The last few entries of my blog have taken a similar vein: I haven't been able to concentrate whilst playing poker because I've been trying to get sorted in London..however that hasn't been stopping me from playing. In summary during the last few sessions I've:
- Played out of my bankroll
- Blamed bad play on bad luck
- Tried to force my way to win pots
- Played way too LAG
- And the main thing is...I've played to avoid sorting more important things out which has led to consistent losses!
Not a very good combination but atleast I know what I'm doing! Last week was not much different and i've lost a furter $120. I did have a pretty enjoyable tournament though, I was playing a $5r to a $55 tournament. I got my stack from 2k up to 4k and then at 100-200, and one limper I made it 850 with 7's. The BB decides to push for 3.5K and after the limper folds it's on me. As we are still in the rebuy and I'm very likely to be flipping I call and get showed 66. Ideal. Not so ideal when he runner runner flushes though. Losing the pot is fine but he then goes on to properly berate my play in the chat box. Wow, nice winner.
In the freezout stage I manage to get up to 8.5k and my now nemesis is on about the same stack. He limps UTG I call in the SB with 87o, and the BB checks. The flop is an enjoyable 888 and we all check the flop. A 7 hits the turn and, still wanting people to catch up I check and unfortunatley the BB and nemesis check too. The river is a 9 and I shove my 8K stack in to a pot of about 1,200. Obviously the nemesis has limped with A9 and insta calls. I like to think karma played a part in that pot...
Anyways that was the only satalitte I managed to win, the rest of my tournaments have been a mixture of bad play and bad luck, but leaning towards more bad play. So, the plan is to take a month off from poker. To be honest I need it and I've done this before with good success, so here goes. See you in a month.
Monday, 17 November 2008
playing like an uber zoid...time for a break
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Quick update
An overdue update here. Over the last month I've been busy searching for a new home to live in and have been getting more and more involved with my course at Uni. The house hunting has been an absolute mission, although I think the end is in sight. I've found a nice three bedroom place, where I'll be getting a double room but there's a catch, I need to find someone to fill a single room and pay £110 p/w for it. That's pretty pricey for the area I'm living in. Fingers crossed it works out though.
On the poker front, it's been going.....AWFUL. From satalitte's alone I had built an $800 roll. Titly internet cafe sessions where I should have been working or sorting out the house huting front has led me to a roll of $250. The one thing I've learnt is that you really need to have your head on when your playing poker, you can't be distracted from anything, especially something big like finding a place to live, be distracting you. The way I was playing was just ridiculous, it was like I was trying to lose. Who know's maybe I was.
Anyway, I've banned myself from playing until I'm up to date with work/reading and have a place to live in. I still want poker to be a part of my life, as sad as that sounds, but not sure what to do with my $250 roll. I need a new target, some new motivation. The whole game has been getting a bit stale for me. Suggestions are very welcome.
P.S Come on Obama...one time!
On the poker front, it's been going.....AWFUL. From satalitte's alone I had built an $800 roll. Titly internet cafe sessions where I should have been working or sorting out the house huting front has led me to a roll of $250. The one thing I've learnt is that you really need to have your head on when your playing poker, you can't be distracted from anything, especially something big like finding a place to live, be distracting you. The way I was playing was just ridiculous, it was like I was trying to lose. Who know's maybe I was.
Anyway, I've banned myself from playing until I'm up to date with work/reading and have a place to live in. I still want poker to be a part of my life, as sad as that sounds, but not sure what to do with my $250 roll. I need a new target, some new motivation. The whole game has been getting a bit stale for me. Suggestions are very welcome.
P.S Come on Obama...one time!
Saturday, 27 September 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
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.
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?
Sunday, 31 August 2008
back in a bit
Work is over and now i'm off on holiday. When I come back I've got a couple of week's before I start university so I'm gonna try a couple of the bigger buy in multi tables games on stars before I leave to try and cash big, and fulfil my original goal of playing 3 + $100 tournaments. I had a very good result yesterday and won a $550 seat so i'll use that money to buy into 3 slightly smaller games I think. Just gotta play nothing but A.
Monday, 25 August 2008
poker karma
After 8 days of not playing I was quite looking forward to my first session back. Maybe it was a reward for getting more organised and handing in a project from work, because my first session back was a good one. I've been sticking to the satellite's and straight away I qualified for a $320 tournament. As usual when your winning in poker, it all felt a bit easy.
On Saturday night, after a night out, I made the mistake of hitting the tables after I staggered back home. I sensibly withdrew all my real money but lost about 60 tournament dollars which I was not happy about. There was also another $320 China package tournament about to start when I got back, and with only 250 runners the alcohol nearly got the better of me and I nearly entered. Thankfully I gave it a miss.
A few days later, I was determined to win some money back, and it was one of the most brutal sessions I've had. I entered about 10-15 small stake satellite's and not only did I not cash in one of them but the way I got knocked out was comical. I like to think I take my bad beats pretty well, and the more you play the more you get use to them so it's easier for them to not tilt you. In one of the games, I had AJ on the button, pushed and get called by 33. Now, obviously it's a flip so I'm happy with losing it, but when the flop comes A J 2 and the river is a 3, it's a real jab to the ribs. I then check raised all in with 7,4 on a K 7 4 flop and get called by k2, and the turn an rivers are both 8's and I get DUGUIED!
Time to take a break, so I did, and came back to play a $36 six-handed satellite to a $215 tournament. With this tournament only 1st place got the seat and 2nd place got the booby prize of $1. At three handed it was time for me to get my share of good fortune. After the button made a standard raise I went over the top all in with A3, he called with AJ and I got a huge bit of luck by hitting a 3 to put me in contention. At heads up, and even in chips I get it all in with my aces against ten's and the ten on the turn gives me that same jab to the ribs feeling. That card sent me packing and thinking about how to spend my $1.
So after about 5 hours of play, I'm left without a single cash and not feeling too good about it.
The moral of the story has to be that I need to find the life/poker balance. Many people have there vice's, mine is poker. When I do play not only do I enjoy the strategy and competition but I use it as a distraction from life. If I can do both and find the balance, I'll be a much better player....
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
a little time-out
Last Thursday I decided to take a week-off the poker tables.
I'd been playing a hell of lot recently and it suddenly dawned on me that I've got a lof of more important stuff to be getting on with before I go off to London at the end of September. I think missing out on the China package was a bit of a reality check that, no I'm not going to win a hell alot of money but yes I will be starting a course that I'm committing to for three years very shortly.
So far the time off has been good, catching up with people, getting more regular exercise and playing alot of golf. I'm not sure when i'll next play poker cos the time off has been pretty good for me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
