December Targets

As I feel I am going backwards I am going to set some pretty straightforward and non profit making targets for December. I want to be able to hit the ground running for 2008 with a semi-LAG stlye and am therefore going to set targets to change my style rather than make money.

December Targets:

1. 5,000 Hands at 50NL with stats at a minimum of 21/19/3.5.
2. 15,000 Hands at 100NL with stats at a minumum of 21/19/3.5
3. Learn to trust stats/reads and fold if necessary. Carried over from November.
4. Continue to actively participate in coaching group.
5. Accept that I may have to 'break even' for a while whilst going through transition period in my game.
6. Research more advanced plays and compare with my current play. eg. How to play in 3bet pots, Cold Calling with the intention of floating etc.

November Review

So with bonuses and rakeback my final total for November is $1,919.20 profit. Is an OK result money wise but I feel like my game has gone backwards a bit and my style is slipping but into nitty TAG. May as well be playing with my cards face up against some of the better players at 100NL.

Here's my review of targets set at beginning of month:

1. 25,000 Hands 100NL at 4+ PTBB/100

I played nearly 33,000 hands at 1.98 BB/100. Ok for my first month at new level but feel like I have failed. Been slipping back to TAG which is bad for me. Verdict - Failed.

2. Focus on Pot Control for EVERY session

I have been working hard on pot control and am much better at this now. Verdict - Pass.

3. Learn to trust stats/reads and fold if necessary!

I am getting worse not better here. I think this is biggest problem with TAG style. Hard to put down hands against fish when you have been patiently waiting for a hand to take their money. A true fish is always in front of your unimproved AA when they check/raise turn. Verdict - Failed miserably.

4. Start folding if unsure what to do in small pots.

Some good fols on flop with overpairs. Verict - Pass.

5. Review sessions and post hands on CR

Am getting better at reviewing my play. Am also breaking play down into sessions of around 500 hands and making sure I review big hands before playing again. Verdict - Ongoing.

6. Find a good coach

Coaching has started as part of a group with newly honoured CR Guest Pro Verneer. The whole group are currently trying to lay TAG foundations and hopefully we will be starting to open up soon. I am finding TAG a little too dull and feel I am not maximising my earning potential. What I really need is a one on one coach but do they even exist?

7. Work on Table Selection

Passed.

8. Re-read psychology of poker

Am halfway through and am referring to this book and the two NLHE books. This is ongoing study and I could read each book five times and still be able to learn more on sixth read!

November Results

More work less play

I lost 8 buyins this weekend at 100NL. I played OK for the most part, had some minor coolers, maybe donked of a stack or two (not more than that) and think this is mostly variance of a short period.

A problem in my game when playing 18/16 style is getting frustrated when things are not going for me. It is difficult to lay down something like AK pre-flop, or KK when shortish stack shoves A high flop, when you haven't played a hand for ages over 4 tables. Playing every hand correctly regardless of being up or down in session is a target I will not be getting close to acheiving this month.

I have decided that plugging my TAG leaks is a must. I seem to be going backwards at the moment and need to imporove my grinder style before I can open up.

Loosening up is currently a disaster waiting to happen!

Play - Review - Improve - Play - Review - Improve - Play.........you get the idea.

Hand Reviews

The coaching group forum is starting to take off and I am trying to respond to the hand history posts as often as I can.

I think it is better than the CR forums because I know that the rest of the guys in the group are at a similar level to me and we are all trying to help each other as well as improve our own game. I am starting to recognise peoples strengths and weaknesses and hopefully people will start picking up on the holes in my game.

I am also trying to watch all the videos being posted but don't have so much time now I am back at work.

Another thing I have found is that I put much more thought into others peoples hands as I don't want to give bad advice or come across as an idiot! I need to take this approach when reviewing my hands too - and I need to review my sessions more often.

Planning Hands and Changing Plans!

So I am trying to plan my plays in advance but at the same time trying to re-evaluate each street. That is a little confusing but this hand today was a very good example of what I mean.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1722092

Pre Flop:
Original Raiser is playing 26/18/2.4 and has a pretty wide range. Caller is short stacked and a bit of a loose/passive calling station and I call with AJo. My plan is to play the station for his short stack if I hit an A or J.

Flop:
Jack hits and i'm in business. I check, original raiser cbets as expected and station calls as expected. I make my planned check/raise expecting original raiser to fold and station to call which effectivley puts him all in, but no.......the wrong villain calls and my plan has failed. Not quite sure what to put this guy on but sure am not happy with my TPTK out of position anymore.

Turn:
Straight draws have got there but I am still not sure what to put him on. In any case I am not prepared to play TPTK for stacks. I am trying hard not to make bad plays when my original plan has not worked out and have therefore given this one up. I check with the intention of folding to his bet. He checks and now I am totally confused.

River:
Another Jack. Now I am thinking I am in front!! Another change of plan. There is no way he not betting the turn with a set and therefore he hasn't filled a boat. His flop call suggests a draw or a set but his lack of turn bet suggests he missed a draw. If my read is correct then he has a busted flush draw and will fold if I lead out so I check. He bets pots which convinces me he has air (why bet so much?), I shove and he folds for 30BB more in a 265BB pot!!

I was very happy with myself here, spoke with Aaron from the coaching group and he agreed with the read. Going to post on forum and also send to Verneer to see if my line is OK or I just got lucky.......

Moving up checklist

This has been lifted from Sirnebs Blog and original from a 2+2 poster. Is a really good list of what skills you need for each level. Based on this I am almost ready for 200NL but I want to take things a little more slowly.

"first off you should never view it as a quantum leap kinda thing. just take little shots when you feel comfortable, have the money and are good enough. here's a hand waving yardstick:

try 50NL when:-
you're confident in your preflop game
you understand position
you have a good idea of their hand by the river
you have an ok feel when to continuation bet
you have 500 or more

100NL when
you're confident playing draws
you can spot good semibluff opportunities
you can lay down AA/KK unimproved
you're attacking the blinds in easy steal situations
you have 1200+

200NL when:-
you're ok betting your stack on a draw
a PFR from you doesnt always mean AA-JJ and AQs+
you're starting to play one hand while holding another
you have more than one mode
you have 3000 or more

400NL when:
you can ID profitable preflop steals
you know how to pick between b3b and c/r- position factors heavily into your play
you're good at manipulating pot size
you have 6000+

1K NL when
your lines don't define your hand
you're good at playing and winning lots of small pots
your oop opponent must hold a strong hand to win a pot from you
you understand the real math of the game at least at a basal level
you have 20000+"

Cursed

I will not be posting "it's going/am playing well" posts ever again, nuff said!

Had 1st sweat session on Wednesday night, my mic wouldn't work but I knocked it over half way through and it burst into life. Shows that a good old fashioned thump still fixes modern technology!

The session went on much longer than I was expecting as we had an hours sweating the coach followed by two hours of discussion using poker tracker replayer. Was really intersting and it seems like they other guys are struggling with similar spots.

We also have a private forum now which is brilliant and better than CR as I know we are all players at a smilar level. Apart from the coach(es) of course!

More sessions planned for this weekend.

Shhhhhhhh

Am reluctant to say things are going well again due to superstition!





Am waiting for my first coaching group session to start which I am looking forward to. Hopefully I won't have any IT issues!

These 3 hands from today were all against the same guy:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1699077
This was the start of our battle.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1699070
Not sure about the passive line but I thought he was a little tilty and I wanted to hand him the rope.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1699091
And just when I think I am playing well I turn into a goddam calling station.
Only explanation for the pre flop call is I was desperate not to give him his money back. I stopped playing after this hand!

A good day

Caught up with the coaching group videos today and am looking forward to my first session tomorrow night. I am starting to think about calling raises with the intention of floating and am interested in how Verneer is going to approach this with us.

Played a couple of thousand hands today too and ran pretty well for the most part. Mostly at 100NL plus some 25NL whilst making a video for Kenny.




Some intersting hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1695149
An example sticking to my pre-flop plan.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1695283
Bet the turn sir!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1695307
So maybe my Ace high is no good...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1695340
This is why Kenny should be beating 25NL!

Downswing

I have been expecting a downswing and it has arrived. Droppes $250 today and downswing is now 7 buyins and counting.........

I played almost 1500 hands today playing 4-6 tables and felt I played pretty well but cards just weren't doing it for me.

Ironically a little bit of a tilty check/shove on turn brought an fold from villain who had been running me over. Maybe I do have fold equity in these spots? I think these hands, in no particular order, tell the story of the day:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691904

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691910

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691914

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691919

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691924

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1691934

For the coaching group I am wondering what is the best way for us all to post our hands? I considered hiding the results but I thought it may be better, for Verneer especially, if you could see the end result too. Anyone got any ideas for a blog template we can all use?

Also what type of hands are considered interesting and best for us to select for review from our sessions?

Tough Session

Played 500 hands this morning and session started badly but recovered well to finish a little up.

These two hands pretty much sum up the session:

I am working hard on playing TPTK better but am I right to fold this? One for the CR forums.

WilddBill is 58/8/1.7 over 85 Hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1680945


And this will just make you laugh:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1680950

Trusting your reads

So I am running pretty good since sundays mini disaster and am now running at 4PTBB/100 hands for the month so far over 7750 hands and 10PTBB/100 hands for last 5000 hands.

I am really trying to concentrate on pot control and stop myself from playing for stacks without good reason.

I am also starting to get a good feel for the PT stats and the hand ranges of my opponents. An example is this hand http://www.pokerhand.org/?1678783. I was seriously considering a fold on the turn here but was one of those moments where I find the all in slider up to the max anyway!

My stats were telling me he folds 77% of cbets on flop and 76% of turn bets. Alarm bells were ringing when he check raises turn (1st time he has done this too!) and I am disappointed I wasn't good enough to put it down.

TRUST YOUR PT STATS !!!!

Overshoving

I have been reading about the value of overshoving big hands, especially on the river, when there are certain cards the opponent just wont fold.

An examples of this came up today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1678728

Cardrunners membership has just paid for itself once again!

FOCUS ON TPTK

Didn't play yesterday as it was 2nd wedding anniversary and we went to see the firework display by the beach.

Have been thinking a lot about my bad session on sunday morning which is the last time I played. My conclusion is that TPTK is a major leak in my game and I really need to focus on this.

I knew it was a leak anyway but I really need to get the alarm bells rining in my head as soon as I am dealt AK-AJ and make sure I play the hand correctly according to my opponents range. From the CR forums it is clear that good players can easily fold TPTK. I really need to work on this and post more of these hands on cardrunners. In short I need to understand what ABC poker is for TPTK type hands.

Deep Stacks

We had friends over to stay this weekend so I haven't played a great deal so far this month.



I did however manage to drop 4 buyins yesterday morning in less than 200 hands. I was planning on playing a couple of hours before everyone else got up but I had to stop after 20 minutes as 4 buy-ins is my stop loss at the moment. Players were so aggro I could have done my bankroll in 2 hours the way things were going!!


My main hands are below and I am going to post on cardrunners for some comments.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666437

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666450

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666435

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666432


The river call for over 100BB with TPGK looks very bad but guy was total maniac and thought I was in front. I think I need to work on my play when I have built a 200BB stack as this is potentially a very expensive leak.