mentality

even though i'm playing 4 tables at once i find myself checking whether i'm currently up or down for the session. i used to do this all the time playing 3 tables, and i've realised it's a bad thing to be doing since it affects my decisions.

i've caught myself doing this recently, as i've been trying to stop and just concentrate on making the right decisions.


and whilst there's been lots of ups and downs and obvious bad tilty decisions these last few weeks i've finally broken $2k for the month and hoping to hit $3k (short of the $5k min i had hoped for from this month)

also look likely to hit 10k vpps on stars and platinum status. should reach it at about 16k hands.

so basically i need to play more hands every month.

at the moment i sometimes find myself stopping concentrating after 1-2hours and i've been disciplined to stop. only rarely have i been able to play more than 4+hours a day. and i might start having to if i'm gonna make some inroads into the 500,000 vpps i want. and my current rate it'll take about 4 years!!

me plan

i finish studying in two years and by that time i want to have made enough to purchase a house
seeing as how i can't get much of a mortgage, i reckon i'm gonna need about $200k

currently, i can play maybe 20k hands per month and running ok $5-8k should be a realistic
over 24 months (assuming $6.5kpm) this comes to $156k. that would be pretty sweet.

this is at $1/2 and i'd be hoping to move up to $2/4, $3/6 and $5/10 as my roll allows.

this month i've hit 10k hands, though have played terrible for part of the month when i first started 4-tabling. somewhy i played looser!? anyways, back on track last few days, and about $1k up, so a bit of catch up to do to hit 5k in the next 10k hands.


as an aside, i think that poker is like driving. getting annoyed at the idiots that surround you and stooping to their level is a bad idea. do it in poker and you'll lose monies. do it on the road and you can lose a lot more.

a 2nd aside, i read a few forums, and there is soo much nonsense on there, with the occasional eye opening bit of info. i think there are only 2 real good bits of advice that i've ever read. and lots of bad things, which explains how even regular players can consistently make bad plays. at 1/2 people are happy to get 200big blinds in preflop with KK. obviously you are up against aces!
also people quote pokerstove as the reason you should call aipf with AK against a 4bet. unless you are weighting the range you are up against, it will look like you should call, but AA and KK are the majority of that range so it's definitely a -ev play!

i say this, but i am actually rather pleased people play and think so badly about the game. gives me a chance to win since i'm not particularly good!

and since tilt is defo my biggest leak, the moral of the story is practice less road rage, and less table rage.

and one last thing before i forget, wanna hit 500kVPP on stars within these 2 years, to get a decent amount of rakeback + stuff from their fpp store. 500kvpp is roughly where rake and presents from stars almost equals rake. though i do need to work out the vpp to rake ratio and higher stakes. only prob is there's no direct correlation.

tilt

not the tilt you notice but the subtle play marginal situations badly all the time tilt

gone from $1100 up to $1100 down so far this month.

thats pretty shocking.
coincides with increasing from 3 to 4 tables. might have to drop down to three till i can get a screen with no overlap. oddly enough my vpip and pfr % have both gone up as i increased number of tables played. i thought i would play tighter with more tables.

need to concentrate next session i play, by not playing rubbish cards at the start. be patient. wait for good hands and situations. gonna buy in with 60% of full amount to make sure i don't chase with sooted connectors etc.

i wanna play 4 tables so it will be easy to hit supernova and by the end of april would be able to get either a 24"monitor or something ps3. though its the low end ps3 and is less points.

i still don't like playing on stars with no rakeback but lost £1k in hills over the course of 2 months, and since i'd won $1.5k on stars in the same amount of time i figured even with rakeback i'd make more on stars.

i think i just need to play better.

i have decided some yearly aims too.
but the end of next year i wanna hit £100k to afford a house.

play $1/2 and $2/4 this year and reach $50-60k.
next year $3/6, $5/10 and make $100k.

all using good brm.

here goes.....


(oh yeah, january was -$500 in cash, +$2k in tournies
february was +$4k
march -$1.1k so far...)

interlude

3 funnies from the bbc

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7070564.stm
"It would be surprising if he didn't know something of what was going on, but I've got absolutely no evidence that he had. On that basis it would be wrong of me to suggest that he had."
well, you can't say it would be wrong of you to suggest something and then go ahead and suggest it!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7109058.stm

and the best for last

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6187080.stm
"Two thirds of people also sit down at home when they get home from work."
which leaves 1 in 3 people to stand up/crouch/kneel/lie down when they get home, but not sit!


not played a great deal recently.
a few stars tournies and one 6th place for $1.5k in a $50 buy in, and one other cash when finishing 250/18000. lost countless 60/40s, 50/50s and 40/60s whilst winning 1.
lost in 2 other tournies the same night just before the money in pots for 3x avg stack

i quite enjoy the mtts again, and the infrequent playing keeps the interest levels up. been going out too often recently to get some time in to play them. they finish so late even if they start at 8 so need the whole night, and preferably the next day too, free.

tilt

tilted like a moron yesterday and blew £300. hadn't run that bad for ages. played some $1/2 for some reason and lost about $350 there

didn't want to play for a while but had 2 freerolls today. lost in an interpoker one with 2 pair vs set when i was playing very laggy early to build a stack and dont really care.
betfair had a $5k freeroll worth winning. first hand i play is against a shortstack (165) at 10/20 with AQ aipf, and hit a queen on the turn. 2 hands later i get AA in the cutoff. folded round to me and i raise to 100 to look like a steal since the big blind is sitting out (although it's only 20 some tard might think im doing it with nothing). i get reraised all in by the blind. instacall and i see his kings the same time as i see the flop come Kq8. oh well.

played some $0.5/1 and made $200 with people unable to fold QQ to a preflop reraiser on a king high board. both times i had ak. also won a pot with kk. again i reraised pf from the button and only the intial raiser called. flop is 2 diamonds and q high. he check raises me all in and since i ly had 20 behind and there was 100 in the pot i couldnt fold and he had aq. amazingly my hand held up and they were the only 3 big pots. lost a bit blind vs blind on a 9j9 flop. me 93, him 98. no high card 9 j or 3 to save me. possibly could have folded the river though.

few things i've been meaning to write about and will when i get a chance (obviously it's for me since no one else reads these words of wisdom)

value bets
emotions at the tables (very bad thing)
patience
[insert here the other things i forgot]

total for month = -£300 including about £100 on satellites as i attempt to win a trip to australia. maybe i should have just stumped up $550 and bought straight into the final?

great parenting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7085241.stm

anyways, got my ipd touch from stars today. and what a touch it is! just need to get a decent case for it now.

as for my balance on betfair, it has been yoyoing like a julian thew. 700 at start of month up to 880 then down to 620 after a horror day two days ago. back up to 830 yesterday. now at 770. though i did spend 60 on tournies. got nowhere in the $20k, and played two sats. aussie millions round 2 for $55 where 1st gets seat, second gets $132. i came 3rd of 12. lost two 50/50s to go from chip lead to third when 4 left. then lost to 80/20s to go out finally with kk vs 55.

played cash at same time and started off on a horror show getting no hands against uber donks who left after hitting. then i start to get hands. paid off 3 times by three different players in about 5 mins and was not in the right frame of mind so have logged off for the day.

amazingly won a couple fo quid at cash. so 70 up overall for the month. the other tourney i played was a set to a passport final which i won (only 5 players and 1 seat gtd so that was a nice $50 overlay). got that on sunday. not expecting much but will be a decent experience since i really want win a seat to the aussie mills but may have left it to too late.

still dunno where to play the poekrs after this month. betfair traffic is quite slow. and thats at $0.50/$1. it's only gonna get worse if i move up to $1/2 and $2/5.

woop

since i last posted things been going well on the poker front.

in about 8 days i made £500 on betfair cash games (plus £50 rakeback), then played a $50 $3k guaranteed 65 runner tourney, paying $1k for first and i won that. this was after coming 4th in my local live donkfest. they're doing a monday night league with winner getting a trip (for 1?!) to vegas and entry into a tournament there. came 4th, and now on 16points after 4 weeks, leader on 27. though i missed one week. am gonna really try to win this. not quite sure why it's only a trip for one.

withdrew $1500 from stars (so my account there is level) and i have pokertracker, 3 books, and iPod and a $1200 roll to show for it. no real point in playing there without rakeback though.
withdrew the £500 win from betfair, and now have£800 after another £100 win on the cash games tonight. going to try to qualify for the aussie millions. will play the $50 satellites to try to get into the main $550 dollar qualifier.

also i noticed that on betfair leaderboard i made almost 100,000 points in about a week's play. winner had just under 300,000. so in a month, surely i can win it?

anyway, will play at betfair for one more month, then probably move to william hill since i'll get $250-$350 (up to $550) bonus just for playing there plus rakeback.

not sure what to do with the money i have in stars. i don't really like the massive field mtt's, and there's no point it not making interest for me, so either will take a shot, buying in for $200 at maybe $5/10 table, or just withdrawing the lot.

touch

played this afternoon and was 90 points shy of the 34k fpp point target and made about $300 at the same time.

this evening i made the points i needed but was having a mare at the tables playing like a tard. losing 99 to ak for $150 didn't help. but then i refocused and started winning some back. stuck for $250 at one point i made it back to between 50 and 25 down before a lovely run of cards including aa vs kk all in preflop amongst other outdraws by me (money went in when i was ahead though) saw me finish with a profit in the second session of $350! made $400 in about 5 mins. after 90 mins of leakage.

so roll is at $2750 and the iPod has been ordered. 4-6 week wait but what a touch!

now i just need to decide about where to carry on playing. need 6 seater tables and soft games but with rakeback. might leave a couple of hundred in stars for some tourneys (maybe even try some say's to big sunday tournaments.

want to avoid crypto. not sure where to go. though the hills bonus's are pretty sweet. may deposit £200 and try it out for a bit....

900 points to go

till i can order the iPod 'what a touch' touch

plus good 2 hour session. up then down then up then level then up. bit swingy and lost one massive 5050 early when i've got one over and the flush draw (thought i would have two overs) with my ajcc vs qq on a low board with 2 clubs. that was a $300 pot. obviously he folds for a token round before running away.

made one hero call with j10 on a jack high board after being reraised pre. guy bets flop (all diamons J72) checks the 2 turn, bets the 3 river. i call and he shows kqss

made one immense fold. lp raises to $4, button makes it 12 and since everyone is over $120 i call from the sb with 88 as does initial raiser. flop comes A83. i check and it's checked round. turn is a k and again it's checked round. i did want to check raise the flop but maybe should have lead.
river is a J so Q10 is the nuts. good luck to anyone with that!

i value bet/blocker bet the river with a $20 bet and cutoff folds, button shoves all in for another 71 dollar. i think and think for about 2mins before folding. can't see him having anything other than kk. 2 diamons on flop means aaa of ak leads flop or at least the turn, not sure why kkk doesn't bet turn though.
i figure he has me beat 75% of time here at least and calling $70 into a $150 dollar pot isn't worth it.

roll $2130
900 points to go

i got called all in by 6 high no draw on the turn

and he had 6 outs!

first session i played about 500 hands and won about $300 easy

next session i start leaking left right and centre and am yoyo-ing between 200-600 down for about 1150 hands.

last few hands i get to stack some people. aces 4 times, three times i got the blinds and 4th time i stack the bb in a sb bb confrontation.

as for the 6 high hand here it is!
there'd been some history between me and villain since i'm raising his blind a bit

Seat 1: donk1 ($116.80 in chips)
Seat 2: donk2 ($115.30 in chips)
Seat 3: donk3 ($136.55 in chips)
Seat 4: Me ($69.10 in chips)
Seat 5: donk5 ($77.55 in chips)
Seat 6: Villain ($112.35 in chips)
donk5: posts small blind $0.50
Villain: posts big blind $1

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ac Th]
donk1: folds
donk2: folds
donk3 runs from the table
donk3: folds
Me: raises $3 to $4
donk5: folds
newdonk joins the table at seat #2
Villain: raises $8 to $12
Me: calls $8

*** FLOP *** [8s Jc 2s]
Villain: checks - HAS NOTHING
Me: checks

*** TURN *** [8s Jc 2s] [2c]
Villain: checks
Me: bets $19
Villain: raises $30 to $49
Me: raises $8.10 to $57.10 and is all-in - i'm going with my read
Villain: takes forever before he finally decides he has to call $8.10

*** RIVER *** [8s Jc 2s 2c] [Qc]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [6h 4s] (a pair of Deuces)
Me: proudly shows [Ac Th] (a pair of Deuces - Ace kicker)

lovely stuff

2 hands later he doesn't fold 108 on a board of [Th 6h Ad Qs Ks] after i bet flop and check raise turn. i have AJ

so somehow after 1250 hands i made $30 in session 2
1 massive suckout towards the end. aggro player reraises me pre. i have AhQs.
low flop goes check check.
turn puts 3 spades out. i bet $15 and he shoves. overpair i think, but i have 15 outs. so its 2-1 and the pot is giving me 2-1. so i call. hit a spade. he shows jj. then berates me. tells me i had20% equity. i say more like 10%.

loads of points today at least.

roll up to $1830
points 1.4k to go

grr

lost a hundred today so down to $1535
gained a thousand points. 3k points to go.

was $200 up today after 200 hands then finished session 1 $100 down.
second 500 hands was about 200 down after 200 hands but finished level.
one terribly played hand by me where i 3 bet and then called the shove with a double belly buster on an AQ10 board. think i should have folded to the shove. it was a lag player from a button raise but that's no excuse. was playing 130bbs and the time and the shove was for about 80-90.

3000 points to go........

on a side note, for those of you that use facebook, i finally worked out the points of groups.
95% are for whining about something or other
4% are intended for humour
1% are funny.

(oh and bye bye mclaren - steve, not the F1 team)

idiots

lots of them around.
i won $100 earlier in the day to take me to $1550

then played later in the day and started up a little, but lost my concentration, surfing internet, playing like a tool, and found myself $250 down in the session

hit a few hands that got paid off, and flopped one nut flush against a very aggro sb/button player, yet this time he doesn't put another penny in the pot!?

some people were calling me with king high! it's happened quite a lot recently. a few days ago i raised the river with 3rd pair on an AJ742 rainbow board and got called all in by K10! my image must be truly awful. i can't complain though.

ended up about $100 so roll is at $1600 which is a slow and steady climb for a few weeks.
points are now at 30k. so 4k more till i can get an iPod touch (and what a touch!)
and going to try to make 500 points per day so i can order it by the month's end.

if only i'd thought of it first

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7036098.stm

no more mtts or stts for now since i'm losing around $500 over the two.

account was down to $1k up to $1.4k now. some good hands, some bad. flopped 2 flushes and lost both, once to a set, with all money in on turn, river pairs board. 2nd hand to a higher flush (i had 109 with the j out) perhaps i could have folded.

finally got a couple of nice hands for me...99 hitting a set against aces, and my aces beating kings.

played well, then bad, then well again, and hopefully it will be a decent month!

up to 28,000 fpps and gonna try to hit 34000 within 10 days for the iPod touch, which is apparently better than the classic, even though it's only 16Gb compared to 160Gb.

ok

realised how badly i was playing. was down to $250, from $1700, and now back up to $850.
bad month overall. did at least $150 playing tournies. can't cash in any atm.

on to more fun things. like fergie at man u objecting to grant because he doesn't have the qualifications. coming from fergie who doesn't have them. did the same to southgate too. what a tard.

and i'm gonna get a 160gb iPod from pokerstars when i hit 27000 points which should be sometime this month. don't think it's worth playing there without rakeback. might have to switch to crypto again. i do hate them there, but will probably go with william hill since i'm never playing on interpoker again. unless it's a decent freeroll. currently on 23,800 points. made about 6-7000 this month so hopefully get it ordered in a couple of weeks. helps me playing patient sometimes when im playing for points. let's hope it works and i can build my account to $3k this month. that's the tartget but i'd settle for $2k and little to no tilting.

there were some other funny things but i forgot them. gonna start writing them down when they happen so i stop forgetting the comedy gold that escapes my mind.

sick everything

down to $750.

good day bad day

up and down and up and down 1700 to 1400 to 1700 to 1400

no tilting but sometimes not playing my a game, and can't seem to catch a break.

ups and downs

got up to $1500 and as soon as i did i took some beats went on tilt and down to $1050. carried on playing and logged off with account at $1100ish.
played a bit more in the last few days and account now stands at $1650. no tilt recently, and feel my game is quite good now and i can almost concentrate fully on 3 tables at once.

so just to write my goals down i will be playing this level till i get to at least $4.5k. then i will withdraw my $1.5k of deposits, leaving me with $3k.

all i then have to decide is when to up the level i play at according to either:

$1/2
start $4,000 - next level at $8,000 - drop down $2,800

$2/4
start $8,000 - next level at $16,000 - drop down $5,600

$3/6
start $12,000 - next level at $20,000 - drop down $8,400

$5/10
start $20,000 - next level at $40,000 - drop down $14,000


or more conservatively

$1/2
start $6,000 - next level at $12,000 - drop down $4,000

$2/4
start $12,000 - next level at $18,000 - drop down $8,000

$3/6
start $18,000 - next level at $30,000 - drop down $12,000

$5/10
start $30,000 - next level at $60,000 - drop down $20,000

depositS

not once, but twice for $300 each time, so total deposits are $1500!

ran average this week however, and playing so much better, and account now stands at $1250
last two days have played in the morning on stars, and at 9 o clock bst, it's drunken american time on stars. which is nice. easy game to beat, much easier than my usual time of playing, in fact, it's a bit like the weekends on stars.

my favourite hand of the last couple of days was someone betting every street in position against me and when i check raised river with 2 pair, he called all in with queen high! i don't think you can use pot odds as an excuse for that.

if i get time in the evenings i'm gonna try some of the mtt's for a big score, but atm no time in evenings to play for 5-6 hours.....but for $10-$50 you can get a payout of over $5k with fields of 600. thats not half bad. forgotten i actually enjoy tourney's when in the mindset for it. shame there's no rakeback or the cash games would be appealing.
until you hit supernova status you don't really get anything back. 30,000 points for a digital camera with £150 is hardly appealing. i'd rather have rakeback.
still waiting for a sklansky book i ordered on there 5 and a half weeks ago. not sure why i ordered it. i read it in a library once, and found 2 bits of advice that were useful. it's the tourney for advanced players book. something to read since i've read harringtons and caro's books that i last got.
did play live yesterday and in tourney and cash blew £150 winning a total of about 5 hands in 3 hours. got aces once and that was it. even if i would have played every hand i think i would have managed to split one pot, and lose all the rest. don't quite yet understand how i can keep losing live yet find it relatively easy online. i think there is a lot more fold equity online even at low stakes!

gonna start trying to get very fit also. going to do running, cycling and weights regularly, see if i can do a charity bike ride, and become good at tennis.

on a side note, i was stuck on a sudoku recently, and couldn't find a single number that would definitely fit. so i tried a combination and kept going with no inconsistencies. later on, again had to make a choice, and in fact, once more before i finished, i had to 'guess'. by the time the third 'guess' came along i realised there was more than one solution for the puzzle. I never realised that would be acceptable and always assumed there would be a unique solution per puzzle. not sure why i presumed that would be the case, but i do think it devalues it somehow if there is more than one unique solution per puzzle.

anyways, thats enough nonsense for one day.

...

looks like might have to deposit again.

unreal hands today. down a little, up a little, then get outdrawn and coolered for pots totalling about $800. AT $0.5/$1!!! HOW CAN I LOSE SO MANY MASSIVE POTS AT THIS LEVEL.

KK vs QQ and 88. obviously 88 wins
222 vs 555 to the same guy. that was over $300

just now 666, my only other set for two days and i get turned by a straight draw. $250

the rest are all just standard 2 nuts into the nuts.

tilted off a little at the end so decided to stop. $240 --> $60

mights deposit another $100 to bring total deposits to $1k.

may have to open a littlewoods account to get rakeback for all this is not currently worth it without rakeback. i must have raked close to $2k the last 2 months on stars and that would be worth $600 on any other network.

repeat to fade

deposit
play poor
lose

deposit
play poor
lose

deposit
play poor
lose

deposit
play poor
lose


repeat to fade.




that was going to be my last post as i couldn't break the cycle.
today i broke it. stick it in with the worst of it. i still got done by 4 outers too often, but hit to massive 2 outers in the biggest pots i played, and ended up for the day. wooo

running total = -$500
if i got rakeback from stars, this months would be approx £500. hmmm, time to find a new site perhaps?
i may get gold star status at the end of the month, but it's only when you reach supernova rather than platinum status that you get any cashback. and its not quite comparable to rakeback imo.
full tilt is only 27% but that's better than 0%

first things first, see if i can get level by the end of the month

(my have to play some mtts if i can get the time)