Week 4 Results

On-line I won $138.92 + rakeback of 59.68= 198.60 and live I won $345.

I had downswings in both formats, more so Live. There was a rich business man in town from San Fransisco so I played a couple of days of 3/5 NL. Of course I was card dead for most of those sessions and that created bigger losses. I even played 10 hrs one day to even out the bad luck but it wasn't enough.

The part that I am up beat about is how I turned it around. A few more things clicked in my head and I had 3 days of great results because of it. Its not new information but a new way for me to think about it.

I tried to win every hand that I entered. This could be devastating if the villain got lucky on me. I started to think about the bigger picture. Doyle Brunson has described poker as war, so I started to think of the hands as battles and the session as the war. This allowed me to give up on more hands.

I knew all the poker reasons to give up on a hand but I never truly accepted them as say "morally" correct. Its like leaving a wounded man behind in real war. You know you shouldn't risk the whole platoon to save 1 man, but you really want to. Your training tells you to pull back, re-group, and counter attack. You take on the enemy on your terms, not theirs.

Poker can be the same way. By leaving behind a few chips in a pot, you can wait for a better hand to stack them with. You keep yourself in the game by waiting until you are more confident about your hand.

I have also found that by folding those hands, it lulled my enemy into thinking I was weak tight. This would get me the extra action I needed to not only make up the previous loss but also make a profit.

My results are still preliminary do to the sample size so this next week will be a better test. If my result continue I will be confident I am on my way to poker riches. Just kidding. Any profit will be nice.

Tilt

This is not a story of me going on tilt but another player.

I was running good on Saturday and no matter what I played I seemed to win. They were small pots but people started to stay away from me. Then this hand happened.

It was folded to me in late position so I raised it to $6. This is a tiny raise in a live game but I only had A5o. The big blind was the only caller. The flop was 678 rainbow. Checked to me I bet $10, he called. The turn was a 10. I bet $15, he called. The river was the 9.

Both of us were talking during the whole hand and I didn't even realize there was a straight on the board. Thinking there was just four to the straight I didn't bet the river. I just disappointingly flipped over my hand and announce "I got the bottom end of the straight".

The other player winced and threw his hand on the table. Only one card turned face up and he reached out and turned it face down and mucked it. Just at that moment the guy to my left yells out "what are you doing" "Sorry" and turns away. As the dealer was pushing me the pot, I asked him what was going on. He points out that there was a straight on the board and the rest of the table and dealer confirm this.

I start laughing and assuring the other guy that I didn't realize and was just declaring my hand. He turned beat red and laughed a little too, but was very embarrassed.

The very next round we are heads up again, the same way as before, but this time I have 97o. The board is 59T rainbow. The betting is the same, check, bet, call. The turn is a J. He checks I bet and he acts real disgusted and fold his hand face up as he stands up, takes his chips, and mumbles something about being on tilt.

The table is stunned and we all look at him while he walks away. As the dealer is pushing me the pot, everyone is asking me if I could beat the two pair he flipped up. I said "no", laughing, "I guess he thought I made the straight".

Apparently the whole hand was DA Shae vie to him, and when the third straight card came out he just snapped. This is a new one for me. I had never seen tilt this bad before.

Week 3 Results

Week 3 was a heart breaker. I was humming along feeling confident so I jumped into a 3/5 game. I was card dead at the start so I just folded and picked up small pots to weather the blinds.

I finally got KK and raised to $25 in middle position. This wasn't enough because 4 people called. I c-bet on a 852 board and got called by one player. The turn was a 2 so I pushed with two pair. The river was an A and I was shown 55 for a boat. I should have known this player wouldn't have called the flop with less then a set but I fell in love with my KK. Two hands later I get top pair and am shown another boat. I pick up my last $26 and go home. This effectively wiped out my profit for the week. I played some more on Monday, and after loosing another $100 I went to Black Jack and lost another $60. So the week ended -107.00.

On line was much the same. -$25.60 Both were small losses. I have been working with my poker buddy plugging up my leaks so week 4 will be good. My latest leak is what killed me. Folding big pocket pairs.

Just like the live game, I get excited to see big pocket pairs and even though the board is uncoordinated, I push all in. I am shown a set most of the time. On line the villain usually gives me a clue by raising but I still do it. So this week I vow to fold. I figure if I can master this I will save $800 a week.

So back to the grind.

2nd Week Results

Results are 70% favorable.

I had a few good live sessions and was able to win $950, just short of my goal. I was at my goal but being tired late in a session proved costly.

On-line I fell apart. I was trying to apply some new concepts I learned and I didn't quite get them right. I lost a few large pots and was down -$339.25 before I knew it. This was softened by my rake back of $110.35 so the actual damage was only -$228.90.

The new concepts did help my live game and I have since re-read, thought, and listened to the concepts again. I believe I filled in some key gaps so I am optimistic about this week.

Overall my live game is the most important thing for obvious reasons so I am not devastated by my on-line results. In fact, I am that much more determined to figure it out.

1st Week Results

The first week was disappointing. On the internet I managed to make $75 and live I lost $94.

So I took a a day to figure out what I was doing wrong. After some research and help from a new poker buddy, I narrowed it down to passive play when I should have been aggressive and aggressive when I should have been passive.

The last post I did is an example of passive when I should have been aggressive. By not raising and betting I let a player get runner runner on me. Even if the same result happens, I know raising is correct and the villain is making that much bigger of a mistake. When he does miss, I will make back my money quicker.

I have been playing one pair hands to aggressively out of position. I always seem to be out of position in these hands. Last night I raised 99 in the SB to $15. I got 1 caller on a 8 high rainbow flop. The villain checked out of turn and then called my $20 bet on the flop. The turn was a 10. The villain just sat down so I gave him a generic range of Ax or a gut shot, which was possible. Now with $70 in the pot I bet $45. He confidently said raise, and put in a min raise of $90. I still thought Ax was possible and I was ahead but I thought about what the guy before was showing down in that seat and added JJ and QQ to his range. Villain did limp and then call my raise so a ragged two pair was also possible.

I ended up folding and even though he didn't show his cards, another player mentioned a small set, which I didn't even think of in my excitement of top pair. I folded because of the villains confidence. He checked out of turn, called a flop bet and min raised a turn bet, committing half his stack. It is rare in a casino at low limits for a player to do this without being confident about his hand. So it was with experience and slow realization that I had only one pair that I made the right decision.

My frustration with this hand is that I got to deep into it with only 99. I should have only bet $15 on the flop and $25 on the turn. Theses sizes would have saved me $15. That's not alot by its self but over just 6 hands that is $100. My poker buddy pointed out to me that I have to think about what they are calling with. If I have them beat they will just call or fold to the smaller bets and any value lost on those hands will be made up by keeping me out of situations like above or worse.

I got into another hand like this with AJs in a pot I raised to $15. I flopped an A but no flush draw. The flop was A, 10, 8 rainbow. The turn was a 7 and the river blanked out. I bet into 2 callers on the flop ($35) and turn ($50) which I don't think was to bad but I bet the river even though I didn't improve. Ak, Aq dominate me and AT, A8, and A7 have two pair. I bet the same amount ($50) on the river as the turn, planning to fold to a raise.

At the time I thought this was an aggressive river bet but maybe it is correct. I control the size of the bet, eliminate the possible over bet bluff, and get to see the show down in a $300 pot or more if I am called. Well I lost. One guy did have the str8 draw and folded but the other one had AT for two pair.

There is a happy ending for the night. I re bought $100 and won a decent size pot to get me back to $275+ of my $300 investment when I get QQ in the SB. To make a short story of it, the villain who beat me in the last pot calls and I flop a set and turn quads. I bet small so he will raise and he does on the turn. I push all in over the top and he calls doubling me up. For quads I get a $100 bonus and it is the high hand for this 4 hour cycle. I left at 1am, an hour before the end of the cycle, but I am sure I will get another $100 today. So the house is increasing the pot by 2/3 for a $500 net. This one hand made my night and I only gave back $20 before leaving.

So, barring a bad beat, I made $478 in 5 hrs. Great start to the week.

Part 2 Hands

It is a 1/2 NL game at the Eldorado in Reno. It is Friday night, so there is a mix of players from total fish to players that know they have a good hand and are aware of what beats them. It is hard to describe them. Their goal is to see as many flops as cheaply as they can with any two cards. They can hit nothing to a monster and play so you would never know what they have. This means raising all in with 6 high to checking a full house because they think you might have quads the way you were calling.

The first hand is against a player that is aware of the cards, people, and betting. He is by no means good just one of the better players at the table. We have 200 effective stacks and I am UTG with 67s in spades.

I get a little fancy and raise to 12. 3 people call so there are 4 of us to the flop of Qs, Js, 5s. I flop a 7 high flush and bet out 20 into the $48 pot. The next player min raises to 40 and I call. The turn is the 2s I check, he bets 80, and I fold.

I raised preflop to thin the field, get money in the pot, and disguise my hand. I expected this many callers and alot of times a simple C-bet will take it down on the flop. The flop was good and bad for my hand. I only bet 20 because anyone with a spade will call correctly, so I wanted to thin the field more and build the pot for an all-in push on the turn with any non spade card.

The min raise from the player to my immediate left surprised me. Everybody else folded and it was back to me. I put him on any decent spade, straight draw, set, or two pair. I thought about pushing but decided was just to scared of a higher flush. I was trying hard to reduce variance. Thinking he put me on a just a C-bet or a flush draw, I called, planning to check raise the turn were I would be a huge favorite.

I have more hands like this that all come down to being scared to loose the money. It took me 3 times before I realized what I was doing. There is some credit to my thinking and some of my folds were/will be correct but I still think I am playing scared.

Last night I flopped a straight with a 10 high flush draw. It was obvious the better had the A but I just called because the highly volatile big stack was also in the hand. He loved to check raise you all in and was catching everything. The board paired on the river and the big stack check raised big. I knew he had trips but did he have the boat. I decided to call and yes he had it.

It is hard to know if he would have folded but I should have raised the flop and turn. I was a huge favorite but he got runner, runner. I am more frustrated with myself for playing scared then loosing the hand. I didn't give myself every chance to win the pot that I should have.

The company I worked for went out of business so while collecting unemployment I am following my dreams. I have some money saved up but not nearly what I should have to play poker. This is why I am playing the way I do. I know it will take longer but even with tight scared folds I should be able to beat the games more then I am. It isn't much, but if I had folded to the check raise last night I would have been a small winner instead of a small looser.

Goals and Problems Live

This turned into a long entry so broke it into two parts. Background in part 1 and hands in part 2.

I have a reader, Tilt. I checked out your blog and noticed you have been following me for a little while. Not sure how long but I wasn't the last one listed on your site. I think I added you to my list but don't know if it took.

I noticed the other blogs you follow haven't been kept up so I will try to keep mine current so you have something to read. So you can keep my ramblings in perspective, I play 50nl on the internet and 1/2, 2/3, and 3/5 NL live, mostly In Reno, NV and sometimes at Lake Tahoe. My goals are to beat these games regularly to build a bankroll and move up. I use the money I make live to pay some bills so it takes a lot longer to build a roll. Online, I have been mostly a small loosing player, kept alive by rakeback, moving to break even the last couple of months, and this month making money. How much remains to be seen. My end goal online is shooting for the nosebleeds but in the mean time I have short term goals.

I see online as the real money maker and "live" as a social gathering. My first step is to build my bankroll, then be able to cash out enough for some bills, increase my live bankroll, and finnally buy or do things l want to do. I belive I can do the fist two at 50nl. Doing both at the same time will be slow at the start but neccesary do to financial constraints. Once I move up to 100nl I should be able to move to goal 3 and 4 every now and then. A trip to Vegas would be nice and hopefully profitable. I don't know how long this will take because I want to be overly bankrolled before I take the next step. This will give me security from going broke, because even at low limits, multi-tabling takes up alot of money.

Another night another loss at the live tables. I could blame it on bad luck, and there was, but I over reacted and lost more than I should have. I think this is due to the difference between the styles of "Live" vs "Online". I play very tight online but I am a LAG at the Casinos.

I belive this comes from the slow pace, percieved skill of the players, and the macho ego of winning big pots and having a big chip stack. Obviously you see far less hands playing 1 table instead of 8 and then it is 3 times slower. Although last night I lost with premium hands, AKs, AQo, QQ, and 67s. Ok, the 67s is not a premium hand and the AQo is pushing the definition.

The slow pace makes marginal hands look good after an hour but I think the other two play a bigger role. Honestly the players suck. 7-9 players limp in every hand and if there is a raise they all call because they have money out there already. My favorite is they are getting the odds to call. This may be true for player 9, but does 72o ever get enough odds to play? So thinking I can out play them post flop, I limp or call with a very wide range.

Now my ego comes into play. I flop a hand and want to narrow the field while building a pot. I bet and half call. On the turn there is a draw so I give them 2-1 odds and they call. Now the draw gets there on the river and they bet into me or check raise me. I know this sounds like crying but are these big swings the nature of live play? The fact that they call makes it a big variance game and because of my small bankroll I have trouble taking the hits? This my be true, but what can I do to reduce the variance?

I came up with two solutions. Play passively and just check and call until I have the nuts, or play overly aggressively. Bet the crap out of the hands and don't worry about over betting because they will still call. I am leaning towards the aggressive play although it can also increase variance. I just don't want to play one way on the internet and then another live. Besides, I would loose out on alot of profits because I didn't bet.

I tried to apply my new strategy last night but I don't think I let go of the passive, low variance idea totally. In short, I bet to little preflop and on the flop so when I did bet big on the turn and river it was to late. This brings me to hand 1. Continued in part 2

Off to a Rocky Start

As usual when ever you try to do your best you don't. Put some bad luck on that and you have a down swing. I am not making this up. Poker Tracker has the stats to prove it. It doesn't account for everything but I am running below expectations by 5 buy ins at least.

Any way, I put in a monster session today and am now winning. It also helped work out some leaks in my game which is always a plus. This will also carry over to my live game which is also in a downswing. To the point, I get bored, feel entitled to win, and force action, of which I am on the loosing end.

I forced myself to take my own advice and waited for the cards to come. I concentrated on playing my hands well and extracting value. I am sure I folded alot of "Best" hands but my win rate was still 3.36 BB/hour. This includes bad play at the beginning. I got the value of quantity. I play 8 tables, so if you wait the good hands will come.

I will put in some hands next time for some feedback. I don't know if anyone reads this but if they leave a comment I would appreciate it.

Pro for a Month

I have rid myself of all my distractions so I decided to dive into poker this month as a hard core Pro. I will eat, breath, and sleep poker.

Starting on the 9/1 I will try to stop all of my bad habits and play the best poker I can all the time. This is easier said then done as I started of wrong on the first day. I lost big on the Internet and then "live" before I buckled down and grinded it back to a small win.

The only excuse I can muster is that I took 2 days off and was not in the poker mindset yet. That being said I need to get it all back today.

My plan is to start playing at noon until 7pm with minimal breaks. This is open to how I feel and am running but I want to average 3,000 hands per day or close to it. After 7pm I will clean up and head to the casinos until 1am. This should give me 4+hours at the tables. It is my experience that if you don't catch cards in this time frame you won't. Besides, I start to get tired by then and I need to set up a routine.

My goals per week are 1k live and 500 on the Internet. They are small to start out, but with discipline I believe I should be able to beat them.