Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Humbly Stepping Back

Well, so much for 200nl for now. Yesterday was absolutely brutal to me. 3 times I had either AA or KK where guy flops a set on me, flop tptk vs maniac who check raises the flop and then hits 2pr on the turn. Stuff like that all day and it ended up costing me about 7 buyins overall which it really should never have gotten to that point as I should have stopped playing at 4 buyins. So today we move back to 100nl and start to rebuild.

Tilt: $1976.83
Stars: $600.58

Total: $2577.41

Monday, June 29, 2009

Cooler Sunday

Well, yesterday was a kick in the pants overall as I had great 2nd best hands and finished down almost 3 buyins overall and they all happened pretty much simultaneously. Ran AKs into AA, Then QQ into AA (same guy), 43s flops 2pr vs flopped set, KQs twice flops top pair and opponents hit sets on the flop. Just a crazy day. That puts me at a net loss at 200nl of $126 over 5k hands so nothing horrible, but not moving up either. Thank goodness for Friday's sessions! I just finished importing all of my hands from my other 2 pc's that I play on and I have an overall win for the month at $1332 plus another $575 in rakeback so far and another $110 in sng wins. Not really sure why my numbers aren't adding up to be honest as I started the month with an ~$1100 bankroll. I also staked a good MTT player yesterday for $100 in a bunch of tournametns which I'm getting back ~$25 after he took some horrid beats. I should be sitting around $3000 according to those numbers and I'm sitting at $3968.21 so I've lost almost $1000 in hands somewhere. Dunno....

FT: $3399.43
Stars: $568.78

Total: $3968.21

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Calling it a night

Well, as I stated before, I was going to really focus on playing solid today and not try a bunch of crazy crap and it paid off. During the day, I peaked at being up about $1200 and had 3 really bad suckouts that dropped me back to about $650 for the day. I got $185 in rakeback this week so almost a full buyin. When I got home from the bar tonight, I needed some time to wind down so I sat for about an hour and 45 minutes and went on a great tear. Finished that session up about another $650 or so ( no holdem manager on this pc) so overall was a $1300 day plus rakeback for almost $1500 overall! WOWOWOWOWOWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Until next time!

FT: $3942.33
Stars: $661.98
Total:$4604.31

Friday, June 26, 2009

200nl going the wrong way

Well, my shot at 200nl has not been going so well. Im not down that terribly much (4.5 buyins) but I have made some really stupid plays thinking that people are bluffing and being much more aggro at 200nl compared to 100nl which doesn't seem to be the case. I've also had a couple of bad spots where QQ hit a set vs my AA, KK flatted my EP raise when I had JJ and board was all low. I rank QQ into AK and lost that flip and shoved AJo into AK in a button/sb battle. I think I am changing my game too much and need to get back to playing the way that I did at 100nl. If I drop 2 more buyins I'll be moving back down to 100nl again. Let's get back to solid poker! I should have close to $200 coming in rakeback today as well so that softens the blow a little bit as well.

FT: $2454.84
Stars: $661.98

Total: 3116.82

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Shots at 200nl!

Well, I played my first session of 200nl yesterday. I didn't play a lot of hands and only played one table to focus intently on that one as I slowly try and move into some real money. I was able to get in 224 hands and finished up $103 overall after I doubled a mega fish up with A6s vs his 77 for a $250 pot. We ended up all in pre as I was priced in to call his shove (long story) and I missed but would have done the same thing again. The only questionable spot was when I 4bet an obvious squeeze which I probably should have just let it go. Oh well, live and learn. I'm also realizing how much table selection is going to play a part in this as there seemed to be 5 descent/good players focussing on the uberfish and we pretty much stayed out of each others way. Overall, it was a positive experience and I'm looking forward to getting many more hands in and going to focus on playing solid poker.

FT: $3443.29
Stars: $661.98

Total: $4,105.27

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Now what.....

Well, yesterday was a weird day. Up a buyin, down a buyin. Lots of big pots and I literally threw away at least 3 buyins which I am not happy about at all. With that being said, I have reached another milestone. After 1280 hands and giving away $300, I finished the session up just under 4 buyins ($396.80) and have eclipsed the $4k mark for my bankroll. My goal yesterday was to pick off half of that and when I was floating around +3 buyins, with only 15 minutes to go in the day, I pretty much resigned that I wouldn't quite get there today. On my last orbit, I picked up KK in the big blind. UTG, who had been playing pretty tight, raised and I 3bet him and he called. The flop came out T72r and I made my normal cbet and he floated me. The turn came a J and now no flush possibilities exist. I decided to check to him as if I had AK and missed and was now giving up. He instantly shoves and I gladly call. He shows up with 44 and I take his full stack. I finish out that orbit and close my tables. When I look at my Holdemmanager I think I am a few dollars short of the $4k mark so I pull up stars to add it up and here is what I found:

Tilt: $3339.84
Stars: $661.98

Total: $4001.82

Now it is decision time. Do I want to start taking shots at 200nl..... I may play 3 tables of 100nl and throw in one 200nl table to try and start feeling out the pot sizes as I'm starting to feel a bit nervous over the amount of money in play. This is a good thing :)

Friday, June 19, 2009

Clear heads make all the difference

Either that or I am just running like a goon! Firstly, I got my rakeback today which was a nice $147.15 today so I guess they did include my play from Monday (which I wasn't expecting) Was able to grind through a little under 1800 hands today and ran really well. Final bb/100 today was at 19.03 and calculated up that was a +$672.60 so today ended up being an $819.75 day! Not too shabby for a hobby. Was going to try and get in a few more hands but my mind was starting to waver a bit and thought it best to just wrap up for the day. I'll be heading to the bar soon to start serving drinks and make my piddly money doing that. I'm really toying with dropping that all together and replace it with poker but want some more time in to see if I can really sustain 2-3K/ month. Until the next time:

FT: $2943.04
Stars: $661.98

Total: $3605.02

Stupidity gets you nowhere

Every once in a while, I find myself getting the itch to play limit poker again. I really don't know why, but I do. I played limit poker for so long and gave it up because the game had gotten much tougher and I went from being a solid winning player to being a losing player and that was when I switched over to playing NL. After dropping 2 stacks at nl yesterday, I decided that I can play 5/10 limit now and beat it. I threw away a bunch of bb's before just shutting down. I got ahold of myself and shut the site down. Decided I needed to stay away from cash games for a while and jumped over to Stars to play some $27 turbo sng's. I played 10 in total and was able to get 3 wins, 2 2nds and a 3rd. Finished that session up ~$125. Then had to head into work last night and I actually went home early after someone offered to close for me (thought they would make more money). I gladly said yes because the dinner rush had ended and I knew there wasn't going to be much business left. Was able to spend some time with my wife and gave her a good back massage since most of the time she is asleep when I get home. After a bit, she started fallign asleep and I fired up a couple tables. My head was clear and got that stupid crap out of my thoughts. Played for about an hour and a half and was able to grind out 1.25 buyins. So now it is time to get back to the plan of playing solid poker, taking time in my decisions and thinking things through properly.

FT: $2123.29
Stars: $661.98

Total: $2785.27

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Learned a new lesson??

After that horrid run on Tuesday, I posted 5 particular hands about whether or not I should be willing to stack off on both Trikz and ITH. Some I played properly and some I played poorly, but there was something that I learned that I was not looking for initially. The first is taking into account when someone donks the flop and what my donking image has been. This is an area that I don't focus on enough and obviously something that I need to start looking at. I see many fish donk minbet the flops and I just raise em up and they fold but when a descent player donks pot on a low flop, now what does that mean??? The second thing that I learned to try and think about more, is thinking about betsizing from the flop. There was a situation that came up where I was deepstacked and flopped a set and I didn't adjust my betting based on the stacks involved and kept it in relation to the pot more than I should have. Putting your stack size in correct ratio for either shoving the turn or the river is more important than I have considered in the past and I just want to particularly thank Given and Soultwister for their comments. These comments helped me get a 240bb stack in preflop yesterday :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Recovery Day

After having my largest downswing in terms of actual money, I think today was the best day I have ever had. I have to say that I had lost some confidence by the end of yesterday and was a bit reluctant to put the hands in today but I am glad I did. I was able to completely recover the losses from yesterday and put in a +7 buyin day today with only about 1200 hands. The biggest contributor to this was when I was sitting +300bb deep vs a 240bb stack and picked up AA utg. The button 3bet and I made a large 4bet to 55bb since we were so deep. He shoves! Now my heart starts pounding as I call. He has KK and I just need to fade an odd straight, flush or set. No help for him and we rake in a 480bb pot! Later on I had KK when utg limped, utg+1 raised and I 3bet to 17bb. Both call. Flop comes all clubs, 7QJ. UTG shoves (shortstacked) Utg+1 reshoves. I have an overpair plus the Kc so I call. Both utg and utg+1 flopped sets, JJ and QQ. So I have outs to my flush and my own set. Turn is a lovely K for about a 260bb pot. Nice to run good for once :)

Tilt: $2554.04
Stars: $557.98

Total: $3112.02

Rakeback coming Friday: $119.02 (did not include Mondays play for some reason)

Brutal day

Well, we can't have good days every day as it seems that I have been having recently and yesterday put a hurting on me. I put in a lot of hands and ran into some sick sick hands as well as making 3 really bad plays that cost me 3 stacks. I've posted some hands for review on both ITH and Trikz for some situations that came up yesterday that were very difficult for me. I want to make sure that I am not stacking off too lightly as well and to confirm that i played my hands right (which I don't know if i did or not). Should be interesting to see some feedback on them. So overall, I ended down about 6.5 buyins. I am also moving some funds from Tilt to Stars for a friend so when you see the bump at stars, it's not from play :) Wanting to recover some today but want to focus on making the right decisions most of all and allow the money to flow from that.

Tilt: $1878.54
Stars: $557.98

Total: $2436.52

Monday, June 15, 2009

gotta get a quick one in

Over 3k

Got in about 1200 hands today when I went on a 2.5 buyin hit.

Tilt: $2720.14
Stars: $357.98

Total: $3078.12

gotta run....cya!

Hit the $3k mark!

But wasn't able to sustain it over that point. I was only able to get in about 1200 hands over the weekend between work and I've been sick as well so I've been sleeping a lot. I played one session Sat night after I got home from work and was down almost a buyin then played last night while laying in bed not able to go to sleep. At one point I was up about 3 buyins overall for the weekend and I had eclipsed the $3k mark but was then struck by QJ that hit a gutshot on the river and 44 who flopped an oesd and turned a set vs my AA. Only had one hand where I was AIPF and I lost a flip vs AKo when he hit a flush on the river vs my QQ. Oh well. It's time to get to work and hopefully we can surpass that 3k mark for good.

Tilt: $2443.14
Stars: $357.98

Total: $2801.12

Rakeback coming: $99.61 not including todays play

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Down session considered an accomplishment???

We all have down days and yesterday was one of those for me. I consider yesterday a victory as I started out down about 5 buyins early on when KK ran into AA, AK into KK, and TT flopped set runs into KK who hits his flush on the river. Being down 5 buyins is not something that I enjoy at all and with the move up, being down $500 didn't sit well in my stomach. I was playing pretty well and continued to grind and was able to recover a fair amount of it and finished with getting almost 3 1/2 buyins back. This weekend is kind of crazy so not sure if I'll be able to get much in. I was able to get in a lot of hands yesterday (around 2300) so I'm kind of poker'd out at the moment.

Stars: $357.98
Tilt: $2197.24

Total: $2555.22

Friday, June 12, 2009

Ho Hum Thursday

I wasn't able to play very much yesterday and when I did, I didn't play very well quite honestly. I'm struggling with a cold and my head is not very clear. Not a good combination for playing poker. I had Colossas railing me when UTG raises (very tight player), button called and I have AA in the BB. The initial raise was to $3. My normal 3bet with a cold caller is 5x the initial bet but with utg being quite tight, I raised to $16. Both utg and the button called. The flop came down 4c6d8d. Not the greatest of boards for 2 callers. I wasn't too worried about utg as he would lay down those pp's but I was a bit concerned about the button who flatted a raise and then flatted the reraise. I was putting utg on an overpair to this board but if I got heat from the button I would consider laying this down. Anyhow, the pot contained $48.50 so my SPR was only a little over 2 so I'm going with this at this point. I led out for $27 and UTG raised to $60. Now it was up to the button who folded and I instantly shipped my remaining stack. UTG instacalled with KK so I'm a huge favorite now. Unfortunately, a K hit on the turn and I end up down $128 to the 2 outer. No worries there honestly. It happens and I got the money in way good. After that, I made 2 really bad calldowns and decided to quit after losing $185.90 total. I moved over to stars for a bit and played a couple of $6.50 turbo sng's. Took first in one and 3rd in another for a small profit. I was floating around $200 on stars and wanted a bit of a change in scenery so I pulled up 2 $100nl tables there with pretty much my full bankroll on there. Within 60 hands, I found myself up $153.75 and had to quit to go to work. Overall, was a positive as I only finished down $32.15. Looking forward to getting my rakeback today of $162.54

Bankroll prior to playing today:

Tilt: $2214.55
Stars: $357.98
Rakeback today: $162.54

Total: $2735.07

This is a high water mark for me for quite some time and hope this continues to flood!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Not a lot of hands

Wasn't able to get many hands in today but I was able to scratch out some winnings. I would like to play some more but I'm feeling very tired and I know that I will toss it away so i'm doing the smart thing and going to bed. TTYL

Stars: $192.43
Tilt: $2400.45

Total: $2592.88

Well, no winnings to report....

But no losses either. Kind of weird updating here with no play to report on at all. Had a wonderful day yesterday starting with my son "Graduating" from elementary school. It's really strange having no kids in elementary school any more. Today is the last day of school for my oldest son who will become a senior and my daughter who will be moving into 8th grade. After the graduation, we took my son out to lunch at Fuddruckers and then came home to get ready for a night at the ball park. I had received some free tickets from my work from a contest we were having a while back. We had a group of about 10 people that went to the game and it was a blast. Had a few beers and the O's actually won the game! The highlight came when Seattle was changing pitchers and they started playing YMCA in the park. We all got up and started dancing crazily and we ended up on the big screen! That was pretty cool. Well, it's time to get ready for work. Have a great day!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Deep in a donkament.....waste of my time :)

Good morning followers! As I got into work yesterday, a friend of mine commented about playing some tournaments on Stars and I told him about the 10k guar which has a $5 buyin. I decided to play with him and we had ~2600 entrants. The real money was on the final table obviously and that was my goal. Trying to navigate through this is like a minefield and I happily did so. I ended up busting in 22nd when my AK ran into AA and pulled down a whopping $27! Took me about 5 1/2 hrs for that. Anyhow, after that I put in almost 2 solid hours and ~650 at 100nl and was able to pull down almost 2 full buyins. Had to work last night and had a couple beers after a busy Monday. I got home around 1am and pulled up my pc, read a bit on the forums and decided to pull up a couple tables for a bit. Glad I did as I played for about 35-45 min and pulled in another 2 buyins so it was a very good day on the tables yesterday.

Stars: $192.43
Tilt: $2174.60

Total: $2367.03

This weeks rakeback coming Friday: $162.54

Monday, June 8, 2009

Evenings and weekends......why?

Well, I continue to struggle with evening and weekend playing times and I really am not sure why. I played Saturday for a while and found myself dropping 4.5 buyins rather quickly. Now, some of this was just variance. Twice I lost flush over flush. Once where I flopped a flush with T8s after I had raised from EP and a guy behind me had called with K9s. He claims that he meant to 3bet or fold and accidentally clicked call. The other one was when I had raised 56s from MP and got 2 callers. I made a cbet on A high flop and got 2 callers. The turn gave me an OESFD. SB checked, I checked (mistake) button bet, bb shoved. I thought long and hard before calling and button folded. BB had Q9s and I was drawing to 12 outs and missed. The other two were just bad play. Throughout the rest of the weekend, I was able to get in another 1.8k hands and was able to grind back 2 buyins so I finished down ~2 buyins. Rakeback should be good this week as well as I've put in quite a few hands this week. I'm starting to feel somewhat comfortable with the pot sizes but it still makes my heart flutter when I get all in. I'm sure that will pass over time, and I hope that it happens soon :)

Stars: $170.80
Tilt: $1801.95

Total: $1972.75

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Solid Grind

I was able to grind out 2k hands yesterday of 100nl and did pretty well overall. I went up 2 buyins very quickly but then went back to even and floated there for a few hundred hands. I tried not to let any emotions get involved which I have to say was a bit difficult. I just stayed focused and played solid poker. By the time it was done, I had finished up almost 4 buyins. I was very plesed with my play overall and for the first time, felt comfortable at 100nl. I am taking more time with my decisions overall and it paid off. I was able to lay down AA on the flop when faced with some heat when 3 handed and was absolutely right to do so. Probably won't get to play much over the weekend, if at all.

Tilt: $1976.10
Stars: $170.80

Total: $2146.90

Friday, June 5, 2009

Rude Introduction

Well, after a little thinking, I decided to move up to 100nl while still being a little short on the bankroll and figured I would move down pretty quickly if I dropped more than 2 buyins. I loaded up a few tables yesterday afternoon and while waiting for my blind to post, I noticed that there was a guy on one table that raised every hand and had 4 bet once when he had been 3bet. This caught my eye very quickly and started to think about how I would play this guy. He had position on me, but was in the bb when I had the button. On the very first hand, I am delt AA! Mr. active raises from UTG+1 and it folds to me. I 3bet hoping he was going to 4bet. He flats my 3bet. Flop comes 8JKr so no flushdraws out. There is roughly $24 in the pot and I lead out for $18 and he raises to $38 or so and I shove. He thinks briefly and calls. He has T9s for a flopped OESD. The turn brings a 7 and I ship a buyin on the very first hand. I almost just shut my pc down right then and there. This obviously is about the worst thing to happen to me since I have had a history of getting crushed at 100nl in the past. I decided to work through it and ended up getting that buyin back and finished the session up about 3/4 buyin. Was very pleased with how I played. I played some more last night and ended down about 1.25 buyins and I'm realizing people are calling 3bets at this level much lighter. SC's in position seem to be the key. I had QJs call from CO to my AK (which he hit on the turn after floating the flop). It's going to take a some adjustments on my part to get used to this. I also had a guy flat w/ AQ on the button when I opened from utg and flatted both flop and turn on AdKd4c board. I barrelled my TT on the turn as I really couldn't place him on a very strong hand and wanted to get value out of the flushdraw. On the river, I checked to him and he checked behind allowing me to see his play and his cards. So this is going to take some more concentration on my opponents lines. I also received my rakeback this morning which made up for last nights losses but obviously didn't allow for growth of the bankroll.

FT: $1606.85
Stars: $170.80

Total: $1777.65

I'll continue to play 100nl and if I hit $1500 will drop back to 50nl.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

hmmmmm......wow.....weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Well, as I said this morning, I hoped to get some hands in today and I was able to put in about 1400 or so throughout the day. The funniest thing is that I had my largest # of buyin win in a single day today. Last Tuesday, I started playing 50nl a bit short for my bankroll and had an almost 8 buyin day. Wednesday saw a 2 buyin day and then Thursday was another 4. I gave back around 5 on Sunday and then recovered Monday with around 3 or so. Wasn't able to play yesterday but then had today. 10.5 buyins up in that small amount of hands. Finished up $520 for the day! I started to mix in 1 table of 100nl but only had around 65 hands and really didn't get any cards and was down about $10 there (which was already factored into the total winnings). I am very very close to being properly rolled for 100nl with my rakeback coming on Friday and I'm a little aprehensive about it to be honest. Every time I have taken shots at 100nl, I have been bitchslapped and sent home with my tail between my legs. Hoping that this won't happen this time around.

Stars: $170.80
Tilt: $1686.42

Total: $1857.22
Rakeback coming on Friday: ~$135


YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAA

Small recovery

Well, I was able to grind through quite a few hands on Monday to recover a bit from the awful weekend. I am having difficulty adjusting to the really bad fish and need to figure that out. It could just be variance, but I think I'm bleeding some money away when I shouldn't be. I wasn't able to play yesterday due to taking a wonderful Rock Fish charter and spending the day with my dad and some of his friends. Was a beautiful day on the water and we brought in 18 nice fish. Was hoping to cook up some filet's last night but didn't have time due to my son's baseball game. Hope to get in some hands today. I have about $125 in rakeback coming on Friday so that will help also. Dont have much time to get into too many details cuz I have to get ready for work. See you all soon!

FT: $1166.37
Stars: $170.80

Total: $1337.17

Monday, June 1, 2009

A Yucky Weekend

It's a really good thing that I had gone on that massive run because this weekend put a hurtin on me. I had massive fish tables and just got crushed every time I turned around. There was one particular player that was on my immediate right that just owned me over and over. He limped 88% of his hands and would call any raise preflop. He would then min bet EVERY single flop and call a pot sized raise with any piece of the board and then min bet the turn again. If he happened to still be in the hand on the river, he would just lead pot. He sucked out on me so many times, it was pathetic and I watched him just donk it away to the other players. It was so frustrating, and I have to say that it affected my play on the other couple tables I was playing. I ended finishing down about 5 buyins. Time to recover!

Tilt: $970.77
Stars: $170.80

Total: $1141.57