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