Silver linings

Well, this was going to be another whine fest after an attrocious bought of luck last night, but instead I choose to look at my slansky bucks. After all, statistics will coverge over time, so it is better to look at probabilities.

So, since I have moved from Rush to normal tables, I have averages well over $30 an hour and felt like one of the best players at the table most of the time. I feel more comfortable and confident than ever. I am starting to get a decent amount of notes and color coding (although not as much as I would like!), and all of this is with only 10 tables! After I can cash out, I am going to get Table Ninja, which should have a dramatic increase in $ per hour as I am already more than capable of playing 16 tables, but I really need the ability to pop tables out so I can take notes and color code while I play. If I can get this done relatively early next month, then I am going to increase my daily goals from 100FPP's to 200 and go for the top level of iron man.

In fact, I have done so well this last week that I am going to increase my planned goal of $500 next month to $600. Yeah, I know. But gotta love the optamism, right?

Just another day

Well, last night was a roller coaser ride. Started out loosing a flip for half a stack. Then I got limp reraised while holding AQ. The limper was a half stacker limping the button behind to an EP limper. I shoved and got snapped off by KK. I also got set under set, but I was able to lose the minimum there. An aggro player checked back a AQ7 flop and then called a pot sized lead on a turn 2 (I had 22). Alarm bells were going off like crazy, so I just flatted. The BB poted the river, and amazingly the overly aggro player flats. Now I am all sorts of confused. The turn really made me think set, but if they have a set, why are they just flatting here? Still don't know the answer to that one, but I only lost half a stack, so no worries. I paid off another set in a wierd 3 bet pot, but only lost 1/3 of a stack there. It's actually kind of funny to me. In general these sets were played horribly, as the villans are leaving a lot of money on the table against most villans. But against me they both actually got the maximum because of their strange lines.

Anyway, despite all that I still wound up winning a little over half a buy in. After playing rush for so long playing 25NL is so relaxing. There is no way I could have had a winning session at rush with all of those cooler situations. And I am starting to get some notes and tags on regs and fishies, so table selection should be getting easier. And I really don't understand why people don't like the new FT table selection tool. I think it's amazing. Find a table with 3 less than full stacks, sit down. I don't have much of a hand sample, but adding in notes and color codes should make it even easier.

After I finished up my points for the day, I decided to give PLO a shot. I had never really played PLO, instead going for PLO8. Wound up winning a buy in (2NL - so no biggie), but it was a ton of fun. It really felt odd to only have 4 tables going and to be able to pay attention to everything.

Fate and some KO's

Yesterday I got into a somewhat lengty discussion on the differences in fun factor/monetary rewards between MTT's, SNG's, and cash games. The quick version is that SNG's are the easiest/most boring way to go from a little knowledge with a bankroll. MTT's have the most dead money and the most fun, but have the highest variance as you really don't make money until you hit that big score. Cash games have the steadiest money, but also the best players, you never get that big score, and aren't as fun.

So, I get home and am promptly reminded that my fiance and our two oldest children were off for horseback riding lessons. So it's just me and the baby. Oh, and the baby hasn't taken a nap all day and just finished eating. So I sit down to watch a CR video and rock Dom to sleep, and low and behold, they kicked off a new MTT series where DamnRinger is going to build a roll from $50 playing MTT's. I start watching it and he loads up on $3 KO tourneys, which I have always thought were incredably soft, so I am excited. When Dom falls asleep, I take this as a sign. The're turbo's. I am alone, and the baby is asleep. How can this not be a sign that I need to fire up some turbo KO's? I can't play cash (I yell to much).

So I fire up 4 tourneys while I watch the rest of the video and hold the sleeping baby. If you aren't a parent, then you might not know, but babies have a really bad habit of waking up cranky if you set them down while sleeping, and I have no intention of messing with the baby gods and tempting fate (who is on my side, right?) by putting the baby in his rocker. I tile the tables. 3 of them are going along with nothing happening. On the fourth someone shoves when I have AA. I call and they show Q6. Fate is loving me! A short while later I see an open raise to my KK on the table where I doubled up. I raise, they call, the flop is mono Q high and I have the K high redraw. They shove and I snap it of thinking I am going to to have a big stack so I can steal! They show AQ with the redraw (CRAP), and the turn is an A. Damn. Back to a starting stack on all 4 tables.

Now, the blinds are starging to get a bit high, so I am looking for good spots. No one is folding pre-flop, or post flop really, so I am looking for showdown hands. I have 14BB's on my first table, and there is a limper and a shortie shove and I have AKs. No way I am going to find a better spot than this. A chance at some dead money and a KO. I shove, and the original limper calls. So, as long as I beat the original limper, I am going to come out ahead, and if I beat both it will be close to a triple up and a decent stack. They turn over 77 (original limper) and TT, so I am flipping. And a beautiful K hits on the flop. Like I said, fate is with me tonight. I got this one in the bag. The turn is a 7. Down to 3.

A short while later, I get AQ and open from MP. The flop is A high, so I c-bet and the BB shoves on me. I snippity snap and get called by A5. I'm dancing a little jig. Fate LOVES me. This fool is drawing to running 5's or running Diamond's. Shit. I hate diamonds. Really. Hate. Diamonds. Down to 2.

So now I have two tables where I am shortish and I have 1 knock out. But fate is on my side. The signs are there. Just keep looking for good spots. I have 64s on the button and it folds to me. Down to 6BB's on this table, so shove it is. I get snapped off by K7, but the flop bring is 448, so I double up! Fate loves me and I now have a decent stack on one table. Then I have TT in the big blind. A tightish player opens from MP. I flat with the intention of shoving any flop without an A or KQJ. I figure a stop and go is a little better than a flip (cause this player is tight, right?) The flop? T63. Yeah, Fate loves me. Pot size bet left, so no need to make a move. MP shoves, and I snap it off. A6. So, as long as it isn't running Aces or spades, I am good. Shit. I hate spades. REALLY. HATE. SPADES. Down to 1. Fate, why do you taunt me so?

Now I am down to 1 table, and this table just sucks. I haven't had a hand yet. I stole the blinds once so far, but I am seriously short, 4BB's, and I have one aggro donk on my left and one on my right. Both have monster stacks and are calling absurdly light. I have 2 KO's so far and have 3 hands till the blinds cripple me. So there went half a buy in. I am looking for any reason what so ever to get my money in. And the aggro donk on my right folds. I have 22. Yeah, that would be enough of a reason for me. The other aggro donk folds. HOLY CRAP! I have a shot at stealing the blinds. LOL, yeah right. I get cold called by someone with 12 BB's. GOD DAMN IT! At least shove and protect my hand! Nah, the SB shoves over the top and 12BB calls. They turn over TT and QQ. Well, I am out. I never suck out, so there is half a buy in wasted. Fate. We need to have a talk. I flop a 2. Whatever. The turn will be a Q or T. No? Well, then the river. No. Really? No? I just sucked out? I am to awe struck to do a happy dance (which is probably good because I would wake the baby). Fate, you with me now, or is this just more torture?

I now have a small stack, but enough to get to the final table (and cash). I'm not going to play anything unless I have a clear edge. So I am now in Kurt's Zen fold pay attention mode. Folding away. Down to 15 players. Fold, fold. 14. J3 in the BB, so getting ready for zen fold, but it gets limped and is a 3 way pot. J53 with 2 diamonds. I lead for pot and get a caller. Turn is a diamond. I really hate diamonds, but my hand is to strong to consider folding this short. So I shove and hope. And get called. Hope dies a little. Villan turns over A5 with no redraw, so as long as I can avoid a 5 outer, I am going to have a medium stack! Holy crap, I have a medium stack and another KO! Come one fate. Work with me! Now I have a good stack, but both aggro donks have me covered and there are a bunch of shorties. So back to zen folding mode. Then it happens. 25 minutes till break. And Dom wakes up.

For those of you who don't have kids, let me give you a little baby education. You see, when a baby takes a nap after eating, they pee. Now, when they wake up they have a wet diaper, are groggy, and really don't know what they want. Now, Moms will tell you that you need to change the daiper right away (ya know, avoid diaper rash and keep the baby comfortable/happy) and Dads will tell you that when Mom is around. the truth is that most times the diaper isn't full, and they baby is OK if for some reason you can't change their diaper right away, but they'll be a little more cranky than usual (I love you honey!). Which means that Dom is now playing one of his favorite games. Daddy stand and bounce.

So now I am in Daddy stand and bounce Kurt's zen fold pay attention mode. I never realized how hard it was to hit a mouse button in my life. 13. Go hurry up break. 12. Oh, great, he's hungry to. 11. Fate, I no longer like you. You can kiss my arse. 10. 86s in the BB. 3BB stack shoves. Getting ready for Zen fold baby bounce. Everyone else folds. I am getting close to 3 to 1, and if I loose it won't hurt my chip position. Yeah, I called with 8 high. Such a nit! Is that an 8? Why yes it is. Do I hold? Why yes I do. Not only did I just make the final table, but I got another KO, and we will be rearanging the tables, which is GREAT for me, cause my spot SUCKS BALLS!

Now, we get to the final table, and the two aggro donks have 45K and 55K. Another player, who is decently tight, has 40K. There are 3 shorties and 2 other mid stacks. So, Aggro donk with the big stack? Yeah, he is seated to my right again. And to my left? Shortie and Aggro donk 2. So my table dynamic hasn't improved much. The 3 shorties mean zen fold mode for me, and it would be criminal for me to get knocked out without a BIG edge with such big pay jumps. I need 6th to break even, and I can easily fold to that. Shorty out. Then the 4th place stack decides to try outplaying aggro donk on my right. Yeah, he did just call your open with T8o, and yes, he did hit second pair. And yes, he did just call you down. And yes, you did just get knocked out with 15BB's while 2 players have 3. Thank you for the pay bump. The other shorties fall, along with the other mid stack.

We are now down to 4 players. Aggro donk on my right has 110K. Aggro donk on my left has 80K. Tighty has 65K, and I have 30K. The plus side? I can now punish the aggro donks, don't have to worry about chip position, and Fate is on my side! The bad new? I am the shorty, and Dom is now out of graggy cranky mode and into I wanna wiggle and play mode. At this point a funny thing happens. I start playing back. Tighty starts playing back. Aggro donks are now slowly bleading off chips as we aren't letting them min raise or limp steal any more and their not adjusting. Then a miricle happens. Aggro donk on my right disconnects in the middle of a big pot with Tighty. Super ninja diaper change mode on! As I race to get the diaper changed with Dom thinking this is fun play time (STOP SQUIRMING DAMN YOU!) I stop and think. Why is it that aggro donk type players all of the sudden loose their connection when they get played back at, then magically reappear when they have been forced to fold, only to come back on before the next hand gets to them and auto folds, then tell the other player how lucky they were for said disconnection?

So I now have bought some time, and we have 5 minutes till break. I build my stack up a bit, and it's break time. Dom gets snapped into his rocker, and I am OFF! Bottle ready, check. Set Dom up with bottle propped in his mouth so he can feed himself, check (did I mention I love you honey?). 2 minutes left. Bathroom, check. Drink, (cause I am a little thirtsy after 25 minutes of Daddy stand and bounce Kurt's zen fold pay attention game). Back with 30 seconds to spare. Dom is happy. And I get to sit down and actually be comfortable playing. Fate, you did that just to torment me, right? My first final table in forever, and you made damn good and sure I was way to preoccupied to enjoy it. But now it's on bitches. No more nit clinic. I got mad skillz. LOL, yeah right, as if skill really matters this deep in a Turbo. Balls baby, I got balls. And those do matter.

Me and tighty go to work bleeding the aggro donks. I am doing it shoveing pre-flop as I have 12BB's and restealing rocks. Tighty is bleading them post flop. We both build up slowly, and then I get 33 in the SB. 2 folds and I shove. I get called by AQs and win, dropping Aggro donk on my right to 8BB's and now have enough chips to play post flop. Tighty is playing a little to tight against me, so I can steal some of his blinds now. He three bets a little, but mostly leaves me alone. Aggro donk on my right got tight when he lost his stack, and we bled him out. Aggro donk on my left is now the target for me and tighty with 3 players to go, and he still has the chip lead! Well, had. Now he is the shorty. Now he is gone. It's me and tighty. He has a 2 to one chip lead. Now, I can honestly say I am glad that Tighty made it. Yeah, it would be much easier to beat aggro donk, but Tighty has my respect. He played a damn good final table. We go back and forth. At first he opens up a bit more than I suspect he would, then I adjust and play back. We get in with AT vs 77 and my 7's hold. So now I have the chip lead. 2 hands later I get it in with KQ vs. KJ. He hits a J, and then runner runner flush, just cause fate thinks its funny to remind me. Thanks fate. Really appreciate it. A few hands later I get it in with K2 against KQ, and lose. Can't really complain though. I got 6 KO's and second place, along with 2KO's in my other tourneys. Make $35. Overall, I say that was a good night. I still think it's funny that I found good situations in 3 tourneys and lost. I got it in bad in 1 and won. It was a blast though. So much more fun than cash.

I am now off to buy fate a present. I'm thinking something totally useless for her. Magic 8 ball? Yeah, that's about right.

Weekend update

Well, it was a pretty good weekend for me. I decided that since my HUD is only working on 1 table of rush, to go back and play regular tables instead. It was like a breath of fresh air. After playing Rush for the last 2 months, all the action at regular tables was almost amazing. At first I was still playing to tight post flop, and then I over adjusted and was calling down a little to light. Part of that just bad play because I was up and knew I could get it back anyway, so why the fuck not? But whatever. I wound up playing 2 sessions and around 1300 hands, and won just under 3 buy ins. Between variance and my bad calls it should have been a little over 4 though. Still, it just felt so much easier than it used to. And it was fun to run 15/17 instead of 10/13. Definately gives me confidence for when I start taking shots at 50NL.

For those of you who don't play both, just to give you an idea, it usually takes 750 hands to get 100FPP's per day at rush tables. At the normal tables it took 650 hands to get the same number of point. That's about 13% more FPP per hand.

I also found my new favorite player EVER! I wound up sitting at a table with someone who was playing 91/50/22.5% 3 bet. If this person put money in the pot pre-flop, then they would call any raise no matter how big. The first hand I say he called a 3 bet squeeze shove from a 40BB stack (they both had about 40BB's at this point) with T9o. I saw this and promplty took a not. A couple of hands later he opens and I have AKs, so I shove and he calls with 54s. He rivers me, but I am counting the money at this point. Unfortunatly I only get one hand to play against him (which I won) before I quit for the day, but it was still fun as hell. But what really amazed me is how the rest of the table adapted to him. People were raise folding to him pre-flop, calling 8x opens and pot sized C-bets, only to fold on the turn. Calling down 3 streets with TPGK. It was just killing me watching these people. When I left he was up to almost 3 buy ins on the table - and I was up on him by about $5.

And finally, after this weekend I am holding out hope that I can turn this month around and make my goal of $400 profit this month. That would be amazing to me after my crappy start.

Warning: Bitch fest

The last couple of days have been really frustrating. Of my 10 biggest hands over the last 2 days, I have won 2. 1 was a misclick that I meant to fold, one was a lost coin flip, and 1 was JJ vs. AA of a shorty. The other 6 were suck outs. 1 was a 3 outer that allowed the villan to get paid (he had 12 outs, but I was only paying off 3 of them). On the plus side, I lost less than 2 buy ins over this stretch, so I am pretty happy about that. I am still not sure if I am happy that Mpethy crushed my EV theory. It's really annoying to know that I am so far below equity for such a long time. But I am a strong believer in probabilities, so I believe that at some point everything will balance out, so the higher I can get when it does balance out, the better for me. Knowing others have gone through worse doesn't really help though. It's more a patience thing than it is a confidence or money thing. I already know I can beat 25NL for a decent win rate, but due to me being below EV, I am still grinding 25NL. I feel like I am chomping at the bit to move up.

Whine fest over.

Back in Black!

Well, its official. I am back in posotive. Well, I was actually in the posotive after Sunday, but due to a bug in HEM, it didn't show as posotive until today. Still, it feels very good to have come back from such a big down swing. I am still down at 25NL rush, but not by much and I have had 8 solid sessions in a row now.

Last nights session basically boiled down to 2 hands. The first one was a suck out by me against a short stack. I had 66 on an 478 flop and the shorty open shoved for about $8. It didn't make sense to me, so I called. Oops. Turned over Q8. Binked a 6 though, so it worked out well for me. I was really disappointed in myself though. I have been doing really well at looking at odd lines and folding in situations like this, and this is a reminder why. Still, nice to get paid and learn a lesson, or at least be reminded.

The second hand was very strange. I think there were about 5 fish at the table and they were all looking to donate chips. There were 3 limpers to me in MP2 (I know - 3 limpers in a rush game and I'm not in the blinds?), so I look down and see AKo. Hit the pot button. The button and Big Blind both call and I am thinking this is giong to be a 6 way hand with those kind of odds out there, but then the first two limpers fold and the third limper pots it back at me. This player is sitting on about 90BB, but his line just makes no sense to me. I mean how can you have a big hand as the THIRD limper? I'm not worried about the players left to act, as I can't see either of them having a big hand. So, I look at all that dead money and shove. The villan called and I assumed he would have a low/mid pair and we would be racing. Nah. AJs. AND I HOLD!

Other than that, I tried out some 6 max rush last night. I played ok even though I wound up loosing 60BB. I was suprised just how retardedly people play 6 max. I had no fold equity what so ever. The play was just hideous all around. So much dead money out there. The only down side is that you HAVE to have a hand there. I know people say 6 max and FR are pretty much the same, but that's not even close to true. Players have a completly different mind set, and it is the dynamics created by the mix of players that creates the play, not the positions and cards. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Vacations and poker don't mix

This was a rough weekend overall. We had a family reunion this weekend about 3 hours away, which really isn't a big deal, but everything getting up to that point is why vacations and trips are so hard. I have fond and wistful memories of packing a bag in 10 minutes and being out the door. Now it takes half a day to get everything together and get the house ready for the long absence (ya know, 2 days). So Friday I managed to squeeze in poker. I played 25NL for about 10 minutes, but I was having some serious issues with HEM. While I was trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with it (cause you know it didn't even occur to me that I should drop down to 5NL until I fix the damn program) I won 2 buy ins. While I was happey to have won, I really hate playing without reads. It's all nit/steal/fold to any one raising without a set, just because I know everyone is so tight.

After about 10 minutes of doing this I have to hold the baby. At this point it occurs to me that I should drop down while I figure out what the hell is going on. So I do that and figure out that of the 4 tables I can open (what the hell is up with this? I thought you could open 8?) 1 has no stats, 1 has never changing stats that seem to be in binary code for the players names, and 2 tables were working properly. So I keep playing 5NL while holding Dom just to get some points, and then I get about a half hour window where I can play. Of course I played fast as hell to get the points. Put on a pure nit clinic, get my points, and out the door.

The next day was similar. I spent most of the day with the family, but I snuck off and played for about 20 minutes. Then we went home and had a couple of freinds come over. I appologized and played more speed poker. Yeah, I know its rush, but I like to take my time, and this is 2 days in a row where I am playing much faster than I want to. Get my points, shut it down, and proceed to get wasted and stay up all night.

By Sunday night I was exahsted, so I decided that grab some beer and fire up 10NL and just get the points in. I didn't play super fast this time, but I didn't play slow either. I did, however, play like crap. Some of the worst poker I have ever played. But I was so tired at the time that I can't remember any hands, which has never happened to me before. Still, I won $15 and got my points in, so I met my goals!


So, after a long weekend I wound up winning 2 buy ins at 25NL (still haven't completely recovered from that 9 buy in down swing, but I am getting pretty close), padded my winnings at 10NL (now that I know how to adjust to the player pool, I can't imagine how I donked off so many stacks initially) and made my RUSH week bonus. Overall, it was a very successfull weekend. And I hope I never have to go through it again!

It's good, it's good, it's gone

Last night was an interesting session. I start of winning a big pot with AK vs. AQ on an A high 3 way flop. I then loose with JJ vs. QQ against a shortie. Then I see an opener and 2 callers with AT on the flop, so I decide to squeeze and get 3 callers! A set gets paid off and I loose another JJ vs. QQ against a 40BB stack. And this is the first 50 hands of my session!

At this point I am up a decent amount and thinking this is going to be a very interesting session. Then I went card dead/missed everything, and the action dried up. I dropped down a buy in and was generally getting frustrated as hell. At this point the rum kicked in a bit, and I decided I was going to look for marginal spots in position and fuck with people. It worked out pretty well, and I wound up only loosing $7. It was pretty fun. Might have to start doing that some more.

I have to say, if this is what 50NL is like, I can really understand why so many players have a hard time. People are so tight that you really want to make plays, but at the same time if you make one big mistake it can take forever to get it back.

Speed rush?

Last night was crazy busy. My oldest daughter had her last softball game, followed by a pool party. So I get home from work and jump straight in the station wagon with the kids and off to the game. We go to the pool party, and then go get some formula for the kiddies. By the time we get home, unpack the car, and get the dogs outside, I have an hour and need to get those 100 FTP points for rush week. I fire up 2 tables, and of course the HUD is only working on 1. I close the second and restart. I get two running and have to try 3 times to get the third working. About 15 minutes in I realize that 3 won't get it done. So I fire up a forth table. Now I am playing 4 tables of rush (never done that before) cascaded so I can't see the action (never done that at rush before) at a limit that has been giving me difficulties and I can't close out the tables when I get up to 150BB (this is standard for me as I am not overly comfortable deep - and really it is mostly the good players who are deep) and I am trying to play fast to get those damn points.

This is not a good recipie!

Or is it? I wound up playing really tight for me (9/12, 2.6% 3 bet) but I also had my best session of 25NL (not monitarily, but play wise). I only had 3 situations all night that I wasn't sure of, I made a lot of good lay downs and thin value bets, and really felt confident for the first time. In doing my session review I only found 1 mistake, which might not be a mistake. I need to get some stove time to figure it out though.

Looking back at it, I think not being able to think about anything other than the decision in front of me was the best medicine for my RUSH blues. No worrying about suck outs, traps, or FPS. Overall I picked up a little over a buy in, so I am now down about 5 buy ins at 25NL rush. I am hoping that this level is much like 10NL where I lost a ton in the beginning and then figured out what works and went on a pretty solid tear.

Oh, and Mpethy, I don't like you any more. I was perfectly happy in my blissfully ignorant world believing that that all in EV stat was flawed and good players always low. But no, you had to burst that bubble wide open, so now everytime I look at that stat I want to club a baby seal. Yeah, 800 hands, and 1 buy in below EV again, and don't even ask how far below EV I am for the month. Thanks to Happy Pixel, Kurt, EN09, DDAWD, and a few others I'm feeling OK (or at least no poker suicidal) over my downswing and below EV swing, but damn poker gods, when you gonna let me get even on that damn EV thing? It's only been 18 months now!

Half a step forward

Well, one of the hardest things in poker is to get back after a big downswing. Your confidence is low and you want to tweak your game. This is probably easier for an established player, but for an up and comer who is tweaking their game every session anyway, the uncertainty makes overadjustment a little to easy of a trap to fall into.

Last night I fired up another session of 25NL and it didn't start off well. I ran a bluff catching line on someone, but they showed up with TT to my 88. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done that with 88 (although I think it would have been a great line with 99), although it was pretty close, so I don't regret it. A few hands later I defend with AJ, but wind up loosing another medium pot to runner runner flush. At this point I was down half a buy in. It's not much, but it gave me the feeling of running on a treadmill. I wound up hovering between down a half a buy in to a full buy in for most of the session. About half way through I ran my TPGK into a flush draw and it held, and I thought my session was about to turn around. But about 5 hands later my set ran into a 4 flush board, so I had to let it go. Then I ran my AA into a set, but I think I lost the minimum on the hand.

Then I hit a FH against a flush, and from that point forward I slowly increased my winnings. I wound up winning about $15. Not a great session (or even a good one really) but it definately helped my poker ego to have a couple of winners in a row. Oddly enough I had started playing a much more weak tight game, which seems to be working. People are just floating and trying to take pots away to much. I C-bet less than 60%, but still have a success rate of under 40%. I'm not sure how much I like playing the more passive trapping style, but a lot the time I am picking up an extra bet in situations where I wouldn't be getting any. The bet check call line and check call lead lines have become much more common.

An example of this was last night when I had AK. I isolated to limpers (I don't iso light anymore unless I know the villan is limping trash - to many players limping strong hands at rush) and the flop came down K84. It was a 3 way pot and I had position, so I decided to check it back. I think betting here gets to many folds and the flop was dry as hell. The plan worked, as the second player lead out for $2 on a turned 4. Not a bad card for me as it pretty much removes a set of 4's. I call and do a happy dance as the other player in the hand called. The river is another 8, so I called again. Sadly, the villan happened to have 78 in the hand, but you can't really get upset about someone hitting a 2 outer on you. On the other hand, it's hard to take a long term approach when you are trying to dig out of a whole.

9 steps forward. 1 step back

Friday and Saturday were the worst back to back poker days of my career. Let me first start by saying my play wasn't stellar by any means. I don't think there was any way I could have come out of those sessions as a winner, but I didn't have to lose as much as I did. Friday I dropped 4 buy ins, and Saturday I dropped 5. The problem is that both days I lost every big pot I played. Didn't matter if I was aheador behind, the villan got my money. At one point I 5 bet shoved on a LAG/AGGRO tard in a SB/BTN war with KK and said they have AA. Sure enough. Anyway, I have a 10 buy in stop loss (yeah, I know thats a HUGE stop loss, but I have the bankroll for it, and the extra rakeback/iron man points were worth the risk) and by Sunday I was actually afraid I might hit it. The last thing I want to have to do is grind out another 5010NL buy ins to take another shot. I had some problems with my desktop, so I had to play on my laptop, which litterally had 0 HH to work with, so I wound up playing pretty weak tight over all, but I wound up winning a little over a buy in. I pretty much avoided all marginal spots, played 1 table, and took really good notes. Honestly, at that point I really couldn't take another losing session without dropping down.

Overall, I am down 6 buy ins, so I still have 4 to work with. I'm hoping that I can get back to even this week. It's a pretty hard thing for my ego right now, but if I plan on moving up and being a pro, I am going to have to get used to these swings.

Tilt went down, so I started something new

So, by the time I got around to playing poker last night, Tilt was down. This left me with my Stars account which is pretty much empty. A few months ago I got into a pretty interesting debate with King Spew stating that I think 40BB's is a horrible stack size as it creates a lot of awkward stack to pot ratio's. He made a lot of points that made me reevaluate my opnions. I had largely forgotten about this until I saw Mpethy and Kurt talking about there win rates with various stack sizes and how their win rates with 40BB's is pretty much the same as their win rate with 100. This really intrigued me, as I hadn't got to actual win rates with King Spew.

Well, I decided that I would go ahead and work with 40BB stacks on my stars account. I had to make a few adjustments. First, I adjusted my bank roll requirements to 40. I think the variance will be about the same in terms over overall BB, but it should be much higher regarding actual buy ins. The second adjustment is to run tighter, close to nit stats. I also think that TN will be required as you will have to table hop constantly. I was able to run 13 tables without TN, but I don't have the patience or desire to spend overly long at 2NL - 10NL again.

Now, for the potential benefits. First, moving up will be faster. Instead of needing to win 2000BB to move up (per my usual win 20 buy ins), even with 40 buy ins you only 1600BB. Second, it creates a stack size that most players aren't comfortable with. Third, bonus money will have a MUCH bigger impact. With rake back I win a free buy in every 5K hands. Well, with this stack, it will be a free buy in every 2K hands. And finally, If I can make the same amount of money overall but risk less money to make it, well, why not give it a shot?

So, my plan is to use the MR a lot as it will keep a decent SPR and put villans in awkward situations. This won't really come into effect at 2NL as players are so bad, but that's fine. Just means I will move up faster. I only got to play for about 40 minutes last night (and man did I forget how much of a pain it is to sit in and out of tables) but I won 2 buy ins. In reality it probably won't make a difference, as between Iron Man/rakeback/developing a database for Mpethy to look at I won't ever actually get around to playing at stars for another couple of months, but it never hurts to explore new ideas.

Another milestone day!

Last night was an EPIC run good session. I decided to play 10NL rush as I just wanted to have some fun and not worry to much. The session started out well. I opened AQ in EP, and the board came down J89. It was a pretty dry board overall and I was OOP, so I decided I was going to double barrel as long as the turn wasn't a J, 9, or T, and bluff catch if I hit an A or Q. It came down as a 5 and I fired the second bullet. Another call and I was pretty much done with the hand, but the river was an A. At this point I decide to bluff catch the river, as what hand that I beat is really going to call 3 barrels? So I check and the villan fires pot. I tanked, but decided to go with the plan, and was rewarded when the villan showed K9.

Thats kind of how the session went. My plans worked out to either limit losses or maximize wins. There is only 1 fold I wasn't sure of, but when the PFA fired a bullet and I called with TPTK, and we were both check raised, I am OK folding TPTK. If they were bluffing, good game them. I wound up putting in a 1,400 hand session winning at 20pt/bb100 - yeah, you read that right! I finished the session up 6 buy ins, so I am now a winning 10NL rush player officially! For a total of up 3 buy ins and a win rate of just under 1ptbb/100. Considering the massive pile of crap I had in my first few sessions, I am OK with that.

Anyway, now that I am posotive in 10NL, I am going to stick to primarily 25NL, except when inebriated or holding Dom. It's time for me to put my big boy pants. I also decided that instead of following my standard win 20 buy ins before moving up, I am going to go with up 10 and take shots. Once I hit that mark, I will take shots with the loose a buy in, drop down and win 3 more. One of the things I just figured out about rush last night (yeah, I'm a bit slow at times) is that as long as you are willing to drop down, I really don't need to follow such strict bank roll requirements. It made sense playing 20 tables as you needed those buy ins to even be able to play the tables. But with rush you just don't need that much money to play.

The other milestone last night. My bank roll just hit 4 digits.

Weekend update

Well, it was a 3 day weekend, so I managed to get some poker in. Not as much as I hoped, but more than I expected. Overall it was a pretty good weekend. First, I got in about 3K hands of 25NL rush. I won half a buy in in my first session and just over a buy in in my second. That's the good news. The bad news is I was playing scared. Not scared money, but scared to make moves and plays. I was playing really nitty and passiing up spots because I didn't feel comfortable. The good news is that my last session was much better. I was playing a better game, but it wasn't a great session money wise. Wound up breaking even mostly due to 2 hands. One was basically a coin flip on the flop with my KJs on an 8 high flush flop. I check raised and felt I had to call it off with what I considered to be about 40% equity against this players range. Turns out I was wrong, as the player shoved 99. I hit my K on the turn, but they hit their 1 outer on the river. I'm not overly upset with the hand, as I had 51% equity at the time, but loosing a 130BB is difficult when you are getting comfortable at a new level.

The other hand I am actually VERY happy with how I played it, although 2P2 would say I played it horribly. I called a UTG open from someone playing 20/4 with QQ. It was a small sample size (just over 100 hands) but this player hadn't C-bet once. They C-bet and I was VERY happy. At this point I put them on AA/KK as I don't think AQ is in their UTG opening range. So I'm doing back flips when an A comes and this player bets again. At this point I go ahead and call down. The sample isn't big enough for me to fold the second nuts and they weren't betting overly large. I wound up loosing about half a stack by the river. I think that was the tipping point for the session, and after that I played a much better game. I wound up breaking even after the session, so I am somewhat happy. Over all I have played just under 5K hands and am up just over 2 buy ins without rakeback. So, in 5 sessions I am already 10% of the way to taking shots at 50NL. No matter what though, I am going to stick at 25NL for at least 50K hands. I have done some research, and I decided I want to get a stat review by Mpethy. A lot of the regs I respect said that 1 2 hour session added 1-2BB/100 to their game, and that would be HUGE. The down side is you need a decent sample and I just lost my database not to long ago. I actually think this is probably pretty good though considering just how much my game has changed, so it is probably better to get a new sample.

The other good news for me is that I now feel like I have 10NL rush figured out and can play there any time and in any condition and make a profit. This is good news as one of my goals this month was to make 10NL rush my new goof of spot/tired/inebriated playing ground. On the 4th I got home and put the kids to bed and fired up the game. I was a bit drunk and really wanting to goof around trying new lines and wierd situations. I got a little more drunk and played around 2K hands. I roller coastered all over the place, but around 1.5K hands in I was down 2 buy ins and decided to just go get the money. 500 hands later I am up about 2 bucks and head off to bed. This is pretty much my final test of being able to crush a level. If I can go in drunk and fooling around and still manage to pull a profit, then that level becomes my bitch.

On the bonus front, the Academy challeng points are suffering now that I don't have the Ferguson. The Ferguson was bad, but some of these others are just stupid. Seriously, how often do you have a flush draw and someone bets less than 20% of the pot? I mean I have it on, but I expect the points to slow down a TON. I am on pace for gold this month, which would be huge (3 free buy ins!). I can't wait to see how much I get in rake back Friday to. Gotta love that free money!

Oh, and the BEST part of the weekend? While doing my session review last night, I noticed that HEM has given me the ABC TAG! First time I have ever seen this tag. I never understood why people hate being called ABC. Uhm, apparently it is profitable up to and including 200NL (which is higher than my target level at the moment!) and can easily make you 6 digits a year. Call me a tag fish/nit tag/whatever the hell else you want - just call me paid!

A month in review

Well, this has been a very good month for me. I increased my Bankroll by almost 40% this month. I figured out how to steadily beat 10NL rush (HUGELY important as rush is all I can usually play due to family), got back into 25NL FR games, took my first shot at 25NL rush, got Iron Man for the first time ever AND qualified for the 1 a day free roll (which gives me 2 free tourneys in July!), and I started getting Academy points (a little over 20% of the way to a $100 bonus!)

A rough estimate:
Winnings: 210
Rakeback: $75
Iron man: $25 (not counting the medals cause I have no idea how much their worth)
Academy: $20

Total for the month: $330 - not bad considering I started at 5NL and 10NL!

I AM IRON MAN

Yeah, that's right biatches. I am an iron man now. I can smell the jealousy through my key board. You want it. You know you do!

Anyway, back to poker. I wound up playing 25NL last night even though I was way to tired. Or, more correctly, because I was tired and I wanted to get my points quickly.
The kids were with my finace at Grandma's house shooting of fire works when I got home, so I spent some extra time digging. Got a lot done, but damn was I exhasted last night. When I finally to playing after Dom (baby) played an hours worth of pace daddy pace, I really just didn't give a crap. I wound up winning ten bucks in 350 hands, but I really don't think I played well. The session started off like crap, as my first hand that went past the flop was a disaster. Someone donked into me, so I raised it up with overs. They flat and then check a turned A (of course I have AQ), so I check it back with my A to open up their range. They pot the river and I snap it off. Oops. Apparently this fool donks with their sets. Then I lost a couple of pots isoing limpers who hit the part of their hand I wasn't dominating. The session actually turned around on a hand I am not sure of. I opened JJ UTG and faced a 3 bet squeeze from the BB, who had just under 80BB. I decided to flat IP, and they poted a 9 high flop. So I tank and think about it, deciding to call. Then they shove the turn and looking at the size of the pot I just couldn't fold the overpair to an unknown. Showed up with AK and suddenly I was in the posotive. Now that I have the information I like the play, as their are 16 combinations I beat and 18 combinations I don't, so overall once I get to the flop I should be calling down. I really think I should have folded pre-flop though with so little info. But hey, I get the notes and the money, so I won't be regretting the decision.

The only down side was taking notes. I really think to really crush rush you need to take solid notes. So, I spent the next 2 hours drinking beer and taking notes. I saw a lot of exploitahbility, and one player in particular had some interesting lines. This player check raised twice that I saw as the PFA. One time they probably didn't win much more, but on another hand they got a pretty good amount without showing down. Going to keep an eye on that one as I am exploring new lines. A couple of my bigger pots were in situations that would make 2P2 cringe as I went into check call mode with pretty strong hands in some spots. Overall I think it will be good. People just aren't calling down for big pots with 1 pair anymore, so its time to think of ways to get that medium pot on a more consistent basis, and frankly betting isn't going to do that.