April recap

Results for April:

4NL FR: 922 hands at 1.5 bb/100 for $0.57
4NL 6max: 712 hands at 50.2 bb/100 for $14.30
10NL: 2002 hands at -9.6 bb/100 for -$19.22

Total: 3636 hands and a loss of $4.35

I must say that I thought it would have been worse. It definately felt worse.

My second 6max 4NL session was decent. I did make a few bad calls, where I put money in when I was behind, but this time it was my turn to suck out a couple of times. Still I was running over my tables most of the time and raising so many hands and betting so often makes people thing you're full of it all the time, so I got calls on some big hands. I also noticed I was able to make a good read several times and making notes and watching how my opponents play did improve my result.

Also I focused on 3betting this session, looking for spots to 3bet myself and keeping a close eye on when others were 3betting.

In one hand I decided to 3bet with AQo when villain playing something like 20/14 raised OTB to 3x. He folded quickly.

A few hands later a standard situation I guess: a really tight (especially for 6max) player playing stats like 9/4 makes it 5x in the CO after one player has limped.
Obviously, I put him on a pretty decent hand, somthing like AQ+ or TT+.
I'm in the SB with AA, so now I'm hoping my aggressive image will pay off. I decide to raise big to 4x, making it $0.80 to go and soon enough all the money goes in, him holding KK and I felt him.

A third hand I 3bet, a somewhat aggressive player raises OTB and I 3bet 4x with AKs from the SB, villain calls. The flop is a rainbow jack and two lows, one heart. Maybe I should have cbet this flop but I checked as did villain. Turn is a 9 and I decide to check again, because I feel I cannot rep much here and by now villain might have made a pair or more. Villain bets and I let it go. I probably would have bet myself if that 9 was a heart.

Well, at least I was doing things for a reason (right or wrong) instead of just betting and hope for the best of it.

Have a nice day!

Loosing is a pain...

My first attempt moving up to 10NL hasn't gone well. I'm down about 4 buyins and because my confidence took quite a hit, I'm taking a step back for a couple of days/weeks? I wasn't playing that awful as a couple of hands were close, but I did get too much money in in marginal spots.

In one hand I hit two pair and build a big pot and villain rivers his two pair and I loose a buyin.

In another hand, I play aggressive but miss my OESD + FD on the river: another buyin gone.

A third buyin was lost in a hand where I made the wrong read.
I raise in LP with KK and get a call from villain (I think he was OTB).
Now this guy was playing rather aggressive and had called my raises a couple of times before.
Flop comes something like 5c4c9h and I make a potsized cbet which he calls.
Turn is a jack and I bet little over half the put (thinking he was on a draw).
He raises me, but it's not a big raise. At this point I'm in doubt: he could have a made hand, like a set or two pair or he could have a flush-draw or a combo-draw. Also, he probably knows I have an overpair here. I felt calling was no option, so it was push in or fold.
I pushed and he showed pocket 4's: adios to another buyin.
Afterwards, I was thinking about the size of his raise: maybe the fact that he put in a small raise should have told me he didn't have a draw...

I wasn't playing very well, got no action on my big hands, got a bit unlucky in a few spots and at the end I felt a tilt coming so I shut down the computer and took the loss.

It's not that big of a hit: my bankroll is still over $400 and I could continue at the 10NL tables but it doesn't feel right. A loss of a few buyins shouldn't destroy my confidence up to a point I'm wondering if I even have the slightest idea of what I'm doing.

Either way, I feel a $20 loss at the 5NL and a $40 loss at the 10NL warrants some reflection, so I've decided to take it slower and just stick to 1 or two tables and really think about the game, the hands and the decisions I make. Too often, I get into this numb clicking mode, not putting much thought into what I'm doing, not paying too much attention to what others are doing etc.

Also, I'm gonna try and switch to 6-max, partly because I'm worried playing 1 or 2 tables FR will bore me into bad play and partly because I feel 6-max tables allows you to get a better understanding of how your opponents play and it forces a more aggressive game. In the unlikely event I would progess to higher stakes, 6-max is more standard anyway.

Because I really want this to be a(nother) new start, I'm disregarding any previous results (even started a clean HEM database).

My goals for the rest of the year is to mix in 5NL and 10NL:
8k 5NL at 15 bb/100
20k 10NL at 8 bb/100

Considering the amount of time I put into poker (about 3 to 4 evenings per week), these goals are an absolute minimum to justify continuing to play poker. Money-wise it's not worth my time and if there's no progress, it makes more sense to devote my time to other fun things. Even though I enjoy poker a lot, it's not really a 'relaxing' activity, so I'd like some return on my time and 'stress' investment if I'm to keep playing in the future.

Anyway, first session yesterday was great: mostly 1 table (6max 5NL). I played aggressive, got a decent feel for my opponents' game and had a good result (up $9 in about 380 hands), picking up lots of pots (I even managed to win the first 7 hands I played). No 'grinder' feeling, no 'standard' clicking and no stress keeping up with all the tables, taking plenty of notes and generally having a good time.

Greetz!

Astafas

It's been a while

Not much poker this month, as I've been on nice vacation in France for a week.

Even though last month, I was heading for a record result, it all went south in the last couple of session: a - $28 session on the 4NL tables and the next day a - $18 session on the 10NL tables and my awesome high of $55 up was mostly gone.

I did clear my reload bonus on Party Poker, but lost just as much chasing the partypoints/playing too many tables.

I have been playing 10NL this month (a little down for now) and I am kinda surprised about the difference between 10NL and 4NL: people are a lot more tight (table VPIP is often around 10-15) and there's a lot less action. There are many nits and even more shortstackers, which is an absolute pain, because then there is not much money to be made. Still, I'm not too worried yet, being down less than 1 buyin and I'm also running below expectation (AA loosing against JJ, KK against AA, QQ against KK etc.) Nevertheless, I have cut back on the multitabling and now stick to 4 tables or less.

In case you haven't watched season 5 of High Stakes Poker, check out youtube now, coz it is awesome, especially the first group of players with Greenstein, Dwan, Elezra, Eastgate etc. are spectacular and show some world class poker, not to mention the biggest televised cash game pot in history. The only problem: they should post a "don't try this at home" message at the start of each episode: for Tom Dwan's aggressive style to work, you need to play high stakes and ... be Tom Dwan ;)

When I raise on the flop with my open-ended straight draw + backdoor flush draw and then bet again on the flop after picking up the flush draw, people just call me with a pair of queens and I miss my many outs (bye bye $10).

May your opponents never draw out!

Astafas