Blog 2.0

Ok, so this blog kind of petered out.

It's time to try again. I have been playing poker, so an update will follow soon!

January review

High time for a serious progress update.

It's been a couple of weeks since I blogged due to a combination of being very busy and some poker and health challenges.(see next post). So here is what has been going on, starting with a review of January.

Overall
Overall in January I made a small profit online, if I include rakeback and bonuses. SNG's were pretty profitable, but I played a lot of tournament & satellites in a concerted effort to gain experience. I lost money in these, but think I improved a lot as a result - experience is a key thing I lack. I lost money playing live - almost a grand (see later).

Live cash games
Well these were a disaster. I have not been playing at the casino, since I can't do the late nights when I have to work the next day and have been seeing my lady friend at weekends, and frankly as I have nowhere near the bankroll to play them.

Play in the regular (smaller) home game was disastrous. In 4 games I ended a grand down. Half of this was due to a huge tilt session (documented in a previous post), the other half due to a very tough night where I just could not hit a flop, apart from a couple of huge draws where I put my money in with the best of it and did not get paid.

It is somewhat perplexing - I have found it much harder to win in our incredibly loose small stakes home game than I did last year in a casino game with stakes 10 times as big and far better players. Certainly the home game makes me play very loose which I need to address. I also need to stop trying to take down pots with continuation bets when I miss the flop and there were 3 preflop callers - it just does not work in this game.

Online cash games
I did not play cash online until right at the end of the month when party had there 100$ reload bonus. I deposited 500 there to work off the bonus, and as always seems to happen at party I got killed at the 50$ & 100$ NL hold em tables. I really cannot play cash games online it seems. I am useless. Certainly I need to drop down to 25 and put some time in improving, but I also find party has always dealt me horrible beats - every time I hit a set someone else seems to sho up with a bigger one!

So before long I was 400$ down chasing a 100$ bonus, and decided to switch to Omaha (a game I want to put some effort into this year). Adopting the Rolf Slotboom shortstack tight preflop strategy I soon repaired some of the damage helped by the fact that even a Omaha novice like me can see that some of the 50$ & 100$ Omaha players on party are just clueless. Thanks to a hot run at the Omaha tables, I finished the bonus chase only a hundred down, a embarrassing result but not the disaster it was proving to be.

Live tournament play
I played 6 of the weekly 80 runner PL or NL 50+10- rebuy NL or PL tournaments at the casino, which were a complete washout until the night of my second last post (the Halibut excels himself) when I played great and hit the final table as second chip leader...only to be all in first hand of the final table against the chip leader with JJ on a low, 3 flush board......when he had flopped the nut flush. That night I really despaired at some of my poor decisions.

The wound was eased the very next week, where despite being short stacked and card dead for most of the time, I played a perfect game to make it to the final table, and despite no cards to work with ended up 4th after a donkey called my push with Q4 with J3 and rivered me! 650 euros here left me even for the month and made me realise I can actually play when I engage my brain! It also made me realise that even someone of my limited experience knows more about how to play than a lot of the people in these casino tournaments.

Online tournament play
This was more a case of pilgrims progress - a lot of learning and not a lot of end product. I am an aggressive player who can ask questions of opponents, but I need to learn better when to ask them! The culmination of this came in the 100$ entry 100k guaranteed on mansion when I was chip leader with 30 left (out of 500), and managed to go out in 29th when my resteal attempt with 22 bumped into AA. The 450$ i got for that felt like a huge let down when first prize is 25k!

Still, I am becoming a better player, which is the focus of my play!

So that was January!

a short hiatus....

Has impacted my blogging....personal, health and poker issues.

I promise to write a full blog update tomorrow.

The Halibut Excels himself - Part 1....

...Or how I managed to go into my first Casino final table of the year chip leader and finish 9th.

Gutted. I made a call that smelt of putrid fish.

I have to get to bed as I am up in 3 hours for a 2 day work event, which gives me a welcome break from poker, upon my return I will lay bare the details of my achievement.

Progress update

A progress update....

• Live tournament play is a black hole this month.
  
  
• Tournament play is a black hole - just been sucked out of the Mansion poker100$ 100k guaranteed (attracted by the massive overlay), Pokerstars 25k guaranteed and Full tilt 11k guaranteed; I was running well in each.
  
  
• I have not played a single cash game hand this month so far!
  
  
• Turbo Sit & Gos are keeping my bankroll heading in the right direction -here is how my bread and butter is going since my last lengthy post on the subject:-
  

• The swings playing these turbo SNGs are brutal. However I am making $, and now I am playing exclusively 33$ & 55$ turbos, 4 at a time. I am improving as a (SNG) player I believe, so I hold out hope that the ROI will rise next month. I learnt a lot from the big downswing at the start of the month. ROI is 7%.
  
  
• Rakeback really makes a difference. I got 200$ this month from December, and will get well over 300 in February from this months play. Anyone who does not have it, get it!
  
  
• I have played over 600 of these things so far this month - boosted by 4 days off work after new year where I played solid. I can't keep this rate up next month, it's too much with a full time job. I am away for a couple of days this week so I don't think I will get much past the 700 mark.
  
  
• I am thinking about the goals for next month. I may spend some time on my cash game - which really needs some work and do some studying, or I may continue grinding these things. More on that at the end of the month.
  
  
• Final note - I think I could easily 6 table these now, if not 8, if I had another monitor. Goal: Win another 600$ for 21 inch LCD display ;-)
  

Apparently I am not a muppet, just a Dane pretending to be a drunken Irishman.....

So I got chatting during a Full Tilt 55+5 turbo to a regular opponent (who seems to play these professionally) and is Swedish.

He thinks I am Danish. Partly as my screen name could hint at that....

...but mainly because I "play scary aggressive".

Not sure how I feel about this. I am tight early on, but when the blinds get big, I play these things VERY fast, and I bust out like a donkey in plenty, but steal a lot of blinds and win a lot of pots with the worst hand and get paid off on my good ones. I am making money over 1000 Turbo SNGs at 22-55 level, so I am doing something right - and this figure includes the first few hundred where I had no idea what I was doing. My ROI could be a lot better though - I have huge room for improvement.

Then later on I go all in (with 8 big blinds) for a blind steal in another 55+5 with JT and am called with A2offsuit by a solid player. I am shocked he calls with this and tell him so.

He tells me that he would not have called against anyone else, but called based on his notes on me. "Plays wilder than a drunk Irishman."

This worries me!

He then tells me that he also rates my play and has me down as "Dangerous".

I tell him that I obviously need to tighten up my stealing requirements against him, which he thinks is a good idea. I make a note on him that he thinks I am loose.

Having sown this thought in his mind, I steal his big blind 3 orbits in a row with utter trash. How I smiled.

On a reflective note, I am conscious of table image when stealing blinds, but I had never considered what my opponents actually thought of me before. I guess being thought of as wildly aggressive is much better than weakly timid, but I have to be careful with my late game stealing against regular players who by now know that I am pushing with a very wide range of hands when I am shortstacked. It is nice to know that at least a few people view me as a decent player and not a donkey. Progress!

Finally on a very satisfying note, I won some SNGs on Sunday; Of note was a stars 25+2 turbo where I had 75 chips at one stage and made a storming comeback, and a Full Tilt 55+5 where I was down to 100 chips and came back to be very shortstacked with 5 players left but played it perfectly (and of course was very lucky) to make it into the money and then win. Very satisfying.

Now if I can just stop playing live cash games like a Dane pretending to be a drunken Irishman we may see some progress on that front.....

I am a muppet.

I should have sent Kermit the frog to play with my bankroll at the home game last night. He would have played better.

I start off card dead for 4 hours (again!). I called raises with a few small pocket pairs and suited connectors, hit nothing, tried a bluff or two, and am soon stacked pushing a draw.

I rebuy, I drink a beer.

I get JJ. I raise, get a caller. I bet the K85 flop; he re-raises me all in (its only a bit more than twice my original bet as I am short-stacked). I have a feeling he does not have the K, and this guy is loose, so I call. He has A5. He hits an ace on the river.

I rebuy, I drink a beer.

Then I get AK or AQ 5 times in short succession. Each time I raise around 5 BBs (this is a loose game!), and get at least 4 callers. Each time I miss the flop. A couple of times I continuation bet and am raised, the other times I check and am raised off the pot. Each time a big hand develops between 2 of the callers.

I rebuy some more, and drink some more beer.

3 top pair hands follow, each time I am called down and face an all in bet on the river when the opponent has made his flush or straight.

I rebuy some more, and drink some more beer.

I get dealt AJ, raise, get a caller, and the flop comes J 85 with 2 suits. I put him on a draw with maybe a weaker pair. I bet the pot on the flop. He calls. Turn is blank. I bet half the pot on the turn, he calls. River is a blank - a 3. His draw is busted. I value bet the river. He calls. He had 83 suited, and made 2 pair on the river.

I rebuy, I drink some more beer. I am now not enjoying myself.

Given that ABC poker seems to have failed, I now begin to think I am Gus Hansen, some loose aggressive wizard, and am playing any 2 cards that have some kind of relation to each other, and betting big on scary flops to force my opponents to fold. For every time I bet them off, they come back over the top as they have much deeper stacks than me.

I rebuy, I drink some more beer. I am now double rebuying as the stacks are deep. I think I might be on tilt at this point.

I get dealt aces - the first big pair of the night. Everyone folds and I win the blinds. This is like the first time someone has won the blinds without a caller all night, and it is annoying as I am more or less playing every hand by now. Next hand I go all in semi-bluffing on a draw, I don't improve.

I rebuy, I drink some beer. I must have irritated the S*** out of the other players with my whinging by now. (in fact go back 6 paragraphs, I must have irritated the S*** out of them by then).

At this point a testosterone battle has erupted between me and one of the other players as we are betting and raising each other off of pots with very little. I hit top pair weak kicker, and decide that my opponents re-raise is him making a play on tilted old me, I go all in. He has 2 pair.

I make a great laydown - in that I decide to go home.

I am a muppet.

I read all these books, do all this thinking & studying, then I go and play like that. Why do I bother if I can't a) accept I won't get cards/hit flops for long periods and b) not get tilted by it?

I really feel embarrassed and humiliated. I was a total fish last night, and in almost every situation I absolutely knew better. I stopped thinking. I was one of the big fish. I was so utterly tilted I was there for the taking and everyone at the table knew it apart from me.

Even with my limited abilities and experience, I should be comfortably a winning player in this game.

If I can't apply what I know, then I had better stop wasting my time playing this game. Maybe I am not cut out to be a poker player? I am on notice. Either learn to control tilt, or take up yoga.

• I will never drink alcohol while playing poker again. Ever.
• Continuation betting after missing the flop with 4 callers is rarely profitable.
• Don't go broke with top pair, especially in a loose game.
• You are not Gus Hansen. You are not even a good player.
  
• Don't be Kermit the frog. Everyone laughs at you, not with you.