I dropped about 4 buyins yesterday through a combination of coolers and some bad play. Today was quite a different story. I ran well, I didn't get coolered, and I only fell victim to a couple of bad beats like 3 outers on the river after being all in. I did run KK into AA once, and never the opposite, but I did win a big pot with KK over QQ. I made many good laydowns (I think) and made some timely bluffs. I'm loving playing on UB again. I am 8 tabling there, which is a pain with all the HH windows, but I just drag them completely off the monitor and it works well. UB is SO much better than FTP because I get in a ton more hands in less time, and the pace of the action is just faster. Also I get 32% rakeback there, rather then 29% on FTP which is an added bonus. I'm not going to get any RB there until I clear the ultimate point bonus, but that's fine because I believe the % is actually higher than rakeback anyway. Also they are running a new year's promotion where if I accumulate enough points, they are just going to give me cash. I only need a few hundred more before they just give me like 50 bucks.
I played a bit tighter because I was 8 tabling and the action is a lot faster on UB, but people didn't seem to notice that I was playing fairly tight because I was 3betting my good hands preflop which makes me seem looser than I really am.
Here are today's stats:
Amount won: $361.10
PTBB/100: 14.08
MT ratio: 6.47
VP$P: 18.09
PFR%: 12.51
Man it feels good to book a nice win today.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Marathon Session (from before)
It's been awhile since I updated the blog. Finals are over, final projects are done, girlfriend is out of town.... this all means that it is prime time for poker. I got very excited about this and ended up playing a LOT in one night. I posted about it (with a graph) on the CR forums as well as the BBV forums on 2+2. Here is a link to the CR post
So I swung down 9 buyins and then won 9 buyins back in about 4 hours of play. Since that day things have turned around for me completely. I have been absolutely killing the games. I can't give complete stats because I'm on my laptop at home rather than my desktop at school where I usually play, but here are the stats from the last few days:
Total hands: 965
Amount won: $246.20
PTBB/100: 25.51
VP$P/PFR: 21.14/14.51 with total aggression factor of 2.50.
I have been playing extremely focused and I am running decently. I've been reading a lot of forums lately (and the comments from you guys on this blog) and I think it has really made a big difference. I have a postitive mindset and have been playing MENTALLY TOUGH (haha thanks for the tip). I always like to be able to say that I am at my all time high for poker winnings (which I can say 99.9% of the time) but I am still not there yet. I will be soon at this rate though.
If I had to pick one thing that has changed in my playstyle over the past week it is the ability to lay down hands. Since I was running bad (and playing bad a lot of the time) I always felt like people were trying to rob me and steal my pots. It made it impossible for me to make folds. I think I would subconciously feel like "well they can't have it everytime" and find myself calling down light and playing big pots with small hands. If I thought that there was a chance I had the best hand, I would call 2 or 3 bets with it rather than realizing that the risk was not worth the reward. People say that in order to be a good poker player you have to lay down the best hand sometimes, and I had forgotten that. Now I can fold top pair confidently. Confidence is an important concept. I had lost mine, but it feels really great to have it back.
Good luck at the tables guys, and happy holidays.
So I swung down 9 buyins and then won 9 buyins back in about 4 hours of play. Since that day things have turned around for me completely. I have been absolutely killing the games. I can't give complete stats because I'm on my laptop at home rather than my desktop at school where I usually play, but here are the stats from the last few days:
Total hands: 965
Amount won: $246.20
PTBB/100: 25.51
VP$P/PFR: 21.14/14.51 with total aggression factor of 2.50.
I have been playing extremely focused and I am running decently. I've been reading a lot of forums lately (and the comments from you guys on this blog) and I think it has really made a big difference. I have a postitive mindset and have been playing MENTALLY TOUGH (haha thanks for the tip). I always like to be able to say that I am at my all time high for poker winnings (which I can say 99.9% of the time) but I am still not there yet. I will be soon at this rate though.
If I had to pick one thing that has changed in my playstyle over the past week it is the ability to lay down hands. Since I was running bad (and playing bad a lot of the time) I always felt like people were trying to rob me and steal my pots. It made it impossible for me to make folds. I think I would subconciously feel like "well they can't have it everytime" and find myself calling down light and playing big pots with small hands. If I thought that there was a chance I had the best hand, I would call 2 or 3 bets with it rather than realizing that the risk was not worth the reward. People say that in order to be a good poker player you have to lay down the best hand sometimes, and I had forgotten that. Now I can fold top pair confidently. Confidence is an important concept. I had lost mine, but it feels really great to have it back.
Good luck at the tables guys, and happy holidays.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Overcoming the Beats
So since I've been running so bad, I think now is as good of time as any to go back and look through the big hands I've lost over the past week or so. Looking back on them, everytime I've been stacked except for twice I either got my money in as a favorite or in a coinflip situation. Oh well. I think things are starting to turn around. I played a few shorter sessions tonight. I think I might start doing this for a few days to make myself take breaks. I think when I put in sessions of several hours, I stop concentrating so hard.
I read an old blog of a 2+2er named Bruiser tonight. He said something that hit very close to home. When he was going through a pretty long downswing, he said something along the lines of "losing has changed the way he views winning." His point was that when he was losing, instead of trying to concentrate on the small pots, he would try to get them over as fast as possible to try to move onto the big pots. In the meantime he was just giving away money in all the small pots. Also, AA vs KK and hands like that end up being zero-sum in the longrun because you will have them setup against you as many times as they are setup for you, and that the difference between winning and losing is how we play the small pots.
Well tonight I tried harder to focus on the smaller pots and not let the beats get to me. I was tested VERY early in the session.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?665291
This is exactly how I've been running lately, and for the past week I have really let this get to me. I mean afterall it is extremely discouraging to lose buy-in after buy-in from hands like this, but oh well. Tonight I just moved on rather than semi-tilting. I ended up turning a profit at this table even after this brutal hand.
In 378 hands I ended up making a profit of $77.15 running at 20.41PTbb/100. VPIP/PFR numbers are 24.34/16.4. I am MUCH happier playing this style.
I read an old blog of a 2+2er named Bruiser tonight. He said something that hit very close to home. When he was going through a pretty long downswing, he said something along the lines of "losing has changed the way he views winning." His point was that when he was losing, instead of trying to concentrate on the small pots, he would try to get them over as fast as possible to try to move onto the big pots. In the meantime he was just giving away money in all the small pots. Also, AA vs KK and hands like that end up being zero-sum in the longrun because you will have them setup against you as many times as they are setup for you, and that the difference between winning and losing is how we play the small pots.
Well tonight I tried harder to focus on the smaller pots and not let the beats get to me. I was tested VERY early in the session.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?665291
This is exactly how I've been running lately, and for the past week I have really let this get to me. I mean afterall it is extremely discouraging to lose buy-in after buy-in from hands like this, but oh well. Tonight I just moved on rather than semi-tilting. I ended up turning a profit at this table even after this brutal hand.
In 378 hands I ended up making a profit of $77.15 running at 20.41PTbb/100. VPIP/PFR numbers are 24.34/16.4. I am MUCH happier playing this style.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Started Winning Again, and then....
I played another session last night and made a small profit of about 30 bucks. Played again this afternoon at Clara's and made about 60. I was playing good, feeling good, making good reads and good folds. I came home around 4 and played a session. I was continuing to play well and make good reads. I actually won a coinflip for a buyin against someone who overplayed his AK. Then I made the same mistake when my AK ran into KK on a Kxx flop. Then I started running like I have been for the past week again. Oh I should mention that I cut it down from 8 tables to 4 and I think that is best right now. FTP really hurts for 8 tabling because of so much overlap I can't see what's going on in the hands I'm not involved in which hurts my reading ability.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?664541
I was a little surprised to see the person turn over KQo. I'm pushing this flop all day long. It's a huge draw. I'm trying really hard not to be results oriented by taking a free card off here just because I'm running bad. The player berated me afterwards but I still think I made the right play.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?664531
This hand ended my session. This happened about 4 hands into a HU match. I had been very aggro the two other times I had the button by raising pre and then potting the flop. I figured I'd take the same line, hoping he had an ace. Well he did and I was very happy to see him turn over AQ. Then when the J came on the turn I knew I was dead. I actually closed my eyes and didn't see the river. I'm running so bad it's pathetic. People try to give away their money, and it's taking miracles for me not to take it from them.
Overall I'm down for the last session I played, but I'm up for the day. I think I'm up about 30 bucks, I don't have the exact numbers because the other session was on my laptop.
Stats for this afternoons session:
Hands: 492
Profit: -31.90
Rate: -6.48PTbb/100
VP$P/PFR: 21.34/16.26 <--- Much looser than I have been playing and I feel like this is a better style for me.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?664541
I was a little surprised to see the person turn over KQo. I'm pushing this flop all day long. It's a huge draw. I'm trying really hard not to be results oriented by taking a free card off here just because I'm running bad. The player berated me afterwards but I still think I made the right play.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?664531
This hand ended my session. This happened about 4 hands into a HU match. I had been very aggro the two other times I had the button by raising pre and then potting the flop. I figured I'd take the same line, hoping he had an ace. Well he did and I was very happy to see him turn over AQ. Then when the J came on the turn I knew I was dead. I actually closed my eyes and didn't see the river. I'm running so bad it's pathetic. People try to give away their money, and it's taking miracles for me not to take it from them.
Overall I'm down for the last session I played, but I'm up for the day. I think I'm up about 30 bucks, I don't have the exact numbers because the other session was on my laptop.
Stats for this afternoons session:
Hands: 492
Profit: -31.90
Rate: -6.48PTbb/100
VP$P/PFR: 21.34/16.26 <--- Much looser than I have been playing and I feel like this is a better style for me.
Quick Session
I played a pretty short session at Clara's. I started off the session making one of the worst calls I've ever made and losing a full buyin. I won't post the hand because it's that bad, but I was not in the right state of mind to be playing when I first started out. I settled down and played for about an hour, playing much, much better. Still took two beats, well one was more of a setup than a beat, but it was still a bit frustrating.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?662942
This is the setup hand. I called his reraise preflop because it was so small. It was barely over the minraise. When he immedately checked to me on the flop, I was tempted to bet with the nut flush draw but I was fairly certain he had hit that flop hard with AA, KK, or AK, so I elected to peel one off. The turn was my bingo card but I didn't want to raise here, I wanted to go for a raise on the river. I figured the river was a great card for me because at this point I thought he had AK. In my mind the only hand he could've had that beats me at this point is KK, which unfortunately is exactly what he had.
The other hand was just a 4 or 5 way pot where I held 66 on a 223 board and I got it all in with a shorter stack who had AQ for no pair and no draw. Q on river... gg.
With the exception of 1 hand, I felt like I played much better tonight.
Here are the stats:
325 hands $21.30 profit 6.52PTbb/100 20.0/12.92 VP$P/PFR
http://www.pokerhand.org/?662942
This is the setup hand. I called his reraise preflop because it was so small. It was barely over the minraise. When he immedately checked to me on the flop, I was tempted to bet with the nut flush draw but I was fairly certain he had hit that flop hard with AA, KK, or AK, so I elected to peel one off. The turn was my bingo card but I didn't want to raise here, I wanted to go for a raise on the river. I figured the river was a great card for me because at this point I thought he had AK. In my mind the only hand he could've had that beats me at this point is KK, which unfortunately is exactly what he had.
The other hand was just a 4 or 5 way pot where I held 66 on a 223 board and I got it all in with a shorter stack who had AQ for no pair and no draw. Q on river... gg.
With the exception of 1 hand, I felt like I played much better tonight.
Here are the stats:
325 hands $21.30 profit 6.52PTbb/100 20.0/12.92 VP$P/PFR
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Day 2 - Frustration Continues
I put in a 90 minute session this afternoon. Very simliar results to the past week. I misplayed a few hands and realized that I was starting to get pissed off at all the beats, so I just quit. I might put in another session later tonight.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661779
I definitely misplayed the turn in this hand. I should've at least made a 3x raise, if not just pushed on him. I definitely like a check
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661790
This hand is very frustrating right now. I've pushed a lot of combo draws and made several semi-bluffs and NONE of them are getting there. Of course this one does for him, and makes a straight flush just to rub it in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661794
Another example of me getting it all in as a big favorite. It sucks when you just know the 6 is coming and you aren't surprised at all when it hits.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661803
In this hand, Infinitus will raise with position a lot to take advantage of limpers. I've taken advantage of this information several times and 3bet him from the blinds. I feel that it is the right play here. The UTG limper happened to have AK and I didn't win a single race all day.
I think I will play another session later tonight. I've realized that I haven't been playing my best poker lately. I'm going to only play 4 tables and try to not let the beats discourage me and play my A game at all times. Clara is making me dinner tonight, so maybe I'll get a session in on my laptop over at her place.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661779
I definitely misplayed the turn in this hand. I should've at least made a 3x raise, if not just pushed on him. I definitely like a check
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661790
This hand is very frustrating right now. I've pushed a lot of combo draws and made several semi-bluffs and NONE of them are getting there. Of course this one does for him, and makes a straight flush just to rub it in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661794
Another example of me getting it all in as a big favorite. It sucks when you just know the 6 is coming and you aren't surprised at all when it hits.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?661803
In this hand, Infinitus will raise with position a lot to take advantage of limpers. I've taken advantage of this information several times and 3bet him from the blinds. I feel that it is the right play here. The UTG limper happened to have AK and I didn't win a single race all day.
I think I will play another session later tonight. I've realized that I haven't been playing my best poker lately. I'm going to only play 4 tables and try to not let the beats discourage me and play my A game at all times. Clara is making me dinner tonight, so maybe I'll get a session in on my laptop over at her place.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
First Post
Finished last major final project today. I was supposed to finish it last night and compile the paper for my group, but I got a bunch of text messages calling me a pussy for not going out. So I met up with all the other MBAs (after agreeing only to go out if they bought me several drinks) at Brother's. Long story short, no dinner 8 beers (all not paid for by me, 6 from friends and 2 from Miller Lite girls) and 2 tequila shots later and I am feeling pretty good. So I leave the bar with my girlfriend Clara, pick up a Gargantuan from Jimmy John's on the way home and pass out on the couch. Luckily I set my alarm for 6am and got up to finish my group's paper, which was due at noon. Everything went smoothly so I had plenty of time for poker this afternoon.
I sort of wish I didn't have any time because I ran like shit. I've been running really bad for the last week. I dropped about 5 buyins fairly quickly and then battled back to about even when I caught a frozen wave of suckouts and coolers. I ended up with the 3rd nut flush against the nut flush for a 200bb pot and that pretty much led to me ending the session and calling it a night. I'm pretty tired from drinking and getting up early so it's probably better off this way.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660455
Here is the cooler hand I spoke of that ended my session.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660464
Kings were very very bad to me today. I didn't even run into sets at all, just random crap like this hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660465
Another bad beat with kings
I could post about 10 more hands where I get it all in with a set against a flush draw and they hit. I would estimate that I've lost about $1000 worth of pots over the last 2 days when I got my money in really good.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660470
Statistically this is not the worst beat, but morally it was by far the most frustrating. Guy gets it all in on a rag flop with Q6 with no pair and no draw.
It's getting so bad lately that even if the guy has 2 outs and we get it all in on the turn, I'm sweating it.
I'm still managing to turn a small profit somehow over the past week. I'm up about 4 buyins over the last week. My bb/100 has really dropped off over this stretch, but I feel a huge heater coming on.
One last beat before I go....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660475
Cheers, and good luck at the tables!
Stats:
4,622 hands, VP$P 17.79, PFR 12.87, AF 3.05
-$244.25 -5.28 BB/100
I sort of wish I didn't have any time because I ran like shit. I've been running really bad for the last week. I dropped about 5 buyins fairly quickly and then battled back to about even when I caught a frozen wave of suckouts and coolers. I ended up with the 3rd nut flush against the nut flush for a 200bb pot and that pretty much led to me ending the session and calling it a night. I'm pretty tired from drinking and getting up early so it's probably better off this way.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660455
Here is the cooler hand I spoke of that ended my session.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660464
Kings were very very bad to me today. I didn't even run into sets at all, just random crap like this hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660465
Another bad beat with kings
I could post about 10 more hands where I get it all in with a set against a flush draw and they hit. I would estimate that I've lost about $1000 worth of pots over the last 2 days when I got my money in really good.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660470
Statistically this is not the worst beat, but morally it was by far the most frustrating. Guy gets it all in on a rag flop with Q6 with no pair and no draw.
It's getting so bad lately that even if the guy has 2 outs and we get it all in on the turn, I'm sweating it.
I'm still managing to turn a small profit somehow over the past week. I'm up about 4 buyins over the last week. My bb/100 has really dropped off over this stretch, but I feel a huge heater coming on.
One last beat before I go....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?660475
Cheers, and good luck at the tables!
Stats:
4,622 hands, VP$P 17.79, PFR 12.87, AF 3.05
-$244.25 -5.28 BB/100
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