Eleventh consecutive winning session

Even though I thought I was jinxing myself when I wrote I had won 7 sessions in a row, the pokergods havent't punished me (yet).

Last weekend I played on Saterday and Sunday evenings, and even though I took a hit early on in both session, I succeeded in showing a profit at the end of each session.

So, now I have won eleven sessions in a row and my target of a long term result
of 10bb/100 at the 4NL is within my reach as I'm at 8.3bb/100 after 35k hands.

My play wasn't all that good actually. I made a horrendous call with pocket jacks when I knew they were no good and I definately bluffed in spots where I shouldn't have a couple of times. On the other hand, opponents had drawn out on the river twice in a big pot, even though I did't lay them the right price. It's funny though, if you're winning you don't mind the suckouts all that much.

I'll have to keep playing 6 tables or more to be able to clear my $25 bonus this month, but it does effect my results more than I like.

I'm seriously considering moving up to the 10NL tables, weather I achieve that 10bb/100 target this month or not. At this point I'm just grinding it without too much thought. I know I'm beating this level and I just have to put in the hands, but playing on auto-pilot doesn't make me a better player so I guess I need to get out of my comfort zone soon. The lack of challenge is making me a lazy player.

Maybe I'm overdoing it in the bankroll management department...

So here's the plan for the rest of the month:
Normally I play 3 or 4 nights a week: every Sunday and 2 or 3 weekdays.
If I have improved my overall bb/100 at 4NL on the weekdays, I'll play 10NL on Sunday.
Improving the overall bb/100 would mean winning at least 10bb/100 and I think Sunday is a good evening to take a shot because of increased traffic.

Have a great time at the tables!

Multitabling

I had received a new reload bonus from Party Poker (25% up to $100), so I added $100 to my account. This bonus clears in parts of $5 and I'll have to earn 50 party points per $5. Usually I 4-table, playing about 500 hands per session, which earns me between 15 and 25 party points. Because this bonus expires in 30 days, I'd have to increase my volume if I want to score that $25 bonus.

Yesterday, I tried to add some more tables up to a point where I was playing 9 tables. I rather quickly had to shut down two of them, because I couldn't keep up and I felt I was destined to make some huge mistakes. Overall, it was a swingy session: up $6, down $5, up $3, down $2 and finally up $5.

I guess 6 or 7 tabling should be doable without trashing my winrate. I'm hoping to play 10-12 more sessions this month, so I'll be able to clear most if not all of that bonus.

Even though I misplayed a couple of hands yesterday, I was able to make some good reads and pick up on bluffs.

One hand had me troubled (and because this type of hands occurs regularly I would appreciate some feedback:

Villain UTG limps, a couple of players in MP limp as well and I make a good raise with my JJ.
Now, villain reraises me (3x) and I make the call (should I fold JJ here?)

Flop comes 10 high with no big draws and villain makes a potsize bet (about $2).
I make the call (and immediately knew it was a bad play).
Turn is a blank and villain bets again (half pot) and I fold my JJ.
I really should just fold on the flop here and wait for a better spot.
I hate folding an overpair here, but I'm probably facing AA, KK, or QQ often enough to make folding the correct play.

'till next time...

February review

In February I have played almost 4k hands at the 4NL tables, winning $38 (24 BB/100) which was a great result. After picking up $2 in a short session at 10NL, I'm up $40 for the month.

The last couple of months I went from a break-even player to a winning player: after my first 18k hands I was down $28 (-3.7 BB/100), the next 15k hands resulted in a profit of $134 (22 BB/100). Combined I'm at 7.9 BB/100 at the 4NL after 34k hands and I feel I could take a shot at 10NL. In March, I will still mostly play 4NL though, because I'm aiming to reach 10 BB/100 before I move up to 10NL.

Last night was a good start: up $15 in almost 600 hands.
One hand stood out for me:
I had a maniac on my right, who was playing at something like 75/45/inf.
HE was raising and reraising constantly and often people just folded. One guy called him and the maniac won a big pot and was at $12.
I had been in a couple of pots with him, but I hadn't flopped anything or he was pushing me off my hands (twice I had top pair but a very crappy kicker). Up until then I didn't like my hand enough to put the chips in the middle and I knew I had the perfect position and just had to wait for a strong hand.

So a couple of hands later it gets folded to the maniac, who open-raises to 4BB, I call with KJo and both the blinds call as well.
The flop comes 6c5cJh and the blinds check. The maniac checks as well. Because I was willing to take a risk in order to have a shot at his stack, I decided to check as well (normally I would bet here about 99% of the time).
With the drawheavy board, I'm pretty confident I have the best hand at this point.
Turn is a Ts and again both blinds check.
The maniac bets 2/3 of the pot and I throw in a decent raise...
And again he tries to push me off by shoving it. Even though I only had top pair
with a decent kicker, I had to make the call and he showed K9o and gets stacked.
Four hands later, he dumps the rest of his stack and leaves.


Sayonara!

Seventh consecutive winning session...

...even though I was playing rather weak and I didn't hit anything the first hour and a half, I managed to book another winning session last night. I'm probably jinxing myself but there it is: a new record streak of 7 winning sessions in a row.

I have tightened up even more the last few weeks, stats are usually around 17/8/2.5.
Yesterday I saw a particular fish at the table: he was minbetting every made hand (and folding the others). And when I say minbetting I mean betting 1BB on the flop, on the turn, and on the river with a flopped nut flush. In the one hand we played, he outdrew my second pair on the river (I should have made a bigger raise). Of course, a few hands later he got felted. This guy was so trying NOT to win any money, it was funny.

For the most part, I played ok, again picking up a lot of uncontested pots while waiting for a big one. One straight paid off max, but then I had to slowplay a set into oblivion:
I raise 4 BB in LP with TT and get called by an EP limper.
Flop comes a nice AT6 rainbow, villain checks and I check behind, because often he will not have anything to call with here. Turn brings a king and villain bets, I raise and he calls. We get it in on the river and he shows QJ for a straight.
Because I'd almost never call a raise with QJ OOP, it didn't cross my mind some do...
Good thing my opponent wasn't full stacked.

Another thing I often see (and occasionally, I make the same mistake) is that people tend to forget what happened on earlier streets. If you flop QT5 and check your queen, people assume you don't have a queen most of the time, and you can get paid off some (like in a limped pot). Yesterday, I even saw a couple of times where the turn fills a possible flushdraw, it gets checked around and then people call big bets on the river.

Until next time...

All is well

The last few weeks, I have been running pretty good. I started the month with a loosing session, but the last 5 sesssions I have been up and, so far, I'm ahead $25 in 2.5k hands. Yesterday was a lot of fun: I definately played my A game: selective but aggressive and when the cards are falling right as well... People were folding when I was (semi-)bluffing and calling when I had the goods.

I was also able to pick up on bluffs by villains. The river bluff seems very popular amongst a lot of players at my tables. Check/calling every street and then betting the river often indicates a bluff. I'm trying to play a bit more aggressive post flop and that really pays off.

After clearing my reload bonus ($10) at Part Poker, I got a mail from Pokerstars about their 25billionth hand promotions, including a nice 25% reload bonus. So, I deposited $80 in my account and will have to accumulate 400 base FPP's to clear that $20 bonus. Because I didn't have a clue how many hands that is at the 5NL, I played a short session of 80 hands and got... 1 FPP. So that's going take a while.

One hand kinda bugged me:

I pick up AA UTG+1 and I make it $0.20 (4BB) to go.
It gets folded to the button, who calls.
The big blind calls as well, and the pot is $0.67

Now the flop comes 8c 7h 5c and the big blind makes a potsize donkbet,
and I go into the tank...

I figure there's 4 possibilities:

he has a straight/set and wants to protect his hand: possible, but I'm very likely to make a cbet, that might be called by the button, so check/raising seems more profitable.

he has a big draw: as flush and/or straight draw. again, possible, but why bet the pot? surely, check/call or check/raise is more likely.

he has some other hand like an over pair: unlikely, why would you bet a hand like that with two people left to act?

he knows this is a bad flop for a big pair or AK/AQ kinda hands and decides to bluff. Possible, but he is OOP.

I just didn't know here and because I had the button behind me, I decided to fold.
I'm sure reraising big here can often be the right play and if it were heads up, I probably would have done just that.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my opponents cards, because the button shoved and after a while the big blind folded. In the end, I guess folding might have been the right decision this time. These kind of hands do reveal a lot of info about a players style, so this would have been a big note if the cards had been shown.

Be cool.

January recap

January sure was a bleh month: up $20 and all the way down again to - $1.
I played almost 6k hands and started off well, but three loosing sessions in a row (in one I lost 3 buyins) later I was just hoping to break even. Last Saturday, I was a bit tired so I decided to play a short session on 10NL at Titan. I quickly picked up $7.50 which was nice. Because I picked up $20 in bonusses, I ended up adding about $24 to my bankroll.

I did have my first live game, having a homegame with my collegues at my place. Most of them have little to none experience and with the low stakes ($0.02-$0.05) the play was extremely loose and passive. I decided to play tight and just valuebet my big hands and I doubled up this way. One of the players hit a real nice run of cards, hitting 3 boats and a couple of straights/flushes. Even though it wasn't great poker, we did have a good time.

I have started marking hands I don't play well, so I can replay them with Holdem Manager. I plan on reviewing these hands in detail, both loosing hands (obviously) and winning hands (did I make maximum value?).

Be well and play well!