I'm a long-time lurker here and as i decided to take poker more seriously, i also took the decision to start a blog. I began poker 2 or 3 years ago with some friends, then discovered that i could play on the internet. I read my first article, i learned the basic odds and I was sure to be one the top player worldwide... From there, i spend some time into improving my SnG skills. I'm still a low BI player but i have a little more knowledge than 2 years ago (not so bad huh!).
I now want to switch to cash game. I'm beginning in NL10 to get used to the basics of the thing. I was wondering after how many hands will i get a good estimation of my play. (10k hands sounds good to get a first view?) I'll try to post some hands to improve and get your help.
A few hours into the night playing NL50 live everyone decides they want to play a $10 rebuy + 1 addon SNG. I'm already tilted after getting 1 outered AA vs A3 (someone showed the case 3) and "flipping" AKo vs JTo aipf, so I oblige. I've played SNG's before, and have a basic grasp of push/fold mode, stealing blinds, pounding short stacks, etc. But what is this? Suddenly, the people calling 6BB raises in our cash game with hands like 82s and whatever the fuck, have all become a bunch of tamed timid little monkies. Awww, im sorry, does the threat of busting out suddenly influence your decisions my pet? Are you short already by level 3 because you limp folded half your stack away and now even a basic preflop raise puts you to a decision for all your chips?
Wow, these fucknuts suddenly went from being the loosest donks in the history of poker to the tightest nits you've ever seen. And when they finally do decide to get it in, the 30/70 flip they're being offered holds and they bust. Or they're a favorite and lose to variance. I'm liking this. Thats the one thing I always did like about tourney's, letting donks knock each other out for you, and improving your EQ as a result of them dropping out. One less idiot to contend with.
I win the first one for $100 1st place, "fuck yea". I got it in bad a couple of times BvB, but with some sick luck outdrew my opponents. They played it terribly anyway. Flatting A6o in the BB, flopping TP, and waiting till the turn to stack off. GTFO. We play a few more that I bust from and then the game goes back to cash. BOOM, here come the suckouts. I get felted AQs vs 73s. I'm having a pretty hard time holding it together and not just lashing out at everyone, so he says (and I shit you not) "theres a method to the madness man. I was dealt this exact same hand my previous hand. 73dd twice in a row? I had to call" Just like fucking that. Naturally flop came 797 for him.
Soooooooo... maybe I'll stick my head in a few more low stakes SNG's. I always hated the concept of playing for an hour just to win $0, but I fucking love using my edge to just completely fuck up their ability to play, and letting other players do some of the work for me at the same time.
ah, can't resist the poker bugby requiem, September 29
brief background: after playing 100nl regularly last oct and running pretty well I took some poor shots at 200nl, and then fizzled trying to play 100plo. eventually I cashed out and did not play poker for a year. until now again, put $1K onto full tilt started with playing some NL25, NL25rush (wow this is new to me), PLO25 rush aggressively taking shots at NL50. finally broke through after failing the first 2 attempts and on a huge heater.
last 6 sessions:
been watching a ton of videos and reading a lot of books to build more knowledge. would be cool to have some people near these stakes to talk hands with, just because i feel bad for flooding the forum lol
U SOUND LIKE UR FROM LONDANE!by TimDawg, September 29
I leave for EPT London tommorrow. Planning on playing a bunch of side events and the main. I'm feeling pretty good about my game all the way around and hopefully I can get deep in some events this year. I'm going to be selling around 50% of action in all the events I play. If you're interested in buying %'s post here and send me a PM. I will try my best to make us all rich
Here's the tournaments I'm going to be playing with the amount of action available for purchase, along with a link to the tournament schedule:
Main Event Day 1B on Thursday, Sept 30th, 5000 + 250 (everythings british pounds remember)
60% up for sell Ket 40% mez 10% thehuhu3 1% adam001 9%
NLHE/PLO on October 1st, 1000 + 100
25% up for sell ket 10% thehuhu3 5% bigbob 5%
NLHE on October 2nd, 1500 + 100
50% up for sell thehuhu3 5% ket 35%
NLHE HU on October 3rd, 1000 + 100
25% up for sell thehuhu3 5% ket 20%
NLHE 6 Max on October 4th, 1000 + 100 bigbob 5% handbanana 5%
there is also a 2000 + 150 NLHE event on October 3rd that I might play instead of the HU event but i will more than likely play the HU event. I will try to update my blog asap and let investors know what is going on and which events I will be playing. Obv if you do buy a % and I don't end up playing in that event for whatever reason, I will just ship back.
Not much happened today. Got up at 11am, packed, left home ~12:30, got here around 1:30. Spent the next 2 hours getting set up and getting the run down on what needs to be done. I got about an hour and a half of poker in. Kind of shitty, but it's day1 I'm not too worried. Tomorrow will be better =]
Second: Downloaded this movie off of funfiles last night, pretty decent/entertaining. Kinda like Cloverfield, but much better cuz it didn't suck.
I'll give it 3.5/5 stars
This shit got me scared today, especially with my not so robust BR (all NL50) http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/7581/graphhi.png
The downswing is my morning session, upswing in the afternoon.
So I am playing in the afternoons exclusively from now on ;o
I found out that my peak performance is between 3-9pm, but there is also way more fish in the afternoon hours (mornings are almost reg only at NL50 Stars 100bb tables)
P.S. in case you haven't seen this trailer I have been posting in 'to be nuked' threads:
-This is the coolest most awesomest thing I have ever seen (Its Dead Leaves in English)
So now that I squandered my roll for NL200 im going back to NL50 live. Looking for advice on most optimal way to play again, as I'm still not sure I've really figured it out.
I used to approach the game playing like I would online. If I'm first to enter the pot, it better be with a raise. PP's/AT+/KJ+. Raise CO with 45s+. Raise button with Ax, Kxs sometimes, some semi-connectors etc etc. This seemed to be a recipe for mega fail. Too many callers, always OOP, no way to isolate and exploit.
My adjustments were to only raise AT+ and TT+. Everything else was a limp. I'd often limp utg with 78s and 88 for instance, other times I might just fold a suited connector. The idea being to see flops as cheaply as possible, hit, & get paid off. No need to balance my range. This seemed to work overall, although I'm not sure it really worked that well.
Biggest problem comes from the whole pot odds thing. For an NL50 game people are still routinely raising 6-8BB's preflop. Thats $3+ at an NL50 game. I assume they are just protecting their hands with somewhat premium holdings, but I see a lot of bullshit too. Is it really +EV for them to raise $4 with 77 in a 5way limped pot? Or $3 utg with QJs? I feel like I'm sorta priced out of calling with anything. Unless I can 3bet, I should just fold given the price.
Since I'm still a little tilted from last nights horrendous session, I think I need to start back with the basics. Remember this is live, so people are playing about half the deck. Any suited cards, any ace, any connectors, and any semi-connectors.
PokerStars Game #50298243335: Tournament #315664820, $55.00+$2.50 USD Holdem No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2010/09/28 11:52:47 AT [2010/09/28 10:52:47 ET]
Table 315664820 1 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: MonacoOrBust (1470 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (1530 in chips)
MonacoOrBust: posts small blind 10
Hero: posts big blind 20
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to Hero
MonacoOrBust: raises 20 to 40
Hero: raises 120 to 160
MonacoOrBust: raises 120 to 280
Hero: raises 1250 to 1530 and is all-in
MonacoOrBust: calls 1190 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (60) returned to Hero
Showdown Hero: shows (high card Ace)
MonacoOrBust: shows (a pair of Eights)
MonacoOrBust collected 2940 from pot
Summary Total pot 2940 | Rake 0
Board
Seat 1: MonacoOrBust (button) (small blind) showed and won (2940) with a pair of Eights
Seat 2: Hero (big blind) showed and lost with high card Ace
So I don't blog much but for 7 days starting tomorrow I'm going on a hardcore grind session so I thought I'd try blogging on a regular basis a shot. My dad is flying out to texas to visit his parents for their 50th anniversary so I'm heading up to his house to look after the chickens while he's gone (thank god the dogs are gone, I couldn't handle them for one night =[). But since there isn't much to do there I'm taking my comp and dedicating all my time to poker. A few nights will be set aside for drinking with old friends but other than that it's grind time.
I guess a short update on my life since my last blog should go here too. I accidentally got a job in April and had to stay at a place with no internet or cable for that time. It was really nice having set hours and doing actual work, reminded me how much I miss it. I definitely need to get back into the construction business. Anyway, that lasted until early june when I had to move back to our new house. Me and my roommates were working at the same place but someone had to go back and be at the new house and I was the only one who could make a living while being there so that was set. I actually did some work with my old land lord for a month, which was nice. Since then it's been back to poker.
I did fuck up pretty bad by not grinding while I had a job so when I came back it was still the nl25 grind which sucks but whatever, money is money. I was actually playing n150 the end of last month/this month but variance hit and cashouts means its back to nl25 for me. I feel I was playing well and running bad, but I have a ton of room to improve so it's all good. It was a huge confidence booster to win at nl50 and having a lot of stuff make sense to me when I know it wouldn't have in the past.
So that's pretty much where I am now. I'm heading up tomorrow afternoon and I'll try to update each night with graphs and maybe some hands.
Poker has improved massively since I got my coach. I'm playing and thinking soo much more clearly now. I've faltered only briefly, had a spell of run-bad, and I flirted with tilt a little bit. But after a good nights sleep, a bike ride and a coaching session, I cleared my head back up and got back on the grind.
I just took a nl100 shot and it went well! Not sure if I was supposed to without my coach present but :X. Either way, I'm really excited and I hope I don't have to drop down to nl50 again.
Anyway, here's the graph for the bit under 5 weeks since coaching began.
Almost all of it is nl50, and like 1.5k nl100 hands where I'm up 50bb overall.
Really feeling good though, and wow I understand why nl50 regs are terrible again.
Not much else has been going on in life. Just seeing friends and such. I've been struggling pretty bad with having a reasonable sleep schedule though.. between my own natural.. idk, lack of discipline, or just my own natural drive to never go to sleep until I feel exhausted, and video games + weed, its literally been a 50/50 on whether or not I'm awake at ANY hour of the day/night. Negatively effects my life to not have a normal bed time. Trying to make babysteps toward fixing this but we'll see.
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(a pair of Eights)
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