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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Baaaad day

Yup, yesterday evening didn't go too well. A combo of bad play and worse luck hit me big time. At one table I lost three big hands in a row (QQ, TT, AK) and I was down 4 buyins in no time.

I was definately playing too aggressive and tilting a bit as well, up to a point where my UTG raise (with AKo) got shoved by the shortstack (well, he did have 45 BB). I felt he was shoving with a wide range because he might think I was on a complete tilt, so I called. My read was correct as he showed AQo, but when things go wrong, they do go wrong all the way, and he caught a queen on the turn.

I was really pissed at myself, because even though I took some bad beats, I spewed chips as well. So, I had a choice: accept my losses and call it a day or try to win some back. Because I knew I was going to be in a shitty mood being down $20, I took a deep breath and tried to make a comeback. I ended up being down $12.

You win some and you loose some...

The good news is the money from Titan Poker is now in my Moneybookers account, so that went really smooth.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Exit Titan Poker

I have decided to withdraw my bankroll on Titan Poker and I'll probably even cash out as well. I haven't really played a lot there, mainly because the player base is a lot less than what I'm used to at Party Poker and I don't like the software that much. Especially when multi-tabling it's a pain, because you switch to mini-view, which is too small for me.

I'll have to leave my no-deposit bonus though, as I'm nowhere near the 1500 tp's I need to be able to withdraw that. So, the plan is to cash out everything except the bonus (about $50). Because I was going to take a shot at 10NL, I'll play some 10NL session with that bonus.

Apparantly, it will take 2-5 days before the cash is in my moneybookers account and some players have been requested to email id shots when trying to cash out. I can understand sites want to secure these kind of transactions, but I find it curious that kind of stuff isn't required when you deposit.

I just hope it won't be too much of a hassle and I can get my money fast.

Because I should be rolled for 10NL by March/April, I'm thinking about where to play. Should I go for another first-deposit bonus on a new site? Or should I return to Everest (lots of bad players I read) or just stick to Party Poker?
I didn't really like the Everest software (slow network and poor software for multi-tabling), but 10NL is the smallest stake there, so the competition might be weaker compared to other sites.

Any suggestions on that part are appreciated.

Currently I'm running 7BB/100 over 27k hands at 4NL, even at 30BB/100 over 9k hands since October 2008 (when I made some major adjustments to my game). My goal is to try and push that up to 10BB/100 over 40k hands and than take a decent shot at 10NL.
I really don't know what to expect in terms of stronger competition: is there a substantial difference? Is it the same level of play, but just for a little more money?

Again, any input on that is welcome.


PS: My favorite poker show 'High Stakes Poker' is currently running season 5, so I'll be checking out Youtube. I'm sure most poker players know that show, but if you don't, go check it out!!


Untill next time!

Sunday smile

Had a great poker evening yesterday. I was hitting left and right and picking up a lot of other pots with aggression. Must have had at least 3 or 4 sets and a couple of straights (one low-end straight did cost me half a buyin). At the end of the session I was up $15. Again, I saw the weirdest plays: people calling big bets with second or even third pair, people calling with two pair with a 3flush on the table and a big bet. Here's one of those weird hands:

Villain in MP raises 4 bb to $0.16.
It gets folded to me in the SB and I have KK.
I don't like to slowplay KK OOP so I reraise to $0.50.
Now the villain instashoves and I make the call.
He has AKo
Now I had been raising quite a bit (because I was getting good cards), but a shove?
Turns out he would have won the pot if he just flatcalled.
The flop show AQx and I'm already cursing. Turn is a king, river blanks and I pick up the pot.

Another interesting hand:

I pick up 77 in LP and I raise two limpers to $0.24.
Now I get repopped to $1.24 by a maniac OTB. I only had about 30 hands on him but his stats were about 70/35/5/33. Plus I had seen him do that (reraising OTB) twice before. Because three 3bets in 30 hands did seem quite a lot, I decided to make the call.... and i hit a set on the flop. He bets half the pot and I shove and get a quick call. He shows aces and I pick up the pot: wrong read, but great result.
A couple of hands later I raise again with 44 and again he reraises me. This time I fold.

I felt another guy, calling his MP raise with 88. I flop a set again, he bets and I shove (he was shortstacked). I get a call (JJ) and even hit quads on the river.

Biggest pot I lost was half a buy-in when I flop two pair and villain flops a set.

I also played a quick $0.50 SNG on Titan (but wasn't really paying too much attention.

I'm not getting any cards and have about my starting stack of 1500 when the blinds get to 50/100. Now I see a raise to 200 in front of me, and I decide to gamble a bit, planning to bluff on the flop/turn, so I call with 5h4h. The BB minraises to 300, Initial raiser calls so I have to put in another 100 into a 850 pot.
Flop come AsQhTh. Initial raiser bets half the pot and I shove my remaining 1200.
Well, both opponents call, and I cheer when the turn is another heart.
Because the BB is holding the Ah, I say 'no more hearts' but of course....
And that was it...

Have fun at the tables!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Treading water

I played a rather long session yesterday (about 4 hours) and I got nowhere: up $3
I hit a couple of sets but didn't really get payed off, other than that: not a single straight or flush and I think one full house. I was just not hitting any flops, and I even had to get lucky to stay in the black:

Two guys limp in and the button raises to $0.24.
He wasn't superaggro, but I held QQ so I figured I was ahead of his range.
Because I felt the limpers would tag along if I just flatcalled, I repopped to $0.80.
Now the button shoves for another $1.80 and I make the (bad?) call.
He shows KK and I hit a Q on the flop. Standard 2-outer suck-out :)

I gues I was playing too weak the first half of the session, check/calling/folding too often. After a short break, I tried to show more aggression and got back from
- $4 to + $3.

I had a 20% reload bonus, so I deposited $50 and cleared the $10 bonus in the same session. It's not much but this way the roll grows little by little...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A quick update

I've been looking into adding some MTT's (freerolls that is) to my playing schedule, so I stumbled on a couple of big freeroll MTT's on Party Poker and played a few.

First one was a Limit Holdem tournament, and, low and behold, I cash!
Errm, that actually means I ended about 800th out of over 7k players and scored a wonderful $0.03! It was fun though, because, believe it or not, I had never played limit holdem. Boy, that really is a very different game than NLHE. People were calling, limping, raising with anything and then calling every street with almost anything. I always thought pots would be smaller (because it is LIMIT) but it seemed the complete opposite (of course a freeroll MTT is never standard play).
Still, it's felt really weird not being able to protect your hand and see so many multiway pots.

I was also playing a couple of 4NL cash game tables at the same time and I must say, that combo didn't work very well for me. I tried it again a couple of days later and I ended up pushing every hand in the freeroll, so I could get back to only cash game tables asap. Since the potential reward from the freerolls is a lot less than what cash tables could net me, I'll be passing on those MTT freerolls for now.

My regular game has been meh: down $10 in the first session of the month (played very poorly), up $10 in the next, break-even in the third (good start, bad end).

Standard ABC poker is a winning strategy at these stakes, but only if you don't donk on a regular base :)

Still, I'm up a little and used my PP to get $10 in bonus, so that bankroll is getting bigger (slowwwwwly).

Let's try and put in a great session tonight.


May your aces hold up!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Happy New Year!!

First of all: a happy and healthy 2009 for everyone!! :)

Looking back on 2008

I had a couple of great months playing 2NL on Everest, which helped building a bit of a bankroll but led me to believe I actually knew what I was doing. So when I moved up to the 4NL on Stars and Party poker I had to think again, because I was moving up and down and up and down again, eventually getting nowhere...

Mid October, I decided to take a step back and take a look at how I was playing and, after rereading Dan Harrington on Cash 1&2, I tried again. More focus, more aggression, more patience, less tilting, less optimistic calls etc...

The last three months were great, with December turning out to be my best month ever: up $41 in only 2k hands.

Looking forward to 2009

Obviously, it's a lot more motivating to play disciplined and patient if it shows in your results, so I'm curious to find out if I've actually gotten (a little) better or if I have just been lucky.

I'll keep playing the 4NL for a couple of months and, if all goes well, move to the 10NL around April.

I have no specific goals for 2009 in terms of winnings or number of hands or anything. My main goal is to improve on my game, keep enjoying it and become a winning 10NL player in the course of this brand new year. If things go really well, I might add some SNG's or MTT's to my calendar as well.



Have a great 2009!