MR FICKLE

How to be a great student

2011-03-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

I know I said I was taking a break but here are some tips for being a great student:

1. Honesty
It is vitally important that we have an open and honest relationship. If you played a hand badly I will want to know why. If the reason is because you were tilted then you must tell me you were tilted. I need to get inside your head and the quickest way to do that is with your co-operation.

2. Ask questions
I am sure you have tons of questions. Make sure you ask them during sessions and/or between sessions when necessary. There are no silly questions and you can ask the same question more than once if you need to.

3. Session Summaries
Write a brief summary of each session and send it to me. This achieves two things:
• Retention – Your brain gets another chance to retain what we have covered
• Understanding – I get to see whether you have fully understood what we have covered (and can quickly correct any misunderstanding before it turns to spew).

4. Identify and record ‘not sure spots’
There will be hundreds of times during a session where you are not sure what to do. You need to identify and record these spots somehow so we can work on them. You can Mark Hands in HEM, Keep a Journal or Spreadsheet or whatever you feel is best for identifying your weaknesses. Basically you are building a list of things you need to work on.

5. Contribute to Google Group
You should have received an invite to my student group (if you haven’t then get on my case right now!).
Have a browse and start posting on here frequently. Again there are no stupid questions and you will never get flamed.

6. Don’t relax between sessions
With coaching you get out of it what you put in. You will be provided with a video of each session so make sure you watch it back at least once and take extensive notes. I know students don’t do this often enough because they rarely come back with further questions or seek clarification on certain points. We are going to be covering some complex stuff as we go along and it is not all going to go in first time around.

Blog Break

2011-03-05T13:14:00.001-08:00

Am playing very little poker these days and am therefore going to take a break from blogging.

I will probably be back later in 2011 if things go to plan and real life stuff settles down into some sort of normality.

In the meantime thanks to anyone who took the time to read my ramblings over the last few years and good luck at the tables :)

FTP Mod

2011-02-23T00:21:00.000-08:00

Had a bad day on saturday and found myself back to just under my $1,500 starting point. Two reasons for this:

1) I ran 450 below EV which I think is a lot at 25nl and 50nl.
2) I 4 tabled Rush 6max

I don't have a problem with playing Rush (in fact I like it and am going to play more) but the problem is without doubt the number of tables I have been playing.

The difference between 2 tables and 4 tables of Rush is huge and I am still trying to find my sweet spot.

When 2 tabling I get in approx 600 hands per hour and feel like I have plenty of time to think, take notes on my opponents and play my A game close to 100% of the time.

When 4 tabling I get in approx 1200 hands per hour but my brain cannot cope and I go into autopliot spazzy nit mode.

My last 5 sessions have been 2 tabling 25nl Rush and am crushing at 30bb/100, over approx 4k hands, despite continuing to run badly according to EV numbers. I have slightly modified my moving up plan to incorporate 2 tabling Rush.

I also bought an FTP colour coding mod from Tiltbuster (www.tiltbuster.com) which is really cool. If you colour code players on the FTP client then this mode is a must buy imo. It cost $5 and looks like this:

If you don't have a good colour coding system them you should book a coaching session with me :)

Gooooooaaaaaaalllllllll

2011-02-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

Slowy does it

2011-02-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

My affair with Rush has come to an end and this week I have gone back to the normal 6max games. In other words back to what I do best.

Agreed these are short term results, but i am not running above EV at all and there are definetely plenty of mistakes in there which need to be looked at in more detail.

I have to say I didn't realise how much I miss the gameflow/metagame aspect of ring games and the enjoyment factor is rapidly returning :)

Microgrinder

2011-02-08T09:07:00.001-08:00

Firstly thanks to everyone who replied both publicy and privately to my previous post. I have no doubt I have made the right decision and everything is looking good.

Secondly thanks to all the people who have donated stacks to me over the past few years. I have never made significant withdrawals to my bankroll in the past, but now I have and my savings account looks great :)

Since my last post I have been playing some 25NL rush full ring and am already onto Phase 1 of my moving up plan. This means I am currently at 3 tables of 25nl and 1 of 50nl without any real dramas so far.

I just had my internet die at the wrong time though:

Didn't reconnect in time so am telling myself he had 66 and was about to 1 outer me, I run goot :)

One observation for my students grinding 25nl is that the rake is very high. The difference in play at 50nl is hardly noticable from what I have seen so far, so if you are winning at 25nl there is no reason why you can't maintain that winrate at 50nl imo. Just make the move up gradually and ask me if you need help making a move up plan.

A change of pace

2011-02-01T00:49:00.000-08:00

My life has gotten very busy this year with my real life job suddenly being more than part time. I won't bore you with the details of that but with another baby girl due to arrrive in a few months I have to accept that I am not going to have the time to juggle a real life job, poker playing/coaching and a young familty.

I am already struggling to fit everything in to be honest, and it will only get tougher when the baby comes, so clearly something has to give.

Having discussed this in great detail with the wife, the 'something' that gives simply has to be poker. I no longer have the time to be a grinder, fact.

So I have been looking for a compromise and have decided to do a bankroll challenge where I reset my bankroll to $1,500, design a bankroll plan, and aim to move up through the levels during the next year or two without any pressure to grind.

Apart from the need to reduce my playing schedule significantly, the reasons behind my decision to do this are:

1. Learn how to move up better
I have played 200nl for almost 3 years and do badly whenever trying to move up to 400nl. I think it's more of a mental thing (inferiority complex) than anything else and wanted to create a bankroll plan that is more dynamic and helps me get used to moving up gradually. In short I need to get in some moving up experience and the bankroll plan above will help me do that. Whenever I play I will be 4 tabling and each 'Phase' is simply to mix in a table at the next level. So for example I start at the highlighted area with 4 tables of 25nl and the next phase will be 3 tables at 25nl + 1 at 50nl. If anyone has any questions about this then just give me a shout on skype.

2. Try out some new ideas
The more I open my mind to considering all the options available on each street, the more I realise there are no 'standard' plays. I want to experiment with some new lines, move and bet sizes where the money doesn't matter to me.

3. See how tough poker has become
I hear people saying the games have got much tougher at the micros/low stakes and want to see for myself.

4. Set a good example
I coach a lot of micro stakes players and the private forum for my students is very active these days. The content could improve a lot though as people still tend to focus on the big pot coolers and ignore all of the small subtle spots that make the difference. I want to show my students that everyone has to work incredibly hard and learn from their mistakes every day in order to succeeed. I want to see what mistakes are being made at these levels (by me as well as my opponents) and use these spots to help me and my students porggress through the levels together.

5. Make poker fun again.
I had my biggest downswing ever last month (in buyins, not $$) and whilst it didn't hit my bankroll very hard, it did make me grind way too much and burnt me out a bit. I think it is clear from my post that my decision is not a knee jerk reaction to a downswing but it did make me realise there is more to life than poker. I still have the poker bug am am never likely to give poker up completely, but I want my poker to be fun rather than a grind.

So this is not the end and my dream is to be back ready to grind mid stakes in a few years. My girls will be at school then and hopefully games will still be running!

Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables everyone :)

HPH

2011-01-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

When I was playing 6max on stars I could get around 500 hands per hour playing 6 tables.
Yesterday I 2 tabled rush 6max for a couple of hours at over 600 hands per hour.

The interesting thing about this is that when 6 tabling normal ring games these is tons of stuff going on all the time. I find things a quite rushed and struggle with hand reading, note taking etc.
Yet when 2 tabling rush it seems like I have all the time in the world when involved in a hand.

More volume + more time to think. Nice.

Brawling

2011-01-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

I played the $256 sunday brawl and $75 super stack this evening and felt pretty out of touch with the tourney game.

I have always done OK in tourneys and am planning to spend most of my FTP points on tourney entries this year, but I clearly need to work on my game. In particular I need help with the middle stages when stacks start to get shallow but not super short, and we are still some way off the money. People don't seem to fold thier blinds as much these days and I was getting pwnd by some decent aggro players to my left.

Can anyone recommend good MTT books or videos that cover this?

ps. I didn't win my next cash session but things are improving on that front :)

Urgh

2011-01-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Biggest ever downswing (in buyins):

According to the poker mindset I have already hit the following for 2011:

53/1 chance at 5 losing seesions in a row
270/1 chance at 7 losing sessions in a row

The table in poker mindset doesn't go as far as 8 losing sessions so that must mean I win tomorrow :)

Long way to go

2011-01-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

I just finished another tough days play and now sit at -30 buyins for the new year.

My optimism for 2011 has been shat on from a great height over past week and things can only get better that's for sure. On the plus side I recorded the last 40mins of the final session today and will be going through it with Corwin in a coaching session next week.

I am not feeling to bad mentally and that is another positive so I guess things could be worse :)

Oh and I am scarpping the no stats thing, it's just not for me.

Going Stat Free...again

2011-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

Downswing sits at 23 buyins for 2011. Am not going to bitch and wine, and will hold my hands up and say I have not played perfect, but it is getting silly now. Enough is enough poker gods, go fuck with someone else. K thanks.

Short term results are playing on my mind a bit now (not good, sometimes unavoidable)so have decided it is time to go fully stat free during session times. I tried this before and was pretty much clean but have gotten back into bad habits and need to quit again.

To help me I am:

1. Going public (this post)
2. Adding a stat free record to this blog. (Look left)

Wish me luck, I need it atm :)

Edit: I played a 15 minutes session just now, and am stat free 100% so far and am on a $2.30 upswing. Woot!!

2011 Sucks

2011-01-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

My year has started with a 14 buyin downswing and can be summed up by this stupid hand:

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $51.85
BTN: $109.90
SB: $131.80
BB: $38.30
UTG: $113.00
Hero (UTG+1): $162.45
UTG+2: $107.75
MP1: $115.25
MP2: $87.40

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG+1 with A K
1 fold, Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, MP1 calls $3, 5 folds

Flop: ($7.50) 7 3 J (2 players)
Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $74, MP1 raises to $112.25 all in, Hero calls $38.25

Turn: ($232.00) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($232.00) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $232.00

Hero shows A K (Ace King high)
MP1 shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
MP1 wins $229.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Hope you guys are running better than me :)

100K Rush Hands

2010-12-24T05:42:00.001-08:00

So here is my first 100k hands at rush full ring:

It would have been looked better if I hadn't been in a particulary generous mood this morning. Pretty spewy session so you're welcome 100nl rush regs, have a merry xmas on me!

Overall I am quite pleased with the way I have started with rush. It's a totally different game from mid stakes 6max, and there have been tons of mistakes made along the way, but if I continue working hard and improving then good things could happen for Mr Fickle in 2011.

I am off to find some festive beers, have a great xmas everyone :)

Full Cup Coffee

2010-12-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

by King Fish on 2+2:

On Tuesday, I purchased a cup of coffee for $2.00. I am a valuable customer Full Cup Coffee, so the manager gave me 25% off, like he always does. It's a win/win, as I drink a lot of coffee and he still makes a nice margin. $1.50/cup.

On Wednesday, the Manager said that to show his appreciation, from now on I will get 50% off all my cups of coffee. I was stoked. $1 cup FTW!

On Thursday, the manager let me know that because of his generosity, he needs to re-evaluate the price of coffee. I will still get 50%, and every other day 75%, but the price of coffee has gone up to $4. I have no idea how much the coffee costs any more. My accountant is on it.

Yesterday, the manager let me know that the price of coffee has gone up to $10 a cup because of all the frequent customer discounts he was giving. I will now get 80% off on every cup because I am such a good customer, however the 27% coffee tax recently implemented by Harry Reid will go against the $10 wholesale price of the coffee and not the $2/cup I would have spent.

He has assured me that this is what I want, as a valuable customer he is looking out for me. He then kicked me in the shins and walked off. He does that sometimes.

There is a really great coffee house next door to this guy, (PokerStarbucks) and of the 100 varieties of coffee, theirs are better than Full Tilt Coffee. Their staff is also a lot friendlier and much more knowledgeable about the beans, roasting methods, etc. They are also really, really funny. The coffee is also cheaper, at 90 cents per cup for all (frequent visitors I have heard get theirs for as little as 40 cents per cup!). My problem is that my current guy has one type of coffee I really like (Rush Coffee). It has 5 times the caffeine as standard coffee and gives me my caffeine boost much quicker.

So, I will continue to go to Full Tilt Coffee for now, because it is a bit closer and easier for me. Once Pokerstarbucks gets a coffee that is just 1/2 good as my current brand, I will switch.

I spend probably close to $50k/year on coffee, so I assume they will appreciate my business.

There may be a very loosely related allegory here somewhere, but it is purely coincidental.

Silence is deafening

2010-12-21T06:37:00.000-08:00

Stars have announced their 2011 VIP club changes, which are very minor changes and not worth going into, but they remain deadly silent on what they are (or aren't) going to do about the 20-50bb tables for next year. Seriously wtf stars? If you aren't going to do anything just say so, and if you are going to do something at least tell people some changes are in the pipeline!

I'm not that bothered now tbh as I have made my plans for 2011. More than anything I am just sad that things weren't dealt with better/quicker so I could have at least considered stars when making my plans.

Having said that I am really happy with how things are going elsewhere and will post a rush update when I hit 100k hands, which will be soon :)

Deep Valuetown

2010-12-07T05:38:00.000-08:00

Read: Station
Action: Value bet to death

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $100.70
SB: $294.50
Hero (BB): $263.05
UTG: $112.60
UTG+1: $98.00
UTG+2: $108.50
MP1: $42.25
MP2: $87.60
CO: $239.35

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with Q Q
5 folds, CO raises to $3.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $12, CO calls $8.50

Flop: ($24.50) 5 Q J (2 players)
Hero bets $18, CO calls $18

Turn: ($60.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $60, CO calls $60

River: ($180.50) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $173.05 all in, CO calls $149.35 all in

Final Pot: $479.20

Hero shows Q Q (three of a kind, Queens)
CO mucks T J

Hero wins $476.20
(Rake: $3.00)

Ruuuuuussssssshhhhhh

2010-11-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

Have been playing some rush poker whilst I consider my options for 2011. It's been fun so far ;)

So long stars, enjoy the ratholers

2010-11-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

It is with mixed feelings that I will no longer be playing on pokerstars.

This is a direct result of their decision to split the games between 20-50bb and 40-100bb. They claim this is to give people choice, but they took away my choice which is to play with a mixture of full and short stackers.

I do have another choice though which is to play elsewhere and that is what I am going to do. I have given them way way more time than I should have to rectify the situation but now feel enough is enough.

The shallow tables now outweigh the normal tables significantly at mid stakes and the waitlists are ridiculously long. People don't want to start 40-100bb tables for whatever reason. The final straw was sitting down with a reg who was apparantly trying to start tables, he sat out after 1 hand (in which he won $40) and then just sat there for the next 20mins. Unsuprisingly nobody wants to sit down at a table with me plus a reg who is sitting out, and plenty of shallow tables filled up in the meantime because the one thing rats are good at is starting tables.

It is very similar to what happend with PT3 and HEM. I really didn't want to give up on PT3 but eventually it got to a point where I couldn't wait anymore and had to go with a product that was clearly better and was giving my opponents an edge on me. Once I eventually made the switch I didn't look back.

Really is a shame because stars still has a lot going for it (ie traffic, VIP program, customer support) but the simple fact is the games I like to play simply don't exist anymore.

I am not going to let misguided loyalty stop me from maximising my winrate anymore.

Game Selection

2010-11-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Battling the Demons (not mine)

2010-11-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

The following was posted by one of my students in our google group. I thought it was awesome and worth sharing.........

"I've been on a downswing and tilting lately, I actually took about 2 weeks off from seriously playing. I needed to step back and reevaluate some things. I did a lot of thinking and I believe I'm ready to come back.

Tilt is when I stop playing against my opponents and I start trying to play against either myself, or against variance. I realized that when I'm tilting all of the reads, the focus, and sound play go out the window. Sometimes I honestly forget the other players are even there. It isn't really about trying to beat my opponents anymore, I'm fighting a battle against variance or myself.

This is a waste of time. Variance is undefeated. I can't beat it. No matter what I do there's going to be suckouts, runs of bad cards, downswings etc. More importantly it's my friend. Without variance there wouldn't be poker.

Even worse is trying to play against myself. For me mainly it's beating myself up over mistakes and losing confidence in myself because of it. I looked at my mistakes as a total loss, instead of realizing there's a lot to gain from them. Also instead of being so critical of my own game, I need to turn that focus outwards and look at other people's. Find and exploit the mistakes they're making.

From now on whenever I feel like I'm no longer playing against my opponents I'm just going to close Full Tilt. Because that's the reason I log onto FT in the first place."

Backdoor Brilliance

2010-10-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

Villain was never ever folding river and there is no better feeling than shoving all the money in when you know that you are getting paid 100% of the time :)

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $258.40
SB: $220.30
BB: $179.95
UTG: $214.00
MP: $358.40
Hero (CO): $200.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with A T
1 fold, MP raises to $6, Hero calls $6, 2 folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($19.00) A 8 2 (3 players)
BB checks, MP checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($19.00) J (3 players)
BB bets $8, MP calls $8, Hero calls $8

River: ($43.00) K (3 players)
BB bets $16, MP raises to $56, Hero raises to $186 all in, BB folds, MP calls $130

Final Pot: $431.00
MP mucks 6 9
Hero shows A T (a flush, Ace high)
Hero wins $429.00
(Rake: $2.00)

I enjoyed this one almost as much though.

Poker Stars $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP: $80.00
CO: $80.00
Hero (BTN): $217.10
SB: $381.00
BB: $80.00
UTG: $102.60

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN with 7 2
2 folds, CO raises to $8.40, Hero raises to $20, 3 folds

Final Pot: $22.80
Hero mucks 7 2

Hero wins $22.80
(Rake: $-0.00)

Offline & Golf

2010-09-27T04:34:00.000-07:00

My internet has been down since saturday morning and is still not fixed. I have spent the majority of my weekend on the phone to the ISP and am now waiting for an engineer to come to my house and sort it out. They can't tell me when, or even what day, this will be so am having some unexpected time off.

Apologies to all students who have coaching booked, I will catch up as soon as I can.

One upside was I got to play a rare round of golf on Sunday morning which was great. Weather was perfect, course was very nice and I shot 115 which is probably about par for me. Golf is not my strongest sport lol.

Edit: Am back online and catching up as quickly as possible.

Pretty Picture

2010-09-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

My September so far...........

Frying Fish

2010-09-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

It is becomming more and more apparent to me that most people stuck at microstakes think they have a good understading of 'ABC' poker but when they are sitting at the tables they struggle to beat bad players.

This is usually due to one of two reasons:

1. They go on tilt easily and don't fry fish as they know they should.
2. They don't have the solid 'ABC' game that they think they do.

My advice to everyone is to make sure you understand how to fry fish.

They taste better when cooked to perfection and don't make you ill.

Time does not equal effort

2010-09-12T03:44:00.000-07:00

A lot of people seem to think putting a lot of time into their poker automatically means they are putting in sufficient effort. I have news for all those people. It doesn't!!

The time you put into your poker needs to be focused on improving and this is what pretty much everyone struggles with to some degree. People listen to the 'playing to learn' philosopy but do not truly understand what is required to be successful.

I hope that this post sticks in the mind of everyone reading, especially those to which it is aimed at, you know who you are :)

It is all well and good putting the time in. You play plenty of hands and learn from experience.

You do a session review and realise you played badly yesterday. Sometimes you review some hands and realise you didn't play as badly as you thought you did. The whole point of reviewing hands is to improve your thought process in order to make better decisions next time that spot comes around again. If that spot comes around again are you going to remember what you have learned from your session reviews? Maybe you will if that spot comes up again tomorrow but what if it doesn't come up for another 2k, 4k or even 10k hands? Are you going to remember anything from the session review you did 3 weeks ago? Have you studied this 'not sure what to do' spot sufficiently enough to ensure that you will know what to do next time, and have therefore eliminated the possibility that you will make the same mistake again?

Do you suffer from tilt at all? If so have you ever thought it may be a good idea to try and identify what makes you tilt and try to elimate tilt from your game? Tilting is unacceptable and should be taken seriously, not just shrugged off as something you do from time to time. If you need to study tilt then that's what you should be doing.

Do you find yourself reviewing hands but are just going through the motions (ie not putting the effort into your reviews)?

If you think you review your hands well answer some more questions. How many times have you written down your opponents range and analysed exactly how it connects with the board? How many combinations of each hand in their range do they have? How do you expect them to play each of those combinations if you bet?

How many times have you written down every option available to you for a particular street and calculated the EV of each decision? Uhm never? Thought so............

I don't doubt that lot's of people spend lots of time playing and thinking about poker when they are not playing. Putiing that time in does not mean you are going to win, nor does it mean you deserve to.

Time does not equal effort.

Focused Grinding

2010-09-10T08:48:00.001-07:00

Been working very hard at my game and coaching loads lately.

Is nice when the hard work gets recognised :)

Don't bluff fish imo.

2010-08-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 896277

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $40.00

MP: $868.55

Hero (CO): $123.25

BTN: $219.00

SB: $101.00

BB: $100.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with Q J

1 fold, MP raises to $4, Hero raises to $14, 3 folds, MP calls $10

Flop: ($31.00) 3 2 6 (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets $10, MP raises to $40, Hero raises to $109.25 all in, MP folds

Final Pot: $111.00

Hero mucks Q J

Hero wins $108.00

(Rake: $3.00)

Back Grinding :)

2010-08-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Holiday season is over, wife and baby are away all weekend and I finally find some time to get some hands in!

Played 11 hours in total today and feeling good despite a small loss;

Was looking like a bad day for a while :)

Rusty but refreshed

2010-08-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Not too much happening and haven't played hardly at all this month due to vists from family and friends.

Am also having some computer problems and really hope the new bits I have ordered turn up soon and are a good short term fix. I don't think it will be long before I need a new setup though which sucks.

PC permitting I will be back grinding tomorrow and am excited to start implementing some of the stuff I discussed with Corwin last week. Will start off with some 100nl to blow the cobwebs away and take it from there.

Corwin Cole & Clicking the Right Button

2010-08-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by my group coaching / profit share experiment, and coupled with the fact that I feel my own game has gone a bit stale lately, I decided to contact Corwin Cole - [vital]Myth on CR - to register my interest in his profit share program.

After some inital discussions by PM, Corwin kindly offered to give me a free lesson to see where I am at, with no obligation to sign up to any of his coaching services. I am extremely grateful for this and was blown away by his coaching style, professionalism and amazing ability to listen to problems and offer innovative solutions instantaneously.

In just over an hour we managed to identify a number of issues in my thought process, discuss the reasons behind these failings, look at ways to make better decisions during game time and set up a daily study/development routine focused on learning (as opposed to putting the time and effort in which has never been a problem for me).

I am not going reveal all his tricks and tips publicy, nor my leaks, but I will give you an example:

Corwin advocates a 4 step thought process:

1. Make a read
2. Consider All Options
3. Calculate EV
4. Click the Right Button

Everyone can improve in all four areas, me included, but I have seen this 4 step process in his videos and am always thinking logically when at the tables.

A problem for me, however, is when my logical thought process is telling me one thing and my insticts (or gut feelings) are telling me another. This presents me with an inner conflict and the logical side usually wins as I can provide reasoning for my decisions rather than 'just knowing' which always sounds vauge and stupid. Or so I thought!

Having explained this to Corwin I was blown away by the discussion that followed. This is getting a bit tl;dr already so I will leave out the nitty gritty details but in short I have been making a big mistake trying to shut out my insticts, which have been developed through almost 1 million hands and hundreds of hours coaching and analysing hands, and I now fully understand how my brain is functioning and why this conflict occurs.

So I have a leak that lies somewhere between steps 3 and 4 and need to start recognising the value of my insticts. I don't think that gives away too much :)

Unfortunatley we didn't have time to iron out the details of future coaching and/or profit share but I sincerely hope we can work something out. I have an opportunity here to take my game to a whole new level and really have to take it!

Exciting Times

2010-07-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have spent a lot of the last month coaching and discussing a potential group coaching scheme with my current students.

My ideas have been well received so far and I am excited that 2 trial groups will be starting early next month.

I have high hopes for these guys and really beleive that with frequent, consistent and risk free* coaching I can get them crushing and moving forward.

Exciting times next month for Spurs too. I am going to be gutted if we fail to reach the group stages of the champions league after a great effort last season. Come on you spurs, one time!

Have a great August everyone :)

(* risk free for them)

Just ban the damn cheats

2010-07-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Pokerstars are having a terrible time of it lately and now there has been confirmed long term botting in the 20-50bb NLHE games.

Apparantly the pokerstars.fr site has only one buyin option 35-100bb's and hopefully pokerstars will now remove there heads from the sand and fix this nonsense by mirroring on the .com site too.

The only people dissapointed by a 35-100bb game accross the board will be angle shooting ratholers and bots.

Stat Free Thoughts

2010-06-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

Ended up playing stat free for 19 hours.

Overall I think that playing stat free over multiple sessions is a great way to fix a broken poker mindset, however I do have some reservations about stat free weeks/months as it stops me from reviewing my play between sessions.

HEM doesn't allow me to totally remove results so if I want to review hands etc, which I most definitely do, then it is inevitable that I will see my results anyway.

Am going to give this some thought but I think my stat free targets will have to be session based.

Now I am off to review my last 19 hours!

Record Breaking

2010-06-26T06:21:00.001-07:00

Have logged 14 hours of play since I last looked at my stats which will be approx 7,000 hands I guess.

Am 1 hour away from equalling my personal best of 15 statless hours which was set not that long ago.

This time around I have gone into it with a better mindset and am really trying hard to focus on reads and good decision making, rather than making money. It feels great and I can feel my play improving and confidence coming back by the hour.

The most telling thing is that I am pretty sure that I am down a bunch of buyins during this experiment and feel like I have run very badly. Despite this I feel great and full of confidence which would probably not be the case if I was tracking my results and feeling sorry for myself.

Sometimes it's just better not knowing and all I can do is play for the long term.

Challenging Times

2010-06-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Someone said it's a hard way to make an easy living and I am battling the confidence demons to the max at the moment. I am becoming increasingly focused on short term results and am driving myself a little bit crazy!

Obviously short term results are irrelevant and I fully beleive in this but at times I have difficulty accepting it. If you don't know the difference read the poker mindset and then you will.

As part of my plan for 2nd half of 2010 I am setting myself a target of only looking at my stats on a weekly basis. Have started a trial run and instead of checking HEM results at end of session I am handwriting a short summary of my feelings. It is tough to ignore results but I need to repair my poker mindset and I think this will help.

Playing Out Of Position......

2010-06-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

......POOP

Dissappointing Day

2010-06-18T17:26:00.001-07:00

England put in worst performance I have ever seen in a competitive international and I follow it up by spewing off a few buyins.

Time for everyone to show some bouncebackability.

June Targets

2010-06-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

Back from holiday and am raring to go. Am going to set some targets for June and see how it pans out:

1. Split weekly play into minimum of 8 hours off peak (Tues-Fri am) and 16 hours peak time (Fri pm-Sun).
2. Game select better and play some 100nl or full ring if and when necessary.
3. Begin default strategy and development (study) folder.
4. Keep weekly timesheets and write weekly review.
5. Select and print hands for weekly coaching session.
6. Write up notes from coaching sessions and keep printed hands in study folder.
7. Re-read Leatherass book & The poker mindset.
8. Draft budget and business plan for 2nd half of 2010.

Hope everyone is running good.

Failed

2010-05-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

I made it to 15 Hours.

Finished month down $300 which sucks and now I am going on holiday.

Am looking forward to not thinking about poker for a while!

No Stats Attempt

2010-05-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

I intend to play 20 hours of poker between now (I have actually just finished 1st hour) and saturday night UK time.

I will be attempting to not look at my stats once during this period.

Piece of cake!

Birthday Blues

2010-05-21T08:11:00.003-07:00

Tuesday was my 35th birthday. These are my results since then:

Have a coaching session shortly. Much needed.

Chat Ban (self imposed)

2010-05-15T01:46:00.001-07:00

Oh, by the way I asked for my chat option on stars to be taken away.

I am not being rude if anyone chats to me, I just can't reply!

Are the games good?

2010-05-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

I just keep changing my mind about the state of the games on stars. For those of you that don't know stars changed their games structure to:

20-50BB buyin
40-100 BB buyin
100-250BB buyin with ante

For the rest of this post I will call them shallow, normal and deep (why stars don't do this is confusing and a different subject altogether).

So basically this is what is happening:

Pro shortstackers and most fish at shallow tables
Multitabling regs and some fish at normal tables
Multitabling regs and a couple of fish at deep tables

On the face of it the normal games are full of regs and suck. Waitlists are massive for any table that has a player who vaguely resembles a fish and not many people are starting tables. I do try to start tables and/or or sit with other regs starting tables but a lot of time table is quickly filled with regs.

The shallow tables are thriving. Ratholers are starting tables at a high volume and the fish jump in.

So like I said, on the face of it the normal games suck. Thing is my results at 200nl are telling me otherwise at the moment and therefore I can't decide whether the changes are good or bad (for me personally).

Obviously results are the most important thing in the long term, and if things continue to go well then I couldn't care less how attractive the games look, but I cannot help but think that 'normal' poker on stars is dying. If this happens then my options are:

1. Start playing some 50BB poker on stars
2. Move to a site where normal poker prevails

Neither of the above options are attractive to me.

Shipeeeet

2010-05-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

Need better moving up BR plan

2010-05-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Am break even at 400nl this shot (well $140 winner to be precise) but my end of month withdrawal plus $-2k start to May means another shot comes to an abrubt end.

Had high hopes this time around but in hindsight shooting with 5 buyins is never going to work for me as withdrawals have too much of an impact.

I am going to grind out 200nl for the forseeable future and reconsider my bankroll plan for next shot.

[ ] Sustainable

2010-04-25T01:57:00.001-07:00

Next 2/4 shot in progress and yesterday was a good day:

More of the same please poker gods :)

Mario Wars

2010-04-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 657906

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $277.50

CO: $201.00

BTN: $220.00

SB: $200.00

BB: $486.50

Hero (UTG): $251.30

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with 7 8

Hero raises to $6, 2 folds, BTN calls $6, 2 folds

Flop: ($15.00) 6 9 A (2 players)

Hero bets $10, BTN raises to $32, Hero raises to $80, BTN raises to $214 all in, Hero calls $134

Turn: ($443.00) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($443.00) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $443.00

BTN shows 8 T (a pair of Eights - Ace+Jack+Ten kicker)

Hero shows 7 8 (a pair of Eights)

BTN wins $440.00

(Rake: $3.00)

Converter ok bish ?

Pay attention folks

2010-04-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

From what I have seen so far the Stars changes are working out ok. Panic over!

My game, however is not ok. Or at least it wasn't until my sweat session with fooz last night which made me realise how many spots I misplay because I am on auto pilot and just not thinking things through in enough detail.

There is lots of information available if you pay attention and I am ready to take some notes.....

Be careful what you wish for.

2010-04-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

Following the great ratholing debate Pokerstars have changed buyins on tables as follows:

20-50bb
40-100bb
100-250bb fast ante

This is not what we were hoping for and it looks ratholers still have a comfortable home at stars.

I am having some time off and haven't been able to play but from what I can see the changes are pretty bad news for any reg who chooses to play 100bb's deep and likes to see some fish in the pond.

I did a HEM scan this morning and all the recreational players seem to be sitting with the ratholers at the 20-50bb tables, and the regs are sitting at 40-100bb tables passing money to each other.

There are some 100-250bb tables running (again filled with regs) but the decision to make these tables fast only when people can be sitting 500+bb's deep clearly shows that the decision makers at stars do not play too much poker themselves. To have normal speed 20-50bb tables and fast only 100-250bb ante tables makes no sense at all!

In addition the tables are labelled 20-50bb, 40-100bb and 100-250bb ante, rather than the obviously clearer and better shallow, normal and deep ante. This is a big deal imo and shows stars are trying too hard to placate the ratholers.

I will post more when I have actually got some hands in but I am concerned to say the least. My initial reaction is Stars just moved themsleves below FTP in the pecking order and that is something I never thought I would say :(

Edit:
It appears that the regs that were very vocal in their hate for shorties are starting to sit on the shallow (20-50bb) tables. Begs the question why they wanted things changed in the first place.

Easter

2010-04-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

I played almost 15,000 hands over the easter weekend which is huge volume for me.

Mostly this is because I have family visiting from tomorrow and want some time off but I was also experimenting with some longer sessions and I found this to be a worthwhile excersise. I definitely am going to try and play longer sessions when possible to maximise volume and enable me to be more time efficient.

I much prefer playing two 3 hour sessions instead of three 2 hour sessions and found my focus and poker minset actually improved as the sessions went on. I seemed to get in the zone after an hour or so of each session and from then the time just flew by. No looking at results and just in the zone!

So far so frustrating

2010-04-03T04:05:00.000-07:00

I have put in a ton of hands for april already. This just about sums up my month so far:

€1/€2 No Limit Holdem • 6 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	€208.70
UTG+1	€115.60
Hero	€200
BTN	€200
SB	€194.20
BB	€259.20

Pre-Flop (€3, 6 players)Hero is CO

2 folds, Hero raises to €6, 1 fold, SB calls €5, BB calls €4

Flop (€18, 3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets €14, SB calls €14, BB folds

Turn (€46, 2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets €28, SB calls €28

River (€102, 2 players)

SB bets €45, Hero goes all-in €152, SB goes all-in €101.20

Final Pot: €400.20

Hero shows a flush, Ace high

SB shows a straight flush, Three to Seven

SB wins €392.40 (net +€198.20)
Hero collects €5.80 (net -€194.20)
BB lost €6

New Coach

2010-04-01T00:05:00.001-07:00

I am pretty happy with my game theses days but I decided after my last shot at 2/4 that I would get some coaching to give me a helping hand next time round.

Yesterday I had my 2nd session with fooz and it was great. We spent 2 hours discussing a big bunch of hands that I had marked up in HEM and there are plenty of areas for me to work on.

I recorded the whole session and will be taking extensive notes over the next few days. There are no doubt a ton of things I missed first time around!

Mini Downswing

2010-03-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

This month was going great until I dropped 10buyins over last 4k hands. Am starting to get a little frustrated at things I cannot control (ie losing flips, running way below ev again) and just need a couple of winning sessions to snap out of it.

Until the turnaround I need to make sure I don't let my frustrations boil up into spew........

Comeback King

2010-03-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

A picture illustrtating the advantages of staying off tilt and keeping a clear head..........

Session Scores

2010-03-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

Have made some more improvements to my session scoring and this is my month so far:

All based on 30 minute checks apart from Reviews which are for the entire session.

EDIT: This post has inspired me to go do some reviewing!

Session scoring is back!

2010-03-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

First up a test link.

Many thanks to professor pocketfish for his help on that :)

So session scoring is back. It didn't actually go away completely as I have been keeping record of my no stats score and acheived 94% for February which would have been 100% if it wasn't for a mini meltdown during the shot at 400nl.....

From March onwards I will be scoring the following:

1. No Stats
2. Table Selection
3. Patience, Zen & The Poker Mindset
4. On A Game
5. Session Enjoyment
6. No notes

All self explanatory apart from probably the last one. I suck so bad at taking notes that I find it is actually -EV for me to take them during the session. I prefer to pay attention to gameflow during the session and make notes afterwards for future reference.

All aboard

2010-02-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

Looks like there is trouble ahead for the rats in starsville:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/pokerstars-statement-min-max-buyin-big-bet-tables-720944/

This pic made me rofl hard but there are a few rat legendary rats I will miss crushing.....

Ps I suck at adding links. If anyone can help me with this please leave a comment.

Am back

2010-02-25T03:01:00.000-08:00

Have been away for the past week or so and the break has done me a lot of good.

Being away from the tables gave me a chance to think about the month so far and I quickly realised that for whatever reason some of the fundamentals had slipped from my game whilst shooting at 400nl. Table selection being one, lack of folding another, and there are plenty more!

In view of the above I have decided to reinvent my session scoring system in order to make sure the fundamentals dont slip away in future and will make my target for March to score each session consistently.

On a positve note I played my first session since I got back yesterday and really felt like I played my A game throughout. My poker mindset is back on track for now :)

Am Shot

2010-02-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Shot is over and done with already!

Haven't played or game selected great to be honest but variance has bitch slapped me again too.

Bleat bleat whatever meh......No bad beat stories on this blog kids :)

Here's my plan to refocus on what is important:

Game Time
Play current A game
No studying during session (new leak)
Use session checklist
Note and/or mark hands for review

Post Session
Review notes and/or marked hands
Review 40+ BB pots
Write up notes for future reference

See you at the 200nl tables.............

Quality vs Quantity

2010-02-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

Jake commented on my last post that I appear to have added a couple of tables and I have actually been playing 6 tables as standard for the past few months whilst crushing 200nl.

Over the past few days I have realised that reducing the no of tables you play when moving up is probably a good idea!

Whatever level you are shooting at you are going to be coming up against players that are better than you are used to and you cannot afford to be on auto pilto and just clicking buttons.

So for the last few sessions I have dropped back down to 4 tables and it feels like I have all the time in the world to put people on a range and make my decisions. I can already feel my thought process improving and am going to stick to 4 tables at 400nl for a while. I am also going to look at incorporating a maximum number of tables into my bankroll/moving up plan so I don't make this mistake again. (Play to learn ftw :)

It is also worth noting that I have lost my first 3 sessions since reverting to 4 tables so this is not results orientated advice!

Wake Up Call

2010-02-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

I have been playing badly, but winning, so far this month and today was the inevitable crash.

Am annoyed with myself because I recognised I was playing terrible but couldn't snap out of it or quit.

Month so far:

Nobody said it would be easy :)

Funny Vid

2010-02-05T23:58:00.001-08:00

Browsing the CR off topic and this made me laugh. We have all been there!

January Results

2010-01-31T14:04:00.001-08:00

Decent start to the year:

Shooting

2010-01-29T00:52:00.000-08:00

2 buyins down over first 4 sessions of latest 400nl shot.

Initial thoughts are that games are insanely aggressive and I need to run better when moving up:

Moving on up

2010-01-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

Am running very nicely this month and my graph for the last 20,000 hands is looking pretty damn sweet at over 8PTBB/100 :)

I have just started to mix in 2/4 again and this time I have put aside 20 buyins for my shot. This means I am fully prepared, financially at least, for when the varaince train gets a little bumpy.

Hopefully the boomswitch will stay activated!

Royalments

2010-01-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

This blog has been running pretty quiet lately which usually means the boomswitch is in operation :)

Think it might have peaked today though!

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem • 6 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

Hero	$200
UTG+1	$200
CO	$260.40
BTN	$128.80
SB	$67.75
BB	$248.70

Pre-Flop ($3, 6 players)Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $6, 2 folds, BTN raises to $10, SB calls $9, 1 fold, Hero calls $4

Flop ($32, 3 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $12, SB folds, Hero raises to $38, BTN calls $26

Turn ($108, 2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $20, Hero calls $20

River ($148, 2 players)

Hero bets $64, BTN goes all-in $60.80

Final Pot: $272.80

BTN shows a pair of Aces

Hero shows a Royal Flush

Hero wins $269.80 (net +$137.80)
BTN lost $128.80
SB lost $10

Indifference

2010-01-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

I just played a non scheduled session in an effort to get ahead of the game volume wise.

Before I started Helen questioned 'Are you sure you want to play? Even if you lose you will be happy with your decision to play?'.

'Yes of course' I replied and off I went to hit the tables.

Ten hands in and I have made a bad 3 street call down for half a buyin having called a min 3bet on btn with JTo vs an unknown. Soon after this:

Sometimes this would tilt me and I would already be questioning my decision to play.

This time though I felt only indifference to the AK hand and it was such an awesome feeling. I carried on the session knowing that tables were fantastic (over 300,000 people playing at stars wtf!) and that I was totally on my A game.

2 hours and a mini heater later I am up $700 for the session and very pleased with myself.

This hand is to remind me folding KK preflop is unecessary:

Treat your poker like a business

2010-01-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

One week into the new year and am grinding away nicely @ almost 11,000 hands.

Haven't checked my stats once during game time and am using a very simple session checklist to keep this going. I am also writing a brief summary on each session immediately afterwards. This is lastest summary:

"Bottled out of 3rd barrel in 3betpot and got beat by T high. Pull the god damn trigger! Other than that felt very focused and composed during session, even when losing 2 big pots. One cooler QQ vs AA 150bb's deep blind vs blind and one when shoving over leverage raise with a read. Had made double decision and this really helped with any tilt issues because I was happy with the plan before I got called and saw his cards."

Have also just finished 'Treat Your Poker Like a Business', an e-book by leatherass, which is also available as a actual book.

I found a few bits useful but man I wish that book was written a year ago when I was just turning semi-pro!

If you are thinking about going pro anytime soon it is a must read imo, although please be aware that there is very little strategy in it.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T00:46:00.000-08:00

First of all I would like to congratulate myself on acheiving a 98% no stat checking score for December. Really really really happy that I have found a way to stop myself checking stats and I now have no excuses for not continuing with this.

Also happy that the 2% of the time where I did check my stats I instaquit the session. This is hugely +EV as checking stats is my biggest tilt indicator.

I am not going to make a long list of targets for 2010 as things are going well for me at the moment and I just need to keep doing what I am doing.

If all goes to plan I will have played a decent amount of 400nl by the end of next year and my roll will be very healthy indeed :)

Happy new year to everyone and good luck at the tables!

Pokerstars VIP Changes

2009-12-23T22:46:00.000-08:00

Looks like stars is going to be more attractive to micro and low stakes grinders in 2010.

Check it out:
http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/2010changes/

On top of the new 'Stellar' bonuses you also get to buy cash bonuses with you FPP's and if/when you make supernova there is a $1,000 milestone bonus.

If you currently play elsewhere it is well worth considering a switch imo.

Practice

2009-12-15T00:02:00.000-08:00

Zen and the Art of Poker Rule #23 is Practice. It compares poker to games like tennis and backgammon and states that poker 'is a rhythm and a groove you get into, like anything else.'

When playing regulary I definitely get into the groove and lately have felt good about my game, even when things aren't going my way.

For the last couple of weeks however, I have not been playing enough and it is no coincidence that my game is already showing signs of decay.

Practice makes perfect!

Study Group

2009-12-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

This is the easiest way for me to post screenies and I need to post my recent stats for an application to a new study group.

This is my last 3 months:

As regular readers of this blog will know my shot at 400nl went pretty well but the poker gods crushed my soul a little EV style.

I am currently back playing 200nl, with plans to move up to 400nl again in the new year, and whilst I am happier than I have ever been with my game, I know I still have plenty of room for improvement.

The reason I am looking to join a study group is to push myself to do more theory work and develop my understanding of concepts away from the tables.

There is only so much you can learn without others input, and fourms in general suck, so working as part of a group can really help if you get a good bunch of dedicated people together.

Mission Accomplished

2009-11-30T08:23:00.000-08:00

Yes I actually managed to get through the whole weekend without looking at my stats once. It was actually easier than I thought it would be during game time and I used a mental trick to help me through:

Set countdown timer to 30 mins. At end of each 30 minute period:

1. No stats checked in last 30 mins - tick
2. Re-evaluate tables and leave those full of regs and ratholers - tick
3. Remind myself that Range, Equity, Maximise thought process is essential at all times - tick
4. Reset timer for next 30 mins and repeat steps above.

The toughest part of the challenge was Saturday night when I had finished for the day. I had no idea where I stood but was pretty sure I was down for the day and badly wanted to know by how much!

By the end of Sundays play I thought I was down even more and had guesstimated a loss of around 3.5 buyins over the two days. Turns out I had booked a 3 buyin win which shows that losing hands stay in the mind that little bit longer!

Anyway, regardless of the actual results the challenge was a huge success. I definitely played some of my best poker at times, got totally into the zone and was way more focused on things that can actually have a positive effect on results.

For December I am going to set myself the targert of only checking my stats when I have finished playing for the day.

Challenge Update

2009-11-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

Have played 3 two hour sessions today and have no idea whether I am up or down for the day as I cannot look at my stats until tomorrow evening!

Is driving me nuts but am going to make it :)

End of month 2 day challenge

2009-11-27T08:04:00.000-08:00

Monday is my day off so this weekend will be the last of my play for November. Has been a pretty crazy month but am hoping to be able to show some sort of profit despite riding the variance train at full speed.

This weekend I will be playing 5 two hour sessions over the two days and am going to challenge myslef to not look at my stats at all until I am done for the month. That means no looking at results even between sessions!

This will be extremely tough for me and I will blog about the experience next week.

Wish me luck :)

Come on you Spurs!!!!!!

2009-11-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

Folding KK preflop

2009-11-21T03:50:00.000-08:00

Have dropped back to 200nl today in order to rebuild confidence back in the comfort zone.

4 hours played so far and up 6buyins :)

Moving up for a while certainly makes your current game seem like a walk in the park when you go back down. I think this is because I find it easier to trust my reads when bankroll issues aren't playing on my mind.

A couple of examples:

Open raiser is a fish, button is a reg. Great spot to 4bet but probably would have felt less comfortable with it at 400nl even though it is the same great spot!

Yep I folded KK preflop. Cut off is decent reg and min cold 4bet from relatively unkonwn Big Blind had me saying to myself "Can I fold KK preflop?".

Well, rightly or wrongly, now I can!

What now?

2009-11-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

Am back at the tables as of yesterday, after a few days off, and have just finished a -4buyin session at 400nl.

Worryingly, this is the first time I felt like I was getting owned at 400nl and consequently leveled myslef into making some spewy preflop decisions and bad bluffs.

To be honest the fact that I am shot taking is playing on my mind a bit too and I am not used to playing with a bankroll of just 5buyins. My bankroll nittyness is working against me in this regard as I have no (recent) experience of shot taking and am now out of my comfort zone in terms of bankroll.

My confidence is pretty low at the moment and I am considering a drop back to 200nl whilst I sort my head out. I am breakeven for the month so technically I still have a 5 buyin shot but I don't see the point of continuing when I am not at my best.

Am done for the day so will give it some thought and decide overnight.

First $2k day - Ship it :)

2009-11-14T06:01:00.001-08:00

2/4 shot continues..........

Variance

2009-11-12T09:51:00.001-08:00

Hmmm. Where's that heater?

A game...check....Doomswitch......check.......

2009-11-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

Now running almost 11 buyins below EV in less than 9,000 hands.

I don't remember running this bad ever and the fact that I am still up and playing well (ie not tilting) surely shows my A game is in good shape right now.

Here's to hoping I run better before variance kills my 1st 5 buyin shot at 2/4.

Oh come on.....

2009-11-08T12:53:00.001-08:00

That's what I found myself saying out loud after yet another 85/15 suckout just now.

This is my month at 2/4 so far and whilst numbers are green, things could be so much better if the poker gods were playing close to fair.

I feel like I am playing well and just need to keep focusing on what I can control.

October Results

2009-11-04T00:34:00.000-08:00

On top of this I picked upt $2,800 in stars bonuses so overall a very nice month

My roll also hit $40k for the first time and I am going to have my first planned shot at 400nl in November.

A Game - 42%, B Game - 26%, C Game - 10%, D Game - 1%, E Game - 18%

I am still feeling good about my game and s0 far in August I am up $100 running at $1600 below EV in 3 sessions. We can't control the beats :)

400NL

2009-10-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

Have started to incorporate 400nl into my games selection and have just hit 5,000 hands:

Small sample size obviously but I haven't noticed too much difference from 200nl and in fact have run into some familar players from my regular games. Not all of them are good players :)

In fact this has been the most comfortable I have ever felt when moving up. I am fairly happy with my 'A' game right now and have not had any problems with the increased monetary value of the chips in front of me.

Playing your natural game, not playing scared and not levelling yourself into any fancy play syndrome are crucial when moving up.

Funny Hand

2009-10-24T00:47:00.001-07:00

4Betting vs tight range

2009-10-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

So our task is to examine the profitability of 4betting and calling off for 100BB's vs a 5-7% 3betting range. Specifically the profitability of TT but using pokerazor we can actually examine the profitability of the line for our entire opening range.

So firstly we set the scene:

For those of you not familiar with pokerazor this is a very simple tree where hero opens to $6 (3bb's), SB 3bets to $22 (11bb's) and hero raises to $48 (24bb's) with his entire range and calls a shove with TT+, AK, AQs.

The percentages shown are the frequencies of each action. For example hero is opening with 52.04% of hands (we are stealing the nits blinds) and folding 47.96% preflop.

If the SB is raising 5-7% of the time his range is pretty strong. This is the range I have assigned:

The range is TT+, AQ+, AJs, KQo being raised 100% of time and then some suited connectors and suited aces being raised occasionally (weighted at 10%). As you can see on the first pic above this equates to SB 3betting of 6.128% of the time. For the purpose of this exercise we are ignoring the times he calls preflop and he is therefore 3betting with this range or folding.

Now I am going to show the pokerazor EV calcs for 4betting our entire range and also the EV of calling if SB shoves. I am going to do this vs two 5 betting ranges.

Results vs tight 5Bet range of JJ+, AK

These results show that even 4betting JJ is a -EV play vs this opponent and we should not be looking to get in in here without QQ+, AK.

Here are the EV calcs of calling the 5bet:

Calling the 5bet with JJ, TT or AQs is still a -EV so we are not 'priced in' to call vs a JJ+, AK 5bet shoving range.

Results vs wider 5bet range of TT+, AK, Axs

So now we add TT and suited aces to his 5bet range (nb. not all suited aces are in his 3bet range) and 4betting JJ now becomes profitable.

And we are priced in to call with TT+, AK, AQs IF we are sure he is sometimes 5bet shoving as a bluff but the 4bet itself is still a -EV play.

The thing to take away from this is just how important it is to know your opponent, and more importantly to know their ranges.

4bet calling TT

2009-10-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem • 4 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

CO	$231.10
Hero (BTN)	$200
SB	$224.25
BB	$227.85

Pre-Flop ($3, 4 players)Hero is BTN

1 fold, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold, BB raises to $22, Hero raises to $56, BB folds

Final Pot: $79

Hero wins $79 (net +$23)
BB lost $22

Pretty standard stuff right?

Well against this guy it was for sure, as his 3bet range was pretty wide, but what if his 3betting range vs btn open was between 5-7%?

This exact subject has been brought up on Misanthropic's blog and I am going to run this through pokerazor (www.pokerazor.com) when I have a bit more time, probably tomorrow, as I am almost certain that 4betting TT in this situation is a losing play against a tighter range. Before today I was 100% certain!

I obvioulsy need to find out if I am wrong and adjust my thought process accordingly.

Noro and 2/4

2009-10-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Have been away from the tables for a few days as the whole family has been hit by the Norovirus. Also known as the Vomit Virus which really doesn't get close to giving you an idea of how bad it makes you feel! Luckily it only last a few days and we are all on the mend.....

In the few session I have managed to play I have mixed in a little 2/4.
So far I crush at over 25BB's/100.
Smaple size 142 hands.
Sustainable ldo ;)

Here's a hand I am not sure about which I also posted on DC forums....

Villain is 34/26 and seems aggro post flop but no read on his river cbet frequencies.

Any thoughts on flop call and/or turn decision?

What can you do?

2009-10-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem • 6 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	$415.75
UTG+1	$209.60
CO	$211.25
BTN	$466.85
SB	$204.35
Hero (BB)	$685.20

Pre-Flop ($3, 6 players)Hero is BB

3 folds, BTN calls $2, SB calls $1, Hero raises to $14, BTN raises to $66, SB folds, Hero goes all-in $685.20, BTN goes all-in $400.85

Flop ($1,154.05, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn ($1,154.05, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River ($1,154.05, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $1,154.05

BTN shows a straight, Ten to Ace

Hero shows three of a kind, Aces

BTN wins $932.70 ( won +$465.85 )
Hero wins $218.35 ( lost -$466.85 )
SB lost -$2

Same mistake again? Maybe......

2009-10-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Very similar hand/line from yesterday but this time villain is 42/16 and spewy post flop.

More interestingly the hand from yesterday was still fresh in my mind and yet my gut was still telling me not to fold this. Usually it's the other way round with alarm bells ringing loud and just depends whether I am playing well enough to find the fold button.

Can't really explain why I was sure I was good here though so have to put this one down to one of two things, either Winners Tilt (I was having a good session, could have ruined it!) or Unconcious Competence as per Jared vids (ie I was in the zone).

Eliminating Mistakes

2009-10-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have had a decent start to October and feel good about my game, but this hand from today annoys me.....

My annoyance is because:

1. Villain is tight pre, passive post flop. I was actually thinking about folding the flop but decided to call and see what develops. This is at best a marginal call.(Note the lack of plan in my thought process.....)

2. Having made the marginal call I check (which I think is OK) but my failure to make a plan now has me in trouble and time bank is ticking.

3. I revert to the bad old if in doubt check/ship the turn line!

This hand is the difference between an 'A' rating for the session and a 'C' rating and gives me my first 'C' of the month :(

Euro games testing on stars

2009-10-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Not sure what to make of this and will reserve judgement for now. HEM doesn't seem to be able to differentiate between currencies which is an obvious problem when it comes to working out your winrate!

Free Videos at Deucescracked

2009-09-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

Deucescracked.com are offering free flash viewer videos for one weekend only.

Some great stuff on there so go get stuck in.....

Eliminating 'C' Game

2009-09-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

Honestly I am starting to realise how often I have played my C game this year and I feel ashamed (this is a good thing now it has been recognised and acknowledged as a major flaw in my play). No wonder I have had such disappointing results.

The Jared Tendler vids on CR are awesome and I am very happy with my latest way of scoring sessions. Since my last posts my sessions scores have been A,B+,A+,A,A,A,B.

Not a bit of C game in sight and I feel like a new player.

My target for the last 3 months is to eliminate C game from my play completely which will then give me a true reflection of my A game over a decent sample.

If my target is met and results suck for the 3 month period then obvioulsy it is my A and B games that are the problem. They could suck too but until C game is gone there is no way of knowing!

'A game'

2009-09-18T03:12:00.000-07:00

How often do you play your A game?

How often do you make the best decision you can for each street of every hand for an entire session?

The answer to the above questions should be the same and I have been thinking about this a lot of the past week or so. I don't play my A game anywhere near as much as I need to and this is reflected in my results.

I watched a Jared Tendler video on cardrunners and this has inspired me to list certain variables/distractions and I am usuing this post to try and categorise what I have listed so far. (Note that looking at session results during play is a previously confirmed tilt indicator for me personally.)

E Game Indicators
Look at session results and continue session

D Game Indicators
Look at session results and stop session
Playing more than 4 tables

C Game Indicators
High emotive response to losing pots
Taking things personally and looking for revenge
Making snap decisions on any street
Surfing Internet
Checking E-mail
Folding Frustration
Boredom

B Game Indicators
Autopliting and/or over reliance on HUD

A Game Indicators
Embracing quiet periods
Range Awareness and REM
Image/Gameflow Awareness
Table Selection
Marking hands for review

A+ Game Indicators
Session/hand reviews
Concept studies
Study of regular opponents

This is my first go at this and am hoping to evolve list and categories over time.

Any comments/suggestions welcome :)

Security & Customer Satisfaction

2009-09-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

A while ago I purchased the RSA security token from the Pokerstars VIP store, which is a solid decision given what I read on Misanthropic's blog today, and at the weekend I received an e-mail from stars informing me they had reduced the price of the token significantly.

We can only do so much in terms of protecting our money online and then have to put our trust in our chosen sites security to protect our money on our behalf. I trust stars to do this and have confidence they would be there to step in and help should anything bad happen. Fwiw I don't have that confidence in any other site.

Not only are stars making the security token cheaper, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they were also going to refund to my account the difference between the price I had paid and the new lower amount. How good is this for customer relations?

Pokerstars have yet again proven to me they are a gazillion miles in front of any other poker site available.

August Results

2009-08-31T10:50:00.001-07:00

August is done:

I ran pretty bad overall in both EV and hidden EV situations so am pretty pleased with how things have gone this month.

In particular I am happy that I have found a way of scoring my progress and August scores are:

Mark Hands Durings sessions - 100%
No Looking at Results - 43%
4 Tables Max - 73%
Review Marked Hands - 78%
Session Summary - 73%

I have been a bit harsh on myself in these results. For example a session were I play for 2 hours and 6 table for only ten minutes counts as a failure for the session. Likewise looking at stats 15mins before the end of a session also fails.

Marking hands is now natural to me, which is great progress, and I am going to combine marking hands and reviewing hands into 1 category for September.

September Targets:
Improve looking at results percentage
Work on 3,4 & 5 betting ranges
Maintain Good Poker Mindset

Gl to everyone in September.

Targets Update

2009-08-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Am up a bit but running very bad this month.

Am pleased with how I am coping with the variance though and here is an update on my targets for August:

Mark Hands Durings sessions - 21/21 100%
No Looking at Results - 8/21 38%
4 Tables Max - 15/21 71%
Review Marked Hands - 15/21 71%
Session Summary - 17/21 81%

Room for improvement and but am starting to build some very useful notes during my marked hand reviews.

Not looking at stats is toughest one but I would guess that 38% would be my personal best if results had been recorded prior to this month.

Ratholers

2009-08-17T04:59:00.001-07:00

Used to hate them, starting to love them :)