November recap

Even though it's getting pretty cold outside, the sun is shining on my pokergame!

November was great: at one point I was up $39 in 1.400 hands but then I dropped back to $23 in 1.800 hands. I'm guessing some of it was playing a little better and some of it was just hitting well. December has started out nice too: up $18 in 400 hands.

Like I wrote earlier, I decided to focus on my game instead of volume and bb/100 and since I made that shift mid October, I won $58 in 3.500 hands (40 bb/100!!). I know the sample is very small and that kind of results isn't sustainable, but I'm just hoping I'm finally heading in the right direction.

May the cards be with you!

Are the tides turning?

I have been playing less poker the last few weeks: less sessions and shorter sessions. I only sat down at the tables when I really wanted to play and felt really focused on playing well.

Maybe I'm just running hot but still playing bad, but things started to improve, moving from - $23 mid October to - $8 by the end of October. This month I have only played 700 hands but I'm up $21 for a whopping 75 BB/100 (definately on a heater). I'm still learning, making plenty of mistakes but enjoying the game.

Still running bad

Pfffff, things aren't really turning around as this is becoming yet another loosing month.

It seems that the more I read and the more I try to play by the book: a solid tight but agressive style, the worse my results are.

The last few sessions I have been playing 18/8/2.5, raising with consideration of position and table, only calling raises with strong hands or good odds but it's not getting me anywere.

Yesterday I lost about $5. I really felt I was at least playing ok but I didn't hit anything big except one set and that turned out to be a set over set hand...

It is very frustrating to not hit any hands and getting run out when I do have somewhat of a hand.

It's not all bad luck though, the set over set hand shouldn't have cost me a buyin and I made a few smaller (and cheaper) mistakes. I do try to keep learning from them and it feels like I'm understanding the game better and better but I'm just not seeing that in my results.

The weird thing is I can spot lots of players that make frequent and rather big mistakes, but someone else is always profiting from those instead of me.

I still enjoy playing though and it's not like I have to worry about the money I'm loosing at the moment, but it is hard to keep motivated if there's no improvement to be noticed.

I'm considering moving some of my bankroll to a new site that offers rakeback. Half of my roll is just sitting there on Titan because I need to pick up a lot of titan points to be able to withdraw my bonus there, but that's just not possible on the micro-stakes tables plus there's not a lot of players. I mainly play at Partypoker, because there's a lot of tables and I like the software but their loyalty program is not interesting for lowstakes players and they offer no rakeback.

Well, I guess I should just keep on trying...

Have fun at the tables!!!

September disaster

I have not played any poker for the last 10 days. Why? Because I lost big time. I'm down $26 for this month and I did not achieve any of my goals for September.

I lost about $10 at the 4NL tables. I started ok but then had one horrible session of -$18.
I ended a very slight winner at the 2NL tables but took a rather big hit of -$16 at the 10NL tables in just one session. Now it's not all that terrible in terms of $. I lost a buyin when I got drawn out but I also lost a buyin when villain spikes a Q on the river to make top two pair against my two pair. So I was ahead in that hand but really shouldn't have called the shove on the river.

I keep making the same mistakes, playing good most of the time but making few but very expensive mistakes. I do feel I need to get the pressure off since there seems to be more focus on putting in as many hands as possible and playing very result-oriented. I really need to just focus on my game and forget about volume or bb/100 for a while. I have to be honest to myself and realize I don't have enough of an edge to be able to muli-table and get great results.

So because I was playing bad and obviously not feeling great about it, I took a little break.

The next few days I will start playing again, but I will stick to 1 table at 4NL and a couple of 2-tables session at 2NL. The only goal for October is to focus on every single hand, pay attention to the table and take the time for every decision. Just try to play a tight aggressive ABC-poker game. So let's see how that works out first and then take it from there.

Luck runs out...

A hand problem

Here is a hand I played yesterday and when I looked back on it, I didn't really I played it well or not:

Villain raises to 10 BB ($0.20) in MP and it gets folded to me.
I'm on the cutoff with pocket queens and I decide to reraise to 25 BB.
I had two reasons: the intial raise was pretty big and I wanted to know if I was up against Aces or Kings, and I didn't want anyone behind me to enter the pot.

Villain just calls the reraise. I really think he would have reraised me if he had Aces or Kings because he was out of position. Since, I don't think he would have raised with small pocket pairs or called with hands like AQ, AJ, I put him on QQ, JJ, TT maybe AK or a smaller pocket pair.

The flop comes 10, 7, 2 rainbow and he checks it to me.
At this point I have about 120 BB left (villain has me covered) and the pot is 100 BB and I shove it. At the time I thought I was very likely to be ahead (unless he did have Aces or Kings or made a set with 10's). He called and showed a pair of Jacks and I took the pot.

So even though I won the hand, I'm not too sure I should have shoved there. I would not have called the push with Jacks so against a better player it might have been better to bet less to induce a call?

What would have been the right play if I had had 200 BB or more behind?

Feel free to comment...

2NL is a crazy place

Because I wasn't feeling top notch yesterday, I decided to sit down at a few 2NL tables at Pokerstars. I only played some 500 hands and made a little profit, but nothing big.

One hand did remind me 2NL is like the bottom of the food chain in poker.
There is an UTG raise to 4BB and I make the call OTB with pocket 8's. The BB decides to reraise to 10 BB. Now the initial raisers shoves (he had about 60 BB), and because I'm thinking at least one of them has to have my 8's beat, I fold. The BB calls the shove.
Well, UTG had a pair of deuces and the BB had KQo...
UTG's deuces held up and he takes the pot.

I did remember players at this level tend not think too much and some even forget earlier streets in a hand: in a 3-way pot, I'm drawing to a flush that I make on the turn. I decide to check it and simply call the bet. On the river, I make a donkbet of 2$ hoping at least one of my opponents is foolish enough to call me and sure enough one of them makes the call.

You see a myraid of extreme styles at these tables: übernits with stats like 4/1/0.2 and wannabe bullies with stats around 35/25/6. I don't mind the first group at all. Most of the time they'll only stay in the hand with the absolute nuts. The second group is a bit more frustrating: you know they'll get stacked sooner or later, but they raise so many pots, you can't really call (because of position). Actually, raises get no respect at all. Raising to 4 or 5 BB has no effect: you'll still end up in a 4-way pot a lot of time.

Well, I want to pick up another 10-15 BI at this stake and then I hope I'll never have to look back.

When you're not feeling well...

... you probably shouldn't play any poker. I've been having head-aches the last few days and I'm feeling very tired. Whereas a couple of weeks/months ago, that wouldn't have stopped me from playing poker, I decided not to play. I most likely would have played a horrible game and lost some or a lot of my bankroll, so it's better to sit it out.

I did watch all episodes of Poker After Dark, the cash game with durrr, helmuth, baxter etc. Even though I think High Stakes is a better show, it sure was interesting to see how different these players play the game. I was very impressed with Dwan's play: he seemed to know where he was in just about every hand. Helmuth behaved (and played) like his usual childish self, so nothing new there. I just think his style is not the most succesful in the toplevel poker of today. Cunningham was solid as usual.

Overall not a bad show, but the host is a joke and the commentary wasn't all that great either. Putting Baxter, Cunningham and Laliberté in one show didn't do much for interesting table talk. Next time, throw Matusow, Laak or Negreanu in the mix guys!

Cya next time!

When luck smiles upon you...

... you can win even when playing bad.

And playing a poor game is what I did yesterday. I even called an allin donkbet on the flop with top pair (just don't ask me why). Obviously I was beat. Again I was making bad calls all over the place, though somehow I managed to only loose 3 big pots: the donkbet, a set over set hand (where a third flushcard on the turn did save me some money) and a flopped top pair (Jacks) against pocket kings.

How did I manage that? Well, being lucky comes to mind. On at least three hands, I was well behind on the flop and caught up nicely :) In one of those hands, I raised on the flop with the nut flush draw, fired again on the turn and made a big bet on the river when I had hit my flush. I figured I had some folding equity on the flop and knew my opponent wouldn't put me on a flush if I hit. The guy had two pair on the turn, but failed to reraise me.

Even better than drawing out: I hit full house twice when my opponent had a set which won me 2 BI. First hand I call a raise with 99. The flop comes A, 9, blank and the raiser bets again and calls my reraise. The turn is a blank and my bet is called again, so I put him on AK, AQ, AJ, maybe AA (though he would have reraised me on the flop). The river brings a beautiful A, so I push and I get a call with AQ.

You would think that drawing out a couple of times and getting these great hands would mean a big winning session right? I ended up with $6 in about 700 hands, so that's how bad I played.

Two things give me hope: I have been up 5 consecutive sessions now and my results could even have been a lot better because most of the time I only loose small pots and the very few big ones are just bad luck or spots where I made mistakes that I know I can get rid of.

Now I just have to prove that...

Down and up

I was very motivated to make a good start for this month when I sat down at the tables last night. The cards, however, decided differently.

First I suffer the classical 2-outer: I raise in EP with AA, get reraised, reraise again etc. so we end up all in preflop. My opponent has kings and sure enough, he hits a king on the turn.

Only a couple of hands later, I limp in EP with 44 and three other players limp as well.
The flop comes 2, 4, 6 rainbow and I bet out and get reraised. We end up going all in (my bad) and they guy had flopped a straight. So, a bit of a cooler there.

So now I'm down about $9 and I'm quite frustrated but I told to myself this was a chance to overcome tilt and I tried to schake it off.

It took me another 800 hands to end the day up $2.50.

All things considered, that's not a bad result: I hadn't gotten that many great hands (and even less great flops) and if those two hands went the other way, I could have been up $22. I did play ok, showing plenty aggression and making a couple of good (at least I think) laydowns. I did call some riverbets I shouldn't have, but since the pots where smallish, that didn't hurt too much.

Better luck next time....

Reasonable session last night

I had a great session at 4NL, though I only played some 350 hands, I won over two BI.
I won a big pot of over $6 and generally played tight but aggressive, picking up uncontested pots and I got pretty good cards as well. Only after 5 minutes into the game, I flop a straight on two tables at the same time :) Didn't get paid on those though :(

After that I decided to play some 6-max at the 2NL tables on PokerStars. I think I've played less than 500 hands 6-max so I'm not used to that at all. I quickly drop two BI because I'm way too loose (35/25) and call too many hands with just a pair or even less. I try to be aggressive pre-flop but these guys just call all the time and often one of them catches the right card to win the pot. After a couple of rounds I decide to tighten up and that seems to work a little better. I do end up loosing $7 after getting sucked out on in a big pot.

Overall not a very succesful 6max introduction, so I plan on reading a bit more first and play a much more conservative and tight style next time I sit at 6max table.
You do get a better feel for your opponents style though. After a few rounds you really see who's playing from all positions, who's never raising, who's folding to pressure etc. On the other hand it's a lot more swingy and you're put in marginal situations more often. It was fun though:)

Shuffle up and deal!

Becoming a better poker player?

For me, poker is a hobby, it's fun, it's challenging and (like it or not) it's definately addicting.
So, poker is in my head a lot of the time, to be honest a bit more than I'd like it to be, but I'm like an addiction-magnet.

At this point, I'm crushing the very lowest limit (2NL), which of course has no merit at all. Only one stake up (and thus still at the very bottom of poker levels) at the 4NL, I'm breaking even after some 13k hands, which at worst means I have no talent at all and at best may indicate I'm a slow learner. At least, I think that's what it means. Perhaps it's absolutely normal and I should not expect to have improved significantly until having played at least 50k hands. I just have no idea.

Poker is about making the right decisions and, especially online, being able to make these decisions very fast. When making a decision, sometimes knowing the strength of your own hand is enough. More often, it involves being able to estimate what your opponent is likely to have. Sometimes it involves even more: knowing what you opponent thinks you might have and beyond.

A lot of factors are to be taken into account: hand ranges, playing style, betting patterns, table image, outs, people still to act behind you etc. etc. You need to be able to analyse your opponents: what hands do they play and how do they play them? How do they think you play?

There's just a ton of information that needs to be noticed, analysed and remembered so it can be used in future decisions. Now, this is a challenge for one opponent and there's up to 9 opponents at the table. And you might be playing 4 tables at a time................

Can I learn this? Will I be able to get better at it? Do I have the right qualities to become even a mid-stakes or low-stakes winning player? And what are those qualities? An eye for detail? An excellent memory? A lot of experience? Strong statistical and mathematical insight? Patience? Discipline? Stamina? Can you train that stuff? Is becoming a great poker player more difficult than becoming a chess master or is it easier? Can almost anyone become a decent player or will most not even get much better than a total noob?

I'm reading the books here and putting in a lot of hours and thought (for a mere hobby that is), I'm reviewing some of the hands where I made mistakes. I'm watching some video's, practising calculating odds and hand ranges... Will that make me a better player?

Often when I read a hand review or an explanation of hand by a top player or even a mid-stakes player, I'm thinking: how can he think about all that stuff in a couple of seconds and while probably playing at least 3 other tables at the same time?

Well, obviously I have a lot of questions. Maybe I'm just being impatient and I'm overestimating the 'learning' ability of other players and most people don't improve faster than I do. Or maybe I should quit playing multible tables and really focus on one table to improve on all aspects of the game first and then try playing more tables at a time. Or maybe, I should head back to the play money tables and just have fun without the pressure of having to win, but also without any reward or feelings of accomplishment.

So, if anyone out there has the answers: tell me :)

For now, I'll just keep trying...

Goals for September

I've been hovering at break even at the 4NL tables for over 10,000 hands now so I definately want to improve my results next month. I'll also be playing the 2NL on Pokerstars to build my bankroll there and take a few stabs at the 10NL 6-max tables over at Titan Poker.

So here are my goals for September:

Cash games

• PokerStars: 6-tabling the 2NL full-ring tables: 2,000 hands at 30 BB/100 for +$12
• PartyPoker: 4-tabling the 4NL full-ring tables: 5,000 hands at 10 BB/100 for +$20
• Titan Poker: 2-tabling the 10NL 6-max tables: 1,000 hands at 5 BB/100 for +$5

I have been playing about 5k hands per month uptil now but I definately want to put in a few more hours to get to 8k hands.

Other

• Read some articles about playing 6max (I may switch from fr to 6max).
• Download and test a free video making tool (I'd like to post a couple of session to get some feedback).
• Play at least one live poker session. (I'm really looking forward to that, even though we'll probably end up playing with playmoney or at €0.01-€0.02, which is fine).

Back from a great vacation

In short: France was sunny, warm, fun and relaxing. I had a great time with my family, spent a lot of time having fun with the boys in the pool and I even got around to read two pokerbooks and watch a lot of poker videos on my Ipod.

Back to playing now and after a month of July, I was eager to do better this month.
So far it's going ok: I played about 3000 hands at the 4NL tables on Partypoker and I'm up $15 there. I also want to build a bankroll on PokerStars so I deposited $15 and after some 1500 hands that's up $12.

Results could have been better: one misclick costed me $4 and I also misread a board (because I was involved in a hand on all 4 tables), thinking I had a straight when I didn't, which cost me another $3. I managed to not tilt though :)

Played a fun hand where I raise preflop with 99 and get one caller. I flop quads, make a halfpot bet to make it look like a cbet and my caller decides to pull a bluff for almost his entire stack on me.

I reviewed some of my sessions and I still make too many donkcalls even though I'm getting better at avoiding those.

In order to play more disciplined I decided to use some chips. I put 3 stacks of 3 chips in front of me: the reds are for bluffs, so I limit myself to 3 bluffs in about 500 hands. The blues are for calling down suspicious bets, like if I have a decent hand like at least TPTK and the villain bets into me or makes a play that doesn't make sense. Calling those hands all the time is what makes me loose money, but folding every time seems a big leak too. Finally, the blacks chips are for (costly) mistakes, so whenever I make a big mistake, I put one chip aside. When all three are gone, the session is over.

I will try this the next couple of sessions and see how it works out, but it seems like a good idea.

I decided to play a few multi-table SNG's as well and I did ok: 5th out of 27, 12th out of 45 and 20 out of 27 doesn't seems all that bad, considering I never play MTT's or SNG's. I might play a few more of them on PokerStars cause it's good practice and I nice change from grinding the cash-tables.

'till next time!

Astafas

May the cards be with you

A difficult decision or not?

Here's a situation I'm struggling with:

I'm dealt pocket Aces in LP and raise to be called by one villain in MP.
Flop shows a rainbow K, 6, 3 and the villain bets 2/3 of the pot into me.

What could he have?

• pocket kings? unlikely because he limped and just called a raise
• two pair? unlikely, I don't see him calling a raise with a K6 or 63 out of position.
• pocket 66 or pocket 33? these are possible hands that fit his pattern.
• a draw? he might have an open ended straight draw or a gutshot draw, but would he bet that?
• a bluff? possible, but that would be a very daring play

So, I'm basically thinking he probably has a set or there is a small chance he is bluffing.

I played this hand like a total donk (cause I was tilting) by calling his bets on all streets. I should have laid it down when he bet again on the turn.

Still, I'm wondering what the right play is here.

Folding on the flop was the correct play of course, but wouldn't this be extremely weak? If I start folding top pairs on the flop everytime I get bet into, I feel like like a sitting duck: just bet me and I'll fold.

Looking back on that hand, calling doesn't feel right either. Most likely, I'll be facing another bet on the turn and be in the same spot again, only for more money.

I'm now thinking I should have reraised him on the flop. If he 3bets or even goes all-in, I have an easier laydown, cause I doubt he would take a bluff this far. It would be lost money, but now I did loose even more on later streets. The alternative would be to just call and give up on the turn if the villain bets again.

I definately would like some feedback on this, so feel free to post your thoughts.

The problem hands

Last night I digged into my holdem manager stats to find out if my lack of results at the 4NL tables is a matter of running bad or playing bad.

Two things were noticable: results per position and my top loosing hands.

Results per position:

• early: a little down
• middle: a little down
• cutoff: a little up
• button: big winner
• small blind: huge looser
• big blind: big winner

So, the first thing to work on is my play from the small blind: I'm playing way too many hands (VPIP of over 40%). So, the next sessions I'll tighten up there and see how that works.

Top loosing hands:

My biggest loosing hands are the so called problem hands: KQo, KJo, QJo, KQs. I'm also loosing big with hands like ATo, KTo etc. It seems I tend to play these hands very often and from almost any position. So, I plan on laying them down a lot more often in EP and MP, especially when facing a raise and just try limping with these hands. I guess I should also play these hands a lot more careful when flopping just a pair.

Overall, my top hands are high pocket pairs, most middle and bottom pairs, suited connectors and a few other hands like ofsuit connectors and suited one-gappers that got lucky.

So two things to focus on the next sessions: tighten up from the small blind and play the 'problem hands' less and more conservative. Hopefully this will help to turn things around.

Sometimes poker is like riding a rollercoaster

After my last session, where I lost almost 4 buyins (I play $0.02-$0.04 with a $5 buyin), I really hoped to do better this time. The start was looking good as played some tight but aggressive poker and I got up something like $3. Then it hit me again: loosing three big pots in a short time, two of which I got in with the best hand and the other one being up against a flopped set with my flopped two pair. And there it was: down another $13.

The only difference with the big loosing session before was that I felt I was playing at least ok and the cards were just against me. So I kept playing (after taking a 10 min. break to calm down) and slowly I got some back. About an hour later I felted a guy so I got up to -$4.

I was looking to call it a day when I'm dealt pocket kings in later position and I smooth call a raise in EP from a fairly tight player. Now the flop shows a queen and two lows and the initial raiser bets about 2/3 of the pot. A bit much for a c-bet so I figured he might have QQ, AQ or maybe JJ or TT. At that point I was a bit worried he might have QQ and if he did, I would be way behind. The turn is a blank and he bets again, again about 2/3 of the pot. So now I'm pretty confident he has either QQ or AQ. I make a questionable call, but the pot is getting pretty big now and I'm kinda committed. For once, the cards like me and the river brings a much needed king. The rest of the money goes in and I pick up the pot having sucked out 'cause the other guy did have pocket queens.

That brought me to a $1 up and I decide to take another break. That luckbox hand did make a big difference (down $9 or up $1) but after all these suckouts against me the last two sessions, I guess I was due.

After a short break I fired up Titan Poker to play one table of 6-max 10NL. Only played for about half an hour but managed to win a few pots and earn little over $3 so that was nice.

I'm still a bit down because of my previous session, which threw me back big time, but I'm not giving up on poker just yet.

Sayonara!

Worst session ever

Yup,

yesterday evening was definately my session ever. I won a lot of small pots but managed to loose every single big one. I played like a complete donkey, that much is for sure. The decks were after me too: whenever I flopped a set, nobody had anything, but when I got a big starting hand like AA of JJ, sure enough, some guy flopped a set.

To make things worse I tilted. I kept telling myself I wasn't but I was.

So it seems a habit: I play a couple of solid and winning sessions and then blow it of in one big loosing session. It's probably a blessing I'm going on a vacation soon so I won't be able to play poker for a month.

I'm just so frustrated at this point. If I can't win a this level, what realistic expectation can there be I could win at even higher levels in the future?

Tonight I will play again though but if I keep making these horrible mistakes, I guess I should think about quitting.

DAMN!

Cashing out my original deposits

Thanks to my winnings at the 2NL tables and a total of just over $200 in bonusses, I did earn enough to cash out my original deposits of $390 and still have a bankroll that is big enough to keep playing at the 4NL tables.

Even though I realize cashing out this early will delay moving up to the 10NL tables, it's just a nice feeling playing poker for free and trying to continue building my bankroll without putting any money of my own into it.

So my bankroll has fallen back from $616 to $227 but none of it is my own money :)

Results for June 2008

Another month has passed so it's time to recap...

My goals for June were:

• Clear the bonus at Partypoker: good, I picked up the $25 bonus
• Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL: ok, I played 4,700 hands at 4NL and 230 hands at 10NL
• Win $30: bad, I earned a whopping $3.58

After my bad start at the 4NL tables in May, I was eager to do better this month and the first half of the month DID go very well as I was up $21. In the next 5 sessions I lost $21 so I was back to zero. At that point I decided to cut back on the multi-tabling and just played on two tables, which would allow me to make better decisions and actually pay attention to how my opponents are playing. So, my meagre profit for this month is a result of my last two sessions.

Up until now, I have played a total of almost 9,000 hands at 4NL and lost $1 to show for it.

I have been looking back on several specific hands and most big losses were just bad plays. It also seems I'm playing some starting hands such as AJo, KQo, KJo and QJo far too often and far too optimistic.

Statwise, I'm hovering at about VPIP: 24%, PFR: 6%, PFA: 1.4

So, these are heading in the right direction, but I feel I still need to show more aggression and less limping.

No goals for July because I'll be enjoying a much anticipated vacation to France in a couple of days.

I downloaded all episodes of High Stakes to my ipod and will pack my Harrington on Cash games volumes so I can study some more while in France.

Enjoy the game!

Results for May

(June 6, 2008)

Another month has passed, so it's time to look back...

Goals for May

• play at least 2500 hands on 2NL Success, I played almost 2700 hands on 2NL
• win at least $20 Succes, picked up $27
• get to a BR of $160 Succes, bankroll at $177
• avoid getting careless: stay on target!! Success, well, at least at the 2NL
• get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games) Success, got me a copy of Harrington on Cash 1&2, which I'm currently reading.

Because I reached my goals pretty fast, I moved up to the 4NL during the month, starting at Partypoker so I could pick up a bonus from Party and pokersourceonline.

After about 2500 hands I was down $27 so I was disappointed. I couldn't believe 4NL was that much tougher than 2NL (though there definately is a step up), so I decided to tighten up a bit.
The next 2500 hands I've picked up $40, so I made some good adjustments or I was just in a downswing to begin with. Overall, I've played 5500 hands at 5BB/100.

I already have cleared the $125 pokersourceonline bonus (waiting to receive the money) and I still need 40 partypoints to clear another $25.
After that I'm headed to Titan to clear my deposit bonus there.
So, all things considered I've had a good month, earning $40 and improving my game step by step.

My goals for June

• Clear the bonus at Partypoker
• Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL
• Win $30
  

'till next time

My first royal flush

(May 30, 2008)

Yup, yesterday I picked up my first ever Royal Flush!!!

I get Ac Tc dealt and the flop adds the Kc and Jc, so obviously I'm staying in the hand to see a Qc appear on the turn. I only made about $0,40 with it but was exciting anyway.
Hopefully my next one will pay off a bit better :)

Tata

Moving to a higher stake

(May 28, 2008)

Early this month I finally exceeded the $60 profit target on 2NL, so I decided to move to 5NL on Party Poker and picking up a free bankroll bonus at pokersourceonline.

First few sessions were a disaster as I quickly lost 5 buy-ins. I wasn't sure why that happened though the opposition seemed a little better. So, I looked at all my big loosing hands and quickly found a couple of holes (more like craters) in my game. More aggression, less limping, less hands overall and caution when countered in a hand seemed like the way to go. Even though I got a bit lucky, my last two session were a lot better and I'm gradually heading towards a positive overall result.

I must add that the use of HoldemManager is a great help, as it really shows how opponents play and I'm able to respond to that (better).

So far, I've also picked up almost 100 party points, so 25 more to clear the $125 bonus from pokersourceonline and 100 more to clear the $25 bonus from party poker.

Harrington on cash is arriving soon, so I've got some reading material for the holidays!

In order to quickly pick up those party points I sat down at the 25NL tables with a short stack, planning to fold everything except premium pairs. That was definately a rollercoaster: in the first hand I get pocket queens so I puch all-in and pick up the blinds. Next hand, I pick up pocket kings and push again excpecting to get called of course (I would too). Two guys call and only after two hands I'm at $14 :)

A couple of days later I sit down again and loose $10 in 8 hands :)

Because it looks like I'll be able to clear the bonus playing the 5NL, I won't doing that again, but it sure was exciting.

May the cards be with you!

Results for April

(April 29, 2008)

Since I won't be playing poker the next few days, it's time to look back on the goals for this month:

Statistics

• play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL Success, I played 3758 hands 4- and 5-tabling
• win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20 Succes, made $ 23.88 with 32 BB/100
• get to a bankroll of $150 Fail, I'm currently at $ 142 due to a tilt session on 2NL and a short adventure with the other guy cathing his 2-outer on the river, which cost me $ 8.
  

Quality

• stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds Success, played some very good sessions with extremely good results but I managed to blow it on one mega-tilt session.
• play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position Succes, I'm picking pots like these, but sometimes it's going the wrong. I'm not sure this is +EV at this level.
• try to put opponents on hands by the river Success, not really there yet, but I'm regularly putting opponents on the right hands or range of hands.
  

Overall not a bad month but my one tilt-session really bummed me. I still don't know what happened. I quickly lost some and then started making a few BAD calls in big pots. I went down over $13 in just 144 hands and then I made another mistake though I swore I'd never do that but I went to the 10NL to try and recover my losses.

The plan was to play really tight and wait for that one hand. At first the plan worked and I got up 25 BB but then I got unlucky: it got folded to me and I limped from EP and got raised by the guy OTB (I had AQo)

The flop comes AQ5 rainbow and I check to the raiser (just the two of us in the pot). He bets 2/3 and I call because I'm thinking he has AK, AQ, AJ or middle to high PP and I'm only behind against AA and QQ.

The turn is a blank and I check again, planning to check-raise. Villain bets 1/2 pot and I shove it which he calls. He turns over A5. I'm cheering already when the river comes.... a 5 and he hits his two-outer. I immediately shut down my computer...

So, even though my results aren't that bad at all, I've decided to stick to 2NL one month longer because I really want to get my BR up to $160 before I move to 4NL.

Goals for May

• play at least 2500 hands on 2NL
• win at least $20
• get to a BR of $160
• avoid getting careless: stay on target!!
• get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games)
  

Reward: move to 4NL on Titan Poker and play SNG/MTT with anything that exceeds a BR of $160.

April going well

(April 22, 2008)

So far I'm having a good month, having played almost 2200 hands and won $ 22.60 which makes a 48 BB/100. Most of the time I've been 4-tabling and since I lost some when I was 6-tabling yesterday, I'm going to stick to 4 tables.

I'm also checking out some of the training websites such as cardrunners and deucescracked to study a bit more and improve my game. At this time I'm mostly just playing my hands, keeping the pot small when I might be behind and betting out when I feel I have the best hand.

I definately want to try to put opponents on a hand (at least by the river) because I'm pretty sure opponents will be a bit better at the next level.

Hopefully I'll reach my goals for this month by the end of this week so I have time to play some short-handed tables and SNG's to work on my overall game quality and experience.

Right now I have no plans to do MTT's because I feel the potential reward versus the time invested is not +EV at the stakes I'm able to play.

I'll post some more and add a few specific hands next time.

Have fun at the tables!

Results for March / Goals for April

(April 3, 2008)

Lots of stuff going on these last couple of weeks, some bad, some good!

The 'bad' stuff: our three kids and myself got sick this last week, so we're all caughing and sniffing and running a little fever. Nothing spectacular but no fun at all so let's move on to the good stuff fast:

• bought an Ipod classic (with a Texas Hold'em game!) so now I can watch a lot of interesting poker podcasts like high stakes, fulltilt learn it from the pros etc. (and listing to my favorite music too of course)
• had four winning poker evenings in a row! I definately feel I am on the right track now
• trying to quit smoking (I felt like there's no better time to try when you're sick) and so I haven't smoked a cigarette in SIX days!!

Ok, time to look back on March and see how I did.

The goals were:
Statistics

• Fail: play about 30 hours two-tabling, so around 2.500 hands I have played for about 20 hours and even though I was four-tabling most of the time, I played about 1.500 hands, well below the goal so that's a "Failed"
• Success: make a profit from playing of $10 (about 7ptBB), which would be a first I won $ 18.76 for a BB/100 of 61 or a ptBB of 31 which is obvioulsy a very nice result.
• Fail: clear $10 of the $100 start bonus at Everest because I overestimated the number of hands I would be able to play, I didn't get any further than clearing about $5 of my start up bonus
• Success: bankroll of $110 Bankroll on 03/31 was $123.45
  

Quality

• play loose pre-flop, but tight post-flop
• do not over-estimate the power of middle and low pairs
• do not chase hands without the right odds
• do not bluff for big pots

Especially the last 4 or 5 sessions I really stuck to these 'rules' and it helped me to win several BI. I also felt I was playing too passive, only betting hands I was pretty sure were the best in the hand. Now I bet more aggressive, especially post flop where a lot of players seems to call often but bet rarely and I get to pick up quite a few more (smaller) pots this way as well.

Goals for April
Because rewards are important :), I'm moving up to the 5NL again (will have to be on another site though) if I succeed this month.

Statistics

• play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL
• win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20
• get to a bankroll of $150
  

Quality

• stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds
• play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position
• try to put opponents on hands by the river
  

I already had a good start yesterday evening. I played 237 hands winning $8.43 so even though my objectives are very ambitious (in terms of ptBB/100) I really feel I should be able to make it.

Cya next time!

First steps on Everest

(March 11, 2008)

On Monday I got started again. I installed Everest, made a deposit of $100 and I also downloaded Pokertracker 2 to try it out.

So far I'm not all that impressed with Everest: the microstakes tables always have waiting lists (sometimes up to 10 people) and the average number of hands per hour is about 35-40, which seems pretty low to me. On the other hand, I do like having a bit more time to make decisions.
Because I wanted to avoid getting bored, I started playing on 3 full ring 2NL tables. Even though I didn't play all that bad, I lost about $2 playing my first 166 hands. I'm guessing partly because I needed to get used to the new software and tables (which is quite different from PKR because other than the 'knock' for a check, there are no sounds for different moves like betting or all-in).

Yesterday evening things went a lot better: I played 211 hands and won $7.22. Just sticking to solid tight play with very few (semi-)bluffs and folding when I felt I was behind worked pretty well.
I made a big win on pocket deuces that hit full house, but other than that I'm kinda struggling playing pocket pairs. Right now, I'm folding bottom pairs that didn't hit the flop if there are overcards and that seems to work for me. Middle pairs and even top pairs are more difficult: I tend to raise too much with my top pairs, getting no action, and I play middle pairs too passively after the flop: checking or folding them and getting no pots. So, any tips on how to handle pocket pairs would be nice.

I read Everest only allows playing on the 2NL tables for the first 90 days after you initial deposit and since the next level is 10NL I do hope to build my bankroll fast enough to be ready for that. I'm not going to 10NL with $100 or even $150, so I might have to switch again if I don't hit $200 - $250 in 90 days (which doesn't sound very likely).

'till next time...

A fresh start

(March 4, 2008)

I guess it took a few bad beats to 'beat' some sense into my poker game. I started with a bankroll of $ 40 at PKR, only to see that smelt down to a measly $ 5 due to, well... donkeyness :)
Biggest problem: a lack of discipline!

First of all, when I'm ahead I get careless and stop folding the hands I should fold. Some story yesterday when I was playing at a 10-handed, $ 0.02 - $ 0.04 cash game on PKR
I loose $ 1.50 on one of my first hands, but I kept calm and set out to earn it back with a loose but carefull game. The next few hands I win a couple of times, holding strong hands or playing well from late position.
The next hand I get KK in late position. A couple of guys limp and a short-stacked player in middle position makes a small bet, which I call and the chip leader (with $20 at a $4 table) calls as well.
Out came a rainbow flop and the chip leader bets, the guy in the middle goes all-in (I think with $1) and me and the chip leader call. The turn gives a pair on the board and the chip leader bets $2.
Obviously I'm worried he might have hit a full-house or at least a set, but I'm also thinking he can't have a clue about my pocket kings so I feel the raise is a bit over the top. I call.
Next comes a deuce and the chip leader bets $2 again. So he bets three times in a row and I must admit, I didn't think he'd fire another shot. I called and my two pairs held up against the chip leader for the side pot. The guy in middle position did flop a set and took the main (but smaller) pot.

So I'm up $3.5 and I did it again: first playing pocket 8's instead of just folding them after the flop and then chasing a straight draw.
I end up with a tiny $0.29.
So I'm thinking about sticking a 'SHOULD YOU FOLD? on my screen.


I definately need a fresh start...