 4 shots the past 2 months and I've ran like shit. I've lost all my flips and over the last 1k hands my showdown winnings has been 20%, I usually have 52-53%. I know it's part of variance put the negative variance has hit me the hardest at the worst time. Therefor I'm gonna do something that I haven't done enough of lately, study some poker in a more active way. I know I won't win if I run as as bad as I have on previous shots, but at least this way I'll have to depend less on running good. - Update in 10k hands.
I ran bad, This is the 4th shot in a row were i run like this. WTF?! It has taken like 2 months for me to build up my roll to take these shots and i always run so fucking bad, I don't know what to do, this sucks and my showdown winnings are 20% over the last 1k hands on NL100, I usually have 52-53%. All the other stats are the same. during the last 1k hands I've lost 6 BI. I've lost 6/6 flips for 100-200bbs during these 4 shots and run like crap overall, don't think i've won a buy-in so far. It'll take take a while for me to motivate myself to take another shot, this just sucks too much.
If you think I missplayed any of the hands plz comment.
. I opened up a mix of nl100 and 200 tables which soon became 4 nl200 tables. The games were much softer than nl100 on weekdays, i ran good overall and was lucky with picking up TPGK hands vs. the right opponents, made some semi big bluffs which all worked and I was lucky with the flop textures on a lot of flops which enabled me to take down alot of pots with a cbet.
