Vincit Qui Patitur

Best month ever for me:





Three biggest winning hands:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435568
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435570
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435571

Three biggest losers:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435572
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435573
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/435575

Happy enough with the month, although I feel it could be a lot better. I think I can beat this 100NL game for a much higher winrate (7-8 ptbb/100). However, I am making "real" money now, and I am very much looking forward to a potentially prosperous and very enjoyable summer. Will probably move up to 200NL at some point this month.

0 votes

Comments (1)

100NL going well, been running fairly good and Betfair is so soft. The fish are super-passive and the regs make way too many moves.

0 votes

Comments (8)

Finally got sick of the Stars doomswitching after I ran 8BIs below expectation one day, so shipped my bankroll to Betfair and began grinding 50NL there. Four days in, I'm up 30 buy-ins. Running fairly hot (about time), but I definitely think I could beat this game for at least 10ptbb/100 over the long-term given how retarded the players here are. It's like playing 10NL on Stars: full of passive fish who can't lay down top pair or even AK unimproved, and the few regulars that play there are complete idiots. PokerAce doesn't work there, and GameTime+ is stupid and unusable, so I have no stats when I play (which almost seems like a blessing as I'm forced to concentrate on reading people instead of complete dependence on numbers). Winning this easily has restored the confidence in my game, and as a result, I don't tilt as much. I still spew a lot, but I'm working on it. Now with a $2,500 bankroll, I'm going to take a few shots at 100NL here and see how things go.

0 votes

Comments (2)

Lee, I don't know what I've done to you or PokerStars to deserve a month of doomswitching, but I've learned my lesson. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll eat my vitamins and say my prayers. I'll help an old lady across the street. I'll be less of a nit and contribute more to the rake. I'll spend my FPPs on overpriced cookies instead of cash bonuses. I'll buy a copy of your book. Hell, I'll even buy a Moneymaker medallion if it will help. Just please, PLEASE turn it off.

Today: KK into AA twice. AA raped by AK in a 3BI pot, all-in on a K hi flop. Shortstackers putting half their stack in pf with T8o and flopping trips. A couple of two-outers. Good news is that I only finished down about 2BIs, and I'm tilting less. I still need to play better in smallish pots (10-20BB, which PokerEV says is where I spew a lot of EV), and make less calls on the river.

I was watching the New England Patriots play on TV today and it's amazing to watch a team actually justify the hype (admittedly for only one half today, but still amazing). It's kinda cool to be watching the team that everyone will talk about in 20 years having their "season for the ages" as it happens. Betfair puts them at 5/6 (1.86), and I definitely think they have a better than 45% chance of winning the whole thing. I'd put their chances at closer to 65% right now. Maybe the easiest way back to 50NL is to put my entire bankroll on them.

0 votes

Comments (0)

So after spewing off over half my bankroll last night (note to self: don't play while drunk and/or on life tilt), I have found myself stuck back in the land of retards that is 25NL. I'm pretty much back at the $500 mark, so I have 20BIs I have to pick up here again. Things started well, with a nice heater getting me up 7BIs in less than 1000 hands, then I pretty much went card dead/got no action for the next 3k hands, and finished only 2BIs up. PokerEV graph kinda says it all really:



Not all that many hands of note, only one really of interest:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/342799 - Almost my biggest fold ever. But ultimately, one can't really fold the 2nd nuts to someone who doesn't even know what the 2nd nuts is (lol @ "55?")

Despite the bad run, I'm happy enough with my game at the moment. I've become somewhat competent at pot control, and my hand reading has improved immensely in the past three months. Once the doomswitch is lifted, I'm confident I can speed back up to 50NL and onwards.

P.S. With regards to last night's blog entry and requests for details, it's a really long story and it's kinda weird to tell random people on the Internet all the details on my life. Suffice it to say, I thought I had a read on a really fantastic girl that she liked me, but either my read was way off or she's been giving me false tells for the past two months. I don't think she's the kind of person to do that sort of thing maliciously, but it's still a total mindfuck. Even reading her Facebook profile tilts me right now.

0 votes

Comments (1)

Fuck women and their fucking emotional torture. I just wish I could get her out of my fucking head. If I wasn't so poor right now, I would throw something valuable at the wall.

Poker also not going well. I'm surrounded by retards, but I can't beat them. Their gay bets of 1/8th the pot size tilt the fuck out of me. Sick life etc.

0 votes

Comments (3)

So things have been going pretty horribly for me lately poker-wise, and as a result have lost pretty much all confidence in my game. I've been on about a 15 buy-in or so downswing for the past week or so, most of which has been mistakes by me. I've pretty much just spent the last week slowly leaking chips. I've tried adding tables to encourage me to just grind, and I've tried dropping down to 4-tabling to improve my hand reading, but nothing is working. I'm capable of people pretty well when I'm on my game, and 50NL seems easy as a result, but then it all goes to hell in one or two hands, and I lose focus and spew. For example, today:

The Good Stuff

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/333354 - Taking a fellow LPer to valuetown. I've been developing my thin value betting recently, and this is a nice example of me putting him on a bluffcatcher, and extracting as a result. I guess I could have overbet the river, but I'm happy enough with it. The great thing about playing solid players is the removal of the randomness factor. Value extraction is easier when you know they would never play a set this way.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/333356 - The benefits of light 3-betting in position. There is no way I can have the best hand here. His CO opening range is wide, so the 3-bet is easy, and I don't think he's flatting OOP with AQ or AK here. As long as I dodged a set, my c-bet would take it down. Maybe I pushed him off QQ or something.

The Bad Stuff

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/333363 - Villain was playing quite laggy, so I was 3-betting him lots. He had never 4-bet me before, though. There's no need to call the shove here, as I'm flipping at best.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/333361 - "He couldn't have a Q, could he? Nah, he's probably on a draw. Time for a hero call. Oh, crap." I am the mayor of spewtown.

As a result, I've decided to dedicate December to getting my game back on track. First, I'm going to drop down to 25NL for a week or so to regain my donk-stacking confidence, then work slowly at 50NL until I feel supremely confident there.

0 votes

Comments (4)

50NL has been an emotional rollercoaster ride for me, with tilt inducement around every bend. I ran pretty good earlier in the week and got up to a bankroll of nearly $2200, but have since gone through crazy swings and ended up going nowhere fast. I know I'm capable of beating this level for a whole lot more than 2 ptbb/100, but tilt control and discipline are continuing to be monumental leaks for me. I'm getting better at folding big pairs in bad spots, recognising how board texture should affect my decisions, and just reading people in general, but when the flush card hits the river after I pot it twice with an overpair, and they min-raise my blocker river bet, I invariably either fold and go on tilt at my bad luck or call and go on tilt at my bad play. I know they made two mistakes by calling pot-sized bets on a draw, and I'm raking in the Sklansky Bucks, but I still tilt. Then I spew. I think everybody that raises me is pushing me around and that I can push everybody off their hand. I'm getting a little better at just shutting down Stars when I feel a big tilt session going on (so I lose 3 BIs instead of 16), but it's still affecting my winrate in a big way.

95% of players at 50NL play their hands ridiculously face-up, and when I'm playing well, I can read their souls with suprising ease. I can call people down on three streets with A hi because I know they're FOS, or I can fold a pretty strong boat because I put my opponent on quads (he was nice enough to show), but when I get c/r on a dry flop by a fullstack while holding AA or KK, it does something to my brain, and I lose all logic and sense. And it's always a set. Always. Even on drawy boards, it's a set. But I convince myself that the guy with 0.5 AF is pulling a move or that he has to have TPTK or similar, and I shove. And it's always a set. So I try "flatting and re-evaluating on the turn" and they always pot it, and now I'm in the exact same spot except now the pot's a bit bigger and my decision means more. And it's still always a set. Or I fold and I wonder if that WAS the one time my opponent was bluffing in his entire life.

So I've decided to actually do something about it. I've cashed out half my roll on Stars, which I've done for two reasons: 1) to discourage myself not to move up to 100NL and 2) to actually enjoy the fruits of poker. $1000 is only about €650 (seriously, you people need to do something about your currency), but it should allow me to buy some nice Christmas presents for some friends and family, and maybe something for myself. I've also self-excluded myself from Stars for 24 hours to take a break from playing. Most of my friends are in college (I technically still am too, but I don't actually do anything. I already have a degree so I don't really care about this one all that much. It's really just a way for me to get free trips abroad with the college's debating society), and it's exam time, so with everyone busy, I've had a lot of free time, and I've found myself pretty much playing poker full-time every day for about two weeks solid (I've played 52K hands in that time, which is about as much as I played for the previous two months). And it's certainly not helped the situation. So a day off sounds like a good idea, and hopefully it'll refresh me.

I haven't decided yet if I'll take tomorrow off poker completely, or maybe spend a little time reviewing my play or watching some videos from other players. When I get back to poker, I think I need to review the amount of tables I play. I thought 8 tables worked for me, but have discovered that it gives me enough time to consider more advanced plays, but not enough time to consider them properly, leading to mistakes and spew. Thus, I have to decide to either drop to 4 tables and really focus on player reading etc., or move back up to 12 and grind robotically. One will make me a better player, but the other will probably make me more money, in the short-term at least.

Wow, this was long. Apologies for that. See you on the tables tomorrow night, or maybe Monday.

0 votes

Comments (0)

After a nasty 30K hand breakeven stretch at 50NL (yes, I suck), I was getting quite disillusioned with this whole poker thing, until I decided the solution to my problems was more tables. So I tried a 16-tabling session and voila, problem solved:



No real coolering of others on my part here, it was more me flopping sets against retards or finally completing the occasional draw and getting paid. I did, however, dodge the nasty situation of having any tough laydowns, which is unquestionably my biggest leak.

This has been my big problem throughout my poker career: run bad and/or play bad for extended periods of time, get nowhere, then have these miraculous sessions where everything clicks, I run good and play well. I'm left with the situation of not knowing how good I actually am at poker, given most of my winnings come during these streaks of good luck.

Anyway, I also completed a 25k FPP bonus for $285, so my bankroll is at ~$1800. Obviously, I'm not even going to consider moving up to 100NL until I'm a consistent winner at this level.

On a side note, I seemed to have tightened up *again*, my VPIP going from 19 down to 16.5. At this rate, it won't be long until I'm not playing a single hand, and making millions as a result.

0 votes

Comments (3)

This is my first update in about a month, and things have been going pretty OK. I've moved from 4-tabling to 12-tabling (and my ptbb/100 has gone up somehow as a result!) and have crossed the threshold into 50NL. It's not all that different really. Players are a little nittier and float less, which kinda suits my style a bit (I c-bet a lot).

Here are my stats:



I also got my first royal flush (and got paid off!):

http://www.liquidpoker.net/hand/hand.php?hand=317766 - Carrotsnake apparently plays much higher, but was messing around in lower stakes (supposedly drunk), and was on a little tilt having been the victim of a number of coolers on the table (including QQ vs. KK aipf against me the previous hand). I lol'd pretty hard when I flopped it and he bet 3.5x pot into me. The rest took care of itself.

I expect next week to be quite intense poker-wise. I'm aiming for ~10k hands or so, which is a lot for me.

0 votes

Comments (0)