Sunday 22 November 2009

It Started so well...

In my mind I wanted to get lessons and training to improve my poker skills. It is my intention to become a full time poker player in the future so to do that whilst working a full time job is to get coaching. I am currently not sure whether I am allowed to say who I get training from but it has been decided that i will only play the 90 KO Tourney's on Full Tilt.

My aim is to crush and destroy the $3 ones primarily with a few $6 ones mixed in. During the week, after work I intend to play 9 tables a day and then play until I am dead on the weekends. Having the backing from the girlfriend is a bonus and so with that in mind I can focus on the task at hand.

Yesterday started off well where I managed to final table 4 at the same time again. Unfortunately, I entered 2 tables as chip leader but after a few all ins I was down and out finishing 4th, 6th and then on the other tables finishing 6th and 9th.

Whilst I had the four FT open, I let the thought that crushing these was going to be easy. I can say without a doubt that I was WRONG. A combination of being unlucky (running bad) and a few mis-reads has destroyed the confidence a little losing 25 back to back games. I am not used these type of swings and feel somewhat deflated. Having reviewed all the HH so far, I can say that the fishes had their day today and caught everything and I am sure that my day will come.

Once i speak to my coach again later on in the week, he can hopefully rectify a few leaks and boost my confidence in that I am executing his instructions. Knowing him, if i were in the same room then I might have got the hairdryer treatment for some of the STUPID stunts I pulled but then also congratulated for some high level moves I make (once in a blue moon). Anyway, I have leave and crush some more so until next time.

Good luck at the tables!

Friday 20 November 2009

A New Dawn!!

I have unfortunately got to stop my monthly goal. It is not because I was losing or felt that I could not complete the task. The reason was that I have had a better offer to do something more lucrative. It is still poker related but not sure how much I am allowed to say at this point but once I found out then it may be revealed.

I will summarize where I am before quitting (something I really hate doing):

Goal: 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 256 with a 0.05% ROI

Goal: 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 36 with a 86.55 ROI - netting $102

In summary, did well in KO tourneys and worked hard to recover from a $100 downswing to get back to break even. Not sure what my goal will be for the future but if anyone reads this then I will hopefully have some interesting stories to tell in the near future.

Good luck at the tables.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Feeling Frustrated

Played a total of 27 SnGs today, which is more than I play on most week days. I could have played more but the frustration was building and I did not want to start playing bad and tilted so I quit. The variance in poker is something everyone must deal with but having been beating these SnGs for a little while now the downswings hurt just a little. It seems that when I feel comfortable and looking to move up I get a sudden downswing the stops that plan in it's track.

Summary of the month so far:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 174 with a -6.69% ROI (approximately 12 buy-ins)

2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 28 with a 119.16 ROI

So as you can see not doing so well in the Pokerstars and that is where most of the frustration is coming from. I cannot seem to win an all in at the moment where I am a 4:1 favorite or a coin flip, I cannot even suck out just one time. Oh well, I am going to do a review session and then get back to it and pretty sure that i can break this downswing.

Good luck at the tables.

Thursday 12 November 2009

A Small Blip

Well i played 24 games today and won... none making one 2nd and two 3rd place finishes. understanding variance in Poker is a key lesson everyone should learn and as i play so few games I feel the shifts a lot more. It is my aim to play the best SnG strategy but at the level i play there are serious amount of donkey's but having said that I hope they return when I am on a heater.

I have decided to cascade my tables, this way I do not see what stupid hands people are calling shoves with. The time i see this when i review my HH's which seem to suggest that I played well but just ran into bad luck.

Have been reading about Tom 'durrrr" Dwan and how he has become a Team Full Tilt member which is interesting reading but what is more interesting is that he is getting owned by a Swedish player going by the name of Isildur1. Another not of interest is the Pokerstars tournament Leaderboard race between MI_Turtle and EeeTee2008 who have a huge prop bet together.

On a final note I will play a lot more KO tourneys and so hopefully the bad run stops in the 9 mans.

Good luck at the tables.

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ADDED AFTER INITIAL POST
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I have just learnt that $3 KO tourneys on FTP are a gold mine. I have been told this in the past but never really understood how to best play them. Started out playing 6 tourneys, getting knowcked out early in one where my KK could not hold against A6o. Thinking this was going to be similar to my efforts on Pokerstars earlier, I was little anxious at shoving from the SB onto the larger stack, but guess what 84o can beat JJ - haha lets roll. I managed to FT 4 tables and it was an awesome sight for me and gutted I did not take a screenshot.

One FT, down to 3 handed and I was 2nd in chips and BB has ben shoving mad. I am in SB, the btn who is short stacked raises, 3x (leaving 6BB behind), I call with AA, BB as normal shoves all in, short stack calls, I call - happy days when they flip over their cards, Btn has ATo, BB, has KQo... HOLD ONE TIME!!! Ship it to the new chipleader and two hands later I get KQh all in against 77, Q on the flop seals the first victory!!

From there I managed to win another, finish 3rd having been sucked out on and a 5 place finish. Not wanting to be results orientated but ship me the dollars. Need to count the bounties as well cause there were a few.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

10 Days In

I am now 10 days into the challenge and I am already feeling that i have bitten off more than I can chew. It seems that when i set the challenge people were determined to make me tilt. Calling AIPF with 84o and 92o out of the BB when I am shoving ATC on the SB... gg losers hope I see you again. You also know when things are bad when you shove with AA or KK then a miracle flush or straight gets there or the dreaded 2 outer on the turn or rive. For once please let them hit on the flop so I can SUCK OUT on them.

Anyway enough of the whinging, these things happena dn we must continue to do the best we can. So the summary as it stands:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
Played: 115 with an 9.75% ROI

2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt
Played: 7

My aim was to get ahead in the SnGs before Friday so to concentrate on the KO tourneys on Friday's where the fill up very quickly. I am going to struggle to complete both tasks but I definitely want to complete the first as it seems to be easier for me to rake in the money.

I am considering coaching in the SnG department as I have the bankroll to move up but as I only have an ROI of 9% (small sample) I am not sure whether moving up is the best idea. Just think that a coach can improve the weaker areas of my game in particular when to push if you have 4-5BBs left. Is shoving 98s UTG+1 when there are 6 players left with 4BB and so forth.

Good luck at the tables!

Sunday 1 November 2009

November Goals

Since October was a successful month, I have decided to push myself a little further this month. Please see goals below:

1) 400 $3.40 SnG on Pokerstars
2) 50 £3.30 KO on FullTilt

I have had a little success with the KO tourneys and wanted to see what I can achieve playing a very very very small sample in a month. So there are the goals and I have already wasted most of the day doing other stuff. Considering that I play around 250 SnGs a month 400 seems to me impossible but will keep you posted throughout the month.

I am also following Nick Rainey who has a prop bet to finish above another player in the TLB on Pokerstarts (see http://rainmanpoker.net/Blog for details). He is streaming the action live using Stickam so will be interesting viewing... perhaps.

Good luck at the tables!