big loss...big save

I hadn't played poker all week due to finding my feet in London and being busy with getting started on my new course. However, by Thursday night and coming back home I decided to hit the tables.

I made the decision to play a $110 satalite as a) it was one of mt original goals to play 3+ $100 tournies and b) I thought if I don't play much I may aswell play something worthwhile. It was a slow structure so to keep my occupied I also tried entered an $8 rebuy. This didn't last long however as early on I found myself all in with aces against jacks and nines and found myself saying " No jack, no nine"...as you do. The flop of J99 was a pretty good indicator of things to come.

Deciding not to blow another $16 on the rebuy tournie I focused on the big one. Midway through I re-raise all in to a button raise with 8's, he call's with A10, and being the race king that I am I double through. With 9 left and 4 getting $550 and 2 getting $100 I was feeling optomistic. Things didn't go my way though after I'm forced to call an all in with AQ and the short stack has AK, and then pushing with any two cards on the button and losing to A9. So i'm out feeling like that was a pretty unsatisfying way to lose $110.

With the steam rising, I open up 4 $100 cash game tables. 4 hours later, I've lost a further $200. I was doing all the things you shouldn't: chasing my losses, playing with too much of my roll on the table, calling out of position, calling re raises with speculative hands and over slow playing my big hands.

Waking up the following day I didn't have the best feeling in my stomach as that's a large part of my roll gone, and then struggled through 18 holes of golf with my mind not really on it. After the golf I was tired but determined to win things back. Being a bit more sensible I played within my comfort zone..$15 tournies and $8 rebuys. After the first two tournies I had won back my $300! I won entry to both a $215 tourny and a $110 tourney. I also had a poker first for me: set-over-set-over-set. Obviously I had the top set....

Whilst playing I was also rummaging through some other poker blogs and noticed this one http://www.moorman1.com/. This guy is only 23 and built his roll playing on VC student free rolls after coming 2nd in one. Since then he has become rated as the 4th best at online poker in the world and won a brick load of money. Reading his blog you notice what it takes to reach that level: 100% discipline, dedication to reach your goals, ALWAYS playing for the win in a tourney (he hardly ever deals in tournies) and obviously a lot of skill. I'm not saying I want to reach that level, but it's good to know what it takes to get as far as he's gotten.

it's all in the head

I once heard that poker was 60% skill, 20% luck and 20% psychology. I disagree. I think if you know the basics, the psychology part of poker is a lot higher, maybe even 50-70%. However, this is not the psychology that you might firstly associate with poker such as reading players bluff or picking up tells. The psychology i'm talking about is how you handle yourself at the table and what frame of mind you are playing in. I think this is the biggest key discipline to a winning player.

The reason why I'm writing this is that it came to my attention this week....

I had two weeks fant off from poker during my holiday and came back on Monday not really feeling like playing. I was a little under the weather when I came back, but still played, and just went through the motions lacking any kind of motivation. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be playing (with other things on my mind like moving to London next Monday) and I felt like I was playing just for the sake of it. I was losing money and putting it down to bad luck rather than bad play on my part, or just variance. I lost about $150ish during the session.

Thankfully I managed to quit the session as it could of been a lot worse...The next session I played was a lot shorter and more focused. I used the same philosophy as I did in the $320 tournament of not being concerned about where I finished but just focused on playing good poker. It definately took the pressure off. Sticking to satalite tournaments I won two $109 seats and two $50 seats which went towards recovering from my $150 loss. So all in all, covering tourament expenses, the last few days I've won about $100ish.

To mix up the satalittes I dabbled in a bit of 25c-50c 9 handed game. It was a pretty uneventful session except for two hands which I'm not sure about:

1. I have 97o in the BB. Two limpers, the Sb completes and I check. The flop is 774 rainbow....not bad so far. SB bets out $2, I make it $7 not wanting to mess about, the two limpers fold and the SB decides to make it $25 holding back an additional $15- I have him covered. What's the play, can I fold?!

2. I have Ako in the SB. Three limpers, I make it $3 and two of the limpers call. The flop is KQ3- rianbow. I lead out for $6 (pot is $10ish) and just one of the limpers (the button) calls. The turn is another Q. I check, and the button bets $10. Should I be leading the turn?? As played, what's my move?