5 Buyin Swings

Made the most of my free 7 day Deuces Cracked trial which expired on Wednesday by downloading as many vids as I could find. Not sure if it was really ethical, but since I am almost certainly going to take out a paid subscription at some point, I'm sure the people at deucescracked.com wont mind. The training vids are highly recommended, I have only watched a couple so far, but they are definitely +EV. I always avoided cardrunners due to their high fees and lack of low stakes videos, but Deuces Cracked seems to cater for the low stakes player and so is perfect for me and anyone playing 50NL-200NL.

Have played 3700 hands of poker so far this week for a net loss of $16. Looks like there is still work to do at 25NL, and last night was no exception. Started playing at about 11pm and things quickly started to go downhill. Being Friday, the tables were full of fish, but I just couldn't hit a hand. I was getting c/r or 3-bet by 50/1/0.1 types, every KK brought an A on the flop, every AQ brought a K on the flop and every AK brought sod all.... It happens, nothing I could do about it but play solid poker and hope to power through the variance.

Then things got a lot worse. Called a CO raise OTB with 55, flop AT5r, CO c-bets and I decide just to call as there are no draws and he is likely to fire the turn with any A. Turn is a J, he bets again, I raise, he shoves, I call expecting to see AK/AQ/AJ but he shows TT for a higher set. I then loose another 2 BI with AA vs 97 on a Q97 flop and AA vs Q6 on a Qxx flop (river is a 6). I am not going to bore you with all my bad beats, but after 324 hands I was down just over 5BI and I was struggling not to tilt. It probably would not have been a bad idea to call it a night, but had only been playing for an hour and I was determined to get back some of my losses.

Over the next 400ish hands, I didn't do anything different from the first 324, I played my usual 22/20 style, but this time things started to go my way. Won 3 BI with KK vs AJ on Jxx, KK vs AQ on Qxx and managed to get a bloke to put all his chips in on the river with T7 on a QJ482r board (I had a note on him that he loved to bluff the river, so he c/c flop and turn, I checked to him on the river and he obligingly shoved all his chips in with T high). Finally, I stacked a slowplayed 88 with Q6 from the BB on a Q836Q board vs a 50/1/0.1 who c/c flop and turn and then c/r the river, and I was back to where I started.

So over 761 hands, I made a net profit of $1.55 (and probably a lot of RB). This might not seem like a lot, but when half an hour earlier you are staring -$128 in the face, $1.55 doesn't seem so bad. Here is my graph for the night:


Next stop on the poker road is the Saturday night live tourney, updates to follow...

Interesting Weekend

The weekend started with the usual 6 tabling 10NL on Prima for a couple of hours. Managed to run well and finally was well in the green for the year after about 3.5K hands of 10NL. I played 1200 hands on Saturday afternoon and again, managed to net a profit of about 2BI. Things it seemed were looking up.

Saturday evening is that time of the week when all the Durham poker minds congregate to play the weekly tournament. There is usually a £3 and a £10 freezeout which attract around 30 and 10 players respectively. The £10 resembles a sit and go too much and so I tend to play the £3 which always has the larger field and is more like an MTT. In the past I have had mixed success in the tourney with a 4th a 2nd and one 1st place over the past year. This week I ended up busting fairly early when I shoved my 7bb from the BTN with A5s and got called by the BB with TT, I think it was a fairly mediocre play, but the BB was a poor player who would fold a lot of hands which beat me here.

I then moved on to playing some 5p/10p cash, got delt TT 3 hands in a row and managed to loose my stack with the 3rd TT when I stupidly shoved over a raise on an AJ8 flop in a raised pot, only to be showed AQ. Not sure why I made this play, I think I should have just check-folded the flop but for some reason I was not thinking! So, about £15 down on the night, but its always great fun and very +ev in the long run. When the tourneys were finished, a few of us went for our weekly drink at the Swan to get our fix of poker chat and booze and the night went on from there.

Sunday was interesting. Was chatting to a 2p2er about setting up my Full Tilt account and he told me that the 100% bonus is taken out of your rakeback and so if you have RB, there is not much point going for the bonus. I therefore decided to setup my account on Full Tilt to get used to the software playing some 25NL before I get staked for 50NL. I deposited $300 and loaded up 4 tables of 25NL. Being my usual self, I became the manic 3-betting, check raising donkey that I always do when I move up a level and quickly pissed away 3BI. What tilted me the most about this was that this was completely my fault, I was making stupid plays and trying to pull of ridiculous bluffs simply because this was 25NL not 10NL. I decided to go for a quick walk to cool off (highly recommended for anti-tilt) and came back determined to play better, though the prospect of starting 3BI down was not appealing.

I played very well for the next 700ish hands, got lucky running AA into KK, but basically played my usual 10NL game, isolating the fish and avoiding the regs and most importantly, not getting fancy. I ran well and played well, the result being a healthy 5BI, ending my weekend 2BI up at 25NL. As soon as I realised that 25NL is just an extension of 10NL, I was on the right track.

I was aiming to play 2K hands this weekend and managed 3.3K, as well as a $70 profit so all in all a good couple of days. I will be sticking with 25NL on Full Tilt most of this week and then moving up to 50NL, so things should get interesting.

Graph for this weekend (2100 - 2600 was my first attempt at 25NL)

Change of plan

A friend approached me a couple of days ago and offered to stake me to play 50NL. This came as quite a surprise as I have never been staked before, and have never played 50NL as my bankroll has not yet permitted it, however, he obviously has confidence in my play and hopefully we can both do very well out of the deal. For him it is a good investment, and it should allow me to make much more money than I do at the moment and help me build a decent sized bankroll.

The deal is that he will set me up with a bankroll for 50NL and will take 50% of everything I make. I will be setting up an account at Full Tilt shortly and be taking full advantage of the rakeback/bonuses, which I have not been able to do so far.

This should be serious landmark in my poker career, as I have been given the opportunity to play a higher stake than I would otherwise be able, therefore potentially make much more money than I am now.....basically, the money I hope to be making will be more than loose change and might actually allow me to get something decent out of playing poker (grinding the micro limits gets really frustrating sometimes). I have taken out a subscription at deucescracked and I hope the videos there might be able to soften my entry to the world of 50NL which, I have to say, is very daunting.

Played a short 40min session of 10NL tonight, not sure why I keep on playing it given I am overrolled for 20NL, but am really tired and felt like messing around on 5-6 tables. Managed to find some good fish and ended up 3BI even though I lost a stack with top 2 vs bottom set. I am just about breakeven since the start of the year which sucks a bit, but have only played 3K hands so nothing to worry about with such a small sample size.

Back to uni

Got back to uni yesterday. Had a great week skiing in Val, best week I have ever had. Snowed for 2 days, 3rd day was sunny and the best days skiing I have every had, and the last 2 days were also pretty good. Apres-ski as usual in Val was awesome and the whole week in general was great.

Now, on to poker.

Played for about 90 mins this afternoon. My current track record of the year did not change and I ended up missing all the flops, getting my c-bets minraised etc... Ended up tilting away about 1/2 a BI, and obviously managed to get stacked with AQ vs K3 on AKx3x board. Got AA 2 times and KK once, winning the blinds each time.

Also played a stars $4-180, and determined to get better at these as I really want to become a good tourney player as well as a cash game player. Busted out 88th when my QQ overpair ran into flopped 777. I think I overplayed it a bit, I have about 70BBs and he took a really strong line. Might have been able to get away with it, but ended up just shoving the turn.

In the last 1/2 hour things started looking up a bit. Shoved an OESFD on the flop vs 2 opponents, 1 folds, 1 calls and I manage to hit my flush on the river. Started playing well again and managed to crawl back to breakeven, just.

Looked at PT to find a net profit of $0.54. Disappointing but I think I played well. The tables were not great, and the deck was not in my favour.

Might play a bit more tonight... I am determined to put the hours in now I am back at uni and its very frustrating to be 3 BI down since the start of the year. My aim is to make 7BI and play 10K hands by Sunday night.

2008
Hands Played: 2950
Bankroll: $475
Current Level: 10NL
Poker Mentality: Improving

Not so good

After an ok day yesterday, today didn't go so well. Opened up 6 tables and managed to grind out 3.5BI. Flopped a strait with AK and a flush with JQ etc... Things were going well.

A guy sits down at one of my tables where I am 200BB deep and starts open shoving every hand for 100BB, he gets stacked a couple of times but reloads. I am really card dead and so fold everything for about 15 minutes. Finally, I call his shove with AQs vs his 55.... no luck, get AK vs his 66.... no luck, and then I finally loose another stack with AK vs his AQ. It happens.

Meanwhile I get stacked on another table where I shove my top pair + flush draw over 2 opponents one of which flopped a set. No luck there and finally to top it all off I raise KQ pf, get called by the BB, flop AKQ, I c-bet he calls and then c/r the turn. We get it AI and he shows his slowplayed AA.

So, after all that, ended up a measly $5 down for the session, and I am not in a great mood. Feel I played ok poker, but just can't seem to get unstuck from 10NL. I feel I should be beating 50NL easily, but just can't seem to get there!

Off skiing for a week now so there will be no more posts for a while, but will be back in the full swing of things when I get back to uni.

2008
Hands Played: 2200
Bankroll: $480
Current Level: 10NL
Poker Mentality: Poor

Not so bad

Played just under 2 hours today. For some curious reason I thought it would be a good idea to enter a $10 $1.5K guaranteed tourney. I have done pretty well playing live tourneys but have never had a good cash in an online tournament. I just don't think I have the patience. Started with 200 players, got down to the last 80 and then I 3-bet shoved KQ suited on the button vs a raiser and a caller. Turns out I was up against AA and AK, not a good idea.

Decided to play some cash. Loaded up 6 tables (with a 7th one on and off) and grinded for about an hour and a half. Pretty standard stuff, stacked someone with TPTK vs a flush draw, and then got another stack when my 3-bet with AQ gets called by A3 suited (WTF) and the flop is A3J... he is semi short so we get it AI on the flop and the river pairs the jack to give me a higher 2 pair. Not sure if this is really a suckout or not? Managed to get another half stack with a turned set vs top pair and things were looking up.

Currently up about 2BI and get dealt the wonderful AK, flop comes A35, my c-bet gets called. Turn is another A, and I am hoping he has an AT/AJ type hand. He calls my turn bet, river is a blank, I value bet half the pot, he raises AI, I call and he flips over A3 for the full house. Not too upset here, I can't see me getting away from this one, his range includes lots of Ax type hands.

Nothing else to report, the rest of the session went ok and I finished up a disappointing $7.50, but at least its in the green, and on top of that I grinded out about $7 of rakeback.

2008
Hands Played: 1560
Bankroll: $480
Current Level: 10NL
Poker Mentality: Average

Bad start to the year

Decided to play a bit this afternoon at my girlfriends flat in Paris while she is at work. Got some shisha going and loaded up 4 tables of 10NL, I normally play 6 tables, but still a bit hungover from new year so decided to take it easy.

Started off not too badly, found some good tables though there were quite a few short stacks. Flopped quad aces and then rivered a strait flush. Didn't get paid off massively with either....

Prima Network No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($13.21)
UTG ($9.30)
MP ($5.37)
CO ($3.06)
Button ($11.33)
SB ($2.70)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6h, Kh.
UTG calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10, 2 folds, SB raises to $0.2, Hero calls $0.10, UTG calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10.

Flop: ($0.80) Jh, As, Th (4 players)
SB bets $0.4, Hero calls $0.40, UTG folds, MP calls $0.40.

Turn: ($2) Ah (3 players)
SB bets $0.5, Hero calls $0.50, MP folds.

River: ($3) Qh (2 players)
SB bets $0.75, Hero raises to $1.5, SB calls $0.90 (All-In).

Final Pot: $6.15
Results:
SB has Qd Ad (full house, aces full of queens).
Hero has 6h Kh (straight flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins $6.15.


Then things started going down hill. I am in the BB, folded to SB who makes a 4BB raise. I have AKs and 3-bet. The SB min-4-bets and I decide to shove and he stacks me for 120BB with AA. I think this is a tough spot, he could easily be stealing and given his stats (PFR of about 15%) I think he has a range of at least AQ+,TT+ here, against which I am 50/50. I think that if I call and hit TPTK on the flop I am committed anyway and so I might as well get it AI pf. However, I have now put a note on that player that he min-4-bets with big hands, a good read to have.

I then got AKo on a different table and raised it up after a limper to 5BBs, I get 4 callers, not ideal. Flop is TQK 2 diamonds, not ideal either. 1 check, player in MP bets pot, its me to act with 1 player still to act. Another tough spot, I think that betting the pot ($1) into 2 players is really strong here and there are loads of 2pair hands which have me crushed. I think he could also do this with KJ, QJ, AQ and diamond type hands so I raise to $4 and he flat calls. I know I am committed to the hand and basically screwed.... he bets half pot on the blank turn and a 1/4 of the pot on a blank river, I have to call but I am almost certain I am beat.... which of course I am, he has TT. I think this is a difficult hand to get away from because the pot was so big on the flop, and I was being donked into. In retrospect I think raising was maybe the wrong choice, maybe check calling and folding to a large river bet may have been better....

About 45 mins into the session I raise with AQ of spades UTG, the BTN calls and the flop comes J97 with 2 spades. I c-bet and the btn makes a small raise. I have a note on him saying he is aggro and likes to bluff so I decide to shove over his raise given I have the nut FD and 2 overs, I think he could have air or a weak 1 pair hand often enough here to make a shove +ev --- not today though, he turns over 77 and I miss my flush.

Now about an hour in and I get dealt AKo again in late position. I raise to 4BB, the BTN makes a small 3-bet and I have visions of AA all around. I keep my cool though and decide to call and see a flop given that I am in position (I don't really like this play though). The flop is Kxx, BTN c-bets, I call, turn blank, BTN bets half pot, I raise him AI, he calls and shows off his AA.....

To avoid monkey tilt I quietly press sit out on my 4 tables and open up PT to see the damage... down $35 in just under 400 hands. Not great but its thats variance.

Looking back on my play with AK, I don't think I went too far off the rails. In the hand with the KQT flop I think I should have check called and folded to a lot of heat, its pretty clear that I am behind on the flop there, and in the last hand, I still advocate 4-betting AK preflop.

I tend to think that if I 4-bet and villain 5-bet shoves I am always committed because I am getting such good odds, but I think that against the average TAG/NIT, their range is so well defined with a 5-bet that with 100BB stacks you can happily fold. I think flat calling a 3-bet of 4-bet is bad because you suffer from massive reverse implied odds (you will either win a small pot when you flop TPTK vs villains underpair and he will fold to action, or you will loose a big pot when you flop a pair vs a set or an overpair eg AK vs AA on K32 flop) and so I go by my theory of always 4-betting AK preflop and considering folding to a 5-bet shove. I might on occasion also fold to a 3-bet or 4-bet if villain is extreemely nitty.

So not too upset with the session, I think I played well and won a decent amount of small pots. I think out of the 4 stackings listed above, none of them are atrocious and the only one I could have got away from is the 2nd one (KTQ flop).


My BR on battlefield is now just over $100, moving away from my $200 goal, but I am confident that after a few thousand hands I will be grinding 20NL.

Anyway, current standing after my first session of the year:


2008
Hands Played: 400
Bankroll: $470
Current Level: 10NL
Poker Mentality: Average

My Blog

The purpose of this blog is to track my poker career and set goals for myself. Somehow I think that I will be more honest with myself if I write it all in a blog, and being honest with yourself is critical to playing winning poker.

Over the last year I have learned a huge amount about playing poker, I have gradually taken my game more and more seriously, but I seemed to get into a bit of a lull and over the past 4-5 months my game does not seem to have gone anywhere.

I therefore decided to change things for 2008. My bankroll currently stands at about $500 and I am still playing 10NL with shots at 20NL.

I currently play at Battlefield poker, due to to the softness at the low limit games, and the good RB there (I am offering 55% RB at battlefield and great bonus deals here). The amount of money I currently have in Battlefield is $130, my first goal is going to be to turn this into $200 playing 10NL. There are several reasons for this, firstly because I need to prove that I am consistent at 10NL before moving up, and secondly because $100 is not enough to play 20NL with (I 6 table) and if I deposit more I loose some rake through deposit fees.

I intend to post after each of my sessions and I hope you enjoy reading my blog.


2008
Hands Played: 0
Bankroll: $500
Current Level: 10NL
Poker Mentality: Good

My Story

Happy New Year!

I am a university student who has been playing poker for about a year. I started playing some 25c-50c limit holdem with a $10 deposit on pokerroom and no idea how to play the game. Like a classic rookie I played far too many hands, was very passive, and called down with 2nd best hands. In spite of all this I managed to break even for a few hundred hands (1 tabling) and I started to fall in love with the game.

After about a month, I purchased Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play David Sklansky and read it very quickly. It completely transformed my game and I would recommend it as a first limit holdem book. I managed to grind my initial $10 up to about $50 playing 25c-50c limit.

Having played a few thousand more hands of limit holdem and about 3 months after having started playing, I decided to give no limit holdem a go. This was very intimidating for me as I had a very small bankroll (around $50) and no intention of re-depositing. I started browsing the twoplustwo forums and reading the stickies in the micro no limit section and soon moved my $50 to Poker Stars and signed up through an affiliate who was offering $50 for 50fpps and then an additional $50 for 100fpps, and so my no limit journey started.

I started off at the 1c-2c tables, with $50 in my account. I would buy in for $2 and do my best to play poker from what I had learned on the 2p2 forums. Due to a bit of luck and the softness of the games at that level, I soon turned by $50 into $80 and then managed to clear my first 50fpps bringing my bankroll to about $130. I then shortstacked 25NL for a short time, buying in for the minimum and folding all hands except for QQ+ AK just to get to 100fpps.

Once I reached 100fpps the extra $50 was credited to my account and I suddenly had around $180. For me this was a huge milestone, I had transformed $10 into a good starting poker bankroll and I thought that nothing could stop me.

I then started playing $5NL, and soon moved up to 10NL where I ran well for a while. However, I started to experience big swings. I had a couple of 25+ BI swings and my graph looked like a hacksaw blade.

It was now the summer, around June I think, and I was concentrating on exams, work and socialising so I was not playing a huge amount of poker. I was also very prone to tilt, and my poker would affect me emotionally. Seems silly now that loosing $15 would put me in a bad mood for the day, but I guess its all relative. All this meant that I was playing very little, by this time I had probably played around 10K hands of poker since the start of the year.

I didn't play much over the summer, read Harrington on Holdem, browsed 2p2, but generally stayed away from playing until September when I got back to uni. My bankroll was now about $450 and I was still playing 10NL. My game had improved hugely, but I was still experiencing massive swings and so I was eager to find leaks in my game and improve before I moved up in limits.

I dabbled in 20NL but found that whenever I moved up I would completely change my game for no apparent reason and start pulling off big bluffs and making stupid plays. This meant that every time I tried to move up, I would have to then spend a couple of weeks building my BR back up at 10NL.

Over the christmas I have not played any poker, but have read Theory of Poker (really great book) and am currently reading Professional No Limit Holdem, and of course, been browsing the 2p2 forums.

I am sorry if this story has been a bit brief and vague, but, as you will see in my next post, this blog is not supposed to be about my poker in the last year, but my poker during the next year, and I only included my poker history as a foundation for what is to come.