going in cold

Until yesterday, I hadn't played online in the last 6 weeks. I don't have internet access at the moment, so it's not really on the agenda. However, all the WSOP build gave me the itch to play so I couldn't help enter one of the sunday majors last night....

Playing meant trecking all the way to the 24hr uni computer suite. The last bus home was at 1am, so I figured I wanna be out reasonably early OR in for the long haul when the cumputer geeks get there for 7am. Unfortunately, it was a relatively early bust out when I played the following hand.

.

Blinds 200-400

My stack 12k

Villains stack 34k.

-

Pre flop:

Active villain makes it 1k UTG+2.

I make the call with AJo on the button.

Big blind comes along too.

.

Flop: (Pot= 3,200)

Ah, 10d, 9s

Villain leads for 2k

I flat (I figure, either well ahead or well behind reassess on turn)

Button folds.

.

Turn

3s (Boards A,10,9,3)

Villain bets 4k (Pot 7.2K)

I shove for 5k more.

He calls.

.

I think flop call is fine with the attitude to re-assess but I think I got my info with his turn bet and should really fold. Pretty scary board for villain to bluff at (despite his activeness and chip stack) and I only really beat a bluff. Turns out I'm drawing dead.

-

But even during the tournament I kinda felt like I was dead money to be honest. Poker is a game of practice, and not playing for over a month and then trying to play well in a big tourney is very very hard. Little things like concentration, reading hands, general table awareness are completely diminished and I never felt like I was really going to go deep.

-

I've been doing more and more sport psychology recently and its very interesting and very relevent to poker in my opinion. Whilst watching some of the WSOP build up I saw Hellmuth talking about who was going to win, and he said "it would be someone who had imagined themselves winning, and prepared themselves for what it would be like". I gotta agree with him- I think that preparation is crucial in making the difference between you are your oponents, and I'm guessing that not enough people do it.

-

As far as poker for me in concerned I'm going to try and grind HU very hard over the next 6 weeks before a Vegas trip at New Years. Cheapest game there looks to be $200NL so I wanna take a fair few buy ins with me. I was hoping to do more and more triathlon training to do the big race next August, however I decided against it for different reasons BUT will be doing at least a couple of Olympic triathlons next year so be good to get out training.

-

We do have a regular live game running though in London. Well I say regualr but we are one week in. Thursday night's, its a great crack. Lots of people learning but everyone loves it. One guy i'm not sure if he's running a huge bluff on us all. One time, at blinds 20-40, he bet 20 on the flop into the pot of 100. I reminded him that the minimum bet was 40 now, and he then proceeded to bet 4000. Mind games. He ended up finishing 2nd.

small cash in the WCOOP

Still a little gutted about this tournament because I went pretty deep and didn't manage to play my big stack very well. Overall, happy to cash but I still seem to be stumbling at the final hurdle(s) which is definitely a leak in my game. I should of really bubbled also, when I two outted someone so the cash is very welcome. Things generally just went my way alot of the tournament, had AA v AK twice, hit two sets which both got paid and generally I picked good spots to bluff. I got up to 100k with 400 players left and then lost two big pots, firstly when I flat called a re raise with KK and lost to A7 and then when I didn't 4 bet with JJ and lost to Q10. The flop was Q high and I couldn't fold....Anyway, I got back to 50k, with average around 90K and then I played the following hand....

Folds round to serial raiser in the cutoff (stack 110k) and he makes a standard raise to ~4k
New player in the SB (Stack 80k) flat calls.
I'm in the BB with 50k and squeeze it all in the 63o.

Surprisingly I get two calls! lol. Cutoff reraised all in with AK and newbie calls with JJ. Good timing. Anyway i came 391/8538 for $580ish. Not sure about playing some more WCOOP, I'll see how the sat's go...

back on the felt

After 6 weeks off from the game I'm back playing. I've been working full time too so I've hardly put in many hours. It started horribly playing 50c-$1 cash and I have just about recovered the losses through a few tournaments. I think my cash game is pretty weak tbh, probably because I'm not rolled to play! However, after a cheeky satalite win I'm going to take a shot at the first WCOOP event, 6 max $215 buy-in with 20 min clock. Hopefully it will fund my entrance into the rest of the tournaments...I got my eye's on the Main event.

a break-even month of sorts...

Warning: boring post.

I haven't played a single hand of poker for the last month.
It's been good having an extended break from the game and during it I've never had a real urge to play. However, I am looking to start back up fairly soon, but I'm not sure if I'm ready yet!!! It's sad but, the whole package that comes with the game when you take it seriously is quite a lot...the discipline, the frustration, the highs and lows....it's a lot to take in! That's why its so good isn't it...

Also, in four days it also marks a year until the start of this Ironman in August 2010. I'm not sure if I've got my place yet, I'll find out in September but I'll use this month to atelast get myself ready for a long year of training.

So...this month is likely to be back to the tables and back on the road for training.

more on mindset

As per my last post I was hoping to play alot of MTT's and go on a huge grind. I booked a vegas trip for New Years 2010, so time to fund it.

I made a $500 deposit and got off to a pretty bad start, dropping a $100ish or so and got pretty dispirited, even though I've lost a lot more in the past, I'm not earning at the moment so the money hurts a bit more. I turned to the cash tables and had a few sessions where I played far too long (4 tabling for 5-6 hours isn't great for the eyes) and played very badly and too high, a bad combination. Needless to say it hasn't been my finest poker week.

I'm not really in the right frame of mind to be playing my best - I'm on a long break from my degree and not working, so without income. The added pressure doesn't seem to be working... Playing for 5 hours and then getting two outted for the CL on the bubble doesn't do much for your mood either and I'm not sure I can take it!

Away from poker, I've been been getting in to some long distance training recently, I'm semi-addicted to it. One aim is to complete this ironman next year. There's a big chance I won't get accepted because it's pretty compeititve to get a place and although I'd love to do it, it's a massive committment. I reckon it's a great time for me to do it though, I'll have a fair amount of time to train and some mates to do it with.

Back to what I'm going to do with poker. I'm going to take a break from it, take down the odd tourney, and just enjoy the summer and hopefully also get some work experience. It's not like poker is going to go anywhere.

playing better and the sunday million

After another dissapointing week on the tables, I took a small break and started playing smaller more focused sessions. I only had a few W$ left in my account so attempted some more step ones, this time running a lot better getting all the way up to step 4 on my first attempt. With the step 4, you can either continue to try and turn into a WSOP seat or play the sunday million. I chose the million.

Seeing as it's 11pm and it started at 9.30pm, I can't say it went as planned but I think I played well so i'm fine with it. Haven't really discussed many hands in my blog so I'll go through the one's I played. Early on, blinds 25-50, i'm on the button with AJ and raise to 150, sb folds & the BB re-raises small to 350. I call and the flop is A Q 10. He bets 500. I try a small raise to see where I am, and he pushes so it's an easy fold. Down to about 8k....

Still at 25-50, I open with Jc10c in MP and get 3 callers. It turns into quite an interesting hand. What's my move on the flop?

PokerStars Game #29105894708: Tournament #167588029, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (25/50) - 2009/06/07 16:39:17 ET
Table '167588029 525' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: gray31 (9725 in chips)
Seat 3: AUSTRIA-1000 (9900 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 4: Playing A (8500 in chips)
Seat 5: effendi11 (11125 in chips)
Seat 7: Krisrom06 (11025 in chips)
Seat 8: melikman (9800 in chips)
Seat 9: Hatts83 (9925 in chips)
melikman: posts small blind 25
Hatts83: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Playing A [Jc Tc]
gray31: folds
AUSTRIA-1000: folds
Playing A: raises 100 to 150
effendi11: calls 150
Krisrom06: calls 150
melikman: calls 125
Hatts83: folds
*** FLOP *** [6d Th Ts]
melikman: checks
Playing A: bets 250
effendi11: raises 550 to 800
Krisrom06: calls 800
melikman: calls 800

My move...?

Moving on, at 50-100 I open with KQ in MP and the SB calls. The flop is 7-2-2, he checks, I c-bet 500 and he makes it 1200. I really just didn't believe him here, and grew some balls and shoved it in. He folds quickly....phewww...Back up to starting stack.

I then get a bit of a card rush and get my stack up to 13k at the first break. At 150-300 I get AA in MP and make my standard small raise of 750. I get called on the button and in the BB. The flop is pretty ideal J 7 3- two diamonds. I bet 1200 and the button then makes it 5200, with 5k behind. I push and he calls and shows KK. Ideal. But the sick two outer comes on the river. Would of been sweet to have a big stack on the table at a low level but that's poker. I'd been running pretty hot in other game uptil then it just so happens that variance catches up on the big game.

On a more positive note I'm feeling alot more confident when I'm playing and really feel like I can take down a tournie when I'm in it. Just need to build the roll now and keep pushing for the big result I know will come.

it's been some time

I haven't blogged it up in a while. Three factors why I think, a) I'm not playing the same volume I use to play b) When I have, I've been losing like a bitch (not a good reason not to blog though) and c) I'm not sure I have the answers to my last post, but I'll come to that, later on in the week.

Straight to the bankroll facts then. I cashed out just over $1k from the MTT result, in a moment of panic, when I lost KK v AA twice in a row for $100 each and went on the kind of tilt when just want your money. The other $1K I had, in a mixture of w$ and $ I've lost. Pretty agonising to report that. Most of it playing 100NL and 50HUNL and being on the wrong side of big hands. Thats poker though, and another lesson in bankroll management. On the plus side though I have cashed out some money!

On the tournie front, its been ranging from a couple of cheeky $50FO and mainly $10-$20 buy ins. Went deep in two, but yeah not too exciting. Had some pretty funny live games with a few mates in London. The majority of my mates are just picking up the game and there's been some classic hands. After winning the pub quiz for £70 (booya) we divided up the funds and decided to run a poker cash game, pretty sweet! An hour in and there's only 3 of us left, and we are playing 40p/80p blinds. One of my mates, who hasn't played much at all calls on the button, SB folds and I raise to £3 77. He calls, and the flop is 9-2-6 rainbow. I bet £4 he calls. The turn is a 3 completing the rainbow and I check. He thinks, and announces "I bet the minimum". Hmmmm. So, it's 80p to call about £14. I've only got about another £6 behind, and that very funky bet has got me confused to the max, he looks like he never wanted to be in the hand in the first place... so I push the rest in. He flips two aces. Gotta love that play, anyway its the new catchphrase when we play now..."I bet the minimum".

So, back to online poker and my funds are looking low. I've got about 50ish and its all gonna go on tournies today. Another attempt to build the roll, and after playing a huge selection in games I think my HU is most profitable. I'd love to get rolled for $50NLHU soon as I think there's a lot of money to be won there and really is a pure form of poker. A change of fortune would be good though, yesterday I played 12 step one's and didn't make a SINGLE step two, that's pretty hard to do. Could of just gone to step three with that cash! oops. Although away from poker it's gone Ok the last few months, had £2 on the grand national winner at 150-1 and an accumlator came in for another £160 so that's been a litte better on the gambling front, although poker isn't gambling right?!

Hopefully be blogging more regularly, weekly ideally as I pick up the volume and start crushing the MTT's.

Some poker thoughts: on the right road?

I haven't been playing poker over the last few days, but today I've been thinking about the game and try to think about what it all means!

So.., bascially I'm not too sure I'm playing poker for the right reasons and I'm not sure what I want from the game. Without an answer to both these questions, that's a problem. I've been studying motivation and goal setting in my studies and bascially if you don't know what you want from something you are NEVER going to get very far, because you don't know where you want to go! It's so important to set clear goals and to have the right reasons for wanting to reach them. Time for a change. The last 3 years I've been playing, I've probably won about $6k playing poker. But where has it gone? I can't really tell you. Was it worth it? I've spent a lot of time playing, when maybe I could of been doing other things.

This is something I want to sort out. Now I'm not saying I want to quit I just want to know exactly why I'm playing, what positives I can get from the game and what I want to achieve. It doesn't have to necessarily mean money, but just a clear purpose. I think this needs to be done before you do anything seriously in life. This way I think i'll get alot more out of the game.

I also read a good forum post on 2+2, about "the best poker advice ever given to you"...which I thought was pretty good.

-
"I suppose the best advice I got is this- always have the prize in mind, and don't let life pass you by. Life is really very short, and if you want to spend 15 hours a day playing poker, be sure you aren't missing out on something else because you probably are. It's easy to isolate yourself from everyone around you to the point where you actually don't have any friends anymore. So- you need to really determine for yourself if this game is a hobby you work at around work, friends or family, etc, or a job. Either way, you have to make sure your life is healthy before your bankroll is healthy- otherwise this game will slowly kill you on the inside. Lay your goals out, and make time to do the things you want to do. Keep this prize in mind. If you're passing up on dates, friends, time with kids to play poker, you should stop and really question if the $$$ is worth it. We all look back upon our lives from our deathbeds, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find an individual who says, I wish I didn't spend all that time with my family and just played poker more.. lol. As for not letting the world pass you by, this is a double edge sword- You can't put your dreams off and leave your heart unfulfilled, however, there are simple joys and pleasures of everyday life that are fleeting in nature. ie- parents die, kids grow up etc, you can't let those times pass you up either. It's a balance. Everything in moderation"

mixed results and the PAIN of MTT's!

Right, it's been a while since I've posted an update, mainly because I haven't really been playing too much. Nevertheless I have put in a few sessions and here are the highlights:

1. Winning at 50c/$1 and a nice pot with 8 high
The first session back after a few weeks I decided to two table 50c/$1, going against my BRM rule I posted a while back about not playing this until I hit $4K. Anyway, my excuse was that when you haven't played in a while you kinda want to play something worthwhile! I was pleased that I did because I hit the deck pretty hard, getting my AA v KK to hold up for a $220 pot and ended the session ~$400 up. The next day I did the sensible thing and dropped down to 9 tabling 25c/50c. Things started pretty well, when I RRAI on the turn with 86o on a 5,k,q,7 board, and when with the river was a 2 things didn't look great until he showed 46o!

2. Going back up to 50c/$1
Another reminder here, not to go up levels too quickly. It was one of those sessions where I tried to force the win early on, trying to win every single pot...ooops. I think I was having a bad day and tried to take it out on the tables. One of the first few hands I raised to $4 with KJc and got called by the SB to see a 9, 7, 3 rainbow flop. He checked and I bet $7, and he made it $18. Hmmmmmm. I really didn't believe his c/r here and think he can fold A9/K9 here to a shove...which I did and it wasn't nice to be drawing pretty dead to his set of 7's. He then typed "NH" to me in the chat, what?!, which defo tilted me! Time to reload.

I get my stack up to a more healthy looking $160 so closing in on a breakeven session which would definatley feel like a win when I get AA in the BB and we are 3 handed. The aggressive button (~$140) makes it $3, the SB folds and I make it $13. He calls. The flop was Q 10 7 and I bet $16, he makes it $35. Now obv I'm definately not folding but what's the correct play here, raise or call? I think maybe he passes KQ/AQ here so I'm getting no value in pushing. Anyway, that's what I did! and he called with 10 7 to win the pot. Time to close down all the tables!

3. Back to MTT's
I really think MTT's are all about having the right frame of mind and playing for the win. It's so frustrating just doubling your money after playing for 2-4 hours. Anyway, previously I had lost a fair amount of money (prob around $100ish) playing the stars $12 180 man turbo's. Pretty crap shooty, but aslong as you play aggressive they are defo +EV. So I put 4 up at the same time, and managed to cash in 3 of them but they were all in the 9-18 position which just means doubling up your buy in, very frustrating when you outlast 90% of the field.

Next tournie was a $20 HU shootout. There were 7 tiers, 1st prize of $1.5K and to get ITM you needed to win your first 3 matches. I got a bit of luck to get through my 2nd match my flopped flush vs opponents flopped set and in the third match my AQ beat AK AIPF. So onto the 4th match where the winner got an extra $100. I think I played a bit too dweeby as I was so hungry for the extra $100 to get that KJ hand out of my head from earlier in the 50c/$1 cash game. So, I lost and settled for a small $40 profit.

Final tournie was a $3 rebuy with 5,500+ runners and with $60K in the prizepool. Again, very poor final stage play on my part. I managed to get into the last 60 which is pretty sick and then I got incredibly card dead for about 1 1/2 hours. I finally get JJ and there is a raise, a RRAI and a call infront of me....come on!! I fold the original raiser folds and both the AI's have AK.....which obv missed and would of put me in huge contention for the $8K first prize. Oh well. The final hand there is a small raise in MP from a fairly aggressive player who I've had a few tangles with! I am in the BB and tried a stop and go with 5,2o... I think it's a pretty +EV play tbh but he had AQ and the flop was Q high. So 55th for $100 and 5 hours work.

Anyway enough of the ramblings: Key point is that a) Keep disciplined with the BR b) ALWAYS ALWAYS play for the win in MTT's and take the outdraws as part of the game.

BR Situation:
$1,940
W$-$250

still on the de-cline

Not too much to report except for some more losses unfortunately. Poker can be a pretty cruel game. When you're losing it's easy to question why you even play the game in the first place and without the confidence my game definately suffers. So, what's the damage? Since the new year i've lost a quater of my bankroll which is pretty shocking. The trouble is, I'm chasing my losses at the moment trying to get back on track. Never a good strategy, but sometimes hard to avoid.

Tilt kicked in pretty hard when I got two outtered in the deep stages of a multi, but come on, that's pretty standard. I've got to learn to roll with the punches if I'm going to be a good MTT player. Since then, like I've said I've been chasing losses and don't really think I've been in the right frame of mind to play nuttin but A. About two years ago me and a mate started taking MTT's seriously, and although I don't think our strategy was the best our focus and concentration on each game I think was unmatched. We were constantly assessing people's ranges, what fold equity we had, who was playing aggressively etc etc...It gave us a massive edge. I need some of that focus back, trouble is you can't have it if you are chasing your losses. So, a pretty boring and low spirited post but after a few days of not playing I'll be back ready to destroy it again.

more down's then up's

An interesting and frustrating 3 weeks of poker. As much as I enjoy playing multitables they just take up too much time. I decided to try and focus just on 6 max 25c-50c for this month and was 9 tabling most of the time with an effort to try and get to gold star status. Although I don't really think there much point in getting to gold star doesn't seem like you can do much with it, although I have alot of FPP's to spend now.

Anyways, my pokertracker isn't working but basically I went 6 buy-ins up and then proceeded to lose 11 buy ins... in pretty standard/brutal fashion. So basically I dropped $250 which although not a HUGE amount of money is more painful due to the hours I put in. Atleast I got to gold star status.....GRRRREAAT.

A few leaks in my game which I need to sort out:

- Calling raises OOP too much.
- 9 tabling isn't probably optimal, should really stick to 6.
- Not betting for value on the river once it's checked to me.
- When I have the nuts of the river and someone bets into me, alot of the time I just jam my whole stack in there, even if it's 3 or 4x the pot. This probably works 5% of the time (in that I get called) and although is pretty funny when I do, I could be getting so much more value if I just put a sensible raise in there. In short, I get greedy!
- Most importantly, don't play when I'm not feeling like playing well.

Poker: you love it and hate it.

The last week of poker has been a bit of a rollercoaster where I've lost some discipline and played a bit too much; something I'm not too pleased about and will improve upon. It stems from the tournament win the other day, getting use to larger buy-in tournaments, the new found money and a bit of over confidence. Luckily I haven't damaged the bankroll but could have quite easily. I had one session where I had a $700 swing playing cash, I'm not doing that again....until I have the bankroll.

The MTT's haven't exactly been going very well. No cashes online in the last 20 tournaments. I'm not sure exactly what the standard variance is in MTT's with such large fields as I'm not a regular MTT player but losing consistently isn't much fun. What's more frustrating is that I haven't been playing well. I've had a couple of poker binges in which I just fired up as many tables as I could, out of the bankroll, and played without focus.

The one cash I did have was in the live poker tournament last week. The structure was really good, you could start with 10k if you took the add-on, blinds 25/50 and a 20 minute clock. It was a real local boys game, everyone knew each other and the type of game where if you took a few hundred quid from a mate in the cash game you could wind him up the next day on the high street. I eventually finished up 4th, trying my luck one too many times stealing the blinds but was good for a small profit. The friend I was with came 2nd which was pretty impressive especially as he was one card away from the £500 first prize.

So, this week has really taught me a lesson. No more poker binges, you may aswell play slot machines if you are going to do that because it's pretty much the same process imo. No more playing out of the bankroll, getting over-setted in $1-$2 taught me that. From now on I won't be playing anything higher than 25c/50c until I hit $4k. It's all about being a bankroll nit.

A few goals to go with the new year too:

- Finally get the life/poker balance
- Stop playing whenever it's not fun.
- Record every entry/win/loss
- Win enough money to pay for a Vegas and Brazil trip

Current bankroll situation:

$2k- Just to be used for MTT's and 25c-50c
W$450- To be used to try and Satalitte into a big live event