Starting up again

The summer meant I wasn't able to concentrate or play during peak times, because I was busy. I ended July at 2.1K after bonuses, and it was easily my worst month to date. -$300 from playing 21K hands of NL50, and that's all it took me to realize that I shouldn't be 18-tabling, I should be working on improving. It didn't help that my schedule was 30-60 minutes sessions of 18 tabling so that I could eek out 21K hands in the smallest amount of time. No groove = no reads = B/E poker.

Of course I made $225 from the ironman mid-year bonus, $200+ from rakeback, and a little more from PLO (ridiculously small sample ldo), so I still finished the month up. I swear with the bonuses and rakeback they hand out, it's pretty damn difficult to lose playing poker.

Of course the -$300 is relative. I was down $400 - $500 in all-in equity over the month; if I had neutral luck, I would have ended the month up $150 instead of down $300, but that's poker. I also suffered more from coolers than I gained, KK vs AA and AA vs KK had me down, set over set and set under set hand me down, and that contributed to another couple hundred in losses.

After July I decided to take August off to enjoy my summer (Good bye consecutive ironman bonus :(). So august has wrapped up, I'm moving into my new apartment soon, and we'll see how September treats me. Hopefully I can run $500 above expectation, and have my first + 1K month! Who knows...

LOL Swongs

Had the worse run of my life Wednesday night... -4BI / 200 hands !!! I lost:
* 1 BI to standard failed CB/ c/c for value on the river plays.
* 1 BI KK vs AA
* 1 BI 666 vs KKK
* 1 BI AQs vs KK

AQs was probably a little tilty, but the player was a reg w/ ATS=30-40%, and he had restolen from the blinds last orbit. This orbit he restole me from the button, and I 4bet. Standard move with AKs or AKo, but AQs it's on the meh side. Of course I 4bet shoved (practically) maximize FE and he snap shoved over for a few more BB. Call, miss the Ace, -$200.

Either way I had hit a nice upswong before hand, so I was sitting on 2K at one point. A few minorly losing sessions and then this put me back down to 1.7K. Still a positive month so far and getting some more experience at NL50. This was definitely the tiltiest I've felt in a while though... After dropping $200 in 20 mins I went for a nice hour long jog :)

Maybe I'll start to update this, probably not though.

~$1600 in my account right now, and -$250 at NL50 overall. Went on a downswong when I first started at NL50, so dropped to rebuild, and am now back entirely. Because of that I'm not quite where I would want to be, but I'm getting back on track.

-$200 something in April, and +$200 something in May, so I bounced back. In June I've moved to NL50 fully, and finally making some of it back.

Taking a Break

Hey all, I think I'm going to take a break from this blog for a while, but certainly not from poker! :). I currently consider myself a winning player who still has a long way to go (Bankroll aside) before making the jump the NL50.

So instead of posting HH in a blog very few/no one read, which I use mainly for stat keeping, I will spend my time posting my HH entirely on 2p2. This is what I have been doing anyway for the past month. That said I wish the best of luck to anyone reading this, and keep studying!

Remind me to play on Sunday Nights

Just a public service announcement: If you're reading this, STOP! I'm not really writing this to be good entertainment, it's kindof just turned into record keeping for me. So don't waste your time reading this, instead come over to the 2p2 uNL forums!

And I run bad against donks, (AA loses to JT, 444 loses to AJJ), but when there are enough of them, it doesn't matter! :)

Session: +$52 -- 622 Hands
Overall: $1093.20-- +$688.50 -- 28,511 hands

Remember this heater when I run bad

- Started datamining NL50 for march
- KK>AA :)
- Am playing at midnight-2am tonight to make ironman gold this month, because I'm busy all day Friday

Session: +$55 -- 627 Hands
Overall: $1082.25-- +$677.30 -- 27,416 hands

Hit the 1K mark!

Lets hope I never drop below it!

Session: +$79 -- 713 Hands
Overall: $1027.50-- +$622.55 -- 26,788 hands

Way positive session, thanks to a big donk

I was -$30 at one point in the session, before winning a couple of huge pots in the last 10 mins of the session. One pot was an awesome win, not "outplayed" per say, but definitely a good move by me. It took advantage of FE with a draw, which is something that is very hard for me to do. Of course they didn't fold, and my draw didn't hit, but I still won (lol, I love NL25).

Session: +$61 -- 678 Hands
Overall: $948.80-- +$543.85 -- 26,076 hands

BIGGEST POT EVER... but I lost it with the flop nuts

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $10.50
Hero (UTG+1): $45.20
MP: $28.80
CO: $16
BTN: $27.45
SB: $14.20
BB: $7.85

Pre-Flop: Js Jc dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $1, MP folds, CO calls $1, BTN calls $1, SB calls $0.90, BB folds

Flop: ($4.25) 2h Jd 9c (4 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2, CO calls $2, BTN raises to $11, SB folds, Hero calls $9, CO raises to $15 and is All-In, BTN calls $4, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($49.25) Kd (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
Hero bets $29.20 and is All-In, BTN calls $11.45 and is All-In

River: ($72.15) Ad (3 Players - 2 are All-In)

Results: $72.15 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed Js Jc (three of a kind, Jacks) and WON $22.35 (-$5.10 NET)
CO showed Th Qh (a straight, Ace high) and WON $46.80 (+$30.80 NET)
BTN showed 9s 9h (three of a kind, Nines) and LOST (-$27.45 NET)

Another hand I'm not going to bother to post but was rather cooling was my Qhigh flush being beaten by an A high flush from the table donk. The win put him at about $96 (the reason I was sitting at the table).

Oscars are tonight!

Session: -$24 -- 684 Hands
Overall: $887.10-- +$482.15 -- 25,398 hands

Great session, some important changes, and the biggest timeout of my life

Well the heater continues, and there are no complaints here. This is the third straight 2+ BI session, and I'm up quite a bit in the past 3 days. I hit sets more than my fair share, and the people pay me off. However my graph still puts me down sets for February, so I want this to continue.

The hand that I timed out on I clicked on the player by accident when I had about 10 seconds left to act. This pops up the PAHud stat window, which (because I'm 6-tabling FT's software with a semi-shitty laptop) takes about 5 seconds to pop up. However this time, my whole computer locked up for about 15 seconds, and I came back furiously clicking raise while my table froze for an additional 5 seconds, and then I auto folded and sat out. Blah. Here it is:

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BB: $4.80
UTG: $31.30
MP: $24.30
CO: $4.80
Hero (BTN): $25.15
SB: $38.85

Pre-Flop: 4d 4s dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, MP raises to $1, CO folds, Hero calls $1, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.35) 6c Ks 4h (2 Players)
MP bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50
Sigh. Yeah I slowplay SOMETIMES, but almost never. I sigh saying this because so many people post hands on 2p2 like "I never do this, but here I was", and you just know that they play that way 90% of the time but think that they're probably playing wrong so they're watching their back. I slowplayed because this player was aggressive, the board was dry, and it came HLL (High low low). The high low low flop gives large range of PP that are possibly calling or firing here with a PFR. I thought he might be able to get away from a 77-QQ type hand if I raised here, but if he 2barrelled the turn then he would be much closer to committed, and I could potentially get him to stack off. Considering he also raised PF from MP, I'm not putting him on a draw here (78, 75, 53, 32)

Turn: ($5.35) Tc (2 Players)
MP bets $3.50, Hero folds
Yeah, the converter missed it. Basically here I wanted to raise to $10, but as I stated above times out. Blah.

Results: $5.35 Pot ($0.25 Rake)
MP mucked and WON $5.10 (+$2.60 NET)

So that said, I finally (something I've been meaning to do) went into PAHud and turned that annoying feature off. I also ended up changing the mucked cards to show up over the players names and stacks, because the old position was blocked by my new WTSD and W$SD stats. (Which I'm still trying to learn how to use).

Still a couple of large places I think I should have value bet differently, and places I feel that I made bad calls, but I'm improving to the point where I can analyze some of them myself afterwards, using Pokerstove to calculate ranges and such. This takes some of the strain off of the 2p2 community.

Session: +$59 -- 723 Hands
Overall: $911.45-- +$506.50 -- 24,713 hands

Unbelievable

Great session. Setting up and the like. GG poker.

Session: +$78 -- 703 Hands
Overall: $852.50-- +$447.55 -- 23,989 hands

Holy shit I can hit sets!

Looks like my setometer is turning around! 4 sets tonight, and 3 of them paid off. And by paid off I mean like $15-20 paid off. And then the one $74 pot; we were both deep and he paid me off with 2pair, top and bottom, Q3. Weirdo. Either way, pwned!

Posting some hand histories on the uNL 2p2 forums...

Oh yeah, and This session put my ptBB/100 from 2 to 3! Crazy how even 23,000 hands and this is still a highly volatile stat.

Session: +$71 -- 706 Hands
Overall: $774.80-- +$369.85 -- 23,285 hands

Good Session, felt great about it

I felt great about my session today, but didn't win quite as much as I would have had my one big draw hand hit (12 outs over 2 cards for $50 with 4way action!), and had I not run KK into AA for a full stack. Even with those two hands though, I'm still +$10 on the day.

Well I feel like it's more important that I post my hand histories on 2p2 than here, so that I can discuss and get feedback. I had recently been taking a break from posting hands there because I felt that I might have been abusing the privilege and posting TOO many hands, but I've taken enough time off that I think I can return to 1 hand a day.

I also added WTSD and W$SD to my HUD today, and I'm planning on looking up a good color coding for them on 2p2 tonight.

Session: +$10 -- 625 Hands
Overall: $703.50-- +$298.55 -- 22,578 hands

Don't feel so bad about winning mildly Feb

Well, I had been feeling pretty down about my Feb winrate, because it's only about 1 ptBB/100, which is very low. Don't get me wrong, at least it's winning, but it's nowhere near where I thought I would be. In December I played 5000 hands and beat the game for 5 ptBB/100, in January I think off of the top of my head (don't have PT here at work) it was 4 ptBB/100 over 6000 hands, and so far in Feb I've played 11000+ hands and its sitting at 1 ptBB/100. Frankly I was worrying if I was just running hot, and truly I'm more of a break even player.

Then I downloaded the setometer, which shows how often you hit sets as compared to how often you should. It also shows a couple of other metrics, like how many times your AA went against KK and how many times your KK ran into AA. Below is my graph:

Basically, if thre are equal parts blue and red, you're hitting about as many sets as you should. If there is more blue then you're getting lucky, and hitting more sets than you should. However in my case, I'm hitting far fewer sets than I should. It seems I've hit 44 sets when I should have hit 60. That's 16 sets worth of profit I'm missing out on! Not only that, but just one or two stacks (which I feel I can count on with 16 sets) would significantly improve my winrate.

Add to that the fact that I've had AA and hit villains KK preflop once, and he drew out to his K for a full stack, and I don't feel quite as bad about 1 ptBB/100. Hell, at least I'm up!

PLHE FTW

It's funny how much I am a slave to structure. I had always passed by the Pot Limit tables for a few reasons. One, I didn't know what differences there were between a good NL player and a good PL player. This was enough to know that I wasn't playing optimally, which is something I don't like to do knowingly. The second reason, however, was because I wanted to play all of my hands this month in NL, so that my pokertracker display would be nice. This second reason is stupid, because it's obviously not optimal. It's just funny how I can pretend not to notice that second reason and skip right over the PL tables every time.

Today was different, because when I first signed on www.tableratings.com wasn't working for Full Tilt, so I was slightly confused about where I should sit. To make matters worse, the shortest wait for an NL25 table was 2 people...! What?!?? I've never seen an absence of tables without waits before, so today was a first. There were even tables with 6 people waiting in line! Why the hell would you wait for 6 people to leave, it would make the table entirely different!

Anyway I sat at two PL tables and put my name in on some of the NL tables, using old fashioned table selection -- ala big $$ pots and big % seeing flop. I ended up sitting at a PL25 table with $103 at one point (4+ BI!) And now PT says I'm running at 68.46 ptBB/100 for PL25. :)

Sadly I ended up losing money overall today at the NL tables, but the ridiculous PL stackings were enough to throw me way into the positive.

Also I had quads twice in 100 hands??? WTF??? Sadly neither paid off big.

There was an error in this stats section yesterday... just disregard yesterday's...
Session: +$47 -- 751 Hands
Overall: $693.85-- +$288.90 -- 21,952 hands

Blah

I'm getting quite lazy about reviewing my hands and trying to get better. I will probably get better at it when I return to work ;)

This session was terrible cards wise. I ran my KK into AA for a deepstack, lost an AK to QQ flip against a fullstack, and finally ran my KK in a 3bet pot into 74s who coldcalled BOTH raises from the SB, and hit a flop of 356 two tone. Mother of god. 3 players all in and a $50 pot. It made sense that I might be behind, but with the high number of straight draws out there, (23, 45, 67, 78, 89), and the board having 2 hearts on it I thought I made the right play with an overpair. Not to mention 77-QQ being confident with an overpair, and me taking it from them. The original PF raiser flipped over JJ, and he flipped over 74. Originally I was like oh SD... then WTF? He coldcalled a 3bet way OOP with 74s???

Brag: Cleared a $20 bonus today
Beat: It was my last bonus. I guess it's time to rely on my play...

Session: -$45 -- ~720 Hands
Overall: $242.00-- +$286.85 -- 21,200 hands

Return to Poker

Took a couple days off for valentine's day and visiting UMass, and today was the return.

Session: +$7 -- ~504 Hands
Overall: $671.80-- +$286.85 -- 20,478 hands

Worst session of my life

I attended a funeral yesterday and I shouldn't have attempted to play poker today, I wasn't in the mood. I didn't pay attention, and tilted away a lot of money. I even won a KK vs AA battle for $40, and I'm still down about 3 buy ins. The crowning moment when I realized I was not paying attention was pushing all in a with a "Straight" in a $70 pot, then realizing I had a ten high. He had the straight.

Fuck that, back in two days.

Session: -$72 -- 729 Hands
Overall: $664.30-- +$279.35 -- 19,974 hands

Amazed that I'm up

Up a little, but took some big hits. Check them out:


Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

CO: $4.65
BTN: $8.60
SB: $24.05
BB: $39.90
UTG: $8.75
UTG+1: $20.95
UTG+2: $29.20
Hero (MP1): $30.15
MP2: $22.20

Pre-Flop: Qh Ad dealt to Hero (MP1)
3 folds, Hero raises to $1, 4 folds, BB calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.10) Qc Td 4h (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB raises to $4, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($10.10) 7h (2 Players)
BB bets $4.75, Hero raises to $9.50, BB calls $4.75

River: ($29.10) 6d (2 Players)
BB bets $25.40 and is All-In, Hero calls $15.65 and is All-In

Results: $60.40 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB showed 9d 8h (a straight, Ten high) and WON $57.40 (+$27.25 NET)
Hero mucked Qh Ad (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$30.15 NET)

The worst part about it was that me and this player had been going at it previously. I CBed the flop mega fast, because I felt that that would induce a call from him rather than a fold, as he thought I was always FOS. Instead he raised, which I liked, because I'm comfortable stacking off here against a maniac. That's where I decided to get tricky, as I figured there was a good chance he was way behind here, and thus drawing very slim, and would fire anyway OOP at the turn. Therefore I just called the flop raise, and doubled the turn for value. As we had been going at it, I acknowledged that he could be bluffing the river, and the board hadn't paired, FD hadn't hit, so I called it. At least I was right he was making a move on the flop!

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

MP1: $28.10
MP2: $15.70
CO: $9.85
Hero (BTN): $38.60
SB: $4.75
BB: $26.95
UTG: $15.60
UTG+1: $4.75
UTG+2: $25.30

Pre-Flop: 5d 5c dealt to Hero (BTN)
4 folds, MP2 calls $0.25, CO raises to $1.10, Hero calls $1.10, 3 folds

Flop: ($2.80) 6s 5s 7h (2 Players)
CO bets $2.80, Hero raises to $37.50 and is All-In, CO calls $5.95 and is All-In

Turn: ($20.30) Jd (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($20.30) Kh (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $20.30 Pot ($1 Rake)
CO showed Ks Kd (three of a kind, Kings) and WON $19.30 (+$9.45 NET)
Hero showed 5d 5c (three of a kind, Fives) and LOST (-$9.85 NET)

This one is more straight forward, a 2 outer over 2 cards. Bleh. Notice also that I wasn't actually over raising that ridiculous amount, as he only had another $3 in front of him; I was just putting him all in.

I also timed out PF with AA. I swear it's almost unbelievable how unlucky I've been with that. I say I've times out 15 hands in total in me playing poker the past two months, which is about 15,000 hands. Most of those are also in the past week as I've moved up to 6 tabling. Twice I have timed out AA. The pot also ended up being a $40 pot this time which didn't go to showdown. :-/

Oh yeah, and I cleared another $20 bonus. That leaves on $20 left! Hard to believe I've made $180 already on bonuses. I learned two things from that: I really should have deposited more (can you believe I could have earned up to $600? doh!) and I think it's time to invite some friends...

Session: +$4 -- 728 Hands
Overall: $736.20-- +$351.25 -- 19,247 hands

Plan failed, but the money was good!

Yeah, I didn't quite live up to my plan of identifying WA/WB situations... in fact, I completely forgot about it. Made a lot of money though! Here's a hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $15.85
MP1: $43.65
MP2: $4.65
CO: $10
BTN: $40.10
SB: $30.85 (24/3/inf)
Hero (BB): $24.65
UTG: $28.50

CO posts $0.10
CO posts $0.25
Pre-Flop: Qs Js dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.25, MP2 folds, CO checks, BTN calls $0.25, SB calls $0.15, Hero checks

Flop: ($1.25) 4c Jh Qd (5 Players)
SB bets $1, Hero calls $1, 2 folds, BTN calls $1

Turn: ($4.25) Ad (3 Players)
SB bets $0.25, Hero raises to $2.50, BTN folds, SB raises to $4.75, Hero calls $2.25

River: ($13.75) 3h (2 Players)
SB bets $13.85, Hero folds

Results: $13.75 Pot ($0.65 Rake)
SB mucked and WON $13.20 (+$7.20 NET)

I'm pretty happy about being able to make this laydown, as I think it shows a lot about how I've progressed as a player. This would be an easy laydown if there were a 4card flush or a 4card straight on the board, but as shown I think it was relatively tough. However what range is that player betting there? My specific guess was AQ or AJ.

Great+ session though, and I think laying down hands like this which use to pull my sessions down really help. If the effective stacks are going in, I want to be the one putting them there.

Session: +$79 -- 819 Hands
Overall: $712.75-- +$347.80 -- 18,518 hands