O-Poker

Sorry about the last rant post, but you know how you get that feeling where you just have to vent. It doesn't matter if anyone is listening (or reading), but you just have to get the frustration off your chest. Well, the last post was my cleansing. I'll try to be a little less whiny - no matter how bad I'm running.

Things started to look up on Saturday. I even made it back up above even after the first run of brutal beats. The poker gods seemed to be shining on me. Sunday rolled around. Between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I must have done something to really piss off those poker gods. All hell broke loose. Not only was I not winning the races, but I wasn't winning the 85/15s. (I'm not going bitch, just stating facts now.)

So, after being back above even, Sunday brought me into the negative to the tune of -7 buy-ins over the first 9,500 hands of the 25k hands. The good news is that I was up in expected value on Sunday, so it wasn't bad play - just bad luck. Oh well, I plan to keep plugging through and hope the next 15.5k hands is a lot better than the first 9.5k hands.

Below is my all-in EV graph for Sunday


The dark line is the losses for the day. The top line is my All-in EV. Poker is fun!! :)

And below is the graph for the 1st 9.5k hands.

I've put in about 6k hands this week and the swings have been brutal to say the least. I was up about 4.5 buy-ins after 3k hand, but am currently down 4.5 buy-ins thanks to some coolers, bad beats and a couple of bad calls by me. One was not folding TPTK for 200BB when I knew better. I was tilting for a couple of suckouts on other tables and should have just stopped playing.

Here are some of the hands (first the beats/coolers, followed by some winning hands)

Bad Beats/Coolers/etc. (scroll down if you don't want to click any of the bad beat hands)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049228 - Poker is fun! Flop a set against a flush draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049231 - AKs is no match for AKo

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049236 - I definitely should have folded this preflop, but the guy was a payoff wizard. Worst possible turn in the world.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049242 - Planned to c/r the turn - prob should have led out on the turn, but result would have been the same.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049245 - My moronic hand of the day. Was tilting and didn't fold freaking top pair for 200 BBs. So gross on my part.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049252 - I 3 bet from the BB because the guy had a huge steal percentage. I have no idea why he called the flop - trying to float I guess? Any way not to lose the last $100 on the river against an aggressive opponent?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049256 - Maybe I should just start folding AQ.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049258 - KK vs AA - standard

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049262 - This is pretty standard to get it in here, right?

The Good

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049282 - Rivered a straight flush against the nut flush

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049268 - Flopped set wins vs. flush draw this time

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049273 - This hand gives you an idea of how loose the 3/4/5 betting can be in the 6 max games in button vs. the blind situations.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049276 - Slow playing AA paid off - even though this guy would probably get ai pf.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049286 - I can win with set over set also

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049289 - Another button vs. bb hand - ai pf.

I'll elaborate more on some of these hands next week and post some of the hands that I had trouble deciding what to do.

I’ve been working way too much behind the computer and haven’t really been motivated to sit down at the desk and grind out cash games. What little time that I have had a chance to play has usually consisted of watching TV in the recliner while playing a few sng sats or playing 1 or 2 tables. (I only played 7k cash game hands in July – LOL.)

I need some motivation!! I need to focus and play my “A” game all the time.

Setting a goal is probably the best way to get some hands in while holding myself accountable on the blog, so here goes:

Goal: Play 25,000 hands of 1/2 nl 6 max by September 15^th (1 month+) - not a huge goal, just one to keep me playing (Edited out target winrate based on gnome's comment about not having control over your winrate, only having control over how you play - good call.)

(We are at the beach this week, so I probably won’t play a ton between now and Friday.)

Some rules for myself:

No more than 2 tables in recliner – maybe this will force me to get up off the couch or realize that I’m too tired to be playing if I can’t walk across the living room to hook my laptop up to the 24” monitor.

No more than 4 tables if TV is on (In response to gnome's comment about leaving the TV off: My desk is in the living room, so it is on if I am playing and my wife is watching TV. If she isn't watching TV or is sleeping and I am playing then the TV is off.)

Don’t Tilt/Don’t let the beats effect me

Review previous session before starting new session

Watch at least 3 vids/week (maybe join DeucesCracked or Lego – anyone recommend one over the other)

Post tough decisions on CR forums, 2+2, or on the blog

Maintain a positive attitude/quit playing for the day if I feel like bad beats are effecting me

Quit if I’m tired

Try to always put myself in the most +EV situations

Don’t be results oriented – if the play was +EV and I lost, so be it

Another added bonus of putting in the hands is upping those FTP points. If I get a decent amount of hands in this month I might be close enough to purchase the 42” plasma with my FTPs around the 1^st of September