Pulda\'s blog

Last night, I had an interesting dream.

I was travelling home by train. There was a sympatic girl accompanying me. It seemed she was my girlfriend in that dream, although I don't have a girlfriend in reality I think she actually wasn't anyone I know either. Anyway, we're in the waiting room of a train station and we encounter my former chess coach there. He's travelling to attend a chess tournament and although it's someplace else, he'll be taking the same train. I haven't seen him in a year or two, so I'm kind of surprised and we start chatting. He asks me what I'm doing.

I tell him:
"I'm into investments".
"Ah, stock market or something like that?"
I hesitate.
"Umm, not really. I play poker", I say finally.
"Ah, that's pretty bad", he responds.

I'm confused. I realise he misunderstood and thinks that instead of playing chess - a game of skill and intellect, I'm using my free time to play a game of chance and degeneracy, gambling away my hard-earned cash. Maybe he even thinks I'm an addict.

I don't wan't him to think that. I want to explain to him how things really are. But at that moment, we hear a train arriving.
"That must be our train", my girlfriend says.
We need to catch it, so we start to run. I'm pretty sure we can talk about everything onboard. We arrive just on time, but realise that it's not our train. My coach asks the conductor:

"Where the hell is the train to Brno? I'm not gonna make it this way."
"It's delayed", the response is. "Where are you going actually?"
"Zlin."
"Oh, you can take this train then. You just need to change along the way."
"Good, thanks."

My coach quickly rushes in the train which is about to leave any second. The door closes and I don't see him anymore. The train makes a loud noise, starts to pick up on speed and is gone.

THE END

Possibly there would be more to this, but when this happened, Zulit (&*#@%^) woke me up. Also, as my dreams are usually very detailed (I can remember the exact look of the train station, the train, what the people had on.. etc.), there was some less important stuff (like conversations with my gf), that I don't remember that well as I'm writing this (it's already night).

I'm pretty sure the events in this dream mean something (they may transition to some real life concerns etc.) and I think I've probably even figured out most of it. Maybe I'll ask an expert to tell me more Hopefully this is also a prophecy, saying that I'll meet a nice chick soon. ;p

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Played some HU today.

Results:

Submitted by : Pulda

PokerStars Game #15292087857: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/02/14 - 22:53:17 (ET)
Table 'Kolga V' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Pulda8 ($156.55 in chips)
Seat 2: Juegador ($179.30 in chips)
Juegador: posts small blind $0.50
Pulda8 : posts big blind $1

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Pulda8
Juegador: raises $3 to $4
Pulda8 : raises $10 to $14
Juegador: calls $10

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $28.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $24
Juegador: raises $35 to $59
Pulda8 : raises $83.55 to $142.55 and is all-in
Juegador: calls $83.55

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $313.10)

   

River (Pot : $313.10)

   

Showdown
Pulda8 : shows (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Juegador: shows (a flush, King high)
Juegador collected $312.60 from pot

Summary
Total pot $313.10 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Pulda8 (big blind) showed and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 2: Juegador (button) (small blind) showed and won ($312.60) with a flush, King high

PokerStars Game #15292767268: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/02/14 - 23:44:11 (ET)
Table 'Kolga V' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Pulda8 ($154.95 in chips)
Seat 2: Juegador ($298.90 in chips)
Juegador: posts small blind $0.50
Pulda8 : posts big blind $1

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Pulda8
Juegador: raises $2 to $3
Pulda8 : raises $8 to $11
Juegador: calls $8

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $22.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $17
Juegador: calls $17

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $56.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $41
Juegador: raises $229.90 to $270.90 and is all-in
Pulda8 : calls $85.95 and is all-in

River (Pot : $309.90)

   

Showdown
Pulda8 : shows (a pair of Aces)
Juegador: shows (a straight, Five to Nine)
Juegador collected $309.40 from pot

Summary
Total pot $309.90 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Pulda8 (big blind) showed and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Juegador (button) (small blind) showed and won ($309.40) with a straight, Five to Nine

PokerStars Game #15291455782: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/02/14 - 22:10:48 (ET)
Table 'Kolga V' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Pulda8 ($213.45 in chips)
Seat 2: pinopc ($139.45 in chips)
pinopc: posts small blind $0.50
Pulda8 : posts big blind $1

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Pulda8
pinopc: calls $0.50
Pulda8 : raises $3 to $4
pinopc: raises $3 to $7
Pulda8 : raises $8 to $15
pinopc: calls $8

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $30.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $23
pinopc: calls $23

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $76.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $46
pinopc: raises $54 to $100
Pulda8 : raises $54 to $154
pinopc: calls $1.45 and is all-in

River (Pot : $278.90)

   

Showdown
Pulda8 : shows (a pair of Nines)
pinopc: shows (a pair of Aces)
pinopc collected $278.40 from pot

Summary
Total pot $278.90 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Pulda8 (big blind) showed and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 2: pinopc (button) (small blind) showed and won ($278.40) with a pair of Aces

PokerStars Game #15292962756: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/02/15 - 00:00:53 (ET)
Table 'Kolga V' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Pulda8 ($127.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Juegador ($515.75 in chips)
Juegador: posts small blind $0.50
Pulda8 : posts big blind $1

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Pulda8
Juegador: raises $3 to $4
Pulda8 : raises $11 to $15
Juegador: calls $11

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $30.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $23
Juegador: calls $23

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $76.00)

   
Pulda8 : bets $45
Juegador: raises $48 to $93
Pulda8 : calls $44.50 and is all-in

River (Pot : $255.00)

   

Showdown
Pulda8 : shows (two pair, Aces and Fives)
Juegador: shows (a full house, Fives full of Deuces)
Juegador collected $254.50 from pot

Summary
Total pot $255 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Pulda8 (big blind) showed and lost with two pair, Aces and Fives
Seat 2: Juegador (button) (small blind) showed and won ($254.50) with a full house, Fives full of Deuces

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It's commonly known, that poker is a very unsure source of income over a short period of time.
"No! If I 24table NL50 FR 15 hours a day, I can't lose! mwhahahahah, FU variance!", is what I thought.
Well, turns out I was wrong
I played for 30 hours total during friday and saturday. I broke even (and that's only thanks to Sunday Million SNGs). It's all OK though coz I are dunecat!





On a more serious note now: even though I think I was running very bad, this made me question my play of course. I think it's nearly impossible for one to lose this way if he's playing at least decent - the probability of this is definitely much much lower than the probability that one's a donk.

I was very confused at first - for the most part, I was playing standard low-variance ABC poker, the way it's worked for me in the past when mass-tabling at the low-mid stakes - and still was losing. But as I didn't want to believe that this is just pure bad luck, I was searching till I actually found some leaks. Most importantly, I was definitely being too agressive in certain bad spots (this is also, I believe, why I was having some sick swings lately)... I brought this idea up before Joe, who thought for a while and then agreed that it's probably true. Another thing that played a role is definitely that I just wasn't playing focused enough or, more precisely, not thinking enough about most spots, the more "trivial" ones in particular. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal as I was used to playing lots of tables really fast, but after the downswing I had, I just wasn't in a good enough shape to handle this. So my plan in FR will now be to play a few sessions of just about 12 tables (maybe even less, I'll see) and when I can crush the game again, I'll switch to playing more again. I used to have some very nice winrates on nl100 and nl200 before, so this shouldn't be that big of a problem, I hope.

UBB code:
1) Somehow, not all the hands are included. I was actually down less and also made up for it with SNGs.
2) Sick rake. Why does there have to be a rake? *&$#%^ ;p
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Besides FR though, I've played some 6-max too. On friday, Joe offered me (by himself - he's sometimes a very cool guy ^_^) that he'll sweat me for a while if I want. "Why not?", I replied. And as Joe is no FR player, I loaded up some 6-max tables. I definitely picked up something during that session, but because Joe unfortunately has an aura that devours everyone's luck and adds it to his own, I ended up losing $150 (I think I've always lost when he's sweated me ;p).
Then again on Saturday, when I was quite frustrated from how FR was going, I decided to put my roll on Cake Poker to play some SH. I had rakeback there, a deposit bonus and the games were rumoured to be extremely soft. Saturday evening and all of today (played for only about 8 hours today though) I was 4-tabling nl50 6max there. The players were really terrible and although there were some runner-runners, I managed to win about $400 there (also probably about $100 from RB). Somewhere in between, I also watched a CardRunners 6-max vid by Brystmar and picked up a few interesting tips. After today's session, I now have found some sick things the players at Cake like to do and that I can exploit easily. For example, everyone loves to bluff pot on the river - they do this sooo often (probably caused by the combination of the bet pot button and their retardedness).

There's a sad bottom line to playing on Cake though. The software crashes extremely often, at least for me. What's worse, sometimes it will start flickering all of a sudden and fills all of my screen (actually my both screens) with artifacts. I tried searching different forums but found no solution. I tried messaging support, but it's been over 24 hours and they haven't answered me
Unless I can fix this, which is not likely as long as I'm playing on the same PC, I can't really play here. I've survived this for 2 days, but enough is enough. I'm moving my roll back to PS, where I'll probably play both FR and 6-max.

Take care and sorry for the length. ;p

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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Hey, everyone!
So, in the light of some recent events (I think they call it bankroll destruction or something like that), I finally decided to start a blog (been toying with the idea for a long time).

Although I've been around for quite some time already and I'm on ventrilo fairly often, most of you probably don't know me, as I usually just lurk around the forums and only post from time to time.
Therefore:

INTRO
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So, a little bit about myself: I'm 20, my name's Ondrej and I'm from Czech Republic. I'm currently living in a house in Brno with Joe, who is known here, and 3 other guys (Bab, Dante, Zulit). Poker has been my main source of income for several months now, playing mostly nl100 and nl200 FR and HU on PokerStars. After cashing out a lot and also losing a rather big part of my roll due to sick lifetilt combined with HU variance, I have now decided to stick to 24-tabling nl50 FR for some time to put my game back together and make some safe money. After I make about 20 buy-ins, I plan on switching back to nl100. This blog should monitor how well I'm doing in that and my progress onto higher stakes.

My overall goals in poker: These are set very high, as I'm really enjoying the game and believe that I have what it takes to get there and just need to work very hard. I obviously still have a very long way to go, but I will be constantly trying to put as much effort into improving as a player as possible. May this post be a reminder to me at all times!
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Today's play:

So, after waking up in the afternoon , I dressed up and almost immediately fired up PokerStars. The session went well and I was about $120 up after an hour. Then I quit and went for a lunch with Joe, the psychopat. We went to the city to a recently reopened restaurant to try it out. I ordered some garlic soup and chicken on kari with mushroom rice. The soup was not bad, but I expected better for its price. The main course itself was good, but the rice was not. I'll have to choose better the next time.

When we got back, I made some work on a webpage I'm starting with Dante and then launched PokerStars again. I played for about 3.5 hours and won another $70. Not much for the time, but I think I was playing good, just got sucked out on quite a lot, so I'm ok with that. The only thing that made me a bit angry is, that I made a rather bad push in a Sunday Million SNG sat, which I was playing at the same time. That probably cost me the tourney and a possible $208.55 with it. Oh well, I can play another one tomorrow.



I won't post any hands, as the winning ones are too standard to be interesting and I don't feel like whining about the losing ones. ^_^
I plan on playing longer tomorrow. We shall see how it goes.
Good night, sleep tight!

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Disclaimer: I have no idea how frequently I'll be updating this blog. After some time I may decide to move it to my czech poker site (currently in development). Maybe I'll update it every day. Maybe not at all. Who knows - I just felt like giving it a try.

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