Gearing up

Well, the last few days haven't been so great. I had my worst session in a couple of months, and followed that up with getting RSV (basically a nasty cold) along with all 3 of the kids, and took my longest poker break in about 6 months, all of 3 days. But between the long break and no longer actually working at work, I have felt really off for the last couple of days. It's one thing to not be working when on vacation, but having 3 days where I was essentially not working just kills me. I feel like a lazy bum.

Anyway, I got back to the grind somewhat last night. I cut my session short when I felt my head getting fuzzy, but until that point I think I played one of my best sessions in a long while. I won 3 buy ins in around 800 hands, but it was all off of small and medium pots. I was playing PITA and picking up a ton of pots, and picked a lot of really good spots. I aslo actually hit a draw, although I didn't get paid off well as I couldn't push a thin edge on the river due to poor play by the villan. Of course, his poor play let me get there, so I can't really complain.

Anyway, I think one of the things I have gotten away from with my improved table selection is trying to improve my game against regs. I think I have been playing a little to fit/fold and not taking high variance lines because I don't need them to be profitable. But not taking them is passing up plus EV spots and also makes me easier to play against. It is also a bit of a "scared money" type thing. I think I am getting more comfortable at 50NL and am more comfortable making mistakes. Anyway, it felt really good to follow up a disaster session with one of those sessions that make you feel like you are king of the world. Honestly, it felt better than a week ago when I had my biggest winning session ever.

So, of course that means tonight I will push thin spots a little to hard and all that. But learning poker is a pendulum. Finding that perfect balance.

On a side note, I watched inception (overrated, but good), Red (perfectly done ubsurd action comedy) and Scott Pilgram (the first half hour or so was bland with spots of brilliance and the rest was pretty damn good stuff). One plus side to a sick house is quality time with the family I guess!

Weekend update and a life change

Well, this weekend was amazing. Well, actually, Saturday was amazing. Friday was an averages $50 day. But Saturday was my winningest day ever. I won $230 and binked 11th in a 750 man tourney (and was disappointed) for another $120. The best/worst part for the day was the beginning. I started out horridly. Lost the first 7 hands I played (including 2 all ins against short stacks at $100) and was down 60 in the first 10 minutes. Then I got KK. My coach/staker Martin opened and I 3 balled it. He 4 bet and I flated, and we got all in on a JTT flop. I honestly expected to see AA, but he showed up with QQ. Still not sure how I feel about it. Martin and Gadol were saying that AK/QQ+ is an auto stack off against anyone. A part of me still thinks that Martin should have folded though. Especially on that board, the only hand he beats is AK, which I am never playing that way in that spot. I can't say that I feel bad taking his money, but I do wish I had taken it from someone else. It was such an amazing day I took the night off and got the kids some ice cream and watched movies all night. And I have wierd kids, because they love them some Coraline now!

Which brings us to the life change. In a couple of weeks, I will be taking my shot as a poker pro. It's earlier than I was planning on, but I have the results and everything else in my life has set up perfectly for me to go for it now. At first I was terrified, but the more I have thought about it, the more sense it makes. At this point I am honestly more excited than terrified. It's kind of like when your first taking a shot at a new level.

Flyin high

Well, it has been an interesting couple of days for me. Last weekend I finally made the switch to primarily playing 50NL. My win rate has dropped a bit, but that's to be expected when you increase your volume. I'm still winning at a very nice rate, and it is possible that I will complete my staking deal by the end of this month, which is a couple of months earlier than I realistically thought would be possible when I originally signed up for the stake.

And for the exciting news of the moment. I took my first real shot at 100PL last night. It didn't start out to well as I had to fold to a couple of 3 bets, had to fold TPTK in a pretty decent pot, then checked back an overpair when the flush completed to lose a decent chunk to another fish. But then I 3 balled TT against an over the top aggro reg's iso with a cold caller 1/2 stack fish. I was prepaired to stack of TT (I know, the horror!) pre-flop, but the aggro reg folded and the fish stacked of Q4 on a 5455 board. Suddenly I was up a bit and feeling much better about the shot. Then I got AA another overly aggro reg 3 balled my EP open. I don't mind the 3 bet, although I think it was kind of stupid. If your willing to stack AK pre-flop on that table, I think it would be better to flat my open and backraise, but whatever. Anyway, I small 4 bet him, at which point a fold should have been his only option. But of course he decides that 5 betting (to 3 times my 4 bet) is a good idea, and suddenly his stack is mine.

Which means in my first 200 hands at 100, I was able to lose the minimum with TPTK and an overpair (which are just brutal situations when your taking a shot), and win 2 big pots because poker players are idiots! Yeah me!

Anyway, it was a very thrilling experience, and it puts me so much farther ahead of schedule. In December I was expecting to be taking another shot at 50 by the end of this month, and now I am established at 50 and taking shots at 100! I also should finally get my black card status by the end of this month, which will be a nice bump to my income each month. Anyway, as you can tell, I am excited. It's very surreal feeling a dream I have had for a couple of years all coming together in such a short time period. Of course, now the hard part is building up the huge bankroll and 6 months worth of living expenses, but considering how far I have come in 3 months, that seems like a pretty minor concern at the moment. Time consuming and tedious, yes, but still minor.

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.