Doing the wrong thing

It seems that every blog entries I do now are griping about the horrible time I'm having at NL10. But I try to look on the bright side - it is having a maginificent effect on my ability to control my temper.

Two days ago I was stuck in Charles de Gaulle airport in a long queue for passport control. Everyone's flight was leaving in less than half an hour. The English were swearing at the French. The Americans were swearing at the French. Even the Italians were swearing at the French, and you know you have to be pretty damned slow to make an Italian worry about the time (or so I've heard).

Only I was not swearing at the French, because compared to the AA all in on flop villain hits a straight on turn hand I played before leaving the hotel, this was like getting a deep tissue massage. Not bad for a guy like me, who told a French customs official to shove a bottle of moisturiser up her ass the last time I was in France.

In the 5 months I have been playing poker, I haven't yet told anyone where they can shove their damned set. Possibly the only consolation I have, since Pokertracker is a sea of red right now.

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Comments (4)

NL10 is such a weird experience. The max I can win is 3 buy ins before I drop down to about -2 buy ins... then I'll start making it back but once I hit 3 buy ins everything goes haywire. Bad beats are part of it but I still think regular play should make up enough profit to cushion the impact of the bad beats. I've posted the stats for my last 5K hands (after I started playing a little more loosely PF. Trying to hover around 14/10). Anything badly wrong?



So... I'm not sure what I should do now. Right now I have nothing except this website and Pokertracker to help me. Are there other things I should start looking at like PAHUD or training videos and stuff? Or is NL10 too early for that?

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Comments (10)

Oh god, trying to do internet check in on Air France is just godawful... The main page can't even load properly. I hate Air France.

Twice a year there are 2 major TV conferences in Cannes that three of us from our company go for. This year my boss asks me, "how many of us should go?"

I give this long explanation of our company's aims and resources and conclude, "just one. You. 'cos you're the boss."

And he says, "I don't really want to go. You go."

And I have to go. 'cos he's the boss.

So in 5 hours I'm going to be stuck on one of Air France's crappy planes for like 12 hours or something to fly to Charles de Gaulle Airport. I'll be stuck in Charles de Gaulle Airport for SIX HOURS from 6am to 1240pm on a Sunday morning. That airport sucks. I'm seriously thinking that I should take a train into town and ATTEND MASS because there is BLOODY NOTHING TO DO in Charles de Gaulle Airport.

And I bet it's going to be fish or chicken on the flight. It is always bloody fish or chicken every single time I go, cooked in exactly the same way. Why can't they change the menu? Why can't they improve the quality so I don't stare in disgust at fish ala crap and refuse to let any of it pass my lips? They're French, right? They cook well, right?

Then after the stopover it's another flight to Nice, whose airport is anything but nice, and then a bus to Cannes. Then an UPHILL WALK with my luggage to the hotel in the middle of nowhere because there was only one room in one hotel near the conference venue in town available, and its bathroom was out of order.

And there is bloody NOTHING TO DO in Cannes when I don't have meetings. I've requested a Pokertrack reg no. for my laptop. I'm going to sit in my room playing poker for half of Wednesday, half of Thursday and the whole of Friday until my eyes bleed and my wrist cracks. That is, if the internet is working because it wasn't the last time I was there.

Oh, this is all I need after throwing sheep shit at orchids in the rain.

Thanks for reading. I feel better now. Bet I'll feel bloody awful in 5 hours time, though.

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Comments (7)

Possibly the worst bad beat I've ever had. I'm not sure whether to laugh or to cry.

Submitted by : thestoryteller

POKERSTARS GAME #16476250660: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.05/$0.10) - 2008/04/04 - 08:05:59 (ET)
Table 'Wempe II' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Karen668 ($9.90 in chips)
Seat 2: DerDudeESP ($1.60 in chips)
Seat 3: mcmoneysock ($5.90 in chips)
Seat 4: Dutchschult ($10.35 in chips)
Seat 5: Spleen25 ($11.85 in chips)
Seat 6: Raptor303 ($15.05 in chips)
Seat 7: give_hard ($9 in chips)
Seat 8: kammbo ($5 in chips)
Seat 9: Don Sensible ($5.70 in chips)
Karen668 : posts small blind $0.05
DerDudeESP: posts big blind $0.10

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Karen668
mcmoneysock: folds
Dutchschult: calls $0.10
Spleen25: folds
Raptor303: raises $0.30 to $0.40
give_hard: folds
kammbo: raises $0.60 to $1
Don Sensible: folds
Karen668 : raises $2 to $3
DerDudeESP: folds
Dutchschult: folds
Raptor303: folds
kammbo: raises $2 to $5 and is all-in
Karen668 : calls $2

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $10.60)

   

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $10.60)

   

River (Pot : $10.60)

   

Showdown
Karen668 : shows (a pair of Aces)
kammbo: shows (a flush, Ace high)
kammbo collected $10.10 from pot

Summary
Total pot $10.60 | Rake $0.50
Board  
Seat 1: Karen668 (small blind) showed and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: DerDudeESP (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: mcmoneysock folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Dutchschult folded before Flop
Seat 5: Spleen25 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Raptor303 folded before Flop
Seat 7: give_hard folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: kammbo showed and won ($10.10) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 9: Don Sensible (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

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Such a miserable, miserable day. Started playing poker about 5 hours ago. Massive coolers - 22 vs AA... I flop a set, he rivers an ace. AA vs 33... he flops a set and I don't river an ace.

Then comes a long period of zero action. And it's only happening to me. There are donks to the left of me. Donks to the right of me. And they are all winning and losing money in spectacular fashion. If you can shove the river with 8 high (and win), why can't you call my preflop raise?

Then I finally get action a pair of jacks. The flop comes in low. I hold the overpair. I bet, praying that the villain calls the flop with nothing. He does! I bet the turn. He raises. I shove. He shoves. I scream "THIS IS SPARTA!!!!" at the screen. The river is a queen. He turns over AQ. Fucking donk. Why the fuck did he call the flop with nothing?

Then it starts to rain. I have several orchids that can't take too much water. They're due for fertilising and watering tomorrow, but since it's raining, I can't water them tomorrow and I have to fertilise them now. Desperately check "Sit out next hand" 8 times and charge down the stairs. Grab the box of organic fertiliser labelled "sheep manure" from the top of the fridge. In Singapore, when it rains, it fucking rains. I squat in the balcony getting pelted by raindrops, desperately flinging lumps of sheep shit into orchid pots. One of the pots topples in the howling wind and I have to tie it to the railing to keep it upright, all the while getting wetter and wetter.

I go indoors, slip on the wet floor, towel myself dry and go play more poker.

I get dealt a pair of queens. The flop comes jack high. I bet. Villain check raises. I am in no mood to think about sets. I shove, praying that the villain will shove with top pair crappy kicker. He shoves. A 9 and a 7 come on the turn and river. He flips over J9 and wins the pot with two pairs. Fucking donk. Why the fuck did he shove the flop with top pair crappy kicker?


After 4,424 hands at NL10, I'm down by 1 U.S. dollar. Damn.

And my dog has been disgnosed with arthritis in her tail. There's no justice in this world.

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Comments (6)

Today I embarked on my quest to learn to deal with cbets and donks who bet itty bitty amounts on the flop even though I don't have the nuts ( http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-forum/443600/Betting_turn.html ).

I played a single table at PS trying to apply concepts like floating and trying to identify when someone's hand missed the flop for about an hour. I lost 16 bucks in less than 50 hands at NL10. I think the entire table was laughing at me. Can't blame them. When I look at my hand history I laugh at myself. I really looked like an idiot. And, of course, since I looked like an idiot people started playing back at my flop cbets and raises so I thought I'd better stop. Before I did, I got my flush that obviously hit on the river called because I looked like such an idiot that nobody took me seriously.

It's also tough because the stack sizes are now 100bb instead of 200 like at 5NL. It was so easy to get away from hands back then. Now every decent sized raise seems either a shove or a committment to a shove on the next street.

Funnily enough, to me, posting my hands on LP.net asking for help is tougher than playing poker. I always know that I'm asking a stupid question, or that I'm posting a lousy hand (otherwise I wouldn't be posting it!) but I just have to force myself to post it anyway.

In Singapore, people seldom get second chances after major screw ups. It's almost impossible to get a job with a criminal record, for instance. People tend to be rather dismissive of mistakes. Very few people speak up and ask for help for fear of looking dumb. That culture is changing with the internet encouraging people to speak up, but it's still very prevalent.

Experimenting with new concepts at the poker tables and looking foolish or posting badly played hands and asking for help is tough for me. I'm glad I'm continuing to do it.

In lieu of making big bucks at NL10, I guess something that makes me a slightly better person is some compensation.

I still want the big bucks, though.

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Comments (6)

It's been another 10K hands since I started seriously asking for advice here. I think the results speak for themselves.



I owe everyone a big thank you. Thank you LP.net!

Meanwhile, I'm preparing to move up to NL10. My BR is now USD250. I'll probably stay at NL5 a wee bit longer to grind out a bit of buffer before moving up. Thanks to the help I've received, my TT,JJ and AK hands which I used to have problems with are now showing nice profits.

However, I notice a large proportion of my profits are from nutcases going all in with QTo and stuff against my aces. How long will it be before this

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/412548

or this

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/412549

stops happening? Sometimes I play for a couple of hundred hands and find myself getting no action on any of my PF raises... I wonder if that's going to be the norm at higher stakes?

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Comments (6)

I used to play on Pacific Poker before I realised that the site didn't provide hand histories so it was impossible to learn anything there. Today I finally got round to taking all my money out. On the way I popped into a couple of the 2NL rooms and found the same nutjobs still there.

There was the guy who only plays one table at a time and folds. every. single. hand. He doesn't defend his blinds, he doesn't do anything. Like a viper lying in wait, he folds. And folds. And folds. Until he gets AA, KK or QQ. Then he shoves. And everyone else folds. And then he goes back to folding. And folding. And folding.

There was also the guy who always buys in for 10 big blinds - 20c. Always. For him, the concept of "don't min raise" is completely irrelevant. A min raise pre flop gives you the wrong odds to set mine. A min raise post flop is a shove.

On PS microstakes, the competition is just bad. People shove Qh6h preflop. (Can someone explain why? I wouldn't shove Qh6h preflop if I was playing with my dog) Or they chase draws without proper odds. But on Pacific, the players are in a totally different class.

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Comments (1)

I hate being sick. Have got a sore throat and a fever of 38.83C. Felt terrible yesterday afternoon and took the afternoon off work but couldn't sleep properly. Kept having weird dreams.

Decided to play poker since I couldn't sleep and felt like shit. Played about 650 hands in a semi-delirious state and ended up running at 47.37PTBB/100. Have decided to move up to NL5 after my fever but had $144.44 in my bankroll - very inauspicious number for Chinese. Played a couple more hands today and brought it up to 145.

Hopefully the fever subsides soon.

I'm very pleased with the improvement in my play so far. Consciously fixing one thing at a time like AK hands, increasing river AF and so on is helping a lot.

From first 10K hands to next 4,500 hands:

VPIP 11.49 to 12.65
PFR 4.89 to 5.05 (still working on this one)
Turn AF 2.5 to 3.29
River AF 1.33 to 1.57
Amount won 18 to 30
PTBB/100 4.26 to 17

My next goal is to learn to play Ax suited properly. Grot's guide implies that they do best in mulitway unraised pots, but lots of people say raise them up PF and others say fold PF. Maybe some of that is only applicable at 6max? I think at NL2 I can do ANYTHING with them and still show a profit, but I expect that as I move up, gems like this will become less common:

Submitted by : thestoryteller

POKERSTARS GAME #15706580007: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.01/$0.02) - 2008/03/03 - 07:41:08 (ET)
Table 'Almaak II' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: dk1989 ($1.70 in chips)
Seat 2: Flava2k5 ($5.06 in chips)
Seat 4: PoSt-JMB ($1.95 in chips)
Seat 5: AniracNata ($3.18 in chips)
Seat 6: Floryole ($3.43 in chips)
Seat 7: Lomcevak ($4.69 in chips)
Seat 8: Persephones ($4.96 in chips)
Seat 9: Karen668 ($5 in chips)
Persephones: posts small blind $0.01
Karen668 : posts big blind $0.02

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Karen668
dk1989: folds
Flava2k5 has timed out
Flava2k5: folds
Flava2k5 is sitting out
PoSt-JMB: raises $0.02 to $0.04
AniracNata: folds
Floryole: folds
Tiniohni joins the table at seat #3
Lomcevak: folds
Lomcevak is sitting out
Persephones: folds
Flava2k5 leaves the table
Karen668 : calls $0.02

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $0.09)

   
Karen668 : checks
PoSt-JMB: bets $1.91 and is all-in
Karen668 : calls $1.91

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $3.91)

   

River (Pot : $3.91)

   

Showdown
Karen668 : shows (a flush, Ace high)
PoSt-JMB: mucks hand
Karen668 collected $3.76 from pot

Summary
Total pot $3.91 | Rake $0.15
Board  
Seat 1: dk1989 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Flava2k5 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: PoSt-JMB mucked
Seat 5: AniracNata folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Floryole folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Lomcevak (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Persephones (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Karen668 (big blind) showed and won ($3.76) with a flush, Ace high

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Did I just receive a message from above?

A couple of days ago, I noticed that I was actually rolled for 5NL. Thanks to the advice I'd received my stats are soaring. In the 3,644 hands I've played since my last post, my turn AF has jumped from 2.5 to 3.56 and my river AF is creeping up. These two things alone have helped push my win rate to over 10BB/100 hands, more than double what it used to be (a large part of it is luck, of course, but I think the extra aggression is really helping too). I now have about $130, which I believe is on the border between 2NL and 5NL.

But if I was harbouring any thoughts of jumping into 5NL, this hand convinced me otherwise. http://www.liquidpoker.net/information/f/429644/Straight_vs._big_fat_bet.html

Ooo... the river call was bad... and embarrassing. How could I not have seen that one coming? And a 6 dollar mistake at 2NL is going to be worth 15 dollars at 5NL and 150 dollars at 50NL... Worst of all, it was an AK hand, the very hand I've been striving to improve.

Suddenly I didn't seem quite so ready for 5NL. I decided to stick around down here and grind a bit more till I get my basics right.

Here's the weird part: as soon as I'd decided that, another hand came along which involved no skill at all. I was in a 3 way pot. The flop comes 4d, Kh, 6d. The two nutcases in with me decide that top pair mid kicker is a great hand to get all in on. They shove. I shove. Unfortunately for the two nuts, I have them by the nuts because I've got the nuts - a set of sixes that turns into quads on the turn. It was complete and utter domination. As I watched the chips slide over to my seat, saw the two players leave the table and watched someone mumble "nh" in the chat, I felt the strange urge to go watch "300" half a dozen times.

The pot just about took me to the level I'd have been had I not called that river shove. The message from above could not have been clearer. Looks like I'll be at 2NL for a long, long time.

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Comments (6)