50 Troubles but good learning

Well, I had a good sweat session with Juggernaught last night. I learned a ton of little points in a variety of spots. But unfortunately my crappy run at 50 is still going strong. It's getting pretty bad at this point. At this point I am thinking I will have to set a 25 win amount for each month, and then after I reach X amount I will play the rest of the month at 25 getting 2 buy in shots to lose at 50. And I know that's a defeatest attitude. I just don't care today. When you lose 6 buy ins in 2K hands, run 3 under EV, run KK into AA from an aggro monkey squeezing you, run a set into a fish trapping with AA only to turn top set, set into quads, 2 pair into a straight in a limped pot and have a 600 hand session where you win 1 pot where you got more than a C-bet in, a defeatest attitude is bound to follow.

This would have been far and away my best month ever, but 50 shots have basically turned what should have been a great month into meh. So, I am putting some ice on my nuts, and getting ready for my last 2 buy in shot. If this fails, then I'll be doing 1K at 25NL per month and anything over that will be shot taking.

Bet Sizing

Well, last night was one of those nights where I really wasn't into playing. So of course I fired up a couple of 50NL tables to take a shot and 4-6 25 tables to make some money. 50 didn't go so well, mostly because I double barreled a hand and lost a flip, but I wound up making 5 bucks or so.

25 was crazy good though. Made about 65 there. I basically avoided all pots where I wasn't willing to play a big pot or I wasn't driving the action. Worked out pretty well. I definately need to spend some time reviewing some of the thin value spots where I'm not driving the action. Might be a leak there.

Anyway, I have long been a proponent of smaller bet sizes. The basic thought process was I have the better starting range and post flop skills, so making smaller bets to take chunks out of the villan is better. I have been moving away from this, starting to put in bigger bets in a lot of spots, double barreling instead of going for the check back river bet, and really pushing with bigger raises post flop. I'm seeing more folds than I am used to overall, but I am also winning bigger pots and experiencing less variance. It also has the effect of forcing me out of my particular brand of tilt.

Last night also put me back on pace for a 1K month. It's still hard to believe how much poker has come together over the last couple of months. Going to be experimenting with some set ups over the weekend, but I'm thinking of running 8-10 tables on tilt till I get my iron man points and then running 24 at stars. It'll probably run around $150 to get that all set up, but I can do a couple week trial run for around 10 bucks. I've been wanting to get some volume on both sites anyway, as I think getting the bonus money on both sites is more optimal than grinding extra hands at one site in spots where I'm not making bonus money.

Luck Boxing it

It felt good to be the one sucking out last night. I had a couple of major suck outs. One I flopped top pair, flush draw, and back door straight in a 4 way pot and an overly aggressive reg leads into me on a 4 way pot. I go ahead and raise to fold out the AK portion of his range, and have to call it off. He showed a set, but I binked the turn. Next I flopped a pair and FD on a mono board 3 handed against an overly aggressive half stacked fish. He goes for the XR for half his stack. Tables the flopped flush, but I bink the turn. I don't really mind either play as I just ran into the top of the villans ranges (although in the first hand the villans range might be only sets - not sure about that). It felt good to run hot.

Overall I was 3 buy ins over EV in 900 hands, and I booked another 4 buy in session. Still 7 buy ins under EV for the month though.

Also had a pretty funny happenning on 2P2 yesterday. Someone posted a hand I played pretty poorly. Kind of embarassed to see it. I don't hate the way I played it just because my value range in that spot was 6 combo's of AK, but the way he played it that is pretty much the only hand in his range.

Anyway, after going through a 12K tilt section of the month, I am back to my winning ways. I am altering the foundation of my post flop betting so everything seems new to me. I seem to be winning pots that are a little bit larger overall. I am seeing more folds, but I am also seeing less suck outs. Overall I think it will help my win rate, plus it gives me more options. I think it will also help me avoid FPS/trapping.

Long time gone

Well, it's been a long time since I have been blogging, and a lot has changed since then.

I moved from rush to regular tables after getting frustrated with the high variance and overall nitty play. Turns out that was a great move. I am now making a lot more money with a lot less variance. I think I got lost in the world of bonus money and forgot about the overall goal of making money.

I also started working with a coach (El Nino) which has been really good for me. I've been taking 50NL shots. They haven't gone to well, but that has more to do with runbad than bad play (although both contributed to it). Hoping to take another shot this week with Nino sweating me.

Anyway, these last 3 months have gone really well poker wise. My last two months were my best ever, and unless the bottom drops out, this will be even an even better month, despite being $250 below EV. I also think I have found my particular version of Tilt. Turns out when I get tilted I start to trap instead of going for value.