Long Time Gone

Well, it's been a while since I posted here. Let's start with a fantastic weekend. I made nearly $500 this weekend capped by a 10 buy in winning session for $277 last night. I also started playing mostly 50NL (with the exception of last night due to volume needs), and have continued my run good there. I also reached over $1300 in winnings for the month last night! Sadly, a decent portion of that has gone to my stakers, but it still feels really really good.

I will also be posting my first month in well over a year where I will be over EV, so no more whining from me in that regard! OK, Well, not for at least a week then.

I will also have to eat some crow. I had always thought that a 10 buy in down swing at 25NL would be pretty damn hard to accomplish without some really bad play. And while I will admit to bad play, since my last post I went through a 10 buy in down swing (actually 12, but I recovered 2 before the end of my final session). And, just to show that it was in large part due to variance, I was on a 12 buy in up swing at 50NL with 1/3 of the hands at 50NL. Just goes to show how little a part time grinder really understands variance.

On the strategy note, I have had a philisophical change in my 3 betting theory. Until recently I wouldn't 3 bet in situations where I would fold to a 4 bet. Basically the theory is that if your folding to a 4 bet, then your turning your hand into a bluff. After doing some thinking, I don't like that much anymore. If their calling with worse and 4 betting better, then 3 betting is optimal because you get away from your hand cheaply when your behind and get in more money pre-flop when your ahead. It has also increased my 3 bet percent quite a bit (never a bad thing). I am now running closer to 4%, and am getting less and less worried about getting KK in pre-flop.

Peer approval

Well, I am not big on peer approval. I've never felt the need to brag or prove I am better than others. I am perfectly comfortable with my own perception of myself, and of my poker game. But in the last couple of days my stakers have given me two bonuses that I didn't ask for or expect. I was taken completely off guard. I would get it if they were trying to keep me around, but I'm pretty sure at this point they have no expectations that I will still be around after 75K hands. It might be different if they were open to staking above 50NL, but it was a very generous offer.

I have also been invited into a regular group online chat with some very very good players. It was a suprising offer to me. While I think I am one of the best players in the world (like top 10 or 20 thousand players for online FR, so nothing special), these guys are all in a class above me. That they would respect my opinions enough to want my insights is a definate ego boost, which I obviously need!

To top it off, a couple of people who I really respect have asked me to sweat them! Go figure on that one. And all of this has happened in the last 2 days. Combine that with my run the last couple of months, and my confidence is riding high at the moment. Cue the doomswitch...

Weekends rock!

Well, I took Friday night off. Spent some qualitity time with my finace. Saturday was pretty good. I was able to get a little caught up in volume. Won about 70. Overall I was pretty happy with the session, although I think I wasn't playing to well in a couple of spots. Last on the other hand...

Wow. Started my session right after the super bowl ended. Logged on and scanned the tables. They were DEAD. Seriously dead. 1 25PL table. 0 50 PL. 8 confirmed whales out there. Just blah. So, as usual, I started tables to fill up to 16. And holy crap there were some crazy mo fo's out there. Tables filled FAST! The action was crazy. Every table was a gold mine. I took a couple of really really bad beats at 25NL - the top was for 140BB where some idiot hit runner runner trips after calling a C bet on an A high board with 98. But so be it. Better to run bad at 25 and hot at 50 right?

I'm feeling much better about this month than last month. Last month got off to a hot start because of 1 monster session. This month it's been a bunch of solid sessions and I've already had a dump truck session, plus I'm running over 10% below EV (nothing new there though). One of these days I'm gonna ask slansky for that check...

WEEEE

Well, I am off to a very nice start to the month. Not as killer as last month, but still up 180 in 2 days is a nice feeling. I have been using volume as my determinant on when to stip instead of how I am feeling as I am going to have a tough time getting in 50K hands during a short month. Basically I have to play 2K hands for 25 out of 28 days. I know I can't keep up the current pace, but I am definately having high hopes that I can improve upon last month. I am just getting so much more comfortable at the tables, and so much better at table selection/post flop play. I know another doomswitch session is coming around the corner, but I honestly think that my "doom" sessions are going to be much much less of a problem than they were last year. First, my win rate has improved. Second, table selection has improved. Last month I had 2 of them, but unlike all previous months, my best 3 sessions were all better than my worst 2. In the past my worst sessions were always bigger than my biggest winning sessions. A lot of this had to do with me quitting once I had won 2-4 buy ins instead of grinding it out. I have always know it was better to continue to play while winning that it is to continue to play while losing, but for me the latter was easier to accomplish as I hate having losing sessions. My volume prop bets have definately helped with this.

I have been working pretty diligently to do villan reviews lately. Well, last night I did a review on a pretty bad reg (-5bb loser over 22K hands) with a 5% "value" 3 bet range. And wow was it bad. Just massively overvalued TT/JJ/AK/AQ. It was pretty interesting though to see a depolorized range at work. He had a bunch of other issues that contributed to his losing, but I do have to give him some credit. He is the only 50NL villan I have seen with a balanced range. If he ever figures out bet sizing, board texture and proper value ranges, he could be dangerous. It was also pretty amusing to see him win 3 bet pots with K high. I swear I need to spend some extra time getting my 3 bet percent up to 4ish just to get regs to spaz with crap.