November

So this is the second time that I've tried stepping up to 10NL and just started getting hit by coolers and setups and bad beats. You know those days when you never get there, and your opponents always hit their flush after three streets of hard betting, or they call down their inside straight against your set, and you just tell yourself its variance and continue on. And before you know it, you're down four buy ins after flopping top set and getting your PSB's called down by an 85o in a reraised pot on a 29T board, J turn, Q river------ and to stop yourself from going into massive tilt mode you close Stars immediately and then open up Party because you don't care about your roll there and you just need to steam it off, play 25NL with a 80$ BR, nit it up for half an hour and then get it all in on the flop in a reraised pot with 22 on a 542 two-tone board. The flush completes on the turn and the guy flips over 36o.

Yeah, its one of those days.

All the animals from last night are gone and they shit all over the yard and guess who has to clean it up.

1 votes

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I'm sitting nice and happy with a BR of $211.69 on Stars right now, after a really tilty two hour session. I started off the night at $194, but it was just a rollercoaster on 5NL and 10NL tonight. I dropped to $170 at one point, which, now that I think about it, is really nothing at all, but at the time it felt like I was two steps away from tilting off a third of my roll.

I started playing the LAG style I've been developing, but it seemed like my c-bets were being reraised every other hand, on every table. I started to tilt, where I'd call those reraises, fire a second barrel on the turn and then fold in disgust, or 3-bet the flop and then fold when they shove all in. At one point, I looked and saw that I had lost $10 in like 20 minutes, and I told myself to stop playing like a donkey and play proper poker. But I was still steaming, so I played my marginal hands super aggressively, and what made it worse was it seemed like when I lost big pots, they were not only because I played poorly, but on top of that, they were bad beats. For example, I had QA in the blinds, 3-bet the button. Flop came 4QKr. I bet pot, he calls. turn is a 8, putting two hearts on the board. I bet pot again, he calls. River is a Jh. I shove for half the pot, he calls with JJ. Then there's the standard AA versus set, KK versus set...

About halfway through I was down to $170 from the QA hand. I stopped for a second, and then said to myself, LAG is not working tonight, for whatever reason, so don't force it. I switched to "TAG" mode, tightened up considerably, and then for some reason all of my good hands held up, and people started calling me to showdown with third pair, and angels started singing from the heavens and animals gathered in twos outside my window to rail. Then Abraham Lincoln put his gigantic hand on my shoulder and looked me wordlessly in the eyes for what seemed like ages before he nodded, turned sharply, hopped into his batmobile and roared away over the horizon.

2 votes

Comments (8)

So these days when I'm bored I hop on stars or party and just 3 or 4 table for an hour or two. Since last week, something has just clicked and I'm playing really well, winning a lot when I win and losing less when I get sucked out on. I always try to find a short handed game (even on party which doesn't have 10NL 6max tables), since I'm trying out a more aggressive style that works best short handed.

Current rolls:
Party: 80.54
Stars: 167.65

I'm really happy with my party roll, since It's up from the free $15 bonus that I got on the 22nd or so. It would be at $130, but I lost $50 trying out $25NL, one buy-in because I was adjusting to the limit (they're more aggressive and they fold even less than 10NL) and one buy-in from a sick cooler flopped set vs gutshot straight that called two reraises on the flop and turn and hit on the river. Each time I donked off a buyin at 25NL, I multi-tabled at 5 or 10NL and made back the $25 in less than two hours. So I figure that until I have a good enough bankroll to comfortably play at the limit, I'll just continue playing 10NL under-rolled on party, since it's just so easy.

I don't really care if I go broke on party, so I just play on there when I feel like playing poker or have a 'bad feeling', or don't have enough time to really play a full session. So far the fish have been biting really nicely.

Hand 1: I really don't know
Hand 2: Because gutshot + ace = nuts, apparently
Hand 3: 47o is a good hand, really

I think one of the biggest reasons why absolutely nobody at 10NL gives me any credit is because I raise almost everything to 4bb preflop, and cont-bet 90% of the time. I can do this because they're just so weak that I can stay at even money just from the amount of times that they fold to my cont bets. But I tighten up a lot post-flop, when the bets get big, and they're still putting me on air when I'm making half-buyin size bets.

Anyways, I've gotten pretty confident with this playstyle, so I've started using on Stars, since it wins large pots faster than nitting it up full-ring. I'm playing at 5NL on Stars until I reach 200$, and then I'll try out 10NL. If I'm lucky, my party roll will zoom up super fast, while my stars roll will steadily increase.

Just two hands to end the post:

Hand 4: Played this tonight. I almost timed out trying to decide whether to call his shove on the river, but my gut told me he plays AK exactly like this too.

Hand 5: I have no words for this.

1 votes

Comments (1)

I got this email from party saying I had a $15 free bonus. I haven't been on their site for months ever since I went busto and deposited on stars. I figured, why not? I'll just play on it when I don't feel like playing with my main bankroll.

So I took the $15 and started up three $5NL games.

Two hours later it's doubled to $31. This is like shooting canned sardines. The field is wayy easier than stars at this limit, and I'm also running sick hot. I busted aces with kings twice tonight. Once with a set, and the second time I hit a four-outer straight where he made a set of aces.

Ship it!

0 votes

Comments (4)

I kind of wish there was a way to delete all my past blog entries... Ah well.

I busted out on the free $50 at party, and busted out on the $50 that I got from referring 5 people, and busted out of the $15 that I deposited as well. I tilted out all the money that I got from titanpoker and vc poker, and I'm also down $200 at the casino when I went with friends.

I look back at the past blog articles that I posted, my 'bad beats' etc and I'm pretty embarrassed by them. I feel like I was just a kid playing around with money but having no idea what I was doing.


A week ago, I deposited $100 on pokerstars. I told myself that this time, I would follow Grot's 'word of advice' exactly, no matter what. Before, I read over it and I told myself I understood what he was talking about, and then modified it however I saw fit. Now that I've grinded at $2NL for a week, I realize that I was really just being impatient and overconfident in my skills.

Currently I am up 15 buy-ins ($30) at $2NL. I play according to Grot's guide, and the more that I do it, the more I see exactly why he said what he did. By following his instructions, I've learned more than I thought I ever would. I'm now not only winning more, but more importantly, I'm losing much much less. And since I've had so much success, I've gained a lot of confidence in myself. Bad beats are now entertaining, rather than frustrating. Even though I've suffered many suckouts, I haven't tilted once - I'm always playing my A game. So yeah, I think I'm on a good road.

Even though I have more than enough (20+ buy ins) for 5NL, I've set a goal to grind until I reach a $200 bankroll before I move up. It's a test of discipline that I've set for myself to prove that I have the patience to continue being a winning player.

I just wanted to write this down somewhere.

My current goals:

1. Make a $100 profit on Stars ($200 bank roll) playing ONLY $2NL, and then move up to $5NL.

0 votes

Comments (2)

Our Father, which art in Vegas,
Hallowed be thy name.
thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
online as it is in irl.
give us this day our daily fish,
and forgive us our suckouts,
as we forgive those who suck out against us.
and lead us not into tilt
but deliver us from bad beats
for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
Amen

0 votes

Comments (6)

Poker hates me and I hate it =]

***** Hand History for Game 6116143100 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, July 02, 17:34:43 ET 2007
Table Table 127967 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 9: BluffKingW ( $7.39 USD )
Seat 8: wolfy88s ( $11.06 USD )
Seat 5: michailidis1 ( $4.86 USD )
Seat 10: MajikzLady ( $16.35 USD )
Seat 4: Surfer801 ( $1.68 USD )
Seat 6: GRAND_OMEGA_ ( $5.39 USD )
michailidis1 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
wolfy88s posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to wolfy88s [ Kh Ah ]
>You have options at Table 127771 Table!.
BluffKingW folds
MajikzLady calls [$0.04 USD]
Surfer801 folds
michailidis1 calls [$0.02 USD]
wolfy88s raises [$0.16 USD]
MajikzLady calls [$0.16 USD]
michailidis1 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ad, 3s, 3h ]
wolfy88s bets [$0.42 USD]
MajikzLady calls [$0.42 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
wolfy88s bets [$1.22 USD]
>You have options at Table 127771 Table!.
MajikzLady raises [$4.54 USD]
wolfy88s is all-In [$9.22 USD]
MajikzLady calls [$5.90 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
MajikzLady shows [ 7s, Ks ]a flush, King high.
wolfy88s doesn't show [ Kh, Ah ]two pairs, Aces and Threes.
MajikzLady wins $21.16 USD from the main pot with a flush, King high.

0 votes

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I think I'll just fold aces preflop from now on. I never win with them -_-

0 votes

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Heading off for a week to toronto. After sleeping off last night, I realize that my plays on the AA and JJ from my previous post were bad, and I'd never make those plays if I were playing online. But since it was live, I analyzed it differently than I normally would.

Hopefully I can fix this by the next time I play at the casino, but for now I'll be away and probably wont have time to play even online -- well, we'll see.

I probably need a break anyways!

0 votes

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headed out to casino tonight with friends, $1/2 NL full ring. We bought in for $200 at the same table and started playing.

I decided to play TAG, and basically followed Grot's guide.. So, raise pf with AQ+, limp with 88-, raise with 99+ lp. If I hit, then bet big..

the largest my stack ever got was $200.50 . I got up to it on the first hand I played, which I don't remember now. Then I just siphoned money off for the rest of the night. I won two hands total in the whole night.

The hands that took me out were thus:

hand 1: I'm at ~1 1/2 buy-in and make AA.

raised mid pos to $15, and got like 6 callers (I should have raised more, I guess). Flop comes KKQ. It checks around. Turn comes a 5. I lead for $20, folds to the CO and button who call. River is a blank, I put in $20 again, and both players call. CO shows a queen, button has the king. (Not exactly sure on the bet sizes, but I was left with ~80$. River bet was for value, and there might have been a flush draw on the board).

second hand, I get JJ on the button. I raise it to $10 pf, two people call. Flop comes QQT. Checks to me, I check. Turn comes 5, making a flush draw on the board. Checks to me, I push. One guy calls with Q5. To make it worse, the flush even hits on the river.

Yeah.

Good side is, my friends ran crazy good. One of them got to $500 before he cashed out. The other hit $400, but got sucked out on by a gutshot straight that hit on the river vs her trip kings, so she broke even.

All in all a fun night. Just wish I had been dealt at least SOME hands. I'm happy with my play though, since I stuck to my strategy and didn't tilt out at all.

0 votes

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