Heat of the Summer

About time for an update I suppose...I had the first two weeks of July off and for various reasons didn't go on holidays, and I don't know too many people around here (lol Belgians) so I played a lot of poker and watched a lot of videos. To be honest I was pretty happy to get to work (even though I do absolutely nothing), because I was just getting stir crazy sitting in the apartment all day with only the dog to talk to.

At least going to work involves leaving the house to read the internet all day! I’m moving back to Ireland in November so I’m starting to look forward to that, even though moving the whole show back is going to be a giant pain in the ass.
In terms of results, I dont have my pokertracker to hand but I've played about 12,000 hands so far this month, and I'm up over $4.2k so I'm very happy with that. I'm just dreading that I may be just running good and there's a soul crushing downswing around the corner. But sure we can't go about life worrying about getting hit by a bus, so I'll just enjoy it while it lasts. I'm happy with how I'm playing and I think I should be a comfortable mid stakes player by the end of the year, unless the games catch up and pass me by!

For my last 50k hands at 100nl, 200nl and 400nl I'm beating them for a combined 7ptbb/100. I know its not a huge sample, but its encouraging all the same.
I never bothered putting money on ipoker in the end. Instead I put some on the entraction network which is in euros. This is great because the exchange rate means there's intermediate levels from the dollar amounts, so at the moment I'm playing a good bit there to clear a bonus at €200nl which is the dollar equivalent of about 320nl, a level that I'm pretty happy playing at for now...So in due course I'll mix in some $400nl (which I've been playing a bit of on Everest) and some _€400nl.
Away from cash, I played a €200 buyin tournament on Betdaq last night, which I got a free ticket for. 145 started and I got down to the last 30 (18 paid) with TT being rivered by AK for a pot to go about 10th in chips and virtually certain of making the money (a not insignificant €422). Tournaments have been pretty soul-crushing in the last while for me, I don't see how people can play them regularly. That said, I booked my flights home yesterday for the weekend of the International Poker Open which is on in October in the Regency (check www.boylepoker.com/ipo for details). It figures to have 1200 runners and the buyin is a paltry €150. It'll be great to have the chance to play in such a big event for that money. The structure looks great and I'm really looking forward to playing in it, as to date I’ve only played a tiny amount live.

Half-time

So 2008 is half over. If I look back at the start of this blog and review what I wanted to get done, I can be pretty happy. My objective was to be ready to take a shot at $200nl right about now, having 20ish buyins after playing a WSOP event. Well, we never went to Vegas but I've easily met my goal of playing 200nl and I've played 20k hands there already and have closer to 60 buyins in the tank so all good in that respect.

In fact as I have 30 buyins for 400nl, I'm thinking about moving up and taking some shots at those games when they look good. Everest doesn't always have nice 400nl games running so I'm going to maybe put some money in an ipoker skin and mix it up between the two. I think I have the ability to win there, though maybe not straight off the bat, as I'll admit I'm still not aggressive enough to deal with the regulars but I'm getting there and my game is still steadily improving!

So for the 2nd half of the year, I want to become a regular at the midstakes and increase the bankroll so that I'm rolled for all the mid-stakes games and I can pick and choose the best ones. So if I was to settle on a goal it would be to have played 1000nl (with the proper bankroll) by Christmas. I'm sure this won't be easy, but I don't want to take my foot off the gas and I'm going to keep studying hard (when I'm in work!) to try and get good enough.

I'm going back to Ireland in November which I'm looking forward to and it'd be sweet if I could grind out a deposit for a house in 2009, but that's a long way away yet and I'm sure the games will be much tougher by then, but another distant goal of mine. Obviously all of this may be a pipe dream which I'll be crying over on my next downswing, but whatever!

Quick update on June:

Played good...Talk most of my money from the fishes but certainly started to try and push the regulars around where I could. The challenge of trying to find ways to beat each individual regular in a short space of time is fun.

Winnings: $4214

Bonus and rakeback: ~$600

Total Profit: $4814

Mid June Update

Bleagh...played 2k hands earlier and I'm seriously pokered out after it. I got off to a good start to June and I've split my 11k hands evenly between 100nl and 200nl, mostly because I wanted to clear a bonus so I multi-tabled a lot. Now I'm back to playing 200nl and some 100nl if there are no good games. I was off to a $2k start but the last few days have been horrible. Firstly I was one-outered in a $500 pot. Then the following two abominations from today which resulted in me being stuck for $650 early on. Truly awful stuff:

http://weaktight.com/233539
http://weaktight.com/233538

I somehow stuck at it and ended the day up a small amount, so overall I'm up around $2.4k now for June which is ok, but its been rough. The aggression is much more notable at 200nl and I'm getting 3bet left right and centre, but I've picked a few decent spots for 4b bluffs and CRAI on some flops that has worked out ok. I'll have to have a look at some filters in holdem manager and make sure I'm not wasting money by folding to 3bets to often, and it's probably something I'll need to do a coaching session or two on.
I was going to play the Stars 200 seat WSOP guaranteed tomorrow night, but it's on very late and will likely run all night, and I know I won't be able to concentrate coz I'm useless at staying up late....(great trait for a poker player!) so I'll see what to do. These updates are pretty dull, but such is the life of the small stakes grinder.
No stats or graphs...

Adios.

May Update

Its been a while since I updated last, so here's a quick May summary. It went good! I played pretty solid and ran well...Still v.tight but whatever works is good with me. At the end of the month I was getting bored with $100nl and was getting a bit robotic so with about $6.7k I decided to have a go at $200nl. I got off to a bad start as usual when moving up, but I've managed to turn it around since and I'm in profit for 200nl. It's good because I'm concentrating a lot harder on every hand and I've only been playing 2-4 tables to begin with.
So I hope I can make it stick this time. I think I'm good enough to at least be a small winner in the games by picking on the fish and trying to find the leaks in the regs. So far I've noticed the games are more aggressive, but the aggression seems mindless and I've managed to get the better of a lot of the spewy 27/23 type regs. I've been playing even tighter since moving up which is hard to imagine. I've been running at about 17/13 as opposed to my usual 18/15.
For June I wanna make it stick at $200nl and keep building the bankroll. I probably won't get too many hands in as I'm only gonna play 4 tables max for a while.

Stats for June:

Hands: 16833
VPIP: 17.9%
PFR: 13.7%
Att. to Steal: 27.7%
W$WSF: 39%

Total won: $2046.92

RB and Bonus: ~$300

Total: ~$2347

Back on the Horse

I spent the end of April trying to avoid 100nl and just playing tournaments some 20nl HU and some 50nl 6-max, and I started back at 100nl at the start of this month. I'm back playing on Everest, despite the lack of rakeback, the games are softer than ipoker so I think playing there is best despite running into stupid shit very often like this hand (Stacking off with TP was fine vs. this guy):



Dealt to Hero [ Ks Ts ]
** Dealing down cards **
Maltebrauer folds
allinshimi folds
LuisN calls [$1.00]
Hero raises [$4.50]
DaFonz80 folds
kungmon folds
LuisN calls [$3.50]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 3s, 8c ]
LuisN checks
Hero bets [$7.00]
LuisN calls [$7.00]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
LuisN checks
Hero bets [$15.00]
LuisN raises [$58.75]
Hero calls [$43.75]
LuisN shows [Js Qc ]
Hero shows [Ks Ts ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]

LuisN wins $139.00 from main pot


However, people doing this is a VERY good thing, and I have to remember that. I got off to a fast start this month, up $1k in a very short time, but I'm currently on a -$600 swing. Something I'm still struggling with is the swings.

My stats for the month are at the bottom. I think I'm still improving steadily, and I've done some coaching sessions where the feedback has been pretty good. However, I'm in no rush to move up just yet. I still think I can learn a lot at 100nl before moving up and I need to work on controlled aggression as I still err on the side of caution too much which will get owned at 200nl I think. I think I'm about a 4-5 ptbb/100 winner at 100nl, or at least I'd like to think I am! So I'll keep going until maybe the end of June and see how I'm fixed then in terms of bankroll, confidence, and skill. I would hope to have something in the region of $8k by then, if the gods of variance oblige.



Stats for May to date:



Hands: 6242
VP$IP: 18.2%
PFR: 14%
AF: 2.58 (3.87/1.88/1)
Att. To Steal: 28.4%
W$WSF: 40%

Total Won/Lost: $399.14

Uuuuugghhh

I'm broke...not in bankroll terms, but my recent swing has killed my spirit totally. I'm sure you all know it and have encountered it, but some people deal with it better than others, but I'm a pansy and can't hack it at all.
Putting immense effort into something for 6 months and then just not being able to win a hand doesn't compute with me. Maybe I'll review the hands in a few weeks and see plenty of bad play in there too, but I've looked at stuff 2 days or a week later and my conclusion is still that I just can't find a way to win.
Its very hard to accept and very easy to put down to variance and running bad but is it really possible to drop 12 buyins over 10k hands due to running bad, or do I have to accept I'm just not very good, despite reading forums, watching cardrunners videos, coaching, everything else?
Is it is, then I question if its the game for me. As an old gent who was getting berated by Phil Hellmuth said, "If this is Poker, then I don't want to be a part of it".
I don't really know what to do now. My initial thoughts are to withdraw some of my bankroll which stands at about $5.4k and buy some crap so I have something tangible to show for this fucking torture! Then I'd drop down to $50nl and start again. But then I think there's a chance that maybe there's a tiny miniscule chance that I'm good enough to actually beat $100nl and I should continue. I dunno really...fuck the whole damn lot of them :-)
Time for a break anyway...Length of said break to be confirmed.

Dancing with the Doomswitch

I haven’t updated in a while for a few reasons, foremost I’ve been taking a beating! I moved to a new site and made $1k there in 3k hands and then took a shot at $200nl about a week ago today, and I instantly lost $1k in 1k hands and was shell shocked to say the least. Obviously I moved down to $100nl again and I’ve been trying to get back in order, but to no avail and I’m down a further $300 over the following 5k hands which brings me to today. My play has definitely been affected by the swing and I’m making some tilty calls and shoves and being passive in bad spots for fear of the swing continuing. This is clear from my won w/o showdown going back to its old ways. This if for sure the low-point of my 8 or so months playing poker so far. I’m really terrible at taking the rough with the smooth and I got far sicker about losing the $1k than I was happy to win the $1k the week before.

I really have no handle on the fact that 10 buyin downswings are commonplace in a 50k sample, and that 10-15k breakeven stretches are quite normal. I bought the ‘ Zen and the Art of Poker’ book a while back and I’ve been reading over it over the last few days and it’s definitely helped to calm me down and get me thinking better.

Over the last day or so, I’ve switched to just playing 4 tables and trying to concentrate on every decision to get my thought process back and its looking up a little bit. All I can do is keep plugging away and trying to make the right decision every time.

One great point I read in the book is about trying to win every hand. I always used to get just slightly annoyed if I didn’t win a hand where I VP$IP but the truth is you’re only going to win at showdown and in hands where you’re the PFR about 55% of the time max…this means that almost ½ the time, you’re pissed off, and human nature means that you remember the losses more than the wins, so overall if you go in with the mindset of being even a tiny bit upset when you lose a hand, you’ll end up very negative overall and I think this lets the inner-‘nit’ thrive. So the goal is to try and just make the right decision vs. the opponents range and let whatever happens happen.

I still have about 57 buyins for 100nl, and I’m going to stick with it until I get to about $7k or get some confidence back, which might be in 2 weeks or it might be in 6 weeks. I’m still on par with the goals I set myself at the start of the year, so I’m gonna try and think positive….If I was offered a guarantee in January that I’d be where I am now in terms of bankroll and development I’d have snapped called.

Finally, I’m just going to make occasional updates every now and then as I was kind of getting bored of the weekly report thing. GL!