As Usual....

Well, the move up to $100 didn't quite go as planned. I don't know why but every time I move up, it's like fulltilt realizes I'm out of my comfort zone and crushes me for a couple buyins until I give in and drop back down.

This week when I moved up, I dropped about 5 buyins, the last blow coming when my AJ lost an all in on a flop of AJ4 to a guy who obviously had aces. Can't complain about the other player at all, but really, how often in heads up play are you going to flop top 2 pair and be up against top set...just bad luck.

So, I did what I've always done, dropped back to a level where I'm more comfortable. For whatever reason, I seem to just kill 50nl, then run like garbage when I move up to 100. For now, I'm chalking it up to bankroll concerns. I am a lot more willing to make a tough call and go with a read when it's at 50nl where I'm properly bankrolled. Here's one I made from yesterday, which was a totally read based call. I don't think I make this same call at 100nl if it's for double the amount of money:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($72.35)
Button ($39.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9d, Ad
Button raises to $1.75, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.50) 4s, 5s, Ah (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2.85, Hero calls $2.85

Turn: ($9.20) Jc (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $7, Hero calls $7

River: ($23.20) 7s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $27.50 (All-In), Hero calls $27.50

Total pot: $78.20 | Rake: $0.50

Results in white below:
Button had 6c, 7c (one pair, sevens).
Hero had 9d, Ad (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $77.70

Like I say, I don't think I make that call on the river if it's at 100nl. I need to get myself past that mental hurdle, and the only way I think I'll do that is by grinding more at 50 and getting a better bankroll cushion for moving up to 100.

I'm closing in on my 30,000th hand at 50nl, here's my graph to date...I'm just going to focus on grinding this for a while and improving on my winrate hopefully.

edit - graph didn't work, i'll have to fix that

Mega Update

Wow, haven't updated this in a while -- to say I've been busy is an understatement.

Jodi and I got married on October 4th and had our honeymoon in Las Vegas from the 6th-10th. Some wedding photos can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smhmississauga/sets/72157607768042391/

Played some poker in vegas, mostly in tournaments. Went out of two where I think I made the right plays and got unlucky, and the third I got coolered by running my queens on the button in to the big blind's pocket aces.

In one tourney I had KT on a flop of KQ3, check raised a guy all in and he called. He shows Q5 offsuit, obviously turns his 5 and I'm out.

The second one I had 55 on a 569 all spade flop. Check raised a guy there for 4k of his 6k chipstack, he calls with 88 (no spade), turn is a 7 of course to make his straight and it's gg for me.

I really didn't feel bad about going out of any of the tourneys given how I played. The QQ < AA one is just a cooler, and the other two I forced the other players to make what I think are terrible calls for substantial portions of their stack and they happened to get lucky.


Once we got back, it was time to jump in to the online pokers again. It was nice to have a week off where I didn't play a hand of heads up at all-- a good mental break that reenergized me. I came back with a lot of confidence and am going to do my best to play at $100hu for the rest of the month. I've done well since I got back, though since I've had to go back to work I haven't been able to play many hands. Hopefully next week I can get back at it and finish out the month strong.

I also had an email waiting when I got home from Absolute Poker. I haven't played there in quite some time, and they sent me a free $10 to come back. I was bored and decided to play in a $3 rebuy that was starting up the other night just while I was watching some hockey.

A couple hours later, I caught a few lucky breaks, won a few races, and found myself at the final table. In a tourney with over 700 entrants, on a $6 initial entry, I ended up chopping 2nd and 3rd with another shortstacked player, taking home a tidy $980. Not bad on their free $10 offer!!

I'd been looking at getting a new laptop for the past little while, but just couldn't justify the expense, with a wedding to plan and pay for, etc etc. This tourney cash was just what I needed, so I went ahead and ordered it. Should be here tomorrow and I look forward to making more blog posts (and playing more pokers) on our shiny new hopefully faster hopefully more stable wirelessly connected laptop....lol

Here's the computer I ordered:

http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-DV9930US-17-inch-Processor-Premium/dp/B001ANLSU2

Let me run good at 100hu one time!!

Back In Black

The last few days I've been turning it around, actually bringing myself back in to the black for the month. It's taken a lot of grinding and some good fortune at the omaha tables has helped as well, but I'm finally there. Hopefully I can build on it going in to the last week of the month though and keep it going.

As for heads up, I'm still showing a slight loss on the month, but nothing I can't dig myself out of here in the last week or so. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to play in October though, but if I can avoid the disasterous start that September started off at, hopefully things should go well.

Short update, but I've pretty much just been grinding out hands when I can. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to share before the end of the month....

Meh...

Haven't blogged in a while, haven't been playing much this month to be honest. When I have been playing, I haven't been running well. To this point I'm pretty much dead even from the month (which is good enough I guess when you start off by losing 800 bucks in the first three days...lol)

I've been mixing in some plo play as well, for a couple of reasons. I really think I can play it profitably, and as well, it builds ftp points and rakeback money waaaay faster than heads up does. I'm by no means abandoning heads up, but when I don't have long to play, plo will be hopefully keep me afloat and earn some money in the meantime.

With the wedding coming up in two weeks, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play, but I'm not worried about it.

Working Back Up

Had a pretty tough first week of the month -- I finished August on a high note, having hit the 4k mark late on the 31st, having accomplished my goal of doubling through in my first month of hu.

Unfortunately, someone at fulltilt must have seen this and felt the need to flip the switch on me. Went on a huge downswing to start the month, burning through 8 buyins. Everything crazy was happening -- I'd river a straight only to lose to a higher straight, getting underflushed, etc, etc.

Thankfully I've been able to turn it around in the past couple days. I've been mixing in some pot limit omaha, just to get the fulltilt points needed to try and get ironman status this month. Been doing well there, but don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I haven't been tracking my omaha play/results as closely as I should have been so I'll have to get on that.

Here was a funny hand from yesterday that shows the danger of being distracted while playing a session. I was surfing around online while playing a particularly bad opponent. Went to click on a link on the page I was on, when I guess the table must have popped up, unfortunately with my mouse conveniently pointed directly over the "Fold" button.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.50/$1
2 players

Stack sizes:
Hero: $116.30
BB: $20.50

Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is SB with As Ad
Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: $1 returned to BB.

Results:
Final pot: $0.5

Gaaaaah. Oh well, I busted him on the very next hand anyway when I got dealt KK and he shoved in K8o preflop. Easy game.

I'm back above 4k after a pretty tough week -- hopefully it's all uphill from here.

First Month Results -- Looking Ahead

Well, it's been quite a month. I started out on August 1st at $50nl heads upwith $2k and the help of a very solid player. The results since then have been nothing short of amazing.

In the span of a month, I've almost doubled my starting bankroll, having hit the $3,700 mark today on the last day of the month. I'm having a good time, and really feel like I'm getting better with each day and session that I play.

For September, I'll be starting at $100nl heads up properly bankrolled and comfortable. The breakeven part of the graph towards the right hand side was mostly due to my moving up to $100 and the play adjustments there, as well as just running like crap for a bit of time. When you lose hands like this one, it hurts a bit when you're just starting out -- http://www.pokerhand.org/?3124089 but whatever, I'll get it back.

Hopefully now I can start focusing more on posting hands and interesting spots, since I'm more comfortable with the overall game and matchflow of heads up poker.

First 10,000 Hands Of Heads Up

Played my 10,000th hand of heads up poker today. Not bad in 23 days really, though I think now that I'm playing 2 tables I should be able to play 20k next month with little issue. The hands add up so much faster that way.

I really feel like I'm building a solid base for this game. The results have been solid and I'm getting better at reading hands and situations and opponents with every day that goes by.

Unfortunately I lost a couple buyins in my first foray in to the $100 games. It's no big deal, I'm down 3.5 buyins in 1k hands. I easily could have been breakeven if a couple key hands had held up in pots for full stacks, but what can you do.

For now I'm going to leave the shot-taking at $100 for a while until I have a more secure bankroll. I was playing it with 35 buyins, but tanking 5 buyins stings a bit when doing that, so I'll wait for now.

So, lets continue owning $50 for the rest of the month. I'm hoping to make it to 15k-17.5k hands by the end of the week, but we'll see how things go.

Swonnnngs

Had a tough day yesterday. Started out on a heater too -- was up $75 very early on, running good, feeling good etc -- then the wheels came off. Took a crappy beat when I got my JJ in against A7o on a T52 flop, and lost, and that seemed to turn the tide against me for a while.

Struggled against a couple of opponents, wasn't getting cards either which doesn't help. The other thing that started to happen was that I was making legitimate hands, which kept ending up as second best. If I'd river 2pair, the same card would fill the other guy's straight draw. These things will happen though.

I was down nearly 4 buyins at one point, started to turn things around and almost got back to even -- right before the other shoe fell and I found myself back down more than 3 buyins. I was so dejected, but kept at it. The thing about playing two tables now is that at least it gives me the chance to put in some hand volume.

Against the last three or four opponents I finally got it together, started making some cards and stacked a couple of people. I ran it up and got ALL my losses back. Quit for the day with a grand profit of 27c.

I can take a few things from that session though.

--Breaking even by far beats losing, especially when I was down 4 buyins at two points during the day

--The fact that I got it all back shows me that I am doing a good job of game selecting when I'm getting away from the guys who are crushing me before things get too out of hand, in favor of the weaker spots who I can just run over and get me back to where I need to be.

I'll be back at it tonight and during the day tomorrow. I'm glad that the weekend is shortly here, the play I find is SO much worse from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. Here's hoping.

Put In A Good Weekend

I really feel like I'm hitting my stride at this game so to speak. Played a good number of sessions and hands over the weekend, and won at a very solid clip as well. For some reason, it seems like the games on the weekends are a lot softer than those during the week. The key during the week is to focus even harder on game selection.

Played a pile of hands yesterday, it's amazing how fast the hands add up when you're 2-tabling. Ended up winning ~2buyins in just over a thousand hands. It's too bad, at one point I had two absolutely terrible players on the go, I just couldn't hit any hands against them. They both had the same leak in their game, getting NO value for their big hands, which makes them easy to play against with little varience.

These guys were flat calling hands like pocket kings preflop, then checking the flop when they hit their set. It paid off for me once when a guy did exactly that with kings and a flopped set -- he allowed me to river a flush on him, then paid off when I check/raised him with the made hand. Against these types of players you pretty much can just wait and hit hands and work on getting value out of them.

Unfortunately I really wasn't catching much against either of them, so I ended that around break even. Then a total spewmonkey sat with me and donated $85 to the cause, rescuing an otherwise pointless day of heads up grinding.

Dealing With Adversity

Had my first terrible losing session yesterday. Played against a guy who was literally just a BRUTAL player but was hitting everything against me. I felt like I was playing a solid game, just every time I'd make a hand, he had something better. I river a straight, he rivers a flush -- I river 2pair, which also hits his straight draw -- I make a flush, he has a bigger flush....those sorts of things.

In heads up poker, these are all huge hands. Over the course of time, if you get your money in every time you have a straight or better, you're going to do well against only one opponent, it just so happened that last night this guy always seemed to have a bigger hand.

On the bright side though, I don't believe that I tilted from it or played badly because of it. I finally quit the guy when I was down 3 buyins to him, even though I feel like over time I'd have a huge edge on him, things just weren't going my way.

I ended up getting a buyin back from a couple of other players in pretty standard fashion so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Overall since I started hu, I'm still beating the game for better than 30ptbb/100. I have to keep that in perspective here -- that's a HUGE start to be off to - I can't let one bad session get me down. I'll be getting back on the horse tonight to go get some of that money back :)

Progress, and Having An Open Mind

Played my best session yet yesterday. Got in against a guy who I at first considered to be the type of opponent that I wouldn't want to play. His stats just from hands that I'd seen seemed to show him as just wildly aggressive and a guy who generally would be hard to play against with little experience.

I decided to play him for a bit anyway, and was I ever glad I did. I ended up taking just over 3 buyins off of him. I was very surprised that he didn't quit me before he did. I posted the session on twoplustwo in their hand replayer - you can view it here in it's entirety -

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=5457106
&postcount=213

The funny thing was, as much as I did end up stacking the guy a few times, there are still things that I could have done better. I went over them in pretty minute detail with the guys that I'm studying with right now and made a few tweaks to the way I'm thinking about things.

I've had very good results for my first week of heads' up - way better than what I ever could have expected. Now I just have to get some hands in. I'm up just under 6 buyins in less than a thousand hands - that is owning it pretty hard. Under normal circumstances, I'd tend to think that was not sustainable, but judging by the fact that I'm improving and tweaking things and getting better with every session I play, I really think I can do BETTER, and that's a pretty scary thought.

I want to really focus for the rest of the month and put in the work to improve. If I can do that and start building something meaningful and moving up in limits, I think this blog will become a whole lot more exciting in the months to come.

Here's hoping.

Quality > Quantity

Putting in a high volume of hands at heads up is going to be difficult I think. That's not necessarily a bad thing, however. I've played sessions the past two nights after finishing my "real" job. I'm only playing one table right now while I get used to some of the nuances of heads up play, and at around 80-120 hands per hour played, I'll have to focus on other goals instead of number of hands.

I started out on a bit of a downswing as I think I mentioned in my last entry, but have really started turning things around in the past two days. I'm gaining confidence with every opponent I play, and really starting to get a feel for some of the tendancies that can be exploited and how to adjust to them.

Here's my graph from my first 4 days at heads up:


I can't say enough about how helpful it is to have a couple other players to talk with on an ongoing basis while I try and learn this new game. Talking things out, looking over hands played, going over concepts and looking for ways to improve will pay dividends over the long run, soooo much moreso than just robotting through a volume of hands really not knowing what I'm doing.

I feel really confident in the players I've surrounded myself with. I hope that the partnerships that we form will be beneficial (and profitable) for everyone involved. I'm really excited to keep things going and hopefully move up in stakes within a month or two. The rake at $50hu can become quite a factor, so it would be nice to get away from that. Once I get to 30-35 buyins for the next level, I'll start taking shots - hoping to move up for good once I get to 40. That's the plan anyway...Gotta have a goal, and I do.

August Begins

As we enter in to a new month, I'm presented with a new challenge and opportunity. I finished off my tournament stake and made a profit, though after getting out to a hot start, it wasn't as big as I had hoped. For 50 tournaments played, I made a profit of exactly $500. A $10 per tourney played profit is decent, but it had so much more potential. I think I went the last 20 without a decent cash or a final table.

From the stake though, I had the opportunity to get to know a great guy who is also a very solid poker player. It seems most of the posts I read about staking arrangements end badly for one reason or other - usually a lack of communication between the two involved parties which results in things getting out of hand and before they know it, the stake is gone. In this arrangement it's been the total and complete opposite of that, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Due to our past success, and the trust that we've built, the same backer has agreed to a rolling stake to get me in to some heads up games. Going to start out at $50nl and play on a month by month basis. I have a good line on a VERY solid player who has taken my under his wing as his first student, and I'm excited to play and learn and improve.

I played my first sessions the night before last, and am excited to get in a good number of hands this month. Things went well, as far as I was concerned. I had control of the matches against the opponents that I was playing, I just got unlucky at the wrong time against them. Ended the first day down a buyin, which in the grand scheme of things is no big deal. If I held up either hand, I would have ended the session a winner.

Played another session the following morning, against the absolutely perfect type of opponent for the style of game I play. He bought in for $35 and I quickly stacked him for that. He rebought for $20 and I just knew he would be ready to shove that in lightly and gamble to try and get some of his money back. I didn't have to wait long before I picked up AK. I raised preflop and he made a 3bet. I reraised him to 8 I think and he called. I pushed the rest in on a J72 flop and he INSTANTLY called with A3, drawing pretty much dead to 3 outs - which of course he hit, when a 3 came on the turn.........

Oh well, I've done well to not let things like that tilt my play. Over the long run, I'll have the best of guys like that so I don't worry too much about it.
I'm looking forward to improving my game and putting in hands.

Where There's A Will....

I finally figured out a way to get in to heads-up no limit. It's not the way I would have preferred, but at least I can get a feel for the game and learn some of the concepts.

I'm going to play heads up sit n' gos and see if I can build up a roll that way and move up in stakes and hopefully transfer over to playing cash games. I have around $750 in the account right now - I started out playing the $6+0.25 turbos, and after I play a hundred or so of those I'll go through some of my stats and winrates and see if it makes sense to move up.

I've been doing ok at it thus far - here's my first 23 tourneys played:


I lost 4 of them on basic coinflips too where I got in ahead and just couldn't hold up, so my rate could have been much higher. I'm sure these things will even out in the end.

Haven't really played anything towards the tourney stake this past week or so - been so busy with life stuff. I don't even really know when I'll be able to get back to them - have a ton of things on the go next month as well. One or two here and there is all I can manage at this point. I'm up $700 on the stake though with around 20 to go, so hopefully I can hit a final table or two down the stretch and put it over the top.

Hitting A Groove

I haven't played much this past week, been busy enjoying the summer and have had to work as well. I did manage to get in two tournaments on Sunday night however. I played a $22 omaha hi-lo and a $33 holdem on pokerstars. As we got near the bubble, I had a pretty low stack in both, but high enough to where I wasn't worried about not cashing.

Once we got in to the money, I actually made a bit of a run in the holdem tourney. I doubled on the button when I shoved my short stack with Q6o and was called with AJ. Thankfully my cards were live and I flopped a Q to double up. I doubled again shortly thereafter when I picked up aces against the same player's AQ. Unfortunately I went out not long after that when I raised JQo from the button. The BB flat called me, and the flop came KQJ rainbow. We got it all in and he showed KT, so I was ahead, but he had outs. He rivered a K and that was it for me, I went out 28th out of 550 or thereabouts. It was too bad, if I'd doubled there I would have had a very comfortable stack and could have made a run to at least try and make the final table.

In the omaha8 my luck wasn't any better. Made it in to the money fairly easily, but was shortstacked soon after (I love that there are no antes in omaha tourneys). I raised 1/2 my stack preflop with A234 suited and got it in on a 78J flop against a guy with 9Qxx only, but unfortunately he paired his Q on the turn and no low card would come off to save me a split and that was it.

I felt good though, getting deep in 500+ player fields. I really feel like I'm hitting my stride in tournament play. I have ~20 more to play on the stake and have all but guaranteed a profit for my backer unless I do something stupid, or somehow fail to cash in any of my last 20...lol

Once I'm done that (hopefully in a couple weeks), I'm going to look at playing heads up no limit fairly seriously. We'll see how things go. For now, I'm just going to continue playing $25 pot limit omaha and try and grind together some money that way that will help me make the transition to heads up.

Doin Work On The Stake

Haven't had a chance to play much the last couple of days, working 12 hour days pretty much eliminates all the energy I have to concentrate on poker.

I did however get in a pot limit omaha tourney last night. Ended up taking 3rd place for just under $400, bought in for $15, so I was pretty happy about that.

I'm almost half way through my stake tournaments at this point and couldn't be happier with how it's gone thus far (well, I could be with a WIN or two in there, but I'm being realistic). I've played 21 tourneys on the stake and am showing a profit of just under $750, for an average of $35 profit for each tourney played.

At this point I've basically guaranteed a profit for the guy who backed me, with still 29 tourneys to go. The stake was for $1100, I've cashed just under $1200 on it now, so whatever happens he can't lose. That's something that I'm very proud of. I know it's a big leap of faith for someone to send a guy they don't even know that kind of dough, and to be able to repay that and live up to my end of the bargain is huge for me.

So, from here on out, there's 29 more tourneys that we're pretty much splitting the profits 50/50 - now it's time to make some money! I figure that should take me another month or so to get through that amount of games.

I'm hoping at the end of it that I will have a decent sized bankroll to take on a new challenge - learning heads up no limit. A friend from the forums who is VERY successful at the game wants to get in to coaching, and has basically asked me to be his guinea pig. I have a bit of experience with coaching from the S7S program, but this will be more game specific.

If all goes well, I'm looking at the middle of August or beginning of September to be playing heads up, starting out with no less than 30 buyins either at the $50 or $100 level, depending how the rest of this stake goes.

If nothing else, I'm excited to get a lot more tourney play in, and that's gotta be a good thing.

Being Realistic

I'm going to revise my goals for the month to be a bit more realistic. Going for gold ironman would require me to put in 25 days of 500 hands minimum, and that's just too much of a commitment to make, given that it's July and there's plenty of golf that I should be getting in this summer.

Moving forward, I'm just going to play when I have the time available and am in the right frame of mind. I'm not going to sweat trying to make "x" status or a certain amount of rakeback.

The last couple days I've been playing no limit omaha hi-lo on Absolute Poker just with a couple bucks I had left over there after moving to Fulltilt with the majority of my funds. It seems like that could be a VERY profitable game, so I may shift some of my focus there and see how far I can take it.

Currently I have just around 1k online - lets see where I'm at in a month or two.

Ups and Downs

If I posted a graph of yesterday's session, that's pretty much what it would look like....lol

I'm playing some very good poker right now, the best I've played in a very long time. Started off the day by losing a buyin the very first hand - always good to dig that hole right off the bat. Missed a huge draw against a guy that wouldn't let go of aces, standard stuff. Went on to lose two more within the next 200 hands or so, mostly in the same manner, by getting in with massive wrap straight or flush draws and bricking. In one actually the guy who won the hand actually said in chat "wow you had like a million outs there"..All I could bring myself to reply was "standard". I quit down $60, just over two buyins.

I split the day into two sessions, and actually got it all back and made a small profit on the day. It was funny, I got a stack in on a 3-way pot on a flop of 9Qx with 8TJJ. The guy who pushed all in (he had 3bet preflop) ended up having KKxx. The other guy in the pot had QQxx, but I hit my straight draw and dodged the board pairing to triple up. The part where it got funny was after the hand was over, the guy with KK called me an "idiot" in the chat....

It's SO tempting to want to explain to morons like this how HE's the one calling ME an idiot after getting his money in a 3-way pot with less than 6% equity (The set of queens had around 50%, I had ~45%, the KKxx had ~5%). To do so, however, might actually force the guy to play better, learn about equity, playing in 3-bet pots, playing 3-way pots, etc and really, what's the point of that. All I ended up saying was "yeah, you got unlucky there...."

Ended the day +$15, which after getting off to the start that I did, was a very good result.

Forward Progress

Well, day two is down...finally started to make some headway today. My ideal is to average about 500 hands a day, which should earn me enough for gold ironman by the end of the month, and net me somewhere between $175-$250 in rakeback, depending on how things work out.

Today I played just under that, ended up getting in 475 hands, and making just over a buyin. I was down one early too, so it was good to be able to grind it back. I played pretty much dead on the stats that I'm trying to acheive, so that's a big plus. I really feel like once the hands start going my way and I start hitting the flops, I'm going to have a monster month.

I'm playing good positional poker. It's weird since it feels like I'm raising almost every hand compared to the way I used to play, but I really think this is the best method for me to play and show the most profit.

Should be able to get my hands in no problem tomorrow - the weekend will be busy though, so maybe tomorrow I'll put in more hands to keep the average up.

First Day of July - A wash...

That feels like my first day of July, a total wash out (to borrow a hockey reffing term...)

Played 771 hands today, there were some ups and some downs. I won just over a buyin early, and then lost four buyins back, then made three buyins, to finish DEAD even, to the exact dollar. I'll get about ten bucks in rakeback though, so the day isn't a total loss.

I posted in the goals thread on fcp though that I'm not setting a monetary goal for the month - instead I just want to focus on solid play. My goal for the month is more stat based than it is result based. I truly believe that if I can execute the game I want to play, the results will follow it.

Today I played around 25/20/3, which is pretty much right were I want to be. A hand or two holding up or a draw getting there and I could have had a decent day. I'm not worried about it - long month ahead, but looking forward to it.

I've Come Full Circle

Well, after a long six months of traning and finally finishing that up, I actually have been playing any game BUT omaha for the past month or two. I just needed a break from it after grinding it pretty much non stop to pay for my course.

Funny thing happens though when you pick up other games - you learn things that you can apply to your primary game. For instance, after playing 6max no limit for a while, a solid "TAG" style in that game will have a vpip of around 20% and a pfr of above 15%, and usually the closer these two numbers are in relation to each other the better.

I had been looking back on the forum at some of the first posts I was making in the omaha forum last August when I picked the game back up. For a while I was running at around a 30/6. How I managed to not go broke, I'm really not quite sure.

I've put in a couple sessions the last few days, and have been doing extremely well. I'm playing the best poker I've played in quite some time. For the next little while I'm going to focus on building myself back up. I haven't yet decided if I want to play 2 or 4 tables - that will depend on how I'm feeling.

I spent some time as well getting my tracker program more organized, setting up my head up display more effectively, and just generally making my layout more appealing and informative.

Another funny thing happened last night too...I was approached by one of the other S7S members who is looking to learn some of the ins and outs of playing omaha. Now this guy plays WAY higher limits than I do at his main game, but doesn't have much experience in omaha. We were chatting for about an hour on skype while I was two tabling. He's actually a VERY solid poker player and thinks about the game on a high level. I picked up a few concepts from him that I can apply to my omaha game, so it's a very interesting dynamic. I have no doubt that he'll be crushing the omaha games after a few more chats and sessions.

Anyway, looking forward to the next little while, hopefully putting in hands and building things back to where I can start climbing up through the limits.

I Am A Work In Progress

Been playing a LOT of hands the past few days. I'm doing ok (results wise) but that's kind of a secondary concern right at the moment. What I'm more focused on is learning and improving and tightening up my game. If I can make some money while I do it, that's great, but I'm trying to build a base of solid play to work from long term.

TwoPlusTwo has a great thread that someone has compiled in their micro stakes no limit forum (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=98125) for people like me, trying to learn the fundamentals of the game.

I've also been getting a lot of help from more experienced players (specifically Simo8Ball from FCP). I can't say enough about how much these resources have been and will continue to be helpful to my game.

As much as sometimes we might think that we have things figure out - in poker, I don't think that's ever the case. I read a good passage somewhere yesterday that said (and I'm only paraphrasing here)"Poker as a game isn't played inside a box. The sooner you realize that and begin to think outside of that box, the better off you'll be).

In the past couple days working with Simo, and reading a ton, I think we've identified a few areas that I need to work on. I greatly improved my preflop play today - I was limping too much the past little bit - today I played 18/16. Much better than 21/5 imo.

Simo and I talked a bit today about bet sizing on the later streets. I've pretty much just been mashing the pot button on my bets post flop (Pot Limit Omaha experience probably to blame for that tendancy). The more ideal line seems to be to bet between 70-85% of the pot size. We'll give that a try tonight and see how things go from there. (then I'm sure Mark will find some other flaw in the game to work on, and we'll tweak that too...and on, and on...)

Is there such thing as a poker drifter?

For some reason lately I can't seem to find my footing. I moved my money on to pokerstars, and was grinding the $10nl game. Played about 9k hands and won ~13 buyins. The progress is SO slow though and the game just feels like such a grind. I don't know if I have it in me to play as disciplined as I'll need to at that level.

Out of boredom moreso than anything, I started playing different games. Put in a few sessions of Stud8, 2-7 triple draw, and 5 card draw. Ended up booking small/marginal losses in each of those games - pretty much wiping out most of the gains I had made by grinding the 10nl...lol

This obviously is a bad habit to fall in to. Something else that has been hurting me is playing without rakeback. To higher limit players it's not as significant, but if I can add 10-20% per month to my poker bankroll just by playing with rakeback, I'm crazy not to at this point. Somewhere down the road I can play on stars when I'm at a high enough level to earn the fpp's that make it worthwhile, but for right now I need the money.

I moved some funds back to Absolute last night - I want to get to VIP status, and I also have some reload bonus money to clear now as well, which is nice. To a guy with $500 to start, adding a $110 reload bonus to that IS significant, especially since their bonus money doesn't subtract from rakeback earned.

I've played 1500 hands of 50nl there - I'm somewhat shortstacking it for the time being, buying in for $30 at a time. The bad beat jackpot is huge right now, over $640k, and 50nl is the lowest qualifying limit that it can be hit at. I think once that goes, I'll probably try and settle myself in at $25nl, but we'll see how things go.

Building A Foundation

Played some hands of $10nl today - about 400 hands, won 2.5 buyins there. I'm very happy with how I'm starting out with 6max nl. Granted, it's at the micro stakes level, but hopefully with experience and running half decently I'll be able to make the 75 buyins of $10 that I need to get to $1250. That also should help me figure out the nuances of the game enough to keep moving up through the stakes. By that point hopefully I'll also be through the 180 stake and have a little bit of extra cash to add to the roll.

In the 1100 hands I've played at $10 thus far, I'm up just over 10 buyins - I don't expect to be able to hold up nearly that pace of profit - but still if I can maintain a decent winrate, it shouldn't take me much more than a month or so to make enough to move up to at least $25, where I can make some half decent money and start earning some FPP's. That's a huge downside of playing at $10 is that you earn next to nothing in the way of bonus or points on pokerstars.

Played one 180 tourney last night, went out 33rd unfortunately. I got NO cards at all in the second hour of the tourney and ended up pushing JQs when I was shortstacked and ran it smack in to pocket aces unfortunately. I feel good playing them though, even though they are a bit of a grind. 3 down, and finishes of 22nd, 2nd and 33rd are pretty decent. My hope is that out of the 50, I can final table at least 5, and win minimum one. I'll be playing some more on my days off this week, so hopefully there will be some good news....

Short Session - Busy Night

Didn't play many hands last night, spent most of the night getting text messages from Las Vegas where Zach (Zach6668 from FCP) was playing day 2 of the $1500 limit holdem event at the WSOP. I can't imagine how much fun he's having actually playing in the event - I'm having a blast just following along with his updates and reading the story online at pokernews.com.

Anyway, while they were on dinner break I took the opportunity to put in an hour or so at the tables. Played just over 200 hands, won 3 buyins. I'm running so sickly well right now and just absolutely crushing the $10 game - beating it for better than a buyin per hundred hands. More importantly I think I'm playing a very solid game - focusing on playng pots in position, and being the aggressor in most situations.

Tonight I should get a chance to get some hands in. Will likely play a couple of the $22 180's for the stake - hopefully with similar results to the one the other night...Zach is also down to the last 2 tables of the world series event, so I'll be following that intently. I know some of the guys from the forum are going down to the Rio to cheer him on - look forward to being on the E-rail.

In other blog news, a while back I wrote about a guy from the forum who posts under the name "Elo and Ag", who I've since come to know as Patrick. He final tabled the 50k gtd on Stars last night and ended up 3rd to make yet another nice score. He's one of the best examples I've seen yet of a guy who's built a roll from pretty much nothing - exactly what I'm trying to do right now. Hopefully in a year or so, I'll be sitting on an "Elo-like" roll and getting ready to go out and play some of these WSOP events myself.....(hey, gotta have some kind of goal to work towards right??)

Rededication - The New Beginning

Well, it's been quite some time since I've updated obviously and there's much to get to. I stopped blogging a couple months back because I was involved in a poker training program with a player from the FCP forums. It was a 6 month program, during which the participants aren't to publicize their involvement in it, so it was hard to blog about my poker playing and not involve the training I'd been doing.

I've just recently become a "Steve7Stud" graduate, which puts me in the company of some pretty amazing poker players and will be a great resource to draw upon in the future. Since I was on the low end of bankroll as far as trainees went, tuition ate up a good chunk of my poker money, so I am pretty much am going to be starting from the ground up again, and I thought I'd reinstate the blog as a way to track the journey.

To start off, I have two separate paths I'll be taking. For cash game play, I'm starting right near the bottom of the 6max NL ladder, beginning at the $10 games. I plan to put in a good number of hands 4-tabling and get a good feel for the game. I'm starting with 50 buyins, and will only move up to the next level when I reach that number as well.

For tournaments, I will be playing 50 of the $22 180-player tourneys on Pokerstars in the next month or two. I was staked by someone that took a shot on me, and I hope to be able to turn that in to a worthwhile investment for him and make us both a bit of cash in the meantime. I've played two tourneys on the stake thus far, and actually ended up taking down 2nd place for $720 in the second one I played so that gets us off to an AWESOME start on the deal.

I won't be playing them very often, since if you final table them the tourneys are approx. 5 hours long so it's hard for me to find that block of uninterrupted free time - but I should be able to do the 50 tourneys inside of 2 months I figure.

Anyway, that's pretty much that for now. I played some $10nl last night, about 500 hands, and won 5 buyins. I don't expect things to be "that" easy going forward, but I definitely think the game is beatable for a good amount. Here we come, $1250...

Solid February - and Tilt....

Haven't written in a while, so I wanted to catch up a bit. For the month of February, it was pretty much the best month I've had since I came back to serious poker in August. I finally felt like I had a clue what I was doing, and along with some good fortune in running up a bonus from Party Poker, I ended up a decent winner for the month.

I started off the month of March on a tear too. Was playing $50 with some of the profit I'd made at $25 last month and won around 4 buyins in my first 1k hands of the month....unfortunately, I gave that back yesterday, and have no one but myself to blame for it.

Had a bad start to the session, and it just sort of snowballed from there. For probably the first 150 hands the game went like this - I raise preflop, Four people call, I whiff flop, I check/fold. or - I raise preflop, Guy 3-bets me, I whiff flop, I check/fold. or- I 3bet a guy preflop, whiff flop, c-bet, get raised pretty much all in, fold.... It sucked, in short.

Unfortunately, for some reason, this really started getting on my nerves. The first time I caught even a piece of a flop against a guy who had been pushing me around, I shoveled it against him, pretty much drawing dead. I thought I was in ok shape with top pair/flush draw/backdoor straights, but it turns out he pretty much had all of those crushed.

After losing that, I pushed unimproved aces too hard against a guy who just wasn't letting go...I flopped trips with one of my "xx" cards, but unfortunately so did he, and he boated on the turn. There went another stack.

The one thing about my session that I was actually somewhat proud of was that after I snapped off that last buyin, I realized that I was playing like crap, and shut it down for the night. Discipline probably saved me at least another buyin or two.

Back at it today at $25....

Grinding Away

Had a tough day yesterday...was playing 50plo and nothing at all was going my way. Got my money in as favourite 5 separate times and lost every single time. It was brutal. I was so frustrated that I had to just shut it down for the day. Knowing when you've reached your limit and won't play well and walking away is extremely important. Granted I got my money in good 5 times and lost em all, but if I'd stayed playing in the state of mind I was in, I know for sure I would have started chasing hands, and no doubt gotten money in bad.

Turned it around today though. Dropped back and played $25plo again. Had some decent results, up around 2 buyins in 700 hands. I can't complain at all, I know I've been playing good poker lately. The results will follow, I truly believe that.

I'm forcing myself to stay away from tournaments right now. As much as it's tempting to play them, looking for the big payout (which would help me more than I can say right now...) I just don't have the bankroll to allow it. I'm being disciplined though, and that's a good thing.

As an aside to my normal game on FullTilt, I've also been playing a bit on Party Poker the last few days. They sent me a $125 bonus, and I've managed to scrape that in to a bit of money. I'm up $300 there, been playing $100 and $200 plo, just shortstacking and I've run decently. Now I have a bit of a dilemma, in that I have to figure out how to get that money off of there...lol. Stay tuned.

Overdue Update

Been a while since I last updated, there's a lot to go over.

I took a good solid week off of poker, went south with the family for some sunshine. I spent the last week of January getting crushed (poker-wise), so the break was much needed.

Upon my return I actually dropped back down a level. My game wasn't sharp enough at $50, and bankroll concerns were affecting the decisions I was making while playing, which is a recipe for disaster. I dropped back to the $25 level and have been absolutely killing it since I started back. I haven't played that much, but for the first 3,000 hands I'm up just over 12 buyins, at a rate of ~20 ptbb/100.

My stats are much better too. I try not to rely too much on them, but I have gotten a lot more aggressive all around, and (I think) harder to play against. I'm getting some hands paid off by raising a wider range and not being as readable to my opponents.

Since I'd been doing well, I decided to enter the FTOPS event yesterday, which was half pot limit omaha and half pot limit holdem. I played well and got fairly deep, but didn't cash. I got some chips in the omaha rounds but never could get anything going in holdem. Never had any big hands there, got KK once and 3-bet preflop and everyone folded, that was the end of that. No aces, no queens...Oh well, I was happy with a 77th place finish out of 777 entrants. Kind of disappointing though to beat 90% of the field and still not get a cheque...lol

Back to the grind I guess.

Back In To My Comfort Zone

Well, I've gone back to playing omaha for the time being. I can't say anything bad about my experience of playing holdem and I'll likely mix it in with my games for the forseeable future, but I really think my "main" game needs to be pot limit omaha.

I have such a better frame of mind right now. My stats are better, I'm more aggressive, and I won a bit of money the last day or two. Holdem helped me with my aggression, for sure.

Played a bit today -- ended up with a couple of huge hands -- won a four buyin pot when I flopped the nut full house and all the money went in on the turn -- the other guy had a big hand too.. Here's the hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1998460

There was another big pot that I got lucky in -- if you look at it that way. I flopped the nut straight, with a redraw to a flush, and also a redraw to a higher straight. I was laughing when the money went in -- til I realized the other guy ALSO had the nut straight, but with a BETTER flush redraw....ooooops. (except that I hit the higher straight redraw for the stack!!!)
That hand's here: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1998463

Gonna play some more omaha tomorrow and see if I can turn it around for the end of the month. I'm almost done the Ironman bonus, so that is good. Omaha is much better on the rakeback too. I'm excited :)

Preparation ftw?!

Haven't played hardly any poker in the past couple of days - it's tough to fit in many hands when I'm working 12hrs a day. I did manage to play a $2 rebuy the other night, and got pretty deep too. Went out 12th trying to make a push for the final table when KTs lost a 40/60 flip to A5s.

I am adopting a whole new mentality for tournaments now. I've been reading "Ace On The River" by Barry Greenstein, and he makes some very good points about the mental approach to the game. I'm no longer playing to "cash" in tournaments - I'm in for the top three finishes. Sure the time between scores might be longer, but the majority of the money is at the final table, so hopefully the "big" hits will make up for the higher varience.

Looking forward to putting in a LOT of hands in the next 5-7 days. Have some time off work, it's snowy and cold and miserable here, and I'm playing the best poker that I have been in months. Still have my year end ironman bonus to finish up -- I expect some great things in the next week or so!

The Ebb and Flow

Had a terrible day on Wednesday, probably my worst single day of poker in the last six months. I was just getting crushed. Couldn't hold up a thing. Got two outed on a horrid river...I had 44 and called a small raise preflop, flop was T47, he bet, I called, turn was a 2, I check, he bets, I shove...He calls and shows KK. River K -unbelievable. Then I got in again shortly after as a massive favourite, with AJ on a J74 flop. Buddy calls me with 42 (seriously?) for his whole stack - river deuce - thanks very much full tilt poker. AA loses to QQ all in preflop...sigh...Not to mention I just kept getting coolered. I have 74, flop comes 568, other guy has 79 obviously.

I was easily at my lowest point of the month, felt like I couldn't do a thing right. Just at that point, I had a chat with a friend about having a positive attitude, maintaining focus, and keeping things in perspective. I took the rest of the night off and started fresh Thursday, doing everything in my power to have a more positive frame of mind.

Thursday could not possibly have gone better. I really felt in control of both my game and my emotions, and the results followed. I got down early in my session but didn't let it get to me. Waited patiently, made a few moves to pick up pots in sketchy spots, and then picked up a couple of big hands. Stacked a guy with QQ over 77 - 4bet a guy preflop with AKs waiting to get it all in but he folded, hit a set on another guy for most of his money. Felt awesome.

I really believe that at least some of the result was due to the change in attitude. The day before I'd have gotten angry and not had the patience to wait out the swing in the game. Going forward, it's this attitude that I will bring to the game every session.

Work Getting In The Way

Haven't played a lot of poker this week -- tough when I'm working my shifts. I've been trying to get minimum 100ftp points a day though, and in doing so, I've had some pretty decent results. Still sticking to NL holdem -- I kind of miss playing omaha, but the results at NL say I should have been playing this game all along.

Had one good hand today where I picked up a stack -- I threebet preflop with Aces, and got called by two guys (at a 6 handed table). Flop was 4 6 9 rainbow - the small blind bet in to me, and I went all in -- the guy on the button called. The small blind tanked for a few minutes, typing incessantly in the chatbox what a sick laydown he was about to make, etc, etc, then folded.

Button showed KK - Small blind said he had QQ. Wow - won't be often that you see that at a 6 handed table, AA v KK v QQ. I'm just glad I was the one with the aces...

I'm done work now until Friday, so I should have a chance to put a good number of hands in. Have to get working on clearing the year end ironman bonus. Might mix in a tourney or two as well, if I can freeroll in off of NL profits.

Mixing it Up

The last couple of days have been great. I'm really enjoying playing No Limit, and the results have been very positive. Pretty much back to even from my early month plo losses, so that's huge for me.

Also played a session of 2/4 Razz tonight for the first time in a very long time. I really enjoy that game, and people are horrible at it. May have to do some more of that in the days to come. Won $102 in around an hour there, and never really ended up in any bad spots in big pots. Lost one decent one where I had a guy chasing in bad shape all the way to the 7th card and caught a miracle card to beat me. His mistake for paying bets and raises to chase the whole way -- oh well -- now I have a note on him. I'll get all my bets back by value betting him to death some other time.

Hope I can keep it going!

Holdem, Day 1

I'm having fun playing holdem. More importantly, I'm having fun playing POKER. It's been a while since I've said that. I might have to change up games every once in a while to keep things fresh.

For my first day, I played ~850 hands at $25nl, and made six buyins. I don't know if I'm just getting insanely lucky, or if the play is just THAT bad. People seem to stack off with anything. When I get called and I have a marginal hand, I still have that feeling of "oh no..here comes the nuts" from my omaha days, but they keep showing these crappy hands.

I don't know how the points/rakeback are accumulating, there's something wrong with FTP's software tonight, but whatever. I've figured out that on a per hour basis, I'll be able to get twice as many hands in holdem as I was in omaha (Holdem tables avg 80 hands/hr, and I can 6 table fairly easily -- 480/hr. Omaha avg'd 60/hr, and I was 4 tabling -- 240/hr) so hopefully that should make up for dropping to the lower limit.

Hopefully I can keep up the hot start for a bit longer. Last month's rakeback should be coming in soon too. I'm still committed to playing 10,000 hands at $25 before even thinking about moving up, whether I get to $2500 or not. If I'm gonna have leaks to analyze and buyins to lose learning lessons, it might as well cost $25 each time instead of $50...lol


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Omahahahaha to the Back Burner

I've decided I need an omaha break. After five months of playing that primarily, I need some time away from it. I started this month on a crappy downswing that just doesn't seem to be letting up, so rather than keep putting in hands and donating money, I'm gonna play some holdem for the time being.

I'm starting out overrolled really, but until I get comfortable, I think that's the smartest way to do it. I have ~75 buyins for the limit I'm playing now. After the first 10k hands or so, I'll reevaluate where I think I should be. I think ~50 buyins is a comfortable level for me so for right now, I'll grind at $25 until I can get to $2500, then think about taking the move up to $50, depending how I'm doing.

Played my first session last night, after getting some advice from the regulars on the fullcontactpoker board. I'd forgotten how many hands you fold in that game (as opposed to omaha, where most any combination of 4 cards looks playable). The benefit to that, however, is that I can play six tables, as opposed to the four I was playing at omaha. I have to see how that translates out as far as earning ironman points and rakeback, but it looks pretty comparable to omaha in that I got $1/100 hands at $25nl. I'm not sure about the ironman points though, I'll have to track that with tonight's hands.

Had some good results too (for a change). Made 2 buyins over a 300 hand span, and played what I thought was pretty solid. I spewed off a buyin early with a bad preflop call, but I learned from it, and won't make the same mistake again, so it was worth the $25. I posted some hands and questions, and as usual the guys on the forum had some good advice. I'll continue to use that to mold a NL game, and see how we do.

Oh, and stay away from tournaments....lol.

Putting In Hands

Started the new year on a tear. Played a 500 hand session that was a bit all over the place, but ended up with good results, up just over two buyins. Thennnnn the wheels came off. It's amazing how swingy this game can be.

Got in for another session just after midnite. For whatever reason, I started getting second-best handed. Great hands and crap hands are both easy to play...It's the ones that you get stuck in and don't have the nuts, and know you're probably beaten but can't make yourself fold that make this game tough.

In fairly short order, I went from up two buyins to DOWN two buyins, but whatever, I know the swings will even themselves out over the month.

Today in fact, I made a buyin back in another 300 hand session, so for the first couple days of the month, I've played ~1200 hands and am down just over a buyin, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I feel good that I've put in this many hands already on the first couple of days. I'm not really worried about the results -- I'm well on my way to getting the full year-end ironman bonus cleared. When my December rakeback comes in, I'll be in a very comfortable spot as far as bankroll for my level, back above 50 buyins.

That confidence I'm hoping should translate in to a solid month. Now I just have to work on keeping my aggressive mindset and avoiding those nasty $1100 downswings like I ran in to last month...lol