Manning Up

Hey

I feel i have turned a new leaf in terms of playing poker. No longer are my emotions completely intertwined in with getting a bad beat or winning a huge pot. I am starting to feel like a mercenary, and in keeping with this, one that is only interested in the money. There are probably better ways to get money in poker than to play in MTT's but i just love this form of the game too much to give it up. Also i'm not fully in the know of the optimal strategy in NLHE cash games 6 man or 9 man to ever steer away from what i am doing currently. I have said that i would play sng's more often but i hardly do this (this will change).

In the last 2 days i am up over a Grand sterling from mtt's but for no less than about 24 hours work (yes that is bordering an obsessive amount of time playing, but i love money!), so life is good. No more posts will talk of any bad beats in a "i hate my life" fashion. I might mention some but only for entertainment value and in a matter of fact way. Being too affected by the turn of a card is really bad for you and in seperating your emotion away from the parts of poker you can't control (when you are all in pre flop for example) you can study more on how to better the skill aspect. The variables under the "skill" aspect are quite vast for a game that a lot of people play all the time and you see guys doing different things in the same situtation and both of them can have correct reasoning.

This means that when most pros play day in and day out they always feel they have made a mistake and that they should have done things differently, unless this is a glaring mistake, they are probably beating themselves up unjustly. I realised this tonight. I always come off a session despite being up hundreds of pounds and thinking wow i played crap today i should have done this and that differently (thinly veiled brag). If you have opened your eyes up fully to all the information given to you at any one time and made the best decision you could given the circumstances than you can't do anything else. It's only when the results come in of whether that particular decision was right or wrong do we berate or congratulate ourselves. If it's a negative result we seem to think we did the wrong thing, but this may often not be the case in the long run, just for that given moment.

Sorry for this gibberish but i am just laying out some philisophical shit to help people prepare mentally for the slog of poker. I feel i am grounded enough now to really buckle down and make some money over the summer, and in winning tonight, i can see that i could do this more often, but only with the right temperament.

Laters.

Clawing my way back

Hey

Had a 14 hour shift yesterday and put in some massive ipoker and boss media volume to mixed results. I was up overall by about £400 but i had a 2nd place in a 7500GTD that should have been a 1st when i got my money in heads up with 88 against his 8K, he rivered the K, that cost me $1000. Another situtation where i was on the big blind with 10 bbs on the 7500GTD on boss where there were 7 left and a short stack goes all in for 3 bbs the mega big stack flat calls, then folds around to me, and i see 88, i realise that i could be beat by the short stack who let himself get that small because he was waiting for a monster, but i knew that 7 big blinds of my all in raise would normally be good as the mega stack was prone to calling with weak cards. Turns out he wasn't as weak as anticipated, him holding A10 (if hes holding A10 he would have made the same call with A7 or 77-44 imo so my all in raise was good) when i pushed all in, the short stack had AQ. Nothing hit for those guys until the gin card on the river which was an A and that saw me flying out for a measly 280 euros in comparison of what could have been 2800. O well.

Another situtation saw me lose with QQ all in against 66 with about 50 left in the 25,000 10r on ipoker i had about 15 big blinds at the time which had me middling the field and i ran into a guy that was one of the chip leaders, that was all in pre flop and he turned the 6. Annoying more for the fact that this field has a ridiculous amount of runners and i did well to get this far and be nicely placed in chips before this travesty, but wasn't to be.

In the $12K GTD on ipoker 100 entry i was stung quite hard when i thought i won the pot but to my dismay had seen someone make a runner runner straight flush on me. had AQdiamonds raised it up got called, flop 10s9d8d 2 diamonds, i was getting a little restless and shipped all in to a guys bet out on the flop, he called with JD10H, turn was 10d, which i loved thinking right, just need to avoid a J and a 10 and i will be fine with the Ace High flush, unkowing that a 7 diamonds would give him a straight flush. Amid a victory dance when the 7d came i was shocked to see my win percentage of the pot at 0% and was duly grounded when i realised what happened.

But i would need to mention three times i got lucky yesterday won with AJ vs JJ in an important pot, won with 1010 vs. AA in another important pot and in the most shocking of the night and the last one i will talk about in this blog, something amazing happened.

11 people left in the 7500 GTD that i came second in im on the BB with 86 spades with about 20 bbs so i am doing well, folds around to the SB who shoves all in for around 17 bbs, i snap call obv knowing my 86 was the nuts, he has 1010. Flop 445. i am drawing to 4 outs (any 7) and a perfect runner runner of either two eights or two sixes. Well two eights came didn't they. Twas luvverly to inflict that, the poor guy must have thought i was an ipoker cheater as if i knew what cards were coming, but i just accidentally pressed call to my horror as i was flicking thorugh tables, hardley ever happens, but this one will be hard to forget.

I am going to do another 10 hours tourney shift tonight, in the absence of anything better to do cos all of my friends have jobs during the week :(

gl at the tables

Disaster

hey

Sunday went terribly with myself tilting for the most part, meaning i need to re evaluate what the hell is going on. I gathered that playing 12 hour days without break can make the best of men tilt and that if i want to have a 12 hour day i shouldn't have one the day after too, so whenever i have a tourney day, the next day will be of sngs and cash. So that i can break away easily from them and do whatever i want.

I'm scared to look at my BR now by looking at what is in my bank and in all the rooms i play but i hope i won't need to look just yet and can do after i get a really good run going. I am limiting myself to playing ipoker and boss media because this is where i am most comfortable. It's annoying i am not more comfortable on party poker because this is arguably the best out there for tournies (out of the european sites) but the software takes some getting used to. In that transition to adjust to how that site plays i don't want to lose anymore money so i am sticking to my two fav sites.

Ipoker and Cassava are the only sites i play on where i am up on tournies which is worrying, but this is almost certainly down to the amount of tables i have played and how it can be difficult to use different servers at the same time. If i solely play on only boss and ipoker i think my bad form should end, barring ridiculous bad luck. Even if i get the latter though i won't complain because i would have my really good A-game back and it would only be for bad luck that i haven't got what i deserved.

It's terrible going through a bad run, even more so when it is of your own making. So it is just about maintaining composure and getting some results under my belt where i find it most comfortable to play. Also, even when i get some huge monies coming in i need to learn not to spew like this again! Especially in times of recession when no one will have sympathy for you when you say you have lost £2000 in two days because you weren't "up" to protecting your investment. However i may just not have the temperament to ever not tilt and if this is the case i will have to bow out of poker, and concentrate much more on my studies.

Shout out to Ben who seems to be doing what i should be right now and is killing me in the BR challenge we had set up! When i said GL to you at the beginning of this i never meant that much luck! OJ. May more come your way.

peace.

update

Hey ppl

Annoyed at my play of late. Been loading up too many tables at once and see myself playing on all of them nonchalantly, because i am on auto-pilot on all of them. I am now only playing a max of 6 tables where possible and i will try to get a "feel" on each of them. Hopefully with this will come better results. Quality over quantity after all.

Tonight i am playing the 140 euros 100000 GTD on boss media, the 300000GTD on ipoker along with some others there. the 250000 GTD on ongame the 150000GTD on microgaming and the 300000GTD on party poker. They start at different times around sort of 6pm tonight and already realise i am bordering 7 tournies i may be playing at a time, i will bow out of 1 or 2 though during the onset of the night if it is getting a bit hectic. Looking for comfort tonight, and hopefully only 6 tables will provide it. Maybe the high buy ins of these tournies is the problem of why i am tilting, but i don't think so. I am generally unphased by any amount of money being put towards a tourney because i back my abilities well enough to think i have an edge in them. Most fish would say this but i would like to think i am not one. Definately not the finished article by any means, because there are some simple maths with poker i haven't even got a hold of, but there are some tricks i like to deploy that i feel aren't used by many ppl that give me an edge.

In terms of BR management what i am doing tonight is ludicrous, but i am doing a low risk gamble. If nothing comes in tonight i still have a big enough BR to rebuild to its former glory, if something does come in tonight, i could well be laughing. This sorta gamble won't happen after tonight, this will hopefully be the best send off possible to my old gambling ways.

Peace.

Tilt and DTD Monthly Tourney

Hey

I'm gonna be trekking up to notts to play the monthly £330 tourney 80K GTD with Cos to try me luck. Played it before and was surprised at some of the poor standard being played. So much so it actually annoyed me and despite knowing the other guy had sucked out on me in the fishiest way possible i still gave him my chips on my exiting hand, so he inadvertantly had the power of making other people just as bad as him. Will need to watch out for that again this time.

I am going to play a solid game at first to see how the opponents on my table are playing and then try to adapt suitably, so as to get the most chips as possible from them without them realising. Perhaps some pre flop bluffing when the blinds are at a juicy level, or just playing my position to make the value of my hand not so important and only pretending to have one. Thing is with this though you're not playing children and they will quickly adapt to how you are playing so whenever i feel that someone has got onto me in that they have latched onto the way i have been playing i will flip-reverse it (cheers blazin squad) and play the game that will most abuse their perception of how i am playing. So basically a COMPLETE MIND FUCK.

This just shows the importance of preparing properly for such an event and i am making sure i am only going to be drinking water or orange juice for the event (gay i know and what) and eating nothing that will make me too sluggish. Also wanna make sure there is no tension before hand as i am still not too used to playing live, so i might have a walk outside or something to try and sort that out. Otherwise what else can i do but hope hands hold up and if i am chasing, i catch up. Happened at the empire for me in that good cash (well we split the top 4 monies) albeit undeserved, but i don't care, i just want the money, and if it means i play like a fish to get there then by all means. Loving the contradictory nature of what i am saying already, in how i am berating fish getting lucky on me but i wouldn't mind winning in a fishy way, i guess what it all boils down at the end of the day is i wanna win some money.

Played online tonight and i am not going to go into too much detail because i lost £300 but what i will say is that pizza is evil :P My bro chose the takeaway tonight as i paid for it as his treat for mourning the loss of our pet dog of 15 years (silently greiving). I otherwise, wouldn't choose it because it makes me too tired. It had the knock on effect of making me uninterested in playing in the middle of very big tournies and i regret eating the lovely tasting, Italian Based meat feast with 5 toppings, becos even though it tasted great, it makes me lose money. Some coin flips weren't going my way either but on the whole a bad day at the office on my front and definately myself to blame. Probably could have just had a sandwich, but when the pizza is getting waved in front of your face, you can't not eat it right? :P

Well i am looking forward to the trip anyway and maybe saying hello to a few familiar faces, mostly to my main man Ben whose blog is very interesting and listed on your right. Hope Cos, Ben and myself make the final table, and if i take it down by beating them, well that would just be sweet wouldn't it haha.

Laters

Birthday today!!! Ant 04/06/89

Any guesses for how old? :P

I'm feeling great today, i had a winning night on ipoker securing another $4000 GTD tourney win and two other final tables that i should be happy about. I know there were definately mistakes made but i made less than the average winning player does, so i can't be too pissed.

On review of my game though i am definately seeing leaks, my pride and laziness means i don't seek to learn from other sources apart from my own experience on how to improve my game, which is bad. Many people have said i should sign up to some poker training sites or read up on strategy in forums but i can never concentrate fully on them because they bore me. I already feel i have a good understanding about how to change my game to suit the dynamic of the tournament i am in, but maybe i should learn from others to see their viewpoints on the same situation, because not everyone plays like me.

The three biggest leaks in my game are that i occasionally tilt, i don't fully know in certain situtations whether i am getting the right pot odds to call or not (a matter of not knowing the specific maths) and playing too many diff sites at the same time.

Tilt is the hardest of the problems to solve. So i just tried to break down the reasons why i get it and deciphered that it's because i play for too long. 6 or 7 hours straight most nights, which is tough to do and still be on ure A-game across loads of tables. However i don't want to stop the amount of hours i play, i just need to somehow make them more interesting so that i enjoy playing poker more during it, and maintain concentration. Aside from actually playing poker itself the only way i can stay amused is through listening to songs, and maybe 2/3 different albums a day to listen to while i play will help. Also a bad diet is a reason for my tilting. On pizzas, i felt sluggish and really tired which made me play dire poker, as i was just trudging through the hours of play with no real intent to do well, so i would just fuck about in essence. Coca-cola is also very bad as the caffeine doesn't help. So from now on i am making sure that on the same day as a tourney grind i am eating healthily and only drinking water.

With the second aspect of my game that needs improving, its simple enough really. I just need to put loads of different poker situatuions into a holdem calculator online to give me the odds of different situations, and if i do it often enough and study it, i will be able to have the odds pop straight into my head as soon as a decision arrives in a game. How quickly i can get an outcome is important because i play so many tables.

Thirdly, I'm gonna talk about playing across different sites at the same time. There is definately a problem in doing this. Many rooms are so unlike eachother that when you play them simultaneously you always have to adjust to the different layout meaning you have not got a great "feel" of any table because you are so confused by the ever changing layouts. This might just be a problem with me, but this has meant that i have lost loads of money as i desperately try to cram in the best tournies from diff sites at the same time and it just wont work. There are sites that are similar to eachother in layouts and i am happy knowing which ones these are because they will couple nicely, but i guess its regrettable to say that i may well give up playing on more than 2 sites at once :(

If i get these three things under wraps and maybe branch out into poker forums to read up on strategy then i may well be on my way to being a good player, i'm already ok but whenever a player thinks there is no way that they can improve, that they can't be any better, than perhaps that person is a fish.

GL at the tables.

p.s my graph so far on ipoker is pictured.

A quick round up of whats happening.

Hey

No real reason as to why i have't posted in recent weeks, just haddn't felt up to it. Have developed some real lethargy out of nowhere recently, feeling really tired even though i have had loads of sleep and my concentration is completely shot. I might get a check up from the doc to see if it is anything serious because i have had an incredibly poor diet and hardly any exercise in the last years and im hoping there is nothing wrong. This has distracted me somewhat to concentrating fully on anything i am doing and same goes for poker.

Might seem i have some bad news to say to you on the poker front because of the downbeat start but that isn't true. Have had great success on ipoker recently started playing on my new will hill account on the 5th may this month. Had just under 100 multis with an average buy in of $36, roi of 187% and profits of $4520. Weren't the best of starts but i think i am finding some form.

On the live front i need to change my game completely. I find myself getting a little too nervous of my surroundings with everyone eyeing you up when you're in a hand and yesterday it got to me. I lost £400 at a 1/2 table to a drunk fish who goaded me into calling with the worst of it on 3 occasions. I wasn't feeling right to be honest, was a little tired and never felt too comfortable, but these are no excuses i should have realised this and stopped playing, so I could come back on another day rearing to go. This is an experience i am taking on board to avoid doing in the future and again i am happy to have felt it. Almost as if losing this £400 will pave way for much more than that to be made in the future. Instead of approching the live game with relative trepidation, i'm gonna go out to enjoy it, and when i say enjoy it i mean make some "John Houblon's".

My volume of late has been pretty lacluster and this is down to how lethargic i have been feeling and has prompted me to start taking better care of myself. Wouldn't be feeling great while playing tired, obviously, so i am doing the right thing in reducing my volume until i feel a lot better again. To be honest i have been getting these good results in while not feeling my best so i would like to think i could be ridiculously profitable if i was feeling more energetic.

Will get back to you guys about more of whats happening and hopefully more brags about how well i have been playing. Would love to be able to see the gradual progression from lowly part time player to full blown poker proffessional in these blogs and i have a good mindset now to make this a real possiblity.

Cheers for reading.